Friends of Mineral Town

CraddaPoosta

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Harvest Moon - Friends of Mineral Town is easily one of my favorite games of all time, and absolutely in the top three of my desert island/zombie apocalypse games.

Never beaten it. Been playing it since 2003. I've written long essays about this game before. In short, it's like The Legend of Zelda, if Link were a farmer. I know. I didn't think I would like it, either.

Damn me if this isn't the MOST addictive game I have ever played outside of fighting games. Which no one will ever play me at. I feel like Saitama in that regard, but I digress. And prove why I don't have a girlfriend.

Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons beats the brakes off of Farmville or Stardew Valley. Although the latter does its very best to capture the charm of the original inspiration, nothing can beat the best, and that's Friends of Mineral Town.

No enemies to fight. No real level-up system. You're a humble farmer who can beat his dog, cat, capybara, penguin, rabbit, horse, sheep, alpaca and cow with a scythe, if so inclined. Or an axe. Or a hammer.

You can enslave an entire tribe of peaceful Harvest Sprites to toil and labor for you, and provide them nothing more than a bag of flour for their services, then ignore their birthdays.

You can present unwitting townsfolk with your garbage, or force them to consume their least favorite and sometimes poisonous foods. You can litter wantonly, and allow an orphan to lose his job and home, and seek to find greener pastures elsewhere, as long as it isn't in the village you have chosen to betray.

You can win the hearts of seven different ladies, accept a marriage proposal from all of them, then leave them standing forlornly by the altar. Or men; this game does not discriminate when it comes to breaking hearts. Charm the pants off of all of the boys AND girls, at the same time, if it tickles your fancy, and leave them all hanging while you abuse their goddess by yeeting burned and poisonous junk into the pond she lives in.

You can commit mass animal genocide, and stock your farm with all sorts of creatures to neglect and refuse to feed and intentionally leave outside when you know a hurricane is coming. Are you a fan of chicken fighting? Cool! Force your poultry to fight to the death in the arena. Ever forced a penguin to chase a frisbee for over 100 meters, or wish you could? Your wish is granted. Run, Chilly Willy. Run as if your life depended on it. It does. You can watch them all die from the comfort of your bed, built by a man who comes by daily to bitch at you for having Golden Lumber anywhere on your property.

Or, you can play the game normally, and raise a bunch of happy, healthy livestock, participate in all sorts of festivals and events, grow dozens of different crops almost every season, go fishing, mining, and foraging. You can get married and become a parent. You can have up to five different pets, and win the love of all of the townsfolk and visitors.

Retire a multi-millionaire with three homes, beloved by a Goddess, as the paragon of Mineral Town, with magical stones providing you wth infinite health and stamina, and the ability to teleport anywhere you wish to be, fulfilling all of your not really grandfather's wishes for the farm that he left you, for being the only kid who cared about an old, lonely man.

This is why I love this game. You are doing yourself a disservice if you don't ever at least TRY some version of Friends of Mineral Town.
 
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Scarlet

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Both Friends of Mineral Town and DS are a legendary era of farming to me, and Stardew Valley and the likes just can't compare. I mean, just look at how many copies of both I own lol

1667196140055.png


I have to say though, of the two the game I go back to most is DS. If you had a blast with Mineral Town, I really would recommend it. I think it's aged far better, and manages to avoid much of the repetition of Mineral Town by giving you goals to work towards in unlocking Harvest Sprites. Nothing is on a timer, nothing is pushed on you, so you can just like, not do that if you prefer to take it slowly too. It's got the graphics and tone of Mineral Town lifted onto two screens, and uses the touch screen really nicely for inventory management and menus, something I feel the original Mineral Town struggled a bit with due to the screen real estate of the GBA version. I do think the remake did a good job in modernising it though.

If you do happen to try the DS version, I will add that the best version to pick up is either DS Cute, or the 1.1 USA version of DS. The 1.0 USA version of DS is riddled with bugs, including a nasty save corruption one. While the EUR release patched pretty much every bad bug, Natsume for some reason decided to remove the additional content you get for plugging Mineral Town into the Slot 2 port. This was also in the middle of the gambling outcry in games where slot machines were being removed from Pokemon, so the casino is nerfed in the EUR release. Instead of poker, blackjack, and pairs, the casino is genuinely just three tables of pairs lol.

