the demos were great and left me excited to see how they would further expand the gameplay and aesthetics in the final release. and then they just kind of didn't. the final game was just the demo but bigger, with more cards and jokers and shit to gather in your runs. more Numbers. more Gaming. not to say there isn't artistry creating and uncovering that strategizing, calculating, number crunching gameplay loop, but i think i'm kind of done with endless, repetitive games that have nothing to offer you beyond the pursuit of landing bigger and bigger numbers. a disappointment, but i had a some fun

I had high hopes for this one despite disliking rogue-likes/lites due to the high review scores, but in the end it falls into the same kind of dull repetition that kills any of my interest to keep playing. It’s a cool take on poker, but I felt like my losses and wins were so luck-based that I felt no sense of progress or higher understanding, and the cards you unlock after every run didn’t really feel exciting either so that sense of ‘slowly upgrading for better runs as you go’ was very lacking too.

It’s a very nice concept and for rogue-fans, you’ll probably love it, but for me it was just kind of dull and disappointing.

Upon looking at this game, I thought I would hate it. I kind of do, but the gameplay of just delivering shit to and from places could be so good. Emphasis is on "could be," because it is held back by the terrain and the cars. The whole point of the game is driving through rough terrains and that's a cool concept, but every vehicle you start with isn't meant to go offroad. You get a pickup that can't haul cargo and a shitty truck that is only meant for highways. To get more trucks, you either have to find them in the environment or do jobs to get money. The problem with these things is you have to use the trucks you are given from the start which, again, don't go offroad. The potential is there, but I just can't continue driving in the mud for what feels like an hour.

This is a hard review for me to write. This game here is one of the most important games of my life. A favorite of mine since when I was a kid. By playing it more than 15 years later, I unfortunately found some glaring issues with it. Now, how does my feelings stand up after knowing about such flaws?

This is indeed a charming game. Its core systems work pretty well. The main thing is... this game punishes you for playing well. There I was, at Fall of the Second Year, having accomplished almost everything the game had to offer (the only thing left was to have my second child, but there was nothing I could on that sense; it was just a matter of time).

Without anything to look forward to, every mundane task of the farm became pointless. Why am I taking care of 12 chickens and 12 cows every single day if I can't be rewarded in any way for doing that? It was time consuming and tiresome (and it became worse knowing that the game can't handle many characters at the same screen; the framedrops were annoying). Half of the game felt pointless, really. I don't even know how I got to the end of it without dying of boredom.

House renovations? Got it. Marriage? Got it. Children? Got it. Max animals? Got it. Crops to the max. of my stamina? Got it.
Nothing of value was left. I had clearly exhausted the majority of the contents of the game halfway through it.

Although this game is still dear to me, much of the good experiences I had with Harvest Moon are directly linked to how poorly I played it when I was a kid. I'm not a pro, not at all. I could do much much better than I did. But just being a little above average was enough to make the game pointless. It's sad to admit it, but most of the fun I derived from this title came directly to my inexperienced younger self, learning what the hell a farming simulation game was. There were times when I didn't even manage to finish the game with a child, or even having any cows to begin with.

But the thing is... the systems work well. They are solid. And this game is special to me, still. I can't possibly give it a lower score than 3 stars out of 5. If I can let my heart speak and counsciously let it go over my critical thinking, let this game be the one where it does so. This one deserves it. My heart is willing to triumph this time, so it is with profound love that I thank this game for everything it did for me. For helping shape my taste in gaming and media in general, for keeping me company in my younger days of solitude. I love you, Harvest Moon!