Maeshka
Greenhorn
General thoughts: Persistent NPC’s don’t need to have the same sort of progression route; not everyone needs to be gift-able or romance-able. The important thing is making sure that they feel like they ‘fit’ in the game and are not just a gameplay mechanic. I'm going to ignore one offs like The Goblin Henchman, minor npc's without portraits or things like Witch/Fairy. Nothing can be too expansive that would warrant its own game or mod.
Morris and Pierre Expansion: Right now these two shopkeepers feel less like characters and more like a seasonal menu. Despite being gift-able; Pierre doesn’t have anything past 6 hearts, and his story just feels unfinished, and he doesn’t even give you a recipe like other NPC’s! Selling a bigger backpack would be nice too; because I would pay any price for another inventory row. For Pierre; you could tie events to how much money that you spend at his store and expand on his boxing past. After spending 50,000g in his store he teaches you his; ‘mean right hook’ that gives a 1% crit chance and +10% crit damage upgrade. At 100,000g he teaches you how to block a punch and you get a +1 def and +5hp. There is so much room to make him more interesting than just greedy and sort of a jerk.
Morris’ situation is more complicated. There would need to be a larger expansion on making Jojomart a more reasonable choice; because right now there is little reason to lock yourself out of the Community Center Path. I don’t know what percentage of players are Jojomart members, but I can’t imagine many outside of getting achievements or a feeling of completion. The Movie theatre is way too cool to pass up! After Morris’ Jojomart branch gets closed down; have him work at the Movie Theatre instead? Or; there is an empty lot just north of Clint’s Blacksmith; and have Morris buy that land, build a house and start farming himself. Just something small and have him redeem himself, become part of the community or become a sort of an apprentice/foil for the farmer. It would be an easy way to have the farmer’s skills and professions get used and shown off. Things like teaching Morris the basics of foraging, mining, fishing, farming and even monster hunting and making him acclimate to the valley life. Having Morris lampshade the game's mechanics, poke fun at the farmer's journey and try to meta-gift his way into befriending Pierre.
Gunter, Gil, Marlon Krobus and the Dwarf: These are all group together because they are all sort of in the same situation. They need a little bit of polish before they feel properly fleshed out.
Gunter already has clear progression route given the donations; but it feels like he is missing something. Maybe an event after finishing the Museum, or that he gets free more free time post curating/researching/indexing and can start going to festivals.
Gil and Marlon feel like they need a little bit more; they have progression with the mines but nothing to do with the Skull Cavern or Volcano Dungeon. Having Gil setup shop to buy/sell empty treasure rooms or a random chance floor in the skull cavern would be useful. Marlon already goes to festivals; but could do something else. Like buff/debuff monsters or alter the floor layouts in some way. Healing the player, exploding 10% of the rocks, weakening the monsters etc. There is so much room for (un)balance and interesting effects that could make combat more interesting. Marlon's can be tied to your player's combat level; so at level 1 there is a chance of him buffing you with the Sturdy Ring buff for the duration of your stay in the mines. Warrior ring at level 4, Thorns ring/Yoba ring at 7 and maybe an Iridium Ring at 10. It wouldn't outright replace said rings but it would be a neat way to showcase them because they don't get a lot of love.
Lastly; Krobus and Dwarf both need more content and a little bit of meat on them. Having Krobus as a roommate was a unique option and would like to see more friendship events with him. It also isn’t really addressed that you learned another language, can speak to elemental monsters and bears, found all these artefacts and weapons. The dwarf doesn’t need to get the same sort of treatment that Krobus did; but any sort of expansion would be nice.
Relationships, Growth and Pregnancy: It would be really nice if there was a hint or a note in the UI that would inform you of what to do when you have met the requirements to see a heart event. I only saw Alex's first beach event...on year 3. Something as simple as 'Visit Maru on a rainy day' would be perfect so you don't forget about it.
Clint really needs some love or any sort of momentum. Why are some of his events missable if you are friendly with Emily first? He doesn't get better; he doesn't grow and even after unlocking the resort he is still just as sad and negative. I was hoping being his wing man and encouraging him would have some pay off; but that didn't happen.
Kent is largely absent for most of the game; half of the game if you go by the Harvest Moon standard of playing till the Evaluation. Afterwards he is sort of just there existing. Kent isn't difficult to befriend and he doesn't really open up to you that much either.
Pregnancy just needs to be fleshed out further. Your spouse barely talk about it; likewise there isn't any check ups at the Clinic or, no shopping at Pierre's for baby supplies. For such a milestone it is odd that it is treated the same as getting a new chick in the coop.
Crafting: This is almost perfect it just needs another round of polish. Some items just seem to be baffling at how late you get them or how they serve no use end game. I've never crafted anything with Radioactive bars and by the time I could get the heavy tapper I had no need for it. Garden pots would have been nice a lot earlier as well, I've never used transmute recipes, solar panels are gotten so late in the game that after 3 years of thunder storms I have no need or desire to make them. The Charcoal kilin is to inefficient to get any use and the barbed hook is just bad for when you get it. All of the sprinklers can use a range upgrade baseline; the normal sprinkler is such a disappointment and I rarely use it outside of trellises or filling in odd gaps.
