Story of Seasons: A Great Life is definitely the third remake of the cutesy GameCube farming sim Harvest Moon: A Great Life. This PS5 remaster collates the brand new options added by the PS2 particular version and One other Great Life on the GameCube earlier than bringing the sport into the trendy day, and it largely succeeds in being a stand-alone expertise, in addition to a remake of a traditional title.
A Great Life begins because the participant inherits an deserted farm and travels from the town to begin a brand new life. Household buddy Takakura has scraped collectively sufficient cash to supply a small dwelling, a handful of seeds and a cow to get issues began. He does a terrific job at strolling gamers by their first couple of days as a farmer, clearly explaining all the fundamentals. Past that time, although, new options are both hidden behind notes buried in a menu, or they’re left to be found by trial and error. It is a unusual determination that unintentionally hides some components, particularly for newer gamers.
Crop rising works very equally to the unique model of the sport. Soil fertility, seasons, progress time, and crop watering all should be managed to cease crops from withering away, though a brand new fertilizer machine and the power to promote crops from the beginning make the method a bit simpler. The actual enjoyable begins when creating your personal crops by combining vegetables and fruit. Hybrid and strange crops will be offered for greater costs and there are various of them to find, so gamers are inspired to actively experiment to unlock all of the rewards the sport has to supply.
A number of of the livestock processes have additionally been streamlined, which makes it a smoother general expertise. Cows and goats don’t run out of milk, that means that it’s much less pressing to breed them. Livestock not will get sick or dies even when they’re ignored within the rain, merely affecting the standard of their byproducts as an alternative. This makes some options just like the well being bar and fodder redundant, however the entire course of is now extra enjoyable. Alternatively, it’s a bit simplistic when in comparison with video games like Stardew Valley and even final yr’s Doraemon Story of Seasons: Associates of the Nice Kingdom, each of which have been buoyed by their depth and all kinds of options.
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The distinction between A Great Life and different Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons video games is the sport’s emphasis lies extra in constructing a brand new life than it does in resurrecting the farm. Marriage is not non-compulsory and gamers must increase a toddler into maturity, making a refreshing change to characters which might be normally ignored after some time. The seasons and story chapters have been shortened to make them simpler to get invested in. Gamers can proceed for 30 in-game years, however solely essentially the most devoted will put within the tons of of hours required to come back near that, which leads to a sport with an honest quantity of stuff to do.
This story facet could not have modified in any respect, however there’s now a option to play as a male, feminine, or non-binary farmer with a small vary of look choices to additional customise the character. There’s then a selection of eight marriage candidates — 4 male and 4 feminine — whatever the farmer’s gender. It’s a far cry from the unique GameCube model the place the male farmer had a selection of three ladies to marry, ladies to marry, and this try to be extra inclusive is nice.
In addition to operating the farm, gamers can go fishing, cook dinner dishes, and even assist out on the close by archaeological dig. There are additionally new festivals and requests to finish for bonus rewards. For essentially the most half, every gives a welcome distraction since they alter up the sport’s routine. The exception is fishing which may grow to be repetitive for these making an attempt to unlock all the rewards, particularly as RNG performs such a big a part of the exercise.
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A Great Life, like all good remake, has loads of different quality-of-life modifications that make it greater than a easy repackaging. The graphics have obtained an overhaul extra befitting a PS5 sport and there’s now a digital camera that lets gamers seize key moments. A number of of the characters have modified names or appearances to extra intently match the unique Japanese model of the sport. There are nonetheless some minor bugs to be ironed out, equivalent to NPCs stopping interplay with close by squares on the archaeological dig, however on the entire, the remake is a definitive enchancment.
Story of Seasons: A Great Life overview: The ultimate verdict
Regardless of the enforced title change as a result of points over the rights to the Harvest Moon title, Story of Seasons: A Great Life has managed to deliver the GameCube sport kicking and screaming into the trendy age. Between the unique’s restrictions and the removing of among the extra in-depth options, it doesn’t handle to compete with extra fashionable and intensive farming sims like Stardew Valley. Regardless of its relative simplicity, although, A Great Life remains to be a calming expertise that builds upon the stable basis of the unique and is essentially the most complete model of the GameCube title to this point.
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Character creation and marriage choices now very inclusive
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Simplified course of make for a calming expertise
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Some options solely found by trial and error
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Not as complete as different modern-day farming sims
Disclaimer: This Story of Seasons: A Great Life overview relies on a PS5 copy supplied by the writer. Reviewed on model 1.000.000.