Video Game Blog 012: I'm a Farmer!

I have trouble focusing. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you already know that. I get distracted way too easily. It’s something I’ve been working on, but it doesn’t seem to be getting much better. I have a huge backlog of unfinished video games, books, and shows. As soon as I do manage to finish something, I start something new, sometimes two things. Often I don’t wait until I finish. When I plan something out, be it my week’s agenda, my next batch of blog posts, or my yearly video game list, you can be sure something shiny will come along to steal my focus.

So, with all that said, it should come as no surprise that two weeks into the new year I already started a video game that was not on my list.

Potato as big as my head. (Credit: Natsume, PlayStation)

The game I’m referring to is, of course, Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland. I haven’t played a Harvest Moon game in years, ever since my marathon completionist playthrough of Back to Nature on PS1. But I have very fond memories of Harvest Moon 64 and Back to Nature. I played the hell out of those games, doing pretty much everything I could manage. (Harvest Moon 64 had some weird issue where an event happened when I was supposed to get a photo and so I missed out on it, and it was really annoying but I didn’t want to start over just to get one photo.)

What got me back into the series? Wandering YouTube over my morning coffee, I saw that one of the streamers I follow (Pikasprey, who also does very entertaining all Smeargle Pokémon challenges) did a playthrough of the Gameboy Advance version of Friends of Mineral Town. I started watching this very extensive series and the urge to revisit my old farming roots was just too much for me. I didn’t want to play Friends of Mineral Town, because that was just too much like Back to Nature (and besides I want to play the Switch remake eventually) so I went searching for other games. I didn’t want to start a long, involved installment like Wonderful Life, so I decided to get the PS4 port of Save the Homeland. My PS2 copy of Save the Homeland was long since hocked for cigarette money so it was nice to see it ported cheaply to a more recent system.

Harvest Moon (since rebranded as Story of Seasons) is a long-running series of farming simulation games where you take on the role of a young farmer who inherits a farm (depending on the game it’s either from your grandfather or an old man you befriended as a child) and you have to win over the townsfolk, fix up the run-down farm, and become successful. You can adopt a dog and horse and raise farm animals. (In this one you only get cows and chickens.) Many of the titles also incorporate aspects of a dating sim, where you can woo and ultimately marry a character from a selection of potential romantic partners. The games are open-ended and can be played indefinitely, but most of the games also have a set time to complete goals. (In Back to Nature you had to get married, have a kid, fix up the farm, and get a certain number of townsfolk to like you within three years. Then you could keep playing as long as you wanted.)

One gameplay mechanic of Harvest Moon is the passage of time. Time moves very rapidly when not indoors, with a few seconds equating to an hour of in-game time. The seasons take a month worth of days, so one year is 120 days. This time crunch can be stressful when you first start playing, but it’s something you get used to. It gives a sense of urgency to all your actions. You don’t have time to sit around. You have to plan ahead and keep moving to get everything done. Using your tools takes stamina and that can be increased by locating and consuming the hidden Power Berries. (Which, in this game, are bigger than your damn head.)

Growing a flower. (Credit: Natsume, PlayStation)

Save the Homeland is structured much like the other Harvest Moon games, but it’s a little less open-ended. Where the other games I’ve played in the series were all about fixing up the farm and making friends with the villagers, this one has set endings to work towards. Nine of them, in fact. Each ending has certain tasks you have to complete, and certain villagers that are tied to it who help you work towards the ending when you become friends with them. After you achieve an ending, it’s logged in your status screen and the game can be played again to get another ending. All the villager’s affection levels are reset and you start with Spring again, but you retain certain progress. You keep your house upgrade, your animals, your crops, your items and money. You lose your tool upgrades and any key items related to your ending. (Like the special fishing pole.)

The concept behind the game is that the town is about to be developed into an amusement park and all the residents will be homeless in one year’s time. You arrive on the farm to put your recently-deceased grandfather’s affairs in order and are recruited by magical beings— the Harvest Goddess and Harvest Sprites— to find a way to save the town. Talking with the villagers reveal certain things that can be used to accomplish this… a rare butterfly, a mythical silver fish, your grandma’s amazing legendary cake recipe that’s been lost… things like that. In my first ending I grew a rare blue flower to attract a butterfly and got caught in a love triangle with the seed shop woman and the flower-obsessed oblivious guy she had a crush on. My second ending involved learning to fish and giving a grumpy young man a ton of tomatoes.

