Harvestella is one of about ninety (haha, joking) farming sims launching on the Switch in the coming months, so naturally Sqaure Enix will be keen to show off more of the game and get the hype train rolling ahead of its official release on November 4th.
We've already been treated to a demo (and be sure to tell us what you think of it!), but Square Enix has now lifted the lid on a whole heap of features, focusing on the beautiful season of Summer and introducing us to a couple of new job classes, a new location, and some yummy food.
First up, we're given a peek at the new seaside town of Shatolla, where the residents support themselves through fishing before heading to the local tavern for booze and karaoke shenanigans. We're introduced to a character called 'Emo' (no, nothing to do with My Chemical Romance or any other band from that 'era'), who sings in the tavern to raise the spirits of local fishermen.
Elsewhere, Square Enix gives us a run down of two new jobs you can equip on your journey, each of which offering up new abilities and weapons during combat. The first of these is the 'Mechanic', which is proficient at dealing strong charge attacks to weaken enemies. The latter is called 'Woglinde', which lets you wield magic through song to support your teammates. Remember, recruiting someone with a new job will also allow the protagonist to equip said job!
Finally, we're given a glimpse at some of the delicious food you'll be producing during the Summer period. These include the Fishermen's Sandwich, Hop Juice, Shrimp and Mushroom Tapas, and Melting Chocolate Fondant. We're not going to lie, it's making us pretty hungry right now.
There's plenty more where that came from too, so be sure to check out Square Enix's official Harvestella website for more details on the upcoming game.
Will you be grabbing Harvestella when it launches later this year? Cook up a storm by letting us know in the comments!
[source square-enix-games.com]
Comments 21
There was such a massive amount of farmsims in the last Nintendo Direct, but of all of them, Harvestella seems to cater to most of my gaming needs and looks good to boot. I'm really hoping this game will be good, cause it was pretty much the only farmsim/RPG that I'd buy for a long time to come.
This is the only farming sim game coming out soon that I have any interest in. Not to be pessimistic but the majority of others featured in the Direct looked wayyy worse quality-wise. Even the ones made by Square.
@Pillowpants Try the demo!
@StarPoint There were more farming sims from SE in the Direct? But I agree this one looked the most interesting.
"summer period"
Does that mean this is an endless SIM game like Animal Crossing you just play forever? I thought it was going to be more of a traditional JRPG w/ farming. I don't think I have the time for another long term open ended game.
I wish this game didnt have the farming part. It looks great as a normal JRPG!
I'm extremely interested in this game. Unfortunately I don't know if I have time for another "big" game this year. Between Rune Factory 5 and Monster Hunter Rise I almost literally haven't played anything else in 2022 LOL
I don't really play farming sims, or very many JRPG's. The last Direct had a crud-ton of both, and most just feel like a dime a dozen to me. But maaaaaan, this game looks byoooootiful.
I probably won't get it, though, because I know this is exactly the sort of game I would buy and put like 10 hours into and think its pretty good, but ultimately drop it when something I'm more interested in comes out, and always think about how much I need to go back and finish it but never do because of my growing backlog, and when I do come back to it it's been so long that I decide to just start a new file, and then I get less far into the new file than I did the last time before I dropped the game originally, and...
Hey NL - can we get another pronunciation poll up please?
I need to know if that seaside town is pronounced SHA - TOLLA.
Or is it...
I'm mildly interested in this due to the potential of this Quitus/Season of death talk. I'll have to wait until the game is out for the details to know if it'll truly interest me, but a farming sim where preparation for some impending doom is the focus sounds much more interesting than perpetually expanding your farm for expansion's sake.
@rjejr There is an in-game calendar, but much of the demo was focused on traditional combat and dungeon crawling, so completing the story will likely be the main objective, while growing the farm will act as a secondary objective to support that goal.
For some reason this one didn't grab me as much as the remake of A Wonderful Life. The latter is my favorite Harvest Moon pre name change and while I don't love the art, I'm still excited to pick it up.
Harvestella feels very much like a Rune Factory type game, but I can't put my finger on what I don't love. I wasn't aware there was a demo though, so I'll have to go check that out.
@VGFreak1225 Thank you. That's what I first thought, but the word "season" got my attention. I wish I had never learned what GaS meant. 😝 And between Fortnite and Splatoon 3, well, I get enough of that. 😂
Do like this town though, reminded me of the opening of Chrono Cross. Who knows, maybe I'll give it a whirl when I finish XC3 someday.
@rjejr Don't worry, the clock doesn't move in real time. If anything, it seems like one of the most common criticisms I saw of the demo was that time passed too quickly, since traveling between the farm and the nearby town and combat environments sped it up. Didn't bother me all that much since actions that could be taken were still pretty limited this early, but your tastes may vary.
@VGFreak1225 I downloaded the demo but haven't played it yet, there were 2 or 3 PS5 demos that same week. And if the Switch was on Splatoon was on. I'll give it a try before making my decision though, thanks again.
Already got this preordered. So excited for it since it combines two of my favourite things, farm sim & RPG. I know there’s Rune Factory but those just don’t grab me the same way. I own Rune Factory 4 and just don’t play it.
I'm committed to work through the demo, but I doubt I will have time for the full version. I'm actually compelled so far, and I haven't played a farmsim/RPG since the first Rune Factory. I look forward to the review.
@Chocobo_Shepherd Same with me. All I've been playing recently is Genshin on my phone and XC3. So many games I want to get and play with so little time on my hands. I would probably wait for a sale on this one. Want to see more towns before committing.
I really liked the general vibe of Harvestella and where the story was going in the demo. I'm still a bit torn because the time management in the dungeons felt extremely stressful to me and combat could feel a little less clunky, especially with the way inputs and specials are handled. The bossfight towards the end of the demo felt a bit like the tools I was given didn't really allow me to outskill him, rather than just accept the damage I was taking and rely on having brought enough healing items, which I found a bit irritating. If the rest of the game is the same I'm not sure I want to play it as badly as I thought I did after the announcement.
The seaside town looks really pretty and is also giving me massive Chrono Cross vibes
From playing the demo I'd say the clock's time needs to be adjusted. Lets say you fix your farm in the morning. Then traveling to the dungeon takes away a big chunk of time. You can forget about shopping that day altogether. Then you get about 5 minutes to explore the dungeon before you are forced home at 6 pm. Maybe it's just me but I felt like I could barely get any progress done in one day.
I felt like I was playing Stardew Valley at 2x speed.
The visuals were too blurry for me. It played well enough and I liked what the demo had to offer, but it convinced me to grab it on Steam (Deck) in the future.
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