Bokujou Monogatari - Yasuragi no Ki

The Wii Bokujou Monogatari: Yasuragi no Ki, released in the West as Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility, places a farm on Waffle Island. Crops, mining, chickens, cattle, ostriches, part-time work and festivals let the player shape most days around stamina and the clock, while restoring the Goddess Tree supplies a broad goal. Completing the story can even allow a new run as the player’s child with possessions carried over. That scale and self-direction remain appealing, especially to newcomers, although returning farmers will recognise much of the underlying routine. Rounded characters express warmth and the music sits comfortably behind daily chores; the landscapes are comparatively bland and voice samples sound rough. A contemporary review of this exact Wii edition finds that generic remote flicks are optional and a Classic Controller can be used instead. Its fixed camera sometimes obscures work, rain brings frame-rate stutter, and moving between districts repeatedly incurs five-to-ten-second loads. Those interruptions regularly slow otherwise satisfying farm days. This is an independent Wii judgment, not a transferred score or technology claim from another Harvest Moon game.

Who it is for: Players happy to cultivate a leisurely island farm.

Play notes: Wii Tree of Tranquility, not Animal Parade.