On the way to Vertania City! But stop, why? Why can ASH can not just stay in one place, overstrip the dungarees and start a cozy farm with Pikachu and Co.? Why the Best Best, if you can install potatoes instead?
Monster Harvest is a farm simulation in which you also plant monsters in addition to radishes and put them in combat. Monster Harvest promises a mix of Stardew Valley and Pokémon – we look at if it keeps this promise.
Monster Harvest: What’s up here?
Monster Harvest starts like any good story: with a hopping mucus, the potatoes turned into small monsters! Okay, in turn. Your uncle, the nature researcher Professor Spark, has made a sensational discovery: a strange mucus from which it wins energy and has many more enigmatic applications.
A whole city has arisen about his laboratory, the tranquil plant home whose everyday life turns around the mucus. Since the professor with his discovery is too busy for gardening, it is up to you to bring his farm back to the front man. He invites you to the plant home and give you the farm to let out.
The fruits in neighboring garden …
Sounds familiar? No wonder, because Monster Harvest looked out a lot of Stardev Valley. Not only the story is similar, also graphics and gameplay have been adopted almost 1: 1 by the model. Her falls trees, ordered fields, plants and irrigated, harvested and sells – and then everything from the front. Also in Monster Harvest your figure is tired like in Stardew Valley and must rest at the end of a day.
The game mechanics is always well stolen. Select items, fill the casting channies, digging tree stumps, which works everything just as good as Stardew Valley. So you like to accuse the developer a certain audacity, fans of the model should still be able to find out here and feel well here.
Betterly stolen as badly new thought
Although Monster Harvest is also greatly oriented with a great deal of Stardew Valley, but is by no means only soulless copy. The colorful pixel graphics with their many loving details is quite their charm. If the clouds reflect in the water and flicker the lanterns in the evening, you can not agree to the game a certain atmosphere. In this successful mix of 2D models and 3D game world, which reminds of Paper Mario or A Link Between Worlds, you really like to move through the area and surroundings.
Radish monster, I choose!
The Twist: You breed not only vegetables, but also monsters! The mucus, which your lively uncle explores so passionately, transforms your plants into small creatures, so-called plant animals that accompany you and protect them from dangers. For example, a potato creates a mutanko, a small alroon that attacks her opponents with bite and beats.
With the help of your plant animal you dared in Dungeons – there are rare materials and other planting animals that you are fighting for your own monster. From different plants various monsters are created. So prolifers the mucus according to pleasures on your greeners, irrigates diligently and looks the next day, which creates creature from the earth.
Rather nothing for Pokémon fans
The round-based monster fights are modeled by the great model Pokémon. Here is the weakness of Monster Harvest. The planting animals are generic monsters without personality. Also the fighting are stupidly staged and carelessly staged. If clawing, please immediately right, because the monsters from monster Harvest is missing at charm and tactical possibilities.
Too bad, because the breeding of his own monsters is really fun. It motivates to experiment with different plants and veils in order to fight with their own carrots in the fight. However, the relationship between you and your plant animal is much more heartless than between coach and Pokémon. The planting animals die easily and are then simply bred again. So they are not a faithful companion, but, now, say easy to replace. This never happens to be true pride when your plant animal reaches a new level. The heart of the Pokémon games, the friendly relationship between man and monsters, is looking for in vain.
Since you have to go again …
Monster Harvest is missing the fine grinding. It sounds metallic if your ax meets wood. The disposal of objects is more complicated than it would have to be. It is often unclear which object is selected in the menu. The word game Planimal, which works quite well in English, was transferred to the bloodless plant animal. All of these little beauty errors ensure that the game world feels unfinished and you never feel so comfortable in Planzheim as in Stardev Valley or on an Animal Crossing Island.
The German texts are also catastrophic. In the best case, they are error-free, but dust-dry, in the worst case they are laughable and evidently come from a translation software. For example, Professor Spark is welcoming you from your first dungeon with the rather unusual greeting: Unfortunately, Kerker block now.
THE WORST OF BOTH WORLDS
Superficially considered Monster Harvest, what it promises. The farm simulation gets cheeky, but at least well caffolded and should please all players in search of more Stardew Valley immediately. The monster breeding is a simpler fun and welcome change in the farm all day. But much disturbs: the generic monsters, the lavelessly staged fighting, the lack of fine grinding. Monster Harvest acts immature and is as a mix of Stardew Valley and Pokémon ultimately a weaker version of both games.