The USA 1.1 version patches bugs, but also retains the Mineral Town functionality and full casino. Absolutely stellar game that I love coming back to and entirely breaking by just making millions selling turnips lol. You can see the financials from my most recent save that's currently in Spring Year 2.

1667196593197.png


Edit:
Just to give you context of how much I've crashed the economy, it is currently Spring 9th, and all that profit is just from selling things I've grown. Not from stockpiling and selling in bulk lol.
 

CraddaPoosta

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Both Friends of Mineral Town and DS are a legendary era of farming to me, and Stardew Valley and the likes just can't compare. I mean, just look at how many copies of both I own lol

View attachment 334970

I have to say though, of the two the game I go back to most is DS. If you had a blast with Mineral Town, I really would recommend it. I think it's aged far better, and manages to avoid much of the repetition of Mineral Town by giving you goals to work towards in unlocking Harvest Sprites. Nothing is on a timer, nothing is pushed on you, so you can just like, not do that if you prefer to take it slowly too. It's got the graphics and tone of Mineral Town lifted onto two screens, and uses the touch screen really nicely for inventory management and menus, something I feel the original Mineral Town struggled a bit with due to the screen real estate of the GBA version. I do think the remake did a good job in modernising it though.

If you do happen to try the DS version, I will add that the best version to pick up is either DS Cute, or the 1.1 USA version of DS. The 1.0 USA version of DS is riddled with bugs, including a nasty save corruption one. While the EUR release patched pretty much every bad bug, Natsume for some reason decided to remove the additional content you get for plugging Mineral Town into the Slot 2 port. This was also in the middle of the gambling outcry in games where slot machines were being removed from Pokemon, so the casino is nerfed in the EUR release. Instead of poker, blackjack, and pairs, the casino is genuinely just three tables of pairs lol.

The USA 1.1 version patches bugs, but also retains the Mineral Town functionality and full casino. Absolutely stellar game that I love coming back to and entirely breaking by just making millions selling turnips lol. You can see the financials from my most recent save that's currently in Spring Year 2.

View attachment 334971

Edit:
Just to give you context of how much I've crashed the economy, it is currently Spring 9th, and all that profit is just from selling things I've grown. Not from stockpiling and selling in bulk lol.
If there was anyone I would trust with a recommendation like this, it would be the one who has 30 physical copies of the game.

And I thought *I* was a superfan. Dear sweet Loki.

I have had the DS version of this game for more than a decade and never played it, because I really, really want to beat FoMT first. Not like there's any continuity that I feel I would miss. This was the game I was playing the last time my mom was healthy and alive, so it has personal meaning to me. We are a gaming family, and no one else really understood why I loved this game so much. I was playing it while we were preparing for her last surgery. I named my horse after her. I have to finish this first.

If there was a Freind option on this site, I would be Friending you so hard right now.
 
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GlennGamer

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Dude I have to agree. I like Stardew Valley, but they can't just compare to Mineral Town. But I'm curious how do you see Harvest Moon: Back to Nature? It's pretty much the same game but with better graphics.
 

Robert Newbie

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I'm so easily talked into games, and nothing manipulates me more easily than passionately long speeches. Throw in a photo of someone that collected several copies of the same game, and I don't think I can resist.

I'll have to check Friends of Mineral Town out. What's the best version? The GBA original? The remake?
 

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I'm so easily talked into games, and nothing manipulates me more easily than passionately long speeches. Throw in a photo of someone that collected several copies of the same game, and I don't think I can resist.

I'll have to check Friends of Mineral Town out. What's the best version? The GBA original? The remake?
Both are solid from my experience. I reviewed the remake if you’re interested, and the best and worst thing about it in my mind was how faithful it was to the original lol.

https://gbatemp.net/review/story-of-seasons-friends-of-mineral-town.1446/

Original is better if you’re nostalgic for the pixel graphics, remake is great for a bit of extra content, really nice redesigns, and I think some achievements if playing on platforms that support them.
 

