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Harvest Moon is Back

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 27
Date: June 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Harvest Moon DS* uses the top screen for most of the "going ons" and the bottom touch screen for the rucksack, TV, Items, ect. It brings the idea of an interactive game to a whole new Lv. You can now raise ducks, sheep and cows. Along with a horse, cat, and dog given to you at the beginning of the game. With a special tool you can use the stylus and the touch screen to brush and wash all the animals. This game also makes shopping easier. All you have to do is use your phone to place an order and bam, there it is. Overall, this game is similar to the HM for GBA but it had to many new features that it's a great buy,

*I imported Harvest Moon DS (for girl's) so the version I played was in Japanese but other than not knowing "main" conversations I can play it with out a problem.

Really, really fun... but way to glitchy

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 26 / 30
Date: November 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have only recently started playing the Harvest Moon games - the first one I played was "A Wonderful Life" for the GameCube, so of course I bought "Friends of Mineral Town" for the GBA. I bought this one about 2 weeks ago and I've been playing it a lot. There is so much to do! It is so much more addicting than the other 2 I've played.

The downside - and it is a major problem - is the glitches. I've had the game freeze on me several times. One of the latest freezes was when I just tried to talk to a character in the game, and instead of the touch screen showing him, it showed a toddler (what I assume would be the main character's future child - looked like the child in AWL) then froze. So I restarted from my last save and just didn't talk to that character, no problem. But then, I decided to save and quit, and the next time I wanted to load the game... nothing. The load screen gets all jumbled up and freezes. Now I will have to start over!

It is a very fun game, but some testing should have come across these issues! Game freezes are annoying, but saved data corruption is just painfully frustrating!!

great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 20
Date: September 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Some people below are not taking into account that not everyone has played all the harvest moon games. I haven't played a Harvest Moon game in a long time. I felt like I should hold out for a while and let the improvements collect a bit before purchases another one.

As far as the graphics go, I think it looks great. Not every game needs to be the latest and greatest 3d to look good. Everything is 2d, but it is beautiful 2d IMO. We didn't stop painting once we learned to sculpt.

The game seems to take all my favorite aspects from the different Harvest Moon games and lump them in together. I like variety in these games and this installment has variety in spades. There are plenty of animals for the farm (now we have ducks as well). There is a large selection of crops. In some of the previous game they cheaped out on the crop selection, which I think is a big mistake consider this is a farming sim. Cooking is around in this game, and there are a large variety of recipes to work out. I believe this is the most bachlorettes there has ever been in a game(if you link up with a mineral town game you get even more bachlorettes choices). Marriage is included as well as children. They have included harvest sprites as hired labor, which is nice consider the large amount of fields you are given. They are tons of improvements for your farm both cosmetic and functional. Structures can be built out of a variety of material giving it varying amounts of durability. If you spend alot of time adding buildings and add-ons to your farm is can get very large, which makes the harvest sprites a great blessing. Festivals are included in this game and I believe seem to happen at a greater interval. There is a casino as well in this game, which allows you to gain some useful items. Mining is back agian and has a large variety of items to unearth. You get a dog and cat at the start of the game and a horse later on. As in real life, the cat is worthless. It just lays around the farm. They should make it chase off mice or something. The only thing it's good for is impressing the girls. They all seem to love the cat. The dog if trained will chase away wild animals. The horse as usual is good for riding and has a pack to assist in harvesting. Almost every aspect of harvest moon has been magnified. Plus it's on a portable system, which is where I believe Harvest Moon belongs. The touch pad is used for all the game's menus.

If you haven't bought a Harvest Moon in a long time, then this is the one to get.

A Harvest Moon delight...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 27
Date: November 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

For fans of Harvest Moon, nothing could be more rewarding than a game that finally includes both Mineral Town and Forget-Me-Not Valley. This game is more than 'A Wonderful Life' for the DS platform. It offers a very rich and varied life for the player, from farming, ranching, mining and fishing to courtship and family life. The addition of Harvest Sprite Teams and the need to 'rescue' each Sprite in order to be able to use his services adds another dimension to the game. Another new element is the Sprite Casino with three gambling games: Poker, Blackjack and a traditional Memory Game with the option to 'double up' any winnings on a game of 'High-Low'.

