Trivia / Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life

• Creator's Favorite: When asked in this Reddit “Ask Me Anything” who his favorite bachelorette in the series was, Yasuhiro Wada stated that Nami is his favorite bachelorette, due to her starting out tough and slowly getting nicer, and for having the “truest personality.”
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Yasuhiro Wada has said in an interview back in 2012 that A Wonderful Life was his favorite game in the series. He added that it's due to how it was the closest game to his vision and how you can observe the village through the player's eyes in another interview.
• Dummied Out:
  • The locked shed on your farm is never unlocked. Neither is the one on Romana's property. The former was meant to be a horse shed.
  • Your dog was meant to herd animals and be taught tricks. In the final product he's little more than a Living Prop, though Another Wonderful Life added the tricks and made him more interactive (and so did the remake Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life).
  • The circus from DS was to originate in A Wonderful Life, but the characters were scrapped.
  • Your daughter was supposed to take after the mother, not Mark, but they couldn't implement the designs due to time constraints.
• Newbie Boom: A Wonderful Life and Another Wonderful Life were many fans' gateways into the series. Natsume has went to record to say that A Wonderful Life was the best selling game in the series.
• No Export for You: A large amount of significant info on game mechanics and characterization is given in the official guidebooks for A Wonderful Life, Another Wonderful Life, and Special Edition but they were only made available in Japanese, so fans must learn Japanese or rely on fan-translations. This has created no small amount of confusion, with many English players left in the dark about the game's more eccentric mechanics or unaware that not just Lumina, but the entire cast had their ages listed differently overseas by Natsume, with some varying wildly.
• Urban Legend of Zelda:
  • There were tons of rumors spread about the game. Like there being a way to unlock the mysterious abandoned shack, or how to get into Romana's shed, or getting every single tablet in the game will give you the Chihuahua found next to the dig site. All of these rumors were completely false.
  • Besides the Chihuahua, there are several other animals roaming around, including a raccoon on Vesta's farm, a bandaged lizard in the forest, and a large turtle by the pond. None of those can actually be acquired, but try telling that to the countless people who insist you can. The rumors are that befriending Cody will unlock a cutscene where he gives you the turtle after it saves you from drowning and that befriending Carter (or unlocking a nonexistent sixth tablet) unlocks a similar cutscene with the Chihuahua. The animals are actually around to signify that you can unlock rare fish; fishing is better when the animals are present (or with the Chihuahua, that there's better mining chances).
  • There's a commonly cited rumor that giving Murray enough money will get him to move back home. This isn't true. He'll never move away, no matter what.
  • There are also rumors involving your son getting harmed. One where he'll claim that the Teddy Bear clawed him, with a scar on his cheek. Another rumor had it where if you left your dog out in the pasture all summer, it'll become mad and chase your son to the beach and bite him. The scene ends with Hardy giving him medical treatment, and charging you a hefty fee if you're not friends with him.
  • All guides and walkthroughs online mention that the horse is immortal. You don't need to feed it, it'll never get sick, and it'll never die. This actually isn't true. It's extremely hard to do, but neglecting the horse enough can lead it to die.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Your dog was originally intended to act as a sheep-dog and could be taught tricks. This was scrapped however the ability to teach him tricks was reintroduced in Another Wonderful Life and A Wonderful Life: Special Edition.
  • Early screenshots show you were meant to view your fields at a different angle and Van's shop originally showed pictures next to the items.
  • You originally received your horse as a colt and he had a larger range of movements.
  • In the final product only select wild animals appear around town. In beta screencaps the cats that live at the villa walked around town and ducks appeared at the pond near the beach.
  • The circus from Harvest Moon DS was originally announced to appear in A Wonderful Life.
  • The locked shed would've housed your horse, before the decision was made to have your horse live in your barn.
  • Your daughter in Special Edition would've shared your wife's hair and eye colours according to the concept artwork. However, time and resources meant she would have your features instead.
  • Dummied Out items include an Ax item implying you could cut down trees like in other games, two fishing lures implying more in-depth fishing, three unused music records, and two Nursing Bottles implying that the toddler was supposed to appear as a baby.

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