Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life: Difference between revisions
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Nami's son is talented at every possible field except athletics. However, |
Nami's son is talented at every possible field except athletics. However, at first he has no interest in anything besides art and farming. As he gets older, he develops an interest in studying and starts to visit Daryl frequently. As a toddler and child, he rarely goes out and spends most of time inside his house (staying in his room or watching television) or wandering around in the farm. With art as his most talented field, he often seen drawing in sketch book or playing with toy blocks in his toddler stage. He is very quiet and well-behaved compared to Celia's or Muffy's sons, but is also comparatively melancholic. Unlike other children, he doesn't like being showered with much attention. He seems fairly [[depression (mood)|depressed]] as a teenager. He has crush on Lumina in his young adult stage. |
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====Lumina's son==== |
====Lumina's son==== |
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Revision as of 20:05, 22 September 2007
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| Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life | |
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| Developer(s) | Victor Interactive Software / Marucome (PS2 Version) |
| Publisher(s) | Natsume Co., Ltd (NA) / Victor Entertainment / Marvelous Interactive (PS2 Version) (JP) |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo GameCube |
| Release | March 16, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Simulation/Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is a video game for the Nintendo GameCube that was released on March 16, 2004. It was developed by Marvelous Interactive Inc. and released by Natsume, and is part of the long-running Harvest Moon series of video games. The game offers connectivity with the Game Boy Advance game Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town.
True to its name, this is the first Harvest Moon game that progresses through the main character's entire adult life, from young adulthood to death. However, numerous years are skipped as the game is progressed. NPCs in the game, including the main character's son, also grow older as time passes. The game takes place in a new setting for the Harvest Moon series - a small village called Forget-Me-Not Valley, populated entirely by new characters. The basic plot is familiar from several previous Harvest Moon games: the main character, a young man, inherits a somewhat run-down farm in Forget-Me-Not-Valley after the death of his father.
Gameplay
Animals
The player starts the game with one cow, and can later acquire additional, higher-quality cattle as well as male sheep, male and female chickens, and a male horse. In addition to these traditional Harvest Moon animals, this is also the first game in the series to feature ducks and a goat. The ducks appear not to incubate eggs of their own, but after acquiring ducks, some of the eggs the player harvests from chickens will hatch as ducklings. The goat produces milk for one year; after that, however, she dries up. The goat cannot be sold, and many players end up deliberately killing her in order to free up more space in the barn.
The player also starts the game with a dog, and may later receive a cat from Romana. However, these animals serve no particular function on the farm. Other animals can be seen in the forest and swamp, including a turtle, a lizard, a raccoon, and Mukumuku who looks like the abominable snowman. Mukumuku can only be seen during Winter by where the Harvest Sprites live.
Crops
Farming in A Wonderful Life is relatively complex. The player's farm has three fields, with varying levels of fertility. Plants must be watered more than once per day and nourished with fertilizer to obtain high-quality fruits and vegetables. Each crop has its ideal growing season, and will do poorly if planted at the wrong time of year. To obtain the highest quality crops and seeds, the player must water and fertilize the crops every day.
The game offers vegetable crops: turnips, potatoes, carrots, and sweet potatoes. The player can also grow several fruits - tomatoes, melons, watermelons, peaches, oranges, grapes, bananas, and apples.
One new feature in A Wonderful Life is the ability to create hybrid crops. The player can do this by feeding any two different seeds or crops to a talking plant, Tartan, who appears after befriending Takakura and visiting him in the morning.
Bachelorettes
Like most Harvest Moon games, A Wonderful Life offers a few female NPCs that the main character can court and marry. In A Wonderful Life, there are three potential brides (four on the PS2 version), none of whom have appeared in any previous Harvest Moon games. This is the only game in the series allowing only three bachelorettes, as all the previous ones allowed five, with the exception of Harvest Moon 3 (GBC), which only had one girl.
