Whoo man. I just got this game the other day and I'll be straight to the point: This is the most boring Harvest Moon game I've played in a long time. I've been playing Harvest Moon since 64 (I didn't grew up too much during the SNES days so I never played or even heard of Harvest Moon for the SNES at the time) and I can definitely say this game has lost it's touch. I'm playing the Nintendo Switch version by the way.
This game does offer some good things such as an easier farming system but that's about it. The plot is very dull as you're tasked to find these stones to help build the lighthouse to get people to come back. And let me point that out that this game is not brimming with life. What I mean is that this game starts off very slow. I played Animal Parade and you can interact with nearly all of the villagers from the start. In Light of Hope, you actually have to build people's houses so that they can come back so if you aren't busy trying to unlock people, then you can go the whole game talking to like 3 other people! That's so dull! And don't get me started on how SLOW your character moves. My minor issue with Stardew Valley is how slow your character moved but at least you're able to warp around at one point. And let me say that while Stardew Valley looks amazing on the Switch, Light of Hope does not. It has some weird cartoon/top down thing going on and the characters look WAY too goofy to be taken seriously. It also doesn't help when your character "talks", there is just sudden odd bit of silence going on and it can drag on the conversations unnecessary.
And finally, this game doesn't offer anything new at all. Natsume at least went innovative with the Story of Seasons games with a different playstyle but Light of Hope seems to be copying all of the past games and made it worse. I hear that this is a problem for other people as well as you can pick up much better games for a much cheaper price. My recommendation, if you have a Wii or Wii U, pick up Harvest Moon Animal Parade. It's an awesome game! And Stardew Valley is how a Switch farming sim game should be done. Light of Hope is not worth $40 and not really worth much the effort considering it's so slow paced and there is so much dialogue, by the time you get to the first stone, a few hours have passed. Also, time is very slow in the game as well.
And that is pretty much Light of Hope in a nutshell. Very boring plot, not too many interesting characters, and doesn't look good for a Nintendo Switch game. Save $25 and pick up Stardew Valley or Animal Parade. Or even the Story of Seasons games for the 3DS. Thanks for reading!
Not as good as I thought
Whoo man. I just got this game the other day and I'll be straight to the point: This is the most boring Harvest Moon game I've played in a long time. I've been playing Harvest Moon since 64 (I didn't grew up too much during the SNES days so I never played or even heard of Harvest Moon for the SNES at the time) and I can definitely say this game has lost it's touch. I'm playing the Nintendo Switch version by the way.
This game does offer some good things such as an easier farming system but that's about it. The plot is very dull as you're tasked to find these stones to help build the lighthouse to get people to come back. And let me point that out that this game is not brimming with life. What I mean is that this game starts off very slow. I played Animal Parade and you can interact with nearly all of the villagers from the start. In Light of Hope, you actually have to build people's houses so that they can come back so if you aren't busy trying to unlock people, then you can go the whole game talking to like 3 other people! That's so dull! And don't get me started on how SLOW your character moves. My minor issue with Stardew Valley is how slow your character moved but at least you're able to warp around at one point. And let me say that while Stardew Valley looks amazing on the Switch, Light of Hope does not. It has some weird cartoon/top down thing going on and the characters look WAY too goofy to be taken seriously. It also doesn't help when your character "talks", there is just sudden odd bit of silence going on and it can drag on the conversations unnecessary.
And finally, this game doesn't offer anything new at all. Natsume at least went innovative with the Story of Seasons games with a different playstyle but Light of Hope seems to be copying all of the past games and made it worse. I hear that this is a problem for other people as well as you can pick up much better games for a much cheaper price. My recommendation, if you have a Wii or Wii U, pick up Harvest Moon Animal Parade. It's an awesome game! And Stardew Valley is how a Switch farming sim game should be done. Light of Hope is not worth $40 and not really worth much the effort considering it's so slow paced and there is so much dialogue, by the time you get to the first stone, a few hours have passed. Also, time is very slow in the game as well.
And that is pretty much Light of Hope in a nutshell. Very boring plot, not too many interesting characters, and doesn't look good for a Nintendo Switch game. Save $25 and pick up Stardew Valley or Animal Parade. Or even the Story of Seasons games for the 3DS. Thanks for reading!