Some games promise adrenaline rushes and huge explosions. Other games promise sharp graphics and sleek special effects. Other breeds of games might promise epic storylines which determine the fate of the world, and still others try to draw you in with realistic character models, rosters, or even physics. There are even some games that will appeal to a potential customer by means of pure nostalgia-- sometimes, it's even more fun to just play a nice simple game of Pong, Asteroids, or Donkey Kong Classics. Harvest Moon: Back to Nature (which I will from here on out sometimes refer to as HMBN) won't promise any of these things, but I can promise you that if you give HMBN a bit of time and patience and are willing to accept some of its shortcomings, you will find yourself completely intrigued and immersed deep into the world of Harvest Moon: Back to Nature.

There is so much to do in this game that it's quite hard to pick a place to start, but I've decided to explain the basic story first. Your grandfather owned a farm, which you often visited when your summer vacation plans fell through. Sadly, in his older years, he had a hard time keeping up with all of the work in his late years, and the farm became neglected and somewhat downtrodden, and he died later on. You have inherited the farm, and your task is twofold: You must both restore the farm to the thriving state that it was once in, and also fit in well with the villagers, who don't by any means hate you, but don't really accept you yet, either. They knew your grandpa very well, but you are more or less a stranger... for now. This can be changed quickly, but I'll cover that later. Anyway, all you have are a few memories of your childhood and many unanswered questions. Of course, you also have a farm, a dog, a few tools, and your good will. You have some work cut out for you, but if you can prove yourself
"worthy" to the village in 3 years, then you will be recognized as the rightful owner of the farm. If you can't, well... then you ARE the Weakest Link... Goodbye!

Next, for the graphics and sound-- definitely two of HMBN's weak points. The graphics are presented in 3-D, and the buildings look nice, as do most of the inanimate objects, but everything else is too darn simple. People's faces are a head and two eyes, until you talk to them (in which both detail and expression are shown-- a very nice touch). The plants are simplistic, and, on rare occasion, tough to recognize. Thankfully, there is a feature which tells you what an item, animal, or tool is. However, the graphics are very clean, and while they will almost never make you say "wow," they rarely disappoint, either. The sound effects, on the other hand, would, as the popular song says, would be "better off alone." They are worthy of an 8-bit system, mayhbe a 16-bit system, but not the Playstation. Little bleeps and blips truly don't do such a deep game justice. The music, however, is nice and relaxing, yet catchy. While the same music plays each day of a season, differrent areas, events, and festivals have differrent music. The music is always right on with the pace of a season, area, or event. Still, it just barely makes up for the less-than-mediocre and often annoying SFX.

The control is serviceable after some play time, and there are 3 different controller configurations to boot. However, you can only move in 4 directions, which can be very clumsy at times (especially on Mother's Hill), and you often throw items on the ground by mistake, destroying them, when you meant to put them in a shipping bin, feed bin, or give them to a person.

There is so much to say about the gameplay that it isn't even funny, but I'll try to mention all of the important things. You try to run your farm well, and in doing so you can purchase 3 types of animals-- cows, sheep, and chickens-- and you also have a dog and usually a horse. Caring for the animals involves feeding cows, sheep, and chickens, brushing and talking to sheep, cows, and your horse, hugging your dog (by picking it up), playing ball with your dog (do it indoors to save mucho time), milking your cows (which earns you money) and shearing your sheep (which also earns you money). You can also earn money by hatching or selling the eggs that your chickens lay. You also would be well off to grow some crops. To grow crops, you purchase seeds at the Supermarket, till the soil using your hoe, scatter the seeds around the tilled soil, and water them every day. In some time-- anywhere form 5 to 20 days, depending on the crop-- you'll be ready to harvest your crops by picking them. Then you can sell the crop for cold, hard, cash, or you can give them to someone else in the village to make them like you (differrent people love differrent items, and certain people will even hate certain things you give to them, but generally they will like a gift), or, if you have a kitchen, you can use it in a dish that you cook up, which you can in turn bestow upon someone or eat to regain stamina. One more way to make money-- besides in special events like the Aja Winery grape harvest or apple pie delivery event-- is to forage for fruits, veggies, and other items like special grasses near the hot spring, on Mother's Hill, and near Gotz the Woodcutter's house. You can sell these for respectable money-- especially in the fall, when you can find the considerably rare truffle each day and sell it for a respectable 500G!!! In keeping up with the farm, you must also break rocks, split stumps and branches, and remove weeds (especially satisfying when you use your sickle to do this). Otherwise, it will be terribly tough to plant anything, and your farm will be an eyesore.

Sound complicated? It is. But you've yet to hear the other part of HMBN: the social aspect. Even though you will need to devote much time to farming (yes-- the game is in real time unless you're indoors, in which time stops), you must be equally adamant about making friends in the village. Everyone has their own likes, dislikes, friends, enemies, and personality, and you must learn everyone's feelings and needs to truly succeed in this realistic game. Talking to people increases their fondness for you, as does gift giving (especially on ther birthday-- everyone has a birthday in this game) and certain events and/or festivals. People will say differrent things based on how much they like you, and a big goal in the game is to get married, by wooing a girl, increasing their affection for you, and finally, by giving that special someone a Blue Feather to propose marriage. The social life is a lot of fun, and the possibilities are limitless. In addition, there are a horde of events, even excluding festivals, that have an impact on your friendship/romance with certain villagers. For example, near the beginning of the game, Rick and Popuri have a fight because a stray dog killed one of their chickens. Popuri runs off, and if you find her, you have a choice of how to console her. Your choice will alter your relationship with Popuri (and possibly Rick). In another event, you see Cliff fall unconscious in the snow. You take him to the hospital, and find a portrait of him with his family. If you give the portrait to him when he's in the hospital, he will thank you and become even more friendly towards you.

