Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town brought a ton of new features to the series. While some are instantly recognizable by older players, others are a bit more subtle. The gameplay flows a lot differently than in previous games and things have become more streamlined; these features are both loved and hated by older fans of the series, though.
While many features helped to bring the game into the modern farming era, some others are heavily missed by the community. Below are ten things that are changed in Pioneers of Olive Town.
10 Automatic Cutscenes
Heart events previously trigger by entering a certain place at a certain time. Now players can just be passing through an area, and if it's the right time of day, the cutscene will just trigger without them having to leave and then enter the area once again, which is pretty convenient.
The only issue is when cutscenes pile up on top of each other, forcing the player to watch back-to-back story events.
9 No Animal Festivals
Festivals have always been a huge part of the series, and several festivals occur each season. There are still festivals in Pioneers of Olive Town, but for the most part, they have been dumbed down. Most festivals are now chalked up to a single-cutscene and don't have after-festival dialogue.
Animal ranking contests are also gone, making caring for your farm animals feel a bit more empty.
8 Short Mines
There are three different mines in the game, and even the last one is a bit short. Most games have a single mine, and there are at least 100 floors to conquer. The mines are a lot more simple and have a lot less variety in rare jewels than some other games in the series.
While this does streamline getting the ore you need to upgrade tools; it feels a bit strange in the end game.
7 Rocks Are Acceptable
Gifting in Pioneers of Olive Town is completely weird. You can literally just give out rocks to everyone in town, and their heart level will increase. This is a far cry from the complicated gifting system in the rest of the series and makes making friends a lot easier.
While this can be great for newcomers, it feels a bit weird to make friends with Beth using grass.
6 No Secret Marriage Candidates
There are ten marriage candidates in the game; they are all available from the start, and if you want more, you need to buy the DLC pass. There are no secret candidates, and the secret characters in the game don't even have heart levels so that you can become friends with them.
This is a bit disappointing as games like Friends of Mineral Town were filled with secret challenge candidates like Bon Vivant.
5 No Marriage Rivals
Another thing that fans will notice has disappeared once again is marriage rivals. The only other young couple in the game is Beth and Lars, who many players already wish they could date. Other than that, there is no real competition, and the singles don't seem to mingle.
This makes the town feel a bit more disconnected as no one else seems to be interested in each other.
4 Uninvolved Events
A positive change for many players is that many of the non-dateable townsfolk have a ton of events. These events often take place without the player being involved. This gives a sense that the town is still doing its own thing while the player is away working on their crops.
It's nice to see everyone interact without the new farmer having input on the relationships.
3 Missing Portraits
A huge criticism for the games is the fact that portraits aren't present when talking to characters. Portraits were drawn for the game's promotional material, but they don't show up in-game, which has made a lot of players feel less enthusiastic about getting married.
There is a huge push to have these added back in, as they are a staple of the series.
2 No Clinic
One of the strangest things about Pioneer Town is that there is no clinic or doctor anywhere to be found. This is extremely weird as every Story of Season game has a clinic that usually helps deliver the player's baby and helps them recover when they pass out from overworking themselves.
This also brings up a lot of questions about how the town operates efficiently.
1 Regrowth Speed
The speed at which trees and grass regrow is a bit troublesome. Even if you clear your whole farm, within a few days, it will be covered again, and this even counts for rocks. While having easy access to raw resources is nice, it's a pain to have your nice field taken over by trees.
Players can place down pathing, but many don't want to have a farm covered in paths and like the ideas of fields for their animal to graze in.