Harvest Moon: Back to Nature - who is the best girl to marry?

Zanthzorn here.

This weird analysis came through my mind couple of months ago when I was feeling nostalgic and reminisced my green days of video gaming. One of those games was Harvest Moon: Back to Nature (HM:BTN), which I still played, albeit rarely, through an emulator.

I was infatuated with the game. This game offered an interesting concept of a semi-sandbox farming life with a balanced focus in farming and social (in-game, of course) life. And that concept was the one that made me hooked. There are more things to do than just farming. Interactions with villagers were there. Random skits and events were happening. Romance chances were created. Secrets were hidden and waiting to be found. Probably that was why most early teens back in the day were playing this game in my country. Sure, the game is repetitive, just like what people might expect from a farming simulation. But it was damn addictive, albeit most players got bored after the end of in-game first year. And that included me back then. I replayed this game at least half a dozen times before my current save file, just because I got bored after 1 or so in-game year.

Anyways, it seems like I might be able to finish this game. I really want to see when the mayor came to my farm on the beginning of year 4 and decide whether I can stay in the Mineral town or not. I had my save file currently on the beginning of year 3. I was married and had my son already. Boy I remembered that moment as if it was my IRL son. I had my character married already before, but I never went past having the wife pregnant and gave birth. I was proud of myself somehow. I achieved a new benchmark. Out of all playthroughs of HM:BTN in which I was able to get married, Elli was my choice, for efficiency reasons. She is the easiest to woo; just pick random flowers and she will love em. My favorite girl is still Karen, but she is hard to impress. Then again, visual and personality wise, Elli is my second pick, so..

Then, when I remembered about all of these again a couple of months ago, I considered who is the best girl to marry, in a social standpoint. There are 5 candidates: Elli, Karen, Ann, Popuri, and Mary, ranked based on my personal preferences btw. Marriage is purely based on personal interest, and no gameplay difference will appear if we compare the girls after we marry them. The skits and events that related to marriage will of course differ, but that's it.
However, there is something that we HM:BTN players forgot. The girl that we marry will leave her family and our love rival behind. And that is actually kind of sad if we think about it. The family members and our rival seems to care less, and gameplay wise, we are still doing similar things except for the fact that our girl is already in our house. But, for me, realizing that made me recheck what will happen to their families once they left. And with that being said, the best girl to marry is the girl with good family condition and with a rival with also good family condition. So, let's check one by one.

Let's start with Elli, my current wife. She is the sweet, caring, and motherly type. She only had her grandmother, Ellen, and little brother, Stu, left in her family. Which makes it actually bad, socially, to marry her. If Elli stayed with me, then who will take care of little Stu and granny? They are both too young and old to take care of themselves. Elli also worked for doctor Tim in the hospital, which is also the love rival. Doctor Tim is a quiet, loner guy who moved to the town alone, so he had no family members with him. If I take Elli from him, he will be working in the hospital alone, with no family there. It is kinda sad if you think about it. So, Mineral town social impact speaking, marrying Elli is actually a bad choice.

Next is Karen. She is the outspoken, mature-cool, pretty girl type. Family-wise, she still has her parents, Sasha and Jeff, working in the supermarket so it will be no problem marrying her in that regard. The dilemma comes when I check the love rival for her affection, Rick. Rick and Popuri live with their sickly mom, Lillia, while her husband is away looking for a cure. It is hard for Lillia to take care of their chicken farm alone, so at least either Rick or Popuri needs to stay at the farm, helping. I will discuss it later, but regardless of me marrying Popuri or not, she will not stay with Lillia anyways, so we have to see how Rick acted if I marry Karen or not. If I marry Karen, Rick will be staying with her mom. That's good. If I don't marry Karen, Rick will marry her and Karen will help in the chicken farm. That's better. Rick is also lonely because of her sister leaving, but at least he still has her mom. So, it will be fine whether the character marry Karen or not, because the social impact is not bad.

Third one is Ann. She is the tomboyish-yet-girly, innocent, and energetic type. She lives with her father Doug in that huge-ass Inn, so it is quite obvious that her dad will struggle if Ann is not there. So, marrying her in the family impact standpoint is a no-no. The love rival, Cliff, also definitely needs Ann quite a lot. Cliff is a loner, mellow newcomer, that has lots of struggle. Even after he had a job and a new extended family, mental-wise he is still weak. Also, considering he will always stay in the Inn regardless of my choice marrying Ann or not, it is actually good for the whole "ecosystem" if Cliff ends up with Ann, as the three of them will not go anywhere. The conclusion is: it is better socially to let Ann be with Cliff, not me. It is a pity though, because from what I saw on YouTube, after becoming a wife, she has the cutest and most innocent reactions out of them all.

Popuri is the fourth one. She is the cutesy, childish, and princess-like type. Although her father had left the village, she still has her brother Rick and mother Lillia. Also, Rick will not leave the poultry farm even if he is married, which justifies marrying Popuri even more. The love rival for her affection, Kai, is really an outsider considering he is only in the village once a year, AND he will bring Popuri along if they are married. So, regardless of me marrying Popuri or not, she will always leave the poultry farm. It is actually somewhat better if we marry her, because at least she will still be in the Mineral town vicinity and not somewhere else outside the map. Therefore, if we analyze all of these, it will be better for Popuri and her family if she marries the character and not Kai.

Last but not least is Mary. She is the quiet, reserved, kind bookworm type. She still has her family intact, so her parents won't be too lonely as they still have each other. I am not sure what will happen to the library though as she is the only one actually managing it, but I am sure it will still be open although it might be a justifiable reason not to marry her. I mean, I'm not sure whether an open library with noone to take care of it is better than a permanently closed library.. Then, we have to consider the love rival for Mary's affection, Gray. He lives with his grandpa, Saibara, while trying his best to follow Saibara's footsteps to be a blacksmith. He seems to be stressed a lot and his main way to relieve his stress is to visit the library and meet Mary. To add, if Mary marries Gray, she will move in with him and Saibara, which makes it even better for the three of them. With that being said, I'm gonna say that it might not be a very good idea to marry Mary. At least she will still manage the library if she marries Gary, but not if she marries the character.

To summarize, Karen and Popuri are the best girls to marry if we consider the social impact of the marriage to the whole Mineral town community. Of course, nothing will really happen if, but the fact that things will change really bugs my mind a lot.
Now, I'm feeling bad that I actually made the life of the doctor, grandma Ellen, and little Stu more miserable..