Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility

HOW I DISCOVERED IT I am a BIG fan of the Harvest Moon series. One day, my family and I drove by a game store advertising Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility. We went inside and bought the game. I was skeptical about it at first, and the graphics were different (but WAY better than Magical Melody). Because it was new and confusing I soon stopped playing Tree of Tranquility and went back to Magical Melody. Since I was playing Magical Melody so often my Mom decided to try Tree of Tranquility. After watching her play for a little, I decided I wanted to play ToT instead. My Mom had so much fun playing after reading the FAQs that she purchased another ToT on Amazon so we could play at the same time. We had to limit our time so that we wouldn't be stuck on the TV all day! The great guide helped us know what the rainbow quest was and how to build rainbows. It told us everything about crops and relationships and all sorts of things! It improved the fun of the game a whole lot. STORYLINE You move to Waffle Island because of an interesting brochure advertising a beautiful town with a wonderful ranch. After you get there, you realize that it wasn't everything in the brochure, but it's still beautiful. After you move into your farm and live there for a while, the mayor shows you half of a quilt about harvest sprites on the island. After you get farther in the game, you get the other half of the quilt and start collecting recipes for rainbows. After you build all of them, you have to re-plant the dead Mother Tree before it's too late and the Harvest Goddess is impossible to save. Can you do it? DETAILS Along the way of your adventure, you can get make friends and eventually get married. You can play as a boy or a girl. When there's a festival, you can attend. You can befriend wild animals, and different from Magical Melody, the animals can move in with you and become your pets! You can have a baby, that, when he/she grows up a little, can help on the farm. You can fish, mine, smash stones, chop trees, plant crops, weed your garden, and explore the island. Certain places you have to unlock because there's a root blocking the path, or a stone, and it's always fun to do your rainbow quest and see where the rainbows lead... I'm not spoiling anything though!!! PROS I like the entire storyline! I especially love that this game is the only adventure game I have without mild violence. There are no battles or killings, and if you don't like calm (yet so involved!) games, then this might not be for you. Personally, this game is perfect for me. You can befriend animals to make them your pets, your child can help on the farm, and your spouse gives you a box lunch everyday to boost your stamina. Unlike Magical Melody, in ToT getting married isn't mandatory. You can win the game without being married. I also like that you can attend any festival you want, with or without a date. In some Harvest Moon games, if you didn't have a date, you don't go to the festival. So the fact that you can go with or without someone is nice. Also you can choose the gender of your baby. Odd but fun. CONS You can't pick up and hold your baby, and you can't feed it. That's a little strange. And I feel so guilty when I just leave her at home so that I can go out and do chores! At the beginning of the game, your stamina bar is small, but the more power berries you eat, the more you can endure hard work. The small stamina bar is a con for a little bit, but, as you get used to it and treat your character nicely, it's not such a big deal. You can still catch a few fish and plant a few crops. Also, once you win the game, it's not very fun to start over, unless you messed up on a lot of things and want to re-do your game and do it better. It's also fun to start over if you haven't played it in a while and sort of forgot it. OVERALL Overall, I don't have problems with this game, like some people do. I personally think it's awesome and fun, and would highly recommend this game to all ages. It is rated E for everyone, and no, it's not E10+ it is just E. It's not super lovey-dovey, like some people might make it sound. Overall, I would say- BUY IT!

