- A great game for families with Christian valuesOur family has nearly all of the Harvest Moon games, for the various Nintendo systems, and visually, this is stunning. It has the usual farming/nuturing theme of all the other games, with the addition of a few new animals, though cattle and chickens remain the moneymaking farm stock. One real plus in this game is that *finally* you are able to ride the horse all over the play area, not just the farm....but the horse race has been deleted. Another fun addition is of little real value, but just kind of interesting- you now can breed cattle with your own bull, which are rather neat looking animal. The cattle are of four different "breeds", as well, giving milk of different values.
There are many new people to meet and interact with, which somewhat offsets the dearth of suitable girls for marriage. The only really nice one is Celia, who lives on the town's other farm. The other two girls, a tart of a barmaid in a red and black slip, and a spoiled girl with too much money and time on her hands, could care less about the farm, and are not girls I want my own kids to spend the length of the game with. (Game time is 30 years. I don't know what the other two girls are like to chat with, but Celia is kind of limited conversationally, both before and after marriage, but is totally devoted to her family. Her son, a cute lil squirt in the first three years, has the options of growing up to be an artist, farmer, breeder, scientist or archaeologist, depending on who your friends are, and the influences of his life. Another problem we noticed is that there seems to be no wedding of any sort- Jack, the farmer, goes to the home of his fiance, and from there, they tour the town, saying hello to folk...that's it. Really disappointing, especially after HM:64, HM:FoMT and HM:MFoMT, with the nice little church and priest in each town.
As far as game play, it moves at the usual leisurely HM pace- which I personally find relaxing, but those into FPS games will find screamingly boring. The controls are different than in other HM games I've seen, but typical for the GC. One thing I very much wished had been included was a first person perspective, which would have made targeting much easier in many situations. (On the plus side, there is a yellow targeting frame that helps with watering crops.) Not having had time to play this game completely through yet, I have not learned all its tricks, the main play problems I've encountered have had to do with not enough energy or money. It seems that there are no power berries in this version, despite the fact that it is designed to link to the HM:FoMT game. Your character does seem to develop stamina gradually, though it would be nice to have some way of measuring it, as can be done with the berries. The money is another snag- it is very hard to make enough with crops and the stock to have breathing room to develop other parts of the game. Fishing does seem to be a good way of making money- a day spent fishing at the base of the waterfall can easily bring over a thousand gold when sold. But it would be hard for children playing this game to manage the time well enough to earn money to move the game along. Children not old enough to actually play would enjoy watching the game, and those ages 10 and up should have the skills needed to play this without too much frustration. Our four kids, ages 10 to 16, like to watch it, but only our daughter seems to have the patience to actually play any of the HM games.
This game does mention drinking, does have a bar (complete with a barmaid in a back room), and does involve breeding animals, though nothing inappropriate is seen. There is some innuendo, which will likely go straight over the heads of small children, but overall I do believe this is a good game, and one that can be added to the collection of any family with Christ-like morals and values.
Gail Nichols
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