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G-Mode announced that Bokujo Monogatari: Minori no Shima, an old mobile flip phone Harvest Moon (known as Story of Seasons nowadays) game, will release on March 29, 2025 in Japan. The game will cost 1,500 yen (or approximately $10) and will appear on the Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam. [Thanks, PR Times!]

To celebrate its release, the game will be 30% off on sale for 1,050 yen (~$7.07) on both platforms. The sale will last until May 27, 2025 on Switch, and April 11, 2025 on Steam. The original title of the game translates to Harvest Moon: Island of Crops, and the game originally released on 2008 as a digital for mobile phones exclusively in Japan.

The game was divided into a "for Boy" release which appeared first on April 3, 2008, and a "for Girl" version which released on August 8, 2008. The new port will include both versions of the game in a single package, which will be available only in Japanese. The re-release of the game will be part of the G-Mode Archives+ collection.

G-Mode specializes in ports of old Japanese mobile games that aren’t available anymore. The company already released ports of mobile game Bokujo Monogatari Mobile: Live & Love back in September 2024.

Bokujo Monogatari: Minori no Shima will reléase on March 29, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.

The post Harvest Moon Mobile PC and Switch Port Release Date Shared appeared first on Siliconera.

G-Mode has released ports of Bokujo Monogatari Mobile: Live & Love in Japan. The entry, which is part of Marvelous' game series now known in English as Story of Seasons, originally appeared for feature phones in 2007. The new ports are now available digitally on Nintendo Switch via the Japanese eShop and PC via Steam.

Even though the Steam page also has an English description, the port is only available in Japanese. This feature phone game has the same protagonists who appeared in titles like Harvest Moon: Back to Nature and Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town. While the player can choose either gender version of the avatar, the game has a different set of characters who are available as marriage candidates.

In addition, this game also features the protagonist's mother who will live with them in their house. The player can have the mother cook a meal for the protagonist, and they can also ask her about the relationship levels with available marriage candidates.

G-Mode has also ed a trailer showcasing Bokujo Monogatari Mobile: Live & Love on its YouTube channel:

G-Mode has been gradually porting its classic feature phone games to the Switch and PC. The company was recently known for porting mobile games featuring side stories of Atlus titles like Megami Tensei in 2022, Revelations: Persona in 2023, and Persona 3 in 2024.

The ports of Bokujo Monogatari Mobile: Life & Love are now available in Japanese on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.

The post Story of Seasons Feature Phone Game Ported to Switch and PC appeared first on Siliconera.

In February 2020, an interview with the character designer for most Story of Seasons (Bokujou Monogatari) series titles, Igusa Matsuyama, was published. In it, they talk about some aspects of how they design characters across the series. [Kind thanks to fan community Ranch Story!]

For those who don't know Matsuyama, they have been credited for the Bokujou Monogatari series as far back as character image artwork in Harvest Moon GB and began to design the characters starting with Harvest Moon 64. They have continued to serve as character designer for every entry in the main Bokujou Monogatari series up until and including Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, which released in Japan in 2019. Matsuyama was also the character designer for Little Dragons Cafe.

Here are some of the highlights:

Ranch Story: How much influence do you have on the character’s personality during the design process?

Igusa Matsuyama, series character designer: "To me, when it comes to creating characters, personality is everything. If the personality isn’t strong enough, you’ll end up creating characters that are too alike to one another. Even so, I am not very particular about creating characters that are outstandingly beautiful.

Additionally, in regards to the designs from games within the past few years – there are usually requests for me to design their appearance and clothing when creating [illustrations of] the characters.

During the process, I get to make suggestions like, “Wouldn’t it be good to make the characters like this?” However, I try to incorporate all the requests made into each design as much as I can. Because it’s not only me who creates them, the designs are conceptualized by the entire staff."

Ranch Story: Has there ever been a case of a design being rejected and then re-used for a future project?

Matsuyama: "Alisa, from Island of Happiness, has hair and facial features which were carried over from the original design of the game’s heroine, Chelsea.

The original features were deemed “too demure” for someone like Chelsea, so the design had been scrapped; however, I thought that such a design was perfect for a character like Alisa, and so she was created from those [scrapped] features.

Likewise, the character called Wada [from the same game] uses a design originally meant for the character called Shea. As Shea is a marriage candidate, I knew that such a design for him would never be accepted [by the staff], but even knowing this, I wanted to create that design anyway. Of course, the design was scrapped."

Ranch Story: It feels like as time has gone on, outfits have steadily become more complicated with more patterns and other details. Were the simpler designs of older games because of graphical limitations?

Matsuyama: "Yes, that’s correct.

In the first Bokujou Monogatari title (Harvest Moon for SNES), the color palette was limited to a few colors for each character. We were only able to make detailed parts after the release of Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland.

Until then, they had to be simple designs that still conveyed the characters’ personalities. So, when working on designs, I always kept in mind, “How would this design look when deformed into a ‘chibi’ character?”

Nowadays, it’s an era where you can reproduce just about anything unless it’s absolutely impossible. Even so, I try to keep making designs that emphasize characters’ personalities and heritage, rather than distracting people with fancy decorations."

Regarding the character design changes for the Mineral Town remake:

Matsuyama: "I really love Harvest Moon 64.
I am very much attached to all of the characters that first appeared in that game.
As the new game includes a cast whose personalities and relationships have been changed, the designs do not necessarily represent them completely. There is quite a bit of regret on my part because of that.

Regarding Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, I was prepared for negative , of course. However, rather than branching off of the cast of Harvest Moon 64 again, the characters were designed according to the new setting.
Of course, this isn’t a decision I made alone.

We all wanted to honor the feelings of the fans of the original Mineral Town games. As such, the colors of the original designs were used as much as possible when creating the redesigns.

Regarding whether the new protagonist designs were inspired by Sara, GB games female protagonist:

Matsuyama: "As you pointed out, she does look a little bit like Sara.
The instructions I received from the producer were to give her a short haircut, lively personality, hoodie, and shorts. When it comes to a heroine wearing shorts and a short hairstyle, you would surely end up thinking of Sara."

"Additionally, the male protagonist [of the new game] has been designed a little similarly to that of the A Wonderful Life protagonist."

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is available on the Nintendo Switch in Japan. It will eventually be released worldwide by XSEED Games.

The post Story of Seasons Series Character Designer on Making the Characters We Know and Love appeared first on Siliconera.

Marvelous had a couple other tidbits to share during a financial results briefing, including talk about a traditional Story of Seasons and some trouble they ran into for a game that has yet to be announced.

The post Marvelous Talks Traditional Story of Seasons, Troubles For An Unannounced Sexy Game appeared first on Siliconera.

Marvelous and Brownies announced in this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine that a new Bokujou Monogatari/Story of Seasons game is in the works, and they’re not talking about the Doraemon one.

The post A New Bokujou Monogatari/Story of Seasons Game Is In The Works appeared first on Siliconera.

Marvelous announced that they and Tencent Games have come to a license agreement that will allow the China-based developer to work on a new Bokujou Monogatari (Story of Seasons) game.

The post New Bokujou Monogatari (Story of Seasons) Smartphone Game Is Being Made By Tencent appeared first on Siliconera.