Harvest Moon Magical Melody Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 21st April 2008

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The Harvest Moon series returns.

Harvest Moon Magical Melody Details:

Goto Harvest Moon Magical Melody Game Page

	RPG
	Nintendo Wii
	Marvelous Interactive Inc
	Nintendo

Out Now

N/A

The Harvest Moon series began way back on the SNES in 1997, and the basic premise hasn’t changed much through its various iterations on the Gameboy, DS, N64, Gamecube and even on the Playstation 1 and 2.

You become the proud owner of a plot of land that you must turn into a farm, by planting crops and keeping animals and selling your goods to earn money. The game takes place in days, with each day lasting about half an hour. There are 30 days in each season, and there are four seasons in a year. Certain crops will only grow in certain seasons, so you’ll have to replant different seeds depending on the time of year. You’ll first have to clear your plot of weeds and tree stumps and stones to make it usable. You are provided with the basic tools to begin with, an axe, a hoe, a watering can, and a hammer. You also have a stamina bar that shows your energy level, every action you perform from pulling weeds to fishing causes this bar to decrease and if it’s empty your character will collapse and wake up in the clinic the next day. You can refill this bar by eating food or sleeping until the next day.

Making money is relatively easy because the seeds are really cheap and the fruit and veg they bare fetch a rather tidy sum. There are also other ways of making money, such as mining or fishing, and selling what you find or catch. The money you earn can be used however you like. You can use it to upgrade your tools so they work better or cause you to lose less stamina when you use them. Or perhaps you want to build a bigger house, or buy another plot of land. It is completely up to you, this game is completely open ended and you can play it at your own pace. There are plenty of shops around the town to buy new equipment such as a mayonnaise maker or a frying pan for your kitchen so you can cook the food you grow.

The animals you can own and breed are chickens, sheep and cows, you have to make sure to feed them everyday and give them love and attention. Animals that are taken care of well fetch a higher price if you sell them but also produce higher quality produce. Cows are the most difficult to raise but also produce the most profitable product, milk. Sheep can be raised and sheared so their wool can be sold, or you can dye it if you buy a dying pot and have some herbs to dye it with. Chickens are very easy to take care of and produce eggs every day.

As well as your farming duties you can also befriend the locals, this has perks as certain items can only be obtained by building up your relationship with specific characters. The menu has a tab that shows how many hearts you have for every character you’ve met. You can increase the number of hearts by talking to them everyday or giving them presents that they like. Everybody has different likes and dislikes so be sure to give the right people the right stuff! If you get someone to like you enough, you can even get married and have a baby, but only if your house is big enough! You can probably appreciate that there are loads of choices to be made in this game, and this will reflect on how the game progresses. There are plenty of things to distract you from the general farming and animal keeping. There are festivals set on certain days during the year, some of which involve mini games to take part in. The major side quest involves collecting musical notes to bring the harvest goddess back to life.

You obtain musical notes by meeting certain criteria, some are simple such as the First Step note is earned by taking your first step in the game, I have gotten others for staying up all night or whistling a certain amount of times. Every 5 notes you collect you must take to the Harvest Sprites in the mountains and it will be used to create a new musical instrument, which can be used to revive the Harvest Goddess. As the year goes by and you start to ship more goods, more people will move to the town and set up new shops and offer more services, so the game expands as you play it.

Graphically, this is basic at best but it follows the traditional style of the series and the retro graphics will appeal to the fans. It also helps keep the game simplistic and more, user friendly.

The music isn’t fantastic and can get annoying. There is still no in game speech, which is disappointing but understandable given that this HM has one of the largest casts of characters yet. The sound effects are fine but nothing special.

You’ll get the most out of this game if you put a lot of effort in. It takes perseverance, especially at the start, but once you start to get some money the game really takes off. This is definitely a slow burner and can keep you busy for ages, but it will only appeal to a specific audience, which will be mostly made up of its fan base. In that respect, it feels like a bit of a step back for the series when compared to the vastness of the previous Gamecube HM.

The Harvest Moon games have always allowed the player complete freedom and this game is no exception. Your house is customisable and so is your land, and its up to you how you play. It should be noted that this was originally a Gamecube game that has been ported onto the Wii, so there is next to no motion sensoring used in this game, which is a shame and something that will hopefully be sorted for the next HM game. It’s a very different kind of game that is very difficult to get to grips with unless you’ve played a previous version of the game. Although the books in the game will allow you to get a grasp fairly quickly, and because this goes back to the simplistic SNES type format, it is easier for first-time players. Don’t be fooled though, this is a hugely rewarding gaming experience but requires dedication. If you can imagine The Sims but with a bit of management simulation then you’ll have an idea of what this game is about.