Harvest Moon release for iOS

Seems like our memories will be refreshed soon! A new Harvest Moon game coming to iOS soon as well as Android, Wii U, and PC in 2016. I used to all play it on Playstation and would be glued to it for hours.

For those of you who have no clue to what harvest moon is all about.. One of the Harvest Moon is Back to Nature where it starts off with story about a young boy, visited his grandfather's farm for the summer. As his grandfather was too busy taking care of the farm, he was free to explore the town and the forest as he wished. The boy met a little girl his own age with whom he became close friends. When the summer was over the boy had to go back home, but he promised the little girl that he would return someday. 10 years later, years after his grandfather's death, the boy, now a grown man, returns to the town to take over the farm. However, the mayor and other villagers decide that he could stay as the rightful owner if he could restore the farm to its original state within three years. If he couldn't restore it, or get along with the villagers, he would have to leave.

So the game begins with an inherited ramshackle farm covered in weeds and a small amount of money. Over the course of the game, you must build a thriving farm, and befriend the villagers of Mineral Town. Throughout the game, you must balance between attending to the farm and interacting with other characters to maintain friendships.

The beginning of the game is kinda boring. You must overcome the first obstacle of reestablishing the farm by getting rid of weeds and planting new crops. Once that is done, a time frame of three years to completely rejuvenate the farm begins. Time passes while you are outdoors and pauses inside different buildings such as shops or barns and mines. Time passes very quickly so make sure you plan your day carefully. Both the growing of crops and raising of livestock require daily attention and the expenditure of time.

You start off with an assortment of rudimentary farming tools which can later be upgraded and refined to allow for a more efficient work rate, allowing more work to be done with less energy. Energy is the predominant element of the game, affecting all other aspects of it, particularly in the early stages. You can perform a limited amount of tasks each day. So if you are thinking of clearing your farm in the first day, it is almost impossible. Rather than displaying an energy bar, the game instead shows the character becoming more tired as he performs more tasks. Working after the energy has been depleted will cause you to blackout and will be sent to the hospital which leads to incapacity to perform work; duration of hospitalization increases with each subsequent blackout. You lose the day when you are hospitalized.

There are weather patterns as well as four different seasons in the game, often changing at random but also when certain progress is made. There are rainfalls, hurricanes, frost and blizzards which all do damage to your farm as they would in real life. You will need to harvest your crops, keep your animals into their shed/barn/stable. Perhaps you should keep your dog in the house too.

There are a few upgrades you can do to your farm. One of which is to upgrade your house. It will allow you to cook and come up with recipes.

You can participate in a number of activities, such as betting on horse races, dating and partaking in festivals which coincide with the seasons. There are also certain task requested by the villagers. Fulfilling them will boost your friendship. Also, you will be tasked with finding a suitable wife who will, once proposed to, join you on the farm where they soon after marry and start a family.

Once the initial three years pass, if the farm was completely renewed, your family settles in your farm for good and the game continues indefinitely, otherwise the game ends.

Perhaps someone should bring Dig Dug back to life too..