Introduction

---The Game---
Story of Seasons is a 2014 installment in the Bokujou Monogatari franchise, and the second on the 3DS after Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning. The series was originally localized by Natsume in the West as Harvest Moon, until developers Marvelous acquired localization heroes XSEED as their Western branch. It would have been silly to keep using third party localization when they have their own branch for it now (and one with a considerably better track record than Natsume), so they dropped Natsume and gave the job to XSEED. However they left the rights to the name "Harvest Moon" with Natsume, thus Natsume now develops their own games as Harvest Moon, and the true Bokujou Monogatari games live on as Story of Seasons.

The game itself is a continuation from/condensing of the mechanics of A New Beginning. The godawful tutorial month has been reduced to a quick and painless week that also better introduces the town, and you only have to wait the one week to start crafting instead of waiting all fucking Spring to have a random door on your house pointed out to you. I'm not bitter.
The aesthetic also charmingly invokes rural Germany, the music is as cheerful as any Bokujou game, and it's hard not to be in a good mood while you play.
However making money is difficult early on, as you can only ship when salesmen come to town, and unlocking them is a slow, monthly process. The original release of the game also had stupid difficulty where everything cost way too much, which was eased later on with a "Seedling Mode" that dropped the prices and crafting requirements by 30%. The online mode was also dramatically nerfed from A New Beginning's utterly broken version, to the point that there's not many people still playing SoS's anymore.
Stick with the game, though, and you'll find a remarkably tight and deep entry in the franchise. Hopefully this LP will help you find ways to manage your time and money in the early game and befriend an entire town with the bare minimum of effort. But if you like any marriable person who isn't Fritz, you're wrong.
_{Well, Raeger, Lillie and Agate are all cute, but come on - Fritz is perfect.}

The story is such:
Think most Bokujou Monogatari games have too much story, purpose, or even stakes? You're in luck! Story of Seasons has fuck all. You answer a flier to move out to the country and help a charming little town make some money. That's it. No dead grandpa, no imminent demolition, not even a Harvest Goddess in need of help for being a useless ass. Just grow some crops and animals, make friends with all of the little dorks, and assert your dominance against the other farmers by eventually stealing all of their fields.

---The LP---
The game considers unlocking all of the merchants as the marker to allow New Game+, and is therefore the soft end of the game. This LP's core goal is to do just that, and though I will attempt to collect as many recipes and show off as many cutscenes as possible, it won't be an utterly completionist LP. Though I'll be dating and marrying Fritz, I will at least show off the first two heart events with every bachelor.
My co-commentators are fellow Harvest Moon lovers Skippy Granola and YamiNoSenshi.

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