As in other Harvest Moon games, courtship in A Wonderful Life consists mainly of talking to the desired girl and bringing her gifts that she likes every day. The player can propose marriage by offering one of the girls a blue feather, although she will only accept it after the player has convinced her to fall in love with the main character. If the main character is not engaged by the end of the first in-game year, either Celia, Muffy, or Nami (On the PS2 version, it is possible to marry Lumina) will spontaneously propose to him. If he refuses this proposal, the game ends. If the main character does marry at the end of the first year, the game continues to follow his married life.
Celia
Celia has long, brown hair and a green dress. The youngest and most traditional of the three girls from the original game, Celia is kind, sweet, polite, and rather sheltered. She loves nature and tranquility. She lives and works on a vegetable farm just outside of town. She used to live with her parents in another city when she was younger. Later, she decided to stay and work with Vesta at Forget Me Not valley. Even though most of her gifts are very easily obtained, she only slightly comes in a close second to being one of the easiest to woo. She will take a wild flower a day and can almost always be found at her farm.
Muffy
Muffy is a blonde with green eyes and a red dress. A barmaid who works in town, Muffy recently moved to Forget-Me-Not Valley from the big city, and has some difficulty adjusting to country life. Muffy is a bit of a flirt; she tells the player character that she thinks men who work on farms are "sexy", and her style of dress is fairly provocative by Harvest Moon standards (which are, of course, extremely tame). She enjoys shiny things from the mines, flowers, and other such 'girly' things. Muffy is only easier to marry than Celia because of the fact that she's indeed a flirt, capable of gaining a whole heart when giving the first flower. Though some think she's ditzy, she says she wants her son to grow up to be smart, and Marlin says (when shown him the baby) that he seems smart, just like Muffy. This may be sarcasm but probably not. Extremely easy to win over.
Nami
Nami is a girl with short scarlet hair with the light blue t-shirt and white pants. The least conventional of the three, Nami is unusually unfeminine for a female potential love interest in a Japanese game (compare bishoujo game). She is an introspective loner, uncomfortable with obvious displays of affection; she can often seem rude and distant, even when she is in love with the player character. Her attitude, her unpredictable schedule, and her unusual taste in gifts make Nami more difficult to woo than the other two girls. Nami is wanderer, but she keeps finding excuses not to leave Forget-Me-Not Valley. If the player character didn't marry her, Nami leaves after the first year, only to return in the second chapter.
Lumina
Lumina is a girl who (in the first chapter) wears a white t-shirt with a ribbon tied to it and blue pants. The player character can only marry her in the Special Edition version of the game. She is a cheerful and somewhat shy girl. Being an orphan (both her parents died in an accident),she lives in a mansion with her grandmother Romana and butler Sebastian. Her preferred gifts are flowers, eggs and golden wool. She loves to play the piano, though she often feels pressured by her grandmother's expectations. She is the youngest among the four girls.
Children
This is the first Harvest Moon game in which the player character not only has a child after marriage, but can raise the child to adulthood. Each possible wife has a different son, who will always end up looking similar to said wife, and a unique set of interests and talents. However, the player can influence the child's developing personality by taking him places, introducing him to people, and giving him gifts related to various fields. At the end of the game, the (now adult) son will choose one of six possible careers: Farmer, Rancher, Musician, Artist, Athlete, or Scholar. If he becomes a farmer or a rancher, he will take over the family farm. He can not marry. If the main character becomes good friends with Daryl, the scientist, the son has a higher chance of becoming a scholar (scientist). If Wally becomes good friends with the main character, the son has a good chance of becoming an athlete, and so on with many other characters like the artist (Cody) who lives in a trailer and the guitarist (Gustafa) who lives in the yurt.The main character can have only one child, and the child is always male. Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition (PS2) includes the possibility of having a daughter, which has a closer appearance to the character than his son does. The daughter looks more like the main character instead of the wife.
Celia's son
Celia's son is most interested in farming and ranching, and his strengths lie in these areas as well. He already has quite an extensive knowledge about plants and farming at very young age. In his toddler stage, he was scared of all animals except ducks and chicks. However, he grows fond of them as he gets older. He is inclined to be a farmer as an adult. This is encouraged by Celia, as she hopes he will take over the farm. Sweet and obedient, he is often referred as a good child. He also seems generally happier than the other two, having an easier time in his teenage years. When he grows up to be a teenager he has gray eyes similar to Celia's.
