Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home (Nintendo Switch 2) Impressions
I absolutely love the Harvest Moon franchise, but recent years has seen the franchise take a hit as Natsume has released less than stellar farming experiences. Things changed a bit with Winds of Anthos, which I thought was actually better than the Story of Seasons counterpart, but after playing a bit of Home Sweet Home on my Nintendo Switch 2, I cannot help but think perhaps this was an unnecessary cash grab from Natsume.
Let me be clear, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home is by no means a bad game, and I do think that if you really want it and are ready to shell out more than double what this game costs on mobile, I’m sure you will enjoy your experience. Home Sweet Home was originally built for mobile devices, and while I do think the game is actually better and easier to play on a console, it was a pretty solid release when it launched last year on iOS and Android. I played it quite a bit, and while getting from A to B was a bit harder than I wanted, it was the perfect game to play for a few minutes, and then put down.
At it’s core, this is a very simplistic Harvest Moon experience. The large story and multitude of characters present in the last console release, Winds of Anthos, is not present here, and for good reason: this was never meant to be a massive, Harvest Moon experience; that, I think, is coming. As has become standard in Harvest Moon titles, everything is mapped to A. You hoe with A, plant with A, water with A, harvest with A, pet animals with A, etc. In a cozy experience like Harvest Moon I’ve actually come to appreciate this simplistic mechanic, and while it might be a big negative for some, I’m actually a pretty big fan.
The core concepts of Harvest Moon are all here. You’ll pet animals, keep them inside when it rains, raise crops, help villagers, etc. All of the help you provide villagers fills up a jar that, when full, will push your story forward. I do believe things have expanded a bit from the mobile version with more map to explore, and according to steam, perhaps a scooter to ride later. But all of the add-ons feel empty and hollow, like there is more land mass, but not necessarily more to do. And this game desperately needs a solid mini map!
This all comes down to price, in my opinion. Right now, on sale, I can purchase Winds of Anthos from $35-$40 on Amazon, and even brand new on the Canadian eShop, the game is only about $65. Home Sweet Home, on the other hand, which offers a much less robust experience, is selling for $49.99 on the eShop. For me, it’s hard to recommend Home Sweet Home when, worst case scenario, you can have a much better Harvest Moon experience for about $15 more (not on sale). There are things to love about Home Sweet Home, including new characters, new areas to explore, upgrades and paths you might not have seen before, etc. But if we are looking at this purely as a bang-for-buck situation, Winds of Anthos can be had cheaper, and offers way more in terms of depth and amount of game to experience. I think at a slightly lower price point, Home Sweet Home becomes an attractive option, especially for those who have beat Winds of Anthos already. I just think that at the end of the day, this is priced a bit higher than I would like to see.
If you own an Android or iOS tablet, I highly recommend picking this up on mobile, though! That price point feels almost perfect, despite some control issues.
Article By Adam
