I remember picking up the first Harvest Moon game after A New Beginning, and just thinking: "Wow, this is NOT what I wanted." That was the reason why I felt so angry with Natsume: it was like they pulled the rug out from under us, knowing full well, these were different from how Harvest Moon had been up until that time. I truly wish this video was available at that time, because it really has been a real struggle for fans to understand what exactly happened. As it stands now, I am truly encouraging Natsume to make better games, because there's real potential to be had, and supporting Marvelous just as I always have and always will as long as their games are still fun.
I'm right there with you. I would love nothing more than Natsume to utilize the Harvest Moon IP and partner with a solid game development company to create a great farming game. Imagine if they got Take-Two interactive to make a Harvest Moon game lol. That would be something to see.
My mom picked up Harvest moon snes for me when i was a kid, it was in a Target bin in the mid 90's. I fell in LOVE, I then played all the releases! I now play story of seasons, rune factory, stardew, all kinds of farm sims. I love them so much they are my comfort!
HM/SoS is one of the few game franchises that have been very successful for multiple decades. Goes to show how great the farming sim genre is that it can last this long lol
alright thats it, I'm your #1 fan now! I've never seen someone actually make this into a video, let alone one so well made. I'm hopeful for the Harvest Moon franchise, but I'm also still mad about the lost valley incident 🤣
Thanks so much! I'm glad you really like my stuff (and followed on twitter and joined discord lmao i saw that) I would love nothing more for Harvest Moon to be as good as it was when Marvelous was developing their titles, and I have hope. I really don't think Winds of Anthos was that bad compared to their previous releases, but hopefully they keep improving.
I remember getting my first harvest moon after the split not knowing what happened and being so disappointed I didn’t buy another farm game till stardew valley came out! I was looking up videos about stardew valley when an explanation of harvest moon vs story of seasons video popped up and i immediately went and bought all the story of seasons games I could and I still love them to this day!
Yeah, I can imagine most western players befell this same fate. The switch really wasn't breaking news since the title is so small comparatively. A good example of a more news breaking change would be the Halo debacle when Bungie just stopped making Halo games and Microsoft had to find a new creator for the franchise. Most people in the space know that 343 industries is the new developer of Halo, and their games can't hold a candle to Bungie's, in my completely subjective opinion lol
So curious about that new Harvest Moon game by Natsume! It doesn't look absolutely terrible like every other HM game they've done independently since the rebrand. My only big hope for Story of Seasons is that they keep putting out more original titles, since while all the remakes have been fantastic, it does feel like they're just retintroducing the new names for western fans again. (Saying all of this though, I'd kill for an Island of Happines/Sunshine Islands remake, those were some of my favorites as a kid and I think they could really benefit from it)
I wouldn't be surprised if they've been working on the remakes for a long time to re-establish their authority in the western market. Just a big middle finger to Natsume saying, "Only we can make these games because all you have is the title. In fact, we'll even use the subtitle so western audiences correlate our new name to the games they played as kids. Good luck trying to keep the wool over their eyes now" lol
Thanks for the video game history. My mum was the one that got me into harvest moon with A Wonderful Life on Gamecube. As I've commented before we got a bookfair cheatbook that happened to have the Z trick inside it which was a funny experience. I've been playing the Story Of Seasons style games ever since. Rune Factory have some pretty fun games too. They are like a mutant off-shoot of Harvest Moon. Innocent life is also a fun game to look into if you ever get a chance. It's a pretty wild experience (Although the NA version is bugged with constant hurricanes if you get too many crops.)
Innocent Life and Rune Factory or an even weirder scenario. They're both created by different companies, but share Marvelous and Natsume as their Japanese and North American publishers. That relationship allowed them to use the 'Bokujo Monogatari" and "Harvest Moon" names without being a direct entry in the franchise. Anyone unfamiliar with those corporate relationships would just assume they're bonafide HM games even though they were created and produced by people outside of what was formerly known as Victor Interactive Software.
@@JackDuckGoose Yeah, I figured they weren't made by them. I just felt they were honorable mentions to farming sims, both being fairly fun to play while bringing some freshness to the genre in different ways.
For as cynical as Natsume's Harvest Moons have felt, its been kinda neat seeing them chucking crap at the wall to see what sticks. In an ideal world, it'd be a Two Cakes situation with both companies taking the core ideas in wildly different directions.
