Podcasts about Micah True

Greg Marchildon speaks with Micah True about his book, The Jesuit Relations. The Jesuit Relations were annual reports written between 1632 and 1673 by Jesuit missionaries in what is now Eastern Canada. Traditionally viewed as firsthand missionary narratives, Micah True's work challenges this notion by revealing that the texts were shaped by many contributors—including Indigenous people, settlers, nuns, and editors in France. He explores the influence of historical context, such as Jesuit writing traditions and the Paris book trade, on their creation. True also examines how different editions since the 19th century have altered the interpretation of these texts. His analysis offers a more nuanced understanding of the Jesuit Relations and their role in shaping the history of New France and Indigenous-European encounters. Micah True is professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta. Image Credit: McGill-Queen's University Press If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society's mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada's past.

“Live simple, be kind, run, keep your connection to the earth, and share.” Michael Miller is the owner and operator of the Copper Canyons Endurance Run. In this episode, Michael chats with Luis about Micah True also known as Caballo Blanco, the meaning behind the Copper Canyons Run, the Tarahumara people, the culture around the race, having a connection with nature, particulars of the race, and how it can change your life. Support Road Dog Podcast by: 1. Joining the Patreon Community: https://www.patreon.com/roaddogpodcast 2. Subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you listen on. GO SLEEVES: https://gokinesiologysleeves.com HAMMER NUTRITION show code: Roaddoglistener15 Listeners get a special 15% off at https://www.hammernutrition.com DRYMAX show code: Roaddog2020  Listeners get a special 15% off at https://www.drymaxsports.com/products/ Allwedoisrun.com Michael Miller Contact Info: https://www.coppercanyons.com/ michael@truemessages.org michael@coppercanyons.com Luis Escobar (Host) Contact: luis@roaddogpodcast.com Luis Instagram Kevin Lyons (Producer) Contact: kevin@roaddogpodcast.com yesandvideo.com Music: Slow Burn by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Original RDP Photo: Photography by Kaori Peters kaoriphoto.com Road Dog Podcast Adventure With Luis Escobar www.roaddogpodcast.com

