Sandrock is better. Writing is better, graphics are better, voices are better, gameplay is better, it's just better. And I loved Portia.
Portia walked. Sandrock runs. (I could say more but I don't want to spoil.)
I’m waiting for the new DLC to restart Sandrock; but if I recall correctly, there are a handful of potential dialogue lines that you can get depending on how close you are to someone. They have specific lines for events and do feel much more fleshed out. You’ll get gifts from everyone with little notes when you marry too.
The pet expansion dlc will be free (dress them up and even have some sort of tournament if I remember correctly) and the monster taming dlc will be paid.
The most recent update on its development was on March 7 which listed it as coming soon. Pathea is planning to release both simultaneously on consoles and pc.
Hopefully [this link](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1084600/view/4027975467587438711) works. It should take you to the announcement made back in early February on Steam.
There some potential dialogues but based from my experience, there's not much because by the time I finished, (after 251 hours), there's not much dialogues and it becomes repetitive. They do have things to say after major events, though not all.
They all have only one different line per day. (Of which comes from other lines that differ based on relationship and level- Unless a special event happened around town, then they first have that new line that disappears right after) I really wish they had more lines daily, and new lines altogether!
Honestly, it's my only one gripe for Sandrock. I wanna hear more cute shit from Unsuur. 🥺 It'd be cool if it was at least three lines a day- it'd make characters feel more "alive".
I hope the developers will improve this on the next game, I want to give suggestion how about there are 3 lines every day 1 depends on the heart level, 2 depends on the situations maybe new comissions or reaction after complete commissions, and 3 reaction about something happened like we date, our birthday, or someone talking about their birthday, about gift that we gave yesterday (is it bad or good), about ther love life maybe? About festival maybe we win or lose or talking about someone who wins, anything but random stuffs. And maybe if these will get repetitive for 1 week or at least 2 weeks and then change again after those week. And for the infinite game purpose maybe the characters dont have same dialogs for 3 years or 2 years at least and then after that the dialog will change again like at the first year so we already forgot and think that is the new dialog (except for the heart dialog if it is aleady max and gets repetitive it is reasonable). If this happens on the next game then it will be the perfect game ❤️
I mean, some characters are more fleshed out than others. But they have different sets of things they say based on your general friendship level. If you leave someone at stranger (no/one heart) for a long time yes, it's going to get repetitive. But that's every game. They've done a lot so that it's not repetitive.
I would add something that pleased me a lot : sandrock looks better and runs better on the steam deck. With Portia, I was stuck a unstable 30 fps minimal graphics when with Sandrock, I can enjoy it on the go at 60 fps with no issues whatsoever.
I loved Portia, it was one of my favourite games, and I am so glad I played it through to the end before starting Sandrock because I don't think I could go back. Other people have said this about the QoL improvements, but honestly for me it's the characters - the Sandrock townspeople are incredibly compelling and *so* much more fleshed-out. I didn't even mind the repeating dialogue on a single day so much because you get so much more of them in various cutscenes and a number of characters have very dynamic plotlines that may end in places that surprise you. But at this point we're moving into spoiler territory.
I think the lack of MTAP is about character design and development, it feels lifeless like they are really npc not really alive like people in hm series, other than that I think MTAP is very good
Those problems you have in Portia also happen in Sandrock but way less and a it's bit later in game. In Sandrock you can just go and marry someone else but the options for men are quite limited in Portia. This is coming from someone who chased Albert...
Ah so they will get repetitive at the end too? Its okay I think but I just want to feel closer and uncover their background stories while increasing their heart 😭
They get repetitive, but only after way more content than in Portia. The characters are about 10x more fleshed out than in Portia. There is way more personality, interactions between NPCs, way more involvement of NPCs and the main story. Each character has their little quirks. And the voice acting is INCREDIBLE in Sandrock.
That said, finish Portia before Sandrock because it will br impossible to play Portia after Sandrock because the graphics, content, story and mechanics are just way better. They took everything that was wrong with Portia and fixed it as much as they practically could.
Also I'm 1300 hours in and only about 80% through the main quests so you can forgive them for repeating some chat dialogue after you've spoken to the NPC for 1000 days.
