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A more challenging Harvest Moon

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: August 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I actually had the opportunity to play this game months ago via a Japanese copy. Past Harvest Moon games revolved around the same premise: grow crops, raise animals, fish, mine, etc.. This does too, but there are also noticeable differences. To start off with, most other games already have 90% or more of the people you interact with there. In Island of Happiness (IoH), you start off with about 4 other people. By certain dates and certain achievements more people arrive.

In the past, you used ores to strengthen your tools, now you have colorful spheres called 'wonderfuls' that modify your tools in some very nice ways (imagine adding orange wonderfuls to your milker and receiving and extra milk for each orange wonderful attached). You will get wonderfuls for winning competitions (which can't start until you build the East bridge.

You will also be extremely exhausted (and hungry) for the first season and until you can get enough people to move to the island to open up the diner and cafe (so don't over do working the crops).

In HM IoH, there are more things to spend your hard earned money on. And sheep, before took 1 week before you could shear them again, now take only 3 days.

On a down side, you cannot use the old cheat to change the weather. I've tried many times.

It is more challenging because of the limitations early on and very little chance of actually getting married in the first 2 years - but even your rivals don't seem too rushed to get married.

Things will improve after you get the West bridge build (the East bridge has to be build first - so you are looking around $80,000 total for the first two bridges), but the West bridge will give you access to the mine and help bring in enough people to open up the diner and cafe.

If you were easily bored by the second or third years of other Harvest Moons, this will give you more to do even well past the fourth or fifth years (I'm in Summer Year 4 of the Japanese version).

Can be a great game and great concepts, but the controls are terrible.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: August 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have this game and bought it at Gamestop, but I played this game for 2 hours now and seems like a really fun game so far. But all I have to tell you is that Natsume made a big mistake of the concept of using the stylus for the entire game which makes the controls really annoying.

Graphics
Typical Harvest moon graphics, you pretty much the same as the other Harvest Moon for DS

Sounds
I love the music in the Spring time pretty good and upbeating. I pretty much like all the Harvest moon music.

Gameplay
Great concepts, you have to get money to buy a new bridge and get more people on the island. The more you plant and gain more money and get more shippments, the more people will come.

Controls
By far the worst part, but yet the most important part. I know I complained about the stylus, but you use it for your tools, moving around shipping and pretty much everything. The Control pad and Buttons are only good to select crops or your weapons, but it is easy at this point to use the stylus. L and R buttons are pointless, it makes your character run, but you have your stylus do it for your automatically.

Maybe I have not got use to the stylus or controls part, but I like using the D-pad to move and the buttons to farm. It is sort of annoying because you farm much slower. Meaning you have to go to the square and tap the stylus and then move again and do it again. Now it was easy just using the D-pad, but it is a pain with the style because the character does not move where you tell him/her to do.

Also, you can not use the cheating method of getting something out of your rugsack easily you have to go tap the menu and then put it in your read box and then ship it. Then it asks you the question do you really want to ship it. I am not so sure if you loose friendship points if you litter or not.

Overall:

Natsume would have hit the mark if they implemented the controls like the other Harvest Moon games. If I known the controls were bad, I would have not bought the game nor the game guide because I loved every Harvest moon game I bought from them for the DS and gameboy, N64, Gamecube and etc..

What happened to my d-pad??

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have been waiting for this game to come out for many many months. After numerous setbacks with the release dates I was very excited when it finally arrived on my doorstep last week.

Once I started the game however I was sorely disappointed to find out the game only allows your character to move around via the "Stylus" and the d-pad works like the button pad. I am all for implementing the use of the Stylus in DS games, but it should be an option...not a requirement.

Everything in this game just seems to take forever. Moving with the stylus and only being to activate your tools with the buttons is just a pain. The character tires out quickly and is constantly having to forage for food. The whole thing is just awkward to me and I lose interest in the game very quickly. I played Zelda's Phantom Hourglass with the Stylus method of moving around, but in that game it just worked better.

IMO the biggest challenge about this game is using the controls while the game itself isn't very challenging. A lot of features seem stripped out of the game and it's just kinda boring. It doesn't even measure up to HM DS Cute. I am sure some people will enjoy this game and possibly will not be bothered by the Stylus interface, but Natsume missed the mark for me.

I am really disappointed and hope the D-pad issues are addressed in future releases or I will not even consider another HM ds game.

A fun new take on the Harvest Moon games!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

At first I didn't like the controls being completely stylus-based, but after I got used to it, the game was a blast! If you love all the other Harvest Moon games, I'm sure you'll like this one as well.

Island of Happiness^^

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is offically the best harvest moon for the ds ever! Of course you all know the story, you get shipwreked on a deserted island. Only one family is there with you. You must work together to attract more people to your island. Yes, you have to work to get people to come, but some come in your first month of playing. You also have to build bridges to access other parts of the island. You do not start with a dog or a horse. You get a horse by befriending Chen and Charlie and you get a dog by befriending Mirabelle.

This game is actually pretty hard but fun. I reccomend giving Taro a blue grass (looks like a blue heart) everyday. If you do this, you will receive a fishing rod quicker. Don't forget, always talk to the villigers! If you don't talk to them for 30 days they will move out!! (but you can bring them back by doing certain things) Talk to every villiger at least everyother day. This also raises affection. Here are the gifts to give people in spring (on your fist year)

Taro: Blue or Purple Grass or a turnip
Felecia: Flowers
Elliot: Chocolate
Natalie: Chocolate
Charlie: Blue or purple grass
Chen: Chocolate or turnip

Oh and the only way to move is using the stylus. You can not use the control pad to move. I found that a bit frustrating.

Completely New Format; Loads of Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Harvest Moon Island is the real, long-awaited remake of the series for the Nintendo DS. All the graphics are fully 3D, there are nice 2D portraits of the characters with a variety of facial expressions, and the overall environment is very nice. This game is much more challenging than some of the original Harvest Moons, especially due to the difficult sun/rain crop system and the hard to obtain wonderful stones. The game forces the player to befriend many of the villagers, and the main objective is to build up Sunny Island and get more people to move in, some of them being the bachelors/bachelorettes. (The island itself is also very large and fun to explore.)

Considering that you can play as either a male OR female, and the fact that there are 2 save files, this is indeed a very good game--it's like 2 in 1. No more waiting for the girl's version, etc. The only main trouble, besides the challenge (which im sure many players will enjoy), is that the exclusive touch controls can get a bit annoying, especially when it comes to watering crops. However, it takes only a couple of hours to get used to, and after that, many players may find this option more immersive and intuitive. You can conveniently tap on characters from across the screen to give them gifts, and there's almost no chance of accidentally "littering."

All in all, Harvest Moon Island of Happiness is a wonderful step forward in the series, and avid fans will not be disappointed.

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