Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness was the fourth Harvest Moon (now known as the Story of Seasons) in the Farm Life Sim series, released on the Nintendo DS in 2007. It was also released alongside Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility for the series's tenth anniversary. The game's mechanics include using wi-fi to connect to other players and talk to them, use a ranking service, and moving by using the touch screen. You can also marry the other protagonist, something not seen for a while since Harvest Moon 3.
You play as either Chelsea or Mark as a traveler on board a boat to start a new life on a farm, but your boat is hit by a horrible storm. You and several other passengers find themselves stranded on an island, which also had an abandoned village. So it's up to you and everyone to help make this island prosper.
In 2009, the game was given a retool titled Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands.
Island of Happiness provides examples of:
- Ageless Birthday Episode: Your character doesn't physically age at all despite having birthdays.
- All-Natural Gem Polish: Finding gems or breaking open Ore Stone gives you pre-cut precious stones.
- And Your Reward Is Parenthood: Like in other games in the series, you can have a child after getting married. Notably, it takes a very long time for the child to grow up and become fully interactive—a full four in-game years—compared to other games.
- An Economy Is You: One of the most triumphant examples in the whole series. As the town you start in was actually abandoned.
- Continuity Cameo: Popuri, Karen, Cliff, and Doctor make an appearance as tourists.
- The Computer Is a Lying Bastard: You're told not to leave your animals out overnight. As long as you have them in an intact, fenced-in area (with grass to eat for your cows and sheep) and the weather is calm leaving them outside is good for them. Not to mention this advice runs counter to what every other Harvest Moon game tells you ("Leave them outside as much as possible").
- Didn't Think This Through: A minor example. The game didn't give enough characters for the girl protagonist's name, Chelsea.
- Earn Your Bad Ending:Marrying the Witch Princess in (for certain values of "ended").
- Ghost Town: Like most Harvest Moon games, the town you found on the island was this at first, but overtime it can grow to a marvelous village with a lot of work.
- Green Rocks: Wonderfuls in Island of Happiness and Sunshine Islands are attached to your tools to increase their abilities, i.e. the range of your hoe.
- Heart Container: Mine pitfalls in Island Of Happiness.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: How you enter your chosen name.
- Heroic Mime: Your character will nod or shake their head to indicate their response, sometimes they speak but rarely.
- Magic Tool: There are stones called "Wonderfuls" that are used to increase or alter the effects of your tools. Taro's fishing rod is the only tool in the game that cannot use these. Balanced out by the fact that the only difference between cheap tools and more expensive tools is how many of these stones can be set into one of the tools.
- Mythology Gag:
- Only Six Faces: The minor characters that are not the bachelor/bachelorettes or the permanent villagers.
- Parental Bonus: Lily has a line of dialogue where she mentions that she can't wait to bear your children.
- Socketed Equipment: The game lets you do this with Wonderfuls, making this your method of upgrading your tools. Wonderfuls come in seven colors, and the effects can stack.
- Red: Increases tool's reach by 1.
- Orange: Increases item yield.
- Yellow: Strengthens item's power, such as breaking larger stones.
- Green: Reduces Stamina cost.
- Blue: Widens tool's range by 2.
- Indigo: Expands tool's number of slots, allowing you to fit more Wonderfuls.
- Purple: Gives 2G per use.
- Shout-Out:
- The two crooks in the manga
are named Chucky and Jason Kruger. - Talk to Julia while she's engaged to Elliot and she'll tell you she's "so excited, she just can't hide it", a reference from Saved by the Bell (which itself was a reference to a Pointer Sisters song.)
- The two crooks in the manga
- Ugly Guy Cute Daughter: Gannon and Eliza from Island Of Happiness.
- Unlockable Content: You Have to pay for gannon to build bridges and the like. Plus you have to do certain things to get others to come to the island.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Chelsea and Mark react in the "really likes" range for all gifts. So you can raise your affection levels with them by feeding them a steady stream of weeds, rocks and fishing trash.
