Story of Seasons: 3 Things to Know Before Playing
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is quickly approaching and, aside from having one of the longer names in gaming today, its also one with a deeply passionate fanbase. I’ve been looking forward to this game since I finished my third playthrough of Stardew Valley and was looking for a game that would remind me of what it was like being outside.
As part of our duty as a purveyor of news on the Internet to increase the hype around the things we love, I’ve sat down and come up with a list of things that you need to know before you sit down with this latest instalment into the Story of Seasons series.
Story of Seasons vs Harvest Moon
Buckle up, folks. This is going to get a little complicated. See, back in the day, there was a game series called Harvest Moon and it was very deeply loved. Since its first release in 1996, it had many sequels and spinoffs across multiple platforms over the years. Across all these games, it allowed players to build up an old farm, find love, and breath life into whichever old town they found themselves in.
Then in 2012, the series kind of split in two. To cut a long story very short, the developer, Marvelous Inc, no longer wished to work with Natsume, who had previously overseen the localisation and distribution of the series. Due to the way the games had been licenced and developed over the years, Marvelous Inc retained the rights to the game but Natsume retained the rights to the Harvest Moon name. They continue to make games under the Harvest Moon name (which have been of questionable quality over the years).
So you’ll see that Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town was originally called Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town and is part of the main Harvest Moon series, but the upcoming Harvest Moon game developed by Natsume is unrelated to most of the other games in the series. Its confusing and a bit of a mess but that’s how the legal side of this industry is sometimes.
Yep. It’s Another Remake
It feels like the last several months in the gaming industry have been dominated by remakes and re-releases of classic games and this Story of Seasons game is no different. Originally released in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance under a different title (see above), it remains one of the best the series has produced. Few games until the breakthrough Stardew Valley have captured the compulsive “Oh, just one more day” gameplay that has caused me to lose countless hours into this series over the years.
I never got a chance to play the original due to not having a Game Boy Advance, so this is one that I’ve been looking forward to for what feels like years. Not only is it getting an update for modern consoles, but its also coming to PC as well!
Its Got Some New Content
Just because Friends of Mineral Town is a remake doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth picking up if you’ve already played the original. I mean, this isn’t even really the first re-release the original has had, if you include More Friends of Mineral Town, which followed largely the same plot and characters but this time allowed the players to be a female farmer. The upcoming release has this key feature as well as a new selection of characters to get to know through, give gifts to, and, if you’re lucky, woo and marry.
Even with all these changes, though, its still the classic Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town at its heart, so its an easy day one purchase for me. There is something about this series that just wraps me in a warm blanket and helps me chill out, so I can’t wait to get my hands on it on 10 July in Europe and 17 July in North America.
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