Natsume Inc. and Rising Star Games have announced Harvest Moon: One World for Nintendo Switch, "a brand-new way of exploring Harvest Moon for seasoned players and new generations alike".
Set to launch this autumn, the game will have fledgling farmers exploring an entire world full of "new and familiar faces, unique villages, and adventurous challenges", all while managing their growing farm. The new title is being developed with an all-new engine and graphics.
Hiro Maekawa, President and CEO of Natsume, has shared the following in a press release:
"Harvest Moon: One World features a brand-new way of exploring Harvest Moon that seasoned players and new generations will both enjoy. Over the decades, Harvest Moon has evolved but has always retained the traditional, family-friendly farming fun that the franchise is known for. The new engine and new graphics will upgrade this experience for 2020. We are so excited to share more about the features of Harvest Moon: One World in the coming months."
No screenshots or trailers have been released just yet (we only have the graphic above to go on so far), but we do have our first details of the game in the form of this official blurb:
Can you imagine a world without tomatoes, strawberries, or even cabbage? In the latest entry in the Harvest Moon series, that’s the situation players will find themselves in. Only an old book gives hints of what once was... Buoyed by a mysterious discovery, players will find themselves setting out on an adventure that spans not only their hometown but the whole world! What kind of people and places await? From the gorgeous beaches of Halo Halo to the snowy mountains of Salmiakki, there’s literally an entire world to explore.
Back in January, Natsume president Hiro Maekawa teased a number of "exciting new projects". It certainly seems like this must be one of them.
Are you a Harvest Moon fan? Excited to see how this new game might take shape? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
Comments 53
"The new engine and new graphics will upgrade this experience for 2020."
Maybe they will stop using 2010 smartphone graphics?
2020 graphics? Well now...
I've never played a Harvest Moon game before, but just yesterday I was thinking I'd like to try one. I look forward for more info
@Marxally would be nice, still I hope they don’t go so graphics focused they neglect gameplay.
[Token soapbox lecture on how the series formerly known as Harvest Moon goes by a different name nowadays while greedy Natsume releases inferior clones]
I hope they deliver a good game, but I will remain skeptical until I can see screenshots and trailers
My personal opinion is that Harvest Moon went downhill, hedgehog style, ever since the breakup between Natsume and Marvelous
Is Harvest Moon kinda like Stardew Valley? Defo up for that. I wish I could grow crops in Animal Crossing!
Sounds Interesting, from what they are saying. i'll keep an open mind on this game.
This hurts me deep.
I'll hold off on more opinions until I hear more, but this sounds like yet another departure from what fans of the series (yes I know about the split) grew to love.
At least there's the FoMT remake to look forward to.
This is a PSA, Story of Seasons is the real series, these are bad clones made by Natsume that genuinely haven’t been good yet.
@nhSnork Whoops, you got there first!
Pretty sure I'll stick with the Mineral Town remake, thanks.
Please no smart phone graphics. (I realize smart phone games can have excellent graphics; you know what I mean.)
Honestly, at this point Stardew Valley's eaten Harvest Moon's lunch, and they could do worse than simply release a game that gets back to the basics.
I don't need terraforming and a full-on dungeon crawler in my farming simulation. The Harvest Sprite stuff with light cave exploration is fine, but just focus on what made Harvest Moon so awesome on the SNES: farm, crops, animals, village, relationships. That's it. Make that basic stuff awesome again for at least one entry.
@Jslade If you’d like an Harvest Moon experience I advice you to stay away from this past decade of Harvest Moon games. They have been rather horrible, the original creators of Harvest Moon lost the rights to the name or something like that, so they now go by the name Story of Seasons.. Stardew Valley is also much more to prefer over those Harvest Moon games. I think Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is coming out later this summer. I think it’s a remake of an older, original Harvest Moon game
If it’s your first experience you better not have a bad one, so just a heads up!
There are also the Rune Factory games, they are a bit different from Story of Seasons but from what I’ve heard they have been fairly popular!
If they're working hard to pose as a worthy competitor before Stardew Valley, it's gonna be great for us gamers. Otherwise it's hard to say something based on "recent" Harvest Moon games
Have Natsume not figured out yet that they're actively poisoning their Harvest Moon brand?
Harvest Moon games haven't been the best since the split. Going too be getting Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town in July.
We'll see... the only ones i liked were Friends of Mineral Town and A Wonderful Life
"From the gorgeous beaches of Halo..."
The very first thing that came into my mind:
Now, that would be a game changer
Maybe Natsume will do such irreparable damage to the Harvest Moon name, that Marvelous will be able to buy the name from them and bring everything back full circle so we can stop talking about the split? A guy can hope!
@RupeeClock Considering they still release them and they are always subpar, I don't think so.
Can you imagine a world without zinc?
Wait wait so you're telling me that a company other than PlayStation and Microsoft are able to release games in 2020?!