Absolutely! I would love nothing more for one of Natsume's Harvest moons to be a genuinely good game that pushes other players in the industry to be better. A healthy competition in the space will only benefit the players lol
Man your video making skills are impressive! You took a lot of history and information and explained it very simple to the audience and in an entertaining way on top of that, now that are some teaching and writing skills you can be proud of
Thanks so much! I wanted to get an English minor in college, but decided halfway through my sophomore year to do history instead. I guess I have those 4 English classes to thank for any perceived story-telling ability I posses lol
Same here! That was the most interesting thing I learned while making this video. Who knew that the same company had a different name depending on what side of the world you're on lol
They have the rights to the English title: harvest moon. Since they were the ones who published it under that name in the western world. The parent company has ownership over the Japanese title, and the new English title. Story of seasons.
As @crystalRose152 mentioned, the only thing that Natsume ever had was the title. Since copyright law isn't something internationally agreed upon, each country has it's own process. When Amccus created Bokujo Monogatari, their chosen publisher, "Pack-in-Video" was able to copyright that title in Japan. When Amccus was approached by Natsume to publish the game in the west, they gave Natsume the freedom to "localize" the game so that it would better appeal to a western audience. That included creating a new name that was in English. Natsume went with Harvest Moon and became the owner of the copyright in North America and Europe. It's very strange and Marvelous probably could've gone through a lengthy court battle or a private settlement to get the copyright from Natsume, but they chose to bet on themselves.
That's a great point! While innocent life and rune factory have the subtitles, " A Futuristic/Fantasy Harvest Moon," they are actually developed and created by different companies, ArtePiazza and Neverland. The only thing that they have in common with the Bokujo Monogatari franchise (outside the name of course) is that Marvelous and Natsume are their publishers in Japan and North America respectively. Essentially, Marvelous and Natsume lended their title IP of "Bokujo Monogatari" and "Harvest Moon" to the companies when they published the game even though they weren't directly a part of their production.
Excuse my ignorance but this seems like its 100% Marvelous' fault. They had used Natsume for years and then they turn around and acquire a different company to localize their games and Natsume is villainized for being left behind and trying to keep their company afloat?
You make a very valid point. According to the current president and CEO of Natsume, Hiro Maekawa, they were blindsided by Marvelous. Maekawa says, "they (Marvelous) were going to release the series by themselves under a different brand name," implying that the people at Marvelous didn't even approach Natsume to purchase the "Harvest Moon" moniker. I looked high and low for a source that can corroborate or dispute that claim from the Marvelous side, but came up empty since you don't see anyone on that side of dispute mentioning the split at all, let alone confirming or denying any PR statements thrown across the aisle. It's hard to imagine that the people at Marvelous had absolutely zero interest in a name that, to quote Maekawa himself, " (is) a well-known, family oriented brand with millions of ...fans all around the world." So that previous statement might just be damage control or a spin attempt, but this is all presumptive and ultimately just a fun thought experiment. I doubt we will every really know what went down; who asked for what, who said yes/no, what was a deal breaker, etc. which is sad for me since I'm so invested. Source: www.siliconera.com/harvest-moon-beyond-whats-next-natsume/
@@JackDuckGoose to be honest, I've only played one Harvest Moon and it was after the split, I thought it was a rip off of Stardew Valley cause I had never heard of the series. I have no nostalgia for the series and I'm not on either side of the aisle. I really don't care for how grindy the game is, and I feel like all of the other "better games" would be just as grindy as this one. The rest of this comment delves into my gripes with the game I'm playing. To 100% the game I have to make 300 recipes, the majority of which are the same dish made with higher quality versions of the same ingredients. And I have the animals giving 1 of 5 different rarities of the ingredients and I have a limited number of animals and I have to plant crops in specific areas and hope that enough of them mutate so that I can sell enough to pass an invisible check to be available to purchase the mutated seeds themselves so I can try to mutate them into other things. Plus upgrading my tools is such a hassle. Not to mention fishing with different baits doesn't stop the fish that will eat lower quality baits or no bait from eating your hard to make bait, that you can't even buy from anyone.
@@SpeedwagonZaidan That's fair lol. And that sounds like Hell. I just finished 100%ing another game, and, while there are 126 recipes, the ingredient definitely aren't "hard" to get, just takes time. This game sounds hard lol
I was a little disappointed not to see any Rune Factory mentions when the current title/thumbnail are referencing "history of everything", but the main topic is definitely important to get out there. Good vid!
