What's next for SoS?

[Lady Retro]

I'm a fan of the Story of Seasons game series, and I'm waiting for and wondering about the next SoS game to come out.

[Cherubae]

There are two Story of Seasons games in development:

- The first is one that has multiplayer functionality. Marvelous announced it in 2023 and confirmed it is still in development at their 2024 showcase, but the only thing they've shown is artwork used to inspire the game's development. The art contained various SoS protagonists playing together. I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being a rework of the Tencent mobile game that was cancelled in China.

- The second is a new mainline game using the same graphic style as Pioneers of Olive Town. Marvelous claims the developer has improved the graphics and gameplay. Presumably, this is in development at the third-party development studio Three Rings, since that company handled the development of PoOT's game and assets.

[PaleSunflower]

Adding to what Cherubae said, neither games have titles that we know of nor release estimates (unless I missed them). They'll be done when they're done, I guess.

[PSI_Nightshade]

If I had to take a wild guess, we're likely not going to hear more about them until Rune Factory: Guardians on Azuma is on its last stretch before release. Either a Summer Nintendo Direct or the next Marvelous Showcase.

[Terranigma Freak]

I hope they're more ambitious with their next title considering all the competition that's out there.

I'm personally interested in Fields of Mysteria.

[SOSPlzSum1HelpMe]

I'm honestly more excited for the next Natsume HM game than a SOS game. SOS: POOT, looking back, was lackluster compared to HM:WOA and if the next SOS game is going to follow the same engine and graphics style of POOT, then I can only imagine the gameplay, functions, and features will remain mostly the same.

[JustABeautifulGuy]

I'm honestly more excited for the next Natsume HM game than a SOS game. SOS: POOT, looking back, was lackluster compared to HM:WOA and if the next SOS game is going to follow the same engine and graphics style of POOT, then I can only imagine the gameplay, functions, and features will remain mostly the same.

The engine and the style might stay the same but rest of the gameplay can still be much more improved. All the 3DS SoS games were made in the same engine with a pretty much similar style to each other yet they varied a lot in the gameplay style so I wouldn't completely write off the possibility of the next game being good just because it's being made with the same style and engine. That being said, there's always a high chance for the grim possibility that majority of the mechanics from PoOT will be present in the next game... all we can do is simply wait and see if Marvelous actually learned from all the feedback or not. We only know two things about the gameplay so far: there will be a glider for the first time and that the pets will be returning.

Natsume did really well with Winds of Anthos. I genuinely had much more fun than I expected and I easily prefer it to PoOT. WoA does have flaws as well but there's still many great features in the game that uphold your experience. PoOT was just back to back blunders with no saving grace.

I'm personally really excited to see what Natsume does next. With SoS, I'm very fearful with my optimism but with Natsume HM, I'm actually curious to see how and where they will go from here. Another Winds of Anthos-like game with vast improvements would be amazing. As much as WoA was fun, I can't deny the social sim and the writing aspects were quite poor so I'd like for them to give these aspects some more attention. Apparently, Home Sweet Home did fix up on this issue but I have yet to give that one a try so I'll keep hoping until I see it myself in the next HM console game. I'd also like an artstyle change, if feasible for them. I think the current one is too bland and I believe it's putting away many people from giving this game a fair chance. It's a really weird mix of retro and modern coloring and shading wise that it just ends up feeling amateurish.

[Kikki]

Natsume got a much better-looking world, but to me the characters still look very children's-cartoony. Not appealing at all, to me, with their flat faces and vapid doll eyes.

Not that PoOT was any better, mind you. Marvelous feels like they have really lost their way. Well, they are basically an entirely new development group when it comes to Bokumono. I mean, they're not even handling it in-house or with a branch group like Hakama. They're farming it out to Three Rings, which not only has never done Bokumono before, but had never done any other game even remotely LIKE it before.

So basically, Bokumono is now being made by total newbs, and only the director (or is it producer?) and character concept designer has ever worked on the game before. (Except they now have PoOT as experience.)

As far as I'm concerned, both groups have considerable room for improvement, though Natsume's games are now more fun than Marv's. They feel truer to the feel of Bokumono games than PoOT did.

I hope what's next for SoS is that they take more of what made previous games in their own series great and STOP trying to chase trends of other farming games. YOU HAVE THE RIGHTS TO THE ORIGINAL, MARV, USE IT! I can't tell you how much I hated that they made farming meaningless in PoOT. Forget animal festivals, they didn't even have seasonal harvest festivals! Not even one!

Please stop trying to chase Stardew's popularity and return to your own. I know you have almost none of your old team left, Marv, but please get Three Rings to actually look at some of the most popular Bokumono games and take notes!

[PaleSunflower]

It would be nice if Marvelous started to focus more on their farming. SoS:PoOT trying to chase Stardew Valley is not an invitation for the series to chase after other series, farming-focused or not, either. (The glider has me speculating that they'll try to chase after LoZ:BotW next, but it's just me speculating with no actual proof.) Marvelous has released non-remake games with farming since SoS:PoOT, but none of them, such as Farmagia, Deadcraft, and Silent Hope, have been particularly successful or well-received by fans. RF5 is also generally considered to be a worse game compared to its predecessor, RF4. Marvelous' recent mixed- and poorly-received games with farming are not guaranteed omens for future SoS and RF games, but I'm having trouble hoping otherwise. Marvelous, in my opinion, has gotten worse since moving to the Switch.

(Deadcraft did allow for multiple items to be cooked in one go, so that is one complaint from SoS:PoOT seemingly addressed.)

Natsume, on the other hand, has seemingly improved since moving to the Switch. I haven't gotten to HM:WoA or HM:HSH myself, but HM:OW was a delight for me. HM:WoA built up from HM:OW and the result is a game that was well accepted and appears to have sold well. Even people who hated Natsume after the HM/SoS split generally considered a HM:WoA solid experience, if not outright good. I'm curiously optimistic where Natsume will go next game-development-wise.

Controversy aside, the HM/SoS split did result in another line of farming games. The indie scene for farming games has also grown a lot from practically nothing. The quality of those indie games is variable, with some good games and some not-good games. Still, it's great that there are more options for farming games. If, in the worst case scenario, Marvelous' farming decline continues, then it's great that there are other developers that can hopefully pick up the slack.