Harvest moon back to nature
It was a game that was a paradox to most games at the time, In a time when i was playing FPS and
Shoot em up like they were going out of fashion this game brought some calm into my life when school was starting to
gang up on me and demand more of my time, this served as a breath of fresh air
How to play this game and the plot line
The game starts with the mayor of the town of mineral town, inviting you to take over your grandfathers farm after you
visited it 10 years ago as a child and made friends with a girl in the town. Now the mayor has given you 3 years to
make an impact and establish yourself as a true farmer and member of the community.
The game begins there as you try to sort your farm, now you begin we a very basic set of tools, and not all the farm can be cleared
So you do what you can and then try to start planting your first crops, Now as you can only do so much in a day due
energy levels an unknown factor that is indicated by your character sweating and looking exhausted
if you let the energy go down to the bottom you will be hospitalized and lose a lot of the next days due to this.
Now as a means of preventing this you can upgrade your tools to use less energy for the same tasks and find items to
increase your energy as well,
And as well as crops you can go beyond the town limits and forage for other items such as wild fruits and berries
Chop trees down and mine ores for your tool upgrades.
Eventually in the game you will get the chance to breed and farm livestock including cows and chickens, you can adopt
a dog and also have a horse and stable as well, You can also upgrade the house you live in and unlock options
to cook and store some of your crops as well.
Now each year has season as Spring/summer/fall and winter, which can varies the crops that you can grow and what you will
be able to forage as well, during the year as well different areas and activities will open up such as fishing and the
hot springs in winter
You can also make friends with the locals in the town as well and have a choice of 5 women in the town to romance and marry
If you do this you will have the option of moving her into your farm home and starting a family with her.
As well as this throughout the year you will get the chance to do unique activities with the locals from cooking festivals
to racing horses and other events, now these do take up the whole day as part of this so i always made sure to do all
of the farming before doing this.
All of this works towards a percentage of the main game competed, and if the percentage is high enough at the end of the 3 years
the mayor will invite you to stay permanently or move out of the farm forever.
Why this game holds a set place in my heart
When i first got this game i was skeptical of enjoy such a simple game, but as i started playing it i found it to be
a lot more complex then half the games i had and it was so unique and wholesome that it kept my interest as
i found myself making plans with excel determining which crops to plant in the season and at what days to gain the
most profit, i also enjoyed the fact that each day was unique and could plan according due to factors of events and
if it was going to rain or not.
all of this ironically had me more engaged and more personally invested in this and was always worried about pushing
my character too far in the day and always aired on the side of caution due to this, I always enjoyed having pets
the dog and horse to maintain as well as the farm animals that came later as grooming and maintaining increased the
quality of the good as well and just added to the fun of the day as a whole.
But more then anything it showed me i didn't need to blast the head off enemies to have fun and or relax after a hard
day, this game showed me the simpler and kinder side of gaming which i will always be thankful for.
Now in the modern day im debating to start playing star dew valley as it seems to be based a lot on the harvest moon series
I will do a follow up on this one.
but as far as im in the view of, this game is the game that took me out to greener pastures and taught me to enjoy the
simpler things in life.