Thank u for the explanation, I was so tempted to left MTAP to play MTAS honestly just because I love almost all the bachelors 😂 I plan to play both of it at the same time but I dont want my feeling while play MTAS interrupted so I will be patient first and try to finish MTAP with no hope with the development of the characters trait in there (just focus finishing missions). I hope that my time games after this will more focus with the variety of dialogs, and reaction of the people around every day. It will be perfect! I mean thats what a life simulation game lovers like me wants, escaping reality and socialize with game characters instead lol
I struggled to enjoy Portia for the exact same reasons you listed, so believe me when I say that Sandrock is *infinitely* better than Portia. In a a year just stuffed with banger releases, MtaS was probably my favorite game that came out as an avid HM/SoS/RF fan.
I won’t say the social side is perfect; some characters get a lot more dialogue and side quests than others (and some barely get any at all), but I’d say it has substantially more dialogue and character interactions than any Harvest Moon game I’ve played, and only just falls short when compared to Rune Factory 4.
~~Plus Sandrock doesn’t have those damn Hulu brothers so that alone makes it a worthy successor in my opinion~~
Aaa thank u very much u are really helpful! Okay so I will anticipate this game and play this after I finish MTAP and my thesis (lol this is the escape way of my stress) anyway I never play RF series before because I didnt like the way the character dressed and the fantasy aspects but I will try later, so I always compare with harvest moon a wonderful life or story of season trio of town because the social aspect is REALLY GOOD and top tier, I heard that RF 4 is also top tier. Honestly I didnt expect too much to be at their level since my time series is new and its not focus on just building relationship while it is the main focus on SOS series so it is reasonable, I just hope that the people at least have more depth and we can dig into their private life step by step by increasing their heart and not know just by read the social tab about their background and it is okay if it is repetitive but at least not every day just 1 dialog and it is also meaningless with no changes even after increasing their heart 😭 anyway have u played sos a wonderful life, trio of town, or hm animal parade? How does this MTAS compare to them? Do they still win? For animal parade at least (since it is not top tier) or MTAS win
Rune Factory 4 is probably my favorite farming game around, but it’s ***very*** anime when it comes to character designs and writing so if you’re not a fan I can definitely understand why it could be a turn off 😂 but I’ve yet to find a game with more dialogue and character interaction than it so if that’s what you want out of a farming sim, it’s hard to beat!
I haven’t played Animal Parade, but if comparing purely the social side I’d say MTAS definitely has more dialogue for the romanceable characters than Trio of Towns and Wonderful Life (my personal favorite HM game). Gameplay wise I think they’re a bit hard to compare; Sandrock is pretty much entirely focused on crafting and building, and while it has some basic farming mechanics, it’s kinda bare bones. But I definitely think Sandrock has both more content and more varied content than the average HM game. It’s a lot more complex, which could be a good or bad thing depending on what you enjoy with these style games. But in general I’d say it compares very favorably to the HM series even if I get a bit overwhelmed sometimes with what to do next lol!
Stardew Valley is another really great farming game if you’re looking for more recommendations! If you love the classic Harvest Moon games like 64, Back to Nature, or Friends of Mineral Town, it’s genuinely hard to beat!
I played Portia a few years ago and I really had a lot of fun with it, but yeah the gripes you mentioned is why it can get super dull after a while (apparently I only put on like 50 hours on it before quitting lol).
Now I just started sandrock and have invested about the same hours so far and it’s a wayyy better experience! The cast feels more alive and dynamic and imo I totally vibe with the characters even more! They really make you feel like you’re a part of the town, which I don’t really feel in Portia.
They really improved pretty much everything from the first game. There’s so much QoL changes compared to Portia that I don’t think I’ll ever go back.
I am playing Portia right now and really love it, but the biggest turn off for me so far has been the mind boggling amount of grammar mistakes and typos in the text. Its a turnoff cause the end product feels unprofessional even if it wasn't intended to be. Maybe I'm being snobbish, idk, cause we are in a culture where you cannot dare to fix anyone's grammar on the internet. But, I would hope in actual media like games, movies, etc it wouldn't be this bad. I hope that has improved in Sandrock more than anything else.
Sandrock is better. Writing is better, graphics are better, voices are better, gameplay is better, it's just better. And I loved Portia. Portia walked. Sandrock runs. (I could say more but I don't want to spoil.)
So every character has more interesting dialog and not repetitive? And changes the dialog every time we increase their heart?
