I haven't really kept up with the story of seasons games, I have fond memories of back to nature but never got on much with a wonderful life. I never really 'got' some of the finer mechanics as a teen such as friendship with villagers increasing gradually if you talk to them every day, it's only after draining Stardew Valley of every inch of gameplay that I've grasped some of these slightly hidden mechanics.

What a game to return to the series with though! I originally thought they'd looked at Stardew and borrowed mechanics and ideas from it as a sort of response to the love letter it is to the series that inspired it, but from what I've looked at online it seems like some of these mechanics were blossoming in the franchise already so I'm off base there and clearly need to play more SoS games that I missed between now and the gamecube era.

it's a fantastic entry, there's a lot to do and the mechanics have that easy going feel that earlier entries had, I know now what they were going for with games like wonderful life (and I do plan to go back to that game sometime) a slower entry is nice, but I've always had a soft spot for just spraying crops everywhere and harvest vast quantities of vegetables to sell absolutely cramming everything you can into a day.

I will say though that the late game does drag a bit, like with a lot of these games I've lately realised how the villagers dialogue quickly gets exhausted and when you talk to them often to raise their friendship it does get a bit frustrating when characters give you semi tutorial tips or compliment how good you are at something, I'm not really sure what the solution is there though, I was dissatisfied with Animal Crossing New Horizons a bit and felt the same way about the villagers there too, thinking fondly that older games had more dialogue but did they really? I'd have to go back and check to be sure I'm not just fooling myself.

The late game idea that you should be aiming to make new seeds for crops and fruit trees to get better quality fruit to complete quests and that better quality milk and the like should be got by breeding successive generations of animals is a bit exhausting I do think its a good idea to try and add a progressive mechanic but the way its done probably needs to be better thought out, the Stardew Valley approach of fertilising the fields to get better quality crops also isn't ideal but then again you're never required to do that to complete anything at least to my recollection, but who knows what a good solution is, I think maybe Pioneers idea is good it's just how long it takes is probably the killer, being able to upgrade the seeds you can buy would probably be more satisfying.

Overall it's a cracking game, in my head I unfairly supply the caveat 'its not as good as Stardew Valley' but that's definitely the bias talking, the game just hits different and I can't quite explain why it feels like it's topped the games its a love letter to so really I shouldn't be, instead I can say that I put far too many hours into this game and enjoyed every bit of it and I recommend it to anyone who loves the genre, it's been worth every bit of my time and I'm glad I finally got back to the franchise after so long.