Al and Micah talk about Natsu-Mon 20th Century Summer Kid Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:30: What Have We Been Up To 00:12:54: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home 00:29:22: Game News 00:54:46: Natsu Mon 01:41:16: Outro Links Tales of the Shire Delay Fantasy Life i on Steam The Garden Path “Co-op” Update Spirittea “Phantom Friends” Update Sugardew Island Patch Paleo Pines Roadmap Echoes of the Plum Grove Roadmap Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Al, (0:00:36) Micah: My name is Micah. (0:00:37) Al: and we are here today to talk about cartridge core games. (0:00:41) Micah: Yippee. (0:00:45) Al: Welcome back, Micah. It’s actually not been that long. It’s only been about two months. (0:00:47) Micah: Thanks. No, it really hasn’t. (0:00:50) Micah: Yeah, which is wild because it feels like it’s been. (0:00:54) Micah: A lot like the last two months has felt like an entire year, so. (0:00:58) Al: Yeah, the last month specifically. (0:01:00) Al: Uh, but we don’t need to talk about that. (0:01:02) Micah: Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, yeah, of course. (0:01:06) Micah: I it’s funny because I was like, why has it felt so in that moment just now? (0:01:10) Micah: I was like, why does it feel like it’s been so long? (0:01:12) Micah: And then it clicked. So yeah, we don’t need to discuss. (0:01:14) Al: Mm, I wonder, uh, sometimes, uh, yes. (0:01:21) Al: Uh, and we still, we still don’t have any news on the story of seasons for this year, (0:01:27) Al: which I’m still expecting something. (0:01:30) Al: It’s been a very long time, but, uh, who knows. (0:01:30) Micah: Yeah. I’m too, I hear you. I’m expecting to. Yep, it’s bound to happen. It’s only a matter of time. (0:01:35) Al: I’m just waiting for that announcement and then we’ll be like, right. (0:01:37) Al: This is when we’re scheduling it in. (0:01:42) Al: Well, yeah, we have Micah here this episode because we are (0:01:46) Al: finally going to talk about Natsumon 20th century summer kid. (0:01:50) Micah: - Yay. (0:01:50) Al: We have pride a few times to actually record, uh, and things keep changing, (0:01:53) Micah: We did. (0:01:55) Al: but we finally got there. (0:01:56) Al: They didn’t shadow drop a story of seasons and we have to (0:01:59) Al: record about that instead. (0:02:00) Al: I’ve only had one case where I’ve noticed some news drop while I’ve been recording, (0:02:01) Micah: Could you imagine that it was, (0:02:04) Micah: now was when we got the story of season news? (0:02:15) Al: mainly because I’m not tend to be looking at the places where news comes in to see these things, (0:02:20) Micah: - Sure. (0:02:21) Al: but yeah, it’s never know one of these days. So we’re going to talk about that. We’ve obviously (0:02:28) Al: got the regular news. (0:02:31) Al: But first of all, maker, what have you been up to? (0:02:34) Micah: Oh, just busy. (0:02:37) Micah: Just got a lot going on. (0:02:39) Micah: I have been as far as games, though, I’ve been playing some (0:02:45) Micah: monster hunter wilds beta in preparation for that (0:02:50) Micah: at the point that we’re recording. (0:02:50) Al: and still not out yet. (0:02:52) Micah: It is going to be out next week. It’s about a week. (0:02:57) Micah: So I’m excited for that. (0:03:00) Micah: I’m also, you know, at that point in my life (0:03:04) Micah: a little bit anxious about a release for a game that I’m very excited about, (0:03:08) Micah: because then that means that I have to figure out time to play it (0:03:15) Micah: and also worry about how hyper fixated I’m going to become with it (0:03:20) Micah: and what that’s going to do to all of the other responsibilities in my life. (0:03:24) Micah: But I’m very excited for it. (0:03:28) Micah: I’ve also been playing Pokemon, I’ve been doing more shiny hunting. (0:03:32) Al: Are you still on your gen? Is it gen 2s? That’s what you were doing, I think, last time. (0:03:34) Micah: I was doing I was doing Gen three last time I was talking about it. Yeah. (0:03:40) Micah: I am doing that. (0:03:42) Micah: So I have some friends in a community that do like full odds shiny hunting, (0:03:48) Micah: which. Which adds an extra level of challenge. (0:03:54) Micah: And I almost kind of find it like a little bit more relaxing (0:03:56) Al: Sadness. (0:04:00) Micah: relaxing because it’s like it’s it you (0:04:01) Al: Interesting. (0:04:04) Micah: you settle in for it you know like it’s something that you’re doing while (0:04:08) Micah: you’re doing other stuff or while you’re like talking to people or while you’re (0:04:10) Micah: watching something because you know that it’s gonna take a long time so it’s just (0:04:14) Micah: like you kind of settle in and do your do your encounters do your resets do (0:04:19) Micah: whatever it is and don’t don’t really think about it until you know three (0:04:25) Micah: months later when you finally get the shine (0:04:26) Al: I just find that I get bored when I do it. I tried Shaiman in BDSP and I did… I can’t (0:04:32) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:04:34) Micah: Yeah, yeah Yeah, that tends to be what happens and that’s a very normal and I respect you for that (0:04:35) Al: even remember what I got to like 2000 or something. I just got bored of doing it every day and so I (0:04:41) Al: just stopped. (0:04:49) Al: I don’t think anybody has ever called me normal, but thank you. (0:04:55) Micah: But I have a I have some friends that do they they do these you know challenges throughout the year (0:05:01) Micah: They’ll have like a like this last week was (0:05:04) Micah: Shiny alpha week and it was everybody hunts in for alpha Pokemon and legends Arceus or (0:05:13) Micah: February was unknown challenge month. So (0:05:17) Micah: It was you know (0:05:19) Micah: You shiny hunt for an unknown and then whatever letter unknown you get then you have to shiny hunt something that starts with that letter (0:05:26) Micah: So like if I get it an unknown M then I can go hunt like Magnemite or something, you know (0:05:32) Micah: So yeah, there’s just (0:05:34) Micah: like fun little challenges and things to do when I’ve got, you know, if I’m like rendering (0:05:40) Micah: something or I’m watching something or in a meeting and kind of listening, but also just like (0:05:48) Micah: need something, you know, it’s just a little background thing I can do every once in a while. (0:05:54) Al: Fair enough. (0:05:55) Micah: I have downloaded a Rude factory pixel cross and I have not played it yet. So I mean, it just came (0:06:00) Al: Nice. (0:06:02) Al: Well, I mean, it only came out yesterday, so that’s fair. (0:06:04) Micah: out. Yeah. But I got to download it and I’m ready to try it. I’m excited about the potential new, (0:06:12) Micah: you know, like the positive changes to it from the story of seasons version. (0:06:20) Al: Yeah, I’m very intrigued. I’ve done a little bit of it. This is one of the games that I’ve (0:06:25) Al: played today, maybe like half an hour or so. So I’ve got a few, you know, the standard (0:06:32) Al: tutorial puzzles and a few of the ones that actually make you think. And so I’ve not (0:06:37) Al: got to any of the extra stuff like the customisation that’s in this one. But I did read on Fogu (0:06:45) Al: on there, posted about it, and it looks like it is just kind of. (0:06:50) Al: background customisation. It doesn’t seem to actually affect anything, which is what (0:06:54) Al: I expected, but a little bit more detailed and interesting than the story of Seasons (0:06:55) Micah: Yeah, yeah. (0:07:01) Al: 1. And I’m intrigued and excited to try one of the boss levels that they have. Have you (0:07:06) Micah: Oh yeah, I’m interested in that. No, I haven’t. I haven’t seen anything about it. I actually didn’t know that there were any improvements to the story of season model of it until you had mentioned it when we were talking about it on the game of the year episode. (0:07:08) Al: not seen the boss level stuff? (0:07:16) Al: Mm hmm. Yeah. (0:07:24) Micah: So I’m excited to try any of it because I haven’t seen any of it yet. (0:07:28) Al: Yeah, so I guess the big things for you would be there’s colour puzzles and the boss ones (0:07:35) Al: are timed and if you do something wrong, which, come on, who does something wrong? You’re (0:07:44) Al: just doing it too fast. It takes time off, the timer. So the timed, they have to do it (0:07:45) Micah: Okay, gotcha. (0:07:52) Al: within a certain amount of time, because obviously, technically, they’re all timed, right? You (0:07:55) Al: can see how long it is. And it’s always fun in the first few ones. (0:07:56) Micah: Right. Yep. (0:07:58) Al: to see like, Oh, can I get this one done in 10 seconds? Or can I (0:08:03) Al: get this one done in five seconds? I think I have one in (0:08:05) Al: eight or something like that. That’s the fastest one I have (0:08:08) Al: this game. But yeah, making you do it within a certain amount of (0:08:13) Al: time is an interesting different way of doing it. They do have (0:08:16) Al: two play styles. So you can skip that part of it if you want to. (0:08:21) Al: But yeah, it’s interesting. The boss stuff. Yeah. (0:08:22) Micah: Skip the the oh the bus skip the boss stuff I see okay. Yeah, I really liked them (0:08:32) Micah: Shoot I can’t remember the name of it. It was (0:08:36) Micah: Picto quest that’s what it was (0:08:39) Micah: and that was the (0:08:41) Micah: Nonogram game on the switch that and probably on PC. I don’t know but I played it on the switch and it was (0:08:47) Micah: very light RPG style of nonogram (0:08:52) Micah: like it had a little bit, you know, it was just like (0:08:54) Micah: You’re going across a map and then you challenge a goblin or whatever and then it’s just like a 10 by 10 puzzle or something (0:09:02) Micah: And then you would get upgrades if you did certain things. So they had like some there were a couple that were like, oh, it’s a boss (0:09:08) Micah: Thing, you know like a boss puzzle and I really loved that idea. It just was so (0:09:15) Micah: Bare-bones, I think such a like early idea, you know, like fresh and early idea that (0:09:22) Micah: There wasn’t a whole lot to it. So, um, I I kind of hope that there are maybe more (0:09:30) Micah: Like use cases of that like that kind of, you know adding quests and stuff to it because that adds an extra level of (0:09:38) Micah: Interest that I would I would really enjoy (0:09:41) Al: Yeah, yeah, I’m not far enough into to see whether that is there or not. One thing I (0:09:45) Al: did find interesting is that the puzzles are laid out like a map. So it’s not, it’s not (0:09:50) Al: just like you play this one, then you play the next one. It’s like, these are the ones (0:09:53) Al: you can do. And to unlock others, you have to to beat ones in specific positions, which (0:09:58) Micah: Oh, interesting. (0:09:59) Al: I thought was an interesting way of doing it. So it’s not the I think as you go further (0:10:04) Al: out, the difficulty does increase, but it’s not just like, constant, I think I saw some (0:10:08) Al: that were further away from the middle that were not hard. (0:10:12) Al: They were slightly easier, that sort of thing. (0:10:15) Al: So, yeah, interesting. See how that continues. (0:10:15) Micah: sure. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. I’m excited to try it. I’ve also been playing a Hello Kitty Island (0:10:24) Micah: adventure. Of course. Yes. Yeah. I played some on the mobile. I played some on Apple (0:10:26) Al: - Good, good, good. (0:10:26) Al: Are you on the switch for you? (0:10:30) Al: You twice, what are your thoughts? (0:10:33) Al: All right, yeah. (0:10:33) Micah: Arcade when it came out. Yeah. And yes. One hundred percent. And I’m glad that I waited (0:10:35) Al: You did the same thing as me. (0:10:36) Al: You went, “This is a fun game. (0:10:38) Al: I want a controller.” (0:10:45) Micah: much better experience on the switch, like with a controller. Becky has been absolutely (0:10:52) Micah: enamored with it. It’s her primary game that she plays now. And we did some of the multiplayer (0:11:00) Micah: together. So that was an interesting experience. It was fun just like, you know, wandering (0:11:07) Micah: around together and like doing things. There wasn’t a whole. There’s not like a whole lot (0:11:10) Micah: you can do multiplayer wise, but yeah, it’s it’s it’s great. (0:11:15) Micah: It’s such a good. I don’t know. I really I really like it. I’ve been enjoying it. And then I played (0:11:21) Micah: a little bit of vowed, but I have played a lot yet. I don’t know if you have touched it. (0:11:26) Al: I’m aware of it because I listen to a lot of different gaming podcasts and videos and (0:11:33) Al: stuff like that. (0:11:34) Al: So I’m aware of it. (0:11:35) Micah: Yeah. I like Obsidian, who’s the developer. They did Fallout New Vegas and they’ve done a lot of like (0:11:35) Al: I don’t think it’s my thing, but I can see why people like it and it sounds interesting. (0:11:47) Micah: older RPGs and stuff like that. I’m a big Elder Scrolls fan, so there’s some level of like (0:11:56) Micah: hoping that it is in some way close to Elder Scrolls, given that it’s, you know, (0:12:02) Micah: a team that has experience with Bethesda. (0:12:05) Micah: And it’s fantasy and, you know, first person and all that. (0:12:09) Micah: I really like it so far, but it’s it’s not open world. (0:12:12) Micah: It’s very, you know, like it’s it’s sectioned off, (0:12:16) Micah: which I think makes sense for the game. (0:12:18) Micah: But it’s, you know, it’s on Game Pass. (0:12:21) Micah: So you can’t really can’t really complain, you know, (0:12:27) Micah: they’re paying for. (0:12:27) Al: I mean, when is when has that ever stopped gamers before? (0:12:30) Micah: Oh, 100 percent. (0:12:34) Micah: But yeah, it’s. (0:12:35) Micah: I can’t I can’t really see myself having like bought it if it wasn’t available on game pass when it when it launched, you know, so yeah, what about you other than pixel crust? (0:12:42) Al: Yeah, that is fair. (0:12:48) Al: Yeah, well, not a huge amount this this week. I think the big thing, though, which obviously I need to talk about to you, Micah, is Harvest Moon Homes, Sweet Home. I have hit credits in Harvest Moon Homes, Sweet Home. (0:12:56) Micah: Oh, that’s big. (0:13:03) Al: Yeah, it’s the (0:13:04) Micah: Are you ready to do that all over again when it comes down on the switch or whatever? (0:13:08) Al: I will not. (0:13:12) Al: Let’s not even try and pretend that, unless there’s some way to transfer my save over, (0:13:16) Micah: Oh, that’s big. (0:13:18) Al: I’m not doing the early game again. I had a couple of thoughts that I thought might be (0:13:23) Al: quite interesting. I presume you didn’t continue playing it after our episode. No. (0:13:26) Micah: I have not played really much of anything from it. (0:13:29) Al: So I think the things, a few things I found interesting having now completed the game, (0:13:35) Al: although I’m in that annoying bit where I’m like, do I finish all these achievements or not? Because (0:13:40) Al: I have all bar. (0:13:42) Al: Let’s just let me just I’ve got it up here. (0:13:44) Al: Let me just double check achievements. (0:13:46) Micah: Now are these like in-game achievements or is it like Apple arcade achievements or whatever? (0:13:51) Al: It’s it’s it’s it’s Apple Game Center. (0:13:54) Micah: Yeah, oh yeah, sorry game center, yeah (0:13:54) Al: It’s not arcade because it’s made for, but yeah, it’s game center. (0:13:58) Al: So I have 48 of 68 achievements. (0:14:03) Micah: Holy smokes (0:14:04) Al: And I think about 10 of those ones I don’t have are just like shipping 50 of (0:14:12) Al: one specific crop. (0:14:14) Al: So I’m at the point where I’m like, I’ve basically got 10 left to do. (0:14:19) Al: But they’re things like (0:14:22) Al: completing the crops encyclopedia, completing the fish encyclopedia. (0:14:26) Al: I have not once fished in this game. (0:14:30) Al: So I’m like, I don’t know if I want to do those, but it feels like I’m so close. (0:14:34) Al: But it also no. (0:14:37) Al: So, yeah, let’s see. (0:14:40) Al: That is my, here’s my, I was in. (0:14:42) Al: Interesting thing. So I finished chapter 10. That is the final chapter and only 2% (0:14:48) Al: of players have earned this achievement, according to Apple, 2% have completed. (0:14:52) Micah: That’s incredible, you know, there’s something really interesting about this to me that (0:14:59) Micah: What was the game before home sweet home? Was it one world? (0:15:02) Al: No, one world was before that, the one before that, it was winds of anthos. (0:15:03) Micah: No one world was the one before that. Oh (0:15:09) Micah: Wins of Anthos, that’s right. And you know, it’s funny because I very distinctly remember you saying I am (0:15:17) Micah: Returning this or trading it in or whatever, you know, like as soon as I get the opportunity to (0:15:20) Al: Yeah. Yeah. (0:15:22) Micah: And here we are you have hit credits on home sweet home, which is (0:15:27) Al: Well, can I just point out, I think both of us hit credits in one world. (0:15:31) Micah: Yes, we did, yeah (0:15:32) Al: And because, I think, mainly because we were fascinated as to where it was going to end up, (0:15:38) Al: I will say that’s not why I finished this game. It’s not because I was like, “Oh, (0:15:42) Al: I really need to know what happens with this story.” The story is basically non-existent, (0:15:46) Al: right? Like it’s basically just you’re, you’re, you’re making this. (0:15:50) Al: This town more, more, that’s it. Like you’re, you’re making people happy and you’re, you’re (0:15:54) Micah: More and more (0:15:58) Al: doing things and that’s it. Um, what I found really interesting that, you know, the area (0:16:03) Al: that was like left of your farm that looked like it was a gated off area that you could (0:16:07) Al: access later on in the game. You never unlock that. That’s not, that’s not a thing. Is that (0:16:09) Micah: Oh, yeah. (0:16:15) Al: meant to come in an update or something? It’s even called, it called Alba Park. (0:16:20) Micah: - You know, I don’t know. (0:16:20) Al: And, and there’s a gate there. Why can I not go that way? I’ve completed. (0:16:27) Micah: It’s gotta, it has to be, right? (0:16:29) Micah: Well, let me ask you this. (0:16:31) Micah: Have they updated it at all since? (0:16:34) Al: Just the just the one update that came out like what a week after we recorded our last episode, which added the controller support and the well ads cloud save but the cloud says broken still. (0:16:40) Micah: Okay, that was the only one. (0:16:47) Micah: Okay, great. (0:16:48) Al: That’s the only update that I’m aware of happening. (0:16:51) Micah: ‘Cause I distinctly remember, too, that there was, (0:16:58) Micah: it looked like there were going to be spaces (0:17:01) Micah: or like placeholders for other languages, for text. (0:17:05) Al: Oh, yeah (0:17:07) Micah: And I remember thinking, oh, this is probably gonna come (0:17:10) Micah: in an update, but if they never added that either, (0:17:14) Micah: there must be a bunch of things that were just like, (0:17:17) Micah: We’ll add this in an update at a later date. (0:17:21) Micah: And maybe now it’s either they just are no longer touching it or (0:17:27) Micah: it is uh they’re just saving all those updates for the console release maybe? (0:17:32) Al: So this is where I break your brain yet again, Micah, and tell you that it has only been six (0:17:37) Al: months since this game I came out. It was August. (0:17:38) Micah: What oh (0:17:42) Micah: Yeah, that’s right (0:17:43) Micah: I remember this you did this to me on the game of the year episode two and I like (0:17:48) Micah: That blows my mind that that it’s only been that long. It feels like this game was two years ago (0:17:54) Al: So I don’t know, yeah, it doesn’t feel weird for there to be like, if we got an update (0:17:57) Micah: And that’s not just because of the last month isn’t it (0:18:08) Al: in a month, I wouldn’t be surprised that would be like, roughly about the time from the release (0:18:12) Al: to the last update. I don’t know. I don’t know if I actually believe this is coming (0:18:16) Al: to console. I feel like we would have heard something by now, right? (0:18:17) Micah: Yeah (0:18:22) Micah: Yeah, I think so too I I think I think if (0:18:26) Micah: They announce a new (0:18:29) Micah: Heart of harvest moon game that is not this I think it’s officially dead at that point, right? (0:18:35) Al: Mm hmm. No, no. (0:18:35) Micah: Like there’s no way that they’re going back to it. They are putting all of their resources into whatever (0:18:42) Micah: The new thing is if that’s the case. So either we’re (0:18:47) Micah: we’ll get something from them sometime soon, but it will either be this coming to consoles or (0:18:55) Micah: Something new and then it’s just confirmation at that point that this is completely dead in the water (0:19:01) Al: Yeah, I just I’m fascinated by this area that that doesn’t exist like I was fully expecting to unlock it at some point and it and it hasn’t. (0:19:07) Micah: This is extremely interesting (0:19:11) Al: The other couple of things I find interesting so you do so we’d complained about how it felt like you should be able to, you know, set a bunch of actions and get them to like water these 10 plants in a row. (0:19:23) Al: It feels like that’s what the interface was built for, but that didn’t seem to be an example of that. You do unlock that later on, but you have to like progress this. (0:19:31) Al: But the disadvantage of that over your standard up upgrading your watering can and now you can do like 20 at once instead you have to like individually press on all 20 and then it doesn’t manually the disadvantage of that is it still takes the same amount of time in game to water even when you have the highest level watering. (0:19:32) Micah: Oh, okay. (0:19:56) Micah: - Oh. (0:19:57) Al: So, because it’s just doing them all individually. (0:19:59) Micah: Oh. (laughs) (0:20:01) Al: Right? You don’t have to manually let go that one and now that one, you can like swipe (0:20:05) Al: over them and go like, want you to do all these or in the case of the controller, you (0:20:09) Al: can just press and drag, but it takes so long. Whereas in other farming games, you upgrade (0:20:15) Al: the watering can and you hold it down and then you’ve watered it all immediately rather (0:20:19) Al: than having to wait for your character to like go and individually water all of these (0:20:23) Al: 20 things. Such a weird decision. (0:20:28) Al: The other one is the, I unlocked sprinklers. (0:20:31) Al: And boy are the sprinklers weird in this game. (0:20:35) Al: First of all, you only unlock the top level of sprinkler after you’ve finished the game, (0:20:41) Al: which is the only one worth doing. (0:20:43) Al: Because your first level of sprinkler is just your four spots, top, bottom, left, right. (0:20:49) Micah: Yeah. (0:20:49) Al: Never do them. They are never worth it. (0:20:52) Micah: Oh. (0:20:52) Al: And your second level of sprinkler is three by three, so you get eight spaces. (0:20:59) Al: Okay, but you’ll do (0:21:01) Al: not unlock that until I think it’s chapter 7 of 10. And by that point, you probably don’t need it. (0:21:07) Al: Like, you’ve probably got most of what you need. And then at the end of the game, (0:21:08) Micah: - You just passed the point of, yeah. (0:21:12) Al: you finally unlock the one that’s five by five. But the problem is, it doesn’t fit in the plots (0:21:18) Al: properly. So the bottom plot is six by five. So you put it in there, and you’ve got one line of (0:21:24) Al: five that doesn’t get watered by it. And you can’t and you can’t put the sprinklers outside of it. (0:21:31) Al: You either have 24 fed by one sprinkler and then five manual, or 24 by one sprinkler and (0:21:39) Al: four by another sprinkler. It’s like, I’m not going to do a whole other because those are expensive. (0:21:45) Al: You have like, I think it’s 12 different gems, including diamonds, which you can only get in (0:21:49) Al: the bottom level of mine. I’m not going to waste all of those gems for four watered spaces. (0:21:56) Micah: Well, yeah (0:21:57) Al: And then you’ve got the other ones are… I know. (0:21:58) Micah: What a weird oversight (0:22:01) Al: The other plots that you unlock are something by four, not by five. (0:22:10) Al: So you’re just you’re wasting time. So I have one, which is eight by five. (0:22:14) Al: And I’ve got two watering cans on that. Sorry, two sprinklers on that. (0:22:19) Al: So they’re using up two spaces, which by the way, feels a lot more of space in this game (0:22:23) Al: than it does in any other farming game, because you’ve got such restricted space to use. (0:22:29) Al: I’m like, if it was late. (0:22:31) Al: out differently, it would almost all be covered by one sprinkler. (0:22:36) Al: It’s just such a weird decision. I don’t understand why they’ve made these decisions. (0:22:37) Micah: Hey, yeah, that’s really strange (0:22:41) Micah: And it it makes me wonder if it was like, I don’t know (0:22:45) Micah: I can’t even really think of a scenario for why that would be the kid like maybe they (0:22:50) Micah: Just missed it or like they thought that maybe it was like automated (0:22:55) Micah: You know (0:22:57) Micah: Calculations or something and it was just wrong for that. I don’t know (0:23:01) Micah: It’s it just feels like it would be something that someone would catch and be like, oh (0:23:05) Micah: We either have to like (0:23:07) Micah: Change the size of this plot a little bit or change the, you know, the ratio of spaces that this sprinkler covers, I don’t know, it’s odd. (0:23:17) Al: I think it would have been better to be like a sprinkler covers a row and then when you unlock (0:23:27) Al: the higher ones they cover more rows. So it would mean that you could have like one that would cover (0:23:33) Al: four rows and that would mean you could have one sprinkler for a section and you put it at the side (0:23:38) Al: so it doesn’t use up a crop space because crop spaces are so limited here and it would feel just (0:23:43) Al: