All posts tagged in Harvest Moon
Jul 4, 2019
It was only a day ago that we got the surprise announcement for the Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town remake coming to Nintendo Switch this year. Today XSEED Games announced that the game will come to the west as well and if that wasn’t enough – a first Story of Seasons Reunion in Mineral Town Trailer has been released.
Marvelous, who will be handling the publication of the game in Europe, revealed the remake would be heading to Nintendo Switch in Asia on October 17th. Many fans were speculating if and when the game could possibly come to the west as well. While it is possible to download any game from any region to any Switch, due to it being region unlocked, it is still great to know that Story of Seasons Reunion in Mineral Town will indeed be translated into English – once again.
XSEED Games also revealed that a release date for the English version will be confirmed soon. Furthermore, as we already assumed yesterday the game will be published under the name Story of Seasons Reunion in Mineral Town.
Story of Seasons – Reuinion of Mineral Town boxart! Story of Seasons Reunion in Mineral Town “is a complete remake” of the beloved Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town Game Boy Advance title. XSEED Games also said ““that will let series fans revisit the charming world of Mineral Town, while also introducing it to a new generation of farmers. In this peaceful setting, players will grow crops, take care of animals, and build relationships with villagers.”
We are so excited to be revisiting the game in brand new visuals on the Nintendo Switch later this year. Take a looksie at the first adorable Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town trailer below.
For more Story of Seasons fun check out the latest on the crossover game Doraemon Story of Seasons, as well as the reason the name on the Harvest Moon franchise changed to Story of Seasons.
- Jul 2, 2019
The popular gaming outlet Famitsu announced that Marvelous is currently working on catering another gem to the Story of Seasons… – Harvest Moon community. A remake of the much beloved Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town is coming to Nintendo Switch this year.
The game was first released in 2003 and quickly became one of the best selling gameboy games of its time. While not many details were revealed about the upcoming remake, Famitsu promised more information on the title in the next magazine.
This is exciting news for all old school Harvest Moon fans, for the ones who don’t know the name of the franchise has since changed to Story of Seasons and since Natsume still owns the rights to the series ( Harvest Moon ) it will most likely be released under the name Story of Seasons once the game releases in the West.
Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town will be released on October 17th in Japan. A western release date has not yet been announced but is likely to happen after the Japanese launch.
If you want to learn more about the history of Harvest Moon and Story of seasons, make sure to take a look at our handy guide over here.
Big thanks to our Potato Family Member Kiki for sharing this exciting news with us.
- Jun 12, 2019
Natsume has shared some insights on its next game. Harvest Moon Mad Dash is a spin off the original Harvest Moon game. While recent Harvest Moon farming games have received mixed review from fans, Harvest Moon Mad Dash promises to delight fans who enjoy co-op puzzle games much in the realm of Overcooked and other similar games.
At its core Harvest Moon Mad Dash is a color matching puzzle game, but there is a lot more to it, to make it stand out against other puzzle games. At the beginning of each round the playing field will be populated with two or more different types of crops. The player must find clever ways to combine these crops into a square. Once a player achieves this goal the flowers will blossom and become even bigger crops. Going even further to combine these bigger crops into a square, the player will be able to harvest these crops for points.
The games visuals are cute, and a farming puzzle game seems like a lot of fun! Early feedback from players who enjoyed the game at E3 have been positive. We are excited to get to try Harvest Moon Mad Dash later this year!
Harvest Moon: Mad Dash launches this fall for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, and it will retail for $29.99.
If you are curious to learn more about the split between Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons and its entire history, head over here.
- Jun 1, 2019
With new titles such as Doraemon: Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon: Mad Dash releasing soon, we here at myPotatoGames thought it was a perfect opportunity to look back at the Bokujō Monogatari series. Below you’ll find a list of a few defining games of Harvest Moon, developed by Marvelous. Moreover, the reason for why we now technically have two separate Harvest Moon franchises.
To summarize, the North American publishers responsible for the localization of the Bokujō Monogatari series change from Natsume to Marvelous’ own sister company Xseed Games in 2012. Therefore, we have Natsume continuing to create Harvest Moon branded games and Marvelous re-branding to Story of Seasons for their new line of farming simulation games. The PAL (European) distribution was handled by Rising Star Games and now Nintendo. Let us take a closer look at when this all began with the Westernization of this series.
Japan: Marvelous – Creators of Bokujō Monogatari
Harvest Moon was created in 1996 by Yasuhiro Wada and produced by Victor Interactive Software (acquired by Marvelous in 2003) and was known as Bokujō Monogatari in Japan. During this time, and until 2013, Natsume oversaw the English translation and publishing of the series, thus Harvest Moon.
