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IGN Review of Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility
The Harvest Moon series has now brought 10 years of farming goodness to gamers, but when all is said and done the series can -- at least in this reviewer's opinion -- be boiled down to just a few key versions of the game that really personify the best the franchise has to offer. On Super NES, the franchise got its amazing start. On GBA, Friends of Mineral Town brought gamers a beautiful representation of pocket Harvest Moon, blending the best from Game Boy Color with an even deeper experience. On N64, console Harvest Moon was defined, as it still to this day remains to be one of -- if not the -- single best overall packages the series has to offer. Over the years the world of Harvest Moon has continued across nearly every imaginable platform, and on GameCube alone the series saw two very distinct style changes in as many games (we don't count "Another Wonderful Life" as a third offering, really). Now that Marvelous brings its classic series to Wii, we're again seeing a new design, and a pretty unique take on the experience with Tree of Tranquility.
Tree of Tranquility may not be one of the best Harvest Moon games we've played over the years, but it isn't a bad one, despite a few oddities in both the presentation and execution of the game. Things changed this time around, so those thinking Wii's first Harvest Moon is just another quick crossover, you'll want to think again. For starters, you've got the option to play as both male and female leads, which means the game includes eight potential husband and wives depending on how you play. No need for Tree of Traunquility "Cute" this time around. In addition, there's a whole new story, following a young boy (or girl) as they arrive in a mysterious town after surviving a storm at sea. Once there, you'll be put to work by the locals at Souffle Ranch, and eventually chose from one of three locales to start your life on. Ok, so it isn't all new.
With Tree of Tranquility, we found ourselves spending much more time hanging out around our farm fishing and working the land than we did interacting with locals, and we think it has a bit to do with the boy/girl mechanic in the game. While AI takes its own paths around town and seems to mingle more than, say, Magical Melody, interaction just doesn't seem to have the same impact or depth this time around as it has in previous Harvest Moon games. Sure, we took time away from each day to go court our eventual wife, but more than anything it's the times when we're working in the field and have a chance to go to a pre-planned town event where we felt most of the game's story progression and character-to-character "life sim" attitude.
The general presentation Tree of Tranquility offers is a bit of a mixed bag, and while the style is nice, some of the animations and colors (vibrant green grass throughout the town leads to some beautiful water animations, for example), the title is inherently "last gen" in feel due to a lack of 16:9 or 480p support. The game's voiceover for the character, mostly heard before and after a hard day's work, is also muffled and low quality, and that's a shame. To top it off, the game's fixed camera (a staple in most Harvest Moon games) feels way, way zoomed in, and the only change you can make to it occurs when you stand still, and won't transition when you start moving again. Returning perks still make an appearance, such as the ability to Z-lock your character and bring up a tiled cursor. These are met with other nice additions, such as the ability to access ship boxes all across the gigantic village, ship items all at once rather than one at a time, and work all day, shipping items at night rather than at a specific time during the day; all nice inclusions. The town is also huge this time around, including a few distinct residential areas, multiple fishing spots, a hot springs (essential for recovering stamina), and lots of shops to check out.
On the whole "life sim" front, Harvest Moon embraces the more expanded design found in recent games, so while you could always check the television for weather reports, or cook food for yourself as the series has evolved over the last 10 years, the package this time feels more robust, as you can of course plant and raise crops, take care of livestock, buy furniture and expand your house, court a mate, acquire pets, upgrade tools, fish, and expand your farm to take up areas all across the town. It's a pretty huge game.
What it isn't, however, is a very daring Wii title specifically. Outside of a few motion = button press movements, and the inclusion of IR camera when standing still, there isn't a whole lot here that makes use of the Wii's tech. Aside from the mentioned aspect ratio and display limits (it's one of the only games to ship on Wii without 480p), the series could stand to evolve into a new level of actual "life sim" aspects, if that's truly the direction Marvelous wants to go. The farming in the game works, and as a farm sim, Tree of Tranquility does a nice job of trying to keep up with the best in the series (a decent job, but still one that's missing the overall polish other Harvest Moon titles have). With a little more ambition though, the franchise could really open up. Multiplayer would be an excellent move, allowing players to move from their town to others like Animal Crossing. The weather channel could make for some interesting "real world" integration, as you could set your region, and then have your virtual town synched with whatever destination you chose. After 10 years of basically the same design, we'd also be down for seeing a real-time version of the game, as there were plenty of times during our playthrough of Tranquility where we wanted to play a few minutes, and then put it down again, rather than rushing through day after day of doing the same general routine to build up cash flow. These aspects aren't necessary changes by any means, but they would push the franchise; something that hasn't been on the forefront of importance over the last few years.
