Story of Seasons is the real Harvest Moon now. Natsume is just making fake ones and using the name. Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral town is coming to switch July 14th and it's a competent remake of the original game.
I forgot that Harvest Moon was renamed Story of Seasons and bought Light of Hope despite my sister's complaint that it was ugly. The storyline is annoying af. I got the SoSFoMT on Switch though, so I'm all good now.
You ended up in the right place in the end at least. Now do yourself a huge favor if you already haven't and drop a ten and and fiver on the Switch version of Stardew Valley. It will be the most value you will ever get for anything that price.
I've been playing harvest moon for years, and I knew about the separation but man, I respect you for playing the newer ones that I didn't want to play and save me from playing them
@@vtea oh btw, I am u/emordrak, and saw that post of yours on Reddit and I really liked your video. So I'm interested into seeing more content in the future
Animal parade was my first Harvest moon game and it was amazing 😍😍 I sunk so many hours into that game and even my granny and mum started paying it, and mum never plays video games and my granny used to only play platform games 🥰 I would happily have that game on switch
Natsume wasn't even that good of a localizer in the first place. If I had a dollar for every spelling or grammar mistake they made and features they broke, I'd be living in a mansion with no student loan debt. Hell, on the first HM game, they spelled their own company name wrong.
Marvelous inc is the company that makes the saga that we love, (the real HarvestMoon). In Japan, the saga name is bokujou Monogatari, and if you search it you will see that the games that we now as Story of Seasons in Japan are Bokumono too. I Hate the fact that Marvelous couldn't keep using the name "harvest moon" in the English translation, but the thing I hate the most is that Natsume is using the name to earn money while damaging a precious game, I mean, not all people know about this issue and why the HM light of hope is so lame, some people just think that the saga that we love started to sink, and that is sad :'C. So please if you love the saga please still supporting the game by playing the Story of Seasons games.
This is how I accidentally bought Light of Hope lol. I forgot about the split and I had just gotten my Switch and just wanted a game with it. It was Harvest Moon, so it had to be a good game, right? I realized my mistake later when the game kept disappointing me lol.
I completely agree with this. Ever since the Split, Natsume keeps digging Harvest Moon's namesake deeper into it's grave. Marvelous is the true makers of the series since the very beginning and they still make fantastic farming games under Story of Seasons today and in the future as well. Natsume... just please... stop...
@@vtea I've watched the 7-hour long review of the Pokémon Third generation remake, I'll gladly watch an in-depth analysis of Stardew Valley. Heck, I had to stop playing SV due to how addicted I was to it.
A hobbyist here but i don't know why they have to have 2D background with a 3D model if they want to make it at least make it presentable clearly this games doesn't care about the quality inducing the art i like the art style, however, the way they react turns me off
I definitely feel like this would have worked out better as Natsume’s HM vs Marvelous’ HM/SoS rather than comparison to Stardew Valley. A lot of the points for SV end up going to back to Friends of Mineral Town, so I wish there was more comparison to SoS to really show the jarring differences and how Natsume ruined the name of the series. Regardless, I liked the video overall, looking forward to more.
Yea in hindsight I think you're right, and I was thinking this as I was recording and editing. The video making process is hard because you have to sometimes comprise between a better product and even releasing the product and during my on/off time of 1.5 years while making this, I decided it's better to release it than change it a 4th time. The main reason why I decided against not putting more Story of Seasons in this video is because, SoS as it's own critiques I would've gotten into, as well as that I'm not sure how much of the audience has played any of the SoS series. Pretty much everyone whose played Harvest Moon has played Stardew or Mineral Town to an extent, so I thought it was a good comparison. Again, thank you for your feedback, it is always great to read comments like these and it's what motivates me to keep making videos!
To be fair the H. goddess had always been useless (except minor stuff) the H. Goddess has always been and probably will be useless unless marvelous change thier H. goddess but since its a remake of mineral town that H.goddess is also useless (I mean if you romance the H. Goddess and she gave birth she's like oh great here's the kid good luck) Im like who's looking after the kid while I'm at work???? The dog???
