October 26, 2010, 10:20 am
- Four player game support and more responsive/faster controls, including the ability to speed up and double-jump
- Barter with customers at your shop; earn money and build skills in interactive part-time jobs; visit windmills to craft special items
- Raise a horse and compete in thrilling races; expand your farm and woo a wife; use magic to solve puzzles and help friends in need
- Play as a boy or as a girl; engage in thrilling magic duels
- Find love, get married, and start a family; make new friends and uncover hidden surprises; build your relationship with villages by helping them achieve their goals and dreams
The Bazaar is Now Open! Zephyr Town’s bazaar was once the grandest in the world, drawing customers and peddlers from all four corners of the Earth. These days, though the bazaar has more tumbleweeds than customers. Maybe you can turn its fortunes around! Raise animals, harvest crops, craft rare delicacies, and then sell your wares at your very own shop! Can you bring prosperity back to Zephyr Town?
| Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar brings all the beloved and classic simulation gameplay of the Harvest Moon series to the DS/DSi platforms, while adding a new emphasis on selling at the town bazaar. Along with farming, animal husbandry and marriage, each in-game week players set up shop in the bazaar, hoping to resurrect the marketplace’s faded glory, as well as make money. Additional game features include four-player game support, the ability to manufacture special goods and improved controls.
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Farm, raise animals and manufacture goods to help rebuild the town bazaar.
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Resurrect the Town Bazaar
Zephyr Town’s bazaar was once the grandest in the world, drawing customers and peddlers from all four corners of the Earth. Sadly, that is no longer the case. These days, the bazaar has more tumbleweeds than customers. But maybe you can turn its fortunes around. The bazaar is a weekly event in Zephyr, so raise animals, harvest crops, craft rare delicacies, and then sell your wares at your very own shop. Can you bring prosperity back to Zephyr Town?
Gameplay
Like all Harvest Moon games, Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar is a simulation game. Gameplay aspects that have made the series a favorite over the years, such as farming, animal husbandry, marriage and raising a family are all present, but the new focus that Grand Bazaar brings is an emphasis on the town marketplace. Players are tasked with helping to rebuild a once grand marketplace that has fallen on hard times. Prompted by quotas that the town mayor provides, players accumulate goods and animals, grown and raised on their farms, and a variety of special good that are created at windmills throughout the game space. These can be sold at the weekly bazaar for money that can either be saved or used to buy special items only available at the bazaar. Special manufactured good created at windmills, such as rings, can also be given to prospective mates, which may increase the chances of getting married more quickly and starting a family. Additional features include the ability to play as a boy or a girl, four-player game support and more responsive controls that allow for faster movements and a double-jump ability.
Key Game Features
- Barter with customers at your shop; earn money and build skills in interactive part-time jobs; visit windmills to craft special items
- Raise a horse and compete in thrilling races; expand your farm and woo a wife; use magic to solve puzzles and help friends in need
- Play as a boy or as a girl; engage in thrilling magic duels
- Find love, get married, and start a family; make new friends and uncover hidden surprises; build your relationship with villages by helping them achieve their goals and dreams
- Four player game support and more responsive/faster controls, including the ability to speed up and double-jump
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Additional Screenshots:
Choices for expansion.
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Classic Harvest Moon play.
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Manufacture goods for sale.
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Find love and start a family.
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Rating: 
(out of 7 reviews)
List Price: $ 29.99
Price:
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Review by CisforCorgi for Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar
Rating:
I got my copy of the game early – not sure why but I’m not exactly complaining. I was a bit put off by the release date being pushed back not once but twice – but the early shipping cheered me up a little.
I’ve played pretty much all the HM games since the n64, and as sad as that is, I figured I would put this here for other fans of the series that were looking into this game.
Pros:
-Graphics are A+ for a DS game, seriously.
-Love the art style.
-You start out with a barn built and you don’t have to clear your field. One of my biggest gripes about some of the other games was that they’d kinda throw you into it with 3 bags of turnips and you had to scrimp and save until you got a barn. Then scrimp and save until you got a chicken, etc.
-You also start out with storage/cold storage to put your things in, but this also leads to a slight con.
-YOU START WITH A KITCHEN. WHile you have to buy some of the stuff to go in it, no more waiting until 239490234 house upgrades to get a kitchen.
-JUMPING. Seriously, so convenient. Oh hey a stream, LOL I CAN JUMP OVER IT! Also there are shortcuts around town, like jumping on a barrel near the cliff near your farmstead bounces you up and gives you faster access to the town, etc.
-They finally got rid of mining. I realize some would find this a con but I hated mining so, so much. Oh how I hated it. And I hated having to waste an entire day trying to MAYBE find ONE gold ore so I could upgrade my equipment.
-Your stamina depletes more slowly, and your house starts with a bathroom so you can replenish it a little. Also the house has a fireplace. SWANK!
Cons:
-Erm, the only tools you start with are a hoe and watering can. Granted, without mining and such it’s not as essential to have the hammer, etc. but…still.
-Unfortunately, crop quality is back and that means everything you pick up isn’t going to stack unless it has the star rating. THey at least give you 2 bag menu screens at first for this but lol, one day’s foraging will literally fill both screens up because one toy flower will have 1 star, another will have 1 and a half star so they don’t stack, etc.
