[MadQB]

Has anyone ever played Harvest Moon for either N64 or SNES? I don't know about you all but I really liked that game. It was a nice step away from the traditional RPG.

Just a few quick questions... First of all, what did you like about it (assuming you did like it, as all these questions will)? What would you change? If I were to write a game in the near future similar to this what should I add or change.

I ask because I think it would be fun to add games like this to the community where the user has pretty much freedom to do whatever he/she wants, and create a whole new "life" for themselves. I probably wouldn't have time for the complexity of those actual games but I was thinking of something nice and simple where you can: farm, build houses, raise animals, make/break friendships and many other things.
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[white_door]

I only played the SNES version, and from my impressions of harvest moon, I would have classify it as a Adventure/Simulation, and not as a RPG. That said, It was a really good game. Lots of things to do, and plenty of special events to break up the feeling that you are just doing the same thing over and over. The time limit actually adds to the gameplay, since instead of playing until you just get bored, you play through the whole 2 and a half years.. and then you want to play it again to get better endings, or earn more money, or change stuff. Time limits really add replayablity.

I think something cool that could be added to the game would be to give it more of a RPG favour: Maybe add hunting.. like you can go out and hunt animals like deer for food and skins, maybe put rats that you have to kill or they will make your animals sick.... maybe crows you have to kill to protect your crops... maybe expand the special quests.. For example Harvest moon when you grow the bean stalk, you just climb up and get the golden egg from the goose, make it harder! ;) Include the whole giant castle and put stuff to fight in it.

I liked having quests for upgraded/golden tools, but maybe adding a skill system to the game, like the more you do something the better you get at it would be a way to make it more interesting. Therefore someone that does a lot of one type of farming will get extremely good at it. You could still have a special event or quest to upgrade the tool.. but maybe it only opens up after the character has gained enough skills points in that area to use the new item?

just to recap my ideas: keep the time limit, add hunting/killing (bow&arrow tool?), add stats or skills levels to the character.

[valderman]

I've played the versions for SNES and N64 a lot, and tried out the PSX, GB, GBC and GBA ones. The original is by far the best IMO - the others doesn't have the same feel, though the GBA one comes pretty close. As for improvements, I'd say that white_door's suggestions are great. Perhaps add a larger playing field too.

Perhaps you should also make it a bit harder (earning less money, etc.) - last time I played the SNES version, after less than a year I had married one of the girls, had a solid fortune, and had so many chickens that the game started lagging every time I entered my chicken coop. ^_^
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[MadQB]

Wow Valderman that's impressive.

Those are great ideas, I especially like the hunting one, and killing crows.

I have only played the SNES and N64 versions so I guess I will have to try those as well.
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[papillon]

if I were making a harvest moon game.... well, as I'm an Evil Shareware Person my first concern is saleability :) and therefore steering away from the original concept enough not to get in trouble.

So I'd want to be something other than just a farmer, while still keeping the plants/raising elements. How about the gardener for a castle, or a Hogwarts-style school of wizardry? You could divide your time between pretty flowers, vegetables for food, and magical herbs for potions... and potentially train apprentices to do some of your work for you?

[Rainer Deyke]

I have two problems with Harvest Moon (SNES version):

1. It was far too easy to take care of your crops and livestock. Real crops can die for all kinds of reasons, including frost, too much water, not enough water, disease, and being eaten by wild animals. None of this ever happened in Harvest Moon.

2. A lot of the farmwork was tedious and got really old really quickly.

If you were making a game in the style of Harvest Moon, I would strongly enourage you to solve these two problems.

[BadMrBox]

I've have played it for GBC and Snes. They are very alike each other I think and thats boring. If you'll do one yourself, try to make it a bit different. Not like, -'oh what a storm! What the heck! There is a gnome lying on my crops. Under a tree!', 'cus its old stuff. Bigger town and more girls. A chance to get together with the priestess. A bar in the town. Bigger forrest and a chance to hunt and fish. And please skip the be lying in the same bed and -'look, we got a baby.' thing.

Anyway, I like the hm games. I'll be purchasing it for my GC and probably for my gba. The boring part with it that in a while you have so many crops on your farm that'll you aint gonna have time to water'em in one day. Not even with that carrot driven horse. Oh, and one thing... how the heck do you get the milk outta the cows anyway? I never figured it out really. I had a brush for them that I used on them. I brushed them, god knows I brushed them, hard and vicious apparently because then they always died.
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[white_door]

[valderman]

[Bjorn]

Here is somebody working on a Harvest Moon fangame using rm2k:

http://www.hitomisaga.tk/

I haven't checked it out yet though, just been watching the screenshots.

[BadMrBox]

Valderman wrote:

Bigger town and more girls. A chance to get together with the priestess. A bar in the town. Bigger forrest and a chance to hunt and fish. The N64 version has this. Except for hunting. And isn't there a priest (not priestess) in the SNES version? Though gay relationships would be pretty cool - especially if it's with a priest!

Argh. You fool!!! I really didn't mean gay sex! I meant that in the SNes version there is a girl in the church. I think she is a priest(ess?)(Nune?), and you could not get together with her. I want that. Some hot stuff with gods girls. I'm straight myself and dont fancy gays so a harvest 'they caught me from behind' moon would not be to attractive. But I dont hate gays, not like Mr president Bush at least. How can a idiot like that become the president over a country? He must have been thrown on the floor as a child.

White_door wrote:

You want more girls, but less sex? O.o

No, I want both. When a baby arrives I want to produce it first. Even as a farmer I should begin to suspect things otherwise.

Bible Black Online? That would be something.
BadMrBox wanders away into... the abyss...
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[valderman]

What? If you mean the blue-haired die-hard christian girl who is the mayor's daughter but spends most of her time in church, you can get together with her...
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[Guest]

W-w-what? Oh, nooo!!! And I totally missed it!!!

[BadMrBox]

That was me. The Guest. That'll be a great new nick by the way. The GuestBox. Heh... eh.
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[potato]

I classify this as a Roleplaying/Simulation. You play the role of bachelor farmer Jack. There's no real adventure, since there's only a town and your farm in most of the games (HMGB3 had an island and stuff, but nothing big).

I'm a big fan of the series, also used to have a site. PSX was my favorite version, since all the playstation's buttons made it easier to play (rucksack controls and all). The gameboy versions were fun also.

PS2 version DOES have crop wilting and death if you neglect them, as well as other realistic features. It's also the worst HM game because of the added realism.

http://www.harvestmoononline.com/
an up and coming C++ MMORPG Harvest Moon.

Back to lurking now.