Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town Coming to the Switch

Marvelous Studios recently announced it’s remaking Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town and Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town for the Nintendo Switch, together in one package titled Reunion with Mineral Town.

Or, more accurately, it’s Story of Seasons: Reunion with Mineral Town, thanks to “that thing” with Marvelous, Natsume, and copyrights for the Bokujou Monogatari franchise name.

Currently, the game is set for a Japan-only release on October 17.

Since it’s built on both Mineral Town and More Friends of Mineral Town, players will be able to choose either a male or female protagonist. Judging from the pictures shared via Japanese publication Famitsu, it seems all the familiar bachelors and bachelorettes are returning, such as Popuri and Cliff, along with some potential new characters. Whether these silhouettes will be woo-able is likely, though, of course, still unconfirmed.

While this is an entry in the Marvelous Story of Seasons franchise, it appears Reunion with Mineral Town is sporting an aesthetic more similar to recent Harvest Moon games like Skytree Village.

The original Friends of Mineral Town for Game Boy Advance was essentially a more polished version of Harvest Moon: Back to Nature/64 with some of the edge taken off its characters and a ton of QoL improvements — like actually making movement easy.

More Friends was the same basic game, but the player played as a female protagonist instead, with the option to be “best friends” with one of the town’s eligible ladies.

These are widely regarded as the series’ pinnacle for a variety of reasons, partly for improving the Back to Nature formula. The games featured an excellent balance between enhancing activities like fishing and the relationship system vis a vis introducing new animals and elements.

One thing FoMT was noted for was its connection to the GameCube game Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. It’s a bit of a stretch to hope we’ll see an AWL remake alongside, but there could very well be more new features added to Reunion with Mineral Town to replace old ones.

We’ll know more soon, as additional information is expected to be revealed when this month’s Famitsu is officially released on July 4.