I still think it's just really scummy for Natsume to keep calling the series "Harvest Moon". I know they're within their legal right do so since they own the name but, come on, you know what they're doing by continuing to use that name. They want to trick people who grew up playing Harvest Moon into thinking this is the same Harvest Moon and even though more people are becoming aware of it I still see plenty of people get tricked/confused by the whole thing. It would just feel a lot less scummy if they continued making farm games but went by a different name.
I think that is why Marvelous have been doing the remake of all of their "Harvest Moon games" to make sure fans know and understand they are not the copy cats, and I think they will try to remake all fans favorites "Harvest moon games" to rebrand them with their rightful new name Story of seasons and more fans understand that they are the original creators, and Natsume just took the name Harvest Moon and that is it.
It looks interesting, but also a little wonky. Like you said mobile-game-e... Also I don't get why every game these days needs to be open world, but let's see what we get. Thank you for this fast video output❤️
I'm right there with you. I'll definitely give it a shot, but I do feel like they are just checking off boxes on what has made a lot of games successful in that last 5 years. Hopefully I'm surprised with the quality in September lol
Me too. Hope is the perfect word since I know Natsume's track record has been poor since the split with Marvelous. I want it to be good, but I'll keep my wits about me lol
To me it definitely gave me Arceus vibes while watching the trailer. I have too many other farm games to play with Rune Factory and others dropping one after the other.
@@JackDuckGoose I agree, if they could somehow get back to their roots and then the two companies try to one up each other in design, we definitely might get better quality games. It would be nice, and we can definitely hope!
I have a feeling they took A LOT from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. The kiddy aspect of Scarlet and Violet is there with the bright colors and friendly people all around, plus the pictures you can take with the thumbnail poses. The Breath of the Wild aspect is there where you have wild animals to see and different minigames and cutscenes with people depending where in the world you are. Both games have the biome mechanic where you go into different biomes with different temperatures, but just like Scarlet and Violet this game looks very barren. As a person who's a stickler for animation (and is studying it), I really don't like the animation of this all too much. It reminds me a lot of Harvest Moon: Light of Hope (I think that's the name of it), which I didn't like too well. I might look at official gameplay before I decide to get it, but as of right now it hasn't convinced me. I just think Harvest Moon is trying to hop on the "open world" bandwagon that a lot of games are doing nowadays thanks to Breath of the Wild which kinda sucks. Not blaming Breath of the Wild, but due to this game being rated as one of the best games of all time, people were bound to copy the mechanic that made it popular to make themselves popular.
I'm with you 100%. I feel like a lot of developers see Open World nowadays as just a box to tick if you want to sell a game to a massive audience. What made BoTW great was a high degree of player agency, not an open world. I'm sure there are a lot of developers who choose to ignore that and just slap a "Open World" moniker when developing and are surprised when their game sucks even with that label.
I am cautiously curious on where this will go, but there are some negatives I've noticed that you've already pointed out: Firstly, the overworld looks barren, and seems to be going for the open-world, no loading screens kind of deal like with Scarlet and Violet and Breath of the Wild. However with those games, you at least have SOMETHING exciting to do while travelling between towns (for the pokemon games, battle trainers, do raid battles, etc; while in BOTW you fight monsters, find loot, do wacky speedrun stuff if you wanted to), so the player doesn't get bored very quickly. Think of it as the spikes of excitement that occur between rests of relaxation while the player is travelling in the wild. With this there's... barely anything besides a few fruit trees and some wild animals. You'll most likely be able to ride your horse through the wild, sure, but that's not enough. Unless Natsume pulls out a surprise combat mechanic (which won't happen as cool as that sounds), this won't excite players much when travelling. Secondly, the animations as you've pointed out are subpar to say the least. The characters and animals feel stiff, and automatic like a robot. This may not be a dealbreaker for most people, but it is a warning sign when people notice your animations aren't smooth and full of life. While on the topic I might as well talk about the character models, they look fine sure but a part of me feels like their faces look... samey? The bodies look generally the same but that I can let slide 'cause past Harvest Moon games like Magical Melody have this too but the facial expressions look all the same, only spotting a few tweaks here and there. idk, maybe it's just me. At least they did put out some sort of gameplay trailer because up to this point we had like no gameplay featured at all which was kind of worrying, so they probably put this together considering the game is two months away from release. Anyway, that's it for my little rant on what I think about all of this. if you made it to the end of this, I applaud you because I tend to write VERY long when I'm ranting about something.
I totally agree with you on how they all look way too similar. I do wanna point out though that Magical Melody was from like 15 years ago and it was done in that one-off chibi art style where they tend to have super similar bodies. With this, IDK but it’s 2023, I don’t think the same limitations apply and I’m kind of disappointed that they all look like copy/paste people. I noticed it with the sprites especially. They’re the same faces but with different color palettes.
You bring up some very good point that I feel are important when dissecting a trailer. They can make the editing quick and snappy, showing a lot of good stuff, but it crumbles when you put it under a microscope. Of course, even this is a curated reel of objectively decent stuff. Hopefully the meat and potatoes of the game isn't terrible lol
This entry looks pretty interesting, I'm holding on to having a solid opinion on it until I see some footage and feedback of it actually being played but cautiously optimistic feels right so far. There's a lot that looks pretty unrefined, like those animations, but those can be tweaked before release, but even if they aren't, a fun game is going to be a fun game despite a little jank here and there, and that's what I sincerely hope we get. However anyone feels about Natsume, I'm sure the actual developers want to put out a fun product, you know
I agree! I'm more than aware of how the community feels towards Natsume, and they definitely deserve the tongue lashings they receive when they put out soulless titles using the Harvest Moon moniker, but I still want to play fun farming games lol
This actually looks…good? I’m looking forward to this. Of course I’ll have to make a better judgement once we see some more gameplay, but the horseback riding and the landscapes look good! The animals look super cute.
