About the Natsume HM games...

[Getaris]

It's hard to know a character by their official name when there's basically no way to know their name.

I grew up calling him Jack.

[ChaosAzerothCat]

The games just look like shoddy copies of the GBA/SNES titles with terribly bland characters.

I feel bad for the casual HM fans who don't realize that the Bokumono games are now Story of Seasons. I've even heard some stores refused to sell SoS and instead went with the HM games because HM was the recognizable brand name. I've seen quite a few HM newbies on Youtube play the Natsume games because they're on mobile. They don't recognize the difference.

Tbqh, I wish Natsume would give the names to xSeed and continue their spiritual successors under a different name. "Harvest Moon" is such a damn good name and it rolls off the tongue. "Story of Seasons"... Is just not. Even "Farm Story" or "A Farmer's Tale" sounds better.

Uhmm no...

I also kind of dislike what Natsume did to Marvelous by not selling them the Harvest Moon rights and trying to do their own thing using somebody else's brand (not in the legal sense I know, but yes in the practical sense),...

Marvelous changed the name of the series as it moved the localization internally using its company, Xseed, that it had purchased. This was already explained in an interview by the Natsume president. This "omg natsume didn't sell the rights" rumor really needs to die sooner rather than later.

http://www.siliconera.com/2015/03/18/ha ... t-natsume/

In this case, Marvelous took the decision out of our hands, and we didn’t have any option but to face the fact that we were no longer able to get the license for the game from them. Therefore, we took their decision as a great opportunity to open the door for us to develop our own Harvest Moon to take the Harvest Moon franchise to the next level.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2 ... t-has-sown

However, that business was thrown into upheaval several years ago due to a mix of intellectual property rights. Harvest Moon was originally released in Japan as Bokujo Monogatari, but it was Maekawa who gave the series its English name when Natsume first localized it. While the Bokujo Monogatari developer Victor Interactive Software was acquired by Japanese publisher Marvelous and changed names, the partnership continued on new games until 2014, when Marvelous decided it would be better served by publishing the Bokujo Monogatari games in the West through its own subsidiary, XSEED Games. It couldn't do so under the Harvest Moon name as Natsume owned that, so it re-launched the series as Story of Seasons, leaving Natsume with a valuable brand, but no game to sell using it.

"That was a big surprise to us, especially to me," Maekawa said. "It was a really scary thing to me because we'd spent time and effort to establish a no-name farming simulation game to become one of the best-known farming simulation games for the entire family. We had tons of loyal Harvest Moon fans, but we couldn't simply say to those loyal fans that there's no Harvest Moon in the future. Fortunately, we learned and accumulated lots of know-how as to what Harvest Moon fans like and what makes them happy by localizing and publishing Harvest Moon games for the past 16 years, so we took that goodbye as a good opportunity for us, based upon our own experience, to take this franchise to the next step so we could continue to make all Harvest Moon fans very happy."

Marvelous has developed their series into something that is more social; a more complex marriage system, easier farming, more (almost too many) villagers, challenge storyline (less so in Trio than in SoS1), and so on. It is distinctly different than what its development teams produced when partnered with Natsume.

Natsume's version has gone the other way. Marriage is simpler, more complex farming (hybrid crops, etc.), easier storyline for younger audiences (their "make everyone happy" company moto), and so on. Personally, I feel it is becoming too easy and those of us who have been long-time players of the series are getting aged out (so to speak), but that may be what uniquely helps to set it apart from the Bokumono series.

The Anonymous Fish also makes a good point; Marvelous is still involved with the localization and its text hiccups and bug additions. Moving from Natsume to XSeed may change the flavor and feel of the English text, but you're still dealing with Marvelous at the end of it all.

Adding if people blindly buy games solely based on the name they're bound for disappointment, happened before throughout Marvelous' series. And refusing to sell a game like that is shoddy and bad shop running.

[Noeh]

If were being honest, the last game I actually liked was AP

[Samansu]

If were being honest, the last game I actually liked was AP

Animal Parade is BY FAR my favorite still! Love that game so much! I have definitely enjoyed games past that, but it is still my fav of the series! ^-^

[Guest]

[quote="ChaosAzerothCat"]Post[/quote]

'Read that afterward I posted. "Story of Seasons" is still a garbage name. They should have directly translated the Japanese name.

Has anyone seen the Natsume games in stores? Are they commonplace? I might pick up the newest 3DS game but last time I went to GS I only saw SoS.

[Getaris]

The last harvest moon game I ever saw at a retail store at all was Sunshine Islands.

To be fair though, I don't live near any dedicated gaming store and only get to visit big stores in general while on vacation.

[Kam]

'Read that afterward I posted. "Story of Seasons" is still a garbage name. They should have directly translated the Japanese name.

iirc, natsume was going to use a direct translation of the japanese name before going with harvest moon, but 'ranch story' and 'farm story' were already copyrighted. presumably, xseed encountered the same problem

[ChaosAzerothCat]

Post

'Read that afterward I posted. "Story of Seasons" is still a garbage name. They should have directly translated the Japanese name.

