Marvelous Showcase 2024

[JustABeautifulGuy]

I knew not to expect much, but we didn't really get anything substantial. Oh well, better than nothing, I guess? Farmagia looks like a card-based RPG game with only the male character as playable. I have no clue how farming will be integrated. They didn't even show us any gameplay footage. 

New SoS is pretty much the same teaser from last year, but I guess it's not a demo build now but rather in-game footage. I hate those child-looking character models. Nope all the way. Gliding—yay, just what we asked for. At least the world looks pretty, I guess. Ironically, I got Winds of Anthos vibes from the footage myself, but you know what? The winds of Anthos at least feel like the world is sized decently. The SoS footage felt suffocating with how much they were trying to fit in such a small space. I can't believe I'm saying this, but at this stage, Natsume seems to be doing a better job at pleasing the old fans, such as me. They just need better socialization features, and I'd dare say that they would be doing a far better job than Marvelous at farm sims. 

It's funny how last year Project Dragon looked more release-ready than this SoS game, but now to me it's the exact opposite. Why does it look so empty and barebones now? I hate how they said there's no farming. I guess I'll still give it a try for the romance elements, but I'm not so excited anymore.

Last year, it felt like the presentation was just empty words, but this time around, it feels even more that way. There are two possible reasons why I think they kept telling us they'd release more information soon:

1) Maybe they will announce the games on the upcoming Nintendo Direct.
2) They're waiting for Switch 2 so they can release these games as cross-gen titles.

The funniest part for me:
"We're maintaining all the qualities that made Story of Seasons what it is."
>"Yeah, so we're putting more effort into the visuals."

Marvelous has had a rough time lately, but I don't think this has invoked any hope for me. I share the same sentiment as Kikki on this. For me, other games such as My Time At series now give me the same feelings I used to get playing older HM/SoS games. The charm of SoS games seems missing to me now. I can only hope I can take back my words one day.

[Poppyseed]

All I can really say is that I guess I’ll keep waiting to hear more. I also don’t really care much for graphics, so I don’t have much to add on that front. Other than that, Hiro Mashima doing the character design for Farmagia is…an interesting choice of artist.

[JustABeautifulGuy]

Checking the Japanese comments on the JP ver of the showcase and I'm surprised majority of them are asking to improve the gameplay rather than the graphics. It's perplexing how you can manage to mishear feedback from even your Japanese players! I guess I can simply now just wait (probably a year for this one) and see if they actually listened to the fans and learned anything.

[Kikki]

Checking the Japanese comments on the JP ver of the showcase and I'm surprised majority of them are asking to improve the gameplay rather than the graphics. It's perplexing how you can manage to mishear feedback from even your Japanese players! I guess I can simply now just wait (probably a year for this one) and see if they actually listened to the fans and learned anything.

I'm pleased by that, but not surprised. The Japanese response to PoOT was essentially IDENTICAL to the North American (or just 'English-speaking', perhaps) response. They said all the very same things we were saying here on Fogu. Graphics was never, ever the big issue. Hardly anyone complained about it at all after the game was released, except that many people still wanted portraits. That's as close as you can get to saying the complaints were about graphics.

The Japanese fans screamed their complaints. They even went too far, forcing Nakano to shut down his Twitter (I think it was Twitter, or Tumblr, some social media site) to get away from the inundation of complaints to him, personally. They were very very vocal, with all the same complaints we had except even louder. How can they possibly have misunderstood what people were upset about? I'm baffled.

You can never please everyone or even most on graphics, because everyone has a different style preference. Some even prefer old-school grainy pixels, and others want photo-realism, or otoge style characters...etc. A large amount of people will always be disappointed by the art style. It's never the ideal thing to focus on, imo. Just give us high-quality gameplay! Give us back our festivals, give us meaningful character dialogue or backstories, make the farming or ranching actually matter...etc.

EDIT: Eh, it's just not my series any more. They can do what they want. I think they've bet on a losing horse, but maybe they've narrowed in on a specific market that's not in our view.

[FarmingForDaysMan]

There were quite a few things to dislike about what was revealed, but I’m trying to stay positive xD

I felt that the animation of the Farmagia potential female protagonist (or not? Either way, I believe her name was Arche) was extremely unnecessary. Though I’m not surprised, since the art designs were created or partially created by someone who helped with designs in the Fairy Tail anime?

I have a lot of questions about Project Dragon, too. I was wondering how players can tell how much damage they’re dealing to foes (unless there are new health bars or something somewhere where we couldn’t see them on the screen?), and I too am wondering about the farming aspect in this game since Rune Factory IS a farming game. What do you think the lore of the dance Earthmates will be? The game is taking place in a different region, so maybe different variations of Earthmates live in different regions? It wouldn’t make sense since people travel…anyways, I’ll be looking for an explanation. I hope we get a good one.

I also agree that the designs of the protagonists of the new Story of Seasons game are distasteful—well, more like the male protag’s design (a beanie?? Really?); we haven’t seen the female from the front, but in my opinion she didn’t look too bad from what we saw. I don’t like the fact that the designs are becoming more modern because it takes away the series’ charm.

