Harvest Moon

"The unthinkable: farming at its finest!"

Harvest Moon, a game so innovative, creative and even challenging that you would swear barn raising was your calling. Rarely do games ever throw us into a real-life scenario where doing something such as planting corn actually matters, and in Harvest Moon, it does. In fact, it is your life. Contrary to how it may sound, this makes for a very pleasant experience in the world of farming. An SNES game to some, a daily routine to others, there's a little something for every fan of simulation games here. I only have one question myself: where are the sheep?

This game was actually released late in the SNES's life, which probably accounts for the small fanbase. Late or not, this is one of those few games that blows many others out of the water without ever becoming immensely popular.

Story: 8/10

For starters, Harvest Moon is a simulation game; the story isn't going to ''wow'' you, but it sets the scene for a decent plot.

Your character (named whatever you want his name to be, but let's call him ''Bill'') has inherited a farm from his parents. However, this is only a temporary thing and is probably just an excuse from Mr. and Mrs. Bill to force their son to fix things up. Whatever the reason for running the farm is, you're put in charge of everything from planting/harvesting crops to raising livestock. You only have from Spring of the first year to Summer of the third year to do it, a total of two and a half years before your parents return. In the meantime you must repair the farmhouse, expand the land and create a successful farming environment. Sound easy? It isn't, but you should spend many entertaining hours attempting to complete everything in your own way.

Gameplay: 9/10

Ah, the real charm is right here.

Your character must complete many tasks to achieve the best ending of this ''rags to riches'' tale. You start out with very little, or quite frankly, next to nothing in terms of housing and crops. You also must clear the land of rocks and random debris scattered about before you can even get started, one of the most obvious rules of farming would be that nothing will grow in bad or cluttered soil. After you've cultivated your land with the assistance of a limited selection of tools, the game really begins. Corn and tomatoes don't just pop out of the ground themselves, you must first buy seeds in town. A nice and somewhat realistic feature in the game is that all vegetables are seasonal, meaning certain crops are more likely to grow in full at given times of the year than at others. In fact, some won't grow at all out of season (such as attempting to grow corn in Winter vs. Summer.) Like any good little farmer, you must take good care of your crops before they will grow, mainly by watering them. There are also a fixed amount of different customizations you can give your garden to make your plants happy and safe, such as adding a fence to keep out danger. Clearly this game proves that talking to plants will not speed up the growing process, because your character says very little even to non plant life.

Along with farming comes many unfortunate natural disasters that will try to ruin your progress. In Harvest Moon, it's a thing called ''weather.'' Yes, the weather effects are in full force depending on the time of year; Spring and Summer will be your worst enemies (as a note, the seasons in this game are also the names of months, hence the capitalization. There are four ''months'' per year: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Each consists of 30 days.) On occasions, hurricanes will hit your farm and prevent you from tending to your crops or livestock by forcing you to stay indoors all day. This can be quite the drawback, usually causing massive damage to your land and garden(s). In my experience, a hurricane normally meant that I would spend the following day doing nothing but chopping wood to repair the fences. I have come to find out that farming is tough! Luckily, your character has a single channel on his TV: a weather station! By switching on the TV, you can find out about the weather for the following day as well as any upcoming town events. Unlike the real world, this weather station is actually accurate with its predictions.

Now, you're probably thinking that this game sounds like a far cry from anything fun when it comes to interaction with other characters, but the fact is there is plenty of social events throughout the year, as I previously mentioned. Festivals are held in town and cover a variety of events, my personal favorite being an Easter egg hunt. These events give you two very important opportunities: one being the chance to purchase rare items that aren't available at other times, and two being your chance to ''flirt.'' Since your character is a male, your goal during social events is to ''get the girl.'' The thing is, you do have your choice, and deciding on one may be difficult if you find yourself experiencing the burning desire to get married. Like a simple agricultural with mind control, you're able to make girls fall in love with you simply by being nice to them and buying them little presents. You don't have to get married, but if you want kids (yes, you can do that too... ''THAT'' as in reproduce) then you'll be required to tie the knot at some point. Happy families make a successful business, do they not?