I chose not to include games like Rune Factory and Innocent Life, who's subtitle is, "a fantasy/futuristic harvest moon", in this video because, while they are technically spin offs, both of those games were developed and produced by different companies. While Marvelous and Natsume did play a role in publishing and localizing those games in Japan and North America respectively, they didn't have a hand in creating them outside lending the developer the use of their IP in the form of the bokujo monogatari/harvest moon title.
I never understood what "harvest moon" is supposed to mean. Is it a play on words from honey moon? I always found the name bit odd maybe since I'm no native speaker 🥲
I only know what a Harvest Moon is because of my family's background in agriculture. A "Harvest Moon" is a full moon closest to the first day of fall in the Norther Hemisphere, September 22nd. For example, this year, 2024, the harvest moon will be on September 17th. As a kid, I was told that around the time of the Harvest Moon is when my grandparents would get on their combines and start getting the last amount of corn and soybeans for the season lol
Friends of Mineral Town and Magical Melody were the Harvest Moon Golden Era
I tend to agree. I know a lot of people in my streams really like Animal Parade and Tree of Tranquility lol
I remember picking up the first Harvest Moon game after A New Beginning, and just thinking: "Wow, this is NOT what I wanted." That was the reason why I felt so angry with Natsume: it was like they pulled the rug out from under us, knowing full well, these were different from how Harvest Moon had been up until that time. I truly wish this video was available at that time, because it really has been a real struggle for fans to understand what exactly happened. As it stands now, I am truly encouraging Natsume to make better games, because there's real potential to be had, and supporting Marvelous just as I always have and always will as long as their games are still fun.
I'm right there with you. I would love nothing more than Natsume to utilize the Harvest Moon IP and partner with a solid game development company to create a great farming game. Imagine if they got Take-Two interactive to make a Harvest Moon game lol. That would be something to see.
This is probably the best video I’ve seen that explains the split between Natsume and Marvelous. Banger video as always
Thanks so much! I really appreciate it lol
My mom picked up Harvest moon snes for me when i was a kid, it was in a Target bin in the mid 90's. I fell in LOVE, I then played all the releases! I now play story of seasons, rune factory, stardew, all kinds of farm sims. I love them so much they are my comfort!
HM/SoS is one of the few game franchises that have been very successful for multiple decades. Goes to show how great the farming sim genre is that it can last this long lol
You should definitely do more stuff like this, you've got the vibe and format down to a tee.
Thanks! Doing little video essays from time to time is always fun lol
alright thats it, I'm your #1 fan now! I've never seen someone actually make this into a video, let alone one so well made. I'm hopeful for the Harvest Moon franchise, but I'm also still mad about the lost valley incident 🤣
Thanks so much! I'm glad you really like my stuff (and followed on twitter and joined discord lmao i saw that) I would love nothing more for Harvest Moon to be as good as it was when Marvelous was developing their titles, and I have hope. I really don't think Winds of Anthos was that bad compared to their previous releases, but hopefully they keep improving.
I remember getting my first harvest moon after the split not knowing what happened and being so disappointed I didn’t buy another farm game till stardew valley came out! I was looking up videos about stardew valley when an explanation of harvest moon vs story of seasons video popped up and i immediately went and bought all the story of seasons games I could and I still love them to this day!
Yeah, I can imagine most western players befell this same fate. The switch really wasn't breaking news since the title is so small comparatively. A good example of a more news breaking change would be the Halo debacle when Bungie just stopped making Halo games and Microsoft had to find a new creator for the franchise. Most people in the space know that 343 industries is the new developer of Halo, and their games can't hold a candle to Bungie's, in my completely subjective opinion lol
So curious about that new Harvest Moon game by Natsume! It doesn't look absolutely terrible like every other HM game they've done independently since the rebrand. My only big hope for Story of Seasons is that they keep putting out more original titles, since while all the remakes have been fantastic, it does feel like they're just retintroducing the new names for western fans again. (Saying all of this though, I'd kill for an Island of Happines/Sunshine Islands remake, those were some of my favorites as a kid and I think they could really benefit from it)
Sunshine islands hit different as a kid
I wouldn't be surprised if they've been working on the remakes for a long time to re-establish their authority in the western market. Just a big middle finger to Natsume saying, "Only we can make these games because all you have is the title. In fact, we'll even use the subtitle so western audiences correlate our new name to the games they played as kids. Good luck trying to keep the wool over their eyes now" lol
Thanks for the video game history.
