Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley is bringing animal traits into the game

When it comes to the 3DS exclusive Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, Natsume is going back to the basics.

(I'm going to go ahead and take up this space with fauning over how much I love the Harvest Moon series. I've invested more of my gaming time in these Harvest Moon games than in any other game. So, to say I'm excited is an understatement.)

Every aspect of the game was whittled down to the basics of what makes Harvest Moon, a Harvest Moon game. Natsume is bringing back the original quartet; the cow, the sheep, the chickens and the horse. The Lost Valley's  animals will will have "skills," or more specifically, personality traits that you can build your barn around. 

You could go for a barn/coop all around one trait or try to balance it out. Natsume hasn't revealed all of the traits we will be seeing in the game, but they did sample two:

• Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall: A season trait, the animal will prefer one season over all of the others. During this season the animals affection levels will rise faster.
• Elegant: These animals hate being dirty, you'll get a big affection bonus for brushing them.

If you're a seasoned Harvest Moon veteran, this goes without saying — the higher an animal's affection, the higher quality products they'll produce (and in higher quantities).

Let's say you end up liking a particular trait and breed the animals with it over and over again. You can keep breeding the same skill…or a rare, super version of that skill. Here's a sample of how the skills level up – so worth:

• Great Goods becomes High-Quality Goods: Animals will sometimes produce higher-quality products.
• More Goods becomes Super Goods: These guys produce a higher quantity of products.

The Lost Valley will even let you help your animals learn new traits by feeding them a special feed. Unfortunately, Natsume didn't disclose how to make the feed yet! That's going to remain a surprise!

I cannot wait to get into this game! Do you love Harvest Moon?

Let me know!