Then and now: Gray

This is a legacy article and was originally published August 1st, 2019.

So, clearly, one thing a lot of people noticed with the announcement of Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is that a lot of the characters have changed their appearance. While some of these changes are hit and miss, there’s a lot of changes that make sense! So I thought I would do a little series about them. So I present…

Then and now: Gray!

Gray is one of the characters with the most obvious and striking design changes. His original design for the Nintendo 64 game was as a rancher and formerly noteworthy horse jockey before an accident made him unable to ride, bitter, and cold. Though if the player chooses not to pursue Popuri, he may return to a kinder version of himself after turning to gardening and growing quite an array of Moondrop flowers at Green Ranch.

For Mineral Town, Gray no longer shares a family with Rick and Ann, so his redesign now gives him a much blonder look, which should set him apart so long as Ann and Doug don’t suddenly turn blonde as well. Since he no longer works on a horse ranch, he also loses the “UMA” (Japanese for Horse) hat and coveralls. Though Mineral Town Gray doesn’t broadcast it as openly, he still loves horses, so that may mean that his new shirt says “UMA” after all, appropriately covered up due to being a more subdued part of his character now.

Way back when we first saw glimpses of him in the initial trailer I wondered why he would get rid of something that seemed pretty good for metal working, but looking at modern blacksmiths, and considering that a lot of his character is trying to please his old fashioned Grandpa, I think the contrast between the two is framed nicely by the new designs.

Amazingly, somehow Saibara looks even more old-fashioned now. Mineral Town’s Gray is a more modern, if inexperienced blacksmith from the city that’s trying to do his best to please his Grandpa. He may tend to get a little hotheaded and more emotive than his Flowerbud self ever would be while doing it, but he’s really just trying to do his best, and if there’s one thing both he and Mineral Town’s Gray share in common is that they’re really just a big softie inside.