Then and now: Rick

This is a legacy article and was originally published July 8th, 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: Rick!

Rick and Popuri was always one of the changes from 64 that confused me the most. In 64, Rick is an inventor and a direct descendant of Ann from the original SNES game who he shares a lot of qualities with. From the laid back attitude to the love of inventing for the sake of inventing, it was obvious where he belonged. Then, suddenly, he and Popuri were poultry farmers.

In Mineral Town, Rick no longer gets to be the laid back, easy-going guy who’s easy to be friends with. Instead, he gets to actually work! Now he’s got some proper boots for working in the chicken coops, rolled up his sleeves, and traded the shopkeep apron for a waist apron with some more pockets. He’s also less obviously related to Ann, with his eye color now matching his mother and sister and his bright orange hair is more subdued, particularly in his 3D model.

It was always kind of tough for me to parse that the lovable, laid back, dorky guy was now this workin’ man with a short fuse from being under the weight of the responsibilities his absentee father left him. He doesn’t look that much different now, but I do at least feel like he’s not the odd one out in his family anymore. I wonder if maybe this time they’ll add an event where we can see Rod come home…