GRAND BAZZA GOOD OR BAD?????

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Master-lou-lou
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Post  Posted:

so i was thinking of getting harvest moon grand bazzaa but i wanted to ask the experts (u lot) so is it worth it
and wats it like is it simmarla to any other harvest moons

do u still get married
have kids
have a farm
ect ect
nofile
Anonymous Fish

Post  Posted:

I personally didn't like it too much, and it seems like a few others agree, but it is addicting, and does have its high points!
As for the similairites, I think that of of the HM series, this one strays farthest from the usual basic things, for instance you never need to upgrade you barn or coop or anything, because the standard one fits your max 20 chickens, 20 cows/sheep, and 1 horse. Also they took out the shipping bin, which is replaced by the weekly Bazaar, an entirley new concept, but you still marry, which still leads to having a kid, there are still hearts and heart events, still rival events(with no purpose), still a farm(with new crops), pets, things like that.
Master-lou-lou
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Post  Posted:

ok thanx it dose sound good i think ill try it out
kaitouX
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Post  Posted:

Someone asked that question before, and a few people posted some really good reviews, so you might want to check them out here.

Anyway, the basics are the same - you still have a farm, can get married and have kids. The biggest difference is the new feature - the titulous bazaar. It replaces the shipping bin as the main way you're going to make money. The bazaar is held once a week, so you need to stock up items during the week. It's an interesting gimmick, and the bazaar minigame is quite fun, although it might get boring fast. Other than that, a jumping mechanic was added - you can jump over rivers, people, you can even jump on your cows. It's useful while catching bugs. Ye,s you can catch bugs in this game. It's not a big profit, but it's another way to spend the time, which at least for me, is exceptionally slow.

As for the graphics, I'd say they're good. While I'm not a huge fan of 3D, I think it looks very nice. The way the characters are drawn is really cutesy, and it might not appeal to you. I don't really mind, myself.

Many people have said that it's a relaxing game - and I think I'll have to agree. The day is not as frantic as in IoH or SI, for example, and you've got plenty of time to do everything. Not that there's much to do. u.u It's a fairly... minimalistic game, to say. Actually, it's one of the game's biggest issues for me. It's so relaxing it can get really boring. The town is really small, and the villagers are pretty one-note. There's no mining in this game, so winter is even more uneventful than in the other games.

So, would I recommend this game? Honestly... I'm not sure. Especially since ToTT is coming very soon, and from what I heard, it's superior by a fair amount. So I think I'd wait for a little more and purchase ToTT instead.
KaiLover24
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Post  Posted:

This person gave probably the best review I've seen for this game, so I'm just going to quote it:
WhiteRaven93 wrote:Pros are in green. Cons are in red. Opinions are in blue. This is lengthy ( :oops: ), so feel free to skim the parts you're most interested in. (I had nothing better to do. v_v I'm so, so sorry.)

The bazaar
Spoiler:
It's a new aspect to the farming life. You're in a small town that is struggling to stay afloat. Everyone needs all the business they can get from the nearby city (and people traveling from all over the world later on). In all the other HM games, you've had someone take whatever you've stuffed into the shipping box and sell it to some unknown buyer(s). Here, no one is going to do your work for you. Like Lloyd says, "we all have to work hard for the bazaar." Gaining a good reputation will get you a prize. If you answer questions/statements correctly at the bazaar, you can gain reputation. If you have a high reputation rating, you will get a prize that you can eat, gift, or sell. The more completely the bazaar, the better your prize.

