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48 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
A more challenging Harvest Moon
I actually had the opportunity to play this game months ago via a Japanese copy. Past Harvest Moon games revolved around the same premise: grow crops, raise animals, fish, mine, etc.. This does too, but there are also noticeable differences. To start off with, most other games already have 90% or more of the people you interact with there. In Island of Happiness...
Published on August 29, 2008 by K. McEvoy
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39 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
What happened to my d-pad??
I have been waiting for this game to come out for many many months. After numerous setbacks with the release dates I was very excited when it finally arrived on my doorstep last week.
Once I started the game however I was sorely disappointed to find out the game only allows your character to move around via the "Stylus" and the d-pad works like the button...
Published on August 30, 2008 by Willow Tree
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48 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
A more challenging Harvest Moon, August 29, 2008
Fun:
This review is from: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (Video Game)
I actually had the opportunity to play this game months ago via a Japanese copy. Past Harvest Moon games revolved around the same premise: grow crops, raise animals, fish, mine, etc.. This does too, but there are also noticeable differences. To start off with, most other games already have 90% or more of the people you interact with there. In Island of Happiness (IoH), you start off with about 4 other people. By certain dates and certain achievements more people arrive.
In the past, you used ores to strengthen your tools, now you have colorful spheres called 'wonderfuls' that modify your tools in some very nice ways (imagine adding orange wonderfuls to your milker and receiving and extra milk for each orange wonderful attached). You will get wonderfuls for winning competitions (which can't start until you build the East bridge.
You will also be extremely exhausted (and hungry) for the first season and until you can get enough people to move to the island to open up the diner and cafe (so don't over do working the crops).
In HM IoH, there are more things to spend your hard earned money on. And sheep, before took 1 week before you could shear them again, now take only 3 days.
On a down side, you cannot use the old cheat to change the weather. I've tried many times.
It is more challenging because of the limitations early on and very little chance of actually getting married in the first 2 years - but even your rivals don't seem too rushed to get married.
Things will improve after you get the West bridge build (the East bridge has to be build first - so you are looking around $80,000 total for the first two bridges), but the West bridge will give you access to the mine and help bring in enough people to open up the diner and cafe.
If you were easily bored by the second or third years of other Harvest Moons, this will give you more to do even well past the fourth or fifth years (I'm in Summer Year 4 of the Japanese version).
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39 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
What happened to my d-pad??, August 30, 2008
Fun:
This review is from: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (Video Game)
I have been waiting for this game to come out for many many months. After numerous setbacks with the release dates I was very excited when it finally arrived on my doorstep last week.
Once I started the game however I was sorely disappointed to find out the game only allows your character to move around via the "Stylus" and the d-pad works like the button pad. I am all for implementing the use of the Stylus in DS games, but it should be an option...not a requirement.
Everything in this game just seems to take forever. Moving with the stylus and only being to activate your tools with the buttons is just a pain. The character tires out quickly and is constantly having to forage for food. The whole thing is just awkward to me and I lose interest in the game very quickly. I played Zelda's Phantom Hourglass with the Stylus method of moving around, but in that game it just worked better.
IMO the biggest challenge about this game is using the controls while the game itself isn't very challenging. A lot of features seem stripped out of the game and it's just kinda boring. It doesn't even measure up to HM DS Cute. I am sure some people will enjoy this game and possibly will not be bothered by the Stylus interface, but Natsume missed the mark for me.
I am really disappointed and hope the D-pad issues are addressed in future releases or I will not even consider another HM ds game.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Solid addictive game but pure time waster, October 5, 2008
Fun:
This review is from: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (Video Game)
Like many of the reviewers that gave average scores, I'm a veteran HM player. I've played Harvest Moon DS: Island of Happiness for over fifty hours now (almost to year 5) and have been quite disappointed. It's addictive, but it's no fun and frustrating.
