Thanks for watching. If you liked this video let me know as it helps me decide what to work on in the future! Additionally, if there's any errors or mistakes, please correct me so I can make a note of it in this comment.
Uhm, Im sorry for saying, but I think there is a problem with one of your statements, not trying to say you are wrong, just something you made, In HM: Friends of Mineral Town, you mentioned that getting items and moving them inside the bag wad not improved, but there is a specific button imputs you can do, like pressing the L shoulder button along with either A or B you can directly switch out Items or tools depending on A for Tools or B for Items, though this info could be wrong and its the R shoulder button
I know this is old but during the friends of mineral town segment, you mentioned that in older games you couldnt easily judge how the bachlorettes feel about you. In harvest moon 64, there is an icon at the bottom right of the text box when you talk to them, its in the shale of a heart. Its color changes depending on how they feel about you.
I completely agree about A Wonderful Life. I remember being 10 and making out all these detailed plans on how to run my farm that I still use and reference today lol. It was an amazing video!
You can change items without pausing in FOMT,Just hold L and press A for held items,And B for tools. Its actually one of the best inventory systems in the series,I think it only loses to the Sunshine Islands system since you can hold 4 items at once to interact with at any time. You also aren't limited to just 3 inventory slots,You can upgrade your rush sack twice at the supermarket giving you 9 slots for both tools and held items. Furthermore,You can buy a basket that holds 30 items specifically for shipping stuff,So you have a lot more inventory space then it seems.
Harvest Moon a wonderful life has to be one of my most treasured childhood memories. I remember waking up on a Saturday morning and immediately running to my sister's room to watch her play this game.
Story of Seasons and Rune Factory are still great. I was so confused when the "harvest moon" games just kept getting worse and worse until I learned what happened.
@@kimnamjoon3943 True, but the new one, Olive Town, seems to have the same chibi style design with minimal character customization and overly simplified gameplay in comparison to Story of Seasons on 3DS. FOM may have just been a remake but Olive Town seems to be geared towards much a much younger audience or was overly simplified out of laziness.
@@AstroGreenWitch oh yeah POOT definitely is watered down compared to Trio of Towns. It's bec a new director worked on it and the one who worked on older SOS titles focused on Rune Factory 5
HM: AWL shaped who I was, and played it religiously on my gamecube as a child. I used to run 2 separate files with different spouses, and i would always accidentally save over one by mistake. Honestly this mistake gave me a reason to continue playing until I stupidly did it again. I got hundreds of hours out of it. Every one of the neighbors are my friends. I feel the most special part of the game is the time passing aspect. The town moves on without you, people change, move, die, but guess there's always a new day. This was a solid lesson to learn as a child that I honestly helped me cope with the struggles of real life as I grew. Great video, these original games can never get enough attention. They are gems so many people sleep on.
Harvest Moon is the sole reason why all of my Stardew crop plots were 3x3 but with one missing to get to the middle square. Realizing I could just trample my crops like a madman with no consequences was such a revelation. I remember Nintendo Power having a whole inset in their Harvest Moon strategy section on crop plots and their varying efficiency, it was dope as hell
I had asked my parents to buy me HM a wonderful life at gamestop when it released. The employee messed up and sold me 'another wonderful life' in a 'a wonderful life' case.
My friend and I used to stay up ALL NIGHT playing a wonderful life. We’d take turns playing days - and then while one of us was playing harvest moon, the other would play Minecraft. It’s one of my favorite memories from my childhood. It’s so disappointing that the series will never be the same.
quick note: the og Friends of Mineral Town you don't have to pause to switch items and tools. I think you press L+a or L+b to switch which you'll hold and use
Came here to say this! Plus if you press L and the d-pad you can cycle in either direction through your items and tools. I've been replaying FOMT on a gba emulator
Can u guys pls suggest some good story harvest moon game names which I can play in android drastic emulator... Pls suggest some guys 👉👈 I've played harvest moon ds..
I never knew you would also pass away in HM Wonderful Life... that’s kind of beautiful. I always made sure to befriend the old man and his wife (nina?) cause I knew their storyline... God they really needed to bring this title back :(
Rune factory was awesome. While 3 is popular among the fans, I loved the 4th installment. From farming to exploration, it was so much fun, but the best part was the characters. They bring so much life into the game.
9:17 if I remember correctly, there were button combos that cycled through our tools and items. While it still isn't ideal, it was far better than constant menuing
It does teach you that mechanic, for sure in the tv station down, don't remember exactly if it also does it in your bookshelf or a book in the library also
@@zaki6146 Previous commenter's right. All the hidden mechanics and content can be learned or hinted through 3 methods: character dialogues, library, or the TV station. In FOMT at least, there is a tutorial "video" specifically for the shortcuts. Earlier games that is not HM GBC 1/2/3 had them as a library book.
Harvest Moon 64 was my childhood. I still have the cartridge with a tape around it that i put there so many years ago. Super cool that there's people that love Harvest Moon.
my first entry into harvest moon was another wonderful life and honestly, no other HM/SoS or any other farming sim has ever come close to the love I will have for that game
Hey thank you so much for including the girl version of friends of mineral town. The boy protag always deterred me from playing the older games. You’re awesome. A MonHun with farming or gardening fully fleshed our would be sick btw imagine planting a vegetable that grows to be a wyvern for you to hunt
Harvest moon back to nature is what got me into the series. The front case art looked simple, like a sticker slapped on a grass background. Then I read the back of the case.. “ a different kind of rpg” as I have just finished playing xenogears and legend of legaiait peaked my interest . I’m glad I made the purchase.
the story of seasons friends of mineral town is a really good 1 to 1 remake, also your point on the crops growing hit boxes and the remake fixes that the only negitive would be no rival marrage cut scenes
disagreed is a horrible remake they ruin the character with ugly generic designs remove rival even cuz god forbid characters get into marriage since now everyone is inclusive
I recommend the most recent game: Story of Seasons Pioneers of Olive Town on the Nintendo Switch. Marvelous has made many improvements to the Gameplay these days. One excellent feature is Same-Gender Marriage. (A feature never implemented in Natsume’s games)
I think the creative energy of the franchise moved from the main Harvest Moon Games over to the Rune Factory Series. That's the one to play today if you want the creative progression.
