Harvest Moon: One World, to summarise the next few hundred words of complaining, is a badly-paced, unattractive, hollow facsimile of a Harvest Moon game. And yes, we're well aware of the Natsume/XSEED schism, and that Story of Seasons is the "true" Harvest Moon game, but even still, how the mighty have fallen. Surely it can't be that hard to make a good farming game? Or at least a decent one? One World falls so short of "decent" that it's almost incredible how much they messed up a pretty simple formula.
Right, then. Let's begin. Harvest Moon: One World starts abruptly, spending very little time on story before kicking you into its sparse, flat world. The Harvest Goddess is missing, and everyone in the world has forgotten what vegetables are. However, you are a special, magical being, and by virtue of being so special and magical, you discover turnips (arguably far worse than potatoes) and begin your journey to restoring the world's agriculture, and, eventually, the Harvest Goddess.

There are six areas in the game, each one themed around a season, climate, and vague flavour of a particular country (like Finland, Germany, Hawaii, and Egypt), and you'll have to complete the story in each one to free the Harvest Spirit that represents their people, and move one step closer to finding the Harvest Goddess.
The game revolves around fetch quests. Villagers will send you letters, saying "get me 6 chickpeas" or "bring me 18 daisies", and it's up to you to grow and/or find what they need in order to advance the plot. These fetch quests will require that you find seeds, which is the game's main gimmick: you can no longer buy seeds in shops; instead, you have to find Harvest Wisps around the world, who will give you a single bag of seeds.
Back in games like Harvest Moon DS, finding the Harvest Sprites (as they were once called) was a matter of performing tasks and interacting with the world, unlocking each one by making progress in your tasks. In One World, the Wisps are little blue glowy dots in the world that you press 'A' next to, and they respawn every single day in exactly the same place.
Each Wisp will give you a seed – the same seed each time – which can be planted only in certain locations, and certain seasons. You will not be able to buy these seeds at the shops until you've shipped lots of that one crop, so if you need multiples, it's time to go back to that exact spot again for several days. Hope you love walking! The shops are pretty bloody useless for most of the game, selling practically nothing beyond animal feed and saplings, because apparently they also forgot how to have a functioning economy alongside forgetting how to farm.

Not that it matters too much anyway, because the currency is wonky as hell. It's so hard to make decent money, because although selling crops will net you a little bit of profit, someone will undoubtedly need 8 of them for a quest, and you'll have to spend a week gathering all the seeds again. The animal produce – eggs, milk, and wool – is easy enough to get, but is of one quality, no matter how much your animals like you, so there's little reason to interact with the animals beyond squeezing them until dairy comes out. What's more, some of the recipes cost up to 75,000 gold – that's as much as it costs to upgrade your house. For a recipe.
A horse costs at least 15,000 gold – a sum that's hard to make in the first two seasons – and you'll regret every second you don't have it, because One World's world is made up of loooong, winding corridors of nothingness leading to vast expanses of empty land, and – get this – walking takes stamina. Yeah. We passed out multiple times just from trying to get home at, like, 6pm.
The people that dwell in One World's various lands come in a few different flavours: dateable characters, of which there are ten; people who are related to said dateable characters; and a bunch of unnamed randoms, who bear titles like "Awkward Man" and "Excited Woman". These aren't one-off characters: they are persistent, and even give you quests. Good luck trying to figure out which of these NPCs is the "Friendly Man" who asked you for three eggs!

Lordy, we've written so many words on the bad parts of Harvest Moon: One World and we haven't even gotten to the farming bit properly. Surprise: it's bad! But not bad in a truly awful way, just uninspired, dull, and insultingly simple. This is a farming game in which your "farm" is reduced to a bunch of pre-set squares in pre-determined places that you can bounce between with the use of the Expando-Farm, an initially promising new mechanic that turns out to be just as lifeless as the rest of the game.
If you want to plant a range of vegetables, fruits, and flowers – which you'll need to, if you want to progress at all – then you'll have to spend hours of each in-game day either walking or fast-travelling to each individual farm, taking care of the crops, and going to the next place. Crops are split up into extremely specific types, so instead of "bell pepper", you'll have orange peppers, green peppers, and red peppers, despite those vegetables coming from the same plant in the real world. These mutations will happen whether you want them to or not – for example, planting potatoes in the mountains will always turn them into "Sigelinde", so if you're desperately trying to grow a bunch of potatoes for a request, you might have just wasted a bunch of seeds.