Edit: I forgot something about rings, crafting and pregnancy.
Morris and Pierre Expansion: Right now these two shopkeepers feel less like characters and more like a seasonal menu. Despite being gift-able; Pierre doesn’t have anything past 6 hearts, and his story just feels unfinished, and he doesn’t even give you a recipe like other NPC’s! Selling a bigger backpack would be nice too; because I would pay any price for another inventory row. For Pierre; you could tie events to how much money that you spend at his store and expand on his boxing past. After spending 50,000g in his store he teaches you his; ‘mean right hook’ that gives a 1% crit chance and +10% crit damage upgrade. At 100,000g he teaches you how to block a punch and you get a +1 def and +5hp. There is so much room to make him more interesting than just greedy and sort of a jerk.
Morris’ situation is more complicated. There would need to be a larger expansion on making Jojomart a more reasonable choice; because right now there is little reason to lock yourself out of the Community Center Path. I don’t know what percentage of players are Jojomart members, but I can’t imagine many outside of getting achievements or a feeling of completion. The Movie theatre is way too cool to pass up! After Morris’ Jojomart branch gets closed down; have him work at the Movie Theatre instead? Or; there is an empty lot just north of Clint’s Blacksmith; and have Morris buy that land, build a house and start farming himself. Just something small and have him redeem himself, become part of the community or become a sort of an apprentice/foil for the farmer. It would be an easy way to have the farmer’s skills and professions get used and shown off. Things like teaching Morris the basics of foraging, mining, fishing, farming and even monster hunting and making him acclimate to the valley life. Having Morris lampshade the game's mechanics, poke fun at the farmer's journey and try to meta-gift his way into befriending Pierre.
Gunter, Gil, Marlon Krobus and the Dwarf: These are all group together because they are all sort of in the same situation. They need a little bit of polish before they feel properly fleshed out.
Gunter already has clear progression route given the donations; but it feels like he is missing something. Maybe an event after finishing the Museum, or that he gets free more free time post curating/researching/indexing and can start going to festivals.
Gil and Marlon feel like they need a little bit more; they have progression with the mines but nothing to do with the Skull Cavern or Volcano Dungeon. Having Gil setup shop to buy/sell empty treasure rooms or a random chance floor in the skull cavern would be useful. Marlon already goes to festivals; but could do something else. Like buff/debuff monsters or alter the floor layouts in some way. Healing the player, exploding 10% of the rocks, weakening the monsters etc. There is so much room for (un)balance and interesting effects that could make combat more interesting. Marlon's can be tied to your player's combat level; so at level 1 there is a chance of him buffing you with the Sturdy Ring buff for the duration of your stay in the mines. Warrior ring at level 4, Thorns ring/Yoba ring at 7 and maybe an Iridium Ring at 10. It wouldn't outright replace said rings but it would be a neat way to showcase them because they don't get a lot of love.
Lastly; Krobus and Dwarf both need more content and a little bit of meat on them. Having Krobus as a roommate was a unique option and would like to see more friendship events with him. It also isn’t really addressed that you learned another language, can speak to elemental monsters and bears, found all these artefacts and weapons. The dwarf doesn’t need to get the same sort of treatment that Krobus did; but any sort of expansion would be nice.
Relationships, Growth and Pregnancy: It would be really nice if there was a hint or a note in the UI that would inform you of what to do when you have met the requirements to see a heart event. I only saw Alex's first beach event...on year 3. Something as simple as 'Visit Maru on a rainy day' would be perfect so you don't forget about it.
Clint really needs some love or any sort of momentum. Why are some of his events missable if you are friendly with Emily first? He doesn't get better; he doesn't grow and even after unlocking the resort he is still just as sad and negative. I was hoping being his wing man and encouraging him would have some pay off; but that didn't happen.
Kent is largely absent for most of the game; half of the game if you go by the Harvest Moon standard of playing till the Evaluation. Afterwards he is sort of just there existing. Kent isn't difficult to befriend and he doesn't really open up to you that much either.
Pregnancy just needs to be fleshed out further. Your spouse barely talk about it; likewise there isn't any check ups at the Clinic or, no shopping at Pierre's for baby supplies. For such a milestone it is odd that it is treated the same as getting a new chick in the coop.
Crafting: This is almost perfect it just needs another round of polish. Some items just seem to be baffling at how late you get them or how they serve no use end game. I've never crafted anything with Radioactive bars and by the time I could get the heavy tapper I had no need for it. Garden pots would have been nice a lot earlier as well, I've never used transmute recipes, solar panels are gotten so late in the game that after 3 years of thunder storms I have no need or desire to make them. The Charcoal kilin is to inefficient to get any use and the barbed hook is just bad for when you get it. All of the sprinklers can use a range upgrade baseline; the normal sprinkler is such a disappointment and I rarely use it outside of trellises or filling in odd gaps.
Edit: I forgot something about rings, crafting and pregnancy.
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