Happy Farm'n Friday! Let's just get right to it!

This week's Nintendo Direct revealed the latest Marvelous remake of their Bokujou Monogatari series. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a merger of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life, and Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition (SE), reworked and remastered for a modern platform. This remake of a 20-year-old game will be released on Nintendo Switch on January 26, 2023, in Japan and sometime next summer in North America and Europe.

From https://www.bokumono.com/series/welcome/life/

Starting out in the Forgotten Valley (no longer Forget-me-Not Valley), players will become a farmer trying to start a new life by taking over their father's old homestead with the help of the on-site farm manager, Takakura. The game takes the player through the chapters of the farmer's life, from young person to old age. The original AWL (2003) on Nintendo Gamecube played as a boy protagonist, the sequel (2004) played as the girl protagonist, and the last entry (2004) brought the boy version to the Playstation 2 with a few enhancements. Because now we've three games merged into one, players can choose their gender or a non-binary option. Regardless of the player's choice, all marriage candidates will be available to woo. So far, we know that Nami, Molly (Muffy), Cecilia (Celia) from HM:AWL, Gustafa, Rock, and Matthew (Marlin) from HM:AnWL, and Lumina from HM:AWLSE are marriage candidates, but we also know that Cody is now a candidate too.

Fun fact - According to the JP guides, the protagonist in AWL is 25 years old. Cecilia is 19 years old, Nami is 25, Molly is 27.5, and Lumina was intended to be 14 years old when the player could start working towards marrying her. Thankfully, Luma now looks older in chapter 1 of the AWL remake, ditching the creepiness of courting a child in HM:AWLSE.

The player's child that appears in chapter 2 can now either be a boy or a girl. We'll have to see if having a daughter requires us to talk to Mr. Pots 100 times. Hopefully not! Same-sex marriage couples also have a child to care for.

The official website in Japan shows how the farmhouse mirror can change clothing outfits like in HM:AnWL, including hair style and color choices.

Time looks to move at the same speed as the original GC game at about 1 second per in-game minute, so 1 minute per hour. I'm assuming that seasons are still 10 days long. While we know there are still 6 chapters that tell the story, we don't know how long each life chapter of the game is. In HM:AWL, the first, fifth, and sixth chapters were 1 year long; the second and fourth chapters were 2 years long, and the third chapter was 3 years long. In HM:AnWL and HM:AWLSE, each of the six chapters was 1 year long, but there was an option after chapter 6 to play for 99 years.

More new stuff includes the camera tool for taking photos, 70 more events, and a new bulletin board added next to the Mitemi Inn. We'll find out more about that later!

In the original AWL, players could accidentally plant trees too close together. A tree grown next to another tree would eventually wilt. In the remake, there are small stone paths around the base of each tree. It is unknown whether this happens automatically when planting a tree or if it is a decoration the player can add around their trees. I like the little tree trunk decorations.

The purple flowers remind me of a gen-1 Sweet Potato plant, but it could also be something new. The flower-like plants in AWL were typically gen-3 hybrid crops, which required the seed-mixing plant, Tartan, to squish gen-2 seeds together into a new type of seed. The two-headed plant is in SoS:AWL, so it's a good assumption that we'll have weird hybrids.

There appear to be different hybrid crops from the Gamecube game. For example, there are blue watermelons in one of the fields. While there are various watermelon hybrids in HM:AWL, none of them are blue. Berryber was pink (watermelon x strawberry), Melober was lime green (watermelon x melon), Bashber was beige (watermelon x potato), and Cabber was orange (watermelon x carrot) and not round-shaped. The Marvelous EU website does state that there will be "a cornucopia of never-before-seen crops." I hope Marv isn't taking the Natsume route and making over 100 types of mutated/hybrid crops; that's a bit excessive, in my opinion.

