Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life review – soothing and sentimental farming sim

PC, Nintendo Switch (version tested), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X; Marvelous
Become slowly enmeshed in a rural community in this game about the farm and family

Even among the eccentric stable of farming games, this is a bit of an odd duck. A Wonderful Life was originally a Harvest Moon game on the Gamecube, and though it retains the trappings of most farm games (crops, livestock, fishing, spelunking), there isn't as much moment-to-moment pressure to maximise your yields. Where games such as Stardew Valley or Rune Factory lock you into an absorbing cycle of equipment upgrades and farm expansion, A Wonderful Life is content to let you potter around town at a leisurely pace. Each season lasts just 10 days. Farming seems almost an afterthought.

That's because the game's focus is - as the title suggests - on having a wonderful life; there's far more to do after you've built up your farm, chosen a partner and settled down. Characters age and change over time; new faces move in and others depart. You can't even progress past the first year until you get married, though thankfully the bar for marriage here is set unrealistically low. If you don't propose to a prospective partner after your first year, they'll turn up on your doorstep and make it happen.

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is out now; 34.99