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> Results: Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon
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The ESRB Says
Alcohol Reference: GamerDad heard adult characters in cutscenes talking about getting drinks after hard work. One of my big complaints with Lost in Blue was that you were so busy with menial tasks that you never got to *do* anything. This game felt like answer to my prayers for the first several hours - you start off as a robot boy who has to learn everything about running a farm, because your creator has set you up with a farm of your own on a very inhospitable section of an island. So you learn your lessons and then get turned loose to work your own farm doing things like planting, watering, harvesting and selling - which is great. Until you can automate nearly everything using helper robots. Then it becomes a complete bore - there is so little left to do that you yearn for the good old days of busy work watering plot after plot after plot ... something to keep you occupied! There is no romance, no struggle to gain enough money, none of the challenge of making it from season to season. You don't even need to eat! There are lots of areas to explore, but they are not very interesting or rewarding, so it feels like more busy work - but pointless. Without the charm and interaction of other Harvest Moon games there feels like there is nothing to do but increase your farm size and keep your little bots busy - but why bother? There is nothing of interest to buy, and everything you need to get anywhere in the game is given to you! It is still not terrible, but there is a constant feeling that the developers failed to find a balance that would make the game challenging but in a relaxed way, a grind but a FUN grind; and most of all they failed to give our little robot boy the humanity the good doctor tried to instill in him.  
Harvest Moon games are wonderful fun for kids, forcing them to go through the paces of maintaining a farm and running a business and managing to earn enough to keep themselves in the black. It also enforces schedules, need systems and the possibilities of romance that involve effort and patience. And while there are several shortcomings in this game, the same basic mechanics are there - farming, raising livestock, and just managing your property on a daily basis. These are all excellent things that are good lessons for kids to learn - especially since the life portrayed is so foreign to most kids playing the game. The ESRB notes the mention of alcohol, which is done in a cutscene by adults - there is never any inappropriate talk by any of the young kids at the center of the game. The one thing that is missing is romance, which could be positive or negative depending on your perspective. The romance systems in the other Harvest Moon games is innocent and positive, and adds a nice dimension and challenge to the sameness of the day-to-day life. It is unfortunate that it is missing in this game, but if you are looking for a 'purely E rated' Harvest Moon, this is the one.
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