Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
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| Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life | |
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| Developer(s) | Marvelous Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | Gamecube JPN Marvelous Interactive |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo GameCube Playstation 2 |
| Release date | GameCube JPN September 12, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Simulation/Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | CERO: A ESRB: E (Everyone) PEGI: 3+ |
| Media | 1 × GameCube Optical Disc |
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is a video game originally exclusive for the Nintendo GameCube that was released on March 16, 2004. It was developed by Marvelous Interactive Inc. and released by Natsume, and is part of the long-running Harvest Moon series of video games. The game offers connectivity with the Game Boy Advance game Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town.
True to its name, this is the first Harvest Moon game that progresses through the main character's entire adult life, from young adulthood to old age pensioner. However, numerous years are skipped as the game is progressed. NPCs in the game, including the main character's son, also grow older as time passes. The game takes place in a new setting for the Harvest Moon series - a small village called Forget-Me-Not Valley, populated entirely by new characters. The basic plot is familiar from several previous Harvest Moon games: the main character, a young man, inherits a somewhat run-down farm in Forget-Me-Not-Valley after the death of his father.
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[edit] Gameplay
[edit] Animals
The player starts the game with one cow, and can later acquire additional, higher-quality cattle as well as male sheep, male and female chickens, and a male horse. In addition to these traditional Harvest Moon animals, this is also the first game in the series to feature ducks and a goat. The ducks appear not to incubate eggs of their own, but after acquiring ducks, some of the eggs the player harvests from chickens will hatch as ducklings. It's notable that no fertile eggs are produced in the absence of a male chicken, despite the presence of female ducks. The goat produces milk for one year; after that however, she stops producing milk. The goat cannot be sold, thus takes up a space in the barn while not producing any income. As a result of this, many players deliberately mistreat their goat (for example, not feeding her) so that she dies and frees up the space in the barn.
The player also starts the game with a dog, and has the choice of floppy or pointed ears. Later in the game, the player may receive a cat from Romana. Also seen in the wilderness are a raccoon, an owl, a lizard, and a turtle, as well as a chihuahua that appears to be a pet at the dig site. Despite various rumors, none of these animals can be acquired as pets. Also notable is the Mukumuku, who resembles an abominable snowman. Mukumuku can only be seen during Winter near the tree in which the Harvest Sprites live, and the surrounding area commonly referred to as "the forest".
[edit] Crops
Farming in A Wonderful Life is relatively complex. The player's farm has three fields, with varying levels of fertility. Plants must be watered more than once per day and nourished with fertilizer to obtain high-quality fruits and vegetables. Each crop has its ideal growing season, and will do poorly if planted at the wrong time of year. To obtain the highest quality crops and seeds, the player must water and fertilize the crops every day.
The game offers a variety of crops. The vegetables are: turnips, potatoes, carrots, and sweet potatoes. The player can also grow several fruits: tomatoes, melons, watermelons, peaches, oranges, grapes, bananas, and apples. The Orange, Peach, Grape, Banana, and Apple fruits are all tree crops.
One new feature in A Wonderful Life is the ability to create hybrid crops. The player can do this by feeding any two different seeds or crops to a talking plant, Tartan, who appears after befriending Takakura and visiting him in the morning, from Chapter 2 onwards.
[edit] Problems
One of the most notable issues with game play, witnessed most thoroughly in the original Gamecube version, is the large amount of text-related production errors that remained in the game through its release. It has been considered very unusual for a very famous title from a professional team to contain as many typos as it does. Some incorrect wording can lead to completely misinterpreted meanings for functions. For example, Tartan asks "Are you finished Hybrid?" with Yes/No options following. Choosing "Yes" would actually indicate that you wanted to continue making hybrids with Tartan. Others are a bit more harmless, such as the presence of the word "did" in a sentence where "dig" should have been (Flora's dialog).
An issue many players find irritating involves the controls (in the Gamecube version) - particularly for farming. Almost everything relies on the 'A' button being pressed while the player's character is standing in the right spot. While using the watering can, instead of simply pouring water in the right direction to water a plant, the player must stand at awkward angles (when standing between crops) to correctly highlight the plant they wish to water. If the player 'slips' with the controls while attempting this and pushes the button, they might accidentally water the same plant twice and waste a square's worth of water. More irritating is if the player manages to press the button while no plant is highlighted, which would then select the "?" action. The "?" action displays a brief paragraph about the item, but requires the player to press the 'A' button several times in order to finish reading it. As a result, a player would frequently end up inadvertently reading a paragraph about the watering can instead of watering a plant with it.