Some crops (and mutations, which is a core part of One World's gimmick) only grow in specific areas, like the top of a volcano, or a tiny meadow, but the fast-travel points are never anywhere near those farms, so you'll be doing a lot of walking even after you've unlocked the ability to teleport. Likewise, the mines – which are unnecessarily large areas with the occasional ore deposit, and no combat like in past games – are not close to fast-travel points, either.
We haven't even begun to mention the things that have been removed from the game in its time under Natsume. The most egregious of these – for our money, anyway – being the ability to have same-sex marriages. Not only is this an insult to the many, many fans of the series and genre who are under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, but it's a backwards, unnecessary denial of modern times. What's more, the character creator is unbelievably limited, restricting players to only a handful of lighter skin tones, and hair colours that include "lavender", "green", and "yellow", but not "red" or "grey". The outfit selection is not much better, and you don't even unlock them until very late in the game.

Add on other things like the inability to sell animals, the short romantic cutscenes, the lack of festivals (which are unlocked through befriending characters), the game progression that's locked behind dialogue that you have no way of knowing about, and the stripped-down shops and cafés that litter the land, and you're left feeling like this pared-down version of a farming game is little more than a minimum viable product.
Folks, we have no doubt that some of you will persevere, and find something to like about Harvest Moon: One World, and we're genuinely happy for you if you do. Finding joy in anything is a feat worth celebrating. But we could not find enjoyment in this game. It looks like a mobile game, and it plays like a Harvest Moon game in the same way that Farmville plays like a Harvest Moon game. It's soulless, vapid, and completely misunderstands what makes games like this charming. In a post-Stardew Valley era, there's no excuse for consistently missing the mark like this.

We wanted to write this piece post-marriage, but hopefully, you'll understand why we couldn't, in the end. At first, we were making steady progress, with our chosen future spouse at four and a half hearts out of five – usually a good sign – and we'd almost solved all of the problems that form the main plot of the game. But then we started wondering how long it would actually take to get a ring on our finger. We won't spoil it too much, but it turns out that you can't get married without spending 400,000+ gold, plus a ton of time in the mines, plus finishing the main story, plus unlocking all the tool upgrades, plus relying on the game's RNG and a long period of waiting for things to grow to get the rare materials that you need.
We just couldn't do it. We don't need to get married to know that this game is a dud. We had hopes. We really did. The Expando-Farm seemed cool, and there was evidence that the dialogue in One World might actually be better than Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town. But this game isn't even bad enough to be funny – it's just sad. It's disappointing, shallow, and sad.
Conclusion
If you're looking for the next Stardew Valley, this doesn't even come close. Harvest Moon: One World is a poor imitation of what the series once was, and it feels more like a rushed mobile game than a full-fledged Switch game. These games have always been about chores, but this one feels like a chore to play. In our opinion, your money is better spent on something that respects you as a fan of the genre.
Comments 69
MMMMMMM will pass on this and wait for TMNT shredders revenge I think!! Not only that, 3 out of 10 sounds pants!!
About what I expected after watching a few let’s plays. Still I hope Natsume figures it out. Competition is good.
Anxious for bokumono. Which looks better than initial complaints framed it as based on the let’s plays I have seen.
Edit: Didn’t know about the skin tone thing... insta-ban in my house then.
oof Harvest Moon going downhill, farming games just aren't what they used to be I'll stick to ACNH and Stardew Valley thank you
A thorough dismantling! I wouldn’t buy it regardless over them consciously choosing not to include same-sex marriage and then blaming it on Covid. Still, this game has been well and truly destroyed.

Man, it's kinda sad to see this series going downhill like this. Me and a relative had been wanting to try the series for a while now but with how the series has been getting worse and worse that's probably not going to happen anytime soon. Unfortunate.
When I had a Nintendo DS, my parents, who didn't know anything else about video games, would give me and my siblings shovelware gifts between Pokemon releases because they didn't know anything about games. The look of this game makes me feel like this definitely would've been one of those gifts.
Natsume have been doing the absolute minimum effort and hoping name recognition sells these games alone, it's kinda scummy.
They're spoiling the legacy of the Harvest Moon brand with bad shovelware.
