The Gaming Experience
Shaun InguanzoHarvest Moon (SNES Review)
November 26th 2006 19:10
Players: 1
Genre: RPG
Developer: Pack-in-Video
Platform: SNES
Year: 1997 (USA), 1998 (PAL)
At the time I found Harvest Moon to be quite an unusual RPG. First of all, there are no battles at all. Secondly, there's no real plot to the game. So what's the point exactly?
In Harvest Moon you play as a boy that's inherited a run-down old farm. Your task is to clean up the place and make a living in your new town. Basically, it's a game that's centred upon a lifestyle.
Every day you can toil the fields by growing your own fruits and vegetables to sell. If you have livestock you'll have the added responsibility of feeding them every day. Alternatively you can go into the nearby lands and pick seasonal fruit or go fishing to earn your food, or idle around in town talking to the townsfolk.
Time progresses continually in the game, and you're limited by the hours in it (although there is this small glitch where time "stops" after 6:00pm, so you can play as long as you like after 6, and, until you go to bed the day doesn't tick over). At times I felt that time went too quickly, particularly in Autumn (in a day, you can only make 3 trips into the fields to pick mushrooms which isn't much at all). At other times such as Winter, time went by far too slowly.
There is nothing to do in Winter. No produce, nothing in the mountains, and no festivals or events in town. Unless you have livestock, there's nothing preventing you from just sleeping the days away. Well, unless you decide to use this season to focus on courtship.
There are five eligible young girls in town who you may court, and eventually marry and have children with. There's a replayability factor with this, as some people like trying to court a different girl with each playthrough and upgrade their homes in a respective manner.
With a game that has no particular goal, where does it end? This game, unlike Animal Crossing, does have an end. The game goes for a duration of 2.5 game years and automatically ends at that point, regardless of whether you wish to continue your lifestyle. Each season lasts 30 days, so 2.5 years approaches far more quickly than you'd imagine.
All things considering, Harvest Moon is a game you should try for something different. It's not everyone's piece of cake, but there is some strange enjoyment out of running a farm and non-linearity. The only thing this version really lacks is more variety in what can be done in a day (of which I hear later versions have addressed).
Score: 7/10
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