It looks like Natsume Inc is ready to unveil their next Harvest Moon title. The publisher has officially revealed the title for the next iteration, Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos, and it’s set to launch in the Summer 2023. The game will also be part of the franchise’s 25th Anniversary celebration, which began way back in 1996 on the Super Nintendo. The gameplay will offer up new features, while also adhering to the traditional Harvest Moon style that has become a beloved facet over its entire history.
The publisher also revealed some story details via a press release. In the titular Anthos, Harvest Sprites protect the people and serve the Harvest Goddess. 20 years before the main game’s plot, a volcano reputed in the region, prompting the Goddess and her servants to protect the villages. While they were successful, the result of the eruption separated each major town from each other. The Goddess then entered a deep slumber, but not before putting a letter and a magic key within a bottle and sent it into the ocean. It is assumed that the player character will obtain this bottle and use it to somehow reunite the fractured region.
As we already mentioned, this will be the 25th Anniversary of the Harvest Moon franchise. While the series as a whole began in 1996, it actually split into two different franchises in 2012 when Marvellous left Natsume. Marvellous continues to make farming simulators under the new name Story of Seasons, while Natsume retained the Harvest Moon name and still uses it to this day. The most recent entry was 2021’s Harvest Moon: One World, which launched for all major platforms. It’ll be interesting to see how the Harvest Moon series fare with this new iteration, but one thing is fore sure. Every time they release a new Harvest Moon, the fans come 0ut in droves to support it. Hopefully we’ll hear more about Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos sooner than later.