[edit] Bachelorettes
Like most Harvest Moon games, A Wonderful Life offers a few female NPCs that the main character can court and marry. In A Wonderful Life, there are three potential brides (four on the PS2 version), none of whom have appeared in any previous Harvest Moon games. This is the only game in the series allowing only three bachelorettes, as all the previous ones allowed at least five, with the exception of Harvest Moon 3 (GBC), which only had one girl.
As in other Harvest Moon games, courtship in A Wonderful Life consists mainly of talking to the desired girl and bringing her gifts that she likes every day. The player can propose marriage by offering one of the girls a blue feather, although she will only accept it after the player has convinced her to fall in love with the main character. The main character is approximately 30 years of age whereas the eligible spouses are below his age (except Muffy who is also 30 years old). If the main character is not engaged by the end of the first in-game year, either Celia, Muffy, or Nami (On the PS2 version, it is possible to marry Lumina) will spontaneously propose to him. If he refuses this proposal, the game ends. If the main character does marry at the end of the first year, the game continues to follow his married life.
[edit] Celia
Celia ( Sepiria in Japanese version ) has long, brown hair and a green dress. The youngest (apart from Lumina in AWLSE at 26 years old) and the most traditional of the three girls from the original game, Celia is kind, sweet, polite, and rather sheltered. She loves nature and tranquility. She lives and works on a vegetable farm just outside of town. She used to live with her parents in another city when she was younger. Later, she decided to stay and work with Vesta in Forget-Me-Not Valley. She will take a wild flower a day and can almost always be found at her farm. She is quite easy to woo just like Muffy, she will sometimes ask questions about the items that you show to her (if she is interested with them) if they are for her or if you would like her to have it.
[edit] Muffy
Muffy ( Muu in Japanese Version ) is a blonde haired woman with green eyes. She is a 30 year old barmaid who works in town at the Blue Bar with her boss Griffin. Muffy recently moved to Forget-Me-Not Valley from the big city, and has some difficulty adjusting to country life. Muffy thinks the bar owner, Griffin, to be her father. Muffy is a bit of a flirt; she tells the player character that she thinks men who work on farms are "sexy", and her style of dress is fairly provocative by Harvest Moon standards (which are, of course, extremely tame). She enjoys shiny things from the mines, flowers, and other such 'girly' things. She is the 2 easiest potential bride to woo, as it is possible to earn a whole heart upon giving three or four stones. Though some think she's ditzy, she says she wants her son to grow up to be smart, and Marlin says (when shown the baby) that he seems smart, just like Muffy. This may be sarcasm but probably not. Being the oldest spouse of the rest of the 3 or 4 bachelorettes in the game she is very easy to win over since the player can gain affection from her by simply talking to her and sometimes being given an option on what to say to her when she asks questions especially when the player gives her a gift she will ask him if the gift was for her or if the player just wants to show it to her.
[edit] Nami
Nami is a girl with short red hair with the light blue t-shirt and white shorts. The least conventional of the three, Nami is unusually unfeminine for a female potential love interest in a Japanese game (compare bishōjo game). Her style is more tomboyish, and she is an introspective loner, uncomfortable with obvious displays of affection; she can often seem rude and distant, even when she is in love with the player character. Her attitude, her unpredictable schedule, and her unusual taste in gifts make Nami more difficult to woo than the other two girls. Nami is a wanderer, but she keeps finding excuses not to leave Forget-Me-Not Valley. If the player character didn't marry her, Nami leaves after the first year, only to return in the second chapter. Nami Loves Trick Blue Flowers which are found in fall she also enjoys some stuff from the digsite.
[edit] Lumina
Lumina is a girl who (in the first chapter) wears a Japanese-style sailor schoolgirl shirt and blue pants. The player character can only marry her in the Special Edition version of the game. She is a cheerful and somewhat shy girl. Being an orphan (both her parents died in an accident), she lives in a mansion with her grandmother Romana and butler Sebastian. Her preferred gifts are flowers, eggs, yams and golden wool. She loves to play the piano, though she often feels pressured by her grandmother's expectations. She is the youngest among the four girls and looks up to the main character as her "big brother", although she secretly admires him.
