| Harvest Moon DS | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Marvelous Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | |
Harvest Moon DS (牧場物語 コロボックルステーション bokujō monogatari: korobokkuru sutēshon) is the first game for the Nintendo DS in the Harvest Moon series of farm simulation video games. It was first released on March 25, 2005 in Japan.
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The game's location and storyline mimics that of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and Harvest Moon: Magical Melody for the GameCube, while its gameplay follows Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town for the Game Boy Advance. The player plays a young boy who lives with his friend Takakura on a farm in Forget-Me-Not-Valley[1], at roughly the same time as Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. As the story begins, it shows the Harvest Goddess and the Witch Princess fighting. Neither can win, so they split up. The Witch Princess, on meeting the Harvest Goddess next, attempts to cast a spell on her to silence her, but instead accidentally petrifies her. While trying to undo the damage, she inadvertently sends the Harvest Goddess to another world, and so sends all the resident Harvest Sprites (small, elf-like creatures) to the same world to rescue her, imploring the player to bring all of the Harvest Sprites and the Harvest Goddess back. Living in the valley are a number of villagers, nine human and non-human bachelorettes to marry, and five rival bachelors. The characters in Harvest Moon: DS are the same as those featured in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life with a few minor exceptions.
Players earn money to improve their farmland and life through their farm, by growing crops or raising livestock. Growing crops in this game is slightly different from previous Harvest Moon games. Rather than being restricted to his own farm land, the player may grow crops on unowned fields of various sizes and fertility all over the valley. Each crop must be planted during a certain season; for example, turnips must be planted in the spring. Players begin the game with only a dog and a cat on their farm. While the cat does little, the dog may be trained to fetch balls and chase away wild dogs from the farm. Cows, sheep, ducks, and chickens are available for purchase, and must be housed in different types of pens, which must be bought from Gotz, the town's woodcutter. Cows and sheep require an animal shed to live in before they may be purchased, and ducks and chickens require a bird shed. After the player ships 1000 items, Takakura will bring him a homeless horse to keep. This horse does not need to be fed, and cannot get sick. However, you can brush it to increase the friendship level.
After earning enough money, the player may upgrade their house by calling Gotz, and buy a kitchen, appliances, or furniture items by using the Harvest Sprite Shopping Network. If players upgrade their home twice, buy certain items and rescue 60 Harvest Sprites, they may choose to marry. To do so, players must have seen all the "heart events" and raised a bachelorette's "heart level" to red by cooking her meals and buying her gifts. The heart level order is as follows: Black, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. If the wife's heart level remains red for a season after marriage, she will become pregnant and give birth two seasons later. The game skips forward by three years after the birth, resulting in changes in the villager's lives but no change to the player's farm.
Extra content, as well as characters from Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, are able to be unlocked by connecting with a copy of Friends of Mineral Town.[2] Japanese versions can only connect to their Japanese counterparts, and while this feature is not available on PAL Harvest Moon: DS cartridges, NTSC Harvest Moon: DS cartridges can connect with PAL and NTSC Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town cartridges.[3]
There are a total of 101 Harvest Sprites to be rescued.[4] They belong to different "teams", and are divided into two sets. The first set of Harvest Sprite teams are: Red: Animal - Shipping and Feeding, Orange: Lumber, Yellow: Animal - Brushing and Petting, Green: Crop Harvesting, Purple: Healing, Indigo: Fishing, and Blue: Watering. After rescue these teams can be hired to help you out around your farm.[5] The second set of teams cannot be hired, and are generally available for specific purposes in the game. The second set of Harvest Sprite teams are: White: Baby, Brown: Shop and Casino, and Black: Sprite Station. Rescuing them requires various farm related activities, primarily ones related to their teams abilities. For example, to rescue members of the Indigo team you must meet various fishing related milestones.
Nintendo Power gave Harvest Moon DS a score of 6.0/10.0,[6] GameZone gave Harvest Moon DS a 9.2/10,[7] and GameFAQs had a rating average of 7.7/10.[8]
Harvest Moon DS Cute (牧場物語コロボックルステーションforガール bokujō monogatari korobokkuru sutēshon for gāru) is a female oriented version of Harvest Moon DS, also made for the Nintendo DS. It was published and developed by Marvelous Interactive Inc. in Japan, and released by Natsume in North America on March 25, 2008[9]. Harvest Moon DS Cute replaces the male protagonist from Harvest Moon DS with a female character; players may choose either Pony from the GameCube game Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life or Claire from the Game Boy Advance game Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town. The Japanese version also introduced a system known as the "Best Friend" system, allowing you to romance and essentially marry any of the bachelorettes from Harvest Moon DS as well as 6 bachelors.[10] It was removed from the US version, a decision criticized by the game's American fanbase, to avoid controversy.
The plot of Harvest Moon DS Cute is different than that of Harvest Moon DS. In this version of the game, the player's mother sends a wish that you may be a successful farmer to the Harvest Goddess. She eventually determines the character has no work ethic, and the Harvest King angrily tells the Harvest Goddess she isn't trying hard enough; she is slacking off in her old age. The Harvest Goddess then calls the Harvest King a "big baldy", and is turned into stone. The Harvest Sprites defend the Harvest Goddess, which angers the Harvest King even more, and he sends the Harvest Sprites and the Harvest Goddess to another world as punishment. He then writes a letter to the player telling her if she works hard, he will return the Harvest Sprites and the Harvest Goddess. Basic gameplay remains unaltered between the two versions.
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