Parent's Guide: Harvest Moon: A New Beginning - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Harvest Moon: A New Beginning is the latest iteration in the long-running Harvest Moon series of farming and social sim games. Moving in to the deserted Echo village to take over a farm, it's up to you to revitalise the ailing town by tending to your turnips, shearing your sheep and exporting your eggs, earning money for each thing you ship out. Before long, the mayor of the town asks for your help turn the village into a more attractive place to live, and you start to place benches, put up street lights and build houses for people to move in to. Before you know it, Echo village turn into a bustling town, bursting at the seams with people to befriend, woo and eventually marry.

While farming is an important part of the game, it isn't the only thing you'll be doing in Harvest Moon. In fact, socialising ends up being as much of a deal as the farming - which is why your child will need to be a confident reader, as it's a fairly text-heavy game. With no voice acting, your child will have to read reams of text as you chat to the residents in the town.

Kind of like in real life, the more you talk to people, the closer you'll become, and the more the citizens like you, the more things you'll be given in return, such as blueprints for new buildings or improved tools. Befriending the eligible bachelors and bachelorettes, meanwhile, will open up the romance options, with the potential of marrying and starting a family with one of them. The game however takes a very long time to get going - you'll need to play through the best part of a month of game time, which works out at about ten hours, before things start to get interesting. For the first few weeks, you have very little to do besides water your turnips, which could see many kids getting fed up or even confused with regards to what they're meant to be doing, making this definitely a game for the more patient types.

Being a game about making friends and tending to your farm and animals, Harvest Moon: A New Beginning is as clean as they come. There's no sending your cows off to the slaughterhouse either - you strictly deal in milk, eggs or wool, which you collect from your animals on a daily basis. Perhaps the only things parents may want to keep in mind is that you can 'date' the town's eligible bachelors, marry them and have a child - but it's all told in a very wholesome and innocent way that makes Harvest Moon perfect for any age.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Nintendo 3DS