I’m a really busy guy, as I’m certain many of those reading this article are themselves. Sure, tearing through the millionth Dark Souls 2 playthrough can be fun, just as running online and fighting people in Super Smash Bros Ultimate or some Call of Duty title can be. However, all of those activities generally require at least a mild amount of brainpower. There’s also potential for those games to place players into relatively stressful, tight situations that get the blood pumping. Maybe I’ve had a long day at work, and I just want to chill out. If that’s the case, maybe the aforementioned games might not be what I need at that point.
Enter Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, part of the long-standing franchise of 30 different games, including fourteen spin-offs, that was once known as Harvest Moon. This game offers players the balancing act of running their own farm, mingling with the villagers of Olive Town, exploring caves and much, much more. The game is deliberately stressless, offering simple mechanics, a complete lack of time sensitivity, and complete freedom to the player in terms of deciding how each day will go.
How does the game stand up? Let’s have a look, starting with what it does well.
Deeper Than The Sum Of Its Parts
On paper, this game doesn’t push the player into doing anything. There is zero time sensitivity. If I put the game down for a year, then came back, it would be as if I’d never left at all. A game that lax, not demanding anything whatsoever from the player, would in theory seem to be lacking in depth, possibly structure as well.
Yet, this game is extremely deep. It does cramp the player into a couple of repetitive settings in a very small area, but there is absolutely no wasted space at all. Everything has a very well defined purpose, giving meaning behind player decision and interactions with a myriad of different things. As per the game’s name, the general dynamic of the game changes with the coming of autumn, spring, summer and winter. Shop inventories change, the daily happenings of the townspeople are impacted and the usable crops the player can plant typically almost entirely change.
The game may not demand much, if anything from the player, but it definitely has a lot to offer. It has just the right amount of depth and intrigue to be addicting while placing no real pressure on the player to do anything in particular.
Soundtrack
No matter where you go, an almost irritatingly catchy theme is certain to follow. The game is a big blender of fast paced themes, slower melodies, upbeat tones and appropriately somber notes. For the player’s farm, it receives a different soundtrack depending on the season which seems to capture the essence of that season very well. For the warm, sunny summer time you get a couple different “electric guitar” solos with catchy whistling on a roughly minute long loop. When going inside a dark cave to mine, or walking amongst the farm, the loops are longer, slower and involve a wider variety of tones and instruments.
The only downside to this is that these themes are hard to get out of your head later!
Wholesome Romance Arcs
In most video games, romance tends to be very surface level. This is understandable, because real-life relationships could take weeks, months, even years to blossom, and few would stay interested in a single player video game for that long. Awkward timelines aside, romance arcs in this game feel like they’re at least somewhat “earned” as opposed to say, the Persona series where a girl will fall head-over-heels for you after being nice to her for a week. There are several cutscenes which take place as the main character’s relationship develops with their romance of choice. In the end, the player can “marry” their chosen lover, their lover will move into their farmland with them, and they can even have a baby with their lover as well.
While the romance in this game does probably develop a little more quickly than what would be considered “realistic,” it at least feels quite wholesome and satisfying to experience. It’s things like this which give the game as a whole surprising amounts of depth.
The Cows
What enticed me into playing this game in the first place was the artwork behind these absolutely ridiculous looking cows. Seriously, look at their huge noses! The way their noses sway when they nod at you in glee after milking or petting them is just irresistibly adorable.
While this game is definitely worth playing for most, it does have some notable flaws. Let’s talk about them.
The Illusion Of Choice
In essence, this game functions as an open world, albeit a very small one. The player conducts the train. The only main limitation would be certain shops across the town which are closed on various days of the week.
In practice, this game suffers a drawback that every open world game, even masterpieces like Elden Ring or Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild have to contend with. Once the player knows where everything is, and that sense of exploration and navigating the unknown is gone, Olive Town has a tendency to feel somewhat empty. The museum has interesting potential, until the player learns that it’s really just a tremendous waste of time. The toolworker shop is good and great until the player maxes out their tools, then it becomes a waste of space. After long enough, Olive Town becomes worth briefly venturing in to if the player needs to purchase supplies from the general store, or needs a pick me up at the cafe for their stamina.
This minor issue with illusion of choice directly connects to our next issue…
Late Game Repetition
Wake up. Water your plants. Tend to your animals. Go into town for two minutes, go spelunking in caves for something. Go to bed. This is the routine for players late game once that aforementioned sense of exploration fully dissipates. The game is deep, but a lot of this depth is quite front-loaded.
Forced Events
Straight up: the mini-games in this game were poorly handled. Not only are they just not very interesting or engaging to begin with, but they are effectively forced on the player somehow. Each month of the game, the town will have a seemingly random, jovial event that everyone participates in. That will forcefully include the player if they dare set foot outside of their farm during this time. Once finished, the town will apparently be “cleaning up” and will deny the player the ability to re-enter for any reason for the rest of the day.
While this is hardly a crippling flaw that sinks the game by any means, it still is kind of a drag. The player should’ve been given the ability to refuse these events and instead simply proceed with what they were doing. As well, why does the entire town of about 20 people need to shut down after having their pets race each other outside for five minutes?
Overall, this game is really solid for someone who wants to burn a bunch of hours but wants a no-strings attached experience to do so. In a nutshell, that’s what video games and entertainment in general should be about. As it had a clear objective it definitely achieved, I’m inclined to give this game a B for a grade. It isn’t anything that will burn itself into the memories of gamers worldwide by any means, but it’s a game you could come back to again and again years down the road for some brainless fun.
InReview: Reviews, Commentary and More 
Leave a comment