[edit] Children
This is the first Harvest Moon game in which the player character not only has a child after marriage, but can raise the child to adulthood. Each possible wife has a different son, who will always end up looking similar to said wife, and a unique set of interests and talents. However, the player can influence the child's developing personality by taking him to places, introducing him to people, and giving him gifts related to various fields. At the end of the game, the (now adult) son will choose one of six possible careers: Farmer, Rancher, Musician, Artist, Athlete, or Scholar. If he becomes a farmer or a rancher, he will take over the family farm. He can not marry. If the main character becomes good friends with Daryl, the scientist, the son has a higher chance of becoming a scholar (scientist). If Wally becomes good friends with the main character, the son has a good chance of becoming an athlete, and so on with many other characters like the artist (Cody) who lives in a trailer and the guitarist (Gustafa) who lives in the yurt. The main character can have only one child, and the child is always male. Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition (PS2) includes the possibility of having a daughter, which has a closer appearance to the character than his son does. The daughter looks more like the main character instead of the wife.
[edit] Celia's son
Celia's son is quite gentle. He wears green in almost every chapter and has dirty blond hair. He seems most interested in farming or ranching. He has a good time in his teenage years and is to be happiest. He loves goat milk and his favorite food is bananas. It can be difficult to put him to bed.
[edit] Muffy's son
Muffy's son is most inclined to grow up to become an athlete or artist. However, this can be changed depending on how you raise him. Some claim that Muffy's son is the hardest of the 3 to get to take over the farm. He is the most mischievous and outgoing of the three children, making him somewhat more trouble to raise. His rebellious personality sometimes frustrates Muffy to the point of her scolding him in her sleep. In toddler and childhood stage, he likes animals a lot. However, the fondness fades as he grows into a teenager. He somewhat idolizes Hugh and aims to become a faster runner and stronger athlete than him. He also has a bit of interest in art and music. As a teenager, he becomes very much the stereotypical teenage child: bratty and disrespectful to his parents. This attitude makes Muffy moody and she argues with him a great deal during this stage. Despite this, in his final stage he seems generally happy.
[edit] Nami's son
Nami's son is talented at every possible field except athletics. However, at first he has no interest in anything besides art and farming. As he gets older, he develops an interest in studying and starts to visit Daryl frequently. As a toddler and child, he rarely goes out and spends most of time inside his house (staying in his room or watching television) or wandering around in the farm. With art as his most talented field, he is often seen drawing in a sketch book or playing with toy blocks in his toddler stage. He is very quiet and well-behaved compared to Celia's or Muffy's sons, but is also comparatively melancholic. Unlike other children, he doesn't like being showered with much attention. He seems fairly depressed as a teenager. He has a crush on Lumina in his young adult stage. He more likely to be a Musician or a Farmer.
[edit] Lumina's son
Only available in PS2 Special Edition, Lumina's son shows great interest in music and art. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any interest at farm related areas such as farming or ranching. His personality is sweet and gentle but a little shy. He is often seen clinging around his mother during toddler stage. He starts becoming close friends with Gustafa in his early childhood and frequently visits his place. Players can even see an event where Gustafa teaches him to sing in the end of the childhood chapter if the player supported him in the music field. He seems to like Kate and starts talking about her a lot during his childhood stage. In the Japanese version, Sebastian honorably addresses him with the sama suffix every time he talks about him with the player character. This is probably affected by Lumina's status. He might be a little rude in the teenager stage, though.
[edit] Daughter
Only available in the PS2 Special Edition, the daughter will always look the same, resembling her father, no matter which girl the player chooses to marry. Her talents and interests are still determined by the mother, however. When she is in her childhood stage she takes things after her father more than her mother. There's only minor differences between having a son or daughter. For example, in the childhood stage, a daughter sleeps with a bunny doll. She also tends to speak about feminine things ( for example, dreaming to become a bride ). She also seems like a tomboy when she is in her childhood stage. In her adult stage and reveals her crush, she seems to be a little more girly.
[edit] Crush
The child of player character eventually develops a crush on one of the village youngsters, as he/she reaches young adult stage (chapter 5). You will see a cutscene about the child seeking a parent for advice. If the child is male, they will turn to the player character for advice, and if the child is female, they will seek the selected wife's advice. He or she will visit their love interest's residence and start meeting up with them frequently in chapter 6.
