Can Harvest Moon Compete With Stardew Valley?

Harvest Moon once dominated the farming sim genre, but nowadays? That’s not really the case, with the surprise indie hit Stardew Valley claiming the farming sim crown in 2016. So, is there even a place for Harvest Moon or Story of Seasons in a post Stardew Valley world? Well, let’s take a look at Harvest Moon: One World AND Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, each for the Nintendo Switch to find out!
Subscribe
/ @jakstalgia
Branding/logo by:
/ whaddupnico
Avatar art by:
/ cuteytcat
Twitter:
/ jakstalgia
Twitch:
/ jakstalgia
#StardewValley #HarvestMoon #StoryofSeasons

[@Danominator]

The fact you made an actual board, red thread and all for the history of the series. You sir, put dedication into your jokes.

[@User-yl3qx]

8:04 Egg Festival is not borrowed from stardew, it's from Harvest Moon SNES

[@NostalJackMusic]

Shoutout to that bulletin board bit at the beginning! That was hilarious, super well done, and gave off crazy production value vibes for such a small channel. Also, the whiskey bit with the broken glass had me laughing pretty hard as well. Hopefully you know that the work you put into those gags pays off in spades! This is one of my favorite videos you’ve even done! 👏🏼

[@ForrestFox626]

Still weird seeing your real hands on screen. Sidenote: Where is Rune Factory in this discussion? I think that series can stand strong in a world with Stardew Valley.

[@fouronetwo813]

8:04 The Original Harvest Moon had the Egg festival.

[@akiradkcn]

Its the other way around fam. SV only exists because the dev was inspired by SoS/HM

[@elchuz5437]

At least Marvelous has Rune Factory, which is A-RPG/J-RPG + Story of Seasons. And all the spin offs too.

[@adonborg3409]

Rune Factory deserves some love....

[@Jakstalgia]

I still have never played a Rune Factory game. :( But, seeing all this love for the series in the comments is definitely making me want to try it.

[@dongiepanda]

i prefer the old ones harvest moon games over stardew.. stardew just feels really bland to me for some reason, the only way i like to play it is with friends but my friends will only play for like three ingame days and then never touch it again.. also with nostalgia and their charm i find them much more entertaining :)

[@dsheep9937]

Havert Moon Friends of Mineral Town....its so nostalgic.

[@dongiepanda]

@@dsheep9937 friends of mineral town, gbc2 and 64 are my favourite ones

[@errornonamefound206]

Yeah, the real question should be: can Stardew Valley compete with harvest moon

[@TheVioletBunny]

I like the old school Harvest moon I still play the gbc games on my 3ds now. And of course on the switch the fomt remake and poot. I can’t stand stardew valley it has a weird depressing vibe and I hate the pixel art it has no charm.

[@katykat308]

Bland? We have to laugh

[@ofcatsandcrepes2080]

I feel like it's the trope in which two characters in a show running against each other in an election but not noticing the third candidate is beating them.

[@jmtradbr]

8:04 I only played the first Harvest Moon (snes) when i was a kid but i'm very sure there was a egg festival there.

[@foofal]

I looooove when people criticize Story of Seasons for “Copying” the games that copied the Original Harvest Moon first! Hahahahaha

[@laurenanderson4906]

Seriously. I've played harvest moon games for over 20 years. Stardew Valley is a knockoff if anything 🥴. I had my first egg festival when I was 10 dudes

[@miles4939]

@@laurenanderson4906 stardew definitely copies a lot from harvest moon, and it's openly inspired by it, but it's not by any means a knockoff - it's very competently made, clearly a product of love rather than greed *cough natsume*, and it changes up the gameplay enough that it plays completely differently to hm. its popularity is overwhelming but earned

[@tecinplace1316]

Easy solution play Rune Factory

[@sebastianvelcro]

I think RF is Marvelous as well.

[@nathanspindel9353]

Strayfae has an insanely good let's play for rune factory id highly recommend ❤

[@angelganon8213]

Harvest moon 64 was the first one to have the egg hunt festival so sos didn't copy stardew

[@goblin1873]

great video with lots of fun editing and jokes!

