Return to PopoloCrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale

Genre: Management Simulation / Turn-Based Strategy-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

The PopoloCrois manga and anime franchise has been around since 1984, following the story of a young heroic prince and his friends in a medieval fantasy kingdom. It has occasionally seen videogame adaptations, but these have only sometimes made it to Western audiences, with 2005’s PopoloCrois on PlayStation Portable being the one example I can point to prior to the release of this game. These games were all Tactics-style Turn-Based Strategy-RPGs.

Return to PopoloCrois, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2016, takes some inspiration from the gameplay in these games and mixes in the “Farming RPG” style of Management Simulation the Story of Seasons franchise is known for, though I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s a blending of the two gameplay styles. In fact, it might be fairer to say that Return to PopoloCrois dilutes the gameplay of both franchises it’s derived from, with both the Strategy-RPG and “Farming RPG” elements highly simplified.

In the West, more players are probably familiar with Story of Seasons, so I’ll start there. And I’ll start by saying… do not expect to do any farming in this game for a while after you start the game. For the game’s first few hours, it is far more preoccupied with its story and its RPG elements. When the game finally does get around to the farming stuff, what it offers is a pretty stripped-down version of the genre, one that does little that’s particularly inspired, and one that doesn’t really give players much room for building up their farm in a creative way. Heck, there’s not even the usual day-night cycle and stamina gauge that farming RPGs generally have.

You might look to the Strategy-RPG elements at this point, but here too you’ll likely be disappointed. See, I’m being somewhat generous in calling this a Strategy-RPG – there’s very little strategy to it. In battle, you do have to concern yourself with the positioning of your party members and their opponents, and your party’s special attacks can even cover a line of enemies or have an area of effect… but mostly, you’ll just be running straight up to enemies and choosing “attack” a bunch.

At the very least, the presentation here is endearing, making use of simple 3D visuals interspersed with animated cutscenes in PopoloCrois’s unique art style, and much of the dialogue (though oddly not all) is joined by some very good voice acting and backed by a decent but forgettably fantasy RPG soundtrack. If nothing else, Return to PopoloCrois looks the part.

However, while some players may want to stick with it due to its adorable presentation and likable characters, I think just about anyone looking to this game for its gameplay is bound to be disappointed, regardless of whether they’re looking for a Farming RPG or a Strategy-RPG. This game is underwhelming as both.

tl;dr – Return to PopoloCrois is a combination of the Farming RPG and Strategy-RPG elements of both its respective properties, but unfortunately it’s a highly-simplified, watered-down version of both. The presentation here is endearing enough that some players may want to stick with it, but fans of either genre will find this to be a dull and uninspired version of both.

Grade: C

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