• Switch V1 Price: $49.99 (digital & physical)
  • Digital Deluxe Edition: $59.98
  • Super Digital Deluxe Edition: $69.98
    • Switch 2 Price: $59.99 (digital & physical)
    • Upgrade Pack for Switch 2 version: $10
• Developer: Marvelous
• Publisher: Marvelous (XSEED Games)
• Release Date: August 27, 2025

A review code was kindly provided by ONE PR Studio on behalf of Marvelous. We thank them for allowing us to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

As a fan of this classic farming series since the original Friends of Mineral Town (2003), I was extremely excited for the remake of Grand Bazaar. It’s been 15 years since the original was released on the DS, but this remake feels fresh and exciting due to its improved visuals, new characters, an expanded story, and more!

From the very beginning of the game you can see how they’ve enhanced the original experience. This version allows players to customize their appearance and select their pronouns! I was impressed with the wide variety of customization options.

Once you’ve made these decisions you’ll arrive in Zephyr Town, your new home. Mayor Felix welcomes you to town himself, and he explains that they used to be famous for their “grand bazaar.” Sadly, the once-great market declined when the previous farmer left, and now Felix hopes that you’ll be the one to help build it back up again.

Unsurprisingly, the goal is to work on your farm, growing crops and raising livestock to produce enough items to sell on Bazaar Day each week. As far as the crops are concerned, the farming gameplay is pretty standard; water them and fertilize them for higher quality products.

You start with only one small field unlocked, and must pay for upgrades to unlock more. Plant vegetables, fruit trees, and flowers to sell. Sometimes crops will develop into a giant version or a mutation of some sort. I’m not sure what causes it, but I don’t remember this happening in the original so I thought it was a neat surprise.

Apparently they made some changes to the livestock system as well. I fired up my old DS Lite with my original copy of the game and also checked the “Ushi no Tane” fan resource website to refresh my memory, and we only had chickens, cows, and sheep in the DS version. Now we get to raise alpacas as well! Additionally, they removed the lengthy wait time for adopting the second type of each animal (i.e. Suffolk sheep). Previously players had to wait until year three to access them.

I definitely approve of these changes, as they streamline the experience and make the game much more player-friendly. I love this series, but I have rarely played past year two in most games unless it was absolutely necessary. Decreasing the “barrier to entry” feels really respectful of players’ time.

They made similar changes for our pets. And the pets were one of my favorite parts of the game this time around. You can own multiple cats and dogs of different breeds, and they’re not just there to look cute in this game – they also serve a purrpose purpose: herding your livestock in and out of the barns for you!

I had some trouble herding them by myself, so I was ecstatic once my pets took over for me. Watching the livestock and my pets as they wandered around the grassy fields brought me so much joy. The prancing sheep were especially entertaining.

And the way the pets interact with you, the environment, and even each other is fantastic. The dogs digging in the grass and chasing their tails really made them feel more “alive.” Being able to pick each pet up and snuggle them – (hilariously) regardless of size – is yet another interactive element that’s further enhanced by the ability to zoom in on the part of the screen where you’re standing. 🔍 👀

While pets are useful and entertaining on the farm, training them meets both criteria. Teach your dogs and cats to do tricks, and if they perform well enough at the pet festival you can win a prize. Use pet treats to train them every day and increase their training level to up their odds of success in the competition (as well as the number of livestock animals they can herd).

They improved the training process by having players input commands now instead of the more indirect method from the DS version, which consisted simply of tossing a toy haphazardly around for them. Once again their efforts to create an enhanced version of a classic paid off big time, in my opinion. You seem to unlock more tricks as you climb the ranks with each festival, and the animations are so gosh darn cute!

Alright, so after 5 paragraphs gushing about the pets, I’ll finish up the animal section with the bugs and fish. The bug catching could be somewhat difficult depending on the bug, but the fishing mini game was one of the better ones I’ve played because it doesn’t require much skill. 😅

Between the products from your farm and what you can catch or gather, you can make a decent amount of money at the bazaar. But the real money is in the items you produce using the town’s windmills. Once you’ve fixed each windmill, you can have them process the materials you’ve obtained into something that sells for a lot more money.

