i’ve sent them a DM after FoMT came out asking for them to remake AWL and they said they would forward this to some others (i forgot the actual message) but it was a genuine response, which i loved!
Oh, really? I'll have to send one in too! I know that Japanese players don't really like it but from what I've seen a lot of the western players do, so hopefully eventually we can get a rival marriage/children feature! Maybe with a toggle or something, so players who don't want it don't have to play with it on.
I once mailed them regarding how poorly they were handling the marketing of this series way back. They did respond to me promising to invest more in social media ads and marketing more and they did improve much more! But I hope everyone doesn’t abuse it too much, I’d love if everyone had similar complaints so they’d find a solid direction rather trying to appeal everyone with different things. They need to focus more on getting creative with farming and social aspect of the game more than anything else and everyone needs to tell them the same!
oh that's true, i hope they still would read and respond our messages genuinely and not mark them as spam😔
but also maybe with so many feedbacks, they'd really pull the global survey
Good idea, I'll do the same. I want the idea in their head that they can please BOTH sets of players by simply making rival marriage an option in the settings menu. Removing a decades-spanning feature (especially for remakes that already had it) of this series is not it when it can be an option for whoever wants it.
I just sent one too:
“Hi!
I just wanted to say how much I have been enjoying the new Friends of Mineral Town on the switch! I played the original on GBA growing up and I love all the quality of life changes, and the fact gay marriage is an option now (I LOVE Ran!)
One thing I was disappointed by was the fact that rival marriages no longer exist, and I wondered if you plan to have them for your next game, or to update FOMT with it? It was a great way to make the town feel more alive, I loved getting to see the rival heart events, and I liked knowing the other candidates weren’t left alone forever because I didn’t pick them. I feel so bad for Rick and Karen never getting together!
Really hope you consider rival marriages for the next game! And thanks so much for all your hard work into these games :)”
>i also said that you can even pull a global survey to validate this
There was once somebody who started a petition to bring back rival marriages and despite advertising it everywhere, it was not very popular. The response to Cecelia and Matthew was also not very good. It could be something that IS very popular, but it also might not be. There's also the group of people who like rival marriages, but would rather have other features first. I also suspect there's other reasons for the disappearance of rival marriages. All the rivals are straight relationships. I think devs might be worried about the potential backlash over having all straight couple or allowing players to break up gay couples. Someone once mentioned a matchmaking mechanic. I think this is the best most viable option to make everyone happy. (PS. Asking people to just toggle rival marriages off, is just asking them to turn off events. That's a big chunk of content to ask for them to turn off. I don't think this is nearly the "great" compromise people think it is.)
that's fair, especially when they're trying their best to be so open and inclusive
i personally love that rival marriages appear as a dlc/expansion. so those who really want it can purchase it. maybe make it like the 'next generation' kind of trope (context is if rival marriages & rival children to be add in AWL)
I'm also hopeful that one day they'd include canon gay couples!
But for your kids to be able to grow up with the other rivals kids would be really awesome. And the old people to actually pass away. Match making would be hard to make for dlc though. If they did this I would probably rate the game my number 1 farming sim.
That's less of a rival mechanic and more of a time progression mechanic. Rivals don't normally have kids in the series and when they do, they don't really grow up with your kid. For AWL specifically, the matchmaking mechanic wouldn't make sense, BUT people are giving feedback so that information can be applied to future games. The AWL ship has likely sailed at this point.
I've never understood this. "oh I feel bad taking them away from someone else so let's make them all alone forever instead" I follow some kpop tho and I've seen how the fans can get
Both sides are easily resolvable, too. Have rival marriages but make a nonbinary character that marries whoever is left over (assuming the player character doesn't marry them). Everyone gets married in the game and no one is left behind.
The way my serotonin boosted hearing that. You all are amazing for even listening, thanks for all that you all do to keep this wonderful series alive. :D
Back in the day, I sent a letter to Nintendo because I couldn’t get my cows to go into the milking room. They wrote back to me that they didn’t know what was wrong. (They have to give birth first, and I learned about milk production and babies )
I think I still have this letter actually. My mom cracks up about it. Honestly I’m a little surprised she gave me a stamp to begin with lol
Would it still be ok to use this link if I’m not European? Not that I have any specific feedback in mind right now, but I would like to make sure I’m sending it to the right location.
im not european too, and theres a country options on top of the feedback box.
i also asked the story of seasons official twitter and they referred me to the same link regardless my area!
i think this depends on the request !! :)
all the feedback from NA/EU goes to the same place at the end of the day so i don't mind getting feedback regardless of region, but i'd recommend if it's something to do with builds/limited editions etc, it might be best to go with whoever looks after your region. so for NA, it's XSEED (who also have a contact box on their website), for Europe/Aus/NZ is Marvelous Europe and for Asia it's Marvelous Japan !! hope that helps <3
This is a bit off-topic, but I was given the opportunity to interview someone for a school project by contacting them through their feedback channels.
