Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns

[Oryx]

Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns is the latest installment in the farming simulation franchise that's been going strong for over 15 years now. It has all the basics of what you would expect from a main series Harvest Moon game - growing crops, raising animals, buying tools and selling the fruits of your labor. However, it also includes features unique to this game, which makes this one another great new addition to the extensive franchise.

DS or 3DS?

One of the differences between this and other games is that it's straddling the gap between DS and 3DS, offered on both in North America. Obviously, the game is pretty similar between the two consoles; with 3D turned off, the two games look identical. When you turn it on, the 3D is displayed in the difference between the environment and things such as speech bubbles and stamina - those are "popped out" of the screen, while the environment is farther back. There are only two significant differences, region locking and the extra StreetPass/petting game. On the DS, the game isn't region locked. This makes a big difference for places that it hasn't been released in yet (i.e. anywhere that's not North America or Japan). The other difference is the two features unique to 3DS, StreetPass and the petting game. StreetPass allows you to swap items in a specific StreetPass box with other people, but chances are if you don't live in Japan you won't run across tons of people who both have a 3DS and Harvest Moon. The petting game is a 3D minigame related to your animals - they can ask to be petted and you get to pet them in 3D! It's really not that exciting but it does raise your animal's love for you faster so it's something to consider.

Storyline

Outside of farming, the game also has its own storyline based around, you guessed it, the two towns of the game. In the beginning, you're able to choose between Bluebell and Konohana - Bluebell if you're more interested in raising animals, and Konohana if you're more interested in growing crops. In the end this doesn't make a very large difference to anything except for the upgrades available to your farm, since you can fairly easily travel between the two towns.

The two towns hate each other, which is only exacerbated by the fact that the tunnel they once had connected them was collapsed by the Harvest Goddess when she got tired of their fighting. It's your job to make them friends again so the tunnel can get rebuilt, through participating in the cooking contests held 4 times a season.

Pros

Now to the actual meat of the review - what's good about it?

The art is gorgeous and the world is immersive. The mountain available to wander is filled with little nooks and crannies, with cute ways to travel up ledges and across gaps. It's also populated with adorable animals, some of which run from you, and some attack. The real gorgeous art, however, is the characters.

Each of these characters, 33 in all, has a unique personality, likes and dislikes, relationships with other characters, and a story behind them. You can interact with each one and learn more about them, which is fun in itself. 6 of them of each gender are able to be married as well, and you can even have a child.

If you enjoy the farming aspect, then it's not that changed from previous games. There are things that definitely make it easier such as irrigation trenches that make it so you only have to water one spot and the entire row is watered. If you don't enjoy the farming...then honestly why are you playing Harvest Moon? As far as raising animals, there are also Alpacas (very cute) in addition to the staple chicken and cow.

Cons

I wouldn't say that this game has many cons for someone that has previously enjoyed Harvest Moon games.

Some of the small annoyances include:
-Lack of explanation of the more complicated mechanisms; for example, irrigation trenches are much more confusing if you don't look up how to do it online
-Inability to save without ending the day you're on - similar to save points, which I also am not a fan of. There should be a quicksave option so I'm not forced to keep playing longer than is fun for me just so I can finish that day.
-The festivals can get repetitive after doing them for a few seasons, especially the cooking festivals that are required to solve the problem between the two towns. It doesn't matter who wins or how well you personally do, the towns will eventually be friends as long as you participate.
-There are a few freezing issues, at least on the 3DS version; I personally have had my game freeze once and have read online about freezing issues. As long as you save whenever you sleep, you won't lose more than 23 minutes (you can stay awake tops for 23 hours, and each hour is one minute long) of gameplay.

And the rating is...

I would definitely recommend this game if you're a fan of the series. It's a great addition to the franchise and a lot of fun to play. If you're looking to try out your first Harvest Moon game, this would also be a good choice - while there's a lot to do, it's introduced gradually so you can get used to how a Harvest Moon game works.

I would rate this game...

★★★★

 

[Captain Fabio]

I love you have taken the time out to do this.

Very good review and thank you! :3​

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