Nerd Mentality

Natsume Interview: E3 2006

Posted May 23rd 2006 by Jordan Mammo and Daniel Sousa.

During the second day of E3, N-Philes had the chance to sit down and talk with Graham Markay, Natsume's Senior Director of Operations. Though they've released revered action games such as the Super Nintendo's Pocky and Rocky, the company is best known for their Harvest Moon and Legend of the River King franchises. Natsume is currently preparing Harvest Moon DS, Freedom Wings and Puzzle de Harvest Moon for release on the Nintendo DS later this year.

We met Mr. Markay in a small room constructed above Natsume's booth, and he wasted no time before getting into the games. We exchanged handshakes, and as soon as we mentioned a problem with our business cards, he told us of his own stumbling blocks on the road to E3.

Graham Markay: I completely understand about last second problems. One of my last second problems was I was expecting to show a particular title at the show - wasn't ready in time so I had to switch it out with [Harvest Moon] Magical Melody. Magical Melody is downstairs and normally it was actually supposed to be... this one [points to Puzzle de Harvest Moon]

N-Philes: So you had to switch Magical Melody in for Puzzle de Harvest Moon?

Markay: Yeah, because Puzzle de Harvest Moon wasn't ready to be shown playable. It's still set for its October release date.

We've got three Nintendo DS titles: Harvest Moon DS, Freedom Wings, and Puzzle de Harvest Moon. Harvest Moon is set to release in August. You familiar with the series?

N-Philes: Yeah.

Markay: You know, these games have been around for almost ten years now, and we're on our fifteenth or sixteenth Harvest Moon title. I think Harvest Moon DS will be the fifteenth. But this one is actually a real in-depth Harvest Moon game, even though it takes place in a village that was introduced in A Wonderful Life series, the one on the GameCube. It brings back those characters; at the same time it brings across the Friends of Mineral Town characters, the ones that most people will probably be familiar with in terms of Back to Nature, Friends of Mineral Town, and More Friends of Mineral Town.

There's kind of a sub-story to it, where the Harvest Goddess has been banished by the Witch Princess. The whole object is to try to bring her back. At the same time, you have to balance a social life, a working career where you have to build up a farm and you really kind of start out with nothing. You don't really have a barn, you have to build that up - you have to collect the materials for it. And it being on the DS, it definitely utilizes the Nintendo DS screens, where you use the stylus to shear your sheep, milk your cows, pet your dog or your cat, wash a horse, and various different things like that.

N-Philes: What we noticed when we were playing was that you use the stylus to drag the weapon - or, not the weapon...

Markay: Oh yea, definitely not the weapon!

N-Philes: ...to drag the items to the box.

Markay: That's right, so it also has a pretty elaborate menu set-up in terms of the stylus system where the first one is kind of just the saving and the second one would be the rucksack. The third one is your status in the game, so when you hit the status screen you click on yourself and it'll give you more in-depth [info] on yourself. And, right, in the rucksack you take the tool, drag it over to the top box where the tools are, and go ahead and use that.

N-Philes: So you actually use the stylus to shear the sheep or something like that?

Markay: Yeah, you sure can. You would use the stylus to actually shear the sheep. You can do it different ways; you can either use [the stylus] or you don't have to use that. So, you use an item which is called the touch glove. You use the touch glove and it allows you to start using the touch features on the bottom DS screen.

At the same time, you can also use the bottom screen to plant, to water, to harvest. You can also use the touch screen to cut lumber or go fishing and the way you do that is something similar. You equip an item, which is a necklace. You put the necklace on you and stay inside your house. You then use the bottom screen where you go to the map screen then enlarge the grid you want to [work on], so when you equip a hoe you can start hitting the individual squares and towing the land. But with everything there's kind of a balance system. You can't do everything in a day. You have a limited amount of stamina and using that sort of feature takes more stamina.

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