You only get a profit once a week (or in some cases, longer). In the beginning of the game, it's tough to do anything. You have to content yourself with watering what few turnip plants you've got, foraging, catching bugs, and talking/gifting people because there's nothing else you can do. You can sell bugs and such to Raul for a reduced price just to be able to buy another bag of turnip seeds. It's not until you've been to a couple bazaars and have gotten a baby chick/cow or some tools that you can start making money and settle into your role as a farmer. The reputation can be hard to get if you don't know what you're doing. There are some things that you'll know instinctively which answer to pick (Do you like the summer bazaar? Yes! Duh!). But there are some that just have weird/stupid answers. Like the "secret critic." If you give him what he asks for without charging, your rep goes up, but you've just been duped by a con artist. If you say no, your rep goes up but not as much. And sometimes it's not clear what the question is asking (are they asking for a free item or not? it's not clear).
Jumping
Spoiler:
You can jump. Admit it; no matter what your stance, it's freaking awesome to jump over the stupid cows and sheep that won't get out of the way instead of trying to push your way through the herd. It's a great time waster. Remember the days of running in a circle, waiting for time to pass? Now, you can jump and double jump in addition to running around. You can leap over rivers and scale ledges/cliffs. Now you don't have to go the long way around; just take a shortcut. The barrels also help with the spring-jump.

The sounds get really annoying after a while. If you've got the sound off, you don't mind, but if you happen to be listening to yourself jump through the town, you'll get irritated pretty quick. I happen to not mind the sound most of the time, but I can see how it would annoy people.
Pets
Spoiler:
They have a use. You can have five dogs which will take the cows and sheep into the pasture in the morning and bring them back into the barn in the evening. You can have five cats which will do the same with your chickens. You're not limited to one color or style of pet. There are four different colors of cats: black, white, orange, and yellow. There are two different styles of dog (the classic floppy-eared dog and pointy-eared dog that looks like a herding animal and not a pet), which come in a variety of colors (the classic dog also has different-colored bandannas/collars).

You have to feed them every day, or they'll lose hearts. You have to buy cans of pet food for the dogs and cats (one can will feed five animals) and carrot-shaped cookies for the horse. It's a pain to train them. The dogs and the horse aren't bad; throw a bone for the dogs and ride the horse around the track, and they'll gain stars quickly. The cats, however, take forever to train. I'm in year 3, and the cat I've had the longest has only just recently gotten her fourth star. It's a pain. You can't have a total of 10 pets. It's 5 dogs and 5 cats. No mixing, which is a pain. With four dogs at high star levels, all 20 large animals are taken care of. With training the cats as lengthy a process as it is, a sixth cat would be a huge help.
Tools
Spoiler:
You only need to upgrade the watering can and hoe. You only need the hoe when you want to plant seeds, so it's not an issue to upgrade all the way. The watering can, though, is used all the time, so having it at the max level is a good idea. You use a windmill to upgrade. It requires a few ingredients and takes about a day (maybe longer if you're lazy or have bad luck), but you don't have to pay someone to take your stuff and then return it a few days later. You don't need to charge your hoe or watering can to use the extended range. This saves you valuable time. The range is also extended when you jump.

Aside from the hoe and watering can, you must buy all your tools from Felix at the bazaar. Not only that, but you must buy them in order. For instance, you must first buy tool A, otherwise tool B will not appear at the booth next week. The axe and hammer are pretty useless. Once you're further into the game, you don't have to resort to selling material stone or wood for a little bit extra profit, so the only time you need to use these tools is when you want to break open an ore stone with the hammer or if you need material to upgrade a tool (or for an ingredient). You have three different fishing rods. Instead of having one fishing rod that you can charge, you have a long, medium, and short fishing rod that you upgrade to catch better-ranked fish of a certain size (generally, long = big fish, medium = medium fish, short = small fish). You can't charge your tools. Control was sacrificed for time-saving; it's either full range or not at all. This, I think, is the main reason you can't upgrade your sickle. If you could upgrade it to cut down more than one plant at a time, you could harvest wheat and clear fields at the end of a season much quicker; however, since you can't charge your tools to a certain range, you would likely cut down a plant you wanted to keep. Thus, you can't upgrade the sickle at all. To counteract the time you save in the field by not charging, the milker, shears, and brush take an unnecessarily long time to use. There is a reason why many people stop brushing their animals; it takes hours in game to use a tool on every animal, which is unfortunate.
Windmills
Spoiler:
You can make your produce/crops/foraged items into items that sell for much more. Would you rather sell grapes or wine? Milk or yogurt/cheese? Wool or yarn? It makes a difference. Upgrade your tools free of charge and make accessories (that can actually help you). Gone are the days of paying someone else to upgrade your stuff or turn your bits and pieces into something decent. You can blow into the mic to decrease the time it takes to make an item. Some things just take a long time to make. It's nice when a few seconds of breath can get your items that much quicker.

