While Mineral Town is also my favorite, A Wonderful Life is incredibly deep and even somewhat dark once you think about it. If you don't marry Muffy, she goes to the beach every now and then and cries because she wasn't able to have a family like you. If you don't marry Celia, she is forced into marriage with someone she doesn't love, making her noticeably more bitter towards men as a result. If you don't marry Nami, she leaves because she still has no sense of identity. Furthermore, when Nina dies, her husband moves his home so that he can tend to her grave each and every day. Lumina tends to have trouble living up to her cruel, manipulative grandmother's expectations. She has trouble feeling joy in life, and is shattered when you announce your marriage, struggling with adult emotions in the body of a child without being able to change. Just like your kid and all of the other villagers, your character grows and matures in many ways until he finally DIES. No matter what you do for yourself others, there will ALWAYS be hardships and pain. People are easily trapped into situations they dislike, but can never escape due to their own insecurities. It really is fascinating when you consider it. There are so many themes that I didn't pick up on when playing that game as a kid that really get to me now. It's definitely the only Harvest Moon game to date that has caused me to feel more than simple joy. Perhaps the characters are somewhat dull, but the roles they play and the stories they tell are definitely NOT.
Somehow I had forgotten all of that and just remembered having trouble getting Nami as a kid and going for Cecilia instead because she was super easy to get (in fact IIRC doesn't the game force the two of you together if you fail with everyone else?). But damn somehow it didn't occur to me how dark a lot of that is. Yeesh.
Nicholas Ring No, the game pairs you with the character that likes you most. (Also, why Nami? They made her an unattractive bitch. At first, I thought maybe she had a good side, but NOPE.)
Papa Schulz Because I was a kid and probably at the time had a crush on some girl with short hair or something. I was like... Late elementary school probably when I got the game. Come to think of it, now I can't remember which girl I usually went for in Mineral Town (which I played a lot more of growing up - kinda want to play it now, in fact. TO THE EMULATORS!)
I always wished for a Harvest Moon title that involves the passing of time and generations. Everyone ages, everyone can have children, the town can dramatically change depending on not just you but the efforts of everyone, and money actually matters on new level. You buy things from people, you aid their business and help it grow. I imagined it being called Harvest Moon: Life Goes On. This was inspired by many things. A Wonderful Life's raising of your son, Story of Seasons' death of Eda, and Animal Crossing's freedom of design and financial business elements also held inspiration for me.
The only way I picture it working is to slow time down a bit and add a skill system. There will be maybe 5 generations before the game ends and the goal is to change this ghost town into the most popular attraction on the map. The child would receive a small portion of both parents skills and build up more as they grow up. When the character and NPCs get too old, the next generation takes the reigns
Obadiah Fraiser Right. That's the idea. The only way this would work is if it has a set time limit. You must increase the towns popularity to it's highest before a certain date, or its game over. However, there will be plenty of time. You'll have until the end of the 3rd generation to complete your ultimate goal. Each character's life span ought to be 8 years. In Harvest Moon... A single year can feel both quick and long. Once your next of kin is old enough to work the farm, control switches over and your old character will just act as a generic NPC who can help out around the house and farm. However, the money you earned as them will remain with them until the time they die. That money will be collected as inheritance if you choose to. You get to write that characters will. There's so much to talk about... I just want this to be a thing
I enjoyed Magical Melody myself, but found myself quite surprised when I threw a weed and suddenly, the game glitched and gave me unlimited money. Being the honest gamer I am, I did what anyone else would do in this situation... ..... Spend my unending funds on all the lots and expensive stuff I can get and laugh like a madman as I took over the entire village! >:D
Yeah, i played MFOMT more too, like, i really love that game. In one week, i went to the beach (yeah, i really don't like beaches. Or traveling.) and played all day. I got married, $100.000 and 3 years passed in almost no time XD
@@SlyHikari03 ya but do you know him outside of RU-vid? Do you the call Angry Video Game Nerd by his real name? Just call him PBG because I didn't know who you were talking about until I read your comment.
