Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town

Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town
Developer(s)	Marvelous Interactive
Publisher(s)	JP: Marvelous Interactive NA: Natsume EU: Natsume AU: Nintendo Australia
Producer(s)	Yasuhiro Wada
Designer(s)	Miki Miyagi
Artist(s)	Igusa Matsuyama
Composer(s)	Ai Yamashita
Series	Story of Seasons
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance Nintendo Switch Microsoft Windows
Release	JP: April 18, 2003 NA: November 17, 2003 EU: March 26, 2004 More Friends of Mineral Town JP: December 12, 2003 NA: July 26, 2005 Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town JP: October 17, 2019 PAL: July 10, 2020 NA: July 14, 2020
Genre(s)	Simulation, Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single player

Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town is a video game for the Game Boy Advance, developed and published by Marvelous Interactive. It was first released in Japan in April 2003, in North America in November 2003, and in Europe in March 2004. Many critics praised it as the best entry of the series, combining elements from the best-selling console entries and introducing many notable series staples. It was later released on the Virtual Console for the Wii U in June 2015.

The player is a farmer whose goal is to make a profit from the farm he runs by producing crops and raising livestock. Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town is the first Game Boy Advance game of the Story of Seasons series, and is a remade version of Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. A 3D remake for the Nintendo Switch and Desktop Computers, titled Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, was released in Japan in October 2019 and worldwide by Xseed Games in July 2020.

Story and gameplay

The player character in the game has no default name. In the opening sequences, the player is shown as a young boy living in the city, whose parents take him to see the country. During their trip, the player becomes lost, and finds himself on the farm of an old man in Mineral Town. The old man helps the player contact his parents, and offers to let him and his family stay for a few days, as he has no family of his own. The player's parents agree, and the player stays on the farm for a while. On the farm, the player plays with a girl who then becomes friends with him. After the player leaves Mineral Town, he continues to write letters to the old man. One day, when he has grown up, the letters from the old man suddenly stop. The player travels to Mineral Town, finding the farm neglected, and discovers the old man had died around half a year ago. The mayor of Mineral Town informs the player that in the farmer's will, he left the player the farm. The player decides to restore the farm, beginning the game.

An in-game screenshot of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town

The player starts with several tools, and must earn money by clearing the large field on the farm and planting crops, mining, or foraging. This money may be used to buy other things, such as livestock, and to expand the farm. The social aspect of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town is a large part of the game. There are many villagers to befriend, and six bachelorettes available to marry. Befriending villagers allows the player to learn recipes and discover villager's histories, and marriage allows the player to have a son. The game offers connectivity with the Nintendo GameCube game Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life using a link cable between the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo GameCube.

The player begins with a dog that may be named. The dog starts as a puppy, but will be fully grown after two months. Shortly after meeting Barley for the first time, he will stop by the player's farm with a young horse and ask if they can take care of it. If the player accepts, Barley will return after a year, and may take the horse back if the player didn't show enough affection. There are three kinds of livestock: cows, chickens, and sheep. Cows produce milk (requires a milker to be gathered), chickens produce eggs, and sheep produce wool (requires shears to be gathered), which can be shipped off to be sold. As in every installment of the Story of Seasons series, shipping is added as a collection of crops, flowers, animal items and others.

A 3D remake, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, was released for the Nintendo Switch in Japan on October 17, 2019, in Europe on July 10, 2020, and in North America on July 14, 2020. A Microsoft Windows version was also released on July 14.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	81/100

IGN rated the game at 8.9, or "great", saying that it was "deceptively engrossing", and that the graphical presentation of the day to night cycles was very well done. GameRankings has an aggregate score of 82% from 31 reviews.

IGN rated Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town at 8.5. It was noted that it is essentially a repeat of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, but that "it's still a great and highly recommended experience". GameRankings has an aggregate score of 79% from 14 reviews.

Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	82/100

Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town (牧場物語 ミネラルタウンのなかまたち for ガール, Bokujō Monogatari: Mineral Town no Nakama Tachi for Girl) is the female version of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. In this game, the main character is a girl, and can marry one of eight bachelors. The player starts in the city, reading their newspaper. She sees an advertisement for a beautiful farm, and, excited by the prospect of rural life, decides to buy it. She visits the farm and finds out she was tricked, as the farm is run down and in need of maintenance. As she had already quit her job and sold her apartment, the player resolves to make the farm prosper the best she can, beginning the game. The base game remains almost unchanged, with the exception of several gameplay changes, improvements, and fixes.

External links

• Natsume's FoMT webpage, archived from March 31, 2010.
• Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town