Product Description

You have moved to an island town that was once brimming with life and energy.… Now, however, the island is in trouble! The mystical Mother Tree that once watched over the island has disappeared, and the Harvest Goddess is nowhere to be found! The island has lost its connection with nature and the inhabitants don’t know what to do. It is up to you to save the island! Till the earth, befriend and raise animals, nurture friendships, and build a family. When the giant Mother Tree is reborn, the Harvest Goddess will be able to return and bring prosperity to the island once again. Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility is filled with exciting features that are sure to delight both new players and long-time Harvest Moon fans! There are lot of crops to grow, a variety of animals to care for, tons of festivals to participate in, and an exciting story!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #352 in Video Games
• Brand: Natsume, Inc.
• Model: WII12001
• Released on: 2008-09-30
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Nintendo Wii

Features

• Feel like you're really farming with the Nintendo Wii Remote!
• Play as a boy or as a girl!
• Work Part-time jobs
• An amazing variety of crops, animals, events, and mini-games!
• The deepest and biggest Harvest Moon to date!

Amazon.com Product Description
You have moved to an island town that was once brimming with life and energy. But now, however, the island is in trouble and it's up to you to save it. The mystical Mother Tree that once watched over the island has disappeared, and the Harvest Goddess is nowhere to be found. The island has lost its connection with nature and the inhabitants don't know what to do.

Till the earth, befriend and raise animals, nurture friendships, and build a family. When the giant Mother Tree is reborn, the Harvest Goddess will be able to return and bring prosperity to the island once again.Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility is filled with exciting features that are sure to delight both new players and longtime Harvest Moon fans. There are lot of crops to grow, a variety of animals to care for, tons of festivals to participate in, and an exciting story.

Key Game Features: Feel like you're really farming with sickle, hammer and watering can functionality via the Nintendo Wii Remote. Play as a boy or as a girl, marry, raise a family and pass your farm on to your heirs. Experience more of a variety of gameplay as you work part-time jobs. An amazing variety of crops, animals, events, and mini-games. The deepest and biggest Harvest Moon to date.

Screenshots:

Help the island by tilling the land. View larger.

Meet the townsfolk. View larger.

Date and eventually marry. View larger.

Customer Reviews

Well worth the wait
I am a huge fan of the Harvest Moon games and have been since the PS1 version came out. It was rather frustrating when they kept postponing the release for the Tree of Tranquility, but the end product was definitely worth waiting for.

The storyline is great so far. You have to think a bit about what they want you to do next. It is definitely more challenging than the Magical Melodies version on the Gamecube, a definite plus, in my opinion.

I really liked the beginning, a longer story to start you off in your new home on the island. Yes, it is true that you get tired very easily in the beginning of the game, but I look at it as a challenge rather than a frustration. Once you start to save a bit of money up, and you can start improving your tools, your energy will last much longer. You don't want the game to be too easy or your first run through will be over too fast!

One nice thing about the early part of the game is that, even if you are tired from farming, you can still work that part-time job for the extra cash. I do agree that it would have been nice to have a mini-game for the part-time job rather than just a (little bit too long) movie clip.

Great variety of new animals in the game, easy farming controls, easy to get the animals in and out of the barn to graze. Nice to be able to decorate your house the way you want it, options to buy more land etc... It seems like they kept a lot of the good things that were in the gamecube Magical Melodies version and added even more nice things for variety.

I think they did a fantastic job with this game, and if you have enjoyed past Harvest Moon releases, you will probably love it too.

Pretty fantastic
All in all, this is a pretty fantastic iteration of Harvest Moon. It combines the more dramatic, realistic setting and graphics of A Wonderful Life with the more childlike and cutesy feeling of Magical Melody and Harvest Moon 64 (still my gold standard after all these years). I haven't played it a whole lot yet (I just got it last night, after all) but I can tell it's going to get plenty of play at my house.

I already love the look of the game. It's pretty to look at, prettier than Magical Melody, though not as realistic and striking as A Wonderful Life (it's close, though). One of the first things that struck me was how bright and colorful it is. The flowers in particular are very well designed and richly colored (check out the interior of Souflee Farm to see what I mean). The detail on everything is very nice so far. The crops I've seen have been well rendered and the trees and plants and rocks are very realistic and obviously a lot of thought and effort was put into their design. I appreciate little details like that because it shows that the game wasn't just thrown together. The characters are also well done with many newly designed characters to look at and interact with. I would have preferred a more classic design on the male character, though. It feels less like Harvest Moon with no ball cap and/or bright red neckerchief. And a bowl cut? Seriously? But I digress...

