Harvest Moon 64

Retire to the country for a new challenge in Harvest Moon 64. Hard work is rewarded as you struggle to bring prosperity back to a neglected farm. Work the land, pick up odd-jobs, and get to know the neighbors. Harvest Moon 64 has all the charm of the original Super Nintendo(tm) classic, plus many new surprises. - Tons of new seasonal vegetables and fruits.

• Raise cows, chickens and sheep.

• New items and gifts, including tools that increase in power as you master them.

• One of the town's five eligible women may prove to be the love of your life.

• Celebrate seasonal festivals with the nearby townsfolk.

• Enjoy local horse and dog racing.

Source:

Back Cover

The N64 update of the cult culturation classic is one of the most charming entertainments of the year.

When Harvest Moon premiered on the Super NES in 1997, many gamers turned up their collective noses at the idea of an RPG game based on operating a farm. But even in the shadow of the revolutionary N64 this down-home Pak whipped up quite a stir and a loyal following of dedicated virtual farmers!

If you missed the fun of Harvest Moon for Super NES, you owe yourself a shot at the good life on Nintendo 64. The new edition is based on the same premise as the original: grandpa leaves you alone on his run-down farm, and your goal is to turn it into a successful enterprise, find a wife, and live happily ever after. As in real life, this is easier said than done.

After some unusual customization choices (you get to name your character, dog and farm and pick your birthday!), friendly characters gently school you in the rudiments of rustic life. Should you forget anything, the game offers an extensive series of tutorials.

Clearing the land, amending the soil and planting and nurturing crops takes up much of the early part of the game. As you prosper, you'll want to buy and care for sheep, chickens and cows. You'll even get a gift horse. Just be sure not to look it in the mouth!

All work and no play makes for a dull farmer, so make frequent tracks for nearby Flower Bud Village. Besides stocking up on seed, tools and fortifying foodstuffs, the village is populated with five young women intrigued by an ambitious chap like you. Elli, Maria, Popuri, Karen and Ann are an extremely well-bred lot, so you'll have to work as hard on your wooing as you do on your turnip crop.

Indeed, the villagers enjoy quite a busy social calendar. There are more than a dozen activities throughout the year, beginning with the Planting Festival in the spring and concluding with a New Year's bash. In between there is a Firefly Festival, a Harvest Festival, two horse races and Thanksgiving, plus ample opportunities to upgrade Flower Bud's infrastructure by repairing a bridge and opening the Mountain Spring.

You can grow seven different crops, ranging from the humble turnip to the highly lucrative strawberry. But once in a while you'll want to wander off the old homestead. The hills and woods roundabouts are alive with mushrooms, grapes, medicinal herbs and even more bizarre botanical specimens. Fish nibble in a nearby pond. In winter, you can keep the cash coming in by mining for precious minerals.

By and large this is a fairly faithful sim of rural life that's punctuated by some extremely fanciful excursions. A nearby cave is the home of an elf who, for some mysterious reason, speaks pig latin. A seldom-seen nymph cavorts in a pond and a Moonlight Stone lies buried deep beneath the earth. Small wonder, then, that the villagers dedicate a year-ending festival to scaring away troublemaking ghosts!

Harvest Moon 64 scores your accomplishments after two years. Like farming itself, though, this open-ended Pak encourages you to keep on playing, year after year. You'll keep digging up well-buried nuggets of fun, like a recipe for "Steamed Clams with Wine"!

This unusually tranquil RPG is an exceedingly pleasant diversion. Our main beef is that female RPG fans -- and they are legion -- might be miffed by having to play as a male character.

Source:

www.nintendo.com – Nintendo 64