[@OneControllerPort]

Nice video! For some reason I've never had much interest in Star Dew Valley, but I wasn't aware of the weird mechanics of the Harvest Moon game. I probably won't play them still, but I have more respect for them, at least lol.

[@Vir-Waterfall]

There's a lot of people (including a close friend of mine,) who just struggle to play Stardew Valley. Just due to it being shoved down their throats when it came out. I honestly think that the Story of Seasons games are worth it as a whole. It's just that POOT is the worst out of the bunch. They experimented with it, and turned some fans away from it. But the 3DS games are really fun, and FOM is supposedly superior to the original. I think POOT is worth it if you can get it on sale. And the others are worth full price. The 3DS games have a feature that lets you speed up dialogue, and make the tutorials way faster. While I do really like Stardew, Story of Seasons is something I have had a lot of fun with.

[@Mito383]

I can’t put my finger on why, but Stardew Valley just never hooked me. I wanted to like it, but I just couldn’t. I still love old Harvest Moon games and enjoy Story of Seasons and Rune Factory. So I like the genre, but something about Stardew just rubs me the wrong way.

[@TheVioletBunny]

Same. I’m a hardcore sos/hm fan I can’t get into stardew I tied 100 Hours and just put it down and never picked it up. I play at least 10-20 hours of poot/ fomt on my switch per week now at the bare minimum.

[@Odd1006]

Stardew valley might be my favorite game in the genre honestly. Just feels so complete.

[@AssortedMeeples]

"Also known as 'Aw f*** I bought the wrong one." New subscriber. Well done, sir. And honestly, I think the best thing that could happen to the Harvest Moon series is that the title gets bought up by a company that actually cares before there will ever be a good one again....but as long as Natsume is making money, won't happen, unfortunately.

[@BiggestChungus21]

Counter point, the bachelors and bachelorettes sipping the deaddification and wifeyfication juice. Mary’s metamorphosis into her final Marie form is something to be studied

[@rodrigo3732]

1:48 dude,that,s dangerous. I know from experience....

[@braveheart3621]

Meanwhile Rune Factory is like bruh

[@ZedZerdz_]

Maybe it's just that it's been a while, but the visual gags were super well-paced, had me audibly laughing. Always a treat to see you upload a new video! Though I do feel you could've mentioned the endgame content of these titles, since that's where I feel like farming sim games truly shine. The pacing of the gameplay & endgame content is the entire reason why I struggle to bring myself to go back to previous Harvest Moon games - even after approaching the end of my 2nd year, I'm still discovering new things & trying out different toys that Stardew Valley hands me. Maybe I've just had an unlucky streak with the Harvest Moon games I've played, but Stardew Valley completely outclasses Harvest Moon because of how it has kept me engaged all the way to the endgame goodies, which is something that I can't exactly say for Harvest Moon.

[@serenib33]

Just a simply curiosity: what harvest moon games did you play?

[@ZedZerdz_]

@@serenib33 Tree of Tranquility, Animal Parade (my personal favorite), the very original one, & HM64. Animal Parade IMO does EVERYTHING right... except for the fact that it's an absolute slog to play. Everything is so slow, between how long the days are, to the load times, to how spread out everything on Harmonica Town is, to even the menus of all things.

[@serenib33]

@@ZedZerdz_ I see. I personally feel like almost every harvest moon/story of seasons game caters to a specific type of person. A New Beginning is for those who like designing their towns, while a new beginning is for the people who love family life. But now they all kinda feel the same so I see what you mean. I haven’t tried Stardew Valley but I might get into it :)

[@ZedZerdz_]

@@serenib33 You can design your town in A New Beginning??? I might give that a try at some point, that sounds super awesome! Likewise, I hope you enjoy Stardew Valley whenever you get around to starting it!!

[@serenib33]

@@ZedZerdz_ yep! And your farm! Though it is pretty tedious lol. I will share when I get around to playing stardew!

[@arkane9b]

The real challenger is Rune Factory. HM and SoS are like old athletes that let themselves go but still think they're in top shape and competing on the same level as the others.

