Harvest Moon-It's always on my mind (Harvest Moon - Friends Of Mineral Town (GBA))

Name: minhhon

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Product:	Harvest Moon - Friends Of Mineral Town (GBA)
Date:	05/08/07 (225 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: appropriate for any age

Disadvantages: may be . . . will never last . . .

Somewhere, in your mind, I bet you have always wanted to get away from the busy life for a little while go to the countryside taking your time planting crops, raising animal...but if you don't have time to go too far, just find Harvest Moon: Friend of Mineral Town( FoMT) on GBA, you will have a feeling of purity or coming back to the childhood...

I met this game on my brother's N64 and liked it immediately.After that, I kept finding another version of it and had played three other version on Gameboy and Gameboy color in turn.The next one is Harvest Moon: Back to Nature on PS( although I don't have PS , I play by emulation on my PC) and now It's FoMT.This version really made me impressed. One of the Harvest Moon series, this game is from the Role-playing ,RPG simulation game type.

Start the game, you'll be a young guy, on the way back to the countryside from his childhood, with hundreds of beautiful images in his memory.He remembered the green field, the cattle, chikens, remembered riding a horse for the first time, lying on the hill with a girl, looking up to the sky....He must have missed them much....But, unfortunately, when he arrived, he had been told by the Mayor that the owner of the farm has died, no one wanna take care of the farm so It has been left fallow for some months.Therefore, he asked you-young guy to live on the farm and take care of it for a while.And,you accepted, of course.

Then,the mayor will explain to you some basic things about the game as well as the farm and Mineral Town. How the control work, saving ,loading game and making use of tools.Afterward, you'll meet Zack- the produce collector, he'll be in front of your door 5 pm everyday to collect your product.Now you come in the house, write diary(to save game) and sleep.Next morning, the first day on the farm, you may not know what to do, but the farm look all mess up so just clear it up a bit then.You'll need those tool inside the box in your house included: hammer, axe, scythe, hoe and watering-can.Hammer is used to break stone, axe is to chop the wood, scythe is to cut the grass and hoe is for hoeing the cleared land.Now, it's time to have some plants.With your small money-500G(gold, I think) you can buy some seeds bag. For different season, there are different seed. For example: Turnips, cucumber, strawberry are available in spring where as tomato and pinapple available in summer, egg plant, sweet potato and carrot in autumn and there is no seed to be sold in winter cause simply you can’t plant anything in winter. Each kind of plant takes different time to grow and gives product and normally there are two kinds of plant, short term and long term. You have to water them everyday except rainy day. You also should beware of summer’s storm because it can blow anything up!

When you have enough money, you should think about raising some animal because planting seems to be risky sometimes.In terms of animals, you can raise cows, chickens and sheeps.You also have a dog and a horse but they are not for commercial intending, they are just pets and sometimes they can be trained to join in some competition. Cattle and chickens also have their own competition, when they win, their product will be upgraded and can be sold with higher price. Cows produce milk, sheep produce fleece and chickens produce eggs. Eggs and milk can be eaten right away or stored or sold. You can make mayonnaise from eggs and butter from milk as well. Fleece is used to make wool and so can be sold with really high price. When you have more and more money, try to upgrade your farm your house by collecting wood, money and give it to the carpenter in the forest. You will have your building extended in just shorter than 1 week. You have got a big house so now buy some furniture and house hold such as fridge, kitchen table, cupboard ... Now you’re rich, your house is big, and your farm remains stable, it’s time to find out something interesting such as relationship in the town. There are some girls(bachelors) but you also have some rivals. Each girl has their own personalities and likeness. So if you want to date a girl, you’d better find out more about her, her family, her likeness, and even their timetable^^. Some girls like flowers but some don’t, they prefer alcohol, some are quite and some are very energetic, lively and all have different background: Karen lost her mom and now living with dad in their Inn, Elly lives with grandma Ellen and younger brother Stu and works in clinic with doctor, Popuri(I love this name, so cute) lost her dad , lives with her mom and her older brother on their farm, raising chicken… you’ll choose a girl you like most, date her and then get married. There is nothing that you can’t do. Going to church on Sunday, going shopping, going fishing, or spending time with your family on the beach or on the mountain. It’s really peaceful, such a simple life…

2D graphic with very cute characters as well as the pets, cattle, express different emotions on their face making the game closer to your childhood. Chicken fighting, dog catching Frisbee, or riding a horse in a competition which is really active or cold winter night with snowstorm makes a feeling of loneliness…they are all described very well, very detail. In terms of sound and music, you can hear clearly the voice of your dog, your horse and every single creature, either in your farm, another farm or wild life. Mono but with lively rhythm help preventing the feeling of reptitive.

However, as the game go on, you will never reach the end. Therefore, whenever you feel bored, or heavy, FoMT wil lift you up, help you see the world around by an optimistic eye. The game wil last forever and seems like it's always there for you, whenever you want it.

I've stop playing this version but still looking for another one, It's getting better but trust me, never for get to try this game Harvest Moon: friend of Mineral Town.It's just such a wonderful product of Natsume on GBA.
Thank you for reading!

Summary: Simple, colorful.