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Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is a classic title that was released for the Nintendo Gamecube back in 2004 which quickly gained popular among fans. Fast forward to 2023, this title is now more accessible than ever with the upcoming remake – Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life combines all of the well-liked additions and features from the original game, the Special Edition, and Another Wonderful Life edition. While the title is now a Story of Seasons game instead of a Harvest Moon game, it still retains core elements of the original aside from some character redesigns.
Nostalgic Returns
Players begin their story by picking their gender of choice and then customising their playable character. Speaking of, players are able to pick between a selection of face types, skin types, hairstyles, hair colours, and eye colours. While the customisation options are comparatively limited as compared to other titles, each customisation type is unique and adorable enough to make you be quickly attached to it.
A Wonderful Life begins on your father’s farm in Forgotten Valley, which has a dog, a cow, and an empty field. This is your box standard start for most Harvest Moon games, and this is also where your mentor figure would teach the players how to farm, bond with the local townspeople, and essentially leading and honest and hardworking life.
The original game had an overarching plot which lasted for 30 years as our playable character got married, had a child, aged, and eventually passed away, with their child choosing a different career depending on how the player raises them. That was what made the original title remarkable as it was the first in the series which introduces this mechanic.
In order to keep up with more recent farming games out in the market, this remake has gone through a graphic overhaul with fresh new artwork, animations, and a choice between the more modern chibi design or the more traditional avatar style.
Personally speaking, I’m a big fan of the new look and adorable graphics that the game has going on with this remake.
It’s an Honest Life
While our options when first starting the game are very limited, there’s still a lot of things to learn, like including how to work in the fields, taking care of animals, and interact with the villagers. It can get a bit overwhelming to immediately grasp every aspect of the Harvest Moon series if this is your first entry to the series.
One thing I can suggest to newer players is just to not rush into things. Take your time with things and broaden your range of activities until you find your pace and be more accustomed to the farm life.
A lot of the mechanics from the original game work similarly in the remake. Players can grow a variety of crops that includes vegetables, fruits and trees, while also having the option to use crop fusions and create hybrid crops.
Players can also raise a variety of livestock which includes chickens, ducks, cows, and sheep. The players can also get a free horse from Takakura, the friend of our player’s father, and even buy a goat. Cows also come in a variety of different colours and even produce different kind of milk.
On top of all that, you can customise your farm by adding buildings and machines such as the seed maker to make your daily farming process smoother. Last but not least, you can even go fishing, mining, and forage items in the valley.
Players start off with almost nothing, and you’re mainly by yourself. You’ll start off by tilling the ground while first earning some cash by selling weeds and other items that are available for us.
The Citizens of Forgotten Valley
Given that Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a farming game, having a productive farm while having social interactions are what makes it fun. While taking a break from the routine farm work, we get to meet all kinds of interesting people in the valley while participating in brand-new experiences.
The interactions with the locals are one of the game’s main features. Compared to earlier games in the series, the villagers’ personality is a tad more interesting and doesn’t feel as hollow. To get us invested in those minor characters, you can take up resident quests which can be picked up on the Bulletin board which details a bit of their personal story.
Some of the NPCs have pretty good backstories and it honestly feels like each of the characters have their own lives even outside of our interactions with them, which makes them even more relatable. That took me by surprise because most sim games usually make NPCs look pretty lifeless and uninteresting, but not in this game though.
However, while interacting with the locals is all fine and dandy, it’s rather disappointing that there’s no voice acting in the game. You’re only able to feel the immersion purely by text since the visuals don’t convey their emotions as well.
Raising a Family
Another significant aspect for sim farming games like these would be the romance. Once you have your heart set on a partner, regardless of gender, you can enjoy yourself by wooing them, getting married and having children with them.
Players in A Wonderful Life can go through the protagonist’s life at various points, which is something that is not done in other Story of Seasons games. You can make decisions as you raise your child from birth to adulthood, and those decisions have an impact on how the child develops. It does takes hours of gameplay for players to get to that point in their lives, but at the same time it provides more plot outside of the main gameplay loop.
The slice-of-life farming genre is known for their slow-paced start but being progressively rewarding, which mimics the real challenges of building up towns and raising a child. Because of this, the games includes progressively more difficult challenges that encourage players to work toward long-term goals.
Less is More
While quality of life features often times are welcomed, for Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, it does make the game a lot more easier. Depending on how you view games, this could either be a good or bad thing. The shortcuts used for your tools or other items in your backpack function as intended to ease tediousness.
An instance being the experience is significantly improved because we don’t have to pause the game to access key features. We can quickly access bag compartments, press triggers to quickly access all of our tools, and even view the location of various characters on a map when we need to find them. Ringing the bell at our farm can also bring out all the animals to the field instead of needing to take them out one at a time.
These little things may not seem like much, but together, they make for a pleasant and enjoyable gameplay experience. Because of that, the game feels much less serious and harsh. We won’t need to worry about losing stamina because we don’t waste it as much which opens up for more time to do other tasks.
While this may be a good thing for other players, I’m personally the opposite as it makes the game feel a lot more simple. Given that this title is a simulation game, the quality of life updates make the overall gameplay feel much more monotonous with fewer activities to manage.
To me, I enjoy the early-game grind because it should be the most difficult and interesting part of Story of Seasons. However, now that it’s gone, the early game grind takes away the challenging aspect of the game.
Verdict
All in all, this remake version of A Wonderful Life manages to bring all the charm of one of the most cherished entries in the long-running farming series. The remake does the original game justice by maintaining the gameplay that made it popular and adding new events to keep players engaged. It also brings about some much-needed quality of life improvements, making it a good entry point for beginners.
But as I previously brought up, the quality of life removes the challenging aspects of expanding the farm and making the game feel too easy. Additionally, the lack of voice acting from the NPCs makes the game feel a lot less immersive.
However, if you don’t mind all of that, the game will definitely be a pleasant title for both new players as well as veteran Harvest Moon fans.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life was reviewed on Nintendo Switch, game code provided by the publishers
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life will launch on 27th June for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
The Review
Story of Season: A Wonderful Life
PROS
- Various Quality of Life Updates
- More events and animations to enjoy
- Real improvements to the raising a child gameplay
CONS
- Lack of voice acting makes the game feel less immersive
- QoL additions makes the game less challenging
