Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley

by Natsume, Inc.

Product Features

• Take control of a farm and try to keep it from being overtaken by a heartless corporation
• Grow and cultivate crops, rear a variety of animals, and mine for precious gems
• Make friends and woo a potential wife
• Build your relationship with villages by helping them achieve their goals and dreams!

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0030LKLVY
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: April 27, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,125 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #41 in Video Games > Sony PSP > Role-Playing

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The tranquil town of Leaf Valley is scheduled for demolition! The heartless Funland Corporation is going to bulldoze the town and replace it with an amusement park unless its citizens can find a way to stop them! You'll need to grow crops, raise animals, and mine ores and gems to help save Leaf Valley and your family farm. With a branching storyline and multiple endings, how you choose to save the town is up to you!

Make friends!View larger.

Woo a potential wife. View larger.

Grow and cultivate crops. View larger.

Take control of a farm. View larger.

Synopsis Natsume brings its quirky farming franchise to the PSP for the third time to once again let gamers cultivate crops, friendship, and love in Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley. Players take on the role of a young man who has come to the quaint town of Leaf Valley to assume control of his dead grandfather's dilapidated farm. But as soon as gamers arrive, they learn that the farm has already been purchased by the Funland Corporation, with the intention of turning the entire area into an amusement park. In order to save the farm, players must raise fifty thousand dollars in two years by growing and harvesting crops, rearing animals, mining precious ores and gems, and taking on part-time jobs. As is the case with almost all Harvest Moon titles, Hero of Leaf Valley places a great deal of emphasis on relationships, both platonic and romantic, and the love and life choices gamers make will ultimately determine what conclusion the game offers. Features: Take control of a farm and try to keep it from being overtaken by a heartless corporation Grow and cultivate crops, rear a variety of animals, and mine for precious gems Make friends and woo a potential wife

Product Description

The tranquil town of Leaf Valley is scheduled for demolition! The heartless Funland Corporation is going to bulldoze the town and replace it with an amusement park unless it citizens can find a way to stop them! You’ll need to grow crops, raise animals, and mine ores and gems to help save Leaf Valley and your family farm. With a branching storyline and multiple endings, how you choose to save the town is up to you!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enter Farming Cliche Here, July 11, 2010

By 

Genamp (In The Failing Periphery) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley (Video Game)

Now, what number Harvest Moon game is this? The Umpteenth, to say the least? And why in God's name should I bother with a port of PS2 title that hardly made a blip on my radar, let alone led me to believe that a mission-based Harvest Moon would be worth my time and greenbacks? Well, for the most part, this 'port', which improves in many ways on the original, does the series justice, harkening back to the days of the wonderful GBA ports.

First and foremost, you notice the crisp, vivid and beautiful graphics. Now, for a portable, the PSP is no slouch, but many games just don't push the little guy to its full potential. While I'm not saying that HoLV is a new coming in graphic technology, it does the PSP justice. Buildings and characters are well-modeled and the landscape is verdant and lively. All in all, HoLV looks beautiful, a nice plus.

Sound wise, the game doesn't fare as well. It maintains those cheesy, cheerful tunes found in each game, the relaxing and languid ones. They never get to the point of excruciating annoyance, but they are always reminding you that you're playing a Japanese-designed farming game. While none of the Harvest Moon's have voice acting, the absense of anything remotely human when talking to the other denizens does get a little... cold. Sure, the footsteps and rain, as well as animals all sound nice, but I don't know too many mutes who can convey such speech. And their lips don't move. Hah.

Now, the most important crux of the game: gameplay. And, unsurprisingly, it plays like a well-tuned Harvest Moon game. Question: have you played any of the more-recent console iterations of the game? Yes? Well, then there will be few surprises. Farming is still fun in that monotonous, relaxing sort of way and tending for the animals is as easy as ever, an oxymoronic statement if I've ever said one. And HoLV tends to favor relationships and friendship with the neighbors more than previous installment. This livens things up away from the farm. Also, one of the newer aspects is the 'part-time job' option. Leaf Valley has six jobs to work, in addition to your farming, with ample rewards for completing these tasks. Working for the farmer, you may just earn a horse for free in due time, or extra recepies while slaving away in the mansion kitchen. And, if completed successfully, the payment isn't bad either. And you need all the money you can get, because in two years, 50,000G is due.

Let me explain the story. The land of Leaf Valley is schedule for bulldozing and Funland wants to build an amusement park. So you, being the plucky hero (it is in the title) have to collect funds. Or, perhaps there are other ways, such as befriending the town people. And a wife never hurts, either. This is different from previous entries, and it maintained my interest, which is hard. Believe you me.

