Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar - Switch 2 Review
"A must-buy"
Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar originally released on the DS and Marvelous Inc. have revisited their release and revamped the title while remaining faithful. The farming sim genre has exploded in popularity and the supply of titles along with it, so there's a lot more competition to stand out above. However, I believe Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar has done a wonderful job with the cast, new additions, and the overall bazaar mechanic to stand out among the crowd.
The Good
For the most part farming sim games are elevated by their cast of NPC characters, with someone for everyone to enjoy. You're first introduced to the energetic mayor Felix who has been trying to find a new farmer to revitalise Zephyr Town and their titular bazaar, who is an absolute treat, bringing a lot of energy to every encounter with him. You also have an array of romanceable NPCs, varying from the quiet and timid crafty June to the new addition of Arara, the muscular bodyguard who runs around the mountains and trains himself.
The gameplay is genuinely a satisfying experience. Spending the week growing food, taking care of animals, foraging for materials, fishing, and talking to the people of Zephyr Town all in the buildup to selling the fruit of your hard work at the weekly bazaar. Working at the bazaar plays a major role, so much so that it's literally the first thing you do when arriving to your new life. Calling customers over, making sure your tables are stocked, rotating stock, and processing the sales can at times feel a bit hectic though. It is highly worth it, though, to see the total sales you had at the end of the week.
Coming into Story of Seasons: Gran Bazaar I didn't realise that this was a remake of the DS game, as I've never played it beforehand. Everything I looked into with the DS version of Grand Bazaar portrays a very positive light of comparison. It captures the spirit of the original while expanding on what was already there with the entire mountain area full of resources, a glider for players to ride on the wind with, and the series staples of the harvest sprites.
TL;DR
- Engaging characters
- Satisfying cycle
- Faithful remake
The Bad
During the early game you can very easily come across storage issues with items you find and grow before you have your first few bazaars and reinvest your money into expanding your space. This issue is exacerbated once you start getting different qualities of items, which take up individual slots in your backpack and storage shed. It's also incredibly annoying trying to organise your items in a neat way; you have to “hold” the item, choose the location it goes to, and it'll swap with whatever is there. Having multiple different chests where you can store specific types of items would be better for organising; however, this isn't an option that I could find in my playthrough.
As adorable and cute as it is to marry your favourite townsfolk, it honestly feels like a punishment, especially if you have a kid. Wow, out of context this sounds so bad, but your spouse no longer goes to the events in town, a minimal amount of dialogue is added, and without much to do after the main story, you don't even really see your child grow up outside of the baby stage.
TL;DR
- Storage issues early on
- Difficult to organise
- Marriage feels punishing
Final Score: 9/10
Honestly, I feel like I'm nitpicking details with my negatives, because I genuinely found myself having so much fun exploring and living life in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar! The Story of Seasons franchise is an icon in the genre for a reason and you can absolutely see why it is beloved here, respecting the past release while modernising the title for a vastly expanded audience. Anyone who is a fan of cosy games that you can take at your own pace and play your own way, this is a must-buy for you.
Thank you for checking out our Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar Switch review, thank you to Marvelous (via Decibel PR) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:
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