Podcasts about moonstone island

In Episode 4 of Season 2, the Slow Burn Cast Pat (NintenTalk), Min (MintendoGaming), and Payton (Payton'sCorner) are joined by special guest Liss the Lass to discuss The Sims, cozy game gimmicks, emails + MORE!!Discord: https://discord.gg/QhvWPd2x8xPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/slowburncast_________________________________________Games mentioned in this episode:February Side Quest Game: The Red LanternHello Kitty Island AdventureAnimal Crossing New HorizonsStardew ValleyThe SimsParalivesFields of MistriaQuick mentions: Coral Island, Harvest Island, Luma Island, Moonstone Island, Loftia, Floatopia, PuffPals Island SkiesLiss' Recently Played Games: Pokemon TGC Pocket on Mobile, NY Times Crossword, StitchSims 1+2 Legacy CollectionSims 1, Sims 2, Sims 3, Sims 4MySims Cozy Bundle, MySims Agents, MySims Sky HeroesThe Sims 4 Life and Death DLC Pack, The Sims 4 Lovestruck DLC PackThe Sims 4 Custom Content (Mods)IMVUNintendogsUpcoming Mario Kart GameMoonshell IslandTavern TalkCoffee TalkRoots of PachaLuma IslandPalworld

Al, Codey, and Micah talk about their favourite farming and cottagecore games of 2024. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:37: What Have We Been Up To 00:22:18: Rules Explanation 00:26:13: Update Of The Year 00:42:17: Early Access Of The Year 00:52:11: Game Of The Year Nominations 01:46:31: Debate 02:01:59: Winner Discussion 02:10:47: Outro Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers and welcome to the sixth annual harvest season (0:00:35) Al: game of the year episode. (0:00:37) Al: My name is Al. (0:00:38) Codey: And my name is Cody. (0:00:40) Micah: And I’m Micah. (0:00:41) Al: And we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (0:00:44) Codey: Ooh. (0:00:45) Micah: Yay. (0:00:48) Codey: Make it, it’s a woo, not yay. (0:00:49) Micah: Yeah, wooh. (0:00:53) Al: All right. This is. Spicy, we, as mentioned, this is going to be our game of the year episode (0:00:54) Micah: I’m trying to add a little spice to it, you know, spice it up a little bit. (0:01:04) Al: for this year. Why all that? This is the sixth one. I don’t know how to deal with that. (0:01:10) Micah: Yeah, I can’t believe it’s it’s been that long you said I didn’t even register (0:01:15) Micah: I saw the list of the the previous ones you said six just now and it hit me like a truck (0:01:20) Al: We’ve changed things up this year a little bit compared to previous years. (0:01:21) Codey: Yeah you said it and I was like no way. This is wild. (0:01:30) Al: I’m not going to go into that just now, but just bear in mind listeners, there are some (0:01:34) Al: slight changes. (0:01:37) Al: Before that, Micah, what have you been up to? (0:01:38) Micah: Aww, I’ve been playing a lot of Jeragon Quest 3, HD2D, which I might talk a little bit about the Greenhouse episode. (0:01:50) Al: I love how you say might like we’ve not just recorded it. (0:01:50) Micah: Might, maybe, you’ll have to tune into the Greenhouse episode to find out. (0:01:56) Codey: You could cut it. (0:01:57) Codey: You could cut it out. (0:01:58) Micah: Great. (0:01:58) Al: No, it’s fine. It’s fine. I love when we like we break through the barrier and like stop (0:02:04) Codey: Oh, yeah. (0:02:04) Al: pretending like we record the greenhouse later. (0:02:06) Micah: that is primarily what I’ve been playing when I have the time to play games. Cody and I were (0:02:09) Codey: You’re right, you’re right. (0:02:17) Micah: just talking before we started recording about just being busy and not being able to play a (0:02:22) Micah: whole lot of games this year. So it’s always nice doing a game of the year recording because it (0:02:27) Micah: gives me an excuse to kind of revisit and catch up on things and have a an allotted time to play (0:02:34) Micah: games, but other than that, it’s been Drangle. (0:02:36) Micah: Quest 3. And I have also been shiny hunting a lot more in (0:02:41) Micah: Pokemon, but in older Pokemon games, I’ve been kind of (0:02:44) Micah: revisiting and kind of I don’t know what the term is, like (0:02:53) Micah: realigning myself with what I loved about Pokemon, and not so (0:02:56) Micah: much the how what modern Pokemon has become, I guess. And there’s (0:03:03) Micah: been a lot of like interesting I found in the (0:03:07) Micah: the kind of like deeper level in community, there’s a lot (0:03:12) Micah: of like really interesting new things that people have found (0:03:15) Micah: or like, you know, different hunts that people have set up (0:03:20) Micah: like one of the things that I’m working on right now is shiny (0:03:22) Micah: hunting, Kanto starters in the original gen one virtual console (0:03:27) Micah: games, which is something that you can do, but you have to do (0:03:27) Al: Oh, why? Why? (0:03:29) Micah: it by like, trading them over to a gen two virtual console game (0:03:33) Micah: to see or if you (0:03:37) Micah: have a totally legal copy of the virtual console games, (0:03:42) Micah: there’s a patch that you can apply that will just show you (0:03:44) Micah: if it’s shiny or not, which is very cool. (0:03:47) Micah: But there’s been a lot of like really neat little things like (0:03:49) Micah: that that I’ve been kind of experiencing and re-linking (0:03:56) Codey: You’re you’re getting back to your roots now. What’s your current hunt? (0:03:57) Micah: myself with and yeah, yep. (0:04:02) Micah: I think there’s been a lot of, well, yeah, that Gen 1 hunt is (0:04:05) Micah: my current hunt. (0:04:06) Micah: Uh, I’m doing all four of this stuff. (0:04:10) Micah: So like the three Kanto original Kanto starters and the Pikachu in the (0:04:15) Micah: games that they originate in, um, which is, has been a little bit complicated (0:04:22) Micah: to set up, uh, but it has been pretty enjoyable, like learning how things, (0:04:28) Micah: uh, work and how, how to, you know, like set things up properly. (0:04:33) Micah: Uh, it’s just been, I don’t know. (0:04:36) Micah: Interesting. (0:04:37) Micah: And I think there’s been a lot over the years that has like kind of had me (0:04:44) Micah: disconnect from Pokemon and in specific ways that like, kind of, like you said, (0:04:51) Micah: you know, coming back to my roots has kind of retaught me what it is that I (0:04:56) Micah: love so much about creature collecting and, you know, these core games and (0:05:02) Micah: stuff like that, this of course has nothing to do with the fact that, uh, (0:05:07) Micah: you know, earlier this year, they shut down the three S, uh, internet (0:05:12) Micah: capabilities and that may be possibly in the future. (0:05:15) Micah: Pokemon bank is going to shut down and that I am anxious about the (0:05:19) Micah: possibility of losing, you know, and I’m not rushing to, you know, it has (0:05:24) Micah: nothing to do with the fact that I’m like prepping for the quote unquote (0:05:24) Codey: Yeah. (0:05:28) Micah: end of the world when it comes to, but yeah. (0:05:32) Al: Prepping for something they haven’t even announced is going to happen yet. (0:05:35) Micah: Yes. (0:05:36) Codey: But it’s going to happen, though. (0:05:36) Micah: You know, that’s the glory of anxiety. (0:05:41) Al: Well, yeah, fair. (0:05:44) Codey: You can’t choose what you get worried about. (0:05:45) Micah: Yep. (0:05:46) Micah: Yep. (0:05:46) Codey: You just– yep. (0:05:47) Micah: And then you just over prepare for it. (0:05:48) Micah: And everyone’s like, why did you do that? (0:05:49) Micah: And I’m like, I don’t know. (0:05:50) Micah: I just felt like it was a good idea. (0:05:52) Al: There is no why there only is. (0:05:54) Micah: Yep. (0:05:55) Micah: That’s right. (0:05:56) Codey: Yep, I did that. I’ve been doing a PhD. I don’t know if you all know about that. So, I mean, I’ve just had like, this is like conference season. And then I’ve also had a lot of review requests lately. So journals have been like, hey, there’s a paper that you’re really like is within your like niche. Can you review this? Since you’re a subject matter expert? (0:05:56) Micah: So that’s primarily what I’ve been doing. (0:05:59) Al: Cody, what have you been up to? (0:06:26) Codey: And I’ve learned that I’m bad at saying no. So I am about to finish that. Like, literally after this, I have to write something for a nomination. And then I have to finish a review. And then I will finally be free of my obligations. And then I can actually focus on just my, my PhD. Yeah, lots of insect identification. Lots of that. And then (0:06:52) Codey: recently started playing, uh, Pokemon Pocket. (0:06:56) Codey: And, uh, I, during that Venusaur event that happened, um, I got three (0:07:03) Codey: of the promo Venusaur, but I did not get any of the Jigglypuff or the (0:07:06) Codey: Hunter and I am really salty about that. (0:07:08) Micah: Oh no. (0:07:10) Codey: Like I literally opened my game. (0:07:13) Codey: I was like, Oh, I need to do those. (0:07:14) Codey: Cause I thought today was the last day, like through like 11 59 tonight, (0:07:19) Codey: but it was yesterday, so rip. (0:07:21) Al: Yeah, this is the problem Cody, you need to be doing this this event all through the event, (0:07:26) Al: otherwise it’s going to because I did, I kid you not, 38 packs of that event. 38 packs I opened (0:07:32) Codey: That means, that means you won 38 of the, okay, with no Venusaur. (0:07:36) Al: with no Venusaur. Yes, correct. With no Venusaur in 38 packs. The last three packs that I could (0:07:44) Micah: That is unbelievable. (0:07:49) Al: could have opened in the game because of the timer. (0:07:51) Al: Without paying gold, the last three packs, all Venus are. (0:07:56) Codey: They turned up the Venus or the Venus or knob. I mean, maybe (0:08:00) Codey: that’s where they opened the cannon. Um, maybe that’s where (0:08:07) Codey: that’s my issue because I did start doing it near the end. And (0:08:11) Al: I don’t, yeah, I don’t think, I don’t think, I think it’s just cause like there were loads (0:08:12) Codey: so they, there was like all Venus or it’s just like (0:08:18) Al: of people I know who couldn’t get any Grinninja and kept getting Venus or instead. So I don’t (0:08:22) Al: think it’s, I don’t think it’s quite that simple, but yeah, if you want it like 41 is what I got, (0:08:27) Al: 41 packs is why I opened and that, and I needed to get, you know, 39 to get one of each. (0:08:30) Codey: Wow. (0:08:30) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:08:34) Al: So like, yeah, you can’t, you can’t half-heartedly do these events. If you want everything, (0:08:38) Al: You got to go all in. And the good thing is that like one. (0:08:41) Al: Once you’ve done the first couple of days, if you do all of the, like, use all of the (0:08:46) Al: hourglasses in the first couple of days, like just kind of like do everything as quickly (0:08:50) Al: as you can, then the most you can do a day is two because of the 12 hour timer. So it (0:08:56) Al: makes it really quick and easy after the first couple of days. I guess the problem. Well, (0:08:59) Codey: I mean my I’m not a try-hard though (0:09:03) Al: I think you’re always going to be disappointed in pocket if that’s the case, then. (0:09:06) Codey: I’m just I’m just always gonna be disappointed in myself. Let’s be honest. That’s never gonna not (0:09:10) Micah: I got the inverse of that initial I eventually did get to Venus or which was I was happy (0:09:22) Micah: with that because that’s you know, the max that you can put in a deck is two of a card. (0:09:26) Micah: But it took a very, very long time and I got an endless amount of Haunter like just a ridiculous (0:09:33) Micah: amount of Haunter to the point that I thought it was like something either was wrong or (0:09:34) Al: Yeah. (0:09:38) Micah: Or I was like, it’s been. (0:09:40) Al: Opening the wrong packs or something. (0:09:40) Micah: Having a trick played on me or something. (0:09:42) Micah: Yeah. (0:09:42) Micah: Like something was going wrong because it was just, it was just (0:09:46) Micah: Haunter all the time and I w I went to my, my work team and I was like, (0:09:51) Micah: Hey, is anybody else just pulling Haunter and everyone was like, no, (0:09:56) Micah: I got all of them already. (0:09:57) Micah: I figured, you know, whatever. (0:09:58) Micah: And I’m like, what is wrong with my game? (0:10:00) Al: Yeah, I got 13 Hunter and 11 Jigglypuff. (0:10:00) Micah: I’m like hard resetting and (0:10:04) Codey: Well, why don’t you save them for me, please, because I need it. (0:10:05) Micah: incredible. (0:10:09) Micah: - Yeah. (0:10:10) Micah: - There’s no shortage of, no shortage of Haunters for you when the trading happens. (0:10:11) Al: We’ll see what trading ends up being like, but yeah, got your name on it. (0:10:19) Micah: - Al, what have you been playing? (0:10:26) Al: Because I’m recording so many, I’m literally recording the live. (0:10:30) Al: So I am specifically going to talk about one game that I haven’t talked about on the other episodes so that I don’t get confused about things. (0:10:46) Al: So this is not all I’ve been up to. This is just what you’re getting this episode. I have played Sonic Shadow Generations, Sonic X, or to be specific, I’ve played Shadow Generations. (0:11:00) Al: I wasn’t playing Sonic Generations because I did enjoy it when I played it the first time, but I don’t have time to be replaying games. Come on, that’s not my life anymore. (0:11:08) Al: So I bought the game to play Shadow Generations. And let me tell you, I still do not like 3D Sonic games, even when it’s Shadow you’re playing as instead. (0:11:21) Micah: Okay, so is it is it sonic generations just with like added? Oh (0:11:28) Al: So, think of it like Bowser’s Fury with Mario. (0:11:31) Al: Did you play that? (0:11:32) Micah: Sure, yeah (0:11:33) Al: It’s exactly the same as that. (0:11:35) Al: You open up the game and it shows you the two things side by side, and you either choose (0:11:38) Al: Sonic Generations or you choose Shadow Generations, and they are different games. (0:11:40) Micah: » I see. (0:11:41) Micah: » Okay. (0:11:45) Al: It’s not like you’re playing Sonic Generations, but with Shadow, no. (0:11:48) Al: It’s a different story. (0:11:49) Al: It’s your different character, and it’s different levels, and he has different powers. (0:11:55) Al: It’s completely different. (0:11:56) Micah: And a motorcycle and swears I mean he has a gun and (0:11:58) Al: » Yeah, exactly, exactly. (0:12:01) Al: So, I keep trying to like 3D Sonic games, (0:12:04) Al: and I think part of the problem is I did enjoy Sonic Generations, (0:12:08) Al: which did have some 3D levels, (0:12:10) Al: and I don’t know whether maybe I should play Sonic Generations to check, (0:12:14) Al: but I’m not going to. (0:12:16) Al: But I wonder whether I liked that despite the 3D levels, (0:12:20) Al: and I just mostly enjoyed the 2D levels, (0:12:22) Al: or whether I actually enjoyed the 3D levels in that game. (0:12:25) Al: I can’t remember. (0:12:26) Codey: Well, the more important question is are you gonna see the movie or when are you gonna see the movie? (0:12:28) Al: Oh, yeah, I’ve already got tickets. (0:12:33) Codey: Okay (0:12:34) Al: Let me check when I’ve got them booked for. (0:12:36) Al: So I have them booked for the Saturday because I’m, yeah, I couldn’t do the Friday because (0:12:41) Al: Rona’s out to a concert, but yeah, I’ve got tickets booked for the Saturday. (0:12:42) Codey: Mm hmm. So there’s some showings on Thursday for me where I’m at, but I that’s also my partner’s (0:12:52) Codey: Christmas holiday party. So and we always go to like a fancy place and they pay for everything. (0:12:56) Codey: So I’m going to get a bunch. I’m going to slam free food in my face, but I’ll probably like really. (0:12:59) Micah: The dream. (0:13:02) Al: You’re gonna eat as much food as you can as quickly as possible and then go to see Sonic? (0:13:06) Codey: Uh, I don’t know if that’s going to work, but I will probably see Sonic on Friday. If not the (0:13:13) Codey: after when it’s like cheap, cheap, cheap. Um, because. (0:13:14) Al: hmm I see I don’t care about the price because I have the like season pass (0:13:20) Codey: Oh, what? Wait, what? (0:13:21) Micah: there’s a there’s a season pass to the theater (0:13:23) Al: you guys don’t have that yeah I i I paid 135 pounds and I can go to the (0:13:26) Micah: at least not that i’m aware of (0:13:31) Al: cinema as many times as I want it for a year for the whole year yeah (0:13:34) Micah: - What? (0:13:35) Codey: - What? (0:13:36) Micah: I’ve never heard of this. (0:13:38) Micah: What is your like, big name, like theater, like cinema? (0:13:42) Al: So we have, we have two bigs, we have two. (0:13:44) Al: big cinema chains. One is called ODEON and one is called Cine World. And both of them, (0:13:49) Micah: Okay, neither of those (0:13:51) Al: but yeah. Well, so I think, is ODEON I think is owned by MGM maybe? I don’t know. They’re (0:14:00) Al: both owned by big US brands, but they kept a specific name. No, maybe it’s not. Oh, sorry. (0:14:07) Al: It’s AMC, the audience owned by MGM and do not own actual cinemas. (0:14:10) Micah: - Okay, AMC, I do know. (0:14:15) Al: There is a filmmaker. Let’s see what. (0:14:17) Micah: They make the movie. (0:14:20) Codey: Literally all that they offer to us is $15 a year gets you like points and you don’t have to pay fees for if you buy tickets online and that’s pretty much it. (0:14:36) Micah: Okay. So I do see, I’m looking now, cause this is mind blowing, so I didn’t know this (0:14:39) Codey: It is yeah. (0:14:40) Micah: concept existed. Uh, we have Marcus theaters has a, it’s $10 a month and you get one movie (0:14:47) Codey: - Oh. (0:14:49) Micah: credit per month, which means you just get a, a single movie ticket. Yeah. I mean, you’re (0:14:51) Al: What’s the point, then? (0:14:56) Micah: kind of, I mean, if you’re seeing one movie a month, you’re probably not really, I guess (0:15:03) Micah: Maybe you’re saving a little bit (0:15:06) Micah: I mean (0:15:06) Al: Yeah. Yeah, whereas I, I see like easily for like, I’m easily seeing one. (0:15:14) Micah: Okay, so there’s there is also unused credits rollover so like if you miss a month you say there’s nothing right (0:15:20) Al: Yeah but that’s still, unless that’s cheaper than a cinema ticket, there’s no point. (0:15:22) Micah: You’re still paying for the month (0:15:26) Micah: Which I think it is I think it’s $10 a month (0:15:29) Micah: I don’t know what what like a movie ticket is there but here in the (0:15:34) Micah: Great (0:15:36) Micah: I think we’re in the ballpark of at minimum like 16 to 20 dollars for a movie ticket (0:15:41) Al: Oh my word. For 20, I’d be expecting at least IMAX. That’s wild. (0:15:42) Codey: - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. (0:15:43) Micah: So you are saving some but you’re also (0:15:50) Micah: No, you’re talking standard you’re talking getting your chairs kicked (0:15:54) Al: Oh no. So yeah, so that’s just because you said that. That’s the same company that is (0:15:56) Codey: Yeah, so regal which is a cinema place in some parts of the United States has (0:16:08) Al: world technically it’s cine world owns regal not the other (0:16:11) Al: for this one but yeah they’re the so they’re the same same company (0:16:12) Codey: Ok. (0:16:14) Codey: But you said you pay what? $100? (0:16:16) Al: I paid 135 pounds for the year so what does that work out at 135 (0:16:19) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:16:21) Codey: That is $170 US dollars. (0:16:24) Al: uh it’s (0:16:24) Codey: We can get… (0:16:26) Micah: Just I just looked at what you’re (0:16:28) Al: yeah so that’s that’s 14 dollars uh 14 dollars a month or 11 (0:16:32) Codey: Mm-hmm Regal unlimited pricing for the base tier that only has access to 148 theaters (0:16:39) Codey: So 100% not you’re not gonna get it where you are like where most people are going to be (0:16:46) Codey: is (0:16:49) Codey: $260 a year (0:16:50) Al: for the cheapest. (0:16:52) Codey: For the cheapest and that’s about $22 a month you get unlimited tickets (0:16:52) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:16:53) Al: Oh, my word. (0:16:58) Codey: It says tickets, but I’m assuming it’s just like you get a ticket. It’s not that’s probably it’s probably purpose (0:17:01) Micah: Right, I would imagine, yeah. (0:17:03) Al: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it is. (0:17:03) Codey: and (0:17:05) Codey: Then you get 10% off concessions, which is nothing (0:17:08) Al: Yeah. Yeah, we get that as well. We get that as well, which is is is totally just a way to get you to buy more of the cinema, which I obviously do because I’m a sucker and I know that I’m a sucker. (0:17:09) Micah: Yeah, that’s pretty much nothing. (0:17:15) Micah: Now, (0:17:20) Micah: the next question is because our ticket prices (0:17:23) Micah: are so much higher than yours, (0:17:24) Micah: are your concession prices as high as ours are? (0:17:27) Al: I mean, so okay. (0:17:27) Micah: ‘cause we can, I mean, a small popcorn is $5, maybe. (0:17:31) Micah: And a small soda or small beverage is probably also like $5. (0:17:31) Codey: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. (0:17:36) Al: So I feel like they’re not too bad. (0:17:38) Al: So if I go, I can go into my app just now, because the good thing about (0:17:41) Al: the cinema that I have, that I go to now, which is like fantastically like 10 (0:17:45) Al: minutes drive from my house, which is, is amazing, um, which is, you know, for (0:17:50) Al: city people might seem weird, but like, yeah, I don’t have things 10 (0:17:54) Al: minutes away from my house. (0:17:56) Al: Uh, if I look, I can get, so you said a small popcorn, $5. (0:18:02) Al: Let’s see for us. (0:18:03) Al: uh yeah a regular popcorn would be five (0:18:07) Al: um but they do like deals that make them cheaper (0:18:10) Codey: they used to do that. They don’t do that anymore. I remember you could get like a meal deal. I don’t (0:18:16) Codey: think they do that anymore. (0:18:17) Al: - Yeah, so like me and Rona went to see Wicked (0:18:19) Al: and I never get run into the cinema. (0:18:21) Al: Like that’s the first time she’s been to the cinema since. (0:18:24) Al: Oh, what was that other musical? (0:18:26) Al: The one about the kid who kills himself. (0:18:28) Codey: You have to be more specific. (0:18:28) Micah: Holy moly. Yeah, there’s oh (0:18:29) Codey: You have to be more specific. (0:18:32) Al: Dear Evan Hansen. (0:18:33) Al: There we go, dear Evan Hansen. (0:18:33) Codey: Oh yeah. (0:18:34) Al: So that was the last film she saw in the cinema (0:18:38) Al: before Wicked. (0:18:39) Al: So that’s kind of, was that like two and a half years ago (0:18:41) Al: or something like that? (0:18:42) Al: So she doesn’t come out to the cinema very often (0:18:45) Al: just because she just doesn’t like going out in the evening. (0:18:47) Al: Which is fair, we went to see Wicked and we bought, we got two hot dogs, a large portion (0:18:57) Al: of tater tots and one large slushie and that was 17 pounds, so it’s not cheap, but for (0:19:08) Al: me that felt not terrible. (0:19:09) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:19:11) Micah: Yeah, we we really don’t get that much it’s I mean it’s it’s kind of the like the the the (0:19:12) Codey: Yeah, that’s a lot for that amount of money. (0:19:14) Codey: Yeah, I-M-O. (0:19:22) Micah: common concept of going to the theaters and eating anything is that you’ve kind of like (0:19:27) Micah: just bring your like sneak your own stuff in yeah. (0:19:29) Codey: You sneak. You sneak your own. Yeah, 100%. (0:19:31) Al: Oh, yeah, yeah. And I, to be fair, I do that a lot. I don’t often buy stuff from the cinema, (0:19:36) Al: right? We were doing that because it was a special occasion type thing, like let’s go. (0:19:37) Micah: Which like (0:19:40) Al: We went to IMAX because I have to pay more to go to IMAX. I don’t, it doesn’t include (0:19:44) Al: IMAX in the, in the bundle. I think I have to pay five, five pounds to upgrade a ticket (0:19:48) Al: to IMAX, which I feel is not too bad. But it’s not something I do every week, obviously. (0:19:53) Al: So we went to IMAX and we paid like stupid amounts for her ticket. And then we, we got (0:20:00) Al: their spindle of feed didn’t. (0:20:02) Al: And we just like made an evening of it. (0:20:03) Al: So it was fun. (0:20:06) Codey: All of this to say, I’m really excited for Sonic 3. (0:20:09) Codey: And I didn’t realize that Shadow is voiced by Keanu Reeves. (0:20:15) Al: Yeah. Wild. Wild that they have Keanu Reeves’ shadow and Idris Elba’s knuckles. It’s like, (0:20:18) Codey: Wild. (0:20:20) Codey: And Idris Elba. (0:20:23) Al: what a combination. Amazing. What other famous massive actors can they get playing furries. (0:20:26) Micah: That’s incredible (0:20:28) Micah: You (0:20:30) Micah: You (0:20:35) Codey: - I guess whose tails? (0:20:37) Al: Oh, I don’t know (0:20:39) Codey: I’m gonna Google it. (0:20:40) Codey: We could probably move on and fuck this. (0:20:42) Micah: Uh, I am also seeing the Sonic movie, but it’s, I’m not like a huge Sonic fan. (0:20:48) Micah: I like Sonic, but I’m not like, you know, mega fan or anything, but my like best friend (0:20:54) Micah: is absolutely obsessed. (0:20:56) Micah: So as part of our like Christmas get together, we’re going to see the, the Sonic three, um, (0:21:05) Micah: that like opening weekend, which is like, not don’t typically go to the theater that (0:21:09) Micah: often anymore. (0:21:12) Micah: So I’m kind of excited because it’s very rare. (0:21:14) Codey: Yeah (0:21:16) Micah: This is the first time I’ll be at the theater, I think, all year. (0:21:19) Codey: Tails is uh, Colleen O’Shaughnessy (0:21:20) Micah: Yeah, I don’t know what that is either. (0:21:22) Al: Don’t know who that is. (0:21:24) Codey: I don’t she sees she’s a voice actor. Uh, looks like that’s what it is (0:21:27) Al: Right, okay. So the only actual voice actor. (0:21:28) Micah: Okay. (0:21:30) Micah: I have seen the two previous Sonic movies, though, and they’re really good. (0:21:30) Codey: Yeah (0:21:31) Al: Because of course Ben Schwartz is Sonic as well. (0:21:34) Codey: Yeah, I’m just (0:21:39) Codey: I love those movies so much so good (0:21:39) Micah: They did a really good job of them. (0:21:42) Micah: Great. (0:21:42) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:21:42) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:21:42) Al: Yeah, I think they’re exactly what we need from Sonic films. (0:21:47) Al: And I think if you did this, what they’ve done with Sonic films, if you did it with anything else, (0:21:51) Al: it wouldn’t work the same. It works because of what it is, and nobody takes it too seriously. (0:21:58) Al: So yeah, I don’t like 3D Sonic games. That’s a shame. Maybe I should stop trying. I do still (0:22:06) Al: like 2D Sonic games, so hopefully they make another one of those. But yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to. (0:22:12) Codey: - Woo. (0:22:13) Al: Whoo! (0:22:19) Al: All right, so we are gonna go into our… No, let me just… Right, I’ll explain what’s happening (0:22:27) Al: first before I try and do a funny segue. So I’ve changed things up a little bit this year (0:22:35) Al: because there have been so many questions about early access games and updates and what counts (0:22:41) Al: for game of the year. So I decided. (0:22:43) Al: To make it simpler going forward, we’re going to have three awards now. (0:22:47) Al: Okay, we’re going to have update of the year, which is for any game that has (0:22:52) Al: previously released out of early outside of early access and now has a content update. (0:22:58) Al: We’re going to have early access, which is for games that are in early access. (0:23:02) Al: And then we’re going to have game of the year, which is for any game that has (0:23:05) Al: released their first non early access version. Does that make does that is that clear? (0:23:08) Codey: » Sounds good. (0:23:10) Codey: » Yep. (0:23:11) Al: See you next time. (0:23:12) Micah: Yes, I guess a great system (0:23:12) Al: Excellent, we’ll see, we’ve never tried it like this before, we’ll see whether it’s good or not. (0:23:14) Codey: Yep. (0:23:20) Al: So that this game, this episode isn’t three times as long as the previous ones, we’re going (0:23:27) Al: to do the nominations a little bit differently for update and early access. So for game of the (0:23:32) Al: year we’re going to do the same as we always have, except one slight change, which I’ll get to that (0:23:36) Al: in a minute, in round robining our nominations and then we’ll decide from. (0:23:42) Al: What we’ve done, which should be the winner for update and early access, we’ve just got a list (0:23:48) Al: of all the ones that came out that we could think of because there’s less than 10 of each. (0:23:54) Al: So it’s a nice list to just list them all and then we can debate. The one other thing is, (0:24:00) Al: because of the debacle last year of Carl Island not winning, I have been forced into, (0:24:06) Codey: - Got scammed. (0:24:11) Al: I would suggest to do. (0:24:12) Codey: - No one is forcing you. (0:24:12) Al: I was suggested by Johnny and I thought it was a good idea that when we, I sent (0:24:18) Codey: - It’s a good suggestion. (0:24:19) Al: out a Google farm to the other people who have been on the podcast this year, I think this year, (0:24:24) Al: I don’t know, some people who have been on the podcast, I sent them a form so they can input (0:24:29) Al: as well. So we’re going to also read their feedback on what they think should win the awards. (0:24:35) Al: And maybe that will, maybe that will stop the co-hosts complaining after (0:24:40) Codey: Nope nope (0:24:40) Al: - Sure. (0:24:42) Micah: I am convinced that the reason that Cody and I are both on this episode with you is because (0:24:42) Al: - I don’t know. (laughing) (0:24:46) Codey: You can uh you can dream out (0:24:56) Micah: this is the equivalent of the Coral Island committee jumping me in a back alley for my (0:25:03) Al: Oh yeah, because it was Kevin last year, wasn’t it, is that right, because Cody had played (0:25:05) Micah: game of the year 2023. Yes. Yeah. (0:25:12) Micah: It was, and it mostly was, yeah, it mostly was down to that. Kevin and I hadn’t played it. (0:25:13) Al: Carl Island (0:25:14) Al: Exactly, exactly. (0:25:18) Codey: Yeah, and you were like, oh, I really think it should be and we were all screaming at our podcast players. (0:25:19) Al: Because I think all three of you, you and Johnny and Bev all, all said that you would (0:25:27) Codey: Yeah. Yeah. 100%. (0:25:33) Al: be playing for Carl Island. (0:25:34) Micah: This is this is my formal apology to (0:25:38) Micah: everyone. [laughs] (0:25:39) Codey: You’re no you’re allowed to have like you provided your input with the knowledge that you had and I’m here to make sure that you do it the right way this time. (0:25:47) Al: This is why we have the farm. (0:25:50) Al: It’s so that we can see people, we can see the other co-hosts opinions (0:25:50) Micah: - Under, (0:25:53) Al: before we make a bad decision and then still make a bad decision. (0:25:56) Codey: And we can still make, yeah, we can still make that decision. (0:26:00) Al: No, I’m excited for this one. (0:26:01) Al: We’ll see, we’ll see how it goes. (0:26:02) Al: I’ve seen, I’ve seen the feedback from the other hosts. (0:26:05) Al: So I’m, I’m, I’m interested to see what your guys’s are. (0:26:07) Al: We’ll get to that in a minute. (0:26:10) Al: And I’m in it. (0:26:10) Al: Goodness me, probably like two hours, we’ll see. (0:26:14) Al: We’re going to start off with update of the year. (0:26:18) Al: And so I’ll just, I’ll read through the nominations for that this year. (0:26:21) Al: Uh, and hopefully I’ve not missed anymore. (0:26:23) Al: Cause apparently I list missed three off the list. (0:26:25) Al: When I sent the form to the other costs, we have Stardew Valley, 1.6, Carl Island, 1.1 (0:26:34) Al: Moonstone Island, cooking update, Disney, Dreamlight Valley, a rift in time, which yes, (0:26:39) Al: was this year, the whole thing we released it this year, which is crazy. (0:26:43) Al: I thought some of it had released last year, but. (0:26:45) Al: but uh (0:26:47) Al: farm skies of Azoria, Dave the Diver DLCs, those would be Godzilla and I can’t remember (0:26:54) Al: the other one. Yeah what was oh um oh Dredge Dredge uh Terranil Vita Nova and Wildflowers (0:26:55) Micah: whatever the non Godzilla one is, (0:26:57) Micah: ‘cause the Godzilla one is the only one I made it. (0:26:59) Codey: Yeah, I was gonna say it was a dredge. (0:26:59) Micah: Oh, sure, sure, sure, yeah, yeah. (0:27:05) Al: Magical Creatures. Yeah yeah because Kevin decided not to put anything in the farm until (0:27:15) Al: literally, what, five hours before we start? (0:27:18) Al: I’m not sure, and was the only person to mention wildflowers, I had completely forgotten the (0:27:24) Al: wildflowers had an update this year. Anyway. (0:27:28) Micah: You know, I looked at the show notes last night, too, and did not see that on there. (0:27:32) Micah: So that makes complete sense. (0:27:34) Al: Yeah. So, um, I’ll just go through our other hosts opinions and what should win, and then (0:27:39) Al: we can discuss what we think as well. Uh, so we have one person says, Dave, the diver, (0:27:47) Al: we have, uh, two people saying stardew outright, uh, one person adding stardew as one of their (0:27:55) Al: three that they decided, uh, but not like the ultimate, what they think should win. (0:28:01) Al: one for wildflowers. (0:28:04) Al: one for terra nell, vita nova, and then one for disney dreamlight valley. (0:28:09) Al: I feel like I need to read johnny’s out, because it’s just, this is a weird year for best update. (0:28:16) Al: carl island 1.1, a great update no doubt, it added everything carl island and yours were asking for, (0:28:20) Al: but to reward this with update of the year feels wrong, it should have been 1.0 but it wasn’t. (0:28:25) Al: stargie 1.6 added more to a great game and the updates are good, but also just stop, (0:28:30) Al: it’s okay for stargie to be done, i’m ready for it. (0:28:33) Micah: Which is funny maybe I’m wrong and in assuming this but I feel like that’s a wild take from Johnny is that. (0:28:40) Codey: No, I think he’s he would be a proponent of like, let like, like, stop the nostalgia machine from cranking. Yeah, I think that’s also Yeah. (0:28:46) Al: I think he’s worried for concerned apes mental health. (0:28:48) Micah: Okay, okay (0:28:49) Micah: for concern days (0:28:51) Micah: Yeah, I mean after that interview where he was kind of like, uh, I could just keep going forever. I don’t know (0:29:00) Al: I think that leaves Disney Dreamlight Valley is the one that stands at his best update that (0:29:03) Al: continues to add to a great game bringing in memorable characters in a way that continues (0:29:07) Al: to surprise and delight. So that looks what I can see that looks like two stardew votes, (0:29:13) Al: One Wildflowers, one Drusney Dreamlet Valley, and one Davey. (0:29:16) Al: The Diver. What do you guys think? (0:29:19) Codey: Um, so I, so I mean, some of these, I didn’t play. So like, I didn’t play moonstone island. Uh, I (0:29:23) Al: Fair. That list is just going to get longer as we go through the episode. (0:29:28) Codey: right. I feel like it’s true. I feel like Fay Farm Skye’s Zozoria when we were talking about it on (0:29:33) Codey: the pod, it did not fix the issues that people wanted in the first one. So I think in my opinion, (0:29:35) Al: No (0:29:38) Codey: we can just strike that off. Um, I think the same about Taranell. I don’t think that that added (0:29:39) Al: I agree. Yeah (0:29:43) Codey: anything really. Um, and I honestly like, honestly, like, (0:29:46) Al: R.I.P. Kevin’s option. (0:29:49) Codey: I will just like double retweet Johnny’s thing because I agree. Like my go-to was (0:29:59) Codey: Coral Island 1.1. Um, I really loved it, but it did basically add like, one of the reasons I loved (0:30:05) Codey: it is because it added the rest of the story, but that should have been in the initial game. (0:30:06) Al: Mm hmm. Yeah. (0:30:10) Codey: Like why, like you can’t have an update, just be like, oh, adding the things that we didn’t (0:30:17) Codey: I had originally, but finished again. (0:30:20) Codey: So I don’t want to go with that. (0:30:22) Al: I would, I would agree with that. (0:30:23) Al: Any objections, Micah, to those three being struck off. (0:30:26) Micah: I think Coral Island is an incredible game, and I think it should win. (0:30:32) Al: Have you played it yet? (0:30:34) Micah: So okay, I have not, but this is where I’m at with Coral Island, because if you recall on the (0:30:40) Micah: previous Game of the Year episode, the reason that I said that I didn’t get it yet was because I was (0:30:44) Micah: waiting for the Switch version, which we all kind of know how that went. So I did eventually just (0:30:48) Al: Awkward. You. (0:30:53) Micah: kind of buckle and get it on the steam deck so I do have (0:30:56) Al: Yeah, nice. (0:30:56) Micah: it now to play on the steam deck haven’t had a chance to (0:30:59) Micah: play it yet but I am excited to play it especially after (0:31:02) Micah: hearing uh how much 1.1 kind of made it a 1.0 I guess um but (0:31:06) Codey: Yeah. (0:31:10) Micah: there’s just you know II’ve been I’ve yeah I don’t know I’ll (0:31:15) Micah: get I’ll get into that more later but I have not played it (0:31:17) Micah: yet. (0:31:18) Codey: Okay. And then yeah, Stardew is the same, like, I agree with Johnny, like, let it, let it lie. (0:31:24) Codey: And so for what I’ve played. (0:31:25) Al: I’m not, just for the record, I’m not, I’m not striking stardew off the list. (0:31:28) Codey: Correct. Did not strike Stardew off the list. This is just my opinion. (0:31:30) Al: I’m not, yeah, I don’t care what you’re saying. I’m not doing it. (0:31:32) Al: I’m not letting that happen right now. Right. We’ll get to that. (0:31:37) Codey: My top one would be Disney, Journey Valley. They really did add a lot of really good characters. (0:31:42) Codey: I didn’t play specifically the Rift in Time, like the paid deals, because that’s the paid one. (0:31:46) Codey: Um. (0:31:48) Codey: But I saw all the stuff from it and I know that it added like a considerable amount to the game and added to the story and I would like to play it when it becomes free. Fingers crossed that that ever happens. (0:32:00) Al: Is it not included in Game Pass? (0:32:02) Codey: Um, yeah. (0:32:06) Codey: No, you have to pay, you have to buy the DLC in Game Pass. (0:32:08) Al: Oh, weird. (0:32:10) Al: I think for, right, that’s interesting, because the whole point of Apple Arcade is everything (0:32:10) Micah: - I think it’s the same way with Apple Arcade, (0:32:17) Al: is free and you never have to pay for anything, but anyway, well, okay, yes, but you don’t (0:32:20) Codey: You have to pay for Apple Arcade. (0:32:22) Micah: Yeah, yeah (0:32:23) Al: have to pay for anything else. (0:32:24) Al: Like it removes in-app purchases from every game and stuff like that. (0:32:26) Al: I think, for the purposes of argument, we will crown it for a game. (0:32:30) Al: I feel like nobody is arguing for Moonstone Island, is that correct? (0:32:34) Codey: Well then it’s gotta, if it’s just gonna be for a game, (0:32:36) Codey: then it’s gotta be Coral Island, right? (0:32:38) Codey: No, I’m kidding, I’m kidding. (0:32:40) Micah: - I agree, definitely, Coral Island. (0:32:43) Codey: Yeah, so that’s my two cents. (0:32:50) Micah: I have not played enough of Moonstone Island to be able to confidently to even touch the cooking update, so I don’t think that I could justify it. (0:32:58) Al: Yeah, I don’t think I think cooking is a fun thing to add and it did add a few more (0:33:04) Al: spirits, but I don’t feel like it added enough to be like (0:33:08) Al: Major like I don’t think it stands aside stardew 1.6 and all of the stuff that Disney dream life alley added (0:33:17) Micah: Uh I still have yet to play Dave the Diver. I’ve heard great things about it. Uh it just (0:33:21) Al: At all. Come on, maker. (0:33:25) Micah: it just there’s something about it that just you know just hasn’t like clicked with me yet. (0:33:31) Micah: It hasn’t hooked me. That’s not I didn’t mean that as a pun but uh but I will say the Godzilla update (0:33:32) Al: you need to start it, that’s why. You need to just play it. (0:33:39) Micah: got me enticed me a little bit because I I do love my Kaiju but uh I I want to play it and I’ve (0:33:47) Micah: heard nothing but good things about it. My boss is like in love with it and sings its praise all (0:33:50) Al: David Diver is a fantastic game. The Godzilla DLC in particular is so silly. I love it so (0:33:51) Micah: the time but um (0:34:00) Al: much, right? Like any game where you like find Godzilla in a cave underwater and then (0:34:07) Al: you end the story by literally controlling Godzilla has my vote. (0:34:12) Codey: Oh, so you’re, is that your vote then? (0:34:12) Micah: That sounds awesome. That sounds incredible, honestly. (0:34:17) Al: What was that Cody? Well, I mean, it’s, it would definitely be on the shortlist. (0:34:18) Codey: I said, is that your vote then? (0:34:24) Codey: Okay. (0:34:25) Al: I’m not saying it’s definitely my favorite, but I feel like it’s, I could be convinced of that. (0:34:30) Codey: Okay. (0:34:32) Micah: uh as far as the rest of them I think you know looking at the the two current feels like top (0:34:40) Micah: contenders being disney dreamlight valley and stardew I like cody have played disney dreamlight (0:34:48) Micah: valley base not the the paid dlc portion of it yet um and I did really really enjoy it (0:34:56) Micah: uh I just the the cost to get to (0:35:02) Micah: you know we kind of talked about this when I was on previously right around what disney (0:35:06) Micah: dreamlight valley came out um that I was under the impression that it was cheaper than it was (0:35:13) Micah: or that there was a they were doing a uh like a like a um uh like a free to play version of it (0:35:21) Micah: when it had originally started to come out but you know I feel like the price of disney dreamlight (0:35:26) Micah: valley has just felt bigger and bigger over the the years (0:35:32) Micah: and that’s that’s great if the amount of content is there and it’s a very like pretty game it seems (0:35:38) Micah: like there is plenty of content there um but it’s a really like pitting that against stardew which (0:35:47) Micah: you know I know stardew has been around for so long it is it’s it just keeps going I do agree (0:35:54) Micah: it is okay for stardew to be done again I i love the game but it is okay concerned you can focus (0:36:02) Micah: here now it’s okay you can work on other things it’s all right but the the 1.6 update for stardew (0:36:09) Micah: is so massive for free content that like it’s hard for me to pit it against you know something that (0:36:20) Micah: the total cost of it is like what are we you know pushing a hundred dollars at this point (0:36:27) Micah: with in-app currency and all this stuff. I don’t know. Again, (0:36:32) Micah: I really, really like Disney Dreamlight Valley and I’m looking forward to playing more of it. (0:36:38) Micah: I love that they have kept it up. The community for it seems great, but yeah, it’s just such a (0:36:46) Micah: hard comparison because it’s like massive franchise, massive brand, costs a lot of money. (0:36:54) Micah: They’re still keeping it up and doing a great job with it versus one guy making stuff for free (0:36:58) Codey: - Yeah, I get that. (0:37:02) Micah: and I’m like, you know, I don’t know. It’s hard. If I personally had to put it on something, (0:37:08) Micah: I would put it on Stardew, but I would not be opposed to Disney Dreamlight Valley yet, (0:37:12) Codey: I mean, you do have to put it we have to we’re here to put it on (0:37:17) Micah: which is very hard for me to try. But yeah, that would be my nomination. I think would be Stardew 1.6. (0:37:23) Al: I feel like we’re probably we’re striking wildflowers off right? I think I don’t think (0:37:30) Codey: Sorry, Kevin. (0:37:30) Micah: Sorry Kevin (0:37:32) Al: even he was seriously suggesting it because I think yeah I yeah so so he says wildflowers (0:37:34) Codey: Yeah, the first thing in his thing is stardew. (0:37:36) Micah: Just more the representation, you know (0:37:41) Al: because it hasn’t won anything yet and it’s amazing and wildflowers but in reality but (0:37:45) Micah: It’s got to get the wildflowers representation in this understandable (0:37:48) Al: in reality Terranell is the only update I’ve played is great so he hasn’t even played wildflowers (0:37:54) Al: I think I understand why he would want wildflowers to win something because he thinks it probably (0:37:59) Al: should have won game of the year last year but yeah I think as an update it I don’t think (0:38:06) Al: it compares to stardew 1.6 or to all of the updates that Disney Dreamland valued so we’re (0:38:12) Al: down to 3 stardew 1.6 Disney Dreamland Valley and the day of the diving (0:38:19) Codey: I think from what Micah said, I’ve moved over to Stardew. (0:38:24) Codey: I didn’t play it, but I know literally dozens of people who have. (0:38:31) Codey: And yeah, I think the amount of effort that this solo human keeps pumping into this game (0:38:37) Codey: that is so beloved by the communities, it deserves it. (0:38:42) Codey: - Bye. (0:38:43) Al: - Say that with more passion. (0:38:45) Micah: But, you know, that’s in the context of like how much effort and how much content there (0:38:47) Al: Yeah. (0:38:53) Micah: is in something like the Disney Dreamlight Valley DLC, like I think it’s just the greater (0:39:00) Micah: context of the amount of effort and money that is put into one versus the other, I suppose. (0:39:05) Al: I think I would also say that as much stuff as there is in the Disney Dreamland Valley (0:39:12) Al: updates over the last year, the fact of the matter is the day that Stardew 1.6 came on, (0:39:18) Codey: Yeah. (0:39:18) Al: it became like the fifth highest consecutive players on Steam for like a week. That is (0:39:23) Micah: Mm hmm. Which is (0:39:25) Al: a wild amount of control that that game still has over. (0:39:31) Micah: Yeah, that’s, I mean, remarkable for a game as old as it is to be able to update and hit (0:39:38) Micah: that milestone is incredible. (0:39:41) Micah: It’s just, you don’t see that with really anything aside from like me, you know, multiplayer (0:39:45) Al: Yeah, and legitimately, like, I can’t find the chart, but it’s all time peak was miles (0:39:47) Micah: online games or something like it’s, it’s impressive. (0:40:00) Al: lower than that. And then the update came out and then suddenly it was high up. So it’s (0:40:08) Al: all time peak takes a 56 place, place at 56. But I think on the week that it was out, it (0:40:15) Al: was top five. I think I can’t remember because we don’t have obviously the historical, historical (0:40:17) Micah: Mm-hmm, sure. (0:40:21) Al: data for that. But like, yeah, abs and that was, you know, I think it’s previous peak (0:40:26) Al: was something like 50,000 or something. So it like quadrupled its highest consecutive (0:40:32) Al: players for an eight year old game. That’s that’s mad. And I also got me to the point (0:40:38) Micah: Yeah, it’s pretty remarkable. (0:40:43) Al: of perfecting the game. (0:40:45) Al: Like I had never gotten close to that, and with 1.6, I put so much time into it because (0:40:51) Al: of all of the different things that it had and all the different additions it had. (0:40:56) Micah: Mm-Hmm (0:40:57) Al: I got to the point where I was like, Oh, I can, I can complete this game. (0:41:01) Al: You know, it’s like I created a new save, a brand new save, because I hadn’t really (0:41:01) Micah: Mm-Hmm (0:41:06) Al: played it on my steam deck. (0:41:07) Al: I had done it originally on, on switch and so I brought a brand new save and I sunk (0:41:14) Al: a hundred hours into it. (0:41:15) Al: So we’re giving it to Stardew, Stardew 1.6 update of the year with honorable mentions (0:41:20) Micah: Yeah. I think so. (0:41:30) Al: for Disney Dreamlight Valley and Dave the Diver, specifically the Godzilla one. (0:41:33) Codey: Godzilla. (0:41:34) Micah: I am floored. (0:41:36) Al: The dredge one is fun and has more content on it, but the Godzilla one was the one that (0:41:41) Codey: You’re floored. (0:41:43) Micah: I’m floored that Coral Island did not. (0:41:45) Micah: Going into this, I prepared, reading the list, I prepared that I was just going to fold to (0:41:50) Micah: Coral Island the second that you both defended it, but. (0:41:52) Al: No, I think everybody’s opinion is the same about Coral Island, is that 1.1 should have (0:41:58) Al: been 1.0. This is obviously what matters to them, but if they had waited until the 1.1 update to (0:41:59) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:42:06) Al: release 1.0, I reckon it would have been Game of the Year this year. For us, obviously not, (0:42:10) Micah: Mm-hmm. Yep (0:42:10) Codey: Yeah, yep, for everything. (0:42:14) Al: for the Game Awards. All right, next we have Early Access Game of the Year. (0:42:20) Al: So our nominations for this. (0:42:22) Al: A new leaf memories chill town for lands fields of mystery garden life cozy simulator go go down like your frontier of life and land and over magic. (0:42:36) Al: And the opinions from other hosts are one that I think we can probably discount over magic because it sounds magical. I think this person. I think this person has not played any early access games this year. (0:42:46) Codey: With the shrug emoji? (0:42:50) Al: Uh, we have to vote. (0:42:52) Al: I think the early access game of the year should be demos. (0:42:58) Al: Honestly, everything that’s come out in early access has been a disappointment. (0:43:02) Al: It’s become the vehicle for a game with a single cool concept to release, get bits of hype, and then proceed to deliver something exceptionally mid. (0:43:10) Al: Meanwhile, there has been a resurgence of demos, games trying to win your business by offering a slice. (0:43:14) Al: These games are the ones that have brought me joy this year. (0:43:18) Al: this year, death to early access, long-lived demos. (0:43:22) Al: So that’s two votes for Fields of Mystery and one for demos. (0:43:27) Al: There’s not any specific demo, just demos in general. (0:43:34) Al: For me, it’s Fields of Mystery. (0:43:36) Al: I think Fields of Mystery is a fantastic start for the game. (0:43:40) Al: I think it does. (0:43:42) Al: What I really hate about Early Access is when it’s like, here’s the game, but it’s buggy. (0:43:49) Al: I much prefer how Fields of Mystery have done it and how (0:43:52) Al: like Ooblets did it and Carl Island did it, which is here is a very solid base for the game. It feels (0:43:59) Al: like it’s a complete game and you just hit roadblocks along the way. I think that’s a really good way (0:44:03) Al: of doing it. I do kind of agree with Johnny and that this can be a problem in many cases. It’s (0:44:08) Al: sometimes hard to go back to games when you’ve started with early access, but I do think that (0:44:13) Al: means most people probably just shouldn’t play early access games, but you know, what can you do? (0:44:20) Al: I also enjoyed Gogotown. (0:44:22) Al: I am not sure if this is a good one, but I feel like they have a lot more work to do to make a fully formed game. (0:44:28) Al: It also released in AWP, it didn’t feel buggy sort of aspect and you had the core bones of the game there, but there’s no real narrative there and it kind of felt a little bit like it fell off quite quickly. (0:44:42) Al: So that’s why I would vote for Fields of Mistreer. (0:44:44) Al: Hmph. (0:44:44) Codey: Uh, I didn’t play any of these and, um, I kind of agree with Johnny, but also (0:44:51) Codey: like, basically early access is just a way to almost like crowdfund something. (0:44:56) Codey: So you’re like pitching your, your base ideas to an audience and then they (0:45:02) Codey: give you money to like, make it what you want it to be like to develop it. (0:45:07) Codey: Cause they’re, they believe in what you’re doing. (0:45:09) Codey: Uh, so like I see the value of early access, but I also. (0:45:14) Codey: I, I think that it’s often like abused in that it’s just, like you said, like (0:45:21) Codey: release the buggy version or release like a small version to like, generate (0:45:26) Codey: hype or something. (0:45:28) Codey: Um, so yeah, I’m, I mean, I, I am willing to just like pass or defer my (0:45:35) Codey: judgment to y’all, like whatever y’all decide, cause I just personally, unless (0:45:39) Codey: there’s this super big argument for any one particular thing, and we want to (0:45:43) Codey: thing and we want to discuss. (0:45:46) Micah: Well, that might make things easy because I also not voting for fields of mystery. (0:45:52) Codey: Yay, fields of mystery. (0:45:53) Micah: Yeah, I, I do, I agree with what a lot of what Al said that, you know, the, the core (0:46:05) Micah: of the game is so solid. (0:46:08) Micah: It’s also just, you know, it does feel so, so heavily based in like stardew core. (0:46:16) Micah: Or that like, you know, I think that can be seen as a negative sometimes now where like, (0:46:22) Micah: you know, it’s just, it started with a coat of paint or like, it started with like a different (0:46:28) Micah: slightly different feature or whatever. (0:46:30) Micah: But I think there’s enough things that stand out in fields of mystery to separate it. (0:46:36) Micah: Like, I don’t know, just quest progression and I just feel like the, I mean, personally, (0:46:47) Micah: I like the pixel, the pixel art is beautiful. (0:46:49) Micah: The, the character portraits are fantastic. (0:46:53) Micah: They’re done in that kind of like 90s Bishoujo, like anime style, like, like magical girl, (0:47:01) Micah: kind of like Sailor Moon era anime. (0:47:03) Micah: And I, it, it just also, you know, everybody in the game is, is beautiful, which I think, (0:47:12) Micah: you know, Cody had the issue with Coral Island, but you know, like (0:47:16) Codey: Yeah. (0:47:16) Micah: just like one, somewhat like normal person, you know, would be cool to see but, but, but yeah, I mean, everyone is very, very nice to look a

We have a twofer today friends!  That's right in the spirit of the weather becoming cooler and us spending more time indoors, under a blanket, being all cozy we decided to hit two cozy games today.  We are talking about Graveyard Keeper and Moonstone Island, two cozy games with some fun twists, one being tongue in cheek and the other is if Pokemon and Stardew Valley had a baby.  So light the fire, get your warm cider, and cozy up with Game On!  Don't forget to let us know what you think about these and thanks for listening!  We love you all, take care, and we'll catch you next time! Podbean: https://gameonpresentedbyntr.podbean.com/ Email: notokensrequired@hotmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063552160204 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/notokensrequired

Codey and Kevin talk about Township Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:17: What Have We Been Up To 00:16:25: News 00:40:52: New Games 00:52:11: Township 01:16:21: Outro Links Research Story “0.10” Update Horticular “1.1” Update My Time at Sandrock “1.4” Update Winds of Anthos DLC Delay Moonstone Island’s Fishbo now in Coromon Super Zoo Story Kickstarter Gaucho and the Grassland Cattle Country Forgotten Waters 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) Kev: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Kevin (0:00:36) Codey: and my name is Cody. (0:00:38) Kev: And we are here to talk about cottagecore games whoo (0:00:44) Codey: are we here to talk about cozy games I just wanted to to trigger al a little bit (0:00:46) Kev: I hope not (0:00:52) Kev: I’m triggered (0:00:54) Kev: Doesn’t sound like coat. It doesn’t sound like a cozy game from what you’ve described sounds like an addiction (0:01:00) Kev: Stop welcome (0:01:02) Codey: a plague that needs to be released (0:01:04) Kev: Welcome to the the township intervention of podie today everyone (0:01:10) Codey: yeah for sure (0:01:14) Codey: I played Township, and when we needed a topic on a dime, I was like, “Can we please cover this game so I can uninstall it?” (0:01:25) Kev: Yeah, I mean, yeah, oh, yeah (0:01:28) Kev: if people only knew like it was like I (0:01:33) Kev: Mean first of all, I guess supposed to do an episode out and we had a pivot like twice and then he grew sick (0:01:39) Kev: It’s how the Cody had to join and then we had to pivot with that (0:01:41) Codey: He was very ill, yeah. (0:01:44) Codey: Oh yeah, we had to pivot. (0:01:45) Codey: I had a small breakdown because of personal reasons, (0:01:49) Codey: but I am here and I am queer. (0:01:50) Kev: » Yeah. Yeah, we’ll get to there after we talk about. (0:01:53) Codey: Okay, so township episode, that’s what today is. (0:01:58) Codey: And that’s what today is. (0:02:08) Kev: I don’t I don’t know if I’ll even I don’t recall if I’ll says it but we’ve got the you know how it works folks (0:02:14) Kev: We got the show notes. You got the transcript on the website all those good things (0:02:18) Kev: And speaking of good things. Hopefully what have you been up to Cody? (0:02:18) Codey: yeah. I have been getting healing from tearing my calf muscle. Yeah so I tore (0:02:30) Kev: Oh, oh, that’s not great. (0:02:34) Codey: my calf muscle. It is, at least it wasn’t the Achilles. We initially thought it was (0:02:41) Codey: the Achilles but it was not that. So tore that and then… (0:02:48) Codey: I am in physical therapy now and it’s honestly already so much better so it did (0:02:52) Codey: not it did not slow me down y’all. Last week, sorry what? I tried to run for four (0:02:54) Kev: That’s great. How did the tearing occur? (0:03:01) Codey: whole seconds. I ran for four seconds and I tore my calf muscle. And this kids is (0:03:08) Kev: just (0:03:09) Kev: immediate collapse (0:03:10) Codey: why you don’t exercise. No. I am a super clumsy human and super oxidized. (0:03:11) Kev: But. (0:03:18) Codey: I had a mini meltdown because I did not want to go through that again but it was (0:03:32) Codey: not it is thankfully not that it was just a calf muscle and it cannot keep me (0:03:36) Codey: down. I am already out of the boot. I’m already doing stuff though the the (0:03:40) Kev: Yeah, that’s great. (0:03:42) Codey: physical therapist today had me do lunges for a whole minute and I had to (0:03:48) Codey: go. I kept trying to go and she was like girl no you’re done like stop she’s (0:03:53) Kev: I’m going to tear it again. (0:03:53) Codey: like yeah basically she’s like you’re pushing yourself too hard and I was like (0:03:58) Codey: I should be able to do this and she was like girl no to come back next week. They (0:04:04) Kev: Silence. (0:04:04) Codey: love me there because they know me if they remember me from my ACL tear and (0:04:08) Codey: how like they would say like okay you can stop at 10 and I’d be like I’m gonna (0:04:14) Codey: to do 20, or like they would put (0:04:18) Codey: the weight on like 30 pounds or something. (0:04:20) Codey: And then they’d come back and they were like, did you make, (0:04:22) Codey: did you up the weight? (0:04:23) Codey: And I was like, 30 was too light. (0:04:26) Codey: I wanted 40. (0:04:30) Codey: So they’re, they’re very aware that they need to like reel me in. (0:04:34) Codey: Um, so that was the big thing two weeks ago. (0:04:37) Codey: And then last week I was at the B lab down in Maryland. (0:04:42) Codey: So there’s a gentleman down there who is the B God of the East coast. (0:04:48) Codey: And pretty much any B and he can identify it for you and tell you all about its (0:04:50) Kev: Yeah, I remember we talked about this (0:04:51) Codey: national history. Yeah, he is amazing and he’s so sweet. (0:04:54) Codey: And so we went down to have him identify some of our bees. Um, and I, (0:04:59) Codey: and when we go down, (0:05:00) Codey: he doesn’t accept payment because he’s he works for the government. (0:05:04) Codey: So he like can’t accept payment and he also can’t be on (0:05:09) Codey: like a, he can’t be an author on papers. It’s like too difficult for him. (0:05:13) Codey: He doesn’t want to. So usually when we go down to do stuff like that, (0:05:18) Codey: and he identifies things for us, we just do things for them. (0:05:21) Codey: So they basically had a bunch of bees that needed to be organized. (0:05:24) Codey: So we did that. It was very interesting. Unfortunately, (0:05:27) Codey: he got COVID very quickly into us being there while we were there. (0:05:32) Codey: He liked by the second day, he was very ill. (0:05:36) Codey: So we didn’t see him anymore. (0:05:37) Codey: And he still has our bees because he was not able to do them. (0:05:41) Codey: And I hope honestly that he as well, I actually have not asked for an update. (0:05:45) Kev: Wop wop, that’s rough. (0:05:46) Codey: I need to do that. (0:05:48) Codey: But I mean, we still did our part and so now we’re just waiting and now I’m (0:05:53) Codey: back and I am ready to hit the ground running with my research and stuff and (0:05:58) Codey: continuing to play Coral Island. Yeah, no, I’m not. I’m not gonna run literally for (0:06:00) Kev: Figuratively, please don’t run from the literally (0:06:05) Codey: a while. Still playing Coral Island and I am now, I have upgraded my home to the (0:06:14) Codey: max level. And I am I have proposed (0:06:18) Codey: to Scott once. Um, and he said no. So he said no. So I tried to propose to him one (0:06:22) Kev: Wait, they can say “no”? (0:06:25) Kev: Whoa. (0:06:28) Codey: day and he was in the thing was like, your house is in big enough. And so I was like, (0:06:31) Codey: okay, so I went and like updated my house. No, no, no, no. No, I upgraded my house and (0:06:32) Kev: Oh, that’s why. Oh, that’s how it is. (0:06:36) Codey: then I went back and he was like, you know, I’m just not ready to take that next step (0:06:39) Codey: with you. And I’m like, boy, you have 10, we have 10 hearts. Like I don’t know what (0:06:46) Codey: you want. (0:06:48) Codey: I tried to give him the diamond and everything and the diamond ring and he was just like “Nah.” (0:06:54) Codey: So I don’t know if there’s this magical other thing that happens or something. (0:06:58) Codey: So I’m just still throwing fossils at him and hugging him whenever I can and taking him on dates. (0:07:04) Kev: is diamond to your face! (0:07:08) Codey: I don’t know if I have to ask him at a certain point because then I went to the cavern recently and he was there. (0:07:16) Codey: And he was just like I… (0:07:18) Codey: just I always feel like magical when you’re here in the cavern with me and I (0:07:21) Codey: was like oh am I supposed to propose to you in the cavern so or or maybe in the (0:07:25) Kev: Oh? Oh? (0:07:27) Codey: museum I don’t know maybe he just didn’t want it under that tree with the doctor (0:07:31) Codey: watching so (0:07:32) Kev: you know what that would be that would be that’s actually kind of cool if it’s (0:07:36) Codey: a little awkward (0:07:39) Kev: like a location requirement or whatever right to be meaningful or special (0:07:41) Codey: yeah oh and I have also made it to the Savannah now (0:07:48) Codey: but fun fact you make it to the Savannah and then before you can enter the cave (0:07:53) Codey: of memories you actually have to like do another thing so I’m just perpetually (0:08:02) Codey: fighting these quests and these thresholds but I’m gonna get there I’m (0:08:06) Codey: still motivated to get there I’m still enjoying myself what about you Kev so (0:08:12) Kev: Sick what wait? I’m just think what it what is (0:08:18) Codey: memories there’s a couple other animals that unlock once you get to the Savannah (0:08:23) Codey: there was like ostriches there and there’s like some kind of kind of (0:08:26) Codey: buffalo and some other stuff I don’t know if you have to go to a certain (0:08:29) Codey: person there’s not a map and the fun thing about the cloud gaming servers is (0:08:40) Codey: sometimes if you do too much in a day it it protests and it just erases all of (0:08:48) Codey: the progress for the day so I have lost I’ve like and usually I’ll play for like (0:08:49) Kev: Oh, that’s great. (0:08:55) Codey: an hour hour and a half and then I hit the point where it like I it’s like (0:08:59) Codey: saving the game day or whatever and it says saving game and then it just like (0:09:04) Codey: shuts down and is like lost connection to the server and then when I start it (0:09:08) Codey: back up it just goes straight to the like loading up and it has to it starts (0:09:14) Codey: the day all over. So whenever, whenever I do something new (0:09:18) Codey: I usually like go like with the Savannah. I went to the (0:09:22) Codey: Savannah. I like progressed the quest for the Giants and then I (0:09:27) Codey: was like, this is not I like basically stood on the cliff (0:09:30) Codey: overseeing the Savannah and I was like, oh, this looks really (0:09:32) Codey: nice and then I went home and ended the day at 7 AM because I (0:09:36) Kev: Ha ha ha ha! (0:09:37) Codey: was like, I don’t want to do anything else today. I just (0:09:41) Kev: Sick. (0:09:43) Codey: want this to make sure that it saves the fact that I got to (0:09:46) Codey: to the Savannah. (0:09:48) Codey: Man, I have not attempted that, maybe I can, maybe I should try that, but I just always (0:09:50) Kev: Can you not save without the sleeping part? (0:10:01) Codey: go home and sleep. (0:10:03) Codey: I’m also at the point where, sorry this is suddenly coral island cast, I’m at the point (0:10:09) Codey: where I have the computer and all of the upgrades and so I can look whenever there’s, I can (0:10:13) Codey: look and see what insects are spawning, what critter ocean critters are spawning, and what (0:10:18) Codey: I don’t have in the museum, I can find it, but I’m in the middle of Spermanir, the end (0:10:24) Codey: of spring now I guess, and I’ve caught all of the spring stuff. (0:10:28) Codey: So I am kind of like almost at the point literally of just like starting the game, ending the (0:10:33) Codey: day. (0:10:34) Codey: Starting the day, ending the day to like get through spring because I just want to be in (0:10:36) Kev: Mm-hmm (0:10:38) Codey: summer so I can start getting the summer stuff. (0:10:42) Kev: Mm-hmm can’t can’t change that DS clock. Oh, I know crossing (0:10:46) Codey: No, I’m not going to do that, I would just start day and do. (0:10:51) Kev: Yeah, oh man good times good times (0:10:54) Codey: But what are you up to? (0:10:57) Kev: Oh (0:10:58) Kev: for (0:11:00) Kev: I actually I was somewhat ill last week and I just (0:11:06) Kev: You may hear me coughing due to it, but just a heads up for folks (0:11:11) Kev: Thank you bees. I consumed much honey during the recovery period so you know they helped (0:11:18) Kev: As I am (0:11:19) Kev: These cool (0:11:21) Kev: But when I do game the brief moments, I mean it’s it’s all (0:11:26) Kev: Right now. I’m in a very much like (0:11:29) Kev: I’m doing my dailies sort of thing for different games right like I’m not I (0:11:34) Kev: I don’t have… I think mostly the (0:11:36) Kev: time I would say to dedicate to a big (0:11:39) Kev: venture trying to clear stuff or (0:11:41) Kev: whatever so a lot of grindy mindless (0:11:44) Kev: stuff that’s fun for me right that’s (0:11:47) Kev: stuff like Marvel snap Pokemon unite (0:11:51) Kev: probably the biggest time sink is still (0:11:54) Kev: zenless zone zero are you familiar with (0:11:57) Kev: that one Cody okay so well I think I’ll (0:11:58) Codey: I am not, what is that? (0:12:02) Kev: talk about it here but brief recap for (0:12:07) Kev: it is a mi hoyo game which is the (0:12:09) Kev: genshin impact company so it is it is a (0:12:14) Kev: gotcha game much like genshin impact (0:12:17) Kev: and their other one honkai but this one (0:12:20) Kev: is a while genshin is kind of like (0:12:22) Kev: breath of the wild the honkai is a turn (0:12:25) Kev: based RPG sort of thing this one is more (0:12:28) Kev: character actually bashing stuff buttons (0:12:31) Kev: to beat up bad guys real-time that sort (0:12:34) Kev: thing. (0:12:35) Kev: It is a… (0:12:35) Kev: Um, it is uh… (0:12:37) Kev: It’s a very stylish and fun game, um, it’s also very heavy on the lore and the world, building a whole bunch of nonsense. (0:12:47) Kev: Basically, they live in a world where there’s just space-time distortions that’ll just pop up everywhere, and people turn into monsters in them. (0:12:56) Kev: And so, yeah, people trying to navigate life, that kind of risk around the corner, um, where it could just pop up anywhere and you can turn into a monster. (0:13:07) Kev: But, uh, yeah, that’s uh, they- that’s what I’ve been up to, I’m caught up with the story, it’s a relatively new game, it’s only started in the summer, so it’s only up to like the 4th chapter right now. (0:13:21) Kev: Um, and so, you know, each chapter you get a different crew that you can play as, they’ll give you trials, and then- or, you know, trial usages, and then later you can pull for them as part of the gacha or whatever, right? (0:13:33) Kev: And so there’s different factions and whatnot. (0:13:36) Kev: You have this fancy butler group, they call themselves a housekeeping group, but they’re really fun, so on and so forth. (0:13:48) Kev: There’s animal people in this world too, like it can vary from your typical cat boy/girl to full on wolf furry or just a bear. (0:13:58) Kev: You can play as just a bear guy. He’s Ben, I love him, he’s an accountant. (0:14:00) Codey: Oh my gosh. (0:14:02) Kev: Um, yep, um, the game (0:14:06) Kev: is quite uh because if it’s a bacha daily nature they fill it up with all (0:14:14) Kev: sorts of extra content lots of little minigame events and things like that to (0:14:18) Kev: keep you busy there was an event where I ran a restaurant for a little bit there (0:14:23) Kev: was there there’s an arcade with in-depth minigames that have sucked me (0:14:28) Kev: in lately and so on and so forth um but yeah so that’s one of my go-tos that I (0:14:33) Kev: just grind through and enjoy. (0:14:36) Kev: Mahoyo games are more or less designed to be on anything, including mobile. (0:14:46) Kev: This game will run on a strong enough phone or whatever. (0:14:50) Kev: I play on the Playstation, but it’s cross save and whatever, so you can play pretty much wherever. (0:14:58) Kev: I don’t think it’s on the Switch that might be the only one it’s not on because they don’t have Mahoyo games on the Switch. (0:15:04) Kev: Other than that, it’s on pretty much anything. (0:15:06) Kev: Uh, um, nah, so that’s roughly what I’ve been up to, like I said, just very zen me time, uh, no pun intended with the name there, but uh, but yeah, that’s roughly what I’ve been up to. (0:15:20) Kev: Um, oh, oh, no, there is one other thing, actually, just this past week. (0:15:26) Kev: Um, art, uh, so, oh gosh, I haven’t actually posted on, like, art account yet, but it is, uh, uh, Inktober or, you know, uh, League of Legends. (0:15:36) Kev: Inktober since that one’s taken and actually there’s this one guy who (0:15:43) Kev: organizes thing for pixel artists specifically in September since I (0:15:48) Kev: forgot about it last month I’m doing it this month and the theme is a quite fun (0:15:52) Kev: one it’s a monster maker not like a universal spooky monsters but as in (0:16:08) Kev: I put it on the Slack where we hang out with friends, (0:16:14) Kev: but I’ll be posting it soon on my art account. (0:16:17) Kev: I’ll be able to get that going. (0:16:19) Kev: So that’s certainly been fun. (0:16:22) Kev: But yeah, that’s roughly what I’ve been up to. (0:16:26) Kev: There we go. (0:16:27) Kev: All right. (0:16:28) Kev: Now let’s see what the world of Cottagecore has been up to, (0:16:31) Kev: shall we? (0:16:32) Codey: world of cozy. (0:16:33) Kev: So unfortunately, let’s go. (0:16:39) Kev: All right. (0:16:40) Kev: First, let’s talk about cozy researching, (0:16:44) Kev: because Research Story has an update. (0:16:48) Kev: I only had 0.10 update. (0:16:50) Kev: That’s– no, I thought they were farther in. (0:16:52) Kev: OK. (0:16:54) Kev: The cosmetic things, some small fixes. (0:16:59) Kev: But the next update, 0.11, will be a bigger one (0:17:04) Kev: that they’re hoping to complete by the end of the year, which (0:17:07) Kev: will include. (0:17:08) Kev: All NPC orange heart events, like similar to their dating stuff, the greenhouse, not (0:17:13) Kev: our premium show, but probably farming ad nauseam, uh, house upgrade 2, and, oh good, (0:17:21) Kev: gosh, timbers, we’re variant creatures, what, oh, you know how, you know how, you know how (0:17:24) Codey: Shinies (0:17:29) Codey: Your shiny shiny research story Pokemon (0:17:33) Kev: every farming game doesn’t have to have romance, so guys, every, mmm, mmm, oh come on, d- (0:17:38) Codey: creature collector. (0:17:38) Kev: does not need, does not need SHINEEES, if it does it, it’s- (0:17:44) Codey: I will say though that in the real real every now and then I do see like an actual shiny like (0:17:50) Kev: Yeah, sure. (0:17:52) Codey: Pokemon quote-unquote Pokemon like wild wildlife like every now and then at the Wildlife Center will get like an all-black (0:17:59) Codey: squirrel or an all-white raven (0:18:02) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah for sure that right absolutely right like I mean I’ll buy noism (0:18:03) Codey: Yeah, and so they basically are like real-world shinies, but they do (0:18:11) Kev: Right like is the you know poster child for real life change, but even other odd color parents (0:18:13) Codey: Yeah, it’s albanism, albinism and melanism are the two. (0:18:18) Codey: So melanism is when things are darker and albinism. (0:18:20) Kev: Ah, I didn’t realize (0:18:21) Codey: Oh, and then leucistic is another thing. (0:18:25) Codey: It’s not, it’s like albinism, but it’s not as intense. (0:18:30) Codey: Like leucistic things will usually only have (0:18:32) Codey: either part of the like skin won’t be, (0:18:37) Codey: or like the fur or feathers. (0:18:40) Codey: So it won’t be all of them that are lighter colored, (0:18:42) Codey: but they also do not. (0:18:43) Codey: have the red eyes so albinism is like an entire lack of anything and so they (0:18:48) Kev: Right, right (0:18:50) Codey: don’t even have eye color so it’s just like red but so yeah there’s actually a (0:18:53) Kev: You right (0:18:55) Kev: Okay (0:18:57) Kev: Okay (0:18:57) Codey: secret third thing. (0:18:59) Kev: The secret third shiny very that’s that’ll save Pokemon go. Um, I (0:19:03) Codey: Leucistic. So yeah. (0:19:06) Kev: Yeah, I’m looking at the pictures right now. Okay, I see there’s obviously no albinism with the the total lack of (0:19:12) Kev: Pigmentation you can see the red shows up because of the blood vessels and all that right (0:19:16) Codey: Yep, yep (0:19:17) Kev: But yeah, I’m seeing these are (0:19:18) Kev: Some of these are just like white animals, but like look more normal. Yeah, I’m more shiny variance. That’s really cool (0:19:20) Codey: Yep (0:19:23) Codey: Yes, those would be leucistic so so I will say so so if they do exist (0:19:28) Codey: They’re not it’s not shiny (0:19:30) Codey: But the calling it the shimmers. I think is where we’re like, okay, come on (0:19:33) Kev: Mhmm. (0:19:36) Codey: I really am sorry. (laughs) (0:19:37) Kev: So… (0:19:38) Kev: See… (0:19:39) Kev: We’re a game called “Research Story”. (0:19:41) Kev: It would be co- (0:19:42) Kev: I would be… (0:19:43) Kev: Have the TOTALLY opposite reaction if they just went by these actual names, right? (0:19:48) Codey: Yeah, like find the loose the leucistic variant, the (0:19:48) Kev: Like… (0:19:48) Kev: Th-that would be so dope. (0:19:51) Kev: Yeah. (0:19:52) Kev: That would be so dope. (0:19:54) Codey: dude, so super zoo story should do that because it’s a wildlife (0:19:57) Codey: thing. Because so oftentimes melanistic or leucistic animals (0:20:03) Codey: depending on their habitat, like, it can really reduce their (0:20:07) Codey: ability to survive in the wild. And so some of them, like some (0:20:10) Codey: leucistic, like, if we get a super leucistic animal, like we (0:20:15) Codey: are a leucistic groundhog that was just (0:20:18) Codey: white like a white groundhog that thing’s not going to survive so we don’t end up releasing (0:20:18) Kev: Yeah. (0:20:24) Codey: those um melanism it depends so like we get melanistic squirrels all the time and we just (0:20:30) Codey: they’re fine and it’s a recessive trait so if you put we always release them on the property because (0:20:30) Kev: Yeah, sure. (0:20:36) Codey: then they’ll produce more melanistic squirrels with the melanistic population we already have (0:20:42) Kev: Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, that definitely sounds like a win-win, because yeah, if you’re, you know, like a white, like, literal walking target, um, yeah, and so you can hang out in a zoo and be a cool thing that people are gonna want to see. (0:20:52) Codey: Yeah, a hundred percent. (0:20:58) Kev: Yeah, no, that, that, uh, that seems like a win-win to keep those. (0:21:02) Kev: Um, oh, man. (0:21:02) Codey: Yeah. (0:21:06) Kev: Oh, you got small tangents around wildlife talk. I saw, where did they go? Katie? Katie did? (0:21:12) Codey: A katydid! (0:21:12) Kev: Those are the, yes, I saw one for the first time the other day outside. Um, the mmm, those are so cool. (0:21:18) Codey: Yeah, so you (0:21:20) Codey: Yeah, you can hear them. Um, I mean they’re basically nighttime crickets, right? So like crickets usually will chirp (0:21:28) Codey: um (0:21:29) Codey: during either dawn or dusk (0:21:31) Codey: Um, but katydids do it at night (0:21:34) Codey: And so they make and they’re called katydids because they sound like they’re saying katydid katydid katydid like whatever (0:21:40) Kev: Just like Pokemon! (0:21:41) Codey: Just like Pokemon. (0:21:42) Codey: And there’s some really cool ones we I actually saw one so they’re usually herbivorous so they (0:21:47) Codey: eat like plant material because they’re basically they’re kind of like a grass they’re super related (0:21:51) Codey: to grasshoppers and crickets but there is one that’s a predator it’s just a leaf with yeah they (0:21:52) Kev: Yeah, it’s just a leaf with a grasshopper head, that’s all it looks like. (0:21:58) Codey: do mimic leaves to like not getting um but I did see one in Costa Rica that was predatory (0:22:06) Codey: so it mimics leaves and it actually eats other things and it was on this it was eating beetle (0:22:06) Kev: Oh, oh dang. (0:22:12) Codey: on this one it was really cool and they are pretty they’re they don’t they are not (0:22:17) Codey: predatory very often so it was really cool to see that (0:22:22) Kev: - Yeah, no, that would be fascinating. (0:22:28) Codey: Yeah (0:22:30) Codey: It’s basically yeah (0:22:32) Codey: It’s basically like if you saw it if you found a cow in the wild and then the cow like ate like I guess (0:22:38) Codey: Well, so bird cows will cows and deer and everything they’ll eat birds (0:22:44) Codey: If they find like if they find baby bird a baby bird nest, they’ll eat them (0:22:44) Kev: they were really huh I hadn’t (0:22:50) Codey: They yeah nature is wild (0:22:54) Kev: what’s that family guy clip are you scary (0:22:58) Codey: Yeah, nature is scary, 100%. (0:23:02) Codey: Things do whatever they need to do. (0:23:06) Kev: hey that’s my pink sorry i’m just google image searching I didn’t know that that’s so cool (0:23:09) Codey: They can, there are some pink, pink kitty dead. (0:23:11) Kev: Thanks for watching! (0:23:12) Codey: There’s some really cool butterflies that have pink, (0:23:12) Kev: If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe and like! (0:23:13) Kev: Thank you for watching! (0:23:15) Codey: like pink edges on their wings and stuff too. (0:23:20) Codey: More shimmer Pokemon like it, or not Pokemon, (0:23:22) Kev: Yeah (0:23:23) Codey: life like in research story but (0:23:24) Kev: But the real ones dude do the real ones at least that’s research story (0:23:32) Kev: Look if it to me and Cody, there’s a good chance we’ll get into wildlife talk (0:23:36) Codey: Tangents! (0:23:40) Kev: She lives in it by her profession I live in it by my where I live (0:23:47) Kev: Okay, so that is research story again the original thing that (0:23:58) Kev: check the link it’ll be in the show notes um speaking of updates that are (0:24:02) Kev: out now Horticular our gnome game has an update um boy I don’t remember (0:24:18) Kev: So it focuses largely on community feedback with huge changes to how you can build and manage your habitats in your garden (0:24:27) Kev: because being the premise of the game is you’re a bunch of gnomes trying to restore a garden. (0:24:33) Kev: So yeah, there’s a pretty decent size, right? Like it’s 1.1. (0:24:43) Kev: A lot of UI stuff and how the creatures will interact with you. (0:24:47) Kev: Thank you. (0:24:48) Kev: There’s a pretty decently sized changelog to describe it, but I do appreciate the response, basically, because it’s all community feedback, so this sounds like a really nifty feature. (0:25:02) Kev: Good for them. (0:25:04) Kev: Apparently, one of the big things is creatures will let you know earlier if they don’t like their habitat. (0:25:12) Kev: And so on to it. (0:25:12) Codey: Yeah, so apparently before, like they would just move. (0:25:15) Codey: And so you would just like, you’d be like, (0:25:17) Codey: where did they go? (0:25:18) Codey: Um, but now they’ll let you know earlier. (0:25:19) Kev: It’s like Animal Crossing. (0:25:22) Codey: Yeah, you see, you see your person, (0:25:26) Codey: instead of just like them being gone, (0:25:27) Codey: you actually get to see them walking around (0:25:29) Codey: with a thought bubble now. (0:25:30) Codey: I’d be like, no, what are you, what do you want? (0:25:30) Kev: Oh, man (0:25:34) Kev: The good old days of og Animal Crossing where Oh (0:25:36) Codey: How, where you just got, you just got, (0:25:38) Kev: Ah. (0:25:40) Codey: you re-log. (0:25:42) Codey: You re-logged on after you dropped it for a while and then your favorite villager is like gone and you re- just… (0:25:44) Kev: Yup, yup, or if you play with friends the risk, the russian roulette that you lose your (0:25:48) Codey: Just… (0:25:52) Codey: Oh, yeah. (0:25:54) Kev: neighbor to the wild times og in a crossing, why, oh my goodness, um so there you go. (0:26:00) Codey: And then you gotta like… (0:26:03) Codey: and then you never like that friend again because they stole… (0:26:07) Codey: they stole blue bear from me. (0:26:13) Kev: Um, so there you go. Horticular off faster response time than animal crossing. There you go folks (0:26:20) Codey: Did you mention that it’s 20% off on Steam until October 21st? (0:26:24) Kev: Well, there you go (0:26:25) Codey: There you go. (0:26:27) Kev: All right (0:26:28) Kev: Next up actually I think stay at the time of recording (0:26:32) Kev: I think I saw like steams doing an animal fest thing that might be part of it (0:26:38) Kev: So yeah, yeah, there’s probably actually a handful of cottage core s similar (0:26:43) Kev: Games on sale on that people might like so I suggest you guys hop on steam and check it out (0:26:49) Kev: I really appreciate those themed weeks and and sales and whatnot (0:26:55) Codey: My wallet doesn’t appreciate them. (0:26:56) Kev: Wow true true well, you’re right. I appreciate in theory, but I can’t partake in it right now (0:27:03) Kev: - No, no. (0:27:03) Codey: Yeah, no, I don’t you like mentioned that it’s on and I was that there’s like that that sale and I’m like (0:27:03) Kev: Yeah, um… (0:27:09) Codey: I’m not looking I’m not gonna do it (0:27:12) Kev: Don’t look, don’t look. (0:27:16) Kev: Alright, next up we got my time at Sandrock. We got the 1.4 update dropping October 8th, which will already be out by the time you guys are listening to my voice, our voices. (0:27:30) Kev: You unlock brand new host marriage quests for Justice. Oh, uh, Grace, she, P, I don’t even know how to pronounce that, Logan. (0:27:40) Kev: Emora Feng, Mian Nia, and Unseo. (0:27:42) Kev: I appreciate doing stuff with your spouse. Hopefully. (0:28:10) Codey: Yeah I am actually feeling related to that. I’m feeling bad about trying to get Scott to marry me (0:28:16) Codey: because I don’t want him to just lose his entire autonomy. So it is nice to like think of or that (0:28:23) Codey: know that some games are giving them some form of after marriage life for sure. (0:28:30) Kev: Yep, so yeah, that’s one of the big things, but there’s a handful of other things in the (0:28:39) Kev: update, some Kickstarter designed stuff, including a new quest, some monsters, a bus system for (0:28:51) Kev: start running from Porsche. (0:28:52) Kev: I don’t know what that means, but some home furniture stuff and so on and so forth. (0:29:00) Kev: Yeah, all that is part of the free update. (0:29:03) Kev: There is… let’s see here… oh, new voice recordings, huh? (0:29:08) Kev: I didn’t know that. (0:29:09) Kev: That’s interesting. (0:29:10) Kev: Yeah, again, that’s all out, or should be up by the time you guys hear this. (0:29:16) Kev: Yeah, so go check it out. (0:29:17) Kev: Again, Steam page has all the details and whatnot. (0:29:20) Kev: Also, my time at Evershine, geez Louise, Kickstarter’s up to 1.8 million. (0:29:28) Kev: Juh-m-million! (0:29:30) Kev: Dollars with roughly two weeks to go as of this recording (0:29:30) Codey: Yep. (0:29:35) Codey: Yep. (0:29:36) Kev: Okay, good for you, Evershine. They’re they’re out there. They’re hustling (0:29:37) Codey: Wild. (0:29:41) Codey: They are… (0:29:42) Kev: Alright (0:29:44) Kev: speaking of (0:29:45) Kev: Hustling question mark. I don’t know because this feels like it should have been there already (0:29:51) Kev: winds of Anthos a (0:29:55) Kev: There’s been a slight DLC delay. It’ll be October 10 (0:30:00) Kev: Only a week late from the original date and again by the time you guys listen this will probably be out (0:30:05) Kev: And that’s you can camp wherever you are, which really feels like they should have been there at the beginning (0:30:10) Codey: Yeah and you can like bring your pets camping with you and like all this other (0:30:15) Codey: stuff it was it was a cute little sounding update and so yeah they just (0:30:18) Kev: Yeah. (0:30:20) Codey: they just gave it up an extra week to probably finish some stuff. You know I’m (0:30:22) Kev: Can you make curry with your friends, though? (0:30:25) Kev: Yeah. (0:30:26) Kev: Uh-huh. (0:30:26) Codey: sick of making curry in games. (0:30:30) Codey: I want to make macarons with my friends. (0:30:35) Kev: Oh my- backgrounds are real hard to make, aren’t they like- (0:30:37) Codey: They are, yes, that’s how you (0:30:40) Codey: test a friendship for sure. (0:30:42) Kev: Oh my- IRL over cooked the Macarons of Challenge. (0:30:46) Codey: Oh gosh. (0:30:47) Codey: Yeah. (0:30:47) Codey: That’s how that’s going to be me and my boyfriend this upcoming weekend. (0:30:51) Codey: He said that he’s going to make macarons for this party we’re going to. (0:30:54) Codey: And he is of the mind that like, if it is at all, not incorrect, but like not (0:31:00) Codey: to his standards, he just, he just tosses them and I’m like, they’re still delicious. (0:31:04) Kev: oh yes no no no yeah oh that’s how you grow that’s the training you gotta you (0:31:05) Codey: They just didn’t rise the way you wanted them to please let me eat them. (0:31:09) Codey: And he’s like, no! (0:31:10) Codey: They’re mediocre! (0:31:12) Codey: I’m like, no! (0:31:18) Kev: gotta take your licks and it’s usually not as bad as you think as someone who (0:31:20) Codey: No, dude, he’s such a perfectionist. (0:31:24) Codey: It’s never as bad, yeah. (0:31:24) Kev: likes to cook right like you’re your own harshest critic (0:31:27) Codey: It’s never as bad. (0:31:29) Codey: And we can just tell people I made them. (0:31:31) Codey: I don’t care. (0:31:32) Codey: Like, if they look bad. (0:31:34) Kev: » They got damaged in transit. (0:31:36) Codey: a couple of them lost their lives on (0:31:38) Kev: No, there’s no macarons in this update. (0:31:45) Kev: But what there is, is something else people aren’t probably sick of. (0:31:49) Kev: Fish bow, Moonstone Island. (0:31:52) Codey: ♪ Fish Bow ♪ (0:31:52) Kev: Continuing their tradition of crossing over with things and (0:31:57) Kev: fish bowing everything, yeah, they crossed over the hills. (0:31:59) Codey: Crossing over. (0:32:04) Codey: No, do you know crossing over with John Edwards? (0:32:07) Codey: Like, or whatever, whoever it was. (0:32:09) Codey: It was this show. (0:32:11) Codey: There was this guy who was a medium (0:32:13) Codey: who would help people, quote unquote, (0:32:16) Codey: help people talk to their loved one from beyond the grave. (0:32:20) Codey: So, and that was called. (0:32:22) Codey: He crossed he so like I’m like thinking about like fishboat like leading a séance like fishboat being the medium to like sorry I’m we’re off the rails y’all yeah pretty much Jesus you call fishboat to talk to grandma and figure out where the treasure was buried (0:32:34) Kev: Call California (0:32:36) Kev: Fishbows to get guidance (0:32:38) Kev: on your life and (0:32:40) Kev: finances (0:32:48) Kev: Sick, I’d be (0:32:50) Kev: be down for that. (0:32:52) Kev: I mean, you can have that idea and give us our medium… give us our psychic medium fish bow. (0:32:55) Codey: Just free, just completely free. (0:33:00) Kev: It wouldn’t be outlandish. There are psychic types in that game. (0:33:06) Codey: Dude, and he already looks like he already kind of has this like mystical look to him (0:33:12) Kev: yeah just put on a hat on the bowl oh okay fish boat is coming to chloromon (0:33:13) Codey: Just put on a hat yep, okay, but what about what about fish bow? (0:33:22) Kev: which is another creature collector that I didn’t really know existed until today (0:33:27) Kev: but it has nice key art i’ll say (0:33:39) Kev: uh there’s actually a few other ones including the standard avatar um the wizard guy forget his name (0:33:44) Kev: and uh but yeah fish bow uh what what’s interesting is so fish bow is is like the (0:33:51) Kev: fish bow with legs but here it’s a guy with the fish bow for the head um so you have full arms (0:33:57) Kev: and everything um so yeah koromon that’s only five dollars on steam right now um (0:34:12) Kev: um so yes oh so yeah that’s uh that’s I think that’s there’s nothing I think actually in (0:34:20) Kev: uh moonstone island in regard to this but they’re just announcing that fun little crossover (0:34:25) Kev: so go check out uh quorum on and get your your your fish bow for for you um okay speaking of (0:34:33) Kev: things for you and by for you I mean for me and probably cody super zoo story the kickstarter is (0:34:38) Codey: Whoo (0:34:40) Kev: Now Live! (0:34:42) Kev: So this is the game we’ve we’ve covered it before (0:34:46) Kev: Actually, but it’s a your (0:34:50) Kev: Typical cottagecore farming thing, but it’s focused on a zoo instead of a farm, right? (0:34:55) Kev: Which is a cool concept in my opinion or fresh spin on it. Um (0:35:00) Kev: The Kickstarter is now live. The goal has been crushed. We are at 60k. What was their original goal? (0:35:09) Kev: or no (0:35:12) Kev: The original goal was 60k. We’re almost at 100k at the time of this recording. Um (0:35:18) Kev: So, you know, it’s it’s going to be made theoretically (0:35:24) Kev: Currently only on Steam, but there are going to be stretch goals (0:35:30) Kev: When some which are we are they’ve already hit they’re adding some (0:35:34) Kev: extinct and rare animals (0:35:37) Kev: We’re getting the animal encyclopedia already. We are close to the bird aviary (0:35:42) Kev: So we can house the birds and the insects. That’s an important one. Go fund it guys. It’s only like 4k more. Come on (0:35:50) Kev: I want a two camp (0:35:53) Kev: So there you go, so put that in there and there’s several other (0:35:58) Kev: stretch goals (0:36:00) Kev: Consoles are pretty high up there. That’d be nice. But second island expansion. What does that mean? (0:36:08) Kev: Yeah, so yeah go check it out um if you (0:36:12) Kev: haven’t seen it like the whole Kickstarter has you know all the (0:36:15) Kev: details on the game um it looks pretty quality a lot of love in this one out of (0:36:19) Kev: you know if it’s going to be a Stardew like clone whatever um they are putting (0:36:24) Kev: a lot of effort into the zoo aspect of it all the animals look really nice it (0:36:28) Kev: looks like you know a lot of care and systems do that and of course you have (0:36:34) Kev: all your relationships and romances and so on and so forth and there is farming (0:36:39) Kev: of course. Festivals, all. (0:36:42) Kev: All that good stuff. (0:36:43) Kev: Oh, there’s dinosaurs! That’s already in there. Sick. (0:36:48) Kev: Super Zoo Story. I’m already locked down. I’m going to get this one 100%. (0:36:54) Codey: Yeah, so I’m I just figured out my Kickstarter I’ve been literally (0:36:59) Kev: I’m looking down the list as well. (0:37:04) Kev: It’s… (0:37:05) Codey: The whole time that you’ve been talking I’ve just been like trying to figure out my kickstarters (0:37:12) Kev: All these are quite reasonable $35 the highest there’s there’s not the 2000. Oh wait, those are all gone. Never mind (0:37:19) Kev: Oh wait, there they are. I was looking the wrong one. Oh, no, there it is. There’s the three thousand one. Oh (0:37:21) Codey: there we go. Okay, back. Back this project. Digital game key. Do I want to do I want beta (0:37:23) Kev: My god. Oh, oh you can design your NPC for marriage (0:37:29) Kev: You know if I had the money I’d love to do one of those one day just for the giggles (0:37:33) Kev: Um. (0:37:36) Codey: access? I don’t think I do. I don’t care about in game. I don’t know. I’m just going to do (0:37:46) Kev: Yeah, probably $20 usually a safe one to go with right that’s usually play the game and stuff (0:37:52) Codey: Uh, it needs my, oh, cool. (0:37:54) Codey: Nevermind. (0:37:54) Codey: My card is saved on this computer. (0:37:55) Kev: Hey, that’s your credits (0:37:59) Kev: Yeah, yep, yep, so check it out folks if you have it, you know 3k just sitting around (0:38:01) Codey: No, oops, that’s not right. (0:38:06) Kev: Drop it in and you know drop drop it in (0:38:09) Codey: What 3k. (0:38:10) Kev: Yeah to get to get to design an NPC for marriage candidate (0:38:14) Kev: So, you know for the (0:38:17) Kev: The sake of the podcast just just dropped 3k and you know, I could add fish bow in or or owl (0:38:23) Codey: I did it! I pledged. (0:38:24) Kev: You’re pick (0:38:26) Kev: There we go. One step closer to the bird sanctuary (0:38:30) Kev: So this has 23 days to go grab a couple weeks, but don’t forget (0:38:34) Kev: I know everyone will forget and we’ll remind you when it’s about to end but check it out (0:38:39) Kev: Back it looks like a great game (0:38:42) Kev: Very excited for super-easy story (0:38:43) Codey: I never I never back things. This is come on y’all join me (0:38:47) Kev: » Yeah, there you go. (0:38:50) Codey: I want the console releases at 210. Okay, and we’re almost at 100 we can do it. We got 26 days left. Oh (0:38:56) Kev: We got extinct animals, but which extinct animals did they get the good ones? (0:39:03) Codey: Yeah, let me look at that they had the list (0:39:06) Kev: Holy Marsupial wolf, the quagga. (0:39:10) Codey: Marsupial the marsupial wolf makes me (0:39:13) Codey: super-sack because that like we still have pictures of it like like it became (0:39:20) Codey: extinct so recently that we had photographs of it (0:39:26) Kev: Moas? I’d like a moa. (0:39:27) Codey: well it says they only list a couple what is a quagga oh it’s (0:39:32) Kev: Have you ever seen that show extinct or alive? (0:39:37) Kev: No, so it’s it’s about a guy like I think he’s the grandson of the guy who (0:39:44) Kev: Hey, you like found the the modern-day coelacanth or whatever, right? (0:39:48) Kev: So he’s dedicated to conversation (0:39:50) Kev: So the grandson’s dedicated to conservation all that and he goes out and tries to find animals that are supposedly extinct to see if (0:39:57) Kev: They’re still out there, which is cool. Yeah (0:39:58) Codey: Okay. (0:40:00) Kev: Yeah. (0:40:00) Codey: Wonder if there’s an Ivory Build Woodpecker episode. (0:40:03) Kev: I believe there is actually, yes. (0:40:06) Codey: That was, that was drama. (0:40:13) Kev: He actually has a pretty high success rate, all things considered. (0:40:16) Codey: Well, yeah, I’m not gonna bring it up. Let’s continue. (0:40:21) Kev: I mean, yeah, all right, all right. (0:40:24) Kev: But yeah, Super Zoo Story, you can enjoy extinct animals without all that drama, (0:40:30) Kev: the Wooly Rhino or the (0:40:32) Kev: the wolf okay I like in the notes even alcis my god is this game going to get me to kick start it (0:40:41) Codey: No, no, so I wrote that, sorry I wrote that, and yeah it did. (0:40:43) Kev: oh oh okay well there you go (0:40:47) Codey: You started talking about it again, or you started talking about it and I was like, yeah. (0:40:53) Kev: all right so that’s all for the updates and such um let’s talk about new game announcements um and (0:41:00) Kev: And we’re going to start off with one (0:41:02) Kev: And here and dear to me in whether I want to or not genetically speaking gotcha on the grassland (0:41:10) Kev: Where you play as a lot and cowboy in all caps per the steam page? (0:41:12) Codey: Mmm. (0:41:17) Kev: Where you farm the farm and there’s adventures grasslands and of course highlands they have to be cozy (0:41:24) Codey: They are cozy they are quoted as cozy (0:41:26) Kev: Yup, yeah, so it’s uh, I (0:41:31) Kev: I will say despite, y’know, all- (0:41:34) Kev: All the general, uh, or the usual, uh, descriptors, I think the game looks fun. (0:41:39) Kev: Um, it’s a 3D game, it has a very, sort of, cartoony art style to it, kinda reminds me of Fabledom, I would say. (0:41:47) Kev: Um, you can feel the Latin influence, the music, uh, some of the character designs and architecture, stuff like that. (0:41:55) Kev: Um… (0:41:56) Codey: even if even if y’all aren’t in the in the market for a new game go watch this (0:42:02) Codey: trailer it slaps that music that me I was like dancing (0:42:05) Kev: It’s pretty good. (0:42:09) Kev: It’s got a pretty dang good soundtrack or, you know, demo music, whatever you wanna. (0:42:15) Kev: Yeah, there’s a fire horse. There’s magical creatures. There is a Ponyta in this game. (0:42:22) Kev: So yeah, that is Gaucho in the Grasslands. (0:42:26) Kev: It looks very cool. (0:42:27) Kev: “Relief date aiming for February 2025.” Not terribly far away, to be quite frank. (0:42:33) Kev: I highly suggest everyone check this out. (0:42:35) Kev: I love the trailer, again, for nothing else for that sick, uh, music. (0:42:39) Kev: Um, yeah, that looks great, um, uh, obviously heavy bias here for the Latin stuff, but, uh, (0:42:46) Kev: you know, any sort of, you know, minority thing. (0:42:47) Codey: also the the dog has a mustache and the dog also has like those like eye tufts that you he like (0:42:51) Kev: Yeah. (0:42:55) Kev: As, as is in Mexico, as, (0:42:57) Codey: can’t see he’s just so cute (0:43:02) Kev: is pretty good. (0:43:04) Kev: It’s the, um… (0:43:06) Kev: Yeah, the, the, the… (0:43:07) Kev: Yeah, everyone knows that design now. It’s pretty popular these days. (0:43:10) Kev: The thick eyebrows and the mustache. (0:43:12) Codey: The thick eyebrows. (0:43:14) Kev: That you can’t… (0:43:14) Kev: Yeah, it’s good, good, good stuff. (0:43:17) Kev: Um, looks very colorful. (0:43:19) Kev: Very, very cool looking game. (0:43:21) Kev: Uh, and if, say, you need more cowboy-ing, (0:43:25) Kev: uh, you can also look at… (0:43:27) Kev: Seattle County. (0:43:29) Kev: Seattle Country! (0:43:31) Kev: Uh, I’ll read the blurb, um… (0:43:58) Kev: Should I have read that in a, in a, in a western twang? (0:44:00) Codey: Yeah, you should have you should have a hundred percent. Let’s do it. Please do it again (0:44:02) Kev: I can do it. (0:44:05) Kev: It’s like, oh, alright, here we go. (0:44:07) Kev: Here, here you go, Al. Here’s your editing work. (0:44:09) Kev: Alright, so, uh, here’s Cattle Country. I’ll read the blurb here. (0:44:13) Kev: Howdy, partner. (0:44:15) Kev: Welcome to Cattle Country. (0:44:17) Kev: The only cozy cowboy adventure life, Sim. (0:44:20) Kev: The trauma-determined pioneer traveling west to start a new life. (0:44:25) Kev: Make a home in the mountains. (0:44:27) Kev: Take on bandits. (0:44:29) Kev: Discover destiny plots. (0:44:31) Kev: Build a farm. (0:44:32) Kev: Develop your town. (0:44:33) Kev: and make friends with (0:44:34) Codey: I was not what I was expecting! (0:44:42) Kev: nailed it. (0:44:43) Codey: Nailed it. (0:44:45) Codey: I want you to talk like that forever now. (0:44:49) Codey: My dopamine just went through the roof. (0:44:52) Codey: Also, if you are… the word cozy was said in a title, take a shot. (0:45:00) Kev: Ugh, that’s already two sh*t. (0:45:04) Codey: I love water. (0:45:05) Codey: Take a shot of water. (0:45:10) Kev: So this one, unlike Gasho and the Grasslands, is more Stardew-esque with your top-down-pixel-ish (0:45:18) Kev: book. (0:45:21) Kev: They do try to, you know, have that more pioneer Western-y. (0:45:25) Kev: Not even Western, more pioneer I’d say, right, because when I think Western I think out in (0:45:30) Kev: more desert-y with the tumbleweeds and whatnot. (0:45:33) Kev: We got grassy areas, so they’re more pioneer-y. (0:45:36) Kev: But they got the music, they got some of the designs. (0:45:41) Kev: All things considered, like, it does look fun, you got guns and you’re pew-pewing at (0:45:46) Kev: other cowboy guys, I guess. (0:45:49) Kev: You got fishin’, you’ve got top-and-trees, lumberjacks, houses riding a horsey, mining- (0:45:57) Kev: although all of the usual, uh, fixings. (0:45:59) Codey: Oh yeah, it takes some… ugh. (0:46:01) Kev: Yup, there you go. (0:46:04) Kev: Um, so that is, uh, and with an open beta coming October 25th. (0:46:11) Kev: So get in the saddle. (0:46:14) Kev: Um, and wishlist now. (0:46:16) Kev: They should have, they should have hired me to do the western voiceover. (0:46:20) Codey: They really should. (0:46:21) Kev: Um, but yeah, no, uh, no, uh, actually. (0:46:33) Kev: Um, there’s a saloon. I mean of course there is. I like western cowboy motifs. I don’t (0:46:42) Kev: think they’re leaning heavily enough into it actually. That’s probably my biggest complaint. (0:46:48) Kev: The color palette just should be more brown and orange and whatnot, but I digress. Yeah, (0:46:55) Kev: check it out. It is one of those. Uh, all right, next up, uh, gone. (0:47:02) Codey: they don’t they don’t have it in this one this upcoming one (0:47:03) Kev: Well, actually I’m sure Cozy is, do they have Cozy in there? Oh, I don’t know if they actually (0:47:09) Kev: have Cozy. Nope, there’s no Cozy, but they do have another hallmark of several cottage (0:47:16) Kev: corgames as sexy fish people. Um, and we’re talking about forgotten waters and underwater (0:47:26) Kev: farm sim. Create your dream farm in an underwater world. Grow, build, and thrive under the (0:47:34) Kev: sea. Um, so yeah, you play as a fish person, uh, with feet, no, no more tail or whatever. (0:47:41) Kev: Um, think of like, uh, Luca. That’s what I’m thinking of. Yassified Luca. With an octopus (0:47:45) Codey: Yeah, okay, yep. (0:47:48) Codey: Just fine. (0:47:51) Kev: for hair. Like it’s, it’s like, it’s literally just an octopus sitting on your head. That’s, (0:47:56) Codey: Yeah, it is (0:47:57) Kev: that’s, that’s forming your dreamy locks. Um, so yeah, uh, you know, I digress. (0:48:03) Kev: It is underwater largely, but I think you can go to the surface because you’re having (0:48:07) Kev: dinner with what looks like a regular human. Yep. So this is, this is just Luca, the, the, (0:48:10) Codey: yeah at one point you’re in like a tavern that is like doesn’t seem like it’s under the water (0:48:15) Codey: looks like you’re dating a land a lander lander land lover I don’t know (0:48:23) Kev: the game. It really is. Have you seen Luca? Oh, well, it’s, uh, yeah, I enjoyed it. It’s (0:48:24) Codey: oh wow okay I have not you recommend it okay (0:48:31) Kev: It’s not bad, it’s not, you know, (0:48:33) Kev: not one of the top tier, but I enjoyed it for what it is. It’s a fun. (0:48:35) Codey: Right. I’ve been I’ve been making my way through them. (0:48:40) Codey: I just saw Princess and the Frog for the first time like not too long ago so and that’s been a while. (0:48:42) Kev: Uh, that one’s… Oh man. Like, that one’s not stellar, but the fact that it’s 2D makes (0:48:53) Kev: it so much better. Oh yeah, oh no, Dr. Facilier is top tier, and his song is such a banger. (0:48:54) Codey: Dude, but I I really liked that the villain and his songs they were (0:49:04) Kev: Like holy mackerel. Oh my god, yeah, he is. He’s fantastic building this song. Ah! Friends (0:49:10) Codey: Yup. (0:49:10) Kev: on the other side that’s what you (0:49:12) Codey: Oh, you’re pretty. (0:49:12) Kev: can have with you play for the other side so this is a Kickstarter on they (0:49:16) Codey: 100%. (0:49:22) Kev: have already they’ve just hit their goal of pen that’s a little over 10,000 (0:49:29) Kev: almost at 11,000 about two weeks ago or at least time recording October 23rd so (0:49:38) Kev: So wait, what? (0:49:40) Kev: One of the stretch goals is the jellyfish will assist- (0:49:42) Kev: I’m not sure if that guy in the bottom left, he’s kinda got a lot of metal going on. He might be a robot man- I don’t know. (0:49:44) Codey: I I need to see that (0:49:50) Codey: How do they do that I need to know (0:50:01) Codey: question mark (0:50:12) Codey: Okay (0:50:12) Kev: Girl person, I don’t know, Bernie. (0:50:14) Kev: Oh man, they’re running the gambit of fish people. We got one with no pupils, we got Amaya, we got- looks like just an air stewardess Lee. (0:50:28) Kev: Okay, yeah, there you go. And all sorts of other characters. Yeah, there you go. There’s all your attractive fish people and underwater crops. (0:50:42) Codey: I like so from looking at the trailer I was like really not sure what they were (0:50:42) Kev: What did I just date Sidon from Breath of the Wild? That’s the ultimate one, r

HylianDescent returns again for his 5th episode! HylianDescent aka Joshua, founder of the Hyrule Gaming Group comes back for another entry into his time capsule of his Twitch streaming experience as we look back on the previous year. We check in on how he's doing and how his past year was. Then I talk to Joshua about a number of games he has played over the year, including games like: Fields of Mistria, Graveyard Keeper, Moonstone Island, Supermarket Simulator, Fallout, Tears of the Kingdom, and Animal Crossing. We talk about games that work for Twitch and his community, and other games that work for him and that he ultimately keeps to himself for his enjoyment. Joshua talks about the continued opportunities he is able to take for sponsored streams and promos, his 12 and 24 hour streams showcasing Indie games, and more. Plus, we talk about his continued balance of streaming versus real life, taking care of himself, his relationship and getting out and "touching grass". All this, and more! You can find Joshua at: https://www.twitch.tv/hyliandescent https://twitter.com/Hyliandescent https://twitter.com/HyruleGG https://www.instagram.com/hyliandescent/ https://www.instagram.com/hyrulegg/ https://t.co/4kqVCNPl1r?amp=1 You can listen to his first four episodes here: https://talesfromthefandom.libsyn.com/episode-337-joshua-aka-hyliandescent-of-hyrule-gaming-group-returns-as-we-talk-twitch-video-games-and-self-care https://talesfromthefandom.libsyn.com/episode-268-joshua-aka-hylian-descent-of-hyrule-gaming-group-returns-to-talk-twitch-community-evolution-and-animal-crossing https://talesfromthefandom.libsyn.com/episode-197-joshua-aka-hylian-descent-of-hyrule-gaming-group-returns-to-talk-twitch-animal-crossing-and-community-building https://talesfromthefandom.libsyn.com/episode-156-joshua-aka-hylian-descent-of-hyrule-gaming-group

In this episode, LetzPlayK & Josh discuss their first impressions after playing Tales of the Shire. In the news, a new update is announced for Moonstone Island, the 1.6 update for Stardew Valley gets a release date for mobile & consoles, the Kickstarter campaign for My Time at Evershine launches and new info is revealed about Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time.   LetzPlayK's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@LetzPlayK Josh's main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JoshGamingGarden Watch The Gaming Garden Podcast in video format: https://linktr.ee/GamingGardenPod

