A holiday section where people gather a lot of food, then spend a lot of money for stuff? Sounds like a good time to place this!
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Ever Oasis.

I think I spotted this game in a showcase video of upcoming RPGs for the 3DS. I was a newcomer to the platform at the time, or was going to be, and was interested to see what the future held. Then, after seeing a demo showing that you have an actual party with you (something I only really felt seeing in Phantasy Star 0, but they were so underpowered), I was nearly sold.

Since the game is relatively new, I'll go ahead and say it: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!
If you're worried, just skip below the lines. It's just the beginning of the story. I haven't completed the game just yet (taking my time to do all the side quests from my over 50 residents)....
...actually I did complete the game, and it was a decent finale...but there's stuff after the story too, but have taken a pause on it for the time being.

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The plot kicks off with you as a Seedling, which is kind of like a human kid with weird horns. You're having a good time at your brother's sprawling Oasis during festival time. Any knowledgable player, such as myself, already knows things are just going to go bad. And, yep, it does. Suddenly "Chaos" starts affecting the Oasis, sprawling up weird purple and blue plants and making everybody freak out. Then, a Chaos dragon (WHY is it always a dragon, ugh), faces down your brother. Fight seems hopeless, so he sends you off while he holds the creature at bay.

Now alone, you encounter a water spirit named Esna, and together with her, create a new oasis. Together, you gain travelers that can end up joining your oasis, (as either new Seedlings who open up various "Bloom Booths" that sell various things to travels for currency you use to buy things, or various mercenaries from three different races), fight creatures and gather items for yourself and other Seedlings, and slowly start to fight against the Chaos spreading over the desert.

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Character-wise, not much personality. You're a silent protagonist and Esna is a mostly-chipper individual that gets some character as the story develops. The various residents that you find and join with are some-what bland, but that's ok. Interestingly enough, every single one of them can fight! Seedlings and mercenaries can both gain new abilities from leveling up, and Seedlings can gain new skills when you level up their booths through character quests. You can even changed their equipment to your liking (though they are stuck with whatever their weapon preference is. i.e. swords, bows, etc.). It is a nice feature, though, that they automatically equip the best of whatever you've got whenever you pair up with them and they give it back when they leave the party. As for mercenaries, you can't change their stuff, but it improves as they level up. As for yourself, you can use any Seedling weapon, making you a jack-of-trades sorta.

Combat-wise, things are simple but intuitive. You got your light attacks and heavy attacks (and you get more as you level up), and a dodge roll. And you also have various abilities depending on the character, from % healing, to a breath that lowers enemies stats, to a strong hit that inflicts poison. Some creatures are also vulnerable to certain weapons. Drauks (ironically reptilian species), use spears, which are deadly to snakes, and Lagora (think...rabbits I...guess?) are twinblades that are strong against beasts and chaos monsters. Unfortunately, even with a full three-party, you won't cover the entire spectrum of enemy weaknesses (probably 1 short), but that's ok.
At first, in the VERY beginning, it may be hard, since your character doesn't have his latent "Rainbow Protection" ability (which is crucial, as it adds a large pool of HP to your personal pitiful amount, based on the level of your oasis and happiness of your residents), but hang in there and you'll find some decent challenge as the game goes on (especially with the later enemies)
Also, something to note, you only gain the fruit of your experience when you RETURN to your oasis. Interesting feature, but it's not annoying, especially given the Aqua Gate, which I'll bring up later.

One thing I do love about this game is the party. I mean, there's a lot of games where you're just lone wolfing it, and few on the DS. Like said, Phantasy Star 0 has a four-party, but the AI was sub-par (they dealt SO little damage, and only seem to attack enemies when the camera was on them). But in this game, far better. They attack and actually evade (so proud of them for having the smarts to dodge roll back during the boss fight from that area attack). And while they don't use their special skill on their own, it's a simple tap down or up to change character and us it yourself. And yep, that's another thing, you can switch between party members at any time.
The game is also some-what generous in healing. While many Seedlings have a heal skill, you have a button dedicated to healing items (which pauses the action for you) of various degrees and uses, though you're limited on carry capacity, which is fine (fighting the end boss with 99X full heals is a bit much heheh). And if one of your party members is knocked out, a bar slowly fills over time till they get up (if the a second member falls, they have to wait till the first downed on is up). But, you can speed up the process yourself by taking a button near them for...I guess it's CPR. And even if your entire team is knocked out, you get a retry thanks to your Oasis abilities. It's only a "once-per adventure outside the oasis" thing, but you get more as your Oasis levels up (or the story progresses, I forget). It's a nice feature for if your facing down grueling odds but you know you can do it.
It's also incredibly useful in the Labyrinth dungeons, of which you'll find a couple during your exploration. These are dungeons with random room-type layouts that are made based on special slabs you find based on monster variants.

