What is the value of a remake? That's something we found ourselves asking as we played Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, a remake of the 2003 Harvest Moon game on GameCube, and a surprising addition to Marvelous/XSEED's catalogue of games. Should a remake of a game bring it up to today's standards, with modern additions like improved UI, extra features, and generally just more content? Should it be faithful to the original, and simply ported over to new platforms as-is? Or should it be an attempt to recreate the feeling of playing that game for the first time as a child?
We've been cautiously looking forward to and dreading this remake for a while, because while we're excited for the complete graphical overhaul, the new localisation, and the option to play as a male, female, or non-binary farmer, we also have a deep and sacred fondness for the original, and enough experience and wisdom from the past 20 years of gaming to know that it does not match up to our current standards of "fun". Do we want it to be dramatically overhauled, or presented in its imperfect state? We didn't know... until we played it.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life has a lot of the things you might expect from a farming sim. You can raise cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, and goats, and you can plant crops and trees in your fields to make money and cook recipes in your cute little kitchen. There's a town full of people, all with interesting stories and unique houses, and some of them (eight in the remake) can be married. You'll be trying to make money to buy things like tool upgrades, new facilities, and animals, which in turn will hopefully make more money. Or you can just buy cute new outfits. Up to you.
The thing that sets A Wonderful Life apart from other farming sims is that it's one long story. Over the course of several decades, split into six chapters, you will go from a young upstart working on your dead dad's farm to an elderly, married farmer, with a child who can grow up to take over the farm, or choose an entirely different career path. The townsfolk will age and grow with you, and the town itself may change, too. There's never really been another farming game quite like this.
It feels, at first, like this remake of A Wonderful Life is all-new, especially if you've played the original GameCube game. The town and farm are no longer sludgy shades of brown; half the characters you remember are now called something entirely different to bring them more in line with the Japanese names (Muffy becomes Molly, Cody becomes Gordy, Celia becomes Cecelia, Tim and Ruby become Tei and Lou); a few of the more insensitive or odd features have been smoothed over; even the UI is vastly improved.
Some changes remove the bite that the original had. The misanthropic Marlin is now a much younger man called Matthew, whose updated form makes him come across as more of a whiny incel than a grump. Galen, the old man whose story gets very sad in Chapter 2, is now called Gary, which is just a worse old-man name by any metric, but otherwise everything just feels very nice.
Sadly, inflation has also struck Forgotten Valley, and it's quite a lot harder to buy big-ticket items. The Processing Room, which turns milk into butter and cheese – the main way to get money in the game – used to cost 30,000G, which you could earn within the first year if you were smart. Now, it costs 150,000G, and it took us almost two in-game years to make that much. Plus, it'll take a lot longer to earn that money back, and if we want to upgrade the barn to get more cows, that's another 120,000G. We're not made of G, Marvelous!
But other changes are welcome. Better menus, better onboarding, and more useful names for hybrid crops (Banana + Peach = Panana, instead of the original name, "Magerum"; Grape + Apple = Grapple, instead of "Phuju") make the game much more player-friendly without altering the vibe too much. The best change is probably the tools, which now take up their own slots in your inventory, meaning that you can now carry way more stuff and you don't have to put them back when you're done with them. But even with these changes, don't go into A Wonderful Life expecting an easy ride.
In the first year, we were mightily disappointed by how unenjoyable the game seemed. Was it a bad remake, or were our memories of loving the game incorrect? We had to assume the former, because there's no way our memories were wrong.
The game is frustratingly obtuse about most things, like how often to water crops, how to actually make money, and the fact that you're not able to interact with anything if you're holding an item or a tool. It also doesn't tell you that many of the improvements and upgrades that make the game easier are only achievable through making friends, or that you have to get married by the end of the first year, or that some items, animals, and upgrades are only available at very specific times of the month, or the day.
Stardew Valley this is not. In fact, playing the game is an interesting exercise in seeing how much farming sims have changed over the last 20 years, and you'll find yourself missing those conveniences from time to time. You'll miss sprinklers and machines that auto-gather eggs and milk; you'll long for actual mines that aren't just 16 ground tiles to dig in. You'll wish that the digging and fishing mechanics were even a tiny bit interesting or challenging. It can all seem like a massive step backwards, if you're used to more modern farming games.
