Stardew Valley Pro Tries The Game That Inspired It For the First Time

When Concerned Ape developed Stardew Valley, he pointed to Harvest Moon as his main inspiration. Despite being a top level Stardew Valley speedrunner, I've never actually played Harvest Moon! So today I gave it a shot.
TWITCH ► / seaniedew
TIK TOK ► www.tiktok.com...
INSTA ► / seaniedew
DISCORD ► / discord

[@oEllery]

Harvest Moon games, especially the older ones, are about managing your limited inventory space and the limited amount of time in a day to make incremental progress over a very long period of time. The reason you have a lot of "Why does (thing doesn't make sense)???" type questions is because this game is like over a decade old, and it's just a remake of an even older game. They had a creative formula for a type of game that had barely been done before, and were still figuring out what does and doesn't work. I love Stardew Valley, and I think it really takes the life/farming sim genre and fixes a lot of the issues with the older games in this genre while adding many new features and quality. With all that being said, you have to acknowledge that the reason Stardew Valley is so good is -because- it learned from the mistakes of the games that came before it. It's really easy to dismiss an old, clunky game as bad in hindsight. But for the context of when this game was made, it's pretty amazing. Sorry for the wall of text, but I hope this might help people understand why these games are so beloved despite all of the things that Stardew Valley does better.

[@andyz6306]

100%. when I first played this game in 2003 on GBA it was something new to me (first HM game I ever played) and it was also remade recently (under the STory Of Seasons name) and it was improved a ton. I played the GBA game a ton over the course of months, years, on and off. Never really accomplished a lot but every little thing felt BIG, especially as a kid. As someone who only really cared about Pokemon and Spyro back then, it was amazing how much this game captured me.

[@lrose5522]

Honestly I thought it was really charming, for all the clunkiness, I can definitely see why they're so beloved even tho I don't think I could play it much myself after getting spoiled by Stardew, but we still have to appreciate these games that walked so Stardew could run!

[@frogb00ts]

I tend to prefer the HM/SoS games that are limited, like FoMT. I love Stardew, but there’s a charm to HM, especially the older ones, that it doesn’t fully grasp, and so I think it’s unfair to consider Stardew as just a better and improved version. Both have pros and cons.

[@ItsYaBoiV]

I mean, this game is less clunky if you actually do the tutorial, which Seanie totally skipped. Most of these games have a pretty easy to follow tutorial, but they don't hold your hand, which is true of many older games. I usually drop Stardew Valley after a couple hours because it's incredibly easy by comparison and I lose interest faster. 🤷‍♀️

[@Insertia_Nameia]

The only difficulty harvest moon games have are time and inventory management. Once you get a routine or two going, there really isn't an issue managing time or inventory.

[@nikotina899]

as a harvest mooner first it's pretty fun to watch someone who is the opposite playing it for the first time. Stardew Valley is definitely a love letter from a big fan, so he fixed the things most fans had issue with and that's probably why you are having a hard time figuring some stuff hahah

[@tinyashgaming]

That’s why the instruction guide was SO important back in the day before digital games. It would explain the buildings in the town and that you can marry one of 3 girls - Karen, Mary, and Popuri and that if you don’t marry them they will marry Rick, Cliff and Kai. Don’t give up on this game because of its limitations, think of it as a fun challenge!

[@ItsYaBoiV]

It's five girls! Karen, Mary, Popuri, Ellie, and Ran (I don't remember what Ran's English name is, she's the girl at the inn)

[@AgentSteffi]

@@ItsYaBoiV I believe her english name is Ann :)

[@LunatheMoonDragon]

And you didn't even get the rivals right. Mary's rival is Gray, not Cliff.

[@slaypa]

@@ItsYaBoiV i think ran is ann i believe

[@jcaesar19871]

@@ItsYaBoiV Ran is Ann, and I believe they've changed it back to Ran for the Story of Seasons remake.

[@kaimactrash]

The harvest moon game I was truly addicted to Harvest Moon: It's a Wonderful Life, but it's 3D so not quite the same visuals as stardew, and fewer things to craft, but I just played it like mad, LOVED the heart scenes for the female love interests, it never reached my country, but there's also a gender switch version where the farmer is female and has male love interests, so I really wanna try that.

