Harvest Moon Online Announced

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Harvest Moon series, Marvelous Interactive, the series' Japanese publisher, is planning a fan event in Tokyo for Wednesday, the day before a Thursday Japanese national holiday. But today, one day before the event, the press was given an early look at the lineup for the event: two entries in the "New Harvest Moon" series, one for the PSP and one for the DS, and the all new Harvest Moon Online.

While we've provided you with details on the new DS title on the DS channel (the PSP game was unveiled a few weeks back), Harvest Moon Online is somewhat of a mystery at this point. Unlike the PSP and DS games, Harvest Moon Online is a part of the main Harvest Moon series, hence the lack of the word "New" in the name. Producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto admitted at the press conference that this would be his first Online title. He wouldn't commit to a platform or give out specifics on what we can expect from the game, but he did hint that it could be on a next generation platform (Xbox 360, PS3 or Revolution) or PC.

Since that's all we know at this point, here's another bit from the Harvest Moon press conference. The series now has an image girl, with Riko Narumi taking the honors of Japan's new most famous farm girl. She's only fourteen, so we'll hold off on the sexual innuendo for a couple of years, but Narumi is already quite the star, with a recent appearance in the Fuji Television drama One Liter of Tears (yes, that sounds just as silly in Japanese as it does in English). Narumi will appear in commercials for the upcoming DS Harvest Moon game, set for Japanese release on 12/8, and will be active in all areas of Harvest Moon in the future.

We presume this will include next year's Harvest Moon Online. We'll be back with more once Marvelous has revealed specifics on the new title.

Harvest Moon online ? Can't imagine anything right now, I just know that I loved Harvest Moon on the supernintendo and can't wait to get my hand on the next one....hopefully with better graphics this time. Just loved the gameplay and that it takes LONG until your finished.