I think it could work if they pushed the price tag more along the lines of an indie title and not the price tag of a AAA title for something that is supposed to be the middle ground.
Despite a lot of the criticism, I've been enjoying my time with this game thus far. I've always had a difficult time getting into pure farming sims due to lack of a doomsday narrative and epic final boss, but I've always enjoyed farming and crafting mechanics when they crop up in jrpgs. This game is giving me enough of those elements blended together.
You mught like Rune Factory. Rune Factory has better in-depth farming, Harvestella on the other hand focuses a little bit more about the JRPG part and being too middle-ground - both of which aren't really big negatives. My only complains tbf, are the fast time cycle in the map and the zero voice acting. Zero voice acting + lengthy dialogues can be pretty irritating.
This is the first farming game to have a decent enough combat system to keep me entertained between farming. Actually love the balance it has between conventional hacky slash jrpg hybrid and farming sim.
@@louvella-sama yes, they aren't very similar if you ask me. The combat here is a lot more engaging and with more mechanics then learning simple attack patters like in rune factory. There's more of a story with plot events and things to drive the player to a conclusion. The farming is fairly basic and mere here as a tertiary mechanic breaking up the combat and providing a mini game for recepies to heal, buff, and progress the caricature. This game feels more like ys monstrum then rune factory 4 on the switch.
And there is the problem I have with the game. The feedback from the demo fixes felt more like regular bug fixes masked as “feedback fixes.” I really don’t see them spending anymore time improving this game beyond what has been done already.
I've been playing it alot since launch and really like it. The graphics are pretty good, all the little detail is cool to look at. And the farming is pretty fluent and slow paced which is what I want in a farm simish game. The combat tho is just bad ass, I mean it's at this point one of the major selling points. Having free access of 3 jobs that you can instantaneously switch in and out of is awesome. Makes for some pretty cool combos, but more than that I have really liked the little stories being told. Theres villagers in Lethe i actually care about and want them to do well and will help them how I can. The sidequests and the stories they tell are pretty good. Even if it's a fetch quest here and there it's totally overshadowed by good exposition and character development at every turn! Good ass game, tho I do admit the $60 price was hard to swallow, but I totally love the game so to me it was worth it 💯
I find the combat to be dull. You just run around and keep hitting x. Can't even attack when you jump. I also hate how fast the days the move. I feel like everything feels rushed because of that. I tapped out after a few hours because it was getting annoying to keep up with.
As someone who spends their time playing either JRPGs or Farm Sims, this is a perfect balance between the two. IMO it's a perfect entry for anyone who has never dipped their toe into the opposite genre. Which leaves an experience slightly lacking for those experience in either. On the JRPG side, the battles could use a dodge or block mechanic. More robust skill system, movie cut scenes, and voice acting. And smoother animations especially in head shakes and nods. On the Farm sim side, there is a massive lack of customization that is iconic for the genre at this point. Not sure if there is a marriage system, but there is an affinity system and I haven't experienced it much aside from stat boosts. So no idea if we get special close events like in farm sim, or if its just a boost in battle. its really great for what it is! I think too many people get caught in the "I'm a gamer gimmie my exact game I want" and forget the vast difference in play skill. I can't tell you how many adults I've encountered who are playing games for the time who appreciate the slower paced games. Harvestella does a good job of blending everything into one enjoyable and easy to digest package. If you want final fantasy, go play that. If you want stardew valley, go play that. IMO Harvestella stands really well all on its own as one of the unique blends of J/ARPG Farm Sims.
Exactly my thoughts. People saw that it hasn’t all the features other farming sims have so it must be bad and cheap. When in reality it’s a rough gem with its own unique identity. Also it’s a square Enix Game, so I personally was expecting a more RPG heavy game. I believe it’s gonna be a sleeper hit. The game has a lot of that old school square rpg Charme to it, reminiscent of old PS2 or 3Ds games with a toooon of amazing references to squares older titles! (There is a lot of chrono cross in there for example)
I kind of feel this games wanted to be both FF and Stardew Valley at the same time and failed at doing either well. The combat is severely lacking. I love action RPGs and this one just has nothing to it. Its dull. I find it hard to stay awake while fighting because you aren't really doing anything. The farming is perfect as I find the over kill of stardew valley to just become a chore after a while but what ruins even that for me is how fast the time moves. Every day feels like you are in a rush to do even simple stuff like go to town and buy things. This should be a relaxing playthrough but instead its a stressful watch the clock game with dull combat. I wanted to like this game and tried hard to get into it but its just another SE miss for me. Beyond FFVII R, they haven't really wowed me in a long time. Even the Octopath and BD games miss the mark because even tho they look good and have solid combat mechanics, the story telling and characters are just kind of meh. Really got my fingers crossed for FFXVI to deliver and for this company to remember what it brought it to the dance. Story telling. Most people play JRPGs for the stories and characters not the combat or art style. SE seems to have forgotten this because their story telling over the last decade has been shit imo. Atlus, Falcom, and Bandai Namco surpassed them a long time ago.
