Harvest Moon Isn't What You Think It Is Anymore

Harvest Moon: One World was announced this week, but this isn't the series you think it is. In this video I'll be shedding light on the confusing localization history of Harvest Moon changing to Story of Seasons.
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[@TheGamingShelf]

What's your favorite Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons game?

[@Jer_San]

Mine is actually 'Friends of Mineral Town' on the GBA and it was the first title that introduced me and my sister to the franchise. So when I saw the remake under the 'Story of Seasons' title, it made me realize which one is the real deal.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Nice! Who did you pick to marry in the original Friends of Mineral Town?

[@TadpoleSuperhero]

Mine are the 3DS entries, Harvest Moon 3D A New Beginning, Story of Seasons, and Story of Seasons Trio of Towns. It's so hard to choose between them! They're fantastic and I've put hundreds of hours into them, I love them. I'm actually kind of disappointed that the next Story of Seasons is a remake (and I'm not fond of the graphical style they chose, it feels like a step backwards from the 3DS entries), I'm really hoping a proper new Story of Seasons hits the Switch soon. Also thank you for spreading the word on the Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons confusion! I've known since the change, but there are still so many who don't know and it's good to keep getting the word out about what's the true Harvest Moon series now.

[@Jer_San]

@@TheGamingShelf Unfortunately I can't remember. Maybe in the remake I'll figure it out lol.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Yeah I’m with you, not a fan of the Friends of Mineral Town remake visuals :/

[@windsgrace688]

I come from the future. Natsume just dropped a trailer for Harvest Moon: One World. It looks terrible, it has a massive dislike ratio, and the comments section is turned off for the video I watched.

[@MuffinHunterX]

Just watched that trailer myself. Whole lot of nothing. They could have at least shown of the marriage candidates.

[@TheGamingShelf]

I figured it was going to be bad. Looks like Friends of Mineral Town is the way to go.

[@Mary-sp9dp]

Mine too

[@mousem7071]

I'm just avoiding all the new HM games, just been picking up the Story of Seasons games. I have been playing this franchise since the first game.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Smart!

[@MikeCakaKaliYoungTv]

same

[@wendyjones3967]

Great video. I had heard that the creator of Harvest Moon parted ways with Natsume and started Story of Seasons, as Natsume owned the name of the series? I could be wrong. All I know is that SoS is the Harvest Moon that I remember. And I have my cute strawberry cow to prove it lol.

[@sorinsnow3232]

Long story medium length (edited for readability) Creator of BokuMono had a contract with Natsume to localize. Since translation of BokuMono name wouldn't sell, Natsume came up with HM as the local name and logo. When Marvelous didnt renew the contract in 2014 and decided to bring it in house to XSeed, Natsume pitched a fit and started making knockoffs using the HM name and logo; which they unfortunately had every legal right to do as they made the name HM. XSeed had to come up with the new name and logo for SoS. Tho it doesnt mean it isnt dirty business on Natsume's part that theyve intentionally tried to imply to their consumers its the same series when it isnt and even released a statement to imply that Marvelous was ceasing production of the BokuMono games completely, which they werent and arent.

[@Kristen242008]

The new Harvest Moon looks terrible. I already have SoSFoMT preordered through Xseed! (I can't wait to get my strawberry cow plushie!!!!) FoMT and MFoMT were my favorite Harvest Moon games. I can't wait to play it again!

[@LunaLithium]

There was a plushie! I legit didnt see any trailers or anything. I found out it was released cause a friend had it. 😭😭😭😭

[@Kristen242008]

@@LunaLithium the plushie is cute. I'm thinking of selling mine though. It's still sealed in the package, I just keep it sitting on my dresser. I don't do anything with it. My local game store said they could give me $20 for it lol.

[@Kristen242008]

@@LunaLithium I'm thinking about it. I'm not sure. It's cool to have. It's cute for sure. I don't know.