[@TheNellehFox]

Been replaying that this week on PS4. It's such a nostalgia trip.

[@amorfatikhb]

Back to Nature! That was my first HM game. I was the same as you with it, too. I didn’t know anything about guides and such, so I played it so much that I was able to make my own. It was a lot of fun. I ended up getting like seven HM games on an emulator years later, but I still haven’t played Wonderful Life, unfortunately.

[@haleigh9034]

YES this one and another wonderful life

[@kittyburger]

My favorite thing about Another Wonderful Life (the female version) is there's a glitch you can do when you plug a controller into the player 3 slot and spam a couple of specific buttons. One button gives a ton of money and another gives a gajillion random items. Since storage space wasn't much of a problem in that game once you upgraded your farm (like, as far as I remember, most of the storage could hold dozens of 10 x 20 pages of storage), that was such a fun way to get excited about the game when the routine started getting old. That, and there was the auto-milking. Very convenient.

[@MiuXiu]

@@kittyburger you just recovered some crazy old memories of mine omg

[@thatpeskyrat]

harvest moon with no instruction manual as a little kid was life in hard mode

[@mihiec]

Yes. An I didn't know English at that time. Or any other language that is was translated to. So I had to translate evry sentence with dictionary.

[@GreySeashell-j3m]

@@mihiec great way to learn actually! A 2 in 1 solution lol

[@hailey-senpai4350]

Harvest Moon was my jam, but I religiously only played 3 games: Magical Melody, Tree of Tranquility, and Animal Parade

[@Mccarthykatie9]

Animal parade is 🔥🔥

[@heavennunya809]

Rune factory and the New title "Story of Seasons" are still pretty good.

[@SuggestiveHappyFace]

i’m convinced animal parade was the peak of the series. it could also have been my nostalgia speaking but man it was SO GOOD

[@ShrooMIR05]

@@heavennunya809 Story of Seasons Trio of Town... i was obsessed with it. Love the game.

[@LunaBlitz]

I loved Tree of Tranquility

[@cmorellato]

as a harvest mooner first, it’s actually pretty fun watching you struggle with some basic things. it really goes to show how well Stardew Valley fixed some of the most intuitive aspects of this game. had some fun watching :)

[@Dreamer1462.]

The genre wasn’t really ever dead. If just needed to find the right people. The harvest moon spin-offs: Rune factory series is a great example. RF5 came out last week and has been a big hit ❤️

[@chaosdestructionlove]

Yeah it certainly wasn't it just wasn't mainstream like it is now with sdv.

[@samanthahings5684]

Was hoping someone would mention RF

[@libramoons]

@@samanthahings5684 what’s RF?

[@samanthahings5684]

@@libramoonsRune Factory

[@urgae9125]

I absolutely adored Rune Factory 3 and 4 when I was a child. It was so fun, and I’m so happy 5 included the ability to romance regardless of gender.

[@donaldw3231]

Seanie is definitely one of the Stardew players of all time

[@olliep0pstar]

seanie = spoat

[@TheLatestCraze0]

Seanie is one of the best but blade IS the best stardew valley player, no argument

[@toffeejc]

One of the Stardew Players of all time😂

[@SushiGod]

@@TheLatestCraze0Habbo is

[@teigs.]

@@TheLatestCraze0blade understands the game the best but haboo is easily the best at playing

[@oscarbonilla7162]

Petition for Seanie to become a Harvest Moon expert and make a series out of it

[@heavennunya809]

*cough* Story of Seasons *cough* Don't let him be fooled by the new harvest moon, the new harvest moon games are so bad TT_TT Story of Seasons is the title all the original creators went to, if you want a real Harvest moon experience in the modern day, go there.

[@madelinebitts2766]

@@heavennunya809 Yeah but they're clearly talking about FoMT, which was under he Harvest Moon name. Christ, everyone knows the Story of Seasons thing.

[@bubblegum1366]

@@madelinebitts2766 I'm in several HM/SoS groups and not even everyone in those groups knows. It's becoming increasingly common knowledge but there are plenty of people who aren't aware.

[@bubblegum1366]

@@heavennunya809 The creators didn't actually go to a new series! In Japan they're still the same Bokujo Monogatari series as always, made by the same team under the same company. The only thing that changed is the English name.

