Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland is the latest in Natsume's addictive farming simulation series. Unlike traditional combat-oriented RPGs, Harvest Moon features a novel premise. Each game in the series has challenged players to sow seeds, harvest crops, turn a tidy profit, and build involved relationships with other townsfolk. Like the games before it, Save the Homeland brings your young character to a dilapidated homestead and lets you work from there. Sadly, not all is bliss on the farm. Money-grubbing developers plan to flatten the town and build yet another faceless amusement park in its place. The citizens had no hope, until you showed up. As the inheritor of your grandfather's farm, you have one year to nurture the farm back to its previous state and somehow find a way to convince the developers that the town is best left undemolished.

The PlayStation 2 version of Harvest Moon brings with it a graphical overhaul that nicely conveys the lighthearted feel of the series. The entire game has been rendered in a colorful cel-shaded fashion--a style that suits Harvest Moon nicely. The characters, animals, and locales are more detailed than ever before, while still maintaining the cartoon aesthetic that has always been the Harvest Moon trademark. The puffy, potbellied cows are simply adorable, while the characters you will interact with on a regular basis are sharply dressed and all have an individual style to set them apart from the other citizens. Witnessing the sunrise and sunset is impressive, and there's something unmistakably endearing about watching the first leaves of autumn flutter down to earth, signaling the change of season. Exploring the rather sparse landscape in 3D exposes some slight issues, though. The third-person behind-the-back camera angle gets stuck behind in-game geometry occasionally, and at times the perspective isn't what it should be. Positioning your character perfectly for watering crops or tilling soil can sometimes be a taxing problem, but this can also be seen as part of the challenge. In addition, there are slight transitional load times before moving into every area, and as you need to race around town rather often, this can get rather tiresome. Considering the uncluttered environments, these technical problems should have been all but eliminated.

On the audio front, Save the Homeland entertains with the cheerful melodies and exaggerated weather effects that fans of the series have come to expect. In addition to your farm's theme song, each season brings with it a new theme that plays as you explore the countryside, and while they repeat infinitely, they provide a pleasant backdrop for your daily routine. The same set of whistles, barks, and subtle tool noises round out the aural selection, completing a package that neither overly impresses nor disappoints.

The daily routine in Save the Homeland varies very little from the first hour you play to the 100th. Each morning, you'll rise from your bed, watch the weather report and a cooking show on television, and then go outside and prepare for a hard day's work. If you haven't already found a dog, you might leave food in a dish in the hopes of attracting one. If your hound is already accounted for, you may spend some time teaching it a trick or two before performing your duties. Tilling soil, planting seeds, watering soil, harvesting crops, and lugging those crops off to market in your handy rucksack is the bare minimum. You can also squeeze in time to forage for salable goods or go fishing at the local watering hole in hopes of catching "the big one." You'll need to take time out of your day to pay tribute to the harvest goddess, for her gifts are useful indeed. And then, you must make sure to be kind to your neighbors, so they will in turn be kind to you. Harvest Moon may be a younger player's first introduction to the unexciting duties of real life, but they would never know it with all the fun they'll be having.