Seven reasons to get Harvest Moon Cute, even if you own Harvest Moon DS
Natsume recently released Harvest Moon Cute for the Nintendo DS on March 25, 2008. Many gamers may have decided to pass on this title, especially considering that Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness is expected to be released in June 2008. The thing is, Harvest Moon Cute is really a nifty farming game, and the most polished, portable Harvest Moon to date.
If anything, Harvest Moon Cute should really be considered Harvest Moon DS 2.0. It’s no secret that Harvest Moon DS, released September 2006, caused quite a bit of heartache and frustration for fans of farming sims. It was riddled with glitches and inconsistencies and the legendary “corrupted save” glitch kept many loyal fans away.
Thankfully, Natsume learned from its mistakes and Harvest Moon Cute is a solid game. Gamers just need to give it a chance. In case you’re still on the fence about purchasing it, take a look at seven reasons why Harvest Moon Cute is worth $29.99.
1: Harvest Moon Cute has
fewer glitches.
The original Harvest Moon DS was plagued by glitches. Save files would randomly become corrupted, the game would freeze for no reason, Items required to marry the Harvest Goddess were missing, and it was impossible to marry the Witch Princess. Animals freeze or get stuck. The game freezes. There were so many glitches that the Wikipedia entry on Harvest Moon DS created by users has a section devoted to describing glitches (appearing as of April 9, 2008). I personally experienced quite a few glitches while mining, where the game would randomly freeze when I’d break some rocks or drop to a lower floor.
Harvest Moon Cute fixes almost all of the glitches. If you look online, you’ll see far fewer complaints or reports of errors. Also the translation is a bit better, and there are fewer typos in game dialogue. Some people have reported relatively minor typos and an occasional glitch at Gamefaqs, but nothing as horrendous as a corrupted save.
2: You can play as a girl.
The most obvious change in Harvest Moon Cute is the lead character. After a quick opening quiz, players are assigned a blond “Claire” Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town avatar or a brunette “Jill” Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life avatar. Of course the two characters are identical. You won’t get certain stat boosts from being blond or brunette.
This also means that you try to hook up with the men of Forget Me Not Valley and, if you have one of the two versions of the Friends of Mineral Town in the GBA slot, Mineral Town. Seriously - go for a Mineral Town man. Something’s wrong with the water in Forget Me Not Valley, because most of the men there are ugly. Your husband doesn’t do any actual work on the farm, so go for some eye candy.
3: There’s sort-of a “Best Friends System” included
One of the most discussed, and somewhat controversial, concepts in Harvest Moon Cute is the “Best Friends System.“ In the Japanese version, users could become “best friends” with the four special Harvest Moon DS bachelorettes - the Witch Princess, the Harvest Goddess, princess Keria and Leia the mermaid. There were heart events for each of the characters, and the blue feather could be used to “propose” friendship. That character would then move into the main character’s farm. Eventually the best friend would also find a random baby, which the two characters could raise.
The system is sort-of still included in the North American version of the game. Reports from GameFAQs forums and Ushi no Tane forums state that the heart events with the special bachelorettes are still included in the game, but that the game has been altered so the proposals will never be accepted. So you can kind of become “best friends” in spirit with the special bachelorettes. Knowing the creative nature of Action Replay DS code creators, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear about one of them making a code to reinstate the system.
4: Skye the Phantom Thief appears.
This new character in Harvest Moon Cute is a special bachelor who was created exclusively for the game. Sure, Skye the Phantom Thief looks a bit feminine, has cheesy lines and is probably the least menacing thief I’ve ever seen. He isn’t really that successful when it comes to stealing in Forget Me Not Valley either. That isn’t to say that he isn’t a valuable and welcome addition to the game though.
Let’s be frank - the men of Forget Me Not Valley are, by and large, grotesque. They’re freaks of nature, Rock and Marlin excluded. Plus some of them look really old. It looks like there’s at least a 10 year age gap between the lead girl and both Carter and Griffin. Skye might be a bit unconventional, but at least he’s cute. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the people playing are wooing Skye. I know I am.