[@kaidyn12345]

So down for this

[@tombystander]

This was like listening to a child complain why a square block doesn't go into a circle hole

[@AuraOfANobody]

Oh, Seanie, heads up! I haven't watched the video yet but if you decide to check out more of this series, you should know that starting in 2014, the series' English name was changed from Harvest Moon to Story of Seasons - The developers, Marvelous, started localizing the games themselves under their American division, Xseed Games, and in the process their old publisher, Natsume, got their hands on the rights to the Harvest Moon name, so any newer games with the Harvest Moon name (starting from The Lost Valley on the 3DS) aren't actually part of the series - When in doubt, look for games whose Japanese title is 牧場物語, or Bokujō Monogatari! I've not played any of Natsume's Harvest Moon games myself, though their reception generally seems to be... mixed to negative, and I've personally heard they're not very good, so you'll probably want to stick with the series proper going forward!

[@lrose5522]

idk if Seanie will see this but I appreciate the comment myself tbh! it's good to know, harvest moon was a series that i was never able to get as a kid and i always wished i could

[@ItsYaBoiV]

Yea the new Natsume HM games are almost all terrible puzzle games now, or incredibly dumbed down attempts at a farm sim with none of the charm.

[@Jexxa.]

I was confused for a min on this comment because it's a wonderful life is easily one of the best harvest moon games but it says natsume on the cover. But once I reread it I realized you said AFTER 2014 lol. This is true though! Story of seasons is definitely the better of the two games ever since they split. Which is unfortunate, I really loved the way harvest moon looked, felt, and played before they split.

[@bubblegum1366]

@@Jexxa. The Story of Seasons games are still produced by all the same people as they always were. It wasn't like a company splitting, Natsumi was only the translator. Because they were the translators, they have the rights to some of the English names and terms, including the title. But they were never involved in actually making the older games.

[@jcaesar19871]

Yeah, from what I've read, they've split.

[@nessie3682]

As someone who grew up playing HMfomt this was really fun to watch, I think the Story of Seasons remake is a better entry point for stardew players (also your pc is like 18-24) what with living by yourself and being able to marry Popurie or her older brother.

[@MissRyukkie]

The issue with it's naming outside of Japan might be why he didn't start with the remake.

[@rachelsimpson4215]

@@MissRyukkie he just did this one because that’s what the chat on stream recommended

[@BlueDavrial]

Nah a lot of why people love FoMT is the charm, which has sadly been lost in the remake. I wouldnt recommend the remake to anyone who doesnt already have nostalgia for the original tbh, it just has so much less charm and character

[@kamen6009]

@@BlueDavrial remake is a better game in every aspect,your are Just blind for the nostalgia

[@BlueDavrial]

@@kamen6009 if you can look at that overly-cutesy charmless soulless remake and try to claim it's better "in every way", you're the one who is blind. Even if the gameplay *is* 100% better, which it isn't, it'd still be worse on style alone, and to try to claim otherwise is being a hater just as much as anyone who *is* blind by nostalgia

[@marcospdsf]

As someone who loves this game, for me it's perfect the way it is... But for him who played Stardew first, he should have started by the remake, would be a better experience for him.

[@kaitlenetorres7507]

Harvest moon was my love as a child. I played them all, story of seasons and rune factory. I was and still am obsessed.

[@katiemarie0703]

harvest moon was my favorite game as a kid and now i'm rethinking everything about life bc how did i work this game as a 5 year old

[@Levi_Parish]

And we were successful at it too. Married with kids and a full farm.

