Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, a remake of the Harvest Moon game of the same name, blends traditional farming elements from the original with updated gameplay, graphics, and characters. A Wonderful Life’s release raises the question of whether it is better to develop a remake or a new game altogether.
Related:Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life - Biggest Changes From the Original
WhileStory of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Townbuilt on the classic farming sim formula of inheriting an old farm from your grandfather, the game introduced more complex mechanics and almost endless options to customize your character and town. The concept of Pioneers of Olive Town is newer than that of A Wonderful Life, but is new always better?
7A Wonderful Life: You Can Grow Hybrid Crops
The remake of A Wonderful Life updated many of the original farming features, making it faster and less tedious to complete your daily chores. For example, you can plant multiple seeds at once over a nine-by-nine area. Eventually, you can upgrade your tools to save energy and more quickly till the soil and water your fields.
One of the most unique farming features is the ability to breed crops. In Year Two, you can visit Takakura’s home after ordering a new animal and trigger an event in which he tells you that he received a mysterious seed that turns into a three-headed plant named Vinnie. You will need to talk to and befriend Vinnie, the newest “resident” in Forgotten Valley, in order to unlock the option to fuse seeds.
you may then combine Watermelons with Melons to grow Melomelos, or Bananas with Grapes to get Gehju.
Related:Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life - How to Get Hybrid Crops
While Pioneers of Olive Town offers more space to grow crops and plan your farm layout, experimenting with various crop combinations keeps farming dynamic in A Wonderful Life, though the actual mechanics remain relatively basic.
6Pioneers Of Olive Town: You Can Craft Items
Pioneers of Olive Town introduced the ability to craft items, taking inspiration from popular simulation games likeStardew ValleyandAnimal Crossing: New Horizons. In Pioneers of Olive Town, you learn how to craft early on and can unlock more blueprints when you improve your crafting skill. By crafting, you can make objects to decorate your farm and build Maker Machines.
The Lumber Maker, for example, converts wood into lumber, and the Cloth Maker lets you weave yarn into cloth.
A Wonderful Life, on the other hand, does not offer crafting. If you like embellishing your farm and town with topiaries and brick roads that you built from scratch, then Pioneers of Olive Town is the game for you.
5A Wonderful Life: More Nostalgic And Relaxing
Between the two games, A Wonderful Life is overall simpler. While the creators brought A Wonderful Life up to date for the remake, it stays true to the original farming sim experience. You tend to your crops and care for your farm animals, and satisfaction comes from diligently completing those chores.
Life in Forgotten Valley moves at a sedate pace. Seasons change gradually. The background music is peaceful, and you’re able to collect records by befriending the townspeople or shopping at Van’s. The gameplay, soundtrack, and graphics in Pioneers of Olive Town are not lacking per se, but they do not cultivate the same laid-back atmosphere characteristic of A Wonderful Life.
4Pioneers Of Olive Town: More Things To Do
Pioneers of Olive Town includes more activities. You can craft items, chop down trees for lumber, play a minigame to fish, cook recipes, and venture into the mines. The Museum also accepts donations, giving you an incentive to gather collectibles. You can donate fish and treasure, and once the curator Gloria gives you the Camera, you can take photos of the wild animals around town and donate those photographs, too.
Related:Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town Guide To Wild Animals
In comparison to A Wonderful Life, Pioneers of Olive Town contains extra features and the opportunity to level up your skills, from beekeeping to cooking. At its best, Pioneers of Olive Town has endless enjoyable activities. But at its worst, it lags and does not compensate for stale dialogue and average storytelling.
3A Wonderful Life: You Can Play As A Non-Binary Character
One of the major changes between the first A Wonderful Life and the remake is the option to choose your gender. In the original, you could only play as a male protagonist and have a baby boy, not girl. You had to purchase Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life if you wanted to play as a female character.
In the remake, you can choose he/him, she/her, or they/them pronouns from the outset. In Pioneers of Olive Town, you can only choose between a male or female character.
In both games, you’re able to marry any of the eligible candidates, regardless of gender. While there were only three bachelorettes in the original A Wonderful Life, now you can romance one of eight characters. Pioneers of Olive Town, by comparison, has more options and lets you choose from ten marriage candidates.
2Pioneers Of Olive Town: More Options To Customize
From choosing your character to furnishing your farmhouse, you have numerous opportunities to customize in Pioneers of Olive Town. You can pick your character’s facial features, skin color, eye color, hairstyle, hair color, voice, and bearing (body). You can even give your avatar heterochromia eyes.
Though with a smaller selection, A Wonderful Life also enables you to customize your face, eye color, hairstyle, and hair color.
Pioneers of Olive Town shines in its design options. For example, you can upgrade your home, place furniture, and organize your farm layout. Forgotten Valley has been developed for you with a few options to make it your own, but the space in Olive Town more so resembles a blueprint for you to build your own farm.
1A Wonderful Life: Winner
A Wonderful Life comes out on top because it preserves the Harvest Moon legacy and embodies the original farming sim experience. The remake does not dramatically alter the story or improve gameplay, but its slow pace simulates rural life.
While Pioneers of Olive Town delivers more content, the game suffers from time-consuming loading screens and framerate issues. That said, both are excellent options if you want to curl up with a cozy game and imagine living on a farm with cows, chickens, and a horse.
Next:Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town - Things To Do After You Beat The Game
