Harvest Moon: Animal Parade was released in 2008 as the second Harvest Moon (now known as the Story of Seasons) Farm Life Sim title on the Wii. It is a retool of sorts to Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility; it adds a number of features, some of which include but are not limited to: taking pictures and storing them in an in-game album, ride-able farm animals (so long as you meet certain requirements), four protagonists to choose from (which doesn't affect overall gameplay as they simply look different), new marriage candidates, family help on the farm, among much more. The game still features the usual farming, taking care of animals, and the cast from ToT.
You start as the protagonist you chose, riding into town on the back of Cain's cart on the way to your new farm in Castanet. You're accompanied by a Harvest Sprite named Finn, and only you and a few others can see him. Finn reminds the protagonist to meet the Harvest Goddess, before being asked a few questions from Cain during the trip. After getting settled in and met the mayor and townfolk, you come to learn the wildlife, is slowly becoming stagnant, and the lack of vitality is causing them to abandon their home. It turns out the Harvest Goddess has been weakened and her Harvest Tree is dying. You must ring the five bells controlled by the Harvest Sprites to summon the Harvest King, who should be able to revitalize the tree and save the Harvest Goddess. Along the way, you can court some of the marriage candidates, go out on little dates, help Thomas the ringmaster find his lost circus animals, and more!
Tropes associated with this game:
- Ahoge: All the protagonists have them, except for Kasey.
- All Animals Are Domesticated: Good. Gravy. This game, having a heavy emphasis on animals, allows you to keep up to four pets in your house. Almost any animal seen wandering about outside can be tamed, including but not limited to cats, dogs, bunnies, turtles, snakes, weasels, and freaking bears.
- All in a Row: You can have your spouse, your pets, or one of your children walk with you. They follow obediently behind you in this fashion, and you can create some amusingly Benny Hill-esque chains: farmer chased by little boy chased by penguin chased by OH GOD, A BEAR!
- All-Natural Gem Polish: In most games it's played straight with the player mining pre-cut precious stones, but it's averted here. All the gems you find are uncut and require Mira to appraise and cut them before they're worth anything. And she has a decent chance of failing, too.
- Ambiguously Brown: A few characters, such as Selena and the Wizard.
- And Your Reward Is Parenthood: You can have up to two children with your spouse, in any combination of genders you like, and they even take after your spouse in appearance. You influence their personality when they're babies, and when they grow up, they can help on your farm—with the chores they're best at being influenced by their personality. And if the rival couples have children, there are even events where your children play together!
- Awesome, but Impractical: Like most Harvest Moon games, there's always a crop that is significantly more profitable than all the others and planting this crop in great numbers for an entire season can easily make you rich (Blue Mist Flowers, anyone?). However, since one of the chief goals of the game is to make money, using these methods can make the game quite boring.
- Babies Ever After: The player plans for children with their spouse before having them. You can even have two of them!
- Bittersweet Ending: Helping the Harvest King and finishing the story comes with a terrible price: your character is forced to give up one of his/her very own children. Forever.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: The game actually does quite well in this respect, but there are some occasional minor translation errors, such as the PC's children being referred to with the wrong gender pronouns. Often they're referred to as "it" regardless of sex, and don't be alarmed if your daughters get referred to as "he".
- Bragging Rights Reward: The Harvest Goddess (and Harvest King) as purely Bragging Rights Reward candidates is averted. To woo them, the only thing you have to do is beat the main storyline—and that's hardly anything at all with regards to 100% Completion. They still won't live with you, but there's nothing special you have to do to win their favor that's different from any other candidate.
- But Thou Must!: ...Meet all the villagers when you start the game before the story can continue.
- The Cameo: The Kappa appears in this game, but he serves no real purpose.
- Continuity Nod:
- It is mentioned that in the past, during the Flower Festival, a girl from the village would be voted to be the goddess of the festival. That's what was done in Harvest Moon 64.
- Elli appears on the weather channel. It is explicitly the 64 incarnation of Elli. Gray is also in his 64 incarnation.
