Farm Livin' Is The Life For Me!

Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town is an offbeat game that puts you in the shoes of a farmer who inherits a decrepit field, a barn, and a chicken coop. Out of this humble beginning, the player must forge a profitable business, expand their farm, and someday marry one of the local eligible bachelorettes. Be warned that accomplishing this becomes a consuming task, quickly sucking up much of your free time! While there really isn't much else to the game's story, smaller events take place within this framework that generate a connection between the player and the game world by giving the player insights into the lives of the other characters in the game.

The meat of Friends of Mineral time consists of the day-to-day chores that come with running a farm. There is an actual day-night cycle with 4 seasons that last 30 days each. Each season has its own special events to participate in and crops that can be grown only during that season. During an average day the player must plant seeds, water crops, pull weeds, feed animals, and harvest produce. Animals are a big part of the game, and you can raise chickens, cows, and sheep. Taking proper care of your livestock will increase their affection for you and cause them to produce more and better eggs, milk, and wool. This in turn allows the player to make more money, which becomes really important during the Winter season when no crops can be planted. Along with the main task of working the farm, a player can also indulge in numerous mini-games. There are the perennial favorites of horse racing and fishing, but there is also digging in mines, playing Frisbee with your dog at the beach, and last, but not least, courting your girlfriend. The "dating" aspect of Friends of Mineral town is accomplished by giving gifts to one of 5 eligible girls who live in the town, which in turn raises their affection level for you. After the girl's affection reaches a certain point and you meet certain other requirements, you can propose.

All of this admittedly sounds more like work than fun, but the formula works very well to create a game that is accessible, addictive, and ultimately very satisfying. Many of these activities, such as watering and harvesting, can actually be handled by small gnome-like creatures known as Harvest Sprites, who will agree to work on your farm if treated well. Also, backing up this solid gameplay is a control system that fully utilizes all the buttons on the GBA. Handy shortcuts for scrolling through inventories are provided through the shoulder buttons serve to streamline otherwise time-consuming activities, for example. The only complaint that I can make against the controls is that it is sometimes a little difficult to align your character with a proper spot to water from or drop a vegetable into the shipping box from.

As I was playing the game, I couldn't help but be struck by the graphics of it. They are quite nice for any GBA offering, and feature super-deformed characters set in an idealistic rural surrounding. The area around your farm includes Mineral Town, a beach, a woods, and even a mountain peak. This variety in surroundings really helps to maintain visual interest in the game. The animations used for people and animals in the game leave something to be desired, but are serviceable nonetheless. Music and sound effects are likewise about average; nothing grates on the ears, but nothing jumps out at me either. The number of songs is fairly limited, so they can repetitive after a while. The good news is that each track is reasonably long, which helps stave off the monotony a bit.

Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town features connectivity with the upcoming Harvest Moon: It's A Wonderful Life for the GameCube, but I can't directly comment on the features to be unlocked in either game since It's A Wonderful Life won't be out for a while yet. I have been doing a little reading on the subject, however, and the bonuses sound pretty neat.

The Harvest Moon games I've played always seem to be a little rough around the edges, and Friends of Mineral Town is no different. There are numerous translation errors, misarranged letters, and even other languages that got missed in the game's text. A few more serious bugs worked their way in too, such as the game freezing if the TV is watched at precisely 4:44 PM. However, these problems are generally small and don't interfere with gameplay a great deal. In fact, I have always found such flaws to be part of the game's charm.

I was first introduced to the Harvest Moon series with the Nintendo 64 version, and thus it is hard for me not to compare Friends of Mineral Town to that game. I initially wasn't expecting much out of Friends of Mineral Town, expecting it to be a dumbed-down Harvest Moon experience that might feature a few of the core elements of the series, but at the same time would be lacking in complexity. However, this game has surprised me with its depth and sophistication. This game is actually more refined than Harvest Moon 64 was in many ways, such as in the way Harvest Sprites can be recruited to help out on the farm. However, Harvest Moon had a bit more sentimental feel to it, where as Friends of Mineral Town tends to be a bit more light-hearted. Also, Harvest Moon 64 had the better soundtrack in my opinion, not just in terms of quality but in composition as well.

Still, Friends of Mineral Town is a much more complete Harvest Moon experience than I was expecting. The sheer amount of stuff to do in this game is incredible, and the open-ended nature of the game allows for an almost bottomless pit of replay value. If you haven't played a Harvest Moon game before, I have no qualms about recommending this game as a good introduction to the series. All the important aspects of a good Harvest Moon game are there: Addictive gameplay, a dating system, mini-games, and, of course, a score of translation errors for good measure!  Get this game. You will not be disappointed.

By Andy Rucker