History VideoGame / HarvestMoon64

** It's never mentioned whether Karen's mother (unnamed in ''64'' but named "Sasha" in future titles) or her father Gotz is Eve's child. It's more-so implied to be Sasha due to her having dirty blonde hair.

* KissingCousins: Your grandfather, the protagonist of the original ''Harvest Moon'', canonically married one of the bachelorettes from that game. All of the bachelorettes of ''this'' game are their granddaughters. This means that one of the five girls has the same grandparents as you-- making you cousins. The trope is presumably averted, however, since it's never stated ''which'' bachelorette is your cousin, so it's safe to assume that it's [[SchrodingersGun not the one you married]]. However you can still have {{Squick}} induced if you court all the girls.

* SelfImposedChallenge: Numerous, but the most common is probably the "full album run", a form of OneHundredPercentCompletion combined with SpeedRun (since you have to do it all before you hit the PlayableEpilogue, with many intermediate deadlines for accomplishments imposed by scripted in-game events before that). See BraggingRightsReward above.

* ArtStyleDissonance: The art style is very chibi and cute, but the story deals with some decidedly un-childish subjects, such as [[DeathIsASadThing the death of loved ones]] to the prospect of [[AdultFear financial ruin and a crumbling family life due to a failing business]]. Of course, things ''can'' work out in the end (if the player [[EarnYourHappyEnding puts enough effort into it]]), so it's not all doom and gloom -- but it's certainly not as much of a SugarBowl as the art would suggest.

* AdultFear: The vineyard sideplot. The family business is slowly crumbling, which doesn't help the already-strained relationship between Karen and her father.

** There are only two fish: Fish and Big Fish.

* MoreFriendsMoreBenefits: One of the positive ending messages requires you to have the highest relationship level with all five girls, even though you can only marry one. Unlocking the party photograph also requires having all the photographs related to the five girls, which similarly requires this.

* PermanentlyMissableContent: Cliff, Karen, and Kai will all leave the village if you don't befriend them quickly enough (though Kai will stick around if Karen does, given that she's his LoveInterest). There are also numerous photos with a limited window of opportunity -- some are one time only events, and all of the girls' pictures will be unavailable after you get married.

''[=HM64=]'' is, like the rest of the series, a SimulationGame that combines aspects of business, social, and space management games into a single whole. It holds something of an odd place in the franchise -- while it helped solidify much of the series' gameplay, it still suffers from quite a bit of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness and much of its content was ignored or altered for later ''Harvest Moon'' games. It's generally regarded as one of the best games in the franchise, but due to its age relatively few current fans have played it. It didn't help that ''Harvest Moon: [[VideoGame/HarvestMoonBackToNature Back to Nature]]'' (released at about the same time) had a different set of characters which took precedence over the ''[=HM64=]'' versions for quite some time, leaving them in something of a CanonDiscontinuity limbo. New games have reintroduced some long-missing characters, however (such as Elli appearing in ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonTreeOfTranquility Tree of Tranquility]]''), so that part of ''[=HM64=]'''s history seems to be over.

** Pete doesn't faint when exhausted. He makes a fainting animation but the day doesn't instead. He only can't use tools until he regains health.

** Kent makes reference to God, despite everyone worshipping the Harvest Goddess. This implies he's polytheistic. Future games only refer to the Harvest Goddess, Harvest God, and Harvest King.

* GenerationXerox: Various characters are nigh-identical to their grandparents in [[VideoGame/HarvestMoon the first game]]. The PlayerCharacter and his grandfather, Ann/Ann, Popuri/Nina, and Elli/Ellen all qualify.

* CrystalDragonJesus: The local church is very Catholic flavored, but actually worships the Harvest Goddess.

** The translation of several terms differ from later games. For example, the Harvest Goddess is known as "the Goddess of Spring". Elli also notes that some call her "Earth Goddess".
** Most characters have NoNameGiven. They wouldn't be given names until ''Back to Nature''.
** This is the only game where married rival couples have children of their own.

* FamilyThemeNaming: Popuri and Gray will name their child "Mint". Popuri and her mother Lillia are both also named after plants as well.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The characterization in this game is quite different from the next game, ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonBackToNature Back to Nature]]''. Characters relations to each other, and rival pairings, are different too. It's also more fluid and natural then a lot of future games.

''Harvest Moon 64'' is the third game in the ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' series, released in 1999 for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64. An EvenBetterSequel to the original, it cemented the franchise as a successful (and [[MoneyDearBoy profitable]]) CultClassic. ''Harvest Moon 64'' sticks to the [[StrictlyFormula series formula]] -- indeed, helped [[TropeCodifier codify]] it -- and generally expands on original concept. The player's grandfather has recently died and the player has decided to move in and work the farm in grandpa's place. You have just over two years (until the end of the third Spring) to whip the farm into shape, become an active part of the local community, woo, wed, and bed a local bachelorette, and generally become a successful and responsible adult. At the end of this period, your father visits and grades your progress, marking the conclusion of the game as such, though there's nothing to keep you from [[PlayableEpilogue playing indefinitely after that]].

