DS #2609: Harvest Moon DS: Island of Happiness (USA)

[Covarr]

How to play Harvest Moon:

Plant seed. Take a step to the left. Plant another seed. Take another step to the left. Plant another seed. Etc.

Water. Take a step to the left. Water. Take a step to the left.

There's a rock in the way. Use your megaton hammer. Now plant a seed there, water it, and take a step to the left.

It's been two hours now. Go to town. Spend the money you earned farming on more farming equipment and different kinds of seeds. Go back to the farm and repeat the whole damn process.

Harvest Moon is the most tedious game I've ever played. Give me FFCC:My Life as a King DS, plz. It's got so much more to do, and better pacing so you don't have to spend HOURS on basic daily upkeep.

 

[pduin]

Is this game any good? Threw the other one away because it went game over in literally 2 minutes after i decided not to rescue the mayor from my killer dog. I was like WTF! I'm only playing for 2 minutes, and it's game over because I let my dog kill the mayor (come on, he WAS a total a-hole).

 

[Hadrian]

Well I can't say that this is a good HM game. Controls are a bit crappy and pointless. Touchscreen is suppose to make things simpler not fiddly.

Played it for about an hour and it seemed way too easy, like its aimed at 8 year olds. Nothing new at all, even the story seems identical to most titles.

Most HM fanboys will moan about a lot of things in this game but I reckon they'll still like it despite the problems.

I really hope someone other than Marvelous start developing these games in the future, like Neverland who did the excellent Rune Factory games. Such a shame to see a great franchise go downhill.

 

[GeekyGuy]

...Nothing new at all, even the story seems identical to most titles.... Such a shame to see a great franchise go downhill.

Yeah, it doesn't seem so much a case of the series going downhill so much as it just seems like they're churning out the same game over and over. I've played quite a few of these Harvest Moon games, and though they're still fun when I'm in the mood for it, they all are basically the same, with some minor differences here and there.

 

[Curley5959]

Good thing I have never played any games involving the name Harvest Moon before.. I played Rune Factory and I found it Good and I also played Harvest Moon Cute for like 10 secs but it was so LAME...

 

[Law]

Good thing I have never played any games involving the name Harvest Moon before.. I played Rune Factory and I found it Good and I also played Harvest Moon Cute for like 10 secs but it was so LAME...

1) Get N64 emulator
2) Get Harvest Moon 64
3) Play Harvest Moon 64
4) Almost starve to death because you've forgotten to eat in the last two weeks

Or

1) Download SNES emulator
2) Get Harvest Moon
3) Play Harvest Moon
4) Invest hours into the game only for it to end and leave you wanting more.

 

[Zerrix]

Ehm, does the text in the nfo "HEY JPH, GO F*CK YOUR MOM" refers to the JPH from GBAtemp? o.O
If yes, just one question, WHY? xD

Here you go with the nfo I found on ... click on the spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Horkel]

Rune Factory is lame. At the first look it was good. But it's more of the same over and over than in the regular HMs. RF was boring to me. But I am looking forward to Frontier

 

[berlinka]

According to this "GBAtemp does not have any illegal ROM files. Ask for them or spread them and you will be immediately banned." text on the frontpage I guess this is a game that people are fighting over? It kinda surprises me as I think Harvest Moon was a bit of fun on my GBA, but after that it all got too tedious. It's the same as with Animal Crossing, if you've seen one, you've seen em all.

This is one of those games you give your kid when you buy it a DS. Cause if a kid only gets one game this title could keep it busy for AAAAAAGES!

 

[shakirmoledina]

That took time from when it was expected to be released
So many games with no time at all
Not so much to expect from this still but still nice to have a different game on the DS of HM

 

[Raven Darkheart]

Ehm, does the text in the nfo "HEY JPH, GO F*CK YOUR MOM" refers to the JPH from GBAtemp? o.O
If yes, just one question, WHY? xD

Here you go with the nfo I found on ... click on the spoiler

Spoiler

i wouldn't be too surprised if it was.

On topic: I might give this one a roll and i know for certain my kid sister wants it so fun times to be had after the release drought

 

[lalalalala]

Well, let's see how this compares to Friends of Mineral Town. The HMDS was very repetitive in the series... Not fun at all.

