Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility

 Wii
  • Publisher: Natsume
  • Release Date: Sep 30, 2008
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 32 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 32
  3. Negative: 4 out of 32
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  1. TattP.
    Jun 27, 2009
    4
    Had been enjoying A Wonderful Life and waiting to for the new version on the Wii, Tree of Tranquility is a huge disappointment for me. First of all, the first impression is the low graphics quality. In A Wonderful LIfe (GameCube) has much nicer and cuter design and details. Before you can hold a chicken and run anywhere with it..now you can only hold it and put down exactly where you got Had been enjoying A Wonderful Life and waiting to for the new version on the Wii, Tree of Tranquility is a huge disappointment for me. First of all, the first impression is the low graphics quality. In A Wonderful LIfe (GameCube) has much nicer and cuter design and details. Before you can hold a chicken and run anywhere with it..now you can only hold it and put down exactly where you got it from. So if it's blocking the eggs then you will keep picking the chicken up rather than the eggs which is super annoying. Also, in AWL, you can see the character rubbing his face with the cows and horses with love and passion.. now it's just a tap.. I think it has lost these kinda details, which I think they made Harvest Moon a great game play. Secondly, the controls...in ToT you can't change angles..when I try to water the crops, higher crops are blocking the ones behind (if there are any!). The good thing is that you can level up your skill and can now water/till more squares at once which saves a lot of time and energy. Thirdly, in AWL, you can order delivery of seeds or animals, but in ToT, you have to run all the way to the shops to be able to buy things and it could take up to half a day because there are more areas to cover. The telephone is merely for weather forecast (which is much more quicker and cheaper than telly) and shops opening time. Fourthly, I agree with previos reviews, the storyline is not solid enough. Also, a good game does not need game faqs walk through, but this game you can't play without one. Fifthly, one great thing (of many great things) in AWL is that you can manage sleeping time. In ToT no matter what time you sleep you'd wake up at 6am. If you don't go to sleep before 6am your character will suddenly become fatigue and super slow..and in ToT game, a day goes by in a blink. Although ToT has has unnecessarily taken away those great features from the previous Harvest Moon (i'm really curious why they did it). Improvements? More areas to explore; you can play as a boy or a girl, or your child (should have spent that time improving the controls and graphics).… Expand
  2. OliviaS
    Apr 5, 2009
    10
    This game is definitely worth every cent I paid. The controls, being that you can actually made motions to water, till and plant, make it the ultimate farming simulation. Plants are also walk-through-able, like in Rune Factory, which is a pro. And those are some of the minor things! Even the most hardcore Harvest Moon haters will love this game!
  3. SomeoneSomewhere
    Oct 4, 2008
    10
    This game is the best entry in the Harvest Moon series yet! I give it a perfect 10> Also you can finally turn the music off. =) Best of all you can explore the biggest HM world yet! It's a must by for fans and even non-fans.
  4. Stooker
    Feb 10, 2009
    8
    Never played any of the Harvest Moon games, so I can't compare this one to them. However, this one is pretty good and engaging. My wife bought it and I thought it would be the stupidest game and a waste of money, but after watching her play for a few hours, I decided to start my own game. It's like Sims on a farm with a storyline.
  5. JordynB
    Aug 29, 2009
    10
    Harvest moon is easily the most addicting video game I have. I've been a HM fan for a while, and I was really exited when I heard they were making a wii game. This game is really fun, and all the glitches in the last games have been fixed...
    PROS- -great storyline (most HM games have these)
    -good graphics (the festivals are ecspeacially pretty) -more choices (tree of tranquility    Harvest moon is easily the most addicting video game I have. I've been a HM fan for a while, and I was really exited when I heard they were making a wii game. This game is really fun, and all the glitches in the last games have been fixed...
    PROS- -great storyline (most HM games have these)
    -good graphics (the festivals are ecspeacially pretty)
    -more choices (tree of tranquility has tons of choices including wife/husbands, animals, pets, houses, clothes, furniture and more)
    -Gender choice

    CONS-
    -Loading (the loading scrrens get annoying, ecspeacially if you accidently go somewhere)
    -No delivery (this also kinda goes along with the loading screens....you have to walk/ride everywhere)

