Harvest Moon: One World is out today, so it's finally time to check out the game with this detailed launch trailer. Showing off the festivals, different locations, bachelors and bachelorettes, the fishing, and the mining, as well as the new Expando-Farm, it's clear that there's a lot to spend your time on.
Billed as the "biggest Harvest Moon game" ever, One World has five different areas to explore, each one themed around a different season and landscape, and each one will provide you with different animals, from cows to reindeer. The Expando-Farm puts your farm into your pocket, so you can take it with you wherever you go, so you can take it with you into different seasons.
There are ten marriage candidates in total: five girls, and five boys, although apparently same-sex marriage was cut from the game because of COVID, according to Polygon's interview with the developers.
If One World isn't for you, then you're in luck: Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, Harvest Moon's rival ever since the Natsume/XSEED schism in 2014, has a launch date of the 23rd March in the US and the 26th March in Europe and Australia, and came out in Japan last week. We also just reviewed the similar farming/life simulator Littlewood, if you're hoping for more of the same, but a little bit sooner.
Will you be grabbing Harvest Moon: One World, or have the past few games turned you off the series? Let us know in the comments.
[source youtu.be]
Comments 51
Writing this article was the first time I realised that One World doesn't have same-sex marriage in it, and I'm extremely disappointed - especially when they said they cut it because of COVID.
Stardew Valley was made by one person, and that still includes same-sex marriage. Not good, Natsume.
I’ll have to play single again but I might (key word: might) give this a go once the price drops. It looks barren and I can throw Natsume farther than I trust them. Buuuut I want a pet tiger. Getting SOS at launch.
Edit: actually after looking at a bunch of let’s plays... yeah I won’t be getting this. It’s ambitious of Natsume but still too many issues for me. When I saw a dude harvest a potato and he wasn’t anywhere near it... nope.
Seriously, if you can't make it better than Stardew Valley, then don't make it. "Because of COVID", what a load of nonsense.
This game looks.....awful.
it just cracks me up at this point that one guy can pump out Stardew Valley....just....who is Natsume hiring.....
@KateGray
Well, i think i have to disguise as female farmer again to get married with 2 future husbands.
It's a Wonderful Life on Gamecube looked better than this... "Because of COVID" has become such a lame and easy go-to.
@KateGray what's COVID got to do with adding same sex marriage?
Game looks better than the last one I suppose, tbh I prefer these farming games over animal crossing, because there's more to do and more to explore plus a slight story and end goal
I took a chance on this, the first Natsume game I've gotten since the infamous schism. It's cute and different. Yes, it sucks with their lame excuse about ss marriage, but it's a decent game. Graphics are pared back, but it doesn't rip your eyes out.
On the other hand, SoS: PoOT is getting a ton of flak for poor choices re: game design. Marvelous has removed all tweets about it and are being silent. Fogu has some very interesting conversations going. Most of the criticisms are valid.
That’s pretty gross cutting same-sex marriage and writing it off as because of COVID. Interesting to see that this game is seemingly the closest Harvest Moon has come to beating Story of Seasons since the schism though. Not heard good things about the new SoS.
I would pick this up. It looks better than Story of Seasons. It would look nice next to my ACNH and Stardew Valley.
Now they only need to make physical edition of Graveyard Keeper and I am all set!
Clearly someone hasn’t heard of ground clutter! It’s just barren flat textures. Looks horrendous visually, really doesn’t gel.
Game looks interesting but reading the comments is this game all about same sex relationships
Crazy that they put barren visuals and locations like this in the trailer. Well at least they are not lying I guess.
I miss the A/Another Wonderful Life style. That game actually looked pretty in its time. This looks sooooo cheap. Looks like a mobile game, in fact. And the lack of same-sex marriage is also absurd.
It seems they are not just missing same-sex marriages, but a number of features that could have been added (as listed throughout the comments and the Polygon interview). Edit: and the article
@MetalToad try reading the article and comments again
I got chewed out on Fogu this morning for saying Natsume is no longer a legitimate game producer. I rest my case. Who's with me?
Can't believe both series (SOS and HM) look like mobile garbage now, even the indie ones look and plays better than these. That's a shame.
Yikes, I'll stick to playing Stardew Valley. Why Natsume doesn't return to AWL or MM style is beyond me.
@Burning_Spear
I saw a little bit of potential from One World. This one is different from previous mediocre HM games.
I will keep my eyes on it, to see further gameplay.
So far there were 2 Bachelors that i want to get married (Braden and Kanoa) and i have to disguise as a female farmer again.
There is no excuse for same-sex marriage not being in a game in this day and age, at least not outside of Japan. (I won't get into that because I don't live there or know how it's viewed societally.) But otherwise, this is one thing you automatically have in any game involving marriage or dating. It's not something you think about later. When you decide to have marriage or dating, you add same-sex from the outset of the project. It's 2021. Natsume continues to be a joke.
