Story of Seasons

Story of Seasons is a farming simulation video game developed by Marvelous Entertainment for the Nintendo 3DS. It was released in Japan on February 27, 2014, and in North America on March 31, 2015. This was the first game not under the Harvest Moon franchise title in North America due to Natsume Inc.’s ownership of the name. The player (male is by default named Johnny and female is by default named Annie) is bored with their regular life and receives a flyer announcing the need for farmers in Oak Tree Town.

Deciding to risk it all, the player moves to the small village, where they meet Veronica, the village’s mayor. There are four other farmers living in Oak Tree Town: Eda, Fritz, Giorgio, and Elise, who will teach the player how to run their new farm. The ultimate goal is to unlock all seven vendors by fulfilling certain requirements and make Oak Tree Town a renowned international trade city. Large variety of seeds, items, buildings, and animals become available through unlocking the vendors.

Together, the NPC farmers and the player will help each other become successful. The player will also meet five Nature Sprites: Flick, Mora, Gusto, Torque, and Pepita, a young witch named Witchie, and a young Harvest Goddess named Dessie. At one point, Eda dies from an illness and her farm is passed to the player. In the end, once all traders have come to town, a meeting is held to thank the player for their efforts in making the town into a popular trade city.

The main feature of the game is connectivity according to Yoshifumi Hashimoto, the producer of the Story of Seasons series. Players sell their crop and dairy products to other countries in the game via a Trade Station. Some countries prefer one type of item over another, and may have to travel to the other countries to make deliveries. Personal farm data can be swapped with other players using StreetPass. Character customization is back from Harvest Moon: A New Beginning.

The player can control his or her hair style and color, eyes, skin color, hats, glasses, clothing outfits, and up to three accessories. Farming has been simplified to the 3×3 field. Sowing, watering, and harvesting can now be done to the entire 3×3 field instead of one at a time. This allows the player to care for more fields in less time. Crops do not carry over to the next season like they did in A New Beginning; once the first of the next season rolls around, all crops from the previous season that are still growing will be wilted and dead.