Phantasia DeZign in HM friends of mineral town or similar to it the H Goddess like I said as soon as the child is Born ditches it in your house she also never in your house BTW she still stays in the pond ..... The only time you see her in the house is during indoor events but again you have a farm to work with yet she leaves your her child with you on the house unnatended I was also making a joke about the dog watching the kid cause I always put the dog inside the house (if that's what your wondering about) even when the kid get to start walking around (which I think there's an event for it she's like oh he's walking ..... Event ends...... Meanwhile H. goddess is not in the house ever she's probably The worst choice to be your kids mother .... Even worst than fuckin Karen at least karen tries..... While the H. Goddess basically does nothing outside the cutscene and events (dunno if they changed that on the remake)
Marvelous got the house, the car, and the dog because it was their hard work. Natsume, who coasted off their success and bragged that they were just as successful, got nothing.
With the release of Story of Seasons: friends of mineral town hopefully most if not all Harvest Moon fans are now aware of what the "true Harvest Moon" is and that they should continue buying the Story of Seasons game.
Its not really the hardcore fans that I'm worried about, Harvest moon has become synonymous as "the" farming sim game and with the recent popularity of Stardew Valley, people might be looking for the newest title thinking it might be good... and then you have this hot mess...
@@vtea I was thinking, isn't it scammy for natsume to use the name as they use even if they owned? basically they are scamming people by stealing identity, even if they own the identity, they actually aren't that identity. That kind of stuff should be illegal.
Personally my favorite harvest Moon games were tree of tranquility and animal parade. I have pre ordered friends of mineral town as I have never played it. I hope it will be fun too. I enjoy Stardew valley and Rune factory 4 on my switch as well.
I'm so excited for RF5 I've been addicted to SoS FoMT. No idea when they're releasing it now that I'm sure production was pushed back due to a particular global event
I feel the absolute best was magical melodies for Gamecube and secondly the Harvest moon DS (circa 2005). I like that Story of seasons has that same chibi style that was featured on magical melodies.
This game looks like something you'd see in one of those creepy nursery rhyme videos. Mad respect for actually finishing this pile of shit. I wouldn't have bothered to even glance at it.
Well, Natsume's newest Harvest moon is essentially plagiarism of the original creator's New remake of friends of mineral town. Natsume was the localizer for Marvelous' NA releases, but now they own the Harvest Moon name, so Marvelous had to call the games by a new name, and they chose Story of Seasons.
Natsume as a company had already lost me on their versions of Harvest Moon releases, but I'll be honest, I'm looking forward to their upcoming release because I want to see if they do a 180 from the mess LoH was. Probably going to be disapointed not gonna lie.
Thank you! the harvest moon games (now SOS) and rune factory are literally my favorite games and you pointed out everything I had in mind when I decided to buy the shit show that is Light Of Hope. Trio of towns is pretty good tho, so if someone wants to see what sos has been up to you can cheek it out.
Do you know rune factory series? Those are great game. They started as a spinoff of harvest moon or story of season but later on became a standalone series with its own amazing lore, character, combat, etc. RUNE FACTORY 5 IS HERE YEAH!!!
Harvest moon fans should just jump onto playing games under the story of seasons franchise... I have played light of hope because I love harvest moon, but the game was a bore... reaaaaallyyy... way below what I expected it to be... it was an utter waste of time to play that game
im a bit late but I gotta say i loved the way this video was formatted, animated, narrated, structured, edited, and executed. Thank you for making this.
I had a friend pick up a newer HM title and they said they'd never try another HM game and I had to explain why they should pick up an older one when they get the chance. It might seems really silly to those who aren't familiar with HM, but HM was such a huge part of my childhood, I don't want to see it become villainized because someone decided to profit off of the title later on. So I do try to put this information out there when I can. ❤️
I hope that you know the old Harvest Moon isn't the same new Harvest Moon game. Natsume only publish the old Harvest Moon games and making the new Harvest Moon games. However, Story of Season is like the old Harvest Moon. Also, I don't believe Natsume should stop making games, but they should get better at making games.
