harvestmoonconfessionsv2: Something I’ve always appreciated from Bokujou is their willingness

Something I’ve always appreciated from Bokujou is their willingness to explore sad, dark and spooky topics. They used to really push the envelope with this stuff. It made the games feel very unique, occasionally exploring these darker topics, in contrast to the typical comforting play style. I worry that with each new game they seem a little more hesitant to explore “negative” topics. It slices a big chunk of realism and melancholy out of the games; weirdly this makes them less enjoyable for me.

A lot of game series seem to be doing that. We were just talking about that in regards to New Pokemon Snap and Pokemon SwSh. Any hint of negativity, heartache, or even teasing has been smoothed over.

We went from literal pester balls to assurances that the treats are so soft that they won’t hurt if you accidentally hit a Pokemon.

And from the Yakuza, environmental terrorist, and power hungry megalomaniacs to… well, they kinda just tell you to stay out of it for the most part in SwSh, don’t they?

And SoS… Olive Town is just kinda… sterile? I had very little incentive to interact with the townspeople. Their lives were ok without me and they’ll continue to be ok without me.

And it feels like SoS:FoMT is gentler than HM:FoMT. Probably because removing rivals means you don’t actually get to see the growth, the peaks or resolution of any conflict, like the Rick v Kai ordeal. Just the setup.

Remember in HM64, the whole vineyard storyline? I doubt we’ll see anything like that anymore.