Harvestella - Nintendo Switch

I am writing this as a person who loves all the Final Fantasy games, as well as dungeon crawlers, and also Farming games. For someone like me the game has allot of appeal, but it won't appeal to everyone. A person who likes farming sims will be disappointed by the fact that you pretty much have to fight through dungeon fields and plow through monsters to unlock things like additional farming biomes and sprinklers. Even if the story of the game does not advance unless you take particular actions (and therefore can do nothing but farming) you won't have full farming ability if you neglect the other aspects of the game. A person who likes dungeon crawlers may find the pace slowed down. Allot of farming sims has the protagonist pass out at 2 AM. This game is no different in that regards, except that you at midnight you no longer know what time it is, your movements become increasingly sluggish, and you can see the shadow of your eyes slowly closing. In a stand alone farming game that is a beautiful attention to detail, but in a dungeon crawler it basically means that you have to get home before bedtime even while the fate of the world hangs in the balance. The game has a cooking system. The fact that the things you grow can be made into meals and juices and that these take the role of a healing system does give the farming more purpose than just farming for the sake of farming which makes the game not get boring when it otherwise might, but this is subverted by the fact that for whatever reason you can't eat meals during every boss fight making it necessary to bring meals and juices together. Since you have a bedtime the dungeons are setup with lots of shortcuts to unlock as you go so that it's relatively easy to go back and resume where you left off the next time. Again, if you like all of these games, that combined system together would make you love it. However, if you only like one of these genres you will find the game lacking. Personally, I feel that they should have saved this story for a mainline final fantasy game. If they tore out the farming mechanics or at least made the farm entirely optional and made the game play like a mainstream final fantasy game it would have had a greater appeal to a wider audience. I also feel that if they took the core of the story away from the farming elements they could have expanded the story a great deal. I really do hope they revisit these concepts for later games at least. --- Slight Spoiler --- Near the end of the game you are given a choice. That choice will take you between two endings. It's a choice of who lives and who dies. However, although the game tries to steer you into picking one, and tries to trick you, if you walk away from the choice you can unlock the true ending. --- Major Spoiler Below this Line --- Where in the world of "Final Fantasy 7" the idea is that technology is evil while magic is the life of the world; contrasted by the world of "Final Fantasy 8" where the idea is that magic is evil and technology is good, in this game the world and all the magic within it was created by advanced technology. The subject of AI is approached in multiple ways. Some destructive to humanity, others helpful, but there is a real life commentary here. The AI makes it's decisions based on how best to achieve the goals given to it by humans. In one case an AI chose to destroy an entire world because it was told to grant the collective wishes of humanity - and humanity as a whole had grown to dislike the world. Meanwhile another AI chose to create an entire world because when it was tasked with saving humanity it determined that it would be easier to build a new world over the span of thousands of years rather than save the old one. This feels like a real life commentary on both the danger and value in AI. In real life AI has done many things that humans did not expect because of this. There's much more to the story with stunning visuals and music that help with that narrative. Sometimes I like to just sit there, with the game running, and enjoy the views. Read more

I was excited for this game from the time I first found out about it. Closer to/after release I saw a good bit of negative feedback and was worried it wouldn’t be as enjoyable as I had hoped. For this reason, I felt compelled to leave a review because I absolutely love the game and I have completed the game outside of finishing up some optional content. Some aspects that others mention can be pros or cons depending how you look at it. First, as I personally had hoped when I first saw this one, this game is very story focused and farming is additional icing on the cake. It takes a bit of a back burner but it is still necessary. There are things implemented that making the more tedious aspects of farming sims less so. Personally this makes it more enjoyable for me. Secondly, there are character/party member quests that help flesh out important people but you don’t have to do the whole run around and talk to 20 people every single day to increase your bond. These quests aren’t super long and there is an incentive for completing them. Again personally I find this a pro, others may not. A third thing I would like to mention is that this is one of the few games I have actually completed every single side quest and actually enjoyed their content instead of skipping through and moving on to kill 20 of these or harvest 10 of that etc. Graphics wise, I wasn’t bothered here either though I have seen it listed as a con. No it’s not super amazing graphics, but none in this genre are so I don’t quite get this complaint. I enjoyed the art style and adored the different environments. I do wish that there was a bit more to do after completion and/or some dlc but this is a first step into this genre for them. Usually when I finish a game I am kind of over it and ready for it to be done even if it was a decent game. This one I simultaneously wanted to rush through for the story but also didn’t want to get to the end and be done. I don’t get some of the hate on the story I have seen as well. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it just kept getting better and better to me. Some of the other things I have seen hated on are implemented in big names of the genre. Some of these were the few negative things for me but like I said typical of the genre. I got fed up paying the dr if I died or passed out pushing the clock. And it was annoying to be close to reaching the story point/save point but having to warp home to not pass out. But these were minor nuisances and not a huge issues. They have it set up relatively well not be messed up too much by these mechanics. Overall I found this to be a pretty awesome game and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I truly don’t understand some of the hate it’s received. That’s all I can think of right now and it’s already a long review so I’ll end here and edit if anything else comes to mind! Read more

If you’re having trouble starting this game, I implore you to stick to it. I did and I found that after a few hours, once you start to get to know the characters, it gets better and better. I personally love this game. I’m a grown adult woman who enjoys prgs, JRPGs and farm/life sim games as a way to relax before bed. But I do find some of them to be pretty boring, and this game hit that sweet spot for me. I looked forward every day to being able to come home and get back to expanding my farm and getting more areas explored. I also managed my expectations going in. It’s not a AAA title, but I have loved Square Enix’s games for years. I know that the first game in a new series will have some ups and downs, as I do think some things could be done more efficiently and that the story could be expanded upon more. I personally would love to see this turn into a series and see where the sequels could take it. I think there is a beautiful story and very, very entertaining game for people who love farming/life sims but also like a little more of a challenge as far as combat as well. If you liked Rune Factory games, Atelier Ryza or Sophie, I think you would really enjoy this game. I think it’s beautiful. I know some reviews on YouTube complained of the visuals being “fuzzy” but I found them dream-like and very calming and cozy, especially since I play before bed. I love this game and am in the midst of having an amazing playthrough. If anything absolutely awful comes up at the end and I change how I feel I will edit this review but as of now, this game is a very well deserved 5 stars. I have a hard time finding games that find that spot between too cozy/boring and too stressful/exciting. This is perfect, I love this and can’t wait to hopefully see more from this series. Read more