Welcome to our review of Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, a game that made me fell helplessly doing chores at times.
Experience the joys of life on the farm in this reimagining of a timeless STORY OF SEASONS classic!
Your farming life begins in Mineral Town, a charming village surrounded by nature. You’ve returned after many years to restore your late grandfather’s farm to its former glory. Care for crops, livestock, and more as your very own story of seasons unfolds.
As I mentioned in my preview, I dislike chores and well, that is the main premise of playing a game like Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon and so many more examples of the broader genre. I do like them when I have a clear story to follow and everything just makes sense.
That is where Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town went wrong in my gameplay. Sure, you meet a lot of new people and get to earn money from your crops, but where does it lead you? I somehow seemed to have missed what I was supposed to do at first and it left me clueless for around an hour of gameplay.
Apparently I was supposed to look up someone, but the silly part being that the stores have opening and closing hours. When I did go into town, that specific shop was closed and thus I missed not only what to do but also ended up cleaning up my entire field for as far as possible and it just felt like wasting my time even more.
I am not dissing on the game, I am equally to blame for not paying proper attention, but the thing is, I was searching for a mechanic or a way to just see what I was supposed to do but failed to find this. I would like for more games to implement this, a way to see what the next target is. Whether you are supposed to harvest wheats in order to gain money to buy a new pickaxe, it would be so welcome. IF I totally missed where it was, hit me up on Facebook in the comments! I would much appreciate any assistance and rereview the title.
There were also things that I did enjoy, aside from earning money, the town was fun to hang out in. Like I mentioned in my preview, I got invited to dinner by two nice folks and these kinds of fun experiences do set games apart from others. Sure; the gameplay is important but this entire “fitting in”, I love it.
Graphically, all games of this genre more or less look the same because it is just easier than make a game like this look realistic. This comic-style graphics also look great. Mechanically, I only saw good things and despite my bad experience in regards to not finding out what to do next, I do admire the dedication behind this game.
It is very clear that the developers spent their time and love while making this game, just sadly it did not click as much with me. The longer I played, the more I was leaning towards stopping my gameplay. My initial positive impression just took a hit and it never recovered afterward…
In conclusion, it is always sad when something happens to ruin your fun experience while playing a game and despite the fun that others will certainly have with this game. I can not say I had fun. I always call these games the chore-games and it was true to a certain extent for this one. I wish it kept clicking. Kind of disappointed myself.
