Because I'm still in love with you, I wanna see you dance again.
Written: Apr 29 '06
Product Rating:
Pros: A return to the original gameplay, play as a boy or girl.
Cons: Graphically weak by comparison to HM:AWL, negligible multiplayer minigames.
The Bottom Line: A highly addictive entry in the series that ups the ante to astounding levels AND manages to celebrate what made the series so great. Best Harvest Moon, ever? Maybe.
rader6795's Full Review: Harvest Moon: Magic Melody for GameCube
All things Wii aside, this is true.
There are few things in the gaming world that truly excite me nowadays. In my, sad to say, twenty plus years of gaming, there are few events that make me take interest.
One of those events, though, is the release of a new Harvest Moon game. Sure, Harvest Moon games have been marginally progressive over the years. The foundation of the game now is the same that it's been since the Super Nintendo. But, really, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Take note, true believers, as there's something magical in the air.
Let's start with the basics, shall we?
For those who have yet to experience a Harvest Moon game, well, let me start by saying, "For shame. For SHAME!" You can't see it, but I'm currently even doing the shame hand gesture at you. All of you. There's even a "tsk, tsk!" to be heard, were you at my computer.
Then again, it's not your fault, really. At the core of every Harvest Moon game is a farming simulator. But, stay with me, because like the Transformers, there's more than meets the eye.
While there are no robots in disguise to be found, you will find a relationship simulation in the town you reside. You're the newcomer, the outsider, who comes to a quaint little town and, through your actions in game, must save it.
Along the way, you'll build friendships with the people you meet. You can give the townsfolk gifts in hopes of winning them over, but just talking to a person regularly will be enough to have them warm up to you.
Should you find yourself fond of someone of the opposite sex, you can even stalk them out. It's okay. It's a game and not at all creepy, right?
You'll spend your time between your tending to your crops, taking care of your animals, mining, fishing, foraging, chopping wood, shopping and socializing. The days are short, the hours long and there is little reward other than more money and more things to do with your money.
Of course, it's an uphill battle. The tools you start out with are marginally useful. You've been given a house and land, but you've nothing but shrapnel in your pocket to build your empire. Of course, with time and patience, your mere 500G starting cash will be a forgotten memory.
Along the way, you'll level up your tools and unlock new abilities for each tool, making them far more useful than they were before the upgrade. Your rucksack will go from holding a mere five tools and items at once to a whopping fifteen (and, while that surely reads sarcastic, I assure you it's literal). Your animals will, well, have a place to live and grow in number. Spend enough time with the game and you'll go from street rat Aladdin to Prince Ali, fabulous he.
The year is streamlined. Each season is only 30 days long and your seeds will only grow in certain seasons. Some crops, like cabbage, are one and done's while others, like strawberries are polycarpous and will produce throughout the season.
Every season has its own festivals that you can partake in. You may as well, anyway, as every shop is closed on holidays. From a summer swimming event to the spring and fall horse races and even some other podunk town events like cow and sheep contests, there's plenty of events to attend. There are even some events that will help you woo the object of your affection.
This is the standard Harvest Moon formula. Fans of sandbox games like The Sims or low-reward MMORPGs like World of Warcraft would be doing themselves a favor to check out the RPG progression goodness that is the Harvest Moon series.
That said, this is where the old games end and the new building blocks are fashioned and fastened to the Harvest Moon foundation.
We can rebuild him. We have the technology.
First off, your options are far higher in this game than ever before. While other games in the series have allowed you to play as the boy or girl, none have been this grand in scale.
After selecting your character's sex, you meet with the village mayor. You're given your choice of one of three different plots of land to live. Each plot has its own pros and cons, but this is really just a starting point. Throughout the game, you'll be able to buy additional plots of land at Woody's carpenter shop until you own most of the map.
The easiest starting point seems to be the riverside location, with its fertile land and proximity to one of the best fishing spots in the game. Early on, you'll spend a lot of your time cutting up rainbow trout for sashimi to replenish your stamina.
You see, unlike previous Harvest Moon games, you can actually see your stamina on an onscreen bar. The visual clues of old are still there and falling on your fanny still means you're near exhaustion. Should your stamina bar be depleted, your day is effectively ended and you come to at the doctor's office the next day. Good job, slave driver. Now go get yourself an executive position at Electronic Arts.
Choose Your Destiny
Whether you play as the girl or boy, there's ten respective bachelors or bachelorettes to choose. This is quite the contrast from the previous Gamecube game, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, that allowed a mere three girls from which to choose. However, that game was the Castlevania: Bloodlines of the Harvest Moon line.
You even have an actual goal in this game that doesn't detract from the core gameplay the series is known for. The Harvest Goddess, tired of being taken for granted, turns herself to stone. Alright, sure, but Palom and Porom she isn't.