[@rat854]

Reminds me of how my brother somehow figured out how to play world of warcraft when he was around 5. He couldn't read yet and didn't understand a word of English (as it's not our native language) but he somehow managed to complete some quests

[@Kikolek]

Holy crap, the second music started to play, all the memories came back. Although I played Harvest moon back to nature, playing as a 8yo for hours and hours not even knowing English, having translations to everything written down on paper, all the pieces, how long things grow. I loved it

[@Rhixera]

As someone who loved Harvest Moon, I was absolutely cackling the first 10 minutes. Especially when you threw two packs of seeds just out on the ground Edit: I take it back. I’m laughing throughout the whole thing. “BROAH, we jUsT rested aT the SPAAHH. WHADDYa mean you’re tired-we just rested at the spaaaAH.” 18:23

[@rhiwright]

Harvest Goddess herself is best marriage candidate

[@Bannana_Yogurt]

Yes yes, this is true 😁

[@BlueDavrial]

Why did people keep saying the main character is twelve, what??? The heck are they on about? The artstyle is a little chibi, but the main character (as well as all the bachelors and bachelorettes) is 20ish. This aint frickin pokemon you arent playing as a kid, you never did in ANY Harvest Moon game. And if you people think they look young in *this* game (which keep in mind was made for a low-res small-screen handheld) you should look at the remake. Everyone looks like straight up babies in that one.

[@madelinebitts2766]

Absolutely not 12, in MFoMT your character has the exact same "hated working in the big city" storyline as stardew. 12 year olds dont have desk jobs lol

[@madihenn6810]

The fact you named the horse goober caught me so off guard because when i was younger i used to walk to this farm across the street from my house and every day would say hi to this one horse in the pasture. His name was goober and i love him.

[@Bannana_Yogurt]

Honestly, this is my favorite harvest moon. So much nostalgia is in this game, I would love to get back into playing it.

[@booknerd3159]

I loved the sprite hunt in the Harvest Moon DS games. The fact that you had a list of like 70 different challenges to go around and do was fun and then being able to hire a team of whichever type to do that task for you was great (i.e. the watering team could be hired to water your entire farm).

[@blizzard2586]

Seeing Seanie play this just made me feel old. This feels like showing your childhood treasure to your little brother/niece lmao Also it baffled me how little people did know the Harvest Moon series in comparison to the Stardew Valley, this game is my childhood, I could tell the relation right away.

[@Whydidtheychangeittohandlesnow]

It’s so painful watching him try to figure everything out and just making the same mistakes over and over. I wish he would listen to chat more.

[@ItsYaBoiV]

While the GBA Harvest Moon games clearly had the pixel style Stardew is going for, I'd say a closer inspiration would actually be Rune Factory. You've still got the farming elements and slice of life stuff, but it adds the dungeon diving and combat. Made by the same people as Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, though the newest game has gone in a more JRPG direction. I also highly recommend later entries into this series, like Magical Melody, Animal Parade, and Trio of Towns. Also iirc there was this bonkers cheating mechanic in A Wonderful Life where you unplugged your controller, put it in port 2, and then could press buttons or something to get all farm upgrades, items, etc right at the start. 😂

[@Tam00393]

I felt that HM Ds and Ds Cute were closer to what inspired SDV

[@rauchschwalbelp7693]

The pixel graphic was big in Harvest Moon for SNES. Not GBA. You could also say HM for Game Boy 1-3

[@carrotman9]

Haven't heard of Harvest Moon? Wow I'm old now... LOL glad you did this!

[@DEKZFilms]

If it makes you feel better I’m younger than seanie and grew up on a wonderful life and magical melody

[@tencat24]

So painful to see the new ores hit the ground immediately after he finds them 😭 "What's this?" * crash *

[@errornonamefound206]

Then he goes "oh well" afterwards 💀

[@evieoof7632]

The first harvest moon game I had ever played was Tale of Two Towns. I spent so much time on Cam and Kana. Especially when I started in Konohana trying to get with Cam ;-; then it just got better and better. HM A new beginning, story of seasons, then the trio of that. Now i'm constantly on stardew. Can't wait for whats next.

[@UshioKiss]

Harvest Moon directly made CA go on to make Stardew. Personally I think DS or DS Cute are the best Harvest Moon games for beginners OR Animal Parade. (DS is very similar to Mineral Town though.) It was honestly my favorite game series growing up. It has some flaws but so does Stardew. I spent most of my time playing it and obsessing over it.

[@ItsYaBoiV]

Animal Parade is great, I highly recommend that one, too! They remade Mineral Town for the switch and it's good, too! Much more beginner friendly!

