Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar - Living for the Weekend in this Classic Remake

Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar is the latest entry in the renowned Marvelous Inc. and XSEED Games franchise. Marvelous has been on a cozy gaming high since Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma was well-received by both critics and fans alike. Grand Bazaar is actually a remake of the 2008 Nintendo DS title, Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar. This was before Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon were split between Marvelous Inc. and Natsume.

Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar released on 27 Aug, 2025 and currently sits at a Very Positive rating on Steam. I played this cozy farming sim on Nintendo Switch.

My Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar Experience

Hours played: 25hrs+
Rolled credits: No
Coziness rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar is a cozy farming sim on Steam and Nintendo Switch. Players will customize an avatar, move into a rundown/abandoned farmstead, and set to work cultivating crops, raising animals, and attending the weekly bazaar to improve Zephyr Town’s standing. The bazaar is what sets this game apart from others in the series, but I’ll talk more about that later.

Right off the bat, the character customization screen is pretty basic: two body types, 5 skin tones, 20 hairstyles, 22 eye colors, the ability to add moles/freckles/facial hair. You can change your appearance at any time using the mirror next to your bed. Nothing to write home about, but you should be able to create an avatar that gets the job done. There are a few African-coded hairstyles, too, which is always welcomed for a bit of diversity. There’s only one dark skin tone and, all things considered, it’s still a pretty light brown. I’m sure this surprises no one.

Like all the best cozy games of this nature, you start with hardly more than scrapes and build your farming empire up from there. One overgrown field is your starting point, where you can grow seasonal crops and eventually plant trees and flowers. You’ll eventually unlock more garden space, windmills for crafting, a barn and field for animals, mushroom logs, beehives, and more. In that way, Grand Bazaar will feel familiar to longtime farming sim fans.

Where the game differs is in the weekly bazaar. Every Saturday, players will have an opportunity to set up a stall at what amounts to a local farmer’s market. Here, you can customize your selling area to make more money or get certain bonuses, attract customers to your table, advertise trending products, and cater to customer needs. If you do well, this will be where you make the vast majority of your money. There’s a low-challenge minigame associated with each market that mostly consists of button mashing to sell products to waiting guests. There are some slight time considerations, as folks will leave if they aren’t served quickly enough. You can also rotate stock on-the-fly to better suit what people are asking for, which appears in a thought bubble above their head.

Each season will have a list of trending products—pickled items, red produce, bouquets, tree bugs, etc.—and selling those particular items will net you the highest profit that month. You can also collect, prepare, and sell a variety of goods according to your own volition.

There are also exclusive buying opportunities at each market. Want to unlock better soil, a new ability, or buy a pet? That all happens at the bazaar! It does make the town feel slightly empty Sunday-through-Friday, though. There’s not a lot to buy or sell without the once-weekly bazaar. So save up and plan your purchases right, or else you’ll be waiting another six days for a chance to progress.

Three windmills around town will serve as your main crafting locations, and they can do everything from grind wheat into flour to upgrade your tools to silver and gold variations (somehow). You’ll start with one working windmill on your farm and be given the option to unlock others as the story progresses.

Ranking up the bazaar is your ultimate goal. You’ll do this by hitting sales goals and encouraging others to open up new stalls (usually by doing a quest for them). As you level up, you’ll progress the main story, which is pretty uninvolved besides “get gud.” Still, being allowed to spend your time doing what you want has always been the draw of farming sims for me. The characters around town are charming, with more personality than other SOS/HM titles. Whenever I had a break in my hustle, I spent it giving gifts, chasing down cutscenes, and trying to romance a literal nature goddess. As one does.

There are a few elements that keep the game from feeling “perfect” to me:

It’s easy to get temporarily locked out of side-quests if you haven’t been focused on levelling up your collectables (crops, fish, foraged items, etc.)
Levelling up said collectables means giving stuff away for free to the harvest sprites, which is really time-consuming for things like fishing
Bronze, silver, and gold ores have a % drop rate, so you can break them all day every day and not be guaranteed anything useful

Some positive things that really stood out to me include:

Great quality-of-life enhancements, from teleportation to using the same tool for breaking stones and wood (hatchet)
Fully voiced cutscenes infused with personality that make the town feel more alive

Story of Seasons games have a gentler vibe than farming sims more like Stardew Valley, which I always appreciate as the hectic end-of-year rushes ever closer. I like sinking my time into mindless, calming tasks behind my screens, so that I can save brain power for a satisfying 2025 wrap-up.

The Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar remake quickly became one of my favorite modern SOS titles. I really like this trend of making old Story of Seasons games new again. I hope Marvelous keeps on this path to give us Magical Melody and Animal Parade, if they are able.

Final thoughts:

Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar in an easy, slow-paced farming sim with wholesome vibes
Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar focuses on a once-weekly market, leaving you to your own devices for the rest of the time
Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar is great for people who enjoy the modern Story of Seasons and harvest Moon games
Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar does not have any combat, and the game’s difficulty level skews easier

Stay cozy, gamers!

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