Don’t let the pleasant folk at Natsume hear you say that for, over the past 10 years, they have nurtured the Harvest Moon series as well as any farmer could tend to a prized chicken. Coming as a new adventure rather than a SNES to Gameboy Advance port, Friends of Mineral Town (hereafter FOMT) doesn’t offer the seasoned Harvest Moon fan any radical new ideas to tinker with. What it does manage to do, however, is take the franchise forwards another step by remaining just fresh enough to keep your interest from start to finish.

Kicking off with the now ubiquitous obtaining of a farm from an old man who has passed-on, FOMT throws you straight into the all-arms-and-elbows world of preparing and maintaining your land for harvest.

Immediately apparent is the fact that FOMT is no more than a slight departure from Harvest Moon games past, and if anything is very similar in style to the Playstation 1 version, 'Back to Nature'. Your farmland is divided into an invisible grid, upon which you plant and nurture your crops. Dividing a year into four seasons, you must plant appropriate vegetables for each season to create revenue and thus have more money to spend on improving your farm. It hardly makes a riveting synopsis for a game, but somehow it pulls it all together and ensures that many an hour will be lost in looking after your prized crop of turnips and talking to depressed cows.

Providing the social yin to your farming yang, the other half of the game focuses firmly on finding yourself a wife. Presenting you with a choice of five girls, your task is to provide your particular belle with gifts and support at crucial times. Initially this proves itself to be an utterly fruitless pursuit; indeed, it may take a whole half-year to start making noticeable progress with even the most gift-plied of ladies. Give it some time, keep up your efforts and carefully take note of your girl’s personal tastes and you should – hopefully – win through. One intriguing addition to proceedings is the presence of a rival for each girl’s hearts, so unless you move quickly you could end up on the reject trash heap.

All of this wooing, harvesting and animal caring presents the game with its only major problem. Given that you have so much to do, the fact that you have so little time per day to get it all done means that even the best laid plans will see you ending up having to make sacrifices and concessions. Each game day lasts approximately ten minutes, during which – on the average day – you could end up having to harvest or water crops and collect eggs, milk and wool while talking to and grooming your animals – all of this whilst still having to find time to head into town to spread your love. It means a hectic and punishing schedule, and this at times will wear a bit thin.

Thankfully, there are steps that can be taken to alleviate such a punishing schedule. Equipment can be upgraded, meaning it’ll take less elbow grease to move those pesky rocks and branches. Harvest sprites make a welcome return, and in exchange for you making an effort to be their friends they will help maintain various areas of your farm, leaving more time for you to wander happily around town. It won’t mean that you can completely circumvent your horticultural duties however, so remember to keep a keen eye on how things are coming along.

All in all, this adds up to being one immensely long and involving title. There are so many little subplots and intricacies – so many things to get yourself caught up in - that it is more than possible for you to end up dedicating well over one hundred hours to proceedings. Fancy chancing an arm on an extra plantation of corn to raise profits? Go right on ahead. Considering dabbling in the sheep breeding industry? Give it a go. It’s all in there for you to do, as long as you can find the time.

Finding some patience is, at times, also a crucial factor in enjoying the game properly. When the game kicks off, you’ll find yourself dedicating a lot of time to your work without too much to show for it. Raising your farm to a sufficient level to support thriving crop and animal sectors will take a large investment of time and effort, and the mundane tasks such as regularly watering your crops every day and collecting eggs from your chickens will have to be repeated ad-infinitum to bring home the bacon. There are times when farming will indeed, as mentioned, seem like a mug’s game.

The procrastination never lasts long, thankfully, and before you know it you’ll be out there once again picking tomatoes and milking cows. The mixture of splendidly chunky and vibrant visuals with coy hum-along tunes draws you deep within the game’s deceptively complex system, refusing to allow you out to even take a bathroom break. Friends of Mineral Town isn’t a perfect game – far from it. The game days should have been made to last longer than they do, and at times the pacing of events is uneven and can throw even the most minute planning out of the barn window. For all its faults though, the fact that you will stick with the game through thick, thin, rain and shine points to the addictive nature of trying to constantly improve oneself from meager beginnings. Much like the crops that are so crucial to progress within the game itself, a little love, care and attention will help Friends of Mineral Town grow on even the most skeptical of gamer.