Harvest Moon: Skytree Village

Genre: Management Simulation / RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Harvest Moon: Skytree Village, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2016, is a Management Simulation with RPG elements much as with the rest of the Harvest Moon franchise. This game follows in the footsteps of the prior game, Harvest Moon 3D: The Lost Valley, offering a similar mix of traditional Farming RPG gameplay and mechanics seemingly pulled straight out of Minecraft.

Much as with The Lost Valley, this means that Skytree Village has a presentation using Minecraft-esque boxy 3D visuals, though this time around the game’s 3D characters are less chibi in style and closer to more traditional anime-style designs. I should note that this time around, I didn’t notice the same issues of pop-in that I saw in Lost Valley, so even though the two games are mostly similar in appearance, overall I think Skytree Village is an improvement. And these visuals are backed by a catchy, relaxed soundtrack.

In many ways, Skytree Village feels like a “redo” of Lost Valley, fixing many of the flaws in the first game. There’s once again a mix of the usual Farming RPG and Minecraft-style terrain-shaping, but this time around the pacing is better overall, with players not only quickly enabled to interact with multiple squares at a time, but also day-to-day events seem to be more tightly-packed, making for a more eventful schedule. This game also adds back into the mix a town, something that was strangely missing from the previous game.

There are still some issues here and there, though. It’s still awkward lining up to interact with a specific square, and traversal is still a pain due to the game being steadfast in refusing to let you move past a space with anything more than a small drop. And this time around, the game’s story limits players to only a small portion of the map, with the rest grayed out until you complete certain story goals. What’s more, your capabilities are locked in a similar fashion, even simple stuff you could do right from the start in the prior game, like jumping. These limitations are frustratingly restrictive and limiting, in a game that should have felt expansive and liberating.

Then there’s the other element here, the “deja vu” factor – so much of Skytree Village feels painfully familiar, with a lot of this game feeling like it just recycles much of what was in Lost Valley. And while I appreciate trying to take a second stab at this formula and fixing what the first game failed at, it still feels like a retread, through and through.

Despite that it’s still riddled with problems, Harvest Moon: Skytree Village is still a solid entry in the “Farming RPG” genre that does something fairly unique and original within the genre… well, unique and original if you don’t count the game that immediately preceded it. But Skytree Village is definitely an improvement over The Lost Valley, fixing a lot of that game’s problems, improving the pacing, and adding more variety. It still has other problems, such as its movement limitations and its restrictive game structure, but overall this is a solid Farming RPG that offers something unique even by more modern standards. If you like this sort of game and have a Nintendo 3DS, this Harvest Moon: Skytree Village is worth looking into.

tl;dr – Harvest Moon: Skytree Village is a “Farming RPG” that combines the series’ main elements with terrain-changing gameplay from Minecraft, much like this game’s predecessor The Lost Valley did. However, Skytree Village is a marked improvement over the prior game, fixing a lot of that game’s problems and adding back in content. Unfortunately, there are still a few issues with the controls and game structure, but overall this is a solid game that Nintendo 3DS owners who enjoy the genre will want to check out.

Grade: B-

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