Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town are both adorable life simulation games and fall under this same umbrella, emitting the same relaxing vibe as players complete tasks to build themselves from the ground up and socialize with the unique NPCs around them.
But even though the gameplay might be quite different, gamers who played Animal Crossing and are looking for something fresh will likely find a home in Story of Seasons, as long as they know what to expect.
Tasks
Busywork and tasks in the newest Story of Seasons installment will vary from past games somewhat because the premise has changed a bit. Rather than the familiar inheritance of an old relative's run-down farm, it looks like Pioneers of Olive Town will be more about reclaiming the wilderness. For example, rather than raising livestock from a young age after purchasing them, players will be able to find roaming wildlife and corral buffalo, cows, and alpacas onto their farm. Obtaining seeds could be similar: gathering them in the wild rather than purchasing them in town.
However, making money in Pioneers of Olive Town looks to be similar to past installments. Players will plant crops and gather animal products as their main source of income, while also fishing and mining as either secondary income or other tasks that need to be done to complete objectives, aand doing these tasks is also different because of the way time passes in each game. While in PoOT, 10 minutes pass in a matter of seconds, whereas Animal Crossing keeps real-world time, meaning that players might need to wait a day before in-game events progress. This also means that New Horizons can continue to evolve as time goes on, although the same can be said about Stardew Valley.
But Animal Crossing: New Horizons is also about building a small town on new land from the ground up. Similarly, players can sell fruits from trees or turnips for money and can go fishing, which can be donated to Blathers' museum or used as another source of income. But acquiring Bells in New Horizons is done more often so players can buy items to decorate their islands with and landscape, which can cost a pretty penny.
Landscaping and Terraforming
Landscaping both in Pioneers of Olive Town and New Horizons play a much bigger role than they have in past installments of their respective series, though PoOT likely won't allow players to create entire rivers and lakes the way that Animal Crossing does. Olive Town will allow for much more customization and decoration than in past titles, such as creating pathways and deciding the overall layout of the farm and its buildings.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is far more about the island's quality in terms of looks and attractiveness, however. How clean or cluttered it becomes as well as the types of furniture used decides the island's overall rating, which can, in turn, allow for high-quality items to appear, such as golden roses. With each new season, New Horizons has released new themed furniture, like the Festive DIY and Mermaid DIY recipes.
And while crafting also plays a role in Pioneers of Olive Town via the blueprints and crafting tables, Animal Crossing focuses more on decorating islands, partially for the sake of the social simulation aspect of the game and impressing friends.
Social Sim
Both games feature a limited social simulation aspect, but they differ greatly. Animal Crossing's social sim has always been about the villagers, giving them gifts, and doing small tasks for them. Villagers do have affinity levels with the player character, but it's mostly insignificant in that it doesn't change the over "outcome" of the game.
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, on the other hand, has a much more meaningful relationship meter and of course, has the marriage option, which is oftentimes a big draw for farming simulators such as Stardew Valley. Here, players will also need to give gifts and speak to the locals to raise friendship levels, but the promise is that many of the bachelors and bachelorettes can be courted. In fact, many fans of Story of Seasons commend the developers for including LGBT+ relationships, an element that the new Harvest Moon games have left behind.
Many fans feel the overall goal of Harvest Moon-like farming sims is getting married and starting a family. In New Horizons, players do seek out specific villagers to bring onto their islands, but they, of course, cannot be romanced and is done for more aesthetically pleasing reasons or bragging rights among friends than anything else.
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town releases for the Nintendo Switch on February 25, 2021.