Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

 Switch
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 95 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 60 out of 95
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 95
  3. Negative: 21 out of 95
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  1. PantheraPardus
    Apr 2, 2021
    5
    I like this game for the most part, there’s more to it now than before but my issue is that the Instructions to do a lot of important things aren’t clear I had to google on how to do several things, events should be playable and it should be more clear who is dateable and not. I’m also really upset that Lars and his brothers aren’t dateable like you can’t put a guy like him in the game andI like this game for the most part, there’s more to it now than before but my issue is that the Instructions to do a lot of important things aren’t clear I had to google on how to do several things, events should be playable and it should be more clear who is dateable and not. I’m also really upset that Lars and his brothers aren’t dateable like you can’t put a guy like him in the game and not make him dateable.… Expand
  2. Kosama
    May 2, 2021
    7
    Un 8 aunque no se lo merece jaja.

    La mecanica de las maquinitas me tiene malo, los aldeanos no tienen mas de dos rutinas o estan trabajando o es el día libre, las cutscene comparado a Mineral town son pesimas, que el control desaproveche los L/R, a las 30 horas ya cuando tienes tu granja enorme el juego va 20 fps.

    Que tiene bueno? no sé jaja pero aquí me tienen con mas de 30 horas,
  3. heycats
    Nov 5, 2021
    5
    The game isn't that bad - it's just very repetitive and underwhelming past a dozen of hours.
    I like farm sim games and this one is lacking a lot of nice things from the previous BokuMono games. Plus it's kinda grindy and the farm is constantly flooded with grass to cut, rocks and unuseful stuff. I had to put floors everywhere so I could avoid my farm being a mess.
    The fences are purely    The game isn't that bad - it's just very repetitive and underwhelming past a dozen of hours.
    I like farm sim games and this one is lacking a lot of nice things from the previous BokuMono games. Plus it's kinda grindy and the farm is constantly flooded with grass to cut, rocks and unuseful stuff. I had to put floors everywhere so I could avoid my farm being a mess.
    The fences are purely cosmectic, animals will go where they want. The story and most of the characters aren't very memorable too.
    That being said I had some good times, but there are better farm games imo, and better BokuMono..    … Expand
  4. GameHunter
    Sep 23, 2021
    6
    Rating updated version 1.08. I’m a long time player of this series, and I must say this one is the worst I can remember. I haven’t had any game ending bugs or glitches, and haven’t been distracted by any noticeable lag so far. But the formula of the game is either it’s best feature or it’s worst. That’s up to you. This games main focus is resource gathering and material production throughRating updated version 1.08. I’m a long time player of this series, and I must say this one is the worst I can remember. I haven’t had any game ending bugs or glitches, and haven’t been distracted by any noticeable lag so far. But the formula of the game is either it’s best feature or it’s worst. That’s up to you. This games main focus is resource gathering and material production through makers. It can get to be way too much at times. Trees, grass, and rocks spawn far too fast in this game and clutter up your yard. The only way around that is to lay tiles of wood, stone, brick, etc. to creat pathways. It’s a lot of work. But it’s supposed to be. But I do find it a bit excessive at times. Like when you need 30 silver bars to open up the third area; that’s 90 pieces of silver ore, which need to be mined and then processed (2 in-game hours per piece) into the bars. Silver ore isn’t extremely rare, but to collect 90 of them will take you at least a few in-game days. Then to process it all would take much more time, or cut your time down with multiple makers.
    Basically your going to be quickly cluttered up with the makers. But if you’re up for the challenge of sorting everything into a system that works for you then you may enjoy it.
    I don’t like how time passes when your indoors now. I know I can just hit the X button but I don’t want to have to worry about that. It just kind of effects how I strategize my next move. Still having trouble getting used to just hitting X to pause.
    I think it’s absolutely stupid how you can’t hatch chicks from the eggs you get from your chicken. You have to impregnate (?) the chicken at the animal shop.
    Also not a fan of the fact that I can’t have any indoor storage boxes. And why can’t I upgrade my fridge without bio grading my whole house? That’s a huge undertaking requiring tones of materials and cash.
    I think lots of this game is full of bad ideas. But at the same time I’m somewhat drawn to the focus of managing the farmland. And the social aspect of this game overall is satisfactory compared to older SOS games. Just satisfactory though, not outstanding in any way. A mostly bland cast of characters as well, but at least they have a decent amount of things to say.
    This game will be my dirty little secret that I keep to myself and play from time to time. But there’s no way I’d recommend it fully to anyone. Not even fans.
    Best advice I can give is to consider if you want a game that focuses this heavily on organization. Because that’s what this is. It’s a constant balancing act of resource gathering, material production, and having every set up in a way that makes sense to you. I personally don’t mind that too much.
    If trees, grass, puddles, and rocks respawned at a (much) slower rate, and material requirements weren’t so outrageous for upgrades and new areas, I’d give it a much higher score.    … Expand
  5. TheKillerFries
    Jul 19, 2021
    5
    I tried pretty hard to enjoy this game, but I really just can't.