So how about they let Marvelous use the Harvest Moon name again instead of tricking people into buying worse games?
Great! I love inferior shells of a beloved franchise. Maybe it will look worse than the last one.
Oh at last a new one, I wish them good luck with the project, and hope they go all out.
Don't forget everyone, this is not the "Harvest Moon" series you remember and they are claiming the legacy of! Natsume has taken over the Harvest Moon brand and the real developers of the series are now having to use the name "Story of Seasons". The recent "Harvest Moon" games have all been disappointing knockoffs.
Hmmmm this might actually be good??
I can't overstate how irritating it is to get the same Story of Seasons PSA every time anything Harvest Moon related is talked about. Nobody asked. Everyone gets it at this point. Its been 5+ years.
I just want a somewhat realistic greenhouse/nursery management game. Anyone want to help me make one?
He misspelled devolved.
Haven't been into Harvest Moon since A Wonderful Life...which I downloaded on PS4 for nostalgias sake literally minutes before this article popped up!
If the new game is like the snes or n64 game I'll buy it
I want to see pictures of what they're making before I decide of I'm going to invest my attention or not. Im not expecting much and I know the original development company isn't making them anymore, but I won't entirely rule out the possibility of a decent game coming from this.
@Kyloctopus "Everyone gets it at this point."
Apparently not, considering some of the first comments on this article. Bokujo was never a huge mainstream series so a lot of people still have no idea about what happened. I'm not bothered by the PSA being everywhere if it means people are informed. Natsume are bringing it upon themselves by actively trying to lead people on, they could've been more transparent about all this.
I hope for the best for this game but Natsume hasn't made a good Harvest Moon in probably over ten years. I'm fully aware that Natsume isn't the true makers of the older games and the entire confusing stupid history of this franchise. Regardless of who owns the rights and used to make them it doesn't change the fact that there hasn't been a good game with Harvest Moon as the name in 10+ years. Hope that changes but I can't see them suddenly caring now.
We have Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, no need for this series anymore.
If you're looking for a Harvest Moon (Story of Seasons) game with adventure stuff, Rune Factory is where it's at!
I disagree with everyone of you who says that Natsume is driving it into the ground. I have played Story of Seasons and actually prefer Harvest Moon's past 3 mainline games. Couldn't get into the lastest 2 Story of Seasons games. That said I am getting the remake that Marvelous is putting out and will be getting this one too.
@Nintemma Wow, that's a lot I wasn't aware of! Thanks so much for the reply, i'll definitely check out those games you mentioned.
@Samwise7 Pick up Story of Seasons, not Harvest Moon. This is probably gonna be another joke of a game made off of a name Natsume doesn't deserve.
yeah stay away from harvest moon, go to story of seasons now, although the last SoS put me off with its 40 min unskippable intro cutscenes...
Seems Natsume is going to way of Gainax made great stuff in the past but now just a shadow of its former self
I was filled with glee when I saw the headline ... and then I realized, it's Natsume and Harvest Moon, not Marvelous and Story of Seasons.
Just based on the typography of "One World" I do not have high hopes for the graphics of the game. The logo is barely legible.
When I hear open world I think about that terrible dynasty warriors game. Please don't go the route of thinking bigger = better, Natsume.
natsume is trash
The name reminds me of New World Order. I would change it.
Isn't harvest moon a bit like Cooking Mama is now? Only really harvest moon in name ...
@Samwise7 acording to some Dataminers Vegetable and Cooking is coming to the game in a future update, yesterday, Rhonda one of my Villager said at home by myself, i'm happiest with a good ,long book and some tomate juice to drink. if this is not a hint that Cooking and Vegetable/crop is coming to the game, Nintendo woun'd put a dialogue like that and people woudn'd be noticed, just remembre the Brewster and his café and the Art Galery before the Earth Day Update, and voula Museum upgraded with the Art Gallery, now history repete insef with the Vegetables/Crop and Cooking possiby coming in the next major update for the game.
I’m not saying that Natsume’s games are the greatest or anything, though I’ve enjoyed them, but the whole reason they still have the name is because Marvelous didn’t want it when they decided to switch to their internal XSEED team for translation. They kinda blindsided Natsume, iirc.
Even if Natsume completely folded, I doubt Marvelous would be picking up the name. Natsume didn’t ‘steal’ anything.
@Samwise7 To my knowledge Stardew Valley started off as “Harvest Moon but fixed”.
Kinda sounds like instead of buying seeds at the store you will need to quest for them. Like a post apocalyptic scenario in which you discover that a seed vault is a thing and you go to get those precious crops.
Yes! I can't wait for more information.
Wow! An all-new engine? This seems to be Harvest Moon's jump to AAA territory here. And the blurb speaks open-world. Okay, now I'm excited, even if this isn't Story of Seasons
Curiously, Marvelous is also currently developing a new Story of Seasons title, we'll see how the two will compare evenetually
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