After the original Harvest Moon was released I wasn’t expecting there to be a legitimate follow-up. It was released so late in the Super Nintendo’s life span, and I imagine it didn’t sell very well. A few additional HM titles were released for the Game Boy, but it was common place for ports/alternate versions to be released on handhelds. I had little hope that we would ever see a sequel on newer hardware. Imagine my surprise when I spot Harvest Moon 64 on the store shelves on one fateful day back in 1999. I absolutely had to have it, and was initially disappointed by the fact that it wasn’t fully 3D. Despite this it turned out to be my absolute favorite game in the series. To this day I still think it’s one of the best Harvest Moon games of all time.
Harvest Moon 64 puts you in the role of a young man who is tasked with restoring his grandfather’s decrepit farm. It’s a typical plot for a game in this series, but that’s not an issue because it’s just there to get you started. This is best described as a sandbox game. You can play however you want even opting to simply wake up and end the day immediately by jumping back into bed. It’s really up to you, but Harvest Moon 64 is only fun when you invest some serious time and effort into it. This is a game about running a farm, and in the beginning your best method of earning money is in growing crops.
Harvest Moon 64 gives you more vegetable/fruit types than the original SNES game did. Cabbages, as well as several types of flowers have been added to the Spring roster (on top of turnips and potatoes which return from the previous game) and you can now grow eggplants in autumn making the season no longer useless. Additionally you can now have a greenhouse built on your property so that you may grow anything regardless of season, and it is a requirement to plant strawberries. The new crop types add some much needed diversity to the formula.
Farming is very basic here. To grow crops you need only til the soil with your hoe, plant the seeds (they always plant in a 3 x 3 grid) and water them daily. It’s pretty simple, and your tools are upgraded as you use them. The only limiting factors are time and your character’s stamina. Every day in Harvest Moon 64 is only a few minutes long. You can opt to stay out late, but your character might become sick from doing so. Time is further divided into days, seasons, and years. Every season is only thirty days long, each year consists of only four seasons.
You can only grow certain crops in specific seasons, and different holidays occur at certain times of the year. Events include fireworks shows, dances, and stuff like that. Some offer interaction, but others are just visual. In a rather interesting twist you can become the ‘harvest king’ which is a position wherein you have to organize certain events. It’s chosen at random, but can make the game feel different year to year.
While you can stuff your bank with money from crops, or by scavenging items from the mountainside, one of the better options you’re given is livestock. You can raise cows and chickens like in the first game, but Harvest Moon 64 also adds sheep to the roster. Cows and chickens give milk and eggs daily, but sheep function a little differently. The product they give you is wool, and you must shear it off in order to get a product you can sell or give as a gift. This requires a specialty tool as well as some more time spent working each day. Thankfully time stands still when you’re indoors in Harvest Moon 64 otherwise this would really cut into your character’s social life.
Unfortunately it takes a few days for it to grow back, and therefore it isn’t as constant a source of income as eggs and milk. It’s still a nice addition, and I’m glad that at least one of the livestock options functions differently from the others. Taking care of animals is a simple affair as you need only feed them daily. You can make them happy (and therefore get better product) by speaking to your animals as well as brushing them. Livestock is easily the best source of income here because it’s year round and consistent. You don’t have to worry about the change in seasons, and time doesn’t pass when you’re tending to your animals. It’s fun to manage as well.
Another big aspect of the game is the social system. You can befriend just about any character living in the nearby town. This is done by speaking to them on a daily basis, and also through the giving of gifts. When people become friendly toward you they will begin stopping by your property to offer gifts or even to just say hi. When things progress even further they’ll start inviting you to partake in local festivities with them. Some even have their own special story events and sub-plots that unfold as you become more and more friendly. As your friendship level reaches certain points day to day dialogue will change, and it really feels as if you get to know them as time goes on.
You can marry one of five different girls, and even have kids with them. This gives the game much needed structure because it gives you outlined goals, and total freedom at the same time. What’s interesting is the fact that as you befriend specific male characters they will marry the bachelorettes instead of you. It’s pretty cool, and it makes the world feel more interactive. It gives completionists even more to focus on as you can’t necessarily have a perfect save file without everyone else being married off and happy. Of course, should you choose to marry there will always be one lonely soul in Harvest Moon 64. It’s actually sort of depressing.
The game also contains several side events in the main story, but they depend on the female character that you are courting. These are unlocked as you reach higher relationship levels with them, and some have big effects on the main story. One of my favorite aspects of this game is the fact that certain events are triggered at random. There are two in particular; the death of a specific character, and another that moves out of the town. The fact that these events are random (they may not even occur at all) adds replay value, and goes a long way toward making this feel like a living breathing world. These elements are a big part of what make this the single best Harvest Moon title.
The biggest issue with Harvest Moon 64 is the fact that it is full of glitches. Each time I play from start to finish the game freezes on me at least one time. It’s unavoidable, but seems to happen mostly when the virtual weather is storming. The game suffers from a host of graphical issues as well. The backgrounds are polygonal, but the characters and objects are all sprite based. Unfortunately the polygons suffer from noticeable amounts of pop-in as the screen scrolls. The characters have that odd digitized look popularized by Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi’s Story, and they look a little weird in my opinion. Additionally the camera displays the action from an angle which makes gameplay awkward. The graphics aren’t particularly good, but they’re passable for the Nintendo 64 I guess.
Harvest Moon 64 suffers from some pretty underwhelming music. The cartridge format held back many games on the platform, but the midi compositions are especially boring. On the plus side each of the four seasons has its own separate theme song, but they’re largely forgettable. If I had to pick one I would say Summer’s music is better than the others, but it’s still pretty boring to be honest. Sound effects are a little better off with realistic samples, but they aren’t as clear as they should be. It sounds like there’s a weird slight static to each of them. The audio really isn’t very impressive in this game, and to be honest I prefer the original game’s soundtrack to this one.