You can't and you shouldn't. For all we know, this is the 1% of the game that looks good that stands atop a mountain of dog water. Don't pre-order the game and wait until an independent review comes out
I gotta say: this is the best looking Harvest Moon game in a LONG time. It's nice to see Natsume working harder to release a better product. It doesn't look like they are quite there yet, but I like how the characters look much more now. Here's hoping it's fun! When I was growing up, there wasn't enough Harvest Moon. If Natsume finally gets a good game out, it would be nice to have more good-quality farming games to play! Story of Seasons is incredible, but man... I am a greedy gamer. Haha!
Your comment really makes me think about the end goal for Natsume and, to a lesser extent, Game Freak. Take establish IP like Harvest Moon and Pokemon and do whatever. The quality doesn't matter because they know it'll sell. Hardware limitations, quality control, etc. are inconsequential because the end goal is profit-based and they know they're covered by their die-hard audience.
This game kinda gives off Pokémon vibes.. the worlds seem kinda similarly built, vast but somehow empty. Do have to say that the exploring seems to be interesting, it'd be a cool concept to find new animals and places. Plus moving towns would be sick actually Though I am not really getting my hopes up for this game, it's Natsume after all.
I mean it seems a bit plain compared with the older games which sucks but that might just be me, I am still fairly new to the Harvest Moon games as I only played a little of the DS one when I was young
This is a great opportunity to educate, so I apologize if this is unwarranted. What you and I know as "Harvest Moon" is called "Bokujō Monogatari" in Japan. This is the title that the original developers Victor Interactive Software, which were acquired by Marvelous Inc. in 2003, built all of their titles off of. Victor Interactive Software entered into an agreements with Natsume in 1997 to publish and translate Bokujō Monogatari for western audinces. Natsume chose to trademark the series as Harvest Moon in the west, whilst Bokujō Monogatari is still what it is called in Japan. In 2012, Marvelous Inc. acquired XSeed Games, a video localization and publishing company and ended their partnership with Natsume, preferring to keep all of their localization and publishing operations in-house. Unfortunately for them, Natsume owns the trademark to "Harvest Moon," so Marvelous had to change the name of every Bokujō Monogatari title they wanted to publish outside of Japan, and they settled on "Story of Seasons." Ever since that split in 2012, there have been confusions as to what the "real" Harvest Moon series is since Natsume has opted to utilize Harvest Moon as a brand, licensing the name out to a video game developer known as Appci Corporation. Every Harvest Moon game since "Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley" has been developed by Appci, *not* Marvelous, the original developer of Harvest Moon. So there's the history on Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons. If you want to play games that are more remincant of your experience on DS, you really have to go back and look at 2012. Any game Harvest Moon game published before "Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley" is fair game, but after that, you really have to start looking at Story of Seasons titles since they were the original developers behind all the Harvest Moon games up until that point.
I’m glad I subbed back a while ago, great review I liked your observations and opinion, and I saw a few screenshots a while back and the game was looking good but like with the horse racing, just bad, idk we’ll see what happens
Thanks so much for subscribing and watching my stuff! I'm definitely going to put this on the back burner since I've been hurt by Natsume too many times lol
I don't have any problems with the art direction for the most part. Some of the crops look a bit iffy, but everything else looks great, as far as I'm concerned. And I'd much rather have fairly empty wilderness landscapes with few loading zones as opposed to landscapes filled with useless garbage like grass and bushes accompanied by tons of loading zones.
The only thing nice I have to say is at least there horse doesn’t look derpy. Like clearly it looks better then there previous games but you can’t fool me twice.
Every time I see a new "Harvest Moon" from Natsume, I feel like it's more of a upgraded version of the last game. Which isn't that bad but it makes me realize how cheap some of the previous games really are. This looks pretty good thou so let's see.
The main problem of japanese open world game except soul series.. is how empty the lands are... I mean their concept is interesting but.... They need to up their game... It is sad if this game just gonna become cash grab title for "harvest moon" title... How low natsume gonna throw the title gonna be.
For me, Open world has become such a buzz word in the industry. Developers see how successful titles like BoTW, Skyrim, and the Souls games are and contribute it to the fact that it's open world, when they should really emphasize the importance of player agency. A game could have 0 loading screens, and I wouldn't care if I still have to follow a sequence of goals to actually explore the world.
@@shpla not as worse as other jrpg with open world map... I meant empty here it lack landscape like no point of interest, lack of attention to detail or completely nothing... It just "dessert" with different colors.. i understand if the said land is grassland or actual dessert... They made the open world just for the sake only roaming around empty map editor.
It actually looks really nice, a bit mobile game vibes, but overall reall cute. Need to wait and see what it performs like on Switch/PC to make a judgment there because can be a LARGE difference due to hardware. Two things that I would need to know is the multiple City thing, one central hub city with all the NPCs and all is quite important in a game like this i feel, but if there are 3 or more cities i can see it be problematic to make them feel lived in. Tale of two Towns and Trio of Towns both had that issue, but Trio of towns moreso. And the last point is bachelors/bachelorettes, we all know it might be a dealbreaker for some ppl if we dont know what they look like.
That's an interesting perspective. For me, I could care less about the marriage options as long as the game is engaging. I'm hoping that they aren't showing just the 1% of the game that isn't terrible lol
@@JackDuckGoose Oh thats understandable, dont it to be a PoOT situation, where what we are shown is ALL the game has to offer either. I just hope it will be good
The more proper question is "Is Natsume Harvest Moon Finally Good?" I won't know if the actual Harvest Moon Series is good again until I see what new game comes after Pioneers of Olive Town.