The feel and look of this version is like no other of Harvest Moon. I feel I'm playing a whole new type of game. The franchise has taken a HUGE step. I think the people who make this game took the good of the old games, and fixed the very annoying parts of the game. Graphics: It is the most beautiful Harvest Moon yet. Leaves fall from trees, there is shading on everything. The ripples in the water look so real. Music:This could be good or bad depending upon you. The music is average, but it can get rather annoying at times. pros: 1.In every district of the island there is a shipment box that you can use to place the items you want to sell. So you don't have to keep running back home. There is also one close to the mine! There are multiples in the hill top plot (if you choose this place as your home) 2. In every store you can get money by getting a part-time job. 3. You can still go out and do what you need to do even if there's a typhoon or snowstorm! 4. During a festival, you can go in and out the festival as you please,you are not stuck in it. People walk around the island as normal. Stores are closed. 5. You're child attitude is determined by who you marry. When he/she grows up, you can play as the child! And you can pick it is a girl or boy. 6.You can ride a horse or ostrich around the island. 7. The animals come in different colors. 8. You can make a wild animal your pet. 9. If you are looking for someone, you can click on there name on the menu and a track will pop up. So you can find them in no time! 10. Just by ringing a big bell all the animals go outside and inside. No more wasting time putting the chickens outside! 11. Wild and farm products will not desepear. They will stay were they are until you pick it up. 12.For girls: the bachelors this around actually look nice. I've played many HM versions and always thought the designers always put in more effort on the bachelorets then the games. There is variety in characters of both genders. cons: 1. The par-time job takes the whole day. So you should plan before you go to do a job. 2. You have to pull out weeds because they effect your crops. You can't ship them, and they take up a lot of energy. 3. The mines have gases just like in Magical Melody. 4. The camera takes time to get used to. It moves to different angles when you go to different areas, and sometimes you feel as if you are not seeing something important. The control does not give a very good camera option. 5. There is a bit of loading time whenever you go into a new section. It's not long enough for you to loose focus. I use it to go over my strategy quickly in my head. The game continues before you can even finish your thinking process. fun: You can change outfits in the game. (not a necessity, but it's fun!) different:Each type of animal has a life span and will die at the end of there life span. same: I know many reviewers are complain about the stamina. I think they forget that in all HM games in the beginning it's like that. All you need is to upgrade your tools and eat power berries. Problem solved. This is what I think of it so far. I'm only in the beginning of the game. I would recommend buying the guide though. There is so much to do and many secrets!

Terrific game

I'm the daughter of the account-holder who this game was bought for. This has always been my favorite Harvest Moon game 100% but finding a copy wasn't easy! The game came FACTORY SEALED and works PERFECTLY! It was better than I remember and the nostalgia hit me like a semi-truck. 10/10 encourage anybody on the fence about buying to take the plunge and buy it already!

I borrowed this game from a friend, I liked it so much that I decided to buy it. I was disapoibted to find after I did though, there is a newer game with the same characters called Animal Parade. This is still a great game though.

The item's in good condition so I'd rank the disc itself a 5 but not the game it contains. I suppose this is a good game, when you get used to it, but not compared to the earlier games in the series, as it's hard to get used to and push through the first Spring because it's so weird, and it has slow pacing like the slow walking speed, and frequent load times, which makes me feel like I could never stand the game without being able to play it in fast forward. Is it really a good game if I don't want to play it on the Wii itself because it'd be too boring? I can't say that about the previous games and really they're boring too but I'm content with playing them normally if I'm listening to videos. It's lame that you can only plant 6 crops with seeds instead of 9, and you have to make sure you're to the side of the row you're planting but not too far away from it or too close to it or you'll waste seeds, which you should not be able to do. Harvest Moon 3 didn't let you waste seeds. When you first start playing, you'll waste seeds not knowing what you did wrong. And that's just the tip of the iceberg about what's wrong with the game. But it's normal for the series to have its sequels have downgrades instead of upgrades under the guise of more challenge. I never expected this to be even on the same quality as Magical Melody, FoMT, or even DS. I thought it'd be better than A Wonderful Life since you can plant more than one crop at once and the cows don't suck but at least in that game you aren't expected to look up a guide to do stuff like unlock the rainbows and get heart events, along with it being much faster to buy everything so that you're done the game faster. There's a lot more to say about this game but it's hard to remember since I played it so long ago. My detailed thoughts on it are elsewhere. But I will say I'm still grateful I got to play this game, and got to say that I paid for it.

This game has some different features that make the game interesting and if you've played most of the Harvest Moon titles it's something different from past games. Unfortunately it also lacks the classic feel of the Harvest moon titles from starting off with your classic pet dog, to the art change and camera angles (which can be confusing at times). Being able to play as a male or female is a nice twist as well as "working part-time" to pass the days by and collect extra money. If you're a harvest moon fan I would definitely recommend trying this title.