Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar Co-Op Review
The Story of Seasons series is back with another new take on a classic game in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. Series fans Jess and Paul have donned their britches, gathered their tools and thrown themselves into farming life, and are now ready to report back on what this updated version of the original DS game has to offer.
Jess: Anyone who has played a Story of Seasons (or Harvest Moon, as many of them were once known) game probably has a pretty good idea of what to expect from Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar – at least at its core. After answering an ad looking for a farmer to take up position in the mountainous Zephyr Town, it becomes your job to rebuild the town’s once-booming economy stall by stall – starting with your own. You’ll grow crops, tend to animals, and forage through the forest to gain produce with which to stock your store, and then you go to market. With each new sales milestone, the bazaar itself will grow, with more and more of the town’s residents joining the party. Building relationships with the townsfolk is also key to ensuring they’re ready to participate – so you’ve really got a lot on your plate, here. Paul – do you feel like Grand Bazaar feels particularly different to other Story of Seasons games in any key ways?
Paul: Not in any hugely significant ways, and of course, Grand Bazaar is a remake of the DS game, so the foundations of the title are already pretty well established. For the most part, this Story Of Seasons remake, takes the original Harvest Moon version and layers on some quality of life improvements to bring it in line with the likes of Pioneers Of Olive Town as new, original titles. There’s nothing overly flashy about it, but I did appreciate the improvements to animations, character designs, the camera, and more, as it allowed me to focus more properly on the moment-to-moment, which, as always, is glorious. The industry has “Cozy games” coming out its ears these days, but honestly, there’s no need. Harvest Moon/Story Of Seasons is the original cozy game, and I won’t hear anything else. Grand Bazaar continued that trend, and I’m falling in love with it again.
Jess, I’m going to spend too much time gushing about the general loop of these games to take the reins for me. What did you think of the Grand Bazaar playing experience?
Jess: I do agree that as far as cozy games go, these are still some of the best out there – particularly now that they’ve allowed for things like more diverse romance options to bring the series in line with more modern games. There’s a big cast of characters here, each with their own goals and desires, some of which include you and some that don’t. Some of my favourite moments in this game are scenes between two NPCs deepening their own friendships – they do a great job of showing Zephyr Town as a place brimming with life, and its residents as people with a history that extends far beyond just your involvement. They provide a nice respite from the day-to-day, which really does just feel like an oddly addictive loop – it’s repetitive, for the most part, but there is just enough variation in each day’s activities, and new mechanics are drip-fed at just the right rate that it still really sucked me in. I struggle not to lose time when playing this game – the constant “I’ll just play one more day” is too enticing.
There are also a lot of quality of life elements here that do only reveal themselves over time, and frustrations I had at the beginning of the game were phased out as things like a paraglider were introduced – needing to get from one side of the town to the other over and over again is suddenly a lot more fun when you can just double jump and sail through the air instead of running. You also get ways to move items between locations more quickly, and new stalls that give you the idea to further customise your character or stall and switch up your look – so even though the gameplay is familiar and far from groundbreaking, there’s always something new going on to keep you locked in. Though I’m a fan of the series, I never played the original game, and as someone who’s usually most interested in the stories and relationships in games like this, I was concerned that the focus on the market itself would mean I didn’t click with this one as much – but the opposite was true. That stuff is still there in spades, there’s just more to do in this game, it isn’t a replacement. Even though each mechanic on its own is fairly simple, there’s far more depth to the game in general than I was expecting.
Now we’re both gushing – are there any areas where you felt the game fell short?
Paul: I think my primary concern around this game is the same concern that I have for the franchise more broadly. Every game is charming, every game has a great cast of characters whose lives I’m keen to learn more about, and mechanically, I’m so very much at home with what the franchise consistently delivers, but I’m waiting for a Stardew Valley moment. Stardew Valley managed to deliver the Harvest Moon/Story Of Seasons experience, while layering numerous other systems in there in a way that didn’t strip the game of its core DNA, and I really wish that modern Story Of Seasons would strive to reach similar heights.
Of course, this is a remake, and so Grand Bazaar shouldn’t be held to those standards, but some evolution would be nice, and so I’m just playing these games wanting more from them. The loop is familiar and like a warm blanket, but also, I could also stand to be challenged a bit more by some new systems and new mechanics. Alas, I don’t think that we’ll be seeing that anytime soon, so I’ll just continue to wrap myself in the aforementioned blanket and keep playing.
Am I expecting too much, should I just expect Story Of Seasons to keep to its lane, regardless of whether we’re getting remakes or new titles?
Jess: I’d love to see them reach higher, but honestly, something like Grand Bazaar sort of feels like it might be as far as they’ll go. Like you, I’m skeptical that even a new entry to the series is going to break too much from the tried and true formula, as nice as it would be to hope for more. But there are plenty of other games out there trying to innovate like SDV did, while failing to nail the same core loop as Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, and that feels like the most important part to get right. I think I’m just going to accept that I’ll need to go elsewhere for my innovation, and retreat back to this series when familiarity is key. For now, that’s going to be enough for me.
Player 2 reviewed Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar on the Nintendo Switch 2 using a code kindly provided by the publisher.