But the more we played of this game – a game that's actually one of this author's childhood favourites – the more we remembered the original, and the more we realised that this remake is actually incredibly faithful, and we had just forgotten. And, actually, there are a lot of quality-of-life changes that smooth over some of the rougher parts, while maintaining the charm. For example, it's a lot faster to get farming done, with snappier animations and the option to water multiple tiles at once, and there are also new events, new festivals, and lots of things to add to the encyclopaedia that give you a sense of a fuller, richer world. Any friction that remains is purposeful – this is a game that's meant to be slow.
Harvest Moon games were initially based on creator Yasuhiro Wada's longing for rural Japan, and this remake is closer to that original vision than a modern take on the genre, which tends to focus on satisfying game loops and automation as the end goal. The satisfaction in A Wonderful Life doesn't come from making millions of farmbucks every day, or maxing out relationships, or getting the biggest house. It comes instead from the real-world satisfaction of a job well done and a life well lived; of making the inhospitable into the livable, and then into something you can be proud of. If you've ever had your own garden, you'll know that that kind of work takes years to come to fruition.
Each season is 10 days long, each chapter is at least a year long, and by god, it takes at least a year and a half in-game before you've built up enough momentum to actually feel like you're moving forwards. If you want to 'finish' this game, you'll be looking at around 30-50 hours of largely repetitive farm work — but at least the game changes with you, as characters age, people move in and out of the town, have children, and watch those children grow up, too.
And you know what? We think A Wonderful Life is worth the time you'll need to invest, especially if you're a fan of sedate farming/life sims that you can poke your head into for half an hour a day, or you're a fan of the OG experience, which has been recreated pretty lovingly by the developers. A Wonderful Life will never be Stardew Valley, it's true – but it's refreshing to see a remake that avoids playing catch-up by staying true to its own roots, and by reminding us of our roots, too.
Conclusion
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life retains the charm and the pleasant tedium of the original while bringing enough features up-to-date that it's not a total chore to play. Fans of later farming/life-sims might find it too slow and too dull, but we encourage you to embrace the slow-and-dullness to find a surprisingly fulfilling and earnest game underneath. After all, this game is the granddaddy of Stardew Valley, and it's not too hard to see the family resemblance.
Just, uh, use a guide. Trust us.
Comments 66
How wonderful!
I'm left with a load of questions. Are crops actually profitable now or should I still be practically ignoring them in the earlygame? Are the cow shenanigans still there? Can I sell the damn goat or make it useful again? I have no idea how this stacks up against the original which is held back by a buttload of realistic, but odd-for-a-videogame design choices...
Editing this comment because it's been replied to and it is so high up:
Cow/Goat Milk is eternal, crops are buffed, the earlygame is smoothed over a good bit as a result. This is what causes later game upgrades to be hit with inflation which doesn't necessarily correlate to the buffs given to money gain in the earlygame but for those who could never get into the game out of annoyances with the earlygame this is really big!
Cow Milk no longer requiring to keep up a gestation cycle is on its own a massive buff though as you no longer need to keep barn slots empty just to be able to keep the gestation cycle rolling. Now you can use more than half the barn :')
@KateGray nice to see you've returned!
I’m wanting to get into a Story of Seasons game, should I start with this one?
They could have done a lot more with this one, especially when it comes to visuals, but I'll pick it up regardless. My biggest gripe with it has always been the cows, which says something, it's a great game.
Nice to see that there's more queer options. You can marry whoever you darn well please and dress in any clothes you please regardless of gender, both of which are moves I appreciate.
I’m really looking forward to this! I absolutely loved the original on GameCube and have a lot of fond memories from when I played it as a child.
@JONOFTHEJONS I’ve only played friends of mineral town besides a wonderful life however, AWL was always my favourite by a long shot. I’d say it’s defo worth giving a try!
@ShinEon I watched quite a bit of someone steaming the Japanese version so I picked up a few things.
