Support NeoGAF

[Teriyaki Blues]

Welcome to the Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns Official Thread!
Howdy, Pardners! Let's try and keep this topic about the Story of Seasons series in general and Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns in particular! We all know that other farming simulation games exist, and there are plenty of threads to go around for each of them. Please keep all discourse about other series and games civil. Thanks!

Release Dates

• 
  - June 23rd, 2016
• 
  - February 28th, 2017
• 
  - October 13th, 2017
• 
  - To Be Announced

Game Information

• Developer - Marvelous
• Publisher
  • 
    - Marvelous
  • 
    - XSEED Games
  • 
    - Nintendo of Europe
• Producer - Yoshifumi Hashimoto
• Artist - Igusa Matsuyama
• Platform(s) - All Nintendo 3DS Family Systems
• Player(s) - Single Player
• Connectivity - Wireless Internet & StreetPass
• Rating
  • 
    - A (CERO)
  • 
    - E10+ (ESRB)
• Save Files - 2
• Blocks - 5443 (*)
• Genre - Heartwarming Life Simulation
• Official Websites
  • 
    - http://www.bokumono.com/series/tomodachi/index.html
  • 
    - http://www.storyofseasons.com/tot/index.html

(Physical Version) Includes a glossy, full-color instruction booklet and double-sided cover.

(Physical Version) Preorder bonus item -

Capy-san plushie! (Click to see full image. The cutest capybara plushie to ever exist.)

Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns is the 20th Anniversary Celebration game in the much-beloved Bokujō Monogatari (牧場物語 - lit. Farm Story) series.

Our story begins with fond memories of a family trip that you took as a child. You remember life in the countryside, picking fresh strawberries with your mother and getting to pet a friendly cow. Ever since that vacation it has been your dream to become a farmer when you grow up...

In pursuit of your childhood dream, you head to a lonely farm situated directly south of a major crossroads. There are three gates and each leads to a different town. In these towns, you'll quickly discover that you can't become a master farmer without a little help from your friends.

• 
  • Westown - An idealized Western Town, full of old timey stereotypical American Cowboy Charm. A desert area with a waterfall, natural spring, and a close knit community. If you're reading this, there's probably a snake in your boot. Their traditional greeting is a hug. Available from the beginning of the game.
• 
  • Lulukoko - A tropical amalgam of many Pacific Island and Southeast Asian countries. Features lush forests and beautiful white sand beaches. Moana not included, sorry guys. Their traditional greeting is a fist bump. Available starting in Spring of Year 1.
• 
  • Tsuyukusa - You're not fooling anyone Marvelous, we know this is Japan™. A sleepy village with rice paddies, winding river, traditional teahouse, and a large central marketplace. Their traditional greeting is a bow. Available starting in Summer of Year 1.

"Are you a boy? Or are you a girl?" - Click on the icons to see the full character art.

• - Henry, the main protagonist.*
• - Holly, the main protagonist.*

*Default names & images for illustration purposes only, you can customize your appearance & name.

"Begun, the waifu war has." - Click on the icons to see the full character art.

• - Lisette, the lovely flower girl from Westown.
• - Iluka, a feisty shrine priestess & café co-owner from Lulukoko.
• - Siluka, a sleepy shrine priestess & café co-owner from Lulukoko.
• - Komari, a cheerful waitress for her father's traditional Tsuyukusa teahouse.
• - Kasumi, an elegant & fierce teacher who resides in Tsuyukusa.
• Spoiler

  
  - The Secret Bachelorette

"I have all this money but no husbando." - Click on the icons to see the full character art.

• - Wayne, Westown's own postman & playboy.
• - Ford, a doctor who runs the Westown clinic.
• - Ludus, Lulukoko's beefy carpenter, handyman, & jack of all trades.
• - Hinata, an apprentice merchant who works in Tsuyukusa's market.
• - Yuzuki, Tsuyukusa's resident bishōnen & jewelry maker.
• Spoiler

  
  - The Secret Bachelor

For the second time in the Bokujō Monogatari series, Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns has a small collaboration with Nintendo. You can now wear the costumes of four beloved Mario characters. These provide power-ups to your character's attributes when worn. They're also too cool for school.

Temporary boosts are not exclusive to these costumes, these power-ups are also available through eating cooked dishes.

Q. Any there any guides for this game?
A. There sure are!

• 
  - http://wikiwiki.jp/boku3sato/
• 
  - http://fogu.com/sos2/
• 
  - http://www.thonky.com/story-of-seasons-trio-of-towns/

Q. How long is the tutorial?
A. The tutorial is very short.

Q. What's up with the DLC?
A. It is coming, and it will be paid DLC in North America. No current release date or pricing information. All of the bug fixes applied to the Japanese version through patches are included for free in the North American base game on release.

Q. Any amiibo functionality?
A. Nope. I know the Mario Outfits make it seem like that might be the case, but those are rewarded through the Part-Time Job system and not through amiibo.

Q. What online services are there?
A. You can connect with other players and trade items on an isolated "Multiplayer Island" area. It hosts a special idol which can exchange 3 unwanted items for a random selection of other goodies. You can chat & fish there. There's also a StreetPass mode which you can activate after getting a pet.

Q. What difficulty options are there?
A. Seedling Mode and Veteran Mode make their return from Story of Seasons. Seedling Mode provides a 50% reduction when using Stamina and a 30% shop discount. Note that it provides no direct advantage to finishing the story goals in this game. Seedling Mode save files will be marked with a sprout (

), Veteran Mode save files will not be marked. There are no penalties for playing on Seedling Mode, it is for those who have limited playing time or would like a more casual experience.

Q. What are the differences between Story of Seasons and Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns?
A. Here's a quick list of a few of them.