[@UshioKiss]

@@ItsYaBoiV Yeah its pretty good especially for people who started with Stardew! I guess I just dislike the remake since it's kinda boring but tbf I did play through year 1 which is normal for all my farming game binges so maybe not

[@Discotheque2002]

Definitely wouldn’t say it was a dead genre before Stardew came out but ur right in saying that it definitely revitalized it

[@Discotheque2002]

Also your character isn’t 12 lmao you can literally get married

[@heavennunya809]

In case you're curious, yes, he will take the horse back if you don't take proper care of it. Iow, if the horse doesn't like you enough by the time it grows up (which I THINK is in summer?) he will take it away, possibly forever. And if you don't keep playing the game, you need to have someone explain to you the schtick with golden lumber. otherwise.... you'll figure it out on your own eventually lol.

[@myownbravado]

Harvest Moon DS Cute and Harvest Moon Animal Parade are two of my favorite games of all time. They definitely fix some of the annoying things about the earlier games. It's like Stardew without combat which is my least favorite part about Stardew. I am very nostalgic for the earlier games though, Popuri was my first love

[@BlueDavrial]

Seeing a new player play FoMT makes me realize just how drastically disappointing the remake was. There was so many little tweaks they could have made to make it perfect, just updated what made the original so great while bringing it up to date with modern QoL standards...and instead they ruined the graphics draining the charm away and did very little else. 😞

[@glossy-jimin]

Nice video idea! I loved Harvest Moon DS as a kid and fell in love with Stardew Valley as an adult.

[@cheekygenny]

OMG! As someone who loves and still plays both Harvest Moon and Stardew, this was so fun to watch!! This game is quite old tho, if you're looking for other versions of Harvest Moon to play, I'd recommend Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility 🤗

[@TheNellehFox]

Much as I love the original FoMT, the quality of life improvements of the remake can't be discounted. Shauni should try the remake

[@madelinebitts2766]

I prefer the original to the remake. Being able to make your own recipes, and the fun of dodging rival events were great parts of the game that were omitted, plus the remake's character pictures are all so ugly.

[@ardrawsstuff808]

@@madelinebitts2766 you cant make your own recipes in the remake? that was sm fun i guessed basically all the recipes i had makes me not as interested in the remake

[@hannahdavis4256]

I've only played the remake of this, the Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town game (for anyone who doesn't know, there was a split and one company had the rights to the name while the ones who worked on the game went off to make their own. So modern Story of Seasons games are the ones you want.) Seeing the original is so weird and seeing just how different it is, but also I am feeling so frustrated (/lh) seeing Seanie try to figure it out haha. Either way, a fun experience :)

[@Poppybumbum]

I was Severely addicted to this game! The soundtrack is bringing back memories

[@GypsyxDarling]

it's wild how just seeing the fomt sprites makes me so nostalgic

[@iJamieM]

I swear if they ever remade Harvest Moon DS I would sprint to the closest store and probably tear up, the nostalgia in that game is real

[@awancs731]

i have a blast on Harvest Moon: Back to Nature which a 3D version of this game i played it alot when i was a kid on ps1

[@UshioKiss]

This video made me wanna play Harvest Moon games again 😩

[@jp-wc4ce]

it feels kinda mean to laugh but it's so funny watching someone who's used to Stardew grapple with classic Harvest Moon games 😂 tbf i don't play the og Mineral Town much, the controls are too clunky compared to more recent games

[@yummiecat]

been a fan of the harvest moon/sos games for over a decade now! im so glad you tried it out!

[@joannashaw2607]

My favorite Harvest Moon game was without a doubt Tale of Two Towns. Its so cute and charming and funny, (even if i am blinded by nostalgia)

[@ki11ershark]

The best Harvest Moon is Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life on Gamecube.

[@Emily-sl7wn]

As a person who as played EVERY Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons game, I love this😂🥰❣️

[@demafelixjaymark905]

" how do I water the one on the middle " That's the fun part, you don't.

