Harvest Moon: Magical Melody (牧場物語 しあわせの詩 for ワールド, Bokujō Monogatari: Shiawase no Uta for Wārudo, "Farm Story: Song/Poem of Happiness for World") is a social simulation video game for the GameCube developed by Marvelous Interactive. It is an updated version of Bokujō Monogatari: Shiawase no Uta (牧場物語 しあわせの詩), which was released on March 3, 2005 in Japan. The updated GameCube version was released in the United States by Natsume on March 28, 2006.

Harvest Moon: Magical Melody
North American cover art for the GameCube
Developer(s)	Marvelous Interactive
Publisher(s)	JP: Marvelous Interactive NA: Natsume EU: Rising Star Games AU: Nintendo Australia
Designer(s)	Yasuhiro Wada
Series	Story of Seasons
Platform(s)	GameCube, Wii
Release	November 10, 2005 GameCube JP: November 10, 2005 NA: March 28, 2006 Wii EU: March 14, 2008 AU: April 3, 2008 NA: August 25, 2009
Genre(s)	Role-playing, social simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

For the game's European release, Rising Star Games created an updated version for the GameCube's successor, the Wii. The Wii version was released on March 14, 2008 in European countries,[1] and on April 3, 2008 in Australia. The Wii version of the game was also released in North America on August 25, 2009. The game was not released on the Wii in Japan. The Wii version in all territories added motion-sensitive controls for actions such as fishing, mining and foraging[2] but removed the option to play as a female character.

Besides Yasuhiro Wada, Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is the first entry without the involvement of the main developers from Victor Interactive Software.

Gameplay

The game has two main objectives: to wake the Harvest Goddess and to marry one of the townspeople. The Harvest Goddess has turned herself to stone out of melancholy at the townspeople's disregard. The player must gather musical notes by finishing various chores and milestones. These tasks are not revealed to the player aside from hints the player can gather based on the name of the notes in the Notes screen of the pause menu. Some are very obvious, such as the Second House note, but others are less obvious such as the Treasure Hoard note. Collecting at least fifty out of a total of one hundred notes lets the player create the titular magical melody that will revive the village's protectress. This does not end the game, which allows the player to continue collecting even more notes and building relationships with the townspeople. The player can choose to be either a male or female character in the GameCube version.[3] Each gender has a choice of ten potential spouses of the opposite sex, along with the androgynous rival Jamie who is eligible for either player gender. The player can have children, own a house and land, and mine, fish, and farm across four seasons. The game includes several minigames in which up to four players can test their skills.^{[citation needed]} Players unlock some minigames through gameplay, such as unlocking the swimming minigame after attending the Beach Festival and unlocking the horse race minigame after participating in a horse race in the main game.

Reception

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The GameCube version received "favorable" reviews, while the Wii version received "average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[4][5] In Japan, Famitsu gave the original Shiawase no Uta a score of 31 out of 40,[8] while Famitsu Cube gave its updated version a score of two eights and two sevens for a total of 30 out of 40.[9]

References

External links

"A Truly Magical Harvest Moon". Natsume. Archived from the original on May 2, 2009. Retrieved November 11, 2012.

• Official Bokujō Monogatari website (in Japanese)
• Harvest Moon: Magical Melody at Curlie
• Harvest Moon: Magical Melody at MobyGames