RPGamer had the opportunity to speak to Graham Markay (Director of Operations) and Yasuhiro Maekawa (President and CEO) of Natsume today about their upcoming Harvest Moon games. First up is the Game Boy Advance title, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. You can check out my impressions of the GameCube installment, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life over here.

Already released in Japan, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town appeared on the E3 show floor in a near-complete localized form. The version on display was using the new Game Boy Player, which does a very good job, allowing you to play Game Boy Advance games on a television. The graphics for Natsume's first Game Boy Advance Harvest Moon game are fantastic, with nice sprites and a very cartoony feel. The localization is looking good so far, with most of the text conveying the feeling of the characters well, adding to the game's ambience.

Gameplay is pretty much what you would expect from a Harvest Moon game, with most of the series' mainstay activities making a return. There's fishing, tilling, sowing, chopping, breaking, harvesting, and, to the delight of series fans, cooking. The version that I got to play had almost all of the farming equipment unlocked already, but, as is the norm in the series, these will have to be earned as you progress through the game.

The town is pretty large for a handheld game, bigger than the previous Game Boy installments. Another feature that returns is the quest for love and friendship. Most of the residents should be pretty faimiliar to series veterans, as Mineral Town contains essentially the same residents as were in Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland on the PlayStation 2.

One new feature that promises to be quite interesting is the link-up capability with the upcoming GameCube installment, By connecting the two games, various characters will be able to travel between the Mineral Town and A Wonderful Life's Forget-Me-Not Valley. It'll also be possible to trade items and animals.

Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town was released in Japan in early May, and it is currently on track for simultaneous North American release with the GameCube installment in October.