Lmfao that first Con kills me
This looks atrocious! I feel sorry you had to review this awful game. I wasn't planning on getting it regardless, but it looks worse than I imagined. Glad to see Littlewood getting a much higher score than this.
I'll stick with Stardew Valley and The Animal Crossing Games,
I'll probably try out Story of Seasons (and it's past games when it was still called Harvest Moon.)
i'm honestly not shocked that it got a pretty low rating, i wish APPCI and Natsume has cooked this in the oven a little longer.
Why a 3/10? Sounds like a 2/10, if not a 1/10...
This idiot DID get married. And the events following made me uninstall the game after 70 hours. I married Gabrielle. We sleep in separate beds for some reason (which i can get over) and despite her cat being a big part in her life and looking like it was gonna move in as well it was nowhere to be seen but that's not the worst part...
The girl is a late riser so one day after being married i waited by her bed like a creeper seeing what time she woke up so i could speak with her, y'know as you do in all farming sims...
Nope. She just vanished from her bed, no walking animation or anything and returned to outside the house she lived in prior to marriage and what did she have to say?
'How is that request coming along?'
350k and not even the chance to speak with her in my home or even so much as share a meal with her, no difference whatsoever.
This was the last straw for me and was a massive middle finger for someone who was trying her best to enjoy the game despite its faults. Yesterday I may have said 3/10 was a bit low and it deserved just a little more because i did enjoy parts of it, but lol nope.
Edit: you were sane enough to not play long enough for your animals to die because they do, no matter how much you take care of them and in only one year as well.
A little surprising as I was reading better things about this. Shame really
It's pretty damn sad that I could enter a same-sex "joined union" in The Sims 2 in 2004, but a game in 2021 acts like LGBTQ+ folks don't even exist.
Kate, you are my hero!
Ugh. How come ONE GUY can make a better Harvest Moon than EITHER company can? I mean, come on!
Nate says "HEY YO, NO."
Here's hoping Rune Factory 5 will turn out better.
I feel like I’m alone in saying that I’ve really been enjoying my time with it. ;w;
@Phantom_Skye I was on track to marrying Braden, since he was the first available and easiest, so I was hoping to tick it off early for the review. Unfortunately, he sucks. So it wouldn't have been a happy marriage, anyway
And yeah, I didn't wait for my animals to die - I'm surprised and disappointed it only takes a year. WTF?!
@samuraicop spoilers for my review, but SoS: PoOt (hehe) is way better than this. My preview was fairly negative, but after playing HM:OW and spending a few more hours in the game, I've actually grown to like it a lot. It's still got problems, but it's at least decent.
@Low_ink My partner had to deal with me whining and wailing about this game for almost two weeks - he should get all the credit 😅
@EmmatheBest Good question! I referred to our scoring policy when giving this game its grade, and since it's not BROKEN - that is, it still runs - I couldn't in good conscience give it lower than a three. Here's what 3/10 means, though:
"This is the sort of game you buy and instantly wish you didn't. The developers and publishers are probably well aware of what went wrong and are trying to put a brave face on it. Don't be fooled, accept our warning and run a mile!"
I think that's pretty fitting!
It got a 3?!?! A 3!?!? There was some modicum of goodness in this dumpster fire that kept it from getting a 1? I get that it isn't broken but this is so bad it almost feels like it was intentional.
@KateGray
"So many cut corners it's basically a circle". Nice one!
Natsume needs to realize that they need Marvelous and Story of Seasons back or they could just license Stardew Valley and call that Harvest Moon. It's a shame that HM became a garbage series the way it is now.
@GrandScribe like I said above - it didn't crash. It's technically playable. It has a plot, and you can progress in it. It's a completely functional game. It just... sucks.
These last few Harvest Moon games have all looked like mobile games. Hideous art design.
Good thing Rune Factory 5 looks beautiful and more ambitious than ever.
Well I for one appreciate them keeping same-sex marriage out of their awful game!
Once again Natsume is tarnishing the name of Harvest Moon. Please just stop making them and sell the naming rights to Marvelous.
@Yhdekskymmenen Well those people need to get over it. And it’s absolutely worth mentioning.
"We haven't even begun to mention the things that have been removed from the game in its time under Natsume."
Such as anything resembling fun? A soul?
@StardusterEX Nah I've also enjoyed the game, don't worry. There's several people on the fogu forums that are playing and enjoying the game. (That's a Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons fansite.)
