Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns is farming, social skills, and a whole bunch of anything else you can fit into a day of game time. You start by selecting your character, male or female, and taking on the big step of leaving your family to start your farm. On a typical morning, you might water your crops and milk your cows. However, if you know you need to make a long trek to a store when it opens, you might shuffle your schedule and do that first, since your crops might be able to wait. Likewise, when your day ends and your chores are done, it’s a good idea to go fishing, pick wild herbs, cut lumber for later use, or give gifts to townsfolk or the special someone you have your eye on. Lazing your days away gets you nowhere, but working hard on your relationships and your finances day by day, a bit at a time, will leave you with a successful farm. Sleep, repeat, and start over again the next day.
Some of your time can be spent improving relationships with townsfolk and potential love interests. An excellent memory is required, or at least a notepad, if you want to remember what gifts make each person happy. You’ll also want to remember what time of day stores open, deliveries are picked up, and where people like to hang out. Luckily, the mini-map helps with much of this, showing you where people are by name in real time.
The name of the game is Trio of Towns, so I’d be remiss without mentioning the different towns. Eventually 3 towns will be available for doing trading, exploring, and other fun events. Westown is where you begin: a dusty old American Western town with super-American animals such as bald eagles and bears. Lulukoko is the next town to open up, which is a little tropical paradise complete with peacocks and old ruins. There seems to be a Hawaiian influence here, but it veers off that path into some sort of island fantasy I can’t place. Then there’s Tsuyukusa, a very Japanese town complete with its own fox goddess. You can buy and forage for unique items in each town such as bamboo and seashells. And of course, there are interesting people waiting for you in each new area.
Naturally, it wouldn’t be Story of Seasons without some extras. You can get a kitchen and combine your farm products to make delicious dishes. You can buy a faithful pet to help out on the farm. You can work hard to produce the finest crops, dairy, and other products to show off at the fair and there are also mysterious goddesses that will accept your gifts. Who knows what will come of that? Further in the game, you can get all sorts of labor saving devices and upgrades, which you’ll need if you ever want your farm to expand past what you can water with your piddling watering can.
The dialogue, while as wholesome as you would expect from a game like this, is still a little dull. The exchanges will go something like, "Did you like X? Oh, that’s great, so do I! I hope we see each other again. Farms are great!" Okay, not exactly, but you get the idea. It’s all very literal, very straightforward, with very little flavor (even when the "fiery" characters are introduced).
Agonizing tutorials are one of the worst parts of Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns. Really, the hand-holding and walls of text are extreme. There are necessary pieces of information in these tutorials; for example, chickens only lay eggs when they are left indoors. So you’ll want to go through those tutorials, as painful and drawn out as they are.
While there is a multiplayer system, I unfortunately could not find anyone hosting a game. But the wireless play is local or over the internet, and offers a chance to share gifts with friends or exchange your items for the possibility of a rare item in return.
