Hey there Steemians! Do you like farming games, because I do! If you've never spent hours of your life farming virtual cabbages then you don't know what you're missing. If you're not familiar with the Harvest Moon series then that might not sound like very much fun to you. I thought that as well until I played it. When it was described to me by a family member I was scratching my head as to why I'd want to spend hours pretending to be a farmer, and I then proceeded to lose track of time and milk cows into the early hours of the morning. While it sounds like that would get repetitive quickly you'd be surprised at how much you can get into caring for and growing your farm.
Initially I passed this game over, because I didn't know it was a Harvest Moon game. Instead, I picked up 'The Lost Valley' which is the worst Harvest Moon game I've ever played in my life. Try to imagine Harvest Moon and Minecraft having a baby, but it's a horrible abomination that the villagers come after with torches and pitchforks. Fortunately, I was able to return that game to Gamestop within a day or so and get Story of Seasons, which is a beautiful game full of fun stuff to do!
If you're new to the series or to farming games in general the objective is to grow your farm. You'll spend your time planting crops, raising animals, and trading with vendors to build wealth you can use for upgrading your stuff!
In the beginning you won't have much to work with. That means most of your money will come from scrounging around the area, and from farming small plots of crops. Keep in mind that while you can harvest some crops multiple times that they will only last for the season. That means as soon as the calendar hits Summer your Spring crops will die so plan accordingly! The exception being trees, which will stay where you plant them! You'll only be able to harvest them in their given season, but once they are grown you can make money from them forever!
By far the best way to get money when you start out is fishing. Though, when I say fishing I really mean swimming around in the river. You'll not only find fish, but also materials like ore you'll need for upgrades. So far the fishing pole seems pretty useless as you get better stuff just diving. You'll also be able to raise fish here if you get a hatchery.
Animals can be a tad expensive so you'll have to save up to get them! When you do however you'll be able to raise chickens, cows, and sheep among others. You'll be able to harvest these animals everyday to acquire milk, eggs and wool or even use your skills to turn those base items into other more valuable items like cooked dishes to trade. Once you purchase one of said animal you can also breed it which makes it much cheaper to get more of them. Keep in mind that if you breed an animal you won't be able to harvest anything from it until after it gives birth.
A chicken will most likely be your first animal. They're the cheapest to buy, and easiest to breed. You can quickly build up your coop by incubating eggs. Even if you don't really want a bunch of chickens you can sell them for a tidy profit as soon as they hatch to help you get upgrades a little quicker.
Pets are not new to Harvest Moon games, but they've always been more for decoration than anything else. In Story of Seasons pets have been expanded. Not only can you have a giant pet house that's laughably as big as the house you live in, but they can also bring you items. Yep, if your cat likes you enough he'll bring you a present just like your real cat except it won't be a dead bird. In addition you can now have multiple pets, hence the giant pet house...and the enormous food bowl the size of a pool.
Something else that's different about this game is access to special fields! You're no longer limited to only growing things on your own farm. Instead there are fields across the game area where you can grow 'special' crops that can't be grown in your normal area. These include things like honey, shitake mushrooms, peppers, and other items. You can rent these fields for additional space, and to make more income from your farming.
What's the catch you say? Well, you'll have to win a contest against other farmers in the village if they're using a plot that you want to take over. This is typically done by having the most shipped items or highest dollar value for shipping from your farm within a day's period. If you're the victor you get the plot.
While in past games you would typically put your goods into the shipping box to get paid for them this game is different. I wasn't sure about this feature at first as it seemed inconvenient, but now I really like it. Now, you sell your goods to merchants in the town square. As your game progresses more and more of them will show up giving you a great variety of goods to buy.
In addition to that a "shipping request" list has been added. If you have any of these items certain merchants will give you a premium for your items, and you'll be able to make more money. The bad? You can't make money if no merchants are there that day! This means you'll need to plan accordingly so you're not broke on no show days. It adds an interesting element to the game that can be a lot of fun. While there are still people in town to sell you things you'll be able to get additional seeds, animals, blueprints, tools and other useful stuff from the merchant square.
There are also other activities you'll be able to participate in like festivals where you'll be able to show off your wares and win prizes. The safari where you can find special materials and raise your animals happiness. You can increase your relationships with NPCs to make friends or get married. Story of Seasons has a ton of stuff for you to do, and it's certainly a title worth purchasing for the Nintendo 3DS. My biggest problem with Lost Valley if you're wondering is that a lot of these things were missing, and the "building" features stolen from Minecraft just weren't great enough to redeem it. I'm very pleased that this title came to the rescue.
