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![Harvest Moon 64 Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/143345/900x.jpg)
To paraphrase a bunch of anti-Nazi singing nuns: How do you remedy an issue like reviewing a recreation that is virtually 25 years outdated? The nuns by no means got here up with a solution, however now we have to, as a result of it is a evaluate, not a convent, and it is the difficulty on the coronary heart of this evaluate, in spite of everything. Harvest Moon 64 got here out in 1999 — the twentieth century! — and it actually performs prefer it, with clunky digital camera angles, poor localisation, a dearth of issues to do, and music that may drive you loopy with its incessant 32-bar loops.
However nobody is coming to the Nintendo Swap On-line emulations of N64 video games anticipating one thing that would have been made yesterday. There are many individuals who will gladly gobble this recreation up from the NSO Enlargement Pack service, eyes blissfully blurred by the rose-tinted specs of nostalgia, and to that we are saying — good for you! We’ve got been that individual sufficient instances to know the enjoyment of feeling the nice and cozy ’90s-flavoured fuzzies operating by your blood. However to these of you studying this who’re, maybe, extra used to a extra fashionable interpretation of a farming sim — this evaluate is for you.
![Harvest Moon 64 Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/143343/900x.jpg)
Harvest Moon 64 is from an easier time, far nearer to the origins of Harvest Moon in 1996 than what farming sims are these days. The collection started as creator Yasuhiro Wada’s desires of a rural, pleasantly pastoral facet of Japan that’s largely gone now, changed by machines, skyscrapers, and consumerism (a theme that seems in video games like Stardew Valley, too). In rural Japan, there’s not a lot to do, and positively no mix harvesters and automated sprinklers that can assist you plant, develop, and reap your crops — every little thing is finished painstakingly by hand, from feeding your cows to watering your fields.
Is it tedious? Oh, sure. Your life will get barely simpler as soon as your instruments auto-upgrade after a sure variety of makes use of, which you’ll be able to cheat a bit of bit by spam-using them inside buildings, the place time is paused, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a ache within the donkey to need to feed all of your cattle or promote your crops one-by-one, and it isn’t helped by your piddly little eight-slot stock, both.
And let’s not overlook the harshness of early farming sims, the place you will typically end up throwing crops on the bottom accidentally, or sowing seeds one millimetre away from the place you needed and dropping half of them, or — like we did — having your horse bravely leap between you and the grime, leading to you hitting him with a hoe. And now he is mad at us. MATE. YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF.
![Harvest Moon 64 Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/143340/900x.jpg)
Harvest Moon 64 is fiddly, infuriating, and unforgiving… buuuuut if you happen to’re enjoying on Swap, liberal use of the save-state function of the NSO video games smooths over plenty of these creases. Actually, save-scumming may even come in useful if you wish to win huge on the horse races. Trace trace.
Talking of horse races, there are just a few festivals to partake in, which break up the nice tedium about as soon as each fortnight. There are different occasions, too, just like the mine opening throughout winter solely, or the bridge being inbuilt late autumn, giving entry to a brand new and really boring mountain. However the basic feeling of nothing-to-do-ness is form of the purpose, is not it? When you’ve ever lived in a small city that misplaced its thoughts when a McDonald’s opened up simply off the roundabout, you will know the sensation.
You’ll, after all, be anticipated to marry. Giving items and speaking to your meant will slowly construct up their affection for you, and after some time, you’ll be able to pop the query with the collection’ equal of an engagement ring: the Blue Feather. Or — as a result of it is a janky recreation with plenty of bugs — you are able to do what we did, and spam ‘A’ to point out the tsundere Karen your canine 255 instances in sooner or later to take her all the best way to most hearts. Romance is useless, however our turbo button is alive and properly, thank goodness.
![Harvest Moon 64 Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/143353/900x.jpg)
Sadly, marriage ain’t all it is cracked as much as be. Actually, seconds after proposing to Karen, she requested us what our identify was, and launched herself. Later that exact same day, we met her on the seashore, the place she yelled at us for… not proposing. Woman. Now that we’re married, she lurks round our home, speaking about laundry. Each single day. There was even one time the place we got here in to seek out her in mattress, solely to enter the kitchen and uncover one other Karen, who had whipped up a birthday feast for us. When you can teleport, Karen, why do not you assist with the farmwork each on occasion?
These little quirks of code will maintain arising, and as we have already talked about, the localisation is not nice, both. Typos abound, and a few issues make zero sense — like after we examined one in all our cows to seek out out that its birthday was ‘jis020-13’, a date format we’re not aware of, or when Popuri responds to us exhibiting her our canine with “Hand, huh?” There’s even a typo on the beginning display screen, the place Natsume’s identify is spelled ‘Natume’, which looks like a fairly unhealthy oversight. We do not anticipate this recreation’s bugs to be ironed out a quarter-century later — particularly provided that the developer, Victor Interactive, not exists — nevertheless it actually makes us admire the diligence of contemporary devs and their thorough patches.
![Harvest Moon 64 Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/143337/900x.jpg)
Total, dunking on how janky and empty Harvest Moon 64 is looks like getting mad at an growing old actor for not being cute anymore. Although its jankiness is difficult to forgive, the dearth of issues to do is just so apparent as a result of we have had 25 years of growth within the farming recreation style. If you wish to play one thing that is higher, then you’ll be able to actually observe the evolution by Again To Nature, Friends of Mineral Town, and the new-ish remake of Friends of Mineral Town — all of the characters persist, however the world is larger, the mechanics extra forgiving, and the characters extra fleshed-out.
However if you wish to expertise historical past, soak your self within the waters of nostalgia, and be taught to understand how good now we have it today (and you have already got the Nintendo change On-line Enlargement Pack)… then give Harvest Moon 64 a go.
Conclusion
Harvest Moon 64 cannot hope to face as much as fashionable farming sims, however generally it is good to get a reminder of how far we have come. When you have a shred of nostalgia for this one, you will have a good time, particularly with the added bonus of straightforward save-scumming, and you must add a few factors to the rating under. For anybody else, the jankiness and tedium could be an excessive amount of to bear. Simply make certain to play it with a information, as a result of this recreation tells you NOTHIN’.
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