Harvestella

[K8sMum]

Squeenex has greatly improved the time element in Harvestella. It really makes a difference. Fishing is faster too. The demo isn't affected.

[Terranigma Freak]

Are we just going to use this thread to talk about this game? If so, probably best to edit the title.

I just got the game. Can't wait to try it out after work.

[Mikodesu]

Gonna pick it up after work myself! Nice to have a new game at the end of a Monday. If there'll be at least 3 of us playing, maybe we will need a new thread...

[greensara]

I went ahead and edited the thread title for you all. I'm not planning on picking it up anytime soon, but with good reviews and sales, maybe eventually. It is presently included in the B2G1 sale for Target right now, that's the only one I know about.

[Emurii]

I did pick this up, and I'm pleasantly surprised! The days are short enough that you can feel like you're making progress and play multiple days in a sitting, and everything looks very nice. It has a feeling like a cross between Rune Factory and big budget JRPGs like Tales and FF.

I hope some others pick it up, there wasn't much marketing for this maybe? so I'm not seeing much in the way of fan interaction.

[Shan O 123]

Is the game clock fixed?

[Terranigma Freak]

So ummm... did anyone get Xenoblade vibes when they enter Njord Steppe or is it just me?

Also, I was so confused by the gender option. There's girl, flat chested girl, and non-binary. Where's the boy option?

[Shan O 123]

Sounds like you’re either girl or non-binary lol

[Kikki]

That is the boy. They designed the MC so that they looked like the same person no matter who you chose, and only included slight differences. The girl has bigger hips and overall is just slightly more slender, and her shorts are a little smaller/less coverage, and in the demo at least, I think her tail of hair was in a loop and his was not.

But they basically designed them as the same person, just with really small differences to give a very faint gender tilt. The MC is the same person no matter which gender you choose, basically. (There is no non-binary appearance choice, as far as I can tell...it just lets you chose any appearance from the boy or girl screen...so the only difference in choosing non-binary seems to be the pronouns that'll be used to refer to your character.)

He looks enough like a boy to me when shown directly opposite the girl. Here's the customization screen:

[Terranigma Freak]

Oh, I already fully customized my guy. It was weird at first cause I thought I accidentally picked girl for some reason.

[Mikodesu]

I went ahead and edited the thread title for you all. I'm not planning on picking it up anytime soon, but with good reviews and sales, maybe eventually. It is presently included in the B2G1 sale for Target right now, that's the only one I know about.

Thanks for that! Good to know about the Target deal, for anybody who has more than one game they want to pick up right now. The only other deal afaik is still Green Man Gaming... 16% off of retail. It'll be a little more if you're already a GMG customer. (I got it for 20% off, which is pretty good for week one. I'll take it, at least.)

Is the game clock fixed?

Mostly. I don't notice a difference on the overworld map (moving between your farm and other places) but on the farm/in town etc there's a BIG difference. In the demo I struggled to get everything done, even early on, now I have hours of time to spare.

--
Played the first few days after the intro to get myself rolling again, and I'm happy. It runs great on PC. The controls are just like Genshin, designed for an XBOX controller (so backwards). (Buttons match up to the names on the controller, but the icons are backwards to where they're oriented on screen.) Character portraits look LOVELY on a bigger monitor. The art scales up well, and you get to see a lot of detail you don't on Switch.

Pretty happy to have picked the game up. The slower clock has given me more leisure to explore, and at the day I left off I just made enough money to go pick up fishing supplies (which I didn't make time for in the demo). Looking forward to picking it back up tomorrow!

Edit: Next day update...

Steam reviews are up to 74% mostly positive! That sounds more like it.

Still enjoying my time. Fishing is a GREAT source of income. (There's a Steam achievement for catching 20 in a day. ) I'm trying not to sell TOO much at once, though, cause I don't know how costly deaths will get down the road. I only died once to the demo boss, so I don't have a lot of info, but iirc you can't quit and reload like RF. Pretty sure the game auto saved, but I'll try to quit and reload whenever I do die...just to be sure.

I won't care too much if it's a set price, but a percentage would be a problem.

[cinnamon_yuki]

Glad to see that the PC version looks much better than the Switch demo I experienced. Will probably consider picking this up in the future. Does leveling feel too grind-y? I remember spending a lot of time grinding levels when I played FF games up to 9 and don't want to spend my time grinding levels instead of good pacing between the story and the farming aspects.

[Bluie]

Oh, I already fully customized my guy. It was weird at first cause I thought I accidentally picked girl for some reason.

This was me when I first played Legend of Mana. The spritework of both playable characters was so androgynous that I ended up picking the boy character thinking it was the girl. Core memory unlocked lol.

As for talking about the game itself, it's on my radar still especially since there is actual romance / relationship mechanics. I don't like hollow mechanics with no pay off, but aparently there is now so it's higher up on my wishlist. A shame there's only 2 guys though :/

[Mikodesu]

Glad to see that the PC version looks much better than the Switch demo I experienced. Will probably consider picking this up in the future. Does leveling feel too grind-y? I remember spending a lot of time grinding levels when I played FF games up to 9 and don't want to spend my time grinding levels instead of good pacing between the story and the farming aspects.

I'm just back through the demo content (first area, could be at most 8 hours, imo), and so FAR there has been no grinding. (No level grinding, that is. Like Rune Factory you have different weapons you can use, and you have to level up your skill with each weapon separately by using it. That's probably the biggest grind.)

I do remember reading in one review that there are difficulty spikes later though, so maybe wishlist for now and check around by the time you see the game on sale. You'll for sure be able to find out then.

--
The game really opens up past the demo content. I still don't know why the demo was limited to 15 days (not there yet) but I see why it was cut off where it was. Basically everything gets rolling after that. Plot, side quests, farm related stuff. It wasn't overwhelming for me, but I could see it getting overwhelming. Since it's just...beginning of story and then...everything else.

I wonder if cooking will end up being more profitable later... The one meal I can cook sells for less than its ingredients. Makers may end up being good. I've only unlocked one of those, though.

Spoiler for right after demo content...

Spoiler:

Legally Distinct Howl got a good laugh out of me. He looks a lot like Ghibli Howl, he's a womanizer, and I'm pretty sure he's a mage. Fits the setting, for sure. I doubt he's been isekai'd, but... that's for later.

[LilFB]

Does anyone know how to get rid of the large rocks on the farm? I suspect I need to upgrade the hammer, but I'm already in Autumn with

Spoiler:

2 fairies

and there is still no hammer upgrade available.