Game On!! Harvest Moon: Light of Hope

Welcome back to another Game On!! Saturday, I’m going to be looking at the new Harvest Moon: Light of Hope this week!

Release Date: May 29/18

Platforms: Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC (Steam)

So, I did get this game for both Playstion 4 and Switch. I know… I just happen to be a LITTLE obsessed with Harvest Moon games, and there hasn’t been a good one in a LONG TIME! … but, I had some serious “HOPE” for this one! (I crack myself up!!)

I tried both copies, but all pictures were taken from the Playstation 4 version.

This will just be a short review to get you started in the game, and let you know first impressions. I’ll put up another post later with further thoughts if things go to the wayside. I will say right now though, they seem to have really gone back to their roots and cleaned up their acts!!

They changed the premise of this one, I am not inheriting my Grandfather’s Farm as in 90% of the old ones. Instead, I have washed up on the shore of an island and, of course, when I decide to stay they just GIVE me a farm!! (because that happens ALL THE TIME in real life, right??)

Their Lighthouse hasn’t worked for a long time and this has caused many of the Villagers to move away. My task is to get it going again by finding stone tablets around the Island that will light it up….

THIS is where I started to get worried. I had played for about 2 hours and I already had 2.5 of the Stone tablets when, by the looks of it, I only need 5. I am hoping there is more to it, or they slow down on allowing me to come across these tsblets!!

The point of the game is to fix up this town so the villagers will move back to make it a thriving metropolis once more!!

Now, on to the gameplay!!

One thing I really liked about this game is that when you walk up to something and push the action button, it automatically selects the implement you will need! Walk up to a fresh plot of land? It will pull out your hoe. A tree? It will pull out your axe. The BEST one is if you walk up to a weed, you pull it out AND IT DISAPPEARS!!! For any of you who played the old ones you will remember how annoying it was to pull a weed and have to them either ship them, or throw them on the ground to get them out of your inventory! They put an end to that!!!

I do love that they still have the skewed logic and fanciful plot lines I’ve always known and loved. I traded a single cabbage, for an axe… That seems fair!!

I also walked into a house and there was a single small child on her own in the house. Her mother walks in and all she says is “Hello stranger in my home with my child daughter, and who might you be?” *big smile* okay, so maybe I just got the Who might you be?” and the big smile. But, I’m a STRANGER in your HOUSE with your CHILD!!!

But, I digress…. going back to the gameplay, the one BIG, HUGE, MONSTROUS thing is… the clock stops when you are in a building and in menu!!! This may not mean anything to you first timers but, the game goes day by day and there is a clock that ticks through the day as you are playing. Businesses open and close at certain times, you need to ship out your crops by certain times, etc. There were some of the newer versions of these games where time wouldn’t stop no matter where you went or what you did. Now, I know that sounds LOGICAL “But, Nicole, time doesn’t stop when I walk into a building in REAL life, why should it in a game??” Well, sometimes you need to take a breather and think about things, and you need somewhere to do it! It’s nice to pop into a building and take your time deciding on what to buy, or to chat with villagers without wasting your day!

Also, in true Harvest Moon fashion, it is much more lucrative to mine than to farm… but, how is that different from any other Harvest Moon!

All in all I am, so far, giving this game a solid 4/5