Gaming Anniversaries August 9- Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon

Released August 9, 1996- Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon appeared in the Japanese market on this day in 96′. For the Super Famicom.

Harvest Moon, a world renowned Farming RPG simulator type game first hit the Japanese market. 

Developed by Natsume, the game featured a great deal of content many fans weren’t expecting. Even with an interesting story.

You start the game as a dreamer. Dreaming of the sun and the earth and living a simpler life. When you discover that your grandfather left you his farm. You immediately set out to take the farm and start a brand new life. However, the farm is in complete disrepair. it’s overgrown and things are falling down. There are no animals to speak of. You have to take the next two years to reconstruct the glory of your grandfather’s farm and start your whole new experience as a farmer.

Harvest Moon takes place over two years, each with four 30 day seasons to play. Spring, summer, fall and of course Winter. Each season allows you to plant different crops. Players must take care of the crops to earn money to purchase farm upgrades and deliver gifts to other villagers. You can’t plant any crops in winter, so make sure you plant enough and make enough money to keep you going through the long season. Additionally, you must purchase and take care of animals to include an all year round source of income.

The game also features several events throughout gameplay. Natural disasters may occur, festivals will take place and there are even side quests available with the girls in the village that will ultimately lead to marriage.

Harvest Moon has become a quite rare and expensive game. Frequently fetching around $200 online. For good reason, the game may have sold well, but it’s definitely one of the greatest of its kind on the Super Nintendo. It was critically well received. Holding a standing score of around 73% on GameRankings and an 8.5 for the Virtual Console version from IGN.

The game still enjoys great success, with many different versions released over time. Such as Harvest Moon: Light of Hope which is set to release sometime in the near future.

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