Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns

Genre: Management Simulation / RPG

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local Wireless / Online)

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Review:

Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2017, is the second game in this long-running franchise to bear the “Story of Seasons” title after the split between developer Marvelous and publisher Natsume. This game takes the series’ traditional “Farming RPG”-style Management Simulation and approaches it with the gimmick of players starting up a farm in an area with three very different villages. However, while this premise may remind genre fans of Harvest Moon: A Tale of Two Towns, its execution here is quite different. Rather than putting players in the middle of feuding towns they must eventually aim to bring back together, Trio of Towns’ three towns all interact fairly harmoniously, and the game’s themes are instead a celebration of diversity.

The towns here almost border on caricatures of real-world locations – The starting town of Westown is very clearly modeled after the American “Wild West” in aesthetic, Tsuyukusa is a traditional Japanese-style farming village, and Lulukoko is almost cartoonishly patterned after Hawaii. While it’s almost comically unrealistic that three such diverse societies could sprout up within walking distance of one another, I think this is one of those occasions where you can forgive the lack of realism for the sake of making the game more interesting, as this does make for a nice change of pace for the often monotonous imagery you tend to find in this genre.

The presentation here is good, though nothing special. This game once again uses fairly simple 3D visuals for its characters and locales, and in fact despite the different settings this game contains, I can definitely see where assets were re-used from the first Story of Seasons, such as the same eating animations that everyone uses. Still, the variety offered by its three towns is nice, and unlike the prior game Trio of Towns doesn’t seem to run into any noteworthy performance issues that I saw. And while the soundtrack isn’t especially good or memorable, it’s not outright annoying like the prior game.

The gameplay here is also very clearly a direct follow-up to the prior game, but many of that game’s flaws have been smoothed over. The oddly-sparse and large environments of the first game, and oddly fast walking speed, have all been reined back in here to something more reasonable. And the tediously long tutorial of the first game has also thankfully been scaled back to something more reasonable too.

Beyond this, for the most part this is a pretty standard, but decent, entry in the genre. It doesn’t do much wrong, but there’s very little beyond its themes to set it apart. However, there is one nice feature of note here – early on, the game introduces you to its “Part-Time Job” system. At any time, players can opt to undertake daily jobs for the game’s towns, that range from doing chores to delivering packages. Not only does this give players an opportunity to earn a little extra money even when they’ve done everything they can on their farm for the day, but it gives them a better excuse to run around the game’s towns and chat with the locals. It’s not a major Earth-shattering change, but it is a surprisingly good one that helps to tie the rest of the game together.

If you’re looking for a solid Farming RPG on Nintendo 3DS, Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns is an excellent choice. It does very little to truly revolutionize the genre, but it is a solid entry within that genre, and what few changes it does make are genuinely good ones. In addition, it fixes most of the major issues with the prior entry in the series. An excellent addition to the genre, albeit not a game-changer.

tl;dr – Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns is a family-friendly Farming RPG-style Management Simulation that has players raising a farm near three culturally-diverse towns. This game doesn’t do much to revolutionize the genre or truly push it forward, but it’s a strong entry within that genre all the same.

Grade: B

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