Doraemon: Story of Seasons Review – Doraemon and Chill

Outside of its incredibly slow start, Doraemon: Story of Seasons is a pleasant farming game that feels like a relaxing mix of Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon. The visual style and whimsical setting add to the relaxing atmosphere of the game, and the characters are fun to engage with and grow closer to while raising animals and crops.

Doraemon: Story of Seasons
Developer: MARVELOUS!
Price: $50
Platform: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), and PC
MonsterVine was supplied with a Switch code for review.

For how enormous Doraemon is in Japan, it’s a bit surprising that this is the first fully localized game based on the franchise to officially reach Western shores. Even more surprising is the fact that it’s a Story of Season’s installment, which is Harvest Moon by the people who made Harvest Moon but with a different name, because of legal jargon. Regardless, Doraemon: Story of Seasons is here, and outside of a bumpy start and some slow periods, it’s a fun and relaxing time for all.

The story is basic: the titular Doraemon and his friends (localized as Noby, Sneetch, Sue, and Big G), find a mysterious seed while working on their summer projects. Upon being planted, the seed turns into an enormous tree and creates a storm that carries the main crew through space and time. Upon waking up, Doraemon and co. find themselves in a strange rural town that seems to be straight out of the past. Doraemon has lost all of his gadgets, including those that could get the team home, meaning they’ll have to stick it out in this new world until they can find a way back to their time.

And what better way is there to pass the time than by farming, raising animals, catching bugs, fishing, and befriending every local? As Noby, Story of Seasons has no shortage of activities for you to partake in, with rotating seasons and an ongoing clock to keep things fresh. The only problem is that it takes far too long to get to all the fun, as the introduction and tutorials are slow-paced and go on for much longer than they should. Though the simple story has charm, I don’t care enough about it to pay close attention to it and its tutorials for as long as Story of Seasons makes you. This pacing pops up on occasion later on too, with items that feel a bit too expensive and days that can feel a bit repetitive. This is quite rare though, so it’s not nearly as painful as the tutorial section.

“You won’t run out of things to do in Story of Seasons, which is a major positive for a longer and slower game like this.“

Once you get to the fun stuff, Story of Seasons can keep you busy and happy for quite some time. Outside of growing vegetables and flowers, you can purchase chickens, sheep, and cows to befriend and gather resources from. You can decorate your house with furniture, or upgrade it to be larger and full of features, like cooking. Cooking lets you combine ingredients to make food that refills your stamina meter, or if you mess up a meal, sludge to give to someone as a sign of friendship. You can give pretty much anything to any NPC in town in order to grow closer to them, which changes how they talk to you and reveals more of their stories. The whole town is full of oddball characters, each with their own charm, including the characters from the show.

Even after you get the hang of Story of Seasons, the upgradable tools, changing seasons, and plethora of town events keep things from feeling stale. Certain crops can only be grown in certain seasons, while different types of fish and bugs rotate with the seasons as well. Upgrading your tools lets you dig deeper into the mines to find rare stones and fossils, or water your crops faster to give you more time to make friends. If that’s not enough, every week or so of in-game times provides a new town event, like beetle racing or crop competitions, which can net you cool trophies to display as well as a feeling of real pride and progression. You won’t run out of things to do in Story of Seasons, which is a major positive for a longer and slower game like this.

The visuals and music in Story of Seasons are perfectly in-line with the tones of both Doraemon and Harvest Moon. Everything is colorful and fantastical to look at, without being overwhelming. The songs are catchy but soothing enough to lull into the background while you focus on growing more turnips than you know what to do with. I’d recommend turning off the voices though, as Noby makes a shrill “eh” sound every time he does pretty much anything, which can get painful as you chop away at trees or smash rocks for hours on end.

The Final Word
Doraemon: Story of Seasons is a relaxing and charming farm-life game that suffers from a painfully slow start. Once you get through the early content though, it’s a fun and easy-going game that’s perfect for unwinding.

MonsterVine Review Score: 4 out of 5 – Good