You can only make 6 stacks of 10 items at a time. For instance, if I wanted to make cheese from milk and had 70 milk, I would have to put in 6 stacks of 10 milk each and have 10 milk left over. If I wanted to get those last 10 milk into cheese, I'd have to wait until one of the current stacks was finished and removed. The larger your stack, the longer it takes to make. A stack of 1 milk will be finished long before a stack of 10 milk. It sucks, but whatcha gonna do? There are some items you can't make until you have a certain wonderful installed. Wonderfuls aren't even sold until your bazaar is at 75%, and even then, you might not get the right one. It's a matter of luck. You also can't buy two Wonderfuls of the same color. The windmills are unlocked only at certain times. There's nothing you can do to speed up or trigger the events where one of the men comes and shows you the windmills. The windmills will become available one by one at the end Spring, Summer, and Fall. Before then, you simply cannot get inside to use them; they taunt you. T_T
Music
Spoiler:
It's calm and peaceful or else it's happy. What do you expect? It's Harvest Moon here!

It gets repetitive. But then, that's nothing new. Again, it's Harvest Moon.

I like it. It's pretty much a personal preference. If you don't like it, listen to something else while you play.
Graphics
Spoiler:
I like it. It's cute and fun and easy on the eyes. Like the music, the graphics are largely a personal matter. It's cutesy and you definitely can't say the bachelor(ettes) look their age. Some people will love it. Some will hate it. Others won't care at all.
Bugs
Spoiler:
You can catch and sell bugs. Before, they were just for decoration. Now, you can spend your empty days catching bugs. Some villagers like bugs, but others don't. Be careful when giving them as gifts. They can also be sold at the bazaar or to Raul.

They don't sell for much. Even though they're ranked from common to uncommon to rare (green, silver, gold) and have a star rank, they're just bugs at the end of the day. Nothing special.
Fishing
Spoiler:
You can fish in winter. Er, that's pretty much the only pro I can think of... ._.

You can only fish off the docks. You can't buy a fishing rod for a while. You have to have three fishing rods and upgrade them separately to get decent fish. If you don't upgrade to catch better-ranked fish, they're not worth much. You can't stack fish easily. Since fish are listed by kind (black bass, mackerel, etc.) and not size (fish (S), fish (M), fish (L) ), you can't stack them. You also can't stack fish of a different star rank or of different sizes. I usually like fishing, but not in this one.
Weather
Spoiler:
You can go outside during storms. The wind system can be beneficial. Wind is a big part of the game; the stronger the wind, the faster you can process items in your windmills. When it storms, your crops and fields aren't in danger. No more worrying if that last storm just wiped out your whole crop of wheat just days before harvest.

You can't predict the weather. No weather channel, radio, or wise old man to give you a heads up. You're on your own here. Sometimes your animals will wander outside in a storm. Not all of them, thank « Harvest Goddess », but you'll have to push the stupid thing back inside, brush it, feed it, and pray it doesn't get sick. If it's not Friday and if you don't already have a store, go pick up some animal medicine just in case. It'll be stressed.
Crops
Spoiler:
You've a few new crops and trees. You can check the full list here. It's a much easier time growing them than in SI, that's for sure. You can water them twice a day to speed up growth time. You can use fertilizer to raise the star rank of your crops, and on full grown trees, you can use it during the flowering stage to increase your chances of getting more produce. If you fertilize an olive tree while it's flowering, you have a greater chance of harvesting three olives instead of just one or two.

