Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life – Review

Harvest Moon is one of those odd games that seem to come along every now and then and challenge the rest of the generic shoot em up, beat em up type games in existence by offering something original, interesting and quirky. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of those other games as well, but its nice to see a game provide the player with something completely different from most of the other games on their shelf. Developers Natsume have published a game with Ubi Soft that will grip your imagination and eat up many hours of your social life for the foreseeable future.

When you first load Harvest Moon you are met with a rather cutesy sounding tune which might put you off slightly but persevere with it. You’re then introduced to a cute almost manga like young lad who is reminiscent of some of the Kingdom Heart characters and from this point you begin the game by learning the background of the story. Basically your fathers friend Takakura informs you that it was your fathers wish to have you tend his farm and turn it into a successful business, no pressure there then!. Takakura is basically the mandatory tutorial and he helps explain some things to you to get you started. You start off small in this game with a farm complete with a house, an animal shed, a chicken coop, a tool shed, some land to grow crops and not much more. One of the most interesting aspects of the game straight away is how you’re introduced to two stray dogs and told you can keep one as your pet. This is actually a very torturous decision. Do you want the floppy eared dog or the pointy eared dog! I felt quite guilty but soon realized some other lucky soul in the village would be getting the dog I’d turned down. You get to name your dog (Buffy was my choice), you then get to name your first cow (Creamy), your farm (Elysium) and of course yourself (Jordan). All these little touches make you feel like an important part of the game straight away and you can see that you begin to have a vested interest in what will happen to your character.

The aim of Harvest Moon is basically to progress your character through the six stages of life where he will tend the farm and hopefully make it grow to a successful business, marry one of the three eligible females in the village, have children and of course grow old. It all sounds rather dull for fans of action adventure games but the premise of seeing your character adapt, evolve and learn over time is fascinating. Even though the beginning of the game can prove to be quite monotonous, these early stages are the most important foundations for the rest of your time playing the game. Your basic tools and equipment are to be used to create crops for sale which will be the beginnings of you making your fortune. You can also sell dairy products at the market which will give you a continual income if you treat your animals well by hugging them daily, feeding them and of course letting them out into the sunshine. One of the other important and time consuming tasks is to water your crops but this is a fundamental aspect of their growth and when you get into a routine you’ll soon find yourself happily up at 5am watering them before you go on with your next chores.

All this tending a farm can be tiring work and your character will of course need a little help. If you regularly socialise with the townsfolk you’ll find them offering help in the way of advice and of course you may land yourself with one of those lovely ladies I mentioned earlier. There are three choices available to you, Nami, Celia and Muffy. Each have very different personalities and will affect the running of your farm and of course your children. Nami is a very independent intelligent girl who is unimpressed by romantic gestures and would rather have a look at some of your fossils. Celia is a girl next door type who has a good knowledge of farming and is very sweet. She’d make an ideal wife for a farmer but you’ll have to romance her with flowers. Muffy is a free spirit, walking around in her passion red dress and working in the local bar, Muffy dreams of escaping her small town roots with a ‘sexy’ man to take care of her. Impress her with flowers also but to be honest, if you play it right you’ll find she comes to you as much as you’d have to go to her. If you’re unsure of whether you’re having any success with the ladies, sneak a peek in their diaries, this will tell you everything you need to know about their secret crushes. For me, I found it very difficult to resist the attraction of Muffy but I knew this wouldn’t be the best choice for a wife so I pursued the lovely Celia who of course will be a fantastic help watering crops and so on. With all these choices available to you its easy to feel a little overwhelmed but remember that the game is controlled by you to a certain extent. Although there are clearly set daily tasks in Harvest Moon, this game is really what you make of it and if you want to be a slacker then do so. I don’t recommend it however as to get the best out of the game you really need to try and work through the early stages. Apparantly the game play for this game can be around 100+ hours so as I mentioned before be prepared to lose yourself in it completely.

Graphically speaking, the game may at first not seem to be much to look at but the more you wander around and the more absorbed you become in the game, the more you’ll notice the different textures, graphic styles and delicate scene changes that add to your enjoyment of the game. The characters are full of personality and the landscapes are fairly sweeping. Reminiscent of Animal Crossing meets Kingdom Hearts, you’ll find yourself liking the characters in the town and wanting to know what fate holds for them.

One of the downsides of the game for me was that there was no talking really from the characters but I soon realized this didn’t really affect the overall game at all and quite possibly was a blessing in disguise. The animals all sound like real animals and when your cow is mooing at you for trying to milk it dry (literally) you’ll soon realize how important the sound effects are. The music in the background can be switched off in your house so you don’t have to endure the same tune again and again. Although the audio of the game is nothing compared to some of the other games out there, it is effective and does all you require.
The presentation of this game overall is very good. You’ll enjoy looking at it. You’ll appreciate the subtlety of the scenery and you’ll hopefully get some glee from the little things such as the screen shaking when you’re about to catch a fish or the TV broadcast running the home shopping network with completely pointless items available to buy. Naming chickens and getting excited about the thought of them having little chicks is all entangled in the overall package of this game and it highlights how addictive sim games like this can be. The gameplay is fairly easy and you’ll have the hang of the controls in next to no time at all. Even if you get stuck with anything, the control system will help you out so there’s no need to panic. One word of warning though, when you order things from the market, sometimes they’ll be put directly into your tool shed. This is a big point to remember! I spend around 4 days looking for bird seed I’d ordered and then realized it was in the tool shed the entire time. Nightmare. Luckily the chickens will eat grass happily so when its sunny outside put them there to save some bird feed for the winter months.

Harvest Moon is a game which I think most people will either love or hate. If you like Animal Crossing you’ll like this. Although it doesn’t have the instant addiction Animal Crossing does, it is worth sticking with because it will bring its own rewards. As the game progresses you’re given more choices, upgrades on machinery, more animals and numerous life altering choices. This is your world, absorb yourself in your farming and be amazed at what this game can offer you. I highly recommend Harvest Moon to anyone looking for something different. Don’t worry about how cutesy it is, there is a really strong foundation here for a game experience that you’ll remember for years to come. A Wonderful Life? The choice is yours.

Review by Tracy