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Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is a wonderful game for fans of the series. Magical Melody tells the tale of a young farmer (male or female) that must own a farm in a new town, making renovations to it to make it the best farm possible. You can grow old, get married and have a family, create a very prosperous farm, and overall have a lot of fun. In this town, there is a spring that the Harvest Goddess lives in. One day the Goddess gets turned into stone, and it is up to your character to reverse this awful transformation by collecting musical notes. These are obtained through certain tasks, such as finding things outdoors, getting married, and befriending others. Hence the name: Magical Melody. The most noticeable change right away is the Art Style. Magical Melody takes a step back from it's predecessor Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, using a more top-down approach to make it more like the traditional Harvest Moon games. The second most noticeable is that the art direction, although still Japanese Anime/Manga based, is now Chibi (large head and eyes, small body) giving it a more kiddy feel. This game is very much so traditional to the original Harvest Moon games. This game is also a lot larger, and more time consuming (that the series is known and loved for) than Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. You can marry almost any person of the opposite gender in your town (that is near your character's age of course) as compared to only 3 in A Wonderful Life. With the added feature of collecting musical notes to advance the game further, in addition to the already established mechanics (farming, raising animals, mining, fishing, interacting with others, etc.) you get a really deep game for such a simplistic style. This is where the Strategy Guide comes in handy. With all of the collectables, people you can marry and befriend, things to do, and plots to advance, it can make it very difficult at times to figure this out on your own. In addition to be a collector's item, the strategy guide allows you to have all of this information at your fingertips. You have images to show what you're looking for, and not just text that vaguely describes everything as with online guides. Although fairly expensive now for the Game Cube version of this game, the guide is a great thing to have if you're a true fan of the series. Overall Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is a great game. If you're a fan of the Harvest Moon series, want to try a new farming game that's simplistic yet deep, or just looking for something a younger audience would enjoy, Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is a great choice. Overall I give this game an 8.5/10.Read full review
If you have played Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, you'll find that Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is immensely better. While the graphics may not be "realistic," the "cutesy" graphics are a part of Harvest Moon's legacy, and fit the mood of the game. There is plenty to do in the game to keep you from getting bored. You can farm, fish, mine for jewels and other things, go to a variety of festivals, become friends with other villagers, and much more! You now have a rival, which for all you competitive people like myself, will give you just another reason to keep playing. The layout of the town and controls have a slightly different feel than previous Harvest Moon games. At first it might seem like the town is too big or the controls are a bit tricky, but it's easy to quickly figure out where everything is in the town and the controls really aren't that complicated. Overall, HM: Magical Melody makes up for a lot that was missing in HM: A Wonderful Life, and offers great things new and old to the Harvest Moon series.Read full review
I think of this game as the best in Harvest Moon series. I never get bored playing it, unlike some of the other games, and I never feel like it's taking me forever to earn money or achievements ("notes" in this case). The music can get repetitive and unlike Harvest Moon games such as A Wonderful Life, you can't really change that. However, the music is still quite nice for the first few hours of playing it. I rate Harvest Moon as 4/5 because I'm keeping non HM fans in mind. If you are a fan of HM, this is a welcome addition to the series, wonderful and fun and not too intensive. Great for playing a few hours of every now and then, and easy to pick back up. For non HM fans, you may find it slow paced or boring, although this game is one of the more involving/interesting ones in my opinion. Fans of shooters and constant action probably won't like this game, but RPG fans will find this a nice distraction.Read full review
This is a very cute game, but isn't Harvest Moon already really cutesy on its own? The graphics are a lot like the cover art - the characters have a simple, compact form that makes them look quite childish. Some characters who are older or look more "mature" are also fitted in this style. Although I found it amusing, it can look a bit odd and be a turn-off when pursuing a marriage candidate. Speaking of marriage candidates, there's rival marriage in this game! By witnessing their events, it will eventually lead to a marriage between them - so be careful! People who move in due to certain requirements may also move out if you don't raise their friendship/talk to them! They will come back after certain requirements are met, though! But now...the plot isn't really all that heavy. You have to collect music notes, and you do so by performing certain tasks (ex: taking your first step into this adventure). There's no time limit, and so you can take your time to collect them ALL if you are a completionist or just gather the ones needed to finish the plot. Overall, Magical Melody is a light-hearted and casual game. It's pretty fun, but as you get deeper into it there are points when it gets incredibly repetitive and boring.Read full review
This was my first Harvest Moon game and I really enjoyed it. ^^ Fans of Animal Crossing will not be disappointed by it. There is a lot to do and it's very addicting. However, it can get monotonous and the music is rather irritating. When I was at the beach and the audio hookup was not working I was happiest, lol. The sound effects also get old fast. So keep the TV on Mute for this one. The first major drawback I think this game has is the 20+ minutes or so of cut scenes at the beginning. (At least they only happen once per game.) It teases you for quite a while with control of your character. :P It got to where I now loathe HM cut scenes. But my biggest complaint is the monotony. I could only play a few hours at a time. (This may or may not be a bad thing to you, lol!) I only got to my second summer before I had to take a break. Overall HM:MM is a fun, challenging and addicting game with a few (mostly minor) drawbacks. I think it's well worth the purchase for gamers of any age. ^^Read full review
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