Destructoid recently had an interview with XSEED’s Vice President, Ken Berry, at an XSEED-hosted event in San Francisco. In the interview he was asked about the future of the Rune Factory series, along with the situation with Natsume and the Harvest Moon series.
On Rune Factory, he was asked about the future of the series, as fans are hoping for a remake, the VP responded with:
“There are continuing discussions on how to keep the Rune Factory series going, despite Neverland, the original developers, no longer being around. Hopefully, something will come of that in the not too distant future, because Rune Factory 4 was the best-selling title in the series, I believe, and it’s a series that’s been growing and growing over the years. Marvelous knows fans are clamoring for a sequel and are looking for ways to make it happen.”
Destructoid also asked XSEED’s VP about the situation with Natsume, and the two separate titles, Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon. Berry explains that the separation between Marvelous and XSEED was down to control over the IP:
“Those discussions were going on for years. I think Marvelous wanted to own the rights to their own IP, and, over the years, as development costs go up higher and higher, I think it might have finally reached to the point where if they couldn’t own their IP in the West, maybe it wasn’t as viable to put together a multi-million dollar [development budget].
So, I know those were discussions that were going on for years between Marvelous and Natsume, because the Harvest Moon trademark is registered by Natsume in the West. I think it finally got to the point where the decision had to be made. Do we bite the bullet and rebrand it now or continue working where we don’t even have worldwide control over our own IP?”
Also in the interview, Ken Berry discusses various other titles including Nitroplus Blasterz and The Last Story. You can check out the full interview here.
Two of my favourite series. I’ve really liked the latest games. I hope there will be another Rune Factory.
I’ve always wanted to try a Rune Factory game, I’m a big fan of the Harvest Moon games.
Play 4. Or even 3. Those are really good. Frontier on the Wii wasn’t too shabby either.
Yup. One and Two were not as good as the others.
Will look into, thank you much.
Bleh. I went through that article hoping for a paragraph discussing The Last Story but only the interviewer mentioned it and it was only in passing. Shame because I’d love a sequel because the story gave the impression that Lazulis Island wasn’t the only place with corrupt knights & royalty.
The Last Story is the best game released for Wii. Xenoblade Chronicles got a new3ds remake why not The Last Story, it is way better in my opinion.
I’d say they are both even but The Last Story focusing more on the love between two of the characters definitely gives Xenoblade’s story focusing on protecting everyone a run for it’s money. With that said, both games definitely balance each other out for me, so I’d say don’t play one without playing the other even though both games’ stories have no relation to the other’s.
I have played and own both of them. I still think The Last Story is better with its upgrade system, colors and real-time action. Xenoblade Chronicles is more about exploration and a vast world with huge enemies.
Exactly why they balance each other out because they represent two extreme sides of the RPG genre: one is focused on the extreme of action & dungeon crawling while the other is focused on the extreme of adventuring & level farming.