This is a cute idea, the premise is you move to the valley, get married, have a kid and play through your entire life. You play 6 years, each year is a phase of your life.

However it is marred by AWFUL execution. The gameplay loop is very boring, there is so little to do. The farm is simplified to the point of dull. Crops take too long to grow with the shortened seasons and yield so little profit that it is overall not worth growing crops. The best money is in taking care of animals, but…that is bugged like crazy. Half of the time you can’t brush them until the game decides you are on the ONE pixel to use the brush. Or you can’t milk them. Or sheer them. Or worse they will get start to lose health with no feedback from the game as to why. Or…you get the point. And it was worse when interacting with the kid in year 2 when X changed what it would do every second. Ever hear of consistency in your interface?

Other features in the game just don’t work well or are bugged to heck. I never could do crop fusions, Vinnie never let me. I tried everything, showing seeds, showing the crops, smashing every button on the controller, nothing. I gave up trying after year 2 ended. And speaking of you can miss the fact Vinnie exists even, I’d never have known he did if I hadn’t checked the wiki. The wiki says he is a Spring day 1 year 2 event. False. It was Autumn year 2 for me and only because I stood outside and twiddled my thumbs until the event occurred.

Which brings up another issue. The game is too dependent on you finding hidden events and triggering them with no clue they are there or how to trigger them short of an external wiki. We call that a guide-dang-it when games do that, and it is not a good design practice.

And finally, the aging was weirdly done. I felt like only me and all the kids aged. The wife showed no signs of aging at all. How old was I when I came to the valley, 40? I feel we should have seen more signs of aging in the entire valley, not just the oldest people, me and the kids. And why don’t the others pair off too? Why was I the only one who got married and had a kid over the 20+ years this game is supposed to take place in? Overall this made me feel like the valley was not progressing at all and was only progressing for my family, the rest felt trapped in a time bubble.

Overall I have to say this is a poor game. If it had been my first ever farming game I’d probably never play another. And I know fans defend it saying its just a remake of a 2003 game. So what? It re-released recently. You need to update it to match what you are competing with. The entire time I wanted to play Sun Haven or Stardew Valley or My Time at Portia instead, all three of which are other farming games I played and liked. You need to update it to at least compete with those games at this point. At minimum make sure the interface is not total jank.

The game brings back nostalgia feeling, but perhaps that's the end. I do not like how the camera being swing around. I prefer games with static camera such as SOS:FOMT. I do not know why game developer keep moving towards 3D camera while the 2D sells well. You do not need nice 3D graphics to sell the game. You need contents!!

The only thing this did was remind me why I never finished the original over the course of many, many years.

Very fun! There are some things that this one changed compared to the old ones that I wasn't a fan of ( Like the changes to the shipment box and the people in the "mines" always getting in you way). Other then those small thing I am enjoying it very much for now.

If you played Harvest Moon:A Wonderful Life on GameCube then you'll love this nostalgic gem.. I've had no issues with crashing or not being able to load into the game personally but can't speak for others. ^^