Fair enough lol. My tendency is to reference Natsume = Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons = Marvelous even though we both know that Story of Seasons is the more authentic identity of the franchise even though Natsume owns the IP
i definitely dont hate it its not as cash grabby as the other games ultimately turned out to be, natsume are definitely trying to come out with something good but its not there at all! they are trying these popular concepts such as open world, moving house concepts! i feel its only a few years or months before natsume kick the bucket ultimately
I genuinely hope that it's a good game. I know a lot of creators who grew up playing Harvest Moon like to have a kick at Natsume for utilizing their legal rights and "stealing" the Harvest Moon IP, but I just like good farming games and would love to play and make videos on a Harvest Moon game made post split lol
I don't know if you know about the Natsume/Marvelous split, but if you're looking to player a Harvest Moon game published in the last decade, the team behind older games like Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, Friends of Mineral Town, and Magical Melody now use the title Story of Seasons
@@AnimeGirl4891 There's murmurs that it's next up to get a remake, but the only thing Marvelous has shown for sure is that they're working on new IP for Story of Seasons
I'm surprised as well. I thought they would have tried to put it out at the sametime as AWL remake to capitalize on confused players like they always do lol
the thing that annoys me the most about these natsume harvest moon games is that they're ALWAYS released near the story of seasons games without fail. if they saw the IP as anything other than a cash grab they wouldn't be released within weeks of each other
THE STYLE HAS ALWAYS BOTHERED ME AND I FIGURED OUT WHY, AT 2:14 AND 2:24 , YOU KNOW WHAT OTHER NOT GREAT GAME CAME OUT THAT LOOKS IDENTICAL TO THESE TWO CLIPS? POKEMON SCARLET AND VIOLET. HER HAIR STYLE AND THE EXACT SAME CAMERA MODE POSE HAHAHA
Compared to the other harvest moon games it looks promising but it looks plain and empty. I'll definitely watch someone else play it for a few hours but Im overall not convinced to get it myself yet
And that's a completely fair point. Natsume hasn't done anything to even get close to winning back my trust, but I'm all for a step in the right direction. I'm hoping I can get a review copy and provide an objective perspective into the game because I am genuinely interested to see if they're trying to be deceptive again
@@JackDuckGoose I think that's the best way to go about it, I really hope you do get a review copy! I love the harvest moon series, but I just feel like they don't actually understand what made it what it was, it's like they've looked at the surface level elements and assumed they can replicate the whole thing. It ends up obvious that they don't know what the heart of it was. I am always willing to give things a chance and try not to judge based on first impressions, adversely I don't want to get hyped and expect too much but in this case.. it's a bit worrying. When you said about the horse animation, I noticed that the first time round when you were doing the intro to watching it and man it really stuck with me. I get that it's not finished yet but.. it's close and it's still like that.
@@shortbreadhead I'm with you. Natsume is like a bad ex. You want to trust them cause, at one point, you did in the past, but it's been 10 years and they've changed lmao
It feels so empty, it might’ve benefit from smaller world, but It feels too safe, new animals are cool, but other than that it feels soulless, but I think I’ll stick with story of seasons.
I appreciate that the male presenting farmer isn't just a skinny little twink like they always make them in every other farming sim. like, he's a FARMER. At least give me the option to beef him up a bit.
Honestly, I really don't like the house moving aspects of the recent games. But I also prefer my farming games to be more realistic, I don't even like the fighting things in the mines that all recent games seem to love so much, so it could be just me.
I feel you. It's a tough balance to get right. Developers want to provide enough content that the game isn't bland, but don't want to provide too much so the player isn't overwhelmed. Most companies tend to err on the more content side recently lol
I'm so over open world games...this does look better than anything they have put out since doing their own thing, but I still have a bitter taste in my mouth over how they handled losing the localization rights of SoS. Still...I do want to judge it on it's own merits. It will not be a pre-order and I will be looking for honest reviews.
I'm sorry, but you can't really compare New Harvest Moon to the old Harvest Moon since they aren't the same. Cause new Harvest Moon is now Story of Season. But Natsume does seem like they are starting to step up their skill. Before anyone Natsume made the old one, they didn't they just localized them until Marousves go with XSeed for Localized.
Look im not going to shame them for this new release but in my OPINION it still looks like a mobile game and from the looks of it the game is taking some elements from one world sure the you can move your farm idea is good but it ruins the whole seasons matters aspect unless they make it so there is at least 2 crops per season and per biome and PLS FOR THE LOVE OF THE HARVEST GODDESS DONT RE ADD THE WHOLE WALKING TAKES STAMINA because lets be honest sure irl you get tired if you walk a lot but this game is supposed to be a fantasy game not a irl simulator. Hopefully this isn't another cash grab like mad dash and light of hope(this one improved a little thanks to dlc) and LOST VALLEY. Still this will be very interesting to watch and hey if it preforms well i might consider buying it physically.
I never played the Harvest Moon games post split with Marvelous, so I'm not sure about any of the mechanics lol. The fact that walking takes stamina will never be popular with me. The fact that you can move your damn house, but walking takes up stamina is ridiculous. I'm just hoping that it isn't bad lol
I took a look at the trailer before and honestly? It looks a million times more impressive than whatever crap they have on Steam. Light of Hope doesn't seem *too* terrible but I can't get over how much it looks like a mobile game, it feels cheap. One World looks a lot better and has more interesting character designs, but apparently it's broken beyond belief, and players say that it is an antithesis of game design. It is really freaking sad how they've managed to completely squander the IP despite getting to keep the OG name. I think Anthos has potential but it'll probably be best to just wait for the reviews to roll in. I really don't understand the idea behind these lazy games, if they actually tried they'd make bank from all of us who can't get enough of simulators.
This is my personal opinion, so take that as it is, but I see Natsume and GameFreak in the same light as of recent. They have an IP that they know is going to sell regardless of quality, so they have no impetus to actually improve. When your end goal is profit, and that's guaranteed because of your massive audience, why try to innovate? They're going to utilize new consoles and leverage new tech to tick the boxes that the industry is trending towards, i.e. Open World, Increased Player agency, etc. without every actually doing something great. They've reached the wall of mediocrity and aren't even attempting to climb it.
