Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Critic Reviews

A magical experience you're never likely to forget, and the best game in a series that's never been less than excellent. An essential Cube buy.

The town is massive and the whole style of the game just brings a huge smile to the face.

An endearing and rewarding experience for those who seek the solace and freedom of world that is focuses on a weapons free, non-violent atmosphere and is easily the best game in the series to date.

It's a life you'd want to live, and it's a truly refreshing escape from the pressures of reality into an imaginary utopia poised on the edge of an ocean.

Doesn't fix what's not broken, and it delivers the same addictive gameplay the series is known for in a prettier package.

What this game lacks in action-packed adventure and evil villains, it more than makes up in addictive gameplay, vibrant graphics, and longevity.

If you like Simulation games like "Animal Crossing," you will most likely get a lot of enjoyment out of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.

As a newcomer to the Harvest Moon experience, I was floored with the almost overwhelming amount of options and choices within the game. The simple and responsive controls make it very easy to play.

It's easily the best-looking of all the HM games, but it's plagued with some unfortunate problems: somewhat spotty control, not enough characters and days that movie by just a little too quickly.

We would have liked to have seen more optional tasks and interactivity between characters, but the game is still great fun to play.

The harmony between deep gameplay mechanics and the freedom of choice is a powerful and wonderful thing. The Harvest Moon series has always been know for balancing these two, and A Wonderful Life carries on this proud tradition with addictive gameplay that never leaves you feeling forced into anything.

Stay clear of this game if you don’t have time to play lots of it though, because after you get used to life on the farm it’s hard to turn back.

While the repetition of farm life is soothing, the repetition in the human interactions is just annoying...Still, with all the chores, you'll probably spend little time carousing about town, anyhow.

Much of the enjoyment comes from the awe and wonder at discovering the simple things in the world. Where previous Harvest Moon titles encouraged workaholic tendencies … the thrill here is in experimentation.

The more you play it, the more it grows on you. It's quite easy to fall in love with the world Natsume created.

Overall the game has that "good vibe" feeling to it that is missing from the majority of videogames.

With the inclusion of the chapter system and the longer days, there is an absolute guarantee that A Wonderful Life will keep gamers captivated for countless hours.

Where the previous games felt like work, A Wonderful Life feels curiously satisfying.

8 / 7 / 8 / 8 - 31 silver

Just know that it’s very different from every Harvest Moon before it; It’s less busy and paced moanre slowly, it emphasizes the livestock business more than the crop-growing one, and it's not about accumulating a fortune so much as it's about building a family and watching it grow.