Doraemon Story of Seasons

Doraemon Story of Seasons is a 2019 farming simulation role-playing video game developed by Brownies and Marvelous and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for Nintendo Switch and Windows. It is a crossover of the Story of Seasons video game series and the Doraemon franchise. The title's release marks the first release of a Doraemon video game to international audiences.

The game was released on June 13, 2019 in Japan, and worldwide on October 11, 2019. The PlayStation 4 version of the game was released on July 30, 2020 in Japan, and worldwide on September 4, 2020. A sequel, Doraemon Story of Seasons: Friends of the Great Kingdom (ドラえもん のび太の牧場物語2 大自然の王国とみんなの家), was released worldwide for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Windows on November 2, 2022.

Gameplay
The game combines the farming simulation elements from the Story of Seasons series and the familiar characters and secret gadgets from the Doraemon series. The player will play as Nobita and participate in farming activities such as plowing the fields to grow crops, taking care of cattle and sheep, and more. The game also has a fishing system, a house decoration system, an insects capture-and-collect system, holidays and festivals similar to the Story of Seasons games.

Characters from the Doraemon series such as Gian, Suneo and Shizuka (who were part of the main cast) also show up as supporting characters and will assist Nobita in his adventures. By advancing the story, Nobita can unlock gadgets that grant special abilities such as Weather Cards which can change tomorrow's weather and the Anywhere Door which allows Nobita to fast-travel between areas.

A demo of the game is downloadable, and allows the user to play until a certain date, where it will then show a screen saying “Thanks for playing”. Only the very beginning of the game is compromised, and the rest is playable until its time limit.

Plot
After finding a mysterious seed, Nobita, Doraemon and their friends plant it in an empty area outside of town. It then grows into a giant tree that creates a storm that transports to another world located in the past, into a place called Shizen Town (Natura in the English version). Many of Doraemon's gadgets are lost in the process. In the end, they decided to stay in Shizen Town while trying to find a way to get back to the present time. Lunch (Harmon in the English version), a Shizen Town resident, lends Nobita a farm in town for him to stay while his friends take jobs around town. When a storm strikes, they learn from Lunch and his grandmother Ravi that it is called the Gigastorm, which makes people and objects disappear and new people and objects appear; they were actually displaced through time by the storm. The Elder Tree, a massive tree located near the town, protects them from the storm and that it is guarded by a goddess, whom Lunch doesn't believe is real. Nobita and his friends soon meet Vera, who is the goddess that Ravi mentioned. She agrees to help them return home in exchange for four things (which are related to four of Doraemon's gadgets): the Come-Here Cat, the Time TV, the Realization Pen, and the Sprite Summoner. During their task, they consider staying in Shizen Town due to them having personal issues with their mothers, but Vera convinces them otherwise. They also discover some ruins and with Vera's help, uncover a strange seed which looked like the one Nobita found at the beginning of the story. Once all four needed gadgets are found, Vera is still not able to send them home.

Having been suspicious of her motives earlier, she finally tells them the truth: she is not a goddess but a scientist who came from the far future (presumably Doraemon's time, which explains how she knew about Doraemon's gadgets). She created a seed-like bio-machine that had the ability to time swap objects and traveled to the past to plant it, but her time machine was destroyed when arriving. She fell in love and married a man, eventually having a son. Seeing how poor the soil was in Shizen Town, she used her bio-machine to resolve the problem, which then grew into the Elder Tree; this lead people to believe that she is a goddess. It soon got too powerful and begun displacing more than soil, including Vera and her family (which also explains how Nobita and his friends ended up in the past); Vera requested for Doraemon's gadgets in hopes of converting the Elder Tree into an ordinary time machine so she can return to her family. The Elder Tree was also programmed to destroy itself if it ever overloaded, but it did not for some reason. Nobita and his friends soon learn that Lunch is actually displaced through time and was found by Ravi as a baby, and that the Elder Tree is also the cause of the Gigastorm. It also turns out that a lightning strike from the storm damaged the tree, explaining why it did not destroy itself. When the storm strikes again, they decide to stop it despite knowing that it was their only way home. Vera reveals that it can be reset by removing the first leaf that the Elder Tree grew, which is a yellow-brownish colored leaf. Despite the dangers, they proceed to reach the first-grown leaf; their actions alert Lunch.

The group eventually succeed, permanently stopping the storm and causing the Elder Tree to disappear. Vera reveals that Lunch is actually her son and Ravi reveals that she is really his aunt (also revealing that her brother, who was lost in the storm, is Vera's husband, making her and Vera sister-in laws). Nobita remembers Vera's time machine, and they decide to have Doraemon help her fix it. Once that is done, they return to the present, but also leave the time machine with Vera so she can find her husband, also promising to come back and visit soon. During the credits, Nobita and his friends reconcile with their mothers and complete a successful science project, Vera reunites with her husband, and Nobita realizes that the seed they found in the ruins is gone, having been lost when returning home. The seed ends up in the past where it is found by the past Nobita, revealing that it was the same seed from the beginning of the story.

Development
In an interview with Famitsu, it is revealed that Doraemon Story of Seasons was a proposal from Bandai Namco producer Kenji Nakajima to Marvelous, as he is a fan of Marvelous’ Story of Seasons series. He grew up while watching Doraemon, and he is also a fan of the Harvest Moon: Back to Nature game. He wants to create a game that lets players experience the messages and type of story Doraemon tells, with the gameplay elements of Story of Seasons that properly reward the player's efforts.

He also confirmed that the game will not have any romance or marriage features, which is different from the classic Story of Seasons series. In exchange for this, the game will feature a linear story with a focus on familial love. There are also multiple sub-stories that will also be related to familial love, such as between siblings or for family pets. There are many family-run shops in town with its own sub-story that will be connected to the relationship system. The theme of familial love is explored further as Nobita's friends such as Shizuka and Gian are helping out at the stores.

Release
The game was first announced during a Nintendo Direct presentation on February 14, 2019 in Japan accompanied by a teaser trailer featuring basic gameplay. Bandai Namco announced the official release date of June 13, 2019 though a press release in April. A downloadable demo for Nintendo Switch was later released in Japan in May along with a new trailer.

In a separate announcement in April, Bandai Namco Entertainment Asia and Korea announced a Traditional Chinese and Korean version of the game, which will be released in Summer 2019. They also announced a Windows version of the game, which will be released through Steam. A follow-up announcement by Bandai Namco also confirmed the release of an English version of the game in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. The game will be released physically in Europe and Southeast Asia, and digital-only in North America.

In April 2020, it was announced that the game would be released for PlayStation 4 in Japan on July 30, 2020, and worldwide on September 4, 2020. The PlayStation 4 version runs at 60fps instead of 30fps used in the Switch. This version is backwards compatible on the PlayStation 5 with improved load times as well as better and faster performance.

In August 2022, it was announced that the sequel would launch in Japan for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Windows on November 2, 2022.

Reception
Doraemon Story of Seasons received "mixed or average" reviews for PlayStation 4 and "generally favorable" reviews for the Switch.

IGN heavily criticized the game for feeling like work, describing its gameplay as tedious and antiquated and its dialogue as "...time-consuming, meandering, and weird", while praising the game's world for looking "like a page ripped from a child's storybook". Nintendo Life praised the game's simplicity and repetitiveness for being rewarding and described its art style as "gorgeous" while criticizing its slow pace and reliance on grinding in order to progress. Nintendo World Report praised the gameplay and its accessibility while criticizing choppiness present in the graphics and the overwhelming amount of text in the game.