From the time Harvestella was announced, I was excited for Square Enix’s answer to farming sims like Rune Factory and Story of Seasons. Square Enix could be considered the leading publisher and developer for RPGs and RPG-adjacent games, so seeing their spin on a genre I already like was nothing short of exciting. While Harvestella has a lot of good things going for it, there are some things that make Square Enix’s inexperience in this genre glaringly obvious.

Harvestella puts you in the role of a protagonist (default name Ein) who finds themselves in the village of Lethe with no memory of who they are. The world they are in is currently afflicted by a strange phenomenon called Quietus, which exists between each of the four seasons. It kills all crops and can have negative effects on the body. After getting caught out in the Quietus, your protagonist is saved by Cres, a doctor from Lethe Village.

Cres assists you in getting settled in the town, setting you up with a house on the edge of town and resources to farm. During your journey, you’ll manage your farm and try to solve the mystery of the Quietus and how it relates to the Seaslight crystals that govern the seasons. Truthfully, Harvestella is more of an action RPG than a farming sim though.

While you do spend time buying seeds, planting them, and selling produce, Harvestella also encourages you to spend time doing side quests, main quests, and exploration. There are dungeons, boss fights, and lots of combat as well. I wish these two systems wove together as well as other games that attempt this, but truth be told there are some issues.

One major issue is the day/night cycle. While all farming sims have a day/night cycle, Harvestella’s is frustratingly fast. The clock runs faster than most farming sims I’ve ever seen. Additionally, instead of having to be home by 2 AM like in Story of Seasons or Stardew Valley, if you are caught out after midnight you’ll pass out and be sent home.

The controls are also a little clunky in general, especially when swapping tools or dealing with your inventory. It isn’t exactly intuitive, though I do love that you can strafe and spray the watering can continuously to water the whole field instead of having to stop and start, watering each square separately.

In terms of combat, each member of your party (including Ein) has a job class. As you get closer to your allies and unlock new jobs for Ein to use, you’ll be able to fight tougher enemies and unleash all sorts of skills. The real-time combat is a little strange to get used to, especially with the odd controls for skills. Most skills are tied to holding ZR and then pressing various buttons, though you can switch jobs on the fly as needed.

Healing is connected to cooking, so you’ll need to be careful about cooking food and making drinks to keep your party healthy. Not only do you have health, but you also must worry about Stamina as well. There is a lot to juggle, but on that front, it feels somewhat easy to understand. The map on the other hand is not so simple.

I have a pet peeve about maps that don’t telegraph elevation well. Harvestella’s map is hard to read, because not only is your marker a yellow arrow on a white/grey background, but the subtle changes in shades of gray are somewhat hard to see. Lower elevations tend to be darker, but since the difference in shades is minimal it can get annoying.

Also, harvesting the gathering and mining points in dungeons takes time, as does cooking or crafting. For a time system that already moves alarmingly fast, this gets to be frustrating quickly. Harvestella prevents you from doing many things in a day just by making it hard to manage your time. In fact, there were sections where I had to end the day at 2 or 3 PM because I knew I didn’t really have time to do anything else.

Overall, I like Harvestella. The story is interesting, and some of the things it attempts with its farming and its party system are improvements. Party members stay with you all the time (unlike in Rune Factory) so you don’t have to hunt them down. Town environments and navigation can be difficult though, since many things look the same when you have a map that isn’t helpful.

If you like Square Enix action RPGs, Harvestella is another winner in a lot of ways. If you’re looking for a hardcore farming sim though, you’ll be disappointed. If you want to try something that straddles the line you might find Harvestella enjoyable, especially if you were intimidated by Rune Factory’s farming system.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Harvestella

$59.99 USD

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Great Story
• Interesting Combat and Party mechanics
• Few improvements to the Farming Genre
• Good for Farming-Sim newbies.

Cons

• Farming is simplified
• Controls are clunky
• In-Game time is way too fast
• Map/Navigation is annoying