For the first time since Natsume pulled it's extremely disgusting hijacking and subsequent bastardization of the IP, it seems they have finally made something worth trying. I hate that they got away with that but if the game is good, then the game is good. I will give it a shot but if it doesn't satisfy me I will never buy another Harvest Moon game again (of course I naturally get EVERY Story of Seasons and Rune Factory game anyway, so I'm good)
Ain't gonna lie, the mobile game look ruins it for me entirely. also this looks more like the new pokemon games than HM lol i think i'll stick with story of seasons xD
idk if kinda reminds me of the last one they released where you move your farm around. I've always preordered harvest moon games hoping that they'd finally be good again. But I think im gonna skip this one. Im just tired of wasting money on this.
The only game I've preordered in the last decade was the AWL remake, and that was blinded by nostalgia. I always recommend waiting until some third party reviewers come out before even considering buying a game lol
I will probably buy this. The girl character looks adorable. I don't mind a little bit of jank, I play Skyrim so it's not a huge deal. Now if it's complete ass jank, then I will probably either get it on sale or skip. Also Pokemon Arceus may have been flat, they can certainly improve that for the next game, but the gameplay was solid af and so much fun. It's my favorite Pokemon spinoff.
I'm really hoping that it's good. I know Harvest Moon will never be the same game that it was when Marvelous was developing, but it would be nice to say that Harvest Moon isn't a crappy franchise lol
It looks okay, the animals are cute but the animation on the people's were lacks of life, robotic and looks all the same. Tbh, even its looks good. I still can't trust Natsume as long as they still using the name to cashgrab and trick the fans.
Yeah, I feel you. Selling substandard Harvest Moon games and still using the moniker is shady. I'm hoping this a step in the direction of redemption though. I would still like to see Harvest Moon not be a trash franchise lol
That's understandable. For me, art direction is super hard to get over, but I often find I care less and less about it as I get more time in the game lol
@@JackDuckGoose Not gonna lie, I could see myself getting into modding this game if the core gameplay is good. I'm seeing pet training contests, more than one horse??? It's ambitious for Natsume and the biggest glaring thing is definitely the environment. I'm getting my hopes up
It’s giving…… zero creative or distinguishable character models. Give me CHARACTER!!!!!! Give me SUBSTANCE!!!!! It’s cheap and repetitive body designs are a big disappointment.
I still think it's just really scummy for Natsume to keep calling the series "Harvest Moon". I know they're within their legal right do so since they own the name but, come on, you know what they're doing by continuing to use that name. They want to trick people who grew up playing Harvest Moon into thinking this is the same Harvest Moon and even though more people are becoming aware of it I still see plenty of people get tricked/confused by the whole thing. It would just feel a lot less scummy if they continued making farm games but went by a different name.
What's even scummier, is that they say it's Harvest Moon's 20th anniversary, when it's really not.
Thats why i dont gonna buy it.
This! That and their track record of their “harvest moon” games have been very very bad,I don’t trust them like at all lol
I think that is why Marvelous have been doing the remake of all of their "Harvest Moon games" to make sure fans know and understand they are not the copy cats, and I think they will try to remake all fans favorites "Harvest moon games" to rebrand them with their rightful new name Story of seasons and more fans understand that they are the original creators, and Natsume just took the name Harvest Moon and that is it.
Top comment right here bro
It looks and feels like it was developed for the switch and they were like "pull out the ps5, lets show them what this bad boy can do"
Oh for sure. Im cautiously optimistic lol
It actually doesn't look too bad. I am VERY wary because it is Natsume after all. I'm gonna wait a month or two after it comes out.
That's probably a good idea. I'm definitely not going to pre-order it lol
Might just be me, but I'd take more loading screens and more interesting landscapes over less loading screens and less flora and fauna.
But its open world? Isn't that what makes video games great lol
This game is on PS5 as well. Im pretry sure there will be more "flora and fauna" on higher end consoles compared to switch
@@JackDuckGoose yfw Natsume goes Full Ubisoft
It looks interesting, but also a little wonky.
Like you said mobile-game-e...
Also I don't get why every game these days needs to be open world, but let's see what we get.
Thank you for this fast video output❤️
I'm right there with you. I'll definitely give it a shot, but I do feel like they are just checking off boxes on what has made a lot of games successful in that last 5 years. Hopefully I'm surprised with the quality in September lol
I hope it's decent. The animals looked cute, and the black bear and camels were interesting.
Me too. Hope is the perfect word since I know Natsume's track record has been poor since the split with Marvelous. I want it to be good, but I'll keep my wits about me lol
To me it definitely gave me Arceus vibes while watching the trailer. I have too many other farm games to play with Rune Factory and others dropping one after the other.
Fae farm!!!!!
That's true. We definitely aren't hurting for content, but I'm hoping this is a step in the right direction for Natsume's Harvest Moon.
@@JackDuckGoose I agree, if they could somehow get back to their roots and then the two companies try to one up each other in design, we definitely might get better quality games. It would be nice, and we can definitely hope!
I have a feeling they took A LOT from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.
The kiddy aspect of Scarlet and Violet is there with the bright colors and friendly people all around, plus the pictures you can take with the thumbnail poses. The Breath of the Wild aspect is there where you have wild animals to see and different minigames and cutscenes with people depending where in the world you are.
Both games have the biome mechanic where you go into different biomes with different temperatures, but just like Scarlet and Violet this game looks very barren.
As a person who's a stickler for animation (and is studying it), I really don't like the animation of this all too much. It reminds me a lot of Harvest Moon: Light of Hope (I think that's the name of it), which I didn't like too well.
