Harvest Moon: One World review – a farming game that's gone to seed

Before Farmville, before Stardew Valley, there was Harvest Moon – a Japanese farming game dating to 1996, when tending virtual crops and cows was new to video games. Created by Yasuhiro Wada, who wanted to convey the goodness of rural life, Harvest Moon has for most of this time been a straightforward escape-to-the-country fantasy about building up an abandoned farmstead and making a life in a nearby village. As vegetables grew, animals matured and friendships developed, you'd get sucked into the game's predictable seasonal rhythms and gentle busywork. Since 2014, however, Harvest Moon has been in the hands of new developers, and let's just say that changes have been made. In One World, you do not move to a dilapidated farm; you pack up and explore a small continent of boring branching pathways that take a long time to walk down, and the occasional desert village or fishing town.