Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town confirms North American release date



After Marvelous Europe previously confirmed the European release date of the Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town remake, now called Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, North American localization studio XSEED has also locked in their release date as well. North Americans will get their hands on the game on July 14th, just four days after the European launch. It'll retail both physically and digitally for $49.99, with a special pre-order bonus of a strawberry cow plush added if you buy from the XSEED store. Digital pre-orders will include a cow costume DLC for your character to wear in-game.

Torrance, Calif. – May 15, 2020 – XSEED Games, the independent-minded publishing brand of Marvelous USA, Inc., has announced today that STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town, the expanded remake of the popular Game Boy Advance farming/life simulation title released in 2003, will launch in North America on the Nintendo Switch™ system on July 14. The title is currently available for retail pre-purchase at the XSEED Games Store and participating retailers for a MSRP of $49.99. All retail pre-purchases from the XSEED Games Store will include an adorable “Strawberry Hanako” pocket plushie based on the in-game Strawberry Cow animal. The pocket plushie is also being offered by participating retailers but only while supplies last. The publisher has confirmed that digital pre-purchase for the title on the Nintendo eShop will be available at a later date and will support pre-loading for eager farmers, while all digital pre-purchases will include a Cow Costume DLC as an early bird bonus. The Cow Costume DLC will also be available for purchase separately at launch for $1.99.
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The popular farming/life simulation returns with its first release on the Nintendo Switch™, revitalizing a beloved classic with improved visuals and expanded content for a new generation of farmers. STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town is a complete remake of the original title jam-packed with charming characters, relaxing activities, and heartwarming stories to delight both veteran and new farmers alike. Whether it’s raising livestock, harvesting crops, falling in love, or helping out a neighbor in need, Mineral Town will offer players the opportunity to become a part of this lovely community.


About STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town
Summoned by Mayor Thomas to visit the farm once owned by their late grandfather, a young city-slicker returns to Mineral Town to find the once lush farmland has fallen into disrepair. Memories of idyllic summers spent in Mineral Town come rushing back and they immediately pick up their tools, vowing to restore the fields to their former glory. In their new hometown, they’ll tend the land and become part of the bustling rural community. Along the way to becoming a world class farmer, they’ll befriend townsfolk and, perhaps, even find romance.

STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town is a complete remake, re-envisioning the charming and occasionally mysterious world of Mineral Town with updated gameplay, graphics, and characters for the modern day. Core features of the STORY OF SEASONS series also make their return, with multi-floor mining and fan-favorite events like horse racing.

Returning the series to the simulation style that put it on the map, Friends of Mineral Town features detailed farm management by individual squares of land, while also introducing smooth, modernized controls to make managing tools and items fun and easy. Once the crops and livestock are tended to, players can spend their days catching fish in the river, mining for ore, or taking a relaxing break in the hot spring.

Developed by Marvelous Inc. and published by XSEED Games in North America, STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town will launch July 14, 2020 on the Nintendo Switch™ system. The physical edition is available for pre-purchase for a suggested retail price of $49.99 at the XSEED Games Store and participating retailers. This game has been rated Everyone 10+ by the ESRB.
 

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This date sort of confused me, but then I realized only the EU version was officially announced until now. (They fixed the layeredFS text formatting btw, so the localization they were holding back for unknown reasons has been playable nearly perfectly for a while now.)

I'm surprised people are still finding out about the Farm Story HM/SoS thing now. Then again, due to my American ignorance I didn't know that "zed" was a thing until I was 28. That was a fun day.
Yeah, "Zed" really fucks up the entire alphabet song, so I don't see why they even bother.
 
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finally! I'v been waiting a long time for this. I tried really hard to play the pseudo-translation patch, but it really didn't cut it for me. So hype!
i was going to try playing that one but never got around to it, was all the text in the right place? if i had known it would have taken this long i would have just started the japanese with the english text swapped in.
 

