Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley’s tools system revealed

Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley features a new tool system that works in conjunction with player actions, upgrades, and the item bag.

The 3DS game introduces context-sensitive tools for the first time. For instance, if you’re standing in front of a tree and you have an axe in your inventory, the game will know that you want to chop down the tree and there won’t be a need to open a menu to select and equip a tool. This works with other tools and actions as well.

Players won’t be upgrading tools in Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley. Instead, Harvest Sprites act as tool upgrades. Simply ask the Harvest Sprites for help and they’ll be able to water their crops, mine material stone, collect lumber, and more.

Lastly, the player’s bag is capable of storing up to 255 of each item. You won’t have to run back to your house, get items from the tool box or refrigerator, and so on, since everything can be kept in the bag.

Speaking about Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley’s tool changes, producer Taka Maekawa stated:

“When we sat down to design Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, we wanted to really study what made the game fun. We wanted to maintain the core value of hard work leading to great rewards, while minimizing anything that may detract from a fun game. We took a long, hard look at the tool system and decided to go back to the drawing board. We came to the conclusion that gameplay should flow, so we made three core changes to the tool system.”

Source: Natsume PR