Story of Seasons: AWL remake announced!

What happened to Murrey!? A remake of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life (2004) and Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life (2005) for Nintendo Switch. [ Game Guide ] JP release = Jan 2023. NA release = June 2023. EU release = June 2023.
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Burning Spear
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Bluie wrote: Sep 28, 2022 5:26 amNot everyone needs to be a drop dead gorgeous bishonen trope and I feel like they took away a lot of the charm the original designs had.
This unfortunately seems to be the direction in which the series has gone. Perhaps we've all just outgrown the target audience.
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TahoeMario
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Bluie wrote: Sep 28, 2022 5:26 am Not everyone needs to be a drop dead gorgeous bishonen trope and I feel like they took away a lot of the charm the original designs had. I'd be curious to know how the Japanese side of the fanbase is feeling about this.
It depends on where you look, really. Some have the same "wait-and-see" approach that I feel like most of us have but others are freaking out deeply, notably on Twitter itself. In the case of the bachelorettes, they seem equally as positive/indifferent to them. But in the case of Matthew and Cody, in particular, they've practically been burning the house down, lol. It's a very small yet vocal minority of their overall fans over there but yeah, they really don't like the changes made to those two. They seemed like they were actually praising Gustafa's redesign though, when I saw it last, but it's been a few days since I looked. Some did say that they missed his beard, but most said they liked him without it. A couple of people said that he looked like he was making a creepy face in that one screenshot where you can see his eyes, said he was shady looking for peeking out at them from behind his glasses.

They have actually been saying some... kind of offensive things, unfortunately, about the changing of Cody as well as the just... same gender marriage? Even though that has been a thing. Just because they don't like the fact that these characters that they grew up with can even possibly be bi now or something silly like that. And we were talking about this on here last week, I believe, but they're also STILL begging for the portrait artwork to pop up when characters talk. But yeah, that's the gist of what all I've seen them say so far.
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fancypurincup
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Burning Spear wrote: Sep 28, 2022 5:56 am
Bluie wrote: Sep 28, 2022 5:26 amNot everyone needs to be a drop dead gorgeous bishonen trope and I feel like they took away a lot of the charm the original designs had.
This unfortunately seems to be the direction in which the series has gone. Perhaps we've all just outgrown the target audience.
This the "direction" has been in?? Since as early as the Wii/DS generation? Like I get what you're both saying but like... It's been this way for well over a decade, and boy do I feel old saying that lmao. So perhaps for some people, it really is a case of "I'm older now so I want older looking marriage candidates", which I very much agree with. But I'm not gonna sit here and pretend this is somehow a new development for the series, however.
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I don't know, the designs and changes seem so... sterile, in a way? Like they're playing things safe, but making everything bland in the process. A lot of the redesigns turn me off, because they replaced fun, unique and cool designs with characters who could be from almost any modern HM/SoS game. I know times have changed, they're trying to have more universal appeal, consistent artstyle, blah blah blah and all that. But it's all so blah to me.

