“It Simply Felt Proper” – How Story Of Seasons & Piczle Cross Is The Excellent Union
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“It Simply Felt Proper” – How Story Of Seasons & Piczle Cross Is The Excellent Union

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Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons
Picture: Nintendo Life / Marvelous

What’s extra enjoyable than a farming sim? Many people like to wind down with a number of hours of tending crops, taking care of cows, and taking within the seasons in a very good ol’ Story of Seasons recreation. And for nearly 30 years, this massively well-liked sequence has been sowing the seeds and setting the usual for the style.

So what if it had been to do one thing completely totally different? The farmhands have swapped their hoes for pens and brought up a spot of picross. Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons marks the primary time Marvelous’ farming franchise has stepped out of the mulch and into a unique style. Are you able to get extra enjoyable than a farming-based puzzle recreation?

To search out out what made Story of Seasons and Piczle Cross the proper match, we spoke to the creator of the Piczle sequence James Kay from Rating Studio, and the model supervisor for Story of Seasons at Marvelous Inc, Hikaru Nakano.


Nintendo Life: So, the place did the thought for Piczle Cross: Story of Season come from?

James Kay, founder/creator of Piczle sequence: Wet Frog, the writer, and I had been blue-sky brainstorming about what could be cool IPs to do crossovers with and when Story of Seasons got here up it felt like such an important concept that we determined to actually pursue it.

Story of Seasons is cute, enjoyable, snug gaming and Piczle Cross is a soothing visible logic-puzzle so it simply felt proper. Additionally, I’m an unapologetic fan of the Story of Seasons sequence.

Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons Cow
Picture: Marvelous

How does the usual Piczle Cross gameplay combine with the Story of Seasons components?

JK: The puzzles are all based mostly on Story of Seasons mainstays, just like the farming instruments, crops and animals, but additionally the bachelors and bachelorettes and villagers from the Story of Seasons video games, in addition to a number of collage puzzles (lots of smaller puzzles that altogether kind one a lot bigger resolution picture) based mostly on some traditional festivals.

On high of that your farm within the background evolves as you clear puzzles and as time progresses, experiencing the seasons and years as you’ll within the Story of Seasons video games. There’s additionally an almanac exhibiting the lovable animals and characters, together with their likes and dislikes, when you’ve unlocked them by means of clearing puzzles. There is a music participant too the place you may take heed to the included music tracks from the video games within the Story of Seasons sequence.

Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons Title Screen
Picture: Marvelous

That is described as “probably the most feature-rich and option-abundant expertise” up to now. What modifications and additions have been made for Piczle Cross: Story of Season?

JK: I very a lot imagine you may play nonograms nevertheless you please. Some folks like a problem, others simply wish to calm down. So you may flip off the timer, use hints to indicate the place strikes could be made, mechanically appropriate incorrect strikes or have the sport test for any errors you’ve made general. Or none of those. These are all optionally available. There is no such thing as a incorrect approach to play!

On high of that, there are lots of high quality of life options, like accomplished rows or columns mechanically having their empty cells marked off for you. Counting how lengthy a sequence of blocks is by the contact of a button (or mechanically). Measuring a sequence of grid cells simply – no extra counting by hand!

Accomplished clues could be marked off mechanically, or in no way, and even manually — you may, if you need, mark off clues by hand.

All these choices are defined simply within the choices menu so you understand precisely what does what.

Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons Options Menu
Picture: Marvelous

What retains you coming again and making extra Piczle video games?

JK: I simply actually actually like puzzles! Logic puzzles of all types are simply issues I really get pleasure from, so once I create Piczle video games I’m creating video games I actually actually wish to play. Even the event of the Piczle video games is a bit like puzzles for me. I set myself some targets that I really feel are past my technical abilities after which get pleasure from studying and fixing points till I determine it out.

Ikigai” is a time period usually thrown about by way of life coaches, however on this case growing logic puzzles really is perhaps my ikigai.

As the primary non-farming recreation within the Story of Seasons sequence, did you may have any considerations earlier than or throughout growth?

Hikaru Nakano, Story of Seasons model supervisor: We didn’t have any explicit considerations earlier than beginning the venture. You may get an important really feel for the world of Story of Seasons in Piczle Cross and we hope that it would encourage customers who’ve by no means performed Story of Seasons earlier than to check out our farming video games.

What was it like working with Rating Studios, and what parts of Story of Seasons did you wish to retain within the recreation?

HN: When James (Rating Studios) and Tony (Wet Frog) informed us concerning the venture, it was exhausting to think about at first what it could be like, however as we mentioned extra, we might really feel their ardour for Story of Seasons and I began trying ahead to taking part in the sport. After we tried it out for the primary time, it was nice to see how characters, crops and many others. from the Story of Seasons video games had been was puzzles, and it was lots of enjoyable to play.

Though the sport genres are totally different, I needed Piczle Cross to have the identical charming ambiance because the Story of Seasons video games. We did not give James any explicit course on what to do, however you may see that he has completed an unimaginable job of realising Story of Seasons’ attraction in a puzzle recreation.

Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons Farm
Picture: Marvelous

How necessary was it to have the almanac, which celebrates the historical past of Story of Seasons, within the recreation?

JK: One of many issues many gamers like myself love concerning the Story of Seasons video games are the numerous characters and their personalities. As Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons isn’t a standard Story of Seasons recreation with characters interacting, I actually needed so as to add them in another approach.

The almanac accommodates all of the Story of Seasons characters with their character artwork, a small bio and, for gamers of the Story of Seasons video games, and some hints as to what they like and dislike. It was a approach to let folks get pleasure from their favorite villagers and bachelors in addition to giving slightly further incentive to play the puzzles to unlock all of them.

Do you may have a dream Piczle crossover you’d wish to create?

JK: Hoo boy, sure, fairly a number of! Some are extraordinarily unlikely to ever occur, and others I, alongside my writer Wet Frog, are actively pursuing proper now. So fingers crossed we get to make some extra!

May we see different crossovers within the Story of Seasons sequence sooner or later?

HN: I wouldn’t rule it out. James at Rating Studios is a superb puzzle recreation creator and was in a position to faithfully recreate the sensation of Story of Seasons as a puzzle recreation. If comparable alternatives like this come up sooner or later, then I’d like to think about it.


This interview has been edited evenly for readability.

Thanks to James Kay and Hikaru Nakano for taking the time to reply our questions. Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons launches on twenty seventh February 2024 on Change. Will you be planting with picross? Tell us within the feedback.



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