The farming sim where every day is one day closer to the looming specter of death.
Scientists theorize that there are approximately seventeen farming sims releasing every hour of every day in our current timeline. Even so, it should not be forgotten that the mother of all of these simulators is Story of Seasons, or Harvest Moon as it was known back in the day. Originally released for the GameCube in 2003, A Wonderful Life is relatively unique in comparison to the other games in the series, containing not only the possibility of reaching a fail state but also being one of the few games in the genre to have a definitive end point as well. The recently released remake may start out very similar to other games, but once you pass the first year you may find a more satisfying and family-based experience alongside your turnip harvest.
In A Wonderful Life, you play as a young city slicker who has been given a farm by their recently deceased father, and they have decided to move to said farm in order to give the country life a shot. This farm is located in Forgotten Valley, a small rural community out in the middle of nowhere. With the help of their father’s old friend Takakura, the player must begin raising livestock and growing crops in order to make money that can then be used to improve the farm as they go. Meanwhile, they can also make friends with the various people in the local town by speaking to them and giving them gifts, with your explicit goal by the end of the first year being to find a spouse among the eight romanceable NPCs. There are four female options, such as the waitress Molly or the farmhand Cecilia, and four male options, such as the artist Gordy or the overly laid back Rock, and all options are available to you regardless of what gender you decide to play as.
The issue with this first year is that it plays exactly like one would expect every other Story of Seasons game to play as. Years last a total of 40 days, with the season changing every 10 days, and you’ll likely find yourself falling into a routine of handling farm chores in the morning before going into town to shower as many gifts as you can upon any romantic interests you’re pursuing; the problem arises if you definitively decide on one early on in the year. You can build a relationship with multiple people at once, but you obviously only get one blue feather (the item used to propose) and there largely ceases to be a point in heavily focusing on the others once you’ve used it. This causes however much is left of the year to seriously drag as half your daily routine becomes obsolete. Luckily, once that first year is over the focus of the game’s social aspect changes.
After marrying somebody in the first year, the player will then have a child, and from there the game’s focus changes to raising this child. The child’s appearance and initial personality depends on who you’ve married. You can take the kid around town to introduce them to other citizens and provide them various toys purchased by the traveling merchant, and these things play a slow part in forming your child’s future personality and interests, which ultimately will lead to deciding what kind of life they lead when they grow up. Will they take over the farm when you’re gone? Or dedicate themselves to music or athletics? It’s all decided by how much time you spend with them and how. This is a very slow process, but overall I found it to be very cute and satisfying.
In the end, A Wonderful Life still feels like a game that was released in 2003, and whether or not you consider that a good thing will depend on what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a very simple farming game to kill a few hours with here and there, or just looking for a trip down nostalgia lane, you’ll probably find yourself enjoying it. If you’re hoping for something as full featured and engaging as the modern games that have come out of the genre’s recent indie boom, then you’re not likely to find it here. Personally, I have enjoyed my time in Forgotten Valley and the experience of building a little family. While years can feel like they crawl by slowly, the progression you get to see as kids around the village get older and new people arrive in the valley is nice and satisfying to experience. I look forward to spending a lot more of my time in this sleepy little village.
