With the recent release of Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons, the nostalgia for the series has been high. Seeing crops, tools, buildings, and the characters I recognise as I complete the puzzles has been feeding it. Not just playing the modern games under the Story of Seasons name, but the few I’ve played that were named Harvest Moon, too. And I say few simply because my first was all I felt I needed.
It was around 2007. The first Harvest Moon had released on the DS. Aptly named Harvest Moon DS. In playing it, I was hooked on the gameplay loop. A simple farmer growing crops and looking after animals. Making money and expanding operations with new facilities. A town full of townsfolk with their own daily lives. Festivals to enjoy across the year.
For years I played this one, seeing the years go by and slowly rescuing the Harvest Sprites. Sprites who I could then put to work to help with things such as caring for animals or watering crops. Such help allowed me time for other things, whether that be talking to the townsfolk, fishing, mining, or various other things the game allowed. Or just because I wanted the day off. In which I’d watch them work while playing fetch with the dog.
There felt a load of content in Harvest Moon DS, with so much to be checking out. Especially considering there were plots of land away from your farm where forage such as stone and branches would appear. Which could also, if you so wanted, be used to grow crops. In fact, I loved this game so much that when it came to finally try another in the series, it didn’t have the same feel to it.
In 2014, I bought Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning. Still the same core gameplay, but now the entire town could be customised how you wanted it. That customisation was fun to mess around with. I remember always changing things up whenever a new building had to be added. There was also somewhat of a story with this one, with the renovation plan of the mayor being what brought new stuff to the town.
Within a year, the series had swapped its localisation team and lost the name of Harvest Moon. Natsume took advantage of them keeping the name to bring out Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley. As for the game by Marvelous, now being localised by their subsidiary Xseed Games, that would release in 2015. Which I then picked up late in 2016, and had some fun with it.
Story of Seasons was a unique one in that produce wasn’t just shipped from a shipping bin. Instead, there was a trade centre, with various businesses arriving who would favour certain produce over others. There were also farming rivalries, with extra land available to whichever farmer met certain conditions. I tended not to need these, but would still aim to at least claim one for myself. That way, my own land could easily be used exclusively for animals.
It took a few years for the series to arrive on the Switch, with the first game to do so being a crossover with Doraemon in 2019. Then a second surprise in the form of a remake of GBA title Friends of Mineral Town in 2020. This release would give me a taste of the series from before Harvest Moon DS, and… it felt a bit basic. That was fine by me, as the core was still there.
There was also a certain game from a different series that was taking all my time. Two, actually. Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Farming Simulator 17 were games I stuck with throughout 2020 and beyond, leaving little room for much else. The time I spent with Friends of Mineral Town I loved, however. Which is probably why I felt the next Story of Seasons game was perhaps too different from that core.
Pioneers of Olive Town had the same core of growing crops and caring for animals. Befriending townsfolk and bringing new people to the town. But then there were the makers. It felt there was one of these things for everything. Food, cloth, materials… And since they all operated on a timer, if you wanted to work in bulk, you needed multiple of them. It started to feel less like the farming series I loved and more akin to construction simulator.
Perhaps Marvelous recognised that. Which is why both a second Doraemon Story of Seasons and a remake of a past game happened. The remake this time being A Wonderful Life. That Gamecube classic which I’d seen so much love for. But that I didn’t get on launch. I was too deep into a certain other Farming Simulator, after all. And PowerWash Simulator. And… Well, yeah. There was too much I was enjoying last year.
But with the nostalgia from playing Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons, it won’t be long before I get to it. I want to experience this one and see what all the love for it is about. And with 2024 being a quiet year on the Switch so far, it’ll be good to have a Story of Seasons to occupy me on revisits to other games until another Gamecube remake I’m wanting to try out releases.
Whatever the future holds for the series, there is one thing I am hoping to see if this trend of remakes between new games keeps up. Harvest Moon DS remake. After all, Friends of Mineral Town and A Wonderful Life both have connections to it, so would it not make sense to also bring a remake of this one to the Switch? Might have to do something about the name, though.
Images Taken From:
Harvest Moon DS | RetroArch
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town | Nintendo Switch [Docked]
