Anyone tried the new Harvest Moon? I've heard good things about the series, but never played one. Curious to see if this is a good point to give the series a try.

oh wow forgot completely about this one, just watched a trailer and it has some minecraft shit going on apparently, I mean minecraft with an actual point? objectives and stuff? count me in! would like to hear some impressions on it as well.

Could be a nice place to start on the series, i've been playing these games for a long time now, they're great for just chilling out.

Absolute best one was friends of mineral town for the GBA though, haven't played any better than that one so far.

From what I've heard about this game from friends who are way into Harvest Moon, it definitely sounds like this is not the game you wanna play as your first Harvest Moon experience. Story of Seasons seems to be the way to go.

@steadying: jesus, how many harvest moon games are they going to put out?

Also did a bit of reading on this one and it looks like just the same old stuff but very much dumbed down(like crops being limited to 3x3 plus you can tend to these 3x3 blocks all at once from the get go... wtf?)... looks worse too when compared to the lost valley one imo, that one at least seems to be trying something new and interesting.

Huh. Weird. The last one I played, which I still play from time to time, is the New Beginning. It's pretty damn good. Story of Seasons seem to make some things a bit more simple, while The Lost Valley is a lot more complex. Also, the "real" new Harvest Moon seems to be Story of Seasons. The Lost Valley is made by the company that localized the old ones to English. Maybe that is a good thing, getting some new people to make it? I don't know. Will wait for more hands-on thoughts before I decide to get either of them. New Beginning is pretty good anyway, and I am not even close to finishing it.

I'd definitely wait to see on this one. It's really not part of the same series, and it's kind of a goofy story.

Until now, Harvest Moon has been the name they (the publisher, Natsume) gave to the localized Bokujou Monogatari games (made by Marvelous). Well, the rights to translate and publish Bokujou games in the west went to Xseed, Marvelous' new partner. But the NAME Harvest Moon still belongs to Natsume, so things are weird now.

The next actual Bokujou game is going to be Story of Seasons. That might even be the franchise's new western name henceforth.

Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, meanwhile, is essentially the first in an entirely new series, made with absolutely 0 Bokujou DNA -- just jumpstarting itself with known branding.

It's weird! Maybe it will be good, but it's certainly not Harvest Moon as we know it.

Definitely a bit weird, with the name thing. I wonder if it is a good game for those who don't have any past experience with Harvest Moon. I've never played any of them and I'd like to. Thinking about picking up either Lost Valley or New Beginning off the eShop. Any opinions?

Apparently the developer who usually makes Harvest Moon split from Natsume, so this is by a new team and so people are skeptical. The former Harvest Moon people are off making Story of Seasons, so maybe you should wait for that.