Harvest Moon: Back to Nature

Called ?A different kind of RPG for the whole family," Harvest Moon puts The Sims on a farm, adds a touch of Thousand Arms, and shakes thoroughly to produce a surprisingly fun game.

For those of you who never played the Super Nintendo version, Harvest Moon is not an RPG. It is more "SimFarm" than "Final Farmtasy," so anyone expecting an ?RPG for the whole family? complete with magic and airships will be sorely disappointed.

The game begins with your character at his grandfather's old farm, which has become a mass of weeds and rickety sheds. The task at hand is to make the farm profitable again, and that means work, work, and more work. Rebuilding the farm requires daily weeding, watering, wood-cutting, feeding, and even dog-hugging. Harvest Moon is not for the impatient.

Lest you think that the game is outright boring, however, there are quite a few ways to break the monotony. Your character interacts with the nearby village, runs errands, does favors, and generally chats the day away. If you work at it enough, your character could even marry one of the available maidens. Festivals are also held each season, leading to a collection of great mini-games; Chicken Sumo and The Tomato Festival are even more fun than they sound.

In the end, Harvest Moon is not a game for the Street Fighter crowd. It requires a large time investment, but for those willing to put in the time, it can be quite rewarding.

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