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Kitaria fables marriage6/3/2023 ![]() It is easy to find a groove, get lulled into the sweet music, and start the day, just as it’s easy to get so involved in tasks that it becomes nightfall. Farming, fishing, and mining all feel satisfying even if presentation-wise they don’t entirely look the part. It is great to see crops going up star rankings, or the quality of items improve because of constant attention. These elements really drag the game down, which is a shame.ĭespite the complaints above, doing the day-to-day chores is very relaxing and rewarding. There are also technical issues where characters and animals will end up on top of each other, bleeding into each other, making it difficult to interact with them when it occurs. Sadly, this element is true for a lot of the farming and mining as well - there’s no spark in the graphical presentation and it often feels like the game cheaped out in ways that other recently-released farming sims, such as Doraemon Story of Seasons, did not. When the player is fishing, the fish are tiny and have no distinguishing features to tell them apart, so if players catch a smelt or an anglerfish, they all have the same image. Compared to other similar games, Friends of Mineral Town looks flat. The other main issue is that this game lacks personality in its presentation. ![]() Seedling is a great way to learn the basics of what to expect without holding the player’s hand from the get-go. It offers players two difficulty settings: Normal is for veterans of the series, while Seedling offers a variety of bonuses such as 2500 gold, turnips ready to be harvested right out the gate, and shipped items and friendship points with villagers being worth more. That isn’t to say there is nothing new about this version of Friends of Mineral Town. The first year is particularly rough because in most cases the player hasn’t accessed a fully grown horse or an animal that can participate in the activity, which isn’t fun and feels like a waste of a day. Festivals are still boring as ever, and need more interactive elements to be engaging, and the few that do exist are just not fun to play. Players will farm and participate in festivals, while also trying to raise their affection levels with townsfolk. ![]() There are even more customization options for the protagonist’s appearance, the farmstead, and even the animals.Įven with all the new cosmetic features, the core gameplay has not changed at all, for better or worse. Item management has also been overhauled so that items will stack within the player’s backpack, rather than single items taking up precious space. The game offers some new animal options, such as an angora bunny, alpacas, and three types of cows: coffee, fruit, and strawberry. Controls for this are simple and intuitive. Since this is a farming simulator, most of the day-to-day lifestyle has players tending to their farm and livestock. Marie is truly a paperback romance reader. While there are more Heart Events to wade through, it’s a welcome change from previous games in the series given it means the characters are much more fleshed out. Why it has taken so long for a series to have this as an option is beyond me, and many of the scenes are super darling. ![]() Even watching television in-game, the writing in Friends of Mineral Town is sharp, punny, and full of laughs.Ī new and welcome feature is the option for same-sex marriages, creating new romantic events to entice players. It is abundantly clear how much care and work was put into the localization and exploring the stories makes for a great way to pass the time. What helps these tiny tales along is the strength of the game’s localization, which offers so much hilarity and tenderness to the mix. From Basil, the botanist who wants to discover new species of flowers, to Jeff, who wants to rekindle his marriage, there are so many small and sweet tales being told. While the story is straightforward, Friends of Mineral Town asks players to engage with their community to learn more about the Mineral Town residents. The farmer has to raise livestock, befriend all the neighbours, and courting all the eligible bachelors and bachelorettes - it sounds easy, but there is a lot of work to be done! Mayor Thomas has tasked our protagonist with reviving the farmstead and bringing happiness to Mineral Town. Much like with every Story of Seasons title, players take on the role of a young farmer who has moved to a small town to take over the old family farmstead. Still, XSEED Games has delivered us a new Story of Seasons, and as always here at RPGamer, it is my pleasure to review all these wonderful farming sims. I even bought the game last year for the GBA hoping I would get to it… and a week later the Switch version, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town was announced. Confession time: I never owned a GBA, so I never played Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. ![]()
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