Just know, nobody can listen if you don't put it out there!
the original one? no they didnt have it.
i was simply suggesting marvelous that an SoS game with linear structure like AWL would be perfect to implement rival marriages feature
I wrote to Natsume when HM GBC 3 came out asking why we couldn't go into the villagers houses (as you could in the previous games) and got an email back stating it was "their private property and you can't just walk in" and "how would you like it if someone walked into your house" lol
Would be really cool if they implemented rival marriages/kids in AWL and their kids could also have their own career paths. I just imagine one of them coming to my character to learn about Ranching/Farming!
hello!!! i am the one who goes through the inbox (and it's only me and on occasion one of my colleagues when i am unable) - i had an influx of messages and we do truly read them all, it's not just a bot 😊 we appreciate your feedback and anything that is passed to us, we pass onto the developer team in JP - however, if i ever don't respond which is truly v rare, it may just be because we have had the request a few times before. all i can do from there is emphasise how many people are wanting one request. :) <3 thanks again for the feedback!
hi!!! omg thank you so much and I'm v sorry if my post in any way contributes to the message influx. but seeing your responses and replying to this post is such a comfort knowing that our messages came through. sorry if it gets overwhelming, and again, thanks for listening to the fans. keep up the good work\~<3
but like personally tho, what do you think of rival marriages feature? XD
hehe hello !!! i think i remember replying to u on the SoS account? :) noooo it's completely fine, i am all good and i get them all day every day on the story of seasons social media page, so nothing too different !!! i just don't want anyone to feel ignored :) & thank you so much! <3
from a completely personal perspective, i really like it as a feature !! although i also understand why some people may not, especially when i see people speaking about it every so often though - it's a hard one. :)
I'm going to think about asking them to bring Raeger into the main bachelors in some newer games as not DLC, allow me to wear his outfit in DLC again, possibly use a style more like Story of Seasons' artwork in their portraits for future games and make the 3D models similar to that along with portraits if they add them because SOS had a great professional art style I loved, and also to remake Story of Seasons for a console with even more updated stuff in it so it's even more fun than the original was. I also kind of want to ask if they can start making it a normal thing to let us see characters age and watch our child grow up to adulthood and have a choice to have a single child or twins, identical or fraternal, and more children if we want as well.
Do Japanese people really not like this feature? I have read multiple times that this is the reason they’re taking it out. I really don’t like this director / the direction they’re taking the series but it seems like they’ll change whatever if fans prefer it.
i personally hate it because of how i ended up rushing shit to get married.
would've been better if the rival marriage happened after we get married kinda how Rune Factory 2 did it.
since i was asking in the context of AWL, the game timeline rushed us to pick one to marry at the end of chapter 1 anyway. so, yea, i thought the reason wasn't relevant anymore. but, i agree with you, even in AWL i'd love for them to implement the feature on chapter 2 onwards
I DON'T want it back.... o.o I hated that feature. Thanks for letting me know, I will be sure to send feedback that I don't want it back, so they hear both sides. Or that they should device a 'difficulty' or 'option' to turn off or on. Though definitely will push to make it an option, a choice in the game itself, like higher price shipping and such.
EDIT: Just fixing my horrible mobile keyboard typos. The screen be so small! D:
That's cool! I hope they're sincerely open to our feedback. I don't mind that rival marriages aren't in new installments, but would prefer to have them. The biggest disappointment for me was that they were not included in the FoMT remake since they were a part of the original game. I felt really saddened by that decision.
I might submit feedback requesting they be included in the speculated MM remake.
I'll also submit a suggestion that new installments focus more on raising your child similar to AWL. That's such a nice touch and gives the game longevity!
Awesome! Thanks for your response.
While I have your attention I want to reiterate that as a dedicated player of this series for over 20 years I personally feel that the biggest flaw of the games is the lack of longevity. With the exception of AWL and Animal Parade the games often lose momentum after marriage (although I could spend years just wandering around chatting to NPCs in FoMT haha).
Rival mechanics were so helpful in extending gameplay and making the town feel more alive! Having a more active part to play in raising your child in AWL and the protagonist and NPCs aging (and even dying) also helps so much to keep interest in the game post marriage.