much less frustrating in terms of the numbers. They’ve just taken (0:23:47) Al: a sprinkler in a normal farming game and put it into this game that is not done in (0:23:52) Al: a normal way because they’ve thought about it completely differently. (0:23:54) Micah: - Yeah, that’s very odd. (0:23:57) Al: The final thing I have to say is that I don’t know what we did we talk about the soil health (0:24:03) Al: in our episode. I can’t remember if we did. I don’t think we did because I don’t think (0:24:05) Micah: Hmm, I don’t remember I don’t think we did (0:24:09) Al: I don’t think we’d either of us had come across that. So soil health degrades in the get in this (0:24:15) Al: this game, which is (0:24:16) Micah: Okay. I don’t know that I even witnessed that on my, in my own. (0:24:17) Al: very much like a realism wins over fun part of this game. (0:24:24) Al: Yeah, so it does happen. (0:24:26) Al: You just probably aren’t noticing it because you don’t get told about it until (0:24:30) Al: you unlock a better fertilizer maker later on. (0:24:30) Micah: Oh, okay. (0:24:34) Al: And then they’re like, oh, your soil health. (0:24:37) Al: If you click on this fertilizer maker, you can see your soil health. (0:24:40) Al: You’re like, oh, everything is sad. (0:24:44) Al: And so you basically have to, after a– (0:24:47) Al: after a harvest of things, you have to let it sit for a bunch of days. (0:24:51) Al: And when I say a bunch of days, I mean, it feels like it’s like half a month. (0:24:54) Al: You have to let it sit for to go back to its full soil health. (0:24:58) Al: Or you can use some compost to speed it up, (0:25:01) Al: but the compost is like really awkward to craft or cost 2,500 per compost. (0:25:08) Al: It is so expensive. (0:25:10) Al: And so you spend the time rotating which plots you’re actually using for crops (0:25:16) Al: and not actually (0:25:18) Al: do anything about it, and it’s not actually doing what you want to do, and this is very much like, I understand you’re going for realism here, because that is what happens in real life, you have to rotate your crops, you have to rotate your soil, blah blah blah blah blah, but I’m not doing this for realism, right, like, it makes… (0:25:32) Micah: Yeah, if there’s I mean, I respect to the to some degree, (0:25:41) Micah: the the idea of making the the mechanics feel like they work (0:25:48) Micah: realistically the way that it would in the real world. But (0:25:50) Micah: like, if nothing else in the game really feels like it is (0:25:54) Micah: adhering very strictly to realism, then you know, I don’t (0:25:59) Micah: know that that’s really, I’m not really. (0:26:03) Micah: For realistic mechanics and I’m playing a harvest moon or like a story of seasons game, you know, like I don’t know. (0:26:10) Al: It’s always a balance for these things, where that very much is on the “no, I don’t want this” part of (0:26:12) Micah: Right. (0:26:17) Al: the thing. Oh, there’s one thing I just remembered. Horses, right? Neither of us have gotten far enough (0:26:23) Al: to buy a horse in the last episode. You can buy horses, you cannot ride the horses around the town. (0:26:24) Micah: Oh. Okay. What is the point? What do you do with them? Okay. Okay. All right. Again, maybe (0:26:34) Al: You can ride it around the paddock, but that’s it. Why would you do that? For fun, that’s it. (0:26:40) Al: That’s literally the only purpose. Why would you bother doing that? I have no idea. No idea. (0:26:46) Micah: something that was intended to be added and the future of it. Just never. (0:26:50) Al: But why can you… I don’t understand how you can ride it in one area and not in another area. (0:26:56) Al: It just has a wall, and you can’t go through it. Why? (0:27:02) Micah: It’s fascinating. I I don’t know him. Maybe there’s just some like maybe they couldn’t (0:27:10) Micah: get the pathing right or something and they just were like I will fix this later. I don’t know. (0:27:15) Micah: There’s there’s a lot in that game that feels to me like we’ll fix it later. (0:27:18) Al: Oh, that’s it, actually. So you know the press on the map and it will automatically go there. (0:27:25) Micah: Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. So that’s either okay. (0:27:26) Al: I bet that doesn’t work with horses. That’ll be why you can’t do it. (0:27:33) Micah: We’ll fix it later or we can’t figure it. We can’t figure it out. So we’re just (0:27:38) Micah: not going to include it at all. One of the two. (0:27:39) Al: Yeah. Bizarre. Bizarre decision. But there we are. It was good enough for me to finish apparently. (0:27:50) Al: And I guess tune in next time to see whether I will continue trying to finish the achievements. (0:27:57) Micah: I wish you the best of luck, Godspeed. (0:28:02) Al: I’m definitely going to do the 50 of each crop one because that I’m nearly done with that. (0:28:07) Al: I literally have everything growing for that. Like in a week in game, that woman will be done. (0:28:14) Micah: Yeah. Well, I wish you the best of luck. (0:28:16) Al: But I don’t. (0:28:20) Micah: It currently I just was out of curiosity. (0:28:22) Micah: I wanted to see on the Google Play Store. (0:28:24) Micah: It currently has a three point two out of five, which is. (0:28:27) Al: that feels fair yeah I would say that feels fair (0:28:28) Micah: A thousand reviews. (0:28:31) Micah: Yeah, I kind of feel like maybe that is accurate. (0:28:35) Micah: Oh, it says it was updated on December 10th. (0:28:38) Al: yeah that was that update it dropped like two days after we recorded that was the one with the (0:28:40) Micah: Oh, was it? (0:28:43) Micah: - Oh. (0:28:44) Micah: - Got it, got it, got it. Okay. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah, interesting. I guess we’ll see what happens. (0:28:45) Al: cloud save and the controller support which is the only reason i’m playing the game because of (0:28:51) Al: controller support I couldn’t keep playing it on the touch screen but the controller support is (0:28:55) Al: It’s actually pretty good. (0:28:57) Al: Well, there we go. (0:29:01) Al: I rushed this week to make sure I’d finished so I could talk to you about it, because I (0:29:05) Al: was like, I’m so close, I must finish before I talk to Micah. (0:29:09) Al: So there we go. (0:29:10) Micah: I’m impressed that you completed it and I’m proud of you and (0:29:10) Al: Hit credits in that game. (0:29:14) Al: Well, yeah, it’s better than, it’s better than Sugardew Valley, Sugardew Island, sorry. (0:29:15) Micah: I hope that it was worth it. (0:29:19) Micah: It wasn’t intended to sound as meat as it did. (0:29:27) Al: Well, the problem is, it’s like five bits into the game news. (0:29:28) Micah: Is that a, is that a segue? Is that a, (0:29:31) Micah: I can’t tell if that was an intentional segue or not. (0:29:37) Al: So let’s just go through the, let’s talk about some news. (0:29:39) Micah: Okay. All right. (0:29:42) Al: Tales of the Shire has been delayed again. (0:29:45) Micah: Yeah. (0:29:46) Al: Can I just say, please stop putting a date on your game, right? (0:29:49) Micah: Yeah. At this point, at this point, just like wait until you are close enough (0:29:49) Al: Just stop it. (0:29:54) Micah: that you can say, Hey, it’s coming in a couple of weeks, you know? (0:29:59) Micah: Cause that’s always like a kind of a fun surprise too. (0:30:02) Micah: When something has a sudden release date like that, uh, I, yeah. (0:30:08) Al: Yes, it is murder for organizing a podcast about games but yes, I will agree I can see why people would find that fun. Yeah. (0:30:13) Micah: - True, yeah. (0:30:16) Al: It’s now coming out on the 29th of July. So, well, maybe we’ll see. That’s what they’re currently saying, but we’re on our third release date so far so let’s see what happens. (0:30:26) Micah: Yeah, I was looking at some of the, you know, against my better judgment, some of the discourse (0:30:35) Micah: under this post, just to see what, how people felt about it. Because my initial reaction whenever (0:30:40) Micah: there’s a delay like this is, okay, that’s, you know, if you need more time, take the time, (0:30:46) Micah: work on it, perfect it, whatever. And that was, I feel like maybe a good 40 to 50% of the sentiment (0:30:55) Micah: and the other. (0:30:56) Micah: 50 to 60% was in the kind of camp of worry that because this is the second time that they’ve delayed it that if things maybe are not going great development wise but I feel like. (0:31:11) Al: Yeah, I never understand that because it’s like, no, people are just being overly optimistic about (0:31:17) Al: these things. As someone who works in, not in game development, but in software development, (0:31:18) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:31:21) Micah: Yeah, oh, yeah (0:31:21) Al: that happens all the time, right? People will be like, oh, this is when it needs to happen. (0:31:26) Al: And then other people will be like, it’s not going to happen by then, but it gets set as the date (0:31:31) Al: anyway. And then the day comes around and it hasn’t happened. And it’s like, you can’t make (0:31:35) Al: it happen, right? Like, there’s only a certain amount you can actually do. And adding more people (0:31:40) Al: belong does not actually improve. (0:31:41) Al: And sometimes it just takes more time. (0:31:44) Al: Like I could, I find this, you know, with, with, with Pokemon every time, right? (0:31:49) Al: Where people are like, Oh, they just need to add more people. (0:31:52) Al: Adding more people does not speed up development times. (0:31:54) Micah: - Mm-hmm. (0:31:55) Al: Adding more people quite often slows things down. (0:31:58) Al: It’s not worth it. (0:31:59) Al: Right. (0:32:00) Al: And sometimes you just need the time. (0:32:02) Al: I just, you can clearly see this as a fight between marketing and development. (0:32:07) Al: Um, I don’t think, I don’t think it’s a sign of like serious (0:32:08) Micah: 100%. I don’t think so either. I think people’s gut reaction is to look at, you know, other games (0:32:18) Micah: that have gone into development hell and have never made them their way out. And that’s the (0:32:24) Micah: concern. And I, you know, I, it seemed, especially for the people that were kind of that had this (0:32:31) Micah: sentiment or it’s coming from a place of like concern because they’re excited for the game, (0:32:36) Micah: You know I’m like (0:32:39) Micah: concern because they want it to be really good which is like better than you know just saying like well I don’t you know this game’s doomed or whatever you know I’m just like not really just being a doomer about it just to be a doomer but I do think from my personal experiences with stuff like this too I do think that if they were looking at something that does (0:33:08) Micah: close to like a development hell they would probably not put a second release date on it it probably would be something along the lines of we need a little bit more time to work on it and we’ll update you in the future and then at that point we probably would hear maybe a couple things and then nothing ever again but because they are putting a release date on it it makes me think that you know maybe there’s if it hits a if we get another delay after this then yeah I think it’s time to be a little bit (0:33:38) Micah: concerned about it you know it I think because they have a release date that if they missed a second release date or a third release date now if they miss it then there’s gonna be you know it’s there’s a lot more stake in that which like you know kind of contradicts what we’re saying about like just don’t put a release date on it but (0:34:00) Al: I guess the problem is those are two different things. We’re talking about just in general, (0:34:04) Al: don’t give a release date unless you actually know when it’s coming out. I guess it’s difficult (0:34:10) Al: when you’ve given a release date and now you’re like, oh, we don’t know now that I get worries (0:34:16) Al: people. And so I get why they kind of have to do that now because otherwise people are going to (0:34:20) Al: start, as you say, assuming the worst. But I’ve said it so many times, I do not think people (0:34:30) Al: put a release date on it until you are at most a month away. Give us a year, sure, (0:34:37) Al: because when people go, oh, we need some more time, it’s going to be next year. People are (0:34:41) Al: generally fine with that, especially if you’re near the end of the year, they expect that that’s (0:34:44) Al: going to happen. And then when you’re like, oh, I’m pretty confident, then you can say, oh, (0:34:50) Al: it will happen in the second half or the quarter three or whatever. But don’t give us a date until (0:34:54) Micah: Yeah, yep, definitely. (0:34:56) Al: you know it’s if you wouldn’t release it today don’t get (0:35:00) Al: as a date because it’s not gonna happen and like there are so few companies that do that (0:35:00) Micah: Right. (0:35:06) Al: they give you a date and it comes out on that date and you know one of the big ones is pokemon (0:35:12) Al: and it doesn’t always work out well for them right they give you a date six months out and (0:35:14) Micah: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think Nintendo stuff in (0:35:17) Al: they release on that date and then it’s not a great game i’m so excited to see what happens (0:35:21) Micah: Yeah, yep (0:35:23) Micah: Gosh (0:35:25) Micah: You know Pokemon days next week. So I guess we’ll see what happens with (0:35:31) Micah: with (0:35:32) Micah: You know it when they’ve got a little bit more time to cook it. We’ll see what happens (0:35:36) Al: Well, there’s a big assumption there that they actually have taken more time, (0:35:40) Al: because we don’t actually know when the when development started on this game. (0:35:40) Micah: Yeah, that’s true. You’re right. (0:35:44) Micah: You know, and this, this applies to Tales of the Shire too, I think, but, but also for Pokemon. (0:35:49) Micah: We’re also, something to take into account is that we’re in the midst of the, of a, um, generation (0:35:58) Micah: jump where like, you know, maybe that’s not necessarily the case as much for Tales of the (0:36:03) Micah: Shire, but I could see it being a possibility where they know that a large user base for cozy (0:36:11) Micah: games like this is on the switch. (0:36:14) Micah: Or on handheld, maybe like the Steam Deck or something like that. (0:36:20) Micah: And if they’re taking time because they know a little bit more about like maybe, I don’t (0:36:28) Micah: know, a release window for Switch 2 or they’re trying to, you know, co-develop a Switch and (0:36:31) Al: Well, that’s an interesting point. (0:36:37) Micah: Switch 2 version so that they can release it on both, you know, some of that stuff tends (0:36:42) Micah: to throw a wrench in the (0:36:44) Micah: things that is kind of like not expected. (0:36:48) Al: For most games, I would say there’s no way that that is part of this delay, but I feel like (0:36:57) Al: I could see them have it like I could see that if they are I could see they could already have (0:37:02) Al: a switch to dev kit because we know that some developers do that has been leaked. There are (0:37:04) Micah: - Mm-hmm, yep. (0:37:06) Al: developers that have it. Indies almost certainly won’t have it like there might be maybe some a (0:37:12) Al: couple of big indies like maybe silk song for example is maybe that team cherry that’s what (0:37:18) Al: isn’t it maybe they have one I could maybe see for example concerned ape having one (0:37:26) Al: I could see these developers having one and so maybe that’s part of it that is a big possibility (0:37:34) Al: I would say for most people it wouldn’t be the case but I could I could see Nintendo (0:37:38) Micah: Oh, yeah, 100 percent. (0:37:39) Al: I could see Nintendo going yeah no the the people that are developing a cozy game (0:37:44) Al: about Lord of the Rings, yeah, let’s make sure that they are ready for this. (0:37:46) Micah: Yeah, it’s the token property and it’s the what a workshop like that’s there’s a lot this. (0:37:48) Al: Yeah. (0:37:56) Micah: They’re not, you know, small money. So, but, you know, and if it is that they’re taking time to, to be able to have that ready for in the event of, you know, switch to or whatever they’re working on that. (0:38:12) Micah: get and that gives them the opportunity to make sure that it’s (0:38:16) Micah: a steam deck verified and stuff like that, that really (0:38:20) Micah: improves that experience for their core audience, I think. I (0:38:25) Micah: mean, they, you know, there’s always going to be people who (0:38:27) Micah: are playing on PC or PS5 or Xbox or whatever, but cozy games, I (0:38:34) Micah: think it’s pretty safe to say the, the, you know, the core of (0:38:40) Micah: the audience is, is playing either on the switch or handled (0:38:44) Micah: to some degree so. (0:38:46) Micah: Um, I could see that being a, again, we won’t know until it’s, till we see something (0:38:55) Micah: come of it. (0:38:56) Micah: Maybe there’s, uh, you know, things coincide, like we can kind of piece together, but yeah, (0:39:03) Micah: I guess we’ll see. (0:39:04) Micah: We’ll see what happens when July 29th rolls around. (0:39:08) Al: Yeah, I mean you never know we might I would say we don’t necessarily have to wait till then because if it is our switch to thing (0:39:08) Micah: I’m very excited for it though. (0:39:15) Al: There will 100% be some games announced in April (0:39:18) Micah: Oh, sure, yeah. (0:39:20) Al: They’ll be like, you know (0:39:22) Al: Stardew Valley is going to be a switch to version that does this or whatever and maybe this will be one of them (0:39:29) Al: Who knows? I’m not saying this will definitely happen. You’ve not heard it here first. We’re not saying (0:39:35) Al: The Tales of the Shire is going to be switched to… (0:39:38) Al: but I could see it happening and I’m excited for A-1. (0:39:44) Micah: - Yeah, me too. (0:39:45) Micah: I’m also excited just for this game in general. (0:39:47) Micah: I’m very excited for this game. (0:39:50) Al: Next we have, okay, I think it’s just meant to be fantasy. (0:39:55) Al: Is it Fantasy Life I? (0:39:56) Al: Is that how you’re meant to say these games? (0:39:58) Al: Because I know this is a series of games, (0:40:00) Al: but I don’t know if it’s just Fantasy Life I. (0:40:02) Micah: This is the first one that has I in the title. So I yeah, this is this is a new experience (0:40:06) Al: Oh, is it really? (0:40:08) Al: Amazing. (0:40:09) Al: Okay, perfect. (0:40:11) Al: No notes. (0:40:12) Al: Fantasy Life I, the girl who steals time, (0:40:15) Al: we have a release date for this. (0:40:18) Al: So it’s coming on the 21st of. (0:40:20) Al: May and also it’s now coming to Steam and PlayStation and Xbox. (0:40:26) Al: So it was previously meant to just be on Switch and I believe it was a 3DS game. (0:40:32) Al: The previous one. (0:40:33) Micah: it was they also had a mobile game that did not do too great um you know they did the the uh (0:40:36) Al: Oh, surprise, surprise. (0:40:42) Micah: classic level five maneuver of just kind of abandoning it once it you know didn’t really (0:40:49) Micah: take off the way they’d hoped it did so uh it is no longer functional as a as a mobile game so uh (0:40:54) Al: Well, this is only this, if you ignore the mobile game, this is only the second game (0:41:01) Micah: Yes. Yeah. There was a. (0:41:04) Micah: Like a the way that it released in Japan was it was fantasy life and they did fantasy life link which added extra stuff to it. So it was like, you know, a definitive version of it and then we got the West got the like full release of it. (0:41:20) Micah: So there’s some like kind of weird stuff with it, you know, but yeah, this is ultimately just the second one. (0:41:28) Micah: One of the best games on the 3DS in my opinion. (0:41:33) Micah: It’s a fantastic game. (0:41:34) Al: And this, I did not realize that this was the Yokai and Professor Leighton people. (0:41:40) Micah: It is. (0:41:41) Al: So there you go. (0:41:42) Micah: Yep. Level five big fan level five. (0:41:42) Al: Now we know. (0:41:44) Micah: I’m a little bit apprehensive about anything that they’re doing from this point on because they have been very deep in the generative A.I. (0:41:55) Al: Ow. (0:41:57) Micah: You know, they did like a they recently showed off their. (0:42:03) Micah: I guess spiritual successor to Yokai Watch, which is something hotel. I can’t remember some haunted hotel property and pretty much the entire trailer was like generative A.I. (0:42:14) Al: Is that holy hardware man? (0:42:15) Micah: So I am. Yes, that’s it. That is it. (0:42:19) Micah: So I’m hoping that because this was prior to their big like this game existed prior to their big like push into generative A.I. that like hopefully it doesn’t, you know. (0:42:33) Micah: I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see. I have a very strong love hate relationship with level five at this point. (0:42:38) Micah: So I’m very excited and also nervous about this because I love fantasy life. (0:42:47) Micah: It’s such a good game on the 3DS, but hopefully it’s good. (0:42:51) Al: Yeah, it looks interesting. I like the graphics and everything, (0:42:57) Al: and I’m excited to try it out when it releases in May. (0:43:00) Micah: It’s got cross play - which is (0:43:03) Al: Yes, across everything. Multiplayer across play. Very cool. (0:43:04) Micah: Always excited for cross play (0:43:08) Micah: Monster hunter is doing that. I’m very hopeful that this is the future of (0:43:15) Micah: Multiplayer in general that everybody’s gonna be doing cross play (0:43:18) Al: Yes, I can understand when you’ve got a competitive game, you don’t want keyboard and mouse players (0:43:26) Al: playing with controller players, but the problem with that argument is always, well, you can (0:43:32) Al: be a controller player on a PC. (0:43:36) Al: And so you can’t restrict that. (0:43:39) Al: So why restrict the other things? (0:43:41) Al: I do think if they do something like that, I like when they do options. (0:43:46) Al: You can either be just with people on… (0:43:48) Al: your system, or you can be with anyone. (0:43:51) Al: And in this case, it doesn’t really matter because it’s just co-op, right? (0:43:54) Al: It does not a competitive, you know, every millisecond counts type of game anyway. (0:44:00) Micah: Yeah jock i’m actually shy about that I guess because it’s not a like normal thing these days (0:44:01) Al: It also has two-player local co-op. (0:44:11) Al: No, it’s cool. (0:44:12) Micah: so that’s pretty neat (0:44:14) Al: And next we have the garden path have released their co-op update. (0:44:20) Al: So you can probably guess what that brings to the game. (0:44:24) Micah: Would you say that it’s co-op? (0:44:26) Al: Yes. (0:44:29) Al: Interestingly, so if you actually look in the patch notes, (0:44:32) Al: the first update is players can now hold hands in multiplayer (0:44:36) Al: by selecting the emote in the emote selector. (0:44:38) Al: like her. I love how they’ve put in the effort to allow you to hold (0:44:41) Al: hands. There you go. I haven’t played this game. That’s all (0:44:42) Micah: I love that. (0:44:50) Micah: - Yeah, I haven’t either, so it looks interesting. (0:44:56) Micah: I mean, I really like the art style and stuff. (0:44:59) Micah: I just, yeah, it hasn’t been on my radar enough. (0:45:02) Al: Well, a game that has been on our radar, but probably not as much as we originally thought it might, is Spirit Tea. (0:45:10) Al: They have released their Phantom Friends update, which brings you can now have Spirits as Pets, which is a fun little addition. (0:45:19) Al: I think if you’re enjoying that game, this will be a nice little addition to that. (0:45:24) Micah: It looks very cute (0:45:25) Al: Also, as always with the Spirit Tea update, there’s new Spirits and Quests as well. (0:45:26) Micah: It’s a cat spirit (0:45:31) Al: Bye. (0:45:32) Al: Oh yes, Sugardew Island. (0:45:35) Al: So I would. (0:45:36) Micah: - We made it. (0:45:37) Micah: - We got, we got there. (0:45:39) Al: Goodness me, I wouldn’t normally bring up an update this small for a game, (0:45:45) Al: especially a game like Sugardew Island, which I don’t think should exist. (0:45:49) Al: But they have updated a few things that I complained about in my last episode (0:45:55) Al: when I reviewed it, so I felt like I should bring those up because if those (0:46:00) Al: specific things and not (0:46:02) Al: everything else that I said about the game with the reasons that you’re not playing it, (0:46:05) Al: then maybe you will now. So selling items in the shop no longer requires energy. Hurray. Fantastic. (0:46:13) Al: Just what we want. And you can now craft energy bars so you don’t have to go and just buy them. (0:46:19) Al: You can craft them, which is good because that was a weird decision not to allow you to eat (0:46:24) Al: anything you grow. But as I say in my show notes here, it is still not. (0:46:32) Al: A good game. So there we go. (0:46:35) Micah: I- I’m so curious, I’m just so cu- oh there’s a demo so I guess I don’t need to be that curious. (0:46:43) Al: Yes, the demo is out now. If you want to try it, feel free. (0:46:43) Micah: I can just try it. (0:46:47) Micah: I- I feel like I have to, it’s just so fascinating to me and how like anti-SugarDew Island you are makes me want to try it. (0:46:56) Al: This is the thing, I don’t like being negative about games. (0:47:02) Al: And I was talking in the Slack to some of the patrons and I was like, I don’t think (0:47:06) Al: I’ve ever been this negative about the game that I’ve covered on the podcast. (0:47:11) Al: And it’s like, every example that people brought up about a game I was negative about, it was, (0:47:15) Al: I don’t like this, but it’s not for me. (0:47:19) Al: Other people will. (0:47:20) Al: I understand it. (0:47:21) Al: It’s like, I did not like my time at Porsche, but that was because I really didn’t like (0:47:24) Al: how the crafting worked. (0:47:26) Al: If we’re ignoring all of the Switch issues with that game. (0:47:30) Al: You know, and all the, like, the Harvest Moon’s… (0:47:33

