This one's been on my backlog since birth lmao
Let me just start by saying that I absolutely adore the way this game looks. The cute, play-doh-esque character models contrasting with the semi-realistic environment textures is a timeless look, like an adorable low poly diorama you could replicate in real life.
The PS1 was my first console, and Back to Nature just happened to be one of the games my brother had lying around for it. Picked it up when I was like, 7 years old, messed around for a bit, had a chicken die because I didn't know I needed to feed it myself, and then put it back down. It's a game I would continuously revisit through the years, getting farther each time, but never finishing it. Not because it's bad, mind you! I just didn't have what it takes to appreciate a farming/life sim like this before, I think. Close to 20 years later, and the deed is finally done. I had a lot of fun with it! Maybe a bit too much in fact, to the point where there was nothing left to do for the entirety of the game's third year.
Back to Nature has you taking over your late grandpa's farm, with the town's mayor warning you that if you don't take good care of the farm and neglect your neighborly duties, you'll be kicked out in three years. Off you go then! Milk that cow! Pick up those eggs! Chop that tree! Give that sheep a dope fade! Drown Elli in flowers and get married in a year! Sell 200 fish and become the πΉπΌππ»πΈπ πΎπΌππΊ! Faint after brushing your horse! Beg the harvest sprites to help you with the cattle because oh god there's so many of them help,
There's tons of things to keep you busy! But maybe I was a bit too efficient in my approach?
By the end of Year 2, I had all Power Berries, all fishing prints, all recipes done(except for the Harvest Sprite one, which I got shortly on the next Spring), maxed out my coop and barn slots, just had my baby, max affection with nearly all my animals, shipped every item, and viewed almost all random events.
But there isn't any way to speed up the three year evaluation period. Sure, you can go straight to bed after waking up, but your animals will most certainly die/lose affection for you before you're halfway through the year-- hell, halfway through the season even. So for an entire year, there was... Nothing to do. Sure, I had a few animals under 10 hearts, but that's it. I even had over 100k burning a hole in my pocket with nothing to spend it on. There weren't even a lot of random events left to see; just like, two or three, and one of them was locked until year 4.
This ultimately made going through that last year a big slog. Yeah, I could come up with arbitrary goals like "Ship 999 of every crop" or something, but that doesn't really change anything, does it? Just makes a number go up in your status screen, and it doesn't even affect your completion %. If there were more things to do, something that I assume the GBA remake took care of, then BTN would be an easy 5* for me. As it stands though, things slow down a bit too drastically before the evaluation, completely overcooking the anticipation for the credits/ending sequence.
Still loved it though. Maybe on a revisit I'll just play until the wedding and consider that my personal ending.
Let me just start by saying that I absolutely adore the way this game looks. The cute, play-doh-esque character models contrasting with the semi-realistic environment textures is a timeless look, like an adorable low poly diorama you could replicate in real life.
The PS1 was my first console, and Back to Nature just happened to be one of the games my brother had lying around for it. Picked it up when I was like, 7 years old, messed around for a bit, had a chicken die because I didn't know I needed to feed it myself, and then put it back down. It's a game I would continuously revisit through the years, getting farther each time, but never finishing it. Not because it's bad, mind you! I just didn't have what it takes to appreciate a farming/life sim like this before, I think. Close to 20 years later, and the deed is finally done. I had a lot of fun with it! Maybe a bit too much in fact, to the point where there was nothing left to do for the entirety of the game's third year.
Back to Nature has you taking over your late grandpa's farm, with the town's mayor warning you that if you don't take good care of the farm and neglect your neighborly duties, you'll be kicked out in three years. Off you go then! Milk that cow! Pick up those eggs! Chop that tree! Give that sheep a dope fade! Drown Elli in flowers and get married in a year! Sell 200 fish and become the πΉπΌππ»πΈπ πΎπΌππΊ! Faint after brushing your horse! Beg the harvest sprites to help you with the cattle because oh god there's so many of them help,
There's tons of things to keep you busy! But maybe I was a bit too efficient in my approach?
By the end of Year 2, I had all Power Berries, all fishing prints, all recipes done(except for the Harvest Sprite one, which I got shortly on the next Spring), maxed out my coop and barn slots, just had my baby, max affection with nearly all my animals, shipped every item, and viewed almost all random events.
But there isn't any way to speed up the three year evaluation period. Sure, you can go straight to bed after waking up, but your animals will most certainly die/lose affection for you before you're halfway through the year-- hell, halfway through the season even. So for an entire year, there was... Nothing to do. Sure, I had a few animals under 10 hearts, but that's it. I even had over 100k burning a hole in my pocket with nothing to spend it on. There weren't even a lot of random events left to see; just like, two or three, and one of them was locked until year 4.
This ultimately made going through that last year a big slog. Yeah, I could come up with arbitrary goals like "Ship 999 of every crop" or something, but that doesn't really change anything, does it? Just makes a number go up in your status screen, and it doesn't even affect your completion %. If there were more things to do, something that I assume the GBA remake took care of, then BTN would be an easy 5* for me. As it stands though, things slow down a bit too drastically before the evaluation, completely overcooking the anticipation for the credits/ending sequence.
Still loved it though. Maybe on a revisit I'll just play until the wedding and consider that my personal ending.