First farming sim that I'm interested in.
Um jogo mediano, com uma boa história. Menos simulação de fazenda do que ele se vende. Bem legal! Tem seus altos e baixos. As artes dos personagens são estonteantes, muito lindas e ótimas Boss Battles!
Better than the demo would have you believe, but I think it's just a little too long. This is a great case for having 20-30 hour JRPGs that try something new.
The game is a fantastic adventure, with a incredible story which makes the world that you live in feel alive.
As an Action RPG this game is must have, it has an increible combat system that gets better the more you effort put in to it.
My biggest problem and the reason this game has such a low rating in spite of my praises is simply that as a farming game/Simulation game, The thing that was marketed the most, falls flat in a lot of areas, it does some really nice things, however, the thing that hinders it the most is how basic it is, on top of how much you depend from it to get good healing in the late game, you better save your crops, because instead of using them to grow friendships, it is exclusively for money and food, which is fine, but something to consider that this was the selling point of the game.
As an Action RPG this game is must have, it has an increible combat system that gets better the more you effort put in to it.
My biggest problem and the reason this game has such a low rating in spite of my praises is simply that as a farming game/Simulation game, The thing that was marketed the most, falls flat in a lot of areas, it does some really nice things, however, the thing that hinders it the most is how basic it is, on top of how much you depend from it to get good healing in the late game, you better save your crops, because instead of using them to grow friendships, it is exclusively for money and food, which is fine, but something to consider that this was the selling point of the game.
Excellent mechanics for both genres they tried to mix together. Would be an amazing game on the switch, taking this on the go would be the way.
Check out the whole review here: https://youtu.be/n24Rcrd_TN8
Check out the whole review here: https://youtu.be/n24Rcrd_TN8
A game whose identity is ‘no identity’. It’s overwhelmingly fine. I thought it might have a slow start, but soon realized it also had a slow middle. A decent enough game if you meet it halfway.
This review contains spoilers
Deceptively good game I reckon. Visual direction of the characters and landscapes were gorgeous, and I appreciated how large all the dungeons were. Music was great. Sidequests made me come to quite like the cast. The combat wasn't fantastic, but the effect animations were all quite flashy and I enjoyed having to navigate around the AOE attacks of bosses and larger enemies. Harvestella's heavy sidequest focus, boss design and its story revolving around the four Seaslight (crystals) are places where you can really feel that this was one major inspiration feeding into FFXVI. In that sense I suppose it was good I accidentally took a 7 month break on the game, since approaching it this side of FFXVI offers that new insight.
Additionally: Obligatory Xeno-posting. Thought I was signing up for an Atelier-lite, but actually received Square Enix's spiritual successor to Xenogears. I clued into it being as such pretty early after a vague inkling that Geist reminded me of Grahf, and then began noticing more similarities in the narrative. But near the end it really went all in on that with the plot recurrences and specific homage/parallels, such as "mother Sophia" of the church, Lost Gaia = the Zeboim ruins, another consciousness buried within Ein, and most excitingly the Gaia Defense System being visually modelled on Kadomony and its powers as an existence-altering perpetual motion machine mirroring the Zohar. Among a number of other things, and even some recurring Xenoblade iconography.
Additionally: Obligatory Xeno-posting. Thought I was signing up for an Atelier-lite, but actually received Square Enix's spiritual successor to Xenogears. I clued into it being as such pretty early after a vague inkling that Geist reminded me of Grahf, and then began noticing more similarities in the narrative. But near the end it really went all in on that with the plot recurrences and specific homage/parallels, such as "mother Sophia" of the church, Lost Gaia = the Zeboim ruins, another consciousness buried within Ein, and most excitingly the Gaia Defense System being visually modelled on Kadomony and its powers as an existence-altering perpetual motion machine mirroring the Zohar. Among a number of other things, and even some recurring Xenoblade iconography.
This game is really fun, it's worth it.