Your mission is to collect magical notes. Every five notes you collect for the Goddess' harvest sprites will form a magical instrument. There are 100 magical notes in all. The notes are given for completing random tasks, such as making a friend or simply learning how to cook. Collect enough instruments and You don't need all 100 to save the Goddess, sure, but this is a goal that compels you along the lines of catching 'em all.
Also new to the game is a rivalry system. Rather than track your progress through graphs like the ones found in Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, you'll be able to compare your fiscal earnings to that of the town's other farmer, Jamie.
Enter Negative Nancy
Jamie doesn't like you. Or like anyone. Or much of anything. Jamie is a misanthrope. Jamie, in a particularly creepy move, is also a sexually ambiguous character. Think Saturday Night Live's Pat, minus the frumpy freakiness and ex's named Chris and Terry (that just happen to share both my first and middle names... what the hell does that say about me?).
Your rivalry is moot, though. This is the first attempt at a "bad guy" in the series, really, and the fact that Jamie will warm up to you just like any other member of the town manages to keep the tension slack. Jamie is only there for you to gauge how well you're doing against a static character who doesn't have the ability to progress and expand like you do.
Another feature unique to Magical Melody is an expanding town based on triggered events. Attend the flower festival and you'll meet Lyla. Ship enough flowers, very berries and yarn and Lyla will set up shop. Make friends with Doctor Alex and he may just find someone to help him. People come and people go, some if neglected, others just because that's their nature, but it all seems to be based on your actions.
You take the good, you take the bad...
Alright, so all is not golden.
The menu interface is slightly clunkier than previous games, due more to the sheer number of screens to be found within rather than poor production. Actually, the amount of information found within the menus is overwhelming. After weeks of prolonged, sleep-deprived exposure, I still can't manage to navigate the menus properly. That said, all the information found within is a welcome change. Just don't expect something as user-friendly as the Secret of Mana ring menu.
More distracting are the townsfolk themselves. The location of each person is triggered, now. The triggers, however, only reset when the system loads the world map.
This is inexcusable, considering Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town had basic routes and routines that the denizens would go through based on the day of the week. Gone are the days of intercepting Karen (who seems to have gone missing or perhaps changed names like Cliff did when he became Ray) on her way to the beach at night. I really do miss watching people walk to the bar at 6:00 P.M.
Of course, when you watch Joe walk continuously into a fence trying to get to a fishing spot, you'll understand why a little more. So, really, why not give the characters some sort of pathfinding AI or simply have them, as they did in HM:FoMT, use the sidewalk? It's a shame to see some sloppy programming that just wasn't ironed out in time. I wonder how much time was spent on multiplayer minigames that would have been better used refining the game's coding.
And here, kids, is the kicker!
It's strange, really, as everything that makes the money for most games is what's sorely lacking in this game.
Graphically, Magical Melody is a long ways from the beauty that was Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Graphics return to the stylized super-deformed SNES roots. Even the overworld approach is the same as the original, though the game managed to pick up a-whole-nother dimension over the last ten years.
Even the sound is subpar. Actually, some sound effects, like the sound of each and every footstep when virtually unaccompanied by the sparse sounds of the nighttime, are downright grating. There just isn't much to be found and I find myself thoroughly annoyed by the summer music. If you've played the game, try singing the following in the Towelie voice from South Park: "Don't forget a Tow-wel. Don't forget a dri-i-y towel." It'll get on your nerves, too.
Even the control is slightly wonky, what with a fixed camera in a polygonal environment. It takes a bit of getting used to, especially considering the Harvest Moon 64 gave you 360 degree camera control, but it really sets the tone that Marvelous and Natsume surely were going for here.
All in all, I'm really picking nits. I was three paragraphs into complaining about the actual boot menu (I mean, really, who leaves the default selection on "New Game" in this day and age?) before I realized how lame it was to complain about something that simple.
I can complain all I want about the fixed camera angle and a few poor decisions, but there's no denying the radar found within this game is the best I've ever seen in any game. There's no denying I haven't played a game that has made me this warm and fuzzy since, ironically, God of War. There's no denying that this game is a celebration of Harvest Moon itself.
Because I've been really trying to tell you... that... what I'm trying to say... is what I'm trying to tell you.
For all its shortcomings, Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is an outstanding product. It's every bit as good as Friends of Mineral Town, far more refined, bigger in almost every way and crazy addictive in that "just one more day" and then it's noon and you haven't slept in 36 hours sort of way.
I beg of you, please, do not let the presentation fool you. Yes, this game shares many similarities with Animal Crossing. So goes the pace of any life simulation game, really. However, what this game lacks in quirkiness, it makes up for with characterization. You will learn to love your characters.
In a day and age where games are nothing but violence on top of sex on top of violence, it's a breath of fresh air where the most violent action you'll take and still be the good guy is whacking a mole with your hammer.
There is no other game out there like Harvest Moon: Magic Melody. Unless, of course, the title starts with Harvest Moon. Then, well, it's bound to be good.
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