How does Story of Seasons continue to innovate when Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing have done so much to develop the 25-year-old formula? Well, with Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, the answer is twofold: one - borrow the ideas of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, and two - change things for the sake of changing them, and see if it works. Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town tries both, but whether or not it succeeds is a question we can't quite answer yet.
Beginning much like any other Harvest Moon game, your character - who can be customised with a pretty detailed character creator, which lets players choose a masculine or feminine voice and stance no matter what their gender - inherits a rundown farm on the outskirts of Olive Town. You need to fix up the farm, and they need to attract more tourists, and thus, a symbiotic relationship is forged. You provide the mayor with the materials he needs to upgrade the place, and in return, more shops and features are unlocked.
Progress is both slow and fast in the game's first season. Visiting the mine will net you iron and silver ore, which can be used to upgrade your tools for better, quicker coverage. It's extremely satisfying to chop down an entire forest in one fell swoop, and scooping out puddles and ponds with the new bucket is time-consuming, but rewarding. Gone are the days of milkers and shears, though, with the two jobs being done with a simple A-press next to the animal instead. Neat!
Much like many of the past games, the layout of the farm is customisable, and you can place barns, coops, crop fields and decorations (almost) anywhere you want. The farm does have a river and a coast, making quite a bit of its terrain unavailable for building, which can be a bit frustrating when you discover that there's a generous fringe around the edges of everything that's deemed out-of-bounds. Still, there's plenty of space once you've cleared out the trees - a job that needs repeating regularly because the damn things grow like weeds - and paid the requisite materials to unlock new areas.
Getting the materials is a pain, though. Pioneers of Olive Town evidently didn't like the way that previous games handled Makers, the machines that turn raw materials into usable (and profitable) items, like wood into lumber, and ore into refined metal. Makers have, as a result, been turned into these large, inefficient machines that only produce one material at a time, many of which are monotaskers that can only be used for specific processes.
It's irritating to have to have a Seasoning Maker, a Powder Maker, a Seed Maker, a Mushroom Seed Maker, a Condiment Maker, a Cloth Maker, a Yarn Maker, a Textile Maker, a Dye Maker, and so on, especially because they take up so much room on the farm. In just two seasons, we've already unlocked seventeen different makers, and they're all extremely specific. Surely, it wouldn't be that hard to combine the Jewel Maker with the Ore Maker, or the Cloth Maker with the Textile Maker? And how on earth are we supposed to remember that grinding coffee beans into coffee requires the Powder Maker, but grinding rock salt into salt requires the Seasoning Maker? Also, why?
Some research would indicate that these Makers will eventually be upgraded into more efficient versions of themselves, but for now, they're unsightly, space-hogging, boring eyesores on our lovely farm, and the overly-generous space allocation for items results in huge gaps between each one. This issue also means that fences don't go all the way up to coops and buildings, and chests take up an unreasonable amount of room, too. There's no overlapping here - everything has so much space around it that we can't help but wonder if there's social distancing going on in Olive Town, too.
But, speaking of socialising - you might be wondering if we have our eye on anyone in town just yet. Pioneers of Olive Town wants you to get married, after all, and with the various proposal objects available in the shops from the beginning, it's hard to avoid the implication. Unfortunately, two seasons in, the characters are all as flat and lifeless as zombies, with little more to say than remarking on the latest thing that's happening.
The Egg Hunt that happens in Spring causes every single person in town to say "I hear there's an Egg Hunt happening soon" like they've been starved of anything remotely resembling gossip for two hundred years. After the Egg Hunt, it's still all they can talk about for a day or two. The same goes with any other event - if you upgraded the roads, they'll go on about that. If you won the Pet Derby, they'll all congratulate you. It's not just boring - it's creepy. The characters, at least this early in the game, act like their souls dripped out of their ears centuries ago, and they've been locked in this podunk purgatory ever since, doomed to wander the town until someone gives them enough fish gifts to wake them up again.
The town has many shops and quite a few people from the start, but the town is pretty much all there is, besides the farm and the secret Sprite areas that offer minigames and another shop. There are, so far, no other areas to explore, although past games have had secret ponds, houses away from the town, and extra farm areas. The Expansion Pass will add new areas, but players shouldn't have to pay for the content that used to be in the game.
The elements that Pioneers of Olive Town borrows from other games are its best features, which is a bit worrying. The Museum that it borrows from Blathers is a little boring, but donating fish, treasures, and photos livens it up a bit. Photo Mode is fun, even if there's not that much to photograph, and the loading screens - of which there are many - feature other people's photos, so prepare to see a lot of fox bumholes and unflattering close-ups of faces. Fishing has been remodelled after Stardew's system, and it's pretty fun to get the timing right to reel in a big one, or to catch a rare and expensive fish.
