Mining is something that truly helps this game stand out from the Animal Crossing series since it adds a much-appreciated action and exploration aspect to things. There’s no magical medicine like in Animal Crossing to help it - you just need to have three meals a day to keep your body right and blend in light, healthy snacking throughout the day.īeyond farming tools being used to till the soil and cut down trees, hammers are used to fell giant rocks and prove to be your greatest ally when mining. Players have an old-school Zelda heart-based health bar and you do have to be mindful of over-exertion from working all day or else you’ll pass out. Fortunately, in-game, your main tools and things like consumables are all easily-accessed with d-pad commands but getting things properly mapped to them can be tricky. Olive Town leans heavily into early-game tutorials, which is fantastic since it ensures that you always have some idea of what to do - although the menu system can make switch between different tool bags cumbersome at times. You can work on building up your farm quickly or mix in farm work with friendship-building to increase your reputation in the city. The usage of a second of real-time as a minute of in-game time puts the onus on the player to be as efficient as possible with their time and players can do quite a bit with it depending on what aspect of the adventure they want to focus on. Here, there are quests to complete for various townspeople, but much of your time is spent in the game, like it is in life, with a work/life balance to try and work out day by day. The slice of life aspect to Story of Seasons helps it stand out from games like Animal Crossing, which do feature a veneer of that mainly put you on various quest loops. In that same respect, people like the grocers and hotel operators look less modern, but also work in the sense that they’re stuck in a time capsule and dress like it’s a different time. Most of the characters come across as a bit too defined by their jobs - but others, like the mechanics, stand out thanks to more modern-day attire. The town’s citizens build bonds with the player’s chosen character by offering their wares - but also their help at times. Olive Town gives players a lot to do, but breaks it down into highly-manageable chunks - making it a perfect gateway game into the farming/life simulation genre for those who haven’t played one or for lapsed fans. Re:Legend was one such game, but failed to mix combat with a life sim in a way that made it fun to stick with even though it made a strong first impression. There have been a ton of games like this out on the market, but most have fallen short of grabbing my attention like Olive Town has. It was interesting to come back to it now after a year of falling back in love with life simulation/slice of life games thanks to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Since 2014, the Story of Seasons series has been a blend of existing Harvest Moon games rebranded and new adventures that blend farming with a life simulation - and Pioneers of Olive Town is the latest adventure in the long-running series.
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