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Yesterday I started to play Harvest Moon (the original game for Gameboy). I haven't played any Harvest Moon title before, but I've played some other similar titles like Animal Crossing and Viva Pinata.

There seem to be no real introductions (except that I can put things in the box to sell them). Do you think i should play it blind and just keep trying everything or should I read something about the gameplay or watch some videos on the internet to have the most fun?

Just to make it a little more clear: Is there something I could do wrong that will screw up my Character / Savegame? Is it possible, like in most MMORPGs, that if you dont know the classes you may start your character wrong (eg with wrong STAT's)?

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  • What you should do is totally up to you. Harvest Moon is one of the more relaxing games to play. The only irreversible choice is which girl to marry. Once you marry them, you're stuck with them. So choose wisely.
    – Frank
    May 17, 2013 at 13:18
  • 'The only irreversible choice is which girl to marry.' This is what i wanted to hear, if you would post it as a answer i could accept it :D
    – Vloxxity
    May 17, 2013 at 13:21
  • Back in the day, games came packaged with papery things called "manuals" that explained how to play the game, instead of having a programmed-in tutorial or introduction. The secret first quest of the game is to go find one of those in real life or in PDF. It's like an ARG! ;) May 17, 2013 at 19:29
  • @SevenSidedDie yes but its hard to find a manual for most of the old games now... i havent found one at the internet yet. Ive only the manual for Donkey-Kong left but someone has stolen my game 10 years ago :/
    – Vloxxity
    May 18, 2013 at 10:22
  • Hm, well, I'm reading the manual right now, so the quest isn't impossible. You might have better luck if you know that the official title is Harvest Moon GB, and that Harvest Moon GBC is the same gameplay, just colourised. May 18, 2013 at 16:15

3 Answers 3

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In general, Harvest Moon plays more like a sandbox game (limited to your local area) more than anything else. They tend to be short on tutorials, because the early games didn't really have much of a goal, beyond that which you set for yourself. Even in the later ones, the goals are usually very generous, and give you plenty of time to meet them. That gives you freedom to experiment without worrying you're screwing up your game.

The original game for SNES had a hard time limit, but you could abuse the fact that it didn't actually advance until you slept. So it was easy to clear the field the very first day.

In essence, Harvest Moon is a time management simulation. You can "succeed" by doing as much (or as little) as you want. The only limiter is your stamina. If you're going for pure efficiency, so you waste as little time as possible, then you're going to need to look online. This, however, is definitely not a requirement. Harvest Moon does not have missable items (although, some could require rather extensive effort and preparation in order to acquire), so there's no time crunch required so you don't miss anything.

The only restriction on irreversible choices are your marriage candidates. Once you've married one of them, you can't get rid of them and choose someone else. They're with you until death (or a save reset) do you part. Note that there usually is a time limit on how long you have to court your chosen. You have roughly four or five years before they marry their other option. That's easily enough time to choose the one you want, and court them, and have several years to spare. So the time limit is very generous.

Note that for your chosen game, I couldn't find any info on marrying anyone. It may not be included in that one, in which case, there's nothing at all to worry about time-wise.

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Personally I find games most interesting if I have to find all things on my own. Just imagine the internet does not have the answers to help you and just explore and collect everything yourself. This is also the natural way that game-developers design and create the games. As @Sentry said this is exactly the way games are meant to be played and i couldn't agree more with him. Cheers, Marco


Additional information


Please note that games were not created to be impossible. If you cant think of a way to get past a part of the game do not give up after 5 minutes and search for an answer. Just keep on looking and (most of the time) you will find that the answer is relatively simpler than you initially thought.

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Definitely keep trying. It is much more fun that way. In my opinion it is boring to read and get special hints. Trying by yourself is a lot more fun. I do it this way all the time

EDIT: you can do everything wrong, but you only know AFTER you did ^^ don't be shy, just try it. And if you really get stuck we are there to hel you ^^

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  • @Sentry yes most of the time.. but there are also some games you should't or can't play without studying it before(but most of the time these are mmorpg or rpgs with statting where you can upgrade the wrong stats if you dont know anything about the game(play)).
    – Vloxxity
    May 17, 2013 at 8:33
  • Er.... i am playnt aion and runes of magc and tought me everything myself ^^
    – Eveli
    May 17, 2013 at 9:00
  • @Ekonion so do you have/had a "first character" you screwed up with wrong stats? e.G. as i started playing Flyff i screwed up my first character because this was somehow my first real MMORPG and this character is somehow unplayable now. After that time i normally read some guides before i start a new Character in a game i havent played before.
    – Vloxxity
    May 17, 2013 at 9:42
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    @Ekonion Well yeah, I play the mmo's aswel to explore and get there along the way. But if you gimp your character and you can't advance until you buy a respec that costs tons of money and you don't have that yet, forcing you to start new. That is where the fun ends for me, that is why I research how to develop my character before actually starting. But the rest is still a mystery to me.
    – Lyrion
    May 17, 2013 at 13:15
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    So your all-over-main-target is success, mine is only fun... i may never reach the end-content, but i have tons of fun ^^ so if you want success, you study before playing and if you just want to play for fun you easiely start ^^
    – Eveli
    May 17, 2013 at 13:27

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