Story of Seasons is definitely not what it used to be, but I’m trying to be hopeful. I’m not sure what the breaking point would be for me. I’ve been a fan ever since I was old enough to play a video game (A Wonderful Life was my first game, from what I can remember). I’m really hoping that Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons/Rune Factory will be a lifelong love of mine and one that I can share with any children that I might have in the future (if I ever get married pfff).

[simside]

Not gonna lie, I’m kinda into the remote setting for the new SoS game. IoH is one of my favorite entries, and I would be really into the concept of developing an economy that comes to you. Or, like, Heidi but a SoS game. Which was a joke, but the more I think about that the more I want to play.

I know I’m reaching… we all know the glider just takes you into town. I also thought the graphics look like WoA. This is extremely amusing to me. XD

Farmagia looks a bit generic, but probably something I’d play. I can’t believe I didn’t clock Hiro Mashima’s art immediately, the first female protagonist is a dead giveaway. He seems like a bizarre choice. You’d think they’d want a less skeevy style for, like, the audience that plays Rune Factory, but Farmagia may be just an anime action/JRPG kind of thing.

Reserving some judgement for Project Dragon. It… seems like they removed the farming? Can they do that? And wouldn’t they be Dance Mates? When he said something along the lines of “These are Earth Mates, but with a twist!” *dramatic pause*, my brain supplied “They remember this time!”

[StormFire]

After watching the showcase, I think I’m more excited for Rune Factory: Project Dragon than the new SOS game. Seeing the bow in action was cool, and just seeing the combat in general got me hyped. I also really liked the designs of the protagonists too! As for SOS, I felt like it was just the same information…I was really hoping for a Magical Melody remake, but I know we just got A Wonderful Life so hopefully that’ll be in the plans for the future somewhere, lol.

[Bluie]

This presentation was a nothingburger for me. I even said at my screen when Farmagia was being show 'so are we gonna see any gameplay or...???' and then we got none. Like, wow, maybe if I was into the Fairy Tail anime I'd have given a « Cow Poopoo », but you already lost me on only male protagonist - you even further lost me at only showing an anime PV for a game your trying to sell me. I like Doraemon SoS and PoPoLoCrois fine, so maybe I'll change my tune eventually - but that'd require some freaking GAMEPLAY from a game that's set to come out THIS YEAR.

I also audibly groaned when I saw the glider in the new SoS. As a big fan of Genshin Impact (and a 'dolphin' to it), NOT EVERY « Snuggly Bunny » GAME HAS TO BE GENSHIN/BOTW. It is getting SUPER frustrating watching all these companies trying to greedily get a slice of the Genshin pie when they DON'T NEED TO. SoS has a formula that works - and I'm not against evolving the brand, but holy « Puppy Doodoo », have we learned nothing from Pioneer's of Olive town? The series needed to take a step back to its roots, not a giant leap off a cliff with a glider. Maybe I'm nostalgia blind or whatever, but I'll take more remakes of the hard to (legally) access titles over whatever they're cooking. I have zero hype from seeing the teaser. At the very least we're spoiled for choice when it comes to farm sims these days, so it's not like I'm being held at gunpoint by the only game in a genre I like.

And then Project Dragon. Again with the Genshin pie « Male Cow Poopoo ». I adore Rune Factory as a series, it's one of those games I can play over and over again without getting tired of it. I really feel nothing on seeing Project Dragon as it is now. I'm not into this series for the flashy combat animations and I couldn't care less about what was shown. Where's the cozy town? The dungeons? The NPCs to interact with? It's literally nothing to me as it is now, and it's officially been thrown into the pile of games I'll forget about until they bother to show us something substantial.

Like, good lord, all this presentation made me want to do is start up another Stardew Valley save file.

[Kikki]

I still think that these showcases are so deaf to what players have been saying that it suggests, again, that they are NOT aimed at players at all, but at shareholders/investors. They even kept saying 'please wait for more information'. Soon, in the case of Farmagia.

The stuff coming up 'soon' is the stuff that's for the players. This showcase, just like the last, feels like it is an answer to some sort of business demand, not something to hook the players. Cuz we all know that neither the English-speaking audience nor even the Japanese-speaking audience asked them to focus on graphics. Whoever DID make that demand, that's who this showcase was really for.

Lots of people bought Olive Town even though they weren't sure about it. If Olive Town was a disappointment, then I suggest: don't buy the next game just because it is Bokumono, because Bokumono is not the same series, any more. Don't preorder it. How can plushie cow bonuses be worth losing the heart of a favourite series? Wait and see and buy if they seem to have listened to the fans rather than just their investors or whoever is pulling these weird strings. Giving them your money is rewarding them. Rewarding them for not listening to you is a sure way to encourage them to continue not listening to you. If they're only listening to you a little, buy it on sale. If they're not listening to you at all, don't even buy it on a sale.

That's what I'm going to do, anyway. I can't tell if I'll be getting this or not. We don't know anything that matters, yet! I figure I probably won't be getting it, but I'm willing to have another look when more info is available.

