I have a love-hate relationship with Harvest Moon DS Cute. For those who are (perhaps blissfully) unaware, Harvest Moon is a series of farming simulation games that incorporate elements and tasks of real, and even ordinary, life. In addition to planting and tending crops, collecting wild plants, fishing, digging, and animal husbandry, the games all have a simulated social element as well. You must find and court a spouse and make friends with the other townspeople, among other things. Although the game certainly taps into a similar, addictive formula as Farmville (although it preceded it and is not free-to-play) and Animal Crossing, it is this homely social element that makes the game truly endearing. However it is, unfortunately, this element that also points out the problems some games have with providing a female player character option in addition to a male one.
Harvest Moon DS Cute was essentially a female reboot of an edition in the series that had previously only had a male character option available. Prior to this edition, the main player character was almost exclusively male. That was certainly a problem in and of itself, and something I’d been disappointed with since I had first started playing Harvest Moon as a kid. So, later in life when I was eager to fall back in love with the series, I was excited to learn they had started offering games with female character options. Of course I rolled my eyes a bit at the “Cute” in the title – after all the game had always been cute even with a male character and it didn’t seem like making the main character female made it any more cute. Regardless, I savored the fact that I could finally be a little, kick butt (PG gaming and all that!) female farmer. However when I came across the list of romance options, I was less than enthused.
I didn’t expect anything “crazy” like the opportunity to romance both men and women in the town, but I did expect something on par with what I had experienced in the basically identical male-led version of the game. There every (except one really) woman available brought something to the table. Cecilia was the hard working, sweet fellow farmer; Flora was friendly professional who was passionate about her work as an archaeologist; Lumina was the sweet but shy music mistro; Nami was the abrasive but intelligent world traveler. I only really took issue with how they characterized Muffy – highlighting her increasing age and desperation for a husband (she was actually easier to romance as well because of it). That issue aside, I often struggled to decide who I would choose to romance in any given game.
When I begun playing Harvest Moon DS Cute I had the opposite problem. I cringed at the list of bachelors available. The game had only added one new character to offer as a romanceable option: Skye, a theif and general asshole whose heart you have to melt, because that’s definitely a healthy relationship. 4 out of the 5 are at least 10 years older than what my character seems to be – some looking like they could be my character’s father. One is a lecher, one is grumpy, another rarely speaks. They were “okay” choices I suppose, but I was certainly uncomfortable with how much older most of them were and how most seemed like they had just been tacked on. I was especially feeling peeved after I sat through Skye’s belittling “flirting.”
Oh, and they added the ability to change outfits. Yay~!
I had wanted a game where I would be able to relive my experience from the first edition with all the pleasure of getting to play as a character of my own gender. I had expected the same, or possibly improved since it was released some time after, gameplay experience. And, indeed, the gameplay was largely the same. I had, however, also expected new love interests. Instead I was given some of the older townsfolk reshaped as love interests.
Optimally I would prefer games to recognize and acknowledge the differences a character might face even just by being of a different gender. However, the second alternative would be what I had anticipated Harvest Moon DS Cute to be: a game that offers an equal experience no matter what gender option the player chooses. If a game does not present both the female avatar with the same options and choices and privileges as the male avatar, it’s creating an exclusionary environment for the female player. It removes the player, even for just a moment, from the magic zone that is so critical to maintain in games. Because when I went looking for a warm, and endearing experience but ultimately was left questioning the decisions made in the game.
