Story of Seasons: A Fantastic Life is supposedly a laid-back farming sim remake, but it surely jogged my memory how onerous video games was.
Want To Know
What’s it? A basic farm sim remake with a slower tempo
Launch date June 27, 2023
Count on to pay $50/£35
Developer Marvelous Inc
Writer Xseed Video games
Reviewed on Nvidia RTX 2070 Tremendous, 32GB RAM, Intel i7 8700K
Steam Deck Unverified
Hyperlink Official web site
As I stand in a subject of 36 wilted turnips, the seeds for which price most of my financial savings, my farmer’s eyes are pinched in a pained expression as a result of I’ve not eaten in days. I will not have the money for brand new turnip seeds till subsequent week as a result of my cow, unbeknownst to me, hasn’t eaten just lately both, and she or he’s producing poor high quality milk I can barely promote for a pittance. Life in Stardew Valley isn’t this dire.
A Fantastic Life is a remake of the 2004 Harvest Moon with the identical subtitle, and begins as all the fashionable farm sims impressed by the sequence nonetheless do, with a younger grownup from town transferring out to the countryside to take over a household farm and construct friendships, a household, and revenue. It instantly places different latest Story of Seasons PC releases to disgrace with cute, larger high quality graphics, although it does sand the perimeters off previous character designs greater than I might like.
It comes with trendy enhancements like:
- Motion controls that do not make me wish to scream
- A selection of pronouns
- Eight complete marriage candidates mashed collectively from the “boy” and later “woman” variations of the unique launch
- The imminently necessary capacity to leap over fences as a substitute of strolling round them
What it would not modernize is the cussed opacity of the unique, a sport that was meant to return with a printed “How To Play” handbook tucked in its field which I believe additionally glossed over the identical particulars because the in-game ideas menu. This high quality of A Fantastic Life almost pissed off me into giving up the farm till, like a metropolis child discovering romance within the valley, it received over my begrudging affection for its idiosyncrasies.
Cult-ivated basic
The essential tenants of A Fantastic Life will likely be acquainted to trendy farm life sim gamers: Every morning I get up round 6 am, cuddle every of my chickens, milk the cows, let all of the animals outdoors into the pasture, spend about half my day’s stamina watering crops, after which resolve whether or not I am going to use my afternoon to ship items to extend my friendship with the locals, go fishing, or dig up relics within the archeology web site.
A Fantastic Life makes clear that it is actually a simulation of a lifetime, not the crafting, hoarding, and optimizing video games I’ve grown accustomed to.
Throughout my first spring on the farm I develop a modest crop of tomatoes and watermelons, saving up the 1,000 gold to purchase a second hen. I am candy on the bar waitress Molly who additionally moved to the valley from town and after studying that she likes the Moon Ore I discovered on the dig web site, I spend two afternoons digging up extra. My first season’s progress fools me into pondering I am going to rapidly save up for extra animals and farm services.
My first summer time places me in my place.
I faint in my subject one afternoon, having eaten so little I could not water all my crops in a day. I might left my cow Ginger in the same state, not realizing that my pasture didn’t have any lengthy grass for her to eat. Her well being had fully depleted by midsummer, leaving me to exploit her for simply 4 bottles of the bottom high quality milk per day. No person desires this milk. Apparently I do not even need this milk: I am unable to promote it in my transport bin and even prepare dinner with it and it sells for a paltry 10% of regular high quality milk even when I do handle to hawk it at my market stall on the town. Then I foolishly failed to select my turnips on time, losing a subject of crops. It took till mid-Autumn to repair my errors and to lastly work out that A Fantastic Life was telling me to decelerate. Lots.
That tempo is the place A Fantastic Life makes clear that it is actually a simulation of a lifetime, not the fast-tracked crafting, hoarding, and optimizing video games I’ve grown accustomed to.
Every season is just 10 days lengthy, a lot shorter than the 28 most present video games go for, although that is for the perfect because the story takes place throughout a number of years as I get married, have a baby, and watch the village residents change. The shorter seasons give me simply sufficient time to reap just one or two teams of crops earlier than the following. Discipline house is proscribed and shopping for further animals feels costly initially, so revenue comes at an equally sluggish tempo.
However it’s variety in some areas: A Fantastic Life is not squeezing me to pay for crafting sport luxuries like an even bigger backpack and simply offers me a beneficiant 40 slot stock immediately. As a substitute I am incentivized to save lots of throughout seasons for main farm upgrades like a dairy processing room, which has such a prohibitive 150,000 gold price ticket that I really really feel much less burdened figuring out I am unable to probably afford it for a pair years. I am unable to even splurge on higher instruments till my first summer time. It isn’t till 12 months two that I unlock hybrid crop breeding or think about breeding any of my animals. All issues are available time in A Fantastic Life.
A lot as each different farm sim is a couple of metropolis child adjusting to pastoral life, all of them enable me to proceed dwelling at a metropolis tempo
With that lesson realized the onerous means, I begin to see all the opposite methods A Fantastic Life desires me to remain attuned to the main points of farm and city life. It would not have storage to craft so I can set up my fleet of chests and crops. As a substitute I pay shut consideration to my slowly rising herd of cows, breeding my first one when mandatory so she continues to supply milk, separating her from the remainder of the herd when she’s near giving start, and hand-feeding her calf with mom’s milk.
Rain and solar come and go at random, not each day, so an early spring bathe could save me from watering crops till night however a day bathe will see me operating house to let my cows again into the barn so they do not catch a chilly. Cooking is inspired, however promoting meals would not flip a revenue, so components are higher used to make myself a hearty meal or put together a present for a buddy. Fish, foraged vegetation, and dig web site finds cannot be offered in my nightly transport bin so I’ve received to both await the 2 days a month native service provider Van is on the town or arrange my very own stall and stand there all afternoon ready to promote gadgets to passerby as if I am in an precise farmer’s market. It is the exercise that appears most ripe for extra modernizing within the remake, however actually I respect the dedication.
As the times flip to years in Forgotten Valley, I’ve slowly constructed up max hearts with my cows Ginger, Macha, and Chai so that they produce high quality milk and had them start calves for me to promote as effectively. I’ve lastly realized that Matthew and Gordy, who each began with decrease than common friendship scores, take pleasure in items of milk and “fast pickles” respectively. I’ve purchased new toys for my daughter Millie and although I dream of her taking over the household farm, Molly’s baby is predisposed to athletics as a substitute. I’ve introduced house cooked meals for the New Yr’s celebration and witnessed a laid-back neighbor try and flirt with the city’s wealthy woman. My farm makes extra revenue by far than that first ill-fated summer time, however I’ve received no purpose to chase maximizing or automation.
I used to be cautious of nostalgia once I began A Fantastic Life. I reduce my enamel failing at it on my GameCube however its seminal standing alone is not sufficient to suggest it over a flourishing choice of trendy farm sims. There isn’t any arguing that Stardew Valley, although closely impressed by Harvest Moon, set the script for contemporary farmlife sims with fight, crafting, and a variety of management over the structure of your property. However a lot as each farm sim is a couple of metropolis child adjusting to pastoral life, all of them enable me to proceed dwelling at a metropolis tempo: obsessively optimizing income, dominating fight within the mines, and stumbling house simply earlier than passing out at 2 am.
A Fantastic Life is the primary that is correctly pressured me to cool down and I’ve discovered its give attention to slowly and punctiliously tending my farm is not defunct; it is a completely different pressure of sim that deserves to bloom once more after being left fallow for therefore many seasons.