Al and Kev rank the Stardew Valley Characters Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:36: What Have We Been Up To 00:25:25: New Games 00:33:54: Stardew Character Tier List 01:02:17: Outro Links Orange Season 1.0 Release Petit Island Story Trailer Paleo Pines new DLCs Go-go Town Major Update 1 Moonstone Island “Festivals” Update Seasonspree My Time at Evershine The Last Farmer Castaway Artisan Story Luma Island Stardew Tier List Video Stardew Final Tier List 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 (0:00:34) Al: my name is Al (0:00:36) Kev: And my name is Kevin. (0:00:38) Al: and we are here today to talk about Cottagecore games (0:00:41) Kev: Yeah. (0:00:45) Kev: The cottage court game more specifically. (0:00:47) Al: well I mean lots of other ones as well but what Kevin is talking about (0:00:50) Kev: No, but the. (0:00:53) Al: is we are going to this episode do a Stardew Valley (0:00:56) Al: character tier list. So we’re going to go through every character. (0:01:00) Al: in Stardew and we’re going to tier them. Tier list them. Tier list them. List tier them. (0:01:01) Kev: and judge them yum we’re gonna be patty and biased and mean oh there’s yeah it’s (0:01:07) Al: We’re going to judge them and put them on a tier list from S to D. (0:01:17) Al: Oh we will be mean. There will be lots of mean because these people don’t exist. (0:01:22) Kev: that’s I thought you were gonna say see people are awful and I was gonna agree (0:01:28) Kev: Amen. (0:01:30) Al: We’re going to talk about a bunch of news. There’s quite a bit of news this week. (0:01:36) Al: But first of all, Kevin, what have you been up to? (0:01:39) Kev: uh i’ve been not much game wise to be honest i’m busy (0:01:44) Kev: trying to grind away at work as I can but anyways i’m in the brief moments i (0:01:48) Kev: do more well you know what forget all this (0:01:50) Kev: let’s get into marvel snapcast because you’ve been playing it too I know (0:01:54) Kev: you’ve been doing really well because holy mackerel you hit infinite like in a (0:01:58) Kev: week it’s insane insanity (0:02:02) Kev: um you know marvel snap is good I have been (0:02:06) Kev: I have not progressed it like i’ve been going back and forth not (0:02:09) Kev: stopped in the 70s but i’m still having a blast a lot of great cards this season (0:02:14) Kev: move is getting some love I like the spider people’s um yeah marvel snap’s good which uh (0:02:22) Al: Well, yeah, I don’t disagree with you there, because yeah, I’ve fallen off a little bit (0:02:23) Kev: what are you doing over there in snap world (0:02:29) Al: the last kind of week or so, purely because I’m not really sure what I want to do now (0:02:34) Al: that I’m at infinite. (0:02:35) Kev: Yeah, that’s fair. (0:02:36) Kev: I live in the conquest mode, but I’m only- (0:02:39) Kev: I can’t mainly do it because I want the- (0:02:41) Kev: Like, if I want the, you know, the big reward variant or whatever. (0:02:45) Kev: And I like it, it’s a duck walk in a suit, I think it’s snazzy. (0:02:45) Al: Yeah. (0:02:48) Kev: I’ll probably go for it if I can. (0:03:00) Kev: yep it is you know that’s super fair um I have been like in the last match and lost it you know (0:03:10) Kev: the last one before hitting infinite or final infinite one or whatever um it’s it is rough it (0:03:17) Kev: is um so yeah I know you’re right yeah kind of girl ears um oh my gosh the more I think about it (0:03:18) Al: It’s like a roguelite. But overall I’m still really enjoying, overall I’m still really (0:03:29) Al: enjoying Snap. I’m loving the idea, like different strategies and stuff like that. And yeah, (0:03:34) Al: as you mentioned, I’ve hit infinite for my, for the first time this season, which is, (0:03:38) Kev: Clap, clap, clap. Good for you. (0:03:41) Al: is fun. Yeah, I honestly never thought I would get to this point. So it’s, it’s fun to be (0:03:46) Kev: And there you go and the cool thing is it’s you know, relatively easy, you know next season cuz you’ll just be down to 70 (0:03:54) Al: Mm. Yeah, yeah, I. (0:03:54) Kev: You only have to go 30 levels not a huge climb (0:03:58) Kev: So yeah, good on you man. Um (0:04:02) Kev: Marvel snap aside (0:04:04) Kev: Sorry, go ahead (0:04:05) Al: No, no, I yeah, no, you go. (0:04:06) Kev: Okay. Okay, Marvel snap aside. Um, I’m continue to plays endless zone zero the (0:04:13) Kev: will you overst… er… er… (0:04:18) Kev: I don’t know what to call this, but it’s kind of become a daily for me because you can log in and if you want you can just do your dailies in like 5 minutes or so. (0:04:28) Kev: Because it’s really easy really quick. (0:04:32) Kev: It’s interesting to be in a game as it’s just releasing content, you know, it’s still early on. (0:04:38) Kev: There’s 3 chapters of the main story and I completed them all right so I’m just kind of… (0:04:44) Kev: my wheels, but I’m just dedicating time to improving my character. (0:04:46) Kev: It’s still not spent any money on it, but it is a game that works well for me to get in and just zone out, or whatever, and just push buttons and whatnot. (0:05:04) Kev: Yeah, that’s it. I know there’s a new chapter coming, I think they’re saying, but yeah, that’s it. (0:05:16) Kev: It’s a good style. What about you, what’s going on, other than Snapworld? (0:05:20) Al: Yeah, well, I just want to say you’ve not spent any money on that game unlike Marvel (0:05:24) Al: Snap. (0:05:26) Kev: Oh my god. Oh, I don’t want to talk, oh. (0:05:29) Al: Look, just think about what you get from it though, the amount of fun you get from it. (0:05:30) Kev: If I think about that for one second, just try to even consider how much I spent on Snapworld. Nope. (0:05:38) Kev: Were mistakes made? I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like a mistake. (0:05:42) Kev: I I do have down a lot of good for it, but (0:05:46) Al: I try and limit myself to just the season pass. (0:05:46) Kev: Yeah, me too, especially in this day and age. (0:05:51) Al: Nothing more, but I always pay for the more expensive season pass. (0:05:58) Al: Also, when I say try to, I don’t… I haven’t. (0:06:02) Al: I haven’t just stick to the season pass, but I try to. (0:06:02) Kev: Yeah. Yeah, me too. Rarely. Yeah, I agree. I haven’t done it since getting unemployed (0:06:05) Al: Most seasons, I just do the season pass. (0:06:08) Al: But yeah, there have been a few good pass packs that I’ve purchased for a fiver or whatever. (0:06:17) Kev: because obviously, but beforehand, yeah, no. And there were some that I had to like, “Oh, (0:06:17) Al: Well, yeah, yeah. (0:06:23) Kev: my rule of force.” It’s those cheap ones, you know, like the $10 one. Like, “Oh, man, (0:06:26) Al: Yeah, yeah (0:06:27) Kev: look at all this bull and the bull.” They get ya. (0:06:29) Al: Yeah, they’re dangerous (0:06:31) Al: Look, I’ve put in way less money into snap than I have into Pokemon go. So so that’s okay, right? (0:06:32) Kev: You know what? Yes. Wait, wait. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Either way, you look at it. Yes. I haven’t (0:06:44) Kev: put any money in going. I’m proud of myself for that. So, you know. (0:06:47) Al: It’s a wise a wise decision (0:06:51) Al: What else have I been playing I have played and completed astrobot the new (0:06:56) Al: the new astrobot game which is just called astrobot. It’s confusing because (0:07:03) Al: they have astros playroom which was the free one that came with the ps5 and they (0:07:09) Al: have astrobot which is the new one that came out but they also have what was the (0:07:13) Al: other one called there was a psVR one ask no it wasn’t astrobot rescue mission (0:07:16) Kev: Wasn’t Playroom the VR one? (0:07:20) Al: that’s the VR one. I haven’t played that one but (0:07:21) Kev: Oh. (0:07:26) Al: yeah whatever. Astrobot is so fun it’s basically like it feels like a cross (0:07:33) Al: between Mario Galaxy and Mario Sunshine and I think it it’s a really nice (0:07:39) Al: crossover between those two things and it does a really nice job of every (0:07:47) Al: level feels the right length it feels like everything comes back just enough (0:07:53) Al: that you don’t get sick of anything (0:07:56) Al: like you don’t go, oh, not another one of these levels. (0:07:59) Al: And the game is a good length, I think. (0:08:02) Al: So I’ve 100%ed it, and I’ve got the Platinum trophy. (0:08:06) Al: And I think it took me about 35 hours, which (0:08:08) Al: feels like a good length to me. (0:08:11) Al: It’s not a super difficult game, but there (0:08:14) Al: are a few levels that are, if you (0:08:17) Al: want to 100% it, that are quite difficult and difficult (0:08:23) Al: platforming challenges. (0:08:27) Al: Kind of think about it like with Mario Wonder, (0:08:30) Al: most of it was reasonably easy, like not difficult. (0:08:34) Al: But there was a few right at the very end (0:08:37) Al: after the main story that were super challenging. (0:08:40) Al: But you didn’t need to do them to complete the story. (0:08:42) Kev: Okay, it’s curvy-ish in nature, um, that’s cool. (0:08:42) Al: It’s kind of like that. (0:08:46) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:08:48) Al: No, I really think it’s super fun. (0:08:50) Al: And I mean, it’s a big PlayStation nostalgia fest. (0:08:56) Al: Like, you’re collecting bots that are all old characters (0:08:56) Kev: Yeah, it’s… it’s a shame that Sony fails to protect their legacy, though. (0:09:00) Al: and stuff like that. (0:09:06) Kev: You saw that tweet, right? (0:09:10) Kev: Okay, what? So, I didn’t understand. Are those just little… what are those characters? (0:09:16) Kev: Are they skins or are they just hanging out somewhere? Like, I don’t… you know? (0:09:20) Al: So there are other bots that you have to save who help run your ship, and some of them just (0:09:24) Kev: Okay. (0:09:26) Kev: Okay, I see. (0:09:26) Al: happen to look like characters in games. The best part about it is you’ve got, (0:09:32) Al: obviously, you’ve got Crash Bandicoot. There’s a Crash Bandicoot one. There’s an (0:09:36) Kev: Yeah, of course. (0:09:37) Al: Eloy from Horizon 1. There’s loads of other ones that I were like, “Okay, (0:09:40) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:09:42) Al: I kind of vaguely know what that is.” There’s a Pyramid Head one. (0:09:44) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:09:48) Al: It feels like the whole- (0:09:50) Al: The whole rest of the game is very much like kind of cutesy kidsy and then you’ve got this (0:09:55) Al: bot dressed up as pyramid head (0:09:58) Kev: Uh, well, you know, he was already in a, in a Bomberman game and his cute cartoony chibi. (0:10:06) Kev: So, okay. (0:10:07) Al: But it’s quite funny because they don’t name most of them right they have these like kind of funny names (0:10:14) Al: that kind of try and (0:10:16) Al: explain something about them without actually using the name. (0:10:20) Al: So it’s a little bit weird in that it feels kind of, I heard someone describe it, it was kind of like they’re using it without the rights to the characters. (0:10:28) Al: So it’s like a legally distinct sort of thing and the pyramid head one is he’s called the executioner. (0:10:28) Kev: okay (0:10:31) Kev: okay okay (0:10:37) Kev: why are just calling him that? (0:10:39) Al: Yeah, it’s very funny, but. (0:10:43) Kev: oh my gosh I just saw him call threat us dad of boy (0:10:46) Kev: and hgs boy (0:10:46) Al: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. (0:10:48) Kev: that’s incredible (0:10:50) Al: Well, exactly. It’s stuff like that. It’s just very funny, silly stuff. (0:10:54) Al: I’m trying to think what else it was. Oh yeah, Thor was Thunder God. (0:10:58) Al: And it’s not like the– Aloy was Machine Hunter. (0:11:02) Al: It’s not like they didn’t have the rights to these characters. (0:11:04) Al: They are. They’re characters. Right? Like, but it’s, yeah. (0:11:04) Kev: - Yeah, yeah. (0:11:09) Al: Nathan Drake is Raider Dude. (0:11:12) Kev: Yep (0:11:14) Al: So yeah, it’s really fun. I enjoyed it a lot. (0:11:17) Al: I would really OK, I would recommend. (0:11:20) Al: I would recommend it to anybody who has a PS5. (0:11:22) Al: If you have a PS5, I don’t think you have a good reason not to buy this game. (0:11:26) Al: If you don’t have a PS5, obviously do not buy a PS5 for this game. (0:11:30) Kev: Why would you do that when you could buy the PS5 Pro for this age? (0:11:37) Kev: Well, the one with the old colors. (0:11:43) Al: Oh, it just I didn’t even notice this at the time, but they have a Boku from Boku no Natsuya Sumi. (0:11:49) Kev: Oh, wow, there you go. There’s your cottage core (0:11:56) Al: All right. Cool. I think that’s I think I’m probably done talking to Astro about now. (0:12:01) Al: Three episodes in a row. That’s probably enough for you listeners. (0:12:06) Al: Cool. So we get into some news then. (0:12:08) Kev: Yeah, I guess so. Legally obligated to. Like, no one. (0:12:13) Al: We have. First of all, Orange Season have announced that there are 1.0 releases coming on the 24th of October. (0:12:21) Kev: Okay, all right. (0:12:25) Kev: Which one’s hard? (0:12:25) Kev: Wait, is that this one or you’re growing orange trees, right? (0:12:29) Al: I don’t think it’s like specifically growing just oranges. I think it’s a standard farming game. (0:12:34) Kev: Oh, okay. (0:12:35) Al: This is the one that had like a longer name and they renamed it. It was something something Orange (0:12:38) Kev: Okay. (0:12:39) Al: season rather than and then they renamed it to just orange season (0:12:41) Kev: Oh. (0:12:43) Kev: Oh, I… (0:12:44) Al: Yeah, it just feels like a pretty standard farming game there’s nothing about this that’s like oh, I must get this (0:12:47) Kev: Yes. (0:12:50) Al: - Yes. (0:12:51) Kev: Obviously, this is an us problem, because we’re the ones (0:12:51) Al: the (0:12:54) Kev: always reading the news and whatever, so we’re the ones who feel the fatigue. (0:12:58) Kev: Oh, it’s so rough, when, you know, it’s hard to stand out, like, (0:13:02) Kev: I feel so bad that I feel- (0:13:04) Kev: so unexcited or you know like it is this one’s very paint-by-the-numbers farming. (0:13:12) Al: Woofed apparently the first early access version of this was (0:13:18) Kev: Aw, sick. (0:13:20) Kev: Oh, good times. (0:13:22) Kev: Good time. (0:13:24) Kev: Well, hey, it made it. I will say that it did make it. (0:13:26) Al: Next we have Petite Island, have released a story trailer for the game. This is definitely (0:13:39) Al: not Animal Crossing. I mean it looks nice blah blah blah, too many games. (0:13:42) Kev: It’s, it’s animal intercession. (0:13:46) Kev: Aww. (0:13:48) Kev: Let me see. (0:13:50) Kev: Yeah. (0:13:52) Kev: They have, what is that? (0:13:54) Kev: Calico cat? Is that what it’s called? (0:13:56) Kev: It’s a cute, it is a cute cat. I’ll say that. (0:14:00) Kev: Oh my gosh, I don’t understand. (0:14:02) Kev: Did you have to go for the island motif? (0:14:04) Kev: You, you horizons cave out. (0:14:09) Al: Everything has to be an island or a valley, or both. (0:14:12) Kev: Oh gosh. All right. (0:14:14) Al: Next we have Paleo Pines. (0:14:16) Kev: Oh, oh wait, this one I care about, actually. (0:14:18) Al: New DLCs and a new update coming out (0:14:21) Al: on the 26th of September. (0:14:22) Kev: What are we getting? (0:14:26) Kev: Two deals. Wait, they’re playing it. (0:14:30) Kev: Michael Jackson’s Thriller is to Michael. (0:14:34) Kev: The trailer is to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. (0:14:36) Al: I don’t think they’ve announced anything about them. I’m just looking at their news. All I see is the names and then the announcement that they’re coming on the 26th. So we’ll see. (0:14:38) Kev: I didn’t expect that. (0:14:40) Kev: Oh, spooky stuffs, I guess. (0:14:48) Kev: Mm-hmm, okay (0:14:55) Kev: Okay, they’re probably just in-game events then adding new holidays or something. That’s probably what it is. All right, cool cool cool (0:15:00) Al: Yeah. We’ll see. We’ll keep you up to date when we get more information. (0:15:07) Al: Next, an update that we do have more information on. Gogotown, their major content update is now out. I think we recorded last time like four hours before it came out. So we didn’t have a lot of information. (0:15:18) Kev: Of course, of course. (0:15:21) Al: But yeah, we do have more information now. The biggest question I had was how the redoing of the industry zones works and you can basically decide how much space and how many on industry zones you have. (0:15:37) Al: Which is cool. I’m still not sure because I haven’t actually booted up the game since they’ve updated it. I’m still not sure how that affects the literal cave that exists and whether you can move that or not. (0:15:48) Kev: Mm-Hmm (0:15:50) Kev: Huh. (0:15:51) Al: But the rest of it makes sense. I guess you can just go. This is an area where we have mining and this is the area where we have trees and stuff like that. And more importantly, these are the places we have farming. (0:16:04) Kev: I’ll wait for 1.0 and this is good news, it sounds like stuff that’s good for 1.0. (0:16:04) Al: because they pointed out like you could set up one farm for animals. (0:16:06) Al: And a lot of crops, for example, so that’s cool. (0:16:10) Al: I need to spend some time with this update and see how it actually feels. (0:16:21) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:16:22) Al: And they’ve added a bunch of expanded areas which you can purchase as you go, which is cool. (0:16:28) Al: And we got more information about the subways as well, so they’ve added in subways. (0:16:33) Al: It’s a little bit weird in that it’s very much. (0:16:36) Al: Clearly meant to be like a train subway, but you just walk in and then you walk out of a different exit to get to a different place. (0:16:44) Al: So it’s just kind of, it’s not even going to, it’s not even pretending that you’re actually getting on a train, which is a little bit weird, but simplest, probably implementation. (0:16:50) Kev: can’t they at least can’t they can’t they at least throw in the spider-man the metro (0:17:02) Al: Yeah, exactly, exactly. (0:17:03) Kev: little cutscenes in between (0:17:06) Al: Um, and the, the bike place spaces and the car parks are pretty cool. (0:17:13) Al: Uh, I noticed that they have a way to be able to summon vehicles that aren’t a (0:17:17) Al: specific one, which is nice as well. (0:17:18) Al: So if you’ve lost a vehicle or you’re on the other side of a map. (0:17:24) Kev: No, that’s great. (0:17:25) Kev: Alright. (0:17:27) Al: Yeah I think that’s the main three things. There’s a bunch of other kind of extra (0:17:31) Al: content and stuff but yeah I definitely need to need to try this out. (0:17:36) Kev: Mm-hmm (0:17:36) Al: Next we have Moonstone Island. We’re getting all our favorite games today. (0:17:43) Al: The festivals update is coming on the 30th of September and this has, can you guess, new (0:17:49) Al: festivals! There’s also some new spirits. I feel like this is one really good thing about… (0:17:50) Kev: Wow. Blowing my mind here, Al. (0:17:57) Al: they seem to add in a new spirit every update no matter how big the update is. (0:18:02) Kev: Yeah, it does like so (0:18:05) Kev: Okay, I think I’ve discussed this before like I wish I I appreciate them putting the work in love for it (0:18:13) Kev: But I’d rather they just make the spirit and hold off till they can release like kind of them at once (0:18:18) Al: interesting. Why do you say so? (0:18:19) Kev: Yeah, I like okay. Well, you know what? It’s honestly like going back (0:18:24) Kev: Let’s say that’s the motivating factor for me, right? Like I like to collect the spirits, right? Just going back for one (0:18:29) Kev: I don’t know. It feels very (0:18:32) Kev: Whatever because it’s not like anything any sort of special event fruit or whatever. You just it’s a random counter in the wild, you know (0:18:40) Kev: It’s a very small thing to look forward to whereas if it’s a ten (0:18:44) Kev: Okay, that’s at least a little more to to go through and motivate me getting getting them (0:18:46) Al: Yeah, so this this one’s four specifically (0:18:51) Kev: Okay, all right, um, the designs are usually good though, so I’m looking forward to see what they are (0:18:57) Kev: One big thing (0:18:58) Al: The the cooking update also get added for I’m just checking the previous ones as well (0:19:00) Kev: - Yeah. (0:19:02) Kev: I don’t know, well, it’s been a few updates, (0:19:04) Kev: so maybe I will check it out soon. (0:19:06) Kev: No, why not? (0:19:07) Al: Yeah if you’ve not if you’ve not played it since the first version it definitely feels like it’s (0:19:08) Kev: Maybe it’ll feel like 10. (0:19:11) Al: It’s a good time to jump in (0:19:13) Kev: Yeah, but honestly, the biggest problem for me (0:19:16) Kev: with Moonstone Island and their updates, (0:19:18) Kev: like it just, I don’t know, (0:19:21) Kev: it almost doesn’t make sense to me how they’re doing it, (0:19:26) Kev: because all their updates feel very like, (0:19:29) Kev: you know, the Cottagecore focus on decorations (0:19:33) Kev: and festivals and things like that, right? (0:19:35) Kev: But the game is still so very, like, (0:19:38) Kev: plot mode or objective motivated, let me say that. (0:19:43) Kev: And they haven’t really added more missions (0:19:45) Kev: or post-game things like that, (0:19:46) Al: Hmm (0:19:47) Kev: just left to decorate your house. (0:19:50) Kev: And like, and spirits, right? (0:19:53) Kev: Like, so, you know, you collect the spirits, (0:19:57) Kev: but I guess you have them, and that’s it, I guess. (0:20:00) Kev: I don’t know. (0:20:02) Kev: Oh, cool, now I see the little image (0:20:04) Kev: of the spirits being added on those mitten, that’s good. (0:20:08) Kev: But I don’t know, yeah, that’s all I really want, (0:20:10) Kev: more than anything from Moonstone Island, (0:20:12) Kev: you know, something actually to work towards (0:20:14) Kev: or to feel like to use my spirits for. (0:20:16) Al: Yeah, so it looks like it it looks like one of the so I’ve just gone through all the updates (0:20:18) Kev: Yeah, because, mm-hmm. (0:20:23) Al: since they released. One of them had three and all the others had four. So, yeah, it (0:20:24) Kev: Yeah. (0:20:27) Kev: Okay, all right, well, that’s a decent number altogether. (0:20:29) Al: doesn’t feel like a ridiculously low number to go with each update for but. (0:20:32) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. (0:20:36) Kev: All right, but it is what it is. (0:20:38) Kev: I’m glad the game’s still being worked on, I’d still give it. (0:20:43) Al: Next, we have Seasons Spree. We talked about this at some point. I can’t remember when. (0:20:49) Al: I know we talked about it because it’s on my wish list. It’s out now, so if you care (0:20:57) Al: about this game, which again, definitely not Animal Crossing. I think it does do one interesting (0:21:04) Kev: how gosh one of the first things (0:21:07) Al: thing. It says that you control the flow of time just by walking around. (0:21:12) Kev: That’s okay, I don’t know I’m looking at it like it’s around spherical world (0:21:18) Al: Yeah, but that seems to be your progressing time as you’re moving left and right. (0:21:23) Kev: Yeah (0:21:25) Kev: Then that is an interesting mechanic. I will say that (0:21:30) Kev: So I wonder how well they utilize that (0:21:34) Kev: That is interesting (0:21:37) Kev: But are you excited for a cozy world because that’s one of the first things pieces of text in the trailer (0:21:41) Al: I love a cosy world nothing makes me more excited to be game than cosy world. (0:21:43) Kev: Wow (0:21:47) Kev: There you go, well season sprees got you covered don’t you worry (0:21:54) Al: We also have a steam page up for my time at ever shine now with a lot more information (0:22:00) Al: it’s very funny because they announced that this game was coming with no information and (0:22:04) Al: then like a week later the steam page is up with paragraphs and paragraphs and like ten (0:22:11) Al: different videos and screenshots of what’s happening in the game. (0:22:14) Kev: You know, I kind of like that, actually, like that, you know, (0:22:19) Kev: the first announcement isn’t a proper teaser, actually, right? (0:22:23) Kev: Like just if there’s a thing and we just wonder (0:22:26) Kev: and then they drop all the information. (0:22:28) Kev: I like that. That’s you. (0:22:29) Al: But like a week though, that feels really fast. (0:22:32) Kev: Oh, you’re right. OK. Weak is fast. You’re right. (0:22:35) Kev: But in general, I like the strength, but I like you. (0:22:39) Kev: Well, but hey, hey, what really matters? (0:22:42) Kev: You know what? Everyone wants to hear out. (0:22:45) Kev: The biggest announcement they’re developing (0:22:47) Kev: for currently unannounced Nintendo platforms. (0:22:50) Al: Oh no, I didn’t want to talk about this! (0:22:54) Kev: Oh, you thought you were going to get away with me on here? (0:22:54) Al: Oh my word, I forgot all about this. (0:22:56) Kev: It’s just. But. (0:22:58) Al: Okay, right, so, so many articles popped up and like, “Oh, (0:23:05) Al: first game confirmed for the Switch 2. Oh, we’ve got Switch 2 game!” (0:23:10) Al: And you’re like, “Okay, well let me read what they’ve actually said.” What they’ve (0:23:13) Al: said is, “We are committed to releasing this on the next (0:23:17) Al: Nintendo console and you’re like (0:23:20) Al: that is not first of all shut up secondly that is not anything like what you’re saying it is (0:23:28) Al: and thirdly it’s not even the first game that said that there are many games that have said (0:23:33) Al: they’re going to do that this is not a first it made it sound like it was an official announcement (0:23:40) Al: about the new console and it was nothing like that. (0:23:40) Kev: Yeah (0:23:45) Kev: Search to announce through my time at ever seen update (0:23:51) Al: I’m just- the good- the interesting thing about this- (0:23:53) Kev: Still more games than the PlayStation 5 already. I just want to say (0:24:00) Al: I mean half of the- so there’s only like 20 exclusive ps5 games and half of them are remakes. (0:24:06) Kev: Sick (0:24:08) Al: What was I saying? Yes, so the interesting thing about My Time at Evershine is that they do appear (0:24:14) Al: to be using a new character model which looks like much more like actual humans. (0:24:18) Al: Thank you very much. (0:24:21) Kev: Wow, I want to step up. (0:24:22) Al: Proper dimensions and proportions. (0:24:25) Al: I mean, I think it is. (0:24:26) Al: I think they look much better like this. (0:24:29) Al: I think some people probably prefer the previous character models. (0:24:30) Kev: No, I get what you’re saying. (0:24:32) Kev: Yeah, I get what you’re saying, (0:24:34) Kev: but it just, it also can sound like (0:24:36) Kev: they were using freak abominations before. (0:24:40) Al: They did have very big heads in the previous game. (0:24:41) Kev: Yeah, oh no, those, yeah. (0:24:44) Kev: Those are people, people, all right. (0:24:46) Kev: Wow, that’s a Breath of the Wild. (0:24:48) Kev: Wow. That’s good. (0:24:50) Kev: Breath of the Wild with dofers with hats on there. (0:24:53) Kev: Okay. Okay. Oh. (0:24:54) Al: I mean, I’ll be honest, unless they’ve fundamentally changed how the crafting works, I’m not playing (0:25:00) Kev: Yeah, no, I mean, it’s like, oh my gosh, I don’t know how to feel about this. (0:25:05) Kev: Okay, it feels, I don’t know, and going more in a normal portion, it almost feels a little more generic. (0:25:12) Al: Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair (0:25:12) Kev: Um, uh, here we go, my time at power, non, non-loss-suit edition. (0:25:14) Al: You (0:25:22) Kev: Let’s, uh, okay, well, there you go. (0:25:24) Al: All right, well, we also have some new games because the list of new games is never ending. (0:25:33) Al: First of all, we have The Last Farmer. (0:25:36) Al: The Last Farmer is not just a tale of survival. (0:25:40) Al: It’s a journey of restoration amidst the sprawling deserts of a forgotten Texas. (0:25:45) Al: I mean, don’t we all wish Texas was forgotten? (0:25:48) Kev: Okay. Oh, oh wow. Wow. This is not what I expected. Sorry, I just clicked on the little. It’s not (0:25:48) Al: Your farm becomes a symbol of hope and persistence. (0:25:59) Kev: the aesthetic I expected at all. No, no, I didn’t. Oh, no. The local looks like (0:26:00) Al: You didn’t expect, you didn’t expect a zombie game? (0:26:05) Al: And oh, my word, there’s the. (0:26:11) Al: Zombies, just listen to this sentence. (0:26:15) Al: Zombies can be processed into fertilizer, helping you restore the fertility of the dead land. (0:26:22) Al: You have a literal meat grinder that you put a zombie on and it turns it into (0:26:27) Al: fertilizer and it does not. (0:26:30) Al: It does not hide away what it’s doing. (0:26:32) Kev: Aww, it’s SICK. (0:26:32) Al: It is like so clear what is this. Horrific. (0:26:35) Kev: That’s kind of sick. That’ll, you know, leaning in all the way. (0:26:39) Kev: Oh my gosh, so… oh my god. (0:26:42) Kev: I’m just… still recovering from the sh… the jump scare I got you from, but that, like, jump scare just completely unexpected. (0:26:53) Kev: So when they say “the last farmer,” they mean “the last of us farmer.” (0:26:58) Kev: that’s what they mean because that’s that is the aesthetic that’s (0:26:58) Al: - Yeah, yeah, that’s pretty much what it is. (0:27:02) Kev: the local that is what they’re saying you are the last of us (0:27:05) Kev: far oh wow (0:27:06) Al: Farming is only part of survival. You’ll need to craft tools and firearms to defend yourself and maintain your farm. (0:27:12) Al: Resources can be processed into biofuel, which is vital for keeping your operation running and surviving in this harsh state. (0:27:12) Kev: there you go (0:27:20) Kev: there you go (0:27:23) Kev: oh okay (0:27:24) Kev: you got me oh my god okay (0:27:26) Kev: sorry I just looked at the next link and I got another bitch hah! (0:27:29) Al: All right well let’s go on to the next one then. Uh cast away. Retrieve your weapons. Face bosses (0:27:35) Kev: Oh my gosh. (0:27:35) Al: to save your dog in a retro adventure focused on three dungeons. Finish the story mode to unlock (0:27:41) Al: the survivor mode. A 50 floor death tower. You’ll enjoy classic mechanics, charming visual style, (0:27:46) Al: and enchanting soundtrack. Um is this not actually farming? I don’t think this is farming at all is (0:27:52) Al: it? Why did I add this into the list? Is there no farming in this at all? I’m sure. (0:27:53) Kev: No, I don’t. I’m looking at it. (0:27:59) Al: I added this in for a reason. (0:28:01) Kev: Like, I’m looking, I’m playing the trailer. I don’t know. (0:28:04) Al: Nope I don’t know how this managed to get in there but (0:28:08) Kev: I don’t know why you added a… (0:28:10) Al: it’s a Zelda game. (0:28:11) Kev: It is not just a Zelda game. It is the Link’s Awakening. It is the power of the equivalent (0:28:17) Al: Yeah yeah. (0:28:20) Kev: of Link’s Awakening. (0:28:23) Kev: Wow, they’re character, it’s just Breath of the Wild Link, wow, wow, okay, boy I hope you’d (0:28:28) Al: You know what, I think I probably did. (0:28:29) Kev: yeah, I don’t blame you, like that’s a common trope for us, well I hope they don’t have (0:28:30) Al: I probably saw the word cast away and just assumed it was a farming game. (0:28:41) Kev: any mechanics that are plantive, oh, okay, what’s next, is the next one actually Cottage (0:28:44) Al: This one’s definitely Cottagecore. We have Artisan Story. Aspiring to be the best artisan (0:28:47) Kev: Club. Oh, oh, yeah, story. (0:28:53) Kev: You know it, you know it, it’s. (0:28:58) Al: in the world are young artisans are opening their workshop complete with a monster ranch. (0:29:03) Al: Monsters from the dungeon tend to your fan. I mean, it’s Rune Factory, right? (0:29:08) Kev: It’s- It- Every- You- You’ve ruined the genre for me, Al. Every game is just a Yahtzee of other games now. This is just a ruined factory. (0:29:16) Al: Sorry. (0:29:18) Kev: Hahaha. (0:29:22) Al: Is this how this podcast dies? (0:29:24) Al: With a whimper of the hahaha. (0:29:26) Kev: Oh, that was, that was without question. (0:29:30) Kev: What’s, oh, what’s, what’s the gummy guy game, the gummy bum drop guy? (0:29:36) Kev: I can’t remember physics based one. (0:29:38) Al: Oh, yes, Southfield, yes. (0:29:44) Kev: what is it called southfield i’m gonna go look at southfield to see what it’s just as (0:29:49) Al: Make yourself feel better. (0:29:54) Kev: verbal drink for my eyes because oh my goodness this is this is a rune factory what’s the artist (0:29:59) Kev: oh my gosh and the name it’s uh we’re just oh my gosh (0:30:06) Al: So you’re not excited about this? (0:30:08) Kev: oh but you know the worst part is it looks it it actually looks or at least (0:30:14) Kev: the trailer like I you know assuming I don’t know if this all the in-game or whatever but (0:30:18) Kev: it does look um the visual presentation is nice they’re kind of going for the octopath (0:30:24) Kev: 2.5 d what are you gonna call it right with kind of flat sprites whatever yeah with flat (0:30:26) Al: 2d HD or what? Yeah (0:30:30) Kev: sprites on a uh a uh 3d world um so oh my gosh some of the monster designs that I mean they (0:30:38) Kev: they work well but they’re they’re just ripping off other things it’s the characters that get me (0:30:44) Kev: those are just rune factory I mean you know it doesn’t help rune factories already (0:30:48) Kev: never gets into those designs but oh my gosh it’s clear what we’re going for oh (0:30:52) Al: Alright, let’s finish off the new games with Luma Island. (0:30:59) Kev: we need a section of new games in quotes and actually new games (0:31:04) Kev: uh (0:31:04) Al: Oh yeah look, it’s another island. Travel to Luma Island to go on an epic adventure by yourself (0:31:10) Al: or with your friends and family. Build your dream farm, master professions, collect magical (0:31:17) Al: lumas, find treasures and unravel the mysteries of the island. (0:31:21) Kev: Finally, we can build our dream farm and unravel missions of an island. (0:31:26) Al: I will say I quite like the the graphics in this game. It is the art style, it’s kind of, (0:31:32) Al: It feels like it’s trying to do. (0:31:34) Al: I’m going to do pixel art in three. (0:31:37) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I can see what you’re saying. Yeah, I can go where it reminds me of fabled them a little less cartoony (0:31:43) Kev: Um, like you said, I think yeah the pixel heart and 3d kind of like rounded fully rounded (0:31:48) Kev: I can kind of I see what you’re saying (0:31:51) Kev: Um, it it does look nice the visuals. Um (0:31:55) Kev: You know nothing like it’s not super (0:31:58) Kev: Super stylized the characters are fine, but it looks nice. It’s it’s well done. I’ll say that right. Um, and we can rotate the camera (0:32:06) Kev: I like that. (0:32:06) Al: Yeah, I hate how, I hate how every scene is just the camera constantly rotating, I’m feeling (0:32:07) Kev: I’ll say this. (0:32:08) Kev: I… (0:32:09) Kev: Yeah it is. (0:32:10) Kev: Yeah you can. (0:32:11) Kev: I get it. (0:32:12) Kev: You’re right. (0:32:13) Kev: You’re sober. (0:32:14) Kev: I appreciate… (0:32:15) Kev: Like I said before, I appreciate it when they go for 3D because, or generally speaking, (0:32:25) Kev: I do. (0:32:26) Kev: Looking at you, artist in story. (0:32:28) Kev: Because it’s so easy to do a Stardew clone. (0:32:32) Kev: But it looks nice. (0:32:34) Kev: I’ll say that. (0:32:36) Kev: Feels very like a san- (0:32:37) Kev: boxy sort of game, I don’t know what a luma is, but uh, there you go, luma, I’m- (0:32:40) Al: Uh, it’s the, the, the star from Mario. (0:32:44) Al: » [LAUGH] (0:32:44) Kev: I d- I’ve no- I was- I- I probably make a joke, but I lost the train in my head, so. (0:32:52) Kev: But yeah. Where’s that game? Where is this? (0:32:54) Al: I… well Mario farming game. A Luma farming game. (0:32:57) Kev: Ye- oh, yes. Tour, I don’t know. (0:33:01) Kev: Lu- yeah, why not? (0:33:03) Al: You’re just… you’re playing as Rosalina and you’re breeding Lumas, (0:33:03) Kev: Somebody’s gotta grow crops on that spaceship. (0:33:07) Kev: You know, I hate how much I love that concept of fiction. (0:33:10) Al: sending them off in to make stars. (0:33:17) Kev: Well, that’d be great. (0:33:19) Kev: Well, I’d love a game just running the starship, whatever, the observatory, whatever, with Rosalina. (0:33:27) Kev: Oh my gosh, that’d be great. (0:33:28) Al: all right there we go that’s that’s the only one that I’m looking at out of this (0:33:29) Kev: Thank you, Luma Island, for giving us that concept. (0:33:33) Kev: - Okay. (0:33:36) Al: list and going I could see myself playing (0:33:38) Kev: » Yeah, that is by far the best one, (0:33:40) Kev: because it’s the only one that’s not complete knockoff of something else. (0:33:45) Kev: » Yep, we had Last of Us, Link’s Awakening, and Rune Factory. (0:33:51) Kev: New entry synapse for them. (0:33:54) Al: All right, so that’s all the news and the new games. We are now going to do our Stardew (0:33:54) Kev: » [SOUND] (0:33:59) Kev: » Okay. (0:34:01) Al: character tier list. A few ground rules for this. First of all, it is every single character (0:34:03) Kev: » Tier list. (0:34:05) Kev: OK, so– (0:34:07) Kev: That’s the sign for you listeners to, you know, turn us off. (0:34:10) Kev: Lest you, you know, hear our awful, awful opinions. (0:34:18) Kev: OK. (0:34:20) Al: in Stardew, every single one. (0:34:21) Kev: All right. (0:34:24) Al: Secondly, we’re going to do this as there’s five tiers. There’s S, A, B, C, and D. (0:34:31) Al: We’re just going to argue about it until we agree on something. Some of them I think will be pretty (0:34:35) Al: obvious, but there might be some that we have to kind of disagree on and argue and finally get to (0:34:40) Kev: - All right, sure. (0:34:41) Al: decision. And just for listeners, if you’re hearing this part of the podcast, that’s because (0:34:47) Al: I got the video successful. We are hopefully going to have a video of this, of Bill (0:34:54) Al: building the tier list. We’ll see if it works or not, but I am sharing my screen with Kevin. (0:35:01) Al: He can see what I’m doing, and we’re going to build up this tier list together. (0:35:05) Al: If that doesn’t work, there’ll be an image of the tier list as well. I mean, there’ll be an image (0:35:09) Al: of the tier list either way, because can’t make people watch the video just to see the visual of (0:35:14) Al: it. But yeah, we’ll see how that goes. Okay, so we’re starting off. We’re just going to take this (0:35:18) Kev: Okay, let’s do this. (0:35:22) Al: in the order that they have them. (0:35:24) Al: in this list. First up we have Abigail. (0:35:26) Al: Oh, it may be alphabetical, yeah. (0:35:26) Kev: uh I think this is this alphabetical I don’t know whatever i’m at evergills (0:35:33) Kev: she’s fine I guess we I don’t know i’m pretty indifferent (0:35:38) Al: I’m thinking A, personally, because she eats rocks. (0:35:40) Kev: okay (0:35:45) Kev: wow I don’t remember that detail a for sure (0:35:49) Al: I think she’s fun, and she’s a little bit weird, and I like weird. (0:35:53) Kev: Yeah, you know, you know what? Hold on, I’m remembering. (0:35:57) Kev: He’s the product of an affair, basically, right? (0:35:59) Kev: That’s the implication we’re getting. (0:36:03) Kev: So, you know what? (0:36:03) Al: She literally, you give her amethyst and she will eat the amethyst. (0:36:06) Kev: Oh, oh, oh, that’s right! (0:36:08) Al: Like, it’s not even, it’s not even hinted at. It is very clear she eats the amethyst. (0:36:10) Kev: All right, A tier for that alone. (0:36:16) Kev: Yep, I’m down for it. (0:36:16) Al: And I love that. Okay, cool. Alex. He is the jock. Um, I will say the one thing that kind (0:36:17) Kev: I’m down for that. (0:36:18) Kev: All right, A tier for Abigail, absolutely. (0:36:22) Kev: He, I guess, he’s the jock, right? (0:36:29) Al: of like justifies him is that if you, if you are a male character in the game and you go (0:36:36) Al: the relationship with Alex he (0:36:38) Al: kind of goes through a journey of self-discovery. (0:36:42) Kev: That’s pretty cool actually, I didn’t realize that. (0:36:45) Kev: If you want to go A for that, I don’t mind it. (0:36:47) Kev: I’m fine. (0:36:48) Kev: B, A, whatever you want. (0:36:48) Al: Yeah, Mogo B. He’s a little bit more rounded than some of the other characters, but I don’t (0:36:49) Kev: That is a nice touch, the fact that they made the effort for that. (0:36:54) Kev: Alright, B. (0:36:58) Al: think he’s quite A. (0:37:04) Al: Next we have The Bouncer from Calico Desert. (0:37:08) Kev: that’s (0:37:11) Kev: Does his job well (0:37:11) Al: So as far as I know, he has exactly two lines, one of which is “No, you’re not getting in” (0:37:19) Al: and the other one of which is “OK, on you go”. (0:37:20) Kev: Perfect. Nailed it. No notes. He delivered. He promised. He came. He delivered. I had (0:37:23) Al: And that’s it. (0:37:27) Al: I don’t know what to say. (0:37:31) Kev: a boy last week. I almost want to say yes because there’s nothing else. It’s up. Or (0:37:42) Al: I mean, he’s not particularly… (0:37:43) Kev: just you have to put him in B because that’s the normal. He’s not good or bad. That would (0:37:48) Kev: be the. (0:37:49) Al: OK, sure, fine. (0:37:51) Al: Let’s put The Bouncer from Calico Desert into B. (0:37:56) Al: Next we have Caroline. (0:38:01) Al: So Caroline gives you tea. (0:38:07) Al: That’s her best thing. (0:38:09) Al: No, she’s married to Pierre. (0:38:12) Al: She’s Abigail’s mum. (0:38:12) Kev: Okay, okay, okay, okay. Oh, so she’s the one who had the affair. Oh, yeah. Oh, that’s spicy (0:38:18) Al: She’s a little bit more of a married girl. (0:38:24) Kev: I’m (0:38:25) Kev: Good. They only kind of briefly reference that they don’t lean into it too much. I can get kind of get why but (0:38:30) Al: Mm-hmm (0:38:34) Kev: Like I wish they kind of did that would be a good plot line to follow through with (0:38:39) Kev: But yes, and remembering her now. Yeah, she’s just kind of there isn’t she? (0:38:42) Kev: um (0:38:43) Al: she’s fine. Yeah. I don’t think she’s particularly bad. Are we thinking B? Yeah. See what’s the (0:38:48) Kev: Maybe see even I don’t know cuz like (0:38:53) Kev: Just not as memorable as Alex or the bouncer that’s the only thing (0:38:58) Kev: But I mean, yeah, I don’t know. I’m fine either way. I’m not TV (0:38:58) Al: OK, fine, fine, let’s go see. (0:39:02) Kev: Okay. Well this call the next one calls for the establishment of a new tier the Flint tier at the bottom (0:39:08) Al: The Clint tier where we have very bad kerning between the L and the I, yeah. (0:39:11) Kev: Do we have to go? (0:39:18) Al: Yeah, he’s D tier, right? (0:39:18) Kev: - Well done. (0:39:23) Al: He doesn’t learn anything, he never has any personal growth, he’s just a little grumpy (0:39:28) Al: who can never admit that his problems are somewhat self-inflicted and could absolutely (0:39:35) Al: be solved. (0:39:36) Al: There’s no reason why he couldn’t get into a relationship with Emily if he actually tried. (0:39:49) Al: She is a lovely person and she gives him plenty of opportunities and he never even bothers (0:39:52) Al: to try. (0:39:53) Al: And he gets grumpy when you get in a relationship with her, despite the fact that he was never (0:39:57) Al: doing anything. (0:39:58) Al: He is not a good person. (0:40:00) Al: He’s not nice to be around. (0:40:02) Kev: Fine you win now (0:40:02) Al: D. I’m sorry. (0:40:04) Al: Was I trying to convince you? (0:40:05) Al: I don’t think so. (0:40:06) Al: I don’t think I needed to convince you. (0:40:06) Kev: No, that’s what he told you remember, and that’s what he says when you were all right, so that’s probably the easiest one (0:40:13) Al: Demetrius. (0:40:14) Al: Oh yeah, for sure. (0:40:15) Kev: Okay, Demetrius (0:40:17) Al: I’m thinking C for him. (0:40:19) Al: He’s fine. (0:40:20) Al: But again, not particularly, like, interesting. (0:40:20) Kev: Yeah (0:40:23) Kev: Yeah, he’s a scientist right he just sciences it up off-screen yeah, I’m fine for see (0:40:26) Al: Yeah (0:40:28) Al: He’s sciencey, but Maru does the science angle much more interestingly. (0:40:32) Kev: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I agree. Uh, let’s see his mind, ‘cause yeah, he’s just… (0:40:38) Al: Yeah, he’s fine. I don’t, he’s a little bit, he does, I will, the other reason for, I guess, (0:40:44) Al: putting him down to sea is, I feel like he, so he is, I think, canonically autistic, (0:40:52) Kev: Hm, okay. Yeah, I remember, mm-hmm. (0:40:52) Al: and he’s very much using that as an excuse rather than… (0:40:58) Kev: Right. (0:40:59) Al: like an explanation for things and trying to understand, what’s her name? (0:41:02) Kev: Uh-huh. (0:41:04) Kev: Yep. (0:41:10) Al: Yes, Robin, thank you. He doesn’t really try and understand Robin’s point of view, (0:41:14) Al: he just uses his autism as an excuse, and so that’s why I marked him down. (0:41:17) Kev: You know bumping down to D, I forgot he took Robin from me. (0:41:21) Al: All right, fine, yeah, sure, fine. Maybe we do need to add, maybe we do need to add a Clint here, (0:41:23) Kev: I don’t care, I said I juggled, but I’m fine either way. (0:41:28) Al: because he needs to be lower. (0:41:32) Al: Dwarf. (0:41:32) Kev: The D tier with the understanding coin’s actually a tier lower. (0:41:37) Al: All right, so we’ll put him there, and Clint can be at the bottom of deer tier. (0:41:40) Kev: Yeah, there you go. (0:41:43) Al: Dwarf, B tier. So he runs the shop in the cave, in the mines. (0:41:50) Kev: Ah, okay, sure, it’s cool (0:41:54) Al: you also get a little bit of backstory about him when you progress. (0:41:58) Al: progress crow buses line because the dwarfs and the shadow people had a war and they end up fighting and you have to like calm them down and say “look it’s not a war anymore, would you shut up?” (0:42:00) Kev: Mm-hmm (0:42:04) Kev: Oh, I did it (0:42:09) Kev: Whoa, I didn’t know that well, he’s that one guy (0:42:12) Al: Have you not experienced that bit? (0:42:13) Kev: No, I don’t think I have. Well, that’s cool. Like that one guy in Vietnam. I thought the world’s still going on or whatever (0:42:20) Al: Yeah, I think they both know the war is not going on but they still like, it’s like a (0:42:22) Kev: Sick (0:42:25) Al: low level feud they have. (0:42:27) Kev: Okay, good times, all right (0:42:30) Kev: Elliot (0:42:32) Kev: You know what my biggest thing for Elliot or the biggest plus for Elliot is he’s not (0:42:37) Kev: As big as of a d-bag as thought he would be just from how he looks (0:42:40) Al: Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair (0:42:42) Kev: He’s pretty he likes to write right he’s just over there just poetrying it up or whatever (0:42:49) Kev: It’s fine. He’s not particularly mean or nasty or anything. He’s just kind of his own space doing his own thing (0:42:56) Kev: I haven’t done–I don’t remember too many events with him, to be honest. (0:43:00) Kev: Like, he’s fine. (0:43:00) Al: I think if you go into the Romance things, he is quite doting on you, shall we say. (0:43:07) Kev: Oh, that’s nice. (0:43:09) Kev: You know, I’ll give him an A. There’s a lot of awful people. (0:43:13) Kev: He’s A for being not awful. (0:43:15) Al: Emily S tier. Yeah, we love Emily. Evelyn S tier. Good, good, good. George B tier. He (0:43:18) Kev: Uh, yeah, all right. (0:43:25) Kev: Oh, one thousand percent. (0:43:32) Al: has some positives and he has some negatives. He’s a grumpy old man, but I think he has (0:43:36) Al: the right to be a grumpy old man. And also he can be quite nice in a few situations where (0:43:44) Al: you actually you realize (0:43:45) Al: that there’s reasons why he’s grumpy and oh well obviously he’s old you know (0:43:49) Kev: Yeah, I mean, yeah, but (0:43:49) Al: why he’s old but he comes across initially as just a grumpy old man but (0:43:55) Al: you find many more layers to him and he actually can be quite nice when you get (0:43:55) Kev: Mm-hmm. Yeah (0:43:58) Kev: Yeah, I agree be for that cuz he’s got he’s layered like you say right that’s that’s all (0:44:06) Al: ‘Gill’ he’s one of the adventurers guilds people. I’m gonna go for C purely because (0:44:14) Kev: Okay, that’s why his name is Gil. (0:44:21) Al: there’s nothing really we know about him other than just he is there and yeah I feel like (0:44:24) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:44:27) Al: I want to know more about him. (0:44:29) Kev: Isn’t either one who go saves you if you fall in the caves (0:44:31) Al: All right no Linus saves you if you if you die in the caves. (0:44:34) Kev: No lines you’re right right sorry, yes, I can’t next up yes next up (0:44:37) Al: Don’t be taking it from from our guy Linus. (0:44:41) Al: Next we have the governor. (0:44:44) Kev: Oh my gosh, I forgot it comes for that one festival, right? (0:44:45) Al: So I think his I think yeah I think that’s his only his only appearance is the festival (0:44:52) Al: and let me tell you he is not very good at telling you that your soup isn’t great right (0:44:57) Kev: Mm-hmm (0:44:57) Al: he doesn’t he doesn’t he doesn’t go there oh no he goes this is disgusting. I think he’s I think (0:45:03) Kev: Mm-hmm sure I didn’t vote for him (0:45:04) Al: you see. (0:45:07) Al: Uh, grandpa. (0:45:11) Kev: Okay, I’ve never made it to grandpa I (0:45:14) Al: What? You’ve never made it past year two. (0:45:16) Kev: Made it to year two. I never know so tell me about grandpa (0:45:19) Al: What? So, right, okay. So, obviously, positive, he gave us the farm. (0:45:27) Al: That is where the positives end. Why does he wait until we are, you know, (0:45:35) Al: nearly going to kill people and are (0:45:36) Al: off his job for us to open this letter, like he tells you, you should only open this (0:45:41) Al: letter at this situation. And it’s like, why could we not have had more years of an enjoyable (0:45:47) Al: life helping people in the valley? And like, I don’t understand that. He’s really judgmental. (0:45:53) Al: He gives you, he doesn’t consider you as a whole person unless you are married and have (0:46:02) Al: children. I just yeah he he’s a little bit (0:46:06) Al: old-fashioned. I don’t really feel like he having said that at least his dot (0:46:11) Al: his he

In episode 12, the Slow Burn Cast Pat (NintenTalk), Min (MintendoGaming), and Payton (Payton'sCorner) sit down and talk to Sandy Spink the creator of the popular cozy game Moonstone Island! Let's chat about the game's development journey and find out what it takes to release such a successful game! Poll Results, Email Questions and MORE!

Al and Jonnie go through all the news while Al was on holiday. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:10: What Have We Been Up To 00:16:13: Game Releases 00:34:54: Game Updates 01:09:23: Other News 01:15:30: New Games 01:26:09: Outro Links Critter Crops Gourdlets Song of the Prairie Garden Witch Life Reel Fishing: Days of Summer Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid Usagi Shima Echoes of the Plum Grove Outbound Coral Island “1.1” Update Coral Island Humble Games Issue Roots of Pacha “1.2” Update Sun Haven “Teleportation” Update Moonstone Island “Cooking” Update Disney Dreamlight Valley Roadmap Cult of the Lamb “Unholy Alliance” Update Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Roadmap Fields of Mistra Roadmap Ova Magica Roadmap Horticular Roadmap Concerned Ape Promises not to charge for DLC Overthrown Steam Page Hearty Hank Plush Sakuna Anime Marvelous Restructuring Pathless Woods Everbloom Hamster Garden Ritual of Raven Cat Cafe Manager 2: Big City Bliss Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:31) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Al, (0:00:36) Jonnie: And my name is Johnny. (0:00:38) Al: and we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (0:00:40) Jonnie: Woo! (0:00:44) Al: What happened to diving, you might say. We’re not… not farmers, we’re divers. No, not this week, (0:00:50) Al: you’re not, because… complicated reasons, but we’re not doing the last episode of the day of the (0:00:56) Al: the day of the month today. We’re doing that probably in two weeks time. But who knows? (0:01:01) Al: You’ll find out why. I’ll explain it in the next episode why this is all changed. But (0:01:06) Al: yeah, I had all this organized and then something happened and now we’re changing things up. (0:01:13) Al: So that will come. Don’t worry, your final episode. Maybe a break might be good. I don’t (0:01:24) Al: know. I’ve still not heard from anyone whether they think it’s too much day of the diver (0:01:27) Al: or not. But don’t worry, we’re not going to go back to that. (0:01:31) Al: For most games, it was just a funny one-off thing. We’ll see what people think of it. (0:01:38) Al: Yes, stuff to come. Watch this space. This episode, I’m back from my month away, so we (0:01:45) Al: are going to talk about news. That’s it. There’s so much news. I didn’t count it the last moment, (0:01:50) Jonnie: There’s so much news. (0:01:52) Al: but there’s like over 20 pieces of news to talk about. It’s quite wild. (0:01:54) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:01:55) Jonnie: There’s a lot of news. (0:01:58) Jonnie: This is what happens when you go away for a month, Al. (0:02:01) Al: Oh, I know. But, you know, it’s fine. It’s good. What’s the worst that can happen? This (0:02:09) Al: is what the worst that can happen. Before that, Johnny, what have you been up to? (0:02:14) Jonnie: What have I been up to? I tried a cute little game called creatures of ever (0:02:21) Jonnie: Which is available (0:02:23) Jonnie: via game parts (0:02:24) Al: I feel like I’ve heard of this. (0:02:27) Jonnie: It’s uh, I I guess it’s kind of like a open world (0:02:34) Jonnie: Creature tamer with a giant asterisk next to it (0:02:41) Jonnie: a sort of an adventure-y style game. (0:02:43) Jonnie: Um… (0:02:44) Jonnie: And it’s kind of set out, it’s a game that’s set out into zones and I was playing through the first zone and I was having a really good time with it and I was like “this game’s like really cool” (0:02:55) Jonnie: So the core concept is… (0:02:57) Jonnie: I mean, there’s a problem that I have with the game and it’s part of the story that they’re telling. (0:03:02) Jonnie: I guess Mars blows for the story, but the concept of the game is that you are there to save the planet that is dying by capturing all of their animals. (0:03:14) Jonnie: And convincing the inhabitants of the planet to leave, which comes with a lot of… (0:03:19) Al: Is that saving a planet or is that saving what’s on a planet? (0:03:23) Jonnie: Well, it’s very much saving what’s on the planet. (0:03:26) Jonnie: And it comes with very strong, I guess, colonial style overtones of “look at me, the outworlder that’s here to tell you the locals what is best” (0:03:37) Jonnie: Which, you know, is… like, they are telling an appropriate story with it, but it doesn’t necessarily make it fun. (0:03:44) Jonnie: To be playing the character with the colonial vibes for a bit. (0:03:48) Jonnie: Anyway, that’s about the… they actually epic handle it in a way that’s likely fine. (0:03:53) Jonnie: The taming mechanic is music, so you have a flute and different creatures will respond to different songs and you form a bond with them (0:04:02) Jonnie: And you take them to the bot that zaps them up so you don’t permanently get any of them (0:04:09) Jonnie: But when you’ve changed something, you can pair with it and use it to explore the world. (0:04:14) Jonnie: And each of the creatures has different abilities, which I thought was a really cool concept. (0:04:19) Jonnie: You tame something and then it can help you access a new area. (0:04:24) Jonnie: And then I got to the second area, and all of the creatures looked slightly different, but they all had the same abilities. (0:04:31) Jonnie: And the game started to feel very copy and paste at that point, kind of like they had… (0:04:38) Jonnie: And there was only five different creatures in the first area, so it wasn’t like there was a massive… (0:04:42) Jonnie: Yeah, it was like I’d explored 20 (0:04:44) Jonnie: different creatures and then they’d run out of ideas and I explored five and (0:04:45) Al: Yeah, so I guess don’t go into it expecting lots of like, you know, if you go into it (0:04:47) Jonnie: then it felt like they ran out of ideas which was a bit of a (0:04:54) Al: because it’s a creature collector, you’re probably going to be disappointed, but… (0:04:58) Jonnie: Yeah, a hundred percent (0:05:00) Al: How’s the exploration and the movement and stuff like that? (0:05:03) Jonnie: It’s fine, it’s neither good nor bad it kind of feels like going back to (0:05:11) Jonnie: the sort of ps2 era of games like where (0:05:15) Jonnie: Exploration was largely just walking around the world and you had a jump and you would do certain things that would break down a wall (0:05:22) Jonnie: But until then that wall was kind of largely just there it fit the feels very (0:05:28) Jonnie: reminiscent of that (0:05:30) Jonnie: Which is yeah, it’s neither good or bad. It’s it’s good in the sense that it feels like intentional, but it’s bad in the sense that (0:05:38) Jonnie: Exploration games have moved well past that (0:05:42) Al: Yeah, you’re you’re not really exploring so much as following up maze. (0:05:48) Jonnie: Correct (0:05:49) Al: OK, it’s interesting. (0:05:51) Al: It looks quite nice. (0:05:52) Jonnie: Yeah, yeah, it does look nice (0:05:55) Jonnie: Also weird thing so I got to the end of the second area and when you finish the story there (0:06:00) Jonnie: The game basically tells you like (0:06:03) Jonnie: Once you leave you can’t come back to this area (0:06:06) Jonnie: So be sure you’ve done everything and I’m like but I’m not sure that I’ve done everything because there’s no (0:06:11) Jonnie: Tracking of whether or not I’ve done all of the things so that was unfortunate and at that point (0:06:12) Al: yeah. And you really can’t go back to the area. (0:06:18) Jonnie: I don’t know because at that point I was kind of like I think I’m I’m (0:06:23) Jonnie: Okay with the time but I had with (0:06:26) Al: Oh, OK, fair enough. That seems weird to have distinct areas, but then say you can never (0:06:34) Jonnie: Yeah, and I think I get why they did it in like I think it’s mild story spoilers (0:06:43) Jonnie: Is there justification for doing it, but I don’t think that’s a good reason for doing it (0:06:46) Al: Oh, are the areas destroyed? (0:06:50) Al: Oh. (0:06:50) Jonnie: No, no, I think it’s more to do with like characters leaving the area and needing to be in another area and (0:06:59) Jonnie: Then kind of just be like well the story doesn’t bring you back to this area. So let’s (0:07:04) Jonnie: not let you go back. (0:07:05) Jonnie: So. (0:07:06) Al: Okay. I mean, I guess maybe that’s why they don’t have a like completion (0:07:11) Al: percentage for that area, right? Because that would be frustrating. (0:07:14) Jonnie: Yeah, but there’s like things in the world that you can come across to find and interact. (0:07:21) Jonnie: They’re not collectibles as such, but they’re collectibles, right? (0:07:26) Jonnie: So that part really broke my brain and was slightly frustrating. (0:07:32) Jonnie: But I will say, I think the idea of playing music to tame animals was like a very cool (0:07:38) Jonnie: idea and I think that was well implemented where like the song. (0:07:44) Jonnie: The songs and the way you did that with the creatures of the world felt really good and (0:07:47) Jonnie: really clever and I kind of just wish that there was, yeah, you know what this game feels (0:07:51) Jonnie: like to me? (0:07:52) Jonnie: It feels like they had a really good idea. (0:07:55) Jonnie: They wanted to make a game much bigger than their budget allowed and so they had to copy (0:08:00) Jonnie: and paste a few things where I’m sure they had more different ideas, but making games (0:08:05) Jonnie: is really expensive. (0:08:07) Jonnie: That’s what this game feels like to me and I wish they had more money to make the game (0:08:07) Al: Yes, yep, yep. Fair enough. (0:08:10) Jonnie: they probably had in their heads. (0:08:12) Jonnie: But that’s what I’ve been up to. (0:08:14) Jonnie: How? What have you been? (0:08:17) Al: Well, so while I’m away for my month in the summer, I don’t have a huge amount of time (0:08:22) Al: for games, but what I did manage to play was Chicken Journey. I don’t know if you remember (0:08:28) Jonnie: Chicken, I’m tired (0:08:28) Al: this game, Johnny. I mean, it’s not Cottagecore. We talked about it on the podcast once because (0:08:36) Al: chicken. (0:08:38) Al: But basically it’s a side scrolling RPG where you play as a chicken with some mild platforming (0:08:48) Al: to it. It’s not particularly challenging, right? Like don’t go into it expecting platforming (0:08:55) Al: challenges. That’s not what there is. It’s more kind of puzzle-y in that you kind of have to (0:09:01) Al: figure out how to get through an area which involves some platforming and involves, you know, (0:09:07) Al: switches and stuff like that and making sure you do things in the right order and finding (0:09:12) Al: your way out of very simple mazes. It’s fun, I think. It’s not a hugely long game, so I (0:09:20) Al: finished it in, I think, 10 hours, which, I mean, for me is a good length of a game (0:09:26) Al: just now. But yeah, it’s not particularly long. And I basically have 100% of it. There’s (0:09:31) Al: one Steve achievement I don’t have and that’s just because… (0:09:37) Al: I need to go to like two different areas and go in the, what they call it, like the temples (0:09:44) Al: that I went into and get to the highest level again because I missed one thing in each of them. (0:09:50) Al: And I’m like, oh, can I really be bothered with that? It’s not like I’m doing something (0:09:54) Al: challenging that I’ve not done before. It’s just doing the same thing again and not missing one (0:09:59) Al: thing. So yeah, we’ll see, but… (0:10:03) Jonnie: then you will do it. It’s not a we’ll see, we know you will do it. Everyone’s been listening to this show. (0:10:07) Al: I don’t know, maybe I’ll forget about it and it won’t niggle at my brain the entire time (0:10:12) Al: I’m playing a different game. I don’t know. (0:10:14) Jonnie: really niggling at your brain now we all know how to sense we could pretend we (0:10:18) Jonnie: don’t if you want to do that like that’s that’s fine (0:10:21) Al: Yeah, so I think the problem is, right? Like, I very rarely 100% games. (0:10:29) Al: I’m trying to remember if there was a game I 100%ed before or not, but I 100%ed the newest (0:10:34) Al: Kirby game in the 3D one. That was the first game of (0:10:37) Al: the game. I’m like, I’m not doing that again two more times or a time and a half more. Like, (0:10:59) Al: that’s not fun, right? And oh, please. (0:11:02) Jonnie: Yeah. Have you ever 106%ed a game? (0:11:07) Al: Please don’t start this conversation with me. I will. If you’re going to disagree with (0:11:12) Jonnie: I just say these things to needle you out. That’s it. That’s it. (0:11:22) Al: me, whether you agree with me or not, Johnny, I know this because you will either disagree (0:11:25) Al: with me or you’ll agree with me, but you’ll find it more fun to disagree with me. But (0:11:29) Al: if you add stuff to your game that takes the completion to more than a hundred percent and (0:11:37) Al: add a second percentage, do not just add on to that. Because the whole point of a hundred (0:11:43) Al: percent is to say you’ve done everything, right? And if I’ve done everything and like say you (0:11:49) Al: play like, let’s take Hollow Knight, right? That’s a good example. I think that’s like (0:11:52) Al: 117% or something now. I can’t remember exactly, but there’s some annoying percent and it’s (0:11:57) Al: just, it might even be a decimal. I honestly think it might be a decimal, but I can’t remember. (0:12:04) Al: do you know when you’re done, right? This is the problem. (0:12:07) Al: Is that the whole point of having a percentage counter is when you get to 100%, you’ve done (0:12:12) Al: everything. Now, if you add more things and you either decrease the percentage for everybody, (0:12:19) Al: so you say, “Oh, you were on 100%?” No, you’re not on 100%, right? That’s one option. Or you (0:12:24) Al: add a second one and say, “This is for the new content that’s been added.” The idea that you (0:12:28) Al: would come in, and because it’s all very well and good if you played it at the beginning, (0:12:32) Al: and then you played the second update, and you played the third update. But me coming to it, (0:12:38) Al: and I hadn’t played it before any of the updates, literally, I have to google what (0:12:42) Al: the correct percentage number is to know when I’ve done everything. That’s weird, and confusing, (0:12:49) Al: and not fun! (0:12:50) Jonnie: Yeah, but like Hollow Knight’s a bad game, so it’s natural that they would have bad design. (0:12:59) Al: Oh, fun. Well, I mean, I don’t really care about that one. (0:13:00) Jonnie: I’m just trying to get you some hate mail here, Al. (0:13:06) Jonnie: But going back to Chicken Journey, whatever it is, I feel like you’re so close, right? (0:13:07) Al: Enjoyed Hollow Knight. (0:13:10) Al: Yes. (0:13:15) Jonnie: Because I’m kind of with you that I don’t really care about 100%ing games, (0:13:21) Jonnie: and then it’s kind of like, well, I might as well. (0:13:23) Al: Yes, you’re correct. That’s the real thing. That’s it. There’s no other reason why I would do it, (0:13:29) Al: is because there’s one achievement left, and I’ve got… I actually think I have two of the three (0:13:34) Al: things, I’m just not sure which of the two I haven’t done. I know which one I’ve definitely done, (0:13:42) Al: and I know there are two others, one of which I’ve done, one of which I’ve not. So it’s possible I (0:13:47) Al: go find the one that I’ve not found, and I find it, and I don’t have to do the second one, and (0:13:51) Al: and that’s me done, so it might only be one thing I’ve got left to do. (0:13:53) Jonnie: Yeah, you’re definitely gonna do this. (0:13:53) Al: Of course I’m going to do it, but not just now, because I’ve picked up another game, (0:13:55) Jonnie: It just makes sense. (0:13:59) Al: a game that Johnny is jealous I have access to now, and that is Mika and the Witches Mountain. (0:14:05) Al: I mean, you could have kick-started it. I kick-started it. Kickstarters got the code a week (0:14:12) Al: before release, so I have been playing that. I’m not going to give away too much just now, (0:14:18) Al: but I will say that I am having fun. That is what I’m going to say just now. (0:14:22) Jonnie: It’s a very ominous way of saying you’re having fun. (0:14:26) Al: Ah, it’s… (0:14:27) Al: OK, let me… I’ll say one other thing. The controls were not what I expected with flying, (0:14:33) Al: but I understood… In a initially bad way, but then I understood why they are doing what they’re (0:14:33) Jonnie: In a good way or a bad way? (0:14:35) Jonnie: Oh. (0:14:40) Al: doing, and it leads to more things to progress in the game. (0:14:47) Jonnie: I feel like my interpretation of what you just said is that flying has a limited (0:14:54) Jonnie: Time and you can add to that capacity over time, which would make sense (0:14:56) Al: Yeah, pretty much. Not quite, but kind of, yeah. It’s one of these things where I was (0:15:04) Al: expecting, and I don’t know why I was expecting this, but I was expecting that the flying (0:15:08) Al: is just like, you get on your broom and you can fly wherever, you can go up and down, (0:15:13) Al: but it’s not that. And so, because my brain was in that mode, I was expecting the controls (0:15:19) Al: to be specific things, but it’s not that, and therefore my brain had to get used to (0:15:23) Al: the fact that the controls are different. (0:15:25) Jonnie: Ah, interesting. I don’t think I had that expectation going in from a lot of the videos. (0:15:26) Al: And that’s fair. Yeah, no, that’s, and that’s fair. That’s probably just a me thing. But (0:15:33) Al: anyway, well, I’ll talk more about it in a future episode, maybe. We’ll see. (0:15:36) Jonnie: And by the time this episode’s out, I believe the game is out. (0:15:42) Al: Yes. Yeah, it comes out on Wednesday, the 24th. So Johnny will be playing it while this (0:15:46) Jonnie: So I hope your friend is enjoying playing Mika. (0:15:50) Al: episode’s out. I mean, I think you’ll enjoy it, Johnny. I really hope you enjoy it. I (0:15:58) Al: don’t think it’s not a bad game. It’s a good game. It just took my brain a bit to get used (0:16:04) Al: to it, but I think now I’m used to it, I’m very much enjoying it. And I will say more (0:16:09) Al: in the future! (0:16:12) Al: That’s what we’ve been up to. (0:16:14) Al: OK, so as I have done in some previous episodes, where we have just an insane amount of news, (0:16:21) Al: I have chunked it into different sections. (0:16:24) Al: So this is going to be the game releases section. (0:16:26) Al: So that’s games that either have released just about to release, or haven’t released (0:16:32) Al: yet, but is news about their release. (0:16:34) Al: It’ll make sense when we get to the next section. (0:16:36) Al: So first of all, we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 games. (0:16:42) Al: They’re out now, or given us the release– no, five? (0:16:46) Al: Right, three games. (0:16:47) Al: Why am I doing this? (0:16:48) Al: Right, let’s just go these one by one. (0:16:50) Al: I was trying to make it go quicker. (0:16:52) Al: It’s going to be confusing. (0:16:53) Jonnie: I really like the, like, there’s something about Krita Crops that when I first like watch a video or see something of it, I’m like, does this look good? (0:16:53) Al: Critter crops, right now. (0:16:55) Al: Anything to say on that. (0:17:07) Jonnie: And then the more I watch it, the more I’m like, I actually think I am very into this art style, it just takes a bit to get into and I don’t know, I like the idea of growing critters, what can I say? (0:17:17) Jonnie: This game looks kind of cute and silly and I… (0:17:18) Al: You are a sucker for creature collectors, let’s be honest. (0:17:24) Jonnie: Yeah, I am. 100%. Um, and the only other thing to say is that it’s 10% off. Oh no, that was till the end of July. Don’t worry, I can’t read. Why is it still on your Steam page? (0:17:33) Jonnie: Uh, we’re in August. Oh my god, I was… Okay, anyway. Uh, Krita Crops is out, it looks great. (0:17:33) Al: This is how long it’s been, Johnny! (0:17:40) Al: This game came out, I think, like two days after our last episode or something. (0:17:42) Jonnie: Uh… (0:17:44) Jonnie: Um… (0:17:45) Al: 22nd of July. (0:17:46) Al: Yeah, nearly a month ago this came out. (0:17:48) Jonnie: Yeah, that looks cute, very excited. (0:17:49) Al: Oh, it’s even better. (0:17:53) Al: I think it came out one day after the last episode was recorded. (0:17:57) Jonnie: » [LAUGH] (0:17:57) Al: Not released. (0:17:58) Al: Amazing. (0:17:59) Al: Fine. (0:18:00) Al: Whatever. (0:18:01) Al: Yeah, I agree with the art style. (0:18:03) Al: If you ever see it, you’re like “ugh” and then you go “no, no, this is a very deliberate (0:18:07) Al: and interesting art style” like because initially you just think “oh, it doesn’t look very (0:18:11) Al: good” but then you realize it’s different and I like it. (0:18:14) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s I think that’s exactly it, right? It’s not, um, I think you would like an initial glance, you could look at it and think, yeah, like you said, it’s not a good art style. I actually think it is an intentional art style and they’re just trying something that a lot of games are afraid to try. (0:18:30) Al: I agree. And it’s not pixel art, so. Not that I’m saying the pixel art’s bad, but I like (0:18:35) Al: when not everything is the same. Speaking of pixel art, Gurdlitz announced a release (0:18:42) Al: date and it’s now in the past. So Gurdlitz is now out. “You wrote IDO mode!” exclamation (0:18:50) Al: mark, exclamation mark, exclamation mark. (0:18:54) Jonnie: Yeah, gauntlets has idle mode (0:18:57) Jonnie: So like rusty’s retirement (0:18:58) Jonnie: You can have your gauntlets little island be just like a little banner on the bottom of your screen while you’re doing other stuff (0:19:04) Jonnie: Which is amazing (0:19:08) Jonnie: Gauntlets for those who don’t remember is like the (0:19:11) Jonnie: Chill city builder where you’re building a city for (0:19:15) Jonnie: vegetables (0:19:17) Jonnie: to come and live and (0:19:19) Jonnie: It looks super cute. There’s no real goals (0:19:24) Jonnie: but (0:19:26) Jonnie: What they do say in their release trailer is that (0:19:30) Jonnie: When gauntlets come to your island, they kind of come with a leaf and by interacting in the world (0:19:37) Jonnie: That kind of makes them happy and the more gauntlets you make happy unlocks more stuff for you to build (0:19:43) Jonnie: So there is a there is a little bit of a gameplay loop that they have built into it, which seems amazing (0:19:49) Jonnie: The idea of it having the little idle mode option is (0:19:54) Jonnie: kind of cool. I’m very excited to try this out as a little idle game. (0:19:59) Al: And it is five dollars. (0:20:01) Al: Go buy it like I’m not like with this. (0:20:05) Al: I’m not even I mean, it is on sale just (0:20:07) Al: now for is it minus 20 percent off, which is just wild. (0:20:11) Al: But yeah, I’m not waiting for like, oh, I’m going to wait until it’s 90 percent. (0:20:14) Al: No, go buy it now. (0:20:16) Al: Right. Unless you have real financial issues. (0:20:19) Al: It’s a fiver. Go buy it. (0:20:21) Al: There we go. (0:20:21) Jonnie: Pretty much, that’s what I’ll be doing. (0:20:25) Al: I’m doing it right now. (0:20:28) Al: Right. What is next? (0:20:29) Al: I have Song of the Prairie. (0:20:31) Al: There are one point all (0:20:34) Al: will be out by the time this episode comes out. (0:20:36) Al: But I think it’s oh, no, it’s out now. (0:20:38) Al: It is out now. (0:20:39) Al: This was August 1st. (0:20:41) Al: It’s out now. (0:20:42) Al: Woo! (0:20:44) Jonnie: I don’t know much to say about Song of the Prairie other than it looks like someone thought (0:20:49) Jonnie: what if Harvest Moon was kind of good and then they made the skin. (0:20:53) Al: I think many people have tried, have thought, had that thought process. (0:20:57) Jonnie: Yeah this looks very like Harvest Moony though. (0:21:01) Jonnie: I don’t know why there was something more about this one that kind of linked me to a (0:21:06) Jonnie: Harvest Moon than other games. (0:21:10) Al: Fair. Yeah, I like the look of this game, there’s nothing about it that makes me go (0:21:14) Al: a must play this though I think is the thing. Like if this came out maybe four years ago, (0:21:19) Al: I would probably be right on it, but I’m like okay, that’s fine. (0:21:24) Jonnie: I agree, it seems like it’s reviewing pretty well on Steam though, so that’s that’s good (0:21:30) Al: Oh yeah, that’s good. All reviews is very positive, nearly 80% SteamDB rating. (0:21:38) Al: Garden which life have announced that they? (0:21:40) Al: They’re releasing on the 12th of September, and I think that I believe that’s not early access. That’s just straight into. (0:21:48) Jonnie: Yeah, this, this is like the word salad game of like we, we took the words gardening and (0:21:55) Jonnie: witch and we put them together. (0:21:57) Jonnie: And I’ve said many times on the show that we don’t need any more witchy gardening games. (0:22:04) Jonnie: And unfortunately, that is how I feel about this game. (0:22:07) Jonnie: There is just nothing about this one stands out to me. (0:22:11) Al: Yeah, I hate the name. It’s a terrible name. Get a better name. I think I’m probably similar. (0:22:17) Al: I like the look of it. I feel like a broken record right now, but I like the look of it. (0:22:24) Al: But yeah, nothing is telling me I must have it right now. (0:22:29) Al: Real fishing days of summer have announced that their release date is the 28th of October, (0:22:35) Al: and that will be on Switch and PS5. I mean, I’m not going to buy a real fishing game now. (0:22:38) Jonnie: yep (0:22:41) Al: I’m sorry. (0:22:42) Jonnie: me either bluetooth fishing (0:22:45) Al: I’m not against fishing in general. I mean, we have this conversation time and time again. (0:22:50) Al: We’ve got another game to talk about later that’s adding fishing when it really doesn’t (0:22:53) Al: feel like it needs to. But what I definitely don’t want is realistic fishing. That just (0:23:01) Al: feels like the worst. So yeah, no, please, no. Thank you. Please, I’m thinking. (0:23:01) Jonnie: me either. Yeah. (0:23:08) Al: Harvest Moon, Home Sweet Home, speaking of Natsume. (0:23:11) Al: And no please no. Announced that their game is coming out on Friday, two days after this (0:23:18) Al: episode comes out, the 23rd of August, the day before my birthday. They say that they’ve released (0:23:26) Al: a gameplay trailer, but it’s kind of hard to see what the gameplay is because all they do in this (0:23:32) Al: is have people talking to people and running around. Like they’re not really showing a huge (0:23:37) Al: amount of things. There’s some cut scenes and stuff like that. (0:23:41) Al: I feel like we have different definitions of gameplay trailer but it looks pretty standard (0:23:47) Al: Harvest Moon game and I don’t really want that on a mobile device. We’ll see what happens. (0:23:55) Jonnie: Yep, I found it exactly the same way. I watched the trailer and I thought that sure looks like (0:24:00) Jonnie: some Harvest Moon gameplay but it did not tell me what the gameplay loop of this was at all. (0:24:06) Jonnie: So it feels like they’re basically saying if you like the idea of Harvest Moon and you want that (0:24:12) Jonnie: on your phone then this is the game for you and if you don’t know what any of those words mean then (0:24:17) Jonnie: you can probably give this one a miss. (0:24:20) Al: Yeah, probably. I don’t like to promise things very often, but we’re going to cover this (0:24:25) Al: game because I think this is the sort of game that it’s possible this could be good. I don’t (0:24:32) Al: think it’s going to be good, but it’s possible it could be good. But don’t buy this game (0:24:37) Al: yet. Wait. We’ll play it. We’ll tell you what it’s like. (0:24:39) Jonnie: Well, and it makes sense. It makes sense for us to cover because the Cottagecore game on (0:24:46) Jonnie: mobile, I think we would all love a really good version of that, and I don’t know that (0:24:53) Jonnie: there’s been one yet. So the hunt continues for something that sort of fills that niche in a way (0:24:59) Jonnie: that is very satisfying. (0:25:01) Al: Yeah, the problem is that what most of them are is just the same game but on mobile and (0:25:07) Al: that doesn’t… I mean, Stardew did it fine, but the problem is it’s still the same game, (0:25:14) Al: just different controls for it, and yeah, exactly. And so the problem is you need to (0:25:16) Jonnie: and generally worse controls, right? (0:25:21) Al: rethink what a game should be for mobile, and Stardew wasn’t trying to do that. Stardew (0:25:25) Al: was just “Oh, people want my game on mobile, that’s fine, let’s do that and see how people (0:25:29) Al: we’d interact with it and that’s that’s fine. (0:25:31) Al: That’s, you know, he wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel for that, but if someone wants to make a good game, a good farming game for mobile, they need to think about the entire thing from scratch and this just looks like it is Harvestment in the Winds of Anthos with a different story and on a smaller screen. (0:25:50) Jonnie: I agree, yeah. We’ve talked a lot more about this game than I thought we would. (0:25:56) Al: Yeah, we’ll see what happens. Natsumon 20th Century Summer Kid, which, fun fact, they (0:26:04) Al: changed the name on the Steam page. So they’ve added the English translation to this game (0:26:09) Al: on Steam and on Switch, so that’s the news. But the funny thing I found is I’m pretty (0:26:14) Al: sure on Steam it used to be called Natsumon 20th Century Summer Vacation, because that’s (0:26:19) Al: the literal translation from Japanese. But then apparently when they’ve localized it, (0:26:24) Al: changed the name. Which is fine. (0:26:27) Al: It’s just weird that they added the name initially as a different translated version, (0:26:32) Al: and then decided that that wasn’t what they were going with for the name. (0:26:35) Jonnie: I mean the name still makes sense I guess so that’s (0:26:38) Al: Yeah, no, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. It’s just, (0:26:42) Al: it’s weird that they had a name in English and changed what that was. (0:26:49) Jonnie: Yeah, I don’t know. I can’t get over the fact that this game is like a million dollars. (0:26:53) Jonnie: It’s so expensive. (0:26:56) Al: Um, yeah, it’s not cheap. (0:26:59) Jonnie: And it looks so bad for like… (0:27:02) Jonnie: And I get that that’s kind of like the style, but like… (0:27:06) Jonnie: Paying what? This game must be like 50 American dollars or something like that and it’s just like… (0:27:14) Jonnie: You could buy pretty much every other game that we’ve talked about (0:27:17) Jonnie: and still not have paid as much (0:27:19) Jonnie: as you could pay for this game (0:27:21) Jonnie: I just don’t (0:27:23) Jonnie: Who’s buying this? (0:27:23) Al: Me, apparently. (0:27:27) Al: Well, yes, we know that. (0:27:28) Jonnie: Well, Al, you have a problem (0:27:33) Al: We know that. (0:27:34) Al: Thankfully, my money is finite, so I can’t buy literally everything. (0:27:39) Al: Speaking of buying literally everything, Usagi Shima is coming to steam. (0:27:45) Al: Now, interestingly, so this was free on mobile, and I had ads and you could pay to get rid (0:27:53) Al: of the ads, but it was like five quid or something, so of course I did that. (0:27:56) Al: Oh, no, did it have ads? (0:27:58) Al: I don’t think it did have ads. (0:27:59) Al: It was just like an in-game purchase to get a bunch of… (0:28:01) Jonnie: think you could just pay to buy the like it was yeah it was just a hey do you (0:28:06) Jonnie: want to support me then you can do this (0:28:08) Al: Yeah, which was a no-brainer for this game. So it’ll be interesting to see whether that (0:28:11) Jonnie: yes (0:28:13) Al: will be the same for Steam or not. I don’t see any information about how much it will (0:28:16) Al: be yet, but the Steam page is up. It looks like it’s going to be on Windows and Mac. (0:28:23) Al: So yeah, it’s a fun game. I mean, if you’ve listened to us talk about Asagashima before, (0:28:29) Al: it’s exactly what you’re expecting, and it’s the exact same game. It’s just got (0:28:34) Jonnie: which is awesome I think that makes total sense and like I would say if it’s ten dollars or less (0:28:41) Jonnie: it’s kind of just an instant buy um if it if it does have a purchase price which I think would (0:28:46) Al: Yep. (0:28:47) Al: It’s different, right? Steam is different from mobile, and I think you can get away (0:28:47) Jonnie: not be a bad thing right to just say like hey give us five bucks for this game (0:28:57) Al: with charging money on Steam where you wouldn’t be able to on mobile, because I think the (0:29:01) Al: thing is that if you go free on mobile with an option to give money, you’re much more (0:29:05) Al: likely to get more people doing it, and therefore, people will go, “Oh, I like this game. Fine, (0:29:10) Al: I’ll put the money in.” Whereas if you don’t try it first, you might not be willing to (0:29:16) Al: pay for it upfront. Whereas on Steam, especially with the game now being popular, and people (0:29:21) Al: know it, and people like it, they’ll be like, “Oh, finally, it’s coming to Steam. I’m excited (0:29:25) Al: about that. Yes, I will buy that.” The smallest piece of news is the Echoes of the Plum Grove (0:29:26) Jonnie: Absolutely (0:29:30) Al: is now on Mac. Done. I still haven’t played this game. I really need to play this game (0:29:32) Jonnie: Cody you go play it (0:29:38) Al: because I love everything that it’s doing in terms of death. (0:29:44) Jonnie: Yeah. I can’t remember. Someone in the Slack, it might have been Cat, was playing it, and (0:29:54) Jonnie: they were saying they were having a really fun time with it, and this game weds me out (0:29:58) Jonnie: every time I kind of remember that it exists, because everything they’re doing around death (0:30:02) Jonnie: seems super cool and super interesting, and not what you expect when you first see the (0:30:06) Jonnie: now available on Mac. Picture is very cute, and you can imagine someone being like, “Ooh, (0:30:10) Jonnie: what’s this?” and looking into it and being like, “Oh my god!” (0:30:10) Al: Yeah, that’s the thing that’s most fun about it, is the art style is so cutesy, but you (0:30:17) Al: die in this game, and it’s hard not to die. It’s proper survival. You die and then you (0:30:24) Al: play as someone else, you know? Yeah, I guess the question is, I don’t know what happens (0:30:26) Jonnie: As your children, I’m pretty sure it’s like a generation. (0:30:33) Al: if you don’t have kids. Is that game over, or do you play as someone else in the village? (0:30:35) Jonnie: Game over. (0:30:36) Jonnie: I don’t actually know. (0:30:37) Al: don’t know. Anyway, yeah. (0:30:41) Al: That was meant to be the shortest piece of news. (0:30:45) Al: Outbound, cozy camper van exploration crafting game. (0:30:50) Al: That’s apparently what they’re listed as on Kickstarter. (0:30:53) Al: Don’t know why. (0:30:54) Al: They’re Kickstarters live now and they have well and truly hit (0:30:59) Jonnie: ah look this is a yeah I know you said I could have backed the me be here in the (0:31:05) Jonnie: witches mountain kickstarter but like how long ago did you have to back this that one because (0:31:09) Jonnie: like their their date for you know beta access is end of 2025 which makes total (0:31:14) Jonnie: sense like i’m not saying like that’s too long or anything like that making games takes a long time (0:31:19) Jonnie: but like and they’ve met the they’ve met the the kickstarter thing like don’t bother just wait for (0:31:26) Al: So I’ll tell you why. I’ll tell you why I kickstart games. I kickstart games because (0:31:34) Al: it’s like a little present to future me. I buy a game and then two, three years later (0:31:42) Al: I get a free game. It’s great. But it is, it is free. I haven’t paid for it at that (0:31:44) Jonnie: One, it’s not free, Al, and I know that you know this, and now you’re just saying… (0:31:52) Al: point in time. (0:31:54) Jonnie: You have paid for it, though, that is in fact how that has worked, (0:31:58) Jonnie: and you might not even get the game. (0:32:01) Jonnie: I would be pretty confident that this one is in fact going to come out, (0:32:05) Jonnie: because everything that I’ve shown looks very good. (0:32:09) Jonnie: Which, you know, there’s some tricky vertical slice stuff that people can do in trailers and stuff, (0:32:15) Jonnie: I would be shocked if this is a game that doesn’t see the light of day, (0:32:21) Jonnie: because it looks pretty good. (0:32:23) Al: Well, and it’s, it’s also, it’s the same developer that did Above Snakes. So they’ve proven that (0:32:28) Al: they can do a Kickstarter for a game and then release a game. Yeah, very different vibe, (0:32:30) Jonnie: Interesting, I don’t think I knew that it was the same developer, but uh, so yeah 100% (0:32:37) Al: which is always good when you’ve got like, get your developer who can do both, right? (0:32:42) Al: Very, very different. And I like that, but this is what I really love about indie game (0:32:48) Al: development, right? Is when they go, I’ve got a weird idea that I want to do for a game (0:32:53) Al: to do it. And then they’re like, and I’ve got this completely different idea for a completely (0:32:57) Al: different style of game. And then they do it. And if you’re successful, the first one, (0:33:02) Al: you will probably be successful at the second one because people like your first game, like (0:33:06) Al: this game funded in two hours. (0:33:08) Jonnie: Yeah, I mean that’s not a surprise like I think everything this game is doing is just really tapping into (0:33:14) Jonnie: Something that people are feeling (0:33:17) Jonnie: right now (0:33:18) Al: Yes this is the game that is for some reason adding fishing I don’t know why (0:33:22) Jonnie: Boo (0:33:23) Al: they’re adding it as a stretch goal away with your fishing don’t make me fish of (0:33:25) Jonnie: Boo (0:33:27) Jonnie: That’s a good reason to not back the Kickstarter (0:33:28) Al: course I’m gonna fish yeah yeah I’m like please stop we’ve no well the problem is (0:33:34) Al: right they’ve got fishing as the next one and then beekeeping after that and (0:33:39) Al: I’m like can we do the beekeeping and without the fishing but (0:33:42) Jonnie: 100%. Yeah. I think what I’m most curious with this game is like, what is the actual game? (0:33:50) Al: I deriving around and building your insane house on top (0:33:57) Jonnie: Right but like I said so in a lot of you know the games that we cover the gameplay loop is (0:34:02) Jonnie: very driven around you’ve got your plot of land and you are using that to produce (0:34:07) Jonnie: money or resources or other stuff that then enables all of those upgrades. (0:34:12) Al: Yeah, I see where you’re pointing. I think the point is exploration, and so you are going (0:34:17) Al: from point A to point B, via a million other points, and everything you do is with the (0:34:23) Al: goal of getting there, I think. It’s not particularly clear, which is fine because maybe they’re (0:34:30) Al: not 100% sure how it’s going to pan out, and they’ve very much been working on the core (0:34:37) Al: concept of the game. We’ll see. I’ve backed it, of course. (0:34:42) Jonnie: Yeah, look, I thought about it, and then I saw, I’m like, if I’m backing it, it would be to play the alpha. (0:34:47) Jonnie: And then I’m like, I don’t, why would I want to play an alpha? I’ll just wait for it to come out. (0:34:51) Al: Fair enough. (0:34:52) Al: Look, we know I have a problem with Kickstarters. (0:34:55) Al: Speaking of having a problem with Kickstarters, we’re now going on to the Game Updates section, (0:35:00) Al: which is about updates to games that are already out. (0:35:05) Al: The first one is Coral Island, the 1.1 is out now. (0:35:09) Al: I think this came out like just after the last episode came out, yet the 23rd of July. (0:35:16) Al: I think that is the day before the last episode where we had news. (0:35:21) Al: But we’d recorded like two days before that or something. (0:35:22) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:35:25) Al: So thanks, Coral Island. (0:35:27) Jonnie: And for those who don’t remember, this is 1.1 in brackets. Actually, it’s 1.0, and we’re now actually finished. (0:35:27) Al: Well, yeah, yes, they’re literally calling it Finale Land and Sea Update. (0:35:40) Al: They’re literally calling it the Finale, right? (0:35:45) Al: This is what the game was meant to be. (0:35:47) Al: They’re adding in stuff that didn’t exist in the first game that should have, like your (0:35:50) Al: town rank system. (0:35:51) Al: Finally added the top rank of it. (0:35:54) Al: They’ve added people in the sea that you can actually talk to. (0:35:58) Jonnie: When one of the headings in the 1.1 update (0:36:00) Jonnie: is storyline completion, we released a game (0:36:04) Jonnie: and the storyline was incomplete. (0:36:06) Al: Uhhh… (0:36:08) Al: Yes. (0:36:09) Al: Well, I- I- (0:36:10) Jonnie: But look, we’ll stop poking fun, (0:36:12) Jonnie: ‘cause I feel like this game has had some challenges (0:36:15) Jonnie: in the background, but there is a lot, I think, (0:36:17) Jonnie: to be excited about for 1.1 update. (0:36:24) Jonnie: Yes, it is finishing the game, (0:36:26) Jonnie: that there is, you know, like, I feel like they’ve– (0:36:28) Jonnie: I’ve also listened to a lot of feedback. (0:36:30) Jonnie: I’m just scrolling through all of the patch notes (0:36:32) Jonnie: because one of my favorite sort of spouse interactions. (0:36:36) Jonnie: For those that don’t recall, I think (0:36:38) Jonnie: when you get married in Coral Island, (0:36:40) Jonnie: your partner becomes a soulless husk (0:36:43) Jonnie: that stands in the house and does nothing. (0:36:46) Jonnie: And they have a bullet point that says you can now (0:36:48) Jonnie: hug and kiss your spouse once daily (0:36:50) Jonnie: to get some point in the relationship with it. (0:36:50) Al: Once, once daily. (laughs) (0:36:58) Jonnie: Uh, and I think it’s meant to reach, to get some points in the relationship, so you can, like, I think the implication is meant to be to feel like that you can continue to build the relationship, but to get some point in the relationship makes it feel like, “So the marriage is not entirely pointless, so…” (0:37:09) Al: Yeah, this is definitely a translation issue because they’re, I think they’re from the (0:37:17) Al: Philippines, the developers. So yeah, let’s not be too harsh on the English, but yes, (0:37:18) Jonnie: Uh, I believe that’s correct. (0:37:25) Al: it does feel a little bit perfect, accidental. (0:37:29) Jonnie: that one was just it was yeah that one was accidentally perfect um and when I was ready (0:37:33) Jonnie: through because it was about halfway through all of all of the updates it would give me a good (0:37:38) Al: like having some point in a relationship. But now we get to talk about the problems and that is that (0:37:46) Al: Coral Island was being published by Humble Games. And if you’ve not heard this already, Humble Games (0:37:52) Al: no longer humbles or games. It basically no longer exists as a thing. Humble Bundle still exists (0:38:02) Al: because Humble Games was separate. It’s like there’s the Humble company and then there’s (0:38:07) Al: this humble bundle and how– (0:38:08) Al: which is a problem for some things, including the fact that humble games were– the other (0:38:35) Al: thing they do as well as publishing is they did porting, so they were (0:38:39) Al: they were working on the switch port for coral island, no more. (0:38:47) Al: Shall I just use their own words? (0:38:51) Al: First of all, oh my word. (0:38:55) Al: I need to say that they were, they didn’t, the first apparently they found out about this was (0:39:00) Al: the same way everybody else found out about it. Nobody contacted them to say that this was happening. (0:39:06) Al: We’d like to say something to you today. (0:39:08) Al: We’ve been given that Humble Games’ recent “restructuring” - the most amazing word you can use for firing everybody - leaves consoles in a place of uncertainty. (0:39:16) Al: However, we see this as an opportunity to share what we can. (0:39:20) Al: To start, we share in your frustrations regarding the lack of an Incentive Switch port of Coral Island. (0:39:24) Al: Over the years, there’s a lot we’ve wanted to say in the spirit of transparency about many different things, but continue to be unable to do so because of the publishing agreement and NDA we have in place. (0:39:34) Al: The impact of Humble Games’ restructuring on Coral Island remains uncertain for all (0:39:38) Al: things related to consoles, whether porting or pushing hotfixes. I believe that they (0:39:44) Al: already have a port on Xbox and PlayStation, it was just Switch that was missing. So that’s (0:39:49) Al: why they’re talking about updates. (0:39:51) Al: As they are responsible for these platforms, we’ve been in communication with our lawyer (0:39:54) Al: since we found out about the restructuring on social media to figure out how to navigate (0:39:59) Al: this new situation. For example, we have an upcoming hotfix for the 1.1 update nearing (0:40:04) Al: release for Steam. We have no idea how to get this update out to other platform players (0:40:08) Al: and have a backend permission on console platforms to push updates out. We only have (0:40:13) Al: access to the Steam backend. Because of this, the only thing we can do for Switch Makers (0:40:18) Al: effective immediately is offer a key exchange to the Steam platform. We will offer key changes (0:40:23) Al: for as long as we are able to. Please email for a key change. Blah. Oh, and then they (0:40:28) Al: go, we will, I missed this last paragraph. We’ll keep you posted on developments once (0:40:33) Al: we have more information. We know it effing sucks, but we hope you understand. And they (0:40:39) Al: say effing, but this is still a family friendly podcast. There’s a lot of subtext and a lot (0:40:47) Al: of text in that update. (0:40:50) Jonnie: There certainly is. It’s just a tough situation for them to be in, right, like it seems like there is very little they can actually do about it. (0:41:06) Al: Yeah, it also sounds like they’re struggling to keep up with the the key exchanges (0:41:11) Al: There’s lots of people complaining in the comments that they haven’t had their key exchange. I (0:41:17) Al: Am very glad that I exchanged my key (0:41:22) Al: Two years ago when I when I got my steam deck and I was like I’m just gonna get this on Steam if I can (0:41:27) Al: And they let me do it. So I’m glad I did all the way back then (0:41:30) Al: I find it very interesting that they are very clearly saying that they (0:41:37) Al: I have not been allowed to say stuff because of NDAs (0:41:39) Al: But they’re saying they’re not allowed to say stuff because of NDAs possibly because they’re like well who’s gonna soon as nobody exists in the company (0:41:47) Jonnie: I feel like the NDA’s thing is normal, and it feels like we’re just seeing a frustration (0:41:54) Jonnie: over the last few years, sort of leaking out a little bit in this statement, which seems (0:41:59) Jonnie: totally understandable, because publishing games is hard, and publishing to multiple (0:42:04) Jonnie: platforms is hard, and sometimes you get in situations where the developers are not the (0:42:10) Jonnie: ones with the power in these relationships, and I think this is unfortunately what has (0:42:16) Al: Yep, and this is the thing you need to remember about Kickstarters. You are paying money (0:42:24) Al: for a promise of something that is not a legally binding contract. You are funding this and (0:42:30) Al: there is a chance that you get nothing out of it. So bear that in mind. Don’t be like (0:42:35) Al: me. Don’t Kickstart everything. I think I’ve only had two things that I just haven’t got (0:42:43) Al: from kickstarters. But it’s not fun when (0:42:46) Al: it happens. And there are a lot of disappointed people in the comments, (0:42:50) Al: because it’s all very well saying we’ll give you a key exchange. (0:42:52) Al: But if the switch is your only. (0:42:56) Jonnie: Anyway, it’s even harder, I don’t know, they said they’ve got a hotfix coming for 1.1 for Steam, obviously. (0:43:04) Jonnie: But if you’re a PlayStation or Xbox player, what does this hotfix fix? (0:43:10) Jonnie: You know, and the fact that there are potentially some significant bugs or glitches in those consolvations (0:43:20) Jonnie: that there’s no real idea of when or if they will even get this hotfix. (0:43:26) Al: Well, yeah, I guess we’ll just have to see what happens. (0:43:31) Al: Next we have the 1.2 update for Roots of Patria is out now. (0:43:36) Al: This is the one, I think we talked about this a few months ago. (0:43:40) Al: This is the one that adds child labour, I mean, isn’t that why we have children? (0:43:42) Jonnie: Hell yeah. (0:43:46) Jonnie: Finally, children will be useful for something. (0:43:51) Al: Not for child labour, but for adult labour in 18 years time, right? (0:43:55) Jonnie: Mmm, I don’t know. I feel like I feel like that’s inefficient get them started young (0:43:57) Al: We also have the sunnable, I mean, you played Roots of Patria? I can’t remember. (0:44:07) Jonnie: I I have played a little bit of roots of patcher. I (0:44:12) Jonnie: liked what it was trying to do but equally I was playing roots of patcher at the same time I was getting into coral island and (0:44:18) Jonnie: Coral island one out in that battle (

Welcome back to INDIEQUEST, your friendly, internet indie game podcast! On this episode we take a listener email about a game studio, and then dive deep into the world of indie games that don't cost a dime! Seriously, these games are free, and they're good enough to be placed on the Quest Log! You'd be surprised at the amount of awesome free indie games out there that are worth your time, and all you have to do is press download...------------------------------------------Games talked about in the show (contains spoilers for the episode):----------------------------Raw Fury Games, Moonstone Island, Atomicrops, Wolfstride, Dome Keeper, Cassette Beasts, Narco, The WereCleaner, Holocure: Save the Fans!, Test Test TestHave any Questions, Comments, or Concerns for the show? Click here to leave us a text message!---------------------------------------------Leave us questions, comments, concerns, or feedback of any kind at our email indiequestpod@gmail.com or follow us on twitter @indiequestpod!If you want to see the Quest Log go to indiequestpod.com! This will be updated as episodes are released, be wary though because it may contain spoilers for the episode!Follow our Hosts here:Steve on twitch - twitch.tv/BlinkoomJosh on Twitter - @FranticSocietySeth on Twitter - @captaindrachmaYou want to comment on something we talk about on a podcast?! Check out the network's reddit!https://www.reddit.com/r/polymedia/Special thanks to the intro music artist CrossFrog and the cover artist for the show @d3ltari on Instagram.Support the show - We're a proud part of the Polymedia Network!www.polymedianetwork.com

In this episode, Josh & Miss Bubbles discuss the major updates for farming games Coral Island, Roots of Pacha & Moonstone Island, as well as this week's releases, including Été, Farlands & The Garden Path. Video format: https://www.youtube.com/@GamingGardenPodcast Josh's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JoshGamingGarden Miss Bubbles' channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MissBubbles

Kelley builds a fan mod alternate LEGO Sonic build. Josh learns not to read the wiki...any wiki. Matt digs through Infinity's trash to find out when the money ran out. Chris is watching the anime...but it's not good either. The post RPG Cast – Episode 733: “You Don't Have to Go Home but You Can't Fish Here” appeared first on RPGamer.

Haygood and Tony dig into the list of the 100 Highest-Grossing Animated Films, inspired by the success of Inside Out 2. A little trivia time starts us off - do you think YOU can name the Top 5? Then, they reveal their personal favorite animated movies and some underrated gems. PLUS: There's a free Steam game code for the first lucky listener to cash it in, some real talk about the Xbox Game Pass price hike, and Tony's early thoughts on Moonstone Island! Worst it up with this BEEFY episode! This episode was mixed by Joe Haygood and includes Joe Haygood and Tony Sadowski on vocals. You can download the podcast directly from here or click on one of the links below to subscribe. This episode features “Holding Out for a Hero" by Jessica Saunders and “Gold Digger" by Bobby V., Lil' Fate, and Ludacris.

Al and Jonnie talk about Starstruck Vagabond Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:07: What Have We Been Up To 00:08:49: Game News 00:29:54: Starstruck Vagabond 01:04:07: Outro Links Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Release Tiny Garden Kickstarter Terra Nil “Vita Nova” Update Disney Dreamlight Valley “The Lucky Dragon” Update Moonstone Island “Pool Party” DLC Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Screenshots Bear and Breakfast Information Farming Simulator 25 Trailer 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. (0:00:34) Al: My name is Al. (0:00:36) Jonnie: And my name is Johnny. (0:00:38) Al: And we are here today to talk about Contachcore games. (0:00:41) Al: Whoo. (0:00:44) Al: As always, transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website. (0:00:48) Al: This episode, me and Johnny will be talking about Starstruck Thagabond, (0:00:52) Al: the new game by Yatsy Croshaw of zero punctuation fame. (0:00:57) Al: Although he doesn’t do zero punctuation anymore. (0:00:58) Jonnie: now fully Ramblimetic thing? (0:00:59) Al: That’s what it’s called. Yeah. (0:01:00) Al: No, it’s not fully ramb- is it not? He’s got two, because he’s got fully ramblimatic (0:01:06) Al: and a different one, which is… Oh, maybe fully- it’s fully ramblimatic than the standard (0:01:11) Al: one. Yes. Yeah, okay. Yes. Yeah, which is basically just all the video team from the escapist who (0:01:12) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s the new version under second wind, I think, is their new banner. (0:01:23) Al: got fired or quit. That worked out well for them. (0:01:28) Jonnie: But now you can support them much more directly, which is which is you know in some ways preferable (0:01:31) Al: Yeah. Yes, fewer management. I feel like they’ve been massively increasing the amount of content (0:01:39) Al: they’re doing. There’s so much stuff now, which, I mean, I don’t do it all because I don’t care (0:01:48) Al: about their TTRPG stuff, and I don’t care about their Let’s Play stuff, but I really enjoy most (0:01:55) Al: of their podcasts and a lot of the shorter videos they do. So, it’s good. (0:02:01) Al: Anyway, so yeah, we’ll be talking about Starstruck Vagabond. Before that, we obviously have some (0:02:05) Al: news, but first of all, Johnny, what have you been up to? (0:02:11) Jonnie: I have been up to a hidden game I came up with last year called Chance of Sinar, (0:02:17) Jonnie: and one of the things that I learned about this game is like, as a name written down, it looks (0:02:21) Jonnie: great. When you say it out loud, people have no idea what you’ve just said. It’s a confusing (0:02:27) Jonnie: jumble of terms, but it kind of works for the game because the game is all about translating (0:02:32) Jonnie: languages, and it’s a really fun game. I kind of completed it over the course of a weekend, (0:02:40) Jonnie: and I like it was one of those (0:02:41) Jonnie: games. I had a friend visiting me and just in our like downtime between doing stuff we would (0:02:45) Jonnie: just play a bit of it and it was a really fun game to play with someone else on the couch because (0:02:50) Jonnie: it’s a lot of working out stuff a lot of guesses about what you want what you think things mean (0:02:56) Jonnie: and having a second brain to like that that sees things differently I think was really valuable (0:03:02) Jonnie: for playing through the game but it was just a really fun experience great puzzles great story (0:03:09) Jonnie: Like really contained, you know, it was probably five or six (0:03:12) Jonnie: hours into it and it was just a really, really fun game. (0:03:15) Jonnie: I would highly, highly recommend Chances. (0:03:18) Al: Interesting. It has overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam, and it’s currently on sale. (0:03:24) Jonnie: and it’s currently on Game Pass, which is where I played it. (0:03:25) Al: Fair enough. I do not have Game Pass because I have too many games unplayed anyway. (0:03:34) Jonnie: Yeah, I feel like you getting game paths would just be like, uh, you know, you would just continually be adding things to a wishlist of or a backlog that you’re never actually going to get to and you would never actually play anything. (0:03:40) Al: You know the funny thing is like, I’ve literally got my Steam wishlist open just now, right? (0:03:49) Al: Because obviously everything is on sale just now and I’m like, what am I going to buy? (0:03:53) Al: The problem is like half of these games, I can’t remember, like death’s door. (0:04:00) Al: I don’t know what this game is, but apparently I added it to my wishlist and it’s currently (0:04:04) Al: 75% off. (0:04:06) Al: When did I add this to my wishlist? (0:04:07) Al: I have no idea. (0:04:08) Al: Oh wait, it does tell you, doesn’t it? (0:04:11) Al: In 2021. Okay. So a while ago, um, yeah, I do feel like it’s one of these things (0:04:14) Jonnie: Wow, yeah, I feel like it’s time to let that one go (0:04:20) Al: where some of them when, when they’re like up at like 80, 70% off, if I’m not going to (0:04:26) Al: buy it when it’s that much off, I’m removing it from my wish list. So, um, yeah, I’ve got (0:04:32) Al: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven currently on my list that are 70% off and above. (0:04:39) Jonnie: Well, that could have been a fun new game. Is it buy or remove? (0:04:40) Al: Oh my. (0:04:47) Jonnie: It’s good it’s not like we’re under a time crunch this morning. (0:04:50) Al: let me finish. I have 77 on my wish list on sale just now. That is too many. I have 160 (0:04:58) Jonnie: I don’t think I have 77 on my wish list. (0:05:02) Al: on my wish list. Part of the problem, right, part of the problem is that I add every single (0:05:09) Al: farming game that we talk about on the podcast to my wish list to keep track of it, right? (0:05:14) Jonnie: That makes sense. Yeah, that does make- (0:05:14) Al: That makes it okay, right? Maybe. (0:05:20) Al: Okay, cool, great. What have I been up to? I have been playing Go Go Town. More coming (0:05:29) Al: about that later. I don’t want to talk about that just now, but I’ve been playing it. I’ve (0:05:33) Al: also been playing Dave the Diver. Have you played Dave the Diver? You have played Dave (0:05:38) Al: the Diver. I don’t know if you’ve actually started it yet or not. You’ve done it. You (0:05:40) Jonnie: I have downloaded Dave the Diver and I have done the tutorial of Dave the Diver. (0:05:48) Al: might want to hurry up. (0:05:50) Al: You’ve got probably about 10 hours of gameplay (0:05:52) Al: before you can even play the bit that you need to talk about on the podcast. (0:05:56) Jonnie: Oh my god. (0:05:58) Al: Just be thankful you’re not on the Godzilla one. (0:06:00) Al: You have to finish five chapters, and I’m halfway through chapter two. (0:06:03) Al: And yeah, it’s taking a while. (0:06:08) Al: I don’t know why it’s so far through. (0:06:10) Al: Probably because Godzilla is probably quite hard to do. (0:06:12) Al: Anyway, blah, blah, blah. (0:06:14) Al: Dave the Diver. (0:06:16) Al: I’m enjoying it so far. (0:06:18) Al: I feel like it’s about to get- (0:06:20) Al: very grindy where I am, but it’s interesting. (0:06:24) Al: And yeah, we’ll talk more about that in the future maybe. (0:06:28) Jonnie: I know you don’t want to talk about go go town, but I also downloaded the (0:06:32) Jonnie: Early access for go go town and and had a quick play off it and I was very quick (0:06:36) Jonnie: I maybe played an hour of it (0:06:39) Jonnie: That game does feel very early access (0:06:42) Jonnie: and (0:06:43) Jonnie: I think I see this in the slack, but it’s way more (0:06:48) Jonnie: Seems like resource management town builder II than it does Animal Crossing II which I don’t know I super loved (0:06:58) Jonnie: Interested in how that game develops over early access, but my initial take was like oh (0:07:01) Jonnie: I don’t really want to play this now. I want to put this down and play it (0:07:05) Jonnie: Play it a bit later, so I’m looking forward to hearing (0:07:10) Al: Maybe. Yeah, I think the only thing I’ll say just now is that they have posted a big update on (0:07:19) Al: Steam talking about what they’re going to do and how they’ve changed what they’re going to do based (0:07:25) Al: on feedback. So might be worth having a look at that. But yeah, I will talk more about that maybe (0:07:32) Al: in the future. I don’t know. I don’t want to spoil anything. (0:07:36) Jonnie: I do. (0:07:38) Jonnie: I love spoiling things. (0:07:40) Al: And I’ve been continuing playing farm RPG. I don’t know if I’m enjoying it, but I’m playing it. (0:07:48) Al: I just keep going. I’m at crafting level 95 now. Farming level 82, fishing level 77 and exploring (0:07:48) Jonnie: of bringing an endorsement. (0:07:57) Al: level 76. It’s quite a grind at this point, but I keep going. I guess the thing is that I’m not (0:08:08) Al: I’m not actually spending a huge amount. (0:08:10) Al: of time each day on it, right? Like it’s maybe a total of 10 minutes in a day. (0:08:15) Al: So we’ll see if I’m still doing it in the next episode. (0:08:21) Al: The right is a new regular section of the podcast. Is Al still playing farm RPG? Yes. (0:08:26) Jonnie: Look I feel like this is like when Cody was playing her cult (0:08:32) Jonnie: What was a cult game that she was playing we’re Tetris that’s (0:08:33) Al: Tetris. (0:08:36) Al: yeah but i’m not trying to get out not i’m not trying to win a cruise with my (0:08:40) Al: time um let’s just not talk about how much money i’ve put into the game so we’re going (0:08:41) Jonnie: Not yet. Not yet. (0:08:50) Al: to talk about some game news so first up we have the exciting news uh that uh johnny’s (0:08:59) Al: leaning on the keyboard in the show notes um oh no I hope this podcast recording works (0:09:02) Jonnie: I’m not leaning on the keyboard. I’m trying to work out what the hell’s going on with my computer. (0:09:05) Jonnie: It’s right. (0:09:10) Al: um we have the exciting news that mica and the witch’s mountain is releasing on the 21st of august (0:09:16) Al: on steam and switch (0:09:18) Jonnie: Whoo! Only like a year after their initial release date that they were very confident about hitting. (0:09:26) Al: Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I’m very excited, not least because it’s happening after my (0:09:26) Jonnie: No, this is this is very exciting. (0:09:34) Al: month long not being at home and not having to deal with podcast. Yeah. So I’m very excited (0:09:39) Al: that it’s not releasing just now because I might have cried. (0:09:42) Jonnie: And the way they did the announcement because I I don’t know if you follow them on Instagram (0:09:46) Jonnie: But it was they they posted the day before saying like we’ll answer the most asked question (0:09:52) Jonnie: Like that we get today tomorrow and I was like (0:09:54) Jonnie: I really hope they are announcing the release date for me crew the which is now done because that is by far away gonna be (0:10:00) Jonnie: Their most asked question and and in fact they were so (0:10:03) Jonnie: No, very exciting news for that game. There was a new trailer that came along (0:10:08) Jonnie: with (0:10:10) Jonnie: With the announcement. I don’t know that I picked up anything (0:10:12) Jonnie: New other than yeah, this game looks like what they’ve promised it’s going to be and it looks pretty fun (0:10:19) Jonnie: Let’s see how it plays (0:10:21) Al: Yeah, I think this game very much will come down to how the controls feel. That’s it. (0:10:26) Al: Like if it feels good to fly, it’ll be a fun game no matter anything else. If it doesn’t (0:10:31) Al: feel fun to fly, nothing will save it. Even the froggy chair. (0:10:35) Jonnie: Uh, I could not agree more. (0:10:38) Al: Next we have Tiny Garden. This is the Polly Pocket farming game. They’ve announced that (0:10:45) Al: their Kickstarter will launch on the 2nd of July. So, there we go. Another Kickstarter. (0:10:50) Jonnie: I still think this game looks like this game looks cool right because I’m curious how it is gonna manifest into a game because the the polypockets size of stuff is so small but this one has me like super intrigued because it’s doing the cool nostalgia thing and in a way that I’m very interested how it manifests in gameplay. (0:11:12) Al: Yeah, I suspect it might feel quite kind of Tamagotchi-esque, right? (0:11:17) Al: Where the idea is not playing the game for lots of time. (0:11:23) Al: It’s like dipping it out and, you know, deal with your fart. (0:11:26) Al: Like, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was real time. (0:11:30) Al: But I guess we’ll see. (0:11:32) Al: I don’t know if I want it to be real time, but we’ll see. (0:11:35) Al: And, you know, the trailer shows lots of different designs. (0:11:39) Al: I suspect you’ll be able to. (0:11:42) Al: I wouldn’t be surprised if you could collect lots of them and like you open up your different ones to see what your gardens are currently doing inside there or something. (0:11:51) Al: Rather than just changing the design of your of your tiny garden, right? Like it feels like you’re collecting gardens, but we shall see. (0:12:01) Al: Next we have Terranil. Their new update Vitanova is out now and they’ve posted a bunch of information about it. Have you looked through this at all? (0:12:10) Jonnie: I have not looked at this one at all, but since we recorded the, like, what did I record that (0:12:17) Jonnie: episode with? It must have been with Kevin. When we recorded the episode on Terra Nil, (0:12:22) Jonnie: I hadn’t finished Terra Nil, and I keep intending to go back, and every time I see something about (0:12:28) Jonnie: Terra Nil, I’m interested in going back. But I think this might be the update that finally (0:12:34) Jonnie: sort of lures me back in, particularly with Terra Nil being available. I think it’s available (0:12:39) Jonnie: through Netflix. (0:12:40) Jonnie: I’ve got some new missions, which I assume means new maps, to play on. (0:12:42) Al: it is yes that’s a good point I should try it because I have Netflix just now (0:12:47) Al: I should try it on mobile see what it’s like (0:12:57) Jonnie: I think there’s about 11 in the initial game, and they’ve overhauled the animal functionality, (0:13:06) Jonnie: which is really interesting. (0:13:10) Jonnie: The way the animal system worked in the past is that it was kind of like the last thing (0:13:15) Jonnie: you would do, and it felt very clunky. (0:13:18) Jonnie: You would effectively build a special building, and then you would have to ping certain parts (0:13:24) Jonnie: on the map, and if it met enough of the requirements for a particular animal, that animal would (0:13:29) Jonnie: show up. (0:13:30) Jonnie: So it felt like this very clunky thing, where I remember on the first map getting frustrated (0:13:38) Jonnie: because one animal I couldn’t quite bring (0:13:40) Jonnie: back because I was like you know half a point off of needing you know a certain (0:13:46) Jonnie: area in a certain radius to bring back the final animal but equally I had no (0:13:52) Jonnie: resources at that point to re-terraform anything so I was kind of just like I (0:13:55) Jonnie: feel stuck in a way this that wasn’t particularly fun and this change (0:14:01) Al: So, so was it quite binary then where it was like you either have them or you don’t sort (0:14:07) Al: of thing, you’ve either done the checklist to get the animals back or you haven’t. Right, (0:14:10) Jonnie: Correct, yeah. (0:14:12) Al: whereas here it looks like it’s saying so it says the habitat may be sufficient for (0:14:16) Al: them to survive but not ideal for them to thrive so it’s like you can get them back (0:14:21) Al: with less work but then you have to work more to get like I guess them to reproduce or something (0:14:27) Jonnie: yeah so be curious how it works you know um like and it was it was a really there was good bones (0:14:32) Jonnie: in the system right so it’s like you know one of the requirements on the first map for wolves to (0:14:36) Jonnie: appear is they had to be deer already in a location nearby right because they need something to eat (0:14:41) Jonnie: uh which totally makes sense so um I feel like there was good bones so this is actually a really (0:14:47) Jonnie: exciting change to um uh what was uh it was probably slightly frustrating because it was at (0:14:52) Jonnie: the end where you were sort of relatively low on resources it was just your ability to sort (0:14:57) Jonnie: at that point when you didn’t really know what you needed to be building towards um was was a bit (0:15:03) Jonnie: frustrating so I like the idea of what this is doing uh I know there’s a bunch of other stuff (0:15:06) Al: Makes sense? Cool. Looks like they’ve added a new world map as well for viewing things. (0:15:11) Jonnie: yeah yeah I don’t know that that changes much other than I guess making the world feel more like a (0:15:19) Jonnie: a real world that you are restoring um which is which is kind of cool but um yeah it’s a it’s a (0:15:22) Al: Cool, and that’s live now, so I guess it’s time for you to play Terranil Journey, again. (0:15:37) Al: Speaking of updates that we’ve got more information for, for Disney Dreamlight Valley, the Lucky (0:15:42) Al: Dragon update is now out, and they’ve detailed everything in the update. (0:15:48) Al: Um, I don’t know, I don’t know if I want to. (0:15:52) Jonnie: It’s Milan. (0:15:52) Al: To go through all this stuff because a lot of stuff, well, yeah, it’s Mulan, but we (0:15:54) Jonnie: It’s Milan. (0:15:54) Al: already knew Mulan, right? (0:15:56) Al: But like they detailed a bunch of the stuff around Mulan and it looks like they’ve also (0:16:01) Al: got some more stuff around Stitch, Lilo and Stitch, um, and there’s a new event around (0:16:09) Al: Inside Out 2. (0:16:11) Al: That’s probably enough information, isn’t it? (0:16:13) Al: Don’t want to go too detailed if people are wanting to play it, but there you go. (0:16:16) Al: So if you want Mulan, go befriend Mulan now then. (0:16:22) Al: » Ireland have a new free DLC, which is the pool party DLC. (0:16:27) Al: That’s it. (0:16:27) Jonnie: The snorkel floatie looks really dumb and cute. (0:16:33) Jonnie: I love that he’s wearing a snorkel, I don’t know, there’s something about it that’s very (0:16:36) Al: Yes yeah that’s funny. Go get it if you’ve been playing the game. Okay Harvest Moon Home (0:16:47) Al: Sweet Home. Dear goodness I really don’t know what to do with this game. So they’ve posted (0:16:55) Al: a bunch of screenshots of this game which I will remind you is iOS and Android only. (0:17:02) Al: So first of all, it looks like it’s going to be a horizontal game. (0:17:06) Al: Um, because all the screenshots are like widescreen screenshots. (0:17:13) Al: Interestingly, it looks almost identical to Winds of Anthos, the newest game. (0:17:20) Al: Um, so I’m starting to worry that it might just be that, but mobile. (0:17:27) Al: Uh, and they presumably like scaled down in some cases because (0:17:31) Al: it’s probably too much for phones. (0:17:34) Al: uh… (0:17:36) Al: I mean, I like the look of Winzvantos, so I’m not against it looking similar, right? Like, my issue (0:17:42) Al: with that game was not how it looked. I thought the game looked really nice. I just didn’t enjoy (0:17:47) Al: playing it, so I’m not particularly enthused about playing this game. We have no idea about gameplay (0:17:54) Al: because it’s just some screenshots. They do show some fishing, and some animals, and a bunch of (0:18:01) Al: buildings and characters. I believe there’s one character who was in Harvest Moon One World, (0:18:07) Al: I’ll be honest, I don’t remember any characters in Harvest Moon One World because they were so (0:18:11) Al: forgettable. (0:18:14) Jonnie: I’m gonna be honest, this game looks so ugly I thought it was Pokemon for a second. (0:18:18) Al: Wow, you don’t like the look of it at all. (0:18:20) Jonnie: No, it’s terrible. And these screenshots don’t show nothing about the game, like… (0:18:22) Al: Interesting. Wow. (0:18:29) Jonnie: This is like when you’re posting screenshots, like, because you think people are excited about, (0:18:34) Al: yeah yeah it’s yeah it’s like when it’s like when Pokemon post like a new a new Pokemon (0:18:35) Jonnie: like, just literally anything that you do. And I do not think that is the case of this Harvest Moon (0:18:40) Jonnie: Home sweet home like yeah, like I say it is that we need to actually see (0:18:48) Al: and people like wow it’s a new Pokemon expecting that sort of reaction yeah I don’t because (0:18:52) Jonnie: Yeah, exactly, exactly. (0:18:57) Al: I was expecting because it’s a mobile game something mobile specific but it’s just without (0:19:03) Al: any actual idea of what the gameplay is. (0:19:04) Al: It looks like it might just be Harvest Moon, Winds of Anthos with a different story. That’s (0:19:10) Al: what it feels like it might be, and I’m really worried if that’s the case because that wasn’t (0:19:15) Al: fun to play with a controller, never mind with a touchscreen. (0:19:19) Al: But we’ll see. They have reconfirmed that there will be no in-app purchases, which is (0:19:24) Al: good, and they are not planning any DLC, which is something that is information, I guess. (0:19:33) Al: Yeah. (0:19:35) Al: But no idea about how it plays, what’s happening with this game, what it is, why it exists. (0:19:42) Al: You know, it is what it is. We’ll see. (0:19:46) Al: Very weird, I will say, why they announced this game like three weeks ago with no information (0:19:51) Al: and then three weeks later they post screenshots. Like, are they trying to build the hype up but they don’t know how? (0:19:58) Jonnie: That’s what it feels like. (0:20:00) Jonnie: It feels like somebody said, (0:20:01) Jonnie: hey, we need to start marketing this game (0:20:04) Jonnie: and then people that have no idea about marketing said, (0:20:07) Jonnie: okay, and this is what we get. (0:20:12) Al: Well, it’s going to be fun because I’m probably going to dump a whole bunch of information (0:20:19) Al: about it while I’m on holiday. So we’re going to be really delayed with that news. It’s (0:20:22) Jonnie: I mean, you can rest easy in knowing that it probably won’t be very good. (0:20:28) Al: not like I’m not going to play it though, right? Let’s not pretend. Fair, fair enough, (0:20:32) Jonnie: Oh, you’re definitely gonna play it, but you know, it’s not like the rest of us will (0:20:37) Jonnie: be missing out on anything because we’re not hearing the news. (0:20:41) Al: Fair enough. (0:20:42) Al: Any excuse for a Micah episode. (0:20:46) Al: Next, we have an update on Bear and Breakfast. (0:20:49) Al: So for those who don’t remember or weren’t listening to the episodes when we talked (0:20:54) Al: about it, there was an update about the health issues in the team. (0:20:59) Al: So one of the team members was diagnosed with cancer last year, was it? (0:21:05) Al: The end of last year, I think. (0:21:08) Al: And that was like just before their console release, I think. (0:21:13) Al: But they managed to get that out in time, but that has obviously delayed the updates (0:21:17) Al: that they were planning on bringing out, which obviously almost everybody in the (0:21:20) Al: replies are, “Get better. (0:21:22) Al: We hope the update can wait.” (0:21:26) Al: But they obviously felt like they needed to give some more information. (0:21:29) Al: So they’ve kind of given some more information about the update that they’re (0:21:32) Al: working on, but no like details on the update itself, just like they’re still (0:21:37) Al: going on and they’re hoping to get some other announcements not related. (0:21:42) Al: To the update coming in about a month, which I’m intrigued by. (0:21:48) Al: So there we go. (0:21:50) Al: Um, there’s a bit more information about the update and what’s coming. (0:21:55) Al: Oh, wait, no, I’ve scrolled down the page. (0:21:57) Al: It’s, it’s a plushie. (0:21:59) Al: There’s a plushie of the bear. (0:22:03) Jonnie: I feel like I’ve scrolled down the page and I miss this plushies of a bear right now (0:22:07) Jonnie: Cuz it doesn’t remember the beer and breakfast episodes. Hey, go back and listen to them. Oh my god (0:22:13) Jonnie: Yeah, okay. Oh, it’s a it’s a it’s a good that’s a good tease of a plushie (0:22:18) Al: Yeah. He’s got the hat and everything. Yeah, whereas I just scroll all the way down and (0:22:19) Jonnie: Ah (0:22:20) Jonnie: I think I got to like the end of the paragraph and I just did not scroll down to the image (0:22:29) Al: saw the image and went, “Oh, there we go.” So presumably it’ll be a makeshift and presumably (0:22:35) Al: it’ll come up and Johnny will cry over whether he wants to get on. The question is whether (0:22:40) Jonnie: I would definitely cry. (0:22:46) Al: whether your world will cry or not as well. (0:22:48) Al: Next, we have a new game announced. (0:22:53) Al: The game we’ve all been waiting for, Johnny. (0:22:55) Al: It’s Farming Simulator 25. (0:22:59) Jonnie: Is it a new game? Does this count? (0:23:03) Al: Well, it’s a it’s a game that’s being released that you have to buy separately (0:23:08) Al: if you didn’t have the previous if you had the previous one and you want to play it. (0:23:12) Jonnie: I like that answer better. (0:23:13) Al: So that I think would be the definition of a new game. (0:23:18) Al: It feels very philosophical, but I feel like it would be incorrect to say this is an update to (0:23:18) Jonnie: Mmm, I’m not sure. I’m still not convinced. (0:23:29) Al: a previous game, because that would imply that you would get it without purchasing. And I think (0:23:33) Al: it would be incorrect to say it’s a DLC, because you don’t have to have a previous game to buy (0:23:38) Al: this one. So I don’t know what else you would call this. (0:23:42) Jonnie: I would say they’re re-releasing farming simulator say 2018 with some minor tweaks. (0:23:49) Al: Look it’s the FIFA of farming games, right? Although we’re gonna have to change that (0:23:53) Jonnie: Yeah, and I would make that save argument. (0:23:59) Al: metaphor though because it’s not FIFA anymore. So basically, you don’t have to follow football (0:24:03) Jonnie: Is it not? I don’t- I don’t follow. (0:24:09) Al: or football games to have been aware of this, but basically FIFA asked EA for more money (0:24:16) Al: for the trademark for the games. (0:24:18) Al: So they wear. (0:24:20) Al: I think a billion dollars a year and they were asking for two billion a year. (0:24:26) Al: And so EA said, no, thank you. (0:24:29) Al: And so they lost the trademark because of that. (0:24:31) Al: And so now they call it EA Sports FC, as in football club. (0:24:37) Al: And at first thought I was like, Oh, this sounds interesting. (0:24:41) Al: That feels like a mistake on EA’s part because like FIFA brand is so big. (0:24:46) Al: But then I realised, no one else is making a game. (0:24:49) Al: I don’t think people playing the game care about the name. They go in and look for the new game. (0:24:54) Al: And therefore, I think FIFA just lost a billion dollars a year. (0:24:59) Jonnie: That sounds like FIFA being FIFA. (0:25:02) Al: So, yeah, EA Sports FC is the new name for the games that were previously called FIFA. (0:25:07) Al: But it doesn’t roll off the tongue as well. It’s not a great name. (0:25:11) Al: But I don’t think people playing the game care about the name. (0:25:15) Al: care about the name, they go in and look for the new game. (0:25:19) Al: There is a football game that has a footballer on the front of it and says EA. If they go (0:25:26) Al: in and ask for FIFA, the people in the store are going to point to EAFC. They know what (0:25:33) Al: they’re talking about. It’s not just about being incompetent, it’s about being corrupt. (0:25:34) Jonnie: Yeah, I always feel like I should go and work for FIFA because it’s just like a place where you can be incompetent and get (0:25:40) Jonnie: Paid a lot of money and I feel like I would be really good at that (0:25:48) Jonnie: I mean, I’ll do whatever. (0:25:51) Jonnie: Cool. (0:25:52) Jonnie: I’m okay with that. (0:25:53) Jonnie: Just pay me. (0:25:56) Al: Anyway, Farming Simulator! (0:25:59) Al: So they’re releasing Farming Simulator 25, whatever you might call it. (0:26:04) Al: That’s a thing that exists. (0:26:07) Al: It’s coming out on the 12th of November on Steam, Mac and PC, and PlayStation and Xbox. (0:26:14) Al: And there’s rice. (0:26:16) Al: Right, let me read… (0:26:20) Al: We’ve got some information on Steam. (0:26:21) Al: I can probably read it all in about 30 seconds. (0:26:26) Al: Farming Simulator 25, new crops, animals, productions and more. (0:26:28) Al: 400+ machines included with enhanced graphics and physics. (0:26:32) Al: Farming Simulator 25 floods the fields with a host of new machines, gameplay features, (0:26:37) Al: visual upgrades and even fresh water to grow rice, adding even more agricultural depth (0:26:42) Al: and diversity to the family-friendly series. (0:26:45) Al: New crops, animals and other features. (0:26:48) Al: It says some more. (0:26:49) Al: I don’t think it gives any more information, but it has some more words. (0:26:56) Al: Spinach and other new crops. (0:26:58) Al: I love how they mention two crops, and then they say “and others”. (0:27:06) Al: And they’ve added mighty buffaloes and other animals. (0:27:10) Al: Again, that was a list of one. (0:27:13) Al: I’m not convinced that you have a long list when you say “buffaloes and others”. (0:27:20) Al: Like I’m not thinking that that’s a long list when you only chose one. (0:27:24) Jonnie: Yeah, I’m (0:27:26) Jonnie: It’s what I’m most fascinated by is like how big is the team that’s worth like (0:27:30) Jonnie: I don’t understand the economics of farming simulator at all because today’s (0:27:34) Jonnie: There’s just so much art that goes into these games is ridiculous. I don’t know how they do it all (0:27:42) Al: So yeah, so apparently the games have sold over 25 million copies combined. (0:27:47) Al: I don’t feel like a lot. (0:27:52) Al: Farming Simulator 22, which was their last big one, sold 6 million copies. (0:27:58) Jonnie: It’s not that many. (0:28:01) Jonnie: You know, like, Pokemon sells tens of millions of copies and they can’t even (0:28:06) Jonnie: draw good trees. (0:28:09) Al: the people in this trailer are very uncanny valley, I don’t know. (0:28:14) Jonnie: Oh, like, okay, and this is all, like, so Farting Simulator does these ridiculous cinematic trailers, (0:28:19) Jonnie: and it’s not just like they do these trailers, but, like, the game starts with, you know, (0:28:23) Jonnie: some ridiculous cinematics. They’re very uncanny valley. I’m just like, (0:28:27) Jonnie: how do they have the budget to make this? (0:28:30) Al: The buffalo looks great in the trailer. The people look creepy, but the buffalo looks (0:28:36) Al: great. It looks like his hairs are individually modelled. Why have they done this? This in (0:28:45) Al: itself probably wiped out their budget for the game, only selling six million copies. (0:28:51) Jonnie: Why have they done this is just a great, like, all-round question for farming similes. (0:28:56) Al: Like, it’s not even a very expensive game, right? Like, it’s like 30 or 40 quid, I think, (0:29:01) Al: brand new? Um, it doesn’t even, it’s not even like 60, 70. And so, like, 6 million. (0:29:10) Al: What? Are they making money? (0:29:14) Jonnie: We’ve got to be somewhere. Maybe it’s all the DLC that they do. (0:29:18) Jonnie: Maybe that’s the real business model. (0:29:20) Al: Of course. Of course, they have brands in the game. That’s exactly what it is. (0:29:26) Al: Because every DLC is like, “Oh, here’s a new brand of machine.” (0:29:30) Jonnie: Ahh, yes, and I did. (0:29:30) Al: A hundred and fifty brands. The brands are obviously paying to get in the game. (0:29:34) Al: That’s how they make the money. There we go. Done. (0:29:39) Al: Anyway, if you want a new farming simulator that has rice, there you go. (0:29:44) Al: But yes, this feels like a glorified DLC shoved into the game. (0:29:50) Al: I think that’s all the news. Interesting selection of news. (0:29:54) Al: Next, we’re going to talk about Starstruck Vagabond. (0:29:58) Al: OK, so where to start on this? So I guess first of all, just a quick reminder, (0:30:03) Al: this is the new game by Yatsy Croshaw. It is a delivery-based game, shall we say, (0:30:12) Al: where you have a ship or you get a ship and then you use that to make deliveries. (0:30:21) Al: And yeah, that’s it, right? (0:30:24) Jonnie: Yep, that’s… that’s the game. (0:30:29) Al: I feel like I’m going to struggle probably like you to explain my feelings about this game. (0:30:36) Al: I don’t think I dislike it. I think you have said you do dislike it. (0:30:43) Jonnie: I would like to say that I loathe this game (0:30:48) Al: Wow! That is quite a- (0:30:51) Al: Do we want to talk about the mechanics first, or do you want to talk about your feelings about it first? (0:30:56) Jonnie: Maybe I’ll talk about my feelings first and then we can use that as a segue into the mechanics and like (0:30:59) Al: Okay. Sure. (0:31:02) Jonnie: fundamentally (0:31:04) Jonnie: So I like the vibe of this game (0:31:06) Jonnie: I think the music in the game is incredible the art style is not for everyone (0:31:11) Jonnie: But it totally makes sense in terms of like both the scope of the development and and what the game is going for (0:31:17) Jonnie: This game is so unfun to play. I (0:31:21) Jonnie: Couldn’t like I have rage quit this game. I tried to play it like three or four times and every session after (0:31:27) Jonnie: 15 minutes ended up with me just like (0:31:29) Jonnie: Rage quitting the game and needing to play something else. I just never had fun (0:31:34) Jonnie: Trying to do anything in this game because mechanically it is so (0:31:42) Jonnie: clunky (0:31:43) Jonnie: There was just I couldn’t like it wasn’t like I you know, the first time I played it and I think I rage quit (0:31:48) Jonnie: I was like, maybe it’s just me right? Like you’ve got to give these things a chance (0:31:52) Jonnie: But the more I played the less I wanted to be playing this game (0:31:57) Jonnie: There was nothing enjoyable about it. And it’s it’s shocking to me that a game in this state (0:32:05) Jonnie: Made it to release. I just don’t see (0:32:08) Jonnie: Like I struggle to see where someone (0:32:12) Jonnie: Designing this game thought the fun lived because I cannot see it (0:32:16) Jonnie: You (0:32:16) Al: we’re definitely not getting a retweet from Yahtzee. he doesn’t strike me the (0:32:24) Al: sort of person that wouldn’t listen before he retweets something as some (0:32:28) Al: developers very clearly do when I post about talking about their game and they (0:32:33) Al: retweet and I’m like you didn’t listen to this because we just slag off your (0:32:36) Al: game okay I don’t feel the same as that it’s not that I love the game though (0:32:46) Al: goodness um I don’t know why I’m struggling so much to explain how I feel (0:32:52) Al: about this game let’s let’s go through the mechanics and maybe we can talk (0:32:56) Al: about individual things and maybe that will give me a better idea of how I feel (0:33:01) Al: about this game overall so the idea is you you have your ship and you go to a (0:33:08) Al: place and you pick up packages and you take that to another place and as you go (0:33:13) Al: you upgrade your ship and there’s (0:33:17) Al: story and things happen. But there are (0:33:20) Al: basically like four main mechanics and (0:33:25) Al: that is carrying things to your ship and (0:33:29) Al: away from your ship and then the three (0:33:31) Al: mechanics that are basically only ever (0:33:33) Al: on your ship and that is welding, (0:33:37) Al: cleaning and I’ve said wrenching because (0:33:39) Al: I’m not really sure how to describe it (0:33:42) Al: other than you’ve got a wrench and you (0:33:44) Al: twist things like things are (0:33:46) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s how I would describe it. (0:33:46) Al: out of alignment. And you have to make them in alignment. There’s never really any kind (0:33:52) Al: of like problem solving with this is very much like you can tell that the idea behind (0:33:59) Al: this was not to be a puzzler. Obviously it’s meant to be, you know, just doing things to (0:34:07) Al: upgrade things. Like it looks at Stardew and goes, how do I do that sort of thing, but (0:34:13) Al: not in farming, and… (0:34:16) Al: kind of replaces things like watering and mining and stuff with these things instead. (0:34:24) Al: And so like when you’re… when something happens and you need to use one of these mechanics it’s (0:34:28) Al: like very clear the icon shows you, right? Like you see a little welder or you see a little cleaner (0:34:35) Al: thing. I don’t even know what it is we’re using to clean. Is it like a high pressure? It’s not (0:34:39) Al: like a sponge or anything, it’s like some cleaning device. And there or it shows the wrench. (0:34:40) Jonnie: Yeah, I thought it was like some sort of like water gun. (0:34:47) Al: Um, these are always very reactive, I guess. So like if you’re traveling and you hit an asteroid (0:34:54) Al: your ship will stop and you have to go and fix everything. Or you’ll come across someone who’s (0:34:59) Al: sent out an SOS and you have to go about their ship and you have to help them. They’re not really (0:35:05) Al: used as… I guess maybe that’s kind of my issue with these parts is they’re… they’re about getting (0:35:12) Al: back to the state that you were in, rather than improving the state. (0:35:16) Al: Everything in a farming game is giving you something, either giving you crops or giving you a resource of some kind to build that up. (0:35:27) Al: Technically, the welding does give you resources when you go to planets. I forgot about that, but we’ll come back to that in a minute. (0:35:33) Al: But on your ship, there is no getting things. Your ship is just a way to get between places, and these mechanics are just about, (0:35:48) Jonnie: Yeah, and I think what you’ve hit on is probably my fundamental issue with the game is that (0:35:59) Jonnie: these mechanics entirely exist to stop you from moving in the game, and there’s nothing (0:36:05) Jonnie: particularly fun about them, and I think the insight that all it is is returning your ship (0:36:10) Jonnie: to a state where it can fly, rather than about making any improvement to it, is exactly right. (0:36:17) Jonnie: You know one of the times I write (0:36:18) Jonnie: about this game is my ship got (0:36:20) Jonnie: damaged flying from planet A to planet B (0:36:22) Jonnie: and I went to fix it (0:36:24) Jonnie: and I died while fixing it. (0:36:26) Jonnie: I have no idea why I was dying (0:36:26) Al: Oh, I know why you die. I know why you die because I had that issue as well. You were (0:36:28) Jonnie: I couldn’t work it out (0:36:33) Al: out of stamina. So, yeah, I think once you’ve done that and you realized it, it then becomes (0:36:34) Jonnie: Ah, that was super unclear to me. (0:36:43) Al: more clear. But yeah, I find it a bit confusing when that happens because you’re like, “Oh, (0:36:48) Al: I’m losing health.” And you’re like, “Oh, is this because I need to do things quicker?” (0:36:52) Al: like the, the life support system isn’t working. So I need to do it quicker. So you do. (0:36:56) Jonnie: That’s what I thought it was, yep. (0:36:57) Al: But that, but that makes you die quicker because it’s your stamina that’s the issue. (0:37:01) Jonnie: Uh, so like, that stuff, like, and that’s just like, I was already not playing the game, (0:37:08) Jonnie: and to then die and be told that you’re gonna be charged some amount of money, (0:37:11) Jonnie: I was just like, I’m straight up not having a good time with this. (0:37:13) Jonnie: I don’t, I was like, I didn’t want to work it out, I just wanted to not play. (0:37:16) Jonnie: That was, that was how that experience made me feel, (0:37:20) Jonnie: ‘cause it didn’t feel like a puzzle. (0:37:21) Jonnie: I’m already feel like I’m being punished for not being particularly good (0:37:26) Jonnie: at the kind of terrible piloting mechanics like just nothing nothing (0:37:31) Jonnie: mechanically about this game was like wow I feel like I’m you know having fun (0:37:37) Jonnie: being a space delivery man it all felt like I am I’m prevented from being a (0:37:45) Jonnie: space delivery man because I have to be a mechanic that keeps dying like yeah (0:37:49) Jonnie: and that was that was a huge point of frustration for me (0:37:52) Al: Mm hmm. I think it’s probably fairly accurate to how hard space travel is, right? Like just (0:38:03) Al: constantly things going wrong. Uh, because space travel is hard. That doesn’t necessarily (0:38:08) Al: mean that it’s fun. Yeah, I think I didn’t, it didn’t make me rage quit the game, but (0:38:13) Al: I certainly got frustrated when it was like, Oh, you’re going to another planet to do a (0:38:17) Al: thing and oh no, no, no, I have to spend five minutes. (0:38:22) Al: Going and clicking on 10 different things in my ship just to continue moving. And you (0:38:28) Al: get nothing from that. Yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t find that fun. Um, the welding, let’s talk (0:38:35) Al: about the, the welding on the planets. Did you get to a planet and resource grab, getting (0:38:40) Al: resources from that? I can’t remember how early that happens, but you do that in the (0:38:42) Jonnie: And not outside of the tutorial (0:38:44) Jonnie: There’s the there’s one in the very (0:38:46) Jonnie: Yeah, you get the what do they call it? That’s the the not worth anything in it’s not called that but it’s (0:38:52) Al: Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that’s the best part of the game personally, because kind of. I dislike (0:38:53) Jonnie: It’s something like that (0:39:04) Al: it in some ways as well, but let’s come to that. I like that idea. That’s kind of the thing that (0:39:10) Al: most I enjoy is the idea of you going to these unexplored planets and getting stuff from them. (0:39:17) Al: And that was certainly when I was having the most fun. What I didn’t. (0:39:22) Al: Like about it was how you have no inventory, right? And all you, well, not for those things (0:39:32) Al: you get on. You technically do have an inventory. Do you? No, I don’t think you ever have like, (0:39:39) Al: you can’t put things in pockets. You can’t put them in a bag. All you can do is grab something (0:39:43) Al: and put it on your, your platform. And so that limits you to taking three things from a planet (0:39:50) Al: at once, which it reminds me of. (0:39:52) Jonnie: And can we talk about the three things thing? (0:39:55) Jonnie: ‘Cause my God, that drove me insane. (0:39:59) Jonnie: Like the movement in this game, (0:40:01) Jonnie: where I get that like the space on your ship (0:40:04) Jonnie: is kind of meant to be one of the limiting factors, (0:40:07) Jonnie: but it’s so restrictive at the start. (0:40:09) Jonnie: I spent maybe, this is another time I rage quit the game, (0:40:12) Jonnie: was because I couldn’t work out (0:40:14) Jonnie: that I had the specific square on the landing platform (0:40:17) Jonnie: that you need to lower the landing platform, (0:40:20) Jonnie: blocked off with one of the things (0:40:22) Jonnie: that I’m delivering. (0:40:23) Jonnie: And like, that’s not a fun game mechanic. (0:40:25) Jonnie: That’s just a frustrating user experience, right? (0:40:27) Jonnie: Like, just let me put four things on the landing platform (0:40:31) Jonnie: that has the loading platform, that has four spaces on it, (0:40:34) Jonnie: and let that go up and down. (0:40:36) Jonnie: Like, just not be able to move around the ship (0:40:39) Jonnie: like so early on, because I’ve got three or four boxes (0:40:42) Jonnie: in there. (0:40:43) Jonnie: Again, nothing fun about that. (0:40:44) Al: Yeah. Yeah, and you have no real storage space on your ship to start with. And even after you’ve (0:40:51) Al: upgraded it at least once, because I upgraded it at least once, you still don’t have any storage (0:40:57) Al: space. You’re like plonking it in random places, blocking you off from getting to places. (0:41:04) Al: Ehm. (0:41:05) Jonnie: Yeah and I don’t mind like a bit of a Tetris puzzle to go with storage but again it didn’t (0:41:12) Jonnie: really feel like a puzzle as much as just like hey the natural place where you want to put the (0:41:16) Jonnie: stuff is the wrong spot to put the stuff and it’s just going to prevent you from playing more of (0:41:20) Al: - Hmm. (0:41:21) Jonnie: the game which is that’s how I feel about most of the mechanics of this game most of the mechanics (0:41:24) Jonnie: feel like they exist just to make sure that the game actually has some length to it. (0:41:28) Al: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I found it, it felt a little bit when I was on that planet and I (0:41:35) Al: was gathering things and I was like, Oh, the realisation that I can only take three things (0:41:39) Al: from this planet. It felt very much like the first time I played Animal Crossing New Leaf (0:41:46) Al: where you’re like gathering like apples and stuff and you can only stack up to nine in (0:41:52) Al: your inventory. And I’m like, why? Why is that so restrictive? (0:41:58) Al: And I don’t know, maybe there are people that find that sort of thing fun, right? Because (0:42:02) Al: there are games based around these sorts of things that like strand games where it’s (0:42:08) Al: like you have to have, you know, very limited space in your bag. So you have to only take (0:42:13) Al: certain stuff. I don’t find that fun. And having that in this game massively reduced (0:42:22) Al: my enjoyment of that. I think if that in particular, like if you had an inventory. (0:42:29) Al: For everything, I guess, other than packages, right? Like I understand why the packages (0:42:32) Al: would be like physical things, because that’s the whole point of the game is you’re delivering (0:42:35) Al: things, right? But things like your upgrade units and your rocks and stuff like that, (0:42:42) Al: they still have to take up the same amount of space as a massive package. Like that doesn’t (0:42:46) Al: feel right to me and it feels unfun. (0:42:50) Jonnie: Yeah, I agree. I think it’s a really good point that I think is being missed in a lot of cottagecore genres. (0:42:56) Jonnie: Like, actually, inventory management is not fun, and I feel like this is something that has persisted, you know, because it probably existed due to technical limitations of games in earlier times. (0:43:10) Jonnie: That doesn’t need to exist anymore, because the games that I most enjoy that have an inventory management aspect is because there is some associated with it. (0:43:20) Jonnie: We’re having a limited inventory, kind of, you know, impacts the difficulty of the game, right? There are some games where it’s like, “Well, yeah, if I could take infinite healing potions, of course I could kill the boss.” (0:43:32) Jonnie: Like, that’s… But, you know, if I can only take three with me, then that becomes much more of a challenge. (0:43:38) Jonnie: Cottagecore games don’t have any… Like, it’s not like the game gets harder or more difficult because you’ve got limited inventory. It just becomes more frustrating if you’ve got a limited inventory. (0:43:49) Al: Yeah, and I suspect that the whole point was to be like, yeah, you have a small ship and (0:43:50) Jonnie: Which is not the same thing. (0:43:58) Al: you have to deal with that. But yeah, the idea that a rock is going to take up as much (0:44:02) Al: space as it does in my ship doesn’t make any sense. You can get a lot of rocks in a box, (0:44:08) Al: you know, I can put rocks in my pocket, but I can only put three of them on my loading (0:44:12) Al: platform. Silly. Okay, so that I feel… (0:44:19) Al: moves into the deliveries, right? Because we’ve talked about getting stuff from planets (0:44:22) Al: and the deliveries. I think I wonder… So your point about not being able to put four (0:44:30) Al: on the platform that has four slots. Yeah, that’s, that’s very annoying. I get that. (0:44:36) Al: I completely agree with you on that. And I think that that would make a massive difference (0:44:39) Al: to the game. I totally understand why the boxes take up space on your ship. And I think (0:44:45) Al: I would be fine with that if it were for a few changes and one of the (0:44:49) Al: would be your starting ship actually having somewhere to store stuff that isn’t just the (0:44:53) Al: corridors, right? Like one small space, like make it four spaces to start with, right? And then if (0:45:01) Al: you take on a delivery that’s more than four, then you have to deal with that annoyance, right? (0:45:04) Al: I get that. That’s the kind of not risk, right? Because it’s not really a risk, it’s an annoyance, (0:45:10) Al: but you’re balancing the annoyance with getting more reward in a shorter period of time. And that, (0:45:16) Al: I think totally works. (0:45:18) Jonnie: 100% right because I think the Tetris puzzle aspect of it is kind of fun in the idea that it’s like (0:45:25) Jonnie: Oh, I now yeah, like you say, I want to carry more (0:45:28) Jonnie: So I’m gonna overflow from my storage space into my corridors and now I need to build paths and stuff (0:45:33) Jonnie: So I can make sure I can still get around to everything (0:45:36) Jonnie: That’s totally fine. Right because at that point it feels like a choice. It was just never a choice (0:45:40) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it doesn’t even need to necessarily have a new area on the ship. (0:45:45) Al: Just being able to walk around your storage area when it’s full. That would solve it. (0:45:50) Al: You’re not your storage area, you’re your loading platform, right? Because you have (0:45:53) Al: to walk through your loading platform to get to the back of the ship by default, right? (0:45:58) Al: So if you could just walk around it, that would solve the problem. And then you can (0:46:04) Al: upgrade your ship later on to have more storage space or whatever. (0:46:10) Al: I think that’s my only real annoyance about the deliveries part of it. Like, other than (0:46:15) Al: obviously I know you’re not a huge fan of the ship movement. I didn’t dislike that. (0:46:20) Al: I thought it was quite fun. I don’t know whether you realized this or not, but you didn’t have (0:46:24) Al: to do that minigame when you’re traveling. If you just exited out of it, your ship would (0:46:32) Al: fly itself. But you wouldn’t get any of the advantages of the minigame. (0:46:36) Jonnie: at their advantages to the minigame? (0:46:40) Al: You didn’t get to the warp core bit, did you? So basically, there are four things that happen (0:46:40) Jonnie: No. (0:46:51) Al: on that miniscreen. So one of them is the meteors that you have to avoid. Two is there’s (0:46:56) Al: clouds of dirt. And if you go through them, you have to clean your ship. Three is the (0:47:03) Al: S.O.S. so you can hear S.O.S. calls and go to them. That would be one of the advantages. (0:47:10) Al: You don’t get them if you don’t do the minigame. And going to the S.O.S. calls allow you to (0:47:16) Al: get more stuff. You can get money by fixing people’s ships and stuff like that. But the (0:47:21) Al: other one is the little orange clouds on the minigame screen. Those are actually things (0:47:28) Al: you can collect to get warp core fuel. So you can get free warp core fuel by flying through (0:47:38) Jonnie: Oh, I thought that they were… I think I was avoiding them because I assumed that they were bad things. (0:47:43) Al: It explains that once yeah, so it explains that once you get the warp core that you can fly through them and (0:47:50) Al: Replenish your warp core fuel. So because otherwise you have to buy warp core fuel, but that gives you that gives you more for free (0:47:54) Jonnie: Ah, right, so I never got the warp course. (0:47:58) Al: So like you you need the warp core to move between the planetary systems (0:48:03) Al: And you start off without warp core so you can only go between was it three planets in the first system? (0:48:08) Jonnie: Yeah, I think three. (0:48:09) Al: and then you need a certain amount of warp core fuel to get to (0:48:13) Al: one system away and a certain amount to get to two away blah blah blah blah (0:48:18) Al: So I actually quite like the way they do that (0:48:21) Al: Maybe they didn’t explain it well enough and that you can actually exit out of it and you you don’t I (0:48:28) Al: Think maybe it slowly builds up dirt that you have to clean off (0:48:31) A

