Monster Harvest is a monster-raising game developed by Maple Powered Games and published by Merge Games should be seen as a unique offering.Monster Harvest is a monster-raising game developed by Maple Powered Games and published by Merge Games should be seen as a unique offering. With its fun and addictive blend of life farming and dungeon crawling RPG stylized gameplay, it proves somewhat easy to get lost in its deceptive large world. From the beginning Monster Harvest gives you the feel of its monster gaming roots. Your uncle is a scientist and he’s has allowed you to leave your unfulfilling big city life to help him in the country life. Upon arrivial he gives you a plot of farmland and a house of your own just outside the town. He then fills you in on his greatest scientific discovery which is plant based creatures known as “Planimals”. These goo-born creatures are the result of experiments using mysterious colored oozes on various forms of plant life. You won’t be able to just hop in and start farming Planimals though as your inherited land has been left unattended for quite some time. You’ll need to remove the various unwanted items from your farmland before you till it to lay down your crops. Rocks will break open with your pickaxe and you’ll harvest lumber with an axe and water your crops with a watering can after tilling your land. There’s an energy meter that drains after each activity. When this meter is depleted, you’ll have to either eat food or rest in your house to get it back. You’ll also only be able to recover your entire energy bar by sleeping overnight unless you stock up on food and eat. While these activities reward experience and leveling up allows you to learn how to build new things for your farm it does make the game feel less about growing your farm and more about planning your time. Planning your days ahead of time will become second nature and you’ll learn to separate your activities between the daytime and the evening to get the most out of each day. When you learn about the mysterious multi-colored slimes that can do everything from turning your plants into Planimals to growing them to full-size instantly, the game begins to go even faster. Combined with the items you find while exploring the world, the ones you’ll sell for money at your acquisition board, and the ones offered at the shops around town, it’s easy to find yourself planning several days in advance. As the days go by, you learn more from your time in the town. Each character has their own quirky personalities and a Stardew Valley feel while speaking to them and faces accompanying the text based dialogue. They also change based upon the time of day you visit the town and some will even give you different information depending on when you talk to them. This makes the world feel more alive after being among the citizens for a few days and unlocking new paths around town. The heart of Monster Harvest lies in the dungeon crawling though. Once during the evening of each day you’ll be able to enter the dungeon beyond the town. The dark cavern is home to not only rare materials that can’t be found on your farm, but also dangerous monsters that won’t hesitate to attack you. This is where your Planimals shine most and go into battle against enemy monsters, which are always out to attack you. Planimal battles are turn-based and each Planimal learns new moves as they level up and grow. This can make exploring the dungeon too early in the game overly brutal, as each Planimal will only have one move at the start. The deeper you explore, the harder the enemies will be to defeat so you’ll need to retreat often if you want your monsters to survive. When one of them dies you will be able to use their remains to upgrade your farm, which eases the pain of permanently losing them. While Monster Harvest makes a slow first impression like most games in the genre, many intricate systems are quick to show themselves through mistakes you might make. This gives the game a feeling of variety and Monster Harvest offers tons of variation for how you choose to play. With a charming pixel world full of fun and colorful town characters and Planimals to experience and grow with, Monster Harvest is sure to please any fan of the genre so if you are a fan, be sure to head over to the Xbox digital games store and pick Monster Harvest up for yourself. You won’t be disappointed with this new release or its bang for your gaming budget.… Expand
