Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town came out last month in Japan, and quite a few players were disappointed with the way the game felt a little... unfinished. Common problems included bad framerates on the farm, long loading times, villagers with nothing to say, and not being able to submit more than one item at a time when cooking, donating things to the museum, and using the Makers.

Producer Dai Takemura wrote a letter to the players, apologising for the rocky launch and the unpolished features in the game, detailing a little bit of what would be in the game's first patch. You can read a summary of his letter in our news story, but to summarise even further, bugs are going to be squished, and later updates will fix a bunch of the pacing and balance, as well as improving the NPC dialogue.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

It would seem that XSEED are not content to stop there, though, as Takemura once again took to the Bokujo Monogatari blog to speak about the game's future.

Here's a translation of the patch notes provided by sandfox177 on Reddit:

- This patch fixed some of the load times and bugs

- This patch was to address the stuff they considered an emergency, and now they are working to improve the overall performance and functionality of the game. In regards to the time for each update, they will continue to communicate. So, basically, they will wait until each patch is far along before giving us a date

- He mention that there's a bug where if you save on the day an animal is born and meet certain conditions it will damage your save. As well as another, where it's impossible to progress if you get married on the first day of Summer. These [are] being patched mid-April and they suggest workarounds for the time being

Takemura said that the XSEED team is also working on fixing other issues for a later patch, summarised from sandfox177's translation:

  • Further improving load times
  • Improving processing load
  • Improvement of makers
  • Changing production during dialogue
  • Adding more meal variations
  • Improved operability of player
  • Modifying and adding various types of text
  • More bug fixes
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

To explain some of those points a little further: Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town has been criticised for its lack of character portraits, making it hard to see the emotions of the characters you're talking to. It's also been criticised for the fact that the player-character is pictured eating a full-course meal with fish and salad, no matter what you order at the café - even if it's just a cup of tea.

There are also difficulties with farm objects and crops popping in, which presumably is the "processing load", and the "improved operability" might refer to the fiddly hitboxes that make it hard to pick things up or put things down in the right place.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

The first patch, 1.03, is already out, and will presumably be included with the game on Day One of the Western release (23rd March in North America, 26th March in Europe). The next patch will arrive in mid-April.

Are you a day-one Story of Seasons player, or will you be waiting until the patches neaten things up a bit? Let us know in the comments!

[source reddit.com]