Another packed episode with all the news from Summer Games Fest and more!Boomerang Fu Just Desserts DLC, Star Wars Hunters, Summer Games Fest 2024,The Thing: Remastered, Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge, Mega Man II, Mega Man III, Mega Man IV, and Mega Man V, Garage: Bad Dream Adventure, Tempopo, LEGO Horizon Adventures,Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, , Sid Meier's Civilization® VII, Battle Crush, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind ,NEVA and Sonic X Shadow Generations ,Monopoly ,Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown , Biomorph,Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time Remake ,Brawlhalla , Day of the Dev 2024,Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure,Future Games Show 2024,Nova Hearts ,Dredge: The Iron Rig ,Devolver Direct 2024,Cult of the Lamb's 'Unholy Alliance', PC Gaming show 2024,Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector ,Guerrilla Collective 2024 , Yooka-Replaylee , Volgarr The Viking 2,Killing Time: Resurrected, Final Knight ,Five Nights At Freddy's: Into the Pit - Mega Cat,Cozy Dungeons, The Secret of Crystal Mountain ,Grit and Valor 1949, Iron Meat, Beyond the Ice Palace 2,Renaine , Constance , Crypt Custodian,Clock Tower Rewind, Elsie, Toxic Crusaders, Urban Myth Dissolution Center, Escape From Ever After, Bittersweet Birthday, Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire, DoubleShake, Neon Blood, Demonschool, Frogun Encore, Steamworld Heist 2, Tomba! Special Edition, AntonBlast, The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest ,Call of Duty: Black Ops 6,Matchbox Driving Adventures,Scars of Mars, Fitness Boxing feat. HATSUNE MIKU , Love Eternal,Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion ,Moonstone Island ,Minecraft X Tetris ,Balatro ,Yars Rising ,Among Us ,Victory Heat Rally ,Outer Wilds,NES Nintendo World Championships cartridge The Gaming BlenderCould you design a video game?Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the Show.

Al and Codey talk about all the news from Summer Game Fest and the Wholesome Direct Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:39: What Have We Been Up To 00:07:41: Game Release Info 00:23:01: Game Updates 00:33:48: New Games 00:57:06: Outro Links Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home The Garden Path Kamaeru Sunnyside Moonstone Island The Palace on the Hill Ova Magica Above Snakes Turnip Boy “Pride” Update Terra Nil “Vita Nova” Update Fae Farm “Skies of Azoria” Update Usagi Shima “Bunny Paradise” Update Travelers Rest “Story and City” Update Go Go Town Gameplay Video Letter Bunny Humblets Harvest Hills Wanderstop Lou’s Lagoon Discounty Space Sprouts Dragon Shelter 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) Codey: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:33) Codey: My name is Cody. (0:00:34) Al: What’s happening? My name’s Al. (0:00:38) Codey: And we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (0:00:42) Al: No, I don’t like this. (0:00:45) Codey: OK, you can do it. (0:00:46) Al: That was very uncomfortable. (0:00:50) Al: We’re going to talk about lots of stuff, lots of news. (0:00:51) Codey: Why? (0:00:54) Al: That’s the main topic. The main topic is news. (0:00:56) Al: There’s news. We are recording this a few hours after the Wholesome Games… (0:01:02) Al: Wholesome Direct, not the Wholesome Games Direct. (0:01:04) Al: The Wholesome Direct, Smack Bang in the middle of Summer Game Fest. (0:01:11) Al: So the main summer game fest, whatever they call it, show was yesterday. (0:01:17) Al: Wholesome Direct was today. (0:01:19) Al: It was, I’m sure there’ll be stuff announced tomorrow. (0:01:22) Al: We’ve got the Xbox showcase tomorrow. (0:01:25) Al: Devolver is sometime, there’s a bunch of stuff. (0:01:28) Al: So we’ll probably be out of date by the time this episode comes out. (0:01:31) Al: But I don’t think I want any more news in (0:01:34) Al: it is Smack Bang Full of News. (0:01:38) Al: So we’re going to go through that in sections. (0:01:40) Al: But first of all, Cody, what have you been up to? (0:01:42) Codey: I have three jobs, bow, bow, bow, bow, and a fate, a fake job. (0:01:46) Al: And a fake job. (0:01:50) Al: Yeah, the game that’s on your list there. (0:01:52) Codey: Oh yeah. (0:01:52) Codey: Power watch emulator. (0:01:54) Codey: That’s what gets me going. (0:01:55) Codey: That’s what gets me through the world. (0:01:57) Codey: Um, is being able to just come home and just listen to an audio book. (0:02:03) Codey: I’m currently listening to the eye of the world by Robert Jordan. (0:02:06) Codey: Um, hate the writing, uh, asked me about that in the (0:02:12) Codey: Slack, uh, but yeah. (0:02:15) Codey: So when I’m, I’m doing that and playing power wash simulator, absolutely (0:02:19) Codey: love power wash simulator. (0:02:20) Codey: I think it’d be super fun to do, um, a greenhouse about that. (0:02:25) Codey: So listeners, if you are interested, head on over to the (0:02:27) Codey: patreon, um, ths pod, uh, patreon and talk, do the monies and then talk (0:02:34) Codey: to me on Slack and tell me about how cool power wash emulators and how (0:02:37) Codey: you’d like to listen to an episode about it. (0:02:40) Codey: Yeah, other than that, I’ve been slilling in coffee (0:02:42) Codey: and dogs while doing a PhD. (0:02:44) Codey: Super fun. (0:02:47) Codey: Uh, going a million miles an hour. (0:02:49) Codey: After this, I’m taking a bath and probably going to sleep. (0:02:52) Codey: Yes, it’s five o’clock. (0:02:53) Codey: Uh, I am tired. (0:02:55) Codey: How are you? (0:02:57) Al: Mm. I’m also tired, but it is like five hours later for me. (0:03:03) Al: So, you know, different, different reason for being tired. (0:03:06) Al: Well, no, I mean. (0:03:08) Codey: You also slinging coffee, watching dogs, and doing a PhD? (0:03:11) Al: No, none of those things. (0:03:16) Al: Yeah, weirdly, today is like the only actual day off I’ve had. (0:03:23) Codey: period, ever. (0:03:25) Al: Yeah, because I wasn’t working and I wasn’t really doing. (0:03:28) Al: And I didn’t have my kids, but still I am shattered. (0:03:32) Codey: Sometimes those days, like sometimes the day where you don’t have anything and you can genuinely like unmask and just relax are the most hiring days, but we need those to rest and relax. (0:03:44) Codey: It doesn’t feel restful, it doesn’t feel relaxing, but we need it. (0:03:48) Al: Yeah. Well, I have been playing Starstruck’s Vagabond. I’ve been continuing that. We’ll (0:03:57) Al: see where that goes. And I have also been continuing to play farm RPG even after the (0:04:03) Al: episode. So there we are. Let’s see. I think I’ve just done 65. (0:04:05) Codey: How many bottles are you on? (0:04:12) Codey: Okay. This is, uh, for people who have not listened to that episode, (0:04:15) Codey: there’s a quest line called 99 bottles. Uh, and it’s 99 bottles, one, (0:04:20) Codey: 99 bottles too. And it’s basically doing the old nursery rhyme. (0:04:24) Codey: I don’t know what that’s called song thingy. Um, (0:04:28) Al: 99 bottles. It’s not nursery rhyme because it’s 99 bottles of beer on the wall and I don’t think a (0:04:30) Codey: what? (0:04:33) Al: nursery rhyme has beer in it. Yeah but that’s not what it is. (0:04:35) Codey: You can do juice 99 bottles of juice on the wall. (0:04:39) Al: Like okay, I will accept that that is a version you could do, right? But what I would say is that (0:04:46) Al: that I don’t think was the original. I’m pretty sure the original was beer, therefore not a nursery. (0:04:52) Codey: Bear, I think I made it to like 15 before I uninstalled the game. (0:04:55) Codey: Again, not because farm RPG is a bad game, but because I am incapable of losing that (0:05:01) Codey: much of my life to a video game right now. (0:05:03) Codey: Uh, and yeah, you’re at 65. (0:05:06) Codey: I’m really excited to see what happens after 99. (0:05:08) Codey: I want them to have that like joke 100, but if it goes past that, it’s just ridiculous. (0:05:10) Al: Well, so the way that it’s working is that you only get each level after your farming (0:05:20) Al: and crafting levels hit that, right? So I’m at crafting level 69, but only farming level (0:05:25) Al: 65, so I can only have 99 bottles 65 because that’s the lower of the two. And I think it (0:05:25) Codey: Nice. (0:05:26) Codey: Yeah. (0:05:33) Al: maxes out at 99, there’s no level 100. So once you get to 99, you’ll get 99. (0:05:37) Codey: But it also makes you use what like 65 hops and 65 bottles (0:05:42) Codey: I just like what you get to 99. I want it to be 100 and 100 because it can do that (0:05:43) Al: But then it would miss and then it would skip a number. (0:05:52) Al: Yeah, I guess. (0:05:55) Codey: We’ll see. Keep us posted. I’m very, very curious about that. (0:05:57) Al: Yes, I just spent 100 million on getting an upgrade to mean that every day I get another (0:06:07) Al: two. (0:06:08) Al: So I’m up to 10 inventory space added every day. (0:06:11) Al: So I’m on and I did. (0:06:13) Al: it today because today was the point where I go back to a thing me of what’s it called (0:06:20) Al: a thing me of 10. Yeah, that’s not the word I mean, there’s a mathematical word. (0:06:26) Codey: if this is gonna bother me, I’ll figure it out. (0:06:30) Codey: I think he’s googling it y’all he’s doing factor I was that was my next guess I was so (0:06:32) Al: Factor. Factor of 10. (0:06:38) Al: So I couldn’t upgrade it to 10 when I wasn’t on a factor of 10, (0:06:41) Al: because then I would never get back to being a factor of 10. (0:06:44) Al: So that’s where we are now. (0:06:48) Al: So I’m making maybe like 15 million a day, something like that now. (0:06:52) Codey: Ridiculous. (0:06:53) Codey: Awesome though. (0:06:54) Al: Yeah, so. (0:06:56) Codey: That game just expanded. (0:06:58) Al: Yeah, I feel like I’ve plateaued. (0:07:01) Al: I don’t know how I’m… (0:07:02) Al: meant to make more and more and more money but we’ll see we’ll see or I’ll (0:07:07) Al: get bored who knows what we’ll find out only time and ADHD will tell so we (0:07:14) Al: we’re gonna get into some game news I will add the wholesome direct and the (0:07:20) Al: summer game fest main shows the links to them in the show notes in case you (0:07:26) Al: want to go watch them all but I suspect if you’ve not already watched them you (0:07:30) Al: You probably don’t want to watch them all and you want us to tell you what (0:07:32) Al: you should care about. Well, we’re going to spend the same amount of time going through… (0:07:34) Codey: Mm-hmm going through a smaller amount of content (0:07:42) Al: Okay, first of all, we’re going to go into information about games that are coming out. (0:07:47) Al: So just a small thing on… So have you listened to this week’s episode, Cody? (0:07:53) Al: We talked about this game a little bit. This is the Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home, which is the new (0:07:57) Al: Harvest Moon mobile game that we know almost nothing about, other than it comes out in (0:08:02) Al: August. But Cher from Fogoo, which is a big story of seasons and Harvest Moon website, (0:08:15) Al: she says, recognising that some fans may be wary of a game published on Android or iOS (0:08:21) Al: because of potential monetisation. Now, Sumi confirmed with me that the game does not contain (0:08:26) Al: microtransactions. Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home will be a one-time purchase without added (0:08:32) Al: or downloaded content. So, that is good. (0:08:34) Codey: All I can, all I can contribute to that is Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home’s, uh, acronym is, hmm, hush, and I love that. (0:08:42) Al: It’s certainly something, and as to me I’ve also put a second tweet about the game that (0:08:43) Codey: And I think that’s, and I think that’s, yeah, after saucepoot, I think that’s beautiful. (0:08:54) Al: give us no real information, but I’m going to read it to you anyway! (0:08:57) Al: We’re excited to bring a fresh New Harvest Moon experience back to mobile gamers with (0:09:02) Al: Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home, featuring the traditional Harvest Moon style that fans know (0:09:05) Al: and love. (0:09:06) Al: I don’t know what they mean by that. (0:09:08) Al: Along with some familiar faces, we hope this will be a cosy farming adventure for you. (0:09:12) Al: We look forward to welcoming you home this summer. (0:09:18) Codey: Okay, I await further information. (0:09:22) Al: Yes. Okay, next we have the Garden Path. I’ve announced they’re releasing on the 30th of July. (0:09:32) Al: Um. (0:09:34) Codey: Cute, cute little game, very interesting art style, very interesting graphics that I had (0:09:41) Codey: not ever really noticed before. (0:09:43) Codey: I don’t think I’ve seen this before, or if I have, my brain was bleached. (0:09:48) Codey: It also runs in parallel with the real world. (0:09:50) Codey: You can leave it alone and your garden will grow at the same time. (0:09:53) Codey: Yeah, I look forward to, it’ll be on Linux, PC and Nintendo switch. (0:10:02) Codey: Um, Mack, I’m crying. (0:10:04) Codey: Yeah, I’m crying and Mack right now. (0:10:06) Codey: Um, and yeah. (0:10:06) Al: It does say Mac on their Steam page though, I don’t know why they didn’t list it in the (0:10:08) Codey: Yeah, so thank you. (0:10:10) Codey: Um, I don’t blame it. (0:10:12) Codey: Oh, it does say Mack. (0:10:14) Al: post. (0:10:14) Codey: Oh my gosh, they said PC, but they meant both of the things. (0:10:19) Codey: So yeah, we’ll see, um, what I end up doing. (0:10:24) Codey: Um, I also see that they are, we’ll see what, how I end up feeling about this or if I’m going to be getting it. (0:10:31) Codey: I love that they have merchants that range from a grumpy toad. (0:10:34) Codey: To Baal. To Larto, a seasoned musk ox fisherman with a love for songfish. (0:10:40) Codey: I don’t know what song fish is, but he loves them. (0:10:42) Al: I think they’re exactly what they sound like, fish that song. (0:10:45) Codey: Fish. (0:10:46) Codey: Fish that song. (0:10:49) Codey: Yeah. (0:10:50) Codey: So excited to look at that more and determine if I have the fun/desire to play it. (0:10:58) Codey: Really interesting art style. (0:11:00) Codey: It’s on my list. (0:11:01) Codey: It’s on- it’s- it’s- I’m watching it. (0:11:05) Codey: Also watching Kama Eru. (0:11:05) Al: Camaro, Camaro, Camaro, is that what it is, have announced that they are out now. (0:11:14) Codey: On Switch, Steam, and Xbox. (0:11:16) Al: Yes, when I initially wrote this in the thing, (0:11:19) Al: I was like, oh, it’s coming out in the 8th of June. (0:11:20) Al: And then I realized today that today is the 8th of June. (0:11:23) Al: And then during the Wholesome Direct, they were like, oh, it’s out now. (0:11:26) Al: OK, cool. Just done. Go get your frogs. (0:11:28) Codey: surprise. Yup. Go get your frogs. It’s very, uh, Usag. It’s giving Usag. Usag. Oh my gosh. (0:11:36) Codey: Usagishima. Um, so you restore the wetlands and you collect frogs, you breed them together, (0:11:41) Codey: which is not Usagishima, but that’s cool. Uh, decorate. There’s mini games and crafting. (0:11:45) Codey: Um, I think it’s really cute. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. I’m going to see if this is (0:11:46) Al: Yeah I think it’s a bit more than Asagashima because you can also like crossbreed your frogs I think. (0:11:52) Al: Um so yeah. (0:11:55) Codey: on Xbox Game Pass. (0:11:58) Codey: It is a PowerMosh simulator might have. (0:12:02) Al: I saw that Aislinn was streaming a bit of Camaeru today. (0:12:08) Codey: I don’t know, it seems up her alley for sure. (0:12:11) Codey: There’s other games that look up her alley as well. (0:12:14) Codey: Check out the greenhouse episode for that, next. (0:12:20) Al: Sunnyside have announced that their console release has been delayed until the 16th of (0:12:26) Al: August. Their Steam release is still releasing on the 14th of June, two days after this episode (0:12:27) Codey: Take your time. (0:12:31) Codey: Cool, that’s sweet. (0:12:35) Codey: And then the console is PlayStation 5 and Xbox (0:12:39) Codey: X/S, I believe? Yep. (0:12:43) Codey: So yeah, take your time. Figure it out. It takes longer. Microsoft (0:12:48) Al: Delays are funny. I don’t think we’re talking about Little Lands later on because they didn’t (0:12:55) Al: actually announce anything new other than that they’ve got a demo coming out. But literally (0:13:00) Al: as soon as they announced that they had the demo coming out, they tweeted saying actually (0:13:05) Al: it’s not coming out. We had to delay the demo. But by the time they decided to delay it, (0:13:06) Codey: laughs Oh noooooo. (0:13:10) Al: it was obviously too late to change the video. Very unfortunate. (0:13:13) Codey: Ugh. Well, they got people’s attention, so… (0:13:18) Al: Speaking of timing, Moonstone Island, surprise, surprise, is coming to Switch. I wasn’t expecting (0:13:28) Al: this. I was actually expecting a shadow drop today just because the way they were announcing (0:13:31) Al: it, they were being so obvious that some news was coming with the Wholesome Direct and I (0:13:36) Al: thought it was going to be a shadow drop. But no, they’ve decided that they’re releasing (0:13:39) Al: it on the 19th of June on Switch, which is the last day that they could still technically (0:13:45) Al: say that they’re releasing in spring based on their definition of spring. (0:13:48) Al: 19th of June is not spring and I don’t care what anybody says, it is not spring. (0:13:51) Codey: Getting you on technicalities, Al. (0:13:55) Codey: It’s not. (0:13:58) Codey: It’s not. (0:13:58) Al: Your definition of spring is stupid if it includes the 19th of June. (0:14:03) Codey: I was working the farmer’s market today, (0:14:06) Codey: and there was a big breeze coming through. (0:14:07) Codey: And someone was like, oh, I love that fall breeze. (0:14:09) Al: I find people with the weather is very funny, right? Because it’s like, we do this thing (0:14:09) Codey: And I was like, my guy, you skipped the whole season. (0:14:14) Codey: It did feel like a fall breeze, though. (0:14:17) Codey: Climate change is crazy. (0:14:22) Codey: Uh-huh. (0:14:26) Al: every year when it’s like we get spring and then it gets cold again and people go, oh, (0:14:30) Al: so much for spring. And you’re like, no, no, that’s called spring. Spring is kind of like (0:14:34) Al: a mix of summer and winter weather. That’s just what spring is. You can go (0:14:39) Al: Oh, it was warm. No, it’s not. I guess it’s not spring now. No, no, that is spring. You know what (0:14:45) Al: spring is, you do it every single year, you shouldn’t now be surprised by it. And then we (0:14:50) Al: get to summer, and you have lovely hot days. And then you have rainy days. And people go, Oh, (0:14:56) Al: so much for summer. And you’re like, it still rains in summer. We don’t live in the in one (0:15:02) Al: of these places that has dry and wet seasons. What summer is called summer, it’s not called (0:15:09) Al: season. Like you don’t live in the desert. You live in Scotland. (0:15:14) Codey: Yeah, here if we get, so in Pennsylvania, if we get rain during the summer, when it (0:15:21) Codey: is considered summer, there’s like a 95% chance that that rain will be accompanied by a thunderstorm. (0:15:29) Codey: And that’s when I do the differentiation. (0:15:29) Al: Uh-huh (0:15:31) Codey: Like if it just rains and it’s just rain, it’s spring or fall. (0:15:35) Codey: But if it rains and there’s like a thunderstorm associated with it, we’re in summer, y’all. (0:15:41) Codey: We’ve been in it for a few weeks. (0:15:44) Codey: I, in my opinion, I almost said IMO, but people might not know what that is in my opinion. (0:15:49) Al: Yeah, we don’t really get Thunderstorms. (0:15:50) Codey: So that is very sad. (0:15:53) Codey: I love thunderstorms. (0:15:55) Al: Yeah, we might get one a year ago. (0:15:58) Codey: You know what else I love? (0:16:00) Codey: Chai. (0:16:01) Codey: And you can help run a local chai shop in the pallets on the hill, which is out now. (0:16:07) Codey: Um, this is a rural India slice of life game. (0:16:10) Codey: um you’re a teenage kid and it’s the first day of (0:16:14) Codey: summer holidays and you help out on the farm you take off (0:16:16) Codey: some summer jobs you clean you cook um in the local chai shop (0:16:20) Codey: you can explore old ruins and make paintings look really cool (0:16:23) Codey: um i’m interested it’s definitely on steam I don’t know if it’s on anything (0:16:28) Al: I don’t think it is. I think it’s just team. The funny thing about this one was they, I (0:16:33) Al: think they were meant to come out in like 2022, the end of 2022, and they announced (0:16:39) Al: that they were coming out. And then like a week before they were meant to be coming out, (0:16:43) Al: they’re like, “Oh, no, we’re not coming out.” And it’s like, “Okay, that’s fine.” And (0:16:47) Al: now it’s like a year and a half later. (0:16:49) Codey: I do remember seeing this before, and this is one that’s on Mac. (0:16:52) Codey: So what’s your price? (0:16:54) Codey: What’s your price 20 bucks? (0:16:56) Codey: Maybe I’ll think about it. (0:16:56) Al: It’s a solid maybe. (0:17:01) Codey: Your girl has credit card debt. (0:17:04) Codey: Um, yeah, so we’ll figure that out. (0:17:06) Codey: Uh, I’ll see if I’m interested. (0:17:07) Codey: If we’re going to play that, if I will play that, um, no, I’ve, I (0:17:10) Al: What’s a little bit more credit card debt, you know, like, uh, fair enough. (0:17:13) Codey: have literally cut that card. (0:17:15) Codey: So, and. (0:17:20) Codey: And no more money is going on to it. (0:17:21) Al: Obviously on, on the, on the harvest season podcast, we do not condone getting yourself (0:17:28) Codey: Correct. Also, even if your grad school is going to give you pay for you and pay your tuition and everything, you might still get set. (0:17:40) Codey: Don’t have knee surgeries, don’t have cars break down, don’t have dogs have to go to the hospital, woo! (0:17:48) Codey: Don’t eat food. Don’t use electricity. Don’t you do it. (0:17:52) Codey: I do have food stamps, so that’s pretty cool. OVA MAGICA! (0:17:55) Al: I put- Early Access is coming from the 23rd of July, so many times. (0:17:58) Codey: We’ve talked about this game. We’ve talked about this game a lot. Little circle, spherical egg dudes. I know there’s a really cute bee one. (0:18:10) Al: Blobs, blobs. (0:18:12) Codey: Blobs. Blobs. What I wrote. (0:18:15) Al: It’s a farming creature collector with blobs that you can cross-bead and yeah, it’s cute. (0:18:18) Codey: Woo! (0:18:20) Codey: Make crazy things. (0:18:21) Al: I’m going to play this game at some point, probably not in Early Access. (0:18:22) Codey: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. (0:18:26) Al: Yeah, I mean, it’s one of these things where this game has been in development so long, (0:18:31) Al: which is not a problem, but it does mean that a lot of the ideas that it (0:18:36) Al: came up with, or maybe not was the original original, but certainly was not, (0:18:40) Al: it wasn’t everywhere. A lot of them are now just standard things in a lot of farming games, (0:18:45) Al: which is a bit sad. You can use your blobs to help farm and stuff like that. There are (0:18:50) Al: lots of games that do that now. That’s, I guess, the problem with law. (0:18:55) Al: game development times, which when you’ve got one person working on a complicated game (0:18:59) Al: like that, it can take a while. But yeah, yeah, I guess it’s more like I really hope (0:19:02) Codey: Yeah, we understand. (0:19:08) Al: that people still play the game. You know, and I feel like, was this one a Kickstarter? (0:19:11) Codey: Yeah. (0:19:15) Al: Sure, did I kickstart this one? Have I already bought it? Check. (0:19:16) Codey: It’s a great question. (0:19:20) Codey: It wasn’t my job to watch your… (0:19:25) Al: Yes, I have kickstarted this already. Quite a while ago. Yeah, so I won’t be buying it (0:19:35) Al: because I’ve already bought it. Yay. I’m guessing. So the other thing about this is, (0:19:38) Codey: - Yay. (0:19:44) Al: originally, it wasn’t going to be coming to Early Access. It was just going to go, yeah, (0:19:50) Codey: You’re just going to go straight to 1.0? (0:19:51) Al: But that I mean, that’s that’s fine. That is what it is. (0:19:54) Codey: Yep, yep. (0:19:55) Al: I think it probably I suspect that anybody who kick started to get the early access because there (0:20:00) Al: wasn’t an early access tier. But obviously, don’t take my word for that. We’ll see what happens I (0:20:07) Al: guess. Yeah, well, it’s not unusual for people to go like, oh, pay this to get the 1.0 and pay this (0:20:08) Codey: Would be weird to make you pay for it. (0:20:16) Al: to get early access. But it’s less common. But it is a thing that some people do. (0:20:17) Codey: Oh, interesting, okay. (0:20:23) Al: Thank you. (0:20:24) Al: Thank you very much. (0:20:24) Codey: know what else people do nowadays, VR. (0:20:25) Al: Oh yes, okay, Garden of the Sea. Garden of the Sea. (0:20:31) Al: So this is a VR farming game, which is already out on Quest and presumably something else. (0:20:40) Al: I don’t really care about other ones. I only care about the one I have. (0:20:46) Codey: Which one do you have? (0:20:46) Al: The Quest 3. So it’s now coming to Steam and Switch, which is interesting. (0:20:48) Codey: Oh, OK. (0:20:55) Al: I wonder how it’s going to work, because it’s very much based around, (0:21:00) Al: you use your hands in the game to do things. And if you watch the trailer in the Wholesome Direct, (0:21:09) Al: you definitely saw the hands that you normally see when you’re playing the game. It has these (0:21:14) Al: kind of fake hands when it finds your hands. And so my question is, how’s that going to work? (0:21:21) Al: Because what’s the interaction there if you’re not doing it in VR? (0:21:24) Codey: That’s a great question. (0:21:26) Codey: I have no idea. (0:21:27) Codey: All I could think of with like the switch is maybe physical movements, but like holding (0:21:33) Codey: your switch up or whatever, or like your joy con, having your joy cons just like separated, (0:21:40) Codey: but that is not crazy accessible. (0:21:43) Codey: So I’m not sure about that. (0:21:44) Al: Yeah. Yeah. So if you want to play this game not in VR, that will be possible soon. (0:21:55) Codey: in a way that we don’t know. (0:21:58) Codey: Yeah. (0:21:58) Al: We’ll see. I mean, I mean, Elaine have announced that they’re coming to Switch this year. (0:22:04) Al: So if you wanted to play that game, but you wanted it on Switch soon. (0:22:08) Codey: I like how many cats they threw into that trailer. (0:22:11) Codey: It was really cute. (0:22:12) Codey: There were many cats. (0:22:13) Codey: And then they were like, you can have cats. (0:22:14) Codey: And I was like, I had no idea. (0:22:16) Al: Cats! (0:22:18) Codey: This was a mystery to me. (0:22:22) Codey: It was a very cute trailer though. (0:22:23) Al: Speaking of games that are coming to consoles, above snakes have announced they are coming to Switch, Xbox and PlayStation. (0:22:34) Al: Obviously it was that good. I don’t think so. (0:22:34) Codey: I mean, we’ve definitely like, we’ve, okay. (0:22:39) Al: I think I have it sitting on the planning board with some people’s names on it, but it hasn’t happened yet. (0:22:46) Codey: Okay, that was mostly that I was I know the game, but I just didn’t know if we had covered it yet (0:22:46) Al: No, we haven’t covered it properly. (0:22:48) Al: No, we haven’t, we haven’t covered it properly. (0:22:53) Codey: Very excited for when that happens and now there’s (0:23:00) Al: Yeah. (0:23:00) Al: OK, so that’s all the news about release games, releases for games, game releases. (0:23:08) Codey: I feel like all of our episodes just dissolve into madness, but I also think that people (0:23:10) Al: What is this, I deserve? (0:23:11) Al: I’m so tired. (0:23:14) Al: Because you decided to go and get a job, so now we have to do them later in the day. (0:23:16) Codey: are here for it, so. (0:23:19) Codey: Surprise, I’ve had multiple jobs this whole time. (0:23:23) Al: Come on. (0:23:25) Al: OK, get a job that has specific hours. (0:23:27) Codey: Just Saturdays, man. (0:23:30) Al: On a Saturday, when we used to record. (0:23:31) Codey: Next time we, next time we could do Sundays, but I don’t know if you like Sundays. (0:23:37) Al: Well, I couldn’t do Sunday this week, but that’s not the point, right? (0:23:39) Al: Don’t try and, like, let me just be annoyed. (0:23:39) Codey: » Don’t put this on me. (0:23:47) Codey: Yep, I mean, if you wanna pay me, let’s see, 12, okay. (0:23:47) Al: I’m not actually annoyed, listeners. (0:23:50) Al: Nope. (0:23:52) Codey: [LAUGH] Game updates though. (0:23:56) Al: The podcast barely pays for itself. (0:23:56) Codey: Speaking of pay, speaking of paying and needing money. (0:24:03) Codey: Have you ever thought about robbing a bank like Turna Boy did, but (0:24:06) Codey: you wanna do it with pride? (0:24:08) Codey: Bank with pride, and by pride I mean, [LAUGH] (0:24:10) Al: I rolled my eyes when I saw this comment. (0:24:15) Codey: Turna Boy has a new update to celebrate Pride Month, (0:24:19) Codey: where there are new flower crowns and pride flag hats, and it’s awesome. (0:24:26) Codey: Yep, love it, happy pride, woo. (0:24:28) Al: Woo. Speaking of updates, Terranil have announced that they’ve got a new update coming out, (0:24:34) Al: Vita Nova. It’s coming on the 24th of June. (0:24:38) Codey: It’s a free update major free update. Uh… (0:24:40) Al: Oh yes, free update. Yes, not DLC. Free update. (0:24:44) Al: Woo! (0:24:45) Codey: Correct. I also want to click on this because I want to see… Oh, it’s currently on sale (0:24:50) Codey: for $25. This is a game I want. Is it available? Oh, it’s Matt. What? Okay. (0:24:54) Al: Stop. Don’t. I. Don’t. No money. (0:25:00) Codey: Uh, but yeah, maybe one day when this comes out, uh, maybe I’ll have enough money and I can do a (0:25:09) Al: So they’ve said that they’re bringing a new world map. (0:25:13) Al: Is that a new world or a new map on the world? (0:25:17) Al: Like, are we going to a different planet? (0:25:19) Codey: I don’t think that the way that I read it is that there’s like you’re on the same world, but you’re in a different area (0:25:25) Codey: Like maybe like it because it says new biomes (0:25:28) Al: Yes, and both of those things, though. (0:25:30) Codey: But I guess yeah, I guess perhappeth (0:25:35) Al: Who knows? (0:25:37) Al: Who knows? (0:25:40) Codey: it looks like if you look at the map in the this thing that this is a blog post yeah the post on (0:25:49) Al: post. Yes, but yeah, but like, that shows that it already has (0:25:51) Codey: steam um it looks like there’s different continents um so maybe you’re going to like a new continent (0:26:00) Al: those and like, there’s, like, there’s probably no point in us (0:26:03) Al: trying to figure this out. We’ll find out soon. (0:26:06) Codey: It does say we’ll release more details about these new features over the next few weeks so (0:26:09) Codey: listeners listen to the episodes and we will tell you later our confusion and your confusion will (0:26:14) Al: Hope you’re listening (0:26:17) Codey: be cleared up in the next few weeks. We have a new world map, new levels, an animal system overhaul, (0:26:22) Codey: very interesting, new biomes, new buildings, new climate conditions, and a new animal species. (0:26:27) Codey: What could it be? I think it’s gonna be a beaver. I also don’t know what the (0:26:36) Al: a beaver. (0:26:37) Codey: A beaver. (0:26:41) Codey: Fun fact, the reason I chose beaver (0:26:43) Codey: is because you said antelope. (0:26:44) Codey: And the family that the pronghorn antelope (0:26:47) Codey: is in, untillocaprity. (0:26:49) Codey: And the family that the– (0:26:53) Codey: gosh, what kind of beaver? (0:26:53) Codey: It’s like a specific beaver. (0:26:56) Codey: And the two families that are endemic to North America– (0:26:59) Codey: the only two families that are only in North America. (0:27:02) Al: Oh, he’s a honey badger. (0:27:02) Codey: Yep, I can’t– (0:27:04) Al: Daddy. (0:27:04) Codey: No, it’s a beaver. (0:27:07) Codey: Beaver Family Endemic to North America. (0:27:10) Codey: Uh, Cas- oh, it’s just the Castor- Casoridae? (0:27:16) Al: Skies of Azoria. This is Fae Farm’s next DLC coming on the 20th of June. (0:27:23) Al: Did you know that High in the Clouds over Azoria was a land that you can visit? (0:27:29) Al: Wait, was a land that you can visit? Grammar is a bit complicated there. (0:27:34) Al: An amazing place with new paths to explore, full of adorable characters in need of your help. (0:27:39) Al: Yes, because that’s what Fae Farm needs, more one-dimensional characters. (0:27:44) Codey: I was going to say, no news on if– (0:27:47) Codey: we do not know if this new content update contains (0:27:51) Codey: new story or better characters that are not (0:27:54) Al: or any story, any characters, with actual… (0:27:55) Codey: one dimensional or any story. (0:27:57) Codey: You can just fly and explore new areas above Azoria. (0:28:01) Al: There seem to be portals. (0:28:04) Codey: Yeah. (0:28:05) Al: I don’t know if you go into this guy to get to the portals, or if the portals are taking you to this guy. (0:28:05) Codey: We’ll have our– no idea. (0:28:10) Codey: We’ll have our Fae Farm correspondence return to us (0:28:14) Codey: in these details about if the story exists. (0:28:16) Al: Or maybe they won’t. (0:28:18) Al: That’s coming out the 20th of June. (0:28:22) Al: It’s included with the deluxe version on PC and with the standard version on Switch. (0:28:27) Al: So just like the last one. (0:28:31) Al: Speaking of updates, it’s Sagishima. (0:28:34) Codey: - Yay. (0:28:36) Al: This is the Bunny Paradise update is out now, I didn’t write down, is it out now? (0:28:42) Codey: uh I assume it is because I just opened the game because I was like oh no did I uninstall this game (0:28:51) Codey: and I had but luckily um yeah I just and so I just opened it and I now have three new bunnies on (0:28:52) Al: Yes, it is up. It is out. (0:28:58) Codey: like literally just opened the game and there’s three new bunnies in my island three out of the (0:29:00) Al: Three out of the five. (0:29:02) Codey: five I believe so let me check my bunny book button book yep three out of five I only have two left (0:29:03) Al: Because you had everything before this update, didn’t you? (0:29:11) Al: Bun book. (0:29:11) Codey: Um… bye. (0:29:12) Codey: Oh, yeah. (0:29:14) Al: So five new bunnies, new buildings, hats and toys and an endless bunny runner (0:29:19) Al: mini game. Also, Usagi Shima have launched merch. (0:29:22) Al: So if you need to spend some money, (0:29:27) Al: that’s how you can do it. (0:29:28) Codey: you know me now I always need to spend money I can’t even say it without crying on the inside (0:29:30) Al: You know, it’s like, did you ever, it’s like when you have a large meal, right? And (0:29:40) Al: then you’re stuffed, you’re full, you can’t eat anything else. And then someone brings (0:29:45) Al: out dessert and you’re like, “Oh, okay, I can eat a little bit more.” And it’s like, (0:29:48) Codey: You got the– yeah, the dessert stomach. (0:29:48) Al: we always joked about having a second stomach just for pudding, right? It’s like that, right? (0:29:54) Al: Like you have the special fake money just for games, right? (0:29:59) Codey: I mean, I do– (0:30:00) Codey: I am using some of my tips that I get for cash as like– (0:30:04) Codey: because it doesn’t exist, right? (0:30:05) Codey: It’s cash. (0:30:08) Codey: But yeah, that doesn’t somehow magically go into my steam (0:30:12) Codey: or anything. (0:30:12) Codey: I’m trying to get one of these little buddies (0:30:14) Codey: to want to do the running game thing. (0:30:16) Codey: Uhhh… (0:30:18) Al: Speaking of. (0:30:18) Codey: Yep, so I did uninstall it, but if you connected your like iPhone name thing to it, (0:30:26) Codey: um, then it will… (0:30:29) Codey: Oh, it’s called Bun Run. Oh my gosh. (0:30:32) Codey: Um, if you’ve connected your like Apple game store, (0:30:38) Codey: yeah, then even if you uninstall it, all of your stuff is still saved. (0:30:42) Codey: So 10/10 recommend that. (0:30:43) Codey: Oh, Bun Run! It begins. (0:30:45) Codey: Help your bunny jump over obstacles tapping where to jump. (0:30:48) Codey: The longer you hold your tap, the higher the jump. (0:30:50) Al: I’ll put it down just now, because you don’t care about Traveler’s Rest. (0:30:51) Codey: Okay, cool. (0:30:52) Codey: Let’s talk about the next one. (0:30:53) Codey: Nope, you can talk about this next one. (0:30:54) Codey: I don’t really care. (0:30:55) Codey: Nope, I’m going to play bone run. (0:30:57) Al: Traveler’s Rest, I’ve announced that they’re a new update, the Story and City update, (0:31:00) Al: which by the way, is just very funny saying like, “Hey, we’ve added story.” (0:31:08) Codey: That is a thing that happened. (0:31:10) Al: I’m constantly fascinated by this game, and I really want to go back to the first version (0:31:14) Al: they brought out and see what existed in the game. It’s coming July, that’s all. (0:31:20) Codey: Yep, an update, I hit the first obstacle and button run, so that’s gone. (0:31:20) Al: That’s the story, because I didn’t have the story. (0:31:27) Al: That’s sad. Maybe you should talk about Go Go Town instead. (0:31:31) Codey: There’s a new gameplay video. I did not watch all of it. It was nine minutes long. (0:31:35) Al: It was 9 minutes long, I was very long. Thankfully, it came out yesterday, (0:31:38) Al: so I could watch it yesterday. Everything, every time I see something about this game, (0:31:41) Codey: But I did tap through it and yep, still interested. It doesn’t… (0:31:50) Codey: And it’ll be fun to play together. Maybe will we be able to play this? (0:31:53) Codey: This will be our first game that we’ll be able to play together. (0:31:56) Al: That’s a good question, because I think it does have multiplayer, (0:32:00) Al: but I don’t know whether it has online multiplayer or not. (0:32:04) Al: Well, yeah. (0:32:05) Al: Because that’s much more complicated than local multiplayer. (0:32:08) Codey: It basically looks like kind of like Fortnite. (0:32:09) Al: What? (0:32:11) Codey: It’s got like the vibe steam cloud remote play together. (0:32:16) Al: Look, we don’t even know when this game is coming out yet, right? Let’s talk about playing (0:32:18) Codey: It gives. (0:32:21) Al: it together when it’s actually out. One thing that I don’t think we knew before this was (0:32:22) Codey: Hey, Hey, 2024 2024 is London. (0:32:30) Al: that you can use your villagers and you can like tell them to do things. So like there’s (0:32:37) Al: stations for different things like for farming and for wood gathering and mining and stuff (0:32:42) Al: like that. And you can do something and then you can go, hey, tell this villager to do (0:32:46) Al: this thing. And then they’ll just go and do that thing. So I really like that idea (0:32:51) Al: of automation, which is, hey, villager, do this thing that I just did. Yeah, that’s pretty (0:32:58) Codey: broadcasting right now and it looks like (0:33:03) Al: Um, the one thing that I’m not sure how I feel about the game is the inventory (0:33:09) Al: seems pretty limited. (0:33:11) Al: I think that’s a design decision and I’m not sure how I’m going to feel about it, (0:33:14) Al: but we will see. (0:33:16) Al: I’m willing to be open-minded about it, but yeah, also like you water the crops (0:33:22) Al: with a little literal water hose, like a fireman’s hose. (0:33:26) Codey: Yeah, yeah, they have (0:33:29) Al: Yeah, I know they have multiplayer. (0:33:31) Al: The question is whether or not it worked online or not. (0:33:34) Al: Look, it’s fine. (0:33:36) Codey: They’ve been broadcasting this for 42 hours. (0:33:39) Codey: That’s a choice. (0:33:39) Al: I suspect they have not actually been doing that. (0:33:44) Codey: It says 42 hours, 22 minutes, (0:33:46) Codey: and it was adding up the seconds. (0:33:47) Codey: It was wild. (0:33:50) Codey: Yeah, but we also have some brand new games (0:33:53) Codey: that we’ve never talked about before coming up here (0:33:55) Codey: that we can talk about. (0:33:56) Al: And this is only this isn’t everything. This is just this is just what I decided was close enough, because all my word Cody, I think there are too many games now. (0:33:58) Codey: No, no, it is not. (0:34:08) Codey: My, I just had a list of a word document (0:34:12) Codey: as I was watching the Wholesome Direct up (0:34:14) Codey: and I was like typing stuff in (0:34:15) Codey: and then starting a new line (0:34:16) Codey: every time there was a new game. (0:34:18) Codey: She was four pages long. (0:34:20) Al: There was a bit with 10 minutes to go where they were like, oh, we’re nearly finished. (0:34:25) Al: But now we’re going to show you even more, oh my word, and it was literally nine minutes (0:34:26) Codey: And it was rapid fire. (0:34:32) Codey: Yeah. (0:34:33) Al: of like 10 seconds of each game. (0:34:34) Codey: Yep. (0:34:34) Codey: Yep. (0:34:35) Al: There were so many games. (0:34:36) Codey: Some of them look really cool though, so it’s on my list whether we talk about it here or (0:34:37) Al: I lost. (0:34:38) Al: I missed so many in my first watch through. (0:34:48) Codey: whether surprise, surprise we talk about it in a greenhouse episode that will be coming (0:34:53) Codey: out soon. (0:34:56) Al: Yeah, right, let’s go through these. We’ve got Letter Bunny. (0:35:03) Al: Take on a cosy adventure as Anne, a small and determined bunny with a heart of gold. (0:35:08) Al: Explore the peaceful island, deliver many, many packages, and discover that behind every letter is a unique story. (0:35:14) Al: Make new friends, help people out, and most importantly, have fun. Those are some long years, Cody. (0:35:22) Codey: they are very long that is quite the bunny um also if the ears are that long it’s not a bunny (0:35:29) Codey: anymore it’s a hair um mammal facts up in this yeah uh they are very lorg um so if it’s a bunny (0:35:30) Al: Whoa here here here are very (0:35:38) Codey: it should be a lot they should be like more than half as short um also I just want like i’m just (0:35:46) Codey: as you read this I was like what if inverse so what if like take on a chaotic adventure (0:35:52) Codey: and a large and lazy bunny with a heart of evil explore the uh violent island like (0:36:02) Al: Now, I love the idea of like, it’s a delivery game, but you’re trying to like open up packages (0:36:10) Codey: but you’re violet (0:36:11) Al: and steal things without getting caught, or you’re trying to like… (0:36:14) Codey: untitled goose game but you’re a delivery bunny pretty much also I loved the (0:36:18) Al: That’s a whole different vibe. (0:36:20) Codey: discover that behind every letter (0:36:22) Codey: is a unique story? Correct. Yes. (0:36:25) Al: I don’t know. I do get multiple of the same letter from companies sometimes. (0:36:32) Codey: But I do I do that too. But like if it’s from a human I, I (0:36:37) Al: Do people still send letters? (0:36:37) Codey: doubt though this would yes, I doubt that it is that like (0:36:38) Al: Oh. (0:36:44) Codey: you’re sending you’re like talking to corporate bunco and (0:36:49) Codey: and Bunko is like, send these. (0:36:49) Al: you’re just delivering bills (0:36:52) Codey: generated letters to all of these things like it’s probably gonna be (0:36:58) Codey: I’m just a person and if they can’t pay then you gotta peacefully beat them up (0:37:03) Al: no you’re you’re the postal officer you’re not a bailiff (0:37:09) Codey: postal officer and judge and executioner (0:37:15) Codey: letter bunny no this is very cute (0:37:17) Al: You’re trying so hard to make this. (0:37:19) Al: It’s something it’s not. (0:37:20) Codey: I want- (0:37:21) Al: There are plenty of games that we’re going to talk about (0:37:22) Codey: I crave violence. (0:37:23) Al: that have a creepy side to it. (0:37:24) Codey: I- (0:37:24) Al: You don’t have to add it in to other games. (0:37:26) Codey: I cra- (0:37:28) Codey: I crave violence. (0:37:30) Codey: Um… (0:37:30) Al: Speaking of violence, we’ve got Humblitz. (0:37:32) Codey: Really? (0:37:34) Codey: Does this one feel violent? (0:37:35) Al: Well, this one says (0:37:37) Al: “A cozy survival game (0:37:39) Al: set in a fantasy world (0:37:41) Al: filled with cute pet companions (0:37:43) Al: and adventures across many biomes.” (0:37:46) Al: Now, my problem with this (0:37:49) Al: is that I don’t think (0:37:51) Al: cozy and survival (0:37:53) Al: fit together, right? (0:37:55) Al: Like, if I’m cozy, (0:37:57) Al: I’m not fighting for survival. (0:37:59) Al: Those two things are opposite. (0:38:02) Codey: So people just farm if they’re, as a pastime, as like a side gig. (0:38:08) Al: Are you trying to say that farming games are survival games? (0:38:12) Codey: I mean, you’re farming. (0:38:14) Al: Yeah, OK, and in Stardew, if you don’t eat, what happens? (0:38:19) Al: You go to sleep and you wake up fine in the morning. (0:38:23) Al: That’s not a survival game. (0:38:25) Codey: Not realistic. I try and do that. And then I wake up. I wake up with a headache. It’s not fun. (0:38:27) Al: Yeah, of course, it’s not realistic. (0:38:32) Al: Of course, it’s not realistic. (0:38:35) Codey: Yeah. Yeah. (0:38:36) Al: This is I just I don’t I don’t understand how you can have a (0:38:39) Al: that is about fighting for survival and call it cosy. (0:38:42) Codey: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I’m not sure. Um, we know almost nothing about this except for that one line. (0:38:49) Codey: That’s it. It’s a new Kickstarter. Currently 671 followers. Kickstarter’s not even live. (0:38:56) Codey: Um, the picture’s really cute though. It looks like a little teacup house. That’s it. (0:39:00) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, the image is definitely giving cozy rather than giving survival. (0:39:06) Al: We will. We will see. Could be. (0:39:07) Codey: Could be violence could be violence cozy violence (0:39:12) Al: Harvest Hills. Harvest Hills is a charming and relaxing farm simulator that allows you to run your own rancho, (0:39:22) Al: cultivate various crops, take care of animals and produce homemade products, (0:39:26) Al: Sell the goods to the local market to earn money. (0:39:30) Al: And use it to upgrade or automate the farm. (0:39:32) Al: Rancho, really? (0:39:32) Codey: I think well isn’t that is that not what it’s called in the South America (0:39:34) Al: Is that? (0:39:40) Al: Oh, is it? (0:39:41) Al: Oh, is that? (0:39:42) Al: is just a… Oh. (0:39:44) Codey: yeah Rancho is just a ranch plural is ranchos a hut or a collection of hut for (0:39:50) Codey: herders laborers or travelers because yeah the I think developers but well the (0:39:52) Al: - Well, there you go, my bad. (0:39:59) Codey: developers called red beans and I guess I can’t see more than that. (0:40:02) Codey: There’s a demo out now I do too oh my gosh one of my friends made a dessert (0:40:09) Codey: bean pie the other day don’t recommend this looks really cute though I like the (0:40:15) Codey: idea of that so like as you’re doing things in the game you put down flags (0:40:21) Codey: kind of like think of like when you play Sims and you tell your person like do (0:40:26) Codey: this and then do this and then do this and then you have like a task list (0:40:29) Codey: basically, it looks like you do that for your character in this game. (0:40:32) Codey: to which I like, I like to, like, look at it be like, Okay, cool, do all of these things. And then I can do something else with my brain, because I don’t like paying attention. You like, delegate, yeah, you like delegate a bunch of tasks. Yeah, looks, looks cool. I will be watching (0:40:41) Al: Ah yeah, yeah I hadn’t noticed that I’m watching the video that’s a good point it does seem to be (0:40:46) Al: like yeah do you tap on things. I quite yeah okay okay I’m I’m feeling it I’m feeling it. (0:40:57) Al: I like the build mode as well I do like a good build mode in one of these games because I find (0:41:02) Al: them much easier. (0:41:06) Codey: Windows only, wah, wah, uh, cool. (0:41:10) Al: Wow, wow. It’s on Kickstarter. It has a very modest goal and hasn’t hit it yet. (0:41:18) Al: Yeah, yeah. I mean, most Kickstarters get nothing in the in the middle 27 days. (0:41:25) Al: It’s like the first day and the last day. (0:41:28) Codey: The game is controller friendly, won’t be on Steam Deck, Steam for Windows. (0:41:32) Codey: Uh, they’re hoping for Q4 2024. (0:41:36) Codey: Um, even if it does get released, it’ll be no later than May 2025. (0:41:42) Codey: Um, will Steam Deck, Steam Deck be supported? (0:41:42) Al: What do you mean “won’t” to be on the Steam Deck? (0:41:47) Codey: No. (0:41:47) Al: Where does it sit at? (0:41:51) Al: And also, what does that mean? (0:41:53) Al: Because you can play almost any game on the Steam Deck, (0:41:56) Al: and if it has controller support, it will work on the Steam Deck. (0:42:01) Al: Is that in the FAQ? (0:42:03) Al: Yeah, I don’t know what that’s meant to mean. (0:42:06) Al: I suspect– I mean, if what they mean is, (0:42:08) Al: we’re not going to put in the effort to make sure (0:42:10) Al: that it works perfectly on Steam Deck, (0:42:13) Al: and then fine, but, like, you… (0:42:15) Codey: It won’t be developed for the Steam Deck is how I read that. (0:42:17) Al: Yeah, but… (0:42:20) Al: Yeah, no, that’s not how I read it at all. (0:42:22) Al: What I read is, like, we’re not going to bother (0:42:25) Al: putting any effort into it, which is fine. (0:42:27) Al: But also, like, if you’ve got the controller support, (0:42:30) Al: you’re 90% there anyway. (0:42:33) Al: Like, I would just put in the tiny– anyway, it doesn’t matter. (0:42:37) Al: Wonder Stop. Wonder Stop. Wonder Stop. (0:42:40) Codey: Wander, stop, wander, stop, wander. (0:42:42) Al: Wonder. (0:42:44) Al: Wonder. (0:42:46) Al: Yeah, I guess I would say Wonder. (0:42:50) Al: Wonder. (0:42:50) Codey: The way that you’re saying it sounds like wonder, (0:42:52) Al: I know. I know. I say those… (0:42:52) Codey: like, oh, the wonderful world. (0:42:55) Al: I say those words the same way. (0:42:57) Codey: Oh, that’s so weird. (0:42:58) Codey: You did it. (0:42:59) Codey: You had another one that you said the same way (0:43:00) Codey: that I don’t remember what it was. (0:43:01) Codey: This is like wander as if like wandering, (0:43:04) Codey: like you are wandering through the world. (0:43:06) Codey: And this game is from the creator of the Stanley Parable (0:43:09) Codey: the beginner’s guide. (0:43:10) Codey: It is a narrative-centric cozy game about change and tea. (0:43:15) Codey: Okay. (0:43:15) Al: Yeah, I don’t know what to think about this game. I was not massively impressed by what (0:43:22) Al: I saw in the Wholesome Direct. And then I saw Stanley Parable and went, Hmm, okay. Because (0:43:30) Al: I very much like the Stanley Parable. I think it is one of the best games full stop. So (0:43:38) Al: like, yeah, I don’t know. But this is not giving me anything. (0:43:41) Codey: ever played that. (0:43:43) Codey: Yeah, I don’t know. (0:43:45) Al: The Musics by C148, 418, sorry, which is the guy who did the Minecraft. (0:43:53) Codey: Well, that’s intriguing. I don’t usually listen to music but when I do it’s usually Minecraft (0:44:00) Codey: So like most games I turn that off because ADHD (0:44:05) Codey: Yeah, I don’t know. It has very witchy vibes like it had like a almost like a potion looking creation (0:44:12) Codey: screen (0:44:14) Codey: And I don’t know why I’m just a big old hipster when it comes to witchy things. I don’t know (0:44:18) Codey: I just see witchy things and I’m like, but I mean the art looks really nice (0:44:23) Co

Al and Kevin talk about the people they wish were marriage candidates Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:18: What Have We Been Up To 00:07:01: Marvelous Game Showcase 00:28:38: New Games 00:33:40: Other Game News 00:49:36: People We Want As Marriage Candidates 01:15:43: Outro Links Marvelous Game Showcase Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Gourdlets Release Date Slime Rancher 2 0.5.0 Update Paleo Pines 1.4.3 Update Minami Lane 1.1 Update Potion Permit Complete Edition Sakuna Anime Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:31) Al: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. (0:00:37) Al: My name is Al and we’re here today to talk about cottagecore games, woohoo, woohoo, wow. (0:00:38) Kev: My name is Kevin last I checked (0:00:45) Kev: Whoo (0:00:46) Kev: Like cottage snore games. I’m kidding. No, actually it’s very exciting today. We have a lot of views (0:00:51) Al: I was gonna say, I was gonna say, are you Johnny? (0:00:54) Al: Like that’s, feels like something he would say. (0:00:56) Kev: No, no, I just I I don’t think that jokes been made yet. Um, I had to seize the opportunity (0:01:01) Al: I’ll need to search through the transcripts to see if it’s been said or not, but you’re (0:01:05) Al: right, I don’t remember it being said. (0:01:08) Al: All right, this episode, our main topic, if you will, although I suspect it will be the (0:01:15) Al: smallest part of the episode, but we’ll see, our main topic is people in cottagecore games (0:01:22) Al: that we want as marriage candidates that currently are not available as marriage candidates. (0:01:27) Al: This is the third of the trilogy of our marriage candidates. (0:01:30) Kev: Yeah, I get that the new that’s the you know, the last of news regards last minute last minute is so big (0:01:38) Kev: Like I forgot that’s what we’re here to talk of (0:01:39) Al: You’re like, oh, yeah, we’re actually we’re going to do that. (0:01:42) Al: Yeah, we’ve got that bit to do as well. (0:01:43) Kev: Yeah, I’m glad you also specified a (0:01:47) Kev: Cottagecore games, right because unfortunately I can’t talk about Jenny from high school (0:01:55) Al: Before that, we have some news. (0:01:58) Al: We have just some generic news. (0:02:01) Al: We also have some new games announced and we have we’re going to talk about (0:02:06) Al: marvellous games showcase, that’s marvellous (0:02:09) Al: the games company not marvel the comics company marvellous so we’re going to (0:02:16) Al: talk about that but first of all Kevin what have you been up to (0:02:21) Kev: Um, so, not, I mean, okay. (0:02:25) Kev: A lot of my pre times being consumed by fable them, the 1.0 came out. (0:02:29) Kev: I picked it up. (0:02:30) Kev: I’m playing it. (0:02:31) Kev: I’m enjoying it. (0:02:32) Kev: It’s, it’s the village builder I wanted. (0:02:36) Kev: I’m doing it. (0:02:37) Kev: Um, you know, I, like, I could go into detail, but that’s probably better for (0:02:42) Kev: another time, um, just, it’s really good. (0:02:43) Al: Yes. Yes, I’m sure you’ll go into detail on it on a future episode. (0:02:45) Kev: I enjoy it. (0:02:45) Kev: Thumbs up. (0:02:46) Kev: Um, when uh, uh, (0:02:51) Kev: um, uh, so that’s when I need the chill to, you know, brain dead game, more or less. (0:02:59) Kev: Uh, when I do feel like actually playing, I picked up some fighting games this week. (0:03:05) Kev: Uh, again, in particular, uh, Street Fighter 6 is the big one because they had, uh, the last of their wave of season one DLC or whatever dropped. (0:03:16) Kev: They added Akuma, who’s a big scary guy, both as a character. (0:03:21) Kev: I’m enjoying getting back into that. I am bad, I have lost everything, I feel worse than ever, but I am still playing. (0:03:32) Kev: So, you know, fighting games. (0:03:32) Al: when you when you said that you’re you’re bad I was going to say obvious the (0:03:35) Kev: What about you, Al? What have you been up to? (0:03:38) Kev: Okay, go ahead. (0:03:40) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:03:42) Al: important thing is that you’re enjoying it and then you immediately followed up (0:03:45) Al: with I feel worse than ever about it so I was like mmm well awkward well we love (0:03:51) Kev: Yeah, well, look, we’re Pokemon fans. (0:03:55) Kev: We’re gluttons for punishment. (0:03:58) Al: Okay, what have I been asking for? (0:04:02) Al: I have picked up Starstruck Thagobond, which came out about a week ago as we’re recording. (0:04:10) Al: And yeah, I’m enjoying it so far. We’ll see where it goes and how much I enjoy it, etc, etc. (0:04:20) Al: I also may well go into more detail on that in the future episode. (0:04:26) Kev: Okay. [laughs] (0:04:28) Al: I’ve… (0:04:32) Al: Yes, yes it does. I have also been playing more farm RPG, which was, (0:04:39) Al: I don’t know if you’ve listened to this week’s episode or not, Kevin, because it’s only two days (0:04:42) Al: since it came out. Well, that’s what we were talking about me and Cody, and I have continued (0:04:42) Kev: I’m… Yeah, no, I have not caught up on that. (0:04:49) Al: to play it, so I don’t know how long I will continue to play it for, but it is, it’s very (0:04:52) Kev: Hey, well, there you go. (0:04:55) Al: much my just, I’ve just been kind of tapping buttons on mobile when I feel like it sort of thing for it, (0:05:01) Al: So. (0:05:03) Al: Yeah, I have been, I have been playing that. I don’t know if enjoying is the right word. (0:05:04) Kev: You enjoy the number go big some people do (0:05:09) Al: It’s like, do you, it’s like if you play cookie clicker, do you enjoy that? (0:05:13) Al: Is it? I don’t know. Yeah. Yeah. Enjoy is just an interesting word for it. Anyway, (0:05:21) Kev: That’s that (0:05:23) Al: we don’t need to get into that. And I’ve been playing some more Pokemon, as usual. It’s, (0:05:28) Al: It’s raid weekend, Kevin, so I’ve done the raid this weekend. (0:05:32) Al: I thought you were going to say Street Fighter 6 has Swampert. (0:05:32) Kev: Who’s rate or what is being attacked? What is that a Swampert? You know, what’s crazy? (0:05:41) Kev: What if I told you Street Fighter 6 introduced rates (0:05:48) Kev: No, no, I wish (0:05:49) Al: How does a raid work in a fighting game, a one-on-one fighting game? (0:05:54) Kev: Yeah (0:05:56) Kev: Basically, you’ve got to beat up a bunch you beat up X number of opponents or whatever and you (0:06:02) Kev: Earn attack points and then those attack points are used to fire a big cannon at a big scary version of Akuma in this case (0:06:12) Kev: To whittle down. It’s held to a zero and rewards are based on how much you contribute yada. Yada (0:06:18) Kev: Obviously, it’s not actually like a (0:06:20) Al: Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s like a yeah, it’s a it’s a whole world sort of get a big number type thing. (0:06:22) Kev: You know cooperative thing (0:06:27) Kev: Yeah, yeah, it’s a goal like like those Sun and Moon events you remember back (0:06:32) Al: Yes, I do. (0:06:33) Kev: 8 billion eggs or whatever. Yeah, I like that. But okay Swampert’s cool. I like Swampert. They should bring (0:06:42) Al: Well maybe they will with this upcoming game. (0:06:46) Kev: I hope so. (0:06:46) Kev: Yeah, I know. (0:06:48) Kev: I’m so excited. (0:06:48) Kev: Oh my gosh, we’re back. (0:06:51) Al: Excited but excited-ish. Excited for what could be. (0:07:00) Kev: Yeah, yeah. (0:07:02) Al: All right let’s talk about we’re gonna first talk about the Marvelous game (0:07:06) Al: showcase. It’s interesting. Marvelous game showcase. It’s not games. (0:07:12) Al: It makes it sound like they’re just showcasing one game but it was definitely (0:07:15) Al: multiple games. Well it was multiple games kind of because we didn’t really (0:07:20) Al: get any details about anything. Are you excited about Far Magia? (0:07:22) Kev: Speaking of being excited for what COULD be… (0:07:29) Al: The concept of it anyway. (0:07:31) Kev: Uh, okay. So… (0:07:35) Kev: What is the concept? (0:07:36) Al: Well that’s a good question. So Far Magia is their first. They (0:07:41) Al: He originally announced this game a year ago. (0:07:42) Al: This is going to be, you’re going to hear this a lot in this section. (0:07:47) Al: They originally announced this game a year ago at the Marvelous Game Showcase (0:07:50) Al: 2023 as Project Magia, and they didn’t really say anything about it. (0:07:55) Al: They just said, we’re making it. (0:07:57) Al: And then they’ve shown a little cut scene, game introduction type thing with a bunch (0:08:04) Al: of characters and they went into detail about some of the characters. (0:08:07) Al: And that’s, that’s it. (0:08:08) Al: We still don’t have any game, game footage, gameplay. (0:08:12) Al: We don’t have any real information about the game itself, like what actually is it. (0:08:18) Al: I’m assuming it’s going to be a farming game based on the name, but I might be wrong. (0:08:24) Kev: That would, that would be why, I mean, yep, right. (0:08:24) Al: Because my assumption is it’s farm, magia, as in like magic farm, that’s my assumption. (0:08:32) Al: But it could, it might be far. It might not be farm, it might be far. (0:08:38) Al: Because we didn’t even hear them say the name because it was said in Japanese. (0:08:42) Kev: Oh, no, you’re right (0:08:42) Al: I assume a lot of things, but my current assumption is it’s farm, magia. (0:08:48) Al: And it’s going to be a magic based farming game. (0:08:48) Kev: Well, and I mean, you know (0:08:53) Kev: Given this company’s history you would expect that right? (0:08:56) Al: You would, yeah, you would think so. (0:08:58) Kev: But like I don’t yeah, yeah, that’s a reasonable assumption (0:09:03) Kev: But like at the same time, I don’t think we actually saw any sort of form ish related thing (0:09:08) Al: No, nothing. (0:09:10) Kev: But we did see Wasmoth. (0:09:12) Kev: Monster collecting, or monster fighting, yeah I don’t know. (0:09:14) Al: Monster fighting. I don’t think there was any collecting, but there was there was definitely fighting of some kind. (0:09:18) Kev: Well, there were different kinds of monsters it might be collecting, who knows. (0:09:23) Kev: It’s popular with the kids. (0:09:25) Kev: Um, and, yeah, I want to be excited, oh okay, okay. (0:09:30) Al: Oh we do actually see a farm. We do see a farm. I’ve just noticed four minutes and 58 seconds into (0:09:37) Al: the video, the showcase, we see what we see. This looks like a farm with moving plant, (0:09:39) Kev: Okay let me, let me look at that. (0:09:42) Kev: No, so there’s, there’s don’t. (0:09:47) Al: they look like they might be creatures. It’s it’s like literally shown for a second. (0:09:54) Al: And it’s like little tails waggling. (0:09:54) Kev: going through but yeah I mean that I mean you know obviously there’s a few (0:10:00) Kev: people there’s a few does room fact like someone’s never actually played a room (0:10:04) Kev: factory game does room factory combined monsters with your farming and whatnot (0:10:08) Al: Yeah, it’s basically it is essentially just a farming game, but with much more emphasis (0:10:14) Al: on the fighting. (0:10:16) Al: So think of it, I mean, it’s actually not miles away from what Stardew is right with (0:10:23) Al: the cave and with the skull cavern and stuff like that because Stardew has quite a few (0:10:28) Al: different areas now with monsters. (0:10:32) Al: But it’s much more like there is a story to that, to the monster fighting as well. (0:10:38) Al: Like you’re going out and trying to find your way through an area for a story whereas in (0:10:39) Kev: - Yeah. (0:10:43) Al: Stardew you’re doing it because it’s there, you know. (0:10:48) Kev: OK, right. I get you. (0:10:52) Al: So yeah, the fighting isn’t the unique thing, the kind of the story around why you’re fighting (0:10:52) Kev: Well, hopefully. OK. (0:10:57) Al: and what you’re doing and why you have amnesia. (0:10:58) Kev: Now, OK, I get you. (0:11:01) Kev: Well, hopefully this does combine the two, maybe a bit more. (0:11:09) Kev: You know, I’m always down for that, right? (0:11:11) Kev: Because I feel like at this point, we’ve had a handful of games (0:11:14) Kev: trying to combine the monster catching and the farming. (0:11:17) Kev: but I don’t feel like (0:11:18) Kev: any have actually done it that well (0:11:22) Kev: meshing the two together not not just having them both in the game but (0:11:24) Al: Oh, you’re right, it does look like Monster Collection, because it definitely looks like (0:11:25) Kev: actually you know (0:11:26) Kev: working together that’s what I want to see like paleo pines is the one that i (0:11:31) Kev: can think of that i’ve (0:11:37) Al: they’re telling monsters with cards what to do. (0:11:42) Kev: Yup, that you go triple A, level, I don’t know whatever A, this is Moonstone Island, maybe, who knows. (0:11:42) Al: So it looks like it might be a deck builder. (0:11:50) Al: A farming creature collector deck building. (0:11:52) Kev: Marvelous Moonstone Island, there we go. (0:11:59) Kev: Maybe, who knows. One, one other thing, like, I don’t, I’m gonna, you haven’t mentioned it, (0:12:07) Kev: So I’m guessing it doesn’t hold much weight for you, but they got Hiromashima to work on (0:12:12) Kev: the art, which is pretty cool for people not familiar. He’s a Japanese bengaka. He has (0:12:18) Kev: some pretty big hits. I think most notably he’s called Fairy Tail. The art for the characters (0:12:23) Kev: he has. Very distinct that those eyes are like his trademarks. But anyways, personally (0:12:29) Kev: that excites me. I like Hiromashima, so that’s pretty cool. That’s a good get. (0:12:32) Al: enough so they say this game is in development and will be releasing this (0:12:38) Al: year I don’t think it’s releasing this year like if this is I mean it’s June (0:12:40) Kev: which is wild (0:12:44) Al: basically right it’s June and they they’ve not even shown any game footage (0:12:45) Kev: yeah (0:12:50) Al: or even really given us a good idea of what the game is and they say it’s (0:12:52) Kev: yeah that’s wild to me (0:12:55) Al: coming out this year doubt it we’ll see we’ll see six months you can do a lot in (0:12:57) Kev: I don’t I don’t know (0:13:01) Kev: we’ll see (0:13:02) Al: a guess me I mean it’s it’s very possible that they just don’t want to (0:13:04) Kev: that you can (0:13:06) Al: hype it up too quickly and too fast and actually they are on track to be ready (0:13:09) Kev: - Yeah. (0:13:11) Kev: Yes, I will say that I haven’t, okay, I haven’t kept up with Marvelous' (0:13:17) Kev: released schedule history, but I haven’t heard bad things about it at least, right? (0:13:22) Kev: Like, I haven’t heard huge delays or whatever. But, um, the real question is, (0:13:24) Al: no they don’t they don’t they don’t tend to do they don’t tend to have delays (0:13:30) Kev: yeah. Yeah, so we’ll see. I think 20, 24, it’s, I think it’s possible. (0:13:35) Al: oh except for Rune Factory 5 that was delayed by multiple years but (0:13:40) Kev: Well, yeah, touche. (0:13:42) Al: to everyone that’s listening and screaming Rune Factory 5 yes yes yes (0:13:43) Kev: The question for me is when or if it will get localized. (0:13:54) Al: Yeah, yeah, that’s always a good question because they have… I’m trying to remember (0:13:54) Kev: That’s what I wanna know. (0:13:59) Al: if any… I think Pioneers of All of Town may be released the same time over here, but yeah, (0:14:06) Al: I don’t think they generally… Oh, and the newer Doraemon game, Doraemon, Story of Seasons, (0:14:14) Al: Friends of the Great Kingdom, that released at the same time everywhere, but I think in (0:14:21) Al: general, like a wonderful life was (0:14:24) Al: was like a couple of months, wasn’t it? (0:14:26) Kev: Yeah (0:14:27) Al: And the Friends of Minero Town remake was a couple of months (0:14:30) Al: and Rinfactory 5 was like three or four months. (0:14:31) Kev: Yeah (0:14:33) Kev: Well, I mean that’s a reasonable time right like question the bigger question is the if all right because (0:14:40) Kev: You know, this is a new title and franchise whatever right? (0:14:43) Al: Well, let’s, I mean, let’s put it, let’s put it this way. I, I mean, this was the English (0:14:43) Kev: So I don’t know if they’re gonna feel like it’s gonna hit in the States or outside (0:14:53) Al: language version of their showcase. Now granted it was in, it was all of, they didn’t have (0:14:59) Al: it dubbed, but they did have it subbed and it was a specific version of the video for (0:15:05) Al: the English language YouTube channel. (0:15:06) Kev: That is true, and we get in English official English title for major. You know I take it back (0:15:11) Kev: It’s gonna get localized. Doesn’t think about that (0:15:13) Al: I think Farmagia is just, is just the name. I think that’s what they’re calling it in (0:15:14) Kev: and they (0:15:17) Al: Japan as well. Yeah. (0:15:17) Kev: Oh is it okay (0:15:19) Kev: Well there you go (0:15:22) Kev: Well, they said showed it like in English. I don’t know and that could have been the name in Japan in Japan (0:15:25) Al: Yeah, they called it… (0:15:27) Kev: But with Japanese characters you know I mean (0:15:30) Al: Yeah, I just listened to it, and yeah, they called it “Pharmagia” is what they called it in the in the Japanese. (0:15:30) Kev: But we’ll see (0:15:32) Kev: Okay, Mike. I hope sir hi (0:15:36) Kev: All right, there you go. (0:15:41) Kev: And also, they very clearly labeled other things in the showcase as Japan only. (0:15:43) Al: They did, yeah. That’s a good point. They had one of the arcade cabinets was Japan only, the Pokemon one, and one of the mobile games was Japan only. (0:15:54) Kev: In the crane game we don’t get fluffy cow plush (0:15:56) Al: Oh yeah, the crane game. Well, you say game. I do feel like it’s like, is it a game? Like, this is stretching game quite a lot, like gambling box. (0:16:06) Kev: Okay, that one, that one I don’t know. (0:16:11) Kev: Other crane games, I, yes, I think they are, (0:16:14) Kev: but that one did specifically. (0:16:16) Kev: I don’t know, that was a weird design. (0:16:16) Al: it was very different it was very it definitely looked a very large plush (0:16:18) Kev: But who cares? (0:16:19) Kev: I just want the cow inside. (0:16:25) Kev: Yeah, yeah. (0:16:27) Kev: So just, we gotta plan our trip to Japan (0:16:30) Kev: so we can review the cow plush. (0:16:34) Al: Subscribe to our Patreon! (0:16:38) Al: I promise, Kevin, if we get enough patrons to mean that I can afford to take me and you (0:16:41) Al: to Japan, I will do it. (0:16:43) Al: It’s not gonna happen, but… (0:16:44) Kev: that’d be great yeah yeah we need okay that’s (0:16:48) Al: Next we have Story of Seasons. (0:16:50) Al: So in the grand tradition of this video of not giving us any real information, we got (0:16:55) Al: No real information about this either! (0:16:58) Kev: Nope. (0:17:00) Al: So we got the same little video that we got last year (0:17:04) Al: of the chickens and the cows. (0:17:05) Al: And then they showed us a little bit more of the seasons (0:17:11) Al: and the weather and someone looking up at the sky (0:17:14) Al: and seeing fireworks. (0:17:16) Al: And we saw a horse. (0:17:18) Al: And the one gameplay feature difference that we’re seeing (0:17:21) Al: is there’s a glider, which is interesting. (0:17:24) Kev: Yeah, I don’t know how about it. I don’t know how I feel about that. I don’t know how gliders you’re gonna fit in (0:17:29) Kev: But I guess we’ll see (0:17:31) Al: I mean, it definitely leans towards the fact that this is going to be, if possibly not (0:17:36) Al: open world, but certainly a full 3D exploration kind of farming game type thing, more like (0:17:41) Kev: I imagine, at the very least, I bet they’re gonna have a big wild area type of area, where (0:17:46) Al: how the… yeah, they’re going to do something. (0:17:53) Kev: you can maybe catch canvas or something, I don’t know. (0:17:57) Kev: The one thing that I haven’t paid attention to previously when they nest or whatever, (0:18:02) Kev: but they did emphasize, like, they’re putting a lot of focus on the visuals, and it is absolutely (0:18:07) Al: Yeah, it looks, it looks, it looks fine, but like, I mean, I’m also just okay. Fine. Like, (0:18:09) Kev: the prettiest story of season’s game ever. (0:18:19) Al: but why? Like, I just, I don’t know what I have to be excited about it, other than, (0:18:25) Al: yeah, it looks, looks, looks nice. (0:18:28) Kev: We get HDTaos. (0:18:29) Al: Yes, but what is this game? Like, I don’t know, what is it? I want to know what it (0:18:30) Kev: That’s exciting for me. (0:18:37) Al: is. And like, what was the last game they actually released that was actively exciting? (0:18:37) Kev: That, eh, validating, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:18:45) Al: I know you liked A Wonderful Life, but you liked A Wonderful Life because you like A (0:18:49) Al: Wonderful Life, right? Like somebody who had not played that before would not be excited (0:18:51) Kev: Yes. (0:18:54) Al: about that. The second Doraemon game was okay, but it wasn’t like exciting and different (0:18:55) Kev: They should be. (0:19:00) Al: from the first, really. The first Doraemon story of season’s game, that was probably (0:19:05) Al: the last actually exciting. (0:19:07) Al: and pioneers of all of town was fine but it wasn’t amazing it didn’t do it I mean (0:19:10) Kev: Well, yeah, I guess we’ll have to see, won’t we? (0:19:18) Kev: Right. (0:19:19) Kev: Yeah. (0:19:20) Al: it wasn’t bad right but nothing about it is memorable like as bad as bad as the (0:19:23) Kev: It was whelming. (0:19:27) Al: most the last to harvest moon games have been at least they’re memorable like (0:19:33) Kev: It is better to be a trash fire than just a mediocre. (0:19:34) Al: pain. (0:19:38) Al: Yeah. So I hope they’re doing something rather than just going, what if story of seasons, (0:19:45) Al: but 3D, you know, like, I hope it’s more than that. (0:19:50) Kev: Yeah (0:19:51) Kev: Well, yeah, well, yeah, that’s a good question. I will have to see who knows (0:19:56) Al: But I’m also, well possibly, I’m also just a little bit surprised by (0:19:57) Kev: Maybe for Magia be the winners (0:20:04) Al: we got maybe a little bit (0:20:07) Al: more than the amount of footage we got last year, a year ago. We still don’t have a name, (0:20:13) Al: we still don’t have any actual gameplay, just some pre-rendered cutscenes. And no idea about (0:20:18) Al: what this game actually is, a year later, after the first initial indication that this (0:20:21) Kev: Yeah, that’s a good point, yeah. (0:20:23) Al: game was coming. And that’s not the last time I’m going to say this. But the other thing, (0:20:28) Kev: When will you say it again? (0:20:35) Al: before we get on to that. The other thing that I’m surprised (0:20:38) Al: by is last year they announced there were two Story of Seasons games coming. This one (0:20:41) Al: that they’ve been talking about now, a single player focused one, but also a multiplayer (0:20:45) Al: focused one. We got no indication that they’re even still doing that at all. It wasn’t even (0:20:50) Al: a like ‘oh we’re still doing this’. Nothing at all. They didn’t mention it at all. They (0:20:55) Al: talked about one Story of Seasons game. So has that second Story of Seasons game died? (0:21:01) Al: Have they decided to just stop talking about it until it’s closer? (0:21:04) Kev: I don’t know became became the nude Damon ex machina. That’s what happened (0:21:12) Al: Right, okay, next we have Rune Factory, Rune Factory Project Dragon, which is not Rune (0:21:16) Kev: So what what else did they talk about? (0:21:24) Al: Factory 6, because as I’ve just mentioned for the Story Seasons multiplayer game, they (0:21:29) Al: didn’t mention Rune Factory 6, even though they mentioned Rune Factory 6 a year ago. (0:21:32) Kev: Yep. (0:21:37) Al: Yeah, I don’t know why… (0:21:37) Kev: I’m starting to get the impression (0:21:39) Kev: they may have made some questionable PR decisions. (0:21:42) Al: Whoever decided what they were going to tell us all that information last year, like, (0:21:47) Al: just silly, silly decision, you should not do that. (0:21:52) Kev: Yeah, although they did give the small disclaimer at the beginning that they were there were gonna be games (0:21:58) Kev: They talked about last year that they were gonna talk about this year (0:22:01) Kev: So they acknowledged it (0:22:02) Al: Yeah, but for what reason, though? This is the thing. They didn’t say why. Right? So (0:22:07) Al: this is my thing. It’s like, don’t announce a game. Because they did this with Rune Factory (0:22:08) Kev: That is fine (0:22:14) Al: 5, right? They announced, “Oh, we’re making Rune Factory 5.” And then it took four years, (0:22:19) Al: was it? Until they actually released Rune Factory 5, and they basically gave no information (0:22:28) Al: for most of that time. (0:22:30) Kev: Yeah, mmm, so look forward to farm Asia is the theme of this showcase (0:22:36) Al: Fine, let’s talk about Project Dragon. (0:22:40) Al: So they said that this is a game where you save the world through dance, (0:22:41) Kev: Dance (0:22:46) Al: but all the stuff they showed us was just pretty standard combat. (0:22:46) Kev: And I didn’t see dancing (0:22:50) Kev: Yeah, I was about to say that it looks you know what it looks like it looks like genshin impact boy, that’s that’s some genshin impact (0:22:58) Kev: Okay. (0:23:00) Al: I’ll take your word for it. I haven’t actually played (0:23:00) Kev: Um, I mean, I haven’t played that much either, but I’ve seen Genshin Impact gameplay and it, it looks very similar. (0:23:08) Kev: Um, but yeah, it, like one thing ever and down here is like, it, there’s no farming that we really saw. (0:23:16) Kev: Is it just the combat oriented one? (0:23:18) Kev: Maybe because brand. (0:23:18) Al: I feel like why would they call it Runefactory if it didn’t have farming in it? (0:23:22) Al: But then I feel like if they were going to do that, they would have called Farmagia one of, they would have called it a Runefactory. (0:23:29) Kev: Well, you know what? The thing is, this isn’t a mainline room factory game. It’s a side game. (0:23:36) Al: I mean you’re right though they didn’t say anything about farming so we don’t know if (0:23:42) Al: it’s got farming in it. We do know it’s got combat which they claim is dance. I didn’t (0:23:42) Kev: Yeah. (0:23:48) Kev: I didn’t see dancing. I wish it were. I’d be excited if it were actually fight dancing. (0:23:50) Al: see dancing either. I guess there’s a bit that I’m watching where they’re they’re fighting (0:23:59) Al: a wooly and it does look like they don’t actually have a weapon and they’re doing moves like (0:24:03) Al: you have a weapon and it’s shooting off fireballs. (0:24:06) Al: That just looks like standard magic stuff in these games, right? (0:24:10) Kev: Yeah (0:24:10) Al: Like it doesn’t… (0:24:11) Al: I don’t… (0:24:12) Al: What makes this dance? (0:24:13) Kev: Yeah, it doesn’t it’s probably just the story whatever it’s probably not actually the game (0:24:16) Al: Yeah. (0:24:18) Al: No information on when it’s releasing. (0:24:23) Al: I think they’d originally said this was meant to be coming out this year. (0:24:26) Al: It’s probably not. (0:24:28) Kev: Yeah, who knows? (0:24:28) Al: Yeah. (0:24:29) Al: Yeah. (0:24:29) Kev: So far, Meiji, uh-huh. (0:24:30) Al: I don’t… (0:24:32) Al: It certainly weirdly seems like the one that’s closest to release, and also the (0:24:36) Al: one that’s possibly most exciting out of these. (0:24:37) Kev: Yeah. (0:24:39) Kev: Because it feels the most real. (0:24:42) Al: Maybe that’s… (0:24:43) Al: Maybe that’s why. (0:24:44) Kev: Yeah, I mean, yeah, like, (0:24:46) Kev: even though we didn’t get the gameplay trailer, (0:24:48) Kev: first of all, we get the release date, (0:24:50) Kev: which implies they’re close to completion to some degree. (0:24:52) Al: Well, we got released year, year, yeah, but I like it’s, it’s a very wide way. (0:24:55) Kev: Release year, oh yeah, yes, year, right? (0:24:58) Kev: Release window, let’s say that, right? (0:25:00) Kev: There is a number. (0:25:02) Al: It’s a six month long window at this point. (0:25:04) Kev: Sure, sure. (0:25:06) Kev: Yeah, but I mean, the others have a much wider window. (0:25:12) Kev: At least, they’re telling us that this game (0:25:15) Kev: will very likely exist from Asia, (0:25:19) Kev: from Agia, whatever they call it. (0:25:21) Kev: And hey, like, what we can in French on the trailer, (0:25:24) Kev: you know, monster catching farming, (0:25:26) Kev: It all sounds fun, so. (0:25:28) Kev: So, yeah, I’m excited about it, and hey, yep, yeah, the Dracula one, yep, that’s, uh, it’s fine. (0:25:30) Al: Yeah, they had a little indie section in the middle as well where they talked about a few (0:25:36) Al: of the games that they are publishing, including Moonlight Peaks, which is one we’ve talked (0:25:41) Al: about before, which is interesting. They’ve apparently said it’s coming out in 2026 now, (0:25:48) Kev: Okay, sure, take your time. I’m in a rush. I’m keen on the game. (0:25:49) Al: which before it was saying they didn’t have any date before, so just updating my list. (0:25:58) Kev: You know how your grandpa. (0:26:00) Al: That is, that is the first game. That’s the first game on my list to say 2026. Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. (0:26:06) Kev: You know how it’s always your grandpa or whatever who judges your farm? (0:26:14) Kev: Does this mean we’ll get Dracula to judge our farm? (0:26:15) Al: Yeah. (0:26:18) Kev: I like that. (0:26:24) Kev: There was that Death by Guitar game. (0:26:26) Kev: game. It wasn’t Cottagecore, but you played it. (0:26:28) Kev: It plays an electric guitar. I think that’s red. (0:26:30) Al: Yeah, I kind of vaguely paid attention to that, but I was like, I don’t have the headspace (0:26:34) Al: to figure out what is happening. And there was a… (0:26:34) Kev: And that’s fine. And Pokemon– who thought– I didn’t know Pokemon actually would ever hear one of these, but there we are. (0:26:38) Al: Yeah, the… (0:26:42) Kev: It’s not Cottagecore, it’s an arcade game. Very excited-looking children, but… (0:26:42) Al: Yeah. (0:26:45) Al: I think it actually looked kind of cool because it was like too stuck together and you can (0:26:53) Al: play them individually or you can join up for co-op and it covers all both screens for (0:26:56) Kev: Yeah (0:27:01) Kev: Yeah, arcade machines are cool and like they do really cool stuff in Japan with them (0:27:06) Kev: So it’s a pity they’re dead pretty much everywhere else, but that there you go (0:27:12) Kev: No cow plushie for us (0:27:12) Al: There was a Metroidvania as well, which looked fine, but it looked like a pretty standard (0:27:16) Kev: Yeah, I do I (0:27:18) Al: Metroidvania, right? (0:27:19) Al: There’s nothing like, “Oh wow, it was amazing,” but it was fine. (0:27:20) Kev: Followed Hollow Knight did the Stardew thing where it’s just kind of ruined (0:27:27) Kev: Genre, why why did you have to give it the cape like the Hollow Knight? (0:27:35) Al: I’m looking for my first farming Metroidvania. (0:27:39) Kev: Oh (0:27:42) Kev: I’m trying to think you know Hades 2 has farming. It’s not metroidvania. Oh, no, I’m not it has farming. Absolutely (0:27:47) Al: Oh please tell me you’re joking. (0:27:52) Al: So it’s more like Cult of the Lam. (0:27:55) Kev: And maybe? (0:27:56) Al: Damn, am I gonna have to play this stupid game? (0:27:58) Kev: Because I don’t know if you remember Hades one had the fishing right so they like they said we’re gonna kind of expand on (0:28:04) Kev: That and they threw in farming now (0:28:05) Al: Yeah, the thing the thing is, right, the fishing is just like, it’s not really interesting to me, (0:28:11) Al: because it’s just all of the stuff in Hades between the runs was just things you did (0:28:11) Kev: Yeah (0:28:15) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah (0:28:16) Al: to make the runs better, right? Whereas the thing about Cult of the Lamb was the runs (0:28:21) Al: were to make your your village better, not the other way around. (0:28:24) Kev: Yeah (0:28:26) Kev: That’s a good point. I don’t know how far goes into that. I just know farming exists in the game (0:28:32) Kev: I haven’t played it myself or anything (0:28:34) Al: I don’t want to play this game. Don’t make me play this game. (0:28:36) Kev: Cottagecore (0:28:39) Al: Speaking of games that I’m gonna play but I don’t expect to enjoy, we have a new Harvest (0:28:45) Al: Moon game being announced, Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home, but this is a mobile game. It (0:28:52) Al: is coming to iOS and Android in August of this year. So in two months, between two and (0:28:58) Kev: Ha! (0:28:58) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:28:59) Al: three months, but we didn’t get any gameplay footage or screenshots of this game at all. (0:29:04) Al: in this announcement. And it very much feels like they went, “Oh, (0:29:08) Al: the Marvelous Showcase is tomorrow. Let’s announce our new game, even though we’re not ready to.” (0:29:14) Al: Because it was announced literally 24 hours before the Marvelous Showcase. (0:29:18) Kev: Look, there’s no denying that Marvelous has done better than Natsume, but Natsume likes (0:29:25) Kev: to hold up that Harvest Moon logo just to remind them. (0:29:28) Al: Yeah, so they announced this game, all they did was one tweet and it says “Harvest Moon (0:29:29) Kev: Just to rub the salt on their one win. (0:29:33) Kev: And it works! (0:29:34) Kev: It hurts me to see it! (0:29:42) Al: Home Sweet Home is coming to iOS and Android August 2024. Home is where the heart is. After (0:29:48) Al: 10 years of city life, you’re ready to head back home in Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home. (0:29:53) Al: Your childhood friend has convinced you to move back to your hometown to try to revitalize (0:29:58) Al: to be easy going. The town of Alba, I’m assuming it’s Alba, not Alaba, because I don’t know. (0:30:04) Al: Did we have this conversation around the other game? What was it called? Alba Wild Life Adventure, (0:30:08) Kev: I mean, there’s Jessica Alba, right, so I’m going with that. (0:30:17) Al: because the word Alba is also, that spelling is a Gaelic word to refer to Scotland, but (0:30:28) Al: it’s not pronounced Alba, it’s pronounced Alapa. So it’s like, I’m assuming you’re correct in this (0:30:31) Kev: Well, the invisible woman lied to me. (0:30:35) Al: Alba, but I can’t read it and not think about that, the fact that it could theoretically be (0:30:43) Al: Scotland. I doubt it, but anyway, we’ll move on. Back to the quote. “The town of Alba,” I’m just (0:30:49) Al: going to say Alba for now, “has seen better days and not all its residents are happy to see a city (0:30:53) Al: slicker like you back. Can you convince even the negative naysayers? (0:30:58) Al: That you truly have the village’s best interests at heart? And can you revitalize Alba with the (0:31:03) Al: help of your childhood friend and other villagers on your side? You definitely can. (0:31:08) Kev: okay so there’s there’s nothing here like uh let’s be clear but but it’s giving me some ideas (0:31:11) Al: No. (0:31:13) Al: Yeah, that was a lot of words to tell us nothing. (0:31:17) Kev: but it’s giving me some ideas and we get a cottage poor farming game where the residents (0:31:26) Kev: all are hateful and and discriminating and and not nice i’d be down for this (0:31:32) Al: We should do it where you like you get to choose um I don’t know if this is really bad (0:31:39) Al: or not but I’m going with it anyway I’m leaning in you get to choose what minority you are (0:31:44) Al: and then everybody in the village hates that specific minority and you have to justify (0:31:47) Kev: Yeah (0:31:53) Kev: Yeah (0:31:54) Al: justify why you should exist oh no (0:32:01) Kev: Somebody get on this. This is gold. Mmm. Oh (0:32:04) Al: don’t know how I feel about even talking about that. That’s dreadful. Oh my word. No! (0:32:09) Kev: You could you could do some mean stuff at one point they have to burn your crops, you know when they have to (0:32:15) Kev: - Thank you. (0:32:17) Al: - No. (0:32:17) Kev: - Yeah, it’s good stuff. (laughs) (0:32:22) Kev: Hmm. (0:32:24) Al: Yeah, so there’s nothing here about this game, we don’t have any information about it, because (0:32:29) Al: like all of this is saying is basically the plot of every farming game. (0:32:35) Kev: Yep, yep, this this description gave me an another angle to another idea (0:32:41) Kev: Why don’t we do the reverse where you move to the city to? (0:32:46) Kev: Gentrify the village to modernize it ruin ruin the lifestyle. Let’s see that. Let’s see that angle. Come on (0:32:53) Kev: Be the this slick real estate guy (0:32:57) Al: It’s just taking the, um, the Georgia route to the extreme. (0:33:02) Kev: Yeah, yeah, basically (0:33:05) Kev: Thank you harvest moon for in announcing these ideas in my head (0:33:05) Al: You know, you know, there’s a fun. (0:33:10) Kev: Heh heh heh. (0:33:10) Al: There’s a fantastic bit in, you know, how on, in the 1.6 stardew update, (0:33:15) Al: you can pay to find the walnuts on ginger Island. (0:33:18) Kev: Yeah, yeah. (0:33:19) Al: If you do that, there’s a fantastic cut scene where, uh, what’s, isn’t (0:33:24) Al: Morris is sitting on our bed. (0:33:27) Al: Deck chair in the middle of the island with bags of cash sitting around him while his (0:33:29) Kev: Yeah. (0:33:32) Al: parrots go and find all the walnuts is fantastic okay so that’s that’s all of this the marvelous (0:33:32) Kev: You’re the last. (0:33:35) Kev: It’s good, that’s good, I like that. (0:33:39) Kev: That’s, that’s strong. (0:33:44) Al: stuff and the natsume stuff so we have some other game news as well which is a little (0:33:50) Al: bit more concrete shall we say so first of all we have gourdlets gourdlets have announced (0:33:57) Al: they’re releasing in summer 2024 so just to summarize this this was this is it describes (0:34:05) Al: itself as an easy-going sandbox game about building towns for cute vegetable folks yeah (0:34:12) Kev: That’s exactly what it looks like. (0:34:16) Al: you love when you’ve got a description of a game and you’re like yeah that is yeah okay (0:34:19) Al: sure and it’s very sad it like it’s very sandboxy like there’s some bits of them actually just (0:34:25) Al: putting just making. (0:34:27) Kev: It’s that isometric (0:34:29) Kev: You know view with you see the whole island and clearly you can add to it and cubicle or whatever (0:34:36) Kev: Yeah (0:34:37) Kev: Those are some Pikmin vegetable people (0:34:40) Al: I. I mean. (0:34:40) Kev: Yeah, all right. That’s cute. When do they add the turnip boy crossover to ruin everything? (0:34:47) Kev: Does he fit in? (0:34:47) Al: I’m intrigued as to see how well this will work with controller, (0:34:50) Al: because it does say it will have controller support. (0:34:53) Kev: Hmm (0:34:54) Al: I’m intrigued to see how well that will work, because it looks very mouse based. (0:34:57) Kev: It does, one of those vegetable people is cooking, okay. (0:35:03) Kev: I don’t know, they don’t have hands, I don’t know how they do it, but they do it. (0:35:06) Al: You don’t need to question these things (0:35:10) Kev: Also, this isn’t their fault, but (0:35:14) Kev: Ooblets has really claimed their stake on that name and (0:35:20) Kev: the (0:35:20) Al: let’s hmm well we’ll see what we’ll see what comes of it so they’re releasing in (0:35:27) Al: the summer and I don’t think that’s early access I think that’s just 1.0 (0:35:32) Kev: Yeah, their demo’s out now, so probably. (0:35:34) Al: slime rancher 2 have announced that they have just released a 0.5 update it (0:35:42) Al: doesn’t seem like there’s much to talk about if you don’t already have played (0:35:46) Al: the game. There’s stuff about a new shop. (0:35:50) Kev: Okay. Look, I, well, I get, like, I get marketing has to be a thing, but you can announce your early access. I get that. But after that, I don’t want to hear anything about it until 1.0. (0:36:03) Kev: It feels so weird to me to announce these half updates or whatever. Like it’s wild. (0:36:12) Al: Am I part of the problem Kevin? Speaking of weird update numbers, (0:36:15) Kev: No, you’re not. You’re, no, no, no, no, not by any means. It’s, it’s like, (0:36:21) Al: Paleopine’s 1.4.3 adds the now let me see if I got this, (0:36:21) Kev: ha ha ha. (0:36:28) Al: if I can pronounce this properly, Sarcosuchus, or Sarcosuchus? (0:36:32) Kev: Uh, circus sutures, I’d say sutures, but it could be, because I don’t, you might be right. (0:36:38) Kev: It might be circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus. (0:36:39) Al: A new dinosaur. (0:36:41) Kev: I don’t know which one. (0:36:43) Al: - It adds a new dinosaur, that’s what matters. (0:36:46) Al: And if you, listener, are like, I love dinosaurs, (0:36:50) Al: but I specifically wanted the Sarkosuchus, (0:36:52) Al: and I wasn’t gonna buy paleopines until that was in the game. (0:36:56) Al: Now’s your time. (0:36:57) Kev: there you go um I think then that’s a plushie too yep there’s a plushie of it yep a good old (0:37:05) Kev: makeshift um I do think it’s cool that they add more dinosaurs to this game because you know (0:37:11) Kev: obviously that’s going to be the appeal right but but I want a really big on the 2.0 update that adds (0:37:18) Kev: like a whole new class of dinosaurs like the sauropods they were in the game they were just cut (0:37:22) Al: You’d rather wait six months and then get 10 dinosaurs than get one a month. (0:37:28) Kev: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. (0:37:30) Al: I think that’s fair, and maybe there’s a time we need to have a conversation about (0:37:34) Al: this on the pod properly, but I do feel like there’s something big about that, like (0:37:39) Al: there’s something exciting about like the Stardew updates every two or three years. (0:37:45) Kev: Yeah, and like, I think, because like, I mean, it’s Hello Pines is very much in the vein of monster collect the right maybe not as as intense as other games but it’s a lot of the same bones right of collecting dinosaurs right. (0:38:02) Kev: I think monster collectors in general like, because Moonstone Island does the same thing every couple of months they’ll release like one or two new creatures or whatever which in a game we’re collecting (0:38:15) Kev: is a big deal like, I think it’s just not exciting to collect one new one you know, like, I mean, Pokemon right they do they drop, you know, a whole (0:38:20) Al: Yeah, well that’s actually, Pokemon’s a really good example of that actually because I still (0:38:30) Al: play Pokemon Go all the time, Pokemon Go specifically, but I really miss when every (0:38:38) Al: few months they had here’s 10 new Pokemon, right? And now that it’s like every so often (0:38:45) Al: there’s one new Pokemon, you know, because they’re obviously slowing down because they can’t create (0:38:47) Kev: Yeah, or can they? (0:38:50) Al: Pokemon to add in, they can only work with what they’re given. (0:38:57) Kev: We don’t know what what gen 10 will be, could be released exclusively through Go. (0:39:01) Al: Well sure, but that’s still the Pokemon company and Game Freak making the Pokemon up, right? Niantic (0:39:03) Kev: I know, I’m, yeah, I know, I’m messing, but yeah. (0:39:07) Al: cannot create new Pokemon, they can only work with what they’ve got, and so they’ve slowed (0:39:13) Al: that down massively so that they don’t run out, but that just makes it less exciting, right? (0:39:20) Al: Oh, here’s a Pokemon, you’re like, oh great, I’ll go out and catch that one new Pokemon. (0:39:24) Al: It’s not exciting. Yeah, I would agree. (0:39:26) Kev: yeah yeah yeah so um yeah but yeah so that and and again paleo going back to the paleo (0:39:35) Kev: pines thing like it’s like dinosaurs are cool and I appreciate but just and I know they’ve shown (0:39:41) Kev: they had a lot of content or things they were planning to add so I feel like they’re gonna (0:39:46) Kev: plan a 2.0 some sort of big update with a bunch of dinosaurs and I don’t know like I said I personally (0:39:50) Al: It’s possible that they are doing that. I will also say that Paleopine’s works a bit (0:39:53) Kev: Well wait, but it does keep it in the news cycle. (0:39:59) Al: differently to like normal creature collection and you can’t - it’s hard to like just go (0:40:02) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:40:05) Al: out and collect everything, right? So actually having that steady release of here’s a new (0:40:06) Kev: Yeah, it is, yes. (0:40:10) Al: one means that you might always have something that you haven’t got yet, which is possibly (0:40:16) Kev: - That is true, that is true. (0:40:16) Al: a good thing. It’s a difficult one. (0:40:20) Kev: Yeah. (0:40:20) Al: My point is I don’t think there’s a “this is always the best way” because I think we’ve (0:40:24) Al: talked about it before and that I don’t think everybody can do the stardew thing because (0:40:29) Al: you’re not going to be constantly interested in every game releasing a massive update every (0:40:35) Al: two years. You’re also not going to be interested in every game releasing an update every month (0:40:36) Kev: Yeah, I guess. (0:40:40) Al: but be that as it may. Speaking of updates, Minami Lane. Minami Lane. Minami Lane. (0:40:41) Kev: Yeah, that’s true. (0:40:48) Kev: What? Oh, minomulate? I don’t know, whatever. (0:40:50) Al: Minami Lane. Anyway, they’ve released an update 1.1. It has gamepad support and six new languages (0:40:58) Al: and a bunch of quality of life and improvements and (0:41:02) Al: fixes etc. But the main thing is that the controller support and the languages. (0:41:07) Kev: This is the one with that raccoon, the war veteran, right, I think? (0:41:11) Al: No, that was Akka was the war veteran. (0:41:14) Kev: Oh, yeah, no, you’re right, that is that guy. (0:41:18) Al: Yeah, I know this one’s a (0:41:20) Al: a small village builder. It’s not really a town builder. It’s a village builder. (0:41:26) Al: It’s more like a street. It’s like one street. (0:41:26) Kev: almost like a neighborhood builder yeah okay yeah that’s there’s that isometric sandbox again (0:41:36) Al: we love it I have owned this I do own this game I haven’t played it yet (0:41:43) Al: because do you want to guess why I haven’t played it yet (0:41:43) Kev: Okay (0:41:47) Kev: You’re playing Stardew Valley no, I don’t know (0:41:49) Al: nope it didn’t have controller support (0:41:52) Kev: Now I was that I was about to actually guess that after I said that I don’t know I was like I look like oh (0:41:58) Al: if you release a game on steam and it doesn’t have controller support i’m not (0:42:01) Al: playing it until it has controller support because i’m playing it on my (0:42:04) Al: my Steam Deck, that is where I’m playing it. (0:42:06) Kev: Yeah, even as someone who doesn’t have this thing, I feel very similarly. (0:42:14) Al: I feel like if I was like a student now rather than 15 years ago, instead of building a gaming (0:42:23) Al: PC, I would have just bought a Steam Deck, I think, because the portability is such a (0:42:28) Al: huge thing. And you can still use it like a standard PC by plugging it into monitors (0:42:35) Al: and stuff like that. But obviously it didn’t exist back then. Sad. (0:42:37) Kev: Mm-hmm (0:42:40) Kev: Yeah, that’s yeah, yeah, that’s fair. Yeah, I think so and (0:42:45) Kev: steam tech saw like it’s a big appeal of (0:42:49) Kev: The consoles for me or just open the box and play the thing right like in steam deck is very much in the line (0:42:52) Al: Exactly. And yes, sure, it’s something you might have to update more often than you would if you (0:42:59) Al: were putting a lot of money into a high-end PC. But one, you’re still spending less money, (0:43:02) Kev: …Right. (0:43:04) Al: right? Because high-end PCs cost a lot of money. People go, “Oh, well, you can get a lot more for (0:43:04) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:43:09) Al: your money in a PC, sure, but you have to spend a lot to get something better than a console.” (0:43:13) Kev: We have updating you don’t need to update as much. (0:43:15) Al: And two, I can’t remember my number two. What was my point? What was I arguing about? (0:43:21) Al: Yeah. You. (0:43:23) Al: Yeah, it’s just it’s one of the oh, yes, I remember the steam deck is like the baseline now for games. So if you have a game, a steam deck, you know, it’s going to be able to run most games, most games are going to be able to run on it. Not all, but most games will be able to run on it. (0:43:38) Kev: Yeah, mm hmm. (0:43:41) Al: And so even though they might not run the best and they might not have the best graphics, it’s still, you know, you’re going to be able to run it. Whereas if you have like a cheap PC you’ve put together with a bunch of things or you have. (0:43:52) Al: Like a cheap laptop or something, no guarantees there, you know, having that guaranteed hardware that, you know, that someone has played someone, someone else in the world has played this game on that hardware. (0:44:05) Al: You know that you can guarantee that there is somebody that has played this game on a steam deck. And if if there’s an issue with it, they will have told the developer, whereas your random PC that you’ve shoved stuff together may well have some really weird edge case bug. (0:44:20) Kev: Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Yeah, it’s absolutely the (0:44:30) Kev: Consistency that’s around looking for here consistency, right? That’s that’s a big appeal (0:44:32) Al: Yep, exactly. Potion Pyramid have released their Complete Edition. The Complete Edition (0:44:39) Al: will contain the base game of Potion Pyramid and all paid DLC, with over 30 cosmetic pieces (0:44:46) Al: of furniture to decorate your potion house. The Complete Edition will be available as a physical (0:44:50) Al: version on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. A Complete Edition DLC pack will be available (0:44:56) Al: digitally for those that own the base game and want all the available DLC. (0:45:00) Kev: Yeah, I do appreciate get doing the big everything’s here release including the physical (0:45:02) Al: Yeah, it also seems to be 66% discounted just now. The complete bundle. You can get the whole (0:45:18) Al: bundle for £18, which is only £1 more than the base game is at its standard price. (0:45:26) Kev: Well there you go. (0:45:27) Al: And I assume it’s a similar sort of price in the US, but I’m looking at the non-US price. (0:45:31) Kev: Yeah. (0:45:32) Al: So if you have been… no, you go, nope, you go. (0:45:33) Kev: Yeah. (0:45:34) Kev: Look, I’m sorry. (0:45:35) Kev: Just go in. (0:45:38) Kev: I would just get it. (0:45:38) Kev: Look, I’m sorry. (0:45:39) Kev: Like potion permanently. (0:45:40) Kev: Good for you. (0:45:41) Kev: And I’m looking at the next news items so harder. (0:45:45) Al: All right well let’s go for it then. I could have added this into last week’s episode but (0:45:49) Al: I felt like I needed to leave it for this one because Kevin the Sakuna anime is now going to (0:45:52) Kev: I’m so excited. It’s so pretty oh (0:45:56) Al: be airing in Japan from the 6th of July. It does look really good. (0:46:01) Kev: That’s so close it looks so good. Holy mackerel. They got I didn’t realize that Toho animation like that is a (0:46:10) Kev: An anim

