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Frank, Ash, and Brandon begin an endless and inescapable descent into our listener-submitted Question Hole, and in the process learn to run an inn, make Ash crack up at Metafore ReFantazio again, and mention the same four guys that get mentioned every episode. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman. Watch episodes with full video on YouTube Discuss this episode in the Insert Credit Forums SHOW NOTES: The Price is Right Press Your Luck Ep. 385 - David Uncage 1: What are your all-time favorite single performances on a game soundtrack? (02:52) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge Faith No More Wu-Tang Clan Mega Ran Simple and Clean Kingdom Hearts Quake Nine Inch Nails Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Crazy Taxi Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors Debbie Harry Nick Cave Snake Eater Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 2: Whywhy asks, what is the Megalopolis (2024) of video games? (04:40) Megalopolis (2024) Death Stranding The Last of Us Part II Shenmue III 3: Spencer asks, what are the trademarks of your favorite game designer's styles? (05:33) Quentin Tarantino's foot fetish FoxyLand DEcapAttack Magical Hat no Buttobi Turbo! Daibōken David Cage Hidetaki Miyazaki 4: Seth asks, how would you develop a game that portrays publishers negatively? (06:30) 404 Game RE: SET -Error Game Reset- Sega Yoko Taro Nintendo Sony Neil Druckman Konami Castlevania series Bomberman series Devolver Digital ActivisionBlizzard Bobby Kotick Duty Calls Bulletstorm 5: Fruinblacksberk asks, if you could bring one person in the video game industry back to life who died a premature death, who would it be? (08:49) Gunpei Yokoi Yuji Naka Satoru Iwata 6: Chopemon asks, what game should get a remaster with a good/dumb name? (09:40) Red Faction: Guerrilla - Re-Mars-tered Lollipop Chainsaw: RePop Darksiders: Warmastered Edition Final Fantasy series Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Frank Sinatra Blaster Master Blaster 7: Riley asks, who is the tallest character in video games? (10:37) Bayonetta series Jubileus the Creator God King of All Cosmos Katamari Damacy 8: Gaagaagiins asks, have we already seen the service game with the shortest lifespan, and the service game with the longest lifespan? (11:32) Concord New Game Announces Release Date And Also Shutdown Date In Same Tweet EverQuest Ultima Online World of WarCraft RuneScape MUD 9: LeFish asks, which video games are most likely or best suited to a Broadway musical adaptation? (12:48) Yakuza series 10: BreadyToDie asks, has a video game ever affected your real life ideological bent? (13:18) BioShock Infinite Ken Levine 11: Is Officer Zuffle from Ooblets copaganda? (14:14) Ooblets Officer Zuffle 12: XCT asks, what are some of the panel's favorite video game sequels in a different genre? (14:44) Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings Wild Arms XF R-Type Tactics series James Pond series Persona 5 Strikers Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light 13: Cheapy asks, who drives the coolest motorcycle in video games? (16:59) Wario Moo Moo Cloud Strife Shadow the Hedgehog 14: Gaagaagiins asks, what are some of the best games you can play for $0? (17:46) Doom Sega Genesis NoIntro Fullset Ep. 224 - Video Game History Pope Snake 15: Anatoliu asks, what game would you send to all of Nintendo Power's 1990 subscribers? (19:01) Dragon Quest Nintendo Power Bonk's Revenge TurboGrafx-16 16: connorr asks, who is the PS3 of human beings? (20:17) PlayStation 3 Giant Enemy Crabs Peter Molyneux Hideo Kojima Populous 17: Kiko B asks, what aspect of game design is most commonly misunderstood? (21:55) Yellow Paint Is Once Again Breaking People's Brains Green Lantern South of Midnight 18: Suda 68.999 asks, what two or more games would best compliment each other if stitched together with mods? (24:27) Crusader Kings III Mount & Blade Mario Sonic Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series Super Mario Bros. Kid Icarus Melty Blood Touhou Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Sonic & Knuckles 19: Kyle asks, how would you implement skateboarding in modern games? (26:03) Spyro: Year of the Dragon Metroid Prime Yakuza series Dead2y Premonition: A Blessing in Disguise Metaphor: ReFantazio 20: Cole asks, which video game sounds could also serve as great text message tones? (27:42) Metal Gear Solid “!“ Panzer Dragoon Sonic the Hedgehog Super Mario World David Hayter 21: SpencerGifs asks, if a game has multiple versions, how do you decide which to play? (29:14) Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age 22: Classic Anonymous asks, who is the William Randolph Hearst of video games? (30:09) William Randolph Hearst Citizen Kane (1941) 23: Dark Saikan asks, do you know what Neal Stephenson's blockchain thing is? (31:24) Neal Stephenson Blockchain 24: Rice9 asks, do good critics make good designers? (32:16) 25: Camillo asks, what is the cane from Citizen Kane of video games? (34:21) Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Jeff Gerstmann 26: Propellher asks, what is the most dad game of all time? (34:52) God of War The Last of Us Dr. Mario Octodad Star Wars games 27: What's the most daddy game of all time? (36:38) Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator 28: Chopemon asks, what is your Gamer forum signature? (36:53) Gackt Malice Mizer Dovahkin 29: SpencerGifs asks, what should a Nintendo baby play to grow out of Nintendo babydom? (38:16) NieR: Automata Knuckles' Chaotix Russian roulette 30: Yeso asks, what is the tucking in your shirt of video games? (39:18) 31: LeFish asks, who is the Sister Rosetta Tharpe of video games? (41:04) Sister Rosetta Tharpe Lara Croft Grace Walker Deborah Wilson Coleco Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle Lawrence Schick Baldur's Gate III Sega Genesis 32: Bebedor asks, what steps are you taking to get John Carpenter on the show? (44:34) John Carpenter The Thing (1982) John Carter of Mars Fantastic Four Ghosts of Mars (2001) 33: Yuji asks, what video game will still be played 5,000 years from now? (45:35) Backgammon Nintendo Entertainment System Pong Can You Pet The Dog? 34: SpencerGifs asks, how do the video game generations break down if you go by design innovation? (47:08) Atari Xbox 360 G4 35: ASmallRabbite asks, what is the most finally making it to an inn with 1hp and no potions moment in your real life? (48:32) Honda Prelude Pontiac Tempest 36: Nemoid asks, how can public institutions like libraries foster positive relationships with game enthusiasts? (51:38) Half-Price Books Wii PlayStation Classic Sega Genesis Mini TurboGrafx-16 Mini Nintendo Classic Mini Rock Band 37: Spencer asks, why did so many companies throw their hat in the console ring in the fifth generation? (55:07) Game console generations, according to Wikipedia 3DO CD-i Sega Saturn PlayStation PlayStation 2 Dreamcast Portland Retro Gaming Expo Funk Soul Brother PC-FX Steam Box VCR 38: Gaagaagiins asks, what is the best and worst default jump button? (58:44) The Godfather the Game God of War III 39: Anonymous asks, what is the Ween of video games? (01:01:31) Ween League of Legends 40: Gruntin' Gary asks, in what ways have video games become more and less accessible over the years? (01:02:56) 41: RepelHer asks, does the panel just generally never cry, or is there something about video games specifically? (01:04:24) Mother 3 Demonschool Annie Lee's Blue Monday New Order's Blue Monday Annie Lee's Sixty Pounds 42: Spencer asks, is video game marketing different from other marketing? (01:08:20) Call of Duty series Ep. 384 - Keighleyme Pie, with Mike Drucker Golden Sun Commercial The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 43: SecretBilly asks, what niche types of game player would historical figures have been? (01:12:13) Issac Newton Half-Life 2 Wolfgang Mozart Leonardo da Vinci Tetris: the Grand Master The Talos Principle Oscar Wilde Harry Houdini Teddy Roosevelt Dragon Age: Inquisition Iron Bull Marie Curie Overcooked! F. Scott Fitzgerald Martin Luther King Jr. Mafia III Recommendations and Outro (01:14:33): Brandon: Speed Racer (2008), The Golden Buddha (1966) or From Beijing with Love (1994), Flying Saucer Video Frank: watch two things with an actor at the same time Ash: The Boondocks, send Ash recommendations for Chinese historical harem dramas This week's Insert Credit Show is brought to you by patrons like you. Thank you. Subscribe: RSS, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more!
Frank, Ash, and Brandon begin an endless and inescapable descent into our listener-submitted Question Hole, and in the process learn to run an inn, make Ash crack up at Metafore ReFantazio again, and mention the same four guys that get mentioned every episode. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman. Watch episodes with full video on YouTube Discuss this episode in the Insert Credit Forums SHOW NOTES: The Price is Right Press Your Luck Ep. 385 - David Uncage 1: What are your all-time favorite single performances on a game soundtrack? (02:52) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge Faith No More Wu-Tang Clan Mega Ran Simple and Clean Kingdom Hearts Quake Nine Inch Nails Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Crazy Taxi Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors Debbie Harry Nick Cave Snake Eater Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 2: Whywhy asks, what is the Megalopolis (2024) of video games? (04:40) Megalopolis (2024) Death Stranding The Last of Us Part II Shenmue III 3: Spencer asks, what are the trademarks of your favorite game designer's styles? (05:33) Quentin Tarantino's foot fetish FoxyLand DEcapAttack Magical Hat no Buttobi Turbo! Daibōken David Cage Hidetaki Miyazaki 4: Seth asks, how would you develop a game that portrays publishers negatively? (06:30) 404 Game RE: SET -Error Game Reset- Sega Yoko Taro Nintendo Sony Neil Druckman Konami Castlevania series Bomberman series Devolver Digital ActivisionBlizzard Bobby Kotick Duty Calls Bulletstorm 5: Fruinblacksberk asks, if you could bring one person in the video game industry back to life who died a premature death, who would it be? (08:49) Gunpei Yokoi Yuji Naka Satoru Iwata 6: Chopemon asks, what game should get a remaster with a good/dumb name? (09:40) Red Faction: Guerrilla - Re-Mars-tered Lollipop Chainsaw: RePop Darksiders: Warmastered Edition Final Fantasy series Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Frank Sinatra Blaster Master Blaster 7: Riley asks, who is the tallest character in video games? (10:37) Bayonetta series Jubileus the Creator God King of All Cosmos Katamari Damacy 8: Gaagaagiins asks, have we already seen the service game with the shortest lifespan, and the service game with the longest lifespan? (11:32) Concord New Game Announces Release Date And Also Shutdown Date In Same Tweet EverQuest Ultima Online World of WarCraft RuneScape MUD 9: LeFish asks, which video games are most likely or best suited to a Broadway musical adaptation? (12:48) Yakuza series 10: BreadyToDie asks, has a video game ever affected your real life ideological bent? (13:18) BioShock Infinite Ken Levine 11: Is Officer Zuffle from Ooblets copaganda? (14:14) Ooblets Officer Zuffle 12: XCT asks, what are some of the panel's favorite video game sequels in a different genre? (14:44) Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings Wild Arms XF R-Type Tactics series James Pond series Persona 5 Strikers Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light 13: Cheapy asks, who drives the coolest motorcycle in video games? (16:59) Wario Moo Moo Cloud Strife Shadow the Hedgehog 14: Gaagaagiins asks, what are some of the best games you can play for $0? (17:46) Doom Sega Genesis NoIntro Fullset Ep. 224 - Video Game History Pope Snake 15: Anatoliu asks, what game would you send to all of Nintendo Power's 1990 subscribers? (19:01) Dragon Quest Nintendo Power Bonk's Revenge TurboGrafx-16 16: connorr asks, who is the PS3 of human beings? (20:17) PlayStation 3 Giant Enemy Crabs Peter Molyneux Hideo Kojima Populous 17: Kiko B asks, what aspect of game design is most commonly misunderstood? (21:55) Yellow Paint Is Once Again Breaking People's Brains Green Lantern South of Midnight 18: Suda 68.999 asks, what two or more games would best compliment each other if stitched together with mods? (24:27) Crusader Kings III Mount & Blade Mario Sonic Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series Super Mario Bros. Kid Icarus Melty Blood Touhou Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Sonic & Knuckles 19: Kyle asks, how would you implement skateboarding in modern games? (26:03) Spyro: Year of the Dragon Metroid Prime Yakuza series Dead2y Premonition: A Blessing in Disguise Metaphor: ReFantazio 20: Cole asks, which video game sounds could also serve as great text message tones? (27:42) Metal Gear Solid “!“ Panzer Dragoon Sonic the Hedgehog Super Mario World David Hayter 21: SpencerGifs asks, if a game has multiple versions, how do you decide which to play? (29:14) Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age 22: Classic Anonymous asks, who is the William Randolph Hearst of video games? (30:09) William Randolph Hearst Citizen Kane (1941) 23: Dark Saikan asks, do you know what Neal Stephenson's blockchain thing is? (31:24) Neal Stephenson Blockchain 24: Rice9 asks, do good critics make good designers? (32:16) 25: Camillo asks, what is the cane from Citizen Kane of video games? (34:21) Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Jeff Gerstmann 26: Propellher asks, what is the most dad game of all time? (34:52) God of War The Last of Us Dr. Mario Octodad Star Wars games 27: What's the most daddy game of all time? (36:38) Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator 28: Chopemon asks, what is your Gamer forum signature? (36:53) Gackt Malice Mizer Dovahkin 29: SpencerGifs asks, what should a Nintendo baby play to grow out of Nintendo babydom? (38:16) NieR: Automata Knuckles' Chaotix Russian roulette 30: Yeso asks, what is the tucking in your shirt of video games? (39:18) 31: LeFish asks, who is the Sister Rosetta Tharpe of video games? (41:04) Sister Rosetta Tharpe Lara Croft Grace Walker Deborah Wilson Coleco Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle Lawrence Schick Baldur's Gate III Sega Genesis 32: Bebedor asks, what steps are you taking to get John Carpenter on the show? (44:34) John Carpenter The Thing (1982) John Carter of Mars Fantastic Four Ghosts of Mars (2001) 33: Yuji asks, what video game will still be played 5,000 years from now? (45:35) Backgammon Nintendo Entertainment System Pong Can You Pet The Dog? 34: SpencerGifs asks, how do the video game generations break down if you go by design innovation? (47:08) Atari Xbox 360 G4 35: ASmallRabbite asks, what is the most finally making it to an inn with 1hp and no potions moment in your real life? (48:32) Honda Prelude Pontiac Tempest 36: Nemoid asks, how can public institutions like libraries foster positive relationships with game enthusiasts? (51:38) Half-Price Books Wii PlayStation Classic Sega Genesis Mini TurboGrafx-16 Mini Nintendo Classic Mini Rock Band 37: Spencer asks, why did so many companies throw their hat in the console ring in the fifth generation? (55:07) Game console generations, according to Wikipedia 3DO CD-i Sega Saturn PlayStation PlayStation 2 Dreamcast Portland Retro Gaming Expo Funk Soul Brother PC-FX Steam Box VCR 38: Gaagaagiins asks, what is the best and worst default jump button? (58:44) The Godfather the Game God of War III 39: Anonymous asks, what is the Ween of video games? (01:01:31) Ween League of Legends 40: Gruntin' Gary asks, in what ways have video games become more and less accessible over the years? (01:02:56) 41: RepelHer asks, does the panel just generally never cry, or is there something about video games specifically? (01:04:24) Mother 3 Demonschool Annie Lee's Blue Monday New Order's Blue Monday Annie Lee's Sixty Pounds 42: Spencer asks, is video game marketing different from other marketing? (01:08:20) Call of Duty series Ep. 384 - Keighleyme Pie, with Mike Drucker Golden Sun Commercial The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 43: SecretBilly asks, what niche types of game player would historical figures have been? (01:12:13) Issac Newton Half-Life 2 Wolfgang Mozart Leonardo da Vinci Tetris: the Grand Master The Talos Principle Oscar Wilde Harry Houdini Teddy Roosevelt Dragon Age: Inquisition Iron Bull Marie Curie Overcooked! F. Scott Fitzgerald Martin Luther King Jr. Mafia III Recommendations and Outro (01:14:33): Brandon: Speed Racer (2008), The Golden Buddha (1966) or From Beijing with Love (1994), Flying Saucer Video Frank: watch two things with an actor at the same time Ash: The Boondocks, send Ash recommendations for Chinese historical harem dramas This week's Insert Credit Show is brought to you by patrons like you. Thank you. Subscribe: RSS, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more!
This week the SuperPod Boiz are joined by Kate and Emily of No Small Games to discuss some influential indie games that played a big part in how they look at indie games today and how they helped to shape their gaming tastes. We also abolish horiscopes in favor of Ooblets. All hail Ooblets. CREDITS Aaron
Sakes alive, we're 35, and in this episode we've been inspired by the recent release of Wanderstop to turn our attention to the nebulous topic of cosy games. Is "cosy" a genre? A theme? A vibe? Are all cosy games broadly the same, or is it just a blanket term that can refer to any game without a central combat mechanic? Is "cosy" even still a valid classification now that we've moved so far past all major new titles being, essentially, Doom with a different paint job? All these questions and more will be debated enthusiastically by the Indieventure trio, even if we entirely lack the ability to form a consensus that provides you with definitive answers. What we can manage, however, is to rattle off a bunch of cosy game recommendations, drawing from personal favourites and cosy classics (and indeed both) to come up with a list that encompasses indie titles as disparate as Stardew Valley (naturally), Chicory: A Colorful Tale, Dorfromantik, Dungeons of Hinterberg, the Frog Detective trilogy, House Flipper 2, Lil' Gator Game, Ooblets, PowerWash Simulator, Proteus, Tangle Tower, Tiny Life, TOEM, Wilmot Works It Out, and Frostpunk (no, really!). We also have a crack at an informal group review of Wanderstop, which has elicited an impressive array of thoughts and opinions among a trio of people who normally tend to kind of agree on most things. Who thought what? You'll have to listen to find out, but I can reveal it's a good chat. (And if you haven't yet listened to the recent Indieventure Extra episode where Liam interviews creators Davey Wreden and Karla Zimonja, here's the link to that!) Finally, as always, we end with our current hyperfixations. Liam is still absolutely caning through an essential catalogue of new and recent game releases, and has this time turned his attention to Monster Hunter Wilds, the latest in Capcom's long-running series about invading the habitats of majestic creatures and turning their hides into some fancy pants. Rebecca is trying to live by Wanderstop's example and be kinder to herself, which mainly involves taking a lot of naps at the moment, but she also throws in a couple of bonus recommendations for anti-burnout narratives in the form of Travis Baldree's high fantasy coffee shop novel Legends & Lattes, and of course the evergreen Pokémon Concierge miniseries. And Rachel's circled back to Mindhack, a dystopian visual novel about neutralising enemies of the state with beautiful electronic flowers that painfully rewire their dissident thoughts. You might remember this one from a couple of years ago, and it's good to see it still steadily making its way through early access, and now including four chapters of a planned eight-slash-nine. Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too!
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
Al and Micah talk about Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:09: What Have We Been Up To 00:12:01: Game News 00:39:50: New Games 01:15:05: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home 02:18:35: Outro Links Let’s Build a Zoo “Monstrous Structures” Update Cat Cafe Manager 2 Kickstarter Super Zoo Story Kickstarter Wylde Flowers “Magical Creatures” Update BokuMono: Life and Love Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Boardgame My Time at Evershine Dreamland Farm Danchi Days Amber Isle Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home on Apple Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home on Android Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:33) Al: My name is Al, and we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games. (0:00:34) Micah: And I’m Micah (0:00:39) Al: Woo. (0:00:40) Micah: Yay (0:00:40) Al: So excited. (0:00:42) Micah: It’s still as much as I have heard you say cart cottagecore games, it’s still always those (0:00:50) Al: I keep like bouncing between like should it be cottagecore should it be farming (0:00:56) Al: it’s like I was running something over in my head today I was like games that (0:01:01) Al: quite often have a farming component but not always and are sometimes considered (0:01:05) Al: cozy but not always like we’d (0:01:06) Micah: I think it’s I think for me it’s because every time you have me on we are (0:01:15) Micah: talking about farming games specifically like you know the core the core farming (0:01:17) Al: Yeah, you have you have a niche. (0:01:20) Al: Ah. (laughs) (0:01:23) Micah: game groups the harvest moons the story of season (0:01:29) Al: Exactly. I mean, well, the thing is, right, most people don’t want to spend a lot of time (0:01:35) Al: on a lot of those games. I just want to go back to stardew. And this is the cheapest (0:01:37) Micah: understandable. I am more than happy to, uh, to bite the bullet for everybody else to be able to (0:01:46) Micah: experience, uh, you know. (0:01:49) Al: Harvest Moon game we’ve paid for in quite a long time. So, you know. OK, well, we’ll (0:01:52) Micah: Ah! Sure. Yeah, sure. (0:01:55) Al: get to that. So, before we get to that, we have… (0:01:59) Al: News. We’ve got a bunch of news to talk about. (0:02:03) Al: Oh yeah, I didn’t actually say… We’re going to talk about the new Harvest Moon game. (0:02:06) Al: Harvest Moon’s home to be home. (0:02:08) Al: But we’ve got news before that. (0:02:10) Al: First of all, Maika, what have you been up to? (0:02:12) Micah: I have been very busy. I have been (0:02:17) Micah: Very busy doing a few things I have work has been (0:02:22) Micah: Really crazy, and I I love that like I love when I’m busy, so it’s not a complaint. You know I love when I’m my time is (0:02:30) Micah: Caught up and preoccupied so I it’s it’s great, but it has not left me a lot of time for games (0:02:38) Micah: so (0:02:40) Micah: Primarily what I have been playing. (0:02:42) Micah: I have some personal projects that I’ve been working on too that are not work-related, (0:03:12) Micah: taking up a lot of time, which is great, and I’m really happy about that. (0:03:17) Micah: There is one where I have had some time to be able to play some older Pokémon games, (0:03:25) Micah: and I can’t really say why yet, but I have been enjoying that. (0:03:28) Al: I’m intrigued. I wasn’t intrigued until he said you can’t say why. (0:03:34) Micah: It is a big project that I’ve been working on for months now, and it is becoming a… (0:03:42) Micah: It’s one of those projects where you start and you’re like, “This is a really small, (0:03:46) Micah: fun idea,” and then it just grows over time, and you’re like, “This is getting really (0:03:49) Micah: out of hand, and I don’t know how I’m going to be able to get a hold of this.” (0:03:53) Micah: But it’s been really fun, and it has allowed me some time to do work and stay busy, but (0:03:58) Micah: also play games, play some games. (0:04:01) Micah: But primarily it’s been Pokémon, is what I’ve been playing. (0:04:04) Micah: I did download, I bought and downloaded Fields of Mistria. (0:04:09) Micah: I have not played it yet. (0:04:10) Micah: I’m very excited. (0:04:12) Micah: But I haven’t had a chance to touch it yet. (0:04:14) Al: I haven’t bought that one yet, that’s on my list of “I will probably pay this at some point, maybe.” (0:04:18) Micah: Yeah, yeah. (0:04:20) Micah: I just had seen, you know, the the most buzz around a farming (0:04:26) Micah: sim since I think maybe Stardew in like communities that were (0:04:32) Micah: specifically excited about like Stardew and you know that that (0:04:39) Micah: type of farming sim. (0:04:40) Micah: So I that. (0:04:42) Micah: Intrigued enough to be like, okay, if this is if people are like, you know, recognizing (0:04:47) Micah: it as a not a like competitor or anything or like the new Stardew or anything like that. (0:04:52) Micah: But if there’s enough interest there, then maybe it’s something to, to look into. (0:04:56) Micah: So, and I like the art style. (0:04:58) Micah: I like the pixel art and stuff. (0:04:59) Micah: So it’s a little, we’ll see have yet to play it. (0:05:02) Al: So, other than obviously Harvest Moon Home, Sweet Home, I have been trying to get back (0:05:02) Micah: So I can’t really say anything about it. (0:05:05) Micah: What about you? (0:05:06) Micah: What have you been up to? (0:05:13) Al: into Coral Island after their 1.1 update. Sometimes when you go back to a game, it takes (0:05:20) Al: a while to get yourself back into the zone. I spent over a month, I spent 100 hours in (0:05:29) Al: in Carl Island. (0:05:30) Al: So I’m not back at– (0:05:32) Al: at that point yet, but we’ll see. (0:05:34) Al: I mean that in and of itself might– (0:05:36) Al: will be interesting to talk about, you know, (0:05:38) Al: when we get to that, if I– if I don’t end up. (0:05:40) Al: But– (0:05:41) Micah: world’s biggest coral island fan. (0:05:42) Al: because– (0:05:45) Micah: As far as I know, at least he are. (0:05:48) Al: I like it! It’s a really fun game. (0:05:50) Al: But I think it’s interesting because if I– (0:05:52) Al: if I don’t manage to push myself back into it, (0:05:54) Al: that says something. (0:05:56) Al: Because I’ve managed to– I’ve managed to get obsessed (0:05:58) Al: about Stardew every single time I’ve gone back to it. (0:06:00) Al: to it. And (0:06:02) Al: that, you know, so if I can’t that says something, you know, like I started a new (0:06:07) Al: save for 1.6 when it came out and got perfection for the first time on it. So like, you know, (0:06:14) Micah: Oh, nice. That’s awesome. (0:06:15) Al: that’s how obsessed I got over it last time. So we’ll see. We’ll see. (0:06:17) Micah: Yeah. (0:06:19) Micah: I love that, though. I love when you… (0:06:22) Micah: That feeling of, like, finding a game that lets you do that, like, lets you obsess over it in that way. (0:06:28) Al: Yeah. (0:06:30) Al: I don’t know why does it happen though. (0:06:32) Al: Why do I keep coming back to stardew and keep playing it? (0:06:35) Micah: It’s your comfort game you know same reason why probably I’ve watched I don’t know the office (0:06:43) Micah: 18,000 times over not because it’s like incredible really and (0:06:48) Micah: Not because you know the a lot of the jokes are especially early on are not like questionable (0:06:52) Al: Heh. (0:06:54) Al: Yeah. (0:06:54) Micah: Especially today, but just cuz it’s Scott like you know (0:06:59) Micah: I don’t I don’t have to I don’t gotta think too hard about it. I just know what it is (0:07:05) Micah: It’s it becomes a comfort thing (0:07:08) Al: Fair. (0:07:08) Micah: Stardew Stardew Valley is your the office. I don’t let’s let’s let’s not use that let’s better on that comparison (0:07:14) Micah: I’m that I apologize that me. I don’t know why that made me think of it, but (0:07:18) Micah: I have been looking (0:07:21) Micah: looking at getting (0:07:23) Micah: back into (0:07:24) Micah: Pocket camp too recently cuz I kind of want to see it off (0:07:26) Al: Oh, good timing. Are you… are you gonna buy the offline version? (0:07:29) Micah: You know I’d put a lot of time into it (0:07:33) Micah: and money (0:07:36) Micah: I (0:07:37) Micah: Don’t probably here and there. I think part of it is that I just there were so many events that I (0:07:43) Micah: Didn’t feel like I could keep up with it as much. I will say (0:07:49) Micah: My wife Becky has is devastated. She is I (0:07:53) Micah: Think probably the biggest Animal Crossing fan (0:07:56) Micah: I I know like by far and I would have said years ago. I would have said that’s me (0:08:02) Micah: I am the biggest Animal Crossing fan that I know. (0:08:05) Micah: But that has, she has since taken that crown. (0:08:08) Micah: She has never stopped playing New Horizons. (0:08:12) Micah: She, she played New Leaf a ton. (0:08:14) Micah: She played through, you know, all of the, the previous (0:08:16) Micah: Harvest Moon’s, or Harvest Moon’s god. (0:08:19) Micah: I’m already in Harvest Moon Brain. (0:08:21) Micah: Uh, she’s played through the previous Animal Crossings, but (0:08:27) Micah: she has been, uh, nonstop playing New Horizons. (0:08:32) Micah: And I believe she’s literally, it’s, it’s Sunday. (0:08:35) Micah: So, you know, it’s her call, she calls her Goblin Day. (0:08:39) Micah: She’s literally out there playing New Horizons right now. (0:08:42) Micah: But in addition to that, she has never stopped playing Pocket Camp. (0:08:46) Micah: She has like thousands of hours, I would guess, in Pocket Camp. (0:08:53) Micah: And there are people that she knows only through Pocket Camp that (0:09:01) Micah: she’s like sad that it’s closing because she doesn’t know these (0:09:05) Micah: things outside of it. (0:09:05) Micah: Like she’s got, you know, hundreds of like friendship interactions (0:09:10) Micah: where they trade gifts or they trade, you know, items or whatever (0:09:13) Micah: in the game, but she doesn’t know who these people actually are. (0:09:16) Micah: So like when the game shuts down, that’s just going to go away, which (0:09:16) Al: Yeah. Well, and being a Nintendo game, it’s not going to have, like, free text, (0:09:20) Micah: is like an incredibly sad thing. (0:09:21) Micah: But like, how do you resolve that? (0:09:23) Micah: You know, like, what do you, right? (0:09:28) Al: so you wouldn’t have a way to be able to save that. Yeah. (0:09:28) Micah: There’s no social aspect to it. (0:09:31) Micah: Like broader social aspect to it that you can, you know, uh, (0:09:36) Micah: converse with the people outside of outside for good reason, right? (0:09:39) Micah: Like for kids games, but, but also in situations like this, it’s just (0:09:44) Micah: kind of, kind of weird and sad and like an interesting thing, but yeah. (0:09:48) Micah: So I, that has, has like touched me enough that I’m like, I kind of just (0:09:54) Micah: want to go back and see it off and, you know, be there when it shuts down (0:09:58) Micah: and stuff, because I’ve put so much time and unfortunately money into it. (0:10:02) Micah: so… (0:10:02) Al: Yeah, fair enough. Speaking of mobile games, I have gotten back into Marvel Snap quite (0:10:03) Micah: Bye. (0:10:06) Micah: So that’s next on the roster. (0:10:14) Micah: Oh, okay. (0:10:16) Al: a lot as well, like I have put so much time into it the last couple of months that I’m (0:10:26) Al: not quite at the top rank this season, but I’m close, and if I hit it, it’ll… (0:10:32) Al: be the first time I’ve hit it ever. So yeah, big. That’s big. 100. Or, oh, what’s the 100? (0:10:38) Micah: what is the top rank in marvel snap what’s the like the title for oh okay it’s not like a okay (0:10:43) Al: Platinum, I think. I don’t really pay attention to the names, I just pay attention to the number, (0:10:48) Al: right? Big number. Number go big. But I think it’s platinum. Oh no, it’s infinite. Infinite. (0:10:56) Micah: Oh, okay. All right (0:10:57) Al: So yeah, I’m at like 83 just now, so we’re… (0:11:01) Micah: Yeah, well I (0:11:04) Micah: Have heard nothing but good things about Marvel snap from those who play it, but I have never I’ve never (0:11:11) Al: Yeah, I find it really fun. I like its simplicity but also how complicated you can make it if (0:11:20) Micah: Mm-hmm sure (0:11:21) Al: you want to. Like I’ve got a deck that is like if I get the right cards basically unbeatable (0:11:29) Al: but you have to have a different way to win as well because you sometimes don’t get those (0:11:32) Micah: right yeah can I get those multiple win engines (0:11:34) Al: cards so it’s yeah, it’s fun. Exactly, exactly. (0:11:42) Al: It’s fun. I’m really enjoying it. They added a lot of stuff while I wasn’t playing it as well so (0:11:47) Al: trying to get back into that and being like oh they’ve got these alliances and leagues and all (0:11:54) Al: these cards that I don’t have because I hadn’t unlocked them etc etc but it’s good fun. Cool, (0:11:59) Micah: No, awesome (0:12:02) Al: so that’s what we’ve been up to. Now we’re going to talk about some news. First of all, (0:12:06) Al: Let’s build a zoo have announced a new update the (0:12:11) Al: structures update and this I mean it’s like there’s big balloons (0:12:21) Al: it’s interesting they call it a monsters monstrous structures I think it’s basically (0:12:26) Al: just because there are two massive balloons. (0:12:30) Micah: I do see, in the images, a giant warthog thing and a giant bear, but that’s the (0:12:37) Al: Exactly. There’s a lot of quality, well exactly, there’s a lot of quality of life improvements (0:12:40) Micah: extent of what I see. As far as monstrous goes, you know, (0:12:47) Al: as well, but like the name seems to be entirely hinging on those two balloons. Yeah, maybe. (0:12:54) Micah: Or just the concept that there’s a lot of stuff, you know, there’s like it’s a big update. Maybe I don’t know (0:13:01) Al: It’s a lot of little things, I think, right? Like you can now rename animals is the first (0:13:05) Al: thing in the patch notes, right? (0:13:07) Al: Like that’s not a mate, I mean, it’s fine, it’s good. (0:13:10) Al: Like I’m not saying it’s bad, but it’s not like this is a game changer. (0:13:10) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:13:14) Micah: Right, yeah. (0:13:16) Al: Yeah, it just, there’s lots of quality of life improvements. (0:13:19) Al: So if you’ve been playing, enjoy those updates. (0:13:22) Al: If you haven’t been playing because you couldn’t rename your animals, now you can. (0:13:26) Micah: or because there weren’t giant monster balloons. (0:13:31) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:13:32) Al: Next we have Cat Cafe Manager 2. (0:13:36) Al: big city bliss. (0:13:37) Al: The Kickstarter is now live. (0:13:39) Al: Micah, have you seen this game yet? (0:13:40) Micah: I have not. (0:13:41) Al: Had you seen the original Kat Kaffee manager? (0:13:44) Al: Kat Kaffee manager. (0:13:44) Micah: I have not. (0:13:46) Micah: I can’t say that. (0:13:47) Micah: I so I should what I should say is I have seen games that feel similar in that, you (0:13:56) Micah: know, I’ve been on the Switch eShop and there’s a lot of games that look similar, I guess. (0:14:03) Micah: But is this the the original? (0:14:06) Micah: Is this the OG cafe manager? (0:14:10) Al: a good question. That I don’t have the answer to. Yeah, it’s quite a big difference to the (0:14:11) Micah: I like the art for this much better than all the other stuff (0:14:21) Al: previous game. So the previous one came out in 2022. It’s not like it looked bad, right? (0:14:28) Al: But it’s different art style. I do prefer the newer one. It’s very, I guess, shiny Paper (0:14:39) Al: from REO. (0:14:40) Micah: Okay. Yeah. (0:14:40) Al: It’s how I would describe it. This one, right? I like the look of it. It’s interesting. So they (0:14:47) Al: seem to… I’ve noticed that they are planning on having like an actual story here in this one, (0:14:56) Al: because I think the previous one didn’t have that. So if you look at one of their updates on (0:15:00) Al: Kickstarter, they say “Cat Caffe Manager 1 had a nice but fairly straightforward storyline (0:15:06) Al: with the sequel, we’re excited to introduce more complex characters, mysteries and even (0:15:10) Al: somewhat of a villain. Well, yeah, there you go. Yeah, it’s in. I’m intrigued to see what (0:15:12) Micah: Oh a villain in my cat cafe? (0:15:18) Micah: I I there are a lot of things that that could mean and that scares me (0:15:24) Micah: We’re talking about like, you know adoptable animals i’m worried about who the villain is but (0:15:28) Al: happens. We’ll see. We’ll see. I’m excited to find out. (0:15:33) Micah: It’s really (0:15:35) Micah: It is a very cute art style though. I like it a lot. I do like that. Um (0:15:40) Micah: kind of flat 2D characters in a 3D space. (0:15:42) Micah: kind of thing. Obviously, you know, things like Snacko and stuff like that. Paper Mario, like you said. (0:15:48) Micah: I like that concept. (0:15:52) Micah: So, yeah, it looks really cool. (0:15:54) Al: it hasn’t hasn’t hit its goal yet but it’s going to let’s be honest it’s it’s (0:15:59) Al: 32,000 of 40,000 so it’s it’s it’s nearly there and it’s try (0:16:06) Micah: I should clarify too, when I had said, you know, I’ve seen games similar to this, I don’t mean art style gameplay, stuff like that, more just like the branding of it feels, you know, like it felt very, obviously cat cafe manager, it’s very straight to the point, you know, like, and I see a lot of like, I don’t know, whatever tycoon, whatever, you know, like, manager, whatever, it’s there’s so many of those that I just, I could have seen this and I wouldn’t (0:16:34) Al: So the first one does have an 84% steam rating, very positive with 1,500 reviews. So it’s (0:16:36) Micah: know, because I kind of, you know, (0:16:44) Micah: - Wow. (0:16:50) Al: obviously some people liked it, so that’s good. And the fact that they’ve successfully (0:16:55) Al: made a game before makes me much more encouraged about backing a Kickstarter. It’s not just (0:17:01) Al: one of these Skinner boxes that they’ve thrown together in a week and throw (0:17:04) Al: on the eShop, which happens so often. Yeah, it’s getting so much worse with that. (0:17:05) Micah: Right, God, the AI art, so much of it on there. (0:17:13) Micah: Yeah, they really gotta get a handle on that. (0:17:15) Micah: You know, nevermind. (0:17:17) Micah: I don’t wanna start to get riled up a little bit. (0:17:23) Micah: I’ll keep it brief. (0:17:24) Micah: Nintendo made a big deal about not having, you know, (0:17:26) Micah: shovelware on their systems like they did with the Wii. (0:17:29) Micah: And then they just instead opened up the eShop (0:17:32) Micah: to literally everything. (0:17:34) Al: Yeah, and it’s a bit of a balance, right? Because I think it’s important that we have (0:17:40) Al: open access to develop and share your games. But… (0:17:41) Micah: oh yeah for sure but like maybe some level of regulation like (0:17:48) Al: Well, this is the thing they do. It’s not like with Steam where it’s like you can literally (0:17:51) Al: just create it and launch it with no, like, oversight. On the Switch, you have to go through (0:17:56) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:17:57) Al: a process where they approve it. That’s what’s weird is, like, how are they approving all this (0:18:02) Al: nonsense like they’re not they’re clearly not (0:18:04) Al: approving it they’re just clicking the button they’re not actually looking at (0:18:07) Al: it so why do they have the process there why do they bother (0:18:08) Micah: Or they have some like automated process that’s relying on some artificial intelligence to be like it checks these boxes. So it is approved (0:18:17) Al: yeah yeah maybe they’re just going is it a game does it run there you go that’s (0:18:21) Al: fine but I don’t know (0:18:25) Al: next we have super zoo story they have announced that their kickstarter goes (0:18:30) Al: live on the first of October. It’s just another… (0:18:34) Al: It’s another Zoo Tycoon game. Yeah, that’s it. (0:18:41) Micah: It definitely looks like a Z-Teku. (0:18:42) Al: Am I gonna play this game? I don’t know. It’s it. So I will say, I will see. The one (0:18:49) Al: thing that makes me more interested in this is it does appear to be like you… (0:18:54) Al: It’s an RPG style game rather than like a God style management game. And that (0:19:01) Al: interests me, because I am not a huge fan. (0:19:02) Micah: I agree, that- (0:19:04) Al: I am a fan of management games, but I am a fan of RPG management. (0:19:10) Micah: I agree with that. I’m also in that same boat where if it’s if it says tycoon and it’s got a you know (0:19:17) Micah: Like you’re you’re kind of like managing resources and filling a space and then (0:19:23) Micah: Making money. I’m not as interested in it (0:19:26) Micah: But the the RPG the added RPG element sounds more interesting to me (0:19:32) Micah: You know same way that like was a golf story like to be fair like loved Mario golf (0:19:36) Al: Yes, Golf Story is fantastic! (0:19:40) Micah: You know (0:19:41) Micah: Some of the like more goofy golf game games like (0:19:46) Micah: non-traditional golf games big fan of those but (0:19:49) Micah: Things like golf story sports story like that where they add an RPG element to it definitely makes it much more (0:19:55) Micah: You know exciting and more unique of an experience. So (0:20:00) Al: Yeah, yeah. I’m not a huge golf fan. I mean, I don’t even mean in real life, right? Because (0:20:04) Micah: Oh me neither. I don’t know. I don’t know anything about golf (0:20:09) Al: that’s a whole different discussion. I will rant about golf if you want me to, but I don’t think (0:20:13) Al: we want to. But game-wise, I like Mario Golf, and that’s probably about it. But yeah, Golf Story (0:20:24) Al: absolutely adored it. It was fantastic in so many ways. The actual golf was fun, (0:20:29) Al: But also, it was just– (0:20:30) Al: just my kind of humor. (0:20:31) Al: The story was just enough to be interesting, (0:20:35) Al: but not too much that you felt completely overwhelmed. (0:20:38) Al: It was my perfect RPG. (0:20:40) Al: It was just enough. (0:20:41) Al: Just enough RPG in– (0:20:44) Al: just enough RP in my G. Yeah, sports story was good as well. (0:20:49) Al: A little bit rushed, but I still really enjoyed it. (0:20:55) Al: Yeah, so I mean, I’m probably going to play this one purely (0:20:58) Al: because it’s rather than the kind of, you know. (0:21:00) Al: Tycoon style game, it is an RPG style game. (0:21:03) Al: It’ll be interesting to see how they balance that, obviously, (0:21:05) Al: because these things have to be on a much smaller scale (0:21:08) Al: because you’re doing everything every time. (0:21:11) Al: And will there be some level of automation to that? (0:21:13) Al: Like how, you know, Stardew adds that in as you go. (0:21:16) Al: We’ll just, you know, we’ll see what happens. (0:21:20) Al: Next, we have a new update from Wildflowers, (0:21:22) Al: which came out a few days ago. (0:21:23) Al: This is the magical creatures update. (0:21:26) Al: And can you guess what this brings to the game? (0:21:29) Micah: I’m gonna guess some magical creatures. No way (0:21:30) Al: You are correct. I know, imagine that. Go for it. I need to find if there’s a list. (0:21:37) Micah: Can I guess some of the magical creatures unicorn, oh, okay, never mind abort abort (0:21:48) Al: Oh, here we go. I can’t see a unicorn, but no, you’re correct. I think they’re trying to, (0:21:50) Micah: Okay, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not there, you know (0:21:55) Al: you know, not spoil everything, but what I do see is what looks like a cross between (0:21:59) Al: a tiger and an elephant. (0:22:00) Al: This is like tiger legs, elephant head, but also the size of a small dog. (0:22:00) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:22:04) Micah: Don’t don’t know that I’ve I know that one don’t know that I (0:22:09) Micah: Do see that one. It is very cute though. Do you’re like (0:22:14) Micah: Description of it, you know tiger with the head of an elephant just (0:22:19) Micah: Was did not prepare me for what it looks like and it is very cute (0:22:23) Al: that’s what it is though, right? Like you can’t say I’m wrong. Yeah. And then like some sort of (0:22:24) Micah: It is you’re totally right, but it is it’s really cute (0:22:32) Al: lizard gecko type thing with chicken legs. And then a Shiba Inu, of course. (0:22:34) Micah: Yep. (0:22:35) Micah: Chicken Lizard? (0:22:37) Micah: The classic mystical creature? (0:22:40) Micah: Yep. (0:22:42) Al: It’s like, what makes that magical? I don’t know. That’s the main thing. There’s other things as (0:22:49) Al: as well. There’s some more story about the lighthouse. (0:22:51) Al: Um, I don’t know. (0:22:53) Al: So this is the time, I mean, well, when I mentioned it to him, he said, oh, I guess (0:22:58) Micah: Oh, okay. (0:23:01) Micah: Is Kevin going to be okay? (0:23:05) Micah: That this is their final update? (0:23:08) Al: I need to get back into the game then. (0:23:09) Al: Uh, so I think it’s been a while since he’s played, he’s played it. (0:23:12) Al: So we’ll, we’ll see, we’ll see how he feels once he’s actually played it. (0:23:16) Micah: Got it. (0:23:17) Al: The update. (0:23:18) Al: Be interesting to see what the studio do next. (0:23:20) Micah: Yeah, definitely. (0:23:22) Micah: And now that they have got such a, like, you know, well-loved thing under their belt, there’s… (0:23:27) Al: Yeah, the moment you see from the makers of Wild Flowers, you’re like “OK, I’m paying attention”. (0:23:34) Al: So next we have possibly one of the weirdest things I’ve seen in a while, and this is (0:23:40) Al: “Bokumono Life and Love”, which is a G-mode phone game from a long time ago that has been ported (0:23:50) Al: to Steam and Switch. (0:23:52) Micah: I cannot tell you how happy I am about this for a couple reasons just also for (0:24:02) Micah: full clarification it is not in English there is no English for this it is a (0:24:06) Al: Yes, I’m important to point that out. (0:24:09) Micah: straight-up port of the Japanese phone game that’s it they’re not doing (0:24:14) Micah: anything else with it (0:24:16) Al: The good thing is the Steam page does make that very clear, it’s above the buy button, (0:24:18) Micah: yeah (0:24:21) Al: it says “English language not supported” in red letters. (0:24:22) Micah: right (0:24:25) Micah: there