A return to the series' simple roots.
All the basic Harvest Moon gameplay elements are here. You farm, mine, fish, socialize, get married, go to festivals, have a kid, ect. There's not a whole lot of different things going on compared to other games but that's just what Harvest Moon games are known for, and the fans obviously still eat it up. There is no "you need to unlock a bunch of sprites" in order to do things like getting married. You just go from day to day trying to improve your farm making as much money as you can. Keeping it plain and simple is one of ToT's strong points.
Negatives to the game are things like audio. All the audio except for the BGM is with out a doubt flat out terrible, especially the voice clips. It sounds like it was recorded in some empty room though a tin can. The graphics aren't anything to write home about and could have been improved a bit more in comparison to Rune Factory for the Wii. It doesn't have true 16:9 support with black bars surrounding the entire picture. The town's design is a little too spread out as well. In the beginning it's hard to figure out just where you need to go and could end up getting turned around at some points.
In the end, Tree of Tranquility is a return to the series simple roots, and I along with many fans will love it. It's easily accessible to new comers with it's toned down difficulty unlike newer games like Island of Happiness. So if you were curious about this addicting series, now would be the time to get into it.