Life Sim RPG Harvestella Will Have Fishing, Seasonal Produce And Character Stories

Square Enix has divulged a bit more details for its upcoming take on the life sim genre, Harvestella. Revealed back in June in a Nintendo Direct Mini, Harvestella has a familiar but different flavour for what it’s called a life sim game.

Unlike similar games of the genre like Story Of Seasons/Harvest Moon, Harvestella has a full-on combat system, with a job system in fact, and a more usual JRPG gameplay loop alongside the usual farming and crafting of a life sim title.

The way you attain new jobs is by recruiting characters with said job. Once recruited, your character can use that same job, allowing access to unique weapons and skills.

One of the jobs in Harvestella is the Sky Lancer. This job has strong physical attacks and can use the power of the wind, and have access to skills with a wide range of attack.

Not only that, you can also form recruitable characters in the form of Character Stories. As you progress, you’ll learn more about these characters and their personal struggles, which translates into combat bonuses. Essentially, similar to the Persona series’ Social Link/Confidant system.

One of the towns you’ll be visiting in Harvestella is Nemea, the town of Spring. The town has an orphanage, where you’ll meet the teacher Istina (who is, judging from the screenshots, is also a potential party member).

During your visit in Nemea, you’ll get roped into an investigation of the sudden monster attacks happening in the town with Asyl, the member of the local town guard the Argus Brigade. And he’s the person you who you can learn the Sky Lancer job.

Aside from the usual JRPG systems, Harvestella will have a lot more life sim elements as you’d expect. For one, there are seasonal produces that you can, well, produce, so farming particular fruits and vegetables will require some forethought with the seasonal changes in mind.

Also, seasonal produce which includes the Namean Tomato, the Wisty Peach, the Cucumble and the Strawbuddy (harvested in Spring) are used to make seasonal cuisine.

Fans of JRPG might be excited or dreaded to know that yes, fishing is part of Harvestella. Your fishing rod can be upgraded to catch rare fish, and depending on where you fish, you’ll catch different fish.

Lastly, all the farm produce can be shipped for money. Shipping raw produces gives money, but building machines that can make processed goods you even more.

Harvestella will be released on November 4 on Nintendo Switch and November 5 on PC (Steam) for Asia.