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’s so near being a actually good farming sim recreation, however would not fairly handle to hit the mark. However, for the primary time within the turbulent and complicated historical past of Natsume’s Harvest Moon video games, it is truly… enjoyable.
The story is identical outdated, standard: the Harvest Goddess disappears after some catastrophic geographical occasion, and it is as much as us to revive her and the world via the ability of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’ll need to dismantle the partitions, befriend the Sprites residing inside them, and revitalise the cities inside, largely by finishing numerous fetch quests. The story would not make a lot of sense — everybody could be very chill about getting separated from their households for a decade — however it’s ok to get began with.
If you’ve got performed the earlier video games, then you definitely is perhaps excited or disenchanted to listen to that the mutated and seasonal crops are again, in addition to the necessity to acquire seeds from Harvest Wisps hidden on this planet. Somehow, in Winds of Anthos, this beforehand tedious busywork is definitely an attractive cause to discover the large map — and it has been improved, too, with map tags and markers for particular seeds making them a lot simpler to seek out. You’ll additionally uncover uncommon crops, fish, tree fruits, and tameable animals via exploration, in addition to mines, every one 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 provides 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 attention-grabbing sufficient to make up for the boring and repetitive mine interiors, and with a whole lot of flooring to get via (plus a checkpoint on each tenth flooring), it’s going to take you some time to unravel every one.
Compared to mining and exploration, farming and animal husbandry take fairly a backseat. Most 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 considering that crop-growing was all about creating wealth. Nope! The crops promote for a pittance, and fishing is vastly extra profitable. So, cooking, then? Well, the stamina meter within the recreation empties fairly shortly, it is true, however the meals recipes do not actually get good till the mid recreation, 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 affords a frankly overwhelming choice of extremely particular crops? We can settle for the distinction between onions and purple 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”. Seriously? This is feeling dangerously like busywork once more, Natsume.
We have but to essentially discover a compelling cause 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 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 can tame horses (boring), or you possibly can trip zebras, camels, and dinosaurs; you may get a cat as a pet, or tame a wild ferret as a substitute. Chickens are boring, why not get an Araucana, or ditch all of your cows for a Bengal Tiger? It helps that every one the animal designs are truly cute, too — extra in keeping with 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. Suffering from a case of same-face syndrome right here and there, to make sure, however we might nonetheless marry them… if we had any time. The enormous map and the plethora of issues to do make marriage a much less engaging prospect — like we will maintain burning treasured daylight schlepping again to Judy or Neil to offer them a single apple once we might be doing one thing else that makes us cash? Nah. We’re single farmers for all times.
In the late recreation, issues get each simpler and far, a lot more durable. Unlocking new animals and areas, in addition to fast-travel factors, provides each a cause for and a technique to journey around the globe. Later areas are arduous to get to, and typically even require particular gadgets to outlive the warmth/chilly, however it retains the problem going.
Unfortunately, the problem ramps up considerably. Quests maintain requiring obscure gadgets like Platinum and High-Quality Lumber with out telling you the way, or the place, and even when to seek out them (as many gadgets 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 taking place IN A HORSE RACE, making you lose first place, you will wish to make a name to the glue manufacturing facility. Not with the ability to stroll over small ledges is an outdated design determination, and many 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 possibly can’t unlock the map with out first coming into the world. And when you get to the volcano space, you will curse whoever got here up with the thought 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 well Natsume’s finest effort but. It deserves to be counted amongst the plethora of fairly first rate farming video games. But Natsume cannot hope to achieve the heights of Friends of Mineral Town 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’s so shut, although, for the primary time in ages… and that is actually value 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. But for as soon as, this latest recreation is a step in the precise course, establishing Natsume’s voice finally in a crowded market. Here’s hoping the subsequent Harvest Moon goes even more durable.