Muffy's son
Muffy's son is most inclined to grow up to become an athlete. He is the most mischievous and outgoing of the three children, making him somewhat more trouble to raise. His rebellious personality sometimes frustrates Muffy to the point of her scolding him in her sleep. In toddler and childhood stage, he likes animals a lot. However, the fondness fades as he grows into a teenager. He somewhat idolizes Hugh and aims to become a faster runner and strongre athlete than him. He also has a bit of interest in art and music. As a teenager, he becomes very much the stereotypical teenage child: bratty and disrespectful to his parents. This attitude makes Muffy moody and she argues with him a great deal during this stage. Despite this, in his final stage he seems generally happy.
Nami's son
Nami's son is talented at every possible field except athletics. However, at first he has no interest in anything besides art and farming. As he gets older, he develops an interest in studying and starts to visit Daryl frequently. As a toddler and child, he rarely goes out and spends most of time inside his house (staying in his room or watching television) or wandering around in the farm. With art as his most talented field, he often seen drawing in sketch book or playing with toy blocks in his toddler stage. He is very quiet and well-behaved compared to Celia's or Muffy's sons, but is also comparatively melancholic. Unlike other children, he doesn't like being showered with much attention. He seems fairly depressed as a teenager. He has crush on Lumina in his young adult stage.
Lumina's son
Only available in PS 2 Special Edition. Lumina's son shows great interest in music and art. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any interest at farm related area such as, farming or ranching. His personality is sweet and gentle but a little shy. He is often seen clinging around his mother during toddler stage. He starts became close friends with Gustafa in his early childhood (apparently, because they both had interest in music)and frequently visits his place. Player can even see an event when Gustafa taught him singing in the end of childhood chapter (if the player supported him in music field). He seems to like Kate and talks about her a lot since his childhood stage. In Japanese version, Sebastian honourly addresses him with "sama" (which could be translated as "sir" or "young master") every time he was talking with player character. This is probably affected by Lumina's status.
Daughter
Only available in the PS 2 Special Edition. If you want to have a daughter, you have to visit the Harvest Sprites in their home. Talk to the pot until it says "You win" and go talk to a Harvest Sprite who will offer to have daughter. All daughter will look the same, no matter which girls that you marry. Although, their personality and talent will inherited from their mother. There's only minor differences between having a son or daughter. In Japanese version, daughters'll addresses their parents "Papa" and "Mama" (but in U.S version, both son and daughter addresses their parents "Dad" and "Mom"). In childhood stage, they slept with a bunny doll. They also tend to speak about feminine things.
Crush
The child of player character will eventually develops crush on one of village youngsters, as he/she reached young adult stage (chapter 5). They'll visit their love interest's resident and start meeting up with them frequently in chapter 6.
Kate
The tomboyish daughter of Grant and Samantha. Kate moved to Forget Me Not along with her parents in chapter 2 and became Hugh's neighboor. At first, she doesn't seem exicted about living in the village, saying that it was boring. She is daring and likes adventure. She develops close relationship with Lumina that she even think her as big sister. Her dream is to become a novelist. If you married Celia, Muffy or Lumina and had a son, Kate will become their love interest.
Lumina
A shy girl who lives in the villa with her grandmother, Romana and their butler, Sebastian. She lost her parents due an accident in very young age. She has gift for playing piano and want to be a pianist. Samantha thinks of her as perfect lady figure. If you married Nami, your son will like Lumina.
Hugh
Son of Wally and Chris. He is determined to follow his father's footsteps as runner athlete. He has soft spots for sweets (such as, ice cream and cake) just like his mother,Chris. As a child, he was a crybaby and often being made fun of by Kate. His attitude became tougher and serious as he was grown into teenager. Kate secretly has a crush on him ( which seems to be unrequited ). If you had a daughter, Hugh will be her love interest.
There are rumors that you can pick which girl that you want to become your son's crush, by befriended with the girl in previous chapters (especially in chapter 4).
