Harvest Moon is perhaps one of the most innovative series of games ever created. I have eagerly been waiting for the latest inception, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life (AWL) for almost a year, but numerous delays pushed the release date from the autumn of 2003 to the spring of 2004. The folks over at Natsume seem to have accomplished an impossible task; they have kept the farming simulation formula, but changed AWL so much from its predecessors that, at times, it is barely recognizable.
AWL starts out just like every other Harvest Moon game, but the similarities end there. The player assumes the role of a farmer, who inherits his father’s farm. The farm has fallen into disrepair over the years and it is up to the player to take one milk cow and a couple of bags of seeds and build an empire through hard work and savvy business decisions.
Right away, there are several noticeable changes and it does not help that the manual offers little to no help to the player who is looking for information about these changes. To begin with, time has always stopped when the farmer is indoors (i.e. in the barn, the chicken coop, his home, a shop, etc). However, in AWL, time waits for no man. The clock is constantly running and instead of time passing in ten minute increments, each minute passes by in a second. Traditionally, when the farmer retired for the night, he would sleep from the time he went to bed until the morning. In AWL, the farmer will sleep for only about six hours, which has both positive and negative implications. On one hand, there is more time for extra activities like fishing or interaction with the villagers. On the other hand, sometimes the player just wants to start the next day and move on with things rather than engaging in decidedly inane conversations with the villagers. Also, seasons are now ten days long instead of thirty days; I suppose this is to compensate for the longer days.
Alas, the changes do not end there. Natsume has completely revamped the crop system. Whereas there used to be nine vegetable seeds in a bag, there is now only one vegetable seed per bag. This is not a problem in and of itself, but it does become problematic when one factors in that the largest profit one can make per vegetable is about 20 gold. Furthermore, this would not be so bad if there was a way to upgrade the watering can. The player can purchase a watering can that holds more water, but this still leaves the player watering crops one square at a time. Previous Harvest Moon games have had watering cans that water multiple squares and even sprinklers; crop watering becomes unnecessarily tedious in A Wonderful Life as a result of this oversight.
There are also some very positive changes that deserve to be mentioned. To begin with, A Wonderful Life has divided the game into chapters that span the adult life of the main character. Whereas in previous games marriage was just something to do, it is a mandatory activity if the player wishes to progress in the game. There are three girls to choose from, but if the player does not have enough time to woo one of these eligible ladies, the game will assign the player a wife, who will then bear a child. One of the most interesting aspects of having a son is interacting with him and watching him develop interests. He will be influenced by members of the community and they will potentially help him choose a career path. This really motivates the player to keep interacting with the villagers even after finding a wife; the conversations might be painfully inane at times, but the villagers are certainly an eclectic bunch who include a music loving hippie who lives in a yurt, a mad scientist who comes to the farm to spy on the family, a Dickensian Miss Havisham clone, and the town bum who will actually steal from the farm’s food storage.
The process of growing crops might be more tedious, but there are more crops to choose from and their window of growth spans multiple seasons (including winter). In addition to growing tomatoes and potatoes, players can now grow trees that only produce fruit in one season out of the year, but the fruit can be harvested several times during that given season. The downside of this is that it takes at least a year for a tree to fully mature.
As for livestock, the horse, cattle, sheep and chickens have all returned to the game, but there are now a couple of twists to this traditional formula. First, a cow will only produce milk for forty days after giving birth; if the player wants more milk, then he is going to have to impregnate the cow. If the player wishes to utilize the farm’s incubator to hatch chicks, he is going to have to purchase both a chicken and a rooster and make sure that the egg is fertilized (not all eggs are automatically fertilized). This does mean additional expenditure to purchase two chickens, but a player can make that money back by selling the extra roosters. The developers have added several new animals to the game such as a goat, ducks, and a cat. While these additions are not very revolutionary, they are a nice treat.
The shipping system has been completely revamped. In previous games, any item that was produced on the farm or gathered in the woods could be placed in a shipping bin on the farm and at the end of the day, the produce would be taken away and the player would receive payment. In A Wonderful Life, only dairy products and eggs can be shipped from the farm. If you want to ship anything else (like your crops, for example), you have two options. You can sell them to the traveling salesman; he is supposed to come to town on the third and eighth day, but he tends to follow his own mysterious schedule. Your second option is to set up a stand and sell your goods yourself. This sounds good in theory, but unfortunately, this involves a lot of waiting for villagers to pass the stand. I suggest you find a good book. When they do stop, they never purchase more than three or four items and they often attempt to purchase your tools, so be sure to stow them in the shed before setting up shop. While I appreciate the attempt to be innovative, I miss the old shipping system. It would have been much nicer if anything could be placed in the shipping bin, but players had the option to sell their own wares. With the way things are set up, the account ledger does not track any money made from any source other than sales and purchases made through the farm.
The “rucksack” that functions as an inventory is exceptionally innovative. In addition to being almost bottomless, a player can quickly sort their inventory into categories such as tools, crops, dairy, and several others. This category system transfers over to the quick select, which allows the player to scroll through items without entering the inventory menu.
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is absolutely stunning from a visual perspective. However, it should be noted that the previous statement is only true most of the time. While the game does present a dazzling panorama of pastoral splendor, there are some very noticeable problems, particularly with camera control. There are also some minor problems in the fields; most of the game is seen in a third person, three dimensional perspective, but in the fields, the game switches to a top-down perspective. The transition is somewhat awkward at times, especially if the player is rushing around. Many fans will appreciate the inclusion of a small yellow square that shows players exactly which area is being watered, but it is sometimes difficult to maneuver the square. On the whole, however, the visual presentation is quite lovely, especially the changes between seasons.
The music is just as nice, but unfortunately, there is not as much of a variety. The game comes with two records which can be placed in the record player. If you happen to have a GBA, a copy of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town and a link cable, you can link up and obtain additional music. This is somewhat of a disappointment since even FoMT had a different melody for each season. However, the music that does come with the game serves its purpose, although I must admit that I prefer the FoMT winter melody to the one found in AWL. There is no voice acting, though characters will occasionally make noise, but they won’t actually talk. The sound effects serve their purpose, and there is not really anything that stands out as exceptional in that department.
With the inclusion of the chapter system and the longer days, there is an absolute guarantee that A Wonderful Life will keep gamers captivated for countless hours. However, some of the changes to the Harvest Moon formula make A Wonderful Life less appealing to some gamers. However, the vast majority of the changes do change the game for the better and A Wonderful Life really ought to be part of just about everybody’s gaming library.
