PixlBit

I actually finished a title this month. Yes, its one of those type of games. Yes, the game technically goes on forever but they do have objectives to complete and credit scenes. It counts dammit! 

The game starts with creating your character and choosing the difficulty. You only have 2 options between seedling and veteran. The difference is in Seedling mode Stamina depletion is less and prices for things are lower. You can be male or female and it gives you some options for the face of your character, Skin color, eye color, hair color, and you can choose a personailty type. They give you boost to certain things. Tycoon actually starts you out with way more money, Animal Lover gives you a boost of affection with livestock and pets, Fisher lets you catch higher star count fish in the beginning, Sport Enthusiast you start with 6 hearts instead of 5 but bewarned you only get 10 hearts total still through the story. After beating the main objectives you unlock 2 more. Weakiling has you start with 2 hearts and you only get 7 the entire game and Miracle actually pulls from your other save alot of the items like clothes and cooking recipes you have as well as your money and stamina.  

Story wise its nothing groundbreaking but the fact that your family is present in this one is quite new. Normally your family is nonexistant in these games. Their mentioned but not seen. Not only do you see them but you have a relative living in the first town open to you which is Westown. Speaking of there are 3 towns total, the other two being Tsuyukuse and Lulukoko. Your farm is its own spot outside of these 3 villages so no having to choose one to live in. If you played TOTT you know what I speak of. Overall the goal is to prove they can be successful as a farmer to the MCs father by completing his farmer tips and improve the 3 towns through town rank links. When you fill the rank to one of star lines you get a few objectives to complete. The Tips and Rank ups are not that hard, they just require being prepared. I highly encourage knowing what the objectives are so if you need something from a particular season, your not waiting forever. Each town has its own shops thats sell different stuff. Some shops sell a few similar items but for the most part they all have different inventory. Each rank unlocks new items, animals, outfits, and seeds.

When shipping to the 3 towns you can only ship to one town in a given day, if you want ship to another you have to change it at the shipping box and the next day it will take effect. Oh by the way, they brought the shipping box back. No more of that traders nonsense like in the first SOS. Be warned some of the rank up request require it be shipped to that specific town, dont pull a Nicole and have to start your day over!

Your farm is quiet big, especially once you have completed all the Farming Tips. Each time you complete a set, a section of your farm opens up to be used. I mostly used the first main area for crops, makers, and fish hatcheries. The plant symbol is crops, the sail boat is the fish hatcheries, and the makers are the cog looking one. When your arranging your farm, thats what the bottom screen looks like. My west farm is my animals along with the south piece. The greenhouse for this game is underground and its what you unlock last. I mostly use it for trees. You can choose the season they need to grow in and have a constant production going.  

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Some Farm Animals *Bull, Cow, Jersey, and a Llama*

Tools recieved a new upgrade system. In previous games you would essentially upgrade them by getting better ore and using that make them more efficient. Like Iron tools to Gold. However in this one Ludus the carpentar in Lulukoko *My Hubs* has a tool modification service. Ludus also handles all your house upgrades, tailoring for lulukoko outfits, and farm circles/makers. 

Each tool has areas it can be improved upon. As you can see Ive maxed Weight and Effectiveness. Weight decides how much Stamina is used using it and Effectiveness decreses the time it takes to water a plot. Capacity of course is how much water it can hold. You still need ores for upgrading but I really like the new system. You can pick a choose what you want upgraded first.

Crops also recieved a new star rank system. Im not very happy with it, if there is one thing I can not stand about this game its this.

You see instead of fertilzer just increasing the rank of the vegatable, each fertilzer helps increase Color, Sweet, Juicy, and Size. Now there is a fertilzer you can make and unlock later on that effects all 4 but until that time you have to rotate fertilzer each day to increase its star rank. I can not stand this, I forget contantly what I used the other day. I wouldnt mind this going in the next installment. Give me basic fertilzer back. The reason for this I believe  is because the Harvest festivel has 4 options to run in Beginner, Expert, Veteran, Legend. Passed beginner They choose some of the attributes and the vegatable with the highest wins. The Animals have a similar system but theirs is easier to manage.

Beginner-star rank alone

Expert-2 attributes are chosen*they change every season*

Veteran-3 attributes

Legend-All 4

Passed helping the towns and getting to know the villagers they still have festivels and other events held through each month/season. There is the typical Harvest and Animal Festivels, Fashion Show, and Cooking Competition but there is also town specific events. An example would be that Westown has one where you give flowers to the villagers of that town. Lulukoko and Tusyukuse each have a similar one featuring fruit and porridge. There is plenty to do each season.

Another common thing with these titles is getting married and having a family. Im happy to say getting the reverse confession and proposal are way more easy. I actually got both on my current playthrough with Ludus. No more making there favorite dish 50 times and giving X number of presents. In TOT they put in a Affection Point system and certain actions give you so many points. As long as you have the amount needed for the reverse, seen their heart and friend events, and item for dating or marriage you can typically activate it. Marriage actually gets you one of the credit scenes. The other 2 credit scenes are when you finish the Farming Tips and get all the towns to Rank A.

Overall this title was a step up from the first SOS. Im so happy with the improvements they made and Im hoping the next game is just has good. Heck Im hoping they dont change much again.

Pros

Shipping Box returned

Easier reverse confession and proposal

Bigger Farm

Dialogue is more varied for NPCs

New tool improvement system

Big variety in animals and pets

Cons

Fertilizers types

Not many family visits

Dialogue should be more detailed/changed after marriage

*Some pics of the hubs* *Im Single, let me drown in my misery how I want*

Before marriage