Story Of Seasons: Friends Of Mineral Town Launches In North America On 14th July

Take THAT, Natsume!!!!

Probably wait for a slightly lower price but I’m so excited for this, FoMT and DS are my two favourite Harvest Moon games and I love the Mineral Town villagers so much.

Same day as sword art online alicization and a week before ghost of tushima..
Best get some overtime in fast

@Burning_Spear "Yes, take THAT, us and all our past work that led to thousands of westerners being nostalgic about this game now".

Cows are a good way to get me to preorder a game

For someone who's never played harvest moon, what differentiates it from stardew valley? Any reason to pick this up if I already own and enjoy SV?

@jwfurness If you own and enjoy SV there really is no reason to buy this game unless you are a really big fan of the original, SV has more QoL and stuff to do then this game does.

@jwfurness it’s worth mentioning that this game’s original version is apparently the main source of inspiration behind Stardew Valley, so it would be worth checking out if you’re interested.

Stardew Valley and this game can coexist, there is no reason for them to overlap in a way which diminishes the other's appeal. Considering the history of the genre and weight these games hold, I'm surprised that sentiment even came up.

@RPGamer well fatal bullet and hollow realization came to switch so I see no reason why this one can't, probably take a year though

@nhSnork I get it. I really do. This is my favorite franchise, so yes, all thanks to Natsume. But its lame knockoffs are ruining this franchise's reputation. If they care about Harvest Moon as much as they portray, they should stop sucking the life out of it. Go ahead and make a REAL game, and I'll get behind it. They own the trademark, but if they're going to use it, they should do so with respect.

Why isn't the european date in the headline? I mean this is afteral a european website.

@Coffee_Drinker Thanks, that's helpful. SV is brilliant, and I prefer the pixel art anyway.

@MaxlRoseGNR because this article is about the American release date.

The European release date was announced in a previous article.

@jwfurness SV was literally made because the creator was unsatisfied with the direction of Harvest Moon games...ha. I loved playing Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life when I was 12, but I quickly ran out of things to do once I had bought everything, and my child was only a toddler. There was literally nothing left to do. I kept playing Animal Crossing at the time, and never ran out of anything to do in that game.

@nhSnork Didn’t Natsume royally screw over the original Harvest Moon developers? I thought that’s why they split and started calling the franchise story of seasons. In which case, yeah, Natsume can shove it!

That was “friend of a friend” gossip though, I could be totally wrong. If I am, I hope Natsume does very well and doesn’t take/shove anything.

@Boogaloo_Jenkins both companies have said no big fight or something of the sort ever happened.

Marvelous didn’t need Natsume to localize their games anymore, now that they have the means to do it themselves (xseed). And Natsume legally owns the Harvest Moon branding, so it’s theirs to continue using as they please. Each company simply went their own way after their business together ended.

@Boogaloo_Jenkins here's a good video about it:
https://youtu.be/yPZ1oLSh7ec

TL;DR: Story of Season is the new Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon is a copyright holding ripoff

Finally gay marriage, at least in Europe and US! I'm so tired of the pixel art in Stardew Valley (excellent game though) so I'm definitely looking forward to this!

@Burning_Spear there are much cheaper and less ambitious farming sims in the long established genre than what Natsume is producing on their own, and the flavours they try to add are welcome as well. As for "reputation", we are yet again talking a perspective of audiences too unmotivated to look up information while living in the information age. Their nonchalance is their own problem, and I'm getting weary of the dead horse myth that people/work/franchises have any value to seek in the reputation with a contingent whose own judgement competence is so compromised by their attitude. Even as far as sales and profit potentials go, such a contingent becomes little more than a dice roll.

@Boogaloo_Jenkins there was never a quarrel or anything (although Natsume was self-admittedly perplexed by the suddenness of Marvelous's withdrawal back in the day). Marvelous had long come to own the IP and house the developers and eventually wanted to handle future localisation through their own means; Natsume had long had a thing for farming sims by then and didn't want the recognizable brand name gathering dust (OR just gifted away with the two decades of associated effort and investment to a company literally younger than the brand name itself). That's about it. Here's an interview on the topic: https://www.siliconera.com/harvest-moon-beyond-whats-next-natsume/

@Burning_Spear @nhSnork In a way, what was Harvest Moon when I was a kid no longer exists in any form. Marvelous bought the company that made them, and it slowly dissolved from within them. The modern Bokujou Monogatari games, even before the split, have only the branding in common with the ones I grew up loving.

So I don’t see the need to express exclusive loyalty, or sour hatred, towards either Marvelous or Natsume. Both have been developing into separate things, and neither feels like the classic games.

Which is why I’m excited about this remake, I guess. (Even with the annoying ‘just romanize the names’ approach to localization xseed tends to take.)

Just play the original friends of mineral town. It still holds up and doesn't look as ugly.