Al and Micah talk about Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:09: What Have We Been Up To 00:12:01: Game News 00:39:50: New Games 01:15:05: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home 02:18:35: Outro Links Let’s Build a Zoo “Monstrous Structures” Update Cat Cafe Manager 2 Kickstarter Super Zoo Story Kickstarter Wylde Flowers “Magical Creatures” Update BokuMono: Life and Love Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Boardgame My Time at Evershine Dreamland Farm Danchi Days Amber Isle Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home on Apple Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home on Android Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:33) Al: My name is Al, and we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games. (0:00:34) Micah: And I’m Micah (0:00:39) Al: Woo. (0:00:40) Micah: Yay (0:00:40) Al: So excited. (0:00:42) Micah: It’s still as much as I have heard you say cart cottagecore games, it’s still always those (0:00:50) Al: I keep like bouncing between like should it be cottagecore should it be farming (0:00:56) Al: it’s like I was running something over in my head today I was like games that (0:01:01) Al: quite often have a farming component but not always and are sometimes considered (0:01:05) Al: cozy but not always like we’d (0:01:06) Micah: I think it’s I think for me it’s because every time you have me on we are (0:01:15) Micah: talking about farming games specifically like you know the core the core farming (0:01:17) Al: Yeah, you have you have a niche. (0:01:20) Al: Ah. (laughs) (0:01:23) Micah: game groups the harvest moons the story of season (0:01:29) Al: Exactly. I mean, well, the thing is, right, most people don’t want to spend a lot of time (0:01:35) Al: on a lot of those games. I just want to go back to stardew. And this is the cheapest (0:01:37) Micah: understandable. I am more than happy to, uh, to bite the bullet for everybody else to be able to (0:01:46) Micah: experience, uh, you know. (0:01:49) Al: Harvest Moon game we’ve paid for in quite a long time. So, you know. OK, well, we’ll (0:01:52) Micah: Ah! Sure. Yeah, sure. (0:01:55) Al: get to that. So, before we get to that, we have… (0:01:59) Al: News. We’ve got a bunch of news to talk about. (0:02:03) Al: Oh yeah, I didn’t actually say… We’re going to talk about the new Harvest Moon game. (0:02:06) Al: Harvest Moon’s home to be home. (0:02:08) Al: But we’ve got news before that. (0:02:10) Al: First of all, Maika, what have you been up to? (0:02:12) Micah: I have been very busy. I have been (0:02:17) Micah: Very busy doing a few things I have work has been (0:02:22) Micah: Really crazy, and I I love that like I love when I’m busy, so it’s not a complaint. You know I love when I’m my time is (0:02:30) Micah: Caught up and preoccupied so I it’s it’s great, but it has not left me a lot of time for games (0:02:38) Micah: so (0:02:40) Micah: Primarily what I have been playing. (0:02:42) Micah: I have some personal projects that I’ve been working on too that are not work-related, (0:03:12) Micah: taking up a lot of time, which is great, and I’m really happy about that. (0:03:17) Micah: There is one where I have had some time to be able to play some older Pokémon games, (0:03:25) Micah: and I can’t really say why yet, but I have been enjoying that. (0:03:28) Al: I’m intrigued. I wasn’t intrigued until he said you can’t say why. (0:03:34) Micah: It is a big project that I’ve been working on for months now, and it is becoming a… (0:03:42) Micah: It’s one of those projects where you start and you’re like, “This is a really small, (0:03:46) Micah: fun idea,” and then it just grows over time, and you’re like, “This is getting really (0:03:49) Micah: out of hand, and I don’t know how I’m going to be able to get a hold of this.” (0:03:53) Micah: But it’s been really fun, and it has allowed me some time to do work and stay busy, but (0:03:58) Micah: also play games, play some games. (0:04:01) Micah: But primarily it’s been Pokémon, is what I’ve been playing. (0:04:04) Micah: I did download, I bought and downloaded Fields of Mistria. (0:04:09) Micah: I have not played it yet. (0:04:10) Micah: I’m very excited. (0:04:12) Micah: But I haven’t had a chance to touch it yet. (0:04:14) Al: I haven’t bought that one yet, that’s on my list of “I will probably pay this at some point, maybe.” (0:04:18) Micah: Yeah, yeah. (0:04:20) Micah: I just had seen, you know, the the most buzz around a farming (0:04:26) Micah: sim since I think maybe Stardew in like communities that were (0:04:32) Micah: specifically excited about like Stardew and you know that that (0:04:39) Micah: type of farming sim. (0:04:40) Micah: So I that. (0:04:42) Micah: Intrigued enough to be like, okay, if this is if people are like, you know, recognizing (0:04:47) Micah: it as a not a like competitor or anything or like the new Stardew or anything like that. (0:04:52) Micah: But if there’s enough interest there, then maybe it’s something to, to look into. (0:04:56) Micah: So, and I like the art style. (0:04:58) Micah: I like the pixel art and stuff. (0:04:59) Micah: So it’s a little, we’ll see have yet to play it. (0:05:02) Al: So, other than obviously Harvest Moon Home, Sweet Home, I have been trying to get back (0:05:02) Micah: So I can’t really say anything about it. (0:05:05) Micah: What about you? (0:05:06) Micah: What have you been up to? (0:05:13) Al: into Coral Island after their 1.1 update. Sometimes when you go back to a game, it takes (0:05:20) Al: a while to get yourself back into the zone. I spent over a month, I spent 100 hours in (0:05:29) Al: in Carl Island. (0:05:30) Al: So I’m not back at– (0:05:32) Al: at that point yet, but we’ll see. (0:05:34) Al: I mean that in and of itself might– (0:05:36) Al: will be interesting to talk about, you know, (0:05:38) Al: when we get to that, if I– if I don’t end up. (0:05:40) Al: But– (0:05:41) Micah: world’s biggest coral island fan. (0:05:42) Al: because– (0:05:45) Micah: As far as I know, at least he are. (0:05:48) Al: I like it! It’s a really fun game. (0:05:50) Al: But I think it’s interesting because if I– (0:05:52) Al: if I don’t manage to push myself back into it, (0:05:54) Al: that says something. (0:05:56) Al: Because I’ve managed to– I’ve managed to get obsessed (0:05:58) Al: about Stardew every single time I’ve gone back to it. (0:06:00) Al: to it. And (0:06:02) Al: that, you know, so if I can’t that says something, you know, like I started a new (0:06:07) Al: save for 1.6 when it came out and got perfection for the first time on it. So like, you know, (0:06:14) Micah: Oh, nice. That’s awesome. (0:06:15) Al: that’s how obsessed I got over it last time. So we’ll see. We’ll see. (0:06:17) Micah: Yeah. (0:06:19) Micah: I love that, though. I love when you… (0:06:22) Micah: That feeling of, like, finding a game that lets you do that, like, lets you obsess over it in that way. (0:06:28) Al: Yeah. (0:06:30) Al: I don’t know why does it happen though. (0:06:32) Al: Why do I keep coming back to stardew and keep playing it? (0:06:35) Micah: It’s your comfort game you know same reason why probably I’ve watched I don’t know the office (0:06:43) Micah: 18,000 times over not because it’s like incredible really and (0:06:48) Micah: Not because you know the a lot of the jokes are especially early on are not like questionable (0:06:52) Al: Heh. (0:06:54) Al: Yeah. (0:06:54) Micah: Especially today, but just cuz it’s Scott like you know (0:06:59) Micah: I don’t I don’t have to I don’t gotta think too hard about it. I just know what it is (0:07:05) Micah: It’s it becomes a comfort thing (0:07:08) Al: Fair. (0:07:08) Micah: Stardew Stardew Valley is your the office. I don’t let’s let’s let’s not use that let’s better on that comparison (0:07:14) Micah: I’m that I apologize that me. I don’t know why that made me think of it, but (0:07:18) Micah: I have been looking (0:07:21) Micah: looking at getting (0:07:23) Micah: back into (0:07:24) Micah: Pocket camp too recently cuz I kind of want to see it off (0:07:26) Al: Oh, good timing. Are you… are you gonna buy the offline version? (0:07:29) Micah: You know I’d put a lot of time into it (0:07:33) Micah: and money (0:07:36) Micah: I (0:07:37) Micah: Don’t probably here and there. I think part of it is that I just there were so many events that I (0:07:43) Micah: Didn’t feel like I could keep up with it as much. I will say (0:07:49) Micah: My wife Becky has is devastated. She is I (0:07:53) Micah: Think probably the biggest Animal Crossing fan (0:07:56) Micah: I I know like by far and I would have said years ago. I would have said that’s me (0:08:02) Micah: I am the biggest Animal Crossing fan that I know. (0:08:05) Micah: But that has, she has since taken that crown. (0:08:08) Micah: She has never stopped playing New Horizons. (0:08:12) Micah: She, she played New Leaf a ton. (0:08:14) Micah: She played through, you know, all of the, the previous (0:08:16) Micah: Harvest Moon’s, or Harvest Moon’s god. (0:08:19) Micah: I’m already in Harvest Moon Brain. (0:08:21) Micah: Uh, she’s played through the previous Animal Crossings, but (0:08:27) Micah: she has been, uh, nonstop playing New Horizons. (0:08:32) Micah: And I believe she’s literally, it’s, it’s Sunday. (0:08:35) Micah: So, you know, it’s her call, she calls her Goblin Day. (0:08:39) Micah: She’s literally out there playing New Horizons right now. (0:08:42) Micah: But in addition to that, she has never stopped playing Pocket Camp. (0:08:46) Micah: She has like thousands of hours, I would guess, in Pocket Camp. (0:08:53) Micah: And there are people that she knows only through Pocket Camp that (0:09:01) Micah: she’s like sad that it’s closing because she doesn’t know these (0:09:05) Micah: things outside of it. (0:09:05) Micah: Like she’s got, you know, hundreds of like friendship interactions (0:09:10) Micah: where they trade gifts or they trade, you know, items or whatever (0:09:13) Micah: in the game, but she doesn’t know who these people actually are. (0:09:16) Micah: So like when the game shuts down, that’s just going to go away, which (0:09:16) Al: Yeah. Well, and being a Nintendo game, it’s not going to have, like, free text, (0:09:20) Micah: is like an incredibly sad thing. (0:09:21) Micah: But like, how do you resolve that? (0:09:23) Micah: You know, like, what do you, right? (0:09:28) Al: so you wouldn’t have a way to be able to save that. Yeah. (0:09:28) Micah: There’s no social aspect to it. (0:09:31) Micah: Like broader social aspect to it that you can, you know, uh, (0:09:36) Micah: converse with the people outside of outside for good reason, right? (0:09:39) Micah: Like for kids games, but, but also in situations like this, it’s just (0:09:44) Micah: kind of, kind of weird and sad and like an interesting thing, but yeah. (0:09:48) Micah: So I, that has, has like touched me enough that I’m like, I kind of just (0:09:54) Micah: want to go back and see it off and, you know, be there when it shuts down (0:09:58) Micah: and stuff, because I’ve put so much time and unfortunately money into it. (0:10:02) Micah: so… (0:10:02) Al: Yeah, fair enough. Speaking of mobile games, I have gotten back into Marvel Snap quite (0:10:03) Micah: Bye. (0:10:06) Micah: So that’s next on the roster. (0:10:14) Micah: Oh, okay. (0:10:16) Al: a lot as well, like I have put so much time into it the last couple of months that I’m (0:10:26) Al: not quite at the top rank this season, but I’m close, and if I hit it, it’ll… (0:10:32) Al: be the first time I’ve hit it ever. So yeah, big. That’s big. 100. Or, oh, what’s the 100? (0:10:38) Micah: what is the top rank in marvel snap what’s the like the title for oh okay it’s not like a okay (0:10:43) Al: Platinum, I think. I don’t really pay attention to the names, I just pay attention to the number, (0:10:48) Al: right? Big number. Number go big. But I think it’s platinum. Oh no, it’s infinite. Infinite. (0:10:56) Micah: Oh, okay. All right (0:10:57) Al: So yeah, I’m at like 83 just now, so we’re… (0:11:01) Micah: Yeah, well I (0:11:04) Micah: Have heard nothing but good things about Marvel snap from those who play it, but I have never I’ve never (0:11:11) Al: Yeah, I find it really fun. I like its simplicity but also how complicated you can make it if (0:11:20) Micah: Mm-hmm sure (0:11:21) Al: you want to. Like I’ve got a deck that is like if I get the right cards basically unbeatable (0:11:29) Al: but you have to have a different way to win as well because you sometimes don’t get those (0:11:32) Micah: right yeah can I get those multiple win engines (0:11:34) Al: cards so it’s yeah, it’s fun. Exactly, exactly. (0:11:42) Al: It’s fun. I’m really enjoying it. They added a lot of stuff while I wasn’t playing it as well so (0:11:47) Al: trying to get back into that and being like oh they’ve got these alliances and leagues and all (0:11:54) Al: these cards that I don’t have because I hadn’t unlocked them etc etc but it’s good fun. Cool, (0:11:59) Micah: No, awesome (0:12:02) Al: so that’s what we’ve been up to. Now we’re going to talk about some news. First of all, (0:12:06) Al: Let’s build a zoo have announced a new update the (0:12:11) Al: structures update and this I mean it’s like there’s big balloons (0:12:21) Al: it’s interesting they call it a monsters monstrous structures I think it’s basically (0:12:26) Al: just because there are two massive balloons. (0:12:30) Micah: I do see, in the images, a giant warthog thing and a giant bear, but that’s the (0:12:37) Al: Exactly. There’s a lot of quality, well exactly, there’s a lot of quality of life improvements (0:12:40) Micah: extent of what I see. As far as monstrous goes, you know, (0:12:47) Al: as well, but like the name seems to be entirely hinging on those two balloons. Yeah, maybe. (0:12:54) Micah: Or just the concept that there’s a lot of stuff, you know, there’s like it’s a big update. Maybe I don’t know (0:13:01) Al: It’s a lot of little things, I think, right? Like you can now rename animals is the first (0:13:05) Al: thing in the patch notes, right? (0:13:07) Al: Like that’s not a mate, I mean, it’s fine, it’s good. (0:13:10) Al: Like I’m not saying it’s bad, but it’s not like this is a game changer. (0:13:10) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:13:14) Micah: Right, yeah. (0:13:16) Al: Yeah, it just, there’s lots of quality of life improvements. (0:13:19) Al: So if you’ve been playing, enjoy those updates. (0:13:22) Al: If you haven’t been playing because you couldn’t rename your animals, now you can. (0:13:26) Micah: or because there weren’t giant monster balloons. (0:13:31) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:13:32) Al: Next we have Cat Cafe Manager 2. (0:13:36) Al: big city bliss. (0:13:37) Al: The Kickstarter is now live. (0:13:39) Al: Micah, have you seen this game yet? (0:13:40) Micah: I have not. (0:13:41) Al: Had you seen the original Kat Kaffee manager? (0:13:44) Al: Kat Kaffee manager. (0:13:44) Micah: I have not. (0:13:46) Micah: I can’t say that. (0:13:47) Micah: I so I should what I should say is I have seen games that feel similar in that, you (0:13:56) Micah: know, I’ve been on the Switch eShop and there’s a lot of games that look similar, I guess. (0:14:03) Micah: But is this the the original? (0:14:06) Micah: Is this the OG cafe manager? (0:14:10) Al: a good question. That I don’t have the answer to. Yeah, it’s quite a big difference to the (0:14:11) Micah: I like the art for this much better than all the other stuff (0:14:21) Al: previous game. So the previous one came out in 2022. It’s not like it looked bad, right? (0:14:28) Al: But it’s different art style. I do prefer the newer one. It’s very, I guess, shiny Paper (0:14:39) Al: from REO. (0:14:40) Micah: Okay. Yeah. (0:14:40) Al: It’s how I would describe it. This one, right? I like the look of it. It’s interesting. So they (0:14:47) Al: seem to… I’ve noticed that they are planning on having like an actual story here in this one, (0:14:56) Al: because I think the previous one didn’t have that. So if you look at one of their updates on (0:15:00) Al: Kickstarter, they say “Cat Caffe Manager 1 had a nice but fairly straightforward storyline (0:15:06) Al: with the sequel, we’re excited to introduce more complex characters, mysteries and even (0:15:10) Al: somewhat of a villain. Well, yeah, there you go. Yeah, it’s in. I’m intrigued to see what (0:15:12) Micah: Oh a villain in my cat cafe? (0:15:18) Micah: I I there are a lot of things that that could mean and that scares me (0:15:24) Micah: We’re talking about like, you know adoptable animals i’m worried about who the villain is but (0:15:28) Al: happens. We’ll see. We’ll see. I’m excited to find out. (0:15:33) Micah: It’s really (0:15:35) Micah: It is a very cute art style though. I like it a lot. I do like that. Um (0:15:40) Micah: kind of flat 2D characters in a 3D space. (0:15:42) Micah: kind of thing. Obviously, you know, things like Snacko and stuff like that. Paper Mario, like you said. (0:15:48) Micah: I like that concept. (0:15:52) Micah: So, yeah, it looks really cool. (0:15:54) Al: it hasn’t hasn’t hit its goal yet but it’s going to let’s be honest it’s it’s (0:15:59) Al: 32,000 of 40,000 so it’s it’s it’s nearly there and it’s try (0:16:06) Micah: I should clarify too, when I had said, you know, I’ve seen games similar to this, I don’t mean art style gameplay, stuff like that, more just like the branding of it feels, you know, like it felt very, obviously cat cafe manager, it’s very straight to the point, you know, like, and I see a lot of like, I don’t know, whatever tycoon, whatever, you know, like, manager, whatever, it’s there’s so many of those that I just, I could have seen this and I wouldn’t (0:16:34) Al: So the first one does have an 84% steam rating, very positive with 1,500 reviews. So it’s (0:16:36) Micah: know, because I kind of, you know, (0:16:44) Micah: - Wow. (0:16:50) Al: obviously some people liked it, so that’s good. And the fact that they’ve successfully (0:16:55) Al: made a game before makes me much more encouraged about backing a Kickstarter. It’s not just (0:17:01) Al: one of these Skinner boxes that they’ve thrown together in a week and throw (0:17:04) Al: on the eShop, which happens so often. Yeah, it’s getting so much worse with that. (0:17:05) Micah: Right, God, the AI art, so much of it on there. (0:17:13) Micah: Yeah, they really gotta get a handle on that. (0:17:15) Micah: You know, nevermind. (0:17:17) Micah: I don’t wanna start to get riled up a little bit. (0:17:23) Micah: I’ll keep it brief. (0:17:24) Micah: Nintendo made a big deal about not having, you know, (0:17:26) Micah: shovelware on their systems like they did with the Wii. (0:17:29) Micah: And then they just instead opened up the eShop (0:17:32) Micah: to literally everything. (0:17:34) Al: Yeah, and it’s a bit of a balance, right? Because I think it’s important that we have (0:17:40) Al: open access to develop and share your games. But… (0:17:41) Micah: oh yeah for sure but like maybe some level of regulation like (0:17:48) Al: Well, this is the thing they do. It’s not like with Steam where it’s like you can literally (0:17:51) Al: just create it and launch it with no, like, oversight. On the Switch, you have to go through (0:17:56) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:17:57) Al: a process where they approve it. That’s what’s weird is, like, how are they approving all this (0:18:02) Al: nonsense like they’re not they’re clearly not (0:18:04) Al: approving it they’re just clicking the button they’re not actually looking at (0:18:07) Al: it so why do they have the process there why do they bother (0:18:08) Micah: Or they have some like automated process that’s relying on some artificial intelligence to be like it checks these boxes. So it is approved (0:18:17) Al: yeah yeah maybe they’re just going is it a game does it run there you go that’s (0:18:21) Al: fine but I don’t know (0:18:25) Al: next we have super zoo story they have announced that their kickstarter goes (0:18:30) Al: live on the first of October. It’s just another… (0:18:34) Al: It’s another Zoo Tycoon game. Yeah, that’s it. (0:18:41) Micah: It definitely looks like a Z-Teku. (0:18:42) Al: Am I gonna play this game? I don’t know. It’s it. So I will say, I will see. The one (0:18:49) Al: thing that makes me more interested in this is it does appear to be like you… (0:18:54) Al: It’s an RPG style game rather than like a God style management game. And that (0:19:01) Al: interests me, because I am not a huge fan. (0:19:02) Micah: I agree, that- (0:19:04) Al: I am a fan of management games, but I am a fan of RPG management. (0:19:10) Micah: I agree with that. I’m also in that same boat where if it’s if it says tycoon and it’s got a you know (0:19:17) Micah: Like you’re you’re kind of like managing resources and filling a space and then (0:19:23) Micah: Making money. I’m not as interested in it (0:19:26) Micah: But the the RPG the added RPG element sounds more interesting to me (0:19:32) Micah: You know same way that like was a golf story like to be fair like loved Mario golf (0:19:36) Al: Yes, Golf Story is fantastic! (0:19:40) Micah: You know (0:19:41) Micah: Some of the like more goofy golf game games like (0:19:46) Micah: non-traditional golf games big fan of those but (0:19:49) Micah: Things like golf story sports story like that where they add an RPG element to it definitely makes it much more (0:19:55) Micah: You know exciting and more unique of an experience. So (0:20:00) Al: Yeah, yeah. I’m not a huge golf fan. I mean, I don’t even mean in real life, right? Because (0:20:04) Micah: Oh me neither. I don’t know. I don’t know anything about golf (0:20:09) Al: that’s a whole different discussion. I will rant about golf if you want me to, but I don’t think (0:20:13) Al: we want to. But game-wise, I like Mario Golf, and that’s probably about it. But yeah, Golf Story (0:20:24) Al: absolutely adored it. It was fantastic in so many ways. The actual golf was fun, (0:20:29) Al: But also, it was just– (0:20:30) Al: just my kind of humor. (0:20:31) Al: The story was just enough to be interesting, (0:20:35) Al: but not too much that you felt completely overwhelmed. (0:20:38) Al: It was my perfect RPG. (0:20:40) Al: It was just enough. (0:20:41) Al: Just enough RPG in– (0:20:44) Al: just enough RP in my G. Yeah, sports story was good as well. (0:20:49) Al: A little bit rushed, but I still really enjoyed it. (0:20:55) Al: Yeah, so I mean, I’m probably going to play this one purely (0:20:58) Al: because it’s rather than the kind of, you know. (0:21:00) Al: Tycoon style game, it is an RPG style game. (0:21:03) Al: It’ll be interesting to see how they balance that, obviously, (0:21:05) Al: because these things have to be on a much smaller scale (0:21:08) Al: because you’re doing everything every time. (0:21:11) Al: And will there be some level of automation to that? (0:21:13) Al: Like how, you know, Stardew adds that in as you go. (0:21:16) Al: We’ll just, you know, we’ll see what happens. (0:21:20) Al: Next, we have a new update from Wildflowers, (0:21:22) Al: which came out a few days ago. (0:21:23) Al: This is the magical creatures update. (0:21:26) Al: And can you guess what this brings to the game? (0:21:29) Micah: I’m gonna guess some magical creatures. No way (0:21:30) Al: You are correct. I know, imagine that. Go for it. I need to find if there’s a list. (0:21:37) Micah: Can I guess some of the magical creatures unicorn, oh, okay, never mind abort abort (0:21:48) Al: Oh, here we go. I can’t see a unicorn, but no, you’re correct. I think they’re trying to, (0:21:50) Micah: Okay, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not there, you know (0:21:55) Al: you know, not spoil everything, but what I do see is what looks like a cross between (0:21:59) Al: a tiger and an elephant. (0:22:00) Al: This is like tiger legs, elephant head, but also the size of a small dog. (0:22:00) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:22:04) Micah: Don’t don’t know that I’ve I know that one don’t know that I (0:22:09) Micah: Do see that one. It is very cute though. Do you’re like (0:22:14) Micah: Description of it, you know tiger with the head of an elephant just (0:22:19) Micah: Was did not prepare me for what it looks like and it is very cute (0:22:23) Al: that’s what it is though, right? Like you can’t say I’m wrong. Yeah. And then like some sort of (0:22:24) Micah: It is you’re totally right, but it is it’s really cute (0:22:32) Al: lizard gecko type thing with chicken legs. And then a Shiba Inu, of course. (0:22:34) Micah: Yep. (0:22:35) Micah: Chicken Lizard? (0:22:37) Micah: The classic mystical creature? (0:22:40) Micah: Yep. (0:22:42) Al: It’s like, what makes that magical? I don’t know. That’s the main thing. There’s other things as (0:22:49) Al: as well. There’s some more story about the lighthouse. (0:22:51) Al: Um, I don’t know. (0:22:53) Al: So this is the time, I mean, well, when I mentioned it to him, he said, oh, I guess (0:22:58) Micah: Oh, okay. (0:23:01) Micah: Is Kevin going to be okay? (0:23:05) Micah: That this is their final update? (0:23:08) Al: I need to get back into the game then. (0:23:09) Al: Uh, so I think it’s been a while since he’s played, he’s played it. (0:23:12) Al: So we’ll, we’ll see, we’ll see how he feels once he’s actually played it. (0:23:16) Micah: Got it. (0:23:17) Al: The update. (0:23:18) Al: Be interesting to see what the studio do next. (0:23:20) Micah: Yeah, definitely. (0:23:22) Micah: And now that they have got such a, like, you know, well-loved thing under their belt, there’s… (0:23:27) Al: