Hometown Story from Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada and Natsume is a game about running a small shop in a rural town. We’ve seen plenty of pictures from the Nintendo 3DS version, but the game will also be released for iOS.
"The iOS version does not have episodes with other villagers, players just run a shop. You get new items, you can save money, you can sell rare items on iOS too. Eventually, you will get new customers, but that’s pretty much all you can do," Wada said to Siliconera. "The core system of running the shop is the same on 3DS, but you will get to interact with the villagers and involved with their story."
I think one of Hometown Story’s highlights is the story since players can grant one and only one wish in the game. You can either choose to use it to make a villager’s dream come true or keep it for yourself. So, I followed up and asked Wada why he decided to make the iOS version different from the Nintendo 3DS release.
"It’s not because of technical limitations. I made the mobile version to be a pick up and play, to reach out to more people. If both versions have the same content, I don’t think the iOS version can be priced at $29.99, I don’t think there is anybody who will be that kind of game. That’s why I made the iOS version more compact with the essence of the game. Eventually, there will be in-app purchases. There will be rare items and villagers, but no story episodes. If you want to play even more there is the 3DS version," Wada explained.
The second hand store you run in Hometown Story grows in both games. At the beginning of the game the shop is 4×4. Players can customize it and expand it all the way up to 24×24.
What would Wada stock his shop with? "Games," he laughed, "but, you can’t sell games in this. One interesting item is an expired movie ticket that you can’t use. There is a story behind this, actually. A character wanted to take someone special to this movie, but he couldn’t. For this character, this item is sentimental and there are items like that you can sell in the shop."