[@quackywhackityphillyb.3005]

when a spin off becomes better than the main game

[@raquelfazolo9860]

You should play sos PoOT again after the patches, much more different dialogue, an many improvements to the makers and other stuffs. It's also coming to steam now.

[@Jakstalgia]

Oh, nice! Sounds like they fixed a lot of my issues with the game if that's the case. Definitely going to give it another shot. :)

[@LuigiFunTime7665]

@@Jakstalgia well u better go back playing it because this game is a really fun game & I played a lot now & if u think this game is bad that broke my heart u said that so as forgiveness u will play story of Seasons Pioneers of Olive town what ever u like it or not just enjoy the game already & be grateful person now ok good

[@TheVioletBunny]

Ageeed way better than stardew valley that game is such an over rated rip off

[@tinkerframe592]

Heya haven’t watched it yet but this brings up a really good point!! Edit ok so after having watched the video you should really check out the new indie game Littlewood! It manages to be a farming sim that does something new different from all three of these games!! It’s really something unique

[@nun4464]

I have subscribed, never stop never stopping. Edit: watched further into the video, holy crap this channel is great

[@SulthanMuhammad]

SOS hero of leaf valley and grand bazaar remake will tip the balance.

[@WobblePizza]

I have a weird take here but why is the camera so close ever since harvest moon 64? I love that stardew has a proper zoomed out perspective just like Harvest Moon SNES. I think SV is the REAL sequel to the og hm, and they are the only two of these kinds of games I like.

[@acleamofhope]

Thanks for that video - i was trying to decide whether i should buy stardew valley for my new switch (i played it at the PC a lot) or harvest moon/ story of seasons. Sounded like a pretty clear thing to me which one gives you the most for ones money :'D

[@unknownunknownunknownunkno-u8t]

Which one?

[@NigelsPad]

Stardew Valley absolutely dominates gameplay and content-wise, but admittedly I'm not crazy about any of the characters and not a fan of combat in farm sims. I know its optional, but don't like the idea that monsters, sword etc are there in the same world I'm making friends and socializing. I'm a sucker for feeling like I'm really there interacting with the characters and the fantasy combat sort of breaks that immersion for me. It's a personal thing though, I understand not everyone (in fact probably the minority) feels this way. Still an amazing game, while it's probably objectively better than SoS: FoMT, I just find the latter is easier for me to pick up and play and not be overwhelmed with all the content. Was gonna try Pioneers of Olive Town but like you said, looks sort of super average.

[@MushroomEater64]

This is reasons why I usually choose Stardew Valley over Harvest Moon because it's more bigger and better with many possibilities.

[@PinkGoesWellWithGreen24]

I played Stardew but didn't give me the same feelings that the older Harvest Moon games give to me for some reason, I just couldn't relate very much to the characters or the world like I normally do, plus to me the graphics put me off, I just am not a fan off the old snes style graphics for this type of game. Properly because I played the older games so much but just didn't feel the same to me.

[@Odd1006]

Personally for me Im enjoying Stardew valley a lot more then most harvest moon games I played. Don't get me wrong I love harvest moon but Stardew valley just feels more complete, especially compared to the newer harvest moon and story of seasons games.

[@RRP6632]

If you grew up with harvest moon on SNES, Stardew valley is the perfect choice to make you feel at home

[@maracoda3886]

this video is so underrated the sketches are hilarious and the whole video is just wholesome

[@ScarLetROM]

I just found out about your channel and damn ... you deserve a lot more subscribers :)

[@awesomeocelot7475]

I hate this one Indie game just dropped a few years ago and like completely destroyed the super long running harvest moon/story of seasons series…

[@ckaryuusai1722]

i knew one day marvelous will take a peek at natsume's empty shell of a harvest moon games and decided "if they can sell that piece of garbage? sure we can"

[@strain42]

You know how some people will say stuff like "Zelda II is the WORST Zelda game, but that doesn't mean it's a BAD game." Well...that's kinda how I feel about One World. Like...It's the BEST Harvest Moon, but... Like I can't like. Bad as it is, I've gone back to it quite a bit, and have found myself having fun with it. Cute girls to date, an emphasis on plot (ridiculous as it was) and I loved the animal variety. I had a blast riding my reindeer around and trying to woo the cute hawaiian shirt wearing coffee girl.