Overall, HoLV was a very pleasant surprise for a Harvest Moon game. While I am the perennial fan, they have slowly... well, the last few completely failed as games. This one tailors itself to fans moreso, but it is still accessable and fun. It has found permenant residence in my little PSP collection.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For the first time I have enjoyed a next generation styled Harvest Moon...however sadly on a psp, August 16, 2010

By 

ME (Ca) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley (Video Game)

Fans feelings throughout the Harvest Moon series are very mixed when it comes to enjoying which title they choose. Especially since there have been so many of them, and a lot of them being extremely different from one another. I personally throughout the franchise have owned AND ENJOYED; Hm 3, Hm 64, Hm Back To Nature, Hm Friends of Mineral Town, and Hm Ds (sorta). As for the Gamecube titles, I truly could not get into them. For this reason I never tried any of the Wii ones.

Back in 2001 Ps2 gave a shot at the franchise with Harvest moon "Save the Homeland". This titles changes weren't horrible other than the fact that the game actually itself ended within a year. For this reason -- and the fact you couldn't marry -- it was a sinker to a lot of fans. Now 10 years later, Natsume reintroduce's the same character onto the PsP.Much like a story, it takes place right after Save The Homeland did.Overall the new edition is a great game. It returns to what the series was originally about. FARMING, SAVING, And BECOMING SUCCESSFUL! Thats right no stupid "magical notes" or really irrelevant and corny side quests. Only good ones. It now offers part time jobs and steps up on the difficultly level so even veteran Harvest Moon players will sweat a little.If you save Leaf Valley the game also continues.

Now though its a good game, there is some things that bothered me about it. To start Save the Homeland came out like 10 years ago! The next chapter is a good 8 years late.Only real hardcore fans will understand the connection.Thats to bad too. Until 6 days ago I'd tell you Save the Homeland was not even worth looking at. Now that I have played "Hero of Leaf Valley" it gives some understanding to why "Save the Homeland ended. It even left me with curiosity about the game's other 8 endings I missed when I broke it in half out of anger that I beat it on the 8th of summer in year 1. This could have given Save the Homeland some much needed justice. Its also obvious, when you play it,that this is a lot for a PsP to handle. The Load times really take a toll on the game. It's the only reason I really didn't give the game a perfect score.

So in conclusion a long overdue playstation installment of Harvest Moon that takes the next generation style and finally does it right. Sony followers the wait is over! However it really should have been on a Ps2 or a Ps3.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not one of Natsume's best..., February 19, 2011

By 

Hollybunches - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley (Video Game)

I was so excited when I found out that Harvest Moon, one of my favorite games, was now available for PSP. I've had it for about 7 months now and it's kind of starting to bore me.

In Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley (HoLF) you are an ambitious young man who has come to Leaf Valley to live on your grandfather's farm. Well, it turns out that the heartless Funland Corporation has scheduled this town for demolition in order to create an amusement park--suprise, suprise! You, being the heroic newcomer, decide to save Leaf Valley from this awful fate. You must grow crops, raise animals, befriend the villagers, and mine ores and gems if you want to help save Leaf Valley.

One of the things I liked about this game was that there are multiple endings. Either, you can collect and save 50,000G and pay off the Funland Corporation, or you can find other, more exotic ways to save the town. When you befriend certain people, special missions pop up that can help you save the town, such as discovering an endangered species, digging for hidden treasures, or even finding a legendary temple underground. It added a fun twist to the game. :)

This game has very good graphics for a handheld system. I was very impressed, although the cows look sort of weird the first few times you play. :P The sound quality was nice; it has the cheery tunes that Harvest Moon games usually use. All of the villagers are very cute and nice-looking, no blotchy faces or hard-to-distinguish facial features.

PROS:
Very nice graphics.
Multiple endings. (it adds a lot of variety to the game, I believe)
Very easy to play and it kept me playing for hours at a time.
Added features such as horse races, dances, and festivals.
Funny TV shows. :P
1 second = 1 minute in HM time

CONS:
Gets boring after a while.
Getting married is pretty useless. You don't have kids and your wife doesn't even live in your house with you. (even though you can't get married until you upgrade your house to a bigger size)
You can only be a boy.
You can't upgrade your watering can. (I found this very annoying)
Nothing much new ever happens.

All-in-all, this game deserves 4 stars. It keeps you playing for a while and has an interesting storyline. :)