HARVESTELLA

Square Enix's Spin on a Rune Factory Clone. it's severely lacking on several aspects (such as combat) & needs better character customization

This is once again a game where I wish we had a mixed review rating. The game does a lot right, but the more you play the more you'll notice a lot of its flaws. Certain mechanics that are fun at the beginning just feel like a chore later in the game. The best example is its main appeal, the farming. It takes quite a lot of time before you get sprinklers and upgrading your tools to cover more than one tile will only be available later in the game as well. I also feel like the game is kinda falsely marketed. Most people expect some kind of anime Stardew Valley with some RPG elements. However, this is game first and foremost a JRPG. While the farming is an important part of the game, most of your time will be spend repeating dungeons or clicking through dialogue. As I'm writing this review I've played ~50h and just finished chapter 7 out of 8/9. The reason why I'm writing this now and not once I have finished the game is that I don't even know if I'll finish it. EDIT: I just finished the game, mostly by brute forcing my way through the last chapter. Climax was kind of a let down, but at least I can put this game to rest. The story, while not being bad, is filled with a lot of cliches and it never really feels like there is anything at stake. Characters are different enough to care about them, but not that well written to a point, where you're bothered if one of them would be gone. The combat is probably one of its best aspects while also being one of its worst. The idea of different jobs (basically different classes) is kinda cool and mostly well executed. Sadly the combat cannot really shine due to a really clunky combat playstyle. You technically have a dash, but that hardly every matters as most non ground targeted attacks will hit you anyway. This leads to either camping range and letting your party members tank which makes the combat trivial or being melee and thus tanking hits and healing yourself with food all the time. Oh did I mention that you can jump? Yeah that's a thing... I almost forgot, because you use it like... never. I think after 50h there were maybe 2 or 3 sections where I actually used the jump button. Most things like stairs, fences etc. have invisible walls, so you cannot even jump down stairs. There is also a stamina system, because apparently every RPG nowadays needs one. I wouldn't even be too bothered about this as the game is kind of designed around it. You cannot (mostly) buy things like potions or anything to boost you stamina. You'll have to grow crops and make food yourself. HOWEVER, pretty much everything in this game cost stamina. Running, attacking, picking up gathering spots etc. I'd say if running wouldn't cost stamina it would be fine. Sadly running is by far the most stamina intensive activity in this game. If you're someone that likes to sprint everywhere because you feel like walking is too slow, you'll be eating non stop. Oh wait... you cannot even eat as much as you want. Eating will grant a certain amount of stamina and as long as your stomach isn't empty, you'll (VERY) slowly recover stamina. But once your stomach is full, you cannot eat anymore. This'll result in often times waiting for stamina to recover in order to continue whatever you're doing. Personally I already looked for mods to remove stamina consumption from sprinting, but it seems like the game is pretty much un-mod-able (all files are encrypted for whatever reason). The game is divided in your typical four seasons, tho I feel like they're either too long or the game is lacking content. I'm currently at the end of fall in year 1, cleared 7 out of 8/9 chapters and most side stories as well as completed all character stories. The game seems to be build to play at least 2 full years as there are things you likely won't be able to do in your year. I don't think the game actually needed seasons. The game has too much "farming" and too little "RPG" for what it wants to be. This isn't a game that you'll continue playing once you're done with the main story. There just isn't any appeal to it. After completing the story, side missions and character stories (which btw are 98% of the time dialogue only), it's mostly a pain to go for things like missing achievements. Despite all the negativity in my review, I did have a lot of fun at the beginning. For me I think after maybe ~30 hours I started to feel bored. I started only skimming a lot of dialogue as the games pacing can be quite off. Sometimes you play for like an hour with minimal dialogue and sometimes it locks you in in nearly 30min of pure dialogue without a way to quit without loosing progress. Overall I'd say there are a lot of good ideas here, but most of the seem half finished and not fully thought through. I probably wouldn't recommended the game, unless you are desperately looking for a JRPG and already played most well known ones. It also doesn't help that the game is a full price 60€ game and at most 50% off, while other great JRPGs like Persona 5, Atelier Ryza etc. are often times cheaper.

