Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada is starting a new title that's coming to the 3DS and iOS platforms later this year. The game is Hometown Story, and it has some similarities with the previous farming series' gameplay. Your character starts the game taking over his (or her) grandmother's shop, which is smack dab in the middle of a small town. From here, the path you take in the game is up to you. As you explore the town and surrounding environment, you'll come across various characters to trade items, expand and customize your shop, and develop deep relationships.
In Hometown Story, the game focuses on character-to-character interactions. To get new items in your shop, customize the look of your store, and earn stylish new clothes, you're going to have to make friends. Some characters will be drawn to you depending on what you have for sale on your shelves. Characters in the town may have a special connection to a specific souvenir or some random inanimate object, and that will open up the chance to become buddies, or open trade relations with other vendors. You can also move about the surrounding wilderness and find items like wild mushrooms to bring to your shop, or catch fish to sell. When you trade items with other characters, you will learn more about that specific character, but some characters will have more lengthy stories that you will have to dig deep into to expose.
Check out the following slide for more information and images.
The character creator allows you to customize you hair, body shape, eyes, outfit, and more
Items you sell will earn you money, but some items might earn you a friend
You'll meet many different characters, and not all of them are human
Once you get to know some characters, they might ask you for help or even help you when in a pinch