Harvest Moon DS
THE GOOD:
The Good points are : The cut scenes, the plot of the game, the music of the game is well fitted, It's a long game but well worth it, free roaming meeting NPCs, plenty of festivals, I could go on about good points (I love all of the Harvest Moons).THE BAD:
The bads points are : It takes forever to get all the sprites to get married and free the harvest goddess. The requirements for some of them can be ridiculous too, resulting in a lot of money spent.
SUMMARY:
The use of previous characters is quite clever and the way they mix up the characters from A Wonderful Life (Muffy, Celia, Nami and others) and ones from Friends of Mineral Town on the Gameboy Advance. The plot of the game is really interesting, at the start with the fight between the witch and the harvest goddess.
The look of the main character you play is like the one in Harvest Moon: Friends Of Mineral Town, With the blue outfit and blue cap put on backwards with a little bit of hair sticking out of the front of the cap. Also you can change his name or keep with the one provided.
The first couple of cut scenes I have seen were quite cute but I haven't seen any of the rival couples scenes yet (if there is any, I know there is some on other Harvest Moon games so either they're well hidden here or are unusually not programmed in) so the scenes could get cuter.
The farm plot you get at the beginning is really large for a starting off farmer but it's OK once you get use to using all the land to its full use. Working the farm is the same as always. Crop farming involves planting seeds and then watering them regularly. Animal farming just means taking care of animals and feeding them. You can obtain a variety of tools to help you with these tasks like the watering can. It becomes important to manage money with buying supplies to make sure you turn a profit.
Getting sprites is a key element of this game which affects some things you can do like marry a girl. Getting them all can take a long time though and some of the sprites requirements are just ridiculous, for example having a certain number of chickens on your farm (something like 20) which means having to spend a lot of money. I do like that when you get a certain number of sprites you unlock stuff like the tree casino (which I have used on many occasions).
The controls of the game are really varied you can either use the control pad (arrows) or use the touch screen to move the character about the town and farm. The L bumper is used to call your dog, cat and horse like in many other Harvest Moon games, the X button is to eat food in your hands, the Y button is for using equipment and putting things in your rucksack, the A button is the action button so is to pick up or throw items and to talk to people and read signs or books, the B button is for running or jumping. There are also advanced controls where you use the R bumper with either A,B,Y or X to do an action.
The game allows a lot of freedom roaming about the farm and village where you can meet the towns people going about their daily lives and gives you the chance to foster friendships or just chat. The amount of festivals in the calendar is really good too, giving you the chance to participate in activities away from farm work and interact with the villagers in different ways.
Like any Harvest Moon you can have a child as well, although considering how long it takes just to get married it might be some time before you even see this aspect. The way to get married is time consuming but really good and cute with the heart events and LP then eventually proposing to the girl of your dreams.
