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chuckroThe second game in a series that merges a Japanese comic book series with the latest variations of Harvest Moon into a jrpg mess.
I’m not familiar with this series at all and actually didn’t realize this was a direct sequel when I bought it, but the prologue summarizes the first game neatly so that wasn’t a big deal. At first, you might be tricked into thinking this is a kid’s game. And in terms of game mechanics, it kind of is. Your characters gain levels and improve skills, but you don’t really seem to have control over that. The general plot sequence seems to involve finding a magic lamp, then fighting through the short randomly-generated farm plot dungeons until it lights up. But it’s not actually easy—the limited amount of strategy available in battles doesn’t mean you can just put your characters on auto, you actually need to pay attention to positioning in case something goes badly. And you need to grind to limit the potential for things to go badly.
Added to that are farming elements—you till the earth, plant seeds and water them, and vegetables grow. (You can also mine, fish, and catch bugs.) Unfortunately, this melds badly with the need to go questing all over the map, because you can’t fast-travel to your farm and pick the vegetables and the farming elements have very little impact on the adventuring progress. And I don’t really find pseudo-3D farming fun—I find it much more difficult to make sure I’m pointing my character at the right place than in a 2D farming sim.
Maybe the plot and characters just didn’t hit me at the right time, but they stuck me as shallow and derivative—the dialogue is nothing special, there’s nothing particularly exciting in the plot. Oh, and because the dungeons are all procedurally-generated mazes, there aren’t any noteworthy puzzles in them.
Overall: I tried very hard to give this a fair shake, but it just didn’t do it for me. It tries to meld multiple genres in a way that doesn’t really work, in a story that didn’t pull me in. Not recommended.
I’m not familiar with this series at all and actually didn’t realize this was a direct sequel when I bought it, but the prologue summarizes the first game neatly so that wasn’t a big deal. At first, you might be tricked into thinking this is a kid’s game. And in terms of game mechanics, it kind of is. Your characters gain levels and improve skills, but you don’t really seem to have control over that. The general plot sequence seems to involve finding a magic lamp, then fighting through the short randomly-generated farm plot dungeons until it lights up. But it’s not actually easy—the limited amount of strategy available in battles doesn’t mean you can just put your characters on auto, you actually need to pay attention to positioning in case something goes badly. And you need to grind to limit the potential for things to go badly.
Added to that are farming elements—you till the earth, plant seeds and water them, and vegetables grow. (You can also mine, fish, and catch bugs.) Unfortunately, this melds badly with the need to go questing all over the map, because you can’t fast-travel to your farm and pick the vegetables and the farming elements have very little impact on the adventuring progress. And I don’t really find pseudo-3D farming fun—I find it much more difficult to make sure I’m pointing my character at the right place than in a 2D farming sim.
Maybe the plot and characters just didn’t hit me at the right time, but they stuck me as shallow and derivative—the dialogue is nothing special, there’s nothing particularly exciting in the plot. Oh, and because the dungeons are all procedurally-generated mazes, there aren’t any noteworthy puzzles in them.
Overall: I tried very hard to give this a fair shake, but it just didn’t do it for me. It tries to meld multiple genres in a way that doesn’t really work, in a story that didn’t pull me in. Not recommended.
