History VideoGame / HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife

** The PS2 edition was supposed to be a sort of UpdatedRerelease, but it got a lot of flack for its ridiculous loading times and lowered graphics quality.

* CrapsaccharineWorld

!!Tropes, moi.

* JerkAss: Marlin, if you get too close to Celia. If you marry someone else though you become good drinking buddies.
** He's a JerkWithAHeartOfGold ''most'' of the time.

** Instead of the usual Hearts appearing beside the name the girls have hearts in their hidden diaries. The [[VideoGame/HarvestMoonOriginalSeries original]] ''Franchise/HarvestMoon'' was the same way, with each girl having a diary beside their bed with their heart levels in it. Celia is also a bit of an {{Expy}} of Nina, with a smudge of Ellen mixed in, and Muffy is one of Eve.
** The general "vague era" feel of the game is similar to the original ''Franchise/HarvestMoon'', which seemed early 20th century but had a fair share of AnachronismStew.
* NonStandardGameOver: A few.

** Lumina looks to be at most, 12. However, in Japan she's 16 and in the West she's 18. The Japanese site for the original game states she's fourteen but all games afterwards use the same model.

* RetroUniverse: The game looks like it takes place in TheSixties, maybe even the 1910s, but takes place in the 2000s.

Each game has three eligible marriage candidates, except for ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife SE]]'', which has 4. A marriage candidate must be chosen by the end of year one, or the [[NonStandardGameOver game will end]], though the marriage candidate with the highest affection will propose to you at the end of the year if you didn't get around to doing it. Each season is 10 days long, and most crops can only be harvested in one season.

** If you don't marry Nami, a few chapters later if she's still around town, you can witness an event where she's talking to Cody with an implication she might have feelings for him. This is dropped in ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife AnWL]]'' where instead she's your romantic rival for Gustafa.

** In the original: Muffy, Celia, and Nami respectively

* BrilliantButLazy: If you marry Nami, your child will have generally high strengths, but generally low interests -- meaning he (or she, in ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife Special Edition]]'') could be good at almost any career, but requires a lot of pushing from you to actually try.

** Rock, who is slightly more so in ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife Another Wonderful Life]]''.

** Your dog was meant to herd animals and be taught tricks. In the final product he's little more than a LivingProp, though ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife Another Wonderful Life]]'' [[DevelopmentGag added]] the tricks and made him more interactive.
** The circus from ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonDS DS]]'' was to originate in ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife A Wonderful Life]]'', but the characters were scrapped.

-->Muffy: ''Daddy's always giving you hugs. He's got no time to play with Mommy now...''

* LimitedWardrobe: In the original ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife AWL]]'', everyone wears the same clothes all their lives, save for a hand full of people who get palette swaps in their older years. In ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife AnWL]]'', your character can purchase more outfits for themselves, and in ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife SE]]'', everyone changes the color of their outfits based on the seasons.

* LonelyRichKid: Lumina, who in ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife SE]]'' is happy to marry a farmer and leave her giant manor on top of the hill.
* LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Muffy, at least in ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife AnWL]]''. Every year she is seen crying on the bridge because she broke up with another slimy man. Either he had a woman on the side, or she found out that she ''was'' the other woman on the side.

** In the special edition and ''[[DistaffCounterpart AnWL]]'', you can end the game in the first cutscene by simply telling Takakura you don't want the farm.

** Celia doesn't look past her early 20s for much of the game. Lampshaded in ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAwonderfulLife AnWL]]''.

* OneGameForThePriceOfTwo: Links to ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonBackToNature Friends of Mineral Town]]'' to unlock content in both. ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife Another Wonderful Life]]'' links to ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonBackToNature More Friends of Mineral Town]]'' in the same way.
** ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife Special Edition]]'' made it that you do not need to link up (since it's obvious you cannot connect your Game Boy Advance to a Playstation 2). Instead you can collect records from villagers for different things.

* PrecociousCrush: In ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife AWL]]'', Lumina seems to have a crush on you in the first chapter. In ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife SE]]'' she is made old enough to be a marriage candidate.

** In ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife AnWL]]'' Marlin's personality is changed so he's less of a jerk and more of a very distant and shy dude who just comes off as troubled.
* UnkemptBeauty: In the first AWL game Nami has neat smooth hair, but in ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife AnWL]]'', her hairstyle is shaggier and messier. She typically appears shaggy-haired in later games, though it combed down a bit for the Wii Ware title.

** ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife Another Wonderful Life]]'', along with being a DistaffCounterpart, added a lot of other new content to the game. Minigames to train your dog, the ability to change your outfit, a mirror by your bed, added difficulty in getting fodder, and making the special tools have different effects while farming. Some of these additions were included in the PS2 special edition, but not all of them.

** The infamous goat stops giving milk after one year and thereafter just wastes a space in the barn. Most players resorted to murdering the goat by starving it and making it sick in order to free up the barn slot. ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife Another Wonderful Life]]'' added in the option to sell your goat back to Van.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Unlike most animals, which you can sell when they're no longer useful, you can't sell the goat when it's become unable to produce milk. It's just there and takes up a slot in your barn. So if you really don't want it wasting space, you have no choice but to let it starve to death. ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife AnWL]]'' added the option to sell it.

'''''Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life''''' and '''''Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life''''' are two GameCube games in the ''Franchise/HarvestMoon'' series by Marvelous Interactive, the latter being a [[DistaffCounterpart gender-swapped]] version of the former. An UpdatedRerelease of the first game exists as a PS2 port, with an additional bachelorette and the ability to have a daughter, though this version has slightly worse graphics.

'''''Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life''''' and '''''Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life''''' are two [[{{Gamecube}} GameCube]] games in the ''Franchise/HarvestMoon'' series by Marvelous Interactive, the latter being a [[DistaffCounterpart gender-swapped]] version of the former. An UpdatedRerelease of the first game exists as a PS2 port, with an additional bachelorette and the ability to have a daughter, though this version has slightly worse graphics.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/another_540.PNG]]

''Franchise/HarvestMoon: [[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife A Wonderful Life]]'' and ''Franchise/HarvestMoon: [[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife Another Wonderful Life]]'' are two [[{{Gamecube}} GameCube]] games in the ''Franchise/HarvestMoon'' series by Marvelous Interactive, the latter being a [[DistaffCounterpart gender-swapped]] version of the former. An UpdatedRerelease of the first game exists as a PS2 port, with an additional bachelorette and the ability to have a daughter, though this version has slightly worse graphics.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/awlsmall_69.PNG

''Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life'' and ''Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life'' are two [[{{Gamecube}} GameCube]] games in the ''HarvestMoon'' series by Marvelous Interactive, the latter being a [[DistaffCounterpart gender-swapped]] version of the former. An UpdatedRerelease of the first game exists as a PS2 port, with an additional bachelorette and the ability to have a daughter, though this version has slightly worse graphics.

Each game has three eligible marriage candidates, except for ''SE'', which has 4. A marriage candidate must be chosen by the end of year one, or the [[NonStandardGameOver game will end]], though the marriage candidate with the highest affection will propose to you at the end of the year if you didn't get around to doing it. Each season is 10 days long, and most crops can only be harvested in one season.

** If you don't marry Nami, a few chapters later if she's still around town, you can witness an event where she's talking to Cody with an implication she might have feelings for him. This is dropped in ANWL where instead she's your romantic rival for Gustafa.

* BalefulPolymorph: Mukumuku's character profile from ''Friends of Mineral Town'' states that he was once human, but was transformed into what he is by his long life in the forest.

* BrilliantButLazy: If you marry Nami, your child will have generally high strengths, but generally low interests -- meaning he (or she, in SE) could be good at almost any career, but requires a lot of pushing from you to actually try.
* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Can be seen with Marlin and Celia, although they are not an official couple in this game. Their descendants in DS/DS Cute are, however.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Darker, at least, due to the more adult themes explored. The DS installments based on this game are Lighter And Edgier, oddly enough.

** Rock, who is slightly more so in ''Another Wonderful Life''.

** Your dog was meant to herd animals and be taught tricks. In the final product he's little more than a LivingProp, though ''Another Wonderful Life'' [[DevelopmentGag added]] the tricks and made him more interactive.
** The circus from ''DS'' was to originate in ''A Wonderful Life'', but the characters were scrapped.

* LimitedWardrobe: In the original AWL, everyone wears the same clothes all their lives, save for a hand full of people who get palette swaps in their older years. In ANWL, your character can purchase more outfits for themselves, and in SE, everyone changes the color of their outfits based on the seasons.

* LonelyRichKid: Lumina, who in SE is happy to marry a farmer and leave her giant manor on top of the hill.
* LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Muffy, at least in ANWL. Every year she is seen crying on the bridge because she broke up with another slimy man. Either he had a woman on the side, or she found out that she ''was'' the other woman on the side.

