It’s hard to believe it’s already March! It feels like just yesterday we were saying good riddance to 2020, and already we’re over two months into this year.
I’ve been excited for March, though, because this month is going to be a big one for a lot of reasons—the geekiest of which is that it’s got big news for Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons fans.
Harvest Moon: One World comes out today
I will admit, I kind of missed the memo on this one. I’m terrible at remembering exact dates at the best of times, let alone when I’m in the midst of starting a new job and planning a wedding. But today, March 2, is the official release date for Harvest Moon: One World in North and South America. It’s scheduled to hit European countries on Friday.
There are a few reasons why I’ve been excited for this game.
As I wrote about back in June, the whole premise of the game is that farming as we used to know it is gone. Strawberries? Tomatoes? Corn? Pshh. Now, the player has to bring those crops back to life before they can even think about a shipping bin! It definitely seems like the ultimate adventure for Harvest Moon fans, full of questing and travel and who knows what tricky puzzles.
The other big thing is that this game is coming to PS4, which is something that though the games have shown up on PlayStation consoles before, it’s been quite a while.
One thing I’m not super keen on? Honestly, the graphics look like they might be a hot mess. Harvest Moon games haven’t been progressing at the same rate as the rest of the game industry (not with me on this? See Light of Hope.), but I was hopeful from the cover art and the fact that apparently the designers were using an all-new graphics engine that it would be a real improvement.
The gameplay videos that have been released have made me think otherwise. But I’m still hopeful the game will prove me wrong!
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is coming on March 23
Now here’s a game to be excited about! I know I haven’t talked about this one yet, but I have much higher hopes for Pioneers of Olive Town. The Story of Seasons games historically tend to be a little more adventurous between releases, so there’s a good chance this game will have engaging new content to play through.
From what I’ve seen of the premise, it’s not all that different from other games; it relies more on functionality changes to feel like a new game. You know, things like being able to build and repair structures by yourself (sorry, every carpenter ever!), clearing actual forest so you can make fields, installing sprinklers in your fields so you don’t have to water every day—little things like that.
It also just looks like a beautiful game, building on what we’ve seen in the likes of Trio of Towns for players on the big screen.
From what I know, it also involves some characters that will be familiar to those who have played previous games, which is always nice to see.
Now, time to go order (and preorder) some farming sims so we can talk about how they actually turned out! Will you be playing either of the new games?
