Harvest Moon is that series of games where you can just sit back, relax, and play to your heart's content without needing any violence, sexuality, double entendres, or any vulgarity. It is safe, clean family fun. But once in a while, this series does something that hits the player hard. Today's blog entry seeks to analyze one of the sadder moments in the franchise: the death of Nina in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.
Yes, this game IS as cute as the box suggests.
First off, let's talk a bit about the game. In HM:AWL you play as the farmer, who inherits a farm from his father and must now work it and turn it into a money maker, while also raising a family and keeping a social life. You spend 75% of the game tending crops, talking to people, wooing the girl you want to marry, and tending to animals. It's better than it sounds, I swear.
Nina is a character in the game. She's an old lady, married to a man named Galen. The two frequently take walks around the village, she teaches you how to make marinade...and then she dies after the first chapter of the game. That's what her role is: be an old lady, be married, teach marinade, die. Paper thin, isn't it?
And yet, her death is one of the most hard hitting events in not just the game, but the entire franchise. Why?
For one, let's take a look at Harvest Moon as a whole. As I said, the franchise is good, clean fun, free from violence, sex, etc. It's innocent, it's sweet, it's like a kid's show! The good kind of kid's show, not the shit on Disney or Nickelodeon. Because of this, no gamer enters a Harvest Moon game expecting to see things like hookers, murderers, carjackings, or disembowelments. They come in expecting smiles, sunshine, rainbows. It's kind of like watching Sesame Street!
Let's talk about Nina. As I said, her role in the game is paper thin, but that doesn't mean she's a paper thin character. Nina is a kind woman, a woman who always has something nice to say, always greets you when she sees you, always welcomes you into her humble home, always has a kind word to share. She and her husband Galen are inseparable, always together, always taking a walk in the morning, always relaxing in the afternoon.
Nina is very easy to befriend, and may in fact be the easiest person to befriend in the game. All I know is I managed to befriend her by giving her a few flowers, talking to her every day, and visiting her once in a while. In hindsight, this is a BIG hint that she won't last long, because all the other villagers are not this easy to befriend.
The game starts dropping hint after hint that Nina is going to die through the second half of the first chapter, when Fall starts. Nina starts feeling colder, and more lonely. She starts having dreams that seem to foretell her death. She mentions she's not as energetic as she used to be. And she always, always mentions she's old. The game isn't being subtle, it's giving us a bright warning sign.
We see it coming, we KNOW it's coming, and when it happens....it's still sad. It's sad because this wonderful character we grew attached to is never coming back. But it's far, far more than that. See, it's sad because her death WASN'T an earth shattering event. It wasn't a game changing moment, like Aeris' death in Final Fantasy 7, nor was it a big, dramatic event like Lavitz' death in Legend of Dragoon. It was just something that happened. No special cutscene, no characters screaming into the sky, no internal monologues, just a tombstone, and an old widower who will never be the same again. There was nothing special about her death.
And yet, why is her death so memorable? Aside from the fact that this is only the second time death was featured in a Harvest Moon game (and this being at least the ninth game in the franchise), it's also the sole death in the series to be treated as something normal. When Ellen died in Harvest Moon 64, it was treated as a somber moment, a moment of grief for both the main character and his wife. When Nina died in A Wonderful Life, it wasn't even mentioned. The world didn't stop for her death.
It must also be mentioned that, unlike Ellen's death in Harvest Moon 64, Nina's death happens off screen, during the interval between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, which are AT LEAST 2 to 3 years apart. The player is never told the details of her death, and only finds out about it if they talk to Galen (Nina's husband) or visit her grave.
Nina's death is treated as something that didn't just happen, but that it happened a long time ago, and to the player, it feels like it happened when they weren't there. It feels like when you've taken a big trip, and when you return, a friend of yours didn't just die, they've already been buried. It happened, it was a while ago, but to you it seems like it never happened until you see the tombstone.
