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Harvestella is a one-of-a-kind blend between a farming sim, a JRPG and a story-rich adventure. I absolutely love the game, not only because it takes the best aspects of all these genres and smoothly combines them into a deeply immersive experience, but also because the mechanics commonly encountered in these games have been vastly improved to offer the greatest possible player comfort.

Story

First of all, Harvestella’s narrative is heavy, engrossing and very complex. Going through the main story will be your main focus for the first 50h-70h. Of those, roughly half will be spent on cutscenes and character interactions that unravel the mystery of the plot bit by bit. These numbers might sound a bit scary for those that don’t enjoy reading, but in fact the story sequences usually take only a couple of minutes and are immediately followed by a lengthier action sequence where, for instance, your party will clear one level of a multi-level dungeon. There’s a perfect balance between story progression and action segments, neither of them being too long or too short - they’re timed just right to keep the player fully immersed into the story, yet giving them a change of pace every so often.
In regards to *what* exactly the plot is, it’s advisable to avoid any kind of spoilers. It’s a sci-fi story that revolves around a mysterious event named Quietus which occurs for one day when the seasons change. During this time, a deadly dust fills the air, causing all crops to wither and preventing people from wandering outside their homes. Your main character’s efforts will be focused on understanding why this phenomenon happens. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg, and the story’s twists and turns will absolutely blow your mind. Even if you can start theorizing mid-way through the game, the conclusion of the story is far from anything you’d imagine or anticipate.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971719309

Farming

Throughout the game, farming is a secondary activity that you engage in as part of your characters’ morning routine before heading out on adventures. Through it, you gain consumables to heal or buff you in combat, as well as resources for character progression. A really nice aspect is that besides the main farming area that you can expand many times, there are also two additional farming biomes that you can unlock and which don’t need watering: one is on a small lake, and the other one is in a cave, each of them being used for specific types of crops.
While I do love all kinds of farming sims and did play many of them, until now I haven’t encountered any game that doesn’t trigger any of my pet-peeves. Somehow none of these more-or-less annoying features were present in Harvestella: everything that bothered me in the slightest in other games was implemented here exactly as I wished them to be all along.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971719050

Battle system

As part of the story progression, you will get to meet several characters with similar goals to yours. You will join forces and build your rapport with them, while also exploring their own individual stories. They each have a unique class (called “Job”) with a different playstyle, spell arsenal / abilities and party buffs. You choose two of them to accompany you into dungeons, based on what abilities you think would help. You can neither permanently lose them, nor does the game force you to bring each in turn just to complete their questlines. As soon as a character joins your party, you will be able to start learning their Job. You can bring up to three of these classes into battle and switch between them in combat. Each Job has its own talent tree through which you unlock and upgrade its four abilities, using experience points gained from bringing that particular Job into fights. The relative simplicity of these classes and lack of branching makes it easy to keep track of everything without getting lost in a complex skill tree or a maze of button mapping.

Part of the gameplay is figuring out what weaknesses enemies have, and subsequently using a suitable Job, so that you can exploit those weaknesses, like in other classic JRPGs. The combat is overall extremely casual and the enemies can be killed easily without paying too much attention to these weaknesses, but bosses or elite mobs will require more attention from your part and you’ll notice that not using their weaknesses to your advantage will only result in the fight taking much much longer than normal or even in your inability to kill the enemy.
Regardless of whether you use combat abilities or perform basic actions like farming / fishing, these will all consume some stamina. However, compared to other similar games, the stamina bar automatically refills over time as long as you previously have eaten something. This hunger mechanic is very satisfying because it essentially gives you infinite stamina at the cost of a small meal in the morning (which is very easy to craft) or a simple mushroom / blueberry that you loot from almost anywhere you’d go, allowing you to freely do as many activities as you want during the day. In battles though, you will need to consume food more often than that (and more substantial meals) in order to replenish your health. What I find particularly nice is that eating or drinking will replenish not only your, but also your party members’ in the same amount.

Graphics

Every environment is absolutely stunning. The dungeons have unique biomes, one more breathtaking than the other. They range from green hills, autumnal forests, fantasy settings, icy caves to more futuristic or post-apocalyptic ones such as a research facility or an abandoned amusement park. There is simply no location that didn’t make me gasp in awe at its beauty and at the amount of detail put into designing it. I also love the fact that the enemies are scattered rather loosely, not only to allow your stamina to regenerate in-between two fights, but also to provide enough time to explore the area and take in its astonishing visuals.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971719347

Soundtrack

With a renowned composer such as Go Shiina (who also worked on memorable tracks for Code Vein, God Eater, Tales of Zestiria etc), it’s no wonder that the OST is a masterpiece. Whether it’s an animated soundtrack used for battle sequences, a deeply meditative-zen song heard during Quietus and which can calm even the most agitated minds, a relaxing tune played while farming or exploring, a sad melody, an emotional orchestral piece that mimics a siren’s song, or a haunting requiem, the songs are simply impactful and unforgettable - they are bound to move you to the core. Harvestella’s soundtrack is simply the best I’ve heard in years - absolutely fantastic.

Conclusion

The steep $60 price could make some hesitate, but in my opinion it’s totally worth it, especially if you can pick it up with a discount. For me it was by far the best purchase I’ve made in the past years, surpassing any other candidates to become my #1 favorite game by a long shot. It’s just extremely hard to describe how much I adore Harvestella in all of its aspects and how much enjoyment I derived from it. Even after the story is completed, there is still a lot of content left to explore and many farming-related things to do or side quests - if not for completionism purposes, then at least for lingering in this magnificent universe for a bit longer.
Note: Due to Steam’s character limit, the section about farming is incomplete. Full version: https://lillycorner.com/2023/05/05/harvestella
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