Harvest Island on PC
Harvest Island pitched itself as a horror farming life-sim, which instantly grabbed my consideration. Another island farmer with some severely spooky potential this October? Sign me up, am I proper? Well, sadly, whereas I had excessive hopes for this sport, I’ve struggled to seek out real enjoyment in my expertise. Don’t get me incorrect, the idea is nice! I’m positive there will probably be folks on the market who take pleasure in this sport. However, the execution feels a bit… missing, for me personally, particularly compared to current opponents, which I’ll clarify additional under.
Harvest Island takes a story method, putting you within the position of Will, a farming boy who lives along with his father and youthful sister, Samantha. Right from the get-go I used to be excited to see these interactions of dialogue, as highly effective sibling bonds are a few of my favourite dynamics in video video games — assume Sean and Daniel from Life is Strange 2, Yara and Lev from The Last of Us Part II, and most not too long ago, Carmine and Kieran from Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s Teal Mask DLC. However, I quickly discovered myself barely irritated by the primary interplay between Will and Samantha. To be truthful, this was not by their dialogue, however as a substitute by repetitive sound results.
You see, Samantha is happy to affix her large brother on his journey to the Island, and gained’t cease leaping round as she speaks to him. But, every time she jumps round in place, a slightly loud sound impact performs. On repeat. For your complete length of the scene. I suppose this implies she was actually nailing the position of the ‘annoying little sister’ if not the rest.
By the top of this primary scene, my ears felt as in the event that they have been bleeding from the noise of nails on a chalkboard, and I discovered myself skipping by the final sections of dialogue in a rush to simply get it over with. This could sound a bit harsh, however this isn’t precisely a good way to kick off the narrative title that Harvest Island desires to be. That rattling soar sound goes to maintain me awake at 3 am like a sleep paralysis demon for nights to come back.
Sadly, as my development by Harvest Island continued, these sound results didn’t get higher, and I quickly discovered myself rising slightly sick of them. Half the time, it felt like anyone was simply memeing round with Discord soundboard, and this grew to become such an irritation to me that I needed to dramatically decrease sound results within the menu, earlier than turning them off fully. Honestly, the expertise with out them felt significantly better once I didn’t have the aggressive noise of a hen clucking or a loud cow’s moo each time I pet or work together with a farm animal.
The soundtrack of background music for Harvest Island is definitely fairly satisfying, which is why I discovered the sound results to be such a disgrace; they have been nearly intruding on the calming tone that the music is making an attempt to set.
On a extra optimistic be aware, the graphics do have a pleasant appeal to them that’s greater than price mentioning. While the pixel artwork is nothing too fashionable trying, or extraordinarily detailed or vibrant, this title takes on a barely totally different method. Instead, Harvest Island makes use of extra uninteresting tones with nearly all of the atmosphere remaining static, bringing a well-known nostalgia to previous RPG video games from throughout the GBA-NDS period.
This continues within the artwork for the character portraits, showcasing Will and Samantha in varied poses and expressions. These portraits are very properly stylized, and admirable, nearly reminding me of elder Fire Emblem character portraits. I believe the character designs, although maybe a bit simplistic, are fully appropriate to the world by which Harvest Island has created, as they did appear to feel and look proper at dwelling of their atmosphere.
Diving deeper into the characters, I actually wished to love Will and Samantha. Truly, I so badly tried to love them. While I did discover momentary moments of pleasure of their presence, similar to Will’s sleepyhead nature (relatable), or the scene the place they each yell “HELLO GOATS!” to assist Samantha recover from her concern, for probably the most half, I discovered your complete household dynamic slightly dysfunctional and unbearable.
Right from the second the story kicks off, Will appears to be underneath excessive stress from his father, tasked with the immense stress of delivering the Harvest Offerings and finishing chores with out screwing issues up. He’s always lashing out at his little sister in imply, hurtful feedback resulting from this stress, as a result of he’s scared of disappointing and angering his father. In return, this causes Samantha to retaliate with the identical remarks in the direction of her large brother, making a slightly poisonous and unenjoyable atmosphere.
I misplaced depend of the variety of occasions they informed one another that they hated each other inside my first two hours of gameplay, and whereas I perceive that sibling relationships can undoubtedly be turbulent sometimes, I did discover this to destroy the ambiance the farm presents. I got here right here to work exhausting and discover a spooky island with a dynamic sibling duo, not feeling like I needed there was a approach to soar into the world to play babysitter or peacemaker between the 2.
Besides, their father is a complete hardass. I imply severely, he simply stays inside all day, heat and comfy, whereas he throws all of his grownup duties onto his youngsters. And then he has the nerve to get mad at them after they inevitably mess issues up sometimes? I imply, come on, Grayson; they’re youngsters! Will is fortunate on the uncommon events he makes an effort to show him new expertise, and even then, it’s just about simply so he can tackle extra of Grayson’s work, the accountability of taking part in a caretaker for his sister being drilled into him.
Harvest Island has tried to ascertain itself as a spooky tackle Stardew Valley, nevertheless, I simply can’t appear to seek out the identical stage of high quality within the title that’s current in Stardew. The sport feels considerably unpolished or unfinished as if it wanted a bit of additional time and care put in the direction of high-quality-tuning mechanics, including in further options to tie issues collectively, and usually wrapping issues up properly. Sadly, I don’t discover Harvest Island to fulfill the identical stage of requirements that Stardew and even different current life-sim or pixel RPG video games have delivered, similar to Moonstone Island or Sea of Stars.
