Puzzle de Harvest Moon is a fast paced competitive strategy game. Players select a character to farm a piece of land alongside three other characters. The farmland is made up of a 7x5 grid with each grid of soil being able to be seeded. The gameplay flow typically involves the player selecting an item from the action bar on the side, this is usually the seed first so that it can be planted. After a seed is planted, it needs to be watered and fertilized twice, which will allow the crop to grow so that it can be harvested and earn the player points. Harvesting itself can be done by either using a basket for automatic results or by rubbing the stylus over a crop.. Now, since the action bar only holds six actions at a time, some may prove not worthwhile during a particular moment and so in order to make more room, can be deleted from the action bar at the cost of points from the players score.

Each character has a color to differentiate their crop square from their opponent. Planting a seed changes a crop square to their color. If a player plants crops on both sides of an opponents crop square, the square in between will change its color and become the players. While all crops are able to be harvested, harvesting crops the same color of the player are worth twice as much as the others. However, if an X appears over a player's crop, only the player can harvest that crop for the brief time the X exists.

Animals can also be selected from the action bar. Normal animals will effect a 2x2 area, while gold versions of these animals will effect the whole playfield. Animals such as chickens who eat seeds and dogs that can prevent others from harvesting can be deployed.

The game takes place over the four seasons which changes what crops get harvested, and when the time runs out, the player with the highest score wins.

The game features a single player mode and a multiplayer mode, Game types include a normal mode which is a free for all between four competitors, a 2 vs.2 mode where competitors form two different teams to go against each other, a quota mode where the game tells the players what random crop is worth the most points to harvest at that time, and survival mode, which requires the player to keep scoring first place finishes in order to keep going. Play options include selecting the amount of time a game lasts, selecting the difficulty of the player's computer controlled opponents, and selecting the player's color.

The game keeps track of the players high scores and also offers a tutorial.mode which just explains the games rules through text and visuals. The game also has options to turn the background music and sound effects on or off. There is also a right or left hand option so the games interface can be adjusted to the players dominant hand.