Wow thank you for this video! You perfectly nailed what made HM games like AWL and FoMT so groundbreaking and influential on players, while simultaneously bringing back so many memories for me and other commenters. Playing AWL with my little brother are some of my most cherished childhood memories- hands down. Sometimes we'd play into the (real life) night, and go stand at the beach at (in game) night and just watch the ocean together. So much of our time in-game wasn't even spent playing, but just being. Looking back, I almost forget that it was a single player game because I never played without him by my side. I hope we can see another farming sim with the sheer emotional depth and environmental immersion that AWL gave us- but I'm more than happy to just revisit, find new things, and relive old memories.
Okay so I basically had the same experience as a kid, my parents didn’t have a lot of money so buying games was rarely an option, so I’d go to the video store and rent games for my GameCube constantly and I came across harvest moon it’s a wonderful life by accident too! And it’s still one of my favorite games to date. I played it for the first time in 13 years a couple months ago and it was like I was thrown all the way back to being 8 years old again ❤️
16:21 You had me getting all nostalgic and I literally gasped with delight at the sight of Won. It was like seeing a long lost friend I'd forgotten until that moment.
This was my first Harvest Moon game as well, and it really set the standard for this series for me. I've loved the series ever since, all the way into Story of Seasons, but nothing will ever top this game in terms of how engaging it was, the gameplay and how well it worked.
Harvest Moon GBA, now there's a game I'd stay up late to play. With no backlight, you have to be pretty quick turning your lamp off is someone comes in to check on you!
Harvest Moon Magical Melody was my first introduction and I still absolutely love it. I didn’t get to play any of the other entries until recently (the current switch SOS aren’t as good), so I’ll give a wonderful life a try
This video was phenomenal. You managed to convey what made each of these entries so special, both on a mechanical and emotional level, whilst still fairly acknowledging their downfalls. As someone who has been able to think of nothing else since A Wonderful Life's remake announcement, this just made me all the more excited for what's to come and appreciative of what's come before
@@SuperRADLemon Me too, good sir, me too. I'm hopeful, considering what we've seen thus far! But you never really know whether the devs made any inconceivable choices until you're holding the finished product in your hands, y'know?
Wonderful Life is also what introduced me to Harvest Moon and will always hold a special place in my heart with all the childhood memories (so mad when my little sister erased my save) but the last time I tried to go back to it unfortunately felt kinda painful because I feel like nothing is explained to you and you can get yourself stuck into not seeing a lot of the game because of it. Magical Melody is a way more impressive and accessible 3D Harvest Moon, my personal favorite of the now "Story of Seasons" series
I really miss the Harvest Moon on Game Cube! I used to get a lot of games from Blockbuster too, unfortunately I never got to try the 64 version. My parents actually bought me my first Harvest Moon game because they thought it looked cute! I’ve been addicted ever since!
In case you didnt know: Story of seasons is the same series as harvest moon (bokujou monogatari) but they had to change the western name due to changing western localization teams
I already knew about the wonders of Harvest Moon when I finally bought AWL. I was first introduced to Harvest Moon on 64 when I bought it for $15 at Walmart on discount t because nobody wanted to buy it and it’s all I could afford as a 12 yr old. Best decision of my life I was addicted to it!
Wonderful life was my first farming Sim as well. However, once I found Rune Factory, I could never go back. Rune Factory is truly the best of the Farming Sims in my eyes. Best Gameplay, Humor, Social, and Combat specifically is something that basically none of the others even had. I do still have fond memories of Wonderful life, and I quite enjoy Stardew, but Rune Factory is where it's at.
I got introduced to Harvest Moon via the game A new Beginning on PS2 and oh boy did my sisters and I spent our time playing the game anytime we had free time. We then discovered at Walmart A wonderful life on PS2 and we bought it without any hesitation. This game is by far the game I spent the most time on and would gladly jump back on... if it wasn't from the kind of slow frame per second that the game had on PS2. The ending of the game was so... I don't know... satisfying? Seeing your character grow older and your kid, the people from the village... Gosh. Thank you for your video and this wave of nostalgia!
for FoMT you CAN switch tools without going into menus, its just a bit hidden. you need to push the left bumper with the A or B button, one goes through the tools while the other goes through items! it makes played the game a LOOOOT easier
Thank TH-cam for recommending me this video which gave me a wave of nostalgia. I still remember starting HM A Wonderful Life never played a HM game before, when asked to name the farm I named it Fun Farm not realizing they would add farm to the end of your name, making it Fun Farm Farm, really enjoyed it, getting friends of mineral town which I played to death, Magical Melody ended up being the last one I played but man was it ever a fun time, easily my favourite of the series.
Oh hell yeah, another Goemon fan. That one and the sequel were my two favorite N64 games and introduced me to that awesome series. It doesnt get the love it deserves in the West.
Liked the vid as soon as you mentioned Goemon. Friends of Mineral Town is my favorite Harvest Moon game to this day, mostly because it had a certain feeling of mystery to it. There was so much you could do that the game either didn’t tell you about or only hinted at, such as hiring the Harvest Sprites, getting the blessed tools, learning every recipe, or even getting extra houses to own. I used to keep a chart of the characters’ birthdays, and since I had A Wonderful Life and a GC to GBA cable, sometimes I’d just sit around and listen to the GBA renditions of past Harvest Moon songs on my in game record player. Getting to the bottom of the mine felt like a huge accomplishment, as well as befriending the villagers enough where they’d start letting you into their houses at the crack of dawn. Ann was always my favorite of the bachelorettes, and Cliff my favorite of the bachelors. I would always do the trick of saving the night before and checking the weather in the morning, then reloading if it predicted a storm just so my chickens wouldn’t get sick. The game really had so much to offer for a GBA title.