is uh it looks like well it says partial controller support but it it (0:24:32) Micah: looks like there are controller controls like you know I see like L&R buttons and (0:24:39) Micah: the screenshots and stuff like that so you know there’s not like you won’t need (0:24:43) Micah: some t9 cell phone flip phone peripheral to control the game or whatever it’s (0:24:47) Al: Yeah. (0:24:52) Micah: it is straight up that port though and I love that there are a couple reasons (0:24:56) Micah: why I love that one really stupid really dumb right like really like unexpected (0:25:02) Micah: weird bizarre decision from marvelous great I love it but also because there (0:25:10) Micah: are so many lost media games that are caught in this like g-mode old Japanese (0:25:19) Micah: phone game that like… maybe this o- (0:25:22) Micah: opens the door for more of those to be able to release- get- be released like this? (0:25:24) Al: Well, that’s an interesting question. Are they going to make this technology that they’ve (0:25:30) Al: clearly built as an emulator or whatever? I don’t know exactly what they’ve done, (0:25:34) Al: but something. Are they going to be able to share that with other people? That would be really cool. (0:25:35) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:25:39) Micah: Right, definitely. Well, the other positive there is that (0:25:44) Micah: even just releasing the game gives way to a lot of (0:25:48) Micah: really brilliant people in the (0:25:51) Micah: homebrew community to be able to dissect it and figure out (0:25:56) Micah: what they did as far as you know emulation goes and (0:26:00) Micah: maybe be able to just find a way to (0:26:04) Micah: to… to… (0:26:05) Micah: you know, port some of that stuff themselves, or you know, I don’t know if there’s a lot (0:26:10) Micah: of opportunities here for some really interesting and really cool, like, lost games to be able (0:26:20) Al: So it looks like they’re not the first people to do this. (0:26:23) Al: So it looks like Gmail themselves (0:26:25) Al: released released a bunch of games on Steam a couple of years ago. (0:26:31) Al: So maybe this is, (0:26:34) Al: you know, because of this, like maybe that technology has then been used in this (0:26:39) Al: situation. (0:26:39) Micah: Mm-hmm. There are also some on the switch as well (0:26:44) Micah: But this I think is the like most (0:26:48) Micah: Popular franchise I could be wrong about this, but I think this is the most popular franchise to be (0:26:52) Al: I don’t think you’re wrong. I think saying a bokumono game on a really niche Japanese (0:27:03) Al: phone brand is possibly the most popular game on that. I believe you. I think probably. (0:27:11) Micah: yeah I I think that that’s possible to at least that’s my impression right is (0:27:17) Micah: that like that’s you know we’re we’re you know in a world now where like being (0:27:23) Micah: able to people people may be more aware of it now as being a thing I know that (0:27:29) Micah: there was a persona game that was like last year (0:27:32) Al: I was just… that is what I was just about to say. I have immediately (0:27:35) Al: changed my opinion on that. When I saw on their list that Persona 3 is one of them. (0:27:40) Micah: Yeah, well it’s so it’s a persona it and it is like a such a like small. I don’t know. Maybe I where is the the (0:27:51) Micah: The like chart that shows the growth between like persona fan base and (0:27:58) Micah: The like harvest moon fam, you know, that’s the story seasons fan base because I (0:27:59) Al: Yeah. (0:28:04) Micah: feel like you know prior to persona 5 that was definitely not like the you know (0:28:11) Micah: Either way (0:28:11) Al: Yeah, but I feel like people are going back to the older games, especially with, you know, (0:28:15) Al: 3 getting its Switch release. I feel like people are going back to the older ones when they started (0:28:18) Micah: oh yeah for sure it is a huge franchise now for sure I just don’t know if like (0:28:28) Micah: you know how big is the heart like how big is the harvest moon name you know (0:28:32) Micah: how big is the story of seasons name you know (0:28:32) Al: Well, and it’s more complicated obviously because like the name in Japan is as big as (0:28:38) Micah: it’s not right (0:28:39) Al: it has ever been, but like what does the main name mean over here? And they don’t use either (0:28:43) Micah: mm-hmm (0:28:47) Al: name because obviously they don’t have an English name for this, right? They obviously (0:28:52) Al: would be calling it Story of Seasons if they had, but then it would be like because it’s (0:28:57) Al: a port. They’ve not done a port, right? So this is the weird thing. They’ve not done (0:29:00) Al: on a port, so actually that’s not true. (0:29:02) Al: I guess they did. They did the original Harvest Moon on Nintendo Switch Online, didn’t (0:29:07) Al: they? And they called that Harvest Moon. They didn’t call that a story of seasons. So maybe (0:29:10) Micah: True. Yeah, you’re right (0:29:12) Al: they would, and maybe they would call this Harvest Moon then if they released it in the (0:29:16) Al: West. What I find interesting is they’re about this game, they have an English description (0:29:16) Micah: Yeah, I don’t know (0:29:20) Al: of this game on Steam. (0:29:23) Micah: Right, like it is it is on the the American Steam store like it is accessible (0:29:29) Al: Even if it’s not just that, it says “enjoy a heartwarming” and this isn’t auto-translated (0:29:34) Al: in Chrome or anything, it just says “enjoy a heartwarming farm life while growing crops (0:29:38) Al: and interacting with animals”. (0:29:39) Al: This title is a port of a title released in 2007 for feature phones in the popular series, (0:29:44) Al: which has been developed for numerous hardware platforms. (0:29:47) Al: It simultaneously includes For Boy, in which a boy is the main character, and For Girl, (0:29:51) Al: in which a girl is the main character. (0:29:52) Micah: No way (0:29:53) Al: Funny that they decided to just add them both and just like smash them together into one (0:29:57) Micah: Yeah (0:29:59) Micah: I’d be curious to like how that plays it like is it just a selection right? (0:29:59) Al: Fair enough. (0:30:03) Micah: Do you just like select which game it is or they kind of just like blood them together? Yeah (0:30:03) Al: I suspect so. (0:30:05) Al: I suspect so, yeah. (0:30:08) Micah: I can’t imagine. There’s a lot of you know (0:30:08) Al: Like, they’re calling it a port. (0:30:10) Al: They’ve not changed it. (0:30:11) Micah: Yeah (0:30:13) Micah: Development going on there. Yeah, so I don’t know I guess between persona and this (0:30:19) Micah: you know, and persona happening with (0:30:22) Micah: in the last within a like, a year, almost a year to date, I (0:30:26) Al: Yeah. (0:30:27) Micah: think. No, September 23, it looks like. But yeah, either (0:30:33) Micah: either way, you know, the fact that bigger games now are (0:30:38) Micah: getting these like G mode ports is kind of exciting. So I don’t (0:30:43) Micah: know, even beyond G mode, there are other mobile games from that (0:30:50) Micah: time period that are just like, you know. (0:30:51) Al: Yeah, I agree. I agree. I look forward to playing Gregory Horror Show, which is another (0:30:52) Micah: Completely lost. That would be great to be able to see some of that stuff. (0:30:58) Micah: Go this route, so. (0:31:04) Al: one, which comes out in October. (0:31:07) Al: All right. Can’t believe we spent that much time talking about a G-mode game. What is (0:31:10) Micah: I mean. (0:31:13) Al: this podcast? Finally, before we get into it, we’ve got a few new games to talk about. (0:31:19) Al: For that, we have. (0:31:21) Al: A board game based on Mika and the Witch’s Mountain that’s coming to Kickstarter. (0:31:28) Micah: Okay, I can’t could not have expected that honestly (0:31:32) Al: No. No. I don’t really know what to say. Yes, yes, I’ll probably buy it. Stop asking. It’s, (0:31:38) Micah: I don’t either. (0:31:43) Al: I mean, it’s very, with the intro, so, okay, I have, my brain’s doing the brain thing. (0:31:50) Al: There’s, it’s called Delivery Witches, right? But it’s not branded Mika on the Witches Mountain (0:31:57) Al: or anything like that, but it’s very definitely Mika, right? Like, it’s the same art. (0:32:02) Al: Chibig shared it on their Twitter, so it’s like very clearly in collaboration with them. And, (0:32:08) Micah: same fonts (0:32:09) Al: and all the characters are the same. They’ve got all their art, etc. Like, it’s very much, (0:32:15) Al: it is the Mika and the Witches Mountain game. They just didn’t call it that. (0:32:20) Micah: Right, right. (0:32:22) Al: Which is fair, I guess. Like, you don’t have to call it the same thing, (0:32:25) Al: But it just I just find it interesting (0:32:27) Al: Um, I. (0:32:28) Micah: yeah it is I i guess I didn’t even think about like you know I i think if I had seen this on its own (0:32:35) Micah: without you telling me um and without drawing that association I probably would have been like (0:32:41) Micah: this looks really familiar but it just seems weird that like they wouldn’t do something to (0:32:42) Al: Yeah (0:32:49) Micah: like further I don’t know maybe that’s enough or I just don’t know if that game is has the uh the (0:32:56) Micah: popularity to be able to. (0:32:58) Micah: to say, like, oh, it is very loosely referential to it, but that’s enough for people to know that it’s based on this game, right? (0:33:07) Micah: Like it’s not, I don’t know, I could see that with other franchises, but maybe not this one. (0:33:13) Al: I think what I find weird is like there’s not a single mention of the game or the game (0:33:19) Al: developer on this Kickstarter page so far. Now granted it’s quite small, like they’ve (0:33:23) Al: not gone live, but they still have like five paragraphs of text and not once does it mention (0:33:29) Al: that it’s based on a game. And the company that’s making it is not the same, right, they’ve (0:33:32) Micah: Yeah, it’s very odd (0:33:36) Al: I’ve obviously been farmed out to another company that makes games. (0:33:40) Micah: But it is the you said it like, how is the developer related? (0:33:47) Al: Well, presumably they own like they are because it is the same characters, right? (0:33:52) Al: They use the same character art that you see in game. (0:33:56) Micah: Yeah, I just meant not not in that way. I meant like how was the other than say the the (0:34:02) Micah: Chibig retweeted it or something, you know, like what what is their relay? (0:34:06) Micah: Is there any other relation to like if they said we’re collaborating with them. I guess I do see (0:34:12) Al: Yeah, I think they made it clear that it was a collaboration. (0:34:15) Micah: Okay, I because it (0:34:18) Al: I guess what I know, I’m not trying to say that it’s as popular as Stardew, (0:34:21) Al: but it would be like if the Stardew Valley board game came out and they called it (0:34:26) Al: “farming game”. Right? Like, it would just feel weird. (0:34:28) Micah: Right, like my immediate my immediate reaction would be like they’re ripping off (0:34:33) Micah: Stardew Valley not like oh, it’s a Stardew Valley game, but they’re but they’re calling it something else (0:34:34) Al: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And there’s nothing that makes it clear on this Kickstarter (0:34:41) Al: page. (0:34:42) Al: This is an official collaboration, but it is. (0:34:44) Micah: And that’s why I was asking well, how were they related to this other than like, you know, but obviously they have cosigned on it because they’re (0:34:53) Micah: Sharing it and like the art, you know, like if it weren’t (0:34:57) Micah: Theirs, they would probably be in litigation with them or something. I’m sure so (0:35:02) Al: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Like it’s not, it’s not even like, you know, close. (0:35:08) Micah: Yeah, it’s really interesting it’s very it’s a very pretty looking board game like every (0:35:14) Micah: Looks cool that some of the like, you know card effects and stuff look neat (0:35:19) Micah: The the character pieces are really really cute. I like almost want to get in on it just for the the little (0:35:29) Micah: What do you call those little guys from the (0:35:30) Al: You can’t call them meeples anymore. (0:35:33) Micah: You can’t call them meeples anymore no, I did not (0:35:35) Al: Oh, did you not hear this news? (0:35:37) Al: All right. Sidebar. (0:35:38) Al: So Carcassonne have trademarked meeples and they’re suing anybody that uses the name now. (0:35:41) Micah: Uh-huh (0:35:44) Micah: Oh (0:35:46) Al: So let me find out what they… (0:35:46) Micah: That’s (0:35:49) Al: It’s very, it’s very stupid. (0:35:52) Al: What is the name that is that people have kind of agreed they should call it instead? (0:35:59) Al: Oh, apparently it’s not. (0:36:00) Al: Not being trademarked in the US, so maybe they’ll continue, people will just continue (0:36:02) Micah: Oh. (0:36:04) Al: to use the word ‘meeple’ and make their games in the US. (0:36:05) Micah: Yet, at least. (0:36:07) Micah: Obviously, they’re trying, so… (0:36:08) Al: Can’t remember, because there was one in particular, so it’s an EU trademark ‘meeple’, because (0:36:16) Al: Carcassonne are German, and what? (0:36:19) Al: Oh yeah, so this was, so a company was making a game called ‘Meeple Inc’, and they were (0:36:26) Al: sued by Carcassonne, so they’re now calling it ‘Table Inc’. (0:36:30) Micah: Leave it to a, you know, a lawsuit to ruin the fun for her. (0:36:35) Al: I know it’s so like seriously nobody is confusing their game with carcass on (0:36:43) Al: just because it says meeple like come on I can’t see anywhere what the (0:36:46) Micah: but uh what do we call these um meekles because it because meika and the you (0:36:54) Al: which which which pole (0:36:55) Micah: know which pool um we’ll just we’ll call them meeples with the asterisk that it (0:37:03) Micah: spelled MI PLE because because meekah and the you know yeah yeah yeah they’re (0:37:06) Al: It’s my poles. (0:37:09) Al: Oh, meekles, meekles, yeah, okay, right, I get you. (0:37:13) Micah: really cute though they’re I that’s probably my favorite part of this whole (0:37:16) Micah: thing like they’re very cute game pieces and I hope that they don’t get (0:37:22) Micah: sued by Carcassonne (0:37:23) Al: Well they’re not using- I don’t see meeple being written anywhere and I don’t think they’re trying (0:37:27) Al: to like trademark the concept of having a meeple, it’s just the name that they’re (0:37:31) Micah: Not yet, at least, you know, it’s opens the doors, you know, the next thing, the next litigation. (0:37:39) Micah: This is, yeah, this is interesting, though, this is such a like strange thing, like a strange decision. (0:37:46) Micah: Maybe part of it is like that they are working with this team and they want to give them because that team is like working as hard as they are in this game and everything they’re giving all of the, you know, like they’re setting it up in a way. (0:38:01) Micah: So that undigital owns the rights to this without having to like, you know, there being any question about who owns the rights to their game that they’re working on because it’s related to something else. (0:38:14) Al: I’m sure they’ve got, I’m sure they have all their legal things in a row, right? (0:38:17) Al: Like it’s not like they, they launched this, they announced it on the same day. (0:38:22) Al: It looks like on Twitter, like it’s very clearly like done together. (0:38:26) Al: So I, I’m sure they know. (0:38:28) Micah: Oh sure, I just mean that, like, that would be a positive thing, you know, if they had given them the, you know, had them just change the name so that in the future there was no potential for any possible, like, you know, legal issues or something, and they could just claim all of the rights to this board game and the profits and whatever without having to, you know, answer to Chibig or whatever, which would be a cool thing for Chibig to do. (0:38:58) Micah: You know, people will say like, hey, just, this is yours. You make all the money from it. But who knows, I don’t, I don’t know what the decision was to do this, but it’s an interesting (0:39:08) Al: I have fallen into a deep dark hole of trademark stuff now. It looks like (0:39:16) Al: the EU trademark doesn’t actually cover toys and games, but there’s a (0:39:21) Micah: All for meeples? (0:39:23) Al: Germany trademark that does cover them. I’m so confused. (0:39:35) Al: What have I done? Why have I started reading this? (0:39:37) Al: Um… (0:39:38) Al: OK, right, no, we’re done with that, right? Anyway, game, uh, the Kickstarter isn’t live yet. (0:39:46) Al: You can go and save it if you want to get notified when it goes live. Link will be in the show notes. (0:39:51) Al: All right, we have a few new games as well. Uh, so a new My Time At game, My Time At Evershine, (0:39:59) Al: um, is coming out. The Kickstarter is launching sometime this month. You want another My Time game? (0:40:06) Micah: Uh, I am. (0:40:09) Micah: Yes, I do. (0:40:10) Micah: I do, because I think that my time at Portia (0:40:14) Micah: was such a like, what do they call it? (0:40:17) Micah: Bottled lightning or whatever. (0:40:20) Micah: For what it was at that time, which was, you know, (0:40:24) Micah: a time shortly after Stardew Valley is like massive success. (0:40:29) Micah: And shortly before the boom in. (0:40:36) Micah: Farm Sim type, like Life Sim type games, you know. (0:40:41) Micah: And I think that there were a lot of really positive things (0:40:43) Micah: about my time at Portia, but I think my time at Sandrock, (0:40:47) Micah: on the other hand, was not what I would have wanted it to be (0:40:52) Micah: or would have expected. (0:40:53) Micah: And just personally, not for me. (0:40:56) Micah: So I’m interested to see. (0:40:58) Al: Did you play it? Did you play Sandra? (0:41:01) Micah: No, I did not. (0:41:02) Micah: I from listening to (0:41:06) Micah: and watching things and seeing how the game played, and especially after my time at Portia Port, (0:41:12) Al: Yep. (0:41:13) Micah: I made the conscious decision not to, but just because I didn’t think that it was really for me, (0:41:20) Micah: you know? But I’m excited to see, like clearly they’re capable, right? That’s what I’m getting (0:41:26) Micah: at, is like they’re a very capable studio, and they have some really great ideas. I think there (0:41:34) Micah: there were a lot of really awesome ideas (0:41:36) Micah: in my time at Portia had that just maybe weren’t as fleshed out as they could have been (0:41:40) Micah: especially now that we have had this boom of, you know, Farm Sims and Life Sims and stuff (0:41:45) Micah: that have, you know, made a lot of differences in how these games are played and stuff like (0:41:53) Micah: that. (0:41:54) Micah: So I’m excited to see what they can do with more games, like, I’m always interested in (0:42:00) Micah: seeing, you know, a talented developer make new stuff. (0:42:05) Al: Yeah. So, I mean, just looking at some numbers on Steam. Yeah, well, that’s the thing. I (0:42:06) Micah: Um… (0:42:07) Micah: This is also- (0:42:12) Al: mean, we’re interested to see what they continue on and what they don’t. I mean, to me, Sandrock (0:42:16) Al: always looked just like the same game, but slightly more. And I was like, I’m not interested (0:42:20) Al: in that. But the, so looking on Steam, so they had, so they both have very, very positive (0:42:28) Al: reviews. So we’re ignoring Switch, right? The Switch debacle, we’re just ignoring that, (0:42:33) Al: Right? These things happen. (0:42:34) Micah: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:42:35) Al: They should just not. (0:42:40) Al: So Portia had 33,000 reviews, and Sandrock had 20,000 reviews. (0:42:48) Al: But Portia’s alt, 33,000 versus 20,000. (0:42:50) Micah: Wait how many did Portia have? (0:42:53) Micah: That’s so close. That’s way closer than I would have thought. (0:42:57) Al: It’s a… Yeah, but interestingly, there are all-time peaks of concurrent players. (0:43:03) Al: Porsche was 13,000. (0:43:05) Al: 1.3, and Sandrock was 21,000. It was higher. (0:43:10) Micah: Wow, yeah, I mean, people, I think people knew that, (0:43:13) Micah: you know, by the time that Sandrock came out, (0:43:16) Micah: people had already known Portia so well (0:43:19) Micah: and have been like preaching it (0:43:20) Micah: that I guess maybe even beyond what Portia was, (0:43:24) Micah: people were more excited about it or interested in it. (0:43:27) Micah: I don’t know, I remember the conversation (0:43:30) Micah: around my time at Sandrock being like, (0:43:32) Micah: people were very excited about it. (0:43:34) Micah: I think a big part of it for me was that (0:43:36) Micah: I I’m not a like humongous fan (0:43:40) Micah: of the Southwestern American motif motif in like games and I get really (0:43:41) Al: Yeah, fair, fair. (0:43:48) Micah: really bummed out when I get to the point in games where it’s like okay now (0:43:52) Micah: you got to do the desert level and I’m like I just don’t wanna I don’t wanna do (0:43:57) Micah: that and it kind of looked like Porsche but in that setting and with the whole (0:43:58) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. (0:44:02) Micah: the whole game is desert level basically is what it felt like so and it looked (0:44:07) Micah: Like a lot of the say I mean obviously a lot (0:44:10) Micah: more but you know it looked like a lot of the same of what Portia had that I (0:44:15) Micah: was kind of like I’ll just play Portia you know that’s more in my setting (0:44:18) Al: Yeah, you’re still, I mean, you’re still essentially a builder, right? Like, it’s the same core (0:44:20) Micah: that’s more me (0:44:23) Al: loop of building things, which, if you like, that’s good. I really didn’t like, so I’m (0:44:30) Al: obviously not gonna like it when it has the same core mechanic that I didn’t like. (0:44:32) Micah: - Right. (0:44:35) Micah: There is also something that about the character design (0:44:39) Micah: that I didn’t really love in Porsche or Sandrock, (0:44:44) Micah: but I was more like forgiving obviously with Porsche (0:44:47) Micah: ‘cause it was such a, like at the time it was, (0:44:51) Micah: you know, kind of like unique and exciting thing (0:44:54) Micah: where now this is a little bit more common of a game, (0:44:57) Micah: like a game style and stuff like that. (0:44:59) Micah: So, but. (0:45:02) Micah: It’s just, I don’t know. There’s something about the character design that I didn’t really love. (0:45:06) Micah: And I think for the new thing, this new thing, what is it my time at Evershine? (0:45:10) Al: Evershine, yeah. (0:45:10) Micah: The character design looks so different and like, more aged up. Right, right. (0:45:12) Al: Well, so we just have one image to go by, right? Just to point there, like this could (0:45:18) Al: - because if you look at, for example, the original image that was released for - what (0:45:24) Al: was that game you were talking about before? Why have I forgotten the name of it? The one (0:45:28) Al: you’ve bought but not played yet. The farming game. Yeah, it feels a mystery. If you look (0:45:30) Micah: Oh, fields of mystery. (0:45:32) Al: at the original image, that does not look anything like the game. So you can’t rely (0:45:36) Micah: Yes, you’re right. Absolutely right. (0:45:40) Al: on that first initial image. But yes, it does look very different to the actual art (0:45:48) Al: style of Porsche and Sandrock. So maybe that’s going to do something different? I don’t know. (0:45:48) Micah: Mm hmm. And I should say. (0:45:54) Micah: Yeah, I should say contextually, the you know, the looking at the (0:45:59) Micah: the key art illustrations they’ve had for Portia and for Sandrock, (0:46:03) Micah: the character design in those has matched what the character design is. (0:46:08) Micah: Roughly, you know, like proportions and facial, (0:46:11) Micah: you know, facial features and stuff like that. (0:46:13) Micah: So again, yeah, we don’t know. (0:46:16) Micah: There’s only one image. (0:46:17) Micah: We don’t know what the game actually looks like. (0:46:18) Micah: Based on that, contextually, this feels like it’s it’s going to be a little bit (0:46:25) Micah: more aged up, a little bit more mature looking, maybe feeling. (0:46:29) Micah: So that at on its own intrigues me that it’s, you know, kind of taking (0:46:35) Micah: like a little bit more serious tone with this key art. (0:46:39) Micah: So we’ll see. Maybe it’s not. (0:46:39)
Al and Aislinn talk about Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:03:00: What Have We Been Up To 00:12:27: News 00:25:07: Kamaeru 01:02:36: Outro Links Farlands Early Access Go-Go Town Roadmap Updates Garden Witch Life New Trail Len’s Island “Game Modes” Update Wind Story 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. (0:00:36) Aislinn: my name is Aislinn. (0:00:38) Al: And we are here today to talk about frog games. (0:00:40) Aislinn: Woooo! (0:00:45) Al: Transcripts are available on the show notes and on the website, as always. (0:00:49) Al: Welcome, Aislinn. (0:00:50) Al: Welcome back, I should say. (0:00:52) Al: Your second time on the pod. (0:00:52) Aislinn: Yeah, thanks for having me back. (0:00:56) Al: Good to have you. (0:00:58) Al: I’ve brought Eslan on the pod to… (0:01:01) Al: …talk about Kamayru, is that how you say it? (0:01:04) Aislinn: Yeah, Kameiru! Gosh, I, uh, I’m gonna, I’m gonna withhold. I’m gonna withhold. I have many opinions about this game. (0:01:12) Al: Yeah, we’ll get to that. We’ll get to that. It’s important. We need to get through the (0:01:13) Aislinn: Yes, we know! (0:01:15) Aislinn: I know, I know, I know! (0:01:16) Al: process. So that’s what we’re going to talk about. I personally haven’t played Camaro, (0:01:18) Aislinn: Okay. (0:01:22) Al: but Aislinn has. So we’re going to talk about that later on. Before that, we obviously have (0:01:32) Al: some news. Oh, I should note, this is the last episode that has news for the next three (0:01:39) Al: episodes because this is the last one. (0:01:42) Al: And before I go away for a wee while. (0:01:45) Al: So the next three episodes won’t have news. (0:01:48) Al: They will be our special. (0:01:49) Al: Do I announce? Yeah, let’s announce it now. (0:01:51) Al: The next week we will be starting off Dave the Diver month. (0:01:56) Al: So that is a full month focusing on Dave the Diver. (0:02:00) Al: So I’m very excited for people to hear what we’ve got cooked up. (0:02:05) Al: I hope I’m not overdoing it and we’re not completely. (0:02:09) Al: over focusing on a game. (0:02:12) Al: When I had this idea, I thought it was fantastic, so stay tuned for four episodes of Dave the (0:02:17) Al: Diver starting next week. (0:02:18) Aislinn: Honestly, that sounds wonderful. (0:02:21) Aislinn: It sounds perfect. (0:02:22) Al: Have you played that game? (0:02:22) Aislinn: It sounds… (0:02:23) Aislinn: I have not, but also it just sounds wonderful to have something like that just for holiday (0:02:27) Aislinn: in general and just have something focused on one game. (0:02:31) Aislinn: It sounds nice. (0:02:32) Aislinn: It sounds like a nice change of pace. (0:02:32) Al: Yeah, last year we did Fishing Month, so we had four episodes on fishing and various different (0:02:34) Aislinn: Oooooooh! (0:02:40) Al: things. There was a debate on the best fishing minigame, though I think we covered Dredge, (0:02:46) Al: which is not our usual kind of game, and stuff like that. And yeah, this year is Dave the (0:02:52) Al: Diver Month, so coming soon. But that’s not what we’re talking about just now. Before (0:02:55) Aislinn: Soon. (0:03:01) Al: we get into the news and (0:03:02) Al: the news. (0:03:04) Aislinn: um melting because it’s just really it’s genuinely I feel like it’s been an endless just heat wave (0:03:13) Aislinn: here in new york um it’s just so hot all the time my cat is melting i’m melting everything (0:03:21) Aislinn: is melting it’s just hot 90 degrees what is that in celsius I don’t know it’s 90 degrees fahrenheit (0:03:28) Aislinn: and it’s humid and it’s just hot that’s yeah it’s hot (0:03:30) Al: That is 32. (0:03:34) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:03:35) Aislinn: Sun blazing just melting but otherwise (0:03:39) Aislinn: To talk about gaming wise what I’ve been up to not as much as I would like to (0:03:45) Aislinn: Be up to with gaming just because life has been busy as well in general between work and just other (0:03:52) Aislinn: Obligations in life in general, but when I am playing a game I have been now currently cycling through (0:04:00) Aislinn: Magical delicacy, which just which just came out recently (0:04:04) Aislinn: is a (0:04:06) Aislinn: platformer game with witches and cooking and (0:04:10) Aislinn: Actually, it might be a nice game to talk about on this podcast as well at some point (0:04:15) Aislinn: Because it’s also an accessibility game. So it’s like kind of it’s not necessary (0:04:19) Aislinn: I don’t know if I would consider it a cottagecore game, but there is cooking there is decorating (0:04:23) Aislinn: they (0:04:24) Al: Look, we sure are in all kinds of games. (0:04:29) Aislinn: But it like just came out and I play like a couple hours of it so far and it’s really cute (0:04:35) Aislinn: But I’ve been playing a little bit of that I’ve been playing spider-man 2 which is a completely different game for magical delicacy (0:04:41) Aislinn: I’ve been playing oh so good so far so good so far. I’ve also been playing (0:04:42) Al: a good game though. Good game. I love how they did because like, did you play the other (0:04:49) Aislinn: I did I did I’m so I’m playing the entire series all the way through back to back to back (0:04:49) Al: two Spider-Man games? Nice. That’s a lot to go through without a break. I played them (0:04:56) Aislinn: It is but I’m having such a good time (0:04:59) Aislinn: You (0:05:00) Al: when they came out. So I played the Marvel Spider-Man and I really enjoyed it. It was (0:05:05) Al: so much fun. And then when Miles Morales came out, I was like, this is so great. (0:05:12) Al: It’s better because you have the extra powers. And personally, I thought it was like a more (0:05:17) Al: compact game. People were like, “Oh, it’s too short.” And I’m like, “No, it’s not (0:05:18) Aislinn: Yeah (0:05:20) Al: too short. It’s perfect. Perfect length.” I mean, buy these things and sell them second (0:05:21) Aislinn: Yeah, no, it was perfect it was honestly perfect (0:05:23) Aislinn: Maybe it’s a little bit short for its price (0:05:26) Aislinn: But like as someone that didn’t pay for it and had no frame of concept of what it costs. I had a great time (0:05:32) Aislinn: time. (0:05:33) Al: hand, right? That’s what I do. I did that for all three Spider-Man games. I’ve bought (0:05:38) Al: them and then sold them like three weeks later when I finished. (0:05:42) Al: But what I found really interesting was I was wondering how they were going to make (0:05:46) Aislinn: Yeah, that’s true. That’s very true. (0:05:51) Al: Spider-Man 2 not just make you want to be Miles all the time, because Miles was, before (0:05:56) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:05:58) Al: Spider-Man 2 objectively, the better Spider-Man to play as, because he has all of the powers (0:06:01) Aislinn: Oh my god, yes. (0:06:03) Al: and more. (0:06:04) Al: And so I was like, “How are they going to make you want to be Peter Parker?” (0:06:08) Al: And they figured it out with the Venom stuff. (0:06:10) Aislinn: Woo, yeah, it’s so cool. It’s so cool. (0:06:10) Al: And it was fantastic. (0:06:12) Al: So good. (0:06:14) Al: And also adding in the other, the gliding, and you can also surf on the water a little (0:06:20) Aislinn: Yeah! (0:06:25) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:06:25) Al: bit as well, stuff like that just made it so much more fun. (0:06:28) Aislinn: Yeah, definitely. The only complaint I have about that game so far is, like, on the map itself, (0:06:33) Aislinn: I wish, like, things were marked down. Like, all of the side quests and everything. I wish you (0:06:37) Aislinn: didn’t have– I know they want you to explore everything, but I’m like, “Can you just mark it (0:06:40) Aislinn: down anyway so I have things to go towards?” Because that’s the thing that kind of gets me (0:06:42) Al: Oh do you mean like how they build it up slowly because it’s like it starts off with like oh (0:06:44) Aislinn: from an open world game sometimes as I get lost? (0:06:47) Aislinn: Yeah. (0:06:49) Al: you’ve you’ve got I get why they do that right because it’s a lot it would be overwhelming I (0:06:53) Al: think if you had too much all at once but yeah it does feel it does it does feel a little bit like (0:06:54) Aislinn: I don’t mind, but yeah, that’s just me. (0:06:59) Al: oh and now you know I’m 10 hours into the game and I’m just unlocking a whole new series of of (0:07:06) Al: quests sort of thing. There. (0:07:06) Aislinn: yeah yeah yeah yeah that that’s my like only complaint but that’s just a me thing more than (0:07:10) Aislinn: anything yeah um but yeah otherwise in addition to spider-man 2 magical delicacy also surprisingly (0:07:12) Al: I think that’s hard to solve but I get I get I get the issue. (0:07:22) Aislinn: playing weathering waves um which is that gacha game but I haven’t spent any money so far which (0:07:28) Aislinn: i’m very proud of myself because I know it’s like the game that you spend money on but i’m such a (0:07:33) Aislinn: slow gamer that it’s been great. (0:07:36) Aislinn: This isn’t another casual combat game which I’m into, but then I’ve also obviously been (0:07:42) Aislinn: playing Kamehiru and I’ve been replaying coffee talk as well as just a nice wind down game. (0:07:49) Aislinn: It makes me very sleepy, which is perfect before bed. (0:07:52) Al: I feel like you have a very specific look of games that you’re other than Spider-Man (0:07:57) Al: two very specific look of games that you’re playing just now like well just when you look (0:08:00) Aislinn: - In what way? (0:08:03) Al: at magical delicacy and Kama Eru and coffee talk and even a lot of not not not so much (0:08:10) Al: whether it’s I guess it’s just those three like just their their style their art styles (0:08:15) Aislinn: Mm hmm. Yeah, I would definitely agree. I’m very I am. I didn’t think I was for like the (0:08:15) Al: and their their vibes all feel very similar. (0:08:24) Aislinn: longest time. And then within the past like year, I’ve definitely realized that aesthetically and (0:08:30) Aislinn: vibe wise, I am very picky about my games in that sense. And all three of those games fit that good (0:08:37) Aislinn: soundtrack and nice aesthetic. Like if a game doesn’t look good, I realized that I’m not like (0:08:45) Aislinn: a huge fan. Like personally, even though I know, and this is this is hot water that I’m treading (0:08:49) Aislinn: into, but I know a lot of people love Baldur’s Gate. I don’t think I’m ever going to play Baldur’s (0:08:54) Aislinn: Gate because I don’t like how it looks. It’s not my my favorite aesthetic. So hot take, but I (0:09:01) Aislinn: unfortunately am a sucker for aesthetics. Yeah. Yeah. (0:09:04) Al: I think anybody who says they don’t care how their games look is lying to you. It’s just (0:09:10) Al: that people have different preferences, right? Because I care how my games look, right? There (0:09:16) Al: are games that I’ve seen come out that have been like, you know, PS3 style graphics, like (0:09:21) Al: they’re trying to recreate that vibe. And I don’t like how they look, you know? But (0:09:27) Al: equally the, you know, the more 3D Pokemon games have generally people have generally (0:09:34) Al: not liked the look of, and I’ve quite liked them. I mean, it’s not like Scarlet and Violet (0:09:34) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:09:38) Al: is the most good looking game, but I’m just not bothered by it. And specifically, I really (0:09:39) Aislinn: Yeah. Mm-hmm. (0:09:43) Al: like how Pokemon Legends look. I actively like how that game looks, even though some (0:09:45) Aislinn: Yeah, me too. (0:09:47) Al: people really dislike it. So yeah, I think it’s a lie to say you don’t care how games (0:09:48) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:09:52) Al: look, but it’s a way that people describe the fact that we have different preferences. (0:09:58) Al: And so people will be like, “Oh, oh, I just, I don’t care about graphics.” And it’s like, (0:10:01) Al: You do, it’s just what your preference is. (0:10:04) Al: are different from other people. So when you see a game that you like and other people (0:10:08) Al: call it bad, you’re like, “Oh, clearly that means I don’t care about graphics.” It’s like, (0:10:11) Al: “No, you just like what other people don’t and that’s fine.” You couldn’t agree more. (0:10:13) Aislinn: Yeah, I agree, I 1000% agree. (0:10:19) Aislinn: I could not agree, I couldn’t, I could agree more, I don’t know what the phrase is, but I think you know what I mean. (0:10:24) Aislinn: I couldn’t agree more, thank you. (0:10:26) Al: Yes. Cool. Well, I haven’t been playing… (0:10:27) Aislinn: English is hard. (0:10:34) Al: I haven’t been playing a lot because I’ve spent most of my time podcasting because I’ve (0:10:37) Aislinn: It’s been sporadic, though. (0:10:45) Al: been recording six episodes in two and a half weeks to get ready to go away. Obviously, (0:10:48) Aislinn: Oh my god. (0:10:50) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:10:52) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:10:52) Al: I finished up Dave the Diver for the Dave the Diver episodes. I’ve managed to finish (0:10:56) Al: that story, so tune in next week to find out my first thoughts on Dave the Diver. (0:11:04) Al: I have picked up for a very short period of time so far. I haven’t played much of it, (0:11:08) Al: but I’ve just picked up Chicken Journey, which is a 2D chicken platforming RPG. (0:11:15) Aislinn: actually I think this is on my wish list it looks so cute (0:11:20) Al: Yeah, I was on sale in the… was it the summer sale? I don’t know, I lose track. Whatever (0:11:26) Aislinn: probably (0:11:27) Al: the most recent sale was on Steam, and it’s been on my list for a while, and I saw that (0:11:33) Al: it’s about 10 hours to complete, so I was like, “That feels like a good… Yeah, let’s (0:11:37) Al: go for that then.” So that will probably be my holiday game. About half an hour. Really (0:11:39) Aislinn: nice very nice how much of it how much I was gonna say how much of it have you played thus far (0:11:47) Aislinn: okay all right so not much of a first first look got it (0:11:51) Al: but I’ve played enough to know that I don’t dislike the controls, which is always a good start. (0:11:55) Aislinn: that’s a huge plus honestly (0:11:57) Al: And the game looks like what you expect based on the materials, so I’m not seeing any false (0:12:03) Al: advertising. So we’ll see how the platforming challenges are and what the story is. And yeah. (0:12:12) Aislinn: Yeah, I’m looking forward to hearing more about it from you definitely, because it is, (0:12:16) Aislinn: I did confirm it is on my wish list, so to get your take would be fantastic. (0:12:21) Al: will mention it at some point, I’m sure. Well, that’s what we’ve been playing. (0:12:23) Aislinn: Awesome. (0:12:28) Al: We’re going to talk about some game news. There’s not a lot, and mainly that’s because we’re (0:12:33) Al: recording quite early. So if something happens in the last week when this comes out, that’s because (0:12:41) Al: we didn’t mention it because we’ve already recorded SAWs. So the first news is that Far Lands have (0:12:49) Al: have announced their early access is coming. (0:12:51) Al: on the 24th of July for people who don’t remember, because I talk about too many games. (0:13:01) Al: This is a 2D pixel art farming game in space. (0:13:09) Al: Yeah, I don’t think there’s a huge amount to say, they’ve announced their early access. (0:13:16) Aislinn: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I you know my take on pretty much all the game news is that I have never seen this game before (0:13:24) Aislinn: But it looks I did I actually copied and pasted it (0:13:24) Al: » Island literally wrote that next to every single news. (0:13:27) Al: I’ve first time seeing this game. (0:13:29) Aislinn: And literally copied and pasted it. I was like, oh I haven’t seen any of these games (0:13:35) Aislinn: It looks like us. It looks like a space a space star do (0:13:38) Al: pretty much. Yeah, I don’t, it’s not like I think this game looks bad. There’s nothing (0:13:39) Aislinn: Okay (0:13:45) Al: about it that excites me in particular, but, you know, different people, etc. So if you (0:13:52) Aislinn: Yeah, it fills that niche. (0:13:54) Al: want to space stardew, this is one of the many options coming out in the next few months. (0:13:59) Aislinn: And you know my take about another farming sim in my life, I don’t have time! (0:14:06) Aislinn: But I appreciate it for what it is. (0:14:07) Aislinn: I do appreciate it for what it is, and if that was filling the niche for me, I would (0:14:11) Aislinn: be stoked about it. (0:14:12) Al: Yeah, yeah, fair enough. (0:14:15) Al: GoGo Town have released more information about their roadmap, so listeners will know what (0:14:23) Al: this game is because we covered it a couple weeks ago. (0:14:27) Al: I played it. (0:14:28) Al: It’s an early access. (0:14:30) Al: My summary, Aislinn, because you won’t have listened to that episode, is it’s an early (0:14:34) Al: access but not one of the buggy early accesses. (0:14:38) Al: One of the early accesses that just feels like it’s missing a lot of content. (0:14:42) Al: I think this will be really good to play once it’s once it’s further down the line. (0:14:47) Al: But I feel like after kind of six or seven hours, was it 10, 10 hours, something like that, (0:14:53) Al: I played of it. (0:14:54) Aislinn: I mean, considering six or seven hours and you feel that way already, that’s pretty good, (0:14:54) Al: I feel like I’ve gotten everything I can out of it just now, but I have very much (0:15:04) Aislinn: but that’s unfortunate. (0:15:05) Aislinn: It’s like the early access is lack of content, but I much, much, much rather that than it (0:15:10) Aislinn: being a buggy game for sure. (0:15:12) Al: Yeah, that’s always been my feeling because there’s a few others that have played in that (0:15:16) Al: similar vein like Ooblets and Coral Island. They were both similar where the game did (0:15:22) Al: not feel buggy at all. It just felt unfinished and there was a lot of missing content. All (0:15:29) Al: of them I’ve come back to at 1.0 and had a great time again. I never feel bad about them, (0:15:35) Al: because I go into them knowing they’re early access. I’d say, “Well, yeah, I would much (0:15:38) Al: rather that, then here’s a game where everything exists, but it’s gonna crash. (0:15:42) Al: Every five minutes. You know. (0:15:42) Aislinn: Yeah, no, I much rather that. (0:15:47) Aislinn: I agree. (0:15:48) Aislinn: I wholeheartedly agree. (0:15:50) Aislinn: But yeah, this is the go-go town game for what I, again, first time seeing the game. (0:15:55) Aislinn: So all I know is what I’ve seen on the Steam page store for the most part, but it does (0:16:00) Aislinn: look like a whole bunch of fun. (0:16:02) Aislinn: So when it is fully fleshed out, it looks like there’s a lot of things that like a lot (0:16:06) Aislinn: of time that you could sink into the game. (0:16:08) Al: Yeah, yeah, definitely. And you can write a unicorn tricycle. So, yeah, that’s the important thing. (0:16:12) Aislinn: You can high five a cow. (0:16:14) Aislinn: [LAUGH] I saw that and I was like, whoa, I was like ready. (0:16:20) Aislinn: I was ready, I was those hype. (0:16:21) Aislinn: [LAUGH] It’s so cute. (0:16:22) Al: Yeah, so they’ve updated their roadmap a little bit. There’s an update coming out pretty much (0:16:32) Al: just when this comes out with some more updates to their worker AIs. A lot of this game, Aislinn, (0:16:38) Al: is about kind of getting people to your town and telling them to, like you give them jobs to do. (0:16:44) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:16:44) Al: And so they do the things that you were doing, they automate them and stuff like that. So (0:16:48) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:16:48) Al: there’s obviously some bugs within that because that’s a very complicated thing to do. (0:16:52) Al: So they’ve got a bunch of updates coming for fixing of that. And then they’ve announced that (0:16:59) Al: their first major update is going to come mid-August. And that includes, it’s mostly (0:17:02) Aislinn: Nice. Soon. (0:17:06) Al: kind of like quality of life improvements. And they had said, I think they’re going to expand (0:17:10) Al: the map and stuff like that, which was kind of one of the biggest things that I had noticed about (0:17:13) Al: the game was it felt quite small, experience wise, which is good that they’re focusing on. (0:17:22) Al: What people are feeling are the things they would like to improve quickest. (0:17:28) Aislinn: And that’s the beauty of more indie games in general, is like you’re able to have that (0:17:32) Aislinn: community and have that communication, which is very nice, very refreshing. (0:17:38) Al: Garden Witch Life have released a new trailer. I feel like the name tells you everything (0:17:45) Al: about what this game is, right? Garden Witch Life. It’s a life sim where you’re a witch (0:17:47) Aislinn: Yeah, I would agree. (0:17:52) Al: and you’re farming. Yeah. So yeah, they’ve released a new trailer with some kind of hints (0:17:56) Aislinn: Yeah, yeah, yep, that’s that’s what I took away from looking at the game as well (0:18:01) Aislinn: And that little little guy (0:18:04) Al: towards the story and (0:18:08) Al: yeah I i they’ve not got a release date yet but they are still saying that it’s releasing this (0:18:12) Al: year so if they’re saying that in july i’m feeling reasonably confident a bit (0:18:18) Aislinn: Yeah, well, well, I guess, yeah, I think I, I, I would agree. (0:18:21) Aislinn: I would agree. (0:18:22) Aislinn: I wish, I wish I could, I realized now that I was so excited about that little (0:18:26) Aislinn: guy, but this is an audio only podcast. (0:18:29) Aislinn: So that doesn’t make any sense, but just know that there is on specifically the (0:18:31) Al: There’s a little guy. (0:18:34) Aislinn: steam page, if you go to the steam