Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns
Ever since I played Harvest Moon 64 I was hooked to these farming games. Thankfully these Harvest Moon games continue to release new games and the latest one for NDS is The Tale of Two Towns which is also available for 3DS. I don't have a 3DS so I can't review the difference between the two.The is really simple. There are two towns on either side of a mountain that are rivals with each other, and you choose which one to live in. The west town is a western theme town named Bluebell that specialize in animals the farm there have more space for animals than crops. The east town named Konohana is a Asian theme town that specialize in crops and plants the farm there has more space for crops than for animals. You can moved between the towns as well as both have a farm and you can eventually have both. The goal is to get the two mayors of each town to be great friends, and you do that by competing in the Cooking contest that happens once every week and completely recover the tunnel in the mountain that connects the two towns. I took me one game time year to finish the story. Didn't even get married or unlocked all the characters yet! I think the story is the fastest and most linear stories I've played! But I will continue to play as I have yet to marry someone and fully expanded both farms.
The game has the typical dog, cat, and horse but their roles are changed. There are no horse races or games contest for them. The horse you rent and you don't have to feed or give it love. The dogs and cats have festivals, and are only judged by the number of hearts they have. They also help you out at the farm by moving you animals in and out of their barn or coop which is very useful since there's no sprites in this game. There is a new pet you can have and that is the owl. It doesn't do anything but take you back home from the mountain top. The animals are the same as well with the addition of alpacas. They got expressions unlike the other animals. When you first buy them they will shiver in fright and would run away from you. When they get more hearts they will start prancing around which is cute! The barn and the coop house are already built the the maximum but you will have to expand your pasture land in to be able to fill them up with animals. As with any HM games you will have to feed them, brush them, and talk/pet them. There is no mini games or product sizes increased. The small milk to produced by Cows and the large milks are from Jersey Cows. One the things that took me a long time to realize is the feed boxes feed a certain number of animals. For awhile I've only been placing food in one feed box and I didn't know when I have to start placing it in the other feed boxes since they all said I can't put feed in it. I started to noticed that not all of my animals were fed so I finally realized it was time to put feed in the second box.
There's nothing really new with the crops and its system from the other HM games. You no longer have to water trees and grains and they will grow all year long. The only major new thing is making trenches that will connect plants and you can water then all and not need to upgrade you watercan to do that. Also you can plant a tea tree to make tea products and a cocoa tree. Another new thing i fertilizer which is the only way to increase the star rating for your crops. One fertilizer will give the crops one star so you will need to buy alot to give the crops full star ratings. Its pretty hard to do in the Bluebell farm since there's not enough space. Each farm have more than one area to plant crops or flowers in. There is no one giant square of land for all your crops except in Konohana that's good for trees. For makers the typical ones are in this game, and the only new ones are pickling and making beverages. In Bluebell you can add bee huts to make honey.
The marriage candidates are still the stereotypical types but the friendship meter got changed. Instead of colored hearts its a flowers. On the side of the speechbox when you talk to someone is a vine with flower buds from top to bottom. You start off with one white flower at the bottom and as you increase friendship or love points more flowers will bloom. For marriage candidates the flowers will change colors. There's also the feature of changing you outfit. There's also jealousy points which are easy to fix, and going on dates. If you play as a girl certain male characters can propose to you. You can still go on dates with other candidates after marriage. As for having a child (only one) you need the extra large bed and will have to wait about a month/season in game time before you get the pregnancy event. About two seasons later your child should be born. Your baby will stay in bed for over a year before it grows and it will walk and talk to you, but will not go outside. Your child will grow again a year later and will start walking out into your farm.
Each town has a message board where you can take on tasks. This is where you get tools, upgrades, outfits, and other items as well as tasks for the townsfolk. One of the things that annoys me in this game is having to wait for the next season to expand or renovated my farm or upgrade a tool or get a new outfit. Playing a whole season takes awhile and it can feel pretty boring and repetitive. Another thing I dislike is that every store can only display a certain number of items for sale during open hours. If I wanted a certain seed or animal I have to hope they the store will have it available that day. I've been needing a sulffolk sheep for almost a year cause the animal store just doesn't seem to want to sell one.You will have to fully renovated your farm before you can build a spa and then the mine. Seeing that each farm has 13 renovations it will take 3 game years to finish one farm which is ridiculous. There's no greenhouse too so it makes making money alittle harder.
There are no accessories or even a refrigerator. You have one storage and that is the horse cart. It is really neat that I can carry everything I have with me since it can be attached to the horse, but there really isn't much space. Its hard to imagine carrying tools, crops, seeds, and other items in one storage unit. You can buy or earn better carts but they all have certain weight, sizes, and the ability to keep items freshness. I miss the older games when I could save whenever I want. The only way to save your game is going to bed in this game.
Overall, the game is nice but it very timing consuming to get any progression in your farm land and the story is way too short in comparison. I think the game is worth playing for awhile if you are a HM fan. I hear the 3DS game A New Beginning is great but I will need to buy myself a 3DS.
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