Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town for Switch

[Kikki]

Well...I think their first Bokumono game, SoS, took them...14 months? And Trio only took them 8 months, afaik, in spite of being longer than SoS in terms of characters, because they had experience with the series by then. I suspect this game may be much smaller in terms of text, unless they've added a lot to the original, so I don't think it'd take them any longer. I heard on Potato Games that Xseed will announce a release date soon, and I don't know if that's true, but if it is then it may be a pretty quick turnover since Xseed never gives out release dates much in advance of the date itself.

But more likely, I think 6 to 8 months, I guess. Depending on how busy with they are with other games, since I know they have several on their plate right now. But I'm just guessing!

[Billy--]

Well...I think their first Bokumono game, SoS, took them...14 months? And Trio only took them 8 months, afaik, in spite of being longer than SoS in terms of characters, because they had experience with the series by then. I suspect this game may be much smaller in terms of text, unless they've added a lot to the original, so I don't think it'd take them any longer. I heard on Potato Games that Xseed will announce a release date soon, and I don't know if that's true, but if it is then it may be a pretty quick turnover since Xseed never gives out release dates much in advance of the date itself.

If not, I think 6 to 8 months, I guess. Depending on how busy with they are with other games, since I know they have several on their plate right now. But I'm just guessing!

Not too bad I mean, I have Pokemon to look forward to, and Animal Crossing... but now I'm just getting super excited for this game, too~!

[JustABeautifulGuy]

So it is a mainline title after all I shared this to all my friends who've adored and played this game and they were not content with the design change and this has made me more fearful that this will be not well received in the end. It's kinda shameful that if they kept the original design and catered to nostalgia, they not only would've gotten back the lost fans but clear a huge confusion as well (which despite any outcome will happen).

[Kikki]

I'm sighing a lot today, lol...I feel tired. This has been tumultuous news for me, definitely not all good...but you know, it's gonna be fine. The series is more popular than ever...we're gonna keep getting more games. The next new one may be a little further off than we'd hoped because this game came first, but the next game IS going to come. Meanwhile, anyone who's not too hyped for THIS game, we're okay! We've got RF4S and RF5 and Animal Crossing coming up in the next year-ish...we'll make it

And this game may end up having some really nice features. I'm really wondering how true they've kept it to the original since the original artist has already said that this game is not a direct recreation of the original but a re-imagining of it. I really wonder who they are most aiming for, with this game. Original fans, fans of newer games, or brand new fans they want to pull in for the first time.

[Night Owl]

The release date also depends on whether or not XSeed was working on the game while Marvelous was. I think they were allowed to work on Trio while Marvelous was still developing it, but don't quote me on that because I may not be remembering correctly.

Part of me also wonders what they're gonna do with the AWL content. I know Van and Ruby popped in when you connected things. And then there was that Seaside cottage you could get from it. I suppose there's one way to find out, but I think I'd like to see the Forget-Me-Not Valley cameos. AWL was a game I played extensively too.

[seachel]

I would have preferred the Story of Seasons art style to this. This looks like ToTT and I’m not into it. Don’t really like the updated character designs either.. the old ones looked just fine. A bit disappointed to see the first foray for Marvelous into modern hardware is this art style.

That being said, FOMT might be my favorite HM game since it was my first HM game so lots and lots of nostalgia attached to it. I was always hoping for a port, never thought they would do a remake.

Still a day one for me. Hopefully it plays better than it looks as Switch games sometimes do tend to do. Still hoping for a completely new SOS game, maybe next year then.

[Mikodesu]

Oh man, so it's confirmed that this is the new mainline game after all, huh? :/ Well. Hopefully that means good things for a real mine and a return to rivals, at least. That would be nice. I am pretty interested to see how they plan on streamlining a little of the classic gameplay. There's a lot of room to breathe there.

All of this news is making me wish there was some sort of Youtube retrospective series for Bokumono. Not my wheelhouse but I'd love some chronological analysis.

I'm probably most disappointed that we didn't get a Doom 2016 style moment here. Guaranteed some of the devs working on the reboot grew up with the original, too.

[Nurse Fin]

Where was it confirmed that this is “the” mainline game that’s been under wraps for 3 years?

If it’s true, that’s pathetic. This isn’t the FF7 remake lol

[Kikki]

I don't think it exactly was. In Xseed's announcement they called it the 'first mainline title in the series to be released for the Nintendo Switch platform', that's all. So it's the same as ever, I think...this could be what they were talking about, or maybe it's not. I think it's just the echoing of the words 'mainline title' that makes people think it's confirmed, since I don't know if Marv ever specifically said they were working on a NEW mainline title, or just 'mainline title'. I also don't know if this game would be considered new or not, anyway.

But I think that's all it was, unless something I don't know about came up, of course.