Pros:
1. Includes both boy and girl main characters in one game. Huge plus.
2. Use of touch controls compared to HM DS. People complain about poor controls, but one just needs to get used to it. Note that you can use the D-pad/buttons to select and use the tools.
3. Almost no typos and glitches. Very solid.
4. Rebuilding an entire island town is a refreshing approach.
5. Tool upgrading thru wonderfuls adds a nice RPG element.
Cons:
1. Frustrating randomness. Crops only grows depending on weather conditions, which makes sense. However, you can go a whole season without profit cause it rained too much or get a series of cloudy days.
2. Cheap events and cheap festivals. The elements that really made the HM games great are neglected once again. The festivals have no activities, just participation crap. Where are the tomato fights, chicken sumo, horse racing, etc?!? There aren't even any mountain top romance scenes.
3. Mining is still no fun and is a huge time sink, and you can't avoid it if you want to progress. Mining sucks.
4. A lot of corner-cutting design decisions: several villagers have the same model, no wedding dresses/tuxedos for marriages, repetitive dialogs.
5. You're forced to socialize occasionally to prevent people from moving out or from refusing your gifts. Note that this game can reach up to 99 villagers.
6. So many tiny and costly upgrades meant to just slow you down.
7. Animal care mini-games are no fun and just gives you blisters.
8. Harvest Sprites no longer help you with the farm work!
Update - Forgot some major cons:
9. Separate spouse beds...what an awkward relationship.
10. Growing trees is terrible. Over a year to grow and addition 1-2 years to make the profit over just the cost of seeds.
11. No mayor, no clinic, no library (would be helpful to explain all the complications), etc. Just farm stores, 2 restaurants, and 2 hotels. What a lame town.
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25 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
Can be a great game and great concepts, but the controls are terrible., August 30, 2008
Fun:
This review is from: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (Video Game)
I have this game and bought it at Gamestop, but I played this game for 2 hours now and seems like a really fun game so far. But all I have to tell you is that Natsume made a big mistake of the concept of using the stylus for the entire game which makes the controls really annoying.
Graphics
Typical Harvest moon graphics, you pretty much the same as the other Harvest Moon for DS
Sounds
I love the music in the Spring time pretty good and upbeating. I pretty much like all the Harvest moon music.
Gameplay
Great concepts, you have to get money to buy a new bridge and get more people on the island. The more you plant and gain more money and get more shippments, the more people will come.
Controls
By far the worst part, but yet the most important part. I know I complained about the stylus, but you use it for your tools, moving around shipping and pretty much everything. The Control pad and Buttons are only good to select crops or your weapons, but it is easy at this point to use the stylus. L and R buttons are pointless, it makes your character run, but you have your stylus do it for your automatically.
Maybe I have not got use to the stylus or controls part, but I like using the D-pad to move and the buttons to farm. It is sort of annoying because you farm much slower. Meaning you have to go to the square and tap the stylus and then move again and do it again. Now it was easy just using the D-pad, but it is a pain with the style because the character does not move where you tell him/her to do.
Also, you can not use the cheating method of getting something out of your rugsack easily you have to go tap the menu and then put it in your read box and then ship it. Then it asks you the question do you really want to ship it. I am not so sure if you loose friendship points if you litter or not.
Overall:
Natsume would have hit the mark if they implemented the controls like the other Harvest Moon games. If I known the controls were bad, I would have not bought the game nor the game guide because I loved every Harvest moon game I bought from them for the DS and gameboy, N64, Gamecube and etc..
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Completely New Format; Loads of Fun, September 1, 2008
Fun:
This review is from: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (Video Game)
Harvest Moon Island is the real, long-awaited remake of the series for the Nintendo DS. All the graphics are fully 3D, there are nice 2D portraits of the characters with a variety of facial expressions, and the overall environment is very nice. This game is much more challenging than some of the original Harvest Moons, especially due to the difficult sun/rain crop system and the hard to obtain wonderful stones. The game forces the player to befriend many of the villagers, and the main objective is to build up Sunny Island and get more people to move in, some of them being the bachelors/bachelorettes. (The island itself is also very large and fun to explore.)
