Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life has a Fullness meter, but it doesn't decrease quickly. In theory, some of this time should also be devoted to cooking, but I often only used my kitchen when I really needed to. It's easy to find yourself going to bed early to advance the calendar instead of utilizing every waking hour to maximize what you can get done. But in the wake of games like Stardew Valley, this level of activity is underwhelming. When the original version of this game came out, I'm sure this seemed like plenty to do. Even fishing and foraging can be done while you do other tasks around Forgotten Valley. The game encourages you to chat with everyone in town to help build your relationships with them, but their dialogue is often repetitive, and it takes almost no time to give them gifts from your inventory. Digging for artifacts can take as long as you want, but the process is slow and monotonous. Chatting with the forest spirits is also a quick errand. Doing your daily chores doesn't take long, especially once you start upgrading your tools. While the pronouns, customization, romances, and visuals have been updated, your daily life in the game hasn't received the same treatment. Unfortunately, A Wonderful Life's mechanics feel similarly shallow during your day-to-day loop. My young child had more unique dialogue for me than she did outside of cutscenes. After marrying Cecelia, she largely stayed in our house and repeated the same line about learning new things about housework over and over again. In addition, in-game spouses don't have much that's novel or interesting to say once you tie the knot. This takes away a potentially interesting element of small-town drama from the game and is also unsatisfying from a storytelling perspective. There are relationships already ongoing between some of the villagers when you arrive, which are then never really addressed if you decide to marry one of them. Since your courtship is barely a year long, you don't get much time to build an attachment to your future spouse. That said, these relationships are disappointingly shallow. I appreciate that A Wonderful Life removes the gender-locked nature of the original game's romances, meaning players can marry any eligible single in Forgotten Valley, opening the door for queer romances. Getting to know the other residents of your small town is key, as the game insists that you must get married to one of the local singles by the end of your first year there. Ideally, your daily loop includes tending your crops and animals, visiting the forest spirits to see if they have any new recipes for you, helping to dig at the archaeology site, fishing, foraging, cooking, and chatting with your neighbors around Forgotten Valley. These days last 24 real-life minutes, which doesn't sound long but can start to drag the longer you play. There are the usual four seasons in A Wonderful Life, and each lasts 10 in-game days. These notes are extremely useful in the early game, offering guidance when questions come up without forcing players to sit through a restrictive tutorial sequence.Īs you'd expect, you grow crops and raise animals whose products you can sell for profit. When you arrive, an old friend of your father gives you a tour of the farm and provides you with notes that serve as the game's tutorial. In what has become a staple of the farming sim genre, your character packs up and moves from the big city to the farm to live a quieter life. But note that you can't change your pronouns after the selection screen, so be sure of your decision before you depart. Once you settle on your name, look, and pronouns, you're ready to head to Forgotten Valley. You can combine any body type with any hairstyle or outfit you want. Beyond that, none of the clothing or hair options are gendered either. Players can customize their avatars with gender-inclusive pronouns, body, and fashion options. The customization suite is where the updated version exceeds its predecessor. Before claiming your inheritance, you must name yourself and decide your appearance. A Wonderful Life establishes each player as a young person who has inherited a farm from their father in a small town called Forgotten Valley. However, some significant changes have made it more inclusive for players. Releasing on modern consoles, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life initially looks like nothing more than an updated re-skin on the surface. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a remake of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life that straddles the line between these two philosophies fairly evenly but still delivers an outdated experience in various aspects. What's most interesting is seeing how these new versions handle the issue of completely rebuilding versus simply making modern visual improvements. Remakes and remasters are more common than ever in 2023.
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