We learned last week that one of the best Harvest Moon games, Friends of Mineral Town, was getting a Switch remake in Japan. Titled Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town (due to the rights switch-up in the Harvest Moon franchise over the years), the remake will hit Japan on October 17th. We don't have a confirmed release date for the title in the west, but publisher XSEED confirmed that the remake is headed here sooner than later.
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town completely revamps the 2003 Game Boy Advance classic with new graphics, features and gameplay, while preserving the charm, characters and story of the original. The GBA saw two releases of Mineral Town, one that let you play as a boy or girl farmer each. That old double-dip by Natsume annoyed me at the time, but thankfully the new Switch remake will combine the content of both versions into one experience. Ironically the GBA game was itself a remake of sorts of the Playstation One game Harvest Moon: Back to Nature.
You can check out the adorable Japanese trailer for the remake below; I already know that my sister will be ecstatic, and I'm pretty excited too, as between us we logged about a bajillion hours across the boy and girl versions of the GBA game back in the day. It was our constant companion on road trips and long bus rides during high school, and I'm happy to see that a new generation of kids will be sinking untold hours into farming, and swapping stories about their eggplant harvest and which wacky anime character they're courting to marry.
