Harvest Moon: Skytree Village

To those of us born and raised in the city, farm life might look simple and far away from the chaos of the urban jungle, but it's anything but simple. If you don't believe that, just spend some time with Harvest Moon: Skytree Village. Every day in the game, you have to get out of bed, hit the fields, take care of your crops, feed your animals, and try to stay ahead of the needs of your fellow villagers. While learning exactly "what" to do is pretty easy, learning "how" to do it is likely to cause a few headaches. A lot of times, villagers will ask for specific things from your farm but give no clue as to how to get what they need. Sometimes it might be a hybrid crop or a specific item, but you'll only figure it out through trial and error or by cheating with a quick Google search to find the answer. While these little gripes and complaints might make it seem like Skytree Village isn't any fun, that's not the case at all. In fact, it's a lot of fun to build up your little plot of land or just kick back and do your own thing for a while. It's like having your own personal Zen garden in your pocket.

Another fun part of the game is interacting with the different townsfolk. They all have their own little stories to add to the main adventure. It could be Dean at the florist who needs some items for a new fertilizer or Haley at the inn who needs ingredients for her next recipe she's making to try to impress her father, who's a chef. The best part is that if you find one you take a fancy to, you can try to woo them with a little romance (and a lot of bribery) to settle down, get married, and raise a family to help with the farmwork. When the sun goes down in Skytree Village, it's silly and it's cheesy, but it's still plenty of fun, if you can overlook some of the clunkiness and vagueness.