But only to start, of course. Because it's your mission to bring back the love.
Instead of spending your time entirely on farming, the game introduces the greater objective of community reconciliation for you to work toward. As you begin the game you're once again a young, aspiring farmer moving to a new town and aiming to build a small patch of land up into a successful, thriving agricultural business. But the twist in the plot is that there are two towns. Who hate each other. And you have to pick one over the other.
The village of Bluebell thinks ranching is the best thing in life. Its citizens focus all their efforts on the raising of livestock, prizing the process of helping animals grow and producing great milk, eggs and wool. They think anyone who isn't all-in about animals must be crazy.
The town of Konohana, on the other hand, thinks farming is all about the crops. Its people love to get in tune with nature, working the land by clearing away grass, tilling the earth and sowing seeds to produce incredible turnips, potatoes and corn. They think anyone who isn't getting their hands caked in dirt and loving every minute of it must be nuts.
Oh, and the two towns hate each other's cooking too.
This either-or dynamic is definitely unique. Natsume's put a lot of effort into establishing clear differences and separating these two in-game villages -- even giving their buildings different architectural styles and placing a huge, mountainous area of wilderness between the two so that it's not easy to travel back and forth between them.
But doing such a good job setting up this kind of scenario ends up backfiring a bit because it feels really awkward to be the guy torn between the two. If you've ever been caught in the middle of a fight between two family members, that's what The Tale of Two Towns ultimately feels like. Each side is all smiles when you're alone with them, happy to tell you their perspective on events and try to persuade you to adopt their opinion. But then, when the two are together, it's a firestorm of anger.
And just as it's uncomfortable to be in that kind of a position at a real family reunion, so it is here in the game. The citizens of Bluebell have nothing but nice things to say when you're visiting with them, and the people of Konohana are likewise pleasant to know. But when the game gets them together on the same screen during competition events, it's all weird and out-of-nowhere hatred. Natsume may have been trying to capture the spirit of a good-natured rivalry between farmers who approach life a little differently from one another, but it goes too far here. It just feels mean.
And what's worse is that these community liaison scenarios are really the only new thing to be added to the Harvest Moon formula for this release. The rest of the game feels drawn from the standard franchise playbook for this series -- taking care of your farm is the same as it's always been. Producing crops or eggs or whatever and hauling them to the shipping bin is standard stuff. And wooing eligible bachelors or bachelorettes to potentially become your spouse feels recycled (with the added inconvenience of a huge amount of territory to cover to get to them each day if you're trying to court someone who lives in the opposite town).
It's not all bad, of course. The enormous mountain area set between the towns is actually a lot of fun to explore, and it feels like you've stepped into Nintendo's Animal Crossing franchise as you run around catching fish and bugs and finding interesting plants to pluck through the twisting, rocky landscape.
And though it may not be new, the foundational gameplay of farming in Harvest Moon remains satisfying even after 16 years of sequels. The sense of accomplishment is still intact here, and it still feels great to start with nothing but a bare patch of land and empty barn and create a world-class farm.
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