izigame.me

This is going to be a lengthy and somewhat detailed review, I have marked spoilers especially the major ending spoilers.
I'll be straight forward- I don't have a lot of positives to say about AWL.
So I originally played Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life (Girl version) on an emulator early last year.
I got bored with the game by year 3 on the emulator which I should've known better- but then it had been announced that it was coming to steam, so I stopped playing on emulator to wait for steam release hoping it wouldn't be as boring, but I was wrong...
AWL originally came out in 2003 for GameCube so it's an old game that's been redone.
Game was on sale a few weeks ago so I grabbed it for 20$ and I regret it. It's not a bad game, but it's not for me. By the time I got to year 3 I was bored again, but this time I forced myself to play until the ending anyway.
I get it's an old game but even with this 'redo' and the addition of the quest board, the game just feels extremely slow, dull, and boring. Especially after getting to year 3, even with only 10 days in every season the game just felt like it dragged on.
Watching your kid grow up and watching yourself get old was pretty neat but that's all the game has going for it.
This game has WAY TOO many combos of hybrid plants to do through Vinnie.
Let's talk about the animals and breeding- you get no real help on your farm so you're dealing with crops and animals by yourself. Now, I don't know if it's just me but the animals were breeding by themselves like crazy. I sold my last male bull because the cows kept getting pregnant, I sold my roosters because my chickens kept making babies, and my sheep same issue, I had to sell the male because my ONE female kept getting pregnant. Goat same thing, kept getting pregnant so I broke down and sold the male which you can buy a new one through Van.
The ONLY male I didn't sell was the duck since you can not replace the ducks if you sell them all.
The animals legit breed a high amount and every time I turned around, it got to the point to where I would sell as baby the day it was born so I guess it's good money but it was highly obnoxious.

For some odd reason they changed- Marlin's name to Matthew, Cody was changed to Gordy and Muffy was changed to Molly.. Oh and Murrey was changed to Pui. I don't understand the name changes, but there it is.
The bachelors? Aren't the best, they're some of the worse pickings out of any game with marriage I have played.. I feel the bachelorettes were definitely much better pickings over the bachelors.
This game heavily revolves around getting married and having a kid and telling a story.
If you do NOT get married by end of year 1 you leave Forgotten Valley and game ends- so this game forces you to get married to continue playing.
POTENTIAL SPOILERS: About raising a child and the affects of certain items it has on choosing your kids future:
The game let's you decide your child's future and what their job will be. The game gives you items, drawing pad, ball, blocks, car, and let's you choose how to interact with your child so you can decide how to manipulate what your child will do once they become an adult which is an interesting concept. Also the interactions like hugging and tossing also have an affect as to what your child will do as an adult.
For example- If you want your kid to be a farmer you need to show them tools, seeds, animal products etc.
Unfortunately I didn't realize that until AFTER I made some choices at the end of the year that my child had chosen a completely different path by the time he turned into an adult. I looked into it after, the raising kid and choosing what they'll do is a whole thing. I tried to get my kid to be a farmer but instead my kid turned to academics
In this game you visibly watch yourself get older. You go from being young to literally watching yourself grow old with gray hair, which is neat....
Major ending Spoilers:
I'm still confused as to how EVERYONE in town (except Nina) outlives your character?
Especially Gary, his wife Nina dies after year 1 so they were an older couple to begin with. Yet he outlives you?
Romana and Sebastian somehow outlive you, and Romana is Lumina's grandma, so she's already older. It doesn't make sense. You start out young, and EVERYONE who was already older outlives you???
I can see why Takakura outlives you, but everyone else? It's absolute bullshit lol.
This game technically gives you a lot to do, even after finishing the game I realized I still missed a few things and this is one of the few times where I don't feel like restarting just to finish getting achievements.
I will add: I've also been slowly playing Animal Parade (2008) and Magical Melody (2005) on an emulator and I've had much more fun playing those games than I did with this game.
I hope they remake, AP, MM, ANB, and TOT.