• Use the L button to quickly greet everyone you meet. This counts as taking to them for the day.
• More NPCs and more events. Every NPC with a character portrait has at least one event, and all bachelors and bachelorettes have two extra friendship events viewable by both genders. Having three towns makes for a very busy and varied Festival schedule.
• Less opacity in all areas of the game. Characters are more free with sharing their likes & dislikes. No more guessing or looking up what items you have to ship, the game tells you what you must do to accomplish all major story goals. Intensive tracking and customization added to the various qualities of Livestock & Crops.
• Shops don't have a limited inventory anymore. They are also open a wider variety of hours, each unique to the town that they are located in.
• The Shipping Bin returns, with New & Improved features!
• Blueprints, Tool Upgrades, and Clothing now handled by NPC shopkeepers that specialize in those professions. You can still do some crafting and cooking on your farm.
• Ergonomic maps. No more running forever to town and back with nothing to do along the way.
• Special relationship events are easier to get. This includes the Reverse Confession, Reverse Proposal, and the Breaking Up scenes.
• A new Personality Trait bonus selectable at character creation, including two New Game+ Personality Traits which are added to your options after you've completed the story.
• And so much more...
• See also: http://fogu.com/sos2/

Q. What pets are there?
A. There are 28 different pets. These are divided into 16 distinct dog breeds, 10 unique cat types, and two colors of capybara. Unfortunately, XSEED was not able to secure the rights to Hamtaro and Cheburashka in North America, so those pets will not be included. There are eight horses to choose from.

Q. What personality type should I pick when starting a new game?
A. All five starting traits provide a small boost in one specific area of your character's day to day life. They all gradually lose effectiveness as you progress through the game. The Tycoon and Charmer traits seem to be the fan favorites, but don't be afraid to pick whichever trait you like.

Q. Any items that I should hoard?
A. A ton of Milk. Coconuts, Vanilla, and Thyme. Building materials and gems are always safe bets, but many of these are available for purchase later in the game. There are several other wild plants that you can not grow on your farm, so keeping a reserve of those items is wise.

Q. Where's the Hammer? How about a Fishing Pole?
A. Upgrade your house once and Ludus will give you a Hammer. Walk from the Crossroads to Westown on Spring 8th to receive the Fishing Pole tutorial. You must purchase the Fishing Pole.

Q. Is trading region-locked again?
A. Yes. Please pray for our fallen PALs.

Q. Speaking of our PALs, any news about the European release?
A. Nothing at this time.

Q. Does this game support same-sex marriage?
A. No, it does not. There is a "using the very robust crossdressing system and pretending really hard" option, but this is hardly a substitute for true representation. XSEED Games staff members have recently mentioned that they would enjoy this feature as well.

Q. What's up with the chibi characters all over this OT? Does the game actually look like that?
A. They're a small part of the official artwork released for the game. No, the game doesn't look like that.

Q. Anything else I should know before diving in?
A. There's a spiffy guide right here! Please feel free to ask any other questions, arrange trading sessions, and communicate in this thread.

Q. Why is the acronym for Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns sometimes written as 3oT instead of ToT?
A. Because there's already a previous ToT in the Bokujō Monogatari series, Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility. Please note the similar use of an Arabic numeral in the Japanese title for Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns, 牧場物語 3つの里の大切な友だち.

Q. Should I buy this game?
Joke A. Yes.

Spoiler

No bias detected in the official thread for the game. /s

Joke Q. Best Girl? Best Boy?
A. Lisette & Yuzuki

• Graphics re-hosted from a variety of sources including Amazon.com, the Official Website, famitsu.com, and the fogu.com/hm guide.
• Differences between SoS and SoS: 3oT provided by Kirie. Many thanks!
• This OT may contain hidden links! Thanks to you for finding them and for reading the OT.
  

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

Beautiful and meaty OT, TB!
Dunno if I'll grab this yet or not. I barely touched Story of Seasons but this one looks better already.

 

[daffy]

gonna wait for reviews on this one

 

[Producer]

thank god for the shipping bin

 

[Trailblazer34]

A few more months and Europe won't have to play the shittiest game of wait and see on these jp games ever again

 

[neonglow]

If I get this game, is there any point to getting the first Story of Seasons game?

 

[Teriyaki Blues]

Beautiful and meaty OT, TB!
Dunno if I'll grab this yet or not. I barely touched Story of Seasons but this one looks better already.

Thanks DC! The eShop version goes live in 4ish hours so I'll have some more solid impressions in the next few days. Street date has been lowkey broken for ages now, so videos are going up all over the place already if you're into that.

gonna wait for reviews on this one

Not a bad move, but you should know that Simulation games that lean toward a female audience tend to score lower in professional reviews than they should, in my opinion. I'm just a guy who calls it like I see it. Trying to find some supplementary Twitch or YouTube gameplay videos would be a good idea.

thank god for the shipping bin

Yeah! I get really mad when my good friend Shipping Bin mysteriously vanishes from these games. I might have abandonment issues after SoS.

A few more months and Europe won't have to play the shittiest game of wait and see on these jp games ever again

It sucks. I hope you guys hear something concrete soon and don't have to wait another year again.

If I get this game, is there any point to getting the first Story of Seasons game?

Hypothetically speaking, maybe? If you play this one and really want one that's really similar but with an intense amount of grinding and SoS is on sale, pick it up. If you're a completionist, pick it up.

Whelp, editing the OT broke all the emoji. Working on a replacement.

 

[Kirie]

Fantastic OP Teriyaki!

It's actually sold out online in a lot of places here in Canada, so I hope that means it's selling well. It's a great game, and if you were burned out by the trade vendors in SoS, fear not because there's nothing nearly as bad in this game. They took a lot of complaints from the last game and fixed them.

The in-game goals have a list you can keep track of, so no more guesswork on what you need to progress now. No more insane time-locks either (specific animals, etc unlocking by year 4) it's all mostly based on how fast you increase your town ranks.

 

[Squall ASF]

Nice job, Teriyaki! Glad you listed the discrepancies between this and SoS.


I managed to finish Tales of Berseria last night so just in time! Horizon will probably get more attention until I finish it but it's not arriving for me until tomorrow and I'm headed out of town this weekend so I'll be starting this tonight and taking it with me on my trip

It's going to be a little weird not having usage of tools as a factor for upgrading it ha

I'm having a tough time deciding on what bonus trait to start out with. I'd normally say Charmer is the no brainer as it'd really help with the more obscure villagers you don't care to put in your regular rotation of gift giving (though waving helps in this regard, neat feature!) but I don't want to miss the white flower level comments by the bacheloretts and
won't hand them hated gifts just to see them ;p It's a question of how badly you really need money early on versus a head start on stamina. From my experience in the series, stamina is the biggest bottleneck early on. the early days are about clearing your farm of boulders and weeds and working that hoe so stamina is more important than money at this stage though you'll want money soon after. Consider I never had an issue starting with low money in the previous games but could certainly see more stamina helping right away, I'm leaning on this.

