I hate how fences are so expensive in this game. I'd love to make a proper farm with fences all around, but yeah. That's gonna be a low priority for me.
Can you elaborate on barebones part? I haven't played the latest SoS/HM games so I don't know what's missing, other than marriage, that is.
I'll gush a bit about Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns.
Crops: 3oT had 82 different types of crop, flower, tree, mushroom, and bush seeds. There's Golden and Giant crops at the highest levels. The fertilizer system was much more complex with multiple types of fertilizer for different types of boosts and different ways to fertilize plants, such as filling your watering can with special fertilizer water. There are even different types of crop fields, including a paddy field for crops such as rice.
Farm: You can completely rearrange and decorate your farm in a mode where time doesn't pass. So many items to decorate with and many types of home upgrades and stylish remodels. Decorations such as Farm Circles and Combos to give awesome buffs. Three underground greenhouses. A more complex beekeeping system (though the one in Story of Seasons was better, in my opinion). Being able to store and raise fish or pearls on your farm. Many different types of Maker Machines. There are multiple types of animals to raise who can give multiple products per milking or shearing and can simultaneously produce both normal and golden quality products. There's a bevy of pet breeds to choose from, each of which could have a different "job" and a training and affection system that determines how well they do those jobs, not to mention the Soul Pet system.
Townsfolk: There are many more NPCs, and the interactions between NPCs and players is much stronger in general. They even give you a return gift if you gave them something nice the day before. Also a huge selling point to me was that you have canon family members (Dad, Mom, and Sister) who live "in the city" and visit you periodically. Your dad's brother (Uncle Frank) is the very first townie you encounter and he's a permanent resident of the first titular town.
Tools: A really good amount of tool customization, including a way to recolor them.
General Moreness: Larger personal inventory and storage. Better inventory management. More recipes. More festival days. Great foraging in multiple varieties. More wild animal friends. A huge wardrobe and many other character customization options. A robust part time job system. There's even some limited multiplayer functions and a few cool New Game+ options. The only system where Doraemon is better at all is the Mine, 牧場物語/Story of Seasons mainline games haven't had anything other than hitting cracks in the wall with a hammer for a long time. They used to have way cooler mines. Oh yeah, and eating gives you power ups! Like slowing down or speeding up time, giving you more strength, hp regen, faster walking speed, etcetera.
Not to say that Doraemon x Story of Seasons isn't a good game or that it isn't fun (I'm having a great time playing it), but it is a very basic, almost antiquated form of video game farming in comparison to the most recent Story of Seasons game. That can be a good thing, shifting the focus back to the story and core cast of characters or being more accessible for a wider audience.
