Gadfly2317
03-20-2004, 09:01 AM
Harvest Moon: It's a Wonderful Life, GC exclusive released March 17. I picked this up and have been playing it a lot the last couple days. I'm enjoying it immensly. I'm not very far in, but I've already got a lot to say about this game.
I've never played a Harvest Moon game before, so I can't compare this one to its predecessor's. What Harvest Moon seems like to me--to compare it to other games I've played--it's like a bit of a sim game, an RPG (lots of talking to people in town), and kind of a free-form do what you want game like Animal Crossing. It's an RPG/Farm sim. This game provides more structure than Animal Crossing, but you can pretty much go about creating your life and farm and income in any number of ways.
First, the game is nothing spectacular graphically, though it does look extremely cool. You are a farmer in a seaside village, and there is a nice ocean view, a waterfall, a river, and a pretty large area with towns, other farms, an artist, a scientist, an archeological dig site where you can do work if you choose. Though the graphics are very basic, it is a nicely created, pastoral and serene world. There are tons of things to do in this game aside from farming. In fact, there's a bar, too, where you can spend your money on booze, and there are three prospective single chicks in the game that you can woo to be your wife.
The cute blond works at the bar, and she's looking for a hardworking man, she says. She's a flirt. Cute dumb blond--yeah the game has some cheap stereotypes. The farm next to yours, where you can buy seed, well, there's a farmers daughter. I seem to be having the most success at wooing her, mostly because I see her everyday since she's right next door. She's probably the best one to marry just because you'll have someone else you can put to work on your farm. The one I'm wanting to marry most also happens to be the "hard to get one, she's picky, intelligent, sarcastic, and a traveler. I like that sort of thing in a woman. Anyway, picking a wife apparently will have a lot of implications regarding what type of kid you are going to have around your farm, and also the game is indicating that the friendships you make can determine the course of your kid's future career (i.e. if you get really tight with the hippy artist, I think maybe your kid can apprentice with him or something.)
As for the experience of playing the game, it's set up in days, seasons and years. Each day takes--well, I haven't timed it--but it seems like its maybe 30 minutes. There are ten days to a season, and of course four season in the year. The whole game is 30 years. So there is a LOT of game here--real value for your money if you are into it.
You may like this game if you liked Animal Crossing, though its not as original or as addictive. And this game is not as laid back as Animal Crossing. Each day doesn't last that long, and there's so much you want to do in a day. Think all the chores that are on a farm. Prepping fields, milking cows, planting crops, fertilizing, buying and raising chickens, and on and on and on.
Not to mention you can buy a fishing pole and go fishing all over the place. I'm not going to list everything you can do. . . its just too much. And that, so far, seems kind of a problem with the game. Once you start a number of different endeavors on your farm (if you've got livestock, poultry, and crops all going, that's a lot of stuff to maintain, and still try to find free time to woo a wife, go fishing, go shopping, make friends in town, or even just watch your TV (it has several channels.)
The sound is fine, nothing spectacular. So far no music has been annoying, which is good, since if you're into this, you may well play the whole 30 years. Other flaws are the item interface can be cumbersome and inefficient, and other actions would have been better off to have been more automated. Like watering crops, you should have been able to select all the squares of area that you want to water, and then pushed a button once, and had your guy just water them. Instead, you have to manually move your guy from square to squre in the field, individually watering each plant. This will have you praying for rainy days (there is variable weather in the game.) There's tons of strategy and planning and management that goes into this. . . certain crops grow certain times of year, your cows milk cycles are related to its pregancy and birth cycles, so you've got to know when to breed the cow (I'm not sure when. I guess when she stops giving milk I'll have to get her knocked up.)
I haven't read any reviews on this game, but I did check out the scores at Gamerankings and this one has a 77% average, with several reviewers scoring it as high as 90%. I would guess the interface, time constraints, low-tech graphics, and occasional trees blocking your camera if you fish from certain locations may have contributed to any points knocked off the score. Also the control is kind of touchy sometimes. . . you have to be in a just-so position to do actions.
Regardless of its flaws, there is so much to do in this game, and its actually fun and rewarding and strangely addictive. Farming? It may suck in real life, but somehow here it is fun. It sounded lame to me, but I had to see what it was that had garnered such a cult following for this series. It's a really nice change of pace from killing stuff. I love killing stuff in video games, but it gets old. Harvest Moon draws you in with its serene village, and the desire to see your little one cow farm turn into a major agricultural center. I don't know what its going to be like once I'm married with children in this game.
