The Harvest Moon series has found itself in a strange predicament in the last few years, with it functionally being split up between XSEED and Natsume. XSEED continues the “original” series under the name Story of Seasons, while Natsume retained the rights to the name and continue to produce their own games. XSEED has been doing pretty well with Story of Seasons, but the last few Harvest moon games haven’t gone over too well with fans, but Natsume is hoping to change that with the upcoming Harvest Moon: Light of Hope.
Light of Hope launched today on PC, so PC Gamer caught up with a few upper staff members of Natsume to talk about the series. The interview opened with the developers reminiscing of the early days of the series, saying that it was a hard-fought battle at first. Here’s what Graem Markay—VP of Operations—had to say:
It's hard to believe 20 years has gone by. I can look back and remember putting our blood, sweat, and tears into each one. In the earlier days it was really an uphill battle. Not many people were interested in farming simulations for the SNES. Looking back now and seeing how the genre has grown, there's more competitors, which is fantastic, and there's a lot more fans too. It's something to be proud of.
Hiro Taekawa—President of Natsume—agreed, adding that others actively discouraged him from localizing it:
Harvest Moon is something like my child. In 1996, the first time I came across [Harvest Moon], I had a chance to localize and publish it in America. At that time, I was a newcomer to the videogame industry. I decided to check with my business friends in the videogame industry to see what kind of comments they had about the game. To my surprise, everyone said to me, don't [publish] such a boring game. That will be a bad mistake. I was really surprised by those comments.
For the full interview, check it out here. There’s lots of interesting discussion about where the series has been and where it’s going.
What do you think? What’s your favorite Harvest Moon game? Will you be getting Light of Hope? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source pcgamer.com]
Comments 19
"Not interested in farming simulators on the SNES". Well to be honest it was 1997 and nearly the end of the SNES' lifespan so probably not too many companies were interested in any game that would take considerable effort to localize. I think Harvest Moon may have been the last text-heavy game. (the only localized games released later were Kirby's Dream Land 3, Arkanoid and Space Invaders, none having significant amounts of text, I don't think)
Sad to say that even if Dragon Quest VI original announced localization wasn't canceled with the temporary closure of Enix America, it probably would've been delayed long enough to be ruled unprofitable and canceled.
I'm still playing Stardew Valley, so I don't know about Harvest Moon. It might be surplus to requirements at this point :/
I played Light of Hope for almost 5 hours today, it's a rather good entry in their series.
IMO the Harvest Moon series hit their peak during the DS era. Sorta like how Nintendogs and Brain Training games were also big on said platform. I have my doubts they'll ever be as big again. Maybe on mobile phones.
My fave was the N64 one. Hopefully it will be re-released on the N64 mini
Yeah, yeah. But they had little to do with Harvest Moon (now Story of Seasons) series, they were just publishing it in the USA. And now they're making these abominations like The Lost Valley or Light of Hope (the last one isn't live yet, I know, but trailers suggest something horrible).
Marvelous is one to talk about history of the series.
Yeah, I'm really triggered when I'm hearing about Natsume talking about Harvest Moon.
Friends of Mineral Town hands down is my favorite Harvest Moon and I haven't found a game in the series since then that has felt as good to me as that one did all those years ago. Stardew Valley on the other hand has been exactly what I was looking for in all Harvest Moon games after FoMT, and wight good reason too as SDV's dev listed Back to Nature (the PS1 game FoMT was based on) as his favorite game of the series.
I'll be honest, everything after FoMT felt lacking to me so I'm probably more or less done with Story of Seasons unless they make a game more reminiscent of FoMT, and I see the current form of Harvest Moon as a cheap imitation trying to pass itself off as the real thing. Meanwhile I'm happy with Stardew Valley and eagerly keeping an eye on what ConcernedApe has planned next. The new content coming with multiplayer has me excited!
EDIT: Also if FoMT somehow get's released as a VC title on the Switch I'll be over the moon!
I started with Harvest Moon GB and have played the first game extensively as well (never finished it as I could never get a berry from cutting wood and started suspecting I might have forgotten to pick it up somehow, rendering the best ending unavailable). I have yet to invest in the many other entries despite my interest - but I have invested a lot of time in Rune Factory instead, one of my favourite game series in general which I owe to Harvest Moon.
I'm fully aware of it now being two franchises instead of one, but I'm not baffled by it. More games at the end of the day.
@KingMike: The game was even localised for Europe with German and French text in 1998. It is interesting to see that there was indeed some interest in such a game. The publisher for Europe was Nintendo itself.
By the way: The EU game cover is the best of all and the whole reason I bought the game in 1998
2D again ?!
Disappointing !
I expect at least Decent 3D rendering like Magical Melody, but oh well...
It's strange, today there are all kinds of farming and life-sim games out and they are incredibly popular, but I remember describing it to friends when FOMT came out, and it was not an easy sell at all. Gamers and non-gamers alike would look at me like I'd grown a second head when I talked about upgrading my watering can and dealing with the Harvest Goddess.
I played a few more games in the series on the Gamecube and DS, but none of them ever gripped me like FOMT did. Stardew Valley is my Mineral Town now, even better than the OG in my opinion.
N64 was my first and still favorite entry in the series. Spent so much time with that game. Hoping Light of Hope will be a great entry in the franchise!
Looking at the steam reviews confirmed my fears. Looks and plays more like a mobile/Facebook game than a console title.
I'll stick with SDV and wait for SoS on Switch.
@Daggot I read those Steam reviews too. I'm very wary about it right now. I may look into this way down the road, when it goes on mega sale. I can be content with Stardew Valley in the meantime (not that I'm at my computer a lot these days anyway).
@thehoppypoppy @Daggot
Actually, if you look at those reviews you should notice a pattern. There's more positive reviews than negative ones, but the negative ones are massively upvoted, while the positive ones get downvoted or ignored.
I read the reviews yesterday, so there may be more positive ones now. That would correlate with them playing longer. The graphics are a total turnoff though.
It looks like absolute crap, which is sad for a franchise that's been around for over 20 years.
It's hard to justify the existence of this when Stardew Valley and Farming Simulator seem to be filling the niche nicely.
The SNES and N64 versions were great. Gamecube version was ok and Tree of Tranquility was pretty good. After that, Natsume's style just got weird and didn't seem to have put much effort into it. This new HM game looks like an indie game and not a very good one. I was hoping we would see a retro SNES style version for PC. I'm a big HM fan but only the select versions I've mentioned.
I have heard many good things about both titles but have played none of them. However I have dropped about 80 hours and counting on Stardew Valley on Switch, so I might look into this. I will wait for the review.
While I don't dismiss Natsume's localization and publishing history with bokumono, whenever they talk about the series now it feels like an intern trying to tell their friends that he is the CEO or something.
Cant wait until Bokumono hits the switch.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...