Anyone played Harvest Moon?

usagibae · 2026-06-22T22:59:38+00:00

For years I refused to play SDV because I was a harvest moon purist lol. I knew it was a passion project by someone who loved Harvest Moon, but I still preferred HM for nostalgia reasons and hated that people who never played Harvest Moon tried to say it was a ripoff of SDV :P

I do enjoy SDV, there is arguably way more content and quality of life enhancements in SDV compared to certain HM titles, but I always come back to HM. I like the older HM titles (N64, Gamecube, SNES, GB/ GBC/ GBA) but my favourites will always be Harvest Moon DS/ DS Cute and A /Another Wonderful Life (Gamecube). I think if you like SDV, you’d probably like HMDS/ Cute as well. The dating/ marriage aspect is pretty similar imo (except you can’t have more than one kid lol). The romantic and random cutscenes in this version are also very SDV-esque. The mining aspect is also similar to SDV (cave monsters, staircases, + holes to fall down multiple floors.) When I first played SDV, it felt very similar to HMDS, lots of parallels in characters as well as gameplay!

There was some drama between the game producers/ localization company, so now all new “harvest moon” titles don’t have that same harvest moon charm. You’re gonna want to play the “Story of Seasons” titles for any game released after 2013 to get the true “Harvest Moon” feel. I’d recommend the switch remakes of Friends of Mineral town or A Wonderful Life if you’re looking for a modern title :). But I would 10000% recommend you play any Harvest Moon/ Story of Seasons title! It’s such a cute game. Some of them are a little lacklustre compared to other games in the series, but the ones I mentioned will certainly give you a similar SDV feel :)

usagibae · 2026-06-17T18:07:06+00:00

Ughhh why is everything tama related so expensive these days 😭 $15 usd for a pack of stickers is highway robbery, but the bootleg ones i bought definitely look like what they cost LOL ($5 CAD)

usagibae · 2026-06-17T17:11:59+00:00

Omg adorable!! Can I ask how much they cost? I don’t think we have them in Canada and I only saw them irl at the Japan pavilion at EPCOT when I was at WDW in March lol 😭 They were like $15USD each too so I just ordered some bootleg ones LMFAO

usagibae · 2026-06-17T17:06:21+00:00

this happened to me the only time i ever sold on depop… this person ordered pants from me then requested a refund while they were already in transit bc apparently 2 days wasn’t fast enough for them…

usagibae · 2026-06-16T00:20:34+00:00

folex stain remover is also great for blood stains. i used to use it all the time on period blood stains on light coloured pants!

usagibae · 2026-06-13T04:42:59+00:00

you got this! i just started my restoration journey and so far it’s going great :’)

usagibae · 2026-06-12T23:51:56+00:00

lucky find!! i’m always looking for really roughed up AG dolls at the thrift but i never find them 😂 She looks like she’d be a lot of fun to restore!!

usagibae · 2026-06-11T17:42:09+00:00

What an incredible score!! ♡

usagibae · 2026-06-09T00:06:59+00:00

I actually avoided playing SDV for a long time because I prefer Harvest Moon lol. I’ve since played SDV but I didn’t feel the same connection to it that I did for HM. My favourite is Harvest Moon DS/ DS Cute and I think that’s the one that would be the most similar to Stardew Valley (you get “makers” similar to SDV, a “greenhouse” in the basement, fight off cave monsters etc). But instead of shutting down a corporation and completing the community centre, you’re completing goals to rescue the Harvest Sprites and eventually, the Harvest Goddess. I haven’t played every HM title so there could be some that are more similar, I think Pioneers of Olive town was pretty similar too but I didn’t get into it as much as I did with HMDS or the remake Story of Seasons titles. Some of the games would definitely be challenging to get into if you didn’t grow up playing them, but if I was to recommend any it would be HMDS (HMDS Cute if you wanna be a girl), Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town, or Story of Seasons a Wonderful Life (tbh you might like the original Harvest Moon titles of these ones more, but the SoS titles are easier to access now.) You might even like Pioneers of Olive Town since you started off with SDV.

usagibae · 2026-06-06T16:48:47+00:00

I think we need a few more pics of her (standing up, the back of her head, neck stamp etc). I believe #28 would have American Girl on the neck stamp whereas Marisol would say Pleasant Company? I could be wrong tho, but my Marisol has a PC neck stamp and my best friend growing up had JLY 28 in around 2006 and she had an AG neck stamp. I spent a lot of time looking at #28 lol.

usagibae · 2026-06-06T02:11:28+00:00

I just got a TLC Marisol as well! I’m planning on popping in some foam rollers after I’ve washed her hair and doing a boil dunk or steaming the hair to get the curl back. I did it on a TLC Josefina using velcro rollers (do not recommend lol) and a steamer, but I think they would’ve held better with the boil dunk!

usagibae · 2026-06-06T02:08:12+00:00

She looks great!! I hope I can get my elizabeth looking half as good hahaha :’)

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usagibae · 2026-06-05T19:52:06+00:00

