Taking several cues from
last year’s Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility, Harvest Moon: Animal
Parade is taking the entire cast and giving them another go-around. With the
same characters and a different town, the storyline is asking players to free
the Harvest King by ringing five bells across the land due to that the elements
of the land are starting to weaken.
Showcasing a more
integrated pet system, players now have the ability to teach their pets to do
tricks. The pets that are said to be included for this year’s iteration include:
a beagle, bear, weasel, panda bear and cub, tabby cat, rabbit, snake, and a
turtle. On top of that, your livestock for your ranch includes: a cow, horse,
duck, sheep, chicken, silk worm, ostrich, and a goat.
The list doesn’t stop
there as Animal Parade incorporates a circus that comes to town and loses
many of their animals. This is where the player embarks on a subquest to find
Mayor Theodore, the ring leader of the circus, his lion, elephant, zebra and
giraffe. He’ll provide clues on how to find them and the player can go about
finding them in any order he or she pleases.
Upgrading from last year,
players can whistle for any their live stock with four legs to come immediately
to their side so the player can ride them around the ranch. That’s right, you
can now ride your fat cow or fluffy sheep as you please.
As expected, players will
be able to play as a boy or girl and, this year especially, they have strived to
provide even more costumes and outfits to wear. Putting on a fire bandana, big
red glasses and a pink dress, the Natsume representative’s girl character was
dressed to impress. Impress she shall, as there are eight bachelors for each
gender and four special characters – Wizard, Witch Princess, Harvest Goddess,
and Harvest King – to fall in love with.
Other changes to
Animal Parade have been made to the request of the fans. Natsume has
improved the farming with a new sky view when you hold the Z Button. The motion
controls have been removed due to the complaints and, also, they can now take
photos of their animals and ranch to share them online via WiiConnect24.
With a target release of
September, Harvest Moon: Animal Parade is exclusive to the Nintendo Wii.