The Last Harvest Moon Game -Before the Split
Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning was the last title in the Bokujō Monogatari series to be released under the “Harvest Moon” name with the developers involvement (Marvelous). The game was released on the 3DS in North America in 2012.
North America: Natsume – Publishers (2013-present)
In 2012, Marvelous discontinued licensing the series to Natsume. Natsume then began their own series of Harvest Moon games in North America and Europe beginning with the release of Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley in 2014. This is due to Natsume owning the rights to the brand and title of Harvest Moon. Therefore, the games below were not created by Marvelous but rather Tabot Inc. Light of Hope is their latest installment of their main series, released worldwide in 2017.
North America: Xseed Games (Marvelous subsidiary) – Publishers
In 2014, Marvelous Inc. announced that the latest installment in the series would be localized by their American publishing brand Xseed Games under the new series title Story of Seasons. The game Story of Seasons was subsequently released in North America in 2015 and the second game of that series, Trio of Towns, released in 2017.
We’re very excited to play as many farming games as possible and glad that this genre is on the rise. If you’re interested in Yasuhiro Wada’s work (the original creator of Harvest Moon) then you should check out his most recent game, created by his own company Toybox, Little Dragons Café. You can also check out our latest news on Rune Factory; a spin-off series developed by Neverland Co. and published by Marvelous.
- Apr 20, 2019
This article is a review of the Nintendo Switch version of Little Dragons Cafe.
Little Dragons Cafe is a game that was made by the creator of Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, and Little King’s Story. With that in mind, before the game even came out there were high expectations for it. It was released on Nintendo Switch back in August of 2018. This game has a delightful story and brings a refreshing spin on the usual game formula.
Story
Little did I know when I started to play Little Dragons Cafe that I’d become so invested in the story line and characters. A small family of a mom, brother, and sister run a cafe together. One day, mom gets sick and you find out that she’s half dragon. An old man appears and tells the brother and sister that if they run the cafe together and raise this baby dragon well, their mom will be cured. Along this journey, they meet some interesting characters which you’ll quickly find yourself wanting to hear all about. The strongest part of this game is the wonderful story it tells you with almost every brand new in-game day. Some times I would sleep through a day just to get to the next part of the story!
Different foods given to your dragon will change its color. My dragon, Vincent, is purple! Gameplay
The gameplay has three different modes in a way. One is where you’re running your cafe, another is a cooking mini-game, and then the third one is exploring and gathering ingredients. Rinse and repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
One of the interesting customer’s you’ll meet at your cafe. Running your cafe was my personal favorite part of the game. Your cafe becomes most busy during lunch and dinner where you can help out by taking orders, delivering meals, and cleaning dishes. Even though this was a very small part of the game, I enjoyed it and enjoyed the role playing aspect of this part. Running your own cafe is such a lovely thought. The only downside to this part of the game play was that it ultimately didn’t matter. If you let your employees slack and leave your customers disappointed, there was no negative effects. There was really no reason to go back to your cafe and help run it. I feel like they could’ve integrated this quite a bit more to make it have more meaning.
Picking and choosing your recipes for the menu is a nice customization option. The next part of gameplay is the cooking mini-game. In order to make any sort of recipe in-game you need to cook it by doing this. This mini-game is just a quick few seconds of following a rhythm and hitting the keys at the proper time. Nothing new but always fun to do.
Getting all “Excellent” in the cooking mini game can be quite the challenge! The third part of the gameplay is 90% of the game and I felt the most lacking and repetitive. Gathering ingredients. For this part of the game, you run around the world shaking bushes, shaking trees, fishing, slaying some animals, collecting chickens, and so forth. This got repetitive within the first couple of in-game days. However, this is the most crucial part of the game and you MUST gather ingredients. There are some features in the game to make this part easier but overall, they didn’t help fix the repetitiveness of this.
Sound & Music
There is some great music in the game that I enjoy listening to but the sounds got annoying fast. The dragon sounds absolutely adorable the first couple of times he squeaks at you. However, a lot of these noises are used so many times within the game that they go from cute to annoying. I was constantly trying to avoid my dragon so I wouldn’t hear him squeaking at me. I also ended up muting my game when I was going around exploring and whistling for my dragon to come help me.
On the other side of the noises becoming annoying after a while, the music is absolutely wonderful. It was such a pleasant experience to be sitting in-game watching a beautiful sunset while listening to the serene music play.
Enjoying the music and ambiance of the game with my pet dragon. Final Thoughts
Besides the fact that this game can get very repetitive, very fast, this game has some very promising features to it. It was a refreshing style of game with very different graphics than is commonly seen. The music is beautiful and who can say that the baby dragon isn’t crazy adorable?