農業しながら世界を救いにも行くRPG。 動作が軽くロード時間も短いのは非常に好印象。 キーボード操作可。デモムービーの農業シーンで見られる操作のもっさり感はそのためだと思う。農具ではなく武器を持っているときは普通に動いてくれる。 ジャンル的にはルーンファクトリーみたいなもので、ビジュアルとBGMはゴッドイーター風味。 その風味のせいかアクションゲームの気分になってしまいがちだが、このゲームの戦闘はファンタシースターユニバースのそれに近く、移動と攻撃でほぼ殴り合うだけのシンプルなもの。ガードや回避は一切なく、回復手段はほぼアイテムのみで、その回復手段を調達するのに必要なのが農業やクラフト要素となっている。このゲームにアクションを求めるべきではない。 じゃあ何を求めてよいかと言うと、このゲームはやたらと[b]ストーリーが重厚 [/b]である。チルい農業ゲーだと思っていると大いに裏切られることになるだろう。一応、ストーリー進行を無視して農業に邁進することもできるし、クリア後の世界があるタイプのゲームなのでクリア後にどっぷり農業という手もある。季節の変わり目に来る「死季」で畑の作物が強制的に枯れてしまう仕様もあれど、そもそも作物は季節ごとに植え替えるので大した問題ではない。 個人的に面白かった点はメインストーリー。農業とはほぼ関係ない内容だったが、それはそれとして大変面白かった。面白くなかった点はサブクエ。移動と決定ボタンの繰り返しが99％で、話の内容は悪くないがノベルゲーみたいな時間が続いた。農業要素は単体ではそこまで面白いものでもないが、世界観やゲームシステムへの落とし込みはかなり良く出来ていると感じる。 アクションゲームをお求めの方以外にはかなりおすすめできるゲーム。 ちなみにキャラクリの幅は狭い。料理の画像がやたら美味しそう。結婚要素はクリア後にあるがそんなにメロい描写はない。台詞はフルボイスではないので、声を聞きたい人は接近時や戦闘中に聞き逃さないこと。

I have refunded this game after 1.5 hours. Just didn't feel like a quality game after playing. Maybe the game gets better but the bad combat system and boring daily life just didn't intrigue me to keep playing. [list][b]Pros [/b] [*]Good graphics, runs well over 60 FPS [/list] [list][b]Cons [/b] [*]No voice acting [*]Daily activities seemed repetitive and no life in the characters [*]Combat is just hack and slash. [*]Farming UI is clunky and buggy. Had issues swapping tools and planting. [/list]

I adore Stardew Valley and Final Fantasy. 1000's hours over many many years on them. So a farming RPG made by Squate Enix HAD to be great right?.......right? I know some people really like this game but I was massively disappointed. This is less of a farming game, more of an action rpg. The farming really just gives you the money and healing items to battle with. Disappointment number 1. The storyline, Graphics and music are generally fine. Not groundbreaking but nothing too egregious there. Dissapointment 2. Combat in this game is absolutely dire. You spam attack and special skills until the enemy dies. The whole time, you'll be spamming healing items because you cant dodge normal attacks. For big bosses, you can move out the way of some attacks whilst you wittle away at high health bars. Healing items don't scale with level so by the end, your inventory will be healing items....in a game where you need to collect things. Disappointment 3. People have already said the stamina system in this game is awful. It really is. No way to upgrade it other than bringing food. But you can only eat a limited amount of food. Everything is tied to stamina. Attacks. Farming. Picking up items. Running. It depletes so quickly it just becomes a total drain. Dissapointment 4. Side characters are incredibly annoying. The fairies saying "HELLO LITTLE CROPPIES" or "BAM" every time you do an action gets extremely annoying very very quickly. Like...whose idea was that? Dissapointment 5. Side quests are dull as bricks. Dialogue moves slowly and you need to click twice to move dialogue along. I ended up playing on my phone skipping through it all as it took ages to get through it. Quests are 90% go to point a. Talk. Go to point b. Talk. Go to point c or d or e or even longer sometimes. Really poor quest design really. Overall, if you cant tell... disliked this a lot the base premise maybe has potential but I'm a completionist and I gave up in the end after forcing my way through as much as possible. Spite alone was why i beat the main story. Square Enix has made some truly legendary games in it's day. This definitely isn't one of the. Kid friendly? - Y NSFW? - N Gore? - N Microtransactions? - N --Steam deck compatibility-- *Perfect/Nearly perfect out the box - *Perfect after some tweaks - X *Runs fine without tweaks - *Runs fine after playing with settings- *Just about Playable, even after playing with settings- *Borderline unplayable; even on lowest and/or heavily modded settings- *This game cannot be played on Steam Deck- --{ Graphics }--- *Visual Masterpiece- *Beautiful- *Good- *Pretty at times - *Unremarkable but fine- x *Noticeably bad- *Either revoltingly ugly or a glitchy mess- ---{ Gameplay }--- *Sleep? Nah play this instead- *Just a really great game to play- *A fun experience - *Some bad bits but fun overall- *Bang average- *Good bits but lots of bad bits- *Rubbish gameplay, unfun or a dull experience - X *This game so bad I made a voodoo doll of it- ---{ Audio }--- *They should win a Grammy for this- *Very good to listen to- *Good- *Meh-X *Bad and annoying- *Play on mute- ---{ Storage Size }--- *Floppy Disk- *Negligible- *Notable but fine -x *Problematic- *Delete everything then install- *Did i download the whole internet- ---{ Difficulty }--- *Just press "X"- *Easy- *Some challenge in places - *Starting to get tricky-X *Difficult- *You will rage quit at how hard this is- ---{ Grind }--- *Zero grinding- *A little grind outside of main story- *A little grind overall- *Average grind level - *A little tedious at times- *Play with tv on to distract from grind-x *This game is a chore- ---{ Game Story }--- *Worse than Game of Thrones finale- *No Story- *Some lore- *A beginning middle and end-X *A good/fun story- *Would make a good tv show- *Oscar winner- ---{ Game Time }--- *Hour or two tops- *Short- *Average- *Long- X *A epic saga- *It never ends...- ---{ Bugs }--- *I encountered zero bugs-X *Minor bugs, easily swatted- *Some irritating bugs - *Bugs becoming a problem- *Borderline unplayable- *This game is broken- ---{ ? / 10 }--- (A 10/10 game is a genre-defining game which will stand the test of time. A 5/10 is a perfectly serviceable and okay game, not bad but unremarkable. A 1/10 truly is awful and should cost people their job.) 1 [Worst game of all time?]- 2 [Dumpster fire]- 3 [A bad game]- X 4 [Some good but mostly bad]- 5 [An average experience] - 6 [Fun at times]- 7 [A good game]- 8 [A great game]- 9 [Game of the Year]- 10 [Genre defining GOAT game-

