Harvest Moon: its lineage, descendants, and standing in Japan
01What this origin is
牧場物語 (Bokujo Monogatari), known in English as Harvest Moon, is a farm simulation role-playing game developed by Amccus and released in Japan for the Super Famicom, published by Pack-In-Video. Its Wikidata entry describes it as a 1996 farm simulation role-playing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and English Wikipedia calls it one of the first games of the farm life simulation genre, also considered by some to be the first cozy game. There is no Steam release under this site's identifier for this original; the later Steam release STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town is a separate remake by a different developer, Marvelous Inc., so the origin here is anchored to the original's Wikidata entry. It is the origin of the farm life simulation lineage, games built around tending something in a field and shipping the result for a reward.
02Sources
03Buried gems that carry this root
デンパトウ (no official English title) Buried gem
Per the developer's own Steam description, Denpatou is a retro pixel-art farm simulation adventure: you plant an antenna in a field, grow it, and ship it once it has grown, earning as your reward the chance to watch a television program. The store lists three endings, Normal, Bad and True, and a Steam review puts one full playthrough at about three hours. It is the official original game of a BS TV Tokyo program, 東京パソコンクラブ〜プログラミング女子のゼロからゲーム作り〜, in which Nogizaka46 members 吉田綾乃クリスティー, 弓木奈於 and 林瑠奈 learn game programming from zero; Steam's own website field for this listing points back to the show's own page, and Steam reviewers credit トロヤ (Toroya) as the game's maker. Steam lists the developer as トロヤマイバッテリーズフライド and the publisher as 株式会社テレビ東京コミュニケーションズ, with every store language set to Japanese only. Released on Steam on May 16, 2024 for ¥980, not free and not in Early Access, it sits at Very Positive with all 59 of its 59 reviews positive, and every one of those 59 reviews is written in Japanese, with zero in English or any other language. One honest note on that score: 15 of all 59 reviews name the show, 東京パソコンクラブ, or a Nogizaka46 member directly (some name both), and 54 of the 59 reviews were posted within 14 days of release, so the review count leans on viewers who arrived through the broadcast rather than word of mouth that spread on its own. The developer's content note on the Steam listing reads that the game contains text that may suggest sexual stimulation or intercourse, derogatory or vulgar language, and some disturbing descriptions implying suicide; of the 59 reviews, only one touches on anything sexual, and it is about a parody of a television program inside the game. With 0 of its 59 reviews in English, it has not reached English-speaking players.