There is a new Harvest Moon game out, and I am super psyched. For those of you who don’t know what Harvest Moon is, I must admit I’m rather shocked that you’ve never heard of the number one farming game on the market. Yes, that’s right, this is a farming game. The first version of Harvest Moon appeared on the SNES, and iterations have popped up on every Nintendo system since then as well as some ports for the PS2.
In this version, the Harvest Goddess, the benevolent spirit who watches over the village, has been banished to the land of wind and ghosts by the Witch Princess. It was an accident; the HG and the WP have some sort of East Cost/West Coast feud going on, and the WP was only trying to scare/trick the HG. In any event, the Harvest Sprites follow the HG into the alternate dimension, and it is up to you, the player to get them back (and thus, presumably, rescue the HG as well).
You start with a house and a field. The field is filled with rocks, sticks, and weeds. You have to prep your field, plant seeds, water them every day, harvest the crops and then place them in the shipping bin to earn money. Eventually, you can earn enough money to explore the possibility of raising livestock. Chickens and cows provide a steady stream of produce, and sheep give wool on a weekly basis.
The first noticeable difference between the DS version and other versions is the lack of buildings. You are not given a barn and coop at the beginning of the game. You have to pay to have them built. In an innovative system, you can choose what building material to use. Fodder buildings are cheap, but apparently, they fall down if you look at them the wrong way. Wooden buildings are slightly sturdier, and stone buildings are probably the best bet. That’s right, you finally have a use for all those stones you smash with the hammer. In other games, you were given a woodshed to store your wood and fodder, but in this game, you have to pay to have them built. To compensate for this, the beginning rucksack is very large, and you can hold up to 99 of any object in one slot.
At first, crops are the primary way of making money. For each season, there are specific types of crops that can be grown. One bag of seeds will yield nine plants. Some of the crops are renewable and can be harvested more than once, and some crops are one-shot deals. Also, some crops take a very long time to grow, and others grow very quickly. The price you can earn for each crop also varies; there’s no set formula, but crops that need more attention tend to sell for a higher price.
You have to water your crops every day, and this is rather arduous at first since the watering can only waters one square at a time. However, all tools gain experience with use, and they can be upgraded at the blacksmith’s. After upgrading the watering can for the first time, it will water three squares. Upgrading tools like the axe and hammer allow you to hit larger stumps and rocks for wood/stone.
You can also grow trees- the seeds are expensive, and they take a long time to grow, and they only produce fruit for one season. This doesn’t sound very promising, but you should consider that the tree will produce fruit forever.
Animal husbandry is presented in pretty much the same way as it was in other Harvest Moon games. As I have mentioned, it takes a little longer to be able to afford to buy animals, because you have to build the barn/coop yourself. But once you do have animals, you can raise their affection by petting them and letting them walk around outside. This will yield better-quality eggs/milk/wool. Ducks are new to the game; their eggs are more valued than chicken eggs, but they require a very expensive pond.
There are other ways to earn money in town. There are many spots where you can forage for shippable goods; they are much more plentiful than in some of the other games. Also, there are many spots around town where crops can be grown. They are free for the taking, which might become a necessity if much of the farmable land on the farm is taken up by buildings. However, much of the town land takes longer to yield crops, so there is a tradeoff.
Another way to make money is mining. They have really gone overboard with the mining. There are a total of four mines, and new ones don’t unlock until you have completed the previous ones. These mines are ridiculously hardcore, with hundreds of floors. Also, each floor is occupied by “dark” versions of farm creatures that will attack you and deplete your stamina. They can be defeated by smacking them with a hoe or hammer. The floor of each mine also has an invisible hole, and falling through the hole will cause you to fall up to ten floors. The mines contain semi-valuable gems and ores that are necessary for upgrading your tools and building special machines called “makers” that convert animal products into manufactured products (i.e. eggs to mayo, milk to cheese, etc).
As the game progresses, you will find Harvest Sprites. They tend to reappear as you go about your regular business- chopping wood, smashing rocks, shipping crops, etc. There are some sprites that can be found by searching around town. If you find the right sprites, you can unlock some casino minigames. By playing the minigames, you can earn medals and win fabulous merchandise- or you can use your medals to hire a team of Harvest Sprites to work for you. Depending on which team you hire, you can have the sprites do any number of jobs like watering, harvesting, and gathering.
As if all this was not enough to do in a game, wait- there’s more! You can interact with the villagers, and even flirt with a couple of the lovely ladies in town. If you give a special girl the right gifts, you can win her heart; the color of her heart (which you can see when you talk to her) will change as her affection increases; when it gets to red, you can ask her to marry you.
There is also a home shopping network that can be unlocked, and you can buy a number of things like a kitchen, which allows you to prepare recipes. You do need to buy certain items from the shopping network in order to get married.
There are also some DS exclusive aspects. By purchasing the touch gloves in the game, you can use the touch screen to pet animals, as well as milk cows and shear sheep. Also, instead of owning a television set and watching weather programs and the home shopping network, the “television” can be accessed via the menus on the touch screen.
Graphically, the game is pretty solid. The current-gen console versions of the Harvest Moon games have gone 3d, and it just doesn’t look right. Fortunately, the DS version remains blissfully old-school. It is easy to see everything, and the characters and surroundings look nice.
As expected with a handheld game, sound is not the focus of the game. There is no voice acting, but the background music is quite nice, and changes with the season. You can also buy “records” with melodies from other Harvest Moon games.
This is a game that does not really have any ending, and there is so much that you can do. The replay value for this game is extremely high, although it can get tedious at times watering the crops every day. This is the sort of game that you can pick up and play for 30 minutes, and then put down.
I have heard scuttlebutt on the internet about horrible glitches plaguing this game. I have not experienced any of these glitches, except for the game freezing one time. As such, obviously I can't score the game lower for it, but if these glitches are indeed happening for others, it would lower my score for the game.
I highly recommend Harvest Moon for the DS. If you have enjoyed Harvest Moon games in the past, this version stays true to the formula. The aspects that have been adapted for the DS are fun. This is a great game for kids- with the money management and budgeting, etc, they might actually learn something! A farming game might not sound like so much fun, but give it a chance- I think you will be pleasantly surprised!
