The Harvest Moon series has been around for a long time. Some of the oldest games include Harvest Moon 64 and Harvest Moon for the Game Boy Color. These titles were released in the late 90s. They defined the farming sim, where your character was tasked with growing crops and raising animals to run a successful farm. These games were addictive, but slow. I never played the old entries, despite being well aware of them. The series had many successful entries on the GameCube, Wii, and PlayStation consoles.
In 2014, Marvelous (the original developers) and Natsume (the original localizers) changed the marketing strategy, which resulted in Marvelous developing the Story of Seasons games (which were at heart, a continuation of the Harvest Moon series), and Natsume branching off and creating their own farming simulation games, which retained the Harvest Moon title. However, before the split, Marvelous released Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar on DS in 2008. In 2025, we now have a remake of that game with the release of Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. Is it good enough to transport us back?
Growing crops
The game is well-presented and utilizes colorful cel-shaded 3D visuals. Your character, which you design and can customize, moves on a grid-like system. When objects are on the grid in front of you, the player can interact with them. This could be an animal, in which case you can pet it, or feed it, or a plant, where you can water it, or pour fertilizer on it, among other options. The game also boasts good voice acting. I never played the original, so I can’t say if it was present on the DS entry. The mayor of your town acts as a tutorial guide. For the first few hours of the experience, you will be introduced to the various animal husbandry and agriculture game mechanics. Nothing is too complex, but the number of systems can be overwhelming. There’s a lot to remember. Once you’ve finished a day of farming, you sleep in your bed to get to the next day. The player is usually pleasantly surprised with some mail, which often includes seeds or vegetables. It’s an addictive experience, but it isn’t too intuitive, and the number of systems that you have to remember means that you’ll often forget one or two, which minimizes the yield for the next day.
Build your farm
There are other activities for your character to pursue. You can go fishing… and there are various types of fish. You also get a scythe for cutting weeds, which can be sold. There is also a hammer for smashing rocks. You can even use the kitchen in your house to cook meals. Every action that the player performs uses stamina. Eating a meal replenishes this stamina. Hopefully, by the end of each day, you’ll have collected various items and objects.
On a Saturday, we have the showpiece event and namesake of the game, the Grand Bazaar. This event is the main gameplay hook of the title. Characters that you’ve met around the town will set up a show in a separate area and try to sell their produce. You can buy things at the Grand Bazaar. At my first Grand Bazaar, I bought a cow and was pleased with my purchase. She showed up in my barn the next day. The player gets money for everything that they sell. At the end of the Bazaar, you are awarded a certificate and a ranking. You can move up in the rankings by doing well at the Bazaar, and it’s a real incentive to get your farm producing goods, which will lead you to doing better at the Bazaar.
Other things to do
There’s also the potential for your character to form relationships and marry other characters that exist within the game. When you speak to a character, the camera moves to view them from a portrait-style position, and a heart often appears over their heads after a conversation. There are levels of ‘likes’ that you can get with a variety of characters. The more hearts, the more the character likes your character, and the higher the potential for marriage. I didn’t explore this feature deeply, but it is there if you like this kind of thing. From what I’ve heard, the original didn’t have same-sex partnerships, but the newer Story of Seasons games do. In the build-up to release, it has been confirmed that you’ll be able to have same sex marriages in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. The feature adds depth to the game, and together with the ability to grow your farm and enhance the Bazaar, the game becomes a life simulation rather than just a farming sim.
Summary
I’d never played a Story of Seasons or Harvest Moon game until I reviewed Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. For that reason, I don’t have nostalgia for the series. The closest thing that I’ve played to Harvest Moon is Rune Factory 4 on 3DS. However, I have been wanting to play a 3D game where you control characters that have to complete minigames to build resources.
The potential of becoming addicted to a game like this, in a similar way to playing other RPGs (like Pokรฉmon), was drawing me in. Now that I’ve got that experience, I don’t think that the systems are intuitive enough for this Story of Seasons game in particular to be enjoyable. The systems, from agriculture to animal husbandry to fishing, never hooked me, and it just feels like a hassle having to water the plants every day or feed the animals. I think that if I had nostalgia for the series, I would be willing to put more effort in, to get hooked in a game like this. However, the weak systems at play just aren’t addictive enough for me. The “Grand Bazaar” aspect of the game is an interesting hook, and you do feel good when you level up your Bazaar. However, the process of accumulating items just isn’t fun for me.
Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar launches August 27, 2025 on Switch, Switch 2, and Steam.
The Review
Fair