Played time: 65hrs
Played time: 65hrs
This game is a cumbersome mess. The opening is excruciating, with tons of slow, repetitive animations. The world is rife with invisible walls and dumb plot obstacles. Dialogue often gives the player multiple options that make no difference. Running consumes stamina even when not in combat (imagine always walking everywhere in Harvest Moon). Combat offers no defensive movement options, making every encounter a DPS grind. The story and setting are interesting, but the visuals are awful and frequently stutter. Basically this game is a collection of many of my gaming bugbears, with very little to redeem it.
I expected something more.
The idea is good, but I expected something more.
The farm system is very simple, and the first house upgrade only costs 6 wood seems a joke compared to the rest of games of this style.
The combat is simple, but has curious things like having to eat if you want to hit or do damage.
Maybe someday I'll give it another chance.
Me esperaba algo más.
La idea es buena, pero me esperaba algo más.
El sistema de granja muy sencillo, y la primera mejora de casa solo cueste 6 de madera parece una broma en comparación con el resto de juegos de este estilo.
El combate es simple, pero tiene cosas curiosas como tener que comer si quieres golpear o hacer daño.
Quizás algún día le vuelva a dar otra oportunidad.
The idea is good, but I expected something more.
The farm system is very simple, and the first house upgrade only costs 6 wood seems a joke compared to the rest of games of this style.
The combat is simple, but has curious things like having to eat if you want to hit or do damage.
Maybe someday I'll give it another chance.
Me esperaba algo más.
La idea es buena, pero me esperaba algo más.
El sistema de granja muy sencillo, y la primera mejora de casa solo cueste 6 de madera parece una broma en comparación con el resto de juegos de este estilo.
El combate es simple, pero tiene cosas curiosas como tener que comer si quieres golpear o hacer daño.
Quizás algún día le vuelva a dar otra oportunidad.
This review contains spoilers
This is actually a sci fi RPG masquerading as a farm sim - so some players may be surprised at the turns the storyline takes.
I personally enjoyed the plot twists, and wasn't expecting the lurch into science and philosophy. The role the Omens play in the story was definitely my favourite part of the game, and this look at AI technology was refreshing from how it is normally portrayed. The themes of AI and environmentalism make this game feel very relevant to the present day.
To begin with, the game is a bit of a slog. Chapter 3 seemed to drag on forever, and amidst the tropes galore and fetch quest hell I found myself in, I nearly gave up. The characters are fairly predictable and one dimensional. This and the monotonous side quests let the game down. However, the "one day more" kept me plodding through and overall I'm glad I did as I eventually enjoyed the story as I wasn't expecting the sci fi elements, and I am a fan of such stories.
Combat is simplistic and requires little more than button mashing for the first two thirds of the game. Only in the later dungeons and the post game dungeon does strategy become more relevant. I find the omission of a dodge button slightly baffling.
There is lots for completionists to track down, including crafting materials, recipes, crops and character relationship levels. These levels increase over time, rather than requiring gift giving or correct dialogue choices.
The game is pretty - I imagine it would look fantastic on the Switch's OLED screen. I really loved how the trees and skies changed throughout the seasons and between the different areas (e.g. seeing the Northern lights or the cherry blossoms). The music is well orchestrated and good enough, without being mindblowing or overly memorable.
Overall, an eventually enjoyable, if not overly memorable experience. A decent mid budget JRPG game - just don't go in expecting Stardew Valley!
I personally enjoyed the plot twists, and wasn't expecting the lurch into science and philosophy. The role the Omens play in the story was definitely my favourite part of the game, and this look at AI technology was refreshing from how it is normally portrayed. The themes of AI and environmentalism make this game feel very relevant to the present day.
To begin with, the game is a bit of a slog. Chapter 3 seemed to drag on forever, and amidst the tropes galore and fetch quest hell I found myself in, I nearly gave up. The characters are fairly predictable and one dimensional. This and the monotonous side quests let the game down. However, the "one day more" kept me plodding through and overall I'm glad I did as I eventually enjoyed the story as I wasn't expecting the sci fi elements, and I am a fan of such stories.