I've been playing for awhile now, tried the demo back in October and I've been playing since I got the game on Saturday. I love it! Yes the frame rate is a bit touchy at times, but the story and Quests make up for the technical side of things for me. Definitely one I'll be playing the crap out of while I wait for Tears of the Kingdom
I think people tend to forget that games are supposed to be FUN. No, the game doesn’t have everything I want in it and it’s also not executed perfectly (the budget was a bit weirdly spread on this one imo), But damn, Harvestella is just really fun to play. They really managed to intertwine all the systems together into a super fun gameplay loop. It also knows what it is and therefore isn’t trying to be what it isn’t. The (btw new in square enix) director said he loves classic JRPGs and life sim games so he wanted to combine them. That he was heavily inspired by other square enix titles is super obvious and you can tell that all the references are a love letter to those games. At times it feels like a remix of FFXIV, Bravely Default, crystal chronicles, Chrono cross etc. and plays a bit like a remaster of an old PS2/3DS Game, which I personally think adds to the charme as well as the lack of voice acting (see, weirdly spread budget at play - why the battle voices but basically no story related ones? It’s a weird choice). I read that the game was supposed to be turn-based at first, but they couldn’t make it work in harmony with the rest of the gameplay, so they decided for an action based fighting system that wants to be accessible to players who are not good at quick reaction based gameplay, which is why I think it turned out a bit mmorpg like FFXIV (the mage class feels very much like it). I love how the farming part is actually important to survive in the dungeons. They also give you strong FEAR enemies around every corner if you want a challenge. This game has a lot of heart and is a very complete package in my opinion. It has a loooot of content, basically no bugs and no predatory dlcs. We should celebrate that in this day and age. Lol But I get why some people think otherwise and a lower price tag would have attracted way more people in the end.. I hope square doesn’t abandon the game because of lack of profit…it deserves a second iteration, with more customization etc.
I think this is a really good first foray into the rpg/farm sim genre for SE. Solid and fun, but with room and potential to be more fleshed out. I hope that we get new entries in the future, like Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler.
I play JRPGs and farm sims almost exclusively other than Pokémon. I bought the physical copy of this for less than $50 USD and I love it! I love action rpgs and the farm sim aspect is awesome! I think it’s a wonderful entry into these game types. I do believe that a sequel or remastered edition would see this world truly fully fleshed out. I love games like this and I’d love to see SE put more money and work and time into this series. If you paid less than a AAA title price then I think you easily get your money’s worth. I do also think the beginning is slow but after the first few hours and you get to know the characters combat and mechanics it gets so much more fun. I’m playing Atleier Ryza series and Rune Factory while Iwait and hope they give Harvestella some more love.
Surprisingly good. Been playing till ch 5. There are some things need to fix. But overall its an enjoyable experience. And the side quest is good. To me Feels like playing "legend of mana" with more focus on farming.
1:16 Exactly, Zion. And a foundation with, in the review's own words, smaller in scope than AAA titles but have higher production values than a budget indie title, should not have cost $60
Just played through the demo and have to say that I love it! I think in terms of graphics and battle and storytelling, it is most similar to Toram Online (which I love). I think Harvestella does the best job of a combat/farm sim combo because it doesn’t try to include all the aspects of a typical farm sim (romance, personalization, playing house, etc.) At the end of the day it’s an RPG with characters that Square Enix dreamt up to tell the tale, and judging from the demo they did a great job! The price is a little higher than I’d assign to the game, so I’ll take some time to consider the purchase.
