Natsume has announced that the latest chapter in the long-running Harvest Moon farm sim franchise is now available for 3DS. If you are ready for more cattle raising and produce planting, check out the launch trailer above then head to your local store.
Despite the name of the game, Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley is technically not the newest Harvest Moon. The situation is a little confusing, but bear with me: The original Harvest Moon for SNES was developed by Pack-In-Video, which later merged with Victor Entertainment and eventually acquired by Marvelous Entertainment. Marvelous has been producing all the Harvest Moon games since, while Natsume had been publishing them in North America. Recently, Marvelous decided to drop Natsume as publisher in the West, but unfortunately the actually "Harvest Moon" name was still owned by Natsume.
This brings us to The Lost Valley, which was developed by a completely new team in-house at Natsume. Marvelous, on the other hand, is preparing a Western release for a game called Story of Seasons. This is actually the true Harvest Moon — in Japan, it was released as Bokujo Monogatari: Tsunagaru Shin Tenchi, with Bokujo Monogatari being the Japanese name for the Harvest Moon series.
So it's up to you now. Do you give Natsume's take on the franchise a fair shot, or do you hold out for Marvelous' contribution?