You get to keep your stuff after you beat it once, and you pretty much cycle. I am so rich currently, that it stopped being fun.
I thought my character was a girl the first time around, so when Kate kissed my character, I was sort of confused.
Then I realized the character was a boy and stopped trying to flirt with the male inventor. Weird times, weird times.
Some of them you do get to play as a girl though, those are my favorite. Magical Melody and Harvest Moon More Friends of Mineral town have been my favorites so far. I still need to play Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquilty (the controls suck arg) and Harvest Moon Another Wonderful life.
I've mostly been playing Animal Crossing: City Folk lately (and Mass Effect).