Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns

Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns (牧場物語　ふたごの村, Bokujō Monogatari: Futago no Mura, lit. Ranch Story: Twin Villages) is a farming simulation video game developed by Marvelous Entertainment for the Nintendo DS as part of the Story of Seasons series. The DS version is titled as Harvest Moon DS and the 3DS version is titled as Harvest Moon 3D. The original release date for the Japanese version was set to February 25, 2010 but was moved to July 8, 2010. New features in the game include new animals like Alpacas and Honey Bees and a Pickle Pot that can be used to make pickled turnips.^[4][5] It was released in North America on the Nintendo DS on September 20, 2011 and on the Nintendo 3DS on November 1, 2011 by Rising Star Games.^[6] The 3DS version was not released in Japan.^[7] The pre-order bonus for the game was an alpaca plushie.^[8]

Gameplay

The player starts the game by choosing a gender and picking one of two towns to live in: Bluebell, a European-style town, or Konohana, an Asian-style town. The two towns specialize in different aspects of farming. Bluebell specializes in farm animals while Konohana focuses on crops. The player's farm will have different features depending on which town the player has chosen. Like all other Harvest Moon games, the player must maintain their farm by planting and watering crops, and raising their animals. The player can also fulfill requests that are posted at each towns' message board. Choosing a town will not restrict the player to that town only, the player can travel between towns and interact with all of the townspeople. The player can choose to marry a bachelor or bachelorette, depending on the player's gender, from either town.^[9]

Setting

The two towns, Bluebell and Konohona, were once friendly neighbors separated by a mountain. There was a tunnel that connected the two towns together but it was destroyed by the Harvest Goddess. The goddess had been angered because the mayors of the two towns started arguing about which towns' cuisine was better. Now that the tunnel is destroyed, the towns have stopped communicating with each other. The only interaction between the two towns is their cooking festival, which is used to determine which town has the best cuisine. The player's job is to help mediate between the two towns and get them to be on friendly terms with each other again.^[10]

Cooking Festival

The cooking festival is a cooking contest between the two towns. The festival occurs four times each season and the player can choose to either participate in the festival or cheer for the player's own town. Each town has a team of three participants who present a cooked dish to the judge. Whether the player participates in the festival or cheers for their town, the player will gain friendship points that help fill up the friendship meter. Once the meter is full, the towns will return to being friendly neighbors again. The player will gain more points by participating in the festival than they would if they were cheering for their town.^[11]

Marriage

There are 6 bachelors and 6 bachelorettes to choose from. The player must give presents to a marriage candidate and raise their friendship points to a certain level. Once the player has 5000 friendship points with the marriage candidate, the player can take the candidate out on dates. Before marriage can occur, the player must have a big bed in their house and also trigger events that occur on dates. Once all marriage requirements for the marriage candidate are fulfilled, the player can propose with an item called the Blue Feather, which can be bought in shops. After marriage, the player can choose to upgrade the bed and remodel the house to have a child.^[12]

Reception

Harvest Moon DS: The Tale of Two Towns received a "Fair" rating of 6.5 out of 10 from GameSpot because it has an addicting and long lasting gameplay but it does not bring anything new to the Harvest Moon franchise.^[13] IGN's Lucas M. Thomas gave it an overall rating of 6 out of 10. Thomas mentions in his review that "It's hard to love a game that's so based on hate."^[14]
In Japan, Harvest Moon DS: The Tale of Two Towns was Marvelous Interactive's best selling game in 2010 with 230,000 sales.^[15]

See also

• Video games developed in Japan

References