Yeah, the moment you see from the makers of Wild Flowers, you’re like “OK, I’m paying attention”. (0:23:34) Al: So next we have possibly one of the weirdest things I’ve seen in a while, and this is (0:23:40) Al: “Bokumono Life and Love”, which is a G-mode phone game from a long time ago that has been ported (0:23:50) Al: to Steam and Switch. (0:23:52) Micah: I cannot tell you how happy I am about this for a couple reasons just also for (0:24:02) Micah: full clarification it is not in English there is no English for this it is a (0:24:06) Al: Yes, I’m important to point that out. (0:24:09) Micah: straight-up port of the Japanese phone game that’s it they’re not doing (0:24:14) Micah: anything else with it (0:24:16) Al: The good thing is the Steam page does make that very clear, it’s above the buy button, (0:24:18) Micah: yeah (0:24:21) Al: it says “English language not supported” in red letters. (0:24:22) Micah: right (0:24:25) Micah: there is uh it looks like well it says partial controller support but it it (0:24:32) Micah: looks like there are controller controls like you know I see like L&R buttons and (0:24:39) Micah: the screenshots and stuff like that so you know there’s not like you won’t need (0:24:43) Micah: some t9 cell phone flip phone peripheral to control the game or whatever it’s (0:24:47) Al: Yeah. (0:24:52) Micah: it is straight up that port though and I love that there are a couple reasons (0:24:56) Micah: why I love that one really stupid really dumb right like really like unexpected (0:25:02) Micah: weird bizarre decision from marvelous great I love it but also because there (0:25:10) Micah: are so many lost media games that are caught in this like g-mode old Japanese (0:25:19) Micah: phone game that like… maybe this o- (0:25:22) Micah: opens the door for more of those to be able to release- get- be released like this? (0:25:24) Al: Well, that’s an interesting question. Are they going to make this technology that they’ve (0:25:30) Al: clearly built as an emulator or whatever? I don’t know exactly what they’ve done, (0:25:34) Al: but something. Are they going to be able to share that with other people? That would be really cool. (0:25:35) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:25:39) Micah: Right, definitely. Well, the other positive there is that (0:25:44) Micah: even just releasing the game gives way to a lot of (0:25:48) Micah: really brilliant people in the (0:25:51) Micah: homebrew community to be able to dissect it and figure out (0:25:56) Micah: what they did as far as you know emulation goes and (0:26:00) Micah: maybe be able to just find a way to (0:26:04) Micah: to… to… (0:26:05) Micah: you know, port some of that stuff themselves, or you know, I don’t know if there’s a lot (0:26:10) Micah: of opportunities here for some really interesting and really cool, like, lost games to be able (0:26:20) Al: So it looks like they’re not the first people to do this. (0:26:23) Al: So it looks like Gmail themselves (0:26:25) Al: released released a bunch of games on Steam a couple of years ago. (0:26:31) Al: So maybe this is, (0:26:34) Al: you know, because of this, like maybe that technology has then been used in this (0:26:39) Al: situation. (0:26:39) Micah: Mm-hmm. There are also some on the switch as well (0:26:44) Micah: But this I think is the like most (0:26:48) Micah: Popular franchise I could be wrong about this, but I think this is the most popular franchise to be (0:26:52) Al: I don’t think you’re wrong. I think saying a bokumono game on a really niche Japanese (0:27:03) Al: phone brand is possibly the most popular game on that. I believe you. I think probably. (0:27:11) Micah: yeah I I think that that’s possible to at least that’s my impression right is (0:27:17) Micah: that like that’s you know we’re we’re you know in a world now where like being (0:27:23) Micah: able to people people may be more aware of it now as being a thing I know that (0:27:29) Micah: there was a persona game that was like last year (0:27:32) Al: I was just… that is what I was just about to say. I have immediately (0:27:35) Al: changed my opinion on that. When I saw on their list that Persona 3 is one of them. (0:27:40) Micah: Yeah, well it’s so it’s a persona it and it is like a such a like small. I don’t know. Maybe I where is the the (0:27:51) Micah: The like chart that shows the growth between like persona fan base and (0:27:58) Micah: The like harvest moon fam, you know, that’s the story seasons fan base because I (0:27:59) Al: Yeah. (0:28:04) Micah: feel like you know prior to persona 5 that was definitely not like the you know (0:28:11) Micah: Either way (0:28:11) Al: Yeah, but I feel like people are going back to the older games, especially with, you know, (0:28:15) Al: 3 getting its Switch release. I feel like people are going back to the older ones when they started (0:28:18) Micah: oh yeah for sure it is a huge franchise now for sure I just don’t know if like (0:28:28) Micah: you know how big is the heart like how big is the harvest moon name you know (0:28:32) Micah: how big is the story of seasons name you know (0:28:32) Al: Well, and it’s more complicated obviously because like the name in Japan is as big as (0:28:38) Micah: it’s not right (0:28:39) Al: it has ever been, but like what does the main name mean over here? And they don’t use either (0:28:43) Micah: mm-hmm (0:28:47) Al: name because obviously they don’t have an English name for this, right? They obviously (0:28:52) Al: would be calling it Story of Seasons if they had, but then it would be like because it’s (0:28:57) Al: a port. They’ve not done a port, right? So this is the weird thing. They’ve not done (0:29:00) Al: on a port, so actually that’s not true. (0:29:02) Al: I guess they did. They did the original Harvest Moon on Nintendo Switch Online, didn’t (0:29:07) Al: they? And they called that Harvest Moon. They didn’t call that a story of seasons. So maybe (0:29:10) Micah: True. Yeah, you’re right (0:29:12) Al: they would, and maybe they would call this Harvest Moon then if they released it in the (0:29:16) Al: West. What I find interesting is they’re about this game, they have an English description (0:29:16) Micah: Yeah, I don’t know (0:29:20) Al: of this game on Steam. (0:29:23) Micah: Right, like it is it is on the the American Steam store like it is accessible (0:29:29) Al: Even if it’s not just that, it says “enjoy a heartwarming” and this isn’t auto-translated (0:29:34) Al: in Chrome or anything, it just says “enjoy a heartwarming farm life while growing crops (0:29:38) Al: and interacting with animals”. (0:29:39) Al: This title is a port of a title released in 2007 for feature phones in the popular series, (0:29:44) Al: which has been developed for numerous hardware platforms. (0:29:47) Al: It simultaneously includes For Boy, in which a boy is the main character, and For Girl, (0:29:51) Al: in which a girl is the main character. (0:29:52) Micah: No way (0:29:53) Al: Funny that they decided to just add them both and just like smash them together into one (0:29:57) Micah: Yeah (0:29:59) Micah: I’d be curious to like how that plays it like is it just a selection right? (0:29:59) Al: Fair enough. (0:30:03) Micah: Do you just like select which game it is or they kind of just like blood them together? Yeah (0:30:03) Al: I suspect so. (0:30:05) Al: I suspect so, yeah. (0:30:08) Micah: I can’t imagine. There’s a lot of you know (0:30:08) Al: Like, they’re calling it a port. (0:30:10) Al: They’ve not changed it. (0:30:11) Micah: Yeah (0:30:13) Micah: Development going on there. Yeah, so I don’t know I guess between persona and this (0:30:19) Micah: you know, and persona happening with (0:30:22) Micah: in the last within a like, a year, almost a year to date, I (0:30:26) Al: Yeah. (0:30:27) Micah: think. No, September 23, it looks like. But yeah, either (0:30:33) Micah: either way, you know, the fact that bigger games now are (0:30:38) Micah: getting these like G mode ports is kind of exciting. So I don’t (0:30:43) Micah: know, even beyond G mode, there are other mobile games from that (0:30:50) Micah: time period that are just like, you know. (0:30:51) Al: Yeah, I agree. I agree. I look forward to playing Gregory Horror Show, which is another (0:30:52) Micah: Completely lost. That would be great to be able to see some of that stuff. (0:30:58) Micah: Go this route, so. (0:31:04) Al: one, which comes out in October. (0:31:07) Al: All right. Can’t believe we spent that much time talking about a G-mode game. What is (0:31:10) Micah: I mean. (0:31:13) Al: this podcast? Finally, before we get into it, we’ve got a few new games to talk about. (0:31:19) Al: For that, we have. (0:31:21) Al: A board game based on Mika and the Witch’s Mountain that’s coming to Kickstarter. (0:31:28) Micah: Okay, I can’t could not have expected that honestly (0:31:32) Al: No. No. I don’t really know what to say. Yes, yes, I’ll probably buy it. Stop asking. It’s, (0:31:38) Micah: I don’t either. (0:31:43) Al: I mean, it’s very, with the intro, so, okay, I have, my brain’s doing the brain thing. (0:31:50) Al: There’s, it’s called Delivery Witches, right? But it’s not branded Mika on the Witches Mountain (0:31:57) Al: or anything like that, but it’s very definitely Mika, right? Like, it’s the same art. (0:32:02) Al: Chibig shared it on their Twitter, so it’s like very clearly in collaboration with them. And, (0:32:08) Micah: same fonts (0:32:09) Al: and all the characters are the same. They’ve got all their art, etc. Like, it’s very much, (0:32:15) Al: it is the Mika and the Witches Mountain game. They just didn’t call it that. (0:32:20) Micah: Right, right. (0:32:22) Al: Which is fair, I guess. Like, you don’t have to call it the same thing, (0:32:25) Al: But it just I just find it interesting (0:32:27) Al: Um, I. (0:32:28) Micah: yeah it is I i guess I didn’t even think about like you know I i think if I had seen this on its own (0:32:35) Micah: without you telling me um and without drawing that association I probably would have been like (0:32:41) Micah: this looks really familiar but it just seems weird that like they wouldn’t do something to (0:32:42) Al: Yeah (0:32:49) Micah: like further I don’t know maybe that’s enough or I just don’t know if that game is has the uh the (0:32:56) Micah: popularity to be able to. (0:32:58) Micah: to say, like, oh, it is very loosely referential to it, but that’s enough for people to know that it’s based on this game, right? (0:33:07) Micah: Like it’s not, I don’t know, I could see that with other franchises, but maybe not this one. (0:33:13) Al: I think what I find weird is like there’s not a single mention of the game or the game (0:33:19) Al: developer on this Kickstarter page so far. Now granted it’s quite small, like they’ve (0:33:23) Al: not gone live, but they still have like five paragraphs of text and not once does it mention (0:33:29) Al: that it’s based on a game. And the company that’s making it is not the same, right, they’ve (0:33:32) Micah: Yeah, it’s very odd (0:33:36) Al: I’ve obviously been farmed out to another company that makes games. (0:33:40) Micah: But it is the you said it like, how is the developer related? (0:33:47) Al: Well, presumably they own like they are because it is the same characters, right? (0:33:52) Al: They use the same character art that you see in game. (0:33:56) Micah: Yeah, I just meant not not in that way. I meant like how was the other than say the the (0:34:02) Micah: Chibig retweeted it or something, you know, like what what is their relay? (0:34:06) Micah: Is there any other relation to like if they said we’re collaborating with them. I guess I do see (0:34:12) Al: Yeah, I think they made it clear that it was a collaboration. (0:34:15) Micah: Okay, I because it (0:34:18) Al: I guess what I know, I’m not trying to say that it’s as popular as Stardew, (0:34:21) Al: but it would be like if the Stardew Valley board game came out and they called it (0:34:26) Al: “farming game”. Right? Like, it would just feel weird. (0:34:28) Micah: Right, like my immediate my immediate reaction would be like they’re ripping off (0:34:33) Micah: Stardew Valley not like oh, it’s a Stardew Valley game, but they’re but they’re calling it something else (0:34:34) Al: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And there’s nothing that makes it clear on this Kickstarter (0:34:41) Al: page. (0:34:42) Al: This is an official collaboration, but it is. (0:34:44) Micah: And that’s why I was asking well, how were they related to this other than like, you know, but obviously they have cosigned on it because they’re (0:34:53) Micah: Sharing it and like the art, you know, like if it weren’t (0:34:57) Micah: Theirs, they would probably be in litigation with them or something. I’m sure so (0:35:02) Al: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Like it’s not, it’s not even like, you know, close. (0:35:08) Micah: Yeah, it’s really interesting it’s very it’s a very pretty looking board game like every (0:35:14) Micah: Looks cool that some of the like, you know card effects and stuff look neat (0:35:19) Micah: The the character pieces are really really cute. I like almost want to get in on it just for the the little (0:35:29) Micah: What do you call those little guys from the (0:35:30) Al: You can’t call them meeples anymore. (0:35:33) Micah: You can’t call them meeples anymore no, I did not (0:35:35) Al: Oh, did you not hear this news? (0:35:37) Al: All right. Sidebar. (0:35:38) Al: So Carcassonne have trademarked meeples and they’re suing anybody that uses the name now. (0:35:41) Micah: Uh-huh (0:35:44) Micah: Oh (0:35:46) Al: So let me find out what they… (0:35:46) Micah: That’s (0:35:49) Al: It’s very, it’s very stupid. (0:35:52) Al: What is the name that is that people have kind of agreed they should call it instead? (0:35:59) Al: Oh, apparently it’s not. (0:36:00) Al: Not being trademarked in the US, so maybe they’ll continue, people will just continue (0:36:02) Micah: Oh. (0:36:04) Al: to use the word ‘meeple’ and make their games in the US. (0:36:05) Micah: Yet, at least. (0:36:07) Micah: Obviously, they’re trying, so… (0:36:08) Al: Can’t remember, because there was one in particular, so it’s an EU trademark ‘meeple’, because (0:36:16) Al: Carcassonne are German, and what? (0:36:19) Al: Oh yeah, so this was, so a company was making a game called ‘Meeple Inc’, and they were (0:36:26) Al: sued by Carcassonne, so they’re now calling it ‘Table Inc’. (0:36:30) Micah: Leave it to a, you know, a lawsuit to ruin the fun for her. (0:36:35) Al: I know it’s so like seriously nobody is confusing their game with carcass on (0:36:43) Al: just because it says meeple like come on I can’t see anywhere what the (0:36:46) Micah: but uh what do we call these um meekles because it because meika and the you (0:36:54) Al: which which which pole (0:36:55) Micah: know which pool um we’ll just we’ll call them meeples with the asterisk that it (0:37:03) Micah: spelled MI PLE because because meekah and the you know yeah yeah yeah they’re (0:37:06) Al: It’s my poles. (0:37:09) Al: Oh, meekles, meekles, yeah, okay, right, I get you. (0:37:13) Micah: really cute though they’re I that’s probably my favorite part of this whole (0:37:16) Micah: thing like they’re very cute game pieces and I hope that they don’t get (0:37:22) Micah: sued by Carcassonne (0:37:23) Al: Well they’re not using- I don’t see meeple being written anywhere and I don’t think they’re trying (0:37:27) Al: to like trademark the concept of having a meeple, it’s just the name that they’re (0:37:31) Micah: Not yet, at least, you know, it’s opens the doors, you know, the next thing, the next litigation. (0:37:39) Micah: This is, yeah, this is interesting, though, this is such a like strange thing, like a strange decision. (0:37:46) Micah: Maybe part of it is like that they are working with this team and they want to give them because that team is like working as hard as they are in this game and everything they’re giving all of the, you know, like they’re setting it up in a way. (0:38:01) Micah: So that undigital owns the rights to this without having to like, you know, there being any question about who owns the rights to their game that they’re working on because it’s related to something else. (0:38:14) Al: I’m sure they’ve got, I’m sure they have all their legal things in a row, right? (0:38:17) Al: Like it’s not like they, they launched this, they announced it on the same day. (0:38:22) Al: It looks like on Twitter, like it’s very clearly like done together. (0:38:26) Al: So I, I’m sure they know. (0:38:28) Micah: Oh sure, I just mean that, like, that would be a positive thing, you know, if they had given them the, you know, had them just change the name so that in the future there was no potential for any possible, like, you know, legal issues or something, and they could just claim all of the rights to this board game and the profits and whatever without having to, you know, answer to Chibig or whatever, which would be a cool thing for Chibig to do. (0:38:58) Micah: You know, people will say like, hey, just, this is yours. You make all the money from it. But who knows, I don’t, I don’t know what the decision was to do this, but it’s an interesting (0:39:08) Al: I have fallen into a deep dark hole of trademark stuff now. It looks like (0:39:16) Al: the EU trademark doesn’t actually cover toys and games, but there’s a (0:39:21) Micah: All for meeples? (0:39:23) Al: Germany trademark that does cover them. I’m so confused. (0:39:35) Al: What have I done? Why have I started reading this? (0:39:37) Al: Um… (0:39:38) Al: OK, right, no, we’re done with that, right? Anyway, game, uh, the Kickstarter isn’t live yet. (0:39:46) Al: You can go and save it if you want to get notified when it goes live. Link will be in the show notes. (0:39:51) Al: All right, we have a few new games as well. Uh, so a new My Time At game, My Time At Evershine, (0:39:59) Al: um, is coming out. The Kickstarter is launching sometime this month. You want another My Time game? (0:40:06) Micah: Uh, I am. (0:40:09) Micah: Yes, I do. (0:40:10) Micah: I do, because I think that my time at Portia (0:40:14) Micah: was such a like, what do they call it? (0:40:17) Micah: Bottled lightning or whatever. (0:40:20) Micah: For what it was at that time, which was, you know, (0:40:24) Micah: a time shortly after Stardew Valley is like massive success. (0:40:29) Micah: And shortly before the boom in. (0:40:36) Micah: Farm Sim type, like Life Sim type games, you know. (0:40:41) Micah: And I think that there were a lot of really positive things (0:40:43) Micah: about my time at Portia, but I think my time at Sandrock, (0:40:47) Micah: on the other hand, was not what I would have wanted it to be (0:40:52) Micah: or would have expected. (0:40:53) Micah: And just personally, not for me. (0:40:56) Micah: So I’m interested to see. (0:40:58) Al: Did you play it? Did you play Sandra? (0:41:01) Micah: No, I did not. (0:41:02) Micah: I from listening to (0:41:06) Micah: and watching things and seeing how the game played, and especially after my time at Portia Port, (0:41:12) Al: Yep. (0:41:13) Micah: I made the conscious decision not to, but just because I didn’t think that it was really for me, (0:41:20) Micah: you know? But I’m excited to see, like clearly they’re capable, right? That’s what I’m getting (0:41:26) Micah: at, is like they’re a very capable studio, and they have some really great ideas. I think there (0:41:34) Micah: there were a lot of really awesome ideas (0:41:36) Micah: in my time at Portia had that just maybe weren’t as fleshed out as they could have been (0:41:40) Micah: especially now that we have had this boom of, you know, Farm Sims and Life Sims and stuff (0:41:45) Micah: that have, you know, made a lot of differences in how these games are played and stuff like (0:41:53) Micah: that. (0:41:54) Micah: So I’m excited to see what they can do with more games, like, I’m always interested in (0:42:00) Micah: seeing, you know, a talented developer make new stuff. (0:42:05) Al: Yeah. So, I mean, just looking at some numbers on Steam. Yeah, well, that’s the thing. I (0:42:06) Micah: Um… (0:42:07) Micah: This is also- (0:42:12) Al: mean, we’re interested to see what they continue on and what they don’t. I mean, to me, Sandrock (0:42:16) Al: always looked just like the same game, but slightly more. And I was like, I’m not interested (0:42:20) Al: in that. But the, so looking on Steam, so they had, so they both have very, very positive (0:42:28) Al: reviews. So we’re ignoring Switch, right? The Switch debacle, we’re just ignoring that, (0:42:33) Al: Right? These things happen. (0:42:34) Micah: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:42:35) Al: They should just not. (0:42:40) Al: So Portia had 33,000 reviews, and Sandrock had 20,000 reviews. (0:42:48) Al: But Portia’s alt, 33,000 versus 20,000. (0:42:50) Micah: Wait how many did Portia have? (0:42:53) Micah: That’s so close. That’s way closer than I would have thought. (0:42:57) Al: It’s a… Yeah, but interestingly, there are all-time peaks of concurrent players. (0:43:03) Al: Porsche was 13,000. (0:43:05) Al: 1.3, and Sandrock was 21,000. It was higher. (0:43:10) Micah: Wow, yeah, I mean, people, I think people knew that, (0:43:13) Micah: you know, by the time that Sandrock came out, (0:43:16) Micah: people had already known Portia so well (0:43:19) Micah: and have been like preaching it (0:43:20) Micah: that I guess maybe even beyond what Portia was, (0:43:24) Micah: people were more excited about it or interested in it. (0:43:27) Micah: I don’t know, I remember the conversation (0:43:30) Micah: around my time at Sandrock being like, (0:43:32) Micah: people were very excited about it. (0:43:34) Micah: I think a big part of it for me was that (0:43:36) Micah: I I’m not a like humongous fan (0:43:40) Micah: of the Southwestern American motif motif in like games and I get really (0:43:41) Al: Yeah, fair, fair. (0:43:48) Micah: really bummed out when I get to the point in games where it’s like okay now (0:43:52) Micah: you got to do the desert level and I’m like I just don’t wanna I don’t wanna do (0:43:57) Micah: that and it kind of looked like Porsche but in that setting and with the whole (0:43:58) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. (0:44:02) Micah: the whole game is desert level basically is what it felt like so and it looked (0:44:07) Micah: Like a lot of the say I mean obviously a lot (0:44:10) Micah: more but you know it looked like a lot of the same of what Portia had that I (0:44:15) Micah: was kind of like I’ll just play Portia you know that’s more in my setting (0:44:18) Al: Yeah, you’re still, I mean, you’re still essentially a builder, right? Like, it’s the same core (0:44:20) Micah: that’s more me (0:44:23) Al: loop of building things, which, if you like, that’s good. I really didn’t like, so I’m (0:44:30) Al: obviously not gonna like it when it has the same core mechanic that I didn’t like. (0:44:32) Micah: - Right. (0:44:35) Micah: There is also something that about the character design (0:44:39) Micah: that I didn’t really love in Porsche or Sandrock, (0:44:44) Micah: but I was more like forgiving obviously with Porsche (0:44:47) Micah: ‘cause it was such a, like at the time it was, (0:44:51) Micah: you know, kind of like unique and exciting thing (0:44:54) Micah: where now this is a little bit more common of a game, (0:44:57) Micah: like a game style and stuff like that. (0:44:59) Micah: So, but. (0:45:02) Micah: It’s just, I don’t know. There’s something about the character design that I didn’t really love. (0:45:06) Micah: And I think for the new thing, this new thing, what is it my time at Evershine? (0:45:10) Al: Evershine, yeah. (0:45:10) Micah: The character design looks so different and like, more aged up. Right, right. (0:45:12) Al: Well, so we just have one image to go by, right? Just to point there, like this could (0:45:18) Al: - because if you look at, for example, the original image that was released for - what (0:45:24) Al: was that game you were talking about before? Why have I forgotten the name of it? The one (0:45:28) Al: you’ve bought but not played yet. The farming game. Yeah, it feels a mystery. If you look (0:45:30) Micah: Oh, fields of mystery. (0:45:32) Al: at the original image, that does not look anything like the game. So you can’t rely (0:45:36) Micah: Yes, you’re right. Absolutely right. (0:45:40) Al: on that first initial image. But yes, it does look very different to the actual art (0:45:48) Al: style of Porsche and Sandrock. So maybe that’s going to do something different? I don’t know. (0:45:48) Micah: Mm hmm. And I should say. (0:45:54) Micah: Yeah, I should say contextually, the you know, the looking at the (0:45:59) Micah: the key art illustrations they’ve had for Portia and for Sandrock, (0:46:03) Micah: the character design in those has matched what the character design is. (0:46:08) Micah: Roughly, you know, like proportions and facial, (0:46:11) Micah: you know, facial features and stuff like that. (0:46:13) Micah: So again, yeah, we don’t know. (0:46:16) Micah: There’s only one image. (0:46:17) Micah: We don’t know what the game actually looks like. (0:46:18) Micah: Based on that, contextually, this feels like it’s it’s going to be a little bit (0:46:25) Micah: more aged up, a little bit more mature looking, maybe feeling. (0:46:29) Micah: So that at on its own intrigues me that it’s, you know, kind of taking (0:46:35) Micah: like a little bit more serious tone with this key art. (0:46:39) Micah: So we’ll see. Maybe it’s not. (0:46:39)

