r/harvestmoon • • Apr 06 '20

Explaining the name change to Story of Seasons; What people mean when they say Natsume Harvest Moon games.

1.9k Upvotes

Lately I've noticed there is quite a bit of confusion still about the Harvest Moon series changing their name to Story of Seasons. Especially when the Natsume Harvest Moon games are mentioned. People misunderstand and get defensive of the early games they loved not knowing those aren't the games people are talking about. I thought it would be a good idea to make a post explaining the name change, provide a list of the games that fall under the Story of Seasons series, as well as list the ones that fall under the new Harvest Moon series.

The Japanese series Bokujo Monogatari, directly translated as 'Ranch Story', was developed by Victor interactive, which later was acquired by Marvelous Entertainment, and is now called Marvelous Inc. From 1996-2013 Bokujo Monogatari was translated and distributed for english speaking audiences by Natsume under the name Harvest Moon. In 2014 Marvelous Inc. decided to have the Bokujo Monogatari series localized by their American Publishing brand Xseed Games. Natsume owned the rights to the name Harvest Moon so the english name of the series was changed to Story of Seasons.

Now for those who don't know the developers are the people who make the game. The game is their creation. The publisher is the group that handles the marketing, distribution, and in the case of foreign games translation. Natsume had nothing to do with the Harvest Moon series beyond translating it, distributing the copies, and owning the English title for the games. When Marvelous switched the localization Natsume still owned the name Harvest Moon and decided they would start developing their own games with that title.

The Bokujo Monogatari/Story of Seasons games are:

  • Harvest Moon (1996)
  • BS Bokujo Monogatari (1996 Japanese release only)
  • Harvest Moon GB (1997)
  • Harvest Moon GBC (1998)
  • Harvest Moon 64 (1999)
  • Harvest Moon 2 GBC (1999)
  • Harvest Moon: Back To Nature (1999)
  • Bokujo Monogatari Harvest Moon for Girl (2000 Japanese release only)
  • Harvest Moon 3 GBC (2000)
  • Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland (2001)
  • Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town/More Friends of Mineral Town (2003)
  • Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life (2003)
  • Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life (2004)
  • Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition (2004)
  • Harvest Moon DS/DS cute (2005)
  • Harvest Moon: Magic Melody (2005)
  • Harvest Moon Boy & Girl (2005)
  • Harvest Moon DS: Island of Happiness (2007)
  • Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility (2007)
  • Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon (2007)
  • Harvest Moon DS: Sunshine Island (2008)
  • Harvest Moon: Animal Parade (2008)
  • Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar (2008)
  • Harvest Moon Hero of Leaf Valley (2009)
  • Harvest Moon: My little shop (2009)
  • Minna De Bokujou Monogatari (2010 Japanese release only)
  • Harvest Moon: the Tale of Two Towns (2010)
  • Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning (2012)
  • Story of Seasons (2014)
  • Story of Seasons: Trio of Two Towns (2016)
  • Return to PopoloCrois: A Story of Seasons Fairy Tale (2016)
  • Doraemon: Story of Seasons (2019)
  • Story of seasons: Friends of Mineral Town (2020)
  • Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town (2021)
  • Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (2023)

Then the games in Natsume's Harvest moon series are:

  • Puzzle de Harvest Moon (2007 mobile puzzle game)
  • Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming (2009 mobile puzzle game)
  • Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley (2014)
  • Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories (2016 Mobile game)
  • Harvest Moon: Skytree Village (2016)
  • Harvest Moon: Light of Hope (2017)
  • Harvest Moon: Mad Dash (2019)
  • Harvest Moon: One World (2020)
  • Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos (2023)

The Natsume Harvest Moon series is controversial in this sub. It is considered by most to be a cheap imitation of Harvest Moon with watered down mechanics; capitalizing off of the Harvest Moon name. Light of Hope was even marketed saying it was in honor of the 20th anniversary of Harvest Moon despite it being an entirely new series. Personally I've only played Natsume's Light of Hope. If you can get past the mobile game style graphics the game play is pretty good and the characters are likable. I've heard mostly bad things about Skytree Village and Lost Valley, and haven't heard anything good about the mobile games either. Regardless of if you play the Natsume games or not I hope this post helps to clear up some of the confusion for both new and old fans.

Edit: The intentions of this post were not to convince you to play or not play any of the games. If you like the Natsume games that's great! If you're curious and want to try them that's up to you. Just like the original series each game has people that love it and people that don't like it. What's important is that you have fun!