I will always love a wonderful life, it gave me one of my treasured memories Warning, wall o text ahead Me and my friend had game cubes, so I played my copy round his to show him how it played since he was curious,. Next day, he bought his own copy, I ought my own cube and TV round, and we played next to each other Then a couple days later, another friend saw us play it, and became enamoured, so bought his own copy, brought his cube round with a smaller TV, and we all played on a table in his kitchen, all making differing farms, from investing in seeds early, to me concentrating on trees and animals more. One spent his time in the archeology tent a lot more This game has a magical charm and simplicity to it, where hours can fly by and you still want to plau
I bought wonderful life at GameStop but the disk was magical melody. I played that one a bit and then got the issue resolved. I liked wonderful life but eventually wanted to try magical melody again. It turned out to be my favorite farming game to this day.
Harvest Moon DS was an alright title. Took place in the same location as A Wonderful Life with the same bachelorettes, plus more added in like Flora, a mermaid, and a princess at the bottom of the mine, but used effectively the same graphics as Friends of Mineral Town. The story, such as it is, is pretty dumb though. The Harvest Goddess and a character called the Witch Princess are fighting and the Witch Princess turns the Harvest Goddess to stone and then sends her away to some other dimension, also then sending the harvest sprites after her. The player builds up their farm and doing certain tasks will recover different sprites. Gives an interesting enough goal, plus you can get items which show your energy or relationship with people you talk to, plus a charm to instantly warp around the map as long as you're outside SoS FoMT remake is overall pretty good in my opinion. The chibi models aren't too bad and on the whole the character redesigns are alright (though having Doctor still be called Doctor instead of having an actual name is pretty stupid). It retains a lot from the original while making quality of life improvements, such as being able to see a stamina meter on the UI now instead of having to guess what your energy is. A fun time sink SoS Pioneers of Olive Town however is mixed for me. I like the mechanic that weapons upon upgrade start to hit areas, so you can swing your axe and chop a slew of trees at once. Definitely needed seeing as how the game relies a little too much on makers to produce ingots and lumber and such for anything and everything you do. Also the villagers are totally lifeless in the dialogue. The designs are pretty good but the lack of character sprites for dialogue and what they actually say makes them so bland
Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns is my personal all time favorite farm sim so far. The newer Pioneers of Olive Town isn't as good tho. Looking forward to Coral Island now~
Found your channel from Rurikhan and Gaijin's MH podcast. I'm liking your content so far! Harvest Moon was definitely one of those random games I picked up and fell in love with. A Wonderful Life was my first, followed by Friends of Mineral Town and Magical Melody. I think I fell off after that but the series holds a special place in my heart and seeing 2 of the 3 games I played on this list gives me such a warm feeling.
I also found Harvest Moon by renting A Wonderful Life and loved the cozy, laid-back feeling of the game. A year later, when I finally got the game as a gift, l would play until I got tired, then paused and fell asleep to the farm theme playing on the TV in my room. Something I really liked in Another Wonderful Life (can’t remember if it was in the original game) was being able to sell your products to villagers. They would walk by your stand and you could sort of bargain with them. I also felt ELATED for my character when they were married. I think this was the first game I’d seen with a dating sim mechanic, so even something as simple as the give-gift- once-a-day routine was a lot of fun. For those reasons you mentioned and many others, I have to agree, AWL/AnWL are wonderful games.
If they cod remake A Wonderful Life with just some QOL features, upgraded graphics, more marriage candidates and child options. Its all I want! Also I know death is sad but why so all the seniors outlive you? Doesn't make much sense.
I have a similar experience with "A wonderful life", when I first played it, I really projected myself on to my character when I was young. Starting a family, having a child, caring for the farm, and my animals, living "my" life as I progressed though each day. HOnestly, when I was finished playing, I felt an emptiness, a weird pit in my stomach, like a yearning to return to a place I was so familiar with. I can't remember another game that left me with exactly the same feeling, and hearing you described a similar experience let me know that I wasnt alone! It truly was a great game, and im glad to know it made as much of an impact on other kids back then, and not just me. Edit: For grammer.
Hell yeah, I rented Wonderful Life too and eventually bought the same rental copy years later when it went up for sale. Played the hell outta this game.
I remember playing Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life Special Edition in my childhood and unfortunately my friends didn't know this game at that time, every morning i used to play the game in my ps2 and waste hours and hours. Now, looking at it i see how much lagged the game is in ps2 version, but as a kid it was perfect, i still have the disc with me. Since then, i searched for a game like that and never found it, until Stardew Valley was released, in 2016, i played a lot and it's a great game, but I felt that there was a lack of immersion in the personality of the characters and also in the story of the player himself, as happens in HM:AWL. I believe that no game will give me the same feelings that HM:AWL gave me, thank you for the video tho.
the DS games were my first harvest moon games and really stuck with me. from the original to Cute to grand bazaar and tale of two towns, all of those remind me of a time when i just got totally sucked into those worlds. it's a shame i haven't been able to feel the same when i look at the recent titles, what with them either being downright Bad or not up my valley in terms of their visual style. and the newest one even missing character portraits?? what the heck? it makes me sad but at least i'll always have those older games v_v
9:18 "unfortunately you still cant actively switch out items that yourholding without pausing which leads to a lot of downtown in inventory management." .... HE DIDNT USE THE R BUTTONS. YOU SWAP ITEMS WITH A COMBO PESS of ButtonS!
As you said you don~t know much about Story of Seasons, know that it's basically the same game as Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, but with better graphics and some tweaks in gameplay
I remember that the last one i play was Animal Parade in the Wii, i was good, but also the wii had a remake of the first Rune Factory, and i don't know but Story of Seasons is missing something that made the old games special.
Back to Nature was my first game, and I fell in love with the genre. I tend to get REALLY into the games for a little while, and suddenly get bored and stop playing. I always wanted to get to the end of A Wonderful Life, but I could never make it past the second chapter (made worse by the animations being SO SLOW after I got used to Stardew). I've been curious about Rune Factory for a while, but I never had a console for it - but I finally have a Switch, so I'll have to make that happen. The Friends of Mineral Town remake is pretty much Friends of Mineral Town with some QoL improvements and new art, as far as I can tell. They introduced new breeding mechanics for your animals (basically the animals you buy at first top out at 5 hearts and you have to breed them to increase the heart max).
