Harvest Moon's New "Cozy" Switch Bundle Revives Two 3DS Titles This Summer

I stopped keeping track of this series after it changed name to Story of Seasons.
Have I missed out on a lot of gameplay developments?

Oh my Harvest Goddess…

I was actually like one of five people who really liked the 3DS games, and this re-release might actually fix several of the technical and design issues these games have… so I’m quite happy with this!

Seems like an odd choice. Know they have their fans, but they largely weren't received well by any means so seems like a strange gamble to remind people of these at a time when Natsume!Harvest Moon's reputation seems to be turning itself around with Winds of Anthos.

Oh, wow! 😯
With the DLC included. 🙂
Hopefully there will be PS4 & PS5 version as well.
The "Harvest Moon" games are already on both Switch & PS4 + PS5 as well.

Tale of Two Towns is so insanely clear of these two, now that could do with a Switch port. These two were not great but to be fair, large amounts of that was due to them running like molasses on 3DS.

Right, so, this is "new" Harvest Moon, not the original that is now Story of Seasons, right? It's so very confusing keeping these straight...

But, anyway, it's hard for me to get into other cozy farming sims after Stardew Valley. It just nailed that mechanic so beautifully. And what I appreciate most is the pace. You're never rushed. The original Harvest Moons had me on such a bad timer, it was hard to really enjoy my run, y'know? Has that gotten any better in later installments?

@MasterGraveheart I don’t think there’s any post-split HM games with timers or anything like that, beyond the usual “crop/item is only available in certain season” as with all farming games.

The Lost Valley had an infamous example though, where an early quest will request a crop you can only obtain in spring (the game has you restoring the seasons, so chances are you’ll only be able to enjoy very few days of spring on your first year, if any). Ultimately though, it’s not an important or necessary quest, but back then it had all of us scrambling trying to get the crop.

As much as Harvest Moon has been beating Story of Seasons at their own game recently with Winds of Anthos, it seems dumb for Harvest Moon to reopen the discourse against them, with these games (and One World) really being the catalyst Harvest Moon’s initial downfall.

If the current trend of “remasters” continue these are going to be another pile of slop.

@LadyCharlie This isn't the same series but a new one using the old name.
Long story short, Natsume lost the publishing rights but still owned the localised name so they decided to cash in by continuing to make thier own games under the name(of lesser quality I may add) while the original series goes by Story of Seasons.
Any new game using the original name is the new borderline shovelware series and should be avoided imo.

I get soooooooooo confused by the Harvest Moon/Stories of Seasons divide.

@Dee123
Its easy.

Story of Seasons Makers = The Real Dev of Harvest Moon
Harvest Moon = The nameholder ONLY

thats the gist of it really.

@HeeHo Winds of Anthos is actually pretty good, but the others leading up to it are meh at best.

@MasterGraveheart Yeah, Stardew took the basic formula of Harvest Moon and perfected it. None of the HM or SoS games can compare.

Have you played Rune Factory 3 and 4? Those are really great and have a laid back pace. After Stardew, those are my favourite farming sims.

Sadly Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons and Rune Factory are not for me anymore. Only the Doraemon spin-off games are still great.

Stop please he’s already dead 😭

Btw, I wonder what will look like the Switch version of both games.
Both of them are Minecraft style farming sim games that hopefully will look better on Switch.

For someone who isn't in the know about this series, are these two games part of the original "good" era of Harvest Moon, or are these two part of the "post breakup" era?

@EarthboundBenjy

A New Beginning was the last one they both made together.

And apparently its not a good one from what ive read.

So everything after that one is "Post Breakup" or "All 3DS games" and on fits perfectly as well.

@EarthboundBenjy
When Natsume first time make their "Harvest Moon" game on 3DS (Lost Valley), it was mediocre but as they tried to be Open World style for Winds of Anthos, the game looked better than previous "Harvest Moon" games.

I loved Harvest Moon back on the original Game Boy Color, and I got my parents to help import the N64 game (since it didn't initially release in Europe), but the franchise peaked with Harvest Moon DS and the GBA remake of the PSone game for me. After those I completely fell off of the entire genre until Stardew Valley.

I have no idea how these games hold up - or how close they ever were to what I loved about Harvest Moon back in the day - but I doubt they'll be a better purchase than Stardew Valley for anyone with a passing interest in this type of games.

But these games were someone's first foray into cozy farmlife sims, so I´m happy for whoever is looking forward to revisiting them now.

I feel like you only need one of these types of games, and I already have the delightful Doraemon one.

I got excites and then realized it was "Harvest Moon," not the main series that is Story of Seasons.

@whmchrish

Technically it is a different series now since Marvelous is localizing them through seed now.

@Doctor-Moo Not yet, I have been meaning to try it. I think I have a digital copy of one of the Rune Factories on my 3DS, but, I haven't had a chance to dig deep into it.

@Eel The last Harvest Moon games I played were the SNES and N64 games. I liked the idea, but the deadlines and limited time frame just kinda turned me off.

Can anyone recommend a really good Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons style game to start with on Switch? I loved Harvest Moon 64 but haven’t played any good ones since.
LGB relationship options are a plus!

@PinderSchloss I haven't played it myself, so you can take my recommendation with a grain of salt, but I've seen a lot of praise about Stardew Valley.

@PinderSchloss
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town remake is like the core HM experience. Then there's Wonderful Life remake which I enjoyed too which is in 3D. Both games I think let you date anyone regardless of who you play as if I recall.

@MasterGraveheart ah, no, they haven’t really done that since the PS2/GC era.

@PinderSchloss on the Natsume HM end, Winds of Anthos is a pretty good open world take on the genre, and while I haven’t played the latest mobile game I’ve heard it’s also really good, so I wish it was on switch too.

Harvest Moon, and life/farm sims in general, was never my thing, but I’m all for supporting more 3DS/Wii U gems getting a second life on Switch!

When they broke from Story of Season, I just couldn't deal with the Flash game style art direction. It looked so cheap. Reviews said there was actually a decent game behind the visuals, but I just couldn't. My wife couldn't either. She moved over firmly into the Rune Factory camp going forward.

I wish we could capture the same charm as when my wife played this on the PS2. I'm sure it was because we were younger, the genre was still pretty new, and we had ample time to dig into a game. Adulting makes that impossible now, even on a modern console with robust QoL enhancements. LOL

Also, I wonder if the Switch version of Lost Valley & Skytree Village we can get married with same gender considering The Winds of Anthos have same gender marriage.

@Anti-Matter not sure how much they’ll be changing from the originals, but it would make sense if they did that.

The wording on the blurb appears to imply so:

Play as a boy or a girl, woo bachelors and bachelorettes

But take it with a grain of salt since these could be simple remasters.

To address the usual Natsume-themed bellyaching in comment sections like these at once:

With this out of the way, Switch can never have too many sims of the kind, and seeing more 3DS titles get another incarnation (portable as they may be from the start) is always good news, too.