Mukumuku is perfect, though. As he always is. I'd forgive all the other changes if they somehow let us keep him on our farm.
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Solar Wind wrote: Sep 28, 2022 11:01 am I don't know, the designs and changes seem so... sterile, in a way? Like they're playing things safe, but making everything bland in the process. A lot of the redesigns turn me off, because they replaced fun, unique and cool designs with characters who could be from almost any modern HM/SoS game. I know times have changed, they're trying to have more universal appeal, consistent artstyle, blah blah blah and all that. But it's all so blah to me.
You're not alone with that. Character designs in this particular game were my absolute favorites, I could probably name every character if you showed me their pictures while for example in the FoMT, while I played it more than AWL I only really remember the spouses, Zack and Thomas. I know there was tons of other characters too (mostly spouse's parents) but they are so unmemorable that I mostly just remember there were plenty of them and they were all boring, in the later games I don't always even remember all the spouses since they're so bland. I'm sad they changed Gustafa, Marlin and Cody so much, if they touch Daryll and make him less crazy looking little man I'm *insert here -ing ending curse word* rioting. He was always my favorite crazy in the valley :lol:
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TahoeMario
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Here are the "new" screenshots for today, this is showing off your field work 101-- the basics. This is actually a rehashing of the first section of the life page on the website. I was kind of hoping they would just go ahead and update the page itself with a new section, but I guess they have to first promote the older ones for those of us who maybe aren't stalking the website religiously, lol. But here it is:
Spoiler:
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This is obviously showing off-- tilling, sowing, watering and harvesting but they've also left one out from this post, which is shipping:
Spoiler:
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Some things of interest are-- what looks like the new Camera item in the fifth item slot in the first and third image, the returning Fertilizer item which we've known about for... well, since the beginning, I suppose; and the fact that now either you can manually or it automatically puts a path around planted tree seeds, it looks like, in the third image. Otherwise, these pictures have not only been seen by most of us before, but have very little new information in them.
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Anna_Lynn
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I have a feeling the paths around the trees will be automatic? In the original you could not plant in the 3x3 around the tree, so I would not be surprised if the remake hand-held that aspect for you. It's also important to point out that you no longer "need" the scythe for crops, I believe? I swear I remember seeing a part in the trailer where the MC harvested a tomato, and the stem simply poofs away after the harvest. It's a bit of a shame, really.
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Guest wrote: Sep 28, 2022 9:52 pm
Solar Wind wrote: Sep 28, 2022 11:01 am I don't know, the designs and changes seem so... sterile, in a way? Like they're playing things safe, but making everything bland in the process. A lot of the redesigns turn me off, because they replaced fun, unique and cool designs with characters who could be from almost any modern HM/SoS game. I know times have changed, they're trying to have more universal appeal, consistent artstyle, blah blah blah and all that. But it's all so blah to me.
You're not alone with that. Character designs in this particular game were my absolute favorites, I could probably name every character if you showed me their pictures while for example in the FoMT, while I played it more than AWL I only really remember the spouses, Zack and Thomas. I know there was tons of other characters too (mostly spouse's parents) but they are so unmemorable that I mostly just remember there were plenty of them and they were all boring, in the later games I don't always even remember all the spouses since they're so bland. I'm sad they changed Gustafa, Marlin and Cody so much, if they touch Daryll and make him less crazy looking little man I'm *insert here -ing ending curse word* rioting. He was always my favorite crazy in the valley :lol:
It might have something to do with how the original games had distinctive silhouettes for most characters, including the villages (except for the twins) and the love interests, and the remake standardizes the designs, especially the love interests, so everyone has more similar silhouettes to each other than before. The relative sizes of characters is also different in the remake as well. Cody becoming shorter and less muscular has already be mentioned, but Vesta as well originally was like a half to a full head taller than the main character and was definitely more heavy-set in the original games than in the remake, especially around her legs. (They also got rid of her gardening apron for some reason, despite the fact that aprons are practical when working with dirt to protect one's clothing.) Now both Cody and Vesta are about the main character's height, more or less. There are probably more examples of this, but Vesta and Cody are the ones I have noticed.
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Burning Spear
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TahoeMario wrote: Sep 29, 2022 3:01 am Here are the "new" screenshots for today, this is showing off your field work 101-- the basics. This is actually a rehashing of the first section of the life page on the website. I was kind of hoping they would just go ahead and update the page itself with a new section, but I guess they have to first promote the older ones for those of us who maybe aren't stalking the website religiously, lol. But here it is:
For anyone who has been following these images more closely than I have, has there been any image in which those tree stumps have been actual trees?
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Anna_Lynn
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Burning Spear wrote: Sep 29, 2022 3:25 pm
TahoeMario wrote: Sep 29, 2022 3:01 am Here are the "new" screenshots for today, this is showing off your field work 101-- the basics. This is actually a rehashing of the first section of the life page on the website. I was kind of hoping they would just go ahead and update the page itself with a new section, but I guess they have to first promote the older ones for those of us who maybe aren't stalking the website religiously, lol. But here it is:
For anyone who has been following these images more closely than I have, has there been any image in which those tree stumps have been actual trees?
Nope, they're just decoration. In the game trailer when the camera pans back as the MC and Takakura are looking at the pasture, those 3 tree stumps are in view.
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TahoeMario
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Burning Spear wrote: Sep 29, 2022 3:25 pm For anyone who has been following these images more closely than I have, has there been any image in which those tree stumps have been actual trees?
From everything that I have seen so far: no. There's nothing even suggesting that they'll be adding the axe or hammer yet either.



