Harvestella, the latest release from Square Enix, is part chill farming simulator and part plot-rich dungeon-crawling RPG. The game draws influence from titles as diverse as Stardew Valley, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, the Final Fantasy series, and Bravely Default. One potential source of inspiration for Harvestella is rather surprising: the Persona series' Social Link and Confidant system for bonding with party members. Harvestella allows players to learn the story of each party member -- and two other characters -- through a series of conversation events extremely reminiscent of a Confidant.
The central story of Harvestella focuses on the player character investigating the four Seaslight, enormous crystals that regulate the seasons, to find a way to stop the deadly fifth season, Quietus, which kills people and crops alike. Along the way, the player teams up with characters ranging from the mysterious time traveler Aria to the revenge-driven mercenary Brakka. Each of these characters can be bonded with through a series of ten conversations and, at the end of Harvestella, one can be chosen to romance if their intimacy level has been raised high enough. Character intimacy levels are similar to Confidants in many ways: they develop the character's backstory, provide mechanical bonuses, and can potentially end in a romantic relationship with the player.
Character Stories Feature Both Lore and Battle Benefits
There are ten characters with Character Stories in Harvestella: the eight recruitable party members, the town doctor Cres, and the prideful Unicorn. All except Unicorn are potential romantic options for the player, with no gender-based restrictions placed on relationships. Like Persona's Confidants, Harvestella's Stories tackle meaningful issues that force characters to confront their flaws and change for the better. Dedicated missionary Shrika learns the dark secrets of the religion she has followed all her life, making her question her faith. Asyl and Heine both lose a loved one and process their grief in two very different ways. Even Unicorn, initially presented as a comic relief character, has a touching story when he finds that a mysterious force may have altered his memories.
Bonding with a character in Harvestella isn't just about backstory and motivations. Each time a character joins the party, the player can access their Job. Combat involves the player equipping up to three Jobs at once and switching between them mid-battle as needed. Progressing in Character Stories and raising Intimacy levels is necessary to level up the character's associated Job and unlock new skills. A player will generally not be able to max out the best Harvestella Jobs without reaching at least Level 8 intimacy with the connected character. Although Cres and Unicorn are not associated with Jobs, raising their Intimacy provides the player with rare crafting and cooking ingredients, so a material benefit is still present, much like in Persona.
Harvestella's Character Stories Don't Require Strict Scheduling
One major difference between Harvestella and Persona's handling of character interaction is that Harvestella does not require the player to strictly schedule every day in order to see all character events. In the Persona games, Confidants are only available at certain times, and the player is limited to a single school year, making careful schedule management necessary for a complete run with all Confidants maxed. While Harvestella has a day/night cycle and five seasons that affect crops, the player has as many in-game years as they wish to complete the story, and characters are widely available for events. Characters will additionally send letters to the player indicating that they are ready to spend time together, making it easy to know whose Stories can be progressed at what time.
Harvestella appeals to fans of both role-playing games such as Final Fantasy and farming simulators such as Stardew Valley due to its hybrid gameplay. However, with its Character Stories drawing inspiration from the Confidant system, perhaps fans of the Persona series will also find themselves enjoying Square Enix's latest title.
Harvestella is currently available for Nintendo Switch and PC.
