While other studios were riffing on the formula with dinosaurs, corpses, slimes, witches, and queer relationships, Marvelous faltered, releasing mid-tier Doraemon tie-ins, remakes of Friends of Mineral Town and A Wonderful Life (which were admittedly good, but a little geriatric compared to modern farming games), and the only original release, the empty grind-fest that was Pioneers of Olive Town .
It was starting to seem like the glory days of Story of Seasons games were long behind us. Trio of Towns , the last SoS game made in a pre-Stardew world, was one of their best. It seemed like Marvelous was spooked by their competition, and worse, like they were trying to copy it – Pioneers of Olive Town cribbed heavily and clumsily from Stardew's homework rather than remembering what made them the genre trailblazer in the first place. Even Natsume's Harvest Moon spinoffs started getting better than Story of Seasons, which is like watching a pug with three legs outrun a greyhound.
So by the time Grand Bazaar was announced – another remake, this time of a much less popular Story of Seasons game (albeit one with a cult following) – I had already grown jaded. It would probably be fine . It couldn't possibly be worse than Pioneers of Olive Town's deserted towns and dull mines.
But they did it! They actually did it! Marvelous dug deep, went back to the drawing board, found an ember of their old magic hidden at the back of a cupboard, and nurtured it into a roaring flame.
Grand Bazaar's remake is deep, detailed, gorgeous , and as a delightful surprise, fully voiced. No longer is Marvelous looking over its shoulder at the other farming games on the market. No longer are they trying to keep up with the cool kids. Instead, Story of Seasons is finally getting back in touch with its roots, focusing on characters, a sense of community, and that signature supernatural silliness that brought us things like Vinnie the talking plant and the Harvest Sprites.
Even better, I feel like you can tell that the developers themselves are happier. Pioneers of Olive Town felt like a game that struggled to find its identity – often the result of over-iterating on the design with no clear vision, or more simply, just not having a ton of money or time – whereas Grand Bazaar practically glows with personality. There are small touches of care and detail everywhere, from the flags and window shutters flapping in the wind to the post-game addition of the Happy Bingo system, just to give players more to do.
There are tons of additions to the original game, including new characters, villager requests, a Breath of the Wild -inspired gliding system, voiced dialogue, character customisation, and the all-important same-gender romance – all of which show a great deal of knowledge about what the farming game community likes to see in these sorts of games.
And then there's the Bazaar itself. I never played the original , but from what I understand, it was a much simpler thing, which has been entirely reworked and expanded, with deeper systems. It also does away with some of the frustrations of its predecessor, like customer questions. It's an insightful way to bring the game up to modern tastes without losing the flavour that made those old games successful in the first place, and I can't wait to see them channel these learnings into a new, original game.
We probably won't get any insight into what it was like to develop Grand Bazaar, but I wouldn't be surprised if Marvelous did some drastic reshaping of the studio and its development processes to make Grand Bazaar as good as it is. It's not just pretty – because Friends of Mineral Town and A Wonderful Life were pretty – it's a game that finally stands up to others in the competitive farming game genre. I just hope that it's not a fluke.
I really, really want to see Marvelous continue to prove why they've been around for so long, and Grand Bazaar is, at last, a step in the right direction.
Have you played Grand Bazaar on Switch 1 or 2 this year? Do you think this is the best SoS game yet? let us know in the comments!
