Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town - Review (PS5)

I get commissions for purchases made through the links in this post, at no cost to you.

 

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town  is, despite its name, a Harvest Moon game. For some reason at some point the name of the Harvest Moon games was changed to Story of Seasons. Currently Olive Town is free to play on Playstation Plus Extra.

 

 

I never got past the beginning of the second year in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life because it's such a damn boring game. And so is this one, even though it has tried to copy some of the finest things from the highly entertaining My time at Portia. 

 

Yes, you can still get addicted to Olive Town, even though it is a numbing repetition of the same things, and there are about a million times fewer story missions than in Portia. But a word of warning, in the end the game is just a boring grind. 

 

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town orichalcum

And mining the last mineral of the game, orichalcum, is very slow and even difficult at first, as it can only be obtained from the lowest levels of the last mine, which are full of annoying and dangerous electric orcs. Later in the game you can get orichalcum easier from a place where it respawns every few days (Stonebreaker Valley).

 

 

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town romance

 

There aren't that many bachelors/marriage candidates to choose from, and I didn't really like any of them. To be able to marry in Olive Town, you have to go through the character's romantic heart events. They happen at specific times at specific places. Good look finding them without a guide (wiki is always a good source).

 

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town Damon

I chose Damon as my husband for some reason, although I don't normally prefer blondes. He gives that bad boy vibe, which I don't like. He likes motorcycles, and I don't. But he does work at his family's animal shop, so that is a plus. He's also like me because he prefers the company of animals over people.

 

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town child

You shouldn't be on too good terms with your spouse because then a child will mysteriously appear from somewhere. My dear husband had no idea how that could happen. Maybe you shouldn't get married if you don't know where babies come from?

 

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town animals

The best part of the game are of course the animals. Horse, cows, sheep, chickens, alpacas, goats, bunnies. I'm not even sure that I have listed them all.

 

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town pets

You can buy pets from the animal shop. I named the white cat Olle after my own white cat (sadly she passed away recently). Of course you can choose your own cat from many options.

 

Olle is such a happy free-range cat that you get envious when you watch her running freely outside.

 

And then when there were 11 animals plus Olle, I just couldn't take care of them every day anymore, especially since I couldn't fit all their loots to my bag at the same time, and had to go back and forth for them. And towards the end, it also started to be a real problem that the sales box could no longer fit all the stuff that I wanted to sell on that day.

 

So in the end it was just a boring repetitive daily grind. Too many animals (I didn't even know there could be too many), and too much stuff they produce. And above all, too little main story. As you can see, only honest reviews here.

Some people enjoy cozy games like this. I want more action, like in My Time at Sandrock. In my opinion that game is close to perfection.

 

Ps. The joke is that my character's name Ripuli means diarrhea.

Resident Evil 4 Remake: Review (PS5)

I get commissions for purchases made through the links in this post, at no cost to you.

 

The good, the bad and the cats

 

I have had a Resident Evil website for 25 years. Now I finally bought Resident Evil 4 Remake. Of these previous new Resident Evil remakes, I have only played Resident Evil 2, of which I only played the a-scenario, b-scenario I stopped playing early on. Despite the fact that Claire Redfield happens to be my all time favorite game character. And I haven't even bothered to play Resident Evil 3 Remake, even though it's in my game library.

The original Resident Evil 4 is one of my all time favorite games. It's not a good Resident Evil-game, but otherwise it's great entertainment and for some reason the replay value is very high. 

 

 

Having watched a lot of game streams, I knew that Resident Evil 4 Remake wouldn't reach the level of the original, but I have to say that RE4 Remake is my favorite of these Resident Evil Remakes. After the first playthrough, I eagerly started a second one.

There is a good amount of both old and new here. RE4R is clearly more of a survival horror than an action game. And it's darker than the original. Leon S. (Sexy) Kennedy is more depressed. And unfortunately he is more blonde... hey Capcom, Leon is not a blonde but a brunette.

 

 

Ashley has of course also experienced a transformation, and not necessarily only in a more positive direction. I didn't like what a coward Ashley has been made out to be. Her basic stance and essence is shit-in-the-pants level, argh.

 

I don't like the trend that has plagued Resident Evil-games since Resident Evil 7. That is, that they try to be as vomit-inducing as possible. Even here you can find the obligatory crap pots. And there has clearly been an attempt to make Salazar and Saddler more nauseating.

 

The dogs

At the very beginning of the game, you see a dog carcass, and a terrible fear gripped me: isn't there a dog to be saved? Spoiler: yes there is. And if you save the dog, it will come back to help you in the Gigante battle just like in the original RE4. It's one of my favorite scenes in the entire game. The first time I played, I missed it because I killed Gigante right away with a rocket launcher. Big mistake...

 

And what about the enemy dogs? They have a lot more teeth than they did in the original RE4. Scared the shit out of me.

 

The cats

And since the name of this blog is Cats in games, here is something related to that matter. I had waited a long time for the treasure Golden lynx, fearing that it wouldn't be in the game. But yes it is. And it wasn't until my second playthrough that I found out that there are as many as two of them in the game, I had missed the first one earlier.

 

 

The chickens

The chicken are back to the remake, and they still lay eggs. But you can't farm the eggs like I always did on the farm in the original RE4. I stayed on the farm until my inventory was full of golden eggs.

 

 

Also the cows are back, with the addition of pigs. But the fate of these animals may not always be so sunny, so be forewarned. 

 

And as for the merchant, according to one opinion, his voice is too... British. And I'm not at all surprised that Ada's voice actress has not been liked.

In the remake, you can buy certain things with spinels. It might be a good idea to save spinels for an exclusive upgrade of a weapon. I got a Handcannon from the Mercenaries, and I immediately got infinite ammo to it with spinels. That made the game a lot easier, although Handcannon's aiming system sucks.

 

 

There is one thing in this game that drove me to the brink of rage many times: the collectibles. Collecting collectibles has been made damn hard. If you buy the collectible maps from the merchant and think that now you will find them all, you won't.

Just before the castle, I thought I'd get the last collectable of the village area. Well, it wasn't the last one. I had missed the very first collectible of the game. When there wasn't even a merchant map available yet. Warning: after the cabin fight, you can no longer go back in the village.

 

Later, I also missed a key while playing as Ashley. Well, so much for those collectables of the castle. How shitty. Yeah, those collectables don't matter, but I happen to like trophies.

So here's a pro tip: save often, and to different save slots.

RE4 Remake seems to be hard for PS5 to run. For the first time ever, there was a warning about the PS5 overheating. Scary.

 

Here's my gameplay video from the very start of Resident Evil 4 Remake: