Harvest Moon DS is un-like the GBA Harvest moons. It's kind of like a very edited version of the GBA versions and the N64 and Gamecube versions.
The main game play uses GBA graphics and petting of animals uses N64 graphics. That's one of the only huge relations to the other games, the rest of the game is similar but has been modified a lot.
For example, on Harvest moon: Friends of Mineral Town, you started with,
- House
- Bird Hut
- Animal Hut
- Honey Tree
- Pond
- Field
- Log Shed
- Stone Shed
- Stable
On the DS version, you start with nothing but a house, pond and stable. Also, when you buy a Stone Shed, you no longer get resource stones out of smashing rocks, or when you buy a Lumber Shed you no longer get Lumber out of chopping sticks. This totally ruins the game.
Another strange difference is that this time you have a carer who lives on the farm with you, and the only things the guy does are Sleep, Walk, Look at some one else's farm and wish that yours looked like it (Even when your farm does!) and take you back home when you work yourself to unconsciousness.
They've also made you have to buy medals from the Harvest sprites casino in order to get them to help you, which costs medals. You also can't ask them to do certain tasks unless you collect certain sprites. Personally I think that they've ruined the game.
Another thing is that this time they've tried to give the game a story-line. The witch princess gets angry with the harvest goddess and teleports her to another world along with 101 harvest sprites. She then forces you to get them back for her, in order to do that you need to farm.
It's a very silly game, I definitely wouldn't recommend buying it. Since the DS can play GBA games, you should buy Friends of Mineral Town or More Friends of Mineral Town instead.
Most of the towns people are new so you will enjoy that aspect of the game, the old characters are still in the game but you won't see them walking around the streets anymore.
Instead of walking to the shops and church, there is no longer any shops in town. Instead you have to call. As for things like the weather, the harvest sprites (Ones with big afros..) run television shows.
What have nintendo done to Harvest moon and why? I really do not know but they've ruined it and that's enough said. If you want to find out about this for yourself you should try to find a way of testing it without buying it first, because I am a nintendo fan who really hates this game. I don't think you should buy it at all, still, I'm sure that there will be some fans out there who will enjoy it.
