Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town - Nintendo Switch

First off, I haven’t had ANY issues with lagging, skipping, glitches etc. I have an original release grey joycon switch which I’m playing on, and I’ve had no problems running this game. To be clear though, I have the physical hard copy of the game, not a download! Not sure if it’s a different story if you downloaded it as opposed to getting the physical copy.ANYWAY— this game is amazing, I’m in love with it, I can’t stop playing it. I bought it when it was released and was a little hesitant/uncertain about it at first, so I held off on writing a review until I had actually gotten more playtime in and had more of an experience to actually review. I’ve been playing the harvest moon/story of seasons games since I was a kid, and I’m actually thrilled about this installment in the series! It has just about everything any of the older games have, plus a ton of new things added in. There are so many things to do, I’ve been playing for months and still haven’t gotten bored or hit a wall with playing it yet. One of the new things I loved was that there are all kinds of new flowers and crops in the game! Instead of having just a few per each season, there’s a whole slew of them! And, on top of that, they’re not all readily available in the general store, as some of the older games were. And, still unlike the older games, where some you had to sell a certain number of each crop to unlock others, in this game you actually have to discover some crops in the wild first and ship them out for the seeds to become available in the shop! I thought that was a fun twist—I get excited at the start of each season now, running around the map trying to find new crops to discover.Some other newer things include a bucket you can use to scoop up water leftover from rain or even try to empty out small ponds or lakes over time! This is one of those things I was hesitant about, I thought, “really? A bucket? That’s weird.” And it is! Weird and fun! At the bottom of these lakes and ponds are treasure which you can then run up to the museum with to get appraised and even donated. The museum, of course, is another new addition! As well as a beehive, where you can harvest honey yourself every few days, a ton of makers that put creation in your hands, a hydroculture plant, and one of my favorites—you can literally choose how you want to look now!! I mean, it’s been a long time coming, but we finally can look however we want to! There are a good number of options, nothing too in-depth, but there are a nice amount of customizable eye shapes, hair and eye colors, hair styles, skin tones, etc. Hopefully there will be more over time, too, but it’s a dream come true for someone who always grew up playing as preset characters that you couldn’t change a thing on! Oh, and speaking of, you can make tons of clothes and accessories now! 🥺 There’s a salon and fashion store you can unlock which allows you to create your own clothes and change how you look too, should you get tired of your hair/eyes/etc over time.There IS a harvest goddess, too, and there IS a story, it just takes some time to unlock each cutscene to meet her and get to know her. If you’re a fan of the HM/SOS series, you probably are already aware of how the game typically focuses on some form of rescuing the Goddess or reviving sprites, etc etc. It still is, just in a more relaxed, less dramatic format haha. (The harvest goddess doesn’t turn to stone as a dramatic “nobody likes me anymore!” stunt like in HM: Magical Melody anymore, is all I mean, but she is still involved in the game!)In addition, I’d like to add that I did purchase the DLC too, which isn’t too pricey and has some fun stuff in it! Although, it is COMPLETELY not necessary to get, the base game itself will still be amazing even if you choose not to get the DLC. :)Anyway, TLDR, it’s a good game and I hope you play it yourself! It really honestly deserves the hype!

For those new the genre, “Story of Season: Pioneers of Olive Town” is a farming simulation game, meaning you raise crops and livestock, fix up buildings and equipment around the farm, and interact with the citizens of the local town. A lot of time management goes into the game as well. I’ve been playing a lot of “Stardew Valley” and I was looking for a way of starting over without resetting my game, and “Story of Seasons” provided a great next generation console opportunity for that. The graphics are good, you’re able to clearly recognize what you can interact with, and have fun playful quality which makes the experience pleasant. The various menus you have to cycle through are laid out clearly so they are easy to navigate. The music and sounds also add to the fun, laid back and add to the playful atmosphere of the game. The controls are very good and it’s easy enough to perform your various farming tasks. This game has an easy mode for beginners, or if you’re like me and you’d like a more casual gaming experience. As a bonus, if you buy the cartridge, it actually comes with a full color instruction manual, which is a rare treat these days and a nice throwback. If you’re a fan of farming simulation games like “Stardew Valley” I think you will also enjoy “Story of Season”

Fun,easy to understand and play,entertaining

Over all i really enjoyed the game, a few things confused me here and there. But super fun and relaxing, i enjoyed how cute the animals are and the characters are fun to talk to. Fun

**Final Update** I think I finally get why this game has been getting a lot of meh reviews. I just finished playing Stardew Valley, and PoOT feels so empty in comparison. PoOT is fun starting out as you begin exploring the area, but it really is just a huge knock-off of Stardew without any of the flare. Super sad to realize this.**UPDATE** I can't knock it down a star because I love this game so much, but... the glitches have definitely started. I've frozen and had to restart the game once while in a mine (now I save every time before I enter a mine), the frame rate when I enter an area of my farm with lots of building or crops is terrible, and every five or ten (real time) minutes the whole screen freezes for about half a second. Super annoying. I really hope this gets fixed in the May patch.It has literally been a decade since I enjoyed a Harvest Moon game (last played was Animal Parade in 2011), which I am sure is in part due to Natsume's decision to drive the "Harvest Moon" brand into the ground. I have been hearing about Story of Seasons for years, but this is my first time actually playing one of their games. I am THRILLED. No more overly complicated constructions schemes for farm buildings, no more pointless and complicated sprite mini-games. Just a simple farming sim that is relaxing to play in the way that AWL and FoMT were (maybe not QUITE as simple as FoMT).This is also the earliest I've ever played a newly released HM (I guess now SoS) game, and it's really not bothering me at all. I have quite a few upgrades on my farm and no glitches yet. I started playing April 12th, so it's possible that I'm not having problems because I started after the first couple patches had cleared. I am looking forward to the patch in May -- but personally, I already like the townspeople's personalities and don't think they're bland at all. If anything, they're more reminiscent of the oldest HM games to me. Lots of simplicity and focus on aesthetic.