When it rains, you only get benefits of one watering. It's not bad, necessarily, since you don't have to water, but you miss out on that extra watering. One bag of seeds is good for only one square of land. Farewell, 9x9 seed bags. I shall forever mourn you.
Characters
Spoiler:
They're all very kind and helpful. It's Harvest Moon; there are no villains. The mayor isn't a wimpy old man for once. Felix is a bodybuilder. :o Yeah.

They're a little bland. They could have had a bit more personality. As it is, they're kind of generic. There is a very small pool of marriageable characters. And they're all pretty similar (well, none of them stand out much). I liked the boys after a short time, but the girls are very similar and generic. It was a bit of a disappointment. Personally, the only girl I'd like to marry is Marian, but she's off limits. -pout- There aren't many people. I don't like the villages with thirty people you have to talk to every day, but there aren't many people here. That's just a fact.
Festivals
Spoiler:
You have several festivals each season. Cooking festivals, eating festivals, romantic festivals, animal/pet festivals. In most festivals, you win a prize if you come in first place. In the wine and tea festivals, you get a prize just for showing up. Some of the prizes are quite expensive/rare as well, so work hard!

You only get one animal festival a year. Instead a chicken, cow, and sheep festival each year, you get a chicken fest. one year, a sheep fest. the next, a cow fest. the next, and so on. There aren't many romantic festivals. Off the top of my head, I can only think of the Harmony Days and Starry Night.
Storage
Spoiler:
You can upgrade your storage bin's capacity and preservation. Like, a lot. Your storage bin serves as both shelf-storage and fridge-storage. Increasing the capacity lets you store more stuff. Increasing preservation lets your perishables (such as flowers and crops) last much longer.

In the very beginning, your storage bin is smaller than your rucksack. It takes two upgrades to get to the same storage as your rucksack. You cannot upgrade your rucksack. At all.
Time
Spoiler:
One minute in real time equals one hour in game time. Make of that what you will. Time does not stop indoors; I like this, but others may not.

You cannot pause your game. You may only save your game when you go to bed. This means no saving before a cutscene or festival to try to redo them. A lot of people don't like this, but I actually enjoy it quite a bit. In other games without this feature, I forget where I am and what I'm doing in the storyline. This way, I know that I'm starting a day fresh.
Fields
Spoiler:
You have the option of having three fields and a basement. This totals to four fields. Your basement, when you have it built, comes with a spring sun to grow spring crops. Later on, you can buy summer and fall suns at the bazaar.

You cannot use fertilizer in your basement. It's the only downfall to growing trees down there. If you're going to plant trees, you are most definitely going to wish your fields were bigger. Each field has room to grow on six trees (which take a 9x9 grid). You're going to want another field or two, but your limit is, sadly, four.
Animals
Spoiler:
Chickens, cows, and sheep need only be put outside to graze on a sunny or cloudy day, and you won't need to feed them. If it's rainy or stormy, they won't go out. If it's snowy, your dogs will take out the larger animals, but you must still feed them. Sheep can be sheared every three days as long as they aren't stressed. Much better than waiting two full weeks. Brown cows, black sheep, and black chickens will be sold in year 3 or later. They give better quality produce than the regular animals. If your animals wins a festival, there's a chance it could produce golden eggs/milk/wool. However, this isn't a guaranteed thing.

You can't sell your animals. So, if you decide you want a barn with all brown cows and black sheep, you have to wait until your current animals die. Which is depressing. You can't breed animals. Miracle potions are out. So are hatching eggs. You must buy all your animals as adults or babies from the bazaar.
Mining
Spoiler:
There is no mine at all.The Grand Bazaar version of mining is a poor substitute. You jump in a river hoping an Ore Stone will catch on your clothes (unlikely) or forage Ore Stones in winter. By breaking them open with a hammer, you will find different types of metals (scrap iron, silver, bronze, gold) or perhaps some other special thing usually found through mining. Lloyd will also have four random types of ores that he sells at the bazaar. Frankly, I think it's a shame that there wasn't a mine. It could have been a nice little trick to open a mine behind the waterfall once you'd met Emiko.
... -reads over post- Oh geez... :oops: :oops: :oops: I'm so sorry... -embarrassed-