%%* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Rock to the player during ANWL.

** Instead of the usual Hearts appearing beside the name the girls have hearts in their hidden diaries. The original ''Harvest Moon'' was the same way, with each girl having a diary beside their bed with their heart levels in it. Celia is also a bit of an {{Expy}} of Nina, with a smudge of Ellen mixed in, and Muffy is one of Eve.
** The general "vague era" feel of the game is similar to the original ''Harvest Moon'', which seemed early 20th century but had a fair share of AnachronismStew.

** In the special edition and [[DistaffCounterpart AnWL,]] you can end the game in the first cutscene by simply telling Takakura you don't want the farm.

** Celia doesn't look past her early 20s for much of the game. Lampshaded in [=ANWL=].

* OneGameForThePriceOfTwo: Links to ''Friends of Mineral Town'' to unlock content in both. ''Another Wonderful Life'' links to ''More Friends of Mineral Town'' in the same way.
** ''Special Edition'' made it that you do not need to link up (since it's obvious you cannot connect your Game Boy Advance to a Playstation 2). Instead you can collect records from villagers for different things.

** Everyone in town apparently gossips about how Flora and Carter have been sharing a tent together for years. But if you speak to them, it's clear that a relationship with each other has never even ''occurred'' to them. However, their descendants in ''DS'' and ''Cute'' are paired together.
** Possibly all of the potential non-main-character "couples" count as this, as none of them officially get married (except in DS/Cute).
* PrecociousCrush: In AWL, Lumina seems to have a crush on you in the first chapter. In SE she is made old enough to be a marriage candidate.

* SharedUniverse: Takes place concurrently with ''(More) Friends of Mineral Town''.

** In ANWL Marlin's personality is changed so he's less of a jerk and more of a very distant and shy dude who just comes off as troubled.
* UnkemptBeauty: In the first AWL game Nami has neat smooth hair, but in [=AnWL=], her hairstyle is shaggier and messier. She typically appears shaggy-haired in later games, though it combed down a bit for the Wii Ware title.

** ''Another Wonderful Life'', along with being a DistaffCounterpart, added a lot of other new content to the game. Minigames to train your dog, the ability to change your outfit, a mirror by your bed, added difficulty in getting fodder, and making the special tools have different effects while farming. Some of these additions were included in the PS2 special edition, but not all of them.

** The infamous goat stops giving milk after one year and thereafter just wastes a space in the barn. Most players resorted to murdering the goat by starving it and making it sick in order to free up the barn slot. ''Another Wonderful Life'' added in the option to sell your goat back to Van.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Unlike most animals, which you can sell when they're no longer useful, you can't sell the goat when it's become unable to produce milk. It's just there and takes up a slot in your barn. So if you really don't want it wasting space, you have no choice but to let it starve to death. [=AnWL=] added the option to sell it.

* AbortedArc: There's an event in the game you can come across where the sprites lament that the harvest goddess is asleep, but maybe if they find nice things she will wake up one day. It's the only time they ever mention a harvest goddess in this game, and afterwards the topic is never brought up.

* ArtEvolution: There's an early version of the boxart that looks different from the final product. Nami's hair was also very straight in the first game, while later games have it being messy (to be fair some official artwork had her with messy hair early on).

* BlondeBrunetteRedHead: Muffy, Celia, and Nami respectively
** The DistaffCounterpart has this too, though Gustafa is a darker shade of red.
* BlindIdiotTranslation: There are several blatant typos and mistakes, plus a few glitches in the game. And the transition of Lumina as a love interest in the PlayStation version was a tad sloppy; some scenes refer to her as Muffy. There are fewer typos in the [[DistaffCounterpart girl version]], though.
** Your son occasionally calls your husband his mother.
* BreakTheCutie: If you break Celia's heart, then she, Vesta, and ''especially'' Marlin will ''never forgive you.''
** You make this happen to Lumina if you play as the boy character, due to her PrecociousCrush on you. She gets over it though. Muffy has this happen to her a few times, both due to you and not.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Darker, at least. The DS installments based on this game are Lighter And Edgier, oddly enough.
* DecadeDissonance: At first glance the games, especially the male one, seems to take place in the early twentieth century. However you have characters like Rock and Griffin who embody TheSixties, a (rather retro looking) TV, and relatively modern fashions on certain characters. If you watch TV you'll notice references to ''cellphones''. Tim implies airplanes aren't even a thing in the protagonists country. It's worth noting that Mineral Town looks more modern and it's literally just a few miles away.

