Harvest Moon 3D: The Tale of Two Towns

Harvest Moon 3D: The Tale of Two Towns is about exactly that; two towns whose mayors seem to hate each and are constantly having a bitter rivalry. You are forced to choose which town you want to farm in right away, either European-style Bluebell, the animal loving town, or Eastern-style Konohana, the town crazy about crops. While it does initially feel awkward having to make that choice disappointing one of the mayors, don’t worry too much about it because you can always visit the other town anytime (or even change towns) and you can move at the end of every month. Traveling back and forth between towns can take a little while when you have to venture across a mountain to get there, but it can be worth it to visit both towns since each one has different things you will need to make your farm a profitable one.

HM: TToTT starts off a little slow and it takes about ten game days to get out of the monotonous tutorials. Even then you won’t have everything you need right away; the game spaces it all out so you can get used to a few tools and skills at a time. While that is helpful, it can also be frustrating when you know that you should be able to do more. Luckily it’s such an addicting game that once you get the freedom to start farming, the “days” seem to fly by and next thing you know you’re gaining enough tools and skills to make old MacDonald look like a rookie.

But farming isn’t the only objective here: during the tutorial phase you get a special visit from the Harvest Goddess and she tells you about how she overreacted to the mayors’ constant feuding and closed the short cut cave through the mountains linking the two towns. Then she asks you to fix the relationship between the mayors so the cave may once again be open. Yes you heard that right, she makes a mess and wants you to clean it up. Are we sure this isn’t my kid? Once a week the mayors and townspeople will come together at the top of the mountain and have a cooking festival (aka competition) to see which town has the better food. Every time that you enter the festival, whether you win or lose, you will be building the friendship between the two mayors, though it may take some time before they are remotely friendly toward each other.

When you’re not taking care of your farm or getting ingredients for your entry dish to the cooking festival, your spare time can be filled with lots of mini quests. There is a message board in each town and you can accept requests from both and will receive the gratitude of the person and a reward for completing it. The requests are usually something along the lines of ingredients they need and want you to fetch for them. While it is a good way to pass the time, the missions can get a little repetitive from time to time but you are not penalized if you decide not to accept the request or simply can’t get it done in time. Kind of a nothing to lose and everything to gain situation.

While this was surely intended to play in 3D, it doesn’t seem to work as well as some other Nintendo 3Ds games. I spent most of my game time with the 3D disabled. It is not terrible but it just isn’t good either. It was more of a distraction and didn’t make me feel any more invested into the game’s story. I would still suggest trying it in 3D to see if makes it any better for you, but be warned that it may end up doing more harm than good for your experience.

While this was my first Harvest Moon game, it definitely won’t be the last. If you are looking for something laid back to play that will keep you busy and be worth your money, then you need to play Harvest Moon 3D: The Tale of Two Towns. It is addictive with many hours of game play and the only downside is not being able to save your progress until the end of the game day when your character goes to sleep. But once you start playing you may not want to stop and thus won’t even need a save point. Do you have what it takes to bring these two towns together again? Let’s find out.

A code for Harvest Moon 3D: The Tale of Two Towns was provided to The Married Gamers for review.