Harvest Moon Light of Hope Special Edition (PS4)

Love this game, arrived quickly, packaged well and now having hours of fun.

It scratches the itch for harvest moon and farming-sim / social interaction, but not by much. Story and ng+ are very short, characters and designs feel very uninspired. Booted up story of seasons (on 3DS mind you) the the other day and I was shocked by the difference in quality, both in presentation and gameplay, with Story of Seasons being vastly superior. Only get if you are a die-hard fan / collector.

The Harvest Moon series goes back to its roots.The clean art-style, nostalgic music and simple game-play makes this one of my favourite HM games. It's hard to put it into words but I find it more "fresh" compared to Story of Seasons or Stardew Valley which feel very cluttered, each with their own features to win appeal from a broader audience of gamers. I consider this series to be the genuine continuation of the HM line and is most faithful to the original spirit.HM focuses on farming as the core of the game-play rather than relationship building or rpg elements like its alternatives. As usual you can bond with the townsfolk like in previous games but there's a real feeling of living off the land; rather than farming just being a side management sort of thing. I love it for the simplicity.After playing so many violent and intense games it great to wind down and relax to this. I can see myself coming back to this title every once in a while. I urge anyone who's ever enjoyed a HM game, or those who want to be whisked away to a simpler honest life, to give this one a go.