Robert Newbie

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Both are solid from my experience. I reviewed the remake if you’re interested, and the best and worst thing about it in my mind was how faithful it was to the original lol.

https://gbatemp.net/review/story-of-seasons-friends-of-mineral-town.1446/

Original is better if you’re nostalgic for the pixel graphics, remake is great for a bit of extra content, really nice redesigns, and I think some achievements if playing on platforms that support them.
Thank you for the overview. I may go with the GBA original, since I can't resist the olden days. I had Harvest Moon 64 back in the day, and I really enjoyed it for a time. Sometimes, it's hard to get into a groove where you feel like you're making progress.

I'm not the best Harvest Moon player, I admit.
 
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RetroNerdGamer

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Both Friends of Mineral Town and DS are a legendary era of farming to me, and Stardew Valley and the likes just can't compare. I mean, just look at how many copies of both I own lol

View attachment 334970

I have to say though, of the two the game I go back to most is DS. If you had a blast with Mineral Town, I really would recommend it. I think it's aged far better, and manages to avoid much of the repetition of Mineral Town by giving you goals to work towards in unlocking Harvest Sprites. Nothing is on a timer, nothing is pushed on you, so you can just like, not do that if you prefer to take it slowly too. It's got the graphics and tone of Mineral Town lifted onto two screens, and uses the touch screen really nicely for inventory management and menus, something I feel the original Mineral Town struggled a bit with due to the screen real estate of the GBA version. I do think the remake did a good job in modernising it though.

If you do happen to try the DS version, I will add that the best version to pick up is either DS Cute, or the 1.1 USA version of DS. The 1.0 USA version of DS is riddled with bugs, including a nasty save corruption one. While the EUR release patched pretty much every bad bug, Natsume for some reason decided to remove the additional content you get for plugging Mineral Town into the Slot 2 port. This was also in the middle of the gambling outcry in games where slot machines were being removed from Pokemon, so the casino is nerfed in the EUR release. Instead of poker, blackjack, and pairs, the casino is genuinely just three tables of pairs lol.

The USA 1.1 version patches bugs, but also retains the Mineral Town functionality and full casino. Absolutely stellar game that I love coming back to and entirely breaking by just making millions selling turnips lol. You can see the financials from my most recent save that's currently in Spring Year 2.

View attachment 334971

Edit:
Just to give you context of how much I've crashed the economy, it is currently Spring 9th, and all that profit is just from selling things I've grown. Not from stockpiling and selling in bulk lol.
Hey just wanted to ask since I'm thinking of trying HM DS since I never have... how do I tell the difference between HM DS 1.0 and 1.1? Anything physical I can see on the cart?

Edit: I just found this thread at gamefaqs
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/925581-harvest-moon-ds/42036108

seems there is a 1.2 for US as well?
From Sky_Render:

The only way to find out is to look on the game card itself, unfortunately. Printed somewhere on the card should be a production run number:

ABCEN0J13 - Version 1.0
ABCEN0J22 - Version 1.05
ABCEN1J09 - Version 1.1
ABCEN1J12 - Version 1.15
ABCEN1J22 - Version 1.2

Note that these production numbers only apply to the US version; the European and Japanese releases have entirely different numbers on them.


Can you or anyone else here confirm what 1.15/1.2 do? Like, get just 1.1 or go for highest possible version?
 

Scarlet

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Hey just wanted to ask since I'm thinking of trying HM DS since I never have... how do I tell the difference between HM DS 1.0 and 1.1? Anything physical I can see on the cart?

Edit: I just found this thread at gamefaqs
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/925581-harvest-moon-ds/42036108

seems there is a 1.2 for US as well?
From Sky_Render:

The only way to find out is to look on the game card itself, unfortunately. Printed somewhere on the card should be a production run number:

ABCEN0J13 - Version 1.0
ABCEN0J22 - Version 1.05
ABCEN1J09 - Version 1.1
ABCEN1J12 - Version 1.15
ABCEN1J22 - Version 1.2

Note that these production numbers only apply to the US version; the European and Japanese releases have entirely different numbers on them.


