Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life — A Beginner’s Guide to life in Forgotten Valley

With Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life being a remake of the original Nintendo GameCube (and later the PlayStation 2) game, there’s going to be plenty of returning fans alongside newcomers who may be wondering: what’s changed, and how best can I spend my time? Enter our Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Beginner’s Guide.

Remade from the ground up, A Wonderful Life will be familiar to returning players as not too much – mechanically, anyway – has changed. There’s a gender-inclusive character creator, players are able to marry whoever they want now, regardless of gender, and everyone has a shiny new, and improved, look.

But, with all of the new and old things in mind, what do you need to do in order to start your new life in The Forgotten Valley right?

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Beginner’s Guide

There’s plenty to remember when it comes to your first few days in The Forgotten Valley. You’re first introduced to Takemura, a grumpy, but well-meaning old friend of your father who has helpfully compiled a few notes of all the things you need to remember about raising animals, crops, and the like. As helpful as they might be, they don’t necessarily tell you how best to succeed in the first year of A Wonderful Life, which is unfortunate because the first year is incredibly important.

Here are some of the things you need to know to make your time in The Forgotten Valley feel that little bit easier.

Talk to everyone once a day

There are a lot of strange (and wonderful) characters to get to know in The Forgotten Valley, and the best way to do that is by going out of your way each and every day to talk to them. Every day the townsfolk will have something to say, and it’s the easiest way to raise your friendship with them.

Even if you miss some days – for whatever reason – it’s best to get into the practice of stopping to talk to each and every character you see. That way, you can continue doing whatever you need to do without it feeling like a chore.

If you’re unsure where a character is located, pull up your map and hover over each area. Whoever is in that area will be highlighted, though be aware that villagers are often on the move and their location may change by the time you get there. Keep checking, though! They shouldn’t be far behind!

Give multiple gifts to the townsfolk

While you’re only allowed to give two gifts per week in games like Stardew Valley, that isn’t the case for Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. For example, Molly really enjoys a bit of Egg Soup, which you can gift her each and every day to help build your relationship. But you don’t have to stop there, you can also gift her flowers, or some of your crops too. It may not be good for your wallet when you can sell all that stuff, but it does help in improving your relationship with various characters at a much faster rate.

Why would you want to give multiple gifts to the townsfolk? Because improving your friendship often comes with its own rewards outside of those feel-good vibes, such as other characters giving you gifts that can help improve your farm, whether that be with crops or raising your animals.

Also, for romance options? The faster you can propose to your partner, the less you’ll have to worry about a Game Over screen if you don’t find a character who wants to marry you.

Dig in one spot

While there are plenty of activities for players to try out, none feel quite as lucrative as helping Carter and Flora dig for archaeological treasures.

If you head to the dig site at around 10AM, enter the site and speak to Carter. He’ll explain that he could use a hand or two and will set you to work digging for items of value. While there’s nothing wrong with digging at each spot available, it’s better to pick a spot and choose to dig there. Not only does it save time, but you’re increasingly more likely to find something valuable than you would if you went to each and every spot and dug there.

It should also be noted that you can dig multiple times in the same spot, and you do not need to leave the dig site if you find something. You’re able to find more than one item per day, and it’s encouraged for you to keep on searching until 5PM, which is when the ‘work day’ for Carter ends.

Some of your items you’ll be able to keep, particularly useful for when you want to sell things like gems/foraged stuff to Van.

Always eat the weird mushroom in the forest

Each area of The Forgotten Valley has something for players to do, but the Forest area even more so. Not only are you able to forage, fish and occasionally talk to Pui whenever the adorable fella stumbles over, but you can also talk to the spirits of the forest too and get a free recipe. How? By eating a mushroom.

You’ll know you’re in the right place when you see a tall tree with a small door at the bottom, with a handful of mushrooms littered nearby. Interact with the mushroom and confirm you’re down to eat these bad boys to get an Alice in Wonderlands-esque transition where you’ll wake up inside the tree house where the spirits reside.

Talk to one of the spirits, and they’ll give you a recipe for you to learn. You’re only able to learn one recipe each day and, if you haven’t progressed through your cooking level, tell you when they’ve taught you all they know.

Talking to the spirits to learn new recipes to cook is a much safer – but slower – way to increase your cooking knowledge without wasting ingredients and is especially useful for beginners making a start in A Wonderful Life.

Say no to Van

Van, a traveling merchant, always visits Forgotten Valley on the 3rd and 8th day of each month. He brings a lot of interesting and helpful things, and can even upgrade your tools for you.

This merchant is also incredibly helpful when it comes to earning yourself some money – whether that’s by buying what you can’t sell in your farming bin, such as gems and gold items, or through a handy little trick called ‘saying no.’

You see, Van will buy mostly anything and everything from you and for a good price too. However, you’ll be able to make some real big bucks by declining Van’s offer. When you decline what Van offers, he’ll more often than not put some more money down to buy whatever you’re selling. For example, if you try and sell a golden fork at the asking price of 1000 gold and you say no, Van may strive to buy it from you with 1150 gold instead.

Always cook

Being a farmer, tending your crops and animals is a full-time job that’ll consist of making sure everyone is well-fed and looked after. The better quality of things like milk, crops and wool makes all the difference in this game.

That said, you can’t let your cooking skills go rusty either.

In A Wonderful Life, cooking has an invisible stat that only improves the more you do it. And the more you cook, the better things you can make, and the better things you can make can often lead to better gifts or more money if you decide to sell your creations. So, as you can see, it’s always best to try and cook at least once a day.

There are a lot of easy recipes that only consist of one ingredient, such as Egg or Milk Soup. Of course, the more complex the meal, the more progress you make towards unlocking another level at cooking and making harder, creative meals. For the early game, though? Stick to simple meals.

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Were there any beginner’s tips and tricks that you feel we missed out on in Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life? Leave a comment below!

If you’re looking for more about Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, head on over to twitch.tv/gaymingmag, where we’ll be playing the game as well.

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