 

[HBK]

Finally a good game after the fiasco of From the Abyss and the repetitiveness of N+.

 

[Rod]

1) Download SNES emulator
2) Get Harvest Moon
3) Play Harvest Moon
4) Invest hours into the game only for it to end and leave you wanting more.

Playing on an emulator after Harvest Moon 64/BtN, that might be more like it. But on 1997, that game was all the rage.

One of the few reasons I didn't regret buying a Snes. (got it on 1995, less then two years later the N64 shoved it aside =P)

 

[Smef]

I bought this yesterday and got the chicken thing with it, which was pretty strange. The game seems good so far, though I'm only about 15 days into it. In rune factory you could walk through your crops, but in this one you are back to the impassable crops and the strange U-shaped planting, which was a bit disappointing, but was also a sign that we were returning to classic HM gameplay. The farm in this one is much bigger than HM:MM and AWL; more similar to HM:64 and FoMT.

The graphics are like a 3D FoMT, and the gameplay is similar to it as well, which excites me. I loved FoMT and HM:64, though I started on HM for Gameboy. The controls are similar to Zelda for DS, with the stylus being used for movement. I like the new controls, though I wish there were a few changes made to the way you pick up items so that you don't have to put EVERY item you pick up into your backpack.

It's going to take a few seasons to really see the full extent of the game experience, but this game so far looks like it's going to shape up to be one of the best in the series.

 

[Pizzaroo]

Meh. I'm not a big fan of harvest moon

. Oh well, I love N+ :3

 

[Rod]

From what I've played looks like there is no D-Pad movement, eh? So this REALLY is a version of Island of Happiness instead of Shining Sun and Friends...

Bad move, Natsume. =|

 

[wohoo]

Interesting... I was just wondering when the next harvest moon would come

Hopefully this one will better than the last one.

 

[tinymonkeyt]

the controls are just like Phantom hourglass
btw, what do i eat?
the bar below my stamina is going down and theres like nothing i can eat
those lil hearts i find on the floor just rais my stamina

 

[cutterjohn]

From my perspective it's the best of the English "normal" (excludes Rune Factory) HM games, but the controls really incredibly suck.

I can't believe that it got through playtesting and a Japanese release w/o someone realizing, hey our control scheme blows... and either fixed it or added an optional control mechanism. i.e. this game clearly illustrates what happens when game companies attempt to artificially use a touch screen control mechanism rather than something that would work better just because N wants everyone to think that touchscreens are some how cool and wonderful for doing everything with.

RF got the hybrid mix right IMO, while this... this... is just ... AWFUL ... cries out for a control scheme hack.

(Movement control is way too touchy for touch screen use which is the ONLY way to move your character around. Also non-useable items, i.e. non-tools, require dragging to toss them o.w. they go right back into your backpack, etc. Game play itself is still good for a HM game, but this control system just entirely ruins the game...)

[EDIT]
RF got the touch screen usage right, by ALLOWING you to use the touch screen to select multiple locations (up to 9 IIRC) for actions to be performed at although it's pathfinding was AWFUL as in nearly non-existent. Items in inventory, etc. could also be selected via the touch screen OR (again the correct way to implement controls) via D-PAD and buttons. etc.

As to food, I think that you can eat some of the stuff you grow, and eventually make better thing froms recipes. RF had some of this, but I've still not gotten that far in it as even though they added roguelike factors to it, you still have most of the normal HM crap to do which makes it one of those games that I only ever play now and then. I've played RF the most as it's the only one that I've found with a palatable control scheme and aesthetics to date. The original HM for the DS looks like crap, and the controls on the GBA versions were almost as tedious as IoH's while the gameboy versions seemed too simplistic to keep me interested unlike the Pokemon games (another series of games that I play every now and then, in the same fashion that I play solitaire card games and other handheld games like All Time Classics).

Also, don't let your little character passout, as he doesn't get as much stamina back from sleeping, and doesn't seem to get as much fullness from food either. It's buried in the manual or the tutorial somewhere IIRC, plus in RF they get "sick" if you stay up too late as well, not sure about the regular HM games.
[/EDIT]