Almost a year after its release on the Nintendo Switch family, Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar arrives on the remaining platforms this month to peddle its wares—namely, a unique focus for the crowded farming sims genre, and a twist on its franchise’s own norms.
Grand Bazaar is, as CGM’s Jordan Biordi pointed out in his Switch 2 review, a remake of a Nintendo DS game. Looking at the remade graphics, you might never guess that it originally debuted on the double-screened handheld about 18 years ago (especially with the slight bump-up in power that the PlayStation 5 version boasts over the Switch 2 version). You might know what to expect from the name, however, as it follows the Story of Seasons / Harvest Moon formula fairly reliably: you take over the farm in a small, struggling town and single-handedly seek to restore the local economy via crop production and animal husbandry.
(You’ll also likely fall in love, compete in agricultural contests, and act as a liaison for helpful nature sprites. Just like real farmers!)
The plot formula, the roster of villagers to befriend and/or woo, the process of farming itself, the day/night cycle… Anyone who’s played a similar farming sim before will immediately know the lay of the land in most ways, aside from a few particulars unique to this installment.
“The term ‘minigame’ doesn’t quite do justice to Grand Bazaar‘s mighty market.”
What sets Grand Bazaar apart from other Story of Seasons games is the titular market, however. Every Saturday (according to the in-game calendar, not the real-world time as in Animal Crossing or Pokopia), the town holds a large farmer’s market with various booths and vendors. This becomes not only your primary source of income, in lieu of shipping off your products daily, but an involved, complex game within the game. The term “minigame” doesn’t quite do justice to Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar‘s mighty market.
Vending requires stocking your booth with as much stock as possible, putting out wares, taking sales, and drawing more eyes to the table to keep the customers intrigued. Your total sales not only determine your profit, but also the overall health of the entire bazaar. Yes, in typical farm sim fashion, NPCs are incapable of doing anything practical, so it’s your total sales that determine if the bazaar can expand.
There are levels of progress to the town market, from unlocking over twenty stalls to upgrading your own (in addition to keeping it stocked with the fruits of your farming labours), and it forms a worthwhile variation on the usual farm sim gameplay loop. Fans of the genre should definitely take Grand Bazaar for a spin for this reason alone, especially now that the game is available on all current platforms.
Granted, focusing the entire game around the weekly farmer’s market comes with a major drawback, in that for the rest of the week, your shopping options are fairly limited. There’s a basic tack shop to buy essentials (like feed and seed) and sell items, but your sales can be larger and more impactful if you save the inventory for the weekend. And if you want to make an investment like expanding/upgrading your farm, or purchasing new livestock, you’re out of luck until Saturday.
And even then, you need to squeak your shopping out in the same time frame where you should be manning your own booth. The game splits the market shift to give you time to shop other vendors or replenish your wares, but the time flies by, and Saturday’s gone before you know it, just like real life. It’s more of a unique quirk than an outright strike against Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, and yes, it is a deviation from the “same old, same old” formula, but the market-forward focus might be a considerable adjustment for some players.
Exploration and navigation are another department where Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar stands out from the rest, for better or worse. This time out, Story of Seasons farmers can seem like parkour enthusiasts, jumping and double-jumping to get around faster or reach other areas. Covering more ground with your tools is also handled by (double-)jumping; instead of charging up a tool as in many other farming sims, you’ll need to hop to affect multiple squares at a time. Again, not a deal-breaker, but another slightly odd quirk to this take on farm life.
Along this somewhat strange journey, Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar looks and performs better than ever on the PS5. Where the Nintendo version offered portability, the PlayStation version offers an uncompromised technical experience. Where some may prefer the ability to take their farm away from their TV, those who prefer not to settle on the audio-visual experience will be satisfied here.
“Along this somewhat strange journey, Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar looks and performs better than ever on the PS5.”
If anything was a downright inconvenience, it’s probably Grand Bazaar‘s user interface and the general flow of navigating menus. From handling inventories to manipulating the main in-game menu, the process is just ever-so-slightly awkward enough to make some routine tasks a little tedious—just little things, like how checking the mailbox loads your mail into the main menu, which you must then open separately, instead of just showing me my mail like every other game. Nothing that inherently undermines the rest of the experience, but it’s still worth noting that the basic functions could’ve been smoother (especially since a full console offers such versatile controls compared to the original game’s hardware).
For what it’s worth, I often struggle to connect with pure farming sim games like this. Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town was my introduction to the genre 20+ years ago, and after summarily offering untold hours of my life to the Game Boy Advance and modern remake (under the Story of Seasons title), I can often bounce off of other farm games easily. It might be blasphemy to say this, but even Stardew Valley struggles to hold my interest by comparison.
Grand Bazaar, however, did not prove to be impenetrable to my Mineral Town-skewed heart. The quirks in the game design break up the genre’s monotony, at the risk of deterring diehards, and while I never would’ve asked for the features that make it unique, once I got a couple weeks into the routine, I was quite glad for the change of pace.
By the same token, there’s plenty to discover and appreciate here, whether you played the Nintendo DS version and want to see what the remake has to offer, or were holding out for the game to reach Sony’s shores, or just missed the opportunity to try Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar out last summer. The farm life is calling for thee.
- Cozy Living Reaches New Heights – The magnificent beauty of Zephyr Town shines with gorgeous graphics while a richly voiced story carries the player on a rewarding journey of farming, friendship, and renewal.
- Ring the Bell and Sell, Sell, Sell – Your farm’s produce and goods take on additional importance as the heart of your business at the lively weekly bazaar. Customize your stall and take charge of your sales to build up buzz and powerup profits.
