Harvest Moon TOTT: A bit disappointed and in need of suggestions

So during Christmas the title "Harvest moon: A tale of two towns" was in 50% off in nintendo eshop , and since I've already played and really liked "More Friends of Mineral Town", I bought it.
In general, it was worth the 10 euros I paid, but it's not a great game. Actually compared to Mineral Town, I'm really disappointed with the villagers. No matter how good friends I get with them, even the bachelors/ bachelorettes show little character development, the dialog stays more or less the same, and the "romantic" events do not show any romance or remarkable depth. And apart from the bachelors events, I don't think you can trigger any events with the other villagers (for people kinda confused by the term "events", I mean cutscenes that develop or explain the character of the npcs).
Apart from my issues with lack of depth in character of the NPCs, it's a pretty good and addictive game.
If anyone has played it, I'm interested on opinions on that matter.

Also, would you suggest a really great game in that category? I heard that rune factory is quite good, would you vouch for that? I think the main character actually talks and I think this is going to cringe me a bit (I prefer to imagine my character's character).

After Friends of Mineral Town, the series took a huge dive in terms of quality. Focus shifted from farming to socializing and it lost its identity.

I played ToTT for an in-game year, and while I did enjoy it, it absolutely pailed in comparison to the series' past titles and those that would come after it. Absolutely love Reina though, best DS era waifu.

Rune Factory is good. I played the Wii game 'Rune Factory Frontier' and enjoyed it quite a bit. The original game on the DS is also pretty solid, but I've heard 2 and 3 are kinda blech. Rune Factory 4 gets the most praise, but I didn't care for the setting(I do not like the idea of being a gardener living in a castle, serving a dragon. I WANT MY FARMLAND).

My main recommendations for you are:

Story of Seasons
Don't let the name fool you, this is a Harvest Moon title. XSEED obtained the rights to the Bokujou Monogatari series in the US from Natsume, but since Natsume owns the Harvest Moon name, XSEED had to rename it, thus Story of Seasons was born.
SoS is absolutely fantastic in every way. Attention is now once again back on you and your farm. The premise for this one is you basically have to make a name for your farm and the town by selling your produce to vendors all over the world. There's an absolute crap-ton of content packed into this one.

Plus its sequel, Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns, is coming out at the end of February so now would be an excellent time to get familiar with XSEEDs translations(They're way more well done than anything Natsume has put out, plus stay true to character backstories).

Stardew Valley
If you have a capable PC or a regular PS4, then this is an absolute must-play. It was developed by one man over the course of 4 years and is absolutely fantastic. It's literally better than any Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons or Rune Factory game that came before it. The amount of farmland you're given, the crops, character interaction, character and land customization options, achievements and all that is available to you in this game is staggering. It was such a colossal success that I do not doubt for one second that Natsume and Marvelous won't look to it for ideas in their next games.

If you're interested, I have a complete playthrough uploaded on my Youtube channel that you can take a look at:
https://youtu.be/ehfcZIQn3t4?list=PL3wFCVbstAP0rDzzK2IQmsvzorTEt4hBv

An honorable mention is Harvest Moon: A New Beginning for the 3DS. It's the precursor to Story of Seasons. It's pretty good, but a lot of the ideas introduced in it are more fleshed out in Story of Seasons.

It sounds like you're looking for more character development and depth. Based on what you said, I think Rune Factory 4 might be the one you're looking for, provided you care more for characters than the farming aspect of Harvest Moon, since the Rune Factory series is a mix of RPG and farming.

(Disclaimer: Seeing as I have the MC of RF4 as my signature, I am biased about this)

Rune Factory 4 has the things you're looking for that ToT lack: variations in dialogue, depth in the romantic events, cut scenes that expands the characters, and more! To elaborate:

• Dialog with villagers changes very often. Unlike HM which changes depending on their affection only, the characters now have a set of dialogues that they go through. Each day will likely be a new dialog, and there'll be more variations once you get closer to them
• Instead of romantic events only lasting for 1-2 scenes, events would usually span for a few days, and there would be more characters involved, giving you more dialogues and depth
• There are also events for non-romance-able villagers as well, and they also expand their characters. Sometimes they're pre-requisite to trigger a romantic event

While playing RF4, I came to love all the villagers in the game and really enjoyed talking to each and every one of them everyday, something that I consider a chore in HM games since they only say the same things.

