Until Harvest Moon: Back to Nature the series was released exclusively for Nintendo platforms. I’m not sure it was planned that way, rather, the demographics matched better with the target audience. This series of life/farming simulations gained an immediate cult following. When it finally made the leap to the original Sony PlayStation with Harvest Moon: Back to Nature an entirely new audience got to experience it’s glory. Up to this point it was the biggest and most detailed game in the franchise. I was fresh off of Harvest Moon 64 when I got my mitts on this one. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint. Let’s dive in deeper.
Back to Nature takes the typical story formula in the franchise and flips it on its head. Just kidding. You play as a young man named Jack who inherits his grandfather’s farm. This is the homestead he visited during the Summer when he was a kid where he grew to love the ranching life style. Upon arrival the mayor gives you the grand tour and warns that the citizens of the nearby Mineral Town have put conditions on him living there. Namely, Jack has to restore the farm to its former glory within 3 years or he will be forced to move out. From here you take control of the happy go lucky fledgling farmer and with just five hundred dollars, and a dog, it’s up to you to turn this decrepit farmland into a money making machine.
Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is not strictly a farming simulation. Nor is it just a life game. It’s a weird hybrid, but a fun one. You guide your character through a variety of isometric environments. On your farm you can til the land, plant seeds, water crops, tend to animals, etc. When you first start out the landscape is covered in rubble like rocks, weeds, and branches but this can all be cleared out provided you use the right tool. Using these however drains your stamina, and when it’s depleted your character passes out until the next day. Outside of the farm there are a variety of different things you can do. You can forage for items in the wilderness, shop at the few stores, mine for ores, or interact with the citizens of Mineral Town.
The game simulates the passage of time (pushing you always closer to the three year time limit). Each day is only a few real world minutes long. Months (or seasons as they’re considered here) are thirty apiece, and there are only four of these in one year. Three years of in-game time might sound like a lot. In reality it’s about the length of a normal video game. Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is like a big old sandbox in which you can play how you choose. Want to simply sleep away the three years then be my guest. You won’t get a good ending this way however. Plus why even bother to play if you aren’t willing to, you know, play? Even when trying to meet the challenge of slapping together a bustling ranch you are given a plethora of different options.
Farming is the basis for your revenue in this game so let’s start there. You can plant a variety of different fruits and vegetables on your farm. These are all seasonal, and whenever a season changes the old crops immediately die out. The crops all vary in terms of seed price, how many days it takes for them to produce, how much the product sells for, and if they are a one off or continue to grow afterward. Seeds are planted in 3×3 areas of tilled land. From here you must water each square of seed every day until either the plant is destroyed or the season ends. This will be your main source of income and serve your wallet well throughout the story. You can also raise cows, sheep, and chickens which give you products to sell every day.
What primarily sets Harvest Moon apart from it’s shallow contemporaries like, say, Sim Farm, is it’s social system. You can befriend just about everyone living in Mineral Town and this alters the experience in some pretty big ways. You’ll see new stories develop, characters will bring you gifts, invite you to festivals, etc. There are five bachelorettes that you can woo, marry, and even have kids with. That is, provided you have the necessary upgrades to your home and raise their affection to the proper level. You can gain friendship (and romance) points by speaking to characters on a daily basis and bringing them presents. Everyone has different likes and dislikes so you may want to do a little research before jumping in and making your choice.
The best thing about Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is that it has so many different crop options. It has over double the number of veggies and fruits that you could grow in Harvest Moon 64. Some of the choices are pretty unique to the series such as pineapples which take super long to grow but are worth the most money. You have additional sources of income as well such as the honey that grows in the beehive in the tree on your ranch, and more. The options are wide and varied for earning money in this game. Just about everything under this umbrella made the jump over from the last title. That’s in addition to many new things. Even to this day Back to Nature is nearly unmatched in this regard.
Now it’s time for a few complaints. The cast is almost entirely recycled from Harvest Moon 64. While their names are the same the personalities have been altered, and they’ve been repurposed. Their jobs, personalities, and even family members have been changed around. They also have love interests competing with you to win their heart. This adds a sense of urgency which wasn’t there in prior Harvest Moon titles; if you wait too long to woo the girl you stand a chance of losing her forever. These third party relationships develop via dialogue you trigger by being in the right place at particular times. While I really like the cast of Harvest Moon 64 I found the same people less interesting here in Back to Nature. Also, the sense of urgency in getting married takes away from the sandbox feel and I didn’t like this either.
Harvest Moon: Back to Nature has pretty weak graphics to be honest. The engine is pretty much brought over from the 64 iteration but the polygons are jagged here, and animations are not as smooth. The PS1 should be able to pull off so much more so it’s disappointing to see it couldn’t keep up here. Probably the most annoying part of the graphics engine is the fact that the viewpoint is stuck in an isometric angle. This makes everything far more awkward than it should have been. Overall this is a less colorful, more jagged, and less smooth version of Harvest Moon 64 in terms of graphics. The soundtrack on the other hand is actually significantly better. It’s entirely original and features some of the best music in the entire franchise. The theme of Fall actually gives me goosebumps and adds tons of layers of atmosphere to the experience.
