Theory Shorts

#1: Timeline Split Theory

One of the oldest unsolved mysteries of the Harvest Moon series is; how is Harvest Moon: 64 and Harvest moon Back to Nature related? Almost all Harvest Moon games are linked some sort of way, but they seem to be connected to either Harvest Moon: 64 or BTN; never both. All games that postdate Harvest Moon: A New Beginning only connect to BTN, but no links has been made to the 64 games. I will be making an attempt to link the two games using evidence found in Harvest Moon: 64 and some creative imagination.

Harvest Moon: 64 and Back to nature are almost completely separate games, except one thing in common. They both use the same characters and there general appearances. Their personalities, professions, families, and lineages have changed drastically. This makes linking the games difficult, as there is no games that seems to predate BTN in the series. Harvest Moon: 64 has several games that predate it in the timeline. One set of characters that seem to be of interest is Ann from Harvest Moon: SNES, and her grandchild from Harvest Moon: 64 Rick. Both of these characters are inventors. Ann focused more on making better tools for the farmer, while Rick was more interested in something a little more advanced and futuristic.

In Harvest Moon: 64, Rick attempts to invent a teleporter. An invention used to transport an item from one place to another. His success varies a bit, and his results can be a little scary. How odd that the next console game in the Harvest Moon series is Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. A game with the same exact characters, but everyone is somehow different. I have seen a ton of sci-fi movies, shows, and even video games (Chrono Trigger comes to mind) where a teleporter has been accidentally used as a time machine. What if Rick used his teleporter to send someone (possibly himself) back in time to change history accidentally?

Let’s use our imagination for a moment. What If Rick successfully invents his teleporter, then uses it to send himself to make sure it works on humans? Something goes horribly wrong, and he sends himself back even before the events of Harvest Moon: SNES. Desperate to return home, he reinvents the teleporter to return back to his own time. Doing so leaves behind futuristic technology that alters the past drastically. Many generations later, the people of Flowerbud now live in Mineral Town instead. Everyone is now married to different people, and the children of Flowerbud are now a different set of people living in a different town.

Some off pieces of evidence include the following: Makers now exist in Mineral Town, but were strangely absent in Flowerbud Village. Mineral Town seems to be more advanced and civilized than its Flowerbud counterpart. Mineral Town is also more heavily invested in mining and blacksmithing than Flowerbud village. At the same time, there seems to be no inventor character in Mineral Town. So where did all the more modern technology in Mineral Town came from? All these details support the idea that Mineral Town’s past seems to inherit some type of technology that was absent during the events of Harvest Moon: 64.

#2: Rebirth Theory

Harvest Moon seems to use the same characters in multiple games, while still trying to imply that they are supposed to be connected in one big giant story. How does this make sense? Harvest Moon: Magical Melody reuses characters from Harvest Moon: SNES and Save the Homeland as an example. How can these characters coexist in the same game if they exist at least four generations apart? The way the series tries to explain this is through rebirth.

Harvest Moon: DS introduces the concept of rebirth to the series. All the characters of Harvest Moon: Back to Nature and A Wonderful Life exist in the game, but Makku has died a long time before the events of the game. This means that the characters that exist in this game are not the same people from BTN and AWL. All the characters from the past games have already died and are just born again after many generations.

This can be applied to Magical Melody as well. The reason all the characters are now in Flowerbud is because they died a long time ago and just born again. Leaf Valley might not exist anymore, so the STH cast might have just slowly migrated into Flowerbud. Magical Melody and Harvest Moon: DS were also released pretty close to each other, there is a strong chance that they share the same rebirth idea.

It is not truly known how many games share the rebirth idea. Could this idea be used to explain other games? Island of Happiness and Sunshine Island? Tree of Tranquility and Animal Parade? What about Back to Nature and Friends of Mineral Town? The world may never know, but it can be fun to link any two games this way. Harvest Moon: 64 and Back to Nature are an exception since all characters between the two games are way too different for rebirth.

#3: Origins of the Witch Princess

Of all the characters that exist in the Harvest Moon series, Witch Princess is the only one that is filled with mystery. No Harvest Moon rules seem to apply to her. She can exist in many different generations (Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness and Harvest Moon: DS are centuries apart, but she can exist in both games without rebirth). She can’t die, as she seems to have the power of immortality. No confirmed age, hometown, or backstory. Where did she come from? After playing a ton of Harvest Moon games, I think I can answer this one.