I might look at official gameplay before I decide to get it, but as of right now it hasn't convinced me. I just think Harvest Moon is trying to hop on the "open world" bandwagon that a lot of games are doing nowadays thanks to Breath of the Wild which kinda sucks. Not blaming Breath of the Wild, but due to this game being rated as one of the best games of all time, people were bound to copy the mechanic that made it popular to make themselves popular.
I'm with you 100%. I feel like a lot of developers see Open World nowadays as just a box to tick if you want to sell a game to a massive audience. What made BoTW great was a high degree of player agency, not an open world. I'm sure there are a lot of developers who choose to ignore that and just slap a "Open World" moniker when developing and are surprised when their game sucks even with that label.
I am cautiously curious on where this will go, but there are some negatives I've noticed that you've already pointed out:
Firstly, the overworld looks barren, and seems to be going for the open-world, no loading screens kind of deal like with Scarlet and Violet and Breath of the Wild. However with those games, you at least have SOMETHING exciting to do while travelling between towns (for the pokemon games, battle trainers, do raid battles, etc; while in BOTW you fight monsters, find loot, do wacky speedrun stuff if you wanted to), so the player doesn't get bored very quickly. Think of it as the spikes of excitement that occur between rests of relaxation while the player is travelling in the wild. With this there's... barely anything besides a few fruit trees and some wild animals. You'll most likely be able to ride your horse through the wild, sure, but that's not enough. Unless Natsume pulls out a surprise combat mechanic (which won't happen as cool as that sounds), this won't excite players much when travelling.
Secondly, the animations as you've pointed out are subpar to say the least. The characters and animals feel stiff, and automatic like a robot. This may not be a dealbreaker for most people, but it is a warning sign when people notice your animations aren't smooth and full of life. While on the topic I might as well talk about the character models, they look fine sure but a part of me feels like their faces look... samey? The bodies look generally the same but that I can let slide 'cause past Harvest Moon games like Magical Melody have this too but the facial expressions look all the same, only spotting a few tweaks here and there. idk, maybe it's just me.
At least they did put out some sort of gameplay trailer because up to this point we had like no gameplay featured at all which was kind of worrying, so they probably put this together considering the game is two months away from release.
Anyway, that's it for my little rant on what I think about all of this. if you made it to the end of this, I applaud you because I tend to write VERY long when I'm ranting about something.
I totally agree with you on how they all look way too similar. I do wanna point out though that Magical Melody was from like 15 years ago and it was done in that one-off chibi art style where they tend to have super similar bodies. With this, IDK but it’s 2023, I don’t think the same limitations apply and I’m kind of disappointed that they all look like copy/paste people. I noticed it with the sprites especially. They’re the same faces but with different color palettes.
You bring up some very good point that I feel are important when dissecting a trailer. They can make the editing quick and snappy, showing a lot of good stuff, but it crumbles when you put it under a microscope. Of course, even this is a curated reel of objectively decent stuff. Hopefully the meat and potatoes of the game isn't terrible lol
could have put more texture on the map!
For sure. I'm hoping that there is a bit of variety with the biomes, but it's looking a little sparse lol
This entry looks pretty interesting, I'm holding on to having a solid opinion on it until I see some footage and feedback of it actually being played but cautiously optimistic feels right so far. There's a lot that looks pretty unrefined, like those animations, but those can be tweaked before release, but even if they aren't, a fun game is going to be a fun game despite a little jank here and there, and that's what I sincerely hope we get. However anyone feels about Natsume, I'm sure the actual developers want to put out a fun product, you know
I agree! I'm more than aware of how the community feels towards Natsume, and they definitely deserve the tongue lashings they receive when they put out soulless titles using the Harvest Moon moniker, but I still want to play fun farming games lol
This actually looks…good? I’m looking forward to this. Of course I’ll have to make a better judgement once we see some more gameplay, but the horseback riding and the landscapes look good! The animals look super cute.
I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm hoping that this isn't a curated trailer of the decent bits hiding a really bad game lol
@@JackDuckGoose same! I hope it’s as good as it looks.
I’m not sure…if I can trust them yet
Same
You can't and you shouldn't. For all we know, this is the 1% of the game that looks good that stands atop a mountain of dog water. Don't pre-order the game and wait until an independent review comes out
I gotta say: this is the best looking Harvest Moon game in a LONG time. It's nice to see Natsume working harder to release a better product. It doesn't look like they are quite there yet, but I like how the characters look much more now. Here's hoping it's fun!
When I was growing up, there wasn't enough Harvest Moon. If Natsume finally gets a good game out, it would be nice to have more good-quality farming games to play! Story of Seasons is incredible, but man... I am a greedy gamer. Haha!
Lol I agree. I'm all for a step in the right direction from Natsume, and this seems to be that so far
Ehh It looks alright I guess ?? I might get this second hand or when it’s on sale if the reviews are decent
That's smart. The community has been burned far too many times to trust Natsume straight out of the gate
I honestly think being on the Switch is holding these games back. Made modern games for the modern consoles and make a handheld one for the Switch
Your comment really makes me think about the end goal for Natsume and, to a lesser extent, Game Freak. Take establish IP like Harvest Moon and Pokemon and do whatever. The quality doesn't matter because they know it'll sell. Hardware limitations, quality control, etc. are inconsequential because the end goal is profit-based and they know they're covered by their die-hard audience.
I will be playing this I love harvest moon games looks good to me
It is very good lol
This game kinda gives off Pokémon vibes.. the worlds seem kinda similarly built, vast but somehow empty. Do have to say that the exploring seems to be interesting, it'd be a cool concept to find new animals and places. Plus moving towns would be sick actually
Though I am not really getting my hopes up for this game, it's Natsume after all.