Al and Codey talk about Farm RPG Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:32: What Have We Been Up To 00:12:18: Game News 00:37:47: New Games 00:40:15: FarnRPG 01:24:16: Outro Links Len’s Island “Frozen Lands” Update Ooblets “Spring 2024” Update Sugardew Island Delay One Lonely Outpost Roadmap Flotsam “0.8.0” Update Cozy Grove 2 Announcement 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. (0:00:35) Al: My name is Al, and we are here today to talk about Cottagecore Games! (0:00:36) Codey: And my name is Cody! (0:00:41) Al: Woo! (0:00:42) Al: Whoop-e-doo! (0:00:43) Al: Scooby-doo! (0:00:44) Al: And Al, Isle of Man and Tired edition. (0:00:48) Codey: Scoopity bop bop. This is Cody basement edition. (0:00:57) Al: Thank you. (0:00:58) Codey: You’re gettin’ us at our best, y’all. (0:01:00) Al: Oh yeah, here we go. (0:01:04) Al: As usual, transcripts are available on the show notes and on the website. (0:01:10) Al: We’re going to talk about Farm RPG, which we’re not going to talk about just now. (0:01:12) Codey: It sure is a name, too. (0:01:15) Al: We’re going to talk about later. (0:01:16) Al: I’ll explain what it is. (0:01:18) Al: I know it is better than the name would suggest. (0:01:24) Al: Let’s put it that way. (0:01:26) Codey: Do not judge a game by its name, because… dang. (0:01:27) Al: we definitely not (0:01:31) Al: Well, yeah, we can talk we can talk about that because because this has been on the list for years this one before we finally decided to do it. Yeah, yeah. (0:01:34) Codey: Yeah. (0:01:38) Codey: Really? (0:01:39) Codey: Oh wow, okay. (0:01:42) Al: Years before I decided that we were gonna (0:01:43) Codey: I was just told to do it and I was like, cool. (0:01:46) Codey: And then I’m doing it now. (0:01:50) Al: Yeah, I can’t remember when exactly I have it. The first time I created it on notion was October last year, but like I had been thinking about it for quite longer than that. (0:02:01) Codey: Mm-hmm, it’s been in your heart for longer than that. (0:02:01) Al: I’ve had it installed on my phone for years and I hadn’t opened it up until this week. (0:02:06) Codey: Oh my gosh, that’s ridiculous. (0:02:07) Al: So, I know, I know. (0:02:10) Al: - No. (0:02:10) Codey: I do need to offload some of the games that we’ve played on the podcast that I still have on my phone. (0:02:15) Codey: But I’m like so, ‘cause I finally 100%ed Usagi Shima and now I’m like what if I get rid of it and it gets rid of my save data too? (0:02:23) Codey: And then something new comes out and I’m like, (0:02:24) Codey: “Oh, I’ll open it back up,” (0:02:25) Codey: and then I have to do it all over again. (0:02:30) Al: We’ve got some news, obviously, but first of all, Cody, what have you been up to? (0:02:36) Codey: I have been wondering where the month of May went, um, that’s just been flying by. (0:02:45) Codey: Uh, this is the month where my other, my second job starts back up. (0:02:49) Codey: So on top of being a PhD student, they don’t pay us enough. (0:02:53) Codey: So, um, I also have a coffee shop job. (0:02:58) Codey: Um, and I only do it, yeah. (0:03:00) Codey: Uh, well, it’s actually a trailer, but it’s basically a coffee shop. (0:03:03) Codey: Um, that we move, we move it to… (0:03:06) Codey: to, like, different farmers markets and then there’s also, correct, it’s a mobile coffee shop. Um, I serve beef acts because people are like, and then people are like, “Oh, you’re the owner, that’s so, that’s so funny.” Because the owner and I are actually, like, really good friends. We were friends before I started working there, um, and they’re like, “Oh, no wonder you called up these needs.” And I was like, (0:03:06) Al: It’s a moveable coffee shop (0:03:10) Al: Do you also serve bees? (0:03:27) Codey: “Oh, no, no, no, no, no, stop me.” (0:03:28) Al: Do you wear a little sticker that says “Ask me about bees”? (0:03:32) Codey: No, but people know most of… (0:03:32) Al: You should. (0:03:36) Codey: the people are local, like people that know me and will be like, “Oh, give us…” (0:03:41) Codey: Like one little kid is like, “Give me a B fact.” (0:03:43) Codey: And every day I give him a new B fact. (0:03:46) Codey: Um, so I’ve been pretty busy with that. (0:03:49) Codey: And then also I started doing Rover, um, which is dog sitting. (0:03:54) Codey: And some of it’s pretty easy. (0:03:55) Codey: It’s like, you know, for the weekend, someone drops off their puppy and I watch them or they drop their dog off for the day and then I just like still do work from home, but I just have a dog. (0:04:04) Codey: But it takes more mental space. (0:04:06) Codey: so time has seemed to be flying but still been playing video games did obviously farm RPG I finally got all of my villagers in Disney Dreamlight Valley to a hundred percent I’m trying to think of how to say how to say that level 10 they’re all level 10 they’re all like max leveled mm-hmm and then now I’m trying to finish the parks quest because so I didn’t care about doing all these (0:04:36) Codey: and getting all this stuff because I was like I don’t want to build these like theme park rides I don’t care but then I found out there was an achievement so catch me catch me doing a daily every day just so I can make make five different popcorn buckets and get the achievement popcorn enthusiast still also Fox crafting so the Fox we’re building a shrine now on the Fox’s back (0:04:43) Al: Hehehehehehehehehe always with the achievements. (0:05:06) Codey: uh yeah it’s a shrine it’s a shrine to Fox’s and inside of it is gonna be a small Fox like a couple small Fox statues and then there’s gonna be it’ll go into a cave system and the cave system when you go like into it into it will have a giant Fox statue that I’m going to make out of diamond blocks because I can’t be done with this game I guess (0:05:33) Al: I don’t know what to say. Do you have any like actual foxes yet? OK. (0:05:36) Codey: And yeah, we have, so we set up, so have I told, do you know how to get foxes in? (0:05:43) Al: No, I don’t think I think the last kind of animal that they launched since I actually was playing was wolves. So if it’s similar, then I know vaguely how to do it, (0:05:50) Codey: Okay (0:05:52) Al: but not not foxes. OK. (0:05:53) Codey: No, it’s not so you can’t tame foxes and you can’t put I mean I guess you can put a leash on foxes But they’re so far away from where we are we like we live in our we’re on an island in the middle of the thing and you can’t bring them in a boat with You and so what you have to do is you have to mate (0:06:08) Al: You build a land bridge (0:06:10) Codey: We we did that a little bit you mate two foxes together and then they make a baby (0:06:18) Codey: and then you can put the baby (0:06:20) Codey: on a leash and then that baby is less freaked out than the adults are. It’s more tame. It’s not tamed. It’s just more tame. (0:06:28) Al: So, so what you’re saying is yeah, I was just going to say so what you say is you make you make foxes have a baby and you steal their child and in its confusion it doesn’t attack you, right? (0:06:32) Codey: And then you kidnap the child. (0:06:36) Codey: Yep. Yes. (0:06:40) Codey: Yep. Yes. And then we had to bring it through the nether. So we brought it through the nether portal. (0:06:49) Al: So you can’t put it on a boat, (0:06:50) Codey: no yeah so we had to do that twice because we needed two foxes and then once and now we have just a big ol incestuous fox colony started - so yeah there’s like a hundred they self propagate but we also just have a bunch of juniper berries that we just yeah but it doesn’t even they don’t oh my god (0:06:51) Al: but you can take it through a nether portal. (0:07:14) Al: How big is this island? (0:07:20) Codey: the hundred doesn’t even like they’re still spread out enough on the top of the head of the Fox that it seems like it’s sparse and there’s still the back of the Fox I think I feel like I need I did take pictures and I forgot to post them I’m sorry people I promised and then I did not deliver I do need to post the pictures but I’m thinking I also just need to record a video of it I need figure out how to like screencap something. (0:07:46) Al: Yeah, I feel like the scale is difficult to get because I’ve seen, I’ve seen our picture. (0:07:50) Codey: Yeah, no, the scale is really hard to get. (0:07:51) Al: I don’t know if you posted it in the slack or whether you just sent it to me, but I can’t like I was not imagining it was as big as you were implying. (0:07:56) Codey: Uh, yeah, so it’s the head of it is like 16 blocks times, like another 16. (0:08:11) Codey: So 300 and some odd blocks. (0:08:14) Codey: I don’t know math. (0:08:15) Codey: I’m not. (0:08:16) Codey: No, it’s not 300. (0:08:17) Codey: It’s a lot of blocks, though. (0:08:20) Codey: I think 16, I think it’s more than 16, actually. (0:08:23) Codey: I don’t know. (0:08:24) Codey: It’s big. (0:08:25) Codey: Um, people, I show up to people in real life and they’re like, why? (0:08:29) Codey: And I’m like, because the tism tells me, um, and then I still do my coloring app every day too. (0:08:36) Codey: And I’m actually running low on money, which is surprising because you make like a lot of in game currency just from coloring and like checking it every day, but I’m finishing them too fast. (0:08:50) Codey: But yeah, that’s uh, that’s how I spend my days. What about you? (0:08:54) Al: Let’s see, I’m a little bit… I’ve mostly been in between things because I finished… (0:09:02) Al: What was I playing before? No, what did I just cover with… Was it Johnny? Homestead Arcana with Kevin, that’s what it was. So it’s like I was procrastinating playing that so I wasn’t really playing anything and then we recorded the podcast and I didn’t open the game again and then I was waiting because it was like only a week until… (0:09:04) Codey: Moonstone Island? (0:09:06) Codey: Oh, yeah. (0:09:24) Al: Starstruck Vagabond came out and I was like I definitely need to play this game so I wasn’t really doing much until that came out so that’s why we ended up playing Farm RPG so that’s basically what I’ve been doing, Farm RPG. Now it’s two days since Starstruck Vagabond has come out so I have played it a little bit now as well but yeah that’s pretty much it. Pokemon GO obviously as usual but yeah that’s about it. A lot of time in… Well as much time as you can actually put into that. (0:09:55) Al: Which we’ll discuss later, but yeah, yeah, that’s that’s about it. I’m watching Through the Purge movies (0:10:02) Codey: Okay, interesting. How many are there? (0:10:04) Al: There are five currently (0:10:06) Codey: Okay, I just watched the trilogy the Planet of the Apes trilogy that from the 2011 2010s because um (0:10:13) Al: yeah yeah I went back and watched them as well before the new one but I went right back to the beginning I watched all the planet of the apes films um I think so the first one the first planet of the apes film I think is the best planet of the apes films um the second one is is good (0:10:22) Codey: Yeah, I haven’t done that. Is it worth it? (0:10:27) Codey: Oh, okay. (0:10:36) Al: the other three are a wild ride a wild ride to be on um (0:10:43) Al: then there’s a random one from 2001 that was tim burton because tim burton needs to have every possible film franchise uh and that was it was a tim burton film (0:10:48) Codey: Yeah. (0:10:52) Codey: Yeah. (0:10:57) Codey: It sure was made by Tim Burton. (0:10:59) Al: yeah you can you can see the tim burton all over the place he he tim burtoned on everything um (0:11:06) Codey: Hey. (0:11:06) Codey: Yup. (0:11:08) Codey: Correct. (0:11:10) Al: It’s fun. I feel like he just like there are some (0:11:13) Al: films from Tim Burton that I just think are absolutely fantastic, like Nightmare Before Christmas, one of the best films, just full stop, like absolutely fantastic. And then there’s just some things that you’re just like, I don’t understand what you’re doing. (0:11:27) Codey: Yep, but all you have to say is “because Tim Burton” and then the… (0:11:28) Al: What is this? And why does it why does it exist? So, yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, (0:11:39) Al: So, no, I would recommend, I mean, they obviously they are different continuities these (0:11:43) Al: the three, the originals, the Tim Burton random, and then the new ones, but I think they’re all they’re worth it. (0:11:50) Codey: okay yeah I just um because I’m dog sitting for my advisor right now and I always remember at the last minute that he has like Disney+ and Amazon Prime and like all this stuff and so I’m like like trying to watch as many things and I saw those were on it and I was like oh my gosh I haven’t I hadn’t seen two of them and I know the new movies like coming out or it’s already out I remember yeah That’s what we’ve been up to. (0:12:08) Al: Hehehehehehehe (0:12:16) Al: Cool It is let’s talk about some game news (0:12:21) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:12:22) Al: First of all, we have a new update from lens Island the frozen lands update (0:12:27) Al: This is coming out on the 27th of May which is in the past as you’re listening to this. So it’s already out (0:12:35) Al: Cody why why why should people care about this? (0:12:39) Codey: Man, so this is the first like big update that they put out ever since they changed the camera angle stuff and it just hits different. (0:12:49) Codey: The trailer is really cool if you watch it, like seeing your character, being able to like manipulate your camera around your player entirely is really cool. (0:13:01) Codey: They have these enemy stronghold islands that you can go to, there’s a bunch of different like new dungeons, new boss fights, new all of that kind of stuff. (0:13:09) Codey: I really like the cherry blossom islands that they added in this update are just beautiful aesthetically. (0:13:17) Codey: You can just really see how far they’ve come from when we first covered them two years ago and where they are now. It’s just so cool. (0:13:27) Codey: Plus just a bunch of other stuff. That’s just the stuff that jumped out to me in the trailer. (0:13:32) Codey: And here is my weekly “Gosh, I want to get back into this game.” (0:13:38) Al: Yeah, I should really play it, I mean, I think when we first covered it, it was just one guy, basically, and he has now a big like a company and a team and stuff like that building it, which is it’s always nice to see when that. (0:13:39) Codey: Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And he’s, there’s just, they’re putting out so much more. Like, back then it was one camera angle. They didn’t really have a combat system. They didn’t really have, like, much of anything. It was just the bare bones. And now, to see, I don’t know. (0:14:06) Codey: It’s really cool to see a game be literally built up from the bottom. (0:14:09) Codey: And have been a part of that and this game like even back then I even really liked it I put it like multiple hours into it. I actually wonder if I can look at that while we’re talking (0:14:18) Al: Cody, I have some bad news for you. You said two years, it’s longer than two years. (0:14:19) Codey: What’s up? (0:14:21) Codey: Yeah (0:14:23) Codey: My gosh (0:14:26) Al: So we probably first talked about it over three years ago. (0:14:29) Al: It’s been in early access for more than two and a half years now. (0:14:33) Al: It was November 2021 that it entered early access. (0:14:37) Codey: That is benign. (0:14:39) Al: Let’s see, let’s see, let’s see how what they say in there. (0:14:44) Al: Because when you do an early access, you have to answer the question approximately how long will… (0:14:48) Al: game be in early access and it’s always funny because they’re almost always so so underestimated (0:14:56) Al: so let’s see what they said lens island is expected to release out of early access with co-op multiplayer in q3 2024 several large content updates will also release prior to the full release i’d be surprised if they’re actually correct but that is much better than I was expecting have they released the schedule (0:15:14) Codey: They’re on, I mean, they’re on that timeline now. (0:15:18) Al: oh there we go okay they are still expecting that interesting interesting and this is this is the frozen lands update is their last release before the the the one the multiplayer update which is is meant to be 1.0. (0:15:19) Codey: I don’t think so. (0:15:20) Codey: But like that, oh, here we go, updated roadmap. (0:15:24) Codey: Q3 2024, full release. (0:15:27) Codey: But yeah, they’re still respecting it. (0:15:37) Codey: - Yeah, yeah, that’s crazy. (0:15:40) Codey: Yeah, see, they’re… (0:15:42) Codey: See, so this gets back to like games. (0:15:47) Codey: Okay, so with games, but also with books, (0:15:52) Codey: there are the architects and there are the gardeners, right? (0:15:57) Codey: Have you heard this before? (0:16:01) Codey: So their gardeners are gonna be your George R.R. Martins, (0:16:06) Codey: You’re Patrick Rothfuss’s. (0:16:08) Codey: Those are those are authors. (0:16:09) Codey: They’re the type that like create the the world right and then they like trim some stuff here trim some stuff there But it kind of just like grows on its own and then after a while You don’t know how to get out of the garden like there’s no way to finish (0:16:23) Codey: The thing and I think that a lot of game developers do this too where they start developing it Then like oh I could do this. Oh I could do that Oh, I could do that and they like just kind of jump off and then they’re like I don’t know where the end is anymore (0:16:35) Codey: versus engineers or architects. (0:16:37) Codey: At the very beginning, they’re like, “Okay, I’m going to do this, and then I’m going to do this,” (0:16:41) Codey: and this is going to be your Brandon Sanderson, who pumps out eight million books a year. (0:16:47) Codey: He’s crazy. (0:16:49) Codey: He is like, “Here’s the dotted dashed outline of, in this book, this character is going to do this thing, (0:16:58) Codey: and in this book, this character is going to do this thing.” (0:17:00) Codey: And then all you have to do is fill in the scaffolding. (0:17:04) Al: All all you have to do is make it actually is make it a good read. (0:17:07) Codey: All you have to do, but it’s more structured. (0:17:10) Codey: And I think that’s what Lens Island has been doing. (0:17:12) Codey: They’ve been doing a great job with, they had the scaffolding, (0:17:16) Codey: they had that foundation, they built it, and then they stuck to what they said they were gonna do. (0:17:20) Al: Yes, yeah I think it’s what I’m impressed by is if they do manage that timeline they’ve managed that a three-year timeline when they started with fewer people than they’re currently working on it. (0:17:36) Al: Like the funny thing about software development is that when you add people it doesn’t speed up the process, at least not to start with, it actually slows it down to start with. (0:17:42) Codey: - Yeah. (0:17:44) Codey: - Yeah. (0:17:48) Al: it does speed it up if you are a good team. (0:17:50) Al: And when I say to start with, I mean like for several months, it slows you down. (0:18:00) Al: Because it takes a lot of work to get people up to speed on multiple years of software development. (0:18:06) Codey: I mean, yeah, it’s the same in science too. Like if I were to try and have someone help me (0:18:11) Codey: with my specimens, it’s like there’s there’s alert (0:18:14) Al: There’s so much to explain about your processes and yeah, what you’ve already done. (0:18:17) Codey: So much to explain and I’m like, you know what I’m just gonna do it by myself (0:18:21) Al: Yeah. (0:18:21) Codey: I don’t I don’t want to do that. That sounds awful (0:18:22) Al: Yeah, yeah, it can be because like, the good thing about it is that if you if you if you have to do it once, you if you figure out what you did to explain it to that one person, (0:18:25) Codey: I’m just gonna (0:18:35) Al: you can get that down to a fine art. (0:18:37) Al: So like my current team before I joined it, it was three people and then I joined it three (0:18:44) Al: months ago, now it is nine people. (0:18:47) Al: So like, over that three month period, we’ve gotten down to fine art how to explain to people what this project is and what to do. (0:18:54) Al: It’s like here is your list of things. (0:18:57) Al: Ask us if you have any questions, you know. (0:18:58) Codey: Yeah wild good job lens island looking great (0:19:01) Al: All right, cool. (0:19:03) Al: At this point, Cody, you’re probably just waiting for the 1. (0:19:08) Codey: Yeah, I really am and I’m not even gonna like keep it going with what I had (0:19:14) Codey: I’m just gonna wait for the 1.0. Yeah, just complete new save file (0:19:19) Codey: New experience, but I am like every single time I see it. I’m excited and I’ve already paid for it because I paid for it (0:19:26) Codey: literally years ago (0:19:27) Al: Yeah, I have I have also, I’ve never played it, but I own it. I think I kick started it. (0:19:28) Codey: I (0:19:33) Al: So I’ve had it for nearly three years. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I tell you, I’ve just remembered what happened. So I opened it up, and I started to save. And I found that it didn’t have controller support, so I closed it. And they now have controller support, but I just haven’t got back into it. It was like, and now is the time to play it. And I went, Nope, now is not the time to play it and put it away. All right, ooblets have released a 2024 spring update. So yeah, you thought it was done. It’s not done. There’s more and more stuff. (0:19:34) Codey: Think you opened it once because or something because steam says that you’ve other game other friends who have played this game (0:19:50) Codey: Oh, yep. (0:19:58) Codey: Yeah. (0:20:04) Codey: You lost me, yep, for sure. (0:20:20) Codey: More let’s to ooob (0:20:21) Al: The Glimmy Globe crafting system is back. (0:20:27) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:20:28) Al: I honestly can’t remember this. I don’t know. Like I don’t remember this being in the game. (0:20:31) Codey: Hey, all I see is that there’s four new potted plants to decorate your house with and I am (0:20:37) Al: This update also adds a bunch of quality of life features that people have been asking for. Notes, just a list of your previously opened mail, and a log of the discoverables sorting. You can now sort your inventor inventory and containers. (0:20:51) Codey: - Yep, that is the biggest thing for me. (0:20:54) Codey: Like when I saw that one, again, I haven’t played this game. (0:20:57) Codey: I don’t own it yet. (0:20:58) Codey: But when I saw that you can sort your inventory, (0:21:01) Codey: I was like, “Oh, sweet.” (0:21:03) Codey: ‘Cause Disney Dreamlight Valley has ruined me on that. (0:21:06) Al: Yeah, yeah, I always have, I don’t generally like, so okay. (0:21:08) Codey: I need sorting. (0:21:16) Al: So like in stardew, let’s take stardew as an example. I will never deliberately sort my bag, (0:21:23) Al: my rucksack, because I want things to be in a very specific order. So my first line on my bag (0:21:30) Al: is all my tools in very specific order. That is pickaxe, axe. (0:21:37) Al: Hoe. It’s been a while, I’m trying to remember. (0:21:39) Codey: No, just I can literally like see you with your like looking up like remembering this the very (0:21:47) Codey: specific order I see it like (0:21:50) Codey: Like not visually because there’s nothing on zoom but like it’s coming through (0:21:59) Al: And then, and this is where he gets all the way at the right hand side. Sword. Now the reasoning (0:22:03) Codey: Oh, oh interesting (0:22:07) Al: is that when I go in the caves, in the mines, I can then be sitting on one with my pickaxe, (0:22:15) Al: and I’m pickaxing things. And then if I need to use my sword, I go one to the left, (0:22:21) Al: and I’ve got my sword. But if I am not in the caves, and I’m pickaxing something on my farm, (0:22:21) Codey: Yeah. Yep. (0:22:27) Al: I can go right to get to my axe for the trees. (0:22:32) Codey: See, my panic, I panic in the middle of all of that stuff, (0:22:38) Codey: usually, so I can’t have things be on the left like that. (0:22:38) Al: Yeah, no, I like being able to go like left, right, left, right, left, right, that’s what I’m doing. (0:22:45) Codey: Yeah, now I can’t do that. (0:22:47) Al: But I - and then my bottom line is like all my oars and stuff like that, like it doesn’t matter. (0:22:54) Al: I don’t need to get into the specifics of that, but my point is I can’t - the sorting is never sorted in a way that I would ever want it to be sorted for my rucksack. (0:23:01) Al: However, I do sort chests because I don’t really care what order they’re in, right? (0:23:06) Al: I just care that the stuff is there. (0:23:08) Al: I do have some issues, and I would really love to talk to Concerned Ape and figure out why he did some of the sorting that he did, because some of them are very weird sorting. (0:23:21) Al: If you sort the ores, they’re not in the order I would expect them to be. (0:23:25) Al: I can’t remember what they are, but you would expect it to be copper, iron, gold, whatever the next one is. (0:23:30) Codey: Yeah like quality level. (0:23:34) Al: What do they what do they call is not our no, it’s not (0:23:39) Al: Every Fermi game has a different name for that one iridium iridium iridium and yes iridium and stardew and then (0:23:42) Codey: Is it iridium? Okay. (0:23:49) Al: Radiate radiation rock I can’t remember what it’s called (0:23:52) Codey: It’s fine. (0:23:54) Al: Stardew radiation rock radioactive or (0:23:58) Al: But it’s not that order and I can’t remember which order it is, but it’s not that order It’s no it’s not even that either. I’ve tried that I’ve looked in that as well And they just some things you’re like I don’t (0:24:02) Codey: Was it alphabetical or something? (0:24:08) Al: Understand this order is really weird anyway (0:24:10) Codey: Mm hmm. It would be cool if like they had sorting, (0:24:15) Codey: but you could also lock certain like slots like I want to lock these slots. (0:24:20) Codey: So I’ll sort things except for I want these in this in the order I want them in like this. This goes here. This goes here. This goes here. (0:24:25) Al: yeah I feel like that would probably be quite complicated a UX to figure out but anyway so I was my point I don’t I don’t yeah sorting sometimes useful sometimes weird I don’t understand the reasonings that people have for some sorting it could pop up you I (0:24:30) Codey: Well, they do it. No, I’m kidding. (0:24:35) Codey: Ooblets. (0:24:42) Codey: Yeah. (0:24:46) Codey: Well, I understand the reasonings of this Steam Bundle. (0:24:50) Al: okay tell me about this steam bundle while I go turn on my light (0:24:54) Codey: Tell me how good that translation was first, though. (0:24:55) Al: it was amazing (0:24:59) Codey: Thank you. (0:25:00) Codey: So there’s a Steam Bundle that’s called the Cute and Cozy Collection, (0:25:03) Codey: and it includes Ooblets, plus Baron Breakfast, Moonstone Island, and Potionomics. (0:25:09) Codey: Uh, it’s normally $94 and 96 cents, but right now… (0:25:12) Codey: It’s currently 16% off, so it is $80, which is pretty heckin cool, especially because Ooblet itself is 30 bucks. (0:25:21) Codey: So I think Bear and Breakfast is also $30, but these are all really nice games. (0:25:26) Codey: Um, actually I can’t. (0:25:28) Al: I would probably consider, we have not, I would probably consider buying this if I didn’t own all of them except potionomics. (0:25:29) Codey: Have we covered Potionomics? (0:25:31) Codey: Okay. (0:25:32) Codey: Yeah. (0:25:33) Codey: Yeah, you… (0:25:34) Codey: But like, if… (0:25:37) Al: This is always my problem with these bundles is I own too many of the games. (0:25:42) Codey: If you’ve heard us talk about Bear, Breakfast, Minset Island, and Ooblets, and you’re like, (0:25:46) Codey: been tottering, now would… this is a good time, because you can get all three plus a bonus one that we haven’t talked about. (0:25:53) Codey: So, very cute. (0:25:54) Al: Although I don’t own Ooblets on Steam, I have it on Epic. (0:25:55) Codey: Woo! (0:25:56) Codey: Ooblets. (0:25:57) Codey: Oh yeah, this would be a difference, or a different thing. (0:26:06) Al: And I have Bear and Breakfast on Switch. (0:26:08) Al: But I have Moonstone Island on Steam, so I have one of them on Steam. (0:26:13) Codey: on steam it’s three different (0:26:18) Al: Sugardew Island, in the shock of the year that nobody was expecting this. (0:26:24) Al: Sugardew Island has been delayed. (0:26:25) Al: What? (0:26:26) Al: I’m shocked. (0:26:28) Al: I can’t believe this. (0:26:29) Al: I was not expecting that they wouldn’t manage to release only two months after their Kickstarter. (0:26:36) Codey: I had no idea. (0:26:38) Codey: Also, they said that, in this update where they talk about how they have to delay it, (0:26:47) Codey: they’re also like, “We also made a character editor!” (0:26:50) Al: Well, that’s one of the reasons why it’s delayed is because they decided that they were going to add in a bunch of stretch goals, but no. (0:26:57) Codey: but like the stretch goals should not be something that delays the thing. (0:27:01) Al: I know, I know, we agree in this, right? (0:27:04) Al: Like absolutely, if you’re adding things on top of the game that aren’t necessarily the base game then that should be something that comes in a future update. (0:27:12) Al: I don’t feel like a character editor is something that should come in a future update, I do I do think it’s probably something that should come with the base game, but it feels weird. (0:27:20) Al: to add it in as a stretch goal, like I just feel like either you want this or you don’t want this and if you’re not going to have - because I don’t think every game should have a character editor, right? (0:27:20) Codey: It also shouldn’t have…yeah, it shouldn’t have been a stretch goal. (0:27:25) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:27:30) Codey: Yeah. (0:27:30) Al: I don’t think that’s something that we need in every game. (0:27:34) Al: I do think that probably farming games is the game that you probably want it in and Sugardew Island doesn’t look like it’s a story focused game so much as you’re going to create yourself in the game sort of game. (0:27:50) Al: The question, as always, with these games is, will you be able to be bald or not? (0:27:54) Al: Because it’s so rare. (0:27:55) Codey: Well, yeah, four colors of skin, four colors. (0:27:55) Al: Four colours of hair! (0:27:57) Al: Blonde, brown, black and red. (0:28:01) Codey: Yeah, but but not like ginger, like, like red, like the red car that just drove by you that is going to get pulled over because it is that color red. (0:28:02) Al: No, red. (0:28:13) Al: So what I’m always amazed at when they do these things is like, why not just do the like RGB values, right? (0:28:20) Al: Because yeah, sure, it’s a bad experience for users, but so is having four colours. (0:28:28) Codey: Yeah. (0:28:28) Al: Just it’s really weird, like just let them (0:28:31) Codey: The thing that gets me, (0:28:32) Codey: the thing that gets me is, (0:28:34) Codey: I want to see what all of these options are, (0:28:36) Codey: ‘cause one is just face. (0:28:38) Al: Oh yeah, ’energetic’ is the selected one! (0:28:39) Codey: And it just says energetic. (0:28:41) Codey: And I’m like, what is, (0:28:41) Al: What are the other… Also, look at the… look at the characters… (0:28:44) Codey: can one of them be like depressed? (0:28:46) Al: But look at the character’s face, does that look energetic to you? (0:28:52) Codey: Maybe it’s like an animation style of energetic. (0:28:54) Codey: I don’t know. (0:28:55) Codey: Also outfit. (0:28:56) Codey: Functional, like what are the other options? (0:28:59) Codey: Non-functional. (0:29:03) Codey: Outfit void. (0:29:04) Al: I’m gonna so love covering this game when it comes out. Look, I am so willing to be wrong about this and I want games to be good and I want games to be fun and I want people to enjoy these things and I want people who make games to be successful, especially indie and other small games. This game just does not instill any confidence in me. (0:29:28) Codey: This is not spark joy. (0:29:31) Al: No, no, it does. It definitely sparks joy. There is so much… (0:29:34) Codey: Yeah. (0:29:34) Al: …so much joy. My face is a massive smile. I am so joyous right now and I realise it doesn’t sound it in my voice. (0:29:40) Codey: Okay. (0:29:43) Al: I just… this whole thing is fascinating. Anyway, let me quickly reword there… (0:29:48) Al: …because I always like to use their own words when they’re talking about delays. (0:29:51) Codey: uh-huh (0:29:55) Al: “We’re working on the implementation of the other stretch goals. Thanks to your great support and the successful Kickstarter campaign, we were able to unlock some stretch goals. (0:30:03) Al: But this also means more work for us. (0:30:04) Al: And this is why everything is taking a little longer than initially expected. (0:30:09) Al: We will probably not reach the original release date in the second quarter of 2024. (0:30:14) Al: Which is why the release date is realistically more likely to be in the third quarter of this year. (0:30:18) Al: We hope for your understanding, because we want to use the time to provide you with a great game and realise all your well-deserved features. (0:30:25) Codey: I love how there’s still like some room for doubt like we probably won’t make it (0:30:29) Al: Oh yeah, no, the… (0:30:31) Codey: Like dude, just say no. It’s like when it’s like when I tell my advisor (0:30:35) Al: Yeah, they’ve got a month. There’s a month left of Q2. (0:30:37) Codey: Yeah, I love when I tell my like when I tell my advisor Oh, I’ll get to it tomorrow and he’s like dude. You’re just gonna keep doing that for a week (0:30:45) Codey: Just say that you’ll get it to me next week cuz yeah, I’m just gonna keep pushing kicking that can down the road (0:30:50) Al: I don’t think this is coming in Q3 either, but we’ll see. (0:30:54) Codey: Yeah (0:30:55) Codey: Speaking of Q3 Heh. (0:30:56) Al: Oh, nice. One Lonely Outpost have updated their roadmap and their next update’s coming out in Q3. (0:31:05) Al: It’s been a while since we’ve had anything from them, hasn’t it? (0:31:09) Al: They went a little bit Radio Silent. (0:31:09) Codey: I think so, yeah. (0:31:12) Codey: Well, they were working hard. (0:31:13) Al: Yeah, Witch Team. (0:31:17) Codey: Oh, no. (0:31:18) Codey: Oh, no, no, no. (0:31:21) Al: Seasons, Weddings, two new map locations, OmniTool and Colony upgrades, new festival and new minigames. (0:31:30) Al: That’s what’s coming in Q3. (0:31:32) Codey: so since today has become nitpick day I would like I would like to pick a nit on the steam page of this of this um update in the like banner there’s a time that says p.m. 1810 if you’re in military time it does not you don’t have to say p.m. (0:31:35) Al: Yeah, knit all the picks. (0:31:57) Al: Well, no, it’s not just that. It just doesn’t make any sense. Right. I don’t. First of all, (0:32:01) Al: I don’t. Can you not? Why military time? Like, can I just ask all Americans, (0:32:05) Al: please stop calling it military time. Just call it 24 hour time as the rest of the world does. It’s not military time. It’s just 24 hour time. (0:32:07) Codey: Oh. Well, the only Americans that use it are the people in the military. (0:32:18) Al: Clearly not, because it’s being used here. Right. And this isn’t military. (0:32:22) Codey: Are they Americans? I don’t know. I also use a 24-hour time frame, time format for my research. (0:32:24) Al: Where was where was I’m actually seeing this (0:32:33) Al: I use it in just general life, like all of my clocks are in 24 hour time. (0:32:33) Codey: it’s not just but that’s just but that’s (0:32:37) Codey: like that’s what we learned it as is military now but like yeah if you have it in 24-hour date format you don’t have to have PM so that’s my nitpick right there (0:32:42) Al: yeah yeah it’s not but it’s also not just it’s not that you don’t have to it’s it doesn’t make any sense it actively doesn’t make any sense to put the bm yeah yeah is it that’s only that’s it’s only uh it’s not quite as bad as when people say uh 5 a.m in the morning oh it’s supposed to 5 a.m in the afternoon (0:32:49) Codey: yeah (0:32:52) Codey: like what is what is 18 a.m. 18 10 a.m. what is that when is that (0:33:08) Codey: » Yeah, correct. (0:33:12) Codey: The five morning afternoon time. (0:33:15) Codey: So that was my nitpicking. (0:33:17) Codey: And then Q4, they are going to be doing localization and console porting. (0:33:25) Codey: It says heading towards 1.0 launch. (0:33:28) Codey: No idea what that means. (0:33:29) Codey: Like that’s very vague. (0:33:32) Al: Yeah, so I think what they’ve said is, in Q4, they’ve said “Q4 will be a big quarter for the game as localization and console porting will officially begin. (0:33:32) Codey: - Thank you. (0:33:45) Al: That means the game will be heading very quickly to a 1.0 launch around that time.” (0:33:51) Al: And just before anybody gets excited, the game is not coming out on consoles this year. (0:33:56) Al: If they’re starting console porting in Q4, you’ll be lucky if you get it next year. (0:34:02) Codey: Is that, are you saying that from your own brain or from the next paragraph? (0:34:02) Al: About both. (0:34:07) Al: They do, they do, but I don’t think that, I don’t think they’re, because what they say is “that doesn’t mean for sure that consoles will be launched in the fourth quarter.” (0:34:08) Codey: Because they literally say that in the next paragraph, so, but yeah. (0:34:19) Al: No, no, no, no, it means for sure they won’t be, right? (0:34:20) Codey: Yep. (0:34:24) Al: Like they, again, like with the Shugaju Valley or Shugaju Island, off of my word. (0:34:32) Al: When Shugaju Islands, we’re like, “We think we probably won’t be able to get this in Q2.” (0:34:37) Al: And we’re like, there’s no way that, you know, don’t, it’s not, they’re not coming out this year in common consoles, like just, it’s not happening. (0:34:42) Codey: Yeah (0:34:45) Al: Don’t have any hope at all, right? (0:34:46) Codey: My sweet summer child, yeah (0:34:48) Al: Like because, as they point out, this is an approval process, the approval process will take, will take a quarter. (0:34:54) Codey: yeah that’s we learned that with apico and then sometimes the the msrb comes at you and is like you have a cute little b game rated m because you have alcohol (0:34:55) Al: Like it’s, it takes a long time. (0:35:06) Al: Yeah, and well, this is the thing, like, even like Stardew Valley, right? Has it been two months now since 1.6 came out? And no console version yet. So if Stardew can’t, and I highly doubt it will be in the next month. So if Stardew can’t do it in a quarter, in one quarter, (0:35:14) Codey: yeah that sounds right (0:35:26) Al: you can’t do it in one quarter, right? Because Concerned Ape isn’t making the console versions. (0:35:32) Al: He has a team that he gets to port these things. (0:35:36) Al: And they know what they’re doing, they’ve done multiple versions now, (0:35:38) Al: they’ve massively sped up the process, it doesn’t take a year anymore, (0:35:43) Al: but it’s not happening in a quarter. (0:35:45) Codey: yeah not gonna happen but yeah people are gonna cover that when it comes out not me people are well I’m when it goes to 1.0 I’m sure we’ll still cover (0:35:52) Al: we’ve had we’ve had an we’ve had an episode on it already I think (0:35:57) Al: have we what maybe we haven’t have we not had an episode on it (0:36:05) Codey: Is it out in beta yet, early access? (0:36:08) Al: Uh yes it is, hmm maybe we haven’t, okay I guess we need to do that game, yay. (0:36:09) Codey: Oh, okay. (0:36:21) Al: Okay uh well what’s next, sorry I got distracted by searching, flotsam! (0:36:24) Codey: Flotsam they added farming. That’s it. Whoo (0:36:28) Al: That’s it, that’s the news! (0:36:31) Al: We don’t have any information on this, it’s just a tweet from the creator with a video And it says we added farming. (0:36:38) Al: So, I’m guessing this is not in a released version, so I’m guessing it’s coming, at some point. (0:36:42) Codey: Yep, yeah. (0:36:48) Codey: And it sure does look like farming. (0:36:50) Al: I forget what state this is. (0:36:50) Codey: It’s trying to… (0:37:00) Al: It is an early exit. (0:37:04) Codey: But yeah, it just sure looks like farming on floating island. (0:37:07) Al: Oh wait, no, the farming is apparently out now. (0:37:10) Al: Farming 0.8, farming update came out in April. How did I miss this? (0:37:15) Al: When’s this tweet from? It’s from May. May 4th. (0:37:19) Al: Okay, I need to get up on the flotsam updates now that it’s officially a farming game. (0:37:24) Codey: See, that’s the thing, before this it wasn’t really on our radar. (0:37:30) Al: Yeah, well, I was following them on Twitter (0:37:34) Codey: Not for the pod though, right? (0:37:36) Al: Yeah, yeah (0:37:37) Codey: Okay. (0:37:38) Codey: Speaking of Twitter, I’m just going to key up the transitions for you. (0:37:40) Al: We got new game announcement (0:37:48) Al: We have a new game announced cozy Grove to the and (0:37:54) Al: Anticipated sequel to cozy Grove cozy Grove - is is, um… (0:38:00) Al: I need to put more work in to actually looking at this. (0:38:04) Codey: Uh, that’s cute. (0:38:10) Al: The second game is called Cozy Grove Camp Spirits, apparently. (0:38:14) Al: It’s the first game. (0:38:16) Al: Cozy Grove is a game about camping on a haunted, ever-changing island. (0:38:20) Al: As a spirit scout, you’ll wander the island’s forest every day, finding new hidden secrets… (0:38:26) Al: Oh, that sounds like a rogue-lite. (0:38:27) Al: light, finding new hidden secrets and so on. (0:38:30) Al: helping soothe the local ghosts and cozy grove to swear the scout oath once again as a spirit scout on a haunted island you’ll once again befriend and assist an unusual assortment of trouble that ghostly bears in this heartwarming sequel to cozy grove coming soon to netflix games (0:38:49) Codey: Wait, is this a bear ghost that has become colored pencil box? (0:38:54) Al: a maybe (0:38:54) Codey: Okay, so if people haven’t looked, that makes sense actually because it looks like a bear. (0:39:02) Codey: You’re right next to you. (0:39:03) Codey: There’s just like a colored pencil box that has come to life and now that I see it is definitely a bear. (0:39:10) Codey: But like why am I friends with a (0:39:12) Al: you’ll need to find out. So is this game just coming to Google Play and the Apple App Store? (0:39:22) Codey: No, this is Netflix. (0:39:22) Al: Because… no, I know. Yes, I know. That is not contradictory to what I just said. (0:39:24) Codey: To Netflix, game for iOS and Android. (0:39:32) Al: That is how Netflix games work. But generally, not all Netflix games are exclusive to Netflix, (0:39:41) Al: and quite often also released. (0:39:42) Al: on steam and the original game was on steam but I don’t see any information about that (0:39:48) Al: cozy grove runs in real time and is optimized for one to two hours (0:39:53) Codey: Wow. I’m just scrolling through the developer. (0:40:04) Al: we should look into this game more both of them that’s the new game (0:40:05) Codey: We should we sure should and that’s the news (0:40:15) Al: so this episode we’re going to talk about farm rpg (0:40:21) Codey: I can’t get over this game name. (0:40:23) Al: uh so getting away from the name because it’s farm role-playing game (0:40:29) Al: as opposed to all those other farming simulators that you don’t role play in (0:40:34) Al: this is a text-based farming game (0:40:40) Al: so it has all your standard farming features in a farming game but it’s all text-based almost all text-based i’ll get the almost in a minute it is for android and ios and also there’s (0:41:00) Codey: It’s giving me, what is the game that you can play online? It’s like a stick figure game? (0:41:10) Al: Dickman games? I don’t know what you’re talking about. (0:41:11) Codey: Mmm, no. (0:41:13) Codey: Text-based. Kingdom of Loathing. (0:41:17) Al: Kingdom of Loathing (0:41:18) Codey: Yeah, so if anyone ever played Kingdom of Loathing it gives those vibes. (0:41:24) Codey: Which was just a very fun text-based RPG (0:41:30) Codey: back in the early, like mid-2000s, you know when we were ancient. (0:41:34) Al: So I do feel like calling this an RPG is a little bit over the top. There are some (0:41:43) Al: mechanics that could be considered RPG-esque, but it’s not really the main focus of the game. (0:41:49) Al: The main focus of the game is, well, farming. So I mean, should we just talk about the individual mechanics? Because I feel like that’s probably the best way to get into it. Starting with farming is you have a farm and (0:42:04) Al: you buy seeds and you plant them in individual plots and they take a certain amount of time I think they start off the first one’s like a minute it takes a minute to grow (0:42:14) Al: and then they kind of increase over time depending on what crop it is up to like days some of them take literally days here’s what rice rice will take 240 hours which is 10 days why did I not do I can’t do that in my head. (0:42:28) Codey: 10 days (0:42:36) Codey: But yeah But to do it you just you just like go you you don’t like walk a character. There’s no like visual component (0:42:38) Al: So you… (0:42:46) Al: Yeah, it’s just buttons, it’s buttons, you press the buttons. (0:42:47) Codey: Where like it’s just yeah, you just hit a button. That’s like (0:42:52) Codey: Go to town Buy seeds like and then yeah - Yeah. (0:42:54) Al: Yeah. (0:42:56) Al: It’s all menus. It’s all menus. (0:42:58) Al: You can click on “My Farm” and then you can press to plant a seed and then you can press to harvest the plant and then you click to go to the shop to buy more seeds. (0:42:59) Codey: - If you don’t like menus. (0:43:08) Codey: Yep, yep, yep (0:43:08) Al: It’s all button pressy. That’s it. (0:43:12) Al: Except there is one thing that we’ll come to next, which is fishing. (0:43:14) Codey: Oh, yeah (0:43:16) Al: Not entirely. (0:43:20) Al: It’s slightly different. (0:43:22) Al: Well, it still is pretty much button pressy, but it’s slightly different. (0:43:26) Al: It’s slightly more interactive, but we’ll get to that. (0:43:28) Al: So, I mean, the farming is very much, I don’t know if you’ve found this, (0:43:34) Al: but it’s not my main source of income after the first day. (0:43:40) Al: Like, the first day it was, because there wasn’t much else you could do to start with, (0:43:44) Al: But because you’re very limited in how… (0:43:46) Al: I now have 24 crops, but I had to spend a million silver to get my last four, right? (0:43:56) Al: If I want another four plots, I now have to spend 10 million silver. (0:44:02) Al: Which really doesn’t feel worth it, because the thing is… (0:44:02) Codey: Yep, it it’s a shifting baseline for sure (0:44:06) Al: But what I find is the amount you make per crop is very much not a lot. (0:44:14) Al: So if I look at pumpkin for example which is a 12 hour crop it costs 9,000 silver 9,360 silver to buy a seed once it’s grown after 12 hours I get 10,800 silver for that which is a profit of 1,440 [mumbling] (0:44:40) Codey: about 1000. Yep. (0:44:47) Al: 15% of the original purchase price, okay? (0:44:52) Al: That’s not a lot of money, right? (0:44:55) Al: So 15% increase per crop. (0:44:58) Al: It’s not a lot and that’s for 12 hours, right? (0:45:02) Al: So in 12 hours you’re increasing your money by 15%. (0:45:06) Al: There are many better ways to make money in this game. (0:45:10) Codey: - Yeah, yeah, I don’t do much of that. (0:45:15) Codey: I am mostly doing the quests, (0:45:20) Codey: so the special requests from different people. (0:45:24) Codey: I just do those, and the only time I’m ever farming is I look, I’m like, what does this person need? (0:45:33) Codey: Trying to find the first one that has probably that one. (0:45:38) Codey: right now that, uh, (0:45:40) Codey: buddy, one of the characters in game characters wants the, (0:45:45) Codey: the quest says buddy believes the last thing he needs to perfect this drink is some tea leaves. If you bring some, he will share his drink with you. Um, (0:45:54) Codey: and so I have to bring him 20 tea leaves. So I have to go like find them, (0:45:58) Codey: plant those question mark. Oh no, I find those. Just kidding. (0:46:00) Al: So let me tell you, so yeah, yeah, okay, that’s interesting. So you’ve been, so here’s the reason I’ve not been focusing on these requests is because it’s really time-consuming to look through them. So I currently have 53 active requests, 53, and there is no way to filter them there is they don’t show you (0:46:04) Codey: But like say, say it’s like tomatoes. Then I’d be like, okay, (0:46:06) Codey: I’m going to go plant tomatoes because I need that for the quest. (0:46:10) Codey: I don’t do it for money. (0:46:20) Codey: Yeah, yes. (0:46:24) Codey: That is horrifying. (0:46:30) Al: you want the same screen you have to individually click on it see what these all this one needs 200 corn let’s look at the next one it needs 100 wheat the next one needs two aquamarine rings two emerald rings two lemon quartz rings two ruby rings and two mystic rings okay the next the next one needs one spider the next one I don’t know why he wants a spider but whoever the next the next one needs 200 apples. (0:46:54) Codey: Just one spider (0:46:58) Al: So it takes so long, there’s no way to filter. (0:47:00) Al: It does show you when you have all the items for that quest but it doesn’t tell you when you’ve almost got everything and it’s like if you click. (0:47:09) Al: This game is so close to being like perfect right so if you go into your inventory right and let me click on antler right so click on antler that’s an item and you can look through you can get all the information on it how many you got in your inventory how how much they sell, how much the XP was to get it. (0:47:30) Al: how much they sometimes cost at the flea market, what pets give you them, what the rarity is, (0:47:35) Al: and then it tells you how many help requests left are there that use this item. (0:47:42) Al: Now that’s great, but that number is not how many you have active, that’s how many in the game there are. (0:47:50) Al: It doesn’t tell you how many that you currently have active that have them. (0:47:50) Codey: - Yep. (0:47:54) Al: If it did, you could click on it and go “Oh great, these are the ones that I have this for (0:48:00) Al: and there’s no way to filter this list and it’s just driving me insane.” (0:48:05) Al: It’s like I go into some items and it says “Oh, there are 20 quests that you still have to do that use this.” (0:48:10) Al: But I might not have any of them active just now. (0:48:10) Codey: Yep. Yep. (0:48:13) Al: I have no way of knowing that without manually clicking on each one of these 53 quests! (0:48:20) Codey: Yeah. And like, even then, so like, I would see the benefit of if you click something, like if I quick, quick, clicked an aquamarine. And I looked at it, and it said that there were no quests that need it anymore. Be like, cool, I can sell this whenever. (0:48:36) Al: Yes, yes, but that that’s gonna take a long time to get to that point though. This is the thing (0:48:41) Codey: Oh, it’s not, I’m not gonna ever be it to that point. But, but yeah. Um, so. (0:48:43) Al: Well exactly (0:48:47) Al: And probably by the time you’re doing that money is not your problem (0:48:47) Codey: So– (0:48:50) Codey: Correct. I mean, money isn’t my problem now either. (0:48:56) Al: I wonder if there’s a way… do you know if there’s a way to see how much you’ve… (0:49:01) Codey: In total… (0:49:02) Codey: I (0:49:10) Codey: in the library or not the library the museum because the museum check your game progress (0:49:12) Al: or maybe in the li- maybe (0:49:22) Al: it doesn’t seem to have that just out of interest while we’re in the museum, what’s your percentage (0:49:28) Codey: Oh, let me scroll up. Two hundred and seventeen. Twenty-eight percent. (

Al and Kev go through their favourite marriage candidates in farming games Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:03:03: What Have We Been Up To 00:17:52: News 00:31:39: Marriage Candidates 01:05:25: Outro Links Tchia on Switch Sunnyside Release Spirittea “Helping Hands” Update Snacko Character Customisation My Time at Sandrock Cross Platform Multiplayer Stardew Valley 1.6.4 Monsterpatch Screenshot Moonstone Island Switch Tease 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. (0:00:34) Al: My name is Al. (0:00:37) Al: And we are here today to talk about cottagecore games. (0:00:43) Al: Transcripts are available as always in the show notes and on the website. (0:00:47) Al: Kevin, welcome back. (0:00:49) Al: How are you doing? (0:00:54) Al: Yes, it has. (0:00:55) Al: You were last on the pixel cross. (0:01:05) Al: Yeah, I’ll be honest, I haven’t played it since that episode. (0:01:11) Al: But I think that’s mainly because I don’t– (0:01:16) Al: well, it’s partly that. (0:01:17) Al: But I also think that the Switch is not the best way for me to play games like that. (0:01:23) Al: I think if I had it on my phone– (0:01:28) Al: no, it’s not even just that it’s like if I had it on my phone, (0:01:30) Al: I would do it a lot more. (0:01:31) Al: The problem is I don’t want to close the game that’s open on my switch to open that up. (0:01:35) Al: Well, yeah, they say that but it doesn’t ever work on the PS5, at least in my experience. (0:02:05) Al: In my experience, I’ve never managed to get it to actually work. (0:02:10) Al: But what do I know? I feel like it would be simple, but I don’t know. I’m not a games console developer. Oh yeah, it’s just software. I do software. It’s just that, right? It’s easy. (0:02:16) Kev: All game dev is simple, don’t you know? (0:02:23) Kev: It’s just copy-paste. (0:02:26) Al: Cool. So we are going to talk this episode about our favorite marriage candidates across different Kojkokou games. (0:02:32) Kev: Oh yeah, time for some deep lore, time for people to learn about us, or tags. (0:02:35) Al: Yeah, yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how many of Kevin’s are from wildflowers. (0:02:45) Kev: the answer just wildflowers (0:02:46) Al: Or will we actually learn some new information? (0:02:51) Al: So we’re going to talk about… (0:02:55) Al: Yeah, it’s just Wesley three times, right? (0:03:01) Al: So we’ve got, before that, we’ve got some news. (0:03:05) Al: What have you been up to? (0:03:06) Kev: Ohhh, what have I been up to? (0:03:10) Kev: Cassette Beasts, Cassette Beasts, you already know this, you listen to Rainbow Road audio. (0:03:14) Kev: Cassette Beasts! (0:03:14) Al: I haven’t listened to this week, still. (0:03:16) Kev: Um… (0:03:18) Kev: Oh, okay. Yeah, oh yeah, that’s true, but, um… (0:03:20) Kev: Uh, so Cassette Beasts, the… (0:03:24) Kev: Poet Monster Catching Not Pokemon Game. (0:03:28) Kev: Uh, I forget the name of the developer, but, uh, I have it on Switch. (0:03:38) Kev: cheap it’s good I don’t even know where to begin it’s just the presentation is immaculate because they put a lot of emphasis on their style a lot of 80s 90s influence you know as the titular presets were popular then right the music is fantastic the mechanics are there’s (0:04:08) Kev: substantial maybe a little confusing or overwhelming at times just because but that’s probably just because Pokemon has so long dominated the market slash my life right it’s hard to readjust but in general the game is pretty snappy and quick it feels a lot more dynamic than say Pokemon or I think most other monster catchers the designs are fun the the (0:04:39) Kev: interesting yeah I like I don’t I could go on into a whole episode about this I might it’s somebody else who’s a fan but I wonder I can hear him screaming from Australia right now but yeah cassette piece is just a plus plus stellar, stellar stuff, um, I uh, (0:04:51) Al: I wonder who that could be. (0:05:08) Kev: I’ll give you what I’m at near the end, I think from where where my quests are and my levels and whatnot (0:05:15) Kev: I’m in the last stretch of the game (0:05:19) Kev: It is (0:05:21) Kev: The Antagonists are interesting. It’s not just the Team Rocket ripoff. It’s a some otherworldly beings actually rather odd (0:05:33) Kev: And one thing about the game right there’s a partner system where you always (0:05:38) Kev: Have two players on the field by default on your side (0:05:42) Kev: And so there’s a handful of different characters you can pick as your partner (0:05:48) Kev: One of the last characters you unlock is named Barkley. They are just a dog who can transform into monsters (0:05:55) Kev: They have headphones, yeah (0:05:57) Kev: So Barkley is great. Um, but yeah, that’s that’s cassette beasts great grain great game (0:06:05) Kev: Aside from that I have been (0:06:08) Kev: flying since I picked up my 3DS for the termination of the online services, just to make sure some stuff was squared away. (0:06:17) Kev: I’ve fired up Weapon Shop Delmase. (0:06:24) Al: as you do. It’s an interesting combination of French and English there. (0:06:32) Kev: It’s made by a Japanese developer, so you know, that’s some good, good stuff. (0:06:36) Kev: Um… (0:06:38) Kev: It is a small, it is part of the what’s called the Guild collection (0:06:44) Kev: Compilation of different small smaller sized video games on the 3ds (0:06:50) Kev: by different developers and (0:06:54) Kev: Game directors and stuff like that (0:06:57) Kev: I’ve heard described as like a game jam But the people making them or you know established studios and developers so they are all (0:07:05) Kev: Polished games and whatnot (0:07:08) Kev: You play a weapon shop as the you know name wouldn’t fly you are in charge of a weapon shop where you have to forge weapons for various characters and heroes from your archetypal (0:07:22) Kev: RPG classic fantasy characters (0:07:25) Kev: there’s a (0:07:28) Kev: French knight who’s over the top and full bravado. There’s a (0:07:32) Kev: samurai Reserve in old-fashioned. There’s a Grand Mahalo swinging axes (0:07:38) Kev: and t. It’s a comedy game. So much to the point that it has an actual sitcom style laugh track. It is it is a fun little game. It’s it’s very laid back in space. The forging part of it is just a little rhythm mini game and the adventures that the characters have. You kind of read about them in the background. There’s like this little social media feed that you follow their updates and stuff like that. (0:08:09) Kev: Very, very cute. Very fun. It’s published by Level 5. The Professor Layton and Yo-Kai Watch Company. And they’re very good at making things very whimsical and cartoony and fun. And this game very much follows in that way. (0:08:24) Kev: But but yeah, that’s that’s mostly what I’ve been up to those two games. What about you, Al? Let’s go. (0:08:30) Al: Fair enough. Can you guess? Can you guess what I’ve been playing? (0:08:34) Kev: is it a stardew valley how many have you been marrying (0:08:37) Al: It’s Stardew Valley. I’m still, I’m still playing it. (0:08:41) Kev: are you marrying people left and right for this episode (0:08:45) Al: Oh, no. No, no, no. This play through has certainly not changed my opinions on (0:08:51) Kev: Yeah, yeah, uh, what, where are you? (0:08:52) Al: on any particular candidate. (0:08:55) Kev: What have you discovered or what’s how far into. (0:09:00) Al: All right. Well, so I have progressed quite a bit since the last episode, because I think it’s two episodes ago. And when I did that episode, it was like an early episode. And this is like a late recording episode. So it’s been like nearly three weeks. And I haven’t stopped playing that entire time. I keep trying to do other things and then I go, but I could be playing Stardew instead. Yeah. So I think last time I had just finished. (0:09:22) Kev: Exactly, but they’re not stardew, right? So why would you? (0:09:30) Al: I finished the Georgia stuff. So I had just finished buying all the standard Georgia stuff and Kelly shouted at me for that. Since then, I have done all of the other upgrades. So I’ve got the movie theater. I’ve given Palma House. I’ve given the shortcuts. I don’t know if you’ve done the show. (0:09:56) Kev: Uhh, I think I wanted to, I bet. (0:10:02) Al: So I’ve got them, I unlocked and finished Ginger Island. (0:10:06) Al: That’s all done. (0:10:07) Al: So I’m now just using it as a massive ancient fruit farm. (0:10:10) Kev: You finished it, wow. (0:10:12) Al: Yeah, yeah, no, I’ve done all that. (0:10:13) Al: So I’m just using it now as a massive ancient fruit farm. (0:10:17) Al: So I have, I think, 250 ancient fruit plants growing there, (0:10:23) Al: which so, yeah, so like every week I’m making, oh, let’s see. (0:10:30) Al: Uh, yeah, like. (0:10:31) Kev: You’re making JoJo levels of money. (0:10:32) Al: I’m making like 600,000 a week, I think, um, including I have, uh, every four days I make a hundred thousand from honey, uh, because did you know that (0:10:46) Al: fairy rose honey is worth a lot of money? (0:10:50) Al: And so I have a large section of ginger Island devoted entirely to be houses (0:10:55) Al: with fairy roses growing there. (0:10:58) Al: And yeah, every four days I make a hundred thousand from. (0:10:58) Kev: All right. (0:11:02) Kev: Dang, that’s– you got this down to a T. (0:11:02) Al: I have built three of the four obelisks now, so I just got the final one to do, (0:11:10) Al: which I should probably do after my next harvest. (0:11:13) Al: And I’ve bought the return scepter. (0:11:16) Al: So that is the first time I’ve bought the return scepter. (0:11:20) Kev: What is the return set to? (0:11:20) Al: It is very pleasing. (0:11:22) Al: Oh, have you not seen this? (0:11:23) Al: So that’s one that Crobus sells it. (0:11:27) Al: And it’s a tool that, I mean, it’s basically just a totem, right? (0:11:30) Al: So it lets you get home. (0:11:32) Al: But it’s like a portable obelisk or a multi-use totem. (0:11:38) Al: So yeah, you use it wherever you are and you get sent straight to your front door. (0:11:45) Al: So that has changed things significantly. (0:11:49) Al: Yeah, I mean, I’ve done most of the things. (0:11:52) Al: So I’m at now, what is it, 60% of the achievements on Steam. (0:11:59) Al: basically the only things I have left to do are, obviously. (0:12:02) Al: I’ve got one more obelisk to do, I’ve got the golden clock to get, (0:12:05) Al: which will take me quite a while because obviously it’s 10 million. (0:12:08) Al: That’s a lot of money. It’ll take me a couple of years to build up that. (0:12:10) Kev: But the turtle, though, that- (0:12:13) Al: Well, yeah, I could probably get that in a week if I wanted at this point. (0:12:20) Al: And then the only things I’ve got left to do are, there’s a few crafting recipes I haven’t used once. And I have basically not done any cooking. (0:12:30) Al: And I… (0:12:32) Al: I need… I have a lot of villagers that I have almost no hearts with. (0:12:36) Al: So if I want to get to completion, those are the things I need to do. (0:12:42) Al: The cooking and the friendship levels. (0:12:44) Al: Apparently, to get completion, you have to have cooked everything once (0:12:48) Al: and you have to have everyone at max hearts. (0:12:54) Kev: That sounds like you got the hard part stuck. (0:12:57) Al: I don’t know, I feel like that’s the hard bit. (0:13:00) Al: constantly going around and giving people (0:13:02) Al: gifts and just oh I don’t know like I well it’s just it’s so much work and it’s like you can only give them two gifts a week and I have figured out that everybody except Penny and Leia everyone except them like Jade the the gem and I’ve been hoarding a lot of Jade because I don’t know if you know this but in the desert, the desert trader. (0:13:04) Kev: Interacting with people, ugh. (0:13:30) Al: Um… (0:13:32) Al: will trade you a staircase if you give them a jade and so I’ve been I’ve got like a lot of crystalariums creating jade so that I can just take a hundred jade to the desert and get a hundred staircases and just like speed run my way down Skull Cavern to get some iridium. (0:13:51) Al: And they only take two days to do a jade so every two days I get another like 20 jade or something so I have just got like a hundred jade on me at all time to just give to anyone. (0:14:02) Al: Nobody whenever I see them but the problem is I just like doing that consistently is the annoying bit so I don’t know if I will ever if I will try and get to completion or not I haven’t decided because that bit in and of itself that and the cooking in and of itself it’s a lot of work. (0:14:21) Al: Like there’s there’s a few bits and pieces like I haven’t shipped everything yet there’s a few things I haven’t shipped but that’s like maybe 15 things I haven’t shipped right That’s probably pretty easy to do. (0:14:32) Al: That won’t take me long, like, you know, that would take me a season probably at best because you can grow anything on Ginger Island at any point. (0:14:38) Kev: Peasant crops (0:14:50) Al: And I now have the point, and now I can buy anything from Pierre at any point. (0:14:54) Al: So I can just go and buy the stuff and grow it and ship it if I care, but I’ve not decided of a care amount. (0:15:02) Al: you know so I don’t know I’m just going just now I suspect I will fall off before I get to that point like that’s a lot of work to get to that point I’m in year four now yeah I can’t it’s yeah there’s a there’s I’ve done a lot what’s my playtime on Steam let’s see my playtime so bear in mind this is my entire Steam playtime but obviously I only (0:15:32) Al: started playing on Steam when the 1.6 update come out. Is that a month ago now? (0:15:36) Al: Is that a month ago? About a month ago. That’s 124 hours. So, yeah. (0:15:46) Kev: I honestly I thought it would be longer like I was I was making 300 (0:15:49) Al: Wow, thanks. Let me check when the date was. March 19th. It’s not quite been a month. It’s not been a month yet. (0:16:02) Al: Uh. One, two, three, four. It’s not even been four. It’s four weeks on, four weeks on Tuesday. Um, so 124 by four. That’s 30, 30, 31 hours a week. I’m doing a full-time job here. Yeah. Oh man. If you could print, if you could print money from stard yard, (0:16:02) Kev: Well, there you go. See? Plenty of time to do the comp- (0:16:20) Kev: Yeah, but which one’s more pro- well, maybe not profitable. It’s satisfying, at least. (0:16:27) Kev: Which one’s the real job? (0:16:30) Al: be a millionaire. (0:16:32) Al: I have, I’m at, I’m over, what am I at now? I’m over 10 million. Yeah. 10 million total I’ve made. Um, I just. We’ll get to that foreshadowing. So I don’t think, I don’t think when I record the next episode that I’ll still be playing it, I think I’ll be in another break, but yeah, it’s, it’s been fun. I have enjoyed, I’ve enjoyed this play through. I I would highly recommend anybody who’s played… (0:16:40) Kev: That’s what’s in the .64 update. (0:17:02) Al: Stardew before to go over with a Jojo run, I do think it’s fun, a fun way to do things. (0:17:07) Kev: Nothing like crushing the local small businesses always a good time (0:17:07) Al: Yeah. (0:17:08) Al: Look, look, none of the businesses shut down and Jojo gives some jobs, like I don’t see the problem here, you know? (0:17:16) Kev: Yeah, yeah, well you’re not wrong long! (0:17:21) Al: And plus, let’s not pretend like Stardew is an anti-capitalist game, I have sold… (0:17:26) Al: I’ve made 10 million G’s, I am a capitalist. (0:17:28) Kev: Heh heh heh heh. (0:17:32) Al: If anyone is a capitalist, I wouldn’t be surprised if I was making more money than Jojo now. (0:17:36) Kev: I’m the captain of industry. (0:17:38) Al: Plus, if you don’t do the Jojo route, you can’t buy the auto petters, you have to go through Skull Cavern to get them, and that’s not fun. (0:17:47) Al: So. (0:17:49) Al: Great. (0:17:51) Al: That’s what I’ve been playing. (0:17:52) Al: Should we talk about some news? (0:17:56) Al: Alright, Chia, which is the game… (0:18:01) Kev: See ya! (0:18:02) Al: Based on New Caledonia, they have announced that they’re releasing a Switch version on the 27th of June, so if you’re waiting for the Switch version of this game, there you go. (0:18:14) Al: 27th of June. (0:18:19) Kev: Well, I forget, every time I see the trailer for that game, that is a game with a lot of stuff. (0:18:24) Al: Yes, I still haven’t played it but it’s definitely on my ‘maybe play at some point’ list because it does look like it would be good fun. (0:18:36) Al: Yeah, what’s better? (0:18:42) Al: Sunnyside have announced that they’re releasing on the 24th of May on Steam and on PlayStation and Xbox on the 10th of June. (0:18:51) Al: They just said, it’s really annoying, they said, “Steam on the 24th of May and (0:18:54) Al: consoles on 10th of July” and I was like, “What do you mean by consoles?” (0:18:57) Al: And I had to look through their video and pause on the back last thing to see that there is no switch, no switch is coming. (0:19:04) Al: They have confirmed in their replies on Twitter that it is not going to switch but there you go. (0:19:11) Kev: Of course, the Switch isn’t a real console, that’s for babies. (0:19:16) Al: Yeah, there we go. (0:19:30) Al: I don’t know what to say. (0:19:36) Al: I have a pizza planet top. (0:19:37) Al: I’m fat. (0:19:37) Al: I’m thinking, yeah, I’m wearing a pizza planet top right now. (0:19:42) Al: Yeah. (0:19:44) Al: I bought it when we, I bought it when we went to Disney and Los Angeles when I was there in February. (0:19:51) Al: I thought so. (0:19:52) Al: I thought so. (0:19:52) Al: I was like, I’m going to have to buy something. (0:19:54) Al: Let’s see what we’ve got. (0:19:54) Al: And I saw a pizza. (0:19:55) Al: And the best thing about it is it doesn’t say Disney or Toy Story on it at all. (0:20:01) Al: It’s entirely like it’s an in-universe thing. (0:20:02) Al: It’s just pizza planet. (0:20:03) Al: So those who know know and those who don’t know, yeah, I thought so. (0:20:04) Kev: Oh man, that’s the best! (0:20:06) Kev: Yeah. (0:20:08) Kev: That doesn’t have the stench of corporate brand. Just as strong. (0:20:12) Kev: But, uh… (0:20:13) Al: I mean, it is for a pizza place. (0:20:14) Kev: Yeah. (0:20:15) Al: So, you know, real ones know. (0:20:16) Kev: But, real ones. (0:20:25) Al: Spirity have announced that their Helping Hands update is out now. (0:20:31) Al: It looks like the big thing is you get more hints towards how you you’re doing things if you’re stuck so you can ask one young who is the floating cats better on a donut that goes around with you. (0:20:46) Kev: it hints are great. Actually, one of the things about cassette beasts that I really love, (0:20:46) Al: If you’re stuck, you can ask him for hints. (0:20:56) Kev: they call it rumors, where random townspeople will give you information on where to look for (0:21:04) Kev: different objectives, including monsters that you have not captured. (0:21:11) Al: nice. I would like that in Pokemon games because this is the thing the number of times that I just have to go to Serebii to figure out where this Pokemon is is dreadful. (0:21:22) Kev: Yup, I am always fervently of the belief that you should never have to. (0:21:36) Al: Stardew does that well, I mean, like it’s quicker to go to the internet for a lot of things but the secret notes and the lost books tell you literally everything about that game. (0:21:49) Al: Like the number of times I go “oh what about this thing?” and I search and it’s like “well it was in this lost book” and you’re like “oh don’t tell me I need to reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!” (0:21:56) Kev: Alright, that’s a whole different discussion. (0:21:57) Al: Yeah, no kidding, no kidding. (0:22:06) Al: The books they’ve added in the 1.6 update in Stardew as well is quite fun, I don’t know if you’ve seen that but they give you like extra powers and stuff like that, they’re good for you. (0:22:17) Al: Bum-ba-dum-ba-dum, where are we? We are at, yeah, Spirity, you know you’ve not played Spirity have you? It was me and Johnny who did the episode. All right, cool. I don’t think this is dragging me into playing the game again, I will say. (0:22:36) Al: Bunch of extra quality for life improvements as well but I’m not going to go over them just now because they’re pretty specific to if you’ve played the game. I don’t think any of these are going to be like “oh I must play that game now” now that they’ve removed Pooh Bird near the players house that led to nowhere. Like that was the one thing that was stopping me playing that game. All right, what’s next? We’ve got Snacko. Snacko have added in their newest update. (0:23:07) Al: I’m not going to talk about version. (0:23:08) Kev: Yeah, yeah, that, uh, did long time coming and. (0:23:09) Al: In their latest update, they have added character customization, which is good. (0:23:14) Al: And we like character customization. (0:23:16) Al: This is good, good job. (0:23:19) Al: We like it. (0:23:25) Al: So if you want, if you want a pink cat with a neon yellow tail and two differently colored eyes, then you can do that. (0:23:32) Kev: That sounds rad actually oh, yeah now you’re a real gamer (0:23:36) Al: That’s the word I couldn’t remember. (0:23:41) Al: I was like, I knew it was something I couldn’t remember what it was. (0:23:54) Al: They’ve also reaffirmed that they are planning on getting 1.0 out this year. They’ve said late this year, so if I were to bet, I would be betting it’s next year, but I’m not (0:24:06) Kev: Well, I mean, they’re at 0.9.2, so, you know, how many more could there be? (0:24:10) Al: Yeah, but they started at like 0.8.3 or something, right? (0:24:18) Al: Kevin, what are you doing? (0:24:19) Al: I said I wasn’t gonna talk about the version numbers. (0:24:21) Al: Stop it. (0:24:22) Al: My time at Sandrock have announced that they’re bringing cross-platform multiplayer to the game this summer. (0:24:22) Kev: Oh, that’s good. (0:24:31) Kev: Okay, but no general that is good across the platform should be the double for everything right or the a goal for everyone (0:24:44) Al: Yeah, I’m still not playing the game. (0:24:48) Al: But a game I am playing, Stardew Valley, concerned David has announced that there is a 1.6.4 is coming out soon. (0:24:53) Kev: What version number, Al? (0:24:58) Kev: The fourth 1.6 update. (0:25:03) Al: The fifth one actually, I think. (0:25:06) Al: The numbers always start at zero, counting starts at zero, Kevin. (0:25:11) Al: And yes, there’s a new update coming. (0:25:14) Al: Uh, I wouldn’t normally mention this, but it does say there is adding some new, a few goodies as well as bug fixes. (0:25:23) Al: So it’s not just bug fixes. (0:25:24) Al: There is some other stuff coming. (0:25:26) Al: No hints. (0:25:28) Al: Well, no, no hints are hints. (0:25:30) Al: Yes, there are hints, uh, a new fishing thing and some new mining related. (0:25:36) Kev: Oh, a new fishing thing, is it gonna be, is it making it good? (0:25:41) Kev: Is that the update? (0:25:42) Al: I’ve caught all the fish by the way that’s done those legendary fish were quite a quite a struggle but I got them (0:25:45) Kev: Oh, man, oh, man. (0:25:56) Kev: Yeah, but I am curious what it is though, but there you go Just you thought you were out, but he’s concerned. It’s about to reel you back in right away (0:26:08) Al: I thought the point was I wasn’t out yet. (0:26:10) Kev: Well you said you might be out, but you’re you’re definitely not gonna (0:26:16) Al: Speaking of not being out, or being it, Monster Patch, which is the new monster collector from Sean Young, who made Littlewood, he has posted a new screenshot of the playable trainers (0:26:33) Al: for the game. And yet again, for some reason, this screenshot also includes the dead dude. So I really want to know what the deal is with this dead dude, because this is, (0:26:43) Al: I think, the third screenshot we’ve had with this guy just lying on the street dead in a pool of blood. (0:26:50) Al: » Yeah. (0:26:50) Kev: What if it’s not in the game and it’s just in all the promo or screenshots? (0:26:57) Kev: That or my arm (0:26:59) Kev: That and breakfast has this running joke where in all their patch notes. They have some mention of a character named Gus He’s a possum wielding a knife the state of him having the knife or not (0:27:11) Kev: It’s not in the game, but just (0:27:14) Kev: But anyways moons not moon star (0:27:18) Kev: Monster patch (0:27:22) Al: It’s a cool selection of playable characters. It makes it sound like it’s not customization, (0:27:26) Al: which I think I’m fine with. I don’t think every game needs to have character customization. (0:27:30) Kev: - Yeah. (0:27:34) Al: I think you need to make a decision about whether the game should have or not, and it sounds more like that you are playing that specific character rather than playing as yourself. In that sort of situation it makes sense not to have card to customization, right? (0:27:52) Al: It’s weird for RPGs where you’re like, “Oh, hey, here’s this person.” (0:27:56) Al: And it’s like, “Oh, I’m going to make this person me.” (0:27:59) Al: And it’s like, “No, no, the point is, it’s their story, not yours.” (0:28:02) Kev: Right right one interesting thing he says each trainer has a unique passive ability (0:28:10) Kev: drastically influence your playstyle that that is I think that’s actually pretty cool (0:28:14) Kev: um I don’t know what those abilities are exactly the hard mode it’s it’s the the guy with the rainbow mohawk you know the devil or (0:28:16) Al: That just means I’m gonna have to play this game 12 times, right? (0:28:26) Al: Yeah, or the one with the devil horns, maybe. (0:28:32) Al: Yeah, yeah, no, I’m I loved everything I’ve seen about this game, but I look forward to playing it. (0:28:42) Kev: Unlike the guy with the bandana, his eyes are not open. (0:28:46) Al: Or, you know, the guy in the pool of blood. (0:28:55) Al: His eyes are doing nothing. (0:28:57) Al: Finally, Moonstone Island. (0:29:01) Al: Don’t get excited. (0:29:02) Al: This isn’t a huge thing, but Moonstone Island have reminded us that it’s spring. (0:29:07) Al: It is currently spring, and that’s important because they said the Switch version was coming out in spring, 2024. (0:29:12) Kev: “Oh, is that why you’re bringing this up? I was very confused! Hahaha!” (0:29:16) Al: Spring 2024 is when the Switch version comes out, so, the game could come out on Switch anytime between now and they say June 24th. (0:29:17) Kev: “Okay.” (0:29:20) Kev: “Okay.” (0:29:28) Kev: You there you go (0:29:30) Al: Which is the definition of Spring that they use. (0:29:32) Kev: Now there you go until they have to reach for that southern hemisphere spring (0:29:40) Al: Mm. Kevin, your opinion on everything getting fish bow, fish bow. (0:29:45) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:29:47) Kev: Yeah, oh yeah. Um, it’s pretty good at first and I heard about like a boy then I saw it. No, they look pretty good (0:29:54) Kev: The only one I’m really hoping for I (0:29:57) Kev: Hope they put (0:29:58) Kev: a whole fish bow inside a fish bow if they do that that’s it, that’s the deal it’s genius, you can’t compete (0:30:01) Al: I want them to do so what was that I can’t remember the name of it but the one that was like just a tree trunk and it’s like spinning round I want them to do that but like scale it prop scale it properly so he’s sticking out the fishbowl and spinning around inside the fish ball. (0:30:16) Kev: oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah oh gosh, log something yeah, log something yeah, that’d be a good one [Laughter] (0:30:28) Kev: Whoa, that’s good. That’s strong. I like that. That’s good. That’s good thinking out. Oh, man. I’m down for that (0:30:34) Al: Like there’s so much fun things they could do with this. (0:30:37) Kev: Yes, they could um, oh man, oh (0:30:42) Kev: Gotta give a little diver suits to the fire ones so they don’t die in the water (0:30:46) Al: Oh, I just noted that that one is the the tree trunk one is in the original tweet. (0:30:51) Kev: oh (0:30:51) Al: And it is it’s not it is to scale, but it’s quite small, but he is sticking out the fishbowl. (0:30:54) Kev: Yeah, yep, oh well, you know yeah, I did but gotta make a little (0:30:58) Al: So. (0:31:03) Al: Yeah, it’s still good. (0:31:05) Al: Still sticking out. (0:31:06) Al: Don’t worry. (0:31:07) Al: Cool. (0:31:09) Kev: there’s what now I’m just remembering moon style there’s one that’s just like a teardrop that with the face just just put the fishbowl with just that the like face just have him in there okay news (0:31:09) Al: That’s all the news. (0:31:11) Al: Oh. (0:31:22) Al: Yeah… News is finished. That is it. The news has newsed. (0:31:31) Kev: news ever until next week all right Al (0:31:34) Al: It has newsed. Hmm. Can you tell I’m tired? (0:31:40) Al: We’re going to talk about marriage candidates. So we have played between us a lot of farming games, (0:31:48) Al: of which many of them have romance. (0:31:49) Kev: have yep I’d known complainer of romance let’s see which ones I like (0:31:52) Al: And yeah, well, this is the thing, so like, I think, I mean, just to make it clear, I think we’re probably both on the same page with this, is that I don’t think that either of us dislikes the concept of romance in games full stop, but that a lot of games put it in because they feel like they need to, not because they want to, and then they don’t put in the effort into it and the character. (0:32:10) Kev: of course right right (0:32:22) Al: Characters feel flat, their dialogue feels shallow and you don’t feel like you’re actually a character in this game trying to woo this person, you feel like you’re trying to check. (0:32:35) Kev: Rigs exactly absolutely right looking at you (0:32:39) Kev: What’s what’s the one that’s not Stardew Valley though? No, no the other one the the one the names like it (0:32:42) Al: Fae Farm. Not Fae Farm, the other one. Oh, Sugardew Island. Yes! (0:32:47) Kev: with Sugardew yeah (0:32:52) Kev: Fred those waters carefully sugardew (0:32:56) Kev: But but yeah absolutely oh, you know what surprise cassette piece has romance in it (0:33:02) Kev: You can romance one of the partners if you’d like (0:33:06) Kev: Which caught me by surprise? (0:33:08) Kev: price. (0:33:10) Al: So, we’re gonna talk about what marriage candidates we have liked the most in these games. (0:33:16) Al: I have a list of three. (0:33:17) Al: I don’t know what you have, because I can’t see your list. (0:33:18) Kev: I have… I have four. (0:33:22) Al: You have four. (0:33:23) Al: Okay. (0:33:24) Al: Well, you’ll need to start then, but before we get into that… (0:33:27) Al: I guess… (0:33:28) Al: What? (0:33:28) Kev: Well, well, I was about to say I well I have three and one that you know, that’s a thing (0:33:29) Al: Sorry. (0:33:35) Kev: But we’ll get to that. Okay, let’s this let’s do the stardew one. I assume you have a stardew one (0:33:42) Kev: Okay, so that right. This is our starting point the the OG (0:33:46) Kev: What? (0:33:48) Kev: Who’s your stardew pick out? (0:33:50) Al: Well you’ve got to start because you’ve got four, otherwise you’ll do two in a row. (0:33:51) Kev: Okay, okay fine. All right. I went with Leia Leia I don’t know. (0:33:57) Al: Okay, Lea Lea doesn’t matter, we don’t have voice acting, it can be whatever you want. Lea Lea, (0:33:57) Kev: I never know how to pronounce your name. (0:33:59) Kev: Yeah. (0:34:02) Kev: Yeah. (0:34:03) Al: that’s fine. Was Lea your first marriage candidate and starred you? Okay, what drew you to her? (0:34:03) Kev: All right. (0:34:04) Kev: There you go. (0:34:05) Kev: Um. (0:34:08) Kev: So. (0:34:10) Kev: Yes. (0:34:12) Kev: Yes. (0:34:14) Kev: All right. (0:34:16) Kev: You know, like. (0:34:18) Kev: Wow. (0:34:19) Kev: It’s. (0:34:20) Kev: I feel like this is very illuminating. (0:34:24) Kev: She’s the only nice one it feels like. (0:34:24) Al: Oh no. Oh, interesting. Yeah, no, I guess she is, she is right, because like, (0:34:28) Kev: Right? (0:34:30) Al: you first meet her and she’s like, “Oh, you’re from the city, what’s it like there?” (0:34:34) Al: You know, whereas so many others are not, they’re not interested or downright mean in some cases. (0:34:39) Kev: Yep, yep (0:34:43) Kev: So, okay. Well, all right, let’s be cool. Let’s back up a second My fish pic was gonna be robbing but then the game was it all know she’s married and whatnot. I’m fine (0:34:52) Al: So you find the other the other red head then. (0:34:55) Kev: I can’t remember the second was (0:34:58) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I don’t remember the second one was but there was somebody also married I can’t remember (0:35:07) Kev: But then out of the actual eligible ones (0:35:09) Kev: I was gunning for Hailey, I recall it first But then, not only did she shoot me down at the Spring Dance But she taught me down hard, she was like “Ewwwwww” (0:35:18) Al: she she does that is like that is if if that’s your first example of stardew like 12 days in and hilly just goes oh you’re like oh my wow he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he (0:35:29) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I’m just I just kind of throw my hands up like well (0:35:40) Kev: People and then I properly met Leia and and it’s like, you know, I’m fine. You’re you’re the only decent tree on treating me decent (0:35:51) Kev: That is by and large the only thing I needed (0:35:57) Kev: That said I do like (0:35:59) Kev: Her whole art thing. I think being an artist is a cool thing. I (0:36:06) Al: I’m not sure what her sculpture is meant to be, though. (0:36:08) Kev: Did nope I don’t either and I’ve been told her that (0:36:13) Al: It’s certainly something. (0:36:15) Kev: It’s abstract Al all right (0:36:19) Al: You’re not wrong. (0:36:20) Al: It is definitely abstract. (0:36:22) Kev: What about you out who won you over you won over (0:36:24) Al: Yeah, okay. (0:36:29) Al: I think I’ve talked about this before, but my first and still favourite marriage candidate… (0:36:29) Kev: » At gunpoint, perhaps. (0:36:30) Kev: » [LAUGH] (0:36:36) Al: that inspired you is Hailey. (0:36:38) Kev: She’ll like it when she said “ew.” (0:36:40) Al: The reason why is the exact reason that you were absolutely… (0:36:46) Al: It’s the exact same reason that you decided to stop trying with her. (0:36:50) Al: I was very insulted when you first meet her, and she goes, “She’s just so dismissed above you, and then she’s mean to you.” (0:36:59) Al: And it’s like, there’s an amazing moment when you walk up to her and she’s like, “Oh, you (0:37:06) Al: got in the latest catalogue of some magazine, because dirty, muddy boots are really in fashion just now.” (0:37:10) Kev: Yeah. (0:37:10) Kev: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. (0:37:15) Al: And you’re like, “Whoa! (0:37:16) Al: Oh, what! (0:37:17) Al: What was that?” (0:37:21) Al: You’re just like, “I love a challenge, right? (0:37:24) Al: It’s a game. (0:37:25) Al: The whole point of games is to be challenged.” (0:37:28) Al: And so I was like, “Oh, this is a person who really doesn’t like me, doesn’t like (0:37:36) Al: the idea of me, and I know that I can win her around, and I just need to figure out why.” (0:37:43) Al: And actually, I found that her story progression from that to falling in love with you is actually really sweet because she realises that she doesn’t need to care, she starts off so superficial and ends up realizing that. (0:37:48) Kev: - Yeah. (0:38:06) Al: But love is much deeper than that and I thought that was really nice and that’s why I think she has the most progression of any character that I’ve… (0:38:12) Kev: It is. So, I would agree, you know, I’ve read stuff on the Wiki and stuff, and I did see several of her scenes, because I still talk to Hayley Plenty and had friendship events with her and whatnot. And I agree, I think, not even just Stardew, I think in almost any game with romance, that’s probably one of the biggest character arcs/growth of a character I’ve seen, which is pretty (0:38:42) Kev: cool. Um, yeah, no, no, I get it. Um, uh, and like I said, I went for her first, right? (0:38:49) Kev: Blondes, like, yeah, let’s be honest. Um, but, uh, you know, it is interesting to me. (0:38:56) Kev: This is very revealing about how or why we play games in general, right? Like you appreciated the challenge and absolutely I get that, right? Both in terms of a game or, or, you know, (0:39:09) Kev: a thing with relationships. (0:39:12) Kev: I like the fantasy escapism of games, and I get enough failures in the real world! (0:39:14) Al: Yeah, I’m not sure I would want that in real life. Right? Like, you know. (0:39:21) Al: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. (0:39:28) Al: Well, and that’s an interesting thing, right? Like, I wonder how much of that is, and that sounds pretty accurate, right? Because, like, I first played Stardew when I was already married for, like, 2016. I’d been married for three years at that point, you know? So I was, like, I, you know, wasn’t experiencing that in real life. So it’s not like I would be, like, it would be reminding me of experiences in life that I didn’t want to think about, (0:39:32) Kev: Yeah? Sure. (0:39:42) Kev: Okay. (0:39:52) Kev: Yeah, yeah, oh man, oh (0:39:59) Al: it was very different to that. And I certainly, you know, I didn’t have to, it’s not like I didn’t have to work to make Rona fall in love with me. Of course I did, like, these things are always work, but it’s not the same thing. She didn’t, she was always a nice person. She, you know, (0:40:05) Kev: Yeah (0:40:13) Kev: Your drought your dowry was enough (0:40:14) Al: didn’t first… Yeah, exactly, exactly. No, she, no, no, she, you know, she’s always been a nice person. And so it’s not… I think that’s interesting. Yeah. (0:40:29) Kev: It is because You know that I think this is actually really important context because i’m on the (0:40:35) Kev: Polar ops end of the spectrum like for people who haven’t fought on from things I’ve said over these i’m gonna i’m just laying it all out for you people like I (0:40:44) Kev: have never had (0:40:46) Kev: Not only a relationship i’ve never been able to get a date. Let’s i’ll be honest here like (0:40:53) Kev: Look at me people like ugh (0:40:55) Kev: um, so my (0:40:56) Al: You’re not an audio podcast, Kevin! (0:40:57) Kev: experience flesh (0:41:01) Kev: Well, I’m being open here! You wanted a relationship! (0:41:03) Al: Look at me. (0:41:05) Kev: This is it man! This is the heart of it! (0:41:07) Al: I wasn’t expecting a therapy session, but here we go. (0:41:11) Kev: Well, now you guess what! This is why romance is a thing! (0:41:13) Al: Oh, dear. (0:41:17) Kev: Like I said, escapism and fantasy! (0:41:18) Al: Oh, dear. (0:41:20) Kev: Well, let’s get it going today! (0:41:24) Kev: Alright! (0:41:29) Al: » Listeners, if you wanna date Kevin, message in, we’ll get it started. (0:41:35) Kev: So if you do, you gotta compete with some other ones! (0:41:39) Kev: Because, before Leia, (0:41:43) Kev: many moons ago for an even younger Kevin. (0:41:47) Kev: I was in middle school, actually. (0:41:50) Kev: I had interest in girls at that point, but I wasn’t dating, per se. (0:41:54) Kev: I was too young for that, for the family and whatnot. (0:41:58) Kev: But I played a game called Harvest Moon, A Wonderful Life. (0:42:01) Kev: And it is there where I first met my first ever sweetheart of ever! (0:42:05) Kev: Any kind, virtual or not. (0:42:07) Kev: Celia/Cecilia in the remake. (0:42:11) Kev: She was one of three candidates. (0:42:16) Kev: There was… she is… (0:42:19) Kev: So there was the other two that I didn’t select. (0:42:21) Kev: Her name was Nami. (0:42:23) Kev: She’s the kinda tough girl. (0:42:26) Kev: More distant to Luke kinda girl. (0:42:30) Kev: There was Muffy. (0:42:35) Kev: Or Molly in the remake. (0:42:37) Kev: She was the barkeep. (0:42:40) Kev: And Molly was nice enough. (0:42:43) Kev: But again, Celia/Cecilia, she’s very sweet. (0:42:47) Kev: She works on a farm, right? (0:42:49) Kev: So she gets what you’re doing. (0:42:51) Kev: She’s very down-to-earth and sweet. (0:42:54) Kev: And really just a sweetheart. (0:42:56) Kev: And I think that’s what won me over. (0:42:58) Kev: She’s also just mechanically like the easiest to win over. (0:43:02) Kev: Um, because again, she works in a farm so she likes crops and stuff like that her gifts are easiest to get to and you probably encountered her more going to the farm to purchase supplies and whatnot but she obviously has a special place in my heart for being the the very first yeah and in the remake she’s pretty much the same thing still still wonderful person and what’s cool is when you marry her like her helping around the farm and stuff feels very natural right? (0:43:35) Kev: I think that’s a fun little element because you know sometimes your person you marry or whatever they’ll help out but you can tell you know they’re trying they get a gold star for trying right but nah she she knows what she’s doing on the farm and I think that’s pretty cool yeah all right what about you who’s (0:43:51) Al: Fair enough. (0:43:55) Al: So my number two, um, is, uh, uh, study of seasons, tree of towns. (0:44:02) Al: We have Iluca. (0:44:04) Al: Um, Iluca is, uh, one of, uh, the, um, identical twins in, if you’ve, if anybody has played the game, uh, the, um, I can’t remember. (0:44:16) Kev: Oh, oh yeah, okay. (0:44:17) Kev: She’s a winner. (0:44:18) Kev: I just Googled her up. (0:44:19) Kev: I like that. (0:44:20) Kev: All right. (0:44:21) Al: Remember, I can’t remember the name of the town because it’s been a couple of days. (0:44:26) Al: Um, there’s, uh, there’s like three try towns and the one that she’s from is like a kind of Islander style, like Pacific Islander style village. (0:44:36) Kev: Paros, oh wait, carousel. Oh, is that the name? I’m looking at the wiki here (0:44:43) Kev: Sorry, no, that’s a cafe name. Sorry. Oh (0:44:46) Al: Yeah, no, no, it’s Lulu Coco. So the interesting thing about this is so you unlock the three towns as you go. So you start off with one of them, which is like the Western US style one, and then you unlock the one that is like based on a Japanese town. And then you unlock this one, (0:44:48) Kev: Lulu Coco (0:45:00) Kev: Yeah frontier sure (0:45:08) Al: which is more kind of Pacific Islander type thing. And so if you start off this game and you (0:45:16) Al: look for your marriage candidate, you are not going to find Aluka or her sister Saluka. (0:45:21) Al: and you (0:45:22) Kev: That is a cool little (0:45:24) Kev: Little twist right because I think especially storage seasons they they very much trained you like you know You got to start looking right away, but having all these characters locked (0:45:32) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because you want it, because it’s a lot of work, right? You got to start early. And, you know, it’s not that there was nobody else in that game that I thought would be an interesting marriage candidate, but there was no one that was like, “Oh, this is the person I must woo.” And then you unlock this third town and you’re like, “Oh, no, (0:45:37) Kev: Right yep (0:45:53) Kev: Yeah (0:45:56) Al: this is it. This is the person.” And the interesting thing is they have, obviously they are identical Oh, twins, they look- (0:46:02) Al: Almost identical, the only difference is physically are they wear different coloured clothes and they tend to have different facial expressions, but that’s because their characters are very different, their personalities are very different. (0:46:18) Al: And as you get to know them, you find that out very quickly. (0:46:23) Kev: I I take it she’s a (0:46:32) Al: uh no so it’s it’s more well no not really so it’s more like Seleucah is more um how would I describe it uh she’s kind of more kind of like sleepy I guess kind of like not she just kind of (0:46:46) Kev: Yeah. (0:46:49) Kev: Okay, she goes through life at her own pace and sometimes does nothing, per the wiki. (0:46:49) Al: takes things as she yeah yeah exactly exactly oh does that what the wiki says yeah no I think I think Iluka is much more strong-willed and has a lot more. (0:46:56) Kev: Yeah. [laughs] (0:47:02) Al: I’ll use the same words as the wiki, I guess, if that’s what you’re reading out. (0:47:13) Kev: He’s somewhat strong-willed and also has a cheerful personality. (0:47:22) Al: So yeah, I think that’s a really fun thing to do, is to have identical twins who have quite different personalities. (0:47:30) Kev: Yeah, no that that is pretty cool um that is I like that that’s very good um and also purple hair thumbs up for that (0:47:39) Al: Yeah, it’s funny that they both have purple hair, because that implies that either it is a genetic thing, in which case I’m intrigued there, or they both decided to get their hair dyed the same color. (0:47:52) Kev: Ah, yeah, both are very interesting implications. (0:47:52) Al: That seems odd to me, especially as they’re so similar in lots of other ways. (0:47:59) Al: So, yeah. (0:48:01) Al: So yeah, that’s my second one. (0:48:04) Kev: All right. (0:48:06) Kev: My third one. (0:48:07) Kev: So as much as I was not a fan of the romance in this game, (0:48:14) Kev: being present at all, really. (0:48:16) Kev: And the characters, I think, in general, were a bit flat. (0:48:22) Kev: Sarah from Moonstone Island. (0:48:26) Kev: So she is the town’s blacksmith. (0:48:31) Kev: And I think her personality stands out from a lot of other characters. (0:48:37) Kev: Not in just Moonstone Island, but across the board in these College Corps games as a character, (0:48:44) Kev: especially a female that you can romance and whatnot, right? (0:48:48) Kev: He is very, very like bubbly. (0:48:52) Kev: He is very very like bubbly and cheerful. (0:48:54) Kev: She will not necessarily go after you, she will not ask you out on dates per se, but she will openly flirt with you and what not. (0:49:04) Kev: Yeah, right from the start, yep. (0:49:04) Al: like, right from the start as well. Like, she’s so, so fast into that. You’re like, “Whoa! Calm down!” (0:49:08) Kev: Yup. (0:49:10) Kev: And so, yeah, I do think that stands out, and again, the fact is, yes. (0:49:22) Kev: But, you know, someone who gives you attention like that, I think is pretty cool. (0:49:28) Kev: And she is fun, right, because as a blacksmith, right, like not the traditional role that one might expect, and that’s kind of her story as well, like how she likes working with the medals and being tough and stuff. (0:49:42) Kev: So that is, I don’t know, I think she’s pretty cool. (0:49:44) Al: Yeah (0:49:48) Kev: She’s fun, yeah. (0:49:49) Al: Also pink hair (0:49:52) Kev: And then after… yeah, I mean, yeah, I will not, I will, I could go down a list and all their care could fall under that, but yeah, even aside from that, post, when they did the marriage update, they added more dialogue and stuff like that, so you get to experience more of her life at home and fun it is. (0:49:56) Al: Which apparently is a thing that you like so good to know (0:50:22) Kev: She loves soup, that’s, I don’t know why it’s a running thing, she loves soup. But yeah, again, that is Pharah from Moonstone Island. (0:50:29) Kev: Alright, what is numero tress for you, Al? (0:50:34) Al: My third one is a new one from Coral Island, and that is Lily. And my reason is, I think (0:50:37) Kev: Of course. (0:50:43) Al: I’m not aware of another programmer in a farming game, like a character in a farming game that is a programmer, and therefore, not that I’m aware of. I will talk, I’ll talk. (0:50:52) Kev: Wasn’t somebody in Stardew does…programming? (0:50:58) Kev: It’s–I think it’s–I’m gonna look it up. (0:51:00) Kev: Okay, you talk while I look this up, heh heh heh. (0:51:04) Al: And so, there’s just something really nice. I mean, I felt like, I mean, people are gonna say, (0:51:08) Al: “Oh, you married yourself in that game.” Like, I mean, essentially, yeah, right? Like, it’s nice to see kind of that represented. You found it. See, yeah, okay, fine. I’ve never, and this is actually, (0:51:18) Kev: Sebastian, from Stardew, is a programmer. (0:51:23) Kev: But it’s Sebastian. (0:51:26) Al: I realized like 10 minutes ago that I think we need to do another episode with people who my actually romance male characters. (0:51:34) Al: Because I think we’ve made a very clear preference in this episode. (0:51:34) Kev: Well, he- look. (0:51:38) Al: Well, I know you’ll probably have one coming up, but other than that, (0:51:43) Al: other than that, it’s quite female heavy. (0:51:44) Kev: You’re not wrong. (0:51:46) Kev: Yep, you’re not wrong, you’re not wrong. (0:51:48) Kev: It would be fun to get a reverse of this, right? (0:51:52) Kev: We’ll reach out to some people. (0:51:53) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. (0:51:54) Kev: That would be fun. (0:51:57) Al: But I think that it’s fun to see that, right? (0:52:01) Al: and not only is she a programmer. (0:52:04) Al: But she works from home, she has our own home office, so like she spends most of her time in her house, and so that kind of makes it a bit different to track. (0:52:15) Al: Most of the time when these characters are like “oh I need to go find where they are”, (0:52:18) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah (0:52:18) Al: literally you’re like “oh she’s at home” of course she’s at home she’s working or when she’s finished she’s relaxing she’s at home, right? (0:52:25) Kev: That’s cool (0:52:25) Al: And I think that I thought that was quite interesting and yeah yeah there we go, that’s (0:52:30) Kev: Right, yeah because So many of these characters are like or not even just the romance balloons Right, like everyone goes to the town bar because that’s the gathering point or whatever, right? (0:52:41) Kev: And then one goes to the festival. So having someone who’s much more (0:52:42) Al: Yeah. Intraverse. (0:52:48) Kev: Traverted yeah, that would be the word, right? (0:52:50) Kev: Yeah, I think that is pretty cool representation like you can kind of see that in some characters, but they don’t really act it out (0:52:58) Al: No, and they tend to be, they tend to be say like Clint, for example, in Stardew, who’s like more introverted, but you dislike him because of how he actually deals with that. (0:53:05) Kev: Yes! (0:53:08) Al: Whereas with Lily, it’s like she’s introverted and doesn’t tend to spend time with other people, but it’s not because she’s a terrible person and doesn’t know how to deal with people. (0:53:16) Al: She just prefers not to, you know, there’s a massive difference. (0:53:20) Kev: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Oh man, we should do the the anti the hate list (0:53:25) Al: I will say this, my one problem with Lily is that as with most characters in Carl Island, (0:53:25) Kev: episode at some point just thinking of clint there. Um, all right. Oh that oh (0:53:38) Al: when you marry them, they lose all their personality and they do nothing. And I really hope they’re going to fix that at some point, because it’s just such a depressing thing to remove everything from that person. You know, in Stardew, they go and still have a life after you’ve married them and they have their own little area in your head. (0:53:52) Kev: Yeah… (0:53:55) Al: And then, you know, like I was finding this because I married Emily in this one. (0:53:56) Kev: Yep. (0:54:00) Kev: Yep. (0:54:05) Al: And you, you wake up, you go talk to her and she says what she’s going to do for the day. (0:54:08) Al: Or she’s outside telling you what she’s just done, you know? (0:54:12) Al: Whereas you go up, you wake up in Coral Island, I go talk to Lily and she’s like, good morning. (0:54:17) Al: And then that’s it literally says nothing else and just stands in the bedroom the entire day.<

