A few months ago, I had the opportunity to try out Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. It was one of the many titles that I played for Nintendo Switch 2 here at Final Weapon, and I had such a good time with it that it even made my own personal Top 10 list of 2025. However, the version we’ll be having a look at today is the PlayStation 5 version, which releases at the end of May. So join me as we take a trip to Zephyr Town once again.
The Forgotten Bazaar
In Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, our story begins with one lone flyer you spot on a bulletin board. The flyer mentions how this one little town called Zephyr Town is looking for a farmer to move into their village. Seeing this as an opportunity to get away from all the city hustle, you decide to pack your bags and see what the town has to offer.
Upon your arrival, you meet the mayor of this town, Felix, who tells you about how this is a town known for its landmark windmills. This is also a town that was once home to a bustling bazaar, where people from both nearby and faraway towns would come to have a look at the wares. Sadly, because the previous farmer decided to leave on a journey, Felix was unable to maintain it, and it slowly fell into decay. Still, he is confident that with your help, the bazaar can gloriously stand on its feet once more! And there you have it: the main objective of Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. It’s a simple goal, but still a journey that will require a lot of work.
Open for Business!
Now, how do you start getting the Bazaar back up, you might ask? Well, this, of course, starts with your very own stall. Every Saturday, you’re able to sell your items to any interested customers. Your stall can be opened in two different shifts: The morning shift from 10 AM to 1 PM and the afternoon shift from 3 PM to 7 PM. In-between those hours, you can also visit the other stalls and buy various things such as materials, house upgrades, crop seeds, and much more.
After the Bazaar closes, Felix will gather everyone in the Bazaar plaza the next day to discuss whether the Bazaar has met the conditions to be promoted to the next rank. You start at Rank 1, the aptly titled Local Bazaar, and you must sell a given amount of Gold to be promoted. Then, as your rank increases, more and more people from afar start to show interest in setting up their own stall, which usually requires that the player fulfil a certain quest. While the story will conclude when you’ve reached Rank 7, World Bazaar, it is possible to increase this rank even further, all the way to 99.
When it comes to the Bazaar, it can be fun to plan out your sales throughout the week, especially when you have to consider the trending items that change every season. This is because trending items have a higher price that they can sell, and customers are more likely to buy them. There was, however, something that bothered me a bit. A huge chunk of items are exclusive to the Bazaar stalls. For instance, while you can buy seeds at any time from Miguel’s general store, a staggering amount of items are locked behind the Bazaar, forcing you to wait until next Saturday to even obtain those items.
This can be a bit annoying for certain quests in-game, because I also found out that this “randomness” carries over to some shops, such as the animal and pet shops, having a different selection of animals each time. Now, this can be frustrating for several reasons, but the biggest one is that if you need a certain item from a specific animal? Well, then you’re at the mercy of RNG. Granted, this is a game where there’s no time limit to complete anything, so it isn’t like a race, but I was very surprised at how easy it can be to drive yourself into a corner, waiting for the next Bazaar day to finally get that one item you need.
Decisions, Decisions…
Zephyr Town is home to a variety of different villagers, and they each have their own unique personalities. Just like its predecessors, you can give a gift to a villager once a day, and steadily grow your bond with them. Once you reach a certain threshold, you will be able to view special cutscenes that will give you insight into that character’s backstory. You can also marry whoever you want, regardless of their gender, a trend that I hope continues for future titles in the series in 2026. Something that was also added for the first time in the series was the addition of full voice acting in both English and Japanese, which adds a lot of immersion to the game.
As you increase your bond, there will be moments when you will be “locked” from increasing your bond until certain conditions are met. For the most part, this usually means that you need to do the request that will be asked of you, or if it’s a proposal, the person you choose might just say that you need to deepen your relationship with someone else. For example, for your proposal to Gabriel, the town artist, you’ll be required to deepen your bond with the mayor.
A good thing is that this is not something the game arbitrarily decides on a whim; it actually gives you a pretty good reason why. This sort of functionality was also on the original Grand Bazaar game from the DS, so it’s nice to see this being implemented. In addition to this, you can confess your love to as many people as you want, and there is no consequence in dating more than one person. It’s just that whoever you ultimately propose to will cause the others to become your “best friends” instead of your “newfound love”.
Not Much Has Changed
In my Switch 2 review of Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, I commented on how the game had some performance issues while docked, but those issues were not as prominent in handheld mode. Well, with the PS5 version, the game maintains a consistent frame rate, and I didn’t have any problems with its performance. However, I hesitate to call the PS5 platform the one suited for games of this type. Ever had that feeling when you play a game on a handheld, and you just go: “Wow, this feels right at home on the Switch”, or “this is a perfect game to play on my Steam Deck”? It’s what I felt when I was playing this version.
Now, there are ways you can play the PS5 on the go, such as the PlayStation Portal or Sony’s Remote Play app, but the additional latency you get isn’t worth it. I was playing on a big screen TV for the majority of the time, and occasionally used Remote Play to boot up and progress a bit. But yeah, Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar just doesn’t feel like the type of game I would get a PS5 specifically, especially when the PC version doesn’t require a beefy setup, or how the game is available on the first-gen Nintendo Switch.
Still a Great Game, But Better on Handheld
Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar is still a title that does set a new standard for when it comes to remaking these classic experiences from the DS era, and I’m glad that it’s making its way to more platforms than just PC and Nintendo Switch. Still, perhaps due to my own experiences with farming sims on the PS5 in general, I can’t help but just recommend that you instead opt for the Nintendo Switch or PC versions of this title.
If your only consoles are a PS5 or an Xbox, I can see the appeal in maybe playing such a title on those. But this is truly a game that feels like it is more suited for handheld devices, where you can just take it wherever you want, and be able to tend to your crops and animals.
Disclaimer: Marvelous provided a PlayStation 5 copy of Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar for review purposes.
