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105 of 109 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just My Oppinion on the Latest Addition of Harvest Moon, September 16, 2005
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
Hmm, where to start? Well, I'll go ahead and begin by saying that this is basically the girl version of "Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town" that came out awhile ago. The games are very similar with the exception of a few, small additions, and of course, the gender specifications of each game.
In this game, you're a single, white, blonde female running a farm all on your own. If you're a fan of the Harvest Moon series, you know that running a farm is much more fun and exciting than it sounds. There are crops to water, animals to feed, cows to milk, sheep to shear, fish to catch, villagers to befriend and much more. =)
However, this game isn't all work. A lot of fun little extra curriculum activities are also entwined into the plot. There are quite a few competitive festivals in which you often get a prize for winning. Some of these include the Cooking Festival (In which you cook a dish and bring it to Rose Square to be judged); the Cow, Sheep, and Chicken Festivals; the Dog Disk Tournament; and much more.
Befriending the villagers will net you some nifty extras. For example, if you and Won become good friends, he'll allow you to sell stuff to him, which is handy because some items he will buy for a higher price than Zack. That, and he'll buy items that you can't normally sell, such as flowers and things you cook.
Mining is also a very fun experience in this game. Busting rocks with a hammer to get ores and gems... Who could say no to that? =P
Once you build up your stamina and learn to make energy-replenishing dishes, you can go very deep in the mines. (Although I'll admit, it can be VERY annoying trying to find the steps down to the next floor on the levels with huge areas. >_<) But if you have the patience, you can reach as low as level 255. The deeper you go in the mines, the more valuable stuff you'll find. And some things you'll find are very useful such as the Cursed Tools, the Goddess Jewels, and the Teleport Stone.
You can upgrade your farm/house in this version of HM as well, but it doesn't stop there. =D You also get THREE new houses in addition to the one on your farm! Although they are hard to get...
- Vacation Villa (Have Gotz build it for $100,000,000 X_X)
- Mountain Cottage (Present for your 50th Wedding Anniversary)
- Beach House (Get 42 Connectivity Points with HM: Another Wonderful Life for GameCube.)
So yes, as you can see these are hard to obtain, but I guess it gives the hardcore gamers a goal...
The prospect of marriage is always fun, and in this game you have quite a variety. You have the same guys that were in HM: Back to Nature as well as three new secret ones. ^_^ The list is as follows:
- Gray (The junior blacksmith)
- Doctor (The town doctor. Odd how his actual name is never mentioned...)
- Kai (The African American lad who only comes during the Summer. He runs a shop on the beach.)
- Cliff (Cute little homeless guy who moved to Mineral Town recently, it would seem. He stays at the Inn.)
- Rick (Red-headed guy who lives at the Chicken Farm.)
- Won (The weird, Asian dude that sells stuff. He lives with Zack on the beach.)
- Gourmet (The big, fat dude that judges the Cooking Festival. He copied Willy Wonka's clothing style... >_>)
- Kappa (A swamp monster, pretty much, lol. Yep, a genuine Japanese water demon...)
So there you have it. All the cool aspects of the game put into detail. Now for the bad things...
- A LOT of typos. Seriously, it's annoying. The oddest one is after you're married to anyone but Gray, go talk to him. He speaks Japanese. O.o
- Your animals can die. =( I know some people think this is more realistic, but I find it extremely annoying. After you go and win the festivals with them and get their affection all the way up, they die in a few years. (Chickens live for about 3 years before they start dieing. Cows and Sheep live for 4 or 5. Can't remember.) Although you can cheat death by saving before you go to sleep and then loading if they die, since the funerals are always in the morning... =)
- There are some very valuable and useful items that are obtained too late in the game. The Gem of Truth is a pain, and the Teleport Stone can only be gotten after the third year, and even then it's annoying getting to it. (All the way at the bottom on the Spring Mine. >_<) Also, a lot of things are just annoying to get. The Goddess Gem, the Kappa Gem, and the Mythic Tools are the main things.
- The Vacation Villa costs waaaaaay too much. X_X One hundred million gill is FAR too much, IMO. Ten million would've been an adequate price, I think....
