Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town
"Look at all these olives," my grandfather would say. We couldn't bring ourselves to tell him it was pronounced "sheep"

Farming

What, you thought we wouldn't judge a farming game on the strength of its farming?

Harvest Moon: One World

Farming

Having (sort of) praised One World's variety of locations, we're about to undo all of that by criticising One World's fussy farming. Many crops can only be grown in certain seasons, in certain areas, and that's if you've even got the right seeds, and they don't mutate into a different crop. All of these inputs make it really hard to just... grow crops, because half the time you're in the wrong place, and half the time you're in the wrong time. What's more, they've done away with crop quality, so there's no actual progression. A tomato is a tomato is a tomato, all the way through the game.

The farm sizes are limited to the specific location you're at, and each field has a predetermined size, with no chance to expand or hoe new plots. Some of these farms are pretty small, and others are pretty big, but need clearing of boulders and stumps, which takes an upgraded tool that you might not have. At least sprinklers exist, so you can have multiple farms across the map, and only need to check in on them when they're ready to harvest.

The animal husbandry part of farming is oddly limited for a farming game: you get one barn for both chickens and livestock, and you can upgrade it twice to double and then triple the space. Three cows/sheep (etc.) and five chickens is what you'll have for most of the game, though, and there doesn't seem to be an auto-feeder, so... hope you like refilling a trough every day! However, the game has done away with milkers, shears, and so on - all you need is to press 'A' next to the animal.

There is a wide range of animals, mostly in the wild, but most of them are pets or mounts (and mounts take up space in your barn, too), which do very little beyond looking cute or transporting you around the map.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

Farming

There are three unlockable areas in Pioneers of Olive Town (including the one you get at the start), which increase in size pretty drastically. You can farm wherever you want, and you can have a bunch of barns, coops, stables, and upgrades for each. You'll need to leave a lot of room for Makers, since that's the main way of making progress in this game, but there's plenty of room, so it's no huge deal.

The range of animals is impressive, and what's more, every new season (at least in the first year), wild animals will appear on your farm, and you can tame them and add them to your livestock for free. This includes Buffalo, Goats, Rabbits, and Sheep, all of which give you new materials. You can build Silos and Auto-Feeders to make caring for your animals much easier.

Like One World, Story of Seasons also no longer requires milkers or shears to gather the various items that your animals produce. The products you get will go up in quality as the animal's friendship metre increases, but you'll have to get into breeding eventually, as it's capped at 3 stars until you do.

WINNER: Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town!

Once again, it's no contest - Story of Seasons is a farming game that focuses on the farming. One World seems to have stripped back the farming to add in crop mutations and the new mechanic of having to find seeds across the world - both of which make farming harder. Story of Seasons may be a little fiddly here and there, especially when it comes to planning out your farm's layout, but at least the farming is good.

Harvest Moon: One World
Someone buy poor Samantha an umbrella

Mining and Fishing

For anyone who's ever picked up one of these quote-unquote RELAXING games, there sure is a lot of tension involved in mining and fishing, the two minigames that are usually included. They're staples of the genre, and a game can make it or break it on the strength of its mines alone.

Harvest Moon: One World

Mining

There are three mines, spaced out across the world, and a number of fishing locations.

The mines start off as small areas with ore in them, which you can hit with the hammer to get the ore, but get increasingly huge and maze-like as you progress downwards. Rarer materials are found on lower levels, but the mines will let you skip straight to any level you've already been on which is a multiple of 11.

Fishing

Fishing is a little confusing at first, because the various fishy shadows in the water would imply that the fishing works like it does in Animal Crossing games: aim the bobber in front of the fish, and wait until it notices. However, the fish shadows have nothing to do with actual fish - you'll have to cast the line, wait until a new fish shows up out of nowhere, and reel it in. The minigame involves waiting until the fish gets into the green area on the on-screen horizontal bar, and pressing A once.

Both mining and fishing are adequate, but uninspiring in Harvest Moon: One World, and it's a pain to travel to the mines, given that they're nowhere near the fast-travel points.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

Mining

The mines in Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town do not let you skip straight to levels. If you want to reach the bottom of the mine, you'll have to do it all in one go. Unlike One World, this is a challenge beyond just portioning out your stamina: there are moles which will pop up from underneath you, draining your energy.

The further down into the mines you go, the more difficult these moles will get. Luckily, you can give them a few bops with the hammer to defeat them. Otherwise, it's a similar story: the further down you go, the rarer/harder to mine materials you'll find.

Fishing

Fishing is competent, if unexciting: the fish marker will go from bottom to top to indicate the progress bar of catching it. There's an energy metre, which you won't want to deplete, or you'll lose the fish. The bar being green means slow energy depletion, red means fast energy depletion, and blue is almost no energy depletion at all, so you'll want to be reeling it in when the bar is blue.

WINNER: Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town!

The fishing is of a similar standard in both games - although Pioneers also lets you put out nets which passively catch fish for you - but the mining is where One World falls down. Its mines are too big, and too labyrinthine to be fun. Pioneers also offers the extra challenge of avoiding or fighting moles. Both are not as intricate as mining has been in past games, though.