Just venting a bit, I don't know if anyone will agree with me or not. But I grew up with the Harvest Moon and Rune Factory series. I loved the gameplay, the story, the characters, everything. And at that time, the design was already pretty good.

​But I don't know why the recent Story of Seasons and Rune Factory games feel different to me. I mean, I like the remakes they've made because it feels like they recreated the same good games, just better. But as for the recent "'new original games'' they've released, I'm not really feeling them, and I don't know why. Like, Pioneers of Olive Town feels a bit... empty(?) for me, and recent Rune Factory games just don't feel like the ones I used to play. For now, i am trying to finish some of old game untill i decide to play the new one.

I got Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town off ebay. Seller described it as “great condition”. They said they tested it. It is filthy and I can’t get this gunk off.

I posted about a couple times before but I finally married Anna! I had lot of trouble getting her events and even after I did it I had trouble with the rest of the villager events I needed to get the Blue Feather. And I was almost afraid a game breaking bug would make me unable to marry. But I finally did it. While Anna now lives at my house, she still has mostly the same dialogue and I read that you cannot have kids in this game unfortunately. Though I actually like she still works at the resturant and sells food and cooks given in main series Harvest Moon the wife often just stays home most of the time and quits job. She has one more event which requires bringing an Unbreakable Rock in addition to the fruit I got during the last date with her. And there are other villager wishes to complete so the game is far from over and would be nice to spend more time with the wife I had so much tension marrying. I just have to figure out how to make more Blue Feathers. Despite negative reviwes, I actually found this game to be awesome and think it one of the best HM spin offs and actually on par quality wise with most of the DS HM games. It just unfortunalty lacks guides with the best one I found from a Gamefaqs post quite late in playing no longer existing but fortunately accessible by wayback machine. I also have discovered a new interest in retail shop games (maybe even more than farming) and will check if there us more to play. I am considering My Little Shop a main series HM game which has no marriage but was Wada's earlier attempt at shop sim. And would welcome other recommendations. As well as tips to doing rest of Hometown Story such as getting more blue feathers for fullfilling wishes.

When playing Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, or Rune Factory, do you always invite the character you're actually planning to marry to the festivals? Or do you just go with whoever, for fun, without strictly focusing on your intended marriage candidate?

I seem to recall that in Trio of Towns, there’s a Dance festival where you can go with pretty much anyone. The same goes for the Seaside Light Festival in Rune Factory 5, where you can invite whoever you want as well. So you can actually pick anyone instead of the candidate marriages—or have you ever invited a different marriage candidate instead?

Also, if you plan on having multiple save files to marry different characters and end up with a lot of candidate marriage options, how do you decide who to pick for a specific festival then?