If I were to guess, I’d say the one thing I’ve had the most trouble with in the time I’ve been home is staying connected to the outside world.
It’s not really a surprise to me; it’s really easy for me to get so zoned in on what I’m doing every day, especially in an enclosed situation like I’m in, that I forget to think about what’s going on outside.
That said, there was one thing in the last few weeks or so that caught my attention.
Back on May 12, Nintendo announced that there was going to be a new Harvest Moon game coming out for the Switch—so of course, since Harvest Moon is one of my all-time favourite franchises, I had to know more!
The details have been sparse to say the least, but with a bit of digging, here’s what I’ve learned so far about the new game.
What is it?
It’s the newest addition to the Harvest Moon franchise, and it’s called Harvest Moon: One World.
It’s a little funny to me with that name, since the last few instalments in the series have seen an increasing number of towns in the titles. From what I can tell, the idea behind this game is that it’s going to be an entire world to explore, presumably not too far off from what Pokémon does with its worlds.
What’s the premise?
This is where the game seems really interesting to me. In the official statement, Nintendo said that players will find themselves in a world where things like tomatoes, strawberries and cabbage—iconic Harvest Moon staples—are things of the past, relics preserved only within the history books.
It’s a little odd to think of a Harvest Moon game not having, well, crops. But that really only makes me think it’s going to be a sort of ultimate adventure, where not only does the player have to grow crops to boost the local economy—they have to bring those crops back to life.
The other interesting thing from the description we’ve gotten so far is that players will need to travel the whole world to bring those crops back to life, which makes me think that maybe for once, we’ll actually know where a character came from before they arrive at the farm!
When’s it coming out?
According to an announcement late last week, One World is coming this fall—and as a little surprise for PlayStation fans, Natsume shared that it’s actually coming both to the Switch and PS4.
That isn’t completely unusual, since Harvest Moon games have come out for PlayStation consoles in the past—but that stopped back in the days of the PS3, when the games started coming out for Nintendo’s DS series instead of larger consoles.
What does it look like?
Well, so far, the only thing Natsume’s shared is the cover art, and that looks an awful lot like the classic style of Harvest Moon games, right down to the iconic rotund chickens.
It’s not uncommon for the artwork of a Harvest Moon game to be a lot prettier than gameplay, especially since the games themselves (aside from Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns) haven’t seen that many design innovations in the last few iterations.
That said, though, the official statement did say that the game is being developed using an all-new graphics engine, so I’ll be really interested to see what happens!
So far, this is all we have on the new Harvest Moon game. Typically we’d be able to learn more at a Nintendo Direct, but since it looks unlikely there’ll be one this summer, I expect I’ll just have to keep my eyes peeled for more—ahem—indirect announcements.
What are you hoping to see with the next Harvest Moon game?