Already discussed Natsume's split from the old harvest moon devs (Marvelous) and their role in the older games as publishers in the video. Also, I would be completely fine if Natsume kept making games and gradually got better (more farming sim games yay!) , but that's just not the case with their current track record, they are content with dishing out mediocre entries under the "Harvest Moon" branding because Harvest Moon is already a well established series of games. That being said, I genuinely want them to prove me wrong, but deep down I know they're going to fall short.
@@SairinEarthsea the art direction is better and more consistant, but there's a few things that I noticed. Either game is no where near complete yet, or yet again, they're cutting corners. Since this is to be released in fall, they're probably cutting corners... The npc idle looks SUPER stiff, might as well have them T-Pose. The ground still barely has any texture, its ALMOST one whole color. Not exactly sure but did they reuse the digging animation from LoH? All in all, they've failed to show anything spectacular with this debut trailer. Its probably going to suffer from the same problems LoH had, but with a coat of fresh paint, problems being bare bones with no additional content besides farming/NPC marriage/and other activities like mining/fishing. Sorry for being so pessimistic, but its Natsume we're talking about :/
@@vtea you're fine and honestly I was thinking the same. LoH looked like a mobile game in beta, it had potential to be, uh, something if they would have continued adding plot, animation, events, and areas through dlc. One world, however, looks like a cheaper version of a mobile game run through a GBA and then ported to a N64. I don't know the storyline yet but I don't think it's going to take long for to complete it, as long as they don't add rare items available through microtransactions or online trading. The cows are kind of creepy how they move/glide across the screen, I don't want to milk that.
when you flashed ham-ham heartbreak on the screen I immediately subscribed. I fucking love that game and I've had it on nearly every cell phone I've ever owned on an emulator and continued to play it well into my adult life and I've literally NEVER heard another soul even mention it. I'm shook.
Dude I found your channel on a critique thread for the card game video and your content quality blows me away. This video is super well done, and you hit the nail on the head about what makes these games fun. I can't wait for future content.
There's a lot that makes these games fun and I think it appeals to a lot of people because of their "play how you want to play" mentality. Thanks for the kind words, it means a lot to me
@@vtea I won't!! Lmao We gotchu no worries. I pre-ordered story of seasons friends of mineral town but ..I heard too late that it will also be on steam...I sort of regret it because I know people might make mods for PC...but the strawberry cow plush....actually NA's pre order bonus is nicer than what they got in Japan apparently?
I have the oldest versions I can play with a GBA emulator in my PC & laptop, for nostalgia's sake. But now my attention is paid toward Stardew Valley, which actually honours & completely enhances Harvest Moon in every way, even if it's a westernised & modernised, moddable version. Friends & More Friends of Mineral Town are my limits to the whole franchise though, which I love because I can play as a boy or a girl and the maps are extensive. But I don't need too many versions of HM anyway so I'm happy with what I already tried & currently have. If I ever buy a console, I'll buy one copy of HM.
Dude I just stumbled upon your video on my recommendation list, and I found gold 😂. I'm really sad what Natsume is doing with the Harvest Moon name. But at least we'll be getting Story of Seasons games from now on! I'm playing the FoMT remake right now, and so far I like it. While it's not exactly the same as the original game, if you think about it as kind of a "new" game, it's pretty good. The quality of life improvements certainly help a lot! And as for the character changes, well I guess it can be either good or bad depending on people's preference. While it kinda lose the nostalgic factor, it gains in new experience.
Wow, youtube is actually recommending me now... feels weird.... in anycase, I'm no life-ing the remake right now as well! So far, I think it's a super faithful remake, apart from the character redesigns, some of them I love, some of them I dislike (duke and manna), I think the quality of life improvements (stackable items, energy meter, being able to walk through crops) make the experience a lot better. Stay tuned, I'll be giving my full thoughts in a future video :3
so sad to hear that there is less content to do in the newest versions of Harvest moon, My favorite part about Harvest moon was how much content was available to you and how many ways you can play it, and because of all the events you always had to keep a reminder in your head and that made you excited to play the game keeping a mental note in your head saying, there is something that will happen I'm replaying the game now for nostalgia sake and I didn't even know there was a boulder behind the lake mine, the existence of the cursed tools or that you could get married (yes I'm stupid) there was always something you could do in that game, whether it be all the selection of events given or in-game Items to collect ie. Jewel of truth, Kappa jewels or the powerberries
Well now I have my answer as to why the game I bought a few days didn't have the Harvest Moon title, when I knew for a fact Mineral Town was mentioned in 'A Wonderful Life(gamecube)' as a town you could apparently visit if you had it for the gameboy. Thank you for indirectly letting me know to look for Story of Seasons, rather than Harvest Moon, now!