To be fair, there are a few aspects of the game that I'm not in love with. They are as follows:

-Load times. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first Harvest Moon game with an actual "Loading" screen. It comes up every time you're going from location to location (i.e. from Town Square to Lake District or into someone's house) which is to say "a lot". It's not a dealbreaker, of course, but it does kind of interrupt the flow of the game.

-Cutesy music. The music for A Wonderful Life is dramatic and melancholy and orchestral and always fits the mood of the game perfectly. Even the whimsical Magical Melody has more serious music than Tree Of Tranquility. It's all peppy, fake-sounding synthesizers that just don't set the mood in the way past Harvest Moon games' music has. Of course, I've only played through the early tutorial stage and a few days of Spring so far, so hopefully the Fall and Winter music will be appropriately austere as in games past.


But, in the end, this is a new Harvest Moon game and Natsume would have to get pretty much EVERYTHING wrong to make me give it less than 3 stars. As such, Tree Of Tranquility makes an easy 4 out of 5 overall. And if Tree Of Tranquility lives up to its hype as the biggest, most in-depth Harvest Moon game ever, my final judgment may wind up being more than 4 stars. Only time will tell, and any time playing Harvest Moon is time well spent.

So far so good! *Major Glitch Update*
*Update. There is a very bad game killing glitch in regards to female players courting Calvin. If you're playing as the girl character, the game will freeze when you trigger Calvin's "five heart" event, which is his "request" event. This happens on the 10th floor of the mines. While looking at the mural Calvin freezes halfway through his speech, the game hard-locks and requires a system reset. This happened to me personally and I am not happy about it one bit. This is a major issue that now prevents me from going past the 10th floor in the mine unless I fall through a crack in the floor. I would drop my rating of the game to 3 1/2 stars just for the fact that I now have to work on lowering Calvins heart level so I can access the mines normally...what a pain. :(*

Well, I will start off with the fact that I am very pleased with the controls in this game. The Wii remote is utilized in such a way that it works perfectly. You can use your buttons or swing your remote around to achieve various tasks with your tools. I like having options on how to perform a task because sometimes I feel like swinging my arm around, and sometimes I don't. This is a great improvement over the new DS Island of Happiness that doesn't give you options in the way of control and was only stylus driven (which is a pain IMO).

As for this game, once you get going it really is very enjoyable and there is so much do. I know another reviewer complained how quickly their character tires from doing tasks throughout the day. This improves quickly as you upgrade your tools and skill level. Each tool upgrade lessens the amount of stamina used performing tasks. The hot springs used daily in the beginning is a major asset that allows you to double the amount of work you can perform in one day. There are herbs lying around at specific locations on the map that boost your stamina a little. The mushrooms in the mines area good source for an energy boost also. There is a great guide that you can buy for this game that is very helpful in getting you through that first tough season.

Fishing is really enjoyable. It also is a great source of money in the beginning. If you can buy matches from the General store and grill your fish at the fire pits next to the ocean that will boost quite a lot of your stamina if you eat them throughout the day.

I am already in the Fall season and have a barn, coop, and a 2nd level house. One cow, 1 sheep, 4 chickens, 1 silkworm, and finally my horse! Gardening is a lot of fun and with all that my character has accomplished there is still a ton of things to do that she simply hasn't had time or money to get to yet.

I like the Taylor shop that allows you to buy new outfits and hats! I was so happy when that store opened so I could upgrade my Rucksack! Whoohoo!

There aren't many cons to this game, but I feel they should be mentioned. Loading time between each area of the map is just annoying. I think that this takes to long and detracts from game play. Also, time is not stopped when you're in the mines, barns, or stores. It does give the game a bit more challenge, but its annoying to get kicked out of a store right when your about to make a purchase. Rushing in the barns to try and feed your animals, groom, shear, milk, etc. Trying to get out of the mines and hoping you make it home before the next day. I understand other HM versions worked this way, but I guess I am just not used to it yet.

All in all this is definitely a 5 star game. I haven't encountered any glitches so far (knock on wood). I look forward to seeing what else this game has to offer and I doubt I will be disappointed.