A review of the interesting mix between Harvestella, farming simulation and JRPG

This 2022 Harvestella represents part of the new route. Square Enix ostensibly in terms of the publisher of minor titles, but in reality it is definitely evident in the gaming profile. If it’s true that the Japanese giant enumerates strong intellectual traits in its video game panorama, it’s also true to say that under the same umbrella an endless line of products lives on, with more modest media value, albeit characterized as real and pulsating. spirit.

Harvestella stands as another link in a fairly simple-to-read chain: Square Enix differentiates its production profoundly and entrusts software that can be described as “Single-A” with the task of representing the many talents that live together, perhaps overshadowed by the clouds. media inside. the famous “JRPG House”. We are facing a JRPG farming simulation, one of the category links based on experienced writers to blend species without betraying the central core.

Let’s see if Square-Enix did well in our experiment. Harvestella review.

Amnesia and armored aliens

L’narrative beginning certainly not the most original, but it serves as an introduction: created with a very plain editorial, our hero wakes up in a village with no memory in the middle of an all-killing phenomenon known as Quietus that happens between seasons. meets. It takes very little time to reach the first village where you can get to know the characters you will chat with in the first parts of the adventure and discover that the meteorite fell a short distance away. Being evil and responsible del Quietus by the villagers. Omen emerges as a girl from the future, with little memory, but determined to find out how the crystal near the village, called Sea Light, has anything to do with her personal story.

Harvestella is definitely a very, very JRPG starter, quite slow in execution. especially the rhythmic rhythmexperienced with frequent narrative pauses (such as frequent sleeping). It takes a while for the story to kick into gear: imagine if we counted 5 hours to get to the first half boss with the plot’s first – quite simple – dungeon and still being in the middle of the emotion. long tutorial. Chances are, you’ll explore everything the game has to offer before ten hours, much longer than the average.

However, the time spent has a non-trivial meaning: the seraphic calm of the narrative allows us to deepen and breathe the rather peculiar atmosphere of Harvestella. stylistic mix Between Bravely Default and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. The reference to fairy tales is evident thanks to a delicate palette, fairy tale settings and pre-sleep story situations that are constantly polluted by the awareness of an underlying discomfort to the setting given by Quietus. Rare air exists in villages and cities, in dungeons, in the outside world (not the open world) that connects the environments, all marked by the passage of time that regulates some of the routines and needs of the characters, in the middle. night to sleep.

Harvestella’s is a plot that taps into a number of elements that can be attributed to the present. environmental themerespect for difference and pollution, certainly not among the most charismatic ever, but with a cast of characters who can easily accompany a world that does not shy away from its own mystery.

walking around the field

If we want to cut Harvestella into pieces, farm simulator it is definitely the biggest: the basic logic is that commanding the main character takes effort, and restoring the energy you need to eat is to fill the stomach. If we can’t feed ourselves, we will have to give up running, running, and many other basic things.

However, why deprive yourself of the pleasure of cultivating your own field in the central center in a beautiful forest with land for plow and bread and ponds for fishing? The essence of Harvestella’s most simulated game is to constantly plant, sell the crop, search for more important seeds, fish, timber, metal, etc. is dedicated to collecting. Not to mention all the parts that are more accurately connected with creation, whether it’s the dishes, appliances, or other things in the kitchen.

Let’s not talk about one Gameplay complex, yet simple, it was rewarding at its core and aimed to keep us afloat in dungeons. Despite a slow start here, it will progress in a way that proves the sense of progress in this chapter is fun. There will come a point where you will have a fairy book, a huge to-do list to get rewards, and you will constantly upgrade your money factory and become a farming machine. Of course, don’t expect anything particularly complicated: the simulation section is an addition to the JRPG component, an extra to have fun, relax and get money and items in the main section, an extra to progress through the real role-playing section.

Harvestella, on the other hand, does not shine in the part about it. life simulation in villages: the characters are very static in the same places and the emotion gives the typical JRPG feel where everyone is waiting for us exactly where they are all the time, without giving the idea of ​​a village in action. cute instead friendship systemto deepen connections with specific quests and gain access to weird objects and stat boosts.

War Principles

The other part is the JRPG action one where you can get into battle scenarios with enemies in sight. real time war, skills and shortcuts. Again, Harvestella offers a meal with the ingredients you’d expect, but their development and management is highly simplified and not multi-layered. Aside from a generally somewhat anonymous fight flow, the somewhat knowledgable dungeon structure benefits greatly from a list of JRPG cliches that seem to want to speak to those playing a few.

It intervenes to support a system. Job and skill distinguishing structures, basic weaknesses and trying to shuffle cards with special moves. Everything, attention, it works too, the important thing is to approach it knowing the intensity of the offer. Square-Enix opted for a bland approach to upgrading weapons and creating an AI-controlled team, powered by the usual mechanism, almost wanting to fill the combat system with a sweet, muffled air. Knowing who the publisher is, seeing the rather short stretch of each Job’s trees makes you smile, once again a symptom of the publisher’s desire to talk to those less experienced, perhaps less accustomed to JRPG action.

in each dungeon As it’s hard to do this in a single game day, you can expect to teleport back initially and then sleep: so it becomes more of a shortcut hunt in a landscape that still manages to stay. dignified in artistic profile. Speaking of precisely the technique, it is clear that the proposal is compatible with a smaller production: models, textures, resolution, frame rates are all elements within the average, they do not shine or even bother. Of course, it is reasonable to expect much more from the Nintendo Switch, which is now used as an excuse rather than a console to be exploited. In portable mode as in fixed mode, the resolution is unfortunately quite low and there is a noticeable difference. refinement between the interface and the game, which makes some scenes a bit blurry. Considering that animations are absolutely nothing complicated and artificial intelligence does not offer who knows what advanced management, we believe it will need a little more time to optimize everything. Thumbs up instead movie soundtrackA very ingenious combination of fairy tale and reality, well packaged and inspired on the wings of a dreamy atmosphere in keeping with Harvestella’s sentiments.