Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life game review
Bringing farmwork and kooky characters, this classic remake is the perfect way to wind down after my 9-5.
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In a world where time doesn’t stop and life is just go-go-go, escaping the busyness even for just a second is important.
Enter: video game escapism. Just think – after a boring 9-5 where you spent all day crunching numbers, sending millions of emails or mindlessly typing – a cosy life-simulator game is exactly what you need for your 5-9 wind down.
The cosy-life simulator in question: Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life.
A remake of the widely popular 2003 GameCube game and OG farming simulator – Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a title that explores themes of farming, romance, friendships and ageing, and it doesn’t require any critical thinking skills – which is right up my alley.
Buy Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life:Nintendo Switch (physical) | Nintendo Switch (digital) | PlayStation 5 | Xbox Series X|S
Early beginnings
A Wonderful Life sees you, a young city kid, inheriting your late father’s farm in Forgotten Valley and with the help of his old friend Takakura, he tasks you with breathing new life into the farm and bringing it back to its former glory.
He provides you with notes that are extremely useful early in the game, you can look back on them whenever you need to and there’s no sitting through unskippable tutorials (IYKYK).
The game also follows four-seasons with each season lasting ten in-game days, meaning the days go by quickly (24-minutes in real-life time) so there’s really only so much you can do in a day.
Rise and grind
Raising livestock, planting seeds, harvesting and selling fresh produce, fishing, digging at the excavation site and completing villager requests are some tasks you can do to improve your farm and relationships and most importantly, make money.
Takakura will provide you with your first normal cow that will produce low quality milk, but you can improve the quality by regularly snuggling, brushing and feeding it. The same goes for your sheep, goats, and chickens – the better you treat them, the higher quality ingredients they produce.
For a cosy game though, there were a few times it made me feel rushed as the days are so short. So, to help me feel less rushed and get more out of my days, this is the routine I typically followed:
- Wake up at 6.00am (in-game)
- Head to the barn to care for the animals.
- Check on the crops and water them, harvest if ready and plant seeds – this is the most energy-consuming task so make sure to have food on hand for extra stamina.
- Head to the coop, feed the chickens and collect eggs.
- Head into town and visit Vesta, Matthew and Cecilia to buy more seeds and get crop advice.
- After that, I head to the excavation site to dig for some extra treasures and fossils.
However, I’ll also go fishing or fulfil villager requests for rewards whenever I feel like it and then repeat the same routine the next day.
The third and eighth day of each month are the most important days for making money.
Only on those days, Van the merchant will visit town to set-up shop and sell items like upgraded tools to help make your farming tasks less laborious. He is also the best person you can sell the things you’ve collected to as he’ll give you a great amount of money in return.
However, if you somehow missed out on seeing Van and need to make quick cash, you can set-up your own shop in Van’s usual spot and sell your items yourself. Just make sure people are walking around so that you have customers.
A better love story than Twilight
A Wonderful Life is a game that leans heavily into relationships and ageing, so getting married is an actual goal you must complete within the first year. Otherwise you will leave Forgotten Valley as a single pringle.
There are eight marriage candidates including Cecilia, a sweet farmhand, to Gustafa, a free-spirited musician, and you’re free to marry whoever catches your eye, regardless of gender.
And so, as a sucker for the brooding-boy-gentle-girl trope, it made almost too much sense for me to choose the reserved and unsociable Matthew aka the textbook example of a brooding boy.
I won his heart by visiting him everyday and giving him samples of my freshly picked fruits and veggies that he definitely liked.
After days of woo-ing him, he eventually proposed to me, in my house, with a blue feather – very romantic, I know.
And If we fast forward to several years later … We have a kid now!
The game surprisingly doesn’t suddenly end there though. For the rest of the game, you will have to simultaneously raise your child and grow your farm, and it will be like that until they grow up and your farm flourishes.
While it does seem difficult, it’s also fun and fulfilling – and after weeks of playing, that’s where I’m at right now.
So we’re looking at maybe another 30 years in the game and I’m keen to see what else is in store for me.
The verdict
As someone who loves wholesome cosy-sim games, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a game I personally enjoyed – it’s fun, cute, easy on the brain and in some ways, therapeutic. So if you’re new to video games and after a title that will help you relax after a busy day at work, A Wonderful Life is the one for you.
It’s the type of game you can stop playing for ages but easily pick back up because you know that there are more precious moments yet to be experienced – like watching your kid grow up.
While it does have its drawbacks like the repetitive day-to-day tasks, how shallow some of the characters’ backstory and dialogue can be, and the limited opportunity for exploration outside of Forgotten Valley – those are actually what make the game so easy to take in and play.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a simplistic title that boasts the virtues of peacefulness and encourages you to appreciate life’s simple pleasures.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Developer: Marvelous
Publisher: XSEED Games, Marvelous, Marvelous Europe Limited
Shop Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life: Nintendo Switch | PlayStation 5 | Xbox Series X|S | PC
Shop Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (Limited Edition): Nintendo Switch
A Nintendo Switch copy of Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life was provided and played for the purposes of this review.
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