Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life review: This provincial life
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The farming sim genre has certainly come a long way, hasn’t it? Not so long ago, the Harvest Moon games were the only ones of their kind in town. Now, thanks in part to Stardew Valley and the new popularity of cozy life sim games, we have a number of different titles that fit that mold — you attune yourself to nature, grow crops or something similar, get to know the residents of your new hometown and eventually find someone to marry and settle down with.
In fact, the genre has flourished so much that I think it may have spoiled me. Marvelous, the longtime developer of the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons series recently released a remake of its GameCube-era title, A Wonderful Life. Playing the remake feels like going back to your hometown and realizing you don’t miss it as much you thought you did.
The story is a familiar one: You’re a city kid who inherits a farm in Forgotten Valley from your late father. When you arrive, his old buddy Takakura tasks you with bringing the farm back to its former glory. From that point, your character can spend years of in-game time doing exactly that, raising crops and livestock into a proper business. You also socialize with a small town’s population, finding one special someone with whom you can settle down into marriage and parenthood.
This all sounds very standard, right? That’s the problem: experiencing a cozy, rustic life may have been enough to sustain a game at the time of its initial release, but now that’s the bare minimum for this genre. At this point, most gamers will expect more from their farming sims, and they’re not getting it here. While it’s no longer Harvest
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