Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life Special Edition [Playstation 2]

PS2 didn't have much luck with the Harvest Moon series. First there was "Save The Homeland", a decent but way too butchered game compared to it's predecessor, then there's "Innocent Life", a port of PSP title, very enjoyable but also different in more ways than one. In the meantime PS2 received a port of "A Wonderful Life", originally released for Gamecube. AWL was received well by critics and fans, so the PS2 owners were looking forward to finally put their hands on the new Harvest Moon game, and boy, was it a disappointment.

There's really not much to say about this. The game's content, identical (or rather slightly enhanced) with the GC's version, is pretty huge but it doesn't matter really because the PS2 conversion of AWL is virtually unplayable. 90% of the time it works in constant slow motion (even twice as slow as the original sometimes), and by looking at the graphics, it's really hard to believe how such mediocre looking title can run so slow. Obviously it's the fault of programmers, but in that case those had to be the most lazy ones out there. Even if you try to grit your teeth and try to play it after all you'll quickly refuse to do so, every action, whether it's watering the plants or brushing animals, stretches in time so much it will drain your patience in a matter of seconds. It doesn't help that, unlike in previous installments, you have to repeat most of these tasks again during the day, and the loadings feel like an eternity...

As an incurable optimist I'd state happily that the aforementioned "matrix" nearly doubles the time it takes the game to complete, which, taking into account that "originally" AWL required even a 100 hours to finish, sounds grotesque to say the least.

As far as I know, HM: AWL is the most pathetic port ever released for the Playstation 2. I find it really baffling that there are players that actually enjoy it, I guess you may as well if "Hardcore Gamecubeless Harvest Moon fan" is written on your forehead. It's really sad that the most "complete" Harvest Moon installment of all three available for Sony's console had to be the most screwed up. And it could've been so great...  

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Also available for: GameCube

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HD Loader: Compatible
USBAdvance: Incompatible

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