Story of Seasons Developers Say They are Open to Remakes

It has been a couple of months since the launch of Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, and just a week or so has passed since the game’s first expansion pass content was released. Now, news has surfaced that the Story of Seasons development team is quite open to making remakes of the older games, and even went so far as to detail which ones the team would be interested in revamping.

When talking about remakes, most Story of Seasons fans would likely be interested in seeing more of the older games revamped to be playable in modern gaming platforms. This can be seen in how well-received the most recent remake was, given how Friends of Mineral Town was modernized to fit the player generation of today. Therefore, news from the development team such as this would definitely pique the interest of old and new players of the series.

In a recent interview, the director Hikaru Nakano and producer Dai Takemura of Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town were asked if they were considering remaking older titles in order for them to be available on the Nintendo Switch. Takemura pointed out that the Story of Seasons team is very focused on making new games, such as Pioneers of Olive Town, but since the game helped them go back to the series’ roots, remakes are still a possibility.

Nakano chimed in with his personal preferences on which of the older Harvest Moon titles he would prefer to remake or remaster. This includes Harvest Moon 64, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, and Harvest Moon DS. Most fans would likely recall that these games can all be played on the Nintendo platform.

With more expansion pass content to come for Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, it may be likely that the devs will take more time in producing new games. Hopefully more remakes, or at least simple ports into the Switch, will make its way into the Nintendo console in the future.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is the most recent installment in the Story of Seasons franchise, which was originally known as Harvest Moon. Though Story of Seasons and Marvelous created the popularized format seen in most farming sims—players tend to a farm, raise livestock, and romance a villager—this gameplay ironically became far more mainstream thanks to Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley was created solely by Eric Barone so that he and his girlfriend could recreate the original Harvest Moon games after deciding that the new ones didn't invoke the same feelings. Looking at the original Harvest Moon's gameplay on SNES, it's easy to see where much of Stardew Valley followed in its footsteps, from the animations and the art style to the many gameplay mechanics. Interestingly, Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town borrowed back some of the enhancements that Stardew implemented, as have many other farming simulators inspired by Eric Barone's creation.

Despite being a recreation of the original Harvest Moon, Eric Barone did what most other Story of Seasons games haven't been able to: perfectly balanced mechanics. After Stardew Valley then unexpectedly expanded into a major commercial success, many other indie farming sims began cropping up on the market, such as Kynseed, My Time at Portia, and the upcoming Coral Island.