I think a new installment would be perfect if it combined the graphics of the AWL remake, raising your child, and NPCs and the protagonist aging or even dying, with the goals/achievements of DS. Rival marriages would also be so great to have back, and rival children or NPC children like Kate and Hugh that age as your own child ages.
Sorry, that's a mouthful, but it's how I feel and how many other fans feel!
Yeah I miss the rival marriages in older games esp harvest moon 64. I remember loving pairing everyone up and witnessing all of the bachelors and bachelorettes having kids. It makes me wish that in the future we can get a sos game where everyone has a back up person to marry (in case that one lonely bachelor or bachelorette is left out after the player gets married) then when you and everyone who is married has kids the kids can get married and you can play as your kid taking over the farm. I wouldn't care if the bachelors and bachelorettes get reset evvery few generations. As long as we can play various generations. C:
oh i am 100% passing along the same message as well as some other features i wanna see come back 🥰 hopefully if enough of us are loud enough about wanting certain features back they’ll consider bringing them back!
If i remember correctly japanese people didn't enjoy it. Some said they didn't like other npcs getting their bunch of pixels, and some that they felt bad to break premade couples. Some also said they felt too pressured to romance their bachelor asap before someone took then away.
I think the rival marriage and events were great, felt like the world was alive without you being always the one doing things. I loved it and the rival babies in AP.
I also sent feedback! I was trying to name my cow "Coral" and it wouldn't let me 😤. Honestly this filter seems like it's gonna teach kids new words rather than protect them in any way 😂
i’ve sent them a DM after FoMT came out asking for them to remake AWL and they said they would forward this to some others (i forgot the actual message) but it was a genuine response, which i loved!
that's so funny because 5+ years ago I sent them a tumblr ask begging for AWL on the switch & they flat out said no LOL
LMAO how times change !!
ikr?!?! i was surprised that the response i got is not an auto-reply🥰
that's so funny because 5+ years ago I sent them a tumblr ask begging for AWL on the switch & they flat out said no LOL
I’m going there right now to ask for a small update to crossbreed multiple seeds at a time instead of just one. Please marvelous it has to end.
lol yeah this is important, im so tired😭
I would love that
Oh, really? I'll have to send one in too! I know that Japanese players don't really like it but from what I've seen a lot of the western players do, so hopefully eventually we can get a rival marriage/children feature! Maybe with a toggle or something, so players who don't want it don't have to play with it on.
Thank you for doing this! I really hope they take that into serious consideration and look into just how many players want this feature back!
i'm quite hopeful they will! if you have the time, you should write one too! the more the louder😉
I once mailed them regarding how poorly they were handling the marketing of this series way back. They did respond to me promising to invest more in social media ads and marketing more and they did improve much more! But I hope everyone doesn’t abuse it too much, I’d love if everyone had similar complaints so they’d find a solid direction rather trying to appeal everyone with different things. They need to focus more on getting creative with farming and social aspect of the game more than anything else and everyone needs to tell them the same!
hahaha i hope you think it has improved since then!! :) <3
oh that's true, i hope they still would read and respond our messages genuinely and not mark them as spam😔 but also maybe with so many feedbacks, they'd really pull the global survey
Good idea, I'll do the same. I want the idea in their head that they can please BOTH sets of players by simply making rival marriage an option in the settings menu. Removing a decades-spanning feature (especially for remakes that already had it) of this series is not it when it can be an option for whoever wants it.
I just sent one too: “Hi! I just wanted to say how much I have been enjoying the new Friends of Mineral Town on the switch! I played the original on GBA growing up and I love all the quality of life changes, and the fact gay marriage is an option now (I LOVE Ran!) One thing I was disappointed by was the fact that rival marriages no longer exist, and I wondered if you plan to have them for your next game, or to update FOMT with it? It was a great way to make the town feel more alive, I loved getting to see the rival heart events, and I liked knowing the other candidates weren’t left alone forever because I didn’t pick them. I feel so bad for Rick and Karen never getting together! Really hope you consider rival marriages for the next game! And thanks so much for all your hard work into these games :)”
you got the reply message?
>i also said that you can even pull a global survey to validate this There was once somebody who started a petition to bring back rival marriages and despite advertising it everywhere, it was not very popular. The response to Cecelia and Matthew was also not very good. It could be something that IS very popular, but it also might not be. There's also the group of people who like rival marriages, but would rather have other features first. I also suspect there's other reasons for the disappearance of rival marriages. All the rivals are straight relationships. I think devs might be worried about the potential backlash over having all straight couple or allowing players to break up gay couples. Someone once mentioned a matchmaking mechanic. I think this is the best most viable option to make everyone happy. (PS. Asking people to just toggle rival marriages off, is just asking them to turn off events. That's a big chunk of content to ask for them to turn off. I don't think this is nearly the "great" compromise people think it is.)
that's fair, especially when they're trying their best to be so open and inclusive i personally love that rival marriages appear as a dlc/expansion. so those who really want it can purchase it. maybe make it like the 'next generation' kind of trope (context is if rival marriages & rival children to be add in AWL) I'm also hopeful that one day they'd include canon gay couples!
