Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Reviews
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.
A Wonderful Life on the GameCube was perhaps the most perfect execution of the Harvest Moon (now Story of Seasons) ethos out of all in the long-running series. As such, it’s the one that also generates the strongest pathos. Heart-meltingly warm good-naturedness, mixed with a perfectly adequate remake make this wholesome masterpiece relevant all over again. With the state of the world being this lousy, these little escapes are more valuable than ever.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is an amazing game. It has the mechanical soundness you’d expect from a long-running series while offering S-Rank quality updates to a classic title. What really makes this game sing and come together is the union of the time-proven gameplay and some truly heartfelt themes. Themes of life echo throughout this game. You must nurture your crops, your relationships, your child, and your own self as you journey down the tumultuous yet rewarding road of life. Everything changes. Sometimes those changes are bittersweet. However, if you work hard and open your heart, everything will be alright.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life manages to toe the line between the core features that made the original great while adding and improving upon aspects that needed a little love. If all the systems had been completely modernized, it wouldn't maintain the charm that made the game so beloved in the first place. The differences between Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life and most other modern farming games will likely be somewhat jarring and divisive among players, but it's a unique journey unlike any other, and one worth going on for veterans of the genre especially.
Being my favourite entry in the STORY OF SEASONS series, A Wonderful Life is a wonderful game. If you are new to the STORY OF SEASONS series, A Wonderful Life is an excellent place to start. Having previous knowledge of how the game works can be an advantage but there isn’t anything you can’t learn. All you need to do is work hard and make the most out of every day – but most importantly, have fun while doing so. And if you’re like me, you’ll fall in love with everything the game has to offer and find the Forgotten Valley is truly an unforgettable place.
Back then and today, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a wonderful game that takes farming seriously while not getting on my nerves with our stuff. That's exactly what I like about it.
Review in German | Read full review
But to put simply, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is an addicting and relaxing farming game with a solid gameplay loop and lots of replayability. Definitely one of the better farming games out there, so put down the sword and shield and pick up a watering can for a change—you won’t regret it.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is not only a good remake, but a necessary one. Beloved by many long-time fans, it delivers a more dynamic and intuitive gameplay, along with the classic experience, delighting us once again with the journey of the cycle of life.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
A fun remake 20 years in the making
The new events, tools, fish, and more added in the remake make the game feel new, even to veteran players like me who played the original to death. For newcomers, the fresh additions will only lead to a great gameplay experience, and I’m honestly jealous of those getting to feel the joy of A Wonderful Life for the very first time.
Even though it has some problems and limitations, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is an incredible and well-deserved rescue of one of the rarest farm simulation games. With the essence of the original product fully maintained, it is a game full of nostalgia and that will certainly please veterans of the GameCube and PS2 versions.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life streamlines old elements of the most unique entry in the franchise and offers improvements to a game with plenty of focus on not just farming but also on family.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a journey that teaches us many important things about life through a simulator, it is an experience that you must try for what it offers and enjoy it as if it were the last time. We fall short on words about everything the game offers, but at least you'll get a great impression of it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
Improving old features, alongside introducing new ones, results in a delightful reimagining of a classic farming simulator.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is right to update the 2003 classic to the present day. It is not the most complete of the saga, and inherits errors, but Marvelous knows how to transmit nostalgia in this remake, as special and charming as usual. A new life awaits you in the Forgotten Valley.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life does lose some of the original's soul in this remake, but it gains some incredible convenience and quality of life updates to make it much more enjoyable for a modern audience. Returning to the Forgotten Valley is a nostalgic experience for veterans, and newcomers will discover why the original game is a classic.
Marvelous Inc. recreated a great remake of the 20-year-old Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. While there are some things that make it feel outdated, there are also plenty of quality-of-life changes that make this a worthwhile farming game.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life remains both an oddity and a gem, and is a must play for fans of the farming sim.
Marvelous have worked their magic to give us another stellar remake from the high points of the series. A Wonderful Life puts forward a charming and unique tale that I can wholeheartedly recommend to anybody who never got to experience it all the way back in 2003.