Edit: I have added the games that have been released since I made this post in April 2020. I've also added games that are currently announced in March 2023. If I don't continue to update the list every time a new game is announced or released just remember all future Harvest Moon games are from Natsume and all Story of Seasons are the original series.


r/harvestmoon • • 11h ago

Opinion/Discussion Echoes of Teredea: I wish the dialogue was better

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34 Upvotes

There’s randomly few moments where the characters have some really great dialogue/characterization (dare I say much better than SoS GB) but then for the majority of time everyone is so soulless with dull dialogues 🥀


r/harvestmoon • • 17h ago

Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility Uhhh. Who’s Lina. Toby’s married to Renee. 🤨

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92 Upvotes

Is Toby cheating 😳


r/harvestmoon • • 2h ago

Echoes of Teradea Power Wisp Closed Eye?

2 Upvotes

Does anyone know how to solve the puzzle for the power wisps that are sealed and look like they have a closed eye covering the face? I have figured out every other style of power wisp but this one continues to elude me, and I hate leaving them behind unsolved as I progress through the map.
Also, when do we get the ability to light fire for the fire lighting puzzles/ general torches all around?
Really enjoying it so far but wish they were clearer in some of their tutorials.
I myself have completed first chapter of Bloomfield and Tidelands and am working through the Fall town now, so if anyone has any questions of their own involving early gameplay lmk if I can help!


r/harvestmoon • • 16h ago

Opinion/Discussion 8 Hour spoiler-free Teradea review Spoiler

16 Upvotes

As someone who has tried most of the HM/RF/Story games, and got bored of the them on a mechanics level because they were repetitive, Teradea is looking like my favorite Harvestmoon-Like of all time.

The social stuff is easily my least favorite part of this genre and I'm sure ppl that come for that will feel it's a little flat.

However as far as moment to moment gameplay and planning and just having entertaining things to do the whole game day, this is the best game in the genre and IMO it's not even close. Usually I'm skipping through cutscenes, getting bored with the farming routes, and fast forwarding days to make progress early. But this game I'm enjoying/finding things to do up until the deadline every night.

There are some old school designs ideas as well as some QoL things missing that fans of the genre will complain about for sure but personally this is the best Harvest Moon game I've ever played SO FAR


r/harvestmoon • • 22h ago

Opinion/Discussion Echoes of Teradea on the Switch 2 is disappointing

51 Upvotes

I picked this up today since I love farming sims and wanted to give the series a try for the first time (I've only played SOS and Stardew). Unfortunately, the performance has been pretty awful so far, with the frame pacing being the biggest issue.

It genuinely feels like I'm playing on the original Switch with how poorly it runs. I don't know if it's just a lack of polish or if the game was rushed out before it was ready, but I really hope they release a patch soon.

What's crazy to me is that games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Resident Evil 9 somehow manage to run better than this, despite being far more demanding and having way more going on visually. There's really no excuse for a game like this to struggle as much as it does.


r/harvestmoon • • 10h ago

Food recipes for Echos of Teradea

5 Upvotes

Does anyone have any food recipes they would like to share? Or does anyone have a spreadsheet? Thanks yall!


r/harvestmoon • • 1h ago

Where to go-Echoes of teradea

• Upvotes

I revived the first spirt tree with the wolf and now I'm lost. Sos. Am enjoying game.


r/harvestmoon • • 1d ago

Opinion/Discussion They're just emoting at this point 😭

148 Upvotes

The game (Echoes of Teredea) isn't bad so far, but the stupid emoting that the characters do is so annoying! Even WOA characters didn't emote this much 💀


r/harvestmoon • • 4h ago

Can someone help me with the statues in Echoes of Teredea?

1 Upvotes

I have nothing to light the lanterns, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with some of these statues. I'm very confused ;w; can anyone tell me what I need to do for different ones?


r/harvestmoon • • 17h ago

Question If you had to recommend just ONE HM or SOS game on 3DS, what would it be?

9 Upvotes

I've been looking at these games for a while, about 2 or 3 years now, and have finally decided to take the dive & play. The problem is, it seems like there's so many options & as someone who's never played before, idk where to start or which title would be the best to start with! So I ask, if you were to recommend just one game for someone to start off with or have as their first game on 3DS, which would it be? Which one do you think is the best?

And I ask for 3DS recommendations primarily because that's the console I've been playing on most, more than my Switch 2, and I like playing life sim type of games portably.


r/harvestmoon • • 9h ago

Question Echoes of Teradea Power Statue.

