Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life

"Don't fix what ain't broke, or you'll end up breaking it some more."

Harvest Moon has been a part of my life since the SNES days. I remember plopping that cartridge into my SNES and playing Harvest Moon for 6 hours or more a day. As the years dragged on, sequels started coming out. Harvest Moon 64 (Yay!), Harvest Moon Back to Nature (Eh...), harvest Moon GBC 1-3 (Ugh...), Harvest Moon Save The Homeland (What the hell?) and then Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life (Well, they're sorta back on track).. And now HM : Another WL

Story : 6/10
It's the same exact thing as last time. Your father is dead, and you inherit his farm. It's a backwater village with two farms, and a couple of houses. There isn't anything new here : You'll meet the same exact NPC's and progress is the same exact way. The only major difference is that your character is a girl, and you play from a girl's point of View. If youve played through The first AWL, then you'll know exactly what is going to happen.

Farming aspects 5/10
If you've played AWL, you'll know what to expect. There are ten days to a month, and four months to a year : Spring Summer, Fall, and Winter, respectively. You walk around, raising crops and tend to your animals. In order to plant crops, you need to till one of the two fields, and then plant the seeds in your tilled land. But you must use your watering can to water the plants at least twice a day. And what do you get for it all? Well, if you do everything properly, you can harvest those Tomatoes you planted and sell them for 35g each! And you spent 30g to buy the seeds. What a waste. Also, tilling your fields are much, much harder. A new feature was added in to allow you to pause for a second to position yourself on the field. However, this is an extremely useless and annoying feature, and you're constantly in a pause, sometimes stuck for seconds at a time.

You'll also notice that you pasture is completely dead. You must buy fertilizer for each patch of grass you wish to cultivate. This is even more awkward than tilling your fields, and the camera is constantly in a near-horizontal view, meaning you have very little of a clue as to where your fertilizer will be placed. After a while, you can cut this grass to make fodder for your....

....Livestock! You may raise cows, sheep, chickens, and a horse. Your character starts with one cow, which can be milked twice a day. In this version, all of the harvest milk appears at once as opposed to appearing one by one. But you still need to be positioned just right to pick it up. Eggs are picked up in a Similar fashion. Sheep may have their wool sheared every few days, but the profits are ridiculously low.

Farming has taken one step forward and three steps back.

The guys : 7/10
As the heir to the farm, it's your mission to get married to a guy and have a child. This is exactly desirable to anyone, as you only have three men to choose from, and none of them are very interesting. You get to choose from Marlin the Mullet, Gustafa the Hippie, and Rock the Bad-ass blonde. Wooing the men is very easy, as long as you talk to them and give them gifts every day. Each bachelor has different tastes and will react to gifts differently. Once you have wooed him, you may propose to him with a Blue Feather. If he accepts, you'll be married at the end of the year. After that, you'll have a bigger house with your newborn child and your virtually useless husband. As the game progresses, the child will grow up to pursue his own career, and will be influenced depending on the friends you make.

Graphics : 8/10
Nothing has changed from AWL. The graphics are up to today's standards, with lush waterfalls, lively scenery, and colorful characters.The day/night effects are crisp, and truly make you feel you are in the current hour. Think "World of Warcraft"

Sound : 2/10
Mute your TV and rip the speakers out. The sound on this game truly falls short on every level. Your farm has two music choices to choose from : That's it... Two. Both of which are extremely repetitive and annoying. It's a re-release, and I was expecting more music to choose from, but I grew irritated as I checked my cabinet and saw only one spare CD in there : The same one from last time. As for the sound effects, they are all very cartoony and out of place. And your cows sound like they're being run through a meat packing conveyer belt. Alive.

Translation : 6/10
Natsume has a reputation for being the worst translator in modern day gaming. But they really cleaned up from last time. There are significantly less spelling errors and text glitches (Remember the broken TV episode?). However, much of the Dailouge dosen't make much sense, with sometimes nonsensical sentences and out-of-place words. Oh well, at least it's an improvement.

Rent or buy?: Rent, don't take the risk of wasting $30 on a shoddy rehash.

Overall : 5/10
Even with all the new changes, this game is a disappointment to a Harvest Moon veteran like myself. The series has strayed farther from it's roots than Final Fantasy will ever have. With half the field space, awkward moving speed, and useless new aspects, HM : Another WL is mooing it's last moo.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/05/05