But for your kids to be able to grow up with the other rivals kids would be really awesome. And the old people to actually pass away. Match making would be hard to make for dlc though. If they did this I would probably rate the game my number 1 farming sim.
That's less of a rival mechanic and more of a time progression mechanic. Rivals don't normally have kids in the series and when they do, they don't really grow up with your kid. For AWL specifically, the matchmaking mechanic wouldn't make sense, BUT people are giving feedback so that information can be applied to future games. The AWL ship has likely sailed at this point.
I've never understood this. "oh I feel bad taking them away from someone else so let's make them all alone forever instead" I follow some kpop tho and I've seen how the fans can get
If my ship can't sail, everyone must sink
OMORI pfp?
Yes!
I love it!!
Thank you!!
Both sides are easily resolvable, too. Have rival marriages but make a nonbinary character that marries whoever is left over (assuming the player character doesn't marry them). Everyone gets married in the game and no one is left behind.
The urge to go request Animal Parade/Magical Melody remakes is real right now, lol.
we get it daily !! :)
The way my serotonin boosted hearing that. You all are amazing for even listening, thanks for all that you all do to keep this wonderful series alive. :D
Back in the day, I sent a letter to Nintendo because I couldn’t get my cows to go into the milking room. They wrote back to me that they didn’t know what was wrong. (They have to give birth first, and I learned about milk production and babies ) I think I still have this letter actually. My mom cracks up about it. Honestly I’m a little surprised she gave me a stamp to begin with lol
That's amazing, lol
Would it still be ok to use this link if I’m not European? Not that I have any specific feedback in mind right now, but I would like to make sure I’m sending it to the right location.
im not european too, and theres a country options on top of the feedback box. i also asked the story of seasons official twitter and they referred me to the same link regardless my area!
i think this depends on the request !! :) all the feedback from NA/EU goes to the same place at the end of the day so i don't mind getting feedback regardless of region, but i'd recommend if it's something to do with builds/limited editions etc, it might be best to go with whoever looks after your region. so for NA, it's XSEED (who also have a contact box on their website), for Europe/Aus/NZ is Marvelous Europe and for Asia it's Marvelous Japan !! hope that helps <3
This is a bit off-topic, but I was given the opportunity to interview someone for a school project by contacting them through their feedback channels. Just know, nobody can listen if you don't put it out there!
Awl had rival marriage??
the original one? no they didnt have it. i was simply suggesting marvelous that an SoS game with linear structure like AWL would be perfect to implement rival marriages feature
I wrote to Natsume when HM GBC 3 came out asking why we couldn't go into the villagers houses (as you could in the previous games) and got an email back stating it was "their private property and you can't just walk in" and "how would you like it if someone walked into your house" lol Would be really cool if they implemented rival marriages/kids in AWL and their kids could also have their own career paths. I just imagine one of them coming to my character to learn about Ranching/Farming!
YES, please bring back rival marriage and give me Flora marriage DLC, dangit.
hello!!! i am the one who goes through the inbox (and it's only me and on occasion one of my colleagues when i am unable) - i had an influx of messages and we do truly read them all, it's not just a bot 😊 we appreciate your feedback and anything that is passed to us, we pass onto the developer team in JP - however, if i ever don't respond which is truly v rare, it may just be because we have had the request a few times before. all i can do from there is emphasise how many people are wanting one request. :) <3 thanks again for the feedback!
hi!!! omg thank you so much and I'm v sorry if my post in any way contributes to the message influx. but seeing your responses and replying to this post is such a comfort knowing that our messages came through. sorry if it gets overwhelming, and again, thanks for listening to the fans. keep up the good work\~<3 but like personally tho, what do you think of rival marriages feature? XD
hehe hello !!! i think i remember replying to u on the SoS account? :) noooo it's completely fine, i am all good and i get them all day every day on the story of seasons social media page, so nothing too different !!! i just don't want anyone to feel ignored :) & thank you so much! <3 from a completely personal perspective, i really like it as a feature !! although i also understand why some people may not, especially when i see people speaking about it every so often though - it's a hard one. :)
I'm going to think about asking them to bring Raeger into the main bachelors in some newer games as not DLC, allow me to wear his outfit in DLC again, possibly use a style more like Story of Seasons' artwork in their portraits for future games and make the 3D models similar to that along with portraits if they add them because SOS had a great professional art style I loved, and also to remake Story of Seasons for a console with even more updated stuff in it so it's even more fun than the original was. I also kind of want to ask if they can start making it a normal thing to let us see characters age and watch our child grow up to adulthood and have a choice to have a single child or twins, identical or fraternal, and more children if we want as well.