@@jorgenvonstrangle4725 Nobody calls the angry video game nerd the angry video game nerd, everybody calls him James Rolfe because AVGN is the name of the show. People also call Austin Austin because that's his name and he literally doesn't care. You're pulling at absolutely nothing with this
@@marsmugio lol your one making a deal of it because think about it you probably spent 10 minutes of your time writing that comment to me lol I've been watching Peebs since 2011/2012 and nobody called by his first name back then they just called him PBG or more recently Peebs or if your really want to go deep someone actually called him shaggy once because they he thought he looked like shaggy from Scooby Doo. Oh and your right he doesn't care its just I've never heard being called that until now.
@@jorgenvonstrangle4725 just because you didn't know it's his name doesn't mean everyone else should've only been referring to him by his channel name or pbg or peebs. You're still making a big deal over an issue that YOU have. Also I spent 2 minutes typing my comment lol
Fun fact: Natsume spelled its own company name incorrectly on HM64. Look at the screen that says just the company (Natsume) and look in the bottom left corner of the main title screen. You will notice that the company name there is spelled "Nastume" instead of Natsume :D
Well it’s a good thing that the old “Harvest Moon” game were actually made by Marvellous and not Natsume. I think they were just the localization team? (Or publishers?) XSEED is in charge of that now.
@@DarkMirria1 That still means they spelled their own name wrong, as they're the ones who localised it, and their name would only be in localised versions, so they're the ones who did it.
For me, Harvest Moon: Animal Parade is my drug. I get so into it that I'm pretty sure my family thinks I'm crazy. C'mon, just because I teared up when my very first calf grew up and gave me perfect milk on the first try doesn't mean I'm insane...right?
C.K. Friction Yes you are wrong, the only thing they have in common are the graphics (not sure if i can call them graphics, english not first language) they only look alike.
Cullen M That is very true. I had a few tragic situations where my game was lost due to freezing when loading my game. I was able to mitigate this situation by saving every night on Diary 2, and regularly saving on Diary 1. It's like a failsafe in case my main game freezes, I can always return to the night before!
i spent so much time playing and progressing in harvest moon ds just to have it freeze and corrupt my save data i've been wanting to give the series another shot with that being the first game i ever played in the series but i don't want to waste loads of time just for my data to delete itself
While I enjoyed DS, I've come to love DS Cute more especially the Japanese version. While yes, I've done some hacking (mostly for certain items and the FoMT guys *cough*), but the game has this laid back go at your own pace feel to it. I do, however, wish they had implemented things from AWL/AaWL, but that's my only gripe with the game. It would have been nice to see aging characters/an end like in GameCube games.
Friends of Mineral Town is like the epitome of the franchise. That game perfected everything. Characters, music, heart events, rivals, farming, tools, secrets!! AHHHGGGG!! THAT GAME WAS SO GOOD!!! I too had notes and charts for that game. :D
I loved how I constantly had to think ahead to make mass sums of money. As I planted my spring crops, I was thinking about which and how many fall crops I would later plant.
I have an idea, PBG. Why don't you remake this list? As more HM and SoS games have come out and you've admitted that this video is outdated, I think it could work. :)
You think you could do a 5 worst Harvest Moon games PBG? Just cause I find the recent ones asides from A new beginning have been lack luster to say the least. :(
***** I liked tale of two towns but going though the forest it take forever to get money and i'm on year two and still not not maryed to the orcale but shes hard to mary she like fish and milk and she lives in the vine coverd church and she only apears on year two.
Friends of Mineral Town is almost an exact recreation of Back to Nature. They just adjusted all the mechanics to perfection and added a few cool new things. I highly recommend you check it out.
