Then and now: Popuri

This is a legacy article and was originally published July 13th, 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: Popuri!

This one was a little difficult since, in spite of Popuri going from working with her mother at a flourist and seed store to living on a poultry farm she has always been her mother’s daughter. At most, maybe her new boots and shorter skirt are a little more conducive to walking around a coop, but since her brother Rick doesn’t let her help much anyway I’m not sure how significant those changes are. The new design also discards the bodice 64′s Popuri wore, which may be the most significant choice in making her look far more youthful.

If there’s any key change between the two versions of the character, it’s probably that Mineral Town’s Popuri always felt like the younger of the two. While both versions tend to be somewhat childish adults, even using their own name as their preferred pronoun in the Japanese versions, Mineral Town’s Popuri is the only one who is actively sheltered from fully becoming an adult by never being given proper responsibilities and often engages in children’s activities like the Fall Pumpkin Festival or playing with May and Stu at church. This aspect of her personality probably plays into her younger appearance in the remake, and is something that was even somewhat present in her design in Island of Happiness.

While Popuri is one of the characters that feels like she changed the least in her transition from Flowerbud Village to Mineral Town, the biggest difference ends up being how her family treats her. In 64, she gets to help run the shop and be more independent, making some of her childishness an incidental character trait. In Mineral Town she’s barely allowed to be her own adult at all and, as a result, has her childish tendencies get turned up to 11. Though Rick may disapprove, it’s a good thing Kai comes around and treats her more like an equal.