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Am I the only person here who this is still news to? The Harvest Moon games we know are no longer called Harvest Moon, but Story of Seasons. Natsume has now lost all rights to localize Bokujō Monogatari (Literally "Farm Story", but what we know as Harvest Moon in the states), and it is now being published by XSeed. However Natsume owns the rights to the name Harvest Moon, and so our beloved series is now known as Story of Seasons.

Natsume however has decided to make their own Farm simulation/RPG and use the name Harvest Moon for it.....

So in short, all Harvest Moon games from here on out are not really Harvest Moon...or at least not the series we've been playing since the mid-ninties. Now we have Story of Seasons playing as "the game formally known as Harvest Moon", and a new series entirely that's wearing the name Harvest Moon. I suppose this explains the drastic changes in the newest HM title...

So am I the last one to know about this being a permanent change? And is this a good thing for the fans, that will give us two series' to cherish, or will the new Natsume "Harvest Moon" titles be poor rip offs of the real thing and never live up to the name in your opinion?


EDIT: My apologies, but the title to that article contains a swear word.

Eirinn :

I don't know Eirinn, All I can say is I feel for you cause it always sucks when a gaming coorperation or franchise does something like this.

I think that the new games using the "Harvest Moon" Title would probably suck because it seems like they're just doing it for money in the first place, that's why they went after the name's rights in the first place, right?

I mean.

Come on.


If you make something new, give it your own name, why can't you have your own name? Do you think that no one would buy it or something?

If the original Harvest Moon team isn't working on it, it could be bad. And I know a lot of garbage can happen when stuff goes on like this, but good things can come of it too.

I'm sorry, I love division, when groups don't get along, and the two think they can make it on their own, I say. "Do it" And let the best man win.

Might.no 9 - Ian Flynn / Ken Penders



EDIT:

I also hate destructiod.

Eirinn : I think it could be a positive thing, actually. Of course, the sad part is that it's largely about money. I don't want there to be a spirit of competition, though. I want each series to stand on its own and do some good. Hopefully, each company will pour love for gamers into their games.

This is news to me too. I would have had no idea if I hadn't come across this thread.

Wow, I just really didn't think that happened. I haven't played the newest one yet but what are some of the drastic changes in it?

And that's also going to really confuse me if there's an entire new game going by the name of Harvest Moon though. I don't get why they couldn't find a new name or anything. But I guess if it goes by a name by that people are more inclined to buy it? I dunno haha.

I wasn't aware of this news until just now from you.

Sword Legion makes a good point on his opinion especially a lot of people are Harvest Moon fans. We grew up with the Harvest Moon game series and now we notice that a change like this can possibly ruin the fanbase and the business being made. After reading supernerd117's opinion, lots of games these days seem to have the similar content and gameplay but yet, they want to stand out at the same time. Some people would be a bit skeptical about the weird name change and question its purpose if they know Harvest Moon. Money seems to play a huge role in this factor and I don't get why they can't come up with a new name as well.

Now that I think about it, some of us are either having mixed feelings or outraged by this due to our fondness to the game name. The name Harvest Moon has stuck to us for a long time throughout our lives and any changes to it just means that we fear that the newer games won't be the same as the older games that we have played in the past. Just like any game, a game represents its name regardless of changes or how similar it is to another game (example: League of Legends, Smite, and Dota 2 are all similar yet they are unique in their special ways). 

As long as the fans are loyal to Harvest Moon and Harvest Moon doesn't change its unique and special style in their games, they should have nothing to worry about. Harvest Moon is Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons is Story of Seasons in my perspective. Harvest Moon has more of a special glow in its name and each of its games so I think that Story of Seasons wouldn't live up to the hype as much as Harvest Moon.

Sword legion : I think it'll be good in the long run, since Marvelous will still be making the same game series just under a different name, and after nealy two decades of publishing a series Natsume has to have learned a bit about how these games should be made....or at least that's what I hope is the case.

My only regrets really are that they used the name Harvest Moon on their new series, and the Farm Story games are now going by a different name. I wonder if that will cause enough confusion to cause the Farm Story series to lose it's support outside of Japan and eventually kill the series here. But I suppose Natsume had to do something to keep from sinking since HM was their main point of business.