MICAH TRUE, now deceased, is the heroic character in CHRISTOPHER MCDOUGALL‘s book, Born to Run. Many of us knew him in Boulder so I wanted to re-air the interview with Chris and Micah, who is featured toward the end. Micah, named by the Guatemalan children as CABALLO BLANCO, ran free.

“Live simple, be kind, run, keep your connection to the earth, and share.” Michael Miller is the owner and operator of the Copper Canyons Endurance Run. In this episode, Michael chats with Luis about Micah True also known as Caballo Blanco, the meaning behind the Copper Canyons Run, the Tarahumara people, the culture around the race, having a connection with nature, particulars of the race, and how it can change your life. Support Road Dog Podcast by: 1. Joining the Patreon Community: https://www.patreon.com/roaddogpodcast 2. Subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you listen on. GO SLEEVES: https://gokinesiologysleeves.com HAMMER NUTRITION show code: Roaddoglistener15 Listeners get a special 15% off at https://www.hammernutrition.com DRYMAX show code: Roaddog2020  Listeners get a special 15% off at https://www.drymaxsports.com/products/ Allwedoisrun.com Michael Miller Contact Info: https://www.coppercanyons.com/ michael@truemessages.org michael@coppercanyons.com Luis Escobar (Host) Contact: luis@roaddogpodcast.com Luis Instagram Kevin Lyons (Producer) Contact: kevin@roaddogpodcast.com yesandvideo.com Music: Slow Burn by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Original RDP Photo: Photography by Kaori Peters kaoriphoto.com Road Dog Podcast Adventure With Luis Escobar www.roaddogpodcast.com

