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<div class='quotetop'></div><div class='quotemain'>A few years ago, we spoke with Sega's U.S. arcade division about a realistic pool game developed in Japan. It featured a physical pool cue and ball attached to the cabinet, and players would hit the ball into a wall and the game would calculate where it went. According to Sega, the game had literally zero chance of success in the U.S. since arcade operators would rather buy an actual pool table than a more expensive video game version -- the real thing was more appealing than the simulation.
In Harvest Moon Heroes, we have the opposite case. Farm work, gardening -- it has its appeal for some people to be sure, but as producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto explained to us today during a pre-TGS interview, he sees the fun in the game as letting users pretend to perform acts that would be annoying in real life.
"It's not like the actual farm work -- the actual farm work would be tiring -- but you are able to get the feel," he says.
The idea behind Harvest Moon's Wii debut is to let users perform actions by manipulating the controller -- chop with an axe, dig with a shovel, water plants with a bucket, etc. all by jostling the controller. Much of the game will play out along the strategic lines of previous games in the series, though with the option for players to change their outfits (a common fan request in the past) and a few overall engine changes that Marvelous is keeping quiet for the time being.
Now that Nintendo has announced the Mii Channel that allows players to create virtual characters and put themselves into many Wii games, does Marvelous have any plans to let players put themselves in Harvest Moon Heroes? "At this point, we don't have plans to do that, but if we hear those kinds of opinions we would like to do that in the next version," says Hashimoto (above). Click the image above to check out Harvest Moon Heroes screens.
The developers are being careful to make sure none of these actions get annoying or physically intensive for players. "If we make it exactly the same [as real life] people are going to get tired because it's like work," Hashimoto says. "We're just going to make it so you can kind of experience it and kind of have fun with it but not become tired of it. We're balancing it now to stay within the 'fun' part."
Part of his concern comes from not wanting to disappoint fans who have supported the Harvest Moon series for the past 10 years. There are few series that have such a small and loyal fan base. As Hashimoto describes it, "The game engine is going to be changed and tweaked and all that, but the basic game itself is going to be the same."
Part of that 'tweaking' comes with the graphics engine, which we haven't been able to see much of but seems to provide ever so slightly improved visuals over the Harvest Moon GameCube titles. Hashimoto describes it as a "new Wii engine" and says it is still early in development.
Despite that, Marvelous is aiming for the title to be either a launch or near-launch game for Wii in Japan. There are no specific announced U.S. release plans at this point, though the game will be coming from Natsume at some point. Fans of the series can look for a trailer of the game at Tokyo Game Show later this week, and hopefully we will get a chance to see more of it in action soon.</div>
<div class='quotetop'></div><div class='quotemain'>A few years ago, we spoke with Sega's U.S. arcade division about a realistic pool game developed in Japan. It featured a physical pool cue and ball attached to the cabinet, and players would hit the ball into a wall and the game would calculate where it went. According to Sega, the game had literally zero chance of success in the U.S. since arcade operators would rather buy an actual pool table than a more expensive video game version -- the real thing was more appealing than the simulation.
In Harvest Moon Heroes, we have the opposite case. Farm work, gardening -- it has its appeal for some people to be sure, but as producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto explained to us today during a pre-TGS interview, he sees the fun in the game as letting users pretend to perform acts that would be annoying in real life.
"It's not like the actual farm work -- the actual farm work would be tiring -- but you are able to get the feel," he says.
The idea behind Harvest Moon's Wii debut is to let users perform actions by manipulating the controller -- chop with an axe, dig with a shovel, water plants with a bucket, etc. all by jostling the controller. Much of the game will play out along the strategic lines of previous games in the series, though with the option for players to change their outfits (a common fan request in the past) and a few overall engine changes that Marvelous is keeping quiet for the time being.
Now that Nintendo has announced the Mii Channel that allows players to create virtual characters and put themselves into many Wii games, does Marvelous have any plans to let players put themselves in Harvest Moon Heroes? "At this point, we don't have plans to do that, but if we hear those kinds of opinions we would like to do that in the next version," says Hashimoto (above). Click the image above to check out Harvest Moon Heroes screens.
The developers are being careful to make sure none of these actions get annoying or physically intensive for players. "If we make it exactly the same [as real life] people are going to get tired because it's like work," Hashimoto says. "We're just going to make it so you can kind of experience it and kind of have fun with it but not become tired of it. We're balancing it now to stay within the 'fun' part."
Part of his concern comes from not wanting to disappoint fans who have supported the Harvest Moon series for the past 10 years. There are few series that have such a small and loyal fan base. As Hashimoto describes it, "The game engine is going to be changed and tweaked and all that, but the basic game itself is going to be the same."
Part of that 'tweaking' comes with the graphics engine, which we haven't been able to see much of but seems to provide ever so slightly improved visuals over the Harvest Moon GameCube titles. Hashimoto describes it as a "new Wii engine" and says it is still early in development.
Despite that, Marvelous is aiming for the title to be either a launch or near-launch game for Wii in Japan. There are no specific announced U.S. release plans at this point, though the game will be coming from Natsume at some point. Fans of the series can look for a trailer of the game at Tokyo Game Show later this week, and hopefully we will get a chance to see more of it in action soon.</div>