Sunday, January 16, 2011

Over the Moon!

The Harvest Moon that is!

Hello world! Another Geeky Alien's first official post will have something to do with my all-time personal favorite game of Harvest Moon.

Opening Screen from Harvest Moon SNES

Dear Lord, I know nothing can be more geeky than talking about a farm simulation and role-playing game that involves nothing BUT FARMING. To be honest, I never really played the original SNES game which came out roughly around 1996 because we didn't have the console system and gaming was definitely frowned upon in our household. So! I had the help of emulators!

I started playing this game a LONG time ago when I had to fight tooth and nail with my brothers (and father!) for some good PC-loving time. So I would wake up at 6am just to play this emulator based game. Ironically, that's the exact same time the game's protagonist would always wake-up.

Character Art from Harvest Moon Back to Nature (PS)

Most people find the game repetitive and uninteresting when you have finished every thing that you have to do and you've got the farming down to a system. Essentially that's true.

But, there are a lot of good things about it as well. For example, most Harvest Moon games allow you to choose from 3 or more women to marry and have some offspring with. Changes in plot, gameplay, game characteristics, specifics like what crops can be planted or if there are goats running around your farm, depend on which versions you play.

It will literally take me FOREVER to talk about each and every Harvest Moon version I've played so I will write a little bit about them from time to time, comparing each to another and touching on the various similarities involved.

The First Robot-Empowered Harvest Moon

It's a bit surprising and admirable that Harvest Moon has stayed around this long and has produced a bit over thirty games across twelve platforms. So far, the only consoles/handhelds that I haven't seen a Harvest Moon game with are the Xbox and the PS3. Now if they did make some for the PS3, wouldn't that be crazy?

My all-time favorite Harvest Moon game? Ah, that's a bit too hard to answer because I can't. If I were to choose my top versions though it would be the following:
  1. Harvest Moon (SNES)
  2. Harvest Moon Back to Nature (PS)
  3. Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life SE (PS2)
  4. Rune Factory Frontier (Wii)
  5. Harvest Moon DS (DS)
AHHH!! Seriously, it's difficult! And I'm not even too sure about this list!

Rune Factory - Dungeon Based Harvest Moon RPG

Anyway, that's it for now! Til next time! Live long and prosper!

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