@Yhdekskymmenen why, cuz those "other groups of people" would have no choice but to get gay married? Or are we really still catering to folks who find the mere existence of gay people insulting? I dunno, seems like a bit of a you problem!
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I don't welcome anyone in these comments who is anti-same-sex marriage. It's 2021, folks. Gay people exist, and always have done.
EDIT: I didn't word this very well, and for that, I apologise - I specifically don't welcome people being unkind in these comments. Your views are your own, but coming in here and being purposefully hurtful is not okay. Also, this wasn't in response to any specific comment, I'm just trying to make my own stance clear!
I'm only a few hours into it but 3 is probably about right. It's just really lazily done. The icon for Doc is clearly from the previous game, but the in-game character looks completely different. And the graphics lack polish. Everything is really stark and there's no effort made to make the world look convincing. Then there's the GUI. The cursor is on an absolute hair trigger.
But I like farming games and I've got all the Harvest Moon games since the split despite preferring Story of Seasons.
Light of Hope is better than this.
The subtitle of this article alone was more entertaining than the game sounds. There are just too many negatives with this one. Best to steer clear.
@SigourneyBeaver the cursor thing was a real problem! It's so sensitive!! And the settings were just volume settings, which is WORSE than what a mobile game these days would offer
So about that Rune Factory revival?
@Yhdekskymmenen People that don't accept same sex marriage in 2021 deserve to be insulted.
I don't think One World looks so bad.
I saw a decent game. (5 / 10)
I will pick up the game late, together with Olive Town.
@Ralizah
LOL
I choose One World character design over than Rune Factory 5.
I cannot stand for their eyes design, looks like being tranced / dead eyes with smaller pupil size and bishi looking styles from Rune Factory design. Don't even want to woo hoo the moe looking girls, nor even the dudes with wimpy and bishi looking.
I still prefer One World character design. Their looking was alright for me. Kanoa and Braden (the bachelors) from One World are looks way much better than all the dudes on Rune Factory 5.
Turnips are much worse than potatoes lol
@Yhdekskymmenen People it would be insulting to, simply don't need to have a same sex marriage in the game. However, there are many LGBTQ+ people, including myself, that would like those options, and it's insulting that it was removed "because of COVID". Representation matters.
@samuraicop
You know, there are another farming games potential from indie developers.
Wait for Re:Legend by Magnus Games (from Malaysia) published by 505 Games and Coral Island from Indonesia (Jogjakarta) on Nintendo Switch.
Will still give it a try ^3^
@dluxxx right?! I'd be miffed if my friend "invented" vegetables beyond potatoes only to come up with a bloody TURNIP
@The__Goomba
Here is my thought when both Natsume and Marvelous promote their games.
Natsume : We have new game called One World and we already made the pre order plus with the plushie as the bonus.
We : How about the gameplay ?
Natsume : Err... It will be fun. Anyway, we have the plushie as pre order bonus. Just come and get the game anyway, guys.
We : ....Okay. How about same gender marriages ?
Natsume : Err... We decided to choose straight marriages because you know... during pandemic situation, we didn't have enough time so just accept our decision anyway.
We : 😒😒😒
Marvellous : We have new game called Pioneer of Olive Town and we already made the pre order plus with the plushie as the bonus.
We : How about the gameplay ?
Marvellous, : Sure, we will provide a lot of trailers of the gameplay and the features. Feel free to ask any questions.
We : How about same gender marriages ?
Marvellous : We still have same gender marriages anyway.
We : Yippe...! 😀😀😀
@EmmatheBest 1/10 should be reserved for games that don’t start at all like that one ps4 launch game with the teddy bear. 2/10 should be reserved for games that start but don’t function at all. 3/10 is where the functioning worst of the worst falls in.
Except maybe phoenix games. Those should all be 1/10’s and be reviewed as a movie rather than a game.
This is not the place to discuss these things. -Eel
I'll try most games if I get around my backlog. But what one like isn't the same for everyone taste. So if they are expecting something that's not there could influence their review.
