English version of Doraemon Story of Seasons to release in Southeast Asia

Heads up. If you’re a Doraemon or Story of Seasons fan, this is one newsflash you won’t want to miss.

BANDAI NAMCO has announced that an English version of Doraemon Story of Seasons will drop for Southeast Asia in Autumn 2019, which includes Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Australia.

The game will be available for the Nintendo Switch as well as PC (via Steam), but the exact pricing has yet to be ironed out. Language-wise, it features the original Japanese audio with English subtitles, so it definitely checks the authenticity box.

While the title certainly leaves much to be desired in the creativity department, the game itself isn’t shabby. Following along the usual Story of Seasons concept, players can grow crops, catch bugs and enjoy other fun activities. Think “relaxing Sunday afternoon” games — something like that.

Tossing in characters from Doraemon adds a nice little twist to the established formula. It’s one thing to manage your own farm, but it gets even more interesting doing it as Nobita. Needless to say, everyone’s favourite blue cat robot will also be around to help out with his collection of nifty gadgets. I hope that includes the ever-familiar propeller!

As someone who grew up watching Doraemon on TV, I’d say Doraemon Story of Seasons does have a certain fanservice appeal, but it’s going to need to do way more than that to set itself apart from other successful farming sims like Stardew Valley. Oh well, guess we’ll just have to wait and see how the cookie crumbles.

Images: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Asia