Every Halloween the cozy gamer in me is forced to reconcile the fact that there aren’t really any scary games in my preferred genre. Sure there are games like Bramble: The Mountain King which many have somehow deluded themselves into thinking it fits because it has vaguely cottagecore vibes, or Mail Time which is about a mushroom and therefore kind of fits with fall, but really they are stretches one way or another. Then along came Harvest Island.
Developed and produced by Yobob Games, a one-person team, Harvest Island is a horror farming sim with plenty of mystery, spooky vibes, and a dark atmosphere which is perfect for the fall season. There are two ways to play, a story version which focuses only on the story, and a less focused mode where farming is more prominent. I have mainly been playing the story mode, which still involves farming but you can interact with it less if you want to.
The story takes place on the titular Harvest Island, where a family of three lives peacefully tending to their small farm and appeasing the Gods by leaving offerings at statues. From the beginning we know very little about why we are on the island, what the Gods want or where everyone else is.
For some reason, the protagonist, Will, has been tasked by his father with looking after his sister Samantha, who follows him around everywhere, even when he doesn’t want her to. A lot of the early dialogue centers around them bickering with one another, making the same quips about wanting a new sibling or threatening to tell their dad that one won’t do what the other one wants. The dynamic does become a bit more bearable as Harvest Island goes on, but it starts off pretty frustrating, especially when the sister is refusing to do something like cross a bridge because she is too scared.
A lot of the press that I have seen about Harvest Island so far has taken the classic route of comparing any farming game in existence to Stardew Valley. This is not even remotely close to Stardew Valley, and describing it as such is a disservice to both games. While there is farming and animal husbandry, that is roughly where the similarities end. There is no quirky cast of local residents to befriend, no changing seasons, and a limited ability to roam freely. Instead, there is a lot of plot which is driven by exploration and quests. Quests can come from discoveries made while walking around the island, speaking with Will’s father or sister, and from the Gods statues scattered around the island. I found myself wandering aimlessly fairly often, looking for the solution to a quest or the next thing I needed to do, however there was so much to do that it wasn’t really a burden.
One of the slightly more confusing elements of the quests was that they would appear in your journal, and have the same quest dialogue, regardless of whether or not you had actually done the previous tasks. Occasionally I would find something, a trap door or mysterious box, that would reference something I should have already found. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in fact it was nice to have a reminder of the important things that I had found which I needed to return to later, but it did make it confusing when it came to knowing what I should be looking for at that point.
I do think that Harvest Island could do a bit of a better job when it comes to explaining how the island works. There were several times where I felt lost or confused but it turned out to be just because I hadn’t been told how to do something. As far as I can tell, the game never tells you how to upgrade your rucksack or make idols to put into the Gods statue. Sure, neither of these things are essential to the gameplay experience, and I did figure them out on my own, but some more explaination regarding smaller elements would have been nice. To an extent, this applies to all crafting, including the need to make tools like a fishing rod. Will is tasked by his father to catch some fish, but is simply left to figure it out for himself. In terms of main mechanics, if you miss the tutorials or would like a refresher, they can be revisited in a handy book form from the bookcase in the father’s bedroom.
There are a few classic farming sim elements to Harvest Island, which I think have been done quite well. There is foraging to help you build things and, of course, make offerings to the Gods. There are plenty of animals to befriend, though I highly recommend not getting attached to any of them. You can craft upgrades and new buildings to improve your family’s farm, all of which use resources gathered from around the island. You can cook, chop trees, catch bugs, and there is the ever-present stamina bar to prevent you from doing too much work at once.
Fishing, in particular, is done in a way that I actually really enjoy, which is big for me as I normally hate fishing in games. Instead of the usual casting a line and waiting to reel in a fish, you play a short quicktime event involving tapping the corresponding arrow key to catch it. It isn’t the most innovative thing in the world by any means, but it was quick, straight-forward and I never felt like I was going to lose a fish after trying to catch it for a long time.
Mining also exists but in a much more minimal way than is typical for a farming simulator. Instead of delving into a series of caves, fighting off monsters and finding valuable ores, the mines never change, the ores are minimal and always in the same place, and there are no monsters to be found, at least not in the conventional sense. The real joy that comes from exploring the various cave systems scattered around Harvest Island is finding hidden rooms, new locations and secrets buried between the stones and iron ore.
As Harvest Island progresses, you become increasingly reliant on a resource known as Bless. Bless is used for crafting, unlocking new locations, changing the time of day or weather, and interacting with certain items found around the island. There are several ways to get this, including chopping down long grass, caring for animals, and making offerings to the Gods. This can take a while to farm up for bigger things, and I found that I needed to spend quite a while gathering materials, particularly from the animals which I found to be the most consistent source of Bless, just to be able to progress.
One of the mainstays of Harvest Island is secrets: secret rooms, hidden notes, hiding things from your dad. You can think that you have explored everywhere on the island and suddenly discover a new path that sends you in a completely new direction. I loved this so much. Exploration is always one of my favorite things about cozy gaming, and being able to keep doing this throughout the whole game, always finding new locations, was so much fun.
There is a fast travel system in the game which I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with. On one hand, I think it is really unique. When you use a Gods statue to fast-travel you are taken to a cute, chibi-style version of the map which you can then walk around much quicker than if you walked the full distance. I quite enjoyed that it wasn’t instant and the chubby little cows and chickens on the map are definitely fun to look at. However, areas you haven’t unlocked yet are blocked by white clouds, and you are still limited to walking along pathways. This means that unlocking some fast-travel points can leave you trapped if the water isn’t out, which was definitely frustrating.
As far as Harvest Island‘s horror aspects go, the scares are largely built on the back of the unnerving atmosphere. This is made up of eerie music, the knowledge that something sinister is afoot, decrepit and abandoned buildings, and the occasional jumpscare. Sometimes a mutilated animal, bloodstain or body part will turn up out of the blue. I think a lot of the horror does come from the uncanny nature of the cutesy farming sim that we have grown to know and love being twisted in such a way. For me, while it wasn’t exactly frightening, it was definitely the right vibe for the Halloween season. Harvest Island kept me on my toes, I always wanted to know what was going to happen next, and I genuinely felt unnerved quite often.
I think some of the tension even comes from the lo-fi graphics used throughout Harvest Island, which really remind me of classic RPGMaker horror games like Mad Father and Corpse Party. I think this style fits so well with the game as a whole and the occasional inclusion of more cutesy art just goes on to highlight how well the creepy pixelated graphics fit with the whole spooky vibes.
Overall, I really enjoyed Harvest Island and can see myself coming back to it in the future. The atmosphere is spot on for a cozy, yet creepy game. I really enjoyed the story and, while the characters started off annoying, they did grow on me. There is no doubt in my mind that the developer has gone into the game with the intention of creating something unique and innovative, a unique twist on a fan-favorite genre, and I truly think they have delivered this.
Megan played Harvest Island on PC with a code provided by the developer.
