Whereas different studios had been riffing on the system with dinosaurs, corpses, slimes, witches, and queer relationships, Marvelous faltered, releasing mid-tier Doraemon tie-ins, remakes of Buddies of Mineral City and A Great Life (which had been admittedly good, however just a little geriatric in comparison with fashionable farming video games), and the one authentic launch, the empty grind-fest that was Pioneers of Olive City.
It was beginning to seem to be the glory days of Story of Seasons video games had been lengthy behind us. Trio of Cities, the final SoS sport made in a pre-Stardew world, was considered one of their greatest. It appeared like Marvelous was spooked by their competitors, and worse, like they had been making an attempt to repeat it – Pioneers of Olive City cribbed closely and clumsily from Stardew’s homework quite than remembering what made them the style trailblazer within the first place. Even Natsume’s Harvest Moon spinoffs began getting higher than Story of Seasons, which is like watching a pug with three legs outrun a greyhound.
So by the point Grand Bazaar was introduced – one other remake, this time of a a lot much less in style Story of Seasons sport (albeit one with a cult following) – I had already grown jaded. It could in all probability be superb. It could not presumably be worse than Pioneers of Olive City’s abandoned cities and uninteresting mines.
However they did it! They really did it! Marvelous dug deep, went again to the drafting board, discovered an ember of their previous magic hidden in the back of a cabinet, and nurtured it right into a roaring flame.
Grand Bazaar’s remake is deep, detailed, beautiful, and as a pleasant shock, absolutely voiced. Not is Marvelous wanting over its shoulder on the different farming video games in the marketplace. Not are they making an attempt to maintain up with the cool children. As a substitute, Story of Seasons is lastly getting again in contact with its roots, specializing in characters, a way of neighborhood, and that signature supernatural silliness that introduced us issues like Vinnie the speaking plant and the Harvest Sprites.
Even higher, I really feel like you possibly can inform that the builders themselves are happier. Pioneers of Olive City felt like a sport that struggled to seek out its id – usually the results of over-iterating on the design with no clear imaginative and prescient, or extra merely, simply not having a ton of cash or time – whereas Grand Bazaar virtually glows with character. There are small touches of care and element all over the place, from the flags and window shutters flapping within the wind to the post-game addition of the Completely happy Bingo system, simply to offer gamers extra to do.
There are tons of additives to the unique sport, together with new characters, villager requests, a Breath of the Wild-inspired gliding system, voiced dialogue, character customisation, and the all-important same-gender romance – all of which present quite a lot of data about what the farming sport neighborhood likes to see in these types of video games.
After which there’s the Bazaar itself. I by no means performed the unique, however from what I perceive, it was a a lot less complicated factor, which has been totally reworked and expanded, with deeper methods. It additionally does away with a number of the frustrations of its predecessor, like buyer questions. It is an insightful solution to convey the sport as much as fashionable tastes with out dropping the flavour that made these previous video games profitable within the first place, and I can not wait to see them channel these learnings into a brand new, authentic sport.
We in all probability will not get any perception into what it was wish to develop Grand Bazaar, however I would not be shocked if Marvelous did some drastic reshaping of the studio and its growth processes to make Grand Bazaar nearly as good as it’s. It is not simply fairly – as a result of Buddies of Mineral City and A Great Life had been fairly – it is a sport that lastly stands as much as others within the aggressive farming sport style. I simply hope that it isn’t a fluke.
I actually, actually need to see Marvelous proceed to show why they have been round for therefore lengthy, and Grand Bazaar is, finally, a step in the suitable course.
Have you ever performed Grand Bazaar on Swap 1 or 2 this yr? Do you suppose that is the perfect SoS sport but? tell us within the feedback!
Previously of Official Nintendo Journal, GameSpot, and Xbox UK, now you can discover Kate’s writing all around the web. Her newest tasks embody writing for Moonstone Island, a deckbuilding creature-collecting sport, and [REDACTED], which may be very [REDACTED]. Typically she writes issues right here, and generally they’re about cows and crabs.
