There are very many video games, with such wonderful crazy impossible ideas. From fighting aliens with a chainsaw bayonet, to swallowing enemies to absorb their powers, video games often have ridiculous, impossible concepts that we'd love to enjoy. I'm not going to talk about one of those games. Instead, I am going to talk about a series that has been there for me since the beginning. It was one of the first games I ever got obsessed with, and it's a classic within my household: I'm of course talking about Harvest Moon.
It is December of the year 2000. I am with my family on vacation in Puerto Rico, visiting relatives. While not really caring about what my presents were, just excited to HAVE some as I didn't expect to get any while there, I'm surprised to find that my brother and I got the same gift: A Nintendo Game Boy Color. We were amazed, and happy, and even found out we got games with them too. I got stuck with "Klax" a puzzle game similar to tetris on a treadmill, only much less fun. My brother, he got: Harvest Moon: GBC. At first I thought I lucked out. I mean how can a FARMING game be fun right?!... You'd be surprised. Several days later, my brother and I would take turns watering crops, feeding chickens and cows, collecting eggs, milk, and other crops, and making sure to run to the hot springs to get more stamina so we could keep going. The goal was simple: You're grandfather's spirit appears to you, and begs you (as a boy or girl) to take care of his farm. You agree, and every year he appears to judge how good you are based on the amount of squares plowed, crops grown, livestock owned, size of your house etc. It was a perfect example of capitalism at it's best, starting you off with a bare bones farm, and slowly getting you up till you soon have a giant farm. It was bliss.
Fast forward to the year 2007, and I've lost this game, and haven't played a Harvest Moon in years. I'd be wanting to jump in, but for some reason they usually seemed pretty bland. Then I hear of one that's totally unlike any other I've heard of: Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon. What's the difference you ask? The gimmick in this game is that there are several caves nearby your farm filled with vicious monsters that need to be defeated… OR BEFRIENDED! While the latter part probably sounds extremely corny, it's actually important to the average Harvest Moon player, as this is how you obtain your livestock. Monster versions of chickens, cows, and sheep can be found and befriended in order to get livestock to produce eggs, milk, and wool. In addition, you can purchase machines to turn these into mayonnaise, cheese/yogurt, and yarn. You can also befriend a giant bee, and collect honey from it. The game also has an anime style with hand-drawn 2D character images, as well as a lovely opening that would fit perfectly as an opening for an anime show. You can also plant crops in a cave, however only one type of season can be grown (summer, fall, spring) but it's that season year-round. This means in addition to your normal crops (that change by season) you can farm the other two seasonal crops year round. Why not winter you ask? Because you can't grow crops in winter! (normally Harvest Moon games pity you and give you a small set of "winter only" crops). However there are some drawbacks. The dungeon-crawling is not as fun as you'd think, and is either really easy, or really hard, basically depending on your equipment. Mining is fun to do, as is leveling up your various skills, including normal RPG ones, but some interesting ones like "Cooking" and "Pharmacy." The marriage option returns, with a lovely set of several moe-based women to woo, although they are a bit too generic by anime standards. It also gives you a free source of income to get you started with fishing, and conquers the challenge of allowing you to walk between plants (allowing you to make long rows of plants!) All in all it's a very enjoyable game, one that got me so addicted I decided to write about it, despite the fact that it's 3 years old. However a sequel has already been made that actually allows you to play your whole life, get married, and then play your child's life. Awesome! All in all, it's an excellent time waster, and is perfect for a drive, or a boring summer day.
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