Honestly probably my favorite Story of Seasons title I have played. I have no prior experience from Harvest Moon but this game really does the farming sim games justice. The maker system in later titles aren't really as fun to use but I like having different buildings for different things. It's better than having a punch of random gadets on the farm. It also allows for more decoration too. I loved how the farming is simple and not too complex. You'd think getting higher star crops would be more complex but no, I love that! However, my favorite aspect of these games are the characters. Getting to know them and seeing just which characters I'd be willing to hang out with. Though, to be honest I think the make all of the characters generally favorable anyway. I think that's intentional to get you to talk and engage with them in conversation and the like. I'll say it here, no Story of Seasons game on Nintendo Switch or even on 3DS has replicated the amazing simplicity of this game.

It's a great time! If you grew up playing Harvest Moon, then I highly recommend you check this out if you haven't already! Slow start, but picks up nicely and has a good pace overall! One thing though, beware of the difficulty, veteran difficulty can be challenging if you don't know what you are doing.

This game was often compared to Lost Valley & considered to be the better of the two farming games released that year. However despite its better quality in art and content amount being more similar to previous Harvest Moon titles I did not find it to be any more enjoyable than Lost Valley, and in fact even found it to be less so. Why? 1) The characters are bland. They all have the same personality which is tepidly nice. (Well, excepting Giorgio that is, he's....different...) 2) Competing over fields & only being able to have them a certain amount of time is stressful. I loved the Harvest Moon series for its signature peaceful and relaxing nature. Furthermore there is no real purpose to getting most of these fields anyhow as you can still grow the crops on your own field, who cares if you can grow them slightly faster? 3) I hate the vendor set up. The merchant seems to come once in a blue moon. This means I make money very very slowly and as a result the game's pace drags. I am on year 2 and still don't even have a dog! Adding to this drag you also unlock certain animals/tools/etc very slowly on a set timer so I don't have sheep or anything either and have only just recently gotten a chicken. By year 2 in Lost Valley I already had all the house upgrades, full barn and coop, and was married. This is the biggest factor to me that makes this game unlikeable. 4) The tutorial is unnecessarily long, especially when there is an option in game to select if you've played these types of games before. You should be able to skip it almost entirely. It actually took me forever to really start this game because of how long it took to finish the tutorial because I kept getting bored, setting it down and not touching it again for ages. 5) After playing with Lost Valley's very streamlined controls where you automatically use the appropriate tool based on context the constant tool switching and putting away-even with quick equip & remove (which by the way I had to look up because for some reason it ironically wasn't included in the lengthy tutorial how to do so) seems terribly clunky. 6) Am I the only HM fan who didn't miss gift giving? First of all in real life you don't befriend people by giving them the same generic object every day, you do so by talking & being friendly with them regularly, helping them out, etc. I really appreciated no longer having to look up who liked what and having to them farm up those objects to keep in big piles only to accidentally throw on the ground or hand to the wrong person when trying to give it to the recipient. Not to mention if your marriage candidate of choice likes things you can't even obtain until much further along in the game it just slows the pace down that much more. 7) In Lost Valley my role as a farmer felt important. I supplied many of the town's shopkeeps and vendors with things to sell, whereas in this game I was yet another farmer in the already farmer-filled town. Though it was a nice touch being able to see other peoples' crops grow it just took away from the charm of becoming a farmer and made it more about competition. (I have not been a fan of hm games in the past that added in rival farmers) Overall I can't give this game a higher rating because of how painfully slow paced it is. I just don't find it to be an enjoyable game and don't find anything innovative about it. The market idea to me was done much better in Grand Bazaar. The wildlife park idea was taken right out of Animal Parade. I barely play this game anymore but still play Lost Valley regularly. I hope Story of Seasons 2 is better.