My mum was the one that got me into harvest moon with A Wonderful Life on Gamecube. As I've commented before we got a bookfair cheatbook that happened to have the Z trick inside it which was a funny experience. I've been playing the Story Of Seasons style games ever since.
Rune Factory have some pretty fun games too. They are like a mutant off-shoot of Harvest Moon.
Innocent life is also a fun game to look into if you ever get a chance. It's a pretty wild experience (Although the NA version is bugged with constant hurricanes if you get too many crops.)
Innocent Life and Rune Factory or an even weirder scenario. They're both created by different companies, but share Marvelous and Natsume as their Japanese and North American publishers. That relationship allowed them to use the 'Bokujo Monogatari" and "Harvest Moon" names without being a direct entry in the franchise. Anyone unfamiliar with those corporate relationships would just assume they're bonafide HM games even though they were created and produced by people outside of what was formerly known as Victor Interactive Software.
@@JackDuckGoose Yeah, I figured they weren't made by them. I just felt they were honorable mentions to farming sims, both being fairly fun to play while bringing some freshness to the genre in different ways.
@@Theepieguy I agree. In larger scale video discussing everything Marvelous, they would definitely make an appearance lol
For as cynical as Natsume's Harvest Moons have felt, its been kinda neat seeing them chucking crap at the wall to see what sticks.
In an ideal world, it'd be a Two Cakes situation with both companies taking the core ideas in wildly different directions.
Absolutely! I would love nothing more for one of Natsume's Harvest moons to be a genuinely good game that pushes other players in the industry to be better. A healthy competition in the space will only benefit the players lol
Man your video making skills are impressive!
You took a lot of history and information and explained it very simple to the audience and in an entertaining way on top of that, now that are some teaching and writing skills you can be proud of
Thanks so much! I wanted to get an English minor in college, but decided halfway through my sophomore year to do history instead. I guess I have those 4 English classes to thank for any perceived story-telling ability I posses lol
@@JackDuckGoose Either that or you're a natural ;)
can already tell this is gonna be a good video
I definitely liked making it lol
There were names of companies I didn’t even know 😂, also I’d love to see you play the new Harvest Moon title, love your videos❤
Same here! That was the most interesting thing I learned while making this video. Who knew that the same company had a different name depending on what side of the world you're on lol
Here's hoping (I totally lost track of where the split happened, how and why, so thank you!)
No problem! I really hope that they can both create good games. Competition only benefits the end user lol
I need that winds of Anthos review, I'm super curious about it
Here is my short answer if I don't end up making a video review of it: It's a step in the right direction.
Like, alcohol and drunk people is the core of the lore
That makes a lot of sense lol
great overview of the bokumono expanded universe meta!
Thank you! I delved a little bit deeper in the corporate acqusition merry go round than I wanted to, but I felt it was too important to keep out lol
Wait a minute... HMV?
As in the UK music store HMV?
Holy cow.
Funny you mention that. I had to do some digging, but the HMV was acquired by Nihon Victor in 1931, so they use the "Nipper and Gramaphone" logo.
great video! 👍
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it lol
I started with Harvest Moon on the Gameboy!
AWL on gamecube for me, but I did end up getting FoMT after playing AWL lol
*Insert monetary potential into slot*
THANK YOU FOR THE MONIES 🤖
Make a video about other story of seasons games
What game would you like to see?
how did Natsume get the rights to harvest moon title when they only joined in after Harvest moon was created
They have the rights to the English title: harvest moon. Since they were the ones who published it under that name in the western world.
The parent company has ownership over the Japanese title, and the new English title. Story of seasons.
