Square Enix's farming sim RPG Harvestella has one element that's twice as hard because one of its devs played Elden Ring

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Harvestella's damage-dealing floors were originally a lot less lethal

A Harvestella character engages in combat in a field
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Harvestella, the oft-overlooked farming sim RPG published by Square Enix in 2022, is literally harder than it was originally because of Elden Ring.

Now, Harvestella is not a game I would categorize as particularly challenging, but there is combat and you can die. In fact, there are certain areas in dungeons where floors that must be traversed cause damage over time, and you need to use items to heal yourself. Well, according to lead planner and level designer Yuhei Miyamoto, those damage-dealing surfaces were originally a lot more forgiving.

"One tidbit about Harvestella – after playing Elden Ring, I doubled the damage dealt from floor gimmicks," Miyamoto said on Twitter (via Automaton).

Miyamoto followed up to clarify that this was a very intentional damage increase implemented to "highlight the value of countermeasures" like food and drinks that heal and cure ailments and debuffs. "Personally, I'm glad I did it," he said via machine translation.

Now, it's worth cautioning Elden Ring fans who might now be tempted to go play Harvestella that, if it wasn't clear already, these are very, very different games. Harvestella is a light RPG, farming sim hybrid with cherry blossom trees everywhere and cute, romanceable characters and Elden Ring is... not that. In fact, if these games didn't belong to such starkly opposing genres there wouldn't be much of a story here. 

The reason it's notable is that Elden Ring's influence is so wide-ranging that it significantly impacted a literal farming sim, and the next time I'm watching my fiancée play Harvestella and she takes damage from those toxic floors, I'll tell her she has only Hidetaka Miyazaki to blame.

After stacking an ungodly amount of buffs, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's final boss can be defeated in a single hit so strong that even its second phase cutscene can't save it.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.