D:SoS2 News, Cody's Artwork Revealed, and HM2GBC Comic | Posted at 04:58 PM 30 September 2022

Happy Farm'n Friday! I must have jinxed the weather last week with my observation of "not much rain," as it started raining mid-week. I don't mind the rain (booo snow!), as that means I don't have to go outside and water the front-yard garden boxes. The cover crops are still coming along, but it looks like I'm growing a bed of weeds to someone who doesn't know what's going on.

Tomorrow is OCTOBER 1 already! Holy smokes, this year has passed by quickly. With 30 days left before the great Fogu Christmas Light Extravaganza install begins, I've been plotting what special goodies will be added this year. There are new light strings to wrap around the porch columns, and another outdoor electrical outlet is being installed to help power the whole project. We're even trying to build some stars using the 3D printer, though we aren't sure how those will turn out yet. Will I surpass last year's 16,000 lights? It all depends on how long it takes for me to get tired of installing Christmas lights.

Doraemon:SoS2 Updates

Bandai Namco in Japan continues to promote the upcoming release of Doraemon: Story of Seasons - Friends of the Great Kingdom, scheduled to be released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Steam/PC on November 2.

From the official Doraemon2 website

In this version of the series, developed and produced by Marvelous but published by BN, Noby and his friends are magically transported to the planet Illuma. They'll meet Lumis and help his dream of revitalizing his dad's neglected farm. Instead of living in separate houses like in Doraemon: SoS1, now everyone lives together on the farm along with Lumis, Luana (the bird-like scholarly girl from the Asif tribe), Toton (a miner from the Dogan tribe), Sylph (a teen from the Mist tribe), and Pico (an amnesiac robot). Yep, that's 10 characters living under the same roof. The house residents will eat meals together and sleep in their own beds.

The game will also include a checklist of tasks that guide players on their next step to move the story along, a sorely missing feature from the previous version of the series. Information on completing each important task and villagers' personal requests can be found in the main menu.

Players can ask a house friend to help them with farm work. The assistant will water crops without any instruction from the player, making a convenient way of getting out of fieldwork. Optionally, a real friend can join by utilizing the game's two-player co-op mode. Players can also grow fruit trees (e.g., apples, grapes, persimmon, lemons, etc.) and bamboo. The harvested bamboo is used as a crafting material for house decorations at the carpenter's shop. Players can also help Lumis with his research on big crops, which requires multiple people to successfully harvest.

From the official Doraemon2 website

The alpaca has been added as a livestock animal. There are also new color varieties of alpaca, cows, and chickens. They're so cute!

The number of secret gadgets added to the game was increased to 80. For example, besides the return of the Go-Anywhere Door, there is

• a new Move Wand that lets players rearrange their fields and even move their trees around,
• the Restaurant Field that turns crops into cooked dishes at harvest,
• a sticky sticker that makes a dog house wherever it's attached,
• a device that lets Noby explore underwater,
• a golden propeller to explore the sky, and
• even a can of cloud gas that turns airy clouds into solid surfaces to walk and grow crops on.

Bandai Namco recently tweeted a short video on how to grow crops in the game:

✨システムPV「作物の育て方」編✨

畑を耕すところから、収穫して出荷まで・・・
季節によって収穫できるものがかわったり♪
「ひみつ道具」を使ってより楽しくすごせます！
のんびり牧場ライフを満喫しましょう🐄

11月2日発売🍀予約受付中！https://t.co/ijPsnPTzC4#ドラ牧 pic.twitter.com/qT4oASmlU0

— ドラえもん のび太の牧場物語【公式】 (@dora_boku) September 29, 2022

A game demo is not available yet, but Bandai Namco had previously stated that there were plans to make one available. Interestingly, while there has been an active marketing campaign in Japan, BN NA and BN EU haven't promoted the game since it was announced in July's Nintendo Direct. At least there are now pages for the game on the BanNam NA website and the BanNam EU website, but social-wise things have been rather quiet outside of Japan.

SoS:AWL Updates

This week, Marvelous revealed the official artwork on Twitter for Rock, Cody, and Chapter-2-and-beyond-Lumina for Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. Cody's profile page on the official website in Japan confirms that he is still a metal artist of little words, content with living a solitary life as he quietly contemplates the world around him. Naturally, that will change at the start of Chapter 2 if Cody is the player's chosen spouse. I'm guessing that Cody's workshop will still be visited by him after Chapter 2, much like how Gustafa would hang out at his yurt post-marriage.

We also don't know yet what Cody's localized name will be. In the Japanese version, his name is ゴーディ. As Marvelous likes to keep names as close as possible to their Japanese names, and Natsume's "Cody" is not quite the same, we could get "Gordy" as a possible name. Maybe "Gordon" or "Gore" instead?

If you haven't seen it yet, the Nintendo.jp website has a slideshow of Cecilia's baby boy in all stages of his life. His Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 outfits are generally the same as the original Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, but his Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 outfits have changed.

The wide variety of preorder items available for next January's release of the game in Japan have been detailed on the official website too. Most items are kind of... meh... but the milk glass, Mukumuku towel, and sheep-head plushie pouch are a bit more worthwhile. The Famitsu DX game bundle with the glass (11cm or 4.3" tall), towel (20cm or 7.8"), and drink coasters cost 9328円 (about $65). The Amazon.jp Original Goods game bundle with the sheep-head plushie and raincoat costume doesn't have a price yet. The AMZ bundle with just the raincoat costume is 5478円 (about $38), though. You can preorder a physical edition from Amazon.jp, but you'll have to pay extra (about $20) for international shipping.

With all the preorder costume options, the outfits are delivered to a blue box in front of the protagonist's house. While the body covering is a normal clothing outfit, any costume with a hat is categorized as a hairstyle.

HM2GB Comic

As it's been a while since we've had one of these, here's another comic from the Harvest Moon 2 GBC guidebook, drawn by Igusa Matsuyama back in 1999.

Until next time!

Cher
(Mwa ha ha, I got a 20% off coupon in the mail for Christmas Lights...)

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