Codey talks through all of the recent news, and gives us some insect facts. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:03:20: What Has Codey Been Up To 00:07:48: News 00:54:14: Outro Links Of Life and Land Early Access Rusty’s Retirement Release Date Botany Manor Release Date Len’s Island “Community” Update Steamworld Build “Mechanized” DLC Disney Dreamlight Valley “Eternity Isle” Moonstone Island Fisholutions Critter Crops Delay Poglings Dev Update 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) Codey: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season (0:00:35) Codey: My name is Cody and I am here today to talk about cottagecore games. Whoo (0:00:42) Codey: I am just doing a solo episode today. We had a scheduling issue and (0:00:49) Codey: Like frantically tried to get a news episode together and I was the only person available (0:00:54) Codey: Which I’m totally fine with al has done this before al has done solo episodes before he said it’s like hard for something (0:01:01) Codey: I don’t know. So we’re gonna find out if it is (0:01:04) Codey: Check back in here. I’m actually gonna add it to the show notes right now (0:01:09) Codey: Check back in is solo (0:01:15) Codey: Uh, I think it’s going to be hard (0:01:19) Codey: But uh I’m just gonna imagine (0:01:23) Codey: Listening to everyone responding to this (0:01:25) Codey: And so that is gonna be great. And honestly if y’all enjoy it, I would (0:01:31) Codey: No to doing this again if absolutely needed (0:01:35) Codey: So today is just gonna be a news podcast but because people have been clamoring for insect facts in (0:01:44) Codey: The slack and just in general in my life people are just really into insects (0:01:49) Codey: In between each news item. I’m going to dive into a fact about an order of insects (0:01:55) Codey: So insecta is a clade and inside of that clade there are many orders (0:02:01) Codey: I don’t know the number off the top of my head So I’m gonna go into it like some quick facts like maybe a minute of facts about each order (0:02:08) Codey: We’re not covering all the orders in this episode (0:02:11) Codey: It’s just like the ones that that jumped out to me or that I thought had some cool facts (0:02:16) Codey: and so for that reason (0:02:20) Codey: Now I will say the transcripts are available in the show notes on the website if you don’t like insects if they freak you out I really tried to make sure that some of the facts aren’t too like scary gruesome or whatever (0:02:30) Codey: Um, but I also am biased and don’t think that insects are scary gruesome at all (0:02:36) Codey: So if you do have an entomophobia or anything like that do check out those transcripts and the show notes (0:02:43) Codey: On the website harvest season club so that you can get your news content (0:02:48) Codey: Without the insect content also if that is the case for you do let us know you can (0:02:54) Codey: If you’re not subscribed you can email us again at harvest season club And then I will avoid doing this type of episode in the future. (0:03:00) Codey: I definitely do not want to push people away, but I have a feeling that people who listen to this podcast and enjoy farming games are going to like the bug content. So we’re going to find out how that goes. (0:03:13) Codey: So bug content news. And first, of course, (0:03:17) Codey: we always talk about what we have been up to. (0:03:21) Codey: So I have been doing a lot of different games. (0:03:26) Codey: My grandma got me back into this phone game, um, called cross-stitch. (0:03:30) Codey: It’s literally like a color by number, but with cross stitches, cross-stitching, um, (0:03:36) Codey: it’s really helped me with my ADHD lately, trying to stay focused on tasks. (0:03:40) Codey: Like if I’m in an environment that’s really distracting or if I’m losing focus on a conversation or something that I’m trying to pay attention to, um, that I, that I genuinely care about, (0:03:51) Codey: I’ll just whip out that game and like color. (0:03:53) Codey: And then I can 100% mean maintain focus on, um, whatever conversation or show or pot or seminar or whatever it is that I’m (0:04:00) Codey: listening to so I highly recommend that for our fellow ADHDers and fellow crafters it’s really it’s really fun I will say I have mentioned it in a while Tetris game I think I think she’s dead y’all I hadn’t played it in a while and I realized that the other day and so I opened her up and yeah they do shifting baselines I am pretty sure because I checked and there are no cruises available right now. I have almost 2 million coins. (0:04:30) Codey: And there are no cruises showing up. What is showing up is I can use like a certain amount of my coins for (0:04:37) Codey: X money off of a cruise or something like that. So (0:04:41) Codey: Yeah, I just have to take the L there y’all (0:04:45) Codey: But I can still use those points for things but they’re all like places or things that I’m not gonna be doing like (0:04:52) Codey: Going to Vegas and spending money at the Luxor or whatever. I’m like, I’m not gonna I’m not gonna do that (0:05:00) Codey: So yeah, rest in peace that game (0:05:03) Codey: More pertinent to to y’all. I’ve been playing a lot of Disney Dreamlight Valley. I finally hit credits (0:05:09) Codey: So I am done on the main story and I am almost done with the realms that are available (0:05:16) Codey: and maximizing the (0:05:20) Codey: Villagers that I have right now So I think the only realm that is currently available that I have not yet unlocked with Dreamlight is Monsters Inc. (0:05:28) Codey: So I just did the Lion King. (0:05:30) Codey: and the Toy Story Realm and I have a lot of my people at max level but for some of them like Olaf I tried to max his level and it was like to do this you need to have Buzz Lightyear in your valley and I was like what the heck. (0:05:44) Codey: So I’m going through and doing that and it’s just it just scratches a good itch when I am not fox crafting because I’m still doing that as well. (0:05:53) Codey: My Minecraft fox has a full tail outlined now. (0:05:59) Codey: The head is complete and we have– (0:06:01) Codey: my bestie Devin and I have begun construction of the fox sanctuary. (0:06:06) Codey: We went and kidnapped some foxes and drug them through the nether (0:06:10) Codey: and put them on top of the fox island and have been building a little fox army with them (0:06:20) Codey: and so I have those available and I’m just like outlining the tail and outlining all and all of that stuff. (0:06:30) Codey: Told up the sides of it, and then we’re continuing to create the sanctuary. (0:06:34) Codey: Very fun. (0:06:35) Codey: I’ve also been playing window garden. (0:06:37) Codey: I don’t talk about that too much right now because of reasons. (0:06:42) Codey: Stay tuned for– (0:06:43) Codey: watch this podcast feed. (0:06:45) Codey: And then I’m also setting up– this is my last field season of my graduate degrees– (0:06:52) Codey: I guess degrees– (0:06:54) Codey: my graduate education, as it were. (0:06:57) Codey: Tomorrow I’m going into the woods with a forester. (0:07:00) Codey: And we’re he’s going to be slingshotting some stuff into the into the trees for me so that I can put ropes up there and pull my traps up and I’m going to do the final set up the rest of the week and then start next week with my last trap effort. (0:07:16) Codey: It’s really bittersweet I cannot believe that I am about to be done with the field work that will culminate in my dissertation. (0:07:24) Codey: I do still have a full year and a half of my research of my doctor at left because I do have a full year to finish writing, finish specimens, all of that stuff and I have so many specimens. (0:07:38) Codey: So, yeah, we will see how that goes I’m very excited though. (0:07:44) Codey: And, yeah, very sad, very exciting. And with that, let’s get into some news. So our first bit of news here is for of life and land of life and land is now out in early access. (0:07:58) Codey: game is 20 is basically 30. (0:08:00) Codey: $30 USD on Steam, but it has a 10% discount currently. (0:08:04) Codey: So you can get it for 27. (0:08:07) Codey: Also available for purchase right now is a supporter pack for $5 or 450. (0:08:12) Codey: Again, it’s 10% off right now. (0:08:14) Codey: Um, and in that supporter pack, you get things like a desktop wallpapers, (0:08:18) Codey: some digital art posters, paper, Fox folding instructions, and some 3d models, (0:08:27) Codey: but paper fox excuse me (0:08:31) Codey: These people (0:08:33) Codey: These people (0:08:36) Codey: They know what I like. So this thing is so hanging cute. It’s basically it looks like (0:08:42) Codey: It’s just something that you would print out (0:08:45) Codey: So you’d print out these instructions you print out the pages that have the bits that you would fold (0:08:51) Codey: On like the colored paper whatever colored paper so probably orange and white But you could also probably honestly do like a purple box. I’d be super cute (0:09:00) Codey: And then you fold it and it makes really cute little fox design and I have personally never wished that I had thirty dollars (0:09:07) Codey: More in my life so that I can get the game and the fox folding. Um (0:09:12) Codey: But I probably will wait on this game until (0:09:16) Codey: 1.0. Um, i’m just (0:09:18) Codey: I Really? I don’t I have limited time for games right now. So I am always going to wait at this point. Um, unless (0:09:25) Codey: asked by by people to cover a game before it is in 1.0. (0:09:32) Codey: Game looks really cute, though. (0:09:33) Codey: It’s like Age of Empires, but cozier, and I played the crap out of Age of Empires when I was a kid. (0:09:37) Codey: So I would love to play this game. (0:09:40) Codey: And yeah, so we’ll see how their, how their early access goes and just keep watching them and maybe find this paper, fox, folding instructions. The developers, is it correct? I think it’s Corozan. (0:10:02) Codey: I believe, Kurzovan. Oh, I was so close. (0:10:04) Codey: Kurzovan developers, if you’re listening right now, I will literally pay $5 just for the paper, fox, folding instructions. (0:10:10) Codey: Actually, I might be able to do that, actually. (0:10:13) Codey: Anyway, like without buying the base game, we’ll find out. (0:10:17) Codey: Anyway, so end of the first news item. (0:10:20) Codey: So here I’m going to talk about an insect order. (0:10:22) Codey: So I picked for the first four insect orders. (0:10:26) Codey: I picked the big four orders which comprise (0:10:31) Codey: of insects that comprise the most biodiversity in insecta and so the one of these is coleoptera which is the beetles it is possibly the most diverse order so approximately one of every four species of life this includes plants animals bacteria and fungi one of every four species is a beetle is wild and (0:11:01) Codey: they’re so underrepresented if you ever see any games or anything like it’s like oh here’s all these mammals and then maybe like one beetle and it’s like really this should flip the script it should be 800 beetles and then one mammal this is crazy so there are currently about 400,000 described species of beetles but that only refers to beetles that we know and have like written down and acknowledged why they’re different and why they are unique species. (0:11:31) Codey: Some scientists think that there’s possibly a million beetles. I’ve seen up to like 30 million. I don’t know. That’s pretty crazy. I would be really sad if there were 30 million beetles and we’ve only described 400,000. Oh my gosh. (0:11:45) Codey: So yeah, probably a million species of beetles, which is wild. I mean, if you think about it, there’s only like 4,000 mammals or something. I’m actually not sure on that species of mammal. 6400. Yeah, 64. (0:12:01) Codey: 400 species of extant mammals. So that’s so little. And that’s what most people think of when they think of animals, but beetles are just crazy. One of my favorite quotes about this is by British evolutionary biologist and geneticist JBS Haldane. He was talking about beetles once and he said that if there were a god or some type of divine being that has created all of the living organisms on the Earth, then that creator must– (0:12:31) Codey: have a quote, “inordinate fondness for beetles.” (0:12:35) Codey: So basically, they must really like beetles because there’s so heck and many of them. (0:12:40) Codey: Oh my gosh, there’s so many of them. (0:12:42) Codey: And I’m trying to learn the families right now. (0:12:45) Codey: Not fun. (0:12:46) Codey: Not– not fun. (0:12:49) Codey: But I need– I need to– (0:12:52) Codey: I do want to learn it. (0:12:53) Codey: It’s just a lot of– it’s just a lot. (0:12:55) Codey: It’s a lot. (0:12:57) Codey: What is not a lot– (0:13:01) Codey: I’m going to be on fire today, y’all. (0:13:03) Codey: Well, it’s not a lot because it’s awesome and is not a lot of work, question mark. (0:13:09) Codey: Is Rusty’s retirement coming out in its 1.0? (0:13:15) Codey: Its release is the 26th of April. (0:13:18) Codey: Oh my gosh. (0:13:19) Codey: The end of this month, then we get Rusty. (0:13:24) Codey: And I’m also not sure if it’s been confirmed in the pod before, but rusty is non-binary. (0:13:31) Codey: Which makes sense. (0:13:32) Codey: Like robots probably don’t have, um, I mean, I guess they could choose to have gender if they want, but, um, the developer just says in this, in this trailer, they say they, um, and that you can help rusty on their quest to (0:13:47) Codey: rebuild a little farm. (0:13:49) Codey: Very cute. (0:13:50) Codey: Um, and they have more information about how you can like build more housing, (0:13:56) Codey: build more, more like buildings for different. (0:14:01) Codey: Things you recruit other robots. (0:14:04) Codey: It’s this game looks so hecking cute. (0:14:06) Codey: I’m so excited for it to come out. (0:14:07) Codey: Yes, I will be playing this game. (0:14:09) Codey: It will be on the bottom of my, of my screen. (0:14:13) Codey: Um, I am trying to figure out if I want to put it on my laptop or not. (0:14:18) Codey: Um, or if I’m going to get too distracted by that, we will find out. (0:14:23) Codey: But I will be playing it. (0:14:25) Codey: Um, one of the things that I love about rusty’s retirement whenever I see the little things is the little beads. (0:14:31) Codey: They have bee hives. I’m not sure if they’re real bees or if they are like little mechanical robot bees. Very excited to find that out. Speaking of bees, (0:14:42) Codey: transition on point, the next insect order, the next order that is within the big four are hymenoptera. So these are, this order includes sawflies, ants, wasps, (0:14:57) Codey: and bees and just cuz I’m never sure (0:15:01) Codey: if people know this bees are just vegetarian wasps about a hundred million years ago when flowers started evolving and diversifying in this great radiation event in flowers occurred some of the wasps were like bet like I see this I see this I see these resources and I want them and they started eating the plant pollen plant pollen and they became the first bees and since then there’s been this evolutionary arms race between bees and flowers as they They continue to evolve and specialize with each other. (0:15:32) Codey: flowers developed nectar to draw bees in closer so that bees would definitely collect pollen. (0:15:39) Codey: Bees then developed branched hairs which allowed them to become more efficient at collecting pollen and they just kept going back and forth and there’s all kinds of really wacky evolutionary stories there about the different evolutionary things that bees or flowers have done for each other. (0:15:56) Codey: But I think my favorite is orchids and orchid bees. (0:16:00) Codey: There are orchids that literally. (0:16:02) Codey: Look like female bees and they, and they put out volatiles and pheromones and scents that smells like female bees of, of this very specific group. (0:16:14) Codey: The, I think it’s the euglossine bees, the orchid bees. (0:16:18) Codey: That’s what they’re called. (0:16:19) Codey: And they mimic female bees. (0:16:21) Codey: So the males come in, they think they see a female, they jump on it and they end up getting stuck and have to like, when they pull themselves out, they take a pollen. (0:16:32) Codey: A polynia, which is like a little bundle of pollen. (0:16:35) Codey: And then when they get tricked by another flower, they end up transferring the pollen from one flower to another. (0:16:42) Codey: Wild, super wild, very cool insects. (0:16:47) Codey: They’ve, they just have, because they’re so short lived, they don’t have these super long lifespans like we do. (0:16:53) Codey: Evolution happens so fast with them. (0:16:55) Codey: So you have this huge radiation of different lifestyles. (0:17:00) Codey: Different life histories is what I meant to say. (0:17:02) Codey: Different life histories, different adaptations. (0:17:04) Codey: Crazy. (0:17:05) Codey: So cool. (0:17:07) Codey: Another thing that’s really cool is botany manor. (0:17:11) Codey: I am super excited for this game. (0:17:13) Codey: I have been since we first talked about it on the pod and it is now going to be releasing by the time you are listening to this podcast. (0:17:21) Codey: It is already out. (0:17:22) Codey: She’s out on Steam for PC. (0:17:27) Codey: Again this is a game where you’re a botanist in 1890 and you are trying to (0:17:32) Codey: It seems like you’re trying to revive flora that have become missing or are misunderstood or just not poorly not not well understood. (0:17:42) Codey: I’m here for it. (0:17:44) Codey: So you’re basically learning about these different flowers evolving these are not I guess you’re evolving the different flowers and kind of doing an artificial selection on the flowers. (0:17:54) Codey: This game is published by white thorn games, which is the same publisher as friend of the pod a backhoe. Love that. (0:18:02) Codey: And yeah, I mean in this trailer that they showed where they talked about their release date, they showed the manner they showed mysteries of the manner Morse code you use Morse code at some point like legitimately you learn Morse code and use Morse code to solve some of the puzzles. (0:18:20) Codey: I mean teaching me to do something like that is useful in the real world say less. (0:18:28) Codey: It also looks like there might be cooking. (0:18:32) Codey: Tending to a plant in what’s clearly a kitchen environment. (0:18:36) Codey: You tend to plants in general. (0:18:37) Codey: So there’s like a compost bin. (0:18:39) Codey: There’s seeds you water things you plant things in different places. (0:18:45) Codey: One thing that caught my eye in this trailer was a moth calendar. (0:18:49) Codey: So it’s it looks like it’s this like spinning wheel calendar. (0:18:54) Codey: That tells you what season different moths come out. (0:18:59) Codey: like you see you you’re like oh may and it’s like (0:19:02) Codey: oh in May these are the moths that you’ll see which I would love that I mean I use iNaturalist which is a an application to basically try and figure out what diversity is popping up around me but like a cute little kind of cute little thing that you can rotate and it tells you you’re just like oh look what kind of stuff is gonna be here in September I think that’s so cute so yeah check out Botany Manner if you haven’t already. (0:19:32) Codey: steam for pc, because i’m recording pre-release, I don’t know the amount. (0:19:39) Codey: i’m not sure of the price of this game, but I would drop down probably like 20 bucks on this game if I had the time to play it. and if it was on mac, because steam, again, I usually don’t use my desktop for anything anymore, unfortunately. speaking of cool moths, the next (0:20:02) Codey: insect order in our big four is Lepidoptera, which i’ve already talked about before on a previous pod. so these are the moths and the butterflies. and although many people know a lot about like the big showy butterflies and moths, like the monarchs of swallowtails, atlas moths, luna moths, (0:20:20) Codey: you see the big caterpillars like the hickory horned devil or the tobacco hornworm, like these (0:20:29) Codey: caterpillars that just have these crazy adornments. (0:20:32) Codey: Some of my favorites are in the family Lycenidae or Lycanidae depends on how you want to pronounce the C in that word and these are the blue butterflies. (0:20:44) Codey: So these are really actually fairly small in my area the eastern tailed blue is probably the most common and it’s when it folds its little wings up it’s probably no bigger than like a quarter. (0:20:55) Codey: It might be a little bit bigger than a quarter. (0:20:59) Codey: I don’t know the size of a Euro. (0:21:00) Codey: I don’t really know. (0:21:02) Codey: Like other audiences and what might explain to them, maybe like a, it’s way smaller than like a bottle cap. (0:21:10) Codey: It’s probably the size of a bottle cap. (0:21:12) Codey: Let’s just say it’s a bottle cap. (0:21:15) Codey: So these caterpillars of the family Lecenidae have a partnership with ants. (0:21:20) Codey: They’re actually called mermechophyllus. (0:21:22) Codey: So mermecho means ant, phylee means love. (0:21:26) Codey: So they’re literally ant-loving butterflies. (0:21:29) Codey: So these caterpillars literally pay the ants. (0:21:33) Codey: They excrete secretions on their backs that provide a sugar-rich nectar source for the ants. (0:21:39) Codey: So they’ll come up to some ants in the wild, you know, wherever their mother laid their egg. (0:21:48) Codey: They’ll find some ants and they’ll just start releasing this nectar, sugar-rich nectar source. (0:21:53) Codey: And ants are like, “This is awesome. This thing just poops out deliciousness.” (0:22:00) Codey: And then they carry the- (0:22:02) Codey: The ants house this caterpillar and protect it while it grows bigger and bigger and bigger, and I think sometimes the caterpillar also like just eats their food. (0:22:17) Codey: Um, and yeah, so it basically gets this defense and this protection from these ant- from this ant colony. (0:22:26) Codey: And then they’ll either, depending on the species, I think they either pupate within the ant colony and then they’ll- (0:22:32) Codey: emerge as an adult butterfly, you know, in the spring or whatever, um, or they might come out of the ant colony, crawl out of the ant colony, find a place to pupate and then pupate and then do the same thing. (0:22:44) Codey: Super crazy though, that they just- because you’ve heard of ants farming fungus before, but what about butterfly larvae farming ants basically, or manipulating ants? Super wild. (0:22:59) Codey: Uh, next bit of news is Len’s island. (0:23:02) Codey: Um, so the community update is out now, this adds Korean, Russian, French, Portuguese, and an update to the update to the Thai translations. (0:23:11) Codey: So I guess the original Thai translations might have been sub par, um, or just had hadn’t been finalized yet. (0:23:18) Codey: Um, so they are, they’ve taken that into consideration and have updated that. (0:23:22) Codey: Love that. (0:23:23) Codey: Um, they’ve also added a lot of things to the game. (0:23:25) Codey: There’s some small changes, um, some bug fixes, some things, some balancing issues. (0:23:32) Codey: There were some things that might’ve been too difficult or too easy or what have you. (0:23:36) Codey: Um, so they’ve changed all of that. (0:23:38) Codey: And every time we talk about this game, I want to jump back into it immediately. (0:23:42) Codey: Like every time I see the word lens Island words, lens Island, I’m like, man, I would love to jump back into that game. (0:23:49) Codey: Like at this very moment, because I really did enjoy it. (0:23:51) Codey: I put many hours, like probably like 20 or 30 hours into this game. (0:23:55) Codey: Um, just like jumping into the mines, trying to explore the dungeon, trying to, I mean, it was. (0:24:02) Codey: It was a pretty big slog in the beginning to level, to like, level up your weaponry and get the things that you needed. (0:24:10) Codey: I would go for like a 10 or 15 minute jaunt around the Island just to get like all the food that I could get before I went in the dungeon. (0:24:18) Codey: And then I would still probably end up running out of food and dying. (0:24:20) Codey: Um, it’s way easier now, but I just really want to jump back into it. (0:24:25) Codey: But I really also want to wait until 1.0 to get the full effect of having not played this game since its first release. (0:24:33) Codey: Um, so I will be on the lookout for that 100% lens Island. (0:24:38) Codey: Don’t you worry. (0:24:40) Codey: No cool transition here. (0:24:41) Codey: Just the final of the big four or back to bugs. (0:24:44) Codey: Uh, the final of the big four is diptura. (0:24:46) Codey: These are the flies. (0:24:47) Codey: Um, diptura literally means two wings and that’s because flies only have two wings. (0:24:52) Codey: Um, most everything else has either four wings or Beatles have, um, hind wings that are super soft. (0:24:59) Codey: often than forewings that have been hardened into… (0:25:02) Codey: elytra but diptra just straight up have two wings they have on the back instead of having a second pair of a pair of hind wings they have what are called hull tiers and there are these organs that kind of help them balance in the air and orient there are all kinds of really cool flies including beef lies just the family bomb a lady they just look like fluffy little clouds I mean if you’re here a Pokemon fan and you think of cutie fly it just looks like that (0:25:33) Codey: Um, uh, hoverflies and flower hoverflies or flower flies. (0:25:38) Codey: Those are two names for the exact same thing. (0:25:40) Codey: They’re flies in the family’s surfady. (0:25:42) Codey: Um, these flies are actually also really efficient pollinators. (0:25:45) Codey: They tend to be fairly hairy. (0:25:47) Codey: Um, and they can look like bees as well, uh, bees or wasps. (0:25:50) Codey: And they do this to fake out predators. (0:25:52) Codey: So they look, they look fuzzy. (0:25:54) Codey: They have the coloration of bees or wasps and then predators see them. (0:25:58) Codey: And they’re like, I’ve eaten a bee before it didn’t go well for me. (0:26:01) Codey: So I’m going to leave this thing alone. (0:26:03) Codey: Super cool, cool form of mimicry, but I think I’m going to go with, uh, for some of my favorite diptarins is going to be dance flies, um, or flies in the family and piddity. (0:26:15) Codey: So the males actually find, um, what they call, what is called a nuptial gift. (0:26:20) Codey: They find something that they want to give to the female. (0:26:23) Codey: It could be some food, could just be something cool that he found or whatever. (0:26:26) Codey: Um, and then he wraps it in a little package of silk and then he flies, um, (0:26:31) Codey: carrying package of like a (0:26:33) Codey: silk on a string and he presents it to a female and then if she likes it she’ll take it she’ll open it she’ll look at it and if she likes it cool you you’ve you’ve successfully won her hand in marriage and if she doesn’t then she just tosses it and you have to go the male has to go find another gift wrap it again in silk and try again next time super cool I have never seen these in the And I’m so sad like of this this thing, but I did have a friend once (0:27:03) Codey: sent me this he’s a friend who’s an ornithologist and he was like Do you know what the heck is going on here? (0:27:08) Codey: And he sent me a picture of a fly with a like in the air flying with this little thing under it And I was like, oh my gosh, that’s a dance fly and I lost my mind and he was like you are exactly right That’s that was really cool (0:27:21) Codey: So yeah catch me in (0:27:24) Codey: Gosh, where is he Kentucky in probably like August trying to find him pitted? (0:27:30) Codey: Okay, next bit of news here is (0:27:33) Codey: steam world build now has a DLC called mechanized out. (0:27:40) Codey: You can go get this, get this DLC now. (0:27:43) Codey: This DLC basically adds a bunch of stuff, (0:27:46) Codey: including an NPC named mech that can help you solve puzzles to help get you off the planet. (0:27:53) Codey: And it also introduces a new big bad called the abomination that tries to thwart you and goes through your area (0:28:02) Codey: and just. (0:28:03) Codey: Destroyes things that you’re doing or impedes your your attempt to leave the planet it looks like a really cool puzzle game I’ve actually never looked at steam world build before (0:28:13) Codey: It’s giving (0:28:15) Codey: Gosh not Forrester or forager or oh my gosh. I can’t believe I’m not thinking of this game right now (0:28:23) Codey: Another game where you’re doing computery things. It’s probably it’s literally on my desktop. Isn’t it factorial? (0:28:29) Codey: I guess I’ve played this with my partner. It’s giving factorial. (0:28:33) Codey: Vibes, but in more of a puzzle-y 3d format. Very cool. (0:28:39) Codey: Um, and for a limited time, (0:28:41) Codey: you can save money when bundling the DLC with the main game on steam. (0:28:46) Codey: So if you’ve been wanting to try out steam world, and you’re like, no, really, (0:28:48) Codey: sure, then, uh, now’s a great time to jump back in. (0:28:52) Codey: Cause you can save money, um, on not only the main game, but also the DLC. (0:28:58) Codey: Um, the next group. So we’ve already covered the big four. (0:29:01) Codey: of the big four being Beatles. (0:29:03) Codey: Um, coleoptera, hymenoptera, diptra and lepidoptera. (0:29:08) Codey: Um, so those are the big four that I just wanted to get out of the way, um, just because they’re the most diverse, but the next, so the other ones that I’m going to talk about are the ones that I think are just really cool and show, uh, I mean, I think they’re all really cool honestly, but these I thought were accessible, um, and just interesting to people. So, uh, the first order is Oda Nada, (0:29:31) Codey: which is the damsel flies in the (0:29:33) Codey: dragonflies. So these are some of the best flyers in the animal kingdom. They have really insane musculature in their thorax and they actually can fly in any direction because of this. Each of their wings has its own musculature and can move independently of the others. So this allows them to move in any direction. They can move forward, backward, up, down, side to side. They can do whatever they want. Whereas most insects, they’re restricted to flying forward and in (0:30:03) Codey: a different direction, they have to like turn their body. So they like use their wings to like turn in a different direction, but they can’t just go backwards. They can’t fly backwards or go up or down or whatever. This makes them really successful predators in the animal kingdom. Most predators have a really low success rate. So think of like the lion on the savanna. Most of the time not going to be successful. Most of the time not getting a wildebeest or or whatever it’s trying to, whatever she’s trying to catch. (0:30:34) Codey: The dragonflies, I think it’s like 75% success, bonkers. (0:30:39) Codey: They also will take, some of them will take like bees, (0:30:43) Codey: other flies. (0:30:44) Codey: I mean, I think that they’re not really that picky. (0:30:45) Codey: Some will take other dragonflies, crazy. (0:30:49) Codey: They also, this is, (laughs) (0:30:51) Codey: nothing I’ve said is a lie so far. (0:30:54) Codey: And I don’t plan on lying, this seems made up. (0:30:59) Codey: They make a really cute heart shape when they mate. (0:31:02) Codey: So when they mate, they connect. (0:31:04) Codey: They’re like the end of their abdomen to the top of the head of the other one, and they end up making a really cute heart shape. (0:31:13) Codey: I highly recommend people look up Dragonfly mating. (0:31:17) Codey: It’s not graphic or anything. It just looks goofy. (0:31:22) Codey: Speaking of goofy, look at me with these transitions. Disney Dreamlight Valley. (0:31:28) Codey: The act two of the paid DLC has been announced to be coming out. (0:31:35) Codey: The paid DLC is a rift in time, and this DLC includes three acts. (0:31:42) Codey: Some people on this tweet, when they mention in the Twitter that the next part of the act of this expansion DLC is going to be coming out. (0:31:57) Codey: Some people were like, “Oh, wait. Do I have to pay more for this? I’ve already paid for a rift in time.” (0:32:02) Codey: And they’re like, no, no, like, this is– (0:32:04) Codey: part of the paid DLC. (0:32:05) Codey: So if you’ve already paid for a Rift in Time, (0:32:09) Codey: which I believe is only like $25 or $20, (0:32:12) Codey: you don’t have to pay again. (0:32:13) Codey: You’re going to get all three of these acts. (0:32:17) Codey: So Act 1 was Eternity Isle. (0:32:19) Codey: This is available now. (0:32:20) Codey: You can do this now. (0:32:21) Codey: If you have paid for it, I will say I have the game on Xbox Live, like Game Pass. (0:32:31) Codey: So I didn’t pay for the game. (0:32:33) Codey: playing it free to play. (0:32:34) Codey: through game pass and if you want to do rift of rift in time you have to pay on top of that and so I haven’t done this. but I’m also like nowhere near done with with the content that is free so I’m not gonna be worried about it. so yeah act one adds eternity isle adds Rapunzel Gaston and Eve as the player goes to what is called Eternity Isle. (0:33:04) Codey: Seems like this place where you can mess with time, you can get a tool. (0:33:09) Codey: It looks like it’s Jafar’s staff and it can allow you to turn back time to see different artifacts. (0:33:16) Codey: Interesting, I guess. (0:33:20) Codey: I don’t really, I really need to rewatch the Aladdin movies. (0:33:24) Codey: I don’t think he can mess with time. (0:33:27) Codey: Maybe he can in like one of the second or third ones, I don’t remember. (0:33:33) Codey: So yeah, that is already out. (0:33:35) Codey: Um, so coming quote unquote spring, which spring’s almost done y’all. (0:33:42) Codey: Isn’t spring like at the end of may mid may, I don’t know when you would end spring, but, uh, the second act is called the spark of imagination. (0:33:53) Codey: And in the spark of imagination, you will quote, explore ancient landing to uncover more of its secrets and befriend a very lucky villager. (0:34:04) Codey: So there are some spec, there’s some speculation about who this villager could be. (0:34:08) Codey: Um, I, I’m trying to think of like what Disney character could be called lucky. (0:34:17) Codey: Um, but what I think this is is probably Atlantis. (0:34:22) Codey: Um, the symbol on this looks a lot like the cave that is on Dazzle beach was it, (0:34:28) Codey: which is the current Disney dream light Valley. (0:34:30) Codey: Um, one of the places in the current game. (0:34:32) Codey: and it gives big Atlantis- (0:34:34) Codey: when you are in that cave there are Atlantean symbols and people have already like decoded them (0:34:41) Codey: because there’s an Atlantean alphabet um and just the thought of like going back in time and thinking about like Atlantis as this land lost to time or whatever i’m thinking i’m thinking it’s milo thatch y’all but it could also be the I don’t remember her name but the princess from atlantis who’s (0:35:04) Codey: awesome human like is she atlantean (0:35:08) Codey: um it could be her too uh who knows but um I think that’s who it is someone else like I saw someone else say something it could be like daf not daffy duck uh donald duck’s brother cousin something I was like I don’t that sounds way way out of left field I don’t think I don’t think that’s true um so yeah the spark of imagination is the second act in um eripton time the third act (0:35:34) Codey: coming out quote unquote summer 2024 is treasures of time. (0:35:40) Codey: So this is the final act of a rift in time. (0:35:43) Codey: And in this you will foil Jafar’s schemes, (0:35:48) Codey: whatever that means. (0:35:50) Codey: So we’ll see how I feel about this. (0:35:51) Codey: I don’t know about y’all. (0:35:53) Codey: If you’ve been playing DTV, as I call it, (0:35:58) Codey: let me know. (0:36:00) Codey: Some of these villains, I wish I could just, (0:36:03) Codey: I mean, honestly, some of the– (0:36:05) Codey: like, old-timers, too. (0:36:06) Codey: Like, sometimes I’m just like, can I just not see Mickey anymore? (0:36:09) Codey: I’m sick of it. (0:36:10) Codey: I’m not a big Mickey Mouse fan. (0:36:12) Codey: I’m not a big Minnie Mouse fan, not a McDonald Duck fan. (0:36:15) Codey: I like, just get these kids out of here. (0:36:17) Codey: I don’t– I don’t care. (0:36:18) Codey: And I feel that way about some of the villains as well. (0:36:20) Codey: Like, one of the villains is Mother Gothel. (0:36:22) Codey: Every time she walks up, she, like, is just so gaslight-y. (0:36:26) Codey: And the way she talks to you is just so disrespectful. (0:36:32) Codey: And so I’m not, at least like Ursula. (0:36:34) Codey: When you talk to her, she seems to like meet, respect you and like meet you at your level. (0:36:41) Codey: And then Scar, I mean, he’s delusional. (0:36:43) Codey: He just thinks that he should be the King. (0:36:45) Codey: So I get it. (0:36:46) Codey: But Jafar has always given me the ick. (0:36:53) Codey: In Aladdin, like the way that he treats Jasmine and like the way that he feels like he needs to like own her or whatever is just very ick. (0:37:02) Codey: So I don’t know. (0:37:04) Codey: I don’t know how I feel about this about, I don’t know how I’m going to feel about Jafar or if they can kind of like, update him to be not as ick as he was, that’d be lovely. (0:37:16) Codey: But I also have not paid for this deal to you yet. I honestly probably will once I complete all of the current free to play content because this game has given me a lot. (0:37:26) Codey: And if you haven’t played it and you have game pass, I highly recommend it. If you have expendable income and nothing to do with your life for the next- (0:37:34) Codey: forever, no, you could probably play this game in like a month. You probably get through everything. (0:37:42) Codey: I do recommend it. I’m getting a lot of enjoyment out of it. (0:37:48) Codey: I just don’t like the ick of some of the villains. And speaking of ick, the next group of insects is the order Phasmata. (0:38:00) Codey: And this is the stick stick (0:38:04) Codey: and leaf insects. (0:38:06) Codey: Um, I as I was looking over like the orders of insects and I saw Phasma that my I just like my heart grew three sizes. (0:38:15) Codey: You will never know greater joy than I did when I was working in the field in 2019 here in Pennsylvania. (0:38:22) Codey: And I found a stick insect in the wild like in the woods because sometimes you’ll find them on like a building like they’ll because they do show up in in rural areas every now and then. (0:38:34) Codey: And it’s like, okay, like that it’s going to stick out. (0:38:38) Codey: Hot stick sticks is a stick insect. (0:38:40) Codey: Like it it you see it when it’s against a building super obvious, (0:38:44) Codey: but when you find one in the wild like I was just like doing a survey. (0:38:49) Codey: I was walking a transect was just literally a line. (0:38:52) Codey: I was walking a line for 30 minutes to look at the bees that were there and I just was like that is a stick insect on that bush. (0:39:02) Codey: and I had to pause my survey because I– (0:39:05) Codey: I played with that thing for like an hour. (0:39:08) Codey: I put it on my face. (0:39:09) Codey: I have pictures that– (0:39:10) Codey: I put so many insects on my face and take pictures, y’all, it’s crazy. (0:39:14) Codey: Took a picture of it, just lost my mind and just had so much joy in watching this thing and just, I set it down. (0:39:22) Codey: I watched it for like 10 minutes as it walked around. (0:39:25) Codey: So cool. (0:39:27) Codey: They’re super hard to find because of their amazing camouflage abilities. (0:39:30) Codey: So their whole evolutionary strategy for all stick and leaf insects like this whole order. (0:39:34) Codey: Is just fake out the predators don’t don’t look like something to eat look like a stick be a stick (0:39:43) Codey: and there are other than that I mean they’re just pretty they can be pretty breakable though there can be some in tropical areas that have will have some pretty gnarly cuticular defenses like they’ll have some spikes or thorny protrusions and they’re pretty um sclerotized so when you touch them like (0:40:05) Codey: hard they’re not squishy and they hurt and so I’ve never really seen these before we we have had some in the insect zoo some um leaf insects that had some of that but um again evolution what are you doing uh moonstone island um they did an april fool’s haha on everyone um on twitter and they basically showed everything evolving into a version of fish bow (0:40:35) Codey: a fish bow? I haven’t played Moonstone Island. This is wild to me. I had to go down the rabbit hole a little bit to know what the heck I was talking about here. But basically, fish bow is like one of the spirits, I believe. And it’s literally a fish bowl that has legs. (0:40:50) Codey: It’s just a fish bow, fish bow. So they tweeted a graphic, kind of like a meme from Pokemon, (0:40:58) Codey: and it showed like a fish bow becoming a fish bow or like something becoming a fish bow. (0:41:06) Codey: All your little guys is evolving. So it’s basically like all your guys, they’re just little guys, (0:41:12) Codey: they’re all evolving right now. And it alludes to the fact that all of your spirits can become fish bowed, as a verb, fish bowed. So it’s like if you have another spirit, it would just become the spirit instead of the fish in the bowl, it’s that spirit in the bowl. (0:41:31) Codey: And this might actually come to the game in the tweet they said that if they’re (0:41:35) Codey: If they get 1,000 likes on the tweet, they’ll do it but they’re clearly excited to do it with or without the likes They already have some pictures of different sprites that they’ve put or spirits that they’ve put in the fishbowl. Very cute (0:41:48) Codey: Let us and the Moonstone Island devs know what spirit you want fish bowed. Maybe they’ll make it happen (0:41:56) Codey: Okay, just a couple more things here. But next up is a another order of insects and here we have a macoptera (0:42:05) Codey: Scorpion flies and I specifically I’m going to be talking about the family of panorpity (0:42:10) Codey: Hilarious name panor. I love saying it. These guys look wild (0:42:17) Codey: So these even though they’re called scorpion flies, they aren’t actually flies just like butterflies aren’t flies they’re they’re something completely different (0:42:25) Codey: So scorpion flies do look like flies (0:42:28) Codey: But they have four wings. They’re not they didn’t evolve They’re not a part of that evolutionary chain and the males (0:42:35) Codey: literally have scorpion like tails. Like their reproductive organ looks like a scorpion tail. Doesn’t sting you can’t hurt you just looks like a scorpion. They also this really like (0:42:51) Codey: goober looking snoot. Very funny. They’re super, super weird. (0:42:56) Codey: And they’re known mostly among entomologists for the fact that they look weird. But they are also thought to have helped in early pollination before the evolution of bees. (0:43:05) Codey: And they are used for forensic entomology currently. (0:43:10) Codey: So for, I just thought this would be a cool moment to like shout out what, (0:43:13) Codey: what forensic entomology is super cool. (0:43:15) Codey: It’s using insects to solve crimes. (0:43:17) Codey: So often it’s used to try and time when, uh, like time of death, like when someone (0:43:26) Codey: died based on what insects have come to the body at that time. (0:43:29) Codey: So scorpion fly larvae can be some of the very first to find a cadaver. (0:43:34) Codey: So if. (0:43:35) Codey: They’re there and if they’re present and how, how much they’ve, um, (0:43:40) Codey: developed can tell you how long the body has been in that area and how long it’s been since, since deceasement, um, new word, uh, forensic entomology is super cool. (0:43:54) Codey: Um, there’s actually a forensic entomologist that I met, um, who’s out in New Jersey, New Jersey, and she kind of, she can tell you like vague stories, (0:44:04) Codey: but she can’t tell you so. (0:44:05) Codey: This is a legitimate thing that people do sometimes, like as a career, so cool, not for me, but cool. (0:44:20) Codey: Other insects that can be used in forensic entomology include flesh flies of the family Sarcophagidae, (0:44:28) Codey: blow flies, family California, rove beetles, which is the family Staphylenidae, and (0:44:35) Codey: carrion beetles, which is the family Sulfagidae. (0:44:39) Codey: Super, super cool. (0:44:42) Codey: Next on news is critter crops, so critter crops has been delayed to quote-unquote later this year. (0:44:49) Codey: So this was meant to release on the 15th of April, and I just think it’s funny. (0:44:54) Codey: I bet that they probably just heard Al say that this looks like a good game to play in October during the last Coral Island episode, and they were like, “That, let’s do it. Let’s delay it.” (0:45:06) Codey: That’s not true, but I do like the idea of that. (0:45:10) Codey: They delayed because testing is taking longer than they expected. (0:45:14) Codey: And in their launch delay note in Steam News, they said that they’re literally playing the game over and over again to test it and make sure that everything works. (0:45:27) Codey: So I’m not super surprised that it’s taking longer than they expected. (0:45:31) Codey: I’m assuming people probably get fatigue if you try and play a game over (0:45:36) Codey: over again. Um, even if, especially if you’re the one that developed it, (0:45:39) Codey: honestly, you know, everything. Um, but yeah, it’s not, (0:45:44) Codey: not surprising. Take your time. Um, totally fine with the delay. (0:45:49) Codey: All of the comments that I saw were also very positive about the delay. (0:45:52) Codey: Like you do you have out it. Um, okay. (0:45:57) Codey: This is, this is it y’all. This is the final order, (0:46:01) Codey: but it’s also kind of a bonus because there are four sub orders. (0:46:06) Codey: that are very important so this order is Hemiptera and this has four sub orders in it and I’m gonna go through these and I am never sure if I’m pronouncing this first one correctly. I think it’s Coleo Rinca, could also be Celio Rinca, they don’t occur in the United States so I don’t know but these are called the moss bugs. Another one is Eucanarenca so this includes cicadas and leafhoppers. Another suborder is (0:46:36) Codey: sternaryncha, which is aphids, white flies, and scalins, and others. But the one that I really wanted to talk about is heteroptera. So this is the suborder within hemiptera. It’s called heteroptera. And these are the true bugs. So while we call things bugs all the time, like, and people will call something a bug, even if it’s not an insect, like they’ll call like a spider a bug or whatever. While we do call all kinds of things bugs all the time this is the. (0:47:06) Codey: This is the suborder that these are the ones that are actually bugs. These are called the true bugs crazy. So the true bugs include families, things like stink bugs, which is Pentatomity, Assassin bugs, Reggi Viti, kissing bugs. I actually don’t remember that bed bugs, submissity, but my favorite family is tingity. (0:47:30) Codey: Or the lace bugs. These things literally look like if you knitted something and (0:47:36) Codey: it grew legs and walked away like you like you made something out of lace a very very small small (0:47:42) Codey: Lacey thing and it grew legs and walked away (0:47:45) Codey: That’s what these things look like and I never I had never seen one before and then I just started going through my samples from last year and I’m finding a (0:47:54) Codey: Good number of them actually like like at least like 10 and I every single time I’m like I have this like child like (0:48:01) Codey: Giddy giggle cuz I’m just like oh, they’re so cute, and they just look like little (0:48:06) Codey: Delicate creations, they look like little art artwork. I mean, they’re not the only things that look like artwork There’s a lot of other things that are brightly colored metallic colored (0:48:17) Codey: What have you but the lace bugs the tinges they’re just they’re so cute (0:48:24) Codey: Okay final bit of news y’all you’re almost done with me hang in there poglings (0:48:36) Codey: So the news is about poglings, but (0:48:39) Codey: I just had to go on a tangent here for a second about pog (0:48:44) Codey: Or pogs so that every time I see this game name I think that it’s about pogs which are the collectible tabs tags that we like (0:48:53) Codey: Collected in the 90s and played with (0:48:56) Codey: which if you are a 2000s, baby look these things up because (0:49:02) Codey: It just we collected I mean I guess people do (0:49:06) Codey: things like this. Now they collect pieces of cardboard and trade them and stuff. But this is basically what we did. It’s this little circle that you collected and you would find cool ones and trade them with your friends or do like a different game super crazy. And I was trying to like look those up and be like, why are happened to those? And I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. And I’m just going to take you guys with me for a minute here about pogs. This is not about this game at all. I’ll get to that in a second. This is about 1990s in my childhood. So this is straight from Wikipedia, quote, milk caps is a children’s game played with fat flat circular cardboard milk caps. Players make a stack of these caps and take turns to drop a heavier slammer object onto it, causing the caps to be disrupted. Each player keeps any face up caps and is to restock the face down caps, repeating the process until none land face down, at which point the player who collected the most caps wins the game. (0:50:06) Codey: I lost the game. The game is also known as pogs under which name it was sold commercially in the 1990s. So I think like the circular milkboard caps that they says me going off of the quote, the circular milkboard caps. This is just like you buy, I think, a milk and you take that like tab that’s on the inside of it and you play with play it with that. So that was just like that. (0:50:28) Codey: But these pogs that were sold and commercialized, they had so many different pieces of art on them. So some (0:50:36) Codey: were like I’m just like at a loss to even begin to say what’s on me there’s like art like someone drew like a flower on it there’s some that are are like a Tasmanian devil like so there’s some that were like Looney Tunes there’s some that you could have found them in any like (0:50:56) Codey: anything that said that it was okay for POG to put its likeness on them there were just so many many different kinds and they they were pretty good (0:51:07) Codey: as well and I never played because with this because the like milk caps game itself because I didn’t want to if I’d collected it and I wanted it I didn’t want to get it get rid of it and I don’t know where my hogs are and I’m upset the end of the Wikipedia blurb here is that the name originates from POG which is a brand of juice made from passion fruit orange and guava and the use of the juice’s caps to play the game. (0:51:36) Codey: the game’s commercialization which is wild to me because I just went to Hawaii and POG is (0:51:43) Codey: is a Hawaiian beverage and I lost my mind because it’s delicious and when I got it in Hawaii it is so smooth and I got it everywhere like every single place I went to I was like do you have POG and they said yes and I was like that is what I would like to drink please um and I found it on the west coast but you cannot find it on the east coast of the United States and your girl’s about to to drop like 50 bucks. (0:52:06) Codey: I can’t do that. (0:52:07) Codey: But if I could, I would drop 50 bucks to get some of this stuff delivered to me. (0:52:13) Codey: Well, pogs, pog the juice, poglings the game. (0:52:18) Codey: Here we are. (0:52:20) Codey: They just announced on Kickstarter that the development team will be changing. (0:52:24) Codey: So the person who is the creator of poglings, his name is Chad. (0:52:30) Codey: He is just not, he is still going to be staying on. (0:52:34) Codey: but another team that had (0:52:36) Codey: agreed to help him develop poglings is not going to be able to continue on for unknown reasons. Um, and he, the, in the post, it’s very, very clear that it’s, it’s, you know, not, (0:52:48) Codey: not something to have drama over. Like this happens. The game industry is really difficult right now. Developing is really difficult. Some people have been losing their jobs. Like it’s kind of hard to make money in this. So he’s super understanding and he’s looking for, um, (0:53:00) Codey: other development teams to help him finish this project, product, project. Yeah. Both words work. (0:53:06) Codey: Um, so yeah, uh, the reasoning’s pretty generic there. Uh, the development team will be changing and this was obviously going to delay the game. Um, and he just, you know, says this and says, (0:53:17) Codey: you know, I’m sorry for the lack of, um, whatever. Uh, yeah. And, and that the game was going to be delayed. The response is pretty positive. Um, you know, a lot of people saying, (0:53:30) Codey: you know, take your time. We understand gaming is really the game development industry is really (0:53:36) Codey: important and I’ll thank you for your transparency. Um, and yeah, all of, all of those things echoed back. Um, I think that it’s good that they’re being transparent and open about it. And, um, (0:53:48) Codey: I hope they find us a new development team to partner with them and wish them the best so that we can see this game. And if they chab, chab, this is just, just for you. If you put passion for orange and clava juice in this game and you at me or reach out. (0:54:06) Codey: To me in some way and you tell me that you did this, I will buy this game a hundred percent, (0:54:12) Codey: a hundred percent. Well, that is al

Kev and Jonnie talk about a number of demos they have tried recently. Timings 00:00:12: Theme Tune 00:00:43: Intro 00:02:46: Feedback 00:07:29: What Have We Been Up To 00:25:41: News 00:33:12: Demo Bonanza 00:33:21: Lightyear Frontier 00:43:04: Southfield 00:50:19: Rusty’s Retirement 00:57:36: Mika And The Witch’s Mountain 01:04:11: Outro Links Rusty’s Retirement Vertical Moment Ikonei Island Info Update Kynseed Big Build Update Farming Simulator 23 Content Update #23 Outbound Steam Page Outbound Kickstarter Page Lightyear Frontier Southfield Rusty’s Retirement Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:00) Al: Just before we get into this week’s episode, I need to apologize. We had a few audio issues in this episode, so yeah, sorry for that. We’ll get them sorted for next time. (0:00:44) Kevin: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season my name is Kevin, and I’m joined by our beautiful co-host (0:00:55) Kevin: There you go and today we’re here to talk about the cottagecore games whoo and all that (0:01:03) Kevin: More specifically actually we have a sampling platter of (0:01:08) Kevin: cottagecore games today because we (0:01:11) Kevin: Went out and tried some demos (0:01:14) Kevin: You know we’re gonna have I think we played with two each (0:01:20) Kevin: So there’s gonna be a yeah a good just good amount of discussion on different games (0:01:26) Kevin: But before we get into all of that (0:01:30) Kevin: Transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website as per the always (0:01:35) Kevin: And of course we’re going to get to the news and all that stuff as usual (0:01:43) Kevin: Also, oh, we should note… (0:01:44) Kevin: that Al is here in America, where I am, so, you know, I’m looking forward to hearing his misadventures. (0:01:52) Kevin: I’m just assuming he’s just smothered in burgers right now, as is the tradition. (0:02:01) Jonnie: I assume he’s smothered in tipping eggs. (0:02:05) Kevin: Oh man, yeah that’d be good, he’s just not gonna go to any restaurants, he’s gonna stick (0:02:14) Jonnie: Honestly, it would so put me off of having to travel to America is like, ‘cause A, tipping is stupid, and B, the anxiety of it, I’m just like, “Nah.” (0:02:22) Jonnie: I don’t need to deal with that. (0:02:22) Kevin: See, look, the easiest way to do it, a pro tip for all, but, well, okay, sure. (0:02:26) Jonnie: It’s not Visit America. (0:02:30) Kevin: If you are, somehow, find yourself visiting America, the pro tip is just do the credit card if you can, because then you just write it in, and nobody has to see, nobody has to know, and it’s all there. (0:02:44) Kevin: And you’ll never see them again, so, you know, it’s fine. (0:02:46) Kevin: Okay. (0:02:47) Kevin: Let’s see. (0:02:48) Kevin: stuff though, um, we actually have some feedback? (0:02:53) Jonnie: - Yeah, some feedback from, or I guess a correction from, (0:02:56) Jonnie: or corrections were the wrong thing. (0:02:57) Jonnie: Something that Al and I missed last week when we covered “Turn Up the Boy Robs a Bank” (0:03:03) Jonnie: is that there are actually accessibility options. (0:03:07) Jonnie: Neither of us picked up that those were in there and it changes quite significantly, (0:03:13) Jonnie: I think some of my criticism of the game. (0:03:17) Jonnie: So I can’t remember all of the accessibility options off the top of my head, (0:03:20) Jonnie: but I talked a lot about how I really hated the way (0:03:24) Jonnie: that gaming works in the game. (0:03:25) Jonnie: And one of the accessibility options is automatic aiming, (0:03:28) Jonnie: which I think is a really good accessibility option for this game. (0:03:29) Kevin: Yeah, oh that is a good (0:03:32) Jonnie: If you’re into the “Turn Up the Boy” sort of law, I guess, (0:03:37) Jonnie: and want to experience it, (0:03:38) Jonnie: like it feels like a good option for that. (0:03:41) Jonnie: So just want to highlight that that’s something that we missed and it’s a cool thing that they have. (0:03:42) Kevin: Yeah (0:03:47) Kevin: Yeah, absolutely cuz like you mentioned the calm I I’m the claim I didn’t play turn of boy myself, but my brother played and I witnessed most of it (0:03:56) Kevin: the combat is the weaker portion, right the the highlights the humor and the (0:04:03) Kevin: You know the chaoticness going on so kind of sidestepping that that was a good call (0:04:09) Kevin: Yeah, so good good stuff turn it boy good on you first (0:04:14) Jonnie: Yeah, and the other thing that we’ve got to talk about, so Elle and I talked about this last week, Kiv, but it would be sacrilegious to not get your take on what you think about wildflowers being on the April 1st. (0:04:27) Kevin: Well, first, my reaction, and I think I put it in the slash, is 3 and a half grand! (0:04:35) Kevin: Oh my goodness, I had no idea, like, oh my gosh, I know Apple products are pricey/overpriced, but holy moly. (0:04:44) Kevin: Now, I didn’t, I have to see the, what the farming looked like. (0:04:50) Kevin: Looks like it’s an interesting way of doing it, but I think all in all that sounds good. (0:04:55) Kevin: It’s, it’s so weird though because like, Wildflowers is very narrative/character driven, right? (0:05:05) Kevin: Which isn’t generally speaking the focus in a first-person/VR type game, but like you guys said, it, (0:05:12) Jonnie: So have you seen have you seen how the implementation? (0:05:16) Kevin: here, let me look, I’m gonna look it up right now, but I mean, overall though, I think it’s (0:05:20) Kevin: good to do it. I do think VR/augmented reality is a good idea overall. I think we’ll get there eventually, and so, you know, each baby step like this in different formats or different ways is, (0:05:42) Jonnie: Yeah, because I guess how it works is it’s less first person and it’s more like having it up on a screen, you know, kind of like one of the many screens that you can place around with the (0:05:50) Kevin: Right. Okay. That’s what the farming looks like. Okay. All right. Yeah, that’s what it is. Okay, that is (0:05:51) Jonnie: Apple Vision Pro and you can… (0:06:01) Kevin: It looks pretty cool. Um, I (0:06:05) Kevin: like the (0:06:07) Kevin: Yeah, no the farming bit look yeah, obviously like putting it in a (0:06:13) Kevin: On a screen like that is the way to go (0:06:16) Kevin: And the farming having the plots because it’s very the (0:06:21) Kevin: simple and very square slash grid like right so I think this is a good one for that (0:06:28) Kevin: because it’d be so easy to control you like it there’s not a lot of (0:06:34) Kevin: difficulties in in managing the farming aspect so that’s cool um and on top of that eventually you can automate some of that stuff so you can just skip it out right um but yeah now that looks uh Looks great. It’s I’m so happy (0:06:51) Kevin: Wildflowers is getting a second third win whatever whatever win we’re at (0:06:56) Kevin: With the the small DLC update and now this vision pro stuff (0:07:01) Kevin: I’m curious how much longer they’re gonna keep up the development (0:07:05) Kevin: But I’m here (0:07:08) Kevin: You know, I’m here for the long haul. I haven’t fired it up in a while immediately But I’ll wait till they announce maybe they’re done with everything and then see what’s going on (0:07:18) Kevin: All right (0:07:20) Kevin: Okay, so that’s that some of the (0:07:23) Kevin: House cleaning with the tend to from last episode, but now let’s talk about what we’ve been up to more recently Johnny I’ll let you go first. What have you been up to? (0:07:31) Jonnie: What have I been up to? (0:07:34) Jonnie: Because there’s been a lot of demos and trying out a lot of stuff, I feel like I’ve sort of reverted back to some comfy kind of nostalgia games in the past week. (0:07:43) Jonnie: I’ve been playing Diablo 4, partly because it’s something that I can play with friends and I moved countries recently, so it’s a nice game to do that. (0:07:54) Jonnie: But maybe more funnily, the reason we started playing Diablo 4 is because Diablo 4 has been the news a lot in the last week because they’ve been doing (0:08:01) Jonnie: very expensive cosmetic items that has generated a lot of media attention and I keep seeing headlines like Diablo 4 enters microtransaction hell and it’s silly things right like your town portal can change colour and I think it’s like you know 50 bucks or whatever for that cosmetic and it’s not entirely fair framing because I believe it comes with some of their (0:08:27) Jonnie: Premium or quite a bit of their premium currency as well (0:08:31) Jonnie: So you can can purchase other things but the thing that’s really kind of striking to me is the (0:08:38) Jonnie: The narrative around this is kind of describing it like it’s a bad thing look, if there are people out there that want to pay $50 for a (0:08:48) Jonnie: Cosmetic item that has like it’s not even on your character as you’re running around playing the game It’s literally the thing that you use to get to and from (0:08:56) Jonnie: locations. It’s not that significant in the game. And if people want to spend that amount… (0:09:01) Jonnie: for that cosmetic and that enables the developer. And I’m putting aside who the developer is and all of those sorts of things because I don’t really want to get into that discussion. But if this extends the life of the game and they’re doing seasonal gameplay and… (0:09:13) Kevin: What’s there to discuss about Activision Blizzard? (0:09:17) Jonnie: Yeah, let’s just avoid that one altogether. But if people want to pay a lot for those sort of things, and it means I as a casual player jumping in feel no need to spend money on any of that and it means I can keep investing in (0:09:31) Jonnie: developing new content for these games then great like I feel as a just for the campaign portion of the game it is fully justified as a full press game I had a lot of fun playing the campaign and if this is how they want to monetize the long life of the game go for it like the game is still very fun I have a good time of the I have a good time playing with friends I just find a lot of the narrative around ongoing monetization if we accept that that is part of the reality of games now this is (0:10:01) Jonnie: probably the least predatory way to do (0:10:04) Kevin: Oh absolutely. My two questions are, one, all the news I heard about what little I did was about the cosmetic stuff, but is there any stuff that boosts gameplay or effects mechanics or anything like that? Okay. Okay. Yeah. (0:10:22) Jonnie: no no so so it’s all yeah it’s all purchasable cosmetics yeah none of it really affects gameplay (0:10:34) Kevin: Okay, well then that’s yeah, all right who cares then also can you earn premium currency by playing or do you just have? (0:10:44) Jonnie: uh I feel like you can but I also feel like you earn even and I might be wrong um but I feel like even if you do earn premium currency it’s at a rate that’s so slow that you might as well not earn it at all because you would have to like I don’t know how you would actually save up enough of it to purchase anything uh but I can’t remember if that premium currency is actually locked behind um like a paid season pass thing so I can’t remember if it’s locked behind (0:11:04) Kevin: It’s a word. (0:11:14) Jonnie: a slightly different version of a paywall or if those are some of the the free tiers (0:11:22) Kevin: Right. Okay. Well, they, uh, like you said, who cares, right? It’s cosmetic. (0:11:26) Kevin: So whatever. (0:11:27) Jonnie: Exactly (0:11:29) Jonnie: And maybe i’m just like slightly biased, you know, because you and I both play marvel snap and that’s their approach as well Right you you generally you don’t pay to unlock cards Well, you cannot do like spending money on the game does increase the rate that you unlock cards somewhat, but not (0:11:34) Kevin: Yeah. (0:11:44) Kevin: Right, but it’s not explicitly you don’t pay money for a card exactly. It’s generally speaking just a (0:11:53) Kevin: cosmetic that happens to get you resources that can help you generate new parts, but (0:11:59) Kevin: But yeah, no, no. Yeah, I understand (0:12:04) Kevin: I guess like I think about you know Marvel snap is actually a very apt comparison because there’s (0:12:10) Kevin: Explicitly the price tag a hundred dollar bundles. I think there’s one going (0:12:13) Jonnie: Mm-hmm, yep. (0:12:14) Kevin: on right now. And yeah it doesn’t bother me like sometimes it’s a really cool one that I kind of wish I had but it’s not the end of the world there’s plenty the game is still fun doesn’t affect it and there’s plenty of other cool cosmetics I can earn but yeah no I get you um good yeah all right good way of doing it I (0:12:39) Jonnie: Yeah, and and like so to kind of come back to the actual game you know, I’m having a lot of fun with Diablo as just a thing to jump on with friends and kill a bunch of stuff and (0:12:48) Jonnie: You know have a good time. And I think the thing that I really appreciate about Diablo 4 is level scaling So the they have level scaling so it doesn’t matter what level you are. You can play with your friends and it’s a really nice version (0:13:03) Jonnie: Yeah, so you can play with your friends like when we’re playing, you know, one of our friends was level 90 I think I was the lowest level, I was like. (0:13:09) Jonnie: At level 90, he was significantly more powerful than I was even though the mobs were sort of scaled for us, as you would expect. (0:13:21) Jonnie: But I think that’s kind of fine, right? (0:13:23) Jonnie: We were able to sort of play together and not have it be where I wasn’t doing anything, but he was also able to enjoy the fact that he had put a lot more time and effort into building a more powerful character. (0:13:37) Jonnie: I thought it’s it’s a really nice (0:13:42) Kevin: That’s that’s pretty impressive because that’s a very difficult balancing act to do (0:13:47) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:13:51) Jonnie: Yeah, and then the other thing I’ve been dipping my toe back into is Old School RuneScape. (0:13:56) Jonnie: I played Old School RuneScape when it was just RuneScape, and I love dipping my toe back into it every once in a while. (0:14:00) Kevin: - Yeah. (0:14:05) Jonnie: It’s such a goofy game. I love it. (0:14:06) Kevin: Oh man. (0:14:10) Kevin: It’s such a very distinct flavor. (0:14:13) Kevin: I was actually thinking about dipping back in just last week. (0:14:17) Kevin: I don’t remember why, but I might do that then. (0:14:20) Jonnie: Do it, Kiv. (0:14:22) Jonnie: Send me your username and I will add you and we can see each other online and oh my god, okay. (0:14:26) Kevin: Yeah. (0:14:27) Jonnie: I don’t know that you were an old-school RuneScape person, but please, please. (0:14:30) Kevin: Yeah, the middle, that was definitive middle school gaming. (0:14:37) Kevin: Yeah, what’d you do in the computer lab when you had the time or nobody caught you or whatever? (0:14:37) Jonnie: Exactly, yep, that was that was the A draw. (0:14:46) Jonnie: Oh, well maybe at some point we should do a greenhouse episode on Old School. (0:14:47) Kevin: Yeah, good stuff. (0:14:50) Kevin: I was thinking that I was about to say that stay tuned for Stay tuned for our RuneScape greenhouse! (0:14:56) Jonnie: Oh, yes. (0:14:58) Jonnie: Great. (0:14:59) Jonnie: Cool, alright, we’ll leave that one there then. (0:15:02) Kevin: I have a few things to talk about in the next episode of the M1C, but the M1C will be in the next episode of the M1C, but the M1C will be in the next episode of the M1C. (0:15:04) Jonnie: Kip, what have you been playing? (0:15:08) Kevin: Okay, it’s been a minute since I’ve been on, so I’ve got a few things. Actually, all the stuff kind of was in the last week. (0:15:16) Kevin: I’ve been playing a lot of games, I guess. (0:15:18) Kevin: First, shout out to Rainbow Road Radio, the Mario podcast host with mutual friend Alex. (0:15:24) Kevin: We covered Mario vs Donkey Kong, which came out just yesterday, well, from the time of M1C. (0:15:30) Kevin: I did not purchase the game myself, Alex did, but I played the demo. (0:15:36) Kevin: Have you played any of the Mario vs Donkey Kong games at all, Jonny? (0:15:40) Jonnie: I don’t even think I’ve ever heard of a Mario vs Donkey Kong game. (0:15:46) Kevin: Okay. So, it is, so right, the original Donkey Kong arcade game, right? The debut of both Mario and Donkey Kong. (0:15:56) Kevin: If they reinvented re-imag- I won’t even say that. (0:16:00) Kevin: This game was originally on the Game Boy Advance. They did a remake for the Switch, that’s what we discussed. (0:16:09) Kevin: It is a puzzle kind of platformer game. Essentially, you’re presented with a level with platforms and obstacles like spike pits, jumps you have to make, switches, things like that. (0:16:30) Kevin: It’s not a horizontal scrolling type level like standard mario’s, it’s just one screen. (0:16:38) Kevin: And you have to figure out the puzzle of how do I get to the key, what order do I have to clear these obstacles or flip these switches, and then you get the key to the door. (0:16:50) Kevin: And that’s kind of the gist of the gameplay. It’s fairly straightforward, but they add a lot of depth, they add a lot of obstacles and stuff like that. (0:16:58) Kevin: Um, the Switch Remake specifically… (0:17:00) Kevin: It’s very nice presentation (0:17:04) Kevin: The the game is the premise is centered around these little toys called mini marios (0:17:11) Kevin: So a lot of the games (0:17:13) Kevin: Enemies and things like that are toy versions of Mario enemies very cute very reminiscent of Link’s Awakening remake art style (0:17:22) Kevin: very colorful and fun I enjoyed the demo Alex enjoyed the game that he played thus far (0:17:30) Kevin: Yeah, check that out. That was that’s a fun one (0:17:34) Jonnie: Nice. I might have to check that out. I love a puzzle. (0:17:34) Kevin: aside from that (0:17:38) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s great and they added new stuff for the remake right so it’s got a substantial amount (0:17:45) Kevin: It’s not just a short GBA (0:17:49) Kevin: Venture Yeah, I definitely recommend at least people should check out the the trailers and stuff just to see how the cute little mini marios are (0:17:59) Jonnie: or people should check out rich road radio rainbow road radio (0:18:00) Kevin: And (0:18:04) Kevin: That your rainbow Road radio, that’s correct. No, don’t worry. I’ll be plugging that later (0:18:12) Kevin: Aside from that Disney speedstorm have you heard of this one Johnny? (0:18:16) Jonnie: I have not heard of this. (0:18:19) Kevin: Okay, it is a (0:18:22) Kevin: Just came out last year. I believe it is Disney’s version of Mario Kart. Um, it’s part racing game with Disney (0:18:30) Kevin: here’s okay, so (0:18:33) Kevin: it’s (0:18:35) Kevin: It I’m two ways about it because on the one hand the actual racing is fantastic It’s a strong Mario Kart type game the if you’re a big fan of Disney, you’ll get even more enjoyment out of it (0:18:49) Kevin: With the music tracks the characters pretty wide variety of characters. They have Pixar and Disney, but here’s the kicker (0:18:57) Kevin: It’s free to play which do hey, that’s cool. You don’t spend money (0:19:00) Kevin: But it is slathered with loot boxes, season pass, microtransactions, just filled to the brim with it. (0:19:13) Kevin: And it’s not prohibitive, but you do have to know how to invest your resources. (0:19:23) Kevin: Because you get plenty of resources, basically the kicker is you have to level up your characters, (0:19:28) Kevin: racers that affects their stats and that actually (0:19:31) Kevin: does affect your performance in races, including the single player. (0:19:35) Kevin: In fact, I would say primarily the single player, which is what I’ve been playing. (0:19:41) Kevin: And so getting the resources is the challenge. (0:19:44) Kevin: You have to win certain races, do certain objectives, get from boxes, yada, yada. (0:19:51) Kevin: So it is a limited amount you get, at least like daily, but if you just invest them smartly, you can get through the races. (0:19:58) Kevin: Okay, but so you know (0:20:01) Kevin: That’s kind of a bummer how grindy you can feel at times But the grind is fun because the game itself is really fun They it as you can expect from disney money. The presentation is pretty stellar like I said the (0:20:15) Kevin: All the visuals the audio is good. They got (0:20:19) Kevin: Not every voice actor but a good majority of them. They didn’t get you know, john goodman for sully, but uh (0:20:27) Kevin: They got ariel’s voice actress, which is pretty cool. Um (0:20:31) Kevin: And i’m a big disney fan. So i’m uh, i’m thoroughly enjoying the game. Um (0:20:37) Kevin: and it’s like on every console or Platform whatever and you can move your account and all that good stuff. Um (0:20:46) Kevin: so I uh I I I enjoy I kind of recommend it if you’re a big disney fan in particular (0:20:56) Jonnie: This sounds like the sort of game that in a different stage of my life I would have got very into and it’s more that I just don’t have space for another like daily check-in game in my life at the moment. (0:21:06) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, now that’s understandable um I (0:21:10) Jonnie: And how would you say the racing compares to like a Mario? (0:21:12) Kevin: I think (0:21:14) Kevin: Overall the the pacing is faster in general. There’s a big emphasis on boosting and has a boosting mechanic (0:21:24) Kevin: The number of power-ups are (0:21:29) Kevin: They’re general. I don’t know if they’re smaller the actual amount, but they’re less impactful. Let’s say right (0:21:34) Kevin: There’s no blue (0:21:36) Kevin: Shell or lightning. There’s nothing super chaotic like the most (0:21:40) Kevin: There’s a shield you can get there. You can fire like a homing disc (0:21:46) Kevin: They do put some fun twists on it because the power-ups you can actually (0:21:52) Kevin: Have variations some you can charge up (0:21:55) Kevin: You can hold the button down and charge up the power-up to do something different some you can throw backwards others. You can’t (0:22:02) Kevin: uh… and most interestingly uh… every character (0:22:06) Kevin: has a unique uh… power-up uh… that matches their character right um… so for instance uh… ariel has a really fun one when you use her special skill she uh… (0:22:19) Kevin: these little uh… (0:22:21) Kevin: the trinkets and artifacts uh… just uh… spawn on the racetrack and if you collect them you get a higher top speed which is cute uh… there’s other ones like stitch he’ll just start blasting all her crazy like with his ray gun. (0:22:36) Kevin: Sully will roar at people and it’s just cute to see the ones that they do and how they match each character. (0:22:46) Kevin: But yeah, overall it feels less chaotic than a Mario Kart because Mario Kart is just utter chaos with everything flying around. (0:22:58) Kevin: It is a bit more straightforward racing but still enjoyable. (0:23:06) Kevin: And one more I’ve got to talk about, Moonstone Island. (0:23:10) Kevin: Funnily enough, you guys talked about the update last week. (0:23:16) Kevin: I was playing before the update dropped, I didn’t even know it was coming. (0:23:20) Kevin: You can see there was an update on Steam. (0:23:22) Kevin: I have actually not hit credits, I don’t know if you can hit credits in the game, but I completed a full year and defeated the final boss. (0:23:30) Kevin: I did a whole episode on that and I think my feelings are more or less… (0:23:36) Kevin: They added the marriage and that was fine, but it’s not enough to change the entirety of the game. (0:23:44) Kevin: There’s still a lot I like about the game, but there’s also a lot that it feels lacking. (0:23:50) Kevin: But hopefully they’ll keep updating it and we’ll see it get to a better place. (0:23:54) Kevin: The one thing I will definitely give them props for is the monster design. (0:24:00) Kevin: The hands down winner, the new ones they added, is called… (0:24:06) Kevin: …the bread mouse. It is a toaster with a piece of toast in it with a little face on it and the toast will pop out. (0:24:16) Kevin: But yeah, I still kinda recommend it. I went back to it, right? (0:24:22) Kevin: There’s enough for me to actually go through the whole year. (0:24:24) Kevin: Yeah. (0:24:26) Jonnie: And that’s a big thing, I guess, you know, in this year or, you know, in modern time. (0:24:32) Jonnie: Going back to a game is a really good sign, because there’s so many games that we get to play, (0:24:40) Jonnie: and you can try something and be like, “Oh, that was fun,” but you never really feel the need to go back to it, and you’ll be scrolling through your library, and you’ll be like, “Oh, (0:24:46) Jonnie: I never went back to that.” And you kind of realize, like, while it was fun, there wasn’t that hook to pull you back. So anything that can do that, I think, is a solution. (0:24:50) Kevin: Yeah, yep, yep, there’s something almost like I keep going back because I want it to be good right like I had fun going through the bosses and everything the last fight is actually very challenging but I just I still wish there was like a story giving me a reason that I’m hiding this thing. Oh, you know, I’m just gonna spoil (0:24:56) Jonnie: It’s kind of a pretty good game. (0:25:20) Kevin: it for anyone who cares the boss’s name is missing no actually just straight up missing no like Pokemon’s missing number but but yeah so that and hey I did I can pat myself on the back and close it for now unless something update comes. Ah, but yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to a lot of stuff and speaking of a lot of stuff we got news actually I don’t think it’s that much news but we got some items here so let’s let’s get into it first up. (0:25:50) Kevin: Alpone Island, yeah, console releases are still coming, but we don’t have any date yet, (0:25:57) Kevin: and they’re doing improvements to the UI, which is always good. (0:26:02) Kevin: I feel like, oh man, UI design, it’s so critical, but it feels so underappreciated, even just from the dev side, but you know, so I do appreciate them putting some effort on that. (0:26:20) Jonnie: Yeah, so I guess the key to this one is that they kind of recognize that their launch on Steam was a little bit rocky. (0:26:25) Jonnie: They got kind of hit with a few bugs that were probably unexpected. (0:26:29) Jonnie: And so they’re just calling out that they’re still fully intending to do their console launches, (0:26:34) Jonnie: but also recognizing that it’s probably going to take a bit more work than they initially intended. (0:26:38) Jonnie: So no official date as of yet, but I really appreciate this sort of communication. (0:26:45) Jonnie: and probably unsurprising that when you have a launch on Steam. (0:26:50) Jonnie: And you get hit with some bugs that you didn’t expect like, it’s not only that it can be disappointing sort of, you know, that that happens and disappointing commercially, but it could also be like it’s just hard right when you put a lot of time, effort and love into into a game like this. (0:27:05) Jonnie: And, you know, it’s very hard to predict we all know that building games is difficult. (0:27:11) Jonnie: So, I think it’s a good sign that they’re taking the time and not putting the additional pressure on to, to get the, to get those things done. (0:27:12) Kevin: Oh yeah, absolutely. (0:27:18) Kevin: Yeah, absolutely yeah, and even just in this (0:27:24) Kevin: Cottage cord subspace there’s plenty of games, so there’s definitely no need to rush (0:27:30) Kevin: I agree, it’s good for them to be clear for one to folk it to (0:27:36) Kevin: Plan things out like this right like they’re gonna delay it and to be clear about it (0:27:41) Kevin: So I (0:27:42) Kevin: Think that’s a sign of a good developer. So, you know, I hoped for that console release eventually (0:27:49) Kevin: Kinseed has a what they call the big build update Great. (0:27:58) Jonnie: Yeah, so the the big build update is hot now and I guess the key to this one is it introduces farm customization (0:28:06) Kevin: Yeah, uh (0:28:08) Kevin: So I have not honestly I have not seen that much about (0:28:13) Kevin: But boy that art is beautiful. It is wow that’s some lovely lovely pixel art (0:28:19) Kevin: Yeah farm customization is the big one. They have actually they have a big list of stuff on Steam you can see (0:28:27) Kevin: They even adjusted some of the story pacing (0:28:31) Kevin: Let me see. Oh, that’s cool NPC a talent system for NPC That’s really cool improvements to their progress screen (0:28:41) Kevin: You can (0:28:44) Kevin: Not just customize it not just not visual customization for the farm, but actual structures that can improve (0:28:52) Kevin: like your shelters for your animals and (0:28:57) Kevin: Things to make travel and commerce easier. Um, if this is a pretty hearty update. Oh batch crafting. There’s the (0:29:04) Kevin: That’s the one everyone loves (0:29:06) Kevin: That’s a lot of that’s a lot of that’s a big update. I appreciate that. I’m gonna have to check this out This is some really pretty art. I totally forgotten about this one I don’t like and like I said, that is out now already on Steam. Is it anywhere else? (0:29:18) Kevin: I don’t remember but at there at least on Steam, okay (0:29:22) Kevin: Let’s see next up. We have oh, this is fun one a game called outbound (0:29:31) Kevin: Let’s read the blurb shall we (0:29:35) Kevin: Build your own home (0:29:36) Kevin: Come on wheels and live sustainably off-grid Craft workstations and power supplies Source energy from the sun, wind, or water Upgrade and customize your vehicle Grow crops, automate your production, and explore a colorful world That’s a lot of stuff to do from a vehicle (0:29:54) Jonnie: look this game looks incredible so so I guess the the shorter summary we’ll keep just read out is you’re driving around in a in a minivan that you live in and you can customize I’ll put a note down here that I well I was on board before this but the moment that got Al was they built an insane structure on top of the campervan which I think is amazing from what they’ve shown you know being able drive around the world, dick out. (0:30:24) Jonnie: The game is a bit of a game, but it’s a bit of a game. (0:30:32) Kevin: Yeah, it’s a very pleasant visual style too, it’s full 3D cell shaded, I think is probably the best way, or closest approximation, I would say. (0:30:47) Kevin: This is very interesting, right? Because so many farm games, they’re centered around the farm or the base, right? (0:30:56) Kevin: But this one’s mobile, so, like, how, that will make sense. (0:31:02) Kevin: This will make, I assume, traversing between different little mini bases, because they show you can build structures on the ground and stuff, so I assume you can build little buildings and things like that. (0:31:13) Kevin: I wonder how big the map will be if you have a car, like, there’s a lot of potential there. (0:31:18) Kevin: It looks like wind turbines on the top of this thing. Oh, that’s great. I hope you can go really high, I want it to look absurdly ridiculous. (0:31:30) Jonnie: And it’s I guess in terms of like this game is being announced. They have a (0:31:35) Jonnie: Kickstarter page like but no no campaign launch or launch date. So probably just want to keep our eyes on (0:31:46) Kevin: Um, all right, so that is, again, Outbound, that’s a fun looking one. (0:31:52) Kevin: Um, and actually, that’s it. (0:31:55) Kevin: I think we’ve covered most of the news. (0:31:55) Jonnie: Oh we got one more one more (0:31:58) Kevin: Well, one more by yes, but I’ll let you take this one. (0:31:59) Jonnie: We’ve got farming some farming simulator farming simulator 23. Yeah, you scroll past it (0:32:02) Kevin: Wait, what? (0:32:04) Kevin: Oh, oh, I missed it. (0:32:04) Kevin: You’re right. (0:32:05) Kevin: I skipped it. (0:32:05) Kevin: Yeah, I did. (0:32:08) Kevin: Wait, they do content updates for these guys. (0:32:10) Jonnie: Yes, they do lots of content updates for farming simulator they’ve got all the farming freaks and (0:32:14) Kevin: I thought each year was the con- (0:32:16) Kevin: content of the- laughs (0:32:17) Jonnie: No, there are there are updates within the content updates (0:32:22) Jonnie: So this one introduces a new to. (0:32:25) Jonnie: a new video. (0:32:36) Kevin: And no (0:32:40) Kevin: I do enjoy seeing the reactions from the people who are fans, right like (0:32:46) Kevin: the I remember years back when they finally brought John Deere into farming simulator just the (0:32:54) Kevin: the (0:32:56) Kevin: The height was (0:32:58) Kevin: Through roof from the farm simulator community (0:33:03) Kevin: That’s that’s pretty fun (0:33:05) Kevin: All right, yeah, the boat (0:33:07) Kevin: I’ll put an exclamation point. I wonder if he knows who that is. I don’t know that company (0:33:13) Kevin: Alright, let’s just get into the demos Johnny. I’ll let you take the first one. That’s I chair to the class what what demos you’ve been (0:33:22) Jonnie: So I guess the first one that I’ll kick off with is Lightyear Frontier. (0:33:26) Jonnie: And as I wrote that down, I’m actually questioning, is that the name of the game? (0:33:29) Jonnie: Because we’re in the classic word salad of games where you start looking at things, (0:33:38) Jonnie: and then you wonder, is that right? Or is it something else? (0:33:42) Jonnie: It is… Yeah. Right. (0:33:42) Kevin: This is not one lonely outpost or whatever that one’s called. That’s the other space future one [laughs] (0:33:52) Jonnie: So yeah, so Lightyear Frontier is the mech space farming game. (0:34:00) Jonnie: And actually, having played the demo, I feel like farming or cottagecore game (0:34:05) Jonnie: is maybe not quite the right description. To me, it feels maybe more similar to (0:34:17) Jonnie: like a survival game. So the premise is you are dropped on a planet with (0:34:22) Jonnie: your mech and you are the only thing on there. I think part of it is the intent is maybe more for like do it with friends, right? So there might be three or four of you and you explore the planet and sort of build and establish a base more so than a farm. Like farming is definitely an element of it, but I guess that’s kind of the core base of the (0:34:42) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, it definitely feels more, as you said, survival as great like no man’s sky or perhaps power. (0:35:00) Kevin: But okay, tell me how is the mech though, right? Because that’s that’s the differential to the star of the show How does it feel oh? (0:35:08) Jonnie: the mech is unfortunately disappointing and there’s one very clear reason for it and I get where they’re going I just don’t think it works in execution so what happens with the mech is you know it can jump higher you can get in and out of the mech so you’re not always in the mech and there are elements where you need to be outside of it but what happens I think in order to sort of limit traversal around the world as the mech is not great. (0:35:12) Kevin: No (0:35:39) Jonnie: If you are on unstable ground, it is highly likely to fall over and then you need to get out and you need to right the mech. (0:35:40) Kevin: Oh, no. (0:35:47) Jonnie: I get why they want to limit some of the traversal. (0:35:52) Jonnie: I assume it might be that you can get a higher jump or a longer boost later in the game, but it just doesn’t feel great. (0:36:04) Jonnie: You know to me part of what I want to feel when I’m in a mix is like I am like (0:36:08) Jonnie: Human plus and in many ways it feels like you’re a human - we (0:36:12) Kevin: Right, absolutely, like, I’m looking at the trailer and one thing I’m seeing is that the actions you do from the map feel very similar to what you could do in any other sort of survival game, right, collecting resources, planting, etc, etc. (0:36:36) Kevin: And, I mean, obviously the visuals match the Mac you’re using tools and gadgets. (0:36:42) Kevin: And what not to do it. But like you say, when you’re when I’m in a mech, I’d want to be more than human plus I want to be outrageously absurdly powerful and doing nonsense right like I just want to low, if I’m going to clear a lane, I want to do it just in till a field I want to do it in just one button push, you know, something like that, something absurd and over the top. (0:37:06) Kevin: And I’m not really seeing that, which is unfortunate. (0:37:08) Jonnie: Yeah, and I didn’t really feel that in the gameplay, so that was unfortunate. (0:37:14) Kevin: Yeah, what about the the rest of it right? (0:37:18) Jonnie: So I think the rest of it… So I think it’s well known that I’m not a particularly big fan of survival games, (0:37:24) Jonnie: but I even feel that in the realm of survival games, this one suffers from not really having a clear identity of what it is. (0:37:36) Jonnie: So if I think about something like you know the classic Minecraft, Minecraft is all built around the creativity aspect of what can you build and what can you do in this world. There’s no narrative element, it’s just come up with whatever narrative you want but this is the game which is great for what they’re doing. Something like Pylia is like hey go out into the world and beat these bosses right so there’s there is more of a here’s an objective of a thing to do. Now you can talk about how good it is at doing that but it’s (0:38:08) Jonnie: very clearly there. In Lightyear Frontier there is a narrative aspect that is so you’ve got an AI (0:38:22) Jonnie: counterpart that’s like watching over you and giving you guidance I guess is is probably the way to describe it and you’re landed on a planet there’s some allusions to you know like why didn’t humanity come here and you know explore this planet and you know you’re gonna clean up some of it (0:38:38) Jonnie: but it doesn’t feel particularly like the narrative doesn’t feel particularly compelling or strong like there was a few quests that kind of were meant to introduce it to you but they kind of just feel like they appeared and I didn’t really feel like I had a compelling reason to go and do those I didn’t care about completing the quests right like it was more just like here’s a task to complete and then on the other side I didn’t get that like the building side of it (0:39:08) Jonnie: and I didn’t feel strong enough that I was like oh but like that I could see how I want to build out this planet it more felt like kind of just standard base building stuff so to me it felt stuck between all of the different aspects of what a survival game could be and just wasn’t really (0:39:28) Kevin: Yeah, I again, looking at the trailer, I can I can get that like, I think a concern just from looking at it, the house you can build is like a little wood cottage type ranch home and in a mech game, you know, I’d hope for a big hulking metal robot base. (0:39:50) Kevin: So I can see that it feels like they’re trying to go in two different directions. They’re going through all the usual trappings of these survival. (0:39:58) Kevin: Type games, but they’re trying to do this next stuff, but not enough. So that’s that’s a tad unfortunate, like, honestly, just looks like a more colorful no man’s sky again. (0:40:11) Jonnie: Yeah. I don’t know that I have a huge amount else to say on this game, and I guess my takeaway is, (0:40:19) Jonnie: you know, sometimes you play a game and you’re like, “I didn’t enjoy that, but I know the sorts of people that would enjoy it, right? I know who I would recommend the game to.” Unfortunately, (0:40:28) Jonnie: with my time with Lightyear Frontier, I kind of left it thinking, “I don’t know who this game is for.” It feels too much like we built a thing where, you know, it’s sort of like Mad Libs. (0:40:41) Jonnie: And I guess that’s probably something we should say maybe not right up front, because now that we’re a little bit into the conversation, but there’s a huge possibility that these things could change, (0:41:09) Jonnie: All right, um (0:41:11) Jonnie: And I think for me the thing that would need to change with lightyear frontier (0:41:14) Jonnie: In order for me to go back in is I would want to hear about this game having a clear direction in terms of what it is whether that’s adding a lot more narratively or you know really going into what it means to clean up the planet and to (0:41:30) Jonnie: Build a base or do whatever the thing is that you’re aiming to do on this planet (0:41:34) Jonnie: Uh, I would just like to see more of a direct (0:41:40) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s unfortunate and they have the big hook they have the mech right like if they got in all in on that right like (0:41:50) Kevin: customize it to be just (0:41:52) Kevin: Ridiculously different builds or whatever right like I think of you know armor court six I don’t know if you’re familiar with that that was the big mech game from from software (0:42:01) Kevin: Like that’s the sort of thing. I want to see from Mecca’s (0:42:04) Jonnie: And I think that’s a really good sort of like point to raise is that, you know, and I think we talked about this a few weeks ago, the tools just kind of feel like the tools that you would have anywhere else like it doesn’t feel like they’re really taking advantage of the of the mech and some of the cool things that it could do, you know, you’ve got this big open game, give us a, you know, a super fast boost. (0:42:26) Jonnie: Like, I’ve not played Armoured Core 6, but I’ve seen the gameplay of Armoured Core 6, and you kind of take all of the aspects of that game. (0:42:31) Kevin: right like yep (0:42:35) Jonnie: And you delete them. And that’s what playing a mech in this game feels like. (0:42:39) Kevin: yep yep oh man that’s that’s disappointing but uh it is still technically early access so you know who knows maybe one day we’ll we’ll see improvements maybe they’ll hear this episode down the ground grapevine and then then then then they’ll go all day but um all right there you go Well, that’s lightyear frontier. (0:43:00) Jonnie: - Yes, that’s my first tempo. (0:43:01) Kevin: All right, I want to talk about Southfield. (0:43:02) Jonnie: Kip, what’s your… (0:43:08) Kevin: So we covered this relatively recently on the podcast last time I was on with Al. (0:43:14) Kevin: They’re hook, they’re premise. (0:43:16) Kevin: It is a physics-based farming, your cottagecore type game. (0:43:21) Kevin: It is, so if you watch the trailer, see the images. (0:43:25) Kevin: You can see just from the visual style what they’re going for. (0:43:28) Kevin: You’re playing as this very (0:43:31) Kevin: round colorful I call it gun gumdrop creature um with goofy cartoony eyes and and just like no fingers or whatever just brown ball hands and this demo is fascinating because (0:43:48) Kevin: unlike other demos it’s not a they’re up clear about it up they’re clear and upfront about it it’s not a like example of a level or whatever this is kind of a (0:44:01) Kevin: proof of concept they want to uh show what they want to go for that’s how they describe it now that said the it is a fairly robust and complete uh demo uh it is very large and the kicker is you can’t save but it yeah yeah it’s rough so like if you want to if you think you’d enjoy this you’ve got to clear a couple hours because it is a it is a very amply sized uh demo (0:44:17) Jonnie: Oh no! (0:44:31) Kevin: both in terms of like the area you can cover and the amount of things you can do it uh so going to the main hook of the the physics space portion so for instance right in your standard farming game when you want to harvest a crop you you just push the button and you collect the resource right maybe you put it down with a sickle or whatever right in this game you have to grab the fruit Whatever it is, and you actually have to pull that sucker out like it (0:45:01) Kevin: will stretch cartoon style and you have to yank it off in a very sort of satisfying way of doing it. It’s not all completely fixed space, for instance when you’re plowing the the ground it’s still a grid based sort of system as is the usual, but for instance when you’re watering it’s not just water square by square it’s like you’re you actually just can run around and just rush all and spray water everywhere as you’re doing it. (0:45:31) Jonnie: This game just looks incredible. I love this. I have like- I love the- (0:45:31) Kevin: The Legend of Zelda Series is a very bright, bouncy, colorful cartoon. It’s a dedicated combo button. You can just roll around and roll around. (0:45:38) Kevin: Everything about it, even as you’re playing the mechanics, all feel like how it looks. For instance, there is a dedicated combo button where you just kind of roll up into a ball and then you can just start rolling around like a Goron from The Legend of Zelda Series. (0:46:02) Kevin: It’s very fun, it’s very cute. There is a huge, like, 30 or something crops that you can grow in the demo. (0:46:14) Kevin: And they do get into some of the other aspects, like building and crafting and whatnot. (0:46:20) Kevin: In particular, the automation stuff where you can construct conveyor belts and things like that. You can see in some of the trailer, like, you can have these wacky… (0:46:31) Kevin: bouncing fruits on the conveyor belts as they’re moving along. So it can… the possibilities are… they’re vast. Like, I can’t even imagine the nonsense that will come out of this game. (0:46:44) Kevin: And overall, like I said, it’s a real… it sucks that you can’t say it because I want to play this more and more, but having to restart every time is a real bummer. (0:46:57) Kevin: bummer but yeah the whole demo as a whole is very sandbox (0:47:01) Kevin: like here’s the island go here’s basically all the things you can do and just go do whatever right I don’t know what the if they’re gonna try to go with a narrative thing because they have some other NPCs and characters which are fun in design and have personality so maybe they’ll lean into that I don’t know but it is still overall I think a great demo I’m excited for the game I’m glad the demo didn’t disappoint because just what looking at the. (0:47:31) Kevin: very excited by the visual style and I’m definitely keeping my eye out for this and you know, (0:47:40) Kevin: whenever how long it will take to get a big game actually done. (0:47:43) Kevin: So definitely a thumbs up. (0:47:45) Jonnie: I loved the look of some of the automation in the game where they set up the conveyor belts and like fans and was that in the demo? (0:47:53) Kevin: Yes, yes it was. I can’t remember fans, but I think it was. I didn’t fiddle around with the animation too, too much, but they definitely had a lot of different components that you could mess around with to basically achieve the sort of stuff you see in the trailer with fans pushing them and bouncing and things like that. (0:48:11) Kevin: Yeah, I’m definitely a thumbs up from me on Southfield. (0:48:16) Jonnie: game looks, it looks incredible. My feeling looking at this game is it kind of gives me the silliness that I feel like an Ooblets was going for and Ooblets massively failed to deliver on because it just tried to be absurd. This feels like absurd with a purpose, right? That’s, to me, that’s the appeal is like the ragdoll physics style element and what you’ve said about like it’s not everywhere, (0:48:27) Kevin: Yes. (0:48:42) Jonnie: right like the the hoeing being more grid-based as well. (0:48:46) Kevin: Yeah, it’s it’s still grounded. Yes, right (0:48:47) Jonnie: That to me says a lot because yeah it’s grounded there’s still intention behind it and doing that those things where it makes sense right here like Ublitz was just like we’re gonna make everything silly because that’s the thing we do we’re silly look at how silly we are and it’s like hey you kind of just cringe in lane right like whereas this looks just amazing. (0:49:06) Kevin: Yeah, absolutely. I I fully agree with that because (0:49:11) Kevin: Yeah, nothing felt nothing felt bad like for better lack of way of putting oh my gosh I think I’m looking at the trailer again I forgot there’s this fruit that will just start growing if you don’t harvest it quickly enough. It’s it’s pretty fun (0:49:25) Kevin: Yeah, they have the cannons. Yeah, all this stuff is in the demo looking at it. There’s not like your dog I don’t remember that but oh, yeah, I think the vehicle was in there, too (0:49:33) Kevin: But I agree like it’s very thoughtful (0:49:36) Kevin: in its design. It’s goofy as much as it can be but still absolutely grounds it with working systems. And honestly I had the same feeling of like this is kind of what I want Ooblets to be like because it’s bright and colorful but not ridiculously like I don’t I don’t know what it is about Ooblets something about the names that always throw me off about Ooblets but but here it’s just so much fun. I mean just looking at the (0:50:07) Kevin: It’s it’s great. Yeah, so I don’t think we have a any date or anything like that for Southfield yet, but (0:50:15) Kevin: Keep your keep your eye out for it because I think it’s gonna be a great one (0:50:20) Jonnie: Alright, so Rusty’s Retirement is a game I’m very excited about, I’ve been very excited about, (0:50:28) Jonnie: and I was very excited to try the demo. I feel like the idea of an idol-ish farming game that kind of just sits at the bottom of your screen is genius and something that I had (0:50:42) Jonnie: not considered and something I didn’t know that I wanted until I saw the trailer. (0:50:46) Jonnie: And I was like, yeah, I really want to play this. (0:50:50) Jonnie: Good. (0:50:51) Jonnie: And having played the demo, it seems like it’s exactly what I wanted it to be. (0:50:57) Jonnie: So you have your farming plots that sit at the bottom of the screen. (0:51:01) Jonnie: You select a crop, you plant it. (0:51:04) Jonnie: Rusty, he goes out and he’ll plant the crops, (0:51:07) Jonnie: or he’ll order them, he’ll harvest them. (0:51:10) Jonnie: You can purchase robots that will help with the automation, (0:51:14) Jonnie: effectively just increasing the number of tasks that you can complete. (0:51:20) Jonnie: The first crops you grow, then maybe they take a minute or two. (0:51:24) Jonnie: And then as time goes on, the crops take longer and longer to grow. (0:51:27) Jonnie: And you just need to grow more of them to unlock future stuff. (0:51:32) Kevin: You’re right. Okay (0:51:33) Jonnie: The demo has some pretty obvious blockers on it. (0:51:39) Jonnie: I assume you’ll be able to purchase more land. (0:51:41) Jonnie: There are some big bits on the screen that we just grade out with the words demo across them. (0:51:46) Jonnie: I’m sure there’ll be more buildings and stuff like you could buy. (0:51:50) Jonnie: a few buildings in this one, but nothing significant. (0:51:56) Jonnie: It was just kind of everything. I was hoping it was going to be. (0:52:01) Kevin: okay so the prison like the visual is very cute I actually like the style a lot um my question is (0:52:09) Kevin: how intrusive do you find it right like because it’s running at the bottom of your screen (0:52:16) Kevin: like how frequently are you checking in or how much is it distracting you (0:52:22) Jonnie: Yes, I don’t know if it’s fair to say, Chris, this is probably the thing that I hope changes the most as the game goes from demo to full implementation. (0:52:33) Jonnie: And I should call out that they’re very explicit that the demo is a work in progress and that a lot of things will change. (0:52:42) Jonnie: So in terms of how intrusive it is, I’m playing on a laptop with, you know, like a 15 inch screen and a monitor. It’s a textual monitor that’s like. (0:52:52) Jonnie: Maybe 27 inches and it does feel quite intrusive. They do have options where you can keep it up permanently or have it minimize, which is which is handy. (0:53:02) Jonnie: It did feel quite intrusive, but they’re one of the good things that I guess has come out of the demos. (0:53:10) Jonnie: They’ve announced that vertical mode is coming and I think the vertical mode would change it quite significantly. (0:53:15) Jonnie: I think there’s quite a difference to it being on the right of a screen versus. (0:53:22) Jonnie: It being sort of on the bottom in terms of the amount of screen real estate it will take up. (0:53:27) Jonnie: So I really like that change. I think that makes a lot of sense and it’s something that I’m very excited for because I think I would I would be much more likely to have it up permanently if I was playing in vertical mode versus horizontal. (0:53:40) Kevin: Okay. (0:53:41) Kevin: Yeah. (0:53:42) Kevin: I, I guess I can see that. (0:53:44) Kevin: I guess also like just how much like in terms of attention, does it, (0:53:50) Kevin: does it track from you, right? (0:53:52) Kevin: Like, is this something you would run while doing something? (0:53:56) Kevin: I don’t know, a work type task or, or is this something just while you’re watching videos or like, how, yeah, how much of your attention? (0:54:06) Jonnie: Yeah, so I think this is the other thing that I kind of hope changes in the full implementation is that it slows down a bit. (0:54:13) Jonnie: So I felt like it was requiring too much attention for what it was. (0:54:20) Jonnie: But again, that’s sort of a pass I’m willing to give it because it’s a demo. (0:54:23) Jonnie: And I think it felt like, you know, to me, it felt like that was intended because you kind of progress to purchasing some of the buildings and getting a lot of the resources. (0:54:34) Jonnie: what felt like very quick for a game of (0:54:36) Jonnie: this sort and I wouldn’t be surprised if in the in the full implementation everything else was slowed down so I feel like I did everything within the demo you know which which goes from starting with not a lot to generating you know thousands of gold within t

Al and Jonnie talk about Turnip Boy Robs a Bank Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:30: What Have We Been Up To 00:06:52: News 00:29:43: Turnip Boy Robs A Bank 01:01:06: Outro Links Botany Manor Release Date Moonstone Island Valentine’s Update Ikonei Island Festival Update Slime Rancher 2 Gadgets My Way Update Potion Permit on iOS and Android Wylde Flowers Beans Plushie Wylde Flowers on Apple Vision Pro Disney Dreamlight Valley Update 9 Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator Story Trailer 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. My name is Al, (0:00:36) Jonnie: And my name is Johnny. (0:00:37) Al: and we’re here today to talk about Gottagecore Games. (0:00:43) Al: Before we get going, just a reminder that transcripts for this podcast are available in the show notes and on the website. Today, we, me and Johnny, are going to talk about Turnip Boy robs a bank, because apparently I didn’t write it in the show notes. (0:01:00) Al: We’re going to talk about Turnip Boy robs a bank, the sequel to Turnip Boy commits tax evasion, (0:01:09) Al: and we’re not going to talk about it now, we’re going to talk about it later. (0:01:15) Al: Before that, just because we could easily fall into a discussion about it right now if we’re not careful. (0:01:20) Jonnie: Yeah, I was already head like in the line of things. (0:01:22) Jonnie: I was like, oh, I should not say this right now. (0:01:26) Al: But before that, we’ve got a bunch of news. (0:01:30) Al: But first of all, Johnny, what have you been up to? (0:01:34) Jonnie: What have I been up to? There is a game called Skull and Bones and apparently it has been in development since 2013 and it is apparently about to come out, but this weekend it is doing a public demo I guess is what it is where anyone can try the game for free, it will be over by the time you’re listening to this, although the game will be like a day or two from coming out. (0:02:02) Jonnie: And look I’m a bit of a slut for pirates like I love pirate games even though they’re just like (0:02:09) Jonnie: Piracy is so hard to do well in games (0:02:14) Jonnie: And I think in many respects Skull and Bones is kind of a (0:02:17) Jonnie: Testament to that like there are things that I really like about the game (0:02:21) Jonnie: But it’s gonna be a pretty hard game to recommend like people (0:02:26) Jonnie: Spend I think it’s assume is gonna be like a $70 game and I’d be very hard to recommend that anyone spend (0:02:33) Jonnie: dollars on a game. (0:02:34) Jonnie: Like this, unless you are super super into pirates. (0:02:37) Al: I’m not, so. I mean, pirates are fine, but I’ve never been like, “Oh yeah, I love pirates.” (0:02:43) Al: I’ve enjoyed some pirate-based media, but there’s a difference between, “Oh yeah, I like that,” (0:02:49) Al: and like, “Oh no, I must consume the pirate-based media.” You know, there’s a big difference there. (0:02:56) Jonnie: Honestly, I think the biggest problem with pirate-based stuff is ship-to-ship combat is really hard to do and to make fun and engaging. (0:03:06) Al: Yeah. (0:03:06) Jonnie: And everyone probably has a slightly different view on what it should be. (0:03:12) Al: Hmm. (0:03:12) Jonnie: And, you know, do they want it to be really fun? (0:03:12) Al: The fun bit, I think, there is key. (0:03:16) Al: It’s probably, you can probably make up a pretty accurate one, but it’s not going to be fun. (0:03:20) Jonnie: Correct, yeah. In many respects I think Skull & Bones has gone down how do we try and make it fun? (0:03:28) Jonnie: And I’m sure a lot of people will find the version fun. For me it’s a little bit too like, (0:03:32) Jonnie: you and your pirate ship mow down hundreds of other pirate ships which feels like… (0:03:39) Jonnie: That’s not what I guess I want from a pirate ship experience. I want to engage in one ship in a sort of long drawn out battle rather than mow down a hundred ships. (0:03:48) Al: Yeah, and I guess the difficulty is like, what are you focusing on? Because when you’ve got a ship, do you focus on the traversal? Do you focus on the combat? Do you try and do both and do both of them badly? There’s a lot to think of there. (0:04:10) Jonnie: Yeah, and I guess for me, the Skull and Bones, you have a character, but realistically in this one, (0:04:16) Jonnie: your character is the ship, right? You are controlling the ship, and that is the majority of the gameplay. And I think that’s one of the things that I’m learning about what I like in games over the sort of past few months is a strong narrative element, and in many respects, (0:04:32) Jonnie: I think that means I need a character that I feel tied to. Because I think my take on Skull and and bones is like I will have fun with it. (0:04:40) Jonnie: But I after this demo will likely have got what I needed to get out of it, which I had the same experience with (0:04:46) Jonnie: PowerWorld It’s like I experienced the thing and it was cool, but without that strong (0:04:53) Jonnie: narrative driven element or hook that I could find I bounce off it pretty quickly (0:04:58) Al: Yeah, yeah, that’s fair. (0:05:01) Jonnie: Yeah, but that’s what I’ve been playing. Al, what have you been up to? (0:05:04) Al: I was racking my brain because I’m like, (0:05:05) Al: have I played anything other than Turnip Boy? (0:05:07) Al: And I don’t think I have. (0:05:10) Al: This week has been quite, (0:05:11) Al: ‘cause I’m going to America next week. (0:05:13) Al: Like, as you listen to this, (0:05:14) Al: I will probably be on my way to America unless you’re listening to it straight away as it comes out. (0:05:20) Al: So yeah, I’ve not really been playing that much. (0:05:24) Jonnie: Are you feeling ready for your America trip? (0:05:26) Al: Are we ever, are we ever truly ready? (0:05:28) Jonnie: Well, if anyone is gonna like be a person that is ready for a trip, it’s probably gonna be (0:05:28) Al: Well, ‘cause the problem is that somebody who like, (0:05:36) Al: am I ready? Probably. (0:05:37) Al: But does that mean I feel ready? (0:05:39) Al: Like, those are two different things. (0:05:40) Al: And like, have I done enough to mean that logically, (0:05:43) Al: I know I will be fine? Yes. (0:05:45) Al: Does that mean that I, in my heart, (0:05:49) Al: feel that I’m going to be fine? (0:05:50) Al: No, of course not. (0:05:52) Al: I am convinced that I’m going to die in a fiery plane crash, right? (0:05:55) Al: So it’s just (0:05:58) Al: I think that the people who feel ready for the trip aren’t ready. (0:06:04) Jonnie: That’s fair, that’s fair. (0:06:05) Jonnie: And you’re going to America to play Pokemon Go, right? (0:06:08) Al: I am going to America to meet with friends, and I will also be playing Pokemon Go when I’m there. (0:06:15) Al: Yeah, my next recording I will be back having been to America, and that will be interesting. (0:06:22) Al: My first transatlantic flight, my first flight longer than two and a half hours, so we’ll see. (0:06:29) Al: Yeah, I honestly don’t think I’ve played anything else. (0:06:30) Al: I played some Just Dance, I guess. (0:06:32) Al: I’ve been doing that. (0:06:32) Jonnie: At home, or are you going to arcades and playing like just dance in an arcade? What are you? (0:06:35) Al: Thank you. (0:06:38) Al: Do they do have Just Dance in arcades? (0:06:41) Jonnie: I’m sure they do right? It’s gotta be. Oh, maybe I think of DDR (0:06:46) Al: Yeah, they had, obviously they had dance mats, but like I don’t think they have just dance in an arcade. (0:06:52) Al: Uh, cool. (0:06:53) Al: Should we talk about some news? (0:06:54) Jonnie: Let’s do it. (0:06:57) Al: Before I fall asleep. (0:06:58) Al: So our first piece of news is Botany Manor. (0:07:01) Al: They have announced that their release date is the 9th of April. (0:07:06) Al: So I don’t think this was out in early access at all. (0:07:08) Al: So this will be its like proper first release date, but it is a, a non-early access release. (0:07:15) Al: Rare. (0:07:16) Al: Rare these days. (0:07:19) Jonnie: It’s kind of novel, which I like. (0:07:22) Al: Ironically, you stick out now by not doing early access, (0:07:26) Al: whereas previously you would stick out by doing early access. (0:07:30) Al: No interest in this game, Johnny? (0:07:32) Jonnie: Not really. It’s hard, right? Because I want to be excited about all Cottagecore games. Because, (0:07:40) Jonnie: you know, you and I remember the time when it was Stardew, and Harvest Moon, and Rune Factory, (0:07:47) Jonnie: and that was it. And so we would be excited about anything new. And now we are in the opposite time, (0:07:54) Jonnie: where there is such an abundance of games that there has to be, I guess there’s specific things (0:08:02) Jonnie: and often I don’t know that I’m looking for it until I see it. And, you know, for me, Botany Manor, (0:08:10) Jonnie: yeah, this is not it. Botany Manor, kind of, just the visual style is not there for me. And it just, (0:08:20) Jonnie: I don’t know, it kind of falls into the natural. I’m trying to not be overly negative about a game I have not played. It’s just not kind of rising through everything else to be like, (0:08:32) Jonnie: that I feel like I’m putting on my list of games I need to do. (0:08:36) Al: I think it’s interesting because you mentioned the the art style. It’s very simple graphics except the plants which I get what they’re doing there because like the focus is the plants but it also feels a little bit weird that the plants are so detailed when everything else is quite simple textures. (0:08:54) Jonnie: Yeah, I think what you just said kind of triggered the thought for me that it feels almost like a game that a student would submit for an assignment sort of thing. (0:09:06) Jonnie: I’m sure there’s way more work that’s gone into this, and building games is very hard, but it’s kind of missing some of that polish that makes it look and feel like a finished product, which in theory it is. (0:09:23) Al: Yeah, I can see how somebody would like this, but yeah, I’m not, I don’t care about the detail of plants quite, I think, so that’s where it falls down for me. It’s like, it’s really focused on the plants, which would be good if you really care about the plants, (0:09:37) Al: but I don’t. Next, we have Moonstone Island, have a content update and a DLC. Let’s talk about the DLC first, because the DLC is very small. All of Moonstone Island’s DLCs are basically cosmetics, so it’s the Valentine’s DLC. (0:09:53) Al: You can get a heart rug, a heart house skin for your, a heart house skin for your house, (0:09:58) Al: that’s a very bad sentence, a heart box of chocolates, a heart archway brackets or heart way, and a heart lamp as well as a love seat. And that is three dollars ninety nine with a twenty percent launch discount. I will not be buying that DLC because I don’t care (0:10:23) Al: about those cosmetics. Yeah, they fit on really nicely with the game in general, and they are hearts, and they are detailed hearts. The heart house is not just a heart shaped house, it’s a heart shaped house with a heart shaped windows and a heart shaped hole on the, not the heart shaped door, that would be silly, and a bow on it as well with a little yellow heart as well. (0:10:25) Jonnie: But if you do care about that style of cosmetic, they are good-looking versions of those. (0:10:53) Al: It’s very heart-shaped, it is what it says on the tin. (0:10:59) Al: But it’s also coming along with the content update, the Valentine’s update, which is, (0:11:05) Al: you may well have guessed, it’s bringing marriage to the game. (0:11:13) Al: So it’s not bringing relationships, relationships already exist in the game, but they were quite limited in what you could do with them. (0:11:20) Al: There was no marriage in that. (0:11:23) Al: Even marriage, the marriage in this game, seems interesting. (0:11:33) Al: There was a thing, I need to double check in the trailer, because there was a thing that seemed like, so they move into your house, and then there was something about somebody sleeping on a couch, but I can’t remember what it was. (0:11:48) Jonnie: seeing this. (0:11:48) Al: Yeah, we’re missing a bunch of the details until it comes. (0:11:53) Al: I don’t think I can see myself spending much time (0:12:05) Jonnie: Yeah, that seems fair that it like it’s so one of my things is this game already has so much going on (0:12:12) Jonnie: Being that you know cosy creature collection, you know (0:12:18) Jonnie: just it feels like (0:12:20) Jonnie: marriage is just another another thing in a game that already has a lot of things (0:12:27) Al: The good the good thing is also comes with other things. So there’s five new spirits, (0:12:31) Al: including one that looks like a toaster with some bread in it and one that’s a robot dog (0:12:37) Al: and one that is a weird fish snake and I have a toxic thing. I don’t know what that is and a kiwi. (0:12:46) Jonnie: Yeah, we all love Kiwis (0:12:49) Al: There’s also a new taming system, but I have not seen any details about that. (0:12:56) Al: So… (0:12:57) Al: I don’t know what to think about that. (0:13:00) Al: And some more stuff, which is probably too detailed. (0:13:02) Jonnie: The Kiwi looks very stressed. (0:13:04) Al: This Kiwi does look very stressed, which is fair enough. Kiwi watch so it’s electric and… (0:13:16) Al: I feel like that’s an extra syllable than it should have been “key what”. (0:13:21) Jonnie: But yeah, that sounds much better. (0:13:21) Al: Hi, I’m Eamon Store Island, I have opinions on your names. (0:13:28) Jonnie: The toaster one’s very cute as well. (0:13:32) Al: Iconii Island have a new update as well, which is out now, the Lunar Union Festival update. (0:13:38) Al: It’s adding a new festival to the game. (0:13:42) Al: We probably don’t need to go into too much details, we’ve not even covered the game on the podcast yet. (0:13:45) Al: So. (0:13:46) Al: Yet that makes it sound like I’m going to. I don’t know whether we will or not. (0:13:49) Al: “Come celebrate the Lunar Union Festival, whether it’s and collect exclusive items. (0:13:53) Al: A lunar spirit will appear in the Hamlet. During the Lunar Union event, it will give a quest that will reward you with ribbits and beautiful rewards.” Reading these things when you’ve not played a game (0:14:04) Jonnie: Yeah. And I don’t really recall much about a Coney Island, like from covering previous stuff on the podcast, but it looks like a cool game. (0:14:14) Jonnie: And I guess more generally, like I’m pretty anti a lot of festivals in games because I think they’re kind of just boring and played out. (0:14:21) Jonnie: But one thing that I really like from like the last sort of, I don’t know, five to ten years is I feel like games have done a good job of amplifying festivals from other cultures. (0:14:30) Jonnie: and that’s been really cool to see and I think that like so these are the (0:14:34) Jonnie: sorts of festivals that I like because they often have much wider interpretations of what they are as opposed to like a Christmas Winter Festival which is kind of just like we’re gonna do something with snow and and presents and that’s that’s it so this looks cool and I’m excited and and happy year of the dragon (0:14:57) Al: Yes, slime Rancher 2 also have a new update out now and this is the gadgets my way update it includes a new gadget system (0:15:07) Al: So if you if you’ve played the game and you know how the gadgets used to work, it’s changed (0:15:13) Jonnie: So, I feel like every time you and I are on a show, there’s some sort of Slime Rancher update, and neither of us care about Slime Rancher, and I really, like, I thought this time, like, I’m really gonna try and care, and I was just like, mmm, like, Slime Rancher people, god bless, you do you, I’m sure you love it, or hate it, or whatever, it’s coming. (0:15:13) Al: There you go I I I I just… (0:15:34) Al: I feel like I need to play the game sometime but not yet maybe when maybe when Slime Rancher 2 is out of early access (0:15:44) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:15:48) Al: potion pyramid is coming to iOS and Android oh no it’s out now it is now on it’s not coming to it has come to it came (0:15:52) Jonnie: This… (0:15:56) Jonnie: Yes. (0:15:58) Jonnie: It did. (0:16:00) Jonnie: And I… (0:16:02) Jonnie: I’m curious. (0:16:04) Jonnie: No, I’m curious, right? (0:16:04) Al: still don’t care oh interesting (0:16:06) Jonnie: I like the idea of what Potion Permit was trying to do. (0:16:10) Jonnie: I was going back through, trying to find the… (0:16:12) Jonnie: I need to go back and find the episode that was done on Potion Permit. (0:16:16) Jonnie: I have the same reservation, you know, (0:16:18) Jonnie: like I think I did. (0:16:20) Jonnie: I have the same reservation, you know, like I– (0:16:22) Jonnie: I had full-star true Valley going on mobile, like how easy is it to play? (0:16:26) Jonnie: But this game has the right visual style for a mobile game, so I am curious. (0:16:35) Jonnie: I’m kind of in a phase where I don’t really mobile game much outside of Marvel Snap, so I don’t know that I’ll stick with it, but I’m at least curious. (0:16:40) Al: It is five dollars translate into five US dollars translate into your local currency. (0:16:51) Jonnie: I feel like that’s a good price point for a, you know, a sizable mobile game. (0:16:54) Al: It’s surprisingly yeah it’s pretty cheap. I’m surprised it’s that cheap because if it’s the full game ported to mobile that’s that seems suspiciously good. (0:17:10) Al: Too many tabs. Wildflowers. Two exciting things. One of which you can actually do anything with. (0:17:21) Al: The other one you probably can’t. So there’s a… they’ve even released what the plushie is. (0:17:28) Al: So it’s a beans plushie. That’s the flying pig. Both Kevin and Cody predicted that. They were both correct. (0:17:35) Al: It is up on make ship just now and it is almost finished. (0:17:40) Al: 50% funded with 16 days to go. So go do that if you want it. (0:17:54) Jonnie: Nah, I feel like if I’m buying a plush, I’m getting a Junimo plush. (0:17:59) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:18:02) Jonnie: And also everything about wildflowers just creeps me out. (0:18:05) Jonnie: I talked about this last week, but I don’t like their visual style at all. It’s so creepy. (0:18:06) Al: Well, I tell you what, we’ll definitely not make you like it more, which is the Apple Vision Pro version of the game. (0:18:19) Al: So this isn’t just the game in a screen. (0:18:24) Al: It is, but it isn’t. (0:18:26) Al: In so much as when you first look at it, it looks like it’s just the game with a weird border around it. (0:18:32) Al: menus and farming and other things like that pop. (0:18:36) Al: So when you’re in a menu, it will pop out to like one of the sides of the screen as a separate window. (0:18:46) Al: So it doesn’t like cover up your gameplay, which is an interesting way of doing things. (0:18:51) Al: And the farming pops up like in front of it, like down below, like an actual 3D farming plot that you can just like go on and grab things and move them and like. (0:19:04) Al: It’s really in, I think… (0:19:06) Al: I really like what they’re doing here. (0:19:09) Al: I think this is an interesting way of… (0:19:12) Al: They’re not just going, “Oh, let’s just put the game on,” right? (0:19:16) Al: They’re actually going, “What can we actually do with the new features of this that makes this different?” (0:19:21) Al: And I really like that. (0:19:23) Al: But… (0:19:25) Al: I suspect Apple gave them a lot of money to do this because there’s… (0:19:31) Al: Is anybody going to buy this and play this? (0:19:33) Al: because you have to have the headset (0:19:36) Al: which you can only buy in the U.S. just now and costs three and a half grand and you have to like the game and be willing to put in the time and effort. (0:19:47) Jonnie: Yeah, I agree. But I think it’s super cool that it’s happening, right? And for me, it’s one of those like, wow, prodigical games are really sort of like in the mainstream, given that this is, (0:20:00) Jonnie: you know, one of the first games realistically to sort of cross into that boundary. And I think some of the things that it looks like they’re doing in the that Apple Vision Pro space, they they make sense and they show the potential for what could be once a day. (0:20:17) Jonnie: We get out of the weird expensive prototype phase of this tech. (0:20:22) Al: Yeah, yeah, I mean this is this is I if I had an Apple Vision Pro I would be I would be playing this game on that right like I would absolutely be doing it to see (0:20:32) Al: At least to see what it’s like and if if not more than that like if I enjoy it doing more than that (0:20:38) Al: But yeah, like I can’t for two reasons (0:20:45) Al: Because of where I live and because of how expensive it is (0:20:50) Al: So yeah, it’s (0:20:53) Al: Yeah, I like what they’re doing. I like that they’re pushing different ideas. I think this is a good example of how (0:21:02) Al: VR gaming doesn’t have to be first person right first of all like I don’t I (0:21:09) Al: Don’t I don’t like most VR gaming because I don’t want to be (0:21:15) Al: First person I don’t want to do that. I don’t like that. I always feel claustrophobic going (0:21:20) Jonnie: Yeah, I get motion sick, so I just can’t do VR at all, and so this sort of gaming is like, (0:21:29) Jonnie: ah, so this is how I could game in an AR-style environment that would work, and it makes sense. (0:21:37) Jonnie: And I think the other important thing is this is a less of a step for game development to take than (0:21:45) Jonnie: into fully realized VR. I think it’s… well, I think… (0:21:51) Jonnie: In general, people underestimate how difficult game development is, and I imagine VR game development is another step on top of that, whereas this feels like a more reasonable step to take. (0:22:02) Al: for sure. For sure. Yeah. I think it’s very clever of Apple to have done this, right? (0:22:10) Al: Because wildflowers have their agreement with Apple, like, “Oh, we pay you money. You’re now on Apple Arcade, and they’ve obviously then gone on top of that. We’ll pay you more money. You will do this.” And I’m guessing they worked together because, like, I think got to have these ideas and… (0:22:32) Al: And then do them. (0:22:34) Al: And I think these ideas are really interesting. (0:22:38) Al: And I’d like that both Apple and Wildflowers were willing to do this and put in the effort and the time, even though this is not going to make its money back at all. (0:22:49) Jonnie: Yeah. One of the things I started thinking about, like looking at how this implementation went, (0:22:54) Jonnie: was games like Palia, and you know, where time continues moving in Palia, even when you are menuing, because it’s a MMO game, right? And the ability in this sort of environment to menu while still being able to fully see the world that, you know, or the screen or however you want it, you you know, that your character is in. (0:23:19) Jonnie: To me it makes a ton of sense, like you can, you’ve got that more seamless transition rather than looking at something different so (0:23:27) Jonnie: I don’t know, like just some cool, like it’s just cool to see this level of innovation and for it to be happening in the cottage core space (0:23:37) Al: I also think the farming is a really interesting thing because in my opinion, most of the things I don’t like in farming games is the farming. And that’s not because the farming isn’t fun, (0:23:48) Al: it’s because of the way that you interact with it. It’s like, oh, you walk a step, you press a button, you walk a step, you press a button. And that’s why I like to automate it as quickly as possible because I don’t enjoy that part of the gameplay. But being able to go like, oh, I am in this environment, here is my plots, and I can just go with my water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water water (0:24:07) Al: or what like it’s that feels much more enjoyable to me because you’re like actively doing the thing rather than like push that button push that button push that you know it feels much more fun to me. (0:24:23) Al: Uh an equally big update is Disney Dreamlight Valley. Update number nine is coming soon (0:24:33) Al: And in that, you’ll be able to change your name. (0:24:37) Al: So, let me explain why I am personally excited about this. And this is because of a bug in the game. (0:24:38) Jonnie: It has shocked me how excited people have been for changing your name. (0:24:43) Jonnie: Like… (0:24:50) Al: So, if you start Disney Dreamlight Valley in Game Pass. Game Pass streaming, I think, (0:24:58) Al: specifically, you think you have to be doing the X-play or whatever it is, right? They’re streaming (0:25:04) Al: the game so you’re not downloading it and playing it which is how I play the game initially because I had game pass and I was doing it on my steam deck and the only way you can do that is with X cloud that’s what it’s called X cloud. If you if that’s how you start Disney Dreamlight Valley you cannot set your name it’s a bug in the game I presume it’s fixed by this point but when I started it wasn’t so your your player is called player. So the entire time that I’ve been playing Disney Dreamlight Valley across multiple different platforms now for What is it, a year and a half? (0:25:35) Al: Is it a year and a half? (0:25:37) Al: I don’t care about changing names, once I’ve set my name, I’m fine. (0:25:52) Jonnie: I feel like I didn’t know about that bug, and I don’t think it impacted me, so now this makes way more sense. (0:26:02) Al: But I never set my name, that’s the problem. (0:26:04) Al: I was called player. (0:26:07) Al: Anyway, I’m excited to have my name in the game. (0:26:16) Al: And our final piece of news is for the fantastically named Garden Life, a Cozy Simulator, which we have talked about before. (0:26:24) Al: I don’t really want to get into it too much, but they’ve released a trailer for their story. (0:26:29) Al: Johnny, do you want to complain about the name? (0:26:32) Al: You can complain about the name if you want. (0:26:33) Jonnie: No, I complained about the name on a previous episode, yeah. (0:26:37) Al: Right, fair enough. (0:26:37) Jonnie: Yeah, I did watch the trailer, and there’s some cool stuff. (0:26:46) Jonnie: Or like, so the trailer talks about the fact that it’s a community garden, (0:26:50) Jonnie: and the person that used to look after it passed away early. (0:26:54) Jonnie: Idea of community garden looked after by one person, you know, kind of doesn’t make sense. (0:26:58) Al: Well, you say it doesn’t make sense, I think that’s very likely what happens most of the time. (0:26:59) Jonnie: But you are the… yeah. (0:27:01) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:27:06) Jonnie: I mean, you’re probably right. (0:27:08) Jonnie: And you’re the new person to look after it. (0:27:11) Jonnie: I just, again, coming back to sort of the visual style, (0:27:14) Jonnie: I don’t like it. (0:27:16) Jonnie: This feels like a– (0:27:18) Jonnie: We talked before about VR games. (0:27:19) Jonnie: This game looks like a VR game to me, and… (0:27:22) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:27:22) Al: It does, doesn’t it? It does. It’s the first person. I don’t want to play first-person games. Like, I just, I don’t find it fun. (0:27:30) Jonnie: It makes sense in certain genres and certain gameplay styles, and I do not think this is one. (0:27:38) Al: But this is this is why I don’t play those games because I just don’t I just feel claustrophobic when I’m when I’m it’s a weird feeling but I want to be and normally most games I want to be my camera to be further away than it actually is I will always put the camera out to the furthest point because I want to be able to see as much as possible. (0:28:00) Al: So I was very happy when Pokemon Scarlet and Violet added the third camera zoom option that was great I loved that. (0:28:08) Al: I agree I don’t think I mean the the name aside which is just stupid on multiple levels I yeah it doesn’t look like a game I would want to play it feels like it feels a lot like Botany Manor talking about them so close together they feel like the same game it’s almost like two people had the same idea and instead of working together they both did their own take on it. (0:28:23) Jonnie: It does, yes. (0:28:34) Jonnie: Yeah, I think that’s uh, I think that’s very fair. (0:28:38) Al: And both coming out within two months of each other no I don’t think so not this close (0:28:44) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s like, that’s ages apart now, in, in… (0:28:48) Jonnie: Well, there’s still a chance one of them gets delayed, right? (0:28:52) Jonnie: No? (0:28:56) Jonnie: Right, well, I don’t think we’ll be covering either of these games, so we’ll see. (0:29:02) Al: Unless somebody suddenly gets really excited about them, we’ll see. (0:29:06) Jonnie: Well, if it does happen, I bet that my money’s on Kev, that it hits. (0:29:13) Al: I was gonna say Cody. (0:29:14) Jonnie: » Oh, yeah, that’s fair. (0:29:16) Jonnie: So Kevin Cody covering “Garden Life,” “Acoustic Simulator,” (0:29:19) Jonnie: and– [LAUGHS] (0:29:20) Al: They need to play both of them and compare them on the same podcast. So that’s the news. (0:29:25) Jonnie: Oh, yes, yes, there we go. (0:29:30) Jonnie: » Whoo. (0:29:32) Al: I can’t even remember when the wooing started. Why do we woo so much? I’m not a woo person. (0:29:37) Jonnie: » Because it gets over the awkwardness of not knowing how to do good transitions. (0:29:43) Al: Thank you. We’re going to talk about Turnip Boy Rob’s a bank. So just before. (0:29:50) Al: Before we get into it, I want to start out with a couple of things. So first of all, (0:29:55) Al: this is a sequel to Turnip Boy commits tax evasion officially. The first game was not cottage core. We covered it because you grow a plant at the beginning and then there’s no more farming and it is definitely not cottage core. But that’s why we covered it. Whatever. (0:30:17) Al: We can get past that. (0:30:18) Al: This game is even less. (0:30:20) Al: Less Cottagecore, and so I’m just going to put that out there. (0:30:24) Al: If you don’t want to listen to a game that is not Cottagecore at all, then feel free. (0:30:30) Al: We’re covering this because it’s a sequel to a game that both me and Johnny liked, and we were both going to play it anyway because we wanted to, and we’re covering it. (0:30:45) Al: So it turns out this game’s a rogue light. (0:30:50) Al: Johnny, I’m not crazy, right? (0:30:54) Al: That seemed to come out of left field, right? (0:30:56) Jonnie: it definitely did. So here’s the thing. You and I both really like Turnip Boy Commits Tax evasion. (0:31:06) Jonnie: Very clearly the weakest part of that game was the combat. (0:31:06) Al: Loved it. Fantastic game. (0:31:14) Jonnie: And in many respects they took the worst part of their game and said “Let’s make that the game.” (0:31:23) Al: Yes. Yeah, I think… Yes, you are correct. That is what they did. So listeners wonder why I do not generally like roguelites. (0:31:24) Jonnie: Which was a choice. (0:31:44) Al: Um, Johnny, I liked this game. So I was… (0:31:48) Jonnie: Ow! (0:31:53) Al: fully, fully expecting, right? I didn’t play this game until like two days ago, and I was fully expecting not to like it, right? I was like, I’m going to just play this for like two hours, and I’m going to hate it, and I’m going to be really disappointed, and I’m going to put it away. And I was mostly like that until I defeated the first boss. And then I realized that this game does things to solve the problems that I have with roguelites. (0:32:23) Al: And the reason why roguelites is that even though you like build up resources and you build up more skills and blah, blah, blah, every time you run through, it’s a clean slate, (0:32:33) Al: and you have to start from the beginning. In this game, once you defeat one of the bosses, (0:32:40) Al: they’re defeated. You don’t have to defeat them again, technically until the end. I’ll get to that. (0:32:48) Al: And that one thing for me made me like this game. (0:32:53) Al: If you had to defeat every boss in every run, I would have absolutely hated it, (0:32:59) Al: and I never would have got close to finishing it. I have been very close to finishing this game. (0:33:06) Al: I’ve been like one mistake away from finishing it six times now. The same mistake. It’s really frustrating. The last bit really frustrating. Basically, when you get to a point where you’ve you’ve defeated all the bosses and then you have to do one run where you defeat (0:33:23) Al: four bosses in one go. That wasn’t too hard. What was hard then is there’s like a special fifth thing at the end where like you’re having to run around doing certain things while being chased by another boss and that boss is so powerful that he can like kill you in like two hits. So that’s the frustrating thing. But I agree that the combat is not great in this game, but there’s still something about it that I’m finding very (0:33:53) Al: fun and I finding it difficult to explain. (0:33:58) Jonnie: you’re probably finding it difficult because I feel like you’re just on some crazy tools. (0:34:05) Jonnie: To be fair, I think your point about not having to beat the bosses again is a good one. I was kind of surprised, but it makes sense given the boss fights are significantly bigger than (0:34:23) Jonnie: the other aspects of the game, and ambiguous kind of the wrong word, but on a run in this game. (0:34:28) Jonnie: You’ve got a timer, and that time is only a couple of minutes. When you’re in a boss fight, (0:34:33) Jonnie: that timer pauses, but that boss fight itself takes like a couple of minutes to get through. (0:34:39) Jonnie: They are not fast fights relative to the length of your run, and not having to do those every single run I think was a really good choice, because that became one of the blockers for me with Hades. I really like Hades. I’m not very good at roguelite combat. (0:34:58) Jonnie: That being said, the combat in this game is so bad. The movement is terrible, (0:35:24) Jonnie: The range of the weapons is confusing. (0:35:28) Jonnie: Particularly the melee ones, where the range is significantly bigger than they look on the screen. (0:35:34) Jonnie: And so you’re consistently getting hit by these melee weapons when the enemy is not even close to you. (0:35:41) Jonnie: I just struggle to understand how anyone can like the combat in this game. (0:35:45) Jonnie: And that’s all this game is, is just the combat. (0:35:50) Al: So at some point you unlock a chainsaw and that makes every. (0:35:55) Jonnie: Right, I did not get to the chainsaw, so for reference, I beat the first boss, and I fought the second boss once, and I was like, “That cannot be bolted with this game anymore.” (0:36:06) Jonnie: That was as far as I got. (0:36:09) Al: That’s fair. I totally get it. And I totally get why you’re not a huge fan of it. But there’s something about it that just kept me going. I’m so frustrated that I didn’t manage to finish the game because literally like I’ve played, I’ve done that last level three times today and I’ve gotten so close to finishing it each time. And it’s so frustrating. But I know it’s going to be great when I do finish it. I think… (0:36:40) Jonnie: So, how do you feel about the humour in this game? Because obviously the humour was a huge part of Turnip Boy commits tax evasion. (0:36:49) Al: Yeah, I think in some ways, in some places, I think it has made me feel the same way as the first game did, but some of it has felt a little bit flat and I’m not quite sure why. (0:37:07) Al: Like it’s just it’s simple things like I there’s a point where where you come across a specific thing from a previous game, right? And it’s like, it’s one of these things that you tore up. (0:37:20) Al: Which is like, one of the main things in the last game is you’re tearing up random things. (0:37:24) Al: And some things it’s like, oh yeah, because you’re tearing up this tax letter and you’re tearing up this, you’re tearing up that. And there’s some random pointless thing that’s like, why did you tear that up? You know, it’s just stupid, it’s pointless, but it’s funny. And you come across one of the things that you tore up in the previous game, but the funny, it just, it then says, oh, (0:37:42) Al: but it’s laminated. And then the next thing is, they’re learning. It’s just that one comment. (0:37:49) Al: Like is funnier than most games, right? But then a lot of, especially the early game humor feels a little bit weird to me. And I’m not sure why it didn’t hit in the same way. (0:38:02) Jonnie: I have the same feeling, right? Like the game definitely still has those moments where it is (0:38:08) Jonnie: very funny. I think a big part of the reason it doesn’t hit is because it’s now (0:38:14) Jonnie: expected, right? And the construct of Rob’s a bank, right? Like if you’ve played (0:38:22) Jonnie: commits tax evasion, you have a good sense of the developers’ feelings on capitalism in general, (0:38:29) Jonnie: and a lot of it’s expected so so you now you come across (0:38:32) Jonnie: things and you kind of get where a lot of it is is going where I think and part of it is that the first one had that sort of joy of discovery of what’s the next documents that I’m going to find and rip up and some of them are very funny because not that they’re fully unexpected but they go in different directions right which I think is is one of the the bits of charm of that game that’s kind of lost it and I think early on they try and do a job. (0:39:02) Jonnie: They do a lot of callbacks to some of the humor from the first game or to significant bits from the first game but it doesn’t land on it. I think one of the downsides is one of the first characters you come across is the the streamer and they kind of just run back the exposure bucks joke and it’s it’s you know it’s just like yeah it’s fine and like they delve into new things like there’s some jokes about NFTs and all of the fun stuff that’s that’s developed in the (0:39:32) Jonnie: you know con people out of money and they have jokes about it it just is like yeah those are the jokes that I now expect from them and I think this game would have benefited by potentially pushing into a different commentary on society because that’s definitely an element of the game and I just don’t think a lot of them work. (0:39:57) Jonnie: Oh yeah. (0:39:58) Al: That’s fair. I think the humor that… kind of. Right, let me… I’m having lots of thoughts. (0:40:06) Al: So I think that actually there’s two things of the funniest bits in this game. One of them is (0:40:14) Al: some of the callbacks are very funny. Some of them are not, but some of them are very funny. (0:40:19) Al: So I don’t think it’s just like, if you don’t do the callbacks, I think you’re missing something. (0:40:25) Al: I think that’s fun. I think they might- (0:40:28) Al: I don’t lean into it a bit too much. I think there are too many characters in the game that were in the previous one. Almost every single character is in the game again, except the one you kill. That’s not to say there aren’t new characters, there are new characters, (0:40:46) Al: but it seems weird to have- it feels contrived why everybody else is in the game. But I also think that some of the funniest bits. (0:40:50) Jonnie: Mmm. Yes. (0:40:58) Al: So they start out quite simple, right? We’re going to spoil basically everything in this game listeners, right? So jump out now. If you’ve not if you played the first game and you think you might like this, you can get over the roguelite stuff. Stop now, go play it. You can get it done in a day or two. It’s not a very long game. (0:41:07) Jonnie: Uh, only a little bit. (0:41:26) Al: and (0:41:28) Al: depending on how good you are at the combat. So the lifts start out quite simple. It’s like, oh, here’s a part of the bank and you have to go through and you like jump over the lasers and you destroy the laser box and then you go back and you blah, blah, blah. (0:41:43) Al: Right. But as you as you defeat bosses and you progress in the game, they become more and more ridiculous. There’s, have you come across the cult? There’s a cult in the bank. (0:41:58) Al: And you come to the bank and once you’ve once you’ve figured out how to enter the cult, (0:42:03) Al: you can then enter the cult and then the cult members give you different things for defeating a certain number of enemies. And the stuff in the cult is really funny. And just the concept of having this random room in the bank that happens to have a cult in it is very funny. And there’s another one which is like a portal. There’s a portal to hell in this bank. (0:42:27) Jonnie: No! See, that’s the thing, I feel like I’ve played a decent chunk of the game and I haven’t come across anything that absurdist, which is one of the misses, right? (0:42:28) Al: Did you know that? (0:42:30) Al: Did you know there’s a portal to hell? (0:42:31) Al: I… (0:42:38) Al: Yeah. So I think part of the problem is those are the lent into the rogue light stuff of that. (0:42:45) Al: Those are randomized. So as you unlock, the lift can do more and more things, (0:42:52) Al: and you’re not guaranteed to see any of them in any run. And I think that’s where it (0:42:58) Al: falls down for me. I think if these rooms all existed in fixed places in the bank that you could go to. I think that would be better. (0:43:08) Al: Because then, you know, this is… (0:43:09) Jonnie: yeah or if there was a small a small pool and you kind of like you can still have some element of randomness but not as not as (0:43:20) Al: Yeah, maybe, maybe. I mean, yeah, I think, I think making it, the advantage of having a fixed place is when you look on the map, you see there’s a bunch of rooms and you’re like, “Oh, I need to unlock that room at some point then, and there’s going to be something in that room.” The problem is that all of these, you don’t know when you’ve seen all these areas, because they’re randomized with the lifts. There’s like some random underwater one as well, I think. (0:43:41) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s fair. (0:43:50) Al: And like, yeah, whatever. That absurdist stuff, I think, is very funny still. And yeah, some of the callbacks have been very funny. Some of the callbacks have felt very contrived, and yeah, (0:44:06) Al: it’s an interesting mix of those things. I think the problem is that if it wasn’t funny at all, (0:44:13) Al: I would be like, “Oh, it’s one and done. We’re done with this.” But the problem is, I think, (0:44:18) Al: they can do more of that. (0:44:20) Al: the same humour and still surprise me. And that’s where I’m like, don’t lean too hard onto the same jokes. Do the more stuff because I know you can do it. And if it needs to be a smaller game, then make it a smaller game. I’m okay with that. If there are going to be fewer characters in each room, that’s fine. Like, because the second, the room you unlock after the first boss is where, like, most of the previous game’s characters are. (0:44:50) Al: They’re just there. Why? Because their previous place doesn’t work and it’s like, “OK, you destroyed their previous place by killing Turnip God. OK, fine, sure. That’s mildly amusing.” (0:45:02) Al: Why are they in the bank? That seems contrived to me. That’s not even absurdist humour. That’s just contrived just so you can get these characters there. (0:45:14) Jonnie: Yeah, I think that’s fair in life because they do explain the reason for it and even the reason is like that feels like contrite reasoning. (0:45:26) Al: So, yeah, I think I don’t think any of that would have saved it for you. (0:45:34) Jonnie: No, I don’t think so (0:45:35) Al: I think it would have made me have more fun with it. (0:45:41) Al: But overall, I still enjoyed it. (0:45:42) Al: Would I have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t a roguelite and it was more like the previous game? (0:45:47) Al: Probably. (0:45:50) Al: But they did manage to make a roguelite that I like, (0:45:53) Al: which is a very rare thing. (0:45:56) Jonnie: Yeah, I mean, that’s a… (0:46:00) Jonnie: Honestly, I’m shocked that you like it, because when I started it, it was a rogue life. (0:46:04) Jonnie: And I was like, “Oh, I was expecting just the same as the previous game, but with guns as weapons now.” (0:46:12) Jonnie: I was like, “Well, Al’s gonna hate this, so we’re just gonna come out here and rage about this game for 40 minutes.” (0:46:12) Al: I mean, I do have more complaints. I can bring up more complaints if you want. So there are more weapons in this game than you can actually get in your base, right? So the way it works is like you’ve got your base and you go out to the bank, you do a run, you come back and you’ve got upgrades and, you know, your usual roguelite loop. The problem is… (0:46:21) Jonnie: Oh. (0:46:42) Al: that when you go out into the bank, there are quite a wide variety of different weapons that the guys that are making new weapons back at your base, say, are rudimentary, which a lot of them are. But some of them are better in ways that I find frustrating. The chainsaw is an incredible weapon that you unlock later on. But there’s other ones… there’s very, very few… (0:47:12) Al: I think there’s only… there is only one melee weapon that you can actually get from your base, (0:47:17) Al: which is very frustrating to me because I much prefer melee to guns because I’m not very good at aiming. Yes, yes, it’s very difficult. So I would have liked to have had more melee weapons that you can unlock. Melee, melee, melee! (0:47:26) Jonnie: And aiming in this game is bloody annoying. (0:47:40) Jonnie: Well, hey. (0:47:42) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:47:42) Al: Melee, melee… anyway, whatever you know what I mean. I don’t want to hear about my pronunciation, (0:47:44) Jonnie: Uh… (0:47:46) Jonnie: Ah. (0:47:46) Jonnie: Bye. (0:47:47) Al: please don’t tell me about my pronunciation, thank you listeners. I would have liked more of that because I don’t know whether it’s just something I’ve missed, but there’s almost no (0:47:56) Al: melee weapons that you can unlock, which I found a bit frustrating. (0:48:02) Al: So that’s my big thing. There’s no way to like… when you find something in the bank, there’s no No way to get it, except just picking it up. (0:48:10) Al: And if you die with it, that’s it. (0:48:12) Al: You’ve lost it. (0:48:13) Al: It’d be nice if you could recreate those things, (0:48:16) Al: because some of them are really nice weapons. (0:48:18) Al: I really like them. (0:48:19) Al: And this probably leans into the like, (0:48:21) Al: oh, well, that’s how roguelites work. (0:48:22) Al: OK, sure, fine. (0:48:23) Al: But the bits I like about this game are the non-roguelite bits. (0:48:27) Al: I’ve literally just spent 20 minutes telling you why this game is good, because it doesn’t do roguelite things in the same way that other roguelites do. (0:48:37) Jonnie: Yeah, I just, yeah, I find this game immensely kind of frustrating, and I think that weapon piece is a good example, where it just kind of feels needlessly difficult, why not just let us unlock all of the weapons at some point, you know, that’s kind of one of those things that’s like, there’s nothing wrong with being able to use all of the weapons, so let us use all the weapons. (0:48:56) Al: Yeah, maybe not all. There is one you get at the last boss, which is just a ridiculous weapon. (0:49:11) Al: It’s like four times the size of you. It’s very fun to use. It’s very slow. It actually slows your character down a lot, which is quite interesting. But as lovely video game logic, (0:49:24) Al: it only slows you down when you’re holding it. (0:49:26) Al: If you switch the weapons and it’s in your bag, you can run as fast as you normally do, which I just love, but whatever. (0:49:31) Jonnie: Amazing. (0:49:32) Jonnie: But see, even that would stand out more if it was the only instance of that, right? (0:49:37) Al: Yes, yeah, I agree. I think I would keep that one, especially because you can’t– (0:49:42) Al: although you don’t need to defeat any boss after you’ve defeated them, you can if you want. (0:49:47) Al: So it would give you a reason to go and do that. (0:49:50) Al: I would say maybe the four boss weapons, the weapons that the bosses have, those four specifically, (0:49:56) Al: has a specific weapon, the last one being the most ridiculous. (0:49:59) Al: But I would understand why those four, if you want that weapon, you have to go defeat the boss in this run. (0:50:07) Al: It adds an interesting element to that. (0:50:10) Al: But the problem is that all the other weapons are very random, and it’s hard to know. (0:50:16) Al: One of them, for example, you get by going through one of the weird lifts into the portal from hell, (0:50:24) Al: hell and you get up. (0:50:26) Al: a scythe that you can if you kill somebody with the scythe you can harvest their soul and then those souls are the second currency with which you can use to buy things. (0:50:38) Al: And. (0:50:39) Jonnie: Okay, that sounds amazing. (0:50:41) Al: It is very fun. It is very fun. There’s actually second weapon in this way there as well. (0:50:47) Al: But it’s it’s a gun. It’s a it’s a record like a vinyl record gun. (0:50:54) Al: Mmm. (0:50:58) Al: Which is very funny, but also the way that it works is very different because it’s records and not bullets. (0:51:05) Al: They bounce off walls, which means you can, if it goes through somebody and then hits a wall and then comes back and hits them, (0:51:13) Al: so if they don’t die in the first one, they die in the second one. (0:51:17) Al: I think this is the thing, there’s lots of really fun and creative ideas in the weapons, even if they’re not the best combat system. (0:51:27) Al: But you were never going to see those because you don’t have the enthusiasm for the type of game and so you miss out on that fun, which is disappointing. (0:51:36) Jonnie: Yeah and some of it I think speaks to the onboarding right because like even like fundamentally the premise of the game being that you’re robbing a bank and there’s like a huge cutscene that follows on from you know turn a boy commits tax evasion and where that game ended but ultimately it’s kind of like the but why yeah like there isn’t really a compelling reason for why you are even robbing the bank which I find like it’s just one of the things frustrating I did have a question how do you feel about the timer? (0:52:07) Al: So I don’t hate the timer and that’s because it is not a hard timer. So the way the timer works is once the timer hits the police come, but you it makes it makes everything harder because there’s more enemies, but you can still do everything. So you can infinitely do a run as long as you’re not dying. And I actually really like that way of doing it. (0:52:37) Al: Where they’re trying to force you to be quick about things, but if you’re like ‘oh I can just grab that one last thing’ and it means that the timer is going to run out, you don’t die, you just have to fight your way out. I quite like that. For what they’re doing, (0:52:54) Al: for everything that they’re doing, I think it works thematically and mechanically well with what they wanted to do. Is that fair? (0:53:02) Jonnie: Yeah, I think that’s fair. And for me, it’s another aspect of like, I just don’t like feeling time pressure in games, something that I fundamentally do not enjoy. (0:53:12) Jonnie: And when the combat is bad, and I would prefer a slower approach to it, like, I get why they did it because they’re wanting to put that sort of heist style pressure on. (0:53:26) Jonnie: And it’s kind of one of those ways that they can do to force you to do multiple runs, right, without the timer. (0:53:32) Jonnie: I think the game would be significantly different, and not necessarily better. I just don’t want a timer. (0:53:42) Al: Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. Yeah. Yeah. And I agree with you generally. I don’t like timers in games, but I can’t explain why, but I really like this game. I’m going to finish the game. I’m going to do that. I don’t normally, I don’t often do that with games that we talk about. If I’ve not finished it by the time we podcast and it’s not like (0:5

