Featuring concept art by Isamu Kamikokuryo (Final Fantasy XII) and music by Go Shiina (Tales series), Harvestella, will let players experience a beautiful world that changes with the flow of the seasons and enjoy a variety of gameplay including tending to crops, befriending townspeople and adventuring into challenging dungeons.

Harvestella is set in a vibrant and colourful world where four giant crystals called “Seaslight” create a stable change between the four seasons. The adventure begins as abnormalities in the Seaslight begin to appear, creating the “Quietus,” a season of death that takes place between the naturally occurring four seasons. During the Quietus the crops wither and people cannot venture outside, and troublingly, these seasons are mysteriously growing longer with each year.

During one particular Quietus, your character - a traveler - collapses in an isolated village. You meet a girl called Aria, who claims to have come from the future and is researching the mysteries of this new, unwelcome season. Thus you and she take the first step on a journey that will reveal the very truth of the world.

We’ve already given you a few glimpses of the game, including what to expect from the areas governed by the Spring, Summer and Fall Seaslight. By our calculations, that means there’s one season left - and it’s pretty cool.

Let’s talk Winter!

Winter location: Holy Capital Argene

Welcome to the Holy Capital Argene!

It’s a religious city covered in snow and the home base of The Seaslight Order. Priests of the Order come to worship at the Divine Cave near Argene, where is where the Winter Seaslight is located. You and Aria visit the Holy City Argene to investigate the Winter Seaslight but are told that only those who have been given the the flower "Flos-Indulgentia" are allowed entry into the Divine Cave. A priest of the Order says that since the Seaslight anomaly, he has been receiving divine revelations. The prophecy of a disaster in the near future has led many of the faithful to seek the Flos-Indulgentia, rumored to mark those who wear them as pure...

Argene has an underground passage, which even the Order don’t seem to know about…

New character: Brakka

Brakka is a mercenary, dressed in black. He fights with a mysterious weapon that sends bullets flying. He’ll take on any request as long as he’s paid, though his price is rumored to be high...

Daily Life: Faerie Orders

Next, let’s take a look at an activity you can undertake in your daily life: Faerie Orders. One day, a fire faerie appears at your home. It seems to have something to do with the Seaslight, and claims that other types of faerie exist too. It says that it will help you work the fields and gives you access to Faerie Orders. You can check Faerie Orders from the Faerie Book in your home. By reporting any orders that have been completed, you’ll earn rewards!

For example, by completing Faerie Orders, you’ll gain the ability to plow large areas of fields at once, or water, sow, and harvest crops altogether! It makes farming faster and easier! You can also level up your fields to increase the probability of harvesting high quality crops. These can be shipped at a higher price or used to make high quality food.

In a previous article (read it here), we explained how you can also grow crops in water and cave biomes. These can be unlocked by helping faeries linked to different Seaslight.

Daily Life: Winter Produce

As with the other seasons, some produce can only be harvested during Winter. Here are some of the crops you can grow during the snowy season:

• Lumpotato
• Snowcap Mikan
• Argene Cabbage
• Chilly Plant

Daily Life: Winter Cuisine

Now here’s the bit you’ve probably been waiting for. More beautifully detailed shots of delicious-looking grub. Don’t look at these with an empty stomach…

• Nkujaga
• Marmalade (processed product)
• Argene Cabbage Stew
• Ice Cream

Adventure: new jobs revealed

You can take on different roles in battle by equipping jobs. The weapons and skills you can use are determined by the job you have equipped.

When you recruit a new character to fight alongside you, you also gain access to their job. Let’s take a look at two as-yet unrevealed ones:

• Avenger: This job excels at delivering physical attacks from a distance. The attribute of normal attacks can be switched between fire and ice when the necessary skill has been unlocked.
• Pilgrim: This is a job that performs physical and magical attacks with a magic sword. You can learn skills that deal wide-ranged attacks or set up fields that cause continuous damage.

Adventure: Break time

Food does more than just give you energy. Eating a meal during an adventure with your party members will sometimes result in a special storyline, as well as better food effects than usual. Depending on the food you eat, you may see an unexpected side to the other characters.

Adventure: FEAR

In some dungeons, you may encounter powerful enemies called "FEAR". These are clearly different to the ordinary monsters roaming around. You won't be able to defeat these formidable opponents if your party is weak, but if you take them down, you may obtain powerful accessories. You may encounter paths that seemingly require you to defeat a FEAR to proceed. However, these can be avoided by taking advantage of the environment and unique elements of each dungeon. Use skills and field effects to your advantage to move forward.

Remember though - you don’t have to wait around to play the game. A free downloadable demo for Harvestella is available now on Nintendo Switch! It lets you play from the start of the story until 15 in-game days pass, or up to when you complete Chapter 2.

Save files carry over to the full game - so everything you grow, and everyone you meet will be waiting for you when you play Harvestella later this year!

In this life simulation RPG, players will grow and tend to crops, use ingredients to cook and craft items, and venture into the overworld, which vibrantly changes based on the season, to visit different towns, interact with townsfolk, go fishing and more. Players can select from various Jobs, such as Fighter, Shadow Walker, and Mage, and venture into dungeons with their party to discover the origins of the world as well as the truth behind the calamity along the way.

Nemea Town, where cherry trees bloom all year round. Shatolla, a seaside town home to a bustling tavern. Lethe Village, resplendent in the vibrant colours of the four seasons. The Holy Capital of Argene, cloaked in snow. Use the world map to travel to all these settlements and their respective dungeons. You will have to traverse beautiful, treacherous paths to reach the Seaslights – four giant crystals that govern the seasons.

Overcome battles by switching seamlessly between jobs during combat – including the Fighter, adept with swift sword techniques, the Shadow Walker, which deals critical wounds with twin blades, or the Mage, specialising in magic attacks. When faced with a mighty foe, skilfully target their weak points to inflict the Double Break state and take them down in an instant!

Harvestella is coming to Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam) on November 4, 2022.