Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns

As some of you are no doubt aware, the latest entry in the "true" Harvest Moon series launches tomorrow as Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns. Though this will be the game's debut in the west, it actually came out last year in Japan, and has since received a decent amount of DLC. For a while, XSeed seemed hesitant to bring this to the West—as the translation work required would necessitate nearly the manpower of a full-on new game— but the developer fortunately has since changed its mind due to overwhelming fan feedback.

Japan received nearly six months of DLC support post-launch—which includes new marriage candidates, pets, clothes, and more—and most of it will eventually make its way over to the West. No release date or pricing has been revealed yet, but the developer was keen to mention in an earlier post that the DLC—which was free in Japan—would likely have to be paid in the West to cover localization costs. Still, it's better than not getting it at all, right? Here's what was said in a recent blog post:

We were really overwhelmed by the feedback we received from it. The patience and support of those who responded was encouraging to say the least, and we were grateful to hear all of your opinions, however you felt about the situation. One issue that came up on our forums that I'd like to address quickly is about the bug fixes that were included in the post-launch patches in Japan. Those fixes are all already included in the core game that we are releasing on February 28.

Now then, on to the big news: I'm happy to report that we have decided to localize and release the DLC in North America. I don't have information on a release timeline or costs for you yet, but we're eager to dive into translating and editing the text for this massive update. Stay tuned for updates in the months after the initial release.

Thanks again for all your feedback. It made our decision much easier. While the DLC is a ways off, until then we hope you enjoy Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns. Even without the post-launch DLC, it is still the biggest game in the storied history of the farm/life-sim series.

What do you think? Are you getting Trio of Towns? Were you part of the feedback that convinced XSeed to change its mind? Drop us a comment in the section below.

[source xseedgames.tumblr.com]