The latest Nintendo Direct made fans of classic Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons games rather happy, as one of the unexpected reveals this time around was the Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life remake. This game in particular was beloved by many for its easy nature and laidback tone compared to other farming simulators, which were known to be much more demanding on players' in-game time. This is a common trend in the genre; new Stardew Valley players often have that gripe with the game.

Originally released as Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, despite this particular game's popularity, it was only rereleased once for PS4 in 2017. In 2023, the game celebrates its twentieth anniversary, which makes it the perfect time to not only rerelease it, but remake it for a newer generation. Just like the Friends of Mineral Town remake before it, the new Story of Seasons version of the classic game is most certainly going to come with a variety of improvements and changes to better the experience. However, some of these changes might go over with fans better than others.

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Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life's New Localization

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It's no secret that things have changed a fair bit since A Wonderful Life was first released on the GameCube and PS2. In the time since, Marvelous, the developer of the core series, broke its connection with Natsume, the original publisher, in order to release the games with Xseed Games. However, Natsume had the rights to the original Harvest Moon name, which resulted in future releases from Marvelous having to be under Story of Seasons instead. Either due to legal issues, or because Xseed Games just wanted to avoid using Natsume's previous translations, the remake now has an entirely new localization.

Due to this, veteran players returning to A Wonderful Life after twenty years might have some adjusting to do throughout their playthrough. Muffy is now known as Molly, Marlin is presumably now Matthew, and Forget-Me-Not Valley is now the Forgotten Valley. In some cases, these changes are understandable, but others are more questionable. The character of Murrey, a homeless man who wandered through Forget-Me-Not Valley in the original game, has seemingly been completely replaced with a more forest hermit-like character named Pui. This may be because the developers thought Murrey could possibly be somewhat tasteless today, but this is speculation.

A Wonderful Life Takes Notes From Friends of Mineral Town

One of the features that the GameCube version of A Wonderful Life had that the PS2 version lacked was that the game could communicate with the Game Boy Advance title Friends of Mineral Town. Forget-Me-Not Valley and Mineral Town were close to each other with only a mountain path separating them, and connecting the two titles would give the player benefits such as special items being available to purchase due to NPCs going between the two towns. The villagers that traveled to and from Mineral Town and Forget-Me-Not Valley would also come back with hints to help out fans throughout their playthrough.

Even though the ties between A Wonderful Life and Friends of Mineral Town most likely won't carry through to the remakes, FoMT still influenced the new AWL. Friends of Mineral Town was the first Story of Seasons game to allow players to marry bachelors and bachelorettes of the same gender. Not only does Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life keep this feature, but it also marks the first time a non-binary player character is available. Currently, no trailers or screenshots released by Marvelous feature this new avatar, but the game's official website makes a point to include them.

There's also evidence in the announcement trailer of Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life that some new dating options will be available. A cutscene can be seen where the player character, Cody, and a child that resembles them are playing along the beach together. Cody wasn't a bachelor in the original game, which means there's at least one new bachelor in the Story of Seasons title, which means there could be more bachelorettes too.

While there may not be too many quality of life improvements for A Wonderful Life known at the moment, the game isn't expected to come out until next summer. This means that there's plenty of time for Marvelous to reveal details over time, and fans can look forward to finding out what's different and what's the same as they wait for the game to be in their hands. Though, in the eyes of many fans, there won't be too many improvements that Marvelous will have to make, as A Wonderful Life is iconic for being a relaxing farming sim that was fun for genre veterans and newcomers alike. Only time will tell if the remake will live up to those expectations.

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life looks to release for the Nintendo Switch sometime in summer 2023.

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