Little Dragons Cafe is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, and PS4. For more games similar to this one, stay tuned to myPotatoGames! Happy Gaming!
- Apr 2, 2019
About Sunvale…
In our never ending quest to get you the scoop on the cute games we love (or are soon to love), we have discovered a new gem that we would like to share! Sunvale is described by the developer, Martin Klocker, as being in the same league as our other beloved farming favorites (Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Terraria), but with new and unique features to enrich and expand on this rising genre.
With what we were able to find from the sources available, we can tell that adorable title will be an exciting addition to the Farming SIM world. With lots of accessories for both home and character, the attractive art style truly makes the game stand out among its brethren. Also, the ability to place cosmetic items in your home without the burden of grid system is a major bonus in the eyes of this free-spirited gamer!
Looking forward!
With these cool features, and countless more to come, we will be sure to keep an eye Sunvale. It is currently in development for PC, but there is mention of other platforms in the future. For more information on Sunvale, feel free to pop over to their dev page, or check them out on Discord, Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to become a supporter of Sunvale, they also have a Patreon.
Images from Sunvale…
- Feb 15, 2019
In the latest Nintendo Direct, Nintendo and Bandai Namco announced that Japan will be getting an exciting crossover game. The game will ‘combine’ the farming simulation Story of Seasons franchise with popular kids anime franchise Doraemon. The game will be entitled Doraemon Nobita no Bokujou Monogatari, or Doraemon: Nobita’s Story of Seasons.
Playing as a young boy named Nobita (who also features in Doraemon’s orginal manga and anime), the Story of Seasons aspect of the game sees players growing crops, raising animals, and improving their farm, which is located in a town called Shizen Town. The game also features the Harvest Goddess and other regular characters from the Story of Seasons Franchise, as well as Doraemon and his friends.
The Doraemon part of the game utilizes the tools of Doraemon (who is a robotic blue cat) when growing crops. Using his tools, you can enlarge and even mutate crops.
As is typical in Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon games, Doraemon: Nobita’s Story of Seasons has regular town events that players can partake in. At these events, Doraemon can use the aforementioned tools to lend a hand.
Another feature of the game shared with the Story of Seasons franchise is the ability to make friends with gifts. By giving villagers items that they like, Nobita can improve his relationships with them.
Although there isn’t a set release date, the game is expected to release exclusively on the Nintendo Switch in Japan later this year. With Story of Seasons games selling well in Japan, and Doraemon being an extremely popular anime series there, it is expected that the crossover game will sell like hot cakes.
Whilst Doraemon is less notorious in the West, we can still hope that this adorable looking game will eventually get localized!
- Dec 11, 2018
We recently made a post informing readers that the Multiplayer update for Stardew Valley on Nintendo Switch was imminent.
We are delighted to announce that a set release date for the free patch has finally been confirmed.
The update is being released tomorrow, 12th December 2018.
Yep, you heard right. As of tomorrow, if you own Stardew Valley on Switch you’ll be able to invite 1-3 friends via Switch Online and local play. You can then decide whether you want to create a brand new farm together or use an existing save file.
About Stardew Valley:
Initially released on Steam back in 2016, Stardew Valley is a Harvest Moon-reminiscent RPG farming simulation with pixel graphics. Developed by ConcernedApe and published by Chucklefish, the game was very well received. It currently holds a 10/10 rating on Steam where it also has ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ reviews.
Game features include:
- Raising animals, growing crops and improving your farm
- Improving skills in 5 different areas (farming, mining, combat, fishing, and foraging)
- A variety of complex characters, places, enigmas, and secrets to discover
- Diversity in character customization and dating
- Over two hours of original music.
Stardew Valley has obtained a 10/10 rating on Steam, received numerous ports for a variety of platforms, and is still a chart topper on the Nintendo Switch eShop. It’s, therefore, safe to say that the game is highly regarded and popular.
The highly anticipated multiplayer update for the PC version of the game was released on 1st August 2018.
Multiplayer update features include:
- The ability to play with up to 3 others in online co-op
- A 3-day travelling festival where farmers can come and go as they please
- A mysterious new winter event that enables farmers to start a new ‘secret’ collection type
- Farmers who have made great progress will be given the opportunity to help out a townsperson
- New character events
- Changes to the Skull Cavern
- Ability to change your profession
- Ability to craft signs
- New outdoor decorations
- Introduction of the auto-grabber, an expensive item that automatically harvests milk and wool
- Introduction of garden pots. Garden pots allow you to grow any crop inside year-round
- A new crop that only grows indoors
- Fireplaces and new furniture
- Ability to put a hat on your horse
