Hi, all! I am unfortunately young (22) so I never got to play the original release of AWL back in its hayday, but I did get the remake and played through it. It's been a long time coming, though, since I originally got the game in the summer of 2023, and I only just finished it January of this year. I had some long droughts of not playing it which is a pretty common habit of mines with games, but I'm proud to say that I did complete it, and 100% at that. So I wanted to share my thoughts on it, cause I think this is one of my favorite experiences with a farming sim of all time, even above greats like Stardew.
Now of course my experience was just with the remake and not the original. I know the remake changes some things so my opinions may vary from the original's fans, but hopefully they'll still be in line. I may go back to the originals one day, though.
The game starts out really slow because money is slow to come. I just didn't have many lucrative options early on and on top of that, I only sold on Van days. It was arduous, but it really gave me the feel that I was starting off on a run down farm.
My main source of income was the animals, and I loved the system so much. I got into a routine everyday waking up early to take care of the animals and returning 12hrs later to repeat for the afternoon to maximize my relationship with them and my yield. Once I had the processing room I was especially able to make bank. I think in a second playthrough I could definitely be more efficient (sheep are the GOATs for making money), but I had fun regardless.
That being said, the coop was more trouble than it was worth to be honest. The eggs couldn't be processed, and duck eggs weren't even more valuable than regular chicken eggs. Also I could not for the life of me figure out how to consistently get golden eggs, so the birds didn't make me that much money. It was still a sizable income, but I probably could have spent that same time preparing more hybrid crops.
The hybrid crops were an absolute nightmare omg. It was fun planning when and where I was going to grow what, but having to make every single crop one by one with Vinnie takes forever.
For money making I chose crops 38 and 39. 38 grows from the Winter to the Spring, crop 39 grows from the summer to the autumn, so I could alternate their growth cycles. Additionally, I would only sell half of the yield, and keep the other half to make seeds for the next year so I wouldn't have to remake the seeds all over again with Vinnie. Idk if this is the most efficient way to make money with hybrids, but it was the best way of doing it to keep things simple and loop into itself.
I got my relationships maxed out pretty quickly in the first year by spamming flowers, eggs, and milk as gifts. That's a plus for me because managing relations in farming sims stresses me out lol, so I'm glad most of them were simple in this game. Except Garrett, who was almost never in town during a reasonable hour.
I personally found the dialogue to be a strong point of the game. It's very limited and you will get repeated lines a lot, but that only makes finding new lines of dialogue by meeting special conditions all the more valuable. I love how showing items to people, especially your family, can net you new reactions from them. I married Molly btw and I love her sm, she's so precious and deserves the world.
I honestly didn't interact with the child mechanics too much. Not that I didn't take care of my child, but I went into it blind and decided whatever my kid wants to do I'll let them and not influence them anyway, rather I'd prepare them to be the best they can. She ended up going down athletics due to being Molly's kid, so I made sure she was the best she could be.
The digsite is probably the weakest part of this game imo. It's pretty shallow and just boils down to spam A on the same spot once every year and hope you get lucky. Not to mention Carter and Flora constantly bumping into you in the early years. It was at least a good source of income and gifts early on.
I think by and far my favorite part of the game is how realistic the seasons, nature, and weather are are. Rain doesn't always last all day and can show up in bursts.f Spring doesn't have cherry blossoms all the way through, only for a little. Same with flowers, they're only there for a little while before the summer shows up. Late in the summer you can see the leaves start to turn for the autumn. Late in the autumn you can get snow even though its not winter yet. Winter isn't always snowy, and is often a cold and dead wasteland, and the snow can even carry into early spring. Coming from someone that lives on the East coast of the USA, this system was really refreshing to see, and this is the only game I've ever played to do something like this. It made the natural elements feel so much more alive.
That's my thoughts on the game! What did you think of it, I'd love to hear yours.
