With a like-to-dislike ratio strongly tilted towards the latter, it’s safe to say that this is not the Harvest Moon people wanted, at least not when it comes to its aesthetic with an awkwardly animated 3D model gliding over a terrain of cheap-looking assets.
It’s worth noting that Harvest Moon: Light of Hope isn’t actually made by the usual series developer Marvelous. In a strange game of legal hopscotch, Marvelous wasn’t able to keep the name of its own series when it switched publishers away from Natsume. Now the long-running series has been renamed Story of Seasons, and it’s distributed by Marvelous’ own publishing company XSEED in North America, while Nintendo publishes it in Europe.
As for the Harvest Moon moniker, Natsume kept the name and has continued to make its own farming sims under the known brand. First there was Talbot’s 2014 entry Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, and now Natsume is trying its own hand at developing duties with Light of Hope.
Not much is known about Harvest Moon: Light of Hope, other than it’s set in a small troubled village where the player character finds themselves shipwrecked, and they must save the town through – what else? – farming.
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope is in development for Switch, PS4, and PC.