That's the cover for Harvest Moon DS. It's a fun game, and I rate it a 8/10. It would be a 9/10 if there weren't so many glitches in the game.
Music: The soundtrack for the game has gotten a lot better. I never tire of hearing it. New and refreshing and a bit nostalgic because some tunes have only been remixed a little.
Game play: It's what you can expect from a farming game. As usual, there are the mines, assortment of vegetables (and trees too), and fishing. You go around gifting the villagers to befriend them. What's great about this game though, is your rucksack's size! It's huge! Each slot can carry 99 of the same item.
As you can see, there are three pages for the rucksack! And each page has 18 slots. Each slot can hold a maximum of 99 per item. Pretty neat huh? You also still get the basket. ^^ You only get one page when you start, but you can always call up the Supermarket to get the upgrades. The first upgrade only costs 2000G.
Note: There are no Power Berries in this game. Sucks, huh?
Something else is new about the game though. In order to get Harvest Sprites to help you, you must find them. To find them, you have to do various every day tasks, search every nook and cranny, or just happen to be at places at the right time. Even after you find enough to help you, you need to earn medals by gambling at the casino. Hahaha! That's right, kiddies! Pull out your chips for a round of Poker! Anyway, there's Poker, BlackJack, and a Matching card game.
Moving on!
Animals: You get the chickens, ducks, cows, sheep, dog, cat, and horse. Right now though, I don't see what purpose the cat has. It does nothing as far as I know. To care for the animals, you brush them, talk to them, feed them, and shear/milk them. This time, there's something called a Touch Glove. To use it, you need to use the stylus. It's pretty nifty.
Farming: Nothing really changed. There are new seeds for trees though. You don't need to water trees. Just wait until they fully grow, for the right season, and then you can pick the fruit. Easy. Oh, but you can level up your seeds for better crops. The leveled up crops cash in a lot more income once shipped.
Mining: There are a total of FOUR mines. The third one contains a possible wife candidate. To gain access to the first mine, you must visit the Excavation site past 9PM. Walk in with your Hammer equipped and a short little scene will play out with you smashing a new tunnel. Unlike Friends of Mineral Town for the Gameboy Advance, you don't NEED to dig for stairs to progress through the levels. You just walk around until you fall through a hole. However, there are dead end floors. To get to the next floor, dig for the stairs. Then go back to falling through holes again. The first mine which gives you ores is the easiest to get through. It has a total of 10 floors. There's a dark chick on the last floor which you need to defeat with one of your tools. Then you've completed it! Finally, you can get the second mine. This one, there are quite a few dark creatures for you to defeat on every level. So be careful! Once you get to the bottom of this mine, you can get the next mine. Repeat.
Wives: There are a total of 14 girls you can choose from. Flora, Celia, Lumina, Muffy, and Nami are the normal candidates. Then there are the special girls; Witch Princess, Harvest Goddess, Keria (a princess), and Leia (a mermaid). After that, if you connect either of the GBA games to the DS, you can get the Mineral Town girls; Ann, Elli, Karen, Popuri, and Mary. However, if you marry one of the Mineral Town girls, it's game over.
I'm sure you can discover the rest on your own. ^^
