I bought this game on release date, having enjoyed Harvest Moon games in the past. My first impressions where that it’s slow going, you really have to look into the various forums to see if you are doing things right. Everything they wrote before release about it is true: you get to manage a store, starting out with only 4 shelves where you can display your wares. The store is open from 6 am till 12 pm, which doesn’t seem to leave you any time for running around in the rather extensive town. Someone comes by once a day to sell you stuff that you can sell again with a small profit. Think the market in HM Gran Bazaar but with less customers, and no way to grow your own produce or make your own things.
So I thought: this can’t be it! I perused the forums, found out that it’s just as important to go into town and not stay cooped up in your store. You have to trigger events with people, to buy new stuff at the restaurant or from the local fisherman. Most people in your store seem to easily wait for two hours for you to man the cash register, so no problem there. There’s some stuff you can forage, making for a larger profit. You meet more people, people move into town, and are making more requests for you to sell them. Of course you have to be on the lookout for these key items. At the time that I’m writing this, I’ve been playing some 5 game-days, and I can say the game grows on me. I’m interested in the story behind the townspeople, hoping to find good deals or free produce in nature. Trying to find out where the various people live and when you can enter their houses. (Again, no instruction whatsoever!).
Overall I must say it’s a slow game to get into, and I feel as if it was rushed out of the development office. Of course it has it’s nice elements too, but the game feels unpolished and as if you’re missing something. I keep thinking that they could have made so much more out of this new project.
Glad I didn’t buy it day one. I definitely would have been disappointed.