The first game whose release I ever truly counted down the days to was Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Sure I had patiently waited for Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire to arrive, but I didn't tick off every day on a chart before going to bed. Nor did I get in trouble for blue tacking said chart to my bedroom wall and, upon removing it, accidentally pulling off some of the paint. I had just started reading gaming magazines at the time as well, and every article I read about the game only made my excitement blossom further. Sadly, in my enthusiasm, I got the North American and European release dates confused, so, when I arrived at my local Game, I discovered I still had another week to live through.
After a week which felt like a year, I found myself swept into A Wonderful Life's world; spending hours caring for my animals, foraging and befriending the locals. To this day, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life for the GameCube remains one of my favourite farming simulators.
Before we count our chickens with Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life though, there are a few important details to go over. First, you probably noticed that the game series' name changed during those previous paragraphs. This is because in 2014, Marvelous, the original developer, started using its own publishing brand, XSeed Games, having discontinued its licensing agreement with original publisher Natsume two years earlier. Natsume, however, maintained the rights to the Harvest Moon title and continues to publish games under it - hence the split.