I'm a big fan of the Harvest Moon series. I love the world they've created and the unique gaming experience. I love getting to know the characters and building up my farm. Harvest Moon games also tend to take a very long time to beat. This is because of a mix of the time system they run on and all of the things you can unlock.
 
First Impression of the Game:
   At first the huge field is pretty intimidating. If you try to clear it out you'll quickly learn that your tools aren't strong enough to destroy a lot of the bigger obstacles and the field itself just seems to go on forever. Also, if you go from playing Harvest Moon 64 to this, the characters will really confuse you. All of the characters now have a completely different life.
   As far as the story line goes, there isn't really much of an introduction except to save the farm. If you've played previous Harvest Moon games then you'll already know pretty much what to do. If you haven't, you might be wandering around the first few days wondering what's going on.

Characters:
   Most of the characters have a lot of depth in this series. Once you get to know them you'll learn their wants, fears, love interests, favorite foods, and some of their background. One of the main parts of all Harvest Moon games is falling in love, getting married, and starting a family. The harvest sprites are also a cool feature in this game as their friendship is the most rewarding. Of course just like real life these things take awhile to achieve, you have to actually work to befriend people in this game. This is one of the reasons the game is interesting.

Story Line:
   There isn't too much of a story line here. You start out and are pretty much told to get the farm up and running again. However, each character has their own story line and cut scenes to unlock.

Graphics:
   The graphics on this game are pretty good. The pixel characters are well detailed, the animals are really cute, and the scenery is pretty. The character head shots when you're talking to them are really expressive as well.

Sound:
   Harvest Moon music is a lot like Pokémon music. It's high pitched and repetitive but doesn't seem to get old. The background music fits really well as do the action noises. Everything sounds as it should, you can even hear the ocean in the distant at night.

Difficulty:
   If you know what to do this game really isn't that hard. It is long, however, and there are a lot of things to unlock.

Addictiveness:
   This game really creeps up on you. It goes from being just 'alright' to you playing it for 5 hours straight. Once you get into it it's a really good game and addicting game.

Overall this game is pretty fun. Harvest Moon in general provides a unique, addicting experience. Who knew doing the same thing over and over again could be fun?

I actually never played Harvest Moon before, but it does sound interesting, so I might play it when I get the chance.