 I have not done a buy or not review in a very long time, but today we are reviewing Story of Seasons A Wonderful Life, that is the remake that is now out on the Nintendo Switch. This is a game that I played a ton about 20 years ago on the GameCube, so in a way I grew up with this game. I have also already kind of reviewed this game on my channel so many years ago, the GameCube version, but now it has been remade. I gotta say it is a somewhat curious choice, but it makes sense after remaking Friends of Mineral Town a few years back now, and we are living in the age of remakes these days. I have to admit I prefer all the new titles over remakes personally, because I have already played them all, and with A Wonderful Life I was happy with leaving this particular nostalgia in the past where I feel like it belongs. And video games has come a long way the past 20 years, especially in the farming life sim genre. So naturally a game like this will be showing its age in several aspects, though they did make a few changes to appeal more to modern standards. The most obvious example being it's now much easier when it comes to the game's economy. You start out with a good amount of cash, you start out with a cow that can produce several milk every day, and immediately you get access to planning crops, which in the original was a much more lengthy process. It is a crucial change though, since the video game culture now, compared to back in the day, prefers more instant gratification and we tend to have much shorter attention spans, getting bored of games more easily now than we did my experience. Also because of the constant flow of new games coming out that captures our attention more than the game that released like two weeks ago, there's always something new to play. So in many ways with this title you can feel that it is originally an older title from older times. Story The whole story of any farming game is quite rarely anything groundbreaking, because more often than not you have inherited a farm, you are keen on trying a more relaxed out in the country kind of lifestyle, and in this case maybe you just want to have a wonderful life, what do I know? A friend of your dad already lives on the farm and he shows you around and tells you what you should do and how you go about doing things. Some changes has been made to the farm layout, like for example now the ledger that you use to order animals and feed are outside, the tool shed is gone, the storage and fridge is now also casually just standing there, but for the actual meat and potatoes of the story you will have to talk to the villagers of Forget Me Not Valley, as it was called back in the day. It changed name. What is it now? Don't remember. Or is the story really found within the NPCs in the game? They will tell you that the weather is nice, and they will keep on telling you that the weather is bad, and the weather is nice. Or the weather is decent, hello, and how are you? It makes me think, what is going on at the development studio? I can imagine some of them just going, oh, just have them talk about the weather and the seasons. It's no wonder that it's called stories about seasons. A lot of recycled dialogue too. Let's just say that Wildflowers, another farming game that I'm currently playing still, it completely knocks story of seasons dialogues out of the park with its stellar storytelling and voice acted dialogue. In a whole other league than this. The elderly couple sometimes talk about the past, and that is as close to an interesting line of conversation as it gets. Gameplay. If you're coming from just about any other, more modern farming game, the apparent lack of variety of things to do in a wonderful life will be shocking to you. There is no collecting of stones and lumber, there's no real gathering of materials and crafting to speak of. I mean, you later get access to seed makers and cheese makers and such. But in a way also, this is a much simpler approach to a farming game, with seasonal crops to tend to and livestock to take care of, seeds you can purchase from the neighboring farm if you can stand managing through the tedious menu interfaces and livestock such as cows, chicken and sheep, you can order through the ledger. Only one animal per in-game day at a time though. Restrictions. A village in itself is incredibly small for today's standards, so that may also be surprising to you. You will find yourself threading the same places over and over again, a lot. You can enter people's homes, though they don't offer much for conversation, but you can find hidden recipes this way. There is a small mine at the north part of town, but it's super simplistic with only one floor where you can do some digging. The road up to the hill, which was originally in the GameCube version, a place where you could do some GBA hookups, is now a rabbit hole of nothing. The overall running speed of your character is now faster than before, which I can appreciate, but still not something I would define as fast. You get access to a horse later on though, which is something. Farming is faster and easier, which may be one of the more fun aspects in this game, at least for me, and it helped me entertain enough. When it comes to dating people, you can do that too. Gustafo's design had quite the overhaul to the better, and Matthew? I didn't even recognize Matthew, so a lot of the bachelors and bachelorettes they've had quite the overhaul and like a new design for the better, for the most part, so that is something that I appreciate. You just talk with them every day and they will accept the gifts that they like, and as you progress you will unlock special cutscenes, and that way you can also get to know them better, and maybe you will know what they think about the weather too. You can also have kids in this game and watch them grow up. This game is, in a way, a tiny bit linear. By the end of the first year you're gonna have to marry someone, and if you haven't dated someone in particular, that is going to have you marry a specific character. So if you like someone, make sure you give them gifts, because you will have kids and you will get married. The tutorial menu is really useful if you are wondering about something in particular, gotta say, I had to open that a few times. There is enough here to keep you busy if you have the persistence and patience to unlock everything. There is an encyclopedia for you to fill out, and a ton of recipes to collect and cook, and some fish to catch, and tools to upgrade. In your house you have a TV with four channels to watch, a mirror to change your look whenever you like, and also even a record player. You can look at all the economy of your farm. There's even an achievement system that's quite comprehensive. You care for your animals by brushing them, talking with them, and keep them indoors when the weather is bad. Or they can get sick and die. Oh, and remember to check your blue box next to your house. And remember there is a yellow square on crops when they are done, and some crops are harvested with your sickle. There's a lot of fun to be had in this game, gameplay-wise, if you have the patience. Because just like as in any other life sim, things are kind of so. But that's the genre. Graphics-wise, the game looks good. It's simply what it does. It looks good. There is a much brighter color palette being used in this remake, which I prefer. All the NPCs I've had some worked on, all for the better. The character customization is good enough. The crops look good. Did I mention that the weather is nice? Sorry, I held that in my notes. Never mind. Menus looked terrible in the original, it does. I'm glad to see that the menus look better now. Animations for picking up stuff and giving gifts are incredibly stiff. And maybe that is a nostalgic feature, what do I know? But it just doesn't look correct. The poppins are clearly visible in the distance when you are walking around town. But overall, I think they did an amazing job in the graphics department, as this game is performing incredibly well on the Switch. I really like what they did here. I mean, the Switch is kind of a tablet, essentially. We kind of have to remember that too. This is as good as it gets. Music. The music, the music was good. The music is very close to the original tracks, but they are remade a tiny bit. It's very nostalgic to me. NPCs give off small noises, but that is it. All the dialogue for this game is, for the most part, this. All the sound effects in this game are familiar to me too. Even that weird noise that I was pointing out back in the day in my ancient, a wonderful life review. That is also still here. You can hear the river, you can hear the ocean, the wildlife like birds and such, and also your very own footsteps sound true and believable. I like the jumping over fences sound effect. I mean, you can't jump in this game per se, but if you run to a fence, you will jump automatically. The equipment interface is also really good. It's a very lively game sound wise, but there are some sound effects that aren't simply missing. Like picking up milk, there's no sound effect. That's strange. The horse also sounds atrocious. My verdict is that this is a really good game for all the people that are already a really big fan of the farming game genre. It has things to do to keep you occupied for a very long time if you let it. It's showing its age in some ways with the town being so small, and it may not have as many features as you have come to expect coming from more modern games, but it is a great remake. I don't think they could have done it better or differently given the source material that they have to work with. The addition of a bulletin board also helps new players to have more of a sense of direction, I feel like. So there's a bit of good and a bit of bad in this game. I give Story of Seasons a wonderful life, a remake. A six out of 10 on the Nintendo Switch. That's it. Thank you so much for watching. Please leave a like on this video. That would be very good because that is important. Leave a comment down below. I want to hear what you think of this game and I will see you later.