HARVESTELLA

This is one of those games that's a "meh" at best. There's a lot to it, so it has that going for it, however, it's trying to be a mix between an ARPG and a farming sim....and it falls short and leaves you wanting in both regards. EVERYONES and i mean absolutely everyones story is sad, and depressing and just leads to miserable time playing it. I want to play farming sims for cosy feels, to escape the miseries of an already crappy world. Not with this game though, for some reason you have to take every burden, sadness and pain as your own, no matter how small. It's exhausting and leaves you exiting the game feeling worse than when you first opened it. Even the gameplay loop isn't really very satisfying. Combat is janky, if you're fighting one of the large powerful creatures and move one step too many, it will just de-spawn and re-spawn back at full life, even if it's only a hit away from being killed. One of them couldn't get around one of my party members to hit me and just kept repeatedly de and re spawning until i stood directly on it and let it beat away at me. Character customisation is pretty much non existent, there are some minimal choices but nothing that makes any difference. I feel like if you can pick this up for next to nothing in a sale and you're in to incredibly miserable and sad experiences and have the urge to play an underwhelming ARPG or a bad farming sim, then go for it. You'll get a fair few hours out of it, they won't be happy hours....and you'll probably hate yourself more for wasting so much of your life on it. But you do you ;)

Surprised me with a genuinely compelling story (despite the slow start) and a solid OST that shines in key moments, especially during boss fights. The farming sim aspect didn't have as much impact as I thought, I barely had to grind besides planting whatever seeds I was receiving for free to be able to sustain myself with foods and upgrade my weapons to a decent level. It serves more like a side activity than a core gameplay loop. Combat felt clunky, definitely wouldn't recomment this game if you're looking for interesting combat system. Some bosses have fun mechanics and that's all, the fact that you get locked in every attack animation while enemies can freely hit you a thousand times doesn't feel right. It's obviously designed so players make use of the cooking + eating food features but still it could have been done better. If you're in it for the narrative and atmosphere, there's definitely something here, but don’t expect a smooth or satisfying combat experience.

Its ok... Not worth $60. - Farming and crafting is nowhere near as deep as rune factory. No meaningful automation... becomes a chore later in the game. - UNSKIPABLE dialogue even on side quests. While the writing is ok. This brings the replay value down to zero. - No dodging or blocking in combat. You just take hits and use consumables. - Spell casting time is way too long.

I bought this game because of the beautiful graphics and the fact that it's tagged as a farming sim. I absolutely love farming sims for when I just want to relax. I've played many and this is anything but. The fights, especially boss fights, are not relaxing or cozy in any way. My first boss fight was so difficult, it literally gave me a headache. I wish this game offered different difficulty settings or was made to be more like an actual farming sim. I really want to experience the story but I'll probably have to put this down. I feel to call this a farming sim is misleading. I want to recommend this game but I can't. Especially for the people who want a cozy game, like me.

