Harvest Moon: Ridiculous Idea or Legendary Premise?

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Here's another thread on another one of my favorite PS1 games, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, and the Harvest Moon franchise in general.

For those who don't know, the entire Harvest Moon franchise, which is comprised of 18 games spanning from its origins with the SNES released in 1997 all the way to the latest game which I believe was released for the 3DS about 2 years ago, is a farming simulator/rpg game. Yes, you read it right, a farming simulator.

Now don't let the title of the thread mislead you in any way. I love the Harvest Moon series, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature was one of the very first (if not the first) games I took seriously and completed from beginning to end. The premise of the game is usually you're a character plopped into a degenerating farm, and its your job to get it up and running, and successful, within a certain amount of time. You plant seeds, watch your plants grow, collect produce and sell them, and tend to farm animals. Sounds relatively boring right? Here's where the RPG part comes in. Throughout the game, you can interact with the townspeople and cultivate personal relationships with them. There's places to go, such as the docks for fishing, or just the local bar if you're bushed from a day of watering plants. Also, in most of the games, you can even court girls and end up marrying them later on, and even having a child with them and taking care of your family, all while managing your farm. (in later games, you have an option to be male/female).

Still sound boring? I don't blame you, i doubt any of us could manage a farm without any video games to pass the time. So here's where I talk about the first Harvest Moon game I played, which was the first one released for the PS1 - Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. Just as an aside, I'm no expert on the Harvest Moon series, I've only played 3 of them so far (Back to Nature, Save the Homeland, and A Wonderful Life), so please don't let this post deter you from playing a great game.

On to Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. You're set into an aging farm, and you have 3 years to get it successful enough for the town to keep it. Over these 3 years, you have to grow plants and fruits, sell produce, and take care of your animals and collecting any income from them, such as eggs and milk. However, the reason this PS1 game roped me in is because of how much stuff there was to do. You can court up to 5 different girls (or guys in the Special Edition), you can partake in many different festivals throughout a year, ranging from a potato festival to a tomato festival. You can enter into horse races if you took good care of your horse, and you can just explore the relatively small town and forge new relationships with all the townspeople, which can generate new cutscenes for your enjoyment. However, one of the not-so-good parts of the game, and the series in general, is how repetitive it can get. Some days you'll pretty much be doing the same routin over and over until you can't wait 'till the festivals come along.

In the end though, the games offer long hours that will certainly engage you, and not to mention the replay value is certainly good, as most games offer a chance to reset with all your resources intact (such as money, animals, plants, etc). I guess my favorite thing about these games is just how into it you can get. Sure, it can be repetitive at times, but the games are so well-designed that they can just draw you in.

But as of now, no Harvest Moon game has been released for the PS3/PS4 yet, so hoping the idea hasn't died out. Although, it's understandable that a farming sim/rpg could only go so far. Not to mention it's been way over-serialized, I mean, there's just so many different farming crises you can think of. But all in all, the Harvest Moon franchise took a seemingly ridiculous idea and turned it into the foundation for RPGs that aren't just based around fighting. It's just one of those franchises (if not the only franchise) that could make you go "now who else can make a farming game this fun"? Definitely worth a try in my book, especially if you manage to get Harvest Moon: Back to Nature.