Story Of Seasons

''Story of Seasons'', known in Japan as and formerly known as ''Harvest Moon'', is an agricultural simulation role-playing video game series created by Yasuhiro Wada and developed by Victor Interactive Software (acquired by Marvelous Entertainment in 2003, now Marvelous Inc.). '' Story of Seasons'' was the first game to be released under the new international series title of the same name.

From 1996 to 2013, Natsume oversaw the English translation and distribution of the ''Bokujo Monogatari'' series in North America, where the games were released under the series title ''Harvest Moon''. In 2014, however, Marvelous Inc. announced that the latest installment in the series would be localized by their American publishing brand Xseed Games under the new series title ''Story of Seasons''. In September 2015, Nintendo of Europe announced that they would be handling the European distribution of the first game released under this title, '' Story of Seasons'', which was released later that year.

The main objective of the series is to rebuild a dilapidated old farm and turn it into a successful one. Over a period of time, the player tends to crops and livestock, befriends nearby townsfolk, and eventually marries and starts a family. The first game in the series, ''Harvest Moon'', was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1996.

Naming

In 2012, Marvelous discontinued licensing the series to Natsume. Natsume took the opportunity to develop their own series of ''Harvest Moon'' in North America and Europe beginning with the release of '' Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley.'' The resulting spin-off series has caused some degree of confusion among fans and video game news sources. Natsume published this series under the name ''Harvest Moon'' until 2014. At that time, Natsume maintained the rights to the ''Harvest Moon'' series name after Marvelous announced that it would have its subsidiary, Xseed Games, take over North American distribution. Because of this, Xseed began bringing the series to North America under the ''Story of Seasons'' title, beginning with the release of the game of the same name.

In September 2015, Nintendo of Europe confirmed that they would be publishing the latest entry of the series in Europe under the ''Story of Seasons'' name. Previous games released under the series title ''Harvest Moon'' were localized in Europe by Rising Star Games.

Common elements

Gameplay

The player's character has primarily been male, but some games offer the option to play as a female character. The most common story line of the series involves the player taking over a farm that no longer has an owner tending to it, growing crops, raising livestock, making friends with the town's people and creating a family while running a successful farm. Each game provides objects to collect or goals to complete, whether it is befriending villagers, collecting musical notes, finding sprites, making rainbows, or ringing bells.

Money is obtained by growing crops, raising livestock, fishing, mining, and foraging. With a limited time and limited energy, the player has to find a balance between these in order to accomplish their work for the day.

Growing crops

Crops are the primary source of income in ''Story of Seasons''. In order for crops to grow the player must first clear the field from weeds, rocks, boulders, branches, and stumps. Then with a clear field, they must take their hoe and till the soil. Next, they choose the seeds that they wish to grow and sow them where the soil is tilled. The player must continue to water the crop daily, but it isn't required on a rainy day, and as time goes on the crop will be ready for harvesting. The player must find optimal planting, watering and harvesting patterns. They also must consider the cost, sell price, number of harvests and growth time of the various produce available before planting. Each season has different crops available for planting, though in most games nothing may be planted in winter, and in ''Harvest Moon'' crops could not be planted in fall. In some games, a greenhouse or basement can be used during the winter to grow crops.

Turnips, potatoes, tomatoes and corn are staple crops of the series, introduced in the first game. Since then, other games have introduced new crops, such as cabbage, carrots, onions, strawberries, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, rice, pineapples, cucumber

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