[@libraryoflilylol199]

My favorite Harvest Moon game is Sunshine Islands for the DS. (Which actually has tutorials for doing stuff.) There is a frustrating mechanic where crops grow with a certain amount of sunlight and water, so if a crop requires lots of sunlight but little water and you water it every day when it's cloudy, the crops will die because you went over the water limit before hitting the min sunlight ( same will happen if you only water once per day for a crop during a heat wave and you hit the sunlight limit before the water requirement). I didn't know that for the LONGEST time and just ignored the crops that always died on me. The point of these vague mechanics is that you're supposed to experiment to find this stuff out. There's hints like that all crop descriptions in Sunshine Islands say a water and sunlight requirement, but it never tells you things like "a sunny day gives your crops 1 sun point per day and a hot day gives 2 and your crop requires 5 sun points to yield anything but it will die if you hit 10 before it gets enough water to grow" - all it says is "turnip; water: normal; sun: normal"

[@NguyenTran__]

the reason this game so good over stardew valley imo is that it’s way harder, and you dont know everything until you try it, which will supprise you every year. all the interactions, new stuffs coming in every year, consiquences of someone leaving town if you dont get enough interaction with them. advantage of the spirits to help you with your farm. the game so realistic that makes it hard to play(if you want to check prices you gotta go to the library). so for people play something as convinience as stardew valley, they would find this anoying somehow. but if you ever play this game first, I would feel like this game better in so many aspects. but stardew vally really have a lot more contents for sure

[@kjdp8519]

the 1st harvest moon I played was back to nature and gets addicted to it and starts playing harvest moon 1,2,3, then found about friends in mineral town which by far my greatest harvest moon game I ever played. stardew valley really did a great job fixing and adding lots of thing that changes the whole farming sims harvest moon started but you always go back to your first love a guess. this bring back a lot of good memories for me. playing all day during summer break.

[@Levi_Parish]

This. Harvest Moon 64 was my first. I love Stardew, but about once every two or three years I really just have to go back to 64, quality of Life issues and all.

[@jamaisvu4916]

aww!!! this game always brings back so many childhood memories! i used to stayed up all weekends playing this on ps1 (and still playing it occasionally till now)! my favorites are definitely back to nature and the grand bazaar! ♡

[@BeukieGaming]

Living for the chaos in this video 😂 I never played Harvest Moon either!! So many of my friends have been hyping it up because they grew up with it. It looks really cute though, despite the confusion hahaha!!

[@TheCrowFKAPS]

FoMT was my favorite game as a child. I forgot how fast the intro escalated lmao.

[@staciwoods9615]

Mines were the best to abuse, since you can save from anywhere you save as soon as you enter a floor, then hoe til you find the stairs, load save and go down next level, save and repeat.

[@madelinebitts2766]

I dunno if it's abuse. It's impossible to get diamonds in the gem mines without doing that. Pretty sure it's intended.

[@fuckitsyoongi3401]

why do I want more of this ksksks

[@dulainey9453]

I only knew about Stardew after my husband saw my Harvest Moon DS game. Got it for me straight away and said "don't say anything, just play!"

[@strawberrylemonadelioness]

I've never played the Harvest Moon games, but it looks really fun!

[@anjanabindhu6317]

Wow I have the same bday as seanie dew, I feel so honored.

[@ziljin]

This was hilarious. But its true older harvest moon games had less instructions also its pretty simple at the same time. No crafting or community bundles so no need to hoard items. No farm customization but free coop, barn and stable. Making money pretty simple and easy.

[@Growmetheus]

Dudes all: “Wait you pick up the rocks? It doesnt do that for you?” Lol

[@Jintasan]

You should try Harvest Moon Back to Nature, it was on the original Playstation. It is what got me into Harvest Moon.

[@euCAF]

its funny how people need to be told how to do everything these days, I think that part of the magic of older games were the learning phase were u struggle to understand every aspect of the game

[@zenssa6686]

Man this takes me back,used to play this alot but I never got far for some reason lmao.

[@MaeBlythe]

DS is so much easier to play! The items actually stack and you can manage your inventory from the bottom screen. Though, the town feels way smaller and you buy everything from the phone, so it feels a lot less immersive.

[@opekamma]

The instruction booklet really did do a lot of the explaining for game mechanics huh... Those booklets were some of my first treasured personal items as a kid because they always had extra little character art in them. It had actually been a thing that felt a little bit off for my friend whose first farming sim was Stardew Valley bc without the wiki, they were very lost on a lot of the mechanics of the game. Some Harvest Moon Entries started you out with a bookcase that was an in-game way to look at instructions for how to do things, but iirc, this entry has the library serving that purpose, while your bookshelf is just for stored letters you're sent?

