Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town (PS4) [2021]

I don’t want clever conversation
I never want to work that hard, mmm
I just want someone that I can talk to
I want you just the way you are

-Billy Joel

These days, we’ve come to expect a lot out of our entertainment. Maybe too much? Unless it brings us weeping to our knees, it “didn’t work for me”… That’s a conversation for another day, but when it comes to a remake, there’s a certain natural expectation built into its DNA. “Hey, remember this thing you loved so much? Well, here it is again!” But is it going to be exactly as it was or is it going to be fundamentally changed? In the past, I’ve argued against changing a work so dramatically that it becomes unrecognizable, perhaps in an effort to “subvert the expectations” that made one interested in the remade project in the first place, but in this article, I’d like to suggest that there are contexts in which complete exactitude isn’t always ideal, either. Hence Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town.

Ah yes, the three Skin Types.

In short, I’m not sure that playing what was originally a Game Boy Advance game on a modern platform is the best way to go about experiencing what was otherwise considered by many to be the best Harvest Moon. Especially when that modern platform is a PS4 and not a Switch (PS4 version was cheaper, so sue me). Compared to advancements made in farm sims since 2003, most notably the full-bodied Stardew Valley and other, more creative games like Atomicrops and Graveyard Keeper, Friends of Mineral Town seems outdated and truncated. Because it is.

It is still a Game Boy Advance game designed for playing on a handheld, despite the 3D facade-slash-facelift. There are a few new animals like Strawberry Cows and a Llama and other additions, and modern touches like the ability to save pretty much anywhere (even on the floors of mines), but otherwise, Friends of Mineral Town seems largely untouched. On the one hand, sure, this preserves the original integrity of the game but on the other, it ignores both the opportunity for more improvements made as well as an opportunity to acknowledge the difference in platform: it shouldn’t need to be pointed out by this author that the Game Boy Advance is not the same thing as a Ps4, Xbox One, PC, or even a Nintendo Switch. Because of these differences in platform, the way the player plays a game originally designed for a handheld system is going to change.

lmaoo I’m so drunk rn

Simply, a handheld Harvest Moon from 20 years ago is just not going to stand shoulder to shoulder with modern iterations in the genre on systems it was never initially intended for, systems that are not defined by the same limitations as the GBA. Perhaps it’d be better to think of Friends of Mineral Town not as a remake but as a simple port (albeit with 3D visuals). The thought of lost potential is paralyzing.

Identifying that key difference is part and parcel of approaching the new Friends of Mineral Town, but the remake’s verbatim dedication to the original does guarantee a hefty dose of nostalgia for those who played the original. That’d be me. I do think, in its proper context, that the original Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town is among the best in the series (merely done a disservice by its transplantation into a foreign body seemingly without much care beyond visuals). It’s a game I spent many, many hours with. Seeing Mineral Town again, hearing the music, walking through the familiar forests, diving into the mines, gathering up my private army of Harvest Sprites, gifting the villagers their gifts in order to win their hearts… it is as transportive to the memories as the original game was transportive on its handheld platform.

There are perhaps two things to pull out here about the villagers: I didn’t recognize a few of them beyond their names! Some of them look quite different thanks to new character models and new character portraits. In some instances, they’re not even wearing the same clothes. These are generally small changes and don’t greatly affect the mannerisms and behaviors of the villagers, but as this is a review of a remake, it’s a change worth noting.

Karen has a problem.

Karen still gets “grape juice” for her birthday and she can’t cook, but she’s no longer a raging alcoholic thanks to the new localization. Jeff is still a huge downer but seems less so. Ann (now named Ran?) still comes off as a tomboy, but thanks to her portrait, she looks like she’s six instead of an adult. Mary has also been renamed Marie, but she’s still the shy librarian cliche. Notably, the Story of Seasons version of the game (more on that name change on MAGE CAST) includes same-sex marriage, specifically in the English localization. Evidently, in the Japanese version, there’s a “best friends” system that functions pretty much the same way, though it’s notably not marriage.

There are two new marriage candidates included in this remake. In a way, they represent even still the kinds of changes made to a remake that aren’t necessarily the most authentic. While the original candidates from Friends of Mineral Town and the female-led More Friends of Mineral Town are here, including secret eligible bachelors and bachelorettes like Kappa and the Harvest Goddess, there are new faces in Jennifer and Brandon. Since this is Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, characterization pretty much relies entirely on tropes and stereotypes.

Midriff = auto waifu.

Jennifer and Brandon are the new age hippie and the struggling artist, respectively. They stand out like sore thumbs among characters defined by liking chickens a lot. “Progressive” may be too generous a term but they look like new additions at a glance.

Do you have a moment to speak with us about our Lord and Savior, Chickens?

The best new feature, in my view, is the game’s new easy mode. I know what you’re thinking: “Red, what kind of baby game player are you when your baby game needs a baby mode?” Let me answer that by replying that this easy mode is perfectly suited for adults, especially those who already played the original game.

In this mode, money and friendship levels stack up much quicker than before. In a game that may take you two (in-game) years to get through most of the content, you can smoothly get through most of the content in one. I wed Jennifer before the end of the first year. Autumn’s chestnuts made for easy daily gifting that caused her affection points to skyrocket (if only it worked like that in real life). Those looking for a denser grind can still play the game normally but if you’ve got places to go, people to see, and other games to play that aren’t farm/life sims you can sink hundreds of hours into, then this new mode is a Harvest Goddess-send.

There seems to be an attempt to modernize the characters, though they’re still immensely simple personalities.

The remake for Friends of Mineral Town is cute and there’s lots of nostalgia to revisit among familiar faces and old flames, but considering the farm sims that are available on modern systems, you might as well play the much more robust Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town. Sure, both SoS’s have some kind of mobile game look about them, but Pioneers makes the unambitious Friends of Mineral Town remake seem like a gaunt tree in winter by comparison. I’ll take my guilty pleasure for farming baby games elsewhere and keep the fond memories fond.

BROKEN PIXEL

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Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage or Mage Cast.