REVIEW: Harvest Moon 1993 SNES
By: Natsum
Type: "Farming simulator"/RPG
Players: 1
Difficulty: Medium

LONG TERM INTEREST:

Hour

Day

Week

Mnth

Year

3

5

5

5

4

NINTENDO LAND'S SCORE:

Graphics

Sound

Playabl.

Lastabl.

OVERALL

80%

85%

93%

99%

89%


 
    Harvest Moon begins with your parents leaving you with the responsibility of turning the family farm (which is essentially a patch of weeds) into a successful one. To complete this task you must have strategy, money, dedication, and most of all, patience. You get two and a half Harvest Moon years, or 300 days to finish this task. There are four seasons in a year, not months, which consist of thirty days each.
    
    Your journey will not be easy, of course. In those couple of years, you will face natural disasters, the pressure of getting your crops in on time for shipping, tending to your animals, and even having to make sure you get home at a specific time so your wife doesn't get mad!
    On the first day your shipper will show you the town that you will be living just outside of. You meet the people who live in the town and you could also meet your potential wife. The next day you will get a dog that alerts you when some animal or something vandelizes your property. This is really helpful.
    Every day you will be given a certain amount of ability or power points that are used when you do certain chores such as: milking your cows (if you choose to have them), watering your crops, and cutting down trees. At first the amount of points you have is limited, but you can receive additional points, if and when you find Power Berries. They give you additional points so you can work longer. When your points are all used up you are unable to work. When you do become exhausted you can do a couple of things. You can simply go to bed and call it a day, or you can go to a spring in a nearby forest and keep going. Some time during the middle of the day, you do eat lunch (which takes about 2 seconds) and you get refreshed a little.
    There are many ways you can play this game and have fun. Some people want to make lots of money and just work and work and work all day. They will earn a lot of money. Sometimes all they do is plant crops and make their money that way. Sometimes some farmers will just get a bunch of livestock and earn their money using that strategy. Finally, some farmers, who are the craziest of them all, manage to both raise livestock and grow crops. These farmers of course, in the long run will earn the most money.
    Well, farmers who both farm and raise livestock, there is a trick. That trick is the amount of time they have in a day. In a regular Harvest Moon day there are eleven hours in the day before the sun sets. Your day starts at seven in the morning and ends when the sun sets at six. You get ten hours before the shipper comes and picks up everything that you have in your shipping box. All in all you get just under three minutes of farming and tending before the sun sets and just over two minutes to get as many crops in the shipping box before the shipper comes, so you have to work fast. So, how is it possible that you can get all this work done in three minutes? You can do this because, when you are feeding your animals, if they are in their barn or coop time does not pass. And when the sun sets you can keep working, but you will not be able to ship anything.
    You don't have to go all out and earn a lot of money, you can also spend your time trying to have a family. There are five girls that you can choose from. You must win them over by talking to them and getting them gifts. As soon their affection for you is high enough you can ask them to marry you. If they say yes, you will be married. From there you can have kids.
 
    In Harvest Moon, you actually do a lot of things that a real farmer does. You don't just push some buttons and things automatically grow or hatch eggs. Not only do you have to plant, water, and pick your crops, you have to buy the seeds for them also. You also have to buy your livestock, though you can simply keep an egg in the incubator, or get a potion to get one of your cows pregnant. That is why you need and have to manage your money.
    At the end of the game, you will be given a certain amount of ratings and points that show how well you did in specific areas.
    Throughout your two and a half years you will be encountered by martians, meet a snow fairy, and even see a sick looking gorilla! I love the way Natsume brings the feeling of being a farmer onto the SNES. This game takes a lot of time and there isn't a bunch of action all the time, so the game isn't for everyone. If you make the right choices and work hard you will end up with an awesome farm and your parents will be satisfied. - Tim Martin 89%
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