Harvestella is available now on Nintendo Switch! Is it worth buying? Full review
Hey everyone Xeon over here from Nintendo life and today we’re here to Share with you our review of harvest Stella on the Nintendo switch now this Review was originally written by Mitch Vogel for nintendalllife.com but was Reworked into this video by me [Music] It feels like games are generally cast Into either the indie or AAA categories Regardless of their genre Square Enix Has been a major publisher that’s Notably been pushing back against this Dichotomy by putting out several games That are smaller in scope than something Like the Final Fantasy VII remake series But these games still have higher Production values than a budget Indie Title games like the Dio field Chronicle Or the voice of cards Trilogy have Filled this Niche well and now square is Doing it again with Harvest Stella built By many as the company’s attempt at the Rune Factory formula this farming Sim Action RPG hybrid does a solid job of Merging two very different genres into a Cohesive experience it’s far from Perfect but this feels like a very solid Foundation that will hopefully be built Upon in the future harvestella takes Place in a world ruled by four Giant Crystals called Seas lights that govern The passing of the Four Seasons some Undisclosed amount of time before the
Story begins the Seas lights start to Act strangely and introduce a new one Day season that the residents come to Call quietus or the season of death During quietus an evil death dust fills The air and anything living that Ventures outside will die upon contact With the dust well except for your Conveniently amnesiac character who Wakes up on the ground outside in a Village during quietus after somehow Surviving the locals let you stay in a Shed on the edge of town while you Recover your memory and you soon start To try your hand at farming because why Not right yep you gotta eat somehow Eventually you get caught up in a grand Quest to investigate the Sea’s light’s Disturbance and hopefully learn more About where you came from it’s not Exactly an Innovative story but it does Take some interesting twists and overall Feels satisfying to get caught up in Importantly it goes beyond the standard Grandpa died and left you his farm kind Of Storytelling that you get in your Average farming Sim it doesn’t Necessarily get in the way of your Farming either especially since there Are actual story reasons for you to keep Planting and harvesting and it helps to Give the cast more of a collective goal Than simply existing in the same sleepy Village together having us save the
World from destruction plot does Sometimes feel at odds with the more Deliberate relaxed pace of a farming Game but we felt that it worked well in The long run gameplay and harvest Ella Strikes an interesting balance between Its two genre components it doesn’t Tackle either of them better than many Pure farming Sim or pure action RPG Titles yet its unique method of merging The two together produces something That’s remarkably satisfying anyway on The Farm Sims side of the gameplay Loop All the expected elements are here each Season lasts for 30 calendar days and The clock is always ticking which pushes You to prioritize chores and tasks you Want to accomplish each day you have to Be diligent with things like watering And regularly reseeding your fields to Get the most out of them while the crops You can plant change by the season later On you can also unlock the ability to House Livestock on your farm netting you Important animal Goods like milk and Eggs as long as you remember to feed and Love your animals to keep you on task And give you an idea of how you should Be progressing once things start to open Up after your first few hours you’re Given access to a book that contains Dozens of small objectives like Harvesting a specific number of a given Crop or cooking certain dishes if you
Knock out enough of these you’ll trigger Another reward that UPS your farming Ability in some way such as letting you Prepare more sections of a field at once Or raising the level of your farm to Increase the chances of high quality the Crops growing though we would have Appreciated the ability to Target Rewards better if there’s a specific Tool you’d like to upgrade you have to Simply wait until the game decides to Make it the next available reward but we Still enjoyed that feeling of making Constant progress every day regardless Of what we were doing it’s nice to be Intrinsically rewarded for doing the Things you would already be doing around The farm and each upgrade feels like a Meaningful Improvement to your Proficiency all of the expected elements From a farming simulator are present and Correct but we feel harvestella is a Little unambitious in how it implements This half of the core gameplay Loop the Farming gameplay is satisfying yeah but It’s quite simple and while Harvest Stella doesn’t feel like it’s missing Anything you’d expect from a game like This it also doesn’t really throw Anything else new into the mix to take More advantage of the potential of its Heavier focus on RPG elements given how The farming fits into the bigger pick Picture we ultimately felt this simpler
