Completely new to the series so what's the best place to start...

Completely new to the series so what's the best place to start? I recently played Stardew Valley and I fell in love with the genre. I want to play on the go for morning commutes. I've done some research and from what I've gathered, Story of Seasons is made by the original team, and the current games are by someone else. It's a clusterfuck. My options are that game, a new beginning, tale of two towns, and the lost valley. I want to stay current, unless some of the older games have aged well and are worth the download. General Harvest Moon thread too I suppose

Magical Melody or really any of the gamecube ones are the "purest" imo. They're all gonna be pretty similar so there's not much of a difference beyond really minor things and graphics. It really doesn't matter much.

>I want to stay current, unless some of the older games have aged well and are worth the download
Harvest Moon 64 and Back To Nature/Friends of Mineral Town were some of the first games and are still agreed to be the best ones.

I'd recommend Magical Melody as being the direct progression in gameplay and style compared to those two.

The Rune Factory Series are also better Harvest Moon games than the Harvest Moon games that were being released along with it and are still better since then.

Rune factory 4 or frontier

Of the handheld games the best one is Friends of Mineral Town. Harvest Moon is a weird series where every game adds some new things but removes just as many other things so it's not like they've actually improved over the years.
I haven't played Story of Seasons yet but I've heard that it's kind of tedious and takes a long time before it gets good.
Don't know how good your phone is but one of the best games is Harvest Moon 64, it's super comfy, all the festivals are great, and it has far and away the most mysterious/random events. Compared to it the other games are super routine, nothing ever changes one way or another.

Tree of Tranquility or Animal Parade if you have a Wii.

Any good ones on the Wii U or its virtual console? I think they have friends of mineral town, is that the best one to get?

did you read the op?

Seconding this

Just emulate friends of mineral town or more friends of mineral town.

Never play Lost Valley.

Is there a more mismanaged franchise out there than Harvest Moon? It's one of the only ones out there that doesn't get any better in later games. It's ridiculous.

(more) friends of mineral town is the best harvest moon ever got.

If you go for more friends you get some bugfixes but have to be the little girl. Plus or minus depending on the player I guess.

The bachelors in the game all kind of rot since the characters were designed before they were ever intended to be datable. Also yes you can still farm decently even while extremely gravid.

>not marrying wong or the kappa

he love you long time

Just to clear things up:

All the Harvest Moon games on the SNES, N64, PS1, PS2, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and PSP (in other words, most of them) were all done by the original Japanese company. Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning (3DS) is the only 3DS game done by the original company. After than they switched to the Story of Seasons name. So far, they've released Story of Seasons and will soon release Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns.

Natsume made their games under the Harvest Moon game: Lost Valley (3DS) and the upcoming Seeds of Memories, which I think will be a mobile game.

Harvest Moon 64 (n64), Back To Nature (PS1), and Friends of Mineral Town (GBA) are generally worth looking at. They are all basically the same game, so whichever is easiest to emulate. I've not played the newer portable games but I've heard that A New Beginning (3DS) was pretty good, and The Tale of Two Towns (DS) was interesting with choosing which town to live in, if it had its problems.

You can also just pick up Story of Seasons (3DS) and not worry about the Harvest Moon titles.

You'd probably also want to check out the Rune Factory games, if swinging a sword in a cavern sounds like it could be fun as well. Rune Factory 4 (3DS) and Rune Factory 3 (DS) would be my top choices. Unlike Harvest Moon, those have all been produced by the same team and the handheld games are simply just numbered.

YOUR OPTIONS:

*Doctor: A stoic workaholic who doesn't even have a name

*Rick: Ultimate beta, master of cuck.

*Cliff: At last I can marry coldsteel the hedgehog

*Gray: Another sulking loner, except vaguely less so

*Kai: Have fun dating a guy who only exists for one season.

*Won: MAO, DIDDY MAO

*Kappa: As hard to marry as the harvest goddess but much worse looking. F I S H D I C K.

*Gourmet: This is some kind of sick joke.

>I've done some research and from what I've gathered, Story of Seasons is made by the original team, and the current games are by someone else. It's a clusterfuck.
You are correct.
Harvest Moon up to The Lost Valley were made by Marvelous. The Lost Valley and beyond are made by Natsume, while Marvelous had to come up with a new name to localize Bokujou Monogatari to, and Story of Seasons is what was chosen.

When people think of harvest moon they usually think of friends of mineral town. Its definetly the best one in the series

Cliff is actually a super shy beta

Dont you have to play for 70 in games years or something ridiculous like that to marry gourmet?

I should note that, of course, it is a bit more complex than that. People join companies, people leave companies, Marvelous itself has been purchased over the years. But the group who made the original Harvest Moon is still roughly the same group who made Story of Seasons, and so they're both pretty much "the same people".

Natsume hired some completely different batch of people to create Lost Valley and their upcoming title.

I'm glad we're on a civilised imageboard where everyone agrees she's the best.

I would date her, but her overworld sprite in FoMT is atrocious.

Get mineral town on your phone with a gba emulator. If you want a console experience the game cube game was great

Just start with the newest one Story of Seasons. It's my new favourite, second place being Back to Nature on PS1.

You have awful taste in women

are there any good 3DS emulators yet?

He pretty much only exists to catch players who somehow managed to trigger every single rival girls marriage.

This is the only valid answer.

>not taking them all

Nope. There's only Citrus as far as I know. It's not very far along just yet.

any mobile version of these genre?
>inb4 farm ville

I want to like these games, but it's so fucking grindy. I usually play til mid summer and give up.

I'd take them all except Karen, I don't want a bitch who stinks like alcohol in my bed.

Serious question, how the fuck they expect player to know the location of super power berry from kappa ?

Give Rune Factory a try.
Or perhaps Azure Dreams, if you liked the dating aspect but wanted something more interesting than farming in the off-hours.

Or don't. Honestly, if this isn't your thing, that's fine.

the upcoming Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories will have a mobile version

Given that Natsume's last Harvest Moon title was Minecraft, there's nothing indicating that Seeds of Memories would be even better than Farmville.

To be fair if it weren't for Ann I would probably pick her so I can't be too mad at you for shitting on my tastes, yours are alright.

Mary is cute. Librarian girls in games are always really great. Nekoko was the best in YMK too.

Stardew Valley is the game for you. You can automate as much or as little as you want and there's even the option between a cute completionist run where you go after rare fish/crops to unlock shortcuts or a corporate run where you can unlock all the town improvements by paying money. And money is super easy to earn.

A wonderful life has you live out (yes, actually live out) a farmer's life including raising a child. Really cool conception, and pretty well executed. Another wonderful life is the enhanced version.

Goddamn I really loved A Wonderful Life...

But I played Special Edition on the PS2, which had an atrocious framerate.

And figuring out how to earn money quickly was a chore

And there were too many days where nothing happened.

According to previews, the game is making out to be a lot like the original SNES Harvest Moon.

I don't trust a thing natsume makes anymore.

user, did you look at it? It literally looks like a Facebook game.

So I've been meaning to give this game a try, but the ugly 3D models really push me off. I already played FoMT, so will I gain anything from playing this?

Hey, the man wanted a mobile harvestmoon-like
I gave him one.

Better characterization.

Elli is best
Ann is second best

Rude! She's a good girl. But why were her father and Rick such dorks?

Goddamn Frontier is So comfy.
And literally every girl is top notch. I feel bad for DS only people who never played it.

Harvest Moon 64 was the best one ever made. So many events....

She's a fucking lush, dude.

Okay, I just played HM64 and am I convinced all the 64 fans are nostalgia blind and full of shit. That thing is almost unplayable.

Just play rune factory