Ever played Harvest Moon? It's very similar. A sim game, that's charm can only be understood by playing. It's addicting, and real time based, so unless you time travel, the sheer amount of content is unparalleled. It's saddening to see you jumping in at this point though--you're missing out on a lot of heritage, but this is by far the greatest rendition of the game ever. (Just miss GCN's arcade games that they took out in the newer games due to VC.)