What to Expect on Harvest Moon: Lost Valley by Natsume

And excerpt from the Polygon interview:

According to the game's developers, Lost Valley mixes familiar old mechanics — like basic harvesting and developing relationships with other villagers, for example — with a handful of new ones. Players can customize not only their fields, but their entire swath of farmland, picking and choosing what crops and animals to raise. This game will offer players "the greatest amount of freedom ever in a Harvest Moon game," according to a short presentation we were shown during E3.

New mechanics include the ability to dig wells — and then dig lakes and waterfalls as deep and wide as players want. There is also the ability to build hills and mountains, customizing the layout of the valley. The farming system, which has been redone to give players more tools and more opportunities to use them, will move and shape the layout of the environment as players cultivate the land. Additionally, players no longer need to rummage in a rucksack to find the items they need; the game will now automatically call up items players use in the situations where they will need them. For example, when approaching a tree, players will automatically equip an axe to chop it down.

Lost Valley is also structured to give veteran players the same task-packed experience without alienating series newcomers, according to producers Yasutaka Maekawa and vice president of operations Graham Markay. Not only has Natsume made it easier for players to jump into the game and build whatever they want — bridges connecting mountains, bottomless well and so on — but they've also reworked the control scheme to smooth out the game's user interface and give players an easier, more comfortable set of button commands.

"The button system was one of the things that was mainly looked at for the 3DS - how can you use these buttons and each of these functions so that not pushing one button for a variety of different functions and getting lost?" Markay said. "Certain buttons are dedicated to certain things so players can develop a memory map."

"You won't be lost in this game," Yasuhiro Maekawa added. "You will know exactly how to play, we've made it very user-friendly."