Harvest Moon: Light of Hope Review (PC/PS4/Switch)
Today I make a review of the latest Harvest Moon title, Harvest Moon: Light of Hope. I've been trying to play this game long enough and I am still on my way to make some guides about it.
This is my impression when playing this game. This review could be changed with the addition of new features in Harvest Moon: Light of Hope in the future.
Hopefully, it represents everything I feel when playing this game.
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope Review
I will include some aspects of this review, particularly the Gameplay, Features, Storyline, Controls, Graphics, and Background Music.
The Gameplay
In terms of gameplay, I think it's pretty good for fans of farming simulation games, although I actually don't like PC games with a 2D top perspective.
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| Graphics in Summer |
I deeply appreciate the size of the land to grow the crops. Moreover, there is a new system in addition to growing crops according to the season, we must also consider the types of soil.
However, there are several things I want to criticize:
The gameplay is a little bit monotonous at the beginning because we are required to repair the structures and buildings continuously. So, there is less variation in the main purpose.
But if you play it long enough, the gameplay will be more interesting and make you enjoy the game.
Some cutscene that happens is a little forced, many events can happen on rainy days, and all of them cannot be skipped. If we don't pay attention to the dialogue, then we will be confused looking for the next quest.
And for some reason, the movement of the camera is too stiff. The 3D character with a 2D perspective is not a good combination.
When compared with Harvest Moon games developed by Yasuhiro Wada and his team from Marvelous is far from good. Like you know, this not as good as Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, Hero of Leaf Valley, Animal Parade, and others.
Because this game looks like a merger of Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories and Skytree Village.
Score: 7/10
The Features
I see almost all the basic features of Harvest Moon games, such as:
- Interact and befriends with villagers
- Farming
- Crop mutations
- Raising animals
- Mining
- Fishing
- You can decorate your farm with fences like HM: BTN/FoMT, but better.
- Gifts system
- Collecting nature's bounty (Foraging)
- You can get Married (5 bachelors and 5 bachelorettes for PC)
- You can have a child
- Etc
I think this is one of the best things about this game. But, Harvest Moon is stuck with the same features over and over in recent years. So it needs something new to compete and attract the attention of today's gamers.
Missing features and recommendations to be added:
- Part-time jobs (not requests from villagers)
- Married with the Harvest Goddess (available on the Special Edition).
- More interesting contests and festivals
- Make my spouse and child do something.
The addition of customizing the main character, married with more than one wife/husband, and dungeon with a combat system that has so many do the exploration, I think will be enough to boost back the popularity of Harvest Moon.
Oh wait, please make the villagers walking, don't make them suddenly disappear like ghosts. I think this was one of your biggest mistakes in some Harvest Moon games you develop, Natsume.
Score: 7/10
The Storyline
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope story is about an island hit by a storm a few years ago and many villager houses were damaged. Here it is your duty to repair the houses and restore the Lighthouse to make the Villagers return to the island.
Any dialogue with the villager will lead to the story above. Unfortunately, this dialogue was overwhelmingly spiced with unimportant talk. Sometimes, I skip this dialogue which makes me pay less attention to the background story of the villagers.
The story is quite okay compared to some Harvest Moon that has no story at all. But it's too short and no better than Harvest Moon: Innocent Life and Rune Factory.
Score: 6/10
The Controls
It's still playable and easy to use for players, but the Keyboard will be less useful, except for walking because everything will be easier if you use the mouse.
A one-click mouse can do all the things in this game, including; walking, interacting, collecting resources, and do the farming jobs without having to change the tools.
Score: 6/10
The Graphics
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| Graphics in Spring |
I personally don't like the graphics of Harvest Moon: Light of Hope, particularly the graphics in the Spring. The art style is really bad.
But the graphics of the characters are still pretty good and look cute when they start the dialogue. You'll get used to the graphics after the Spring ends.
I prefer pixel art graphics like HM: BtN and FoMT, more than graphics that are too cartoonist. The colors are too striking like farming simulation games on Android.
If this Harvest Moon was only released for the mobile platform, perhaps the graphics could be tolerated. But this also for the next-gen platforms such as PC, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4.
Score: 4/10
Background Music
Harvest Moon was known for its catchy music and really nice to be heard. For Harvest Moon: Light of Hope itself, the music is not so bad, it's just the feel is less there. Maybe because I'm still not familiar with the BGM.
The Harvest Moon series that I think has the best BGM i.e Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, A Wonderful Life, and Innocent Life.
Score: 6/10
Conclusion
After I've played this game long enough, not for hours, but days. In my opinion, Harvest Moon: Light of Hope is pretty recommended to be purchased in terms of some aspects that I have explained above.
In my country, the price for the PC version on Steam is around $10 USD, I think it's cheap enough.
If you are a fan of Harvest Moon or farming simulation games like me, then there is no harm if you try to play this game. At the same time to support the Developer.
If you are in the US or Europe, I'm sure many of you will give a bad review because you bought it from Steam or other game shops for $29.99 USD. I understand that because the price is too expensive and it has Stardew Valley as the competitor.
Overall, this game is actually quite fun and not so bad, except the spring graphics are the worst and the price is too expensive (on USD). I suggest you don't judge this game just because you only saw the trailer or played for 2 or 3 hours only.
The total score I can give for this game is 6/10 for PC and 7/10 for better controls and additional features on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
Read also: Harvest Moon: Light of Hope for PS4 and Switch, Secret Things You Probably Didn't Know