Since many people have never played a game similar to this, tutorials might be needed. The question is how the tutorials are presented. One big tutorial in the beginning: + Less interruptions. - Longer. Several tutorials presented when the context is right: + Presented when needed. - Many interruptions. Main menu tutorial: ++ No interruptions. + Only done when required, not presented in a new game if you're familiar with the mechanics. + Potentially split by topic.
Sometimes ingame tutorials are great for first time players but they tend to get extremely boring if you can see yourself playing the game more than once or with several different savestates. Also in most games you can not skip them and if you can chances are high someone may accidently skip them and has to start again to see what he missed in the tutorial. Because of this a good idea would be to add a tutorial section in the Main Game Menu before you start/load a game. There you could choose some what you want to know from another menu and after selecting it you get either plain text with some screens or 1 of the Village NPC's that will "show and talk" about what you selected. But in the end it all depends on ConcernedApe if he is planning to add ingame tutorials or if the game will be trial and error.
Just as long as no tutorials are like the entire first Spring season in Harvest Moon: A New Beginning...
