Harvest Moon DS

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Harvest Moon Portable)
Jump to: navigation, search
Harvest Moon DS
Image:Gamebox2.jpg
Developer Marvelous Interactive Inc.
Publisher Flag of the United StatesNatsume Co., Ltd
Flag of EuropeRising Star Games/Nintendo of Europe
Released Flag of Japan March 22, 2005
Flag of the United States September 13, 2006
Flag of Europe April 13, 2007
Flag of Australia June 7, 2007
Genre Simulation
Mode(s) Single player
Ratings ESRB: E
PEGI: 3+
OFLC: G
Platform(s) Nintendo DS

Harvest Moon DS (牧場物語 コロボックルステーション Bokujou Monogatari: Colobocle Station?) is the first game for the Nintendo DS in the Harvest Moon series of farm-simulation video games.

Contents

The game takes place in Forget-Me-Not-Valley, 100 years after Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Unlike the previous games in the series, which create new characters based on old ones, the characters in Harvest Moon: DS are exactly the same as the ones in A Wonderful Life and Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town.

The story of the game mirrors that of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and Harvest Moon: Magical Melody for the GameCube while the gameplay follows Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town for the Game Boy Advance. The Harvest Goddess has been petrified and sent to another world by the Witch Princess, and it is up to the player to restore her. In Magical Melody, this is done by collecting magical music notes, but in Harvest Moon: DS, the player must find and rescue the Harvest Sprites from the other world by doing various tasks. Once the player finds 60 sprites, the goddess will be revived, and the player will be able to propose to any of the potential wives.

In order to get married,you need to find 60 Harvest Sprites.The potential wives in Harvest Moon DS are as follows:

  • Muffy, a blonde with sparkling green eyes, she works at the Blue Bar. She is the easiest to win over, since she loves jewelry dug up at the excavation site. She also loves wine and daffodils that grow in the spring.
  • Nami, a hardened redhead worldly traveler who lives at the Inn. She has a thing for grapes, but does not like grape jam.
  • Celia, a simple yet sweet, brown-haired farm girl who works for Vesta. She can be shy some times but likes things that you dig up.
  • Lumina, the classy and demure brunette granddaughter of Romana. She will accept only the finest gems found deep in the second mine but she absolutely loves Relax Tea.Never give her weeds!
  • Flora, a brainy blonde woman who works with Carter at the dig site. She loves curry, especially rainbow curry.

Aside from the normal brides one can also choose to marry four special women, two of whom are, unfortunately, glitched in some copies of the North American version:

  • Harvest Goddess, the goddess who has been sealed in stone and sent away by her rival, the Witch Princess. She loves strawberrys, and can grant you wishes but, due to a missing item called buckwheat flour in some versions of the game, is un-marryable.
  • Witch Princess, a mischievous, slightly evil rival and sister to the Harvest Goddess. Only the worst farmers will be noticed by her but cannot be married due to the fact that some games do not count amount of dead animals, a requirement for marrying her.
  • Leia the Mermaid, a mermaid, rescued by Daryll. She currently resides in his basement, you can only enter the basement if you've raised Daryll's FP to 100.
  • Keria, a mute princess sealed on the 255th floor of the 3rd mine. (She only has a brief appearance in the second mine to give you the Legendary sword. If you have that and try to meet her there again you will not see her.) She requires a lot of rare and expensive gifts to please her, and only until after you marry her does she begin to talk.

You can marry both the Harvest Goddess and Witch Princess in the European version of the game published by Rising Star. The North American version is glitched and neither the HG nor the Witch can be married. However the Version 1.1 release of the US version has this glitch corrected. To find out what North American version a particular cartridge is, look at the serial number on the back of the cartridge. The glitched game has ABCEN0J13 or ABCEN0J22 written on the back. The corrected versions have either ABCEN1J09, ABCEN1J11 or ABCEN1J22 on the back. To date, the most "corrected" North American version is ABCEN1J22.