©2008-10-07, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Tree of Tranquility may not be one of the best Harvest Moon games we've played over the years, but it isn't a bad one, despite a few oddities in both the presentation and execution of the game. Things changed this time around, so those thinking Wii's first Harvest Moon is just another quick crossover, you'll want to think again. For starters, you've got the option to play as both male and female leads, which means the game includes eight potential husband and wives depending on how you play. No need for Tree of Traunquility "Cute" this time around. In addition, there's a whole new story, following a young boy (or girl) as they arrive in a mysterious town after surviving a storm at sea. Once there, you'll be put to work by the locals at Souffle Ranch, and eventually chose from one of three locales to start your life on. Ok, so it isn't all new.
With Tree of Tranquility, we found ourselves spending much more time hanging out around our farm fishing and working the land than we did interacting with locals, and we think it has a bit to do with the boy/girl mechanic in the game. While AI takes its own paths around town and seems to mingle more than, say, Magical Melody, interaction just doesn't seem to have the same impact or depth this time around as it has in previous Harvest Moon games. Sure, we took time away from each day to go court our eventual wife, but more than anything it's the times when we're working in the field and have a chance to go to a pre-planned town event where we felt most of the game's story progression and character-to-character "life sim" attitude.
The general presentation Tree of Tranquility offers is a bit of a mixed bag, and while the style is nice, some of the animations and colors (vibrant green grass throughout the town leads to some beautiful water animations, for example), the title is inherently "last gen" in feel due to a lack of 16:9 or 480p support. The game's voiceover for the character, mostly heard before and after a hard day's work, is also muffled and low quality, and that's a shame. To top it off, the game's fixed camera (a staple in most Harvest Moon games) feels way, way zoomed in, and the only change you can make to it occurs when you stand still, and won't transition when you start moving again. Returning perks still make an appearance, such as the ability to Z-lock your character and bring up a tiled cursor. These are met with other nice additions, such as the ability to access ship boxes all across the gigantic village, ship items all at once rather than one at a time, and work all day, shipping items at night rather than at a specific time during the day; all nice inclusions. The town is also huge this time around, including a few distinct residential areas, multiple fishing spots, a hot springs (essential for recovering stamina), and lots of shops to check out.
On the whole "life sim" front, Harvest Moon embraces the more expanded design found in recent games, so while you could always check the television for weather reports, or cook food for yourself as the series has evolved over the last 10 years, the package this time feels more robust, as you can of course plant and raise crops, take care of livestock, buy furniture and expand your house, court a mate, acquire pets, upgrade tools, fish, and expand your farm to take up areas all across the town. It's a pretty huge game.
What it isn't, however, is a very daring Wii title specifically. Outside of a few motion = button press movements, and the inclusion of IR camera when standing still, there isn't a whole lot here that makes use of the Wii's tech. Aside from the mentioned aspect ratio and display limits (it's one of the only games to ship on Wii without 480p), the series could stand to evolve into a new level of actual "life sim" aspects, if that's truly the direction Marvelous wants to go. The farming in the game works, and as a farm sim, Tree of Tranquility does a nice job of trying to keep up with the best in the series (a decent job, but still one that's missing the overall polish other Harvest Moon titles have). With a little more ambition though, the franchise could really open up. Multiplayer would be an excellent move, allowing players to move from their town to others like Animal Crossing. The weather channel could make for some interesting "real world" integration, as you could set your region, and then have your virtual town synched with whatever destination you chose. After 10 years of basically the same design, we'd also be down for seeing a real-time version of the game, as there were plenty of times during our playthrough of Tranquility where we wanted to play a few minutes, and then put it down again, rather than rushing through day after day of doing the same general routine to build up cash flow. These aspects aren't necessary changes by any means, but they would push the franchise; something that hasn't been on the forefront of importance over the last few years.
©2008-10-07, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved