Harvest Moon DS
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| Harvest Moon DS | |
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| Developer(s) | Marvelous Interactive Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Natsume Co., Ltd |
| Release date(s) |  March 22, 2005 September 13, 2006 April 13, 2007 |
| Genre(s) | Simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E OFLC: G |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
Harvest Moon DS (Bokujou Monogatari: Colobocle Station in Japanese) is the first game in the Harvest Moon series of farm-simulation video games for the Nintendo DS video game handheld. It is the counterpart to Harvest Moon: Magical Melody, a GameCube title.
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[edit] Story
The game takes place in Forget-Me-Not Valley, 100 years after Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Unlike the previous games in the series, which create new characters based on old ones, the characters in Harvest Moon: DS are exactly the same as the ones in A Wonderful Life and Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town.
The story of the game mirrors that of Harvest Moon: Magical Melody, for the GameCube. The Harvest Goddess has been petrified and sent to another world by the Witch Princess, and it is up to the player to restore her. In Magical Melody, this is done by collecting magical music notes, but in Harvest Moon: DS, the player must find and rescue the Harvest Sprites from the other world by doing various tasks. Once the player finds 60 sprites, the goddess will be revived, and the player will be able to propose to any of the potential wives.
[edit] Marriage
The potential wives in Harvest Moon DS are as follows:
- Muffy, a flirty blonde who works at the Blue Bar
- Nami, a hardened redhead worldly traveler who lives at the Inn
- Celia, a simple yet charming brown-haired farm girl who works for Vesta
- Lumina, the classy brunette granddaughter of Romana
- Flora, a brainy blonde woman who works with Carter at the dig site
Aside from the normal brides one can also choose to marry four special women:
- Harvest Goddess, who has been sealed in stone and sent away by the Witch Princess.
- Witch Princess, the rival to the Harvest Goddess.
- Leia the Mermaid, a mermaid rescued by Darryl. She currently resides in his basement.
- Keria, a mute princess sealed on the 255th floor of the 3rd mine.
You can marry both the Harvest Goddess and Witch Princess.
Furthermore, if a Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town or Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town cartridge is inserted into the Game Boy Advance slot and the player loads up Harvest Moon DS, the bachelorettes from Mineral Town become available to be wed. However, the credits roll immediately after the wedding thus bringing the game to an end. After the credits finish, the game will return to the save previous to getting married. The girls who come to visit from Mineral Town are the following:
- Ann, works at the inn in Mineral Town and helps out Ruby at the Inner Inn when she visits Forget-Me-Not Valley on Fridays.
- Elli, a nurse in training, who visits Dr. Hardy's house along with Dr. Trent on Wednesdays.
- Karen, the manager of the General Store. She comes to visit her friend (and relative) Celia on Tuesdays.
- Mary, who runs the library in Mineral Town. She is a writer and will visit Lumina on Mondays.
- Popuri, Her family runs the Poultry Farm, and she studies at Takukura's house on Sundays. Rick is her brother.
The five "normal" girls have rivals for their affections as well. The player will have to make their move before the corresponding rival does, and has until Year 4 before a rival marriage can be witnessed. The rivals are:
- Marlin, Vesta's quiet little brother, who works on Vesta's Farm and will marry Celia if the player doesn't.
- Griffin, The shy, gentle owner of the Blue Bar, a skilled brewer and will marry Muffy if the player doesn't.
- Gustafa, The free-spirited musician and poet lives in a colorful yurt and will marry Nami if the player doesn't.
- Rock, Ruby's flirty, handsome son. Vain and confident, he lives in his parents' inn and will marry Lumina if the player doesn't.
- Carter, a serious, intelligent archaeologist. He lives in a tent by the dig site and will marry Flora if the player doesn't.
[edit] Unlockables
In addition, if the player inserts a copy of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town or Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town into the GBA slot, the player can unlock additional content, such as newspapers from Mineral Town (Japanese version only).
Aside from new characters visiting from Mineral Town, you can also receive a variety of new Friends of Mineral Town related objects such as DVDs of the TV shows available in Friends of Mineral Town for your DVD player. You can change your background music to different games music as well, after buying 5 records.
