Harvestella: The end is here

 

 After 85 hours of play, I’m done with Squeenix’ take on the farming-meets-RPG genre. I was barely starting to feel a bit of gaming fatigue; I could probably have gone on, had I not reached the ending and experienced the usual concomitant drop of will to play. 

 

 

The money balance got better in the late stages, to my utter delight; and it would probably have gotten even better over time. From what I’ve seen, it follows an somewhat exponential progression: the early stages are unbearably hard and slow, but money starts to roll in after certain steps are taken, and keeps rolling faster and faster. 

 

 

 As far as I’m concerned, the turnaround happened after I cleared the Astrum Helix Research Facility. I harvested a lot of Promised Fruit Saplings from foes and foraging spots and could create a big fat orchard. Promised Fruits can be harvested every other day and all year round, which allowed me to produce a crap ton of jams and get plenty of decent money by selling them. I invested in pens, woolums and cluffowls; the latter produced milk and eggs on a daily basis, which I transformed and sold. I bought more saplings, woolums and cluffowls with my earnings, produced more transformed goods, and reaped more money; and I could easily have kept that loop going, earning always more and cramming my farm to max capacity. 

 

 

Long story short: Harvestella is not a perfect game by any means, but it’s a game that I really enjoyed. It’s gorgeous as heck, and it offers a unique ethereal atmosphere and a slow pacing that’s deeply soothing. And now, on to the next one!