What’s more relaxing than a farm simulation? Many of us like to relax with a few hours tending crops, herding cows and enjoying the seasons in the good old fashioned way. A story about the seasons game. For nearly 30 years, this hugely popular series has been sowing seeds and setting standards for the genre.
So what if something completely different was done? Agricultural workers exchanged their hoes for hoes and took the place of pikrosa. Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons marks the first time Marvelous’ farming franchise has stepped out of the layers and into a different genre. Could you be more relaxed than a puzzle based on farming?
To find out what made Story of Seasons and Piczle Cross a perfect match, we spoke with Piczle series creator James Kay of Score Studio and Brand Manager for Story of Seasons at Marvelous Inc, Hikaru Nakano.
Nintendo Life: So where did the idea for Piczle Cross: Story of Season come from?
James Kay, founder/creator of the Piczle series: Rainy Frog, the publisher, and I were thinking about what would be cool crossover IPs and when A Tale of the Seasons came up, it seemed like such a great idea that we decided to really pursue it.
Story of Seasons is cute, relaxing and comfortable to play, and Piczle Cross is a relaxing visual logic puzzle, so it just felt right. Also, I’m an unapologetic fan of the Story of Seasons series.
How does the standard Piczle Cross gameplay mix with the Story of Seasons formula?
JK: All the puzzles are based on Story of Seasons mainstays, like farming tools, crops and animals, but also bachelors and bachelorettes and villagers from the Story of Seasons games, as well as a few collage puzzles (lots of smaller puzzles that together make one much bigger picture solutions) based on some classical festivals.
On top of that, your farm in the background evolves as you solve puzzles and as time goes on, experiencing the seasons and years as you would in the Story of Seasons games. There’s also an almanac that features cute animals and characters, along with their likes and dislikes, once you’ve unlocked them by solving puzzles. There is also a music player where you can listen to the included music tracks from the games in the Story of Seasons series.
This is described as “the most feature-rich and option-rich experience” yet. What changes and additions have been made to Piczle Cross: Story of Season?
JK: I believe you can play nonograms however you want. Some people like challenges, others just want to relax. So you can turn off the timer, use hints to show where moves can be made, automatically correct wrong moves, or have the game check the overall mistakes you’ve made. Or none of this. All of this is optional. There is no wrong way to play!
On top of that, there are plenty of quality-of-life features, like completed rows or columns that automatically have their empty cells marked for you. Counting the length of a series of blocks by pressing a button (or automatically). Simple grid cell array measurement – no more manual counting!
Completed tracks can be marked automatically, or not marked at all, or even manually – you can, if you want, mark the tracks by hand.
All of these options are simply explained in the options menu so you know exactly what does what.
What keeps you coming back and making more Piczle games?
JK: I really like puzzles! Puzzles of all kinds are just things that I truly enjoy, so when I make Piczle games, I make games that I really want to play. Even the development of Piczle games is a bit like puzzles for me. I set some goals for myself that I feel are beyond my technical skills, and then I enjoy learning and solving problems until I figure it out.
“Ikigai” is a phrase that lifestyle coaches often use, but in this case, developing logic puzzles could really be my ikigai.
Since it’s the first Story of Seasons game that doesn’t involve farming, did you have any concerns before or during development?
Hikaru Nakano, Story of Seasons brand manager: Before the start of the project, we had no particular concerns. You can get a great feel for the world of Story of Seasons in Piczle Cross and we hope it might encourage users who have never played Story of Seasons before to try our farming games.
What was it like working with Score Studios and what elements of Story of Seasons did you want to keep in the game?
HN: When James (Score Studios) and Tony (Rainy Frog) told us about the project, at first it was hard to imagine what it would be like, but as we talked more, we could feel their passion for Story of Seasons and I started looking forward to playing it games. When we first tried it, it was great to see how characters, crops, etc. from the Story of Seasons games were turned into puzzles, and it was a lot of fun to play.
Although the game genres are different, I wanted Piczle Cross to have the same charming atmosphere as the Story of Seasons games. We didn’t give James any specific instructions on what to do, but you can see that he did an amazing job realizing the appeal of Story of Seasons in a puzzle game.
How important was it to have an almanac in the game that celebrates the history of Story of Seasons?
JK: One of the things that many players like myself love about the Story of Seasons games are the many characters and their personalities. Since Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons isn’t a traditional Story of Seasons game with interacting characters, I really wanted to add them in some other way.
The Almanac contains all the Story of Seasons characters with their character pictures, a little bio and, for players of the Story of Seasons games, some tips on what they like and don’t like. It was a way to let people enjoy their favorite villagers and bachelors, as well as giving them an extra incentive to play through the puzzles to unlock them all.
Do you have a dream Piczle crossover you want to create?
JK: Hoo boy, yes, enough! Some are highly unlikely to ever happen, and others I, along with my publisher Rainy Frog, are actively pursuing right now. Fingers crossed to make more!
Could we see other crossovers in the Story of Seasons series in the future?
HN: I wouldn’t rule it out. James from Score Studios is an excellent puzzle creator and managed to faithfully recreate the feel of Story of Seasons as a puzzle. If similar opportunities arise in the future, I would like to consider it.
This interview has been slightly edited for clarity.
Thanks to James Kay and Hikaru Nakano for taking the time to answer our questions. Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons releases on February 27, 2024 on Switch. Will you be planting with picross? Let us know in the comments.
