Mi primer Harvest Moon y el que me hizo obsesionarme con el género. En sí es un juego muy simple y repetitivo pero hay una cierta magia en él que te hace mantenerte enganchado.

Los festivales añaden cierto dinamismo que hace que sientas que el pueblo está vivo.

Alguien hizo una Player Guide que contiene mucha información del juego (además de trucos, bugs y por qué el Canal 4 es sólo estática). Como servicio a la comunidad la subí para que la descargue quién quiera: https://estadiogamer.foroactivo.com/t4-harvest-moon-64-player-s-guide

*I will abbreviate harvest moon for: HV

Great improvement to the series compared with the first game, having better characters, a clock, more festivals and in general more things to do, I also like a lot the photos, they work like achievements and it's a great way of extending the game.

But holy shit this game is so broken, the game doesn't load everything in the camera, and there's a lot of bugs, (Karen's dog affection is so funny and broken). You can also put items in your bag and this is great compared to the drag and drop gameplay from the HV from the SNES. BUT FOR SOME REASON THERE'S NOT A BUTTON TO GET THEM OUT OF YOUR BAG, SO EVERYTIME YOU WANT TO USE A ITEM YOU HAVE TO PRESS START, WAIT IT GETS WORSE, THERE'S A FUCKING LOADING TO ENTER AND EXIT FROM THE START MENU, JUST GREAT, The 64 have like one hundred buttons but fucking GBA has 6 AND THEY DID IT, You get bored of this so fast and kills replay value for me. So choose the worst hell: drag and drop from the HV of the SNES or press start a million times from the HV of the 64.

The dumbest thing of this game for me is that you can change the camera, diagonal angle from a classic 2d, just in the farm though, I myself prefer that way. EXCEPT EVERYTIME A NPC TALKS WITH YOU IT GOES BACK TO THE DIAGONAL, LIKE WTF. Fishing in this game is also hell, I never get the timing and there's 3 power berry's from fishing and the best ending requires all of them, fun.

Overall: 8.5/10

Good:
- The art style, and models are so distinct and charming compared to the rest of the series.
- Game is fast paced with Year 1 crammed with deadlines/things to do everyday. Each day being short makes it so the player has to plan their day out before they even walk out the door.
- Even with the botched translation, the games writing is stellar. Many characters have hidden thoughts, feelings, and trauma’s that have shaped who they are. The more adult themes of alcoholism, betrayal, depression etc, make this game’s characters gripping.
- The game’s callbacks to Harvest Moon for the SNES make the player connected to a larger universe. Whether you have played the last game or not, the thought that the main character from the last game died and gifted you the farm, feels like a passing of the torch.
- The writing and visuals can give some beautiful moments that will be remembered by those who have played the game.
- Festivals are fun distractions that break up the monotony of every day work, and often times are pretty fun to participate in.
- Character’s writing change in increments to having a higher affection with the player. Making it so that when a character finally opens up to you, it feels natural.
- Power Nuts/Recipes give a fun collectible in your play though in tandem with finding all the special pictures.
- Many Glitches that can enhance the playthrough, in how one plays the game.
- The town is more modeled on how older rural Japanese towns used to be. Thus, the game prides itself on a sense of community with the player. Whereas in games like Stardew Valley, the character is very independent and usually does everything by himself. Here, characters can constantly stop by the farm to talk, to mention festivals, to give gifts, and to tell you certain facts about the Village. Creating a great feeling of attachment to Flowerbud Village.

