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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 very good farming sim sport, however does 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 truly… enjoyable.
The story is similar previous, usual: the Harvest Goddess disappears after some catastrophic geographical occasion, and it is as much as us to revive her and the world by 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 may need to dismantle the partitions, befriend the Sprites dwelling inside them, and revitalise the cities inside, principally by finishing numerous fetch quests. The story does not make a lot of sense — everybody may be very chill about getting separated from their households for a decade — but it surely’s ok to get began with.
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For those who’ve performed the earlier video games, then you definately is perhaps excited or disenchanted to listen to that the mutated and seasonal crops are again, in addition to the necessity to gather seeds from Harvest Wisps hidden on this planet. Someway, 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 may additionally uncover uncommon crops, fish, tree fruits, and tameable animals by exploration, in addition to mines, each offering distinctive metals and ores that you’re going to 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 great things is. Smaller circles imply rarer ores, and medium-sized circles could possibly be something from ore, to a ladder, to a gap that’ll drop you a couple of flooring at the price of stamina. The grind is nearly fascinating sufficient to make up for the boring and repetitive mine interiors, and with lots of of flooring to get by (plus a checkpoint on each tenth ground), it will take you some time to resolve each.
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In comparison with mining and exploration, farming and animal husbandry take fairly a backseat. Many 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 getting cash. Nope! The crops promote for a pittance, and fishing is vastly extra profitable. So, cooking, then? Properly, the stamina meter within the sport empties fairly shortly, 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 an alternative 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 are able to 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”. Severely? That is feeling dangerously like busywork once more, Natsume.
We’ve 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 only 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.
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That overwhelming selection additionally applies to animals, too. You’ll be able to tame horses (boring), or you possibly can journey zebras, camels, and dinosaurs; you may get a cat as a pet, or tame a wild ferret as an alternative. Chickens are boring, why not get an Araucana, or ditch all of your cows for a Bengal Tiger? It helps that each 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. Affected by a case of same-face syndrome right here and there, to make sure, however we would nonetheless marry them… if we had any time. The large 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 present them a single apple once we could possibly 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 tougher. Unlocking new animals and areas, in addition to fast-travel factors, offers each a motive for and a technique to journey around the globe. Later areas are onerous to get to, and generally even require particular gadgets to outlive the warmth/chilly, but it surely retains the problem going.
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Sadly, the problem ramps up considerably. Quests preserve requiring obscure gadgets like Platinum and Excessive-High quality Lumber with out telling you ways, 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 dangerous on their very own, however once they begin occurring IN A HORSE RACE, making you lose first place, you may wish to make a name to the glue manufacturing unit. 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 realm. And when you get to the volcano space, you may 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 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 Pals of Mineral City or Stardew Valley till it develops its personal distinctive model additional and irons out a couple of of the wrinkles that make the sport a slog. It is so shut, although, for the primary time in ages… and that is really 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 a lot 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 correct course, establishing Natsume’s voice eventually in a crowded market. This is hoping the subsequent Harvest Moon goes even tougher.