[@sadsimsgirlsethe]

the life sim genre is BEGGING for a stardew valley, being a sims player is rough lately

[@TheStarBot]

I'm surprised you didn't mentioned that the creatives and devs behind Harvest Moon went on to create Story of Seasons because of copyright crazyness

[@dragon_girl12]

He did an entire video on it

[@gachagabe5586]

I'm so glad I still have havest moon 64

[@Goldfire345]

It feels like rune factory has superceded story of seasons in terms of marvelous farming sim games

[@IllusionistsBane]

I tried SoS:AWT. It's a remake of the old A Wonderful Life game and my first impression was " What. Are. These. Controls."

[@zozocecp]

I disliked the art tbh. Way too focused on making things pretty, it lost the original charm of having random ugly-ish/weird characters

[@theEisbergmann]

Marvel sadly ignored all wishes people had in 30 years... like not having to plant your seeds in 3x3 patches -_-

[@StarkiiL]

scott wozniak's evil twin

[@stargazer016]

they did compete with stardew by making rune factory by the way

[@DouglasSantos-bf4nm]

Amazing video. Worth the like+favorite+subscribe.

[@KrishMortyJunior]

My paper Mario colour splash theory was wrong but I still love the new video!!!!

[@steverempel8584]

I thought Stardew Valley was alone in the Genre, and had all others completely wiped out, then I played Rune Factory 4, and changed my mind. At the very least, Rune Factory 4 is worth playing alongside Stardew Valley. Although I've never played them other potential competitors for Stardew Valley may include; Rune Factory 5, Dragon Quest Builders 2, Animal Crossing Franchise, Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns. Those last 2 are possibly the best / most feature rich games of the Story of Seasons Franchise, and are both for the 3DS. The list is based on reviews I've seen on these games, as well as all the other Story of Season / Harvest Moon games. I'd love to see Trio of Towns ported to the Switch, but I doubt that will happen... Edit: I heard somewhere that the reason why Pioneers of Olive Town sucked is because all the development effort was being put into Rune Factory 5. And Friends of Mineral Town is a remake of an older, simple Harvest Moon. It is supposed to be basic, simple Harvest Moon game, but I agree it's a bit expensive for that.

[@n3m036]

The only harvest moon game I have played is "A wonderful life" for the GameCube but whenever I play or watch my brother play Stardew I just feel like it is such a ripoff. There are too many similarities between the games. I litterary found this video by typing "harvest moon ripoff" in the search bar. No hate to any game of course but I am trying to understand why I should buy Stardew when I can just play harvest moon which I already own instead.

[@afollowerofwilleh3379]

The thing that puts me off about harvest moon is it's art style I like stardew valleys art style more

[@alirezai68b17]

I love harvest moon back to nature but very soon This game becomes repetitive and unbearable, and the game loses its ability to progress all version but Stardew valley very different

[@averyhaferman3474]

I missed harvest moon. Stardew was fun. But i want more now. If concerned ape can make his own why cant i?

[@DaEsch]

I just wish Stardew would get a new makeover. I‘d love to see new people and new places.

[@Shaka_Zulu]

There’s a mod for that which adds a bunch of new NPCs.

[@joshelderkin9592]

Stardew realt just said KISS and the others didnt listen

[@KurffyOfficial]

1. what did I just watch 2. this was an entertaining video :0

[@Wineoclockbookworm]

Stardew Valley is a great game. About a year after Stardew released on pc SoS Trio of Towns released in North America and it's a great game, too. I think it's even as good as Stardew Valley.

[@kaylewolf]

sounds stupid.... i actually really loved dragon quest builders 2 for most of the farming and crafting, fighting, story and etc. I was just wondering which game to get next. good funny jokes, nice editing and fantastic dedication to teach us the basics and plot of each game.

[@Noumakara]

Great video! and i see u put a lot of effort into it. Sub!

