Beloved GameCube farming sim Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is coming back to our consoles this year, and we can’t wait. Even though it’s now a Story of Seasons game instead of a Harvest Moon one… even though the characters are all redesigned… and even if [REDACTED] doesn’t die in the remake (although we would be a little disappointed).
If you’re looking for all the details on the game, including release dates, trailers, character redesigns, and more, then look no further, farmy friend — we’ve got all the info in one place for you.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life details, images, trailers, and MORE!
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Release Date
In Japan, SoS: AWL comes out on January 26th, 2023. In the rest of the world, the date is simply “Summer 2023“.
Similar delays between Japan and everywhere else are not uncommon in the Story of Seasons franchise — the Friends of Mineral Town remake took an extra nine months, Trio of Towns on 3DS took seven months, and Pioneers of Olive Town had just one month between releases — so rest assured that it’s nothing sinister or catastrophic.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life – the story so far
Unlike other long-awaited titles like Pikmin 4 and Metroid Prime 4, AWL has a much simpler timeline.
First announced in the September 2022 Nintendo Direct, we were able to see the return of many of the features of the original 2004 GameCube game, like marriage candidates, familiar sound effects, and the aging mechanic that A Wonderful Life introduced to the series.
Since then, it’s been relatively quiet, although there have been a few extra announcements:
What is Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life?
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a remake of the original 2004 GameCube game, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, one of the best-selling Harvest Moon games of all time (and many people’s favourite even to this day).
In A Wonderful Life, you play as a young male farmer who takes over his father’s farm with just 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 married, had a child, grew old, and eventually died, with your son choosing a different career based on how you raised him.
Later, a remake called Another Wonderful Life let you play as a female farmer, with the chance to marry one of three bachelors and have a daughter instead of a son. There was also a PS2 game called Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition which still forced you to play as a man, but added one extra bachelorette, Lumina, and let you have a daughter.
In terms of the actual game, you’ll be raising animals, growing crops, and getting to know people in the town. Here’s the blurb from the game page:
A Familiar Farm for a New Generation ‒ Revisit this iconic community with updated systems, character designs, and visuals that revitalize Forgotten Valley while maintaining 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 truly be who they want.
Farming Simulation Evolved ‒ The original farming features have been updated, bringing new excitement to the carefree life of growing crops and raising animals.
Living a Wonderful Life is More Than Just Farming ‒ While taking a break from your daily farm work, befriend memorable characters in the valley, help fellow residents with requests, and experience all-new events.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Marriage Candidates
You can now marry any of the women or men that you could marry in A Wonderful Life, A Wonderful Life Special Edition, or Another Wonderful Life with no restrictions, as well as Gordy/Cody, who could not be married before.
Here are all of them, with their original names in brackets:
- Cecilia (Celia)
- Molly (Muffy)
- Nami
- Lumina
- Gustafa (Gustava)
- Rock
- Matthew (Marlin)
- Gordy (Cody)
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Changes
- New art and animations
- New localisation
- “Additional updates”
- Paths
- 70+ new events
- New family events with your spouse and child
- Four seasonal festivals
- Camera tool to take pictures and selfies
- Breed goats and sheep
- New, rare crops
- Characters renamed
- Choose from male, female, or non-binary for your protagonist
- Character customisation
- Change hairstyle and hair colour
- Change facial features
- Change skin colour
- Change clothes
- Marry anyone regardless of gender
- Have a wedding
- New bachelor — Gordy
- Character redesigns
- Bulletin board (with resident quests)
- An animal bell to bring the critters outside
- Cooking part-time job
- Train your dog
- 121 recipes (about 35 new ones)
- A closet to change clothes
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Screenshots
There are roughly a kazillion screenshots out there, so we’ve tried to pare it down to just the good ones:
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Trailers
Wait, what happened to Harvest Moon?
Story of Seasons is the continuation of the Harvest Moon series, but Natsume — the company that originally translated the games — currently has 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 to capitalise on the confusion between the two — and their next offering, Winds of Anthos, will also be launching in Summer 2023.
Stay tuned for all the Story of Seasons news you could ever want, and let us know in the comments what features, new ideas, events, and returning characters you’d like to see in the finished game.