The Weird One - Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon

I'll never forget the day I picked up this oddball on a confused whim. It was pretty recently after I started playing the Harvest Moon series, and I still had really no idea how game series worked. I saw a cool case, and the words 'Harvest Moon,' and I grabbed it. I had no idea what I was about to experience.

This little gem was developed by Marvelous, published by Natsume, and was first released in Japan in 2006 for the PlayStation Portable. I personally didn't play the game until the Special Edition was released in North America, well into 2008, and I knew nothing about the game when I bought it. I wasn't even sure if it was technically still part of the actual Harvest Moon game series. It technically is, but you wouldn't be able to guess by playing it. Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon was absolutely unique, and overall very strange, but it still remains one of my very favorite games to this day.


The game is set in the very near future, 2022, on Heartflame Island, a place once famous for its rich farmland and large ancient ruins. It is the first and only Harvest Moon game to take place in the future, completely breaking away from the traditional rural setting of the other games. Unlike the sort of open-ended, relaxing game play that the Harvest Moon series is known for, Innocent Life focuses more on solving a main story line, which the player only has two in-game years to complete.

 You play as this cute little guy, who is a hyper-realistic male android created by Dr. Hope Grain. Your character's default name is "Life", but you're free to name yourself whatever you like. I'm fairly sure I named mine, "Neil," for some reason. Dr. Grain created him to be a truly "Innocent Life," free from the taint of humanity. You're given the Easter Ruins as a home, which is a beautiful but run-down building with four usable floors. The top floor is where your farm is, and you're given the task of, like every other game in the series, creating a successful farm! It's not easy, because for some reason growing has become extremely difficult on the once fertile island, but it's your job to overcome it and learn.

But is that all? Why would Dr. Grain go to the lengths of creating a true artificial intelligence in a man's body for that? I'm not about to spoil the true story for you, but I do want to share some of my favorite aspects of the game.

First of all, the scenery is absolutely gorgeous:

The entire game just has this beautiful painting-like effect that, while seemingly a little 2-Dimensional at times, was just really intricate for a game that was released in 2006, and it really makes you want to explore. Speaking of exploring, the map itself is positively massive, and the painted effect actually makes it seem larger than it is. Little eleven-year-old me didn't know how she'd ever see it all. In fact, I didn't. I know for a fact there was at least one secret area even I didn't unlock, and it vexes me.

Next, while this game doesn't really have romance, nor does it follow the traditional Harvest Moon pattern about befriending villagers, the interactions with the townspeople are extremely meaningful. In a lot of ways, it feels far more real than the alternative, with more angst and genuine, complex dialogue. You don't even realize how attached you've become until something happens, and then you're a crying mess, but in a good way. As a reminder, you're playing as an android that is essentially created to learn how to be a human (If there are any Trekkies reading this, he's basically Data). You're the one watching and helping him grow towards becoming more human, and the journey there is pretty amazing.

That's about all I can say without completely spoiling the game. Other than that, I can only recommend playing it and seeing it for yourself. Warning, it does seem a little slow at first, but it's so very worth it if you play to the end. I will also say that the game isn't extremely common, but copies of it are not expensive at all online. Again, it's available on PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, and I have to recommend the PS2 version since it's what I played.

Whatever you decide to play, have fun, everyone!