Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility
You have moved to an island town that was once brimming with life and energy. But now, however, the island is in trouble and it’s up to you to save it. The mystical Mother Tree that once watched over the island has disappeared, and the Harvest Goddess is nowhere to be found. The island has lost its connection with nature and the inhabitants don’t know what to do.
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User Reviews
3 Stars Not Sure If This is Going to Be a Good Game
I’m giving it three stars, because I haven’t played it yet. But I was extremeley disappointed with Magical Melody. The concept is kind of boring, and I’m noticing the same repetative objectives in the Harvest Moon series. But I’m not saying they’re all the same. The video on Amazon didn’t give me a whole insight either to what the game was about, which disappoints me, I thought natsume would do a better job in the trailer. But I’m not critzcing the game all that much, because as I said before I haven’t bought it yet. I was going to buy it but seeing the same exact stuff I did in the previous Harvest Moons (ex. watering plants, trying to marry a girl/boy, naming animals and taking care of them) I’m not sure if I’m going to buy this game.
4 Stars One of my favorite of the series so far.
I haven’t played many Harvest Moon games, and thus I can’t compare this with the popular Magical Melody. I can tell you though, that I simply love this game. I’ve already played through almost 2 years of game-time, so I’ve experienced most of what the game has to offer (minus the raising of children).
Pros:
-The game works well with the Wii remote, but doesn’t force you to use it to it’s full capabilities if you don’t want to (yay button mashing!).
-The music doesn’t drive me insane from repetitiveness, a fault of past HM games (though reading other reviews, I may be one of the few who feel this way).
-You can actually collect enough money and materials for building/expanding your farm in a decent amount of time, unlike Harvest Moon DS, which took seasons of waiting for materials to appear.
-The characters who are eligible for marriage don’t look like a train wreck for the most part (I’m looking at you Harvest Moon DS: Cute).
-No more 100+ sprites/notes to find. I can actually focus on my farm somewhat.
-The graphics are very pretty and you can tell a lot of work was put into them and the cutscenes.
-Part-times jobs mean easy money, which is helpful early in the game and during a slow winter.
-Stalking is available on the guy/girl you’re aiming for. Kind of creepy, but helpful anyway.
-One bell to rule them all! It’s now easy to get all animals in and out of their buildings since the game gives you a giant bell in front of your animal buildings, which calls all animals out and calls them back in. No pushing, shoving, or beating dumb animals over the head with a handheld bell anymore!
-You can play as a male or female (no need to wait for a Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility ~Cute~ to tempt some men).
-After your child grows enough, you can start a new game with him/her.
Cons:
-There is a glitch in the game with Calvin as an eligible bachelor that basically knocks him out of the marriage picture.
-Time passes indoors for the most part. I only have 1 barn and 1 coop and I end up wasting a bit of time taking care of animal needs and products, especially on rainy days. If you plan on growing crops at all, don’t plan on building more than 1 coop and 1 barn (even though you can have up to 4 of each). This is a major pet peeve of mine with this game.
-Load screens for the lose! You get a load screen when you leave your house/enter the coop/leave the coop/enter the barn/leave the barn/go to another district/etc etc. Through a regular day, I probably see that load screen an average of 10+ times. I said in the ‘pros’ section that I liked the graphics, but they aren’t exactly cutting edge enough to really warrant so many load screens. This is my second major pet peeve of the game.
-Even though you can ride a horse/ostrich around, there are places it can’t go, which can equal a long run (hint hint Mt. Gelato).
-Once you upgrade your rucksack to max capacity, the shortcut way of changing tools/items becomes a pain and takes a bit of time, so it’s not much of a shortcut anymore.
-Even though you can stack 99 of the same item in the shipping bin, I have run out of shipping bin room because I did some cooking for recipes. I had to hold onto them until the next day.
-Still no same-gender marriages available. Not that this surprises me and thus isn’t technically a con given who this is aimed at, but it would be nice to see.
Despite all the cons, I still enjoy this game immensely. Most people who have played Harvest Moon games in the past will enjoy this one, and those looking to try the series out for the first time will get a good appreciation of it with this game.
5 Stars Wow, Amazing.
Well, let me start off saying i ordered this game and it came in four days [...] which made me quite happy. The game is very very enjoyable and not only are the graphics great, the game is challenging. The game is still fun after the third year [game time]. I love this game and would recommend it to everyone.
5 Stars Harvest Moon Review
My kids, ages 13 – 20, absolutely enjoy this game…basically it is a game for all ages. It is a wonderful fantasy family game that is a lot of fun and demonstrates what it is like to have your own farm, make a living, and live in a village.
4 Stars Non violent fun
All of the other reviews that I’ve read are from Harvest Moon veteran players. I’m a newbie so here’s a review from someone who has never played any of the earlier versions.
HM has been around for 10 years (on different consoles obviously) and this is their 10th anniversary version. This is the first version made exclusively for the Wii.
HM is a farming sim game where you are a new arrival to a large enchanted island with hopes of becoming a rancher. You are given a small, simple house, a plot of land, and a little bit of gold to begin the game. You earn your livelihood by farming, ranching (making/selling yarn, mayo, butter, and cheese from the animal products), mining, fishing, cooking, and working part time jobs. With the money you make, you upgrade your house and tool quality, hire someone to build a barn, hire someone to build a chicken coop, buy animals to raise, buy seeds, buy new plots of land to farm, decorate your house, buy food and drink, and purchase clothes. There are four seasons in a year and 28 days in a season. Different plants and weather conditions exist in each season. In addition to the daily chores, there is also a mystery surrounding the island that you must solve. The island used to be more prosperous before the Goddess Tree died. Your mission is to bring another Goddess Tree to life.
Another feature of HM is that you choose to begin the game as a young single woman or a young single man. There are 7 eligible bachelors whom you could marry if your character is a girl and you’ve raised their affection level high enough or 8 eligible bachelorettes for male characters to marry. If you choose to wed, you will eventually have one child and have the option of starting the game anew using the child.
This is a game that you complete at your own pace. If you aren’t quick about solving the Goddess Tree mystery, that’s okay. The only thing that you need to hurry about is marrying the person you choose. If you don’t marry the bachelor/bachelorette you desire quickly, he or she could marry one of the other eligible bachelors/bachelorettes.
When you begin the game, your character doesn’t have much stamina and regains stamina after going to sleep for the night. At first, my character was running out of energy before noon when doing my tasks. Over time, your character’s ability to complete tasks without getting worn out improves with improvements in skill, tool quality, and “power berries” that restores your stamina for the day and permanently increases your stamina capacity.
This game has no violence, sex, or anything that might be objectionable for young children to see. Animals may die of old age or if you don’t take care of them (for example, they can catch a cold and die if they are left outside in the snow all night long), otherwise, there are no deaths in the game. It does have quite a bit of reading which makes it not appropriate for very young children to play because they wouldn’t be able to read and follow the instructions. The game is rated E for Everyone.
I’ll say that I’ve enjoyed the game, though it is taking me unconscionably long to complete compared to HM veterans. It took me several seasons to get the hang of it and figure out what I should be doing and how to be more efficient. It is easy to get sucked into the game because there is always some little task that needs to be completed (giving gifts to other residents, completing the harvest sprite rainbow recipe, tending to the animals, etc.).
I recommend this to people who like role playing games or want a non-violent, non-stressful game. If your favorite games are bloody shooting games, this is not for you.
