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February 27, 2014June 24, 2014 (eShop)March 31, 2015December 31, 2015 An unofficial guide covering

Story of Seasons

for Nintendo 3DS

Story of Seasons is the first localized edition of the Bokujou Monogatari farming lifestyle game to be localized by XSeed Games (aka Marvelous USA). The game is playable on the Nintendo 3DS console and cannot be played on an older Nintendo DS console. In this game, players will be given the task of enticing vendors to open up shop in the local town's international trade depot. This will be accomplished by producing crops, animal products, and various other farm goods to sell to the existing depot shopkeepers.

Story

As the protagonist of the game, you are bored with your regular life. One day you receive a flyer that calls out for help. A far-away place called Oak Tree Town is in need of a farmer to take over one of the town's ranches. You decide to risk it all and answer the flyer's solicitation, uprooting yourself to move to a place you've never been, taking over a challenge you know nothing about. Luckily there are several other farmers in the area who will teach you how to manage the neglected farm you were assigned to, and hopefully the four of you can help revive Oak Tree Town's derelict international Trade Depot.

Game Features

In this game you can choose to play as a boy farmer or a girl farmer. The game generally plays the same regardless of what gender you select, but you choice of marriage candidates will be determined by your chosen gender. You can customize the visual appearance of your character by selecting skin tone, hair and eye style, hair and eye color, and clothing outfits. Once you upgrade your farm house for the first time, you are free to change your features at any time you see fit.

As a farm owner, you'll be able to grow a variety of crops during each of the year's four seasons. New crops in this version of Bokujou Monogatari include Burdock Root, Andes Potato, Sugarcane, Chili Pepper, Lily, and Hibiscus. You'll also can grow special Nintendo-themed crops. Besides crops, you can raise animals on your farm and sell their products. New animals to the series are the Angora Rabbit, Angora Goat, Camel, and Brahman Cow. There is also a remote Safari Zone where a variety of exotic animals live such as monkeys, parrots, bears, and penguins.

The game is centered around the country vendors that you can unlock in the game. The international vendors have specialty trade items that you can buy, and they will buy preferred items from you such as animals and clothing accessories. The Trade Depot will be where all of the in-game countries will visit and set up shop each day. Interacting with the other in-game countries will unlock new things. The Trade Depot will also have special requests from countries for you to complete.

You can get married in the game, and each gender has six available marriage candidates. Once you convince someone to marry you, the option to have children will be available.

Other things you can do in this game include:

Select the difficulty level you wish to play

Go fishing by diving into the river or by using a fishing pole

Participate in competitive and amusement festivals

Use Nintendo's Wifi Network to connect to other game players

Cook a variety of dishes using your farm products

Craft new clothing outfits, hats, and eyewear to customize your style

Compete against the other three rivals for field rights

Collect blueprints to construct a variety of objects

Catch seasonal bugs and frogs

Interact with the local villagers and trigger events with them

Raise dogs and cats to help make your farming job easier

Customize the interior and exterior of your farm house

... and much more!

Is This a "Harvest Moon" Game?

Yes and no. Back in 1996, a company named Victor Interactive Software (VIS) published a farming simulation game called Bokujou Monogatari. The company then teamed up with a North American video game publisher, Natsume Inc., to release the game in English. Natsume localized the game in 1997 as Harvest Moon.

Since that time, the Bokumono game would be released in Japan, localized by Natsume, and then released in North America as Harvest Moon. During this time, the original VIS merged with another company, Marvelous Interactive, who then merged with another company to become Marvelous Entertainment, then Marvelous AQL, and is currently known as simply Marvelous. Through the multitude of company mergers, Marvelous eventually acquired a company named XSeed Games, which it began to use to localize Marvelous' Japan-published games.

When its latest Bokumono game was published, Marvelous opted to use its existing localization subsidiary to manage the English release of its game instead of working with its long-term partner, Natsume Inc. Because the title Harvest Moon was created by, marketed, and owned by Natsume, Marvelous could not simply name their game "Harvest Moon" as it had been the case in the past. The company selected "Story of Seasons" as the title for its now self-published series. This allows Natsume to continue to use its "Harvest Moon" property to create a parallel series, which it did with Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley.

Now we have two farming lifestyle games: the older Bokujou Monogatari series now called Story of Seasons, and the newer farming series now called Harvest Moon.

Story of Seasons is © Marvelous and XSeed Games. Character design is © Marucome. Super Mario crops are © Nintendo. This is a fan site and is not officially sponsored or employed by Marvelous or XSeed Games. This site is built off of personal gameplay experiences and help from the Japanese guide books. Web site design © 2014-2015 fogu.com