#SOS: FoMT

[bunhitwonder]

Popuri my love 🐄💖🐓

[solarismelody]

kaito and meiko as doctor trent and elly♡

[businesscasualart]

Playing Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town! And the besties are Ripping Me To Shreds over the bed setup THAT I CANNOT CONTROL—

HELLO?????

[friendofbats]

maybe you answered this already, but how do you feel about the sos remake of fomt?

Hi anon! First of all, I'd like to thank you for your patience, as well as apologize for taking so long to get back to your message. Around the time you messaged me, work and school started piling up for me to the point where life became a bit overwhelming. It's the holiday season now so everything's a lot less hectic, and hopefully I can dedicate some time to my hobbies before it packs on again. ☺

Anyway... I'm not sure if I answered this already either actually, but either way, I'm always happy to talk about my opinions regarding Harvest Moon. 😊 I, uh... wrote a lot, lmao so my doozy of an answer is under the cut.

In my personal opinion, the SOS:FoMT remake was... underwhelming.

I was initially excited when I heard news of the remake, given BTN--and by extension, FoMT--is not only one of my favorite Harvest Moon games, but favorite games of all time. There's a ton of nostalgia behind it for me, and the cast of characters is by far the one I love most (HM64 was my first Harvest Moon game, and I remember being ecstatic to find and play Back To Nature, given the same cast of characters for the most part were in the game). I also love the town itself. It feels alive and like an actual community where everyone knows everyone.

So I guess that made the remake (which I'd call more of a "remaster" than anything, honestly) all the more disappointing for me.

There are things I do appreciate about it, like the quality of life changes (finally, I can stack items in my rucksack and can hold more than TWO THINGS at a time! and thank God, I can finally walk over crops so I can FINALLy get that stupid middle spot that's always neglected lolllll), and I'm grateful for the extra heart events AND for same-sex marriage (long overdue, but I digress), among other improvements.

But nearly everything else, I think, was a missed opportunity and waste of potential to really make it shine:

-- The graphics are off-putting, to say the least, and a weird attempt at making things "nostalgic" and "cute", but somehow manages to miss the mark on both (in my opinion).

-- The removal of rival marriages--along with the rival heart events and rival children--is a HUGE misstep and takes away from much of the life of the town. It no longer feels like a little community, but like a hollow, empty version of HM:FoMT.

-- Along with the removal of rival marriages... I feel like a lot of the "magic" of the older games involving some of the harder-hitting stories--like May's mother abandoning her, or Harris's unrequited feelings for Aja, or Aja running away from home--is just... missing. Rick's hatred of Kai feels more irrational because much of the implications of his hatred being tied to his resentment toward his father have been removed (since Kai and Popuri no longer get married), Kai's personality has been watered down from the hated suave ladies' man to just "a nice guy", Harris goes from having a storyline to merely existing, etc. Maybe this is more of a complaint about HM:FoMT too since some of those things were missing there too, but imo my point still stands. It makes SoS:FoMT feel too cutesy and happy-go-lucky, and therefore, again, hollow.

-- Jennifer and Brandon both feel out of place from the rest of the town, and I cannot state emphatically enough how apathetic I feel toward both of them. I guess you could potentially argue that they are both outcasts and therefore they ARE out of place, but I think you can make "outcast" characters and still make them feel like they belong in the cast.

-- There's just... SO MUCH they could have fixed and added to this game that they didn't. I mean, it's a Switch remake, for goodness sake--the Switch is a powerful console! Why is the Frisbee Toss on year 1 still a cut black screen and "yay thanks for coming see you next year"? Why do the characters still just stand around or just walk back and forth, instead of giving them things to do? Why aren't the buildings more fleshed out with decorations, or the characters given different schedules, or different outfits? Why is getting on and off the horse such a monumental task?????

-- (To further drive my point above about the Switch being a powerful console and how the remake didn't even bother attempting to take advantage of it, this post by angelcou drives home this point very well. If you haven't read it, it sums up my thoughts about this all really nicely.)

There's probably a TON more that I can add here which I didn't remember, but overall, I think the remake didn't do the game any justice. When the announcement for SoS:AWL came out, I was--as I was with the SoS:FoMT announcement--ecstatic beyond belief, to say the least. But given my feelings about the FoMT remake, and the additionally underwhelming release of SoS:PooT, I remain firmly planted in the camp of "cautiously optimistic".

What are all your thoughts about the remake?

[avendesuragameblog]

Took me 40 min to brush my horse!

[moonlight-moondrops]

I wrote an article about my opinions on the bachelors in SoS: Friends of Mineral Town (my faves personality wise are still Cliff and Gray, shhh don't tell anyone).

[nightbigail]

30 Days of HM/SOS!

Day 3: Fishing

I miss the wacky marriage candidate sometimes.

[yazziescribbles]

A loved gift 🍍

[lumorie]

Ann and Mary from Story of Season FoMT (or for the old folks like me: Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town for the GBA!)

[ranchstoryblog]

Nendoroid Claire, colored!

Via Figure-Times.com, our first look at the colored Claire and all her accessories is here! We don't have to wait for Summer Wonfes! Included are a lot of fun accessories, including a turnip, watering can, tiny cow, tiny chick, 3x3 field, and a very cute winking expression!

Usually when Nendoroid prototypes are finally shown colored, there will be preorders opening soon, so we'll try to keep everyone up-to-date!

UPDATE

Goodsmile themselves have now posted the pictures, so the pics in the most have been updated to their cleaner ones. Also, there's a Goodsmile Store preorder bonus! A Gold Watering Can! Preorders are open NOW at the Goodsmile shop, with Claire's price being 6,900 yen (about 45 USD, or 42 Euro) before shipping. Shipping from Goodsmile usually runs a flat 2,000 yen so expect it to come out to around 13 USD or 12 Euro. (see update 4 for Goodsmile rates to US)

Other popular storefronts for importing Japanese figures, like Amiami, haven't opened preorders yet. We'll update soon!

Update 2: She is up now on Hobbylink Japan! $49.44 USD! September release date!

Update 3: Amiami has it up now, as well as Goodsmile US. The discount for Amiami is kind of small, coming out to 41 USD/38 Euro. Goodsmile US's price is $42.99, and is shipping later than the import options with the release date listed as Q1 2025.

Update 4: Okay, so we did a quick comparison for the official shops, with one from Goodsmile US and the other from Goodsmile JP. Goodsmile US came out to $50.18, with release being an estimated Q1 2025, while the Goodsmile JP order coming out to $60.99 with an estimate of release for September 2024.

[tiredbamb0o]

SosFomt Cliff trying on other Cliff Clothes.

[gomoraly]

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town-Popuri

[moeblob]

Molly/Muffy from Harvest Moon of Seasonal Stories: A Wonderful Life (on Gamecube and Switch)

[plague-ridden-rat]

[bloostronaut]

got an idea and I had to draw it so I don't forget

[durotoswrites]

Happy Sweetest Day! Drew my OTP to celebrate 💖

Character Inktober 2024 Day 19: Cliff x Claire (Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons)