Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a remake of the Harvest Moon game, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Game developer Natsume owns the Harvest Moon IP but the folks who actually worked on the games broke off to do their own thing and are now XSEED. They created the Story of Seasons series and remade the original A Wonderful Life under their new brand.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (let’s do SOS: AWL for short) takes the original game and makes some updates. Some are quality-of-life and make the game more convenient for the player; others are just for fun, like character redesigns.
Examples of some of the changes include:
- 4 villagers with new names
- Play as a man or woman
- Date men or women, no matter what gender you play as
- Choose what you sell at the market (shoppers used to be able to ask for your tools – literally what)
- Basic photography mode
- New names for hybrid crops and the ability to have special blue crops
- New character designs for some of the batchelors
Those are a few examples of new content you can expect from this game.
The Premise
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a farming simulation game much like the other entries in the Story of Seasons games. In the game, players assume the role of a young farmer who inherits a run-down farm from their father. The primary objective is to revitalize the farm, cultivate crops, raise livestock, and build relationships with the townspeople.
Key features of the game include:
1. Farming: Players can plant and harvest a variety of crops, take care of animals like cows, chickens, and sheep, and participate in agricultural activities to improve the farm’s productivity.
2. Time Management: The game follows a seasonal calendar, with each season offering different crops and events. Players must manage their time wisely to make the most of each season.
3. Relationships: Building friendships and even romantic relationships with the townspeople is an essential aspect of the game. Interactions with NPCs can lead to various events and story developments.
4. Aging Mechanic: In SOS: AWL, the protagonist ages over time, affecting how the story develops and what happens in the timeline. Players must plan for the future and consider who to marry and how to raise their child.
5. Quaint Art Style: The game features a distinctive cel-shaded art style that adds charm to its rural setting.
What Works
SOS: AWL does a lot of stuff well. It takes some risks, and they pay off.
Making money
SOS: AWL makes some interesting changes to the Story of Seasons format. It makes you earn money in three different ways: a shipping bin (typical), a visiting merchant (unique), and a self-led market stall (unique).
This makes the game harder, as many foraged items can’t be sold in the shipping bin. You have to navigate a merchant who only visits twice a month or a market stall that requires a few hours to attract buyers. Honestly, the challenge was welcome! I had fun being more strategic with the money-making process.
Time passing
SOS: AWL is meant to be played over the course of several in-game years. In most Story of Seasons games, you can complete the main story in 1-2 in-game years. A Wonderful Life encourages you to stick around for longer in order to get the complete experience. 10 in-game years, in fact, with time skips bringing you to 30 total years covered by the story.
As years pass, characters age and change in town. Your avatar gets older, as does your romantic partner and child. This is so refreshing, as most farming sims remain “frozen in time.” Kids don’t grow up, characters don’t change, the elderly never die. This story mechanic is one of the major draws of the game.
Achievements
The game has its own in-game achievements. Consider them side side quests. They are background noise that helps to keep you busy. Delivered by the harvest spites, they include things like getting X many animals or shipping X many crops. It’s an added element to keep you busy and completionists will love the chase.
However, they are totally optional. This means you can disregard them if they aren’t your flavor of gameplay. It’s a great balance between offering more content but not making it mandatory. You’ll get little gifts every so often if you complete them, though!
What Went Wrong
Like any game, SOS: AWL has its flaws. Unfortunately, it has more than the average farming sim, which is why I struggle to recommend the game outright.
Short months
In order for the “years and years pass in-game” story mechanic to work, each month is only 10 days. This is because the player needs to play around 10 in-game years to get the whole story. That’s 40 in-game months. Oof.
To make this manageable, months obviously must be shorter. But to make this work seasons are quite similar, with not too much changing around crops that grow or activities that can be performed. It’s a necessary evil to make the timeline work, but it’s not a welcome change.
It would almost be better to have the story completed over 3-4 years with larger time skips between each one. That way seasons could remain longer and more distinct, making the game less monotonous.
Not enough to do
For a game that asks you to hang in there for many, many in-game years, there just isn’t enough to do! And I mean both quantity and variety. You’ll water your crops, talk to the townsfolk, do the archaeological dig, and maybe set up a market stall. That’s just not enough variety to want to stick around for the extended storyline.
The game is notably missing a few key things that most farming sims offer: more/larger wilderness areas to explore; a mine system to chip away at; and/or multiple festivals per month. I was invested in the expansive timeline of the game and the touching story it told about growing up and changing with time. But it was rough trying to stay interested in the same few tasks every day.
You also are expected to feed your animals twice a day and water your crops twice a day. Again: just disappointingly repetitive.
Hybrid crops are tedious
Needing to maintain high levels of friendship with a weird alien plant is not my idea of a good time. Unfortunately, it’s necessary to have access to hybrid crop creation. The creature I speak of is named Vinnie and he (it?) is the only character in the game whose friendship level decays if you don’t interact with him.
You need to maintain this bond to create hybrid crops, as his two heads will consume them and spit out speeds with varying degrees of success. The hybrids often fail. Hybrid crops are needed for a ton of recipes so it really sucks to not get the one you need when you need it. Honestly, the hybrid crop system is more of a pain than it’s worth and the rewards for muddling through it aren’t that great.
They are required for getting the alarm clock, though. With it you can wake up at a set time and take naps to recover energy. Useful but annoying to obtain!
Conclusion
Unfortunately the bad outweighed the good for me with Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. The days are too monotonous for a game that expects you to stick around for so long to experience the full story.
I would recommend buying it at a discount if you are a die-hard Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon fan. For those new to the franchise, there are better games—save your money for those!
Who the game is for:
- Uber-fans of the Story of Seasons franchise
- Folks who can keep themselves entertained with self-led challenges and tasks
Who the game is not for:
- Players new to Story of Seasons games
- Players who like to be busy and need variety
- Players who don’t want to dedicate 100+ hours to get the full story (most farming sims wrap up in ~50-80)
Stay cozy, gamers!