Monster Harvest [Xbox]
After a rough start plagued with multiple delays, and then finally being launched, only to be marred by a variety of issues and bugs, Maple Powered Games’ Monster Harvest is finally here and working as it should. It’s a title we’ve been kinda sitting on for a while, so to speak, as we quickly got buried under lots of games to review - and figured we’d wait with this one and see how it fares after any patches have dealt with the issues. It’s a farming sim combined with a monster tamer - a Stardew Valley x Pokémon crossover of sorts - and with that being right up our alley, we didn’t want to run the risk of losing our game saves into the ether; as this was one of the many issues afflicting it upon release.
You start by naming both your player, as well as your farm, and selecting from the available appearance options. Once you begin, you will receive a letter from your Uncle, Professor Spark, inviting you to take over his farm for him, as he plans to dedicate more of his time to science. He has discovered a way to create animals out of plants; naming these creatures Planimals. After quickly being brought up to speed on how to look after the farm - maintaining it as well as planting new crops - you’ll be let loose. At the end of each day, you are given a run-down on how you did, with things such as the crops you’ve planted, things you’ve put up for sale via the Consignment board, and more.
You can grow normal crops to sell, as well as utilise in crafting - or you can add different types of slime in order to turn these crops into planimals. Managing your farm is fun, as you can craft fencing to have your farm laid out exactly as you want it; chopping trees and breaking rocks for supplies, and you can build a Barn to house Livestock, separately to your planimals, as well as a Stable for Mounts. You’ll gain seeds through battles, as well as buying them from vendors, and learning the different outcomes for combining certain seeds with slime will allow you to gain a decent collection of creatures. As well as the standard crops, you can create hybrids, which will lead to greater returns when selling, as well as different planimal options. You can only have one of each planimal type with you at any time, so any extras will be relegated to your Planimal Pen back at your farm, until the active one(s) meet their demise in battle.
Visually, it has a very cute, chunky pixel style, with detailed environments that are like an explosion of colour. The characters, whether your own playable character or any of the NPCs found in the world are fairly generic looking, and they don’t really serve much purpose aside from a bit of idle chit-chat. The planimals are simple, and adorable, but sadly it doesn’t give you much reason to care about the planimals you raise. Dying is part of the whole process of raising planimals as you’ll gain Heartslime with each fallen friend, with which you’ll be able to increase the quality of the soil back at your farm, leading to higher levelled planimals being grown. This is an interesting mechanic as whilst you don’t have that Pokémon-style loyalty to your first ever planimal, you know that with each sacrifice, your future brood will be stronger. There’s different seasons that will affect which planimals you can grow, as well as different weather effects, such as rain, that may help you keep your crops well-watered, without needing any stamina.
Stamina is a big factor in Monster Harvest, with pretty much everything you do costing you stamina - so making sure to upgrade items and install things such as the Irrigation System as soon as you are able to will make a big difference to how you manage each day. You can regain some stamina by eating, as well as going to sleep; but whenever you sleep you should always choose the option to sleep until Evening, rather than the next morning, as this not only replenishes some energy but will allow you to continue any tasks for a short time, as well as giving you access to the dungeon (which only opens at night), and to catch some exclusive fish. The world gets slightly spooky at night, with the normally upbeat music and chirping birds evolving into a darker tune peppered with creepy noises and howls.
Overall, we’re glad we waited a little before getting into Monster Harvest, as the issues that cursed it upon launch seem to have been dealt with. There’s a lot to learn about Monster Harvest, and managing your (initially low) inventory, as well as experimenting to create a wide variety of planimals is fun; with over 70 variations available, but it does still feel like it could be fleshed out further, and things such as the combat feel a little lacklustre compared to the mechanics we’re used to seeing in other games with these typical battles.
Monster Harvest is a decent enough game if you’re looking for something in the vein of Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon crossed with Pokémon; heck, the references to Pokémon are clear, with NPCs named Ash, Misty, and even a health clinic worker named Joy. There are a bunch of updates coming soon, including updates to the UI and menus, as well as changes to the Planimal system, and in-game story, so we’re looking forward to seeing how it all pans out once that has all been implemented. If you’re interested in playing, you can find it for £14.99 on the Xbox Store.
In the end, we decided to give Monster Harvest the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.
Have you played Monster Harvest yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Merge Games for the Monster Harvest Xbox review code!