Has anyone seen the Natsume games in stores? Are they commonplace? I might pick up the newest 3DS game but last time I went to GS I only saw SoS.

Just sharing some info, don't worry.

I actually have, but not as many as SoS. Game Stop yes, Wal Mart no for example.

And I don't disagree in some ways, though Farm Story sounds similar to Hometown Story so not sure how well that'd work. In the end though that was on XSeed or Marvelous, maybe both, regardless not Natsume. ((Oh maybe can't?))

Anyone remember when TLV came out and a bunch of people felt like the names were flipped?

[Getaris]

Not really, while "Story of Seasons" could've fit as bit as The Lost Valley's subtitle (the story being mostly about seasons), "The Lost Valley" would make little sense for Story of Seasons.

[ChaosAzerothCat]

Not really, while "Story of Seasons" could've fit as bit as The Lost Valley's subtitle (the story being mostly about seasons), "The Lost Valley" would make little sense for Story of Seasons.

There were some people saying so nevertheless.

[Guest]

[quote="ChaosAzerothCat"]
And I don't disagree in some ways, though Farm Story sounds similar to Hometown Story so not sure how well that'd work. In the end though that was on XSeed or Marvelous, maybe both, regardless not Natsume. ((Oh maybe can't?))
[/quote]

The two are sister games that take place in the same universe and feature the same creator. It seems fine if they had similar names.

[ChaosAzerothCat]

And I don't disagree in some ways, though Farm Story sounds similar to Hometown Story so not sure how well that'd work. In the end though that was on XSeed or Marvelous, maybe both, regardless not Natsume. ((Oh maybe can't?))

The two are sister games that take place in the same universe and feature the same creator. It seems fine if they had similar names.

They're nothing alike though, plus Hometown Story is attached to Natsume so not helpful.

[SakuraMota]

I don't think most people are touting them as innovative improvements, but as evidence that they are listening to and directly acting to constructive fan feedback. I don't like giving gifts so I don't have much to say there. Having a convenient way to purchase fertilizer as opposed to having to earn the rarest once via quest grinding was a great improvement to the flow of Skytree Village's mutations. Groundbreaking? No. Nice? Yes. And something SoS could certainly take a lesson from. There is a point where complex tasks stop feeling rewarding to overcome.

Sorry back-reading and just have to add...

This. Thisthisthisthisthis. It's why in many ways, I prefer the Natsume HMs to SoS. The Natsume games have flaws, and I don't pretend they don't. But with each iteration, they have shown improvement and that they are listening. That's why I've said for a while now I expect Nats' HM to be the one to finally break the threshold in the "mainstream" farm sims for same-« Chicken Hugging » marriage. CeeCee, the Nats community manager, is a great lady who (*cough deals with way too much « Cow Poopoo » cough*) takes fan feedback and relays it to the developers. Even little, stupid things, like the bed being flipped correctly against the wall in Skytree, are a direct result of this. They are asking the fans what they want, and so long as we keep talking and they keep improving, I have no doubt HM can become a solid series in its own right.


BokuMono, for me, just feels like they keep piling on and piling on and just services gimmicks. I dunno, BokuMono has just gotten kind of stale for me of late. I still enjoy them for the most part, but the burnout is getting faster and faster. I barely made it into year 2 of Trio. Contrasting, I'm about to hit year 5 on Skytree Village and still blazing a trail, trying to find all the mutations. I would love BokuMono to go back to basics and tone back all the fluff, but the base is so split now that I just don't think it could happen. Ah well. There's always Stardew Valley.

[Guest]

What do you guys like about the characters? Not like? Feel like Natsume can improve upon or should change? Do you feel the Natsume games do things differently because of cultural differences?

I don't own any of their games yet, but I looked over footage on Youtube. Melanie's so adorable with her hyper valley girl dialogue. I can't recall any characters like her in Bokumono. Neither do I remember all these "goddess" puns like "oh my goddess". I like them though. I'm pretty sure I've read them in fanfics...

[Guest]

@SakuraMota

I feel Marvelous release too many SoS games. Back when I got into the series twelve to thirteen years ago, they only released a few per console (and since most were gender-based rereleases of the same game, it wasn't that noticeable). There were several games within a generation however they were broken up over different consoles and were likely for different audiences (what kid had a N64, PS1, and Game Boy?). Now we have many games all on one console. The DS had like 6, I swear. They need to tone it down. Series like The Sims and AC only have one big game a gen plus maybe a spinoff.

There's only so much farming fans can take. I'd rather have two or threw awesome games on a console than six games I barely have time to play. Heck, I ended up buying 3 HM games within the last year and what did I do? Play a few in-game weeks then stop. I haven't finished Year 1 on any of them. I'd rather sit and play Splatoon instead.