The mine is often one of the best parts of Story of Seasons games, and this one doesn't disappoint so far, with stamina-draining moles that you have to bonk on the head with a hammer. It seems like there are different mines with rarer ores and minerals, and so far we've only unlocked the one with iron and opal, and the one with silver and rubies. We've even found a couple of diamonds! We know that gold exists, because the next tool upgrade requires it, but that mine is locked away behind a bunch of debris that we have to remove with either money or materials - an option that's quite nice to have.
We would be lying if we said we hadn't experienced a few laggy moments and framerate drops in our time with the game, though - as many other previewers and Japanese reviewers have mentioned. The game seems to struggle both in docked and handheld mode if there are too many things going on on-screen, and loading times between large areas can get pretty long - some reports claim around 20 seconds of loading screens in between the farm and the town, although ours hasn't got that bad.
So far, Pioneers of Olive Town has been a little disappointing, especially for long-time fans of the series hopeful for some exciting new innovation. The game largely keeps things the same as always, or changes things for the worse, and although Photo Mode and the slightly better gender options are welcome new additions, they don't change the gameplay in a meaningful way. We're really hoping that either in-game upgrades or game patches can increase the wonky pacing and the tedious Maker issue, and maybe add new areas, but we're happy to keep playing for now, and discovering new things for ourselves.
Comments 65
It seems too pioneering. Introduced too many elements new to the series and discounted a few that fans deem necessary.
Wow, i see a sexy butt from Loading screen. 🤣
That will be my photo style for New Pokemon Snap.
My only experience with this genre is Stardew Valley. I found that the success of said game depended highly on two factors: the power of the gameplay "loop" (if a player is ambitious with their time) and the variety of things to explore.
This preview article doesn't emphasize the loop, but I have read that most of Stardew Valley is borrowed from this series. Can any fans of these games fill me in?
I hope this game fails. That way they are forced to try harder with the next game. The fact that Rune Factory 5 not only has stunning new graphics, but also has the over the shoulder perspective in a fully 3D world like Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and Save the Homeland, while Pioneers of Olive Town is still another mobile game looking top down game, is just plain pathetic. There's no excuse for this game to look the way it does.
I've been looking for an excuse to cancel my preorder (the number of March physical releases have ballooned past my budget). This will suffice. Thank you.
Considering I much preferred older SoS games or way older Harvest Moon games to Stardew Valley this is rather disappointing. I at least still have hopes for Rune Factory 5.
It’s utterly mad that there’s literally the farm and a one screen town. That’s it. This game seems to be far, far behind even the original Harvest Moon in that respect.
Think I'll pass. This looks bad. I have Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing to scratch the same itch. I may check my local used game store for Trio of Towns or wait to see reviews for Rune Factory 5.
Everyone keeps saying that Harvest Moon is worse than Story of Seasons and that Natsume yada-yada but honestly, both franchises look pretty mediocre to me. At least, the new Harvest Moon has a better artstyle, IMHO.
Has anyone played One World yet? Is it decent?
The studio has an IP too entrenched to allow for change. Whereas games like Stardew Valley (and maybe Rune Factory 5?) dont have to hang on to any previous items.
Uhh, well this is getting dropped from the wish list. I will stick with Stardew and ACNH.
Yeah, I think I'll skip out on this, but WHY is there a fox butt in the loading screen, just why
Rune Factory has always been the better farming simulator out of all series like SoS, harvest moon and even Stardew Valley
@Kentleton
Get over yourself!
Nothing wrong with its graphical style.
What you are effectively saying is that any game with "poor" graphics that could be on a smartphone is therefore bad or shouldn't be released. The logic there is horrific.
While the previewer choice is questionable after her Sakuna review (that strongly suggested that kind of game wasn't for her and I don't think it was the action part being referenced), her gripes in this do seem incredibly valid, which is a shame. Perhaps come review time it shows something different but it doesn't look promising.
i'm waiting for Rune Factory yeah, RF5 looks to be shaping up nicely and the visual style of this isn't for me tbh
After playing stardew valley, it’s impossible, for me, to buy any other farming game. Not to say, we got a free update with so much content on stardew, it’s crazy. And then i see games like this who have a price of 50$ 😒
Check the Bokumono_pr twitter. They released somewhat of an apology and said they would update the game with bug fixes and general quality-of-life and immersion improvements. So I haven't canceled my pre-order yet.
