New Game - Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories

[Getaris]

It's and early build of the mobile version made just to show off the graphics and touch movement.

The only version shown at the e3 was the mobile one, unfortunately.

It does look pretty retro, though.

As for the wiki, it's not entirely trustworthy, but seeing how it's mostly ports or "other versions" of already-developed games, I wouldn't be surprised if they helped a bit with the development besides just localizing them.

[NessEggman]

Natsume is not credited at all in the Japanese versions of those games, because they did not do any work on the original games (which means no development). There wouldn't be any reason for Marvelous (or previously Victor, etc.) to outsource parts of the development to Natsume.

You can consider localization a form of development, but generally when saying a company or team developed a game, you mean the entire game or great majority of it.

If we're going by wikipedia, check the individual articles for those games, and the Japanese article for Natsume. You'll find Natsume isn't credited as developer.

That gameplay video looks... eh. I really hope the WiiU/PC version is going to be extremely different. I realize this is an extremely early build but it looks like a zero-budget indie game at this point. Not that those kinds of games can't be good -- they can be great -- it's just that I'd expect a bit more from Natsume.

But they're really not trying to show it off to the general public yet so my guess is this is a really early version that isn't a good reflection of what the final product will be.

[Arcy]

It doesn't really matter if Natsume's current development team or past localization team did or did not work on previous BokuMono titles, since the guys making TLV and SoM are a brand new development studio. Formed only 3-4 years ago, IIRC.

I'm looking forward to seeing where this new Harvest Moon series is going, at least. If they fix the bulk of the problems I had with TLV, then I'll be happy enough.

[Cherubae]

Natsume is not credited at all in the Japanese versions of those games, because they did not do any work on the original games (which means no development). There wouldn't be any reason for Marvelous (or previously Victor, etc.) to outsource parts of the development to Natsume.

Natsume was more than that. I was able to visit with them back during the early development of Tree of Tranquility, and the rep was telling me about the artwork that Marv was going to go with, as it looked differently than what was typically used (both ToT and AP used assets that weren't designed by Igusa Matsuyama). I was also able to play a game that was currently in development by Marvelous Interactive that was released in Japan many months later (and in English almost a year later from the JP release).

Even Pres Hiro has stated that they were a company that handled more than just the EN localization of the Bokumono games. They just don't go around blabbing about it. I know they were involved with some of the old Gameboy games, whether it was just with funding or another method, but I don't remember which ones off the top of my head.

As for Seeds of Memories, the game shown was just a small iOS version. It was just a showing of some of the graphics. I wouldn't say it looked like Friends of Mineral town though. It looked like a mobile game, and you tapped the screen to move your character and talk to villagers. There's an exclamation point that popped up above villagers' heads when they had something to say. Tabitha said she was a fortune teller and you could talk to her at night in the bar, Andrea had something to do with ores and rocks, Hunter was still about animals, Gilbert was about fishing, and Brutus was a blacksmith (if I remember correctly) and mentioned that he had two sons. Luke said something about herbs, but I don't remember what it was.

There was also an exit in the northeast corner of Chestnut Town, but it wasn't accessible in the E3 demo.

Granted, ALL of this can change by the time the game is ready for retail.

[NessEggman]

It's normal for a localization team/company to have access to a game while it's still in development, to make the localization time shorter by being able to work on parts while it's in development. Having access to a dev build of a game doesn't mean they're actively working on its development. And yeah, Natsume has always done more than localize bokumono games, including development of other games, but I don't see how that means they developed HM64 &c lol. I think it would be very strange if they actually developed all those games but were given no credit. Even in the US versions they're not credited as developer...?

Like did they specifically say "We are actively developing this game" and tell you what parts of the game they themselves were creating? Has Pres Hiro ever specifically said they actually developed HM64 and all those other games, rather than Marvelous?

I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if Natsume had some minor level of input here and there, but I mean, fan feedback was used as input for the development of TLV, and I would not ever say that my indie team developed a Harvest Moon game, nor would you say that UnT developed Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, while Natsume published it.

I guess saying "didn't do any of the work" would not fit if they did some minor input or brainstorming or something, but still I've heard nothing conclusive to say they actually developed any of those bokumono titles listed (and frankly I think it's unreasonable to think they did).

I'm not trying to discredit Natsume or say "Natsume doesn't do anything" or whatever -- I'm just saying they didn't develop those games listed. To simply say they developed the games would imply they were responsible for their creation in whole, which is not true. Even if parts of the work were outsourced to Natsume (which I still highly doubt happened), it wouldn't be within standard usage to say "Natsume developed these games." Even teams who create most of the assets for a game never say they developed the game -- they'll at most say they 'contributed' to the game, or that they were responsible for particular assets.

