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Harvest Moon Friends Of Mineral Town.
System: Gameboy Advanced.
Developer by Marvelous Interactive Inc.
Publishers: Nintendo, Marvelous Interactive Inc. Natsunme
Release Date For America: November 17, 2003.
Type of Genre: Known as simulation and role playing.

Synopsis:

The player is a farmer whose goal is to make a profit from the farm he runs by producing crops and raising livestock. Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town is the first Game Boy Advance game of the Harvest Moon series, and is a remade version of Harvest Moon: Back to Nature.

Plot:

This was the first Harvest Moon Game that was Released for the GBA, this follows the long running series of Harvest Moon games going back to it's first release in America in 1997. You start as a young male character farmer who is about age 20 or 21. But before this you have a flash back to when your male character is very young and he goes on vacation with his family. The young character gets lost from his parents and he ends up on a farm with an old man and his dog. The old man let's the family and the young male character who you end up playing as stay on his farm. The young male character plays on the farm with the animals, goes fishing, and enjoys life on the country side farm. Flash forward... Many years later your male character is back on the farm wondering what is going on. The town mayor approaches you wondering what you are doing here. He informs you that the Old Man has passed away 6 months ago and in the old man's well Note: The game never mentioned the old man's name he is just referred to as old man. In his will left the farm to your male character whatever you named your character. Basically, your left to take care of this farm.

Gameplay:

Your goal is to make money, raise animals, and have fun! As well as re building the farm is the main goal. You get to know the locals who live in town and make friends and maybe find your future bride, yes in this game series you can get married and raise a family. To make gold which is the game currency you go foraging in the woods to sell items, go fishing, even the fun part is to go mining in the mines for gold and other precious minerals. You raise animals such as chickens, cows and even you get a horse. But time is of the essence. The whole year and the game is only 4 seasons totaled compromised of 30 days usually in the calendar. Time goes by fast in a day usually about a rate of 5 seconds time ticks away. Raising the animals is key such as the chickens give you eggs to sell and you can also give this as a gift to the locals in town. You also plant crops in your field to sell to make more gold. In the end the main goal is to bring the farm back to life and see if you can manage this all to complete your goal in the timely manner.

Opening:



Girls to choose from:



Graphics:

Honestly, I really enjoyed the graphics. For this being released in 2003 the graphics where great. The male character you play is a chi bi size as well as the other locals in the town and animals too but it looks as if the characters and buildings are 3D looking for this time. When you talk to the characters you see their actual size and the characters designs are high quality. I would go as far as saying the characters look like they would end up in a cartoon that's how life like they look. The colors in the game are also stunning the nature of the water, trees, and buildings stand out as if you where standing in the game your self. When it is morning in the game it is light out but when it rains during the day you see the rain come down, when night time comes around in Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town then it goes dark for night time. It's not the best graphics out there for this time. How they put everything together including the music that changes for day time or even during the winter season makes this all fit into to a beautiful relaxing fun game.

Controls:

At a first glance when starting to play this game the controls are pretty easy to understand how to guide your character. It is simple to recognize the buttons that will help you play as the character and how to do things around the farm. The only thing that I would know note that might be a bit of a pain is knowing how to combine certain controls to do certain tasks. Such as switching out your tools for a certain task. All in all it is no sweat to learn all this.

My Ratings:

Gameplay 9/10
Controls 8/10
Graphics 10/10
Overall 10/10 I really enjoyed this game. This was the second game I played in the Harvest Moon series aside from the PS2 one I played. I was 7 years old when I got my first Game Boy Advanced and when I got Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town I played many many hours and years. A great part of my childhood.