Harvest Moon Light of Hope Special Edition Review Game Informer
Hope this i's good…
While some of the games in the serial have for some reason appeared exclusively on other formats, Harvest Moon has been closely linked to Nintendo over the years.
From the original game appearing on the SNES, but most every Nintendo system (with the exception of the Wii U) received a Harvest Moon game of some kind. Only the chronology of the serial is a bit more complicated nowadays – the Story of Seasons IP is made by the aforementioned squad as previous titles and that is considered the continuation of the original series, while the Natsume squad who retained the name rights of Harvest Moon opted to continue that line going separately with a new timeline of games, of which Light of Hope is a office.
This Special Edition of the title is the only ane Nintendo fans get – though there is also an amazing collector's edition which takes the massive shape of a barn and includes pins and other goodies. The non-special edition was released previously on other formats, merely Nintendo fans getting the special edition means that they'll become the majority of the DLC included. There'due south still an extra flake you lot tin choice up from the eShop, however.
The story goes that a terrible storm has ravaged the island and shut most of the island's businesses as it forced the owners to flee. You lot have found yourself unconscious on the island, where you're discovered by one of those who have remained and somewhen end up being given a function of farmer on the island. You'll need to harvest to raise funds and plunder for materials in order to fix upwards all of the damaged business premises and encourage civilization to render. The titular Low-cal of Hope comes in the form of the isle'south lighthouse – retrieve plaques to power up the light on each floor and yous'll concenter more than islanders dorsum to your town.
The thing to be mindful of is that in order to be successful in Harvest Moon, you're going to need to have some serious hours set aside to dedicate to it. Information technology'due south not simply a case of being able to carry out equally many quests as you possibly tin can in the space of ane in-game day – you have a happiness meter which you need to keep an middle on in social club to avoid total exhaustion for your character. Every form of transmission labour in the game, from mining for materials to chopping down copse, will swallow abroad at that metre. You can replenish your metre somewhat past consuming some of your harvest crops, but really you want to exist saving these for selling, every bit all of your money is pretty much self-generated. Y'all need to balance building up materials with raising money, which adds days to your gamble as ofttimes you lot'll observe yourself with a case of needing to spend coin to make money.
At that place are a lot of gameplay elements at play within Harvest Moon, from the adventure – exploration of heading out and uncovering new areas of the map, to the bonding with non-playable characters, some of whom yous might be able to form romantic relationships with. As a result, at that place's a lot that you accept to cram into one in-game day, as failing to speak to someone or neglecting to water your crops volition set up you lot back in terms of how long it'll take for your hard work to yield some fruits. You've as well got to work on clearing the way for farming state: destroying rocks, pulling upward weeds and chopping down trees to ensure a smooth landscape that allows you to get some sort of organisation to your planting of seeds and turning your fledgling farm into a well-oiled motorcar that the major supermarkets would be proud of.
But things could have been ironed out more to make the experience feel less of a grind. Earthworks for materials in the mine is incredibly fourth dimension consuming, and at that place'southward no visual differences to distinguish each of the ores that y'all tin discover. For a repair mission early on, it was a necessity to acquire a lot of iron ore to convert into iron for a building material. With the blazon of ore y'all become seemingly completely at random, it took days to go the right amount of material, and it felt like a grind, with no real entertainment value to it whatsoever. Information technology didn't assistance that attempting this will use up all of your happiness meter of the twenty-four hours if information technology doesn't yield what y'all were looking for, and then when you're down to your concluding sliver on the meter, information technology'south a very repetitive trek all the way back to your subcontract to sleep and residue upward ready to do the same matter the next day.
Visually, this has got to exist 1 of the most basic Harvest Moon games yet. Character models look like they might have appeared in a Wii title; the development squad have clearly tried to go for a simplistic and clean look, merely in the age of Stardew Valley and Story of Seasons, it but comes across as light. The music, though, is lovely – a soothing and relaxing melody which matches the slow pace of the game, though information technology certainly isn't something that nosotros've never seen before in the Harvest Moon series, of course. Sound effects are considerably more bones, though – exactly the aforementioned bug noises nosotros're used to in games like Brute Crossing, and the action effects are generally irritating and repetitive. Simply nada is more annoying than the low-wellness beep, which beeps you all the way home.
You lot find yourself preferring the rainy days, when there is no need to water any of your crops, freeing upward time to endeavour and get on with the other boring storyline arcs. But, without also many spoilers, in that location'south non really enough of a pay-off. You tin upgrade your tools, including your axe and hoe, which allows you to utilize them on tougher materials, but it'll be a long time in before you're able to do this due to the amount of money the upgrades cost, permit alone the time information technology takes y'all to get all the materials together.
If you can bargain with slow-paced farming sims, which take a long, long time to deliver their plot, there'southward something for you here. Those with less patience and those looking for something a bit more visually stimulating should go elsewhere.
Harvest Moon: Low-cal of Hope Special Edition
Summary
Ho-hum-paced, full of grinding and quite ugly, this Harvest Moon isn't for everyone. If you enjoy the genre you'll go something, just others won't have the patience.
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Source: https://switchplayer.net/2018/09/24/harvest-moon-light-of-hope-special-edition-review/