Its the 10th anniversary for the series of Harvest Moon farm life, simulation games and producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto of Marvellous Interactive seems to have decided to celebrate with a little change to the usual gameplay formula. Rune Factory: Shin Bokujou Monogatari marks the start of the New Harvest Moon series on the DS

One day, a young traveller named Ragna struggles his way to the front of a house and collapses on his feet. A young earnest girl named Mist rushes out of her house to see whats wrong and tries to help him. She ends up mishearing a lot of the words poor Ragna says but eventually, he finally manages to get some water and bread from her and is fully rejuvenated. Learning that Ragna has amnesia, she decides to let him manage a piece of abandoned land nearby her house, hoping that one day Ragna would be able to remember who he is. A monster suddenly appears and Ragna is forced to defend Mist and himself with a hoe.


Ragna collapses outside Mists house.
After the introductory battle in sending the monster back to its own world, Ragna is left with a packet of seeds and his life in the small village of Kardia begins as he works to find out who he once was.

Once you finally gain control again, you are free to explore the town, your home and the surrounding land. Apart from the little fight earlier, Harvest Moon fans should feel right at home with the familiar surroundings. In fact, a lot of the game mechanics remain true to the original Harvest Moon series of games.

Right next to you, is a messy piece of farmland which requires a lot of cleaning up before you can start using it. Rocks of all sizes, branches, tree stumps and other plantations are all over the soil. Apart from that, theres also the little spring where you can collect water, a little box for delivering harvests, your own house and room for some animal stables. The interior of your house is a little tidier than outside but very bare apart from a bed, a small stand with a diary next to it, along with a calendar and mirror on the wall. The diary remains your means of a saving the game and there are a total of two save slots you can load at the title screen.