At first, I found this kind of frustrating because I felt like it diminished the bonding aspect between me and my planimals, but the fact that it does play back into the whole farming aspect is what saved it. When this happens, you’ll need to collect their spirit, which can then be planted on the same crops to yield higher level planimals. When it comes to battling, Monster Harvest is a pretty standard Pokemon-like experience, with the caveat of monsters actually dying if they lose all their health. will be the baddies in this little creature collecting farm sim, and uncovering their dastardly deeds will be part of the bigger picture in Monster Harvest. In fact, you’ll even have the opportunity to fight SlimeCo.’s boss at the gym, but you’ll have to go through other NPCs first. Every Pokemon game needs its Team Rocket, it seems, and Monster Harvest is no exception. Not everything is so quaint and placid at Planimal Point, however also to the north of Planimal Point lies SlimeCo.’s HQ, which seems abandoned at first but you can tell something is definitely going down. After a few in-game days, a smooth habit of tending to the farm during the day and cave spelunking afterwards becomes pretty par for the course, everything falling into a nice rhythm. To the north of Planimal Point lies the caves, which houses plenty of planimals to battle and resources just begging to be mined. Just like any farming sim, there are a fair number of NPCs to interact with, buying goods from their shops and giving them gifts to get on their good side. Of course, it’s not just you and your uncle around Planimal Point, and exploring the little town gets you acquainted with all the little people. They definitely don’t have this sort of thing back home! Your uncle also informs you of the other slime properties, like green slime automatically growing your plants and blue slime turning plants into livestock. Once these sentient beings are harvested, they become your loyal little followers, even battling others that are just roaming around freely at your command. This is actually what your uncle is researching, in fact, because it turns out using red slime on your crops causes plants to turn into little creatures aptly named planimals. As it would turn out, a mysterious slime runs rampant in the area, available in red, green, and blue varieties.
Slooooowly, you start to learn more about Planimal Point - especially planimals. Spark gives you some tools and seeds and tells you to get cracking luckily, farming is surprisingly easy, and after clearing away some branches and rocks, you’re able to till and plant like the best of them. Naturally, you’re the perfect choice to inherit the fields - what with your zero previous farming experience and all - so you’re naturally raring to go. Your uncle, Professor Spark, has invited you to this very new, very tiny town because he’s busy with his experiments and can’t be bothered to run the family farm. Monster Harvest opens up with choosing from one of four available avatars and, after naming your character, arriving at a place called Planimal Point. Released on August 31, 2021, Monster Harvest asks player to “develop your own farm, build, and customise your own house, craft your own furniture, make some delicious jams and mutate your crops to create loyal and fierce companions you can take into battle!” And although it has the makings of a fun, even addicting experience that Stardew Valley and Pokemon aficionados would immediately jump at, its current state is anything but ripe for picking.
On paper, Monster Harvest is exactly what fans of the many aforementioned franchises are looking for.ĭeveloped by Maple Powered Games and published by Merge Games, Monster Harvest launches across PS4, XBox One, Switch, and PC for the reasonable price of $14.44 (regularly $16.99). The mechanics familiar to both the farming sim and creature collecting genres are there, with things like growing seasons, foraging, party members, and hit points to contend with.
Said monsters will follow you around as you venture into caves to explore, fighting other monsters while there. Monster Harvest is exactly what it sounds like - players will tend to their farms, growing a variety of crops and monsters that are then harvested. And when the two come together, well that’s always something to take a second look at, games like Ooblets immediately springing to mind. If you love Pokemon, chances are the phrase “creature collecting” in the very least interests you, games like Nexomon or DokeV piquing your interest. If you’re an active fan of the classic farming gem Harvest Moon, you’ve probably poured dozens of hours into games like Stardew Valley or Littlewood. Monster Harvest still needs a little time to grow