Natsume Announces Two New Harvest Moon Titles

January 21, 2005, 11:21 pm EST
Total comments: 17

That's one sequel for GameCube and one for GBA, both allowing you to be a female farmer.

Natsume Inc. announces two Harvest Moon titles for 2005!

Burlingame, CALIFORNIA – January 24, 2004 – Natsume® Inc., a worldwide publisher specializing in unique video games, announced today the addition of two new Harvest Moon® titles to the popular franchise, Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life for the Nintendo GameCube™ and Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance™. Both titles are expected to ship June of 2005.

“The first Harvest Moon was introduced in 1997 on the Super Nintendo and since then the franchise has grown in popularity and fan base”, stated Hiro Maekawa, President & CEO of Natsume Inc. ”We are extremely happy to offer these two new titles to our dedicated and loyal fans”.

Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life returns you to the familiar setting of Forget-Me-Not Valley...this time through you play a lifetime on the farm as a female! Cultivate friendships and raise a family among crops and livestock. Make important choices as you marry, start a family, grow produce and guide your child through life’s most challenging chapters.

Just as with Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life, Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town lets you play as a female character. It is up to you to successfully rejuvenate the farm and build a life for yourself with family and friends. The best part is…you can do it anyway you want!

The Nintendo Game Cube™ and Game Boy Advance™ versions will link up to connect the 2 towns featured in the games, it will also enable villagers to travel between the towns triggering new events and many surprises.

Talkback

Ian SaneJanuary 21, 2005

I remember when Harvest Moon was an extremely obscure SNES game with a cult following and how exciting it was to hear that a 3D sequel was being released on the N64. Now there's so many Harvest Moon games that I'm just tired of the whole thing. They aren't even really building on the formula anymore either. It's like the new games just exist and nothing really new is added. It's ironic that a truly innovative game like Harvest Moon could launch such a milked series (Heh. Accidental pun).

Gotta love the names of those sequels though. It's like they take pride in their rehashing.

KDR_11kJanuary 21, 2005

A Wondeful Life already bored me to death, the GB games had the perfect mix between arcadism and realism, AWL moved too close to realism and made it obvious that farm work is work and not fun.

matt ozJanuary 21, 2005

It would've been fun if the girl thing was in the original game, instead of releasing a whole new game almost a year later. There are actually some people who have completed the game 3 times with each of the different wives. I don't think 2 additional 100 hour games constitute replay value, though.

I only made it to Chapter 5 in AWL. I played it every day when I first got it. 2 game days for every real day was all I could handle. I don't think I've played it in months now.

3rdrocketJanuary 22, 2005

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
I remember when Harvest Moon was an extremely obscure SNES game with a cult following and how exciting it was to hear that a 3D sequel was being released on the N64. Now there's so many Harvest Moon games that I'm just tired of the whole thing. They aren't even really building on the formula anymore either. It's like the new games just exist and nothing really new is added. It's ironic that a truly innovative game like Harvest Moon could launch such a milked series (Heh. Accidental pun).

Gotta love the names of those sequels though. It's like they take pride in their rehashing.

Well it's not like they are really trying to resell the game. It is just a fun little alternative for girl gamers. It's not like they havent done this before.

Bartman3010January 22, 2005

In a way, I think some of the things like men/women relationships would be drastically different. I guess we'll have to see.

Of course, yeah, it should've been in the original. However I've never owned a Harvest Moon game until yesterday, when I picked up the GBA version. Especially if they plan to re-release these games at full price, thats just shooting yourself in the foot.

Ms.PikminJanuary 22, 2005

Too little, too late. I was under the impression that this was going to be released close to when A Wonderful Life was released as an alternative for those who wanted to play as a girl. Nice that they wait until A Wonderful Life has dropped down to $20 and then release this. @ssholes.

MaleficentOgreJanuary 22, 2005

I'm going to buy them all. I love all the harvest moon games. I'm especially excited for the DS version. The more harvest moon the better.

KDR_11kJanuary 22, 2005

... that was sarcasm, right?

ArtimusJanuary 22, 2005

They're releasing a new one in Japan and they give us this!? Why not just wait for the new one which, I believe, already has the girl/guy choice...

dmanjdbJanuary 22, 2005

Quote
Originally posted by: Artimus
They're releasing a new one in Japan and they give us this!? Why not just wait for the new one which, I believe, already has the girl/guy choice...

Yeah I want that last one it look better than AWL and it look like it has a lot a gameplay options. Also the DS version looks good.

So bring those better.

I have a feeling that Natsume will bring those in 2006 or never (at least the GC version)

MarioJanuary 22, 2005

Namco? Harvest moon featuring Rink?

MaleficentOgreJanuary 22, 2005

no sarcasm. harvest moon rocks my world. I'll be adding all the new editions to my library of games.

RABicleJanuary 23, 2005

Apparently there are some other minor changes to Another Wonderful Life other than the girl thing but essentially it's the same game and Natsume are only proving their own lack of imagination and weak attempts at extra sales with this. I love Harvest Moon, I liked the cahnges in AWL but their endless rereleasing (Friends of Mineral is basically just Back to nature with different visuals anyway...) and miniscule changes is flat out weak.