Harvest Island

[b]Do. Not. Buy. This. Game.[/b] Three major problems: [b]1) The Ending.[/b] During the game, you play as Will - presumably meant to be a lovable, adventurous rascal whose annoying, little sister, Samantha, tags along beside him as they slowly unravel the mystery of the island they're living on. Once the player has gathered everything they need to get off the island, Will gets grabbed by the monster and Samantha runs to the boat they've made together and escapes. I'm not at all disappointed by this ending. If that's where it stopped. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. Samantha then gets dumped onto a new island, where she's chased by the monster that grabbed Will. After some shenanigans, she becomes exhausted and has to stop running. A small, cute demon comes up to her and... saves her. Yup, in the 11th hour, she gets a Disney sidekick to save her from the monster that was chasing her. And not even in some clever way where she has any agency at all. No. The cute, Disney demon just tells the other demon to leave Samantha alone. Nice. But that's not even the worse of it. As Samantha and her cute, new, demon Disney friend stares off towards a nearby city, where the cute, new, Disney demon friend is going to take Samantha, the most chilling, haunting words of the entire game takes place: To be continued...? Are you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ kidding me? WAIT. It gets WORSE. I know you're thinking NO WAY. But YES WAY IT DOES GET WORSE. We're then switched to another cut scene. It's of a bunker you've probably been to during the game, and it has a new character that's unknown to the player. The sprite work is different. The art work is kinda the same, but obviously "dated" (as in, it was one of the artists' earlier works.) The character goes through another cut scene which ends in an ADVERTISEMENT for one of YoBob's OTHER games which was in development hell even BEFORE Harvest Island. That's right. In 3 minutes, I was both SEQUEL BAITED AND ADVERTISED to for another game... in order to understand all of Harvest Island, I have two play TWO MORE GAMES? WHAT! (and as of 6/2/2025, YoBob seems to have NO intention have finishing Bound By Chains and it appears in my research, Harvest Island might have been a sort of "seed project" for this other game?? So you cannot even get the complete story.) Now I see there is another DLC for Harvest Island... for $5. From what I can tell, this DLC has four (maybe only three?) additional endings. (I think maybe the original ending was expanded.) But even if this DLC was AMAZING, it should NOT exist. There's no way someone should be charged $5 dollars just to get the end of the story they had bought for $20! (Sidenote: $20 for this game is probably a bit too much.) [b]2)YoBob doesn't understand the horror genre. As such, marketing for this game led to the wrong players getting the game into their hands, or damaged expectations[/b] Based on my research on the game, it appears that YoBob first developed the farming mechanics on this game and then went back and added the horror elements to make it stand out from Stardew Valley. It's very obvious that this is the case when you play through the game. The only "scary" thing in it are jumpscares, mostly animals bursting from bushes or things almost falling on you (no joke, probably around 6 things, like boulders or beams, almost fall on your head and kill you.) Reading through the development notes has YoBob talking a lot about the "game being totally scary now because I added a lot of jumpscares." Because of this, I quickly got numb to the "scary" parts of the story. However, after a while, you do go down into some bunkers, which atmospherically are a lot creepier and horrific than the "surface level" of the world. Here, YoBob still fails however. Because you walk into one room; it has blood on the walls. Writing "help" on the walls. Creepy, right? okay, go into another room. It has blood on the walls. "help" written in blood on the walls. Okay... now... repeat that 15 times. All of the "under surface" levels are either: caves with boulders falling down on you or bloody, dark rooms that you can't really see. It definitely suffered from the "Game Of Thrones" night vision problem - I couldn't tell what I was looking at to be scared! Not to mention once you do get the ending, you realize that all of these rooms you were looking at have nothing to do WITH THIS GAME --- it has to do with the advertisement of YoBob's OTHER GAME that he's not finishing. That's right - NONE OF THESE BUNKERS push forward the development of the story AT ALL other than to creep the player and the children out. Finally, because YoBob doesn't understand the horror genre, he doesn't know how to build tension. Except, it actually goes worse than that. YoBob actively un-tensions his own game at times. Here are the examples: YoBob put in a quality-of-life aspect called "Fast travel." It's actually one of the best parts of the game in terms of game play and how it does increase the QoL of the game. However, after I unlocked fast travel, I actually got stuck for a while because I forgot about a section of the map that I had gone to but couldn't explore because I lacked a tool. Because I could fast travel, there was no real reason to keep exploring, since I thought I had uncovered everything there (and on the fast travel map, there was no "fog of war" for that area.) Since the game is marketed as a FARMING game and not an EXPLORATION game, I thought I just needed to "collect" iron ore --- so I fast traveled and didn't explore and thus got stuck. Also, it kills all tension that's build after you encounter something horrific in the woods. After you encounter something scary in the woods, the fast travel doesn't lock, so you can still do it. Why wouldn't I fast travel through the woods to get back to my house, just for sake of ease? It's there, right? So, I fast travel, and it's a cute little world mini-map and it's just like do-do-do I'm walking along... not scared at all... because I know nothing can attack me on this mini-map -- and again because I'm on the mini-map I lose the ability to randomly encounter the scary, bloody things I CAN find in my exploration. As nice as it is, I don't understand why this fast traveling mechanic exists in a horror game (funnily enough, this fast travel system would probably be amazing in another game.) There are other horror-genre breaking aspects as well. Disney, demon friend. Animal friends in general. Dragon balls??? Keyblade??? What??? YoBob seems to think gross, gory things and jumpscares are the only parts of the horror genre, but the horror genre is so much more! For instance, a really failed opportunity: a lot of the game involves flicking lights on and the stage slowly being revealed. I kept WAITING and WAITING for something TRULY TRULY horrific to be unrevealed during those times. Nope. Just more wires and old tech. I think this game would have been better marketed as an exploration mystery with horror elements... because that's what it is. [b]3)The game fails at teaching you how to play it[/b] Most of Harvest Island's marketing is "Stardew Valley but Horror" but it's not. It's more like the Legend of Zelda series in the way the game asks you to explore. Exploration isn't too terrible in the game; there are times you have to go through areas that look blocked off (by trees, etc.) with no visual clues you can, and there are other times I felt really excited to have found something only to have found nothing at all. Apparently my review is too long: adding to comment