page and you go to the decorate section on (0:18:39) Aislinn: that little bed, there’s a little guy right there. (0:18:41) Aislinn: That’s very cute. (0:18:43) Aislinn: I mean, there’s a bunch of little guys, but there’s specifically a little guy (0:18:43) Al: just a little guy. Yeah, he is. He’s a little guy. And he’s following the theme of frogs (0:18:46) Aislinn: And he’s real (0:18:48) Aislinn: Good (0:18:51) Aislinn: He’s a little guy (0:18:55) Aislinn: He is (0:18:56) Al: this episode. So low frog guy. (0:18:58) Aislinn: That’s my take on garden witch life 10 out of 10 cuz a little guy (0:19:01) Aislinn: Bye. (laughs) (0:19:06) Al: We also have a small update about Lens Island, so I think we talked about the Game Modes (0:19:11) Al: update last week. That is now out, and they’ve released the entire patch notes. I don’t think (0:19:18) Al: there was anything big that I saw in there that we hadn’t already talked about. Basically, (0:19:24) Al: Aislinn, this update is about adding new game modes, and changes in difficulty, but not (0:19:30) Al: just our easy, hard, medium sort of thing, but they’ve got… (0:19:36) Al: So many different options. You can turn on Permadeath, or turn it off. You can change (0:19:43) Al: what happens to your bag when you die, whether it stays with you, whether it drops, or whether (0:19:47) Al: it’s destroyed. They’ve got 30 or 40 different updates in different settings for the difficulty, (0:19:58) Aislinn: Whoo, that’s nice. That’s awesome. It’s a game. That’s also I think on my wish list (0:20:02) Aislinn: But I just have not gotten around to playing it (0:20:04) Aislinn: But good to know that there’s going to be even more options one and if I am able to get around to it (0:20:09) Al: Yeah, I mean, I’m not going to encourage you to play it right now because their 1.0 comes (0:20:13) Al: out in like two months. So, very soon. I’m worse than you. It’s not on my wish list. (0:20:17) Aislinn: We’ll revisit in two months then. [laughs] (0:20:23) Al: I own the game and I haven’t played it yet. That’s not quite true. Well, part of the problem (0:20:25) Aislinn: Awwwwww! [laughs] (0:20:30) Al: is that I might have a problem in kick-starting games, and this was one of the ones I kick-started, (0:20:37) Al: So obviously I got the code for then. (0:20:39) Al: I have opened the game, but I opened the game on my Steam deck and I went to play it and realized they didn’t have controller support when the first version came out and I went, “I’m not going to do this just now then.” (0:20:41) Aislinn: Okay. (0:20:47) Aislinn: Awwww… (0:20:50) Aislinn: Awwww… (0:20:51) Al: It has now been, I think it has now, I think been two years since the added controller support, but I’ve still not played it yet. (0:20:56) Aislinn: Okay. (0:20:57) Aislinn: When- you know when you get to it is when you get to it. laughs (0:21:01) Al: Exactly, exactly. So at this point, I’m waiting for 1.0 and then I’ll be all in. (0:21:06) Aislinn: Two months, two months. (0:21:09) Al: Well, I’m in a way for the next month anyway, so. (0:21:12) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. It’s true. laughs (0:21:15) Al: July has been a very busy with games. (0:21:19) Al: There were so many games that released in July, it was a little bit stressful. (0:21:24) Al: Gogotown being one of them. Thanks, guys. (0:21:30) Al: That’s the game news. (0:21:31) Al: We also have a new game, Wind Story. (0:21:36) Al: So this I’ll just as I always do read a little blurb about this. (0:21:39) Al: So I mean, it’s a like a life farming life, right? (0:21:59) Al: I’m just going to do it. (0:22:00) Aislinn: Again, I don’t have time, but the game looks really nice. (0:22:05) Aislinn: I really like the colors and I am a sucker for the Octopath art style. (0:22:10) Al: Yeah, so was it 2DHD? Is that what they’re calling it? Where it’s like your kind of pixel art, (0:22:10) Aislinn: Art style-esque thing. (0:22:12) Aislinn: Uhhh, good question. (0:22:16) Aislinn: I, I, I, you know, even though I said I like the art style because it’s Octopath, I’ve (0:22:16) Al: I think that’s what they call it? Let’s see, or is that like a trademark or something? (0:22:25) Aislinn: never played Octopath in my life, but I’ve seen friends play Octopath and I appreciate (0:22:30) Aislinn: the art style, but I don’t know anything about the game. (0:22:31) Al: You can like how something looks. Yeah so Wikipedia says it’s an HD 2D not 2D HD. Sorry, (0:22:39) Aislinn: Ah, okay. (0:22:40) Al: HD 2D. So yeah I have mixed feelings about that style of game. Like I know it’s trying to do the… (0:22:40) Aislinn: HG2D, okay. (0:22:51) Al: it’s trying to be like kind of 2D RPGs where in the past but try and make them more modern. (0:23:01) Al: If you’re trying to do that style of game you either do this or you do just standard 2D pixel art. (0:23:10) Al: There’s something about the characters on the background they never quite fit properly and I (0:23:17) Al: just I’m not a huge fan of any of this style of graphics. I think that’s a me thing. I just feel (0:23:24) Al: like they stand out badly against the background. (0:23:28) Aislinn: I mean, yeah, I’ve it’s I feel like the octopath art style. I feel like it’s very divisive. It’s either you like it or you don’t (0:23:35) Aislinn: Like I’ve definitely heard your take of just not being super stoked about it (0:23:40) Aislinn: But I’ve also heard people that will die on a hill and say it’s amazing. So (0:23:45) Aislinn: Again, like you were saying in the beginning the aesthetics it’s a preference (0:23:48) Al: Yeah. It’s not even just like that, because I’m trying to figure out whether it’s because, (0:23:53) Al: obviously, the character models are like flat, kind of like Paper Mario, but the reason that (0:23:58) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:23:59) Al: I prefer how Paper Mario looks is because like everything looks like that, whereas this is just (0:24:04) Al: the character on an otherwise high-definition 3D world. And it just, there’s something about that (0:24:12) Al: that just doesn’t, what’s the opposite of tickling your brain? It like, stabbing my brain. I don’t (0:24:15) Aislinn: I feel like that’s so aggressive smoosh smooshing. I don’t know. I’m not sure (0:24:19) Al: brain does not like it. Smooshing my brain. That sounds worse. (0:24:26) Aislinn: That does sound worse, I don’t know (0:24:31) Al: Yeah. I don’t know. I, yeah. Some people will love how this looks, and that’s good. (0:24:36) Aislinn: Fair no (0:24:39) Al: But this game is coming soon, and that blurb that I gave you is most of what we know. There’s some (0:24:46) Al: more kind of description. (0:24:48) Al: And there’s a bunch of screenshots if you want to look on the Steam page, (0:24:51) Al: but there’s not a huge amount more and, yeah. (0:24:56) Aislinn: Yeah, I’ve got nothing else to add with that. (0:24:59) Aislinn: I think it looks okay, you think it looks eh? (0:25:02) Aislinn: And that’s just, that’s just how it’d be. (0:25:06) Al: That is how it would be. (0:25:07) Al: However, a game that we both think looks great. (0:25:10) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:25:11) Al: However, I haven’t played it yet is Kamayru. (0:25:13) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:25:15) Al: We are going to talk about Kamaeru, a frog refuge. (0:25:18) Al: From someone who hasn’t played this, I guess I would describe this as looking like Usagi (0:25:24) Al: Shima, but frogs. (0:25:26) Al: Would you say that’s a fair description? (0:25:28) Aislinn: I have to look up what you just said. (0:25:29) Al: Oh, you’ve not played Usagi Shima? (0:25:32) Aislinn: No. (0:25:32) Al: Oh, no! (0:25:33) Aislinn: Oh, yeah. (0:25:33) Al: Where have you been? (0:25:34) Aislinn: No, I do know this. (0:25:35) Aislinn: I do notice. (0:25:36) Aislinn: Yeah. (0:25:37) Aislinn: It’s it is. (0:25:38) Al: Bunny game. (0:25:38) Aislinn: It is. (0:25:39) Aislinn: Yep. (0:25:40) Aislinn: No, I’ve heard of. (0:25:41) Aislinn: You know, it is. (0:25:42) Al: Ah. (0:25:42) Aislinn: I never played it because I have a friend that I knew I knew would love this game. (0:25:44) Aislinn: And I was like, I’m gonna let her have it and have her moment because I feel like this (0:25:48) Aislinn: is a game suited for her because she is her whole branding is rabbit. (0:25:51) Aislinn: So I’m like, I’m gonna let her have her moment. (0:25:53) Aislinn: But I’ve seen this game very cute. (0:25:55) Aislinn: And I think from what I know about this game, yes, it’s very similar. (0:25:58) Aislinn: It is, instead of it being a bunny collecting game, a frog. (0:25:59) Al: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Cool. Well, yeah, I mean, I personally, when I’ve seen it, I’ve liked (0:26:07) Al: the look of it. I’ve seen you stream it a little bit because if people don’t know, Aislinn (0:26:09) Aislinn: Mm-hmm (0:26:12) Al: is a streamer, a very good streamer, a very fun streamer. Doing mostly cosy games would (0:26:14) Aislinn: Hey, thank you (0:26:18) Al: be a fair way to describe it. You don’t discriminate on your cosy games, you just do whatever you’re (0:26:25) Aislinn: Yeah, pretty much. It’s whatever. It happens to usually be cozy, but I’m open to anything (0:26:32) Aislinn: as long as I’m having a good time at the end of the day. (0:26:34) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. Cool. Well, I’ll hand it off to you to start off with then. (0:26:40) Al: Tell me about this game. You’ve gotten into it. What’s it like? (0:26:44) Aislinn: Well, first of all, buckle in, because it’s time. (0:26:50) Al: It’s time for Essay! (0:26:55) Aislinn: I love this game, just to preface it. (0:26:58) Aislinn: So I am definitely very biased in the sense that I will give this game all of the praise (0:27:02) Aislinn: in the world, because I love this game, I’ve met the developers, and everything from beginning (0:27:11) Aislinn: to end has been a wonderful experience with this game. (0:27:13) Aislinn: I’m very biased in the– (0:27:14) Aislinn: I’m very biased in the positive end of this game, but what Kamaeru is from the website (0:27:21) Aislinn: Kamaeru is a cozy farming sim game in which you breed and collect frogs, decorate your refuge, and restore wetlands in order to grow food and other resources (0:27:29) Aislinn: There’s also, like, from the Steam page as well, it mentions (0:27:34) Aislinn: With the help of the game’s cast of welcoming NPCs, you have photograph and breed frogs to increase your reputation, decorate your frog refuge, and plant native crops de– (0:27:44) Aislinn: to help your amphibian abode thrive (0:27:47) Aislinn: Um, and pretty much the gameplay loop of the game is collecting frogs, whether you are feeding them, you’re breeding them, you are taking photos of them (0:27:58) Aislinn: You can collect 500+ frogs, and add them to your frogadex (0:28:02) Al: 500. Wow. So many frogs. I always find it funny when they say 500 plus. It’s like how (0:28:03) Aislinn: 500+! So many frogs! It’s so good! (0:28:09) Al: many more plus? Is- is- (0:28:10) Aislinn: I think it’s like, I think it’s like, I’m not going to lie, I think it’s like five. (0:28:14) Aislinn: I have the the number 512 in my head, and I don’t know if that’s correct or not. (0:28:18) Al: I just feel like just put the number, right? Like 500 plus, just put the number, right? (0:28:21) Aislinn: Yeah, right? Yeah, I… (0:28:25) Aislinn: Yeah, yeah, I agree, but you know, you gotta you gotta make it look enticing by saying plus. (0:28:31) Al: But like, I feel like most people would probably look at that and go, “Oh, so like 501 then.” (0:28:39) Al: Whereas if it was like much more than that, you would put the number, right? Like if it (0:28:41) Al: was 590, you wouldn’t say 500 plus, you’d say nearly 600. (0:28:46) Aislinn: True. It’s like saying, it’s like people when they say like, oh a few, a couple, (0:28:50) Aislinn: that could mean multiple different things to different people, so. (0:28:56) Aislinn: I think it’s like five, twelve. I’m pretty sure it’s less than five fifty though. (0:29:00) Aislinn: So I’ll say somewhere within that range. True. (0:29:00) Al: I mean 500 is a lot, no matter how many exactly it is, 500 plus. (0:29:07) Aislinn: And they’re all adorable. All so cute. And I love that it’s called the Frogadex. I think that is so (0:29:13) Aislinn: adorable. (0:29:14) Al: Hmm. Classic. (0:29:16) Aislinn: Yeah, it’s real. It’s real good. You collect the frogs, 500 plus frogs, just so you know. (0:29:21) Al: 500 plus. (0:29:25) Aislinn: You restore the wetlands, which is one of my favorite things, I think, by far about (0:29:29) Aislinn: this game is that there is a… it’s not… it’s definitely by no means. There’s not a (0:29:35) Aislinn: lot of… it’s not super… it’s not super in-depth in regards to, like, the (0:29:40) Aislinn: restor… like, learning about the restoration process, but you do learn (0:29:44) Aislinn: about what it’s (0:29:46) Aislinn: kind of like to restore a wetland or restore an (0:29:48) Aislinn: environment and it there is a focus on this in this game of (0:29:52) Aislinn: just conservation and everything, which makes me very (0:29:56) Aislinn: happy. Like there’s a it’s not just a game about collecting (0:30:00) Aislinn: frogs is also a message, especially with me melting over (0:30:04) Aislinn: here because of global warming, I think it’s wonderful. It’s (0:30:06) Aislinn: perfect timing. It’s wonderful. So there’s that. And then with (0:30:12) Aislinn: that, there’s also decorating your wetlands is decorating your (0:30:16) Aislinn: there is froggy. There’s a froggy chair. Confirm there is a (0:30:20) Aislinn: froggy chair. There’s froggy furniture in general. So if you (0:30:23) Aislinn: like those little guys, this froggy everything. And it is (0:30:30) Aislinn: available on Steam on the Xbox series and the Nintendo Switch. (0:30:37) Aislinn: But if it were up to me, I would recommend playing it on (0:30:41) Aislinn: thirsty with a mouse because it’s a very clicky game. (0:30:43) Al: It’s a very clicky game, isn’t it? (0:30:46) Aislinn: I was given a key by Armor Games because that’s the publisher, so they gave me a key for Steam but I bought the game on Switch because I loved the game so much that I wanted to also buy the game to support developers as well and I still enjoy it on the Switch but I definitely enjoy it way more on the PC personally. (0:31:04) Al: Mm hmm. (0:31:12) Al: Does the touch screen work on Switch? (0:31:12) Aislinn: Actually, it’s a good point. (0:31:16) Al: You haven’t tried. (0:31:16) Aislinn: I realized… I don’t think I tried. (0:31:18) Al: I can’t believe you haven’t tried. (0:31:19) Al: Like, I just I can’t I can’t imagine you would you would go and go, oh, (0:31:23) Al: this is this is a game that seems to work much better when you can just click (0:31:27) Al: on the things you want and you didn’t go and you didn’t go, well, (0:31:28) Aislinn: Yeah, I think I did, I think I did, but also I don’t remember, because the most recent (0:31:30) Al: let me just try tapping on the things that I want. (0:31:39) Aislinn: times that I’ve played Kameeru on the Switch, I had it all the time docked on a TV. (0:31:44) Al: Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair (0:31:44) Aislinn: So that’s why I’m like, um, I don’t remember I don’t because I just, I haven’t played the (0:31:49) Aislinn: Switch handheld in a while. (0:31:51) Aislinn: So that’s probably why I don’t remember. (0:31:53) Aislinn: I would guess so though, I would guess it can be touchscreen, but you’re going to primarily (0:31:58) Aislinn: be playing it with a controller, which is okay, but it’s definitely built better for (0:32:02) Aislinn: a mouse. (0:32:04) Aislinn: And even when I was talking with the developers, when I met them at PAX East, they were like, (0:32:08) Aislinn: yeah, this game is better on, on a, on a PC. (0:32:10) Aislinn: So even they’re just, even they’re aware, but they have to, you got, you got to do what (0:32:14) Al: It’s hard, I think, when you’ve got a game that’s very clicky to map that to a controller. (0:32:20) Aislinn: - Yeah. (0:32:20) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:32:23) Al: I did just search and it looks like it doesn’t work with the touch screen on Switch, which (0:32:27) Al: is a bit sad. That could have been a really nice way to do it. I actually think, you know, (0:32:28) Aislinn: Aww. Yeah. (0:32:31) Al: because Usagi Shima is like a mobile game, so it works really well with that, because (0:32:36) Al: obviously you just got a touch screen. I feel like it could work really well on like an (0:32:36) Aislinn: Yeah. (0:32:39) Al: iPad or something like that. But yeah, I get the complication with that. (0:32:40) Aislinn: Yeah. (0:32:44) Al: It’s difficult. And I think that, you know, even something like Stardew with a controller, (0:32:53) Al: there’s always a few things that you’re just like, “That’s not ideal,” because it’s a difficult (0:32:56) Aislinn: - Yeah. (0:32:56) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:32:57) Al: thing to do when you design it around mouse and keyboard. That’s how you start off with (0:33:02) Al: things and that makes specific decisions about how the game works, you know. (0:33:07) Aislinn: Yeah, definitely, again, definitely built for the mouse and keyboard situation and everything, (0:33:16) Aislinn: but yeah, just gotta be more marketable. (0:33:20) Aislinn: Get it out to more. (0:33:21) Aislinn: The more people you can get it out to, the better. (0:33:23) Aislinn: And I want more people to see this game anyways. (0:33:24) Aislinn: I love, love, love this game, just the conservation aspect, the everything is cute, the art style (0:33:30) Aislinn: is adorable, the people behind, the people on the team of the game itself are also wonderful (0:33:34) Aislinn: human beings. So like everything through and through. (0:33:38) Aislinn: It’s just it’s just a wonderfully cozy brain turning off type of game and if (0:33:44) Aislinn: you love frogs it’s it’s just it’s a it’s a good game. (0:33:49) Al: So, in terms of actual gameplay, you’re collecting the frogs. How do you collect the frogs? Where (0:33:54) Aislinn: So you can collect the frogs by either taking a photo of them or you can feed them. How to get (0:33:56) Al: do they come from? (0:34:05) Aislinn: the frogs is by placing furniture either in your refuge or in any of the wetlands that you’re (0:34:11) Aislinn: restoring. And then also they’ll appear in the ponds that you also plant or put down rather in (0:34:19) Aislinn: the wetlands as well. So they appear in any of those scenarios and once they appear you’ll see (0:34:24) Aislinn: a little animation pop up if it’s new and you can collect the frogs from there. If you’re feeding (0:34:32) Aislinn: the frogs to collect them you’ll also have to essentially farm and get the bugs that you need. (0:34:38) Aislinn: But what I like is that the game gives you the option to feed it like the bugs that you do have (0:34:43) Aislinn: and then when you see the frog again if you have those bugs that you weren’t able to feed it then (0:34:47) Aislinn: you could feed them again and then you can collect those frogs. The distinction between taking a photo (0:34:54) Aislinn: frogs is that if you take a photo it just gets added to the frogadex. If you collect it it not (0:34:59) Aislinn: only gets added to the frogadex but it also can be used for the breeding of the frogs. (0:35:05) Aislinn: So and then the breeding is also another way to collect frogs as well is that you can try and (0:35:09) Aislinn: breed for the different patterns with the frogs as well. (0:35:12) Al: Yeah, so I saw kind of like a bunch of them are just like it’s a green frog with red arms (0:35:18) Al: type thing. So do you get that by breeding like a green frog and a red frog? Is that (0:35:18) Aislinn: Yeah, well yes and no, yes in the sense that that is ideally how you would do it, but no (0:35:22) Al: the idea? (0:35:23) Al: » Thank you. (0:35:27) Aislinn: in the sense that like the minigames, so this game also has minigames as well, the minigame (0:35:32) Aislinn: that you play to do the breeding, it’s essentially just tic-tac-toe with the computer essentially. (0:35:41) Aislinn: So if you’re lucky, you’ll get what you want, but you have to kind of be strategic with (0:35:47) Aislinn: your tic-tac-toe and hope for the best. (0:35:49) Al: Okay, fair enough. So that’s how… So when you’re doing the breeding, do you select two of them, (0:35:58) Al: and then you do this minigame, and if you win, you get something. Okay. (0:36:02) Aislinn: Yeah, pretty much (0:36:05) Aislinn: Yeah, you collect you choose to the frogs that you fed and then that allows you to (0:36:11) Aislinn: do the mini game to try and get either a pattern that you a pattern and a color that you want or just a pattern depending (0:36:18) Aislinn: On what you’re what you’re trying to breed for you can if you if you want like a specific color (0:36:22) Aislinn: you could do two different patterns and (0:36:25) Aislinn: do both pink of (0:36:28) Aislinn: each frog or something so (0:36:30) Aislinn: There’s a lot of there’s a lot of different (0:36:33) Aislinn: Options between the patterns and the colors that are available to you to try and get what you want to fill up your frog adex (0:36:40) Aislinn: with breeding like eventually I’ll probably (0:36:43) Aislinn: End up breeding towards the tail end of completing the frog adex to try and get fill in those gaps (0:36:49) Al: When you have a very few specific ones that you’ve got to get yeah, yeah, so you’re finding it’s quicker just to catch them in the wild just now because of that. (0:36:51) Aislinn: Yeah (0:36:52) Aislinn: Exactly. That’s probably (0:36:56) Aislinn: Yeah, cuz it’s just yeah cuz it’s like RNG essentially with the with the breeding (0:37:02) Aislinn: Which it’s either you love it or hate it (0:37:04) Aislinn: I guess like for me I don’t particularly mind but I can see someone being like well (0:37:08) Aislinn: I wish I could be more selective about it. So it (0:37:12) Aislinn: Depends on your preference, but definitely I think towards the tail end of completing completing the frog adex (0:37:18) Aislinn: It would be best to just do the breeding and try and hope for the best and you’ll probably have enough money to do (0:37:23) Aislinn: So it only costs I know in the screenshot. It says eight coins (0:37:26) Aislinn: I’m pretty sure that’s consistent throughout the entire gameplay loop that it’s always eight coins (0:37:31) Aislinn: which is not (0:37:33) Al: Yeah, okay, fair enough. How are you getting coins then? Is that through tourism by having (0:37:41) Al: the wetlands, or is it just having the - how do you get them? (0:37:45) Aislinn: That is through the crafting aspect, which is like another minigame in itself. So in each wetland, (0:37:52) Aislinn: I won’t spoil all the wetlands because it is, I guess, a spoiler, technically, and it’s kind (0:37:58) Aislinn: of part of the story. But in each wetland that you are able to have access to, there are different (0:38:04) Aislinn: stations with different NPCs that you interact with and learn about as well in their backstories. (0:38:10) Aislinn: But there’s different stations where you can cook and craft, like you can make. (0:38:16) Aislinn: You can make jams, berry jams, and stuff like that. And then you take those materials that you get, (0:38:24) Aislinn: and you’re able to sell them in the shop back in your refuge to be able to get money, to then be (0:38:29) Aislinn: able to buy more ponds, buy more plants for your wetlands, and buy furniture, breed, repaint your (0:38:40) Aislinn: furniture, etc, etc. So that’s another thing, too, is that you can change depending on most of the (0:38:45) Aislinn: furniture, but most of the furniture, too, in the game. You can also repaint to any color that you (0:38:49) Aislinn: want, but you have to understand color theory. I mean, I guess you could just mess around with it, (0:38:53) Aislinn: but it would take, it would take, it would take, it would take, it would be a go quicker (0:38:58) Aislinn: if you knew color theory. If you don’t know color theory, you’ll get there one way or another. (0:39:02) Al: Instead of just choosing a color, you’re essentially adding color which changes what the color is. (0:39:08) Aislinn: Yeah, they… (0:39:09) Al: If I have a red one and I add blue, it goes purple sort of thing. (0:39:13) Aislinn: yeah pretty much yeah they (0:39:16) Aislinn: to work with and then you kind of adjust the levels from there so you can try and get to the (0:39:21) Aislinn: color that you’re trying to get to. I will say the color palette is still even though there is (0:39:25) Aislinn: like the color theory aspect I will say the color palette still feels slightly limited (0:39:31) Aislinn: but it mostly gets the job done and there’s still a lot of (0:39:35) Al: Now I need to know, on the Steam page, they’ve got this frog standing on the top of a froggy (0:39:41) Al: slide looking very powerful in his stance. Why is he so confident? Yeah. All right, fair (0:39:42) Aislinn: Yeeeaaah! (0:39:48) Aislinn: Why is he so confident? ‘Cause he’s confidently cute! (0:39:53) Aislinn: He’s confidently cute! (0:39:55) Al: enough. (0:39:56) Aislinn: Well, yeah, but like, you can- when you discover the frogs, like in your refuge, (0:40:01) Aislinn: in your wetlands and everything, they can also be in different poses as well, which is very cute. (0:40:05) Al: Yeah, yeah, fair enough. It seems it does seem very similar to sagashima in terms of (0:40:10) Al: like, you know, you’ve got your furniture and they have specific things that they do (0:40:14) Al: with the furniture and you’ll just randomly find that all this one’s on this thing now, (0:40:20) Al: which is very cute. Like the one kind of reaching into a wheelbarrow is very cute. (0:40:25) Aislinn: Oh that one when I saw that one for the first time I cried a little bit. It’s so cute. It’s so cute (0:40:32) Aislinn: That’s what I think gets me the most is just I literally I think through most of my gameplay (0:40:37) Aislinn: When I was streaming at all the entire time. I was like, it’s so cute. These little guys. They’re so cute (0:40:44) Al: How do you find the selection of furniture and poses? Are there enough that you don’t (0:40:49) Al: feel like it’s just repeating very quickly? (0:40:52) Aislinn: Um, I would say the the furniture I haven’t unlocked all the furniture actually, I’m currently in the process (0:40:58) Aislinn: so I finished the main game and (0:41:00) Aislinn: I’m now currently in the process of trying to get (0:41:03) Aislinn: all (0:41:04) Aislinn: Not even all of the furniture, but a bunch of the furniture (0:41:08) Aislinn: My priority more so is I want to complete the frog and eggs. That’s my goal. How will I complete that? (0:41:13) Aislinn: I don’t know. When will I complete that? I don’t know but (0:41:15) Aislinn: With the furniture from the options that I’ve seen it’s a pretty pretty decent variety (0:41:20) Aislinn: and furniture. (0:41:22) Aislinn: As for the frogs, I think I am getting to a point in my Steam game where frogs are (0:41:42) Aislinn: definitely starting to repeat themselves and there is only like maybe like five or so poses (0:41:48) Aislinn: that they cycle through I wanna say. (0:41:50) Aislinn: not too many poses. (0:41:52) Aislinn: It’s just a very cute game to me, and I really love it. (0:42:13) Aislinn: So I personally am not really getting tired of it, but I don’t know when I complete the (0:42:17) Aislinn: frog attacks or when I get all the furniture what else I can do with the (0:42:22) Aislinn: I think once that’s done, like the game is pretty much like done. There’s nothing you can do at this point. (0:42:28) Aislinn: Even when you complete the main story, depending on how much of completionist you are, (0:42:31) Aislinn: it might be like a one and done so much so that like this is another kind of complaint that I have. (0:42:38) Aislinn: But it’s again also a me thing more than anything is that the game doesn’t allow you to have multiple save files. (0:42:44) Aislinn: So it’s literally like one and done. (0:42:47) Aislinn: So that could be (0:42:49) Aislinn: that could be an issue. Personally, why I- (0:42:52) Aislinn: I want multiple save files is because I want to be able to have my on stream copy of the game, (0:42:59) Aislinn: and then my off stream copy of the game, because I like to play this game also in my personal time. (0:43:04) Aislinn: But that’s why I bought the Steam version, because that’s my personal copy, or my second save file, (0:43:09) Aislinn: you could say. But it’s just the only thing that kind of is like “eh” is the fact that I have to (0:43:14) Aislinn: use the controller for that one. So it would be nice to be able to play both versions on PC, (0:43:20) Aislinn: or have both to safe. (0:43:23) Al: Yeah, yeah, fair enough. OK, in terms of the designs of the frog, I’ve seen, like, you (0:43:33) Al: know, obviously like the split colours and stuff like that. And I’ve seen some with spots. (0:43:39) Al: Do they have things like, you know, the stripey ones and stuff like that? Is it like, because (0:43:43) Al: obviously 500 is pretty easy to get to 500 when you’ve only got a few designs and a few (0:43:48) Al: colours, right? Because, like, just numbers multiply massively. And obviously, you know, (0:43:53) Al: obviously it is, I mean, they’re even just saying the same thing with different colours (0:43:58) Al: over and over again is very cute. You don’t find any saminess to the design. (0:44:05) Aislinn: um no not really there’s a good there’s a pretty I i want to say between the 500 plus frogs (0:44:13) Aislinn: that exist um there is I think like seven or eight I believe different patterns that you can (0:44:22) Aislinn: come across some being the stripes some being like the pattern on the arm the spotted one um (0:44:29) Aislinn: there are some cute ones that you’ll come across like acute patterns in my but there’s one i’m very (0:44:33) Aislinn: I’ve written one that I very, very much. (0:44:35) Aislinn: so love because I love this specific type of pattern for like anything. (0:44:39) Aislinn: It is also kind of associated with emoji that I use like all the time for everything. (0:44:43) Aislinn: So I personally like the different patterns that they have for the frogs. (0:44:51) Aislinn: And I have no issue with it. (0:44:53) Aislinn: The only thing that gets kind of awkward is like, for example, (0:44:56) Aislinn: or yeah, for all of the patte
Al and Codey talk about their first impressions of Go Go Town, now that it is in Early Access. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:04:02: What Have We Been Playing 00:11:15: Game News 00:23:43: New Games 00:30:11: Go Go Town First Impressions 01:02:05: Outro Links Everafter Falls Hotel Galactic Kickstarter Coral Island 1.1 Update Info Reel Fishing: Days of Summer Preserve 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 (0:00:38) Codey: And my name is Cody. (0:00:40) Al: are here today to talk about cottagecore games. As always, transcripts are available in the (0:00:44) Codey: Woooo! (0:00:48) Al: show notes and on the website. Cody, how are you doing? (0:00:52) Codey: I’m doing good uh celebrating America Day by staying at home um and not doing anything though (0:01:03) Codey: honestly so I’m staying at my because I’m doing Pokemon Go Fest this upcoming weekend um like the (0:01:08) Codey: next three days in New York City and so I met my partner’s house and or his apartment in New Jersey (0:01:15) Codey: so we could probably literally just walk like 10 minutes to the riverfront um and then see like (0:01:21) Codey: like watch the fireworks that happen. (0:01:22) Codey: been like possibly either over the river or like the ones happening in the (0:01:28) Codey: city probably see them from here probably as well so I usually it’s like (0:01:30) Al: when do they happen? Right. Yeah, see that’s why I always find funny about America, like (0:01:33) Codey: Sun it’s like after sundown so it’d be like a night nine or ten o’clock at (0:01:37) Codey: night so I got (0:01:42) Al: your big fireworks day is in July, and I’m like that just sounds so late at night for (0:01:47) Codey: Yeah, it is. (0:01:48) Al: fireworks because like our big one is November, so it’s like it’s getting dark here at like (0:01:55) Al: four or five, five o’clock at that point, so like you’re finished working. (0:02:00) Al: You can go out and watch fireworks, like you don’t have to wait long at all, it’s great. (0:02:04) Codey: well we have to celebrate that that day that we said heck you to the british monarchy so (0:02:11) Al: I mean, I’m sure they could have chosen a different day if they wanted to. I mean, it’s (0:02:14) Al: probably too late now, but there were multiple days. Multiple days they could have chosen. (0:02:16) Codey: yeah at this point it’s in our dna (0:02:21) Al: It’s not like there’s just one specific day. Anyway. Yeah, I’m good. I’m celebrating Independence (0:02:24) Codey: Right, yeah so that’s that’s what I’m uh how are you? (0:02:33) Al: Day in a different way with an election. So, yeah, still. (0:02:38) Codey: Woo democracy! (0:02:41) Al: For now. Well, we have more democracy than you just now, I think. Although we still have (0:02:42) Codey: Yeah it’s like wait is it still, are we still counting this as democracy? (0:02:50) Codey: I… D-I. (0:02:51) Al: an elected monarch. Not an elected monarch, an unelected monarch. You know, you have an (0:02:54) Codey: Not, yeah, not elect. (0:02:59) Al: elected monarch, we have an unelected monarch. Yeah, I know, I know. That’s what I’m in. (0:03:01) Codey: Well, they’re trying to make it a monarch and we’re not. (0:03:07) Al: Yes. (0:03:11) Al: So just paying attention to election, we’re recording this two hours before that finishes, (0:03:19) Al: so going to be a long night. (0:03:22) Codey: do y’all have the ranked choice voting though? okay nevermind today’s episode is (0:03:30) Codey: about gogotown (0:03:32) Al: So, today we’re going to talk about Gogotown. This is going to be a Gogotown first impressions (0:03:35) Codey: yep (0:03:39) Al: because I didn’t think we’d be able to get enough time to play this game properly to (0:03:44) Al: do a full in-depth discussion of the game. And after playing the game, maybe that was (0:03:51) Al: a good suggestion. So, we’ll talk about that in the main section. (0:03:56) Al: Before that, we have some news, some exciting news, some… (0:04:00) Codey: I, as ever, am a Ph.D. student with two extra jobs, so busy busy. (0:04:02) Al: …news. First of all, Cody, what have you been up to? (0:04:14) Codey: But when I’m not doing that, I’m still playing my cross stitch game. (0:04:19) Codey: It’s just basically a color by number game. (0:04:21) Codey: I am running out of in-game money to buy patterns though, so I need to slow down on it and find (0:04:30) Codey: the balance to do. (0:04:31) Codey: Because I get a certain amount of currency each day, and when I complete them. (0:04:37) Codey: So I just need to slow down and get caught up, find the balance again. (0:04:42) Codey: I just had a bit where I’m trying to brain rot a little bit, so playing it quite a bit. (0:04:51) Codey: Also I beat the career mode of Power Watch Simulator, so I’m now going through and trying (0:04:57) Codey: to 100% all of the achievements. (0:05:00) Codey: Which is… I mean, it’s just stuff like on the… (0:05:06) Codey: Like one achievement is called way of the blade and it was like on the helicopter finish the blades first (0:05:14) Codey: So I did that. So I’m just like doing those kinds of things one of them is to like complete the carousel without ever (0:05:20) Codey: turning the carousel off (0:05:23) Codey: It’s also gonna be wild. The carousel was a pain in the booty to do the first time. So trying to do it (0:05:30) Al: I can see how it would be difficult if it was spinning. (0:05:32) Codey: Yeah, yeah (0:05:34) Codey: So it’s that kind of stuff (0:05:40) Codey: Sad for some humans cassette beasts I have kind of put aside for the moment (0:05:46) Codey: I hit a point where (0:05:48) Codey: There was an intriguing thing that happened in the story and then I was like, oh no, there’s story (0:05:55) Codey: And (0:05:57) Al: I didn’t sign up for story. (0:06:01) Codey: I was like oh no I’m gonna care. Like I want to be able to like sit down with this and really pay (0:06:08) Codey: attention. And that’s not what I’m looking for in a game right now. I need to just turn my brain off (0:06:16) Codey: which is not what I do when there’s stories in games. So um yeah that that’ll be on pause for (0:06:21) Codey: a smidge. But Disney Dreamlight Valley added Mulan and Mushu. There’s also now (0:06:29) Codey: Bye! (0:06:30) Codey: A daily request, um, thing through Remy’s Diner restaurant. (0:06:38) Codey: I don’t remember what they call it. (0:06:40) Codey: Um, yeah. (0:06:41) Codey: So you have daily challenges now with, um, Daisy at her boutique, which you (0:06:48) Codey: can get currency to then buy more stuff. (0:06:50) Codey: So I’ve been doing that. (0:06:52) Codey: Um, it’s, it’s real simple. (0:06:55) Codey: You basically just go and she’s like, I want an outfit that has this. (0:06:58) Codey: And I’m like, okay, cool. (0:07:00) Codey: That outfit, and then that’s what you wear for a bit. (0:07:02) Codey: Um, uh, but there’s now something like that with Remy. (0:07:08) Codey: He does this like delivery service where it starts little quests of like, uh, (0:07:14) Codey: yesterday it was like the fairy godmother wants, has ordered a bunch of desserts. (0:07:18) Codey: And then you bring it to the fairy godmother and she’s like, thank you. (0:07:21) Codey: Can you bring these to Ursula for me? (0:07:22) Codey: And we’re like, what the heck? (0:07:24) Codey: Why are you what? (0:07:25) Codey: Um, and then you get like a thousand, a thousand monies and you get some currency. (0:07:30) Codey: But I really like the, I paid the in-game moonlight or moonstone currency or whatever. (0:07:36) Codey: I have a bunch of it cause I’ve played since early access. (0:07:39) Codey: So they gave, they were, they were like throwing that, that stuff at me. (0:07:42) Codey: So I spent some of that on the star path for Mulan because pretty much everything (0:07:50) Codey: is fire, like all of the outfits are really good. (0:07:54) Codey: All of the furniture is really good. (0:07:56) Codey: The outfits are really good, all of the furniture is really good. (0:08:00) Codey: It’s not cherries, it’s magnolias, like these pink floating flower piles and stuff like that, but it’s really really pretty. (0:08:08) Codey: A lot of dresses or outfits that have that as part of the outfit, so yeah, definitely really like that. (0:08:20) Codey: Still trying to get achievements in that game as well, so I’ve been playing that. (0:08:26) Codey: That’s pretty much it, what have you been up to? (0:08:30) Al: I have been obviously playing Go Go Town. (0:08:35) Al: I’ve been playing some more Day of the Diver. (0:08:38) Al: I got really into that. (0:08:39) Al: So (0:08:41) Al: that’s been going well and also farm RPG as usual. (0:08:44) Codey: hmm how many bottles are we at now? (0:08:45) Al: So. (0:08:48) Al: Oh, 85, 85, it’s taken a while. (0:08:52) Al: It’s taken a while. My I can’t forget. (0:08:54) Al: Is it the crafting, I think, that needs to be as well as the farming? (0:08:59) Al: My farming level is 85. (0:09:00) Al: So that’s what’s limiting me just now, but my crafting level is at 97. (0:09:02) Codey: Mmm. (0:09:04) Codey: Mmm. (0:09:05) Al: So that kind of shows you the difference there. (0:09:08) Al: Um, and it’s like the, it’s quite insane, the increases you need to get. (0:09:12) Al: So I’m currently at 424 million XP for farming and to get to level 99, it’s 2 billion. (0:09:18) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:09:23) Al: So I’m not even a quarter of the way there, even though I’m at level 85. (0:09:29) Al: So I think that. (0:09:30) Al: That’s going to take a while because it’s quite limited in how much you can actually (0:09:35) Al: farm obviously. (0:09:37) Al: So I currently have 32 plots just now, eight lines, eight rows, yeah, eight rows of things, (0:09:47) Al: and it’s like a billion to get the next, the next row, a billion silver, which is going (0:09:49) Codey: Yeah. (0:09:52) Codey: Yeah. (0:09:54) Al: to take me a long time to get to. (0:09:55) Al: So, yeah, I’m just plugging away. (0:09:56) Codey: I mean, it’s good that you’re still plugging away and going down that (0:10:01) Codey: that storyline for curious listeners slash me. (0:10:02) Al: Yes. (0:10:02) Al: Yeah. (0:10:08) Codey: Because I definitely wanted to hear the end of it, but did not have (0:10:12) Codey: the ability to commit. (0:10:17) Codey: But like, it’s the sunk cost fallacy it’s- (0:10:20) Codey: you’re like what you can’t you’re almost there (0:10:24) Al: I know, I know, I know, I know… (0:10:29) Codey: I’m sorry. I appreciate you appreciate your efforts (0:10:34) Al: The good news is, today, as we’re recording, I got my inventory to exactly one thing. (0:10:40) Codey: Nice are you are you keeping it there are you gonna keep (0:10:46) Al: of course I’m not keeping it there I need more inventory I know it’s a good (0:10:49) Codey: it’s a good it’s a it’s a good like even number you know (0:10:57) Codey: that’s fair though (0:10:58) Al: even number but like to get anywhere you need to get much higher got to keep (0:11:02) Codey: I heard something the other day that five is the most even odd number and I (0:11:11) Codey: yep it’s true that’s that is true it just is Cody’s ADHD cast yeah news (0:11:14) Al: Ah, so we’re gonna talk about some news! (0:11:22) Al: First up, first up we have, I feel like my headphones are on backwards. (0:11:30) Al: They were on backwards, that’s why. I was like, these feel uncomfortable and then I realized the (0:11:34) Al: cable was on the wrong side, so that explains. That’s why they were uncomfortable and not staying (0:11:35) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:11:39) Al: on my head. Ever After Falls have announced that they’re Steam Deck verified now. (0:11:40) Codey: That’s fair. (0:11:44) Codey: Woo! (0:11:45) Al: That’s it. I don’t think it’s actually changed anything, this just means that they’ve (0:11:46) Codey: That’s it. That’s the tweet. (0:11:53) Al: had it approved that they were doing everything they were meant to do. (0:11:57) Al: So they were doing everything they were meant to do and now they have proof. (0:11:58) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:12:03) Codey: Whoo (0:12:05) Al: Hotel Galactic have announced a timeline for their project. So their Kickstarter, (0:12:10) Al: it’ll be out by the time this episode out, I think comes out on Monday. (0:12:14) Codey: Monday this episode comes out on Monday oh okay I was like I thought this was a (0:12:15) Al: And they’ve it Monday. Monday, Monday, Monday. (0:12:20) Al: The Kickstarter. (0:12:23) Codey: Wednesday thing anyway (0:12:25) Al: Not the, not the podcast episode. The Kickstarter for this game comes out on Monday. (0:12:28) Codey: yes ye (0:12:33) Al: How do you always confuse me? I don’t, you’re just… (0:12:35) Codey: I’m just I confuse myself no so that’s yeah (0:12:39) Al: uh so the so the kickstart so the kickstarter will be out by the time you (0:12:44) Al: listen to this uh the early access for the game is q2 next year and then full (0:12:49) Al: release is apparently q4 of 2026 that is their current plan (0:12:53) Codey: and uh sure looks like a good game i’m excited for it (0:13:01) Codey: I don’t know it uh I really like the little one of the characters named (0:13:05) Codey: Sparn he looks real cute and it says that he trips over himself all the time and I was like dude same (0:13:12) Codey: um so yeah a little cute dude and it’s it it’s like a i’m just gonna stop it looks good (0:13:21) Codey: it’s on my watch list. (0:13:23) Codey: but it’s really far away from time so who knows if the universe will still (0:13:27) Codey: exist at that point. (0:13:29) Al: Yeah, it’s on my whistles as well, but so is everything basically (0:13:34) Codey: are you gonna kick start it? (0:13:38) Al: Probably (0:13:39) Codey: okay are you saving (0:13:40) Al: I just kick-started one. What did I just kick-start? Oh, yeah tiny garden the the the not a Polly Pocket game (0:13:43) Codey: are you oh yep the polypocky came (0:13:48) Al: The not a Polly Pocket game (0:13:51) Al: That it’s definitely not a Polly Pocket game (0:13:54) Codey: Totally not. Uh, yeah. Cool. (0:13:57) Al: But I feel like there’s quite a few coming out. (0:13:59) Al: Soon we’ve no kick starters. (0:14:00) Codey: Polypocky games. (0:14:08) Al: Because there’s that one. (0:14:12) Al: And then we’ve got farm folks and lose lagoon and superzoo (0:14:15) Al: story and outbound and moon haven. (0:14:20) Codey: yep I’m not gonna kickstart anything (0:14:27) Codey: it looks really cute though it’s on my eyes are on it my eyes are also on (0:14:33) Codey: coral island (0:14:34) Al: Nice, nice. They’ve given more information on their 1.1 update. (0:14:38) Codey: did we know the name of the update (0:14:42) Al: I don’t know, but what I will say is that we did know everything that’s in this title, (0:14:48) Al: right? None of this is new information and it is a very boring title. Story finale, London Sea. (0:14:56) Codey: I mean it’s I think like at calling it story finale like points to the fact that they were like (0:14:56) Al: Congrats, well done. What a great name. (0:15:04) Codey: Stuff was not ready like stuff was not (0:15:06) Al: They should have just called it. It’s the 1.1 update called 1.0. (0:15:08) Codey: It was not final (0:15:15) Codey: Yeah (0:15:16) Al: We’ve got the game now. Congrats. (0:15:19) Codey: Yeah (0:15:21) Al: So they’ve given some more information on things. Let’s leave the most exciting thing (0:15:27) Al: for last. So we’ll talk about the fact that they’ve got some more of the merfolk townies. (0:15:33) Al: Tony’s this is for of (0:15:36) Al: Galoon, Etna, Todi and Lannin (0:15:41) Al: with a little bit of explanation for them. They’ve added a (0:15:47) Al: gacha machine for recycling so you can put in rubbish and get things which is cool recycling stuff (0:15:52) Codey: so did the recycling center ever work before? is it just something you have to turn on? okay this is (0:15:56) Al: No, I don’t think it did I think (0:16:00) Codey: this is the first time okay because I was like I never got the recycling center to work so (0:16:04) Al: Yeah, I think that might be why I think the