STORY OF SEASONS: Pioneers of Olive Town Reviews

love this game

Simple and relaxing

Now that I've finally gotten every achievement, I think it's probably time to throw my two cents in. PoOT isn't a bad game, it just feels like filler when compared to Another Wonderful Life or Friends from Mineral Town. If you are VERY new to farming games and are looking for a low barrier to entry, this one really isn't bad, though I should put about five asterisks next to my thumbs up because unfortunately, it comes with stipulations. PoOT's story is very basic; you move to your Grandpa's farm in the titled town, and help the mayor and townsfolk turn it into a bustling tourist spot. That's a fine enough plot for a farming game. Keep it simple and set us loose! Unfortunately, where PoOT could have foregone an elaborate story and focused more on Olive Town's inhabitants, it sort of... falls flat in that area too. The characters are slightly charming, but still overall forgettable. There's SO MANY heart events with the marriage candidate and townsfolk but rarely do they ever feel special. They're more like anecdotes that sometimes get a chuckle out of you, but usually fade from memory pretty quick. The heart events for the DLC characters actually felt a little beefier surprisingly, but marrying a DLC candidate is pretty lame since they don't participate in festivals and only get the standard family events (which there aren't that many to begin with). I was really hoping for more in-depth family mechanics, but family life is pretty bland. It's so awkward having your child grow up only to sit out in every single festival and have only a handful of dialogue lines. Your family doesn't give you any gifts (actually, you can't get gifts from anyone in this game, except for a few very specific events with certain characters) or have any special events outside of obtaining your child, the child taking their first steps, and then growing up. I actually was so bored to tears by my marriage that I ended up divorcing, which I NEVER do, just to start dating every unattached single to see more events while I grinded out achievements. Speaking of achievements... just don't. It lures you in by making you think they'll be doable in a short amount of time, but the Cow Helm is devious and it took me until year SEVEN to level up the journey sprite. Going for all achievements just isn't worth your time unless you're planning on selling off your animals and sleeping to speed up time. It's agony. As for farming and the overall gameplay loop, it's actually pretty good, at least at the beginning. I binged many hours at the beginning because there was always something to work towards, and that kept me going. The speed and swiftness in which you perform daily tasks definitely helps the early game become less tedious. However, my main issues with farming involve the fact that debris spawn on your farm WAY TOO FAST. It's like Rune Factory 5 on speed. The idea is to put pathing down so that stuff doesn't spawn, but that really doesn't help when stuff can just spawn in places that you CANNOT put path down. Furthermore, there's a huge emphasis on using maker machines, which isn't horrible in concept, but these machines take up way too much space and there is no way to aesthetically design your farm because of it. Every maker, chest, and building requires a ton of free space around it just to place it down (don't even get me started on the big makers, lol). Now, you do get plenty of farm space with 3 areas in total and can eventually unlock a shortcut from your house to area three, but it just doesn't feel good. I would say it reminds me of a mobile game in the layout department. I came to finally remember everyone's names and enjoy my time in Olive Town, for about the first 3 years, but after that it grew stale quickly. You interact with the harvest sprites, but the Goddess doesn't have a major role at all, only appearing in a few cutscenes after completing certain renovation projects. I don't even mind that too much, but her entire existence is just mindlessly walking around her shrine. She doesn't have any heart events, she has only a few lines of dialogue, and her overall presence is very minimal. Definitely a shame for such a prominent HM/SoS staple. Also, breeding animals in this game is mandatory to raise your product quality, so don't wait forever to do that if that's something you want. I was confused as to why my year 1 animals wouldn't produce quality over a certain amount, and it's because I typically don't bother breeding. There may have been a tutorial about it, but if there was I don't remember. In conclusion, PoOT as a SoS title is just... okay. If you don't like the chibi look of Mineral Town or the story-driven structure of a Wonderful Life, it might hit the sweet spot. But definitely get it on sale, and keep your expectations tempered. I don't regret my time playing it, but going for every achievement was probably a bad move, since the content runs dry fairly quickly.

I enjoy playing this, I just wish that the glitch that I experience when I pick up or harvest crops doesn't take too much of my time.