I will be sitting over there waiting for a proper remake of Magical Melody, or Rune Factory 5
@KateGray Why, yes! I do name my animals alphabetically!
Well this is disappointing. I'm still getting it and I'll form my own opinions. Still, I may be in the minority, but I don't want all of these "innovations". I prefer older HM games for their simplicity. And yes, I could go back and play them I understand that.
@COVIDberry Hello!
So, the simple answer is that Stardew Valley is heavily inspired by the early Harvest Moon games, but drew inspiration from later ones, too. However, it was made because the creator noticed that HM games were getting worse, and he's right - barring a few standouts, the series is rickety and not so great.
I would recommend trying out Friends of Mineral Town on the Switch, but bear in mind that these games are created in Japan, and Stardew Valley was made by an American - the games are different because of that.
Stardew is probably more relatable/accessible to Western audiences, and is easier to mod.
I wouldn't get this game if you're a Stardew fan. It is quite far removed from the heart of Harvest Moon games. But the DS and 3DS Harvest Moons are pretty good, and the Friends of Mineral Town remake on Switch is apparently good, too - so maybe try those out
As for the "loop" in this game - it's similar to Stardew, yeah. Plant crops, sell crops, use money to upgrade farm/buy more animals/buy more crops. There's also cooking, mining, fishing, and various other things like beekeeping and mushroom growing on the side. You can give gifts to villagers to make them like you, and eventually marry one of them and have a kid. That's it!
@nessisonett I'm actually looking at HM: One World like "is this the first time Harvest Moon is better than Story of Seasons?"
I guess we'll find out
I did buy this but haven't played it yet, yes yes I know but that is what happens with a huge backlog. I tend to favor Rune Factory the most because I like combat. I mean, who wouldn't want to be a Warrior Farmer. Hehe. The real question is, how many farms have I inherited from family members? I can't run them all. :/
@Rosona I love farming games! I've played almost every Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons game since the GameCube, and Stardew Valley, too.
I just didn't particularly click with Sakuna, which is not to say that it's a bad game at all - it was just a little too obtuse and difficult for me. I hope you don't discount all my farming game reviews because of that 😅
@KateGray
There is another game with farming on it.
It is Dragon Quest Builders 2.
You can get farm animals as well (Cow, sheep, chicken)
And you can kill them to get their meat (Beef, mutton, chicken drumstick)
@KateGray
I love that honest response
After posting, I did then see your review for Littlewood that showed that love of the genre, so don't worry I shan't be doing that.
Shame you didn't click with Sakuna though, but then, we can't like everything in our favoured genres.
@Rosona it's one of those games that I review, and then I realise that people REALLY loved it - and I feel like I missed out! It's always more fun to absolutely adore a game.
And also it's tough to know the difference between a 7 and an 8 sometimes, you know? I miss rating games on a 1-100 scale!
This is really disappointing to hear, I was really looking forward to this one. After everything I've heard from this game, the last thread keeping my pre-order alive is the Buffalo plush. I'll probably end up canceling, though. I have too many unopened games that still need to be played.
I've only played HM: Friends of Mineral Town on GBA years ago, ACNH, and Stardew — I would like something that balances the chill nature of AC but with the efficiency of Stardew. I went back to Stardew after having not touched it for a year (much of which was spent in AC), and it was whiplash-inducing — I feel like they really don't give you much time to do anything before it's time to go to bed!
Thank you for this nice article, dear Kate !
@Andee The two Story of Seasons games for the Nintendo DS actually did a nice job at balancing those two things. I still return to them quite frequently.
For anyone who hasn't seen it, Marvelous posted an announcement on its Twitter account in response to what has apparently been overwhelming negative backlash. To summarize, in addition to repairing a few specific bugs, they are going to make ...
There definitely seems to be more 'makers' here than in Stardew Valley, but I'm honestly surprised more comparisons were not drawn. In Stardew I have quite a few of them taking up a lot of space on my farm and it can be frustrating, but this article calls out the space hogging in Story of Seasons like it wasn't done in SV. Same with the chests that take up a lot of room.
Does Stardew Valley have a fix for this that I'm not aware of, or is there something different with the way SoS does it? Maybe SoS has less farm space overall?
@KateGray Great job! Always nice to read the reviews written by longtime fans of the series.
Oh no, I was really looking forward this, but hearing about the poor/lifeless character dialogue is the biggest bummer to me. Everything else I don't mind but I have to be able to fall in love ewith the characters to enjoy these kinds of games. Seeing in the other comment that they're working to supplement dialogue text, I wonder if it would improve? Or do characters get more development through story scenes etc? If they felt like they had some depth that way I could maybe put up with canned responses other times. Stardew Valley had that to some extent too.