    Even though there are both pro's and con's, I think the pro's outweigh the con's by a lot!
    I definatly reccomend this game!!!    … Expand
  6. AlliP
    Oct 13, 2008
    9
    I love this game. I only wish that the load times were shorter, because it is really painful to leave your house, wait for a loadtime, remember that you left your milker inside and have to wait through another load time. Aside from that this game is great, I love all the improvements, farming is much more enjoyable. I love all the crop and animal choices, and best of all you don't I love this game. I only wish that the load times were shorter, because it is really painful to leave your house, wait for a loadtime, remember that you left your milker inside and have to wait through another load time. Aside from that this game is great, I love all the improvements, farming is much more enjoyable. I love all the crop and animal choices, and best of all you don't lose stuff by accidentaly dropping it on the ground when you meant to give it away. If you like Harvest Moon you must buy this version.… Expand
  7. DanH
    Oct 3, 2008
    10
    Easily the best Harvest Moon game yet. Pretty much all the annoying factors of earlier games have been cleaned up. Seeds are sown in rows, tools level up quicker, you can walk through crops, gifts provide visible feedback so you aren't left trying to interpret bad translations, your rucksack doesn't need constant emptying during a harvest, you don't have to take each item Easily the best Harvest Moon game yet. Pretty much all the annoying factors of earlier games have been cleaned up. Seeds are sown in rows, tools level up quicker, you can walk through crops, gifts provide visible feedback so you aren't left trying to interpret bad translations, your rucksack doesn't need constant emptying during a harvest, you don't have to take each item out of your rucksack individually when shippiing, you don't have to talk to a person AND give them a gift (giftgiving resolves both in one action) so redundnat conversation is minimized etc. As a 34 year-old male with two kids, I really enjoy the series to relax by. Definitely a must for anyone who likes sims of this sort.… Expand
  8. Rhyannab
    Jan 17, 2009
    10
    Fun game! Its so fun, better than all the other Harvest moons. But the camera perspective does give me a headache... Its so interesting, its so much improved!
  9. AeroKieran
    Feb 20, 2012
    7
    I don't like the plot that you actually have to create rainbows and stuffs to save the dying tree. I tried to play it, but I got bored too early. But this game is good, I know it is until I got to play Harvest Moon: Animal Parade which is way better and almost perfect.
  10. Koratah
    Apr 11, 2012
    4
    I've played a good chunk of the HM series and was very disappointed by this one. I'd recommend the next in line, which is kind of a TOT.2 in a way(same characters/general idea), Animal Parade, because this one kind of turned me off to the series for awhile. The graphics are rather disappointing, especially while the previous installments of the series on the GameCube impressed me more. TheI've played a good chunk of the HM series and was very disappointed by this one. I'd recommend the next in line, which is kind of a TOT.2 in a way(same characters/general idea), Animal Parade, because this one kind of turned me off to the series for awhile. The graphics are rather disappointing, especially while the previous installments of the series on the GameCube impressed me more. The controls are clunky, the sound effects get annoying--the sparse voice acting, a few lines for the player characters, are low quality and it makes me think they recorded it on a laptop microphone.. The day goes by much too fast to traverse the huge map effectively in a day(you often need to do this to buy seeds and supplies, wasting half your day)--this is remedied in Animal Parade, however. The camera is stuck in place, and sadly this is not changed in AP, either--the environments are interesting but the camera makes it so you can't appreciate them. I'm also a bit disappointing voice acting or additional features weren't added in this time around... Overall, I'm disappointed--I'd like a HM game where things like camera movement and graphics aren't sacrificed for nothing, and I'm eager to see if they make improvements in the next few games... Go buy Harvest Moon: Animal Parade instead.… Expand
  11. FiresBlaze
    Jan 4, 2013
    7
    While this game was enjoyable enough to keep playing it has its issues. The map was expansive but most of the areas there don't serve much of a purpose other than a minor one off plot area (ex: Lighthouse, peak of the mountain, inside the church) and there wasn't a whole lot of surprises to be found after the first short scavenger hunt. I found myself not really caring if I made aWhile this game was enjoyable enough to keep playing it has its issues. The map was expansive but most of the areas there don't serve much of a purpose other than a minor one off plot area (ex: Lighthouse, peak of the mountain, inside the church) and there wasn't a whole lot of surprises to be found after the first short scavenger hunt. I found myself not really caring if I made a connection with the villagers because there wasn't a lot of character development and the story was so-so. The rainbow recipes were a little annoying because you could easily miss an item you needed to create them and be subject to wait an entire year before being able to get said item but I did enjoy having a purpose other than profit to grow crops, fish, mine, and raise animals. Festivals didn't feel as fun as in previous games. Last minor complaints are the stuck camera view was mildly irritating but overall not a big issue and there was no easy way to separate stacks of items. That being said, the game play mechanics were major improvements from previous installments! Switching between tools was easy, I could walk over crops, leveling up tools was handled well, animals could die of old age, I was allowed to continue after beating it or I could start over new, but with all my money, if I wanted to marry someone else, the kid could help out in daily chores, I could find out where each and every villager was at any given time, see their affection level, find out what they like at town hall(instead of guessing or looking it up online), and should a typhoon come I didn't lose an entire day(just crops).