- Convection, Schmonvection: You can go to the 30th floor of the Garmon Mines to get a Power Berry. You're surrounded by lava. Doesn't matter!
- Divine Parentage: If you marry the Harvest Goddess or the Harvest King, the game really doesn't make a very big deal out of it... and the implications of your children by either of them being the children of an all-powerful deity are never addressed. They don't inherit any special personality traits or possess any divine abilities.
- Door to Before: In the mines and in the forest there's this. If you go back the way you came you can simply choose to go to the previous area, or just get out of there completely.
- Fishing for Sole: You can get Algae, Swimming Trunks, etc. Ozzie actually wants them to recycle. Give him enough and he'll give you a diamond.
- Fishing Minigame: You can make a fair bit of cash by fishing, and then turning fish into cooked recipes. Using the matches to make a bonfire or using the knife set to make sashimi is a good way to bump up the cost.
- Game-Breaking Bug: There's a chance that your children will disappear, but not in the way of an event where they'll come back.
- Gender-Blender Name: Some of the default names for your female animals are male names, such as "Henry" for example.
- Genki Girl: Maya. She's pretty happy and cutesy.
- Going Through the Motions: Like some other Harvest Moon games. It's a good way to tell how your character is feeling.
- Green Rocks: The Wonderfuls are processed down into gemstones.
- Hair Antennae: The only protagonist with this is Kasey.
- Healing Spring: There's one right behind the barn, and each of the three mines has one. They're too cold to use it until you ring the red bell. Once you can, you can use each of them once a day to recover a large amount of stamina.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: As per usual, you can have your own name. The default ones are Kevin, Angela, Kasey, and Molly.
- Heroic Mime: As usual, though you can choose between dialogue options on the occasion.
- A Homeowner Is You: You can buy some houses around the area, like in Harmonica Town or on Toucan Island. Naturally, they cost quite a bit.
- 100% Completion: Let's see... Besides summoning the King there's getting married, having kids, seeing all the random events, having other people get married, winning all the festivals, getting all animals, getting all the furniture, etc.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: More justified than most examples; eating food simply restores stamina, rather than healing wounds.
- Instant Home Delivery: Buying furniture instantly puts it in your house's storage. Even building upgrades are instantaneous.
- An Interior Designer Is You: You can move around some furniture and put up some posters or picture frames. You can even change the wall color!
- Interspecies Romance: You can eventually marry the Harvest Goddess and the Harvest King once you're done with the storyline. Likewise with the Witch Princess and Wizard, who may not be human, either.
- In-Universe Game Clock: A pretty slow one at that. It's also one of the last Harvest Moon games where time doesn't pass indoors.
- Invisible to Normals: You are one of the only people who can see the Harvest Sprites and gods.
- Invulnerable Civilians: You can attack civilians here, unlike other games, which makes them quite angry and hurts your friendship with them. Also, your watering can, which in the past had no effect on animals/townspeople, now does hurt them. So if you want to water your crops, make sure your animals and your family are out of the way first!
- Item Crafting: Combining certain items with certain kitchen utensils allows you to make food.
- It's Up to You: Justified since you're one of the only people who can see the Harvest Sprites in the first place. Plus, they need a human to gain a Hero title to help summon the Harvest King.
- Kappa: You can find one in the river tunnel behind the bridge into Harmonica Town. If you use your camera and look into the tunnel, you'll see his head sticking out of the water. He has no role other than being The Cameo in this game, however.
- Level-Up at Intimacy 5: At certain heart ratings, marriage candidates can woo you back with presents. The non-magical humans give presents at 2 hearts, and everyone including the magical characters (Wizard, Witch Princess, Harvest Goddess and King) give one at 4 hearts. At 5 hearts you can also go with them on a date.
- Little Stowaway: This is how you get the marriage candidate Selena to come to your town. When you go over to the island for the first time you see her fighting with her parents. After seeing her dance, she'll come back with you on the return trip.
- Long Song, Short Scene: The full-on fanfare of the bells. You'll have to sit on the screen where Finn is congratulating you to hear the whole thing, or watch the credits... which requires you to lose your old game.
