Harvestella is a Farm Life Sim/Action RPG released for the Nintendo Switch and PC in 2022. It's developed by Live Wire and published by Square Enix.
In the world of Harvestella, the four seasons are governed by four giant magical crystals known as the Seaslight; when the Seaslight shines down upon part of the world, that part experiences that season. However, the world is also plagued by a "season" known as Quietus. During Quietus, the air is filled with a toxic dust that poisons humans and kills certain non-hardy plants. When Quietus descends, the people lock themselves inside their homes until it disappears.
One day, a young person finds themselves wandering around outside during Quietus with no idea how they got there... or even why the Quietus is a bad thing. They're rescued by the local doctor, Cres, who discovers that not only do they not remember anything, they seem curiously unharmed by the normally dangerous Quietus dust. The mayor of the local village, Lethe, offers them a small house to stay in while they try and recover their memories, and suggests they take up farming as a hobby while they recover.
And then almost immediately, a giant crystalline meteor with a spaceship inside crashes into town, and out stumbles a strange young woman named Aria who's clearly even less from around here than the player is.
Thus, the player and Aria begin an uneasy friendship as they both embark on their new life, in a world that's equally unfamiliar to both of them. However, they quickly realize that not all is well: Something odd is going on with the Seaslight, and if it's not dealt with, the whole world will be in danger...
This game contains examples of:
- Action RPG: The combat is fully real-time, and consists of using basic attacks and skills.
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Inverted. The far-away towns tend to sell certain seeds for less compared to Lethe, corresponding with the season their Seaslight is tied to. It may not be much less, but when your average profit margin is around 20 Grilla per day per crop at first, it adds up.
- After the End: The game takes place in the 48th century, two millennia after the Earth's environment collapsed.
- Amnesiac Hero: The protagonist doesn't remember where they come from or how they ended up in Lethe, nor do they remember basic details about the world, like the existence of Quietus.
- Amusement Park of Doom: Nostalgi-Town, an abandoned park as part of the dungeon Phantasmagoria. It was conceived when the citizens of Lost Gaia were despairing at the world's destruction, so they created a theme park to replicate and relieve their kinder days. Nowadays, it's a worn-down park with hostile monsters, out-of-control robots, and an AI touched by past Aria's kindness that it goes crazy into doing its job trying to relieve her of the outside world's cruelty.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: As the last Cain alive not in hibernation, Aria is given the role of Harbinger and command over the Omens. Once you defeat her, that authority is transferred to the protagonist instead. They seemingly give it back after the final boss, though, as Aria is made the official leader of the Omens.
- Big Bad: Gaia is the source of the Quietus, trying to wipe out humanity due to believing that they wish for death.
- Big Good: The Girl in White who wakes the player up at the very beginning of the game, and then appears to them occasionally throughout. She is actually ReGaia, the AI of the planet itself, who heard mankind's wish to survive and committed herself to protecting them from Gaia.
- Bonus Dungeon: Quietus will allow you access to Karenoid, accessible from the old well, and will last as long as the limited season permits. Should Quietus be neutralized for good, Karenoid will be accessible permanently, no longer needing the season of death to activate.
- Boring, but Practical: Mountain Stir-Fry won't win you any awards for flavour or variety, but it's cheap, it's fast to make, can be produced from nearly the start, and it'll get you 50% of your Stamina back — as well as filling your belly for a little bit of stamina regeneration. So if you're replanting your farm, grinding weaker monsters, or just fishing all day, it'll definitely keep you going. Berry juice is similar, but just for health.
- Cain and Abel: Gaia is the Cain and tries to kill the party, cynically believing humanity is doomed to destruction and squandering every opportunity given them. ReGaia is the Abel that helps the party, being optimistic about humanity's future and is confident that they can keep improving over time.
- The Church:
- The Seaslight Order in the Holy Capital Argene. The priests receive messages of the Holy Mother about disasters that will plague those who do not believe in her, nor hold the Flos Indulgentia charm. This is the Hallowed priest Kierkegaard's doing, using an ancient robot to predict natural disasters to convince the citizens to wear the Flos Indulgentia, capable of brainwashing them so he can control the city and later devour them. After the events, it becomes more of a Saintly Church.
- It's later revealed the Order was founded by yet another robot, who oversaw humanity causing violence among themselves during its conception. The robot decided to pose itself as the Holy Mother, giving humanity the basic teachings learned from past religions to become more empathetic to each other.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Deconstructed and exploited. There is no royal family who locked themselves within Castle Lewis; this was the result of humanity wanting a royal figure, but deciding to believe in rumors of there being one. The Omens, fascinated by this belief, decided to leave the project of creating royalty to lead humanity unfinished, while using Castle Lewis as their base of operations under the guise.
- Developer's Foresight: If the main story needs to progress, but the next day or so will be under Quietus, the characters involved will tell the player to instead wait until the season is over to continue.
- Door to Before: At various points in the dungeons, ladders become available. They take an in-game hour to repair, but they're invaluable in getting to and fro, or at least better than taking the long way around again if you can't get to another warp point in time.
- Earth All Along: Aria first assumes that she's a time traveler who wound up in the Earth's past. This turns out to be a subversion. Lost Gaia is the actual Earth, having become a "dead star" 2000 years after Aria's time thanks to the Red Queen raining destruction all over. ReGaia, the world most of the game takes place in, was once visited by Earth in the far past, evidenced by Chapter 8 in Heine's story.
- Fairy Companion: The Fairies of the Seaslights will help you around the farm when called upon. Juno will also pop in from time to time when needing to translate vocally.
- Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: Downplayed. The crops in the game are said to be cultivars grown in the various regions of the world. Some of them look very like real-life vegetables (like Dress Lettuce, which is simply named for its lacy leaves), but others are more bizarre (like Carrops, carrots with rabbit-like ears).
- Fantastic Racism: The humans don't trust the robot-like Omens, who they believe will try to "cull" them. Since one of your earliest party members is an Omen, it becomes quickly obvious that the Omens aren't evil; merely very different from what humans understand.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Modern scientist Aria believes to be from the future and is trying to find a way back home, with the protagonist helping her out through an era of magic. She's only partially right. She's not from the future, she's from the Earth's past.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: During the cutscene where we see Aria's investigation into the Red Queen, a girl in black appears for an instant as she falls unconscious.
- From Bad to Worse: The already dangerous "season of death" Quietus is getting longer every year to the point that humanity may go extinct if nothing is done. Yes, this affects gameplay. If a year passes by without resolving it, Quietus will extend by an extra day.
- Gameplay Protagonist, Story Protagonist: The main story events are all driven by Aria, and she takes the lead in all plot conversations. Your PC simply shadows her most of the way, and is most notable for being able to resist Quietus.
- Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: Or at least, it pays minimum wage. While hitting the dungeons will net the player a tiny number of Grilla, enough to get started if they somehow have to begin from scratch, it's farming and fishing which really fills the wallet... gradually. One is likely to get much more from turning in food to an inn, at least at first.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Most of the Omen the player meets in earlier chapters are just trying to fix what's wrong with the world, repairing ecosystems and even trying to cure hay fever. Unfortunately, their methods are suspect because they just can't quite get humans, they don't really have any advocates willing to give them a chance, and it isn't helped when there are some Omen who really aren't doing good...
- Humans by Any Other Name: The Omens refer to humans as "Abels." This is because they are the humans of ReGaia, while the humans from Lost Gaia are "Cains."
- Hyperactive Metabolism: Your only ways to heal for most of the game are consuming food and drinks, which instantly heal Health and Stamina. While you can't eat any more food if you're full (which still allows you to eat at least four huge meals in a row), not only do drinks not fill you up but they heal you instantly, meaning you can consume an entire stack of them in a moment (handy for healing in battle without opening yourself to attack).
- Interface Spoiler: A certain character has their Relationship Values locked to the story, so when they leave the party for a moment, it will stay at that point until they return. This should clue you in that not only can Aria return after defeating her, but her Character Story being unfinished means you'd have to object to a Sadistic Choice to both progress the main story and her Character Story.
- Meaningful Name: Lethe was the name of the river of forgetfulness in Greek Mythology, while the village Lethe is where the amnesiac hero wakes up.
- Putting aside the later-seen Emo (who is, well, emotional, and for very good reason), the very first party member the player joins forces with is Dianthus, an Omen whose name refers to a genus of flowering plants, typically a deep pink. In the classical language of flowers, her name means 'boldness', which suits her personality well.
- No Hugging, No Kissing: In contrast to other Farm Life Sim games, which frequently have Romance Sidequests to pursue, this game has a deliberate focus on platonic relationships with the people in the game world. After beating the game, you can get a character you've maxed your friendship with to move in with you, but it's quite deliberately framed as a non-romantic partnership.
- Relationship Values: Several characters have these. You either talk to them or give them the requested items to progress, and doing so gives you party bonuses, along with some rare items.
- Rocket-Tag Gameplay: Notably for an action RPG, there is no ability to dodge or block, no way to heal without using items (except from the Woglinde's fourth skill and Emo's special attack, with the first being a slow regen effect and the latter only usable against bosses and minibosses) and monsters will often ignore your teammates to gang up on your main character. As a result, the main strategy is to just dole out as much damage as possible before the enemies can wear you down too much.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Subverted as their Intelligence Division is the branch doing all the hard work, with the royal family supposedly locked up for an unknown reason. Turns out to be averted as the royal family doesn't exist. Humanity simply believed they did, and the Omens exploited it by turning what was meant to be a castle for such into their base.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Often after major events the Castle Lewis Intelligence Division sends out a missive stating that something odd happened but everything is fine and no one should approach the Seaslight. Needless to say, as the characters get involved in more and more events it becomes obvious that things are not actually fine.
- Take a Third Option: To get the best ending, when asked to choose which race of humans will survive, Cains or Abels, instead choose to leave the room and renounce the decision. When you're then forced to choose one or the other, go back on your selection and decide to rid the world of Quietus instead.
- Take Your Time: You are in no rush to solve quests even when there's a threat impending. Even moreso after unlocking The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, where Geist activates a barrier to protect the world from Quietus warning you that it will only hold for a brief time, but you can (and are practically forced to) take several days clearing out the Stellar Nursery without the matter becoming any more urgent.
- Trapped in Another World: Aria is pretty heavily implied to be from Earth; in one of her first conversations, she asks what calendar this world uses, and namedrops the Gregorian system.
- True Final Boss: You can only access The Very Definitely Final Dungeon and face Gaia if you Take a Third Option and choose to rid the world of Quietus instead of the Cains or Abels.
- Violation of Common Sense: You're reminded constantly that Quietus is a dangerous season to walk outside in, but nothing's stopping you from leaving your house and checking up on your farm, even if there's not much to do. While you won't suffer any ill effects due to plot-related reasons, you can also explore the Quietus-only dungeon Karenoid by visiting the old well in Bird's Eye Brae.
