| Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Victor Interactive Software Marucome (PS2) |
| Publisher(s) | Natsume Co., Ltd (NA) Victor Entertainment, Marvelous Interactive (JP) 505 Game Street (EU) Nintendo Australia (AUS, GCN) |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 |
| Release date(s) | Nintendo GameCube
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| Genre(s) | Simulation/role-playing video game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | |
| Media/distribution | Optical disc |
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is a video game 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 and Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town.
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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. The cow will stop producing milk after 40 days and you will have to impregnate her for her to continue making milk. 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 can be sold on PS2 version for 1000G.
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, a lizard, and a turtle, as well as a chihuahua that appears to be a pet at the dig site.
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."
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, strawberries, 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.
One of the most notable issues with gameplay, 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.
This is the first Harvest Moon game in which the player character not only has a child after marriage, but you get to name it and care for it to adulthood as well. Each possible wife has a different son, who will always end up looking similar to your wife, and a unique set of interests and talents. However, the player can influence the child's developing personality by taking him 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 seven possible careers: Farmer, Rancher, Musician, Artist, Scholar, Athlete, or Scientist. If he becomes a farmer or a rancher, he will take over the family farm. He can not marry.
If the player connects a Game Boy Advance with Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town or Harvest Moon: More 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.
When you begin the game, you see a coastline, in Forget-me-not valley, Takakura, an old man who used to be your father's best friend, is speaking (or thinking) 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 along with Takakura. You are walking down the village, and he explains to you how your father and he owned the farm. Soon, two dogs will appear you get to keep one of them. Takakura agrees to show you around the valley, where you get the chance to enter your name. You also meet the villagers, including Celia, Lumina, and Muffy, the eligible bachelorettes. In the beginning, you start with a cow, a milker, two records, two tomato seeds and 3000 G.
In the very beginning, the screen turns dark and suddenly you are in a house at 5 a.m.. You are now in control of the game. When you walk outside, you have a cow and 2 crops to plant and take care of. You have a year to choose one out of the three potential brides Celia, Nami, and Muffy (4 in special edition) in the game.
In this chapter, you have a son whose personality and appearance depends on the woman you married. You will have an extra room, a kitchen and dining room. You also gain a refrigerator and two bathrooms. You can receive a cat from Romana, and your toddler can be picked up and played with. The dig site and house get bigger. Some characters' appearance has changed and a family moves in. Van sells toys for your child, as well as a goat. You can ONLY get the goat in spring. It costs 4000G. After a year, it will stop producing milk. You can sell it on the PS2 version for 1000G in the food storage/shipping room. Or, in this version, you can sell the goat for 1000G after it stops giving milk. You can get the Seed Maker starting in this chapter, getting it from Daryl if you have not already purchased it in the first chapter. You can also get Tartan starting in this chapter. Ducks may show up at your farm starting in this chapter if you own a pond. Galen has moved. His wife, Nina, died of natural causes. Galen now lives in a shack on hill beside Vesta's farm, where flowers grow. Nina's grave is there and you can clean it when Galen is there. He is very hard to befriend now. A doctor moves into Galen's and Nina's old house. This chapter is two years long.
In this chapter, your son has grown into a seven or eight year old. Hugh and Lumina's appearance have changed again and your house has expanded, giving your son his own room. You still have the time to inspire your child into what career you want him to have by befriending the people in the village that have a similar job. This chapter takes three years to finish.
Your child is a teenager. Being a teenager, your son goes through a rebellious stage and wants to be independent. You have aged, as have most people in the valley. This is the time when you cannot really change your son's career without confusing him. The ruins have grown even larger, so you can dig a lot and make a good profit. This chapter is two years long.
Your child is now a young adult. His actions mirror yours from Year One, such as harvesting and looking for a spouse. The ruins are even bigger. People say that your son falls in love with either Kate or Lumina, but it has not been known that he does. Your wife has aged. There is no possible way for you to change his career choice now. This chapter is one year long.
You've aged again and so have other villagers. Some have died, and your son is now certain of his career, and can no longer be swayed. Before you die, your wife talks to you one last time. The game ends with your death and Takakura speaking or thinking to your father about how Forget-Me-Not Valley fares after your death. After your death, a free play mode will be unlocked (heaven mode).
The American pre-order bonus was a collectible dog plush that was included in the game when ordered from participating websites.
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).
Another related GameCube game called Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life the Girl version for GameCube 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.
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life received largely positive reviews upon its initial GameCube release. IGN gave the title an "Impressive" 8 out of 10 rating, praising gameplay and lasting appeal while also noting its "monotonous" audio and upsetting lack of festivals.[1] A Wonderful Life garnered an 8.7 rating from Ryan Davis of GameSpot.com. Echoing other reviews, Davis considered it "a fun and potentially addictive game that, if you let it, will gladly consume any free time you choose to give it."[2]
The Special Edition released for PlayStation 2, however, did not receive such strong praise. IGN's Juan Castro gave it a score of 6/10 and remarked "The differences, including an increase in brides, choosing the gender of your child and the ability to play forever, make little difference. What does make a difference, though, is the drastic drop in framerate, increase in load times and muddy graphics."[3] The Official Playstation 2 Magazine of the UK gave it a 7/10 rating.[4]
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