- Lost in Translation: Luke's love letter. In the original Japanese, the letter was the (seemingly nonsensical) string of sentences, "Suyoubi (wednesday)/Ki no ue de (on top of a tree)/Dainamaito (dynamite)" which, reading the first syllable of each line, spells out "suki da (I love you)". The English version, however, translates it literally, which loses the meaning.
- Love Interests: As with all Harvest Moon games, there's a set of marriage candidates for you to choose from.
- Luck-Based Mission: You need to have metal ore and gem deposits refined at Mira's accessory shop before they become worth anything or can be used for other purposes. However, the percentage of good metal or gems you get from any given stack of raw material is very small - if you have a stack of 99 gold ores, you'll be lucky if even thirty or so of them become usable gold pieces. The rest of what she gives you is all worthless "junk" material.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Wooing the Harvest Goddess, Harvest King, Witch Princess, or Wizard. If you marry the Wizard, he lampshades this by saying that he probably will live much longer than you.
- Mini-Game: There's one where you can race on your farm animals. Other players can join in if you have additional controllers.
- Mission-Pack Sequel: The game is this to Tree of Tranquility. They share roughly the same mechanics and same character pool.
- Nature Spirit: The Harvest Sprites. The one with the Red Bell is Alan, Yellow Bell is Collin, the Blue Bell is for Ben, Green Bell is Daren, and Edge has the Purple Bell. Finn, who does not have a bell, is the one helping you throughout your journey.
- Never Trust a Title: Sort of. While there are a bit of focus on animals (getting a power berry from max affection with a farm animal, finding circus animals, having pets) they don't really tend to play into the plot. It's more about ringing bells and stuff. And where's the parade? There's a circus, but that's a side plot.
- New Game Plus: Completing the epilogue by helping the Harvest King allows you to send your child to an identical island, where they deliver your choice of an item to a new game file. You also start with maximum stamina, tool levels, Watering Can, and Hoe.
- No Hugging, No Kissing: Much less so here than other Harvest Moon games. You can choose to spend time with your spouse any time by walking with them, they kiss you, and you have to continue building your love with them even after you're married. You can actively try and have children, which is chock-full of... implications.
- Non-Combat EXP: By using your tools a lot, you can get points and eventually level them up. Getting them to a certain level allows you to upgrade them. Additionally, you can get your hoe and fishing rod to level 5 to get a Power Berry for each.
- Opposites Attract: Barbara is optimistic while her husband Simon is a worrywart.
- Parental Bonus:
- Rather than just making you or your spouse pregnant like in most games, you actually plan to have children in Animal Parade. But when you do so, your spouse makes comments along the lines of, "Well, if we're going to try to have kids, we've got our work cut out for us! <3"
- Several of the rival children will talk about the stork as you befriend them, but Heath's (Phoebe's and Calvin's son) comment is a bit risky.
Heath: Dad says the stork doesn't bring babies. Then who brings them? - Our Fairies Are Different: The Harvest Sprites are tiny and differ from each other only by their clothes and their personality. Edge cries a lot, Collin likes to tell jokes, and so forth. Their boss seems to be the Harvest Goddess.
- Patchwork Kids: Your children are made up of your character's face with your spouse's hair and eye color. Even the weird ones—so yes, Phoebe's children will be teal-haired, and Wizard's kids inherit Daddy's heterochromia.note The one exception is Calvin—for some reason, while his older son/younger daughter properly inherit his light brownish hair color, his older daughter/younger son have very dark brown hair.
- Playable Epilogue: You can keep playing indefinitely after ringing all the bells and summoning the King. Finishing the King's subsequent (but lengthy) quest, however, locks you into New Game Plus.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Zig-zagged. When you eventually have children, in their newborn stage, they will always be swaddled in a blue blanket. The difference between boys and girls is the girls have longer eyelashes. However, when your rivals have children, the boys will be in the standard blue blankets and the girls will be in pink with no eyelash difference at all.
