#Harvest moon a wonderful life ps4 full#
#Harvest moon a wonderful life ps4 series#

In a way, that made it perfectly bittersweet. For the first time, A Wonderful Life kicked you out - something most games never do.

Most Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons games let you play forever, and no one ever ages, and nothing ever changes (except marriage and children, who mostly don't grow up either). The game ends with the death of the farmer you've been playing for 30 in-game years, who passes on the reins to his son. Even in death, Nina is a sweetheart.Д®ventually, if you play A Wonderful Life for long enough, your player and their family will also age. Eventually, if you visit her grave after befriending her widower, you can polish it - and her ghost will come out to thank you. If Galen the unfriendly, grumpy old man had died, who would mourn him? He's prickly and sour, in contrast to his sweet, soft wife. Which, of course, is just what the writers wanted.

Sure, she didn't like being given weeds, but who does? Her easygoing nature and her friendly generosity made her an extremely lovable character. Nina loved almost everything: flowers, crops, milk, eggs, and fish were all items that would make her like you more. Harvest Moon relationships are tied to gift-giving, and most villagers prefer very specific gifts. In life, however, Nina was the easiest person in Forget-Me-Not Valley to befriend. Galen withdraws from society, moving to a tiny hut on the hill, with Nina's grave close by. Perhaps you visited Nina and Galen in their little house from time to time to give Nina a flower, or Galen a fish, but by the time Nina dies, it's much too late to befriend either of them. She dies after the first year of the game, and it's an unexpected event - most people would probably spend that first year farming, purchasing cows, and trying to butter up one of the eligible maidens.

#Harvest moon a wonderful life ps4 full#

Even now, after the loss of my grandmother and grandfather in the last few years, it's hard to remember that a person who was so full of life just isn't in existence any more. My grandparents were all still alive, and the idea that one day would be the day when I could never see them again was impossible to think about. I must have been around twelve when I played A Wonderful Life - old enough to know what death was, but young enough that I'd never witnessed it, or even been close to it. That honour goes to Ellen in Harvest Moon 64, the 72-year-old who will die in front of you if you talk to her at the wrong time.

#Harvest moon a wonderful life ps4 series#

(Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is not the first game in the series to deal with death, though. But the game also kills off Nina, the elderly wife of Galen, in an unexpected twist that leaves poor Galen even more reclusive and grumpy than he was before. Once you've married someone in A Wonderful Life, the game skips you to Chapter Two, in which you already have a kid, and they're already a toddler. You should never trust a woman who falls in love with you purely because you give her one egg a day.Д«ut that's not the point of this Memory Pak column, so enough about my marriage regrets. Celia is the equivalent of underdone toast. Nami is the town's standoffish tomboy with a heart of gold Muffy is a bubbly, flirty blonde who helps run the bar. No offence to Celia fans meant here, but Celia is the most boring option of the three bachelorettes: Celia, Muffy, and Nami. I married Celia in my playthrough (which I shared with my little brother). Make money to buy things to make more crops to give to your girlfriend so she'll marry you. Most of these sedate pastoral farm life simulators focus on crops and marriage, and everything else just funnels into those two goals. To put it in terms that non-Harvest-Moon fans would understand, that's like me saying Majora's Mask is my favourite Zelda (which it is): it's the one game in the series that really does things differently. I have been in love with Harvest Moon ever since I played A Wonderful Life on the GameCube. No one plays Harvest Moon to come face-to-face with death - but sometimes, a spoonful of medicine helps the sugar go down. People play Harvest Moon games for their peaceful, repetitive gameplay, in which the seasons turn, the crops grow, and the townsfolk always stay the same. We hope you've got some tissues ready because this one's going to be a bit of a weepy. Welcome to the latest instalment in our new column, Memory Pak, where we're going to be doing a deep-dive into some of the most memorable moments in gaming вЂ“ good and bad.