Right after the release of this Natsume game on November 4th I wrote down my first impressions of Harvest Moon, the Lost Valley and promised to give you some more of my hands-on experience after I’d played a bit. I can safely say after playing it all last week, that yes, the start of the game is slow. But, after that, the game just keeps giving you new things and adding to it. Of course it’s a lot of tilling the ground, seeding, watering and feeding your animals, but I guess you wouldn’t play this kind of game if you didn’t like doing that. And as farming goes, I like the way the crops look, the graphics are great. I think the movement of my little character could be a bit better, it’s a bit iffy to select a square of ground to water or seed. But other then that, tending the farm is nice.
New characters are introduced to you along the way, and they stay either in another part of the valley, or they walk in front of your house on certain days. There’s no village to go to in this game, so everyone can be found in your Lost Valley. The mad scientist that visits the valley, brings a way to introduce buildings to your plot, much like in a New Beginning. He can make you a kitchen too, so that you can cook things. All characters have requests for you, including the Harvest Godess, who controls the seasons with the help of her Sprites.
The harvest sprites do try to help you, though they’re not very efficient, but I guess they will learn. One of them leads my cow out for grazing, but you have to ring the grazing bell again before 6 pm, otherwise the poor cow has to stay outside. Like mine was condemned to do. Luckily my Betsy suffered no ill effects from sleeping on my farmland in the snow. I have a very cute dog now, and I’m promised that in future he will be able to help me too. Perfect, all help is needed!
As I said earlier, you start off in Spring, but a bit of warmth is hard to find: it’s cold and snowy, and it stays that way until you unlock every season, by fulfilling special requests. I’m at Fall 6 at the moment, and I’ve managed to unlock Spring so far. My next assignment involves making a Skytree grow so that I can use it to reach the Land of the Sky and find the Harvest God. I’ll have to get the Summer Crystal to unlock the Summer too. So far now, I’m still in the snow, but at least I know that after Winter I will get a true Spring. The big plus of the game is the way you can change the landscape. With a bit of inspiration you can make the most beautiful vistas, like forum friend Donjwolf did with this awesome landscape! Her creativity knows no end it seems!
I decided the other day to finally get an american 3DS. I hate missing out on games like this! I’ve always liked the purple one that was exclusive there. I can always upgrade it to the New 3DSXL once they get a cool special edition. Thanks for your impressions, Lost Valley here I come!
Kaz, that’s awesome news! You’ll only get the “stress” now of deciding which game you will use with what device, lol. By the way, you can’t connect a foreign credit card to the eShop, but I have an excellent address where you can buy online for eShop cards.
I’m really excited for when this comes out in the UK!
I hope it will come to Europe soon too, maybe this one will make it here sooner then the Rune Factory games do!
Oh the american eshop won’t accept non american cerdit cards? That’s weird since the Japanese and European ones do. Thanks for the heads up. Most of the games I will buy will be physical versions teehee, but there are definately some eshop exclusives I will be after. Cheers, what online shop would you recommend buying US eshop cards from?
I use Thecardcloset.com. It was very weird when I found out the American eShop didn’t accept foreign credit cards. Because like you said, the Japanese eShop does. Glad I found a good alternative, I’m not very good at waiting for games to arrive, lol.