Marvelous Europe Story of Seasons - Friends Of Mineral Town (Nintendo Switch)

If you're like me, having sunk hundreds of hours into Stardew Valley and reaching saturation point with it, looking for something similar to scratch the itch of "that type of game" then you may well have looked at Story of Seasons and thought "this is it!". I don't blame you, on the surface it really looks great.The problem starts in the playing of the game. It's just...too similar. You will learn how much Stardew Valley took from this game (the original version, at least). The problem you'll quickly discover is that Stardew Valley improved on just about every facet of the game, and this feels like a slower, less-refined experience.There's also zero hand holding in this game. You're not guided towards any objectives, and it's down to you to literally figure out how everything works. This appeals to some players, but casual gamers like me want a degree of hand holding (at least at the beginning so you know what to do) but this game simply doesn't offer it.The graphics and overall presentation are great. Sure it looks a bit basic, but the colour palette is great and it handles well with the exception of picking up and placing items, which is a gamble every time as the "hit boxes" are super precise.I'll be honest, I got bored very fast. At full price I couldn't recommend it. However, please note that my review is based on having played Stardew Valley before. If you haven't, then I'd recommend you do so because it's truly better in just about every way.

It's the same great gameplay as the original gba game, with a bunch of quality of life changes added in. Not so happy about them removing being able to pick up chickens though.The music is great, the gameplay loop is still incredibly addictive, I think the general scenery redesign is great, I'm not super keen on the redone sprites (the animal sprites are good for the most part but the sprites for the villagers are a bit blank looking and the food/drink sprites look pretty damn bad) and the character artwork can be nice but has some weird quirks. It bothers me quite a lot just how long, red and shiny the doctors nose is, it really doesn't feel right? I don't really understand the need to make all the older folk characters really really chibi or exaggerated (Duke and manna look like a 50 yo and his daughter not husband and wife imo).The two new characters feel a bit... Dull? Their designs aren't really all that interesting. The nature loving girl in particular never seems to stop annoying me even though I usually like the earthy characters.Also I've encountered what I can only assume is a bug late at night on the farm, it sounds like the horse running sound effect sometimes gets confused that the horse isn't there and just keeps playing long after it's already gone inside. (I later found out why this was, the horses lathing sometimes leads it into he side of the stable where it gets trapped and runs in circles. Honestly the noise is maddening.)I don't know, overall the swap from 2d to 3d seems to have lost some of the original charm of the game but it's still fun? If they polished the 3d models a little more that'd probably be less of an issue but I guess as someone who put hundreds if not thousands of hours into the original as a kid the little things they decided to leave out, like the well integrated food sprites, being able to pick up the chickens or your character turning blue as they get tired, or them eating in front of their tv/table every morning makes it feel slightly less enjoyable.I hope the devs will listen to fan feedback about how important quirks like those are in the games. I'm certainly enjoying the old simple experience more than the current sos games as the amount of min maxing in modern titles was frying my brain. Having the mine back is a joy too, I know some people find it boring but I always liked it more than going to a couple different mining points every day praying you get the material you need and needing to do that a million times to upgrade anything.That'll certainly be a great escape with the world as it is right now.Edit: also just to be clear for anyone in the EU, the game only comes with stickers, the case and cartridge. No cow plush, manual or download codes.

I have never played this type of game before and wasn't sure if I'd like it, being someone that likes a bit of a challenge with gaming and predominately plays RPG's like Zelda on a regular basis. However, after doing a bit of research into Story of Seasons, I decided I'd buy it and boy was I wrong for being skeptical!Its a lovely, relaxing and sometimes challenging game, focusing on you inheriting your grandfather's farm, raising crops, livestock and developing friendships with the folk of Mineral Town. The little characters are very sweet and I especially like the anime style art work that pops up for each character when a cutscene happens, and speaking of cutscenes, I like how they appear randomly and gives you insight into what each of the characters have going on in their lives (for example, Gray has an argument with his Grandfather in the Forge in front of you, then ends up apologising for it later on and eventually decides to start making his own things to push himself) as well as having the opportunity to answer questions they put to you which will improve your relationship with them -- depending on what you answer.The farm work itself in the first instance is pretty easy to follow once you've got the hang of the controls (it doesn't really tell you much about the controls until you start looking into the books at the library or in your house) and I really liked how you do actually feel like you achieve something with watering your crops and then when they sprout, you harvest them and can ship them off to make money, which really makes you feel like you've done a hard day's work! There's a variety of crops you can grow, animals you can buy and things to do when not farming: including fishing, mining, horse racing and festivals you can participate in on certain days, so once you've watered your crops, planted seeds and taken care of your animals you're good to go.Only thing that has been a bit of a snag is that the in game days fly by when you're playing, with every activity you do taking about 10 in game minutes to complete (say it's 7 in the morning and you water one square of seeds it will then be 7:10 am, then water another square and it will be 7:20am and so on) which is good in a way because it makes you really have to think about what you want to achieve in the day, but is also a little annoying for that same reason, because you might have done a load of things on your farm, realised you need to buy seeds only to realise it's too late and the shops are shut! However, that does give you incentive to sort of plan your days around that. Kind of a double edged sword really but still fun! :)You work through the seasons with different crops and situations being available depending on the time of year (I can't speak for any other season than spring as that's where I'm at but I like it so far) and each season the colours and the music are different to fit the season. Speaking of the colours of the game, it's stunning, it really makes you feel like you're wandering through a quaint little town and your farm. As for the music, it's again very relaxing, with accordions going in the background and making you feel chilled out, which is more than welcome at the moment.Overall, so far, I am really, really enjoying this game and am thrilled to pieces that I decided to ignore my initial skepticism and go for it as I know that I will be playing this game for a long time to come, as yes, it is pretty damn addictive what with all the things you can do, materials you can gather and various things you realise you've forgotten to do!Definitely worth a go for any farming fans out there or for those looking for something a little different to try out as it runs beautifully on the Switch Lite. :)Oh, and you also get stickers inside the box! Which is always a plus point in my book! :D

I wasn't sure if I would hate this, as the latest story of seasons games are annoyingly over-complicated, with everything taking up too much time to complete, and boring one-dimensional villagers.However, This game is the perfect blend of the older, farm-orintated-formula, gba Friends of Mineral Town and the newer modernised look of story of seasons. There are new in-game harvest goddess goals to work for,making progressiok more satisfying, along with farm and character stats.New animals, new love interests, 1 new vilager (van - yet to unlock) and the opportunity to date both sexes in one game, brings a fresh look to the old-favourite in the harvest moon series.Easier gameplay aspects thrown in; such as updated events with mini games, modernised farm methods and tutorials aplently in case you get stuck (which i skipped).Only con I found is they somehow made certain characters look worse. The woodcutter looks a fat hipster instead of a wolverine, muscled dude, the mayors hat looks idiotic, karen went from interesting to boring. Cliff is meh, and other characters...yeah they've had updates but could have been so much better. But the gameplay more than makes up for this -addictive and satifying. So needed this as games like Animal crossing are soo boring/slow after a certain point. A game you can choose to zoom through is also satisfying.

I played this as a child when it was just Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. This is such a great game and is still kept some of the themes in the game. You can get married, have children and maintain a farm. There is an option for easy mode as well just in case you want to casually play. I’m still playing it as we speak so no negative reviews from me.