Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar Switch Review
Summary: A simple and fun farming game that puts you in charge of restoring the unique town of Zephyr!
3.8
Whimsical!
Zephyr Town’s bazaar was once one the grandest in the world, drawing customers and peddlers from all four corners of the globe. These days, though, the bazaar has more tumbleweeds than customers. It is up to Zephyr Town’s newest resident to turn its fortunes around! Help return prosperity to the bazaar, settle down for a cozy life and start a family, and Zaphyr Town is sure to thrive again!
Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, is a quirky and charming little life simulation game, set in the town of Zephyr. After choosing and customizing your character (that includes a variety of options), you are introduced to the basic mechanics of the game, by the town Mayor. The main goal is to put the town back on the map with a thriving and bustling bazaar. To do this, you will learn how to harvest crops, source resources, raise animals, build relationships with neighbors, complete quests, craft recipes, and sell items through your own personal stall at the weekly bazaar.
Gameplay is relatively straightforward, starting with a basic tutorial on how to run your farm and the stall. You have access to a map that shows the layout of your farm, the main town (including where your neighbors are currently located) and the Bazaar. You are also given a bag for collecting items and a set of tools for foraging and harvesting. Hovering over items, highlights them, allowing you to know what you can interact with. However, I found this action to be a bit sensitive at times. I needed to move my character back and forth (to get in the right position), in order to engage with what I needed.
Each day you are tasked with small activities to help build up your inventory and add new additions to your farm. These activities can come in the form of requests from neighbors, harvesting certain crops that are trending for that specific season, and finding the big-ticket items that can be sold for a high price. Time management is key, as you are on the clock to get what you need done for the day, before you pass out from exhaustion (which I did a lot, mostly when I forgot to pause the game and left it running). You are also given a stamina bar that indicates how tired you get after completing a certain activity. This can be replenished (if needed) by eating food, taking a bath, or going to sleep for the night. I did find that the stamina bar doesn’t last for very long, especially if you want to spend the day cutting down logs, smashing rocks, and fishing.
With the main focus being the bazaar. You are tasked with bringing in new stall members, reaching specific profit margins, and meeting certain rank levels with the bazaar review board. When these are all met, the bazaar will start to flourish, and you have the ability to receive (or buy) new items to make your life on the farm easier. I liked how I could add decorations to my stall but I felt very limited (in the beginning) with what I could sell, based on limited storage space.
In addition to farm life and managing a stall, you are also encouraged to develop relationships (and possibly find the love of your life) by talking to your neighbors every day. This also produces small cut scenes (of conversations) where you can learn snippets about each of the characters. Even though the cut scenes were small, they felt like they took up a lot of time, and were a little underwhelming in terms of character development and engagement.
My two favorite aspects of the game were the farm animals and the nature sprites. I liked that you could choose which (and how many) farm animals you wanted to keep (along with petting them and receiving love). The nature sprites were the perfect addition that cheered you on at your stall. So cute and fun!
Final Thoughts?
I enjoyed the game, especially operating my own stall at the bazaar and taking care of the animals. However, I would have preferred a deeper level of engagement (and quicker progression of relationship) between characters. It felt a bit repetitive having the same small-talk conversations each day. I wasn’t really interested in getting to know anyone but felt like I had to for the game. Overall, it was charming, well-paced, and unique!
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