Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

You can easily get yourself lost in the world of Olive Town - I’ve already spent more than 50 hours cultivating a farm that's entirely unique to me. Whether you want a relaxing time or a challenge, this is the game for you; Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is so malleable that it'll work for everyone.

For fans of the genre, Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is a great example of a life/farming sim at its finest. There’s a mixture of everything here: farming, town building, exploration, relationship building, fishing, cooking, crafting – and it’s all blended together so well. If you’ve got the time to sink into it and you’re looking for something seriously relaxing, you really can’t go wrong.

If you are predominantly a PC gamer, you might not be familiar with the Story of Seasons franchise, but you’ve probably heard of the series’ original name – Harvest Moon. The highly influential classic inspired other bestsellers such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, among many other farming-based games. The franchise had to change its name due to copyright reasons with the publisher they left behind, but rest assured, the original devs are creating Story of Seasons.

For better or worse, Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is exactly what you'd expect from the series. If you're a fan of farming games like Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley, be sure to check this one out.

Pioneers of Olive Town recognizes it does not need to reinvent the plow to present a full, relaxing, pleasant farming game. Aside from its sprawling size, there is not much novel about collecting materials, upgrading tools, clearing land, raising animals and crops, and befriending the townspeople – and there doesn't need to be. It is enough to simply have a wealth of interesting things to plan out and do, colored by ridiculously cute animals and interesting characters and fleshed out with piles of new things to unlock over 30 hours and beyond. While the struggling framerate and tedious craftin...

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town has you managing the farm that supports the growing town nearby. If that sounds like an actual job, that’s because sometimes it’s not that far off.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town has definitely become a timesink for me (in a great way).

I get that my complaints probably sound like I’m nitpicking the game, and maybe I am asking too much of a budget title, but really, these issues illustrate that despite the fact Pioneers of Olive Town marks the silver anniversary of the franchise, the developer didn’t really go out of its way to make this entry something special. This is a safe and standard Story of Seasons game. It doesn’t rock the boat, it doesn’t try anything groundbreaking like when Marvelous released Rune Factory to mark the franchise’s tenth anniversary; it’s just more of what we’ve seen before with a few small twists on...

In fact, with rudimentary characters and extremely basic tasks, it almost feels like the Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town gameplay was made for those who haven't played any farming sims in the past. But for folks familiar with the genre, they'll find that there's not much to find here and little reason to justify spending $49.99 on an unoriginal, redundant farming sim aside from being a relaxing and easy-going experience.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town does have that compelling farming gameplay loop that we've seen time and time again in different series, but it lacks depth -- much like the rest of the game -- to keep farming sim veterans coming back. At a time where the likes of Stardew Valley and Rune Factory continue to push the genre forward and provide greater longevity, it's difficult to recommend this rough-around-the-edges excursion to Olive Town.

Story Of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is an okay farming game but if you are expecting giant changes to the already worn out formula then you should look elsewhere.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is a surprisingly dull and lifeless farm-sim that's a shadow of its storied self.