Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town Review

Welcome to my Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town review. We were not given a review code for this title.

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town was originally released as Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town for GameBoy Advanced in 2003. It was re-released on Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo Switch through the eShop. You can currently play it on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox, too, where it appears under its modern name.

The game was developed and published by Natsume and Marvelous Entertainment, who would later split into two distinct companies—one keeping the Harvest Moon franchise name, and the other rebranding to Story of Seasons with the original dev team.

While neither company is currently living up to their golden standards of the early 2000s, Marvelous Inc/Story of Seasons tend to be more critically acclaimed by reviewers and fans alike. Despite newer Story of Seasons games being on the market, like Pioneers of Olive Town and A Wonderful Life Remake, Friends of Mineral Town remains one of the most recommended games in the franchise. And I tend to agree with this sentiment.

At its core, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is a clutter-free, chibi-graphics farming sim with minimal story or game direction. Your goal is to care for and level up your farmland in various ways, like clearing debris, upgrading buildings, and collecting livestock. Very few quests or events will pop up to direct the flow of your game, and it doesn’t have a ton of sandbox features to get lost in so your course will be pretty straightforward.

After inheriting your grandfather’s farm, the MC sets about trying to make the property profitable while integrating with the locals. You can plant and tend to a variety of seasonal crops; raise sheep, cows, chickens, and rabbits; fish and forage in the wilderness; collect resources like ore, wood, and material stone; attend interactive festivals in town; and befriend (and even marry) the townsfolk.

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is populated by a quaint, homogenous community where most individuals’ personalities can be fully encapsulated in an elevator pitch. Tomboy innkeeper who is cleaning obsessed. Transient beach bum who only hangs around during summer. Bickering siblings with a chronically sick mother. There is just enough detail to help you pick a few favorites, but nothing so memorable you’ll be thinking about them long after rolling credits.

Unfortunately, these NPCs have dry, repetitive dialogue that makes it a slog to get to know them. “Do you need something?”, “Oh. Ms/Mr. McFarmsalot. Hey.”, “Hello.” and (my personal favorite) “Hmm…” For days and months and even a full year, these characters have nothing much to say to you. The only exception is commentary right before festivals about the activities to come.

Borrowing from the much-beloved Harvest Moon 64 character roster, maybe more development was deemed unnecessary. After all, the game features pre-existing fan favorites like Popuri, Grey, and Karen. (Lore-wise, they are relatives of HM64’s cast.) I knew who I was interested in getting to know before the game booted up for the first time. No cutscenes required.

The cool thing about Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is that it came out over a decade before games like Stardew Valley, so you can see where some of the original “farming sim tropes” came from! Things like learning cooking recipes from weekly TV programs, a mining cavern system with an elevator to save progress (after you unlock it, of course), restoring stamina in a hot spring or bathhouse, passing out and returning home at a certain time of night (well, morning—6am in the case of SOS FOMT), as well as the basic mechanisms around crops, animal care, and tool progression.

The simplicity of the game is refreshing, though you can find threads to pull at with a bit of grit or access to a walkthrough. There are secrets galore—things to collect and uncover. The mines are notoriously tough to get through but you’ll find hidden treasures below. Unlocking every recipe involves a series of intriguing do-this-then-that quest instructions. There are hidden stamina power-ups scattered about the world, buried or earned or won. Surprises for befriending the Harvest Goddess (found in the pond behind the hot springs). The festival minigames are easy to learn, hard to master; it could be 3+ in-game years before you start taking home championships.

In reviewing Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town for the modern day, I should also acknowledge where it lags behind in quality-of-life updates we have come to know and love within the genre. There are an extremely limited number spots for stone and wood harvesting, mining systems are cumbersome (especially early on), collecting all the recipes is convoluted—using complex prerequisite/dependant requirement structures (involving following “recipe paths” to be able to unlock everything), no winter crop availability, mechanically obtuse competitive festivals, and not a lot of activity variation day-to-day.

The game also enjoys benefits from using antiquated farming sim systems, like my favorite: time doesn’t pass indoors (haha why??). So it really is a case of you win some, you lose some.

However—unlike comp titles like Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, which feels jarringly empty and repetitive—I do think Friends of Mineral Town holds up for a current audience. Particularly if you find games like Stardew Valley and Fields of Mistria to be too confusing, busy, or overwhelming. Friends of Mineral Town enjoys a more relaxed game pace, which is perfect for folks who enjoy meditative routine. Rather than an ever-expanding task list, FOMT relies on “slow and steady wins the race” progress across easy, carefree rural days.

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town rolls credits after you get married, but you can continue playing after that. There isn’t so much of a story behind FOMT—just simple and sweet country living. No helping the harvest goddess, no saving the town, no unraveling a mystery. And to be honest, it was refreshing. The story was what I made of it.

Summary

Here’s a quick summary of the main points of my Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town review—for those who don’t have time to read a whole article because they have a farming sim backlog a mile long.

Pros

Simple, easy gameplay with tons of secrets
Cute and memorable characters
A classic title that actually hold up well

Cons

Stamina system is limiting
Resource collection is tedious
Hard to win festivals until late game

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town remains a timeless gem within the farming sim genre, offering a straightforward and relaxing experience rooted in meditative routines and charming simplicity. While its quaint NPCs and limited quality-of-life features reflect its origins, the game’s nostalgic charm, rewarding progression, and secrets to uncover make it a delightful choice for players seeking a slower-paced alternative to more complex modern titles.

I paid full-price for Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town twice, once for the initial release and once for the re-release. However, cozy game players used to the hustle-and-bustle of newer games would be wise to wait for a sale of 40% or more before checking out.

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Stay cozy, gamers!