Bad:
- Translation is very unnatural and filled with typos
- Many Glitches that can either crash your game, or can make the game far too easy if used. (Though it is ultimately up to you to use those exploits)
- Without a guide, you will miss a lot of the game’s chances to get 100%. Once certain characters leave, they’re gone for good. Getting all of the pictures also requires a strict schedule that needs a guide to outline for the player.
- Game Crashes sometimes on Rainy Days
- After Year 1, the game doesn’t have much to do in terms of deadlines. Leading to the player feeling like they’re not working towards much.
- Not much to buy with gold after you have all Home Extensions, so farming becomes superfluous outside of using produce to give gifts.
- Farming is almost as basic as SNES. Only 7 crops are in the game, and after you get the Green House, Corn becomes the only thing that’s good anymore. Though after you get the greenhouse, you most likely won’t need much gold anyway.
- Lots of dialogue cut from English release such as the Library being gutted, and the entertainment channel being gone.
- Having to go into your menu to take out items unlike BTN/SV/Most other farming games where you can just cycle through your inventory, makes a lot of farming like pulling teeth.

Though the farming in this game is a huge minus in comparison to most farming games. The core of this game lies within its heart. A game that focuses a lot on its characters, the main character finding what life really means, and the community of Flowerbud Village. Though this game needed a heavy amount of polish before it’s release, the aspects that are there are still good.

The writing for the characters is wonderful and charming, the aesthetic of the game just sucks you in, you really start to feel like Jack/Pete. A growing connection to this community of characters, where you will ask for their help and they will ask for yours.

The journey to get the Party Picture for me was one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life. I recommend picking up Gerry’s Guide on the game if you want to go for an all Pictures run like me.

This game has many problems, but I’d be remiss to say that this isn’t one of my most treasured Video Games, and an experience I will never forget in my life.

Pros: The direct sequel to Harvest Moon on SNES, including several additions and improvements, but maintains the simplistic charm filled cozy farm life of the original. It also features a sense of mystery and unknown to make the experience even more captivating and immersive!

So many little details added to this entry that elevate it over its predecessor. The new pre-rendered isometric aesthetic is incredibly cute, very toy-like, as if you're playing with your plastic farm animal toys as a kid, there's so much personality in that alone, and it makes the world of Flowerbud Village and the woodsy mountain path come to life like never before. New additions like the rucksack make foraging and collecting objects so much more convenient and less monotonous too, but despite having inventory with those objects, the game still isn't bogged down by menus, stats, graphs, charts, etc, it gives you that one inventory screen to see what's in your bag, as well as the calendar and time of day, and that's essentially it! Everything else, it's all on you and your memory, or reading what's posted around town or what's said by villagers, the game does a great job of keeping you immersed in its world, and not taking you out by gamifying with percentage meters or what have you. It lets you discover and soak in the world at your own pace.

New crops, new animals (sheep!!), new marriage candidates, new festivals, better controls with eight directions of movement (watering crops at an angle is a lifesaver, heh) the game certainly adds plenty to make a revisit to this world worth doing, but what makes this world so much richer, is that it is literally the same world as HM SNES, but two generations later! The story is similar, you take over your grandfather's farm and try to build a life in this cozy little town by planting crops with new veggies like cabbage and eggplant (a fall crop!), and raising cattle, sheep, and chickens, as well as caring for your dog and horse (who now can participate in racing festivals!), go mining for gems and jewels in the cave, build up your ranch and construct new additions to your home like a kitchen and bathroom, or a greenhouse to plant crops all year round, get to know and befriend the townsfolk, and meet a special someone to eventually get married to, and start a family! Not too much different than before, right? Well, SPOILERS your grandfather in this game, just so happens to be, the protagonist of Harvest Moon on SNES!! And then you'll start to notice, several people in the town are descendants from characters in SNES as well, as you learn more and more about these characters, they reveal more of that rich history to you, and for those that put in several hours into the SNES original, it's extremely gratifying to make these discoveries! Each of the marriage candidates have key storylines and family members that connect to that original game, and one of those family members living in the town, is an elderly woman who just so happened to be a marriage candidate in HM SNES, Ellen! That discovery kind of blew my mind... Not only did it connect me to this world even more, but the storylines these characters go through deepen that connection... And especially Ellen, a character that, depending on how you play, passes away over the course of the game, and it... It hits deep. This was the woman who gave you your dog in the original game on SNES. And here she was an elderly woman who was so proud of her granddaughter, Ellie, who works at the bakery in this game, and is also one of the five marriage candidates here. To see that passage of time, in a game where you connect with these characters over several generations, for her to say goodbye, and allow us to say goodbye... And then go on to start the next generation, it's so bittersweet.

