Where to start?

Winds of Anthos is my first Harvest Moon game since Animal Parade which I last played in 2014. I was initially skeptical about getting the game since I heard the HM games post split that were made by Natsume were underwhelming, but this one is definitely a massive improvement over the last 2 ones.

Let’s categorize it to the Pros and Cons shall we?

Pros:
- Simple, cute, and clean graphics
- Ability to customize skin, eye, and hair colors
- Female player character looks really good with all Pink :D (Biased)
- Neat animation for entering houses
- Unlimited Stamina during tutorial (Please chop all the trees in tutorial)
- Good choices for marriage candidates (Lina ftw, she reminds me of Luna from AP)
- Same sex marriage available (Cool way to have a child for it too)
- Easy to level up hearts with marriage candidates
- Auto select tool system
- Open world
- Expando farm, can move your farm around the world
- Fast travel system
- Never ending NPC quests that repeat
- Cultural Level mechanic
- Map sorting system
- Shops giving discounts sometimes
- Above Average HM story
- Unique terrains and landscapes
- Seasonal terrains that appear/disappear
- Can selfie using Docpad
- Dowsing mechanic for mines (also falling stones!)
- Each village has its unique ambient
- Improved Crop mutation mechanic
- Fencing your crops to protect them from storms/blizzards
- You can craft sprinklers to water crops automatically at 6-7am each day
- Harvest Sprites giving seeds is a cool idea
- Can tame wild animals
- Releasing tamed wild animals return them to same spot with same affection
- Animal varieties! There’s a lot in game especially if you got the Animal Avalanche Pack which adds some cool looking animals
- Fishing is no longer a waiting game, it requires active effort from the player
- Fishing is the main money maker
- Fishing somehow don't really use up stamina
- Farmable Miracle Truffles (Max 4) and Golden Carp that sell a lot
- Ability to make/cook several stuff at once
- Can use substitute ingredients when cooking
- Ability to use compost for fertilizer
- Warm + Cool outfits craftable in base game
- Hot + Cold effects take place when entering certain terrains
- Ability to keep track of crop harvested and recipes cooked
- Post main game, HG can convert crops to seeds and increase seeds

Cons:
- Game requires a controller on PC
- Lack of graphic options
- Lack of customization for outfits, only 2 additional ones with the exception of the Steampunk outfit from DLC
- Rarely, game can get stuck in infinite load when you: 1) collect seeds when clock hits 6am; 2) enter house with cooking/crafting active
- Tutorial has the potential to be stuck with finding Silver Ore early game
- Game only opens up once the barn is built
- Fast clock, 8 mins per day (average 15-20 mins per day if you do stuff)
- You use Stamina when walking, more when running. (Get the free Brown Horse ASAP near Providence)
- Some minor typos and weird dialogues (“That Silver looks delicious!”)
- Dialogue can sometimes sound uninspiring
- No one celebrates your birthday except HG mentioning it
- Anthos Expo is a pain to win
- Non marriage NPCs can look bland
- NPCs never walk around indoor (except your partner after marriage)
- NPCs stand idly during festivals
- Never ending NPC quests that repeat (2)
- Socializing ain't super important
- To unlock Cultural Level 3, certain villages require you to do quests that require a lot of milk (One of them needs 30 in total, no kidding) (Please farm Judy to get milks)
- Certain NPCS goes missing in unique events (Festivals and your birthday, specifically the Twin-Tailed girls and Travelers)
- Whistle sound for mount is kinda loud
- Grazing for farm animals does not feed them, only improves mood
- Some areas of the world feel emptier
- Cannot customize interior of house
- Fishing is the money maker (2)
- Fishing somehow don't really use up stamina (2)
- Cannot toss seeds and fertilizers in 3x3
- Field have to be fully fenced off to protect crops
- Crops don’t sell much at all, even the giant ones only is 10x more G
- Inability to keep track on how many of a certain fish was caught
- Your child would need constant babysitting and a lot of milk, until they are fully grown 3 whole seasons later

Overall, I still thought the game was pretty good, definitely worth the purchase for me. Although, I did went ahead and emulate Animal Parade again on my phone this time. AP is still my favourite HM game of all time.

Update: Platted the game, I really enjoyed that 150 hrs overall.

WOA: 8/10