The crops are indeed the best way to make money now, and they have streamlined the planting and watering process where the animations aren't so slow and tedious. The cows give milk forever instead of just after giving birth. The goat can be bred, you can have more than one, and they too keep giving milk forever if my memory serves.
It was always brutally difficult to make money, I remember chopping down all my grass and selling hay one by one. But for this game and this one only, I'm overjoyed it's a faithful remake, the grind was part of the experience for me, it's like no other game because of that.
The original is one of my favourite games of all time, so no matter what, I will probably look at the game with 10/10 goggles, it is my most anticipated game of the year and with just one week to go it's just too long.
Really good review though!
@KateGray are all the sound effects and music the same? I want even the grating menu sounds to stay as they were, or as close as possible.
@ShinEon no more animal death and milk is eternal.
OnTopic: I am glad money is harder to make because outfitting your farm is the main use of money so making that take longer keeps you in the gameplay loop. Plus I always liked how closer to realistic this entry was while still being quite obviously a game (unlike Stardew which for me goes too far into the gamefied/collectible territory that I don’t find fun). I’ve been watching Japanese let’s plays so I am pretty stoked. Wish animal death was still a thing (forced you to actually care for your animals) and that breeding had a purpose still other than cheaper livestock but I get it, modern gamers would find such systems outdated. Just glad that hybrid crops is still a huge part of the gameplay. From what I have seen the QoL improvements make this the best version of the game. I’m just stoked over same sex marriage and the character creator with darker skin tones. That alone means I can retire my old game.
But if you didn’t enjoy AWL before, this likely won’t sell you on it. But if it was one of your favorites then this is a great one to have. Can’t wait to tear up the ecosystem gathering gifts for Nami.
You recently did a top 25 (or something) of these types of games, but I can’t find it. Would you be so kind as to provide a link please?
So it's the original except for some changes and much needed quality of life features... sounds good to me, will eventually get and play it as I missed it back in the day!
@JONOFTHEJONS Based on what I've seen and heard it's not your typical Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons (for example you're forced to marry as mentioned by the review) so maybe another game, for example the Friends of Mineral Town remake, could be a better starting point, but I hope someone who has played the series more can give you better advice!
@JONOFTHEJONS
I obviously haven't played this yet on account of it not being out. But if it's as close to the original as the review says, then I wouldn't recommend starting with it. Even in the cons it says it's quite obtuse. Story of Seasons friends of Mineral town on Switch would be a good place to start I think.
@JohnnyMind
You beat me to it by like a second xD
«...half the characters you remember are now called something entirely different to bring them more in line with the Japanese names (Muffy becomes Molly, Cody becomes Gordy, Celia becomes Cecelia, Tim and Ruby become Tei and Lou)...»
You mean... In Japanese version, characters are Japanese and have Japanese names? If so...
«The new localisation is weird for OG fans, but very well done»
That's not a «localisation». It's a transcreation! What a horrible thing that can happen with Japanese media(video games, anime, manga...)...
@Nightcrawler71 I suppose you're referring to this:
https://www.nintendolife.com/guides/best-harvest-moon-story-of-seasons-games-of-all-time
@Nintendencies Great minds think alike XD
On a more serious note, I'm glad you also commented as unlike you and others here I've barely had first-hand experience with this series so my knowledge about it is based on things I've heard/seen somewhere else (* cough * PeanutButterGamer for example * cough *)... which is exactly why I'm so happy they're remaking these games for the Switch, looking forward to playing them myself as soon as I have the time for them!
I'm curious about the queer options regarding the fact that the game literally holds you at a gunpoint making you have a child.
"You'll miss sprinklers and machines that auto-gather eggs and milk; you'll long for actual mines that aren't just 16 ground tiles to dig in. You'll wish that the digging and fishing mechanics were even a tiny bit interesting or challenging. It can all seem like a massive step backwards, if you're used to more modern farming games."
The cows aren't bubble cows? I agree with the author, that's enough to lower the score by 3 stars.
