I tried playing Harvest Moon on the SNES today and having played Stardew Valley for hours, I thought I’d try and see how tolerable the original Harvest Moon was in comparison. I know and understand it is unfair because there’s a 20 year gap between Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, while also discrediting Harvest Moon’s later entries since there’s more than one.
Harvest Moon to me is a bit hard to revisit. Having to get used to only carrying two tools at the same time, your farm doesn’t seem as big, you don’t have a way to know that you’re tired as readily, you just have to watch for the signs and the village you visit doesn’t seem as characteristic. It’s a basic farming sim, it has to start somewhere.
But Stardew Valley does so many things that it is easier to revisit.
I cut my teeth on Space Quest 1 and Kings Quest 3. Not only was the very spefic vocabulary a pain but so many solutions were a dead end trap.
I remember in Space Quest if you typed use [item] it would give you a message about not being a simple 2 word game and tell you to say use [item] on [thing]. It required that format.
Then halfway through the game the solution to one puzzle is use glass. Not use glass on laser. I has figured out the puzzle right away but it took me days to get the right wording.
Those games have not aged well.