I also have one named Nugget. (Credit: Natsume, PlayStation)

In this game you can’t get married, however I did come across some romantic aspects in the first ending I got. (My farmer got a kiss from the cute pink-haired lady!) Marriage, really, wouldn’t work with this format since the game keeps resetting after you get an ending.

I had to name my farm “Bunton” because there wasn’t space for my standard “Buntown”. I named my dog Goku and my horse Vegeta, which is something I’ve done in each Harvest Moon game for some reason. So far I have played through twice, getting two different endings. I have my animals pretty much at max affection. (Moobey gives gold milk sometimes!) I only need one plot of crops, since I’m super rich. I’ve mastered fishing, which was the hardest mechanic to learn in this game. (The trick is to not cast your line out too far. Thanks for letting me know this, game. Sarcasm.) Really, all that’s left for me to do is search for the other 7 endings. (And one more Power Berry.)

FARMING! (Credit: Natsume, PlayStation)

I’ve been having a lot of fun with this game, but it does have weaknesses when compared with Back to Nature. Back to Nature was a very massive game with dozens of characters, events, festivals, and objectives. Save the Homeland is very much scaled down in comparison. There are less crops and they can be grown year-round instead of being season-specific. You don’t have to gather lumber and can’t make your own chicken feed. There are no sheep, which is a sad exclusion. At first glance, it seems like a much shorter game, being one year instead of three, but when pursuing all the endings, it extends the life of the game quite a bit. Roughly nine years, depending on when the ending is triggered. (So far I haven’t made it to Winter on this game.) It’s really easy to get lost in this game, as with all the Harvest Moon titles. (“I’ll just play one more day…”)

Pros: This is a chill, wholesome game. Relaxing, cute characters and animals. It has very soothing music and the repetition is a good way to destress.

Cons: The graphics are a little dreary. The lighting seems dark even in full sunlight. The amount of content is lacking. No festivals, which are a staple of the series. The biggest problem is how easy it is to max things out. There aren’t enough upgrades or animals. (No sheep and not enough cows. No way to expand the barn or chicken coop.) A little hardcore farming and you end up with more money than you can conceivably spend in the course of several playthroughs. I hit the game too hard on my first run and now there’s little for me to do while pursuing the rest of the endings.

Mmmm, Power Berry. (Credit: Natsume, PlayStation)

The Harvest Moon series is a very soothing, relaxing game for me. These games have been there for me at rough times in my life, giving me something to focus on, to distract me. When life got the better of me and everything felt chaotic and out of control, I could escape to my little farm and control things for a few hours. That’s not the case now, since everything is going smoothly for me in life. It’s nice to be able to play a Harvest Moon game just for fun, to relax and enjoy myself. It’s like watching Cheers when I’m not depressed… a whole different experience but one that’s just as comforting and familiar. This time around I’m not running from anything, not seeking comfort in mind-numbing routine. No, the only problems I had when I started this game was my lack of focus and the sharp ache in my arm from the booster shot. Both are better now, two weeks later, and Harvest Moon certainly helped me through them.

Yeah, I am pretty great aren’t I? (Credit: Natsume, PlayStation)

Now that I’ve gotten two endings and done pretty much everything (I still don’t have one of the Power Berries and haven’t gotten golden eggs yet) I plan to take a break from this game. I do want to get all 9 endings, and hopefully before the end of the year, but there’s no rush. Besides, everything that’s left in this game is going to be somewhat tedious. I plan to play it off and on throughout the year as a way to just chill and destress as needed. (Probably in between games that are actually on my list, haha.) Harvest Moon as self medication.

This was a pretty eventful two weeks. (Credit: Natsume, PlayStation)

Thank you for joining me on my farming adventure. It wasn’t my first and it won’t be my last. In fact, I have some cool Harvest Moon-related content planned for the distant future. I won’t give away what that is yet, but I’m super excited to get to it. Before then, however, I need to learn to focus a bit more. Still, it’s important to let myself get distracted now and then and not beat myself up about it. Life isn’t just about the objectives, the endings you get… it’s also about the things you do and the people you meet on the way to those endings.

You said it! (Credit: Natsume, PlayStation)