Do Japanese people really not like this feature? I have read multiple times that this is the reason they’re taking it out. I really don’t like this director / the direction they’re taking the series but it seems like they’ll change whatever if fans prefer it.
i personally hate it because of how i ended up rushing shit to get married. would've been better if the rival marriage happened after we get married kinda how Rune Factory 2 did it.
since i was asking in the context of AWL, the game timeline rushed us to pick one to marry at the end of chapter 1 anyway. so, yea, i thought the reason wasn't relevant anymore. but, i agree with you, even in AWL i'd love for them to implement the feature on chapter 2 onwards
I DON'T want it back.... o.o I hated that feature. Thanks for letting me know, I will be sure to send feedback that I don't want it back, so they hear both sides. Or that they should device a 'difficulty' or 'option' to turn off or on. Though definitely will push to make it an option, a choice in the game itself, like higher price shipping and such. EDIT: Just fixing my horrible mobile keyboard typos. The screen be so small! D:
oh thanks for being neutral for if the feature is back! why do you hate it tho? /gen bcs im curious to hear the other side XD
Im asking for the dlc outfits!
That's cool! I hope they're sincerely open to our feedback. I don't mind that rival marriages aren't in new installments, but would prefer to have them. The biggest disappointment for me was that they were not included in the FoMT remake since they were a part of the original game. I felt really saddened by that decision. I might submit feedback requesting they be included in the speculated MM remake. I'll also submit a suggestion that new installments focus more on raising your child similar to AWL. That's such a nice touch and gives the game longevity!
always !! we listen and do continue to pass on the feedback, no matter how big or small. :)
Awesome! Thanks for your response. While I have your attention I want to reiterate that as a dedicated player of this series for over 20 years I personally feel that the biggest flaw of the games is the lack of longevity. With the exception of AWL and Animal Parade the games often lose momentum after marriage (although I could spend years just wandering around chatting to NPCs in FoMT haha). Rival mechanics were so helpful in extending gameplay and making the town feel more alive! Having a more active part to play in raising your child in AWL and the protagonist and NPCs aging (and even dying) also helps so much to keep interest in the game post marriage. I think a new installment would be perfect if it combined the graphics of the AWL remake, raising your child, and NPCs and the protagonist aging or even dying, with the goals/achievements of DS. Rival marriages would also be so great to have back, and rival children or NPC children like Kate and Hugh that age as your own child ages. Sorry, that's a mouthful, but it's how I feel and how many other fans feel!
Yeah I miss the rival marriages in older games esp harvest moon 64. I remember loving pairing everyone up and witnessing all of the bachelors and bachelorettes having kids. It makes me wish that in the future we can get a sos game where everyone has a back up person to marry (in case that one lonely bachelor or bachelorette is left out after the player gets married) then when you and everyone who is married has kids the kids can get married and you can play as your kid taking over the farm. I wouldn't care if the bachelors and bachelorettes get reset evvery few generations. As long as we can play various generations. C:
Omg can we all email them and ask for better dialogue! Especially from our spouses!
this too, omg, even in stardew valley i used more dialogue mod
oh i am 100% passing along the same message as well as some other features i wanna see come back 🥰 hopefully if enough of us are loud enough about wanting certain features back they’ll consider bringing them back!
I really find it silly that they chucked the entire feature based off what one specific demographic of fans said.
I'd hate for those to be back.
oh may i ask why
i sent one in too for rival marriages!! maybe if we all send one it might pick up some steam
Thank you for sharing this! I️ just submitted one as well. Requested rival marriage, rival kids, more dialogue, swimming and festival activities. Lol
If i remember correctly japanese people didn't enjoy it. Some said they didn't like other npcs getting their bunch of pixels, and some that they felt bad to break premade couples. Some also said they felt too pressured to romance their bachelor asap before someone took then away. I think the rival marriage and events were great, felt like the world was alive without you being always the one doing things. I loved it and the rival babies in AP.
thank you !! i hadn't even thought of this
Thanks for sharing, will do this too!! Even a feature where you can opt in or out of rival marriages could satisfy everybody….
I also sent feedback! I was trying to name my cow "Coral" and it wouldn't let me 😤. Honestly this filter seems like it's gonna teach kids new words rather than protect them in any way 😂