Though the series isn't one to shy away from serious topics (Harvest Moon has handled death, parental abuse, alcoholism, abandonment, etc), it is always so shocking to see it happen, because these games are always so bright and sunny. Maybe it's shocking because to the game, it's just something that is. Alcoholism happens. Death happens. Happiness happens too.
I am reminded of something Bob Ross once said: "Gotta have opposites, dark and light, light and dark in painting, just like in life. Gotta have a little sadness once in a while so you know when the good times come. I'm waiting on the good times now."
Light and dark, sadness and joy. What's joy without sadness? Maybe that's the real reason why Nina's death hits so hard: it's a sad moment in what is otherwise one of the most heartwarming games ever made. It's a grim reminder that life is short, and that the people in it will one day leave. And when they do, we might not even get a goodbye.
That's why Nina's death is so poignant: it's the darkness that comes with the light. In the second chapter, your child is born, you have new neighbors, but Nina is gone. Light and darkness. Good times and bad times. A little rain to appreciate the sunshine.
Nina is very easy to befriend, and may in fact be the easiest person to befriend in the game. All I know is I managed to befriend her by giving her a few flowers, talking to her every day, and visiting her once in a while. In hindsight, this is a BIG hint that she won't last long, because all the other villagers are not this easy to befriend.
The game starts dropping hint after hint that Nina is going to die through the second half of the first chapter, when Fall starts. Nina starts feeling colder, and more lonely. She starts having dreams that seem to foretell her death. She mentions she's not as energetic as she used to be. And she always, always mentions she's old. The game isn't being subtle, it's giving us a bright warning sign.
Nina. Poor old lady...
We see it coming, we KNOW it's coming, and when it happens....it's still sad. It's sad because this wonderful character we grew attached to is never coming back. But it's far, far more than that. See, it's sad because her death WASN'T an earth shattering event. It wasn't a game changing moment, like Aeris' death in Final Fantasy 7, nor was it a big, dramatic event like Lavitz' death in Legend of Dragoon. It was just something that happened. No special cutscene, no characters screaming into the sky, no internal monologues, just a tombstone, and an old widower who will never be the same again. There was nothing special about her death.
And yet, why is her death so memorable? Aside from the fact that this is only the second time death was featured in a Harvest Moon game (and this being at least the ninth game in the franchise), it's also the sole death in the series to be treated as something normal. When Ellen died in Harvest Moon 64, it was treated as a somber moment, a moment of grief for both the main character and his wife. When Nina died in A Wonderful Life, it wasn't even mentioned. The world didn't stop for her death.
It must also be mentioned that, unlike Ellen's death in Harvest Moon 64, Nina's death happens off screen, during the interval between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, which are AT LEAST 2 to 3 years apart. The player is never told the details of her death, and only finds out about it if they talk to Galen (Nina's husband) or visit her grave.
Nina's death is treated as something that didn't just happen, but that it happened a long time ago, and to the player, it feels like it happened when they weren't there. It feels like when you've taken a big trip, and when you return, a friend of yours didn't just die, they've already been buried. It happened, it was a while ago, but to you it seems like it never happened until you see the tombstone.
Though the series isn't one to shy away from serious topics (Harvest Moon has handled death, parental abuse, alcoholism, abandonment, etc), it is always so shocking to see it happen, because these games are always so bright and sunny. Maybe it's shocking because to the game, it's just something that is. Alcoholism happens. Death happens. Happiness happens too.
I am reminded of something Bob Ross once said: "Gotta have opposites, dark and light, light and dark in painting, just like in life. Gotta have a little sadness once in a while so you know when the good times come. I'm waiting on the good times now."
Light and dark, sadness and joy. What's joy without sadness? Maybe that's the real reason why Nina's death hits so hard: it's a sad moment in what is otherwise one of the most heartwarming games ever made. It's a grim reminder that life is short, and that the people in it will one day leave. And when they do, we might not even get a goodbye.
That's why Nina's death is so poignant: it's the darkness that comes with the light. In the second chapter, your child is born, you have new neighbors, but Nina is gone. Light and darkness. Good times and bad times. A little rain to appreciate the sunshine.
No comments:
Post a Comment