Hey Duders, only a few days in, from what I gather there is no fail state so this has made the game far more enjoyable and less stressful then when i bounced of it when it came out. Quick question though, how important is it to talk to the villagers? Do I/should I talk to them every day? Seems abit of a ballache to wonder around the village everyday having done my farming

It's not critically important. Talking to villagers every day helps to raise your heart level with them. You get extra scenes, gifts, and romantic options as you rank up with them. This can be done at any time though. You could spend the first year only focusing on your farm and then decide to start socializing in the second year. There is only one scene with a specific person that you can't get anymore after something happens in year 2.

Personally I talk to the people I like when I see them, and I'll go out of my way to give the maximum 2 gifts a week to the people I want to rank up with. That takes almost no effort at all and raises their friendship quickly. They all have fairly set routines throughout the week so once you get familiar with them you'll know how to easily cross paths as you're going to do something else.

If I remember correctly the relationship stuff in the game is pretty self contained and does not really impact stuff like the farming or mining much, so you are free to engage with it as much as you want to. I ended up liking most of the characters and wanted to find out more about them which drove me to talk with them and give them gifts regularly, but if that does not interest you you can pretty much ignore it.

From a pure number's perspective, the 'general' rate of friendship is +20 friendship points the first time you talk to them per day (+10 if you talk to them while they're busy doing an activity). There is also a Friendship Decay system, but it's pretty lax, only -2 per day that you do not talk to them. So, you would need to ignore someone for 10 days in a row to negate talking to them once.

As for what you get, what the others said below. Story scenes, they send you recipes and other presents, romance opportunities, and updated dialogue as you talk to them on a day to day basis. There's some fun character development in everyone's routes, so I would recommend going for it at some point, but it's optional.

Thanks for the replies!
Think ill just go ahead and ignore them all then, gonna be a grouchy nobby no mates farmer.

@carryboy: After 15 hours, all I've done is work my farm and fight monsters. And it's been working out great, the money's starting to fly in.

"Family, religion, friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business!"

My main strategy with building relationships has been to get to the point where I can crank out mayonnaise which isn't really worth very much but a lot of people seem to like just fine. You can just dump it on people you come across as you go from place to place. But, it's not necessary at all- however you want to play it, play it and have fun!