Take all of the good ideas from each past version, put them together in this game, and you have Animal Parade.
What people need to realize though, is that these games have an addiction level that rivals that of the Sims games, so once I add that bit of information in, it's not that scary sounding. Harvest Moon is just one of those games you have to try for yourself. Don't judge it based on what kind of game it is, and how awfully boring the description sounds. These games will suck weeks and even months off of your life before you know it. They are that fun. So if you aren't familiar with them, I ask you to give it a try because you will be quite surprised.
The particular Harvest Moon game I'm talking about now, as mentioned above, is Animal Parade. This game for the Wii is absolutely amazing. There have been many many Harvest Moons released, and to be honest, they are all generally the same basic thing. You acquire an abandoned farm from a deceased family member, or simply from the town mayor who wants to see the place turned around, and it's up to you to get the farm up to a certain level up glory again. You do this by raising animals, growing crops, and making repairs around the farm. That's harvest moon in the most basic sense. You play any harvest moon game and that's what yer going to get.
It's the little details in each game that set them apart. And this one has a lot that really makes this version shine above the rest. Take all of the good ideas from each past them, put them together in this game, and you have Animal Parade.
One thing that Konami can't seem to understand is that people like having a mine to explore and dig up ores and treasures from. They only seem to include a mine in about half of their games, despite what their fans say. This doesn't only have one mine, but three!
There are some versions where your spouse and children roam around the house as robots, providing nothing but the same dialogue day after day. Well in Animal Parade, they actually help you with the farm chores. I don't remember that feature being included since the Nintendo 64 version.
This is more of a personal preference for me, but the power berries are back in this game. Power Berries are…well… berries that are hidden secretly over the world, and when you find them, your character eats them and then you have more stamina. They had always been included in the older versions and I always had fun hunting for them.
Other excellent features include: Up to 10 spouses to choose for each gender, rival marriages and children, the ability to buy furniture for your home, more options that just the typical cat & dog for pets, a new game+ feature, hundreds of recipes to cook, and goodness so many other things as well that you are just going to have to discover for yourself.
There are a few things that need to be changed though. The major problem I had was just how big the world is. I know that big worlds are usually preferred, but this goes a little too over the top. The locations in the game are so spaced out that it can take you hours (in game time) to get from one place to another. Thankfully this is remedied after you complete a certain quest in the game and gain the use of something close to "teleportation".
There both aren't enough festivals, and not enough fun ones. I remember back in the days of Harvest Moon 64 and Back to Nature when the festivals used to be more close to minigames. They were fun, competitive, and you actually looked forward to them. These days, festivals are just a day where all the shops close and a few select villagers gather together for a moon viewing festival or some such. Bring back the minigames!
The other problem is how slow this game is. It honestly takes me about 20 minutes to get through one day. That means it takes an average of 10 hours per month in the game. I guess some people may like this, but it's just too slow paced for me. The time passes at such a speed that it would have been nicer to make time pass inside as well.
Really though, those aren't enough negative aspects to turn anyone away from this game. It has so many good things going for it that any fan of harvest moon should add this to their collection.