[Guest]

Um...just thinking...maybe we have people using terms but meaning them in different ways...? We know Natsume didn't develop any Bokumono games by themselves, just the Harvest Moon titles...so maybe it's more accurate to say they were part of the development process...? Sorry if I'm interrupting...

[SakunoHaru]

just saw the video...

it looks like RPG maker games lol, really natsume? i hope they will fix the villagers portrait+how monotone the character move... it looks like FoMT/MFomT tbh...

[Ronin19]

just saw the video...

it looks like RPG maker games lol, really natsume? i hope they will fix the villagers portrait+how monotone the character move... it looks like FoMT/MFomT tbh...

Thankfully this is just the look on phones; maybe the Wii U and PC versions are different?

[Getaris]

Natsume's Fathers Day pic shows Sam's daughter (badly obscured with a red hue).

First new character revealed?

Seeing how they drew a design for her, I'm sure she'll appear in this one.

[luph n joii]

One thing that bothered me is when the MC bumped into another character, the other character is dragged along with the MC.

The town is still somewhat empty. I was expecting something like (M)FoMT town layout, and the current town layout reminds me of SNES except with non-pixel graphics. They also really need to adjust the scaling; the MC is almost as tall as the trees, lol. I understand that this is an early build of the game so things might change, but I honestly prefer TLV environment better if I have to pick between the two.

[Arcy]

One thing that bothered me is when the MC bumped into another character, the other character is dragged along with the MC.

Actually, I liked that, given the frustration I've had in plenty of games where an NPC that doesn't move can leave you stuck for a good while. TLV's super annoying Sprites, for one. (Though there was a workaround by saving and loading your game.)

[Ronin19]

Apparently with the art style in the video what we see is what we get for the iOS, Android and PC versions. "I asked several times just to make sure, and Fitch said that this is the art style for the final game, and it’ll look the same on PC as it does on mobile." Article here.

I'm still going to reserve judgment on the game until it fully releases based on gameplay, characters and story.

Edit: Seems like they plan on making this game digital only, but there might be talks about a physical copy as well. "Also, though there will definitely be a digital release of the game, Natsume is leaning toward (but not guaranteeing yet) a physical release, too, citing that the particular Harvest Moon fans they’re trying to please would probably be happy to have a box and disc in hand (yes I would!)." Article here.

[SerpentTailedAngel]

Apparently with the art style in the video what we see is what we get for the iOS, Android and PC versions. "I asked several times just to make sure, and Fitch said that this is the art style for the final game, and it’ll look the same on PC as it does on mobile." Article here.

I'm still going to reserve judgment on the game until it fully releases based on gameplay, characters and story.

My big issue from the article is this:

To Natsume’s credit, they are planning to add features to Seeds of Memories for the PC and Wii U releases over mobile, to go along with higher prices on those platforms. He said the developers are still discussing what those features will be.

The game costs more on computer and Wii U for reasons. What reasons? They haven't decided yet, let alone begun implementing them, but they're set on having those versions cost more. Just seems like the priorities their are a little askew there. Especially because that same art style point means there isn't likely to be a huge upgrade in looks between games.

As far as mobile farming games go, I expect this to be decent, but for Wii U or PC I'm pretty far from sold.

[Ronin19]

Apparently with the art style in the video what we see is what we get for the iOS, Android and PC versions. "I asked several times just to make sure, and Fitch said that this is the art style for the final game, and it’ll look the same on PC as it does on mobile." Article here.

I'm still going to reserve judgment on the game until it fully releases based on gameplay, characters and story.

My big issue from the article is this:

To Natsume’s credit, they are planning to add features to Seeds of Memories for the PC and Wii U releases over mobile, to go along with higher prices on those platforms. He said the developers are still discussing what those features will be.

The game costs more on computer and Wii U for reasons. What reasons? They haven't decided yet, let alone begun implementing them, but they're set on having those versions cost more. Just seems like the priorities their are a little askew there.

I agree. It seems like they're basically forcing themselves to give these two versions of the game more features just so they can charge more for it.

[Getaris]

They WiiU version needs to be more expensive if they plan to give it a retail release.

And they better justify the price tag. Unless you want to pay premium prices to play a simple port of a mobile game on the WiiU.

I'm sure that at the very least, the WiiU game will be fully rendered in 3D.

For the PC release, I have no idea. If it will be mostly like the mobile version (probably because they want to have it on windows tablets) then I'm not sure why they plan to expand that one.