Story Mode is split into five parts, which intersect at various points. Which part of the story you get depends on which character you're playing as:
- As Mark or Natalie: You're seeking out the Harvest Goddess, trying to get her help (or an explanation) as to why crops are sprouting everywhere.
- As Chelsea, Shea or Vaughn: You're gathering vegetables for Wada, so he can complete a ritual that should rid the island of the runaway plants.
- As Elliot, Julia or Sabrina: You're seeking out special shining veggies on behalf of the Witch Princess for a special potion that should rid the island of the runaway plants.
- As Denny, Lanna or Pierre: You're gathering crops so Pierre can whip up a special feast for the island.
- Complete Story Mode with all eleven characters, you unlock the Witch Princess and find out what really caused the crop outbreak.
Gameplay is... hard to explain. The game is played on a 7×7 grid, with crop types (corn, tomatoes, etc.) taking the place of traditional colored blocks. You can "harvest" (remove) fully grown crops from the board one at a time or in groups. Every time you harvest a crop, the crops around it are watered and grow a level closer to ripe. The more you harvest at a time ("chains") the bigger your point total and crops will be watered over a wider area. You also have special crops: Big crops can't be chained, but will fully grow any crops touching it when harvested. Shining Crops can be picked individually, clearing the board of all crops of that type or placed at the end of a chain, acting as a point multiplier. In addition, each character has a Special Skill that can be used once your Skill Meter has filled.
In addition to Story Mode, there's also Mission Mode (puzzles that must be solved in a set amount of moves), Score Attack (play until you run out of time or moves), Vs Mode (play 1-3 CPU opponents) and Multiplayer via Wi-Fi.
Also available in iPhone flavor here
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Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming contains examples of the following tropes:
- Artificial Stupidity: Your CPU teammates sometimes get arbitrarily useless, leaving you to do all the heavy lifting.
- Bizarre Puzzle Game: There's no real analogy to properly describe the gameplay, but is intuitive once understood. You can't remove crops on your own; you have to let the Harvest Sprite do that for you, which leads to watering crops adjacent to them. You can also lead the sprite down a trail of crops to chain them, which extends the range of the watering can to grow your crops.
- Demoted to Extra: If a character wasn't a marriage candidate in Island of Happiness, they're a cameo at best here - with the exceptions of Taro, who runs the Tutorial Level, and Wada, who is a major part of Chelsea, Shea and Vaughn's sections.
- Denser and Wackier: The plot is silly enough, and the characters have added wackiness to their personalities, making the game a silly romp all around.
- Flanderization: Several characters sport exaggerated versions of their personalities from the main series: Elliot is a ball of nerves, Lanna goes from The Ditz to full on Dumb Blonde, and Julia giggles a lot (*tee-hee!*)
- Limit Break: Special Skills, which each character has.
- Mark: Dog Rush - Makes all crops on the outer edge of the field fully grown.
- Chelsea: Chickens! - Breaks all rocks and grows crops by one level in a + shape.
- Natalie: Sandwich - Locks crop generation to her favorites, and spawn in fully grown.
- Elliot: Moo March - Causes his favorite crops on the field to be fully grown.
- Shea: Crop Dance - Grows all crops on the field up a random number of times.
- Julia: Crop Bell - Transforms several crops into her favorites.
- Lanna: Pop Star - Crops will immediately be fully grown when watered.
- Sabrina: Regis!!! - Turns her entire field into one type of crop.
- Vaughn: Rope 'Em - Instantly harvests all big crops, and extends their harvest effect by one.
- Denny: Go, Popper - Randomly waters crops on the field.
- Pierre: Gourmet - Extends the Harvest Sprite's watering range.
- Witch Princess: Magic - Use another character's Special Skill at random.
- Mana Meter: The Skill Meter, which is charged by harvesting one of two of your character's favorite crop.
- "Rashomon"-Style: Each branch of the story (save the Witch Princess') is told from multiple POVs, varying slightly depending on who the player character is.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: No one has been able to resolve the crop break, as it seemingly resolves itself despite two of the four sides doing all they did to undo it. The Witch Princess, of all people, ends up fixing the mess by accidentally kicking a switch on a stone, deactivating the Tower and reverting all the damage the tower did. Pierre's personal quest to find the Golden Truffle also has an unsatisfying ending as the foodstuff itself is unpalatable for any of his cooking. But hey, all the crops harvested didn't go away, might as well put them to good use and cook them all up for a feast!