Great video! I loved the SNES harvest moon as a kid. After trying RF4 and stardew I didn't think I'd ever need to go back to harvest moon but you definitely sold me on AWL, it sounds really neat
Back to nature was my first harvest moon. I remember reading the description about your character spending a memorable summer with your grandpa and I can relate because I also got to experience a different lifestyle I was raising chickens and doing farm work on my grandparents ranch. 11:05 🐷
Harvest moon AWL was my first harvest moon as well and its was the only harvest moon that really sucked me in. I never really tried the older series but I did try some of the new one on DS and idk didn't have the same magic. But so excited fro the remake!!! Almost freak out when I saw it this morning. It was definitely a game that needed a update, it had great atmosphere but the game play itself need lot of qol which I hope we get!
My first harvest moon game that i played was more friends of mineral town, and that what made me got addicted to the series- and i have been playing various titles like tales of the two town and grand bazaar- they werr my favourite after mfomt- and then one day when my sister gave me her ds cartridge(?) I found rune factory 1 and decided to play it- safe to say now i'm also addicted to it and have play rune factory 1-4, it's sad tho i lost my game's progress because one day my cartridge just stopped working, everytime i clicked a game the ds would just freeze :'D
Honestly I wish we could get Rune Factory on PC. With mod support the game could offer so much content beyond what the developers have already delivered. It would be just perfect.
I loved playing AWL… hearing my horse’s hooves clopping on the brick path, and me angling the camera around like I was in a movie! It was so good. The first one I played was Back to Nature, and I got introduced to the series from watching my older brother play the N64 version.
I'm so happy I'm not alone in this. I haven't bought a harvest moon game in so long and not very many story of season games. They just arnt as good. The most recent, Pioneers of Olive Town, literally made the villagers feel optional and just there to feel the empty void. Rune Factory is an awesome series and 5 is a step back, but still good.
rune factory 4 is still my favorite game of all time, if it had more detail over all like the animations and more micro events similar to dates, i probably wouldve played it for a 4th time :) same with AWL, its one of my favorite games, but i get virtually all events and cutscenes and items the first 2 chapters which always kills my motivation
maybe unpopular opinion but i am agree with this, wonderfull life is the first farming simulator that get me hooked, beautiful story and character building, after that i played previous franchise but the new one has might sharper graphic but overall boring. Stardew valley is great. my favorite in order is Wonderfull life, innocent life, stardew valley
Harvest moon a wonderful life will always have a huge amount of nostalgia for me because it was my introduction to the series, and I'm super exited for the remake to come out next week. For me, however, the best game in the series is harvest moon: a new beginning on the 3ds. That game is absolutely perfect in my opinion, with the exception of the extremely slow first season, and it makes me really sad that nobody ever mentions the game in their harvest moon videos lol.
Honestly Story of Season's is my favorite now after learning what happened to Harvest Moon. Especially after being an old Harvest Moon buff when I was younger. The creators of the original Harvest Moon moved into making the Story of Season's collection instead of the US version which is now Harvest Moon by a different company. 100% try out the Story Of Season's games, they did a few reboots of the old Harvest Moon games (Olive Town) and it's a lot of fun to see the characters in the new age version of the game itself
Thanks for watching. If you liked this video let me know as it helps me decide what to work on in the future! Additionally, if there's any errors or mistakes, please correct me so I can make a note of it in this comment.
Uhm, Im sorry for saying, but I think there is a problem with one of your statements, not trying to say you are wrong, just something you made,
In HM: Friends of Mineral Town, you mentioned that getting items and moving them inside the bag wad not improved, but there is a specific button imputs you can do, like pressing the L shoulder button along with either A or B you can directly switch out Items or tools depending on A for Tools or B for Items, though this info could be wrong and its the R shoulder button
I know this is old but during the friends of mineral town segment, you mentioned that in older games you couldnt easily judge how the bachlorettes feel about you. In harvest moon 64, there is an icon at the bottom right of the text box when you talk to them, its in the shale of a heart. Its color changes depending on how they feel about you.
I completely agree about A Wonderful Life. I remember being 10 and making out all these detailed plans on how to run my farm that I still use and reference today lol. It was an amazing video!
You dont have to go into your menu in freinds of mineral town to switch items hold one one of the triggers not shure which one and push a or b
You can change items without pausing in FOMT,Just hold L and press A for held items,And B for tools.
Its actually one of the best inventory systems in the series,I think it only loses to the Sunshine Islands system since you can hold 4 items at once to interact with at any time.
You also aren't limited to just 3 inventory slots,You can upgrade your rush sack twice at the supermarket giving you 9 slots for both tools and held items.
Furthermore,You can buy a basket that holds 30 items specifically for shipping stuff,So you have a lot more inventory space then it seems.
Harvest Moon a wonderful life has to be one of my most treasured childhood memories. I remember waking up on a Saturday morning and immediately running to my sister's room to watch her play this game.
Thanks for sharing! The game really does hold a special place in my heart
Not me ugly crying after unlocking a hidden memory
I cant stop thinking of "Monster Hunter: Friends of Mineral Town"
To be fair, both Mineral Town and Minegarde start with "mine"
Story of seasons: friends of pokke town.
Super Mario bros: “Friends of Mineral Town”
Good video! Always love seeing Harvest Moon content on TH-cam.
Thanks!
I also have on my channel
Story of Seasons and Rune Factory are still great. I was so confused when the "harvest moon" games just kept getting worse and worse until I learned what happened.
Story of Seasons on 3DS were great, but the Switch ones feel way watered down/dumbed down by comparison.
@@AstroGreenWitch FoMT isn't watered down, it's the way its always been with a few qol improvements. I haven't tried the new one.
@@AstroGreenWitch I don't really think there's much to water down with FOMT remake since FOMT has always been pretty bare.
@@kimnamjoon3943 True, but the new one, Olive Town, seems to have the same chibi style design with minimal character customization and overly simplified gameplay in comparison to Story of Seasons on 3DS. FOM may have just been a remake but Olive Town seems to be geared towards much a much younger audience or was overly simplified out of laziness.
