YMMV / Harvest Moon (Natsume)

• Audience-Alienating Era: This whole series is considered this among fans of the series who know of the split between Marvelous and Natsume, and even many who are unaware that anything changed feel that these newer games aren't as good as the older Harvest Moon games, which can lead them to look into what's going on.
• Cliché Storm: If you've ever played even a single Story of Seasons game, you already have a basic idea of what these games have to offer. Since it uses the series' old name, it's at least partially intentional, but these games don't exactly do much to have an identity of their own.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Do not confuse these games with Story of Seasons or claim that they're part of the same franchise. The Natsume titles are an entirely different series under an old name.
• Fandom Rivalry: There's predominantly one-sided ones with both Stardew Valley and Story of Seasons. Many Stardew Valley fans consider it the superior Story Of Seasons Spiritual Successor, while many Story of Seasons fans hate these games for using the brand's old name and causing confusion with people who may not have realized the name of the series changed.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The games have a mixed reception amongst American fans of Story of Seasons. They, however, especially have fans in Indonesia.
• Good Bad Bugs: In Seed Of Memories there was a glitch that allowed same-sex marriage. It was eventually patched out.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: The first four games have gotten complaints for being too similar to one another. Much like the early Story of Seasons games, they reuse the same characters and protagonists.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: This Harvest Moon series is developed by Natsume since they held the rights to the name, while Story of Seasons was developed by the series' original creator company Marvelous. Games like The Lost Valley was met with generally negative reception, while Story of Seasons was warmly received. Later titles like Light of Hope were the same, and Natsume hadn't swayed people much to their series if at all as more hardline fans left for greener pastures with Story of Seasons, or Stardew Valley.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Any conversation about the Natsume-made titles will end up involving whether it's "right" for Natsume to make In Name Only titles without Marvelous' input.
• Pandering to the Base: One element of the Natsume games that the Marvelous games lack is that Natsume pays some attention to feedback from English fans:
  • It's a minor thing but characters use "Goddess" in an Oh, My Gods! manner. This is Ascended Fanon after years of fans using it in fan-works.
  • A common complaint of Story of Seasons is that the marriage and child system isn't fleshed out enough; kids stop growing after a certain level and they rarely help on the farm. In The Lost Valley, the last Harvest Sprite isn't revealed until you have a child, in Seeds of Memories you need children to complete the memories, and in Skytree Valley your kid can help on the farm.
• Spiritual Successor: The series markets itself and acts as one to Story of Seasons They're both similarly styled farm/life sims, but Story of Seasons is the direct continuation.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The first four games garnered mixed-to-negative reception from critics and fans. The Winds of Anthos is considered by many to be a step up over the previous entries, with its transition into a Wide-Open Sandbox being met with approval.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: The main complaint about the first four titles is that they try too hard to emulate the old Harvest Moon titles without adding much new.