Harvest Moon GBC 2 Review

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The Harvest Moon craze was in full bloom by 2000. In three years since the first release on the Super Nintendo, Harvest Moon was on the SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, PlayStation, and Game Boy Color. Developed by Victor Interactive Software and published by Natsume, Harvest Moon Game Boy Color 2 was the second edition of the popular mobile version. Hand-held farming is now in color so let’s plow into this Harvest Moon GBC 2 review!

Harvest Moon GBC 2 Plot:

I’ve reviewed the original Harvest Moon for the SNES and the first Harvest Moon for the Game Boy. Both versions held similar stories involving the player taking over their deceased grandfather’s land and tasked with turning into a profitable farm. Harvest Moon Game Boy Color 2 shook up the plot. A mayor of a dwindling town believes the town is in danger of a financial collapse. Seeing an old abandoned farmland outside of town, the mayor wants to turn it into an amusement park to help bring in money.

A successful farmer from a neighboring town volunteers to take over the farmland and turn it into a profitable land for the town. It’s rumored that the farmer is the first player from Harvest Moon GB. The mayor gives his consent to the farmer and says he has three years to turn the farm into a success.

Three years is a long time in Harvest Moon so if you can’t get the farm up and running then you really suck. Again, my wife played this version for me so she’ll share some input from her time playing it for my Harvest Moon GBC 2 review.

Harvest Moon GBC 2 Gameplay:

The gameplay rarely ever changes in Harvest Moon games. Clear the land, grow the crops, raise the animals, make friends with the villagers. It’s a recipe for success in every Harvest Moon. This one is no different so if you’ve read my reviews on Harvest Moon and Harvest Moon GB, you’ll be up to speed on the tasks ahead of you as you play.

In this Harvest Moon GBC 2 review, you can choose to play as a boy or girl. Each one comes with different benefits and seeds you can purchase. My wife ALWAYS plays as a boy farmer. The following seeds are exclusive to the boy: turnip, tomato, peanut, broccoli, sage, saffron, geranium, and primrose. Seeds that are exclusive to the girl are potato, corn, eggplant, carrot, rosemary, orchid, camomile, and lavender. Each gender will be able to purchase the following seeds: asparagus, melon, sweet potato, napa, and grass. As you can see, Harvest Moon GBC 2 offers replayability with crops.

Raising animals is another critical component to having a successful farm. After playing Harvest Moon and Harvest Moon GB, my wife was excited to raise a third kind of animal. Cows and chickens have long been an essential pipeline of wealth in the series, but Harvest Moon GBC 2 introduced sheep. You can sell the milk from cows, the eggs from chickens and the wool from sheep. Making sure all the animals are well-fed and cared for will result in larger qualities.

Tools will help you tremendously as you build up the farm. You’ll get basic tools first but just like the rest of the Harvest Moons, you can upgrade and get special ones. The one that made the biggest difference in her Harvest Moon GBC 2 review was the Miracle Glove which you find after using a treasure map. It gives you the ability to pocket your crops instead of having to carry each one to the stationed box at the top of your field, saving you lots of time. Marriage is not an option in this Harvest Moon like it was in the original on the SNES. Relationships are still important however as building up friendship will result in special events and better tools being given to you. If you grow tired of all the farming, you can take a break and fish. There are 18 kinds of fish to catch including eels, catfish, and carp.

Events continue to be a nice change of pace in the game. Each season comes with unique events like horse races, hurricanes, blizzards, Thanksgiving, and various festivals like New Years, flower, star, moon, harvest and “Holy Night” which is Christmas. Some of these events offer a photo for you to put into your scrapbook to remember them.

The three years you are given to turn the farm into a thriving land is plenty. You should be up and running at near full strength by the end of the first year which makes the next two years for our Harvest Moon GBC 2 review go by slow. It’s too much time in my wife’s opinion and makes the game drag on. She had a hard time finding the motivation to grow the same crops over and over each season just to see the ending. The Game Boy Color doesn’t offer vibrant options of colors, but it seemed like any screen you were on was out of a children’s coloring book or programmed with MS-DOS Paint.

I think Harvest Moon GBC 2 review would have benefited from a shorter timeframe and a few more events. It became a chore for my wife to play as her enthusiasm for the game waned as the years in the game passed. The greenhouse was a cool idea, but she didn’t use it much. Tending to her crops and animals took too much time.

Memories:
After playing Harvest Moon for the SNES and Harvest Moon GB, I think my wife hit the wall with Harvest Moon GBC2 especially because it looked so similar to Harvest Moon GB. My wife was able to save the farm from becoming an amusement park, but really would that of been so bad?