Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

Genre: Top-Down Action-RPG / Management Sim

Players: 1

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Review:

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is a “Farming RPG” like Stardew Valley, in fact the comparison between the two is pretty difficult to avoid, with both games featuring extremely similar gameplay (small spoiler: I will be mentioning Stardew Valley a lot in this review). However, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town comes from a place that predates Stardew Valley, with this game being a remake of the 2003 Game Boy Advance game Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, back before developer Marvelous and publisher Natsume parted ways and Natsume kept the Harvest Moon brand while Marvelous renamed their games to Story of Seasons. While the original release is seen by many as a high point for the series, this remake comes to the PC and Nintendo Switch in 2020, at a time when there are numerous games like this available, including the aforementioned Stardew Valley.

If there is one distinct difference between Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town and Stardew Valley, it’s in the presentation, with this remake boasting cutesey, chibi-ified 3D visuals as opposed to the pixel art visuals of the original and Stardew Valley. It looks… fine, I suppose, although not in any way impressive or novel. I suppose those who have a strong dislike for pixel art visuals may find this to be an acceptable alternative, but at least for me, I think I prefer the nostalgic feel of the pixel art games. These visuals come with a decent but forgettable relaxing soundtrack that, again, works but doesn’t do anything especially noteworthy.

As for the gameplay, well… again, this is very much like what you see in Stardew Valley. Make use of your limited energy reserves to clear and till the land, plant seasonal crops to sell to buy improvements for your farm, explore the outlying area, dig in the mine, speak with the local townsfolk and form relationships and possibly even marry a favorite gal or guy (this release notably adds same-sex relationships). Again, if you played Stardew Valley, all of this will seem like well-trod ground to you, although this game does all of these things fairly well, even if none of it feels like it’s doing anything new or novel.

Look, I can’t very well blame this game for being so similar to Stardew Valley. After all, the original release this is based on came out thirteen years before Stardew Valley did, and Stardew Valley was unquestionably inspired by that release and other games in the same series. The problem is that not only does this game rehash gameplay that we can already get in Stardew Valley, but it does so with the absurd price tag of $50, while Stardew Valley sells for $15. For that large a difference in price, I would expect to have some sort of major feature or selling point to make this game worth that extra cost, but I’m simply not seeing it. In fact, with Stardew Valley offering online multiplayer co-op (with an upcoming patch adding local co-op in the future), and with Friends of Mineral Town being strictly single-player, I’d argue that this $50 game actually looks worse in the features department than its $15 adversary.

Look, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is absolutely not a bad game. In fact, quite the contrary, I think it’s a very good game. Unfortunately, it is a very good game that Stardew Valley tops in virtually every way, and at a much more affordable price no less. In fact, I’d say there are only three reasons to buy this game at all: 1. You’re a huge fan of the Game Boy Advance original looking to recapture that nostalgia. 2. You want a Farming RPG and are allergic to pixels. 3. You have exhausted your time with Stardew Valley and want an extremely similar experience in another game. If none of those three things applies to you, I can’t think of any reason to buy this game instead of Stardew Valley.

tl;dr – Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is a “Farming RPG” much like Stardew Valley, and a remake of a beloved Game Boy Advance classic. Unfortunately, while this is a solid entry in the genre, just about everything this game does, Stardew Valley does just as well or better, and at a fraction of the price. Unless you prefer this game’s art style, there’s no reason to bother with this game when you could get Stardew Valley instead.

Grade: C+

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