Nintendo DS - Harvest Moon DS

Format
Nintendo DS
Publisher
Natsume
Developer
Marvelous
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
RPG

Harvest Moon DS

By David Rasmussen
14th Sep 07

After years of the same old same old, Natsume (“Serious Fun!”) decided to show that they have the ability to evolve their flagship franchise (Harvest Moon) to make it more than it has been in the past few years. After such releases attempting to innovate like A(nother) Wonderful Life (GameCube & PS2), Magical Melody (GameCube) and (yes) Harvest Moon DS (this review) the franchise tries to take that quantum leap forward with two new innovations to the franchise.

Want a vision of a fantasy world farming enterprise? A world of runes and factories, monster generators and… uh… Rune Factories? Well the world of might and magic (and hopefully hot fantasy women to provide fresh cannon fodder for lesbian erotica inspired Harvest Moon fanfic hentai) opens wide on your DS soon after the so-so results garnered from Harvest Moon DS (seen here in review) with a game that actually looks like it’s supposed to be on the DS (mainly Rune Factory : A Fantasy Harvest Moon).

On the other hand do you want a vision of a futuristic world farming enterprise cursed by the power of the angry spirits? A world of autofarming, sealed lands and ancient mysteries? Well the world of Future Farmers of Heartflame Island await you in Innocent Life : A Futuristic Harvest Moon for the PSP.

But this is neither Rune Factory nor Innocent Life (though I did am writing both reviews as this review is finished off). This is the last of the old school Harvest Moon franchise games before the innovation, Harvest Moon DS (the first on the Nintendo DS).
We’re back to Forget-Me-Not Valley everyone… did you miss this land? No? Me neither.
Yet here we are, and (in a rift from Harvest Moon : Magical Melody) you are uncomfortably dragged into a situation which requires you to save the Harvest Goddess (and the sprites too).

As the game opens we find a very flustered Witch Princess, she who seems to have been cut from the same cloth as Nina (Ultra Maniac) in that her magic is… not so refined as it should be. Right now she’s in a tiff because she has been endlessly tormented by a rather spunky Harvest Goddess (who seems to have an Alicia from Aria quirk about her). It seems the Harvest Goddess is hot on following the Witch Princess, popping in everywhere she turns, only instead of saying “Well well” (Alicia) she cries out “Taaadaa!” everywhere she goes. I don’t know if this is a quaint way of saying she’s in love with the Witch Princess or what, but apparently it doesn’t get the results the Goddess might have been looking for as she finally drives the Witch Princess nuts to the point she casts a spell on the Goddess… and turns her into a stone paperweight. Yeah. That is basically the same story as Magical Melody, only that the Goddess herself turned herself into a paperweight out of desperation in that one as opposed to an accidential spell.

Worst, in an attempt to “fix” the problem the Witch Princess sends the Harvest Sprites out to find her (spirit)… by banishing them to an alternate dimension. Yeah. It just goes on and on paralelling Magical Melody doesn’t it (only your hunting Harvest Sprites instead of magical notes and musical instruments). The situation couldn’t possibly get any worst… yet it does get worst when the Witch Princess pops into your life and seductively slash shrieking in a guilt driven rage demands that you fix her problems. How do you fix her problems? Maybe you should go out and farm… or raise animals… or get married… whatever. Just make the Goddess human… or make her a non-paperweight again.
Oh, and maybe you can find the 101 Harvest Sprites while you’re out doing that farming, and animal raising, and saving the Harvest Goddess, and getting some… I mean married thing.

Thus starts your new Harvest Moon adventure, and it seems Magical Melody isn’t the only game getting riffed on in this version. Not only is Magical Melody (and the quest to find 101 Harvest Sprites) riffed, so is (More) Friends of Mineral Town as you can interact with Mineral Town (by putting “More Friends of Mineral Town” into the GBA slot of the DS). That makes sense since, well, for the most part Harvest Moon DS is basically More Friends of Mineral Town graphic-wise with only pretty dialogue images and backgrounds during certain cutscenes… say what?