I’m having a good time so far. I like how open it is once you finish the tutorial area. I like having the choice of moving around to a new area right away or staying and working on mutations from that climate. There’s also something like 230 crops/mutations to hunt down. I wish time stopped in barns, though.
This game looks so cheap its not even funny. It looks like a Phone game from 2012. Harvest Moon used to be a great game.
@MetalToad
No it isn’t you can just get married in the game to a girl or guy
Wow, this game looks like an old PS1 game. Not sure if that was intentional.
I always liked minimalistic art styles, and I think the characters look great, but indeed, ambience and textures are kind of lacking
Working in the medical filed for over 20 years I have no idea how COVID has direct impact on ss marriage, but the virus skips hetero based marriage in its s/s. Must be a new strain of COVID...
I’m pleasantly surprised at these comments so far, this is the side of NL I like to see.
I hope the people who buy the game end up enjoying it, but yeah I can’t bring myself to support developers who use such a bad excuse for not including same-sex marriage as an option.
I’ve been enjoying the game so far.
Honestly who cares about the same sex marriage
If it's fun game is all I care about
Does ANYONE at all think the graphics are attractive?
Civil unions don’t matter in video games.
@Daggot
I think the graphic was decent but it was running on 60 fps.
I will keep looking for further gameplay.
@Daggot The character models are actually an improvement from the prior game and yet still cringeworthy. And many of the landscapes are barren. Maybe COVID-19 caused this too?
The biggest one, maybe... but is it good? That’s the important question
(inhale)
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Please, if you need a new farming sim get Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town.
@ClassicJetterz
I don't think One World was really bad.
I saw a little bit potential there.
It was decent game, not really awful but still need more observation from gameplay videos.
I think i will consider both One World and Pioneer of Olive Town.
Reminder that Story of Seasons is the REAL Harvest Moon.
@NatiaAdamo And yet their latest entry is also poorly received.
By now, one could say Stardew Valley is the real HM.
@k8sMum
this.
I couldn't agree more, i actually liked the last 'Harvest Moon' game when you look past the graphics but for the original bokojo, dang they could be doing so much more with the hardware. I get the style for the mineral town remake but for the next mainline game yikes, they look like HD 3DS games. I keep telling myself they are making these budget looking games while they work on a wonderful life remake but I doubt that's the case.
Probably gonna play story of seasons because that's actually harvest moon. Disappointing that they didn't add same sex marriage "because of covid" when story of seasons friends of mineral town remake had it and stardew had it.
@ClassicJetterz The feedback for PoOT from Japanese players was so poor, the dev team had to issue a statement saying they’d be working on fixes for the load times, lag, inconveniences, lack of dialogue/immersion, etc, and it may have also contributed to the game director’s apparent breakdown. At this point I wouldn’t count on it being a standout experience, tbh.
Gonna wait for the reviews of this and SOS to see if either is any good. Might have to wait for Rune Factory 5 if that is still coming out
@StardusterEX
Yes, I've seen it and it is a little disappointing. I'll still take it over Natsume's bootleg series.
@ClassicJetterz Marvelous aren’t the original developers of BokuMono, either. Up until the split, Natsume had technically had a longer history with the series than Marvelous had, since they’d been localizing it since the beginning. Could Natsume have done more to make the split between them and Marvelous clear? Perhaps. But as far as I could piece together, Marvelous didn’t want the HM name and didn’t fight Natsume for it. And if Marvelous didn’t want it, I’d kind of rather have Natsume utilizing it and making improvements however slowly than imagining some third-party snapping it up and turning it into a gatcha nightmare or something.
@DoubleDate You do know HM use to be great when Marvelous done them... Natsume owns the name. Marvelous and the creator of HM left Natsume to use their own company Xseed.
But since Natsume owned the name, Marvelous had to change it to SoS and Natsume decided to pick up trying to continue the HM games.
That's why they "use" to be great. And no longer are. Natsume should of stopped before they decided to try and make a game without the original creator. Even the 3ds ones where absolutely horrible HM games. I know, I made the mistake in giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Big mistake.
@SoulSurvivor The original creator hasn’t been involved with Marvelous or BokuMono since like... 2010? Marvelous wasn’t involved with BokuMono until 2003, when they acquired the company that was originally developing them. I’m not saying Natsume’s games are the greatest, but neither of your points have anything to do with either series being good or bad.
@Burning_Spear I could not disagree more ..
@DreamStar this is not the place to start a debate about these subjects.
And no. Expressing disappointment over the lack of same-sex marriage in a game that features marriage, is not an invitation to start an argument over the validity or correctness of same-sex marriage.
@Eel ..Ok ..So it’s ok for others that do support so-called “same sex marriage “to state as such ?
@DreamStar Correct! Please feel free to find greener pastures if you find this to be a deal breaker.
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