通关了，姑且给推荐吧...这游戏属于典型的优点极其突出缺点也极其突出，所以喜欢的特别喜欢，不喜欢的也一定特别不喜欢...在这里简单说下感想，也算是给犹豫要不要尝试的人一点借鉴... 游戏整体上并不属于真正意义上的种田游戏，而应该算是有一定农耕畜牧玩法的冒险类JRPG，跟工作室系列有几分神似。游戏内的时间、日期、季节系统跟主线基本上完全相互独立，所以日常的玩法可以非常休闲，一天到晚只是收收菜、浇浇水、钓钓鱼、四处逛一逛也完全没问题，日常过程中所能完成的各种小目标本身也能提供不错的反馈感，相反一直全力推主线通关之后再种田其实也没啥大问题... 最大的亮点就是JRPG的内核之一——剧情。主线剧情的切入点、落脚点都比较新颖，每一个角色剧情、支线任务的人物关系、矛盾冲突、剧情推进都写的非常有看头，内涵的道理也都很有哲思，配合上优秀的配乐，让大段大段的剧情并不怎么感到枯燥。 另外除了建模之外的美术水平还是很不错的，人物立绘、概念设计和整体的美术风格都很不错，食物的立绘更是有香草社的神髓让人十指大动。 但问题也很明显，整体制作非常贫穷，简陋的建模、没有任何配音的剧情、死板而重复的动作动画等无不透露着贫穷...随之而来的就是在如此贫穷的制作下还非要做成动作游戏而带来的极度糟糕的战斗体验，称之为一坨都是对一坨的侮辱...完全为零的打击感，跟流畅一点都不沾边的操作手感，拍脑袋就来并且随意堆砌的战斗机制，以及相当糟糕的数值成长... 想象一下，一个游戏普攻和技能都有超长前后摇，期间无法移动也无法使用其他技能甚至没有StepCancel，攻击过程毫无连贯性可言...在此基础上，敌人会使用大量不明aoe，大多aoe的读条时间都比玩家的硬直以及异常状态的持续时间短，甚至有丝毫不讲道理的瞬发aoe...在此基础上，几乎没有任何受击倒地保护，如果被击倒在多个aoe中或者碰上脑残至极的止步眩晕等异常状态aoe连发就有可能瞬间蒸发...在此基础上，必杀技动画全程不能操作，但是开场和结尾竟然没有无敌帧，而且必杀技的实际生效时间是在动画结束之后，意味着不但不能拿必杀技抗技能，你甚至还得预判走位和技能轴来保证自己不会在动画结束时被敌人一巴掌蹦死...在此基础上，敌人大多还是多动症，不移动也不使用技能的时间极少，使得很多战斗过程中三分之一的时间在追boss，三分之一的时间在躲技能，六分之一的时间在补血，最后仅剩的那点时间才是输出时间...顺带的，如果不刻意刷装备，同级别的小怪一巴掌普攻能带走十分之一血上限，同级别的精英怪一巴掌普攻能带走四分之一到五分之一血上限，还有总伤害可能超过一半血上限的中毒状态，遑论各种不明aoe和各种技能...相对的，玩家如果没有拼命刷极品装备或者花大量金钱和时间刷强化，一个大招打在敌人身上可能都掉不了百分之几的血量...这种体验只能说是但凡脑子里有一丁点内容物都做不出这样灾难性的体验来形容... 所以整体上的受众个人认为还是比较明确的，喜欢JRPG的剧情、喜欢休闲的玩法、喜欢一边种田一边冒险、喜欢一定程度的刷刷刷，但是对战斗没有什么执念能打过就行，能接受相对廉价的制作，那还是能相当享受这个游戏的...但相反如果对于游戏的战斗体验比较看重，那还是不要折磨自己比较好...毕竟这游戏甚至连跳过剧情都做不到，就算能sl在反复尝试的体验上也只能说是无比糟糕...

Ok. If you're jonesing for a PS1 action RPG that pretends to have farming in it: get this at half off. For the reasons below: I couldn't see it through to the end. [list] [*]The hitboxes are just nonsense. Be prepared to face-tank everything and slam 9 juices down your throat during some of the later boss fights in an effort to keep the AI alive. [*]The progression is of time is WAY too aggressive. Walking across town from store-to-store, that you can SEE from the other store, takes like 40 minutes. Hell if you're on the world map OH LORDY every half eye blink is an hour. [*]The economy just doesn't exist in this game. You know how farming games are supposed to go, right? Raise crops, buy seeds, sell crops, buy bulk seeds, earn upgrades. Not in this game! Carrot seeds cost 100g each. Guess how much you earn from selling a carrot? 115g. You earn practically nothing after days of growing and the upgrades are 5k-50k depending. Your best bet is to earn side quest money or turn in dishes to inns. [*]The very first job unlock is mage. Congrats you're done with combat. The break system is so silly that you can get away with using fighter and mage for every single fight and only equip a third if you get bored. [*]The first two party members you get when advancing the spring town storyline can carry you through the whole game. Again you just need two melee units to facetank mobs do the absurd damage in this game and it takes them all of 10 seconds out of combat to respawn to full health. You'll rarely find a reason to bother switching up the party, especially with the gold and materials cost of catching all other members up. [*]Stamina never regens unless you have over 0 fullness in your belly, which means you will be starved for stamina/running/hunger the entire game. Because the crop economy is borked: you'll never have enough crops to use in dishes. This leads to a rare use of meals which are the source of bulk stamina. Enjoy eating berries sparingly to get 5 hunger back so your stamina regens and you can initiate combat so your AI allies know the monster is, in fact, not tickling your face. [*]The 4th chapter is titled something to the effect of, "fight for the fate of the world" and boy was I thrilled to be done. JK there are 6 more chapters afterwards. It's somehow only half of the game. [*]The AI for teammates is just FUBAR. Watch as they: attack terrain, forgot they were fighting and run back to you like a puppy, and swap the focus target on a dime. [*]The story and dialogue is just not interesting. The best that I can say is that it exists. Not horrible but you'll zone out probably 7 hours in. [*]It's 2024 and we don't have a skip cut scene OR an auto-text advance button. Absolutely unreal. I may have stuck with the game if I could skip the massive amounts of talking, but the fluff just proved to be an exercise in wrist integrity more than anything else. Oh and lord help you if you die to a boss and have to mash through to get back into the fight. [/list] It's a shame because all the bones for a great budget game are here: the character illustrations are nice, the music is relaxing, and the mechanics exist; but they're all horridly balanced or uninteresting. It's so close.

