Trivia / Story of Seasons

• Creator Backlash: The creator of the series, Yasuhiro Wada, left the series in the 2000s because it was drifting too far from his original vision. He had wanted a relationship-based series with a farming backdrop and for the series to predominantly be about multiple relationships within the rural community. Others involved in the franchise wanted more emphasis on romance and on farming. They also began adding gimmicks in an attempt for mainstream appeal. Wada didn't like this, so he left after Harvest Moon: Animal Parade. He has since created other titles, such as Hometown Story and Little Dragons Café, which fit his preference for relationship-centered stories.
• Franchise Ownership Acquisition: The series was created and designed by Pack-In Video (and developed by Amccus) in 1996. They were then bought by Victor Interactive Software the next year in 1997, which itself was purchased by Marvelous in 2003 (which has had multiple names) and been under their ownership since.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": To newer fans, this occurs quite often when characters from older games appear in newer ones.
  • The first female protagonist, Sara, appeared for the first time in around ten years in My Little Shop. Her source games are obscure Game Boy games and thus obviously some people thought she was a new character.
  • In Magical Melody characters from the first game in the series have been mistaken for copycats of the Harvest Moon 64 characters, when in reality the 64 characters are actually descendants of them.
• No Export for You: The soundtracks, 4-koma manga, and concept artbooks are Japanese-exclusive. So are the players guides after the split, which are almost never translated into English.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: It's often believed that Natsume took the "Harvest Moon" name away from Marvelous, forcing them to rename the series. In reality, Marvelous decided the new name on their own and left Natsume with the old name. Natsume decided to continue using the Harvest Moon name for their own series because Harvest Moon was their main moneymaker.
• Similarly Named Works: Harvest Moon shares its name with a Neil Young album, a Blue Öyster Cult song, and a large produce company in the tiny island of Tasmania.
• Urban Legend of Zelda:
  • The perma-locked sheds in A Wonderful Life, the many non-existent ways to open them, and the many little animals running around the valley wearing neckerchiefs and the many ways to 'recruit' them onto your farm. Becomes Ascended Fanon in Sunshine Islands: once you raise Animal Island, you can befriend the animals there and have them do certain chores for you like gathering lumber and grasses. The sheds on your farm were removed in the remake.
  • Supposedly, if you get rid of the tablet Calvin gives you in Animal Parade in any fashion, he won't accept your marriage proposal.
  • Doctor's name being "Tim". In reality, there is no scene or game where he mentions his real name. The closest we get to a canon name is "Trent" (which is used in IOH and SI^note It could be his descendant from DS and Cute, but Karen's bangs imply otherwise and that wouldn't fit Natsume's Dub Name Change of having everyone have identical names and dropping the plot of them being their descendants). "Tim" in Back to Nature is the name of a dog, but somehow fans mistook it for Doctor's name.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Before opting for Story of Seasons, potential new names for the series were Plow & Propose, Summer Solstice, and Autumn Wind.
  • In A Wonderful Life there was supposed to be a circus that came into town after your child was born, but the characters were scrapped. They were eventually used for DS. Early screenshots show the dog was supposed to herd sheep and do tricks (the latter of which was added into the Distaff Counterpart game), the local cats would go outside, and your horse originally moved around more. For the Special Edition, instead of a daughter that resembles the father your daughter was supposed to have multiple looks (similar to your son with the bachelorettes), but this was scrapped due to technical limitations and time limits. Dummied Out items include an Ax item, two fishing lures, three unused records, and two Nursing Bottles.
  • In Tree of Tranquility, there's a slower, more ethereal-sounding, alternate mix of the Spring music that plays in the Sundae Inn at night throughout the year. It's really quite lovely. So, what could have been, you ask? The BGM tester in the Configurations menu reveals three other similar mixes, corresponding to the other three seasonal themes, that do not show up in the actual gameplay. It's quite possible the evening theme at the Sundae Inn was supposed to originally change according to the season, but since it stays with the slower Spring music throughout the year, it's hard to tell.
  • Animal Parade also features slower, remixed versions of the seasonal themes that pay at nightfall. These actually play in-game, when you're out on the field, running around, and they change according to the season. Fugue Forest's swamp section and Toucan Island even have their own slow nighttime music. It's also possible that, in Tree of Tranquility, the slower variations of the seasonal themes were supposed to kick in outside, during nightfall, and for whatever reason, it was scrapped in favor of the traditionally silent evenings the series usually has and the nighttime spring music just got shoved into the inn.
  • Trio of Towns had certain characters portraits edited in development. Most are just little things like the characters' outlines, though Yuzuki's skin was slightly darkened and his eyes narrowed while Lisette's shirt went from white to purple.
  • Harvest Moon: Back to Nature was originally a port of Harvest Moon 64. The team ended up changing so much that they went the full mile and made it a separate title.
  • The Band-Aid item from Back to Nature is Dummied Out in Friends of Mineral Town.