[@ndld4955]

The only vegetable is the potato.. What is this Ireland before the famine..😑 Look I'm Irish and i Do like my spuds .. but come on ... we tryed that already .. and .. well it didn't go so well🙄

[@migl1802]

No. The answer is no. Both companies have not done anything remotely interesting with the ip. On the brighter side, indie games like Coral Island have spawn due to Stadew's success, which looks like a promising game.

[@caquita402]

coral island is barely a farming game and stardew valley devolved farming games to the 2000, look at the playstation harvest moon and tell me stardew valley is supposed to be a continuation of that or the gba harvest moon

[@caquita402]

i liked stardew enough but the genre got completely ruined, i hate that we expect crafting machines for a single item for 1000 of items to be a staple of the genre now, and the bar for graphics got lowered enough that nothing good will come up for probably a decade

[@migl1802]

@@caquita402 Have no clue what your arguing man. I was referring to the new harvest moon games not the classics which I adore. When I say harvest moon will never compete with SV, I meant the recent releases. The series has gone down the drain. They look like mobile games ffs. Kinda agree that the genre could use more innovations graphically, but stardew valley was fully made by one guy, which is insane. So I'd cut him some slack. Other farm sims devs can be lazy when it comes to visuals tho. Even then the new harvest moon games look like soulless, corporate rehash of the same game. So relative to that, Stardew and Coral look fucking incredible. Also what crafting machines r u referring to?

[@caquita402]

@@migl1802 Of course stardew is impresive for a one guy thing, but if other devs see they can be successfull with shitty (tho stylish) graphics, then they will try. It's not the fault of the stardew guy but i don't understand why its used as the gold standard other than being newer than the previously great harvest moon games. Coral looks pretty souless to me, and the newest story of seasons is just weird, it has a lot of really impresive stuff that barely translates on video, but the character design i agree is mobile tier. Stardew added the whole thing of having a specific machine just to turn wood into coal, or raw ore into ingots. Story of seasons copied that poorly on the newest one and is easily the worst thing about that game. If i can have sprinklers for when im too rich to bother tending to my plants why can't i have a conveyer system to activate all the different crafting machines and not have to manually go and move coal around? It's just tedious

[@migl1802]

@@caquita402 I'd take SV over any half-assed new releases they make honestly. SV offers so much that it merits being the new gold standard. Customizable house, Free building placement, Deeper relationship mechanics, Sprinklers, Planting Trees, Better ponds, Multiple significant updates, and so on. Thing is, both the new HM and Rune Factory have become extremely complacent and have released passionless games what seems like decades now. They make even the new pokemon games look competent, and I hate those games with a passion. The crafting never really bothered me as much. I think if you put automation in everything in farm sims, the game becomes way to passive. But that conveyer idea could actually be cool idk. As for Coral Island, can't say much about the game since it hasn't come out yet, but graphically it still way more interesting than pioneers of olive town. And don't get me started on a new world and the remake FoMT. That studio could stop releasing new games for all I care. Rune Factory also seems unremarkable.

[@darklightangel6446]

What about Rune Factory?

[@MichaMundy]

A bit late to comment but your point of marvellous didn't innovative is true since the release/remaster of friend of mineral town and recently they announced a wonderful full life remake/remaster. Again I'm happy that a wonderful life is getting a remake since it's my childhood game but yeah it seems like marvellous didn't come with any new idea yet sadly

[@rebekhas.7001]

Marvelous really needs to look at their previous games and at least take a page or two from them. It's kinda sad they're just trying to out do each other instead of bringing decent games out.

[@Jakstalgia]

I completely agree. I think it'd be really cool to see them try the A Wonderful Life concept again. Seeing all the character's age as you play was a really cool idea. I feel like there's still a lot of potential there.

[@Bestow3000]

Their brand new games itself are fine as it is. They're really trying to just bank on nostalgic by remaking old favorites. That seems to be working extremely well, but that can't last long. They have to innovate and really compete against Stardew Valley.

