Harvest Moon: A New Beginning Review

When it comes to games that make mundane tasks interesting, no one does it better than Harvest Moon. From redecorating your house to doing totally normal Dad-ly chores, this series of games has done it over and over again – and now it’s bringing the fun back with the new PS4/Nintendo Switch release of Harvest Moon: A New Beginning.

A New Beginning is a game that will have you planting crops, building your farm and helping out in Beacon Town. It’s also a great way to meet new friends and, potentially, fall in love!

The Story

You’ve inherited your family’s farm in A New Beginning and have been tasked with bringing it to life, encouraging new residents to move into Echo Village and rebuilding the town. It’s a plot that has been used in almost every Harvest Moon game to date, but it does serve as a good introduction to the gameplay, and you’ll be meeting new people, making new friends and romancing your way through the game.

The Customization System

A new feature to this incarnation of the Harvest Moon series is the ability to customize the look and feel of Echo Village and your farm. This is a fantastic addition that will keep you coming back for more, as it’s easy to move buildings and rearrange them to create your ideal set up.

The Town

You’ll need to rebuild Beacon Town in order to keep it alive, and this is an essential part of the game’s appeal. As you build new shops, more people will start to visit your town and will give you their requests, which in turn means more townsfolk to befriend and more opportunities for romance!

Michelle

She’s a bright-hearted girl with a passion for magic tricks. She likes to wow the audience with her impressive feats, and she’ll put on a show in Clement’s restaurant from 10am until 6pm on Mondays and Thursdays.

Michelle loves the color pink, and she’s very sweet. She’s a bit obsessive about the color, so she’ll be happy to live in your bright-pink house, which you’ll need to build before she moves in!

Marriage

A new addition to this incarnation of the Harvest Moon game is that you can now have a spouse. Once you’ve married, your new spouse will help you with gathering materials and cooking meals. They’ll also make you laugh, which can be a nice little bonus to the otherwise tedious chores of farming and building your home.

The In-Game Story

A New Beginning is a game that combines the best elements of all the previous incarnations of the Harvest Moon series, and it’s one of the most impressive examples of how this franchise has grown and evolved over fifteen years. Despite some issues with the localization, A New Beginning is a very solid and enjoyable game that offers an impressively varied adventure.

The Characters

This game has an impressive number of characters, with each and every one of them offering unique traits that will keep you coming back for more. While some of them are just there to be dated, others offer special abilities that can unlock additional items or boost your overall level. In some cases, it’s the characters themselves who can open up new areas of the world to explore, which is a fantastic addition that will keep you going for quite some time.