Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town has now appeared on the North American Switch eShop, meaning you can go ahead and pre-purchase the game ahead of its release on 14th July.
Joining Europe, where pre-purchasing went live last month, the listing shows that any digital pre-purchases made in North America will include the Cow Costume DLC as a bonus. This cosmetic DLC will also be available for purchase separately at launch for $1.99, but if you're already set on buying the game, we guess it makes sense to take advantage of the offer.
You can also pre-order a physical copy of the game from the XSEED Games store for the same price of $49.99. Instead of the free DLC, buyers will receive this adorable Strawberry Cow plush.
As you probably know, this new release is an expanded remake of the 2003 Game Boy Advance farming/life sim of the same name. We were treated to a lovely batch of screenshots just last month.
Are you thinking of buying this one? Are you thinking cow DLC, or cow plush? Get a mooooove on to our comment section below.
Comments 24
I’m really looking forward to this one, the original’s a brilliant game.
Wish either them or natusme did one of these plush preorder things via Amazon, since I'm never able to get them in my country.
Very much looking forward to this! I'm so excited. I haven't gotten to play a Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon game on the tv since the Ps2 days. ♥
Super looking forward to this. Oh, nostalgia how you have brought me comfort, this year.
They just couldn't help themselves with that pun, could they.
So eager to chill out with this game! ...if that makes sense.
That strawberry cow plush will look great next to my bubble cow and chicken ones from earlier preorders. I just wish it was bigger.
Is the GBA game considered one of the best HM games? I'm a little bit interested in this one. Only played a GBC HM game, which was fun.
No need to pre-purchase, they eShop won't run out of copies.
@Crono1973 Pre-purchasing usually lets you download the game before release so you're not sitting there on release day spending several hours watching the progress bar slowly creep across the icon.
@Quarth Back to Nature/Friends of Mineral Town, and 64 are often fondly remembered as the peak of the series.
The only major removal compared to previous versions of this game is the lack of NPC marriages (back in the day, other characters could get married, not just you), which I s a big shame, but it seems to be an overall improvement over the original experience besides that.
@Mountain_Man Yeah, patience sucks.
@Crono1973 you do get a free costume for pre-purchasing.
So there’s that.
Purchased! Huge Story of Seasons fan! Just love seeing the tile on my Switch menu. And I have the physical pre-order too.
@Quarth Yes, the GBA game, which is a pseudo-port of the PlayStation game Harvest Moon Back to Nature, is largely regarded as the best handheld version of the franchise. And many consider it their favorite overall. This is a game you can sink hundreds of hours into and not even feel like you've done everything you want to do.
@Burning_Spear @Eel Thanks for your input! Might pick this up at launch.
@Crono1973 "Yeah, patience sucks."
So don't pre-purchase and don't download early just so you can practice patience? Um... why?
@Mountain_Man ...because pre-ordering is bad for consumers? You are sending the message that you don't need the game to be good before you'll buy it.
@Crono1973 It’s been out in Japan for some time, and it’s not that hard to see what people already think about it/what it looks like/how it plays.
I mean, fair enough if you want to apply that to other games I guess, but that doesn’t work in this case.
@Crono1973 I suppose that's one way of looking at it, but a developer or publisher who releases a bad game will see preorders and sales for their next game plummet, so essentially tricking consumers into pre-ordering a low quality product is a poor long-term business strategy, so it's less risky than you imply. Plus there are some publishers and developers with a proven track record that are reasonably safe to pre-order from. Though I feel bad for anybody who digitally pre-ordered Outer World's.
@Crono1973 I get your point, but this is a little different because it's a remake of a great game and an installment of a long-running series. If you're a Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons fan, you're going to buy the game because of Marvelous' consistent history with the franchise. You know what you're getting and that you're not taking a chance on a potentially poor game.
And all of this said, most people pre-order digitally so they can play right away on day one. But this game downloaded for me in two or three minutes, so I could have just as easily downloaded it the day it released.
@Burning_Spear You know, these days remakes are often worse than the source game.
@Crono1973 it's been out for a long time in Japan, so I don't expect it to be like, broken.
So yeah, it's a game I want, I know what to expect, the price was good (in my currency), the file is a good size, so I prepurchased.
Will I play it minute-one? Probably not. But it's one dumb expense less in my future now. Eel from the past took care of it already!
@Crono1973 At this point I have to think you’re only here to complain.
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