Harvest Moon was a game that took a farm simulation and brought heart to it by putting you in the shoes of a little skrunkly dude just trying to make it by in a brand new world. What turns from a farm strategy game now also becomes a 2nd life simulator, but based around a crafted world filled with people that you can interact with and make a difference in their lives, and as you affect them, they also affect you. And 64 strengthens that so much more, where now you can even befriend your male rivals to the marriage candidates in the town, where you can then set them up, bring them together and then they too can get married, and raise children with the female marriage candidates! So satisfying seeing a whole town of people grow, building new families, as you build yours, based entirely on your own choices. And as you get those and several other achievements, like winning festivals, or getting married, or having your first child, the game rewards you not with a percentage marker or meter in a menu or anything like that, no, you have a photo album by your bedside, and you can look through it, at the many memories you've created living in this humble and peaceful little village. It's the perfect way to chart your journey through the events of this game.

The sense of heart, and closeness you develop with the characters, the animals, your farm, what you've built, is so enriching, you feel a part of this world, and it's one of the most immersive games I've ever experienced as a result. Not to mention, it's a world that you can stay in as long as you desire, as there's nothing stopping you from playing indefinitely after the end credits roll... I absolutely love this game.

Cons: It is a bit rough around the edges, technically. Graphical errors here and there do occur (a major one being polygons of buildings and houses disappearing before they scroll beyond the screen...) and going into the menu every time you have to put an item into the rucksack can be a bit annoying, but still, far less annoying than in SNES where you had to run back and forth to the shipping bin or wherever you're going any time you grabbed an object! Also the music, while quite good in its own right, does start over every time you enter a new room... and that's too bad, SNES didn't have that issue. But these are relatively minor issues in the grand scheme of things, nothing stopped me from being fully immersed here.

What it means to me: After discovering HM SNES and getting the Game Boy game, this was a series my brother and I were then dedicated to play every new entry of. And this was the big one we were waiting for! And when it came out, we were ADDICTED, this game was and probably still is the most I've played of any game, ever. I sunk so many in-game years into this one. I even recall once we had a storm hit, and we got a power outage while I was playing... which, resulted in an erased save file. I was devastated, but I pulled myself up from my bootstraps and got to making a brand new life all over again, and again, I put many more in-game years into it! Hah! This was the game I would grab to rescue if ever I had a housefire, I was THAT into it! That farm I built in my own way, the family I created, the animals I raised, there was a lot of love and heart put into it, and it's hard to think of another game that meant as much to me as this one did.

Despite its somewhat obscure release, I was extremely hyped on a personal level after playing Harvest Moon on the SNES a few years prior and being hooked by its gameplay and concept. Got this game on day one for the N64 and while it's true the game is riddled with bugs and glitches, the end product is still playable and quite remarkable since it takes the ideas from the previous game and brings it to life in 3D. Modern Harvest Moon games have far surpassed this one in terms of quality of life improvements but this was all we had at the time so a lot of the tasks and activity can be time consuming and grindy.

Overall farming gameplay was great and it was always a challenge trying to balance time between farming activities, procuring materials, socializing, dating, etc. Some annoyance including increment weather affecting your progress (hurricanes blowing through your farm and destroying everything).

Graphics and soundtrack were no standouts but were appropriate and got the job done. As far as fun factor, this is probably one of the earliest memories I have as far as addicting games where I could not put the controller down...I just wanted to do as much as possible on a day, sleep, wake up, and get going with the activities on the next day.