Ah yes… Spooky Dollar Store Stardew. My wife’s boyfriend says the horror aspect of the game is actually playing the game. He says this reminds him of an old Mel Brooks show called the Producers. Where they we're trying to make the worst play they could think of to get money. Except in this case they succeeded. Personally though… I enjoyed the hell out of it. Scary? No. Spooky? Yes. It has a good creepy plot in the background, and generally, you can take a lot of it at your own pace. It has a very Promised Neverland vibe, where you play as a young boy looking out for his younger sister while creepy stuff starts happening. The first one really takes you off guard, and from then on, you're scared to go anywhere because you know something bad is going to happen. I'm kind of jaded now because I've played so many games and I dont get surprised anymore. So it was nice to play a genre mix I haven’t played before and get addicted because I just needed to know the answer to the mystery. Not to spoil too much, but just know that you'll be grinding against the clock of impending doom and it just gets darker and darker after that. The farming is incredibly basic and the horror is merely spooky and ominous, not scary. There’s a few jump scares that really did get me though, but that’s about it. That being said, although the dialogue can be laborious, I think the art, music, relationships, and mysteries are actually worth sticking around for. I genuinely wanted to find out what was happening on the island. There are also a few unique mechanics that enrich the experience. There's tons of Easter eggs, like DBZ and One Piece, among others. Like, there are Raccoons named Don and Rigby. Most of the animals have Easter egg names. I really like it. And duuude/dette, the sounds/music is terrifyingly good. Like, when it storms, it literally sounds like the wind is whistling outside. Creepy. Very fun. I highly recommend it, but perhaps wait on a sale. 7/10

I want to enjoy this game. It's got a neat concept and cool assets and I'm intrigued to explore it. The level of inventory management is bad enough. The fact that if your inventory is full, and you pick something up, it just evaporates, is unbearable.

