HARVESTELLA

Every time I sat down to play it I ended up playing for like 6 hours. Had a good time. Game would have been drastically improved if they cut the last 30% of the story and made the last few dungeons just something to explore and learn about the world with a few bosses to fight instead of the crap fest the story ended on.

For me this game is hitting the perfect intersection of cozy farm sim with RPG action. It is a crying shame it didn't sell as many copies as the bigger titles. Perhaps that was a failure of marketing, I had never heard of it before! I would love to see this franchise developed further.

Harvestella is the quintessential example of the maxim of “More than the sum of its parts.” Each specific part of the game it self leaves something to be desired. Often these issues are even easy fixes but ultimately keep every specific part of the game one of the worst within its genre. Yet, I genuinely loved it, loved playing it, even as most of what I will say here sounds like me ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about it. Harvestella is sold on the idea that its Stardew valley with final fantasy like elements. This is totally untrue, the farming sim aspect is really secondary to the JRPG core. The farming itself can be astifying, the games crops are beautiful as is their meals and I will say if you invest time into any of the farm sim system it will pay dividens. This is no stardew in the sense of there being money traps like animals early on. If you invest in your farm it will pay back. However, strictly none of it is needed. A friend of mine barely farmed outside of paying for upgrades to their own player and the materials to make healing serums. No instead this is a JRPG with a farming system really loosely tacked on. The story barely addresses it, the story vibe and side quests feel less about meeting your community and relaxing on at the farm, instead it feels more like Nier Replicant but if the farming in that game was more expansive. This has its positives, it does something with its side quests that only really Nier and the Witcher I trust to really do, almost all of them follow evolving story lines with the same characters in problems related to your previous. Sometimes the writing is boring, sometimes its surprisingly meaningful, but usually it will invest you when you're on side quest 3 on a side quest chain. Honestly the Nier Replicant comparison is so apt it hurts. Both in its main story which is much more concerned with the secret scifi elements, which to be fair is the strong part of the narrative, than the low key farming world. Frustrating part is, the real time combat just isn’t good either. The game is in desperate need of a dedicated dodge button and mechanic, there is something like it for specific jobs, but it barely works and is super finicky. As is the hit boxes for enemy attacks, many are just, if they preform the animation, the damage is dealt. The mechanics are decided by smartly switching jobs, who your team mates are, and slamming juice when needed. All of that is decided at the start of the dungeon crawl, within it, its mindless. It reminds me of old mmo combat, but without the multiplayer aspect to keep its life going. Then there is the Cozy Town elements key to games like stardew valley are sadly stripped down. You get your party members whose stories can be really compelling (Dainthus, Aria, Emo) to horrendous (Istania, Brakka, Unicorn) and sadly the romance elements while the characters are compelling feels like an afterthought. The Town never gets to really be a character like in the genres cousins, and could do with tighter focus. Not to mention bugs, like despite trying for days never catching a single legendary fish, the weird AI bugs on the FEARS especially, whom seem to only notice, you and reset if you manage to have your companions tank for a few seconds. (Rendering my favorite class, Avenger, useless in the end game) Despite all of this, it comes together to be addictive and compelling in weird ways. Maybe its the beautiful look of the game, the compelling scifi elements. The Omen who are just kinda awesome in concept and execution, the whole second act of the game. It all just comes together and makes me smile. More than anything I wish this game could get a sequel to just tighten up things with small changes. Maybe set on Lost Gaia trying to recolonize it. Focus on the one town your making, add a dodge button to the combat. Have building up the town with your farm actually part of the point of getting up each day. Harvestella is good despite each part separated out failing, but failing in such redeemable ways it begs for a second try. Tragically, seems like this game is bound to be a forgotten game in its genre.

I really enjoyed Harvestella. I came in with low expectations because it seemed to me that it was Square Enix jumping on the cozy game train and this was just a cash grab. I was pleasantly surprised with how much effort they put into this game. I wouldn't really call it a "cozy" game because it revolves around a lot of combat and dungeons but the farming and cooking elements paired nicely. The combat is lacking due to it being action based but there isn't a good dodge action (they have a "step" action but it gets animation locked often), and there is no healing class so you just have to heal with items which you have to forage or cook. Speaking of classes, you can unlock several of them and choose between 3 during combat. It reminds me of FFXIV combat including telegraphed attacks and boss battles after dungeons and very FFXIV choir boss themes. This game really feels like a FFXIV "lite" with farming elements and I'm not mad about that becaue I love FFXIV. Theres a lot of throw away quests but the story is really good. The sound track was also nice, they reuse a lot of tracks but I never really got tired of hearing the same ones over again. Honestly this is a really solid game and I was on the fence about it for a while but I'm really glad I played it.

It's not a bad game but I don't think it's worth full price. The game does start really slow though, and doesn't really pick up until chapter 4 which can take a few hours.

Game is relaxing. Music is very well put together. Slow at the beginning now 33 hrs in :) its awesome.

This leans heavily on Square Enix combat and story telling so very engaging in those terms. It's not the best as far as a farming sim but certainly worth playing if you enjoy a complex story and unique characters.