Harvest Moon is an endearing series that puts the players in the shoes of a young man or young woman who inherits their grandparent’s farm and works to bring it to its former glory. While the player is busy tending crops, raising livestock, exploring the world, and expanding the farm they can woo someone in town to be their significant other.
It’s surprising that such a kid friendly game is chock full of some weird if not downright disturbing things. Creepy Easter Eggs, quirky mini games, and odd game mechanics litter this beloved yet strange franchise.
10 Doghouse Battle Minigame
In Harvest Moon DS players can initiate a strange minigame by leaning against their doghouse at exactly 4:40 a.m. while holding the A button. If done right this activates a minigame where the Witch Princess seeks to test your strength in battle.
In an underground fight club the player battles various members of the town until they’ve proven themselves and can go up against the Witch Princess herself. If the player defeats her they are rewarded with an in-game title commemorating this bizarre moment of street fighting in a farming game.
9 Kill Ellen By Talking To Her
Harvest Moon 64 gave the player the terrifying ability to decide the fate of another character in the game without telling them they even had it or how to use it. The unfortunate soul was Ellen, an elderly woman who is now confined to her rocking chair.
It turns out after the second year in the game the player has the power to decide whether this woman lives or dies, depending on when they choose to talk to her. If Ellen is merrily rocking back and forth in her chair it’s safe to talk to her, but if she’s sitting still talking to her will result in the woman’s death.
8 Curse Of Golden Lumber
Golden Lumber is a true luxury item in Harvest Moon DS. Buying a single piece requires stashing 999 regular pieces of lumber in your shed and forking over 100,000 G. Admittedly it is an incredibly useful building material as a fence built with Golden Lumber will not wear out or break down, ever.
But if you put the lumber in your yard the townsfolk will become jealous and start scolding you for it. That’s right, the same townsfolk who have no problem with your golden lumber fence will become furious if you just leave the lumber lying around outside. Maybe because you’re letting it go to waste?
7 Skye’s Maiden Chick Beam
Skye is your typical ladies man in Harvest Moon DS. Instead of holding down a stable job and being a responsible member of society he prefers to steal what he wants and uses his charms to avoid getting into trouble for it.
When you encounter him stealing from a bar Skye displays a bizarre supernatural ability to cause you to become immobile through what he calls a ‘Maiden Chick Beam’. Once you’re rooted to your chair he continues to steal from the bar making you wonder if he's part basilisk or something.
6 Kill Animals To Woo Witch Princess
The Witch Princess appears a number of times in this article and for good reason, she’s a weird individual. If you as the player are interested in wooing this stuffed animal collector then you have to prove your affection for her by slaughtering your own animals.
The Purple Heart event of courting the Witch Princess requires the player has killed at least 50 of their own animals. If that wasn’t bad enough the player will also have to pass out from exhaustion 100 times, litter 10 times, and poison the entire village by donating a poisonous mushroom to the stew during the Harvest Festival before she agrees to be the player’s wife.
5 Three Male Classes
In Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life the game is populated with a number of male characters that the player can interact with. What’s interesting about these characters is that they’re separated into three separate classes; Normal Boys, Special Boys, and Mineral Town Boys.
It’s unclear why the game treats them as separate genders rather than some other category and it brings up the question if this was a mistake in the game’s coding or a lazy design choice. What's even weirder is that Skye is the only Special Boy in the game.
4 Friend Till The End
In Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life the player has the option of buying a stuffed bear named Daachan for their child to keep him company. But in a variety of cut scenes it's revealed that the stuffed bear is alive.
This bear will steal food from the fridge, pretend to be inanimate when it notices your watching, start talking to your child, and supposedly scratches him at some point. As children we all wished our toys would come alive to play with us, but then we watched movies like Child’s Play that forever corrupted that fantasy and makes this sentient bear a terrifying concept.
3 Teddy Bear Officiates Wedding
The Witch Princess is a bachelorette in the Harvest Moon DS the player can court and eventually marry. Being a witch she’s leery of churches and instead wishes to get married in her own home and have her stuffed bear Kuma-chan be the officiator with the other bears being witnesses.
Yeah, you read that right, the Witch Princess has her bears officiate and attend the ceremony. In case that wasn’t creepy enough, she casts a spell that causes all of them to come to life for the ceremony. It’s one thing to pretend the stuffed animals are sentient beings, but another to actually make them sentient and carry out a Tim Burton-esque wedding.
2 Woofio Is An Empty Costume
Woofio is a strange character that officiates as a judge in Story Of Seasons: Trio Of Towns wearing a dog costume. If the player pursues a romantic relationship with this character they’ll discover that in actuality he was a man cursed by a witch and is now just a sentient dog costume who has lost his humanity and has become more animal than human.
If for whatever disturbing reason the player continues courting this character they can eventually become married and bear children with Woofio. That’s right, the sentient dog costume who’s lost his humanity can be the father of the player’s children.
1 Kappa Spouse
As strange as Woofio is to have for a companion, the Kappa in Harvest Moon: Friends Of Mineral Town takes the cake. If you throw enough cucumbers at this strange green creature living in the lake you can befriend, court, and marry this monster.
This odd spouse won’t live with you but will randomly show up to say you’re pregnant with zero context or warning. For an extra dose of weird/horrifying the Kappa is based on a mythological monster in Japanese folklore said to drown animals and humans, especially little children, and either eat them or steal their Shirikoda, an organ containing the person’s soul found in the anus.