A farm sim for people who like JRPGs.
The reveal, rollout, and release of Harvestella from Square Enix often feels like a mystery. At face value, it looked like Square played Harvest Moon or Rune Factory. In fact, it’s basically more of a traditional action RPG with a lot of life-sim elements. You might spend your time tending a small farm, but the heart of the action is a world-saving quest that takes you across a vast world. The end result is attractive, even if a handful of rough edges don’t make it great.
Your amnesiac protagonist appears in a world where giant crystals called silytes guide the world. After a comprehensive tutorial, your quest will focus on saving Seaslights from trouble while trying to solve the mystery of a time-traveling new friend and the conundrum of Quietus, the time between seasons where everything dies. It’s a bite to start with, but once you gain some autonomy, the game opens up a lot. Color the world with a captivating story that reveals great moments and fun world lore. There is no traditional genre romance per se, but all participating characters have optional quest lines that tell more stories and provide in-game benefits.
Like the farming sim it inspired, Harvestella runs on a day/night cycle and must always go to bed before midnight. A day goes by quickly (it was already tweaked to be longer after feedback on the September 2022 demo), about 15-20 minutes unless you get bogged down by a conversation-heavy quest. ends with . The writing is mostly engaging, quirky and emotionally balanced, but it has no means of speeding up the process and is usually in long lines. No. You can sprint, but sprinting drains stamina quickly. The only way to restore stamina during the day is to eat stamina-restoring foods. Stocking up on food is easy, but the whole process was clumsy, and I stopped sprinting because it got tedious. Every 30 days of in-game time, his day in the Dark Quietus changes seasons. All you can really do with Quietus is work your way through lengthy dungeons, but the monthly sense of progression works well in the context of this game, a blend of traditional his JRPG and farming sim.
I’m not totally fixated on landing, but the way different aspects influence each other in a cyclical way helped me move forward. Growing and harvesting crops helps generate income and resources. increase. These can be infused into crafting tools and meals. These can be used to generate more resources to help solve quests, and more crops are available for farming and harvesting. It can slowly burn you, especially if you get distracted by side quests. Continued. It’s also a milder farming sim in that much of what lies ahead of you is nicely laid out with quest markers and very clear objectives. you don’t have to. These skills become available by interacting well with farming.
I stand by the fact that this leans more towards the straight RPG genre than the farm sim, but it does indicate that I’m only referring to combat for now. I spent an in-game day on , but when I actually got into it, it was relatively basic. It hits the expected notes of mages, tanks, etc. Combat is mostly very button-mashing and simplistic, though complexity increases as you unlock class skills. Whether you’re using a melee or ranged character class, your best strategy is to find a spot next to an enemy that isn’t directly attacking them and just wail. Especially if you can attack the enemy’s weaker elements. There are special abilities that can be reused after cooldowns, and some classes have basic attacks that can be charged. Her party of two, usually with her members at her side, can equip three of her classes at once and switch between them as needed in combat. The combat system reminded me of the recent Trials of Mana remake, but without the nuances.
It’s not stellar combat, thankfully, but as mentioned earlier, combat helps influence other aspects, so Harvestella as a whole is better than the sum of its parts. You can earn resources and drops that you can use to buy, craft more goodies, and more. I wish I could move faster, but the feedback loop was still fun.
Harvestella feels like a farm sim made for people who like traditional RPGs. Or you could position it as a traditional RPG for those who like farm sims. Either method works. It’s a unique balance that vacillates at times, but most of the time it’s captivated me. If you’re looking for a farm sim mixed with a JRPG, or his JRPG mixed with a farm sim, this is for you. If you approach the game with the right mindset, you can relax, explore the world, and enjoy the gameplay.
