Return to PopoloCrois must be one of the most unexpected RPG revivals of 2016. PopoloCrois started as a manga but transformed in a cult game with several releases on the original PlayStation. The franchise is huge in Japan and people (especially women) have been asking for a revival for years. Well, 2016 marks the Return to PopoloCrois and combines the experience with Harvest Moon, or Story of Seasons.
Return to PopoloCrois
Unlike what the title suggests, the game doesn’t actually take place in the popular PopoloCrois, instead, you’ll control Prince Pietro to help him reach his home again. The heroic prince found himself transported to the world of Galariland. Things went south in Galariland, where everything is supposed to be peaceful, the world is overrun with darkness, transforming humans into Black Beasts. It’s up to Prince Pietro to stop this evil power and save the world once again. Of course, he doesn’t need to solve these problems alone. During the game, you’ll meet a lot of new characters joining your party.
Some famous PopoloCrois characters like the White Knight and Gamigami Devil make a return to the game but globally, the game tends to focus on the new, unfamiliar characters. That’s a shame since the characters are all incredibly cute and the interaction between them offers a lot of fun. During conversations, the characters aren’t afraid to show their geeky or stupid side and while running around in the world, the NPC’s will greet you cheerfully even if you didn’t start a conversation. The presentation of the characters is handled with care so it’s extra painful we didn’t see more of the original PopoloCrois cast return.
Harvest Moon light
First, let’s talk about the Story of Seasons side of the game. For those unfamiliar with the Story of Seasons games, be sure to read our review of the Story of Seasons Nintendo 3DS game. Story of Seasons is actually the new name of the Harvest Moon franchise, due to some legal issues; publishers have a hard time releasing a game under the Harvest Moon tag nowadays. That being said, Story of Seasons offers the same farming gameplay we all know and it’s included in this Return to PopoloCrois as well. Why? Probably to help sell a PopoloCrois game in 2016 since the actual farming doesn’t have that many benefits in this game.
Traditional RPG x Harvest Moon
Prince Pietro gets his hands on his first farm rather fast and will own several farms during his adventure. He can grow crops and keep animals to gain some resources. At first, handling your crops isn’t something you’ll like to do. Planting and harvesting goes slow and it takes several upgrades of your gear before you can interact with more than one crop at the same time. Once you’ve upgraded your gear, there’s certainly some fun to be found in the harvesting part but there’s no pressure at all. Unlike the main Story of Seasons games, there’s no need to stress out. If your vegetables are ready to be harvested, you can wait until you feel like it without the risk of rotten vegetables. Same goes for your animals that don’t seem to need that much love or food this time. It feels like the Story of Seasons aspect was created to help the game sell more copies instead of really adding something to the game.
Even the recipes needed to craft new tools can be gained in dungeons instead of harvesting. The only real purpose your farms have is producing little gifts to impress one of the twelve girls in town. That’s right, the dating aspect is back as well but again, doesn’t really serve a purpose.
The PopoloCrois gameplay
Since the Story of Seasons part isn’t handled that well and is actually even optional in the game, the classic PopolCrois gameplay did make a return. This means you’ll run around with your party of four members and encounter your enemies randomly. Once you enter the battlefield, you can move your characters over a certain grid. If you’re in attacking range, you can launch your attack and inflict damage. Typical for these games are the different skills of your members. You have tanks, healers and other specific RPG characters. The battles are quick and never offer a true challenge since you’re always able to defend against attacks and power-up your own attacks with the help of the other members in the party. It’s great to see that typical PopoloCrois gameplay back but it’s not exactly what we’ve hoped for.
The main problem with the system is that characters lack a decent progression system. Sure they level up but their skills never change drastically, instead, the game just throws a lot of new characters at you from time to time to keep your RPG thirst satisfied. Don’t get us wrong, the battle system still works after all those years but we had hoped for some better character development to be honest.
Exploration
The game offers a lot of different dungeons, varying from the small field dungeons to the bigger dungeons including bosses. Exploring these dungeons starts off great thanks to some fun mechanisms but after a while, you’ll remark that most of the dungeons offer the same task. There isn’t that much room for exploration since the game follows a set path, meaning you’ll need to get a certain item, defeat a boss, enter a new field dungeon and start over again in a different setting. This isn’t that big of a problem for fans of traditional RPG games but nowadays; we’re used to play more complex dungeon games. If you don’t mind to visit a lot of dungeons without many secrets, you’ll have no problem playing this game. If you’re looking for a game filled with hidden dungeons and other mysteries, this isn’t the one you’re looking for.
Presentation
This brings us to the last point worth discussing, the presentation. All in all, we must say that the cartoony look has been adapted rather well in 3D. The characters look ok and the environments look colorful and bright. The game offers some truly nice drawings in its cut scenes and the atmosphere feels right. Same goes for the music, peaceful when it needs to be or adrenaline pumping during combat. The characters are voiced in their original Japanese voices but you can change to a dubbed English version if you would like to. The dubbed version is actually done pretty well so you’ll never have to settle for less.
Conclusion:
Return to PopoloCrois: a Story of Seasons Fairytale is an interesting game that tries to combine the traditional PopoloCrois gameplay with the Story of Seasons gameplay. To be honest, the harvesting isn’t really necessary and doesn’t add that much to the game. That being said, the actual RPG elements feel very traditional and there’s little room for exploration. If you’re into classic RPG games, you’ll enjoy every second of this game but if you’re used playing modern RPGs, this one might disappoint. Be sure to check if it’s something you would enjoy before you get this one in stores.
