This Game Asks Is True Happiness Making Yourself Happy Or Someone Else Happy?

Hometown Story from Toybox and Natsume is about running a small store in a small town. While you’re stocking and selling goods, you also have a chance to grant a single wish. When we spoke to Toybox CEO and Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada he said Hometown Story has seven wishes and he added a twist to the wish system.

"Remember when we talked about the wish last year? There’s a big change to that," Wada said to Siliconera. "There are still seven wishes. Six out of the seven wishes you can do for others to make them happy, but one wish is to make your character happy. You can only grant one wish and you can only do it once."

The story splits into two branches here. If you opt for the altruistic route and grant a wish for another character Hometown Story goes on one path, but if you use the wish for yourself the game continues in a different way.

"It’s a big temptation. If you choose the wish that makes your character happy, it’s the same as abandoning the six other wishes. I changed this because I wanted to make players think whether its more important to make themselves happy or make others happy. What will be the best? There aren’t many games like this out there," Wada said. I agree and  it will be interesting to see what the wish for the player character is compared to the other six wishes.

Hometown Story won’t end if you pick the wish for yourself and people will still shop at your store.

"People won’t hate you and they will shop at your store," Wada laughed. "There is no right and wrong answer, but I want to make people think."

Hometown Story is scheduled for release this fall on Nintendo 3DS.