HARVESTELLA

Absolutely amazing game and I couldn't stop putting it down once I started playing it. I was in that sort of phase where no game felt like fun and I just kept staring at my Steam library, looking for something to play, so I finally picked up this game after it's been sitting on my Wishlist for so long, and DAMN. It's been a long time since I was addicted to a game, actively wanting to play it every single day. I'm gonna give you a pros and cons list I guess, cause Harvestella is far from perfect, but the things it's good at it's REALLY good at. [h3]PROS:[/h3] - [b]The character (or rather Monster) design is PEAK.[/b] I am not necessarily talking about the NPCs (except for their clothing, which differs from town to town they are very similar looking) and human companions, they look nice, but not too much out of the ordinary from other RPGs. But man, the design of the bosses is AMAZING. The further you get in the game the cooler they become too! - [b]The story is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ AMAZING.[/b] It already starts off intriguing, but not too much out of the ordinary (which was also why I put off the game for so long), but after doing Chapter 3 it quickly shifts tone and just keeps getting more interesting. It reminds me a lot of NieR: Automata's story and how it felt to experience it. It takes you on a rollercoaster ride and drops lore bombshells left and right after like chapter 6(?) The game is also WAY longer than I expected. I finished the game after 75 hours and there's still content left - [b]The companions' side quests[/b] all start off pretty slow/lame but eventually [b]turn into incredible stories of their own[/b] (with the exception of some...). My personal favourite ones were Shrika's and Heine's stories, so I REALLY recommend to check those out - [b]The farming[/b] aspect of the game is very similar to other similar games, like Rune Factory and Stardew Valley. It does some stuff better and some stuff worse, but personally [b]I like it a lot.[/b] Either way, don't go into this game thinking that you'll JUST be farming and ignore the story. Harvestella is first and foremost an RPG WITH farming elements, not the other way around. - [b]The OST/Sound Track is AMAZING.[/b] Especially late game there are some bangers I absolutely adore. Something that's a bit sad though is the fact that some of the tracks you will only experience for like 30 minutes to an hour, maybe even less. For example, the very last region/dungeon you explore in the game [h3]CONS:[/h3] (Most cons are very surface level in my opinion, but there are a couple of exceptions) - Right from the start, [b]the character creation is... lacklustre.[/b] You can choose between Male, Female, and Non-Binary, which is actually pretty nice, but then when you select the actual character/look, they are all female. Why not just give us a female protagonist directly? It's kind of pointless to create your own character when it has no effect, but I digress. It didn't bother me too much personally - [b]The enemy variety is fairly limited.[/b] There are a lot of different enemies, don't get me wrong, but most of them are just re-colours and re-typings of the "standard" enemies you encounter at the beginning. I can see that being a turn-off for other people and I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit disappointed by that at times, but there ARE several enemy types that are exclusive to each region so it's not really too monotonous - [b]Graphically the game is a bit rough.[/b] The aesthetic and art direction of the game are incredible though, so you forget about that very quickly. The upside to this however is the fact that the game could run on a literal potato, which also explains why there are so few graphic settings to begin with. You don't really need them. The thing that annoyed me to the very end though are the animations for the characters. I am not talking about the fighting animations for the different Job's abilities, they are cool. I mean the regular animations that you see NPCs do for example. They look clunky and there's not a whole lot of variety, so sometimes the devs had to use animations that don't fully fit the mood of the conversation and it's just a weird experience. Meanwhile, the animations for every companions' special attack look sick, I just don't get it. - [b]Voice acting is... there?[/b] The game has voice acting but it's far and few between. There are not a whole bunch of lines and it's usually restricted to combat only. It's not bad voice acting, but it's very repetitive. HOWEVER, there's one specific line that Aria says near the end of the game, and if you know you know. That line gave me goosebumps, and even just thinking of it gives me goosebumps as well. I just wish there was more. Especially when it comes to the fairies when using their powers ._. It's giving Navi's "Hey listen" vibes. [h3]CONCLUSION:[/h3] I started picking this game up because I wanted a farming simulator game with an RPG on the side, like Stardew Valley, or even Rune Factory. What I got was an incredible RPG with farming. I wholeheartedly recommend this game. The PROS heavily outweigh the CONS in my opinion. The game keeps on getting better the more you play, I can't stress this enough. I am just sad that the first impressions of the game are so rough, cause it turns a lot of people away from the game.