My history with the Harvest Moon series dates back to just slightly after the series' introduction in the US, during the summer of 1998 which you can read about in another ReCollection article on my blog.
But what I'm here to talk about today is the fourth game in the overall series and my absolute favorite title that carries the moniker: 1999's 'Harvest Moon: Back to Nature!
I played the SNES game in August 1998. Received the Gameboy game for Christmas that same year and pretty much played it endlessly all of 1999, all the while consuming everything I could find via the net about the upcoming Harvest Moon 64, but even amidst the hype surrounding the Nintendo 64 game, articles started appearing on the net about a potential Playstation version as well, which was basically my primary console at the time despite having my N64 and my SNES still hooked up.
January 2000 came around and I did obtain Harvest Moon 64 I played relentlessly, but the promise of a new game for the PlayStation was there, and as the first screenshots and info started coming out, my hype continued to grow. I remember the first bits of info were related to an actual cooking system that expanded on the ability to collect recipes from the N64 game. The screenshots featured the boat near the docks, which also set the imagination afire with the potential of getting on it and going to the city.
I even have some home movies of me sitting atop my bunk bed and talking to my sister about the game's cooking system, mentioning how it'd be cool if you could have your farm animals sent off to be processed into meat for cooking.
I only remember a little between the time it was announced and during the holiday season when I put my plan into action to obtain a copy, so that's where the ReCollection will pick back up.
During those days, my grandmother would give each kid money for Christmas in November and just have us pick out what we wanted to be from her instead of her going out and grabbing something on her own. She always managed to get us exactly what we wanted each and every year. And so equipped with enough money to buy a brand new PSX game (which typically was in the $40 range), we had set out to good ol' Wal-Mart, with my sight focused solely on finding a copy of Harvest Moon: Back to Nature.
Alas, there was none.
Back then, the local stores weren't exactly fast on the uptake when it came to getting new releases unless they had notable names attached to them. I never saw Harvest Moon 64 on shelves around here either, having had to go out of town to Toys R Us to find it. Not wanting to do that this time, my parents opted to let me make my first online order ever, and thus to Gamestop.Com I went!
And thus, my patience was tested.
But why would something I wasn't even meant to play until Christmas Day even bother me? Heh, well, my reasoning was that I "needed to see if it worked" before we wrapped it up and returned it to my grandmother for keeping until the day of. But that would only come AFTER an excruciating week and a half wait for it to actually be delivered. Which in that time, I did everything I could to bide my time until the USPS made their run down our road.
Home videos exist of me just goofing around in my room, listening to Ozzy Osborne or whatever was playing on the radio. I even went outside at one point and pretended to be Steve Irwin as I explored the areas of our yard that I seldom ventured to in search of new and exciting things. During that excruciating wait, I thought I'd give Castlevania Symphony of Night a go to help occupy my time, but the disc was nowhere to be found (years later, I'd discover the disc behind the baseboard heater). Needless to say, thirteen-year-old Rick wasn't having a good time of it.
Upon a visit to the local Wal-Mart a mere week and a half before Christmas, low and behold, there was Harvest Moon: Back to Nature sitting in all its glory behind the glass case. Mocking me, laughing at my misfortune of having to order something during the holiday season and suffer the delayed wait times. I was gutted and really beginning to wonder if it got lost at this point. But luckily for me, the next day would prove to be the harvest I'd been waiting for.
It was a cold, rainy day. Christmas was fast approaching and not even (the frustrating) 'Zelda: Majora's Mask' could hold my interest. I craved the farm. I even tried the new Grinch game for the PlayStation that my brother had rented, but that wasn't taking the edge off either, nor was some Goldeneye multiplayer.
In anticipation of the game's arrival, I had entered some Gameshark codes for unlimited money and lumber because I was to have so little time to "demo" the game to "make sure that it worked" before wrapping it up and putting it under the tree as a gift from my grandmother. So when the fateful day arrived, I ripped open that bubble shipper and removed that glorious jewel case, feeling just like Genki did on the day he received that early copy of Monster 20XX in the mail.
When Christmas finally rolled around and I was allotted legit time to actually play the game, I erased that starter farm, removed the Gameshark and went into the game between bouts with Final Fantasy IX, which I also received for Christmas along with Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3.
Nowadays, despite it being redone as Friends of Mineral Town for the Gameboy Advance and even later remade under the new Story of Seasons brand, Back to Nature still remains my favorite game in the entire series. It was one of the last few games to maintain that weird, quirky feeling atmosphere and the hardy difficulty level; Both of which are sadly missing from the genre nowadays.
In fact as I write this, I am in the middle of another playthrough of the game in dedication to that time period, as well as just wanting to experience the game in all its glory via Retroarch on my Steam Deck.
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