Also fun fact: You referred to the danger of changes when switching to a new team, which is very true indeed. However, Victor Interactive actually made the first five Harvest Moon titles (HM, HM GB, HM 2, HM 3, HM 64), and Marvellous took over from there. Of course rhey did make some drastic changes that initially didn't set well with fans, after a couple of releases they started getting the hang of what fans wanted. Maybe Natsume will do the same or better. I hope. But I do think the challenge between the two series' could be highly beneficial if done right.


supernerd117 : I can see what you're getting at there, but maybe this will breed competition in a good way. If both series' make it, they'll have to make sure each game they release has enough content and changes to keep up with the other guys. So it may keep them from being lazy.

I too think it'll be a good thing, as long as the title confusion doesn't mess with it too much. Hopefully it just boosts the sales of Natsume's first game enough to help people realize both are quality games. It could actually breed an equally good series to Farm Story and give us more diversity than a single series does.


MoblinGardens : The drastic changes are that they're adding some very Minecraft like features, allowing you to actually build your farm and such and more or less mold it how you want it to look (think Minecraft's creation mode), or at least that's how it was initially presented. I've yet to see the actual finished product myself.

Also they're saying it's the first fully 3D Harvest Moon, which I assume means they'll be removing 2D plants that billboard (always turn towards the screen) thus giving a 3D appearance. I can only assume that would mean the inclusion of a camera that's highly malleable and allows for free viewing of your surroundings rather than having a tight relation to a certain focal point (i.e. centers on the player at a certain distance, etc). I'm actually quite excited about both ideas really. It's very progressive, and a rather aggressive set of changes Natsume is making here. Out of character for them, but I like it.

I would love to see Story of Seasons carry on classic HM style play and the new Harvest Moon series carry on in the direction it's currently headed in.

I knew this name change was going on, but it didn't clicked in my head that it was permanent and I never knew the reason for this change til I read the article earlier today. Honestly, I am okay with there being two "Harvest Moon" games, one actually using the title but isn't exactly the same HM game, and the one that really is HM but is now called "Story of Seasons." All I hope is that Story of Seasons continues bringing the magic the previous HM games have, and that Natsume makes their future HM games more fun to play (imo, The Lost Valley wasn't really that great and interesting when I played it)

Oh, wow, that's confusing, I love harvest moon but I have only really played the SNES and GBA ones.
It's kinda weird, too.  Casual fans will have no idea if they want all of them and that really sucks. 

Well I never really got into harvest moon I'm sad to say, but from what I understand... Harvest Moon is an RPG now... but the old Harvest Moon is now called Story of Seasons??? Why? For what reason? We cannot live in a world of chaos!
Also I have a cookie if you get the reference ◠◡◠

ghostfishy : Indeed the name change does seem to make the "real" Harvest Moon (Story of Seasons) a little less charming, and the new series (new Harvest Moon) somewhat more appealing. Odd as it is, even though I know the series I've loved for years is now called Story of Seasons and the games that are going to be called Harvest Moon from here on out is a different title, I actually want to play the new HM more than SoS. What I really want to know is why they're calling it Story of Seasons instead of Farm Story like it's called in Japan.

But I'm sure after a few titles we'll come to love our classic game series under it's new name. Hopefully the new series that wears the name Harvest Moon will be just as great as well.


AriaAngelDream : I couldn't agree more (except about The Lost Valley, as I've yet to play that one). A rose by any other name, right?


Mecha Leo : Well Harvest Moon has always been an RPG, though not the typical RPG since very few of them have fighting elements (Rune Factory and it's sequel are the only two I know of that have fighting...and maybe Innocent Life). The idea behind Natsume's new game that will be using the name Harvest Moon is to mimic the Farm Story (Harvest Moon up until now) series. That's why the name will probably still make the game popular. I'm pretty excited now that I've had time to think it over, I just hope Natsume can pull it off, and that XSeed can be as good at publishing/localizing Farm Story (Story of Seasons) as Natsume was for the past two decades.