Innocent Life:A Futuristic Harvest Moon..Review..!!
Review
UK, May 11, 2007 - A farmer's life is a simple one. You get up at the crack of dawn, slip on your dungarees then head out to the fields groggy-eyed and tired. You spend the day watering your crops, perhaps uprooting a few potatoes for the market and, if you're lucky, get milk squirted in your eye by a cow. Then, as the sun is sinking into the horizon, it's time for bed, ready to start it all again the next day. It doesn't sound particularly exciting, but what about farming in the future? Surely that would be an excitement-filled prospect, especially if the cows zipped around on hoverboards and the fields were filled with gigantic space turnips.
A robot boy and his dog - a picture of tranquility.
Unfortunately, if
Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon is anything to go by, farming in the distant future is actually pretty much the same as it is now and, in fact is virtually identical to how it has been in previous Harvest Moon titles. For those new to the franchise, it's a farming simulation where you grow crops, tend to animals and sell produce to build up funds, which can be used to buy more exotic crops and animals. Along the way you meet a variety of different characters that help you in your quest to become a farming legend by giving you hints about when to grow certain plants or how to make sure animals are happy.
That's been the theme in pretty much every Harvest Moon game since the first one launched on Super NES 10 years ago. However, as we pulled up our wellies ready to tackle Innocent Life, we expected the futuristic setting to offer up something different compared to its predecessors. How disappointed we were. You see, Innocent Life plonks you in the guise of a robot boy (and before you say anything, we love robots too but bear with us) who is tasked with saving the over-farmed Volcano Island by - wait for it - farming in a traditional way. So once again you're working trowels, axes and hammers, rather than harvest crops in a powersuit kitted out with a laser hoe. Shame.
Sometimes it's just nice to stare off into the distance.
Unusually for a Harvest Moon title, Innocent Life's plot is quite convoluted. Our robot boy was built by aging scientist Dr. Hope, who wants him to learn about humanity through farming. However, he's also tasked with calming the angry spirits of Volcano Island who are annoyed with futuristic farming practices that are progressively destroying the once-fertile land. That'll be the not-so-subtle eco-friendly message behind the whole thing, then. Unfortunately, while we welcome the effort to educate littering louts and 4x4-driving dolts, the eco-friendly message means there's a lot of text to wade through in the early stages of the game as you learn about your green mission.
In fact, Innocent Life gets off to such a slow start it makes a knackered old tractor seem like a Formula One car in comparison. After chugging through reams of speech you finally get to start tending your land by planting, watering and harvesting crops. However, even once you get down to the nitty-gritty of farming your progress is still severely limited. This is because the storyline strictly dictates what you can and can't do on the farm so major events - where you're normally given a crucial new tool that lets you grow new crops or another key item to fuel your agricultural advances - only happen every seven days. As a result your options during the first couple of in-game weeks are extremely restricted, meaning you'll only be playing for a few minutes before it's time to climb back into bed because there's nothing else to do.
Planting and harvesting crops is familiar Harvest Moon stuff.
To fill the hours you can venture outside of your farm and take a visit to the nearby Volcano Town. Here you can buy new crops, speak to residents and even splash out on a few bottles of vino if the humdrum existence of a farmer gets too much to bear. The actual town and the surrounding countryside is a pleasant place to visit thanks to Innocent Life's beautiful art style. You can stand on the edge of a cliff watching the sunset, venture through forests full of blossoming trees or take a stroll along the river to pass the time. However, while that's all very pretty and as much as we liked Innocent Life's simple but pleasant visuals, it doesn't make up for the fact there's still very little to do. In previous Harvest Moon titles the interaction between your character and the townsfolk was much better, so you could spend time digging fossils, wooing ladies and even having children, but that's not the case here.
Things get better - and more interesting - as time passes. As the weeks go by you unlock more items and the farming experience gets more compelling and indeed complex. In fact one of the greatest additions to the game is the inclusion of a helper robot that carries out the menial duties of crop growing. So while the robot is digging up turnips and watering asparagus it gives you chance to concentrate on the more fun elements like looking after the animals, which is a welcome break.
Visiting the houses of other people is a nice break from farming.
It also gives you more free time to explore some of the games more interesting locations, including mysterious caves and towers, which hold secret items and special Spirit Stones. These play an important part in the game because as they can be used to unlock new areas and increase the size of your farm. In fact, later in the game it becomes less about farming and more about adventuring through the caves, armed with a hammer to smash rocks and other obstacles that hide the Stones.
As a result, Innocent Life is a very different experience to other Harvest Moon titles. It lacks the cheery persona of GameCube's It's a Wonderful Life on GameCube and is also a much more solitary experience, because most of the time you're left alone on the farm with only your robotic helper for company. While that may appeal to some, we can't help feel some of series' charms has been lost.
Closing Comments
It’s telling that Rising Star Games has opted to bury the Harvest Moon name in Innocent Life’s subheading rather than proudly proclaiming it’s a new instalment in the long-running farm sim series. The only thing that Innocent Life shares with previous Harvest Moon games is the opportunity to grow crops and care for animals. Instead, it focuses on a detailed plot and features gameplay that relies on key story events, rather than your abilities as a farmer and ability to make plenty of cash. This heavy reliance on the story is Innocent Life’s strongest and weakest point because while the tale of a little robot boy who learns to be human is interesting enough, the limitations it forces onto the gameplay is fairly unforgieable and really slows the pace of the game down.