Christopher McDougall (@ChrisMcDougall) is the author of Born to Run and Born to Run 2: The Ultimate Training Guide. Show notes: brendanomeara.comSubstack: rageagainstthealgorithm.substack.comSocial: @CNFPodSupport: Patreon.com/cnfpod

“It's more than a race. It's a journey through Costa Rica from coast to coast.” Josue Stephens & Gerhard Linner are hosting the Costa Rica 200. Hear how Josue grew up travelling around South America in in a bread truck how Micah True changed his life. Gain some insight into the events that took place in 2015 at Ultra Caballo Blanco. Hear about the 200 mile race/adventure these guys are putting on down in Costa Rica. Support Road Dog Podcast by: 1. Joining the Patreon Community: https://www.patreon.com/roaddogpodcast 2. Subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you listen on. Costa Rica 200: https://www.costa200.com Allwedoisrun.com Josue Stephens Contact Info: IG: https://www.instagram.com/siendojosue/ Ultra Fuego Y Agua: https://www.offbeatadventureco.com/fuegoyagua Costa Rica 200: https://www.costa200.com Gerhard Linner Contact Info: gerhard.linner@gmail.com www.sentircostarica.com sentir@sentircostarica.com IG: https://www.instagram.com/sentircostarica/ Luis Escobar (Host) Contact: luis@roaddogpodcast.com Luis Instagram Kevin Lyons (Producer) Contact: kevin@roaddogpodcast.com yesandvideo.com Music: Slow Burn by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Original RDP Photo: Photography by Kaori Peters kaoriphoto.com Road Dog Podcast Adventure With Luis Escobar www.roaddogpodcast.com

In this episode, I speak with renowned filmmaker, Bernardo Ruiz, about his ESPN 30 for 30 film, The Infinite Race. Bernardo's accolades are many: he is a two-time Emmy® Award-nominated documentary filmmaker and a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. He has directed and produced five feature documentaries and a host of nonfiction programming for a variety of outlets including PBS, HBO, ESPN and Facebook Watch. I recently had the opportunity to pre-screen Bernardo's film, The Infinite Race, ahead of its December 15th premier, and I know you are really going to enjoy this film. To give you a little background, the Infinite Race is about the Rarámuri, otherwise known as the Tarahumara, an indigenous community in Mexico. You might be familiar with this community from the popular book Born to Run. But what Born to Run doesn't address is the threat of organized crime that many members of the community face. Bernardo's film captures events surrounding the 2015 Ultra Marathon Caballo Blanco, a crossroads for Tarahumara and international runners. There are many uneven power dynamics caught up in that ultramarathon and, often, in conversations on the Tarahumara community among international audiences. Bernardo talks about all of this and more, so enjoy our conversation. Click here for more information on the premier of The Infinite Race Discussed in this episode: Texas Monthly article, "The Drug Runners," by Ryan Goldberg Born to Run by Christopher McDougall Exoticizing/romanticizing of the Tarahumara Barefoot running fad Micah True aka Caballo Blanco 2015 Ultra Marathon Caballo Blanco Luis Escobar, photographer and ultra-marathoner, Andrea Cordoba, filmmaker and producer  Irma Chavez, runner and activist  Follow Bernardo: Website  Follow Social Sport: Website  Instagram Facebook Twitter  *Photo courtesy of ESPN 30 for 30 Films --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/socialsport/support

ANN TRASON es la mejor ultrera de la historia. Nada menos que 20 records del mundo jalonan su palmarés, donde abundan tambien grandes victorias en todo tipo de carreras, del asfalto a la montaña. Entre ellas, hasta 14 oros en las cien millas de Western States, la cita pionera del ultra trail mundial. Y es que, Ann Trason no quería solo ser la primera mujer, Ann luchó y logró más de una vez ser el primer dorsal en meta. de cualquier tipo, como el oro absoluto Campeonato USA 24h 1989. En 2011 fuimos la primera web en español que trajo la crónica original de la mítica Leadville 1994 donde Ann luchó mano a mano por la victoria absoluta con los Tarahumaras, sin duda alguna su carrera más mediática hasta hoy. Pero el historia del Ann es mucho más grande y rico que «La Bruja» que con una mezcla de salero y mala leche reflejó Micah True en su mítica crónica de una carrera, donde Ann fue su gran rival de salida a meta. Aun hoy, con 59 años, Ann Trason sigue corriendo y entrenando pupilas. Más en CARRERASDEMONTANA.COM

