Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town will come to the Switch in Japan this Thursday, the 25th February, but for the western world, we won’t get our hands on it until the 23rd March. We will, of course, be covering the Japanese reception here on Nintendo Life, but until we can play it for ourselves, it’s just not the same.
In an interview with Nintendo DREAM, a Japanese magazine, the Director, Assistant Director, and Producer of the latest Story of Seasons discussed the upcoming game (thanks to Fogu for the translation and summary).
Firstly, they note that 2021 is the 25th anniversary of the Bokujou Monogatari series, known as “Harvest Moon” and later “Story of Seasons” in English. It’s an anniversary that’s been forgotten amongst all the Mario and Zelda 35th celebrations, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less important, right?
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town has apparently been in the works since 2018, with an original concept that was scrapped for being too dark and overwhelming. The game focuses on farming and nature, with a particular bent towards building the farm up from scratch and finding treasures in the surrounding wilderness.
The developers seem to want to make the game a little easier for players in the beginning, making it much quicker to get high-powered tools, and to craft items rather than buy them. Cribbing from Stardew Valley a little, the game will also include sprinklers to water the crops.
A totally new feature is the fact that rain will now collect on the ground, forming puddles that can be cleared up with a bucket. If the farmer doesn’t clear them up, the area could become swampy – although they don’t go into detail about what that means!
One particularly interesting new tidbit is the camera view, which can be manipulated to find secrets – some which are only visible from particular angles. We already know there’s going to be a photo mode, so it’ll be fun to mess around with the camera – and get some practice in for New Pokémon Snap.
However, we saved the bad news for last. Something that will probably disappoint die-hard fans of the series is that the Witch Princess and Harvest Goddess will not appear in Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town – the developers wanted to prioritise all-new characters.
Has any of this raised your hype for the new Story of Seasons game, or do you already have it pre-ordered? Give us your thoughts below!