Harvest Moon One World has no heart, no passion and no love put into it.
I feel I can rightfully make this review since I have put 55+ hours into what has been a saddening disappointment.
I know Harvest Moon is just a name now.
A name Natsume owns and once Marvelous split to use their own in house XSEED Studios was never gonna be the same.
That's because the true Harvest Moon everyone talks about, when they walk down memory lane,
Was that of Marvelous who rebranded with
Story of Seasons. That is the true series that got me into this genre. The series I will always stay with. But, I always give Natsume a chance.
Never AGAIN will I ever do that.
The only reason I played as long as I did was because of the money I spent on the digital version. I could not return it. So here I am.
The game seems like Early Access, but many Early Access games are better than this.
The story like I said has no passion. Audio glitches plague the game, pop ins, screen tearing, crashes and what a empty bland world and harsh textures along side good ones, which make the PS1 looking graphics stand out even worse. It's like at one point they were trying!
And gave up.
It's sad.
Yes, after completing the game, random patches of flowers pop up... Just thrown into random patches in the game. They even look like a one second deed.
I feel like Natsume worries to much about competing with Story of Seasons.
They just had to get their game out first.
Sacrificing all quality the game should of had.
This is not the experience I expect from them.
At least not after these years.
And though I know they are not the original makers, they were just the publisher back than (yes major difference) I figured after these years they would of learned something.
But it's apparent that they have not.
What they don't understand is their are far to many farm Sims now.
Many are coming out and have been out.
They act like they have to stick it to Marvelous and ignore that many have better farm Sims...
In the end they just keep sticking it to themselves.
And then we are ignorant enough to buy it in hopes they've grown.
They have not.
And a major clue should of been to me was the lack of gameplay or reveals before it launched. That should of been a huge red flag.
Unfortunately Natsume once said they couldn't tell fans Harvest Moon was dead and decided to try and continue themselves?!
Problem is Harvest Moon didn't die, it was re branded to Story of Seasons. They just didn't want to lose the only money maker they had because of Marvelous splitting.
But without them, yes the name is dead.
And fans need to stop being fans of the name and be fans of the games and genre itself.
Because this is an embarrassment to the genre.
Harvest Moon in the sense of Natsume is dead.
The minute a publisher thought they could make games... That wasn't use to making games, well... It was game over.
And for years they are still trying, it is clear they will never properly learn.
My advice, steep steep sell or just get one of the many great ones available.
And if you actually want that great Harvest Moon you played in the day, then actually play it....It's called Story of Seasons.