* DefrostingIceQueen: What the player does to win over Nami, and Marlin too.

* DumbBlond: Rock, who is possibly slightly more so in Another Wonderful Life. And Muffy, to a much lesser extent.
* DummiedOut: 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.

** The circus from ''DS'' was to originate in ''A Wonderful Life'' but the characters were scrapped.

* DyingTown: Forget-Me-Not Valley can't honestly even be called a town. With only a handful of families living there with all of them save the farmers commuting out for work, no form of mayor or leadership whatsoever, and the closest thing to a store they have is a single wandering merchant who passes through twice a month. By the end of the game, the town has essentially turned into a senior citizens community with only three or four youth who may just skip out to the city when they grow up.

* EarnYourBadEnding: It's possible to get a NonStandardGameOver by neglecting your farm sales in the second year, but actually getting this ending is difficult if you aren't trying. You basically have to deliberately run your farm into the ground and then repeatedly give very rude responses to your wife when she questions you about it.
* EducationMama: Celia really wants to see her son grow up to be a scientist.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: You can try to milk a bull. And it will not exactly struggle.
** Made even more obvious because younger bulls, who cannot breed yet, seem confused when you try to "milk" them.

* GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHave: All of the young women in the town still retain their looks when they become old, they just have grey hair and a few wrinkles added. Nami and Muffy in particular aged very well.

* [[IllGirl Ill Boy]]: When Marlin was younger he was really sickly and weak. It's why he moved out of the city and into the valley. He's still rather fragile though.

* LikeBrotherAndSister: In one event with Lumina in the PlayStation version, she says she doesn't wish she had siblings, because she already has you as an older brother figure. Considering you're [[{{Squick}} trying to seduce her...]]
** It's implied she has mistaken her romantic feelings for a sibling affection or that her feelings changed over time. In the original game she runs away crying during the wedding scene.
* LimitedWardrobe: In the original AWL, everyone wears the same clothes all their lives, save for a hand full of people who get palette swaps in their older years. In ANWL, your character can purchase more outfits for themselves. And in SE, everyone changes the color of their outfits based on the seasons.
* LivingProp: A lot of the citizens in town sort of just exist. There's no events or items you get from talking to them, and so you end up sort of just ignoring them completely.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Rock to the player during ANWL.
* MaternallyChallenged: Nami is... not exactly fantastic as far as mothers go. Her frequent visits to the bar, long walks through town, and arguments with her teenage son are signs she may not exactly have been cut out for this.
** Thank God her toddler son is smart enough to go to bed on his own.
* MayDecemberRomance: Muffy is a bit older than your character, being in her thirties. Your son might grow up to have a crush on Kate, who was around six years or so older, or Lumina, who is so much older that in some versions ''you'' could marry her.
** Lumina is at least 14 years, probably 16 to 18 years, older than your son.
* {{Meganekko}}: Flora and Chris
* MoodWhiplash: When you ask Nami to marry you, she becomes surprised by this and takes the Blue Feather. Cue her asking if you care about the paperwork.

** In the last chapter you get a cute scene between you and your significant other.. Then you die.
* MythologyGag: Nina's hairstyle, name, and fascination with flowers all seem to be this to Nina of the first game. Considering ''HarvestMoon64'' featured a senior Ellen [[spoiler:who shared a similar fate]], she could be an aged version of Nina.
** Instead of the usual Hearts appearing beside the name the girls have hearts in their hidden diaries. The original ''Harvest Moon'' was the same way, with each girl having a diary beside their bed with their heart levels in it. Celia is also a bit of an {{Expy}} of Nina, with a smudge of Ellen mized in, and Muffy is one of Eve.

* OlderThanSheLooks: Muffy is the oldest, being in her thirties.

** Plus Lumina, who looks to be at most, 12. However, according to the booklet for ''Another Wonderful Life'', she's actually 18.
*** A meta version. The Japanese site for the original game states she's fourteen but all games afterwards use the same model. Somewhat more justified in Japan where she's sixteen, not eighteen.

* PlatonicLifePartners: Everyone in town apparently gossips about how Flora and Carter have been sharing a tent together for years. But if you speak to them, it's clear that a relationship with each other has never even ''occurred'' to them. However, their descendants in ''DS'' and ''Cute'' are paired together.

* PrecociousCrush: In AWL, Lumina seems to have a crush on you in the first chapter. In SE this isn't quite as precocious considering she is a marriage candidate.

