Harvestella Review – Not Ready To Harvest

Developed by Live Wire and Square Enix, Harvestella is a JRPG, Farming Simulator that never quite hits any of its nails on the head. It tries to do a lot but just turns out to be a Jack of All trades and Master of Nothing.

Developer: Live Wire
Publisher: Square Enix
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC
Release Date: November 4th, 2022

What’s My Name Again?

Harvestella begins with our humble protagonist being awakened by an angelic figure. After some dialog, it’s revealed that our hero was experiencing a vision. You are woken up by a doctor who lives in a nearby town and it turns out you have amnesia. Your amnesia is blamed on “Quietus”, a phenomenon that occurs between seasons, withering crops and causing those who expose themselves to it to lose their memory. The mayor allows you to live at the nearby farm until you recover, however, before you can recover, a meteor lands in the town’s northern district.

After investigating the crystalized meteor’s impact site, you discover an armored figure inside of a futuristic structure much like a UFO. You put the mysterious person in the bed next to yours, who is eventually revealed to be your next best friend, Aria. A red-haired lass claiming to be from the future. Aria, your hero, and the friends they meet along the way help them investigate the “Seaslight”, which are important structures that control the world’s seasons.

I find it hard to discuss the game’s story, mainly because it’s painfully generic. No one you meet is particularly interesting, the plot is bare bones, and the villain is a generic mech-type of villain with boring aspirations of world destruction. Though there are some more interesting moments, the story just never manages to achieve anything worth mentioning. That’s honestly how I feel about the rest of the game as well.

Harvestella and the basics of combat:

The gameplay in Harvestella is best described as a “Jack of All Trades, Master of None”. Your goal is to save the world from a darkness that seeks to destroy the world. In your downtime, you grow crops, expand your farm and partake in side content. Harvestella doesn’t do any of that particularly well either.

Combat is slow and not that much fun. In my time with Harvestella, I found my favorite classes were those that specialized in ranged attacks. This was mainly due to the fact that your AI teammates aren’t very smart or aggressive. They only attack when you initiate combat and that puts the player as the enemy’s focused target. Using ranged attacks allowed me to put space between me, the enemies, and my teammates who oftentimes acted as my defenders.

The job system is one of the highlights of the Harvestella‘s combat system. Players can switch between three different jobs on the fly, allowing them to take advantage of enemies weaknesses. The Fighter job uses fire, Mage ice, and thunder, etc. Jobs can be leveled up by equipping them and fighting enemies. You don’t have to use them either, just equip them. Where melee jobs are concerned, I didn’t like the game’s lack of a solid dodge mechanic. Melee jobs do earn a dodge, but it feels like it barely works.

My favorite job was Lunamancer which is unlocked a bit later into the game. It worked a lot like the Mage, only it took advantage of gravitational attacks. The Lunamancer’s basic attack could be charged up, and its spells were often large-scale AOE’s that dished out massive damage. It just looks a little silly when equipped.

Farmin’, Side Questin’ and Friends

As in most farming sims, farming basically exists as a means to support the player and help them grow. However, where Harvestella is concerned, Farming feels more like a way to support you when you’re in dungeons. You get money, ingredients, and food, which work as healing items. Players can expand their farm to grow more crops, set up more structures, and craft more items and tools.

The game is full of side quests, which offer quite a bit of money and useful items. My biggest issue with the game’s side quests is that they’re quite boring. There is far too much dialogue involved with them, and you can’t skip their cutscenes. They also feel quite repetitive. Amnesia, lover’s quarrels, people wanting to see new towns, etc. Those situations happen far too much and too often.

Then there’s relationship building with your teammates. As a way to learn more about your companions, you will oftentimes travel to their homes and sit through lengthy cutscenes. They talk about the drama going on in their lives, and this will bring you closer together. These moments are worth doing as growing your relationships will earn party-wide boosts when they’re in your party. However, much like the side quests, they’re also super boring and not fun to do.

Traveling to Harvestella? See the Seaslight!

If you’re a JRPG connoisseur, then you’ll appreciate the art style in Harvestella. It’s got a simple aesthetic that is enhanced by little details such as the monolithic crystal structures that glow at night. Unfortunately, the art is held back by the Switch’s poor resolution. If you’re playing the game on steam, you can expect a much prettier view.

Harvestella sports a wonderful soundtrack but it lacks any voice acting aside from quips in combat. The lack of voice acting is one of the things that contributed to Harvestella’s chore-like feeling. It would have been nice if the story cutscenes were voice acted, but they’re not, and the story is painfully generic.

My largest issue with the game by far, however, is the lack of customization options. There’s only a handful of details you may select which consist of body type, skin type, and colors. No hair, no clothes, no facial features. Your clothing does change when swapping between jobs, but I still would have appreciated the ability to pick something.

Should You Buy Harvestella

At the start of Harvestella, I found myself having fun. However, as I progressed and unlocked more things to do, the game just became a chore. The side content isn’t fun, the story is generic, and farming feels uninspired.

It’s hard to recommend Harvestella to even the most hardcore fans of the genres it’s in. As far as being a JRPG goes, it’s not very interesting. Where the farming sim elements are concerned, the game just barely gets by. If anything, wait for a nice deep discount before picking this game up.

Review Disclosure Statement: Harvestella was bought and paid for by the reviewer for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info. 

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