This is where Popuri* and her mother, Lilia, live, along with her father, Basil, a traveling botanist who is only around from Spring to Fall.
House: the player sleeps, eats breakfast, and can check the weather and store tools here.Į. These crossover names (mostly from Friends of Mineral Town, a game made after Harvest Moon 64) are noted in parenthesis.Ī. However, due to their appearence in the other Harvest Moon games, the characters in Harvest Moon 64 are usually referred to by the names as they appear in other versions of the series. NOTE: Harvest Moon 64 did not name some of the charcters excplicity in the game. If, however, the player receives a negative evalutation, gameplay ends. If, during the third Summer, the player receives a positive evaluation from his father (based on how successfully he has restored the farm and made a good life for himself), gameplay can continue for an infinite amount of time.
Currency is used to purchase items at the shops and can be obtained by selling products from the farm, foraging plants from the mountains, fishing, and mining. The game uses the currency of "g", often referred to unofficially as "gold", and the player starts out with 300g.
The player begins with a house, a barn to keep cows and sheep, a chicken coop, a large field littered with rocks, weeds, and tree stumps that can be cleared for planting, a dog, and five tools: a hammer, sickle, hoe, axe, and watering can. The main character wakes up each morning at 6am and can go to bed anytime the player chooses (writing in the diary before bed saves the game), though if the player is still up at 6am, he will be automatically transported to his house to begin the new day (the game will not save). There are 24 hours in a day, 30 days in a season, and four seasons in a year (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter). The game operates on an accelerated time system, where each in-game hour is roughly equivalent to 15 seconds of actual playing time, though time only moves when the player is outside (time freezes once the player enters a building).
The objective of the game is to lead a happy, successful life as a farmer by growing crops, raising animals, making friends, and starting a family, among other things. The story begins when main and only playable character of the game, often referred to as "Jack" among the fanbase (though Natsume names him "Pete" in screenshots of Friends of Mineral Town) inherits a farm from his deceased grandpa and moves to Flowerbud Village in order to fix it up and make a life for himself.