Yeah I agree! Natsume really needs to work for it to earn my trust back
I will be getting this looks good to me
Hopefully I can get a review copy and make something before you guys pull the trigger lol
I mean it seems a bit plain compared with the older games which sucks but that might just be me, I am still fairly new to the Harvest Moon games as I only played a little of the DS one when I was young
This is a great opportunity to educate, so I apologize if this is unwarranted. What you and I know as "Harvest Moon" is called "Bokujō Monogatari" in Japan. This is the title that the original developers Victor Interactive Software, which were acquired by Marvelous Inc. in 2003, built all of their titles off of. Victor Interactive Software entered into an agreements with Natsume in 1997 to publish and translate Bokujō Monogatari for western audinces. Natsume chose to trademark the series as Harvest Moon in the west, whilst Bokujō Monogatari is still what it is called in Japan. In 2012, Marvelous Inc. acquired XSeed Games, a video localization and publishing company and ended their partnership with Natsume, preferring to keep all of their localization and publishing operations in-house. Unfortunately for them, Natsume owns the trademark to "Harvest Moon," so Marvelous had to change the name of every Bokujō Monogatari title they wanted to publish outside of Japan, and they settled on "Story of Seasons." Ever since that split in 2012, there have been confusions as to what the "real" Harvest Moon series is since Natsume has opted to utilize Harvest Moon as a brand, licensing the name out to a video game developer known as Appci Corporation. Every Harvest Moon game since "Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley" has been developed by Appci, *not* Marvelous, the original developer of Harvest Moon.
So there's the history on Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons. If you want to play games that are more remincant of your experience on DS, you really have to go back and look at 2012. Any game Harvest Moon game published before "Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley" is fair game, but after that, you really have to start looking at Story of Seasons titles since they were the original developers behind all the Harvest Moon games up until that point.
I’m glad I subbed back a while ago, great review I liked your observations and opinion, and I saw a few screenshots a while back and the game was looking good but like with the horse racing, just bad, idk we’ll see what happens
Thanks so much for subscribing and watching my stuff! I'm definitely going to put this on the back burner since I've been hurt by Natsume too many times lol
@@JackDuckGoose right?? I’ll be waiting for you to finish Magical Melody, my fav HM hehe
It looks good I can't wait to play also you will be able to have a child on this game
Thats good to know lol
EXTREMELY ambivalent to see a one world sequel, but it looks like they maybe might have improved on it?
Fingers crossed this isn't just smoke and mirrors
I don't have any problems with the art direction for the most part. Some of the crops look a bit iffy, but everything else looks great, as far as I'm concerned.
And I'd much rather have fairly empty wilderness landscapes with few loading zones as opposed to landscapes filled with useless garbage like grass and bushes accompanied by tons of loading zones.
I agree! I'm keeping my wits about me, but I think its a step in the right direction lol
The only thing nice I have to say is at least there horse doesn’t look derpy. Like clearly it looks better then there previous games but you can’t fool me twice.
Keep your wits about you, soldier. I refuse to be bamboozled lol
Every time I see a new "Harvest Moon" from Natsume, I feel like it's more of a upgraded version of the last game. Which isn't that bad but it makes me realize how cheap some of the previous games really are. This looks pretty good thou so let's see.
I'm right with you. Cautiously optimistic lol
The main problem of japanese open world game except soul series.. is how empty the lands are... I mean their concept is interesting but.... They need to up their game... It is sad if this game just gonna become cash grab title for "harvest moon" title... How low natsume gonna throw the title gonna be.
are you really gonna say that the open world segments of elden ring arent super empty
Its not even a japanese game. The games usually dont even sold there
For me, Open world has become such a buzz word in the industry. Developers see how successful titles like BoTW, Skyrim, and the Souls games are and contribute it to the fact that it's open world, when they should really emphasize the importance of player agency. A game could have 0 loading screens, and I wouldn't care if I still have to follow a sequence of goals to actually explore the world.
@@shpla not as worse as other jrpg with open world map... I meant empty here it lack landscape like no point of interest, lack of attention to detail or completely nothing... It just "dessert" with different colors.. i understand if the said land is grassland or actual dessert... They made the open world just for the sake only roaming around empty map editor.
It actually looks really nice, a bit mobile game vibes, but overall reall cute. Need to wait and see what it performs like on Switch/PC to make a judgment there because can be a LARGE difference due to hardware.
Two things that I would need to know is the multiple City thing, one central hub city with all the NPCs and all is quite important in a game like this i feel, but if there are 3 or more cities i can see it be problematic to make them feel lived in.
Tale of two Towns and Trio of Towns both had that issue, but Trio of towns moreso.
And the last point is bachelors/bachelorettes, we all know it might be a dealbreaker for some ppl if we dont know what they look like.
That's an interesting perspective. For me, I could care less about the marriage options as long as the game is engaging. I'm hoping that they aren't showing just the 1% of the game that isn't terrible lol
@@JackDuckGoose Oh thats understandable, dont it to be a PoOT situation, where what we are shown is ALL the game has to offer either. I just hope it will be good
The more proper question is "Is Natsume Harvest Moon Finally Good?"
I won't know if the actual Harvest Moon Series is good again until I see what new game comes after Pioneers of Olive Town.
Fair enough lol. My tendency is to reference Natsume = Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons = Marvelous even though we both know that Story of Seasons is the more authentic identity of the franchise even though Natsume owns the IP
i definitely dont hate it its not as cash grabby as the other games ultimately turned out to be, natsume are definitely trying to come out with something good but its not there at all! they are trying these popular concepts such as open world, moving house concepts! i feel its only a few years or months before natsume kick the bucket ultimately
I genuinely hope that it's a good game. I know a lot of creators who grew up playing Harvest Moon like to have a kick at Natsume for utilizing their legal rights and "stealing" the Harvest Moon IP, but I just like good farming games and would love to play and make videos on a Harvest Moon game made post split lol
I really hope this game does well. I haven’t played a Harvest Moon game in forever
I don't know if you know about the Natsume/Marvelous split, but if you're looking to player a Harvest Moon game published in the last decade, the team behind older games like Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, Friends of Mineral Town, and Magical Melody now use the title Story of Seasons
@@JackDuckGoose Actually, I'm already playing Story of Seasons A Wonderful Life. Wait. Is Magical Melody getting a Story of Seasons update/remake?
