Harvest Moon: A New Beginning is, as the name implies, an attempt to begin anew. With a fresh start to a franchise long considered stale, A New Beginning hopes to bring new ideas to the table and bring back the flare to the popular farm simulator. Yet, despite a lot of interesting additions A New Beginning cannot hide its slow and tedious core.
In similar vein to past entries, A New Beginning opens up with you inheriting an old run-down farm with the task of restoring it to its former glory. From there on out you will grow crops, take care of animals, attend festivals, befriend the local villagers and eventually find your loved one in typical Harvest Moon fashion.
What sets this particular title apart from the rest is how Echo Village – the town you just moved into – is almost entirely uninhabited. With the help of the mayor it is your task to bring back life to the community! This means that in addition to your daily farming routine, you now also have a list of set objectives to fulfill if you wish to progress through the game and unlock more villagers.
The most welcome new feature, however, is the emphasis on customization. For the first time in the franchise you can not only create your own character, but you can also fully customize the layout of your farm and town. By completing different objectives you will unlock more blueprints, allowing you to create buildings that can then be placed anywhere on the map. While the options can sadly be rather limited, it certainly does help make A New Beginning stand out and feel slightly more personal.
Unfortunately, a poor implementation of these new mechanics soon rears its ugly head and ruins what otherwise truly could have been a new beginning.
The first issue comes in the form of the objectives you need to complete. By hiding the town’s growth behind these arbitrarily goals, the game is stripped of all the fun the Harvest Moon franchise is known for. To progress you often need to create a variation of buildings and items that in turn require different materials. The problem arises when you lack the required materials to progress, which can completely stop you from progressing until the correct in-game season will provide you with the material. This is not something desired, as a lack of progression means the town will not develop and no new features or bachelors/bachelorettes will be added.
With the risk of getting stuck, A New Beginning ends up becoming a game focused on hoarding rather than farming. Every little item you forage ends up stored in a shed instead of sold, defeating the entire purpose of the game.
This would not be a problem if not the gameplay itself was so slow and tedious, however. Everything you do in A New Beginning will take a lot of time, whether it is taking care of animals or merely walking around talking with the villagers. The animations are sluggish and you are required to go through a set of menus every time you want to give treats, food or gifts to others. Even taking care of crops takes an immense amount of time as you can only fertilize and pick up one crop at a time. Furthermore, as if to make matters worse, the frame rate is low and choppy if you are in the town or farm area, the latter being the place you will spend most time at.
With no other redeeming qualities to make up for this repetitive core, there is not much fun to be had. There are no interesting villagers to interact with – everyone only being mere archetypes rather than full-fledged characters – nor are there any exciting festivals to participate in. The graphics are empty-looking and the soundtrack only consists of a handful short and simple tracks that will soon get on your nerves.
As a result of all this, the delicate fine line between “enjoyable” and “boring” the Harvest Moon franchise has always balanced on has been severed and it shows: A New Beginning is nothing but a chore.
Today, Marvelous shared some shipment data for Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, the first original entry for the series on Nintendo 3DS. The company revealed that since launch (on February 23rd, 2016), a total of 320 000 have been shipped to retailers in Japan. Unfortunately, we don’t know if that number includes digital sales via the Nintendo eShop (it most likely does).
With over 320 000 units shipped in Japan alone, Harvest Moon: A New Beginning is by far one of the best-selling entries in the series. And it’s not over! Today, Nintendo launched the Happy Price Selection range in Japan (the Japanese equivalent of the Nintendo Selects), and Harvest Moon: A New Beginning is one of the 12 titles picked up for this first batch. It’s now available for 2 916 Yen both at retail and on the Nintendo eShop.
Hardcore Gamer: Listen, we love Harvest Moon. Always have, always will. But unfortunately, over the past several years, one of our favorite series has slid into irrelevance. Story of Seasons — the 3DS Harvest Moon game not actually bearing the “Harvest Moon” title — was fantastic, but it’s been too long now since we’ve had an entry in the famed farming simulator franchise that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Back to Nature, It’s a Wonderful Life and Magical Melody. Sure, there have been some gems on portable systems, like Friends of Mineral Town for instance, but the more recent 3DS installments have left a lot to be desired.
Josh from Controller Crusade writes "Anyone who has followed the Harvest Moon franchise since it burst on the scene in 1997 (1996 in Japan) knows the many ups and downs it has endured. The odd thing about Harvest Moon games is that even when they’re not that great they are still incredibly addicting. Depending on what aspect of the games you like to focus on, you’ll enjoy certain titles more than others. Personally I like to mix it up and do a little bit of everything, not pigeon hole myself into one type of task or chore. Here are my personal highs and lows for the Harvest Moon series."
I've never really played any of the Harvest Moon games except for the Rune Factory ones. Now those are fun!