Harvest Moon: Back to Nature (1999). Play online

Summary

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature marks the series' first step onto a PlayStation, breaking away from Nintendo's hardware. You inherit a weed‑covered plot and three in‑game years—each made of four 30‑day seasons—to turn it into a thriving farm. Crops must be cleared, tilled, seeded, watered daily and then shipped for cash, while the seasons dictate which vegetables can grow. As the farm expands you can buy chickens, cows, and other livestock, and upgrade a humble rusty rake into more efficient tools.

The game blends farming with community life in Mineral Town: you befriend villagers, compete in festivals like the Tomato Festival and Fireworks Display, and even place bets on horse races. Energy is the hidden timer; overexert yourself and your character blacks out, leading to a hospital stay. After the three‑year deadline the farm either secures a permanent family ending or closes the story, but the world can keep ticking if you wish. Later the same mechanics were re‑released on PSP as Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl and later on PS3/PSN.

Storyline

In Harvest Moon: Back to Nature you start as a young boy sent to his grandfather’s farm for the summer. The old man is too busy to supervise, so the kid roams the town, befriends the farm’s puppy, and meets a girl his own age, promising she’ll see him again. Ten years later, after his grandfather’s death, the now‑grown man returns to claim the farm. The mayor and villagers agree to let him stay only if he restores the property to its former glory within three years, or he must leave. If he succeeds and marries one of the eligible bachelorettes, his wife is revealed to be the childhood friend. An alternate backstory follows the girl, named Claire by default: she survives a shipwreck, is rescued by villagers, and is given the abandoned farm to rebuild her life, ending happily if she marries the same boy who saved her.