Gamertell

Good news for farming fans, another Harvest Moon DS game is in the pipeline. Never mind that North America still hasn’t gotten Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands or Harvest Moon: Welcome to the Wind Bazaar (Bokujou Monogatari: Youkoso Kaze no Bazaar e), that can’t keep us from getting excited about Harvest Moon: Twin Villages (Bokujou Monogatari: Futago no Mura). The biggest news about this entry is that there are two distinct villages in the game, Bluebell and Konohana, each with their own specialty. Depending on where your character lives, he/she will focus on either raising animals in Bluebell or raising crops in Konohana.

Like all Harvest Moon games, Harvest Moon: Twin Villages begins with a young entrepreneur   who decides that the farm life is the perfect life. All his/her life, the character has wanted a little farm at the foot of the mountain to call his/her own. The thing is, there are two villages there: Bluebell and Konohana. And both mayors want this new farmer to join their village. So, you get to choose based on what aspect of the game you like better.

Famitsu has some preliminary screenshots which look very nice. It seems that, like Harvest Moon: Welcome to the Wind Bazaar, Harvest Moon: Twin Villages is using the pastel and more intricate backgrounds found in the Rune Factory DS games. The Bluebell screenshots show a European/Western style village with llamas, horses, cows and two dogs that look like some kind of terrier and a St. Bernard. The Konohana screenshots show off a more traditional Japanese village, and crops that appear to be strawberries, turnips, tomatos and perhaps lettuce. (This may just be me, but one crop looks like cauliflower to me.) Famitsu also confirms that there will be rice paddies to maintain and players can keep bees for the first time in the series.

So far, an indefinite “winter” release date has been assigned. However, if you check the official Bokujou Monogatari: Futago no Mura website and look at the fine print, you’ll see “© 2010 Marvelous Entertainment Inc,” so I’m guessing we won’t be seeing this game in 2009.

No North American release has been announced, but it’s pretty likely. Natsume’s never failed Harvest Moon fans before. So chances are, we’ll be playing Harvest Moon: Twin Villages sometime in 2011.

Read [Famitsu (Japanese)] Also Read [1Up] Site [Bokujou Monogatari: Futago no Mura (Japanese)]