@@AstroGreenWitch oh yeah POOT definitely is watered down compared to Trio of Towns. It's bec a new director worked on it and the one who worked on older SOS titles focused on Rune Factory 5
HM: AWL shaped who I was, and played it religiously on my gamecube as a child. I used to run 2 separate files with different spouses, and i would always accidentally save over one by mistake. Honestly this mistake gave me a reason to continue playing until I stupidly did it again. I got hundreds of hours out of it. Every one of the neighbors are my friends. I feel the most special part of the game is the time passing aspect. The town moves on without you, people change, move, die, but guess there's always a new day. This was a solid lesson to learn as a child that I honestly helped me cope with the struggles of real life as I grew. Great video, these original games can never get enough attention. They are gems so many people sleep on.
I get serious nostalgia thinking about AWL
Harvest Moon is the sole reason why all of my Stardew crop plots were 3x3 but with one missing to get to the middle square. Realizing I could just trample my crops like a madman with no consequences was such a revelation.
I remember Nintendo Power having a whole inset in their Harvest Moon strategy section on crop plots and their varying efficiency, it was dope as hell
cultured
When you remember the article :) Nintendo Power always had great HM content!
I had asked my parents to buy me HM a wonderful life at gamestop when it released. The employee messed up and sold me 'another wonderful life' in a 'a wonderful life' case.
My friend and I used to stay up ALL NIGHT playing a wonderful life. We’d take turns playing days - and then while one of us was playing harvest moon, the other would play Minecraft. It’s one of my favorite memories from my childhood. It’s so disappointing that the series will never be the same.
They are doing a remake of Wonderful Life and it will release next year. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life.
Wonderful life remake is releasing in June this year for switch! Its being remade by the origional company under the "story of seasons" title now
@@stormtrooper2425Only the same publisher
quick note: the og Friends of Mineral Town you don't have to pause to switch items and tools. I think you press L+a or L+b to switch which you'll hold and use
How can you play harvest moon without knowing thissss.
Came here to say this! Plus if you press L and the d-pad you can cycle in either direction through your items and tools.
I've been replaying FOMT on a gba emulator
Seriously hope Story of Seasons does A wonderful life
Well your wish came true =D
@@RexZShadow Oh my goodness. I know. I freaked out this morning! I'm excited!
Can u guys pls suggest some good story harvest moon game names which I can play in android drastic emulator... Pls suggest some guys 👉👈 I've played harvest moon ds..
@@fazemujeebop763 grand bazaar and tale of two town, If you haven't yet :D
Harvest Moon 64 - The cozy rainy day game you can play for 25 years straight.
I never knew you would also pass away in HM Wonderful Life... that’s kind of beautiful. I always made sure to befriend the old man and his wife (nina?) cause I knew their storyline... God they really needed to bring this title back :(
I love Harvest Moon but I could never go back after playing Rune Factory
Rune factory was awesome. While 3 is popular among the fans, I loved the 4th installment. From farming to exploration, it was so much fun, but the best part was the characters. They bring so much life into the game.
you should give Trio of Towns a chance. it starts slow but you'll get addicted to it.
THIS ! Trio of Towns is really good. I enjoyed the game so much. More than i expected.
TRUEE
9:17 if I remember correctly, there were button combos that cycled through our tools and items. While it still isn't ideal, it was far better than constant menuing
I must've missed that upon revisiting it
@@SuperRADLemon yea I don't think the game teaches you about it. I kinda learned it by accident
It does teach you that mechanic, for sure in the tv station down, don't remember exactly if it also does it in your bookshelf or a book in the library also
@@zaki6146 Previous commenter's right. All the hidden mechanics and content can be learned or hinted through 3 methods: character dialogues, library, or the TV station.
In FOMT at least, there is a tutorial "video" specifically for the shortcuts. Earlier games that is not HM GBC 1/2/3 had them as a library book.
When I tell you I cried when Nina passed away... omg. I was NOT ready.
we'll never forget that turtle race... her last race... and her poor husband all alone. :(
I’ll never get over it.
It’s so heartbreaking. She’s such a sweetheart.
Aww.. Why do you have to remind me of that..
Harvest Moon 64 was my childhood. I still have the cartridge with a tape around it that i put there so many years ago.
Super cool that there's people that love Harvest Moon.
my first entry into harvest moon was another wonderful life and honestly, no other HM/SoS or any other farming sim has ever come close to the love I will have for that game
Fomt is the only game I ever printed out sheets for recipes, heart events, etc. It was a complete iceberg that once u saw it was memorizing
Hey thank you so much for including the girl version of friends of mineral town. The boy protag always deterred me from playing the older games. You’re awesome. A MonHun with farming or gardening fully fleshed our would be sick btw imagine planting a vegetable that grows to be a wyvern for you to hunt
Harvest moon back to nature is what got me into the series. The front case art looked simple, like a sticker slapped on a grass background. Then I read the back of the case.. “ a different kind of rpg” as I have just finished playing xenogears and legend of legaiait peaked my interest . I’m glad I made the purchase.
the story of seasons friends of mineral town is a really good 1 to 1 remake, also your point on the crops growing hit boxes and the remake fixes that the only negitive would be no rival marrage cut scenes
disagreed is a horrible remake they ruin the character with ugly generic designs remove rival even cuz god forbid characters get into marriage since now everyone is inclusive
@@omegavalwin whatever you say sir
@@omegavalwin ???
Another Wonderful Life and Animal Parade are the best games imo.
I recommend the most recent game: Story of Seasons Pioneers of Olive Town on the Nintendo Switch. Marvelous has made many improvements to the Gameplay these days. One excellent feature is Same-Gender Marriage. (A feature never implemented in Natsume’s games)
Animal parade was my first harvest moon game
A Wonderful life (and Another Wonderful life), and Animal Parade are my favorites!!!!
I think the creative energy of the franchise moved from the main Harvest Moon Games over to the Rune Factory Series. That's the one to play today if you want the creative progression.