Combat is simplistic and requires little more than button mashing for the first two thirds of the game. Only in the later dungeons and the post game dungeon does strategy become more relevant. I find the omission of a dodge button slightly baffling.
There is lots for completionists to track down, including crafting materials, recipes, crops and character relationship levels. These levels increase over time, rather than requiring gift giving or correct dialogue choices.
The game is pretty - I imagine it would look fantastic on the Switch's OLED screen. I really loved how the trees and skies changed throughout the seasons and between the different areas (e.g. seeing the Northern lights or the cherry blossoms). The music is well orchestrated and good enough, without being mindblowing or overly memorable.
Overall, an eventually enjoyable, if not overly memorable experience. A decent mid budget JRPG game - just don't go in expecting Stardew Valley!
I miss this game, I wish I could reexperience it again
Un juego precioso en todos los sentidos, con una trama muy interesante y unos mensajes muy bonitos sobre la humanidad, el planeta y la esperanza. Tiene sus carencias jugables, pero me ha resultado muy divertido y lleno de contenido.
Its okay. there isn't anything technically offensive about it but there's also nothing that wows me away and makes me wanna spend another 20 hours on it. Could potentially set up a good sequel though.
cannot express how mid this demo is
Ich mag den Mix aus Farming Simulation und JRPG auch wenn das Storytelling etwas plump ist und nicht wirklich spannend erzählt. Die Dialoge sind sehr inhaltlos aber das Gameplay macht Spaß und unterhält.
Did everything in this. Came in expecting it to be a farm sim game with light combat. Turns out the farming was the side content. A neat game reminding me of .hack/Trails.
Played on Steam Deck.
Beautiful game with a beautiful soundtrack and a surprisingly interesting story. For me, the harvest gameplay wasn't as intrusive as I expected so great one.
Beautiful game with a beautiful soundtrack and a surprisingly interesting story. For me, the harvest gameplay wasn't as intrusive as I expected so great one.
I got this game for the simulator aspect and very quickly forgot that it was a farming sim
really need to pick it back up, super pretty n chill game
Its a jack of all trades master of none. I really wanted to like this game. im coming up to finishing this week. but I kinda know my thoughts and feelings now. Its got lot heart in the quests I loved a lot of the side stories and adventures! Some of them are really touching and sweet. But as for the gameplay its really average. both the farm sim and the JRPG are just very boiler plate. When I feel the idea could of been so much more! I really hope they get a shot at a sequel! you could do a lot worse then this for a game! but you also could do a lot better!
Fair warning, this is not a cozy farming game. It is in fact a fully-fledged, party-based JRPG with a (big) farming part. The farming part is well realized and fun and there is a lot to do in it alone. But to progress you need to play the story as well, which takes a lot of time doing main-, party-member and side-quests that all come with extensive, non-voiced dialogue. So if you are just in the mood to do some farming and ignore the “social” and dungeon crawling parts, this is not a game for you. In Harvestella you will always go back and forth between farming, dungeon crawling and story bits.
That said, all the parts of this game are well made and work together hand-in-hand. For example, everything you need for healing life and stamina is made by crafting which is done with components you grow on your farm. There are obstacles in dungeons like broken bridges that need to be repaired with components created during the farming parts. Farming is your usual affair of breaking down rocks, collecting wood in the wild and planting and watering all kinds of seeds during the four seasons. Some stuff can be automated later in the game. Earned items can be sold for money, used in crafting or invested into farm and weapon upgrades.
Combat is pretty simple and reminded me of MMORPG combat where you mostly dodge area of effect attacks shown with red circles and lines while spamming standard and special attacks that are on a cooldown. There are twelve different character classes that all come with their own special abilities. Three can be equipped at once and freely changed during combat. You only control the main character Ein who can be female or male, while party members engage on their own.