ANN TRASON es la mejor ultrera de la historia. Nada menos que 20 records del mundo jalonan su palmarés, donde abundan tambien grandes victorias en todo tipo de carreras, del asfalto a la montaña. Entre ellas, hasta 14 oros en las cien millas de Western States, la cita pionera del ultra trail mundial. Y es que, Ann Trason no quería solo ser la primera mujer, Ann luchó y logró más de una vez ser el primer dorsal en meta. de cualquier tipo, como el oro absoluto Campeonato USA 24h 1989. En 2011 fuimos la primera web en español que trajo la crónica original de la mítica Leadville 1994 donde Ann luchó mano a mano por la victoria absoluta con los Tarahumaras, sin duda alguna su carrera más mediática hasta hoy. Pero el historia del Ann es mucho más grande y rico que «La Bruja» que con una mezcla de salero y mala leche reflejó Micah True en su mítica crónica de una carrera, donde Ann fue su gran rival de salida a meta. Aun hoy, con 59 años, Ann Trason sigue corriendo y entrenando pupilas. Más en CARRERASDEMONTANA.COM

Link Amazon: https://amzn.to/2T3Jl0PA metà tra il romanzo ed il documentario/reportage, con la corsa a fare da filo conduttore.“Born to run, Un gruppo di superatleti, una tribù nascosta e la corsa più estrema che il mondo abbia mai visto” di Christopher McDougall è forse il libro a tema running che più mi ha colpito ed affascinato.Prima di partire con la recensione, due parole velocissime sull’autore: Christopher McDougall.Giornalista con un occhio di riguardo allo sport. Ha scritto, tra gli altri, per il New York Times, Runner’s World, Men's Journal e Men’s Health.Ma MCDougall deve la sua fama proprio a questo libro, datato 2009, che ha venduto tantissimo in tutto il mondo, che gli ha permesso di scriverne altri. Tra i quali spicca un altro libro a tema sportivo: Natural born heroes.Non è facile descrivere Born to run: sintetizzando mi sentirei di dire che si tratta di una lettura indispensabile per ogni amante del running. Ed in particolare, si tratta di un testo non semplice da inquadrare. A metà tra la narrazione e l’informazione.Di cose da dire ce ne sarebbero molte. Si toccano tanti aspetti del running e dell’ultra, ma non solo: la nutrizione, la tecnica, il benessere, la storia dell’ultra e di alcuni personaggi che l’hanno fatta e resa sicuramente più celebre negli ultimi anni. Si parla di fatica, sudore, ma anche di belle sensazioni e di soddisfazioni personali.Ma non posso far durare questa puntata un’ora e devo riassumere. E lo farei dividendo idealmente Born to run sotto 3 aspetti, che si intrecciano spesso durante tutte le pagine.C’è la storia personale dell’autore, che racconta testimoniando autobiograficamente un periodo della sua vita, nel quale ha approcciato la corsa in modo naturale. Era già un appassionato di running, ma tutte le esperienze che ha vissuto e raccontato in questo libro, credo proprio che abbiano cambiato radicalmente il suo modo di vivere questo sport.Si parla del popolo corridore, i Tarahumara, una popolazione che risiede nell'attuale territorio del Chihuahua in Messico. Ma perché popolo corridore? Perché loro stessi si definiscono rarámuri, che significa "pianta idonea per la corsa". Infatti, la pratica della corsa che è tipica di questo popolo, che percorre quotidianamente km e km correndo, in un clima non esattamente semplice.Ed infine, c’è Caballo Blanco e l’organizzazione della sua ultramaratona: la Copper Canyon Ultramarathon. Caballo Blanco, che nel libro viene spesso nominato come Micah True, altro pseudonimo per nascondere il suo vero nome di battesimo, è un personaggio incredibile e fuori di testa.Un americano che ha deciso, per svariati motivi che non sto qua a spoilerarvi, di vivere come un Tarahumara, abbracciando la loro filosofia ed il loro stile di vita, fatto di cose semplici e minimali e di tanta corsa.Il suo rapporto con i Tarahumara rappresenta quasi un saggio sull’integrazione e sull’accettazione di un popolo nei confronti di qualcuno dalle origini ben diverse.Qualche puntata fa vi ho anticipato di come stessi leggendo questo libro e di come avessi scoperto i semi di chia e l’Iskiate, bevanda appunto tipica dei Tarahumara. Link: https://gopod.me/da0a42-049Questo è solo un piccolo esempio dei tanti insegnamenti che si possono trarre da questo libro. I Tarahumara sono una popolazione davvero sorprendente, ricca di strane tradizioni, ma dall’animo puro ed incontaminato. E mi sorprende anche solo il fatto che, nonostante il loro modo di essere, esistano ancora.Ma una sorta di Tarahumara ad honorem è Caballo Blanco, che, come già accennato, è un personaggio fuori dagli schemi. E va ad organizzare una folle gara di 50 miglia (80km) nel deserto, invitando sia i Tarahumara più forti, sia Scott Jurek: forse l’ultramaratoneta più forte al mondo. A lui si unirà un manipolo di altri ultramaratoneti di livello assoluto, in una gara corsa in condizioni estreme.Tutta la parte relativa a questa competizione è stata davvero entusiasmante. Al di là del risultato. Ma proprio per come è stata organizzata. E qua ci vogliono parecchie virgolette, dato che l’intera organizzazione o quasi era in mano a Caballo Blanco. E per come è stata vissuta, sia dai Tarahumara, il popolo corridore, che dagli americani, che hanno scoperto un modo di vivere l’ultrarunning decisamente non convenzionale.Mi sento di consigliarlo al 100% a tutti gli appassionati di corsa, ma non solo. Credo che possa regalare emozioni ed idee anche agli altri. Gli insegnamenti contenuti in queste pagine e disseminati qua e là lungo tutto il racconto, vanno oltre al semplice gesto della corsa ed insegnano letteralmente a vivere meglio. Ci fanno scoprire un mondo ed una cultura nuova. Più che un libro, questo è un vero e proprio trattato di cultura sul mondo della corsa, con tanti piccoli aspetti, anche extra sportivi, davvero degni di nota.----------------------Seguimi!Canale Telegram: https://t.me/da0a42Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/da0a42/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/da0a42/Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/37970087Sito: https://da0a42.home.blogOppure contattami!https://da0a42.home.blog/contatti/----------------------Music credits: Feeling of Sunlight by Danosongs - https://danosongs.com

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin speak with Jason Phillips, former cover model and professional athlete and founder of iN³ Nutrition. (www.in3nutrition.com) Jason's journey began in a battle with anorexia and has landed him in a position today where he has helped thousands of people achieve their goals. His formal background comes from Florida State University where he majored in exercise science with a concentration in fitness and nutrition. He has consulted for reality weight loss shows, traveled with the PGA tour, and has helped several functional fitness athletes improve performance. You are going to find that Jason's philosophy on nutrition and relationship with food fits right in with Mind Pump's. In fact, after the podcast was over Sal and Jason recorded several YouTube videos covering topics such as IIFYM, how Paleo is a poor diet for CrossFit (Jason has coached numerous CrossFit champions) that have caused quite a stir on YouTube (read the comments!) Go check them out on Mind Pump TV. Loud YouTube personalities, soft spoken in person (2:57) Jason tells his origin story (6:15) Former cover model Battle with anorexia/Relationship with food No food to 4,000 calories! When did he stop playing golf? (19:51) The Workout (22:00) Who created impact for him? (28:28) Thanksgiving miracle (30:25) How did he scale his online business? (32:38) Doesn't hire skill sets, hires people How does he balance it all? (34:12) Became Super Dad What separates his nutrition philosophy from others? (37:35) 24/7 on demand coaching service Who is more difficult to coach, professional athlete/average person? (39:21) CrossFit athletes most difficult to coach How do you back people out of competitions? (43:04) Education drives compliance Not born to be stage ready Type A personalities and training methods How does he test for leaky gut/HPA axis dysfunction? (53:35) Trends go in cycles (54:49) Triangle of awareness (1:00:31) Understand where set point is Paleo is the worst diet for CrossFit (1:05:30) CrossFit getting better or worse? (1:12:00) Stop caring about cosmetics Does he see any backlash? (1:16:19) Likes to live in science What are the next big fads? (1:18:00) Bio-feedback Healthy looks good How did he come across Mind Pump? (1:26:52) What does the future look like for him/his team? (1:29:04) Education platform Related Links/Products Mentioned: How to Become a YouTube Celebrity with Brandon Carter & Connor Murphy - Mind Pump Media IIFYM - Counting Your Macros Is F*CKING Up Your Health!! | Nutrition Facts + Advice (Jason Phillips) (MPTv – YouTube) The “PALEO” Diet Is TERRIBLE For CrossFit (AVOID!!) | Nutrition Facts w/ Jason Phillips (MPTv – YouTube) Work Out | Bravo TV Official Site FIXING THE DAMAGE – METABOLIC ADAPTATION EXPLAINED Ultra-marathon runner Micah True died from heart disease, autopsy shows Wired to Eat: Turn Off Cravings, Rewire Your Appetite for Weight Loss, and Determine the Foods That Work for You – Robb Wolf (book) Ep 638-Jason Khalipa - Mind Pump Intuitive Nutrition Guide - Mind Pump Media Ep 633-Amanda Bucci - Mind Pump Media Featured Guest/People Mentioned: Jason Phillips | Macro Coach and Nutrition Counseling iN3 Nutrition Coaching (@in3nutrition)  Instagram Craig Ballantyne (@craigballantyne) Twitter Bedros Keuilian (@BedrosKeuilian)  Twitter Connor Murphy (@connormurphyofficial)  Instagram Brandon Carter (@bcartermusic) Instagram Brian Peeler (@mrbrianpeeler)  Instagram Greg Plitt (@gregplitt)  Instagram George Farah (@georgefarah_guru)  Instagram Dave Palumbo (@huge285) Instagram Scott Abel (@CoachScottAbel)  Twitter Layne Norton, PhD (@BioLayne)  Twitter Phil Heath (@philheath)  Instagram Kai Greene (@KaiGreene)  Twitter/Instagram Robb Wolf (@dasrobbwolf)  Instagram Rich Froning     (@richfroning) Instagram Jason Khalipa (@jasonkhalipa)  Instagram Mathew Fraser (@mathewfras) Instagram Brooke Wells (@brookewellss)  Instagram Mike Davies (@mikedaviesfitness)  Instagram Amanda Bucci (@amandabucci)  Instagram Daniel DiPiazza (@rich20something)  Instagram Would you like to be coached by Sal, Adam & Justin? You can get 30 days of virtual coaching from them for FREE at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Get our newest program, MAPS Prime Pro, which shows you how to self assess and correct muscle recruitment patterns that cause pain and impede performance and gains. Get it at www.mindpumpmedia.com! Get MAPS Prime, MAPS Anywhere, MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic, the Butt Builder Blueprint, the Sexy Athlete Mod AND KB4A (The MAPS Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Make EVERY workout better with MAPS Prime, the only pre-workout you need… it is now available at mindpumpmedia.com Have Sal, Adam & Justin personally train you via video instruction on our YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV. Be sure to Subscribe for updates. Also check out Thrive Market! Thrive Market makes purchasing organic, non-GMO affordable. With prices up to 50% off retail, Thrive Market blows away most conventional, non-organic foods. PLUS, they offer a NO RISK way to get started which includes: 1. One FREE month's membership 2. $20 Off your first three purchases of $49 or more (That's $60 off total!) 3. Free shipping on orders of $49 or more Get your Kimera Koffee at www.kimerakoffee.com, code "mindpump" for 10% off! Get Organifi, certified organic greens, protein, probiotics, etc at www.organifi.com Use the code “mindpump” for 20% off. Go to foursigmatic.com/mindpump and use the discount code “mindpump” for 15% off of your first order of health & energy boosting mushroom products. Add to the incredible brain enhancing effect of Kimera Koffee with www.brain.fm/mindpump 10 Free sessions! Music for the brain for incredible focus, sleep and naps! Also includes 20% if you purchase! Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week our favorite reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts! Have questions for Mind Pump? Each Monday on Instagram (@mindpumpmedia) look for the QUAH post and input your question there. (Sal, Adam & Justin will answer as many questions as they can)

We are back with Dirt in Your Skirt - The Podcast Episode #003. This week on the episode we Maria Walton an ultra runner, film producer, race director, and grandmother. She talks this episode about her relationship with Micah True aka Caballo Blanco made famous from the international bestselling book Born to Run giving us a glimpse into his personal life and the documentary she worked on highlighting the life of Micah. She talks about the Copper Canyons, the running people, and what Korima is and how we can all add it into our lives. Be sure to check back each Tuesday for a new episode and subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher and never miss an episode. For show notes visit: www.dirtinyourskirt.com/podcast

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and others have plans to create a national cyber security hub in Colorado Springs. We speak with a security expert about what that means. And, in an encore presentation, we revisit the story of running legend Micah True, who inspired the book "Born To Run," and is now the subject of a new documentary.

We are joined by Run Free - The True Story of Caballo Blanco film maker Sterling Noren and film promoter Gary Harrington. They talk about their feature length documentary about ultra running, featuring the late running legend Micah True, which will be showing at the Arlington Cinema Draft House on Feb 17. We have another Farley moral dilemma, Joanna runs at night, more resolutions in the tweets, the running jewel thief in the news, and more.

Coach Stephanie talks with Maria Walton about the life of Micah True and of her continuing Micah's work with Tarahumara.  Maria has been working with producer to remember Micah with the documentary Run Free, the true story of Caballo Blanco.  www.runfreemovie.comMicah True  had a simple message – Run Free! – and he shared his enthusiasm for running in the beauty of Las Barrancas del Cobre by creating the Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon (Ultra Marathon Caballo Blanco). Micah True was the Race Director from 2002 until his death in 2012.  Micah was immortalized in the New York Times Best Seller book Born to Run. After Micah's death, his partner, Maria Walton continues Micah's legacy continuing the Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon.  http://www.ultracb.com/Maria continues to support Norawas de Rarámuri, We are friends of the Raramuri, also known as the Tarahumara, the native inhabitants of the Copper Canyons of Mexico. We celebrate their way of life and their culture, which revolves around the joy of running and the importance of sharing with others.  With respect and love, we maintain the great bridge that was created by Micah True, Caballo Blanco, between the Raramuri and runners of good will from all over the world.  Please donate to the Running People at http://www.norawas.org/.

We love stories about redemption, don't we? Just think about how many of your favorite books or movies boil down to stories about a person struggling to redeem themselves or someone else. If you look at IMDB's list of top 250 movies of all time, the #1 movie is the classic, "Shawshank Redemption." Then, as you make your way down the list, almost every other movie (arguably) is about redemption--a story of someone ingeniously and determinedly atoning for their mistakes and/or saving themselves or loved ones. Why is the plot line of redemption so compelling to our hearts? Could it be, because we long for our own redemption? Could it be, because we all long for another chance? Could it be, because we all long to be saved?

I'm very pleased to have Maria Walton as my guest on this episode. Maria isn't just a runner...and not just a marathon runner. She's an ultra marathon runner with a story that is at times heartbreaking, at times triumphant, but always inspirational.If you're into the running world, then the name Micah True may be familiar to you (his story is the basis of the book "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall). You'll hear the story of how Maria and Micah met, learn about their work together on the Ultra Caballo Blanco Ultra Marathon (a 50+ mile race up and down the hills of Urique, Mexico of which Maria is still co-race director), and find out how Mariah faced True's unexpected passing.   This is an episode not just for marathon runners but for anyone looking to be inspired by the beautiful mariposa.

Dr. Mark Cucuzzella joins us again to talk to us about the "H" words: Heat and Heart. Our community has been buzzing with the tragic deaths of Micah True (aka Caballo Blanco) and Arizonan, John Greer. We ask Dr. Mark if ultra running can be damaging to our health and how to deal with heat in training and race day expectations.