Wow thank you for this video! You perfectly nailed what made HM games like AWL and FoMT so groundbreaking and influential on players, while simultaneously bringing back so many memories for me and other commenters.
Playing AWL with my little brother are some of my most cherished childhood memories- hands down. Sometimes we'd play into the (real life) night, and go stand at the beach at (in game) night and just watch the ocean together. So much of our time in-game wasn't even spent playing, but just being. Looking back, I almost forget that it was a single player game because I never played without him by my side.
I hope we can see another farming sim with the sheer emotional depth and environmental immersion that AWL gave us- but I'm more than happy to just revisit, find new things, and relive old memories.
Okay so I basically had the same experience as a kid, my parents didn’t have a lot of money so buying games was rarely an option, so I’d go to the video store and rent games for my GameCube constantly and I came across harvest moon it’s a wonderful life by accident too! And it’s still one of my favorite games to date. I played it for the first time in 13 years a couple months ago and it was like I was thrown all the way back to being 8 years old again ❤️
16:21 You had me getting all nostalgic and I literally gasped with delight at the sight of Won. It was like seeing a long lost friend I'd forgotten until that moment.
This was my first Harvest Moon game as well, and it really set the standard for this series for me.
I've loved the series ever since, all the way into Story of Seasons, but nothing will ever top this game in terms of how engaging it was, the gameplay and how well it worked.
Harvest Moon GBA, now there's a game I'd stay up late to play. With no backlight, you have to be pretty quick turning your lamp off is someone comes in to check on you!
For friends of mineral town, you could quick change tools and items by pressing L and B or A depending on which you wanted to switch
Harvest Moon Magical Melody was my first introduction and I still absolutely love it. I didn’t get to play any of the other entries until recently (the current switch SOS aren’t as good), so I’ll give a wonderful life a try
This video was phenomenal. You managed to convey what made each of these entries so special, both on a mechanical and emotional level, whilst still fairly acknowledging their downfalls. As someone who has been able to think of nothing else since A Wonderful Life's remake announcement, this just made me all the more excited for what's to come and appreciative of what's come before
I really hope the remake is good
@@SuperRADLemon Me too, good sir, me too. I'm hopeful, considering what we've seen thus far! But you never really know whether the devs made any inconceivable choices until you're holding the finished product in your hands, y'know?
Wonderful Life is also what introduced me to Harvest Moon and will always hold a special place in my heart with all the childhood memories (so mad when my little sister erased my save) but the last time I tried to go back to it unfortunately felt kinda painful because I feel like nothing is explained to you and you can get yourself stuck into not seeing a lot of the game because of it. Magical Melody is a way more impressive and accessible 3D Harvest Moon, my personal favorite of the now "Story of Seasons" series
I really miss the Harvest Moon on Game Cube! I used to get a lot of games from Blockbuster too, unfortunately I never got to try the 64 version. My parents actually bought me my first Harvest Moon game because they thought it looked cute! I’ve been addicted ever since!
A Wonderful Life is one of my top 5 favorite games all time
I played one of the games on 3ds vc and honestly I had no idea what I was doing but rune factory is definitely on my radar
My first introduction this game is HM more friends in mineral town and i spend my night on playing it.
In case you didnt know:
Story of seasons is the same series as harvest moon (bokujou monogatari) but they had to change the western name due to changing western localization teams
HARVEST MOON HERO OF LEAF VALLEY IS THE MOST UNDERATED GAME IN THE SERIES.
IT'S ONE OF MY FAVORITES
Celia was one of my first childhood crushes, lol. I also started with AWL, and Harvest Moon/farming games have had a place in my heart ever since.
To me, the last really good Harvest Moon was Magical Melody.
I already knew about the wonders of Harvest Moon when I finally bought AWL. I was first introduced to Harvest Moon on 64 when I bought it for $15 at Walmart on discount t because nobody wanted to buy it and it’s all I could afford as a 12 yr old. Best decision of my life I was addicted to it!
Harvest moon Back to Nature was my favourite! So many memories 🥰
Wonderful life was my first farming Sim as well. However, once I found Rune Factory, I could never go back. Rune Factory is truly the best of the Farming Sims in my eyes. Best Gameplay, Humor, Social, and Combat specifically is something that basically none of the others even had. I do still have fond memories of Wonderful life, and I quite enjoy Stardew, but Rune Factory is where it's at.
Harvest Moon friends of mineral town it is for me. Forever my sweet childhood memories.
I got introduced to Harvest Moon via the game A new Beginning on PS2 and oh boy did my sisters and I spent our time playing the game anytime we had free time. We then discovered at Walmart A wonderful life on PS2 and we bought it without any hesitation. This game is by far the game I spent the most time on and would gladly jump back on... if it wasn't from the kind of slow frame per second that the game had on PS2. The ending of the game was so... I don't know... satisfying? Seeing your character grow older and your kid, the people from the village... Gosh. Thank you for your video and this wave of nostalgia!
9:19 That Harvest Moon FoMT on GBA can switch items and tools by using L+A and L+B button
Harvest Moon: Magical Melody was my first Harvest Moon game
for FoMT you CAN switch tools without going into menus, its just a bit hidden. you need to push the left bumper with the A or B button, one goes through the tools while the other goes through items! it makes played the game a LOOOOT easier
Fast switch item : )
L + A : Pull item out of Rucksack
L + B : Cycle tool in hand from Rucksack
A + B : Opens Rucksack Menu
I’m glad A Wonderful Life is available in the PS Store so I can give it a try
SuperRAD: Explaining
The Video: Chopping weeds
It's honest work 🫡
Thank TH-cam for recommending me this video which gave me a wave of nostalgia.
I still remember starting HM A Wonderful Life never played a HM game before, when asked to name the farm I named it Fun Farm not realizing they would add farm to the end of your name, making it Fun Farm Farm, really enjoyed it, getting friends of mineral town which I played to death, Magical Melody ended up being the last one I played but man was it ever a fun time, easily my favourite of the series.
Oh hell yeah, another Goemon fan. That one and the sequel were my two favorite N64 games and introduced me to that awesome series. It doesnt get the love it deserves in the West.
Agreed!