@@AnimeGirl4891 There's murmurs that it's next up to get a remake, but the only thing Marvelous has shown for sure is that they're working on new IP for Story of Seasons
Ok. Not much, but it’s at least something
They messed up putting it out in sept. Fae farm and rf5 remake are coming in sept.
I'm surprised as well. I thought they would have tried to put it out at the sametime as AWL remake to capitalize on confused players like they always do lol
@@JackDuckGoose lol yeah, I'm 100% sure it just wasn't ready or they would have.
the thing that annoys me the most about these natsume harvest moon games is that they're ALWAYS released near the story of seasons games without fail. if they saw the IP as anything other than a cash grab they wouldn't be released within weeks of each other
Yeah, it is scummy business practice. They know what they're doing and are shameless about it.
I like relaxing games like harvest moon game this one
Hopefully it's good lol
THE STYLE HAS ALWAYS BOTHERED ME AND I FIGURED OUT WHY, AT 2:14 AND 2:24 , YOU KNOW WHAT OTHER NOT GREAT GAME CAME OUT THAT LOOKS IDENTICAL TO THESE TWO CLIPS? POKEMON SCARLET AND VIOLET. HER HAIR STYLE AND THE EXACT SAME CAMERA MODE POSE HAHAHA
I'M LOSING MY MIND, JUST KEPT WATCHING AND SCARLET VIOLET WAS IMMEDIATELY MENTIONED AFTER
Maybe GameFreak helped them out lol
Looks not bad guess I might try it to see about the game
I'll definitely be waiting on some independent reviews lol
I miss pretty 2D non-chibi sprites. Even Story of Seasons doesn't do them anymore.
Yeah, the classic HM:DS Sprites and FoMT portraits are definitely ingrained in me lol
I do love the shapes of the farm animals and the use of horse and dog races c:
The variation is great! I'm just hoping that they aren't hiding a horrendous game underneath this trailer lol
@@JackDuckGoose dude me too! So very worried after the shit show that was One World. Fingers crossed!
It's not blowing me away but I've got plenty of games on my plate rn
True, the will have to compete with a lot of good games coming out, i.e. Pikmin 4 lol
Compared to the other harvest moon games it looks promising but it looks plain and empty. I'll definitely watch someone else play it for a few hours but Im overall not convinced to get it myself yet
For sure. I'm hoping I can get an advanced copy to give people a trustworthy source of a first review
Nah I dunno, it looks pretty soulless to me. I just don't get the feeling I do from the older harvest moons like they genuinely still do
And that's a completely fair point. Natsume hasn't done anything to even get close to winning back my trust, but I'm all for a step in the right direction. I'm hoping I can get a review copy and provide an objective perspective into the game because I am genuinely interested to see if they're trying to be deceptive again
@@JackDuckGoose I think that's the best way to go about it, I really hope you do get a review copy! I love the harvest moon series, but I just feel like they don't actually understand what made it what it was, it's like they've looked at the surface level elements and assumed they can replicate the whole thing. It ends up obvious that they don't know what the heart of it was. I am always willing to give things a chance and try not to judge based on first impressions, adversely I don't want to get hyped and expect too much but in this case.. it's a bit worrying.
When you said about the horse animation, I noticed that the first time round when you were doing the intro to watching it and man it really stuck with me. I get that it's not finished yet but.. it's close and it's still like that.
@@shortbreadhead I'm with you. Natsume is like a bad ex. You want to trust them cause, at one point, you did in the past, but it's been 10 years and they've changed lmao
They more more better than before for character design .. but the town still feel weird idk hope will be good
Same here! Just holding out hope lol
It feels so empty, it might’ve benefit from smaller world, but It feels too safe, new animals are cool, but other than that it feels soulless, but I think I’ll stick with story of seasons.
I'll give it a shot, but my expectations are bottom of the barrel lol
Looks super nice.
I'm definitely excited to give it a try lol
I appreciate that the male presenting farmer isn't just a skinny little twink like they always make them in every other farming sim. like, he's a FARMER. At least give me the option to beef him up a bit.
A body shape slider would be a pretty nice edition for character customization
This looks better than one world did
I agree 100%
My scary expectations: they made this like the DS... Making the world too wide but the time too fast!!
It's got like 5 or so biomes. But I believe u have to move ur house between each biome to go there.
Heres hoping its a decent game lol
seems HM is taking a page out of SOS with not genderlocking the candidates either, but I'm still wary cause the last few Harvest Moons....yeah
Yeahhhhh, they can't be trusted lol
Honestly, I really don't like the house moving aspects of the recent games. But I also prefer my farming games to be more realistic, I don't even like the fighting things in the mines that all recent games seem to love so much, so it could be just me.
I feel you. It's a tough balance to get right. Developers want to provide enough content that the game isn't bland, but don't want to provide too much so the player isn't overwhelmed. Most companies tend to err on the more content side recently lol
I'm so over open world games...this does look better than anything they have put out since doing their own thing, but I still have a bitter taste in my mouth over how they handled losing the localization rights of SoS.
Still...I do want to judge it on it's own merits. It will not be a pre-order and I will be looking for honest reviews.
I agree with you. Natsume can't be trusted and patience is our friend in this scenario
I'm sorry, but you can't really compare New Harvest Moon to the old Harvest Moon since they aren't the same. Cause new Harvest Moon is now Story of Season. But Natsume does seem like they are starting to step up their skill. Before anyone Natsume made the old one, they didn't they just localized them until Marousves go with XSeed for Localized.
