Consider me mildly intrigued
Ever since theHarvest Moonfranchise was forcibly uncoupled from theBokujō Monogatarifranchise from Marvelous, it’s had trouble finding its footing in the surprisingly competitive farm sim genre.Harvest Moon: The Lost ValleyandHarvest Moon: Skytree Villageattempted to mix the traditional crop-raising gameplay with aMinecraft-inspired voxel world. The results were less than stellar.Harvest Moon: Light of Hoperevisited the top-down feel of the original game with mixed results, and the less said aboutHarvest Moon: One World, the better. While I contendHarvest Moon: Mad Dashis a delightful gem, it’s clear this series needs to turn things around. It may be able to do that this summer withHarvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos.
Announced late last year,The Winds of Anthostakes place in the land of Anthos, where years prior, a volcanic eruption separated the villages of this land. The people of the world were saved by the Harvest Goddess, who cast a magic key into the ocean with the last of that power. It’s unknown what that key will unlock, but what we do know is that, visually, this is shaping up to be the best-lookingHarvest Moonsince Natsume had to go its own way.
A look at the New Harvest Moon
Natsume started sharing screens of the game in March over onits social media pages. While we’re still waiting for a proper trailer to give us a look at the game in action, these screens are decent enough for me to not write the whole game off right now. Of course, it’ll have some competition when it launches as we’re also getting a remaster ofStory of Seasons: A Wonderful Lifethis summer.
We’ll find out if this will be theHarvest Moonto break the series out of its slump whenHarvest Moon: The Winds of Anthoslaunches later this year for Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
