Despite the name Story of Seasons only having existed since 2015, the series is currently celebrating over 20 years of games, as it was known in the west as Harvest Moon for a long time. While the name may have changed, the addicting farm simulation gameplay remained the same under the new title when the first Story of Seasons launched a few years ago. Through iterations, each game offers up a certain amount of stability while still throwing in a few wrinkles to keep it fresh. Sometimes that works, whereas other times it’s wound up in disappointment. In its newest entry, Trio of Towns, the developers have included some elements from prior titles, while also giving the player three distinct towns to explore. Unfortunately, in a time where we’re seeing other farming simulators provide robust and innovative takes on the farm simulator formula, Trio of Towns feels like it is treading water. It’s certainly a Story of Seasons game, but it’s no more than that, and at times, feels like a lesser version of its predecessor.

The story of Trio of Towns is simple, but a bit more involved than you’d usually find in the series. Your character decides to move out on his own and become a farmer, despite his father’s wishes and insistence that his son would make a terrible farmer. It’s up to you to prove your dad wrong, with some assistance from your uncle, who just so happens to be a farmer himself. Your father’s expectations come back later in gameplay, when he’ll write you letters that give you objectives you must complete in order to earn his respect. The goals you receive from your dad would be fine in and of themselves, but they become a list of boxes to check off in a game that has a few too many lists of boxes. On top of your dad’s expectations, you’ll also be asked to meet the expectations of all three of the towns surrounding your farm, with your relationship progress with each town being locked until you complete all objectives. I constantly found this to be an annoyance, as it was just too much to keep track of when all I really wanted to do was plant crops, raise animals, and woo my future spouse. Many of these expectations you have to meet are tedious things, too, like doing odd jobs around town like picking weeds or chopping wood. They’re not challenging or fun in any sense, and only serve as one more thing you have to do to progress.

Luckily, the core gameplay elements of the series remain intact and are as addicting as ever. If you’ve ever played a Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons game, you know the drill. You buy seeds, water them, and eventually harvest your crops to sell for money. You’ll also have access to buying animals like cows, chickens, and sheep to milk, shear, and collect eggs from to increase your wages. It’s all fun, standard farming simulator stuff, even if it never really breaks new ground. You can also customize the layout of your farm and build entirely new buildings, which actually was more of a chore than convenience in the early stages of the game. Your initial farm layout is rather small, and cluttered with trees and rocks that are difficult to remove due to your character’s low stamina. At one point, I built a bigger barn so that I could hold more than one cow at a time, and it was arduous to figure out where I could place it without being in the way of other things. It’s a bummer because customization should be something that is fun and seamless, but here it ends up being a long and annoying process.

Speaking of annoying processes, the game is constantly throwing tutorials at you. Basically once every three days, the morning starts with someone from town coming in and either showing me around a new location or teaching me something I hadn’t yet learned. This is mostly only in your first year, but the scenes involved are long and drawn out, often filled with uninteresting dialogue that can’t be skipped. Teaching the player all of these things could have been a much more streamlined experience; instead, it interrupts the flow of the core gameplay.

The game’s focus, the three towns surrounding your farm, is also something that sounds neat in concept, but is ultimately more of a bother. The three towns are all decked out with different themes. The first town is styled like a classic western area, complete with a saloon and dotted with cacti. The second town is a tropical beach. The third one is styled after a traditional Japanese village. While their aesthetics are all different, each town really feels like more of the same. There are similar shops and activities in each town, so the biggest difference is really just the different citizens living there. The stores in each town also offer things you can’t find in other towns, but that just means you’ll be doing a lot of travelling between them just to get everything that you need, rather than having all of it in one convenient location.

As is typical of the series, finding a spouse, wooing them with gifts, and eventually raising a family with them is all a part of the experience. There are plenty of bachelors and bachelorettes to choose from here, typically two per town. The process is similar to other games in the series, in which after giving them enough gifts, you’ll eventually be able to propose and marry them. It really isn’t difficult to figure out which gifts each of the town folk prefer, so it’s pretty simple to make friends and court lovers.

Ultimately, Trio of Towns is a typical Story of Seasons game, no more and no less. It fails to offer longtime fans anything new or interesting, yet still manages to provide the addicting core elements that attracts many to the series. Its heavy tutorials and minor annoyances often get in the way of that fun, so enjoyment often relies on a heavy dose of patience and acceptance. If you can get past these inconveniences, you’ll find a solid farming sim here, but I can’t help but feel like you’d be better off spending your time with other, better games in this genre.