I can not podcast, for I am a spirit.
Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket! Today, we’re going to be talking about the first portable entry in the Harvest Moon series. The GameBoy feels like the most appropriate console for a game like Harvest Moon, with the success of later entries in the series as well as things like Animal Crossing excelling on portable platforms. Being able to quickly go through a couple days of checking on your crops and performing daily chores while on the go seems like it would comprise a simple and relaxing gameplay loop to perform with the convenience of a handheld. However, given how new the series was to the limited hardware, the game ends up with some hiccups that make the experience oscillate awkwardly between incredibly stressful and exceedingly boring. There’s just something missing from this installment (or a lot of somethings, in some cases) that fails to meet expectations, even for fans of the genre. We’re going to talk about stamina management on both the side of the player and developer of the game, how this game makes us long for the tutorials of modern games like the caress of a long lost lover, and whether clearing out the tunnel in the tool shed in this game would net you marvelous secrets, or just a “thank you” from a harvest sprite.
And call me a harvest sprite, because thank you for listening to NOCLIP Pocket this week! Twenty-one is an exciting birthday, but this was kind of a boring game, so to make up for that lack of thematic consistency, for episode twenty-two we will be playing Tick Tock: A Tale for Two, so be sure to come check that out.