    I'm a long-time fan of light farm sims such as Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, and Stardew Valley. I was sad to see that Harvest Moon had taken a pretty stark decline after the big change, though Story of Seasons was delivering where Harvest Moon failed, and Stardew Valley was perhaps the most seamless game to come from    I tried pretty hard to enjoy this game, but I really just can't.

    I'm a long-time fan of light farm sims such as Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, and Stardew Valley. I was sad to see that Harvest Moon had taken a pretty stark decline after the big change, though Story of Seasons was delivering where Harvest Moon failed, and Stardew Valley was perhaps the most seamless game to come from the genre. That being said, I was excited to try Pioneers of Olive Town after Trio of Towns and the remake of Friends of Mineral Town ended up being pretty great.

    I've put about fifty hours into PoOT, about half of which happening at launch and the other half happening after most of the patches, and both experiences have been highly disappointing. It's clear that it wants to be a mixture of previous SoS games and SV, but ends up just being a worse version of both.

    Admittedly, the patches have fixed up a lot of the problems regarding the maker system and the performance, so I won't harp on that too much. Unfortunately though, the game's world is still incredibly bland with the townsfolk being cardboard cutouts and the world itself offering little to no exploration. The DLC is insulting, as the extra areas offer literally nothing more than other bland characters -- and the most recent expansion crashed my game twice just trying to go to the island.

    This has to be the low point for the Story of Seasons series so far, and it's a shame. Even their licensed Doraemon spin-off was of higher quality. The graphics, music, and farm customization are genuinely quite nice, but ultimately PoOT just makes me feel like playing any of the older games or Stardew Valley whenever I boot it up.    … Expand
  6. Tortor
    Jan 3, 2022
    7
    Easily spent 100+ hours in this and didn't even get through 40% of the content. There's a lot to do and master here.

    I personally avoided all the romance and plot stuff. I'll likely come back around to this game to dive into that at a later point. I spent most of my time just having a cozy farm. I found this super relaxing to play while listening to an audiobook. You really could    Easily spent 100+ hours in this and didn't even get through 40% of the content. There's a lot to do and master here.

    I personally avoided all the romance and plot stuff. I'll likely come back around to this game to dive into that at a later point.

    I spent most of my time just having a cozy farm. I found this super relaxing to play while listening to an audiobook.

    You really could just pick and choose what you want to do with your time here and I really enjoyed all that level of freedom.

    I guess the only complaint I had was how tiny the game is. You're not given a whole lot of farm space when you unlock everything. The town is also really tiny too.

    Overall I felt like this was maybe a bit too small of a game and I'd have appreciated some more open areas or something to explore. For a game like this the farm areas really should be bigger too. I was constantly running out of space and having to reorganize early on because of space.

    This game ran well though and was definitely my go to when I needed to chill out.    … Expand
  7. Ysgjr
    May 18, 2022
    7
    a relaxing game where it's actually good to be a farmer. wish the game gets more budget in the future
  8. succhini
    Jun 2, 2022
    7
    It was a cozy game. I liked it better than the original Story of Seasons on the 3ds. I appreciated the little vietnamese family. I thought that was a cool addition to the game.
    I didn't like that there weren't character icons during the dialogue. And it was annoying that I had to have so many machines because of capacity (like making the ores).
    I didn't feel that drawn to decorating or    It was a cozy game. I liked it better than the original Story of Seasons on the 3ds. I appreciated the little vietnamese family. I thought that was a cool addition to the game.
    I didn't like that there weren't character icons during the dialogue. And it was annoying that I had to have so many machines because of capacity (like making the ores).

    I didn't feel that drawn to decorating or making my farm look nice. But I did enjoy making everything, as you usually do with these sorts of games.

    Characters weren't that memorable in my opinion.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

25
#25 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 60 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 60
  2. Mixed: 31 out of 60
  3. Negative: 2 out of 60
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Oct 6, 2021
    65
    It feels like the very narrow gap between Japan's release date and ours worked against it, and I would not have minded waiting a few more months for a more polished final release. [Issue #53 – July/August 2021, p. 72]
  2. Universo Nintendo
    Jun 9, 2021
    80
    Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town shows that the franchise can maintain its established formula by taking risks in other ways like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing without the fear of losing its own charm. A game recommended for both fans and newcomers to the farming experience.
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  3. Checkpoint Gaming
    May 29, 2021
    70
    While I do have a few complaints with Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, overall I really enjoyed the time that I spent with the game. The actual meat of the gameplay is really satisfying with a lot of more modern gameplay ideas to freshen up the already well-loved franchise. The characters are very sweet and lovely and the cows are so round and adorable.
    Read full review
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