The latest game in the Harvest Moon series, Harvest Moon: One World is available now on the Nintendo Switch. Harvest Moon is swooping in to capitalize on a market currently cornred by the incredible success of Nintendo's own Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
The series has struggled since original developer Marvelous split with publisher Natsume. Will this new entry be a return to form? Here's what critics are saying.
Matt S., Digitally Downloaded: "While the concept is great and interesting, the flat, featureless world isn't the most inspiring. 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. 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. 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."
Brad Lang, Critical Hit: "It’s not just the actual farming that’s been turned into a slog… everything has! Mining is one of the most boring activities I’ve played in a game for ages now as it just involves running around a somehow even more empty mine tunnel and smashing rocks until a hole spawns and you move to the next floor. There’s no challenge involved, it’s simply a past-time that’s seemingly designed to waste your time under the guise of resource collection. Same for fishing, as the only input to actually catch a fish, is a tap of the “A” button followed by a mashing of the same button. It’s tedious and adds nothing to the experience."
Rebekah Valentine, IGN: "The aesthetics of One World are not where the mundanity ends. Unlike other Harvest Moon games where you get to know a town of distinct and personable neighbors, there are few actual developed characters in One World outside of its roster of bachelors and bachelorettes and one other named character in each area. The vast majority of the cast is made up of same-looking individuals with names like "Awkward Man" or "Thoughtful Woman" whose only personality trait is sending you endless mail to ask you to bring them random items. And that’s a terrible idea because again, these characters tend to disappear completely at certain times of day, sometimes right in front of your eyes, and sometimes as you’re about to turn in a quest."
Jordan Maison, Cinelinx: "There are some nice additions in the ability to have some control over how your character looks, both at the start of the game and with clothing shops later on. The problem is, none of those aspects have any impact on the gameplay. You’d think bundling up in cold weather attire would mean you could deal with the snowbound temperatures (different climates will drain your stamina faster), but you’d be wrong. While I generally don’t have issues with purely cosmetic aspects of a game (my Pokemon Trainers are always decked out in the latest fashions), it felt like a missed opportunity in One World."
Jess Joho, Mashable: "The nostalgia that the original Harvest Moon games traded in was for simpler times, when the world was slower, more human, something worth savoring. But Harvest Moon: One World capitalizes on your nostalgia for a much better game instead, giving you something as short-lived and inhuman as it is forgettable. ...I wish disappointment in a game series I loved as a kid wasn't enough to barrel me over emotionally. But it's just the cherry on top of a year that's proven how absolutely nothing is sacred, no one you love is safe, and entropy destroys all things that exist in linear time (again, not to be dramatic). ...Harvest Moon is dead. May she rest in peace after someone finally puts her shambling corpse out of its grotesque, reanimated misery."
left me wanting more. As I played, I kept waiting for things to get better, but nothing ended up exciting me. Even some of the more interesting storylines in certain town quests were overshadowed by how tedious others were, not to mention the absence of any feelings of progression given that tools can't be upgraded to make life easier. When I thought about other similar games, I wished I were playing them instead. I think it's safe to say that you won't miss out on anything by skipping this entry in the Harvest Moon series. When it comes to farming- and life simulator games, you'll definitely find better games on the Nintendo Switch."