I never expected Harvest moon to integrate the fighting components so well into the traditional farming...
When I heard Harvest Moon had a sequel, I went to investigate this RPG styled HM immediately.
Friend of Mineral Town, more Friends of Mineral town, and A wonderful life were all HM games I've played and loved. Of course, as you can probably imagine, I can never play past the first five years. The HM series always gets repetitive after a while.
So when I heard "Harvest Moon+Monsters and Dungeon+You and a sword" I had to get it. I love RPGs, from the FF series, to Namco's under-appreciated (But clearly better then the FFs >.>) Tales series, to our lovable little Amataterasu from Okami.
When I bought it, I didn't expect such a good game.
Really, I thought that as HM is mainly a farming game, the battle system won't be very good, enjoyable, the fighting component of the game shall probably feel thrown in, and I'll spend more time on my farm and in town then anything else.
Oh boy, was I wrong.
I was very soon completely addicted to the game, as every Harvest Moon has done to me in the past.
The Graphics:
The Graphics are great! The sort of ditched the old traditional HM look and turned everything into a more Anime-like thing. The only thing I'm disappointed in is the character sprites. I think I like the old 2-d sprites as opposed to the new 3-d ones. But the new ones aren't unbearable, except that you can see through Ragono's head at times where a few pixels went invisible XD
The Music:
Like all the old HM games, the music was fantastic! Different area had different soundtracks, different seasons on your farm, and festivals in Town. You can't get sick of it =]
The Sounds:
No this isn't the same as Music.
Some sounds are missing (Right after level up, you can't hear your tools charging, ect.) but other then that, everything runs smoothly.
Game play:
Oh boy, where do I even begin?
The farming's still mostly the same as usual, with the added advantage of different seasoned caves. So I'll skip that part.
What I love the most is the battling.
Ok, so its somewhat easier then I expected, but everything about the dungeons, monsters and the blade fits together amazingly well. Exploring caves allow you access to mines, farming plots, goods fishing spots, and some monsters drop items you need to cook, smith, decorate, or make medicine.
What ends up happening is that your farm relies on the caves, and your ability to explore caves rely on your farm. I thought the battling was going to fell like it was thrown in.
It feels perfectly natural and a deep part of the game.
The Story:
I haven't finished the game yet (Waiting for winter so i can beat misty Bloom Cave) but so far the Storyline is what you expect from a HM: simple, short and sweet. Its cute, not too much going on, and easy to understand. And pretty much open-ended. But of course, having not beaten the game yet, I really can't say much ^^
Overall:
9.5
The game flows great, easy to understand, play, and very addictive, but with the one flaw of all HM games: It gets very repetitive in many places. That doesn't mean its not a good game though. An impatient person like me sticking to these games for such a long time has to mean something right? ^^
Definitely worth the money =]