HARVESTELLA
Developer/publisher Square Enix Format PC, Switch Release November 4
Over the course of a few weeks, we’ve watched enough scenes of characters tending rows of crops to last a lifetime. But Square Enix’s glossy blend of farming and JRPG-style dungeon-crawling – as if the publisher saw the disappointing Rune Factory 5 and decided to demonstrate how this sort of thing should be done – comes with a twist. (And one that, had this been an indie game, would have disqualified it from Wholesome Direct contention.) It’s a riff on your typical Final Fantasy spinoff setup, really: an imbalance between the giant crystals that control the seasons has led to a phenomenon known as Quietus. Which means between spring, summer, autumn and winter, we get the ‘season of death’, in which deadly airborne particles mean people can’t venture outside. For all Harvestella’s fantastical elements, that’s something to which we can all relate.