Considering that you can play as either a male OR female, and the fact that there are 2 save files, this is indeed a very good game--it's like 2 in 1. No more waiting for the girl's version, etc. The only main trouble, besides the challenge (which im sure many players will enjoy), is that the exclusive touch controls can get a bit annoying, especially when it comes to watering crops. However, it takes only a couple of hours to get used to, and after that, many players may find this option more immersive and intuitive. You can conveniently tap on characters from across the screen to give them gifts, and there's almost no chance of accidentally "littering."
All in all, Harvest Moon Island of Happiness is a wonderful step forward in the series, and avid fans will not be disappointed.
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12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Not for experienced HM players, September 13, 2008
Fun:
This review is from: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (Video Game)
Out of all the harvest moon games, this was the least enjoyable. First time players might find it more difficult than fun, and experienced HM players might tire of it quickly (I know I did).
CONTROLS
The biggest problem with the game is the control system. Nintendo is very gun-ho about it's touchscreen and it shows in this game. Everything you do is controlled via touchscreen and it's very frustrating. The DS's touchscreen is great but it's not perfect, and that makes it difficult for it to distinguish between accurate movements, like trying to pick up a chicken that's standing next to the fence post (you pick up part of the post instead). Or trying to give a gift to your gf/bf but instead have your character drop the gift on the floor (and lose friendship points for littering). And sometimes you have to press the stylus hard into the screen to get the character to move, no matter how well calibrated your touchscreen is. Many of these problems could be avoided if the game had a dedicated button for that specific action. Nintendo needs to realize that not all games translate well into touchscreen re-birth and not everyone wants to play a game with a single hand.
WEATHER AND CROPS
In previous HM games, the difference between a good harvesting season and a poor one usually depended on whether you watered your crops daily. Not so in this game. Weather matters big time. For example, spring was the best time to plant anything, because the frequent rain kept your crops watered and gave you time to do other things, but in I.O.H, too much rain kills your crops. And the same goes for the sun. Too much sun withers your crops or stops them from growing, even if you water them EVERYDAY!!! Natsume's solution to this was to encourage you to water your crops twice daily, but who has enough stamina to do that??? And for you experienced players counting on harvest sprites to help you with your farm, forget about it. There are sprites in the game, but they are only there as...well...I'm not sure WHY they're there. They no longer help you with your work. Now, if you want to get all your chores done, you have to employ the help of stones called 'wonderfuls', and that's another system all in itself. And wonderfuls are not easy to come by. You can only get them by winning festivals, making it to the 255th floor of the mine, and on random days from the store in the winter, and THAT only depends on if your farm degree ends in a certain number (oh, by the way, you can't see your farm degree. It's hidden from you).
My game is currently in year 4, and after all this time I've only earned five wonderfuls, and that's not enough to make much of a difference with the farm. Thanks to this screwy system, I can only manage to plant six plots of crops, which rarely yield anything because of the complicated weather requirements, and I can't break any of the large boulders and stumps that litter my land. The weed growth is insane, too. Seventy percent of what you clear out on your land grows back the next day, so that you start to say 'what's the point?'
I've finally given up on cropping and have decided to save up my money to build a greenhouse (better weather control) and plant grass on my land. And that's another thing. In previous HM games, you only had to plant your grass seeds and water them once and be done with it, but in this game if you don't water your grass regularly (a day or two out of the week), the grass dries up and you have to plant it again. Unbelievable. The only reason I'm able to afford to buy anything in this game is due to mining. About 90% of my income comes from mining. My animals would starve to death if I didn't mine.
CONCLUSION
For first time HM players, I would highly advise you to buy the previous Harvest Moon DS game. It didn't get very good reviews, but having played the previous version, I can tell you it's MUCH better than this one. And way more fun. For experienced HM players, buy at your own risk. You will regret it!