recycling center was more of a theory than an actual thing (0:16:05) Codey: is this so this is it i (0:16:12) Codey: yeah I was surprised that this was that they’re adding gacha a gacha mechanic um but yeah (0:16:22) Al: I think it’s cool the way they’ve done it. You can just call it recycling. You put in (0:16:28) Al: rubbish, which you’re not going to do anything else with. Once you’ve crafted five rubbish (0:16:34) Al: chests, that’s the only thing you’re ever going to use it for, you throw it in this machine and you (0:16:39) Al: get other stuff out of it. It’s pointing towards the whole goal of this, which is the environment. (0:16:46) Codey: they did also have the savannah which is there’s a gacha machine in the savannah (0:16:46) Al: So it’s, you know, recycling. They show you getting a seedling, which is cool. I don’t know. (0:16:52) Al: We can turn rubbish into seedling, but I’m not going to complain. (0:17:01) Al: Yes. Yeah, it’s the same one, it’s just in two different places. (0:17:04) Codey: oh okay it’s just another risk like okay got it (0:17:10) Codey: which the savannah thing was wild because it showed (0:17:15) Codey: that there’s like a (0:17:17) Codey: panther that you talk to and you end up racing the panther and you you could win an outfit that (0:17:24) Al: I’m not 100% sure what the deal is with the Savannah, because I’m pretty sure it does (0:17:27) Codey: is the panther (0:17:33) Al: exist in the game currently, but I never ended up unlocking it. Because there were a few (0:17:38) Al: items that I just didn’t get to get to that point. So I know this Panther and the race (0:17:44) Al: with the Panther is a new thing, but I’m pretty sure you could get to the Savannah. (0:17:46) Codey: yeah um I i never was there uh but it but I just it’s wild to me that there is this character (0:17:56) Al: I think it’s the only area I didn’t get… (0:18:02) Codey: and that the outfit that you can win from her is basically her like her skin um because I was (0:18:08) Al: her skin basically right (0:18:13) Codey: Yeah, I don’t know how you would, I don’t know. (0:18:16) Codey: Yeah, it’s, that’s wild. (0:18:19) Codey: She’s really cool though and it’s a cool idea to do like a racing thing, but yeah, that’s that. (0:18:26) Al: They’ve added new looks for sheds so you can change how they look, like the turnip and the (0:18:34) Al: carrot and stuff like that which is pretty cool. I want my carrot shed. I want a carrot shed. (0:18:36) Codey: Mm-hmm well you want a carrot shed I think I want I look (0:18:43) Al: I actually want a pumpkin shed but it’s not on the list but I want a pumpkin shed. Ooh good one. (0:18:47) Codey: I want a potato like that would just that would be goober and I would like that (0:18:54) Al: They’ve also added some new outfits. They’ve added a seller, which is exactly what you (0:19:00) Al: expect it to be. Ages, wine. It does. Why is it so gross in there? That’s weird. There’s (0:19:02) Codey: It looks like the sewer from- it looks like the sewer from Stardew. (0:19:11) Al: a new fruit for increasing HP. There is the- oh yes, the Lumina sprinkler, as it’s called. (0:19:20) Al: So this is for those who aren’t remembering, they are adding. (0:19:24) Al: Underwater farming so you can farm specific plants underwater and instead of watering them, (0:19:31) Al: you light them. So you’ve got like a little stick that lights them daily rather than watering them. (0:19:37) Al: But up till this point, we didn’t know whether there was going to be a sprinkler equivalent. (0:19:39) Al: Thankfully, there is the Lumina sprinkler. So I’m happy about that. (0:19:46) Al: They’ve also added some information on the multiplayer. I mean, it’s kind of just (0:19:51) Al: what you would expect, I think, mostly. It’s kind of… (0:19:54) Codey: Yeah. (0:19:54) Al: Stardew, same style of multiplayer Stardew. (0:19:58) Codey: Yup. (0:19:59) Al: Someone hosts the game and up to three other people can join and you can troll. (0:20:02) Codey: I’m so, I’m so excited to do it and have Mark from Australia spend all of my money. (0:20:10) Codey: ‘Cause the one time I played multiplayer Stardew, I played it with Mark and he spent all my money ‘cause we didn’t realize that the money was tied together. (0:20:16) Al: Wild. And the most exciting thing in this update, I think you’ll agree Cody, is dino suits for your animals. (0:20:17) Codey: It was really funny. (0:20:22) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:20:24) Codey: Which it doesn’t- I love that they call it dino suits because it doesn’t look like you put the animal in a suit. (0:20:30) Codey: Like it’s not a costume. It’s like you’ve like transmogrified them to be something. (0:20:36) Al: Yeah, I think the idea is they’re trying to say that you are putting it in a suit. (0:20:41) Al: But yeah, like, the cow gets smaller in one dimension when you do that. (0:20:47) Al: Like, the cow cannot fit in there unless you’re squishing its head and stretching it out, right? (0:20:53) Codey: Yeah, it is cute (0:20:53) Al: But I don’t care. I think this is cool. I want a T-Rex. I want to turn my ostrich into a T-Rex. (0:21:00) Al: I want to turn my cow into a Brontosaurus. I want this. This is great. But my big question is, (0:21:07) Al: where are they for my dogs? (0:21:10) Codey: I mean they wouldn’t do that because you don’t want a dinosaur in the home and dogs can’t (0:21:15) Al: I do I do I want I want I want my dog in a dino suit (0:21:16) Codey: come out of the home. (0:21:17) Codey: Well, if you want a dinosaur in the home, get the bearded dragon. (0:21:22) Codey: I want the bearded dragon. (0:21:25) Codey: I want the bearded dragon to become like not a dragon, like becomes like something else. (0:21:32) Codey: I don’t even know. (0:21:34) Al: want to put it in a catsuit? Just get a cat then. (0:21:35) Codey: Yes. (0:21:36) Codey: but I want it to be like, I don’t want it to be the like, (0:21:40) Codey: Tom’s a cat. I would want it to be a bearded, like a little bearded dragon head sticking out of a little cat outfit. (0:21:45) Codey: I think that’d be so flipping cute. I might do this to my beard and beardy in real life, actually. (0:21:50) Al: good. (0:21:52) Codey: I’m gonna look up bearded dragon outfits. (0:21:55) Al: Anyway, I’m looking forward to this update. (0:21:58) Codey: Yep, I am also sorry. I’m there are some really cute bearded dragon outfits. (0:22:03) Al: Alright, do we need to pause? Do we need to wait until you’re finished? (0:22:06) Codey: No, this is good content. No, it’s (0:22:10) Codey: we’re fine um yeah I mean I’m still I’ve been wanting to jump back into (0:22:17) Codey: Coral Island so this is just kind of making me want to wait a smidge when is (0:22:24) Codey: this supposed to come out (0:22:24) Al: They haven’t said, it’s currently in beta. I suspect Q3? I say that, that’s like, no. (0:22:30) Codey: okay (0:22:33) Codey: well this is like the beginning of Q3 so (0:22:35) Al: I think probably August, that would be my guess, August. Because I think they said there’s (0:22:42) Al: a second update coming out this year, so I feel like they need to get it out soon. But (0:22:48) Al: I do not want it in July, please and thank you. (0:22:50) Codey: So the answer is I’m gonna have to make my bearded dragon her own cat costume (0:22:56) Codey: because they don’t exist. Just if anyone else has a bearded dragon in (0:22:57) Al: Yeah, are you surprised? I’m not surprised that no bearded dragon cat costume exists. (0:23:06) Codey: I’m pretty surprised you don’t know the bearded dragon community do you cuz I (0:23:09) Al: It seems pretty niche. I mean, why not just get a cat? (0:23:17) Codey: don’t want that I want like it’s like when you put your cat in a little cost (0:23:22) Codey: little dragon costume you don’t want a lizard you just want to embarrass your (0:23:26) Codey: animal (0:23:27) Al: I don’t think they have feelings like that, I don’t think they feel embarrassment because (0:23:33) Al: that’s a social construction. (0:23:38) Codey: Stella acts very embarrassed sometimes. I don’t know about the dragon, but (0:23:43) Codey: we have two new games that we can talk about. (0:23:48) Al: Not that we’re going to have much to talk about the first one. (0:23:50) Al: Real fishing days of summer. (0:23:53) Al: The new real fishing game comes out on October 28th on Switch and PS5 and it is exactly what (0:23:58) Al: you expect. (0:23:59) Al: It’s a new real fishing game. (0:24:02) Al: It looks exactly the same as the previous real fishing game, and there’s fish. (0:24:08) Al: If you love the real fishing games, I’m sure you’ll be excited to play. (0:24:10) Codey: it just makes me want to play I think there’s a fishing game that I’ve been (0:24:15) Codey: wanting to play that’s on Game Pass and I did grow up playing like I think it (0:24:21) Codey: was just like Bass Pro Shop fishing I remember playing that as like a eight (0:24:26) Codey: year old so yeah looks alright (0:24:30) Al: Cool. The other game is called Preserve and the blurb about this is “Preserve is a relaxing (0:24:40) Al: puzzle nature building game in which you flourish a vibrant ecosystem by cleverly placing plants (0:24:47) Al: and animals to create a perfect symbiosis to your liking.” So you’ve got like these hexagonal (0:24:57) Al: tiles that have different biomes and stuff like that. (0:25:00) Al: And it looks like you put them together to make a world that you want. (0:25:04) Al: There’s animals as well. (0:25:06) Codey: - Yep, yeah, I like that it’s a puzzle. (0:25:11) Codey: Like I like the idea of it being a puzzle game (0:25:14) Codey: and like maybe they have like requirements for each puzzle. (0:25:19) Codey: Like build a puzzle that has 10 animals (0:25:22) Codey: from four different biomes or something like that, (0:25:24) Codey: you know, and like to build maybe like one of the animals (0:25:28) Codey: requires like a, I’m just making this up. (0:25:32) Codey: maybe like the wolf requires. (0:25:36) Codey: a forest biome right next to a meadow biome that has a river biome going through it (0:25:40) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah (0:25:41) Codey: um to like make it a puzzle I think that would be really cool um I i’m never a fan of these (0:25:49) Codey: like island games where like it’s the world is just kind of a floating thing and you just (0:25:55) Codey: kind of build on top of these hexagonal I don’t even know how to describe it but there (0:26:02) Codey: There’s been a lot of games that have been coming out like this. (0:26:06) Codey: I’m not a super big fan of that but also like as an ecologist I look at a game like this and I’m like this would never you’d put the wolves in the forest and they’d be like heck you I’m gonna go over here like you can’t box you can’t box nature that way so but yeah coming on August 8 to steam both Windows Max and Mac and Linux that’s cool what did you think about this game? (0:26:19) Al: Animals don’t do what you want them to, yeah. (0:26:32) Al: It’s probably not something I’d play, but I think it looks cool, and I know some people (0:26:36) Al: love these times for games, so yeah, it’s cool. (0:26:38) Codey: Mm-hmm I wonder how much it’s gonna be click does not have an amount (0:26:49) Al: And speaking of the whole animals not doing what you want, they reintroduced beavers in (0:26:56) Codey: Yeah. (0:26:58) Al: Scotland like maybe 10 years ago or something like that. And now the farmers are like, “Can (0:27:04) Al: we kill them, please?” And you’re like, “Oh, no, you can’t kill them. We put all the effort (0:27:06) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:27:09) Al: into putting them back into the wild. No, you can’t kill them.” (0:27:12) Codey: Yep. That was the classic thing in Oregon. (0:27:16) Codey: Everyone was like, “Bring the wolves back, because we killed all the wolves.” (0:27:18) Codey: But then we had too many deer, and the deer population were getting really gross. (0:27:21) Al: Hmm. (0:27:24) Codey: to bring them back, and then all of the… (0:27:26) Codey: Ag folks that live…the agricultural folks that live on the east side of the state were like (0:27:32) Codey: “We follow the three S’s, the shoot it shovel it and shut up.” (0:27:34) Al: Oh, look, it’s an animal, can we kill it? (0:27:39) Codey: Yeah, and they’re just like, “We want to kill…it’s eating our cows. We’re gonna kill it.” And it’s like… (0:27:45) Al: Can you just stop killing just just just for a minute, right? (0:27:48) Codey: Well, and they also…like a lot of those people, they put their cows on (0:27:53) Codey: Bureau of Land Management land, which is like free land (0:27:57) Codey: for anyone to use, but like if you’re not putting your cows within an enclosure, it’s kind of on you. I’m not gonna lie. (0:28:00) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I recently learned why beavers dam. Do you know how this works? I don’t know (0:28:04) Codey: Bye. (0:28:10) Al: if this is in your area of interest at all. It’s fascinating, because it’s like, for those (0:28:12) Codey: Oh it is. 100%. Oregon is the bigger state. (0:28:15) Codey: So. (0:28:16) Codey: All right. (0:28:18) Al: who, feel free to correct me if I’ve misunderstood this Cody, but for listeners, basically the (0:28:23) Al: dam, which raises the level of the water, which means that they store water. (0:28:30) Al: And not water, they store food under the water, which allows them there, because the water (0:28:36) Al: is increased, it goes into their house, and then that means that it doesn’t freeze inside (0:28:42) Al: their house, so they can still get into the water, even when the surface of the water (0:28:46) Al: is frozen outside of there, and it preserves their food in the cold water underneath. (0:28:51) Al: Isn’t that really cool? That’s so clever. (0:28:54) Codey: which if they build on like the edge of a lake or something (0:28:58) Codey: is fine. that doesn’t really mess with anything but then when they build in (0:29:03) Codey: a riverine system like in a river or a creek or a (0:29:07) Codey: stream or some small system and they can divert entire (0:29:11) Codey: like watersheds they’re called what’s they’re known as a keystone species (0:29:17) Codey: because if they are in an environment they completely change the structure of (0:29:21) Codey: the environment. (0:29:22) Al: Don’t know anyone else like that. (0:29:25) Codey: uh-uh. (0:29:25) Al: Yeah, it’s just so clever. I love it. (0:29:26) Codey: um… (0:29:28) Codey: usually– (0:29:32) Codey: they’re really mean, though. (0:29:32) Al: Oh yeah, no, I wasn’t planning on doing it. I’ll be honest with you. (0:29:34) Codey: don’t go up to them. (0:29:38) Codey: I haven’t had to mess with one yet, (0:29:40) Codey: but, like, (0:29:42) Codey: I have a feeling Stella would try and go for it (0:29:44) Codey: and I would be really worried about that. (0:29:45) Al: I generally appreciate nature from a distance. That’s my general rule. Now, we don’t have (0:29:52) Al: many things in this country that could kill me, but that’s just my general rule. I enjoy (0:29:58) Al: it over there and I’m over here and we’re all good. (0:30:00) Codey: Yeah. (0:30:03) Codey: Yep. (0:30:07) Al: So that’s the news. (0:30:08) Codey: Whoo! (0:30:12) Al: We are going to talk about Gogotown, our first impressions. So I have purchased the (0:30:18) Al: and I’ve put in maybe 15, 20 hours I think, something like that. (0:30:22) Al: Cody has purchased the game and put zero errors into it. (0:30:22) Codey: didn’t even purchase it… no. uh-uh. I mean it’s still funny to say Cody has not (0:30:26) Al: I thought you said you’d bought it already. Did you not say that to me? That ruins my (0:30:37) Codey: purchased the game and has put none hours into it but I did watch a French (0:30:46) Codey: guy for like five minutes on Twitch so I basically know everything (0:30:50) Codey: about the game. (0:30:50) Al: Hehehe, everything! (0:30:52) Codey: No, it was, I’ve watched the developers play a little bit, but not a ton. (0:31:00) Al: But let me do an intro. I feel an interesting mix between a standard cottagecore farming (0:31:01) Codey: I’m basically coming in naive, so. (0:31:14) Al: game and a management style game where you are controlling a character. You have a character (0:31:20) Al: who you control and you move around and you do your standard things. You do your farming, (0:31:24) Al: you do your wood chopping, you do your mining, you do your fishing. But you’re also… (0:31:30) Al: So, controlling the town, you’re basically in control kind of Animal Crossing-esque. But (0:31:35) Al: in my opinion, in a much nicer way in that you have a build mode where you can just move (0:31:41) Al: things around rather than having to manually go and do them all. Different people like (0:31:44) Al: different things, but I quite like that. Your aim is to build up this town. It basically (0:31:52) Al: doesn’t exist when you get there. You have to build up, you get visitors, you encourage (0:31:56) Al: visitors to stay and you build up your town. (0:32:00) Al: Into a thriving mini Metropolis is a kind of short way of explaining it without going into too much detail at the start. (0:32:11) Al: I guess my first impressions before we go into details of the mechanics would be that I think there’s a really fun and strong core game here, (0:32:25) Al: but it very much feels like an early action. (0:32:30) Al: Well, it feels like that to me, for listeners, I talked about it in the first Ooblets episode. (0:32:30) Codey: - Hmm. (0:32:43) Codey: I have never played Ooblets. (0:32:54) Al: It was like a very strong, very clearly defined game, but very limited. (0:33:00) Al: It feels like the game has a lot of room to expand, and it’s not there yet, but everything (0:33:11) Al: that is there is fun, but the question is, is it enough to be a compelling game in and (0:33:17) Al: of itself just now? (0:33:19) Al: I think it does, but I think if you were to play this just now, you would feel like there’s (0:33:26) Al: quite a lot missing, but you’re not quite sure what that is. (0:33:30) Al: It’s hard, it’s not like in Coral Island where you go, “Oh, and now I’ve reached the end of the (0:33:37) Al: story,” but it’s clearly not the end of the story. It’s not like that. It’s like, (0:33:42) Al: “Okay, this is fun, but I feel like there’s stuff missing. I just don’t know what that is.” (0:33:46) Codey: Yeah, like where where is the missing part and is or is this just where it ends? (0:33:52) Al: Yeah, and it’s definitely not because they’ve had a good detailed list of what they’re wanting (0:33:59) Al: to do and the good thing is that they have taken people’s opinions and they’ve changed (0:34:04) Al: what they’re planning to do, not what they’re planning to do, but the order they’re planning (0:34:07) Al: to do because people’s priorities are different from what theirs were. So they’ve gone, “Oh, (0:34:11) Al: right, OK, you really want this. That’s fine. We’ll bump that up,” the priority list type (0:34:14) Al: thing, which is really good listening to that feedback. (0:34:20) Al: I guess let’s go into some of this… (0:34:22) Al: The specifics and feel free to input into any of these that you actually saw in the game. (0:34:28) Al: So the farming, you start out with just like a few plots, you have to like buy a plot, (0:34:37) Al: you can’t just like you don’t have a hole to do whatever. It’s like everything in this (0:34:42) Al: game, it’s like you have a limited number that you’re allowed to buy until you level (0:34:46) Al: up and then you can buy more. Which I understand why they’ve done it because they want to like (0:34:52) Al: what you can do until you do more and then it feels like you’re expanding that way. (0:34:57) Al: But personally, I’m not a huge fan of that because it feels like oh but I have the money. (0:35:02) Al: My big problem in this game is I have max money and I can’t spend it because there’s (0:35:07) Al: nothing to buy because I’ve already bought everything. But I can’t make any more money (0:35:12) Al: because apparently there’s a max amount of money you can have which feels really weird. (0:35:20) Codey: I mean your your purse is only so big. Can you upgrade it? (0:35:20) Al: But yeah it just feels like the balance isn’t right there. (0:35:22) Al: I haven’t seen anything to be able to do that. Now having said that, I haven’t gone through all (0:35:33) Al: of the upgrades. I think I’m maybe like level five of the the the tech tree, but I’m not sure. (0:35:40) Codey: Okay what’s your how much do you have for monies okay that’s what the (0:35:42) Al: I haven’t seen anything that upgrades that. I think it’s a thousand. (0:35:50) Codey: developers are also they also have on their stream that they’re streaming (0:35:52) Al: Right, okay. I think it is, yeah. And I don’t know whether that’s something they’re planning (0:35:53) Codey: right now so that’s probably (0:35:57) Al: on adding upgrades to or what. It feels like a weird, like I’ve never played a game where (0:36:02) Al: they limit the max amount of money you’re able to have. That feels like a weird and arbitrary (0:36:08) Al: restriction. And I’m not sure why it would be there other than because they don’t trust their (0:36:13) Al: own economy in the game. It’s not difficulty though, right? Like, especially if there’s nothing (0:36:14) Codey: Hmm, it adds a level of difficulty. (0:36:22) Al: money on, because then you just get to the point where you’re like, okay, now I’ve unlocked (0:36:26) Al: something and I can immediately buy everything. And then I just, and then once I’ve bought things, (0:36:31) Al: I can then earn money again. Like I’ve never got to the point where I’ve not had enough money for (0:36:36) Al: that. And money’s pretty easy to make because you just, you just wait. Like literally, if you just (0:36:44) Al: had this game running without you doing anything, especially once you’ve unlocked a bunch of the (0:36:48) Al: stuff and you’ve got it implemented the game basically runs itself so you could just start (0:36:50) Codey: I think that’s what it is. I think that’s what I think of it being more (0:36:52) Al: there and you would gain money doing nothing (0:36:58) Codey: difficulty is because you can’t just do that because at a certain point like if (0:37:03) Codey: you left the game and went into another room or like went and did something else (0:37:07) Codey: and you came back maybe like an hour into that it was at max money so there (0:37:13) Codey: was no point in like letting the game run all of that time you would have had (0:37:19) Codey: to check in on it. (0:37:20) Codey: And fix it somehow, you know. (0:37:22) Al: Yeah, but then my problem is there’s nothing to spend the money on. There’s literally nothing (0:37:27) Al: I can spend the money on. Because they limit how much you can do. There is an import/export thing (0:37:35) Al: that I probably don’t need to go into too much detail of, but basically you can sell things (0:37:41) Al: to other towns. It’s not actual multiplayer, don’t get me wrong. It’s just you’re selling (0:37:46) Al: stuff to someone else. It doesn’t matter. Someone requests it and you sell it. You don’t get money, (0:37:52) Al: tokens. Then you can use that to buy more stuff. But I think that’s also limited. (0:37:58) Al: I bought another storage thing and then that was it. It was sold out. It just feels like (0:38:07) Al: everything is limited. There’s nothing that isn’t limited in the game. (0:38:13) Al: And I think that would be my second biggest frustration. I really like this game. I think (0:38:19) Al: I think it’s really fun to play, it’s really fluid. (0:38:22) Al: The movement is fun especially when you get some of the vehicles, like there’s a skateboard (0:38:28) Al: and there’s a bike and there’s a car, a go-kart and stuff like that. They’re all really fun (0:38:35) Al: to play and I can just, I find myself just riding around on them. (0:38:44) Al: The game is just fun to play but there’s a few things and one of them is the fact that (0:38:49) Al: it’s so limited in what you can buy. (0:38:51) Al: And that I… (0:38:52) Al: It adds into the frustration when you basically don’t have an inventory and you have a bag (0:39:03) Al: but it’s like you can only fit in certain amounts. (0:39:07) Al: It’s one of these things where it’s like different things are different sizes. (0:39:11) Al: So if you had a steel girder in your bag, you could only have two of them because they’re (0:39:14) Codey: - Mm-hmm, yeah. (0:39:16) Al: so big. (0:39:17) Al: If you had rocks, you could have 10 of them sort of thing, which okay, sure, fine. (0:39:23) Al: You can use to get around that, like you have a van you can drive that you can fill up and (0:39:26) Al: it has more… (0:39:27) Al: But then you have to put things places and there are storage boxes, but the storage boxes (0:39:34) Al: do the same thing as your bag and they are very limited. (0:39:38) Al: So I’m at the point where I have people mining and their boxes are all full, but I need them (0:39:45) Al: to get something different. (0:39:46) Al: So I have to get the stuff out the box so they get something different because I’ve (0:39:49) Al: used up all of my iron and they’ve just (0:39:52) Al: been filling it with stone because I keep using the iron for things because there’s (0:39:56) Al: nothing to use stone on anymore because I’ve done everything and the more complex ones (0:40:01) Al: need iron instead of stone so they just keep adding stone and I can’t use the stone for (0:40:06) Al: anything so I have boxes and boxes full of stone that I don’t know what to do with and (0:40:12) Al: I can’t buy more boxes so all of my boxes are full of stone and I can’t get any more (0:40:17) Al: boxes and I just I want to know what to do with the stone. (0:40:22) Al: And also I just want more boxes like the inventory thing is the thing that I understand that (0:40:32) Al: some people might like it but I think I actively don’t like it like I just I just want a universal (0:40:40) Al: storage thing or at least like a box that doesn’t have a limit to it right like I think (0:40:45) Al: I see where they’re going with the like it’s trying to be a very physical game right like (0:40:52) Al: this thing and then you put it in a box or you mine something and then you take it to (0:40:55) Al: the place that it’s needed and then I’m going to talk about the the hiring of people like (0:41:02) Al: you can you can use the people that you you convinced to move there you can use them to (0:41:07) Al: do to to do jobs that you you do at the beginning so it allows you to have that automation which (0:41:14) Al: is fun and then you assign them to specific jobs so you say this is my miner and this (0:41:19) Al: This is my tree cutter. (0:41:20) Al: This is my fisher. (0:41:21) Al: This is my farmer. (0:41:22) Al: They will put things in the boxes that you put near them and then you have to move them (0:41:27) Al: between them but then you can get someone who is a courier so their job is just to take (0:41:31) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:41:32) Al: things from the places that they are to the places that they need. (0:41:36) Al: I get that and that’s all fun. (0:41:39) Al: I mean it when I say that, I think that is actually fun because it’s very physical and (0:41:44) Al: it’s very material and that’s good but because the boxes do the same thing, I just have boxes (0:41:53) Al: of stone everywhere that I can’t do anything with and it’s filling up storage that I could (0:41:58) Al: be using for other things. (0:42:00) Codey: yeah it’s giving factorial vibes you need to make it more efficient so i’m reading the (0:42:08) Codey: developer update that came out like a week ago and they’ve uh I don’t know if it has a roadmap (0:42:10) Al: Is this the road map one? (0:42:16) Al: It’s not a road map so much as like, here are the things we’re going to focus on, sort (0:42:20) Al: of thing. (0:42:20) Codey: yeah so they talk about like minor update one like the things that they’re (0:42:23) Al: Yes. (0:42:24) Codey: so one of them says one of them says too much stuff the overflow chronicles and (0:42:30) Codey: it talks about the fact that you have too many items but you don’t have anything to do with them (0:42:34) Al: Oh nice! (0:42:36) Codey: so you can dispose of the items in a machine that will become available to you through the tech tier (0:42:41) Al: Oh and you receive import tickets, nice! Okay cool, cool! (0:42:44) Codey: and then further down they also say like we have broken down the ai worker feedback into (0:42:49) Codey: the following issues so one of them is the ai over producing resources their backpacks filling up (0:42:54) Codey: storage bins being placed outside of zones that’s not really that important (0:42:58) Al: Yeah, I think those are mostly bugs rather than the actual fundamental issue and the (0:43:04) Al: fundamental issue is I have too much stuff, which they’re obviously trying to figure out (0:43:09) Al: some ways to deal with that. Yeah, I can see that that would certainly improve it. I would (0:43:10) Codey: Yeah. (0:43:10) Codey: Mmhmm. (0:43:17) Al: also just be able to buy unlimited storage. I understand why they’re limiting a lot of (0:43:21) Al: things and I’m not saying don’t have any limits on things, but storage specifically. (0:43:22) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:43:28) Codey: Really? Yeah. (0:43:28) Al: Like, that seems like such a weird thing to limit. Like, if I want to have 100 boxes (0:43:35) Al: of stone, why not? You know, like, sure, limit the things that you can, like, limit the buildings (0:43:43) Al: so you can only have certain numbers of people living there. Limit the attractions you have (0:43:47) Al: so you can’t just, like, get infinite money in a day sort of thing. You know, that all (0:43:52) Al: makes sense. But storage, of all things. Give me more storage, please. (0:43:56) Codey: - Yeah. (0:43:58) Al: Yeah, it’s interesting, because I generally don’t like management games and this is very (0:43:58) Codey: - Management games, woo! (0:44:06) Al: much more of a management game than I thought it was going to be. But I do find it fun. (0:44:15) Al: I don’t think it’s something that I’m going to put, like, hundreds of hours into, like (0:44:19) Al: I have done with Stardew and Coral Island. But it’s fun being different. (0:44:25) Codey: Mm-hmm. Honestly, the fact that it’s more of a management game, uh, it has endeared me to it more. (0:44:32) Codey: No. Um, yeah. So I think, because I think that that, like making things more efficient and like (0:44:39) Codey: hiring people and having them work in different areas and like having, like being like this person (0:44:44) Codey: gets to work as a courier and like this zone, because it looks like you zone things, right? (0:44:48) Al: So, the zones are there by default. So, you have, like, the map has - this is the mining (0:44:55) Al: zone, it is where the caves are. This is the forestry zone. That’s the word I keep trying (0:45:01) Al: to think of - forestry zone. And that’s where the forest is, obviously. This is the fishing (0:45:05) Al: zone, that’s where the river is. And then there’s the farming zone, which, I mean, that (0:45:11) Al: could probably be anywhere. But it is a fixed - these are fixed zones. And you put certain (0:45:15) Al: things within them to do that so you have like (0:45:18) Al: a time clock so you put a time clock in the zone and then you you go to the time clock and you say I want this person to do this job and then they will use anything that’s in that zone so you put things in the zone to allow them to use it so you put storage in and they will use that to put things in you put in machines and they will use the machines to make different things etc etc so I think one of the other complaints that people had in general which I think I agree is something (0:45:48) Al: they need to improve but I wasn’t like oh I can’t believe they haven’t got it or they need to have it right now is like more space because it does fill up quite quickly and they’ve definitely said that they’re going to be doing that they’re going to be adding expansions to the map which is good but yeah I think that is not the thing that I was like I need this right now probably because I hadn’t got to the end of the tech tree yet (0:45:58) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:46:02) Codey: Expanding yeah, yep (0:46:12) Codey: so okay so there are these different tasks that you can allot to people can (0:46:19) Codey: you also do the tasks like yourself okay (0:46:21) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you start out by doing it yourself, right? You have (0:46:24) Codey: okay (0:46:26) Al: to upgrade the tech tree to get the time clocks. So like after you’ve done like the first full (0:46:29) Codey: got it (0:46:32) Al: tech tree, then you get a second line of the tech tree and it goes like, here is the forestry (0:46:39) Al: expansion. And that gives you a machine to make log, not logs, planks. And it gives you (0:46:49) Al: a time clock for the forestry area and it gives you (0:46:51) Al: another storage thing and it gives you another chainsaw, which by the way, the chainsaw (0:46:57) Al: for cutting down trees is so much fun. I don’t know why more games don’t have that. It’s great. (0:47:02) Al: Then you also have the mining expansion, which gives you the mining time clock, et cetera, (0:47:07) Al: et cetera. So yeah, you unlock them as you go. So you have to do everything to start with (0:47:12) Al: and as you go, you get the ability to automate it with workers using the time clocks. But then you (0:47:18) Al: you can also just do them if you want. (0:47:20) Al: Yeah, you can just go. (0:47:21) Al: Oh, this worker’s being too slow, or I want this specific thing. (0:47:24) Al: I’m going to go do that just now. (0:47:26) Al: And that’s– yeah, that’s totally fine. (0:47:29) Al: I didn’t find myself finding I needed to do that, though. (0:47:31) Al: The AIs, I think, were pretty good. (0:47:34) Al: Yeah, like, the only time I felt like I needed to do something (0:47:38) Al: because the workers weren’t doing it (0:47:39) Al: is because all their storage was full, (0:47:41) Al: so they couldn’t do anything, you know? (0:47:42) Codey: - Yeah. (0:47:44) Al: Like, they couldn’t make more steel beams (0:47:47) Al: because there was nowhere to put them. (0:47:49) Al: Fair enough, I understand that. (0:47:51) Al: Sorry, there’s nothing I can do with that. (0:47:51) Codey: The supply chain must grow, yeah. (0:47:53) Al: Yeah, exactly, exactly. (0:47:54) Codey: I mean, it’s early access, so it’s awesome, yeah. (0:47:57) Al: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. (0:47:59) Al: I guess my point is more like if these things (0:48:01) Al: sound like they would be frustrating to you, (0:48:03) Al: wait for 1.0, like there’s nothing wrong with that. (0:48:05) Al: And I think it is a really fun game. (0:48:10) Al: I’m really enjoying it. (0:48:12) Al: But I do think I’m probably at the point where I’m like, (0:48:15) Al: okay, now I wait for 1.0 before I play more. (0:48:19) Al: because I feel like (0:48:21) Al: I can see how it’s going to be improving and I want that. I want the improved version. (0:48:28) Al: I don’t regret the time I put into it. It has been fun doing what I’ve been doing. (0:48:34) Al: I’m done 15, 20 hours is probably enough in early access. Maybe I’ll play a different point (0:48:41) Al: depending on what the update. Obviously, I’ll be keeping an eye on the updates and (0:48:44) Al: we’ll be talking about them here because I always do. The games that I’m more excited (0:48:46) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:48:48) Al: the boat we talk about more often. (0:48:49) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:48:51) Al: But I’ll definitely I’ll definitely get back into it when it hits 1.0. (0:48:56) Codey: I mean, we definitely talked about that during the halfway through the games episode as well where like what games are we looking forward to the most and a lot of the games were just the 1.0 versions of games that we had already played and it’s it’s I mean, that’s the thing is that you can play them in either early access or whatever
Al and Codey talk about the year so far in games, and what they are still excited for. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:04:39: What Have We Been Up To 00:08:47: News 00:53:27: Mid Year Check-in 01:14:35: Outro Links Southfield Delay Hello Kitty: Island Adventure Harvest Days 1.0 Release Natsu-Mon 20th Century Summer Vacation Roots of Pacha “1.2” Update Chill Town “Auto Farming” Update Disney Dreamlight Valley “The Lucky Dragon” Update Smushi Come Home “Heart of the Forest” Update Sprout Valley “Summer” Update Research Story on Steamdeck Farmagia Trailer Tales of the Shire Sneak Peek Lou’s Lagoon Farlands Games discussed: Disney Dreamlight Valley Window Garden Rusty's Retirement Coral Island Stardew 1.6 Starstruck Vagabond Go-Go Town Kamaeru: Frog Refuge Go-Go Town Tales of the Shire Of Life and Land Southfield Mika and the witch's mountain Len's Island 1.0 Research Story 1.0 Chill Town 1.0 Snacko 1.0 Coral Island 1.1 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. (0:00:38) Codey: Cody. (0:00:38) Al: And we’re here today to talk about cottagecore games. (0:00:42) Codey: Woo! (0:00:46) Al: That was a really long woo. (0:00:48) Codey: It was… (0:00:50) Codey: It’s like when you’re… (0:00:50) Al: Like it sounded like we were falling off a cliff there. (0:00:54) Codey: It’s like when you’re hugging a friend and you’re like, (0:00:56) Codey: “Who’s gonna end it first?” (0:00:58) Codey: Like… (0:01:01) Al: It’s like the, you know, the Disney hug rule. (0:01:04) Codey: Oh gosh, no I do not. (0:01:06) Al: So the Disney hug rule and I mean, Disney have never confirmed that this is true. (0:01:10) Al: But when you watch some videos, it’s pretty clear that it’s true. (0:01:14) Al: The theory is that cast members at Disney are told that they are not allowed to stop a hug. (0:01:22) Al: So the kid has to has to be the one that decides when the hug ends. (0:01:26) Codey: That’s horrifying. I would hate that. (0:01:28) Al: So, so you just had, there are, (0:01:31) Al: I’ve seen some TikToks of kids like hugging for like three, four minutes. (0:01:37) Al: And it’s like, I mean, like, well, I mean, presumably Cody, (0:01:41) Al: you would never want to do that job anyway, right? (0:01:45) Codey: I mean, I think it would be fun to like, because I did choir for a really long time and I have kind (0:01:51) Codey: of a Disney voice in choir. I guess they don’t ever really sing at Disney, but like I could, (0:01:57) Codey: like I always thought that would be super fun, but then I remembered I hate children, so. (0:02:04) Al: kind of an important thing for a job at Disney, I would think. (0:02:06) Codey: I also hate, I also hate non-consensual physical content, particularly with children. (0:02:10) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, so I would say don’t do that job, Cody. That would be my (0:02:15) Codey: So, yeah, no, I’m not going to, yeah. (0:02:20) Al: advice to you. But yeah, I think it’s it’s very funny because like, the comments on these (0:02:26) Al: TikToks tend to be, oh, that kid really needed it. And I’m like, okay, sure, fine. It’s just (0:02:30) Al: funny. [laughs] (0:02:34) Al: Anyway, I think the kids that actually need a hug probably aren’t going to Disney because the parents aren’t taking them. So… (0:02:34) Codey: - Sure. (0:02:40) Codey: Well, and that’s what makes me so uncomfortable. (0:02:42) Codey: Like when, you know, like my little cousins (0:02:45) Codey: or whatever, when I was with my ex (0:02:46) Codey: and like they would come up (0:02:47) Codey: and they would just hug my leg constantly. (0:02:49) Codey: And I was like, ah, I hate this. (0:02:52) Codey: Cause like no amount of me hugging you (0:02:55) Codey: is gonna make you feel better. (0:02:57) Codey: Like, please let me go. (0:03:00) Al: Wow. (0:03:01) Codey: But more importantly, transcripts are available with show notes and on the website. (0:03:07) Al: Woo! (0:03:10) Al: This episode, we’re going to have our mid-year check-in. (0:03:13) Al: So this is something we started last year (0:03:15) Al: when we doubled the number of episodes. (0:03:18) Al: We got to the middle of the year and went, (0:03:20) Al: we’ve had a lot of episodes. (0:03:21) Al: Let’s maybe see what the year’s been like so far (0:03:24) Al: and chat about that. (0:03:26) Al: I thought we would do that again because it’s the end of– (0:03:29) Al: is this autumn? (0:03:30) Al: Is this– is that the current season? (0:03:32) Codey: Oh, and the show. (0:03:32) Al: No, no, no, no, no. (0:03:34) Al: Nowhere’s spring. (0:03:35) Al: No, we’re summer. (0:03:36) Al: We’re summer. (0:03:37) Al: We’re in summer, I think. (0:03:38) Al: Episodes. (0:03:38) Codey: I mean, in the real, real, we’re in summer. (0:03:41) Al: No, I know what we are. (0:03:42) Al: Nowhere in autumn. (0:03:42) Al: We’re in autumn, too. (0:03:43) Al: That’s what we are, of course. (0:03:44) Codey: OK, for the podcast. (0:03:46) Al: Yes. (0:03:46) Al: So this is the last day of autumn. (0:03:48) Al: Next episode will be the first day of winter. (0:03:52) Codey: Can you hear my dog panting? (0:03:54) Codey: Very, very lovely. (0:03:55) Codey: Yeah, no, she’s… (0:03:56) Al: A little, not a huge amount. (0:03:58) Al: So we’re going to chat about the games (0:04:01) Al: that we’ve enjoyed so far from the year. (0:04:03) Al: Spoiler alert, apparently, we’ve not (0:04:05) Al: played a lot of games from this year. (0:04:08) Al: We’re going to talk about what we’re most excited to play (0:04:14) Al: for the rest of the year because we’ve still got six months to go. (0:04:17) Codey: Gosh, it has simultaneously flown by and also– (0:04:18) Al: Or we’ve only got six months to go. (0:04:20) Al: I don’t know which it is. (0:04:24) Codey: there’s still six months. (0:04:28) Codey: But this year is going way too slow for– (0:04:32) Al: yeah before that we have a bunch of news still so much news why is there still so much news (0:04:36) Al: it’s the summer stop giving us news but first of all cody what have you been up to (0:04:42) Codey: I have been doing research, but for video games, I’ve been still playing Power Wash Simulator. (0:04:52) Codey: I have… I believe I’m on the last thing of the, like, story quest. (0:05:01) Codey: So that’s exciting. