Harvest Moon: One World Reviews
At the heart of Harvest Moon: One World is an interesting twist on farming sims, but its bland, soulless world kills all potential.
If you're looking for the next Stardew Valley, this doesn't even come close. Harvest Moon: One World is a poor imitation of what the series once was, and it feels more like a rushed mobile game than a full-fledged Switch game. These games have always been about chores, but this one feels like a chore to play. In our opinion, your money is better spent on something that respects you as a fan of the genre.
It could have been the long awaited turning point for the series, but Harvest Moon: One World, despite some good ideas, is a weak and not very exciting farming simulator.
Review in Italian | Read full review
This new iteration of the escape-to-the-country fantasy replaces all that was charming about earlier versions with an average adventure game
Harvest Moon: One World turned out to be an extremely weak project that is of interest only to the most loyal fans who are not afraid of disappointment.
Review in Russian | Read full review
A half-hearted, boring attempt at a farming RPG, Harvest Moon: One World does nothing especially well. Even though it does show some initial promise, it quickly squanders that on poor farming mechanics, a bland open-world and lifeless characters.
Harvest Moon: One World is quite fun when played for the first 20+ hours. However, the lack of relatable characters definitely stands out here. The game also stumbles after completing the story to pull me back into the game for a long play session.
Aside from a few limitations and exclusions in the mechanics department, Harvest Moon: One World is an exciting addition to the famous series from Natsume Inc. Dozens, if not hundreds, of hours can be spent befriending town residents, taming wild beasts and being a good farmer so the world can prosper and people can eat more than just potatoes. Different landscapes and climates provide region-specific crops and creatures that expand beyond the basic types initially available, adding variety throughout and beyond the main story - not to mention the house decoration mechanic and wardrobe to expand with new clothes. The invention of shrinking the farm buildings at the touch of a button makes it easier to build and manage a vast farm empire that benefits the entire world. This is one for every farm sim fan to check out.
Harvest Moon: One World is ultimately forgettable and limited, but I didn't regret my time playing it. Perhaps that is simply because I'm such a fan of these anime-casual farming sims, and have been since the "genre" emerged all the way back on the SNES, but as someone who has played an awful lot of these things, One World's effort to do something different by getting you to travel around, and the streamlining of the farming mechanics so you can focus on the best bits, is admirable. There's still a long way to go for Natsume and its development teams to catch Story of Seasons, and I question the wisdom in releasing this game to compete directly with the upcoming new entry in that series, but this is still a genuinely pleasant little world to lose yourself within for a while.
Harvest Moon: One World has a clever thought for an investigation-centered cultivating game, however then sets that thought in an unfilled, tedious world.
Harvest Moon: One World is an unfortunate attempt to get this series onto Nintendo Switch. With its bad optimization, bad pacing, and overall weak presentation, it's definitely not among the good farming sims.
Review in Czech | Read full review
You can already hear out that Harvest Moon: New World is simply not good. That wouldn't be so bad if the video game wasn't really bad. It has little in common with Harvest Moon. Even if you leave out the famous name, you're left with an overly expensive game that does little to nothing to engage. You could possibly put small children in front of Harvest Moon: A World, but since the voice output is missing, even this target group will get bored at some point. At least it is enough to walk around with the analog stick and press "A". After all, the correct action is always performed. I just couldn't get anything out of the game. You can turn off the music and listen to your favorite music, but even then the gameplay is not convincing. A full price title should deliver much more. Even for 9,99€ I would be cautious to buy Harvest Moon: One World. All other games in this genre are better and cheaper.
Review in German | Read full review
If you’ve always wanted to try out a Harvest Moon title, then Harvest Moon: One World is a great entry point. As I can attest, no prior knowledge of previous games is required. So go forth, farm, and save the world, one crop at a time.
The world is colorless, without imagination, boring and quite small
Review in Greek | Read full review
It is a game that I recommend to play if you are looking for a break from other more dense games, or why not, so that the little ones in the house spend a lot of hours playing caring for animals and crops.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
It is baffling how a franchise more than a dozen titles in, would suffer from such unusual and strange game design decisions as those found in Harvest Moon: One World. This is unfortunate, given how the premise tries its hardest to intrigue, and its aesthetic is somewhat enjoyable (with a glimmer of a unique gameplay feature here and there for good measure). Unfortunately, it is overshadowed by an overall gameplay design that simply does not work. In a way the charming nature of the game makes sense: it is an indie title meant for the occasional pick up every time someone has a free minute or two to spare. Tackling the game head-on, however, with the misconception that it is a true simulator, thus having in-depth gameplay beyond the huge lore dump at the start; will leave gamers with nothing but seedless disappointment.
Harvest Moon: One World is a game that is weak against its rivals with its structure reminiscent of mobile games. It's not bad, but it's definitely not a $ 50 game either.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Harvest Moon: One World tries to keep the classic basics of the series by adding some important innovations such as the ability to move your farm, giving much more importance to exploration, and streamlining some farming mechanics, making the game faster in some situations. What doesn’t fully convince is the graphic and technical side of the title which at times is bare and uninvolving in its settings, with the team that could have implemented a few more details in the different areas to explore.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Harvest Moon: One World isn’t part of the long standing series of games that went on under the name Story of Seasons in the West some years ago. Nevertheless, it focuses on the same game idea and audience. While I’m not sure it’s a good idea to seek competition with Story of Seasons by releasing in the same month, I did like my time in One World. Is it as good as as Story of Seasons games? No it’s not. In comparison the world feels empty and the characters a bit flat. The dating scene could use some sprucing up too. But judged on its own by this farming simulation fan I can honestly say I enjoyed it. The developers tried out some novel ideas, like the Expando-Farm. And not having to bother with scrolling through your pocket for the right tool: the game always does the right action at the right time. An excellent range of various crops and a new way to get your seeds. The farming itself really felt fresh to me. So even though I wonder if the price point isn’t a bit high and the opinions on the internet vary quite a bit on Harvest Moon: One World I must say it kept me playing for quite some hours. But I want to add, keeping my comments above in mind, the game should have been offered at a significant lower price point than the competition’s game.
Fans of the series will quickly find in Harvest Moon: One World that the glamor of the previous day is unfortunately gone. Farmer's life is surprisingly monotonous and boring with little detail, graphically outdated and playfully flat. The five different regions provide a bit of relief, but due to the shallow action and tasks they can hardly motivate over a longer period of time.
Review in German | Read full review