Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life will span a lifetime on the farm and follow the drama that goes with it. Not only must you build and successfully run a farm, but you must also build a successful life with family and friends! This new Harvest Moon experience will take the best qualities of the series and add more...more animals, more vegetables and more drama! What sort of life will you live?

"He wasn't unhappy. But he didn't seem to have a direction in life. One day, I went to see him. I told him about the farm you left to him. Your son didn't seem to know much about farming, but he was willing to give it a try. So I brought him to Forget-Me-Not Valley."

True to its name, this is the first Harvest Moon game that progresses through the main character's entire adult life, from young adulthood to old age. However, numerous years are skipped as the game is progressed.

NPCs in the game, including the main character's son and wife also grow older as time passes. The game takes place in a new setting for the Harvest Moon series - a small village called Forget-Me-Not Valley, populated entirely by new characters.

The basic plot is familiar from several previous Harvest Moon games: the main character, a young man, inherits a somewhat run-down farm in Forget-Me-Not-Valley after the death of his father. Unlike most games however, the game features a variety of chapters.