Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town /Switch

I really wanted to love this game as much as I loved the earlier ones but I just couldn’t do it.It is a meh game, it’s ok to play for a few hours but it hasn’t left any strong feelings either good or bad.The characters are bland and you don’t actually have to interact with them in any way to complete the main story arc of the game( obviously not if you want to get married)And the actual gameplay has been overly simplified for example whilst I loved the sprinkler at first which meant I did not have to manually water every crop every day, I began to miss the basic charm of having to do this.This was the same with caring for animals you just went up to them and pressed a to complete every action such as milking and petting there was no need to bother getting out the milkers or shears.There is not actually that much to explore either you have the farm and the town and a few other places which aren’t that interesting.Overall it is a good game to waste some hours playing but just know it won’t even be a fraction of the time you spent playing earlier games.

Is this the definitive Story of Seasons game? No. Is it fun? Yes.I have spent just over 30 hours playing this game. It is a game you can pick up, play for for one hour or five, and put it down and come back to it a day or a week later. It doesn't demand your attention or immediate completion, you can play at your own pace. Completion of the "story line" took me about 14 hours, but there is always more to be done. It is the calm monotony of doing farm chores, wooing the bachelor or bachelorette of your choice, perfecting your crops, and raising your animals that keeps you returning.A few issues I had with the game are the frame rate issues on your farm, especially when you have a lot of makers placed (I'll get to the makers). I assume this will eventually be patched to improve how it runs, but as of right now I still notice lag, it's not game breaking or unbearable but it is there and I wish it wasn't. Onto the makers, the makers are just quite annoying. The makers allow you to turn your resources into something else, eg. wood into lumber. The new resources created by the makers can be used to craft different things, complete requests in the town hall, unlock new areas, build new structures, or repair existing ones as you unlock them in new areas. These resources are important to progressing in the game. However, each maker only allows you to create one of each resource at a time. Some things take 2 hours to process, others take 12 hours. You can't stack lots of wood in one maker so it continues making lumber until it runs out. You'd have to come back to hours later, remove the one piece of wood and then reload it. This is time consuming and annoying. Not to mention the fact that you will most likely reach a point when you will want more than one of a single type of maker so you aren't waiting forever making one piece of lumber at a time. Then you have the problem of an area of your farm just being cluttered with all these makers that you have to individually load and unload. It looks cluttered and unattractive, wastes time loading and unloading them all, and things finish making at different times so if you really want to maximise how much you can produce, you have to come back to your makers multiple times throughout the day. I am definitely not the only person bothered by the makers, and this seems to be one of the biggest problems most people have the game, I live in hope they will patch some sort of solution to this eventually.The museum, the museum is basically a poor attempt at what Animal Crossing New Horizons has done so beautifully. You have very little reason to wander around the basic looking museum. You can donate things but really the only reason I fill my museum is that the completionist in me demands I do. I never look at the museum once I add things. I looked around it once when I first entered the museum, thought it looked quite boring and never looked again.Onto the characters, they don't really have much personality. They repeat the same phrases over and over, yes there are heart scenes and little bits of story line, but you can very easily miss or ignore this part of the game if you don't actively try to unlock them. That aside, it is nice that they allow you to marry someone of the same gender now.The events/festivals are still here, but somehow they are lacking compared to what was in the previous Story of Seasons titles. Some are just long cut scenes where you barely participate/do anything. I found them all quite boring.The animals however are adorable, the best they've looking in any Story of Seasons title. Not having to carry around a milker, brush, clippers or some other item for animal care is lovely. Just being able to click on the cow and have it be milked it a great quality of life improvement.The space this game gives you for your farm is great, you get three different areas where you can grow your crops, place your barns and coops or...create an industrial nightmare with your 100 makers. The added benefit of being able to place things where you want, craft pathways, fences, plants and other decorative items is a great addition to the game. It allows you to create the farm you want. I'd also like to add, along with the customization, the game does not force you to do anything you don't want to. Don't want to grow crops? You don't have to. Don't want to raise animals? You don't have to. These things are not required to progress in this game.My closing thoughts, if you just want a relaxed farming simulator and don't care about the story, this is the game for you. If you're here for a great story and pristine graphics, maybe skip this one. Or at least wait for some issues to be patched. For me though, I'm sure I'll continue to return to this title, especially as there is DLC coming. It is not the perfect game, there are issues, but I don't find any of them significantly impact my enjoyment of the game. They are just things I wish the developers did better, or eventually patch, and if they don't I can get past it and still enjoy the monotony of this calming, cute and relaxing farming game.

I've never not enjoyed a farm game, but SoS:PoOT is now the first. I wasn't expecting great graphics or impressive mechanics, and I was aware of the criticism of excessive 'makers' the game required... but with a low bar set this still managed to slide under it. I even bought & downloaded the dlc thinking that might offer more but it was a waste. Everytime I play I end up stressed and frustrated and that's the opposite of what I want.Put simply- it's too fast. The amount of time that passes per day is completely out of balance with the time it takes to perform basic farm maintenance tasks, let alone allow you to explore the rest of the game. You have to choose one or the other- it felt like I was forced to forego farming altogether to make progress on the storyline. It isn't a lack of stamina bar, or low skill values either. Even maxed out with sprinklers and lots of paths laid to stop overgrowth: I was continually racing to let all my barn animals out, collect dairy, eggs, forage and clear stone & tree growth/puddles, and when possible to harvest/plant crops before 2am. Attending festivals wipes out the entire day on your farm as well. Not to mention ending up with absurd numbers of timeworn objects that clutter the inadequate (unsynced) storage system... the weirdly limited schedules for shops... and the frequent graphic lags because it can't keep up with itself...It was just. stressfull. all. the. time. I took a break and went back to it. I searched for tips- but there is no way to fix the problem. (Would adjustable speed have been that difficult?) I've completely stopped trying to play this game. It's a wide miss and I really tried not to let it be. It's the only farm game I've played that I would never recommend.

Dont expect the same charm as the original harvest moon game play. The game iyself is playable and mechanics are simple enough to follow. But some task are tiring esp no to little rewards on clearing out weeds and trees and makers are a nightmare. Otherwise good to pass your time for a farming game

Omg I am literally addicted to this game. It's so good. It's a must buy if you love games such as animal crossing and stardew valley!