Depending on how many people get in on this, could be worth it to keep a list of FC so we can do gift exchanges.

Kirie,

What are your thoughts from your experience with the game? I know it doesn't really matter because you'll hit a cap or make up the gap for any of these in time anyway but we have to make a choice so.... What say you? Also, does the OP cover all what's worth hoarding? Is there an equivalent in this game to Flax in SoS? Tell us the ways of max efficiency!

If I get this game, is there any point to getting the first Story of Seasons game?

Nah, they are unrelated like every other entry and this entry improves on the weaknesses of SoS. Now if you ever finish this game and there's a long gap before the next one, you could check it out as it was still a good game and plenty of locales to visit. Just quite grind-y.

 

[Busaiku]

It's a shame this is on Switch week.
Probably won't really get to thus week, though I'm getting it today.

After Breath of the Wild though.

 

[Teriyaki Blues]

Been playing sporadically since the download completed and I would like to add that you shouldn't pick up any Part-Time Jobs that involve tools you don't have on your person. I have no idea if this is a glitch or not, but save before taking those PTJs just in case.

So far the game is brilliant. I'm still in the first week though, but this is going so fast compared to Story of Seasons and it makes A New Beginning's first month look like a still life painting.

 

[Squall ASF]

Been playing sporadically since the download completed and I would like to add that you shouldn't pick up any Part-Time Jobs that involve tools you don't have on your person. I have no idea if this is a glitch or not, but save before taking those PTJs just in case.

So far the game is brilliant. I'm still in the first week though, but this is going so fast compared to Story of Seasons and it makes A New Beginning's first month look like a still life painting.

Thanks for the tip! Sounds great, looking forward to trying it tonight. Hopefully my shipment is waiting for me when I get home rather than one of those 8pm arrival times... Going to be weird busting out the 3DS again after all this time ha

 

[Theandrin]

I've got my copy waiting for me at home once I get off work!

 

[Kirie]

I'm having a tough time deciding on what bonus trait to start out with. I'd normally say Charmer is the no brainer as it'd really help with the more obscure villagers you don't care to put in your regular rotation of gift giving (though waving helps in this regard, neat feature!) but I don't want to miss the white flower level comments by the bacheloretts and
won't hand them hated gifts just to see them ;p It's a question of how badly you really need money early on versus a head start on stamina. From my experience in the series, stamina is the biggest bottleneck early on. the early days are about clearing your farm of boulders and weeds and working that hoe so stamina is more important than money at this stage though you'll want money soon after. Consider I never had an issue starting with low money in the previous games but could certainly see more stamina helping right away, I'm leaning on this.

Depending on how many people get in on this, could be worth it to keep a list of FC so we can do gift exchanges.

Kirie,

What are your thoughts from your experience with the game? I know it doesn't really matter because you'll hit a cap or make up the gap for any of these in time anyway but we have to make a choice so.... What say you? Also, does the OP cover all what's worth hoarding? Is there an equivalent in this game to Flax in SoS? Tell us the ways of max efficiency!



Nah, they are unrelated like every other entry and this entry improves on the weaknesses of SoS. Now if you ever finish this game and there's a long gap before the next one, you could check it out as it was still a good game and plenty of locales to visit. Just quite grind-y.

So the top ranks in each town require each villagers to all have at least 4 hearts. The charmer trait is not only good for this, but if you're playing on veteran (do they call it veteran? I don't have my copy yet) this trait can be a huge boon because it lets you be able to sit down with most of the characters in eat with them, which can restore a fuck ton of stamina (depending on the dish and which character you're eating with) without having to spend the money at the Garden Grill. So for me when I chose charmer, I used to sit down around lunch time with Megan, Hector and Colin because it's super close to your farm, and if I needed to go back home to finish some farming chores it's right down the street.

To eat with villagers, you need at least half a heart, to eat with the candidate characters (of both genders) you need a full heart. The charmer trait gives you a half a heart with all villagers and candidates of the same sex whom you can't marry, but a full heart with the opposite gender candidates. So if you're playing as a guy you can eat with everyone but Wayne and Ford.

On the otherhand, you do miss out on their white flower dialogue and you can raise affection pretty quickly by winning festivals.

The nice thing about all of the beginner traits is that there is no real game changer, as they all start dropping off in efficiency a season or two into the game.

The stamina trait sounds really useful, but know that you can never exceed 10 total hearts of stamina in the game. So basically you're just getting one early, not adding on to the total amount you're getting, if that makes sense.

I personally find the charmer and tycoon perks to be my favorites, but I think depending on play styles they all can be pretty useful in the beginning!

OP has done a great job on listing some of the things you need to hoard! I'd also suggest making sure to plant fruit trees as quickly as possible. You'll need a lot of specific fruit (don't remember off the top of my head, it's linked in Fogu's guide under town links) in the later town ranks.

There's no equivalence of flax this time around, but gems are pretty profitable like they usually are! A good tip is that you shouldn't mine every day, be sure to wait a day or few in-between when you mine, or you'll just end up getting junk over and over. It ups the quality of what you get. Unless you save scum, then it doesn't really matter

 

[Squall ASF]

So the top ranks in each town require each villagers to all have at least 4 hearts. The charmer trait is not only good for this, but if you're playing on veteran (do they call it veteran? I don't have my copy yet) this trait can be a huge boon because it lets you be able to sit down with most of the characters in eat with them, which can restore a fuck ton of stamina (depending on the dish and which character you're eating with) without having to spend the money at the Garden Grill. So for me when I chose charmer, I used to sit down around lunch time with Megan, Hector and Colin because it's super close to your farm, and if I needed to go back home to finish some farming chores it's right down the street.