DASH! DASH! DASH!
Liked the vid as soon as you mentioned Goemon. Friends of Mineral Town is my favorite Harvest Moon game to this day, mostly because it had a certain feeling of mystery to it. There was so much you could do that the game either didn’t tell you about or only hinted at, such as hiring the Harvest Sprites, getting the blessed tools, learning every recipe, or even getting extra houses to own. I used to keep a chart of the characters’ birthdays, and since I had A Wonderful Life and a GC to GBA cable, sometimes I’d just sit around and listen to the GBA renditions of past Harvest Moon songs on my in game record player. Getting to the bottom of the mine felt like a huge accomplishment, as well as befriending the villagers enough where they’d start letting you into their houses at the crack of dawn. Ann was always my favorite of the bachelorettes, and Cliff my favorite of the bachelors. I would always do the trick of saving the night before and checking the weather in the morning, then reloading if it predicted a storm just so my chickens wouldn’t get sick. The game really had so much to offer for a GBA title.
in friends of mineral town you can both switch between items and tool by holding L and pressing a or b.
I will always love a wonderful life, it gave me one of my treasured memories
Warning, wall o text ahead
Me and my friend had game cubes, so I played my copy round his to show him how it played since he was curious,.
Next day, he bought his own copy, I ought my own cube and TV round, and we played next to each other
Then a couple days later, another friend saw us play it, and became enamoured, so bought his own copy, brought his cube round with a smaller TV, and we all played on a table in his kitchen, all making differing farms, from investing in seeds early, to me concentrating on trees and animals more.
One spent his time in the archeology tent a lot more
This game has a magical charm and simplicity to it, where hours can fly by and you still want to plau
I bought wonderful life at GameStop but the disk was magical melody. I played that one a bit and then got the issue resolved. I liked wonderful life but eventually wanted to try magical melody again. It turned out to be my favorite farming game to this day.
Harvest Moon DS was an alright title. Took place in the same location as A Wonderful Life with the same bachelorettes, plus more added in like Flora, a mermaid, and a princess at the bottom of the mine, but used effectively the same graphics as Friends of Mineral Town. The story, such as it is, is pretty dumb though. The Harvest Goddess and a character called the Witch Princess are fighting and the Witch Princess turns the Harvest Goddess to stone and then sends her away to some other dimension, also then sending the harvest sprites after her. The player builds up their farm and doing certain tasks will recover different sprites. Gives an interesting enough goal, plus you can get items which show your energy or relationship with people you talk to, plus a charm to instantly warp around the map as long as you're outside
SoS FoMT remake is overall pretty good in my opinion. The chibi models aren't too bad and on the whole the character redesigns are alright (though having Doctor still be called Doctor instead of having an actual name is pretty stupid). It retains a lot from the original while making quality of life improvements, such as being able to see a stamina meter on the UI now instead of having to guess what your energy is. A fun time sink
SoS Pioneers of Olive Town however is mixed for me. I like the mechanic that weapons upon upgrade start to hit areas, so you can swing your axe and chop a slew of trees at once. Definitely needed seeing as how the game relies a little too much on makers to produce ingots and lumber and such for anything and everything you do. Also the villagers are totally lifeless in the dialogue. The designs are pretty good but the lack of character sprites for dialogue and what they actually say makes them so bland
I liked the DS game enough. I especially liked gambling on the high-low game to make a ton of money
My mom got a wonderful life and I fell in LOVE... and then finding out older they sold it off and the series died I was so sad 😭
Omg, shoutout to Goemon. I have my physical copy still.
Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns is my personal all time favorite farm sim so far. The newer Pioneers of Olive Town isn't as good tho. Looking forward to Coral Island now~
Found your channel from Rurikhan and Gaijin's MH podcast. I'm liking your content so far!
Harvest Moon was definitely one of those random games I picked up and fell in love with. A Wonderful Life was my first, followed by Friends of Mineral Town and Magical Melody. I think I fell off after that but the series holds a special place in my heart and seeing 2 of the 3 games I played on this list gives me such a warm feeling.
I also found Harvest Moon by renting A Wonderful Life and loved the cozy, laid-back feeling of the game. A year later, when I finally got the game as a gift, l would play until I got tired, then paused and fell asleep to the farm theme playing on the TV in my room.
Something I really liked in Another Wonderful Life (can’t remember if it was in the original game) was being able to sell your products to villagers. They would walk by your stand and you could sort of bargain with them. I also felt ELATED for my character when they were married. I think this was the first game I’d seen with a dating sim mechanic, so even something as simple as the give-gift- once-a-day routine was a lot of fun. For those reasons you mentioned and many others, I have to agree, AWL/AnWL are wonderful games.
Great explanation of what made the game so good. I played it while lying on my bed every day for a good while before it was time to watch anime at 9pm
If they cod remake A Wonderful Life with just some QOL features, upgraded graphics, more marriage candidates and child options. Its all I want!
Also I know death is sad but why so all the seniors outlive you? Doesn't make much sense.
I have a similar experience with "A wonderful life", when I first played it, I really projected myself on to my character when I was young. Starting a family, having a child, caring for the farm, and my animals, living "my" life as I progressed though each day. HOnestly, when I was finished playing, I felt an emptiness, a weird pit in my stomach, like a yearning to return to a place I was so familiar with. I can't remember another game that left me with exactly the same feeling, and hearing you described a similar experience let me know that I wasnt alone! It truly was a great game, and im glad to know it made as much of an impact on other kids back then, and not just me.
Edit: For grammer.
It was seriously such an immersive experience
God I remember playing Harvest Moon for hours on end on the PS2 when I was younger, I loved that game with all my tiny little heart
remembering our childhood game surely trying to make me cry.. I think I'm gonna cry again
The new Story of season : pioneers of olive town just came out and it is so good bruh.
Hell yeah, I rented Wonderful Life too and eventually bought the same rental copy years later when it went up for sale. Played the hell outta this game.
used to be my favorite game. finally get to play it again
Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town is really good and they are releasing Story of Seasons A Wonderful Life next year.
THEY'RE MAKING A WONDERFUL LIFE REMAKE!!!