** Pete is the IdenticalGrandchild of the protagonist from [[VideoGame/HarvestMoon1 the first game]]. All of the bachelorettes are related to bachelorettes from the first game[[note]]Nina is Popuri's grandmother, Eve is Karen's grandmother, Maria is Maria's grandmother, and Ellen is Elli's grandmother[[/note]]. This means that one of them should be your cousin. The problem is that none of them ever mention being your cousin. It can't be Elli since Ellen isn't your grandmother, which leaves the other three girls. Karen and Ann are options because Eve and SNES Ann had at least two kids, which is possible in the original game, but it isn't obligatory. Either way, it's to be assumed that your wife is the one who isn't your cousin.

* GoodBadTranslation: There were more than a few quirks with the translation, like items being called different things depending on where you checked, but the most amusing was definitely Natsume spelling ''their own name'' wrong on the title screen. (They used "Natume", [[http://legendsoflocalization.com/did-natsume-misspell-its-own-name-in-harvest-moon-64/ which is technically correct]], but obviously inconsistent with the usual translation.)

* AllThereInTheManual: The Japanese strategy guide goes very in-depth into everyone; stating ages, likes, their personality, among other stuff. It also mentions how Elli and Pete are the OfficialCouple, and how Rick has a crush on Karen.

* MythologyGag: Ken from the GameBoy titles appears unnamed.

* {{Arcadia}}: Flower Bud Village is very Arcadian, mixed with a bit of (the positive version of) EagleLand. [[labelnote:Details]]While not as {{Anvilicious}} as many examples (and tempered by the existence of numerous JapaneseHolidays), many aspects of the game are quite Western -- the church is obviously Catholic (despite [[CrystalDragonJesus worshiping the Harvest Goddess]]), {{Mukokuseki}} is largely averted (several characters are visibly Asian, while at least one is [[AmbiguouslyBrown either hispanic or black]]), and various elements (such as the architecture) seem to owe more to the West than Japan. In all, it feels a lot like type 1 EagleLand with "suburban 1950s" replaced by "early 20th century".[[/labelnote]] It's a [[CloseKnitCommunity close-knit pastoral community]] where the worst thing that ever happens is a beloved elder dying peacefully in their sleep, or a youngster succumbing to the lure of the big city and leaving home.

* JapaneseHolidays: Several of the festivals are based on them. Specifically, the Firefly Festival is very reminiscent of Bon, and the Starry Night Festival is somewhat similar to the Japanese celebration of Christmas (taking place on the 24th of Winter helps). There's also New Years Eve and New Years Day.

* AdultFear: Everything involving the vineyard. The business is slowly crumbling, which doesn't help the relationship between Karen and her father.

* SuperTitle64Advance: A Harvest Moon game released for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, creatively named Harvest Moon 64.

* WhamEpisode: The [[spoiler:death of Ellie's grandmother]] midway through the game, as there's no foreshadowing or build-up to it. The only indication of something being different is the fact that the character in question is in a slightly different location from their regular spot. Worse, it affects more than just the player -- after it happens, [[spoiler:Ellie]] is an emotional mess for quite some time afterward. And unlike virtually every other negative outcome to a character arc, which can be avoided if the player puts enough effort into it, this one happens no matter what you do. [[note]]Unless you avoid seeing the scene by refusing to speak to her once the event has been triggered, but that's more of a metagame thing than anything else. There's no way to avoid triggering the event in the first place.[[/note]]

Despite a claim by Natsume the former translator of the series that the game was too difficult to emulate properly and would probably never see the light of day on the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole, both North America and Europe received ''Harvest Moon 64'' as an available download on the UsefulNotes/WiiU in late February of 2017, as part of a planned year-long celebration of the ''Harvest Moon'' franchise.

Despite a claim by Natsume themselves that the game was too difficult to emulate properly and would probably never see the light of day on the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole, both North America and Europe received ''Harvest Moon 64'' as an available download on the UsefulNotes/WiiU in late February of 2017, as part of a planned year-long celebration of the ''Harvest Moon'' franchise.

''Harvest Moon 64'' is the third game in the ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' series, released in 1999 for the {{Nintendo 64}}. An EvenBetterSequel to the original, it cemented the franchise as a successful (and [[MoneyDearBoy profitable]]) CultClassic. ''Harvest Moon 64'' sticks to the [[StrictlyFormula series formula]] -- indeed, helped [[TropeCodifier codify]] it -- and generally expands on original concept. The player's grandfather has recently died and the player has decided to move in and work the farm in grandpa's place. You have just over two years (until the end of the third Spring) to whip the farm into shape, become an active part of the local community, woo, wed, and bed a local bachelorette, and generally become a successful and responsible adult. At the end of this period, your father visits and grades your progress, marking the conclusion of the game as such, though there's nothing to keep you from [[PlayableEpilogue playing indefinitely after that]].

* SuperTitle64Advance: A Harvest Moon game released for the {{Nintendo 64}}, creatively named Harvest Moon 64.

* MoreFriendsMoreBenefits: One of the positive ending messages requires you to have the highest relationship level with all five girls, even though you can only marry one.