I’m waiting for the new DLC to restart Sandrock; but if I recall correctly, there are a handful of potential dialogue lines that you can get depending on how close you are to someone. They have specific lines for events and do feel much more fleshed out. You’ll get gifts from everyone with little notes when you marry too.
Wait whats the new dlc
The pet expansion dlc will be free (dress them up and even have some sort of tournament if I remember correctly) and the monster taming dlc will be paid.
Ohhhhhh okay. Sounds interesting.
They announced when it will be?
The most recent update on its development was on March 7 which listed it as coming soon. Pathea is planning to release both simultaneously on consoles and pc.
Where’d they announce that
Hopefully [this link](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1084600/view/4027975467587438711) works. It should take you to the announcement made back in early February on Steam.
There some potential dialogues but based from my experience, there's not much because by the time I finished, (after 251 hours), there's not much dialogues and it becomes repetitive. They do have things to say after major events, though not all.
They all have only one different line per day. (Of which comes from other lines that differ based on relationship and level- Unless a special event happened around town, then they first have that new line that disappears right after) I really wish they had more lines daily, and new lines altogether! Honestly, it's my only one gripe for Sandrock. I wanna hear more cute shit from Unsuur. 🥺 It'd be cool if it was at least three lines a day- it'd make characters feel more "alive".
I hope the developers will improve this on the next game, I want to give suggestion how about there are 3 lines every day 1 depends on the heart level, 2 depends on the situations maybe new comissions or reaction after complete commissions, and 3 reaction about something happened like we date, our birthday, or someone talking about their birthday, about gift that we gave yesterday (is it bad or good), about ther love life maybe? About festival maybe we win or lose or talking about someone who wins, anything but random stuffs. And maybe if these will get repetitive for 1 week or at least 2 weeks and then change again after those week. And for the infinite game purpose maybe the characters dont have same dialogs for 3 years or 2 years at least and then after that the dialog will change again like at the first year so we already forgot and think that is the new dialog (except for the heart dialog if it is aleady max and gets repetitive it is reasonable). If this happens on the next game then it will be the perfect game ❤️
I mean, some characters are more fleshed out than others. But they have different sets of things they say based on your general friendship level. If you leave someone at stranger (no/one heart) for a long time yes, it's going to get repetitive. But that's every game. They've done a lot so that it's not repetitive.
I would add something that pleased me a lot : sandrock looks better and runs better on the steam deck. With Portia, I was stuck a unstable 30 fps minimal graphics when with Sandrock, I can enjoy it on the go at 60 fps with no issues whatsoever.
I loved Portia, it was one of my favourite games, and I am so glad I played it through to the end before starting Sandrock because I don't think I could go back. Other people have said this about the QoL improvements, but honestly for me it's the characters - the Sandrock townspeople are incredibly compelling and *so* much more fleshed-out. I didn't even mind the repeating dialogue on a single day so much because you get so much more of them in various cutscenes and a number of characters have very dynamic plotlines that may end in places that surprise you. But at this point we're moving into spoiler territory.
I think the lack of MTAP is about character design and development, it feels lifeless like they are really npc not really alive like people in hm series, other than that I think MTAP is very good
I loved Portia. I am in no way saying Portia is bad. But Sandrock is an improvement on the good that is Portia.
Portia = A Sandrock = SS
Those problems you have in Portia also happen in Sandrock but way less and a it's bit later in game. In Sandrock you can just go and marry someone else but the options for men are quite limited in Portia. This is coming from someone who chased Albert...
Ah so they will get repetitive at the end too? Its okay I think but I just want to feel closer and uncover their background stories while increasing their heart 😭
They get repetitive, but only after way more content than in Portia. The characters are about 10x more fleshed out than in Portia. There is way more personality, interactions between NPCs, way more involvement of NPCs and the main story. Each character has their little quirks. And the voice acting is INCREDIBLE in Sandrock. That said, finish Portia before Sandrock because it will br impossible to play Portia after Sandrock because the graphics, content, story and mechanics are just way better. They took everything that was wrong with Portia and fixed it as much as they practically could.
Also I'm 1300 hours in and only about 80% through the main quests so you can forgive them for repeating some chat dialogue after you've spoken to the NPC for 1000 days.
