Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories Announced (Wii U, PC, iOS, and Android)

I was so fucking excited to read about this, this is literally the title I have been waiting on for the WiiU. This is by FAR and LONG my favorite game series of all time. The only game series I have collected, and own EVERY SINGLE TITLE complete in box for (US/JP), having played all of them.

And then I get to the bottom of the fucking article and these mother fuckers are cross developing this for iOS and Android. Like I needed another fucking reason to absolutely despise mobile gaming.

This is dead in the water and has practically killed a dream for me. They managed to fuck this up with the greed and disgusting mess that is mobile. I can't foresee this game being even remotely good if 2 of its platforms are iOS and Android. It has completely destroyed the potential this game had to be amazing on the WiiU.

Fuck.

So much irrational in this post.
 
I think Marvelous should come up with a new title for their series (unless they call them all Story of Seasons...) or just keep the Japanese title Bokujou Monogatari (they could even translate it literally into Farm Story or something). Either that or see if they can't buy the name back.

It'll be the Story of Seasons series, with the first one lacking a subtitle. Farm Story is already copyright by another company if I remember correctly.

Marvelous didn't own the name to begin with, so it isn't possible for them to "buy the name back" as you're assuming. They clearly weren't interested it (which came out of the blue and surprised Natsume, according to an interview w/ the company president a few months ago), so it is understandable that they chose to start the series fresh with a new name with their own localization subsidiary.

I just find it funny that there's still butt-hurt over the split off :D It's just business. Players will buy whatever they want to buy, regardless of something as simple as a video game's name.
 
So much irrational in this post.

Really? Because the general recurrent design in mobile games is lots of F2P bullshit and controls conforming to touch-screen compatibility which is not at all what will make a good Harvest Moon game.

It's pretty clear where this is going to go having iOS and Android listed as platforms: to absolute shit. Natsume has already shown they are willing to completely fuck the series when they released Lost Valley. Going in for a quick mobile cash-grab now while raking in some extra cash from the already junk-ridden WiiU eShop.

I will patiently wait for Story of Seasons to come to the WiiU instead.
 
Really? Because the general recurrent design in mobile games is lots of F2P bullshit and controls conforming to touch-screen compatibility which is not at all what will make a good Harvest Moon game.

It's pretty clear where this is going to go having iOS and Android listed as platforms: to absolute shit. Natsume has already shown they are willing to completely fuck the series when they released Lost Valley. Going in for a quick mobile cash-grab now while raking in some extra cash from the already junk-ridden WiiU eShop.

I will patiently wait for Story of Seasons to come to the WiiU instead.

Because you're making assumptions purely based on the platform when there's plenty of games that have seen mobile versions that are faithful to the experience or just completely different games with the same name. Hell, we just learned shitting on mobile is something that we've learned doesn't go down too well. Harvest Moon as a series is probably one of few genres alongside visual novels that could port to mobile with little to no compromises too.

Of course there's the argument as to whether this should really be considered a Harvest Moon game anyway. And if you wanted to look at the developer's history in past titles in the series (aka Lost Valley) or mobile games and use that as precedent that would be fair. But saying "oh man a mobile version everything is fucked" seems pretty silly to me. The developer/publisher alone is more reason to lack confidence in the title.
 
Lost Valley was not perfect by any means but it did a lot of things right and added new elements to the formula that a lot of people appreciate and I don't doubt that it could become something genuinely fun if the devs make sure to listen to feedback and reintroduce all the elements they excluded from the first game for whatever reason (time, budget, etc).

Moreover, I don't get why people are so eager to shit on Natsume for releasing their own games--if you don't like them, fine; if you think they're being deceitful, well, I disagree but whatever--but I'd love for there to be two competing farm series that are both worth my time and I don't think reflexively trashing everything Natsume does will help matters at all.
 
Because you're making assumptions purely based on the platform when there's plenty of games that have seen mobile versions that are faithful to the experience or just completely different games with the same name. Hell, we just learned shitting on mobile is something that we've learned doesn't go down too well. Harvest Moon as a series is probably one of few genres alongside visual novels that could port to mobile with little to no compromises too.

Of course there's the argument as to whether this should really be considered a Harvest Moon game anyway. And if you wanted to look at the developer's history in past titles in the series (aka Lost Valley) or mobile games and use that as precedent that would be fair. But saying "oh man a mobile version everything is fucked" seems pretty silly to me. The developer/publisher alone is more reason to lack confidence in the title.

