The concept is entirely geared towards getting gamers to explore in ways they normally don’t in a Harvest Moon game, and it works for the most part. It’s important to explore at odd times of the day and under different weather conditions.
Wisps are the only way to acquire seeds (at first), and some come out under specific conditions. You’ll travel from town to town, solving problems and growing your farm as you work towards fully reviving the Harvest Goddess. The big idea here being you have to travel the world, a new approach since these games normally limit you to a single town, and find all the new seeds you can. Thankfully, the spirits of the Harvest Goddess have seen something in you and you’re able to see ‘Harvest Wisps’ who will give you seeds to grow all kinds of new foods.Īvailable On: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch You enter a land where virtually all vegetables and fruits are pretty much the thing of legend. One World brings in some interesting ideas, and gameplay elements that I would love to see adopted by other titles, but in many ways feels very much like a game from 2017…or earlier.Īs I mentioned in my preview article, the set up for Harvest Moon: One World is fun. After getting to watch a gameplay demo for One World last month I was definitely eager to get my hands on this and see if the latest entry in the long-running franchise is able bring the magic even among some impressive competition in the years since it’s last mainline release. Now, there’s a whole genre that’s sprouted up for this style of sim game and there are some great options for players to check out.Įven so, fans have a soft spot for Harvest Moon. It’s a love that started with Harvest Moon when I was younger and has continued to this day. I love farming sim games, and their overall chill approach to playing. It may not be included in that one, in which case, there's nothing at all to worry about time-wise.Natsume has launched the first new (true) Harvest Moon game for players in years with One World, but something about it feels stuck in the past. Note that for your chosen game, I couldn't find any info on marrying anyone. That's easily enough time to choose the one you want, and court them, and have several years to spare. You have roughly four or five years before they marry their other option. Note that there usually is a time limit on how long you have to court your chosen. They're with you until death (or a save reset) do you part. Once you've married one of them, you can't get rid of them and choose someone else. The only restriction on irreversible choices are your marriage candidates.
Harvest Moon does not have missable items (although, some could require rather extensive effort and preparation in order to acquire), so there's no time crunch required so you don't miss anything. This, however, is definitely not a requirement. If you're going for pure efficiency, so you waste as little time as possible, then you're going to need to look online. You can "succeed" by doing as much (or as little) as you want. In essence, Harvest Moon is a time management simulation. So it was easy to clear the field the very first day. The original game for SNES had a hard time limit, but you could abuse the fact that it didn't actually advance until you slept.
That gives you freedom to experiment without worrying you're screwing up your game. Even in the later ones, the goals are usually very generous, and give you plenty of time to meet them. They tend to be short on tutorials, because the early games didn't really have much of a goal, beyond that which you set for yourself. In general, Harvest Moon plays more like a sandbox game (limited to your local area) more than anything else.