Whether it’s milk from your cows or ore that you’ve mined, the quality of the materials affects the final product’s selling price. For materials besides crops and animal byproducts you have to give the Nature Sprites items that correspond with their theme (i.e. fish) to gradually increase the quality of items you obtain in that category in the future. It could be slightly annoying to give them these items for free, but it was kind of an interesting mechanic.

The game does start out at a rather slow pace, but eventually you’ll unlock access to all of these features and be able to really make some money at the bazaar. Unlike most games in the series, this one does not have a shipping bin. There is a shop in town where you can buy a few basics and sell some of your items, but ultimately you’ll want to save most of your wares for bazaar days.

This is because one of your main goals is to increase the bazaar’s rank by reaching different milestones for the money you’ve earned at the bazaar for each rank. They made bazaar days less complicated in this version, and there are also enhanced options for our stalls that weren’t available before on DS.

The selling process simply requires you to display items and ring a bell to draw in customers. I do wish that opening our inventory to switch out the items on display would pause the selling time, but it’s not that big of a deal. Customers will gather around your stall with the items they’re looking for displayed above their heads, so you’ll want to quickly place those before they lose interest and leave.

You can use the money you’ve earned from selling at the bazaar to make some purchases there before it closes. The clothing stall was one of my favorite additions to the game; there’s a surprising variety of clothing types in different colors. (I did wish that we could decorate our house too.)

Shopping at the bazaar is the only time/place you can purchase things like livestock and pets, plus upgrades for your house, facilities, or inventory slots for your bag. The inventory at the livestock and pet shop changes every week, so you can’t guarantee that they’ll have the ones you want the next week. Player reactions to these limitations may vary, but I was okay with them.

Raising your bazaar rank attracts more customers and unlocks requests that cause new stalls to open there. Some residents will become inspired to open their own stall. However, not all of the requests have to do with the bazaar; residents’ friendship levels often become locked until you’ve completed a request for them, and then you can start getting them up to the next heart level.

People just kept asking me about the status of their request at the end of every conversation, which quickly became annoying. I couldn’t find out how to prevent this besides completing the request, which could take a while for those with more difficult requirements.

While requirements for certain requests (and higher bazaar levels) could potentially feel overwhelming for some players later in the game, overall I found unlocking everything quite satisfying. It took around 15 hours to get through each season, so I spent ~60 hours on the first year alone; I’m really close to reaching the final bazaar rank in year two now.

Besides a slow start, some issues with the request system, and perhaps a complaint about upgrade pricing, I had a great time with this remake. I really liked the people of Zephyr Town. Poking around the DS version, there are several reasons why I think that version didn’t “click” with me anywhere near as well as this one did, as evidenced by the low friendship levels in my decade+ old “year two” save file.

They expanded the story in the Switch version and added fully voiced dialogue for major scenes “for the first time in the series.” I felt like I got a real sense of the characters’ personalities – especially the boisterous Felix! (I loved his puns, and was tempted to marry Sophie just to have him as a father-in-law! 🤣)

Many of the character events helped establish a sense of community based on kindness and generosity. Zephyr Town felt like a place with all the pleasant aspects of a small town, without any of the stereotypical negative parts. Everyone was just so friendly and supportive, and while the festival events could seem rather simple, they contributed to the feeling of togetherness as well.

As I got to know the characters, I’d initially planned on marrying Jules again. But they really made it hard for me to choose a spouse because of how likable I found the characters. There are 2 new marriage candidates, for a total of 12 options. Same-sex marriage is possible, although I haven’t reached the point with children yet.

I gravitated more towards Lloyd and June this time, and actually ended up marrying June in a rare instance of me choosing a female spouse. Without spoiling anything, I’ll just say that I really liked the wedding experience in this game.

Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar is a great example of how to take an older game and make it so much better than it was before, with them even adding an entirely new area. You can really see the effort the team put into improving the game as much as possible, making it a lot more enjoyable and player-friendly. Some of the gameplay may be different than usual because of the bazaar, but at its core it remains a wholesome, heartwarming experience.

8.5/10

Charitable DLC 🥰

Marvelous has worked with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) to bring the pine hoverfly “back from the brink of extinction.” The pine hoverfly “is now breeding in the wild,” but you can help support this project – and other conservation efforts – by purchasing the pine hoverfly DLC. 100% of the proceeds go to the RZSS. Keeping species alive has never looked cuter: