PEDRONE BLOG

In the game, the main character begins with a ramshackle farm, enough money to begin small-scale crop farming and no standing within the Mineral Town community. Over the course of the game, the player must build a thriving farm, and become friends with the citizens of Mineral Town. While gameplay typically involves the acts of farming itself and interacting with the people the character meets, almost all of the actions a player makes must be balanced with the two most overriding factors of the game, time and money. A third factor, energy, threads through them both, but not in all circumstances and to an ever-decreasing extent as the game progresses.

Time passes while players traverse the village or remain outside buildings. The growing of crops and raising of livestock requires daily attention and the expenditure of time. The old and inefficient tools the player begins the game with cause crop farming to be a slow and unproductive way of earning money. Upgrading the tools requires time and money. Once the tools have been upgraded, it allows the player to farm more efficiently, resulting in more crops being grown at once. This results in more money being earned and more options becoming available. As the cash flow increases, the ability to upgrade tools further, buy more seeds of a higher quality at once and purchase livestock enables the player to increase their earnings yet further.

Players who find that they have purchased enough upgrades, extensions and stock for the farm and begin to keep their profit from farming will also find that they have suddenly acquired a lot of time as well. Instead of toiling over small patches of crops, they'll be tending far greater amounts of crops yet spending a fraction of the time doing so. This slow build-up to a sudden change of fortunes is a trademark of the Harvest Moon series. The common factor in this sudden turnaround of fortunes is the poor state of the farm at the beginning of the game, several of the game's 'days' are spent making the fields suitable for seed planting. This also is a common occurrence in the Harvest Moon series.

In Back to Nature, since the passing of Jack's grandfather, the farm has fallen into disuse and the fields have become overgrown with weeds. Once this initial obstacle is cleared, the player can then start to expand on these most basic tasks as they proceed to build up the value of their produce. There is no requirement for crops to be planted immediately or for any other tasks to be performed upon starting a new game, though players have a limited number of days before being asked to leave the farm if it remains in disrepair.

Energy is the other concern facing players who wish to be successful, particularly in the early stages of the game. The main character can perform a limited amount of tasks each day. Rather than displaying an energy bar, the game instead shows the character becoming more tired as he performs more tasks and spending time in a daze. Repeatedly pushing Jack beyond exhaustion will result in him passing out and having to visit the local hospital. Jack's maximum energy can be increased by locating hidden "power berries" scattered throughout the town. Energy can be regained through rest, eating, or visiting the local hot springs.

The weather can affect how the player completes their goals during that day. Regardless of season, most days are calm and do not cause adverse or positive affects on the player's activities. Rainfall results in crops being watered without player intervention, freeing time to pursue other goals, but at the same time, can cause the player to develop a cold, forcing him not to work for a day. Hurricanes and blizzards cause the destruction of crops, the loss of certain livestock if they're left outside and also prevent the character from leaving his home for the day.

Years ago, the main character, Jack, came to his grandfather's farm for the summer. His grandfather was too busy taking care of the farm to spend much time with the boy, but the boy was free to explore the town and the forest as he wished. Jack befriended his grandfather's puppy and met a little girl his own age with whom he became close friends.

When the summer was over, the boy had to go back home, but he promised the little girl that he would return someday. He was waiting a very long time to meet her again

When Jack's grandfather died years later, Jack had grown into a young man, and he came to the town again to take over the farm. The mayor talked things over with the village, and they had decided that Jack could stay as the rightful owner if he could restore the farm back to its original state within three years. But if Jack couldn't restore the farm, or cannot get along with the villagers, he would have to leave.

Kenji Koiso (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a young high school student with a gift in mathematics, works as a part-time moderator in the massive computer-simulated virtual reality world OZ along with his friend Takashi Sakuma (Takahiro Yokokawa).

After Natsuki Shinohara (Nanami Sakuraba) invites him to participate in the 90th birthday of Sakae Jinnouchi (Sumiko Fuji), her great-grandmother, Kenji joins her on the journey to Sakae's estate in Ueda. While there, Natsuki introduces Kenji as her fiancé to Sakae. Kenji meets several of Natsuki's relatives and Wabisuke Jinnouchi (Ayumu Saitō), Natsuki's half-granduncle and a computer expert who has been living in America for 10 years.

Kenji receives a mysterious e-mail with a mathematical code and cracks it. Love Machine, an artificial intelligence running in the OZ infrastructure, uses Kenji's account and his avatar to hack into it, causing widespread damage. Kenji, Natsuki's cousin Kazuma Ikezawa (Mitsuki Tanimura) and Sakuma confront Love Machine. Kazuma's avatar, King Kazma, is defeated as Love Machine continues to steal accounts and create catastrophic traffic congestion, as well as disabling electrical devices. Two of Sakae's relatives - Rika (Sakiko Tamagawa) and Shota Jinnouchi (Yutaka Shimizu) - discover Kenji's involvement. Shota arrests Kenji, but they later return to the house due to the ensuing chaos.

Recognizing the situation as akin to war, Sakae calls her various associates in important positions in Japan's society and her relatives who work in various emergency services. She encourages them to work their hardest to reduce the potential chaos and damage that could have occurred. Kenji is able to return control of the virtual world to the moderators and engineers. Wabisuke reveals that he created Love Machine and sold the program to the United States Armed Forces, to Sakae's anger. After a brief argument Wabisuke leaves the estate. Sakae encourages Kenji to take care of Natsuki during a Hanafuda match. Kenji and the Jinnouchi family run to Sakae's bedside the next morning to find that she has died; her son Mansaku (Tadashi Nakamura) reveals she had angina and Love Machine had deactivated her heart monitor. Kenji, Sakuma, and most of the Jinnouchi family initiate a plan to defeat Love Machine using a supercomputer while Natsuki and the others prepare a funeral for Sakae.

Kenji, along with Sakuma and the others, capture Love Machine, but Shota carries ice blocks used as a coolant to Sakae's body causing the supercomputer to overheat. Love Machine grows into an immense botnet and assimilates King Kazma. Love Machine redirects the Arawashi, an orbiting satellite, on a collision course with a nuclear power plant. At the same time, Natsuki discovers a will left by Sakae before reuniting with Kenji and the rest of the group. Natsuki has Wabisuke return home before reading Sakae's will, asking the family to bring Wabisuke back to their lives. Kenji surmises that the Love Machine sees everything as a game and has the Jinnouchi family play Hanafuda with Love Machine in OZ's casino world. They wager their accounts in a desperate attempt to stop Love Machine and Natsuki initially wins several rounds, but gets distracted and nearly loses her "winnings".

OZ users from all over the world enter their own accounts into the wager on her side. Natsuki severely damages Love Machine, but it redirects the Arawashi towards a collision on Sakae's estate. Kenji hacks into the satellite's GPS, but is blocked by Love Machine. Wabisuke disables Love Machine's defenses, distracting it long enough for King Kazma to be revived and assisted by several Jinnouchi family avatars before destroying it. Kenji activates the GPS code and redirects the satellite away from the estate. The Arawashi's impact causes a shockwave that destroys it, as well as the estate's entrance and a geyser to erupt. Some time later, the Jinnouchi family celebrate their victory as well as Sakae's birthday and has Natsuki kiss Kenji after confessing their love to each other.