    All in all, it could be improved greatly with more story/character development but the basic core of the game(farming simulator) and game play mechanics are solid. It's not my favorite in the series and I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but it's not a bad game if you have some time to waste.    … Expand
  12. ZAVGreviews
    Oct 11, 2013
    8
    A solid entry in the Harvest Moon Series which does have it's share of nit-picky problems. You're moving to an island that you think is going to be a young ranchers paradise, however you soon realize that the island is doing less than fantastic. You're job is to craft some rainbows to help out the harvest goddess and save the island. Meanwhile of course you're still there to do what youA solid entry in the Harvest Moon Series which does have it's share of nit-picky problems. You're moving to an island that you think is going to be a young ranchers paradise, however you soon realize that the island is doing less than fantastic. You're job is to craft some rainbows to help out the harvest goddess and save the island. Meanwhile of course you're still there to do what you came there for in the first place, start a farm. If you've never played a harvest moon game before it's a life simulation game based around farming. While farming you'll also be doing things like raising barn animals, fishing, mining, chatting with neighbors, starting a family, and of of course completing the main story which usually involves helping out the harvest goddess. All of those aspects are present in tree of tranquility and are done rather well in there own way. As you progress in the game you'll upgrade you're tools, the amount of things you can carry, and how much land you own to make you're life a little easier. The games music is relaxing and fitting and it's some of the best in any Harvest Moon game. Although the sound effects and the few voices that are in the game could use some work. The graphics are fine for the most part, but more than once I've caught myself staring at a character in the game and thought to myself, this character looks more like a mannequin than a human. Tree of Tranquility's worse problem however would have to be the load times. It takes forever to get from one place to another even when you're entering a smaller area, like a barn or a house. The games in game time works like this ten minutes in the game is a mere 5 seconds in real life and before you get an animal you can ride this makes getting place to place in time difficult, however I'd say the layout of this town works well with the short amount of time you are given each day. Like i said, this game has it's share of small problems but it doesn't stop this game from being what you we're expecting which is a solid Harvest Moon game. All the aspects of a classic harvest moon experience are there and are done well to the festivals, to the cut scenes, to you're very own wedding. If you're looking for a good harvest moon game for the Wii well here you go, and if you've never experienced Harvest Moon before, well then this is a good place to start.… Expand
  13. Nabman11
    Oct 16, 2019
    10
    I picked this game up for like $6NZD and once I got into it I was blown away at how such a cheap game could captivate me. It was so good I once sunk 9 hours straight into it. I would've been fine paying $20NZD for it but I guess the best thing I can do is snatch up as many wild copies as I can find. In all seriousness from the farming to the dating to the mines to the fishing and even theI picked this game up for like $6NZD and once I got into it I was blown away at how such a cheap game could captivate me. It was so good I once sunk 9 hours straight into it. I would've been fine paying $20NZD for it but I guess the best thing I can do is snatch up as many wild copies as I can find. In all seriousness from the farming to the dating to the mines to the fishing and even the story everything feels like an upgrade from previous Harvest Moon games and with the npc tracker and the new game plus mode where you play as your child, this game is worth more than it goes for. with the npc tracker and the animals being easier to manage, this game is actually better than Stardew Valley. My only two problems with this game are the lack of widescreen support and the loading times, which aren't too much of a pain cause the game music still plays over them and as a smoker, it's great to take a drag during those times. I would definitely give this a recommendation to anyone I know who has a Wii.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

90
#90 Best Wii Game of 2008
38
#38 Most Discussed Wii Game of 2008
24
#24 Most Shared Wii Game of 2008

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
65

Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Nintendo Power
    65
    The problem is that the game feels phoned in, from the tacked-on motion controls to the scan tutorial system that assumed you've already played every other Harvest Moon game. [Oct 2008, p.90]
  2. Game Informer
    68
    Bottom line: if you expect nothing out of the Tree of Tranquility except the same old same old, then this will do the trick. [Oct 2008, p.106]
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  3. Cheat Code Central
    72
    If you are really into farming, and don’t mind the repetitive tendencies of the series, then Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility is a solid entry and definitely worth your time.
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