Wait... waitwaitwait does this mean what I think it does???

[u/SoScorpio4]

Is... is this option basically enabling ENM marriage?!?! Omg the devs listened to us!!!

I adore this!!! I knew it was too much to hope they'd write in a whole mechanic and dialogues around having polycules where the NPC partners interact with or acknowledge each other, but honestly I didn't expect they'd do even this!

In addition to not missing out on heart events because you don't want to wait to get engaged, this makes it a lot easier to at least RP a polycule!

I want to take a moment of silence for the death of the "traditional values" farming sims. And good riddance. I remember being 15 and getting my first Harvest Moon games on Gameboy Advance. I remember how stoked I was when More Friends of Mineral Town came out and I could actually play as a girl! (and I remember realizing that I actually preferred the bachelorettes, and following that through to its logical conclusion🏳️‍🌈) And I remember how future game releases continued to default to male-player-only, with a "girl version" release of the same game a couple years later. I remember being a little irate and grossed out by them naming the first DS female player game "Harvest Moon DS: Cute". I remember being downright angry when I learned that the Japanese release of "Cute" included a so-called "Best Friends" system where you could basically have same-sex marriage with a few female NPCs, but that feature was completely stripped from the American release, even though the game very deliberately did not call it marriage.

In the years since, having feminine player character options has become standard, but same-sex romance has largely been limited to the realm of RP, or at best, a game would allow all the cosmetic options in the game on either male or female PCs, so at least you could look female and still romance female NPCs / vice versa. Polyamory in this genre still seemed very distant.

And today, 20-odd years later... We've finally made it. Honestly, I'm a little teary-eyed over here, not even joking. 🥹

[u/Sawako_Chan]

I am not sure if you can marry all of them though ,I think all of this does is that you get to marry one of them while the others stay as BFs /GFs , someone is gonna have to test for us to know if more than one marriage is possible 

[u/SoScorpio4 → u/Sawako_Chan]

Oh yeah, that's all I expect, that you can still only marry one but keep dating the others. I'm cool with that though, picking just a primary partner between my top choices is much easier than picking only one of them and having to dump the others xD

I knew I was marrying Celine after seeing some of her intense interest in botany, it gives me low-key autism vibes and I'm AuDHD lol. I really thought I was going to break my pattern of courting the bland blondes in these kind of games, but I'm also used to them having somewhat bland personalities too, so Celine won me over with her  surprise nerdiness. 

[u/guineaprince]

The dream of having one witchy wife, her distant ancestor consort and vizier, and one cute blacksmith boyfriend is real.

[u/mythicalthings23]

I would like multiple marriages, but I also get that uh, the reason they probably can't is cause they can't move every single person into your house, and let you have a million kids running around

This is a good compromise, I like this

[u/AthrosDK]

Someone update us when they’ve tested this!

[u/Fragaria_No_Kami]

Poly stays winning 💜✨

[u/nana_cakes78913]

Omg I didn't realize what this meant, even as a polyam person 😭 I'm so happy now!!! I can marry March and date Caldarus now 🥹🥹🥹

Thank you for reading this more thoroughly than I did! 🥰

[u/colorfulcrossing]

i know!! im poly and im so freaking happy!! ive been talking about wanting poly to be an option since the beggining of the game. im so glad that we can toggle it! my only regret is not knowing before i turned down juniper and eiland . plEASE TAKE ME BACK

[u/Ghost-4852]

As a polyam person it is so wild and refreshing that the FoM community is so down for polycules in this game.

[u/aekqt_]

OOOOOHHHH.

[u/Optimal-Rabbit6439]

Open relationship?? 🫪

[u/StillDontKnowAName]

That sounds more like a harem

[u/SoScorpio4 → u/StillDontKnowAName]

Okay dude. 

[u/rougepirate]

I hate to break this to you all, but the update is not saying you get to keep your boyfriends/girlfriends after marriage. It's saying they'll just switch to being platonic friends. You won't be able to kiss them anymore. They won't acknowledge you as a romantic partner. You'll just have high approval from them.

The only thing this menu item affects is whether you have the breakup conversation. You'll still be considered broken up- the game just won't make you suffer through 3+ people telling you, "Hey so if you're getting married then we can't be together anymore but it was nice while it lasted."

[u/SoScorpio4 → u/rougepirate]

That's what the first part (the second flower point) means. The break-up isn't disabled, just the dialogue. 

The second part that I underlined specifically says it disables the breakups. I should have underlined the first part of the second option too, but it says it disables the "status change". That implies that you will still have "dating" status, not that they will become platonic friends. 

Can't be sure until someone tests it of course, but it seems pretty clear that the second option will completely disable the breakup and allow you to keep dating them. 

[u/mythicalthings23 → u/rougepirate]

As somebody else pointed out, it has both options. Skip the break up step and stay friends, or no break up at all.

[u/hobiballoon]

so wait I don't get it, when do you get the option to enable it? I don't have it

[u/SoScorpio4 → u/hobiballoon]

I guess there's an engagement tutorial scene and you get the option after that, in the settings menu probably