-You can sell stuff during the week but it won’t sell nearly as well as the stuff in the bazaar. The bazaar is only once a week. This means that all your money is totally incremental. I managed to make enough to buy a chick (3500 gold btw) at the first week’s bazaar, but I can see this is going to be tedious. Also – you’re selling stuff in your stall at the same time the townspeople are selling ESSENTIAL items you need. (Animals, upgrades, etc.)so if you want it you have to shut down your stall and go get it, losing money in the process. : I realize the bazaar is the whole point of the game, but it would be so much nicer if it was twice a week. On some weeks a festival pushes it from Sat to Sun. And if you’re out of money, no seeds for you until you can sell stuff for a decent price. The dude in the store that you can sell to every day will straight rip you off for stuff. I guess to make the bazaar seem more enticing but jeez. I guess that’s where the difficulty of the game comes from.
-Not exactly a stellar cast of characters. All the bachelors are pretty “meh” and the artist guy REALLY reminds me of David from Roseanne, therefore I can’t even look at him without cringing in pity.
-You can only save when you sleep. I hate, HATE this archaic type of game design. Monster Rancher DS fell to this flaw as well. So great, my dog sits on the power button and an entire day’s work is lost. WOO!
-I feel bad saying this, but there is very, very little to do. Play with your farm animals, run around and water your crops, say hi to townsfolk, give your bachelor/bachelorette a present, aaaaaaand you’re done. And it’s only 11am. So what do you do for the rest of the day? Catch bugs and fish I guess. Meh. THe problem is there’s no underlying storyline besides, “Make the bazaar a success!” which in the early portions of the game is laughable. The dude sets your quota to like 15,000. Yeah, you’re really gonna hit that with the 6 turnips you have to sell. Stock up for the next week and go with it. BUt otherwise there’s no, “Save the harvest goddess.” etc. type stuff to do. Cook, catch bugs, water crops, pet animals, talk to people aaaaaand you’re done. Go to bed at 1pm.
In all I am not disappointed with this game. I think it is very pleasing and a great, dare I say, casual? harvest moon game. It’s weird to call a game in a part of an already casual gaming series casual but…it’s true. There’s no stress. Sit back and enjoy selling your stuff and the festivals and whatall. Something to play after work or what-have-you. I’d say during a lunch break except lol you can’t save without going to bed so it’s not really, “OH MAN I EMERGENCY I NEED TO TURN THIS OFF!” friendly.
Good? No. Decent? Yes. Bad? No. If a more relaxing HM game is what you want, this is for you. My main hope is that they import some of the designs (jumping, etc.) for later games. Also if you blow into the mic the windmills turn faster…that’s pretty snazzy.
Review by Cheryl for Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar
Rating:
Overall I’d have to agree pretty much with the other review. The game is not a bad game but if you’re used to previous HM games for the DS it’s not the best. If you’d like a more relaxing HM game, then this is it.
I like the fact that they have made the watering of the plants so much less complex. Basically you fertilize your plants then water them every day (sometimes twice a day) unless it rains. It’s not as complex as the other HM games where you have to worry about the amount of sun and amount of watering to get your plants to grow. The aspects of the bazaar make it fun although it’s pretty slow during the week until the bazaar comes at the end of the week.
I’m one that enjoyed the mining in the last games and I’m disappointed that there is not mining in this one (at least not yet…have already been through 1 year of the game and no mining). Winter is pretty boring without mining and the rivers are frozen so you can’t fish, and you can’t grow any crops. They do have ore stones lying around that you can hammer and find stuff in but overall not much to do. I also hate how you can only save when you go to bed for the day. Either you have to finish your day or quit in the middle and lose what you’ve done so far that day.
If I knew the game was like this, would I have bought it still? I’d have to say “yes.” I still enjoy playing it despite it being slower paced.
Review by boreddiabetic for Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar
Rating:
cisforcorgi pretty much said it all. lots of great new easy controls but it’s a very low key, play after work/school/life kinda game.
LOVE
- slow, easy pace.
- you already have a storage room, barn, and kitchen so no more scrimping for 5 real life years to afford these upgrades!
- entirely new cast (lots of twins for some reason?)
- bazaar play is fun
- the animation is much more detailed
- easy ways to track your friends, recipes, animals, etc
HATE
- you can only save at bed. i find myself going to be a lot at 10:30am…
- not a whole lot to do during the day in the beginning since you only have one small field and not so much money and a handful of the characters leave to work in the city.
- hard to find time to shop at the bazaar due to sales goals.
i love this series and this game, i’ve been playing it pretty much non stop in my free time since i got it. not for the action/adventure types, but still lots of fun
Review by Deanna Rocha for Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar
Rating:
I enjoy harvest moon games. This is a little different as the focus is more on the bazaar and also time continues inside as well as out. So have in mind what your plans are for each day.
Review by Person for Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar
Rating:
Awesome Game. Worth getting it.
Removing mining was the best thing they did so far.
Although, there is 1 annoying glitch. On random days, 1 of your sheep will not be in the barn; and instead will be outside.