Sorry for the extreme-bump, but hopefully not Necro-bump (the topic was only halfway down the first page!), but Tom is still answering questions over on the Marvelous forums.
Q:
Lacosta wrote:This looks like a lovely game, need to begin saving for it. I have a question, the seeds on this game are seasonal or you can plant then all year long? Also this may sound like a silly question, but can the player fight as the blue wolf friend?
A:
Tom wrote:You can plant all seeds all year round -- or rather, there is no real concept of "year" in Popolo. Because it's more a JRPG than a farming sim, there is no calendar or anything in this game. Crops grow in "real time," as in they'll be ready to harvest after something like 5 to 20 minutes of actual real-world time have passed. This can be hurried along by sleeping at an inn or progressing the story, but even if you just keep on playing without ever stopping to sleep or advance, you'll eventually see the notice at the top of the screen that you have produce to pick, animals to tend, etc.
The game compensates for this by giving you season-themed farms -- so if you have a spring crop, you'll need to go to the Volant Farm in the southeast to plant it, as the soil there only accepts spring crops. If you have a winter crop, you'll need to go to the Sylvan Farm in the northwest to plant it, as the soil there only accepts winter crops.
And of course, there's fast-travel via fairydust (which never runs out), so you don't ever have to worry about backtracking unnecessarily just to tend your many farms -- just sprinkle some fairydust and bam, you're there!
As for the blue wolf, yes, the blue wolf joins your party and is in fact one of the first party members you get, She is fully controllable, and even has "pair abilities" with Pietro where the two of them can team up for attacks.
I saw your other response in the Rune Factory board, though, and feel it might be important to mention that your main character in this game is always Prince Pietro -- while there are girls who fight alongside him, there is no female MC, as this is a PopoloCrois game first and foremost -- and the PopoloCrois series has always been about chronicling the many adventures of Prince Pietro Pakapuka of the PopoloCrois Kingdom (or, in a couple rare cases, his son Pinon). I hope you won't consider the game sexist because of this -- this just isn't meant as a "self-insert fantasy" story like other Story of Seasons and Rune Factory games, but is rather a fairytale-style story about an established character. Pietro pretty much IS PopoloCrois -- a game that doesn't star him or his son would be like a Harry Potter book without Harry Potter as the main character. You COULD do it, but it just wouldn't feel right.
^Don't worry about it. As this seems to kinda be the "mega thread" for all things PoPoLo SoS. Its been bumped several times already and Cher doesn't seem to mind (she posted after a bump a page or two back). If you do Cher, let me know.
I just finished paying off my preorder for this game. It took awhile to show up in the local game store's preorder options. Its pretty expensive over here (After taxes its almost $60 CAD) but i'm over it. 3DS games are about $10+ more expensive physical or digital in Canada (meanwhile, Vita games hardly ever go over $35-40 digital or physical) so I'm just going to have to get used to it.
Anywho, looking forward to it as always. PoPoLoCrois on the PSP, despite all its flaws, is one of my favorite games of all time and I'm super hype to play another game in the series. I don't think we have an offical date yet? Everywhere has February as the temp date. I really hope it doesn't release around Fire Emblem! :B
I was just about to preorder this game when I saw the crop grow in real time?? Seriously??? That's the reason I quit animal crossing new leaf..and the first game that I ever regret buying. And I have also just realized obviously there's no dating either in this game. Oh well at least I can save my money xD
If you played Disney Magical World, you'd be closer to the "real time" crop growth that is in this game, not like Animal Crossing where each stage of (tree) growth/flower spawning takes a full real-life day. From what I remember being described, the times in Return to PoPoLoCrois are very reasonable. Each stage of plant growth for something like a potato might take, say, five minutes, so you could plant, water, go run a dungeon, come back, and harvest your now-grown plants. It works really well in DMW, so I can see it working equally well in Return to PoPoLoCrois.
