Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, developed by Marvelous and published by XSEED Games, is really a 3D remake from the beloved farming and life simulator Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. Originally released on Game Boy Advance in 2003, this brand new remake will be coming to Nintendo Switch and PC on July 14. Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town doesn't stray too much from the original game, which is great for returning fans but may disappoint beginners accustomed to better quality, modern simulators like Stardew Valley.
Friends of Mineral Town starts out similarly to most games in the genre – your grandfather has died, leaving you his farm along with a new life inside a rural town. Your ultimate goal is to reinvigorate the farm and forge relationships with the town's citizens and native harvest sprites. To make the farm better and earn money, you plant and grow crops and take care of different animals, including cows, chickens, alpacas, and sheep. Additionally, you are able to explore the mine, where you find raw materials that help you level up your tools. Making use of your tools could be frustrating at times, unfortunately, because of the stamina system the game uses. Essentially, there is a fruit-looking stamina bar within the top left corner. Hypothetically, this shouldn't pose too much of an issue – many farming games employ a stamina system to challenge the player's personal time management a bit.
However, the game doesn't ever seem to provide you with enough stamina. It is possible to level up your stamina bar, though it seems to be at random as you dig up more berries from the ground, however the stamina falls so quickly that starting out is much more difficult than it ought to be.
Oftentimes, I would be completely from stamina after just watering my crops. There's a hot spring you can use to rejuvenate yourself and restore stamina during the day, but it is mildly annoying to run back and forth all day just so that you can do several thing. There are other methods to restore stamina, like consuming food, however, especially at the beginning of the game, it's tough to prepare enough to restore stamina quickly.
To make things more efficient around the farm without putting in a couple of work, you are able to befriend the harvest sprites by speaking with them and providing them with gifts. Once they consider you a friend, the sprites can help you round the farm watering or harvesting crops or looking after the animals for you.
Much such as the harvest sprites, just like any farm and life simulator, you are able to befriend and even romance residents of the town. While the process of building your relationships with visitors isn't very complicated or even any different compared to original, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town made one incredibly important change – you can be gay.
No matter which gender you select at the outset of the game, you are able to marry the romanceable characters available. Nobody is locked behind a particular gender option. This was absolutely thrilling to me like a queer Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons fan. Actually, in elementary school, I even had both A Wonderful Life and Another Wonderful Life, one and so i could date girls and something and so i might be a girl. Having certainly one of my favorite childhood games make this type of small change that enables same-sex marriage helped me so unbelievably happy.
However, other than that, there aren't too many changes to the core gameplay. The changes that are present mostly help streamline the game, which makes it more efficient to experience in 2023 so it doesn't feel super outdated. For example, the tools are much simpler to cycle through and accessing recption menus and cycling through the different screens is much quicker compared to the original GBA version.
Because of this, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town was ideal for me as someone looking for the best new version of some childhood nostalgia. It felt just like the game I remembered from 2003 but smoother, which is precisely what I was dreaming about. It does not stray from the original but it's also much less not the same as it, either. For me personally, there is a pretty perfect balance.
That said, for individuals who not have the early 2000s nostalgia for Harvest Moon games like I actually do, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town may not feel worth it in 2023. Although it has been updated, it's still much simpler than modern farming games, especially Stardew Valley, which is arguably typically the most popular farming simulator out today that would be comparable.
Plus, even while an enormous fan of the original, I still had trouble focusing on the sport for prolonged periods. Probably the most fun I'd using the game was playing it like I played Animal Crossing – I'd awaken in the morning, play for approximately half an hour while hearing a podcast, and then place it down, checking set for short bursts throughout the day like a break from work.
Even after i would get really into the game for hours at any given time, I would still eventually hit a wall where I felt like I wasn't doing anything because the game does get pretty repetitive. It's not necessarily bad, and might be considered a great alternative if someone feels overwhelmed by Stardew Valley or the Farming Simulator series, but since the sport is a remake of a simple 2003 handheld title, there isn't much to do apart from plant, harvest, mine, and talk to people.
Overall, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is a fun blast to the past if you're filled with nostalgia for the original game like I'm. Unfortunately, if you are lacking that nostalgia, it may be a little underwhelming, especially if you're comparing it to more modern farming simulators and the repetition of farming on such a small map could possibly get monotonous after a while. However, if you are willing to go beyond that, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is an enjoyable, cute, and charming experience which will get you straight to 2003 within the most effective way.
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town will be available on Nintendo Switch and Steam on July 14.