[edit] Kate
The tomboyish daughter of Grant and Samantha. Kate moved to Forget-Me-Not Valley along with her parents in chapter 2 and became Hugh's neighbor. At first, she doesn't seem excited about living in the village, saying that it is boring. She is daring and likes adventure. She develops a close relationship with Lumina and seems to think of her as a big sister. Her dream is to become a novelist. Every male child except for Nami's will have her as a love interest.
[edit] Lumina
A shy girl who lives in the village with her grandmother, Romana, and their butler, Sebastian. She lost her parents due an accident at a very young age. She has gift for playing piano and wants to be a pianist. Samantha thinks of her as perfect lady figure. Nami's son is the only one to have her as a love interest, where she is about 10 years older than him. (except in the Special Edition, where she is about 20 years older than him)
[edit] Hugh
Son of Wally and Chris. He is determined to follow his father's footsteps as a runner and athlete. He has a soft spot for sweets such as ice cream and cake just like his mother, Chris. As a child, he is a crybaby and is often made fun of Kate. His attitude becomes tougher and serious as he grows into a teenager. Kate secretly has a crush on him. If the player had a daughter, (a daughter is only available in Special Edition for Playstation) Hugh will be her love interest.
[edit] Connectivity
If the player connects a Game Boy Advance with Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town to the GameCube while playing A Wonderful Life, the two games can exchange information. Initiating the connection requires going to the mountain path next to the vegetable farm where Celia lives in A Wonderful Life, and throwing an offering into the Harvest Goddess' pond in Friends of Mineral Town. NPCs in Forget-Me-Not Valley will begin to make comments about events in Mineral Town, and vice versa. In addition, some NPCs will make periodic trips to Mineral Town, returning with new items to sell or hints for the player.
Even without connecting the games, the Harvest Sprites in A Wonderful Life occasionally visit players in Friends of Mineral Town.
[edit] Storyline
When you begin the game, you see a coastline in Forget-Me-Not Valley (Forget Valley for short).Takakura, an old man who used to be your fathers best friend, is thinking/ praying to God or speaking to your father stating: "It's not that he wasn't happy, but he seemed to have no direction in life, so I brought him here." Then you are seen walking through the village with Takakura; he explains to you how your father and him owned the farm. Soon, 2 dogs will appear; you get to keep 1 of them. Takakura agrees to show you around the valley, where you get the chance to enter your name. You also meet Celia, Nami and Muffy any one of which you may eventually marry (this also includes Lumina in wonderful life special edition). In the beginning you start with a cow, a milker, 2 records, 2 tomato seeds and 3000 G.
[edit] The Beginning
Just like the title says, this chapter is the beginning of the game. Needless to say, you go through a long introduction as this chapter starts out. You are given a cow on your very first day from Takakura. It is very important to milk your cow everyday throughout this chapter, considering you will not have many other ways to obtain money, except fishing. Another way to make profit is to go and buy seeds from Vesta's farm.
The main focus of this chapter is to get you familiarized with the way the game works and to get married. There are three potential brides: Nami, Celia, and Muffy (plus Lumina in the special edition version for playstation). Sometime during the beginning of summer, you will be given the Blue Feather, which is what you use to propose to the woman of your choosing. Remember not to propose until the girl you like has four hearts in her diary.
In the summer, Takakura will surprise you with a new addition to your farm, a horse. Make sure you take the horse out as often as you can, because it likes to run around. However, just like cows and sheep, you do not want to leave him out in the rain or he will become angry with you, making a relationship harder to build. Also, if you try to talk to your horse and pet him but he snorts instead of get a heart, then feed him an apple in the morning and another apple or carrot in the afternoon and eventually he'll get hearts above his head when you give him attention again.
One thing you may want to focus on in this chapter, is making relationships with the people around town. This becomes crucial because the friends you make now will last a long time and will later influence the way your son (or daughter in special edition) develops.
[edit] Happy Birthday
In this chapter, you have a son which personality depends on the wife you married. Later in the game it develops based on the friends you have made. When this chapter begins, you are introduced to the changes in your life since you got married. You will now have a large kitchen which takes up a whole room and comes with a refrigerator and 2 bathrooms. In this chapter, you can get a cat from Romana. Your toddler can be picked up and played with. The dig site is enlarged, too. With the enlargement of the dig site, you can find many new items. You can meet Tartan. Hugh has become a little bigger, and his clothing changed a bit. Grant, Samantha, and Kate have moved in. They are a family of oriental origin from the city, Grant goes to work in the city every day. Van sells toys for your child, as well as a goat now. After a year, the goat will stop producing milk. You can get the Seed Maker starting in this chapter; by buying it or getting it from Daryl, the scientist.
