Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley Announced by Nastume

[Anonymous Night Owl]

Well someone just asked about same-« Chicken Hugging » marriage on the Natsume Q&A forum. I am wondering about their answer to this although I'm betting on "no".

It was me, haha. I tried to word it so it didn't seem like I was putting them on the spot too much but I don't expect a real answer We'll see.

Ahaha! Nice one. I don't expect a real answer either. I would be a smart decision on Natsume's part to include it as it would set apart the two series. But Natsume's track record with this type of thing doesn't look good. We shall have to wait and see.

I'd have to guess they'll want to keep their "family friendly" policy.

I think marvelous has better chances of adding same-« Chicken Hugging » marriage in future SoS games.

I do think you're right. I'm just saying that if Natsume was smart about it, they would put same-« Chicken Hugging » marriage in their game. It would boost sales and reach out to a different group of people as well as supposedly appeal to older fans. Marvelous definitely has the better chance of going for it since they now have XSeed for localization of the BokuMono games.

[Crystal Power]

I doon't know if Cher will see this,but I know this must be VERY overwhelming for you! Please take your time and I'm sure you can figure out what to do with your site next. Cher you may can even ask for opinions on what to do, I'm sure the members here would love to help you decide what to do from here on out.

Cher has seen it. And she was pretty overwhelmed by it.
But I think that had more to do with how it would affect the forum. xD.

Yea, I seen her post earlier in this topic. This is so complicated. Am I over exaggerating the whole situation? :- (

[Harvest_Moon93]

I'm really confused and excited at the same time. First XSEED/Marvelous announced SoS, which made me (and not surprisingly everyone else) wonder what's going on. But, that's not all... Natsume announces a NEW game called Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley. What?!

Anyways, I'm really looking forward to E3 now after hearing Natsume's announcement. I want to see what they have cooked up. It sounds promising and I don't have anything against getting two new farming games to play.

(I really do wonder what they mean by "In Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, players will experience the role‐playing farm simulation in a three-­dimensional setting for the first time." and "...is that while it does get back to what everyone loves about the early games..." in their press release...)

[Osuchin]

I doon't know if Cher will see this,but I know this must be VERY overwhelming for you! Please take your time and I'm sure you can figure out what to do with your site next. Cher you may can even ask for opinions on what to do, I'm sure the members here would love to help you decide what to do from here on out.

Cher has seen it. And she was pretty overwhelmed by it.
But I think that had more to do with how it would affect the forum. xD.

Yea, I seen her post earlier in this topic. This is so complicated. Am I over exaggerating the whole situation? :- (

In my opinion, to a degree yes.
Cher even said we should wait for more info before making judgements, and not base our opinions on assumptions.

The thing is that there's really nothing to explain on their part.

They sell Harvest Moon games, the series is theirs. 99% of these games were made by Marvelous, but they sold them to us as Harvest Moon. They can simply make more games themselves or find another studio to make them and they will be Harvest Moons, because the franchise is theirs. Bokumono games are not Harvest Moons until Natsume publishes them.

Xseed will be publishing Story of Seasons, not harvest moon. They are developed by the same studio that made the harvest moons, but they are not harvest moons because Harvest Moon is a franchise owned by Natsume.

100% this. We've just been assuming (via past history) that all Bokumono games will automatically become Harvest Moon games, but in this particular instance it isn't the case. There have even been some Bokumonos that were never localized into Harvest Moon (Mina de, the original Shiawaze no Uta [magical melody], and the mobile games). This time the Bokumono game will be Story of Seasons, and the Harvest Moon game will be Lost Valley.

It is also not appropriate to assume that it was a break-up between the companies, as none of us were involved in contract negotiations or attended conference meetings to know if that was the case. On the other side of the spectrum, this could very well be MAQL's attempt at making a more western-feeling Bokumono game, or perhaps even a collaboration between Natsume and those involved w/ Bokumono development. It is way too early to know.

Just sit back and let the ride take us where it wants to go

[Crystal Power]

I doon't know if Cher will see this,but I know this must be VERY overwhelming for you! Please take your time and I'm sure you can figure out what to do with your site next. Cher you may can even ask for opinions on what to do, I'm sure the members here would love to help you decide what to do from here on out.

Cher has seen it. And she was pretty overwhelmed by it.
But I think that had more to do with how it would affect the forum. xD.

Yea, I seen her post earlier in this topic. This is so complicated. Am I over exaggerating the whole situation? :- (

In my opinion, to a degree yes. Cher even said we should wait for more info before making judgements.

The thing is that there's really nothing to explain on their part.

They sell Harvest Moon games, the series is theirs. 99% of these games were made by Marvelous, but they sold them to us as Harvest Moon. They can simply make more games themselves or find another studio to make them and they will be Harvest Moons, because the franchise is theirs. Bokumono games are not Harvest Moons until Natsume publishes them.

Xseed will be publishing Story of Seasons, not harvest moon. They are developed by the same studio that made the harvest moons, but they are not harvest moons because Harvest Moon is a franchise owned by Natsume.