[Code_Name_Geek]

In regards to the discussion on same gender options, it’s possible that adding that will automatically bump up the age rating of the game. As far as I can recall, hasn’t every game in the series to date been rated E in North America? I looked it up and Stardew Valley is rated E 10+ on consoles and same gender marriage options is the main difference I can think of between it and Harvest Moon. So maybe they are concerned about losing their family friendly image. Didn’t they change wine to syrup in the newer games when they were localized for Europe for the exact reason of keeping the ratings down?

Now I’m not defending this because it just so happens that same gender marriage is my most-wanted feature in the next game. And I think it’s stupid that it might affect the ratings at all when it should be just as appropriate as opposite gender marriage but that’s my best guess. Fire Emblem, after all, is not a series aiming to keep a family friendly image.

Although realistically, if Harvest Moon 64 were released today instead of in the 90s I bet it’d be E10+ at least because of the getting drunk mechanic. But maybe that’s a good sign that times can change and someday we’ll see same gender marriage in “family friendly” games after all.

[Soapylion]

These character redesigns are not my cup of tea.

What have they done to Ann?? It really does seem weird that they're going so heavy with the redesigns when a lot of the people that'll be interested in this game are people who are already fans of the characters.

Looks like they've increased the bag size though, which I'm sure a lot of people will be happy about. But I liked the challenge of having to do multiple foraging trips lol

[Billy--]

The release date also depends on whether or not XSeed was working on the game while Marvelous was. I think they were allowed to work on Trio while Marvelous was still developing it, but don't quote me on that because I may not be remembering correctly.

Part of me also wonders what they're gonna do with the AWL content. I know Van and Ruby popped in when you connected things. And then there was that Seaside cottage you could get from it. I suppose there's one way to find out, but I think I'd like to see the Forget-Me-Not Valley cameos. AWL was a game I played extensively too.

I saw in one of the images, I think it's an image with Rick and the child and they're celebrating their Anniversary... I saw the music player. I'm guessing it will be obtainable somehow, and most likely the cottage, in another matter or way

[Gothicat]

A bit sad that this is the mainline game we waited almost 3 years for (and by the time it will be translated it will be 3 years)...though Hakama does still have that "working tittle" on their site, so I'm hoping they were working on another entry while they were working on RF4S and RF5, it just got delayed....unless that game is completely unrelated to farming like Dragon Marked for Death was. But I'll keep hoping until it's confirmed otherwise.

Ann with a dress/long shirt, hot Rick, well dressed Cliff with no ponytail, feminine Karen, Gray with no hat...the more I see the more I wonder just who the heck they're trying to appeal to. I'll agree it doesn't even look like 3oT's style, it looks like ToTT. Every visual aspect of this just looks dated.

Still, if it's not a 1 for 1 remake, there's hope they'll add the more modern systems like dating and more heart events, even if it's already confirmed we are back to children not looking our spouse. On the other hand, it means they can remove stuff they don't like any more, like the rival system. Like I said before, worst case scenario is we get the same heart evenst and no dating system, no reverse proposals and they remove rival events. Which means, if you discount the new characters, the game will have less content than the original ones. As well as the original games aged, the romance aspect was not one them, minus the rivals.

It's wait and see by this point, but I'm at least glad both Japanese and western fans are mixed on this. Even for those who are happy, they have to admit it's a bit lame that we waited so long for a remake with these graphics. It feels like it should have come out last year to tide us over for the new 'new' entry, like Pokemon Let's Go.

[marumaru]

In regards to the discussion on same gender options, it’s possible that adding that will automatically bump up the age rating of the game. As far as I can recall, hasn’t every game in the series to date been rated E in North America? I looked it up and Stardew Valley is rated E 10+ on consoles and same gender marriage options is the main difference I can think of between it and Harvest Moon. So maybe they are concerned about losing their family friendly image.

I think it's mostly to comply with the ratings, but it's also important to keep in mind that the localizations have always removed whatever the original games came up with regarding the subject. Androgynous characters were assigned a gender that made their relationship with the player always straight, and a feature from DS Cute that allowed the player to "propose" to one of the special bachelorettes (they'd move in together and live as "best friends") was completely removed. While the gender thing can be explained away with differences in language, completely removing a feature that even hints at same gender marriage seems to be pretty obviously just censorship.
Even though the original games haven't gone the whole way with allowing same gender marriage, they've added in these little curiosities within the limitations of the E rating (think of animated movies aimed at kids that have those little things you only understand once you're an adult type of thing), despite them then being changed or cut off from the western releases. Compare this to the Rune Factory games which have a higher rating and get to keep all their little bits (bachelors flirting with the male PC (apparently this also happens with bachelorettes and the female PC?), ability to change your player avatar to any other character, including the PC of opposite gender) even in the localization.

Anyway my guess is that even if the creators added anything hinting at same gender relationships it would just get omitted from the localized versions again. So I wouldn't really have my hopes up, at least for the time being.

[roberuiza]

I just thought about this: Xseed will have two SoS games to localize. I´m asuming they´ll start (or have already started) with Doraemon. I hope the same team works on both games to keep consistency, but at the same time I can´t help but worry that Doraemon will hold back Mineral town a few months.