[@LunaLithium]

@@Kristen242008 if you do let me know! I try to find merch for the game. Cant really. Ill buy it from you xD

[@TheMixerification]

I can't thank you for making this video enough. Loved the harvest moon games, but never understood why they became so trash and had kinda given up... Just bought the mineral town remake as a result of this video :)

[@TheGamingShelf]

I’m so glad it helped! Enjoy the game.

[@TeoSaint1212]

you've rescued me from mediocre farm sims, thank you sir

[@VolcanicProtectorMan]

Harvest moon is a shell of itself since all the original devs are gone. It's very much like the newest rollercoaster tycoon made by different devs.

[@Faceless_time_traveler]

Okay , let me get this straight . From now one , whenever I look for Harvest moon , I should look for Story of seasons instead since it's the actual series being localized , as for the current harvest moon , it's not the one being localized from Japan , right ?

[@TheGamingShelf]

You got it!

[@sssspnl8699]

Plz just stop buying Harvest Moon and switch to Story of Seasons or Rune Factory instead. (Rune Factory is really recommendable and I prefer it a lot over Story of Seasons!)

[@hgsfu]

I want a harvest moon like they made on the N64 that was the best game by far

[@TheGamingShelf]

That’s the game that’s getting remade! Coming to Switch in July 😁

[@user-jn8iy4lx2e]

No it's Harvest Moon friends of mineral town on GBA

[@Atreyu192]

My first harvest moon was a wonderful life on gamecube and I love story of seasons games and I'm getting story of seasons friends of mineral town.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Nice, I hope you enjoy it!

[@Atreyu192]

I will just waiting for my copy to come in the mailbox.

[@Vassilinia]

8 months later, I hope you enjoyed the FoTM remake!

[@Sunny-ot1vo]

As someone who didn't care about this series, things make so much sense now. It looks like animal crossing (New horizons was the first one I ever played and have nothing else to compare it to). I just need something fun to play during COVID.

[@TheGamingShelf]

They’re definitely similar, but with Harvest Moon I feel like there’s more to do and it’s not based around the real world clock.

[@Arkaeuss]

The only game in the series I played was Harvest Moon SNES . So recently when I decided I wanted to try a newer game, I was really confused, this helped me out! Still not sure which to try, but I'm thinking I'll try the Friends of Mineral Town remake.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Glad it helped! The Friends of Mineral Town remake great, but there’s a new game coming out next month called Pioneers of Olive Town that you might like. Definitely check out some trailers!

[@Arkaeuss]

@@TheGamingShelf Awesome, I'll check it out! Thanks again ^^

[@Seiferboi]

I think the only Harvest Moon games I have are on the Nintendo GameCube.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Those are pretty good ones! Save the Homeland on PS2 and Back to Nature on PS1 are both fantastic if you want to give other games a try.

[@RetroBossHunter]

I learned this during my 3DS days when I played SOS Trio of Towns, it was so good that I remember thinking it's a wonderful ripoff on the HM series. Didn't knew it's actually an HM game until I searched it off. Right now I am playing Friends of Mineral Town and looking forward on the Pioneers of Olive Town.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Nice! What do you think of friends of mineral town so far?

[@khewgerjean1767]

harvest moon ds was my ultimate favourite but I lost my ds TT..

[@TheGamingShelf]

Oh no! Well they’re probably cheap now if you wanted to rebuy it 😅

[@samuelkramer2304]

Everybody told me not to play Lost valley or skytree village but I've got to say they're not nearly as bad as everyone says. They're still worth playing they're just nowhere near as good as story of seasons, the 3DS ones have their own new interesting mechanics that I enjoyed it's just going to take them a while to catch up to the quality

[@modest_timing45]

I just hope we get a story or season's a wonderful life in the near future. That would be awesome. As for harvest moon games. You failed me Natsume.

[@DreamingHearts]

yes, that, and magical melody. :D

[@UchihaDareNial]

Your wish has been granted, SOS A Wonderful Life remake for Switch was just announced

[@modest_timing45]

@@UchihaDareNial yes I just saw that. It was funny. I watched some videos on it this morning not knowing they were about to announce the remake. It really made my day. That and Pikmin 4 I was excited!