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone, but that game has been very awesome. (0:05:07) Codey: And then, midway into me playing it, my landlord actually brought me a Power Washer. (0:05:12) Codey: So now I can do it in the real too, which is great, because here soon I’m going to have a void in my heart that is Power Wash Simulator shaped. (0:05:23) Codey: I also started Cassette Beasts, so that was something recently when I noticed that I was going to have a void in my heart. (0:05:31) Codey: I looked at what was available on Game Pass, and I was like, “You know what? Let’s just do it. Let’s do Cassette Beasts.” (0:05:39) Codey: I’m enjoying it so far. It’s definitely (0:05:42) Codey: Pokemon yeah so I mean it’s it’s nice I enjoy it I don’t know if that’s kind of (0:05:44) Al: I have heard good things from some people. (0:05:55) Codey: what I’m looking for right now but I will continue to play it and see where (0:06:00) Codey: it goes so yeah those are the big things other than that I’ve been working my (0:06:04) Codey: coffee job and also doing rover dog-sitting so that’s me what about you (0:06:11) Codey: well. You’re cooking, you’re clicking. (0:06:12) Codey: In what game? Oh, you’re doing it on your computer. (0:06:13) Al: Yes, I’m not fishing. In Farm RPG. Yeah, did you know you could do that? (0:06:24) Al: Maybe that’s dangerous for you to know, I’m not sure. (0:06:26) Codey: so I was going to say, you’re clearly on farm RPG still. (0:06:29) Al: Yes, no. Yeah, I just unlocked a new area to fish in. So, oopsie. I am. Yeah, sorry, (0:06:36) Al: just give me… I literally, I’ve been working towards the thing that I’m currently, I’ve just (0:06:41) Al: unlocked for a week. (0:06:43) Al: I had to do two and a half thousand eggplants to unlock a specific runestone so that I could (0:06:48) Al: then get to a new area. So I’m suddenly like, “Oh, I can do this now! Yay!” But no, that’s (0:06:54) Codey: Yeah, make number go big, number get big, number go brrrrrrrrr. (0:06:55) Al: bad. Yeah. I mean, that is one thing I’ve been doing a lot, is farm RPG. So I’m now making (0:07:03) Al: maybe like 100 to 150 million silver a day. So yeah, a lot. (0:07:09) Codey: Crazy. (0:07:13) Codey: How many drinkings are you at? (0:07:13) Al: Drinkings. Oh, the 99. Yeah, yeah, it bothers me a bit. I have completed 82. But that’s (0:07:17) Codey: Bar, bottles of beer. (0:07:23) Codey: Okay. (0:07:25) Al: taking ages to get to the next level, because like, my crafting is at like level 91, but (0:07:30) Al: my farming is down at 82. And it’s just, it takes so long to up the farming, because there’s (0:07:35) Al: only, you can’t speed it up, really. Like, I’ve sped it up as much as I can. So I think (0:07:40) Al: it’s like roughly they take about half the time now that they’re (0:07:43) Al: meant to but it’s still like that’s and I’m up to 32 plots and to get another (0:07:51) Al: four I need a billion so like that’s not that’s gonna take a long time to get (0:07:56) Al: there but yeah I’ve unlocked a lot of stuff and I feel like I’m just grinding (0:08:01) Al: through the mid game now it’s just taking a long time yeah it is fun and I’m (0:08:06) Codey: - Yeah, I mean it was a fun game though. (0:08:08) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:08:10) Al: I’m definitely not finished yet. (0:08:13) Al: And I’m not gonna stop yet, but yeah, we’re getting there. (0:08:19) Al: We’re getting there. (0:08:21) Al: What was the quest I was looking at? (0:08:24) Al: Can’t remember. (0:08:26) Al: Fishing. (0:08:27) Al: Right, yes, sorry. (0:08:28) Al: Sorry. (0:08:29) Al: I’ve closed the tab now. (0:08:32) Al: I’ve also been playing Go Go Town and Starstruck Vagabond, (0:08:35) Al: and hopefully eventually I’ll do episodes on both of those games. (0:08:39) Al: Because I feel like I’ve been playing both of them for ages (0:08:41) Al: and not done episodes on that. (0:08:44) Al: Time is a timing, so we’ll get there. (0:08:44) Codey: -Well, speaking of things being delayed and maybe doing episodes on things later, (0:08:52) Codey: that’s what we’ve been up to for news, Southfield. (0:08:52) Al: “Wooooh! Time for the news! That says the problem with the segue between sections doesn’t really (0:09:02) Al: work that well when you have to introduce the section. Southfield Early Access has been delayed.” (0:09:10) Codey: which this was like very close to release right like it was (0:09:13) Al: Yeah, it was like tomorrow. Yeah. (0:09:14) Codey: supposed to be released tomorrow when they announced it on Friday. (0:09:20) Al: » Yeah. (0:09:21) Al: » Yeah. (0:09:21) Codey: So like three days before release, which (0:09:23) Al: Yeah, I always find these interesting because it’s like they only actually announced the (0:09:26) Al: release like two weeks ago. So to give the context, they’ve said the reason they’re delaying (0:09:32) Al: is because of performance issues that people have found in the closed beta. But they’ve (0:09:37) Al: been running the closed beta for months, and they announced the early access date two weeks ago. (0:09:43) Al: And this is when they’ve gone, “Oh, we’re not actually going to do that.” So it’s like, (0:09:46) Al: I’m not saying that delaying is a bad thing. It just feels like I’m confused by their timing (0:09:50) Al: of all of this and (0:09:53) Al: like did nobody say anything about the performance in the first multiple months of the closed beta? (0:09:56) Codey: No. So I think that they said, so yeah, it says that they’re a recurring problem being (0:09:58) Al: Or did they think they’d managed to fix it in time or… (0:10:05) Codey: performance. And then in response, we implemented a new way to make the game run more smoothly, (0:10:10) Codey: which worked well. So I’m assuming that they were like, Oh, cool, we’re good. Uh, but the (0:10:14) Codey: caveat is, but created lots of complex issues over the past few weeks. So I think they’d (0:10:20) Codey: like probably felt like they had solved that issue, but then all of these other issues (0:10:26) Codey: are dropping up. Not entirely sure what those are, um, which is fine. I mean, you know, it (0:10:31) Codey: would be better for you to, to perf not perfect, but like, uh, address those issues before (0:10:38) Codey: release. Um, though it was very interesting to me that they say safeguarding our devs (0:10:44) Codey: is very important to us. Oh, okay. I was like, are people going to like attack them if the (0:10:46) Al: Yeah that’s about crunch. They don’t want to crunch. No, so they say the last thing (0:10:53) Codey: The game is bad. (0:10:55) Al: we want to do is put enormous pressure on them to fix these issues for launch and beyond. (0:11:00) Al: Safeguarding is very important. So yeah, they don’t want to crunch basically, which is good. (0:11:02) Codey: Yep. (0:11:06) Al: We don’t want them to crunch either. Do not crunch. Well, it is how things work. That’s (0:11:06) Codey: That’s good. (0:11:08) Codey: Yeah, no, nope. (0:11:09) Codey: That’s not how things work. (0:11:12) Al: that’s the problem. It’s not how things should… (0:11:15) Codey: It shouldn’t be how things work. (0:11:16) Al: I’m actually really happy about this because I was getting very stressed about Southfield (0:11:17) Codey: Yeah. (0:11:23) Al: coming out tomorrow because long time listeners will know that I go away for a month in the (0:11:30) Al: summer and that’s in a month’s time. I wasn’t figuring out… I had no idea how we were going (0:11:42) Al: to cover this game and I really wanted to cover this game when it came out as soon as (0:11:46) Al: I could. Hopefully it’s delayed till at least the second half of August. That’s when I would (0:11:52) Al: like it to come out because then it’s much more sensible timing for us and we can get (0:11:57) Al: a good episode for it. Because Go Go Town came out before it, so obviously I was going to (0:12:03) Al: pick that one up then. It came out like a week ago or something. Is it a week and a half maybe? (0:12:07) Al: I lose track. I could just look at my list but I’m not going to. (0:12:12) Codey: Yeah, I don’t think it matters. I’m trying to see what all it’s on. (0:12:16) Al: I think it’s just on Steam. I don’t know if it’s on Mac. (0:12:16) Codey: Go go 10. (0:12:17) Codey: Oh, I could play it on Switch. (0:12:22) Codey: It says Nintendo Switch PlayStation 5. (0:12:25) Al: Yeah but it’s not out on them yet because it’s in Early Access so it’s only on Steam so far. (0:12:32) Al: And I will say the Go Go Town team have been very good at responding to issues. There was a really (0:12:39) Al: fun issue that crashed the Steam Deck, which was really impressive. But yeah. (0:12:46) Al: So playing the game would be fine and then I would put the Steam Deck on sleep and then I would wake (0:12:52) Al: it back up and I would play for a little bit and then the game would just crash and the entire (0:12:57) Al: system was dead. So I would have to like hard reset it and then come up and then I would have (0:13:03) Al: lost some progress. Interestingly it didn’t seem to be like tracking the amount of time in game. (0:13:09) Al: So like Steam says I’ve played for six hours but I’ve definitely played for like 11 or 12 hours (0:13:13) Al: I’m pretty sure so it was like not (0:13:16) Al: tracking that time but anyway they fixed that issue but then that broke a different (0:13:20) Al: issue on the Steam Deck and I tweeted them and then they fixed it the same day so they’re (0:13:25) Al: very responsive and yeah it’s that’s going really well but I’ll talk about more about (0:13:30) Al: go-go 10 in a future episode speaking of future episodes and past episode Hello Kitty Island (0:13:37) Al: Adventure is finally coming to Switch woo and also also PC and PlayStation but switch (0:13:40) Codey: Whoo! (0:13:42) Codey: Whoo! (0:13:43) Al: Whoo! (laughs) (0:13:46) Al: So it’s not coming out till next year, early 2025. I suspect Q1 for Switch and PC. (0:13:53) Al: They said that Switch is a console exclusive, a timed console exclusive. And then I suspect (0:14:01) Al: PlayStation like Q3 maybe, but we’ll see. Excited. They announced this in the Nintendo Direct, (0:14:07) Al: if you’ve not seen that. And, you know, obviously it’s still a bit away, but I’m very excited that (0:14:14) Al: that they’ve actually finally said it’s (0:14:16) Al: happening because, like, when me and Maddy were talking about it in the episode, we’re (0:14:22) Al: like, yes, Apple Arcade exclusives do sometimes come to other things, but we don’t know if (0:14:28) Al: they are actually planning on doing it, and if so, when, and how long, because, like, (0:14:32) Al: obviously they sign a contract with Apple saying that they’ll be exclusive for a certain (0:14:36) Al: amount of time, and it could be years. We just didn’t know. Now, it does look like that (0:14:41) Codey: - Yeah. (0:14:42) Al: That might have been two years, if it’s coming next year, because it came out last year. (0:14:46) Al: But yeah, we’ll see. Exciting. (0:14:47) Codey: Yeah. (0:14:49) Codey: Yeah? (0:14:49) Codey: It sure looks like Animal Crossing. (0:14:53) Al: Yeah, it feels so… It’s been a while since we’ve done the episode, but like, it doesn’t… (0:15:00) Al: It’s less Animal Crossing, certainly less New Horizons. I guess maybe it’s more like New Leaf (0:15:07) Al: in so much as like, you’re not making the town, right? Like you don’t decide where houses are and (0:15:14) Al: stuff like that. You do. (0:15:16) Al: You can like you design inside the houses, I think. But I don’t think you get to decide (0:15:21) Al: like where things are and stuff like that. The town is defined. The buildings are where (0:15:26) Al: the buildings are and you build them but you build them in so much as there is a plot and (0:15:33) Al: it says build a house here and you go yes please and it’s built. (0:15:37) Al: So yeah, I’m excited to see how that goes. Are you going to play it when it comes out? (0:15:40) Codey: Yeah. We’ll see where my debt’s at at that point. (0:15:43) Al: Fair, fair. (0:15:48) Codey: Also, next year is when I’m going to try and graduate. (0:15:50) Codey: So I might be tearing my hair out. (0:15:53) Al: Cool. (0:15:56) Al: Don’t know what to say. (0:15:57) Codey: Another game, another game that I may or may not play is our next one, which is Harvest Days. (0:16:02) Al: Yes. (0:16:03) Codey: I don’t know if I’ve ever looked at this game or seen this game before. (0:16:06) Al: Yeah, we’ve we definitely have talked about it before. (0:16:09) Al: I think early access came out, it was maybe late 2022. (0:16:14) Al: I think it’s a like a family that develop it. (0:16:18) Al: Like I think it might be husband and wife, it might be father and son. (0:16:23) Al: But yeah, yeah, it’s quite simplified, like (0:16:24) Codey: It sure is just farming simulator, but a cozy version though at least that’s what it looks like (0:16:33) Al: person character models and a few kind of things are clearly a little bit (0:16:39) Al: simplified, like the kind of buildings and stuff like that. (0:16:42) Al: But like the trees, I mean, it doesn’t look bad. (0:16:44) Al: Like certainly there’s like areas of like trees and grass that look quite nice. (0:16:44) Codey: No, not at all (0:16:49) Al: The animals look interesting kind of balance between (0:16:54) Al: Cartoony and real I think (0:16:55) Codey: Yeah, I think that me saying farming simulator but cozy is meant to be a compliment because (0:17:01) Al: Oh yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. (0:17:04) Codey: farming simulator they go hard so having it basically kind of be the quality of (0:17:09) Codey: that but be a little bit more of a cartoony or illustrated feel looks (0:17:14) Codey: really interesting and the 1.0 is coming on July 24th 25th and it’s also coming (0:17:19) Codey: to consoles on that day. (0:17:21) Al: Yeah, that was just like a hey, but we’re also coming to consoles on that day. I don’t (0:17:28) Al: think they really talked about consoles before. So honestly, impressive. I guess we’ll see (0:17:34) Al: how well the console versions run because obviously they’ll be using porting companies (0:17:38) Al: and they can be hit or miss depending on which one you have, as we found with Stardew. So (0:17:46) Al: yeah, it’ll be interesting to see because it’ll either be really impressive, like… (0:17:51) Al: Is that how you play games now? You only play games now? (0:18:02) Codey: things, random things come to Game Pass, so I’m never. (0:18:08) Codey: Yeah, so anytime I’m feeling a void in my life, I go to the Game Pass page and I’m (0:18:14) Codey: like, and I have a, this is what I wanted to play later page. (0:18:18) Codey: And then I go to that and then see what’s, or like anything that’s new or popular or (0:18:23) Codey: something like Coral Island was on my, even though I wasn’t going for Coral Island. (0:18:28) Codey: I was like, Oh, there it is. (0:18:31) Al: Next, we have Natsumon 20th Century Summer Vacation, which up until this point is a Japanese (0:18:38) Al: exclusive on Switch, I think. They have announced they’re coming to Steam, and on the Steam page, (0:18:48) Al: it says, in big letters, in English, the only English on the page, it says, “English will (0:18:54) Al: be available on August 6, 2024.” They also announced there was a DLC for the game. (0:19:01) Al: That’s all in Japanese, so I’m not going to talk about that just now. (0:19:06) Codey: Yup. And then, uh, give Matt’s who on Twitter, um, said that they, um, had (0:19:14) Codey: asked, they’d emailed, um, the developers were spike Chunsoft to find out, (0:19:21) Codey: um, if that means that the switch version is also coming, uh, to English. (0:19:27) Codey: Um, and their response was, um, that they don’t have any information to share. (0:19:32) Al: Yeah, you would think that they would do it, right? (0:19:34) Codey: and yes. (0:19:36) Al: Surely. (0:19:36) Codey: Some people are thinking, some people are thinking (0:19:38) Codey: that there’s a couple like game, not like direct style things (0:19:43) Codey: like happening in Japan soon. (0:19:46) Al: Ah, so they might announce it in one of them. Makes sense. Yeah. (0:19:46) Codey: And so maybe they’re going to announce it. (0:19:48) Codey: Yeah, so they don’t want to announce it to Gamatsu, (0:19:51) Codey: but they, it might be announced in something like that. (0:19:54) Al: I need to double check because I’m pretty sure the last one also did the same thing where they (0:20:00) Al: just came out in Japan and then they released on Steam and released the English language as well. (0:20:06) Al: I can’t remember what that one was called. Look, the game names are just so complicated. (0:20:13) Al: Um… (0:20:16) Codey: before you. Oh, Shin Chan, me and the professor on summer vacation. Wait, is Natsuma on Shin (0:20:16) Al: yeah that one I think yes me yes so yes no I don’t know so this is that so (0:20:24) Codey: Chan? Oh. (0:20:32) Al: it’s I believe no but maybe okay so Shinshan is not the same thing but it’s (0:20:42) Al: It’s a spiritual successor to summer vacation. (0:20:44) Codey: okay (0:20:46) Al: But now there’s also the new summer vacation game. (0:20:50) Al: Maybe. (0:20:52) Al: It’s really hard because there’s so little information on these games and actually in English. (0:20:57) Codey: is it one of the boku no natsu yes (0:20:58) Al: The new one, this new one is, yeah. (0:21:04) Al: But not Shun-chan. It’s not technically the same. (0:21:07) Al: So Shun-chan, me and the professor on summer vacation, I don’t think is technically… (0:21:13) Al: Yeah, so Wikipedia says the game has been described as a spiritual. (0:21:16) Al: This was definitely the game I was thinking of, so I didn’t realize it wasn’t actually an official Boku no Nats. (0:21:32) Codey: Not to you, sumi. (0:21:33) Al: I need to get Micah on the podcast to tell us, because he knows about all these games, and which one is what, and so I need him to explain this to me. (0:21:33) Codey: Yeah. (0:21:38) Codey: My– yeah. (0:21:43) Codey: OK, cool. (0:21:44) Codey: Well, I’ll leave it to Micah. (0:21:46) Al: I will definitely be having him on in the next couple of months, but I won’t spy a wolf. (0:21:51) Codey: Was, is it for Natsuman 20th century summer vacation? (0:21:56) Al: I said I’m not going to spoil it. Come on. (0:21:58) Codey: You have no information to share. (0:22:00) Al: I have no information to share, but I’ll also put some information somewhere else, (0:22:06) Codey: Okay, cool. (0:22:07) Al: because it’s like the Steam page saying “oh this is happening” and they’re like “ah we have no (0:22:11) Al: information to share”. Okay, sure, whatever. Roots of Patria have a 1.2 update coming out on July the (0:22:13) Codey: Right, right, right. (0:22:14) Codey: I’ll watch your Steam page. (0:22:23) Al: 31st, which is also the same day the (0:22:26) Codey: Yeah, the roots of Pacha, um, again, I’m excited to see if they will, if this will (0:22:31) Codey: be on game pass, because then I’ll start a new save. (0:22:35) Codey: Um, so I guess I have it on switch. (0:22:37) Codey: So I guess I could just play it on switch or did I play, I don’t (0:22:40) Codey: remember how I played this game. (0:22:42) Codey: Um, the update has a lot of really cool stuff. (0:22:45) Codey: Uh, there’s an update to the pets system and some of them you can upgrade to be (0:22:51) Codey: amount and in that it said that there’s a giant cave spider. (0:22:56) Codey: Um, shook because I didn’t know that there was a giant (0:22:59) Codey: cave spider in this game as a pet. (0:23:01) Codey: Uh, so I now want, yeah, there’s also a new way to water. (0:23:02) Al: I, yeah, I don’t, I don’t know what to say. (0:23:09) Codey: So instead of having to water everything, they basically have a sprinkler, (0:23:12) Codey: but it’s not a sprinkler. (0:23:14) Codey: It’s like, it’s a thing called an Ola where you just put water in us in the (0:23:20) Codey: central thing, and then it waters the, uh, surrounding eight blocks. (0:23:25) Al: Yeah, so this this had like irrigation lines, I think previously, which was the only way (0:23:30) Al: you watered. So this is just a new option for watering, which is cool. Also child labour. (0:23:34) Codey: Yeah. Uh, child labor. Yeah. Let’s, you want to expand on that. (0:23:41) Al: So yeah, I find this really funny because I was just like scrolling through it all and I’m like, (0:23:44) Al: oh, OK, cool, cool. Yeah, animals. That’s fine. Oh, there’s this some stuff about the school. (0:23:49) Al: Cool. And then the learning. So what’s a learning station? Let’s see. After building the school, (0:23:54) Al: you’ll get a learning station that can (0:23:55) Al: be placed in the fields, affecting a 7x4 area. After adding some contributions, the children will (0:24:01) Al: check it every morning to clean affected sheds and talk to the animals living inside, water and (0:24:06) Al: harvest plants, refill olives, pump irrigation pumps, harvest honey and harvest trees. So yeah, (0:24:12) Al: that’s child labour. Whoo! (0:24:14) Codey: - Child labor. (0:24:16) Al: Woo! (laughs) (0:24:18) Codey: It also coincides with the, (0:24:21) Codey: they have a new like development stage for your child. (0:24:23) Codey: So they go from being like a toddler to a school age student (0:24:27) Codey: and then, or not student, school age child. (0:24:30) Codey: So they go from being useless to being mildly useful, (0:24:32) Al: They’ve gone from being an inconvenience to being mildly useful. (0:24:33) Codey: which is why they’ve added the labor, I guess. (0:24:42) Codey: What an energy suck. (0:24:44) Codey: Now I’m… (0:24:46) Al: And that’s not what happens with actual children, right? (0:24:49) Al: Even if they are useful in some ways, they are still a drain on you emotionally and physically. (0:24:52) Codey: I thought you were going to say that’s not what happens, they’re very loving even when (0:25:02) Codey: they’re inconvenient, you still love them very much. (0:25:03) Al: No, well, yes, yes, but they are also a drain on you emotionally and physically. (0:25:04) Codey: You’re like, they always suck. (0:25:09) Codey: That’s true, that’s true, that’s- yep, that’s- yeah. (0:25:12) Al: I love my children. I love them most when they’re sleeping. (0:25:20) Codey: There are very few kids. (0:25:22) Codey: And then there’s just such a gamble about whether or not I would like mine, so I’m just not going to happen. (0:25:31) Al: Children are a gamble. Great. (0:25:32) Al: And… (0:25:33) Codey: There, a gamble. (0:25:34) Codey: You can also, other things that were added in this release, midday saves. (0:25:39) Codey: So before, if you wanted to save in the middle of the day, it would end your day. (0:25:44) Codey: So now you can say, oh, I just want to save and keep playing versus save and end the day. (0:25:48) Al: I wonder why they’ve restricted it to your bed when you don’t have to go to sleep now. (0:25:54) Al: That seems like a weird, like, you can save at any point in the day but you have to go to your bed to do it. (0:26:00) Codey: You take you nap and you just go you just go rot in bed for like an hour and that’s. (0:26:02) Al: But they’re not napping, they’re just saving. That’s it. (0:26:07) Al: But they don’t, they don’t. I’m watching it just now. They just stand next to it, (0:26:10) Codey: This is what this is what this is what I do. (0:26:10) Al: it saves, and then you’re still standing there. (0:26:14) Al: Like, what? I just, I don’t understand. Like, either you think that the (0:26:18) Al: it’s an important part of your game loop is that you have a day and it saves between them, right? I, (0:26:24) Al: personally, I think we’re past that. And I don’t think you should just do that. But like, (0:26:28) Al: or you let people save whenever from a menu, like, why this weird halfway house? (0:26:30) Codey: Yeah. (0:26:35) Al: Like, because then you get into the whole, oh, well, we don’t want people to like save scum. And (0:26:39) Al: I’m like, I don’t care. Why, why do you care what people are doing? Like, because they can still do (0:26:44) Al: out with the whole game. (0:26:46) Codey: Let people, let people. (0:26:48) Al: It just seems like such a weird restriction, like if you think that you should only save (0:26:52) Al: at the end of the day, fine. I think that’s silly, but fine, go for it. If you’re going (0:26:56) Al: to allow people to save whenever, allow them to save whenever, don’t put artificial restrictions (0:27:01) Al: on top of that. It’s like they didn’t want to add an extra menu. That’s what it feels (0:27:03) Codey: It’d do be a thing. (0:27:09) Al: like, right? They have the menu already to go to sleep, so they just added an extra item (0:27:13) Al: in the menu, and they’re like, they’re done, happy, stop moaning at us. That’s what it (0:27:16) Codey: Yeah, I mean, it’s fair. (0:27:18) Al: feels like. (0:27:22) Codey: Uh, another thing that they added was, uh, some different relationship mechanics. (0:27:26) Codey: So it sounds like now you can say when you only want to date one person versus you also (0:27:34) Codey: can like have it so that people don’t tell, tell others that you’re dating. (0:27:40) Al: Yeah, this is weird, right? Because they did already have unions, right? They’re not new. (0:27:42) Codey: Yeah. (0:27:45) Al: They already existed in the game. But something has changed, and neither of us played the (0:27:49) Al: game, I think, enough to actually understand what’s changing here. (0:27:52) Codey: Yeah, I never I never went to it. I never got to the union stage. So (0:27:56) Al: So I don’t know, if you wanted to do something with relationships that you couldn’t do, (0:28:02) Codey: most important thing you can smooch at your wedding there’s also a few new (0:28:03) Al: maybe you can do it now. (0:28:10) Codey: languages Korean being one of them I don’t remember the other one (0:28:16) Al: a traditional change. (0:28:18) Codey: but the most important thing they had some small quality of life things and (0:28:22) Codey: one of them is to have a transfer all or transfer matching options in storage (0:28:27) Codey: boxes and inventory I love this I love like if you have something in your menu (0:28:32) Codey: or in your inventory and it’s in the storage box and you can just be like (0:28:37) Codey: transfer the stuff that is already in there that is in my like just get it out (0:28:38) Al: Yeah, I (0:28:41) Codey: of my (0:28:41) Al: I use that feature in Stardew all the time (0:28:44) Codey: yeah (0:28:44) Al: It’s like especially in Stardew when you have like such limited boxes, right? (0:28:47) Codey: yeah (0:28:48) Al: You go up to a box you click the button you go to the next box you click the button and it’s like half your (0:28:52) Al: Inventory is gone. It’s great (0:28:53) Codey: yeah it also says that there’s new sorting methods which is great as well I (0:28:57) Al: Do they make any more sense in the Stardew sorting methods maybe (0:29:00) Codey: I don’t know, I’ve never… (0:29:02) Codey: I just… it’s something that I’ve… from playing Disney Dreamlight Valley, I really like the way that you can sort and do your inventory stuff in that game, so I’m just… I like seeing that in other games. (0:29:16) Al: Cool. Next we have Chill Town, who have a new update. The Auto Farming Update, which (0:29:24) Al: is coming out on the 28th of June. Fully Automate Watering and Harvesting. So I don’t know, have (0:29:31) Al: you watched the video for this Cody? I was so confused by this, because I was like, oh (0:29:32) Codey: I did. So the way that… (0:29:36) Al: so they’ve got like sprinklers and like the equivalent of Junimos or whatever. And then (0:29:42) Al: I watch the video and like it appears (0:29:46) Al: you like press a button and you go automate farming and your character goes in like (0:29:52) Al: waters each individual crop and harvests it. (0:29:52) Codey: Oh, yeah, I mean, I love I love this. (0:29:57) Codey: I love this idea that it’s like, OK, I’m going to go farm. (0:30:00) Codey: Let me do that. (0:30:01) Codey: And while I do that, I’m going to go to the bathroom (0:30:02) Al: Well, this is the thing. This is just like, I don’t, I don’t understand what, like, this (0:30:03) Codey: and I’m going to read something. (0:30:08) Al: is weird. Like, I don’t, I don’t. (0:30:10) Codey: It’s chill town. (0:30:12) Al: Well, this is the thing. I don’t understand. So you’re not playing the game. Like, it’s (0:30:13) Codey: You’re chilling. (0:30:15) Codey: You just watch the game play. (0:30:24) Codey: You were up to that point. (0:30:25) Al: and I, and I don’t mean, and I don’t mean, right, I don’t like, oh, you have, you should (0:30:33) Al: people will know I love automation in games. I love it. But for me, the automation in games, (0:30:39) Al: it frees you up time in the game to do other things. This is not doing that. This is just (0:30:46) Al: means you press one button and you leave it and it does the same thing over and over and (0:30:48) Codey: It… (0:30:51) Al: over again. (0:30:52) Codey: It frees up your time in the real. (0:30:56) Codey: It’s like Rusty’s retirement. (0:31:00) Codey: I love it. (0:31:03) Al: Rusty’s retirement is different, right? Because that the whole point of that game is you are (0:31:06) Al: telling somebody, hey, these are the things that you do, right? Like, you’re not actually (0:31:11) Al: controlling him. You’re telling him what to do. This is completely different. I just, I (0:31:15) Al: don’t, I don’t understand why anybody would want this feature. It seems weird to me. I (0:31:23) Codey: I love it. I really like multitasking. And one thing that I get stuck with in power washing (0:31:29) Codey: my leader, for example, is I put on my little silly little audio book. I wash powerfully, (0:31:37) Codey: and then I get four texts. And I’m like, for you know, a couple texts from different people (0:31:41) Codey: or a message or something like an email, and I’ll be like, Oh, I’ll check that once I finish (0:31:46) Codey: this wall. And then an hour and a half later, I’ve finished the entire building, and I check, (0:31:53) Codey: 10 messages. And I’m just like, it, it will because you go you so it’s like, Oh, (0:31:54) Al: I don’t think this is going to solve that problem for you Cody. (0:32:01) Codey: time to harvest my stuff, click auto harvest, check all my messages. (0:32:05) Al: not going to do that, you’ll just get distracted by something else instead. This is not going (0:32:10) Al: to solve your ADHD, Cody. That’s not what this is going to do. And I just, I can’t, (0:32:14) Codey: It’s supposed to. (0:32:15) Al: I can’t, it’s not. I just, I can’t imagine ever wanting to do this, because I, what am (0:32:23) Al: I doing while that’s happening? I’m not going to sit sitting at the screen, I’m just going (0:32:28) Al: to go TikTok. Like I don’t, I don’t. This is. (0:32:32) Codey: i’ll like play with my dog in between this i’ll that’s this one i’ll like get her i’ll either (0:32:37) Codey: check my messages or i’ll be like go get your ball and then we like throw the ball for a little bit (0:32:42) Codey: while it’s happening that’s the kind of stuff I would (0:32:44) Al: I love automation. This is not it. I don’t understand it. And if you are excited about this, (0:32:49) Al: you’re fine. I’m glad for you. I don’t, I don’t want it. I don’t understand it. It doesn’t make (0:32:50) Codey: Chiltown you do you you do you (0:32:57) Al: any sense to me. I know, but like, give me proper automation is what I’m like. I was excited and now (0:32:57) Codey: Well, you know what it’s toggle and you don’t have to do it what I’ve been (0:33:07) Al: I’m confused. Maybe, maybe. I do think the, the automating. Well, no. (0:33:08) Codey: Maybe that’s not maybe that’s the next thing (0:33:12) Codey: Speaking of the next thing (0:33:14) Al: Just before that, they did look like they had automated fishing as well. Now that, because (0:33:15) Codey: Okay (0:33:19) Al: when they went into the auto menu, let me just double check. Yeah, these got auto fishing. (0:33:25) Al: Now that does sound interesting, but we’ll see. I’ve still not played this game. It’s on my list. (0:33:30) Al: We’ll see. Sorry. I’ll let you do your segue now. Okay. (0:33:32) Codey: the next, next on our list. (0:33:39) Codey: Disney Dreamlight Valley, uh, is pulling me back in, um, just in time for (0:33:44) Al: Oh, disaster. (0:33:46) Codey: me after powerwash simulator ends. (0:33:49) Codey: Um, they’re going to have a new update called the lucky dragon update. (0:33:52) Codey: Uh, it looks like it’s adding, uh, Mulan, Mushu, possibly some other (0:33:56) Codey: cherry blossom items as well. (0:33:59) Codey: Um, cause there’s a lot of cherry blossoms in the picture and you have (0:34:03) Codey: that you’re wearing, uh, that have a lot of cherry blossoms on them. (0:34:06) Codey: Uh, this is called the, uh, I don’t, I mean, like she, they talk about (0:34:06) Al: Is there a link there? Is there a link between? (0:34:14) Codey: blossoms, like the perfect petal, perfect flower, um, and how not every (0:34:23) Al: It does look like the cherry blossom in the movie. Okay, fair enough. (0:34:26) Codey: Yeah, and then also like in the trailer, yeah, you got to be more specific (0:34:27) Al: It’s been a while since I’ve watched it. All I care about is the song. (0:34:33) Al: No, I do not need to be more specific, though, come on. (0:34:37) Codey: Some good songs in that movie (0:34:39) Al: Yeah, I know, but there’s one that’s the best, and you all know it. You’re all singing. (0:34:41) Codey: So (0:34:43) Codey: Yeah, it’s kind of a yikes um (0:34:46) Codey: I mean, it’s a good it’s a good song. It’s called the lucky dragon update. It’s coming on June 26th (0:34:51) Codey: So I think by the time this is out (0:34:54) Al: the day it comes out, yeah, same day so well so you’ll know more than us because (0:34:56) Codey: The day the day you are listening that if you are listening to this it’s out (0:35:02) Al: it’s out now well I’m sure we’ll talk about it in the next episode speaking of (0:35:04) Codey: Yeah, yep, I will play play it much (0:35:06) Al: updates smooshy come home have a new update the heart of the forest update (0:35:12) Al: and this adds some postgame content it’s out now and it adds some new areas some (0:35:18) Al: new skins and some new mushrooms yeah (0:35:24) Al: it looks like a pretty decent sized update for the game and that’s cool (0:35:29) Al: Sprout Valley speaking of small games that have pretty decent sized updates (0:35:34) Al: Sprout Valley have their summer update I think it was actually technically called (0:35:38) Al: like summer 2024 they’ve not got very imaginative names with their updates (0:35:42) Al: here they that adds some new biomes sand stone and jungle some new resources (0:35:51) Al: cactus and bamboo, new fish, sandfish. (0:35:54) Al: Stonefish and jadefish, new pets and pet buffs to increase their speed, travel, luck and energy. (0:36:02) Al: I mean honestly this feels like it might double the size of the game based on what I played which is pretty cool. (0:36:02) Codey: Yeah. Yeah, I don’t know. The fish are exclusive to the biomes. I’m assuming cactus is in sand (0:36:16) Codey: and bamboo is in jungle. Yeah, cool. Updating games. (0:36:22) Al: Speaking of updating games, Research Story is now officially Steam Deck compatible. (0:36:28) Codey: Does this make it more likely that you’ll play it? (0:36:33) Al: Yeah. Theoretically. I feel like they already added controller support. That’s really, (0:36:38) Al: like, when they say, like, playable, there’s… When Valve say whether a game is compatible (0:36:46) Al: with the Steam Deck or not, they have, like, five things that they say, and of the five things, (0:36:53) Al: and that’s controller support. The other ones, they might be annoying because it’s things like (0:37:00) Al: tech size, right? Which isn’t a huge issue for me. I’ve got pretty good eyes, (0:37:05) Al: and it’s things like, does it have its own keyboard, or do you have to pop up the keyboard (0:37:10) Al: and type in yourself? And, like, realistically, these games don’t have a lot of cases with that, (0:37:14) Al: so I don’t really care. If once every 10 hours of game I have to pop up the keyboard manually (0:37:20) Al: and type something in that is not the end of the world. (0:37:22) Al: So yeah, so the five things are the games default graphics configurations performs well on Steam Deck. (0:37:32) Al: That’s reasonably important, right, but for most of these farming games, (0:37:36) Al: unless they’re like big 3D stuff, they’re probably fine like that. (0:37:40) Al: The game shows Steam Deck controller icons. (0:37:43) Al: Yeah, important, but it’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t, right? (0:37:48) Al: All functionality is accessible when using the default controller configuration. (0:37:53) Al: Yeah, but like these will probably be really tiny things, right? (0:37:54) Codey: Yep, and the yep, and those are the three that research story has. The other two are still needs to be worked on, I think, but we’ll be fine. (0:38:07) Al: Hey, tiny text, because and so like, but this is the thing, it could be one word, right? (0:38:08) Codey: I get it because the text is small and maybe difficult to read I got it. (0:38:17) Al: Like they check everything, so if there’s one thing that is small and difficult to read, (0:38:21) Al: Then it’s marked as (0:38:22) Al: most of it is readable and it’s perfectly fine. The other thing is the game supports (0:38:29) Al: Steam Deck’s native display resolution but does not set it by default and may require you (0:38:35) Al: to configure the display resolution manually. It’s like okay I don’t care like oh no I need to (0:38:40) Codey: Yeah. (0:38:41) Al: go into the settings once. Okay great fantastic and yeah the other one that’s not listed here (0:38:48) Al: It is the keyboard because presumably that it does have its own keyboard now (0:38:51) Al: Okay. (0:38:52) Al: Um, but sometimes, sometimes they’ll pop up and say, Oh, you might need to open the (0:38:56) Al: keyboard to input text. (0:38:58) Al: And I’m like, that’s fine. (0:39:00) Al: That’s not the end of the world. (0:39:01) Al: It’s not great. (0:39:02) Al: I mean, the steam deck keyboard is not a good keyboard. (0:39:04) Al: It is a really slow, bad keyboard. (0:39:08) Al: So in game keyboards are always better than that, but like, it’s not like I’m playing (0:39:12) Al: text heavy games ever. (0:39:14) Al: So yeah, but yeah, it’s, it’s the added, as I say, the added controller support like last (0:39:21) Al: year, I feel like, so nothing. (0:39:22) Al: It’s always good when they’re fully compatible, so yeah, good fun. (0:39:36) Al: Far Magia This is the game that was announced by Marvelous. (0:39:38) Codey: for my farm agia. (0:39:43) Al: Technically a year ago, they announced it as Project Magia, but then they told us nothing (0:39:48) Al: about it. (0:39:50) Al: And then this year they announced it again (0:39:52) Al: I’ve been in Australia and told us very little, all they did was “Hey, here are the hot anime people!” (0:40:00) Al: And then, in the Nintendo Direct, suddenly we actually got some gameplay, so that’s exciting. (0:40:08) Al: So, it looks like you are, as I suspected, you are farming and then harvesting your monsters. (0:40:16) Al: And it’s really interesting because there are… (0:40:22) Al: It seems to be like you have tens of monsters. (0:40:28) Al: It’s not like Ooblets, where you grow and you have like five of them in your party. (0:40:34) Al: Like, this guy’s walking around with like 30 foxes. (0:40:38) Al: And it’s like “OK, this is suddenly very interesting. Oh my word, let’s get like 50 of our monsters and attack this massive dragon!” (0:40:48) Al: I am very interested. (0:40:51) Codey: Yeah. Uh, someone on Twitter said Pokemon, but make it fairytale. (0:40:56) Codey: So if you watch, if you see in the anime fairytale, uh, that’s what the person (0:41:00) Codey: thought. Uh, I also thought the animals, the monsters growing from plants was (0:41:03) Codey: really interesting. Um, like the Fox, when it’s a plant, it looks like a corn (0:41:08) Codey: plant and it looks like it’s just the tail that you can see. (0:41:12) Codey: And the tail is all bushy and kind of looks like corn. Um, it’s really cute. (0:41:14) Al: Yeah, it it’s a weird a weird decision to make I feel like it’s like yeah, they look like food (0:41:23) Al: But they’re animals (0:41:26) Codey: There are resources. (0:41:26) Al: Okay (0:41:28) Al: Fine (0:41:29) Al: Yeah, I don’t know. I’m intrigued (0:41:33) Al: It feels like it might be quite a deep and detailed game right because it’s an RPG (0:41:41) Al: Yeah, I have we’ll see what happens (0:41:44) Codey: Well, I mean that’s all you and if you want to cover that game, I can cover the next game with Johnny. (0:41:44) Al: Okay, right, let’s let’s get into this then, shall we? So Tales of the Shire. I feel like (0:41:50) Codey: Um, you know, I’ve been wanting to cover Tales of the Shire. (0:41:59) Al: I get whiplash with this game. Like, so I just I don’t know whether I’m excited about (0:42:03) Codey: - What? (0:42:08) Al: this game or not. I can’t I can’t explain it. But there’s something about the game that (0:42:14) Al: makes me go this is a bit weird. And I don’t know what it is. I mean, the character models (0:42:21) Al: I think are a bit confusing to my brain. Like, it’s not like they look bad, right? I’m not (0:42:24) Codey: Yeah. (0:42:26) Codey: Yeah. (0:42:27) Al: trying to say it’s not like, Oh, bad graphics, right? And I don’t want I don’t need people (0:42:30) Al: coming in going, Oh, it’s because of the switch. I don’t care. Shut up. Right? One, the switch (0:42:35) Al: can clearly have good graphics, right? Have you looked at Breath of the Wild? Come on, (0:42:38) Codey: - Yeah. (0:42:40) Al: It’s not that they look bad, it’s not that they’re like (0:42:46) Al: It’s just there’s something weird about them, and I can’t describe what (0:42:50) Codey: Well, I think that, so for me, it’s they feel chibi almost, but also they’re, they’re (0:42:57) Codey: hobbits. (0:42:58) Codey: They’re just, they, okay. (0:42:58) Al: Yeah, it’s not the proportions to me that’s confusing, right? Like, the proportions look (0:43:04) Al: like what I would expect from Hobbits, right? Because they’re Hobbits. I don’t know if it’s (0:43:09) Al: their facial expressions. I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know. I think we’re gonna have to see. (0:43:19) Al: Like, I’m not saying I won’t play it. I will play it, of course. (0:43:24) Codey: Yeah, there’s there have been a lot of sneak peeks on site different sites. We looked at IGN and watched the IGN one (0:43:31) Codey: looked really cool (0:43:33) Codey: to me, you know, I saw the (0:43:37) Codey: It sure has farming and and cooking and fishing (0:43:42) Codey: I’m curious to see what more it is than other things (0:43:46) Al: I don’t think it is. I think it’s trying to be exactly what you expect it to be, which (0:43:52) Al: is Stardew but Hobbits. I wouldn’t expect any more. I would almost be a bit disappointed (0:44:00) Al: if it was more than that, because it’s Tales of the Shire, right? It’s not Lord of the (0:44:04) Codey: Yeah. (0:44:08) Al: Rings, it’s not The Hobbit, it’s Tales of the Shire. And the Shire is meant to be the (0:44:12) Al: a place where things don’t happen. (0:44:14) Codey: but they also don’t have like, (0:44:17) Codey: at least we never really saw like mining or anything. (0:44:20) Codey: Like everyone there was a farmer (0:44:22) Al: Yeah. It sucks. It’s the Shire. (0:44:23) Codey: or a gardener or something. (0:44:25) Codey: So like, it just, (0:44:27) Al: They’re not going to be mining. Those are… (0:44:28) Codey: but SARDU has like other things. (0:44:31) Codey: It also has kind of a magic system underneath (0:44:32) Al: Yeah. Okay. (0:44:34) Codey: like the judamos and all of that. (0:44:36)
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. (