This is exactly the kind of game I was looking for a long time. Harvest Island is a combination of a farming sim with a horror-mystery adventure. You play as Will and Samantha, a pair of siblings that live with their father on an island. Everyday they have to make offerings to the gods to receive their blessings. In order to do this you have to take care of the farm, tenmd to crops and animals, collect their produce and offer them at one of the many statues that are around the island. The gods are however picky and each statue will have their own demands. As you bring offerings, the demands will increase over time, which means you have to expand the farm. Every offering you give will give you "bless" a mixture between a blessing and a currency. Bless can be exchanged for seeds and animals with the gods or you can spend it to craft various tools and upgrades that increase your efficency on the farm and allow you to produce more. As the demands of the gods grow, so does their generiosity, so you don't have to worry about running out of bless. You even get bless from just doing your daily chores like feeding animals or collecting crops. You can also ask directly for a blessing from the gods. These act as permanent upgrades for your character, this can be something simple like befriending animals faster or getting more crops and can be even be somesthing amazing like redudcing the stamina cost of all tools to 1. Since these blessings last the entire game, it's advised to finish the requirements for them as fast as possible. Since the demands of gods change over time you are encouraged to explore more and more of the island to find new resources. This on the other hand will start the mystery plot of the game. Very soon you will find out that there is something incredibly wrong with the island. You constantly find dead animals, god statues appear in places where they make no sense, you find several abandoned structures even though you are the only humans on the island. It is clear that something has happened in the past and the more you ask your dad, the more he will make excuses. It is up to the player if he wants to dive deeper into the mystery and find out what is going on but you might not like what you will find. And between all the exploring you still have to do your daily tasks and satisfy the gods. The game makes sure that solving the mystery and doing your farm work are both intertwined. In order to explore more of the island you will have to craft new tools but doing so requires more bless, so you have to satisfy the gods to get more. It's surprisingly well done and doesn't feel tacky at all. The farming mechanics are well done and are fun and after a long day of exploration it's nice to just chill and take care of the farm. It's a great contrast in which the horrors you will experience get soothed from the relaxing farm work. A core mechanic of the game is cooking. Cooking is essential to progress because running takes stamina and even if you don't run, just progressing through your day will increase fatigue, which reduces max stamina until the next day. You can cook food to counter this, cooked food regains stamina and even reduces fatigue. Even better, the first time you eat a new dish you also get a permanent max stamina boost, so it's recommended to cook as many different dishes as possible. This is another nice mechanic to encourage exploration for more resources. Another fun thing about the game is that it makes use of a tide mechanic. During low tide you can explore more of the beach and find crabss, seaweed and other stuff. It also opens up new regions for you to explore. High tide on the other side allows you to fish which is important to fulfill god offerings. And one thing I have to say that is positive is that the fishing minigame does not suck. I really hate fishing minigames in video games but this one is very nice, you just havbe to tap the directional keys in the right order. Despite all the good points, there are several things I didn't like. For one, this game was done in RPG Maker. Everyone who has played RPGM games knows that the engine is... not very good. It's easy to use but VERY restricted which you can feel here too even though the game has expanded far beyond the usal RPGM mechanics. The performance is also not the best, be ready for stuttering especially if you open or close the menu or worse, when it rains. But these are restrictions from an engine perspective, there are however some game elements that are bad too. For one, the game LOVES jumpscares. A little too much. These can appear at random moments and even in situations that have nothing to do with the plot. For example sometimes wild animals will jump out of the forest or a tree might fall down with a loud noise. The first few times it was okay to keep the atmosphere tense but eventually it got annoying because it happened on every corner. And the game does not even need those, there are enough scary moments that kept me on my toes like suddenly finding a dead animal. There are also some minor annoyances like the game not having a clock so you don't know the exact game time but these were never too bad like the stuff I mentioned before. Still, I constantly wanted to keep playing because the game is so much fun. Just the farming aspect is nice on its own but solving the mystery is what really drives the player to put more time into it and I don't regret that. And despite how I make it sound, the game is overall very chill, you never feel pressured to fulfill the demands of the gods, you can take your time to finish your tasks even if it takes more than one day. This a is a huge plus for me. So for everyone who wants a farming game that's a bit different, I cannot recommend this game enough.

DON'T BUY. I was enjoying the style of the game and getting into the story when I realised the fishing minigame was essential to moving the storyline forward. If you're not very good at quick time events you will not be able to fish and there's no alternative way to obtain fish. In Stardew Valley you can buy and trade fish, or skip it altogether and unlock the game via the Jojamart system instead of the Community Centre, meaning you pay large sums of money instead of collecting all the fish, ores, crops etc. This game has no way to progress if you're not perfect at QTEs (tics, meds that cause trembling, just not being good at games, confusion with controller/keyboard all being reasons you'll fail). I no longer have any interest in the game or its story and wish I'd saved my money. Don't buy.

Now THIS is how you make a HORROR GAME! You lure someone in with the cozy Stardew Valley vibe, then sucker punch them with Mad Father! I am LOSING my ever-loving marbles over this! My mind is blown and my heart is in teenty-tiny little pieces on the floor. Just...man, if you want a dark mindfrick of a game, this is so it. I recommend it if you want to be screaming "No no no no NO!!" at your screen. Go ahead. Get attached to anything or anyone in this game. I DARE you. This dev knows how to make freaking horror, man. My heart was in my throat for an hour, and I got so freaking hooked, I should have been in bed three hours ago, but the deeper I dove into this game, the more addicted I was. This game will rip your heart out, but it's honestly one of the best horror games I've played in ages. I have not yelled at my screen so much over any game since...probably when Corpse Party and The Witch's House were fresh on the gaming scene. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go hug a cat. The rest of you - GO PLAY THIS GAME!!!

