Severely disappointing and broken in nearly every respect, Natsume insults it's fans with this sloppy port.
Few games can rival what Harvest Moon can manage in regard to it's addictive simplicity, and it was with baited breath that I anticipated what 'A Wonderful Life' could bring to the table.
Unfortunately, what I was met with was one of the shoddiest, broken, and most lazily ported games I've ever played. So, if you're a fan of stuttering frame rates, constant loading screens, blurry and jagged graphics, and a control scheme that's stuck in slow motion, you'll find plenty to love in this game.
Starting with the technical issues, it seems Harvest Moon's intention was to provide a serene farming town, complete with it's many bustling denizens going about their daily activities. This would be true, if there was any actual activity going on about town. As it is, you're hard pressed to find anyone, and you'll more often than not have to hunt them down by searching every last room in every house. This wouldn't be that big of a problem, but unfortunately, any time you access or close anything in the game you're greeted by a loading screen. Opening a door, window, drawer, refrigerator, etc? loading...Opening your backpack? loading... Adding or withdrawing items from inventory? loading...Changing through menu pages? loading...Accessing your map? loading...
As one might guess, the loading gets very tiresome, very quickly, and sometimes the loading isn't even present in the form of a proper loading screen, but as a game freezing 2-4 second interruption. Considering the technological standards in place today regarding data access in video games, this in inexcusable, and can only make someone think they're playing Harvest Moon on the Sega CD.
The loading screens are bad, make no mistake about it, but adding insult to injury are the quality of the graphics. The terrain is smudged and blurry, with no discernible differences between textures of different objects, and character models feature extremely jagged edges, coupled with the blurry and smudged details that mar the rest of the environment. Couple that with the frequently plummeting frame rates, (which drop whenever the terrain changes, more than one character is on screen, or when you rotate the camera) and you wonder what exactly the game is loading so often if the actual in-game performance is so critically flawed.
Rounding out these slew of faults is the control scheme which is nowhere near as intuitive, precise or fun as 2002's 'Save the Homeland'. Every movement your character makes is in slow motion, and not just in the animation, as there seems to be a delay in between the actual command being issued and the game carrying out the command. This makes every action turn into a bothersome, tedious chore. You'll no longer look forward to harvesting your crops or feeding the cows, as the time it takes to do those tasks leave you bored and frustrated. That, combined with the naturally slow pace of the game, the unstable frame rate, and the innumerable loading times, grind the progression of the game to a halt.
With those issues out in the open, we're left with the game's meager collection of positive traits.
For veterans of the series, the inner spirit of the Harvest Moon franchise is present, albeit in a small form, in this game. The cast of characters is likable and diverse, with no shortage of potential mates for your character to woo, and plenty of other characters offering side-missions to accomplish.
Complimenting the cast is the art direction, which retains it's charm from previous versions but is ultimately all but destroyed by the shoddy technical presentation.
In the end, playing this game simply begs the question, "Why?"
Why can Natsume make such wonderful iterations of this franchise using far less powerful hardware such as the GBA, SNES, DS, etc... but completely and totally fail in every aspect when it comes to the PS2?
'Save the Homeland' was a fun and attractive game, but the multiple story missions providing premature game endings, along with the strict and shortened 2 year time limit hampered the overall experience.
Now, 'A Wonderful Life' had the brilliant potential of it's Gamecube counterpart, but Natsume seriously dropped the ball and left the PS2 owners with a barely playable heap of busted code that was apparently rushed through the translation from Gamecube to PS2.
From any logical train of thought it simply makes to sense at all, and is completely and totally reprehensible.
With this game, Natsume shot down their last viable shot at a 'true' Harvest Moon game on PS2, and insulted the fans with their negligence. Considering this is their flagship franchise, one would assume Natsume would treat it with some degree of respect, but this is one Harvest that is better off left in the field to rot away.