Codey and Aislinn talk about Botany Manor Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:05:28: What Have We Been Up To 00:09:24: News 00:47:09: Botany Manor 01:19:53: Outro Links Steam Farming Fest A New Leaf: Memories Early Access Spirit Of The Island Mobile Release Len’s Island Questing & Camera Orbiting Update Snacko Tool Upgrades Update Sun Haven 1.4 Update Disney Dreamlight Valley Upcoming Updates Slime Rancher 2 Upcoming Updates Research Story 0.8 Info Tales of the Shire Trailer Codey’s Instagram Aislinn’s Linktree 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) Codey: Hello and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. (0:00:35) Codey: My name is Codey, and we are here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (0:00:36) Aislinn: And my name is Aislinn. (0:00:41) Aislinn: Whoo! (0:00:42) Codey: Whoo! (0:00:43) Codey: Cute! (0:00:43) Aislinn: Cute! (0:00:44) Codey: We did it! (0:00:47) Aislinn: Yay! (0:00:48) Codey: So as always, transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website. (0:00:54) Codey: Today’s topic we are talking about Botany Manor, which is a super cute little game. (0:00:59) Aislinn: Mm-hmm (0:00:59) Codey: a game that Aislinn has played. (0:01:01) Codey: So that’s what we’re going to talk about for our main topic. (0:01:03) Aislinn: Mm-hmm (0:01:13) Codey: We also have a lot of news. (0:01:17) Codey: But before that, Aislinn, who are you? (0:01:20) Aislinn: Hi, I’m Aislinn. I am here and I’m happy to be here. I guess things that I do to go into that, (0:01:30) Aislinn: I stream on Twitch, Ace Trainer, AIS, not Ace, like AIS Trainer, and also me and my fiance, we have a podcast called Moo & Coo, where we just talk about literally anything and everything. (0:01:30) Codey: Yep. (0:01:31) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:33) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:50) Codey: Why is it moo and coo? (0:01:52) Aislinn: Because he– so he really likes cows. (0:01:54) Aislinn: He’s a big cow guy. (0:01:57) Aislinn: So I was just like– (0:01:57) Aislinn: we joked around trying to think about a name for our podcast. (0:02:01) Aislinn: So we knew he wanted to do a podcast for a while. (0:02:03) Aislinn: And I was like, well, obviously, you’re like the moo-er. (0:02:07) Aislinn: You moo. (0:02:07) Aislinn: And I was like, what rhymes with moo? (0:02:08) Codey: That makes a lot of sense as to why you put the Pigeon filter on your Snapchat all the time. (0:02:10) Aislinn: Coo. (0:02:11) Aislinn: And I like pigeons. (0:02:12) Aislinn: So I’m like, now I’m coo. (0:02:20) Aislinn: Oh, actually, I actually love that pre-moo and coo. (0:02:21) Codey: Oh, wow. (0:02:23) Aislinn: I’ve always loved that pigeon. (0:02:25) Aislinn: And I mean, I’m a New Yorker. (0:02:26) Codey: Okay. (0:02:26) Aislinn: So me and pigeons were like homies, you know? (0:02:27) Codey: Mm-hmm, big, big, big facts. (0:02:33) Codey: Um, yeah, so I guess like how I know Aislinn is (0:02:38) Codey: through It’s Super Effective, Surprise Surprise, that’s how we know the majority of our people. (0:02:42) Aislinn: Yep! (0:02:46) Aislinn: We love it. We stan. (0:02:47) Codey: Um, we stand. I think, was it like, I think I like joked in, for Pokemon Go Fest last year, (0:02:54) Codey: I joked something about how we should get cardboard cutouts and then you were like “bet.” (0:02:58) Aislinn: - Yep, yep. (0:02:59) Aislinn: Once I, like, when a challenge that’s like relatively accessible is put in front of me, (0:03:03) Aislinn: I’m just like, yeah, let’s do it. (0:03:06) Aislinn: Why not, right? (0:03:07) Aislinn: Why say no, we can do it? (0:03:08) Codey: We did. So Aislinn, uh, ‘cause, uh, Steve and Greg, so two of the hosts of It’s Super Effective, (0:03:08) Aislinn: And we pulled it off and it was wonderful. (0:03:17) Codey: were unable to come to Pokemon Go Fest New York City last year, but a bunch of us did come, (0:03:22) Codey: and we, Aislinn printed out these cardboard cutouts of both of them, and then we were literally carrying them around all day, and like we had everyone sign them, so like everyone that it is fans of the pod. (0:03:31) Aislinn: - Oh gosh. (0:03:38) Codey: You know, friends of Greg and Steve, like we all signed the back of them and then you sent them to them, right? (0:03:43) Aislinn: Yeah, they I don’t I actually I have to still ask Steve and Greg like what happened with them cuz I sent them and I have no idea what happened after that I (0:03:50) Codey: someone in the mail is just like, “what the heck?” (0:03:56) Aislinn: Mean when I got it I was like what the heck it’s so tall and (0:04:00) Aislinn: Then having in my home was a whole different story. I’m just like this is not okay [laughing] (0:04:04) Codey: This is really weird. Yeah, for sure. (0:04:06) Codey: But that was, it was just so much fun to, because you’re a, you know, a New Yorker, and so you’re in that area. (0:04:12) Codey: It was just so much fun to like get to hang out with you, and you like let us around. (0:04:16) Aislinn: Yeah, oh my gosh, yes we are, yay, I’m so excited about that, don’t have to worry about carrying that across the freaking bridge, in the wind. (0:04:16) Codey: around. You showed us that really cool Korean barbecue place. (0:04:20) Codey: Um, so good. And we’re doing it again this year. Yeah. Except this time, we don’t have to cut them out and cardboard. They’re gonna be there. Yeah. (0:04:36) Codey: That was (0:04:39) Codey: yeah, it shout out to tone and oh my gosh, who was the other person that was carrying them? Vincent tone and Vincent for carrying them, like once the groups met up. (0:04:44) Aislinn: Vincent? (laughs) (0:04:46) Aislinn: Yeah. (laughs) (0:04:50) Codey: So that Aislinn didn’t have to carry them anymore because yeah they were they were blowing everywhere. (0:04:52) Aislinn: I was so tired. (laughs) (0:04:58) Codey: Oh my gosh so yeah that’s how we know each other and we just you know talk on snapchat and every day and didn’t share funny stories and stuff and so when I found out we were both playing botany manner I was like oh my gosh we need to talk about it. (0:05:04) Aislinn: - Yes! (0:05:11) Aislinn: perfect wow 251 streak on snapchat let’s go yeah I’m gonna go [laughing] (0:05:17) Codey: Oh we do? Oh my gosh, proud of us! (0:05:20) Codey: Look at us! That’s just about Pokemon Go Fest, isn’t it? (0:05:25) Aislinn: Just about. (0:05:27) Codey: Oh my gosh. (0:05:28) Codey: Okay, well, so that’s who you are and how we know you. (0:05:31) Codey: But what have you been up to? Like what in your life, like recently, what have you been playing? (0:05:36) Codey: Have you been doing anything super fun? (0:05:39) Aislinn: As of recently, I have been playing a lot more indie games. (0:05:44) Aislinn: I mean I’m still doing like, first stream, I’m still doing a Pokémon Crystal playthrough, (0:05:49) Aislinn: but like I’ve been playing a lot of indie games ever since PAX because I had the opportunity to meet some developers of some games at different companies and whatnot, and it’s been such a wonderful pleasure. (0:06:01) Aislinn: So that’s how I like got the opportunity to play Botany Manor, and I played like a little while ago unpacking and (0:06:09) Aislinn: another game that I’m excited about is Kamayaru, so like all these games that I never really played before, I’m now finally starting to play beyond just Pokemon. And even on the side too, I’m playing Spiderman, which is not anything indie, cozy, anything of that sort. (0:06:27) Aislinn: But it’s been fun to have the balance of the chaos and the cozy indie vibes as well. So it’s primarily what I’ve been up to is just kind of playing. And I think I’ve been playing (0:06:39) Aislinn: more like cozy indie games, also just to be less stressed because work life in general is a lot of stress recently. (0:06:48) Codey: yeah it do me that way um so you need that cozy cozy in your life (0:06:49) Aislinn: Exactly, but what about you? (0:06:58) Codey: well i’m right there with you I need that cozy cozy so I am playing so I most days um every day I play both my um coloring app so I have a cross stitch world is this like app that my grandma got me into years ago and then I deleted it on my app my phone because I was like this is taking way way too much in my life. (0:07:18) Codey: But now I’m using it again, but this time, like as a vehicle to help me overcome ADHD, like in social situations and like keeping me, keeping the part of my brain that wanders, like distracted so that I can focus on what’s going on in front of me. (0:07:24) Aislinn: Hmm. Yeah. (0:07:34) Codey: Um, so I play that every day. (0:07:37) Codey: And then I also have been playing Disney Dreamlight Valley every day. (0:07:40) Codey: I’ve been trying, I finished the main game and now I’m trying to like finish all the questlines for all of the characters and (0:07:48) Codey: level up all the characters to level 10 and then (0:07:52) Codey: Like just kind of have everything. I’m I also started thinking about (0:07:58) Codey: creating rooms in my house for each of the characters like having it having there be like a little mermaid room and (0:08:04) Aislinn: That’s so cute! (0:08:05) Codey: and a You know Beauty and the Beast room because you can buy like all of this furniture and stuff that is from those (0:08:11) Codey: realms I think is what this or those products and so (0:08:16) Codey: I was thinking about (0:08:18) Codey: where I just go into an empty room and just like filter all of my (0:08:23) Codey: Furniture to be like just the little room made furniture and then just put it all in that room and like (0:08:28) Codey: Make it work like make it an aesthetic room (0:08:32) Codey: Haven’t started doing that yet. Don’t know if that’s gonna continue but (0:08:37) Codey: Super fun and then always and forever working on my Fox my Minecraft Fox (0:08:43) Codey: Building up my little my little man (0:08:48) Codey: That’s playing with me. It has built like a really cool mountain on the back of it (0:08:53) Codey: The majority of my life right now is field work though, and actually today right after we record I’m gonna go grab a bunch of the traps that I put out a week ago and see what I caught. Oh (0:09:03) Aislinn: Mm hmm. I’m so excited. Can I can I get a Snapchat insight later? (0:09:08) Codey: You’re you’re going to (0:09:08) Aislinn: Because I just I am so fascinated with what you do. So sick. Awesome. (0:09:10) Codey: hunter hunter percent (0:09:14) Codey: Yeah, 100% and then yeah, so (0:09:18) Codey: and then other than that I do a lot of specimen work, so that’s what we’ve been up to. (0:09:20) Aislinn: Cool! (0:09:20) Aislinn: Whoo! (0:09:24) Codey: Okay, so we will jump into this pile of news. My goodness. First and foremost, (0:09:31) Codey: right off the top, Steam Farming Fest. So Steam has this farming like, it’s not a bundle, but it’s like a bunch of different games that are farming focused are crazy on sale right now. (0:09:48) Codey: Um, like at least some of them are 20 some of like one of this I’m looking right here, (0:09:52) Codey: this rise of industry game is 85% off. So it’s only $4.50 instead of 30 bucks. Crazy. Oh, wait, (0:09:55) Aislinn: Oh my gosh. (0:10:00) Codey: 20. Nope, that’s 30 bucks. I was like, it’s 20. Um, so yeah, I mean, there’s just so many games on this. (0:10:08) Aislinn: There is– I got an email from Steam being like, (0:10:12) Aislinn: all of these games that you are on your wish list are on sale. (0:10:15) Aislinn: And I was like, oh my gosh, what’s happening? (0:10:17) Aislinn: Oh, yeah, the Steam Farming Fest. (0:10:20) Codey: Yeah, there’s a lot that we’ve talked about on the pod before and then other ones that I’m like kind of interested in. (0:10:26) Codey: So one that we’ve talked about before is Rusty’s retirement. (0:10:30) Codey: So okay, let me dive it back. (0:10:33) Codey: If you go to the Farming Fest like page and then say browse games, it like comes up with different types. (0:10:41) Codey: So there’s like the automation and then the dating sim and then there’s just like regular ones. (0:10:46) Codey: So the automation one, Rusty’s retirement, we’ve already talked about Timberborne. (0:10:50) Codey: You’ve never seen this game before, but you are beavers. (0:10:53) Aislinn: that I just I just hovered over it that is so cute that is so cute (0:10:58) Codey: So add that here, actually, and I just like add it to my wishlist, like, right? (0:11:02) Aislinn: just do it right now (0:11:03) Codey: Bam. (0:11:04) Codey: Right. (0:11:05) Codey: Oh, I have to sign in. (0:11:06) Codey: Okay. (0:11:07) Codey: Oh, I gotta do something for my email address. (0:11:11) Aislinn: i’m just leaving the tab open on my uh on my computer for now and I was like i’ll figure it out later (0:11:16) Codey: Oh, yeah, I just I just jumped on to my email and it was like it I see the (0:11:22) Codey: Bunch of games you want are on sale (0:11:23) Aislinn: Yep, yep, there’s that email. (0:11:26) Codey: I’m like, oh leave me alone (0:11:30) Codey: See and it’s funny cuz like I just got paid today. So of course they’re like they’re like, hey (0:11:33) Aislinn: Sale time! (0:11:36) Codey: Okay, so there’s that I’m trying to see which other ones like we’ve talked about before (0:11:42) Codey: Some of these are so cute. Like what is plantabi? Little garden. (0:11:44) Aislinn: I saw that APCO was on sale and they just came out with the new the final DLC. (0:11:46) Codey: Yeah, sure did. Yeah, we talked about that in the last pod. So yeah, great time to jump into that. It now has the final (0:11:52) Aislinn: I have not played it yet, but I did see that. (0:12:04) Codey: update quote unquote, I feel like L is gonna, they’re gonna find something to do. Other things that we talked about on pod. Gosh, all of these. (0:12:15) Codey: uh I found (0:12:16) Codey: my time at sandrok, what the heck is booty farm? (0:12:34) Aislinn: Wait, where is that? (0:12:39) Aislinn: I don’t even know where that is. (0:12:41) Aislinn: I was just going to ask, what is Anna, my friends, and why is that a farming sim? (0:12:45) Aislinn: And why is it like, why is it a farming sim dating sim? (0:12:46) Codey: So some of these are just some of these are coming soon, but there’s booty farm has another one too. Oh my goodness Okay, I’m moving on other popular ones include (0:12:48) Aislinn: It’s just called Anna, my friends. (0:12:58) Codey: Stardew Valley Manor Lords (0:13:01) Codey: Farming simulator 22 light your frontier (0:13:04) Codey: Sun Haven Fay farm paleo pines. I don’t know what farm manager world There was another one that I saw I’m trying to go until I find the one that I saw that I was like I really want this one Rune factory 5 travelers rest (0:13:16) Codey: Story of seasons of wonderful life harvest moon the winds of winds of Anthos (0:13:21) Codey: Ooblets (0:13:22) Aislinn: I was gonna say, did you say Ooblets? (0:13:24) Aislinn: Cause that’s another game that I’m interested in. (0:13:25) Aislinn: That’s on sale and I’m like, do I just buy maybe? (0:13:29) Codey: 40% now’s the time pull the trigger (0:13:30) Aislinn: It’s a good sale. (0:13:33) Codey: Harvest Ella. Oh, I guess my time at Sandrock is not on sale. Why is it in this list? (0:13:38) Codey: Don’t get it if I don’t know what garden life a cozy simulator is, but it looks great. We’re adding that to my wish list Um… (0:13:46) Aislinn: This is just a wishless session right now. (0:13:47) Codey: Snacko, which we will talk about later. (0:13:51) Codey: Sakuna. I don’t know what cat tails is. (0:13:54) Codey: Oh my gosh, it’s like the warrior cats. (0:13:56) Codey: Where’s the one that I see? (0:13:57) Aislinn: there’s cat god ranch coming soon what is that I don’t know if you like cats as cat god ranch (0:14:04) Codey: Weed Shop 3. (0:14:08) Codey: Roots of Pacha. Where’s the cute one? (0:14:10) Codey: Littlewood, Wildmender, Graveyard Keeper. (0:14:13) Codey: These are all ones we’ve talked about. (0:14:16) Codey: There was one that I saw- oh, here it is. (0:14:19) Codey: Bun House. (0:14:20) Aislinn: BUN-house? I’m gonna actually google that one. What is BUN-house? (0:14:22) Codey: I had never seen this game before. (0:14:25) Codey: It came out October 19th, 2021. (0:14:28) Codey: Bun House is a cute, simple, bunny-filled game focused on growing plants and managing a greenhouse with fellow buns. (0:14:30) Aislinn: Oh. That’s so cute. (0:14:34) Codey: Take care of your leafy plant buddies by balancing the amount of water and light they get. (0:14:38) Codey: Play with friends and upgrade your greenhouse for wholesome, relaxing fun. (0:14:42) Codey: You are a bunny and you have a greenhouse. (0:14:46) Codey: You are a bird and you are delivering something to you. (0:14:49) Codey: I’m going to stop because I’m going to keep spending money. (0:14:52) Codey: I don’t have if I keep talking about it. (0:14:55) Codey: But definitely take a look. (0:14:58) Codey: If you have been interested in any of those games that we’ve talked about on the pod before, (0:15:02) Codey: they are likely on sale right now. (0:15:04) Aislinn: There’s a lot of good stuff on sale right now. Looks really cool. (0:15:11) Codey: Next up, A New Leaf Memories. (0:15:14) Codey: Uh, I don’t know if you’ve ever talked about- (0:15:17) Codey: I don’t- I don’t like that name. (0:15:19) Aislinn: You just don’t like it? (0:15:21) Codey: I don’t like it. Because I- (0:15:24) Aislinn: What did it do to you? (0:15:26) Codey: So I bought a new leaf and I was like gasp “New Animal Crossing game?” (0:15:31) Codey: It’s not- it’s not a new Animal Crossing game, you guys. (0:15:31) Aislinn: You know, that’s fair. (0:15:34) Codey: Um, so the early access for a new leaf memories is out now. (0:15:37) Codey: Quote, uh, the gameplay features, quote, (0:15:40) Codey: “Enjoy a range of exciting gameplay mechanics and features like building up a farm with 29 different crops, (0:15:46) Codey: bring 27 types of animals, choose from 21 pets to adopt, craft new furniture to put in your home, catch 4 types of fish.” (0:15:51) Codey: What? Why only 4? (0:15:52) Aislinn: Four. Why only four? (0:15:54) Codey: Cook- Cook 25 recipes! (0:15:57) Codey: “Mine, explore 8 main areas, and even drive around in a cute little vehicle, or take a ride in a floating bus. (0:16:02) Codey: While early access marks a major step forward, it’s important to note that our development journey is far from over.” (0:16:07) Codey: So, this is basically them, like, opening up to try and start pro- like, (0:16:11) Codey: like, ironing out the kinks of their bugs, of any bugs that you might encounter. (0:16:16) Codey: Um, why only four? (0:16:18) Aislinn: I don’t know. But hey, they’ve got 27 types of animals and 21 pets. So if you do the math, (0:16:25) Aislinn: I’m not doing the math. I’m not good at math. You’ve got more pets and animals than fish. (0:16:31) Codey: Also, the pets, so this is my issue, Coral Island burned me because you can only have one pet. (0:16:31) Aislinn: Take that as you will. Thank you. (0:16:42) Codey: So in Coral Island, you can only have one. (0:16:45) Codey: I got the one dog that looks like my dog because I was like, “Oh my gosh, I need to have my dog in the game.” (0:16:51) Codey: But then there was also a bearded dragon, and I went back to go get the bearded dragon and you can only have one pet. (0:16:55) Aislinn: What the heck oh (0:16:56) Codey: And I was like, “What the heck?” (0:16:58) Codey: ‘Cause I also have a beard dragon in my life. (0:17:00) Aislinn: Wait you do oh my gosh, I love (0:17:01) Codey: I do. I’ll send you a snap. (0:17:05) Codey: And listeners, I’ll post a picture of her in Discord or Slack. (0:17:11) Codey: So yeah, if you, I mean, if you’ve looked at a new leaf memories, (0:17:15) Codey: and you’ve been interested in it before Early Access is now available, (0:17:20) Codey: and you can check it out. (0:17:23) Codey: Spirit of the Island. (0:17:25) Codey: The pages for this game are now up on the Play Store and the Apple App Store. (0:17:31) Codey: It is $4.99, and it does support Crossplay. (0:17:36) Codey: And I did open this in the App Store so I could read it. (0:17:39) Codey: Oh, of course the App Store was like, “Oh, you want me to refresh? (0:17:44) Codey: I will refresh for you.” (0:17:46) Codey: Also, X is, gosh, what is it called? (0:17:52) Codey: When they promote it, it’s promoted up at the top of the App Store. (0:17:59) Codey: And I’m like, “No, get out of here.” (0:18:01) Codey: Okay. Spirit of the Island. It’s expected. (0:18:06) Codey: Oh, I love how it says coming soon. Expected, July 16th, 2024. (0:18:10) Aislinn: Oh, no, not the expected. (0:18:12) Codey: The word expected is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Okay. (0:18:13) Aislinn: Awwww. (0:18:16) Aislinn: Awwww. (0:18:17) Aislinn: I mean, I get it. It’s tough. (0:18:19) Codey: Okay, do be that way. (0:18:21) Codey: Quote, “There’s an old tradition running in your homeland. (0:18:24) Codey: To become an adult and complete the coming-of-age ritual, (0:18:26) Codey: you must go on a journey of discovery. (0:18:28) Codey: begins on a distant land, deep in a tropical archipelago. (0:18:31) Codey: what was once a prosperous tourist destination is now a shade of its former glory and it’s your job to bring it back to life. (0:18:37) Codey: explore the archipelago, meet the locals, and lend them a hand to restore the tourist paradise while you try to uncover the mysteries of your past. (0:18:44) Aislinn: But what if I don’t wanna become an adult? (0:18:46) Codey: also like… no no I mean fair like fair but also like this tourist village is just dying and… (0:18:50) Aislinn: Sorry, I’m just being silly. (0:19:00) Aislinn: That’s that’s everyone’s path to adulthood. You all have your own small village that was a tourist destination that now you have to make it a tourist destination again. Everyone has their own journey. (0:19:02) Codey: a child just like shows up and single-handedly saves the village? excuse me? (0:19:18) Codey: I… today I learned I’m still a child. (0:19:23) Aislinn: Me too. I have done nothing to contribute to- (0:19:25) Codey: I have saved no one. I have done nothing. (0:19:30) Aislinn: society therefore I am child. (0:19:33) Codey: I am child. I have not single-handedly changed anything. (0:19:38) Codey: Okay, well that’s Spirit of the Island coming, um, releasing on the 16th of July, uh, as a mobile game. Uh, I might, I might play it. It’s only five bucks. (0:19:47) Aislinn: It looks cute as a mobile game. I will say like I actually like I like the aesthetics of it for a mobile game (0:19:50) Codey: Mm-hm, yeah, maybe by July I will be sick of cross stitch world, I have doubts. (0:20:01) Codey: Lens Island has their questing and camera orbiting update out now. (0:20:09) Codey: So this basically adds some questing features like some short, (0:20:13) Codey: some small quests of like starting out and doing things. (0:20:17) Codey: Previously, I just kind of like dropped– (0:20:18) Codey: you in the world and you figured stuff out which is chill but also I like completing quests and getting like a little gold star whenever I finish the smallest of tasks. I’m not gonna complain. Also the camera orbiting is kind of cool so like you can just 100% 360 like orbit around your person now. I guess not 360 but like you can orbit around your person now and like that’s cool. Mm-hmm and then in– (0:20:40) Aislinn: Yeah, that those those seem like nice quality of life updates for sure (0:20:49) Codey: in the update Julian, one of the developers or the developer of Lens Island said– I just loved this– “We have been very hard at work to get this out. (0:20:59) Codey: This is the first of several big updates in the pipeline over the next few months. (0:21:02) Codey: We are releasing this at 3 a.m. Australian time so I’ll probably pass out after writing this POS. Just kidding but I am very tired and we will need some rest before tackling the first patch. So just keep that in the mind of the next or two, don’t forget this update was crafted from all (0:21:18) Codey: of your feedback and we can continue to balance and alter the camera and questing if needed. I’d also love to get some more ideas on quests too. I just love how like this game is so like community the community is really helping to like develop it and not like develop ideas and be like, Oh, (0:21:34) Aislinn: Yeah. (0:21:36) Codey: but what about this? What about this? And like, even when they do give this update, these updates, like the questing and camera updates, he’s like, I still want more. Like if you still have more stuff, like let me know. (0:21:46) Aislinn: Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s really really cool to have a developer so involved with the community itself. (0:21:54) Aislinn: I have not, but especially knowing that the developer is interested, that is really cool to see, (0:22:00) Aislinn: and the game itself looking at the visuals is really nice. (0:22:02) Codey: Yeah, so we heard about it on the pod forever ago and then I started playing it. (0:22:11) Codey: This is my weekly “oh, I want to jump back into Len’s Island” because yeah, here it is. (0:22:17) Codey: I want to jump back into Len’s Island, you guys. (0:22:20) Aislinn: It looks really good. (0:22:21) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:22:22) Codey: It is. (0:22:22) Aislinn: It looks really, really good. (0:22:23) Codey: It is. (0:22:24) Codey: Okay, so next up is Snacko. (0:22:30) Codey: favorite little cute (0:22:32) Codey: cato. The 0.9.3 tool upgrade update is out now. So this update allows you to use a new crafting station called the jewelry station or jewelry table. I can’t remember. But you use that table and add gems to your tools. And the gems do different things. So like if you add, you know, a diamond or something, it’ll boost your your pickaxe in a different way than adding like a ruby would. And there’s eight different gems. And that’s just like, I love that. I love when a game allows you it’s not just like, oh, get the magical upgrade that does the thing like it actually kind of like takes your feedback and you’re like, I want more range on it or like, oh, I’m already pretty good at getting the, you know, the fish line out there. I don’t need that, but I want it to be more stable, you know, something like that. Like, I think that’s cool. And maybe eventually you’ll be able to add different facets so that you can just have a completely gem studded fishing pole that just has all the buffs on it. Very cute. (0:23:34) Aislinn: - Mm-hmm. (0:23:52) Aislinn: Yeah, very cute game. I remember I saw this game at PAX and I wanted to play the demo, but I got stuck at, um, ‘cause at the same booth, I got stuck at Kamayaru for so long that I had to walk away in general. (0:24:03) Codey: Mmm-hmm. (0:24:08) Aislinn: But hey, it’s on sale right now. I might just grab it anyways ‘cause… Cute cat. And cozy game. And it looks genuinely really good. (0:24:10) Codey: Mmm-hmm. (0:24:12) Codey: Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm. (0:24:15) Codey: Mmm-hmm. (0:24:16) Aislinn: I do wanna play- Is there a demo for it? (0:24:19) Codey: Mmm-hmm. There is. (0:24:20) Aislinn: Okay, so I do wanna do that at least. (0:24:22) Codey: And I believe that we had a pod episode on it with the developer, so if you want to go back and listen to that. (0:24:28) Aislinn: I absolutely will, actually. (0:24:30) Codey: Um, if not… (0:24:34) Codey: Sun Haven! (0:24:41) Codey: Sun Haven! (0:24:42) Codey: So, uh, 1.4 patch update is coming out soon for Sun Haven. (0:24:46) Codey: It’s currently in beta, and the 1.4 update is currently in beta, (0:24:50) Codey: but it will come to full version when it’s stable on the public beta environment or PDE. (0:24:57) Codey: So this is the biggest update ever. (0:24:59) Codey: This gives so many so much content and so many bug fixes and stuff. (0:25:03) Codey: There’s a new area to explore called the Brine Stone Deeps. (0:25:20) Codey: You can now have kids as well. (0:25:22) Codey: There’s something called the Black Market. (0:25:22) Aislinn: Oh. Oh? (0:25:25) Codey: Two new romanceables. (0:25:28) Codey: And there’s other stuff too. (0:25:31) Codey: There’s other things as well. (0:25:33) Codey: There’s just so much that they’ve added in this update, and so if you’ve played Sunhaven and you ran out of stuff to do, baby get back in there, because dang. (0:25:46) Aislinn: And if you haven’t, it’s on sale. (0:25:46) Codey: There is. (0:25:48) Codey: Yeah, it is also… wouldn’t you know it? It’s 30% off. (0:25:58) Codey: Um, so yeah, I have not played this and… (0:26:03) Codey: I have other stuff to do. (0:26:05) Codey: But, um, oh, and Al also, um, laments. (0:26:09) Codey: “Is the Switch version ever coming?” (0:26:10) Aislinn: That is a big mood, that is a big, big mood. (0:26:13) Codey: That is a mood. (0:26:16) Codey: Okay, I am super excited about this next one. (0:26:19) Codey: Disney Dreamlight Valley. I’ve been playing this thing every single day. (0:26:22) Codey: And every single day, I’m like, oh no, I am reaching the end. (0:26:25) Codey: I am reaching the point where I’m not gonna have any more content to do. (0:26:28) Codey: What am I gonna do with my life when I can’t play DDV every single day? (0:26:33) Codey: All my favorites, and make a gross noise whenever my non-favorites, uh, walk by me. (0:26:41) Codey: Um, you best believe they have a new update coming out, a free update, (0:26:45) Codey: as well as they’ve explained some of the things that are happening in the second part of A Rift in Time. (0:26:51) Codey: So, they released a new developer update, uh, video. (0:26:55) Codey: Let me pause here. Have you, have you played this? (0:26:58) Aislinn: No, actually, but it’s on my list of games that I really don’t want to try and play. (0:27:04) Aislinn: So I’m very excited to hear about this in general through you as someone that is very passionate about it. (0:27:06) Codey: Mm-hmm. Oh (0:27:08) Aislinn: So I’m excited to hear your passion, to motivate myself to reprioritize games better. (0:27:13) Codey: Well, so the the best priority of this game is that it’s free (0:27:19) Codey: Completely free to play and then they just keep adding more stuff that is free as part of the daily like playing it every single Day thing like you get the in-game currency I think they call them like moon stones or whatever you get them and like then you can use them to do this (0:27:36) Codey: stuff where you can get access to more content like more skins or furniture items or (0:27:45) Codey: like quest lines and things like that and (0:27:48) Codey: I have so much about in-game currency like just from playing every day in general like it adds up real fast. So (0:27:55) Aislinn: But even if you don’t play every day, it’s still like a pretty good free game (0:28:00) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, and it doesn’t it doesn’t like (0:28:00) Aislinn: Cool. Awesome. That’s all I need to know (0:28:05) Codey: punish you for not playing. (0:28:06) Codey: every day. So like, if you have a while where you’re not able to play it, that’s okay. Um, and you can just dip in and dip out. But if you dip in, you’re in, um, you’ve been warned. Uh, so, uh, they have the next part of the DLC, um, and this free update called thrills and frills, uh, coming out on May 1st. You heard that right people, as As you are listening to this podcast, this stuff is available to play. (0:28:07) Aislinn: Awesome (0:28:36) Aislinn: Whoo (0:28:37) Codey: So there’s also a new star path, um, which is called a day at Disney and it’s, it lets you like bring in rides, like the tea cups ride and all of this other stuff. (0:28:50) Aislinn: for real? Ooh! (0:28:52) Codey: Yeah. (0:28:52) Codey: Like you can build, you can, I’m assuming that they’re just going to be furniture items that you can like either purchase or build or I don’t, I don’t know. (0:29:00) Codey: And then you just put them in your park and then you can ride the teacups or ride the whatever. (0:29:05) Codey: and I think, like, some of the– (0:29:07) Codey: other villagers will probably jump on them too. (0:29:09) Aislinn: That’s so cool I’ve never been able to ride the teacups because it makes me so nauseous (0:29:10) Codey: Super crazy. (0:29:15) Aislinn: So I could play it and I could I could sit in it in a game and ride it in the game [laughs] (0:29:19) Codey: Yeah, you sure do and you can take pictures like using the camera they actually showed that with the developer update (0:29:27) Codey: That like you can jump in and take a picture and it like shows you spinning around (0:29:32) Codey: I’ve never been to Disneyland and I’ve hit the point in my life where I don’t like children And I will probably therefore never go to Disneyland (0:29:43) Codey: Unless there’s like a an adult only day in which case it’ll probably be full (0:29:49) Codey: And I’m not gonna spend the money on that (0:29:52) Codey: So I’m excited to kind of get a taste of Disney (0:29:57) Codey: Disneyland Disney World whatever Disney parks in this game also more content never upset about that as part of the free update (0:30:05) Codey: thrills and frills (0:30:08) Codey: So I guess the thrills is the star path and frills is Daisy duck finally (0:30:15) Codey: So poor (0:30:17) Codey: poor Donald (0:30:19) Codey: Has seen Mickey and Minnie just like (0:30:22) Aislinn: The fact that this has not been introduced and this game has been out for what feels like a very long time, I just kind of assume that Daisy Duck was in the game. (0:30:24) Codey: Living their life and he’s just been like, where’s Daisy? (0:30:38) Codey: They yeah, go for it. Mm hmm. So they like hinted at her a couple times. So how they did so when you first start there’s Mickey Merlin goofy and think that’s it Donald’s not even you have to like rescue Donald from something and then you get him. (0:30:38) Aislinn: And the fact that she’s not is confusing. (0:30:54) Codey: But then like Mickey starts like seeing what seems to be Minnie’s ghost. And then you end up like pulling her out of the in between area. It’s there’s a lot. (0:31:01) Aislinn: Oh? (laughs) (0:31:08) Codey: And the other thing about this story is there’s a lot to the story that explains, I don’t want to spoil it for you, you need to play it. So, so, so there’s a couple times where you see what seems to be Daisy duck, like, you’ll see like maybe her little ghost or you find her ribbon I think at one point, or her bow. And so you know that she’s going to be added eventually and like Donald is just kind of like man I wish she was here and it’s just like (0:31:17) Aislinn: Fair enough, fair enough. (0:31:24) Aislinn: Mm hmm. (0:31:38) Aislinn: Awwww. (0:31:38) Codey: Oh, she’s not here yet. Um, so yeah, this will be I think probably I’m assuming what’s going to happen is she’s going to start showing up kind of like Minnie did and then Donald’s going to lose his mind and then you’re going to help him get his little lady. And so when she jumps in, she starts she has a new shop called the boutique, and in it you can design your own clothing, dude the clothing in this game is immaculate. (0:32:06) Codey: The vibes are excellent. (0:32:08) Codey: They did not like skip on anything. Is that the right, they didn’t like, skimp, skimp, skimp. (0:32:12) Aislinn: I think, I think so? (0:32:15) Aislinn: Uh, oh, yeah. Wow. I’m looking at like the trailer on, uh, on Twitter, X, whatever. (0:32:18) Codey: Yeah. (0:32:22) Aislinn: That dress is fire. (0:32:24) Codey: Dude, just in general, all of the dresses like I was playing the other day my boyfriend was here and I changed from like one dress to another and he was like, wow, that dress is really cool. I was like, I know, right, like, and I showed him there’s a bunch of different dresses that you can get and they’re all super super cute. And they make me feel like a princess. (0:32:44) Codey: But there’s also like, like a whole like pirate outfit that makes me feel it’s just so it’s so much fun. So with Daisy, you’re going to be able to do these weekly design challenges and have a whole new quest line to build the boutique super cool. (0:33:00) Codey: You can also in that free update use your tools and multiplayer Valley visits. So if you have friends that have DTV as well. (0:33:08) Codey: And you want to go visit their Valley. I’ve not done this yet because I don’t really know anyone you should play so I can visit your Valley. (0:33:15) Aislinn: You got it. (0:33:16) Codey: But then, so then like I can run around with you and help you collect things on your island or Valley. (0:33:22) Aislinn: That way I can speedrun the game. (0:33:24) Codey: Yeah, I can help you speak. I wonder, that’s actually really interesting because I wonder like, like I have all the updated things. So I wonder if I could just like, (0:33:38) Codey: all the stuff for you. Oh, no, actually, now that I think about it, you don’t get the Valley visit, like the thing that lets you visit valleys until until you’ve unlocked the last area. (0:33:51) Aislinn: Oh, so no speedrunning. (0:33:52) Codey: No, speed running. That’s okay, though. So a rift in time act two. So this is I don’t remember what it’s called, but it’s the second part of the paid DLC is also launching. (0:34:08) Codey: As you hear this, it is launched. And so I thought it said something about how there was going to be a certain lucky character released or whatever in the ruins. And I was like, it’s going to be Milo thatch. (0:34:18) Codey: I don’t know why Milo would be considered lucky other than the fact that he seems like a clumsy guy and somehow is not dead. (0:34:28) Codey: I don’t know. But it ends up being Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which makes sense. I wanted it to be my I know Milo thatch. (0:34:38) Codey: So yeah, it’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. So this is like one of the first film noir like Disney characters also knew Mickey. And he has this really like film noir like feel to him like he’s in black and white. (0:34:56) Codey: And apparently, like as he goes through the island through eternity isle if he like touches anything, it also becomes black and white. Yeah, so you can kind of see like (0:35:08) Codey: as he, you know, interacts with the environment, the environment changes a little bit. And so can make the cow was really excited that it could make the capybara black and white. (0:35:18) Aislinn: Oh, that’s cute. (0:35:20) Codey: Yeah, I love this game. Okay. (0:35:26) Codey: I just want to go play it but right now but I have to go do I have to go outside. (0:35:30) Aislinn: Hey, but after. (0:35:32) Aislinn: After it’s brain turn off and play time. (0:35:32) Codey: After you bet, because I gotta, it will be brain turn off in playtime you’re right (0:35:38) Codey: Uh, okay. (0:35:39) Codey: Three more news pieces to get through slime rancher two, um, next release coming. (0:35:45) Codey: Oh, so there’s a new, um, like update and it’s coming at the end of spring 2024. (0:35:50) Codey: They actually said that it was slated, like it was supposed to come out in the summer. (0:35:53) Codey: So it’s coming out early, just super cool. (0:35:56) Codey: And this adds, uh, the pronto Mart, which is a place where you can buy things that help you in adventuring and then the conservatory expansion. (0:36:05) Codey: Um, which I don’t remember what that does, but it sure does something. (0:36:08) Codey: Um, and the next, next release is going to come in the fall. (0:36:13) Codey: I believe this is on, nope, not on sale. (0:36:18) Codey: Just part of the, they’re just highlighting it. (0:36:23) Aislinn: I guess because actually I don’t know why is it not on sale it’s featured but why is it why would it not be on sale? (0:36:30) Codey: Y’all riot. Don’t. (0:36:33) Codey: I think maybe it’s because they have an update coming out. (0:36:36) Codey: So like they’re it’s showcasing that, but it’s not on sale. (0:36:39) Codey: Throw it on your wish list, people, if you’re interested in it. (0:36:43) Codey: Oh, excuse me. I need to have more coffee. (0:36:46) Aislinn: Gotta sip that donkeys. (0:36:49) Codey: Got to sip the donkeys. (0:36:51) Codey: I got people, people not on the East Coast are like. (0:36:55) Codey: What the heck? (0:36:57) Aislinn: There’s this don’t get on the west coast somewhere. (0:37:00) Codey: There’s a few, but also that we have an international audience too. (0:37:04) Codey: So Dunkin’ Donuts is an East Coast coffee place. (0:37:05) Aislinn: This is Dunkin’ in Spain! (0:37:09) Codey: Dunkin’ Donuts, but it’s like shortened to Dunkies, or my favorite is the Dunkies. (0:37:15) Codey: [LAUGH] I don’t know why I love the Dunkies so much. (0:37:20) Codey: So I have a mocha macchiato that I will actually sip from in this very moment. (0:37:23) Aislinn: Ooh, sounds good. (0:37:27) Codey: the ASMR of the ice clinking. (0:37:30) Codey: Okay, last two things. Oh my gosh. These are so exciting. Research Story. This is a game that I covered on a pod with Bev. So Research Story has a point 0.8 coming out in early May. In this you get something called the dormancy barn. So this this is another game where the developer is really working with the community and like taking their feedback and then incorporating it in a really (0:38:00) Codey: so they added this thing called the dormancy barn because people people were like whoa we’re playing this there are so many creatures that we’ve like tamed or or are researching or whatever and they’re on our farm and we have to like say hi to them every day or else they get mad and it’s just like kind of a lot to do. So you can put them in the dormancy barn and it’s just a place where they can eat and they can just like they just kind of like go dormant and they sleep and the barn has (0:38:30) Codey: to be cleaned so you don’t have to feed them and your you don’t lose your friendship with the animals at all while they’re in the dormancy barn which I think is so less stressful so if you have all these (0:38:39) Aislinn: That sounds incredibly less stressful. (0:38:50) Codey: “Put everybody else in the dormancy barn.” (0:38:52) Codey: Let ’em have a small sleep. (0:38:56) Codey: So I think that’s super cool. (0:38:57) Codey: There’s also four new creatures. (0:38:59) Codey: One is a moth that’s called Glimoth, and I love them. (0:39:02) Aislinn: That sounds so cute. (0:39:03) Codey: It’s very cute, you should totally look at the devlog on Steam. (0:39:07) Codey: And there’s also a creature compendium, (0:39:09) Codey: which I always am a fan of a journal that catalogs everything and tells you all the stuff about everything you’ve ever. (0:39:20) Codey: And also has empty spaces for things you haven’t found so that if you know, like that way you can know like, Oh, wow, (0:39:27) Codey: there’s a certain I’m trying I’m thinking about this, like in terms of Roots of Pacha, where they had like, oh, there’s all these different colors of boar. But I don’t know if I found all of them. But in the in the journal in Roots of Pacha, (0:39:42) Codey: there’s like an empty space where that’s like a boar another boar. So I’m like, okay, I know that there’s another boar color (0:39:50) Codey: not found yet. So super excited that Reesa’s story is getting that compendium. And I am I just really want to dive back into this game. I didn’t play it too too much. But I just because of the timing when we covered it on the pod, I would also play it a lot more if it was on Steam, not Steam Switch or Mac. But when it’s one point when it’s out for 1.0, I will likely jump back in (0:40:20) Codey: try and give it give it its due credit. (0:40:22) Aislinn: It definitely looks very cute, and again, it’s on sale! (0:40:25) Aislinn: That’s the theme of this episode. (0:40:25) Codey: It’s on sale. It’s on sale. Okay, last but certainly not least Tales of the Shire. So this is a game that has been greatly (0:40:28) Aislinn: It’s on sale! (0:40:41) Codey: anticipated within our community. Some of the hosts have fighting over who’s going to cover it on the pod. (0:40:50) Codey: But of course it’s going to be Al and it has to be Johnny so I will just cry in a corner. (0:40:55) Codey: There is a new trailer for Tales of the Shire and in it you actually get kind of a look at some of the gameplay, which is super cool. (0:41:01) Codey: And it just looks like it’s gonna be a cute little, I mean we knew this already, but like a cute little cozy simulator, cozy farming simulator where you’re just a hobbit in the Shire. (0:41:14) Codey: Um, yeah. (0:41:14) Aislinn: That is so cool. I’ve never watched, don’t come for me, but I’ve never watched Lord of the Rings. (0:41:22) Aislinn: But I had no idea they had this game coming out for it, and I’m like, this is so cool. (0:41:26) Codey: Well folks, this has been a great episode but I need to uninstall, delete Aislinn from me. (0:41:29) Aislinn: No, no, no, no, please. I know. (0:41:33) Codey: You have to watch Lord of the Rings! (0:41:38) Codey: No, it’s fine. (0:41:39) Codey: Um, but yeah, no, I mean, this is super cute. (0:41:42) Codey: It’s like a, you know, it kind of, I don’t, and I don’t know if they’re gonna have like little things sprinkled throughout the Shirelands, like where you can get information about, like I don’t know what time period this is in. (0:41:56) Codey: Is it in the first stage? (0:41:58) Codey: Well, it’s definitely not in the first stage. (0:41:59) Codey: Is it in the second age? (0:42:00) Codey: Is it in the third age? (0:42:01) Codey: Like, we don’t know. (0:42:02) Codey: Is this, you know, pre-frodo, post-frodo? (0:42:07) Codey: Is it just completely separate? (0:42:09) Codey: It does say that you’re in by water, so you’re not in… (0:42:13) Codey: You’re not in Hobbiton, but I wonder if they’re going to be like areas that you can go to eventually. (0:42:18) Codey: Or it can just be a completely separate thing, which is fine. (0:42:22) Codey: That would be fine. (0:42:24) Codey: So they have things like forage- (0:42:26) Codey: I got the feeling- Did you watch this trailer? (0:42:32) Codey: My ADHD is all over the place. (0:42:32) Aislinn: I’m looking at it right now. (0:42:34) Codey: I got the feeling that you can play with friends. (0:42:35) Aislinn: No, you’re fine. (0:42:38) Codey: Did you also get that feeling? (0:42:41) Aislinn: Um. I just blasted in my ear. (0:42:44) Aislinn: Oops, I meant to keep it muted. (0:42:47) Aislinn: I can’t tell to be completely honest. (0:42:51) Aislinn: You know, maybe. Yeah, maybe. (0:42:54) Codey: So this says “forage friendships” and during that time… (0:42:56) Codey: It seems like you and possibly a friend are running around, but it also could be an NPC that’s taking you foraging or something, so I’m not entirely sure, but it would be awesome if you could play this multiplayer. So you can forage, fish, cook, gardening… none of this is confirmed, (0:43:16) Codey: but just from the footage that you see looks like all of those things are available. You can also decorate your house. And then it also showed that there were (0:43:26) Codey: seasons. So yeah, I mean, I’m here for it. We’ve been here for it the whole time. There’s also an interview with the team (0:43:37) Codey: Weta Workshop, I believe it is. There’s also an interview with that team on YouTube on the YouTube channel nerd of the rings. I did not have time to watch that interview. So I am not entirely sure if they cover anything different in that. But (0:43:55) Codey: you should go take a look. (0:43:57) Codey: so is this does this like make you more interested to watch Lord of the Rings? (0:44:04) Aislinn: Oh, I I’ve been wanting to watch it. It’s just I have an incredibly bad like massive backlog of movies in general (0:44:11) Aislinn: Um that it’s just it’s just never ending (0:44:15) Aislinn: But it’s been it’s been on my list and i’ve had multiple friends that like want to do like (0:44:19) Aislinn: Lord of the ring watch parties and stuff and i’m like i’m down but also isn’t that like an entire day? (0:44:24) Aislinn: Thing like can we do it over multiple days at least? (0:44:27) Codey: Oh it would be over multiple days because it takes two days. So if you watch the if you watch the extended I believe they’re each about four hours long. And then you you also have you also have to watch The Hobbit then which is also at least three to four hours long for each movie. (0:44:32) Aislinn: Oh, oh (0:44:35) Aislinn: Oh (0:44:42) Aislinn: But honestly, I’m down though because I just I love just watching things (0:44:52) Aislinn: I mean, honestly, I’m down. It’s just it’s just the time I’m down for anything. The worst part is just finding the time for these things (0:44:53) Codey: So yeah. (0:44:57) Codey: Yeah, I throw them on in the background all the time. (0:45:02) Aislinn: But I want to watch it and then I can do that [laugh] (0:45:05) Codey: 100%, yeah, you have to do the full watch. (0:45:09) Codey: And even after you’ve done the full watch, even me having it on in the background sometimes, I’m like, I don’t think I ever realized that it’s not happening as much anymore because I’m on my 100th watch or something like that. (0:45:16) Aislinn: Yeah (0:45:21) Aislinn: Oh my gosh (0:45:22) Codey: [LAUGH] I put it on when I’m writing, so. (0:45:27) Codey: Cuz it just, again, turns off that part of my brain that wanders. (0:45:32) Aislinn: know how you do that. I cannot imagine having something with anyone speaking while I’m trying to read or write or something. I physically cannot do that. It doesn’t work. (0:45:38) Codey: - Mm-hmm. (0:45:42) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:45:45) Codey: Well, so sometimes I have to pause it, (0:45:46) Codey: but also like because, (0:45:49) Codey: so a lot of the time if anyone’s talking or talking or like if there’s any words at all, (0:45:53) Codey: like singing or talking, (0:45:54) Codey: like my brain like clicks into that because I want to know what they’re saying, (0:46:01) Codey: but because I’ve watched “Lord of the Rings” so much, (0:46:04) Codey: I know what’s gonna be said. (0:46:06) Codey: Like, I could probably do most. (0:46:08) Codey: So I, my brain doesn’t like that part of my brain. (0:46:10) Aislinn: I love that laughs (0:46:12) Codey: That’s like, what are they going to say? (0:46:13) Codey: What is, what are they going to say? (0:46:14) Codey: Like that’s, that doesn’t exist. (0:46:16) Codey: Like it just, it’s like, I know what’s going to be said. (0:46:18) Codey: It’s fine. (0:46:19) Codey: It’s kind of the same as classical music for me. (0:46:21) Codey: Like, cause again, no, no, no, no, we’re just like, yeah, just got to watch it a few million times the movies. (0:46:30) Codey: So that movie, uh, those, sorry, those movies, they’re just, they’re just, (0:46:30) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. I get what you mean. I get what you mean. I got it [laughing] (0:46:35) Codey: the movies so that movie those sorry those (0:46:38) Codey: movies, Cyrano, Puss in Boots the Last Wish, 2005 Pride and Prejudice, and I feel like I’m missing another one all of those movies are are those that movie for me like I can put on any of those and I can write write with them because I’ve seen them so much (0:46:54) Aislinn: Got a lot of hours. You can get a lot of hours of writing in with all of those movies. That’s awesome [laughs] (0:46:58) Codey: I yeah just tie them all together maybe that’s what I’ll have to do this weekend uh because I have a presentation next week that I have been putting off. (0:47:09) Codey: okay we are off the rails but we are back on the rails y’all it is time for our main topic botany manner (0:47:17) Codey: so first I just kind of wanted to like get our first thoughts and our experiences with botany manner so like how much have you played how did like when did you hear about it when did you start playing and kind of like what were your first thoughts. (0:47:33) Aislinn: So, I finished the game, I played it in one sitting, which took me, I think it was a nine hour VOD up on my Twitch, but it came down to like a seven hour, like somewhat edited YouTube VOD, so I would say it approximately took me about seven hours to finish the game, (0:47:56) Aislinn: but that’s just me being mean, being slow and everything with it. (0:47:59) Aislinn: I would say approximately you could finish it in probably five hours, give or take. (0:48:03) Aislinn: But yeah, maybe even less depending on how good you are, but so I finished the game, (0:48:08) Aislinn: I will not spoil anything, but first impressions, really, really, really liked it. Final impressions, (0:48:17) Aislinn: really, really, really liked it. Like that so much that I bought or I didn’t buy, I was going to buy, (0:48:23) Aislinn: but then my Chris fiance, he surprised me and got me the actual book from the game. And it’s like a sketchbook type of thing, and it’s pretty massive, and like… (0:48:33) Aislinn: It’s a really good quality too, like the paper quality I really like for drawing. (0:48:37) Aislinn: Well I actually draw on it, I don’t know yet, but the book itself is really, really pretty. (0:48:41) Ai
Pajlens, Svamprikets egna samuraj-expert, har spelat Rise of the Ronin, Anna har efter sju år av pepphörna äntligen tagit sig an Ooblets, och Niklas har som vanligt spelat en drös spel: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, pyttelite Princess Peach: Showtime, det märkliga indiespelet Mars After Midnight samt det sista spelet för i år (?) Dragon's Dogma 2. Och visst vet alla vad man pratar om när man säger MammaPappa-bokhyllan?
