Harvest Moon is a classic farm building game where you sow your crops, feed your cows and lead a quiet, peaceful life. This new version kicks up the graphics a notch!

In this version, you are taking over your grandpa's farm, which is very run down. You only have a year to save it from being run over by developers. So unlike the other versions of Harvest Moon, where you develop your farm and life over years of time, in this one you get ONE year, and that's it. You solve the problem, the game ends.

Yes, you can start a new game and try to win again, maybe choosing a different path to success. There are 9 endings in all, depending on how you want to play it. You can achieve one of the victories in just a few hours, so you could in essence play each night for a week or two and have a different experience each night.

The game isn't as much about real farm management as the other Harvest Moons were. You can't plot out your crops, your main aim is to work on relationships with the townsfolk.

The graphics are very interesting, with 3D characters much like in the Dark Cloud series. The music is OK, bordering on slightly annoying. I found the intro sequence to be especially tedious, with the little sprites leading you by the nose through every single task you could possibly want to do. It would be much better if they told you about a given task when you got to it, instead of overloading you with every single minute detail right at the beginning.

This is a great 'training' game to get people used to the Harvest Moon style of gameplay. Experienced Harvest Mooners might find this game too short, because just as you are getting into your farm tending and relationship building, POOF it is over. So for long term satisfaction, I'd move on to the other harvest moons which are about long term success.

Buy Harvest Moon - Save the Homeland from Amazon.com