- The game can get repetitive, seriously repetitive. Once you've played a few dozen years, you're kind of sitting there going "Why am I still doing this...?" lol But for some reason, you can't put it down. Thankfully there's a lot of things to obtain, keeping you interested for that long.
Well, that's about all I've got. If you do decide to buy the game, I hope you enjoy it. ^_^
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35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Female Version of Harvest Moon, July 28, 2005
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
For those who have never played a Harvest Moon game, the main storyline and goal of the game is that your main character gains a farm and must clean it up, grow crops, earn money, and socialize with the townsfolk. You also have the ability (in many of them) to woo and marry the spouse of your dreams and have a kid as well. Previous versions of the U.S. versions of these games have been known to make the main character male, allowing you to marry 1 of 5 potential women in the game. Doesn't sound bad, unless you want to marry a guy.
Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town makes the main character female - giving players that chance to woo and marry 1 of 5 potential men (with rumors of some secret possible ones). The potential men are the ones who were your rivals in the first GBA game: Cliff; Doctor; Doug; Kai; and Rick. The rumor is that you can also marry: Gourmet; Kappa; and Won (in a similar manner as you could marry the Harvest Goddess in the first GBA game).
Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town also plays like the original GBA game of Friends of Mineral Town. Unfortunately, a little too much like the first version as cut scenes that affected your relationship with the girlfiends are also in More Friends of Mineral Town - making you to remember which version you are playing. In fact the original GBA version had two Thanksgiving Festivals. One in Spring, the other in Winter. The Spring one had the male charater give homemade cookies to the girls of interest and the Winter Festival had the girls (with required affection level) give your character chocolate. At least in More Friends of Mineral Town your female character gets to wait until Winter to give their gifts of chocolate to any of the guys they desire - which also means that unless you make real good friends with one of the potential men real soon you won't be receiving any cookies in the Spring.
There is now a new feature that allows you to sell things to Won (the seller who stays with Zack). This is especially handy since he will buy things that you can't sell to Zack (such as flowers and Golden Lumber). You have to make friends with him first. I managed to unlock it after giving 3 gifts of Pirate's Treasure (one of which was wrapped).
You can also store the fish you have gotten from the rivers, lakes, and ocean in the pond on your farm...but I don't think they will reproduce as they could in the Playstation version.
Aside from the above new things, the opening storyline is different as you see an ad for the farm and decide to quite your job, move out of your apartment, and move to the country. Not to mention the fact that the Mayor laughs at you for believing the 'sweet talk' wording of the ad for the farm. The other versions have it that you had visited the place when you were a kid and met a new friend that lived there. In this version, EVERYONE is a stranger to you.
Whether you are new to the Harvest Moon line or a long time fan, this is still a game to get. It is non-violent, easy to play, and you can save the game's progress just about anyway...making it a great game to play when on the go.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's great, October 4, 2005
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
The entire Harvest Moon series is based on roleplaying. However, most of the games in the past had you either get married, succeed at the farm, or befriend the villagers in order to continue playing. This game is much different! It allows you to run the farm in anyway you want, and you won't get that horrible sign that everyone hates, "GAME OVER". It is somewhat different then the boy version of this game. There are a few new recipes, you can change your clothes, but the most important aspect is that you are a girl! You can marry the many guys available, or stay single. I must say that getting married is very fun to do. You can get a child and raise her. Yes I believe you can only get a daughter, and they stay as toddlers. Raising the animals, and tending to the crops is a lot more fun then it sounds. You get many benefits from them, such as money. Whatever you produce on the farm you can use in your cooking. You can expand your home, which you must do in order to get married. Some people do not like the many challenging parts, such as trying to get a certain jewel or befriending a local villager. But the more they play it, the less challenging it seems, and the more fun it gets. And what is really great about this game is that, even when you're married, have a kid, get a lot of money, have great animals, theres ALWAYS something to do, something to achieve. I highly reccomend this game, you will not regret it. If you're gonna pick up a copy of this game, I might suggest you get a nice comfortable couch to sit on, and have some chips to snack on, because once you start, trust me, its hard to stop :)
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