I used to play Friends of Mineral Town a ton as a kid, so to see it remade in the STORY OF SEASONS series jolted all of the nostalgia sectors of my brain. The game, along with A Wonderful Life, basically shaped my taste in video games. But, there’s also the danger of remaking a game is potentially taking some of the charm out of it. How does this game handle updating the charm of the original for a modern audience?
Actually, surprisingly well so far. Instead of the 2D style that the original Game Boy game went for, this game goes for the usual chibi style of farming gaming. Which isn’t inherently a bad thing, as the graphics still evoke the feeling of the original, while adding a new spin on it. The character portraits are also lovingly redesigned, and while some have some questionable changes (looking at you, Carter), most of them have changed for the better. My favorite new design has to be Manna. While the old version wasn’t bad, her new one is full of charm and character.
Speaking of Manna, she grates on me even more than she used to. Some of the characters seemed to have gained a few new quirks. For the most part, they’re fine, but in her case, it makes her almost impossible to talk to. Overall most of the changes to the game have been to change names back to what they were originally supposed to be, or to inject more personality into certain villagers. Apart from having to relearn names, it’s all been a smooth experience so far. It’s been like playing an old favorite in a whole new light.
The gameplay is mostly the same, with you having to plant your crops in a 3×3 grid. In STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town, you can farm, fish, raise livestock, and basically just do whatever you feel like. All of it works like it did in the Game Boy version, which isn’t a bad thing. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I did notice a few hiccups though which bothered me. Like characters only moving when you’re outside. This isn’t a huge deal, but definitely broke the immersion for me on a couple of instances. Controls for the game seem to work okay for the most part. I played on the PC, and gamepad support didn’t seem to work with me. Fair warning, the mouse and keyboard controls are kind of wonky. I play primarily on PC, and there are a few little quirks with this game that I had to get used to. One of which was having to close out of menus with Backspace. I tried to remap the key to Esc like normal, but it just wouldn’t recognize it. It’s a minor inconvenience, but definitely a hurdle that you’ll have to jump over if you want to use mouse and keyboard.
Overall I’m really enjoying my time with STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town. I can’t wait to dive deeper into the storylines of the characters. Even sitting here writing this, I just want to get right back in and do some more farming. I can’t wait to finish it and play though it over and over again. As it is right now, I can easily see this becoming one of my favorites. You can find out more about the game here if you’re interested to learn more. Happy Farming!