Harvestella is a game with some notable strengths, but ultimately, it falls short in ways that make its steep $59.99 price tag difficult to justify. Let’s start with the positives. Visually, the game is stunning. The graphics, while reminiscent of the PS3/Xbox 360 era or perhaps the Nintendo Switch, are undeniably pretty, especially during the cutscenes. The vibrant, artistic design does create a visually immersive experience, even if it feels a bit dated. However, the negatives begin to pile up quickly. While I bought the game on sale, and would recommend others do the same if they’re interested, I can’t imagine paying full price for it. At $59.99, Harvestella does not deliver the kind of high-quality experience I expect from games at this price point. There are numerous other titles at similar or lower price points that achieve what Harvestella aims to do, and they do it better. One major drawback is the complete absence of voice acting. Normally, this wouldn’t bother me, but for the price, the lack of audio depth feels like a significant missed opportunity. Even having voice acting for the cutscenes would have made the experience more engaging. This lack of polish in the audio department undermines the game’s overall presentation. Speaking of polish, the graphics—while lovely—feel better suited to older console generations. On top of this, the gameplay on mouse and keyboard is a nightmare. It’s evident that the game wasn’t designed with PC players in mind, and this lack of optimization makes an already underwhelming experience even more frustrating. Another disappointment is the lack of character customization. While not every game needs a robust customization system, Harvestella’s lack of one feels like another area where it falls short of expectations for its price. Character customization would have been a small but meaningful way to add personality and player agency. Ultimately, I didn’t make it far into the game before I decided it just wasn’t worth continuing. Harvestella may have its audience, but I’m not part of it. If you’re considering this game, wait for a sale and go in with tempered expectations. There’s potential here, but it’s not fully realized, and the high price only highlights its flaws rather than its strengths.

只有2星的游戏（如果满分是5星），表现实在差劲。 我是看其他人评价里说剧情怎么怎么优秀……说哪怕画面是15年前的水平，说哪怕全程没配音，说哪怕种植模块一般，冒险部分一般，但是剧情和音乐好啊！我…就信了OTL。 事实证明，我还是太天真了。 剧情不说平平无奇吧，也只能说乏善可陈。 原来是真的——画面稀烂、没配音、种植制作单调枯燥、冒险打怪无聊重复。音乐也只是像音乐系学生勉强凑合之作，别说和那些有震撼人心添彩加分的游戏配乐比，就是和网络游戏比也差了一大截。剧情是老套至极的主角拯救世界的冒险故事，连最后的剧情反转，都透露着敷衍。 整部作品就是在有限预算下，一群工作人员勉强自己例行完成老板任务的敷衍作品。 我是很认真的花了很多时间通关了这个游戏后，给的评测。

Ok, so while I do recommend this game, I don't like every aspect of it. Positives: - Story Content - Am a big fan of the story itself. There is a lot of character depth that builds over time. - Farming - Fishing Negatives - Story Progression / Pace - The story is written in a way to make it feel like you need to rush to the next objective as quickly as possible. - Post release development - nothing was done or will be done to fix any of the bugs in this game. Nothing will be expanded on. No end game content will be added. The story is what it is and that's the end of it. - Post Game Content - There is none.