The Harvestella demo left me pumped.
I wanted to farm, to grow crops with my own (virtual) hands. I was excited.
The role-playing-game-cum-farming-simulator had a lot of promise and the first few hours had me hooked.
In fact, I was so hooked by the demo I redownloaded Stardew Valley to tide me over until the full game released. I had also come off the back of Xenoblade 3, a fantastic Japanese RPG.
This was a mistake. Stardew Valley is a great game. Xenoblade 3 is a great game. Harvestella is not.
In theory, the game is meant to combine the farming and RPG genres into a fun gameplay loop.
You grow crops to make into food, which buffs and heals you during combat.
However, instead of creating a yin-and-yang-type wholeness, what you get instead is yin and his awkward farming cousin. It feels like playing the gaming equivalent of 2-in-1 shampoo, a half-baked RPG with a farming system taped on to the side.
That would be fine, if the RPG side of things was any good. But it’s not. It’s exhausting.
A side quest in Harvestella looks like this.
Step 1: Talk to person.
Step 2: Walk to other side of town, talk to person.
Step 3: Walk to other side of town, talk to person.
Step 4: Wait until 7pm, talk to person.
Step 5: Go to different location on the map, talk to person.
Step 6: Quest complete.
It makes you feel so, so tired.
Every single one plays on some variation of this. Sometimes it will introduce a monster at the end or lead into another side quest of equal tedium, but it’s all so unfathomably mediocre.
I once got to a new town and found an unconscious lady laying face down on the beach with a quest mark over her head — and seriously considered just ignoring her, dreading the endless dialogue that was to come.
I physically felt my soul leave my body when I was dispatched to go and gather rumours from the locals (walk around and speak to three people) for the second time in the same quest.
The main quests, although sprinkled with interesting concepts, are not much better. Talk to a plethora of people, explore a dungeon, fight a boss.
Many characters aren’t even graced with an identity. Instead they are referred to only by title, like "Mayor", or the comically generic villain Landlord. He’s a landlord. And he's a villain!
Nobody is voiced outside of very rare overworld dialogue, but those actors are so poorly cast it’s often jarring to hear.
The blacksmith (named Smithy) appears to be a tough, middle-aged woman in her 3D model, but has the voice of a 90 year old. Another character I thought was a young girl turned out to speak in an extremely masculine tone. It’s all just so weird.
Some characters are fun, like the trio of kids in the main village, but their welcome is pushed to the limits with tedious quests.
The fishing minigame is truly one of the worst I’ve ever seen and the combat itself is so bare bones it is hardly worth mentioning. If you are a high-enough level, you can simply press attack on a creature until it dies. Special attacks with a cooldown do exist, but fighting was so unengaging I rarely bothered.
The enemy AI is stupid to the point of detriment. The boss battles are the only things that feel like a fun challenge.
The farming, on the other hand, feels like too much effort, with janky controls and awkward systems.
The core premise of Harvestella is good. The music is comfy. The world has unique and fun aspects. I like the weird time-travel, blending-worlds premise of the main plot is — it’s fun! There are things to like ... but it is just impossible to love any of it.
You will have a better RPG experience and a better farming experience with many other, cheaper games.