Harvest Moon, the series now recognized as the pioneer for the incredibly popular farming simulator genre, got itself off to quite a prolific start in the late 90s. The series debuted on the SNES in 1997, almost a year after the release of Nintendo's successor console, the N64. This was, it goes without saying, a 2D title, and only a year later in 1998, a Gameboy version of the title was released as well. So it would probably come as a surprise that, with the clock striking midnight and the calendar turning to 1999, fans of the blossoming series would be in for a new title before the year was over. But true enough, Harvest Moon 64, developed once again by Victor Interactive and published by Natsume, (or Natume, based on the game's title screen typo) would make it three consecutive years with a Harvest Moon. And for many, HM64 remains a favorite in the series. Its simplified nature provides a unique view into the genre, focusing strictly on a limited, grounded farming sim experience. And, of course, all the joys and pains that come with it.

If the September '22 Nintendo Direct taught us anything, it's that the farming sim genre is certainly a bit oversaturated. Spurned on by the success of Stardew Valley, there's an incredible amount of farming and life sim games coming out every year, and with so many new titles, one might wonder what need there is to go back to older, less polished games in the genre. In fact, Harvest Moon 64's most appealing trait might just be its stripped back gameplay and setting. This is a relatively straightforward game, and in that regard, it nails that basic farming aesthetic more than most modern titles. There's no HUD or overlay, and while some might find the menuing or lack of an on-screen clock frustrating, it all helps to create a distinct atmosphere that you really only find in these older titles. HM64 certainly has that personality in spades, and your fellow villagers and an idyllic valley town all come together to create a palpable yet pleasant nostalgic feeling, even if you're picking it up for the first time.

This is also the Harvest Moon title that introduced the timed day, and at first, it can be a bit jarring for players to get accustomed to. It's actually one of the game's best assets, as even though time progresses quite rapidly when the player is outside, it allows for some creative solutions which the player can figure out on their own, and as a result, makes the planning part of the day sometimes more enjoyable than the day itself. This game also introduced the stamina system, and together, it provided the backbone for all games in the series to come. What that allows for in HM64, then, is a surprisingly addicting gameplay loop where you are always planning your days in advance, ensuring all your crops are watered and animals fed, interacting with villagers, all while trying not to miss the local fair. And it's simple, but endearing. And then, about halfway through, that appeal just sort of vanishes.

HM64 is a game that is designed to be played indefinitely, but to reach the credits, you'll have to make it to the 3rd spring, when your dad comes to visit and assess your work. The problem is that, even on someone's first playthrough, they're going to run out of things to accomplish around halfway through that time period. And once you do, the game just ramps up in tedium; by the end, it's likely been incredibly boring for about a full season or two. There's benefits to a down-to-earth game with minimal activities, and the townsfolk do help to alleviate some boredom with some interesting backstories, but on a whole, there isn't enough to achieve in this game, not enough to aspire towards to fit its inflated play time. By end credits, you'll have accumulated more money than you'll ever know what to do with, and the dialogue with villagers will easily become repetitive, to the point where you can predict what people will say before you speak to them. Frankly, the later half of this game-or whenever you decide to purchase the greenhouse-is extremely light on content, and with nothing driving you on, its previously tight, focused gameplay becomes an exercise in futility. After all, if there's nothing pushing you, why keep going? This is compounded by HM64 being a bit of a technical mess; the translation (as alluded to a few paragraphs back) is notoriously bad, and you're likely to encounter a handful of screen freezes during your time in Flower Bud Village.

Few games have such a clear and noticeable dichotomy as Harvest Moon 64 does. It's intensely captivating and then utterly mind-numbing; charming until it's grating, addicting until it's off-putting. It's one of the rare games that would likely benefit from intentionally playing suboptimally. It's rightfully appreciated for its innovations in the genre as well as its rustic initial appeal, but with its barren end game, it's the type of town that you're happy to visit, but you wouldn't want to live in.