- Joined
- May 31, 2017
Barone took advantage of a genre/franchise that was in this weird state of limbo and wanting to expand on it, addressing issues people had with the initial genre/franchise (Harvest Moon). During the time of this game being made, those types of games were absent due to publishers and devs fighting over the rights (which is why the actual Harvest Moon titles are now called Story of Seasons), barely adding anything new for each sequel, and had nothing going for it other than "This game is now on another platform." Life sim games cannot top this game because it came out at the best and right time.
Heartbound, however, came out after Undertale. Whatever you think of Undertale, you can't deny it exploded in popularity. You probably can't go anywhere without seeing something about Deltarune, the true sequel to Undertale. All Heartbound has to its name is "that game Matthew Patrick called Undertale 2 to get clicks and caused Toby Fox to yell at him." And honestly, calling it Undertale 2 is hurtful, not to Undertale or Deltarune, but to Heartbound, because if your main comparison is literally one of the biggest RPG games from 2015, guess what people are going to play instead of "Undertale 2?"
Heartbound is the Starbound of indie games. A shell of what it tried to immitate, unfinished, no matter how much work is put into it, and ironically ending in the name bound.