Harvest Moon Timeline

Around the time Harvest Moon: DS came out, I feel that the series tried to tell a larger and bleak story that links all the games together. The story was either dropped or scrapped completely as soon as Harvest Moon: A New Beginning came out and changed the formula of the series forever. The remnants of the story still exists, and there is enough of it to piece together in the older games. This is the main reason why this series of theories exists, and I will try to tell this forgotten story.

I personally feel that the Harvest Moon story is incomplete and missing some important details. For this, I will use my creative imagination to fill in the gaps. Just like any story, I want to start all the way at the beginning of the timeline.

Age of Runes – Rune Factory games

In the beginning, people didn’t live in cities. During this time, humans coexisted with other races of human-like creatures that populated the lands. Merfolk, lycans, and elves all shared the world with humans, and they lived in their own corners of the world. Everyone hunted, foraged, and traded with each other in order to thrive.

Everyone lived in harmony, but all that changed once farming was discovered. Farming was not created to grow food, but to extract magical runes from the earth. Food was a convenient byproduct of farming that eliminated the need for hunting and traveling. The runes were used to fuel magic, and many people started to use this power to advance in technology. Kingdoms were formed, and people lived in farming villages or castles.

As you play the Rune Factory games, you will see that runes spawn when people use the land to grow crops in farms. These runes grants people the ability to use magical spells, and many witches/wizards live near farms to take advantage of the runes generated. This alone explains where witchcraft comes from, and why Harvest Moon has a small population of magic users across some farming villages.

The Rune Factory games also explains where does ranching comes from. Monsters were caught or tamed, and used to work on farms. Some of the animals even lay eggs, give milk, or grow wool. After many years, these animals eventually evolve into the cows, sheep, chickens, and horses used in the core games.

While the plots of each individual Rune Factory games contribute no evidence to this theory, the mechanics and inclusion of different creatures that pass along to the other games says a lot. There may be no elves in the core Harvest Moon games, we do see the other races represented in other games. Mermaids make appearances in Harvest Moon : GBC3 and DS, while a lycan can be found in Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns. Witchcraft and wizardry also exist in both Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games.

I am aware that the connection between Rune Factory and Harvest Moon is debatable. I do know for a fact that the two series were supposed to exist in the same universe during the first few Rune Factory games, but both series split off to do their own thing eventually. There is way too much common ground for me to believe that Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, and Innocent Life are not part of the same story. Not to mention the same studio made all three series of games.

Age of Kings – No games, but Harvest Moon: DS implies it’s place in the timeline.

Between the events of Harvest Moon and Rune factory, a story tells a time when the world was at war. Kingdoms got too powerful, and technology was advancing too fast. Humans used magic as weapons and decided to become the dominant species of the world. They exterminated the other races, then turned on witches/wizards as well. Millions died, and several races became extinct. Witchcraft and wizardry were banned, and anyone found practicing magic were executed. Any surviving races needed to flee and hide. The world was changed forever as greedy kings started to turn on each other.

A new religion was formed around the belief of the Harvest Lord and the Harvest Goddesses. This religion mimics a bit of our real world counterpart. These magical beings were created by magic, and are meant to replace the existence of witches. Runes from farming fuels these new magical beings instead of witches and wizards. This explains why Witch Princess and Harvest Goddess are mortal enemies. This also explains why the Harvest Goddess needs people to provide offerings and worship them. In some games (Magical Melody comes to mind), if people stop believing in the Harvest Goddess or cease farming, they will vanish or turn to stone.

Keira is also a major contributor to this theory. I believe that Keira was supposed to be a re-occuring character like the Witch Princess across the Harvest Moon games games, but this idea was scrapped. Imagine a game where Keira regains her ability to speak and explains the history of the Harvest Moon series and how it transitions from Rune Factory. More details on the relationship between Keira and the witches would have been nice too.

Age of Technology – All Harvest Moon games until Tale of Two Towns.

A time when kings and rulers came to an end, this period is where most of the core Harvest Moon games take place. It starts off with a simple game about farming, but inventors and the idea of technology quickly integrates itself to the series. Most of the population lives in large cities, while there are those who still feel close to nature and lives in small villages. People now live in peace with the fragmented remains of the past.

Peace is quite short lived, as technology starts to threaten the world. A new battle starts as man will go to war with nature and claim the world for themselves. Powerful individuals will try to destroy the farming villages, and the goddesses will begin to die. The death of the Harvest Goddesses will cause nature to wither away, and the farmers will need to work hard to restore the many villages and their goddess.

Sadly, the end of this story is very bleak. The children of the farmers rarely stay to take over the farms, and the villages will eventually die to make room for factories and theme parks. We get to see this in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life as keeping the children in the village is a difficult task and most of them will leave. In other games (Like Harvest Moon: SNES, 64, Back to Nature) your grandfather runs the farm, but not your father. In other games, farms are just abandoned and the Harvest Goddess vanishes, turns to stone, or dies from lack of farming or offerings. Without the Harvest Goddess or the witches to keep nature going, the world will eventually die. In the end, humanity is fated to die slowly and painfully.

Age of Robots – Innocent Life

In the year 2022, the earth is at the edge of destruction. Humanity has caused too much damage to the environment, and there is little they can do to fix it. Farms are now in ruins, and robots are built to run them. There are now only a handful of surviving communities such as the one in Heartflame Island. This island is now in danger, and humanity’s last hope is to make peace with the old gods of the world.

Hope Grain is a scientist who wants to save the world, but he is way too old to do anything. So he creates a robot he calls “Life”, an android with human-like emotions to run a nearby farm sitting over the nearby ruins. Life’s mission is to find the three elemental spirits and make peace with them. What makes this quest interesting is that the identity of the spirits are remains of the old games. The forest spirit is a trio of Nature Sprites (or Harvest Sprites, survivors of the loss of the Harvest Goddess). The water sprite is a mermaid (from Rune Factory and Harvest moon). And the fire spirit is definitely a mini-golem from Rune factory Fronteir (this monster even shoots fire in Rune Factory Frontier!).

If Life fails to save the island, you will get a bad ending. The island will sink into the sea, killing everyone who lives there. Life will be stranded on a piece of land that remains above water. Normally, he will be stranded on that rock until his batteries runs out. He is fated to die with the rest of the human race. But if this happens, life will see a recorded message stored in his memory bank. “If you are seeing this, you must have gotten into some trouble that you can’t get out of. I placed something inside you so that you can have one more chance. Consider it a gift.” Life will then fade out, then wake up earlier in time so he can have another shot of saving the human race.

Life the android going back in time? This reminds me of the timeline split theory, where someone goes back in time and changes everything. Is it possible that Hope Grain is related to Ann (Harvest Moon SNES) and Rick (Harvest Moon: 64)? Did Hope Grain install a time machine in Life’s Body? Is Rune Factory and Innocent Life coming full circle in the Harvest Moon series? The world may never know, but it’s just a theory.