There are an extraordinary number of characters in this game. If you insert the GBA FoMT or MFoMT into the DS, many of the characters from Mineral Town actually will visit Forget-Me-Not Valley. Apart from the ordinary girls who are eligible for marriage, you can court a Mermaid, a Sleeping Beauty, a Witch Princess and the Harvest Goddess herself.

I would not say that this game is better than FoMT or MFoMT but it certainly is their equal in the incredible world of Harvest Moon. Finally, if you haven't experienced Harvest Moon, you really haven't LIVED!

A great addition to the Harvest Moon collection

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: September 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

It's true that the graphics aren't fantastic, but what do you expect when the Japanese are trying to keep it traditional? You are still farming in Harvest Moon DS, and many ways it is like the game cube version of Harvest Moon It's a Wonderful Life. You are in the same world, but you can telephone to Mineral Town. If you do own More Friends of Mineral Town, or Mineral Town you can have the gang come and visit on their days off.

Your marriage prospects are also a little bit different. You can still marry Muffy, Celia, and Nami, but now you can also marry Lumina, and Flora. Besides them there are a whole bunch of potential gals to court including a mermaid, a princess, a witch princess, the goddess, and the girls from mineral town. (Note: if you court the girls from mineral town and marry them your game will end).

I like the addition of ducks, along with chickens, cows, sheep etc. Also the new harvest sprite system is enjoyable. As you look for the 101 harvest sprites you unlock a gambling casino where you can get awesome items like recipe books, a teleportation necklace (no running around everywhere hurrah!), a friendship bracelet (now you know where you really stand with everyone in town) and a red cape (to move all your animals inside with a touch of a stylus!).

If you like harvest moon in general I think you will love this one!

Harvest Moon DS- Pros and Cons

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: February 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Harvest Moon DS is a great overall game and I am very happy that I bought it. However, it does have some major problems, but unless your game has a serious problem, the pros outweigh the cons.

PROS:
- Lots of possible girls to marry (about 14), including a witch, the Harvest Goddess, and a mermaid
- Many different crops and animals
- You can pet, brush, milk, and shear animals with the touch screen
- You can get the harvest sprites to do some of your farm work
- Four different mines, some with over 1,000 levels
- The game combines the graphics and gameplay of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town (GameBoy Advance) with the town and people of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life (Gamecube)
- You can link to Friends of Mineral Town if you have that game

CONS:
- The game has tons of glitches, including random freezing
- The graphics are basically the same as the graphics from Friends of Mineral Town
- The music is horrible and I usually find myself playing the game with the sound turned off
- The translation is pretty bad, not unlike all the other HM games (for example, if you talk to a sheep named Fluffy, the screen might say, "The Fluffy is in a bad mood"). This doesn't really interfere with the gameplay, and is actually somewhat entertaining
- You have to play as a boy, which can be a slilght problem if you are a girl

Fun but glitchy

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: June 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My wife is not a gamer like me, but there are a few games that she likes. She has always liked the harvest moon series. She's played it since the Super Nintendo game and she's always enjoyed it--until now.

The graphics are great, the gameplay is great, the touch additions are fun at first but annoying after a while, the story is good, and the game is just plain fun.

The problem is the glitches. The game locked up on her a couple of times which wasn't the end of the world but was a major annoyance if she hadn't saved recently. Then one morning, after a storm, all of her feed bins dissapeared. They didn't reapear. She was so frustrated knowing that her animals would die without being fed and there was no way to feed them.

I sold the game on ebay a few weeks after that. She didn't want to start over. From my personal experience--Don't buy this game!

Farming for Fun and Profit

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: January 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Harvest Moon, for those that don't know, is a long-running franchise of farming sim games that somehow has proven to be fun and addictive over and over again.

Harvest Moon DS is basically a handheld rendition of the first Gamecube version, a Wonderful Life. You start out with a rundown plot of land in Forget-Me-Not Valley. You have all the time in the world to turn it into a profitable and enjoyable farm by growing crops, raising livestock, fishing, mining, and my favorite part, starting a family. Oh, and along the way you have to rescue helpful little Harvest Sprites. It's strangely addictive, with you basically being able to choose your own destiny. Also, parents may take note that it is a very clean, non-violent game that rewards hard work.

