Harvest Moon Forever: Is Harvest Moon for DS worth the effort?

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Is Harvest Moon for DS worth the effort?

Having written a number of guides for Harvest Moon DS, and having explored the different glitches in the game, I wanted to make a statement giving my own assessment of Harvest Moon DS. It is one of the greatest games ever created by Natsume. The glitches exist really because it is such a marvelous game. Harvest Moon games are not linear. There are hundreds of variables that can affect the course that the game will take. There are sub-plots within the main plot. There are more than a dozen eligible girls that one can court and marry, or one can choose a single life. One can choose to be an active matchmaker for other couples or let circumstance decide.

Almost every Harvest Moon fan longed for a game that would unite Mineral Town with Forget-Me-Not Valley. Natsume made Harvest Moon DS in response. Very few game companies pay as much attention to the wishes of the players as Natsume does. In Harvest Moon DS, Natsume created a game that was far more extensive than any other in every possible Harvest Moon activity: farming, ranching, courtship, mining, fishing, gambling and Sprites! The fact that the game sometimes can overload the DS system cannot be ignored completely, but that having been said, it is amazing that a complex game like this can be played on a handheld system at all.

The games created by Natsume combine intelligence, ethics, philosophy, creativity, humour, characters with depth and simple pleasure. Even for a fanatical Harvest Moon player like myself, every new Natsume game holds surprises and new challenges.

If your game freezes, you should be able to play through it. If the save files freeze, it is a tragedy but you can start a new game. It is a privilege simply to be able to 'live' in the world of Harvest Moon, even when that life ends abruptly because of a freeze. After all, in this real world, one's life is no more secure. One could be hit by a car when crossing a street. I try to see the 'file freeze' threat in Harvest Moon DS as an 'act of God'. In some games, the player never will experience it. In fact, there are many players who have played multiple games of HM DS without ever encountering this problem. For those whose games have been terminated abruptly, I have great empathy. I have experienced it myself. It can be devastating. On the other hand, would you rather never had the pleasure of playing the game and exploring the incredible world created by Natsume? Would you rather never have had the chance to meet Muffy and Karen in the game game?

Harvest Moon DS offers so many events, apart from the regular heart and rival heart events, allowing us to delve deeper into the histories and personalities of all the characters we have come to love. Is that not worth any price?

As I begin a new adventure in Rune Factory, I may have abandoned Harvest Moon DS temporarily, but I am certain I will play it many more times in my lifetime. It is one of my favourite Harvest Moon games, despite the occasional glitches.

Incidentally, with respect to Rune Factory, I see today that EB Games now gives the release date as 14 August rather than 31 July. I definitely should have a preliminary guide by then!

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For all Harvest Moon fans and players

As Freyashawk, I have written about 150 guides for games, most of which have been guides for Harvest Moon games. These are published on IGN. IGN has given me the title of 'Mistress of Harvest Moon' and I strive daily to earn the right to maintain that title. Although there is a link page on IGN that lists all the guides published there, they are not organised by game, but rather given in alphabetical order. I therefore created this page in order to provide links to the guides I have created for each Harvest Moon game. If you access the General Guide for any game, links should be included to all other guides for that game in a section at the end. I will try to add links to ALL guides as time permits, but until I do, you always can refer to my user page at IGN for the complete list.

I wrote the Official Strategy Guide for Tree of Tranquility for BradyGames as well.
Harvest Moon Forever!

How to Use my Guides

I write three different basic types of game guides. I usually write a General Guide for every game, which is fairly comprehensive and deals with all aspects of the game. It may or may not be in the form of a Walkthrough, dealing with game aspects as they occur. My Innocent Life General Guide is an example of a General Guide that is organised as a Walkthrough.

After writing a General Comprehensive Guide, I often write a Calendar Guide giving birthday and festival dates, with additional information that may be helpful, such as favourite gifts for each individual. For all Harvest Moon games, I usually write a number of 'mini-guides', such as Events Guides for each year of gameplay, or Recipe Guides that give all recipes one can make. Fishing, Mining, Shipping or Item Value Guides are other mini-guides that can be very useful when playing Harvest Moon. Character Guides give detailed information about every character in any specific game. My Courtship and Marriage Guide is devoted to all aspects of Courtship and Marriage, including schedules of Heart Events, Rival Heart Events and the likes and dislikes of every Eligible Girl and/or Bachelor.

Although this site is devoted to Harvest Moon, I have included links to game guides for other games. I created a separate link section for Animal Crossing Wild World as well, because I wrote more than one guide for that game.

N.B. All my game guides are published by IGN. This webpage has been created simply to allow players to find links to all my guides more easily.

Copyright Infringement Warning

It is really sad to discover that there are individuals who are willing to steal my guides and to attempt to publish them under their names. Fortunately, there are many players who recognise my guides when they see them anywhere on the internet and who are willing to alert me when some one tries to steal my material. I want to thank all those players for their help in these cases.

Some one stole one of my guides and tried to publish it on Gamefaqs under his/her name. The guide has been removed and the poster has been banned. I now have a contact in the Legal Department at CNet. I spend many months sometimes writing a guide. They are available for the private use of any individual without cost, but they are not available for theft!
If you want permission to include a link to one of my guides on your site, please contact me directly.

Friends of Mineral Town and More Friends of Mineral Town

You will notice that I wrote far more guides for More Friends of Mineral Town than I did for the original 'Friends of Mineral Town'. At some point, I would like to publish more specific Events Guides for Friends of Mineral Town, but players should be aware of the fact that ALL Calendar Events Guides for MFoMT can be used when playing the original FoMT. The Events are the same in most cases in both games. If, therefore, you are playing FoMT and you wish to know the events that can be experienced in the third year of gameplay, refer to the 'Third Year Calendar Events Guide' for 'More Friends of Mineral Town'.