Here are the new screenshots for today, showing off more Rock:
Spoiler:
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PaleSunflower
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Well, technically there was an axe in the HM:AWL games' ... code. It goes completely unused, as do a pair of fishing lures and a few other things. A hammer was never planned to my knowledge. The Cutting Room Floor has more details, but, in-game, the axe in HM:AWL does not function or do anything beyond take up inventory space.

I think I got the axe or another unused item a few times via that weird exploit/glitch in HM:AnWL that gave the player a randomized inventory of stuff. It's possible an axe and/or other unused assets will be added to the remake, but there's nothing confirming such a thing yet. I could see the unused lures and unused records in particular being added to Van's shop or handed out by Galen or another villager or something.
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I only posted a small snippet. Full details in the link.

https://gonintendo.com/contents/10157-s ... k-profiled

STORY OF SEASONS: A Wonderful Life's Rock profiled

Marvelous has been revealing some of the characters you’ll come across in STORY OF SEASONS: A Wonderful Life, which comes to Switch sometime in Summer 2023. Today brings us a look at Rock, one of the game’s many marriage candidates.

Rock is one of the bachelors in STORY OF SEASONS: A Wonderful Life. He’s quite the carefree fellow, and does whatever he pleases.

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Code_Name_Geek wrote: Sep 24, 2022 4:31 pm
Somerandom wrote: Sep 14, 2022 3:59 pm I’m not adverse to new things but the pink cows make me worry about what else they will add to “better” the game. The original game was dark and is meant to be slightly more realistic than FOMT and POOT, again this style isn’t for everyone but changing it completely will upset fans of the original. I wonder how well this game will sell considering it was controversial upon its original release and POOT was the most recent game.
This is a super late reply, but I've noticed something about the "pink" cows. I think the cow people are talking about is the one in this screenshot, right?
Spoiler:
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To me, that just looks like the marble cow (I think?) from the original, which also had pinkish spots, and not the strawberry cow from FoMT. The few black spots seem to support this.
Spoiler:
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That's not to say there definitely won't be any added cows, I'm just not sure that that cow is the strawberry cow like some people have said.
Sorry for the late reply as well, but yeah I totally forgot about the marble cows from the original, with Marvelous’ track record, I saw that picture of the cow with pink spots and assumed that it was a strawberry cow like in the mineral town remake. Hopefully it is just the marble cow. Fingers crossed.

EDIT: People are saying that Rock will be called Rock in the English localisation and that him being called “Lock” instead wouldn’t make sense. While I wouldn’t mind if they kept the original name, I would like to point out that Lock could work as a name, being short for Lachlan.
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I'm no expert, but if I recall correctly, aren't "r"s and "l"s switched a lot in Japanese and some other languages, hence "Engrish"? The biggest instance that I can remember is in "Castle in the Sky" where in the Japanese version it's "Raputa" instead of "Laputa" as taken from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". Anyway, whether it's Rock or Lock in English probably depends on the translation team's taste I would think.

This was a couple pages back but Nami's daughter being like Nami 2.0 was precious! I hope to see what all the kids, especially the new daughters look like.
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