- Relationship Values: You have to raise your friendship with at least 10 townspeople to 3 hearts in order to ring the Purple Bell. If they're bachelors or bachelorettes, you can get gifts from them at heart levels 2 and/or 4.
- Say It with Hearts: Happens, on the occasion. Giving Maya something she likes might trigger this.
- Shout-Out:
- The innkeeper Jake has found the Wizard's crystal ball and doesn't want to give its magical powers up. What does he say? "My precioussssss..."
- Calvin can find Owen and Luke attempting to demolish a very historic wall in the mines and, scolding them, cry that "It belongs in a museum!"
- The Pantsuit item has, as its description, "A suit for taking care of business and working overtime.
"- The bear cub's max level trick is a shout out to Pokémon.
- Sidequest:
- Chase's first cutscene at the bar begins a sidequest where you have to bring him certain types of dishes. If it's good enough (I.E. sells for a lot), then you get a reward. The final reward is a green ice cream maker.
- The player can buy treasure maps from Barbara's General Store to find gemstones, with each map giving a vague riddle as to a gem's location. As you level up Barbara's store, she will stock up to nine maps.
- Similarly, when Yolanda is at 5 hearts, she gives you a treasure map she found on the beach. The player can then follow directions to find five treasures, leading ultimately to a pirate eyepatch and bandanna.
- When the player leaves the house on a snowy day in Winter, they will meet Rob Frost the Snowman. Having a carrot in your inventory allows you to give it to Rob, and he will give you a high-quality gift (or an empty can) every day for the rest of Winter.
- After ringing the Purple Bell, the player can help a sad ghost in the graveyard, Tom, find his old sweetheart, Anna. She's been dead for a long time, but her granddaughter Hanna has her music box. Giving the music box to Tom allows him to rest in peace, but the player doesn't get a reward.
- Show Within a Show: You can buy a TV from Barbara to have this trope. There's a few channels on there with a mixture of game-related tutorials or silly parody shows, plus the usual weather channel.
- Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Candace herself is one.
- Slice of Life
- Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Very dramatically. Your rivals' children go from being infants to 5-6 year old kids in two weeks. Your own children take "only" eight weeks in comparison.
- Sprint Meter: You lose stamina as you work, and your farmer will display various states of exasperation, like wiping the sweat from his/her brow or panting heavily. If you run out of stamina, you'll collapse and be forced to skip the rest of the day.
- Sugar Bowl: Like most Harvest Moon games. No deaths, no taxes, just farming fun.
- Take Your Time: Time doesn't pass indoors. Also, unlike some other Harvest Moon games you don't have a time limit to finish the storyline. You can get it done at Fall 1st of Year 1 or somewhere into Year 5; it's perfectly fine.
- Talk to Everyone: You're required to talk to everyone in the main Harmonica Town area to progress the story. Talking to them in general can get you hints as to where a bell is hidden or where a plot point will happen. It's also the simplest way to raise their affection, which is required to ring the Purple Bell.
- Theme Naming: This game, unlike its predecessor, is named after music and not food. There's Harmonica Town, Horn Ranch, Ocarina Inn, and others.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can flat out attack people with axes, including your loving pets, children, spouses, and livestock.
- Virtual Paper Doll: You can choose what you and your kid will wear and buy clothes from Sonata Tailoring. In this game you still can't chose your eye color, hair, or skin color, but that's for later games.
- Warp Whistle: A literal whistle example. Once you rescue all the animals from Theodore's circus, you can summon them with the whistle to take you to certain places on the map (but not the mine district, for some reason.)
- Wide-Open Sandbox: Narrower than some other examples, perhaps, but there's still a startling amount of ways to go about playing this game.
- Save Scumming: If you buy the house in the Garmon Mines district, you can do this with refining ores. You can do this with the original house, but it takes a bit longer.
- With This Ring: In the HM universe, you usually propose through means of a Blue Feather, so there's no need to worry about rings... except here where they somehow make the Blue Feather into a ring after the proposal and it becomes a wearable accessory.
- Wizard Needs Food Badly: Your character will visibly grow more and more tired as you burn through his/her stamina.