It's almost like they made a cash grabbing phone app game and slapped the "Harvest Moon" title on it to trick die hard fans into buying it, then when they got called them on their crap, pushed it to console saying, "oh we fixed it to give it the Harvest Moon seal of equality," to try to trick die hards all a second time with the same phone app with minimal changes. Then they chalk it up to people being burn out of farming simulators as an excuse when people don't like it.
I always wondered why no one talks about the 3ds story of seasons game. Once I played new beginning and moved to sos and sos tot, I could never move back to the older games...and then I realized most people didn't know that it was Marvelous' who develops bokujou monogatari, and with Natsume still holding the copyright of the harvest moon title, it's easy for people who are not familiar with the series could be duped.
Tbh the reason why Natsume keeps making games is because the name sells no matter how little effort they put into them, also the transition between from Harvest Moon to Story of Seasons was so sudden for a long running series. Also I found it funny how Marvelous's and Natsume's last game together is titled, "A new beginning"
You're gonna regret that. You're gonna be just like me where every farming sim game you play is going to be ruined because you keep comparing it to stardew. It's both a blessing and a curse...
People keep talking about Harvest Moon DS, but I personally couldn't get past the jumping sound effect... it sounded so cheesey, idk why they changed it...
It also really doesn't help that the core farming mechanic, the crop mutation, is actually kind of a pain in the butt that over-relies on players being willing to look stuff up in online guides. I actually kind of liked the Minecraft type mechanics, but I wish they'd actually made them more like Minecraft in terms of the block stacking and crafting. It was kind of half-assed Harvest Moon mixed with Half-assed Minecraft. By contrast Dragon Quest Builders 1 and 2 both take the Minecraft formula and make it better by adding a Dragon Quest storyline and characters to Minecraft's block stacking and crafting mechanics. So like one of the things the first two Natsume Harvest Moon games did was encourage you to terraform your farm to add things like interesting landmarks. The problem? They didn't give us most of the tools that Minecraft gives you, like you don't have a bucket to transport water from an area where it is to an area where it isn't so making something like a fountain is a simple exercise in stacking blocks and then adding a water tile to the top block to make the splishy splashy happen. Instead you have to build a massive aqueduct to transport your water from the river system the game gives you all the way to your fountain, then of course when you're done transporting the water you have to demolish your aqueduct. And all this takes days in game because you still have to worry about your stamina whereas Minecraft and DQB have no stamina meter so you can build as much as you want.
Pretty much nailed on the head why a Harvest Moon X Minecraft would've been amazing if it wasn't Natsume who made it. It still has potential and I hope some Indie developer somewhere does something with the idea.
VTea Agreed. I do feel bad for Natsume because Harvest Moon was their most successful franchise back when they were just localizing. I can understand why they’d want to keep the gravy train going they’re just really bad at making original games.
Tbh I would feel bad for them... if they weren't trying to be deceptive about it... Natsume keeps trying to convince people that they're the dev's responsible for original and at this point it kinda feels like a cash grab than a genuine attempt at keeping their franchise running.
So i had this recommended by yt, and i can say that I'm honestly impressed by this video even though this channel has a low sub count. You can consider me a new subscriber now
This video is so underrated! I've only played the rune factory 3 and Stardew valley after friends of mineral town on the gba. Didn't know that the mainline series were this bad.
YES. THE EXACT GAME I LOVE. Even many years later, even if it can’t be played, it’s still talked about and discussed, part of many people’s childhood and memories. Don’t look for ”Harvest Moon” games now, you should look for “Story of Seasons” which is the real and original Harvest Moon. A story of seasons game recently just came out for Nintendo Switch not too long ago! And also, I just realised this is an older video :3 but it just got recommend to me!
