TOUCHSCREEN FUCTIONALITY
While in portable mode, you can use the touchscreen to do a few different things in Harvest Moon: Light of Hope, and so far the controls feel responsive and pretty second nature. If you tire of using the analog sticks to get around, you can place your finger anywhere on the screen and drag in the direction you want to go. So far this functions for right-handed players only, as when asked if this was available for lefties I was told the option wasn’t available at the moment but may be included in the future.
You can also touch both NPCs and your animals to interact with them, either to talk with townspeople or pet/collect resources from your critters. Finally, the most impressive touchscreen feature was the ability to hold and drag a section of crops to interact with them all at once. In the demo, I could select up to five squares because the watering can was fully maxed out on upgrades – usually you start with one square and upgrade from there. When I went up to the crops and highlighted five I was able to water them all simultaneouly without a single button click. I could definitely see this as my preferred option for farming as it made the process much more quick and satisfying since I’m already so used to the swipe action on mobile devices.