But do we really need to have everything explained? Isn't it better just exploring the game ourselves? It gives us that sense of acomplishment when we finally understand some mechanics and use it to our advantage. Don't take it away from us.
@KingdomTears Kate was busy the past 60 years playing this game while working on her time machine to deliver us this review. Quite busy
@JohnnyMind
People like you are exactly who remakes are for, people that couldn't/didn't play it the first time around. It's wonderful (no pun intended) that more people will be able to play this game.
I think everyone's first Harvest Moon/Story of seasons is so special to them, just a look in the comments of the best ones ranked, everyone's opinions differ so much.
But as biased as I am about how much I love this game, it is an absolute grindfest, and it hasn't been changed much in the remake by the look of it. I'd hate for a modern gamer to have this as their first and feel discouraged by the slow progression especially when games tend to just fire domamine at you from all angles these days. I mean they are all slow to an extent, but this one is a whole nother thing. I'd like them to get a taste for it with an easier one to see if it's for them and once they've had a bit of practice/seen if the genre is for them then they can try the grindier ones and see which ones they prefer.
I personally like my farming games a little harder, a lot of games these days make it all too easy to get more money than you know what to do with really fast, and then you end up running out of things to work for and benching them prematurely. But I do have nearly 20 years of experience under my belt xD
This is a great game but also painful at times. Intrigued by the remake but also a little weirded out by the designs as it’s sort of… the same game.. but not? It’s like it’s been reconstructed from memory and not everything is quite right.
@ComfyAko
Don't hate me but I wish they kept the animals all realistic looking like the original game, it's my only gripe I've seen with it so far. it's odd that just the cow looks normal and the others are chibi-fied.
@ShinEon I have a guide going up closer to the game's launch that answers a lot of these questions, but I see you've already had some replies! A lot of the weirder design choices are smoothed over, so it's easier (but still not EASY) to make money, especially at the start. Prices have gone up accordingly, though!
@Nintendencies they seem very similar to the OG. That sort of high-pitched BLOORMP from the menus is still there, and the weird sigh that your character does when using the bathroom, too 😊
@ComfyAko I mean, it's not GREAT queer representation, because being queer in a tiny rural Japanese village would probably not be quite as easy as the game makes it seem! But they haven't really rewritten anything, so it also makes sense that it's not really mentioned or highlighted.
Still, NB character choices in a farming game feels like a good step in the right direction, at last!
As for the child... yeah you HAVE to have one (because that's the story) but it's kinda sweet to see a lil kid with two mums being loved and taken care of in a game like this, even if you yourself wouldn't have had a kid!
@KateGray Oh you have made my day. I wish to be deafened by BLOORMPs.Hey when you gotta go xD I'm so glad nothing has been lost
My SO always says I have the tv too loud because where its positioned in our flat the TV speakers are closer to him than me but in this case... No dear boyfriend I CANNOT turn this game down, deal with it.
@Nintendencies Yep, I'll never say no to remakes, remasters, ports etc. as they allow new players to enjoy those games for the first time other than people who might want to replay them!
My first proper Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons was Friends of Mineral Town, didn't play it nearly as much as others did, but I quite enjoyed what I played of it.
Yeah, that's exactly what I heard of, not to mention the "forced progression" of A Wonderful Life that isn't a thing in other games in the series.
That's the beauty of variety in games and even ones in the same series, there's something for almost everyone!
By the way, great review @KateGray and nice to see you back!
@JohnnyMind
Exactly! :3
Funny enough I have little to no experience for the original FOMT game, I remember that box art so well though so I must have played it. it's weird how memories work. Whatever you saw in shops/game magazines (or the internet nowadays for the young-uns) and what you could convince your parents to actually buy for you shapes so much of your early gaming life.
Yeah its really unique, it forces marriage and kids on you and you and the town will age, it was a first and other than this I doubt it will ever happen again, probably because we live in such a different time now.
In fairness, I never want kids, hate the little buggers but I didn't mind having one in these games, I always go for it if it's an option, but I understand why some wouldn't like that. I'm still trying to decide if I want to play as a male or a female.
