Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town (JP) Review

If history repeats itself, then Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town will be just as loved as the original. 

When this game was announced, I dug out my old copy of Friend of Mineral Town and played it. This game is a remake of the original, which meant I needed to immerse myself in Mineral Town to properly gauge how I felt about this new rendition.

Graphics

The characters of Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town are reminiscent of the old game’s chibi-esque style. While some might not like this change from tall characters shown in the previous games, Story of Seasons and Trio of Towns, I found it a charming echo of a style we haven’t seen in awhile. The HD graphics allowed the designers to embellish the outfits on these cute chibis. If you were a fan of the previous game, you’ll remember that the original character design set was ported over from another game and the cast was given all new storylines but not new looks. Now all of the characters resemble their families and clearly are dressed for their professions. 

The backdrop for each area offers beautiful but simple designs, ones that aren’t hard on the eyes but still use the full advantages of the Switch’s graphics (720p on the built-in screen, and 1080p when the console is docked). Transitions from screen to screen are almost seamless. 

Music

I absolutely adore the music in this game. The tunes on the farm and in the mountains perfectly fit the seasons, and unlike previous games, the songs for each season switch between two different melodies as the days progress. Instead of getting sick of one beat, you have a variation that’ll keep you from lowering the volume after hours of gameplay. Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town has songs that are arrangements of the original music, new beats, and also a few throwback tunes from previous games that are farm-fresh remixes.

Gameplay

There’s a lot of new activities in this game meshed into the old. For instance, in the original, you could only catch 3 sizes of fish. Now we have a whole collection of fish types each with their own 3 sizes (a true anglers delight), this adds a whole other list to complete. Cooking now has a whole new spin with recipes being found, learned, obtained from TV and from visitors from other towns. In addition, we’re udderly overwhelmed with a new selection of bovine which includes the Coffee, Strawberry and Fruit Cow making an appearance. All the animals have new levels of byproduct improvements through breeding, which leads to the art of husbandry playing a big role in your farmlife. 

There’s tons of events, many returning from the original. It’s hard not to trigger an event at times, there’s just so many as you explore the world of Mineral Town. This could be problematic at times, especially if you’re trying to avoid certain events from happening. 

The map has been altered to include a few shortcuts and new areas have been added. The treacherous run up the mountains is now conveniently laid out in sections so you won’t take up your whole day just exploring the wilderness areas. 

While some glitches would occasionally pop up immediately after the release, these were corrected by patches fairly quickly. By the time the global release happens, we’ll be delivered a fine-tuned game. 

Controls

As a leisurely player of RPGs, games that require a lot of button mashing aren’t really my style. Fortunately, the game doesn’t have any of that! There’s a few trickier moments with trying to navigate mines, because timing is everything with finding certain items – but these moments are more strategic in nature than taxing on your hands. Timing is everything with this game’s controls: right down to activities, using your tools, and earning the trust of the townsfolk.

Storyline

The story begins after you choose one of the four main protagonists to play as (Pete, Claire, Yuuto and Naomi). You visit Mineral Town and stay with your grandpa. Some time after the protagonist becomes an adult, their grandfather passes. This is when you inherit the farm and are tasked to reshape it to its former glory. While the aforementioned is the core plot of the game, every character has their own set of storylines too, and as you gain their trust you’ll see more in depth development behind every single villager in Mineral Town. There’s well over 100 events to unlock. I love the new interactions between the newly added characters, Brandon and Jennifer. 

You really can customize your experience in Mineral Town by courting one of twelve different marriage candidates, all of whom are marriageable regardless of the protagonist’s gender. It doesn’t get boring after playing the game a few times because of all the options the player has with new choices and connections with different characters in each new save. 

The only lacking part of the storyline is the removal of rival marriages. After the protagonist is married, the other rivals won’t get hitched. Instead, they’re stuck in a forever-pining state of existence, which makes me a little sad for the protagonist’s friends. 

Final Thoughts

While I played this game from the view of an old fan of the original game, I loved every second of this new version and I definitely think new players to the Story of Seasons series will enjoy it. Players will be able to experience Friends of Mineral Town in a way that calls back to the original while it adds a whole new perspective. Right down to the layout of the town, it wasn’t a copy and paste from the former game; each detail was carefully planned and made in a way that redefined gameplay and increased replay value while keeping that old charm from the original. 

Ranch Story’s Score

Overall, I would give this game a 9 out of 10 gold turnips. Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town offers a whole new world of fun, and truly is a masterpiece of remastered games. If more remakes are headed our way, this is a very promising beginning.