Story of Seasons (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Story of Seasons has a very slow and gruelling beginning. The first week can take a few hours and has some of the most condescending tutorials ever displayed on 3DS. The tutorials agonise over pointless details that anyone who has held a controller in their hand would figure out in a nano-second. The whole process is so boring it might even put some users to sleep by its lack of energy. After the needlessly long tutorial chapter, the game finally begins to open up and unleashes gamers to finally play. In the beginning there are not a whole lot of options as far as farming goes since funds are low and much of the game's features are still tucked away behind certain thresholds to prevent overwhelming users. Specific features like having livestock or fishing and other activities like dating won't be available in the opening hours - no, Story of Seasons demands exploration and grinding away for hours. This is an unbelievably long experience with almost no real ending in sight given the simulation nature of the game. Dedicated folk can drop well over 100 hours in this serious time-pit.

After creating a character (boy or girl only) and enduring the tutorial to finally get to some farming action, something awry with Story of Seasons becomes noticeable: a very unstable frame-rate in a few key areas. One such place is the main location where farming takes place and the frame-rate looks so choppy it may as well be a flip book animation from a bored kid in a horticulture class. The graphics fall fairly short and feel very generic, missing the appeal of previous Harvest Moon releases. Character bodies are a bit too thin and spindly for the chibi-style big head look, and it makes every character look like they are all wearing mascot masks and the town is populated by theme park employees. Early on, it can be very limited in terms of customisation, but over time Story of Seasons reveals that it does indeed have quite a lot of custom options for users to change the way they look. Many things that seem like they would be cosmetic actually do have a gameplay use as well - like owning a pet cat that will find hidden items for players. Even the relationship and dating systems have a purpose that do help make the game seem richer even if the overall veneer is blindingly bland.

Dating and character customisation are all well and good, but the cornerstone of games like this is, of course, the farming. This is usually a slow and grindy process requiring a lot of dedication and patience, and Story of Seasons flawlessly represents all these qualities and then some. The basic game cycle is that a character wakes up early and takes care of crops. Players water plants by running around their field and harvesting or planting new ones. Sometimes rocks must be smashed or trees chopped down. If the user is far enough to have livestock, then they ought to tend to them as well. After all those early morning chores, it is then possible to go about other activities in the day.

Since this is a very non-linear title, pretty much anything can be completed in any order, so time is to be managed more carefully since there are only so many hours in the day and shops or stores only work at specified hours of operation. Time management is the key to farming and since the seasons determine the life of the crops, everything needs to be harvested before the change, since if they aren't, then all those planted die and nothing gets carried over. This is vital since around this time, NPCs from neighbouring towns show up and the opportunity to rake in mega bucks arises, selling crops and even buying some new items. When the seasons change, the cycle restarts, and players have to begin the process over again but with somewhat different conditions to match the new season.

Story of Seasons is not for everyone, but is perfectly fine for those who enjoy the likes of Animal Crossing and, naturally, any previous Harvest Moon. Long and tedious are some qualities that come to mind when describing this, yet that is the nature of farming. It is a tough job that requires a lot of effort to maintain a steady flow of plentiful bounties on top of being able to enjoy the other aspects of farm life. It is appropriate that Story of Seasons does seem like boring agony at times, but it is hard to fault it for that since this is technically part of a long running series in farming sims that does expand on its initial concept and does have a built-in audience, as well. The biggest issue that can be said about Story of Seasons is that much of the hard work put into it rarely ever gets a substantial reward and just usually opens up more avenues to do extra work.