The intrigue is all over the place as things change due to romance levels, seasons, your decisions in certain events, and tons of other reasons, but the actual exctitement may be a bit harder to come by. The days go by and you must complete certain chores each day, like taking care of your livestock. However, the Harvest Sprites are a big help, and will help you in your chores. The more they do it, the better they become. But they have to like you to help you. Fortunately, paying them for their efforts with a small gift goes a long way in making them like you. Anyway, there is some excitement in some of the events, and the festivals take the cake-- you only have one chance per year to win festivals like the Opening Day Festival or Tomato festival, and they take both considerable skill and strategy.

The Harvest Moon series is notorious for its spelling and grammar mistakes, although I believe that they are intentional. Anyway, you'll get things in Back to Nature like "Want to by some?" or "How is your mother and father?"
Also, the Harvest Sprites will often end a sentence with the very questionable "budum." While the last one is obviously intentional and done just to make the Harvest Sprites just a little more... interesting, the other times, you may just miss a not-so-blatant "error."

Overall, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is a wonderful game that will keep you glued to your seat, bed, couch, or whatever for many, many, hours. An average day in the game takes around 20 minutes to complete, and there are 120 days per year, so be prepared to spend a lot of time if you want to see it all-- the game can go on for eternity if you are deemed worthy in the 3-year "test" period. You'll want to see it all and do it all, and even if you've played the heck out of HM64, there's enough new stuff here to warrant a purchase and a lot of hours of play.

I will end this review with a few of the important new changes in Back to Nature from Harvest Moon 64.
-The Harvest Sprites can now help yoiu with farm chores, and are much deeper than in HM64 (in which they lived near the mine and were good only for a power berry and some dialogue.) You can even join in their Spring Tea Party by bringing gifts, after you've upgraded your rucksack twice.
-You can now really cook, instead of just accumulating recipies. The cooking system is quie deep, as there are about 60 recipes, and each recipe must have certain ingredients, equipment, and sometimes seasonings, and then you can add lots of differrent optional ingredients to make the dish even better. You can make anything from Pizza to Miso Soup to Relaxation Tea to Tempura, and you can eat your meal to remove fatigue, or give it to someone (an excellent way to make friends), or enter it in the cooking festival!!!
-New events, of course!
-New characters. Also, many of the characters' roles and outlooks have been changed. For example, Gray is now Saibara the blacksmith's grandson, and is very happy when you give him a gift. Elli now works at the hospital as a clerk and assisstant to the Doctor (a new character). Rick is now Popuri's brother, and speaking of Popuri, she isn't nearly as happy-go-lucky as she used to be, but rather kind of a cross between what she was in HM64 and what karen was in HM64. And, new buildings/ places like the Poultry Farm, all-year mine, and the Harvest Sprites' house.
-New festivals. Some of my favorite new festivals are the Tomato Festival, which is like a scaled-down team-based food fight, and the Chicken Sumo Festival, not to mention the aforementioned Cooking Festival.
If you've read up to here, then you have an amazing amount of persistance and you are just right for Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. Congratulations!!!
-Winter is now not as exciting. The Hothouse (A.K.A. Greenhouse) is very hard to get, and the mine that is only accessible during winter has the most valuable ores, but these ores are only worth 40-50G. However, if you bring the basket (a new item), then you might be able to make some decent money at the Winter Mine. Yet, crops won't grow without a greenhouse.
-Mayo makers, Yarn Ball makers, and Cheese makers, which refine eggs, wool, and milk into new and more valuable products.
-If you can't prove you're valuable to the community within 3 years, you're history!!!
-The TV plays a much bigger role now-- there are 4 channels. One tells tomorrow's weather-- very helpful to prepare for a disaster (blizzard or hurricane) or just know, another channel tells you about the upcoming events, a third, "Farmer Fran," gives all kinds of helpful hints to ease the sometimes slightly sharp (go alliteration!) learning curve, and the entertainment channel has diferrent things on depending on the day of the week. Some are informational, like the Sonmg Hour, some are vital, like the Shopping Channel, which allows you to buy utensils to make recipes and other things like a power berry, and some are just for entertainment, including my favorite, "Mechabot Ultror on Summer Vacation," which is a light but sometimes blatant takeoff of the Power Rangers.
-Barley, who owns the Yodel Ranch and asks you to take in a lone horse who him and his granddaughter May found on their ranch, can take it back after a year if it's not extremely happy. So take care of your horse REALLY well!!! I'm going to get you back at you, Barley... now the strategy guide says you don't like Mayo or Cheese, so..... Oh! I mean, have a great time playing Harvest Moon: Back to Nature!!!


Recommended: Yes