This has to be my favorite Harvest Moon game!
Let me just say that I like the Harvest Moon series. It's seemingly simple gameplay disguises the fact that the game is very complex. And this game, in my opinion, is the best that I played.(WARNING-This review may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.)
The story is that you come into this town, Flower Bud Village, to participate in the Exciting Ranch Plan, where you meet up with Theodore, who actually kinda looks like Teddy Roosevelt. He offers you a choice of three lots(you can buy the other two later in the game, you just decide what you start with) There is River, Ocean, and Village, and they each have their pros and cons. For River, it is central to all the areas, has good soil and good for river fishing. The downsides are that you may not have enough land to grow your crops, so you may have to use the public property nearby, and prevent Saibara and Paradise Orchard from moving in. The Village is close to town and has good soil but is very small. This will handicap you from building on it, but if you get the properties near it, you can build. The Ocean has plenty of room but has some problems. For example, it's too far away from town and the Moonlight mine, and the soil is poor. However, you'll be near the Lake Cave and the ocean. If you wanna grow crops, you should grow potatoes or other crops that don't change price with soil quality, or unlock the fertilizer, but that gives you more work. I picked the Ocean, but you can pick whatever suits your playing style.
After falling asleep, you will have a dream of the Harvest Goddess turning into stone since no one cares about her. The dream soon turns into reality when you are woken up and taken to the shrine. You'll meet three Harvest Sprites, who say you need to find 100 Musical Notes to awaken the Goddess(actually, you only need 50.) These notes are gained for doing certain activities. You'll meet your rival Jamie, who thinks she's better than you. The sprites also give you a pedometer, which is used to track your steps.(It's not completly useless, you'll need it for one musical note, after that it's useless) You'll get your first note too, not bad!
When you return home, you'll meet Ellen from Blue Sky Ranch, who will give you a dog. (You need it for a music note.) Now you can walk around freely.
This game is a farm simulator. You play as a farmer. There are many things to do, such as grow crops, raise chickens, cows, sheep, and horses. Of course, you also have to restore the Goddess by gaining musical notes. These are received for doing certain tasks, such as winning festivals, cutting grass, shipping a truffle, etc. Some are really easy to get, and some are difficult and require a lot of work.
The graphics are decent. They are very cartoony.
The controls worked good. Use the C-Stick to toggle thru items, the Y button to access the menu, X to use items, Control Stick to move, and A to talk. I guess my only problem was that you couldn't always tell where you are watering, hoeing, etc. Luckilly you have a target system, so that fixes the problem.
There are many different people that you get to move in town. You can get them to move in by completing objectives. For example you can get the Blacksmith in town by shipping in a Rare Ore.
There are four months, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. They are divided into 30 days. In each season, different fish, crops, plants, and festivals come around. There are also seven days in a week, and shops are open and closed on different days of the week.
Harvest Moon Magical Melody is a great game. This is my favorite Harvest Moon game. The only downsides are that your stamina is limited and there was some lag when riding your horse or playing the Horse Race minigame.
This game gets a 9.5 out of 10 with the title of Superb.