Seriously, the developers of these are just work for hire now. Rune Factory bettered them with its first entry and continued albeit just being the same but a little better but then you have you have Stardew Valley, a game that came out in 2017 and eclisped all Harvest Moon/Rune Factory games before it because the developer (at thattime one guy) knew why people loved those orignal games and then kept IMPROVING right until today...and yet the people behind HM/SoS rather than take inspiration or the challenge to up their game, just either in Hm instance, just knock out whatever to make a quick buck or in Sos instance, just rely on nostalgia or just do something that will just "do".
@Eel I’m glad to see someone else having fun. Yeah, I’ve been a part of it for... 10 years now, come December. I had to go back and look at my account for that, I didn’t know it had been that long lol.
It’s hard for me to put into words... I want to start out by saying NintendoLife isn’t a part of this problem at all, and I don’t have a problem with people expressing different opinions from me... I love fogu, but it would be nice to be able to go on bigger places sometimes like Twitter or Reddit and be able to voice that I’m having a good time without being called a bot or a Natsume alt.
At this point they have to be going out of their way to make the harvest moon games as terrible as possible.
Such a lazy and useless developer , should hang there faces in shame, more so with stardew valley out which is a million times better and is done by one person
And this is why Story of Seasons now exists by the original people of Harvest Moon.
Even Stardew Valley aside, there are RPG Maker games that recreates classic Harvest Moon games better than Natsume's Harvest Moon.
I'd give it a 5 out of 10.
It's been surprisingly addictive for me and the bachelors and bachelorettes have been a huge upgrade from Light of Hope.
The seed gathering is fun imo... but the stamina loss from walking and INSANELY fast clock are huge negatives. I also hate that the non marrigable npcs have no actual names???
It basically feels like they improved on some things and on other things UNIMPROVED. I like the music, but don't like the lack of dialogue. I like the art style but don't like the empty maps. I like the gameplay but don't like how mines work. Etc.
@Yosher It's not the same series, due to the split. Story of Seasons is the original Harvest Moon.
@Yosher This isn't the actual Harvest Moon series. Natsume just kept the name
Is it bad when Stardew Valley's pixel art has more detail than this?
I had no interest in this game anyway but man this was an enjoyable read. What a teardown.
So pretty much exactly what everyone expected it to be. Story of Seasons is the only one worth buying these days.
Are there any farm games where can take animals out "behind the shed" and "blow their brains out".
@matdub If you’re looking for a serious answer, the Shepherd’s Crossing games allow you to slaughter your animals for food.
I am a married plain old straight man who generally plays as girl toons in videogames, so same sex relationships are key for me. Depending on the genre, ladies will usually have more cosmetic options and look cooler and more athletic in motion, plus dudes done in the anime style tend to look like schmucks and/or pansies.
Somewhat related, I’m finally playing Witcher 3 and I can’t stop making fun of Geralt. He’s such a dork.
@KateGray - Understandable then! That methodology is pretty sound tbh.
@StardusterEX Thanks.....I think.
Seems like Natsume, is getting better with the art style for this series, but that seems about it, they need to add more "love" to this game. Hopefully whatever next Harvest moon game they make, is better.
@kategray
So my innocuous remark about HMOW not needing all the patches that PoOT does got removed?
Why?
@KateGray "However, you are a special, magical being, and by virtue of being so special and magical,"
That's like the plot of many Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, and Rune Factory games. I don't see why you think this is an issue.
Money is actually quite easy to make in this game, which explain the price. Just forage every thing you can find (especially on the beach like coconuts, shells, etc). Cook your crops, plant things as you unlock ability to buy seeds in the shop (you only need 30 for basic crops, 15 for mutated crops, and 10 for 2nd tier mutated crop). "Lots" is like an exaggeration of these numbers, especially when past Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons games required something like 100, 500, or 1000 of specific crop/animal product/decoration objects each to progress the story.
Walking takes stamina, but you can just eat to replenish them as you unlock more heart meters. People tend ignore eating in farming games, but in this game it becomes important with specific type of foods make you resistant to heat of the desert and the cold of the tundra. The game even tells you about this. Game is only tough in the first few weeks when your stamina is limited, but after progressing it becomes a breeze and you can easily make tons of money by planting the profitable mutated crops.
@Yosher
Try Story of Seasons. Thats who made Harvest Moon. These people just kept the name.
It's a shame that this series has gone so far down hill.
I'm glad I decided to look up a review this time, I was gonna call my sibling to tell them about it but the flash backs of Harvest Moon: Mad Dash came to my mind. I feel like they are just grabbing from straws now.
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