Collecting items is also a thing, and important to the Bloom Booths. You can get them from defeating enemies, cutting plantlife and smashing vases, and digging and mining them (using abilities from other party members). You can also buy seeds for plants and trade items with merchants at other settlements and when they visit your oasis.
Items can be used to craft new items at your home base's Synthesis Tree (which you unlock close to the beginning of the game), and you get more craft recipes as your oasis levels up. Items are also needed for character quests, but the big need for them is that they are mostly materials for the various Seedling Bloom Booths.
Bloom Booths are essentially single-item (three variety) shops coming in three main flavors: Food, Novelty, and Fashion. There's a fruit booth, a cloth booth, toy booth, many kinds. And they sell items to travelers and Noots (weird puffy birds who...I have no idea where they come from), for "Dewadems", the game's currency. Like any shop, though, they need restocking, that's where you come in. Items you gain can restock a booth's supply of an item to sell it. As you restock a booth, a bar fills that, when full, leads to a quest from that Seedling. Complete it, and the booth upgrades (maximum of 3, with a final 4th), offering a new item with rarer ingredients (max of 3) that are needed.

At first, the game's a balancing act. You go out, you fight creatures, gain items, and slowly recruit residents (which can require giving items or having specific booths for them so they decide to join). It may seem annoying at first to go out with few members, fight creatures, come back, restock each booth individually, and wait for your Dewadem count to go up...but hang in there, the game's got a lot of anti-frustration features, some of which I've said.
An early one is the Aqua Gate. This button feature is so helpful. If you're out in the world and want to go back to your Oasis in a flash for whatever reason, you hit that button and zoom, you're back! Want to go back to the same place? Just use the gate near the Oasis entrance and select "Aqua Gate", boom! Back where you were! And if you've just fought a lot of creatures and about to face down a boss, it's perfect to zip back home, get the benefits of your XP, save, and head right back to take that boss on!
As you go further in the game, what you need to do becomes so much easier. At first, it's just you, but then you gain access to having a party, making gathering things and fighting enemies that much easier. Then, you gain somebody who can auto-restock Bloom Booths for you so you don't have to visit every one and do it yourself. And later, you can assign Seedlings to your Oasis garden to tend the fields for you (which leads to some needed items). Want more than that? Well how about auto-leveling and auto-gathering for your mercenaries eh? Yep, down the road you can have mercenary character go out on an adventure to fight enemies or gather items in particular areas you've so far went to in the game. Depending on how far, it takes time, but when they come back, they come back with items depending on if you had them fight enemies or gather them from the environment. Which, of course, makes supplying your bloom booths easier!

Ever Oasis is a great game, and one of the best I've played and am playing on the 3DS. The world is colorful, there's over 50 different party members, you can control everyone while out there, the management system can be rewarding and becomes easier as you go along.
In a way, you can feel that your experience grows, just like your Oasis. As you walk down your bloom booth streets, you see Noots and your residents or visitors walking buy and purchasing things and you get a sense of accomplishment. You and Esna started this place and it'll become big one day, with lots of people safely making their lives in a world rife with Chaos.

As of this, I've finished the main story and was delighted at how the antagonist was handled in the end...though am a little confused at the after-story. I still have a few residents left to join my Oasis, so I know there's more to be had. I've taken on some tough challenges and scraped by some dangerous situations, but my Oasis is going strong and I'm looking forward to what's left.

That's not to say I won't take a moment to lay back and enjoy the literal fruits of my labors....