Story of Seasons dev on the theme of life and death
This information comes from head of development Yoshifumi Hashimoto…
“[The original Harvest Moon] released at a time when games were all about battles and monsters, and we made a game about being a farmer, but not a farmer with a tractor,” he said. “You took care of things with your bare hands. If you didn’t take care of your animals, they would die. Initially, we received complaints from parents who said the game was too dark. But this whole game is about a farmer’s life. I want people to experience what life is like.”
– Hashimoto doesn’t see a game like Story of Seasons or any of the Harvest Moon titles forcing a message onto players
– He believes the actions and consequences in the game make it easier for players to understand life and death
– He said he recently heard on Japanese radio of a kid whose pet died, and who explained to his parents that the pet had “run out of batteries”
– He hopes Story of Seasons helps younger players understand that the world is a bit more complex than that
“Death is a touchy subject to talk about. But it’s one of the things I’m really proud of doing in my games. I was thinking of what kind of life I could have the user experience … I wanted to make it easier for players to understand life and death.”