Pajlens, Svamprikets egna samuraj-expert, har spelat Rise of the Ronin, Anna har efter sju år av pepphörna äntligen tagit sig an Ooblets, och Niklas har som vanligt spelat en drös spel: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, pyttelite Princess Peach: Showtime, det märkliga indiespelet Mars After Midnight samt det sista spelet för i år (?) Dragon's Dogma 2. Och visst vet alla vad man pratar om när man säger MammaPappa-bokhyllan?
I'm excited to get to share Sara aka Alto.Girl2019's stories and fandoms with you. I've been in the same community as Sara for several years and was happy when she said yes to being a guest! We start things off with talking about the animated series, Adventure Time. They talk about what brought them to the series, their favorite characters, and what the show means to them, amongst other things! Then, we talk about a new(ish) video game, Ooblets. Sara gives us the backstory about the game, how they got into it and watching others stream it, the game play, and what they enjoy about it. For the last half of the episode, we're talking all about Sara. We get to learn about how Sara got into art (and digital art), singing, songwriting, and streaming all of those on Twitch, along with video games too! You can see Sara's work across multiple channels, and find them on Spotify too! You can find Sara at: https://www.twitch.tv/altogirl2019 https://www.instagram.com/alto.girl2019/ https://www.threads.net/@alto.girl2019 https://www.youtube.com/altogirl2013 https://open.spotify.com/artist/1blw2djW4dBvcdgiHn7INW?si=1PTeKWagTDyN7TfECSv-hQ You can find the Hyrule Gaming Group at: https://discord.gg/hyrulegaminggroup-hyrulegg-378406980479352833
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
Congratulations to Taylor Swift for winning the Super Bowl! This week, Bob, Aaron, Chris, and Steve traverse liminal space to bring you their opinions about the Deadpool and Wolverine teaser, comics, the decline in quality of McDonald's Happy Meals, and more!Books: Love Everlasting #12, The Cull #5, Birds of Prey #5, Poison Ivy #19, She-Hulk #5, Dead X-men #1, Sirens of the City #6, The One Hand #1, Hide (graphic novel), Letters on the Wall (Webtoon), Pine and Merrimac #1-2, The Hunger and the Dusk #1-5Other Stuff: Lisa Frankenstein (movie), Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Season 2, Argylle (movie), Death and Other Details (TV show), Ooblets (video game), Baldur's Gate 3 (video game)This Comic Book Podcast is brought to you by Talking Comics. The podcast is hosted by Steve Seigh, Bob Reyer, Joey Braccino, Aaron Amos, Chris Ceary, and John Burkle, who dissect everything comics-related weekly, from breaking news to new releases. Our Twitter handle is @TalkingComics, and you can email us at podcast@talkingcomicbooks.com.
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
Al and Jonnie talk about Lego Fortnite Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:59: What Have We Been Up To 00:15:39: News 00:37:27: Lego Fortnite 00:59:17: Outro Links Above Snakes “Most Wanted” Update Steamworld Build “Jingle Bolts” Update Fae Farm “2.0.0” Update Fae Farm “Coasts of Croakia” DLC" Garden Galaxy Update Travellers Rest “Recipes and Farming” Update A Last Song new trailer Everafter Falls new trailer Tiny Garden Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom 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: Lovely. Perfect. Here we go. (0:00:33) 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 see how unhinged this podcast can be. (0:00:38) Jonnie: And my name is Johnny. (0:00:44) Al: It’s either going to be unhinged or it’s going to be really low energy after five minutes. (0:00:47) Al: I’m not sure which, because it’s incredibly late for me, and for some reason I’m still doing this. (0:00:51) Al: Here we go. (0:00:53) Jonnie: Here we go, I’m putting down money on both. (0:00:56) Jonnie: It’s gonna be both, it’s gonna be both. (0:00:57) Jonnie: We’re gonna be unhinged and low energy. (0:00:59) Al: Amazing. Perfect. (0:01:00) Al: That’s what we need. So, for some reason, we’re going to talk about Lego Fortnite, (0:01:06) Al: because I’m still confused by it. I’ve played a little bit of it. Johnny has played slightly more of it, and we’re going to talk a bit about that. We’ve got a bunch of news that we’re going to go through. This is your last news of the year, because the next episode has been already recorded already. And, yeah, so, if it’s not mentioned in this episode, it won’t be mentioned (0:01:31) Al: until the second episode of next year, because the first episode of next year is being recorded this week as well. Although, I guess if something comes up between now and then, there isn’t an episode before then that we’ll be recording after then. So, therefore, if we have some news, (0:01:42) Al: we can include it in that, but it would need to happen in the next four days. (0:01:46) Al: And realistically, this is probably going to be a quiet week. (0:01:50) Jonnie: Come on Al, why did you say that? We all know now there’s going to be so much news between now and Friday. (0:01:54) Al: Anyway, so we’re going to talk about the news, but first of all, Chani, what have you been up to other than traveling? (0:02:02) Jonnie: What have you been up to, Al? (0:02:04) Jonnie: Yes, I’ve been traveling, but there’s this really great game that I’ve started playing. It’s called Coral Island. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. (0:02:12) Jonnie: And it’s really good. I think last time I was on the episode, I mentioned that there was a slight bug with the the museum and I was like I’m gonna put it down until that’s fixed and then talking about it on that episode made me think a lot about Coral Island and I went immediately straight back to play more Coral Island. The bug has apparently now been fixed since I’ve been away so I’m excited to go in and donate a whole bunch of stuff to to the museum but that game is so good it’s so so good. (0:02:20) Al: The museum, yep. (0:02:36) Al: Nice. (0:02:39) Al: You’re just driving up with a dump truck and just emptying it in. (0:02:44) Jonnie: Yeah pretty much pretty much I have so much stuff to donate I’m gonna be getting so many rewards. (0:02:50) Jonnie: Um, I’m only at the end of spring, I think, um, but just like the diving is a cool addition. (0:02:57) Jonnie: I like the way they do the mines. All of the characters are like super hot and also super diverse, which is like, I find it interesting that I’ve like managed to just tick so many boxes. (0:03:09) Jonnie: And look, when you were starting to say that this is the new stardew valley, I was like, (0:03:13) Jonnie: come on now, it won’t really be the new stardew valley. This is the new stardew valley. It’s so, (0:03:18) Al: Right? (0:03:20) Al: Hmm. (0:03:21) Al: I do think that I will continue to keep going back to Stardji Valley when he adds updates. (0:03:25) Al: But I feel like this is my new comfort game rather than Stardji. (0:03:29) Jonnie: Yeah, I guess I guess for me, the part that I and this is only because I’m new into it is like, (0:03:35) Jonnie: how possible is it to do different sorts of farms? You know, I still think back to the early days of this show, when you guys did the, was it the animal only? farming, farming episode? (0:03:50) Al: I don’t have to alone. (0:03:50) Jonnie: In Stardew, you like in Stardew, you can do lots of different challenges, right? And they are all feasible. Oh, that’s how you did the mining one. Yeah. (0:03:52) Al: Ahh. (0:03:55) Al: We did a- we did a mining one. (0:04:00) Jonnie: So I’m kind of curious to see how, how easy it will be to push the challenges because the way the game is structured, it feels like you do have to do everything. (0:04:09) Al: So, I don’t think, I think that’s the best way to play this game, but I don’t think anything requires you to do any of them. So, I think, so for example, like you might be thinking about say, the sprinklers, you need to go diving to make sprinklers. But you don’t need sprinklers, you don’t need to make sprinklers, you can still farm without sprinklers. (0:04:32) Jonnie: I definitely need sprinklers. I don’t know. I don’t nobody got time. I (0:04:32) Al: No, but my point is just like, I think if you want to just go and mine. (0:04:39) Al: I think you can probably just go and mine. If you want to just go and dive, I think you can probably just go and dive. I think it would still work. It’s not necessarily the best way to play this game, but I think it is definitely possible to focus on one thing (0:04:52) Jonnie: Yeah, I guess maybe what I’m curious about is the, and I’m not that deep into it, is their version of the community centre, (0:04:58) Jonnie: although there’s kind of like two versions of that, that seem to require at least progressing through the mines and progressing through diving. (0:05:08) Al: That’s true. There is no capitalism equivalent. You can’t just pay your way through the community. (0:05:16) Jonnie: So, yeah, I just think there’s there’s so much going on in the game. (0:05:20) Jonnie: My only real criticism so far is that the start is almost like a one for one match of Stardew Valley. (0:05:26) Jonnie: That if I think if I hadn’t heard from you that this game is like really good, (0:05:31) Jonnie: I may have just bounced off because it felt a little too Stardew Cloney (0:05:37) Jonnie: because introduced like diving in those things a little bit later. (0:05:40) Jonnie: You know, it’s like day eight, right? (0:05:41) Jonnie: Not not that much later, but that’s still on a day-to-day perspective. (0:05:46) Jonnie: About an hour and a half in, so I just wish there was something that happened a little bit earlier to be like no We’re not just our dude. There is more going on here (0:05:54) Al: Yeah, I think that’s totally fair. I don’t think I would ever say this game is perfect, (0:06:00) Al: I think this game could still be improved more. And I hope they’re going to continue to do that, (0:06:05) Al: they do have plans to continue to do that. And I do have some other thoughts about this game that I will bring up in a future episode, so I don’t want to talk about it all just now. But (0:06:14) Al: yeah, I think the point of a replacement for Stardew, if you will, which by that I just mean (0:06:22) Al: what is considered the… (0:06:24) Al: …facto of “this is what a farming game should be” or “this has pushed things forward and not taken any steps back” (0:06:32) Al: which I do think both Stardew and this game did. (0:06:34) Al: Um, I didn’t have an end to that sentence. (0:06:36) Jonnie: Well, I think the key for me is that this is feeling like a game that if people are interested in the genre will replace me (0:06:45) Jonnie: recommending statue just and I think that the visual style of that is a huge reason because I you know A lot of us like the the pixel art style, but I think this works a lot better for more modern (0:07:00) Jonnie: It would just maybe resonate with a wider group of people (0:07:02) Al: Yeah, I hope so. I really hope that this game does really well, because I think there’s so much more potential and, yeah, let’s not continue to talk about that too much. Great. (0:07:12) Al: Fantastic. I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I’m glad that you were convinced by what I said and did not disagree with me on it. And maybe some other people on future podcasts that may have already been listened could listen to this and see that I’m not alone. It’s not just me that talking about it. Thank you very much. (0:07:12) Jonnie: Great. I love yeah (0:07:30) Jonnie: - Absolutely, but that’s all I’ve really had time for. (0:07:32) Jonnie: So, Al, what have you been playing? (0:07:33) Al: » Mm, good question. (0:07:36) Al: What have I been playing? (0:07:37) Al: Pokemon, I think. (0:07:39) Al: It’s probably about it. (0:07:40) Jonnie: Is the new DLC out? (0:07:40) Al: Pokemon came out, yeah, it came out on Wednesday, I think. (0:07:44) Al: Well, Wednesday or Thursday, depending on your time zone. (0:07:47) Al: It’s technically Thursday here. (0:07:49) Al: So that’s basically been my Thursday and Friday and Saturday and now Sunday. (0:07:52) Al: That’s been basically all I’ve been playing. (0:07:55) Al: And before that, I was just playing Pokemon because I was trying to do the Flubaby outbreaks. (0:07:58) Al: So a lot of Pokemon. (0:08:01) Al: I don’t really think I played any. (0:08:02) Al: I still love this game. I think the DLC is great. (0:08:04) Jonnie: I would recommend going to a doctor for your fluvate outbreaks. (0:08:15) Al: And if you want more thoughts about my opinions on the DLC, then tune into It’s Super Effective two days ago when this comes out. (0:08:24) Jonnie: I am looking forward to hearing how people feel about the DLC because I feel like after the first DLC came out everyone who was into it was kind of like well it’s more of the game and it’s not done so now that I guess it’s done I’m curious to hear what people have to say. (0:08:34) Al: Yeah, well this this week’s episode doesn’t have the story in it. We’re just talking about the new mechanic stuff. But next week we’re going to talk about the story stuff. But yeah, (0:08:49) Al: I mean, I really like it. It’s like, there are still fundamental issues with this game. (0:08:54) Al: It doesn’t fix the fundamental issues with this game. But I cannot say that I haven’t had a lot of fun with this generation, even with all those. (0:09:04) Jonnie: Yeah, I think it’s interesting because I feel like this kind of splits the wrong word. (0:09:07) Jonnie: I feel like in the last years, I’ve leaned more into and I don’t know the right word. (0:09:11) Jonnie: So I’m just going to say non-main series game, but like, let’s go and, uh, Legion. (0:09:16) Jonnie: Legends Arceus. (0:09:16) Al: the additional generation no main series games. That’s how I would describe them. I would actually, I think I would agree with you on that. Like I actually, like as much as I’ve enjoyed Scarlet and Violet, I think I did enjoy Legends more and Let’s Go. I also really enjoyed like, I mean, I mean, let’s be honest, I like all of the games they make because Because funnily enough I keep playing these games because I like these games. (0:09:20) Jonnie: Great. (0:09:20) Jonnie: Whatever. (0:09:21) Jonnie: Yeah, those great. (0:09:23) Jonnie: But I really like those games, right? (0:09:24) Jonnie: I just want the more experimental version of Pokemon at this point. (0:09:27) Jonnie: So, um, it’s good that everyone can get different versions, right? (0:09:46) Al: I have always liked these games, and I suspect I always will like these games, you know? (0:09:51) Jonnie: And do you play these games in a way where you try really hard to make it as miserable as possible to experience the game? (0:09:51) Al: Not always, not always. I’ve only done one Professor Oak challenge this year. (0:10:03) Al: Yeah, look, we all enjoy different things, and I enjoy some kinds of challenges like that. (0:10:03) Jonnie: That’s still like one too many. (0:10:14) Al: I do not enjoy the challenges that involve battling. (0:10:16) Al: And I never will, but I do enjoy collection-based challenges. (0:10:21) Al: And I think that Professor Oak challenges give an interesting, (0:10:24) Al: different way of looking at it. (0:10:26) Al: That it just, you think about the game differently, you know? (0:10:30) Jonnie: I think Professor… (0:10:31) Jonnie: Yeah, I think they made sense up until, you know, Scarlet or Violet, where… (0:10:40) Jonnie: How many do you have to get before you can even challenge the first gym? (0:10:43) Al: It was like 600 or something. (0:10:47) Jonnie: See? (0:10:48) Jonnie: It’s just an unreasonable number. (0:10:50) Al: Like it was basically all of them, right? (0:10:52) Al: I think there were maybe 20 Pokémon that you couldn’t get before the first gym, and most of them were post-game. (0:10:58) Al: So it’s like you catch almost all of the Pokémon, and then you do all of the gyms basically. (0:11:05) Al: And then I think there’s maybe, so there’s a couple of them that you have to unlock, (0:11:10) Al: the different traversal options like there’s some that only spawn on a (0:11:13) Al: specific island, but it’s like two. So you’re like, okay, I can catch 600 Pokemon. And then I’ll do three of the, three of the traversal based things. And then I can catch two more Pokemon. And then I do all of the gyms. It was fun. I really liked it. It was obviously very different to other ones. So just because you like, uh, a Professor Oak challenge in one of the more traditional Pokemon games, right, where you’re (0:11:43) Al: like, here’s an area, defeat the gym leader, here’s an area, defeat the gym leader, more linear games. I love how we call that traditional. It’s like the first games weren’t like that. (0:11:54) Al: Even if you just because you like that doesn’t mean you’ll like it this way. But I do think that the kind of person who likes one is going to like the other as well. Right. Like actually, (0:12:04) Al: what I really liked about that was you can, if you get bored training up a Pokemon, you can go catch another one, like go to the other other end of the map and go catch some different (0:12:13) Al: Pokemon. Like you’re not the problem with like traditional Professor Oak challenges. (0:12:18) Al: Like if I did a brilliant diamond one when they came out and oh my word was that horrific to start with because you have to evolve your starter to like you get have to get them to level 36 and you have to get another Pokemon to like level 42 all before the first gym. (0:12:36) Al: That’s dreadful. Right. Whereas at least in this game, you can like go all over the map and try lots of different things. (0:12:43) Al: Most of the time, you’re catching Pokémon. (0:12:46) Al: You don’t have to evolve many Pokémon, because most Pokémon spawn in the wild. (0:12:50) Jonnie: So I don’t want to enable this anymore, but I’m going to. (0:12:56) Jonnie: I feel like this sort of concept, but if it was like a fourth path, so obviously in Skyline Violet you had the three different paths that were tied to the three characters. (0:13:03) Al: Mmm, yes. (0:13:05) Jonnie: I feel like if there was a fourth path that was tied to the number of Pokémon that you have collected and there was some form of progression locked behind it, (0:13:15) Jonnie: that could actually be quite compelling because the thing that you know kind of makes it disjointed for me is (0:13:20) Jonnie: you go around and you’re basically you know the greatest trainer that’s ever lived before you’ve challenged a gym and then you show up to the gym and they’re like “oh hi you’re probably terrible” and you know you steamroll them so I would really like it if that was like a fourth path and doesn’t need to be at the same level but some form of progression locked behind it might be quite cool (0:13:29) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:13:40) Al: interesting idea because like very rarely in Pokemon games is anything of note locked behind Pokemon collection, which seems a bit odd right? Like in the first games, is there anything that’s locked behind Pokemon progression, like collecting Pokemon? Oh that’s true, that’s true. Yeah, you get like the item finder and the… what’s the other one? (0:13:56) Jonnie: Yes. There’s the research assistants that show up and if you’ve got a certain number they give you… (0:14:10) Jonnie: and a few other things that we will remember as soon as we log off to school. (0:14:11) Al: Yeah, I can’t remember. Anyway, yes, no, you’re right. Absolutely. The XP share was one of them. (0:14:18) Al: Yeah, no, you’re right, you’re right. But I think that’s very little, right? And you don’t need those things. The only one I think you need is you do get flash as one of them. So actually, (0:14:30) Jonnie: Yes, that’s the first one I think, right? (0:14:32) Al: now that I think about it, I don’t think it’s the first one. I think one of the other ones is not important. It doesn’t matter. Let’s not get sidetracked. (0:14:40) Al: It’s late. And there’s probably listeners going, “Please, please do get sidetracked.” (0:14:48) Al: That, I feel like, has really been repeated. Like, it is weird how the first games had that, (0:14:55) Al: right? They had this idea of there are some things locked back, but most of the time it’s like, “Oh, (0:14:59) Al: in Scarlet and Violet, it’s like, oh, you’ve got some rewards, but it’s like, here’s some candy, (0:15:07) Al: And here’s some balls. And, you know, it’s not. (0:15:10) Al: Nothing locked behind it. It’s all just kind of like additional items. (0:15:14) Al: Yeah, anyway, it’s an interesting point for such a collection focused game. (0:15:19) Al: They don’t lock anything really behind the collection of those creatures. (0:15:26) Al: Very interesting. Anyway, we’re not here to talk about Pokemon. (0:15:29) Al: That’s the other podcast I’m on this week. (0:15:33) Al: We’re here to talk about farming games and cottage. (0:15:37) Al: We’re here to talk about other games. (0:15:39) Al: So we’re going to talk about some new. (0:15:40) Al: News. (0:15:44) Al: Above Snakes has a new update coming out. (0:15:47) Al: It’s called the Most Wanted Update and it’s got some new biomes. (0:15:53) Al: It’s got some new missions feature. (0:15:56) Al: It’s got some new items and more. (0:16:00) Al: And that is out now. (0:16:02) Al: I was going to say, if you’re listening to this after it comes out. (0:16:06) Al: But of course you are. (0:16:07) Al: Of course you’re listening to this after it comes out. (0:16:09) Al: Johnny, it’s not out for you yet. (0:16:10) Al: Everybody else is out for you. (0:16:14) Jonnie: Congratulations, everyone else. (0:16:17) Al: Congratulations, people from the future. (0:16:21) Jonnie: Yeah, I don’t know. I feel like Above Snakes kind of came out, and I haven’t really heard much about it. (0:16:26) Jonnie: Like, I’m still interested in playing it, but in the same way I feel like I’m interested in playing a lot of games I never actually get to, so… (0:16:34) Al: It’s certainly not pumping its way up the list. (0:16:39) Jonnie: No, and yeah. And this content patch doesn’t really (0:16:39) Al: This is the problem, right? (0:16:45) Jonnie: seem to add anything that’s like, “Oh, okay, this looks like it’s getting really, really good,” and makes me sort of excited to jump in. (0:16:50) Jonnie: But good to see that they’re still supporting me. (0:16:53) Al: Speaking of games with updates that I haven’t played yet and they haven’t really encouraged me to play it, SteamWorld Build have a new update called the Jingle Bolts update which by the way, great name, love it, perfect. No notes. (0:17:06) Jonnie: I have one note. But it’s mostly that. Look, I’m kind of just over Christmas-like seasonal updates in games. I get why they do them, but haven’t we done them all (0:17:16) Al: Well, this is a winter update. (0:17:20) Al: “The update transforms your mining town from a western wilderness to a snowy winter wonderland with all the festive spirit.” (0:17:28) Al: Intrate. So yeah, I wonder if this is… (0:17:32) Al: So we have two kinds of games with seasons. (0:17:34) Al: We have the games with seasons where they are based on how long you’ve played in the game. (0:17:38) Al: And there are the ones which are based on real life. (0:17:42) Al: and I cannot tell on this what this is like (0:17:46) Al: is it just all the games for this next month are all winter? (0:17:49) Jonnie: I cannot tell either. (0:17:51) Jonnie: I also don’t really know, like, I don’t quite get what Steam mode build is, if I’m being entirely honest. (0:17:56) Al: it’s a city builder that I mean that’s that’s all it that’s I mean that that’s all it is you know you it might be a good one i’m not sure i’ve not played it I don’t really like city builders anymore i’ve come to accept that um they they don’t have any dates on this as to when like not like ublets had a winter event and they’re like oh it’s live between these dates (0:17:57) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:17:58) Jonnie: Great. (0:18:16) Al: I can’t see anything about this being live between particular dates so i’m not sure what the deal is with that or is this like a mode that you turn on I can’t tell they don’t seem to say (0:18:26) Jonnie: Communication seems not, but they are saying, however this one works, they are planning more seasonal updates in 2024. Speaking of more, uh, so 2.0 is out. Al, how does this rate in your, um, (0:18:28) Al: yeah I don’t know (0:18:33) Al: yep so if you like this look forward to more (0:18:38) Al: fae farm (0:18:44) Jonnie: uh, desire for patch number updates to follow some sort of patch? (0:18:50) Al: I think they could drop the third number from it, like I don’t know why it needs to be 2.0.0 because I think they’re proving to this that when they add more content to the game, they’re increasing the main number and therefore they could just have “This is version 2” and then the update that gives bug fixes is 2.1. (0:19:09) Al: I don’t think they need the third number, but they’re doing a lot better than a lot of other developers are. (0:19:15) Al: This is pretty close, thank you for actually increasing the first number because nobody ever seems to do that in- (0:19:20) Al: games. They have it zero for early access, they hit 1.0, and then it’s always one point something forever, and it drives me insane. (0:19:30) Jonnie: And it feels like there’s actually a sizable update here to go with it. So coasts of croquia (0:19:34) Al: Come on, we’re not here to actually talk about the content, we’re here to talk about version numbers! (0:19:41) Jonnie: We don’t want to spend an hour talking about it because I know we could (0:19:47) Jonnie: So yeah coast coasts of croquia I (0:19:52) Jonnie: Don’t really (0:19:54) Jonnie: Know what this means in terms of what has been added. I assume it’s a new (0:20:00) Jonnie: a new location (0:20:02) Al: that it is. It’s a new location that you access by going through a portal inside the mouth of a giant frog. (0:20:09) Jonnie: Great, I mean that that makes as much sense as anything else in TAFE. (0:20:15) Al: It does, it’s perfect. I love it. So yeah, the new area is called Croquier and there’s a bunch of stuff in there. I haven’t looked about features and stuff like that. I suspect it’s mostly focused on story. (0:20:28) Jonnie: Yeah, and a lot of the like, I assume there’s quite a bit of story attached to it and it looks like there’s a lot of sort of quality of life updates that they’re making alongside this, this update. (0:20:40) Jonnie: Unfortunately, the one thing that I don’t really see in this list is much around improving the characters, like there is a section called world as welding characters. (0:20:52) Jonnie: It’s, you know, there is there is one line that all vendors and NPCs now have new and unique dialogue rather than using the same. (0:20:58) Jonnie: And it’s a shared pool of lines. The problem with those original lines is they were so bad that it’s like, well, I’m not I’m not sure that the writing just has felt missing in this game for a long time so I’m not sure it’s enough to kind of lure me there. (0:21:02) Al: Yeah, there’s now you’re going to see more of the same repeated lines that you don’t care about. (0:21:19) Al: Yeah, it doesn’t really feel like the most amazing update that we would be wanting for (0:21:25) Jonnie: Yeah, I think I think given how like because I’ve heard that feedback in a number of places, you know, Cody and I talked about it (0:21:32) Jonnie: from a news article last week And so I feel like given how big of a criticism it has been when it’s actually fixed It’s something that they will put front and center (0:21:42) Al: Yeah, or they might just not. So like part of my thing is, I don’t want to talk about this too much just now because I do talk about it in next week’s episode, but I think they never really wanted to do relationships in this game and they didn’t really care about like the NPCs in the village, but they felt like they needed to add that sort of feature in and therefore that’s what we got. And they like the other aspects of the game and the the other aspects of the game are good. (0:22:12) Al: And they’re just going to continue with that and ignore the one that they never wanted to do in the first place. (0:22:17) Jonnie: That makes quite a bit of sense. (0:22:21) Jonnie: Anything else in the patch notes that stand out to you that sound interesting? (0:22:25) Al: Not particularly. I agree with you about the quality of life improvements sound good. (0:22:30) Al: I haven’t had enough time in the game to be like, “Oh yes, that one in particular is really going to make my gameplay more enjoyable because I’m spending too much time in Carl Island realistically.” (0:22:45) Al: Looks good. Keep at it. Keep more updates. And there are two more currently planned, (0:22:50) Al: two more DLCs that I know of. I wonder whether they’ll add more in the future (0:22:56) Al: but just a reminder, if you have this on Switch, you will have the DLC added on automatically. (0:23:01) Al: If you bought the deluxe version on Steam, you will have this automatically. If you bought the base one on Steam, you’ll have to buy the DLC separate. Garden Galaxy, a new update. (0:23:12) Al: I mean, it just feels like it’s yet another Garden Galaxy update. If the other Garden Galaxy updates haven’t enticed you to play the game, this one’s not going to do either but there’s More items. There you go. (0:23:22) Jonnie: yep and I feel like every time I look at god and galaxy i’m like that’s right I really need to play this game and then I forget about it until next time i’m on the show and they have another update and the cycle resets itself yep I agree (0:23:28) Al: The new items look cool, that’s all. It’s out now, again, comes out today, the day the episode comes out. (0:23:43) Al: So if you like Garden Galaxy, go get that update, go get your more items. (0:23:48) Al: Travellers Rest also have a new update. Everybody’s releasing updates in December. What is this nonsense? (0:23:54) Al: It is out now and it contains a new crop system. (0:23:58) Al: The new crops have specific seasons in which they can be planted. (0:24:03) Al: In addition, they need to be watered every three days for them to grow. (0:24:06) Al: The amount of time each crop takes to grow varies. (0:24:09) Al: Fruit trees no longer need to be planted in tilled soil. (0:24:11) Al: Don’t require watering and they never die, although the only bare fruits. (0:24:15) Al: I mean, none of this seems like fundamentally different from other farming games, (0:24:19) Al: except for you don’t have to water them every day, which is interesting. (0:24:24) Jonnie: I think that’s quite cool, like that’s a mechanic that makes a lot of sense, right? Not every plant needs to be watered the same amount, so that’s a cool little addition, but in general I still feel about Traveller’s Rest that it’s a little bit too much, just like everything else. (0:24:38) Jonnie: And I wish it was worth it. (0:24:38) Al: Yes, and I’m constantly fascinated as to what this game had when it came into early access, (0:24:43) Al: because every time there’s an update I’m like “oh so we didn’t have that either?” (0:24:48) Al: What did this game have when his first version came out? The first version came out three years ago. (0:24:54) Jonnie: Oh my god. (0:24:56) Al: July 2020 apparently. (0:24:59) Jonnie: Well in three more years when 1.0 comes out we probably won’t have time to (0:25:04) Al: Well definitely not, because this was the one that like a few months ago they came out with the (0:25:09) Al: tavern. Like they actually then drinks and staff, that’s what it was, in September they came out with drinks and I’m like “this is a game about a tavern and you didn’t have drinks? What did you have?” (0:25:22) Al: I’m so confused. (0:25:27) Al: So yeah there’s new crops, new weather phenomena, chances of rain, thunderstorms, snow and wind, (0:25:35) Al: which will affect animals and crops. Okay, and new crops and… (0:25:38) Jonnie: Yep, sounds like a content update for the game. (0:25:38) Al: recipes. Yep. Yes, it’s starting to sound like it might have some of the features of starchy phyline. (0:25:48) Jonnie: And if you’ve been playing Traveler’s Rest in Early Access, and you have some thoughts on it, (0:25:52) Jonnie: send them to us, we would love to know a little bit about it, (0:25:54) Jonnie: because as you can tell, we are utterly fascinated every time this game has an update. (0:25:58) Al: What did you do in this game? I wanted to know what people have been doing in this game. (0:26:04) Al: A last song. Is this the underwater one where you’re like trying to make get rid of (0:26:13) Jonnie: corruptiony stuff. You don’t really know what it is. Pollution. (0:26:13) Al: bad stuff? What’s the word I’m looking for? Pollution. Pollution. (0:26:20) Al: I think we’ve talked about this one before. Anyway, they have a new trailer. (0:26:24) Jonnie: It looks cute and I assume there’s going from the looks of the trailer There’s some sort of rhythm element so that immediately eliminates me from being able to play this (0:26:35) Al: Yeah, it’s still coming out next year. Ever After Falls also have a new trailer. Apparently this is a backers only update, apologies. So they have a new trailer and they’ve released a beta, which some Kickstarter backers can get. (0:26:54) Jonnie: Great. So I much prefer beta than early access, right? Like it’s the, you know, much clearer that you’re paying for something or you’re getting access to something that is not finished, so. (0:26:55) Al: Yeah. (0:26:58) Al: Thank you. (0:27:06) Al: I don’t think we need to get into that debate again today. (0:27:09) Jonnie: We do not, but I just like, I feel like I haven’t seen a beta announcement in a long time, so I’m (0:27:15) Al: Yeah, Snacko did that. (0:27:17) Al: They had an alpha and a beta and now they’re in early access. (0:27:21) Jonnie: Okay, I don’t like that. (0:27:25) Al: Yeah, I mean, I also think it’s a pretty polished game as of now. (0:27:30) Al: Anyway, yeah, let’s not get into that. (0:27:32) Al: We’ve got two new games to talk about, and I don’t know whether… (0:27:36) Al: If you’ve got a list of LEGO Fortnite, Hello Kitty Adventure, (0:27:42) Al: Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and these two games that we’re going to talk about on a list, (0:27:49) Al: I don’t know which I would say was the most likely one I would expect, (0:27:53) Al: and which is the least likely one I would expect, and I’m very fascinated as to all of these. (0:27:58) Al: The first one is called Tiny Garden, and the way I’ve described this is, (0:28:01) Al: it’s basically Polly Pocket farming. Did you ever have Polly Pockets when you were younger, Johnny? (0:28:06) Jonnie: So I have a niece who’s five, and she has Polly Pockets right now. (0:28:11) Jonnie: And I have played a lot of Polly Pocket in the last month. (0:28:13) Al: Are these still a thing? I’m so happy they’re still a thing. That’s fantastic. (0:28:15) Jonnie: They are still a thing. (0:28:16) Jonnie: Yep. (0:28:17) Jonnie: They are very much still a thing, and this gives big Polly Pocket vibes. (0:28:21) Al: It’s exactly what it is. You’ve got this little thing that you open up, (0:28:26) Al: and it’s a little world inside this little presumably handheld thing, and it looks really interesting. (0:28:34) Jonnie: I like the idea, so there’s a little crank on the side, and the crank is moving time. (0:28:39) Al: Is that moving time? (0:28:42) Jonnie: Yeah, so that being like the idea that you’ve got a limited space, you plan stuff out, you turn the crank, and stuff happens over time is… (0:28:52) Jonnie: That seems like quite a cool little mechanic, like this just has a really great little look for a kind of idyllish, cozy game. (0:29:02) Al: I need this on the Playdate. (0:29:06) Jonnie: I was thinking that this would be a great Playdate thing, (0:29:08) Jonnie: because the crank seems like a key feature, and… (0:29:12) Al: It would need a fundamental rethink about the graphics, because the graphics are way too complicated for the Playdate. But this could be great on the Playdate. Because they’ve already got the crank, right? Because the problem with the Playdate is figuring out what your mechanic with the crank going to be. And they have an interesting, unique feature, which so many games are just like, “Oh, let me just do this one. Like, let me think up the feature for the crank later, (0:29:38) Al: rather than let me have our- Oh, I like this. (0:29:42) Jonnie: Yeah, and yeah, sorry just to fill in the blanks, so the gameplay looks like on the base of the Polly Pocket is where you’re doing all of your farming and you’re growing vegetables, which in the tweet they say you sell to then add furniture to what would be the upper level, I guess, or the bit that sort of sits vertically, which I think is just a great concept, but this is in prototype, so I didn’t see anything like any, even like a tentative release date. (0:30:11) Al: Yeah, no, there’s absolutely nothing about that or any ideas, it’s just this is a “here’s a first thought” and like “come follow us and we’ll tell you more about it later” sort of thing. (0:30:22) Al: I’m just tweeting at them to tell them to put it on Playdate. (0:30:26) Al: So next we have Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom. (0:30:31) Jonnie: Woo! I’m very excited about this one, Al. (0:30:33) Al: And so, well, so tell me why you’re excited about this one and why it’s different from (0:30:41) Al: Lookitty, other than just “it’s Tamagotchi”, which doesn’t really have characters, I might add. (0:30:47) Jonnie: Yeah, look, I don’t really want like, so brains are stupid, right? (0:30:54) Jonnie: And you’re right, Tamagotchi had zero characters. But you know what Tamagotchi had? (0:30:59) Jonnie: An important place in my life and everyone just referred to Tamagotchi. So when I see Tamagotchi and it’s a farming game, I’m like, yeah, I’m on board. I want all of this, even though there is no connection to anything else that’s happening in the game, other than the word Tamagotchi. (0:31:15) Jonnie: and it looks great. (0:31:17) Jonnie: So I just didn’t grow up with Hello Kitty, so that one I’m just like, “Meh, I don’t really have any connection to this.” (0:31:23) Jonnie: Tamagotchi though, that word triggers a thing in my brain apparently. (0:31:26) Al: So the important question is, are you subscribing to Apple Arcade for this? (0:31:31) Jonnie: Uh, I mean… (0:31:32) Al: You can drive a car! (0:31:33) Jonnie: The- [laughs] (0:31:34) Al: Ah! (0:31:36) Al: Oh, no. (0:31:38) Jonnie: The long answer I want to say is no, but the short answer is yes, I will probably sign up to Apple Arcade to play Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom. (0:31:44) Al: You can, you can drive a car. (0:31:48) Al: What was that? (0:31:49) Al: There’s a little random… (0:31:51) Al: Oh, there’s a squirrel. (0:31:51) Al: It’s a squirrel. (0:31:53) Al: There’s like a what looks like a kind of weird. (0:31:56) Al: Version of the, you know, the, you know, the carriage in what’s the fate of the Disney story with the, the glass slipper, what’s that one? Cinderella. You know, they’re like pumpkin carriage in that. It’s like a pink version of that near the end next to what looks like a big castle. You see that? (0:32:06) Jonnie: Cinderella? (0:32:08) Jonnie: Mm-hmm. (0:32:18) Jonnie: Ah, yeah, so I missed that the first time I watched through but yeah, you’re right. That is very (0:32:24) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s it. That’s a castle. That’s definitely a carriage (0:32:30) Jonnie: So minor thing I love that the (0:32:33) Jonnie: Dates that you’ve got written down here is coming Jan 4th in the trailer. They say (0:32:38) Jonnie: Expected January 4th, which if that doesn’t mean it’s not coming on January 4th. I don’t know what (0:32:40) Al: Yeah, I will say though, the description on YouTube does say “coming” rather than “expected”. (0:32:52) Al: I wonder if it’s meant to be a pun. (0:32:54) Al: I don’t know. (0:32:55) Al: Like, is this a Tamagotchi thing? (0:32:57) Al: When it’s… (0:32:58) Al: Because your Tamagotchi comes in as an egg first, right? (0:33:02) Al: And so when you have like a child, or you’re pregnant, you say you’re expecting. (0:33:08) Al: And so if you have an egg that’s going to hurt. (0:33:10) Al: Which would you say you’re expecting as well? (0:33:11) Al: Is that what they’re doing here? (0:33:12) Jonnie: I don’t know. We’ll need to bring in someone that’s laid an egg and ask them what they… (0:33:18) Al: I’m just saying, like, I think I think it’s a pun rather than a, hey, (0:33:22) Al: we might not release on this date. (0:33:22) Jonnie: Right, well if it is a pun, it’s not a very good one. But everything else in this game looks pretty good. (0:33:27) Al: Because they, well, I agree, I agree. (0:33:29) Al: It’s not a good pun, but my point is this released on the 12th of December, right? (0:33:33) Al: If they don’t know it’s coming out on the 4th of January, it’s not coming out on (0:33:36) Al: of January, because that is like three. (0:33:40) Al: work days before the 4th