Satin23

Having read about the split in the series known as Harvest Moon I was initially highly dubious about this first attempt by Natusme at their own farming game. However reading reviews about the actual game rather than those just upset at the split convinced me to give it a go. This game reminds me of the original Harvest Moon on the SNES as the only thing to do is farm. You can grow as many crops as you like (I currently have over 100 growing at once) and put them wherever you like in the valley. The growing conditions, height of the land, swamp or normal, season etc, can affect your crops giving you mutations. There are meant to be 10 types of each crop due to these mutations and I must admit this feature is the one that really made me try the game. At the beginning it is hard to get mutations as the valley is stuck in winter. However I have accidently made some flower mutations and one crop (strawberry). I am really looking forward to finding out what different conditions cause these effects so I'm avoiding walkthroughs so I get the thrill of discovering them for myself. Basic animals are available, cows, sheep, chickens, and horses. There are areas you can mine at some point and fishing is possible. These are more extras though than the huge mines seen in some previous installments like Animal Parade and Tree of Tranquility. There isn't a town to visit, people just come into the valley or outside your house on certain days of the week. If you love spending time in HM chatting to all the people in town, mining, fishing etc rather than watering crops and caring for cows then this isn't the game for you. If you are a bit of a hermit farmer like me then you will probably love this game like I do as it goes backs to the sheer basics of farming.