[@madelin2575]

there is short keys to changing between tools and things you have in your backpack so you dont have to open the menu every time, it makes the game a bit easier and more enjoyable. Hold down the key you use to whistle for your dog and press a or b for it. Also if you press both a and b down at the same time you get to your backpack immediately

[@Taisie_Bunn]

Finding out you can't just walk in with places are closed and the "God I hate this game" when the Blacksmith's was closed on Thursdays was great.

[@hauntedsunsets]

Harvest Moon DS was the one I played to absolute death, though I was still young enough that I never got around to properly finishing the game - mostly because rescuing those damn elves were so difficult to find main things I remember were the mines being miserable, there being no stone anywhere, being horrified that the local grandma would die after you had a kid, and finding it hilarious that you can supposedly murder the mayor before the game even starts oh also being unsure why it was so nice being able to play as a male character. NO clue why. turns out I'm a trans guy! anyways Stardew is absolutely the best love letter to Harvest Moon I could ever ask for. fixed everything I had a problem with and is just one of my fav games outright

[@Karak12357]

One of the coolest things about friends of mineral town gba is you could get other people in the town married.

[@littleconch]

This is cute. I remember how addicted I was to this game on my cousin’s gameboy advance, especially the mines with the bath next to it. Stardew Valley coming out was like a second chance to experience those days again lmao and I’m glad people are recognising this game as its inspiration

[@mandymagnolia1966]

God this brings me back 🥰 I was 9 when I was looking through a Nintendo Power magazine and saw my first article for a Harvest Moon game. My parents got a GameCube and my mom and I would play A Wonderful Life after my younger brother went to bed. I have loved the series ever since, along with Rune Factory, and now Story of Seasons

[@BrokenDanceCircuit]

Seanie, I've been a HM/SOS fan since before I could read. For a game that's more user friendly, you should check out Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility. If you like the mechanics of Stardew Valley, try Rune Factory: Frontier (Or any of the RFs). Would love to see the way you play SV and apply it to some of the other games like it

[@CopeCoon]

As somebody who played all sort of Harvest Moon games since early childhood this was both tedious but also very, very fun to watch! Instant sub! PS: There is a Remake to Friends of Mineral Town! However in western countries the 'new Harvest Moon' parts are now called Story of Seasons!

[@BrookeSipsCoffee]

I love you Seanie but this is making 8yr old me feel REALLY smart for figuring out this game back in the day. 🤣

[@Vulithes]

Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town is like my favorite game. I used to play it nonstop for years. Had notes I wrote down. Still one of my favorite games.

[@AlishaAziz]

My addiction was this exact version of hmfomt, the music is too much nostalgia alone

[@jazmyndaunicorn2726]

little pumpkin in the background is adorable, i love her so much ☺️

[@rainadu7853]

NOSTALGIC. Man i wish i can play this again for the first time

[@urban0443]

Download an emulator to your phone.

[@farixguardian]

It hurt so much to see him use his seeds on the grass- and plant seeds next to each other oof I've been playing More Friends of Mineral Town for a while and been attempting to speedrun it on my own time so agh Also - there was a section where he could look at game tutorials, right?

[@jmtradbr]

The only Harvest Moon i played was the SNES one. I have a lot of nostalgia for him from me and my sister playing.

[@tweepers]

I'm so used to playing harvest moon fomt in x2 speed, this feels like a fever dream

[@spoonsmcgee6365]

Was a huge harvest moon kid growing up and gotta say my personal fave was tale of two towns

[@rwtfallenjf25132]

"...And i can do 10 consecutive pushups, and i can play mary had a little lamb on the recorder"

[@ravenkhor]

Love your videos man!!

[@lilchromie]

stardew is effectively the best harvest moon game, but I still like friends of mineral town/back to nature. though it is old so telling you what to do isn't it's style.

[@yellowlili221]

My fav is always the OG Harvest Moon Back To Nature

[@FacePomagranate]

Looks like Harvest Moon had the foresight to have you start playing on Spring 2nd so the intro scene in Spring makes sense.