As @crystalRose152 mentioned, the only thing that Natsume ever had was the title. Since copyright law isn't something internationally agreed upon, each country has it's own process. When Amccus created Bokujo Monogatari, their chosen publisher, "Pack-in-Video" was able to copyright that title in Japan. When Amccus was approached by Natsume to publish the game in the west, they gave Natsume the freedom to "localize" the game so that it would better appeal to a western audience. That included creating a new name that was in English. Natsume went with Harvest Moon and became the owner of the copyright in North America and Europe. It's very strange and Marvelous probably could've gone through a lengthy court battle or a private settlement to get the copyright from Natsume, but they chose to bet on themselves.
no mention of innocent life? 😢
That's a great point! While innocent life and rune factory have the subtitles, " A Futuristic/Fantasy Harvest Moon," they are actually developed and created by different companies, ArtePiazza and Neverland. The only thing that they have in common with the Bokujo Monogatari franchise (outside the name of course) is that Marvelous and Natsume are their publishers in Japan and North America respectively. Essentially, Marvelous and Natsume lended their title IP of "Bokujo Monogatari" and "Harvest Moon" to the companies when they published the game even though they weren't directly a part of their production.
Excuse my ignorance but this seems like its 100% Marvelous' fault. They had used Natsume for years and then they turn around and acquire a different company to localize their games and Natsume is villainized for being left behind and trying to keep their company afloat?
You make a very valid point. According to the current president and CEO of Natsume, Hiro Maekawa, they were blindsided by Marvelous. Maekawa says, "they (Marvelous) were going to release the series by themselves under a different brand name," implying that the people at Marvelous didn't even approach Natsume to purchase the "Harvest Moon" moniker.
I looked high and low for a source that can corroborate or dispute that claim from the Marvelous side, but came up empty since you don't see anyone on that side of dispute mentioning the split at all, let alone confirming or denying any PR statements thrown across the aisle. It's hard to imagine that the people at Marvelous had absolutely zero interest in a name that, to quote Maekawa himself, " (is) a well-known, family oriented brand with millions of ...fans all around the world." So that previous statement might just be damage control or a spin attempt, but this is all presumptive and ultimately just a fun thought experiment.
I doubt we will every really know what went down; who asked for what, who said yes/no, what was a deal breaker, etc. which is sad for me since I'm so invested.
Source: www.siliconera.com/harvest-moon-beyond-whats-next-natsume/
@@JackDuckGoose to be honest, I've only played one Harvest Moon and it was after the split, I thought it was a rip off of Stardew Valley cause I had never heard of the series. I have no nostalgia for the series and I'm not on either side of the aisle. I really don't care for how grindy the game is, and I feel like all of the other "better games" would be just as grindy as this one.
The rest of this comment delves into my gripes with the game I'm playing.
To 100% the game I have to make 300 recipes, the majority of which are the same dish made with higher quality versions of the same ingredients. And I have the animals giving 1 of 5 different rarities of the ingredients and I have a limited number of animals and I have to plant crops in specific areas and hope that enough of them mutate so that I can sell enough to pass an invisible check to be available to purchase the mutated seeds themselves so I can try to mutate them into other things. Plus upgrading my tools is such a hassle. Not to mention fishing with different baits doesn't stop the fish that will eat lower quality baits or no bait from eating your hard to make bait, that you can't even buy from anyone.
@@SpeedwagonZaidan That's fair lol. And that sounds like Hell. I just finished 100%ing another game, and, while there are 126 recipes, the ingredient definitely aren't "hard" to get, just takes time. This game sounds hard lol
I liked this video and I'm commenting so you can get lots of views and lots of money cause you're broke af
🙏
I was a little disappointed not to see any Rune Factory mentions when the current title/thumbnail are referencing "history of everything", but the main topic is definitely important to get out there.
Good vid!
I chose not to include games like Rune Factory and Innocent Life, who's subtitle is, "a fantasy/futuristic harvest moon", in this video because, while they are technically spin offs, both of those games were developed and produced by different companies. While Marvelous and Natsume did play a role in publishing and localizing those games in Japan and North America respectively, they didn't have a hand in creating them outside lending the developer the use of their IP in the form of the bokujo monogatari/harvest moon title.
I never understood what "harvest moon" is supposed to mean. Is it a play on words from honey moon? I always found the name bit odd maybe since I'm no native speaker 🥲
I only know what a Harvest Moon is because of my family's background in agriculture. A "Harvest Moon" is a full moon closest to the first day of fall in the Norther Hemisphere, September 22nd. For example, this year, 2024, the harvest moon will be on September 17th. As a kid, I was told that around the time of the Harvest Moon is when my grandparents would get on their combines and start getting the last amount of corn and soybeans for the season lol