Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Harvest Moon

So Harvest Moon has been a part of my gaming experience since my first real console. For me, its one of the franchises that along with Pokemon, I hope I never grow out of. But that being said, some are better than others. So I'll do the ones I love to the ones I love to the ones I'm not so thrilled. So let's go and start with my loves
Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town

This was my first Harvest Moon game. And it's one of those that will always be dear to my heart. It's not one that's that innovative and that's okay. It was just the female version of Friends of Mineral Town, that was just the GBA version of Harvest Moon 64. It was true to its core, it had good characters, and it was fun to piss off the shipping guy when you didn't have anything in the shipping bin
So basically the opposite of this
There's no real plot past you got bored of the city and decided to start fresh in the country. But it's a simple plot's okay when it's done well, and it is. And there's a drinking competition that you get to judge. 
Best evening ever. 

Magical Melody 

My absolute favorite GameCube game to date. The graphics are adorable, the animals not so time consuming and a goal simple. The Harvest Goddess feels the town is failing, and in sadness turns herself to stone. But it just so happens that you move in at just the right time and are the chosen one to collect notes that turn themselves into instruments that can make a song and free her. So the other person that can see sprites the androgynous Jamie is mad that you got the chosen one part and not her/him. Then you do things to get the notes.

Honestly its a lot of fun and the first game to do a lot of elements that appear in later games and do them well. Fatigue is done better and you can move around your buildings as much as you'd like, and I think this is the only one with a two story house. I think it has some weak points, the baby never grows to a kid, and crop quality is erratic, but its a lot of fun and the style is incredibly cute.
That and yet again the bar is a great place.
 I would definitely recommend it if you like the Harvest Moon series and hope for a reboot with a couple of things touched up for the 3DS.





DS Cute
This was game was a marriage between MFoMT and A Wonderful Life. And that's partially why its down here and not up with More Friends of Mineral Town. It doesn't have the same amount of bachelors as there were bachelorettes  in just DS. And honestly I feel that For-get-me-not Valley has weaker bachelors than almost any of the other games, but its fun and I'd play it again, if it wasn't about $40 now.

Sunshine Islands 

This one also has some great bachelors and its a lot of fun, but the problem is that its has a lot of micro managing that you need to have a piece of paper for, otherwise you'll be wondering if you got some of the stones or not. There are like 110 or something of the damn things and there are a lot of very similar ones. But its a lot of fun and has some of the best original sets of bachelors and bachelorettes since Magical Melody.
And this doesn't count the special ones.


Tale of Two Towns (DS)



So the plot is you come to the mountain between the town and hit your head. When you come to your senses, the mayors from both towns are near you. They worry about you, then start arguing about how you should live in their town. And it depends if you want to focus on crops or on animals at first. Then you learn the towns used to be friends, but then they got way too serious about their cooking competitions.
*Inset Hunger games pun here*
It's fun, just the cooking competitions are every week, and it starts to get old really fast. Especially in the beginning when you know barely any recipes. And the marriage candidates are all just meh. 

A New Beginning
You go to the farm that you inherited from your family and like a lot of the other ones, bring the town new life. But this time you build everything, which sometimes surprises me, like when they request a mansion to be built. Which it seems weird that they get the farmer to do this
More realistic version of how it would turn out
But overall the characters are interesting, the events are fun and everything plays well. Just seriously, why am I doing all the building?








Tale of Two Towns (3DS)
Tale of Two Towns came out in that awkward time when the DS wasn't quite phased out, but the 3DS was starting to kick into full gear. So its the only dual game. And that's why this one is down here. Unless you want to play in 3D, it doesn't add much, in fact, unless you have the 3D on, the text is sometimes a little blurry. And it bothers me to the point that it gets bumped down here.








Tree of Tranquility 

This game, for me was just kind of weird. I love some of the extra animals that were introduced, like goats, ostriches, and even the silk worms, but that was about as far as I got in liking it. I didn't like the characters too much, I didn't like the art style, and the handling felt weird. I tried to get to the end, but just couldn't.
A Wonderful Life
It just didn't feel like it had too much going on, and was a little weird in areas. Like the hermit stealing your food, or the Harvest sprites that don't really do anything. And one of my biggest pet peeves was you could only ship dairy products, you couldn't ship any of your crops, you had to sell them. Overall, I just found it pretty boring, maybe because I was just a kid, but I think mainly because there wasn't much to do. But I think it does have one of the funniest glitches in any game yet. 


You spin me right round baby right round~

Grand Bazaar

This is the only game I don't feel I gave a fair chance. And that's mainly because I thought I was buying Tale of Two Towns, not Grand Bazaar. So I was annoyed that I bought the wrong game. I'm actually going to try it again, now that I have a different state of mind with it.
Anyways, the idea is that this town used to be the biggest Bazaar in the world, but it has fallen in its greatness. So you must help them bring it back to life. Its slow and a little awkward if I remember correctly.


Any others I left off were, again, because I haven't played them and with exceptions to possibly ones that are on Nintendo's virtule console, here's why
  1. I don't own the console and don't plan on buying one anytime soon.
  2. The games are iterations of some mentioned here, (different console but same game, boy/girl versions, basically the same concept and same area, but slightly different)
  3. Some of them are hard to find at a decent price. 


Saturday, January 11, 2014

Dear Anonymous(es)

First off I'd like to thank the people thathave been so nice on their comments on my Elder Scroll speculation post. And I'm here to address your criticism with criticism of your criticism.

  1. Show yourself
If you're going to say what I've spent a lot of my own time working on and researching is essentially faulty, show your face.

Being anonymous doesn't make you safe, in this case it makes you a coward. I can't even take you seriously. And the person that agreed with the first anon, how do I know you're not doing the equivalent of liking your own facebook comment? I have no way of knowing.
What you think you look like
What you actually look like


   2. Cite it!

If you're going to make a claim, back it up with your source. And your memories don't count. A screenshot or a link in this case would work. Don't say shit if you can't back it up.
Basically this
Present them. Prove it.

Okay, glad to get that off my chest. Now I can blog again

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Stuff that has happened

So I've been working, going to school, and trying to have a social life, so I haven't been able to do much posting and for that I apologize. Hopefully with this new year, I'll be able to start blogging more again, depending on my schedule.