There's another Switch Online Game Trial, and the game in question is one I can never hope to complete in six days. I've explored as much of the game as I can in the limited time span, but as with a lot of these limited-time deals, there was only so much content I can get to. BACKGROUND:
The Harvest Moon series is one I've always been aware of, but never really got into as a kid. It wasn't until I was older that I really saw the appeal of these life sim games, but even then, I still haven't fully gotten into this franchise. Better late than never, right? Also, it is important for me to point out the whole mess as to why what most people remember as Harvest Moon is now called Story of Seasons. There was essentially a whole thing where Marvelous (the devs who own the original IP to what you know as Harvest Moon) stopped licensing the series to Natsume (who used to publish the game). Natsume thought it was a good idea to continue using the Harvest Moon name to make their own farming game (since they at least own the trademark to the name), which led Marvelous to continue the series under a different name. PLOT: Your player character has moved to Olive Town, a settlement founded by your grandfather, and there awaits his derelict farm. From there, it's all about restoring the farm to its former glory, and helping improve Olive Town by helping out the mayor and the other citizens. Not a lot to say here, and I'm fine with that. There are also a few mysterious elements to the world, like earth sprites and what I can only describe as ghost children, but I didn't get far enough to see how it all pays off. These plot threads seem interesting, but I was content enough with the game itself that I didn't really care if they went anywhere. The game has a wide array of characters, but getting to know them is something you do on your own as opposed to the main focus of the game. Their respective personalities aren't too complex (most of them don't have anything remarkable to say until you're far enough along friendship-wise), but for the most part, many of the characters have their own charm. PRESENTATION: This game has a pleasant art style all around, with colorful 3D graphics and cutesy character designs. It's about what I expected from a game like this, and I find it pleasing to look at. The music is also appropriately chill and cheery, which also fits in with the aesthetic and the kind of activities you find yourself doing. GAMEPLAY: Story of Seasons is primarily known for its farming simulation gameplay, but that's only one of the things you can do in this game. There's a lot going on here, so I'll try to break it down one by one. At the start, your farm will be a hot mess covered in trees, foliage, rocks, and puddles. You'll be able to use tools to clear this shit out, and doing so will give you respective materials that you can use to craft refined materials, helpful devices or fixtures, or sell for cash. It's therapeutic to clean stuff up, but the drawback is that it expends a ton of stamina to do all this. The game also has an annoying habit of regrowing trees and shit on a regular basis, requiring you to place stuff that straight up prevents them from spawning (which itself takes a ton of materials to do). Once you have some space, you can start tilling the soil and planting crops. You'll need to water them everyday to make sure they grow, and there are a wide variety of crops you can grow with different properties (most crops take a different number of days to fully grow, and many have limitations in terms of which seasons they can be planted). In order to make cash, you'll want to sell these crops, but your harvest can have other uses as well. Alternatively, you can go the orchard route and plant some fruit trees. This is largely the same concept, except with trees. You'll need to make extra space and wait a little longer for a harvest, however. At some point, you can expand your farm by spending money or materials to open up new areas and rebuilding broken facilities. Doing the former grants you access to rarer materials (like better logs and grass for crafting), while the latter gives you more functions (like raising livestock). You can also open up mines, which is the best place to get rocks and ore for all your crafting needs. When it comes to livestock, there are a small variety of animals you can raise, from chickens, cows, horses, sheep, rabbits, and even alpacas. You'll need a corresponding facility to raise them as well as a supply of fodder to feed them. Taking good care of them is worthwhile, since many of these animals give you useful products like milk, eggs, and wool. You can also raise bees to produce honey, fish using different types of bait (and catch both freshwater or seawater creatures), gather wild plants (which you can sell to make them available in stores, or process to make refined products), and grow mushrooms on logs, which provide you with other avenues of income. A lot of these food products can be used for cooking, which is worth doing since dishes can restore stamina, allowing you to squeeze in extra activities during the day. There's a decent variety of dishes, and the way to acquire ingredients is quite varied, making cooking its own fun objective. While you'll be spending a lot of time in the farm, it'll serve you well to visit the town from time to time. Here, you can avail of various services, from the many shops (which is how you acquire items to expand your farm), buy new animals (including pets), upgrade tools (to make them stronger), expand farm facilities (including your house), and help provide exhibits to an Animal Crossing-style museum. You can also help out the town by taking on requests (usually some form of fetch quests), interact with townspeople (and deepen friendships by talking and giving gifts), and even celebrate town festivals (which may also have minigames). There's also a whole thing with the earth sprites, where you can visit their realm and access unique services (like resource gathering, an exclusive shop, and a bunch of minigames). I didn't feel the need to avail of these services too much, but it's neat that there are alternative ways to acquire certain materials. Once you're far enough along, you can get to beautifying your farm, decorating your house, customizing your avatar's look and outfit, and even proposing to your favorite bachelor/bachelorette and marrying them. I didn't have enough time to get to all these things, but I could clearly see the potential of my farm if I had the time to work on it. Overall, I love all the stuff you can do in this game, but there are a number of issues that make progress such a slog in the early stages. The most notorious aspect of this is the reliance of items called Makers, which essentially process raw materials to the stuff you need. I liken these to furnaces in Minecraft, where you feed items and wait a while to get the finished products. Unfortunately, the "cook" time for these Makers are painfully slow, and this is made worse by the fact that you need a ton of materials to progress, which means the most efficient way to process materials is to litter your farm with a fuckton of these Makers. I was personally content to do things at my own pace, but even I was annoyed at how slow it took to get the shit I needed to progress. While I enjoyed the fact that the game has a museum mechanic (I do like collecting things), it sadly pales in comparison to Animal Crossing, which has well thought-out exhibit designs. The museum here is just tiny models resting on display stands, which is rather underwhelming. Slightly related to this is the game's Photo Mode, and while I like that there's a Pokemon Snap-style aspect where you can take pics of local wildlife, there's only a couple dozen animals you can take a picture of, and you can't even save the very photos you take to your device. Also, why is the album size only ten pictures? VERDICT: From what I was able to play in a week, Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town has a lot of what I enjoy from farming sim games: lots to do, many ways to expand, and the ability to play at my own pace. I have my qualms, like the tedious progression at the beginning and annoying respawning of clutter on my farm (among other things), but overall, I had a fun time building my farm, fishing, and cooking. I'm sure there are more comprehensive farming sim games out there I've yet to try, but I thought this one was a decent entry. I'm not sure this is the best entry point into the Harvest Moon series for newcomers (I think the older ones are better for that), but if you're looking to just chill out with a farming game, this is a decent one to check out. Like I said, progression can be quite slow at first, but if you're OK with powering through those first few seasons, you're bound to get some enjoyment out of the stuff you can do in this game. This game is also on Steam, if you want to play it on PC: STORY OF SEASONS: Pioneers of Olive Town on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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