(But if you loved Olive Town and the direction the series has been going, then yes, throw your money at them as much as you reasonably can. Pre-order, buy full price, get a special edition, etc. Money is the thing that really matters, after all. No company can go on without it. Vote with your dollars!)

[JustABeautifulGuy]

The comments from JP players keep coming and they sound definitely far more aggressive than us English speaking fans. Can't believe they've actually voiced all of our concerns 1:1. I know profits first, employees 2nd and us consumers last is the policy as the company gets bigger but I still somewhat hope this "graphics" focused presentation is only for the investors and they actually managed to hear out the fans. Not excited for this game but I'll still look out for it when more information/reviews are dropped. As one Japanese player's comment said: "if you mess this up like Olive Town again, I will quit being a fan". This will really make it or break it for me. Not that it matters though because there's still so many better farm sims to pick from.

On an unrelated note, only Farmagia was slated for a release this year at this showcase so let me update my predictions:
Proper gameplay reveal at the June Direct for Farmagia -> Fall 2024 release -> September Direct reveals Project Dragon -> March 2025 release to align it with the Nintendo Switch successor -> Feb Direct reveals new SoS -> Midsummer 2025 release -> Marvelous Showcase 2025 and they start showing crumbs of the multiplayer SoS and RF6 way too early.

[midnighttherabbit]

Yeah, I wonder if the focus on graphics also has something to do with the next gen console, I don't know how these things work exactly but I can see developers who are making games for it to be prompted by Nintendo to emphasise graphics, since that's likely going to be its main draw. And, yeah, showing something shiny to investors is probably a priority after the reception of their last few games.

The problem is the few things we have seen (the glider) don't make me confident. Not every game that includes a glider now is bad, necessarily, but... I mean, come on lol. I feel like it's going to be there just for the sake of being there, and it's going to cause them to run into a bunch of limitations that impact the rest of the game. I also don't think there'll be free gliding like BotW/Genshin/every game from the past 5 years, but you'll be able to glide from certain points - which people will be mad about probably.

Also, I agree with everyone else that Farmagia looks kind of skeevy, I might have been interested in finding out more about it otherwise. I don't get who finds that appealing lol. I'm definitely not the target audience.

[Ronin19]

Yeah I was so disappointed by the showcase. I didn't expect much, but just a vague update on pretty much every title they have working? And no farming in any game at all, which is what the games are meant to be. Rune Factory is a spin off of a farming game. Farmagia has farm in the name. And Story of Seasons? No farming at all. It really was what someone said: "Something for the stock holders."

[Kikki]

Well...

If anyone is excited but unhappy about the lack of excitement in others, or disappointed by their own lack of excitement, then, don't worry. We haven't seen anything, yet. This SoS could still be great. And they didn't show RF6 at all and we know absolutely zilch about it, so it, too, could be a fantastic game.

Plus Marvelous is the rights-holder of Bokujo Monogatari, 'the original' farming game. And it's a lucrative market right now. They're not going to easily give up their title as the original, and try to reestablish themselves as the best in the business. The next games to come out could be great, but even if they're not, they're unlikely to give up at one or two moderate flops. (Olive Town wasn't technically a flop. A huge number of fans hated it, sure, but it was riding on the back of Trio of Towns, so many bought it. The NEXT new SoS is riding on the back of Olive Town, which is a less secure position, but so many fans are still so hopeful.)

I feel like I'm done as a fan. Olive Town finished me when paired with the remakes, which I'm uninterested in. It'd be a great surprise to have Marv suddenly come out with a banger of a farming game again, but...I don't care. I have other options, now. Lots of them. My Time at Sandrock was amazing, Kynseed was unique, Sun Haven looks like an interesting fantasy take on the classic, and Echoes of Plum Grove is fascinatingly peculiar. We've all got options! This show sort of made me want to play Sandrock again, lol. Or finally give Sun Haven a go.

And if you're really clinging to Bokumono specifically, well, it's still got room to knock one out of the park. If you didn't like this Investors Showcase: it wasn't meant to impress the fans anyway, as far as I can tell.

And perhaps they'll port the 3DS games to Switch 2? I could go for that. Wouldn't mind an AP remake, either.

[K8sMum]

Farmagia lost me at the bouncing boobs.

As for the new SoS, I liked the upgrades graphically, but knowing nothing about the gameplay isn't encouraging. I don't see how romance/families can be in the game with a protagonist that looks 12 years old.

I don't understand how they could take a game series with a such huge following and bring it down so much. They know we like customization in our homes yet they took it away. The makers were a disaster. The personalities were non-existent, imho.

It makes me sad.

[Kikki]

I don't think you're stuck with that character. I mean, characters are always self-created in Bokumono. You don't have to create a baby-looking one like that, hopefully. And maybe that wasn't even showing the default male MC. Maybe that was some other character. They showed so very little that we just don't know what we're in for, yet.

Btw, everyone, here's the SoS clip by itself if you want to see it without wading through the whole presentation: