Earlier this month, American video game publishers Natsume Inc. announced on their Facebook and Twitter pages that they are working on the next title in their long running, light hearted farming/romance series, Harvest Moon. Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories will make the series debut on Wii U and PC, with the game also seeing a release on mobile phones on Android and iOS.
As with the previous games, Seeds of Memories story revolves around revitalising the little farm that you find yourself in ownership of. Few details have been revealed about the specific storyline of the game, other than that the focus will be to unlock "Seeds of Memories" by performing classic Harvest Moon tasks such as cooking, fishing, mining, foraging, raising livestock, growing crops, and, perhaps most importantly, making friends with the locals. Of course, it's not yet clear what exactly the "Seeds of Memories" will do (maybe it'll be like Harvest Moon: Magical Melody for the Wii, where you had to perform similar tasks to unlock magical notes in order to save the Harvest Goddess?) but it appears to be in some way linked to the revitalisation of your farm.
Unfortunately, all we have to go on visually so far is a logo
A new pet will be added to the game in the form of a wild bobcat - although as it's "wild", you'll likely have to work a little bit harder to win it over as your pet, most likely through petting and giving it food. Whether this works like in Harvest Moon: Animal Parade and Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquillity, where the wild animals could eventually live on your farm, or in Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, where it simply means they act friendly towards you when approached (and in the case of the turtle, give you a ride to areas that can't be accessed on foot) remains to be seen. The usual suspects will also be returning, of course - Natsume Inc. have stated that you'll be able to raise chickens, cows and sheep, and keep a horse and a dog as pets. The playable characters in Seeds of Memories will be the same as those in Harvest Moon: the Lost Valley (released on the 3DS this Friday). There'll also be 10 marriage candidates, 5 bachelors and 5 bachelorettes - although whether the dreamboat Raul will be making his return is anyone's guess. With the idea of downloadable content becoming ever popular in the gaming world, it would be great to see some extras released like they've done for the Lost Valley in North America, adding more marriage candidates each with their own storylines and requests. Some of the much loved festivals from the classic Harvest Moon games are also being continued, such as the Cooking Festival and the Starry Night Festival.
A release date of winter 2015 in North America has been floating around, but more relevant to us is when the game will hit shelves in the UK. A PAL release date has been mentioned, but there's no official line at the moment. With UK publisher Rising Star Games usually doing their best to bring the games to the UK, we'll be badgering them all we can to see if we can get some confirmation. More information about the game should be on its way soon, as Natsume Inc. have replied to comments on their Facebook page with "Keep watching for more info…" Mysterious!
With the press release saying the game will be "Inspired by the old-school gameplay of the very first games, [bringing] players a sense of nostalgia, along with exciting gameplay twists." it sounds like it's going to be packed full of traditional Harvest Moon fun - and will hopefully be one to add to our list of "Reasons to Buy a Wii U".
