Pros: Feed animals, milk cows, variety of tools, excellent graphics, trade with friends, suitable for everyone.
Cons: Repetitive, no dating, missing features, not as fun as the SNES version.
The Bottom Line: Harvest Moon rewards hard work and decision making. By combining RPGs and simulations, you get this unique game. If you loved the SNES classic, this game is a must.
Pika312's Full Review: Harvest Moon for Game Boy Color
Who knew farming could be so fun? It's really not, but it is in this game! Harvest Moon offers an experience that no other game could offer.
You play as the farmer boy, Jack. His dead grandfather comes to him in a dream and tells him to take care of the ranch. Having respect for the dead, you listen to your grandpa and you work on the ranch.
While this game may seem fun and cute at first, it's still no walk in the park. Feed the animals, milk the cows, ship the eggs, then go to the market... all before lunch. Then plow the fields, chop some wood, and clean up your farm from rocks and weeds. Forget to buy some food, and it looks like no dinner tonight.
To start off on your farm, you'll need to buy some animals. But how are you going to buy them if you don't have enough money or food? Well, you start off with a couple of bucks, just enough to buy some seeds. Then you plow the ground, plant your seeds, and water them. You repeat this until you have enough money for food and animals.
When you finally get some animals, it'll be a chicken since it's cheaper and needs less care. Your chicken, though, is still a living thing. If you don't feed it, it won't produce eggs for you, and then you can't sell it, thus you lose money. Even if you do feed it, you still have to remember to ship it, and to be careful not to break it. And if you want more chickens, you can even incubate the egg and wait a few days.
Hopefully, you have worked enough to buy a cow. Cows need a lot of care. Not only do you have to feed it, you have to milk it, brush it, talk to it, and take it out for walks. You can reproduce cows to get a calf, which will eventually grow up to be a cow. Your cows learn to love you as you do this, and they produce more milk. When you first milk your cows, you only get small milk, but eventually you get medium milk, and finally large milk. And of course, you get more money for more milk.
Eventually, you'll get a horse. With the horse, you can get around your ranch much faster and just ship your products on your horse. This is very convenient, and you don't even have to feed it (poor horse). It's just a pet, and nothing bad could ever happen to it.
Like your horse, your dog doesn't need to eat. It can also help. It will scare away moles, which could hurt your crops and scare your cows.
To feed your animals, you'll need fodder. To get fodder, you'll have to grow some grass and cut it. Chicks don't need to eat but calfs do. For each animal, you'll need one piece of fodder.
But wait! You can't eat fodder! Your animals can eat now, but what will you eat? You'll have to go to the market for that. To work, you have to eat, or you won't have the strength to work. You don't get to choose what to eat at each meal, but you can affect it by choosing what to buy. Some foods are more expensive than others because you get more energy from them. And if you find a Power Berry, you can work even longer.
You have many tools which will help you on your farm. You have the axe, which will chop trees for wood. Wood can be used to upgrade your house and to build your fences. Your hammer breaks any stones and will come in handy during earthquakes. You have a sickle to cut grass and pesky weeds. To water your crops, you have your watering can. And you also have a plow, so you can plant the seeds. These are just your basic tools. You can get much more from the market and from people you help.
If this wasn't enough, you have some exclusive features that you can't find on the SNES version. For example, you can be a girl farmer, or have a cat instead of a dog. And of course, you can use the game link to trade with your friends. But some features were taken out. Like the dating feature, where you can find a mate, marry her, and have a baby. Also in the SNES version, you can have 12 of each animal instead of just 4.
There are some things you can do that aren't necessary, but improve your ending, like getting a better house or praying at church. You don't even have to eat if you keep going to the elf's spa.
Time plays an important part of this game. You don't have a lot of it and there is much work to be done. You eat at a certain time, and you sleep at a certain time. And most importantly, the shipping guy picks up your crops at a certain time, so if you ship your crops too late, it will spoil. But a thing to remember is that time stops indoors, so you can take as long as you want milking cows!
The graphics of this game are excellent, just not in color. They are very detailed, and you can even see a close-up picture of friends in the town.
The sound is good too, but a bit too cute. You can hear yourself running, or the rain drops hitting the ground. The music of this game is catchy, but very repetitive. In fact, I think there's only five songs throughout the entire game.
Harvest Moon is fun for the entire family. If you missed the one for SNES, or you were too busy to play it, you have no excuse now since it's portable and updated. Now if there was only a game that makes school seem fun...
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