This is a wonderful game! I know it is tagged as 'horror', but it is more on the 'eerie' side. There were a few parts that got a jumpscare out of me, but I am a bit of a push over. However, it was very unsettling in a wonderful way. The story is just addicting. I played the entire game and then went back and played almost all of it again. The story is just so interesting. The endings are great. It is really a wonderful game, I'm so shocked that it's not as popular. It is worth playing for the story alone. The gameplay is pretty cute and typical of a farming sim with an interesting mechanic that makes it unique from other farming sims I've played and I've played a lot of farming sims. I did run into a bug with one of the animals. I posted on the community board and they fixed it right away! It was amazing. You can really tell the developer really cares about the game, which is always lovely to see. My ONLY complaint is the chickens! There are too many! They all have collision so I keep running into them and then get them confused when trying to feed them. Lmao, but even that was entertaining for me. I really loved playing this game and it is well priced. I highly highly highly recommend giving it a try because the story alone was so good!

Everyone that likes Stardew Valley and/or slowburn horror should play this. It deserves to be WAY more popular than it is! I've played so many horror games, but it is rare for me to experience such a fear response. My biggest issue is the lack of a map... I have a bad memory for locations, and the directions to areas are frequently a maze. I spent a long time wandering. Overall, play this game!

*IMPORTANT NOTE: This game is still in active development, so any issues I mention might be addressed in future updates.* [h1]What is it?[/h1] Harvest Island is an RPG Maker horror game in the same vein as classics like Mad Father and Corpse Party, but instead of progressing the game by solving puzzles or finding keys, you progress the game by playing a simple, yet still enjoyable, farming sim. [h1]Things I Loved:[/h1] [h2]Wonderfully Creepy Atmosphere[/h2] The best part of this game is the fun contrast between the bright, cheery farming portions of the game and darker more twisted story portions. The sound design does a lot to back this up, and I especially love how the art style subtly changes went you enter the more sinister hidden parts of the island. [h2]Heartfelt Sibling Relationship[/h2] The heart of this game's story is the wholesome relationship between Will and his sister Samantha. Their dynamic feels true to real life: They tease each other and have fights, but when things really get tough they are always there for each other. It's lovely. [h2]Masterful Level Design[/h2] Both the farm and island are extremely well laid-out and fun to explore! The map is simple enough to keep you from getting lost, yet it still has lots of tucked away nooks, hidden passages, and strange things to discover! The fast travel system is also extremely unique! [h1]Things That Bothered Me:[/h1] [h2]Pay-to-see Endings[/h2] By far my biggest complaint with this game is that the alternate endings are locked behind a paid DLC. I understand why the developer did this - new endings require a lot of new artwork and making and/or commissioning art is one of the most expensive parts of making a RPG Maker game. But the alternate endings are so vital to understanding and enjoying the game's overall story that I really think they should be part of the base game, even if that makes the base game more expensive. [h2]Lingering Bugs[/h2] I did encounter a few bugs during my playthrough. There was nothing game-breaking, but several of them were annoying. The worst bug was that once or twice my crops simply stopped growing and I had to destroy and replant them. There were also some text glitches in the UI. [h2]Predictable Story[/h2] Because this game wears its inspirations on its sleeve, it's really easy to see where the game is going. While it was still fun to watch the story unfold, the big late game "twist" was not surprising at all. [h1]Content Warning![/h1] This game has some pretty gnarly depictions of dead / mutilated animals both wild and domestic. I normally wouldn't mention something like this, but this game kinda takes it to an extreme, so watch out if you a sensitive to that kind of thing. [h1]Final Notes:[/h1] I beat the game and got all achievements in about 30 hours. Overall I enjoyed this game! The farming was relaxing, and the spooky vibes were perfect for Halloween. You can tell that the developer put a lot of love into the game, but it sadly still feels a bit amateurish and unpolished. However, I still think the good far outweighs the bad. If you love RPG Maker horror games and/or farming sims, I'd say give it a try!

Super Spiel! Die Charaktere und die Zeichnungen sind sehr liebevoll gemacht und man schließt sie direkt ins Herz <3. Die Entwicklung der Geschwister hat mir auch sehr gefallen. Das Gameplay macht Spaß und die Geschichte ist spannend. Wer eingefleischter Horror Liebhaber und Kritiker ist kommt hier glaube ich nicht auf seine Kosten, aber ich fand es oftmals ziemlich gruselig und hatte manches mal Angst weiter zu gehen oder bestimmte Aktionen durchzuführen. Es ist auf jeden Fall spannend und mysteriös. Ich habe es bis jetzt nur einmal durchgespielt und bin schon mega gespannt auf die alternativen Enden bei meinen weiteren Runs.