Harvestella (4th November 2022)

[Julius]

Xenotrowel Chronicles? 

Quote

Introducing a brand-new fantasy x life simulation RPG from Square Enix!

Through the changing seasons, explore an imaginative world, tend your crops, make new friends, face enemies in dynamic combat, and unravel the mystery of the season of death, Quietus.

HARVESTELLA is set to launch for Nintendo Switch and Steam on November 4th, 2022

 

Edited June 28, 2022 by Julius

[Dcubed]

This is literally just Rune Factory with the serial numbers filed off lol.

[Ashley]

My godmother is called Stella and I don't wish to harvest her.

I love the fact there's a character called Emo though.

[Jonnas]

So, did anybody try the demo? I feel like this game has been getting a lot of unfair criticism. It's not my genre, but I wanted to at least give it the fair shake it deserves. So I tried the demo yesterday and...mixed feelings:

• The scenery and art style look lovely. Character design as well, it's distinctive enough to be memorable, and detailed without being overbearing;
  • Except for the enemies, those looked different, but... not exactly good;
• Music is excellent and soothing;
• Plot was more intriguing than I expected. The writing was also pretty good (in a subdued way), most lines are doing something for either the setting or characterization;
• The combat is basic, and lacks a lot of oomph. Serviceable at best;
• The farming side of things feels like an afterthought, weirdly enough. Maybe it's just because of the start of the game. Controls were pretty snappy, at least;
• Sadly, the exploration side of the game is super clumsy. Your character can jump, but they meet invisible barriers everywhere. Loading times are very bothersome, and they happen very frequently (basically everytime you go through a door or entrance)... It's a shame, but at least the loading times
  • Another thing to compound this further: days go by incredibly fast. With that in mind, exploration is discouraged even further, when you could spend the day farming, fighting, or collecting loot.
• Finally, and this might be nitpicky, but there were a lot of segments where characters talk inside a room, they all leave in a hurry except for you. At this point, you get the prompt "LEAVE THE HOUSE" like two times, so you take control, move the character to the exit door... and the plot just continues from there. It feels incredibly clumsy, from the broken pacing, to the unnecessary prompts, to the quest marker hovering above the door... and the game did this all the time!

All in all, it feels like a lot of individual parts are pretty good in a vacuum, but it lacks the direction it needs for it to gel together. The high price doesn't help either.

Still, it's pretty promising in parts, so I might get it if it ever finds its way into an affordable price.

[darksnowman]

On 10/6/2022 at 11:54 PM, Jonnas said:

So, did anybody try the demo?

I might get it if it ever finds its way into an affordable price.

That's a fair assessment, Jonnas. Did you ever get this? I'm also partial to sending eShop demos to my Switch and played the demo too back before this game came out. It intrigued me enough as well that when I spotted it in Game for £18.44 I went ahead with the purchase and stuck it in the backlog. In an ongoing effort to whittle away at my unplayed Switch games, it's Harvestella's voice that came through clearest: unshelf me now! Say you'll never shelf me again!

First impressions of picking up with the full game are that, as expected, you carry on your save. However, there's no bonus from the demo. I actually stopped to look this up to make sure I hadn't missed an option.  

Searching for any discussion around here re: Harvestella, I came across this post of yours in the DQ III thread. I honestly couldn't remember if I'd went with a girl or boy for the main character. It looked like I'd just gone for the girl to avoid confusion... until characters clued me in otherwise through their dialogue.

I agree with you on the graphics and music. I'd forgot about the miniature style of the overworld—I find it very pleasing on the eye. In fact, I would have said it was from the DioField demo... maybe it's both. 

Not sure what to say about the plot as I don't really remember what the setup was other than you're an amnesiac. I'm surprised about the extent it encourages you to pursue the story though. I expected it to be pretty hands-off and just let you potter around your farm. Which it seems you're free to do if you can ignore the where to go next message in the top corner of the screen. There are benefits to pressing onwards as it has been how I've learned how to make Repair Kits, activate warp points and, incredibly, create a save file. 

There looks to be a decent amount of land around your house so I'm looking forward to finding out what I can do with it. So far, I can still just use the plot across from your front door. The action half of the game seems it may have a bit of depth to it. Combat lacks impact but you can change jobs, there's skill trees and you get party members and enemies have weaknesses to exploit, so there's something going on with it. I kind of like that your experience from the day gets added each night—it's fun to see if you're going to level up or not.

I've been keeping an eye on the in-game clock to get a feel for how much time it takes to do some things. It's not quite as restrictive as it first appeared but an Inverted Song of Time wouldn't go amiss either. Fishing can be a big time sink as you cast off and wait for something to bite.  And you better not pass out from death or late-night exhaustion as you'll start the next day late with a doctors fee to boot.

On 10/6/2022 at 11:54 PM, Jonnas said:

All in all, it feels like a lot of individual parts are pretty good in a vacuum, but it lacks the direction it needs for it to gel together.

Too early to say if it'll amount to more than the sum of it's parts but it's promising enough. 

I am most pleasantly surprised to post that there are shades of Etrian Odyssey to this. Like, you're best making sure you head out with the equivalent of an Ariadne Thread to get back home when you're in trouble/ out of time, there are shortcuts to help you get back where you were quicker next time out, then warp points, and FEAR enemies which seem like FOEs right down to having a map icon and specific movement patterns. 

[Jonnas]

On 4/20/2025 at 4:37 PM, darksnowman said:

That's a fair assessment, Jonnas. Did you ever get this?

I'm afraid not. Never really saw it at a heavily reduced price, and the truth is, my backlog is pretty stacked as it is My gaming hobby is practically on hiatus

Very nice to hear your impressions, though. I never really heard of this game again, either good or bad. It really went under the radar.

[Hero-of-Time]

24 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

 I never really heard of this game again, either good or bad. It really went under the radar.

It was the same as Various Daylife, which I played and enjoyed at the end of last year. 

S-E seem to mix things up every now and then but very rarely they get rewarded for it. I think it's why a lot of publishers play it safe now. The market is so saturated that many companies are probably thinking making such games is simply not worth the effort anymore.

[Jonnas]

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

It was the same as Various Daylife, which I played and enjoyed at the end of last year. 

S-E seem to mix things up every now and then but very rarely they get rewarded for it. I think it's why a lot of publishers play it safe now. The market is so saturated that many companies are probably thinking making such games is simply not worth the effort anymore.

To a certain extent, it's true... but the truth is that both of these games came out at a time where it felt like Square was just sending a bunch of mid-tier games to die, both in release timing and in price (I mean, they should only price a title like Harvestella as 60€ if they're set on convincing the audience that it is a top-tier production... but they clearly made no effort to do so)

Like, I feel like this debacle came about from developers at S-E finding a way to produce some humbler, mid-tier productions... and then the marketing/distribution teams completely fumbling it, because they literally have no idea how to market something that isn't AAA-tier.