Gaming Target - Game Boy: Harvest Moon 3

Written by Ilan Mejer on February 13, 2002

Review: УIt's a bumper crop of new challenges! A bushel of fun with new pets, animals, and tools!Ф

Harvest Moon 3 GBC is easily the most robust handheld incarnation of this niche franchise available. By dropping the compatibility with monochrome Game Boys, nearly every feature from its console brothers that was missing in HM2 has been implemented. Furthermore, some gameplay changes unique to this title help to freshen up the gameplay and honestly provide an excuse to purchase this game despite its long run on now obsolete hardware. This game is the chronological sequel to HM2, and picks up from where it left off. You have succeeded in turning the run down farm that you inherited from your grandfather into a profitable venture, and have earned the respect and friendship of the neighboring town. You have hired on some of the townsfolk to run your farm, and quickly grew bored. Hearing of a budding community in a remote island, you toy with the notion of establishing a farm in such an isolated and forbidding locale. A fellow farmer who is attempting just such a feat, and cannot succeed alone, eventually contacts you...

Once again, you choose to play as a boy or girl and can choose his/her birthday. You will also be able to customize the color and appearance of your in-game avatars and choose from one of eight pets, including various birds, dogs, and cats. Unlike the previous Harvest Moon, the gameplay changes dramatically depending on which character you pick. The boy is expert in the agricultural aspect of farm life, whereas the girl specializes in dealing with the animals. Furthermore, whichever gender you do not choose becomes your partner and throughout the years you will be working together. No longer will you be responsible for running the farm on your own. You will be splitting duties with your partner in order to accomplish your goal. The gameplay hinges dramatically upon this choice. Both characters begin with all of the standard HM tools required for farming and the girl also gains an assortment of animal-care tools like the cow brush and sheep shampoo. The boy may not care for the animals (aside from feeding them, if he wishes it), as he will never gain the tools that the girl starts with. However, he will be able to gain experience and levels with the farming tools that he begins with.

Whichever gender you choose, you will be able to give commands to your partner each day. You will be able to expand your partner's abilities by befriending him/her and purchasing instructional books from the town. You are encouraged to give presents to the many characters in the game in order to befriend them. The result of this is that they will offer you side quests that will net you a collection of hidden rewards. Most of this interaction will take place in one of the island's six locales while almost every Monday and Thursday you will be able to take a ferry to the mainland and meet more people. The mainland is the only place you will be able to purchase additional equipment from either the Farmer's Market or the Shopping Mall. You will also be able to visit a movie theater, an aquarium, the bank, and enter either your livestock in various competitions.

New to the HM portable experience is the ability to carry every tool with you at once, as well as a rucksack which can hold up to 8 items at a time. You may then take your load of eight items back to your storage shed until you are ready to ship your product. You are fully encouraged to interact with the virtual community, both in the village and in the mainland, as they will offer you advice, side-quests, and new pieces of equipment. You will even be able to open up certain seasonal events, such as the winter snowboarding mini game, if you delve deep enough into the game's community.

By dropping classic Gameboy compatibility, the developers were able to tweak the HM2 graphics engine to allow more and brighter colors on-screen. It even works well on the darker GBA screen. The game looks familiar to its predecessor as many of the sprites are ripped straight from Harvest Moon 2. However, the overall package has been spiced up sufficiently and is not a cause to gripe.

Harvest Moon 3 suffers from the same general audio flaws as its predecessors, namely repetitive music and rehashed sounds. Unfortunately, all of the sound effects are taken from HM2 and the game has the same tendency to restart the music every time you pass a door or enter a new area. Furthermore, I can count the number of songs in HM3 on both hands, and each season has one prominent theme that you will be listening to again and again, as it endlessly repeats. The tunes themselves, while not wholly unpleasant, will bore you to tears by the end of the second year.