Earlier this year, Natsume announced that Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories will be coming to the Wii U. The title will be the first Harvest Moon iteration to be released on the Wii U and will also be available on PC, Android and IOS.
The company has been keeping fans updated on their Developer Diaries posts featured on the CeeCee’s Musings Tumblr account. The latest update talks about the marriage aspect of the game, and how they are trying to balance it out with other important parts of gameplay.
“Harvest Moon has always been about building a successful life, which means running a successful farm, and also building a meaningful life with friends and family. Marriage has always been an important part of the franchise, and in Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories, we wanted to be careful to balance it against other gameplay aspects. We also want to make sure that wooing your favorite bachelor or bachelorette isn’t so time consuming that you can’t get to the other parts of the game you love. Therefore, we’ve put a lot of thought into how to balance dating, marriage, and family in Seeds of Memories.”
Also in the update, it is noted that the affection meters will now be more visible, as they will be included in the text box when interacting with another character. This will not only be applicable to bachelors and bachelorettes, it will also be shown on villager’s text boxes.
Natsume has also pointed out that there will be an increased number of bachelors and bachelorettes, with the inclusion of marriage candidates from previous titles such as The Lost Valley. There will also be two new characters added to the line-up.
“We’ve also increased the number of bachelors and bachelorettes. You may remember April, Catherine, and Emily, as well as Gilbert, Hunter, and Tony from Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley. These characters will be returning as marriage candidates, along with Luke and Andrea, who will be part of the Seeds of Memories cast!
We’re also excited to announce that, due to fan demand, we’re adding two additional marriage candidates: Tabitha, the witch extraordinaire, and Gareth, the logical wizard! Both of these magical characters give fans a chance to add a dash of the mystical to their romantic relationships!”
There will be more updates via the Developer Diaries in the coming months, which will provide further information of what to expect from the upcoming release. The release date was originally announced for Q4 this year, but there has been no further details on a specific date just yet.
This news made me really excited- until I read that the very same game will be on ios… Why cant I have another Wonderful life? Why wont you push my console hard Natsume? WHY WONT YOU MAKE MY CONSOLE LAG NATSUME?! I WANT A NEXT GEN HARVEST MOON. Even if it still looks cartoony, pull a Mario Kart 8. Please.
I’m still interested in this. I’m skipping Story of Seasons because of it.
I’m also not digging the mobile release, which makes me consider why I should be paying $60 when I can play it on Android and stream to the TV for a lot less.
You’re skipping a good game for crap? Interesting.
I don’t ever turn on my N3DS. I prefer home console anything.
Remember guys, this is Natsume making this, they made The Lost Valley, not Xseed who makes the more traditional HM games like Story of Seasons.
While I still think that Stardew Valley and my own Orange Season are probably going to be much better games than this, I think that Natsume at least has their mind on the right place this time.
I wish they’d just stop. These “Harvest Moon” games are ruining the Bokujō Monogatari brand. Harvest Moon clearly doesn’t know how to make a game and they’re trying like hell to recreate Bokujō Monogatari without infringing on XSEED’s copyright. They tried fusing it with Minecraft in Lost Valley, which was all poorly done. This sounds like it’ll be played entirely on the touch screen and looked like it too. The E3 footage looked like you did nothing but talk to people. I really have little faith in the Harvest Moon series after Lost Valley. I was hoping Natsume would get creative but they make games with very little content in them. Lost Valley got boring incredibly fast, I forced myself to play a little to get my money’s worth out of it and still didn’t. We’re better off waiting for the next Story of Seasons, which is still a true Harvest Moon game despite lacking the title.