Olive Town Review Pioneers
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town goes back to its roots in more ways than one. While the game follows the regular path of inheriting a farm from an elderly relative, Pioneers of Olive Town is about rebuilding a farm from scratch, exploring the wilderness and the creatures that inhabit it, which translates into more building and crafting than seen in previous installments. But instead of trying something new or bold, the latest Story of Seasons title also brings back the regular old farming simulator formula: tend to a farm’s crops and animals, get to know the villagers and possibly get married in one, and help the goals of Olive Town . Since Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, Marvelous has made graphical improvements and, although Story of Seasons was the original farming sim that popularized this format, the mechanical improvements in Pioneers of Olive Town were inspired of other titles in the same genre. But with a lot of gameplay details borrowed from other places and nothing standing out in the crowd, Pioneers of Olive Town has nothing left to claim as its own, something polished graphics can’t fix. Pioneers of Olive Town checks all the boxes that any standard farming sim would. Players will inherit a run-down farm that needs a little maintenance before it’s fully functional and organized again. This game adds more customization than its predecessors, however. Because Pioneers relies heavily on crafting, players are allowed more freedom regarding the layout of the farm and can change the overall look with paths made from different materials, fencing, paint, and even some decoration
But crafting is more important than customizing the farm. The goal of Olive Town is to bring in more tourists and boost the economy, which the player can help by donating materials through the Town Hall’s bulletin board. Building materials like ingots and lumber are also needed to unlock and refurbish dilapidated structures like the coop and barn. And instead of buying animal after animal to fill these buildings, various new animals can be found roaming the vast farm land and claimed by taming them. Although unrealistic, the adorable animal designs are some of the highlights of Pioneers of Olive Town. To obtain the necessary crafting materials, players will gather resources found on their farm, such as from puddles, grass, trees, and rocks, all of which regenerate quickly. This means the player will spend most of the day mowing grass or scooping puddles, often resulting in excess materials while grinding and quickly running out of others, such as silver ore. And to turn crafting materials such as silver into silver ingots, for example, crafting machines are required and take time to process the resource. Often, progress in Story of Seasons is slowed down by waiting for the machines to finish producing enough of the necessary materials. And even though the player has more freedom than previous games, it still falls short of what one might expect from sandboxing and results in mild frustrations. For example, crafting machines cannot be placed right next to each other, meaning that a row of them takes up large chunks of land, which is tedious when any player’s farm will have dozens of them. machines scattered around. Additionally, if players want to move a farm building, the animals inside will be released back into the wild and they will need to be reassigned to the building, or an entirely new barn or shed can be built to move the animals into. this.
But to make farm life easier, Earth Sprites can be collected automatically just by doing tasks like harvesting crops or mining minerals. After collecting enough Earth Sprites, the player can visit the shrine at the northern end of Olive Town to receive upgrades such as increased stamina and the general quality of crops as well as unlocking new areas thanks to a mysterious Spirit, somewhat similar to the Harvest Goddess in previous games. However, like half of the villagers in Olive Town, the Spirit’s existence has no motive and it is unclear why his presence is important to the game. If he’s not in the game, it has no effect. Most of the interactions between Story of Seasons’ NPCs are inorganic and bland. RELATED: Disaster: Of Rice And Ruin is a Better Farming Sim Than Story of Seasons In terms of marriage and relationships in Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, there’s a diverse set of archetypes around town. There’s the cold Damon and his sister Bridget, there’s the fisherman Emilio and the florist Linh, and there’s the lively waitress Blaire and the outsider Ralph. But beyond their beautiful exteriors, the bachelors and bachelorettes of the Pioneers of Olive Town echo what it’s like to play the full game: even though they look interesting and unique on the outside, there’s not much to see on the inside . There isn’t enough surface-level attractiveness to keep the relationships interesting as the characters barely have enough dialogue to build a story or any form of character development, making it feel hollow and strained. marriage objectives in the game and their short cutscenes.
It’s hard not to compare Story of Seasons to Stardew Valley with so many mechanics pulled from the latter but with a heavier price tag on top. Stardew Valley’s affordability makes it hard to beat, and Pioneers of Olive Town doesn’t add anything new. However, even on the default difficulty setting—the only other is an easy mode called “Seedling”—Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is easy. Cash from crops accumulates quickly, enemies in the mines are few, and gifts to villagers are usually obvious. The town’s main objective can be completed in the Spring of Year 2 without stress, meaning it’s a great game for casual audiences. In fact, with the initial characters and extremely basic tasks, it almost feels like the Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town gameplay was made for those who have never played any farming sims in the past. But for those familiar with the genre, they’ll find 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 experience. Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town will be released on March 23, 2021 for Nintendo Switch. Today Technology was provided with a Switch code for this review. MORE: How Stardew Valley Set the Standard for Farming Sims