Animals are another feature adding to the realism that is farming. Like most real people in the field, you can raise livestock to produce valuable commodities. These animals have feelings as well, which is admirable for 16-bit sprites. If you fail to feed your chickens or cows for only one day, they will cease to dish out profitable milk or eggs for a while. If that isn't bad enough, the cows are constantly threatened by illness. Definitely high maintenance, but if worst comes to worst you can always sell them.

When it comes to standard play control, ''smoothness'' would be the word here. Most of what you'll do is walk (or run) around and purchase seeds or feed, which is easy just by the sound of it. Tending to and harvesting crops is a cinch, provided you figure out how to do what, but the time it takes to learn the basics should be a very small amount. Your character can only hold two items at a time, whether they're tools, feed or both. This makes for a lot of running back and forth to the tool shed, which is really the only semi-annoying point in the game. Once you know how everything works though, this can easily be overlooked. Oddly, each day in the world of Harvest Moon lasts a little under five minutes; the story may last two and a half years, but the game certainly doesn't. Clearly, you must do things quickly each day to make it back to the farm before the harvested crops are shipped out at dusk. No real problems arise in this area, but the more you play the shorter each day will seem. Along with jetting back and forth to gather tools, the short days limit any time spent doing things in general. You will have plenty of time to do what you want, just not all in one day. Still, this may make you all the more determined to not slack off.

Graphics: 10/10

Like many SNES games before it, Harvest Moon is set at a slight overhead camera angle very similar to 2D Final Fantasy games and Earthbound. This is of course ideal for a game of this nature since it gives the best possible view of your land, which is important for improving your farm. The use of colors is incredible and suits each season with the proper balance of browns, greens, etc. During the sunny days of Summer, for example, you can even see the shadows of clouds passing overhead. The footprints left behind in the snow in Winter is a nice touch and suggests a noticeable amount of attention paid to detail.

The characters and animals are a bit cartoonlike in appearance, but look just as you would expect. When a cow sleeps, the trademark anime bubble appears from its mouth/nose and then ''pops'' when it wakes up. Similar examples of this cartoon feel are present in many other parts of the game, such as expressions on faces... and then there are the underground elves. All the animations are fluent and some even add humor to an already graphically polished game.

Truthfully, I've never been able to find any problems with the graphics. They may be old compared to today, but they're still excellent.

Sound: 9/10

One of the first things you'll notice is the lack of sound effects. They are there, they just aren't very common. The thing that really makes the sound shine is the music. Each season has its own tune associated with it, as does every area of the game (like the town or forest.) None of the music loops to the point where you want to rip your ears off thankfully, and it's a real treat to listen to. Most of the music is laid back and mellow, almost relaxing while other tracks such as the festival music are upbeat in a party sort of way.

As for the few sound effects that ARE present, they're really all you could expect. Your character can be heard running across the grass or dirt and tools make their appropriate sounds when used. The text boxes also make a sort of beeping sound when words appear. All of these are above average in quality even though they are sparse.

And to think, not a single tractor engine is heard...

Replay: 7/10

If you're like me, you might not even get the ''best'' ending the first time, which is your reward for becoming a successful farmer with a successful farm. That is reason enough to play through again eventually. Whether you do or don't, you can always try different routes, such as focusing more on family than on your farm or remaining a bachelor. You can even see if you can force your wife to divorce you or go for the worst farm ever to see the reaction from your parents when they return. Okay, so replaying through will most likely not be as fun as the first time, but that doesn't mean you can't try things you didn't do before. You may not want to return for a while despite how addicting it can be initially, but once you do then you might find that it's worth at least a second playthrough... sometime in the future.

Overall: 9/10

Harvest Moon is a farming game to some, but it's really so much more. If you like simulation/strategy games of any kind then this one's worth a look. Even if you can't keep a sunflower alive longer than a week (like me), you still might become addicted to one of the best games the SNES has to offer. Farming is farming, but working in the dirt all day can be fun, and this game proves it!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/03