Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition DVD (found digital comic, gallery, and PVs; 2004)
A still from the Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life digital comic.
Status: Found
Date found: 23 Aug 2023
Found by: Sanguivory
In 2004, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition (牧場物語 Oh! ワンダフルライフ, Bokujō Monogatari) was released in Japan.[1] The release case included two discs in total; the game and a DVD. The DVD was exclusive to Japan and contained a digital comic, art gallery, and compilation of River King: A Wonderful Journey promotional videos.
The DVD has now been uploaded in its entirety on archive.org by user Sanguivory.
DVD Contents
The Digital Comic
The comic opens on a cow crying to itself near a river. It laments over its self-image before traveling through the forest and finding a farm.
On this farm, it discovers animals of all sorts: dogs, goats, sheep, etc. The cow celebrates what makes each animal unique, such as their joyful barks, long horns, or soft wool. At the same time, it pities itself for having no special qualities. After this, it trudges through the forest, returning to the river.
As the cow gazes upon its reflection, it wails louder than usual, attracting the attention of those nearby animals that it envied. The animals gather around the cow and begin enthusing over how remarkable its "moo" is and how they wish they could make such a wonderful sound.
As more and more compliments are given to the cow, it starts to see itself in a different light and at long last, smiles.
The comic then cuts to the cow on the farm with the other animals. Takakura[2] had been watching the whole ordeal, and sure enough, the cow decided to joined the diverse family. There, it was surrounded by friends and learned that our differences are part of what make us "wonderful".
The Art Gallery
The gallery includes three pages of art (60 images), from early concept sketches to finalized character pages. The original DVD menu and art gallery contained no sound effects or music, but the uploaded video includes music that was added in post.
The Promotional Videos
The River King: A Wonderful Journey promotional video (PV) shows game play footage and assets overlaid by Japanese text. It showcases the cooking system, various fish, as well as many of the game's featured cast members, encouraging viewers to purchase the game upon its release.