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2 Upvotes

Is anyone else having the problem with the power fragments in the Forest of Echoes East Area? Because everytime I try to get close to the power fragment across the lake, it disappears and the texts disappear as well. Just wondering if it is weird bug or I am doing something wrong.


r/harvestmoon • • 19h ago

Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility "Here's Luke!" Spoiler

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12 Upvotes

Context: A divine tree blocked a road but the island residents didn’t cut it down out of respect. Except that one boy who thinks he is sigma (He isn’t).


r/harvestmoon • • 11h ago

Opinion/Discussion I’m gonna need to pay someone to log into my Switch account and catch this damn Guardian for me

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2 Upvotes

I’m dead serious btw I just cannot do it


r/harvestmoon • • 8h ago

Lantern help - echos of T

0 Upvotes

I got my lantern, filled it up with oil, but I can't pull it out to light things. Any thoughts?


r/harvestmoon • • 18h ago

[SPOILERS] Happilia not capping? Echoes of Teradea

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5 Upvotes

I’ve had the happilia cap once for Bloomfield but now it’s filled up again and every night it just shows it overflowing and isn’t capping. I don’t understand where to go in the story next for it to cap again?


r/harvestmoon • • 19h ago

How to unlock, buy, or find new outfits in Harvest Moon Echoes of Teradea?

5 Upvotes

Hello All,

This if my first Harvest Moon game and i am really enjoying it so far. I would however like to know how to get new outfits. I made it into the Snowy mountains (Quarrytop) but i am still in my standard ranching gear and wondered if anyone knows how to unlock new a fresh looks for my dude :) Thx


r/harvestmoon • • 1d ago

Harvest Moon: Animal Parade I miss some of the realistic/bleak moments of the old games.

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511 Upvotes

Catching a cold, animals passing of old age, themes of death and loss. I could be wrong but I think the last time they included any of that in SoS was in SoS1 for 3ds.


r/harvestmoon • • 11h ago

Harvest Moon - Back to Nature PS1 > HD PACK !!!

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2 Upvotes

Hello buddies , its my pleasure to share my work about this incredible game i had lots of good memory in my childhood, so if you want to wake some memories, use this HD pack on your computer and DuckStation ❤️

It's not fully complete I know but i put a lot of time for it and rebuilt about thousand of images, maybe in the future, finish it up. enjoy !

> Instillation:

✅ How to activate HD pack:

- In DuckStation emulator, go to the "Tools" menu, select the first tab ("Open data directory"), and copy the contents of the zip file into the "textures" folder.

- Then, go to Settings > Graphics, navigate to the "Texture Replacement" section, check the "Enable Texture Replacement" box, and launch the game.

Download Link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QEhMwvHRdDpohEtdpi37Yndr2CrtidAE/view


r/harvestmoon • • 1d ago

Made this little comparison clip between Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons A Wonderful Life

107 Upvotes

I had only played the original on PS2, and recently got the remake. Also picked up a couple of other story of harvest moon/story of seasons games as well recently!

As a “newbie” I’m aware people really don’t like the newer style of graphics- and I was prepared to not like the remake since I love playing the original.

However, the improved mechanics that make everything so much faster have been pretty enjoyable. I’m able to play for an hour and get a lot done, whereas the original took forever to get around and load menus, ect.

Still love the warm aesthetic and unique stylization of the original a little more, but gameplay wise the remake is honestly much better.


r/harvestmoon • • 18h ago

How to complete the jumping quest

3 Upvotes

I have gone to the animal center but there is nothing there to jump 😢 any help would be amazing. Also how to get the iron in the cold is there a trick I’m trying to get my bag bigger


r/harvestmoon • • 1d ago

Question I got my harvest moon: echoes of teradea a day earlier than release day

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20 Upvotes

I bought it from best buy and I was suprise it came earlier than expected. Anyone who already play this, any tips i should know before I start playing this? What the fastest to get more money? I always have problem with money. Any tips is well appreciated.


r/harvestmoon • • 1d ago

Potato Stew from Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility and Animal Parade! This recipe is pretty tasty and perfect for a warm and comforting autumn meal!

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44 Upvotes

r/harvestmoon • • 18h ago

Question Echoes of Teradea: How do you rotate your crops to accommodate the soil?

2 Upvotes

This is my first post split Harvest Moon. I’m curious how I should be rotating my crops? Do I just rest a field and grow in a different one between plantings? Do I switch to a different crop each time?

So far I’m enjoying my time with it. Figured it was about time to give one of them a real try. Thank you for the help.


r/harvestmoon • • 1d ago

So frustrating!!

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19 Upvotes

Paid for express shipping even and i still haven’t even gotten the game 🙄 was really looking forward to playing it. The game and the plush haven’t even shipped yet.