If the ‘Uncanny Valley’ is the time period for one thing being almost-human-but-not-quite, then Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos is within the Uncanny Stardew Valley. It is so near being a actually good farming sim sport, however would not fairly handle to hit the mark. Nonetheless, for the primary time within the turbulent and complicated historical past of Natsume’s Harvest Moon video games, it is really… enjoyable.
The story is similar outdated, usual: the Harvest Goddess disappears after some catastrophic geographical occasion, and it is as much as us to revive her and the world via the ability of farming. The twist right here is {that a} volcano erupted, and Ms. Goddess determined to construct a bunch of partitions round all of the villages, thus each defending them and isolating them in a single fell swoop. You will need to dismantle the partitions, befriend the Sprites dwelling inside them, and revitalise the cities inside, largely by finishing varied fetch quests. The story would not make a lot of sense — everybody may be very chill about getting separated from their households for a decade — however it’s ok to get began with.
In case you’ve performed the earlier video games, then you definately is perhaps excited or disillusioned to listen to that the mutated and seasonal crops are again, in addition to the necessity to accumulate seeds from Harvest Wisps hidden on this planet. In some way, in Winds of Anthos, this beforehand tedious busywork is definitely an attractive motive to discover the big map — and it has been improved, too, with map tags and markers for particular seeds making them a lot simpler to seek out. You will additionally uncover uncommon crops, fish, tree fruits, and tameable animals via exploration, in addition to mines, each offering distinctive metals and ores that you will want to finish quests and unlock upgrades.
Mining is fairly surface-level in Winds of Anthos — hit rocks and dig soil to seek out stuff — however dowsing with the ‘B’ button offers you a highlighted radius of the place the good things is. Smaller circles imply rarer ores, and medium-sized circles might be something from ore, to a ladder, to a gap that’ll drop you just a few flooring at the price of stamina. The grind is nearly fascinating sufficient to make up for the uninteresting and repetitive mine interiors, and with lots of of flooring to get via (plus a checkpoint on each tenth ground), it will take you some time to unravel each.
In comparison with mining and exploration, farming and animal husbandry take fairly a backseat. A lot of the story quests require supplies discovered within the mines, with the occasional onion or turnip right here and there, so you’ll be forgiven for pondering that crop-growing was all about earning money. Nope! The crops promote for a pittance, and fishing is vastly extra profitable. So, cooking, then? Effectively, the stamina meter within the sport empties fairly rapidly, it is true, however the meals recipes do not actually get good till the mid sport, so that you’re higher off simply scarfing 20 apples as a substitute of cooking one thing.
So, what is the purpose in farming, then — particularly when the sport provides a frankly overwhelming collection of extremely particular crops? We will settle for the distinction between onions and pink onions, however why on earth are carrots and child carrots separate? They’re the identical factor! Ditto with crops like celery and spicy celery, or wheat and “tall wheat”. Severely? That is feeling dangerously like busywork once more, Natsume.
We now have but to actually discover a compelling motive to farm, however with sprinklers and fences to guard our crops from storms, it hasn’t actually been an excessive amount of work to simply do it anyway — particularly when a number of of the farms on the map (which you’ll be able to swap between at any level) are locked into a selected season, letting you simply develop seasonal crop mutations.
That overwhelming selection additionally applies to animals, too. You’ll be able to tame horses (boring), or you may journey zebras, camels, and dinosaurs; you may get a cat as a pet, or tame a wild ferret as a substitute. Chickens are uninteresting, why not get an Araucana, or ditch all of your cows for a Bengal Tiger? It helps that every one the animal designs are really cute, too — extra according to the bubble cows of the previous than the uncomfortably reasonable designs of previous video games. And that is what all of us need, is not it?
Oh, and the NPCs are cute, too. Affected by a case of same-face syndrome right here and there, to make certain, however we would nonetheless marry them… if we had any time. The massive map and the plethora of issues to do make marriage a much less attractive prospect — like we’ll preserve burning valuable daylight schlepping again to Judy or Neil to provide them a single apple once we might be doing one thing else that makes us cash? Nah. We’re single farmers for all times.
Within the late sport, issues get each simpler and far, a lot more durable. Unlocking new animals and areas, in addition to fast-travel factors, offers each a motive for and a technique to journey world wide. Later areas are exhausting to get to, and typically even require particular objects to outlive the warmth/chilly, however it retains the problem going.
Sadly, the problem ramps up considerably. Quests preserve requiring obscure objects like Platinum and Excessive-High quality Lumber with out telling you ways, or the place, and even when to seek out them (as many objects are season-specific). The frequent body drops everytime you’re in your horse (or zebra, or unicorn) are unhealthy on their very own, however once they begin occurring IN A HORSE RACE, making you lose first place, you will need to make a name to the glue manufacturing unit. Not having the ability to stroll over small ledges is an outdated design choice, and a lot of the map exploration will revolve round looking for the on-ramp to a little bit of land with out the map, as a result of you may’t unlock the map with out first coming into the realm. And when you get to the volcano space, you will curse whoever got here up with the concept of constructing a maze that is darker than the within of your eyelids and twistier than a pirouetting Flump.
All in all, regardless of the problems, Winds of Anthos is definitely Natsume’s finest effort but. It deserves to be counted amongst the plethora of fairly respectable farming video games. However Natsume cannot hope to achieve the heights of Associates of Mineral City or Stardew Valley till it develops its personal distinctive type additional and irons out just a few of the wrinkles that make the sport a slog. It is so shut, although, for the primary time in ages… and that is actually price one thing.
Conclusion
You almost certainly know that Harvest Moon has been pants for some time now, and Story of Seasons hasn’t been significantly better. For these of us who’ve been burned earlier than by Natsume’s underbaked choices, we weren’t anticipating greatness from Winds of Anthos. However for as soon as, this latest sport is a step in the suitable route, establishing Natsume’s voice eventually in a crowded market. This is hoping the subsequent Harvest Moon goes even more durable.
