Having only played Mineral Town and Olive Town as my prior SoS experience (which means that I never played the original AWL), I thought this Remake was an enjoyable experience.
The farming mechanics are a bit simple for the most part. The starting fields are all small although the largest unlockable one is of decent size. The game lacks many varied livestock to own other than the cow variations and the basic crops are limited. That said, the crop hybrids have quite a lot of depth. Making them is annoyingly RNG reliant, but there's a lot of variety with these at least.
The town is surprisingly rural where it even lacks a general shop. The town is big in size, but there's a lot of empty spaces in between. The townspeople are likable fortunately.
The most appealing feature and highlight of AWL is definitely the family and child raising mechanic. You're forced to marry by the end of Year 1 which is pretty early, but then you have a child at the beginning of Year 2 and then you get to see their growth throughout the game until it ends when they are an adult. Being able to interact with your child and seeing how they change for the better (and sometimes not as good) is interesting to experience.
This indirectly relates to how I really enjoyed that time seems to move forward with this game unlike the other SoS games where time doesn't seem to move forward after one year. Everybody remains single and don't age. No further significant character growth. AWL is not perfect in this matter too where single characters remained single despite the massive amount of years of progress, but you get to see people growing older. Young children become adults. Adults get gray hair and wrinkles.
I do think that Year 4 is where people will start to get burned out. Festivals are limited and play out nearly the same every year. There isn't enough new story or character development to look forward to so instead of interacting with other villagers, you're probably focusing more on the farm activities. Which by then, you probably have enough money to buy every important thing in the game. It makes the last few years a bit boring with the standout being your child's growth.
Overall, I do wish that the game put more focus on the family development and villager interactions instead of the crop hybrids. The latter just feels like it belongs in another SoS with a stronger focus on farming instead. Because other than the hybrid crops, there isn't much here for farming content. Even mining is pretty much gone and the fishing list is very small.
With all of that said, I recommend AWL just for the child/family development which stands out among similar titles.
The farming mechanics are a bit simple for the most part. The starting fields are all small although the largest unlockable one is of decent size. The game lacks many varied livestock to own other than the cow variations and the basic crops are limited. That said, the crop hybrids have quite a lot of depth. Making them is annoyingly RNG reliant, but there's a lot of variety with these at least.
The town is surprisingly rural where it even lacks a general shop. The town is big in size, but there's a lot of empty spaces in between. The townspeople are likable fortunately.
The most appealing feature and highlight of AWL is definitely the family and child raising mechanic. You're forced to marry by the end of Year 1 which is pretty early, but then you have a child at the beginning of Year 2 and then you get to see their growth throughout the game until it ends when they are an adult. Being able to interact with your child and seeing how they change for the better (and sometimes not as good) is interesting to experience.
This indirectly relates to how I really enjoyed that time seems to move forward with this game unlike the other SoS games where time doesn't seem to move forward after one year. Everybody remains single and don't age. No further significant character growth. AWL is not perfect in this matter too where single characters remained single despite the massive amount of years of progress, but you get to see people growing older. Young children become adults. Adults get gray hair and wrinkles.
I do think that Year 4 is where people will start to get burned out. Festivals are limited and play out nearly the same every year. There isn't enough new story or character development to look forward to so instead of interacting with other villagers, you're probably focusing more on the farm activities. Which by then, you probably have enough money to buy every important thing in the game. It makes the last few years a bit boring with the standout being your child's growth.
Overall, I do wish that the game put more focus on the family development and villager interactions instead of the crop hybrids. The latter just feels like it belongs in another SoS with a stronger focus on farming instead. Because other than the hybrid crops, there isn't much here for farming content. Even mining is pretty much gone and the fishing list is very small.
With all of that said, I recommend AWL just for the child/family development which stands out among similar titles.
stovetop
9 months ago