Harvest Moon

SNES

Natsume - 1997

Farming!

You farm.

Hoeing turnips.

Don’t forget to feed the chickens.

Hoeing.

Maybe you can marry someone, but you’re too busy hoeing.

Go take a bath. Oh, but it’s getting dark.

If you don’t feed the cows, they become psycho cows.

No they don’t. that’s a lie.

THEN THE WOLVES COME IN THE NIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!

What liked: Harvest Moon is really rewarding. It’s a lot of hard work, but by the time you buy a few cows and get some corn and potatoes going, you’re really into it. This is frightening, because who wants to play a FARMING game, but you are, so deal.

What disliked: It’s a real-life game. That means boring repitition. Oh, the repitition.

What to expect: Repitition, The everyday hustle and bustle of the farm. It’s an RPG! . . . sort of. It’s sort of like Zelda with wheat and no dungeons. Also, Repitition. It’s a stylized simulation of a young man’s path in life – he starts a farm, marries and hoes around a lot.

What not to expect: Don’t expect it to be TOO real. The most real thing is the repitition. It’s only an SNES RPG. We’re not talking Shenmue or Romance of the three Kingdoms 124.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: It’s an action RPG taken from an entirely new and different angle.

Ratings on:

Control: 6 (intuitive, but switching between tools gets to be a bitch. it could’ve been handled better, especially with an SNES controller. Shame on you, Natsume.)

Graphics: 7 (Sometimes a little dull, but they add spice that a game about farming desperately needs.)

Sound:

Style: 8 (I swear, these guys had to make most of this stuff up, ‘cause WHERE THE HELL IS THIS COMING FROM.)

Difficulty: 6 (Hard to plan for, but not to play. Actual gameplay is a cinch, but deciding what crops to grow, when to get married and when to buy a cow is a real bitch.)

1st hour: 5 (Turnips. Definitely. This is a weird game.)

5th hour: 6 (Ak! A hurricane! My grass!)

1st week: 7 (Woa! you can get MARRIED?!)

5th week: 7 (That barmaid chick Eve is totally hot.)

6th week: 7 (Marriage did ruin many a good farm. Well, back to hoeing.)

#1 reason why I hate this game: 2ND Hurricane of the year. Where the HELL are all my potatoes?!!

by Freeohio. YES!!!

Repitition.