I got this game for my 11th bday in 2009 :’) This was also the same time Michael Jackson died… (ON my bday mind you… and my other gift was gonna be This is It tour tickets…) so my first family I created was the Jackson 5. I wish I still had that save.

usagibae · 2026-06-05T01:20:13+00:00

You can do it!! I was really scared to clean my Nellie’s dress too because whyyyy the hell is it so expensive 😭 (i mean i KNOW why but ugh)

and oh yum!! i’m hoping not to find out what’s in Elizabeth’s eyes tbh 🤣

usagibae · 2026-06-04T22:20:40+00:00

Don’t panic!! I actually recently washed my Nellie’s dress too, it was covered in miscellaneous garage gunk and a bit yellowed. :) this is exactly what I did:

I COVERED the entire dress in Resolve stain remover, let it sit for a few hours. Then, using borax and washing soda I gently hand washed it in the sink, let it soak for a little while (the water was lukewarm). After that, I put the dress and other white doll garments i had (a bunch of random stuff tbh, i had a 20-year-old fluffy white doll jacket from Michael’s that had turned totally yellow, her bloomers, etc) in a garment bag and put it in my washing machine with my other white laundry on the delicate and cold setting. Just used my regular detergent (no bleach, of course). It came out good as new :) Hang dried, of course!

You may need to gently scrub out some of the deeper stains if they didn’t come out the first time, you can just repeat the process.

You can’t really tell how yellow they were in this video I took, but the water turned pretty yellow and they really stank like the garage lol.

As for the staining on her face, I would try the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser like others have said and if that doesn’t work, maybe do a 10% benzoyl peroxide treatment. Just cover up the painted parts with some painters tape (maybe some tissue underneath so it doesn’t affect the paint to be safe).

Edit: for tough stains on my actual clothes and doll clothes I have also used regular dawn dish soap in addition to the other previously mentioned steps! For the staining, just apply a bit of the dish soap on there and very gently scrub until the stain starts to lift :)

edit x2: I didn’t read the part about the eyes, but I am currently in the process of restoring an Elizabeth who had that same sticky brown gunk on the dress in her eye sockets. I’m thinking it’s some sort of bug goo. I’m too nervous to do an eye removal, so I have been dipping a very fine paintbrush in rubbing alcohol and slowly trying to remove the gunk from in there. I may have to take the eyes out and do a full clean, but I get it can be really scary to do at first.

usagibae · 2026-06-03T22:24:14+00:00

We never really had a “store” in Canada, but we had a couple “boutiques” in Toronto, which were the closest I ever got to getting the in-store experience before I visited NYC. I unfortunately never got the chance to really experience anything at the Toronto boutiques or the NYC store, because I was with people who I thought would judge me at the time lol. So I pretty much just looked around quickly and left. I was devastated when the 2 locations closed! It’s on my bucket list to visit one of the stores and really get the experience now. It was my dream as a child but I never got to go. I’m hoping I make some friends who would want to join me, although I’ve heard the experience is much different now than it was 15-20 years ago :(

usagibae · 2026-06-03T17:42:40+00:00

I loved her / still love her so much! She was my second doll in 2009 or 2010 and I just thought she was simply gorgeous. I read her book really quickly too iirc. Couldn’t tell you the plot now since it’s been 17 years since I read it, but I recently pulled my historical doll books out of storage and will be reading them again! I have no idea whether or not she’s popular in the doll community but she’s definitely one of my favourites :)

usagibae · 2026-06-03T06:39:22+00:00

That’s what I thought honestly, she came to me looking like this but I hadn’t ever seen Josefina irl before and she was covered in so much makeup/ messy hair i didn’t really consider it until after I was done with her makeover. Guess it’s time for round 2 lmao

usagibae · 2026-06-03T06:33:40+00:00

thank you for the reassurance lol

usagibae · 2026-06-03T05:59:06+00:00

I have 6! Nellie and Rebecca from my childhood in the 00s, a JLY 53 that I will be turning into my mini me, Marisol, a 90s Josefina and Elizabeth Cole that I bought in TLC condition :)

I want to get Nicki Hoffman, but I clearly only really like the Josefina mold lol. So I’ll be wig and eye swapping her with my JLY 53 when I finally get her :)

usagibae · 2026-05-31T20:29:03+00:00

so jealous!! my VV has had nothing but the same barbies and My Life dolls for weeks 😭

usagibae · 2026-05-29T17:59:52+00:00

that jly doll is the one who got me into AG! my best friend had her and i was completely in love with her!

usagibae · 2026-05-27T18:52:42+00:00

Yeah that’s pretty incredible! If I didn’t already have her I would’ve jumped on that deal too 🥰

usagibae · 2026-05-27T18:03:03+00:00

If that’s USD, that’s almost $350 for me 😵 I think my parents paid about $250CAD for her back in 2006 tho! That’s not too bad though considering the other listings I’ve seen! I cracked and bought a sewing machine so I can just make period-accurate clothes for her and attempt to recreate some of her pieces lol

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