![]() ![]() This is a big departure from previous Harvest Moon games, where you needed to make sure you had the cash for those seeds, and forced you to manage your finances (especially in the early game). Before you know it, you have piles of seeds well beyond what you can actually grow in your allocated farming space. There are still tools and medicines for your animals that can be purchased at shops, but dotted all around the world are sprites that give you seeds as gifts every time you bump into one. ![]() Even your eventual spouse doesn’t seem interested in communicating more than a few catch-phrases ad nauseam, and while this has a nostalgic quality for long-time fans of Harvest Moon, the Story of Seasons series has done a much better job in progressing characterisation.Īnother interesting quirk of Harvest Moon: One World is that you no longer need to buy seeds. Perhaps most egregious of all, however, is that the game does treat every area as transient – a temporary stop on the onward journey – and that means that the people you meet only play a temporary role in the narrative and experience before fading right into the background of one or two repeated sentences forevermore. ![]() What’s more, constantly up-and-moving starts to feel like a level of backtracking that puts the very worst Metrodvanias to shame, and the structure of the game could have been thought out much better. Regions are distinct from one another, but they’re all made up of winding “corridors” that funnel you around without many interesting landmarks to explore or things to do within the spaces. While the concept is great and interesting, the flat, featureless world isn’t the most inspiring. And yet each region in the world has different resources to collect and people to assist, so the only solution is to regularly up and move and lead a very nomadic lifestyle, if you’re going to get everything done that you need to. The “special machine” is a silly contrivance, but the idea itself is exceptional where this entire series has been built on the idea that you’re settling down in a rural little village to raise crops and live the simple life, One World encourages you to experience wanderlust and explore the world, while still maintaining the farming lifestyle.Īt the start, you’ll only have access to one area, but soon enough the world starts to open up and it becomes impossible to travel too far away from your farm on any given in-game day. Early on you’re given a special machine that can shrink your entire farm (all its buildings and so on), and transport it to another location in the world. The unique hook that One World plays with is the fact that you’re not tied to any one location in the game’s massive world. This is certainly Natsume’s best effort using the Harvest Moon property to date, and that’s something to celebrate (remembering that the early-era Harvest Moon titles became Story of Seasons, and Harvest Moon itself, since the Nintendo 3DS, has been a completely separate property). It’s a pity it will be, because while it’s not of the same standard One World is, in its own right, an enjoyable, relaxing, and rewarding experience. Harvest Moon: One World is going to be trounced by Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town when the latter releases at the end of the month. ![]()
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