"Ranch Story: Reuniting the Ore Town" review: Sixteen years in a flash, the ore town continued the leading edge

The story of the "Ranch Story" series has been told for 23 years, 23 years is long enough for one half boy to become the father of another half boy. However, it is a pity that although such a long time has passed, the protagonist of today's review is not the orthodox sequel that fans have been waiting for after "Sanlitun", but a "heavy plate making".

Yeah, you read that right, not too much "heavy". Ranch Story: ReUniting the Ore Town should theoretically be called "Trimerore Town", and you can find out more about the development of the series by clicking the link in our column "Game Biography".

The game gives the player a sense of relaxation from the beginning of the screen -- the protagonist lies in the shade with the company of his pet. Once the player is in no hurry to enter the game, the characters in the dynamic background will wander the country roads with their pets, and the villagers will appear one after another, and the player's initial understanding of the game will be established.

It's a remake, but it's not the same. One of the first things that struck me was the game's opening story. The magnitude of the change wasn't much to say, it was probably just telling the player, "We've changed the story a little bit, but it's not a big deal."

Before we talk about the game, we can talk about the players who play "Ranch Story" can be roughly divided into several types. In my opinion, there are only two kinds of "ranch story players", one is "liver emperor", always want to accomplish as many things as possible in a day, and wish that the list of plans for several years is prepared in advance; A "Buddha system" that does not seek to maximize profits, and does what it wants in daily life, relying on its own exploration and experience.

Different players have different ways of playing. Of course, we can't simply judge which of the two is better, not to mention that both players will change camps at any time, which is the biggest advantage of the "Ranch Story" series, the rich game system will always have different "solutions", players can choose their favorite way to play.

You can choose the wife you like. PS: Gray will die

The game has easy and ordinary two kinds of difficulty, the only difference between the two is that the simple mode starts more crops more smoothly, and the liking will increase faster, the ordinary mode starts from scratch, and the liking growth is slightly slower, so from the beginning players can make their own choice, whether to enjoy some of the benefits of the simple mode more leisurely, or challenge the ordinary mode, let themselves busy.

Hamster Party is not afraid of busy

I don't need to say more about the general gameplay of "Ranch Story", the simulation of rural life itself has no custom gameplay, players are mostly mining, fishing, planting, logging, love "decathlon", but the excellent design of the "Ranch Story" series is due to the fact that no matter what kind of gameplay, players can get a clear goal.

Or you can start without getting the goal

The biggest goal is to get a "reward", and this mechanism becomes the biggest motivation for players to enjoy the ranch life. The sense of achievement of "I planted a seed and finally grew a fruit" is detailed and quantified in the game, and the harvest obtained by sowing and fertilizing is obtained; Spend months raising a pony and watching it grow; Cut wood and mine for materials every day, and spend money to build a bigger house.

My pony is growing up!

These have been the core concepts of "Ranch Story" for more than two decades - allowing players to work and get satisfaction at the same time, and on this basis, the game system has been refined for generations. Because it is a remake, the gameplay is largely the same as that of Ranch Story: Important Partners of Ore Town, which was released on the GBA console in 2003, and does not incorporate many of the excellent systems developed over the generations of the series.

Since it is "mostly consistent", there will always be some small differences, and the major reform of the cooking system is undoubtedly the most controversial place for players. In the GBA version, the cooking system can be based on the player's own exploration, for example, putting eggs in the pot can be made into boiled eggs, and scrambled eggs need more materials - pan, salt, soy sauce, etc., this exploration process greatly increased the exploration, growing more crops, completing more cooking became a big goal of the player.

Ore town cooking system is highly playable (image source Baidu, infringement delete)

However, this cooking system compromises to the fast-paced society. Perhaps worried that today's players are not patient enough, the cooking system has become a set of recipes can only be made. Recipes from NPCS or from TV shows make exploring combinations less fun, but it also suits more players who don't want to spend more time there, in an era when playing games requires meticulous calculation of time costs.

You used to have the dish before the recipe, but now you can't

Speaking of time cost, we must mention the upgrading system of farm tools in this work. Upgrade system according to the previous "copper, silver, gold, Mithril, Sage" forging order, only have the corresponding materials and proficiency level to upgrade tools, but some minor issues still appear in the game affecting the player experience.

For example, copper tools upgrade gold tools need 2000, but silver tools upgrade gold tools also need 2000 is very unreasonable, although the forging time is reduced, but if you want to consider the "time cost", in order to maximize the benefit, directly from the initial tool upgrade Mithril will be a better choice.

"All in one go" is actually pretty cool

The "one step" method is as simple as waving in a hot spring or restaurant. Although the acquisition of experience in half, more need a lot of money, but only need to repeat the mechanical operation can directly upgrade the tool or let many players decide to cheat, this can not all blame the player, the game tool upgrade design of some unreasonable will indeed affect the experience.

The exact same increase in tool proficiency is one of the reasons for cheating. In my normal play, because I was busy with farming and ignored fishing, my fishing rod proficiency was only 10% when I fully tooled Mythril, and in order to achieve the ultimate goal of being a master, I could only start to brush skillfully, after all, the fishing rod is the most difficult tool to practice in the game.

Since we know that fishing has no meaning after the player is basically out of poverty, why not set its proficiency increase higher? And the "one-step" design of other tools also makes proficiency design itself a chicken rib. Increase the total proficiency slot, plan a reasonable proficiency curve that increases with the tool level, let the player enjoy the fun of gradually upgrading, and eliminate the cheating of "once in place" may be better.

In addition to the rise and fall of the beach tide in the details and the upgrade of the overall picture quality, the game also has some flaws, such as only one of the two more reasonable doors after upgrading the largest cow and sheep hut, and the large range of black blocks on the edge of the mine lake that can be seen, which could have been polished better.

Switching scenes by "male on male" card model, dismount and mount action different delay, these are small issues that should be fixed, but unfortunately have not been changed. Speaking of these shortcomings, we have to mention a "BUG" that will make people laugh - the BUG in the 2003 GBA version still exists, the bug that makes crops unaffected by the season through a specific operation still exists, and in a knowing smile, we also better understand that this is the MMV intentional.

And Carlene is the same Carlene

The much-criticized "childish" Q version modeling was "really fragrant" by fans after the game was launched, which was something I didn't expect, because I was also a member of the "really fragrant" crowd. Modeling and scene painting style of the high fit, 2.5D can fine-tune the perspective of the good game experience, scene Switch "such as silvery smooth", coupled with the look of at least a few times behind the picture quality, "Ranch story" series in the Nintendo Switch platform of the first shot is officially started.

This pony, how cute!

"Ranch Story: Reuniting the Ore Town" has some flaws, but the overall quality is remarkable. As the first work to land in NS except for the adaptation of "Doraemon: Nobita's Ranch Story", we can imagine that this is MMV's "test the water". Of course, the positioning of the remake also makes him doomed to be unable to play the role of "pasture story revival", as for whether the past glory can be reproduced, it also depends on the orthodox sequel on NS in the future.

Of course, as a childhood grew up in the countryside, junior high school addicted to the "ore town" of the player, I am still the "ranch story" series of infinite longing for the future, he once accompanied me through a difficult growing experience. Although I can't relive the original emotion when I repurchase the ticket of "Double Village Wind Collection Sanlitun", I still hope that this series can go better and further, and give some wonderful life experience to children in the 21st century and even after the 22nd century.

Come on, Ranch Story.