XSEED to publish latest Harvest Moon as Story of Seasons

I don’t always cover news news here at Chic Pixel, but this announcement is one that really caught my eye: XSEED Games has acquired the rights to the latest Harvest Moon title and will be releasing it under the title of… Story of Seasons? From what I understand, Harvest Moon is Natsume’s bread and butter, so this was quite the surprise announcement indeed!

story of seasons logo

This may be sad news for Natsume and fans of the “Harvest Moon” name, but when you factor in the fact that XSEED Games is a subsidiary of Story of Seasons developer Marvelous AQL, it all begins to make sense. What I’m wondering is, will Story of Seasons act as series’ new title going forward? According to XSEED’s official announcement, Story of Seasons is described as a “new IP,” so I guess the answer to that question would be yes. It will be interesting to see how the brand develops, but given XSEED’s history of providing high-quality localizations for various Rune Factory titles, I’m sure they will do a superb job with Story of Seasons.

story of seasons title art
As for the game itself, I must admit that I’m sorely out of the loop when it comes to Story of Seasons (Japanese name Bokujo Monogatari: Tsunagaru Shintenchi). I still have a copy of Harvest Moon: A New Beginning that I’ve barely touched, though I always thoroughly enjoy the Harvest Moon games. A whole slew of new animals will be in the game, as well as wildlife safari, and you can keep dogs, cats, and horses as pets. Plus, there is a whole new range of suitors for your male or female avatar to woo and eventually wed, though unfortunately there is still no same-sex marriage option. Since XSEED was able to convince developer of Akiba’s Trip to add a male fanservice option to their game, perhaps same-sex marriage in future Story of Seasons titles isn’t completely out of the question? 
story of seasons english screenshot
My castle indeed! 

Other new features include some beefed up StreetPass and online connectivity options – you can now visit your friend’s farms and trade items and receive player data via StreetPass. Nintendo even put their own special touch on the game, with decorative items such as the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower and Super Star appearing in the series for the first time.

While I have to admit that this announcement makes me a little uneasy for Natsume considering Harvest Moon was probably their best-known franchise, I’m happy to hear that the series is in XSEED’s capable hands. It may be difficult, however, to promote the game to less internet-savvy potential customers who might grab a game with the name “Harvest Moon” on it on the shelf but aren’t aware that Story of Seasons is the same series. In fact, XSEED only used the Japanese title, Bokujo Monogatari, in their initial announcement, and I’m just not sure how many people outside diehard fans will connect the dots!

I’m sure XSEED Games will have their work cut out for them promoting the game at E3, as they have confirmed Story of Seasons will be at their booth. If someone in attendance wanted to pick up some swag for me, I sure wouldn’t complain…!

About Anne

Also known as apricotsushi. Anne can be written with the kanji for apricot (杏), and sushi was the most quintessentially Japanese thing I could think of when I was 13, resulting in my goofy, albeit memorable, nickname.

11 thoughts on “XSEED to publish latest Harvest Moon as Story of Seasons”

  1. Not a fan but the little I played I like.
    It’s a series that actually needs some time.

  3. This is such a weird story. I mean, Natsume isn’t interested in localizing it — or maybe they simply can’t localize it? — so they let someone else do the job … but then they don’t let them use the Harvest Moon name? I really hope this works out for XSEED — and Natsume, too — but I’m not so sure that’s going to be the case 🙁

  4. I think this mostly has something to do with the fact that Marvelous AQL recently restructured XSEED to Marvelous USA? http://www.destructoid.com/xseed-now-marvelous-usa-acquires-atlus-online-253218.phtml though it doesn’t quite make sense to me as I thought XSEED was always a subsidiary of Marvelous, just not Marvelous USA previously. It’s so strange!

    You would think they could at least strike up a deal to get the Harvest Moon name from Natsume if they’re taking over, but I can’t imagine Natsume would be happy that XSEED is now doing their main franchise, so maybe there’s some bad feelings there. Who knows! I’m not pretending to have any idea how all this business stuff works, haha. It will certainly be interesting to see how this develops

  5. XSEED may not be able to use the Harvest Moon title, however the name of XSEED itself should be fairly widely recognized. If they have a booth at E3 as well, then I’m sure they’ll advertise the game just fine. Personally, I’m kind of happy for the drop of the HM title. The games have gone downhill very fast as of late, and there are a lot of HM titles that just feel like poorly written/translated/developed games in general.

    Without the HM title, this game has a chance to start something fresh, with a pleasant nostalgic sensation of a standard HM title. Perhaps this will be a good thing and less of an off-putting thing. Regardless of title, though, the game looks absolutely fantastic. LOADS better than A New Beginning. That game could have been so much more, but it just… wasn’t. I think this game has it in the bag. 🙂

  7. *that same sex marriage will be an option
    //I didn’t word this correctly > – <

  8. That’s ok! I hope so too, but I seem to remember the developers saying they weren’t going to do it…

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