Furthermore, if a Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town or Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town cartridge is inserted into the Game Boy Advance slot and the player loads up Harvest Moon DS, the bachelorettes from Mineral Town become available to be wed. However, the credits roll immediately after the wedding thus bringing the game to an end. After the credits finish, the game will return to the save previous to getting married. This feature was removed from the European version of the game. The girls who come to visit from Mineral Town are the following:

  • Ann, the fiesty ponytailed red head works at the inn in Mineral Town and helps out Ruby at the Inner Inn when she visits Forget-Me-Not Valley on Fridays.
  • Elli, a nurse in training, who visits Dr. Hardy's house along with Dr. Trent on Wednesdays.
  • Karen, the manager of the General Store. She comes to visit her friend (and relative) Celia on Tuesdays. She is about the same from the last game, except her blond bangs are gone.
  • Mary, the sweet and quiet black-haired girl who runs the library in Mineral Town. She is a writer and will visit Lumina on Mondays.
  • Popuri, the outgoing pink-haired girl also runs the Poultry hotline on your phone. Her family runs the Poultry Farm, and she studies at Takukura's house on Sundays. Rick is her brother.

The five "valley" girls have rivals for their affections as well. The player will have to make their move before the corresponding rival does, and has until Year 4 before a rival marriage can be witnessed. The rivals are:

  • Marlin, Vesta's handsome, quiet black-haired brother, who works on Vesta's Farm and will marry Celia if the player doesn't. He is very to himself but will warm up if you give him gifts of wine and rice cakes.
  • Griffin, The shy, gentle owner of the Blue Bar, a skilled brewer and will marry Muffy if the player doesn't.
  • Gustafa, The free-spirited musician and poet lives in a colorful yurt and will marry Nami if the player doesn't.
  • Rock, Ruby and Tim's son. A vain and confident blonde playboy, he lives in his parents' inn and will marry Lumina if the player doesn't.
  • Carter, a serious, intelligent archaeologist. He lives in a tent by the dig site and will marry Flora if the player doesn't.

In addition, if the player inserts a copy of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town or Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town into the GBA slot, the player can unlock additional content, such as newspapers from Mineral Town (Japanese version only). In the US version this feature is glitched and won't work. However the Version 1.1 release of the US version has this glitch corrected.

Aside from new characters visiting from Mineral Town, you can also receive a variety of new Friends of Mineral Town related objects such as DVDs of the TV shows available in Friends of Mineral Town for your DVD player. You can change your background music to different games music as well, after buying 5 records.

The five Mineral Town girls and boys do visit, along with their Friends of Mineral Town and More Friends of Mineral Town rivals. However, whilst the player can marry Friends of Mineral Town characters, the rivals are not the player's rivals in Harvest Moon DS, and will not marry their corresponding boy or girl. Furthermore, if the player does marry one of these characters, the game ends, and the player must reload a previously saved game

There is no "Connection Content" in the European version of the game as different publishers released the two games.

Growing crops in this game is slightly different from the other Harvest Moon games. You are not restricted to only your farm land to grow crops. Instead, fields of various sizes are all over the map and different growth rates are applied to each. Each field has its own fertility level; the more fertile the faster your crops grow. It is possible to level up the crops to level 100 by planting numerous amounts of seeds in the same spot and the better the crop level the better the quality, therefor raising the price. Trees in this game are raised in a similar manner, and trees take longer to grow. Trees differ from seeds in a few ways. One is that you can plant trees anytime except winter, and it is recommended if you want your tree to bear fruit that year. Also note that different trees grow at different paces; some grow faster than others. Another thing to take into consideration is that you cannot grow two trees right next to each other; you have to leave room for them grow, and the same goes for seeds. You cannot plant crops next to a tree or the tree will not grow. Trees also do not have to be watered when you first plant them.

The livestock feature of the game has not been changed drastically from earlier Harvest Moon games. However, the new dual screen adds new animal caring features. It is possible to wash, shear, milk, pet, or give treats to the animal, depending on which kind it is. At the start of the game, there are no barns for the animals, and the player must call the carpenter, Gotz, to build them. It is possible to have up to twenty-eight animals made up of different species. There are chickens, ducks, cows, and sheep. A horse is obtained through an event during the game occurring after the player ships 1000 items in the shipping bin. The player starts the game off with a dog and cat. Just like in Friends of Mineral Town, a player has the option of breeding animals instead of just buying them. In Harvest Moon DS the sheep can be sheared six times once their wool is grown or once if the Clippers are used along with the Touch Glove. A way to make slightly more money is to shear the sheep once, then shear it again using the Touch Glove. Also, if you simply purchase a cow, it can come in one of three different breeds: normal, brown, or marble. The different cows will appear at random, but if you breed them the calf will be the same as the mother.

Unlike most other handheld Harvest Moon games, livestock in Harvest Moon DS can die of old age at around 7 years old. If the animal dies from neglect, you will lose friendship and LP with the villagers, but nothing happens if they die naturally.

