Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home iOS Game Review – A Great Start, But Still Needs Work

was a really interesting game to trace down before its release. I say that not only since it’s a premium mobile game, but additionally since the reactions of my friends who’re long-time fans of the series went from apathy to interest with every gameplay snippet shown. It recently released on iOS and Android as a mobile exclusive within the Natsume series, and I’ve been playing it for about every week and a half on my iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro for review. It’s a excellent farming simulation game, nevertheless it’s currently held back by a number of issues.

Many fans of the Marvelous series of games have been around for the reason that SNES or N64, but I only really got into it on the 3DS with . At the time, I had no idea concerning the name change and that the Marvelous releases could be called Marvelous, while Natsume would use that name from then on. I’m explaining this now because I don’t need people to get confused about what it’s, and likewise to inform you my history with the series before I get into my feelings about ($17.99).

If you’re latest to farming and simulation games, it takes you back from the town to a peaceful village where you fish, farm, interact with a bunch of NPCs, attend festivals (which you might have to unlock), and even discover a companion. The village of Alba, your latest home, is dense and comfortable (sorry, but I needed to), and I’m glad it’s not an enormous open area, because those are inclined to end in a whole lot of empty spaces relating to simulation games. If you’ve played a whole lot of this genre, consider this one, which focuses more on the characters and has a bit of less depth relating to farming.

After a brief tutorial explaining the fundamentals of movement and a little bit of farming, you unlock the map and primary menu, allowing you to avoid wasting your game almost anywhere (this may be very vital for mobile games). This is where you begin trying to finish quests for NPCs, upgrade tools, gather, mine (this unlocks a bit later), and naturally, farm within the primary chapters of the sport.

The more I played, the more I spotted that the creators understood what makes life and farming simulation games great, but in some ways they fell short. They may appeal to newcomers to the genre, but those that have played many recent games will find them lacking. The potential partners are probably the weakest aspect. They simply aren’t as interesting as other games within the genre. If you do not care about that aspect, it’s a reasonably well-rounded entry within the genre.

From a life simulation enthusiast’s perspective, the approach seems different. While other platforms are spoiled with a plethora of games from developers big and small, we don’t see a lot of those on mobile, but that doesn’t make up for a few of the flaws here, especially at a much higher price point. I feel it’s a really solid base that developers can construct on to the purpose where it’s an ideal fit for PC and consoles. The only “mobile” aspect for now’s the touch control option.

Visually, performance and cargo times aside, which I’ll discuss below, it looks excellent. Some of the characters look generic, however the interface, farm, constructing layout, and the whole lot else look good. I also appreciate that it supports full screen on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro. It really appears like a game that’s been properly adapted for mobile devices by way of graphics and controls.

While visually it looks nice for essentially the most part, it falls short relating to character designs. This includes your personal character with customization options, which could use more detail, in addition to the primary NPCs within the town. Many of them seem lifeless even during cutscenes. Other than that, I actually just like the aesthetics and it looks great on my iPhone and iPad. The only disappointment is the performance. It is currently capped at 30 fps on my iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro. I used to be expecting over 60 fps, let alone 60 fps, but now you possibly can’t play at the next frame rate. Loading times are also not as fast as they must be.

Sound-wise, I used to be pleased with the music and sounds in . Nothing stood out enough to hearken to outside of the sport, nevertheless it sounded good and the changes in music were appropriate for the gameplay.

When it was announced that the sport could be a mobile exclusive, I used to be curious to see how it might control. The developers have done a improbable job with the touch controls, allowing you to play by tapping to maneuver, swiping to maneuver, and more. Interacting with objects or characters, farming, and navigating menus is enjoyable. Some of the text and touch targets seem a bit too small on the iPhone, but they’re nice on the iPad. I do wish there was some haptic feedback on the iPhone for using tools and even fishing, though. Maybe they will add that in a future update.

If you’ve got played the 2 best life sim games on mobile: and , it feels closer to the primary one, nevertheless it’s not as polished. I do not like comparing other games in the identical genre, but I’m doing it here specifically for the mobile version. These two games were made for PC/console and ported to mobile, while they were made for mobile, and yet they do not feel as tailored to the platform by way of features.

is a mobile-only game, and while I appreciate the touch controls, it currently has a number of issues relating to features. The lack of cloud saves is greater than a bit of disappointing. When I first downloaded the sport on my iPhone, I played for about three hours before I picked up my iPad to see the way it felt. I couldn’t discover a strategy to transfer saves, and I still can’t transfer saves between devices. The lack of controller support can also be disappointing for a game like this. The developers did an awesome job with the touch controls, nevertheless it could be nice to have controller support once I’m playing on an iPad. I also wish there have been some quality of life features that addressed motion, like we’ve seen in recent games within the genre.

As a newbie to Natsume’s latest games, but a fan of all of the recent and other life simulation games, the sport proved to be price playing, nevertheless it does need a number of updates and features to be truly worthwhile at full price. I even have nothing against developers charging premium prices on mobile, but the shortage of basic features like cloud saves and controller support definitely make it hard to recommend, given the opposite design issues. If the developers keep working on it, this may very well be among the best games within the genre on mobile, and I’m glad they took a probability and made a premium life simulation game for mobile, because those are very rare.