Doraemon Story of Seasons – The Prologue – Review in Progress
It’s been a few years since the last Story of Seasons title launched in the Nintendo 3DS, and with over 130 hours into that last release, I was definitely looking forward to this one, even if my understanding of Doraemon was limited. Thanks to our friends at Bandai Namco, we have been given that opportunity, so let’s dive in!
The crossover between Doraemon and Story of Seasons really doesn’t require a knowledge of either to enjoy. Story of Seasons is the continuation of the (good) Harvest Moon titles – same developer, different name – and the team thought that adding the popular Japanese cartoon Doraemon would add some needed flavor to the sometimes mundane game of farming. And the early return for consumers is great!
After slogging through a long opening prologue – which, depending on your reading capability, could last up to an hour and a half before actually getting into the game. The game uses English text to supplement the Japanese voice acting. The naming of the Doraemon characters has also been westernized, meaning the Japanese names have been dropped in favor of more English type names.
Thankfully, the writing is really good, and the back story is wacky, although plausible in this context. Doraemon, Noby, and their three friends are sucked into a portal during a heavy storm and transported to the village of Natura. It becomes apparent that the gadgets Doraemon usually carries, that could potentially save them and return them to the present, are all missing. Knowing they will be living in Natura for a while as they search for the gadgets, the friends all decide to get jobs. Your (Noby’s) job ultimately is to farm the land south of Natura. And so your Story of Seasons journey begins.
Thanks to fantastic visuals, outstanding writing, and characters that have personality, it is easy to get sucked into Doraemon Story of Seasons for hours on end. And we have. Our current playtime sits around 13 hours, and although we have lots to explore yet, stories to uncover, and things to build, we still feel confident giving this game an early review-in-progress score of 9.5/10!
And yes, by turning off the voice over work, you can stop that annoying ‘eh’ every time Noby does anything around his farm. It makes everything WAY more enjoyable!
More soon from our first season in the game, so stay tuned!
Article By Adam Roffel
Adam Roffel has only been writing about video games for a short time, but has honed his skills completing a Master's Degree. He loves Nintendo, and almost anything they have released...even Tomodachi Life.
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