To this day, decades later, I still have not forgiven whoever rented Harvest Moon 64 after me and ruined my save.
They named my daughter Paul.
PAUL!
I'm so glad someone else got started with A Wonderful Life. That game is my childhood.
A wonderful life is easily one of the best GameCube games ever released
I remember playing Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life Special Edition in my childhood and unfortunately my friends didn't know this game at that time, every morning i used to play the game in my ps2 and waste hours and hours. Now, looking at it i see how much lagged the game is in ps2 version, but as a kid it was perfect, i still have the disc with me.
Since then, i searched for a game like that and never found it, until Stardew Valley was released, in 2016, i played a lot and it's a great game, but I felt that there was a lack of immersion in the personality of the characters and also in the story of the player himself, as happens in HM:AWL. I believe that no game will give me the same feelings that HM:AWL gave me, thank you for the video tho.
the DS games were my first harvest moon games and really stuck with me. from the original to Cute to grand bazaar and tale of two towns, all of those remind me of a time when i just got totally sucked into those worlds. it's a shame i haven't been able to feel the same when i look at the recent titles, what with them either being downright Bad or not up my valley in terms of their visual style. and the newest one even missing character portraits?? what the heck? it makes me sad but at least i'll always have those older games v_v
Harvest moon a wonderful is such a magical game as a kid
9:18 "unfortunately you still cant actively switch out items that yourholding without pausing which leads to a lot of downtown in inventory management."
.... HE DIDNT USE THE R BUTTONS. YOU SWAP ITEMS WITH A COMBO PESS of ButtonS!
As you said you don~t know much about Story of Seasons, know that it's basically the same game as Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, but with better graphics and some tweaks in gameplay
I remember that the last one i play was Animal Parade in the Wii, i was good, but also the wii had a remake of the first Rune Factory, and i don't know but Story of Seasons is missing something that made the old games special.
I ended up grabbing the FoMT remake and it's good! You should try it
Back to Nature was my first game, and I fell in love with the genre. I tend to get REALLY into the games for a little while, and suddenly get bored and stop playing. I always wanted to get to the end of A Wonderful Life, but I could never make it past the second chapter (made worse by the animations being SO SLOW after I got used to Stardew). I've been curious about Rune Factory for a while, but I never had a console for it - but I finally have a Switch, so I'll have to make that happen.
The Friends of Mineral Town remake is pretty much Friends of Mineral Town with some QoL improvements and new art, as far as I can tell. They introduced new breeding mechanics for your animals (basically the animals you buy at first top out at 5 hearts and you have to breed them to increase the heart max).
Great video! I loved the SNES harvest moon as a kid. After trying RF4 and stardew I didn't think I'd ever need to go back to harvest moon but you definitely sold me on AWL, it sounds really neat
Back to nature was my first harvest moon. I remember reading the description about your character spending a memorable summer with your grandpa and I can relate because I also got to experience a different lifestyle I was raising chickens and doing farm work on my grandparents ranch.
11:05 🐷
I never had access to any of these games, but I used to feel the same about Harvest Moon: Magical Melody and Animal Parade
Harvest moon AWL was my first harvest moon as well and its was the only harvest moon that really sucked me in. I never really tried the older series but I did try some of the new one on DS and idk didn't have the same magic.
But so excited fro the remake!!! Almost freak out when I saw it this morning. It was definitely a game that needed a update, it had great atmosphere but the game play itself need lot of qol which I hope we get!
My first harvest moon game that i played was more friends of mineral town, and that what made me got addicted to the series- and i have been playing various titles like tales of the two town and grand bazaar- they werr my favourite after mfomt- and then one day when my sister gave me her ds cartridge(?) I found rune factory 1 and decided to play it- safe to say now i'm also addicted to it and have play rune factory 1-4, it's sad tho i lost my game's progress because one day my cartridge just stopped working, everytime i clicked a game the ds would just freeze :'D
Honestly I wish we could get Rune Factory on PC. With mod support the game could offer so much content beyond what the developers have already delivered. It would be just perfect.
Story of Seasons : A Wonderful Life is coming!!
I loved playing AWL… hearing my horse’s hooves clopping on the brick path, and me angling the camera around like I was in a movie! It was so good. The first one I played was Back to Nature, and I got introduced to the series from watching my older brother play the N64 version.
I'm so happy I'm not alone in this. I haven't bought a harvest moon game in so long and not very many story of season games. They just arnt as good. The most recent, Pioneers of Olive Town, literally made the villagers feel optional and just there to feel the empty void. Rune Factory is an awesome series and 5 is a step back, but still good.
rune factory 4 is still my favorite game of all time, if it had more detail over all like the animations and more micro events similar to dates, i probably wouldve played it for a 4th time :) same with AWL, its one of my favorite games, but i get virtually all events and cutscenes and items the first 2 chapters which always kills my motivation
Harvest Moon Boy and Girl on the PSP was MY Harvest Moon...
I found "A wonderful life" at Blockbuster XD
Samme
maybe unpopular opinion but i am agree with this, wonderfull life is the first farming simulator that get me hooked, beautiful story and character building, after that i played previous franchise but the new one has might sharper graphic but overall boring. Stardew valley is great. my favorite in order is Wonderfull life, innocent life, stardew valley
Harvest moon a wonderful life will always have a huge amount of nostalgia for me because it was my introduction to the series, and I'm super exited for the remake to come out next week.
For me, however, the best game in the series is harvest moon: a new beginning on the 3ds. That game is absolutely perfect in my opinion, with the exception of the extremely slow first season, and it makes me really sad that nobody ever mentions the game in their harvest moon videos lol.
GC harvest moon was a transcendental experience.
Honestly Story of Season's is my favorite now after learning what happened to Harvest Moon. Especially after being an old Harvest Moon buff when I was younger. The creators of the original Harvest Moon moved into making the Story of Season's collection instead of the US version which is now Harvest Moon by a different company. 100% try out the Story Of Season's games, they did a few reboots of the old Harvest Moon games (Olive Town) and it's a lot of fun to see the characters in the new age version of the game itself