When I had heard that the creator of Harvest Moon (Yasuhiro Wada) had released a new game for PC and PS4, my interest was instantly piqued. Having been a long time fan of the Harvest Moon series, I was very curious to see how similar or different this new game may be. Yasuhiro Wada pulls childhood inspiration on the origin of life from a TV show called Ultra Seven, and the creation of a personal world from a toy he had in elementary school that followed a similar idea. He has combined these childhood dreams to create a game of their likeness. Birthdays The Beginning is a “God Simulator” type game where the player has control over their own miniature world, altering the land and conditions to manipulate the thriving life on the surface below. Developed by ARC system works and TOYBOX Inc, and published by NIS America Inc. This game had a greater emphasis on the idea of encouraging evolution. An idea that had many people uneasy, having been left disappointed in the past by EA’s Spore. A game of a similar idea, that over promised and under delivered.
My initial perception of Birthdays The Beginning (here on out referred to as BtB) was negative however. The average user rating on Steam was “mixed”, and I quickly discovered why. Upon purchase, download, and starting up the game, I had a stable 5 frames per second. Now I acknowledge that my computer is by no means up to standards for PC gaming, but it can still hold its own. I was also not the only one with such a problem. With closer examination, I discovered a majority of the negative steam reviews were because of poor performance on the users PC. The instances of “poor porting” do not stop there however. Throughout the tutorial, it would reference regular keys like M and X, but also reference the control sticks. Shame on me for not having a control stick on my mouse and keyboard. It wasn’t hard to tell that BtB was developed for PS4, and ported over hastily t PC.
One Steam refund later, I was now downloading BtB for the PS4 instead. I was met with a interactive novel style format, having a pretty picture of a personal library, and a text box explaining how you would read from your grandfather’s books often. The Title screen was sharp and colorful, with music to match. I was ready to start.
Starting a new game begins with more interactive novel format storytelling. some scenes having quite appealing artwork, and some being just a black screen. I couldn’t help but feel like I was being given an incomplete game.
It was a simple story. A boy wanders to a cave found on a map in a book he was reading, and inside was a small cube named Navi that explains he needs to help create life on this tiny cube planet. shifting between a Micro and Macro mode. one for modifying the world, the other for viewing it speed through time. You do as the box of obligation tell you, and leave the cave only to discover your world is different. It is concluded that your world and the tiny cube world are connected, and end up terraforming this world, assisting in the evolutionary process with the goal of creating the modern human. a process that is chopped up into 4 chapters.
Starting out with plankton, you would shape and form the world, creating seas and hills, changing temperatures, and so on until you create fish and plants. With a bit of time and effort, you create the Ichthyostega. The first creature to walk on land. Next thing you know, dinosaurs are taking over. I admit that there was a feeling of accomplishment when the land started filling with giant lizards. But evolution is ever changing, and the players world needs to adhere to that for process to happen. I had reached a point where the next creatures in the evolutionary line only thrived
in much hotter climates than I had, so to continue evolving I had to crank up the heat to the point where most of my currently existing plants and animals would go extinct. Doing what was necessary, I brought about the birth of the Eoraptors. It was around here when I realized the mildly educational aspects of this game. learning how the Dimetrodon evolved to the Eoraptors after a global warming, or how the Ichthyostega being the first land creature. around this point I was having unbelievable amounts of fun, but it does not last for much longer.
I had finally reached the 4th and final chapter, bring about modern humans. Things were progressing as normal. My planet cooled down significantly since the great hot times of the Eoraptor. I even had homo sapiens around. Ancient humans appeared and I got the next story goal, and immediately afterwards they died out.
I figured that the conditions weren’t met proper, so I modified the world to suit their needs. after more waiting in Macro Mode and still nothing, I read more on the creature library. Oh it says they need plants and animals to thrive, namely wheat and cows. Well I have Bos, the predecessor to the cow.
though despite my best efforts, I could not encourage them to evolve. Having lost all faith, I used and item called a Seed of Evolution. An item that more or less forces the next evolutionary line to form. Good, my cow issue solve, time to work on wheat.
I have no wheat, so I look at the evolutionary tree in my creature library and discover that the predecessor to the wheat was a plant that only thrived in the super hot climate of the dinosaur age. It seems that in the shift of the age of mammals, that particular line of plants didn’t make it through. Even after using a special item to simulate a hot climate, wheat’s great ancestors still remained elusive enough. I had no more Seeds of Evolution though. After patiently waiting for generations in hopes of a natural evolution of pre-wheat, I gave up and searched for how to get more. wouldn’t you know it, but discovering new evolution, or by very rare random instances. My wait continued, passing time by trying to encourage non human related evolution. Eventually I finally acquired a stable life of wheat. but now my homo sapiens were under the same issue. conditions were met best they possibly could, and yet no progress. about another hour and a half, i finally found a new Seed of Evolution. and brought the ancient humans back to life. not too much longer after, I had modern man, and populated the world with them. bringing the end to the campaign. Having spent more time on the last chapter than the previous 3 combined, I was glad it was finally over. Completing the story mode unlocked a challenge mode and a free play.
Despite my frustrations for the human race and their wheat based food shortages, I had an enormously good time playing this game. Even though I had just gone through a 7 hour session, I found myself looking forward to trying out free play on a different day. The control over your own world, combined with the lighthearted art style and the playful cute music made for a very chilled out and relaxing experience. There was a noticeable amount of polish to the game as well. How a free play mode let the casual aimless player find joy, while challenges let the more goal oriented player have something to achieve. Or when you move from one biome to another, the music smoothly transitioned to different styles to fit said biomes. For a world building game, there was not a single instance of graphical flaws or issues. It was clear a lot of heart went into this game.
You can find this game on PS4 and PC (with issues). I think this game would be an amazing fit for the Nintendo Switch, though I’m left uneasy about their porting skills. Both versions can be purchased for 40 USD. All in all I had a great time playing it, and fully intend to continue playing it. So I found the price worth it. If you like casual games where you’re in control with gentile happy styles, then you will enjoy Birthdays The Beginning.
