Harvest Moon: One World

Aside from a few limitations and exclusions in the mechanics department, Harvest Moon: One World is an exciting addition to the famous series from Natsume Inc. Dozens, if not hundreds, of hours can be spent befriending town residents, taming wild beasts and being a good farmer so the world can prosper and people can eat more than just potatoes. Different landscapes and climates provide region-specific crops and creatures that expand beyond the basic types initially available, adding variety throughout and beyond the main story - not to mention the house decoration mechanic and wardrobe to expand with new clothes. The invention of shrinking the farm buildings at the touch of a button makes it easier to build and manage a vast farm empire that benefits the entire world. This is one for every farm sim fan to check out.

Harvest Moon: One World is the result of mixing a great fantasy adventure with farm managing elements. It is not a masterpiece as such, but it will be of the preference of both farming simulator lovers as well as those who want to get a first taste of the genre.

Harvest Moon One World lives up to its name and lets players travel through a world with different climate zones and challenges. There are countless plants to grow, which creates the typical farming pull very well. It would be a good game if quest givers didn't just fade away and someone would put more effort into the graphics.

Harvest Moon: One World revolutionizes the series with the portable farm, but it also has many flaws.

Natsume tries to go forward on the series taking a few risky decisions. Sadly not every decision taken is correct and that makes the game a bit shallow compared with previous games on the franchise.

One World stays faithful to the series: once again you’ll need to slowly build up your farm and improve relationships with the neighbors. “Slowly” is the keyword here: the process is so monotonous, it takes a particular kind of gamer to enjoy Harvest Moon. [Issue#253, p.64]

Harvest Moon: One World introduces the fun new mechanic of moving your farm around, and it’s made the controls quite smooth. However, the simplified story and static characters could have adult gamers losing interest quickly. A good game for younger audiences.

Harvest Moon: One World is a farm management game that can be improved. It has some good ideas, like the possibility of being a nomadic farmer and taking our farm anywhere, but its technical issues and simplicity make it not stand out on Nintendo Switch.

At first glance, Harvest Moon: One World isn't very attractive graphically, but it's still a good farm game. All the features you'd expect are there and even if the landscapes are still very poor, the game offers a good storyline with several regions to explore, seasonal events and some nice improvements like teleportation. This new Harvest Moon game will certainly delight the franchise's lovers, but remains a light version of what we could expect in 2021.

Harvest Moon: One World is ultimately forgettable and limited, but I didn't regret my time playing it. Perhaps that is simply because I'm such a fan of these anime-casual farming sims, and have been since the "genre" emerged all the way back on the SNES, but as someone who has played an awful lot of these things, One World's effort to do something different by getting you to travel around, and the streamlining of the farming mechanics so you can focus on the best bits, is admirable. There's still a long way to go for Natsume and its development teams to catch Story of Seasons, and I question the wisdom in releasing this game to compete directly with the upcoming new entry in that series, but this is still a genuinely pleasant little world to lose yourself within for a while.

It could have been the long awaited turning point for the series, but Harvest Moon: One World, despite some good ideas, is a weak and not very exciting farming simulator.

A vast world characterized by different ecosystems and the turning point intended to introduce an exploratory component into the series collide with a deficient artistic and technical sector.

Harvest Moon: One World is a game that is weak against its rivals with its structure reminiscent of mobile games. It's not bad, but it's definitely not a $50 game either.

Harvest Moon: One World is quite fun when played for the first 20+ hours. However, the lack of relatable characters definitely stands out here. The game also stumbles after completing the story to pull me back into the game for a long play session.

Harvest Moon: One World has a few good things going for it, but ultimately it’s a disappointing entry in the farming RPG genre.

Harvest Moon: One World is the latest game in the Harvest Moon franchise. It can be relaxing but it feels like it’s stuck in the past. We would definitely recommend to wait for a discount.

At the heart of Harvest Moon: One World is an interesting twist on farming sims, but its bland, soulless world kills all potential.

A half-hearted, boring attempt at a farming RPG, Harvest Moon: One World does nothing especially well. Even though it does show some initial promise, it quickly squanders that on poor farming mechanics, a bland open-world and lifeless characters.

While the changing biomes and surfaces are a nice idea, the core with its simplified farm labor is presented too lackluster and monotonous.

Harvest Moon: One World turned out to be an extremely weak project that is of interest only to the most loyal fans who are not afraid of disappointment.

This new iteration of the escape-to-the-country fantasy replaces all that was charming about earlier versions with an average adventure game.

Harvest Moon: One World feels like an unfinished release that could have been so much more but is as uninspiring as its flat, empty landscape.

Harvest Moon: One World left me wanting more. As I played, I kept waiting for things to get better, but nothing ended up exciting me. Even some of the more interesting storylines in certain town quests were overshadowed by how tedious others were, not to mention the absence of any feelings of progression given that tools can't be upgraded to make life easier. When I thought about other similar games, I wished I were playing them instead. I think it's safe to say that you won't miss out on anything by skipping this entry in the Harvest Moon series. When it comes to farming- and life simulator games, you'll definitely find better games on the Nintendo Switch.

While there is an attempt to bring some much-needed innovation to the series, One World feels too bland, too uninteresting, and it can't capture our attention for long enough. With its vague and drab world, plain characters, and simplistic, repetitive mechanics, One World fails to bring the Harvest Moon series up to contemporary standards.