@@vtea I really enjoyed this......video....essay? I didn't even know the original makers of Harvest Moon had renamed the series for the american market, I would think about playing it, but honestly I think I'm okay with waiting another 10 years for ConcernedApe to put out another game. :|
The worst thing that a game can be is mediocre, you can be so bad it's good or just good and you will be remembered for at least a while, but a mediocre game will never be remembered.
You're going to love Harvest Moon: Story of Seasons FOMT (for Switch). I've been playing it for 2 months now (I got bored with Animal Crossing.) It's got all the stuff that made the original FOMT great but with updated better graphics and dialogue, new animals (I have to admit, the penguin confused me, though), but still with all your old favorites, and for less than half the cost! And I'm so glad you made this video - you just saved me $40!
Wait... You're telling me "Light of Hope" isn't the mobile shovel-ware game of the series? Christ almighty, "Back to Nature" was Mom's absolute favorite and she'd play hours on end and she adores Stardew Valley so much. I don't want her to know what the Havest Moon titles have become, there's no way she would expect this. In addition to the exceptional Stardew Valley, "My Time at Portia" and the upcoming "Ooblets" while not strictly farming games--the former focuses on general crafting and assembling, the latter focuses on creature collection--are well worth checking out if you need more farming sims. My Time at Portia has fantastically written characters who have a wonderful mix of optimism and a "go-getter" attitude in spite of the rather dark lore and backstory of the game that really makes you care about them and makes them feel proactive, which very few game NPCs achieve, which makes you care about them even more! In addition the dating system encompasses platonic play dates, so you can have your spouse, take them out for romantic fireworks and stargazing on in-game Saturday, take her best friend out for Sunday brunch to catch up and play on the playground with them, and just hang out with your menagerie of buddies as you feel. "Ooblets" looks like pure fun nonsense, though I'd wait until their Epic exclusivity deal runs out and they can migrate to Steam, it would also give them time to finish their early access. "Slime Rancher" doesn't really have much in the way of NPC interaction, but makes up for it in exploration and a sense of wonder with a beautiful jewel-colored and refined art style. Anyone got any more suggestions? EDIT: Almost forgot about "Graveyard Keeper" which has a much darker tone and has a villain protagonist as the player character, but uses it to full advantage with linear, but beautifully interwoven, character-driven storylines and a bit of dark humor.
I seen it stated before but still feel I have to add: Natsume was only the translator for Harvest Moon during the classic era of the series, this i believe ended at animal parade? (could be wrong on that exact game, I didnt play classic era) It was at this point they broke off from Marvelous, somehow taking the title Harvest Moon for themselves. Marvelous found a new translator in Xseed and together they work on Story of Seasons, this was the series I started with and Trio of Towns got me hooked on the genre. Meanwhile Natsume takes advantage of older fans not knowing this happened to use the flashy name of Harvest Moon to make some of the cheapest, laziest, most bland and tasteless games they can. I think all they care for is a quick buck, but as more Story of Seasons are releasing to great reviews this will eventually fade as most are beginning to see who has the real rights to the series
wow this is a really good video!! i grew up playing friends of mineral town on my ds (my dad pirated it also... lol) and it's kinda sad seeing what happened to the series now, but i've been playing stardew valley the past few months and am definitely obsessed. i have so much respect for concerned ape and i'm so excited for the 1.5 update :3
EDIT2: HEY GUYS THE STORY OF SEASONS: FOMT VIDEO IS OUT! : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OtG7XeGVRLA.html EDIT: 15:00 I meant to say 2013, my bad
Have you try playing the doraemon story of seasons? The graphics are like dreamy water colour based, it is beautiful and it has tons of events going on, while keeping the basic farming simulation. If u havent tried it yet, I recon u to at least look into the graphics and brief stories(the intro is a bit long in this game tho). And when i look at that game,i was wondering dude why natsume isnt improving on graphics and storylines, story of seasons series have more sophisticated ones. I heard that natsume blocked those who gave bad comments on twitter. 😱
Time to get blocked on Twitter, also haven't played doraemon, mainly because it just seemed really out of place for a SoS game, but people have been recommending it to me, so I guess I'll have to eventually give it a try.