5: You can marry Mineral Town people and not have your game end.
In Harvest Moon DS, there was a downside to marrying one of the Mineral Town bachelorettes. Your game would end, because apparently your character would have to “move” to Mineral Town with his new wife. Since one of the joys of Harvest Moon is the ability to keep playing forever, it was a serious let down.
In Harvest Moon Cute the men come to you. If you decide that a Mineral Town man is the one you want, then go ahead and woo him without fear. After you propose, he’ll pack up everything and come to live with you.
6: There are new home and clothing options.
Two new customization options are available in Harvest Moon Cute. May, the little girl from Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town, now works as a decorator. (I guess there are no child labor laws in Mineral Town.) The player can call May and purchase new outfits and change the appearance of the house. As you become a more accomplished farmer, more outfits and design options become available.
This doesn’t really impact the game in any way. Bachelors and townspeople aren’t going to have favorite outfits or colors. Its just a little extra included to try and make the game more visually appearing. Plus, I hesitate to say this, it’s cute. Perhaps that’s where the “cute” in the title comes in.
7: The GameStop listing still says “Harvest Moon DS Cute with bonus!“
People who preordered Harvest Moon Cute from GameStop/EB Games also received a stuffed black cat that looked identical to the pet cat in the game. Now, the preorder period is undoubtedly over, but the listing is still showing “with bonus.“ This could mean that you might still get a stuffed kitty cat if you buy the game from GameStop.
Plus if you happened to preorder Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town (I know I did), then the stuffed puppy preorder promotion you already own can have a new friend! You know you want a complete set of Harvest Moon pets, and getting Harvest Moon Cute is the only way to do it. Okay, you could stalk eBay, but getting the game is easier.
Read [DS Fanboy] Also Read [IGN] Product Page [GameStop]
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It has more than a few. All my game file’s memory got lost on Spring 30 year 3.
on May 26, 2008 at 04:26 PM - LINKI’m sorry to hear you had a glitch like that Yvein. I haven’t experienced any glitches in any Harvest Moon games (I own both DS and DS Cute), but my friends experienced glitches in their Harvest Moon DS games.
on May 27, 2008 at 11:41 AM - LINKi was playing harvest moon ds cute.and right in the middle of the wedding it suddenly erased.my file was gone and i was very angry.
on July 14, 2008 at 11:04 AM - LINKThat’s horrible sky! I’m sorry to hear you encountered such a devastating glitch.
on July 14, 2008 at 11:36 AM - LINKi need to get married but i can’t find 60 harvest spirites could u tell me were all 60 r i will be so grateful. please please please
on July 23, 2008 at 03:35 AM - LINK♥♥♥
Hi Carlie!
You’ll want to head over to Ushi no Tane. It is the most AMAZING Harvest Moon site with information on every game. It also happens to have a full event list, sprite locations and additional info for Harvest Moon Cute.
http://www.fogu.com/hm/
on July 23, 2008 at 03:45 PM - LINKi know you said that skye is in the game but so far i havent seen him at all can you tell me if you had to do anything special to meet him?or what you did to meet him?
on July 31, 2008 at 01:52 PM - LINKHi Katryna -
Well, Skye only comes out at night. (I think its after 10 when he enters the valley.) So you have to be up late to meet him. The fan site I linked to above (FOGU) is the absolute best and has a guide to getting him.
Here’s the link again in case you need it:
on July 31, 2008 at 02:23 PM - LINKhttp://www.fogu.com/hm/
I just got Marlin to have the purple heart so i saved and turned of my DS. when i got back on, Marlin was back to a black heart when i talked to him again!
on August 16, 2008 at 09:45 PM - LINKThat’s horrible Kate! All that hard work, gone! >.< My condolences.
on August 18, 2008 at 06:57 PM - LINKHere’s what you have to do to be able to meet Skye:
You have to experience his BLACK HEART EVENT before you can even meet him. This involves:
Talk to Lumina before you experience the heart event or it won’t work.