EDIT: After all that, I forgot to mention. Despite obvious flaws I am completely in love with this game. I don't have to think too hard about it (except for now, when I spend two hours writing this beast). And yeah, I hate that too about crops. Grrrr. I don't want to walk, I want to run. Corn has never been hurt by a person running through a cornfield. Why should it now?
pshycho
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Post  Posted:

There's been a few topics like this, I would suggest looking them up.
I personally wasn't a fan, but I know some people like it. Kai basicly gave the best answer so there isn't much room for me to say anything. I wouldn't suggest getting it but it's your money.

There's also the getting married, having kids, ect. But that's in every HM game.
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harvestmoongirl333
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Post  Posted:

You'll meet mixed reviews.
Grand Bazaar is shiny, new, and... rubbery. Literally, almost everything bounces and is reduced to chibi-like graphics.

It's pretty fun, until the newness wears off and you'll just find yourself spamming the grass seeds trick to raise the bazaar.
You can still get married, but I played far enough to.
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CRAVINHO
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Post  Posted:

I'm enjoying it so far but with tales of two towns around the corner you might as well wait for that
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harvestmoongirl333
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CRAVINHO wrote:I'm enjoying it so far but with tales of two towns around the corner you might as well wait for that
and this.
192056954155812518
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Post  Posted:

ugh awful. i regret wasting my moneys.
suzy parsley
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Post  Posted:

Somewhat good because of Lloyd, but bad overall.
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Kiizuli
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Aw, I personally really like Grand Bazaar! Okay yeah, there are few real annoying things (such as the noises your character is making) but that doesn't necessarily make it bad... at least not for me.

First I was unsure whether I should buy it or not since quite the many people didn't seem to like GB. Now I'm glad I decided to get it then! It's fun and interesting to make new products for each bazaar. Planning and organizing things is what me likes. I've had lots of fun with this game by now. :lala:

Oh yeah, and horse jumping is the best btw! :--D
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Ponyxskye
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Post  Posted:

i think the game is pretty good,it has the pros and cons.

pros:the graphics are beautiful,it feels soooo mystical and the music is good as well!
some new festivals,the new love candidates of course!!!i love ivan! :heart:
the bazaar is different and can be fun,easy to make money there and hard as well,you start with a kitchen and barn,yay~,you can catch bugs,and you can jump too!

cons:the big problem is that the characters are watered down,or so i hear,they seem fine to me!!!
NO MORE MINING!!! aww...i know in hmds it was all you could do in the beginning so it was getting kinda boring,but still it would have been nice to have it in this game,for extra cash and when you're bored!!!
i miss the harvest goddess,she's a very important character in the other games,but not this one...
not much to do either..it's like 10 am and there's already NOTHING to do!

still good game and i love it!!!
Alivieina
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Post  Posted:

New here!

I just got the game as a gift apparently according to one of my Harvest Moon loving friends this game is no longer being made. But you can still find copies lying around game stores.

It is a bit more difficult than say ToT or AP or other harvest moon games. Things like freshness ratings are important since if you don't keep it fresh it doesn't sell for much. And you have to fertilize things a lot in order to get a better star rating until you can make seeds in the windmill. Not being able to sell your products right away is frustrating. I often found myself getting nervous when my storage began to fill up and my rucksack couldn't take much more items.

I think though once I upgrade it will be fine. But overall I like the game. Its cute, and enjoyable. It can get dull every now and then and I wish the characters popped more like in some of the other games. Im still waiting for TToTT but this is a good one to get if you like something a bit different (however i HATE the no mining/No Fun fishing bit. whenever it rains it is super boring and I often go to bed early XD)
Ghetsis
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Post  Posted:

I think Grand Bazaar is very fun. I personally like this game, graphic is nice, I can plant lots of crops, barn is big, selling method is very fun :lala: . In one word, I like this game.
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