Al and Kev talk about Moonstone Island Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:05: What Have We Been Up To 00:14:27: News 00:54:26: Moonstone Island 01:47:58: Outro Links Spells and Secrest Update One Lonely Outpost New UI Sneak Peek Orange Season 0.11 Wylde Flowers Eury’s Salon Update Re:Legend News My Time at Sandrock Plushies Paleo Pines Plushie Tchia Soul Meter Update Spirittea News Stardew 1.6 News Southfield Sugardew Island Sugardew Island Kickstarter Sunkissed City Abyss: New Dawn Abyss: New Dawn Kickstarter 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 and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:34) Al: My name is Al. (0:00:36) Kevin: I’m, well it says “blank” in the show now. (0:00:40) Kevin: That just reminds me of Pokemon Gold and Silver. (0:00:43) Kevin: I was one of those guys who named my rival question my question word question word. (0:00:47) Kevin: Hello everyone, my name is Kevin. (0:00:49) Al: And we’re here today to talk about cottagecore games. (0:00:53) Kevin: Whoo! (0:00:54) Al: So the behind the scenes on that is, was it last episode? (0:00:59) Al: Neither Johnny nor Bev knew how I traditionally introduce. (0:01:02) Kevin: Yeah, there you go, yeah, you know me, I’m going to. (0:01:03) Al: So I wrote it down. (0:01:05) Al: I wrote it down in the show notes so that people always have it now. (0:01:10) Al: And the first episode we have it in, Kevin comments on it. (0:01:14) Al: So, great. (0:01:19) Al: Well, as usual, transcripts for the podcast are available in the show notes and on the website. (0:01:26) Al: This podcast, this episode, this episode, we are going to talk about Moonstone Island, (0:01:33) Al: the creature collection farming, like there’s only one, one of the creature collecting farming games. (0:01:36) Kevin: Yeah… (0:01:42) Kevin: You don’t talk about religion? (0:01:44) Kevin: Is religion one of them? I don’t remember. (0:01:46) Al: I can’t even remember if that’s one other thing. (0:01:48) Kevin: I don’t know. I still- I don’t think religion exists. (0:01:52) Al: That game smashed together so many buzzwords. (0:01:57) Kevin: Yep. (0:01:58) Al: Before that, we’re going to cover news. It has been a busy news week, (0:02:03) Al: so we’re going to cover all of that. But first of all, Kevin, what have you been up to? (0:02:08) Kevin: Alright, so, uh, first of all, Tears of the Kingdom, I’m still- I’ve- (0:02:14) Kevin: I don’t remember the last time I talked about it here, but I’ve played it in the background kind of… (0:02:20) Kevin: …uh, on and off, um, I’m not a- I’m not going for completion, but I am trying to hit every shrine. (0:02:29) Kevin: Every light route, and all that stuff. (0:02:32) Kevin: Um, I’ve already finished the deaths, I finished all the main story beats except for beating Ganon, (0:02:37) Kevin: and I’m over 100, uh… (0:02:38) Kevin: Shrines at this point, so I’m nearing the finish line. I might finish by next week. (0:02:43) Al: You’re doing the sensible completionist, not the full completionist. (0:02:44) Kevin: You know… (0:02:48) Kevin: Exactly. That’s correct! (0:02:51) Kevin: And that game is a blast. You know, of course, needless to say. (0:02:58) Kevin: Small stories, spoilers for people who don’t want to listen. The Fifth Sage (0:03:03) Kevin: was a real surprise. I think that’s a giant robot, and (0:03:07) Kevin: Monero is a fun to- (0:03:08) Kevin: to- a blast to run around with, um, and I’m so glad I got her early on, her relative. (0:03:15) Al: Yeah, my fun fact about her is that I got her before any of the other sages, because I just happened across her and did it. (0:03:22) Kevin: Yeah. (0:03:24) Kevin: That’s… (0:03:26) Kevin: That’s so wild, that’s so cool. (0:03:29) Kevin: Um, my brother Calvin, he didn’t do her until like after he beat all the shrines, so… (0:03:35) Kevin: He just like, “Well, I got this cool run and I don’t have anything to do with it!” (0:03:40) Kevin: Um… (0:03:42) Kevin: But yeah, no, uh, Tears of the Kingdom, great game, needless to say. (0:03:45) Kevin: Um, I’m just, haven’t been having a blast at that. (0:03:47) Kevin: Um, I’ve picked up Smash again this week, uh, (0:03:50) Kevin: They are releasing some new spirit. (0:03:52) Kevin: It’s like the fifth anniversary, something like that. (0:03:55) Kevin: Sakurai refuses, cannot be stopped from working on that game. (0:04:01) Kevin: But a good reason to pick up again and smash a smash, always fun. (0:04:06) Kevin: Aside from that, the Rainbow Road obligatory shout out here. (0:04:13) Kevin: Rainbow Road Radio, some of the stuff I’ve been talking about on that show recently. (0:04:18) Kevin: Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga the game (0:04:22) Kevin: Boy Advance RPG. We did an episode on that and boy that game is amazing! I played it when I was younger, it was amazing back then and I’m glad that it is still fantastic now. (0:04:38) Kevin: Have you played any of the Mario and Luigi games? Al? (0:04:40) Al: I have not. That was the one you covered last week, in the last episode, right? Yeah. I enjoyed listening to that. It was good fun, but it did confirm to me that I probably don’t want to play it. So I’ve played a couple of the Paper Mario games, and I’ve played what was the Mario RPG last year, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t think I like turn-based battles anymore. And that’s fine. (0:04:41) Kevin: Yes. (0:04:52) Kevin: Yes. Mmhmm. Yep. Mmhmm. Sure. (0:05:10) Al: For that reason, I suspect I wouldn’t like this game, because that’s a huge part of the game, right? (0:05:16) Kevin: It is. Right, but like one of the joys in my opinion where it succeeds is it’s very dynamic even for turn based game because of the (0:05:28) Kevin: The counters and the the timing and jumping these it’s still repetitive (0:05:34) Kevin: actions (0:05:34) Al: So I understand that, but actually I think that makes it worse for me because it’s not turn-based battling then, right? (0:05:40) Al: Like it’s turn-based with a little bit of real time. (0:05:44) Kevin: - Yeah. (0:05:45) Al: So because I had that in Mario RPG as well, they did that. (0:05:46) Kevin: - Yeah? (0:05:47) Al: It’s like, oh, if you, if you, if you press the button at the right time, it increases your attack, or if you press it at the right time, you get, you take zero damage. (0:05:48) Kevin: They did that? (0:05:56) Al: And it’s like, okay, well, I need to do that then. (0:05:58) Al: And there are so many battles where you basically can’t win it unless you do, or you obviously (0:06:04) Al: have a ridiculous degree, unless you do those things. (0:06:07) Al: And to me, it just turns for, it just makes it annoying because it’s like, I can’t just do a turn-based battle. (0:06:13) Al: It’s turn-based battle, but I also have to have the right timing, which to me takes away the advantage of the turn-based battles. (0:06:14) Kevin: Yeah. (0:06:18) Kevin: Mm-hmm. (0:06:20) Al: So I understand why people would like that, but for me, it doesn’t, it actually makes (0:06:21) Kevin: Okay. (0:06:25) Kevin: Yeah. (0:06:25) Kevin: I- I get that, right? (0:06:27) Kevin: Because, yeah, one of the advantages of turn-based battles is definitely turn your brain off, sort of thing. (0:06:32) Kevin: Um. (0:06:33) Kevin: Yeah, no, I- I- I can see that. (0:06:35) Kevin: Um. (0:06:36) Kevin: But, uh, regardless, the game’s fantastic. (0:06:38) Kevin: It’s hilarious. (0:06:38) Kevin: It’s amazing. (0:06:39) Kevin: Uh. (0:06:40) Kevin: Go listen to that episode of Rainbow Road Radio if you guys haven’t heard it. (0:06:44) Kevin: And check out that game if you guys haven’t played it, it’s still a- or 20, whatever, however many years it’s been. (0:06:47) Al: It’s 20, 21. (0:06:49) Kevin: Um. (0:06:50) Kevin: No, I know. (0:06:51) Kevin: I don’t- I don’t know what it should be. (0:06:52) Al: No, it was definitely a fun listen to hear you two talk about it, even if I know I’m not going to play. (0:06:54) Kevin: Um. (0:06:57) Kevin: Yep. (0:06:58) Kevin: Thank you. (0:06:59) Kevin: I appreciate it. (0:06:59) Kevin: Um. (0:07:00) Kevin: And, uh, well, now talking about the episode that will be released out at the- when this episode is- of Harvest Season’s out. (0:07:08) Kevin: Um, I watched something called The King of Kong. (0:07:11) Kevin: Have you heard of this at all, Al? (0:07:12) Al: No, I thought you were just saying King Kong in a funny way. This is like an actual “I have not, what is this?” (0:07:18) Kevin: Nope. (0:07:19) Kevin: Yep. (0:07:20) Kevin: Okay. (0:07:20) Kevin: So, The King of Kong is a documentary from like, 2007, I believe it is. (0:07:26) Kevin: Um. (0:07:27) Kevin: It was- it’s- it- it’s not super high production. (0:07:32) Kevin: It’s not like a big m- Hollywood movie release. (0:07:35) Kevin: It was directed by, uh, Seth Gordon, who ended up becoming a successful big Hollywood director because of this documentary, actually. (0:07:44) Kevin: Um, but it is a smaller, uh, project, it is a documentary about, uh, a- I should describe this- a competition of sorts between- a rivalry, let’s say, between a man named Billy Mitchell and a man named Steve We- Weebie, uh, over getting the world record in Donkey Kong, the arca- original arcade game, um, right? (0:08:11) Kevin: And so the way– (0:08:14) Kevin: The way this documentary is filmed and presented, it’s a very underdog story because Billy Mitchell is a world champ and record holder in like 10 different games like Pac-Man, Mrs. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong Jr., etc., etc., right? (0:08:28) Kevin: And then Steve Weebie’s just like this teacher with just a dad and all of a sudden he comes and gets this record and there’s a lot of drama involved because Billy Mitchell is closely associated with the– (0:08:44) Kevin: It’s called Twin Galaxies, the group that essentially is the authority on the records at that time of these types of arcade games. (0:08:54) Kevin: So like, for instance, one of Weebie’s early record attempts, he sent in a tape and they didn’t accept it because they said they needed to see it in person, yada yada. (0:09:06) Kevin: And so he goes in person and creates a new record, but then Billy Mitchell sends in a different tape and that one gets accepted because– (0:09:14) Kevin: And so there’s a lot of back and forth and drama. (0:09:18) Kevin: And it’s a good watch. I recommend it to people who haven’t seen it. (0:09:22) Kevin: But it’s interesting because the story does not end there. (0:09:28) Kevin: We watched some follow-up documentary and actually there’s been some court cases in the news. That’s why we kind of brought it up now. (0:09:36) Kevin: So I won’t go too much into detail of whether you guys can listen to the episode over at Rainbow Road Radio if you want to hear it. (0:09:44) Kevin: But long story short, Billy Mitchell is an awful, awful person who wants to be number one and will stop at nothing and step on everyone and backstab and control the narrative to do so. (0:09:49) Al: Oh. (0:10:00) Kevin: That much you can easily see in the original King of Kong documentary, so that’s not a shocker. But seeing the extent of how that goes, it’s a wild story. (0:10:14) Kevin: So again, that is called King of Kong. That’s the original documentary, but there is even follow-up documentaries made by more amateurs and stuff investigating more about the story. (0:10:26) Kevin: So it is a wild tale over several decades. (0:10:30) Kevin: But yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to. What about you? What’s going on with you? (0:10:30) Al: interesting. Yeah just before that I noticed that the Seth Gordon the director he did he did the 2017 Baywatch film as well this is like yes yeah so like yeah when you say he’s done Hollywood stuff he’s at he’s done proper big Hollywood stuff as well (0:10:44) Kevin: Yeah, and he did Horrible Bosses, that comedy with, I don’t know what it’s called, but yeah. (0:10:52) Kevin: Yeah, yep, yep. And King of Kong was kind of his breakthrough. Everyone took notice. (0:10:59) Al: Well, what have I been up to? I have obviously been playing Moonstone Island quite a bit for the last couple of weeks. Yeah, the behind-the-scenes stuff is we were meant to do this episode two weeks ago and I messaged Kevin on this Friday and said, “Can we delay the episode because I’ve played like 10 minutes of the game?” I just had not… We’ll get into that with stuff but I just had not. (0:11:06) Kevin: Yeah, I played a good bit too. I didn’t play it the last week. (0:11:29) Al: Managed to push myself to properly play the game. (0:11:31) Al: So I have now played a decent chunk of the game. (0:11:34) Al: So, um, yeah, we’ll, we’ll actually talk about it. (0:11:37) Kevin: Now we can talk about it, yay! (0:11:39) Al: Um, I’ve also been, uh, trying to finish up Hollow Knight as well. (0:11:44) Al: So I managed to get back into it and I’ve defeated a big chunk of the bosses. (0:11:49) Al: And I think I’ve got two bosses left to go. (0:11:52) Al: Um, so I’m, I’m getting there, but, uh, yeah, we’re getting, we’re getting pretty difficult, getting pretty difficult. (0:11:57) Kevin: Okay, oh, I bet oh my gosh. I’ve seen some of those later bosses Jesus wheez that’s some nutty stuff That’s off to you Hollow Knight people (0:12:06) Al: Yeah, it’s interesting because the one I’m currently on is like, it’s not the actual individual boss isn’t difficult, but the difficulty of it is there are six of them. And you have to defeat like all of them before, yeah. And they’re all, and they can do up to two at a time. So like doing one of them at a time would probably be reasonably easy. I probably would have done it by now. But the problem is then they suddenly go, “Oh, and here’s There’s a second one you have to deal with at the same time. (0:12:18) Kevin: Oh! It’s a gauntlet. (0:12:36) Al: You’re like dodging one, but as you dodge one, the other one gets you. (0:12:39) Al: You’re like, no, so it’s like there’s so many times where it’s like, I would have definitely beaten it if it weren’t for the fact that I had two at a time and stuff (0:12:46) Al: like that. So, yeah, it’s it’s pretty it’s it’s interesting how you can have that. (0:12:51) Al: Right. Like it’s not it’s not a very difficult. (0:12:52) Kevin: Oh my gosh, yeah that sounds gnarly. (0:12:53) Al: They’re not difficult bosses, but putting them all together like that makes it very (0:12:58) Al: difficult. (0:13:00) Al: So, yeah, but it’s been good fun. (0:13:02) Al: I think I’ve managed to get, uh, like four of. (0:13:06) Al: Um, so I got pretty close that time, frustratingly close, but we’ll get, we’ll get there soon, we’ll get there soon. (0:13:11) Kevin: Dang oh my god (0:13:15) Al: Um, so yeah, no, that’s really, it’s really good fun. (0:13:17) Al: Um, I’m definitely at the point in that game though, where I do not want to explore anymore, I do not want to backtrack anymore. (0:13:23) Al: Like I have done all of that. (0:13:25) Al: I just want to get to the last boss and kill him and be done with it and get onto the next game when it comes out. (0:13:30) Al: Right. (0:13:30) Al: I, the becomes a point with those games where you’re like, I’m done exploring. (0:13:34) Al: Thanks. And the problem is… (0:13:36) Al: Obviously, Medtrivenia is the whole point of them is exploring and backtracking. (0:13:39) Al: So they don’t have a lot of fast travel. (0:13:42) Al: There is some, but it’s not a lot of it. (0:13:44) Al: So you still have to do a lot of traversal of the map to get from boss to boss. (0:13:48) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, I get that. And Hollow Knight’s a special case because the DLC is just stuck in there, like, you can’t tell where the DLC is at a glance, right? (0:14:00) Kevin: There’s no DLC menu option, like, you’re doing over a hundred percent. (0:14:06) Al: Yeah, I haven’t, I haven’t even paid attention to what I’m doing there. (0:14:10) Al: I suspect at this point, I’m just, I’m going for the like final main boss. (0:14:15) Al: And if I’ve done any of the DLC stuff, then fine. (0:14:19) Al: But I don’t think I’m going to like focus on any of that. (0:14:22) Kevin: Yeah, no, no, yeah, that makes sense, it’s a wide one, it’s a big game. (0:14:26) Al: Super fun. (0:14:28) Al: All right. (0:14:28) Al: Awesome. (0:14:29) Al: Well, that’s what we’ve been up to. (0:14:30) Al: Let’s talk about some news. (0:14:32) Al: So first of all, we have just a couple of small things about spells and secrets. (0:14:36) Al: So their Xbox version is out now, and they have also said that they are not happy with the Switch version and they’ve fired their porting team and they’ve got a new porting team for the Switch version. (0:14:46) Kevin: Oh snap! (0:14:48) Al: The actual wording is we ourselves are incredibly unhappy with the Nintendo Switch (0:14:52) Al: version. This situation is incredibly frustrating for us to achieve the best possible results. (0:14:57) Al: We’ve decided to bring a new porting team on board. (0:15:01) Al: We would like to reevaluate the source code and are currently waiting for feedback on the current status of the source code. (0:15:06) Al: Well, we can’t make any current problems concrete promises at this moment. (0:15:09) Al: We remain optimistic about making positive progress. (0:15:13) Kevin: Well, I mean, hey, I salute them for wanting to improve the quality of the Switch ports aren’t always the best, so you know [laughs] (0:15:20) Al: One lonely outposts have posted a… post. They have updated us on what they’re working on and they have teased a UI overhaul. So the whole UI is getting an overhaul. (0:15:40) Kevin: That’s a big one. Probably respectable. (0:15:43) Kevin: And played it obviously. (0:15:44) Kevin: UI is a very critical… (0:15:46) Al: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I’ve not played the game. So looking at the two, I’m like, I don’t have an opinion on which I prefer because I’ve not experienced them properly. But they definitely it feels like it’s of the same style. So it doesn’t feel completely different, but it looks like they’re exactly it’s all functional stuff. Yeah. So they’re making it look I suspect it’s like UX based stuff and and things like their newest update. They’ve got the patch as far there as well. (0:16:02) Kevin: Right, it’s not like visually aesthetically. It’s more functional. (0:16:16) Al: It’s all bug fixes and small changes. (0:16:19) Al: So the link to that will be in the show notes as well. (0:16:23) Al: Orange season. (0:16:25) Al: Now, this is an incredible patch note. (0:16:28) Al: So this is version 0.11, 0.11. (0:16:32) Al: And the patch note starts off with narrative, (0:16:36) Al: added a main story. (0:16:42) Al: And I am absolutely fascinated by this. (0:16:42) Kevin: Uhh… (0:16:44) Al: Like, does this mean there was no main story? (0:16:46) Al: Or is this additional main story? (0:16:50) Al: I mean, it says, “After settling in Orange Town, your new life seems to be going fine. (0:16:55) Al: However, the previous owner of your farm returns, and he wants it back on this journey to guarantee your future. (0:17:00) Al: Your new life will mingle with a cast of strange, friendly, and conflicting personalities. (0:17:05) Al: What kind of people will you and them be at the end?” (0:17:09) Al: So this sounds to me like the game up till this point was like the daily farming aspect of things, (0:17:15) Al: but without like an overall. (0:17:16) Al: Marking story, which is an interesting way to go about it. (0:17:19) Kevin: Umm… yeah. (0:17:22) Kevin: Umm… (0:17:24) Kevin: Spoilers, Moonstone Island could use an update like this! (0:17:26) Al: Yeah, it’s interesting. Neither of us have played it, so I don’t think we have, but there you go. If you’ve been playing the game and you’re like, “This game could do with story.” (0:17:28) Kevin: That’s all I wanted to say. (0:17:32) Kevin: But it is funny to read, just added a story. (0:17:48) Al: Well, have I got good news for you? (0:17:52) Al: Speaking of having good news for you, specifically Kevin, I’ve got good news for you. (0:17:53) Kevin: Oh! (0:17:56) Kevin: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHH! (0:17:57) Kevin: I just saw the news! (0:17:58) Al: Wildflowers, the Yuri’s Salon, I think it’s Yuri, we just think it’s Yuri. (0:17:58) Kevin: AHHHHHH! (0:18:07) Kevin: Yep, I think so. Hold on, I’m listening right now. It’s in the trailer. (0:18:11) Kevin: Yeah, it’s Yuri. Okay. (0:18:12) Al: Yuri’s Salon update is out today, if you’re listening to this on the release date, so 31st of January. (0:18:20) Al: And it brings a whole new, romanceable character, and the salon that she… (0:18:30) Al: I haven’t seen anything about pronouns, but I’m assuming she… (0:18:30) Kevin: Yeah, I don’t think so (0:18:35) Kevin: Yeah (0:18:38) Kevin: So that’s (0:18:40) Kevin: RAVERS! (0:18:40) Al: This is how you do updates, right? You go, “Hey, by the way, there was a tease, right? (0:18:47) Al: So they showed a tease of the outline of the character and said someone new is moving to Fairhaven, and then posted that yes, they are romanceable. And then the next day they were like, “Oh yeah, so the release is coming next Wednesday. Cheers.” (0:19:05) Al: Yep, good, good, good, good release in full. (0:19:06) Kevin: Umm… (0:19:10) Kevin: Yep, good reveal. (0:19:12) Al: Reveal, that’s the word I’m looking for. (0:19:12) Kevin: Like, it’s… (0:19:14) Kevin: First of all, adding a new character, that’s a big deal in any farming game. (0:19:18) Al: Yeah, especially Wildflowers, because it’s very character-based. (0:19:20) Kevin: Umm… Right… (0:19:26) Kevin: Yep, very character driven, right? (0:19:28) Kevin: Like, the setting is pretty small, so they compensated that by doing a lot of interactions with the characters. (0:19:34) Kevin: Um, so that’s… (0:19:36) Kevin: That is interesting to see, also like interesting to see added at this point, right? (0:19:44) Kevin: Because like it might say if I’m already married to Ray, I’m not gonna end that for Yuri. (0:19:46) Al: Yeah, I love how you’re not even saying Wesley, you’re just saying Ray. (0:19:48) Kevin: Sorry Yuri, I’m sure you’re fine, but you know. (0:19:50) Kevin: But that said, it will be interesting to see… (0:19:56) Kevin: It’s the reason I played the game! I’ll be honest! (0:20:04) Kevin: But… (0:20:06) Kevin: But yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I’m hopeful there will be other stuff sneaked in. I can’t wait to play it. (0:20:13) Kevin: I’ll fire up wildflowers again. Great, good excuse to do that again. (0:20:18) Kevin: One thing… Oh gosh, so it’s a salon, right? So you can redo… (0:20:26) Kevin: Yeah, Terry. Her name is Terry. Terry’s hair. It’s about to say Valerie. I’m mixing those two up now. (0:20:28) Al: Yeah. (0:20:32) Al: Quite a large selection of hairstyles, it looks like, and hair colors. (0:20:33) Kevin: But it’s I feel almost uncomfortable (0:20:36) Kevin: I feel so almost uncomfortable because I’m so used to that hairstyle it’s so iconic for the character whatever like you know it’s the look (0:20:44) Al: Yeah. (0:20:45) Al: Yes. (0:20:45) Al: It’s not like, it’s not like a game where you have a character customizer. (0:20:49) Al: Cause the whole point is it’s Tara’s story and you’re playing as Tara. (0:20:53) Kevin: Right. (0:20:54) Al: So like, this is the, I mean, can you change clothes? (0:20:55) Kevin: Yup. (0:20:57) Kevin: You can? Yes. (0:20:58) Al: Right. (0:20:58) Al: So there is at least some level of customization there. (0:21:00) Al: So, and it’s not like it doesn’t make sense to be able to change your hair. (0:21:01) Kevin: Yeah. (0:21:01) Kevin: Yeah. (0:21:05) Al: Like people change their hair. (0:21:06) Kevin: Yeah! (0:21:06) Al: That’s a thing that happens. (0:21:07) Kevin: Yeah! (0:21:08) Al: Uh, but I understand, I understand your concern. (0:21:08) Kevin: Yeah, you know, I… (0:21:11) Kevin: Yeah, I… (0:21:12) Kevin: Yeah, no, it makes sense. (0:21:13) Kevin: I… (0:21:14) Kevin: It’s… (0:21:15) Kevin: There’s nothing inherently wrong with it. (0:21:16) Kevin: I’m just uncomfortable with the change! (0:21:20) Kevin: I tear his blood, I don’t like it! (0:21:23) Kevin: But that said, hey, wildflowers in the news again, I’m very happy, happy day. (0:21:26) Kevin: Um, and boy, that r- that’s dropping soon, I like shadow drop like that. Good stuff, wildflowers. (0:21:32) Al: Yeah, good thing we’re doing this episode before it comes out. (0:21:37) Al: Awesome detail, we don’t have any like more details, but if we get them, we’ll put them in if there’s anything else coming in and it does, I actually didn’t check does it say, (0:21:47) Kevin: Heh heh. (0:21:48) Al: I think it’s a free update. I haven’t seen anything but it being DLC. Yeah, they’re called. (0:21:51) Kevin: I would assume so. They have not done anything paid as- (0:21:54) Al: Yeah, and they’re calling it an update. They’re saying the Wildflowers fourth update Yuri salon is coming next. I think that implies that it’s free. (0:22:02) Al: Hey, look, Re-legend. This is just a really small thing to say that they have said that they’re going to do more updates. That’s it. They’ve said that, oh, they got some money to work on the game more, so they’re going to do that. That’s it. That’s literally it. (0:22:09) Kevin: They’re going to add more buzzwords into the game. (0:22:28) Al: There was a bug fix update recently as well. (0:22:31) Kevin: I guess. (0:22:32) Al: I love some of these, I love some of these bugs in games. (0:22:36) Al: “Ensure the player’s character does not pass through the map when jumping off their magnus near the chest in the goblins resort in the desert biome.” (0:22:46) Al: That is so specific. (0:22:49) Kevin: Yeah. (0:22:50) Kevin: Oh my gosh, that’s funny. (0:22:53) Kevin: Okay, what a, what a re-legend. (0:23:00) Al: The interesting thing is, I looked at the comments on Steam and they’re all positive. (0:23:08) Al: It’s like unexpected but not unwelcomed. (0:23:08) Kevin: Well, look, hold on. (0:23:10) Al: Surprising but fantastic news. (0:23:12) Al: Great news! (0:23:13) Kevin: Now hold on. (0:23:14) Al: Like there’s loads of like actual- and this is the first time I’ve seen like positive comments on anything for League of Legends for like five years! (0:23:24) Kevin: Well, I mean, you know, coming out was a good first step, right, in making positive comments, finally. (0:23:24) Al: Yes, that’s true. (0:23:32) Kevin: But, like, uh, look, alright, this is anecdotal, this is just my experience, I don’t know who anyone who’s played the game, so, you know, is it all just, uh, uh, uh, you know, fake town, and, uh, just the fake comment section by, populated by the devs, I don’t know, it’s possible, I’m just putting it out there. (0:23:40) Al: Does anyone? (0:23:54) Kevin: Did the game come out? I don’t have confirmation yet. (0:23:59) Al: And they do, there is one comment on it, which is just give them guns. (0:24:05) Al: So I think I know where that person’s, I think I know where that person’s mind is (0:24:08) Kevin: I wonder where… (0:24:10) Kevin: You know, did I tell you, or do you know why they added guns in Power World? (0:24:16) Al: That was that they’d said that they’d added it because they wanted it to be big in America basically, right? (0:24:22) Kevin: Yep, yep (0:24:23) Al: Which is like one of those things where it’s like, oh no, but also yeah (0:24:30) Kevin: They’re not wrong great like that’s the reaction like oh, but they’re not wrong (0:24:36) Al: Yeah My time at Sandrock They’ve got some plushies. So if you are really if you really love them my time at Sandrock characters (0:24:39) Kevin: Boy (0:24:46) Al: They have (0:24:46) Kevin: Wait that the characters they’re not creatures or animals (0:24:49) Al: They’re they’re the characters Logan and Fang just of course you don’t you’ve not played the game (0:24:57) Al: They’ve also got some figurines (0:25:02) Kevin: Terrawiobush, where’s that? (0:25:04) Al: Not on the my time at Sandrock page (0:25:09) Al: Speaking of plushies paleopines (0:25:12) Al: teasing some plushies Not out yet, but they teased our little foot (0:25:12) Kevin: What? What? (0:25:16) Al: of a plushie, a little foot and a back covered in spikes. (0:25:25) Kevin: I’m so excited. I wonder what dinos can’t tell based based off. Oh, I’m excited The dinosaurs are very well very likely get one (0:25:34) Al: Apparently, if you go on the on their link tree, they’ve already leaked what it is. (0:25:40) Al: It’s a carrot Anki. (0:25:42) Kevin: WHAT?! (0:25:42) Al: Anki, is it an Ankiosaurus? (0:25:44) Al: Sorry, Ankiosaurus. (0:25:45) Kevin: Oh yeah, probably ink. (0:25:46) Al: Anki-lo-saurus. (0:25:48) Kevin: Yeah, okay, yeah, oh, that’s a- (0:25:48) Al: Coming soon. (0:25:50) Al: I love that. (0:25:52) Al: It’s like they’ve got the link basically with the image, not the image of the actual plush, but the image of the what it is. (0:25:52) Kevin: Let’s make ship. (0:25:58) Al: And you click through it and it’s like, oh, campaign launches in four days and 19 hours. (0:26:10) Al: Thursday. Chia the game based on New Caledonia have released a cool new update or are going to release a cool new update in March which gives you well I guess let’s go let’s go the context of this game so this game is an explorationy type game but one of the big features of the game is you can jump into nature items so animals. (0:26:40) Al: animals and plants and stuff like that you can it’s called soul jumping and you have like a certain as you play the game you like build up your soul meter and you can use that to jump into animals and stuff like that. (0:26:53) Al: They are adding in the infinite soul meter so they say this comfort setting allows you to soul jump to your heart’s content without worrying about your meter depleting be a bird forever or a coconut or anything for that matter we’re happy. (0:27:07) Al: or if you like, it feels like a great. (0:27:10) Al: I mean, they say it’s not suggested for your first playthrough of the game, but. (0:27:16) Al: Do what you want. (0:27:17) Al: They’ve not stopped it. (0:27:18) Al: Like you can do it straight away. (0:27:19) Al: And if you just want to grab the jump in a bird and fly around this map forever, (0:27:24) Al: you can do that. (0:27:24) Al: And I think it’s pretty cool. (0:27:27) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:27:30) Al: Spirit tea, spirit tea, spirit tea have added item stacking. (0:27:36) Kevin: That feels like that should have been addressed a while ago. (0:27:42) Kevin: Don’t have that at the feet. (0:27:44) Al: really wanted to like this. And it’s good in some ways, but yeah, like there’s a lot of quality of life things that it doesn’t have that a lot of games have that makes me struggle, struggle to enjoy it as much. This was one of them, so they have removed it now, but I don’t know if I’m going to go back to it or not. They’ve also listed a bunch of stuff that they’re going to add. If you are enjoying the game. There you go. You can go. (0:28:05) Kevin: Whatever that means. (0:28:14) Al: Oh, look at the list of things they’re adding. (0:28:16) Al: Oh (0:28:16) Kevin: Speaking of enjoying games, uh, you know, Bev and, uh, Johnny enjoyed Stardew in last week’s episode. (0:28:25) Kevin: It was a great listen, good episode. (0:28:27) Kevin: And you know, I think some guy out there named Concerned Date saw that, I was like, “Oh, (0:28:33) Kevin: well if they harvest season reach 1.5, we can’t have them staying current!” (0:28:38) Kevin: So he drops the news! (0:28:40) Kevin: 1.6 is on its way, baby! (0:28:43) Al: Yeah, I mean, so like there’s not actually much news in this because we already knew it was coming. (0:28:48) Al: We already knew there was stuff in it. But he says 1.6 ended up being a little larger in scope than originally planned. Yeah, who knows what earth is happening here? He says this is the key bit here. (0:28:55) Kevin: little larger with concern to (0:29:05) Al: I’m done adding major new content to it now and it’s in a bug fixing and polishing phase until is ready for release. Thanks for your patience. (0:29:13) Al: It’ll be fun to see everyone play. He does say in the comments that it should come out, (0:29:18) Al: he says absolutely will come out in 2024. It will come to PC first. There shouldn’t be a big delay between PC and console/mobile. I think with the 1.5 update, it was a two-month delay between Steam and Switch, which is not too bad. The mobile one was the one that I think it was like three years to get for it to come to mobile. So hopefully that will be faster. (0:29:43) Al: He does say it will be fine to play this on an old save, but I’d probably recommend a new save just to experience everything in context, otherwise you’ll unlock a bunch of stuff right away when you load up your save. And I read that and went, great, that’s much quicker to cover all the new content for the episode! [LAUGHTER] (0:30:02) Kevin: Yeah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (0:30:05) Al: So there has been a bunch of things that he listed on, where is it? A new festival. (0:30:13) Al: Which I think we’re pretty convinced now that’s the New Year festival. Two new mini festivals. (0:30:19) Al: New late game content which expands on each of the skill areas. New items and crafting recipes. There’s a totem there, so presumably another warp totem of some kind or something like that. And what looks like a quiver, as in for archery. Georgia alternatives to some of the end game quests. 100 plus new lines of dialogue. Winter outfits for the villagers. (0:30:43) Al: New type of reward for completing billboard requests. Support for eight player multiplayer on PC. And I love right at the end he puts new farm type. Just casually adding that at the end of this massive list. Oh yeah, there’s going to be a new farm as well. I wouldn’t be concerned about him. He’s fine. He’s got a lot of money. (0:31:08) Kevin: I mean… (0:31:10) Kevin: No, I know he’s fine. I’m just concerned what he’s doing to him. Geez. (0:31:15) Kevin: Um, I can’t uh… (0:31:17) Kevin: But hey, 8-player farm. We can get all- we can finally have the all the harvest season hosts on one episode. (0:31:20) Al: Oh dear, yeah, so anyway, it’s coming this year and it’s feature complete, so hopefully it’s going to end up coming, releasing like when, during the month and the summer when I’m away, isn’t it? (0:31:24) Kevin: Live commentary as he started far. (0:31:43) Al: All right, so you might think that’s all the news. (0:31:46) Al: That’s not all the news. (0:31:47) Al: four new games as well to talk about. (0:31:51) Al: Oh yes! So, first of all we have Southfield. The little blurb for this one is ‘Weird farming meets silly physics in Southfield. Combine chaotic crops with unpredictable effects, (0:32:07) Al: build your dream farmstead and experiment with playful machinery. Wobble your way around an ever-changing island solo or with up to three friends and unearth its secrets.’ Now, we quite (0:32:21) Al: too many farming games and they don’t do interesting things. (0:32:24) Kevin: That’s true. Southfield said, “What if we do the exact opposite?” (0:32:25) Al: This game here does say that. So, this is this I love. I need to play this game. (0:32:33) Kevin: Alright, I do too. Okay, I’m gonna start with the big hook, and that’s the main character. It’s a (0:32:40) Kevin: big blue (0:32:43) Kevin: gumdrop head looking blob man with big eyes, and that’s kind of it. (0:32:49) Kevin: He’s humanoid he has arms and legs (0:32:51) Kevin: and a head with eyes and a little (0:32:54) Kevin: Pikmin type leaf on top just a little one little sprout (0:32:58) Al: Pretty generic. (0:32:58) Kevin: and he’s big (0:33:00) Kevin: Yeah, but he’s big and cartoony and the way he runs around his dynamic proportions and style fitting very much with the quote-unquote Weird there’s silly physics. It’s great. He does like big bounces spins, or he does like full-on tornado (0:33:16) Kevin: He rolls around in a ball at one- (0:33:19) Al: Yep, he rides on a quad bike you got quad bikes in this game (0:33:19) Kevin: Armadillo style. (0:33:21) Kevin: He does. (0:33:23) Kevin: Yep, he’s chopping down trees. (0:33:25) Kevin: The trees are actually falling. (0:33:27) Kevin: Not just poof, here’s your logs. (0:33:29) Kevin: They’re timbering over. (0:33:31) Kevin: Um… (0:33:32) Al: There’s an electric chicken that you’re carrying, you’re chasing and you get electrocuted by. (0:33:33) Kevin: logs you there they’re timbering over (0:33:40) Al: You can throw an axe to cut down fruit. (0:33:42) Kevin: You can get frozen into ice cubes. (0:33:45) Kevin: You can throw one of your fellow blob people full on hurricane spins rocks. (0:33:51) Kevin: There’s a fruit growing to gigantic proportions. (0:33:54) Kevin: I don’t know why. (0:33:56) Al: The machinery looks fun. (0:33:58) Kevin: So this is interesting because there’s conveyor belts and things presumably for automatizing things and whatnot. (0:34:05) Kevin: But because of the weird effects, they’re just this physics that like fruits and crops are just bouncing on the conveyors. (0:34:12) Al: And it’s a bunch of the machinery that seems to be like cannons as well So it’s like leaning into I just I love everything about this. This is fantastic. I need this game (0:34:12) Kevin: so, are you… (0:34:16) Kevin: yup (0:34:20) Kevin: it’s so good right and and like even and there’s crafting there’s you can build a house and other stuff um there’s you know your plots and your farms but like every crop I don’t think i’ve (0:34:40) Kevin: It’s big, it’s cartoony, it’s colorful, it’s fun. (0:34:44) Kevin: Southfield looks amazing! (0:34:46) Kevin: Um… (0:34:47) Al: There’s also some some buildings so you can like kind of, I guess, Fortnite-esque type building, right. You’ve got your your your wall, you put up your wall and you put up your roof properly designing your house how you want. (0:35:05) Al: Yep, this one is coming soon. And as of now, I only see information about it coming to Steam on Windows. (0:35:13) Al: Yep, this one’s going on the list, I’m definitely, I’m definitely playing this one. (0:35:17) Al: Next, we have, Sugar Dew Island, now, so, before, yeah, so the name, the name is terrible, (0:35:19) Kevin: Yup. (0:35:24) Kevin: Oh boy, oh boy, just they’re coming out swinging with that name. Oh boy. (0:35:32) Al: right? (0:35:33) Al: Let’s just get out of the way. (0:35:35) Al: It’s Stardew Valley versus Coral Island, right? (0:35:38) Al: Like it’s just, like where is all they, what’s, what’s with the name? (0:35:40) Kevin: No… (0:35:41) Al: It’s bad. (0:35:43) Kevin: I- (0:35:44) Kevin: Island’s overdone, but at least it’s an actual thing, right? (0:35:48) Kevin: I’m gonna put my foot down, draw the line in the sand. (0:35:51) Kevin: I don’t think any farming game should ever have the “do” in its name. Ever. Again. (0:35:54) Al: Whatever it is, is a bad name, right? Just whatever. One of the comments on YouTube is, (0:35:57) Kevin: Just… (0:35:58) Kevin: Just don’t try. (0:36:06) Al: “One might consider there’s a copy of Stardew, shut up.” So, one interesting thing just before we actually talk about the game is, I feel like this has been shared, it’s been advertised on every single Kickstarter game update. (0:36:24) Al: I have seen in the last one exactly every single one of them they seem to be talking about this. (0:36:26) Kevin: I saw it on a link on one of the earlier news article links I put and clicked on. (0:36:33) Al: I am fascinated about by this like what is the deal behind this game? (0:36:38) Kevin: Raid Shadow Legends. (0:36:39) Al: So let’s do the usual blurb in this cozy farming game you have to run your own farm shop take care of your animals and your farm sell your goods to the cute forest folk (0:36:51) Al: upgrade the island and fulfill smart. (0:36:54) Al: No, fulfill small orders from the Harmony Tree to fill the island with life again. (0:37:00) Al: Nothing about this seems unique. (0:37:03) Al: Comparing to the previous one, this just looks like it’s a farming game. (0:37:04) Kevin: nope I yep the the one oh gosh even the four quote-unquote force folk just look like harvest sprites the one thing I will say I I have one thing I’ve wanted is to run the shop the shipping bin that’s it I don’t know if (0:37:08) Al: Hey look, it’s a harvest moon. (0:37:30) Al: Yeah, this is the thing about those is, so Ooblets had a way to do that, and there’s been a couple of other games where there’s been a little bit of it, and it always just feels to me like it’s just a really inefficient way of selling things, right? Because you have to go in and you put a few things out in the shop, and then you have to like, you either, they either implement like a haggling thing, in which case I always feel like I’m not getting as much as I could, or it just ends up being why can’t I just throw these in the shipping box, right? (0:38:00) Al: I don’t feel like any of them have ever done it well, (0:38:04) Al: and I’m not sure I trust this. (0:38:06) Kevin: I I don’t think not off not what I’m looking because like you know thinking farms like you’re growing (0:38:13) Kevin: Huge amounts of crops rolling bulk and so like I don’t know but (0:38:16) Kevin: Yeah, the shop doesn’t need that’s the add more to that because otherwise boy This much like its name takes after a lot of other games a boy am I look (0:38:28) Kevin: Studio Ghibli has amazing art stuff, but boy. I’m I tired of seeing that (0:38:34) Kevin: aesthetic in these games. (0:38:36) Al: Yeah, it’s not like it looks bad or anything, but it’s not and and the game doesn’t actually look like the trailer Right the trailer is completely like just random animated stuff (0:38:36) Kevin: Um… (0:38:38) Kevin: No! (0:38:46) Al: Well, I know it does have some of the gameplay, but like it starts off with that style (0:38:48) Kevin: Well, presumably we’re not 100% sure, but (0:38:51) Al: It’s a completely different style than the I suspect actually (0:38:54) Kevin: Yeah, true true (0:38:56) Al: It looks fine. It’s not like it looks bad (0:38:59) Kevin: Yeah, it just (0:38:59) Al: But nothing about it can especially comparing it to what we just talked about nothing about this excites (0:39:05) Kevin: Yeah, no, it’s it’s it looks fine, but not bringing anything new to the table. It’s a tough market (0:39:13) Kevin: Gotta do a bit more to (0:39:14) Al: Anyway, the Kickstarter is launching soon. (0:39:19) Al: Apparently, Steam says its planned release is Q2 this year, presumably that’s Early Access, (0:39:26) Al: but it doesn’t say on Steam that it’s going to be Early Access. (0:39:29) Al: I’m assuming they aren’t doing a Kickstarter to then release the full version in a matter of months. (0:39:37) Al: You would think not, but who knows. (0:39:41) Al: I noticed is Roca play. (0:39:43) Al: Uh, they. (0:39:44) Al: Are they a publisher or are they a developer? (0:39:48) Al: I’m not actually sure. (0:39:49) Al: They look to be both, but they did spells and secrets. (0:39:54) Al: They’ve done solar punk and they did, um, Oh, what was that one? (0:40:01) Al: There was another one that was like a, an island based one where you were like a pirate and you crashed into the island. (0:40:08) Al: And no, I don’t mean, and I realized that sounds exactly like the start of Dragon Quest Builders 2. (0:40:17) Kevin: Yeah, I don’t, um… (0:40:19) Kevin: Lose Lagoon? (0:40:21) Kevin: Castaway Paradise? (0:40:22) Al: Castaway Paradise. No, that’s not the one I was meaning, but that is another one that they’ve done. (0:40:25) Kevin: Stranded Sales. (0:40:27) Al: Stranded Sales. Yes, there we go. They did Strand- (0:40:29) Kevin: Oh my gosh, they… (0:40:31) Kevin: They actually have a game called Harvest Life. (0:40:34) Kevin: Oh my goodness. (0:40:36) Al: So, yeah, they did Beasties as well, which was the one that went on Kickstarter and then they cancelled the Kickstarter. (0:40:43) Al: And I don’t know, it’s a weird company. (0:40:46) Al: They have such an interesting mix of things that become really popular and things that are just really weird. (0:40:52) Al: Like Spells and Secrets has very positive reviews. (0:40:54) Al: It’s like 80% positive reviews on. (0:40:57) Al: And then Beasties has 50% rating. (0:41:00) Al: And she’s just like, that is such a big difference. (0:41:03) Al: They also have Super Dungeon Maker, which is like a… (0:41:06) Al: Zelda-style dungeon Mario Maker type thing, which has very positive reviews, it’s 84% positive. (0:41:17) Al: And Stranded Sales was… (0:41:19) Al: It was a game. (0:41:24) Kevin: That was a game. That feels like a few of these you could- (0:41:27) Al: Yeah, so like, you never quite know what you’re getting at Rokka Play. (0:41:31) Al: So, yeah, I guess we’ll see what happens. (0:41:36) Al: The punk hasn’t even come out yet, although it looks like they’re just publishing it, they aren’t… (0:41:40) Al: So I don’t… Yeah. (0:41:42) Al: There’s a lot of stuff. I’m not particularly excited about this one. (0:41:47) Al: But it is coming to Steam on Windows, Switch, PlayStation, and maybe Xbox. (0:41:53) Al: I don’t know whether that will be as a stretch goal, but it says Xbox question mark. (0:42:00) Al: So… (0:42:02) Al: Next, we have Sunkist City. (0:42:06) Al: life sim set in an upbeat sun-kissed seaside metropolis full of funky vibes and quirky characters. Stake out your new life in the city, tending to DIY gardens, learning new skills and making lifelong friends and help bring life back to its once vibrant streets.” (0:42:26) Kevin: I don’t know. (0:42:28) Kevin: I can’t tell if this game looks good or bad. (0:42:31) Al: So, well, let’s just put it, it is almost exactly this. (0:42:36) Al: Stardew style. Imagine Stardew, it’s that. It looks like that, but it’s based in a city, (0:42:47) Al: not a small village. Every single thing I see, it just looks, you could tell me this was a Stardew and I’d go, “Oh, they changed the UI at some point.” That’s what I would do. The keg looks almost identical and the cheese press looks very similar and like these things (0:43:06) Al: and that’s not necessarily a bad thing right like stardew did very well uh but I feel like (0:43:14) Al: what is this doing that would make me play it rather than stardew and i (0:43:19) Kevin: quirky character whatever they don’t seem particular one has blue hair they (0:43:22) Al: look characters are hard to do well and I the problem is that I i don’t think you can do i don’t think I don’t think many people could do stardew and I think many people could make stardew (0:43:36) Al: but not as well and that’s what this strikes me at it doesn’t look bad but I i’m really fascinated as to why I would want to play this rather than stardew is the story really good are the characters really good that’s what i’d probably be looking for (0:43:40) Kevin: Yeah, that’s a very good way. (0:43:49) Kevin: Yeah. (0:43:54) Kevin: Mmm. (0:43:54) Kevin: Yeah, because you’re right, like, I… (0:43:57) Kevin: I see absolutely nothing… (0:44:06) Kevin: Asphalt in this setting like there’s (0:44:06) Al: Yeah, yeah. And some buildings that look run down. There’s a ramen place. Okay. (0:44:11) Kevin: Yep, it’s (0:44:13) Kevin: Yep, that’s that’s kind of it. I don’t mechanically. I don’t see anything. I see fishing There’s no some type of gardening slash farming you even carry the items over your head all a stardew [laughs] (0:44:26) Al: Yeah, like the last game someone said it looks like a copy of Stardew, now this looks like a copy of Stardew, right? I don’t, again, I don’t want to like harp on it too much because like I’m sure it would be fun to play and I don’t want to put people down and I hope that, (0:44:42) Kevin: Yeah, again, it doesn’t look bad, but just… (0:44:43) Al: I hope that they’re successful but I just, (0:44:47) Kevin: It’s not standing out, right? (0:44:48) Kevin: And again, this is very… (0:44:50) Kevin: The cottagecore farming space, getting all buzzwordy here. (0:44:54) Kevin: Like it’s, it’s flooded with starting. (0:44:56) Kevin: It’s bad. (0:44:58) Kevin: So you’re going to put one out. (0:44:59) Kevin: You really need roots of Pacha. (0:45:01) Kevin: Do it in the Stone Age. (0:45:02) Kevin: Okay. (0:45:02) Kevin: And that’s something different. (0:45:04) Kevin: And it mechanically affects it, right? (0:45:07) Kevin: You have mam and stuff like it’s appropriate, but here in the city, (0:45:12) Kevin: you’re really just not seeing anything, uh, and again, this is just based off a handful of, uh, screenshots. (0:45:18) Kevin: So, you know, I could be speaking a bit too early, but I’m just not… (0:45:23) Al: So the interesting thing is, this is this developer’s second game, their first game came out in 2016, with its last update coming out in 2018. (0:45:32) Al: So I feel like they finished off that game, they saw Stardew Valley, and they’ve been working on that since then. (0:45:38) Al: Because Stardew got really popular in 2017, so just as they were finishing off. (0:45:44) Kevin: yeah that looks that’s exactly what it looks like ‘cause this is and their first game is wildly different called wasted it’s a post-apocalyptic pub crawler it’s in 3d and it’s a very wild looking game it does absolutely one thousand percent not cottagecore at all but uh… (0:45:58) Al: That looks more interesting to me. (0:46:05) Kevin: different game [laughter] (0:46:08) Al: Yeah, I don’t. Anyway, it’s there. It’s coming to Steam on all the platforms. So we’ll see, (0:46:18) Al: I guess. And the final one is Abyss New Dawn. Names, really? Names again, right? Like, is this a… Abyss New… It’s just games in general. But this is the thing. Why is it abyss new dawn. This makes it sound like it’s a second (0:46:28) Kevin: Why did it have to be so bad in this space? Why? (0:46:38) Al: abyss game, right? But also secondly, this describes i

Al, Kevin, and Micah go through the games of the year and crown their winner for 2023. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:42: What Have We Been Up To 00:27:56: 2023 Releases 00:34:54: Previous Winners 00:36:30: Our Nominations 01:53:00: GOTY Debate 02:08:06: Decision 02:15:50: Outro Games Mentioned Games released this year Above Snakes Before the green moon Everdream valley Fae Farm Farming Simulator 23 Flutter Away Garden Buddies Garden In Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos Hello Kitty: Island Adventure Homestead Arcana Innchanted Lego Fortnite Loddlenaut Mineko's Night Market Moonstone Island My Time at SAndrock Paleo Pines Roots of Pacha Rune Factory 3 Special Season: A Letter to the Future Silent Hope Smushi Come Home Spells and Secrets Spirittea Sprout Valley Steamworld Build Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Sun Down Tchia Terra Nil Wildmender EA released in a previous year, 1.0 this year Ikonei Island Moondrop Sun Haven Coral island DDV EA released this year Cornucopia Fabledom Moonlight in Garland One Lonely Outpost Research Factory Song of the Prairie Snacko Previous Winners 2019: Doraemon SoS 2020: Summer in Mara 2021: Spiritfarer 2022: Ooblets 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. My name is Al. (0:00:39) Micah: I’m waiting, I’m waiting for you. (0:00:41) Kevin: Oh, I was waiting for you, too. I’m Micah. (0:00:44) Al: And we are here today to confuse you a lot. (0:00:46) Micah: And I’m Kev. (0:00:48) Kevin: There we go. (0:00:52) Al: It says, “We’re to talk about cottage core games.” (0:00:52) Kevin: Well, I mean, that goes without saying. (0:00:56) Al: Whoo! (0:00:57) Kevin: Whoo-hoo! (0:00:57) Al: Just, just in case people don’t know who they are, the names were the wrong way around there. (0:01:03) Al: So you know, they’re good luck. (0:01:06) Al: This is the fun episode of the year where I get two people on and we argue about which (0:01:14) Al: is the best game. (0:01:16) Al: And most of the time we come to a conclusion where we’re all accepting that that is our combined game of the year. (0:01:22) Kevin: Not this year. I refuse already. (0:01:26) Al: We will see where this year goes. (0:01:29) Al: But oh boy, oh boy, do I have some opinions. (0:01:34) Al: We’ll get to that when we get to that. (0:01:37) Al: Obviously transcripts are available for the episode and the show in general in the show notes and on the website. (0:01:44) Al: The game of the year stuff, Micah, what have you been up to? (0:01:46) Micah: I have been playing Dragon Quest Monsters 3 and I have also been playing Starfield quite a bit. (0:01:48) Al: Shock, shock harder. (0:01:52) Kevin: Good stuff. How many slimes are on your teeth? (0:01:59) Al: Interesting. What do you think? (0:02:01) Micah: I… (0:02:03) Micah: Okay. (0:02:04) Kevin: This, this is the response I hear every time I ask about it. (0:02:08) Micah: I very much understand two things. (0:02:14) Micah: I am a fan. (0:02:17) Micah: I am a fan of Bethesda game design and have been for many years. (0:02:22) Micah: So there is a level of comfort that comes with it. (0:02:27) Micah: I also understand that it is kind of dated game design. (0:02:33) Micah: And it all sort of feels the same as far as Bethesda goes. (0:02:40) Micah: But because I like that, I appreciate it. (0:02:44) Kevin: Yeah, no, that makes sense. I’m a Tetris fan, and Tetris hasn’t changed once in the 40 years it’s been out. (0:02:52) Al: That’s not true! That’s not true, Kevin. (0:02:54) Kevin: Yeah, I know that’s not true. (0:02:56) Al: We know, you know, you know that Tetris has changed. (0:02:58) Al: It has improved. It has moved with the times. (0:02:59) Kevin: Yeah, it is. (0:03:01) Micah: Tetris Effect is one of the greatest Tetris games of all time. Tetris 99. I would say, (0:03:04) Al: Exactly. Exactly. (0:03:06) Micah: I would actually argue that Tetris has done more changing than most franchises do. It’s kind of impressive. I don’t know, it’s kids. It can be cozy, right? Tetris can be a cozy (0:03:14) Kevin: You’re right, especially one we’re a fan of in particular. (0:03:19) Al: You don’t come, we don’t come for Tetris here, Kevin. (0:03:22) Kevin: I mean, we could. (0:03:28) Kevin: We could argue which one’s the best shaped piece. (0:03:31) Al: They also have their scam game that Cody’s playing. (0:03:31) Micah: Their scam game? No. (0:03:34) Kevin: Ah, well. (0:03:35) Al: Oh, have you not heard this, Micah? She’s playing a game that, like, you get points and then apparently once you hit a million or two million points you can win a free cruise, (0:03:45) Al: and I’m convinced it’s a scam. I’m waiting for the day that she gets to the right number of points and then, like, we never hear from her again because she’s, like, shipped off to have our organs harvested or something. (0:03:45) Micah: What? That does sound kinda scary. (0:03:49) Kevin: It does. (0:03:57) Micah: Dear God, all because of Tetris. (0:04:03) Kevin: Well, at least she had fun getting there. (0:04:05) Al: Anyway, so Starfield. (0:04:06) Kevin: That sounds like the game of the year to me. (0:04:10) Al: So what you’re saying is, if you like Starfield, you’ll like Starfield. (0:04:13) Al: That’s what you’re saying. (0:04:14) Micah: Yeah, if you like Bethesda games, Bethesda RPGs, (0:04:20) Micah: then you’ll probably like Starfield. (0:04:22) Micah: I think that there’s a lot of really neat things that they do with the. (0:04:27) Micah: Like space travel portions of it, there’s there’s a lot of really cool the like ship combat, space combat and stuff like that is very, very interesting. (0:04:37) Micah: It’s fun and the more that you kind of get comfortable with the how things function in the world, the you know, the more comfy of a game it is to. (0:04:49) Kevin: Okay, serious question. Have you played No Man’s Sky? (0:04:52) Micah: I have. (0:04:53) Kevin: to that (0:04:55) Micah: It is like if no man’s sky. (0:04:57) Micah: I had way more polished and was much more fleshed out and had much more like story elements to it. (0:05:09) Micah: I think that like primarily my enjoyment of Bethesda games comes from their writing. (0:05:17) Micah: And because there are just as an example, there’s a quest that I stumbled on by… (0:05:27) Micah: killing a space pirate and when I looked in his inventory there was a note and when I read the note that it unlocked this huge side quest that was like hours long. (0:05:40) Micah: Which is like I could have very easily missed that. (0:05:44) Micah: And I love that there’s such depth to like how stories play, like side stories even play out in Bethesda games like that. (0:05:57) Micah: So many times in Elder Scrolls games and things, you know, I’ll just stumble onto a cave and there’s a really deep story that’s written into this group that moved into this cave or whatever and it’s something that you could very easily miss. (0:06:16) Micah: It really makes me appreciate how much effort they put into writing things that people could never play in their, you know… (0:06:27) Micah: They’ll play through the game but there’s plenty of that in Starfield. (0:06:36) Al: Yeah, I think that’s fair. I’ve have enjoyed seeing a lot of the stuff online about all the kind of like side stuff, which has been for me, probably more fun than actually playing the game would be. So like, I totally get if you enjoy the game, then it makes it so much more fun, right? Because you’re finding all these things and just kind of stumble across this. But yeah, for me, it’s like, yeah, I enjoy watching someone post about it online or post a video or something like that. I think I know the side story you’re talking about, because that’s that’s the one that most people tend to go to. (0:06:42) Micah: Mm hmm. Yeah. (0:06:48) Kevin: Yeah. (0:07:12) Micah: Yeah, it’s a pretty important one because it, especially early on it, it gives you access to things that you would not have otherwise, that are pretty important. (0:07:22) Al: Yeah, you just confirmed it’s the one I’m thinking of. (0:07:28) Al: OK, well, I’m glad you’re enjoying it. That’s the important thing. That’s what we play games for. (0:07:30) Kevin: Yeah, well, we, we actually could do greenhouse. (0:07:32) Micah: And you know, I could talk about Dragon Quest monsters endlessly, but I’ll save everybody’s. (0:07:37) Micah: I’ll save everyone’s ears for… (0:07:40) Kevin: I didn’t all gladly listen to Dragon Quest talk for. (0:07:42) Al: Let’s discuss that later. (0:07:44) Micah: Yeah, I think that’s probably what I’m gonna be hanging on to that for is the the later (0:07:52) Al: Awesome. Kevin, what have you been up to? (0:07:55) Kevin: So it’s been a hot mince I’ve been on I think and the biggest life update for people who haven’t heard I have kittens now (0:08:05) Micah: kittens? No. When you okay, when you say kittens, obviously plural, how many are we talking here? (0:08:06) Kevin: Have I not showing you the mic oh I will text you a picture right now (0:08:11) Kevin: Yes (0:08:15) Kevin: We’re talking too so We started off with one (0:08:20) Kevin: So we’re looking for a new place to move into and at one of the places we’ve kittens they were giving (0:08:25) Kevin: away and so we took one home and then after some discussions we said you know what I bet this kitten could use a companion so we went back and got one got one of her brothers and so we now went from no kittens to two kittens pretty much out of the blue their names are teddy and daisy (0:08:52) Kevin: They are about seven, eight weeks. (0:08:55) Kevin: They are about eight weeks old. (0:08:57) Kevin: This is my first time owning cats. I’ve had a dog before, but never cats. (0:09:02) Kevin: It’s been enjoyable there. (0:09:04) Kevin: Fun, energetic, Daisy in particular is a little gremlin who loves to run around. (0:09:08) Kevin: Teddy, the brother, he’s a lot more chill. (0:09:11) Kevin: He is, yeah, I’m loving them so far. I love animals, right? (0:09:15) Kevin: And they were so little when we got them. (0:09:17) Kevin: They were only like four weeks old when we got them. (0:09:20) Kevin: So they were really little. They were like tripled in size. (0:09:23) Kevin: I took them to the vet for the first time. (0:09:25) Kevin: Yesterday, and aren’t they precious I I will have to find of us an alpix so he can post it with the show (0:09:26) Micah: Oh my god. (0:09:33) Micah: Who who’s the which one is the white and gray one? (0:09:37) Kevin: That’s Daisy (0:09:38) Micah: That’s Daisy. (0:09:39) Kevin: Mm-hmm and then (0:09:40) Micah: Daisy looks very much like my brother’s cat, zero, who is 18 years old. (0:09:43) Kevin: Oh really, huh Wow Wow, that’s strong (0:09:48) Micah: But the like identical like pattern and facial structure and. (0:09:51) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, Teddy’s really cute. He’s got a tuxedo (0:09:55) Kevin: pattern. He’s got gray fur, but like little white paws and, um, and Daisy’s black or black gray spots. Yeah, they’re adorable. Um, so yeah, they can be a handful at times as I’m sure cat owners know they can get all over the place. (0:10:10) Kevin: But, um, but I’ve been enjoying. Um, so, uh, yeah, that’s the big thing really. But, uh, (0:10:16) Kevin: other than that, probably the biggest things I’ve been playing lately. Um, I’ve really been getting through Tears of the Kingdom finally. I’ve pretty much (0:10:25) Kevin: at the finish line I’ve done all the big quests I’m just kind of going around hitting up all the shrines and filling out the map and so on and so forth but I could go take on Ganon anytime. That game is phenomenal it’s great I mean I don’t have to go in-depth about it I’m sure everyone knows how good it is right right but yeah very good game I yeah not much I probably could add and then the The other one is a… (0:10:42) Al: Speaking of games that have secrets. (0:10:55) Kevin: Street Fighter 6 (0:10:58) Kevin: So I am a fighting game fan. I am bad at them, but I love them (0:11:03) Micah: Hey, me too. (0:11:04) Kevin: I picked it up. Yeah, yeah, you got right. I’ve only played two weeks (0:11:07) Micah: On both fronts. (0:11:10) Kevin: Have you picked up Street Fighter 6? (0:11:11) Micah: I have not. (0:11:12) Kevin: Micah, okay (0:11:12) Micah: I have some friends that I have watched play. (0:11:14) Kevin: Okay (0:11:18) Micah: And I have some friends that are extremely good at Street Fighter. (0:11:23) Kevin: Yeah, yeah good. Oh man, hats off to them. (0:11:24) Micah: So I’ve seen some, you know, stuff that I’ve seen gameplay that I don’t fully understand because it’s too… (0:11:33) Micah: high level for my small brain to comprehend, but… (0:11:40) Kevin: That’s fine, I’m playing it and it happens to me. (0:11:45) Kevin: So yeah, the two big things, I mean Street Fighter, right? (0:11:47) Kevin: It’s the iconic series, (0:11:48) Kevin: so I’m sure people know what it’s all about, it’s fighting. (0:11:51) Kevin: But the two big things that it brings, (0:11:54) Kevin: the first is called modern controls. (0:11:57) Kevin: They have a new control scheme (0:12:02) Kevin: that simplifies basically playing the game. (0:12:05) Kevin: So traditionally you’d have to do a motion on your control stick and a button and all sorts of crazy combinations to get moves out. (0:12:15) Kevin: But they simplified it, (0:12:16) Kevin: where you can get moves out with just the press of a button. (0:12:20) Kevin: It’s very beginner friendly. (0:12:23) Kevin: Because of the convenience of that, (0:12:25) Kevin: they balanced it by reducing the strength of the moves and things like that. (0:12:32) Kevin: I think it’s great. (0:12:33) Kevin: I don’t play it much myself, I like the classic stuff, (0:12:36) Kevin: but it’s fun to see people use it and be able to play, (0:12:41) Kevin: get in without having to worry about not being able to do the moves. (0:12:44) Kevin: I say that as someone who is not always able to do the moves. (0:12:50) Kevin: And the second big thing that they have is called world tour mode. (0:12:53) Kevin: Have you guys heard of this at all? (0:12:56) Kevin: Yeah, oh man. (0:12:58) Kevin: So World Tour Mode is their single player campaign. (0:13:02) Kevin: The real kicker is that it’s a create a character mode. (0:13:08) Kevin: So you create your own fighter, but they’re sliders to your physical attributes. (0:13:16) Kevin: So you can be as tall, skinny, short, whatever you want. (0:13:19) Kevin: You can make monstrosity looking characters and it will affect your gameplay. (0:13:24) Kevin: If you have long arms, you will be able to punch farther or whatever. (0:13:29) Kevin: It’s pretty fun making your own character. (0:13:32) Kevin: I love it. You can hang out with the cast, which are filled with fun dumb moments. (0:13:46) Kevin: You can text all the street fighters. It’s really funny. (0:13:48) Micah: I am a big fan of a really ridiculous character. (0:13:48) Kevin: It’s so good. It’s probably the most ridiculous one. Just today I saw somebody look like a spaghetti with arms. (0:14:02) Kevin: It’s so good. There’s an online mode where you can bring your creative characters. You can have your freak matches. It’s great. (0:14:10) Kevin: Everything about that game is fantastic. The presentation, the music, the online play works great. I rarely have any bad connections for matches. (0:14:22) Kevin: I’m the character I picked up. Her name is Manon. She is a French supermodel. (0:14:32) Kevin: She is also a judo wrestler. She throws all of that in her move. She does struts, she does pirouettes, and she’ll grow you around. (0:14:40) Kevin: She’s very fun to play. That’s what I’ve been up to. (0:14:44) Kevin: Alright, Senor Al, what about you? (0:14:48) Al: Not a huge amount. It’s been a weird week, but I’ve been playing a bit of a Highland song. So for Micah, probably, who isn’t aware, it’s a platforming game based in the Scottish Highlands, and part of it is rhythm based. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. It has great music. The story is really good, and I don’t play games with the sound on, but I… (0:15:18) Al: can’t play this game with the sound off. Like, it’s just even outside of the rhythm, but it’s just so good. Yeah. Like, a Highland song. And it’s fantastic. So, okay, yeah, (0:15:30) Kevin: Okay, what are the rhythm portions like, because I know it was the Scottish game, but I don’t know what it’s like. (0:15:36) Al: okay. That’s a fair question. That’s a fair question. So, to preamble to that, the idea is that you’ve got all these mountains, and you’re climbing over them, and you’re trying (0:15:48) Al: to get to specific points. And there are places in the game where, as you are walking, (0:15:54) Al: it will tell you to press B to run. And then as you’re running across a terrain, there are things in the way, and the rhythm bit is you have to press it in time to the music to keep going and jump over the rhythm. (0:16:08) Kevin: Okay, that’s fascinating. Huh. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rhythm platformer in the (0:16:19) Micah: This is beautiful. (0:16:20) Al: Right. Right. And the best thing is, so when you’re standing on, when you’re standing on a hill in the game and you can see all of the hills around you, all of those hills are hills you can go to in the game. (0:16:32) Kevin: Oh wow, that’s nice. (0:16:34) Micah: Wow. Yeah, this is a really pretty game. I’ve never heard of this. (0:16:38) Al: Yeah, it’s really I’m loving it. It’s great. Yeah, yeah, I came out a couple weeks ago. (0:16:39) Micah: Is it new? (0:16:44) Al: But it’s fantastic. And all the Scottish accents are legitimate. So no terrible Shrek voices. (0:16:50) Kevin: But, I mean, come on, don’t you want at least one Shrek in there? (0:16:52) Al: No, no, no. Definitely not. Never, never, never. Shrek is fine in Shrek. Not outside. (0:16:56) Micah: No, that was a very immediate no. (0:17:00) Micah: No, no, no, no, no, no. (0:17:00) Kevin: Ah, fair enough. (0:17:06) Al: We have enough fake Scottish. (0:17:08) Al: Voices in the world, there are very few things where we actually get proper Scottish voices. (0:17:13) Al: So it’s nice to actually hear some. (0:17:14) Kevin: Fair enough. (0:17:15) Kevin: Is David Tennant in it? (0:17:17) Al: I don’t think so, no. (0:17:18) Kevin: the- I’m sorry. That’s a missed (0:17:21) Al: His voice, there was something, I can’t remember what it was I was watching the other day and I was like, “Oh, that’s David Tennant.” Like I always, anytime I hear him doing his normal voice, (0:17:29) Al: it’s like such a distinctive voice for me that I’m like, “Oh.” It’s like, (0:17:33) Al: Every so often, somebody learns that David Tennant is Scrooge McDuck. (0:17:38) Al: And they’re like, “What? How’s David Tennant?” I’m like, “How could you not tell? His voice is just so distinctly his voice.” (0:17:39) Kevin: Yeah, yeah. (0:17:40) Kevin: - That’s… (0:17:47) Kevin: I, I didn’t know, I mean, I, I watched, I’m a big fan of the reboot of DuckTales, but I didn’t know it was David Tennant till a little bit in. (0:17:48) Al: Maybe that’s a Scottish thing, I don’t know. (0:17:57) Kevin: Um, and I didn’t realize he was Scottish. (0:17:59) Kevin: That’s, it’s really funny. (0:18:00) Al: Yeah, he’s not putting on a voice. He’s slightly emphasizing it, but that’s basically just his voice. (0:18:04) Kevin: Yeah, sure. (0:18:06) Al: Yeah, don’t do that again, Kevin. (0:18:06) Kevin: I like how he says “Gad-age” in the first episode. (0:18:09) Kevin: I always remember that one. (0:18:13) Kevin: That’s how he says it. (0:18:17) Al: So yeah, I’ve mostly been playing that and also been playing Pokemon because of the Flubbebe outbreaks, as I said, in the show notes. (0:18:27) Micah: Oh, that’s right (0:18:30) Al: baby baby. (0:18:31) Micah: Forgot that was going on. I forget it’s uh, well baby now and then (0:18:39) Kevin: Milsory in the (0:18:42) Al: So it’s current Flababy in Poldea. It is… no, it is not. It is Litwick in Kitakami. (0:18:48) Kevin: 3 in Kitikami. (0:18:52) Micah: Mmm. Yeah, because milsry is not in the game. (0:18:53) Al: Milcery isn’t in the game yet. Milcery will be in the Blueberry Academy when it comes out. So that’s why it’s not Milcery yet. It’s because it’s in the new region in the DLC. I think it’s just called the Blueberry Academy. Yeah. (0:19:01) Kevin: I haven’t gotten the DLC yet. (0:19:05) Micah: So just the new region, do we know what the new region is called? (0:19:07) Micah: Other than just, it’s the Blueberry Academy, is it just Blueberry Academy? (0:19:10) Kevin: That’s it. (0:19:11) Kevin: Yeah, it’s like an- it’s a- yeah, it’s part of- it’s Unovan territory, I guess, I know, (0:19:16) Kevin: but it’s like an artificial island sort of thing. (0:19:20) Al: Yeah, they call it like the. (0:19:21) Kevin: Terrarium. (0:19:24) Kevin: Yeah. (0:19:26) Micah: means I almost fear honest I mean it’s the like vibe that I got from it when I yeah we’ll see it’s always we’ll see (0:19:26) Kevin: Yeah. (0:19:28) Al: Yeah, it is pretty much, hopefully less evil, but we’ll see. (0:19:29) Kevin: now. (0:19:31) Kevin: Yeah, [LAUGH] I might get the DLC finally, the trit look. (0:19:40) Al: Oh, they are calling it the ceranium. (0:19:42) Al: They are calling it. (0:19:44) Micah: I was just recently finishing up my Pokedex, my like living decks in Violet in preparation for the DLC, but (0:19:57) Micah: there’s a lot of just figuring out how to who I knew who had the other Sinnoh starters, because you only get the like one egg. (0:20:11) Micah: And it’s dependent on, I guess, dependent on what starter you picked for. (0:20:15) Micah: For scarlet or violet. (0:20:16) Al: I think it was, or maybe it was random, I can’t- (0:20:20) Micah: I feel like it was, yeah, it seemed like from trying to track down where I would find a Piplup, it was, it was through like deduction power, the power of deduction (0:20:34) Micah: through who had what starter from the, from Paldea. (0:20:38) Micah: So I don’t know if that’s actually the case or not, but that’s, that’s how I managed to figure out who had. (0:20:44) Al: Yeah, I could probably find out if I cared enough. (0:20:52) Al: I mean, I still like, I don’t, I’m still enjoying it and I’m really looking forward to the new DLC, but Kevin, you don’t need to play it. (0:21:00) Al: You can just not. (0:21:02) Micah: It’s true. It’s true. I will say that I felt. (0:21:02) Kevin: Look, I’m– (0:21:09) Micah: I think we talked about this the last time I was on, actually. (0:21:10) Al: We did. (0:21:12) Al: We had a whole greenhouse episode about it. (0:21:14) Micah: I finally finished the DLC, the first DLC, because that was the right. (0:21:18) Al: Oh, yes. (0:21:19) Al: Yes. (0:21:19) Al: Cause you hadn’t finished it when we did the greenhouse. (0:21:21) Micah: And that is like rare for me, because I I go (0:21:25) Micah: pretty hard into Pokemon stuff when it launches for the first time. (0:21:28) Micah: So to not do that is kind of a new. (0:21:32) Micah: New and weird thing for me, but I finally finished it and I did enjoy it, but I did feel that it was a very, I don’t know, I just, I’ve, I’m still feeling like I’ve kind of become disillusioned with modern Pokemon to some degree, but. (0:21:49) Kevin: I mean and okay like to not I’m you know, I (0:21:54) Kevin: Notoriously nag on the game, but to pull the veil down a little to be you the more genuine here. I (0:22:00) Kevin: Do think the trailer for the upcoming one part looks good. I’m a bit excited for what I see (0:22:07) Kevin: the only part that (0:22:08) Al: Careful. (0:22:10) Kevin: Yeah, I know the only part that really irritates me is the flying thing how it’s locked behind the DLC because (0:22:18) Al: Yeah, I agree (0:22:19) Kevin: It’s just with knowing how the development cycle works and the timing of everything. It feels very intentional. They put bad flying (0:22:28) Al: Well, here’s the thing, I don’t care if it’s like, “Oh, we couldn’t get it done in time for release,” right? (0:22:34) Al: You still don’t have to lock it behind the DLC. (0:22:34) Kevin: Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Okay. But. (0:22:36) Al: They have updates. (0:22:37) Al: Every game has updates when there’s DLCs. (0:22:40) Al: So you absolutely don’t need to. (0:22:41) Al: It’s absolutely a very specific choice to lock that quality of life feature behind a purchase and that is bad and we should absolutely call that out. (0:22:49) Al: It’s not going to stop me buying the game though. (0:22:52) Micah: Yeah, I’m kind of in the same position. (0:22:56) Micah: I think there’s a lot of stuff that could just generally as far as the development cycle goes could have been changed for the better. (0:23:10) Micah: I had mentioned a little bit the like one time I’ve been on Twitter in the last like month after they talked about the they released. (0:23:22) Micah: It’s the new trailer this last week, I think. (0:23:24) Al: Yeah. (0:23:25) Micah: And they showed off the the like Pokemon control mode. (0:23:30) Micah: I forgot what they call it, but you can control the sync mode where you can control the Pokemon and run around as the Pokemon. (0:23:32) Al: Oh, yes, yeah, synchronize. Yeah. (0:23:32) Kevin: The sync mode thing. (0:23:40) Micah: And it seemingly has not much of a like use case other than you can battle Pokemon, but you just run around as a Pokemon. (0:23:50) Micah: And that to me, it. (0:23:52) Micah: Immediately, like I’d think back to when the games first came out and how much like disgruntledness there was with certain elements of the design that the games design, like how you couldn’t go into any of the houses. (0:24:09) Micah: But then they, you know, when they clipped out of bounds, then they found that there were like half designed internal locations like you could have gone into. (0:24:20) Micah: but it was very clear that they ran. (0:24:22) Micah: Out of time in the development cycle, just couldn’t, uh, so there are things like that where like I, it makes me feel like sync mode. (0:24:29) Micah: It was something that they just ran out of time on. (0:24:32) Al: So that’s possible, but I also think it could be along the lines of, like, let’s go Pikachu and Eevee to Legends, where we saw a clear direction they were moving. (0:24:43) Al: And it’s not necessarily, like, I don’t think anyone would say that the catching in Let’s Go was the way it was because they didn’t have enough time to do what they ended up doing in Legends, but it was more like a kind of moving in that kind of direction. (0:24:57) Al: And we see this with a lot of things in Pokémon where they do that, where it’s like, it’s It’s just a, it’s a. (0:25:02) Al: You’re prerequisite and the kind of like the game, it’s not like here’s a game, let’s build a game. Here’s another game. Let’s build another game, right? Like they’re constantly doing all these different things in these different games and having these different ideas. And that’s true. (0:25:04) Kevin: Yeah, baby steps. (0:25:16) Kevin: These I don’t think these are mutually exclusive either like (0:25:16) Micah: I think that I think that that I agree with that that makes sense. (0:25:22) Micah: But I do feel like there is a level of like (0:25:26) Micah: half baked development process for some of these things. (0:25:30) Micah: And I I am willing to, you know, give (0:25:30) Kevin: Oh, oh, they’re deaf at least. (0:25:34) Micah: well, for like like you said, for let’s go. (0:25:37) Micah: I think the the catch feature for let’s go was meant to more mimic Pokemon. (0:25:41) Micah: Go like it was very clearly there, like (0:25:46) Micah: the motion point between the main games and Pokemon go so that. (0:25:51) Micah: You know, catching style was intended to feel like I mean, it does feel like especially the motion control portion feels like Pokemon go. (0:25:52) Al: I mean, kind of, kind of, but I also like, with then we got only a few years later, legends, (0:26:05) Al: like it feels like it was what they kind of wanted to move towards and they were trying different things and this is what they ended up with. I don’t think it was just like, oh, (0:26:15) Al: let’s just make Pokemon go in a main series game. Like, I think it was, you know, they (0:26:22) Al: had a game which was legends where you were actually running around and literally just throwing Pokeballs at Pokemon, right? But, look, it’s not, yeah, I mean, it does show a flaw in how they developed their games and that these were almost certainly developed in parallel and therefore you can’t know what’s going to be popular and what’s going to end up working really well before you do it the next one. Yeah, I don’t disagree with you. (0:26:30) Kevin: And then they said, “Let’s go backwards at the next game.” (0:26:52) Al: I want that again. But anyway, we don’t need to keep talking about Pokemon. Let’s move on, shall we? This happens every couple of months we end up on another Scarlet and Violet delve. It did, it did. It did, but, you know, I need to save some of my Pokemon talk for a different podcast. Anyway, it’s, wow. Wow. (0:27:03) Kevin: But the trailer just came out. It was… it was gonna- (0:27:16) Kevin: We’re doing a worst games of the year pocket. (0:27:22) Al: Anyway, that’s what we’ve been up to. And I’m glad that we got a good half an hour out of that because there is no news because this is recorded out of time. Because I don’t know about you guys, but I did not want to record this on, you know, Hogman A. So we’re recording it a few weeks early. (0:27:46) Kevin: Where’s your dedication out? (0:27:49) Micah: What do you have things to do geez [laughs] (0:27:52) Al: So yes, yes, I do. So we are here to discuss our favourite games of the year and hopefully come to a conclusion on what the podcast’s game of the year is. So begins the part of the podcast where I read a bunch of words. So I am going to go down all of the games that were released this year. And at what point does this become ridiculous? I don’t know is this the most (0:28:22) Al: games we’ve had released in a year since we started the podcast? (0:28:24) Al: Yes, it absolutely is. (0:28:24) Kevin: Probably. (0:28:26) Al: Absolutely insane. (0:28:27) Al: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, nine. (0:28:29) Kevin: More than three, I’ll tell you that. (0:28:31) Kevin: I didn’t know Homestead Arcana- (0:28:32) Al: So 30, 30, 30 games, (0:28:36) Al: 31, 30, 35 games, and then one, two, three, four, five, six, seven released (0:28:42) Al: into Early Access. So was that 42, 42 games in this list? (0:28:47) Al: So this is the first list is the list of (0:28:50) Al: that were released. (0:28:52) Al: Not into early access and they previously weren’t in early access. (0:28:56) Al: This is brand new games this year. (0:28:58) Al: Brand new games not early access. (0:29:00) Al: I don’t know why I overcomplicated this, but here this is what we’re doing. (0:29:04) Al: So this is Above Snakes, Before the Green Moon, Everdream Valley, Fae Farm, Farming Simulator 23, Flutter Away, Garden Buddies, Garden Inn, Harvest Moon, The Winds of Anthos, Homestead Arcana, Enchanted, Loddle Knot, (0:29:20) Al: Maneko’s Night Market. (0:29:22) Al: And this is me just double-taking. (0:29:48) Micah: Now if you thought that was it. (0:29:52) Kevin: I’m gonna feel bad when one of the real games of the year is in here and the ones that I didn’t play. (0:29:52) Al: Well, this is part of the problem. (0:30:00) Al: So next we have five games that were released in 1.0 this year and early access a previous year. (0:30:07) Al: OK, so they were already out, but they came to their 1.0. (0:30:11) Al: They left early access this year. (0:30:13) Al: That’s a better way of describing it. (0:30:14) Al: These games left early access this year. (0:30:16) Al: And we have Icone Island, Mindrop, Sunhaven, Coral– (0:30:22) Al: Island, and Disney Dreamlight Valley. (0:30:24) Al: And then we have the list of seven games that came into early access this year. (0:30:28) Al: And that is Cornucopia, Fabledom, Moonlight in Garland, One Lonely Outpost, (0:30:35) Al: Research Story, Song of the Prairie, and Snacko. (0:30:39) Al: Hey, Micah, is this the first time you’re learning that Snacko’s in early access? (0:30:42) Al: Or did you know that already? (0:30:43) Micah: Uh, no, yesterday when I opened Notion was the first time I learned this neck wasn’t really (0:30:50) Al: Well, surprise! (0:30:52) Al: in early access now. (0:30:55) Micah: I have I’ve played the betas or the alphas, sorry. (0:31:01) Micah: And I have decided that I don’t want to do much more with the game until it (0:31:10) Micah: they get a full release because I love it. (0:31:13) Micah: love it so far and I don’t want to overdo it. (0:31:16) Kevin: Yep, don’t burn yourself out on it. I know somebody who was a big fan of Hades, but they only played in the Early Access and they burned themselves out. (0:31:23) Micah: I don’t think I could burn myself out on it really as much as it’s just that like, I don’t want to miss out like because I backed it. And I want to, I don’t know, experience the full experience I’ve experienced so much of it at this point. (0:31:38) Al: I think that’s fair. I got to the same point with Coral Island last year where I was like, (0:31:43) Al: “And now I’m going to put it down into 1.0.” But I mean, that was like 40 hours or 50 hours or something like that. It was more than I play a lot of games, you know? And I didn’t feel like playing that much ruined the experience for me when I came to the final version, because I’ve put in more than… I’m up to 100 hours now in that game. So I think it depends on the game. (0:31:55) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:32:07) Al: Uhh. (0:32:07) Al: Ah. (0:32:08) Al: But that is a fair point. (0:32:11) Al: I have not decided what I’m going to do with Snacko. (0:32:14) Al: I’ve not decided yet. (0:32:16) Kevin: Why did nobody tell me homestead arcana came out? I would have played it, I missed that. (0:32:21) Al: Kevin! (0:32:23) Kevin: I’ve been here. (0:32:24) Micah: Have I got news for you. (0:32:29) Al: Kevin, you literally, we literally have a shared list of all of these games and when they coming out, you can look at it all the time and I’m constantly updating it just to let you know that is a thing. (0:32:31) Kevin: Well, hey. (0:32:42) Kevin: You assume I read these even when we’re recording. (0:32:43) Al: Nope, I don’t assume that at all, but I will complain about it. (0:32:49) Al: So any thoughts before we get into listing our favorite games, any thoughts on the list as a whole? (0:32:56) Al: Here we go. (0:32:56) Kevin: Umm… (0:32:57) Kevin: Ugh… (0:32:58) Micah: It’s a good list (0:32:59) Kevin: It’s a very good list. It’s too good. (0:33:01) Micah: It’s a strong list that I (0:33:06) Micah: when I opened this this document and looked at it I was a (0:33:11) Micah: Surprised that so many games had come out this year and be a little bit (0:33:17) Micah: Concerned about how few of these games I actually played (0:33:20) Kevin: Exactly! (0:33:22) Kevin: Alright, time to strike out all the ones none of us have played. (0:33:26) Al: Yeah, no, that’s fair. And I think it is interesting, right? Because like, I’ve now been tracking these games. I think I have all of the farming games that have released ever now in my list. (0:33:36) Al: And so that’s 47 this year. Last year, there were 24. In 2021, there were 15. In 2020, (0:33:46) Al: there were nine. In 2019, there were 13. And then we’ve got like, between 2016 and 2018, (0:33:54) Al: were 16. (0:33:56) Al: So that’s like a three-year span, and they were the same number as they were in 2021. (0:34:03) Al: And then 2010 to 2015, there were 12 of them, half of which were just farming simulator, (0:34:10) Kevin: Yeah. (0:34:10) Al: and the other half were just harvest moon. (0:34:13) Al: That’s not true. (0:34:16) Al: There were three harvest moons, two rune factories in one story of seasons, and an animal crossing. (0:34:21) Al: So the rest were farming simulator. (0:34:23) Al: And then the five years before that, there were 17. (0:34:26) Al: It is wild that Stardew Valley is eight years old in February, just saying. (0:34:36) Kevin: Yup, thanks Stardew Valley. (0:34:43) Kevin: You changed the whole landscape of the genre of gaming, thanks. (0:34:50) Kevin: I thought it was older, to be honest. (0:34:53) Al: No, 2016. (0:34:56) Al: Right. (0:34:56) Al: Well, I mean, shall we get right into it then? (0:34:59) Al: Let’s go for one each around, what should we do around the table? (0:35:04) Al: One each. (0:35:04) Kevin: All right. (0:35:05) Al: And we can tell, say what the game is and tell me why you’ve got it in the list. (0:35:12) Al: And we’re not doing, no, it’s a terrible game. (0:35:15) Al: So Micah, would you like to go with your first one? (0:35:18) Micah: Uhhh… Can I go with my wildcard first? (0:35:20) Al: You can, you can go in whatever order you want. (0:35:22) Al: If you want to leave your strongest for last, go for it. (0:35:25) Al: if you want to start with your strong. (0:35:26) Al: Go for it if you want to do your crazy one first, do what you want. (0:35:29) Micah: I’m going to get my wild card out of the way because I know that it’s not going to go very far so. (0:35:31) Al: Let’s go for it. (0:35:34) Al: Never assume these things, you have no idea what’s going to happen. (0:35:37) Micah: OK, that’s true. You’re right. My my. (0:35:37) Kevin: I, I, yep, I. (0:35:39) Al: Oh wait, before we get into that, let me just quickly. (0:35:45) Al: I want to go through what we have had as our games of the year in the past. (0:35:51) Al: Last year, Ooblets won. (0:35:54) Al: 2022, Ooblets won. (0:35:57) Al: But it did. (0:35:58) Al: 2021 was Spiritfarer. (0:36:01) Al: 2020 was Summer in Mara. (0:36:04) Al: And 2019 was the Raymon Story of Seasons. (0:36:07) Kevin: Wildflower was robbed. (0:36:09) Micah: What year was Wildflowers? (0:36:11) Kevin: I don’t I (0:36:11) Micah: Oh. I mean. (0:36:11) Al: Yeah, Wildflowers last year. (0:36:13) Micah: Ooblitz though. (0:36:16) Al: None of the three of us had played it. (0:36:18) Al: And Kevin, you hadn’t played it by that point either. (0:36:20) Al: So… (0:36:21) Micah: Also- Also Ooblitz is- (0:36:21) Kevin: That is correct. (0:36:26) Al: Ooblets was the only… (0:36:27) Al: Well, you hadn’t played Ooblets, but me and Bev had. (0:36:30) Micah: Yes. (0:36:31) Al: And you had a wild card last year as well. (0:36:33) Al: So what’s your wild card this year? (0:36:35) Micah: What was my wildcard last year? (0:36:37) Al: Shinshan Summer Vacation. (0:36:38) Micah: Oh, I mean, that is actually I still stand by that. (0:36:44) Al: Look, I’m not saying it’s a bat, I’m just saying. (0:36:46) Al: Like it was a little bit out of life field, (0:36:47) Al: neither of us had heard of that game before you brought it up. (0:36:50) Micah: Well, let me tell you about my wildcard for this year, which I guarantee you have heard of. (0:36:55) Micah: There is absolutely no scenario where you have not heard of this game. (0:37:00) Micah: Are you ready? (0:37:02) Kevin: Is it the princess game? (0:37:03) Micah: It is Fortnite. (0:37:07) Al: OK, why? (0:37:08) Al: OK, so you– wait, no, no, right. (0:37:10) Al: OK, so, Micah, you’re telling me that over the past three days, (0:37:12) Micah: Uh-huh. Yeah. (0:37:16) Micah: Yes. (0:37:17) Al: you have played this game enough to consider it one of your favourite games of the year? (0:37:20) Micah: I would say that there’s a reason that it’s a wild card. (0:37:27) Micah: And I would say that it is probably the reason that it’s in my list is not because I would (0:37:33) Micah: personally consider it one of my favorite games of the year. (0:37:36) Micah: But I think that it is a very important bridge (0:37:42) Micah: for the wider Fortnite audience, which is massive, into the world of farming sims. (0:37:50) Al: Well, we will have talked about it in a previous episode, so. (0:37:50) Kevin: And hey, if we let them win… (0:37:52) Micah: For anybody that is confused by this and doesn’t understand why Fortnite is part of this conversation, (0:37:59) Micah: they just released… (0:38:02) Micah: Yes, the Fortnite, the LEGO Fortnite mode has been released as of three days ago. So… (0:38:10) Al: And for some reason, it’s basically Minecraft, but with more farming. It’s wild! (0:38:10) Kevin: Minecraft for tonight. (0:38:12) Micah: Yes, and also as Legos, and it’s in Fortnite. (0:38:15) Kevin: Yeah. (0:38:18) Micah: I don’t really know if there’s aside from skins and characters, there’s not. (0:38:21) Kevin: Wait, is it actually Lego brand? Lego? What? Holy moly. (0:38:24) Al: It is, it is. (0:38:25) Micah: Yes, it’s actually Lego brand. (0:38:28) Micah: And it’s you are just building Lego, (0:38:30) Micah: like a Lego like homestead basically of a village in the wild. (0:38:36) Kevin: That’s… (0:38:37) Micah: It’s essentially a survival, it’s more of a survival game than it is like (0:38:42) Kevin: Mm-hmm. (0:38:42) Micah: a farming sim. (0:38:43) Micah: So it’s more like you gotta eat and you gotta, there is, (0:38:44) Kevin: It’s all Minecraft. (0:38:44) Al: Yeah, but there does seem to be a decent amount of farming in it. (0:38:49) Micah: there is a decent amount of farming in it. (0:38:51) Micah: And I’ll say that I have played quite a bit of it because the team that I work with has been very into it. (0:38:59) Micah: So, and prior to that coming out, we had all been playing Ark, (0:39:06) Al: » Okay. Yeah. (0:39:06) Micah: the dinosaur survival game. (0:39:09) Micah: So we had a server that we were playing that on. (0:39:11) Micah: So when a new survive. (0:39:12) Micah: Survival type game released and it’s Fortnite and it’s free and it’s Lego then we were like, okay, well, let’s play this instead so we have been playing quite a bit of it and it’s I was a little bit shocked at how good of an experience it is because it’s it it’s just odd because it’s got other than the skins and the characters there’s and I guess the the game that it that you access it from there’s nothing related to Fortnite really it’s super obvious. (0:39:19) Al: suck (0:39:44) Al: No. Well, I think your character is in the beginning based on the main, the base Fortnite playable character, right? Yeah. It’s not Fortnite. It’s not Fortnite at all. So a couple of things I found interesting about this. So first of all, it made me realize that Fortnite is not just Fortnite anymore, right? Like Fortnite was just a battle royale, but that is just one of eight different game modes, right? Absolutely wild to me. (0:39:52) Micah: Yes. Yeah. So aside from the characters, I mean, it’s it’s really there’s not a lot of no, it’s not a (0:40:06) Kevin: Oh, it hasn’t been for a while. (0:40:08) Micah: Yeah. Right. (0:40:14) Al: That’s the point now. And second of all, not only is this, it’s like, it’s not just Fortnite, but Lego. It’s Fortnite, but Lego, if they made it Minecraft, but with more farming. (0:40:30) Al: And I am just, it’s just so fascinating. So I haven’t played a huge amount of it. I’ve downloaded it and I’ve started playing it and I’ve kind of done the first couple of things. And it’s not really grabbing me. I don’t think I’m going to spend a huge amount of time on it, but I think (0:40:44) Al: so. Minecraft, when we covered Minecraft on the podcast, it was, it was a bit of a stretch, (0:40:48) Al: right? There is farming, but it’s very limited. It’s like, it was four crops or something. There might be more now. Minecraft has done a lot since then, but it felt like a bit of a stretch. (0:40:58) Micah: Yeah, there is a significant differences between, you know, yeah, there’s quite a bit to do in Fortnite now, or in Minecraft, I mean. (0:41:05) Al: Yeah, but this feels like a legit farming game, but it’s not cottagecore. It’s survival farming game. (0:41:06) Kevin: Minecraft has not stopped growing, they do annual updates. (0:41:16) Micah: Mm hmm. (0:41:19) Micah: Yeah, so I guess it kind of it also is a little bit of like how you play it. (0:41:24) Micah: So like, granted, there is a survival aspect that needs to be taken care of. (0:41:29) Micah: But depending on who you’re playing with or the the you know, (0:41:32) Micah: there is a like peaceful mode that you can do similar to what Minecraft had, (0:41:36) Al: That’s a good point. (0:41:36) Micah: where it’s not really you don’t have to play the survival mode. (0:41:40) Micah: You can play it just for the sake of like, you know, (0:41:43) Micah: the kind of like sandbox aspect of it. (0:41:46) Micah: Where you’re building stuff and doing whatever you want. (0:41:46) Kevin: farming and whatnot. (0:41:48) Micah: Yeah. (0:41:49) Micah: But, you know, like with my group, I’m not as big into the survival aspects of it. (0:41:54) Micah: Like I don’t particularly care about, you know, min maxing food and water and so on and so forth. (0:42:01) Micah: I’m more into the like building and designing and, you know, farming and that stuff. (0:42:07) Micah: So I kind of take on that role while everybody else takes on the survival portion of it. (0:42:14) Micah: So there are different ways. (0:42:16) Micah: Is to be able to play it that make it a little bit more of like a comfortable experience. (0:42:22) Micah: I mean, I literally built a cottage, so I don’t know, you know. (0:42:25) Al: Yeah, that’s, I think that’s totally fair. I guess my point of what I was saying was, (0:42:26) Kevin: Nice. Well, there you go. (0:42:31) Al: was like, I think this is much more legitimate as a farming game than Minecraft was when, (0:42:38) Al: when we covered it. So I think it’s, it’s totally fair to count this as a farming game. (0:42:39) Micah: Right. (0:42:40) Kevin: Yeah. (0:42:42) Al: So maybe I should add it into the list as Lego Fortnite. Um, but here’s a question for you. Does this make Fortnite the most downloaded farming game ever? (0:42:44) Kevin: Oh, there you go. (0:42:54) Micah: That’s why I I’ve included it because I think it is important touchstone in the history of farming games where it (0:42:54) Kevin: Absolutely. (0:43:05) Micah: There’s a possibility I can see a world in which people who play this (0:43:10) Micah: Enjoy it enjoy the like farming aspects of it want more of that and branch out into other farming type games (0:43:17) Micah: because there is such a broad audience for fortnight that (0:43:21) Micah: You know and it’s there’s such a broad (0:43:24) Micah: Audience for Lego - that there is a good (0:43:30) Micah: Possibility that it creates more farming game fans, which I’m all for (0:43:35) Al: I’ve added it into the list and also I need to add one more that I forgot, which was Hello Kitty Island Adventure. (0:43:42) Kevin: Oh, yeah, well (0:43:42) Micah: I did see that that was missing from the list and I didn’t know if that was intentional or not so it just… (0:43:46) Al: Oh, you should have brought it up. Come on. (0:43:46) Kevin: Glaring a bit omission this entire show is a sham (0:43:51) Al: Look, look, we’re now up to 49 games, right? I’m sorry, I can’t keep track of the ball. (0:43:56) Kevin: It’s quick Somebody find one more quick Um one well, you know though what we have to do is we have to let fortnite win (0:44:03) Kevin: So we can get that sponsorship money. Welcome to the harvest season of fortnite podcast (0:44:06) Micah: - It’s true. (0:44:09) Micah: Of Fortnite, but I never, I just did not ever foresee (0:44:15) Micah: there being a scenario where in the farming game of the year discussion or just in general on a harvest season episode that I would be bringing up Fortnite in a like semi-serious way. (0:44:26) Kevin: Yeah, one thing I will I haven’t played Fortnite ever, but from what I understand, every time they bring in these new distinct modes or gameplay elements, it’s always very polished and good quality. (0:44:44) Kevin: Like they brought in Spider-Man swinging and Attack on Titan, so I’m not surprised that this is high quality and that’s a lot of money being thrown at this Lego money, Fortnite money. (0:44:57) Al: Alright, well, you’re probably right, it’s probably not going to win, but it’s there, (0:45:02) Al: it’s in the list, not many games get into the list. So, there we go. No, into the list of the two, there’s only nine. It’s only nine. Alright, Kevin, what’s your first? (0:45:06) Kevin: Nope just 48 others. Oh (0:45:10) Kevin: Our list, okay (0:45:15) Kevin: My first one I’m going to go with (0:45:19) Kevin: Manekos night market a shocker to everyone the game I’ve been pining for for how many years now. Oh (0:45:27) Kevin: gosh (0:45:28) Al: Like five, like maybe six. (0:45:31) Kevin: Yeah, I don’t know something like (0:45:32) Al: I think it was six years ago it was first. (0:45:33) Kevin: well (0:45:36) Kevin: Yeah, I think it’s I’ve the fact that I waited that long and still was happy with what came out I think is a testament to how good the game is (0:45:48) Kevin: Obviously, I haven’t played all these other games and it probably not even the ones on your guys list but I (0:45:54) Kevin: Out of the ones I see here. I probably I would argue it has the most personality and charm (0:46:02) Kevin: the art, the sort of craft book art. (0:46:06) Kevin: It has gone very, very enjoyable. (0:46:10) Kevin: I haven’t beaten it myself, right? (0:46:12) Kevin: It loses some points because it came out with a handful of bugs and rough edges. (0:46:18) Kevin: But it’s still a game that makes me smile every time. (0:46:24) Kevin: So yeah, I gotta give a shout out to Maneko because I think it actually did deliver. (0:46:30) Kevin: Um, obviously, you know, it’s not the scale of tears that– (0:46:36) Kevin: Kingdom waiting six years for that or whatever, but for the get what it set out to be from all the trailers and whatnot, I think it delivered. It’s very cute, which I appreciate now. I have cats myself. Yeah. (0:46:48) Al: Yeah, totally fair, and it is still the wallpaper on my phone and has been for like seven months, (0:46:57) Kevin: Yeah, there you go. Also actually one thing I (0:47:01) Kevin: Yeah, that’s the good stuff (0:47:04) Kevin: one thing I do want to add (0:47:06) Kevin: Go on as we talked about in the episode. We talked about it. Um, the (0:47:11) Kevin: titular night market part of it is very fun (0:47:15) Kevin: Auctioning going into little bid war with customers to sell who and make profits and whatnot (0:47:20) Kevin: I don’t think a lot of these other games are focused on that like making money (0:47:26) Kevin: So that was (0:47:27) Kevin: a refreshing angle approaching the whole cottagecore thing. (0:47:32) Kevin: And again, just very fun points for that. (0:47:36) Al: Awesome. (0:47:36) Micah: Uh, I, are, are we just for the sake of the structure? (0:47:43) Micah: Are we just going through our picks and then discussing them or are we? (0:47:48) Al: If you have more to talk about that game just now, then feel free. (0:47:53) Al: We don’t need to discuss whether it’s the winner yet or not. (0:47:55) Micah: Sure, uh, oh (0:47:55) Al: And don’t say whether it’s on your list yet or not. (0:47:56) Kevin: Yeah. (0:47:58) Al: We’ll get to that. (0:47:59) Micah: Okay, I (0:48:00) Kevin: Alright. (0:48:03) Kevin: Michael, what’s next on your list? (0:48:03) Al: Right, we don’t want to look, Micah, we have a collapsed list for the suspense. (0:48:05) Micah: Didn’t didn’t say one way or another (0:48:05) Kevin: I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Ow, ow. (0:48:11) Al: We’re keeping the suspense, even if it might really be obvious now. (0:48:12) Micah: Okay, you’re right you’re right you’re right (0:48:14) Kevin: Alright. (0:48:16) Micah: It’s not though cuz I’m changing it at the moment I’m typing no, I’m just kidding [laughing] (0:48:18) Al: All right. I’ll go with my wild card. No, no, come on. I’m going with my wild card, (0:48:24) Kevin: Alright, ow. (0:48:26) Kevin