To eat with villagers, you need at least half a heart, to eat with the candidate characters (of both genders) you need a full heart. The charmer trait gives you a half a heart with all villagers and candidates of the same sex whom you can't marry, but a full heart with the opposite gender candidates. So if you're playing as a guy you can eat with everyone but Wayne and Ford.

On the otherhand, you do miss out on their white flower dialogue and you can raise affection pretty quickly by winning festivals.

The nice thing about all of the beginner traits is that there is no real game changer, as they all start dropping off in efficiency a season or two into the game.

The stamina trait sounds really useful, but know that you can never exceed 10 total hearts of stamina in the game. So basically you're just getting one early, not adding on to the total amount you're getting, if that makes sense.

I personally find the charmer and tycoon perks to be my favorites, but I think depending on play styles they all can be pretty useful in the beginning!

OP has done a great job on listing some of the things you need to hoard! I'd also suggest making sure to plant fruit trees as quickly as possible. You'll need a lot of specific fruit (don't remember off the top of my head, it's linked in Fogu's guide under town links) in the later town ranks.

There's no equivalence of flax this time around, but gems are pretty profitable like they usually are! A good tip is that you shouldn't mine every day, be sure to wait a day or few in-between when you mine, or you'll just end up getting junk over and over. It ups the quality of what you get. Unless you save scum, then it doesn't really matter

I should by all accounts play on Veteran with all the years I've played this series but as I have other games and responsibilities taking up time, I just go with seedling so I can see more of the content sooner ;p I agree that Charmer is the most useful over all, I just am concerned about missing white flower events with the ladies. It would feel weird for them to automatically consider me a friend at the outset haha

I'm just going off of stamina running out quickly at the beginning being the largest bottleneck starting out since you have to clear your farm space first but you bring up a good point that you can eat with others to recharge it so that could be even more useful than a single extra heart at the beginning.

You better believe I save scum at mining nodes! It's their fault for the shitty mining in all these latest entries ;p Go back to HM64's model, make mining great again! Maybe I'll just go Charmer and suck up missing the white flower comments... :/

So after playing and seeing all their personalities, who's your waifu? I'd ask the thread at large who they want there's to be but think I'll wait until we get more activity in here from different people.

 

[ohlawd]

nice thread

can't justify the purchase yet due to lack of time but enjoy the game for me, everyone

 

[Kirie]

Oh you definitely don't miss any events! Just the one white flower lines

I totally understand about preferring to play on seedling mode. I did that with SoS because the grind was soooo severe at times :/ I'm probably going veteran this time around on my main file, but seedling on my next file just to give myself a break lol

My favorite mining was in Animal Parade! I'd spend all day in there because I found it so stupidly fun for some reason. I really hate the current mining system

I actually married Wayne in my Japanese copy (he's a total sweetheart and has some great events!) but I also reaaaally like Ludus and Yuzuki, so I might go for one of them this time around. I haven't gone for any of the waifus yet because I prefer to play as my own gender usually when given the choice, buuuut I do like Komari and Siluka quite a bit.

What's nice is that you get a lot of events this time around to get a good feeling for the candidates before you start dating. There's also some continuity in the events, where they'll actually mention prior flower events occasionally so it feels more like a character arc rather than just a whole bunch of random stuff happening.

 

[Squall ASF]

Oh you definitely don't miss any events! Just the one white flower lines

I totally understand about preferring to play on seedling mode. I did that with SoS because the grind was soooo severe at times :/ I'm probably going veteran this time around on my main file, but seedling on my next file just to give myself a break lol

My favorite mining was in Animal Parade! I'd spend all day in there because I found it so stupidly fun for some reason. I really hate the current mining system

I actually married Wayne in my Japanese copy (he's a total sweetheart and has some great events!) but I also reaaaally like Ludus and Yuzuki, so I might go for one of them this time around. I haven't gone for any of the waifus yet because I prefer to play as my own gender usually when given the choice, buuuut I do like Komari and Siluka quite a bit.

What's nice is that you get a lot of events this time around to get a good feeling for the candidates before you start dating. There's also some continuity in the events, where they'll actually mention prior flower events occasionally so it feels more like a character arc rather than just a whole bunch of random stuff happening.

Yeah I know I won't miss events, just didn't want to miss their initial lines and seeing how they react to you the first time ha

Yeah I'm probably namely choosing seedling because of the horror flashbacks of SoS grind ;p I never played Animal Parade, wonder how it's mining compares to 64. I've played most of the Harvest Moons but missed a few. A New Beginning got me back into the fold and as with the rest of the HM hardcore I knew about the transition to SoS in advance so jumped to this series after ANB.

I feel stupid for assuming what sex you chose, my apologies! Learning the SO potential's various personalities is always one of the more entertaining parts of these games. Lets see which ones I take to and which ones come off abrasive or annoying The continuity from prior events sounds awesome! Some nice tweaks and feature upgrades in this iteration Next SoS they will fix the mine!

Spoiler

BELIEVE

 

[Teriyaki Blues]

Man, this game is addicting!

I only ran into the Part-Time Job glitch with the "Brushing" job so far. Did a "Shearing" one just fine even though I don't have Shears.

 

[Thoraxes]

Ahhhhhh my copy from Best Buy that I pre-ordered came with the capybara~

I was so excited when I saw it attached to the game, haha.

 

[ar4757]

XSeed always has the greatest physical copies (plushies, an actual full-color manual, and doubled sided box art)!

I know I'll be busy with the Switch and whatnot, but gotta show my support! And these games are usually a slow burn for me - I picked Story of Seasons back up a couple weeks ago after not having played in a long time and grinded out the Tropical and Ice countries, and married Agate. Man, I regretted not choosing Seedling mode for that one. Now I'm just hoping I'm not burnt out from what ended up being 30-40 hours of, along with other things, mainly grinding small lumber for Tropical Country.

Glad that for this game it sounds like normal mode is less irritating unlock wise.

 

[Koppai]

Lol totally forgot to pick it up today, these games seem to be limited print so I made sure to order it a few weeks ago. Found out Yokai Watch 2 is rare and going up in price so I bought that too used lol.

