Video games reminiscent of Harvestella are the explanation I recognize downloadable demos. When just lately on the lookout for a recreation to fill the hole between greater releases, I made a decision to provide this and The DioField Chronicle a strive. Being extra of a tactical JRPG fan than a farming sim man, I absolutely anticipated DioField to win the battle, however no. Harvestella hooked me, and I’m glad I gave it a shot.
Perceive I don’t have a lot expertise with video games that rely closely on a farming mechanic. Sakura: Of Rice and Destroy might be the one to which I devoted a good period of time, primarily as a result of I favored how the farming—regardless of being a significant a part of the gameplay—instantly served the motion. It’s the identical with Harvestella.
You begin as a personality of your identify and design (male, feminine, or non-binary) dropped in a small city with a plot of land that occurs to wish tending. The larger story includes big crystal buildings referred to as Seaslight that dominate their close by villages. The townsfolk are used to them, however they’ve been appearing a bit wonky as of late.
There’s additionally the Quietus, a pure phenomenon that covers the land with lethal mud each 30 days. The Quietus kills all crops (unhealthy for the individuals, however good for gameplay) and infects anybody who occurs to be outdoors earlier than it by some means fully disappears inside 24 hours. Anybody besides you, in fact. Then, there’s the woman from the long run. And the farming fairies. And that speaking unicorn. And all of the mechs referred to as Omens. It truthfully looks like a bonkers mixture of parts that couldn’t probably work, but it surely does. Fairly nicely, in truth.
I attribute that success to a few issues, starting with the farming element. It’s a must to purchase seeds by numerous strategies, then until your small plot of land to get them planted. Maintain them watered, and also you’ll be capable to harvest them inside a day or seven.
These parts are then used for cooking objects that may restore your well being and improve your expertise in battle, be traded for rewards, or offered for revenue. Vegetation require particular rising situations, reminiscent of a sure season or biome. It was fairly thrilling, for instance, once I lastly unlocked the water biome and was capable of plant all of these seeds I’d been accumulating.
Reaching predefined objectives additionally opens new instruments that let you course of meals and supplies to unlock new recipes and talents. It’s very very similar to a simplified Atelier recreation in that regard, so I extremely advocate Harvestella to these biding their time till Atelier Ryza 3 arrives in February. Gathering the appropriate parts to lastly make a dish you’ve been after for fairly a while could be very rewarding, serving to the farming/crafting/cooking factor to be fairly partaking whereas not terribly troublesome.
Part two is exploration/fight. Harvestella gives a somewhat small however very numerous world that grows properly as you progress. You’ll be able to see the whole map initially, however most areas are closed off by invisible partitions and time. There’s a day cycle to honor, so that you solely have from dawn till the “early hours” to get issues carried out earlier than returning residence for sleep.
Time passes rapidly as you progress from location to location, however that’s finally mitigated as you purchase sooner types of transportation. Time inside the cities and dungeons strikes slower (or under no circumstances when the story requires), however that’s way more to do there: combat enemies, tackle sidequests, store, and so forth.
The dungeons are distinctive in that you need to battle your method by them to succeed in the next city. You’ll be able to select to bypass them after preliminary completion, returning solely to farm for parts or full quests. The bigger city dungeons are the place you’ll spend most of your time. Once more, they’re not terribly giant, however they’re expertly laid out to require a number of runs to finish. It’ll take the higher half of a day to filter a bit, however you’ll be able to restore a bridge or ladder that makes it simpler to get by sooner in your second run. In fact, there are additionally save/teleport areas that let you fully skip dungeon sections and, extra importantly, warp residence on the finish of an extended day.
Like crafting, battles are considerably primary. Though there are a dozen jobs you’ll be able to purchase, every with distinctive strengths and expertise to make the most of, fight is extra about preparation than occasion optimization. You’ll be able to take two occasion members into battles with you and cycle by three of your accessible jobs. Monsters are weak to sure kinds of assault, so issues transfer alongside faster in the event you’re sensible together with your setup. That stated, with no actual strategy to defend your self, you’re going to take harm. That is mitigated by the objects you’ve farmed, as you’re meant to drink juice or eat meals throughout fight to revive misplaced well being and take away debuffs.
As such, farming and fight/exploration mix to create a enjoyable gameplay loop. Are inclined to your farm within the morning, head off to advance the story or full some sidequests in the course of the day, then retreat to the farm within the night to verify the crops are planted/watered, objects are saved/offered, meals is cooked, and tools is developed. Begin once more the following day to push additional forward. The additional alongside you get within the recreation, the extra you’re capable of automate your farm so you’ll be able to spend extra time advancing the story.
That, by the way in which, is the third element, and the one which absolutely received me over. I received’t go into element for worry of spoiling something, however I can say it positively goes in instructions you received’t anticipate. It additionally makes some advanced and clever observations on faith and authorities alongside the way in which.
Extra importantly, each occasion member will get a collection of partaking sidequests. These not solely present perception into who they’re, however reward you with objects and expertise. There’s little in the way in which of romance, for these looking for that, however you’ll get some strong friendships. And in the event you take note of your avatar’s selectable response choices it’s possible you’ll even be taught a bit about higher work together with these round you. What an excellent listener this traveler is!
Visually, Harvestella pleases with its shiny, vivid colours and hanging world design that takes full benefit of the 3D visuals which are considerably distinctive to the style. It’s like a smaller, extra stylized Xenoblade Chronicles, proper all the way down to the anime-style character design. The fight animations aren’t a lot to take a look at, however solely the boss battles final lengthy sufficient so that you can get bored by them.
The entire bundle combines to create an entertaining recreation that ought to attraction to followers of JRPGs and farming sims. Each parts are possible too easy to have interaction hardcore followers of both, however the profit there’s that neither will get in the way in which of the opposite. The steadiness between and the story that glues them collectively are sufficient to make Harvestella a recreation value tending to.