Personally I enjoy the style of the super detailed character panels as I read a lot of comics and manga. I've been playing harvest moon and rune factory games for 15 years and I think the only real problems with this game is the small frame rate drops and the price. It's not an rpg so it's combat system isn't supposed to be intuitive and it's also not solely a farming sim and not HM or RF so it can't really just copy paste mechanics from those two games as they tend to do. After all rune factory calls itself a fantasy harvest moon. (I love rune factory). Harvestella has a solid framework. It's not the type of game where we need hyperrealistic graphics but I do admit they should be cleaned up just a tad. This is their first time in the genre and there's only room to grow. Anyone played RF 1-2 (eh), then RF 4 (good game). Or HM tale of two towns? My point is $40 max I would pay for this game, but I don't regret buying it in the slightest. I can't wait to see if they release a new one and if it will be their RF 4 or will they release an RF2? It's not a hardware issue. I love games that look like this. It's like a storybook artstyle I will say and it's very dreamy and refreshing from your god of wars, and Elden rings and also a break from stardew valley which I've 100% on 3 different farms now. AAAs and AA isn't a genre of game it only refers to the largeness of the company that makes them. Every game doesn't have to be incessantly more detailed, and make my computer breakdance harder than the last. Please let us have this genre of games, don't destroy creativity. But let Square know that $60 on an entry title to a genre is bold and ambitious. Please knock that down as it's insulting almost to think you can compete on the level with game studios that were making these types of games before your company was even founded.
I think you described the game perfectly as "Half-Hearted" and "All over the place". I understand how combining two genres would be difficult. The visuals are certainly top tier. But you also certainly feel that there's just something missing in the gameplay. I hope they push some improvements to justify the AAA level pricing.
I wouldn't call the visuals "top tier".. certainly considerering the style used in this game is widely used in many jrpg's.. Tales Arise is much more vivid and pretty.
Please DON´T try FFX as your first FF. It is linear as hell, non demanding and vastly overrated with attrocious voice acting (at least the non japanese version). Better try FFIV, VI-IX first or - as an alternative - games like FFT, Parasite Eve, FFXII, Chrono Trigger or Chrono Cross, Live a Live, Dragon Quest XI S (or Dragon Quest VIII), Trials of Mana, Xenogears or FFXIV.
@@FelixS. I’ve also thought about a few of the others you mentioned. FF just doesn’t looks very good to me, which is one of the biggest reasons I haven’t played a Square game. Dragon Quest looks really good though. The good thing about farm sims is that I can play them in between bigger JRPGs like Xenoblade.
Agreed the price doesn’t really match the quality, but luckily I was able to get it on a buy 2 get 1 free sale. That made the purchase feel much more reasonable. I’m looking forward to playing it once it arrives😊
I looved it. Couldnt play any other game until the main story was done! Really cute and sweet friendships along the way and i really enjoyed the vibe. One thing i hope in future games is harder combat! I found the mobs a little on the weak side, but the art and beauty of the game makes it worth it. Fun twist endings, and you definitely want to save 3 slots to get all 3 endings! I really hope they make another one in the series somehow, either with all the current characters or new ones id play the heck outta it. This is coming from someone whos top games are ff, fire emblem, animal crossing, pokemon and zelda. So it definitely depends on what people enjoy in a game. Edit: *and im enjoying finishing up all the end gameplay like finishing collections and creating all the recipes. The art is so well done, even if you dont play the game you should look up the food artwork- makes you so hungry.
Was hard to find a balanced take on this game. Many reviews are unfairly harsh on the game without spending much time on it. It may not be exemplary in many aspects, but it does well enough in many parts and together makes a fun and enjoyable experience.
I've really enjoyed playing this game. More than I can say for any game really in the last 5 years! I've actually looked forward to playing and progressing. I think it does a lot of things really well and I'm new to the genre so it's really refreshing and fun to me.
Yeah I played the demo. It's weird that the lack of character customization wasn't mentioned in this review. Every player character model looks the same, male and female. I really disliked this game. Rune Factory 5 was just the opposite. I absolutely loved RF5 and it's currently my GOTY.
It's a pretty game, and I'll consider pick it up once it goes on sale. There's no way I'm buying this full price when I got just got the RF5 Delux Edition for 30 bucks.
They did it was star ocean, A or B class rpg but a lot of fun. Harvest is a good time as well the job system adds some flair. Farming doesn’t make itself the main focus which is nice because the dungeons feel like a 3rd person version of a game like undernauts dungeon of yomi.
A little more investment and improvement would made the game away better ( a fully voiced story / few more skills to each class / making the combat quite smoother cause it feels stiff somehow)
I have the game on Switch and waiting for the Steam sale for the PC release. I thoroughly enjoy it and already have four or five characters created for various partners (such as Aria if that's possible as she's my favorite.)
I usually make one character, then split my save across multiple save slots so I can marry each character without making a brand new one for myself, mostly because it's so much story to go back through.
I really like the game and found it surprisingly easy to sink time into. Main gripes is we need more customization for main character. That includes more manly body types. For reference,I chose the male body and picked my gender female because I thought it was just a taller woman with broad shoulders. The hips and thighs of the men in this game look too feminine. The farming is easy and doesn't take forever but it's still enjoyable so you have enough time to go dungeon crawling With as many side quests as Skyrim they really should have included voice actors at least for the main story scenes. The music is pretty banging.
