Why did Harvest Moon change its name to Story of Seasons? Understand

Em Harvest Moon, it is normal to wake up early to take care of the animals and collect food from the plantation, to sell later. Then, buy seeds in the city and take the opportunity to flirt with the teacher at school who you intend to date. Finally, pass through the mines and try your luck at finding precious stones, being careful not to faint from exhaustion.

This is a traditional routine in the franchise Harvest Moon, which features some of the most iconic farm management games in the industry. Without it, many players would not know the genre, which later gained professional and realistic versions such as Farming Simulator or even more popular spiritual successors such as Stardew Valley.

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life.Source: Reproduction/Xseed

Currently, the situation in this saga is a little different: she changed her name some time ago, and came to be called Story of Seasons. To make everything even more confusing, the name Harvest Moon Still exist like a “farm game” e there will even be a new chapter this year. But what is the difference between the two — if there is any — and why did this exchange happen?

The origin of Harvest Moon

To understand the confusion, it is necessary to go back to the origins of this saga, which begins in Japan in August 1996. This is the launch period for Bokujou Monogatarireleased for the Super Famicom (the original Japanese version of the Super Nintendo) and created by Yasuhiro Wada.

In the game, you are a young farmer with the mission of managing a farm that you inherited from your grandfather, including having to take care of animals and crops, as well as socializing with the city’s inhabitants. The title published by distributor Natsume did not explode in sales in the country, but it began to form a loyal community and arrived in the United States a year later.

Bokujo Monogatari (1996).Source: Reproduction/eBay

For English localization, the Natsume’s North American division chose to leave aside the literal translation of the title (which would be something like “Farm Story”) and chose a more poetic name, Harvest Moon. In Japanese, the titles continued to appear as Bokujou Monogatari.

Harvest Moon (1997).Source: Reproduction/Xseed

The series grew in popularity and over the years gained titles for various platforms: Harvest Moon GBno Game Boy; Harvest Moon 64do Nintendo 64; Harvest Moon: Back to Natureon the first PlayStation; Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Towndo Game Boy Advance; e Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Lifepara Game Cube e PlayStation 2.

The confusion

The formula of the games created by Marvelous Interactive and published by Natsume seemed well defined and followed until 2014when the crisis came.

After the release of Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning, developer Marvelous and distributor Natsume have ended their decades-long partnership. With the end of the contract, the studio announced the continued arrival of Japanese titles in the franchise, but now under a different name.

The first” Story of Seasons came out in 2015, now distributed by a company called Xseed — being, in fact, another chapter of the lasting original work.

Story of Seasons (2015)Source: Disclosure/Xseed

Natsume, which was the owner of the brand translated into English for publishing it in the West, decided to take advantage of the traditional name and launched its own farm manager, without any relationship with the previous games or creators — Wada left the saga years before and went on to create his own titles, such as Little Dragons Café.

The first game of this wave was Harvest Moon: The Lost Valleypoorly received by the public and critics.

Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley (2014).Source: Reproduction/Natsume

Shortly after the split, the franchise’s loyal community continued to support the games. Story of Seasonswhich tend to receive better ratings than current ones Harvest Moon. Both now coexist on the market, including launches in close periods.

What is the difference between Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons

The name Harvest Moon is, until 2014, the official translation of the franchise Bokujo Monogatari. After that year, Harvest Moon became Natsume’s brand in original games and unrelated to the previous ones.

Games like Harvest Moon: Light of Hope (the first for PC) and the future Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthoswhich comes out now in 2023, are even farm managers, but with no relation to the titles from decades ago.

The most recent Harvest Moon (above) and Story of Seasons (below).Source: Reproduction/Natsume

Already Story of Seasons as a name was only officially born in 2015, being the new Western nomenclature of Bokujo Monogatari and the publication of that franchise outside of Japan since then, now distributed by Xseed.

The latest game in this new phase is Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town (PC, Switch, PS4), not counting spin-offs and re-releases.