@@vlee7025 I really like the art style and also the graphics....I like how the characters are from a cartoon but the protraits are not as cartoon looking as other games like sos friends of mineral town.the only problem is that the character's are too plain.@VTea definitely try it out
I have! And I liked the dynamic between the two towns, overall enjoyed the characters, though I feel there could be "more to do" content wise. Haven't played trio of towns yet though, so I'm hopeful for it!
I wouldnt have minded if Natsume actually tried to make good farming games. It's more that they are okay with tricking people who don't know about the split and how they pretend they are the same series.
Anyone else has lost valley trauma? Where you thought it was a new harvest game after Tale of two towns. And bought it. And started playing it. .... And got traumatized 🤣 Man that was something... I sold it on eBay the day after I bought it and even put a warning on it for the next buyer with a picture of the gameplay.
Aww thanks! Im working on a review for the Story of Seasons FoMT remake, its gonna be in a similar style hopefully you'll stick around and watch it when it's done!
From the few seconds i saw on this games gameplay, you can SENSE how unfinished this looks. It literally looks like something you'd make with preexisting game engine models I cant mentally force myself to compare this to the harvest moon i know, this looks so horrendously lifeless that my body LITERALLY CANT welcome this game to be apart of the original series for the sake of my own natural automatic instinct of self preservation. Natsume is a disgrace for tainting this genre, all of my immune system feels like it needs to eradicate this game even if its something my hands hasn't even touched (and never will). I had a lot of fun when i was a kid and used to play a lot of harvest moon, its a pretty big chunk of my childhood.. This is just tragic
The harvest moon name is very dead, I have loved these games very much for a long long time. Story of seasons keeps the art styles and romance in the games i fell in love with. Harvest Moon on the other hand has failed to keep the quality and heart of its name. It's rather sad. I enjoyed this video and very much agree with whats said. Natsume should just let the Harvest Moon games rest. I really hate seeing the Name of my old childhood game be ruined in such a way
The simple conclusion is, we have a bond with the villager--or even with the mother nature. Idk, it feels natural for me--in harvest moon ver. Marvelous
I paid $20 for this at Wal Mart last night for the Switch. I'm about 10 hours in, just finished getting the third stone repaired and installed. No idea how long I have left in it, but I'm enjoying it for what it is: a mindless, watered down Harvest Moon game. I'm actually way more excited to get Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town.
Ay! That's pretty good that you're enjoying yourself. Me personally, I take these games too seriously and play efficiently as possible, so I was kinda let down by this one. I actually have a review for the friends of mineral town remake in progress atm, be sure to look put for it!
Man I hope I knew this sooner bc I bought Light of hope with all DLCs just because it is a Harvest Moon game, and the moment I started it I knew it was gonna be bullshit. I think you didn't mention it but one thing that bothered me the most was the bright blue colour they used for the water, I had to close my eyes everytime I passed near the town's fountain. Nice video and thanks to you I know the real Harvest Moon is now called Story of Seasons.
Better late than never, I just bought Friend of Mineral Town yesterday on steam and I love it, after Light of Hope being the last HM game I played, this feels like the good old times. I grew up playing HM and it's nice to find more fans :)
Harvest Moon Light of Hope was a game designed to be played on a phone and marketed as a pc/console game. I'd say this video is a really good summary on how Natsume is a dying company.
Is it dying? They're releasing a new game this fall... but I guess when you make a game as cheaply as possible and sell it solely on the pre-established brand recognition, you'll make a decent amount of profit
Yup, I loved the original games of Harvest moon. I was 8yrs when I played my first Harvest Moon game. I played the 3ds game and it was horrible. I returned the game the next day. Ugh, Natsume can dress it up and call their games harvest moon. But nope I'm done with them.
Harvest Moon friends of mineral town would be a good choice. So much to do and so many marriagable canadets.Definitely a good way to spend a lot of time.
At one point I was just looking for games to play on my Switch/2DS, and I saw the Harvest Moon games by Natsume. I was considering buying it, but something about the artwork on the cover itself looks off... So I put it back on the shelf.
