Another new episode for Natsume and his flagship Harvest Moon saga. This time towards the village of the heavenly tree for new adventures on Nintendo 3DS. Good pick or episode too many, here is our answer in the Potion test.
The Sims on the Farm
Available since June 2 on Nintendo 3DS therefore, Harvest Moon, the village of the celestial tree takes you once again into the wonderful world of agriculture. Since a first episode appeared in 1996, and yes already, the vein has never ceased to be prolific and the titles are linked one after the other. In order to renew themselves each time, developers must be ingenious and clever to prevent the general public from getting bored.
In the Village of the Heavenly Tree, all these beautiful little people are in danger. Indeed, the goddess of crops is in good shape. Results: your little world has become an arid land, the crops no longer grow… The cause is simple: men have benefited from the goods made by the goddess without ever offering her recognition in return via offerings. Simple and dramatic consequence: the inhabitants of the village have gone to live in the city and you find yourself a little alone in the world in the middle of desert and dry fields. Obviously, as you will have understood, you will have to put all this in order to restore life and greenery to your pastures. Your mission ? Awaken the seven magic trees to restore power to the goddess of crops and thus live in peace and harmony with Nature.
A title that rests on its laurels …
As soon as you arrive in Harvest Moon, the village of the heavenly tree, you are immediately taken in the mood. What a pleasure to find the fields, the work of the land and the animals. If the game is decidedly simple in its approach, it is not really. In Harvest Moon, the first criterion to take into account is obvious: the passage of time. Managing the latter will prove to be very important: if you impose endless days of work on your farmer, he will wake up later and later and end up being exhausted. Result: your work on the farm will pay the price and nothing will progress at your convenience.
We will greatly appreciate the design of the title with neat and colorful decorations. As a reminder, you will have the possibility of playing a boy or a girl, rest assured from the outset little influence in terms of gameplay in the end. You will have to juggle between working the land, which comes down to preparing it, planting, watering and harvesting, and caring for the animals. In addition to all this, you will have to get to know and chat with the inhabitants of the village, in order to create a social bond and not to pass by a cranky old hermit! These last ones will also give you a whole lot of tasks to accomplish, understand by that side quests, which are summed up most of the time to grow such a vegetable etc… You will thus gain various rewards and you will advance in the main quest.
We can also easily blame Harvest Moon, the village of the heavenly tree to rest on its achievements. The title does not bring real novelties in terms of gaming experience or gameplay. It is intended above all for fans of agricultural and management simulations, who will thrive in taking care of their small virtual farm. You will have to be patient to see the work of your hard work and sometimes you get bored on the farm because the actions in the end are really repetitive. Suddenly, the sound environment quickly ends up being off-putting too, which does not help matters!
In the end, Harvest Moon, the village of the heavenly tree remains in the lineage of its ancestors by offering a nice immersion in the world of agricultural management that will appeal to young and old alike. Too bad, alas, that the title does not offer real novelties which would have allowed to dust off a license which is already 20 years old. We stay with a taste of deja vu in the mouth too present, while the universe has a real potential to exploit!