Natsume made a surprise announcement before E3 2017 with the reveal of a new Harvest Moon game. What made it even more surprising was that the next game in the long franchise was coming to PC and Nintendo Switch.
Harvest Moon fans were giddy to get their hands on the upcoming title and I got some extended gametime with the new Nintendo Switch game.
There’s a bunch of things I saw and, as someone who never played a Harvest Moon game before, was intrigued by some of the mechanics and details from the upcoming farm simulator. I had a lot of questions for the Natsume workers giving the demo and they gave me some insight into how the upcoming Nintendo Switch game works and what makes it different from other Harvest Moon games.
Here are five things I learned from Harvest Moon: Light of Hope at E3 2017.
5. Loading Screens Need to Be Cut Down
While playing through the E3 2017 build of the new Harvest Moon, I noticed that it took a long time to load. Also, loading screens took longer than usual to disappear. This is not necessarily a huge problem but whenever you go through a different part of your town a loading screen pops up.
Cutting down the load time will make this game way more seamless and hopefully Natsume can do so because it is a bit of a detriment.
4. Touchscreen
The Nintendo Switch version of Harvest Moon: Light of Hope implements the touchscreen very nicely. You can access menus and travel around your town using the touchscreen.
However, players will have to be careful where they touch because you may be forced to stand and watch as your character walks to the pointed area without any way to stop it. It could be a bit frustrating when it happens.
I suggest sticking to the control pad to move and use the touchscreen to access your bag.
3. Plant Mutations Are Easier To Achieve
Mutations in plants was something that threw a wrench into how Harvest Moon players farmed their crops. Once in awhile, one of the crops would grow to be a mutation. For example, a mutated cabbage will grow as a red cabbage.
However, this process was seemingly totally random but in Light of Hope players can actually figure out how to achieve these mutations regularly. I was told during the demo that each crop will give a hint as to how to get them to mutate and it’s up to the player to figure it out.
2. Bachelors and Bachelorettes
Every Harvest Moon game allows the main character to romance a bachelor or bachelorette and Light of Hope isn’t any different.
There are five bachelors and five bachelorettes to choose from in Harvest Moon: Light of Hope so once you meet them all, you can choose who you want to romance.
1. Predictive actions
A big new feature in Harvest Moon: Light of Hope is how much easier it is to perform tasks. In the past, players would have to go into their bag, equip a tool and then perform an action before unequipping the tool.
In Light of Hope, simply by pressing the B button will automatically perform a task like cutting down a tree or breaking down a large stone without having to dig through your bag.
This saves a ton of time, although you may want to be careful on how you use this tool. Often times during the demo I ended up tearing up the grass because the aiming was just a bit off.
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope releases for Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC later this year.
So what do you think of the upcoming Harvest Moon: Light of Hope ? Do you think this title is perfect for the Switch? Sound off in the comments section below.
