Story Driven Harvest Moon a Far Cry from Original Concept

Harvest Moon: One World has been out for almost a week, and after much time with the game, it has become very apparent that this Harvest Moon is a far cry from the original cutesy farming simulation concept. While Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town has done a great job of incorporating new ideas while maintaining the standard farming practices, Harvest Moon: One World has gone a different route, and it somewhat pays off.

What is Working in One World

For those that always complained that Harvest Moon lacked any story to keep you playing, One World is probably the refreshing twist you want. While not quite Rune Factory in it’s story delivery, there is a progression path tied to the story. You aren’t just rehabilitating a depleted farm from one of your relatives. You are, instead, returning the world to order, bringing back crops many thought never existed, and so much more. There is a purpose and end goal to One World, and it does a good job getting you there. There is one caveat to that, however. More story means more dialogue, and more dialogue ultimately slows the pace of the game, sometimes to a dramatic crawl.

Pushing through the early moments of the game is incredibly difficult. While Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town let me loose on my farm within 10 minutes, it took a good few hours before Harvest Moon: One World let go of my hand (albeit briefly) to let me explore and play on my own. It was a slog I wasn’t prepared for, and it really got me started on the wrong foot. And here is where the problem in the game lies. I originally picked up Harvest Moon to play yet another cutesy farming simulation title, not to play a story based one. And it seemed like everything was downhill from there.

What’s Gone Wrong

Expect to just head to a store and buy your favourite seasonal seeds? You really can’t – rather, you’ll walk around the map collecting single seed packets from Harvest Wisps. Want me to make it worse for you? You cannot just plant them where you hoe a field, either. Why? Because there is no hoeing fields. There are set fields around the map with spaces for plants. Simply hoe those and plant whatever you might have.

Let’s talk about actions in the game next. There is no selecting tools to do work. Absolutely everything is mapped to ‘A’ and which action you perform depends on what previous actions have been done that day. For example, when working with your animals, you’ll press A to pat your animal and talk to them. When you press A again you will scrub them. And it goes on. For fields, you’ll press A to hoe a spot, press A to plant a seed, press A to water the ground, and potentially then press A to fertilize a plot. That’s it. When in doubt, just press A.

There are a host of other things I could get into. How your stamina depletes when you walk, and early on you’ll have to walk alot without access to a horse, so don’t expect to get much done. And days are super quick, so don’t plan too much because you will likely run out of time. And lastly let’s talk about lazy development. There are only a handful of specifically named individuals in each town. After that you’ll deal with the “shopkeeper” or “awkward man.” Yup, that’s it. No unique names for these folks, which just feels like a huge miss. You couldn’t work in a random name generator?

One World has been an interesting game to play, but one full of let downs. I’ll continue powering through to see if there is any upside further into the experience, but it not being what I expected from the get-go has created a substantial problem for me, and has impeded my ability to enjoy this experience.