Life on MooMoo Farm: Adventures in Harvest Moon-ing (Part 1)



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When I was a freshman in college, I lived in a co-ed dorm with my roommate Jessica.  Jessica and I lived across the hall from Brian and Bryan (very creative on the part of the housing department.) I got along quite well with the Bri/yans, mostly because they were fun, but also because they played video games. Bryan's favorite game on the N64 was Harvest Moon.  He would sit and play it for hours, and if we were hanging out doing other activities, he would often excuse himself to go water his crops or milk his cows.  Watching him play, Brian and I made fun of him and his endless pursuit of farm nirvana...or whatever it was he was trying to achieve in game. We both chalked it up to him growing up in rural BFN western Colorado or something, and continued to tease him and ask about his cows in unrelated conversations for the rest of the year.


Cut to a year later: Brian and I are roommates living in what I later dubbed "the house from hell," (not because of Brian) but that's another story for another time. Brian bought a Nintendo GameCube and we would often try to beat each other home from class to stake a claim in front of the TV to get a head start gaming.  Our major competition was with Prince of Persia Sands of Time. We would sneak home between classes to try to get to the next puzzle to beat the game before the other person.  It was ridiculous.  Brian ended up finishing the game first because his schedule allowed for major blocks of free time (psh...music majors) while I was a slave to the theatre department (don't let anyone ever tell you that being a theatre/performance major is easy. They're lying to you. Free time does not exist.) After the Prince of Persia competition had ended, Brian decided the next unofficial competition would be Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life. I rolled my eyes and laughed at him at first, but then when I sat down and watched him play, it looked kind of fun. 

On a rare day that I was home when Brian was not, I sat down to start my own Harvest Moon game and thus began my love affair with the franchise. Unfortunately, through a series of life events and circumstances, I have never actually gotten to finish Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life. Brian and I moved to separate apartments after that year, Brian later sold me his GameCube but had wiped the Harvest Moon game saves, then I sold my GameCube and all my games for extra cash to move out east after graduation. I have the PS2 version of Harvest Moon A Wonderful life, and last year I got further than I ever had in game, but our PS3 is currently on its last legs, so it looks like I may never get to finish this damn game.

The game mocks me.
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This all leads into my birthday this year.  Boyfriend got me the newest game in the Harvest Moon franchise: The Tale of Two Towns. There are things I love about it, and things that are pretty good, and things that are just ridiculous, like all Harvest Moon games. The newest in the franchise keeps the basic formula the same but adds in some extra plot and challenge elements.  And you know what else? My train of thought just derailed violently and I realized how long this post is thanks to my brief trip down memory lane up there, but there is still so much to discuss about this game.  Hmmm, well, to summarize this post: I love the Harvest Moon franchise thanks to Brian and Bryan, and I now have the newest game and I am really enjoying it, but a more detailed review will follow, I promise!


P.S I just realized how many times I mentioned Harvest Moon in this post. Whoa. It's like counting the number of times characters "whisper" in an E.L. James book.
(Take THAT fanfic and your 10 million copies sold! Yeah. I showed you.)