Yes indeed! I'm hoping this is a step in the right direction for Natsume
Look im not going to shame them for this new release but in my OPINION it still looks like a mobile game and from the looks of it the game is taking some elements from one world sure the you can move your farm idea is good but it ruins the whole seasons matters aspect unless they make it so there is at least 2 crops per season and per biome and PLS FOR THE LOVE OF THE HARVEST GODDESS DONT RE ADD THE WHOLE WALKING TAKES STAMINA because lets be honest sure irl you get tired if you walk a lot but this game is supposed to be a fantasy game not a irl simulator. Hopefully this isn't another cash grab like mad dash and light of hope(this one improved a little thanks to dlc) and LOST VALLEY. Still this will be very interesting to watch and hey if it preforms well i might consider buying it physically.
I never played the Harvest Moon games post split with Marvelous, so I'm not sure about any of the mechanics lol. The fact that walking takes stamina will never be popular with me. The fact that you can move your damn house, but walking takes up stamina is ridiculous. I'm just hoping that it isn't bad lol
Think it looks good Ben watting for evervfor a new harvest game to come out new game comming out soon fae farm check it out as well
I'll look into Fae Farm! It looks pretty decent so I might give it a try lol
I took a look at the trailer before and honestly? It looks a million times more impressive than whatever crap they have on Steam. Light of Hope doesn't seem *too* terrible but I can't get over how much it looks like a mobile game, it feels cheap. One World looks a lot better and has more interesting character designs, but apparently it's broken beyond belief, and players say that it is an antithesis of game design. It is really freaking sad how they've managed to completely squander the IP despite getting to keep the OG name. I think Anthos has potential but it'll probably be best to just wait for the reviews to roll in. I really don't understand the idea behind these lazy games, if they actually tried they'd make bank from all of us who can't get enough of simulators.
This is my personal opinion, so take that as it is, but I see Natsume and GameFreak in the same light as of recent. They have an IP that they know is going to sell regardless of quality, so they have no impetus to actually improve. When your end goal is profit, and that's guaranteed because of your massive audience, why try to innovate? They're going to utilize new consoles and leverage new tech to tick the boxes that the industry is trending towards, i.e. Open World, Increased Player agency, etc. without every actually doing something great. They've reached the wall of mediocrity and aren't even attempting to climb it.
For the first time since Natsume pulled it's extremely disgusting hijacking and subsequent bastardization of the IP, it seems they have finally made something worth trying. I hate that they got away with that but if the game is good, then the game is good. I will give it a shot but if it doesn't satisfy me I will never buy another Harvest Moon game again (of course I naturally get EVERY Story of Seasons and Rune Factory game anyway, so I'm good)
That's more than fair. I'm just looking for good games, so if this one is good, I'll play it. If it sucks, I wont lol
Ain't gonna lie, the mobile game look ruins it for me entirely. also this looks more like the new pokemon games than HM lol i think i'll stick with story of seasons xD
I feel you! It is very Pokemon-y lol
idk if kinda reminds me of the last one they released where you move your farm around. I've always preordered harvest moon games hoping that they'd finally be good again. But I think im gonna skip this one. Im just tired of wasting money on this.
The only game I've preordered in the last decade was the AWL remake, and that was blinded by nostalgia. I always recommend waiting until some third party reviewers come out before even considering buying a game lol
I will probably buy this. The girl character looks adorable. I don't mind a little bit of jank, I play Skyrim so it's not a huge deal. Now if it's complete ass jank, then I will probably either get it on sale or skip. Also Pokemon Arceus may have been flat, they can certainly improve that for the next game, but the gameplay was solid af and so much fun. It's my favorite Pokemon spinoff.
I'm really hoping that it's good. I know Harvest Moon will never be the same game that it was when Marvelous was developing, but it would be nice to say that Harvest Moon isn't a crappy franchise lol
It looks okay, the animals are cute but the animation on the people's were lacks of life, robotic and looks all the same.
Tbh, even its looks good. I still can't trust Natsume as long as they still using the name to cashgrab and trick the fans.
Yeah, I feel you. Selling substandard Harvest Moon games and still using the moniker is shady. I'm hoping this a step in the direction of redemption though. I would still like to see Harvest Moon not be a trash franchise lol
In story of seasons the new one they force you to get married in one year wich I don't like this game you can relax and play at your own pace
Understandable, I know a lot of people prefer to just play a farming game without a narrative lol
This game looks really good and maybe better than the recent harvest game
In my opinion, it definitely looks better! I'm cautiously optimistic that it won't be bad lol
I don't know if I'll get this game. I just can't get past the graphics. It does look like too much of a mobile game for me. :/
That's understandable. For me, art direction is super hard to get over, but I often find I care less and less about it as I get more time in the game lol
I like the visuals more than Pioneers of Olive Town, even though it looks kind of barren. The character models are much more enjoyable.
I've never played PoOT so I can't critique the visuals of either game too confidently, but I don't mind the models I've seen in this trailer lol
@@JackDuckGoose Not gonna lie, I could see myself getting into modding this game if the core gameplay is good. I'm seeing pet training contests, more than one horse??? It's ambitious for Natsume and the biggest glaring thing is definitely the environment. I'm getting my hopes up
natsume said over twitter the gays can marry in this one let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
That's a step in the right direction, lets hope they continue that
It kinda looks like a Game Freak game.
Definitely, maybe they had some help lol
It’s giving…… zero creative or distinguishable character models. Give me CHARACTER!!!!!! Give me SUBSTANCE!!!!! It’s cheap and repetitive body designs are a big disappointment.
I was never too fussed about character design, but I can definitely see how this is disappointing lol
It’s from sword and shield everything looks really bad and barren.😊
Thanks! I haven't played a Pokemon game seriously since Black and White lol