The Story of Seasons series has come a long way since it was separated from its former title, Harvest Moon. Since being under the name, Story of Seasons, the series has gotten far more progressive with same-sex marriage and gender. In fact, no game remake proves this more than the upcoming Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. The remake is coming out for the Nintendo Switch in Summer of next year and shows much that would be familiar to gamers that played Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life on the PS2 or Gamecube.
Forget-Me-Not Valley has become Forgotten Valley but still looks to have a lot of the same beaches, farms, and buildings. The place also has familiar faces such as Rock, Nina, Nami, Gustafa, Mukumuku, and Lumina. However, there are some notable changes to this remake. A big one is now Story of Seasons players can have same-sex marriage and can also play as a nonbinary character.
Story Of Seasons' History Of LGBTQIA+ Progress
One group to thank when it comes to the LGBTQIA+ gaming representation in Story of Seaons is XSEED Games. It localized Story of Seasons' games to the West and that included localizing cultural expectations as well as language. One of the first games it added same-sex marriage to was also a Harvest Moon remake, called Friends of Mineral Town.
Friends of Mineral Town originally had a "best friends" system where the protagonist can live with someone of the same sex. XSEED made Story of Seasons' "best friends" system marriage between same-sex people for the West. XSEED even wrote around that time that same-sex marriage was a long time coming to the series. These LGBTQIA+ additions continued in Pioneers of Olive Town.
Not only did the localization team work to get same-sex marriage into the games, but XSEED also focused on details in tone and conversation in relation to same-sex relationships. They made sure not to just tack on the marriage aspect, but to change the dialogue to further validate being in a same-sex relationship. Assistant localization lead Lori Snyder had said, "I've played too many games that try to act coy about same-sex relationships or can only go so far as to imply them, but the writers don't want to be open about it, for whatever reason. I obviously didn't want that to happen here."
Now that A Wonderful Life remake is happening, there is a lot to be excited about based on XSEED's work on previous remakes. XSEED is even taking inclusion a step further, and offering the player the opportunity to play as nonbinary. They/Them pronouns will likely be available. What that entails in terms of character creation is still unknown.
The Old Games Compared To The Remake
The original A Wonderful Life had players play as a male protagonist with three female bachelorettes to choose from: Muffy, Nami, and Celia. The baby would also always be male. If the special edition was bought, another bachelorette was added (who was a little controversial due to being a child in the first year). Another Wonderful Life came out, which was targeted to female audiences. In it, players played a female protagonist with a choice between three bachelors: Gustava, Martin, and Rock. No special edition came out for Another Wonderful Life.
A Wonderful Life, Another Wonderful Life, and the upcoming remake are excellent examples of how much video games have changed over time in terms of gender and same-sex couples. Now instead of two games, there is going to be one with more options and freedoms. As many developers have pointed out lately, simulator games are about living the life the player wishes, and adding LGBTQIA+ choices is a no-brainer to that philosophy.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life launches Summer 2023 for the Nintendo Switch.
