Private Decide
Along with our essential Recreation of the 12 months Awards 2025, every member of the PC Gamer workforce is shining a highlight on a recreation they liked this 12 months. We’ll publish new private picks every day all through the remainder of the month. You will discover all of them right here.
It takes so much for a farming simulator to actually impress me lately—I am certain most avid cozy avid gamers will sympathise with me once I say that. Stardew Valley has had a long-lasting influence on me, not to mention the comfy gaming house normally, and discovering one thing that actually lives as much as the joy of venturing into Pelican City for the primary time is changing into increasingly more difficult.
I’ve all the time preferred Story of Seasons video games, particularly once I was youthful. However the remakes from the last few years, like Associates of Mineral City and Pioneers of Olive City, have a slight jank to their look and I am unable to lie, they really feel a bit clunky to take a seat and play by.
Associated articles
Consequently, I have never managed to discover a house in them like I did in Stardew Valley, which pressured my hand into casting them apart and heading again into the acquainted, easy expertise I already knew somewhat than sticking it out. Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar strays from the pack nonetheless, and does not current any of those clunky mechanics I’ve seen in earlier remakes.
Though it is obtained the identical aesthetic as earlier video games, it is visually extra spectacular, too. Characters really feel developed and fleshed out, with participating dialogue that can assist you really feel related to the city. Additionally they have completely totally different preferences and items, which sure, does make pursuing any marriage candidates barely tougher, however it definitely helps to make the sport really feel recent somewhat than simply regurgitating the data I had already memorised from the primary launch in 2008.
In actual fact, it is the primary farming simulator I’ve performed since Stardew Valley the place I’ve change into obsessive about realizing the on-goings within the city, particularly all of the small-town gossip that Zephyr City thrives on. The way in which Grand Bazaar sinks its hooks into you and pulls you into its world is what made it such a memorable expertise this 12 months.
Picture 1 of 5
These interactions are inspired by the fixed stream of in-game occasions the sport hosts, too. Every season you will get to take part in issues akin to a pet present, Honey Day, and a competition, tasking you with gifting as many flowers as you may.
It is principally a option to get you extra conversant in the townsfolk and develop your relationships, however it’s additionally a improbable alternative to let your aggressive facet present. In spite of everything, who does not love bringing house a gold trophy? Every award you earn will get displayed in your farmhouse too, so that you form of need to gun for gold.
However even the hours you spend doing your individual factor by no means get tedious. It is arduous to become bored with farming as you have obtained a lot to do, whether or not that is taking your supplies to windmills all through Zephyr City, tending to your cattle, or these traditional farming sim options like fishing, mining, or foraging.
Specifically, having the ability to run round and catch bugs with my naked palms was a spotlight, solely as a result of it scratches the Animal Crossing itch and is not one thing even a farming simulator as common as Stardew Valley options. Truthfully, extra video games must allow you to exit and change into feral whereas searching down cicadas.
Having the goal of a profitable bazaar on the finish of the week definitely helps to maintain you in your toes too, and I utterly underestimated the facility of getting one single job to information you in a farming simulator the place you are often so unbiased. I took a lot pleasure in ensuring I made essentially the most cash as I probably might every week it was nearly embarrassing.
It was nicely well worth the effort although, as levelling up your bazaar rank feels genuinely rewarding alongside the cash you usher in. Plus, it is a extra participating option to earn cash in comparison with the normal routine of shoving no matter you have harvested right into a field, just for it to be mysteriously exchanged for gold cash in a single day.
Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar actually confirmed me that farming simulators nonetheless have quite a lot of life in them but, particularly after taking part in and being so dissatisfied by so many. After having such a historical past with Story of Seasons remakes and never feeling notably strongly about them, I am thrilled that one has lastly come alongside and blown me away. I’ve obtained a whole lot of hours to place into Grand Bazaar earlier than it begins to really feel stale but, and I am unable to wait to spend 2026 convincing all my fellow farming fanatics to do the identical.