@ChaoticIgnorance oh no, it's WAYYYY worse than SV. At least in SV you could put them next to each other, or indoors, and they only took up one tile.
Makers in PoOT take up four spaces, and apparently there are 44 different Makers - way more than SV, which has a few that pull double duty.
@KateGray Forty-four. Forty-four. So dumbfounded I'll say it again: Forty-four. When I read that I wonder if Hashimoto or anyone high up at Marvelous ever peeked into the development room to take a look. That's poor game design.
Yikes... this reminds me of the first story of seasons game on 3ds and how I was so frustrated having to find room for all the makers there. The makers and all the other irrelevant junk they cram in only causes monotony. That stuff just really diminishes the whole farming game experience for me. I doubt I’ll get this one. 😔
@KateGray not to mention, in SV all you need to do to use the makers is hold the item you want to process, and keep the action button pressed while walking by your makers. It’s quick and mindless.
@ChaoticIgnorance Thinking about it, in SV you can have over a hundred makers taking about the same amount of space in your farm as a two or three makers in PoOT.
Depending on what building you use to keep them, it can apparently go up to 351 makers in a single building.
While we're on it, Bokujou Monogatari should not need to borrow from, or copy, other games. Maybe look to its own history to see what drew people into the series, but don't copy others. If I wanted to play Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing or Minecraft I'd play those games.
@KateGray Ahh OK, that is a really high number and seems unnecessary.
@Yorumi You're right. And from what I've heard about this game, your spouse's dialogue doesn't even change after marriage. I don't remember a Bokujou game that didn't have that. Maybe one of the very early ones.
@KateGray
Are you guys not allowed to do half points reviews?
@jamesthemagi I don't think so! The options in the reviewing system are all whole points.
I wasn't a huge fan of Trio of Towns but loved the other 3DS games. This is disappointing. (And they REALLY need to fix the space issues, that used to drive me crazy in the first Story of Seasons game all the time)
@Magician funny I was in the same boat and cancelled both harvest moon and this one. I wanted both but feel relieved. Plus they both had season passes on top of everything. shivers
I loved the harvest moon DS games but I could never get into stardew valley, sad to hear this is more like the latter.
@Burning_Spear
Marvelous should fix the animation of your character when eating the meal.
I saw from Youtube, your character was literally eat nothing from the animation gesture. I was thinking they ate a slice of wooden table, rich of fibre and vitamins. 😂
@Anti-Matter That doesn't bother me too much, though that kind of thing should have been gone after Gen 4. Also, no matter what type of meal you order, they all look exactly the same. The GameCube versions got that right, so it's odd in 2021. But again, not a big deal to me. I'm more bothered by the game play being bogged down with endless crafting and makers. That shouldn't be a huge element in a Story of Seasons game. And the bland, shallow dialogue.
@Basket I find the fact that they're saying this instead of delaying the game to be a more problematic issue. It implies that they're more concerned with releasing the game, than with giving us a good product.
@KateGray I wish we went back to a 7 being a decent score and a 4 being the highest bad score. It's very strange to see a 7 being a bad score and 8 becoming the new average.
Also, no matter what type of meal you order, they all look exactly the same. The GameCube versions got that right, so it's odd in 2021.
@Burning_Spear I'm not surprised. I feel like many developers were at the top of their craft in that generation.
Thanks for the detailed responses and critiques, @KateGray and kind comment section! I'll pay some attention to FoMT and the *DS games later this year, after Rune Factory 5 is released.
@stache13 I give out scores with that in mind, but people get quite upset over a 7 - so I can understand the pressure to never give any game a score under 6/10. I'd rather be considered a "mean" critic than someone who only gives out 8s!
I'm not too shocked that this game is fairly underwhelming in its current state, the moment this game got revealed in the October partner showcase my immediate thought was "hoo boy this smells of half-baked rush job". I feel like this game was supposed to come out around August 2021 (the month were the final batch of DLC drops) in a finished state but for whatever reason they decided to bump the release up to a February 2021 timeslot instead and patch the rest of the game in at later dates. Between this and Rune Factory 5, it's so clearly obvious that the team is putting all their time and effort into RF5 as their big 'main' project while Pioneers of Olive Town was probably a side project that was made to keep consumers preoccupied while they wait for RF5 to come out.
