Ok then....



Released March 16, 2004
Developed By Natsume
Genre: Role-Playing (RPG), Simulation
Players: Single



Ok then... HM returns to 'tendo with a bang!
Ever since I played the first Harvest moon title during the ultimate years the Super nintendo's epic reign I was transfixed with this game. Theres no guns,enemies or even a life-bar to see, the pretense sounds boring... Farming sim... but is actually a highly enjoyable RPG to boot. HM:AWL is no exception.

In a wonderful life you gain your late fathers farm in the fictional village of Forget-me-not valley where you are told by your dad's best friend Takahura to forge their dream.
This game plays differently to previous moons in the way it isn't quite as open-ended due to the fact it tries to put a story to the literally hundreds of hours playtime. In your first game year you'll have built up the foundations of your farm, wooed and married one of three local batchelorettes and have a child, your also expected to forge friendly relations with the townsfolk in order to recieve special items and upghrades later on.
The game is split into 6 chapters of varying lengths with chapter one being your stumbling into the farm and chapter six aged and dead... Yes it really is a wonderful life! Ok so it's not quite that simple, the main focus of this game is your family consisting of a wife and child, all of whom age through the years alongside you. Your son will adopt his future career and even girlfriend from your parenting skills.

For example if you wish your child to become a scholar you'll have to give him a toy car,befriend the local eggheads and take him to area's of this particular field... the genetics lab and the ruins are best for the scholar path. Your wife and local sports commentator and part-time fortune teller chris will fill you in on your progress... you'll also have to manage your crops,cow's,Chickens,Ducks and Goat... Particularly the cows which must be made pregnant annually by your stud bull in order to keep producing milk for your profit.

Like I stated the first real task is to marry, there are three girls, a step-down from the usual 5 but adequate choice nonetheless. You can take Celia,vegetable loving farmhand over at the neighbouring "vesta farm" and recipient of an organised marriage, both you and kind of rival the easily annoyed fonzalike Marlin will struggle to prevent this if you choose her story path.
Then theres the second girl named "Muffy" for some reason she's the barmaid at the local watering hole the "blue bar" and seems desperate and flirtatious at first but seeing her story events should warm anyones heart.
Finally we have the wandering Nami who curiously settled in Forget-me-not valley and just plain forgot to leave. Nami is quiet but streetsmart and is probably the best but hardest girl to get close to, requiring you to spend days digging for fossils in the mine for gifts as opposed to just picking flowers for the other two.
After this you'll see events as the girls love for you increases, changing your mind after seeing the fifth event is practically cheating and you'll be faced with antagonistic behaviour from your first choices friends for the WHOLE GAME... the whole 30 years O_O so don't be a rat people.
Your child will take on the appearance of your character with the hair colour and personalitry of his mother, I'll not go into detail here so meh... Just like in the PS2 title "save the homeland" character interaction is paramount and you won't get far without friends... in fact if you don't marry the game will quite un-pclike assume your gay and end your game in a moving sequence.

Nik the harvest sprite: "I guess he was looking for something else"

Your character walks into the sunset... I hope you saved

I can't really think of much else so... nevermind... GET THIS GAME IF YOU HAVE CUBE! It's one of the greater titles...


^---Muffy

--------^ Dog tricks
pre-release screens courtesy of ign.com

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