Reminder: Harvest Moon is called Story of Seasons. This is just a cash grab.

[Grandork]

Topic says it all. This is shovel ware. Always has been, always will be.

The real Harvest Moon is called Story of Seasons.

[Cybercorgi 2077]

Wrong. If you want to be a purest, both are "cash grabs". The "original" development team's last game was Animal Parade.

The irony of Marvelous's appeal to purity is thick.

[Gnollmar]

A true fan would love both companies, anyone calling either of them real or fake is just a troll ...

[Infinite Pudding]

Everyone knows already. Let me guess, you also go around the internet telling people that Super Mario Bros 2 in the US is actually a game called Doki Doki Panic?

[Khaine]

Originally posted by Cybercorgi 2077:

Wrong. If you want to be a purest, both are "cash grabs". The "original" development team's last game was Animal Parade.

The irony of Marvelous's appeal to purity is thick.

There is something to be said about the lack of content on the Marvelous side lately, but the quality difference is pretty obvious if you aren't purposefully excusing Natsume's offering because you are desperate for a new farming life sim.

[Gigalo]

The new harvest moons/story of seasons have never been the same.

[Nate Dawg]

The Harvest Moon series was originally developed by Yasuhiro Wada and his team at Amccus. The first game in the series was released in Japan in 1996 under the title Bokujō Monogatari. Natsume Inc. published the game in North America under the title Harvest Moon in 1997.

In 2014, Marvelous Inc., the parent company of Victor Interactive Software (which had acquired Amccus in 2003), decided to have its own American division, Xseed Games, take over North American distribution of the Bokujō Monogatari series. However, Natsume Inc. owned the rights to the Harvest Moon name, so the latest titles in the series were rebranded Story of Seasons in North America. Natsume Inc. began to produce their own series under the Harvest Moon name.

Like you, I am also a original fan of the Bokujo Monogatari. However, this is a very confusing topic because both Natsume and Marvelous are license holders and technically Natsume (Winds of Anthos) is the original Harvest Moon from 1997 for the USA. And Marvelous took over in 2012 (they changed the name to Story of Seasons) - so technically this game isn't part of story of seasons series.

[Cybercorgi 2077]

I mean, the new harvest moon titles are being developed by a studio that was hastily put together - likely with a small budget - with no group experience with game dev. It's pretty obvious what that is going to do to quality. I haven't been a fan of Natsume's releases so far but they do seem to be trending upward in quality, which tells me they are learning and are serious about making a competitive title.

[Khaine]

Originally posted by Cybercorgi 2077:

I mean, the new harvest moon titles are being developed by a studio that was hastily put together - likely with a small budget - with no group experience with game dev. It's pretty obvious what that is going to do to quality. I haven't been a fan of Natsume's releases so far but they do seem to be trending upward in quality, which tells me they are learning and are serious about making a competitive title.

The question is why they were hastily put together and allowed to release low quality products. The answer is most likely to retain the naming rights for "Harvest Moon" and they wanted to retain that name to capitalise on the goodwill created by the Marvelous dev team..