Harvest Moon:A Wonderful Life
- Release date
September 12, 2003
- Platform
Nintendo Gamecube
- Developer
Victor Interactive Software
Characters
Walkthrough
Overview
Overview
The game is part of the popular Harvest Moon farming simulation series. In this installment, players take on the role of a young man who inherits a farm in Forget-Me-Not Valley. The game spans 30 years of the character's life, allowing players to build relationships, marry, have a child, and watch that child grow up.
Key features include:
- More realistic farming mechanics compared to previous titles
- A variety of crops and animals to raise
- The ability to befriend villagers and pursue romantic relationships
- A child-raising system where your choices influence your child's future career
- Multiple endings based on your decisions throughout the game
The game was well-received for its charming art style, relaxing gameplay, and the depth added by the life simulation aspects. It was later ported to the PlayStation 2 as Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition with some additional features.
Release Date & Platform
- Japan Release: September 12, 2003
- North America Release: March 16, 2004
- Europe Release: January 14, 2005
- Australia Release: March 31, 2005
- Platform: Nintendo GameCube
These staggered release dates were common for many games then, particularly for niche titles like Harvest Moon that required localization for different markets.
The game's release was notable for bringing the Harvest Moon series to a home console with 3D graphics, as previous entries had primarily been on handheld systems or used 2D sprites on home consoles. This allowed for a more immersive farming and life simulation experience compared to earlier titles in the series.Developer & Publisher
- Company: Victor Interactive Software
- Key Personnel: Yasuhiro Wada (Creator)
- Publisher: Marvelous Interactive (Japan), Natsume (North America), Ubisoft (Europe)
This multi-publisher approach was common for Japanese games of that era, especially for more niche titles like Harvest Moon. Each publisher would handle localization and marketing for their respective regions.
The game's development was notable for its attempt to bring more depth to the Harvest Moon formula. The team focused on creating a more immersive life simulation, extending the gameplay to cover decades of the main character's life and introducing more complex relationship and child-rearing mechanics.
Gameplay
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life tells a unique story that spans the protagonist's entire adult life. The game begins with your character arriving in Forget-Me-Not Valley to take over your late father's farm. Your father's old friend Takakura introduces you to the valley and helps you get started. The initial goal is to restore the farm and make it successful.
As you settle in, you meet the valley's residents, including 3 potential brides: Celia, Muffy, and Nami. The first chapter of the game focuses on establishing your farm and building relationships. You must choose and marry one of these women by the end of the first year. After marriage, the story progresses through several chapters, each representing a different stage of your character's life
- Early married life and the birth of your child
- Your child's early years and your growing farm
- Your child's adolescence, where your parenting influences their interests and potential career path
- Your later years, where you see the results of your life's work and your child's chosen path
Throughout these chapters, you continue to manage your farm, but the focus shifts more towards family life and watching the valley and its inhabitants change over time. Your decisions influence your child's development and eventual career choice.
The game culminates with your character's elder years and eventually passing away, leaving a legacy in the valley and through your child. This ending is unique in the series, providing a complete life story rarely seen in video games.
A Wonderful Life stands out in the Harvest Moon series for its focus on the passage of time, family dynamics, and the long-term consequences of your choices, creating a poignant and reflective narrative experience.
Trivia
1. Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life was later complemented by a female-oriented version called Another Wonderful Life, which allowed players to experience the game from a female farmer's perspective, expanding the series' appeal to a broader audience.
2. This installment broke new ground for the series by introducing an aging system in which characters visibly grow older as the years pass. This created a more dynamic and immersive world that evolves alongside the player's character.
3. One of the game's most innovative features was the ability for players to create new varieties of crops through hybridization, a mechanic that added depth to the farming system and encouraged experimentation.
4. The game's child-rearing system was particularly noteworthy. It allowed the player's offspring to pursue 1 of 6 different career paths based on how they were raised and which villagers they interacted with most frequently, adding a generational aspect to the gameplay that was unprecedented in the series.
5. A Wonderful Life took advantage of GameCube's connectivity features by allowing players to link up with the Game Boy Advance version Friends of Mineral Town, unlocking extra content and creating a more interconnected Harvest Moon experience across platforms.
6. When the game was later released as a Special Edition for the PlayStation 2, it included several new features, most notably the option to have a daughter instead of only a son, further expanding the game's replay value and narrative possibilities.
7. The picturesque setting of Forget-Me-Not Valley wasn't purely a product of the developers' imagination, but was actually inspired by a real location in Japan called Tsuyukusa Valley, creating an air of authenticity to the game's rural environment.