There's also been a layout change for the crop fields. In HM:AWL, the Least Fertile feel was between the farmhouse and the chicken shed. In SoS:AWL, the chicken shed is next to the farmhouse, and the field is in place of where the chicken shed used to be. The Somewhat Fertile Field and the Most Fertile Field are in the same spots.

The separate fenced-in chicken space between the Somewhat Fertile Field and the Most Fertile Field from HM:AnWL and HM:AWLSE, where the mysterious locked building was in HM:AWL, has been removed. In its place is a blue-canopy structure protecting some machines, possibly the fertilizer machine and the seed maker. The outdoor seed maker is pictured on the official JP website, so it's no longer in the tool shed.

There are also yellow-domed machines next to each of the three fields. In video trailers, there appears to be water running down the sides of each machine, so perhaps a sprinkler system?

From https://www.bokumono.com/series/welcome/life/

A bell outside the animal barn now releases the animals into the pasture instead of an inside switch. We've seen pictures of bulls and cows (normal, brown, and marble), a goat, sheep, chickens, and ducks (and the duck pond). The horse is there too, though so far, we've only seen a brown horse, not a white or black horse that was available in HM:AWLSE. Haven't seen the brown star cow or bull yet, but the brown cow looks very similar to the star cow, so it might be hard to spot.

Preorder bonus goods have already been revealed in Japan. Many retailers will issue download codes for special clothing outfits unique to their preorder offerings - Geo has a cow cardigan, Joshin has a casual parka, Ebiten has a happi, and so on. There are a few other goodies besides digital outfits, such as postcard sets, pins, posters, keychains, and microfiber towels. Digital preorders in Japan will receive a MukuMuku outfit.

There will be a few deluxe editions. The Famitsu DX edition will include a milk glass, 3 cork-baked drink coasters, and a fluffy Mukumuku towel. Amazon will offer a pouch plushie, and Wondergoo will have a 4-pin group and an art canvas measuring 33 inches by 52 inches. Been stalking the Amazon.jp website for the product page, but nothing yet...

On the other hand, my favorite non-bachelor has gotten a glam-up from his original version. Sexy Moi lost his fly buddies, straw shirt, and rough (but squeeeeezably cute) face. Marvelous even changed his name from Moi (EN: Murrey) to Pui. It's... cute? The butterflies are an interesting touch, as is the flower growing out of his head, but it's not the fuzzy dumpling I've been dreaming of for 20 years. This will take some getting used to.

And since some have asked to see my handmade Murrey bag...

(Yea, it still has buttons on it from my trip to San Diego Comic-Con waaaaay back then, heh.)

AWL is one of the series entries I never finished. Back in the early-2000s, when I was concentrating on writing help pages about handheld games (specifically, FoMT), another Harvest Moon fansite called Harvest Moon Otaku was building a guide for the AWL series. My only contribution to AWL gameplay assistance was making a basic hybrid crop generator. When HMO closed down in 2006, they generously sent their AWL guide content to Fogu to prevent their work from being lost into the voids of the internet. So going through SoS:AWL from chapter 1 through chapter 6 will be a first for me!

HM64 on VC in Japan

Also announced on this week's Nintendo Direct was the plan to release Bokujou Monogatari 2 (EN: Harvest Moon 64) on the Nintendo 64 virtual console available to Nintendo Switch Online members in Japan. This classic N64 game will be launched on NSO sometime in 2023. No news about an English game release in NA or EU yet, as that property is owned by Natsume. The SNES game is also on the NSO only in Japan.

RF3 Remaster

Another game announced during the Nintendo Direct was a remaster (not a remake) of Rune Factory 3. This game will star Micah, the half-human, half-woolie protagonist tasked with bridging the turmoilious relationships between humans and monsters. This Switch game will be released sometime in Spring 2023 in Japan. The game doesn't have a release date outside of Japan yet, but it will be published in English, French, German, and Spanish, according to the Marv EU website. RAINBOW!

Until next time!

Cher
(Dishwasher hooked back up! Backsplash tile should be next weekend. Finally making progress with the kitchen remodel!)