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i was going to try playing that one but never got around to it, was all the text in the right place? if i had known it would have taken this long i would have just started the japanese with the english text swapped in.
There was some wonky placeholder text that didn't fit what you were interacting with occasionally, but for the most part, all the text was in the correct spots. It was impossible to actually read half of it, though, cause the text constantly went outside the text box. You honestly would have just as easy of a time doing it japanese half the time.
 

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Regardless of the silly naming debacle, I've already played the two GBA games to death, and they were exactly the same. If they at least overhaul the mining mechanic in this, I might consider getting it.
 
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Hopefully I'll be able to transfer the save file from the JP version - I've played many many hours of this and don't really want to start over.
 

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Hopefully I'll be able to transfer the save file from the JP version - I've played many many hours of this and don't really want to start over.
Might be difficult without a modded Switch, unless the saves are region-free.
 

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Regardless of the silly naming debacle, I've already played the two GBA games to death, and they were exactly the same. If they at least overhaul the mining mechanic in this, I might consider getting it.
The mining mechanics are almost identical to the original. Down to the stair placement logic and what floors have what ore. Things stack up to 9 in this game however, and that includes restoratives you'll be bringing into the mine with you. Remember the save-scum-shuffle you had to do in the original? It's back. Apparently there's a mine elevator you can eventually unlock they added in a version after I got my hundred something hours out of it, so I'm looking forward to however that works.

TLDR: The mining is definitely more user-friendly, but the mechanics are mostly the same.
 
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The mining mechanics are almost identical to the original. Down to the stair placement logic and what floors have what ore. Things stack up to 9 in this game however, and that includes restoratives you'll be bringing into the mine with you. Remember the save-scum-shuffle you had to do in the original? It's back. Apparently there's a mine elevator you can eventually unlock they added in a version after I got my hundred something hours out of it, so I'm looking forward to however that works.

TLDR: The mining is definitely more user-friendly, but the mechanics are mostly the same.
That, I think I can live with. Because I'd spend most of my time grinding in the mine for mythril.
 

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This date sort of confused me, but then I realized only the EU version was officially announced until now. (They fixed the layeredFS text formatting btw, so the localization they were holding back for unknown reasons has been playable nearly perfectly for a while now.)

I'm surprised people are still finding out about the Farm Story HM/SoS thing now. Then again, due to my American ignorance I didn't know that "zed" was a thing until I was 28. That was a fun day.
oh so the formatting was all fixed and the other issues? I held back on playing the Japanese with the language files swapped but since its still over 2 months out, I might go look at it. Is there a link for the most updated file that fixes the formatting?
 

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oh so the formatting was all fixed and the other issues? I held back on playing the Japanese with the language files swapped but since its still over 2 months out, I might go look at it. Is there a link for the most updated file that fixes the formatting?
Apparently it's not completely formatted correctly, just enough to fool me after booting it back up for an hour or so. The progress is here, but since it's not 100% I'll just wait for the English version to play it again. They've definitely fixed a lot of the formatting since I played it however. It still boggles my mind that the localization team already did all the work and just held it back for technically unspecified reasons. (I guess they were trying to trick us into playing that Doraemon crap?)

No Hamtaro DLC for them to 'conveniently' forget this time either. :D July 14th, here we come!
 

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Apparently it's not completely formatted correctly, just enough to fool me after booting it back up for an hour or so. The progress is here, but since it's not 100% I'll just wait for the English version to play it again. They've definitely fixed a lot of the formatting since I played it however. It still boggles my mind that the localization team already did all the work and just held it back for technically unspecified reasons. (I guess they were trying to trick us into playing that Doraemon crap?)

No Hamtaro DLC for them to 'conveniently' forget this time either. :D July 14th, here we come!
thanks for the link oh i see its not 100%, i guess i waited this long I'll just wait. oh i never thought of that maybe thats why they delayed it to not hurt sales of the Doraemon tie in game. did that one come out early in Japan than here which is why they were fine releasing it when they did in japan? interesting its been this long to come out here even though they already had it translated.
 

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