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Harvest Moon 64 Review
Gavin Frankle
00/12/0000
The grassy plains, the fresh air, the beautiful sun. The life of a farmer sure is a glorious one.
Okay, so I may have exaggerated just a little bit. Fact is, farming is probably the last thing you would expect to see turned into a videogame. So, why would anyone in his right mind want to play a farming game! Because it's THE most fun you'll have for a long time, that's why.
Harvest Moon takes the seemingly repetitive tasks of tending to your fields, going to town, harvesting crops and turns them into some of the most entertaining activities around. Be forewarned though, this game is not about who can get the highest kill count or who can find all the golden bananas. It's a slow game that is all about striking the perfect balance on your farm, so the impatient gamer need not apply.
Your average day consists of watching the weather report in the morning, then planting crops and watering them. Once that's done you can take a trip to town to pick up some much needed supplies or just to chat to your favourite girl. That's right, falling in love and getting married is actually a big priority in the game! So, you'd better be careful about what you say around your prospective fiancé. Aside from your daily chores, there are a number of yearly events which can be all too easily missed. These events range from festivals to the seasonal swimming race and if missed, will have to wait until next year. And that is the beauty of this game. Trying to balance all the chores that need to be done, as well as maintaining an active social life becomes incredibly difficult.
The graphics in Harvest Moon are pure 16-bit and could have easily been reproduced on the SNES..er, well they were, because Harvest Moon began life on the SNES.Your character, as well as the others are animated with a few less frames than I'd like and the isometric view can be bothersome at times. When walking around the map, objects will pop into view all the time and occassionally even when you're standing right next to them! The pop-up is really something that should've been worked on, but given the absolute blast I had playing this game I could overlook any graphical faults it may have.
The sound is rather lackluster as well. There is no in-game speech and all conversations are text-based. The music is hardly fantastic, in fact listening to a music cd while playing is highly recommended. Don't worry, as I said before all conversations and important messages are text based, so you won't miss anything important by not listening to the in-game sound.
I could ramble on about the plethora of things to do in the game, but there are sheep that need shearing and girls that need wooing(yes, I said wooing).I can't emphasise this enough, in Harvest Moon gameplay is god. Forget the graphics. Forget the sound. Harvest Moon serves up gameplay by the ton and it's just too enjoyable to pass up on. Pick this game up, and you'll be tending to those crops for many seasons to come.
