Dedicated exclusively to third-party publishers, the last Nintendo Direct Mini Partner Showcase allowed Square Enix to communicate on its news. Between the next Dragon Quest Treasures, the remake of Live a Live or the port of the famous Nier Automata on Switch, the studio took the opportunity to unveil a new title: Harvestella .
It is through a short video that we discover this new game halfway between a role-playing game and a life simulation focused on agriculture . As its name suggests (“Harvestella”, “Harvest” meaning to harvest), the title takes us to the peaceful village of Lèthe where the inhabitants live in harmony to the rhythm of the four seasons.
Plowing, sowing, cultivating and harvesting will be your main agricultural occupations between the different exploration phases in which you will have to find various materials and ingredients necessary for the realization of the famous recipes and face many monsters. Each season punctuates your activities and agriculture. But now, these seasons are governed by a giant crystal that maintains this fragile balance. Nevertheless, the season of death, the Quietus, awaits the slightest weakness. A real scourge that threatens all forms of life, the main plot will revolve around this disturbing phenomenon that the protagonist will have to face to overcome this mysterious threat.
Although this style of play is not really new: we think particularly of Rune Factory or the Atelier saga, Harvestella seems to want to stand out from these competitors with a beautiful artistic direction as well as a gameplay straight out of Final Fantasy. We recognize the paw of the Japanese publisher who also echoes the words of Yosuke Matsuda , President of Square Enix, in an interview given to Yahoo! Japan.
In the latter, he explained that it was not necessary at all costs to imitate the style of Western titles even if these were intended to be exported throughout the world. One thing is certain, it is that Square Enix does not seem to know the word “rest” as the projects are numerous and varied and especially on the Big N console that the studio seems to want to exploit at most.
