If the ‘Uncanny Valley’ is the time period for one thing being almost-human-but-not-quite, then Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos is within the Uncanny Stardew Valley. It’s so near being a extremely good farming sim sport, however would not fairly handle to hit the mark. However, for the primary time within the turbulent and complicated historical past of Natsume’s Harvest Moon video games, it is really… enjoyable.
The story is identical outdated, standard: the Harvest Goddess disappears after some catastrophic geographical occasion, and it is as much as us to revive her and the world by the ability of farming. The twist right here is {that a} volcano erupted, and Ms. Goddess determined to construct a bunch of partitions round all of the villages, thus each defending them and isolating them in a single fell swoop. You’ll should dismantle the partitions, befriend the Sprites residing inside them, and revitalise the cities inside, largely by finishing numerous fetch quests. The story would not make a lot of sense — everybody could be very chill about getting separated from their households for a decade — however it’s adequate to get began with.
If you’ve got performed the earlier video games, you then could be excited or disenchanted to listen to that the mutated and seasonal crops are again, in addition to the necessity to accumulate seeds from Harvest Wisps hidden on the planet. Somehow, in Winds of Anthos, this beforehand tedious busywork is definitely an attractive cause to discover the large map — and it has been improved, too, with map tags and markers for particular seeds making them a lot simpler to seek out. You’ll additionally uncover uncommon crops, fish, tree fruits, and tameable animals by exploration, in addition to mines, every one offering distinctive metals and ores that you will want to finish quests and unlock upgrades.
Mining is fairly surface-level in Winds of Anthos — hit rocks and dig soil to seek out stuff — however dowsing with the ‘B’ button offers you a highlighted radius of the place the great things is. Smaller circles imply rarer ores, and medium-sized circles could possibly be something from ore, to a ladder, to a gap that’ll drop you just a few flooring on the value of stamina. The grind is nearly fascinating sufficient to make up for the boring and repetitive mine interiors, and with a whole lot of flooring to get by (plus a checkpoint on each tenth ground), it’s going to take you some time to get to the underside of every one.
Compared to mining and exploration, farming and animal husbandry take fairly a backseat. Most of the story quests require supplies discovered within the mines, with the occasional onion or turnip right here and there, so you’ll be forgiven for considering that crop-growing was all about earning money. Nope! The crops promote for a pittance, and fishing is vastly extra profitable. So, cooking, then? Well, the stamina meter within the sport empties fairly rapidly, it is true, however the meals recipes do not actually get good till the mid sport, so that you’re higher off simply scarfing 20 apples as a substitute of cooking one thing.
So, what is the purpose in farming, then — particularly when the sport gives a frankly overwhelming choice of extremely particular crops? We can settle for the distinction between onions and purple onions, however why on earth are carrots and child carrots separate? They’re the identical factor! Ditto with crops like celery and spicy celery, or wheat and “tall wheat”. Seriously? This is feeling dangerously like busywork once more, Natsume.
We have but to essentially discover a compelling cause to farm, however with sprinklers and fences to guard our crops from storms, it hasn’t actually been an excessive amount of work to simply do it anyway — particularly when a number of of the farms on the map (which you’ll change between at any level) are locked into a particular season, letting you simply develop seasonal crop mutations.
That overwhelming selection additionally applies to animals, too. You can tame horses (boring), or you may trip zebras, camels, and dinosaurs; you will get a cat as a pet, or tame a wild ferret as a substitute. Chickens are boring, why not get an Araucana, or ditch all of your cows for a Bengal Tiger? It helps that each one the animal designs are really cute, too — extra in step with the bubble cows of the previous than the uncomfortably sensible designs of previous video games. And that is what all of us need, is not it?
Oh, and the NPCs are cute, too. Suffering from a case of same-face syndrome right here and there, to make sure, however we might nonetheless marry them… if we had any time. The big map and the plethora of issues to do make marriage a much less engaging prospect — like we will preserve burning treasured daylight schlepping again to Judy or Neil to offer them a single apple after we could possibly be doing one thing else that makes us cash? Nah. We’re single farmers for all times.
In the late sport, issues get each simpler and far, a lot tougher. Unlocking new animals and areas, in addition to fast-travel factors, offers each a cause for and a way to journey world wide. Later areas are onerous to get to, and generally even require particular gadgets to outlive the warmth/chilly, however it retains the problem going.
Unfortunately, the problem ramps up considerably. Quests preserve requiring obscure gadgets like Platinum and High-Quality Lumber with out telling you the way, or the place, and even when to seek out them (as many gadgets are season-specific). The frequent body drops everytime you’re in your horse (or zebra, or unicorn) are unhealthy on their very own, however after they begin occurring IN A HORSE RACE, making you lose first place, you will wish to make a name to the glue manufacturing unit. Not with the ability to stroll over small ledges is an outdated design choice, and most of the map exploration will revolve round looking for the on-ramp to a bit of land with out the map, as a result of you may’t unlock the map with out first coming into the realm. And when you get to the volcano space, you will curse whoever got here up with the concept of constructing a maze that is darker than the within of your eyelids and twistier than a pirouetting Flump.
All in all, regardless of the problems, Winds of Anthos is definitely Natsume’s greatest effort but. It deserves to be counted amongst the plethora of fairly respectable farming video games. But Natsume cannot hope to succeed in the heights of Friends of Mineral Town or Stardew Valley till it develops its personal distinctive fashion additional and irons out just a few of the wrinkles that make the sport a slog. It’s so shut, although, for the primary time in ages… and that is really value one thing.
Conclusion
You almost definitely know that Harvest Moon has been pants for some time now, and Story of Seasons hasn’t been significantly better. For these of us who’ve been burned earlier than by Natsume’s underbaked choices, we weren’t anticipating greatness from Winds of Anthos. But for as soon as, this latest sport is a step in the best course, establishing Natsume’s voice ultimately in a crowded market. Here’s hoping the following Harvest Moon goes even tougher.
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