I feel like marvelous wanted to make the game feel like you are roughing it/building from nothing/bootstraping and it wasn’t well received. I’ve seen some players state that the makers become more efficient via upgrades/unlocks but it feels like the consumers rejected that. I agree that the loading times and the dialogue should be improved but I think the game play loop is getting lambasted a bit unfairly.
Kinda feels like a “sekiro is too hard” situation. That’s the point.
Granted I will find out for myself later on this month.
@GKO900 I don't think the farming is any different between Rune Factory and Story or Seasons. But Rune Factory has the option of going out and fighting monsters while you wait for your crops to grow. So the grinding feel less tedious.
@Andee I actually get what you are looking for from the Natsume's Harvest Moon. With Light of Hope having the longest day circle of them all. But people hate them because they are not Story of Seasons so, take it with a grain of salt I guess.
I feel like before change, we need a good proper Story of Seasons. Like, the dialogue system is a huge letdown from the high bar that Trio of Towns set for chit-chat variety. I don't care about new systems or anything when we can't even keep the good systems we had before on this mess that is Olive Town.
@Tarolusa No, different teams. New director. His only other previous BokuMono was the FoMT remake. Iirc the old director is the one heading up (or at least helping to work on) the new RF.
@KateGray
That's very true, an it's such a shame when it doesn't quite click for you as a player despite all the hope in the world.
Like for me ACNL I really wanted to like but it just didn't click so I was hugely on the fence with the ACNH announcement.
Although in this case ACNH clicked in a huge unexpected way for me at the time of its release and the few months after, but had I started it now, I know I wouldn't even get close to the 280 hours I put into it, I'm fairly certain I wouldn't really get into it at all, certainly don't see myself going back to it but equally don't want to part with the game just in case.
I realise that last paragraph is a bit of a mess in what I'm saying, but I think you get my point XD
As for the review score, I agree it can be tough and I think a .5 at least of every number bar 10 should be used to give a broader view.
I enjoy the way a youtube channel called SwitchUp (you should check them out) do their reviews by giving 5 different areas a score out of 20 then a final percentage.
Although you can tell when a game hasn't quite clicked with one of the two reviewers, an further, one of the reviewers is clearly more generous then the other.
But then it is all subjective ultimately but critics should realise how much power their scores can have, an I suppose that's the issue with some scores going by the amount of games that seem to get an undeserved 8 on this site.
Anyway, thanks for reading the short essay, aha.
I am thoroughly disappointed in this game. I just can't play it longer than maybe an hour at a time. :/
As a veteran of this series, I'm absolutely disappointed that this is what they presented not just as a Silver anniversary but also the first game in the new console (3DS to Switch).
I wholeheartedly agree on this preview after having a hands-on experience with the game. The maker systems are obtuse, the rapid growth of the trash around my farm is frustratingly aggressive (to the point that even if my character is up at the crack of dawn, I still didn't leave my farm till after noon just taking care of the weeds and stray trees - and yes, my farm is decorated to mitigate the growth and I've seen busy works from the first Story of Seasons post Natsume with managing multiple fields.), the town folks are boring and bland (who thought that removing the portrait image with their expressions was a good idea??), and the entire game just felt rushed and unpolished with random crashes, freezes, and FPS that dips to a single digit (which is absolutely noticeable when you're during a festival).
This is more than just "low budget release", this is a vision of the new director that clearly doesn't know what his audiences and veterans of the game wanted or liked (still no shovel, but buckets, really?). Questionable game designs, adding new features that bring absolutely no value to the game, and removing QoLs from previous titles that was perfected up till Trio of Towns.
I can't wait to cleanse my palate with Rune Factory 5, because at least, they kept their director (the same guy that previously worked on SoS series).
I really wanted to like this game, I did and maybe future patches will fix it.
But at its current state, the game is as valuable and enjoyable as the weeds that grow on your farm every 6 bloody hours.
Garbage.
@Aemilian SoS to SoS: Trio of Towns is an evolution.
PooT is a step backward, trying both to mirror Stardew Valley expansive Maker System and a bit of Animal Crossing, yet failed in both while removing the QoLs being introduced in the previous entries as well as the things that make their series stand out. Town interactions, relations, and festivals.
@Tarolusa Different team, different Director. They are both being developed in tandem but yes, RF5 definitely getting more love.
Hashimoto Yoshifumi is heading RF5 team, and prior to that he was leading all Bokujo and RF games up to Trio of Towns.
Hopefully Marvelous realized how horribly this Piooner game was received and return the helm back to Hashimoto. Else they can stop trying to compete with the farming sim game with Bokujo.
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