Hometown Story, the charming 3DS title from Yasuhiro Wada — best known for the Harvest Moon series — and his team at Toybox arrived in North America last October, with Europe having to wait a little longer for its own localisation. Rising Star Games is handling the release in the latter territory, and after previous targets of an April release the final word has finally been given on its arrival in the region.
Everybody Plays has had a recent look at the game and stated that a 2nd May release has been lined up. We've been in touch with Rising Star Games to confirm that date, and have also been provided with details of improvements that have been made since the North American release; the publisher's Tyrone Walcott has told us the following:
Hometown Story is nearly here and I’m happy to say we (Rising Star Games) have been paying attention to the feedback from the US release. Wada-san and Rising Star Games expressed a desire to rectify these issues for the European version of Hometown Story which have now been achieved. As the European version had a longer development time due to translations we utilised this extra period to give Wada-san (Toybox) the opportunity to make these enhancements.
Hometown Story Enhancements:
Faster pacing of story development – This was one of the main issues with reviewers and this has been fully corrected to give a more meaningful experience to the player
Shop mechanics – more fun frantic pacing just like a real shop
NPC’s reactions – NPC shoppers and residents react to changes straight away i.e. Shopkeeper’s fulfilment of customer requests responded to straight away by NPC’s
We’re also pleased to announce that the addition of fishing as an extra activity in Hometown Story has also been included. With all these enhancements added together I’m happy to say this will be THE definitive release of Wada-san’s latest creation: Hometown Story.
Some brand new screens are also below for your viewing pleasure. Is this a title that's of interest to any of you European gamers this May?
Comments 17
Great! I totaly want it
I am really liking the look of this!! .^_^.
I'm not yet convinced ! I'll wait for some review of this release.
I'm pleased they actually bothered to make the European enhancements. Hopefully it'll meet my expectations when I get to try it.
I wish Rising Star would bring some shmups or run n gun to Nintendo consoles. (Seems that stuff never goes on Nintendo).
I have the NA version but didn't get very far. Maybe I'll go back and try again.....after I finally beat Bravely Default that is!
Its a pretty fun game. I liked the North American version. If your expecting a Harvest Moon type game though this is not it. This is pretty much something different. hmmm.....If you ever played world of Warcraft and went into a storyline dungeon that's kinda how this how this whole game plays like. Its Frantic shop keeping with a huge and I do mean huge amount of storyline cutscenes. I do believe you can open up back story on every single character in your town. its enjoyable but don't expect harvest moon or you might be let down a bit.
also based on the screenshots from above there is no difference in the game. Why didn't they show your character fishing if they added it to the game? That fishing picture above is the same as the US version. that's a significant change why not showcase it with a screenshot. Maybe they just forgot. shakes head
And the rest of the world is stuck with the bad version?
Will the NA version be patched at some point? I've been considering buying the game, but if there's a superior version that only EU gets, it could be a little tougher to consider, especially seeing the mixed reception I've seen for the game. Also, when will Nintendo Life review this game?
@uel My thoughts too. Give us a patch to download in the eshop that includes these enhancements!
they should add this as an update patch for regions that already have the game
Bummer. It's the same day as Mario Golf. Oh well, Hometown Story will have to wait.
Hope they patch the features into the USA release, I didn't get because of the bad press it got. These improvements sound like it'll make the game a bit better!
@Dyl_73 are you sure it can wait? Itmight be harder to pick it later, while MGWT will be stocked in stores for quite a while
I don't think I'll be touching this ever or anything else this company develops. This company has some serious issues. They released a garbage game with a grossly overpriced $49.99 price tag. They've "fixed" their game for the UK using NA gamers input but they left all their North American customers up the creek without a paddle. This should be a free update for North American purchasers especially if this company used their input to make a better product but they didn't bother. On the other side of the spectrum we have Vblank Entertainment that's been releasing update after update for Retro City Rampage. Now that is a real developer that stands behind their game. This developer doesn't deserve your business.
Can't wait to get this game! I love "Harvest Moon, A new beginning" and this looks amazing!
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