Harvest Moon (video game)

The player controls a young man charged with maintaining the farm he inherits from his grandfather. The primary objective is to restore and maintain a farm that has fallen into disrepair. The player decides how to allocate time between daily tasks, such as clearing land, planting crops, selling harvests, raising livestock, attending festivals, building relationships with villagers, and foraging. For vegetables to develop, they must receive water each day; lack of water does not kill crops, but prevents them from growing. Animals must be fed once a day to keep them producing. Although the only care that chickens require is feeding, cows must be talked to frequently, brushed, and milked to retain their health. A cow may become sick if it is not fed for one day, which may lead to death if ignored. Chickens may die if left outside, where they can be blown away in a storm or eaten by wild dogs. After dark, the only business in town that the player can access is the bar, where a number of non-player characters gather to drink and talk. ==Development==

in 2018, holding a copy of Harvest Moon The concept of Harvest Moon came to director Yasuhiro Wada during his first years living in Tokyo. His first job was as a production assistant on PC Engine games, where he learned more about the principles of game development. New to life in the big city, Wada would reminisce about his simple childhood life in the countryside in Miyazaki, Kyushu. He conceived an idea for a country-living simulation game, including the ability to get married and have children. Harvest Moon was the first original title he would work on. == Release ==

Harvest Moon was released on August 9, 1996, in Japan for the Super Famicom. It was released after the launch of the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. The European version shipped with language localizations for Germany and France. When localized, all alcohol references were replaced with "juice", Satellaview version was a four-episode ura- or gaiden-version of the original Harvest Moon released on the Satellaview. Each episode had to be downloaded by players from St.GIGA (at NikoNiko Ranch on the BS-X cartridge) during a specified broadcast week and during a specified time-window. It featured "SoundLink" narration (radio drama-style streaming voice data intended to guide players through the game and give helpful hints and advice). Due to the nature of SoundLink broadcasts these games were only broadcast to players between 6:00 and 6:50PM on broadcast dates. The game was never released outside Japan and as with all other Satellaview titles it has never been re-released as a stand-alone title. Online Satellaview emulation enthusiasts refer to the game unofficially as "BS Makiba Monogatari". A single rerun of the broadcasts was conducted in the same weekly format from November 4, 1996, to November 30, 1996, at 5:00 to 5:50PM. The BS-X download location changed to Bagupotamia Temple. The episodes were known as: • released on September 2, 1996 • released on September 9, 1996 • released on September 16, 1996 • released on September 23, 1996 ==Reception==

The game received mainly positive reviews and has a GameRankings standing of 73%. In 2018, Complex ranked the Harvest Moon 72nd on their "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time". IGN rated the game 46th in its "Top 100 SNES Games." They praised the game being incredibly fun. == Legacy ==

The profitable release of Harvest Moon led to development of a second game in what would become a series, Harvest Moon GB. A third installment, Harvest Moon 64, would also be developed. For nearly the next two decades, new Harvest Moon games would be released frequently, at which point new games would be released under the title Story of Seasons due to issues with rights when Marvelous chose to move their localization division from Natsume Inc. to Xseed Games. Harvest Moon is one of the first games of the farm life simulation genre, also considered by some to be the first cozy game. Engadget called Harvest Moon "one of the most quietly influential games in the industry". According to Edge, millions of gamers have played farming simulation games of some kind since Harvest Moon's release. ==References==