There are some things to consider about this game though:

• It's focused on its RPG-aspect, so you'll likely won't enjoy this game if you don't enjoy RPG.
• Events triggers randomly, including the ones you need to marry someone. This can be a headache unless you're willing to do a restart trick.
• Since you mentioned you don't like MC who talks, while this one does, it shouldn't hinder you to play as yourself. You can also customize your character's appearances later with hats and clothes.

If you prefer having the farming aspect of the game though, then other than the recommendations by the poster above me, I would say Harvest Moon: Animal Parade might interest you. I unfortunately haven't played this game yet, but it is regarded as the better games after the Mineral Town era. Unfortunately it's only available on Wii.

That's interesting!
I did a prolonged search before starting the thread too, and I was quite intrigued by both Stardew Valley and Rune Factory 4.
Well, the only minus I think stardew valley has for me, and that's only a matter of preference, is that I love to fuse with the couch and blankets, thus I prefer handheld games. Though I heard, and you clarified that it indeed has every aspect harvest moon lacks, so I'm definitely going to check it out.
By the way, I was wondering, can you also decorate your house in stardew valley? It was always something I wished I could do in HM.

And of course I think I'm gonna love the RPG aspect of Rune Factory! You get to farm, make friends with NPC, AND hunt monsters down? Just how awesome can it get? I just hope that I'm not gonna cringe when the main character speaks, which is just me being really picky right now.

I had no idea though that story of seasons is such a good game, that's gonna go on my wishlist.

By the way, I'm absolutely going for Reina too.

Just popping in to join the Reina love. ♥ I married her in Story of Seasons (they renamed her Licorice) .. she is definitely my favorite bachelorette in all of the Harvest Moon games I have played so far.


I also played Rune Factory 4 and it is a lovely game. Story of Seasons has more play hours logged for me personally, but I am pretty sure I spent a significant amount of time doing everything I possibly could in RF4. I also really prefer handhelds and cozying up in bed with them. In RF4 I really loved Margaret and the combat system is pretty fun.


Just because you mentioned it, you can decorate/customize your house in SoS unlike the older Harvest Moon games.

karikatourea said:

That's interesting!
I did a prolonged search before starting the thread too, and I was quite intrigued by both Stardew Valley and Rune Factory 4.
Well, the only minus I think stardew valley has for me, and that's only a matter of preference, is that I love to fuse with the couch and blankets, thus I prefer handheld games. Though I heard, and you clarified that it indeed has every aspect harvest moon lacks, so I'm definitely going to check it out.
By the way, I was wondering, can you also decorate your house in stardew valley? It was always something I wished I could do in HM.

And of course I think I'm gonna love the RPG aspect of Rune Factory! You get to farm, make friends with NPC, AND hunt monsters down? Just how awesome can it get? I just hope that I'm not gonna cringe when the main character speaks, which is just me being really picky right now.

I had no idea though that story of seasons is such a good game, that's gonna go on my wishlist.

By the way, I'm absolutely going for Reina too.

Click to expand...

You absolutely can. From everything to the wallpaper and carpets to the windows and light fixtures. You can even display items, like literally any item you harvest, forage, fish, etc. in your house.

Like a user above mentioned with the whole Harvest Moon vs Story of Seasons thing, please please please do not buy any new "Harvest Moon" games. They are NOT the Harvest Moon games you know and love. You can even tell by the cheapest graphics ever. Look at Harvest Moon The Lost Valley and compare it to Story of Seasons. It is night and day.

Just telling you this to avoid buy garbage. Lol

Now, now. The Lost Valley was abysmal but Skytree Village is leaps and bounds above it. I'd even put it above Story of Seasons simply because it puts farming at the forefront and offers a ton of content revolving around it.

If you have a pc I'd highly recommend Stardew Valley.

Rune Factory 4 is amazing! I second RF4!

Yes! Don't be fooled by the "Harvest Moon" title, the real games are called "Story of Seasons" now and are great! Stardew is also amazing, and probably my fave of the farming games. I put about 200 hours in it in an embarrassingly short amount of time.

I'd have to recommend Stardew Valley too, especially if you enjoyed Friends of Mineral Town. That and Harvest Moon DS were probably my most-played games in the series, and I found Stardew Valley similar to them but with a lot more depth overall.