If you played A Wonderful Life, there are a few changes: Flora and Lumina have been added to the list of eligible bachelorettes. There are also four "magical" girls you can woo, including the Harvest Goddess, the Witch Princess, Leia the mermaid, and Keria, the mysterious beauty hidden in the mines. There is also the ability to interact with animals via the touch-screen, though this grows tiresome when done daily. You can also hire Harvest Sprites to work on your farm by earning medals at their casino, which is a nice addition.

The game does have a lot of bugs though, which can be frustrating. One bug makes your town completely empty when you begin your game, but this can be easily fixed by restarting. Also, the friendship/affection system will sometimes drop your friend points with people in town completely to 0. This can be avoided by 1) not throwing ANYTHING, including weeds, on the ground (just put them in your shipping bin), and 2) Saving often in case you need to reset. The game can be a little frustrating without awareness of this, at least for me. I've heard of problems with the game freezing, but have yet to encounter this.

But despite these issues, the game is still fun as any Harvest Moon and is a nice way to tide us over until Harvest Moon's next gen games (Rune Factory and The Island I Develop With You) come to finally stir-up the old farming formula. Enjoy!

Good game, some minor frustration factor

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

In this game, the main character has several goals to meet. The main goal being to rescue all the harvest sprites and the Harvest Goddess, who has been sent who knows where by the Witch Princess in a prank. Another is to befriend and woo one of Forget-Me-Not Valley's many female residents and marry her.

But there's more to it than that.

Those who have played other Harvest Moon games will have the general gist of this game. The player farms, tends livestock, gathers items that grows wild, mines, fishes, makes friends...the list goes on. The basic formula is the same. However a few new twists have been added in this DS version that make it unique.

The player can use the Nintendo DS stylus to perform various functions, such as petting or milking or washing the livestock. How well you do depends on your score in the milking, washing or petting mini-games. There is also more than one mine, many of them containing 'dark' livestock who will attempt to attack the mining player and cause them a loss of stamina which makes mining challenging at the very least. Also new to this version are accessories that can influence the main character when worn, such as raise stamina or show the player just how friendly a given villager is. Much of the shopping can now be done by phone from the main character's house, and trees can also be grown as well as crops, cows, chickens, ducks, a horse and sheep.

This game stands on its own. Those interested in it can play it even if they've never played another Harvest Moon game. They may wish to buy a guide for it or look at online guides to give them some pointers on how to play it better, however.

Overall I give this game four stars, but only because of the time factor. In this game time passes very quickly and this makes it difficult to accomplish all the tasks the player may want to do. Also, this game has the occasional glitch, sometimes freezing up in the middle of play. Frequent saves will keep the player from being too frustrated with this problem, and some people might not experience this particular glitch at all. Online search shows other, rarer glitches in this game as well, for some people.

All in all, it's a good, solid game. There's plenty to do, and enough variety to keep the game from becoming tedious. I find myself playing it still, after having purchased it three months ago. It's one of my favorite versions of Harvest Moon out there.

Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: September 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game follows in the same line as most other harvest moon games, but seems to take place after A wonderful life. Everyone already knows your father is dead, and your not really new. You have the same problems, getting married, growing crops, raising livestock, but now, you have to find harvest sprites. Its kind of like Magical Melody, but when you rescue certin harvest sprites, they will help you with things like watering crops, petting your livestock and more. One of the many new great things about this game is the basement. you can get up to three of them, and if you dig in the mine you will find diffrent suns (spring, summer winter, fall). Using these, you are able to grow crops that grow in that sun anytime. That means during winter you can still have a good crop income. One bad thing is that your buildings can fall down if made out of something weak. If animal sheds, bird sheds, or any other building that holds things falls down, you lose what was in there. So you can lose all your animals in a bad storm.
Another good thing is that you can have more animals homes. Now you can have a eight bird or animal sheds total. However, each one only holds 4 animals. One of the other diffrent things that has not been in most games is the phone aspect. Now, you rarely leave your house to buy things. You use the phone for the grocery store, building man, blacksmith, cow and sheep place, and the chicken place.
This game is really a great game, and if your a fan for harvest moon games, you have to get this one.

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