Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon is the first Harvest Moon title released for the PlayStation Portable, followed by a special-edtion released for the PlayStation 2. It is also the first and only Harvest Moon game set in the future, away from the traditional rural setting and aspects of previous titles.
The story is set in the near future, in the year 2022. In Innocent Life, you play as a male android (default name as "Life", but changeable before the game starts) created by Professor Hope to help save the island. The Spirits of the island sealed themselves away after people started to rely on machines to do everything, including farming. Dr. Hope and the island residents are worried that the island's volcano may erupt and destroy everything.
The story starts with the creation of the protagonist, more specifically, the doctor's enlisting of your android character as a resident of the island. The Mayor was not in favor with the doctor, but decided to approve the robot's citizenship application since he was already created. The main character's purpose is to run the farm on top of the Easter ruins and live there for a while, and to save the town from the eruption of the volcano due to the anger of the Fire Spirit. There are three spirits there : the Fire Spirit , the Water Spirit and the Forest Spirits.
The main character has to break the seals on the ruins to complete the story. Once some of the seals are broken, you can meet the Harvest Sprites, who are actually the Forest Spirit split into three tiny sprites. Once Life has the Crest of the forest spirit, the Harvest Sprites will turn into a giant tree which is the true form of the Forest Spirit. The tree is connected to the mermaid tower and the old hermit on top of the tower will let you awaken the Water Spirit. Once she is awakened she will freeze the lake and will let you put the Fire Crest in the holy Grail and the fire spirit will appear,' then the Water Spirit will talk to the Fire Spirit and will calm down.
Your robot character is an "Innocent Life": a pure and innocent life form not carrying any human mistakes. it is strange because the hermit said only a human may awaken the Water Spirit, yet you are able to awaken the Water Spirit, which hints that by the end of your experience, your character does grow into a boy with enough emotions to be considered a human by the Spirits.
After the main events, Dr. Hope dies due to an illness, but was happy because you were successful in saving the island. when Dr Hope dies, the main character cries and grieves his father's death, which is proof that he became human due to his experiences, and obtained human emotions.
Innocent Life was very harshly reviewed; fans complained of its lack of a marriage system despite young bachelorettes hanging around the town. The plot and farming system was also considered stale. Harvest Moon: Magical Melody made up for this by providing many of the characters, boy or girl, as marriage material.