These two series have nailed the pacing in terms of rewards schedules and reward anticipation. Almost every action you do in either of these games gets you closer to some kind of item or monetary reward. They are both really effective at pulling on those feel-good, "keep doing that!" levers on the brain, to put it simply.
The games give you enough freedom to personalize the experience (by modifying and designing your own village, farm, family, and so on) and strategize what you will do with your limited resources and time, while giving enough structure to keep it from being a directionless sandbox game.
So while thinking that watering crops every day seems like a chore (and it sometimes is), there's an effective pay-off system built in. Every day you water your crop, thats one day closer to harvest. One more harvest and be paid enough money for a new cow. With a new cow and you'll get more money to buy more crops for the next season and to enter the cow festival in two seasons. This is just one example, but each day brings new immediate rewards and opportunities to gain far-off rewards down the line, which builds up anticipation. In Harvest Moon, the days are short, so you keep telling yourself "Tomorrow the tomatos will be ready to harvest, just one more day!" and then at the end of that day "Tomorrow's the flower festival! Just one more day!"
Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing are a bit different since one is based on a in-game clock and the other is based on real time, but they both take the same idea of rewards schedules and make it work in their own systems. And in the end, both games wrap up the experience in a charming exterior, which sells the whole thing. This is one reason why I believe recent Harvest Moon games have been mostly garbage; they still have that addictive gameplay but the presentation just seems to generic and without character.
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