81. Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands (Nintendo DS)
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On Sunshine Islands, you are a farmer working on an Island. Eventually you start seeing little gnome people through not fault of your own and need to start collecting Sun Stones to raise some sunken islands. While farming. And maybe getting yourself a wife and kid. And possibly participating in events.


In this game you have several things to do. Time passes, with every few seconds equalling about 10 minutes. There are four months representing the four seasons, and this affects which crops you can grow and which events take place in the village. You grow crops and tend to them, and also raise several different farm animals to get stuff like milk and cheese. You can also expand your house to include things like a kitchen where you can make dishes with your ingredients. By fulfilling certain things or just looking around, you can find Sun Stones to raise different islands, which will give you more stuff to do. There's also a dating sim aspect where you can choose a wife or husband, depending on what gender you're playing. You have to court them by giving them presents and such. There are a variety of events, from fishing contests to cooking contests, to just hanging out with the community.


I really like Harvest Moon games, I think they're cute and sweet and fun. I did enjoy this one, it had some fun events and some interesting characters. But it isn't the best example of the series. It's more difficult to play and less intuitive. A lot of stuff costs a lot of money. And time goes by very quick leaving you to struggle to do everything in one day. But it's still a lot of fun, even if it is less polished for the series. The dating sim is actually easier than in some games, which i could really appreciate, and I loved seeing the love events, not just with my character, but with other couples too.

Favourite character: Julia AnkPXPR.jpg
Honourable mentions: Pierre, Sabrina 3HtX3vr.jpg89NkgrA.jpg

I like Julia because she's sweet and she loves animals, although I may be a bit biased since I saw more of her scenes than anyone. She just seems like a really kind person. Sabrina is adorable with her giant glasses and she's also just super nice. Pierre emotes like no one's business and I love the faces he makes.