In Harvest Island, the farming duties grew repetitive and boring slightly rapidly, and that was with me taking part in on Story Mode, which reduces the farming grind in favor of narrative. Unlike Stardew Valley and Moonstone Island, Harvest Island lacks a township or neighborhood of NPCS in which you’ll be able to work together and construct relationships.
Instead, you’re caught on the household farm, wrapped up within the iffy relationships between your annoying little sister and intimidating father. While you do get to make use of Bless to improve your farm and craft new instruments, it simply doesn’t fairly carry the identical appeal as rival titles.
Another factor that I discovered fairly important frustration in, was the truth that the sport will typically immediate new Quests, however give no sense of path in the place you’re supposed to go to finish stated Quest. For instance, one of many duties listed was ‘take Samantha to the Island’ — but gave no indication of the place the Island was positioned. This left me wandering across the farm for method too lengthy, getting irritated that each pathway appeared to be locked.
Fifteen minutes later, and I’d lastly discovered my method, by pure luck. Maybe I missed an apparent signal on this situation, I don’t know, however I did discover it irritating that the Quests in your Journal have been slightly imprecise. This is ok for fetch quests and crop planting, as they’re pretty self-explanatory. But for principal quests that push the story ahead? It begins to get a bit draining.
Harvest Island has additionally marketed itself in the direction of horror, which I believe must be mentioned. Pixel video games have confirmed on a number of events that they greater than have the aptitude of delivering nice horror titles which are genuinely scary and horrifying to play. However, Harvest Island doesn’t ship this similar expertise, which is a letdown.
The sport positively has delicate influences by a barely spooky island, with odd flashes of blood or animal components right here and there, a demon, and some minor jumpscares. However, it’s under no circumstances a ‘horror’ sport. Harvest Island isn’t scary in the identical method as different titles may be, and as a substitute, it could seemingly be higher off considered as a darkish thriller RPG mashup. I’ve caught glimpses of some totally different titles which have been a a lot larger success with regards to a conflict of the horror and life-sim style, with Pumpkin Panic and Graveyard Keeper instantly coming to thoughts.
In comparability to those titles, Harvest Island simply falls flat, so the concept of evaluating it to Stardew Valley feels nearly a bit misleading. There’s no seasons mechanic, an absence of pleasant faces to converse with, and crafting appears to really feel fairly naked-bones. I can’t assist however really feel like Harvest Island was fully mismarketed with the references to Stardew Valley, which created false expectations for my playthrough.
The sport additionally seems to nonetheless be fairly buggy, which created an enormous destructive affect on my participant expertise. I discovered sometimes the digicam would have a slight flicker because it struggled to pan following Will and Samantha, and on multiple event my sport froze up fully, leaving me with no possibility apart from drive closing it. Harvest Island additionally doesn’t have an autosave function, so each time this occurred, I misplaced a small chunk of progress. These forms of bugs make issues really feel extraordinarily irritating, and to be fairly sincere, uninteresting my intentions of wanting to select it again up.
Harvest Island was a superb idea that had huge potential. Unfortunately, the sport is held again by its stage of polish in sure areas, and being inaccurately marketed. In most eventualities, I’d honestly discover it very exhausting to advocate this sport to followers of life-sims or horror video games.
However, I believe if I’d recognized to method this sport with the mindset that I might be going right into a darkish thriller narrative RPG with a slight nostalgic and retro feeling, I might have discovered way more enjoyment within the title. The gameplay, dialogue, and story initially of the sport are significantly painful, however as soon as issues decide up and the thriller begins unfolding, there may be fairly a little bit of intrigue to be discovered, so the title should still be a worthy contender for followers of this style.
Sometimes the path by which the story leads is a bit predictable, however for probably the most half, there’s a enjoyable sense of exploration, and regardless of not being significantly ‘horror’ worthy, issues nonetheless get fairly twisted. Unfortunately, the sport takes too lengthy to interrupt into its strongest a part of the story, which all unravels close to the top of the sport. This is a disgrace as a result of whereas I used to be not thrilled by my Harvest Island expertise, there was a enjoyable sense of delicate terror within the final moments; you simply have to pull your self by the worst components of the sport to get there.
Pros
The gameplay has a nostalgic appeal
Character artwork could be very properly stylized and beautiful to take a look at
The story, although gradual and/or predictable at occasions, is generally simple to observe
Two totally different modes to select from, a ‘Normal Mode’ and a ‘Story Mode’ that’s a lot lighter on farming, prioritizing the narrative
Cons
Poorly marketed compared of the way it has been pitched to gamers, and what it really is.
Loud SFX typically drown out the background music, creating disturbance
Characters do a poor job of portraying a real, really feel-good relationship, which creates a foul first impression
Quests will typically be offered to you with no path on the place to go or find out how to full them
An abundance of fetch quest fashion duties, which may pile up and get exhausting to finish
While marketed as having robust horror elements, little or no real moments of horror are to be discovered
Game continues to be fairly buggy, which impacts the participant expertise
Release Date
October 10, 2023
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