‘Return to Popolocrois’ is a sequel to the PSP game, ‘Popolocrois’. The game takes place a few years later, which is summarized at the beginning. Make no mistake, despite being label as “A Story of Seasons fairytale,” the game does not really go with that franchise. This is a strategy-turn based RPG. So, if you are looking for that, you will be slightly disappointed. However, if you are a RPG-fan, you might find the game entertaining despite it. The storytelling was good and was really interesting. Predictable but entertaining. That was why I kept with it. You are Prince Pietro and you’ve just celebrated your birthday. But the celebration is overshadowed by the fact that the kingdom of Popolocrois is being invaded by dark monsters. A beautiful emissary arrives to help. Or maybe not. Instead of helping your country, she brings her evil lord to destroy your homeland. To ensure her success, she sends Pietro and his companions to her home world. Before Pietro can go home and save Popolocrois, he must save Galariland and his cursed friends.



This is a strategy-turn based dungeon crawling RPG. For the strategy part, your characters and the enemies are on a field. Each character has a certain distance they can go and there is a grid to tell where you can place them. Getting behind and besides an enemy does make a slight difference. Not a huge advantage but it does dole out a little bit more damage. There is random battles. Battles can occur in the world map and in the gardens. Just so you now, you will be doing a lot of walking and backtracking. There is an option where you can adjust the encounter rate. Random encounters do happen a lot, despite this. So, I recommend keeping it low. You will still meet enough enemies to level up appropriately. Also, there is an option to adjust the difficulty level. I was going at it as the Prince level but changed it half way to King (the hardest level). If you are an experience gamer, King would give you a more challenge. Prince was a little too easy. I was breezing through. Also, King level allows you to get better drops. I actually appreciate these functions. It can be changed at any time during the game. You don’t really travel between worlds. You are at one place or another, until after you finish the game.



Is it similar to Rune Factory? After finally playing one, I don’t really think so. Yes, there are lots of questing and a farming simulation. While in Galariland, there are 4 farms that belong to you. You can grow plants, harvest bugs, own cows, chickens and alpacas, and mine for minerals. It was a little inconvenient when you had to run back and forth when you are in dungeons. But farming was a great way to earn cash. However, you don’t really need cash though. I ended up synthesizing the best items. There is no romancing since Pietro already has a steady girlfriend. You do talk and give presents to 6 other girls, but it is pretty one-sided. So, don’t buy this game thinking it is a Rune Factory spin-off. It is not.



The music is good. Very catchy when you are playing but easily forgettable. The artwork is cute. The characters are in chibi-form and are 3D sprites. The graphics are per usual. I had no issues with load times or the game crashing. The game was easy to understand without needing a guide. The game is pretty linear and easy to know where you need to go. Reading is a must. There is some voice acting but not for all dialogue. And it is possible to achieve 100% for the completionists.



The only reason I bought this game was I thought it would be a good introduction to the Harvest Game series. It was but it wasn’t. I liked it. Is it an instant favorite? Not really but I had a good time playing it. I wished they fleshed out the plot more though. The plot was good but lack depth. I finished the main story at 35 hours and I already spent another 5 hours on extras. So, if you are an RPG fan, you should pick it up at a decent price. Don’t play full price. It’s not worth it. For other people, I wouldn’t recommend. It was a nice mellow game to pass the time.