Yah, I realize my initial reaction was emotional, but this is truly my favorite series (in name, I realize the IP has moved to SoS) of all times. Unfortunately, there are heavy negative connotations to be had when multiplatform for a game includes mobile. Pairing that with Natsume's terrible "track record" so far with Lost Valley really makes this seem like not great news. I highly doubt the "core" HM fanbase is mostly interested in playing this on mobile. Releasing it on iOS and Android, to me, heavily hints that they are trying to cater to the lowest common denominator of people who would enjoy the series (think FarmVille), and makes me highly skeptical.

That said, Natsume's twitter is heavily suggesting keeping an eye on E3 for more info, so it's obvious more information is coming soon. At that time we'll know for sure what the game is going to be, and believe me, I want nothing more than for it to truly be a return to traditional HM game play, as their release suggests.
 
It's not so much amateurish as it is old. They're been reusing the same Harvest Moon logo since the first game.



Has Marvelous released a Wii U game?

Nope, but they have plenty of Wii games (AP, ToT, RF:F, RF: ToD, etc), so it's not unthinkable they'll bring a SoS installment to he WiiU.

That said, who knows. NX might be just around the corner, whatever it is.
 
Competition is a good thing. Both Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon will only improve because of it in the long-run, IMO. Let them duke it out.

Looking forward to finally playing a cutesy Japanese farming simulator on Steam, a long-underserved niche on that platform. Hopefully it's actually good, though. Cautiously optimistic.
 
Competition is a good thing. Both Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon will only improve because of it in the long-run, IMO. Let them duke it out.

Looking forward to finally playing a cutesy Japanese farming simulator on Steam, a long-underserved niche on that platform. Hopefully it's actually good, though. Cautiously optimistic.

Lost Valley is mostly bad due to what's missing, not what's there. If they're able to reintroduce and expand on the elements that they excluded from the first game they'll be fine, I think.
 
It's not so much amateurish as it is old. They're been reusing the same Harvest Moon logo since the first game.



Has Marvelous released a Wii U game?

Using a 20 year old low resolution picture with a subtitle pasted n is not amateur? Their website is extremely outdated, too.
Natsume International must be run by 3 people or something. They really should hire a graphic designer. Or get help from their japanese sister company.
 
All of this is just intensifying my craving for a good Rune Factory sequel.
Dammit, Neverland. :(

Seriously though, if the game is of good enough quality I might be tempted regardless of the naming shenanigans. Never played a HM game on my PC, it would be a good test...
 
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMGGGGGGG!!!!!

Super hype!

And it's also on Android! Odd choice of platforms but ugh, I get to finally play a real game on my phone. Shit, even my iPad!

I'm squealing like a little girl. I can't wait! I have no clue why Harvest Moon does this to me when I have finished none of the games in the series that I own but I love this game. I'm super hype.
 
Full-quality logo:

June2_HMSeedsOfMemoriesLogo.jpg
 
A lot of computers nowadays have touchscreens. Computers have supported touch input for decades.

Doesn't mean you'll see a lot of games being ported that support it. Even a lot of the mobile ports just opt for mouse controls. There's a touch friendly tag on Steam that has roughly 100 games on it and a lot of them are like "only a certain part of this works." And it's certainly not the input method it'll be aimed at.
 
What a strange set of platforms. I'm guessing designed for iOS/Android first, and played via mouse on PC and Gamepad touch controls on WiiU? Which doesn't explain why there isn't a 3DS version.

Looking at the platforms, it's very likely made using Unity 3D, which makes it far easier/faster to publish on the Wii U than games done with the standard SDK.
 

Matches PC Gamer's Description.

Seeds of Memories is 2D, and Fitch says they want to go back to the classic 16-bit style of the older Harvest Moon games. But Seeds of Memories does not look classic, or 16-bit. It uses ugly, low-res 3D models with muddy textures flattened into 2D objects. Remember the ruined sprites of Final Fantasy VI on mobile? Cross that with a garish 3D render look and bland art direction, and you’ve got a game that looks more clipart than Super Nintendo pixel art. Harvest Moon has never been an especially pretty series, but I'd say most of its games had a stronger sense of style and identity than this.

I asked several times just to make sure, and Fitch said that this is the art style for the final game, and it’ll look the same on PC as it does on mobile. To Natsume’s credit, they are planning to add features to Seeds of Memories for the PC and Wii U releases over mobile, to go along with higher prices on those platforms. He said the developers are still discussing what those features will be.
 
I like that they're taking a lot of inspiration from the SNES game but those graphics look waay too cheap.
 
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