I was forced into the male option, as I never got the special edition when you could play as a girl. Would be nice to play as my own gender but at the same time, this holds so much nostalgia that I'm not sure I'd feel right being a girl. I'm after Nami again despite never having the male candidates an an option before xD
@Nintendencies One of the reasons why I didn't play it as much despite overall enjoying it is that unfortunately my parents never bought it to me (don't remember ever seeing it in shops so that could also be the reason along with them buying me and my siblings other games instead) so I only played it on emulator and got even more easily distracted by other games because of that.
It's not just the game forcing you to marry, it's what happens if you don't - at least in the original so I assume in the remake as well - that could scare newcomers away etc. (don't want to say it explicitly to avoid spoilers, but it had to be said at least somewhat vaguely).
Not sure which girl I'll go for when I play this, but Nami is absolutely a great choice on your part!
I remember playing this many years ago! So many great memories, although I was so sad to see that the game actually ENDED and you couldn't continue past a certain point. Oh Celia (I suppose now Cecilia) how I've missed thee.
@Nintendencies you want realistic animals in HM and you want me not to hate you? That's a tall order! JK, I would never hate a fellow moon harvester.
@KateGray I mean that would be perfect representation, even better than reality. I guess it would be hard to find a partner in a rural Japanese village, but in HM, every girl is interested. These things not being highlighted are the best approach, honestly. I've seen so many anime and manga where shoujo ai/yuri is just treated so normally it's not even mentioned, and that is the way to go. Just treating it like a super normal thing.
As for the kid, I was wondering how it would be done technically, for obvious reasons. So the kid just spawns like that? Huh.
The PS2 version was the only version you can continue the progress after your character passed away due to aging and the scenario.
It has the 7th chapter called The Heaven.
Um. Why is too slow one of the cons? Are life sims supposed to be slower paced?
I actually remember my brother giving my sister another wonderful life on the GameCube years ago and while she enjoyed playing it she had a hard time trying to do stuff like trying to marry and feeding her animals.
It has been a few years since I preordered anything. Between Stardew, A Wonderful Life, Friends of Mineral Town, Rune Factory 3-5...the switch is the ultimate farming simulator console in my books. Now if only they would port Rune Factory 2 and I would feel complete! (Only if they keep the disastrously funny voice acting)
Are we still unironically tossing incel around? Huh...ok then.
@JohnnyMind that’s the one! Thanks 👍
@WreckitRyan
Apparently you can continue now
@ComfyAko Phew I thought I was a gonner there
@Nintendencies Oh seriously?!?!? Thanks for letting me know--I must've missed that in the review. That makes it a must-buy for me then haha.
@KateGray Thanks for this review. Given Marvelous' recent history and your veteran status with this franchise, I wouldn't trust a review from many others. Good to see you back on the farm beat, at least for a cameo.
@WreckitRyan
It wasn't in this one, I saw it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfkVcLP6f1o
That always upset me as well, but now I'd be happy for a farming game to officially end, cause they are such massive timesinks
@Nightcrawler71 You're welcome!
@Wordbonder The original AWL was my first farming sim game, and it would have been my last had it not been for games like Rune Factory and Stardew Valley. I just could not get through the boring, repetitive daily grind. But reading your comment would now make me at least consider it on a deep sale. No more mental gymnastics with cows only giving milk after giving birth, no more useless goats, and actually having better representation options gets my attention.
Looking forward to playing this.
Removed - unconstructive feedback; user is banned
@ComfyAko the kid is MAGIC. That's how the game handles it! The Harvest Sprites dump a kid with suspiciously similar genes on your doorstep.
@Burning_Spear it was, admittedly, quite hard to set my nostalgia aside for this one, but I hope I did alright. It is quite a dull game, but I honestly liked it more for that, because it made it feel so different to farming games of today!
@Korsica_Is_Best_Girl Please don't be rude. Myself, and many other members of the LGBTQ+ community, use "queer" as a term to refer to ourselves for many reasons, not least of which because it is a helpful catch-all for a number of different things, or an entry point for people who aren't sure where they fit in yet. Reclaiming words is a powerful practice that has existed for a long time. We're certainly not doing it for Cool Points!