[@heavencanceler2691]

I think one thing to consider is that Stardew Valley actually ends up feeling kinda... overfilled? Too overgrown? There is just so much content, so many methods to min-max and increase and everything gives you that feeling that "gotta get 1 more thing done". There is kegs and jars and fish ponds, tools to build and upgrade and manipulate everything etc.... while you technically don't "need" to rush through things, it is easy to get dragged into this feeling of needing to get more and more done and trying to max out everything. Having only played the older Harvest Moon games they were more... relaxed I feel? There was just less to do, less to min-max and thus less reason to rush everything. More of a chance to just chill, talk with people etc... I do love SV but I am also looking forward to playing the Friends of Mineral Town remake that I ordered recently.

[@FunkadelicPeach]

Awesome video as always, Jak. Your uploads keep going up and up in quality!!! Your channel should definitely be closer to 100-200k subs. I hope they come soon.

[@theznayx808]

My god, you have too much quality in your videos to be this small. I am very confused at this channel size. I hope your viewership grows!

[@austinblackburn8095]

To be fair stardew valley copied some of the events from harvest moon.

[@burungkutilang1412]

I don't want play a game that can't save anytime anywhere like stardew valley thats why for me harvest moon light of hope is still better than stardew valley.

[@friendofpelicantown]

I like this style of content, however the Scott the Woz influence is very noticeable. Besides that good vid 👍

[@promania8956]

Will you do a video on my life at portia?

[@minnierach9420]

why does new harvest moon remind me of mysims

[@Jakstalgia]

I will never be able to unsee this now...

[@virdrae]

*more than thrice as much

[@carlos52321]

What’s the name of that last soundtrack?

[@goose7618]

It's called Tropicala from Stardew Valley

[@base3000]

Have you ever played my time in portia? Also quite similar

[@minignoux4566]

no they can't spirit of seasons can edit: oops

[@mjolninja9358]

Koo-kooMber

[@Haktoh]

Mmm nope

[@LuigiFunTime7665]

(6:45) Actually you should speak too soon because I got the game & I enjoy it no matter what & you think that Story of Seasons Pioneers of Olive Town is a bad game shame on you just deal with it & don’t be a ungrateful brat 😡

[@bayumahendra1797]

Its crazy how stardew valley evolved from harvest moon clone to dethrone the Original

[@JesusisKing1414]

Difficult to listen to due to the unnecessary swearing… or else would have been interested.

[@タカトー年1998]

Well, Harvest Moon definetly can't compare. Story of Seasons for the Switch can't compare either in my opinion. Just honestly looked like a really cheap indie game for me. BUT (!) Rune Factory definetly can compare to Stardew Valley. Yeah, not every game in the series is an absolute highlight but there are some really great gems in there. For example: I loved Rune Factory Frontier for the Wii. In terms of gameplay it was pretty basic (but still fun, except for the Runey mechanic). But I just loved the characters in RF:F. Probably the best characters in all farming games for me and that is where Stardew failed...for me. I like a few characters in Stardew a lot but there are just so many I don't like. I mean, usually I struggle in these games with the question "Who am I going to marry?" but in Stardew I just knew it basically because there is only 1 good option for me. Besides that you should check out Story of Seasons for the 3DS. Trio of Towns is one of my favorite farming games because the whole place just feels good. Every town is well designed and got it's own identity. The characters are really great as well and the farming is really fun. It's really satisfying to structure your farm. For example, I personally had all of my crops always in the main part of the farm, but all of my trees were south. All of my animals were south as well and other important stuff was to the west. I think if you would have compared Stardew to something like Rune Factory 4 or Trio of Towns this video would look at least a bit different. In my opinion it is just preference which one of those 3 you like more because all 3 are great in their own terms.

[@celtykun4128]

Natsume is soul while marvelous is body 😭

[@タカトー年1998]

What? It's more like marvelous is the soul and Natsume the soul thief.

[@MushroomEater64]

Lmao

[@appletherapy3492]

The new harvest moons feel very uninspired..

[@Edwin_Gan]

my man paid $50 for fake-ass Harvest Moon game to make this video and it only has 8.5k views? Jesus

[@alirezai68b17]

Harvest moon dead 😞🖤

[@TheVioletBunny]

No it’s not it’s story of seasons

[@RickSatan]

i thought that last vid i saw from this utuber was terible but this is the worst vid ive ever seen

[@weclock]

Those games are 100% for kids. Stardew Valley is for loser adults.