Can you or anyone else here confirm what 1.15/1.2 do? Like, get just 1.1 or go for highest possible version?
From my cartridge collection I can tell you definitively those people are wrong. I’ve dumped every one of those games and checked the rom against the code and there are only two: 1.0 and 1.1. This is indicated by the 0 or 1 after ABCENJ. If you get ABCENJ1 you’ll be completely fine.

It’s actually something I was curious about too. The Canadian version of the game is also identical to the US version if you spot those in the wild too.
 

RetroNerdGamer

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From my cartridge collection I can tell you definitively those people are wrong. I’ve dumped every one of those games and checked the rom against the code and there are only two: 1.0 and 1.1. This is indicated by the 0 or 1 after ABCENJ. If you get ABCENJ1 you’ll be completely fine.

It’s actually something I was curious about too. The Canadian version of the game is also identical to the US version if you spot those in the wild too.
ABCEN1J you mean? That's the one I'm seeing. There's also a 22 after it. The other one I see is ABCENJ22. The other I'm seeing being ABCEN1J22
 

Scarlet

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ABCEN1J you mean? That's the one I'm seeing. There's also a 22 after it. The other one I see is ABCENJ22. The other I'm seeing being ABCEN1J22
Yeah sorry, typo there! 1J22 should be golden.
 

RetroNerdGamer

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Yeah sorry, typo there! 1J22 should be golden.
Cool, thanks so much for the help!

Though, I do wonder... where did those other ones come from? the 1.5/2.0/2.2? Maybe it was another game...?

This seems to show something akin to what they were talking about. ABCEN0J12. Seems different to either of the 2 you've given.
 

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Cool, thanks so much for the help!

Though, I do wonder... where did those other ones come from? the 1.5/2.0/2.2? Maybe it was another game...?

This seems to show something akin to what they were talking about. ABCEN0J12. Seems different to either of the 2 you've given.
I’m fairly sure I have that (away from home so can’t check for sure though). When I was actively buying them, I prioritised different codes to see if they were different.

I’m fairly sure the idea of different version numbers was just speculation from a time before cartridge dumps were commonplace enough to verify. If you look online for Harvest Moon DS roms, you’ll probably notice there’s only a dumped version of 1.0 and 1.1 as well. If there really were as many versions as that post suggested, you’d think at least one other would’ve been dumped in the years since the game came out?
 

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I’m fairly sure I have that (away from home so can’t check for sure though). When I was actively buying them, I prioritised different codes to see if they were different.

I’m fairly sure the idea of different version numbers was just speculation from a time before cartridge dumps were commonplace enough to verify. If you look online for Harvest Moon DS roms, you’ll probably notice there’s only a dumped version of 1.0 and 1.1 as well. If there really were as many versions as that post suggested, you’d think at least one other would’ve been dumped in the years since the game came out?
That is true. I'll keep a look out for the one you gave me, I found a couple on ebay so it's no biggie.
 
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charlieSIGMA

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From my cartridge collection I can tell you definitively those people are wrong. I’ve dumped every one of those games and checked the rom against the code and there are only two: 1.0 and 1.1. This is indicated by the 0 or 1 after ABCENJ. If you get ABCENJ1 you’ll be completely fine.

It’s actually something I was curious about too. The Canadian version of the game is also identical to the US version if you spot those in the wild too.
Oh wow this is really interesting. Does it mean that all dumped roms from your cartridges all v1.0 dumps have the same MD5 / SHA1 between themselves and that all v1.1 dumps also share MD5 /SHA1?
 

Scarlet

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Oh wow this is really interesting. Does it mean that all dumped roms from your cartridges all v1.0 dumps have the same MD5 / SHA1 between themselves and that all v1.1 dumps also share MD5 /SHA1?
That is indeed the case. It really shouldn’t have been a surprise in retrospect, since there’s only a 1.0 and 1.1 ROM in ROM sets online. It’s still nice to see it for myself though.
 

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