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Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life

by Jonathan Metts - February 28, 2004, 1:01 pm EST

Farm livin’ is the life for me!

I almost didn’t get into Harvest Moon. The first couple of hours of the GameCube version, A Wonderful Life, are so slow and sparse that I didn’t think I would ever get interested. But after a few more game days and some new developments on my farm, things started to get pretty involved, until the point where I can now play for two hours and wonder where the time went.

In case you’re like me and have never played a Harvest Moon game before, here’s all you need to know: it’s about farming. No, really. You start your own farm, basically from scratch, by growing vegetables and raising animals. Along the way, you’ll court some lovely young lady from the nearby village to establish your family. There’s also a strong small business aspect to the game, and you can participate in such exciting extra-curricular activities as fishing and digging for artifacts.

It’s not unfair to call the game boring. Like real farming, most of each day in the game (about half an hour, unless you stay up late) is spent going through a routine of watering crops and feeding animals. Even if you have some free time, the only way to spend it is by fishing or talking to the local yokels. There’s not much to see in the game world. The gameplay is simple, repetitive, even mindless at times. But it draws you in by some strange power, surprisingly compelling in its simplicity. The game is calm and satisfying, broken up only occasionally by a rain shower or social event in the village. I find myself getting excited by the silliest things, like milking the cow in the morning so I can make enough money to buy a new hoe.

Harvest Moon can also be quite funny, sometimes by design and sometimes not. The dialogue is modest and not terribly interesting, although weird comments sporadically break through to raise one or both of your eyebrows. The character designs are very Japanese, including some overtly stereotypical neighbors, like the Jerry Garcia clone who wears a flower in his hat and rambles on about playing guitar. I also have to note that being turned down after an admittedly rushed marriage proposal elicited plenty of laughs. Yeah, I just got shot down in a video game.

A Wonderful Life employs simple graphics and sound design, which fit well with the equally rudimentary (yet undeniably charming) gameplay. Visually, the game could easily pass for a PS2 title, although I do prefer this more traditional art style to the garish cel-shading graphics in the PS2 version. Forget-Me-Not Valley does offer a few nice views though, including a large waterfall and pleasant sunsets over the beach.

Despite an arrestingly slow start, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life becomes quite engrossing, and its open-ended gameplay leaves much to the imagination. Fans of other simulation games, especially Animal Crossing, will surely appreciate what this game is offering, as will veterans of the Harvest Moon series.

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Genre RPG
Developer Natsume
Players1

Worldwide Releases

na: Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
Release Mar 16, 2004
PublisherNatsume
RatingEveryone
jpn: Bokujou Monogatari: Wonderful Life
Release Sep 12, 2003
PublisherNatsume
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