IoH Review by Butterscotch
he game strips Harvest Moon back to basics. There’s no rescuing Harvest Goddesses, unlocking sprites or fighting monsters. You run a farm, and are trying to get the island to grow into a prosperous town again.
In the beginning, there are very few characters to interact with; even after playing for nearly a full season, I’ve only met about a dozen or so characters. As in Magical Melody, more characters move in over time, over 90 in all. You can also choose to play as a boy or a girl; it’s a nice option to have, and seems to becoming a standard feature in HM games.
The graphics are decent, somewhat like MM, very chibi-ish and cute.
My biggest gripe with the game are the controls. Nearly everything is done with the touch screen. It’s rather awkward, and takes a while to get used to. Someone who has never played an HM game before may actually have an easier time with it, but as a veteran player, I kept wanting to resort to the familiar controls of the previous HM games for the Gameboy Advance and DS.
Overall, I’m enjoying it, but I admit, it could’ve been better.
