That’s why games like Harvestella appreciate downloadable demos. Recently when I was looking for a game to bridge the gap between the bigger releases I decided to give this one and The DioField Chronicle a try as I’m a fan of his JRPGs more tactical than farming sims so DioField is a fighting game I fully expected to win the , but it didn’t. I’m addicted to Harvestella. I’m glad I tried it.
Please understand that I don’t have much experience with games that rely heavily on farming mechanics. So it’s probably something I spent a lot of time on.
You start out as a character of your name and design (male, female, or non-binary) who happens to stop in a small town with land that needs care. The bigger story involves a giant crystal structure called Seaslight that dominates a nearby village.
There is also Quietus, a natural phenomenon that covers the land with deadly dust every 30 days. Before disappearing, it infects anyone who happens to be outside. Anyone but you, of course. A girl from the future. and farm fairies. And a talking unicorn. And all the mecha called Omen. It honestly seems like a silly combination of elements that may not work, but it does. Actually, fine.
We believe there are three factors to its success, starting with the agricultural component. You have to get seeds in different ways and have them planted in a small piece of land. If you keep watering them, you can harvest them within a day or seven.
These elements are used to restore health, enhance skills in combat, and cook items that can be traded for rewards or sold for profit. Requires specific growing conditions, such as or biomes. For example, it was pretty thrilling when I finally unlocked the water biome and was able to plant all the seeds I had accumulated.
Reaching predefined goals unlocks new tools that allow you to process food and ingredients to unlock new recipes and abilities. , I highly recommend Harvestella to anyone waiting for the time until Atelier 3 of Ryza arrives in February. It’s very rewarding and combines the farming/crafting/cooking elements in a very engaging yet not overly difficult way.
Component 2 is exploration/combat. Harvestella offers a rather small but very diverse world that gets bigger as you progress. You can see the entire map at first, but most locations are closed off by invisible walls and time. Due to the diurnal cycle to be respected, I can only get things done in the “early hours” after sunrise before I get home and go to bed.
Time flies by as you move from place to place, but time eventually eases when you have faster transportation. Time in towns and dungeons moves slowly (or not at all if you want the story).
Dungeons are unique in that you have to go through them to get to the next town. You can choose to bypass them after the first completion and return only to the farm of elements or the complete quest. The dungeons in the larger towns are where you spend most of your time. Again, they’re not huge, but they’re cleverly laid out in such a way that they require multiple runs to complete. It takes half a day to clear the section, but you can repair bridges and ladders to make it go through faster on your second run. Best of all, there’s even a save/teleport location where you can return home at the end of a long day.
Like crafting, combat is somewhat rudimentary. There are many jobs you can acquire, each with their own strengths and skills, but combat is more about preparation than party optimization. You can join her party with two of her members into battle and cycle through her three available jobs. Monsters are vulnerable to certain types of attacks, so being smart about your setup can make things go faster. It is intended to drink or eat juice to restore lost health and remove debuffs, so it is mitigated by farmed items.
In this way, farming and combat/exploration combine to create a fun gameplay loop. You tend the farm in the morning, progress the story and complete side quests during the day, and return to the farm in the evening to plant/water your crops, store/sell items, cook food, and equip your equipment. be developed. Start again the next day and go further. The further you progress in the game, the more time you can spend on progressing the story, as you can automate your farm.
By the way, it’s the third component, and I’m totally convinced. I won’t go into details for fear of spoiling anything, but I can say that it definitely takes some unexpected turns.
More importantly, each party member gets a series of compelling side quests. These not only offer insight into who they are, but also reward you with items and experiences. You can make solid friendships. And if you pay attention to your avatar’s available response options, you can even learn a little bit about how to interact better with the people around you. What a good listener this traveler is! .
Visually, Harvestella pleases with its bright, vibrant colors and striking world design that makes the most of 3D visuals, somewhat unique to the genre. It’s like a smaller, more stylized Xenoblade Chronicles all the way down to anime-style character designs.
The whole package comes together to create a fun game that will appeal to fans of JRPGs and farming sims. Both elements are too simple to attract hardcore fans, but both have the advantage of being unobtrusive. Their balance and the story that ties them together is enough to make Harvestella a game worth caring for.
