Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada has been working on a variety of games since his departure from Marvelous following the release of Harvest Moon: Animal Parade. Since then, the series name has been held hostage by Natsume, forcing Marvelous to adopt the new name, Story of Seasons.
Wada recently talked up the overall direction of the Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons franchise, comparing it to the original Harvest Moon game for the Super Nintendo. He even went as far as saying the indie darling Stardew Valley carries on the legacy of the original game.
“The first version of Harvest Moon had the biggest map grid out of all the games, and provided the most freedom to players,” Wada said. “As the games got newer, the grids we were working with got smaller and smaller, reducing the freedom you had. I’m not saying this is bad, but the series had evolved in a different direction.
“There were more characters, the animation got better, the graphics got better, et cetera. But the freedom of the series decreased as those improvements were made. After seeing Stardew Valley, I feel that it carries on the legacy of the original Harvest Moon very well because of the freedom you have in it.”
Wada naturally acknowledged the inspiration for Stardew Valley coming from Harvest Moon.
“I actually met Eric Barone recently; I told him I was very happy. Instead of Harvest Moon being forgotten, it has become powered up and it has gotten even better. It’s still living on, even though I’m not working on it anymore. I’m really happy that’s happening,” Wada explained.
Now before you get your hopes up for Wada to return to the series, he was quite clear on his disinterest in making another farming / life simulator game.
“Not. At. All. [Laughs],” Wada remarked when asked if he would return to the genre, or making another game in the series.
“I see Harvest Moon more as my child now; it’s all grown up. It’s married, it started a family, and it’s doing its own thing now. I’m curious as to how it’s going to do from here on out, but I don’t feel the need to get involved with the series anymore.”
In case you missed it, you can find my review for Stardew Valley here (I highly recommend it, as it’s probably the closest thing to the original SNES game experience for me).
Yasuhiro Wada’s latest game, Birthdays the Beginning, is quite the departure from a farming / life simulator – in fact you essentially play as god in an evolution-focused sandbox. Birthdays the Beginning is launching for PC and PlayStation 4 on March 7th of next year.