Ducks may show up at your farm, too. All you have to do is buy a pond and go to sleep really late, so you can wake up after your wife. Galen's wife, Nina, died of natural causes, and he now lives below Vesta's farm. Nina's grave is there and you can clean it when Galen is by Nina's grave , However, Galen is very hard to befriend now.
This chapter is 2 years long.
[edit] Happy Harvesting
In this chapter, your child is a little older. You can give him gifts. He has his own room now. Hugh is a teenager. His clothing and attitude have changed. He is more selfish. Lumina is an adult. Her clothing and the tune she plays at the piano have changed. In the PS2 game you can marry her. You can buy Daachan from Van. The ruins have grown bigger. This chapter is 3 years long. This is a good time to influence your son or daughter's career choice.
[edit] Happy Farm Life
Your child is a teenager. He now has a new room and his bookcase, his attitude, though not extreme, is a parental freedom one, where he does not want to play with you anymore, and wants to be independent. You have aged, as have most people in the valley including, Grant, Wally, and the hotel owners. Hugh and Kate are adults. Their clothing and attitudes have changed for the better. The ruins have grown again larger, you can dig a lot and make a good profit.
[edit] The Journey
Your child is now an adult. He starts actions like the ones you performed in year one, such as harvesting and looking for a spouse. The ruins are even bigger. Your child falls in love with either Kate or Lumina. Your wife is old.
[edit] The Twilight
You've aged again and so have other villagers. Your son is now certain of the career in which he wants to pursue, and can no longer be swayed toward another career. This is the final chapter. When it ends, the player's character dies, and his son follows his career choice. On the PS2 version, you have a free play mode, that when after you die, you can still play for fun, it is like if you had a farm in heaven. :)
[edit] Reception
Reviews for A Wonderful Life were widely positive, favoring the addictive gameplay and depth while typically disliking the game's sound. Mary Jane Irwin or IGN gave it an 8.0 rating. Regarding the audio, she noted, "There really isn't a lot going on... You'll hear your feet pound the ground, water pouring from your watering can, your hoe digging dirt, or your hook catching a fish, but that's practically it." However, Irwin also added, "The more you play it, the more it grows on you." and "It'd be nice if there were more mini- games and the tool experience system was reinstated, but the animal and marriage system upgrades (and the corresponding cut scenes, more than make up for it."[1]
The game received an 8.6 rating from Ryan Davis of GameSpot. Davis noted "The sound of Harvest Moon is something you could easily just let fade into the background, because most of the sound effects are cute and a little pedestrian." and "What the game lacks in technical prowess, it makes up for with a unique and endearing sensibility and plenty of care." [2]
1Up.com gave A Wonderful Life a B+, noting "While the repetition of farm life is soothing, the repetition in the human interactions is just annoying." but also "Despite the simplicity, there's plenty of depth to the farming experience."[3]
[edit] Related games
An updated version called Oh! A Wonderful Life was released in Japan for the PlayStation 2 in November 2004. The English language version was called A Wonderful Life Special Edition and was released in late 2005. While very similar to the original version of A Wonderful Life, some extra items and events were added in addition to an updated soundtrack. The most notable changes were the ability to have a daughter and marry Lumina (a character players could not marry in A Wonderful Life). However, it suffers from downgraded graphics, low framerate (especially PAL versions) and bigger loading times.
Another related GameCube game called Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life the Girl version for Game Cube was released in the English-speaking world in July 2005. In this game, the player goes through the storyline of A Wonderful Life as a female character, and can court and marry one of three male NPCs. There is also Harvest Moon DS, released with many of the characters from previous games, but with much more detail (such as variable house placement, and construction material).
[edit] References
- ^ Irwin, Mary Jane Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life IGN.com (March 15, 2004). Retrieved March 26, 2008.
- ^ Davis Ryan Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life GameSpot.com (March 25, 2004). Retrieved March 26, 2008.
- ^ Shepherd, Carrie Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life (GameCube) 1Up.com (2004). Retrieved March 26, 2007.
[edit] External links
- Natsume's Official AWL webpage
- GameFAQs - A Wonderful Life
- Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life at the Open Directory Project
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