Many activities are labor intensive, such as chopping wood, removing weeds from your garden, or mining for ore. These physical activities use stamina, and if you’re not careful you can quickly run out long before the day is over. It’s frustrating to be exhausted by 9:00 A.M. from simply watering your crops or pulling weeds. Fortunately, there are ways to recover your stamina, such as eating and visiting a hot spring, but the best method is with a good night’s sleep. However, since you automatically wake up at 6:00 A.M., you won’t fully recharge your stamina if you go to bed at say, 3:00 A.M.

After living on Waffle Island for a while and befriending the neighbors, you may find yourself drawn to a special someone. Yep, once again you can find a mate. Charm that cute boy (or girl) by chatting with them constantly, working at the same store -- and of course, showering them with gifts. With a little time and luck, you’ll be strolling down the virtual aisle. And of course, after love and marriage comes the pitter-patter of little feet. Although you were able to have children in a previous game, this time you can actually start a new game by playing as your own offspring. Your child inherits some of your skills and items and even some structures.

With all this talk about activities, making money, and romance on the island, it’s easy to forget the main storyline. It has something to do with helping the Harvest Goddess return to the island. However, information received regarding the main story is often stretched out over weeks of in-game time that I often forgot there was a main story. It’s great to have open-sandbox gameplay, but not to the point that one would forget about the story. There still needs to be a bit of structure, something that helps you keep track of your main goal. It’s ironic that in spite of the speedy in-game days, gameplay feels slow because of how the main story is dragged out.

Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility is a cute little farm simulation game with some decent additional features. However, even with the new features, it’s still too similar to past games in the series so if you have played these games in the past and they didn’t take, this won’t recharge your farming batteries – but dedicated fans should get their money’s worth.

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