Metacritic Games

Harvest Moon: Magical Melody (GameCube)

Harvest Moon: Magical Melody features plenty of crops, a variety of animals to care for, tons of festivals to participate in and loads of events to create a fun and entertaining game play experience. Play as either a boy or girl: Each gender has 10 potential spouses. Compete against a rival farmer; Your productivity will be judged on a daily basis against that of your rival's...you will also compete against your rival in the festivals. Cultivate a wide variety of crops and trees. Raise cows, sheep, horses and chickens. Harvest Moon: Magical Melody offers 4-player minigames. Purchase different plots of land and expand your farm by building various extensions. The Harvest Goddess has turned to stone and the Harvest Sprites need your help to bring her back. You need to collect Musical Notes throughout the game in hopes of restoring her to her former self. There are 100 Musical Notes in the game and to collect the notes you must do a variety of different tasks, such as shipping a certain number of items, winning a festival or making friends with the wild animals found around your farm. Only by collecting a certain number of notes will the Harvest Goddess come back. [Nintendo.com]

Natsume
Role-Playing Game
Players: 4
E (Everyone)
Developer: Marvelous Interactive
Released March 28, 2006

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

83 / 100

Critic Reviews

91	NGC Magazine UK Persistence is one thing that Magical Melody does reward - both materially and spiritually. [June 2006, p.22]
90	Nintendo Power So many aspects have improved from the previous "Harvest Moon" games, and Magical Melody exhibits such remarkable production quality, that the time it's taken Natsume has obviously been well spent. [May 2006, p.89]
88	N-Insanity Repetition presides, but the amount of things you can do keep you coming back. The controls are very simple and they only encourage you to play more because it is so easy to handle.
86	Cheat Code Central Even though this game may look like it's got Playskool written all over it, it can be very challenging. Don't underestimate it until you've tried it.
85	Just RPG I thought this game was fantastic. It kept me entertained for many hours, and it is a game that I am sure I will revisit many times.
85	GameZone A nice choice for families and all ages, and one that is guaranteed to last a long time.
84	NGamer UK It's one of the classic RPG series, and a great value for money if you want to spend the months of hard labour it'll take to find every hidden note. Worth the effort. [Nov 2006, p.62]
82	IGN The final GameCube version, and it is by far the best. The sheer depth of gameplay will impress even the most seasoned veterans, and the difficulty is there as well.
80	Games Radar It's also undoubtedly Harvest Moon's high point, expanding the freedom of play while retaining the bright, simple aesthetics and pantomimed emotion that have defined the series.
80	GameSpot If you have the patience to get into it, Harvest Moon: Magical Melody offers a rewarding and fun experience.
80	Kombo In many ways, Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is the best in the franchise. Why? Because it offers so many more options and choices than any previous title in it.
80	EuroGamer I've been utterly hypnotised by Harvest Moon: Magical Melody from the moment I laid my hands on it, even watching my girlfriend play it for hours on end (her time spent playing probably a tenfold increase on mine) and I still don't feel that we've even begun to scratch the surface.
80	games(TM) It’s definitely the best home-console game in the series, and the extra depth and involvement that it brings to the table will be irresistible to Harvest Moon fans. [July 2006, p.126]
70	GameSpy It's certainly the best Harvest Moon game in recent years, and it really comes close to greatness -- if only it had been paced a little better, then everyone would be able to enjoy it.