100% this. We've just been assuming (via past history) that all Bokumono games will automatically become Harvest Moon games, but in this particular instance it isn't the case. There have even been some Bokumonos that were never localized into Harvest Moon (Mina de, the original Shiawaze no Uta [magical melody], and the mobile games). This time the Bokumono game will be Story of Seasons, and the Harvest Moon game will be Lost Valley.

It is also not appropriate to assume that it was a break-up between the companies, as none of us were involved in contract negotiations or attended conference meetings to know if that was the case. On the other side of the spectrum, this could very well be MAQL's attempt at making a more western-feeling Bokumono game, or perhaps even a collaboration between Natsume and those involved w/ Bokumono development. It is way too early to know.

Just sit back and let the ride take us where it wants to go

My main problem isn't making a judgment on the game Natsume is making. It's that the series in the US is pretty much all over the place now! You'd be lying if you say this isn't confusing to the consumer. People are actually writing on Nastume facebook post happy that "Connect to a New World" is getting translated...

[Dravalon Code]

My main problem isn't making a judgment on the game Natsume is making. It's that the series in the US is pretty much all over the place now! You'd be lying if you say this isn't confusing to the consumer. People are actually writing on Nastume facebook post happy that "Connect to a New World" is getting translated...

This right here is my main concern. I am not pleased by the ambiguity that Natsume is using to present this new title; I have nothing against them adding to the farming simulator market. That in itself would be excellent, since competition often brings out better quality titles, but the confusion they don't see inclined to clean up is a more than a bit disappointing.

[Getaris]

That's not really their fault though.

"Connect to a new land" is a fan translation of the name of a game, never did Natsume or Marvelous mention this name, and there's absolutely nothing in the press release of Lost Valley that suggests that they are meant to be the same game.

I have never seen any official source mention the words "Harvest Moon" and "Connect to a new land" together in the same phrase.

It's more of a fan/press generated confusion.

Natsume is not hiding anything, they pretty much said all they could say about the game. It's harvest moon and it's new. That's all.

[Osuchin]

Indeed the more literal translation of the name is "a connected together new heaven and earth"

[Melody Muse]

That's not really their fault though.

"Connect to a new land" is a fan translation of the name of a game, never did Natsume or Marvelous mention this name, and there's absolutely nothing in the press release of Lost Valley that suggests that they are meant to be the same game.

I have never seen any official source mention the words "Harvest Moon" and "Connect to a new land" together in the same phrase.

It's more of a fan/press generated confusion.

Natsume is not hiding anything, they pretty much said all they could say about the game. It's harvest moon and it's new. That's all.

Personally, I feel like they should have said that this is by a different team/not by MMVAQL. They could explain that it is NOT Connect to a New World, as many fans on the FB page are saying it is, because of the lack of information.

[Dravalon Code]

Oh, I wasn't implying they were trying to sell that it was the aforementioned "Connect to a New World" persay, but rather I was trying to express discontent with the neglect of clarifying that the series will no longer be translations of the BM series that Natsume labelled as Harvest Moon. That's all.

Ninja'd by Muse. v w v

[Getaris]

@Muse: the thing is that there is no game called (Harvest Moon) Connect to a New World. It never existed.

And they certainly don't need to mention third parties in their press releases if they are not related to the project.

It would cause unnecessary friction between companies.

[Crystal Power]

My main problem isn't making a judgment on the game Natsume is making. It's that the series in the US is pretty much all over the place now! You'd be lying if you say this isn't confusing to the consumer. People are actually writing on Nastume facebook post happy that "Connect to a New World" is getting translated...

This right here is my main concern. I am not pleased by the ambiguity that Natsume is using to present this new title; I have nothing against them adding to the farming simulator market. That in itself would be excellent, since competition often brings out better quality titles, but the confusion they don't see inclined to clean up is a more than a bit disappointing.

Exactly, As I said before (In a small sentence). I am interested in what Natsume is making and I'm keeping a eye out on new information but now the fans are getting confused with this. Some people even think Xseed and Natsume are localizing the same game! Natsume could have used a new name for this game, or at least explain more in their announcement post what is going on. In that sense that's why I am bit disappointed with Natsume at the moment, NOT because they're making a BokuMono clone but how they're handling the whole situation. Hopefully they explain this better in their next big facebook post...

EDIT: Thank you Melody Muse, that's how I feel!

[Anonymous Me]

Maybe, they can't talk about any of that until after E3. I mean, they did say there are things they can't talk about until then.

Probably best to just wait it out.

[Getaris]

Maybe, they can't talk about any of that until after E3. I mean, they did say there are things they can't talk about until then.

Probably best to just wait it out.

Yeah, they will definitely talk about this during the e3.

I just mean that a press release is not the right place to mention this kind of stuff.

[Dravalon Code]

In the end, it's all very interesting. There isn't much of a point of taking up our pitchforks against Natsume at this point in time; as others have mentioned, it's probably best to just wait for more information and discover, perhaps, what exactly this whole fiasco is about.