Desmond Miles it wouldn't be much of a confession if it's a popular opinion so (y)! x3 but yes if you find it nice enough, then that's good!! i wish i wasn't so stuck up with the quality so i can enjoy things more, but from what i read it seems that it's just not as 'smooth' as they were in the older games. that, and festivals + dialogues are... subpar, so that worries me too.
but they're actually working on the qol fixes rather than just ignoring them all so good for them! i'll hold on for the final-final fix, though, since it's also a concern of mine when both series are now releasing unpolished games(as per reviews)...
gotta hold on to the money as blackmail ha ha ha.
i'll try to include as much as i can as to not dominate the thread with farming sim talk, lmao, but ok lemme just-
So to me, personally this is just how I play... I hate getting locked into festivals where it just takes forever to do one activity, because festivals take up a whole day I normally could have spent working on the farm. Festivals also don't change typically, so if you did it once in Y1, you've done it every single time afterwards. I only attend festivals at that point just to get more FPs with the villagers... That I'm not talking to normally because I'm too busy farming! LMAO
But in past games, generic dialogue has always been... bland, generic, and subpar. Trio of Towns very much raised the bar on that by providing lengthier, denser lines of dialogue... But after Y3, I still get hit with the same lines about the hot spring, or the shrine, or a festival, or whatever. These games really aren't meant to be played super long term anyway on a single file, much less for years long after release. To me, Olive Town wasn't breaking new ground in that sense.
Now, in regards to the games graphics... I do wanna mention that, Olive Town is using original models and renders for this game. As in, these aren't reused assets from the last 3 mainline games, they're all completely new. Let's be real with ourselves, handheld bokumono games are not pretty. Graphically, they're rather terrible lmao. The console versions have always been more graphically stellar and pushing the hardware to its limits. Animal Parade was their last, big console game for the wii, and even then, it still lagged and had low FPS issues in certain areas.
But I also want to point out that for Olive Town, and RF5... They were both meant to come out at least last year. But they both got delayed to this year because the teams working on the games had to stay at home for quarantine. And the Japanese gaming industry is still very old school, remote work is not really a thing, so they were probably limited on actual development time. Japan is still going through a rise in covid cases, especially as the Olympics grow closer. If the games seem a little "meh" visually... Well just remember what happened during 2020, and keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers, especially as the pandemic continues to rage in other countries across the world.
I just hope that sheds a little light on what development might have looked like for these games, alongside my own personal feelings about them. I am glad the bokumono team is still listening to feedback and fixing what they can. I think Olive Town will be a finer game in the end, and will draw in a new crowd of players looking for something simple to get into after playing Stardew Valley.
Even my little sister, who couldn't get into the last 10 years of bokumono because of how much it dragged on, and how long the tutorials were... Was able to hit the ground running with Olive Town, and now- Well she's using my copy of the game, so god knows when I'm gonna get that back >:/ But she's having a great time with it! And I think it's the change the series needed to draw in new players with the latest generation of console gaming.
But those are just my thoughts and insights, you're free to agree or disagree, but I just hope it was something to think about all the same!