[@zaldrexcamaya5526]

My most favorite harvest moon is the harvest moon ds. It has both huge map and changeable farm layout. The mine there contains enemies too. The main goal there is to restore the harvest goddess by bringing back all the harvest sprites(just like junimo in stardew valley). This is why I tried to play stardew valley because I love costumization especially in farm layouts. Sorry for my english....

[@MozillaTurtleFox]

My whole family played Harvest Moon: A Tale of Two Towns (I think that’s what it’s called?) and it was my childhood!! Though I don’t see anyone else mentioning that’s what they played as a kid, so maybe it’s not the best HM, but it’ll always be _my_ favourite

[@treefrogkid1172]

7:36 if Sean took of his glasses, he looks exactly like jeff

[@GreySeashell-j3m]

I had a hyperfixation on game for _a bit._ Got me completely obsessed and addicted.

[@aizirtap05]

This is so nostalgic! I think I remember there was an in game tutorial either before every new activity or in the library??? I hope you continue playing the game because it gets better. You have to meet the harvest goddess and the kappa! And go watch the tv!

[@emmasofie8718]

Oh my god this was my WHOLE childhood!! I played Harvest Moon DS with all the harvest sprites. I started playing when I was 8 and couldn't even understand the English, and later I replayed it from ages 13-16 (and enjoyed it way more because I finally could read the text lol). Stardew Valley is my way to find my childhood again where Harvest Moon laid the groundwork for ❤️

[@-saltedfish]

Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town was my childhood! I'm happy seeing Seanie play it.

[@xyrsh]

There's a remastered version for PC with better graphic and some QOL changes, but still I'm glad you tried this one too, brings back so many memories!

[@themundanedaysofteacherpai209]

“he’s gonna digiorno this to me?” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@mitsua2411]

Harvest Moon is my childhood. It brings a lot of good memories and also bad memories. Especially because I quit that game because my lil bro saved his game on my year 9 farm save 😭 I still haven't forget about that. I was so upset.

[@b00lien]

I DEFINITELY recommend trying Harvest Moon: DS! It's a bit more like SDV, it also takes place in the same town as Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, but with these kinds of graphics and top-down view! You're introduced to the harvest goddess, harvest sprites, and witch at the start too! Also you can marry a mermaid soooo Harvest Moon: DS is definitely an improvement on this game! I feel like it was a bit more straightforward and less confusing for some of the mechanics, but anything you might have not known it seems like you would have learned in this video! It's still nice to have a wiki or guide by you though, especially starting out, but I do that with SDV too. Harvest Moon DS feels like the ultimate version of all the 2D Harvest Moons, in my opinion. It's the game I'm always hoping I'll get out of the modern iterations, and it's what SDV delivered to me for my craving. The other games just don't scratch the itch. Going from HM to SDV was a wild ride for me since I wasn't used to how things worked in SDV at all, like planting seeds, and I didn't even touch sprinklers for my first two years in SDV because I never had them in HM! You can get harvest sprites to water crops for you at a certain point, and I was almost expecting junimos to be able to do that for me lmao Harvest Moon DS is probably the most like SDV out of all of the games in terms of polish, while still being extremely Harvest Moon still. It's also a huge improvement on this game as well. Not to knock on the others, but in terms of actually dipping your toes into Harvest Moon, I feel like Magical Melody and A Wonderful Life are bad places to start. They were AMAZING when we were kids, but they're hard to get back into without the nostalgia as an adult. I recently went back to both of these games I loved so much and saw how many Quality of Life changes were made to the future titles that were SUPER needed. A Wonderful Life is pretty complicated compared to the others by year two (if you do want to go deeper into the crop system) and you need to water things twice a day. In Magical Melody there are options for plots of land that are huge crutches for growing your farm (even if you can buy multiple plots). My only other vouches are Tree of Tranquility and Animal Parade in terms of 3D games. Also Rune Factory is a great series as well! Harvest Moon DS is the game I had always came back to the most. Part of the reason might be because it was portable, and I can't deny that there is some nostalgia involved in it, but it was everything I wanted out of other titles and more. Also, Harvest Moon DS is in ConcernedApe's Top 3 (according to his redddit AMA)! So it also gets his vouch. Sorry for the super super long comment!! Thank u for reading