“When I played Persona 4, that exact feeling came back”: Atlus’ JRPG served as massive inspiration for one hot new indie farming sim

SunnySide is the newest genre-blending melting pot that boils farming, crafting, dungeon-crawling, cooking, creature-battling, and romance into one game package, but it took heavy inspiration from Persona 4.

Looking at SunnySide’s Steam page, it almost seems like one of those games that promises to throw everything and the kitchen sink into the code, only to never leave the theoretical space of Kickstarter. Think Persona meets Harvest Moon meets Lake meets The Sims’ interior designing, and you’ve just about scratched all the systems on offer. But despite its lofty goals, the game eventually came to PC last month, with a PS5 and Xbox Series X|S release planned for the future.

Speaking to Automaton, creator of the game’s concept, Siavash Shahlaei, AKA Rainy, explained that “the original idea for SunnySide came from trying to achieve the atmosphere from a game that inspired me as a kid.” That game was Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland, which was the first time Shahlaei “just stopped and appreciated the scenery and ambient sounds” in a game. When Shahlaei later played Persona 4, “that exact feeling came back, and with SunnySide, I really wanted to capture the same small Japanese town vibe that Persona 4 gave me.”

Atlus’ JRPG series about high schoolers turned demon-slayers didn’t just inspire the game’s overall atmosphere, though, Persona 4 also happened to inspire SunnySIde’s approach to social systems. “I looked to [Fruits Basket] and Persona for guidance on how to build interesting characters and how to develop them in unpredictable ways,”  studio co-president and narrative director Sydney Stockdale explained.

“Persona was certainly the biggest inspiration for [romance]. We were really inspired by how players can grow so emotionally attached to character just by listening to them tell their own stories, so this is what inspired the way that you learn SunnySide’s story.”

If the wait for an inevitable Persona 6 is slightly too long for you, then here’s your chance to romance (or just befriend) even more colorful characters in much the same way.

For now, check out everything we know about Atlus’ next game Metaphor ReFantazio.