@ATaco Dunno about in the remake not having played it yet, but Marlin/Matthew in the original was… horrible, lol. He was a misogynist (and got specifically told off by Takakura for it in one event), an alcoholic, and was kinda obsessed with Celia even after marriage to your character and would constantly compare you to her (wishing your cooking was like hers, etc). He really was the worst husband out of the three options.
@StardusterEX
I mean, I get that. I just find that using "incel" to describe someone is...kinda fighting fire with fire, no? I'd rather just call him a big jerk and carry on with it lol
Pro: "The cows aren't bubble cows but they're still cute"
That's sounds more of a con if I'm being honest. The bubble cows are a staple in Story of Seasons.
Nobody discusses the clearest shortcomings of this game. I loved it as a kid but put it down after I bought the milking room. What's the point after buying it? It's the most expensive item in the game and it generates more product for you to sell, but you've already bought everything. Thus, there's literally nothing to do in the game but huck your toddler up and down a few times a day until you die.
@Nintendencies nah, the Iono avatar saved you by the skin of the teeth
@KateGray ooooh I forgot it's Harvest Moon, the game where everyone dumps their work on the protagonist. That makes sense, actually.
Got it preloaded earlier, looking forward to it.
Honestly I could see jacking up the prices being an improvement. Part of what makes the original kind of an intolerable grind is that you run out of stuff to buy like three years into it.
Great review, l played this way back in the day for a few hours before getting super sick and dropping it, never to return. Sounds like it may not be a priority to play this remake, but might grab it on sale. And like many others, it made my day to see more content from @KateGray!
Existential matrimonial dread intensifies.
@arekdougy it helps steer you kid towards one of the professions… scholar, I think? Vs. hand-milking, which gives them points towards rancher.
Edit: hold on, I got that mixed up. Milk by hand = rancher, showing your kid the milker tool, (maybe using it on cows?) = scientist, milker room = neutral
But everything was so vague in the original. In this one, you’ve got meters to see what career your child is favoring and if you do something by to increase it, it’ll show you by how much.
It being slow sounds like a plus to me. I always wanted to play this one so might as well play this new version.
I could care less about the score for this one. I’m gonna love it, regardless😆
Sounds like a game that's at it's best if you have played the original and feel the nostalgia.
Since I haven't played the original the review sounded more negative than positive to be honest.
Gonna skip this one.
@JohnnyMind
Yeah we were limited at that age, that's not to say I'm not grateful for all the games I was lucky enough to get.
I actually never experienced that, I might have to google. I was a dumb kid when I first played it and so I just got force-married to Celia. Only when I was older and knew how it worked I went after Nami. Celia was my first ever fictional wife xD I don't think you can go wrong with any of them tbh
@ComfyAko And she just so happens to have great teeth, so it's rather fitting xD
@Nintendencies Yeah, I'm so grateful to my parents, relatives etc. for all the games they got me and my siblings when we were younger (other than their love and care obviously although it showed also through that), but I don't regret emulating games I couldn't receive since I wouldn't be as much of a videogame and Nintendo fan if it weren't for doing that, too!
Again, it's based on what I've heard so I might be wrong, but at least in the original if you don't get married the game ends (could've used spoiler tags from the start, not sure why I didn't), not to mention that the same will happen eventually given the structure and theme of the game.
Definitely can't go wrong with any of them, it's exactly why I'm still not sure which one I'll go for XD
remember getting this game way back with my brother. we played the hell out of it. Loved every second of it. very happy to see that the remake is the same game with just a few extras and no major changes. picking this up asap : )
I lived by this game back when I was a wee boy playing the GameCube, I can't wait for this release 🙏 Not that ill be able to get it for a while since I'm unemployed lol
The review kind of has me on the fence. Sounds like one for fans of the series in particular. Maybe when it is discounted I'll give it a try.
Cheers for the review.
@Anti-Matter This game is based on the PS2 version. So it's the PS2 music and each chapter is only 1 year and you can play Chapter 7 once you hit the credits.
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