 

[Cindro]

This looks legit great, and seems like it might join the upper trio of 3DS life sims (alongside New Leaf and RF4).

Such a shame on the timing, though. If this had come out a meager two weeks prior, I would have been all over it. Instead, all I can think about is Switch and Zelda on Friday, and I have no clue if I'll ever get around to this with Stardew heading to the Switch in Summer.

I'll be following this thread regardless, though. I'm really interested to hear how this one is received!

EDIT: Also, wonderful OP Teriyaki. It's nice to see such an extremely niche series not getting shortchanged on that front, so thanks for putting in the effort!

 

[Maaka]

Is anyone else a little disappointed in the capybara plush? It's really cute but it's just so small sitting next to all my other harvest moon plushes.

Other than that (which isn't really a problem) I'm really enjoying it so far.

 

[Leeness]

Mine is coming on Friday!! 😍

Also, marrying Ludus so much.

 

[alvis.exe]

Picked this up today! Are there any lists out there of when different crops/livestock species unlock? The Fogu guide doesn't seem to be completely up yet.

 

[mikemandey]

So to those who are already playing the game, how about the frame rate? I tried the first Story of Seasons but couldn't enjoy it due to very bad framerate. I played it on N3DS and it didn't help the framerate at all..

 

[Thoraxes]

So good. Forgot to post a picture earlier.

So to those who are already playing the game, how about the frame rate? I tried the first Story of Seasons but couldn't enjoy it due to very bad framerate. I played it on N3DS and it didn't help the framerate at all..

Looks good in this stream XSEED did if you need some footage to see.

 

[Teriyaki Blues]

Is anyone else a little disappointed in the capybara plush? It's really cute but it's just so small sitting next to all my other harvest moon plushes.

Other than that (which isn't really a problem) I'm really enjoying it so far.

The ones from XSEED are smaller, they call them "pocket plush". It matches up well with the Angora Rabbit plush given out with SoS.

Picked this up today! Are there any lists out there of when different crops/livestock species unlock? The Fogu guide doesn't seem to be completely up yet.

You might try Thonky: http://www.thonky.com/story-of-seasons-trio-of-towns/ , but most of the unlocks come when you hit a Town Link rank up, finish a Farming Tip checklist, a new town hits, you earn an an achievement, etcetera. I can't say for sure, but it seems like there are no truly onerous play time requirements in this game unless you want to get all of the achievements.

So to those who are already playing the game, how about the frame rate? I tried the first Story of Seasons but couldn't enjoy it due to very bad framerate. I played it on N3DS and it didn't help the framerate at all..

Frame rate is really good compared to SoS. It does feel a tiny bit more sluggish than it looks in certain areas or while jumping, but it is a minor quibble. The videos are pretty spot on for once.

So good. Forgot to post a picture earlier.

Nice! Welcome home Capy-san!

Thanks for the kind words, Cindro!

 

[mobilesworking]

Can someone breakdown the major differences between this and Stardew Valley? If you've played both which do you prefer? I'm leaning toward SV on Switch and don't have time for two farming sims.

 

[Teriyaki Blues]

Can someone breakdown the major differences between this and Stardew Valley? If you've played both which do you prefer? I'm leaning toward SV on Switch and don't have time for two farming sims.

Stardew Valley is very much an "inspired by" Bokujō Monogatari game. Not the Story of Seasons of today, but much older games in the series. Specifically Friends of Mineral Town, in my opinion. It is hard to compare the two when the common ancestor is a great-great-great-great-great grandparent.

The Story of Seasons games have a stronger focus on characters, seeing various events, and completing story goals. They tend to have anime inspired art styles. Raising crops and livestock skews more towards representational farming than a one for one system (e.g. 1 bag of seeds grows nine crops, one cow can produce 20 milks at a time). The fishing is loads easier, especially in Trio of Towns. There's no combat or maze-like mines in Story of Seasons.

Stardew Valley was missing that "je ne sais quoi" factor that makes these games fun for me, so I prefer the Story of Seasons games. They just feel more whimsical to me. Stardew Valley is great, so you won't be missing out on an awesome farming sim no matter which you go with in the end. If you want something similar but with more of an Action RPG element, Rune Factory 4 is another excellent choice.

 

[Squall ASF]

Started way later than I hoped last night so didn't get as much time in as I wanted but I knocked out the intro tutorial so to speak and want to say I'm on Saturday of the first week. It's a good thing I didn't do the stamina bonus (not that it wouldn't still be useful) because this entry doesn't make you clear out your farm of boulders and trees! It surprised the heck out of me to see cleared crop space lands and a chicken coop already in place besides the barn. Not to mention the barn and coop already were fenced as well albeit with too small a space for it to stay with that setup. I'm used to the first week in these games being mostly smashing rocks and chopping stumps on the farm ground ha So for this first week I'm going to bed earlier as there's only so much I can do thus far with the other two towns being closed off to start. I'm running around talking to the villagers, doing all the part time jobs I can, and gifting Lisette flowers for now. I planted the radishes given at the start and purchased two potato seed bags which I planted as well. I had hoped to fertilize the latter and only water once a day to have a shot at the Spring Crop festival but the only fertilizer being sold is for the color attribute. I'm guessing that's for flowers. So I've been watering twice a day instead since I don't have a seed maker to keep the star grade going.

Since we have themed towns, most of the villagers have the accent appropriate to the region as well as a local greeting which is kinda cool, feels like you really traveled to another land to begin your new life. This was further supplemented by showing more of where you came from than is normal for these games. The challenge by your father feels like it has a tad more weight because of it. Not that any of us are playing for him Other than that, foraging everything I can find and examining every bug I come across. Man is that waving feature going to be amazing as the villagers pile up!

Anyway, solid initial impression that's reinforced that this game is going to be so much less of a grind than SoS was. Looking forward to more time with the game If there's anything else you guys have come across in the first week that I'm missing please share! Oh, I'd also be interested if someone who doesn't choose the Charmer personality is able to trigger the "Language of Flowers" event. I'm wondering if I triggered it naturally and due to the Charmer bonus or if the game shows it no matter what at that point in the game upon entering the building as a kind of intro to events for you. I'm guessing it's from the bonus FPs since I triggered two with Wayne already too.

