Most gameplay in the Harvest Moon games consists of planting seeds to grow fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs, and collecting items, making home improvements, and building personal relationships. A successful farmer must weigh in the cost, sell price, number of harvests, and growth times of the various types of produce in order to pick the best product for each of the seasons. One can also go fishing and mining for extra profit.The ultimate challenge is for the player to manage their time. There is only a short amount of time in each game day, and the player only has a set amount of energy. They must balance their time and strength by working on the farm and making friends with the people in town.The player's character has mostly been male, but some of the newer games offer the option to play as a female character. A common theme throughout the series follows the storyline wherein the player inherits a relative's or an old friend's farm, and is then taken through the various aspects of farming such as growing crops, raising livestock, making friends and ultimately finding a partner. Each game provides objects to collect or goals to complete, whether it be befriending villagers, collecting musical notes, finding sprites, making rainbows, or ringing bells.Gameplay centers around the exploits of a hitman, Agent 47 as he is sent to various locations to assassinate targets. An array of weapons can be used, from shotguns to jian. While stealth and subterfuge is encouraged, the game allows the player to take a more violent approach and gunfight their way to their mission goals. As players progress through the game, they can collect the various armaments found in the levels, allowing them to be used in future missions. Aside from the more straightforward ways of killing targets such as gunplay and strangulation, several missions allow the player more subtle ways to eliminate hits, such as food and drink poisoning. This includes "accidents" involving the environment, e.g. falling from a balcony or dying from a heat-induced heart attack in a sauna.Players are rated on their performance based on several factors, key among which are the number of shots fired, NPCs killed, and the number of times the guards are alerted. The lowest rank is "mass murderer," which is awarded to players that kill mass numbers of NPCs in the pursuit of their target and do not use stealth. The highest rank is "silent assassin," which is earned when the player accomplishes their mission near-perfectly.Contracts continues the trend of "context sensitive" actions, which means that one button is used in multiple situations for multiple uses. For example, when the player is near a door, the context sensitive button will allow the player to perform door-relevant actions such as keyhole peeking, lockpicking, or if allowed, simply opening it. When the player is near an unconscious individual, the same button will allow the ability to either acquire the person's outfit or drag the body to an area where it can be hidden from guards.Along with the context sensitive button, the suspicion meter returns as well; this meter informs players of how close they are to blowing their respective cover. Actions like excess running indoors, brandishing weapons openly, residing in restricted areas, or sneaking can raise suspicion. Proximity will also usually raise the meter. As previously stated, if the suspicion meter fills, guards will open fire on sight of the player and the current cover becomes useless. If the guards discover a body (unconscious or dead), or if an unconscious person awakes and alerts them, the suspicion meter will raise much faster than it would otherwise.
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