From the very beginning of the franchise I’ve always thought that Harvest Moon would do best on a handheld platform. The sheer repetitiveness of the gameplay, paired with the life simulation aspects, are genuinely perfect for on the go gaming. With that said the only viable handheld solution in 1998 was the original Game Boy. While it slowed down for a short while the platform was completely revived by Pokemon, and had a new lease on life as it once again began flying off shelves. Harvest Moon debuted on the Super Nintendo just a little earlier, and Natsume announced that a downport of the original title was in the works for the 8-bit handheld platform. While developers are often able to push out remarkable games hand tailored for the weak system ports usually crash and burn. I initially wasn’t sure how Harvest Moon GB would turn out because of this, but I knew the franchise would work so well on the go that I gave it a shot anyway. The aesthetics are extremely impressive, but some questionable gameplay omissions were made.
In Harvest Moon GB you play as a youth who is visited one day by his grandpa who is widely known as the “Ranch Master.” He tasks you with taking over his farm and bringing it back to its former glory. This spirit visits you once a year in Winter and if he’s displeased with your progress you’re given a game over. On the other hand he can also award you with additional tools if you’re doing well. Harvest Moon is often described as a combination of Sim Farm and Legend of Zelda, and that’s not too far off. You move your character throughout the game world and view the action from an overhead perspective. You grow crops (by planting seed, and watering them each day) and raise animals (either chickens or cows) to produce eggs and milk. Almost everything on your farm can be sold for profit, and you can use this money to buy additional tools, seeds, upgrade your house, and more. Your basic job is raising crops and there’s a very interesting time based system for this. Each day the time passes in real-time, and each season is divided into thirty days, and every year into four seasons. Like in real-life specific crops can only be grown in particular seasons and while some of these are single use (turnips, potatoes) others produce until the end of the month.
Farming and raising animals is the same between this and the original game, but a few additions and changes have been made that affect the basic formula. For starters, new crops were added in here. You can now grow eggplant and peanuts in the fall along with broccoli and carrots in winter. It’s pretty cool in my opinion. Additionally you aren’t stuck with a dog as a pet and can instead opt to have a cat. Both affect your farm in different ways; the cat keeps wild dogs away so your livestock are in less danger, and the dog chases off moles that would otherwise wreak havoc on your crops. For the first time in the franchise you can also select between a boy or girl for your main character, but this doesn’t have a big effect on gameplay because of one simple reason. In the original title you could court, marry, and eventually have children with one of the non playable characters living in the town. It was never my favorite aspect of the game but it helped break up the monotony of the repetitive gameplay. That feature is completely absent in this title. It makes this game far more boring than it would otherwise be because there’s less to do. To make matters worse there’s absolutely no exploration here. You can’t access any wilderness (such as the mountains from the original) and even the town area is limited to a simple select your destination menu. These aspects make for an experience that’s far too linear to be fresh and interesting hours later.
As I’ve already mentioned the graphics are surprisingly well done in this version. All of the sprites have been ported down from the Super Nintendo release, and the team did an amazing job with this. Aside from the lack of color you could almost swear this looks identical from some screenshots. Every graphical element returns from the grass, bushes, animals, etc. Even the animations are really well done and are just barely a step below those in the 16-bit version. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, some areas of the game were cut out so it’s impossible to compare those aspects. What’s interesting is the fact that, even inside of the buildings in town, you cannot wander around. The character you’re interacting with is represented by a static drawing, and these are surprisingly detailed by Game Boy standards. I actually prefer this method because it’s more of a personal touch. The music is also a downgrade from the Super Nintendo version, but each track has been faithfully re-created on the less powerful hardware. I’m really impressed with just how close they were able to get. My only complaint is the fact that there just aren’t a lot of different songs here, but it’s acceptable considering the genre format of this game.
Harvest Moon GB really could have been a contender. The graphics are simply incredible for the Game Boy, and this is one area that developers usually struggled with when it came to handheld ports back then. Even the framerate holds up. Unfortunately the omissions were important ones, and without them this just isn’t Harvest Moon. Repetition soon sets in, and you’ll never feel the need to replay it. This one sucks.