In previous games, you started with most of the basic farm buildings and upgrades were always done with wood. The building system in Harvest Moon DS has more options as you start out with only a small house to sleep in and must build your farm from the ground up. You also have the option of choosing what materials you build your buildings from, including grass, wood, stone and the invulnerable Golden Lumber. Each one is more expensive than the last, but cheaper buildings tend to collapse in bad weather. You can build up to seven animal sheds plus new buildings such as a mushroom shed to grow mushrooms and basements which act as greenhouses, enabling you to grow crops out of season.

In this game, unlike other Harvest Moon games, the player has a TV-like device that is carried around constantly, accessible through the menu on the bottom screen. It acts much in the same way the televisions in other Harvest Moon games work, except channels are unlocked through the course of game play by completing certain tasks, such as buying records or befriending a villager. There are 9 Sprite Stations, unlike other games, where there are only 4 TV stations. Channels 3 and 9 do not work in the European version. Channels 4 and 6 only work at certain times. Channel 4 will tell you if an animal is sick, or if an animal has become pregnant, and channel 6 will tell you about events happening on the day. These channels work automatically and do not need to be watched.

Cooking remains similar to that in Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. After successfully fulfilling the house expansion requirements, one can buy a kitchen off the TV Shopping channel. It takes some time to buy the kitchen.( To get channel 2, the Shopping Network channel, you must buy items from the supermarket 10 days in a row not including holidays and days off). The various cooking equipment is gotten in a similar fashion. To cook, the player simply chooses one utensil and up to eight ingredients to create a meal. Certain meals have different effects on stamina and fatigue. You can also cook food to give to the lady you love. This will raise her affection towards you depending on what she likes. You can also buy up to six cookbooks from Roller, the harvest sprite in the casino. Once you have these you will be given 19 free recipes to try out. To find the cookbooks, look in your bookcase next to your bed. There are many different ways to get ingredients. You can buy them from the Supermarket ( by phone ), you can get them from the ground ( such as different grasses and seasonal items ), or you can grow them yourself. Unlike in Friends of Mineral Town, in Harvest Moon DS you can also ship the food you cook.

Many glitches cropped up in the North American release of the game. The original Japanese version already contained several glitches, but were corrected in later prints. Unfortunately, the American release was translated from the original glitched version and not the corrected one. On top of it, localization also added several glitches that weren't present in any older version. These include:

  • Random freeze ups of the game, especially in winter.
  • Inability to marry the Witch Princess because the game fails to count dead animals
  • Inability to marry the Harvest Goddess because of the missing Buckwheat Flour and a Choker not recording on the Mining List
  • Inability to complete cooking and shipping lists due to aforementioned Buckwheat Flour
  • In winter, tiles can randomly become impassable if a grass building falls
  • "Ghost Town", where all doors are permanently locked and villagers are missing
  • Milker glitch, where any animal that can be brushed can be milked
  • Cats and dogs getting stuck after home additions
  • 1 billion gold fishing glitch
  • In English versions of the game, the mailbox doesn't work, and the player can never receive mail
  • After talking to someone, a line appears, but disappears when one has exited the building.
  • Horse Glitch, the ability to ride the horse without being on it.
  • The title screen has mermaids of all colors instead of the whole town standing together.
  • Random dog balls appearing in fields
  • Player's amount of money decreases ( as opposed to increases) when items shipped
  • Planting at night can also cause the seeds to vanish by morning
  • Fruits may not grow on trees planted in the cave behind the waterfall.
  • Sheep can be sheared with the touch glove over and over in an infinite loop
  • If you bring a certain pet (a dog or a cat) to a villager and present it to them, their friendship points increase by 1, allowing the player to simply stand there and gain 255 friendship points.

There are other glitches including blank bottom screens and some events seem to be either missing or impossible to access. Most of these glitches were corrected in the European release of the game, although casino games were removed (leaving only "Memory"), bookcase functionality was removed and interaction with GBA Harvest Moon games was disabled. These glitches were also fixed in the Version 1.1 release of the US version. Fans have started to wonder about Natsume's commitment for the games they localize and their quality control. Already Natsume was known for its lack of quality control in grammar and spelling, being infamous for various typos in past Harvest Moon games, even misspelling their own name as "Natume" on the title screen of a previous game: Harvest Moon 64. [1] In certain Harvest Moon games, so little attention to detail is present that certain characters are even known to lapse into other languages.

Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.