So which is your personal favorite game in the series?
Wada: (Instantly) Harvest Moon 64. The main reason is that I was more involved with the everyday production and development side of things, so that's why I'm more attached to that one. It feels more personal to me.
If you have a favorite game, then surely you must have a favorite Harvest Moon wife?
Wada: (Laughs) Ohhhhhh, that's a very difficult question! (Thinks for a good ten seconds) A girl called Karen, in the N64 version. Or maybe Nami in A Wonderful Life. She's quite cool with you at first, but once you get to know her, she opens up more. I'm not sure she'd make a good girlfriend, but she's a good wife in the game! (Laughs)
Are any of the HM characters based on anyone in your life?
Wada: There are some characters which have similarities with people I've met, but there's much more to each person - because if they were only based on my own personal experience, then it would be biased. I try to counter-balance this by creating characters which are purely from my own imagination, and to develop their personality in a new direction.
Speaking of new directions, Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon sees a shift into more fantastical territory. Was it a conscious decision to try and develop the series in such a totally new way?
Wada: Well, it's another creator for Rune Factory, and he wanted to move away from the core series into a different sort of area. It's what I'd call a different branch of the main series - I create the original stories and oversee the production on all the mainstream Harvest Moon games, but whatever the creator of Rune Factory or [new PSP title] Innocent Life want to do with their games, they can.
With Rune Factory and Innocent Life taking the series in one direction, have you considered making an ultra-realistic Harvest Moon, one without the Harvest Sprites or Goddess for example?
Wada: At the moment, I don't have any plans to go in that direction, but if a new creator had the idea of doing so, then I'd certainly go along with that.
Can you tell us a little about the new Harvest Moon on Wii, Tree of Tranquility?
Wada: Yes. One new element is the family life in the game - the children grow up and help the father tend crops, the wife can cook lunch, that sort of thing. There's definitely a new dimension to the family life in the game.
One of the most enchanting games like Stardew Valley I played in 2024 just got a big new update, placing the medieval life sim RPG back on my radar
The Sims creator's first game in over 10 years is an AI life sim that uses your real memories: "The more I can make a game about you, the more you'll like it"