Endings
After the end of chapter 6, the player character will die and an ending which featured the continuity of his child's life will be played. There are six different endings, depends which career that the child chooses.
Farmer
Your son continues the family farm. He was shown taking care of crops and buying seed from Vesta. He also shown shipping the produce into the bin inside the storage. After exits from the storage, he'll look at his mother ( which happen to pass by ) and smiles. He then walks away from the farm, with his mother still looking and smiling at him. This may indicate that he intend to woo his crush. Takakura was glad that his friend's grandson is continuing their dream and that he can retired from the work now.
Rancher
Your son continues the family farm. The screen will shown he's milking a cow, with his mother ( aka. player character's wife ) watching the process. He also shown feeding the cattle in barn and shipping the produce. After exits from the storage, he'll look at his mother ( which happen to pass by ) and smiles. He then walks away from the farm, with his mother still looking and smiling at him. This may indicate that he intend to woo his crush. Takakura was glad that his friend's grandson is continuing their dream and that he can retired from the work now.
Scholar
Takakura narrates that your son really like to study, with the screen shows he's reading a book in his room. He is also shown assisting Daryl in his lab. Later, he decided to study in a college in the city. His mother,Takakura and Daryl are shown bidding farewell to him at Forget Me Not's exit path. A while after, Takakura receives letter from your son which told that he's studying about robots now.The player character's wife decided to continue the farm in her husband's memory. Takakura, who couldn't let the player's wife doing all farm's work by herself, decide to cancel his retirement and helps her running the farm.
Musician
Your son is shown practicing his singing in Romana's mansion, Lumina playing the music along with her piano. Romana cames in and comments that she's impressed by his talent. Takakura then narrates that your son and Gustafa are now best friends. Later, your son decided to make a music group with Gustafa and travels with him so that many people'll hear their music. His mother and Takakura are shown bidding farewell to him at Forget Me Not's exit path. The player character's wife decided to continue the farm in her husband's memory. Takakura, who couldn't let the player's wife doing all farm's work by herself, decide to cancel his retirement and helps her running the farm.
Artist
Takakura narrates that your son’s growing friendship with Cody, and of his choice to pursue a career in art. The scene shows your son standing in the forest with Cody. Takakura admits that he doesn’t know much about art, but wishes your son luck. Your son leaves a note for his mother, describing how he’s going out into the world to “find his shape.” Your wife and Takakura are shown bidding farewell to him at Forget Me Not's exit path. The player character's wife decided to continue the farm in her husband's memory. Takakura, who couldn't let the player's wife doing all farm's work by herself, decide to cancel his retirement and helps her running the farm.
Athlete
Connectivity
If the player connects a Game Boy Advance with Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town to the GameCube while playing A Wonderful Life, the two games can exchange information. Initiating the connection requires going to the mountain path next to the vegetable farm where Celia lives in A Wonderful Life, and throwing an offering into the Harvest Goddess' pond in Friends of Mineral Town. NPCs in Forget-Me-Not Valley will begin to make comments about events in Mineral Town, and vice versa. In addition, some NPCs will make periodic trips to Mineral Town, returning with new items to sell or hints for the player.
Even without connecting the games, the Harvest Sprites in A Wonderful Life occasionally visit players in Friends of Mineral Town.
Related games
An updated version called Oh! A Wonderful Life was released in Japan for the PlayStation 2 in November 2004. The English language version was called A Wonderful Life Special Edition and was released in late 2005. While very similar to the original version of A Wonderful Life, some extra items and events were added in addition to an updated soundtrack. The most notable changes were the ability to have a daughter and marry Lumina (a character players could not marry in A Wonderful Life).
Another related GameCube game called Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life the Girl version for Game Cube was released in the English-speaking world in July 2005. In this game, the player goes through the storyline of A Wonderful Life as a female character, and can court and marry one of three male NPCs. A reissue off the game was made on the DS called "Harvest Moon DS"
External links
- A Wonderful Life - Natsume's Official AWL webpage
- GameFAQs - A Wonderful Life