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Weekly Nintendo Corner - Story of Seasons

Thirdkoopa

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Welcome to the Weekly Nintendo Corner! Every week, Smashboards will be covering a title from the Nintendo pantheon. Most of the time these are new releases or games that are coming soon; but, do expect surprises – every once in a while, there may be a blast from the past.


Story of Seasons

This week’s topic is Story of Seasons. Story of Seasons is a life-simulation game made by Marvelous Inc. and published by XSEED Games. The game will not carry the Harvest Moon name due to Natsume's ownership of the IP. The game still has the same Harvest Moon flow, however; the protagonist works as a farmer, producing crops, raising livestock, keeping watch over the fields, and, of course, harvesting!


Story

The Protagonist finds themselves bored with their day-to-day life and finds a flyer advertising the need for farmers in Oak Tree Town. The protagonist decides to take the risk – thankfully, other farmers are there to teach the protagonist the basics, and together they live out the fabulous farmer life.


Gameplay

While the gameplay remains similar to previous Harvest Moon games, there are a few new features. Players will be able to sell their crop and dairy products to other “countries” in the game via a Trade Station. Personal farm data can be swapped with other players using Street Pass. The player can also set up a wildlife safari that allows them to keep a variety of exotic animals, including parrots and monkeys. The safari can be toured by NPC Villagers.

Farming is simplified to the 3x3 field; sowing, watering, and harvesting can now be done globally instead of separately. This allows the player to care for more fields in less time. Unlike in Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, crops do not carry over to the next season.

Character customization is the same as it was in Harvest Moon: A New Beginning. If you've never played A New Beginning, the player is able to choose their hair style and color, eyes, skin color, hats, glasses, outfits, and three additional accessories.

Music

While there wasn’t any music for Story of Seasons on youtube, enjoy some music from previous games in the series!


About the Team

Marvelous Inc. developed the game and published it in Japan, while XSEED (Marvelous USA Inc.) published the game in North America. Marvelous Inc. (known as Marvelous AQL during development) have made quite a few Video Games and Anime series'. They are primarily known for publishing Skullgirls, the later entries to the Rune Factory series, Vanhalla Knights 3, and a few others. They’ve developed (and in some cases, published) Muramasa: Rebirth, Fortune Street, Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming, Senran Kagura, and Fate/Extra. In terms of anime, they've produced Cat God, Humanity has Declined, Princess Tutu, (The) Prince of Tennis II, and a few more.

Marvelous USA, doing business as XSEED Games, is a sub company of Marvelous Inc. that publishes games for the West. A list of popular games Marvelous USA have published includes Wild Arms 4-5 and XF, Shadow Hearts: From the New World, Vanhalla Knights, Flower, Sun, and Rain, Retro Game Challenge, Little King’s Story, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, all the Ys games in North America, Ivy the Kiwi, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, The Last Story, Unchained Blades, Pandora’s Tower, Killer is Dead, Senran Kagura Burst, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Arc Rise Fantasia, Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed, and plenty more.

For the rest of Marvelous’ catalogue, click here and for XSEED, click here

Story of Seasons is already out in Japan and will be released in North America on March 31st, 2015. No release date has been announced for Europe yet. It’s available for $39.99.

Excited for more Sim Life games on the go? Ever played a Harvest Moon game? How about Sim Life as a whole? Let us know in the comments below!

Thethirdkoopa is a Game Producer, Collector, Musician, and Smash Fanatic at heart. He’s currently really busy both in and outside of SmashBoards, especially outside of SmashBoards, but he’s still kickin. Follow him on Twitter at @Thirdkoopa!
 

Venus of the Desert Bloom

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I know today will be a great day with Harvest Moon featured on the front page of Smashboards. God....so many memories of Harvest Moon on SNES and Harvest Moon 64.

@ Thirdkoopa Thirdkoopa ! Great pick for the song to represent Harvest Moon with. That song was my life for a much of my teenage life.
 
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κomıc

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It's interesting how the latest Harvest Moon separates itself from previous titles with the recent one "Lost Valley". Story of Seasons is the TRUE Harvest Moon for anyone interested. I should give Lost Valley a look though. Natsume changing the formula up a bit should at least add more life to the franchise. But I'm glad Marvelous and XSEED will still provide to tried and true HM experience with their new Story of Seasons.
 