@@TheAntiTryhard harvest moon back to nature was developed on 1999 while harvest moon friends of mineral town was developed on 2003 and basically almost a remake of back to nature
I definitely agree with #2 and #1, I'm also surprised that a lot of Harvest Moon fans don't mention Magical Melody as one of the best instalments in the series. It really is a lot of fun, I have it for the Wii and my only criticism is that you can't play as a girl. Or maybe that's just a problem with my copy of the game. Friends of Mineral Town is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest Harvest Moon game ever. It makes farming fun, and isn't that the point of the whole series? :) Can anyone give me advice on A New Beginning? A lot of people have been telling me that it may be the best Harvest Moon game of all time, but I've been playing it for about two weeks and the brilliance of it is not jumping out at me. Neil has just set up shop in town, that's how far I'm into it. How long will I have to wait until it gets more interesting?
I know this is months old now, but I have to say I felt the same way as poodlehat for a while. Then I got to summer, and now I'm frantically trying to decide what to do every day, trying to maximize the efficiency of my farm without running out of food to keep my farm going. It gets very involved, much more than I felt in any other Harvest Moon. (The other ones I played were mainly Wonderful Life and DS)
Dude you don't know what your missing i suggest you start playing harvest moon game (Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town) if you need help downloading just contact me ok
lol oh man. sounds like im missing out. i probably will go with that, since it was also PBG's number one. i will look for it and thanks, i will keep that in mind
I'm going to get punched in the face for this, but... I love "A Wonderful Life"... **braces self** EDIT: Well, turns out people love this game, I just interpreted what he said wrong... Oops.
I am a huge fan of your channel and now I am a fan of harvest moon/Story of Seaons because of the friends of mineral town remake. These games are great and your channel is great. I’ve been watching for years, keep up the great work
I enjoyed Harvest Moon DS the best, it had all the look and features of friends of mineral town but with more customization. I loved being able to place the animal sheds where I wanted them, not to mention that huge inventory. The only problem was the corrupting...
Mini top five with opinions :D My personal list went: 1. Harvest Moon 64 - The first HM I ever played and it really got me into it, I started playing when I was about 7 and I put countless hours into this game. Man the nostalgia really punched me in the gut when he mentioned this one. The festivals were SO much fun to go to in this game, the characters were awesome, and filling up my photo album made me feel super accomplished when playing this game! Ahhh the fond memories are all rushing back :') 2. Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life - This is the second one I ever played and again put COUNTLESS hours into this game, I almost cried when I accidentally deleted my first game file when I was on like the second to last chapter. I had like every building and I was rich and oh man that was rough. I only wish this game had better festivals... and that damn goat ran out of milk but you couldn't sell it so you had to kill it but I never had the heart to do that... so that always made me a little mad. 3. Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town - I didn't get to play this game much, I pretty much stole it from my cousin when I was little and lost it after a few months of having it. But from what I can remember it was one of the better installments. Plus when I had to get off of A Wonderful Life or HM64 to go somewhere I could just grab FoMT and play that. 4. Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility - I thought they did a decent job in this game for the Wii and I put a good amount of one of my summer vacations into this game. However I think they tried to put too much into this game as in things to do around town. There were too many places to go and characters to meet that it got annoying trying to get around to everything because the days were too short. Still I liked that you could actually buy sheep and horse miracle potion in this game instead of just cows. 5. Harvest Moon Magical Melody - This was always my least favorite because I just didn't like the fact that you would eventually HAVE to buy more land for your farm. It's not that I couldn't, I seem to always be pretty prosperous in HM games, but it just felt TOO unrealistic. What I mean is I just want my whole farm to be together one ONE plot of land, not have to run across town to water my plants after checking on my barn. It might be a bit nit-picky but that's just my opinion. I did like the notes however, they were kinda fun. The characters were cool too and I liked having a pig along with my dog. Wow thanks for reading! Just FYI these are the only HM games I ever got to play, I never had a PS2 and never had any of the DS ones, and these are just MY opinions and I don't think they should apply to anyone else, ya know, unless you have the same opinion as me :)
Hahaha I used to write notes for HM too! I still have the paper for Save The Homeland (one of my favourites, though it's so different). Years ago I finished AWL, and I don't know how I did; right now I find it incredibly slow and I was never able to play again... I'm happy that Wii versions didn't follow that path (they are sweeter, prettier and funnier), though I must say AWL is a REAL life simulation game and that was quite ambitious from Natsume. About DS versions, I feel that every version was more and more boring, but prettier at the same time. The first time I played Island of Happiness I was surprised at the initial difficulty, and maybe that's why I obsessed a lot with it and it's now in my top 5... Sunshine Islands is easier and funny, but I'll always prefer IoH. I'm expecting to get a 3DS soon to check on all the new portable HM! I love this franchise a lot
I know this is kinda late, but if you really enjoyed Save the Homeland I recommend Hero of Leaf Valley for the PSP. It's essentially a remake of Save the Homeland, except you have a two year time-limit, can get married, have a lot more options with which to beat the game, and you can continue the game after you've beaten it.
