June 28’s Nintendo Direct revealed Harvestella, an upcoming fantasy farming game with similarities to Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Rune Factory 5. Harvestella is Square Enix’s take on the farming and life simulation genre, complete with a combat system. It is set for a November 4 release on Nintendo Switch.

The Nintendo Direct delivered the first-ever trailer for Harvestella which showed farming, combat, and world exploration. This naturally lends to comparisons with the recent fantasy farming sim, Rune Factory 5. The Switch’s leading simulation game, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, is another title with a few elements that overlap with Harvestella.

Related: How Rune Factory 5 Compares To Other Rune Factory Games

The Harvestella trailer shows footage with both a male and female protagonist, which has become the standard in life simulation games such as both Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Rune Factory 5. Harvestella, Rune Factory, and Animal Crossing all also make use of seasons to alter the environment. Although crops aren’t affected by the season in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, they are in Rune Factory 5, which seems likely be the case in Harvestella as well, given its focus on farming. Harvestella also features fishing like both games, and the seasons may affect the fish players can catch like it does in New Horizons. One major change, however, is that Harvestella includes a fifth season, Quietus, which is described as the “season of death,” and may find itself at the center of the game’s story. Like Rune Factory 5, Harvestella appears to be much more story- and character-driven than Animal Crossing: New Horizons, leaning Harvestella closer towards the likes of Rune Factory than Animal Crossing.

Comparing Harvestella To Animal Crossing: New Horizons & Rune Factory 5

Compared to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Harvestella will have crops and cooking recipes from the get-go. Although it’s unclear how far Harvestella will take customization, the primary focus of Animal Crossing is the almost limitless freedom to tailor the player’s home, surroundings, and even their self to their liking. The addition of cooking and crops was welcomed as it adds to the potential ways one can build their island, but it isn’t part of the primary gameplay element unlike in a farming simulator. Even if Harvestella gives players the freedom to customize their farm and home, it likely won’t be even close to the same extent as they can personalize their island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Farming simulators can have more in-depth, RPG-style character customization options, however, so there’s a chance Harvestella will be closer to New Horizons in that regard.

Rune Factory 5 is much closer in comparison to Harvestella because it is predominantly a farming sim. Both it and Harvestella put a fantasy twist on the farming sim genre by including magical creatures and a combat system. Harvestella’s 3D graphics currently look more polished than Rune Factory 5’s, but it still isn’t clear how the combat gameplay will compare. Like most farming simulation games, it’s practically guaranteed that Harvestella will have relationship building of some sort, which potentially means there could be an option to enter a romantic relationship with certain NPCs. Whether any such romanceable NPCs will be limited by the player’s choice of protagonist, however, may be another matter; Rune Factory 5's marriage candidates allow players to marry any of the eligible NPCs regardless of their protagonist’s gender, which is a huge step forward for the genre. Unfortunately, it isn’t guaranteed that Harvestella will follow suit, although there’s plenty of time before its November release date for more information on the subject to be revealed.

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