theres something about simulator games that makes them as famous as they are today. its the idea of another life to get away from the everyday hustle and bustle of our real lives. the talented folks at natsume have always found ways to make games that have no end, no real objective, and no real motivation, be top sellers. one of their more famous series is the harvest moon franchise. sense 1996 when the first harvest moon game showed up for the SNES, natsume has been making slight tweeks in each game to make them feel slightly different.
they are a great example of the process of getting it right the first time and not messing with it, not to many game company's can say they have been successfulness using the same concept over and over. its hard for any other game to make, growing crops, raising animals, and making friends with virtual characters so much fun. hello everyone im sunny and this is my review of harvest moon "the grand bazaar".
these are the two main characters, of course you can only play as one of them, there are not too many differences between them aside from gender and some cut scenes.
welcome zephyr town, the home to what was once the most popular bazaar in the world (bazaar is a marketing area, much like farmers markets), unfortunately, due to the lose of the town farmer, zephyr town has lost its popularity, once you get to your farm your objective becomes clear, make the bazaar as famous as it once was. this is done in the same fashion as all the other harvest moon games, plant crops, raise animals, make money. looking at this map you can already tell that there isent much to explore. in past harvest moon games there are hidden areas, that lead to new places and things to see. there is only one hidden area in the game, and unless your trying to marry the most difficult girl possible its not worth going to.
unfortunately there is no shipping box and no guy that picks it up every day, you make money buy selling items that you find or grow at your weekly bazaar. this is a very different idea that natsume has laid out for you. instead of making daily money you make weekly money. as simple as it sound this make the game very challenging to make make money. you will spend 7-8 days collecting items in the nature, growing crops, and collecting as much as you can to make money during the bazaar, at then end of the weekly bazaar you will be ranked, along with you city. if you need a little money and the bazaar is too many days away you can sell items at the local shop, but the shop owners dont give you as much as you would get from selling them at the bazaar.
growing crops is a little different, you can grow them the traditional way. plant them, water them, pick them out of the ground. but the new quality system makes you work a little more for your money. for example the stars in the picture above represent quality in the plant, if grown properly they can have 1 to one 1 and a half stars, this depends on the quality of the seeds which are also ranked by quality, half star seeds will grow 1 star turnip if you add fertilizer when growing them, you will find yourself constantly growing things that only grow once like turnips, carrots and cabbage because they grow the fastest, crops that produce more then once take longer to grow and in the end are not worth the effort. it sound difficult but its something you pick up quick.
animals produce there share of daily produce, cows make milk, sheep give wool, chickens give eggs, the quality of your animals produce depends their love for you, talk to them, feed them, brush them, take them outside on nice days, and you will see their affection go up along with the quality of what they produce. this is the best way to make money, because they produce daily.
aside from the bazaars, zephyr town is famous for its windmills. these windmills will become your greatest ally. you can use them to make higher quality items and crops, or convert items. for example, put in a 2 star quality turnip and you get a 2 star quality bag of turnip seeds, once you grow them into 3 star quality turnips you can convert them into 3 star seeds ect ect ect. or if you want to use the nature to your advantage you can put a beehive into a windmill and make honey. everything from converting to upgrading takes in game time to make this can be sped up depending on the weather, on windy days the windmills work much fasters. and on days with no wind they create slower, this can be sped up by blowing into the DS mic, and making the windmills spin faster.
when your not spending most of the day finding items and growing stuff, you can talk to the locals, i was a but bummed out when i found out how small the city population was, and how little development there is with a lot of the characters, there are between 23-26 characters if i recall, and you will only care about half of them. those few you care about will often times be the opposite sex that you want to marry and the people related to them, or just know them. for some character you are required to make friends with family members before unlocking then next heart event, which makes the experience feel more like work then interaction. you are the only person in this town that can get married, sure each male/female has there own significant other, but only within a few scenes. which makes you care less about the towns people seeing as they never develop with anyone else but you.
i dont want to call this game bad because its not, its fun, time consuming, and keeps up with the harvest moon traditions that i fell in love with 13 years ago on the N64. but it feels like they focused on one concept and rushed the rest. the grand bazaar was a great idea but the process of making money is very challenging and time consuming, even once you sold all your crops and items, you instantly invest in new crops and items. and begin working for the next bazaar. its fun, but challenging, original, but not very creative, theres a lot to do, but not enough to explore. if your looking for a challenging and time consuming farming sim, this one is right up your ally. if your looking for a farming sim with a little more to do outside of farming i dont recommend this one
i give harvest moon grand bazaar 6.5 bucket hats out of 10
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