The Harvest Report

Today, we're going to be talking about the series that captured my brother's heart many years ago... Rune Factory, the fantasy-infused Harvest Moon spin-off series that, while still considered part of the official series, tends to feel like it's own entity all together. The first game of the series came out in August 2006, only a few months after the release of Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon, which I talked extensively on in the previous post. 2006 must've been the year of experimentation for Marvelous ALQ and it's producers, because both of these games were unlike anything that had previously carried the Harvest Moon title. The fantasy spin-off ended up being far more successful than it's futuristic counterpart, however, now totaling 6 games as of 2012. Sadly, there is no news of any future games as the actual developers of the series, Neverland Co, recently went bankrupt. Even so, the series is very beloved, and managed to reach a much differ...

I'll never forget the day I picked up this oddball on a confused whim. It was pretty recently after I started playing the Harvest Moon series, and I still had really no idea how game series worked. I saw a cool case, and the words 'Harvest Moon,' and I grabbed it. I had no idea what I was about to experience. This little gem was developed by Marvelous, published by Natsume, and was first released in Japan in 2006 for the PlayStation Portable. I personally didn't play the game until the Special Edition was released in North America, well into 2008, and I knew nothing about the game when I bought it. I wasn't even sure if it was technically still part of the actual Harvest Moon game series. It technically is, but you wouldn't be able to guess by playing it. Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon was absolutely unique, and overall very strange, but it still remains one of my very favorite games to this day. The game is set in the very near future, 2022, o...