The five Mineral Town girls and boys do visit, along with their Friends of Mineral Town and More Friends of Mineral Town rivals. However, the rivals are not the player's rivals in Harvest Moon DS, and will not marry their corresponding boy or girl.
[edit] Crops and Trees
Growing crops in this game is slightly different from the other games. You are not contained to only your farm land to grow crops. Instead, fields of various sizes are all over the map and different growth rates are applied to each. It is possible to level up the crops by planting numerous amounts of seeds in the same spot. Trees in this game are raised in a similar manner, and trees generally take longer to grow.
[edit] Livestock
The livestock feature of the game has not been changed drastically from earlier Harvest Moon games. However, the new dual screen adds new animal caring features. It is possible to wash, shear, milk, pet, or give treats to the animal, depending on which kind it is. At the start of the game, there are no barns for the animals, and the player must call the carpenter, Gotz, to build them. It is possible to have up to twenty-eight animals made up of different species. There are chickens, ducks, cows, and sheep. A horse is obtained through an event during the game, and the player starts the game off with a dog and cat. Just like in Friends of Mineral Town, a player has the option of breeding animals instead of just buying them. In Harvest Moon DS the sheep can be sheared six times once their wool is grown or once if the Clippers are used along with the Touch Glove. A way to make slightly more money is to shear the sheep once, then shear it again using the Touch Glove.
[edit] Sprite Stations
In this game unlike other Harvest Moon games, the player has a TV-like device that is carried around constantly, accessible through the menu on the bottom screen. It acts much in the same way the televisions in other Harvest Moon games work, except channels are unlocked through the course of game play by completing certain tasks, such as buying records or befriending a villager. There are 9 Sprite Stations, unlike other games, where there are only 4 TV stations.
[edit] Cooking
Cooking remains similar to that in Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. After successfully fulfilling the house expansion requirements, one can buy a kitchen off the TV Shopping channel. The various cooking equipment is gotten in a similar fashion; to cook, the player simply chooses one utensil and up to eight ingredients to create a meal. Certain meals have different effects on stamina and fatigue. You can also cook food to give to the lady you love. This will raise her affection towards you.
[edit] Glitches
Many glitches cropped up in the North American release of the game. The original Japanese version already contained several glitches, but were corrected in later prints. Unfortunately, the American release was translated from the original glitched version and not the corrected one. On top of it, localisation also added several glitches that weren't present in any older version. These include:
- Random freeze up of the game, especially in winter.
- Inability to marry the Witch Princess because the game fails to count dead animals
- Inability to marry the Goddess because of the missing Buckwheat Flour and the Necklace
- Inability to complete cooking and shipping lists due to aforementioned Buckwheat Flour
- In winter, tiles can randomly become impassable if a grass building falls
- "Ghost Town", where all doors are permanently locked and villagers are missing
- Milker glitch, where any animal that can be brushed can be milked
- Cats and dogs getting stuck after home additions
- 1 billion gold fishing glitch
Other glitches include blank bottom screens and some events seem to be either missing or impossible to access. Most of these glitches will be corrected for the European release of the game, although fans have started to wonder about Natsume's commitment for the games they localize and their quality control. Already Natsume was known for its lack of quality control in grammar and spelling, being infamous for various typos in past Harvest Moon games, even misspelling their own name on the title screen.
[edit] External links
- Ushi No Tane - Information on the game, including crop, animal, and bachelorette information
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| Harvest Moon Games | Harvest Moon · Harvest Moon GB · Harvest Moon GBC · Harvest Moon 64 · Harvest Moon 2 · Back to Nature · Harvest Moon 3 · For Girls · Save the Homeland · Friends of Mineral Town · A Wonderful Life · More Friends of Mineral Town · Another Wonderful Life · A Wonderful Life Special Edition · Harvest Moon DS · Magical Melody · Portable · Sprite Station for Girls · Tree of Peace · The Island I Develop With You |
| Spin-offs | Innocent Life · Rune Factory · Puzzle de Harvest Moon |
| Others | List of Characters in the Harvest Moon series |
