Tree of Tranquility falls short in alot of technical aspects, but remains to be an overall fun experience.
You play as a farmer who moves into a new town via some differing circumstances throughout games. You start out with virtually nothing, land and tools is about it, just enough to provide yourself with ways to make money. You farm and mine and raise livestock, all while trying to woo the natives into being your spouse and not becoming fatigued. The game ends after several years and you get to repeat the process all over again! The games are notorious for their charm and simplistic freedom, and Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility, maintains most of that charm.
Tree of Tranquility begins with your nameless character being knocked out aboard a ship headed for an unknown island. You wake up in a hotel to be welcomed by a few of the friendly yokels, for what seems like forever. After a while of talking and random walking, you'll be put to work part-time for another farm until you have your own housing situation.
Some distinct changes in Tree of Tranquility as opposed to previous harvest moon games are few. Instead of releasing two versions of the game ( one boy and one girl version) Tree of Tranquility allows for you to choose which gender you are at the beginning of the game, along with the gender of your child later on. Another difference is the main menu, which now contains a portion called "Mini-Games", which will be reviewed later on.
There are a few good things about this game that make it worth a play at least. The farming/life simulation is as strong as ever, even down to the amount of work you can put in during a day.
In the game you are presented with a stamina bar, which, you got it, allows you to see how much energy you have. When you start the game, using tools or doing just about anything will deplete your stamina quickly. As you progress, though, you will become stronger, leveling up not only your tools, but your skill towards them. While leveling up your tools costs money, it allows your tools to use up less of your sweet stamina, which you'll need greatly. Leveling up your skill level allows for you to use your tools more effectively, using up the same amount of energy.
One of the strongest points in Tree of Tranquility is how customizable it is. you start out with one house, and thats about it. You can choose to not buy a barn, or you can buy a barn, everything is pretty much up to you, from the size of your house to the color of your shirt. You can deck out your house with all different styles of furniture and carpets, even your cookware! This game allows a lot of freedom, and thats a plus.
Dating/wooing remains relatively simple in the game.You pick a yokel, and bombard them with gifts, figuring out what they like and do not like, then continue to give them gifts that they like, raising their heart levels. It has been made a little more difficult though, solely because the amount of hearts you can raise a person up to has been raised to ten, which doesn't make things harder, just longer.
The entire point of the game is that the island is dying and SOMEBODY has to save it. guess what? its you. you stumble upon various items that tell the story of the island and the harvest goddess. You go from tree to tree, collecting items for the harvest sprites to revitalize the town, allowing people to come into your town as rainbows are made. This is can be a pretty trying task, as there are a lot of items that can only be obtained during certain seasons, so its good to keep one of everything.
About 85% of the down points in this game are technical, and most of those are lag related. The game slows down almost every time you get a strong rain, certain areas being worse than others. this can be frustrating simply because its lag and thats what lag does best.
Another technical problem is the controls. They aren't that much of a problem, and you can get used to them quickly, but its annoying that their are unused buttons on the controller and to open up the main menu you have to hold the C button for several seconds. The Z button isn't even used, theres no reason why it couldn't be there. Your character turns on a dime, which is more annoying than anything, especially on specific parts where delicacy is required.
The Clock in the game moves way too fast for my taste. The ratio between our time and Harvest Moon time is about 5 seconds for every ten minutes. This wouldn't be so bad if it didn't take so long to get from place to place, even with a horse. I am constantly finding myself with either no time to do anything, or too much time to do nothing. It's a strain.
Despite the flaws in this new installment of Harvest Moon, Tree of Tranquility holds strong to the Harvest Moon name, and is still a fun and addicting title, if you can put up with a few flaws.