I honestly love the game dearly si far. It's creeping up into my top fave farming Sims. I dont mind I paid full price, I've already gotten my moneys worth.
I don’t know what’s been up with NintendoLife these past couple months, but their videos are few, and a bit too late when they do come. I miss the regular uploads.
Honestly i Like the game alot and if you ever played harvest moon you'll know the biggest thing you'll need is to take your Time with this game and Gradually do what you need to do in order to advance not rush it cause Farming will get you money and Grinding will get you exp that will be needed later on down the line
I appreciate the style and it’s take on the genre, but the farming component feels so clunky. The farming plots are so large making them look more unnatural than most in the genre. Likewise, neither the farming nor the combat feels like core gameplay - they’re just mushed together. I think it’s a good first step if Square wants to develop more games like this, but I don’t think it’s worth the price when there are better, cheaper, more engaging options available on the switch.
So it's not triple-A title but it has triple-A title price tag so how can anyone justify spending 60USD for a game that is supposed to be a middle ground between indie and triple-A? For triple-A price I expect triple-A game.
Just want to comment a tidbit no one will probably care about, but I think this is the game World of Final Fantasy was supposed to be as it was originally developed to be a life sim-JRPG game but was scrapped and became the traditional FF spinoff we know today. I think it's great Squeenix finally got to make this game concept a reality.
Despite many negative reviews of Harvestella, I finally bought it when it was on sale, and I must say that I didn't regret it. I think it's a wonderful game, and contrary to many rather negative opinions about it, I don't find it shallow at all. While it does have some kind of "time limit" in respect to the fact that you've got to get your daily stuff done before night falls and you also have to watch your stamina, because once you keel over from exhaustion, Cres' doctor fees, which increase each time you need treatment, will burn a hole in your wallet really fast. (Did I mention that the game at times is frighteningly realistic?) Yet, in spite of this, the game never puts you under any kind of real pressure, since you can decide when to do your chores or when to go on which quest or when to continue a quest or side quest. So if you don't have too much time left on the current day, you can hit the hay and procrastinate as you wish, which makes it a very laid back experience. Most of the characters are quite endearing, and while the general atmosphere is harmonious, it occasionally touches on some very serious issues and difficult moral dilemmata. Speaking of atmosphere, I think this is where the game really shines, and this is mainly due to the phenomenal soundtrack, which even changes according to the situation. There's even different music depending on the situation. In funny moments there is a rather comical, uplifting melody, in dangerous situations or sad settings the music is different again. One can clearly sense that Square put a lot of thought into this game. At least to me it doesn't seem as if they just hurriedly put together some run-of-the-mill rpg components to make a few quick bucks. However, there is one huge "but" (no pun intended) concerning Harvestella, a trait that, for me at least, almost ruined the whole experience. I'm talking about the faulty use of pronouns in the game. Now I'm not even talking about the option to play as a "non-binary" character per se, but rather about the problems that occur because the game persistently uses "they/them" as a pronoun for persons in the singular form so as not to hurt the feelings of a certain minority. This is not just grammatically wrong (and yes, in the real world it is wrong, and for good reasons), it also gets very tedious and confusing, for instance when one of the characters talks about one person in a group of people. You just don't know whether the character is talking about one person or the whole group/town. If you're lucky, you can derive it from the context, but it's not always clear. More often than not, this drives a wedge into the flow of the story and thus makes the game as a whole less enjoyable than it could have been. Now this could easily have been avoided, if they (yes, I mean the good people at Square Enix, not just one of them) had limited the use of this supposedly gender-neutral "they" to the choice of the non-binary character. That way everyone who feels like a unicorn, a washing machine or a toaster could have indulged their gender-neutrality, or rather gender-confusion, while the rest of us poor "normal" saps who choose either the male or female character could have had a far less confusing and more enjoyable experience. However, the way they handled it, everyone who doesn't feel non-binary is also forced to put up with the ensuing linguistic mess. That, in consequence, leads to the question why they included a non-binary character, when the choice you make changes nothing at all. Even the character models are pretty much the same for male, female and "non-binary". So please, Square Enix, get your act together. Maybe it's not such a good idea after all, to try to accommodate a miniscule minority at the expense of the majority, who are still paying the largest part of your salaries. Again, the game in its entirety is great, but for the future, try not to screw it up by jumping on some ideological bandwagon, especially when said bandwagon is destined to derail.