Codey and Jonnie talk about Disney Dreamlight Valley Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:25: What Have We Been Up To 00:07:41: News 00:39:07: Disney Dreamlight Valley: The Second Harvest 01:23:09: Outro Links NPR Best Video Games 2023 Moonstone Island Update and DLC Dredge x Dave The Diver Palia Coming To Switch Harvest Moon 64 On NSO Lego Fortnite Ooblets Plushies Loose Leaf Rusty’s Retirement Home Free Bug and Seek 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) Codey: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Cody (0:00:35) Jonnie: And my name is Johnny (0:00:36) Codey: And we’re here today to talk about cottagecore games (0:00:43) Codey: Though I am also prepared to talk about goblin core games because I just got a goblin core (0:00:50) Codey: Coloring book and it has a lot of like moths and snails and other like cute things And I really like it. I’m excited to color in it (0:01:00) Codey: Probably the Cody season cuz everyone says I am I am Goblin Corps. (0:01:00) Jonnie: name like what would the harvest season be if it was if we went full goblin core (0:01:08) Codey: [LAUGH] Nobody, nobody wants that. (0:01:08) Jonnie: all right welcome everyone to the Cody season (0:01:15) Codey: Transcribs are always available in the show notes and on the website. (0:01:19) Codey: So you can go there to find those if you need them. (0:01:21) Codey: Today, Johnny and I will be doing a second harvest of Disney Dreamlight Valley. (0:01:25) Codey: Johnny, you’re on the original episode, yeah? (0:01:28) Jonnie: Yeah, that was my first appearance on The Heart of Season because I loved Disney Dreamlight Valley. Do I still love it? We can find out. (0:01:36) Codey: Stay tuned. (0:01:37) Codey: So yeah, we’re going to be talking about that. (0:01:40) Codey: I started playing it a couple of months ago, maybe, (0:01:43) Codey: because of this episode. (0:01:44) Codey: So you’re getting someone from really early on and the early access to someone who is more recent. (0:01:50) Codey: And then it came out two days ago as of this recording, (0:01:54) Codey: three days ago as of this recording. (0:01:57) Codey: Three days for me, four days for you, Johnny. (0:02:00) Codey: And so we might have– I think that they’re– (0:02:06) Codey: there were some changes. (0:02:06) Codey: Some things changed when the 1.0 came out. (0:02:11) Codey: So we’re going to discuss those, discuss our thoughts. (0:02:13) Codey: Before that, there is, of course, always news. (0:02:17) Codey: A shocking amount of news, given that I just recorded about news without two days ago. (0:02:24) Codey: Oh, how things change. (0:02:25) Codey: But first, we’re going to talk about what we’ve been up to. (0:02:27) Codey: Johnny, what have you been up to? (0:02:28) Jonnie: What have I been up to? I tried to jump on the Coral Island train and I was playing it on Xbox and (0:02:36) Jonnie: Unfortunately, the game is in a state where there’s some pretty game-breaking bugs early on. So I really like what I’ve played (0:02:44) Jonnie: but currently there’s a bug where the game crashes when you donate your 10th item to the museum and (0:02:50) Jonnie: I like donating things to museums and games and I (0:02:55) Jonnie: I kind of hit that bug and it really just made me not want to pull it. (0:02:58) Jonnie: So I like the idea of Coral Island but I had to put it down to wait for bugs to be fixed, which is a bit of a shame. (0:03:08) Jonnie: And other than that I’ve been playing Forza Motorsport because the new one of those just dropped and there’s something nice about car racing games where you can kind of switch your brain off, like not fully. (0:03:20) Jonnie: You know, just enough to be like “when do I brake? When do I turn?” and I like the more sort of simulation style. (0:03:28) Jonnie: I kind of like the Forza Horizon, which is more arcadey style racing. (0:03:33) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:03:34) Jonnie: So I’ve kind of just been enjoying that, where you sort of jump on, do a race, it takes like 10-20 minutes or something. (0:03:40) Jonnie: And then it’s kind of just a nice little reset. So I probably won’t stick with it for that long because it’s just on Game Pass, which is nice. (0:03:48) Jonnie: And Game Pass continues to just be awesome. (0:03:51) Codey: Yeah, I agree. So I have been, I got it, gosh, I got it for, actually I got it for Farming Simulator with you. (0:03:59) Codey: And then I forgot to get rid of it, and then I was looking at what was available on it, (0:04:04) Codey: and I saw that things like Disney Dreamlight Valley, Menacos Night Market, Coral Island, (0:04:09) Codey: like all of these different things were available on it. (0:04:11) Codey: And so I was like, hmm, well, guess I’m gonna stick with Game Pass for a while, because it is really nice. (0:04:17) Codey: nice. It’s giving the opportunity to play. (0:04:21) Codey: Do you play Trackmania? (0:04:22) Jonnie: Yeah, and it’s just a nice way to to try some stuff out right without expending a bunch of money (0:04:28) Codey: Do you play Trackmania? (0:04:30) Jonnie: I do not play track mania. I feel like I need to look up track mania (0:04:31) Codey: Okay. So Trackmania is kind of like what you’re saying, like it’s a race style game that’s not, it doesn’t feel like an arcade style. (0:04:43) Codey: It feels like kind of more of a real thing, but you’re basically racing against your own time. (0:04:49) Codey: time. You know now that I’m talking about (0:04:50) Jonnie: Ooh, okay. (0:04:51) Codey: it it sounds like an arcade one but it does it it feels really cool and there are whole there are streamers that play trackmania that have like setups that mimic cars that do like the pedals actually like are pressure sensed so they’ll like gas as much as they as they push and stuff like that it gets really crazy so there’s a decent amount of people out there doing it I believe it’s free that’s pretty cool (0:05:20) Jonnie: I might have to give that a go. (0:05:21) Codey: Yeah, definitely. (0:05:24) Jonnie: But yeah, other than that, I haven’t been gaming too much, so that’s where I’m at. Cody, what have you been up to? (0:05:30) Codey: I have been playing Disney Dreamlight Valley surprise surprise, but also my Tetris game as always (0:05:40) Codey: Hilariously I think over the last (0:05:44) Codey: Two days I’m loading it right now. I am almost at a million points (0:05:51) Codey: 986,000 points and (0:05:53) Codey: There is a cruise available right now. That is one and a half million (0:05:58) Codey: They have a thing going on right now where you get five times bonus points. I honestly have no idea. But I’m getting like five times the amount of VIP points that I have been. I don’t know, it’s like a whole other thing. So I’ve been playing quite a bit and I went from I think I was like five hundred fifty thousand about a week ago and I’ve just been Tetris-ing up a storm. So that’s exciting. Crews on the horizon. I did calculate it. So the (0:06:31) Codey: points pay for the cabin, which is about a thousand dollars. But I still have to pay a lot of money. (0:06:38) Codey: So it’s not like it’s a free, it’s not a free cruise. No, I always want to have that cruise in my back pocket. But yeah, so this… Well, you say Tetris-cult, there’s… (0:06:42) Jonnie: See, this is how they get you. (0:06:46) Jonnie: Cody, I feel like we might need an intervention. (0:06:56) Jonnie: Well, you and your titress cult seem to be going well. (0:07:00) Codey: it’s a cult of one. I don’t know anyone else that I’ve gotten into this game. I don’t… like everyone just makes fun of me for it. And I’m spitefully going to play it more because of that. (0:07:12) Jonnie: Sorry, the Tetris cult that you are blindfully a part of and haven’t realized yet. (0:07:15) Codey: Oh, okay, cool. Yes. If you are also part of the Tetris cult, please, please reach for it. Reach out. (0:07:20) Codey: I would… I don’t… I don’t want to be alone in the Tetris cult. Yeah, so that’s… I mean, (0:07:29) Codey: And those are, I’ve been playing. (0:07:30) Codey: I’ve been really focused on research and life, life stuff, so, um, yeah, that’s what we’ve been playing. (0:07:40) Jonnie: All right, well, shall we… yeah, shall we talk about some news? (0:07:41) Codey: Woo. (0:07:42) Codey: Yeah, we should. (0:07:44) Codey: Well, so some of it, um, NPR put out their best new games, 2023 article. (0:07:46) Jonnie: Because it’s been two days, so there’s only like, you know, an hour’s worth of news here to talk about. (0:07:56) Codey: The article is linked in the show notes. (0:07:58) Codey: It’s games. (0:07:59) Codey: I think for all it’s (0:08:00) Codey: it’s not just Xbox PlayStation and Nintendo. I think it also has like Steam games and stuff on it. (0:08:07) Codey: But so each they basically NPR went around to a bunch of their (0:08:13) Codey: production people like the people who make NPR run and asked them for game recommendations and what games they thought were the best games of this year. And some of the games include things that like that you would expect like Baldur’s Gate. But there were also some that were games that we have covered on this pod. (0:08:30) Codey: And I think it’s nice to just shout them out a little bit. (0:08:34) Codey: So first we have Terranil, which was recommended by Alex Curley, (0:08:38) Codey: who is the product manager in distribution. (0:08:41) Codey: Chia by Graham– oh, Raboon. (0:08:46) Codey: I’m going to butcher half these names. (0:08:48) Jonnie: Sure (0:08:49) Codey: A software engineer in publishing, Venba, (0:08:52) Codey: which was suggested by Rakisha Chase-Jackson, (0:08:56) Codey: who’s the project manager and member partnership. (0:08:57) Codey: Hello Kitty Ireland adventure suggested by (0:09:00) Codey: Nina Phil project coordinator and training and then we have a couple here that have like (0:09:05) Codey: because each of these they don’t just like say the name they also have like kind of a little blurb about the game um and recommending it and some of the blurbs had some pretty funny things so I have a couple that I pulled out here so Fey Farm which we did the Fey Farm episode didn’t we um I was about to say you did that episode I’m like no no I was also there um Arfy Getty the producer of one (0:09:22) Jonnie: We did. (0:09:31) Codey: said quote but while Fey Farm nails many elements of cozy games it doesn’t compare to Stardew Valley’s deep cast of characters to court and befriend Azoria’s residents ring hollow with extremely repetitive dialogue if I hear quote I’m looking forward to planting my spring crops one more time I’ll snap though the game doesn’t offer many surprises I still find myself coming back to it um I think I remember you saying this right that you thought that the characters were very two-dimensional. (0:09:58) Jonnie: Hey. (0:10:00) Jonnie: Two-dimensional, and I think I kind of came to that realization on like day one. (0:10:05) Jonnie: So, for me reading this I was like, yes, that is exactly how I feel about a farm. (0:10:12) Jonnie: Though I don’t know that since we did that episode I felt a strong pull to go back to that game, (0:10:17) Jonnie: because it’s kind of like a pretty exterior. But as Aafi says, it’s hollow on the inside. (0:10:24) Codey: Oh no. My comment for this is that it seems like a bad relationship. Can someone please check on Arfy for us? Thank you. And I will be checking on Johnny. Nina Phil recommended still the project coordinator from training. Also recommended Meneko’s Night Market. And I loved her blurb here. Quote, “There are so.many.cats.” First you have to evade the the secretive suit-clad agent. (0:10:54) Codey: the suit-made agent. (0:11:20) Jonnie: Or alternatively listen to the episode that is it Kevin now who who did the minifres night market episode (0:11:24) Codey: Mm-hm. (0:11:27) Jonnie: It’s it’s a great cozy little game. I I agree with pretty much everything That was that was said here except I kind of now want to see the vomiting of hairballs on screen That sounds kind of funny to be honest (0:11:27) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:11:36) Codey: No, I’m good. (0:11:39) Codey: Do you have you owned a cat ever? (0:11:41) Codey: Okay, that is like the one thing I always love like my dogs. (0:11:47) Codey: I I’ll sleep through anything. (0:11:49) Codey: I will sleep through my dog like, like literally like ripping apart an entire toilet paper roll before I’ve done that like I’ve woken up and been like, it looks like a toilet paper roll just like exploded in my room. (0:12:06) Codey: I’ll sleep through a lot of things, but cats throwing up is not one of them. (0:12:12) Jonnie: Mean it’s not great, but that’s kind of why I want to see it in a game like this because I think it’d be pretty funny (0:12:18) Codey: It would be cute if it was if they were vomit if they were if it was a cute hairball, but it’s really hard to make that cute. (0:12:26) Codey: Um, though if they could minute the people at Meneco would be able to do it. (0:12:32) Codey: of seasons a wonderful life. So our last two blurbs come from back. (0:12:36) Codey: Becky Brown, Becky, you, you nail in this, uh, broadcast recording technician. Um, first one was for story of seasons, wonderful life. Quote, I am more romantically attracted to the games spreadsheets than any of its wooden bachelor or bachelorettes who never changed their small talk even after you dutifully court them for three months with milk, soup and old coins. The obligatory divinely delivered child that you produce with your chosen spouse (0:13:06) Codey: or conversation. But remember, if you’d like to encourage their artistic talent, refuse any physical affection and schedule the play dates with the local pyrotechnics. Pyro technicians. (0:13:18) Codey: Like your child communicates so well that if you want them to be an artist that you have to like send them off to the, the local emos. Okay. (0:13:22) Jonnie: I mean, I love this description, it’s so good. (0:13:32) Jonnie: I mean, that’s how good artists get made, right? (0:13:36) Codey: You have to have some sort of solitude, some sort of deep. Yeah, for sure. Uh, and then Becky’s final suggestion was Moonstone Island. Quote, whatever genre mashup Moonstone Island may present itself as it’s ultimately a floating islands creature collector. Such a burn. Like, (0:13:56) Codey: I mean, she still recommended it. It’s so it’s like a burn, but it’s also, it’s like a self, it’s like a self aware burn of like, I’m playing this game. I recommend this game, (0:14:06) Codey: like it’s doing. And I’m just going to tell you, this is what it’s doing. So. (0:14:08) Jonnie: Right? (0:14:10) Jonnie: I feel like that’s so many cottagecore games in 2023 though, right? They’re like, (0:14:14) Jonnie: “We are a dick building, cozy, farm, life sim, MMO, RPG, (0:14:21) Jonnie: roguelite.” And it’s just like, just be one of those. Just one. That’s all. (0:14:22) Codey: Yep. And then, and then the DLC will add a rhythm based game, like the DLC will change something like change the game completely. So stupid. (0:14:38) Codey: Yeah, so that was that. There are a bunch of other games that they suggest some of which are good games that I have played or seen and wanted to play. (0:14:48) Codey: but obviously it was like 90 games or something. (0:14:52) Codey: It was a lot of games on that list, so if you want to see what other games the NPR folks have, that link is in the show notes. (0:15:00) Jonnie: And if you’re like me and surprised that MTS still exists. (0:15:05) Codey: Does New Zealand not have an NPR? (0:15:10) Jonnie: I mean, I feel like the era of NPR podcasts being the thing is dead, and the world is better for that. (0:15:17) Codey: Well, it’s not just podcasts, so it’s just national public radio. (0:15:17) Jonnie: I do not like their style of podcasts. (0:15:26) Codey: I can tune into it on my car ride to school. (0:15:28) Jonnie: Oh yeah, we definitely don’t have that. That’s another thing. (0:15:30) Codey: Okay. (0:15:31) Codey: Yeah, because it’s something I listen to on my car ride. (0:15:35) Codey: They have podcasts or certain section segments of NPR that they put out in a podcast form, (0:15:45) Codey: but it is not solely podcasts. (0:15:47) Codey: It’s for me, it’s mostly “Wow, it’s eight and I’m driving to school. Let me see what’s on the news.” (0:15:55) Codey: And two seconds later I’m like, “That’s enough.” (0:15:59) Jonnie: Yeah news is depressing except for the news that we have because you know our news is very uplifting (0:16:00) Codey: The world sucks. (0:16:04) Codey: Like the Game Awards? (0:16:05) Jonnie: This is this is just be our only news source. Well, I say that and then we go into the game awards, which you know Game Awards sucks. So (0:16:12) Codey: Yeah, uh game awards were yesterday Baldur’s Gate seemed to sweep I actually didn’t even see if they won best game or anything, but I’m assuming so they I was scrolling through to find (0:16:22) Codey: Anything that’s relevant to this to this podcast and I was like baldur gate. Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm. Yep, but (0:16:30) Codey: for the games for impact category, which is a category that is (0:16:35) Codey: The winner is a thought-provoking game with a pro social meaning or message the winner with this year was Chia (0:16:42) Codey: so awesome Chia is the (0:16:44) Codey: super cute little game set in New Caledon. (0:16:47) Codey: and it has a lot of culturally aware and culturally relevant material from New Caledonia and that’s awesome. (0:16:55) Codey: So yay Chia, good job. (0:16:58) Jonnie: I refuse to acknowledge the game awards. (0:17:01) Codey: Okay, cool. (0:17:04) Codey: Cool. The Game Awards, you mean Moonstone Island, which is our next piece of news. (0:17:10) Jonnie: Yes, yes. (0:17:10) Codey: We honestly should have put the Game Awards before the NPR thinks then the Moonstone Island news would have flowed seamlessly. (0:17:15) Codey: Al if you can just like (0:17:17) Codey: Do some edit wizardry editing. No, don’t do that (0:17:22) Codey: This island has a new free update and paid DLC coming (0:17:27) Codey: Paid DLC is called December lovely cozies, which is (0:17:30) Jonnie: Yeah, I feel like every time I’m on an episode Moonstone Island just has more DLC coming out. So I (0:17:38) Jonnie: Think it’s cool that they have kind of that constant stream of stuff and they seem to be doing a balance between (0:17:45) Jonnie: free and paid which I think is is cool, so (0:17:50) Jonnie: Great. I haven’t I haven’t dipped into Moonstone Island at all. I don’t know if you have (0:17:54) Codey: Nope. Nope. (0:17:56) Jonnie: But yeah, it seems it seems like they’re putting stuff out so (0:18:00) Jonnie: maybe that’s something we will get to in 2027 when some space frees up in our respective gaming calendars (0:18:06) Codey: You think I’ll be available then? I’m booking out to 2030. (0:18:09) Jonnie: One of us one of us one of us might be a (0:18:12) Codey: That’s true, that’s true. I will say the snowboard in the paid DLC, paid DLC is just $3.99 USD. (0:18:19) Codey: The snowboard looks pretty cool, especially if you can change the color of the snowboard. I’m not a big pink human, but being able to have a snowboard in a game is kind of unique, (0:18:31) Codey: especially if it allows you to move faster or something. (0:18:36) Codey: And then the free DLC includes festive decorations, more ice spirits, you can name your spirits, and even bigger barn owl and caps, and a bunch of different things. So if you are playing Moonstone Island and you maybe like we’re taking a break because you’ve done everything, here you go. This is coming, it’s already out. It’s already out. Well it’s the next news item that you know more (0:19:02) Jonnie: - Correct. (0:19:05) Jonnie: Next news item is Dredge and Dave the Diver are doing a crossover. (0:19:10) Jonnie: So to be clear, this is DLC for Dave the Diver and it’s a crossover with Dredge. (0:19:16) Jonnie: So for those that don’t remember, (0:19:18) Jonnie: you can go back and listen to the Dredge episodes that Kev and I did earlier this year as part of fishing month. (0:19:25) Jonnie: But Dredge is the sort of Lovecraftian horror of fishing game. (0:19:29) Jonnie: And now that’s bleeding its way in. (0:19:32) Jonnie: I’m going to play it again to Dave the Diver, which is concerning, because Dave the Diver does not seem like the sort of game that Lovecraftian horror is necessarily a great fit, but it is a great fit in terms of that, you know, indie game sort of doing cool DLC that sort of takes the game in a different direction. (0:19:52) Jonnie: I haven’t had a chance to play Dave the Diver yet, and this kind of just reminded me that I want to play Dave the Diver, but it doesn’t necessarily make me want to play it. (0:20:02) Jonnie: More, even though it’s a cool crossover. And I just like to see, you know, different developers kind of working with each other and, you know, utilizing their brand awareness to, you know, hopefully get more people playing more games, which is cool. So this looks cool. (0:20:23) Codey: A lot of games do weird crossovers lately. (0:20:29) Codey: Which in a couple of news items will be more relevant. (0:20:35) Codey: Next news item is about Palia, which is a really cute little MMO. (0:20:39) Codey: I believe it’s been out for a while. (0:20:41) Jonnie: I have no idea. (0:20:42) Jonnie: I forgot about this game until it popped up in the news. (0:20:45) Codey: Pretty sure it’s been out for a while. (0:20:46) Codey: Oh, there’s an open beta. (0:20:48) Codey: So yeah, it’s the longest of open betos. (0:20:53) Codey: You build a life with friends and are cozy sim MMO set in a high fantasy world. (0:20:58) Codey: It’s gorgeous. (0:20:59) Codey: It has a lot of ability to change things. (0:21:05) Codey: What is it? (0:21:06) Codey: Creativity? (0:21:06) Jonnie: Just like, yeah, creativity and, you know, like, I think the thing that stood out is when they were decorating the house, you could like adjust things, it wasn’t just the four degrees or four, you know, rotations, you could rotate anything to any direction to lay out things in in a way that you really wanted to, which that really stood out to me. (0:21:07) Codey: Creativity. (0:21:28) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:21:29) Jonnie: Yeah, that looked awesome. I kind of forgot this game existed and and watching the trailer a gave (0:21:36) Jonnie: me like strong World of Warcraft vibes, but like, you know, slightly more up to date art style. And it kind of just made me interested in the idea of a cozy MMO. Like, I don’t really understand how that would work. But I’m into the idea and I’m maybe keen to find out. (0:21:58) Codey: Yeah, um, I am also interested in finding out so if you may have one play together and let me know. (0:22:05) Codey: Um, and (0:22:06) Jonnie: Hell yeah. Let’s do that. Let’s do that. (0:22:08) Jonnie: Ah, do we actually say the news that it’s coming to Switch on the 14th of December? (0:22:13) Codey: We’ll get to that eventually first let’s let’s come up with what day next week. Are you available? No, I’m kidding. (0:22:19) Codey: So yeah, it’s coming to switch on December 14th and (0:22:25) Codey: It’s you get specific Nintendo switch (0:22:28) Codey: awards if you link your account and log on with Nintendo switch live you get a leap froggy outfit a mushroom glider and a froggy bucket I don’t know why they’re frog themed whatever available and that’s until January 14th 2024 so if you really want that froggy froggy outfit you gotta you gotta do it you got to get on it. They are cute little outfits, I’m not going to lie. (0:22:58) Codey: Yeah, looks like a really cute game. So, is this game leaving early access? No idea. (0:23:07) Codey: But, Palia, very cute. (0:23:10) Jonnie: Yeah, I think you’re more excited about this next news item than I am, so why don’t you- (0:23:15) Codey: I mean, I’m not excited at all. I think both of us were like, “Ugh.” (0:23:24) Jonnie: Correct. (0:23:25) Codey: R has been 64 is now on Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. (0:23:30) Codey: That’s it. That’s the news. The next thing, so this is going back to cool crossovers (0:23:37) Codey: and questionable crossovers. Lego Fortnite. (0:23:40) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:23:42) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:23:44) Jonnie: I, so I’ve never been a Fortniter. (0:23:48) Jonnie: I’ve never played Fortnite. (0:23:50) Jonnie: I’ve never had any interest in playing Fortnite. (0:23:53) Jonnie: I really, really wanna play this. (0:23:55) Jonnie: It looks friggin’ awesome. (0:23:58) Jonnie: Like, it makes so much sense. (0:24:00) Jonnie: Like, so, like, first of all, (0:24:03) Jonnie: before we get too much into this, (0:24:05) Jonnie: is this like out now? (0:24:06) Jonnie: ‘Cause that’s the, the trailer is like, (0:24:08) Jonnie: “Hey, just find it in Fortnite.” (0:24:10) Jonnie: So I assume this is out now. (0:24:11) Jonnie: That’s my assumption, right? (0:24:12) Jonnie: I’m gonna log off this call I’m gonna go download Fortnite. (0:24:14) Jonnie: That’s what I’m doing. Is that right? (0:24:15) Codey: Well, don’t do that. (0:24:19) Codey: Seeing as how there’s a LEGO Fortnite status Twitter page. (0:24:27) Codey: I think it is. I think it is. (0:24:30) Jonnie: Yeah, I’m so excited. So the trailer, basically like it’s just like now there is Minecraft in Fortnite and it’s LEGO. That’s what this is, right? And it makes so much sense, right? Like Fortnite has (0:24:32) Codey: Oh my god. (0:24:48) Jonnie: the infrastructure, the building mechanics, everything done. All they were missing is like (0:24:55) Jonnie: What’s the reason? And then LEGO pops up and is like, “Hey, we exist.” (0:25:00) Jonnie: And it just makes sense, like… (0:25:04) Jonnie: And I would say, I was in the category of people that was like, “If you asked me yesterday, will you ever play Fortnite?” (0:25:08) Codey: Why would I do that, no it’s disgusting. (0:25:10) Jonnie: I would be like, “Hell no. Fortnite is a stupid game for stupid babies.” (0:25:15) Jonnie: It’s gross. I don’t want to be associated with Fortnite. (0:25:18) Jonnie: But all it took is LEGO, and now I am like, “I am in. I want to do this.” (0:25:23) Codey: so the thing that gets me is that I will say I haven’t played fortnite in a hot in a hot minute (0:25:30) Codey: but this doesn’t even this looks like this it it’s not fortnite yeah it’s minecraft lego with a fortnite skin (0:25:37) Jonnie: It’s not Fortnite, it’s Minecraft with LEGO! (0:25:46) Jonnie: Yeah, well, so I assume that this is kind of the next evolution of fortnight where the game itself is so popular (0:25:52) Jonnie: using it as a base for (0:25:54) Jonnie: Essentially new games like this just looks like a new game like this is not like oh if you’re in for if you like fortnight There’s now Lego fortnight. It’s like no. Do you like minecraft? (0:26:04) Jonnie: If so download fortnight and play Lego Minecraft like this is this looks like it’s made for (0:26:11) Jonnie: listeners of the harvest season because there’s there’s farming this building, you know (0:26:16) Jonnie: Lego kind of gives it a more cozy vibe. Like I’m not really a minecraft person. I just never quite clicked with me I know you’re you’ve been a bit of a minecraft person (0:26:25) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:26:26) Jonnie: So I feel like we’re just gonna get lost in this one. Like it’s just it’s inevitable This is this is what our lives are gonna be now like (0:26:33) Jonnie: Palia yeah, we might try that but Lego fortnight. This is gonna be what we do for the next year of our lives (0:26:37) Codey: Be careful how you say “our.” (0:26:40) Codey: I’m… you’re… (0:26:41) Jonnie: Look I know I know how you operate you’re gonna get sucked into this I guarantee (0:26:45) Codey: I don’t… I don’t want to do this. (0:26:48) Codey: So, Al wrote, “Fortnite is a farming game now, apparently.” (0:26:51) Codey: I said, “How does this have anything to do with Fortnite?” (0:26:54) Codey: Al said, “It is the game, Fortnite. It has something to do with it, (0:26:58) Codey: in the same way that Jack Skellington has to do with Disney’s Dreamlight Valley. (0:27:02) Codey: It is in the game. (0:27:04) Codey: Lego Fortnite is part of Fortnite. (0:27:07) Codey: Fortnite for some reason. (0:27:09) Codey: The for some reason just got me. (0:27:13) Codey: I could like read it in his words and like the sass. (0:27:19) Codey: Cause he also wrote that comment at like very late last night. (0:27:22) Codey: It was really funny. (0:27:23) Codey: He’s just sick of my, sick of me, sick of my goober stuff. (0:27:27) Codey: Yeah, I will watch, I’ll watch other people play it. (0:27:28) Jonnie: Yeah, I’m excited for this stuff. (0:27:31) Codey: But gosh, darn, I miss me with the epic. (0:27:36) Jonnie: So you will live in denial for a few weeks and then eventually you will come over to the dark side. (0:27:37) Codey: Okay, cool. (0:27:44) Codey: I would also go over to the dark side for a clomper plushie, (0:27:49) Codey: which is our next news item. (0:27:54) Codey: Clomper and Glanter Plushes. (0:27:57) Codey: These are, these are creatures from Ooblets. (0:28:00) Codey: Those plushes are now available in the United States and they are joining Shrumbo. (0:28:05) Codey: Clomper. (0:28:07) Codey: Look at look at him’s little face. There is not a thought inside those eyes. (0:28:14) Jonnie: I mean, I think the clump like I’m a no one ooblets hater, right? (0:28:19) Jonnie: My problem is like I agree the clump of plush super cute when I saw in the news (0:28:24) Jonnie: clumpering Glanta Plushers are out. I (0:28:27) Jonnie: Couldn’t even give you a guess as to what they looked like until I clicked on the link and saw the picture like Shrumbo (0:28:29) Codey: You were like, “Oh yeah, right, that one.” (0:28:33) Jonnie: Shrumbo. Yeah, Shrumbo is the one name that like I was like, yeah, okay I think I’m pretty sure I know what Shrumbo is but I mean, come on like (0:28:36) Codey: Yep, yep, very cute, very cute. (0:28:42) Jonnie: Just do better ooblets do better (0:28:44) Jonnie: But very cute. (0:28:51) Codey: I just realized that these next items I didn’t, I don’t even know if there’s news about, I I don’t know what the news is or if they’re just new games that. (0:28:59) Codey: Have recently been introduced and I believe that is the case. (0:29:03) Codey: Okay, so we have. (0:29:04) Jonnie: I believe that is the case. I don’t think we’ve talked about any of these. (0:29:07) Codey: Yeah, I think that the last of the last one I added. (0:29:11) Codey: And I believe it’s already out. So that one is going to be coming soon. (0:29:16) Codey: Like I you will hear more about it. (0:29:18) Codey: But these other three, these are new games that just just popped up on our horizon. (0:29:23) Codey: So the first one is called loose leaf. It is a tea witch simulator. (0:29:27) Codey: later. (0:29:29) Codey: It looks really cute you it’s a very hyper-realistic tea brewing simulation (0:29:34) Jonnie: yeah so I’m gonna call with heat hit peak which no more witches if you are working on a game we are at peak which we do not need any more witches do (0:29:38) Codey: Peek with it (0:29:43) Codey: So I mean I’m I agree I think that’s if they just said (0:29:48) Codey: Brew tea and read folks Tarot’s like if they said the psychic simulator or something I would have been more the word which was in it and I was like miss me like miss (0:30:00) Codey: Not interested. It looks really cute. I like the concept of (0:30:04) Codey: reading people’s Tarot (0:30:06) Codey: I am NOT a Tarot of human personally, but I did I have a friend who collects Tarot decks I believe that they’re gorgeous and I understand the usage of Tarot to self-reflect (0:30:17) Codey: Because you can kind of read what you want (0:30:19) Codey: Whenever you’re if you have something in mind, but you’re like not sure what you want (0:30:24) Jonnie: Yeah, and I liked the I liked the look of this game. So I tried a few of the (0:30:29) Jonnie: There was like those Bureau brewing sort of simulator games that came out in the last few years (0:30:35) Jonnie: and None of them really clicked because they were sort of missing an interesting game (0:30:40) Jonnie: Element where you were kind of just going through the motions to make a thing and then sell the thing and there was (0:30:45) Jonnie: It’s kind of just missing that game aspect. I think the addition of that tarot card reading and the trailer sort of shows um (0:30:54) Jonnie: you know some some activity that looks like you know you do some interpretation and and that being very tied to the tea that You’re brewing for your customer to me. It just was like oh, this feels like a more complete (0:31:04) Jonnie: game experience that that does appeal to me I (0:31:08) Codey: Yeah. (0:31:09) Jonnie: Also, just really like vibe with them calling it the most in-depth tea brewing simulation ever like there is this plethora of tea brewing simulation out there (0:31:16) Codey: Yeah. (0:31:18) Codey: Yeah. (0:31:20) Codey: It’s like it is the most in-depth shred junk mail simulator and turn shredded junk mail into planting planters to give to children and dogs simulator. (0:31:36) Codey: It’s like, oh, there’s so many games that (0:31:38) Codey: it’s scratching that itch. (0:31:42) Codey: So, so goober. (0:31:44) Codey: Also, the fact that they say ever makes me think that like what if someone comes out with a more in-depth one and then they have to make theirs more, more in-depth. (0:31:52) Jonnie: Yeah But the release date on this one is to be announced so (0:31:57) Jonnie: My guess would be probably not too late 2020 for early 2025 at the earliest (0:32:02) Codey: Ooh we getting some some estimates from Johnny. (0:32:06) Jonnie: Cody I think we have a problem (0:32:08) Codey: What’s up? The next one? (0:32:10) Jonnie: This this next game is gonna be a huge problem in my life (0:32:15) Codey: Yeah literally my first comment is no this is dangerous. (0:32:22) Jonnie: I saw that comment and I opened the link and I was like, “I don’t know, and this is fine.” (0:32:26) Jonnie: And then I read about what is going on with this game and I was like, “Oh, oh no.” (0:32:29) Codey: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:32:32) Codey: So this game is called “Rusty’s Retirement” and it’s on Steam. It’ll be available on Steam. It’s not available yet, but whenever it is, Lord help us all. (0:32:41) Jonnie: Q1 2024. (0:33:00) Codey: So this is like… (0:33:03) Codey: Like, imagine you have a Chrome screen up. (0:33:08) Codey: This is at the bottom of it. (0:33:10) Codey: Perpetually. (0:33:12) Codey: So you’re trying to work, you’re trying to code, you’re trying to write a paper, (0:33:16) Codey: but you’re like, “Oh, my crops are ready.” (0:33:18) Codey: “Oh, oh, my automation is… I need to ref… I need to fix that.” (0:33:24) Codey: “Oh, I don’t like the way I organize.” (0:33:27) Jonnie: We’re going to be sitting here recording episodes of the harvest season and it’s just going to be like five, five minutes of silence in the recording. (0:33:30) Codey: playing (0:33:32) Codey: I detect no lines yeah in this game it just looks so peaceful and pleasing and it looks like things are floating around I don’t even remember if there’s a but there oh yeah (0:33:49) Jonnie: Yeah, no video yet, but coming out soon. (0:33:51) Jonnie: And the thing that, you know, I’ve talked a few times about the idea of an idle farming game, you know, like a (0:33:59) Jonnie: trims or something like that, and I think this is such a (0:34:04) Jonnie: smart/evil way of doing something like this, where it’s just omnipresent on your screen. (0:34:10) Jonnie: You can kind of just do it in the background, and I think this is, you know, (0:34:14) Jonnie: the pixel art style in general is very overplayed in a cottagecore, but in this case, (0:34:19) Jonnie: it makes a ton of sense, and I like the pixel art style. It does feel visually distinct from a lot of other games. (0:34:25) Codey: Yeah, I love in their blurb they say multitasking. (0:34:30) Codey: Rusty’s retirement is built to sit comfortably at the bottom of your screen, (0:34:34) Codey: allowing you to do other tasks while caring for your farm. (0:34:36) Codey: Zoom in or out for less distracting view, (0:34:38) Codey: or alternatively, turn on focus mode, (0:34:41) Codey: which slows down crop production. (0:34:43) Codey: They don’t say turn the game off. (0:34:45) Codey: They say turn on focus mode. (0:34:48) Jonnie: We help you focus by making the game move slightly slower. (0:34:51) Codey: It’ll move slower. (0:34:53) Codey: We know you’re not gonna turn this game on. (0:34:55) Codey: We know it. Oh my gosh, this game. (0:34:59) Jonnie: The other thing I like is automation with robots. (0:35:03) Jonnie: I think that’s such a cool way of doing automation and there’s a GIF part way down on the page that sort of shows all of the robots coming out from what looks like a shed to harvest crops or do a bunch of other things. (0:35:15) Jonnie: And I’m just like, oh my God, (0:35:17) Jonnie: This looks so visually… (0:35:18) Jonnie: …satisfying for how this game is gonna play, so I’m afraid. (0:35:27) Codey: I’m afraid. (0:35:29) Codey: Ha ha, I’m in danger. (0:35:37) Jonnie: Yeah, I just need to jam all of my productivity in now so that when this comes out, I, you know, I can, yep, yep. (0:35:44) Codey: Don’t have to be productive (0:35:48) Codey: Okay Two more games first one. I don’t have a lot to say about this home free quote developed by acorn lab (0:35:56) Codey: Acorn land labs home free is a solar punk off-grid video game. That’s more than mere entertainment It’s a bridge to a possible future one where we might return where we return to the essence of living in harmony with nature (0:36:07) Codey: Drawing direct inspiration from free life technologies this game offers an immersive guide to simpler sustainable and self-sufficient living (0:36:14) Codey: Innovative methane digesters solar ovens efficient folder voltaics biomass heating (0:36:19) Codey: Biogas cooking and elegant composting solutions all exist today explore them in home free (0:36:28) Jonnie: Yeah, I don’t know that I have a huge amount to say either, like it’s cool to be sort of taking a sustainable approach and a look toward the future of what could be possible and using a game as a vehicle for making people aware of this sort of stuff, which is a cool thing to do. (0:36:44) Jonnie: Um, but equally I think I think you need something more to kind of make a game like this land and I’ll just need to see more before it’s like actually something that interests me or not, but cool idea. (0:36:56) Codey: Yeah. Yeah, for sure! And finally, the game that I have already purchased and just need to play, (0:37:04) Codey: it’s called Bug and Seek. And I literally wrote, “I don’t care if this isn’t Cottagecore, this podcast is now Cottagecore Games and Bug Games for Cody.” So I guess I didn’t have to say that the Goblincore version of this podcast is the Cody season. We can just call it Bug Games for Cody. (0:37:25) Codey: So yeah, Vug N Seek quote. (0:37:26) Codey: Catch bugs and clues in this cozy bug catching sim creature collector styled like an 8-bit classic. (0:37:33) Codey: You’ve bought the local bug museum, abandoned after a mysterious robbery. (0:37:38) Codey: Fill orders, build your collection, and upgrade your skills and equipment while exploring Bugberg and uncovering its secrets. (0:37:49) Codey: As someone who works in a museum. (0:37:49) Jonnie: I like the idea that you own the museum. That’s a very cool thing to me. (0:37:56) Codey: And would not be an insect museum and would not be upset to continue to do that as a career. (0:38:06) Codey: I color me intrigued. (0:38:08) Jonnie: Yeah, and I’m just watching the trailer for it now. (0:38:12) Jonnie: And it looks like that there is incentive to catch bugs multiple times, which– (0:38:21) Jonnie: and what I mean by that is in games like Animal Crossing or Coral Island or whatever where they have bug catching, (0:38:27) Jonnie: you catch the bug the first time and you donate it to the museum. (0:38:29) Jonnie: And then after that, it’s just like, hey, (0:38:31) Jonnie: now it’s a source of money. (0:38:34) Jonnie: But it looks like they’re tying some sort of leveling up or skills. (0:38:38) Jonnie: This is just a cool little idea. I think it’s only out on Steam currently. (0:38:46) Codey: Yeah, but it is on Steam, Mac and Windows, so I’m buying it because I can play it on my Mac. (0:38:55) Codey: So that when I am doing bug science and then I need a break, I can play. (0:39:03) Codey: Yeah, that was all the news. A lot of news, but we can shift on over to our main topic of Second Harvest of Disney Dreamlight Valley. (0:39:15) Al From The Future: Hi listeners, just a very quick note from Al from the future here. (0:39:20) Al From The Future: This episode, this discussion of Disney Dreamlight Valley does include some (0:39:26) Al From The Future: reasonably heavy topics, so if you’re not emotionally in a place to deal with those sorts of things, then just bear that in mind. (0:39:34) Al From The Future: On with the topic. (0:39:36) Codey: I will mention that this game was already the topic of a podcast called “I Listened to Goofy” on October 19th, 2022, and that had Alan Johnny. (0:39:52) Codey: And so if you want to hear kind of like, how does this game play, how does it, what are the benefits, like, what are our goals? (0:40:06) Codey: Or our, like, critical review of it or whatever, that’s where you’d find that. This is kind of us just, like, talking about the game on a more casual, less structured way. (0:40:16) Codey: I have some thoughts that I, and questions that I’ve written down, and I also have notes that I, like, on the, uh, what are these things? Show notes. (0:40:26) Codey: Uh, but also in a physical form that I can read through and look through. (0:40:32) Codey: Um, but also just hearing what Johnny’s thoughts are, uh, a year. (0:40:36) Codey: Um, and are you, are you still playing a Disney dream in my Valley? (0:40:40) Jonnie: So over the course of the year, I’ve kind of like dipped in and out as content has come out. (0:40:47) Jonnie: I think what they’re going for is a game that kind of wants you to check in daily. (0:40:54) Jonnie: I don’t find that’s how I want to play this game. (0:40:58) Jonnie: I find I want to play it for like, you know, intensely for like a week or two and churn through a bunch of the content and then put it back down. (0:41:07) Jonnie: So that’s probably more what I’ve been doing over the course of the year. (0:41:10) Jonnie: I’ll play it a lot for a week and then I’ll put it down for a week. (0:41:18) Codey: I mean that’s I feel like that’s a good way to play it as well. It’s like (0:41:23) Codey: You know you play the content that’s available and then but they’re they’re releasing a good amount of stuff like consistently (0:41:32) Codey: So you’re not like really ever bored (0:41:36) Codey: too too much and I think another benefit of playing daily because there are (0:41:41) Codey: kind of like in Animal Crossing where (0:41:45) Codey: There’s like the money rock every day or whatever. (0:41:48) Codey: Right? Like a rock. One rock that you hit with the shovel and then it just will give you a heck ton of bells. (0:41:52) Codey: This has similar things. (0:41:56) Codey: There’s like the night thorns. There’s always at least one night thorn that has popped up overnight that just gives out a heck ton of coins. (0:42:04) Codey: So you can like find that and get rid of the night thorn. (0:42:08) Codey: Gear Valley. (0:42:10) Jonnie: I just think, you know, my reflection, you know, since we recorded the first episode on on what I like about this game is it’s not, it doesn’t hit the same parts of my brain as a game like Animal Crossing, that’s like I’m much more driven by the character story quest side of this game than I am the daily chicken, life sim aspect of this game, which I think is why I don’t like, (0:42:40) Jonnie: stuff absolutely exists. And it’s, you know, I think that’s what they’re going for is that daily chicken style. That’s just not the part that this game hits for me. (0:42:52) Codey: Mm-hmm. Yeah, what is it? Like what is the appeal of it for you then? (0:42:57) Jonnie: It’s the characters, right? (0:42:59) Jonnie: So the way I think the characters interact in this game is magical. (0:43:07) Jonnie: To me, that’s the real highlight of the game. (0:43:10) Jonnie: And it’s not just, oh, I have nostalgia for this series of Disney characters. (0:43:17) Jonnie: And it’s a fun way to interact with them. (0:43:19) Jonnie: It’s actually that the Disney characters from different properties interact with each other in ways that are really thoughtful. (0:43:27) Jonnie: Um, and add a lot to those characters and what you like about characters. (0:43:33) Jonnie: And for some that you potentially don’t know as well, um, kind of present them in a way that makes them, you know, it makes you want to go and watch a movie about them. (0:43:42) Jonnie: So, so an example of that is, um, uh, as part of Skaar’s storyline, he’s, you know, (0:43:49) Jonnie: on the hunt for food and Remy keeps trying to find food for him to cook. (0:43:53) Jonnie: But obviously being a life-some game, there’s not a strong focus on meat (0:43:57) Jonnie: of fish, right? It’s not like you can just go and kill a cow and get a steak. (0:44:01) Jonnie: That’s what Skaar wants. (0:44:02) Jonnie: And Remy interacting with Skaar is not something that I ever had on my bingo card. (0:44:04) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:44:08) Jonnie: I’ve never watched Ratatouille. (0:44:10) Jonnie: But this made me want to, you know, this made me want to go and watch Ratatouille after seeing them interact and have the storyline together. (0:44:11) Codey: Right (0:44:17) Codey: Yeah Yeah, I think gosh, I can’t remember what the what the ones for me were (0:44:25) Codey: Maybe it’s like Merlin and Ariel (0:44:28) Codey: Or like no, it was Ursula and stitch. I (0:44:32) Codey: I think, because Ursula… (0:44:34) Codey: …hates Stitch and Stitch ends up going and apologizing to Ursula because he’s, you know, annoyed her or whatever. (0:44:42) Codey: And I was like, “This is crazy.” (0:44:45) Jonnie: Right? (0:44:48) Codey: And the characters are so genuine. (0:44:50) Codey: Like, and they don’t make the villains like a good guy. (0:44:56) Codey: Like, they’re still pretty clearly a villain. (0:45:00) Codey: Um, pretty clearly, I mean, they try and- (0:45:04) Codey: like, help the- the- with, uh, keeping the- the- the Valley alive or whatever, like, they- they’ll help a little bit, and you can, like, befriend them and stuff, but- (0:45:16) Codey: like, Scar isn’t- there’s, like, one moment where I- I- I thought he was trying to poison me. (0:45:22) Codey: Um, you know, stuff like that, and it was like, “Oh, you! I got my eye on you!” (0:45:28) Jonnie: Yeah, it’s a sky roll all the time is like are you sure you’re the right person to be in charge cuz I’m really really good At being a charge (0:45:34) Codey: I could be better. Oh, I tried to poison you. Oh, I thought that would work. (0:45:41) Codey: And then I could be in charge. It’s like, excuse? (0:45:46) Codey: Yeah, so I guess, so you’ve hit credits. Okay. I have not hit credits. The story kind of like (0:45:57) Codey: in the Valley, you come to it and they, everyone keeps talking about this ruler that used to exist. (0:46:02) Codey: Um… (0:46:04) Codey: I guess here is a mild spoiler, I don’t know how spoiler we want to get and I obviously like I don’t want you to spoil the ending for me so like we’re like spoiling like kind of midway. (0:46:16) Codey: Um… (0:46:16) Codey: You were the ruler? (0:46:18) Codey: Uh… (0:46:20) Codey: But part of you, like your inner child, like ripped itself out of you? (0:46:28) Codey: Um… and that part of you has a lot of bad feelings and negative thoughts. (0:46:34) Codey: And you are trying to help heal that part of you. (0:46:38) Codey: And it was… man there was like what? There was literally a part, oh my gosh I took a picture. (0:46:44) Codey: There was literally a part where I was playing and it like is going to go into the backstory of the character. (0:46:52) Codey: Um… like into your history. (0:46:54) Codey: And it literally gives you like a content warning. (0:47:00) Codey: Um… (0:47:02) Codey: If you’re scrolling back through to where… (0:47:04) Jonnie: Yeah, that part of the game is sort of the main story that revolves around your character, I think is exceptionally well done, particularly for, you know, likely people that are listening to this podcast, right, because a lot of us have the connection to these characters from our childhood. (0:47:24) Jonnie: And I think the fact that you were the past ruler is not a spoiler. I think you pick that up in sort of the first 10 minutes of the game. It’s heavily implied. (0:47:30) Codey: okay okay well because because people are like I don’t know where the ruler went you look really familiar and it’s like okay (0:47:34) Jonnie: Right. That. Yeah, so it’s not revealed but it’s very heavily foreshadowed very early on in the game but I think it’s and in the story of that, you know, this being an important part of your youth and reconnecting with the characters, but in a slightly different way is a really great storyline. (0:47:58) Jonnie: It’s also presented in a way that doesn’t I think like it’s not like the game I don’t think wouldn’t land for you know younger players that they may not pick up on all of the aspects but I don’t think it’s presented in a way where they would be like not having fun with the game you know like little things like the night thorns effectively or the overall thing that’s happening is called the forgettening or something right which which you know you can pretty cut represents you know you as the character sort of forgetting about (0:48:34) Jonnie: this aspect of your childhood or becoming more distant from it and a lot of the negative things in the world being sort of the result of you becoming distant from from Disney and from these characters so I think it’s just a really good setup and one of the things that stands out to me so would have been really easy for it to come across as like kind of hokey or cliche And it doesn’t like it sometimes it gets (0:48:59) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:49:04) Jonnie: close to that line particularly with characters like Mickey and Minnie and Goofy because they’re kind of just like overly earnest characters anyway but as you progress through the game like I think the story is handled really really (0:49:16) Codey: well even like those characters are positive and like they just have this like never-ending like enthusiasm and stuff but like (0:49:25) Codey: they do The people that designed this game do them pretty dirty (0:49:30) Codey: Because it starts off and Mickey’s in the world But he can’t find Minnie and then she’s like kind of a ghost for a while and then you finally like (0:49:42) Codey: Make her real again, but she doesn’t remember anything. She doesn’t know who Mickey is (0:49:46) Codey: So imagine like missing the person you love and then you finally find them, and they’re just like who you? (0:49:56) Codey: Oh my gosh, so I found I found the thing so when you’re doing these forgotten memory quests You’re basically like trying to regain your your memories (0:50:04) Codey: as the (0:50:07) Codey: The other version of you is called the forgotten (0:50:10) Codey: And it says the take care the forgotten memories quests deal with some difficult emotions and themes such as sadness loneliness (0:50:16) Codey: Anger if you’re not in the right space to deal with these themes consider returning to your village (0:50:22) Codey: Until you feel prepared to face them, so it’s basically the game being like if you can’t do this right now (0:50:30) Codey: Go go fish for a bit go play with your villagers for a bit like you don’t have to do this (0:50:36) Codey: But it helps you kind of understand like why the forgotten became the forgotten and I think that’s another thing that’s really important is you know some of us go to places in our lives and we (0:50:47) Codey: Like are really harsh critics of ourselves (0:50:51) Codey: Because we’re not where we think we should be or whatever or we’ve made a lot of mistakes (0:50:59) Codey: But that happens and sometimes you need to revisit those moments and have grace and compassion for yourself (0:51:04) Codey: And when you as you revisit them you kind of come back and you talk to someone about them And they’re like what did you learn and you’re like? (0:51:11) Codey: Wow, this person’s really sad (0:51:14) Codey: And sometimes it do be that way (0:51:16) Jonnie: Yeah, I agree. I think like so for me yet like I think the the story is is what goes best And you mentioned you know the the Mickey mini storyline the another one. That’s sort of in a similar vein (0:51:30) Jonnie: Is the (0:51:33) Jonnie: Anna and (0:51:36) Jonnie: What’s what’s his name his name is just walked out of my brain (0:51:39) Jonnie: Kristoff we’re at one point in order to save the Valley (0:51:46) Jonnie: I have to forget or she

Jake and Cameron analyze the narrative, mechanics, gameplay loop and industry impact of Moonstone Island!Sign up for the Digital Deluxe Edition of the podcast on Patreon!: https://www.patreon.com/preordercast?fan_landing=true►  Join our Discord Server!     https://discord.gg/rgmEEUrB2m►  The Pre-Order Cast GG App  https://ggapp.io/preordercast/lists/most-anticipated-games-of-2023-LWclmE0B►  Show Twitter  https://twitter.com/preordercast►  Jake's Twitter  https://twitter.com/jacob_chipdip18►  Cameron's Twitter   https://twitter.com/masssgeneric

This episode was recorded over Thanksgiving weekend so there wasn't a lot to talk about, but that gives us plenty of time for Isli to give us his Baldur's Gate 3 updates and how PS5 performance is fairing in Act 3.Here are the timestamps:00:00 Intro00:18 News Highlights - 00:18 Rockstar's Agent - 05:34 Cult Of The Lamb: Sins Of The Flesh - 06:25 Subnautica Sequel In 2025?22:35 What We're Playing - 22:35 Moonstone Island - 28:39 Baldur's Gate 3

Anton and Al return with more Nintendo Switch news.This Means Warp, Risk of Rain Returns,ASTLIBRA Revision,Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution,On Your Tail,Howl,The Star Named EOS,Backpack Hero,Blade Chimera, A Highland Song,Moonstone Island, Death Trick: Double Blind,Outer Wilds: Archaeologist Edition,Planet of Lana,Enjoy the Diner,Heavenly Bodies,The Gecko Gods,Passpartout 2: The Lost Artist , Urban Myth Dissolution Centre,Braid: Anniversary Edition,Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion Remastered ,Super Mario RPG ,INAZUMA ELEVEN: Victory Road,FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time,Flashback 2 ,Splatoon 3, The Legend of Zelda film ,The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom , Golden Joystick Awards 2023,Ender Lilies ,Spirittea ,Game of the Year at The Game AwardsSupport the show

Selveste Rune Fjeld Olsen fra Level Up gjester oss i denne episoden for å snakke om CTRLZ, deres nye dokumentarserie om giftig og negativ oppførsel i dataspill. Ellers har både Ingar og Peter vært på LAN, og Ingar pløyer gjennom en rekke nye spill for å rekke så mye som mulig før året er omme. Dermed kan vi by på indisk mat i Venba, sushi med Dave the Diver, edderkoppmoro i Spider-Man 2 og taktisk rollespill i Persona 5 Tactica. Tidsstempler: Intro: (00:00) Kunngjøringer: (05:10) Temadel: CTRLZ m/Rune Fjeld Olsen: (19:23) Lytterpost: (45:06) Hva har du spilt: (52:49) Anbefaling: (1:14:45) Kuriositet: (1:17:01) Postludium: (1:19:21) Spill vi snakker om episode 116: The Last of Us Part II, Uforia: The Saga 2/Hebereke 2, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution, Call of Duty, Persona 5 Tactica, Venba, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Cities: Skylines 2, Clone Hero, Dave the Diver, League of Legends, Baldur's Gate III, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Overwatch 2, Crab Champion, Super Mario RPG, Core Keeper, On Your Tail, Howl, The Star Named EOS, Backpack Hero, Blade Chimera, A Highland Song, Moonstone Island, Death Trick: Double Blind, Outer Wilds, Planet of Lana, Enjoy the Diner, Heavenly Bodies, The Gecko Gods, Passpartout 2: The Lost Artist, Urban Myth Dissolution Center, Braid Anniversary Edition.

Welcome back to another episode of the Online Warriors Podcast! This week we discuss what's going on in movies and gaming! - Indie World Showcase (4:42)  - Shantae Advance (6:04)  - Howl (9:08)  - Backpack Hero (10:24)  - Death Trick Double Blind (14:27)  - On Your Tail (15:28)  - Moonstone Island (16:37)  - A Highland Song (18:12)  - Planet of Lana (19:15)  - Blade Chimera (20:24)  - The Start Named Eos (21:21)  - Outer Wilds: Archaeologist Edition (23:32)  - Core Keeper (25:07) - Madame Web (30:06) Then we talk about what the gang has been up to: - Techtic goes to brunch (46:14) - Illeagle goes to a wedding and starts watching A Murder at the End of The World (50:17) - Nerdbomber watches Silo (52:50)   Lastly, we wrap it up with some Michael Crichton Trivia (59:28)   Special shoutout to our Patreon Producer: Steven Keller   We'd like to thank each and every one of you for listening in every week. If you'd like to support the show, you can drop us a review on your favorite podcast platform or, if you're feeling extra generous, drop us a subscribe over at Patreon.com/OnlineWarriorsPodcast. We have three tiers of subscriptions, each of which gives you some awesome bonus content! As always, we appreciate you tuning in, and look forward to seeing you next week! Stay safe and healthy everyone! Find us all over the web: Online Warriors Website: https://www.onlinewarriorspodcast.com Online Warriors Twitter: https://twitter.com/onlinewarriors1 Illeagle's Twitter: https://twitter.com/OWIlleagle86 Nerdbomber's Twitter: https://twitter.com/OWNerdbomber Techtic's Twitter: https://twitter.com/OWTechtic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onlinewarriorspodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onlinewarriorspodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwOwzY6aBcTFucWEeFEtwIg Merch Store: https://teespring.com/stores/onlinewarriorspodcast

Al and Jonnie talk about Spirittea Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:00: What Have We Been Up To 00:12:14: News 00:36:07: Spirittea 01:09:46: Outro Links Littlelands Publisher Lily Leapers Speedrun Slime Rancher 2 Update One Lonely Outpost Update Moonstone Island Update Spirittea Future Updates Coral Island PS5 Keys Delay Loddlenaut Charity Donations Above Snakes on GoG Little Known Galaxy 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. My name is Al And we are here today to talk about cottagecore games Welcome Johnny, how you doing? (0:00:44) Jonnie: Whoo! (0:00:46) Jonnie: I am tired. I have been moving countries, and it’s a lot. I would not recommend doing it that frequently. (0:00:57) Jonnie: I mean, depends which country you’re currently in. (0:00:58) Al: or ever really. That’s true, that’s very true. (0:01:10) Al: Cool. We, so I get the transcripts are available in the show notes on the website as usual. (0:01:18) Al: We in this episode, we’re going to talk about Spirit Tea, a new game that has just come out spirit tea spirit tea who knows (0:01:28) Al: we may we may yet find out we have concluded that we’re probably going to call it spirit tea even though both of us in our heads have called it spirit tea (0:01:40) Jonnie: I mean, Spirit Tea just rolls off the tongue better, but Spirit Tea is, I guess, what the game is? (0:01:46) Al: Yeah. (0:01:46) Al: Well, yeah, yeah, we’ll get to that. (0:01:53) Al: We’ll get to that. (0:01:54) Al: So we’re going to talk about spiritity. (0:01:56) Al: Obviously, we’ve got some news. (0:01:58) Al: We’ve got lots of exciting news. (0:02:00) Al: But first of all, Johnny, what have you been up to? (0:02:04) Jonnie: What have I been up to? Well, I haven’t had a ton of time to game because moving countries takes a lot of time and gaming is a thing that’s very easy to to give up when you’ve got priorities like finding a home. But there was the Nindies showcase last week and there was a few games that kind of came out off the back of that. There’s been some really good indie games that have been released recently and so I’ve kind of been trying a few. I tried Backpack Hero. (0:02:10) Al: Shocking. (0:02:11) Al: Hmm. (0:02:34) Jonnie: Which is okay. Don’t love it yet. I feel like the onboarding experience has not been great. And so I bounced off that quickly because I just don’t have brain space to kind of figure stuff out that’s not obvious. It could be really good. I like the system. The system feels very similar to Slay the Spire. (0:03:01) Jonnie: But instead of a deck of cards… (0:03:04) Jonnie: …to a building a backpack of stuff and the location of stuff in the backpack matters. (0:03:08) Jonnie: Which is cool. (0:03:10) Al: yeah to me it just looked like an organizational game and I wasn’t I wasn’t really like oh yeah this this really grabs me but I can you know I guess each to their own (0:03:10) Jonnie: Umm… (0:03:20) Jonnie: Yeah, I would say if anyone out there enjoyed Slay the Spire, then I think this is worth looking at, because the combat is very… (0:03:28) Jonnie: I mean, they basically just copy and pasted Slay the Spire combat, so… (0:03:32) Jonnie: Yeah, people who know that will be into it, but the thing that I have been playing that has grabbed me is Cacun. (0:03:42) Jonnie: So Cacun is like an indie puzzle game, I guess I would describe it as. (0:03:51) Jonnie: For me, the most amazing thing about this game is you just start playing, there is no, like, (0:03:57) Jonnie: thing that appears on the screen that says “Press this button to do this thing”, so there’s no tutorial, (0:04:03) Jonnie: there’s no onboarding experience. The onboarding is that the game is really, really, really well designed, (0:04:08) Jonnie: and it’s just super intuitive what to do at any point in time, even though some of the stuff that you do is pretty brain-breaking. It’s amazing. It’s like, the first… (0:04:21) Jonnie: you know, like, maybe half an hour of it, and it has been an incredible half hour of gameplay. (0:04:27) Al: interesting I haven’t haven’t played I haven’t really seen any footage of it either but I did see that it’s up for a game award um so I guess it can’t be can’t be too bad (0:04:37) Jonnie: It is not too bad. In fact, I would hesitate to say it is very very good. (0:04:41) Jonnie: And I think even if it’s not the sort of thing that you know you’re super interested in, (0:04:49) Jonnie: I think there’s something in the way this game starts and onboards you that more games, (0:04:57) Jonnie: maybe even one that we’re going to talk about later today, really need to take a lesson from. (0:05:04) Al: That’s the thing we keep harping on on this podcast is you’re onboarding, your tutorial really matters and you can do good ones, you can do bad ones. I think it’s very hard to do a really well-designed game so you don’t have to explain anything to people, but I do think that sometimes people over it. (0:05:20) Jonnie: I totally agree, right? Because to me, this is a relatively simple game in terms of how you play it. (0:05:27) Jonnie: You know, in terms of the buttons you need to press on those sorts of things. (0:05:30) Jonnie: So they could get very clean with their onboarding experience. (0:05:36) Jonnie: But this is the sort of thing that should be held out there. (0:05:38) Jonnie: It’s like every game is aspiring to onboard its players in a way that’s as seamless as Cocoon. (0:05:44) Jonnie: And it’s kind of one of those ambitions that most games won’t be able to achieve, (0:05:49) Jonnie: but should still be holding out there of the sun. (0:05:50) Jonnie: This is what best looks like. (0:05:54) Al: I can’t tell you how many games I’ve fallen off of within the first half an hour, because it’s just so hard to get into games sometimes, and you just end up going like, “I just can’t be bothered learning something new. Let me go play Stardew again.” (0:06:08) Jonnie: Yep. I bet that’s the thing, right? That first half hour of your game is the most important. (0:06:13) Jonnie: Because that’s when people decide if they want to keep playing it or not. (0:06:16) Jonnie: And it’s it’s weird. Like you’ve got to make sure it’s the most fun. (0:06:19) Jonnie: And it’s it’s the biggest downfall when you play a game and you’re like, (0:06:21) Jonnie: “I’m sure there’s something fun here, but I just can’t be bothered finding it.” (0:06:25) Al: Yeah, and I guess the thing about not to go down too much a deep rabbit hole, but thinking back to Stardew. Stardew didn’t go like, “Oh, grab this tool and hit this button.” No, it says, (0:06:39) Al: “Grow some turnips,” and you have to figure out what that means. It says, “Meet some villagers,” (0:06:43) Al: and you have to figure out what that means. There’s little bits and pieces, but there’s not that kind of, “Oh, as you say, this button does that, this button does that,” right? You just (0:06:53) Jonnie: You figure it out, yeah. (0:06:55) Jonnie: So other than that, I’ve still been snapping up a storm. (0:06:58) Jonnie: Continuing to hit Infinite every season. (0:07:01) Jonnie: Did another Infinite Conquest, so I now have the Rock Avatar with the Cool Border. (0:07:08) Jonnie: And I still really, really like that game. It’s really good. (0:07:11) Jonnie: Have you been snapping at all, Al? (0:07:13) Al: I picked the game back up again yesterday, after probably like a month and a half. I’m really bad at like, you know, I struggle to kind of just go through periods of time to actually do it every day. Because I guess the thing about Snap is that it’s hard to do just like, “Oh, I’ll just play for half an hour here and then do it again in two weeks,” (0:07:34) Al: right? Because you’ve got to keep up. You don’t, like, it’s not like it’s not fun, but if you want to actually do stuff, you’ve got to keep up to date with things. (0:07:43) Al: Especially if you want to do any of the season passes, right? You’ve got to say, “Right, (0:07:46) Al: I’m going to play this month.” You know, not necessarily every day, not necessarily all the time, but I’m going to be playing at least every couple of days for this month (0:07:56) Jonnie: yeah absolutely that’s what I’ve been up to what have you been up to (0:08:01) Al: So I go back into Fall Guys again. I was always enjoying that game, especially because Craig likes to watch me play it, so that’s good fun. I go back into Coral Island just as Spirit Tea was coming out, Coral Island decided to release their 1.0 and what can I say, I really like Coral Island. I feel like Coral Island has hit that point where, for me, it’s just (0:08:31) Al: me. It is at least as good as Stardew Valley, if not better. Obviously, it’s trying to be that. It’s trying to do all of the things in the same way that Stardew was trying to be Harvest Moon, but it’s trying to do it in different ways as well. I think it’s got to the point where it’s doing enough different things that you feel like you’re not just playing just Stardew with a different skin. It also just happens to look really nice as well. (0:08:58) Jonnie: That sounds kind of amazing. I feel like Coral Island is creeping further and further up my list of games I need to try. (0:09:05) Al: Yeah, definitely. I think if people like farming sims and you want to try - if you like Stardew Valley but you’re like “maybe let’s try something different” it is a really good one to try. (0:09:20) Al: It does things really well. Everything is nice. The characters - it’s the first one a long time that I felt like I actually care about some of the characters and I’m trying to figure out which one I want to romance because there’s so many good ones and that sort of stuff and like there’s a mystery in the game that (0:09:35) Al: actually feels like it makes sense and you want to learn more about it rather than just like, “Oh, there’s a dark secret.” No, that’s, you know, it’s trying to be interesting and it’s succeeding and there’s extra bits and pieces as well on top of your standard farming sim, right? So it’s not just Stardew Valley with a different skin. I’m really enjoying it. And I started playing Sonic Frontiers and I’m probably going to stop playing for of Sonic Frontiers. (0:10:02) Al: I’d like okay (0:10:05) Al: I know you don’t like Sonic games, that’s fine, no one’s gonna try and make you, but my prob- (0:10:06) Jonnie: What? That’s never an opinion I’ve expressed. (0:10:11) Al: Not at all, never, definitely not. The problem is, right, I really, really like 2D Sonic games, (0:10:24) Al: right? I really enjoy them, but I’ve never enjoyed a 3D Sonic game. Well, I guess at an exception of generations which married. (0:10:35) Al: So I just really, I just really struggle with every single one. So it’s like, I mean, there are some things that it does really well. (0:11:05) Al: I like how it looks and I like a lot of the ideas that they’ve done. (0:11:09) Al: But my word, just the momentum is terrible and the controls are not great, just it’s not I’m not enjoying. (0:11:16) Jonnie: Yeah, it’s a shame when games have like sort of that thing that they do really well and then they keep trying to make You know, it’s kind of like they keep trying to make a fetch happen, right? (0:11:27) Jonnie: And it’s just like maybe Sonic’s are just stick to what it knows which is apparently 2d side-scrolling games like those are the ones that people seem to generally like a lot more And I don’t know why they keep trying to make three games happen (0:11:40) Al: Yeah, yeah, it’s a difficult one. I mean I guess some people must like (0:11:48) Jonnie: Uh, no, Sonic fans are just like beaten down and they keep buying it in the hopes that it will be good. (0:11:53) Al: Yeah, yeah. You’re getting at me here. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know, man. Should we go get some news? Little Lands finally has a publisher and is apparently coming (0:11:56) Jonnie: And it never is, but equally they never learn the lesson. (0:12:23) Al: mid 2024. I guess you would describe this as like a farming sim with the aesthetics of Zelda, what’s it called? Sleepy game, game where he’s asleep. Zelda, the dream of a fish. (0:12:32) Jonnie: I’ve been trying to think of the name for like the last… yeah um… Link’s Awakening, there we go. (0:12:38) Jonnie: Spoilers for a 30-year-old game. (0:12:39) Al: Link’s Awakening, that’s it. Zelda’s in the dreams of the fish. It’s funny. Look, I’m sorry. If you’ve not played that game, it’s not that big a spoiler. (0:12:54) Jonnie: I mean, the title almost gives away that ending. (0:12:58) Al: Yeah. So that’s how I would describe this game. Is that fair? Cool. (0:13:04) Jonnie: Yep. I mean, it has that aesthetic, like it looks like a fun world to run around and explore, (0:13:13) Jonnie: but I don’t get a strong sense of like, does this game actually look fun to play or not? (0:13:20) Jonnie: I don’t know, I just don’t know that I have seen enough of the gameplay to really get a strong sense of is there anything beyond just looking like Link’s Awakening? (0:13:27) Al: Yeah, that’s fair. Yeah, that’s fair. It does look a lot more kind of explorationy than I had initially thought when they, you know, because I’ve been following this since they first posted screenshots. And back then it was very much like, “Oh, this is like a life sim.” And now it’s very much like, explore a world brimming with secrets. Like it’s more than a life sim. (0:13:54) Jonnie: Yeah, from this trailer that they’ve put out, like 90% of it seems to be focused on exploration, rather than life sim. (0:14:07) Jonnie: I do not get strong life sim vibes from what they’re currently showing. (0:14:10) Al: No. It’ll be interesting to see what it actually ends up like, but I guess games can change quite a bit as you go through them, so we’ll keep an eye on it. (0:14:22) Jonnie: Yeah, I love the aesthetic. I was a big fan of how Link’s Awakening looked and had a really good time playing that, so it’s at least interesting to me. (0:14:32) Al: Yeah, I really, just as a side note, I really like what they did with the remake of Link’s Awakening. I think it was such a good balance of being the same but also being different that a lot of remakes miss, I thought. (0:14:46) Jonnie: Yeah, me too. I think anytime when you see a remake and they put the faithful remake label around it, you’re just like, “I don’t know that that’s going to be good.” (0:14:56) Jonnie: I want to see a remake that takes some lessons from how game development has matured, and I feel like Link’s Awakening is a perfect example of doing exactly that. (0:15:09) Jonnie: Also, if you want to see some wild stuff, watch Link’s Awakening speedruns. (0:15:16) Jonnie: do some crazy things in that game. (0:15:16) Al: Oh no. Speedruns just in general just stress me out with the crazy things that people do. (0:15:23) Al: Like have you seen Fall Guy speedruns? (0:15:27) Al: Oh my words. Oh my word. You need to go and Google the Lily Leapers speedrun. I’ll think a link in the show notes but there’s a Lily Leapers speedrun is absolutely insane. (0:15:28) Jonnie: No, but now I really want to do that, because I bet those are amazing. I think… yeah, the- (0:15:45) Al: like I don’t know how. (0:15:46) Al: They manage to do what they do. (0:15:49) Al: It’s just wild like this thing that normally takes like a minute and a half to do. (0:15:54) Al: They did in like 18 seconds. (0:15:56) Jonnie: incredible. is there a speedrun of the what’s the level that I hated or when it first when the game first came out there’s like that mountain that you’re running up and there’s the the goo that’s rising with you fall mountain yeah oh yeah slime climb slime climb that song yeah I want to see someone do that in a way that’s super broken so bet they can just like bounce off all the obstacles (0:16:06) Al: Oh yeah, Fall Mountain. (0:16:08) Al: Oh, Slame Claim is the one where the goo comes out. (0:16:20) Al: 26 seconds. They’re like, you know, jumping on. I do, there’s a few things. Oh, they’ve got, (0:16:28) Al: it’s a specific slime climb with like, specific obstacles that allow you to like, jump on things. (0:16:36) Al: Oh, that’s wild. And then they hit themselves over with the big yetis. Oh, that’s crazy. (0:16:41) Jonnie: I love the big eaters. (0:16:41) Al: Everything has to go, I know, everything has to go right for this exact speed run. (0:16:43) Jonnie: Those are the best speedruns where there’s that little bit of like, you know, there’s the skill and there’s that little bit of RNG and built into it as well. (0:16:56) Al: I got I’ve got to the point now where I can do slime climb every time. I never die on it now, (0:17:01) Al: but I’m not like, you know, 26 seconds fast. (0:17:05) Al: Speaking of slime, slime rancher 2, the rain or slime update 0.3 is out now. Can I just, I just, (0:17:17) Al: this I know I harp on about version numbers, right? But it’s slime rancher 2 version 0.3. (0:17:24) Al: Why are we doing this? (0:17:26) Al: Why, why, why? Just why, why? (0:17:30) Jonnie: No, I’m with you, like, it’s silly. (0:17:34) Jonnie: We need some standardisation. (0:17:37) Jonnie: One, one, I think this is why this looks right, where it’s like, (0:17:41) Jonnie: just make things clearer, right? If all games did things the same way, (0:17:45) Jonnie: what they’re trying to communicate would actually be clear. (0:17:48) Jonnie: But because everyone’s just made up random numbers, it’s not clear what this means. (0:17:53) Jonnie: So don’t even put the numbers with it, just say we are still in beta and we don’t have like interior patch notes. (0:18:00) Al: Well, this is a thing because everybody seems to name their updates as well. (0:18:03) Al: This is the “Come Rain or Slime” update. (0:18:05) Al: You don’t need to give it a number as well. (0:18:07) Jonnie: Yes, exactly, exactly. (0:18:08) Al: Like, obviously, behind the scenes, (0:18:10) Jonnie: I’m with you on this one now. (0:18:11) Al: it needs to have a number because of all the updates, blah, blah, blah, blah. (0:18:14) Al: I don’t care. That’s fine. (0:18:15) Al: Put it in, but you don’t have to call it that, right? (0:18:18) Al: Like, it literally at the top says “Come Rain or Slime, patch 0.3.0 notes.” (0:18:24) Al: You don’t need to do that. (0:18:25) Al: Just go with it. (0:18:28) Al: Also, right, minor. (0:18:30) Al: Minor major gripe, so they call this a major update, right? (0:18:35) Al: In my world, a three digit version number, a major update is the first version. (0:18:41) Al: The first number, not the second of the second number is minor. (0:18:43) Al: And the third number is patch, right? (0:18:45) Al: Get with it. We have a standard for this already. (0:18:48) Al: Semantic versioning. (0:18:49) Al: Game designers need to get back on semantic versioning. (0:18:51) Al: It is good. It works. Go with it. (0:18:54) Jonnie: I co-slime this rant. (0:18:56) Jonnie: What is the “Come Rain” or slime update actually about? (0:19:00) Jonnie: I feel like Slime Rancher is one of those things that I am. (0:19:02) Al: Oh, I don’t know. There’s weather. There’s weather in it. (0:19:06) Al: I just… (0:19:08) Jonnie: So I’m gathering that neither of us are at least Slime Rancher people, and there’s an update, and there’s stuff in it, and maybe if you like Slime Rancher you probably know, and if you don’t, it’s still not 1.0, so maybe just chill. (0:19:09) Al: So there’s new slimes and there’s a new weather system, (0:19:22) Al: and that’s about it. But also when I say new slimes, what I mean is new slimes that were in in the first game. (0:19:30) Jonnie: Oh great, so we’re back to- okay. I feel like the more I hear the less I’m interested in Slime Ranch and I was already not in a great place to be interested in Slime Ranch. (0:19:34) Al: I just… (0:19:38) Al: I have the first version of Slime Rancher on my Switch, but I haven’t played it yet. (0:19:44) Al: I like the look of the game. It looks nice, and I love all the slimes with their derpy faces on them. (0:19:52) Al: But it’s a lot to make. (0:19:57) Jonnie: Yep, yep, there’s just a lot of good that’s out there, right, and this is this is just one that for whatever reason for us is clearly not hitting. (0:20:06) Al: we go next? One lonely outpost. They have a new update. It’s not a massive update, so I don’t normally talk about small updates like this, but they have included one feature that every game needs to have. You need to have this. They have toggled running, so you don’t have to hold down the run button. You press the run button and now you’re running, and then you press it to stop running. Every game needs to have this. Please and thank you. (0:20:28) Jonnie: I thought you were talking about the fact that Roast Carrot no longer has a special effect. (0:20:32) Jonnie: But no, you’re right. The… (0:20:36) Al: What does that mean? (0:20:38) Jonnie: You just got like… (0:20:38) Al: What is the special effect that it no longer has? (0:20:42) Al: Ugh. (0:20:44) Jonnie: You’re totally right. The run being an option, or like a toggleable thing… toggleable? (0:20:54) Jonnie: Rather than holding down a button is nice. (0:20:56) Al: a toggle because I mean we’ll get on to we’ll get on to yeah the the the art style does seem still really weird compared to the initial ones they did but anyway that’s beside the point I was especially we’ll get back we’ll get on to spirit tea later but I was especially annoyed and having to hold down one button and spirit tea because it’s like such a slow movement anyway and it’s I’m so fed up. (0:21:00) Jonnie: But this game still weirds me out. I don’t know. (0:21:26) Al: Why do we have running and walking? Just give me the fastest speed that you’re willing to give me, just give me that. I don’t need anything else. I don’t need to go slow. Nobody cares. Make me go fast. (0:21:36) Jonnie: I totally agree. It feels like one of those things that’s built-in as an option, but the option doesn’t mean anything because, like, is there a benefit to walking? (0:21:46) Jonnie: No. Okay, so I will just run all of the time, which means I just have to hold down this button all of the time, which is stupid. (0:21:51) Jonnie: So like, the one thing one lonely-out-personnel needs to do is remove walking. Because why would you walk? (0:21:56) Al: Yeah, yeah. There’s a lot of other updates in this as well. We’re not going to go through them. We’ll have the link in the show notes if you want to see all those updates. Moonstone Island is coming to Switch in Spring 2024. This was one of the things that was announced in the Nindies update. (0:22:18) Jonnie: Yeah, cool. (0:22:20) Jonnie: I feel like I’ve forgotten which one Moonstone Island is in this slew of absurd games that are coming out. (0:22:27) Al: Yeah, so this one is the Creature Collection one on our series of floating sky islands. (0:22:36) Jonnie: that’s right and this is the one where that has like quite strong RPG elements from the looks of it and it just feels like every time I see this one they’ve got another thing that’s kind of like in at the moment because it’s got the card based combat now and it kind of feels like word salad of like all of the pop (0:22:52) Al: It’s like they got a tom bowler full of different things that you can describe your game as and they pulled out 10 of them. (0:23:04) Jonnie: yep yep I mean cool that it’s coming to switch I don’t know this one’s particularly high on my you know anticipation bliss (0:23:13) Al: I really like the look of it, and I think I do want to play it at some point, but yeah, (0:23:17) Al: I don’t know when. Because the problem is, right, with every game you’ve got to play, (0:23:21) Al: you’ve got to demote a different game. Like, you can’t play every game. So, it’s like, (0:23:26) Al: which game is this going to take the place of? I don’t know. Just now, I’m just going to play (0:23:32) Jonnie: That sounds amazing. I’m not mad about that. (0:23:36) Jonnie: They also have a patch for Moonstar Island. (0:23:40) Jonnie: I don’t know if there’s anything exciting in the patch notes, but they have… (0:23:42) Al: Oh yeah. There’s one thing exciting, and that’s… no. No, that wasn’t what I was going to say. (0:23:47) Jonnie: Is that they have difficulty for fishing? (0:23:51) Jonnie: I just like the idea that fishing is often… (0:23:59) Jonnie: you know, as fishing month that we did sort of show. (0:24:02) Jonnie: It’s quite divisive in terms of what people like or don’t like, or you know, the stardew valley fishing, right? (0:24:07) Jonnie: Some people really like the challenge, some people really hate it. (0:24:10) Jonnie: And so I think having the ability to scale your difficulty for that one in particular because it’s often one of the few more dexterity or skill-based things in cottagecore games I think is a really good accessibility. (0:24:24) Al: Yeah, yeah, I don’t I don’t disagree. (0:24:26) Al: That’s a good a good point. (0:24:28) Al: Now, the thing that I was really excited about is they’ve added a new gardening tool, the Boomerang. (0:24:35) Al: Who expected the Boomerang to be a gardening tool? (0:24:37) Jonnie: So wait, how do you farm using a boomerang, Al? (0:24:41) Jonnie: I really want to hate that, but I actually think that’s kind of amazing. (0:24:42) Al: So it’s for it’s for cutting down crops. (0:24:49) Jonnie: As a way of doing the, you know, “Hey, your scythe or whatever can extend in a distance.” (0:24:55) Jonnie: Actually just throw a boomerang and it will just cut them all down. (0:24:59) Jonnie: That’s a cool idea. (0:24:59) Al: Yeah. It’s great, isn’t it? I feel like maybe I feel like I need to make a joke about you being in Australia now and now liking a boomerang thing. That’s about as far as I’ve gotten with that. (0:25:09) Jonnie: Yes, I feel like you do. Go. (0:25:12) Jonnie: Listeners, make up your own joke and then present our set-up. (0:25:20) Al: My problem is that I quite often have like good ideas for jokes, but I’ve never good on the execution of them, so I just like bring up the idea I have, and then sometimes people chuckle at it and I go “Comedy!” (0:25:36) Jonnie: I mean, look, if you get a laugh, right, that’s all you need. (0:25:43) Al: It’s deconstruction of jokes, right? (0:25:45) Al: That’s what it is. (0:25:46) Jonnie: Yep, I’m just serving you the idea of a joke, not the actual joke itself. (0:25:53) Al: Still better than a lot of comedians. (0:25:57) Jonnie: I’m now just imagining a comedy club where it’s just people talking about their ideas for jokes, and like, no actual jokes. (0:26:02) Al: It’s like a, well, I’m thinking of more like an AA meeting for people who like just can’t stop thinking about ideas for jokes, but they can’t actually make them into jokes. (0:26:03) Jonnie: Like, I feel like it’s maybe just an improv workshop. (0:26:23) Al: This morning I had three ideas for jokes, but I couldn’t fully farm them. (0:26:24) Jonnie: Who’s yours? (0:26:32) Al: Oh, I mean, isn’t that basically just sketch shows, right? (0:26:34) Jonnie: No, I think sketch shows are ideas for jokes that are then badly executed. (0:26:35) Al: Sketch shows are just ideas for jokes. (0:26:44) Al: This is a boomerang. So, Spirit Tea have detailed their upcoming stuff. It’s not really a roadmap. (0:26:50) Jonnie: Alright-ish. (0:27:03) Al: It’s not as fully functioning and concrete as that, but there’s a list of things that want to change, including some bugs and stuff. (0:27:14) Al: So I’ve got a list of that in the show notes. (0:27:17) Al: There’s nothing particularly I think we need to bring up, (0:27:22) Jonnie: No, it’s all relatively… It’s very bug focused, I would say. (0:27:22) Al: but good that they’re looking into it. (0:27:25) Al: Yes, yeah, yeah. (0:27:30) Al: What’s next? Sorry, half asleep. (0:27:32) Jonnie: What or not? (0:27:32) Al: Coral Island. (0:27:34) Jonnie: What? (0:27:34) Al: No, Coral Island. (0:27:36) Jonnie: Oh yeah, we have a Carlisle other one. Sorry, I skipped that. I skipped that. (0:27:38) Al: I missed one. Come on. (0:27:41) Al: Carl Island. There are PS5 keys. (0:27:44) Al: Apparently, there was an issue getting the PS5 keys for backers on Kickstarter, so too bad. I guess you’ll get it, son. I guess we’re in the quick fire around here, so we’ve got Laudenot as well. They’ve said they’re going to donate to charity for each sale. So that’s good. Yes. And above (0:28:04) Jonnie: That’s great, and I love saying “lot or not”. “Lot or not”. It’s a very fun mouthfeel. (0:28:14) Al: snakes are now available on GOG. So if you wanted that. Now you might say, “Oh, just another sale.” Well, the good thing about GOG compared to other games shops is that they are DRM free. So you can now get the game without (0:28:35) Jonnie: And it’s always weird to see a Steam store page about advertising that you’re available for sale on another platform. (0:28:40) Al: That’s a good point, I hadn’t even noticed that. (0:28:47) Al: And finally there’s a new game that’s been announced called Little Known Galaxy. I’ll just read out the little blurb for this one. Join Space Alliance as a new captain in training and work with your crew to solve the mysteries of an ancient relic found on the grey planet. (0:29:05) Al: Little Known Galaxy is a cosy single player RPG space adventure full of friendly characters exploration, crafting, and farming. (0:29:14) Jonnie: So, this one confused me because it had similar vibes to another game that we’ve talked about on the show that I can’t remember the name of, where I think you’re like a delivery person in space. (0:29:26) Al: Oh yes, Starstruck Vagabond. (0:29:26) Jonnie: That’s the one. Yes, I couldn’t think of the name of it. (0:29:34) Jonnie: So it just feels like space is now the new thing for Cozy Games. (0:29:40) Jonnie: also it is the final frontier (0:29:40) Al: is the final frontier. There’s some stuff that takes away the fumes and deals with it. (0:29:44) Jonnie: also this person is building a fireplace in their spaceship and I don’t know how I feel about that (0:29:55) Al: Magic. Wow. Science. I think the thing about space games is that I suspect they’re really hard to do well, but there’s also a lot of potential in them if you… (0:29:56) Jonnie: okay uh… I mean it looks cool (0:30:11) Jonnie: Yeah, I mean like one of the things I am liking from what I’m seeing in the trailer for Little Known Galaxy is like rather than having seasons you just have different planets is the impression that the game is giving off, right? (0:30:25) Jonnie: Because presumably you won’t have seasons on your spaceship because you can entirely regulate the temperature and everything in there but then if you go to, you know, an ice planet or whatever you could get more varied sort of places. (0:30:41) Jonnie: where you’re doing stuff which seems kind of… (0:30:44) Al: Yeah. I feel like I suspect… I wonder whether… I mean, I’m just watching this trailer for the first time, but I wonder whether you make your ship bigger or whether it’s always the same size and you just kind of get new things to fill it with. Because there are different bits that look smaller and bigger, but maybe they’re just different parts. (0:31:06) Jonnie: Yeah, it’s kind of hard to tell. It seemed like there was sort of one main zone that they showed in the trailer where all of your automation and buildings and stuff are going, so I could see that being a space that you expand over time. (0:31:21) Jonnie: You know, it’s one of the cool things about spaceships is you can presumably just add more to it, add more space, so… (0:31:30) Al: I like the look of this. I think I like the art. (0:31:32) Jonnie: I also really like to look at this. (0:31:36) Jonnie: When I saw that it was a new game, I was a little bit like, “Really? Do we need another thing that’s doing this thing?” (0:31:43) Jonnie: And then watching the trailer, I was like, “Actually, I think I’m kind of into this. The art style’s really… it’s good without being too much the same as a Stardew Valley. (0:31:54) Jonnie: It’s definitely inspired by, but it does have its own distinct visual style. (0:31:59) Jonnie: And I think the trailer does a really good job of showing off the sorts of different places that you’ll be going in the course of this game. (0:32:06) Jonnie: And it’s very vibrant, right? It looks quite good. (0:32:10) Jonnie: And the shot that they show of the main zone looks kind of like a lot of automation-y sort of stuff, which is appealing. (0:32:18) Al: think what I really like about the art style is it feels like it’s in this sort of same style as Asnes or a Game Boy or Game Boy Advance game and that sort of thing but it doesn’t feel dated like it feels like the graphics are like if we were doing that now right like they feel a lot you know they’re higher fidelity sprites and stuff like that so it feels like I mean I still like Stardew and I I still like what it does, but… (0:32:48) Al: The sprites sometimes feel a little bit dated in them, which I know is kind of the point, (0:32:55) Al: but I like how this is doing the same feeling of that, but with modern sprites, if that makes sense. (0:33:02) Jonnie: It totally does. I think that’s a really good description of what it is. It feels like, you know, this is inspired by that statue art style, but it’s kept up with modern times where Star Trek is a little bit more of a callback to the past and it’s been replicated so many times now, it like feels tired, right? (0:33:20) Jonnie: If you see that exact style replicated in another game, you kind of just, ugh, like, it’s fine, but it’s not like a great art style that absolutely needs to be copied 100%. (0:33:31) Jonnie: like this feels like it’s (0:33:32) Jonnie: doing a modern take on that which you know also makes sense because it’s a space game so you know a more up-to-date art style definitely makes sense. (0:33:46) Al: I think it’s going to be interesting to see what they do because I suspect travel will take time and that’s why there’s lots of things to do on the ship and that’s where, you know, (0:33:55) Al: between travelling, between planets to do your RPG part of it is where you do your farming and your crafting and kind of keeping up with things and that gives you stuff to do while still having that sort of vaguely realistic travel aspect of things. (0:34:12) Jonnie: Yeah, I suspect you’re right and one of the things that I’ve seen in the in a trailer that kind of is appealing is In the center of what looks like some of the crops is a fan rather than a sprinkler and The reason that makes me excited is they just haven’t said like okay So just grow crops on your ship and it’s just traditional farming mechanics in space like no idea what the fan is doing or what purpose it serves but it just at least to me is saying hey we are we have (0:34:42) Jonnie: about what it is that we are doing in our own location and it’s not just a direct copy and paste of the mechanics you’ve seen in every other game but space I have no idea but that’s just yeah (0:34:52) Al: What are those doing? That’s interesting. Yeah, there’s lots of other bits and pieces like there’s clearly a bit that is where you’re generating water. There’s some different looking trees. You’ve got a little robot that’s been going around. There’s some interesting looking chests. There’s greenhouses within this area as well, which presumably means that you can set greenhouses to like specific temperates stuff like that (0:35:22) Jonnie: Yeah, the whole thing just looks really well thought out, so I’m excited to learn more about this. (0:35:28) Al: Yeah, yeah, it definitely doesn’t feel like farming is kind of bolted on. It feels like they’ve thought a lot about that, so I’m looking forward to seeing how that goes. (0:35:35) Al: All right. (0:35:35) Jonnie: And they don’t have anything in terms of release date do they? Sorry, just… (0:35:37) Al: Uh, that’s a good question. They’ve said coming soon. (0:35:39) Jonnie: I haven’t s- (0:35:44) Jonnie: So, coming soon, so stay tuned to future episodes for more updates, ‘cause I will have them when they come. (0:35:52) Al: Yep. And they’ve said they’re coming on Windows and Mac. So Cody will be happy. Just check their website to see if there’s anything. They don’t have a website. Right. Moving on then. That’s the news. (0:36:04) Jonnie: Woo-hoo! (0:36:05) Al: So we’re going to talk about Spirit Tea. So I guess quick intro. So this is a game. (0:36:17) Al: They describe it as stardew crossed with spirited away. And. (0:36:22) Al: The the overall idea is you are you’ve moved into a town as you do. You’re always moving somewhere and you have you drink some special tea called the spirit tea. And this allows you to see spirits that are caught in your world and the spirits basically tell you that you have to run the bathhouse, the old bathhouse, which is a spirit bathhouse, which for some reason you can see the the spirits in the bathhouse but we’ll get to that. (0:36:52) Al: So that’s the game, you’re running this bathhouse, the spirits come in and you make sure that they’re happy in the bathhouse. (0:37:00) Al: And that’s how you make the money. (0:37:02) Al: And there’s lots of other things around expanding things and blah blah blah blah blah. (0:37:07) Al: But that’s kind of like the main, it’s not farming game, it is our bathhouse running. (0:37:15) Jonnie: I was wondering, because this was announced a long time ago I feel, right? (0:37:20) Jonnie: Was this one of the first games that was sort of like talked about from a news perspective on the harvest season? Because it’s one of the first ones I sort of was- when I went to play it I was like “Man, I remember this being announced years ago!” So I was just curious if this was- if you remember if this was one of the first games that was sort of talked about from a news perspective. (0:37:42) Al: I do not remember, but I am currently searching because I have everything so I can search. (0:37:48) Al: The first time we talked about it was in June 2022. (0:37:54) Jonnie: What? My timeline is totally messed up, then. (0:37:56) Al: Covid broke us all. (0:37:58) Jonnie: Right. (0:38:00) Al: Sorry. (0:38:02) Al: Sorry. (0:38:02) Jonnie: Anyway, now that I’ve taken this totally off track… (0:38:06) Jonnie: Before we talk too much about the detail of the game, where are you at? (0:38:14) Jonnie: Are you thumbs up, thumbs in the middle, thumbs to be determined? (0:38:19) Al: So, I think this is a really - so there are some issues with this game, obviously, every game has some bugs and some issues, blah, blah, blah - but I think overall, I think this is a really nice game if it catches you. (0:38:35) Al: Now, I don’t think it’s the sort of thing that’s going to grab me, like Stardew Valley did, like Coral Island did, like Summer in Mara did, like some other games have. (0:38:49) Al: But I don’t think that’s a - I mean, ignoring, like we’ll talk about the onboarding because obviously we have some stuff to talk about that. (0:38:58) Al: But I think other than that, I don’t think there’s like a fundamental “this is why I’m not jiving with this game as much as I normally would.” (0:39:07) Al: I don’t know whether it’s, you know, maybe I’m being unfair to it because I’m playing Coral Island just now as well and that’s kind of where I’m, you know, my brain is wanting me to go so maybe that’s part of it. (0:39:19) Al: And I’m just going, “Oh, I just want to be playing ‘Coddle Island’ just now.” (0:39:21) Al: But, yeah, there’s something about the gameplay loop of the bathhouse that I’m not finding hugely satisfying. (0:39:30) Al: But I wouldn’t be surprised if that was our personal preference thing rather than a game design issue. (0:39:38) Jonnie: Yeah it does because I think I feel fairly similarly to you, but not in a- sometimes you play a game and you’re really just ready to go like thumbs down. I don’t think there’s much, (0:39:49) Jonnie: you know, good about this game and I wouldn’t recommend it, but that’s not where I’m at with Spirity. I just don’t feel like it’s a game for me, but I can totally see there being people that are like “no this is absolutely the game for me” and I really enjoy it, so I think I’m right there (0:40:06) Al: Yeah, I think because it has that repetitive nature, which is enjoyable for these games, (0:40:16) Al: but it also has it where you’ve got your upgrades for your bathhouse, so you’re slowly expanding things, so it still manages to have that lit that a lot of farming games have that’s quite satisfying. (0:40:27) Al: It also has a slight exploration thing in that you are constantly having to find new spirits, (0:40:34) Al: and there’s it’s (0:40:36) Al: kind of puzzle-y but not really difficult puzzles right but you get like a little bit like oh here’s a thing here’s a hint towards how you do and then you go to a place that the hint tells you to basically and then you find a spirit and and that that kind of is another different aspect to it that I think could lead to slightly longer term i’m enjoying this because i’m you know slowly building up the list of spirits that i’ve found that also then adds more complexity to the bath path hosted in and of itself. (0:41:05) Jonnie: Yeah, and one of the things I wonder is the nature of the game and being, you know, running a bathhouse and running the bathhouse requires effort and consistent effort, I guess at least in the early game. (0:41:21) Jonnie: I wonder if part of the reason it’s not grabbing me is because it didn’t feel like there’s a lot of choice, you know. (0:41:28) Jonnie: Where you talked about Stardew fairly earlier, where they, you know, you don’t have to do anything but ostensibly you’re picked up the game. (0:41:35) Jonnie: Because you want to run a farm. And the thing is to grow some parsnips, right? And that doesn’t take your full day to do, you just plant them and water them and then you can work out what else you want to do with the day. (0:41:49) Jonnie: But it felt like I was very locked into, right, spend my full day at the bathhouse, running the bathhouse. (0:41:56) Al: Yeah, that’s that’s very fair. Yeah, because that’s that’s one of the things that as you say, certainly many of us on this podcast have really loved about games like Stardew. And I think Coral Island is the same where there’s so much variation in different things you can do. And there’s very little you need to do. And I really like that. But yeah, what is this is like, you have to run the bathrooms, like that’s the game. It’s a it’s a one. It’s a one, you know, I wrote down on the I always on the show notes, I always write down the list of mechanics that we’re going to talk about. And there’s there’s three things there. One of which is the bathhouse. One of which is spirit view, which we’ll talk about later, because that’s that’s that’s where you’re finding the other spirits, right? So it’s like a different thing to the bathhouse. And then I put lol fishing, because for some reason, this game has fishing and I’ve not even tried it because I’m not I’m not doing that. I don’t I don’t want to play fishing, please. And thank you. And I think that’s basically it, right? (0:42:56) Al: - There isn’t another mechanic. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, like simple games can work really well. And I know a lot of people’s problems with Stardew Valley is I don’t know what to do this too much. And this doesn’t have that issue. It is here is the thing, go and do this thing. But certainly that’s we are not those people, we love Stardew and other games like it because of the choice (0:43:22) Jonnie: Yeah, because I think my sort of takeaway with the bathhouse is like, “Oh, this is cool,” and maybe we should talk a little more in detail about sort of what the bathhouse is, but my feeling was probably more that, like, in a game with more optionality, I would have gone away and found some other way to make money so I could skip through a few of the things that I didn’t love about how I thought the bathhouse was set up, right? So I could buy some of those early upgrades through another means, but that doesn’t really (0:43:50) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that’s totally fair. (0:43:54) Al: Yeah, let’s talk about the bathhouse mechanics then. (0:43:56) Al: So the idea is you have these spirits, (0:44:01) Al: and they come in various different forms, (0:44:05) Al: and you start off with two of them, (0:44:07) Al: and then you add them on, and blah, blah, blah. (0:44:09) Al: The idea is you have, (0:44:11) Al: so there’s a few different things you need to do in the bathhouse. (0:44:13) Al: First of all is you need to have towels. (0:44:15) Al: So you need to get clean towels, clean and dry towels, (0:44:18) Al: and then you put them at the front. (0:44:20) Al: The spirit will then grab a towel, (0:44:21) Al: and you can then take that spirit to a place in the bathhouse. (0:44:25) Al: And you have, you start out with one bath, (0:44:27) Al: and you can slowly add more baths. (0:44:29) Al: And your job is to decide on places for the spirits to go where they have preferences on who they’re sitting next to, (0:44:39) Al: and you have to make sure that you can lay it out in an efficient way to have the most number of spirits in there as possible, therefore making the most money. (0:44:50) Al: On top of that, you have to then obviously keep washing and drying the towels, (0:44:54) Al: and you have to keep the fire in the basement lit for both heating the water and drying the towels. (0:45:02) Al: Is that a fair description of the mechanics of this? (0:45:04) Jonnie: Yeah, I think so. There’s not too much to be like, so when you’re chopping the log to fuel the fire or washing the towels, it’s usually just like a, you know, hold A to complete the activity sort of minigames, there’s nothing particularly, you know, there’s no additional aspect to those, you’re kind of just completing the task. (0:45:29) Al: Yes, the challenge in the Bathhouse is not any of the minigames it’s in. It’s an organisational game. (0:45:38) Al: You have to figure out the way to be most efficient to make the most money and to not make your spirits upset. (0:45:46) Jonnie: Yes, and one of the things they do tell you very early on is that it will require trial and error to work out what your spirits do and don’t like, and they kind of guide you that the two spirits you start with don’t like to sit next to each other, which I think is kind of handy because you kind of know to start separating them. (0:46:08) Jonnie: And then one of the things I think I found is that, because I was just lining up, you red spirits on the left and blue spirits on the right, or… I think they’re red. (0:46:16) Jonnie: red and blue. And then I think I got too many red spirits all in a line and the ones in the middle started to get less happy. (0:46:23) Jonnie: So there was clearly some like, you know, it’s not just who do you like sitting next to games, but there’s some bigger context clues going on. (0:46:30) Jonnie: Bye. (0:46:32) Al: Yeah. Yeah. So I think that’s probably the main thrust of why I’m not a huge fan is like in my repetitive mechanical nature of a cottagecore game, I’m personally not looking for puzzles. (0:46:59) Al: Right? (0:47:00) Al: Like, I don’t… (0:47:02) Al: This is why I like farming so much. It’s like, this is what you do and if you do the same thing every time it will work the same way and you don’t have to like, you know, (0:47:11) Al: your seed tells you when it likes to be and you know that it needs water. Right? These things are very clear. I like to know how this works. I like to have the clear rules and I’m not a huge fan of kind of trying to figure these things out. That’s definitely a me thing. I can imagine, like, lots of people love puzzle games so I suspect if you love (0:47:32) Al: puzzle games and you love puzzle games, that might be where this game is leading to. That might be the kind of person that’s looking to this game. (0:47:40) Jonnie: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and I think I’m probably more similar to you, because one of the things I was kind of looking for was like which of these spirits should I prioritize, right? (0:47:52) Jonnie: Like red spirits may be easier to keep happy but provide this money and blue spirits are, you know, more valuable but maybe they’re harder to keep happy or, you know, what’s the balance so I can make a choice, right? (0:48:06) Jonnie: I want the puzzle when I play a life-some game. I want the puzzle to be in (0:48:10) Jonnie: making the choice. Do I want to buy the crop that grows in four days and is less profitable, (0:48:15) Jonnie: or do I want the one that grows in 20 days but has a much wider profit margin, (0:48:20) Jonnie: or do I want the thing that recurs over the course of the month? Those sorts of decisions are easier because the outcome is deterministic and the pace that these games move at, (0:48:31) Jonnie: you kind of need that, right? Because if you got to the end of summer and you found that you’ve made all of the wrong choices based on what you want to do and now you have to wait, you know, (0:48:40) Jonnie: time before you get back to summer to be able to do those things again, that would be very frustrating. And that’s where I think some of my lack of enjoyment came from when I was playing, (0:48:50) Jonnie: is just the outcomes of what I was doing wasn’t particular. (0:48:56) Al: Um, Johnny, are you racially profiling the spirits? (0:49:00) Al: I mean, it is an interesting thing, right? Because one of the things that they tell you, (0:49:00) Jonnie: Ah, yes. (0:49:06) Jonnie: And this will be my last episode on THS. (0:49:08) Jonnie: I look forward to being cancelled. (0:49:15) Al: your lovely floating cat on a donut, I think, whatever, one of the things he tells you is that (0:49:25) Al: You don’t have to ex– (0:49:26) Al: Except any of the spirits, right? If a spirit comes in and grabs a towel, you can take the towel and put it back at the door and the spirit will go away. Which, I mean, is obviously an important part of the puzzle aspect of things, otherwise you’re like, you could get in a situation where you can’t solve anything, and sometimes the solution is telling this one to go away. (0:49:46) Al: But just when you make them, like, essentially dead people, it becomes a little bit awkward in terms of like, I’m just gonna tell you to- (0:49:56) Al: go away now please, don’t come. I don’t want you. Because it’s like, especially one of the things that he says about turning them away is like, he says something along the lines of, if you think they’ll like, you know, cause problems or there’s some- like, I can’t remember the exact word, but like basically have a negative effect on your bath house. (0:50:14) Al: So it’s like you’re being a bouncer in the bath house, right? Which just seems a little bit- I don’t know. (0:50:21) Jonnie: Yeah, it feels very uncomfortable, and this one seems like, “I would never want to do that.” (0:50:27) Jonnie: The whole point of the game of running a bathhouse is meant to be like, (0:50:30) Jonnie: “I want the spirits to come and use my bathhouse,” and I get the puzzle aspect of being like, (0:50:35) Jonnie: “Oh, you might want to turn this one away, because you’ve got nowhere for them to go,” (0:50:38) Jonnie: but that’s just not a feel-good moment, right? (0:50:41) Jonnie: It’s… (0:50:42) Al: social anxiety the game but I mean this is the thing we just we keep that all the points that we’re bringing up are very much like yeah this is not for me but I can absolutely see why people would like that right like what makes any particular aspect of life more or less real you know something that is legitimate for a game and just you know just because we are not a huge fan of that doesn’t mean that someone else will- (0:50:43) Jonnie: Right? (0:51:12) Jonnie: Yeah, and just on the bathhouse and sort of I think what I Wasn’t grabbed by immediately is the was when you take over the bathhouse It’s obviously very run down you’ve only got one pool as I’ll mentioned and it’s kind of dirty or Sort of cluttered everywhere and it’s yeah seems clearly designed to that’s what you’re supposed to level up and make the bathhouse look nice and there was something that sort of was (0:51:42) Jonnie: Kind of like of my brain that was kind of like but this is where I want to just kind of come in Having earned a bit of money doing something else and just get a few upgrades. So at least it looks Visually appealing because the starting bathhouse does not grab me Which I had a real problem with (0:51:54) Al: Yeah. (0:51:56) Al: There’s like tree roots everywhere. (0:52:00) Al: There’s dirt and dust and I just want to clean it up. (0:52:04) Al: Let me do that. Yeah. (0:52:06) Jonnie: Yeah, even if it was like, you know, it started a little bit worse than what they presented and one of the things you do at the start is just like, tidy it a little bit. (0:52:14) Jonnie: I think that would have helped me cross a hurdle, but it just looked so messy and I was like, no no, my character would just tidy this place up for like, a week before we even let anybody out. (0:52:23) Al: Yeah, because you don’t - this is the th

It's time for yet another b-b-b-b-bonus episode!! Nintendo held their second Indie World Showcase of 2023 on November 14, featuring over a dozen announcements about new and upcoming indie games coming to the Switch. In this bonus episode, Kate and Emily discuss these updates, comparing which of the Switch releases they are most looking forward to and which trailers they found the most captivating. Did Emily correctly guess the games that Kate was most looking forward to? Did Kate identify the "Emily games" among the list of featured titles? Were there any immediate must haves that the two absolutely HAD to buy? Find out in this special bonus episode of No Small Games! Timecodes Looking for the hosts' reaction to a certain game announcement? Check the timecodes below: Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution - 00:05:20 Core Keeper - 00:08:10 On Your Tail - 00:09:45 Howl - 00:12:35 The Star Named EOS - 00:14:25 Backpack Hero - 00:17:00 Blade Chimera - 00:18:45 A Highland Song - 00:20:20 Moonstone Island  - 00:23:10 Death Trick: Double Blind - 00:25:50 Outer Wilds: Archaeologist Edition - 00:28:20 Enjoy the Diner - 00:34:50 Heavenly Bodies - 00:37:31 The Gecko Gods - 00:37:50 Passpartout 2: The Lost Artist - 00:38:50 Urban Myth Dissolution Center - 00:40:35 Braid: Anniversary Edition - 00:41:50 Keep in touch with us on social media: Kate's Twitter ✦ https://twitter.com/katerblossom Emily's Twitter ✦ https://twitter.com/aSpecificEgg No Small Games Twitter ✦ https://twitter.com/NoSmallGames  No Small Games Instagram ✦ https://www.instagram.com/nosmallgames  Want to learn more and weigh in on what games we should play in future episodes? Check us out and leave a game suggestion at nosmallgames.com

The 8bA Podcast is a podcast bringing you the latest and greatest gaming news of the past week.NEWS ITEMSEmbracer. TechRadar reports that the holding corporation has announced that it has laid off a total of 900 employees over the past quarter - roughly 5% of its workforce, and saw a 5% decrease in sales across PC and console platforms. Despite that, it claims the last quarter has been one of the strongest for new releases ever. Embracer has threatened to shut down Free Radical Design (TimesSplitters), and closed Volition (Saints Row).For more context, check out podcast episodes 288 and 289.Lorcana. Chapter 2: Rise of the Floodborn is now available at game stores. The hot ticket items so far include Alice - Growing Girl, Beast - Relentless, Beast - Tragic Hero, Belle - Hidden Archer, Cinderella - Stout-Hearted, and Scar - Vicious Cheater. Products will be made available to general retailers starting December 1st. Additionally, Comicbook.com reports that Ravensburger has confirmed that several unreleased cards from an upcoming set were leaked online and they are investigating the theft of the card sheets.Nintendo Indie World Showcase. Nintendo held an Indie World broadcast this week, showcasing upcoming indie titles coming to Switch. A few highlights include Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution - a sequel to original Shantae for the GBA that was never released (2024), Core Keeper - a survival base-building game set in subterranean caverns (Summer 2024), Howl - a tactical strategy game where you seek answers to a werewolf curse (available now), Backpack Hero - a roguelike deckbuilder RPG where inventory management makes you stronger (available now), Moonstone Island - a monster collector/farming sim hybrid (Spring 2024), and Outer Wilds - Archaeologist Edition (December 7, Physical 2024)LINKSWebsite: https://8-bitadventures.comPatreon: https://patreon.com/8bitAdventuresMerch: https://8-bitadventures.com/shopJoin the Discord: https://discord.gg/FAPKjjQ“1-UP” is by Professor Shyguy. You can find his work at https://professorshyguy.bandcamp.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kev and Kelly do a second harvest of Graveyard Keeper Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:17: What Have We Been Up To 00:06:11: News 00:34:56: Graveyard Keeper 01:14:29: Outro Links Coral Island 1.0 Moonlight in Garland Early Access Sun Haven 1.3 Update Fabledom Fairytales & Community Update Moonstone Island Eerie Items DLC Lonesome Village Physical Edition Garden Story Translation Update Fantastic Haven Graveyard Keeper Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:32) Kevin: this is kelly ween this is kelly ween kelly ween kelly ween and in this show uh we talk about games that are filled with cottage gore yeah hi everyone welcome to the harvest season um with me today is kelly i’m kevin she’s actually gonna be here for well spoilers but then she’s gonna be on next week too she were on last week I bring it up because last year you were on for Halloween we did Cult of the Land. (0:00:47) Kelly: Hey. (0:00:57) Kelly: Oh, I forgot about that. (0:01:02) Kevin: And so, yeah, so, well, that’s exactly right. (0:01:03) Kelly: Is this just like my thing? (0:01:07) Kevin: Um, yeah, you’re Kelly our pumpkin queen. (0:01:10) Kevin: So here we are. (0:01:11) Kevin: Um, she’s all about this stuff. (0:01:14) Kevin: And so we are here today to talk about graveyard keeper, another, um, cottage gore game, um, technically this is a second harvest episode. (0:01:25) Kevin: Uh, Raschelle covered it way back. (0:01:28) Kevin: Like the first Halloween episode. (0:01:32) Kevin: And so I knew about it for years, but I didn’t get a chance to play it until recently. (0:01:37) Kevin: Um, and Kelly has played it significantly. (0:01:40) Kevin: Um, yeah. (0:01:40) Kelly: I only got out of it though last year. I was very new to it, so… (0:01:44) Kevin: Well, still more than I have. (0:01:49) Kevin: I’ve only played, uh, just a handful, relatively speaking. (0:01:51) Kevin: Um, but yeah, that’s, uh, we will get to that soon enough. (0:01:58) Kevin: Um, but before that, as always. (0:02:02) Kevin: Show notes and links and the transcripts are all available on the website for people to see and look at and on. (0:02:09) Kevin: Ooh, and whatnot. (0:02:11) Kevin: Um, and, uh, before the graveyard keeper will do news as always. (0:02:17) Kevin: And more importantly, what have you been up to Kelly? (0:02:19) Kevin: What have you been playing, watching, doing, yada, yada. (0:02:21) Kelly: Um, playing? I’ve really been slacking. I’ve been playing solitaire in Pokemon Go, which is not… It is, but I just… I get stuck playing it, and like, it’s fun, but I’m also like, I could be playing something better. (0:02:37) Kevin: Yeah, I mean it’s like comfort food sometimes it just it’s simple and I get it Exactly sometimes you just need a mindless game Okay, okay madman okay, I have not watched it. I’m familiar with it. That’s the one with That’s the one like 50s (0:02:37) Kelly: Um… [laughs] (0:02:39) Kelly: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It’s like, thoughtless. Um… (0:02:50) Kelly: But I just… (0:02:51) Kelly: I rewatched Mad Men, so that I think is more exciting. (0:03:05) Kelly: yeah like 60s advertising, yeah. (0:03:05) Kevin: add agency right (0:03:07) Kevin: 60s okay all right how how mm-hmm how long is it like the whole thing oh wow that’s longer than expected well that’s cool yeah sure (0:03:07) Kelly: uh I was a big fan when it came out. (0:03:12) Kelly: uh it’s like seven seasons I think? yeah seven seasons. (0:03:18) Kelly: yeah when I first ran I jumped ship like I think after season five. (0:03:25) Kelly: uh I mean it’s not the worst last two seasons but they’re not as good. (0:03:32) Kelly: Good. (0:03:34) Kevin: Um, let’s see, uh, well, I’ve last week we covered paleo pines actually kept up with it a good bit after There was a patch that dropped It’s been a big dinosaur for a week for me. I watched Jurassic Park this week again - (0:03:35) Kelly: What about you? What have you been up to? (0:03:52) Kevin: Boy, that movie’s real good good other than that Yesterday I cried that Super Mario wonder it just came out yesterday (0:04:04) Kevin: the newest one for this switch and It’s a good one Um, I’ll plug the rainbow road radio the other show I do with our mutual friend Alex We did our first look at it on that show. We just recorded and that’ll be dropping soon It’s fantastic it’s There’s I’m only a little bit in like on the second world but like every (0:04:23) Kelly: What do you think of it? (0:04:34) Kevin: level feels like it is introducing something new and different and I mean classic Mario is good you know 2d it’s your standard 2d Mario and whatnot so the gameplay is good and it’s just filled with all sorts of fun surprises and delights I’m going to spoil people on probably the best part that I’ve experienced so far there’s this level it’s like the second or third level you can do. (0:05:04) Kevin: There’s a bunch of piranha plants popping out of the pipes and you run and jump past them and whatnot. (0:05:09) Kevin: And then there’s the Wonder Flower which changes the level in different ways or whatnot. (0:05:15) Kevin: So when you touch the Wonder Flower, it starts this musical production and all the piranha plants just start singing. (0:05:23) Kevin: And it’s incredible, you entice everyone to at least look it up. (0:05:29) Kelly: I actually, I saw it on TikTok this morning and I was like, hmm, okay. (0:05:30) Kevin: It’s just so much fun. (0:05:34) Kevin: It’s so, because it just, right? (0:05:37) Kelly: Very much unexpected. (0:05:38) Kelly: I thought it was like somebody made it at first, like, you know, somebody edited it. (0:05:41) Kevin: Yep, it’s so out of the blue. (0:05:42) Kelly: But no, it was real. (0:05:45) Kevin: Yeah, no, it’s good. (0:05:48) Kevin: It’s really funny and yeah, the game just brings smiles to me every level with all sorts of unexpected twists and turns like that. (0:05:56) Kevin: So yeah, Mario Wonder, two thumbs up for me for sure. (0:05:59) Kevin: Like I said, people can go to Rainbow World Radio to hear more in-depth thoughts. (0:06:04) Kevin: But, yeah, that’s mostly what I’ve been up to. (0:06:08) Kevin: And now, with that, let’s hop on over to the news. (0:06:15) Kevin: We have, as always, a handful of, mostly game updates. (0:06:19) Kevin: Yeah, there’s a lot of game updates for some reason right now. (0:06:24) Kevin: So we’re going to start off talking about Coral Island. (0:06:30) Kevin: Okay, the one, okay, this is a big one. (0:06:34) Kevin: For people who may not remember, Coral Island is your standard Stardew-esque, well, I say standard. (0:06:40) Kevin: It’s got all your fixings, your farming, and it’s on an island, hence the name, right? (0:06:46) Kevin: So it has the tropical aesthetic and whatnot. (0:06:51) Kevin: But the big news is the 1.0 version is launching on November 14th, which is exciting. (0:06:58) Kevin: They have a trailer, and it looks expansive. (0:07:05) Kevin: There’s a lot going on. You have your farm, you can go underwater, you can meet mermaids, you can do your romancing, (0:07:12) Kevin: you can do, I think there’s even a race in there somewhere. All that good stuff. (0:07:18) Kevin: It looks very polished and like a 1.0 game. You can also… (0:07:22) Kelly: Yeah, I was going to say, it definitely looks like there’s, it looks a lot different than like the first, you know, clips I saw of it. (0:07:30) Kevin: Yep, absolutely. Yeah, it’s definitely a game now, for a better way of putting it. (0:07:36) Kelly: Yeah. (0:07:37) Kevin: And you can also dress up as a panda or dinosaur, so you know, there’s a lot going on there. You also get your little animal crossing, you can redecorate your house wherever you want. (0:07:49) Kevin: Oh, you can even have a baby in this, that’s wild. Yeah, that is dropping on November 14th, (0:07:58) Kevin: just a couple of weeks and it will be dropping on Steam, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5 they’re hoping for a 2024 release for a Switch version. Do you think you’ll try Coral Island or look in its general (0:08:12) Kelly: I think I might. I think it definitely looks really cute. I think it depends on if I’m playing anything, you know, when it comes out. I’m trying so hard not to, like, backlog myself. (0:08:22) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, that’s the hard part right too many games Yeah, no, that’s that’s a good idea I definitely have bought back So I respect that I think you can romance a mermaid so, you know, I’m not that going free I wonder how that’s gonna work. How are they gonna move up the land or vice versa? (0:08:43) Kevin: It’s a two-story floor but the bottom floor is underwater [laugh] (0:08:44) Kelly: just uh living in a two separate homes kind of situation there you go (0:08:52) Kevin: I’m down for that, um, yeah, right now it’s only 25 bucks, oh that’s not bad for this, that’s, that looks like a lot of content for 25 bucks, so, um, get excited. (0:09:06) Kevin: Um, oh, oh yeah, okay, sure, yep, that makes sense, that’s fair. (0:09:07) Kelly: Oh, it does say it’s going to release, I think, at $30, though. (0:09:11) Kelly: There’s a note about the price adjustment. (0:09:14) Kelly: But the diving looks really cool. (0:09:16) Kelly: I played a lot of Dave the Diver over the summer, (0:09:19) Kelly: so I feel like I’m still looking for games where I can go exploring like that. (0:09:19) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s good. (0:09:23) Kevin: Yeah, it does look good for like the animation stuff. (0:09:29) Kevin: I’m also a big fan of underwater type games and it looks very expansive down there. (0:09:35) Kevin: So yeah, there’s a post on Steam page with all the updates and everything. You guys can check it out. (0:09:44) Kevin: If you do have early access, it looks like there will be a save reset. (0:09:53) Kevin: So there is that. But, either way, November 14th, I look forward to it. I might actually check it out now. It looks pretty… (0:10:00) Kevin: So, next up we have Moonlight and Garland. (0:10:06) Kevin: I don’t know if this is a game announced, but it’s… (0:10:09) Kevin: Yeah, I guess it is, because they’re announcing their early access October 24th, which will probably already be out by the time people are listening to this. (0:10:18) Kevin: This is… here, let me read their, uh… (0:10:22) Kevin: The elevator pitch, where is it? (0:10:24) Kevin: A cozy open-ended life sim about finding your feet in the big city, decorate your apartment, make new friends, grow too many houseplants, and love your city life. (0:10:33) Kevin: Um, so it… yeah, it’s… it’s city-based, right? So you’re in an apartment, you’re not running a whole farm, but you can grow plants, you can have pets, um, make relationships and whatnot. (0:10:46) Kevin: The art style is… (0:10:48) Kelly: That’s the most realistic farming sim. (0:10:52) Kevin: » [LAUGH] (0:10:54) Kevin: » No, you’re right. (0:10:59) Kevin: » Yeah, yeah, Kelly can. (0:11:00) Kevin: Well, no, you’re in the house now, you’re not in an apartment anymore. (0:11:03) Kelly: No, but definitely, you know, went through that also, like, how do I keep my plans alive in my apartment when there’s no sun? (0:11:04) Kevin: But yeah, you know the feeling. (0:11:12) Kevin: Man, gosh, you’re super right. (0:11:16) Kevin: Boy, there’s a person showing an apartment with a lot of bunnies in their apartment, that seems difficult. (0:11:23) Kevin: You’re gonna have that many bunnies in an apartment. (0:11:26) Kevin: The art style is, it’s 2D pixelated, but it’s not Stardew-esque. (0:11:31) Kevin: It’s a little more cutesy than that, and I don’t know how to best describe it. (0:11:35) Kevin: And all the NPCs are kind of bobbing their head at the same time to some unknown beat, it is cute looking. (0:11:43) Kevin: And it’s only the early access, so I’m sure it’ll grow considerably more. (0:11:51) Kevin: That is, you know. (0:11:52) Kevin: October 23rd? 24th? I’m seeing two different days. (0:11:58) Kelly: I definitely want to follow up on it because just looking at the coming soon photo, it’s like why is there an iguana on the sidewalk? (0:12:06) Kevin: Hahaha! (0:12:06) Kelly: Can I have an iguana? (0:12:07) Kevin: Wait, you havin’ a guana? (0:12:08) Kelly: And then there’s also the bear man. (0:12:10) Kevin: Wait, wait, wait, wait, let me see, which one are you talkin’ about? (0:12:10) Kelly: I’m on the steam page, the early access release. (0:12:14) Kevin: What? (0:12:15) Kevin: Okay, okay, let me see… (0:12:17) Kelly: So in the coming soon photo that says steam early access, October 24th, whatever, wishlist now. (0:12:27) Kevin: Okay, okay. Oh, I’m looking at the wrong page. I would explain it wouldn’t it? Yup. There it is. Okay Yeah, I was looking the wrong page. There is a bear man. Why is there a bear man? (0:12:28) Kelly: There’s a bear man in the iguana, like do I get a pet iguana, do I get pet pigeons? (0:12:37) Kevin: Okay, I Okay, I want to mine a department full of pet iguanas that that I can do they’re pretty low-key There are pigeons. So, you know, definitely, you know, they’re hitting Oh, are they gonna have the the trash bags out on the sidewalk? (0:12:55) Kevin: Are they gonna go all in on the city? (0:12:57) Kevin: I don’t know if garland is a city name. It’s a city in texas. I know that much. (0:13:11) Kelly: Yeah. (laughs) (0:13:28) Kevin: But yeah, coming soon, early access. (0:13:31) Kevin: Next up, the clip side of early access, we got DLC patches, whatever you want to call it, for Sunhaven. (0:13:39) Kevin: This is the magical-esque farm where you do magic, there’s monsters, dragons, etc. (0:13:51) Kevin: It is patch 1.3, which includes new buildings. (0:13:58) Kevin: There are several that don’t look human, one is an angel, just straight up an angel. (0:14:04) Kevin: One guy is blue, he’s a moon attendant, whatever that means. (0:14:11) Kevin: You have to, they will be unlockable at some point, but that’s fascinating, dating non-humans like that. (0:14:20) Kevin: Oh, they will have a couple of other romancibles coming later this year. (0:14:28) Kevin: They will also have new farm structures and buildings. (0:14:32) Kevin: Greenhouses, silos, chicken coops, butterfly gardens, I like that. You don’t see that in farming games. (0:14:38) Kelly: That’s very unique, yeah. (0:14:40) Kevin: That’s cute, I love a butterfly garden. (0:14:44) Kevin: Monocyphoners, glorite siphoners, I don’t know what they are, workshops, and ticket counterfeiters. (0:14:54) Kevin: I don’t know what that means, but you’re counterfeiting. (0:14:57) Kevin: They’re up to crimes. I like that. (0:14:59) Kevin: I want to know why you can do crimes. (0:15:01) Kevin: Tickets for what? (0:15:03) Kevin: I don’t think they’re concert tickets. (0:15:05) Kevin: That’s fascinating. (0:15:07) Kevin: But yeah, there’s a whole bunch of other stuff. (0:15:10) Kelly: A lot of stuff. There’s like a ghost shed kit? I want a ghost shed. (0:15:11) Kevin: What does that mean? (0:15:18) Kevin: Do you keep ghosts in there? (0:15:19) Kelly: You grow them in there, maybe? (0:15:21) Kevin: I don’t… (0:15:23) Kevin: Oh wait, there are variations. (0:15:25) Kevin: variations because there’s pumpkin and mushroom. (0:15:27) Kevin: It looks like a ghost, oh I see it. (0:15:29) Kevin: Yeah, it has the eyes, the windows look like eyes and the glow, okay. (0:15:29) Kelly: Oh! (0:15:31) Kelly: That makes so much more sense because I was like oh mushroom shed. That’s just a shed where you grow mushrooms, you know That’s and then I just took the rest of them like that [laughs] (0:15:33) Kevin: Um, sh*t skins, yeah it does. (0:15:36) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, okay. (0:15:44) Kevin: Um, oh that’s the butterfly, wow those are big butterflies. (0:15:47) Kevin: Um, oh those are fascinating buildings. (0:15:49) Kevin: Um, let’s see, player birthdays. (0:15:53) Kevin: There is the birthday, birthday celebration. (0:15:57) Kevin: There is a huge pinata that you can hit, so I’m already down for this. (0:16:01) Kevin: Um, geez that’s like a full sized lion looking pinata, that’s great. (0:16:06) Kevin: Um, that’s uh, so all that’s included in the patch. (0:16:10) Kevin: Aside from that there will be DLC available. (0:16:13) Kevin: Um, all six different packs, trick or treat, spirit battle, rock and roll, cyber pop, monkey monkey, and dreamy ram. (0:16:22) Kevin: They’re all, they contain different items, packs, outfits, items, whatever. (0:16:27) Kevin: You guys can check the Steam page for details. (0:16:30) Kevin: Uh, for, yeah, there’s more details out there than we talked about, but, uh, yeah, that seems like a hefty patch. That seems like fun. (0:16:38) Kelly: Yeah, there’s a lot in this. This page goes on. (0:16:38) Kevin: Um, uh, yeah, it does. Um… (0:16:41) Kelly: And there’s even a coming soon, so… (0:16:43) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, they’re talking about future. (0:16:47) Kevin: Um, wow, new season of weather. Wow. (0:16:50) Kevin: Gloomy, what’s the difference between rainy and gloomy rain? I don’t know. (0:16:55) Kelly: Um, I think there’s I could I could understand that one (0:16:55) Kevin: But there you go All right, yeah, I guess. Okay, uh See like out here in Georgia. It’s a little more like rain. Not gloomy rain. Gloomy rains like hurricane force rain That’s what I think Wait no, yeah, okay. I get it (0:17:10) Kelly: No, I think gloomy rain is like when it’s kind of cold and like the sky is just dark and grey all day and it’s like just kind of constant. Like you could have nice rain, like you could have sunny rain, you could have like… (0:17:24) Kevin: Yeah, I do enjoy sun showers. (0:17:25) Kelly: It doesn’t have to be gloomy. (0:17:26) Kelly: Just like a normal rain shower isn’t always gloomy. (0:17:27) Kevin: You’re right. (0:17:28) Kevin: Yeah, no, you’re right, okay, um Yeah, so there’s all the whole bunch of stuff you guys can check that out Is that sorry? Yeah, when’s the release? I didn’t it’s it’s Oct they posted it October 20th It is oh, yeah, it’s already out on Steam. Yeah, so Now time this recording which means by the times you guys are listening. It is definitely available. That is again Sun haven (0:17:58) Kevin: Huh? Oh man, I’m just looking at the picture like a big tree man monster. I might have to check this out I like tree monsters. I I haven’t played a magic game in a minute. Well, I mean, well, maybe our keeper gentle notwithstanding Um, but it’s high, you know fantasy magic II I’m down for that. I could use that Yeah, uh, okay speaking of well, I don’t know more updates (0:18:04) Kelly: right? like i’m kind of like- i’m intrigued. i’m definitely very (0:18:17) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:18:18) Kelly: I feel like this is pretty different, yeah. (0:18:28) Kevin: We have so this is The what I refer to as not a city builder but a village builder because it’s medieval villagey themed But you’re helping build the whole village and run everything it is currently in early access and they are dropping a update for it I’m excited for this game myself. I’m gonna wait for the 1.0, but I love the art style. It’s cutesy and goofy (0:18:59) Kevin: and they are dropping all sorts of things in this update including a An encounter with a misunderstood Cyclops who’s very cute. His eye is just a dot His name is Eric one eye you can there will be a witch’s hut a red hooded girl Who’s looking for her grandma’s house? That that’s a speech. I don’t trust that at all. Oh, no, I don’t like that Hemisary gnomes (0:19:26) Kevin: It was seriously rare! (0:19:28) Kevin: And then a fawn with a really big nose and mustache. Oh, I like this guy. (0:19:33) Kevin: There’s a… and a few more. (0:19:36) Kevin: Well, those are fun characters that they’re adding. I love the art style and it looks really fun on these mythical, magical, whatever you want to call them. (0:19:46) Kevin: Cyclops and fawns. Gnomes. They’re fun looking characters. (0:19:48) Kelly: No, yeah, they look they look so cute. It looks very adorable (0:19:49) Kevin: Yeah. (0:19:51) Kevin: Yep. (0:19:53) Kevin: There are, oh gosh, 50 new world events and 30 new objectives. (0:19:58) Kevin: I don’t know what that means, but those are big numbers. (0:20:00) Kevin: Oh, there’s a magic bean. (0:20:03) Kevin: There’s monthly and yearly objectives. (0:20:06) Kevin: Hot weight. Positive and negative events. Oh, oh, they’re, they’re, they’re wild. Okay, I’m down for that. (0:20:15) Kevin: They have, let’s see, new buildings, a laborer guild. Oh, so you can hire better laborers. That’s fun. A bank. (0:20:24) Kevin: Oh, you can tax your villagers at different rates? (0:20:28) Kevin: Oh, that’s awesome. Grand theater? Oh, that’s a nice looking theater. (0:20:34) Kevin: Fisherman’s hut? Fish up stuff? All sorts of quality of life stuff? (0:20:40) Kevin: Well, there’s a lot of graphs in this game and things like that. I’m down for that. (0:20:45) Kevin: Yeah, that’s a lot of stuff coming. Like I said, I’m probably going to wait for 1.0 myself, but I’m glad that it’s coming along nicely. Yeah, that is again fabled. (0:20:57) Kelly: Is there any, is there any real estate or? (0:20:59) Kevin: Go. Oh, it is live. That update is already live as of this recording. (0:21:05) Kevin: So, yay. If anyone is playing the one point or the early access, first of all, (0:21:10) Kevin: somebody tell me if they are because I want to know about it. And it is out already. (0:21:15) Kevin: Um, yeah. All right. Good. Oh man. I’m just trying to fable them. It’s so goofy looking and the. (0:21:23) Kelly: Is there like an overall release date or no? (0:21:33) Kevin: uh not that i’m saying now um I have left here a quick glance um yeah so probably still a hot minute probably sometime in 2024 i’d hope but uh it’s not dead yet so i’ll take that let’s see next up we have uh moonstone island we have dlc for that this is which one’s this one okay all right we so we have dlc come (0:22:11) Kevin: Well, let me get to the details. Yeah, it’s the Halloween update right? That’s the key thing here. Um, (0:22:16) Kelly: I think so, ‘cause it’s for Halloween. (0:22:17) Kevin: We’ve got just a whole bunch of Spooky decors per their website gravestones skeletons a big old pumpkin house um Web’s five types of cobwebs. Oh Oh a rug. That’s just the tongue. That’s clever. I like that. Um, (0:22:38) Kevin: uh So yeah, there. (0:22:41) Kevin: Okay. (0:22:43) Kevin: Okay. (0:22:45) Kelly: I’m sorry, it’s actually not out yet. (0:22:45) Kevin: Okay. (0:22:47) Kelly: It’s not out, which I’m kinda… (0:22:47) Kevin: Um, there are n- some- the- so some of this stuff is DLC, which I’m assuming means purchasable separately, but there will be stuff included for free in the updates on the skeletons and things like that. (0:22:58) Kevin: Um, spirits are free- I don’t know what spirits are in the context of this game, but um, but they’re coming some out. (0:23:05) Kevin: Um, oh wow, I didn’t check- it’s got some good reviews. (0:23:09) Kevin: Um, I’ll have to check that out. (0:23:11) Kevin: Oh wow, what? Oh gosh, I forgot about- I’m remembering the game. (0:23:15) Kevin: There’s- you can fight like robots with a card battling system. (0:23:19) Kevin: They are… (0:23:21) Kevin: Yeah, oh man, oh gosh. (0:23:23) Kelly: These are really cute looking things, these creatures. (0:23:26) Kelly: I, yeah, like, I really like the style of it, yeah. (0:23:26) Kevin: This whole episode’s just me getting excited about games I forgot to get excited about. (0:23:31) Kevin: Um, as if I didn’t have enough already. (0:23:33) Kevin: There are really cute characters- there’s a fishbowl with legs. (0:23:36) Kevin: Um, I like that. (0:23:39) Kevin: that. And then at the end they just. (0:23:41) Kevin: Have a picture of a cat with like a sun hood. I don’t know but um, it’s very cute cat. (0:23:47) Kevin: That is Moonstone Island. That is already out, I believe. Why do we have a date for that? (0:23:52) Kelly: It is a very cute cat. (0:23:54) Kelly: The game is out, it says “NA” for them. (0:23:56) Kevin: Okay, thank you. But it says, while says it’s October 27th. I (0:24:06) Kevin: Couldn’t find that myself. Oh wait. Yeah, there it is. Yeah, October 27th. It’s only $4. (0:24:11) Kevin: Okay, that’s actually not bad at all and 10% off the first week. So there’s 46. (0:24:18) Kevin: Yeah, okay. Oh, it’s a new spirits must be a little monster buddies. That’s what it means. I’m excited. One looks like an apple with a worm through it. They’re just showing silhouettes. I’m just guessing. (0:24:23) Kelly: There you go. (0:24:29) Kevin: And yeah, I don’t know all that. Oh, I might check this out now. It’s a very cute game. (0:24:34) Kevin: Moonstone Island. Um Let’s see Next up we have oh, this isn’t an interesting (0:24:41) Kevin: one because boy, I never thought we’d see this this is Lonesome Village game that I notoriously advocate because the developers are from Mexico. It’s got the cute coyote as you saw puzzles in a tower. They’re coming out the fiscal edition. Pre-orders are live. You can check the show notes for the link. It is not from limited run games actually. A game a site called premium edition games. (0:25:11) Kevin: physical edition which includes all sorts of goodies including oh wow a full-color manual oh that’s exciting Wow a dog tag yeah they do um oh man a manual that’s exciting um yeah it’s great um yeah I I cover this game with Johnny, it was last year or year before, I don’t remember. (0:25:22) Kelly: Dude, the indie games always put so much into like what you get from… (0:25:32) Kelly: I love a manual. (0:25:33) Kelly: A full color manual too, that’s so nice. (0:25:41) Kevin: It’s a fun little game with lots of puzzles, and just very very cute little animal-closing-esque villagers. (0:25:47) Kelly: It looks really cute. The art style kind of reminds me of like Cult of the Lamb, but without the like paper feel. (0:25:47) Kevin: It’s actually funny because in the “story” of the game, so it’s called Lonesome Village because there’s a village and everyone’s kind of been turned to stone or disappeared. (0:26:03) Kevin: And the villains, they’re the people who did it very much look like Cult of the Lamb. (0:26:06) Kelly: Okay. (0:26:07) Kelly: Oh! Oh! It’s a cult! It’s a cult! What is happening here? (0:26:09) Kevin: Yeah. (0:26:12) Kevin: It came out around the time Cult of the Loom. (0:26:14) Kelly: I’m watching the trailer! Oh my god! (0:26:15) Kevin: It looks a lot like Cult of the Loom. (0:26:18) Kevin: The cult from Cult of the Loom. (0:26:20) Kevin: I think we made the joke in the episode. (0:26:22) Kevin: It came out around the same time too. (0:26:25) Kevin: Yep, yep, exactly. Yep. (0:26:26) Kelly: That’s so funny, ‘cause I was thinking it kinda like reminds me of the way they do the animals, like the style of the animals. (0:26:32) Kelly: But now that I’m watching this trailer, it’s like literally… (0:26:32) Kevin: It’s cult, it’s a lot like Cult of the Loom, Cult. (0:26:36) Kelly: That’s so funny. Oh, I gotta play this. (0:26:41) Kevin: Yeah, I have to check it out again. I still have it. (0:26:45) Kevin: It’s been a while. I’m sure they patched it up and done some stuff. (0:26:48) Kevin: ‘Cause I had a few rough edges back then, but I’m curious. (0:26:51) Kevin: I might do another look at it at some point. (0:26:54) Kevin: Because, yeah, props to–but, again, Mexican dev team, so I gotta shout them out. (0:26:59) Kevin: Ogre Pixel, that’s the name. (0:27:02) Kevin: But, yeah, that is a cute little logo of an Ogre–Pixillator Ogre. (0:27:07) Kevin: And again, this is the physical edition release. (0:27:11) Kevin: $40 for the premium edition, which seems to be their only version but includes all sorts of goodies. Um, I When do pre-orders end? I don’t know if I see that but the pre-orders are available now So you can check out the site and get it. Um Alright next up we have Not Garden Galaxy is perfect. We’re heading on the notes. That’s a different game that I was going to cover almost (0:27:42) Kevin: Garden story. That’s the one with the playable grape. That looks a lot like Stardew Valley a lot like It has It’s very cute though the grape that’s playable It is an update that has 11 new languages. Wow, that is a lot of languages I don’t know which ones they are. I just see the It’s out on Steam and switch already this update (0:28:09) Kevin: Very cool. Yeah, I actually don’t know what language is. I don’t know. (0:28:11) Kevin: Let’s see the details. But wow, that’s a big number. Good for them. (0:28:16) Kevin: Always props for making it more available for more people and whatnot. (0:28:19) Kevin: Yep. It is. The grape is very cute. (0:28:20) Kelly: Yeah, that’s always awesome. It really does look like stardew though. It’s cute though (0:28:25) Kevin: Next up, a new game announcement for as far as I can tell. (0:28:31) Kevin: This is called Fantastic Haven, which actually I find really intriguing. (0:28:36) Kevin: It’s the prime… (0:28:40) Kevin: Let me read the– (0:28:41) Kevin: The elevator pitch. (0:28:43) Kevin: So, this is a… (0:28:57) Kevin: Yeah, a Zook cheaper-esque type game, but they’re all magical creatures. (0:29:03) Kevin: Um, so you’re building big pens that look like circular homes more? (0:29:09) Kevin: Um, you alter the land and… (0:29:11) Kevin: It’s full 3D graphics, um, the… I think the actual designs of the creatures are actually quite nice, um… (0:29:18) Kevin: I like animals and critters and… (0:29:21) Kevin: …cheaping them and whatnot, so I’m already pretty interested, um, especially with the spin of… (0:29:26) Kevin: …like, they’re all magical creatures, I don’t see any other animals in here, I see like a griffin, uh… (0:29:31) Kelly: No, I’ve only seen, like, yeah, griffins and some weird frog with, like, horns and stuff. (0:29:31) Kevin: Yup, it’s a bullfrog, you get it? (0:29:36) Kelly: Ah, yes, yes, yes. (0:29:41) Kevin: The color shows a lot more, uh, it looks like you’re even busting some out of, like, cages and, like, carny… (0:29:46) Kevin: …you know, those carnival cages with the wheels, the cars, um… (0:29:51) Kevin: So that’s… that looks very fun, yeah, like I said, a lot of menus, probably, um… (0:29:57) Kevin: …very zookeeper tycoon-esque, um, but with the heavy, uh, magical fantasy paint over it, um… (0:30:06) Kevin: So that is right now the only release date planned is for Q2 of 2024 so it’ll probably be a minute but look forward to it I certainly am those are some fun designs yeah it’s it’s it’s charming enough for me I’m definitely interested um and then lastly okay this one I want to talk about in depth a little more because this one’s affecting me personally uh well actually there’s two me and my neck was night market once again got another patch that one. (0:30:41) Kevin: one point two point one oh whatever the it’s out on switch so you know it’s out on the steam version or whatever um so uh there’s a lot of quality of life stuff you can do with it. (0:30:48) Kevin: I’m not gonna go into the details because I don’t remember them but the other one I want to talk about because we just talked about last week is paleo pines. (0:30:53) Kevin: We just got yup okay so uh one point two point one oh whatever the it’s out on switch so you know it’s out on the steam version or whatever um so uh there’s a lot of quality of life stuff you can do with it. (0:30:54) Kelly: Which I still have to play, but I have not yet. (0:31:11) Kevin: We can change how quickly time passes in the game um oh gosh so one of the after I recorded last week with Spencer and we talked and played I was getting a lot of crashes. (0:31:23) Kevin: They had released a patch previously to fix some of that they said it was like a memory issue um but they were still experiencing it. (0:31:26) Kelly: Mmm. Okay. (0:31:31) Kevin: I felt like the more farther I got in the game the more I was crashed getting crashes uh they addressed some of that. (0:31:37) Kevin: that the game is still not free of crashes because (0:31:41) Kevin: we’ve been probably within an hour after downloading the update the game crashed on me again But it is better in general So they’re definitely aware and working on it at probably top of their list There is Also, there’s a whole list and you can check the show notes for them. I’m trying to look at which ones that are Stand out to me. Oh, there’s a cooking pot (0:31:46) Kelly: Oh, God. (0:32:07) Kevin: But it was weird because it was at some other guy’s house you have to go all the way to this other (0:32:12) Kevin: cook stuff but now you can buy one for your own ranch so that’s great oh here’s a fun one um so you can ride your dinosaurs because of course you can but the thing was whenever you got off of them they would just run away from you at max speed it was whole it was wild you could like try to stop them but um clearly not intended they have addressed that and and this definitely was an update needed and and it works um they will no longer run away from you when you get off of them (0:32:42) Kevin: um yes well luckily I think it was only in the ranch like your home base when it happened they wouldn’t leave you when you’re out in the wild oh my god that would be the worst yes but it’s still a pain because your character is a lot slower than the dinosaur so yeah yeah it’s just a pain having to go across the ranch to find them I mean it’s a pretty big ranch too um (0:32:44) Kelly: feeling it’s like okay nice I can I can get to the place I’m going to but once you’re there you’re stuck there now (0:32:56) Kelly: Oh, okay, okay, I was picturing like you, yeah, like you in the middle of like some field or something. (0:33:12) Kevin: uh there’s all sorts oh horse lock so there was a uh resource called forestwood that was needed for a lot of things it was pretty rare they increased the respawn on that that’s great um they did some ui improvements which were nice uh um lots of other things some oh there was a storage glitch spencer talked about think they fixed that um yeah just sort lots of little things (0:33:42) Kevin: because there were lots of little things that needed fixing um like I said still not 100 percent yeah yeah there is um where is it do they not have it um so there there is I read there is one glitch that they haven’t addressed yet um they know it’s an issue but for some reason at some point and it’s happened to me your game will reset to the first day of the game because there’s you know calendar like most farm. (0:34:12) Kevin: games and whatnot like you’ll keep all your stuff but somehow the calendar will just have reset to the very first game or very first day of the year which is wild um luckily I was able to get around that if you encounter it you can just reload an old save and it’s fine but um that was the wild glitch to see um but yeah that was I’m glad that came out because that addressed a lot of the little nitpicks Spencer and I had with the game and I’m sure (0:34:42) Kevin: they’re still working hard on that so good for you paleopines that update again is out already for switch and probably the other versions whatever versions it’s on all right so that was uh yeah the hearty helping of news and things but that’s now we’re doing that let’s talk about grave graveyard keeper yeah what’s what’s the tagline the most inaccurate medieval simulator isn’t that (0:35:09) Kelly: Something like that. I know inaccurate is involved of [laugh] (0:35:14) Kevin: Hold on let me look at it. Um the most inaccurate cemetery simulation game. Okay. Yeah, I think that’s what it is Okay Well Yeah, so again, um It and this game’s been up for years at this point. Um, I’ll covered it years ago Yeah. Yeah, there you go. That’s cute (0:35:24) Kelly: Oh, the most inaccurate medieval, yeah, cemetery sim of the year. (0:35:36) Kelly: Uh, they had their five year anniversary actually in August. (0:35:42) Kevin: There’s a bunch of DLC I bought the (0:35:44) Kevin: version with all the DLC I don’t know what the base game hazard does not have. (0:35:48) Kevin: I’ve only played it for an afternoon or two. I don’t think I’ve reached any of the DLC portions yet probably. (0:35:49) Kelly: Oh, did you? Okay. (0:35:57) Kevin: They’re all parody names there’s a stranger sins there’s breaking something (0:35:57) Kelly: Um, I’m trying to remember. I know the DLC… (0:35:59) Kelly: Yes, because there’s better save soul. (0:36:04) Kelly: Um, I did look into getting them, but I didn’t- I didn’t, because I think it was like- (0:36:11) Kelly: I feel like there’s- there’s so much going on in this game already. (0:36:14) Kevin: Even if it is, there’s a lot going on. (0:36:14) Kelly: Uh, that I was very happy to not have the added, um, things that like go along with the better save soul one. I heard that gets a lot of pretty tedious. (0:36:24) Kevin: Yeah, heh heh heh. (0:36:25) Kevin: Better save solo, that’s good. (0:36:29) Kevin: I don’t think that one’s out on Switch. (0:36:31) Kevin: That’s it? I don’t know if that one’s out on Switch. (0:36:32) Kelly: Oh, are you playing on Switch? I am not gonna lie. I have not. (0:36:36) Kelly: I’ve been so bad at playing my Switch this year. (0:36:44) Kevin: But, I mean, that’s fine, like, I know that the Switch port gets black for a good reason. (0:36:55) Kevin: There’s a Switch tax for sure, so I don’t blame you. (0:36:57) Kevin: But hey, at least we can compare notes on that. (0:37:00) Kevin: If you played on Steam, I would guess? (0:37:10) Kevin: Um, but okay, so let’s okay, let’s the elevator pitch Okay, first of all, I didn’t expect that this game’s an isekai That I didn’t expect at all so for people unfamiliar with isekai that is a genre of anime primarily where a character wakes up in a simulated often fantasy type world (0:37:38) Kevin: Sword Art Online and just… (0:37:40) Kevin: …other ones. It’s a whole trope now. (0:37:42) Kevin: Umm… (0:37:43) Kelly: I was gonna say it breaks the, you know, inherited your grandpa’s farm trope though. (0:37:44) Kevin: … (0:37:46) Kevin: Yeah. Yeah. (0:37:48) Kevin: You’re just a guy who gets hit by a car cause he’s looking at his phone. (0:37:52) Kevin: Don’t look at your phone when crossing the streets. (0:37:54) Kevin: It’s dark in the rain, people. (0:37:56) Kevin: It’s not recommended. (0:37:58) Kevin: And he wakes… (0:37:59) Kelly: Poor dude’s just trying to give back to his girlfriend or whatever. (0:38:00) Kevin: …yeah, his love, as he says, and… (0:38:03) Kevin: …he wakes up in a graveyard area and… (0:38:08) Kevin: There’s a talking skull that talks to you. (0:38:10) Kevin: And he says, “Hey, welcome. You’re the graveyard keeper, I guess.” (0:38:13) Kevin: Um, more or less, and sure enough, you’re put in charge of this graveyard in this little medieval village area. (0:38:23) Kevin: And you’re trying to figure out how to get back home while managing the graveyard and all the stuff people are asking you. (0:38:32) Kevin: Because, of course, people are going to ask you to do everything around here. (0:38:35) Kevin: Uh… (0:38:36) Kelly: I mean, what would a game be without everybody asking you to do all these things? (0:38:40) Kevin: Right, right. (0:38:42) Kevin: Um, so, okay, hell, you beat the game, correct? What are your overall impressions? (0:38:50) Kelly: I really liked the game. I thought it was a lot of fun. I think there’s a lot of stuff to do, (0:38:57) Kelly: like it can get a bit overwhelming, but I think, you know, it definitely involves, you know, (0:38:59) Kevin: Boy does it. (0:39:01) Kevin: Oh. Yep. (0:39:04) Kelly: looking things up online. But I will say there is an issue with how intuitive it is. (0:39:08) Kevin: Yep. (0:39:10) Kevin: Yep. (0:39:12) Kelly: I think I could have been further along in my gameplay if I understood some of the (0:39:20) Kelly: panics. A lot better. And I will say on that note, it was not always easy to find the answers on the internet. So that made it even worse. And sometimes if you did find an answer, (0:39:21) Kevin: Yep. Okay, so yeah, so. Mm-hmm. (0:39:31) Kevin: Oh yeah, the double whammy, oh yeah. (0:39:35) Kevin: Yup, it’s wild. (0:39:38) Kelly: it was from like 2018, so something got patched or didn’t work like that anymore. (0:39:46) Kelly: So, that was my biggest issue. (0:39:48) Kelly: Did it stop me from putting in, you know, (0:39:50) Kelly: 90 hours, I think, or whatever into the game? (0:39:55) Kelly: No, but there were definitely moments where I was frustrated. (0:39:59) Kelly: Or, like, again, just like, I was playing the game, I was enjoying myself, (0:40:03) Kelly: but I could have been further along than what I was. (0:40:07) Kevin: Yeah, um, okay. Mm-hmm Okay, yeah for sure they’re just Yeah, absolutely. Um, so for comparison I got the game Thursday I think today’s like Saturday. So two days ago So I’ve only played for and Mario wonder so I didn’t play as much yesterday So I played the game for an afternoon and then some um, I like the game a lot. Um, (0:40:07) Kelly: And not even in, like, a micromanagy, like, you know, whatever kind of way. (0:40:13) Kelly: Like, in, like, a… (0:40:15) Kelly: It would have made more sense. (0:40:26) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:40:37) Kevin: I think it is Almost minecrafty and how open it is and crafting and everything But I fully agree like that’s my biggest criticism there’s a lot that is not intuitive Or explained well Yep, yep, yep, I’m sure (0:40:50) Kelly: you haven’t even gotten or opened a lot of the, you know, different aspects of the game yet at this point, I’m sure, because it really expands. It expands a lot. There is a lot to do. There is so (0:41:03) Kevin: But I can imagine… I mean I see the skill tree. (0:41:07) Kevin: So… I can… I can… she’s… I can… (0:41:12) Kevin: So there’s a skill tree in this game, right? You have to get points to unlock your skills. (0:41:18) Kevin: And you can see how far it goes. And yes, I can see there’s a lot to unlock and do and whatnot. (0:41:24) Kevin: But… I think the skill tree is probably where I can direct my first criticism. (0:41:32) Kevin: Because there’s three types of points, whatever you want to call them. (0:41:37) Kevin: Red, green, and blue, and you need different amounts of each for unlocking each new skill, which lets you craft new things or do new things, whatnot. (0:41:46) Kevin: Um, the red and green work hard to get, but the blue, the blue is killing me because I hit a point where I had like one blue point overall and couldn’t figure out how to get more. (0:41:56) Kelly: You run out of them. (0:41:58) Kevin: Yeah. (0:41:59) Kelly: There’s a certain point where the game just stops you from getting more for a bit. (0:42:02) Kevin: Really? Wow. (0:42:04) Kelly: Not like stops you. (0:42:06) Kelly: There’s definitely a roadblock, I would say. (0:42:11) Kevin: - Yeah, okay. (0:42:14) Kelly: I struggled with that for so long. (0:42:17) Kelly: And then, of course, at a certain point, it’s like, oh. (0:42:20) Kelly: Now, actually, you’re out of red. (0:42:23) Kelly: Or now you’re out of green or whatever. (0:42:25) Kelly: And it’s like, oh, something that I– (0:42:26) Kelly: so I think one of them is done from manual labor, red, I think. (0:42:27) Kevin: yep yep your manufacturing and things yeah red okay oh you don’t get read from them (0:42:34) Kelly: Yeah, so at a certain point, you get helper zombies that you can assign to do things. (0:42:42) Kelly: So you’re no longer getting the red from those things that you would be getting red from. (0:42:47) Kelly: So it definitely makes you have to stop and think and watch everything. (0:42:56) Kevin: Yup, absolutely, um, it’s a very resource-manage-y heavy game and that includes your skill points or whatever you want to call them. (0:43:07) Kevin: That’s fascinating. (0:43:09) Kevin: Like I can see the blue are going to be very scarce. (0:43:11) Kelly: But I think it’s interesting because it does… (0:43:13) Kelly: Sorry, I was gonna say it just it does impact, I feel like, (0:43:18) Kelly: what you’re trying to do in that day. Because if you’re trying to get blue points… (0:43:19) Kevin: Right. Yeah, exactly. (0:43:22) Kevin: The nice thing, one of the nicest things about the game, (0:43:26) Kevin: there’s no real pressure. (0:43:28) Kevin: There’s no seasons or years or whatever. (0:43:31) Kevin: There’s a week. (0:43:32) Kevin: So like in six, seven, I don’t remember how long, how many days, (0:43:36) Kevin: but that’s the worst that you have to wait. (0:43:37) Kelly: It’s seven days Which and I liked I like I really like the fact that there was no pressure on the seasons or When you finished the game even or anything like that. I also liked the Each day is a different person You have to make sure that you’re getting the things you need to have done before that day so you can go and deal with that person (0:43:38) Kevin: Yep. Which go by quickly. (0:43:42) Kevin: Yep. (0:43:57) Kevin: Yep. (0:43:57) Kevin: Yep. (0:44:03) Kevin: Yep, he just gotta wait until… (0:44:03) Kelly: Because there’s definitely some weeks where if you miss that person you’re screwed (0:44:07) Kelly: Yup. And there is something later on in the game, you know, when things have slowed down in certain areas and you’re just like waiting for that one day where you can fast forward. (0:44:10) Kevin: Until that point. (0:44:21) Kelly: Yes, but I do actually want to say on that point, I think this is very interesting because there is no pause button. There’s no space yet. (0:44:21) Kevin: Yeah, sure that makes sense. Yeah, you can fast-forward at any point you should go to sleep and (0:44:32) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, even if you’re in your menus, time goes on. (0:44:37) Kelly: Yeah, you have to literally like go to the exit screen or whatever. Like the main menu page. (0:44:41) Kevin: Yeah Yep Yep, so if you’re looking through your notes here You know hemming and hawing at a menu thinking about where you want to spend your points that happened to me just just today When I was playing I cuz I finally got some blue points today. And so I was just like agonizing over I wanted where I wanted to spend them and before when I got out of the menu Oh, it’s evening already. Cool. The whole day’s [laughter] (0:44:43) Kelly: There’s a certain page that stops time, but the rest of them don’t. (0:44:48) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:45:09) Kelly: Yep. (0:45:11) Kelly: Yep. (0:45:12) Kevin: But they’re the kind of I mean, I don’t know if it was their intent or not But the way to combat that it’s very easy to reroll your did your save like you own there’s no autosave It just saves when you go when you wake up So most of the time you can say you’re pretty much have a safe at the start of the date or start of the day, excuse me, and You can just reload to that and have a plan or save yourself (0:45:23) Kelly: Oh, yes. (0:45:25) Kelly: Yes. (0:45:29) Kelly: I would just quit the game. (0:45:32) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:45:40) Kelly: Oh yeah, no, there was many times where I would either just, you would see like the NPC walking away from their post, and I would have to go and reset the game and then do the day over and make sure I got there early enough. (0:45:47) Kevin: Oh my gosh. (0:45:50) Kevin: Yep. (0:45:52) Kevin: Oh my gosh. (0:45:54) Kevin: That happened to me twice already when I go down and Snake is running away and like, “No, I need to talk to you, Snake.” (0:46:02) Kelly: oh god he’s so annoying he’s so annoying for the skill points though I think it’s like kind of fun like there’s some weird ones you can choose from uh-huh (0:46:05) Kevin: He is. (0:46:08) Kevin: He is. (0:46:11) Kevin: Yeah. (0:46:13) Kevin: Overall, I’m a big fan of the Skilled Trees, umm… (0:46:17) Kevin: Because you can very much pick and choose if you want to focus on certain areas and whatnot. (0:46:23) Kevin: Umm, obviously like… (0:46:25) Kevin: To get green points, that’s the farming stuff, so you do want to invest in some of that stuff. (0:46:30) Kevin: Umm, but like, early on you can really get through a lot of the wood and metalworking stuff. (0:46:37) Kevin: Umm, and again, with almost no pressure on when to do it, umm, it’s… (0:46:42) Kevin: It’s very open and you’re very free to pick and choose as you want. (0:46:46) Kevin: You know, (0:46:47) Kevin: the limitations of how many skill points you actually have notwithstanding. (0:46:52) Kevin: I think it is a clever system. (0:46:54) Kevin: And because you get to see what’s coming ahead, that helps you plan that too. (0:47:00) Kevin: I really like that. (0:47:01) Kelly: Yes, definitely. (0:47:01) Kevin: Um… (0:47:02) Kelly: There was definitely some areas in the skill tree though where I did not understand what, (0:47:09) Kelly: like if you unlocked something, (0:47:12) Kelly: I didn’t understand how to access it afterwards, (0:47:15) Kelly: which then led to me diving down a rabbit hole, (0:47:18) Kelly: trying to figure it out. (0:47:18) Kevin: Yeah, sometimes that’s a little unclear most of the time When you look at the skill tree thing it says okay, you can craft at this bench or that bench or whatever But some are not very clear. Yeah Some aren’t super clear. Yeah But I do agree (0:47:27) Kelly: Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, it definitely is pretty good. (0:47:30) Kelly: It’s pretty good. (0:47:34) Kelly: Can we talk about the main premise of the game, which I think is the most weird and fun part is, you know, collecting your corpses? (0:47:41) Kevin: Yeah, the it’s definitely yeah the differentiator the the the graveyard itself. Yeah, let’s talk about that (0:47:43) Kelly: Because you are, you are quite literally the graveyard keeper. So you get a (0:47:54) Kelly: Annoyed little donkey that delivers corpses to you. (0:47:56) Kevin: I’m red donkey from a leftist stable [laughter] (0:47:57) Kelly: And oh my god, there was so many times where I would hear that bell and just be so far away from home. (0:48:06) Kelly: And just go running because it’s like the second you hear that bell that corpse starts, you know, deteriorating. (0:48:12) Kevin: Yep Yeah, that’s that’s an interesting aspect that the forps is deteriorate and it affects a lot of things And yeah, they’re kind of deliver just at random times. It feels like I didn’t detect any pattern Umm… (0:48:22) Kelly: Yeah. (0:48:23) Kelly: Yes. (0:48:27) Kelly: No, they can definitely be whenever. (0:48:31) Kelly: And they can pile up too. (0:48:34) Kevin: Oh my gosh, I don’t think I’ve had that happen yet, but I could see that happening. (0:48:35) Kelly: Yeah, no, they can definitely pile up. (0:48:43) Kelly: I mean, this game goes in depth. (0:48:48) Kelly: I have freezers for bodies. (0:48:53) Kelly: So, you know, it’s like you are literally treating it like a morgue, like… (0:48:57) Kelly: But I think one of the most fun parts is removing the organs, (0:49:03) Kelly: but also the most hard to understand initially. (0:49:06) Kevin: Right, so yeah, let’s talk about that because as very early on you’re introduced that you have options to do the corpse One you can bury them in your graveyard. It has a prettiness rating you how you decorate it Well, you bury them and whatnot You can even just throw it in the river or cremate them or You can take them into your morgan Do a little bisection, you know see what you can poke around and find in there pull out a skull some blood What? (0:49:36) Kevin: A bit of flesh. (0:49:38) Kevin: It’s fascinating that they gave you this option. (0:49:43) Kevin: There’s… (0:49:44) Kevin: I haven’t gotten too in-depth with the body parts. (0:49:47) Kelly: So, I’ll explain it. It’s a lot. (0:49:51) Kelly: Basically, your corpse, so when you bury a corpse, you want it to be as high rated as possible because it impacts your cemeteries overall like beauty rating, (0:50:05) Kelly: which is a whole different aspect. (0:50:07) Kelly: And that’s a big part of the game because it kind of roadblocks you if you don’t keep up with it. (0:50:11) Kelly: But so you want to make sure you’re removing. (0:50:14) Kelly: If you remove certain organs, it makes your corpses… (0:50:17) Kelly: …that’s how you can remove them. (0:50:19) Kelly: If you remove other organs, it decreases it, and they don’t really tell you at first. (0:50:23) Kelly: You have to unlock skills on the skill tree… (0:50:25) Kelly: …that tell you. (0:50:25) Kevin: Yeah, I mean they tell you like there’s bad organs, but you don’t you can’t tell which ones until you go get that later (0:50:29) Kelly: Yes. Yes. (0:50:34) Kelly: And so you can remove organs, and you can also try to put the organ back. (0:50:38) K

