![Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons](https://images.nintendolife.com/a96c1c6f65a2c/piczle-cross-story-of-seasons.900x.jpg)
What’s extra stress-free 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 superb ol’ Story of Seasons sport. And for nearly 30 years, this vastly fashionable collection has been sowing the seeds and setting the usual for the style.
So what if it had been to do one thing fully 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 distinct style. Are you able to get extra stress-free than a farming-based puzzle sport?
To seek out out what made Story of Seasons and Piczle Cross the proper match, we spoke to the creator of the Piczle collection 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 collection: 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 awesome concept that we determined to essentially pursue it.
Story of Seasons is cute, stress-free, snug gaming and Piczle Cross is a calming visible logic-puzzle so it simply felt proper. Additionally, I’m an unapologetic fan of the Story of Seasons collection.
![Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons Cow](https://images.nintendolife.com/e295a260253c9/piczle-cross-story-of-seasons-cow.900x.jpg)
How does the usual Piczle Cross gameplay combine with the Story of Seasons formulation?
JK: The puzzles are all primarily based on Story of Seasons mainstays, just like the farming instruments, crops and animals, but in addition the bachelors and bachelorettes and villagers from the Story of Seasons video games, in addition to a number of collage puzzles (a whole lot of smaller puzzles that altogether kind one a lot bigger resolution picture) primarily based on some basic festivals.
On prime of that your farm within the background evolves as you clear puzzles and as time progresses, experiencing the seasons and years as you’d 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 clearing puzzles. There is a music participant too the place you possibly can take heed to the included music tracks from the video games within the Story of Seasons collection.
![Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons Title Screen](https://images.nintendolife.com/4133bcab21343/piczle-cross-story-of-seasons-title-screen.900x.jpg)
That is described as “probably the most feature-rich and option-abundant expertise” to this point. What adjustments and additions have been made for Piczle Cross: Story of Season?
JK: I very a lot consider you possibly can play nonograms nonetheless you please. Some individuals like a problem, others simply need to chill out. So you possibly can flip off the timer, use hints to indicate the place strikes could be made, routinely right incorrect strikes or have the sport examine for any errors you’ve made general. Or none of those. These are all elective. There is no such thing as a incorrect technique to play!
On prime of that, there are a whole lot of high quality of life options, like accomplished rows or columns routinely having their empty cells marked off for you. Counting how lengthy a collection of blocks is by the contact of a button (or routinely). Measuring a collection of grid cells simply – no extra counting by hand!
Accomplished clues could be marked off routinely, or by no means, and even manually — you possibly can, if you need, mark off clues by hand.
All these choices are defined simply within the choices menu so you recognize precisely what does what.
![Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons Options Menu](https://images.nintendolife.com/a195fa81bd714/piczle-cross-story-of-seasons-options-menu.900x.jpg)
What retains you coming again and making extra Piczle video games?
JK: I simply actually actually like puzzles! Logic puzzles of every kind are simply issues I actually get pleasure from, so once I create Piczle video games I’m creating video games I actually actually need 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 actually could be my ikigai.
As the primary non-farming sport within the Story of Seasons collection, did you could have any issues earlier than or throughout growth?
Hikaru Nakano, Story of Seasons model supervisor: We didn’t have any explicit issues earlier than beginning the challenge. You may get an awesome really feel for the world of Story of Seasons in Piczle Cross and we hope that it’d 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 components of Story of Seasons did you need to retain within the sport?
HN: When James (Rating Studios) and Tony (Wet Frog) instructed us in regards to the challenge, it was onerous to think about at first what it might be like, however as we mentioned extra, we might really feel their ardour for Story of Seasons and I began wanting 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 become puzzles, and it was a whole lot of enjoyable to play.
Though the sport genres are totally different, I wished Piczle Cross to have the identical charming environment because the Story of Seasons video games. We did not give James any explicit route on what to do, however you possibly can see that he has accomplished an unbelievable job of realising Story of Seasons’ enchantment in a puzzle sport.
![Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons Farm](https://images.nintendolife.com/ab3493852b8c2/piczle-cross-story-of-seasons-farm.900x.jpg)
How essential was it to have the almanac, which celebrates the historical past of Story of Seasons, within the sport?
JK: One of many issues many gamers like myself love in regards to the Story of Seasons video games are the various characters and their personalities. As Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons isn’t a conventional Story of Seasons sport with characters interacting, I actually wished so as to add them in another means.
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 technique to let individuals 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 could 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 collection sooner or later?
HN: I wouldn’t rule it out. James at Rating Studios is a superb puzzle sport creator and was in a position to faithfully recreate the sensation of Story of Seasons as a puzzle sport. If related 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.