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
hard for the best HM players, March 28, 2009
Fun:
This review is from: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (Video Game)
Thid game is exteremly hard. It takes forever to get enough money for anything.
MONEY:
Money takes a while to get I am in fall of my 1st year and havv only bought a animal shed and a bridge to the medow, were the contest are. crops early in the game raise only small income because of stamina conserns. For peaople who think you can earn money byt minning in the begenning of the game, you cant. The secend bridge unlocks it but cost a ton of money. The only thing you can do in the begening is forage and plant for money. You cant realy having a big harvest I only have 3,3 by 3's and afer a watering that you are almost out of stamina.
TIME:
Time goes by extremly fast after watering for me its late in the day. Time goes by faster than the original hm game. Time is one of the downsides for me.
Upgrades:
For those experienced HM players there are no sprites you rely on wonderful stones wich are exteremly rare. No blcksmith will just improve it like in the other HM games.
Building:
The upside is that that it only takes him 1 day to build what you want the carpenter to do. It takes a ton of money though like the bridgeI am saving up for cost 20,000 for labor and I need 500 lumber wich sells at the carpenters for 50g each. Bridges are extremely importent because they aloow you to visit new places. Every bridge or road built increases 3% to the development percentage. there are 8 roadand 3 bridges that can be Upgraded/bilt.
Fun:
On the good side it is fun and adictive but not as easy as even a experienced HM player would think. I am a expert at HM for DS original.
I still wasn't expecting it to be this hard. don't think you now it all about harvest moon intil you see this game. I, even with all the downslides would by the game
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Extremely Happy I Bought This Game, October 18, 2008
Fun:
This review is from: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (Video Game)
After reading all the reviews here i was really unsure about getting this game. I finally caved in and im so glad i did. Ill make this review easy, if you like Any of the Harvest Moon's you will like this one. Like the other HM its hard at the start because you tire out quickly from planting/watering crops, but it gets easier and more intresting as you go along. What i like the most is how many neighbors/friends you get to have. The island and the land you have is huge compared to HMDS (the first one) I rate the fun of this game a 5 star. Overall i rated it a 4 and its because of only one reason. You have to use the stylus for just about everything and it can be frustrating. Alot of the reviews i read mentioned this was a problem for them too, however you do get used to it and it gets easier. I would of liked having the option to use the control pad. Dont let this stop you from buying the game! Im really glad i did, i have been playing for a week and still cant put it down. Hope this review helps ENJOY!!
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
A fun new take on the Harvest Moon games!, August 29, 2008
Fun:
This review is from: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (Video Game)
At first I didn't like the controls being completely stylus-based, but after I got used to it, the game was a blast! If you love all the other Harvest Moon games, I'm sure you'll like this one as well.
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9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Island of Happiness^^, August 29, 2008
Fun:
This review is from: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (Video Game)
This is offically the best harvest moon for the ds ever! Of course you all know the story, you get shipwreked on a deserted island. Only one family is there with you. You must work together to attract more people to your island. Yes, you have to work to get people to come, but some come in your first month of playing. You also have to build bridges to access other parts of the island. You do not start with a dog or a horse. You get a horse by befriending Chen and Charlie and you get a dog by befriending Mirabelle.
This game is actually pretty hard but fun. I reccomend giving Taro a blue grass (looks like a blue heart) everyday. If you do this, you will receive a fishing rod quicker. Don't forget, always talk to the villigers! If you don't talk to them for 30 days they will move out!! (but you can bring them back by doing certain things) Talk to every villiger at least everyother day. This also raises affection. Here are the gifts to give people in spring (on your fist year)
Taro: Blue or Purple Grass or a turnip
Felecia: Flowers
Elliot: Chocolate
Natalie: Chocolate
Charlie: Blue or purple grass
Chen: Chocolate or turnip
Oh and the only way to move is using the stylus. You can not use the control pad to move. I found that a bit frustrating.
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