Story of Seasons (series)

Naming

Natsume published this series under the name Harvest Moon until 2014. At that time, Natsume maintained the rights to the Harvest Moon series name after Marvelous announced that it would have its subsidiary, XSEED Games, take over North American distribution. Because of this, XSEED began bringing the series to North America under the Story of Seasons title, beginning with the release of the game of the same name.

In September 2015, Nintendo of Europe confirmed that they would be publishing the game in Europe under the Story of Seasons name. Previous games released under the series title Harvest Moon were localized in Europe by Rising Star Games.

Meanwhile, Natsume has taken the opportunity to develop their own series of Harvest Moon in North America and Europe beginning with the release of Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley. The resulting spin-off series has caused some degree of confusion among fans and video game news sources.

Gameplay

The player's character has primarily been male, but some games offer the option to play as a female character. The most common story line of the series involves the player taking over a farm that no longer has an owner tending to it, growing crops, raising livestock, making friends with the town's people and creating a family while running a successful farm. Each game provides objects to collect or goals to complete, whether it is befriending villagers, collecting musical notes, finding sprites, making rainbows, or ringing bells.

Money is obtained by growing crops, raising livestock, fishing, mining, and foraging. With a limited time and limited energy, the player has to find a balance between the two in order to accomplish their work for the day.

Growing crops

Crops are the primary source of income in Story of Seasons. In order for crops to grow the player must first clear the field from weeds, rocks, boulders, branches, and stumps. Then with a clear field, they must take their hoe and till the soil. Next, choose the seeds that you wish to grow and sow them where the soil is tilled. The player must continue to water the crop daily, but it isn't required on a rainy day, and as time goes on the crop will be ready for harvesting. The player must find optimal planting, watering and harvesting patterns. They also must consider the cost, sell price, number of harvests and growth time of the various produce available before planting. Each season has different crops available for planting, though in most games nothing may be planted in winter, and in Harvest Moon crops could not be planted in fall. In some games, a greenhouse or basement can be used during the winter to grow crops.

Turnips, potatoes, tomatoes and corn are staple crops of the series, introduced in the first game. Since then, other games have introduced new crops, such as cabbage, carrots, onions, strawberries, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, rice, pineapples, cucumbers and more. Grass may also be grown and harvested as animal fodder.

Ranching livestock

The secondary source of income in the games is purchasing, caring for, and raising your own livestock. Livestock may produce products which may be sold on a daily basis. Giving animals attention will increase their affection towards the player and may increase the quality of their products. Neglecting the animals' needs may lead to sickness and even death.

The first Harvest Moon only had cows and chickens, which were housed in a barn and chicken coop and fed the same fodder. Milk and eggs could both be sold, as well as the animals themselves. Later titles introduced sheep and a separate feed for chickens, as well as machines that could change milk into cheese, eggs into mayonnaise, and wool into yarn. The more recent games allow the player to also raise ducks, goats, alpacas and differently-colored cows. In Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility silkworms and ostriches were introduced to the series, and the new game also enabled players to befriend wild animals and persuade them to live on their farm.

Animals are also able to reproduce. Eggs can be placed in an incubator to hatch a chick in a few days, while giving a cow or sheep a Miracle Potion, the equivalent of artificial insemination, will impregnate them. Buying and breeding multiple horses was introduced in Harvest Moon 3 GBC for Game Boy Color and continued in Harvest Moon: Magical Melody, Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility and Harvest Moon: Animal Parade

Pets and other animals

In many Story of Seasons games, the player is given the opportunity to receive a dog and horse as a pet. A large variety of animals can be kept as pets in the newer titles, from pigs and cats to pandas and turtles. In some games, the pets attend competitions (e.g. horse races and dog races) to win prizes. In Harvest Moon: Back to Nature the player can raise fish.

Pest animals are also found in older Story of Seasons games (for example, Friends of Mineral Town) including wild dogs, and gophers. Wild dogs visit the farm at night and harass any livestock not kept in a barn or fenced area. Gophers in some older titles would consume crops.

Gathering materials

Many Story of Seasons games require the player to gather materials for home improvement, tool improvement, cooking, or selling. The most common building resource in Story of Seasons is wood; other resources can include stone and golden lumber. The player can gather wood by chopping tree stumps and branches, and use wood to add buildings or fencing to their farm. Mines are present in many games, and minerals gathered can be used for upgrading tools and crafting gifts. In many games wild plants, such as herbs and flowers, may also be gathered.

Festivals

Most games in the series feature annual festivals which the player can attend. Some festivals are contests with prizes available, while others are social events, some being equivalent to actual holidays, such as Thanksgiving, New Year's Day, and Christmas Eve. Livestock festivals also take place, where the player can submit their animals to compete against other farms. Animals that win these contests often receive benefits; for example, a cow that wins might gain the ability to produce gold milk.

Getting married

Most Story of Seasons games offer the ability to marry. Gift giving and interacting with the love interest may increase the love interest's affection, and if their affection is high enough marriage may be proposed with a Blue Feather. Most love interests have rivals, who will marry them if the player does not. Only one Story of Seasons game, the Japanese version of Harvest Moon DS Cute, has allowed players to marry someone of the same sex (termed the "Best Friends" system). The feature was removed from the North American version over concern its inclusion would have raised the game's ESRB rating.

Children

In many versions, it is possible to have children. Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon 3, Harvest Moon: Animal Parade, Rune Factory 3, and Story of Seasons are the only versions where the player can have multiple children. However, in Story of Seasons, unlike the other games, pregnancy is only experienced once, as the player character winds up having twins. Harvest Moon: Animal Parade is the first game in the series that allows the player to have two children of either gender, and Rune Factory 3 allows the player to have three children of either gender. Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life, Harvest Moon DS and Harvest Moon DS Cute are the only games in the series where the player can experience a child's growth from toddler to full-grown adult. Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility expands on this by letting the player restart the game as their child after the completion of an end game event. Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland, Harvest Moon GB, Harvest Moon 2 GBC and Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon are the only Story of Seasons titles in which the player cannot marry. Rune Factory 2 is the only Story of Seasons where the player can personify two characters, the father and his son or daughter.

Reception

In September 2011, Rising Star Games confirmed that they have sold more than 1 million units of the Harvest Moon series across PAL territories. In Japan as of April 2011, the DS titles of the series alone have sold a total of more than 948,000 units, while the PSP titles haven't been as successful, selling only 81,498 copies. The Tale of Two Towns reached No. 4 in the Japan Software and Hardware Weekly Chart, shipping 63,610 copies in its first week on sale. In March 2014, Story of Seasons was the top selling game in Japan, at 131,000 units sold, and in July 2015, XSeed announced that it had become their fastest-selling game ever, with over 100,000 units sold in North America.

Social network games

In recent years, Harvest Moon has inspired a large number of social network games based around farming, most notably Happy Farm (2008) and FarmVille (2009). Happy Farm is considered one of the most influential games of the 2000s, while in early 2010 FarmVille had a peak audience of 84 million monthly active users. In 2009 Marvelous Entertainment released a version of Harvest Moon, called Let's All Harvest Moon (みんなで牧場物語, Minna de Bokujō Monogatari), for the Japanese social network site Mixi, where it attracted 2.3 million users. Other similar farming social network games released in 2009 and 2010 include Sunshine Farm, Happy Farmer, Happy Fishpond, Happy Pig Farm, Farm Town, Country Story, Barn Buddy, Sunshine Ranch, and Happy Harvest, as well as parodies such as Farm Villain.