Story of Seasons: Pioneers Of Olive Town (Nintendo Switch)

I love the story of seasons games and this one has a really beautiful art and play style compared to some others. It’s not a demanding game so you can come back to it whenever you want and take your time whilst your playing to fully enjoy it.There’s something almost therapeutic about rebuilding your own farm and building relationships with the cute little townsfolk.Overall, decent game for the price and it’s something pretty much everyone can enjoy.

One of the best games I have played from the Story of Seasons / Harvest Moon franchise. Cool villagers, cute love interests, and lots of extra challenges outside of the main storyline.

This game is amazing, I used to play Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons on the DS but this is massively better and perfect for the switch. There's so much to do and it's so peaceful and cosy. I definitely recommend for fans of Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing and my time at Portia

Is this the definitive Story of Seasons game? No. Is it fun? Yes.I have spent just over 30 hours playing this game. It is a game you can pick up, play for for one hour or five, and put it down and come back to it a day or a week later. It doesn't demand your attention or immediate completion, you can play at your own pace. Completion of the "story line" took me about 14 hours, but there is always more to be done. It is the calm monotony of doing farm chores, wooing the bachelor or bachelorette of your choice, perfecting your crops, and raising your animals that keeps you returning.A few issues I had with the game are the frame rate issues on your farm, especially when you have a lot of makers placed (I'll get to the makers). I assume this will eventually be patched to improve how it runs, but as of right now I still notice lag, it's not game breaking or unbearable but it is there and I wish it wasn't. Onto the makers, the makers are just quite annoying. The makers allow you to turn your resources into something else, eg. wood into lumber. The new resources created by the makers can be used to craft different things, complete requests in the town hall, unlock new areas, build new structures, or repair existing ones as you unlock them in new areas. These resources are important to progressing in the game. However, each maker only allows you to create one of each resource at a time. Some things take 2 hours to process, others take 12 hours. You can't stack lots of wood in one maker so it continues making lumber until it runs out. You'd have to come back to hours later, remove the one piece of wood and then reload it. This is time consuming and annoying. Not to mention the fact that you will most likely reach a point when you will want more than one of a single type of maker so you aren't waiting forever making one piece of lumber at a time. Then you have the problem of an area of your farm just being cluttered with all these makers that you have to individually load and unload. It looks cluttered and unattractive, wastes time loading and unloading them all, and things finish making at different times so if you really want to maximise how much you can produce, you have to come back to your makers multiple times throughout the day. I am definitely not the only person bothered by the makers, and this seems to be one of the biggest problems most people have the game, I live in hope they will patch some sort of solution to this eventually.The museum, the museum is basically a poor attempt at what Animal Crossing New Horizons has done so beautifully. You have very little reason to wander around the basic looking museum. You can donate things but really the only reason I fill my museum is that the completionist in me demands I do. I never look at the museum once I add things. I looked around it once when I first entered the museum, thought it looked quite boring and never looked again.Onto the characters, they don't really have much personality. They repeat the same phrases over and over, yes there are heart scenes and little bits of story line, but you can very easily miss or ignore this part of the game if you don't actively try to unlock them. That aside, it is nice that they allow you to marry someone of the same gender now.The events/festivals are still here, but somehow they are lacking compared to what was in the previous Story of Seasons titles. Some are just long cut scenes where you barely participate/do anything. I found them all quite boring.The animals however are adorable, the best they've looking in any Story of Seasons title. Not having to carry around a milker, brush, clippers or some other item for animal care is lovely. Just being able to click on the cow and have it be milked it a great quality of life improvement.The space this game gives you for your farm is great, you get three different areas where you can grow your crops, place your barns and coops or...create an industrial nightmare with your 100 makers. The added benefit of being able to place things where you want, craft pathways, fences, plants and other decorative items is a great addition to the game. It allows you to create the farm you want. I'd also like to add, along with the customization, the game does not force you to do anything you don't want to. Don't want to grow crops? You don't have to. Don't want to raise animals? You don't have to. These things are not required to progress in this game.My closing thoughts, if you just want a relaxed farming simulator and don't care about the story, this is the game for you. If you're here for a great story and pristine graphics, maybe skip this one. Or at least wait for some issues to be patched. For me though, I'm sure I'll continue to return to this title, especially as there is DLC coming. It is not the perfect game, there are issues, but I don't find any of them significantly impact my enjoyment of the game. They are just things I wish the developers did better, or eventually patch, and if they don't I can get past it and still enjoy the monotony of this calming, cute and relaxing farming game.

Came quicker than expected which was amazing as bought as a last minute Christmas present! The person it was got for has been absolutely obsessed with the game!

Arrived on time. Enjoying the game still as it can be addictive. Had to stop as I was easily spending hours. This the types of games I enjoy but the feeling may not be same for others. All in all happy with purchase.

If you love harvest moon/ story of seasons you won’t be disappointed with this one! A little annoying with the new product machines as they clutter up your farm & take hours to produce what you want. The whole cast are fun & different. Very addictive gaming

The game is so relaxing and chill. A lot to do. Graphics are insane.