Not a book, it's a video game called Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. It's about you, or rather a man you play who ten years in the game's past meets this little girl while on holiday at his grandfather's farm.

When he leaves though, he promises that he'll return and ten years later he does. His grandfather is dead and the boy, now a man, owns the farm. So it's up to you, within the time limit of three game years, to restore the farm to it's former glory or better and make the people of the village see you as a friend and not a stranger.

Also you can get married to one of the 5 young women in the village, just don't go all gung ho and be nice to them.

Almost everything in it, like the farming itself and making friends with the people of the village. It's nicely thought out and there's a lot to do, the Tomato Festival is great.

The music and the winter season, the music can really annoy and the winter season is somewhat boring, makes you stop playing after a while if there's nothing else happening in the game for a while.

It's not all that easy to finish, there's no real ending to the game as such, it keeps going after the time limit ends, so you can keep on playing for months, even years.

Sore from sitting for so long, it's an addictive game.

They've mostly made RPG games, well kinda RPG games. They make games like Harvest Moon and River King that are more like life sims and RPG together, works quite well actually.

If you've played one of the earlier Harvest Moon games or you're looking for something different from the usual fare, then you might like this one. It's cute, cheerful and hard. Recommended.

It's not the kind of game everyone can like, the music can really annoy and it can become very boring. Rent it out before buying, just in case.

I rented this out first and heavily enjoyed it, even though there are niggles and the UK copies of the game have a fault where once you get married, it crashes and stops working from there.

For UK buyers, I would say you should send it back to the company who have the rights to send the game out, that would be Infogames, they'll send you a new and fully working copy within a month. Other than that, it's an enjoyable game that has you playing till the cows stop being idiots and getting in your way. Have fun!

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Harvest Moon: Back To Nature   from Amazon.Com!

Created Mar 29, 2003 at 9:15pm • Submit your own review...