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Subject: "Attn: Harvest Moon fans"     Previous Topic | Next Topic
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laudre
Member since Nov-14-06
361 posts
Jun-05-14, 03:22 PM (EDT)
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"Attn: Harvest Moon fans"
 
   I've never gotten into the franchise, but my (significantly) better half adores the games, and she's turned me onto this.

Marvelous AQL is the name of the developer and, in Japan, publisher of 牧場物語 (Bokujō Monogatari, literally "Farm Story"), known in the English-speaking world as Harvest Moon. Previously, all of the games have been localized for the North American market by Natsume, who own the title "Harvest Moon"; however, last week, Marvelous AQL announced that Natsume would no longer be localizing the game, and that, instead, Marvelous AQL's subsidiary XSEED Games would be handling the localization for the newest game (Farm Story: Connect to a New World in Japan). Because Natsume, rather than Marvelous AQL, owns the "Harvest Moon" brand, however, the new game will not bear that title, instead being released to the English-speaking world as Story of Seasons.

Shortly thereafter, Natsume announced that they're producing their own game in house that will be marketed under the "Harvest Moon" brand: Harvest Moon: the Lost Valley. Every bit of marketing from Natsume has been pushing hard on that brand recognition, creating the (false) impression that it's from the same developers etc. as the previous games; they've also gone out of their way to dismiss or shut down, as much as they can, anyone asking for clarification. Not only that, but it turns out that Natsume has been developing this game for over a year, while still under contract with Marvelous AQL for localization.

So, to sum up: if you want to support the actual established Harvest Moon people, the game coming out this fall that you want is Story of Seasons, and not the new Harvest Moon game. Also, note that most of the bugs and glitches of previous English-language HM games are much more Natsume's fault than Marvelous, since most of those bugs are only present in the Natsume localization, not in the Japanese-language original; this does not bode well for the QA for a game developed entirely in-house by Natsume.

Me, I'm hoping that some reporter asks Natsume some uncomfortable questions in E3.


"Mathematics brought rigor to economics. Unfortunately, it also brought mortis."
- Kenneth Boulding


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