Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland (2001)

This isn't a traditional farming sim, with the focus instead being on the relationship you form with the members of the town you're in and a ticking clock to save the town before the end of the year.

You have a large collection of different ways to do so and there's even a New Game Plus option where you can keep your progress as you start over.

The game isn't perfect, the new game plus is much appreciated but admittedly does make year 3+ somewhat boring as there isn't much for you to do once you have everything upgraded. Also there's a lot of information you would probably never figure out without looking it up or using the manual that came with older versions of the game (luckily I still have my ps2 game manual).

Over all, an enjoyable experience and a fun twist on the genre.

3.5 / 5 Stars

This was my first time playing a Harvest Moon game, or even any game from this genre.

At first, the game showed promise, and it kept things interesting and new, meeting people and learning about farming, raising animals, etc. Unfortunately, soon it got very repetitive and boring. Days went by with nothing happening, nothing at all... Dialogues kept repeating, and there were no farming innovations, because you are meant to replay the game a couple of times in order to get all the trinkets.

When the game was starting to get interesting, and I was seeing progress in a couple of storylines, the game just ended. It picked the storyline that was more developed and that was it. Then I woke up, with all my trinkets, but the other storylines were gone.... All gone.... The villagers forgot about me.

I was not going to spend so many hours again trying to move the storylines and repeating dialogues, so that was it for me. I finished one storyline, no more than that.

Despite of this, I found myself playing for about 20 hours and for the most part I "enjoyed" the game. I mean, it was relaxing.

Controls were clunky, just like a PS2 game. Who else hated to move the cows around? The music was always the same, and the dialogue super slow. Nevertheless, now I am interested in this genre. I think I will try out Stardew Valley.