Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar by developer Marvelous Games and publisher Marvelous USA—Nintendo Switch review written by Izzy with commentary by Pierre-Yves on a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes
“As we neared the end of the workday, I was all set to crash down in front of the TV and get started raising my latest set of moo moos. What? Cows are cute. Little did I know at the time; this review wouldn't be written by me. It would be written by the Queen of Cozy games in this household, Izzy, as she Sparta kicked me out of the way to my Switch.”
- PY lamenting on the loss of his review title
Hello and welcome to another edition of Millennial Homeowner Wish Fulfillment!
This particular entry comes to you courtesy of Marvelous USA, a company whose previous games in the Story of Seasons franchise have had such a visceral hold on my soul that when PY informed me that a review code had been received. Now I would have the opportunity to play a little earlier than anticipated, I started foaming at the mouth, levitated off the ground, had an out-of-body experience, and promptly pulled myself out of writing retirement in order to ensure that this game be given the consideration it was owed.
Seventy-ish logged hours later (so far), I have been reminded anew that my veneration of this franchise is nothing short of completely deserved, and that if I can count on one thing in this world, it’s that I will inevitably find myself obsessively pulled into whatever latest little quaint town Marvelous USA has graciously bestowed upon us.
“I can confirm, the last few weeks have been a lonely existence.”
- PY being melodramatic
The town in question this time is Zephyr town, an idyllic little village nestled in the mountains which used to boast a bustling weekly bazaar that drew tourists from around the world. Your objective is simple; restore this bazaar, and by virtue, the town’s reputation, to its former glory. Your journey to doing so is filled with Story of Seasons’ newest cast of quirky characters, including “Truly Unhinged Mayor”, “Standoffish Goth Girl, “Homeless Mountain Body Builder”, “The Twins From The Shining”, “Beethoven If He Was A Math Tutor”, and Garon.
To help you in your endeavors, you’re settled onto a small farm with not much more than a barn and a gardening plot to get you started building an inventory of goods to sell at the weekly bazaar. In addition to what is produced on your homestead, the game progressively introduces multiple windmills throughout Zephyr Town capable of producing a whole slew of new types of goods from what you grow and collect throughout the world. Anything from mayonnaise to diamond bracelets.
The game’s economy feels incredibly well balanced, which is the first thing I found really set it apart, not just from previous entries, but also from other life/farming sims in general. While some of the prices for the materials and power-ups on offer for the player at the bazaar may cause sticker shock at first glance, it quickly became quite easy to pull in several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of the in-game currency on a weekly basis, making any and all purchases feel attainable rather than ambitious.
What did feel out of balance at first was the set day length, and early in game I often found myself feeling like the days were far too short to accomplish what I wanted, leading to the worry that the entire run would be nothing more than stressing about managing competing priorities until the clock runs out. However, once you’ve properly settled into the rhythm of the game and found your footing, it loses that initial sense of urgency and allows for a more relaxed and engaging experience more typical of this type of game.
While Grand Bazaar offers fewer customization options to players’ homesteads than one of the franchise’s previous titles, Pioneers of Olive Town, it also removes a lot of the need for land expansions by introducing the Windmills. This allows for production to be outsourced to three distinct areas in town, rather than having players dedicate large amounts of space to various machines littering their farmland.
And while you can eventually purchase storage access for the windmills, making production a lot easier than having to run back and forth from home for necessary materials, the game’s biggest flaw is in its inventory system.
Having things like the windmills and players’ kitchens pull directly from storage inventory, rather than having to manually move every individual component to the limited available backpack slots would have been such a small but significant quality of life improvement to the game that it can’t go unmentioned. (Though, again, I’ve still played over sixty hours so far so clearly I’m not that bothered by it.)
Complementing the windmill feature, Zephyr town’s climate offers the opportunity to produce goods faster on windy days, as well as introducing a glider function to allow players to access certain parts of the map when the wind is strong enough to carry them.
One noteworthy (and welcome) difference from several games in the genre is how heavily the focus is actually placed on farming and animal husbandry rather than mining.
That’s right! Gone are the days of passing out on floor 382 of some dank cave looking for a single piece of a particular ore because you didn’t bring an inventory full of soup for stamina regeneration! Instead, all ore mined in Zephyr Town is mined above ground, regenerates regularly, and the eventual opportunity to add storage access scattered throughout town makes it easy for players to spend the day replenishing ore stocks and stamina simultaneously.
“This honestly didn’t stop her from constantly passing out in the middle of town like someone needing to be rushed to the emergency room.”
- PY laughing at the constant “whelp, I died again”
“In my defense, I was expected to pay attention to my own stamina bar”
- Izzy’s retort
The weekly titular bazaar really is the selling point of this game. It turns the whole thing into such a vastly different experience than the standard “place goods to sell in box in front of house, get money the next day” mechanic in most games of this ilk.
Not only does it offer players the opportunity to customize their stall with buffs on everything from price points to product freshness, it immerses players into the experience of running an honest-to-goodness farmer’s market. That entails displaying products on tables, having to call customers to their stalls, sell a specified amount of whatever item tickles a customer’s fancy, and making the sales quickly enough before they choose to walk away.
Restoring the Bazaar to its heyday involves achieving seven separate tiers, each of which adds new vendor stalls and products available to the player. When focusing on reaching the final tier at a relatively steady pace, it took roughly one in-game year (approximately fifty hours of gameplay) to reach the highest bazaar rank and clear the game’s ultimate objective.
That being said, there is still plenty to achieve, both during the process of leveling up, and after having reached the final tier, allowing the player to focus on other features such as strengthening relationships with the townsfolk, participating in town events and festivals, upgrading their homestead and equipment, and training animals.
When it really comes down to it, this game is just genuinely enjoyable.
Fans of the franchise will undoubtedly appreciate this newest addition, especially if they were fond of Marvelous!’ last remake Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. Whether you enjoy the challenge aspect of the tiered bazaar ranking, the mingling with townsfolk and the developing of both platonic and romantic relationships there is a lot here to offer at the bazaar. For example: taking care of cute animals and growing your flock, focusing on maxing out the quality of your crops, or all of the above and more, Story of Seasons and Marvelous! continue to delight cozy gamers everywhere and crank out titles that are equal parts familiar comfort, and new adventures.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a Crop Show to get ready for, and I think my giant cabbage might actually take it this time!
Score: 8 / 10
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