Following in the footsteps of last November’s North American release, Nintendo has today announced, Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, for 3DS will be released in Australia on 20th June.
Players take control of a boy or girl and shape the land to create their very own farm. At the same time, players must tend to live stock, fulfil requests of visiting townsfolk, befriend them and even get married. This is all part of a wider quest to restore the four seasons back to normal after one day exploring the mountains high above the Lost Valley when events take a turn for the worse:
While exploring the mountains high above the Lost Valley one day, you become caught in a sudden snowstorm and find shelter with the help of a faint voice. When the storm lifts you find and help a kindly Harvest Sprite buried under the snow, who tells you all of the seasons in the valley have vanished except for winter. To return all four seasons to the Lost Valley you’ll need to farm the land with the help of the villagers, the Harvest Sprites, and even the Harvest Goddess.
We’ll let you know as soon as a wider PAL release date is announced. For those of you in this region, let us know in the comments if you’re excited you’ll finally be able to get stuck into the farming life in the latest Harvest Moon title available on the 3DS and 3DS eShop.
Comments 14
What's with the characters giant heads in the Harvest Moon games of recent times? It really looks awful
Finally a new 3DS game, Yay! ;(
I have this game already on my American 3DS (I have both an AU and NA system). The screenshots of the game looked good originally. Sadly, I really did not like it very much at all and agreed with Nintendo Life's rating for this game ( 4/10 ). There was just too much missing from the game (no town etc.) and I found the gameplay more tedious and boring (when compared to other games in the series).
I am looking forward to Story of Seasons though, I will be heading back over to America in July, so I will probably pick up a copy of it then.
I guess the 3DS release schedule is not entirely empty.
I think we're all better off waiting for Story of Seasons.
I wouldn't have minded if they didn't bother localizing it, I'm actually surprised that they are.
When your game gets a metacritic score of 44/100, you're best off brushing it under the carpet and forgetting it ever happened, not carry on localizing it for other regions.
Might be tempted by this, haven't played any harvest moons since the Gamecube and GBA versions, I used to love linking them up!
@Ichiban
"games of recent times?" Which Harvest Moon didn't use large heads? Well, in this one the whole character designs and proportions can be argued over, of course.
By the way, still no word about the European release of Story of Seasons. I'm getting scared.
@tobbonni This isn't "Harvest Moon" perse, this is a different franchise developed by Natsume, using their Harvest Moon trademark.
The original developer of HM games (Marvelous) is creating a new series called Story of Seasons, after Natsume seemingly didn't allow them to use their HM trademark anymore.
In summary:
Harvest Moon (1997-2004) Developer: Victor Interactive, Publisher: Natsume
Harvest Moon (2005-2014) Developer: Marvelous, Publisher: Natsume
Harvest Moon (2014-Present) Developer Natsume, Publisher: Natsume
Story of Seasons (2015-Present) Developer: Marvelous, Publisher: Marvelous
Magical Melody (GC & Wii) and Friends of Mineral Town (GBA), were developed by Marvelous.
@Jenraux
Many thanks for the Heads up on that! I know there were a few versions released on the wii - did any of those come close in style / feel to the ones I have played?
@Tuulenpoika I remember the snes original having normal proportioned sprites
@tobbonni I haven't played any of the 3DS or Wii HM games, besides Magical Melody, so I'm not too sure.
I hear Animal Parade (2008) on the Wii was a good entry.
For portables, Hero of Leaf Valley on PSP (Playable on Vita if you get digital copy), was decent, although I found myself ignoring the farming aspect of the game almost 100%, as it wasn't needed at all. Sunshine Islands on the DS is also well received, and A New Beginning on 3DS is apparently decent.
@Tuulenpoika I wouldn't worry too much, not yet anyway. It only released in America 2 months ago.
There's usually 9-12 months between the NA and EU release, and when Rising Star Games handled the localizations, they only gave about 1 month warning before release.
@Jenraux
thanks for the information I will do some reading up on those, haven't played a Harvest moon game in years. Will be good to dust off the Hoe and sickle and get talking to the potential spouses - Recently played Sakura wars - so long my love - which reminded me of harvest moon in that regard.
As far as I remember, every harvest moon game to date has used disproportionally huge heads in their character sprites and models. Maybe not as big as this one, but even story of seasons uses them.
Anyway, the game is perfectly good and enjoyable, it's just not as good as the older harvest moons- and to be fair, that's true for all recent games in the series.
I like this one, so I have high hopes for Natsume's next entry in the series. Hopefully, they'll see what they did wrong (seriously, you can't upgrade your weapons or push animals yourself) and prevent those same mistakes.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...