* ScaryBlackMan: Subverted with Cody, who certainly looks the part but is actually just introverted and quiet.

* SharedUniverse: Takes place concurrently with (More) Friends of Mineral Town.

* RetroUniverse: As mentioned it looks like it takes place in TheSixties, maybe even the 1910s, but takes place in the 2000s.
* {{Tsundere}}: In ANWL Marlin's personality is changed so he's less of a jerk and more of a very distant and shy dude who just comes off as troubled.
** Nami also is [[SugarAndIcePersonality rather cold and cynical at first, until you get really close with her.]]
* UnkemptBeauty: In the first AWL game Nami has neat smooth hair, but in [=AnWL=], her hairstyle is shaggier and messier. She keeps the latter style in every other game she appears in.
** Her hair style has changed frequently. It was at most shaggiest in ''Magical Melody'' but was combed down a bit for the Wii Ware title.
* UpdatedRerelease: Another Wonderful Life may just be a distaff counterpart, but it also added a lot of other new content to the game. Minigames to train your dog, the ability to change your outfit, a mirror by your bed, added difficulty in getting fodder, and making the special tools have different effects while farming. Some of these additions were included in the PS2 special edition, but not all of them.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can see all of a girl's heart events and then marry someone else. Be prepared for said girl to hate you forever. Especially Celia; if you do this to her, she and her family will never forgive you.

** And then there's the infamous goat, which stops giving milk after one year and thereafter just wastes a space in the barn. Most players resorted to murdering the goat by starving it and making it sick in order to free up the barn slot. ''Another Wonderful Life'' added in the option to sell your goat back to Van.
* WhatTheHellHero: If you raise a girl to all four hearts and see all of their events, and then ''[[VideoGameCrueltyPotential marry someone else]]'' you will see a scene where the girl comes to your house at night to [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech give you a good verbal beat down]].
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Unlike most animals, which you can sell when they're no longer useful, you can't sell the goat when it's become unable to produce milk. It's just there and takes up a slot in your barn. So if you really don't want it wasting space, you have no choice but to let it starve to death.

* LivingProp: A lot of the citizens in town sort of just exist. There's no events or items you get from talking to them, and so you end up sort of just ignoring them completely. Like the fire work makers.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Unlike most animals, which you can sell when they're no longer useful, you can't sell the goat when it's become unable to produce milk. It's just there and takes up a slot in your barn. So if you really don't want to let it waste space, you have no choice but to let it starve to death.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Any crops you plant will remain the same if the story jumps to a few years. If you plant a crop such as a tomato and the game sets off 3 years later, it will look the same at it was 3 years ago.

** The girl's version is especially more confusing, as the skinny jeans, miniskirt, and t shirt worn by the protagonist is much more modern than the more typical farmer's gear worn in the male game.

''Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life'' and ''Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life'' are two [[{{Gamecube}} Gamecube]] games in the ''HarvestMoon'' series by Marvelous Interactive, the latter being a [[DistaffCounterpart gender-swapped]] version of the former. An UpdatedRerelease of the first game exists as a PS2 port, with an additional bachelorette and the ability to have a daughter, though this version has slightly worse graphics.

* BlindIdiotTranslation: There are several blatant typos and mistakes, plus a few glitches in the game. And the transition of Lumina as a love interest in the playstation version was a tad sloppy; some scenes refer to her as Muffy. There are fewer typos in the [[DistaffCounterpart girl version]], though.

* LikeBrotherAndSister: In one event with Lumina in the playstation version, she says she doesn't wish she had siblings, because she already has you as an older brother figure. Considering you're [[{{Squick}} trying to seduce her...]]

* UrbanLegendOfZelda: 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.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoilerYou die suddenly, leaving your spouse alone and never being able to see your kid delve into adulthood.]] Still, you lived a happy life with many friends, an awesome family, and doing what you enjoy.

* BittersweetEnding: You die suddenly, leaving your spouse alone and never being able to see your kid delve into adulthood. Still, you lived a happy life with many friends, an awesome family, and doing what you enjoy.

* ArtEvolution: There's an early version of the boxart that looks different from the final product. Nami's hair was also very straight in the first game, while later games have it being messy (to be fair some official artwork had her with messy hair early on).

* BittersweetEnding: You die suddenly, leaving your spouse alone and never being able to see your kid delve into adulthood. Still you lived a happy life with many friends, an awesome family, and doing what you enjoy.