Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town - Nintendo Switch

I originally played Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town on the Gameboy Advanced SP(which I still have, and still play when it works), and I stumbled upon this remake by accident. And what a happy accident it was! I ended up buying a Nintendo Switch Light just so I could get this...Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is a beautiful remake of that original, the developers obviously put a lot of time into it. And the new features make the game more enjoyable, for the most part.You can now choose your gender and play as a boy or girl, each with two options to select from, two of which were from the original games and two new designs. You can also change your skin color, although those options are limited two three: pale, tanned (if you can call it that), and light brown. I would like to have seen an update where you could design your own character with more options ie eye color, skin color and hairstyle, would have been nice to name a few. But they have at least given some representation to gamers other than just us white folk, so the willingness is there, they just didn’t go all the way.For those of you who played the original I’m sure you remember having to pick up your chickens to put them outside and repeat to put them in at night, or pushing cows and sheep. The struggle WAS real. But NO MORE! They brought in the BELL SYSTEM! There are two bells, one outside the cattle barn and one outside the chicken coop. When you ring each one the respective animal goes outside, saving you time. And at 8pm in game they all put themselves away! You no longer have to hunt them down, spending in game hours, to do that. I also like that they got rid of your animals getting sick if you can’t leave your house because of bad weather, or you neglect them, they just don’t produce milk/eggs/wool in protest. They no longer die in the game, which is odd considering animals die in real life, so cutting that aspect seems silly. You can sell them to make room for higher grade animals though. They also added a brown chicken, rabbits, alpacas and other flavored cows.(I always new chocolate milk came from brown cows, and this proves it!) HahaThe crop aspect is also improved, you can now walk over anything that you plant! So now it’s easier to water, and you can grow more in your field because of this. And when you’re out there cutting down hay for your cattle, you no longer have to worry about slicing them with your sickle!Your horse can now be ridden through town, the forest and on the beach! Giving you a faster way to travel! A much needed, and probably popular change. Just like with your character, I wish you could have chosen the coat color. When you participate in Spring/Autumn Derby Day, you see black and paint colored horses so it would’ve been nice to be able to change that if you wanted.One of my personal favorite updates is that same items stack, so if you have nine eggs they only take up one spot! This saves so much time, and means you can finish all your chores around the farm in one easy go.They updated the look of the characters in town and gave some of them names closer to their Japanese version originals, they also added two new people.You can still get married, even same sex. They took out rival marriages unfortunately, I wish that they would have let other couples get married once you did. And with the addition of two new characters you can woo, they could have substituted for marrying if you had chosen their love interest.These are just a few of the things that have changed for this game, and they’re heading in the right direction! I highly recommend this game.

Just as fun as the original with new characters! A very chill and cute game, great for everyone!

I think it's worth reading reviews of the game itself before buying because it's a fun game, but also very simplistic compared to other titles. I personally really like Mineral Town for what it is and it's my favorite Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons entry, but I haven't played anything newer. As far as packaging, the case was clean and not damaged with the original artwork in place. The game disc looked good and was functional. Overall, I had a good experience.

I found out about this game only about 2 weeks before its release while browing HM: BTN from way back when as a trip down memory lane, and immediately put it on preorder.I've only played it a couple of hours so far, but as a veteran HM/SOS player, I will say it does carry that classic feel. I was pleasantly surprised to notice that time stops as it used to when entering buildings, which is lovely and a feature I missed in some of the newer games I had bought here and there.Getting used to the controls for all the new features is different. Your Equiped being seperated from your Sack/Rugsack makes me continously hit the wrong buttons. I also ate a couple of things I meant to throw in my bin to sell by mistake. It's a learning curve of mechanics I suppose.Graphics don't look as clunky as trailers made it feel it would be. I will say I don't much care for how items/people blur at the very bottom of the screen. I get it might be a thing just to unfocus from or whatever, but it's just displeasing to the eye.Characters more or less act how you'd expect from the old BTN game (and presumably FOM, which I never actually played). Thus far no strong feelings for the new bachelor and bachelorette, Brandon and Jennifer (but again, I've only played roughly 2 hours / 5 days).tl;dr: More or less the same old game you knew and loved (for vets), learning how to navigate all the buttons may take a few tries. Otherwise lowkey, memorable, and peaceful.

Loveeeeee this game. Just as I remember playing it in the past. These old games are definitely always best.