I've Been Playing Harvest Moon 64

I stumbled upon a bunch of videos about Harvest Moon 64, particularly what you have to do to get the best ending in the game and getting every photo in the game. Long story short, you basically have to play the game nearly perfectly to do that. It's one of the hardest challenges in the entire franchise, and Harvest Moon 64 is generally considered one of the hardest Harvest Moon games. 

I knew I wanted to play Harvest Moon 64 eventually, and soon! I had just finished my perfection run of Stardew Valley and I wanted to play another retro Harvest Moon game afterwords (still had the farming game itch lol). I was going back and forth on if I wanted to do an all photos run for my first playthrough, or if I just wanted to do a more casual run of the game. After playing a season though I've definitely decided I don't think I have what it takes to do an all photos run on my first playthrough. They were NOT lying when they said it was the hardest in the franchise. The days are just so short and you have hidden stats that you have to keep track of in the back of your head, or else you're at risk of losing entire days. I'd have to restart if I wanted to go for a perfect playthrough at this point, and I don't think I wanna do that. Not only that, but the girl I want to marry in the game most, Maria, is last priority for her event photo and, I'll be real, I kinda wanna marry her sooner than what the guides suggest lmao. Especially because of how TIGHT of a window it is to get married and have a baby before the final evaluation if you try to get all the girl's event photos. It's a headache and honestly I think I'm just going to try to get all of the events that are easy to get, play the game casually with my own goals in mind, and look up the events I missed online anyways. I think I'll have more fun that way. Especially because it's my first time playing the game.

Anyways, Despite all of that I am having fun with the game. There's something about good farming games like Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley. They're time holes that completely suck my attention from me like a goddamn black hole lol. I look up and I will have been playing the game for 5 hours without even realizing it. In times in which I struggle to find joy, it's wonderful to still find things that can do that for me. It kind of becomes all I can really think about lol. It's especially special to play GOOD farming sims because, as I'm sure you're aware, everything wants the success that Stardew Valley has, and thus there's a lot of games that aren't particularly good trying to ride that wave of popularity lol. But the classics are always nice to come back to. Always know that when modern gaming seems soulless and bleak, retro stuff will always be there for you to try. There's more retro games than you can possibly play in your lifetime, so I don't think I will ever truly run out of great games for me to discover. 

In case you're curious BTW, this is what you're expected to do for an all photos run. It's kinda insane lol: