Harvest Moon is a series built around the concept of starting with a small farm and trying to grow rich off of planting crops and caring for livestock. The classic game formula revolves around being rather unrealistic, though A Wonderful Life tried to change the series by adding more realism, and views on the idea were split among the fanbase. Harvest Moon: Magical Melody for the GameCube was designed with the intention of returning the Harvest Moon series to its roots, specifically the theme of Harvest Moon 64, but how well does it accomplish this task? This Review is on a scale of 5.
Graphics: 2
This game's graphics cannot match up against the graphics of the game before it in the lineage. The ground often appears unbalanced as though it is struggling to maintain its programming, while the characters have very few animations and very little shading. What happened? Well, Natsume decided to go from the slightly-realistic look used in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life back to the overly simple graphics of yesteryear. Much like Animal Crossing, this is a game that would've looked great on N64, but unlike Animal Crossing this game wasn't originally made for the N64.
Sound: 3 1/2
The characters, as has been the case in Save the Homeland, A Wonderful Life, and A Wonderful Life: Special Edition, make little noises when you talk to them, but nothing major. As for the background themes, nothing really sticks out among the awesome sounds found during the 64-bit days of the series, but there's nothing that is all that bad either.
Characters: 3
Almost all of these characters are originally from another game, be it Save the Homeland or the original Harvest Moon. This is mostly acceptable only because the characters from the original game have never hit 3D and have received modifications to their personalities here and there, while Save the Homeland was terrible and thus didn't sell very well anyway. A few characters are from other games though. Doug, Basil, and Lyla are from Harvest Moon 64, the Gourmet has appeared in almost every Harvest Moon game, Nami appeared in A Wonderful Life, and Jamie is a completely new character.
Crops: 5
This game has a larger selection of crops than A Wonderful Life, but a smaller amount than in Back to Nature and Friends of Mineral Town. What really earns this a five, however, is that the crops' prices are done perfectly; the seeds cost in the same range as in AWL (around 20-70 a pack) but the difference is that not only do the seeds come in packs of nine like traditional Harvest Moon games (AWL's seeds came one-per-pack), but they sell for pretty decent prices. Not as much as in HM64, BTN, or FoMT, but the seeds in this game are also way cheaper so you make more of a profit.
Animals: 5
This game introduces the concept of the pig, which is basically the same as the dog except even more inherently useless. Still, the other animals within the game are true to standard Harvest Moon style, with the cows being your highest source of income while the chickens are the lowest but also the cheapest, with the sheep as usual falling in between but a lot more on the side of the cow than the chicken.
Music Notes: 4 1/2
This game has the concept of awarding you for certain important events with a music note, and after you get 50 the Harvest Goddess is awakened. Some are really easy while some will take forever to complete, with a lot of others falling in between. My only real complaint is that you have no incentive to collect all 100; while 50 allows you to recover your Stamina for free at any time, 100 gets you nothing besides the second ending.
Endings: 3 1/2
There are three different endings to be found within this game; one of these endings is obtained upon collecting 50 notes, one at 100 notes, and one if you choose to marry Jamie. After the notes endings, the game continues, but if you marry Jamie the game will end. Not exactly varied, but whatcha gonna do?
Customization: 5
This is the first non-Gameboy Color game in the series to let you choose your gender. There are 11 different partners to choose from, 21 in all (Jamie is universal, always the opposite gender as your character). You can buy land and choose where you want to put buildings. You can rearrange the furniture in your house and buy extra stuff to make it look nicer. This is easily the most customizable game in the series.
Gameplay: 4 1/2
It is much easier to see at night than it was in A Wonderful Life, and it is easy to shuffle between your tools without having to stop. You can also press Z to display what land is yours and whether or not you've already fed an animal or given a gift to someone. My only complaint is the choice to have the Y-Button pause the game rather than the Start button. It comes off a bit awkward.
Fun Factor!: 4
It's hard to explain what's fun about this game, just like all Harvest Moon games. The note collecting gives you an extra something to do, and the revival of tool upgrades gives you a lot of room to improve things too. The personalities of characters are a lot more endearing than usual, so you also have much more of a reason to be sociable.
Overall: 4 1/2
Trying to compare this game to A Wonderful Life would be impossible because the two games are drastically different. This game takes the series back to its roots, which is a good thing, but I would've liked to have seen a few of the new ideas brought out in AWL to be carried over. Overall, the game is recommended.
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