I'm a big farming sim fan (Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons was basically my childhood) and love relationship mechanics as well, but the game needs to do something new for me to bother. Harvestella looks like I'd be playing the same game over again, but with Square Enix doing it. I guess it could be nice for someone who's never tried a game in the genre, but that's a pretty specific audience. As a seasoned fan I can't justify the money or the time for a regurgitation of an averaged-out formula. Unless the plot takes some kind of shocking, crazy good path less travelled, this sounds super not worth the effort. Especially having already enjoyed Rune Factory.
Bought for 50% off on the eShop right ($42.47 down from $84.95) after playing the demo from the eShop and I enjoy cozy games on my Switch so had to give Harvestella a go, the soundtrack is so relaxing to me.
Anyone know if thr battles improved from the demo? It was super clunky when I played and felt awkward and slow (no real dodges or mobility options and horrible camera response during the demo boss)
If there are romance options, then I'll give it a shot, but I'll pass, if not. My favorite video game fantasy to suspend my disbelief in is that someone loves me.
This game needed to launch at 39 if I’m being honest. The day one fixes weren’t enough to sell me post demo to purchase for 60. I feel like the sales for this game won’t be anything incredible, Square will move on, and there won’t be anymore updates to this game to improve. The game needed another 6 months or more of development time. It feels like they got it to a spot and accepted it for what it is and just bundled it up to sell.
I enjoyed the demo and the story felt like something I would really enjoy getting into. But with the performance/graphic issues, I will likely pick this up on Steam rather than the Switch. Similar performance issues kept from buying Dragon Quest 11 when it was ported to the Switch.
I've been looking for a child-friendly rpg and think this will fit the bill. My kids love the farming idea, and so I see this as something new that they can watch or play. Let me know if to all think otherwise.
I played the demo but there was too much I didn’t like to buy the full game. I didn’t like not being able to change the camera angle and that many of the ‘choices’ in dialogue seemed to end with the same response ether way. It was a bit sloppy but could have been so much better if they put in more effort
thankyou for the detailed review, after seeing your review i instantly purchase it on steam instead buying it on Nintendo switch! keep up the goodwork guys!
This game has such potential it could have been one of the best farming RPGs of all time, but it really put me in a pause when I realize not only is farming not a huge part of the game, but the combat isn't a huge part of the game either. So neither of the two main elements of this game are very fleshed out which just really sucks. That and the fact that there's no clothing or hairstyles or anything really bums me out
The rewards you were talking about getting for completing tasks in the book are EXTRINSIC rewards. Not INTRINSIC rewards. At least make sure you’re using the word right if you’re going to try and use ‘fancy’ words you’ve heard other people use, especially in a big official review write up.
To expensive for a game with to many cut scenes, bad control features, planting slow and to big plots…. No tutorial for fighting. And don’t get me started on the time of day changing and forcing you to return to your home. Day just begins and it’s already 10am…go to outside map and time flys by and now it’s 1 pm….not worth the money 60.00 is wayyyy to much for this low end game.
@@Midnight.k1 They did fix the passage of time, but it only shows after Ch 1. During Ch 1, you still have the tutorial length days (10am start, forced ~10pm end). After Ch 1, your days start at 6am and end whenever you want. But if you pass out after 2am (early hours) or faint in combat, you will effectively lose half of your day, so take caution. Overworld passage of time is definitely slower compared to the demo. So unless you forget where you’re going (which I did do a couple of times😅), you should still be able to do what you want.
I am liking the game, the only gripe I have had with the game is that the character creator options don't matter.. all the options just kinda look the same. I kinda feel like if I wasn't a Harvest Moon/ RF fan of games like this it might be a much bigger turn off for me.
Im here 8 months after this video was made. I just played the demo and i enjoy it but its still 60 bucks! I wanted to watch a review to see if its worth it.
I think even with Go Shiina's composing and the setup reminds me of Star Ocean franchise, they cannot really convince me to get this game with the price like this... The character customisation is so limited, in the beginning I was asked to choose the gender and character model and regardless of the gender you will still end up choosing the same 8 character model, at least give me some option to choose the hair style. Battle system... Reminds me of FFXIV online where you cannot really dodge an enemy's normal attack. Stamina is like meh, but it is kind of ridiculous that your fullness will always be 0 percent to start the day regardless of the hunger point you replenished before you sleep, it might be better to just half the fullness instead.
Harvestella: not as bad as everyone is saying, but still pretty flat. I could have forced myself to complete the whole game, but it didn't quite seem like it was going to be worthwhile. There are FAR too many, like several TIMES too many, drearily-paced dialogue-heavy segments.