While FoMt and 64 are my favorite, I also played the shit out of save the Homeland. I really loved all the unique endings you could get to save the farm. And the part time job system was a pretty interesting way to make money. All in all it was pretty solid, despite it's flaws.
I'm currently playing that game since it's kinda a pain to get a GBA (There's a DS around here somewhere, but I don't know where it is) so I'm playing DS instead of FoMT.
@@mikevsy The 1.1 version of the US version of DS has all the bug fixes from the Europe and 1.1 Japan release. So you might have the 1.0 version. Not sure though.
I like that Friends of Mineral Town has plenty of stuff for insane hardcore completionists too, like the 255-level mine that can let you upgrade your tools to the final level, the cottage you can buy for $100 mil, and the beachhouse your wife surprises you with after you've been married for 50 years.
I'm suprised he didn't put Harvest Moon Ds on this list. It's essentially a mash-up of all the things he said he likes. It's basically harvest moon a wonderful life and friends of mineral town combined (you can actually literally combine them by putting the gameboy game into your ds while playing) and there is about 10000000 things you can do and you can build and place your own buildings. In my opinion it's the most innovative of them all and it's weird how little love I see it get :(
I also forgot that it has some extremely addicting casino games in it as well, and considering how much pbg loves gambling you'd think that'd get it on the list alone.
Kayley Blankenship I think people don't like it because the DS graphics suck and the game had a lot of bugs. I haven't played it a whole lot (literally like ten minutes of it) so I can't really say. I don't know why, but a lot of people think it's kinda poopy.
Sebastian Velcro Whaaatt? I've played it for years and have never experienced any bugs, at least nothing significant enough for me to notice. Also it really sucks if people are judging it on graphics alone. The game has simple graphics that aren't much different (if at all) from the much loved friends of mineral town games. On top of that the illustrations of the characters are very cute. But really, there is just so much content to it it's amazing to me how people could not love it. Like I said, I've played it for years off and on and still am not bored of and it just plays so much more smoothly and has better pacing than the other harvest moon games. It's essentially the whole package imo and even stands up against the newest harvest moon releases that have many different things to do.
I love that he actually acknowledges how good magical Melody is. The freedom you have in that game to buy land and focus on different aspects like fishing, cooking, farming, mining, and other things is great.
ZOMG DOOD! You did the note thingy too!?!! and my friends we like: "you're stupid...why would anyone take notes for a game?!" I'm glad I'm not the only one...and if it still considered stupid...then I'm glad I'm stupid with this guy!
