Harvest Moon 64 (牧場物語2 Bokujō Monogatari TSŪ? lit. Ranch Story 2) is a farming simulation game for the Nintendo 64. Harvest Moon 64 is the fourth game in the Harvest Moon series, following a game for SNES, the Game Boy, and the Game Boy Color respectively.
As the player goes through the game, they can see the town and its people are struggling with their own personal challenges. Many times, without the player's intervention, they will fail. Additionally, the townspeople slowly open up as the player talks to them and give them gifts, often reciprocating with their own presents. The characters are believed to be the descendants of characters from the first Harvest Moon game, and are reused in Harvest Moon: Back To Nature and Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town (also Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town).
Plot
The overall objective of the game revolves around inheriting the player's (canonically named "Pete", but customizable by the player) recently deceased grandfather's farm. The player then has two and 1/4 years to get the farm up and running before their dad evaluates their progress. The evaluation is based on the villager's affections for the player, the way the player had been living (number of times they have been sick and time spent "relaxing"), and how well developed the farm is.
The challenge in the game is that of time management; time accelerates faster in this game than most any other Harvest Moon titles. Due to this fact, a perfect ending is rarely encountered.
Gameplay
- Grow a variety of crops to ship for profit and to increase the farm's reputation.
- Raise animals and livestock.
- Forage for wild items, go mining and fishing.
- Interact with and help other NPCs in the game.
- Get married and start a family.
Bachelorettes and Rivals
As in all Harvest Moon games, the player has the chance to woo and marry one of five eligible bachelorettes in the village and can have a child with the one they marry. They also have a rival that player can befriend to get them to marry the other girls. Marrying, having a child, and getting the other girls married to their rivals are all requirements for the perfect ending. Each bachelorette has their own likes and dislikes that player must learn in order to woo them.
- Elli; her player rival is Jeff.
- Maria; her player rival is Harris.
- Karen; her player rival is Kai.
- Ann;her player rival is Cliff.
- Popuri; her player rival is Gray.
See also
- Harvest Moon Villagers, Sub Villagers and Other Characters
- Shops and Locations
- List of Festivals
- Power Nuts
- Crop List
- List of Animals
- Tools
- List of Cooking Recipes
- House Extensions
- Television Guide
- Guide to Affection
- Guide to Weather Conditions
- List of Photographs
- Stamina
- Fatigue
- Your Birthday
Trivia
- Pete's cap is green in the US box art and artworks, but is blue in the game.
- Harvest Moon 64 was ranked 78th greatest Nintendo game of all time by Nintendo Power and Mars Publishing's Parent's Guide to Nintendo Games gave it the only Parent's Guide Choice Award for an N64 game.
- The town in the original Japanese release is called 花の芽町 (Hana no me machi, Flower Bud Town).
- On the game's title screen, Natsume is misspelled as "Natume" and Push Start is misspelled as "Push the Start".