Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is an admirably updated remake, but those improvements can only do so much when the heart of it feels as dated as it does.

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful life is an adequate remake, but its lack of modern trimmings makes for a game even former fans might find empty and antiquated.

Improving old features, alongside introducing new ones, results in a delightful reimagining of a classic farming simulator.

A Wonderful Life is the first that's properly forced me to settle down and I've found its focus on slowly and carefully tending my farm isn't defunct; it's a different strain of sim that deserves to bloom again after being left fallow for so many seasons.

This meter is somewhat emblematic of my overall experience of this game. Ideas that were once novel are outdated or uninteresting by today’s standards. While Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a welcome update to a classic farm sim, stripping away nostalgic fondness leaves you with an experience that feels lacking in the genre's modern landscape.

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a remarkable experience. It takes the classic farming formula and gives it a purpose beyond just seeing how many S-ranked tomatoes you can grow. With its focus on family, legacy, and living a good life, this is a farming sim where what you do away from the fields is as important as what you do when you’re tilling that land. It’s a game that encourages a healthy work-life balance, and there is no better lesson we need in our modern era than that.

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.

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is still unique in what it offers to the farming sim sub-genre: it's a slice of life, but you live the whole life. It's a shining example of worthwhile risky choices, and how genre-defining features only come through experimentation over imitation.

Ultimately, however, this latest entry in the franchise is simply not exceptional. It’s easy to get sunk in and lose huge chunks of time tending crops and animals or befriending villagers. But, overall, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a steady middle-of-the-road offering with nothing to recommend over anything else currently available in the genre. Almost every aspect of the game is good but not great.

However, if you’re more used to modern farming sims and want one that will give you more to do on a daily basis, AWL might be too simplistic for you. There’s just not a lot happening in Forgotten Valley. Regardless of your preference, the in-game marriage being pushed within the very first chapter felt way too rushed and forced. If you were hoping to have fun, interesting characters to spend your in-game life with, you’ll again likely be disappointed.