During the Nintendo Treehouse Live event, we got to see quite a bit of Harvestella gameplay. The features look to be quite fun, the visuals are adorable, and the gameplay looks thrilling.
What is Harvestella?
Harvestella is an exploration action sandbox game, where you awake with amnesia and have no idea who or where you are. You will need to explore, collect and rebuild your little farm into a thriving base. You will begin to uncover what disaster took place that caused you to lose your memory, and meet some very helpful friends along the way.
What We Saw in the Harvestella Showcase
Right off the bat, we saw a number of farming features, where you can plant seeds and wait the allotted time for the crop to grow. You also get to water the plants with a pretty neat watering wand to keep them happy and healthy. As you wait for your crops to sprout, you can head out into the world and explore what it has to offer. We see there are resting points where you can replenish your health and stamina. Stamina is used up by attacking or running, and you will also notice you have a stomach meter alongside the stamina meter. If you cook and eat meals to keep your tummy nice and full, your stamina will regenerate automatically as you travel.
Time is a very important component in this game. You have a clock in the top right corner of your screen where you will track the time of day. As it gets later and later, you will need to make choices about what to spend your time on. Make sure you make it home before it gets too late, or you risk passing out and losing quite a bit of progress.
The combat style of Harvestella is a bit like Genshin Impact, where you see four abilities in the bottom right of the screen. The attacks seem flashy and visually intriguing, which is the typical style for a game like this. Make sure to monitor your stamina while you fight and explore, or you can completely deplete your bar and pass out, returning you back home.
We also see some of the items out in the world. The player picks up a shiny mushroom that she thinks is something good to eat, but we soon find out it was a bad mushroom. The effects of eating this caused her to lose stamina, so that means some edible items may have positive or negative effects. You also will gain gathering points on your map once you collect a material out in the wild, so you can return to those points later to continue to reap those benefits.
Other items and resources to collect include stone and ore, star crystals, crop seeds, lumber, and treasure chests. More so, you will see fishing spots all around the map where you can kick back, relax and collect some fish! Once you are done exploring, you can use a return bell to get back to your home instantly. In order to use this bell, you will need to craft one yourself. Each return bell can only be used once, then it will be destroyed, so make sure you craft multiple. If you don't have any bells, there are fast travel waypoints for you to discover as well, so make sure to find as many as you can to save time.
After collecting all of these precious items and resources, you will see that you have a shipping box back at your home. This box can be used to sell items, but it does take one day to sell each item placed into the shipping box. This is a great way to collect money to upgrade your home and farm. To spend those hard-earned coins, you can head to the village and find yourself a general store. The shop is home to seeds, armor, and equipment you can use during battle. The town also has blacksmiths where you can upgrade your weapons, merchants that sell farm upgrades, and a doctor to give you a checkup as well.
Harvestella will be available on Steam and Nintendo Switch on November 4, 2022.
