A really dissapointing HM game! :(
--Graphics--
Comparing it to A Wonderful Life, MM's graphics are very cartoony. But hey, that's how most Harvest Moon games are. Even some of the newer games are based off these graphics (like Island of Happiness). They're not bad, but they're not incredible. All in all, decent graphics.
7/10
--Gameplay--
Here is what really went downhill. As I first started the game, I was speaking to the mayor and he was asking me which plot of land I wanted to buy. I thought this was an interesting idea. So I bought a plot of land and... wow, my house could barely fit on it. It was the tiniest farm I've ever seen. So i reset my file and bought another plot. Not that much bigger, but it was better. So, just when I started I got a Musical Note, oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the Harvest Goddess is turned to stone and you gotta collect Musical Notes to bring her back. Natsume has to stop doing this, it wasn't fun in this game and it wasn't fun in HMDS (Harvest Sprites). It's not fun going around collecting these things especially when you can only do certain things (like get married) when you've collected a bunch of them. To be fair, it's not as tedious to collect Musical Notes as it is to collect Harvest Sprites in HMDS so I got married fairly quickly. So now I had my small plot of land with a barn that barely fit and a chicken coop. I had another plot of land with crops and yeah... what now? I want to wait to have a baby but there is nothing left to do that I could just go to sleep everyday till i have the baby. Kind of has the same problem as A Wonderful Life were there isn't a lot of stuff to unlock. So, it's a decent HM game, but it's completely not as addictive.
5/10
--Music--
Harvest Moon games usually have nice catchy tunes for every season and what not and Magical Melody does the same.
7/10
--Story--
The story at least isn't as bland as all the older ones are. As I've mentioned before, I hate the old "old man dies and gives you a farm" stories and I do enjoy the ones that revolve around the Harvest Goddess. Yes she turns to stone, but why make the objective to collect Music Notes? Why can't it be something that people want to do like "The Harvest Goddess is turned to stone and the only way to save her is to run a successful farm, make the town grow and raise a family". That is what it should be, not "Go collect music notes". Overall the story is fine, but the Music Note concept is dumb.
6/10
--Overall--
Magical Melody could've been a decent game if they took away the Music Notes, made land bigger and added more features to unlock. I haven't played this game in a while, so I might not have everything straight, but from what I remember, I brought this game back and got A Wonderful Life and I'm happy I did.
6/10