Harvest Moon: Magical Melody

**Harvest Moon: Magical Melody** is a videogame published by Natsume and released in 2005. The 13th game overall in the Harvest Moon franchise (now known as "Story of Seasons") and the 3rd in the series to be released on Gamecube, it follows many of the franchise's established features, including activities such as farming, fishing, marrying bachelors/bachelorettes, and more.

## Gameplay and Story

(From Wikipedia)

The game has two main objectives: to wake the Harvest Goddess and to marry one of the townspeople. The player must gather musical notes by finishing various chores and milestones. These tasks are not revealed to the player aside from hints the player can gather based on the name of the notes in the *Notes* screen of the pause menu. Some are very obvious, such as the *Second House* note, but others are less obvious such as the *Treasure Hoard* note. Collecting at least fifty out of a total of one hundred notes lets the player create the titular magical melody that will revive the village's protectress. This does not end the game, which allows the player to continue collecting even more notes and building relationships with the townspeople. The player can choose to be either a male or female character in the GameCube version. Each gender has a choice of ten potential spouses of the opposite sex, along with the androgynous rival Jamie who is eligible for either player gender. The player can have children, own a house and land, and mine, fish, and farm across four seasons. The game includes several minigames in which up to four players can test their skills. Players unlock some minigames through gameplay, such as unlocking the swimming minigame after attending the Beach Festival and unlocking the horse race minigame after participating in a horse race in the main game.

The Harvest Goddess has turned herself to stone out of melancholy at the townspeople's disregard and a farmer named Jamie (whose gender depends on the protagonist's) is determined to save her. A year later, a new rancher (male is by default named Adam and female is by default named Amanda) comes to Flowerbud Village, where Theodore, the town's mayor, helps set up their farm. The protagonist also meets the Harvest Sprites, who request their help in reawakening the Harvest Goddess by collecting magical music notes. Jamie becomes rivals with the protagonist. As the protagonist works at the farm, they also meet various people, some which are returning characters from Back to Nature, Save the Homeland, and A Wonderful Life, and makes an effort to befriend and help them. In the end, the Harvest Goddess is revived and Jamie leaves in shame. The protagonist then marries one of the bachelors or bachelorettes and has a child (if they choose to marry Jamie, then they will both leave town, ending the game). Once all the notes are found, Jamie is devastated, but the Goddess encourages him/her to be more selfless, ending his/her rivalry with the protagonist.

## Reasons for Obscurity

While the Harvest Moon franchise was and is still popular today, Magical Melody maintains an obscure vibe, largely due to the fact that it was released in the mid 2000s on GameCube (which in itself is looked at with a sense of nostalgia). Interest peaked online in April 2006 but has since declined and has remained relatively low for several years.