A farm sim for individuals who like JRPGs.
The reveal, rollout, and launch of Harvestella from Sq. Enix has oftentimes felt like an enigma. At face worth, it seemed like Sq.’s tackle Harvest Moon or Rune Manufacturing facility. In observe, it’s foundationally extra of a standard motion RPG with a heavy dose of life sim parts. You may spend time taking good care of a small farm, however the crux of the motion is world-saving quests that take you throughout an expansive world. The top result’s compelling, even when a handful of tough edges maintain it from being superb.
Your amnesiac protagonist exhibits up in a world the place big crystals, referred to as Seaslights, information the world. After an all-encompassing tutorial, your quest turns into centered on rescuing the Seaslights from bother whereas making an attempt to resolve the thriller of a time-traveling new pal in addition to the conundrum that’s Quietus, a time between seasons the place the whole lot dies. It’s a mouthful to start out, however upon getting some autonomy, the sport opens up considerably. The primary story quests take you to the Seaslights and main characters and executives, however a wide range of facet quests coloration the world with charming tales revealing good character moments and pleasant world lore. You don’t have conventional genre-trope romances per se, however the entire characters that be a part of you might have optionally available quest strains that inform extra of their tales and offer you in-game advantages.
Just like the farming sims it’s impressed by, Harvestella runs on a day/evening cycle the place it’s important to ensure you go to mattress earlier than midnight. The times can go by shortly (and have been already tweaked to be longer after suggestions to the September 2022 demo), wrapping up in about 15-20 minutes except you get caught in a dialogue-heavy quest. The writing is usually partaking, balancing between quirky and emotional, but it surely’s often long-winded with none technique of rushing up the method. That’s not helped by the truth that even fundamental motion feels gradual. You’ll be able to dash, however sprinting shortly drains your stamina and the one solution to regain it in the course of the day is to eat stamina-rejuvenating meals. It’s simple to maintain a stockpile of meals, however the entire course of is clumsy sufficient that I simply stopped sprinting as a result of it grew to become a trouble. Each 30 days of in-game time, the season modifications with a single day spent at midnight Quietus. The one actual factor to do in Quietus is to work your approach via a prolonged dungeon, however that sense of month-to-month development works effectively within the context of this sport being a fusion between conventional JRPG and farm sim.
It doesn’t completely stick the touchdown, however the best way numerous elements feed into one another in a round method is what helped to drive me ahead. Farming and harvesting crops may also help you generate earnings and assets, which may then be poured into crafting instruments and meals, which can be utilized to generate extra assets that may then make it easier to remedy quests, providing you with extra crops from which you’ll be able to farm and harvest. It may be a gradual burn, particularly in case you get distracted by facet quests. Even nonetheless, new wrinkles stored cropping up as I progressed, whether or not it was completely different farming biomes or further fight lessons. It’s additionally a gentler farm sim, in that a variety of what’s forward of you is laid out cleanly with quest markers and crystal clear objectives. You don’t have to do something arcane to improve your farming abilities; these abilities will probably be out there in case you work together with farming sufficient.
Whereas I stand by the actual fact this leans extra in direction of the style of straight RPG than farm sim, it’s telling I’m solely mentioning fight now. I often went in-game days with out actually partaking in a lot fight and after I did, it was comparatively fundamental. You begin off with a easy Fighter class, however as you meet new characters, you possibly can entry their lessons, which hit the anticipated notes of mage, tank, and extra. Complexities develop as you unlock extra abilities for lessons, however fight is primarily very button-mashy and simplistic. Whether or not you’re utilizing a melee or ranged character class, the most effective methods appear to be to discover a spot subsequent to an enemy the place they aren’t instantly attacking and simply wail on them, particularly in case you can assault the aspect they’re weak in opposition to. You may have particular skills that may be reused after cooldowns and a few lessons have fundamental assaults that may be charged up. You normally have two celebration members alongside you and you’ll have three lessons geared up without delay that you would be able to change between as battle necessitates. The battle system jogged my memory a variety of the latest Trials of Mana remake, although with far much less nuance.
Fortunately even regardless of lower than stellar fight, the entire of Harvestella is bigger than the sum of its components, as a result of the fight helps to feed into different elements like I discussed beforehand. Defeating enemies earns you assets and drops, which can be utilized to finish quests and craft extra goodies. I want I might transfer quicker, however even nonetheless, the suggestions loop was pleasant.
Harvestella appears like a farm sim made for individuals who like conventional RPGs, or possibly you could possibly place it as a standard RPG for individuals who like farm sims. Both approach works. It’s a singular stability that’s rocky at occasions however gained me over as a rule. This can be a sport with a variety of coronary heart that I stored desirous to discover even with its messier elements. When you’re searching for a farm sim blended with a JRPG or a JRPG blended with a farm sim, that is good for you. And in case you go into it with the proper mindset, you’ll benefit from the stress-free stroll of this world and its gameplay.