You will surely fall in love with every character in A Tale of the Seasons: It’s a Wonderful Life, some very literal, and some of the townspeople in Forgotten Valley are just so damn charming. Whether they’re helping you out of trouble, funding your new life on the farm, or just encouraging you along the way, everyone has their own unique charms in this game.
While they all shine in some way, there are some characters that seem more endearing than others. We’ve ranked the best villagers in It’s a Wonderful Life (but no marriage candidates – we covered them here).
Lou
When a traveler settles in the Forgotten Valley to run the Lei-Over Inn with her husband Tei, Lou feels like the town’s mother. She constantly cooks at the inn and even goes so far as to give you some of her special spices when you bond with her to the max.
Lou’s kitchen in the inn is home to a handful of recipes that you’ll learn to make at home, too. And while she’s technically only a mother to one of them, Lou talks a lot more about Nami than she does about her own son, Rock. We love him, but… we get it.
van
Van is a traveling merchant who appears in several Story of Seasons titles and is a merchant who visits the Forgotten Valley on the third and eighth days of each season to buy and sell all kinds of goods. His inventory updates as the game progresses and serves as your resource for a wide variety of things, from new clothing to tool upgrades.
Even Van himself cracks us up. If you offer him a meal while he’s on his way to the grocery store, he’ll be excited about the offer, but he’ll hold back, “for a moment.” He is also keen on Dig Site finds and is the only way you can sell your spare parts.
Flora
While Carter may be in charge of an archaeological dig in the Forgotten Valley, Flora is the real star of the operation. She’s a smart city woman who moved to the Valley in the name of discovering history to spend decades sleeping in a tent on a sleeping bag.
You also see Flora in a very nurturing role, cooking for Carter after a long day at work and ultimately helping Kate as she grows up and starts soul searching. Cute, smart, and caring, Flora definitely deserves her place on our list.
Hugh
When you first start playing Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, Hugh is just a kid trying to follow in his father’s footsteps – literally. And while he starts off as just a neighbor’s kid wandering around town at night, always penniless, next to your store, you get to watch Hugh grow up throughout the game.
Finally, he will he’s got money, can use his allowance to buy things if you offer him a discount, and is always genuinely grateful that you tricked him. At the end, you see him as a young man running through town in the early hours of the morning on a similar path to his father.
Pui
Okay, sure, you have to give Pui thousands of dollars and a ton of home-cooked meals before he rewards you with an impressive gear upgrade. But with a grass hat, a kind of home in the woods, and butterflies for best friends, Pui has an unusual charm.
And even though he never makes it to Coco Island, we kind of don’t mind him lingering in the Forgotten Valley, even if he does has occasionally he has been known to come in the middle of the night and steal our eggs…
Vesta
Vesta is one of the most down-to-earth characters in It’s a Wonderful Life both literally and figuratively – she’s a hard-working, kind-hearted woman who isn’t afraid to spend her days in the fields and get her hands dirty running the farm.
While other competition right across the street may not always be a good thing, Vesta is never anything but friendly upon your arrival. She sells you basic seeds at an extremely affordable price, offers farming advice when you come to talk to her, and offers a tool upgrade that makes your work on the farm much easier.
Spirits of nature
Not only are the Nature Sprites – three colorful elf guys who live in a tree with strange mushrooms in the forest – looking for wonderful things, but they’re also there to help you adjust to life on the farm. Whenever a new animal is born on your farm, whenever you need to read new notes, these three must notify you.
When you visit them at their home, they’ll give you new cooking recipes every day for the first few years of the game, helping you build your farm and cookbook.
Vinnie
Vinnie is a sentient plant creature who moves into Takakura’s house at the beginning of the second year of a wonderful life. He’s a strange three-headed pot plant who, after convincing him with endless chat that they’re friends, will help you out on the farm by making hybrid seeds for you, mixes of two standard crops that bring in a lot more money.
And while he’s certainly unusual, Vinnie also gives you hints on making hybrids when you talk to him, and explains new ways to help you grow your farm from year two onwards.
Nina
A little cutie in brightly colored clothes and a ladybug hat, Nina is an elderly woman living in the town during her first year in Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. She’s easy to befriend, loves any flower you can offer her, and her dialogue is always so sweet when you stop her for a chat.
We’ll spare you any potential spoilers, but Nina is a unique type of sun in the Forgotten Valley nearby that you should enjoy! Nina is associated with a miracle called “My Beautiful Ladybug” and the only thing cuter than the name is the namesake herself.
Takakura
While all the villagers in Forgotten Valley are welcoming in their own way, no one goes out of their way to accommodate you and help you adjust to your new life like Takakura. Takakura, an old friend of your father’s, is a stoic elderly man with a small cabin on your farm who builds upgrades to your farm, takes your goods to town to sell, and brings you new animals or goods whenever you ask him.
And Takakura doesn’t they have do any of that – he just got a random letter from you in the mail and turned his whole life around to help you start a new one. Takakura may not actually be your dad in Seasons: It’s a Wonderful Life, but he sure feels like a dad soon enough, and we bet he feels exactly the same way about you.