https://www.famitsu.com/news/202211/04281301.html
Famitsu has released an interview about Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life! It’s in Japanese of course, but thanks to Celery we can relay some interesting details.
Hikaru Nakano is the producer of the game. He is current head of the Bokujou Monogatari series (following Yoshifumi Hashimoto who followed series creator Yasuhiro Wada) and directed the Friends of Mineral Town remake and Pioneers of Olive Town.
Rika Hoshina is the director of the game. She joined Marvelous just as development on the A Wonderful Life remake was beginning. A Wonderful Life is her favorite BokuMono game. About three days after starting at Marvelous, she found out it was being remade and asked to work on it.
It was decided to remake A Wonderful Life because it is often mentioned by players as memorable. Additionally, it sold well overseas, so the localization companies (XSEED and Marvelous Europe) were also supportive of a remake.
Talk of remaking A Wonderful Life began in spring 2020 and development began in fall 2020.
The game is 99% done and they are currently working hard on polishing it for release.
The theme of the game is “life with family.” Because of this, they have added many family events and events with the marriage candidates. There is a mention of family working on the farm.
They have made adjustments to the more difficult parts of the original gameplay to keep the game fun. They tried to make the game as easy to understand and play as possible.
With life simulation being the core of the game, they want players to be able to look back after playing it and think, “That was a good life.”
The character customization choices were made with the desire for a wide range of players around the world to enjoy the game. Because the player character can be thought of as oneself, they wanted more personalization choices and consulted with the overseas localizers.
As with the Friends of Mineral Town remake and Pioneers of Olive Town, the player can marry any candidate regardless of gender. This is to not diminish the immersion with gender limitations.
Murrey (Moi in Japanese) has been changed to the new character Pui. As his design, personality, background, and goals have been totally changed, he was named Pui to be treated as a completely different character. He’s very positive and is the kind of person slowly moving toward his dreams.
Cody (English remake name not yet confirmed) was redesigned by longtime Bokujou Monogatari series illustrator Igusa Matsuyama. Although his appearance has changed, the core of who he is hasn’t changed at all.
Lumina has been aged up to 18 in order to be a marriage candidate, but the process of her emotional growth remains.
Other characters retain their core elements, though backgrounds and such that aren’t relatable when reflected in today’s world have been adjusted.
Matthew (previously known as Marlin in English) has had his hairstyle changed because his original style was old-fashioned even when the original game was released. Specifically, the concern was that such a standout hairstyle might give the impression that he is confident and unconcerned with his surroundings, which would contradict his introverted personality.
Like the Friends of Mineral Town remake and Pioneers of Olive Town, animals in this game do not have a lifespan. Rather than the concept of life being expressed though animals reaching the end of the lives, they wanted to go in a brighter direction and express it through the birth of animals, so there are now more baby animals that can be born. Cows could be bred in the original game, but now sheep, goats, and more can also be bred.
As a way of bringing to light elements of the original game that were interesting but not well known, missions from the townsfolk have been added. They will be things like, “I want tomatoes to use in my soup for dinner.”
Reward events have been added. For example, if you do really well at fishing, there will be an event at the end.
Takakura is not much involved in the player’s family life in the original game, but since he lives on the property, they thought the player’s child would become attached to him, so he is now included in more family events.
All festivals have been overhauled. In contrast to the passive festival events in the original game, the events in the remake aim to make it feel like you are participating in the festivals. The Harvest Festival, a specialty of the Bokujou Monogatari series, has been included. The Fireworks Display and Starlight Night (English remake names not yet confirmed) have also been added. The Fireworks Display is a date event in Chapter 1, but it’s a family event from Chapter 2 on. As your child grows up, you’ll see completely different interactions from the same fireworks. Starlight Night is always a date event, but the interaction with your partner changes as you age. Gustafa plays the guitar on Starlight Night.
Like A Wonderful Life Special Edition, there are seven chapters, with Chapter 7 not having the flow of time that the first six chapters do, so you can play at your own pace and take care of any unfinished business. It also has the convenient feature of sowing and harvesting in batches.
A lot of unusual and charming crops have been added. The variety of dishes has also increased.
Thank you again Celery for helping make this post possible!
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