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Graham Markay

If there’s one thing Harvest Moon fans have been critical of with Light of Hope, it’d be the graphics. The game doesn’t quite have a 3D look. At the same time, it doesn’t have 2D art either.

Natsume vice president of operations Graham Markay commented on Harvest Moon: Light of Hope’s graphics in an interview with PC Gamer. He noted that “Harvest Moon has never been about graphics,” and the series instead relays the message “that hard work gets rewarded.”

Later this year, Natsume will be bringing out Harvest Moon: Skytree Village. It’s the second game in the series following the split with Marvelous over the Bokujo Monogatari titles, which Natsume previously localized. Harvest Moon now refers to the games that Natsume makes internally.

Polygon spoke with Natsume vice president of operations Graham Markay about Skytree Valley at E3 last week and the franchise as a whole. He commented on how the series is constantly evolving, the divide with Story of Seasons, and more.

Head past the break for some of Markay’s responses. You can read Polygon’s full article here.

Initially, River City: Tokyo Rumble was only going to be distributed as a digital title. But while an eShop release is still planned, Natsume vice president of operations Graham Markay has now confirmed to Polygon that a limited edition physical release is in the works as well.

Markay told the site:

“[Tokyo Rumble] was going to be digital-only. You don’t have to sell to retail or try to explain or try to get the physical product placed on store shelves [with online exclusive releases]. That gives you the ability to take a few more chances.”

“When we announced [Tokyo Rumble], there was an outcry of, ‘It better be physical.’ So we’re going to do a limited edition physical release.”

River City: Tokyo Rumble is scheduled for release this year.

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Natsume has eight GBA Virtual Console games planned for the Wii U Virtual Console. That’s according to the company’s Graham Markay, who shared the news on the latest Fragments of Silicon podcast.

As previously mentioned, Natsume’s Virtual Console plans include the Medabots games Medabots AX and Medabots: An RPG Adventure. Pocky & Rocky with Becky is also on the way.

Markay noted in the podcast that Natsume has been working on its new Virtual Console plans “for awhile”.

We’ll begin seeing Natsume’s new Virtual Console releases on the eShop at the beginning of June.

During the latest Fragments of Silicon podcast, Natsume’s director of operations Graham Markay explained why the company passed on localizations of the recent Medabots games. He explained:

[…] not every game that’s made in a particular territory, such as Japan, is always made with a worldwide release in mind. Another thing to consider is that we’d have to use Rocket Company’s engineers and programmers in regards to localizing a game. Even if we were to translate it, they’d have to be available. We reached out to them and told them we wanted to do more. We had a great time back in the day on the GBA releasing those four Medabots games, and on the Gamecube. Unfortunately, the stars have not yet aligned. Hopefully there’s a game that they have time to partner with us on.

[…] I would’ve loved to have brought [Medarot 7 and Medarot 8] over to the US. It just doesn’t seem like the right timing now. Then that begs the question of when would be the right timing. Maybe when their team frees up, but then when’s that going to be? When we’re free, they’re free, is it still going to be viable for the 3DS market at the time? We haven’t given up. It’s not like they reached out and said, “Hey, we need A, B, and C to make this happen.” We both looked at our calendars and unfortunately they were involved with something and weren’t available at the time.

Markay also revealed that Natsume’s GBA Virtual Console games will begin arriving on the Wii U eShop starting in June. This includes the Medabots titles AX and An RPG Adventure.

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Thanks to a preview from Polygon, we now have more details about Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley. There are also quotes from Natsume’s Graham Markay as well as president CEO Yasuhiro “Hiro” Maekawa, who even touched on topics such as how the Harvest Moon series almost didn’t come west.

Check out our summary of Polygon’s report below. You can also read the site’s full preview here.

Like previous entries in the series, Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley won’t offer same-sex marriages. However, Natsume has suggested that this is something that could be included in future titles.

Joystiq spoke with a couple of folks at Natsume and was told the following:

“It’s obviously something that we’re going to look into as we continue the Harvest Moon series. We’re going to look into all aspects of it.” – Graham Markay, Vice President of Operations

“We always listen very carefully to fans’ voices. Fan voices, media voices. We know what the fans are looking for. We are always carefully listening to fans’ voices.” – Hiro Maekawa, President and CEO of Natsume

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Natsume’s Graham Markay confirmed to Siliconera that DLC is planned for Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley. The plan is to bring out both free and paid DLC. Through the extra content, the game will extend beyond the story or when players get married.

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With Yumi’s Odd Odyssey’s North American launch just on the horizon, we spoke with Natsume’s Graham Markay and Kiyoshi Sakai, one of the series’ original developers. Topics include the game’s digital-only release, returning to the franchise after it had been dormant for so many years, and more. We also asked Natsume about a few other things such as Virtual Console and Wii U support.

We’ve split up the interview into a couple of pages – you’ll find Markay’s comments below and Sakai’s remarks on page two.

Natsume has put out a bunch of 3DS games – a pair of Harvest Moon titles, Hometown Story, and more. Yumi’s Odd Odyssey is also on the way.

The publisher’s strong support for the platform can likely be attributed to high consumer interest in its slate of 3DS titles. According to Natsume’s Graham Markay, “the 3DS has done very well for us in terms of sales.” Additional games will be announced for the system “in the future.”

And speaking of Yumi’s Odd Odyssey, Markay shared another update about its release. We were recently told that it should be available by the end of February/early March. Pricing is set at $29.99.

Check back tomorrow for more on Yumi’s Odd Odyssey…


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