Beloved GameCube farming sim Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is coming back to our consoles this year, and we can’t to wait. Even though it’s now a Story of Seasons game instead of a Harvest Moon game… even though all the characters have been redesigned… and even if [REDACTED] he doesn’t die in the remake (although we’d be a little disappointed).
If you’re looking for all the details on the game, including release dates, announcements, character redesigns, and more, look no further, farm friend — we’ve got all the information in one place for you.
The Story of the Seasons: A Wonderful Life Details, Pictures, Trailers & MORE!
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Release date
In Japan, SoS: AWL releases on January 26, 2023. In the rest of the world, the date is simply “Summer 2023“.
Similar delays between Japan and elsewhere aren’t uncommon in the Story of Seasons franchise — the Friends of Mineral Town remake took an extra nine months, Trio of Towns on 3DS seven months, and Pioneers of Olive Town only had a month between releases — so rest assured it’s nothing sinister or catastrophic.
The story of the seasons: A wonderful life – the story so far
Unlike other highly anticipated titles like Pikmin 4 and Metroid Prime 4, AWL has a much simpler timeline.
First announced in a September 2022 Nintendo Direct, we could see the return of many features of the original GameCube game from 2004, such as marriage candidates, familiar sound effects, and the aging mechanic that A Wonderful Life introduced to the series.
It’s been relatively quiet since then, although there have been a few additional announcements:
What is Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life?
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a remake of the original GameCube game from 2004, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, one of the best-selling Harvest Moon games of all time (and a favorite of many even to this day).
UA Wonderful Life you play as a young farmer who takes over his father’s farm with only a dog, a cow and an empty field. What made the game remarkable was that it actually had an overarching plot that continued for 30 years, as your farmer got married, had a child, grew old, and eventually died, and your son chose a different career based on how you brought up.
Later, a remake called Another Wonderful Life allowed you to play as a farmer, with the chance to marry one of three bachelors and have a daughter instead of a son. There was also a game for PS2 called Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition which still forced you to play as a man, but added another bachelorette, Lumina, and allowed you to have a daughter.
In terms of the actual game, you will raise animals, grow crops and meet people in the town. Here is the advertisement from the game page:
A famous farm for the new generation ‒ Revisit this iconic community with updated systems, character designs and visuals that revitalize the Forgotten Valley while retaining the charm that made the original a classic.
Your story, your way ‒ With the option to play as a male, female or non-binary protagonist, as well as all eligible marriage candidates available for romance regardless of that choice, players can really be whatever they want.
Developed agriculture simulation ‒ The original farming features have been updated, bringing new excitement to the carefree life of raising crops and animals.
Living a beautiful life is more than just farming ‒ While taking a break from the daily work on the farm, befriend unforgettable characters in the valley, help fellow villagers with requests and experience completely new events.
A Tale of the Seasons: A Wonderful Life Marriage Candidates
You can now marry any of the women or men you were able to marry in A Wonderful Life, A Wonderful Life Special Edition, or Another Wonderful Life without restrictions, as well as Gordy/Cody, who previously could not be married.
Here are all of them, with the original names in parentheses:
- Cecilia (Celia)
- Molly (Muffy)
- To us
- Lumina
- Gustaf (Gustav)
- Rock
- Matthew (Marlin)
- Gordy (Cody)
The story of the seasons: the beautiful changes of life
- New art and animations
- New localization
- “Additional updates”
- Paths
- 70+ new events
- New family events with spouse and child
- Four seasonal festivals
- Camera tool for taking pictures and selfies
- Raise goats and sheep
- New, rare crops
- The characters have been renamed
- Choose between a male, female or non-binary protagonist
- Character customization
- Change your hairstyle and hair color
- Change facial features
- Change in skin color
- Change clothes
- Marry anyone regardless of gender
- Have a wedding
- The New Bachelor — Gordy
- Character redesign
- Bulletin board (with permanent guests)
- Animal bell to bring creatures out
- Freelance cooking job
- Train your dog
- 121 recipes (about 35 new)
- Changing closet
Screenshots of Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life
There are about a kazillion screenshots out there, so we tried to whittle them down to just the good ones:
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Trailers
Wait, what happened to Harvest Moon?
Story of Seasons is a sequel to the Harvest Moon series, but Natsume — the company that originally translated the games — currently owns the rights to the Harvest Moon name (and nothing else). They like to release their Harvest Moon games around the same time as Story of Seasons, we suspect they’d take advantage of the confusion between the two — and their next offering, Winds of Anthos, will also launch in summer 2023.
Stay tuned for all the Story of Seasons news you could want, and let us know in the comments what features, new ideas, events, and returning characters you want to see in the finished game.
Table of Contents