Mine is coming on Friday!! ��

Also, marrying Ludus so much.

Hi Leeness! Great to see you back for the new entry and look forward to chatting and trading in-game items with you again

 

[mobilesworking]

Stardew Valley is very much an "inspired by" Bokujō Monogatari game. Not the Story of Seasons of today, but much older games in the series. Specifically Friends of Mineral Town, in my opinion. It is hard to compare the two when the common ancestor is a great-great-great-great-great grandparent.

Really helpful explanation. Concise and cogent. Thank you!

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

I caved and will be grabbing this after work today.
The bachelorettes seem more appealing this game so I guess I'll be playing a male.

 

[Cindro]

While searching out more Switch impressions earlier, I came across a review of this game at Nintendo World Report.

Spoiler

6.5

Has anyone else found reviews that are more positive? This one seems to just give a shallow overview of the basics, so I'm hoping this game improves like a fine wine the deeper you dig into the mechanics!

 

[adroit]

We need laws to force companies to ship bonus items like Capy-san to digital suckers like myself. If I "buy" a bunch of zeroes and ones which can be taken away from me at any time for any reason without compensation I think I at least deserve Capy-san.

/rant

Looking forward to playing this game on my long flight home this Saturday. I'm amazed to read I don't have to clear stumps and boulders. Not even in hurt-me-plenty mode?

 

[Squall ASF]

Welp, Horizon arrived and it's going to be interesting balancing these two games. I'm thinking of plugging away at Horizon because it will be shorter than the time I'll spend on this game but I'm going out of town this weekend so I can play this Friday to Sunday evening exclusively How's everyone's experience going? I think only Teriyaki has commented on his initial session so far.

While searching out more Switch impressions earlier, I came across a review of this game at Nintendo World Report.

Spoiler

6.5

Has anyone else found reviews that are more positive? This one seems to just give a shallow overview of the basics, so I'm hoping this game improves like a fine wine the deeper you dig into the mechanics!

Google search, friend. Right off the bat you can see Destructoid giving it an 8/10 and Metacritic is 78%. If you at all like the first SoS, you'll enjoy this one even more as it's improved in many ways as you can read in the OP and they've added some convenient features like the hand waving (counts as talking to villager for building up affection but can hit everyone in a radius around you without stopping to chat). I don't think this is the type of game to garner high scores anyway, it's better to look up what features were improved or changed and how it compares to previous entries. This game doesn't generate hype like Horizon Zero Dawn for most people ;p

We need laws to force companies to ship bonus items like Capy-san to digital suckers like myself. If I "buy" a bunch of zeroes and ones which can be taken away from me at any time for any reason without compensation I think I at least deserve Capy-san.

/rant

Looking forward to playing this game on my long flight home this Saturday. I'm amazed to read I don't have to clear stumps and boulders. Not even in hurt-me-plenty mode?

There are still some trees and I think one big rock or so to remove on your farm but they are on the outskirts more and not in the plots where you'll grow stuff for the first time ever I believe. Virtually nada to clear so you can get right into the mix with villagers and growing produce.

 

[Teriyaki Blues]

I'm amazed to read I don't have to clear stumps and boulders. Not even in hurt-me-plenty mode?

You don't have to do it right away, you start with a Small Barn, Small Coop, and a generous number of open soil plots to plant crops in. You're going to want to do the trees as quickly as possible because free Twigs and Branches. The rocks can wait until you're situated.

While searching out more Switch impressions earlier, I came across a review of this game at Nintendo World Report.

Spoiler

6.5

Has anyone else found reviews that are more positive? This one seems to just give a shallow overview of the basics, so I'm hoping this game improves like a fine wine the deeper you dig into the mechanics!

I'm feeling lazy, here's the Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/game/3ds/story-of-seasons-trio-of-towns

Keep in mind what I said earlier. Farming Sims that lean toward a primarily female consumer base tend to score low, largely because professional game reviewers don't seem to like the genre (in my opinion). Not sure how badly the launch window being right now is hurting it either. I'm not ready to rate it on a personal level yet because it is still way too shiny and new. What I will say is that it is a blast to play. Time management is back in a big way, and my days are a frenzy of trying to get everything done before my famer falls over or turns into a pumpkin (because Midnight).

 

[Kirie]

I feel stupid for assuming what sex you chose, my apologies! Learning the SO potential's various personalities is always one of the more entertaining parts of these games. Lets see which ones I take to and which ones come off abrasive or annoying The continuity from prior events sounds awesome! Some nice tweaks and feature upgrades in this iteration Next SoS they will fix the mine!

Spoiler

BELIEVE

Oh no worries at all!! Any stand out characters for you yet?

I'm 10 hours in and just got the hammer finally after upgrading my house. I forgot how absolutely crazy it gets when you unlock Lulukoko, with so much shit to do. Crops, taking care of livestock, training your pet, foraging, part time jobs, talking to villagers, gifting, mining, fishing, events and upgrades, etc. Gets even worse with Tsuyukusa unlocking but I love being strapped for time and having to prioritize lol.

Also a small tip for fishing (that I actually just found out recently) is that you don't need to mash A continuously to reel it in. Just need to click it once when the fish bites. Helps out my arthritic hands a bunch

I think my favorite QOL features is being able to move whole plots of land (including fruit trees!) and full barns to wherever you need to on the map as long as there's space. I have a ton of fruit trees I'm going to need to move sooner or later when the 2nd part of the farm map opens up.

 

[Cindro]

Google search, friend. Right off the bat you can see Destructoid giving it an 8/10 and Metacritic is 78%. If you at all like the first SoS, you'll enjoy this one even more as it's improved in many ways as you can read in the OP and they've added some convenient features like the hand waving (counts as talking to villager for building up affection but can hit everyone in a radius around you without stopping to chat). I don't think this is the type of game to garner high scores anyway, it's better to look up what features were improved or changed and how it compares to previous entries. This game doesn't generate hype like Horizon Zero Dawn for most people ;p

I'm feeling lazy, here's the Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/game/3ds/story-of-seasons-trio-of-towns

Keep in mind what I said earlier. Farming Sims that lean toward a primarily female consumer base tend to score low, largely because professional game reviewers don't seem to like the genre (in my opinion). Not sure how badly the launch window being right now is hurting it either. I'm not ready to rate it on a personal level yet because it is still way too shiny and new. What I will say is that it is a blast to play. Time management is back in a big way, and my days are a frenzy of trying to get everything done before my famer falls over or turns into a pumpkin (because Midnight).

