Pros:
-Characters are uniquely developed during the games story
-Farm upgrades feel like they take a bit, which adds prolonged playability
-Plenty of side adventures to complete such as friendships, relationships, fishing, etc.
Cons:
– The game is very slow starting out
-Tends to take control from the player during tutorials
-Tutorials lasted roughly 20 hours, which is a bit much
-Story progress is slow to start, sitting between 5 to 10 hours before unlocking other chapters.
Ever wondered what a game would be like where repetition, time management, and a lot of tutorials would be like over the span of between 15-20 hours? This is the welcoming players are in for with this Harvest Moon spiritual successor. If it hadn’t been for my curiosity, it’d been easier said than done to shut down my Nintendo 3DS, and simply walked away for any other title of the genre.
Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns is a coming of age progression title. One that offers multiple options for you to explore as you play. In the game, you start out at odds with your characters father. In effort to prove him wrong, you step out into the world in order to become a great father, and set the record straight in this dispute.
This rhetoric isn’t uncommon for the spiritual successor series of Harvest Moon, as even the previous titles put you at odds for some odd reason, and luckily for fans of the once Natsume developed/published games, you’re finally getting to see the first ‘true’ installment . Luckily for fans, XSeed Games began to get localization underway for the Story of Seasons series and gave us this fortunate title.
This game is the very one where you find yourself in the first 15 to 20 hours learning your multitude of tasks with the help of your uncle Frank, who has decided to take you under his wing in Westown. Unfortunately or many, these exhaustive tutorial’s , you can find yourself cringing as you’ll find yourself going through the games first hour before even using your first hoe. It doesn’t slow down there at all either, it’s a tight leashed road ahead as you move through the game, but eventually it does begin to let off a bit as you learn the basics of the game.
Luckily within the first forty hours you’ll find yourself going through an exhaustive list of things to learn such as fishing, additional towns, managing your time, and even how to manage your stamina as you do have limited stamina per day. The problem here? It all moves at a glacially slow pace. One that is slow enough many could quite easily drive players into an onset form of annoyance and turmoil as they trudge forth in order to attempt enjoying their game. Luckily, the largest issue with the game finds itself being coerced away from players by players being able to select the slightly more difficult, but more-so annoying than ever, tutorials do so to pop up once in a blue moon. Luckily, this does make them seem like a distant thing of the past that won’t harass you any farther than it already has.
The hardest part aside from the tutorials is keeping up with your stamina at the beginning of game. This nuance is tiresome. Painfully tiresome due to the fact you only have the restaurant to visit in order to replenish it. Once you have your cooking skill, it does become easier to plan out each of your days. Even after 48 hours, however, it felt that the story had barely progressed forth in covering any of the elements it should have.
Thanks to a diverse cast of NPC’s, the game remained interesting, giving, and quite enjoyable for the most part. This isn’t just because NPCs are treated as NPC’s. The NPCs are treated like real people who you will find yourself stopping by to talk to as your adventure goes on. You’ll learn what they like, what their skills are, and you’ll even find out what they dislike in order to deepen your relationship with them. As you become friends with them, you ind yourself wrapped up in their diversity and what they bring to the table for you to enjoy.
This helps bring life into each of the towns since new tasks, new goals, and even a variety of new farming must-haves become available for you to do. This includes new farming equipment and more to add to your farm. Just remember, managing your time is key, and each of your days has limited time for you to enjoy.
Because of this, you will find yourself moving through new clothing options, new customizations for your farm, but also keeps the days from being rather drab. Because there is so much to do, the game offers replayability like any other, but doesn’t fully separate itself from the first twenty hour nuance, which shouldn’t exist, or even be apart of the game for that matter.
If you can huff your way to the finishing like for Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns, you’ll find yourself amazed by how far you’ve come and the tasks you completed. Fortunately for Harvest Moon fans? This game hits the nail on the head when it comes to being a true successor. Unfortunately for new comers, this may be the game that drives them away, and pushes them to something a bit more simple such as Stardew Valley.
Our review is based upon a retail version of the game given to us by the games publisher. For information about our ethics policy please click here.
Final Score: 6 out of 10
About the Writer:
Chris Adee is one of B.A.T.G.R.’s JRPG writers who seems to love three things. Sleep, games, and MOBA’s. He also likes Warframe. A lot. Oh and anime. Did we mention anime?