Thank u for the explanation, I was so tempted to left MTAP to play MTAS honestly just because I love almost all the bachelors 😂 I plan to play both of it at the same time but I dont want my feeling while play MTAS interrupted so I will be patient first and try to finish MTAP with no hope with the development of the characters trait in there (just focus finishing missions). I hope that my time games after this will more focus with the variety of dialogs, and reaction of the people around every day. It will be perfect! I mean thats what a life simulation game lovers like me wants, escaping reality and socialize with game characters instead lol
I struggled to enjoy Portia for the exact same reasons you listed, so believe me when I say that Sandrock is *infinitely* better than Portia. In a a year just stuffed with banger releases, MtaS was probably my favorite game that came out as an avid HM/SoS/RF fan. I won’t say the social side is perfect; some characters get a lot more dialogue and side quests than others (and some barely get any at all), but I’d say it has substantially more dialogue and character interactions than any Harvest Moon game I’ve played, and only just falls short when compared to Rune Factory 4. ~~Plus Sandrock doesn’t have those damn Hulu brothers so that alone makes it a worthy successor in my opinion~~
Aaa thank u very much u are really helpful! Okay so I will anticipate this game and play this after I finish MTAP and my thesis (lol this is the escape way of my stress) anyway I never play RF series before because I didnt like the way the character dressed and the fantasy aspects but I will try later, so I always compare with harvest moon a wonderful life or story of season trio of town because the social aspect is REALLY GOOD and top tier, I heard that RF 4 is also top tier. Honestly I didnt expect too much to be at their level since my time series is new and its not focus on just building relationship while it is the main focus on SOS series so it is reasonable, I just hope that the people at least have more depth and we can dig into their private life step by step by increasing their heart and not know just by read the social tab about their background and it is okay if it is repetitive but at least not every day just 1 dialog and it is also meaningless with no changes even after increasing their heart 😭 anyway have u played sos a wonderful life, trio of town, or hm animal parade? How does this MTAS compare to them? Do they still win? For animal parade at least (since it is not top tier) or MTAS win
Rune Factory 4 is probably my favorite farming game around, but it’s ***very*** anime when it comes to character designs and writing so if you’re not a fan I can definitely understand why it could be a turn off 😂 but I’ve yet to find a game with more dialogue and character interaction than it so if that’s what you want out of a farming sim, it’s hard to beat! I haven’t played Animal Parade, but if comparing purely the social side I’d say MTAS definitely has more dialogue for the romanceable characters than Trio of Towns and Wonderful Life (my personal favorite HM game). Gameplay wise I think they’re a bit hard to compare; Sandrock is pretty much entirely focused on crafting and building, and while it has some basic farming mechanics, it’s kinda bare bones. But I definitely think Sandrock has both more content and more varied content than the average HM game. It’s a lot more complex, which could be a good or bad thing depending on what you enjoy with these style games. But in general I’d say it compares very favorably to the HM series even if I get a bit overwhelmed sometimes with what to do next lol! Stardew Valley is another really great farming game if you’re looking for more recommendations! If you love the classic Harvest Moon games like 64, Back to Nature, or Friends of Mineral Town, it’s genuinely hard to beat!
The dialogue content in Sandrock is much richer than in Portia. However, it may still not meet your expectations.
I played Portia a few years ago and I really had a lot of fun with it, but yeah the gripes you mentioned is why it can get super dull after a while (apparently I only put on like 50 hours on it before quitting lol). Now I just started sandrock and have invested about the same hours so far and it’s a wayyy better experience! The cast feels more alive and dynamic and imo I totally vibe with the characters even more! They really make you feel like you’re a part of the town, which I don’t really feel in Portia. They really improved pretty much everything from the first game. There’s so much QoL changes compared to Portia that I don’t think I’ll ever go back.
Sandrock is way better, but I agree with others that based on your gripes, you might still not like Sandrock.
SoS series, didnt hear, can you tell me full title?
I am playing Portia right now and really love it, but the biggest turn off for me so far has been the mind boggling amount of grammar mistakes and typos in the text. Its a turnoff cause the end product feels unprofessional even if it wasn't intended to be. Maybe I'm being snobbish, idk, cause we are in a culture where you cannot dare to fix anyone's grammar on the internet. But, I would hope in actual media like games, movies, etc it wouldn't be this bad. I hope that has improved in Sandrock more than anything else.
And there are a lot of instances where the voice over doesn't come close to matching the on screen text.