The story itself is surprisingly deep - if you are into convoluted anime-stories - but the presentation itself is probably the biggest downside of the game. While the graphics and artstyle are pretty, it shows that this was made on a tight budget. There is tons of non-voiced dialogue transcribed in mildly animated ingame-cutscenes. The character animations repeat over and over, there are maybe a dozen of different animations for character interaction. The same goes for the music. While the music itself has some great tracks, they loop way too often over the play-time of 60-100 hours - depending on how much stuff you want to do in this game. It doesn’t help that some of the dialogue, especially the minor side-quests, is overly long. It really hampers the pacing of the game. I’d say, if you really focus on doing all the side-quests, Harvestella is ⅓ farming, ⅓ dungeon crawling and ⅓ dialogue/cutscenes.
The game runs great on the Steam Deck, but it doesn’t show video cutscenes which happen mostly at the beginning of a new chapter. There are only a few of them, but it’s still a big oversight and can hamper the enjoyment of playing this on Deck. I also had one part very late in the game where I just got a black screen after a cutscene and I had to play that part on my PC instead.
That said, all the parts of this game are well made and work together hand-in-hand. For example, everything you need for healing life and stamina is made by crafting which is done with components you grow on your farm. There are obstacles in dungeons like broken bridges that need to be repaired with components created during the farming parts. Farming is your usual affair of breaking down rocks, collecting wood in the wild and planting and watering all kinds of seeds during the four seasons. Some stuff can be automated later in the game. Earned items can be sold for money, used in crafting or invested into farm and weapon upgrades.
Combat is pretty simple and reminded me of MMORPG combat where you mostly dodge area of effect attacks shown with red circles and lines while spamming standard and special attacks that are on a cooldown. There are twelve different character classes that all come with their own special abilities. Three can be equipped at once and freely changed during combat. You only control the main character Ein who can be female or male, while party members engage on their own.
The story itself is surprisingly deep - if you are into convoluted anime-stories - but the presentation itself is probably the biggest downside of the game. While the graphics and artstyle are pretty, it shows that this was made on a tight budget. There is tons of non-voiced dialogue transcribed in mildly animated ingame-cutscenes. The character animations repeat over and over, there are maybe a dozen of different animations for character interaction. The same goes for the music. While the music itself has some great tracks, they loop way too often over the play-time of 60-100 hours - depending on how much stuff you want to do in this game. It doesn’t help that some of the dialogue, especially the minor side-quests, is overly long. It really hampers the pacing of the game. I’d say, if you really focus on doing all the side-quests, Harvestella is ⅓ farming, ⅓ dungeon crawling and ⅓ dialogue/cutscenes.
The game runs great on the Steam Deck, but it doesn’t show video cutscenes which happen mostly at the beginning of a new chapter. There are only a few of them, but it’s still a big oversight and can hamper the enjoyment of playing this on Deck. I also had one part very late in the game where I just got a black screen after a cutscene and I had to play that part on my PC instead.
Beautiful game that not enough people played
The combat leaves a lot to be desired and it’s just so tedious.
Big heart. Gonna miss this world and its people.
This was an extremely pleasant surprise. The ‘work’ component of farming games has done a good job of keeping me away from other games of a similar type like Rune Factory but something about how this one all came together means that this is much more than the sum of its two individually simplistic parts. The story gets kinda crazy and the soundtrack’s by Go Shiina so it’s got that pomp and energy to keep you going.
Steam Deck report - Expect around 3 hours of battery at 60fps. There aren’t any graphics settings so just set and forget. There’s a bit of weirdness around the prerendered videos, though there’s only about 3 of them in the whole game, but check ProtonDB before starting off as one’s right at the beginning.
Steam Deck report - Expect around 3 hours of battery at 60fps. There aren’t any graphics settings so just set and forget. There’s a bit of weirdness around the prerendered videos, though there’s only about 3 of them in the whole game, but check ProtonDB before starting off as one’s right at the beginning.
7