[@CottonOfHearts]

I knew about the switch the year it happened and gave Natsume’s HM game a shot (Lost Valley) disliked it so much I haven’t bought their games after it, however I’m seeing more updates of their new game, One World and it actually looks pretty fun. I doubt it would surpass SoS: Pioneers of Olive Town but as you said their games are slowly getting better over time. So I may actually buy this upcoming Natsume game (already preordered SoS: PoOT)

[@TheGamingShelf]

Olive Town looks really great! Looking forward to all the new features.

[@zeroyuki92]

I just want to add that the for me, the best currently running Harvest Moon-like series is just called Rune Factory series.

[@sorinsnow3232]

Rune Factory is really good, cant wait for RF5 Best Spin off series ever

[@sssspnl8699]

Rune Factory is a lot better that Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons in my opinion

[@SaberisloveSaberislife]

If there's no Marvelous or XSEED logo on the cover, don't buy it. Simple as that.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Smart!

[@cm8291]

I have such sweet memories of playing the original harvest moon on emulator. This was enlightening. This harvest moon looks like a poor mobile game.

[@thetaleco4977]

thank you for the information

[@sonfatju5905]

A wonderful life special edition is best for me. I hope marvelous remake this game

[@yonwibowo9692]

With doraemon SOS gameplay 👍

[@sorinsnow3232]

I mean, technically, DS and DS Cute were remakes of AWL, that removed the time limit, and added in the sprite finding mechanics

[@rachel7000rf]

Made the mistake of buying a 'Harvest Moon' game recently for the switch. Hated it. Got a Story of Seasons game and it was 100% better.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Awesome! Glad you’re enjoying it 😄 Sad that you had to endure the bad Harvest Moon 😞

[@omarfelix5287]

The only harvest moon game I've ever played was A wonderful life and I absolutely loved it. I haven't been able to play it again, but found out there was friends of mineral town available for Xbox one and wanted to know a little more about it. I'll trust you on the "best harvest moon game" claim, having watched your newer video on it. Thanks, mate.

[@lubbo5261]

A Remake of a wonderful life was announced for the Switch in the Nintendo Direct yesterday the 13.9.2022. ^^

[@omarfelix5287]

@@lubbo5261 awesome, I love pirating nintendo games.

[@lubbo5261]

@@omarfelix5287 Nintendo dosn't own Story of Seasons

[@taeko3508]

It's just a big stinky poop with the logo "Harvest Moon" on it

[@TheGamingShelf]

lol basically 🤣

[@Izlemder]

For short: Harvest Moon is now bullshit, and Story of Seasons is somewhat good.

[@ChaoticMushy]

"Story of Seasons is somewhat good" it's literally the same as the original Harvest Moon games by Marvelous

[@Izlemder]

@@ChaoticMushy I think you didn't get it. Before 2014, there only was Harvest Moon games. After 2014, Natsume were split into Natsume and Marvelous, being Natsume responsible for Harvest Moon and Marvelous for Story of Seasons. The first game released from Marvelous after that was Story of Seasons, while the one from Natsume was Harvest Moon 3D: The Lost Valley.

[@ChaoticMushy]

@@Izlemder I am fully aware of it, I have known since the split happened. However, you calling SoS "somewhat good" makes it sound like Harvest Moon was better before Natsume ruined it. Old Harvest Moon and SoS are literally the same.

[@ChaoticMushy]

@@Izlemder Marvelous is the original creator of Harvest Moon and SoS. XSeed translates the games into English.

[@Izlemder]

@@ChaoticMushy Yeah, but now they are split. What I am trying to say here is that the Harvest Moon titles, after 2014, are almost-completely ridiculous. Yeah, I confused Marvelous with XSEED, sorry.