Our primary clue comes from an item you can get from her called the “Witch Princess’ Gift” This item is a photograph that she has a lot of copies of, and she will give them to you when you do some bad things like littering or letting your animals die. When she gives you one, she will tell you this odd line, “that item isn’t really useful, so if you don’t need it, feel free to get rid of it.” What makes this item so important? If you played the older Harvest Moon games, then you would have seen this item once before! Looking back to Harvest Moon’s history, all secrets will be revealed.

Before I discuss this theory any further, I will leave a Spoiler Warning. This event I will be discussing is rare, and many fans may not have seen it for themselves.

During winter in Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, you could trigger an event in Rose Square. You will find Cliff passed out in the snow mumbling nonsense about his hometown. You will find a photograph that looks remarkably like the Witch Princess’ Gift laying next to him. Of all the photographs that exist in the Harvest Moon universe, it seems too coincidental that Witch Princess could be carrying the same photograph that Cliff was carrying. This alone proves that there is a link between them.

You take Cliff to the clinic where he will get treatment. When you show him the photograph, he will tell you, “the people in the picture are my mother and my sister. . . I didn’t like my hometown, so I left my family and moved away. . . After a while I went back there, but by then my mom had died and my sister moved somewhere else. . .” Why would Witch Princess be carrying a picture of Cliff’s mom and sister? Cliff said that his mom died, but he doesn’t know where his sister is. There is a strong chance that Witch Princess is his sister. How did she become a witch? No one will ever know. I believe that Witch Princess was supposed to be leaving more clues to her origins as the series continues, but they just simply forgot about her as the games progressed.

This theory does conveniently explains a lot about Witch Princess and her dark personality. Not only this, we know that Witch Princess does not exist in any game linked to the Harvest Moon: 64 universe. Cliff does not have a sister in Harvest Moon: 64, so Witch Princess could not have ever been born.

#4: Cousin Controversy

Not a theory, but I will try to disprove a common believed theory in the Harvest Moon community. Many Harvest Moon fans believe that Karen from Harvest Moon: Back to Nature and Celia from Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life are cousins. This is not true. They are only cousins in Harvest Moon: DS. I already covered the rebirth theory already, but Karen and Celia are not the same characters from their home games as the DS counterparts. Karen and Celia are only related in Harvest Moon DS, not BTN or AWL. It is also never explained how Karen’s and Celia’s family get united after several generations, but they did say that they are now cousins in the distant future.

#5: Secret of the Blacksmith

In Theory #6, I claimed that Elli’s parents are very alive. I believe that Elli is a bit older than we believe, and Ellen is Elli’s mother. But who is her father? After playing Harvest Moon: Back to Nature for Girl, I have found my possible answer. I have found some evidence that Saibara might be Elli’s father (or grandfather if you don’t believe that Ellen is Elli’s mother).

In Harvest Moon: Back to Nature for Girl, I’ve discovered that Ellen and Saibara were quite close when they were younger. After Claire marries Gray, Saibara will be walking around Mineral Town until Ellen invites him to her house to chat. They will talk very personally, almost as if they had some type of close friendship/intimate relationship in the past. They won’t say anything that could prove this theory, I find it very telling that Saibara and Ellen does not interact with each other in any Harvest Moon game other than this one moment.

Because we do not see them spend any time with each other outside of this one moment, I believe that they actively keep their friendship/relationship a secret from everyone else in town. Saibara has a grandson, which means that he was married in the past. Now let me ask a question, why did Saibara’s wife and son leave Mineral Town? Could it be that they found out that Saibara had an affair with Ellen a long time ago? They then moved away left him behind? Does Gray know? Is this the reason why Saibara and Gray don’t always get along?

Elli might also not know that Saibara is her father/grandfather. Since Ellen and Saibara have kept this secret for so long, Ellen might have never told Elli the truth. Saibara may just be watching Elli from a distance doing what he can to care for his secret daughter/granddaughter. At the same time, he is also trying to mend his relationship with his grandson Gray.