If you liked Animal Crossing, or like unusual off-beat games, this is one to own.
I've never played a Harvest Moon game before, so I can't compare this one to its predecessor's. What Harvest Moon seems like to me--to compare it to other games I've played--it's like a bit of a sim game, an RPG (lots of talking to people in town), and kind of a free-form do what you want game like Animal Crossing. It's an RPG/Farm sim. This game provides more structure than Animal Crossing, but you can pretty much go about creating your life and farm and income in any number of ways.
First, the game is nothing spectacular graphically, though it does look extremely cool. You are a farmer in a seaside village, and there is a nice ocean view, a waterfall, a river, and a pretty large area with towns, other farms, an artist, a scientist, an archeological dig site where you can do work if you choose. Though the graphics are very basic, it is a nicely created, pastoral and serene world. There are tons of things to do in this game aside from farming. In fact, there's a bar, too, where you can spend your money on booze, and there are three prospective single chicks in the game that you can woo to be your wife.
The cute blond works at the bar, and she's looking for a hardworking man, she says. She's a flirt. Cute dumb blond--yeah the game has some cheap stereotypes. The farm next to yours, where you can buy seed, well, there's a farmers daughter. I seem to be having the most success at wooing her, mostly because I see her everyday since she's right next door. She's probably the best one to marry just because you'll have someone else you can put to work on your farm. The one I'm wanting to marry most also happens to be the "hard to get one, she's picky, intelligent, sarcastic, and a traveler. I like that sort of thing in a woman. Anyway, picking a wife apparently will have a lot of implications regarding what type of kid you are going to have around your farm, and also the game is indicating that the friendships you make can determine the course of your kid's future career (i.e. if you get really tight with the hippy artist, I think maybe your kid can apprentice with him or something.)
As for the experience of playing the game, it's set up in days, seasons and years. Each day takes--well, I haven't timed it--but it seems like its maybe 30 minutes. There are ten days to a season, and of course four season in the year. The whole game is 30 years. So there is a LOT of game here--real value for your money if you are into it.
You may like this game if you liked Animal Crossing, though its not as original or as addictive. And this game is not as laid back as Animal Crossing. Each day doesn't last that long, and there's so much you want to do in a day. Think all the chores that are on a farm. Prepping fields, milking cows, planting crops, fertilizing, buying and raising chickens, and on and on and on.
Not to mention you can buy a fishing pole and go fishing all over the place. I'm not going to list everything you can do. . . its just too much. And that, so far, seems kind of a problem with the game. Once you start a number of different endeavors on your farm (if you've got livestock, poultry, and crops all going, that's a lot of stuff to maintain, and still try to find free time to woo a wife, go fishing, go shopping, make friends in town, or even just watch your TV (it has several channels.)
The sound is fine, nothing spectacular. So far no music has been annoying, which is good, since if you're into this, you may well play the whole 30 years. Other flaws are the item interface can be cumbersome and inefficient, and other actions would have been better off to have been more automated. Like watering crops, you should have been able to select all the squares of area that you want to water, and then pushed a button once, and had your guy just water them. Instead, you have to manually move your guy from square to squre in the field, individually watering each plant. This will have you praying for rainy days (there is variable weather in the game.) There's tons of strategy and planning and management that goes into this. . . certain crops grow certain times of year, your cows milk cycles are related to its pregancy and birth cycles, so you've got to know when to breed the cow (I'm not sure when. I guess when she stops giving milk I'll have to get her knocked up.)
I haven't read any reviews on this game, but I did check out the scores at Gamerankings and this one has a 77% average, with several reviewers scoring it as high as 90%. I would guess the interface, time constraints, low-tech graphics, and occasional trees blocking your camera if you fish from certain locations may have contributed to any points knocked off the score. Also the control is kind of touchy sometimes. . . you have to be in a just-so position to do actions.
Regardless of its flaws, there is so much to do in this game, and its actually fun and rewarding and strangely addictive. Farming? It may suck in real life, but somehow here it is fun. It sounded lame to me, but I had to see what it was that had garnered such a cult following for this series. It's a really nice change of pace from killing stuff. I love killing stuff in video games, but it gets old. Harvest Moon draws you in with its serene village, and the desire to see your little one cow farm turn into a major agricultural center. I don't know what its going to be like once I'm married with children in this game.
If you liked Animal Crossing, or like unusual off-beat games, this is one to own.