As one of our members valiantly fights off the spider scourge, the remaining representatives of The Indie Council rule on which of Steam's Next Fest demos were the best in show. We also break down the best ways to help out your favorite indie titles in these volatile times. Follow everyone at: https://twitter.com/itsMikeTown https://twitter.com/Gameonysus https://twitter.com/kimchica25 https://twitter.com/Indie_Informer https://twitter.com/IndieCouncil_ Links for further reading and playing: Spirittea: https://store.steampowered.com/app/19... The Indie Horror Showcase: https://store.steampowered.com/publis... Another Crab's Treasure: https://store.steampowered.com/app/18... American Arcadia: https://store.steampowered.com/app/12... Claw Machine Sim: https://store.steampowered.com/app/24... Wild Country: https://store.steampowered.com/app/15... Go Mecha Ball: https://store.steampowered.com/app/20... Lucky Hero: https://store.steampowered.com/app/24... Kristala: https://store.steampowered.com/app/12... Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom: https://store.steampowered.com/app/20... Honked: a clown noir: https://store.steampowered.com/app/26... Laika: Aged Through Blood: https://store.steampowered.com/app/17... Slay the Princess: https://store.steampowered.com/app/19... Bramble: The Mountain King: https://store.steampowered.com/app/16... COCOON: https://store.steampowered.com/app/14... Lake: Season's Greetings: https://store.steampowered.com/app/24... Moonstone Island: https://store.steampowered.com/app/16... The Magnus Archives: https://jonathan-sims.com/magnus/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jenny-windom/message

Kate Gray of Studio Supersoft joins us to chat about Moonstone Island, a cute life-sim with a creature collecting twist. Plus, Joelle reviews the much-anticipated Spider-Man 2 and guess what, it's good. Finally, as the weather cools down and we get in a cocooning mood, we share our favourite sweater weather games. What is Everyone Playing? (00:39:56) Spider-Man 2 review (00:43:02) Walk Down Memory Card Lane (00:53:00) This Week's News (00:57:01) Activision Blizzard sale went through to Xbox and CEO Bobby Kotick will leave Dec 31 This Week's Topic: Sweater Weather Games (00:58:23) Outro and Wrap-up (01:15:19) - Thanks for listening! The GoGCast comes out weekly so make sure to subscribe and you won't miss an episode. For more about us, Girls on Games, check out girlsongames.ca. Find our Merch at http://www.designbyhumans.com/shop/GirlsOnGames/ Buy us a Ko-Fi at https://ko-fi.com/girlsongames

Take a little farm-sim, mix it with creature collecting, top it off with a little deck building, and you get the new indie title Moonstone Island! This week we discuss this game's multiple facets, from its card-based combat to how low your chances of flirting are (in the game, AND real life!). Purchase Moonstone Island here! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1658150/Moonstone_Island/ If you have indie recommendations, or just want to reach out, feel free to contact us at LevelWithUsPodcast [at] gmail [dot] com! We are on all major podcasting platforms: https://anchor.fm/levelwithus Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 1:11 - Main Discussion Begins 3:13 - Combat 6:29 - The Obvious Comparison 8:13 - ⭒Star Pieces 10:09 - Quick Jabs 11:50 - Who's the Fake Fan? 15:52 - Outro

This Week on The Casual Hour… There are simply too many games coming out this month, and we attempt to cover the most interesting ones in our October preview. In the meantime, Bobby's farming and battling in Moonstone Island, Johnny's caught the Counter Strike 2 bug and Chase digs back into an old Fire Emblem game. All that and more on the mega edition of The Casual Hour!  // T W I T C H ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ M W F @ 9:00 PM CST twitch.tv/thecasualhour // S U B S C R I B E ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ https://www.youtube.com/thecasualhour We post Quick Looks and VOD from previous streams weekly! // F O L L O W ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All The Links: https://linktr.ee/thecasualhour // T H E C A S U A L H O U R ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bobby Pease - Host @bobbypease https://twitter.com/Bobbypease Chase Koeneke - Co-Host @chase_koeneke https://twitter.com/chase_koeneke Johnny Amizich - Co-Host @jamizich https://twitter.com/jamizich // M U S I C ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Love our theme music? Patric Brown created it. You can follow his antics on Twitter @insaneanalog or check out more of his music and download our theme at www.insaneanalog.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thecasualhour/support

00:00 Intro01:10 News Highlights - 01:10 Jim Ryan To Retire - 04:28 Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition - 06:20 Third Jedi Game In The Works - 07:35 Lies Of P Made Easier - 14:25 Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty - 16:45 Baldur's Gate 3 Multiclass Stats - 17:30 Netflix Video Game Anime22:10 What We're Playing  - 22:10 Moonstone Island - 25:55 Chants Of Sennaar - 30:15 Baldur's Gate 31:04:25 What Is With PC Full Screen Gaming

Hey Podtimists, Welcome to episode 169 (nice). In this one we got a touching game about cooking, a fantasy RPG (you know the one), and MORTAL KOMBAT. It's a fun time, join us won't you? We also played Metal Arms Glitch in the System which was suggested to us by listener Zeno. Thank you Zeno! --- Timestamps: (0:00) - Intro (1:19) - What David has been playing (1:39) - Metroid Dread (6:15) - Venba (9:55) - Baldur's Gate 3 (18:02) - What Chase has been playing (18:16) - Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon (18:44) - Starfield (19:35) - Lies of P (31:07) - Mortal Kombat 1 (46:32) - Moonstone Island (52:24) - Chase's Podtimistic thing of the week (54:08) - David's Podtimistic thing of the week (55:50) - Good Games! Featuring Metal Arms Glitch in the System (1:18:39) - Outro --- Games mentioned: Metroid Dread Venba Baldur's Gate 3 Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon Starfield Lies of P Mortal Kombat 1 Moonstone Island Metal Arms Glitch in the System

What happens to the show when its usual master of ceremonies falls ill for the week? Well, according to an apologetic social post from the acting host, Mike Towndrow, everything goes off the rails. Welcome to the rise of the Goobies Gang. 00:00 Start 05:51 Indie News 23:46 Topic of the Show 1:17:31 What We've Been Playing Follow everyone at: https://twitter.com/itsMikeTown https://twitter.com/Gameonysus https://twitter.com/kimchica25 https://twitter.com/Indie_Informer Links for further reading and playing: Goobies: https://store.steampowered.com/app/22... Moonstone Island: https://store.steampowered.com/app/16... Paquerette Down the Bunburrows: https://store.steampowered.com/app/16... Ghostlore: https://store.steampowered.com/app/17... The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/16... Loop Hero: https://store.steampowered.com/app/12... Magical Delicacy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/22... AK-xolotl: https://store.steampowered.com/app/14... Goobies: https://store.steampowered.com/app/22... --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jenny-windom/message

This week's show rounds off an epic four episode-spanning review of the game with some final thoughts and – after a spoiler break – some chat about endgame and NG+. In the roundup: Gunbrella, Sayonara Wild Hearts, and Moonstone Island. And many thanks to the show's 50 patrons! If you'd like to join them in supporting the show on Patreon, you can do so from $1 per month at http://patreon.com/gaminginthewild. Patrons get access to a catalogue of bonus episodes, and an invite to the show's lovely Discord community. You can also send a one-off tip via Ko-Fi at http://ko-fi.com/gaminginthewild.  All proceeds go into the podcast, covering things like equipment, games, music, editing apps, and so forth. I really appreciate the support, it helps make the show better. If you enjoy the show, you can come say hi on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch - find all the links at http://gaminginthewild.com. And check out this Steam curator page made by podcast supporter DovetailTrue: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43457463-Gaming-in-the-Wild-%2528unofficial%2529/   Thanks for listening!

Al talks about Sprout Valley Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:48: What Have We Been Up To 00:21:54: News 00:44:42: Sprout Valley 01:09:13: Outro Links Disney Dreamlight Valley Enchanted Adventure Update Above Snakes 1.3.0 Update APICO 3.0 Update Everdream Valley Roadmap Coral Island Charity DLC 2 Moonstone Island Collectors Edition Spirittea Dev Update Ooblets Plushes Eastward Octopia Japanese Rural Life Simulator Sprout Valley on Steam Sprout Valley on Switch Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript [00:00.000 –> 00:26.700] This video is made using the [00:30.400 –> 00:37.840] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Al. I’m Kevin [00:37.840 –> 00:45.280] and we are here today to talk about cottagecore games. Before we get into it, [00:45.280 –> 00:50.280] transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website. Get them if you want them. [00:50.280 –> 00:59.400] Kevin, how you doing? Yeah, I’m doing okay. Well, I mean, this is probably where, [00:59.400 –> 01:05.140] where we mentioned that we had just recorded a greenhouse episode before this. So if this is [01:05.140 –> 01:10.000] low energy, that was much longer than we were. I was like, this is going to be like a 20 minute [01:10.000 –> 01:14.960] episode. And then 20 minutes, 20 minutes in, we were just stopping talking about Spiderman. [01:14.960 –> 01:23.040] Yeah, there’s some real dumb stuff in that greenhouse. But that’s okay, I’m hyping myself, [01:23.040 –> 01:27.680] I’m bringing plenty of dumb stuff to this podcast episode recording too. [01:27.680 –> 01:32.720] All right, so in this episode, I am going to talk about Sprout Valley because I have [01:32.720 –> 01:36.440] been playing that and presumably Kevin will have some dumb questions for me. [01:36.440 –> 01:37.760] Yeah, I will. [01:37.760 –> 01:43.520] Yeah, so we’re gonna talk about that and there’s a whole bunch of news. Most of [01:43.560 –> 01:47.640] reasonably small pieces of news, but there’s some chunky stuff as well. We’ll get into that. [01:47.640 –> 01:50.760] But first of all, Kevin, what have you been up to? [01:50.760 –> 01:58.520] Oh, okay. Actually, nothing too interesting this week. The usual. Snap is good. Tears [01:58.520 –> 02:05.200] of the Kingdom is good. Oh, I beat the end of the Koga arc. I love Koga. He’s probably [02:05.200 –> 02:06.320] my favorite character in that game. [02:06.320 –> 02:10.880] That is a really good arc in Tears of the Kingdom. I did that before I did like any [02:10.960 –> 02:15.400] of the other big story things because it was, I was fun just to like follow him around there. [02:15.400 –> 02:20.680] Yes, it was. I happened to run into him before I even got a horse. [02:20.680 –> 02:24.880] Who needs a horse in this game? Come on. [02:24.880 –> 02:31.520] Yeah, you’re right. The one thing that I do love about the whole Koga thing, [02:31.520 –> 02:37.360] I think an absolute stroke of genius. I don’t know if it was intentional or not, [02:37.480 –> 02:42.360] they’d already been thinking about Tears of the Kingdom back then, but the fact that they [02:42.360 –> 02:47.400] turned the ending of Koga where he falls into the hole and just tie it into his new story. [02:47.400 –> 02:55.680] Oh, that was genius. Oh, it was beautiful. But yeah, Eagle Clan, it’s really fun. I love it. [02:55.680 –> 03:04.280] Master Koga is great. Aside from that, the only thing of some note is I’ve hit year five in [03:05.280 –> 03:14.280] Story of Seasons A Wonderful Life. You only have six years before you hit credits. [03:14.280 –> 03:20.960] Yes. Well, the main credits. There are other credits. Don’t forget about the other credits. [03:20.960 –> 03:25.840] Yeah. I mean, I already hit credits because you just say not the beginning. [03:25.840 –> 03:31.000] That’s the first credits. You’ve got to do that before you do anything else if you’re [03:31.000 –> 03:36.240] going to hit everything. Yeah, I already did that. So I’m going to hit the credits again. [03:36.240 –> 03:40.640] I love that they kept that in the game, by the way. They could have easily removed that. [03:40.640 –> 03:48.160] But no, they kept it in. It’s good fun. Yeah, it’s great. So the only, I mean, [03:48.160 –> 03:53.920] my kid’s now like an adult roughly the age you were when the game started, which is interesting [03:53.920 –> 04:00.000] to see. I’m going through faux parenthood here and it’s weird. I mean, parenthood is weird. [04:01.000 –> 04:05.880] Well, yes, but I’m genuinely worrying if my kid’s going to want to inherit my farm or not. [04:08.280 –> 04:20.520] Anyways, the one super notable thing that they do something just brutal to you. So I can’t [04:20.520 –> 04:25.960] remember if it’s year four or year four. No, in year four, all the character’s hair starts to [04:26.080 –> 04:31.480] gray. Like you start seeing everyone starts getting the salt and pepper gray hairs in there. [04:31.480 –> 04:39.760] Year five, you’re getting older, so they take away permanently an amount of your stamina. Your [04:39.760 –> 04:47.360] stamina bar goes down like a good chunk, too, because you are getting up in your years. You [04:47.360 –> 04:54.160] can’t take it anymore. Oh, that’s it’s getting too real. But yeah, so hopefully soon I’ll actually [04:54.200 –> 04:59.400] be able to hit credits of this game for once and I can report back on it. Although I don’t think [04:59.400 –> 05:05.360] anything will ever top what I did for that episode. But that’s that’s all I’ve been up to. Oh, what [05:05.360 –> 05:10.040] about you? What’s going on? I obviously have been playing Spirit Valley the last wee while. [05:10.040 –> 05:24.080] And I’ve also been playing Hades. That’s a good game. Kind of. Yeah, it is. Look, I mean, [05:24.080 –> 05:30.960] I’m going to do a proper discussion with this later. Probably for a greenhouse episode with [05:30.960 –> 05:38.280] someone else. But like, I mean, my overall thoughts are probably going to be the same as [05:38.320 –> 05:44.960] most roguelites, which is I like the combat. I like the primary loop. And I hate everything [05:44.960 –> 05:51.960] else about the game. Well, hold on. What do you mean everything else? Because like, characters [05:51.960 –> 05:56.800] are really good. Okay, the character stuff is fine, right? Like, but it’s not. I mean, [05:56.800 –> 06:08.440] it’s weird in like, the story. It’s not a story. It’s more just like snippets from to [06:08.440 –> 06:16.480] this world building, right? Like there isn’t a story as such, as there is snippets of characters [06:16.480 –> 06:24.600] and kind of giving you some backstory and stuff like that. But there’s no like the story is you [06:24.600 –> 06:30.400] escaping. Right? Like, that’s the story. And there’s nothing really to tell about that. So [06:30.400 –> 06:36.320] they spend the rest of the time giving you these little, little bits and pieces as you go from [06:36.320 –> 06:44.680] different people. Okay, fine. I don’t dislike that. But how do you think you’re going to stick [06:44.680 –> 06:48.680] with it? Because I can comment on something here. But if you’re going to stick with it, [06:48.680 –> 06:54.680] I won’t comment on probably going to stick with it. Okay. All right, then. Well, well, [06:54.680 –> 07:01.280] I got so close to beating the first boss the other day, so close, frustratingly close. And [07:01.280 –> 07:07.800] the thing that I really dislike about it is like, all of the things that I did, essentially [07:07.800 –> 07:13.040] disappear, right? Sure. Fine. There’s stuff you get that can build up other things later on, [07:13.040 –> 07:16.920] right? Fine. But the problem is, if you don’t get a huge amount of that each run, [07:16.920 –> 07:22.440] it just feels like so demoralizing to go like, I was so close, because of these specific power [07:22.440 –> 07:27.360] ups I got on this specific run. And the chances of me getting all those power ups again, very, [07:27.360 –> 07:34.040] very slim. It’s just that I just don’t find that fun. Okay. I mean, all right. Yeah, no, I mean, [07:34.040 –> 07:39.760] that’s, that’s your prerogative. You know, that’s subjective. That’s can’t argue. Absolutely. It’s [07:39.760 –> 07:45.800] definitely subjective. And like, I, you know, I know that I know the reason why people like [07:45.800 –> 07:48.880] these games. And I know the reason that this game is why it is, but that doesn’t mean that [07:48.880 –> 07:57.280] I have to enjoy that. You know, I think that still, we’ve still, despite the number of rogue [07:57.280 –> 08:02.120] lights that I’ve played, still the only one that I actively enjoyed playing was Cult of the Lamb. [08:02.120 –> 08:13.480] Okay, it’s, see, that’s interesting, because Cult of the Lamb, very, well, at least gameplay combat [08:13.480 –> 08:18.360] wise, that the stuff we’re talking about where the stuff doesn’t matter when you die, that feels [08:18.360 –> 08:28.000] very, Cult of the Lamb feels very Hades-lite in that sense. But the kicker is, Cult of the Lamb [08:28.000 –> 08:33.880] runs take what, five minutes? A Hades run can last you a half hour. Exactly. So this is the thing, [08:33.880 –> 08:40.080] this is the difference for me, right? So Hades, yeah, sure, you have some kind of small base [08:40.080 –> 08:44.600] building, right, in your home, right? But it’s not really, right? It’s basically the place that [08:44.600 –> 08:50.520] you go to after you fail, to get ready to go and fail again, right? Whereas the point in Cult of, [08:50.520 –> 08:54.920] because the point of Hades is get to the end of the course, right? The point- Have you unlocked [08:54.920 –> 08:58.680] the mirror? Let me ask you that. Yes, I have unlocked the mirror. Okay, I’m just making sure. [08:58.680 –> 09:02.360] You get that really early. I don’t remember, so that’s a mess. I think you get, I think it tells [09:02.360 –> 09:06.560] you to use it, like, immediately after your first death. Okay, because that mirror makes a [09:06.560 –> 09:09.440] difference. It does, you know, it absolutely does. And I’m not saying that it doesn’t build [09:09.440 –> 09:13.680] anything up. There is obviously that building up of the stuff that you do, but I feel like [09:13.680 –> 09:19.440] this power-ups you get when you’re out on the run are just so much more powerful than any of the [09:19.440 –> 09:24.980] stuff that you’re building up in the base. But anyway, the reason why I think the Cult of the [09:24.980 –> 09:30.440] Lamb is different and why I enjoy it is the point of Cult of the Lamb is your base. That’s the point, [09:30.440 –> 09:36.240] right? And you go out on runs to gather resources, and if you fail on gathering resources, you just [09:36.240 –> 09:42.400] don’t get more resources. Yeah. And you can just try again. Okay. Whereas the point of Hades is [09:42.400 –> 09:46.400] getting to the end of the course, and if you don’t get to the end of the course, you’ve failed. Yeah, [09:46.400 –> 09:51.800] all right, that’s fair. That’s the difference, I find. Okay, yeah, that’s a very good point, [09:51.800 –> 09:59.640] and you’re right, because, yeah, the Cult of the Lamb, the base is half the game, absolutely. I’d [09:59.640 –> 10:07.000] say it’s more than half the game. Well, maybe. I guess it depends how you define half the game, [10:07.000 –> 10:10.600] right? Because different people will play different ways. So if you’re thinking in terms [10:10.600 –> 10:17.200] of like amount of time played, then it depends on how you play. I went out on runs when I needed to [10:17.200 –> 10:23.080] to get stuff, right? But I much more enjoyed being on the base. Anyway, so that’s my Hades. I’ll talk [10:23.080 –> 10:28.520] more about it in the future. I’m not going to immediately stop playing it, but I’m not playing [10:28.520 –> 10:35.000] it right now, because all my game time is currently taken up by the Scarlet and Violet [10:35.000 –> 10:44.360] Pokemon DLC. So I, okay, I have not played it. I have seen things about it, like I’ve seen the [10:44.360 –> 10:51.000] things I care about, and I’ll probably get it at some point, but the consensus I’m hearing is that [10:51.000 –> 10:56.480] it is more Scarlet and Violet. So I think it depends on what you think about that. So like, [10:57.440 –> 11:00.800] this is the thing is like, people are like, is it better? And it’s like, it depends what you mean [11:00.800 –> 11:04.640] by that. If you mean, have they fixed the performance issues? No, of course they’ve not. [11:04.640 –> 11:09.800] They were never going to do that. I said that 10 months ago, they were never going to fix these [11:09.800 –> 11:15.000] performance issues, right? They made things better over time. It is definitely a better game now than [11:15.000 –> 11:20.320] it was at release. A hundred percent, there are improvements in the performance, but to say that [11:20.320 –> 11:25.080] they would be gone, they’ve definitely still improved, right? They’re not perfect, but they’re [11:25.080 –> 11:30.840] definitely better than they were. I used to get stuck in the menus every single raid. That never [11:30.840 –> 11:37.040] happens for me now. Now I’m not saying they’re perfect, but it has definitely improved. I’m not [11:37.040 –> 11:41.880] saying it doesn’t happen at all. What I’m saying is it has improved. It is definitely better than [11:41.880 –> 11:47.320] it was. So this is the thing is like, I need to know what people are expecting out of the question [11:47.320 –> 11:53.520] to give them an answer. So if your question is, have they made the game perfect? Then obviously [11:53.520 –> 11:57.080] the answer is no. If the question is, have they made the performance better? The answer is not [11:57.080 –> 12:04.600] really no. Not since the last update. And that’s such a loaded question, right? And you say that [12:04.600 –> 12:09.360] knowing it’s a loaded question, right? Because I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had in this game [12:09.360 –> 12:13.040] because it’s a lot, right? Like I wouldn’t put the amount of time into this game if I wasn’t actually [12:13.040 –> 12:18.800] enjoying myself. Are you sure? Absolutely. And I’m not trying to tell anybody that they should be [12:18.800 –> 12:27.720] enjoying this game, but fun means different things for different people. I’ve put a lot of game time into that new Animal Crossing. What I would say is there are, I don’t think there are [12:27.720 –> 12:31.880] more trainers in this area than there were in the last one, which I know is one of your kind of like, [12:31.880 –> 12:36.240] there aren’t more people in the, in the area than there were in the last one, which I know is one [12:36.240 –> 12:40.400] of your issues. It’s not the only issue I know, but that is certainly one issue that I don’t think [12:40.400 –> 12:47.640] has been addressed. There is, it still feels empty of people. What I will say is that I think, and [12:47.680 –> 12:55.320] this is my personal opinion, I think this area compared to Paldea, I think Kitakami is a better [12:55.320 –> 13:03.920] designed area and it feels as a whole more filled out. I feel like there are, there are very, [13:03.920 –> 13:10.040] there’s not really any areas where you look and you go, there’s nothing here at all. Okay. There [13:10.040 –> 13:16.760] are more landmarks per square mile, I think. Okay. I think that’s already an improvement. Yeah. The [13:16.760 –> 13:22.720] storyline is, I think, so probably on par with the storylines in the, in the main one. I mean, [13:22.720 –> 13:28.520] I mean, that’s just Pokemon. This is the thing, right? I think, I think that we generally agreed [13:28.520 –> 13:32.840] that the stories were better than previous games, right? Cause it’s not just like, Oh, [13:32.840 –> 13:39.080] the end of the world and Oh no, we’ve saved the world. I don’t, I mean, that’s not my opinion. [13:39.080 –> 13:46.520] Okay. Lots of people have, prefer the stories in Scarlet and Violet to some previous stories [13:46.520 –> 13:52.880] because they’re more personal. And I think that has continued. So yes. So in terms of like story, [13:52.880 –> 13:58.480] I think it continues to be more Scarlet and Violet in terms of lack of people, it continues to be [13:58.480 –> 14:06.080] a story in Scarlet and Violet in terms of how the world feels personally, I feel like it has improved [14:06.080 –> 14:11.780] in terms of how the game plays. It is the same because it’s still the same game. Obviously they [14:11.780 –> 14:16.500] have not massively improved performance. The boxes are a bit better, but they’re still not [14:16.500 –> 14:22.940] amazing. Um, and obviously they have not changed how the movement across the world works, which is [14:22.940 –> 14:30.820] obviously in my opinion, it’s biggest problem. One of them. Yes, absolutely. Okay. Here’s a [14:30.820 –> 14:38.380] question that I think can be somewhat objectively measured. Are there things to do? And it sounds, [14:38.540 –> 14:43.780] it’s a very broad, dumb way of saying, but like in Scarlet and Violet, once you’ve caught all the [14:43.780 –> 14:49.900] Pokemon, you, there isn’t that much left to, you know, clear the stories, caught all, filled your [14:49.900 –> 14:56.020] decks. There’s not much left to do. It’s raids, right? That’s what they want you to do is raids. [14:56.020 –> 15:01.500] Yes. Um, I don’t know, cause I’ve not got that far and I’ve not really been Googling for things. [15:01.500 –> 15:10.820] So I’m, I’m in the midst of the story. All right. Well, that’s fine. Um, okay. I’ll update you on [15:10.820 –> 15:16.980] that when I get further. Um, but yeah, I mean, I really, I, and I like some of the new areas in, [15:16.980 –> 15:25.220] in this are really nicely designed areas I feel, um, uh, which is, is fun. Um, but yeah, I mean, [15:25.220 –> 15:30.860] you know, if you absolutely hated Scarlet and Violet, obviously don’t buy this, right? Like [15:30.900 –> 15:36.580] it just depends on what aspects you didn’t like and which aspects you do. And for me, I just, [15:36.580 –> 15:42.500] I like playing the game. I like catching the Pokemon, you know, obviously cause that’s like, [15:42.500 –> 15:48.460] you have to like catching the Pokemon to, you know, play a professional challenge. Um, I like, [15:48.460 –> 15:54.180] yeah, I like lots of aspects of this game. I definitely want it to be better, but yes, [15:54.180 –> 15:59.580] it is more of that, but I liked that in the first place. Okay. [15:59.580 –> 16:12.260] All right. I, I, yeah. Okay. I get the gist of it. Um, it kills me. It absolutely kills me that [16:12.260 –> 16:21.380] I will probably get this largely because of one new thing that I, I mean, I won’t know, [16:21.380 –> 16:26.060] don’t know what you know, or I usually leaks guys. You probably know, but the listeners don’t know. [16:26.060 –> 16:31.820] As I said with the original, the base Scarlet Violet, Pokemon is good at Pokemon. That whole [16:31.820 –> 16:37.260] Dex, I like those Pokemon. I like seeing them. And all of the new Pokemon I like as well. Yeah, [16:37.260 –> 16:42.440] I do too. I don’t think all of them are some of the best, but I think some of them are some of [16:42.440 –> 16:48.060] the best they’ve done. Sure. They’re enjoyable. And it kills me. It kills me that I want, [16:48.060 –> 16:54.860] the only reason I want the DLC is to see those new Pokemon. Yeah. You can always try trading [16:54.860 –> 17:00.500] because you can get them in the base. I like, I know I can’t, but just, and that’s, and this is [17:00.500 –> 17:05.420] the thing, this is what I actually like how they’ve done DLC, both with sword and shield and [17:05.420 –> 17:09.420] Scarlet and violet. They don’t make you buy it to get the new Pokemon. Yeah. It’s not right. You [17:09.420 –> 17:13.180] have to, you have to buy it if you want to get them yourself, but you can always trade for them. [17:13.180 –> 17:20.180] And, you know, in my experience, you put up any shiny Pokemon on the GTS asking for any legendary [17:20.260 –> 17:25.700] and you will get that legendary, right? You can get any Pokemon if you have a good selection of [17:25.700 –> 17:32.380] spare shinies. Right. It’s, it’s so easy, um, to do like, like even, uh, Oh, what’s it called? [17:32.380 –> 17:39.540] What’s the one from legends? Uh, the, the genie, the, the, the, Oh, an amorous or whatever. Yeah. [17:39.540 –> 17:43.820] And amorous, even an amorous, I’ve had multiple and amorous just from random shiny. That’s nuts. [17:43.820 –> 17:49.340] You know, like people will trade anything for shiny Pokemon. Dang. I mean, legends is a great [17:49.340 –> 17:55.220] game and all, but that’s, that’s a track to getting an amorous. Um, Oh, wow. I will give [17:55.220 –> 18:02.140] props to the DLC for, Oh, okay. Here’s a big question. And so one of the biggest selling [18:02.140 –> 18:09.500] points for me as a Scarlet player, especially I can get out of those hideous orange shorts. Um, [18:09.500 –> 18:17.460] can I bring my you cuts or whatever to the pal day? Uh, the main area. That is a good question. [18:17.460 –> 18:22.020] Oh no, you don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. Cause like I’ve just been spending all [18:22.020 –> 18:27.380] my time in the new area. Let me tell you, let me, let me, let me, let me live. Tell you, [18:27.380 –> 18:31.100] it’s going to happen. Here we go. Cause I was playing some Mario Kart with Craig earlier. [18:31.100 –> 18:39.740] So let me just beat the game. Oh, so how big is the, the, the map? Good question. It’s hard to [18:39.740 –> 18:44.860] know because on in the game, when you like switch between the maps, it shows them different scales, [18:44.900 –> 18:53.980] right? So it looks like they’re the same size, but they’re not. It feels maybe like crown [18:53.980 –> 18:59.860] tundra sized. Okay. That’s decent. Yeah. So like I think bigger than Isle of armor, [18:59.860 –> 19:10.580] but not, but not as big as the, obviously mean, right. Let me check. Right. Game is booted up. [19:11.420 –> 19:19.580] Let me travel over to Paldera. Let’s just go to Mazagoza because that’s my only travel point [19:19.580 –> 19:25.460] because I’ve not got far in this version. Oh, I’m on a plane apparently because a little, [19:25.460 –> 19:30.740] oh, that’s fun. Little animation of a plane and a Dragonite flying next to it. Oh, that’s cool. [19:30.740 –> 19:35.620] Dragonite flies off. And here we go. We’ve touched down and I am still in my clothes from [19:35.620 –> 19:44.380] Kitagami. There we go. All right. Day’s saved. Okay. DLC is worth it for that alone. It really [19:44.380 –> 19:50.380] is much better to not be in school uniform. It’s still white wild to me that they did that. Right. [19:50.380 –> 19:54.580] Like I get why they wanted to do it, but like just force you back into those clothes for like [19:54.580 –> 20:02.900] the specific cut scenes. If you really want that. Yes. Like, yes, it’s, you can also like the extra [20:02.900 –> 20:08.380] things that you can buy, you can just buy in Paldera as well. Um, the, cause they give you [20:08.380 –> 20:14.100] a style card, right? And that gives you the ability to buy them in. Oh, that’s cool. That’s [20:14.100 –> 20:19.540] nice. You don’t have to go to the new area to buy the stuff. That’s, that’s nice. This place [20:19.540 –> 20:24.660] is only selling glasses, hats and gloves. So I need to find a place that’s selling more than [20:24.660 –> 20:28.540] that. No, I didn’t mean to walk back in. This is the thing that really annoys me about these games. [20:28.540 –> 20:35.580] When you walk out of a shop, it has you facing the shop. Oh yeah. So it has you facing away from [20:35.580 –> 20:40.020] the shop, right? You came up to it facing the shop. So I automatically think, Oh, I need to [20:40.020 –> 20:45.220] go backwards because I was facing forwards and I don’t want to go forwards cause that’s me facing [20:45.220 –> 20:50.220] towards the shop. But then you go backwards, you go straight back into the shop. Oh, it’s bags. [20:50.220 –> 20:55.860] This one is. Ooh. Right. Let’s see what these bags. It’s definitely a different style of bag. [20:55.860 –> 21:03.020] It’s one, one different style of bag. Anyway. Uh, yeah. So you can definitely leave without, [21:03.020 –> 21:07.100] you can definitely go to Pildea without the school uniform. So. All right. That’s good. [21:07.100 –> 21:13.900] That’s a big plus. But yeah, I am enjoying it. And, um, as we mentioned in the greenhouse episode [21:13.900 –> 21:18.180] that hopefully has already come out, but I don’t know when I’m going to edit it. So it might not [21:18.180 –> 21:23.340] be out yet. It might come out on Saturday. Um, I am considering doing another Professor Oak [21:23.340 –> 21:33.060] challenge because why not? Well, I can answer why not, but let’s not get into that. I think [21:33.060 –> 21:41.900] that’s everything that we’ve been up to. That’s cool. Look, I’m just, it’s fine that I’m in, [21:41.900 –> 21:49.380] I’m, I’m winding down because 10 days of this recording, you know, what’s coming begins the, [21:49.500 –> 21:55.900] the Maneco Geddon begins. Goodbye the world. Oh yeah. All right. What, [21:55.900 –> 22:02.140] what non Maneco things are supposedly coming out? Let’s talk about some news. So we have Disney [22:02.140 –> 22:08.980] Dreamlight Valley. The enchanted adventure update is out now. This is the update with Belle. Um, so [22:08.980 –> 22:18.460] the Beauty and the Beast realm and the storyline there. Um, and a lot of other things like there’s [22:18.460 –> 22:23.020] a big long list. If you play this game, you probably have already looked at the list to see [22:23.020 –> 22:28.260] if what you care about. So I’m not going to go over all that just now, but it is out now. Um, [22:28.260 –> 22:34.660] and I am still convinced that the next update will be the either final early access update [22:34.660 –> 22:40.340] or the one final update. That is what I’m convinced of. Oh snap. There’s Jack Skellington [22:40.340 –> 22:45.420] outfits in this. Look, there’s everything. There’s everything in this game. This is like, [22:45.660 –> 22:51.020] this is the everything game. Well, I mean, I don’t cause you know, [22:51.020 –> 23:00.140] nightmare before Christmas is a little, you know, not, I mean it is Disney, but like they don’t [23:00.140 –> 23:05.780] usually lump it in with the princesses and the Mickey’s and whatever. Right. Usually all kind [23:05.780 –> 23:10.140] of its own corner. Some surprise it made it in. Yeah. I look, I look forward to when they start [23:10.140 –> 23:17.380] bringing the Marvel and the star Wars and oh goodness. No, no. Whatever. Bell’s cool. She’s [23:17.380 –> 23:21.260] my second favorite princess. Um, well, you’re going to have to see who your first is then. [23:21.260 –> 23:32.660] It’s Rapunzel because she’s incredible. She’s the best. Not Moana. I like Moana. You don’t [23:32.660 –> 23:38.980] Moana. No, there’s nothing wrong with Moana. Moana is great. Just Rapunzel set the bar real [23:38.980 –> 23:44.460] high and I don’t know. I’m just, Bell’s just pure nostalgia, like beauty and the beast. That’s a [23:44.460 –> 23:49.980] good one. Fair enough. I just have real problems with that storyline. So I struggle to connect. [23:49.980 –> 23:58.860] There are, there are a lot of problems with that storyline. Gaston might be the hero if you think [23:58.860 –> 24:07.060] about it. You look at it from his point of view. No, except the, the thing he did with his dad, [24:07.060 –> 24:12.540] but other than that. Yeah, well sure. He’s not a good guy. Right. Let’s not pretend he’s a good [24:12.540 –> 24:16.580] guy. Yeah. He’s not a good guy. That’s not what we’re trying to say here. Not a good guy. But he [24:16.580 –> 24:27.460] wasn’t irrational. Yeah. Uh, okay. Anyway, above snakes, they has a 1.3 update is out now as well. [24:27.860 –> 24:34.780] This includes a photo mode plus a bunch of other content, some furniture and the piano. I don’t [24:34.780 –> 24:40.180] know why they specifically mentioned the piano. I don’t know. Piano. If you want a piano, there’s [24:40.180 –> 24:47.180] always playable. Oh goodness. Right. Okay. I missed that. If you want a playable piano in [24:47.180 –> 24:53.900] this game, there you go. And it’s on discount right now for, I don’t know how, 20% off. There [24:53.900 –> 25:01.580] you go. All right. Um, then we have Apico has its 3.0 update, which is coming out on the 26th of [25:01.580 –> 25:18.660] September. Oh, special silly September day. Oh, Apico. Um, it’s Maneco day. It is. So we’re back [25:18.660 –> 25:24.340] up. We’re back up to fish. We’re back up. Yes. Yeah. It says underwater bees right there. You [25:24.340 –> 25:29.300] get fish. I think we talked about this a little bit, right? Yeah. So you can fish in the game. [25:29.300 –> 25:38.060] Yeah. But also there’s underwater bees. Yeah. For some reason. Fish. Um, one thing I want to [25:38.060 –> 25:44.700] note that I didn’t catch before Cody, her, they, it’s Cody, Matt. I don’t know if it’s Matt, [25:44.940 –> 25:51.940] Mathive or Mathive, but they changed her name from, from her last name to put hive in it. I [25:51.940 –> 25:59.460] love that. I missed that. Yeah. All right. Go anyways. Yeah. So a bunch of water stuff in, [25:59.460 –> 26:06.460] in Apico. Go, go restore coral reefs. They’re called the highs of the, the sea for a reason. [26:06.460 –> 26:17.380] Um, ever dream Valley have released a roadmap. So they have a big update coming in October, [26:17.380 –> 26:24.180] a Halloween event coming in October as well as every game has to have, obviously. And, uh, their [26:24.180 –> 26:32.020] multiplayer beta is coming out in December. Cool. I’m going to get annoyed. Ah, there’s this thing [26:32.020 –> 26:35.780] that some games do, right? Where they go, Oh, this is the beta of multiplayer, but it’s like [26:35.820 –> 26:42.140] baked into a release of the game, right? It’s not, it’s not like a thing that you can’t like, [26:42.140 –> 26:46.780] you choose to update to because you’re on the beta branch, right? Don’t call something beta. [26:46.780 –> 26:53.420] If the game is not a beta, right? Like you can’t add a feature into your game and call it beta. [26:53.420 –> 26:59.900] Like it means anything. Your game is released. Act like your game is released. What are you doing? [27:00.740 –> 27:08.900] Nothing matters in game dev talk. Nothing matters. It’s just the first version of multiplayer. Just [27:08.900 –> 27:14.020] call it that. I forgot how this game looked. It was looking at that’s cute game. Yeah, [27:14.020 –> 27:22.260] there’s a pig. Oh yeah. I’ve never really looked too much into this game. I haven’t either because [27:22.260 –> 27:28.580] there’s nothing really kind of like stuck out to me, but yeah, it just keeps rolling. It’s in [27:28.620 –> 27:35.900] that filing cabinet Al has of we need an episode game when we need an episode and we have a week [27:35.900 –> 27:41.420] where we can actually play a game because that’s the other key point, right? Like it’s great when [27:41.420 –> 27:45.580] we have time to do it, but when we say we’ve got an episode next week, we don’t have a topic for [27:45.580 –> 27:54.300] and everybody’s busy playing something. All right. Time to have random topics. Mica and the [27:54.300 –> 28:02.060] witch’s mountain will all be playing that and not ever dream when it comes out. Sadly, [28:02.700 –> 28:11.980] it’s been delayed to early 2024. That’s fine. That’s fine. You take your time. Mika. I have [28:11.980 –> 28:19.660] Maneko on my plate that I need to get through. Yeah. They’d never given an exact date, but I [28:19.660 –> 28:26.380] think the kickstarter had said October 2023. I think they’ve been pretty good at releasing [28:26.380 –> 28:32.220] things roughly on schedule. So I think their last game was like two months late or something like [28:32.220 –> 28:40.540] that, which for a kickstarter game is basically on time, you know? Yeah, it really is. Yeah. So [28:40.540 –> 28:47.660] Mika said October 2023. That’s what it said. And, uh, oh, in fact, Koa and the five pirates [28:47.660 –> 28:53.020] said September 2023 and I think actually came out in August. So I actually did come out. Oh, [28:53.020 –> 29:01.180] dang. So that’s something. And Summer and Mara said, oh, so that said September 2019 [29:01.180 –> 29:06.940] and I think came out March 2020. So it was a few months late, that one. Um, but, um, it’s pretty [29:06.940 –> 29:13.580] good. It’s pretty good. Considering, considering I have, considering I have multiple kickstarters [29:13.580 –> 29:21.340] that are currently two years late. Um, I mean, and that’s not to mention the bidet that I, [29:21.340 –> 29:28.380] that I’m, that I kickstarted that was meant to come out in December 2020 still hasn’t come out. [29:29.820 –> 29:36.940] Okay. What was special about it? Why was it a kickstarter? It’s a portable bidet. Okay. [29:36.940 –> 29:42.460] So you take it with you. Like it’s handheld thing. Okay. Like it’s like a little, [29:43.100 –> 29:47.820] it looks kind of like a big, a big torch, big flash. What, what? [29:49.500 –> 29:53.100] With a little spray nozzle on the side. Okay. So it’s, [29:54.940 –> 30:00.540] what are you connecting to? Or just has it. So you pour the water into it from attack. Okay. [30:01.260 –> 30:10.780] Okay. Okay. And, and it just, all right, ready to go. Yep. I mean, okay. Like I’m, I’m, [30:10.780 –> 30:17.900] I’m just trying to imagine designing this thing, like to achieve that functionality. [30:17.900 –> 30:23.740] Yeah. I’m still not sure. I’m still not sure. It’s not a scam. Right. [30:25.100 –> 30:30.140] Well, look, you can say that about a lot of kickstarters. Three years late. Three years [30:30.140 –> 30:35.340] late. Three legends came out and I’m still wondering. So the last update we got on this [30:35.340 –> 30:42.940] was in March and they said, we’re ready to, ready to, to deliver. And eventually we still haven’t. [30:42.940 –> 30:51.900] That was March. So look, I’m just, I’ve, I’m there. Okay. I’ve never used a bidet personally. [30:51.900 –> 30:57.740] Okay. Like they’re not common in the area of states where I live or whatever. I’ve never [30:57.740 –> 31:05.180] seen one in person. So I’m just like, if you care that much about having a bidet, [31:06.060 –> 31:10.860] like, is it, is not a spray bottle good enough? [31:14.700 –> 31:20.060] We don’t need to get into this, right? 2020 was a weird time, Kevin. Let’s not, we don’t judge, [31:20.060 –> 31:26.220] we don’t judge what anybody did in 2020. Assuming you obviously didn’t like actually harm people, [31:26.220 –> 31:29.100] right? We don’t judge the weird decisions we made in 2020. [31:29.900 –> 31:39.340] No, I’m, I’m, I’m just, I’m just wondering like how many back this fascinates me. Like [31:39.980 –> 31:46.060] Coral Island, their new charity DLC is now out. So we’ll link to that in the show notes. [31:47.020 –> 31:52.460] I have already bought it. We’ll do it. We’ll do a greenhouse episode on it. [31:53.020 –> 31:56.060] Yeah. If you really want to talk more about my portable bidet. [32:00.700 –> 32:03.420] Oh no, we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re obviously going to do another episode of [32:03.420 –> 32:07.100] Coral Island when it’s one year old. Yeah. Yeah. Charity. Okay. For real, [32:07.100 –> 32:10.780] go save the real coral race with that. It’s cool. [32:10.780 –> 32:15.340] It’s a cool DLC. I got the last one as well. They’re both cool. Get, [32:15.340 –> 32:17.420] you can’t get the first one, but you can get the second one. [32:17.420 –> 32:23.580] I, I haven’t played Coral Island yet, but boy, do I like the ocean, [32:23.580 –> 32:27.820] the real one and the real coral reef. So yay for helping. [32:30.060 –> 32:36.380] Moonstone Island have announced a collector’s edition, which is like two quid more than the [32:36.380 –> 32:44.380] main one and gets you not a lot. It is not a lot because what it gets you is a full color art book. [32:45.340 –> 32:50.460] The download of the original soundtrack and some exclusive decor in game. [32:52.220 –> 32:56.940] So that feels like a no brainer to me. Yeah. If you like Moonstone Island, [32:56.940 –> 33:02.780] that’s the no brainer boy. The, the lo-fi girl is just super popular [33:03.900 –> 33:08.620] because that’s what they have here. Yeah. Okay. All right. [33:09.260 –> 33:18.460] Uh, what else? So this is an interesting one. So this is an interesting one, right? Okay. So I, [33:18.460 –> 33:24.300] I want to preface this with, I don’t normally cover like random little features that are on [33:24.300 –> 33:28.700] games before they release. Right. Cause we’d be here all day if we were covering stuff like that. [33:30.060 –> 33:35.660] But I think this one is interesting enough that it feels like I want to talk about it. Okay. [33:36.220 –> 33:41.260] And that is Spirit Tea doesn’t force you to sleep at specific times of the day. [33:41.900 –> 33:47.260] You can choose when you’re sleeping. They just require you to get a certain amount of sleep [33:47.260 –> 33:51.980] and you can choose when that is. So if you want to be like out all night and sleep during the day, [33:51.980 –> 33:56.620] you can do that in this game. That is very interesting. [33:56.620 –> 34:03.980] I know. Right. That’s a cool idea. Um, yeah, yeah, no, good on that. Like obviously, [34:04.540 –> 34:07.900] presumably the nighttime will be worth staying up for. [34:08.460 –> 34:14.380] Yeah. So it says that some characters are, are, are like, it doesn’t say nocturnal. It says night [34:14.380 –> 34:20.220] hours, but yeah, like there’ll be people that will be out either only at night or mostly at night, [34:20.220 –> 34:25.900] um, and stuff like that. So, uh, yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. [34:26.540 –> 34:31.420] Yeah. That’s, that’s an interesting way to go about it. Um, [34:31.420 –> 34:35.660] yes, I think at this point we’re at the it’s interesting stage and we’ll see whether it’s [34:35.660 –> 34:42.140] good or not later. Um, once we’ve actually got to play this game. Other games probably could [34:42.140 –> 34:46.300] benefit from that for sure, but okay. Yeah, cool. Yeah. I feel like it’s the sort of thing that [34:46.300 –> 34:51.660] couldn’t be actively bad. Um, it might be something that we don’t use very much, but like giving you [34:52.300 –> 34:57.980] the option feels like a good thing in and of itself. It is. Sure. Yeah. But anyway, [34:57.980 –> 35:02.060] it’s not a huge thing. I just felt like it would be interesting to at least mention that. [35:02.940 –> 35:10.380] Ooblets plushies. I played smooshy come home. There aren’t a lot of names in smooshy [35:10.380 –> 35:14.460] granted, but you know, one’s called smooshy. There’s another guy called chunky [35:15.260 –> 35:21.100] and I still think the name Shrumbo is dumb. Clumper and Glanter. [35:21.100 –> 35:28.380] These are, look at those faces though. Let me, let me look at the face. I’m just looking at [35:28.380 –> 35:35.500] the names. What’s a Shrumbo that feels like a fake Mon that they put on the Simpsons on the TV. [35:37.500 –> 35:43.820] Good old, uh, little Shrumbo. Oh, Shrumbo is pretty cute though. Actually Shrumbo would fit [35:43.820 –> 35:49.420] right in smooshy world. So I’m not going to complain. So Shrumbo plushie is available now [35:49.420 –> 35:55.980] in the US and it’s coming soon in the EU. I’m sorry in Europe. I don’t know why I wrote EU. [35:56.540 –> 36:02.780] Coming soon in Europe. I have requested to get a notification when we can buy it here. [36:03.980 –> 36:09.020] And clumper and Glanter are coming soon. They’re not on the Europe site. Interestingly. I don’t [36:09.020 –> 36:13.740] know whether they’re not coming or whether they’re just not up on the site yet, but Shrumbo is up on [36:14.300 –> 36:20.940] the Europe site. So he’s a big, big squishy boy. All of them. I don’t know what you’re talking [36:20.940 –> 36:26.460] about, but they all Shrumbo specifically. Yeah, he is. He really looks like he’d fit in smooshy [36:26.460 –> 36:35.100] with the name and all. All right. Let’s talk about Eastward Octopia. It was in the Nintendo Direct, [36:36.220 –> 36:41.660] which I thought, I thought I’d managed to get out of this direct. Um, uh, talking about it on [36:41.660 –> 36:45.420] this podcast. Um, I’m just talking about in the greenhouse cause I was like, there are no farming [36:45.420 –> 36:51.820] games. And then I looked closer at this game and realize this is a farming game. Very, very clearly. [36:51.820 –> 36:55.500] Yeah. Like I don’t know how I missed it when we were watching. I just went Eastward. Oh, [36:55.500 –> 36:58.780] that’s a game I don’t really care about. Let’s ignore what’s happening here. [36:58.780 –> 37:06.060] I didn’t realize this is a DLC to Eastward, right? Which is coming soon. No release date yet. A DLC [37:06.060 –> 37:14.540] to Eastward that you don’t need to play Eastward to play. Yup. Right. It’s like a whole separate [37:14.540 –> 37:20.300] game. Yeah. And it’s a whole completely different game. The graphics are the same. Presumably the [37:20.300 –> 37:26.860] controls are very similar, but it is a farming game and Eastward is an adventure game. These [37:26.860 –> 37:38.380] are not the same thing. I mean, not an adventure. No, this is a weird thing to happen. Like what, [37:38.380 –> 37:45.500] why is this a DLC and not another game? First of all, weird. Well, that’s that. Now that is [37:45.500 –> 37:52.380] a good question. Um, so what, here’s an interesting point. I just, I was watching the, the, the farming [37:52.380 –> 37:57.740] animation and um, when they’re watering, they’re just like walking along the line of crops, [37:57.740 –> 38:03.340] pouring water. They’re not like, take a walk, water, take a walk, water. They’re just walking [38:03.340 –> 38:08.860] along and they’re, the animation for watering is continuous. That’s so nice. Isn’t it? [38:10.460 –> 38:16.220] Why is this not a thing in other games? I hate, I hate slash love when a game does this and they’re [38:16.220 –> 38:21.980] like, here’s a thing that you never would have thought of, but now that it exists, every other [38:21.980 –> 38:28.220] game that doesn’t do this is going to annoy you. It’s all ruined now. Like I never want to see a [38:28.220 –> 38:37.820] farming square again. Just make it all continue. Oh man. Oh, so this is interesting. I don’t know [38:37.820 –> 38:44.860] what I’m going to do with this because I had no interest to play Eastward ever. Right. I still, [38:44.860 –> 38:50.540] and you still don’t have to buy it though, but I have to buy the game, [38:51.340 –> 38:54.300] but it doesn’t seem too expensive. So that is good. Um, [38:56.540 –> 39:00.620] but yeah, it’s like welcome to the charming world of Eastward population declining journey [39:00.620 –> 39:05.420] through a society on the brink of collapse. Discover delightful towns, strain creatures [39:05.420 –> 39:11.980] and even stranger people. We are a trusty frying pan and mystic powers on an adventure into an [39:11.980 –> 39:20.140] unknown. And then this is Sam and John return in an all new adventure. Remember this, remember this [39:20.140 –> 39:26.940] is a DLC in this heartwarming story driven farming sim players can grow crops, tend livestock [39:26.940 –> 39:31.100] and turn an abandoned fairground into a thriving village with the help of the weird and wonderful [39:31.100 –> 39:38.220] cast of beloved Eastward characters in a parallel universe where time and space have collided. [39:38.220 –> 39:43.420] Sam and John moved to a peaceful corner of the globe. I’m sorry, a parallel universe. [39:44.140 –> 39:51.500] Well, there you go. That solves all the problem. What? What? We’re doing multi travel in Eastward [39:51.500 –> 39:58.460] now. This is a large DLC for Eastward with a brand new story in an all new farming game mode. [39:58.460 –> 40:06.300] Eastward is required to play the Eastward Octopia DLC. Eastward and the multiverse of cottagecore. [40:06.940 –> 40:15.260] This is weird. It’s weird, but they got us. It might be good weird. I’m not 100% sure. [40:16.860 –> 40:23.820] I don’t know. Their update on it is announcing Octopia a new farming DLC coming Eastward. [40:23.820 –> 40:28.140] I bet you didn’t see that coming. They start off. You’re right about that. [40:29.580 –> 40:35.820] So the Eastward Octopia DLC will be accessible straight from Eastward start menu and suitable [40:35.900 –> 40:38.940] for brand new players and Eastward completionists alike. [40:40.700 –> 40:46.860] Why is this a DLC? The more I think about it, the more the more I’m on board with this [40:47.500 –> 40:57.580] general idea of of totally separate different DLC. This is weird. Like, oh man, [40:58.460 –> 41:02.620] I’m trying to think of a good example of a wild one. Well, I was going to make a joke [41:02.620 –> 41:08.220] about Final Fantasy or something, right? Having like a random addition that adds farming. [41:08.220 –> 41:09.900] Those are already in Final Fantasy. [41:09.900 –> 41:15.740] I realized they did that. They did that in Final Fantasy 14. Not only that, it’s on the moon. [41:16.780 –> 41:21.660] Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, Final Fantasy has those baked in. [41:21.660 –> 41:27.340] There’s no joke you can make about Final Fantasy, but it’s something they’ve probably already done. [41:27.340 –> 41:36.380] No, I mean, it’s like Mario Wonder gets a DLC that’s, I don’t know. [41:38.060 –> 41:44.300] Oh, it’s like, you know, it’s like they did Mario 3D World and they just added on a whole [41:44.940 –> 41:48.140] new game onto it. There was an open world 3D platformer. [41:48.700 –> 41:51.020] Yeah. Oh, wait, they did. [41:53.020 –> 41:54.060] Yeah, they did. [41:57.340 –> 42:01.580] I still need to play that one. All right. Interesting looking. [42:01.580 –> 42:07.660] Did you look at the fishing minigame? Oh, I remember looking at it. I remember, [42:07.660 –> 42:11.340] I don’t remember what it is right now, but I remember noting it in my brain. [42:11.340 –> 42:16.380] Weird. Also, is that flying flying cows and pigs? Why are they flying? [42:17.020 –> 42:22.620] I don’t know. Yeah. Okay. That looks a little like, what’s it called? [42:24.060 –> 42:28.700] Well, I mean, the circle roots of Pacha. But yeah, that fishing actually looks interesting. [42:29.740 –> 42:36.700] It looks dynamic. I appreciate a dynamic minigame. All right. Whatever. I mean, [42:37.980 –> 42:41.260] it’s crazy, right? Because if this were a standalone game, this would be like, [42:41.260 –> 42:44.940] for sure. Just like, yeah, I’m down for that. But the fact that it’s DLC. [42:45.740 –> 42:50.540] Octopia is a weird name. I haven’t played Eastward, so probably maybe it means something. [42:50.540 –> 42:56.700] I don’t know. Wait, can we get a DLC where the universe is collide? [43:00.460 –> 43:04.460] Japanese rural life simulator talking of weird things. [43:05.180 –> 43:12.940] Yeah, this. Okay, so this is an Apple arcade game. I’m going to guess that at some point [43:12.940 –> 43:18.860] it’ll come to Android because their previous games are on Android. This is a Japanese developer [43:19.740 –> 43:28.060] that has released this game. And it’s about living in rural Japan. View the cherry blossoms in the [43:28.060 –> 43:33.340] spring, attend the festival in the summer, eat roasted sweet potatoes in the fall, hear the [43:33.340 –> 43:37.820] temple bell ring in winter, and then it’s time for the first shrine

Jonnie and Kev talk about Smushi Come Home Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:03:40: What Have We Been Up To 00:10:43: News 00:27:36: Smushi Come Home 00:39:13: Spoilers For Smushi Come Home 00:56:09: Outro Links Coral Island Merfolk and Fall Update Spirit of The Island DLC Research Story 0.5 Update Research Story Roadmap My Time at Sandrock Trailer Haunted Chocolatier Screenshot Usagi Shima Smushi Come Home on Steam Smushi Come Home on Switch Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript [00:00.000 –> 00:11.440] 2. [00:11.440 –> 00:36.800] Hello farmers, welcome to the harvest season where we talk about cottagecore games, should [00:36.800 –> 00:39.920] we still call them farmers if we’re going off that rant? [00:39.920 –> 00:44.240] Yes, yes, we’ve covered this many times, but they’re still farmers, definitely still [00:44.240 –> 00:49.680] farmers. Except for that one month when they weren’t farmers and they were anglers. [00:49.680 –> 00:55.040] Yeah, that’s true. I’m trying to think, where’s the Venn diagram not overlap of farmers and [00:55.040 –> 00:58.480] cottagecore? I’m guessing like, big industrial factory farmers? [01:01.280 –> 01:05.200] Um, alright, hi, I’m Kevin, and this is Johnny. [01:05.840 –> 01:06.340] Hi. [01:07.280 –> 01:12.880] We’re here to, yeah, the cottagecore, I said that already, um, Al’s not here so you know, [01:12.880 –> 01:17.120] this is going off the rails already. I really want a cottagecore industrial [01:17.120 –> 01:24.240] farming game, I bet someone can make it happen. I mean, Let’s Build a Zoo has that option. [01:26.160 –> 01:28.640] There we go, already solved, it’s already out there. [01:28.640 –> 01:36.800] It’s already on the way, um, gosh, what was that Pokemon knockoff game that was putting [01:36.800 –> 01:42.720] them in a factory, I had to look it up, I can’t remember, there was some Pokemon knockoff that [01:42.720 –> 01:47.760] kind of had cottagecore vibes, but then there was this weird bit where they were also in factories [01:47.760 –> 01:53.040] and being put to work, and I don’t know. So I had this, I was thinking about this [01:53.120 –> 01:56.080] the other day, this is like, we’re already way off the rails, but I need to share this. [01:56.800 –> 02:00.320] When you, in Pokemon, you send, you know, you send your Pokemon to the professor when you’re [02:00.320 –> 02:04.080] kind of getting rid of them now, that’s the sort of established thing, and I was thinking like, [02:04.080 –> 02:10.720] what does the professor do with them? And my current theory is that the professors are actually [02:10.720 –> 02:16.320] eating the Pokemon, so they’re like chefs, because like, they’re not, they don’t have space to store [02:16.320 –> 02:21.520] all of them, like they’re not storing them, so my theory is that they’re trying to cook the Pokemon. [02:22.080 –> 02:28.960] I mean, I’m pretty sure the popular theory early on in Go was they get grinded down to make the [02:28.960 –> 02:34.800] candies. See? Maybe that’s how, maybe so in the games where you just send them to the professor, [02:34.800 –> 02:39.680] it’s so that they could develop the candy making process. Yeah, there you go, it works, [02:40.240 –> 02:46.560] that’s, and that’s, that’s how they get stronger, like, it has all the nutrients they need, [02:47.280 –> 02:53.680] on the other ones. And also strong cannibalism overtones. Yep, there you go. Ah, so, [02:54.800 –> 02:59.760] yeah, welcome to our, uh, there’s the official harvest season stance on cannibalism. [03:01.200 –> 03:05.600] Well, actually, it probably won’t be the last time that cannibalism comes up this episode. [03:05.600 –> 03:10.640] No, wait, what, this episode? This episode! I was about to say, in general, no, but okay, [03:11.360 –> 03:14.640] all right, I mean, it’s not the first time cannibalism has come up either, [03:15.360 –> 03:23.360] um, called the little lamb had cannibalism as an option, um, all right then, um, uh, so we’re gonna, [03:23.360 –> 03:29.760] you know how we do, we’re talking about the news and stuff, and, uh, a game with, uh, well, I don’t, [03:29.760 –> 03:34.720] I don’t think, I can’t recall any cannibalism in it, uh, Smooshy Come Home, um, that’s our [03:34.720 –> 03:41.360] featured game of the day, um, and, uh, yeah, we’ll get to that later, um, but before that, [03:41.360 –> 03:45.920] Johnny, what have you been up to? What have I been up to? Uh, so Cassette Beasts, [03:45.920 –> 03:49.840] uh, I think I talked about last time I was on the podcast, I love Cassette Beasts, uh, [03:49.840 –> 03:53.360] I’ve pretty much done everything there is to do in Cassette Beasts, but there’s, like, [03:53.360 –> 03:56.800] I really enjoy the shiny hunting, um, in that game, which they call bootlegs, [03:57.360 –> 04:03.760] um, and they’ve got some DLC that’s coming out soon, um, I don’t know what’s in it, like, [04:03.760 –> 04:08.400] I, I very explicitly, like, try not to look at what’s in these sorts of things, because I just [04:08.400 –> 04:15.040] want to be excited and experience it, um, so I’m very excited to play even more Cassette Beasts. [04:15.920 –> 04:22.560] Well, I mean, I’m, so I’ve, uh, I will be getting to Cassette Beasts very soon, I have, [04:22.560 –> 04:29.120] uh, been whittling away at, uh, my life and organizing things to get to that point, um, [04:29.120 –> 04:35.280] I think I’ll play the, the Scarlet Violet DLC to hurt myself, and then I’ll feel better when [04:35.280 –> 04:39.680] I play Cassette Beasts. I’m like, oh, that, that’s what it should be. I don’t even know, [04:39.680 –> 04:44.640] like, when the Scarlet Violet DLC is coming out. I’m pretty sure it’s this week. Nor do I care. [04:44.640 –> 04:48.320] Yeah, that’s fine. Because the other game that I’ve been playing, which is gonna suck up all [04:48.320 –> 04:53.440] of my time, is Starfield. More like Snorefield, am I right? And that’s not true, I’ve heard it’s [04:53.440 –> 05:00.400] decent, actually. So Starfield is, uh, I guess before I say anything else, I think a lot of the [05:00.400 –> 05:05.280] commentary online is kind of just terrible and overly negative. That being out of the way, [05:05.280 –> 05:11.280] I found getting started with Starfield difficult, like, it lacked kind of the thing I like most [05:11.280 –> 05:16.480] about games like Skyrim, where, you know, you kind of get the, the world that opens up to you, [05:16.480 –> 05:21.520] and you can kind of just pick a direction and walk in that direction and find stuff and do stuff. [05:21.520 –> 05:27.520] The space travel aspect makes it a lot harder to do that, so I actually got kind of like [05:27.520 –> 05:33.520] five or six hours in, and then I made the call to restart, and that was a really good call, [05:33.520 –> 05:38.000] because I kind of knew how all of the systems worked, I kind of knew what I wanted to [05:38.560 –> 05:44.240] start my character off as, and I kind of found a bunch of things that I’d skipped over the first [05:44.240 –> 05:48.000] time, because I kind of just, like, I was just trying to work stuff out, and I didn’t really [05:48.000 –> 05:52.320] know that certain things were there or that I could interact with certain things, and so I’ve [05:52.320 –> 05:57.120] been really enjoying it kind of since I restarted and kind of have a better idea for what I’m doing, [05:57.120 –> 06:03.200] and, yeah, really feel like it’s, like, if you like Bethesda games, you will probably like this [06:03.200 –> 06:09.760] Bethesda game, but it does take a little bit more to get into, I think, than the likes of Skyrim. [06:10.640 –> 06:13.280] Is it Skyrim in space? Is that what it feels like? [06:14.160 –> 06:19.680] Yes, so to me it feels more Skyrim than space than, like, closer to Fallout, because I’m not [06:19.680 –> 06:24.960] really a Fallout fan, I don’t particularly like the combat in Fallout, I don’t particularly [06:25.680 –> 06:36.080] like Fallout as a world, where I find, like, Starfield to me feels more Skyrim-esque, I guess. [06:36.720 –> 06:43.200] Okay, all right, that’s, that’s, I mean, it’s a big game, so, like, [06:45.600 –> 06:53.280] but that’s cool, I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I didn’t think it was gonna do well when it came [06:53.280 –> 06:59.520] out, I thought it was gonna be a trash fire, but I’m glad that it’s actually come out okay for people. [07:00.800 –> 07:05.120] Yeah, it seems like a good one of those games. I think part of the problem, right, [07:05.120 –> 07:09.760] I was thinking about, like, you know, why people are so negative, I think space is just hard to do [07:10.640 –> 07:16.480] as a game, because I think what space means is a lot of different things to a lot of different [07:16.480 –> 07:21.440] people, right? Some people really want to engage with, like, ships and ship combat and have that [07:21.440 –> 07:26.880] be really deep and really interesting. Some people want, you know, complex world building with aliens [07:26.880 –> 07:31.760] and, you know, lots of different lore about, you know, different races interacting with each other, [07:32.720 –> 07:36.800] you know, and some people want just, like, basically space Star Wars, and all of those [07:36.800 –> 07:41.840] things are very different, and you could not put all three of those into one game, so I think [07:41.840 –> 07:48.800] that’s one of the challenges with making stuff in space. Sure, sure, it is, and, I mean, I guess, [07:48.800 –> 07:52.480] like, for me, you’re absolutely right, I haven’t even thought about that, like, I guess I like [07:52.480 –> 07:57.200] space, I guess I’d never think about it that deeply, but, I mean, because space is cool, [07:57.200 –> 08:03.360] of course, but even without the space, well, not with the space context, like, [08:03.360 –> 08:10.320] the well had been poisoned a little bit already, right? I mean, we’re talking, we got Fallout 76, [08:10.320 –> 08:18.880] right, that’s one of the memorable ones from Bethesda’s recently, we had No Man’s Sky, [08:18.880 –> 08:24.320] the other big space game, right, and that was Travesty when it came out, and wasn’t Starfield [08:24.320 –> 08:29.120] the one that was in early access for, like, ever? I honestly don’t remember, I barely pay attention [08:29.120 –> 08:33.840] to, like, early access of what’s going on for games outside of the cottagecore industry, it’s [08:33.840 –> 08:37.200] kind of like, they launch, and then, you know, whenever they hit the big hype thing, then I’m [08:37.200 –> 08:43.120] like, cool, I’ll jump into this, or I won’t, like, that’s, I don’t really pay that much attention to [08:43.120 –> 08:48.880] what’s in early access or not, because there’s too many cottagecore games, I can’t pay attention to [08:49.520 –> 08:55.040] seeing everything else. Yeah, no, I think that was… Oh, you might be thinking of Baldur’s Gate 3, [08:55.040 –> 09:00.880] that was in early access features. Maybe, I could be, I don’t know. Um, all right, but that’s cool, there you go, [09:00.880 –> 09:05.280] Starfield. Yeah, anyway, it’s like, for me, it’s like, I think if you like Bethesda games, there is a [09:05.280 –> 09:10.400] high likelihood that you will enjoy Starfield, and if you don’t like Bethesda games, then there’s [09:10.400 –> 09:15.280] a high likelihood that you won’t enjoy Starfield, because it’s a Bethesda game made by Bethesda, so [09:16.000 –> 09:22.880] um, it’s cool, I’m having fun with it. Kev, what have you been up to? Uh, good question, nothing of [09:24.160 –> 09:31.920] too much interest, my usual stuff, uh, Marvel Snap, seems to be Marvel Snap. Are you, are you, are you [09:31.920 –> 09:37.760] low-key-ing things up? Not yet, I’m, I’ve been contemplating, because, uh, that’s a really [09:37.760 –> 09:44.800] interesting card, a very chaotic card, right, and I like that concept. It’s a very powerful card as [09:44.880 –> 09:51.440] well. It is, um, yeah, I know, I need to look at the builds for that, I’ve just been going with [09:51.440 –> 09:57.920] my usual stuff, um, that game has been in a great place for a long time, it’s, it’s, I’m, I’m wary [09:57.920 –> 10:04.880] that the game continues doing this good, um, but yeah, that’s just my addiction, uh, Pokemon Unite, [10:04.880 –> 10:10.640] also the other addiction when I’m on the Switch, um, Mewtwo continues to be absurdly broken, [10:11.200 –> 10:16.000] and, uh, I mean, I, I still keep up, it is just my comfort game right now, Story of Seasons, [10:16.000 –> 10:22.960] um, the Wonderful Life remake. I am about to hit year five, um, well, well, well past whatever I [10:22.960 –> 10:29.040] made, um, and my kid is a teen, and boy, I, boy, teens are the worst, let me tell you. [10:31.200 –> 10:37.200] Um, aside from that, really, I just talked about Smooshy, that’s, that’s the big one, [10:38.000 –> 10:42.880] um, because that was this week, so yeah, that, that’s what we’ve been up to, [10:43.520 –> 10:48.000] so with that, let’s just dive into the new, shall we, and, uh, we can make this a literal dive, [10:48.000 –> 10:52.320] because the first one up is Coral Island, yay, all right, what is, what’s going on, [10:52.320 –> 10:58.880] Coral Island, we have an update, uh, it’s out now already, we have, let’s see, I don’t know what the [10:58.880 –> 11:04.720] video is, it’s Merfolk and Fall Update, that’s what I see off the bat, yeah, so there’s a new, [11:05.120 –> 11:11.120] or the next part of the story quest, like, a whole bunch of new features that you kind of [11:11.120 –> 11:16.800] won’t list, like, it just feels like sort of the next wave of stuff that you would likely expect [11:16.800 –> 11:22.480] to be in a Cottagecore game, um, uh, nothing massively stands out other than the fact that, [11:22.480 –> 11:26.480] you know, like, Merfolk, so there’s some, you know, water-based stuff, and, you know, [11:26.480 –> 11:31.520] I haven’t really played Coral Island, so it’s hard to get too deep into what it is, but it, [11:32.240 –> 11:37.040] sorry, go ahead, no, I just, I haven’t either, um, I haven’t played it either, and I’m just, [11:37.040 –> 11:43.280] I’m mostly curious, what do the Merfolk look like, is it, are they usual human half-fish bottom, or, [11:43.920 –> 11:48.480] are they going to be brave and do the opposite, that’s an excellent question, I do not know, [11:48.480 –> 11:54.880] um, but potentially the most exciting, uh, update that they’ve got is, um, an auto-chest, so the, [11:54.880 –> 12:00.800] the automation, um, in this game looks fantastic, uh, and basically I think all of the linked [12:00.800 –> 12:06.000] machines you can link to a chest that automatically collects the items, so, um, [12:06.000 –> 12:09.360] this game looks like it’s going hard with the automation, which seems pretty exciting. [12:10.000 –> 12:14.880] That, yeah, that tweet they have looks like, I mean, there’s a conveyor belt and chest, [12:14.880 –> 12:19.360] and they’re all linked, it’s pretty, wow, that, that looks right up Al’s alley, that’s, [12:19.360 –> 12:22.640] that’s a hardcore, and I think the cool thing, because my impression of the conveyor belt is [12:22.640 –> 12:28.480] it looks like it’s water, so it’s maybe like a water chute that’s carrying the, the strawberries, [12:28.640 –> 12:33.840] you’re ready to see that curve, um, which feels like a cool cottage call way of doing a conveyor [12:33.840 –> 12:41.760] belt, yeah, yeah, that’s pretty cool, um, that is neat to see, like, just to think about, well, [12:41.760 –> 12:48.160] I’m biased, the last job I had was conveyor stuff, so I now look at this stuff with interest, um, [12:49.200 –> 12:55.760] and then there’s a, um, charity cosmetics pack, uh, that you can purchase, so that comes out on [12:55.760 –> 13:02.400] September 12th, so it should be out, uh, when this, um, when this episode drops, uh, it’s out [13:02.400 –> 13:08.880] for a limited time, it’s, uh, five what I assume are American dollars, uh, and it’s got, looks like, [13:08.880 –> 13:15.760] uh, sort of save the ocean outfit, um, and a chest, there might be, uh, one or two other things, [13:15.760 –> 13:22.320] and, um, I’m assuming that means it goes to charity, although on the way this tweet is [13:22.320 –> 13:29.840] written, it’s not entirely clear who, like, who it would go to, Coral Guardian, I think it’s, [13:29.840 –> 13:35.520] like, the first one on the tweet, uh, unlike the first comment, let’s see, it’s in Coral Guardian, [13:35.520 –> 13:41.520] which is a non-profit organization dedicated to, uh, coral conference, coral ecosystem [13:41.520 –> 13:47.040] conservations, um, right, and things like that, so there you go, they’re working to save the sea, [13:47.680 –> 13:53.520] um, oh, coral reefs are cool, that’s good, go, go, go buy a thing, help save the sea, I like that, [13:53.520 –> 14:00.880] um, and yeah, there’s also fall update spooky stuff, Halloweeny stuff’s coming out, it looks [14:00.880 –> 14:08.800] like, um, but yeah, so there’s the, you can check the show notes, oh, I forgot, at the beginning, [14:08.800 –> 14:15.200] you can always see the, the, the links in the show notes, and the transcripts, as always, [14:15.200 –> 14:21.680] in the show notes, there, I said it, Al, you can relax now, um, let’s see, uh, so yeah, [14:21.680 –> 14:25.760] that’s Coral Island, um, yeah, you can see all the details on their Steam page for the update, [14:25.760 –> 14:28.800] or their Twitter account, or just click on the show, the links in the show notes, [14:30.400 –> 14:37.840] now, from Coral Island, we, Island hop on over to Moonstone Island, uh, let’s see, [14:37.840 –> 14:47.120] it is coming soon, September 20th is our PC and Mac release date, uh, yeah, so last, last week, [14:47.120 –> 14:52.560] um, uh, I think you guys mentioned that, uh, so this, we knew the September 20th date, but we [14:52.560 –> 14:58.560] didn’t know, uh, if that was all consoles or not, so it’s just the PC and Mac, and it’s coming to [14:58.560 –> 15:05.920] Switch later, so, you know, whatever that means, um, uh, but good to see they’re also aiming for [15:05.920 –> 15:14.960] Steam Deck Verification, um, yeah, yeah, there’s, uh, I’m just looking at the art they post, [15:14.960 –> 15:18.720] is that, there’s a fishbowl with legs, it looks like, I want to know what that’s about, [15:19.280 –> 15:29.520] um, but, uh, but yeah, there’s also, um, they’re tweeting up, hyping up, they got some non-binary [15:29.520 –> 15:34.960] characters in the game, and trans, um, so yeah, there’s your representation, that’s good stuff, [15:34.960 –> 15:39.760] good on them, um, Cottagecore always pushing, if you, you definitely feel like Cottagecore [15:39.760 –> 15:45.040] is a genre that’s always pushing, that’s part of it, um, I think that’s part of, [15:45.040 –> 15:50.640] you know, what, what we like about the genre, right, is it’s the sort of overlap between, [15:50.640 –> 15:56.240] you know, um, inclusiveness, doing the right thing, you know, between, uh, Coral Island, [15:56.240 –> 15:59.600] you know, releasing a water update and, and putting a little, together a little cosmetic [15:59.600 –> 16:05.360] pack to donate to a related charity, you know, really promoting the inclusion of, um, [16:05.360 –> 16:09.600] uh, sorry, Moose Island, really promoting the inclusion of non-binary and trans characters, [16:09.600 –> 16:15.920] I think is, is really awesome, um, particularly, I guess, you know, um, in the past week, we’re not, [16:15.920 –> 16:20.000] I don’t want to delve into it too much, but some of the commentary around Starfield having the [16:20.000 –> 16:25.200] horrific option of letting people choose their pronouns, oh my gosh, I saw that tweet, just [16:26.000 –> 16:31.920] some of the stupid over-the-top reactions to a choice that just makes the game more inclusive [16:31.920 –> 16:39.040] for more people has been really disappointing, so just to see, you know, smaller publishers [16:39.040 –> 16:43.760] not afraid to promote these things in their games, because it’s one of the things, right, it’s, it’s [16:44.480 –> 16:51.760] a hard space for particularly small companies given, you know, you look at what’s happened [16:51.760 –> 16:56.080] where some businesses, you know, there’s boycotts and all sorts of things, like it’s, it’s not [16:56.080 –> 17:01.920] zero risk for them to, to promote, um, this sort of stuff, it’s, you know, disgusting that, [17:01.920 –> 17:07.920] that’s the case, but, um, yeah, I just think these sorts of things should be, um, celebrated. [17:08.800 –> 17:15.280] Yeah, no, absolutely, much more well put than I am, than I said it, um, yeah, no, I, I fully agree, [17:15.280 –> 17:24.320] and it, yeah, it is a big deal for sure, um, and as Al pointed out in the Slack chat, like, even [17:24.320 –> 17:32.560] among cottagecore, I don’t think we’ve gotten that many, like, at least NPC types of, uh, [17:33.600 –> 17:39.200] non-binary trans, I can’t recall of any off the top of my head, other than Kim and Wildflowers, [17:39.920 –> 17:44.240] um, yeah, I couldn’t, I couldn’t recall of any either, and I think it’s one of those things that [17:44.240 –> 17:49.120] I expect we’ll see more of, but we’ve mostly seen it in letting player characters sort of [17:49.680 –> 17:57.520] make those choices, um, for their own character, but we haven’t seen a lot of that in, in PCs. [17:57.520 –> 18:05.120] Yep, so there you go, um, hats off to you, uh, Moonstone Island, that’s the one, yeah, [18:05.120 –> 18:12.080] the, I am checking, because our next one is another island, Spirit of the Island, uh, we [18:12.160 –> 18:19.360] have got an update, uh, Adventureland DLC, it’s coming out October 3rd, [18:20.400 –> 18:26.640] let’s see, what is in this update? So you can, um, create new amusements and sort of monetize [18:26.640 –> 18:35.760] your land, um, so kind of make, I guess, uh, a little, um, uh, theme park, um, but probably, [18:35.760 –> 18:40.000] you know, the, the more interesting piece of this, this bit of news is a bit of a road map, [18:40.000 –> 18:46.720] uh, around the future for Spirit of the Island, so they’ve got the, um, Adventureland DLC, [18:46.720 –> 18:52.000] they’ve got a big storyline update also planned to be coming, um, at the start of October, [18:52.000 –> 18:58.640] uh, it sounds like that’s independent from the DLC, um, it seems a bit, because it seems like [18:58.640 –> 19:02.240] the storyline is making them sort of feature complete, but it’s separate to the DLC, it’s [19:02.240 –> 19:07.760] just very confusing that those two things are sort of releasing at the same time, um, but probably [19:07.760 –> 19:13.040] the most exciting thing is for Q4, uh, of this year, uh, they’ve got console releases planned [19:13.040 –> 19:18.800] for PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, which is, um, which is very exciting, more stuff coming to [19:18.800 –> 19:25.280] consoles is good, um, and then some cross-platform release, uh, with a mobile version of the game in [19:25.280 –> 19:36.560] Q1 of next year. Yeah, it should be noted that, um, they are going for cross-play between all [19:36.640 –> 19:44.160] platforms, but not cross-save, from what I’m understanding, okay, um, yeah, yeah, yeah, [19:44.160 –> 19:49.520] you can’t move a saved file, okay, then I guess you can move your character and join them, but [19:49.520 –> 19:55.360] your own save file, you can’t, uh, move between consoles, or platforms, whatever, um, but, you [19:55.360 –> 20:00.880] know, there’s still cross-play, so that’s cool, um, so yeah, that, there’s some big stuff coming, [20:00.880 –> 20:06.160] and like I said, once they’re feature complete with, uh, this, or the update on October 3rd, [20:06.160 –> 20:11.840] they’ll be focusing on just new quality of life, and bug fixes, and so on, and so forth, so [20:12.720 –> 20:21.280] there you go, uh, coming soon to Spirit of the Island. Next up, we have one of our favorites, [20:21.840 –> 20:32.240] Research Story, um, they, uh, is this out already? Let me make sure, uh, because they are at the, uh, [20:32.240 –> 20:38.640] mid-autumn festival, with, uh, let’s see, a new soundtrack, and, oh, just a whole bunch of new [20:38.640 –> 20:47.200] stuff for the fall festival type event, um, let’s see here, they’re working on a beta with, uh, [20:47.200 –> 20:54.160] Simplified Chinese, and, uh, let’s see, a road map as well, hold on, I’m scrolling down the Steam [20:54.160 –> 20:59.360] page, I’m looking over these, uh, not, not much on the, the road map, they’re just working on [20:59.360 –> 21:05.360] some of their stuff around, um, uh, NPCs and stuff, but for me this is kind of just like a, [21:05.360 –> 21:10.640] a good next step in their, uh, are they calling it beta or early access? Whichever, whichever thing [21:10.640 –> 21:16.320] that they are in, um, you know, still in early access is, you know, version 0.5, so it looks [21:16.320 –> 21:21.840] like good progress, and I am still, you know, kind of just waiting for 1.0. All right, yeah, [21:21.840 –> 21:28.240] there you go, um, yeah, no, I get it, there’s a lot they’re working on, but it looks like it’s [21:28.240 –> 21:38.400] going at a good pace, so good on you, research story, uh, and okay, next up we have My Time at [21:38.400 –> 21:45.920] Sandrock, we have a new trailer, uh, let’s see, I, I’m actually just watching for the first time, [21:47.120 –> 21:53.200] so when I watched the trailer, like, I didn’t see anything that looked that new or unexpected from [21:53.200 –> 21:58.880] what I was expecting, so, um, just, uh, for clarity, My Time at Sandrock is the My Time at [21:58.880 –> 22:04.320] Portia, you know, or the next game from the developers, um, of My Time at Portia, uh, [22:05.440 –> 22:10.080] I really hated My Time at Portia, and I really think I should not play My Time at Sandrock, [22:10.080 –> 22:16.560] but the trailer looks really, really good, it looks really good, like, just everything about [22:16.560 –> 22:22.800] this game is very distinct, it just looks like a very good cottagecore game, which is [22:22.800 –> 22:26.560] exactly what I thought about My Time at Portia, so I’m very nervous, but I think I’m gonna have [22:26.560 –> 22:30.800] to give this a go, and I really like the more western-style setting, I think it’s a [22:31.360 –> 22:39.040] cool, unique setting for a cottagecore game. Yeah, I agree, um, yeah, no, I agree, but I mean, [22:39.040 –> 22:45.040] we got tumbleweeds actually going through the town, that’s great, um, and, and yeah, we got [22:45.040 –> 22:51.840] desert plateaus and mesas and all that good stuff, um, we have, I don’t know if the date, [22:51.840 –> 23:00.160] the trailer’s saying November 2nd, we have, uh, the 1.0 release, uh, and it will be on [23:00.160 –> 23:07.200] pretty much everything, the Xboxes, the PS5, the Steam and the Switch, all that good stuff, um, [23:08.640 –> 23:16.560] yeah, so that will be here before we know it, um, and something that will probably not be here [23:16.560 –> 23:25.280] before we know it, um, we got, uh, ConcernedApe with his usual, uh, one sentence followed by a [23:25.280 –> 23:30.560] screenshot of a haunted chocolatier, there’s a guy having a terrible dream, he’s an old man [23:30.560 –> 23:39.200] looking guy, that’s it, that’s the tweet, um, oh, Concerned, it’s hard to get mad at ConcernedApe [23:39.200 –> 23:46.160] with his, his continual drip feed of just random screenshots and comments considering, like, [23:46.800 –> 23:53.440] work on Stardew Valley is still going on and, and whatnot, um, but I think we all still have a lot [23:53.440 –> 24:00.000] of faith in him and, you know, there’s plenty of games in the beat in, uh, to play in the meantime, [24:00.000 –> 24:04.080] so I’m not in any hurry for Haunted Chocolatier, I just find it funny how he posts that every now [24:04.080 –> 24:08.480] then. Yeah, I’ve just decided Haunted Chocolatier is not real until it actually comes out, [24:09.440 –> 24:16.480] like, it could just be ConcernedApe just making random screens of stuff and posting that, [24:16.480 –> 24:21.120] that’s, that’s what I choose to believe until we see some actual gameplay. You know, that’s fine, [24:21.120 –> 24:28.160] um, something that’s very real is, uh, our, the next game we’re talking about, [24:28.800 –> 24:38.400] Usagi Shima, um, so this is a, what is wholesome, I’m confused by what wholesome games is, um, [24:38.480 –> 24:41.360] because I know it’s the Direct and whatnot, but is it an actual company? [24:42.880 –> 24:47.920] I don’t know anymore, like, I, I, I thought it was just a Twitter account. [24:49.440 –> 24:55.440] Um, regardless, anyways, Usagi Shima is a game available on the Google Play and App Store, [24:56.080 –> 25:03.200] um, where you collect bunnies, uh, and they are very cute bunnies, some of them, [25:04.000 –> 25:07.360] well, no, most of them are pretty round, but then they’ll, they will move around, [25:08.160 –> 25:12.960] um, you can put hats on them, uh, you’re collecting these, oh my gosh, you can put some [25:12.960 –> 25:20.160] in beds, it’s got a very, very pretty art style, um, kind of like the, you know, the [25:21.200 –> 25:27.120] ancient Japanese scroll type style, like Okami, that, that sort of art direction. [25:28.000 –> 25:33.280] Yeah, that’s exactly what it reminds me of. Have you played, uh, have you given it a go yet? [25:33.920 –> 25:35.040] What, Okami? [25:35.040 –> 25:35.760] Uh, Usagi Shima. [25:35.760 –> 25:38.880] Oh, oh, Usagi, oh, no I have not, have you? [25:39.440 –> 25:44.560] Yes, yes, so, um, I downloaded it this morning, maybe an hour before we started recording, [25:44.560 –> 25:49.120] uh, and you kind of just, you know, you buy decorations, you put them on your land, [25:49.120 –> 25:53.040] and they attract bunnies, and bunnies have different things that they’re attracted to, [25:53.040 –> 25:57.040] and they will leave you a tip in carrots so that you can buy more stuff to kind of [25:57.040 –> 26:01.120] collect the bunnies, so it’s a really nice little cycle for a mobile game. [26:02.000 –> 26:10.640] Um, it’s free to play, um, free to play, and you kind of can, uh, so there’s two forms of [26:10.640 –> 26:16.720] monetization, um, you can double some of the carrots you get as rewards by watching ads, [26:17.040 –> 26:23.360] or you can just pay to remove the ads directly, uh, which is kind of awesome, like, it’s a really, [26:24.080 –> 26:28.160] uh, it’s a good form of monetization, I guess, for a mobile game. [26:28.720 –> 26:36.480] Yeah, it is, um, and four dollars seems like the right price, um, because the gameplay doesn’t seem [26:36.480 –> 26:41.280] particularly deep, it’s mostly collected in place and look at the pretty thing, but, [26:42.080 –> 26:45.840] boy, this is so cute, this, these bunnies are so cute, and everything they’re doing, [26:45.840 –> 26:50.960] there’s one sunbathing, there’s one playing at the beach ball, um, it’s very, very cute, [26:51.600 –> 26:57.920] um, yeah, I prob- oh gosh, do I- there are too many good things out right now that are too close [26:57.920 –> 27:03.040] to Maneko’s Night Market, I can’t, can’t handle this. See, this is a good one, because it’s a [27:03.040 –> 27:07.360] sort of like, you know, you play for five minutes and then there’s nothing else to do, and then you [27:07.360 –> 27:12.320] can put it back down, so you should definitely play this. Alright, well, there you go, I’ll try [27:12.400 –> 27:19.680] it, he’s convinced me, um, so yeah, there you go, that, uh, that is out, like I said, it’s out now [27:19.680 –> 27:25.120] already, um, several people we know are already getting it, and I, I, they seem to be enjoying it, [27:25.120 –> 27:34.560] so, uh, it’s like, yeah, uh, go get it peoples. Uh, and I think that is the news for this week, [27:34.560 –> 27:41.680] whole bunch of updates and things. Now, let us just dive right on in to, uh, our main topic, [27:41.680 –> 27:48.240] uh, Shumi Come Home. Okay, let me look up the developer, I can’t even, small humble onion, [27:48.240 –> 27:53.360] is that what it is? Uh, some humble, some humble onion. Some humble onion, there you go. [27:53.920 –> 28:00.080] So, they’re the developers, this is out on Switch, it’s on, on Steam, um, available now, [28:00.080 –> 28:07.360] it costs 20 US bucks, um, and, okay, what are, what’s your initial opinion, [28:08.160 –> 28:13.600] Johnny, thumbs up, thumbs down, just give us a real thought. Yeah, so this gets a strong thumbs [28:13.600 –> 28:20.480] up from me, um, it’s a short game, uh, I think I 100%ed it in maybe six, five or six hours. [28:20.480 –> 28:25.440] That’s correct, that’s about what I did too. Yeah, so it’s, it’s not a super long game, [28:25.920 –> 28:31.600] but I also think it’s the right length, right? Like, for me, it was a really great end-to-end [28:31.600 –> 28:34.800] experience, when I was done, I was like, actually, I feel like that was, you know, [28:34.800 –> 28:41.200] I didn’t necessarily want more of that, but I really enjoyed the time that I had, [28:41.200 –> 28:49.440] um, with the game, and so I think what was, um, most interesting, I was trying to think, [28:49.440 –> 28:55.120] as I was playing the game, of what it reminded me of, or what sort of feeling it evoked as I [28:55.120 –> 29:00.640] was playing, and the closest I could come to was it reminded me of, like, the old sort of Spyro [29:00.640 –> 29:06.560] games, um, where you kind of, you know, just exploring the world, and finding stuff, [29:06.560 –> 29:10.720] and kind of uncovering stuff, and I’m sure it’d be very different if I went back and played one [29:10.720 –> 29:13.840] of those games, because I was probably, you know, like, six or seven when I was playing those, [29:13.840 –> 29:18.000] but that was sort of the, the feeling that I had while I was playing, playing this. [29:18.880 –> 29:22.400] That’s, I, well, I can’t, I haven’t, I haven’t played the old Spyro, so honestly, I can’t, [29:23.280 –> 29:28.960] I can’t comment on that, but I’m gonna take a step back here, let me give the Primus the [29:28.960 –> 29:35.200] elevator pitch to the listener, um, so Smooshy Come Home is a game about Smooshy, a little [29:35.200 –> 29:41.680] mushroom guy, um, just, just a little guy with a mushroom hat, um, and he lives on a little island [29:41.680 –> 29:48.160] with his siblings, and then a bird comes and yoinks him away, uh, he is thankfully not eaten, [29:48.160 –> 29:54.560] he manages to escape, uh, but he ends up some forest where he does not know, and he needs to [29:54.560 –> 30:00.160] figure out how to go back home, hence the name Smooshy Come Home, uh, and so yeah, the point of [30:00.160 –> 30:05.120] the game is you’re trying to make back your way back to home, you are climbing and exploring and [30:05.120 –> 30:10.880] gliding, um, up front you get a little leaf glider and a little climbing gear, um, and so you’re [30:10.880 –> 30:17.360] going through this, I would say Pikmin style world where, you know, you’re a little mushroom, [30:17.360 –> 30:22.640] so you’re in a forest and everything’s big and whatnot, um, and you encounter lots of other [30:22.640 –> 30:28.240] little forest type critters and other mushrooms, this game likes mushrooms, there’s a mushroom [30:28.240 –> 30:35.360] compendium, like real life mushroom compendium in the game, um, so the mushroom compendium, [30:35.840 –> 30:41.520] sorry, uh, we’ll come back, do you thumbs up, thumbs down? We didn’t. Oh yes, uh, super thumbs [30:41.520 –> 30:50.400] up, um, really hard thumbs up, because yeah, it’s a very, this game feels like a hug, it’s just so [30:50.400 –> 31:00.720] cozy and, and warm, um, I enjoyed it, and, and on a, it’s also, I think, really well designed, [31:00.720 –> 31:07.600] um, which I find a lot of even bigger studios struggle with, like everything is very thoughtfully [31:08.560 –> 31:13.840] laid out, um, I didn’t get stuck once, and this is the kind of game where you could easily get stuck, [31:13.840 –> 31:19.600] or no, not where, not know where to go next, but I think it’s very good at guiding you, and not even [31:19.600 –> 31:26.400] like real, like, it’s not direct, there’s no big arrows pointing go here, well for the most part, [31:26.400 –> 31:31.040] you can speak to some NPCs and they can give you a push, just from looking around you can find [31:31.040 –> 31:37.760] stuff, um, just because that’s, uh, it looks interesting, kind of like Breath of the Wild, [31:37.760 –> 31:42.960] to be quite frank, like, it’s hard not to think about that, because there’s the gliding and the [31:42.960 –> 31:50.800] climbing, and it feels like a little bit of that formula went into this, um, yeah, absolutely, [31:50.800 –> 31:55.440] because there’s a lot of, yeah, there’s a lot of like, you sort of see something, you go there, [31:55.440 –> 32:00.000] there’s a thing to do there, and then you kind of just see the next thing, and you kind of, [32:00.000 –> 32:05.120] like, the, the way you are sort of encouraged to move around the world feels very natural. [32:05.120 –> 32:12.560] Yep, absolutely, um, also, um, I should mention this is, the art style is like full 3D, [32:13.120 –> 32:20.480] cel-shaded-y, um, like it, someone on this team like Wind Waker, because they’re, it’s, [32:20.480 –> 32:25.280] it’s got a big Wind Waker feeling from the leaf glider to, uh, the, the, one of the [32:25.280 –> 32:30.800] symbols, the wind essence, like, that feels straight out of Wind Waker, um, and also Pikmin, [32:30.800 –> 32:36.080] a lot of the guys remind me of Pikmin, um, it’s also a very entertaining game, the, uh, [32:36.080 –> 32:42.720] there’s writing and, uh, the characters are very charming and over the place, um, I got a pretty, [32:42.720 –> 32:46.880] a few decent laughs out of the game. The power of crystals is cool. [32:46.880 –> 32:56.960] It’s so cool, definitely, AMBP, um, yeah. But no, you’re right, the writing in this game [32:56.960 –> 33:03.520] is fantastic, it’s like very, a very fun world to be in, and, uh, one of my favorite things, [33:03.520 –> 33:08.320] sort of, in the game is the, the mushroom compendium, um, so as you encounter different [33:08.320 –> 33:10.960] mushrooms, as you’ll make your way through the forest and make your way back home, [33:11.440 –> 33:16.640] um, you sort of have a notebook where there’s, you know, notes on the different sorts of mushrooms [33:16.640 –> 33:21.200] and it gives, I think, their, their proper scientific name and some facts about the [33:21.200 –> 33:25.600] mushroom, and then Smooshy has some comments about the mushrooms. Smooshy’s notes for every [33:26.240 –> 33:30.720] entry. They’re always really funny because there’s a few where he talks about the taste of mushrooms [33:30.720 –> 33:35.840] and then he kind of questions why he’s thinking about the taste of mushrooms, which is our second [33:35.840 –> 33:42.400] reference to cannibalism this episode. Yeah, you’re right, I forgot about it. [33:42.400 –> 33:49.840] It’s just a very, like, it’s very funny in a way that is, like, you’re not going to be, like, [33:49.840 –> 33:54.560] laughing out loud all of the time, but it’s just, I really like the description that you said a [33:54.560 –> 33:57.520] while back, right? Like, this game kind of feels like a hug where it’s just like, [33:57.520 –> 34:03.360] oh that’s really nice and well written, like, it’s not trying to overly be funny or to be funny all [34:03.360 –> 34:07.680] of the time, it’s just that the funny bits generally land really well, I found. Yeah, [34:08.560 –> 34:20.400] yeah, I agree, and I like the mushroom that with the strawberry guy, and there’s a strawberry [34:20.400 –> 34:29.040] hoarder and a guy who looks like a strawberry, and that was funny. But yeah, I’m trying to think, [34:29.600 –> 34:35.760] the gameplay itself, like we said, the exploration feels good, very Breath of the Wild-y, [34:36.080 –> 34:42.800] and a big part of the game is, well, so there’s different areas, you go in and there’s, like, [34:42.800 –> 34:49.840] a big roadblock, that’s the primary objective. Like, clear a tunnel, move this obstacle, [34:49.840 –> 34:56.640] whatever, but there’s all sorts of areas and side areas with little upgrades, that’s a big part of [34:56.640 –> 35:04.400] the gameplay, I think, looking around, finding these little upgrades which give you increased [35:05.120 –> 35:14.080] glider time or gives you more Naruto running, and things like that. Oh, and most importantly, [35:14.080 –> 35:20.000] you get different outfits for Smooshy, you get different mushroom hats, one of the biggest ones, [35:22.000 –> 35:28.880] and nothing feels like Koroks from Breath of the Wild where there’s just too many and all over the [35:28.880 –> 35:36.640] place. Again, all thoughtfully laid out and just enough where I didn’t get tired of any upgrade or [35:36.640 –> 35:43.040] felt like there wasn’t enough of one or the other. Yeah, and there’s lots of little challenges, [35:43.040 –> 35:48.480] right, and I think that’s one of the things that this game does really well, is sometimes it’ll be [35:48.480 –> 35:52.720] a platforming challenge or a challenge related to using your glider, or there are just enough [35:52.720 –> 36:00.320] challenges about exploring the world that you’re in, or you need to go and find an object [36:00.320 –> 36:05.360] and bring it back. There’s just enough… each of the puzzles feels distinct enough [36:06.800 –> 36:13.200] while continuing to build off the formula that the game establishes, and it’s only six hours, [36:13.200 –> 36:17.920] right, so it’s not like they had to stretch tons of content out of the relatively limited [36:17.920 –> 36:22.080] skill set of the game, but it feels like, you know, it just builds really well, it utilizes [36:22.080 –> 36:26.080] the things that it does, and there’s enough variety in each of the challenges, so you’re not just doing [36:26.080 –> 36:30.320] the same thing in a different location, and it’s slightly harder because you’re slightly later in [36:30.320 –> 36:42.160] the game. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and this game very, you know, very, like, I feel the word cozy [36:42.160 –> 36:48.960] is almost overused in this genre, it gets a lot of push, but this game I think really captures [36:48.960 –> 36:56.880] it well, and it doesn’t, it very explicitly, even in character, mentions, like, you don’t have to be, [36:56.880 –> 37:02.160] it doesn’t have, things don’t have to be super hard or tough, and they will scale down the [37:02.160 –> 37:05.760] challenges if you want, they’ll give you options for that, and it doesn’t push you to do these [37:05.760 –> 37:11.680] really difficult challenges or anything, and it’s in a very non-condescending way, [37:14.000 –> 37:18.080] I really like that, you know, I didn’t use them myself, but the options were there and that was [37:18.080 –> 37:23.360] nice to see. Yeah, and I think one of my favorite things, right, so this game just has such a [37:23.360 –> 37:27.840] positive tone, so, like, the character of Smooshy is great in that even the characters that he [37:27.840 –> 37:33.680] encounters that can be slightly antagonistic, he always approaches them with, like, you know, real [37:33.680 –> 37:42.080] kindness and, you know, and or fear, yeah, yeah, and it often sort of, you know, turns them round [37:42.080 –> 37:46.320] and makes them make some dice, and there’s, like, a few sort of challenge levels where [37:48.800 –> 37:53.040] you have to do, you know, a version of something and then a slightly harder version of that thing, [37:53.040 –> 37:56.560] and then an even harder version of that thing that no one has ever done before, and, like, [37:56.560 –> 38:00.160] the characters are always so stoked that you could complete this thing that no one’s ever completed [38:00.160 –> 38:03.920] before. I don’t know if it’s particularly difficult, but it doesn’t make it feel any [38:03.920 –> 38:08.560] less satisfying to kind of have done it and to have, you know, that sort of reaction. I thought [38:08.560 –> 38:12.160] that was just, like, I don’t know, there’s something about it that felt really genuine [38:12.160 –> 38:17.200] in kind of a goofy way but not a condescending way, which I really enjoyed. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. [38:18.160 –> 38:30.000] Yeah, 100%. Well, I’m trying to think, you know, there’s not much to spoil in this game, [38:30.720 –> 38:35.840] but I do want to talk about the last area, which is probably the most spoilery, [38:35.840 –> 38:41.600] or, you know what, yeah, yeah, this, all right, I’m putting the warning here that from here on [38:41.600 –> 38:45.600] we’re going to talk about whatever and get into maybe more specific things we enjoyed. [38:45.600 –> 38:49.840] And just before, like, I guess just before anyone sort of fast forwards, I, from a, you know, [38:50.560 –> 38:54.640] my take is that a huge part of the sort of spoilers of this game are kind of the specifics [38:54.640 –> 38:58.320] around some of the puzzles and how it plays and some of those sorts of things, so, like, [38:58.320 –> 39:03.360] I would highly recommend going and playing the game, but, yeah, I’m kind of keen, because we’ve [39:03.360 –> 39:08.240] kind of been dancing around some of the specific, you know, puzzles or things that we enjoy because [39:08.240 –> 39:12.160] half the fun of this game is sort of coming across those things and finding them, so, [39:12.160 –> 39:22.160] yeah, yeah, absolutely. Let’s go full spoils. I mean, for me, the big spoils is the Cappy [39:22.160 –> 39:28.560] Bearers somehow make an appearance in this game, too. I didn’t expect it, but you can ride and, [39:28.560 –> 39:33.440] you can ride a Cappy Bearer, and that’s really well done. I like that Cappy, those three, [39:33.440 –> 39:38.240] there’s three Cappy Bearers. I like them all. That was a fun segment. The Cappy Bearers are [39:38.240 –> 39:43.120] super fun and super silly, and because I think I knew, it was, I think it was in the trailer that [39:43.120 –> 39:47.600] Cappy Bearer was going to be in the game, and I think it was even revealed that you ride the [39:47.600 –> 39:51.600] Cappy Bearer to get home, but I was expecting that to just be the challenge for the level was, like, [39:52.160 –> 39:56.960] you need to make the Cappy Bearer your friend so he takes you home, which in theory it was, [39:56.960 –> 40:01.360] but what I wasn’t expecting is to ride the Cappy Bearer around that level and for that to be the [40:01.360 –> 40:07.520] way that that level was designed. That was thoroughly enjoyable. It’s so cool. It’s so, [40:07.520 –> 40:16.720] yeah, it was great. Here comes your boat. Actually, the water part in general, like, [40:16.720 –> 40:20.720] you can, you get the ability to dive halfway through, and that’s really cool. The water, [40:21.280 –> 40:24.560] everything looks really pretty, right, and I really liked how they designed the water area [40:24.560 –> 40:30.880] specifically. Yeah, I agree. I think the water area was great. Yeah, the water feels like, [40:32.160 –> 40:39.360] like the freshwater lake pond area, lots of roots and things down there. That was, [40:40.240 –> 40:46.880] yeah, that whole last area with the pond was really fun. And I really enjoyed the relationship [40:46.880 –> 40:51.280] between the Cappy Bearers, so the, you know, the relationship being, you know, the older sibling [40:51.280 –> 40:55.280] who’s kind of annoyed his younger siblings, and now they’re not going to be his friends. And [40:55.280 –> 40:59.920] I think the, like, the younger brother one in particular, where the younger brother was annoyed [40:59.920 –> 41:04.480] because the older brother didn’t want to go on a picnic with him, despite the fact that he had no [41:04.480 –> 41:08.720] food for the picnic and no real plan, it was just a thing he wanted to do, was so funny. [41:09.120 –> 41:15.680] I mean, he’s wearing a bucket, that’s a good one from the start, just [41:16.720 –> 41:20.960] good old bucket Cappy Bear, and Chunky, his little new mushroom friend. [41:25.520 –> 41:29.520] How long have you been down here? Sorry, you just reminded me of Chunky being stuck in the hole, [41:29.520 –> 41:32.560] and how, like, over it he is, and he’s been the