I'm so used to these types of games being so overlooked by the mainstream press that I didn't even consider checking metacritic, hah! In fact, I'm shocked to see there are already 12 reviews out, especially with Switch coverage eating up most outlets' resources.

I'll start reading through these to pass the time until Friday. I'm becoming ever-so-slightly tempted to schedule this as my first game after Zelda. It might make for a nice, breezy cooldown after marathoning such a gigantic title.

 

[Leeness]

Hi Leeness! Great to see you back for the new entry and look forward to chatting and trading in-game items with you again

Hi! Nice to see you too. Can't wait to get my game, even though it will probably take forever for me to progress haha.

 

[Jacobson]

I really hate how all farm tiles are tilled/watered in a 3x3 square from the start. this is the first hm/sos game I've played on the 3ds. has it been this way since hm:anb? I really like the farming mechanics in Stardew Valley and RF4.

 

[Teriyaki Blues]

I really hate how all farm tiles are tilled/watered in a 3x3 square from the start. this is the first hm/sos game I've played on the 3ds. has it been this way since hm:anb? I really like the farming mechanics in Stardew Valley and RF4.

ANB was 4 (2x2, with some rare exceptions like Paddy Crops), SoS started the 9 (3x3) up again. It tended to be the way I tried to plant my crops in the older games if it was feasible, so it doesn't feel much different to me. 1x1 crop systems are a nightmare to me now that I've gotten used to the Tao of SoS.

Not saying this to diss other games, it is because of the way that crop quality is raised and carried over. If one crop made one seed and one seed made one crop, then crop quality wouldn't be a sustainable system.

 

[Squall ASF]

Didn't get to game last night until right before bed so opted to play this instead of Horizon. Managed to progress enough to get the fishing pole and unlock multiplayer with Dessa. I've been steadily building up money with part time jobs which allows me to replace my crops when I harvest them though I'm not going crazy with the amount I plant since I have more limited stamina at this point. I'm saving a potato for the crop festival at the end of the season as it has higher stats than the radish. Too bad there isn't the right fertilizer for sale to boost the star ranking but I'm assuming one star is good enough to win the beginner level. Has anyone tested the fertilizer that enhances the color (the only one on sale right now) to see if that actually ups the star rating at all? I assumed it will just raise the one stat. Maybe I'll test it with the next batch I grow from scratch.

While Lisette's flower is still purple, I've noticed a change in her dialogue, she's showing a lot more interest in me and throwing some flattery my way ha I've just given her moon drop flowers so far but she made the comment that she particularly likes flowers from foreign regions. Sorry my dear, I don't have access to them just yet ;p I tried out having a meal with a townsman, neat feature but I'll need to figure out the eating schedule of everyone to exploit the free stamina boosts. No doubt it can be a key strategy down the road when there's more to do. I'm glad fishing came when it did, it gives me something to do in the later afternoon/early evening before the second watering of crops. Once I unlock animals that should kill some time and stamina.

Oh, has anyone purchased the pocket calendar? Does it have more information than the one in the house? I found it odd that the one in the house only has birthdays on it, where are all the festivals? Maybe it adds them after you learn about them for the first time? Frank just told me about the Spring crop festival last night so I'll have to test this theory next time I play and see if it's marked now. I head out of town after work today so I'll be able to play this more over the weekend

Hi! Nice to see you too. Can't wait to get my game, even though it will probably take forever for me to progress haha.

Due to limited time? Same here haha Especially with Horizon out but once this semester of school finishes later this month I'll have a lot more free time after work. If I get things rolling I'll be happy to hook you up I guess there isn't something like the get rich with Flax method of the last game though but since this game isn't super grindy like that one was, it isn't needed. I think you said you were getting your copy today?

Oh no worries at all!! Any stand out characters for you yet?

I'm 10 hours in and just got the hammer finally after upgrading my house. I forgot how absolutely crazy it gets when you unlock Lulukoko, with so much shit to do. Crops, taking care of livestock, training your pet, foraging, part time jobs, talking to villagers, gifting, mining, fishing, events and upgrades, etc. Gets even worse with Tsuyukusa unlocking but I love being strapped for time and having to prioritize lol.

Also a small tip for fishing (that I actually just found out recently) is that you don't need to mash A continuously to reel it in. Just need to click it once when the fish bites. Helps out my arthritic hands a bunch

I think my favorite QOL features is being able to move whole plots of land (including fruit trees!) and full barns to wherever you need to on the map as long as there's space. I have a ton of fruit trees I'm going to need to move sooner or later when the 2nd part of the farm map opens up.

Good! I'm at the opposite spectrum of little to do atm haha I look forward to the implementation of livestock and other towns. I assume all the villagers have their own special events if you befriend them like the last game? Thanks for the fishing tip! It's a nice catch since the "struggle" on the line would make you think you'd need to mash the button like crazy ha

You have fruit trees already? I'm guessing that opens up when the next town becomes available. Are there particularly advantageous fruits to grow? Or do you just plant what fruits you like in real life?

 

[Teriyaki Blues]

Didn't get to game last night until right before bed so opted to play this instead of Horizon. Managed to progress enough to get the fishing pole and unlock multiplayer with Dessa. I've been steadily building up money with part time jobs which allows me to replace my crops when I harvest them though I'm not going crazy with the amount I plant since I have more limited stamina at this point. I'm saving a potato for the crop festival at the end of the season as it has higher stats than the radish. Too bad there isn't the right fertilizer for sale to boost the star ranking but I'm assuming one star is good enough to win the beginner level. Has anyone tested the fertilizer that enhances the color (the only one on sale right now) to see if that actually ups the star rating at all? I assumed it will just raise the one stat. Maybe I'll test it with the next batch I grow from scratch.

