Why did some older Harvest Moon games have separate games for playing as either a boy or a girl?

[Uncle Jon]

It's just one of those things that I've always wondered as a kid like for example there is another version of a wonderful life called "another wonderful life" except you play as a girl. Why didn't they just give you the option of playing either gender instead of buying a separate game?

[mike]

Because there is some things to change, not just the character look. You need to change dialogues, and add dating other gender, etc.

[funewchie]

And because these extra options tended to come out a year or two after its original game did.

[Marblo]

All of the above lol

[Hina]

In order to make a harvest moon game give the players the option of choosing the genders of their characters, it would involve a lot of programming to put gender specific dialogue when the player's character talks with the npcs. Unlike gaming consoles of today, the older gaming consoles were quite limited. I mean yeah there were games that pushed the older hardware to their limits, but there was only so much the developpers and programmers could do back in the day.