Don’t forget to feed your sheep, because it’s that time again. That crack like farming simulation is back on the Nintendo Gamecube. Magical Melody is the newest Harvest Moon from Natsume. The Harvest Moon series, for those of you that are unfamiliar with it, is about farming, marriage, and living. Harvest Moon is the epitome of a niche game. Farming, marriage and, living just isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. For some, the slow pace of harvest moon will put them to sleep like warm milk. For others, when they play Harvest Moon they’ll be instantly addicted. With a cult like following there are thousands maybe even millions of people already addicted to this series.

Harvest Moon Magical Melody starts you off with your choice of gender. After you pick your sex, you’re given a choice of land in Flower Bud Village. Each plot of land has its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, you can start off with a big ocean side property, perfect for raising animals such as sheep! The ocean side property isn’t good for planting though. If your thing is planting, the village center property has some good soil, but barely any room. Now the riverside property is big enough for animals and for some crops. Though the riverside isn’t nearly as big as the ocean side property and it isn’t always as convenient as the village center. No matter what you choose, you’ll be able to buy the other 2 plots of land later on. After you get started you learn that the harvest goddess has turned to stone. It’s up to you to collect 50 musical notes to break the curse. You gain each note by completing 1 objective. There are 100 notes/objectives total. Objectives consist of things such as being poor or even getting married.

Besides from collecting these notes, you live your life day by day. With your own farm, busy village and, plenty of land to explore, it’s up to you how you live that life. Obviously owning a farm, your main source of income could be vegetables, fruits and, animals. With over 15 types of plants, you can spend your days watering plants. Or you can take care of sheep, cows, horses or chickens. If farm life isn’t for you, you can go work in the mines, digging deeper and deeper in search of treasure. If physical work isn’t for you, you can relax as a fisherman. There are rivers, ponds and, even an ocean filled with fish all around the village. There is even a secret fishing spot. For the chef in you, you can also cook all your food and even sell it.

All that work is incredibly easy with the very simple controls. Though the work is quite simple, you’re still not superman. Your character does get tired and exhausted pretty easily. Also, every second is a minute in this game, 24 hours in a day, 30 days a month, and 4 months/seasons. Time does stop when you walk in to a building. So it is important to not over work yourself and its best to use your time wisely. If you do need more stamina, there are power berries hidden in the game. Power berries give you an extra boost in stamina. You’re also able to refill your energy with food. You can buy food from any local restaurant or cook it yourself.

Working yourself silly isn‘t all you do. With your hard earned cash, you’re able to spend it freely at the various shops. Besides on spending your cash on your farm, you’re able to spend your money on upgrading your house. You’re going to have to make your house bigger if you ever plan to marry. Upgrading your house isn’t cheap and there are over 4 upgrades. With your left over cash, you can fill your big house with different types of furniture, remodeling it just how you like it.

Things can get lonely in a big house by yourself. You can find a special someone from the opposite sex or just make friends with any gender. It’s up to you to make the first move. It can be tough, as no one is easy in this village. That’s ok though, because a little bribery goes a long way. Talking to your favorite villager everyday will eventually make her or him like you or even fall in love with you. To speed up the process, showering your loved one with bribes, I mean gifts, will help. Each person in this village loves and enjoys many different things. So with a little experimenting you’ll be able to find what attracts the villagers. Eventually (s)he will fall in love with you or just be your best friend. You’ll be able to go on dates with the villagers and even get married to him or her. Once you marry, you’ll be able to fill your house with a little child of your own. Friends will trigger different types of events and even give you gifts. You can even be a match maker and help hook two other villagers up.

If you don’t like any of the villagers, you can attract new people and businesses in to the town. Selling different types of items will allow different businesses to open up. Becoming friends with some villagers can give them confidence to expand their business. So it’s really your job to expand the village. The village also relies on the things you sell. Flower bud village can’t expand without your help.

Since you’re so important to this village, it is important that you take a break once in a while. Every month the village holds festivals. Some festivals consist of just hanging out and talking. Others consist of mini games for you to compete in. The most note worthy festival is the horse race. You can train and ride horses all year to compete in the races. Winners win various prizes, such as furniture or even a power berry. If festivals aren’t your thing you can just hang out at the local café and throw a few back and enjoy the catchy music.

 

At the end of the day this game is still just a farming/life simulation. Not everyone will find this game enjoyable with its slow pace and child like graphics. For what this game does, it does it well. It’s not perfect though. The graphics are a bit lackluster. Villagers look like Cabbage patch kids and there just isn’t anything really special about how the game looks. Even so, the graphics do a good enough job of creating a country atmosphere. Magical Melody is not an ugly game, but the graphics aren't much better than mediocre. Aside from graphics, the sound also has its issues. Magical Melody doesn’t really have a “magical melody”. The music of this game is good but not great and the sound effects are very basic.

Despite the minor problems with the graphics and sound, Magical Melody is the best console Harvest Moon this generation. House remodeling, festivals, and family life will give Harvest Moon lovers their fill of farming life till at least the next harvest moon. So I suggest anyone that loves the Harvest moon series go out and buy this game. For those that have yet to play Harvest Moon, go out and rent Magical Melody. If you hate Harvest Moon, you should have stopped reading the review when I mention sheep.