Take was justified but those of you who Were hoping Harvest Stella would focus More strongly on the harvesting maybe Rather disappointed it’s certainly good In this regard but not great the other Half of the gameplay design follows a More traditional action RPG setup which It does a decent if unspectacular job of Executing your party will travel between Plenty of towns each with their own Unique Quest chains NPCs food dishes and Crops and eventually we’ll end up diving Into a dungeon or two just beyond the City limits these dungeons take quite a Bit of inspiration from the labyrinths Featured in The etrian Odyssey series as You slowly draw out your map create Helpful shortcuts to expedite return Trips analyze and avoid the pathways of High-level enemies and participate in Brief decision events that potentially Help or harm your party it’s rare that You can tackle the whole of a dungeon in A single in-game day so you’ll become Relatively familiar you’re with the Kinds of treasures and enemies you can Find in one as you make slow progress Over the course of a few days combat is Real time and follows basic hack and Slash rules while encouraging party Cooperation and usage of all the tools At your disposal enemies have weaknesses To various elements or attack types and Your character has up to three equipped
Jobs at a time that they can swap Between to give them options your party Members will just do their thing Regardless while you have an array of Active skills you can use to exploit Weaknesses and put down enemies swiftly Though every job Feels Like It Ultimately relies a little too heavily On button mashing we appreciated how Each one was given its own feel the Assault Savant class for example relies On its ability to rapidly switch the Elemental effect of your basic attack While the Mage class focuses more on Slow and long distance attacks that pack Quite a punch it’s not a combat system That’ll give the likes of yeast or Bayonetta a run for their money but it Does a better job than Rune Factory at Making combat fun our main complaint Here is that defensive options are slim Some classes eventually unlock a near Useless quick Dash but some kind of Block would have gone a long way here Things get a little more involved when You get to the boss fights where you can Break your foes by hitting them Repeatedly with one of their Elemental Weaknesses in the break State your enemy Will take more damage for a limited time And they can even be double broken if You manage to stack up another one of Their weaknesses before their first Break gauge fully depletes if you’ve
Sufficiently raised your relationship With the active members of your party You can even use this double brake Window as an opportunity to trigger a Flashy team attack that really brings The pain though it would have been nice If this added mechanical depth in boss Fights extended to typical trash mob Fights as well we also understand that There’s a big difference between the two Though most groups of norm normal Enemies go down in a matter of seconds And aren’t meant to hold you up for long On your Expeditions while bosses usually Take a few minutes and maybe a few Retries even before they submit Successfully putting down enemies will Accrue experience that is added to your Character when they go to bed at the end Of the day while winning battles will Also gain you job points that you can Then invest in the skill trees for each Job these aren’t too complicated nor do They take all that long to finish but Each tree still satisfies by offering You new attacks and helpful stat boosts That will make that class that much more Useful when you switch to it in battle We would have liked to have seen these Skill trees fleshed out a bit more so You could better Define your character But given that combat is a relatively Small part of the overall experience it Makes sense that the skill trees were
Kept simple when you aren’t busy out Saving the world or sweating in your Fields you’ll probably be spending most Of your time interacting with the social Side of the towns here you can pick up Side quests that are typical fetch Quest Stuff but are made much more interesting In how they’re each given meaningful Little stories that take steps to flesh Out the town they take place in one Early line of side quests Builds on the Subplot of a group of three little kids Struggling to come to terms with one of Them moving away because of a parent’s New job another focuses on a runaway boy Developing a close connection with a Robot because he feels he doesn’t get Enough attention at home stories like These may not have much bearing on the Main plot but they do a great job of Adding texture to each place you visit And give each side quest more meaning Than simply being a simple one-off chore You’re handed by a nameless NPC Eventually side quests will be opened up For your various party members and some Named NPCs and progressing these will Not only deepen the character’s Backstory but it’ll also raise your Friendship with them as well not only Does this allow you to to eventually ask Them to come live with you as your Partner but each step of closeness will Unlock small passive stat boosts that