Of course I praised Friends when I played it, but DS? Come on! There is one thing when a game like Harvest Moon (More) Friends of Mineral Town comes out on the GBA, and you know that system has limits which makes having the game alone a treat. But to have a DS game (which should have more potential) come out with a game that mostly seems to be a GBA knockoff? What gives!
Yes, there is some touch screen content but it’s too few and it seems to have been thrown in partially just to justify releasing this game on the DS (otherwise for the most part it looks like DS was originally meant for the GBA but was beefed up abit for a DS release instead).

Besides the look it’s also the same game with all the farming, ranching, farm building, land restoring, and so forth (only not as easy to catch onto as it was in (More) Friends of Mineral Town (which is referenced occasionally in this game). It has the elements that made past games like Back to Nature (PSOne, which later became (More) Friends of Mineral Town on the GBA) and Magical Melody fun, but somehow it seems to drag a bit mediocre as you play (following the same old same old pattern again in another Harvest Moon is getting tedious), and (well) getting your farm really off the ground isn‘t so easy as getting the hang the way things go in this town isn‘t as easy as you think (a lot of things have to be done over the phone since most of the action is in Mineral Town and you can‘t travel to Mineral Town in this game).

There are relationships, of course. The girls from A(nother) Wonderful Life, plus the Witch Princess (which is hard to court), a mermaid and, yes, for the first time the Harvest Goddess herself is up for marriage proposals this time out (though the first time you could propose to her from memory seems to be Harvest Moon 64 for the N64). Sure, that does sound like abit of marriagble females but I heard there’s seemingly no difference in who you marry (which seems to always be the case in Harvest Moon games as no one bride seems better than the other except you can always do worst if you pick the wrong bride), but if you always had a fascination towards marrying the Harvest Goddess… well… here you go.

You can seemingly also marry girls from (More) Friends of Mineral Town, but it’s not recommended as you’ll move to Mineral Town and your game in Harvest Moon DS ends. Apparently even if you are using More Friends of Mineral Town in the GBA slot that doesn’t mean your game will continue, since More Friends of Mineral Town isn’t made to support the “move” which means you can’t continue where you left off by playing “More Friends of Mineral Town”.

Is there anything else I can say about this game?
It’s too mired in GBA graphics and technology to justify it’s porting to the DS.
If this was going to be the first Harvest Moon on the Nintendo DS? I’d have expected more from the game, and for the most part was disappointed with what we got (which seemed like it was a game meant for the GBA which was suddenly ported onto the DS with some add-ons slapped on at the last second).
The game is easy to pick up, but not so easy to completely master. Sure, eventually you’ll get the hang of it but the small GBA graphics makes it not so easy to grasp (as you‘ll see once you start going all out farming in the game).

TV in this game depends on finding Harvest Sprites, which means you only have a weather channel to start with and have to find others to open channels. There are also (oddly enough) Harvest Sprite Casino games to unlock as you play but… well… is this Poke’mon of the past? What’s the point of Casino games?!?
Is it to add “content” in the game? I guess so since it’s the first time you’ve had Casino games in a Harvest Moon game (that I know of).

Still, in the long haul, I’d like to see this as a launching pad on the Nintendo DS that Natsume will take back to the drawing board, and improve in time for it’s sequel (the aforementioned Rune Factory)

- The game is abit better on humanity, but I’d like to see more in Rune Factory.
- Original festivals unique to the fantasy elements.
- This game opens up the door to unique “marriages”, let’s hope Rune Factory continues this trend and offers up more unique brides (like an Elf girl, another Goddess, an tall blonde Amazonian beauty, etc)
- Graphics that actually makes me believe I’m playing a DS game, and not a gussied up GBA game ported.

In the end, Harvest Moon DS had potential, but wasted it by coming off as a GBA looking game instead of a game suitable for the Nintendo DS (with graphics and touch screen content worthy of the system).
Here’s to the future. Let’s hope Natsume can do better on the sequel.
Ok. I said my peace. Now go buy the game because, well, it’s good enough to fill that void in your Harvest Moon lovin’ life until Rune Factory : A Fantasy Harvest Moon releases on the DS.
Otherwise the score is even handed (again). 3 Wedding Nights with the Harvest Goddess (woo!) out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 14th Sep 07

Nintendo DS Harvest Moon DS Images