Now, to experience the black heart event:
WALK on the main passageway to Romana’s mansion on a sunny day between 10 pm to midnight.
Once you experience his black heart event then he will begin to appear walking into the town from the passageway to Mineral Town into Forget-Me0Not Valley at 10:20 pm on sunny days. Some advantages to marrying Skye:
* He has no rivals so you can take as long as you want to get him to like you
* This is Harvest Moon DS Cute so you can marry him even though he’s from Mineral Town.
* He’s an awesome husband and father and your kidalmost always looks sooooo cute!
*He’s probably one of (if not) the best looking characters in the game (the other two I like are Rick/Rock wtvr his name is and Kai)
Disadvantages:
*His favorite food, Finest Curry, is SUPER HARD to make and requires a kitchen.
Really, though, check these two websites for more info:
http://www.fogu.com/hm6/chan3/skye.php?p=
on August 30, 2008 at 11:00 AM - LINKhttp://faqs.ign.com/articles/861/861637p1.html
(This last one is good for any marrige you want to make)
Hope this helped!
is the glitch where if you get the fishing team to work for you, you get 1000000 gold still in this one? I got it last night and I want to be able to earn my money not get it by accident.
on October 3, 2008 at 05:08 PM - LINKWhen i got this new game i was soooo excited, but it freezes every time i go to bed.You know u climb into bed and it goes all black and then its next morning well… no black, no next morning, no nothing. And when i go and visit Gotze on the phone I can’t exit his shop by pressing b, I just can’t leave!!! And when I save and switch off when i switch back on theres no continue button left just new game button!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
on October 4, 2008 at 09:48 AM - LINKMy Dad’s sending it back for a different one but I wonder are they all the same????
Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From Gotta Problem :-(
@ Spenc - I think it may still be there. You may want to double check on the Gamefaqs forum.
@ Ellie - I think you may have just gotten a faulty copy. I’m sure your next copy won’t have the same problem.
on October 4, 2008 at 01:15 PM - LINKhi
i am a boy but do u think the game is too girly for me .
i have harvest moon ds and im thinking of getting ds cute should i get it
on October 5, 2008 at 08:05 AM - LINKlove from levi
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Levi -
Harvest Moon Cute is a bit girly… what you may prefer is Harvest Moon DS (the same game only you play as a boy) or the latest game Harvest Moon Island of Happiness (which lets you play as a girl or boy).
on October 5, 2008 at 01:16 PM - LINKHi am having trouble how to marry skye
on October 18, 2008 at 06:46 PM - LINKhow do you actually marry him everytime i see
him and giving him the feature and also going
to sleep noting happens will you pleaseeee help me?
that heppened to me but i got father on this one. i need help what do you have to do to get married i have 60 sprites. all shopping matierel. and upgraded my houde to a big house!
on October 20, 2008 at 07:13 PM - LINKupgrade your house again! you also need to buy a big bed from the sprites and a kitchen from the sprites and a blue feather from karen at the store. you need to give presents to the guy you like every single day until his heart is red! for A LOT more info go to http://www.fogu.com
on October 25, 2008 at 01:46 PM - LINKI married Sky in DS Cute. :D
on November 4, 2008 at 02:34 PM - LINKBut, I can’t seem to sell my Godhand, along with the other items you can sell to Van after you get married…
you can’t propose to skye, you have to leave the feather in your rucksack & go to sleep. the next day he will leave a note saying he’s gonna steal your heart. you will not be able to find him in the valley, so go to sleep. you will be awakened by him, & he’ll ask you for your heart. but make sure you’ve met all the fields. oh yah, the person giving all this advice is even worse at the game than me.. 0_o the fishing bonus/cheat is no longer there.
on November 5, 2008 at 09:10 PM - LINK