Love the idea and work for this game but has it’s fair share of flaws.
Before I get into my review I just want to say that Harvestella is NOT your typical farming RPG. Yes there is farming in Harvestella but it focuses more on storytelling, exploration and combat like a traditional action JRPG. My main point being if you’re expecting Harvestella to be like Rune Factory, Stardew Valley or Story of Seasons you’ll likely be disappointed. That being said I had so much fun with this game. I did play on the Switch and while the graphics are just okay the visuals look amazing, the beauty and designs of the world looks like a mini version of Xenoblade Chronicles. The art direction for this game is VERY underrated, I love seeing all the glowing trees, crystals and crops during the night. The world itself has lot of detail for its villages and towns and feels alive in a believable way. And there’s also other biomes which look totally gorgeous. The first in game month or so is the tutorial, I personally don’t mind but I can see that being a turn off for some people. I’ll admit it’s very slow to really get rolling with Harvestella but once you get to chapter 3 things really start to get fun. You’ll get to do more with farming and combat. You’ll be able to plant a diverse amount of crops depending on the season and will eventually start raise live stock and you can cook up meals which is crucial for your hunger and stamina or you can sell your meals for high prices. Each season lasts 1 month and you have a one day season called Quietus which kills any and all living beings. Combat was just okay, I really didn’t like the controls for combat as it felt a bit off to me. It can get repetitive but you’ll be able to manage combat more when you have a party to fight with. You can also get jobs which unlock skill trees to upgrade your abilities. You don’t need to grind levels for you party members in this game which is a relief to me. Something I hated about combat is that you need to keep your hunger satisfied in order to have stamina to swing your weapons and sometimes I would get hungry in the middle of a fight with no stamina. Time management is a little bad at first but overall wasn’t a big deal for me honestly when I got used to it. There’s side quest as well which are nothing special since they’re your usual go and fetch quests but the stories for them are worth it at least. Something many critics and reviews didn’t talk about is the romance in this game. YES there is romance in Harvestella but it’s romance to a certain extent. During the main story you’ll build up friendships with some of the characters you’ll encounter. Once you max them out you get an engagement ring blueprint from the mayor after you complete the game and you can use that to craft an engagement ring and choose on who you want to take on as your “partner” aka lover for the post game. The soundtrack is chill with some of the ost being very memorable and relaxing.
Main story was pretty generic but was decent enough to keep me interested. The characters you’ll meet all have personality that suit them well. And as I said earlier in my review the story for the side quests are worth it. I loved learning about the problems some of the people have all while learning more about the world and lore of Harvestella. And as you build your friendships you have even more story to see which I absolutely loved.
I believe Square Enix did a good job, not great but I can appreciate the effort for this game a lot. I’d argue this isn’t worth full price since there are games that did better for a lot cheaper but I don’t regret my time with this game as I had tons of fun and will continue on playing for now to see what else Harvestella has in store for me.
Before I get into my review I just want to say that Harvestella is NOT your typical farming RPG. Yes there is farming in Harvestella but it focuses more on storytelling, exploration and combat like a traditional action JRPG. My main point being if you’re expecting Harvestella to be like Rune Factory, Stardew Valley or Story of Seasons you’ll likely be disappointed. That being said I had so much fun with this game. I did play on the Switch and while the graphics are just okay the visuals look amazing, the beauty and designs of the world looks like a mini version of Xenoblade Chronicles. The art direction for this game is VERY underrated, I love seeing all the glowing trees, crystals and crops during the night. The world itself has lot of detail for its villages and towns and feels alive in a believable way. And there’s also other biomes which look totally gorgeous. The first in game month or so is the tutorial, I personally don’t mind but I can see that being a turn off for some people. I’ll admit it’s very slow to really get rolling with Harvestella but once you get to chapter 3 things really start to get fun. You’ll get to do more with farming and combat. You’ll be able to plant a diverse amount of crops depending on the season and will eventually start raise live stock and you can cook up meals which is crucial for your hunger and stamina or you can sell your meals for high prices. Each season lasts 1 month and you have a one day season called Quietus which kills any and all living beings. Combat was just okay, I really didn’t like the controls for combat as it felt a bit off to me. It can get repetitive but you’ll be able to manage combat more when you have a party to fight with. You can also get jobs which unlock skill trees to upgrade your abilities. You don’t need to grind levels for you party members in this game which is a relief to me. Something I hated about combat is that you need to keep your hunger satisfied in order to have stamina to swing your weapons and sometimes I would get hungry in the middle of a fight with no stamina. Time management is a little bad at first but overall wasn’t a big deal for me honestly when I got used to it. There’s side quest as well which are nothing special since they’re your usual go and fetch quests but the stories for them are worth it at least. Something many critics and reviews didn’t talk about is the romance in this game. YES there is romance in Harvestella but it’s romance to a certain extent. During the main story you’ll build up friendships with some of the characters you’ll encounter. Once you max them out you get an engagement ring blueprint from the mayor after you complete the game and you can use that to craft an engagement ring and choose on who you want to take on as your “partner” aka lover for the post game. The soundtrack is chill with some of the ost being very memorable and relaxing.
Main story was pretty generic but was decent enough to keep me interested. The characters you’ll meet all have personality that suit them well. And as I said earlier in my review the story for the side quests are worth it. I loved learning about the problems some of the people have all while learning more about the world and lore of Harvestella. And as you build your friendships you have even more story to see which I absolutely loved.
I believe Square Enix did a good job, not great but I can appreciate the effort for this game a lot. I’d argue this isn’t worth full price since there are games that did better for a lot cheaper but I don’t regret my time with this game as I had tons of fun and will continue on playing for now to see what else Harvestella has in store for me.