[@LobsterFusion]

I wish I would have known this earlier. I bought a Harvest Moon game on 3DS and I did not like it. Now playing Story of Seasons on Switch and it’s awesome!

[@TheGamingShelf]

Now you know to avoid “Harvest Moon” games 😉 Glad to hear you’re enjoying the new game!

[@charleneherrella389]

I just pre-ordered SoS PoOT instead!

[@TheGamingShelf]

Nice! Olive Town looks really great. What did you think of the Friends of Mineral Town remake?

[@Idkman707]

I wish Story of Seasons FoMT was more like Back to Nature. BtN had better heart events than the GBA FoMT

[@apriyanto556]

We Need Harvestmoon 64 Remake

[@TheGamingShelf]

This is basically Harvest Moon 64! Same town and characters.

[@InTransit8911]

@@TheGamingShelf This is not the same town. Harvest Moon 64 was set in Flower Bud Village. Completely different layout. The villagers in Back to Nature had the same models, but their personalities were completely different.

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

A good rundown of the weird situation. However some small caveats, the thing about marvelous is that they're also newcomers to Bokujō Monogatari, Most of the original staff has since left, the new company just owns all of the original games now. Which is probably why they look different. Here's a pretty good rundown on the other side of this. I can't really blame Natsume for continuing the HM branding but man they gotta step it up steamcommunity.com/app/585900/discussions/0/1694922345929389214/ Ultimately I do agree that you should steer clear of the Natsume developed Harvest Moon games until they get their sh*t together! I mean this should be a great situation, having two "harvest moons" out. *Sigh* well here's hoping they realize that they can't coast on the name forever.

[@christopherjansevanrensbur9983]

The producer of trio of towns had worked under Wada and was chosen to be his successor. And the art designet for the fomt remake is the same art designer for the gab games

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

@@christopherjansevanrensbur9983 oh that's neat, luckily he was able to choose a successor

[@TheGamingShelf]

I keep hoping Natsume will make a half decent one but they've all been pretty bad so far.

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

@@TheGamingShelf Oh same, more games is good, more "Harvest Moon" is good. Sadly Natsume seems to think they can just coast on the name forever. The last two were so bad. They desperately need new writers & artists to give the their neo HM games a shot in the arm. I wonder what the profit margins are on these games. Is the name recognition alone paying for the games? It's weird because LV & SV while clumsy could've been good building blocks but these last few scream cost cutting. :/

[@dafihale7139]

It’s sad that even story of season visual starts look as bad as natsume’s “harvest moon”

[@mediocrebanters]

Business Lesson Summary: Never trust external software localizers but use in-house ones, otherwise your trade assets might get stolen.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Oops!

[@optimoblunt2894]

I remember the first one on the snes I played it so much as a kid. After that game I lost all interest in the series. I think stardew vally brought back my interest, I just hate the way the new HM games look,

[@TheGamingShelf]

Stardew Valley is great! How many hours have you put in?

[@user-rv4nr6kt8p]

XSEED "Harvest Moon "bad point: bad japan character design, bad loves story Event "Rune factory" good point: good japan character design, good loves story Event,good battle systems

[@tiagocosmos]

this looks absolutely godawful.

[@chikipichi5280]

They should just remaster the 64 version

[@na00game77noyaCH]

日本未発売！！

[@LunaLithium]

I ownalmost eveey harvest moon game. I HATE light of hope.

[@TheGamingShelf]

It’s real bad 😩

[@LunaLithium]

@@TheGamingShelf i bought it thinking "what? A new one? Alrigjt!" convinced my man to let me get it cause "you already have stardew Valley " xD and i played it and its straight trash. It baby sits you and when it doesn't it gives no direction.

[@darthxanus4902]

Harvest moon games are garbage these days lol story of seasons is the king way

[@lubbo5261]

Because Story of Seasons is the real Harvest Moon, Marvelous the developer lost the right to the name Harvest Moon a long time ago to Natsume. The franchise still belongs to Marvelous though. Natsume's "Harvest Moon" is liturally just an rip off.