Story of Seasons
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Harvest Moon (牧場物語, Bokujō Monogatari, lit. "Ranch Story") is a series of life simulation/farm simulation/role-playing video games produced by Victor Interactive Software (acquired by Marvelous Entertainment in 2003) and was originally created by Yasuhiro Wada in 1996. English translation and distribution of the game is done by Natsume (and Rising Star Games in Europe). The object of the game is to maintain a farm over a period of time, tending the crops and livestock through the seasons, while befriending the nearby townsfolk and getting married in some games. The first game was Harvest Moon, released for the SNES in 1996. Games in the series have also been produced for Game Boy and GBA, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, GameCube and Nintendo DS; with new titles for PSP, Nintendo DS, and for the Wii.
Most gameplay in the Harvest Moon games consists of planting seeds to grow fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs, and collecting items, making home improvements, and building personal relationships. A successful farmer must weigh the cost, selling price, number of harvests, and growth times of the various types of produce in order to pick the best product for each of the seasons. One can also go fishing and mining for extra profit.
The ultimate challenge is for the player to manage their time. There is only a short amount of time in each game day, and the player only has a set amount of energy. They must balance their time and strength by working on the farm and making friends with the people in town.
Game aspects
Storyline
Although the main character in many of the games has been male, some of the newer games offer the option to play as a female character. A common theme throughout the series follows the storyline wherein the player inherits a relation or an old friend's farm, and is then taken through the various aspects of farming, such as growing crops, raising livestock, making friends and ultimately finding a partner. Each game provides objects to collect or goals to complete, whether it be villagers, collecting musical notes, finding sprites, making rainbows, or ringing bells.
Growing crops
This is the central aspect to all the games. The player must find optimal planting, watering, and harvesting patterns. Finding the most profitable plants, clearing space for planting, and harvesting the crops before winter rolls around are key to gaining money. In the games, each season has different crops available for planting, except for winter, when crops cannot grow and the player must rely on fishing, foraging, mining and livestock for income, though in some versions, a greenhouse can be used during the winter to protect crops. Crops can be grown year round in "A Wonderful Life" and "Another Wonderful Life."
Turnips, potatoes, tomatoes and corn are staple crops of the series, introduced in the first game. Since then, other games have introduced new crops, such as cabbage, carrots, onions, strawberries, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, rice, pineapples, cucumbers, and more.
Ranching livestock
An increasingly large part of the games is purchasing, caring for, and raising your own livestock. Livestock can bring about profits on a daily basis. Giving one's animals attention will increase their affection towards the player and over time, will begin producing higher quality products. On the other hand, neglecting the animals' needs can lead to sickness and even death.
The first Harvest Moon only allowed cows and chickens and provided a barn and chicken coop to house them. Milk and eggs could both be sold, as well as the animals themselves. Later titles introduced sheep and a separate feed for chickens, as well as machines that could change milk into cheese, eggs into mayonnaise, and wool into yarn. The more recent games allow the player to also raise ducks, goats, and differently-colored cows. In Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility silkworms and ostriches were introduced to the series, and the new game also enabled players to befriend wild animals and persuade them to live on their farm.
Animals are also able to reproduce. Eggs can be placed in an incubator to hatch a chick in a few days, while giving a cow or sheep a miracle potion will impregnate them. Buying and breeding multiple horses was introduced in Magical Melody and continued in Tree of Tranquility.
Pets and other animals
In many Harvest Moon games a player is given a dog and horse as a pet. Later in the series, the two animals are able to attend competitions (e.g. horse races and dog races) to win prizes. In the newer titles, cats are given as pets. In some games, dogs and horses can be fed, and the horse is able to be ridden in town. The player is also able to keep wild animals as pets. In Harvest Moon: Back to Nature the player can raise fish.
Gathering materials
Many Harvest Moon games require the player to gather materials for home improvement, tool improvement, cooking, or simply selling. The most common resource at earlier stages of the game (in older games) is wood; the player is able to chop up tree stumps to gather wood to add buildings to his or her farm, or add fencing to keep wild dogs out of the farm. Mining has also become an important feature, and most of the minerals found while mining in caves are required to upgrade tools to better, more manageable forms, as well as craft gifts for people in town. Cooking has also become a side activity in some games, and foraged foods, crops, milk and eggs can all be used to create different dishes.
Festivals
Most games in the series feature annual festivals which the player can attend. Some of these may just be simple social events, while others may be contests with prizes available to the player. Sometimes festivals are akin to real life holidays, such as Thanksgiving and the Starry Night Festival, which seems to be reminiscent of Christmas Eve. Livestock-themed festivals often take place, where the player can submit their animals to compete against other farms. Animals who win these contests often receive benefits; for example, a cow that wins might gain the ability to produce gold milk.
Getting married
The Harvest Moon games offer many choices for potential love interests. As the player spends time with the various potential love interests, he or she learns their likes and dislikes, showers them with gifts, and eventually proposes after completing all of the "heart events" for that character. If a player fails to marry a character, then there are usually rival characters who will marry the other potential spouses. Developers of the series have taken to producing both male and female versions of Harvest Moon games in recent years, allowing for different lineups of potential spouses. More recent games have begun offering a gender choice when starting a game. Only one Harvest Moon game has yet allowed players to pursue the possibility of living with someone of the same sex (termed the "Best Friends" system), the Japanese version of Harvest Moon DS Cute. The feature is removed from the US version and Natsume refuses to comment on the matter.
Children
In many versions, it is possible to have children, but usually only a boy. Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon 3 and Harvest Moon: Animal Parade are the only versions where the player can have multiple children. Harvest Moon DS, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and its spin-offs are the only games in the series where the player can experience a child's growth from toddler to full-grown adult. Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility expands on this by letting the player restart the game as their child after the completion of an end game event. Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland and Harvest Moon: Innocent Life are the only Harvest Moon titles that do not have marriage in them. Rune Factory 2 is the only Harvest Moon where the player can personify two characters, the father and his son or daughter.
Other Features
Many Harvest Moon games include fanciful content as well, such as fairies, harvest sprites, a harvest goddess, a kappa, a witch, a Mermaid and various forest guardians. In the Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life and Harvest Moon DS games, a yeti-like creature appears in the winter at the harvest spring. In Harvest Moon: Animal Parade the game will include a harvest god and wizard, both bachelors for girl players. In some games, special events such as a solar eclipse and legends about a red lake were included.