Shopkeepers. Perhaps one of the most overlooked professions of the game world, they generally have nothing to do beyond sell you a few potions, change the bed clothes after each of your stays in their inn, and pay well over the odds for that Sword of Smiting +1 you found deep in a deadly dungeon.
Noticing a gap in the market, Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada, working with the woman who designed the iconic Pikachu and the famous Final Fantasy Composer, Nobuo Uematsu, decided to make a game with shopkeeping front and centre, buoyed along by a heart warming story and a healthy dollop of socialising. Hometown Story is the name of the game, it's one we can't wait to get our hands on when it opens up shop on the 3DS next week.
Even the scarecrow wants to chat.
In Hometown Story, it falls to your character to step into your late grandmother's shoes and take over the family store - which means getting your hands dirty with everything from sourcing stock, to arranging your shelves and serving customers. As the success of your little retail empire grows, more and more people will move into your village, bumping the population from a lowly ten to a whopping hundred folks. In much the same vein as the Harvest Moon games (or even Animal Crossing), socialising is as much of a deal as hard graft, as you get to know the locals, help them with their problems and learn about their past. And perhaps even marry a lucky guy/guyette along the way.
But a shop is nothing without the stock to fill it, and while every so often some travelling onion seller might wander through and sell you a few alliums, most of the sourcing is left to you. Which means you'll need to explore the town's surrounding forests, mountains and riversides, searching for rare items with which to turn a profit - and, as a special concession for Europe's six month wait for the game, you now also have the option to go fishing too. Other changes for our version include a faster paced story, with special events that trigger as soon as you fulfil different characters requests rather than some time later, as well much more frantic pacing while your shop's open to keep you on your toes.
Perfect for fans of Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing, Hometown Story launches next Friday, the 2nd May, for the 3DS - pre-orders at GAME will receive an exclusive Hometown Story poster, but if you're after something a little bit cooler, we'll also be running a competition next week to tie in with the launch of the game. With soundtrack CDs, signed t-shirts, plushes of the little sprite, as well as copies of the game up for grabs, you'll want to make sure you pop back over the next few days! In the meantime, why not check out the launch trailer below:
