User Rating: 7 | Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life GC
By mrplaid | Review Date:
A Game Brimming with Charm and Originality that Outstays Its Welcome. I'm definitely not one with an aversion to new ideas, but maybe I'm just a little too set in my ways for a game like Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Although I guess the Harvest Moon games aren't exactly new since the series has been around for more than ten years, this is the first time I've ever played a Harvest Moon game. A Wonderful Life is basically like Animal Crossing with a lot of tedious farming busywork thrown into it. However, farming isn't the crux of the experience. The game centers around your avatar finding a wife and raising a child. Falling in love with one of the three available girls in the game and getting hitched is pretty straight-forward, unfortunately raising your child isn't. There are a handful of different careers your child can choose to undertake, but never once is this spelled out within the actual game. Get used to reading a lot of faqs if you actually want to influence your child down a certain path. In fact, get used to reading a lot faqs if you want to accomplish anything in A Wonderful Life, as the game is riddled with typos, odd word choices, and vague statements that lead you down worthless paths strewn with red herrings. Ironically, the game's box suggests that "a basic reading ability" is needed to fully enjoy this game. A Wonderful Life is often compared to Animal Crossing because of their similar scope. A Wonderful Life, like Animal Crossing, is a game that's best when sampled lightly over a long period of time. It is not a game that is meant to be plowed through in order to reach the end, which is exactly what I did. However, if you're anything like me, you occaisionally like it when things HAPPEN in your game. There are a number incidental events that occur throughout the game that are meant to be stumbled upon, but you'd have to be very lucky see all of them without any outside help. My main gripe about A Wonderful Life is its length. The game is divided into six chapters, and the game's chapters can last anywhere from one to three game years. A year is made up of four seasons, which are made up of ten days, which are made up of 24 real minutes. By the end of the first chapter, I had met everyone in town, settled on a wife, and fallen into a routine with my farmwork. Chapter One is only a year long (a short chapter), and if I had been playing almost any other game I would have been three quarters done with it. That might sound awesome to some people, but it is simply monotonous considering all the menial things you have to do in order to keep your farm going. I played through the second chapter (two years), but the monotony proved to be too much for me after that. When chapter three started, I sold all of my animals and started sleeping through the rest of the game (taking a look around the town to see how things changed between chapters) while I watched old episodes of Mystery Sciene Theater 3000 on my computer. Here's a suggestion: Why not just let people play through the first year of a chapter and then let them decide for themselves when they want to move on to the next chapter? One year per chapter is PLENTY of time to see all the game has to offer. Lucky for you, I have numerous secondary gripes, too. Selling the crops you raise is supposed to be your primary source of income, but by simply selling tree seeds that are duplicated using your seed-maker you're able to afford every item in the game before the end of the second chapter. There are a lot of interesting hybrid plants you can make (a process plagued with its own unique spelling defects, red herrings, arbitrary bouts of randomness), but you really don't need to if you have the seed-maker. One other aspect that disappointed me was the fact that you can never teach your child to help with all the tedious farmwork. I also don't like how static the townsfolk are. Their dialogue changes from season to season, but rarely from year to year. By the end of the first chapter, you'll have heard what most everyone has to say. The fact that there are only two real BGM's annoyed me, too, despite the fact that I generally liked how both of them sounded. I guess you get other records (which are used to change the background music) by linking with Friends of Mineral Town for the GBA. It is also worth noting that the game takes up almost an entire standard GC memory card, so make sure you buy a new one for AWL. In spite of all of the bad things I've said about A Wonderful Life, I actually enjoyed a good bit of it. It's very easy to get attached to all of the strange characters and animals in Forget-Me-Not Valley, but all that recycled dialogue hurts any chances of you getting too comfortable with them. The game is also very nice-looking with a very convincing weather system and appropriate seasonal effects. I often found myself just admiring the view on occaision. Also, it's interesting watching you, your son, and all of the different townspeople grow older. Also, without giving too much away, I found the ending to be particularly powerful. In my eyes, this game is sabotaged by its longevity. If you don't like games that lack clear and concise objectives, steer clear. Even if you're a fan of Animal Crossing, I'd be wary since there aren't as many distractions in AWL as there are in Animal Crossing. The Harvest Moon community has a very strong cult following, so the people who are going to be the biggest fans of this game have already bought it. Still, if you find yourself agreeing with any of my points you'll probably feel less like you lived another life in Forget-Me-Not Valley after you've completed AWL and more just bored and sad.

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