Benefit the party in battle we Appreciated the kind of synergy present In this as you’re given compelling Reasons on both the gameplay and story Fronts to do these quests when you can Now as for the presentation Harvest Stella features strong art Direction Though the execution sometimes feels Like it’s being held back by the Hardware there’s a certain otherworldly Charm to The Soaring Crystal structures Looming in the distance and we quite Enjoyed how each dungeon is given Different color palettes and thematic Value whether you’re rooting around a Plain old Green Forest a village Positively soaked in cherry blossom Petals or the overgrown Urban ruins of a Modern day City there’s lots of variety To be found in the locales special Mention also needs to be made for the Art in the character portraits during Dialogue each character is hand drawn in Striking detail that we wish was more Evident in the rest of the visuals it’s Clear that the developers had a very Distinctive kind of look in mind as they Built harvestella and while you get a Good sense of that Vision in the final Product it does feel like it’s being Held back by the switch Hardware the Main problem with this lies with the Resolution which simply feels too low in Either docked or handheld modes which we
Suspect won’t be an issue in the PC Version while the UI and menus seem to Run at a higher resolution all the Environments and character models have Quite fuzzy and soft edges to them Couple this with awkward character Animations and intermittent frame rate Hiccups and harvestella feels like a Game that could have either used more Optimization time or would be better Suited to being played on stronger Hardware some consideration is due that Harvest Stella was designed from the Very beginning as a double a game that Would be lower budget and more limited In scope than Square’s bigger projects But it’s tough to deny that there are Some parts of harvestella that look like A 3DS game and not in a good way luckily The sound design fares a little better Than the visuals as it sets It generally Relaxing and cozy tone that feels Perfect for the overall Pace that Harvest Stella moves at acoustic guitars Woodwinds and pianos are all par for the Chorus with the soundtrack here and While things kick up a notch when you Get into battles we would still describe This soundtrack as being pretty chill And there is some voice acting present Although it’s never featured in actual Dialogue sequences and only awkwardly Plays at random when you’re out in the Field we’re not really sure why Square
Would go to the effort of recording Voices if it planned for such Half-hearted implementation but at least It helps to add a little more variety to The soundscape Foreign Could be described as one of the best Good games you’ll play this year its Performance issues and rather simplistic Mechanics hold it back from being great But it’s Quest design dungeon Exploration and successful Fusion of Very distinct gameplay mechanics make it Quite compelling all the same that Launch day 60 price tag feels a little High for what’s on offer here but this Is absolutely a title that we’d Recommend farming Sim fans by when the Inevitable sale starts to crop up Harvest Ella may not be a challenger to Stardew Valley’s Crown but it does Enough to distinguish itself as a Worthwhile experience anyway We here at Nintendo life give Harvest Stella on the Nintendo switch a 7 out of 10. now if you’d like to check out our Full written review you can find that Along with more coverage on harvest Stella over at nintendolife.com and of Course let us know in the comments down Below where your feelings lie on harvest Stella are you planning on picking up The game have you already did you know There’s a demo that you can download and
You can play the game right now for free Let us know what you learned in this Video and share something in the Comments down below and of course if you Enjoyed this video and you want to see More videos like this then why don’t you Go ahead and raise that subscribe button Like a crop by giving it a good old Click and then ring that notification Bell to send it in the barn for the Night I mean um to be notified whenever We put up a new video thank you all so Much for watching and thank you to Mitch For spending so much time with Harvestella I’m xan for Nintendo life Stay safe out there and we will see you All next time [Music] Oh what [Music] [Applause] [Music]
