Harvest Moon: A New Beginning announced for 3DS

Today long-time Harvest Moon publisher Natsume announced a new entry in the series would be arriving on the 3DS later this year. No firm date has been given as of yet, but fans can expect to see more customization options in this entry than before, including the ability to customize your player character for the first time in the series long-running history.

More information about the title, dubbed Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, can be found in the full press release below.

“IT’S A NEW BEGINNING”: HARVEST MOON: A NEW BEGINNING FOR NINTENDO 3DST IS COMING TO NORTH AMERICA THIS YEAR

Customization Is King As Natsume Celebrates 15 Years of Harvest Moon

Burlingame, CA. – May 29, 2012 – Natsume Inc., a worldwide developer and publisher of family-oriented video games, is proud to announce that Harvest Moon: A New Beginning will be coming to North America this year; a year which also marks the 15th anniversary of the Harvest Moon series in North America!

“We’re extremely excited to be bringing Harvest Moon: A New Beginning to the North American audience,” said Hiro Maekawa, President and CEO at Natsume. “It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since the first Harvest Moon game debuted on the SNES back in 1997! A New Beginning has many new customization features that will please both veterans of the series and new players alike!”

Echo Village has seen better days…  Just as you’ve moved in, almost everyone else has moved away to greener pastures. It’s your job to bring everybody back by making the town appealing again, and giving Echo Village a new beginning!

Customization is King

For the first time in series history, you can completely customize your character’s appearance! Choose your character’s gender, skin color, facial expression, hairstyle, and much, much more! You even go to the tailor and have them make new outfits for you!

Don’t like where your crops and barn are on your farm? Easy! Just pick them up and move them! Yes, it’s really that easy to customize your farm in Harvest Moon: A New Beginning!

In addition to the ability to customize your character’s and farm’s appearance, you can also create tons of new additions for your farm, house, and Echo Village! Build park benches and topiary for the local citizens, a pet house for your farm, and exotic wallpaper and furniture for your house!  A New Beginning features new animals like llamas and yaks, new crops to harvest, and new characters to meet and woo!

Natsume is celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the Harvest Moon franchise at E3 and the rest of the year. They can be found in the South Hall in booth 515.

Players can follow all the news for all of the beloved Natsume franchises via   www.natsume.com, or by scooping all of the latest Natsume news at www.natsume.com/facebook and www.twitter.com/natsume_inc.