Most Story and Deepness - Harvest Moon 64 Most Flexible Gameplay - Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town Most Soothing Background Music - Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life Most Comedic - Harvest Moon: Magical Melody Most Nostalgic - Harvest Moon The first and last on the list do link pretty well, though. Give them a chance; they are pretty unforgettable and fun. If you play them in order, you will be shocked at how well they coincide the story with each other in a few situations. Most notably, one of the bachelorettes from the 64 being the granddaughter of a bachelorette from the SNES. It is pretty incredible if you give both games your time. Let me tell you, though, my older sibling did pack in a lot of hours into the GBA one so this guy might have a solid point that that certain entry is the most addictive. He must have put at least three total days worth of hours into the game before being finished with it. But, I lean towards Harvest Moon DS most for the best and also most comedic reason: firstly, the best. Because of how much the touchscreen helps me and that it is the last game to have the original farmer in it. The other games felt like they digressed significantly from the series and I felt like Harvest Moon was a game that only needed those two leads for male and female players, rather than having those new ones; it tainted the series a bit I am not gonna lie. I am sure new installments are fun to play still, but the story element feels like it was gone after Harvest Moon DS. The games just went into a path that is a bit peculiar and odd. The most comedic reason is that I usually play the female version because it allows you to marry another girl; the idea is a "best friends" system but that is bullshit. I mean, you obviously married her after that "best friends" ceremony, she moves in with you, sleeps in the same bed with you and even adopts a kid later on with you and I think they even accidentally left in the scene where they kiss at the ceremony, so there is that. They are really good friends now. Unfortunately, English speakers will not get this experience as it was cut out of the English release. It is quite entertaining, though. If there is one game that needs a fan translation, it is the Japanese version of Harvest Moon DS: Cute.
This was the first PBG video I ever saw. There weren’t a whole lot of content creators making Harvest Moon videos back then so this caught my eye the instant I saw it.
I played Back to Nature and Mastered it on PSP but FoMT is still the best because it's fast paced and has more interactions with the people more than Back to Nature offered basically it's an improved port from PS1 to GBA
I got addicted to Harvest Moon age 7 and married Gray at Year 11 because I didn't know what I was doing. I even wrote notes about it -_- Which my teacher saw and shared to the class. It's embarrassing because this was what was written: Gray~ Branches, Chocolate and Ores You're gonna get married at Autumn 27!!! YAY! Wup, wup
I...I feel betrayed... Because I love ToT and AP...because of the characters, mostly. Also, I actually take notes on it, too. XD I like to sketch out my farm plots and write down characters' information...DON'T JUDGE ME.
That one was my guilty pleasure until my PS2 broke. I just had a lot of fun getting all the endings and thought the cel-shading was appropriate. For nostalgia reasons, N64 is my favorite. BTN is better content-wise, but I didn't have a Playstation back then. Of course, A New Beginning is really good too, but I think my attention span has deteriorated since then. Damn you, Super Smash Bros.....
I'd play Friends of Mineral Town but I have a weird habit/sensitivity on the inability to see the sky. It's an odd thing I have, when in games the camera is facing to the ground, and it never looks up to the sky, I get a sense of being locked in. Mainly because there are borders in game worlds and skies in games make a world feel more vast. It's probably why in 2D Zelda games I always save and quit when I'm at Death Mountain or something, just to see a blue and white pixelated area. xD
I've played Friends of Mineral Town years back, and I really enjoyed it. I want to play more games in the series, but, I was wondering--are any of the Harvest Moon games on the Nintendo DS and 3DS good? :o I've been seeing some lackluster reviews, so I don't know what to get.
Just keep in mind if your not American you won't be currently be able to get it in Europe or Australia right now, most likely it will come out for the eshop like runefactory 4....actually buy that one as well
This is a month late, but yes. At least in my experience. The first season is kind of tedious since it's mostly tutorial, but the game really picks up once you get through that. A New Beginning is actually a pretty good game for starting out with Harvest Moon.
I agree with um bre, it is fun and I love the character designs and the events but I think it's very easy! (': on my 3rd year and I completed all the task, got married and had a kid. However o do suggest people play it!
Danilo Felix Yeah I really love the game. I sugguest you use a guide tho because if you want to get married or anything those stupid heart events are weird. (Sorry if this is extremely late)
If it's not too late to suggest something, Story of Seasons just came out March 31st in NA. Xseed now localizes so it got a new name outside Japan because Natsume has the rights to the Harvest Moon title. It's like the sequel to ANB, majorly improved, but a totally new town, characters and story. It's the same style and similar to ANB though and definitely better.