The unlimited fast travel and other systems in place are supposed to make it really easy to farm on the side, so I'm very much looking forward to seeing it in practice.
It looks really cute but lack of gender options and lack of marriage really dampens my excitement for it. I might pick it up but probably won't be any time soon.
dandy420 wrote:It looks really cute but lack of gender options and lack of marriage really dampens my excitement for it. I might pick it up but probably won't be any time soon.
I'm curious why people expect this in a PoPoLoCrois game, so let me ask you a couple of questions... Have you played a game in the series (PoPoLoCrois) before? Are you familiar with the manga or anime?
dandy420 wrote:It looks really cute but lack of gender options and lack of marriage really dampens my excitement for it. I might pick it up but probably won't be any time soon.
It's understandable being disappointed a bit about it, but it's first and foremost a Popolo game ^^ Those games always feature Pietro as the main character. The SoS contributions are mostly just side stuff in the game. It's better to think of it just being part of the Popolo series with some SoS extras rather than being a full SoS spinoff or anything, because it really isn't. Unfortunately it's going to confuse a lot of people when the game comes out.
But I can still understand your disappointment all the same, but hope you will still give it a chance when it comes out!
Sounds like calling it Story of Seasons may have been a mistake. It sets an expectation of what the game will be like and it isn't. Personally, the more I hear the more stoked I am, because I really liked the PSP PoPolocrois game.
Anonymous Fish wrote:Sounds like calling it Story of Seasons may have been a mistake. It sets an expectation of what the game will be like and it isn't. Personally, the more I hear the more stoked I am, because I really liked the PSP PoPolocrois game.
The title in Japan is "PopoloCrois Bokujō Monogatari"... So, "Return to PopoloCrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale" is pretty much a direct translation... There wasn't much you could do with that title unless you wanted to omit ANY involvement of the Bokujo Monogatari series, which doesn't sound like a good thing to do. There's going to be confusion no matter what sadly. I just wish people would take a moment to read the fine print a bit more, but, it's the internet...
Regardless, I can't wait for the game to come out. This is gonna be an RPG heavy year it seems.
This is kinda tangential on the subject of naming conventions... so, meh.
Spoiler:
Another way to think of it is "Ingredients List". Most countries have a law or multiple laws stating that the ingredients in prepared food must be listed in order, from Most to Least, by weight or percentage. Whatever is first on the ingredients list is what the product has the most of.
Or like "Band Names". The Name is the headliner/most famous, the other guys are just lumped into "and the" like Josie and the Pussycats, Jem and the Holograms, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Prince and the Revolution, Hootie and the Blowfish, and so on.
Basically, whichever name comes first is going to be the primary focus or more prominent. Since PoPoLoCrois is listed first, it is the headliner/more prominent game/story.
There aren't a great deal of crossover games, considering the industry is pretty old now, and some of them get new names and often new playstyles entirely (Smash Bros., Itadaki Street/Fortune Street, Genei Ibun Roku #FE) so it doesn't really happen a lot with video games. There is a list on Wikipedia if anyone is curious, but usually the "crossover" seems to be cameo appearances by other characters from the same company (or ones that another company has leased the rights for, which helps to get MegaMan and PacMan in Smash), whereas this game has gameplay elements of BokuMono as a sort of side-activity as the guest star, instead of having characters from the BokuMono games.
Story Spoiley: even though the farming and other related "Story of Seasons" aspects in Return to PoPoLoCrois are optional, it does fit into the game's storyline neatly, as the objective of the game is to escape Garaliland and go back to (or rather, Return to) PoPoLoCrois by freeing the arable land in Garaliland from curses or dark magic. Marvelous and Yohsuke Tamori (&co.) didn't just toss in BokuMono aspects all willy-nilly, for no good reason, it actually makes sense to have them there because of the theme of the game.
I have a question, the seeds on this game are seasonal or you can plant then all year long? Also this may sound like a silly question, but can the player fight as the blue wolf friend?