That's not how star ranking works in this game. The stars are an average of all the properties the crop has, so if you want to raise the stars, you must raise each quality. I am focusing on Color and Sweetness/Aroma with Fertilizer and doing double watering for the Juicy property. Similar to ANB and SoS, you'll want the seed making machine to carry your best crop seeds over to the second year. Don't worry too much about the beginner level festival, you should be able to win it easily.

Oh, has anyone purchased the pocket calendar? Does it have more information than the one in the house? I found it odd that the one in the house only has birthdays on it, where are all the festivals? Maybe it adds them after you learn about them for the first time? Frank just told me about the Spring crop festival last night so I'll have to test this theory next time I play and see if it's marked now. I head out of town after work today so I'll be able to play this more over the weekend

I haven't, but it is just a portable version of the one in your house. Since the cast of this game is so large, there are very few days without a birthday or festival. You're right about festivals, they won't show up until they're unlocked.

Good! I'm at the opposite spectrum of little to do atm haha I look forward to the implementation of livestock and other towns. I assume all the villagers have their own special events if you befriend them like the last game? Thanks for the fishing tip! It's a nice catch since the "struggle" on the line would make you think you'd need to mash the button like crazy ha

Yeah. Most villagers have at least one non-romantic event and the marriage candidates generally have two non-romantic events. The bottom screen and the music change makes the difference pretty clear.

You have fruit trees already? I'm guessing that opens up when the next town becomes available. Are there particularly advantageous fruits to grow? Or do you just plant what fruits you like in real life?

Grapes are advantageous, mostly because they are the first tree I've run into that I could actually grow in time to start harvesting it in the first year. Tea Leaf bushes are nice as well. The biggest advantage in planting trees early is getting to fertilize them a lot before the harvest rolls around. Be careful not to let storms damage them too much, they can die when all qualities hit zero.

 

[Squall ASF]

That's not how star ranking works in this game. The stars are an average of all the properties the crop has, so if you want to raise the stars, you must raise each quality. I am focusing on Color and Sweetness/Aroma with Fertilizer and doing double watering for the Juicy property. Similar to ANB and SoS, you'll want the seed making machine to carry your best crop seeds over to the second year. Don't worry too much about the beginner level festival, you should be able to win it easily.



I haven't, but it is just a portable version of the one in your house. Since the cast of this game is so large, there are very few days without a birthday or festival. You're right about festivals, they won't show up until they're unlocked.



Yeah. Most villagers have at least one non-romantic event and the marriage candidates generally have two non-romantic events. The bottom screen and the music change makes the difference pretty clear.



Grapes are advantageous, mostly because they are the first tree I've run into that I could actually grow in time to start harvesting it in the first year. Tea Leaf bushes are nice as well. The biggest advantage in planting trees early is getting to fertilize them a lot before the harvest rolls around. Be careful not to let storms damage them too much, they can die when all qualities hit zero.

That's what I was begging to suspect but thanks for confirming. Ok, so use any fertilizer you can get your hands on. So if there were four different types of fertilizer available, you need to apply all four each day to a crop section for the highest rating boost? That could get pricey. Granted, it's just until you can get a crop to max star and then you can let the seed maker handle it from there. Yeah you're of course handicapped with crops that don't re-grow off one seed and without the seed maker but I figured if you can win the beginner level the first season, it won't take much because of this restriction at the start. Glad to hear I should be able to win this first festival.

Thanks for confirming festivals appear on the calendar after being revealed in-game. That's kind of a cool item though I'll have to think if I want to waste a sack slot for it ha

I figured it'd work like SoS. well, you can't miss villager events so I can always lookup which ones I've missed finding on my own later down the road when Fogu is fully updated. I imagine I'll easily see the bachelorette ones naturally.

Grapes grow faster than the others, eh? Thanks for the tip, I'll make sure to grow one or two. I was curious if there was a request requiring a particular fruit for any of the main story requests or to unlock something. Doesn't sound like there is. I'm thinking too much in the mindset of SoS but the got rid of so many reqs to reduce grind so it's flawed assumptions or expectations on my part. I expect this game will be more of the template used for future iterations as it will no doubt be better received among the community.

 

[Teriyaki Blues]

^ Grapes don't grow faster, they just unlock very early so you can plant them in time to be harvested in the first year. All trees take a bunch of time to grow before they'll produce fruit (around two months), so you have to plan ahead with them. Having 10 Trees unlock in Spring and Summer that only produce fruit in Spring and Summer is a bummer, because you have to babysit them for a year before you see any produce. On the other hand, plenty of time to fertilize them.

You can only use one fertilizer type per crop, per day. As in SoS, the game won't let you apply more fertilizer to a quality that's already capped out, so you can either try and raise them evenly or cap one quality and then move on to the next. Not all plants have four qualities either. Flowers and Tea Leaves don't have Size for instance. You can either micromanage every crop with detailed lists and spreadsheets or just keep a full stack of each fertilizer on hand and change them as desired or needed. I'm doing the latter, seems to be working out okay now that I have a seed maker.

As far as hoarding goes, I haven't had any problems with any of the story goals so far. What I didn't see in any pre-launch warning threads is that you need to stock up on every milk your cow(s) produce. Ever. I can't seem to build up a stockpile of the stuff before a new goal takes it all away again. There's a requirement for 30 Fish but the ones from trapping count so that wasn't bad. 30 Ores was more of a hassle but you can buy the cheaper ones from the vendor in Westown and turn them around immediately, even stuff like Bricks count.

 

[Leeness]

Due to limited time? Same here haha Especially with Horizon out but once this semester of school finishes later this month I'll have a lot more free time after work. If I get things rolling I'll be happy to hook you up I guess there isn't something like the get rich with Flax method of the last game though but since this game isn't super grindy like that one was, it isn't needed. I think you said you were getting your copy today?

Got my copy today! Along with the goofy little capybara haha.

And yes, limited time, school, Horizon lol. Maybe I'll play a little bit tonight before bed, but I must confess, I really want to play Horizon for hours tonight haha.

 

[oneida]

i just picked this game up. that color manual!! had to check what year it was.

 

[Persona7]

Totally forgot this was coming out this month,