NoteBlock

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As soon as I heard the music from the GameCube Harvest moon, my nostalgia levels flew off the charts. I adore that game so much!
 

FPSWalrus

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MY WAIFUU FROM TALE OF TWO TOWNS IS RETURNING! SHOUTOUTS TO LICORICE, WHOS NAME USED TO BE REINA
LOOK AT THE WAIFUISM RE-MASTERY I NEED THIS GAME
 

Quillion

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Wait... so this Weekly Nintendo Corner series... does third party games, too?
 

Aguki90

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You know that harvest moon creator favorite Zelda game is Wind Waker.

And yeah he hated the Triforce quest of the original.

I love playing the harvest Moon game because are my childhood and the gamecube is the first one and that one is still one of the best and somehow best menu design and BADASS CALM SOUNDTRACK.

I hope how this turned out. After all Harvest Moon is better know to Nintendo Family than any else. The closest is Playstation but Nintendo Fans will be 4x Likely know about harvest moon.
 

Venus of the Desert Bloom

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Harvest Moon has more representation. I loved Back to Nature but the other Playstation games were lackluster. Though I'd throw all my money at the screen if a PS 4 Harvest Moon was announced...or a Wii U one.

I'm planning on picking this up next week sometime.
 

yahooda

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I've always been more of a rune factory kind of guy. Haven't really gotten very invested into a traditional Harvest Moon game since Harvest Moon DS. (Which, although was a good game, destroyed touch screens with that dumb petting minigame)
 

Pazzo.

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Harvest Moon has more representation. I loved Back to Nature but the other Playstation games were lackluster. Though I'd throw all my money at the screen if a PS 4 Harvest Moon was announced...or a Wii U one.

I'm planning on picking this up next week sometime.
I've never played anything remotely simular to a sim-life game... What might I find appealing if I purchased it?
 

FPSWalrus

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I've never played anything remotely simular to a sim-life game... What might I find appealing if I purchased it?
Harvest Moon is the game you go to when you feel bitter, tired, and maybe just bored of the linear experience.
Say, you just want to farm. That's cool, the game does not punish you for just wanting to farm and not follow any of the objectives in town.
However, you can set goals for yourself.
For Example, when I played two towns, I figured out you are allowed to marry one of the towns villagers! Now you might think "well its just a dating sim all you have to do is spam gifts and youll have her in like a day skyrim style". Nope, You literally have to take a year or two to build relationships with these town people. You have to develop a sense of trust with her parents or guardian, and get her own approval by saying he right things at certain events.
What is there besides human interaction? There's also exploration and adventure. In Tale of Two Towns and the PS2 games, you were allowed to run around and find your own items and such. Using these items you can create your own food and by-products.
Now, not only is there farming, but animal care-taking!
You can buy your own livestock, name them, and brush and all that other nonsense. My cows names are lolm2k, hbox?, and I have a goat named Mang0.
Also, you can expand your ranch by adding more plots of land by clearing out sections of land and buying house expansions by collecting materials.

So yeah, the life-sim is pretty appealing if you're into building another life :)
 

Venus of the Desert Bloom

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I've never played anything remotely simular to a sim-life game... What might I find appealing if I purchased it?
Because you get to grow crops, own livestock, befriend colorful villagers, make friends with cute wild animals, make tasty dishes, expand your household, go exploring, attend festivals, feel apart of a community, complete certain story quests, and ultimately get married and have a child. Your typical run-of-the-mill everyday country life ;)
 
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SphericalCrusher

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First off, I am really excited that this website is doing these kinds of weekly articles. I look forward to reading them all, as I'm a huge gamer and Nintendo fan outside of Smash Bros.

Second, I'm also a big Harvest Moon fan, since the first game on SNES. I did not pickup Harvest Moon Lost Valley yet, which I still need to do... but I plan on buying Story of Seasons at launch. The game looks fantastic. I may go ahead and pickup Lost Valley asap. The games are a lot of fun... which is the key thing any video game should be.
 

HyruleSmasher

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simulator are great but i'm afraid that i might get addicted to such play still.. but for those that love this genre it should be a blessing to have in your collection
 
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