A special edition version titled Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition was released on the PlayStation 2 in Japan in 2004 and North America in 2005. It was later re-released on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 with improvements upon lag issues stemming from the PlayStation 2 port.[4]Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life, the female version of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, was released for the GameCube outside Japan in July 2005.
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life begins with the player moving to the city to inherit an abandoned farm in Forget-Me-Not Valley. A man named Takakura provides them a house, some seeds, and a cow for free. He explains the player the basics of farming from this point on.[6]
Related games
An updated version titled Oh! A Wonderful Life was released in Japan for the PlayStation 2 in November 2004. The English version was titled A Wonderful Life Special Edition and released in late 2005. While very similar to the original version of A Wonderful Life, some extra items and events were added in addition to an updated soundtrack. The most notable changes were the ability to have a daughter, the ability to marry Lumina, and the ability to continue playing after death.[7] On May 16, 2017, it was announced that a remake of the Special Edition was scheduled for the PS4 with a tentative 2017 release planned.[8]
Marvelous Interactive released a remake version of A Wonderful Life under the Story of Seasons main title on June 27, 2023. In this game, the main characters' default names are Sion and Maya, some of the characters have different names and appearances, the farm itself along with some of the locations also have a few changes, the chapters have been renamed, and new scenes are included. The intro begins with Takakura receiving a letter from the player before meeting them at the village entrance and escorting them to the farm. The player can marry any of the bachelors or bachelorettes from the previous versions, regardless of gender, along with an additional bachelor, Gordy.[9]
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life received largely positive reviews upon its initial GameCube release. IGN gave the title an "Impressive" 8 out of 10 rating, praising gameplay and lasting appeal while also noting its "monotonous" audio and upsetting lack of festivals.[16]A Wonderful Life garnered an 8.7 rating from Ryan Davis of GameSpot. Echoing other reviews, Davis considered it "a fun and potentially addictive game that, if you let it, will gladly consume any free time you choose to give it."[14] The publication went on to name it the best GameCube game of March 2004.[17]
The Special Edition released for PlayStation 2 did not receive such strong praise. IGN's Juan Castro gave it a score of 6/10 and remarked "The differences, including an increase in brides, choosing the gender of your child and the ability to play forever, make little difference. What does make a difference, though, is the drastic drop in framerate, increase in load times and muddy graphics."[7]Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine gave it a 7/10 rating.[18]
Marvelous added same-sex relationships to the game as well as the option to make the player character non-binary.[21]
The reception for the remake was mixed, with Destructoid's CJ Andriessen calling the game a "remarkable experience".[22] However, GameSpot's Jess Howard considered it "empty and stuck in the past."[15]
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