Thank you PBG you're comedic and childish type of videos allow e to feel very calm and entertained and am now returning to Harvest Moon for the first time in nearly ten years at which point the only one I had played was another life for gamecube
I started playing the original Harvest Moon last year. Yes, it's incredibly dated, but I was NOT prepared for one the bachelorettes to ask me "Do you believe in God?" It's a question like that that makes the villagers feel real.
I was so scared that FoMT didn't make your list I literally held my breath as you about to announce no.1! And I LOL so hard when you showed that piece of old note because I used to have a piece of paper just like that for the same game. Wish I kept mine though because now I am restarting the game again to relive some of my fav childhood memory.
I honestly loved Island of Happiness (probably because of nostalgia though, as it was my first harvest moon). My personal favorite though is Animal Parade
YES I used to play FoMT so much when I was younger and had tons of notes just like that LOL. I also used my precious 20 min of dial-up internet time a day to look up what Elli liked best and print off all the heart events/recipes that I could. Soo many good memories :')
No matter who says it or how many times they say it. AWL is not boring and neither are the characters. It has the richest story of any Harvest Moon game and is the best one hands down.
A Wonderful Life still remains my personal favorite. And although I've put hours and hours into the game, I still haven't beaten it. Mostly because halfway through I get impatient and start all over again. :)
Friends of Mineral town was my first Harvest Moon game, and I really love Magical Melody. I am really glad that you did this video PBG, it was cool to see a big youtuber play my favorite games. Could you try to do more videos about harvest moon?
Magical Melody has to be one of my favorite games that I play when need to just relax and forget about my problems, topped only by Animal Crossing. There is something just so pleasurable about watching your farm grow, expanding your land, building relationships, and attending holidays that I have lost my self in this game for weeks at a time.
Gotta say that I personally find Magical Melody to be the greatest of the bunch. I own most of the Harvest Moon games (before the Wii and DS era) and they're all just fantastic games. I play Mineral Town on my GBMicro whenever I'm out and get a lazy moment, but, I wouldn't place it at #1. Maybe #2. Magical Melody was just so... well... magical!
you hit the nail on the head. I haven't played any of the console games, so I wasn't sure if you were even going to include FOMT. This is one of my favorite games ever. Now I want to play it.
+PeanutButterGamer you should do an updated list with more recent harvest moon games, and maybe do a top 10 list to include more games of this great franchise.
Nailed it at number one. I printed every events, likes and dislikes, recipes and calendar with birthdays for FoMT. It's the last best HM title in my opinion.
I will always remember Harvest Moon Back to Nature's incredible toughness making me really do all the work, including bees and scavenging very little forage. I'm also a bit disturbed that they killed off Louis the Bee Keeper in Friends of Mineral Town. He stays with Gotz, but he has a dialogue of a man looking for bees, going to the mountains and never coming down, O.O
I remember when I used to have Island of Happiness. Ahh, those fond memories of pits when I was mining to get some stuff for a machine. Or something like that.
I agree. Harvest Moon: FoMT is the best, no doubt. It's true, every aspect of it is perfected. Even the girl version had some more entertaining small additions like dreams and all. More Friends of Mineral Town was the first Harvest Moon game i've ever played, with Magical Melody coming in second. They're both great and intuitive, and FoMT is wonderful for handheld. My only problem with the first is that most of the cartridges had the "save" error where your save would be completely erased after a long while, when the internal battery ran out. Other than that, the poor translation makes the game funny, and it's simple to understand, so Harvest Moon in my opinion a great game.
I should play Magical Melody again sometime. I bought it last summer but was getting burnt out on Harvest Moon by the time I bought it and didn't get far. It was fun though, I enjoyed the music and sounds. It's also nice going back to an HM without outfits so I can just keep a couple animals tops and grow lots of crops which are less tedious.
ah the paper note part at the end reminded me of how i filled up an entire notebook with hints and walkthroughs for EarthBound. The pre-internet era....what a time it was
