Hometown Story

Hometown Story (Hōmutaun Sutōrī) is a 2013 life-simulation video game for the Nintendo 3DS directed by Yasuhiro Wada, produced by Toybox Inc. and distributed by Natsume Inc. for North America, Rising Star Games for Europe, and Spike Chunsoft for Japan. It was released for iOS on June 10, 2014 under the name Hometown Story Pocket. The player receives a letter that directs them back to the village from where they grew up. Returning there, they find a shop that was once owned by their grandmother.

Inside, they meet Pochica, a flying mouse-like sprite who is a friend of the player’s grandmother, who has passed away. Pochica requests for the player to take over the shop. As the player runs the shop and interacts with the villagers (including a talking scarecrow, a young dragon, and the Harvest God), they also assist people with their various problems by selling them things that they need. The main character is in charge of running a shop inherited from their deceased grandmother.

The player is capable of arranging and stocking the shelves of their shop to their preference and can eventually expand on the size of the shop. In a similar vein to the Harvest Moon series the player is able to interact and befriend various townspeople. The town that the player resides in will consist of ten people at first and eventually build its way to one hundred non-player characters that the player can meet depending on their actions over the course of the story.