We’ve talked about Harvestella a few times now, and since there’s a demo out, I decided to give it a try.
I was intrigued by Harvestella before, but now I’m more interested than ever.
Going into the demo, I expected a farming sim where I’d be going out to fight monsters and gather materials, maybe with some story details related to Quietus (the season of death).
Instead, I got a lot more JRPG than farming.
Harvestella feels like it has a fairly strong emphasis on story. The story also went in some directions I didn’t expect even this early on, since I thought it was purely a fantasy story. I also found a note that made me wonder just how involved the lore of this game might be.
The farming aspect feels like it’s mainly there to earn money, with a nice little gameplay loop of buying or finding seeds to plant and grow more crops to sell. Progressing through the dungeon felt like the more important part of the gameplay – in part because the demo has a limited number of days and spends a lot of time gradually introducing new systems, so the balance might feel different once the game fully opens up.
Time passes quickly, and you need to get back home before midnight to rest for the next day. The quick passage of time bugged me a bit, but in general I felt the dungeon had shortcuts available readily enough that it wasn’t a big deal.
The one complaint I have is that you can’t dodge in combat. Combat feels somewhat basic in general, but the lack of a dodge button bothered me the most.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with the Harvestella demo and found the emphasis on story to be a pleasant surprise. I probably won’t pick up the game at launch, but it’s one I’ll definitely want to get eventually. Have you tried the Harvestella demo?