I received this as a birthday gift from my companion. Honestly, this game is slept on. To start with the not-so-great so you know I'm being fair: -When I first picked it up, I was a bit thrown off by the lack of voice acting outside of combat, but I've played Square Enix games since when they were still Square Soft, so it wasn't terribly off-putting. The main character's battle grunts, at least playing female, are a bit strange and kind of annoying. -There is a lot of animation clipping, and a lack of diverse animations, but I understand that not every game can have a large budget. The game runs smoothly to its credit, I've never experienced lag or seen any bugs, and that could be the benefit of using simple graphics. At least everything is crisp and not all grainy like Stranger of Paradise. I feel like I can't even complain after seeing that... -The controls around combat, I admit, are unusual. The dash button doesn't seem to stop you receiving damage even if you are out of the way. As an Elden Ring player, not my favorite. Dash in combat is only good for getting out of red area attacks. Because of that, I felt locked into the Mage job for most of my run just to keep distance. I've since found enjoyment with experimenting with cross jobs, but mostly because I've gotten stronger. However, Harvestella is a charming game if you can get over the less polished features. +I enjoyed the story and the designs are so adorable! A nice cozy feel, and you can do everything but manage crops at your own pace. +Even though I took a dig at the graphics earlier, I still vastly prefer it to Stardew Valley's 2d design, and I also like that how you interact with characters isn't time sensitive, also a 1up to SV, which overwhelmed me as a people pleaser. +It has many nostalgic references to other Square media: [spoiler] the chocobo's kweh, the little metallic chime when Sora lands after jumping, the motus monolites looking similar to Final Fantasy XIII's Cocoon crystal, a dynamic seemingly inspired to The Spirits Within, and even an event calling back to Chronotrigger I found rather entertaining.[/spoiler] +This game is also much bigger than I thought it would be; a few times I thought I was almost done, I would get sad and then, BOOM! New area open. [spoiler] A cutscene at the end made me think for a bit that there was even more game, but it was actually an allusion to a sequel.[/spoiler] +Even after the game is done, there is a bit of post game content, and you're free to keep your farm going as long as you like. I sincerely hope a sequel gets made, I really want to see more. I'm nearly done collecting achievements. This review is extremely long, and I apologize. I don't often write reviews in general, and I doubt many people will see it, but I hope the devs do. I really love what they've done here, it's a comforting farming game but with the traditional epic adventure style I've come to expect from Square. The homages are tasteful and not reliant; the game stands well on its own merits and it's really just beautiful. Truly the best of both worlds. If you like Kingdom Hearts: play this game. If you like Stardew Valley: play this game.

This definitely isnt a farming simulator, its a JRPG with farming sim bits and pieces thrown in. the game is, for a lack of better words, uninspired. To start with, the character creation is abysmally simple, with the player only allowed to basically recolor the character with no real customization. The characters seem very one dimensional, and heavily recycled especially the most common of "i can't remember anything' protagonist tropes, especially since i was nearly three hours in and not even out of the tutorial. The quests are an incredibly boring 'spend too long in an unskipable dialogue, go there, grab something, get interrupted half way back to quest giver with more dialogue, get back to quest giver for more dialogue' loop, with abysmal rewards as the cherry on top. And that isn't even going into how completely meaningless your dialogue options are, when you even get to chose a reply to something. As for the design, the music is alright, but all of the characters look the same, with the exception of the older ones. Also the lack of voice acting is pretty disappointing, especially since this is normally a 60$ game. (Full disclosure, i got it for 50% off during the farming sim sale steam offered, further leading to my disappointment that this is NOT a farming sim.) That being said, the farming is clunky and never once felt rewarding, only insultingly overly simplistic for something that was supposed to have more of a focus on it from first impressions. The fighting is also lackluster, to put it lightly, as all it is basically all through the tutorial is a three click combo, until you get a fire ability that at level four (the level i reached, somehow) still doesnt even do half a health bar of damage to a level one enemy. All in all, very disappointed with this game.