Update #2 [Thu 5th Aug, 2021 00:55 BST]: You might find this hard to believe, but Monster Harvest has been delayed for the third time in a row.
Merge Games and Maple Powered Games are now promising the upcoming farming sim meets critter collecter adventure will arrive on 31st August, across all platforms - including the Nintendo Switch.
Here's a message from the team, explaining why the game has been delayed again:
We know you'll be disappointed and we do not take these decisions lightly. There was one final development hurdle to jump over that didn't quite work out and pushing back a little was necessary to deliver exactly what we want players to experience. There's a wonderful community that has sprouted up around Monster Harvest and we absolutely want to do right by the community, even when it means making what could be a disappointing decision.
The Steam demo is still there and available to play! Your progress in the demo will carry over to the full game, though you may want to consider starting fresh and taking advantage of any improvements and fixes added by that point.
Thank you so much for the continued support and your patience as we make sure Planimal Point is ready for your arrival!
Update #1 [Tue 8th Jun, 2021 00:55 BST]: Following on from the original delay, pushing the game from May to a July release, Monster Harvest has now been delayed again. Its physical and digital release will now arrive on 19th August.
The developer Maple Powered Games has shared the following statement, explaining how it wants the game to ship in the "best shape possible":
“Delays are awful, we are sorry to let down our friends and fans, yet we want to make sure we dispatch Monster Harvest in the best shape possible so that our whole community will enjoy it. We realized how important it is to ensure high-quality support for as many regions as possible right from launch day, even if that means having to push back our release date by just over a month. We are shipping the game by August 19th, with no further days and it’ll be worth it when we show what we have in store for you.”
Original story [Fri 23rd Apr, 2021 00:55 BST]: Game delays have become increasingly common over the past year, and today, publisher Merge Games is adding another one to the pile of releases that won't make it on time.
Yes, for everyone looking forward to Monster Harvest's arrival next month on 13th May, the digital release of this Stardew Valley x Pokémon-style game has now been moved to 8th July. Physical versions have also been pushed back - with the North America release now arriving on 20th July, and the European launch following on 23rd July.
The reason behind this delay is apparently due to the "wonderful community feedback" during the beta:
"First, the bad news. The train to Planimal Point is slightly delayed and we have moved Monster Harvest back to July 8th. We ran a closed beta and had some wonderful feedback from our testers, but we made the decision that we wanted to increase the amount of content in the game for release based on that feedback. So whilst we’re very sorry to delay your trip to Planimal Point, the good news is that we’re extremely excited to bring you a game with some fantastic additions on release!
This additional content on release will include a dungeon minimap, variant dungeon rooms (with rare and unique encounters), unlockable Planimal attacks, more crop variations, new additions to town (including an overhaul to NPC's and relationships), expanded farm size, more structured goals and rewards and a new female character model.
For those that don't know, Monster Harvest is an action RPG where you grow, mutate and collect crops and then take them into battle. You can learn more about Monster Harvest in our previous post. Will you be able to hold out until July? Leave a comment down below.
[source store.steampowered.com, via twitter.com, nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 28
I am glad they are delaying the game and listening to fans and to the feed back from the testers vs rushing it out to make money.
Too many great looking Harvest Moon type of games coming out these days. Were it not such a crowded time for such games, I might be compelled to get this one. But instead, I'm waiting for Rune Factory 5, I really don't think anything else in the genre coming out on the next year or so is gonna measure up to it.
I don’t know if it’s already in the game, but I’d like a way to change the skin color. I’m still gonna buy the game and I’m not going to hold it against the devs if it’s not included. I just want to make my guy brown to match me. Here’s hoping. Either way, the game looks great and it’s a day one for me.
Such a vibrant, beautiful world but such a shoddy character model.
I'm sorry, I know I couldn't do better, I don't have the skill set. But this game just looks ugly. I really like pixel-art. I actually am in the minority of people who want things like Pokemon to return to that style.
But this isn't just pixel art. It looks like rushed, generic and lazy graphics. If this came out on Super Nintendo in the 90s I'd still say it looks ugly because it would have existed along gorgeous pixel art games like Super Mario World, the Final Fantasy and Fire Emblem games, etc.
There's paying homage to the styles of yesteryear. And then there's this...
Good call. Mayhap you'll have a better launch than Pioneers of Olive Town did.
I hope they scrap that weird cover art and do something more in line with how the game looks. I actually kinda want to try this game.
I actually like this art style. I hope the game is as fun as it looks.
This looks fun to me but I’m really surprised they can add that much content over a few months. I’m sure there will be all sorts of new bugs to squash with the additions. I’ll keep watching for this one and glad to see a physical option so close to the digital release.
Only 2 months? Not much of a delay at all! Especially when most delays are 6 months or more. Looking forward to the reviews.
Huh... What a shame... Looks like I won't get a chance to play it.
Well I hope everyone else enjoys it.
The idea sounds great, the presentation looks meh.
lol I didn't even know it was gonna be releasing so soon anyway, and that's coming from someone very interested in this game.
Think I can wait an extra month or two, let me check with my backlog...
backlog say's we cool, take your time.
This comment section is proof that there needed to be a delay, I think the game looks fine, but if there are people who thinks it needs a change then so be it. (The Cover art does look ugly tho)
To be honest - the one thing that puts me totally off of this game is that I don't want to play as this guy - the art suggest you play a boy but ingame it looks like an old dude with a beard.
@derdennis I think it's a customizable character like stardew.
The only issue is the title. It sounds as generic as those off brand board games. Otherwise is amazing
Wow, thanks for adding a new female character model- what an exciting feature! A little weird they didn’t add that until so late in the game
The cover art for the game looks like Wii shovelware.
This looks so much like Stardew Valley, it's not even funny.
such a cool idea but damn, so burnt out on that SV aesthetic, shame none of these games have any artistic identity of their own
@tr4shh Blame the budget.
@Heavyarms55 You don't have to apologise to make a judgment or even have an opinion on something you don't have special skills for. I've always found the "think you could do better?" argument extremely silly. As if you have to be a movie director to enjoy a movie or a 3-star chef to know that a restaurant sucks 🙄
I think the game looks ok, but the UI could be a little more polished.
Another delay despite being so close eh? We all know how the end result for that was thanks to Cyberpunk
I really respect their decision to not let the game ship in a bad or unfinished state- especially when so many choose to just fix it all in post via patches
When this game was first announced, they were 100% stealing some Stardew Valley sprites. They've altered them slightly, but these guys are thieves.
It looks mighty meh anyway.
I rather have a delay then constant buggy software. But if they are doing this because they screwup that isn't going to go well for them.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...