of January, basically. (0:33:44) Jonnie: Not in America. (0:33:44) Al: Like that is basically no time. (0:33:47) Jonnie: In America, it’s like 100 work days between the two. (0:33:52) Al: You’re assuming that this is worked on by Americans? (0:33:55) Jonnie: Yes. (0:33:55) Al: It was Bandai Namco, they’re a Japanese developer. (0:33:58) Jonnie: Whatever, they’re all the same. (0:34:01) Al: Japan, America, who can tell the difference? (0:34:06) Jonnie: I mean, ultimately this just looks like a game where cute animals run around a thing. (0:34:10) Jonnie: like it to me it sounds or seems. (0:34:12) Jonnie: I watch like the Hello Kitty Island adventure so I don’t actually have high expectations for the game itself but you know Tamagotchi. (0:34:20) Al: I’m going to end up comparing this to Hello Kitty Island Adventure, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m sorry, it’s just going to have to happen. Because it looks like a very similar game, it looks like there’s exploration, the kind of the world looks kind of very, they evoke the same imagery. Why does that pool have a face on it? Go to eight seconds in when he’s like chopping up the wood. You can see why does that have a face on it? Is that (0:34:26) Jonnie: I think you should yeah yeah. (0:34:41) Jonnie: Why would it not have a face on it? (0:34:46) Jonnie: Oh, yeah, it does have a face. (0:34:49) Jonnie: Why would it not have a face? (0:34:51) Jonnie: Yeah, and I think even like in the first two seconds, there’s another pool and maybe it’s the same one that you can also see the face on it. (0:34:57) Jonnie: Maybe all of the pools are alive. (0:34:58) Al: No, that’s a different one. (0:35:00) Jonnie: Yeah, yeah. (0:35:02) Jonnie: So look, the pools are alive. (0:35:03) Jonnie: I have the one in the house also has a face. (0:35:05) Jonnie: All of the pools in this game are alive. (0:35:07) Jonnie: And that makes me even more excited. (0:35:09) Jonnie: I feel like sometime in 2024, we’re gonna– (0:35:11) Jonnie: I need to do the Hello Killy Island adventure versus Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom Ultimate Showdown Smackdown. (0:35:17) Jonnie: You know, many can be on, I can be on, and we can just argue for hours over which of these cute little games is– (0:35:23) Al: Yeah, I just, I guess my worry about this is that it might feel a bit hollow because the characters won’t really exist. Like, unless they do something really well and they go “we’re going to create all these characters out of thin air and you’re going to care about them now” feels unlikely. (0:35:39) Al: Like that’s really hard to do. (0:35:39) Jonnie: See these characters? These characters are super cute though, so it could happen. (0:35:43) Al: Sure. But then it’s just the same thing, it’s just they’re all cute, which doesn’t really work. (0:35:50) Jonnie: I’m going to point you to like every Ooblets episode because that’s all those those little doofuses have going on and you guys Love that stupid game (0:35:56) Al: Well, sure. (0:35:58) Jonnie: Also at one point one of these characters smashes a rock by just bashing his head into it if that’s not amazing (0:36:05) Al: I will say that the Ooblets are not the thing you play Ooblets for. (0:36:08) Al: There’s a lava lamp as well. (0:36:09) Al: Toadstool table. (0:36:12) Jonnie: Honestly, this trailer’s ridiculous. It’s, what, 30 seconds? I’ve probably watched it 20 times now, (0:36:16) Jonnie: and every time I feel like I see something new that makes me more excited to play this game. (0:36:20) Al: going to make me play this game aren’t you? Oh he does just smash his head into it, that’s adorable. (0:36:22) Jonnie: I don’t have to make you at this point. It’s just gonna happen. (0:36:32) Al: Now the question is do I do I sign up to Apple Arcade just now and play the Sonic game until then? Or do I wait and just play this? Tamagotchi Island Adventure, sorry, Adventure Kingdom. (0:36:40) Jonnie: Don’t play the Sonic game, Al. Don’t do that to yourself. (0:36:43) Jonnie: Why do Sonic fans insist on hurting themselves? (0:36:51) Al: I don’t get better names. (0:36:54) Jonnie: No, it’s all just word salad, don’t they just like, I think they do it Madlib style. (0:36:57) Al: I mean it really does feel like you’ve got adventure in there and you’ve got the name of your (0:37:03) Al: franchise and then another random one. Why am I surprised there was a castle? It’s called Adventure Kingdom. It’s like being surprised that Hello Kitty Island Adventure has the sea. (0:37:13) Jonnie: I think because we’re so used to just glossing over the terrible names that we have to deal with in Cottagecore games that it’s just, we don’t assume that they’re not, they don’t need to. (0:37:22) Al: It’s just words. I think this is the first time I’ve parsed the words and what they actually mean. (0:37:28) Al: All right, we’re going to talk about Lego Fortnite. The good thing about doing this episode is it means that I don’t have to think about it again after today. (0:37:35) Jonnie: You and me both. (0:37:36) Al: OK, so Lego Fortnite. We talked about this a little bit in last week’s episode and next week’s episode. Just to confuse you. Spoilers. (0:37:49) Al: But for some reason, LEGO added in a- (0:37:52) Al: No, Fortnite added in a LEGO version of their game into their game, except that it’s not a version of the game. (0:38:00) Al: It’s LEGO Minecraft. It’s Minecraft if LEGO did it. And for some reason, inside Fortnite. (0:38:04) Jonnie: In Fortnite. (0:38:06) Jonnie: Well, I mean, to hit on some reason for just a little bit. (0:38:10) Jonnie: This is about Fortnite becoming a platform and not just a game anymore, right? (0:38:10) Al: Oh, there you go then. (0:38:15) Jonnie: Because they released LEGO Fortnite, some racing game and some rhythm game all at the same time. (0:38:21) Jonnie: That are all in Fortnite, but they’re not Fortnite, so. (0:38:24) Al: Yeah, but why? Why are they not separate games? (0:38:28) Jonnie: Because Fortnite, my assumption is that Fortnite has become such a compelling brand that. (0:38:34) Jonnie: They believe that they can, people will play it if it’s in, or more likely to play it if it is in Fortnite. (0:38:41) Jonnie: So this is kind of proving that you could sell other games in Fortnite. (0:38:46) Jonnie: So you might have, can you imagine? You have like, what’s the original thing that Fortnite was? (0:38:50) Jonnie: Like Fortnite saved the world or whatever? (0:38:52) Jonnie: Imagine if that comes back as a new game in Fortnite that people pay money for. (0:38:57) Jonnie: That’s the future we could see. (0:38:57) Al: But you’re not paying for them either, it’s free. (0:39:02) Jonnie: Well, these are free right but this is this is proving like this proves out the case of whether you want people to buy stuff or it just provides more versions of cosmetics for people to buy in Fortnite. Like it just expands the the number of hours that people would play in a Fortnite owned thing. (0:39:19) Al: But I- (0:39:25) Al: So, okay, sure, but they didn’t need to be the same game to do that. This is what I’m confused- (0:39:30) Jonnie: To me, I think it’s the difference between like, you don’t have to go and actively download a different thing, like, you’re thinking about this, like an adult that’s grew up, grown up on Steam, and, you know, you know, storefronts and used to going and buying games everywhere else, if all you’ve done is play a lot of Fortnite, and then in your Fortnite client, they say, download this new game, LEGO Fortnite, that’s the, that’s the thing, like, that’s your storefront is Fortnite. (0:39:58) Al: This is because of Roblox, isn’t it? Because Roblox is exactly this. It is not necessarily, (0:40:04) Al: well, it’s not exactly this, it’s different because you can add user-generated games to it. (0:40:10) Al: But I feel like this is in response to Roblox because Fortnite was a game, Roblox was a platform, (0:40:17) Al: and now Fortnite is also a platform. Just because it’s not user-generated stuff doesn’t mean it’s not the same thing. (0:40:24) Jonnie: - Yeah, I agree. (0:40:25) Jonnie: And I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re trying to hit down the path of getting user generated stuff in there as well. (0:40:33) Al: Oh, Jai’s. All right, cool. So we’ve gone over the for some reason. Do you want to start? (0:40:41) Al: You’ve been playing it? (0:40:42) Jonnie: Yeah, like I guess I’ll start with I’m not a big survival game person in general, so (0:40:50) Jonnie: Like I wasn’t expecting for me to love it and I found the survival aspects quite difficult I died quite a bit more than I have in like Minecraft or (0:41:02) Jonnie: Or other games like I guess I was expecting this one to be a little bit easier And there’s lots of there’s lots of options right so you could turn stuff off and I think I end up turning off like needing to… (0:41:12) Jonnie: needing to eat food but turning off like the monsters kind of felt like a step too far but I kind of wish I had done that [laughs] (0:41:22) Jonnie: and it is just one of these sort of survival crafting games at its core there’s not too much that it’s doing that’s different I guess other than the building and I think the building is quite good because it uses the… (0:41:42) Jonnie: …they go block mechanic and you can… (0:41:44) Jonnie: …but it starts you off not with having to build everything brick by brick. (0:41:48) Jonnie: You start with some templates. (0:41:50) Jonnie: And so you can build like an actual shed a lot easier than just… (0:41:54) Jonnie: …having to collect the bricks and building your first house in Minecraft. (0:41:58) Jonnie: Which typically takes… (0:42:00) Jonnie: …not that it’s hard to do, but it takes a little bit longer maybe to work out and put everything. (0:42:04) Al: Yeah, I think so. A LEGO Minecraft clone, if you will, makes perfect sense, right? (0:42:12) Al: I think we can probably agree on that. (0:42:15) Al: I used I played Minecraft so much when I was younger. (0:42:21) Al: Like during my like, it’s I mean, it’s wild how how long Minecraft’s been going (0:42:26) Al: for and the fact that it’s still going, I I remember picking it up when I was in (0:42:31) Al: And I would literally play like. (0:42:34) Al: Like through the night, every night, sitting up, playing this stupid game that I loved so much. (0:42:42) Al: I don’t play anymore because obviously I, you know, I’m an adult. (0:42:45) Al: I have a life now. (0:42:47) Al: I can’t just spend all night doing it, but I, I get why they’re doing that. (0:42:55) Al: I get why Lego are doing this. (0:42:58) Al: We can ignore the Fortnite aspect of it because they certainly ignored the Fortnite aspect of it. (0:43:05) Al: I didn’t have a huge amount of fun playing this game. (0:43:07) Al: And I think I don’t know whether that’s because the, the game doesn’t jive with me in some way that Minecraft did or whether, and this is the problem with this kind of game, whether I just don’t have the time and the life for it anymore. (0:43:21) Al: Would I have enjoyed this game more if it had come out when I was a new name rather (0:43:26) Jonnie: I’m going to take a guess and say, I don’t think so. (0:43:30) Jonnie: For me, equally, I was never a big Minecraft person. (0:43:34) Jonnie: But when I have tried Minecraft in the past, I get it. (0:43:39) Jonnie: I see the magic that is in Minecraft. (0:43:43) Jonnie: The first time, you punch a bit of the ground, (0:43:45) Jonnie: and it appears in your inventory. (0:43:47) Jonnie: And then you’re like, what? (0:43:48) Jonnie: And you can kind of just put it down anywhere. (0:43:51) Jonnie: There’s some magic in that. (0:43:53) Jonnie: And that’s what this game misses. (0:43:56) Jonnie: From what I’ve seen, you can build some really impressive stuff, but in the time that I spent with the game, that felt so unachievable and so far away. (0:44:08) Jonnie: Whereas in Minecraft, it’s just you get started, right? And that’s what’s missing. (0:44:08) Al: Yeah. That’s a good point, because the world in Minecraft is made of the things that you build with, whereas this is the world isn’t all, it’s not the same thing, right? Like if you actually had, if it was like Lego, where everything was like visibly made of Lego, (0:44:30) Al: because obviously it is made of Lego, right? But it’s not visibly made of Lego, if that makes sense right like you can’t go or there’s that block like you look at (0:44:38) Al: in Minecraft you go oh I can see that’s a wood block that’s a wood block that’s a wood block that’s a leaves block that’s a leaves block that’s leaves block and then you can look at everything else everything else in the game other than like animals which you can’t make anyway because that wouldn’t make any sense everything else is visibly made of blocks and so you can visibly see what it is and recreate it or build your own things and it’s that visual aspect of things I think that that it’s missing, right? Like you can build things, but it turns into. (0:45:08) Al: It’s not the exact same as if you were literally making this in real life, right? (0:45:14) Jonnie: I think that is exactly it, right? You are going and you are collecting wood or chopping trees and then you’re using the wood to make Lego blocks, to make wooden Lego blocks. (0:45:14) Al: You could make Minecraft blocks in real life and you could build them exactly like you do in the game. (0:45:32) Jonnie: You’re not chopping down, you know, you’re not taking the wooden block that is used to make the Lego tree and repurposing it. (0:45:42) Jonnie: And I think that’s the. (0:45:44) Jonnie: Disconnect that that stops me from from this game being what I think I wanted it to be based on (0:45:50) Jonnie: My initial perception and I get why they’ve done what they’ve done, right? (0:45:53) Jonnie: It’s I think I think the game that we’re talking about is substantially more difficult to make (0:45:59) Al: Yes. (0:46:00) Jonnie: But it is also undeniably way more Lego (0:46:03) Al: Yeah, I guess that’s like it’s interesting that we’re still at the point where Minecraft has made a better LEGO game than LEGO has. (0:46:12) Jonnie: Yep. (0:46:13) Al: You know, some random guy in Sweden made a better LEGO game than the corporation that owns LEGO. (0:46:19) Al: OK, so aesthetics wise, although like that fundamental point aside, it s
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
Do you like good pizza? What about great pizza though? In a game that combines the adorable nature of Ooblets and the restauranteering of Diner Dash, you get to truly immerse yourself in a world where the only thing that matters...is pizza.Support the show
Greg Street doing something exciting! We spill some beans. How were our BlizzCon predictions? We find out. World of Warcraft: Dragonflight and Classic, Diablo IV, and Robocop. Scott high lights the indie game Ooblets. Jon shares experiences with Final Fantasy XIV, Fortnite, Powerwash Simulator, and previews Free-Per View 3 in FROG Wrestling. Beau talks about hardcore WoW, "For the King 2," and other games. "Dear Martha: Steam Reviews" segment, featuring a steamy review for Milfy City - Final Edition. Other news includes GTA VI's announcement, Nintendo's live-action Zelda movie, Valve's privacy update, and SteamDeck's OLED release. Texts and a call! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Greg Street doing something exciting! We spill some beans. How were our BlizzCon predictions? We find out. World of Warcraft: Dragonflight and Classic, Diablo IV, and Robocop. Scott high lights the indie game Ooblets. Jon shares experiences with Final Fantasy XIV, Fortnite, Powerwash Simulator, and previews Free-Per View 3 in FROG Wrestling. Beau talks about hardcore WoW, "For the King 2," and other games. "Dear Martha: Steam Reviews" segment, featuring a steamy review for Milfy City - Final Edition. Other news includes GTA VI's announcement, Nintendo's live-action Zelda movie, Valve's privacy update, and SteamDeck's OLED release. Texts and a call! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Al and Micah talk about Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:58: What Have We Been Up To 00:32:53: News 01:12:15: Harvest Moon: The Winds Of Anthos 01:50:34: Outro Links Disney Dreamlight Valley Upcoming Releases Disney Dreamlight Valley Apple Arcade Edition Roots of Pacha 1.1 Update and Console Release Ooblets 1.4 Update Everdream Valley 1.6 Update Slime Rancher 2 Update Echoes of the Plum Grove Kickstarter Snacko Early Access My Time At Portia Optimisation Concerned Ape Cool Fruit 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’re here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (0:00:37) Micah: And I’m Micah! (0:00:44) Al: And you totally didn’t forget and suddenly remember that you had to say your own name there, did you? (0:00:49) Micah: I just, I never know when to like, you know, it’s, I’ve got the brain of a five year old. (0:00:56) Micah: So I need someone to say, and now’s the time that you say your name. (0:01:00) Al: Well, the problem is, right, that you’re on like two episodes a year, right? (0:01:01) Micah: Yeah. (0:01:06) Al: It’s not like, you know, the others are on like, you know, once a month or something. (0:01:09) Al: It’s much easier to remember how it goes that way. (0:01:11) Micah: I feel like I’ve gotten better about the outro, (0:01:14) Micah: but yes, you’re totally right. (0:01:17) Micah: It’s not, you know, it comes to me again as we’re doing. (0:01:23) Al: Yeah, that’s the thing I could hear when you said, and I’m like, I could hear, you were like, “Oh yes, no, I need to say it now.” Welcome. Anyway, welcome. It’s been a while. (0:01:28) Micah: You can hear the gears turning You can hear the cogs clanking around in there Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me. It’s always fun to be on Talk about some of my favorite genre my favorite genre of games (0:01:39) Al: Welcome back. It’s good to have you on. I notice how you said ‘favourite genre games, (0:01:49) Al: favourite games because well, we’ll see. (0:01:52) Micah: Not all of them, you know [laughs] (0:01:53) Al: Let’s not conclude on the game yet before we even said what it is. (0:01:59) Al: So, first of all, transcripts for the podcast are available in the show notes and on the website if you need them, although they’re whether you need them or not, but now you know where to go if you need them. (0:02:10) Al: We’re going to talk. (0:02:12) Al: You know what it’s going to be because we got Micah on. (0:02:15) Al: You know it’s going to be either Harvest Moon or Story Seasons. (0:02:17) Al: We’ve got a Harvest Moon, the Winds of Anthos. (0:02:21) Micah: We sure do. (0:02:22) Al: So we’re going to. (0:02:23) Al: We’re going to talk about that just as a preamble to that. (0:02:28) Al: I will not be playing the game during the episode because I’ve already sold it so that probably explains my feelings in summary, but we’ll get to that when we get to it. (0:02:38) Al: But, yeah, no, I. (0:02:39) Micah: Well I’ve got a digital so it’s not even an option for me, so… (0:02:41) Al: I know better than to buy a Harvest Moon game digitally. (0:02:45) Al: Come on. (0:02:46) Micah: I actually told you about this, but I’ll save it for when we get there, I guess. (0:02:47) Al: Yeah, yeah, we’ll go. (0:02:50) Al: We can leave that for the yeah, yeah, people can hear. (0:02:53) Al: The fun story. (0:02:54) Al: We’ve got a bunch of news, a bunch of exciting news to talk about. (0:02:58) Al: But first of all, Makar, what have you been up to? (0:03:01) Micah: Uh, I just recently got back from Japan and My partner and I went for about two Three weeks something like that something we’ve been planning since originally planned on going in spring of 2020 World event Happened and I don’t know. I just everything feels weird after (0:03:19) Al: Classic. (0:03:21) Al: Yeah, what happened in spring 2020? Nothing. Nothing happened. That’s the point. (0:03:30) Al: I know. (0:03:31) Micah: 2020 and I don’t know what it was. (0:03:33) Micah: I Yes, it was a great time. It was something that we’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. I put a lot of time and effort into the planning the itinerary and Making sure that we had a full schedule, but also a flexible schedule, you know, I for a bit there It was getting to the point where I like I’ve got you know (0:03:53) Al: Don’t do the minute. (0:04:01) Micah: some levels of ADHD and OCD that I have been formally diagnosed with that manifest itself in things like that where I’ll just lock in on an Idea and then I’ll just run with it and then I’ll just keep going and then I’ll get deeper and deeper And it was pretty much to the point where I was like Google mapping If I took the train from this location at this time of day in Japan (0:04:29) Micah: what train would I take and… (0:04:31) Micah: where would I transfer and how much would it cost and then like figuring out travel costs down to like you know the individual train ride and things like that. (0:04:42) Al: Oh, you’ve got to know the best way to pay for it, right? Do I get a travel card or am I buying individual tickets? You know, that’s important. (0:04:43) Micah: That originally was the plan but then you know it just got to the point where it was it was like things that you especially knowing now you would not be able to like (0:05:02) Micah: plan for really given like you know how travel works like mass transit travel works there but which beautiful by the way beautiful transit system could not say anything bad about that transit system and then we came back here where it’s just cars. (0:05:22) Al: Well, you presumably weren’t traveling in peak hour, peak time, you’re commuting hour. (0:05:28) Micah: Uh, there was a lot of it where we were, which was a little, you know, that was a little challenging being absolutely crammed into trains, like, just packed with people. (0:05:29) Al: Oh, OK. (0:05:46) Micah: It was an experience that I’m not used to, but yeah, it was an experience. (0:05:52) Micah: I did a lot of looking at retro games and stuff like that. (0:05:55) Micah: We did a lot of, you know, we did some– (0:05:59) Micah: theme cafes and things like that, Dragon Quest Cafe. (0:06:02) Micah: Went to the Dragon Quest Island. (0:06:04) Micah: Dragon Quest Island was a bucket list item. (0:06:06) Micah: And I was very excited to do that. (0:06:06) Al: Of course. (0:06:10) Micah: Very awesome, just like a real life JRPG. (0:06:15) Micah: You just like walk around a town and get quests and then go fight stuff and then come back. (0:06:21) Micah: And it’s a lot of, you know, like, (0:06:24) Micah: what do you call it, fetch quests, (0:06:25) Micah: but it still was a very cool experience. (0:06:28) Micah: And while I was there, they were promoting and releasing Mario Wonder. (0:06:35) Micah: So I picked that up while I was there because the exchange rate was absolutely in our favor. (0:06:43) Micah: So a brand new Switch game wound up being like $36 or something like that. (0:06:48) Micah: USD once you convert it. (0:06:52) Micah: And I’ve been playing that. (0:06:55) Micah: I picked up the metal gear. (0:06:59) Micah: Collection was there too, because it came out around the same time and I played a little bit of that. (0:07:05) Micah: But mostly it’s been I’ve been playing Super Mario Wonder and trying to get through the Pokemon DLC. (0:07:14) Micah: And I’ve picked up Disney Speedstorm and I’ve been playing a lot of Disney Speedstorm, which is their cart racer. (0:07:19) Al: Is it any good? (0:07:21) Micah: It is actually incredible. (0:07:24) Micah: It is remarkably good. (0:07:28) Micah: There is two mechanics that I think separate it quite a bit from being just like Mario Kart. (0:07:37) Micah: It does feel just like Mario Kart but with Disney characters. (0:07:41) Micah: But one of the mechanics is that you instead of having like just this selection of power, like item block, (0:07:53) Micah: you get the item block and there’s like a selection of items that you can get out of that. (0:07:57) Micah: I (0:07:58) Micah: And everybody gets the same thing. There is one item that is like your ultimate move For whatever your racer is and all the racers have different ultimate moves and Even beyond that there is a basic ultimate move and there is a charged ultimate move where if you charge you hold the button And charge it up then it’ll do something different So as an example, I’ve been playing a lot of Donald Duck and Donald Duck’s (0:08:05) Al: Right. Okay. (0:08:27) Micah: basic move. (0:08:28) Micah: The ultimate move is that he puts a shield around himself, and if that shield gets broken, then he has these energy fists that punch all the other racers around him. (0:08:42) Micah: But if you charge it, then it immediately does the fists, and it also boosts you. (0:08:50) Micah: So there’s different ways that your ultimates can come through. (0:08:55) Micah: The big thing for me I think is that there is (0:08:58) Micah: a combat mechanic to it where you can slam into other cars and push them into an obstacle or whatever and a lot of the power-ups and stuff like that or a lot of the items can be translated directly into combat So it really there’s a there’s a really (0:09:28) Micah: Powerful feeling of getting into a race and immediately shoving everybody around you into the wall as Donald Duck and then just like blasting your way through the finish line. There’s something so Kind of yeah, yeah, it does have it the especially in in the single-player because if there’s not, you know, if there’s (0:09:43) Al: So it’s basically it’s Mario Kart crossed with Barnett. (0:09:56) Micah: There’s opportunity. (0:09:58) Micah: There’s time for that. It slows down a little bit and shows the cart that you hit spinning out or whatever. (0:10:03) Al: Yeah, classic. Yeah, yeah, sure. (0:10:05) Micah: Obviously, you can’t do that in multiplayer, but that definitely makes it feel more like burnout in that way. (0:10:13) Micah: When you’re hitting something and it’s spinning out and you’re watching it in slow motion. (0:10:18) Micah: Yeah. It was good. (0:10:18) Al: Burnout was always my favourite racing game when I was younger, just because of that. (0:10:22) Al: I was never a huge fan of the realistic races, because it just isn’t fun. But Burnout was like, “Yeah, I can drive and smash people into walls.” Amazing. (0:10:26) Micah: Yeah. (0:10:28) Micah: Yeah. (0:10:31) Micah: It’s great and it’s yeah, that’s like the big difference for between it and Mario Kart like there’s obviously there’s combat Kart combat quote-unquote with the items that you get and things like that in Mario Kart, but this is like physical combat. It’s like It’s much more cutthroat it feels it is a really satisfying game and it’s doing the whole you know Like they’re they’re doing seasons and they have a battle pass and you can buy like a premium battle pass that gives you you know more or whatever. (0:11:01) Micah: It is not bad. A lot of it is very cosmetic focused because there’s outfits for racers. There’s different like paint jobs for racers and things like that. They have things like victory poses that you can get. There are some bundles where it’s like you can buy these upgrade packs for like the specific items that you need to upgrade your racers and stuff like that. (0:11:02) Al: So that’s my next question, how bad is that? Because obviously it’s free to play game. (0:11:31) Micah: There’s a lot of content to it. There’s like for the single player portion of it. There’s there’s seasons and every season has like a single player chunk where it’s all of these like kind of it. It’s like chapters and each chapter has, I don’t know, 8 to 10 races in it and the races will unlock it. (0:11:38) Al: Is that something you can get for free if you work hard enough? Or is that? (0:11:41) Al: Right, okay. See, that’s the key for me. (0:11:59) Micah: and the races will unlock. (0:12:01) Micah: You can unlock chests that have the upgrades and stuff like that in it. (0:12:05) Micah: But there’s like, I don’t even… (0:12:09) Micah: 10 chapters or something like that for each season. (0:12:11) Micah: So right now the season is highlighting Aladdin. (0:12:15) Micah: And you can select the battle pass. (0:12:19) Micah: Through the battle pass you can unlock Jasmine. (0:12:22) Micah: And you can unlock Genie as racers. (0:12:26) Micah: And you unlock them really early in the battle pass. (0:12:31) Micah: And you can get them early even without the premium battle pass. (0:12:38) Micah: But then all the way at the end of the battle pass you get special outfits and special car colors and whatever. (0:12:45) Micah: Like paint jobs and stuff like that. (0:12:47) Micah: But the single player portion of the season is all Aladdin based story content. (0:12:55) Micah: Where it’s like races that you have to do with specific conditions. (0:13:02) Micah: And there’s so much content for it. (0:13:04) Micah: There’s like an unbelievable amount of content that’s just like free content. (0:13:09) Micah: So there is a lot of opportunity to get that stuff yourself without paying anything for it. (0:13:17) Micah: It’s good though. It’s a really really good racer. (0:13:18) Al: OK, that’s good. That’s good. (0:13:22) Al: I’ll need to try it because I’ve tried a number of different car racers and most of them, I’ve just not enjoyed the controls. (0:13:31) Al: Like, they’ve just never felt like they’ve worked as well as Mario Kart. (0:13:34) Al: So I’ll need to try this one and see how that goes for me. (0:13:35) Micah: This definitely is the most Mario Kart similar I think Right Yes, I do too (0:13:38) Al: It doesn’t need to be the exact same. (0:13:41) Al: I just use that as an example because like I like the controls in Mario Kart. (0:13:46) Al: it’s very smooth and it’s very controllable. (0:13:48) Al: Every single version of it, whereas like, you know, if you take like crash team racing or sonic racing or whatever, I hate, I just, I know I don’t enjoy how they control. (0:13:56) Micah: Yeah, we’re in the exact same boat. (0:13:59) Al: I always feel like I’m just not in as, as control as, as I am with Mario Kart. (0:14:03) Micah: Yeah, given that and how similar I think our feelings are on that, I feel like you’ll probably like it because I’m very much the same way. (0:14:13) Micah: I did not, was not a fan of Crash Team Racing and Sonic Racing and how that felt. (0:14:19) Micah: It does. (0:14:20) Micah: Um, I think probably just because of history with it, I’m most attuned to- (0:14:26) Micah: to like Mario Kart controls and things like that. (0:14:31) Micah: And it feels the most like that. (0:14:32) Micah: Like, you know, there’s- you go off a jump and you can hit a button to do like a flare or whatever to like give yourself a little bit of boost. (0:14:39) Micah: And the drift feels like Mario Kart and there’s like drift chaining and stuff that- (0:14:45) Al: I have actually downloaded it on my switch. I’ve just not opened it yet because it’s like free to play game that I know I’m going to play at some point. Of course, I’m going to download it, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It came out of early access a few months ago, I think. So yeah. Oh, interesting. (0:14:48) Micah: Yeah, and it’s also, I think it’s on every platform now, but you can chain your account. (0:15:00) Micah: It’s like super easy to link your account between platforms, so that’s also really nice. (0:15:05) Micah: Oh, you know what it is. (0:15:07) Micah: It’s coming to mobile soon is what I remember. (0:15:10) Micah: So if, yeah, we’ll see how the game changes at that point, but you know. (0:15:16) Al: - Yeah, I don’t, having said I liked all the Mario Kart, (0:15:18) Al: I don’t like live, I don’t like Mario Kart live, (0:15:19) Micah: No, I don’t. (0:15:20) Al: I don’t like how, I just, no. (0:15:21) Micah: Not a fan. (0:15:22) Al: I want something like that, I want the new, (0:15:27) Al: I like everything that it does in terms of the live service stuff, (0:15:31) Al: I just want that on a switch with controls rather than the, no, I don’t like the, anyway, whatever. (0:15:36) Micah: Yeah. (0:15:37) Micah: Yep, no, I feel you. (0:15:42) Al: So I too have been playing Mario Wonder. (0:15:45) Al: No finished it, I think in the last episode I said I was nearly done and I just had one level to go. (0:15:51) Al: I have no finished that one. (0:15:54) Micah: Dang, I have not finished it. (0:15:56) Micah: I’m very excited to see that. (0:15:57) Micah: What are your thoughts now that you’ve finished it? (0:15:58) Al: I really love it. I think it is one of the best 2D Mario games they’ve done. I think it’s really good. I think what I think is amazing is see if we had this game and one in every four levels had a wonderful hour. We’d think that was a really cool idea and it was really interesting that they did that. The fact that they’ve done this in every single level and every single level has a different thing that the wonderful (0:15:59) Micah: It’s so good, isn’t it? (0:16:28) Al: flower does. Every single level is incredible. Yeah, I love it. I love it. I also feel like unlike most Marios, I feel like I could figure out most of the secrets myself. So there’s a few that I just didn’t quite get and I had to Google. But with most other (0:16:29) Micah: it’s insane. Yeah, it’s insane. And there’s like multiple methods through the levels to like, it’s just it’s crazy how much detail and love (0:16:58) Al: Mario’s, I’ve been like, I have absolutely no idea how to deal with this here. I don’t know where to go here. And maybe that’s just me getting better at figuring out their secrets. (0:17:07) Al: That’s a possibility. But I’ve just felt like, yeah, it just, and I feel like when I got to the end of the game, I wasn’t hugely far off 100% because it just felt like everything was really fun to continue doing. I like got close to 100% in each world that I did up to like four, and then five and six, I just was like, I just want to finish this now. So I did what I needed to, but I think, yeah, no, I think it was, and I think there are quite a few levels at the end that are like really difficult. And they’re not like, you know, Mario, Mario maker difficult, right? Like they’re not like insane. You have to have like split second reflexes to ever do this, but especially the very last level, (0:17:53) Al: which you know, when you get to it, that one in particular was so frustrating. (0:17:55) Micah: I had… (0:17:58) Al: I, I’m not joking when I say I, it took me 60 lives to get through that game, that level. (0:18:05) Micah: Holy smokes, I had actually read someone had had said that they felt like it was the closest to Mario. (0:18:16) Micah: An official Mario game has come to feeling like a Kaizo Mario game, which if you don’t know, Kaizo Mario games you like, they call them like Iron Man Mario games. (0:18:28) Micah: Like insanely impossible, like super, you know, reflex. (0:18:35) Micah: Heavy like you have to jump with a shell at the right time and then kick off of that shell at the right time so that it hits a wall at the right time and then jump off of that shell after the fact, you know, all of these like really precise movements and things like that. (0:18:51) Micah: And they said, well, it’s not a Kaizo Mario level. (0:18:51) Al: Yeah, there definitely are a few levels like that. I understand there are people who are like, “I want more like that,” and that’s fair. But yeah, I certainly think there are some levels in this that are some of the hardest that have ever been in a Mario game. So yeah, (0:18:54) Micah: It is the closest that a core Mario game has come to feeling like a Kaizo game. (0:19:09) Micah: Yeah. It’s really fun. (0:19:12) Al: I really, really enjoyed it. I think it was fantastic. Yeah. (0:19:15) Micah: It’s such a I was and I was really kind of like on the fence about the the the theme or like the aesthetic of it being like, you know, I don’t know, LSD induced, whatever is happening, whatever. Yeah, whatever hallucinogenic effects these. (0:19:30) Al: Yeah, I was thinking more magic mushrooms, but yeah, sure. (0:19:39) Micah: Wonder flowers have on these wonder seeds have on everybody. (0:19:43) Micah: I was a little bit on the fence of like, OK, I don’t know if I’m, you know, elephant Mario and whatever. And it just felt a little too wacky, maybe to when I first saw the like trailer for it and stuff. Obviously, it still looked good. (0:19:59) Micah: I was still interested in it. I’m happy that didn’t like deter me from it at all because it’s it’s awesome. It’s such a good Mario game. (0:20:07) Micah: and that like aesthetic is… (0:20:09) Micah: It’s really well done throughout the game without feeling overly wacky or whatever. (0:20:13) Al: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s been a really good year for games because I also have been playing Spider-Man 2 and I’ve been loving that. It’s a great game. I feel like I think I’m like 80% through the main story, but there’s still quite a lot of side stuff that I need to do. But I’m at the point where I’m like, I just need to like finish, I need to main line the story, finish that before I tidy everything up. (0:20:17) Micah: They’re killing it with Mario lately, huh? (0:20:28) Micah: Yeah? (0:20:46) Micah: I don’t know too much about what’s going on in Spider-Man 2, but from what I understand it’s both Peter Parker and Miles Morales and… (0:20:56) Micah: Okay. (0:20:56) Micah: Are you like swapping between them? (0:20:56) Al: So the first game was… Yeah, so the first game was Peter Parker and then there was a Miles Morales game where Peter goes on holiday, and that’s the explanation as to why you’re just Miles. Okay, fine, sure, whatever. So what you can do is there are specific things that need to be done by one Spider-Man. So obviously, the storyline with Miles’ mum has to happen with Miles, right? (0:20:59) Micah: Right. And then there was a Miles Morales game, right? (0:21:04) Micah: Okay. (0:21:08) Micah: Got it. (0:21:10) Micah: He needs a break. (0:21:24) Al: It doesn’t make any sense for it to be Peter. (0:21:25) Micah: Right. Right. (0:21:26) Al: And the stuff with Mary Jane has to be done with Peter, it can’t be done with Miles. (0:21:30) Al: And there’s like a few kind of like side stuff, like there’s one of the like collectibles thing is to do with Peter’s job, and one of them is to do with Miles’ uncle, (0:21:43) Al: and so those obviously need to be done with that Spider-Man. But other than that… (0:21:46) Micah: can’t be with Peter’s uncle but is that am I allowed to say that I don’t know I’m allowed to say (0:21:55) Al: Wow. (0:21:56) Al: Oh, my, but other than that, you can just freely switch between the Spider-Man. (0:22:06) Al: So you’re just floating around and you can just pause the game and press square and switch to the other one and they’ll pop in and you can do whatever you want. (0:22:14) Al: So I have generally just been going through the game because obviously the story switches you between them for different parts of the story. (0:22:21) Al: So I’ve just kind of continued with whatever (0:22:23) Al: and they’ve dropped me in on until they then switch me. (0:22:26) Al: Just because I felt like that’s the way that kind of felt most natural to me. (0:22:30) Al: But it’s been quite enjoyable doing that. (0:22:34) Al: Obviously, they have different powers. (0:22:36) Al: They’re not exactly the same. (0:22:38) Al: And they do some things that I’m not going to spoil to kind of level Peter up. (0:22:43) Al: Because obviously, Miles has his electricity powers, (0:22:47) Al: which makes him objectively better than Peter. (0:22:51) Micah: Oh, I didn’t even know that was a thing. (0:22:52) Al: Oh, do you not know this? (0:22:53) Al: this. Yeah, so miles can go invisible, first of all. (0:22:54) Micah: What? (0:22:56) Al: You don’t know this! Yeah, oh my word. There’s so much Spider-Man lore you don’t know. So miles can go invisible, but he also has electricity powers, so he can zap people and stuff like that, which Peter obviously doesn’t have. But those powers, one from a different reality. (0:22:58) Micah: I didn’t know this. (0:22:59) Micah: No. (0:23:10) Micah: What kind of spider did that come from? Sorry, never. (0:23:13) Micah: Oh, okay, well. (0:23:16) Al: No, I’m not even joking. That’s serious. Anyway, not important. How far deep do we need to (0:23:19) Micah: Yeah, I can see that. (0:23:26) Al: go with this? But that makes him objectively better to play as than Peter Parker. So they have had to do something to level up Peter Parker. And I’m not gonna say what that is, (0:23:39) Al: but they do it, and it feels great. Like, you don’t feel like you need to be miles. (0:23:44) Al: It doesn’t feel like he’s automatically better than miles. I think they’ve balanced it really well. So you feel like you can be either of them. And it will be interesting to see whether (0:23:57) Al: those powers continue on to the next game. I’ll be interested to see what they do then, (0:24:02) Al: but it’s been good fun. (0:24:02) Micah: I maybe this is what I thought I don’t know how I would know this is a spoiler but I thought I had seen me and maybe I’m like crossing the wires between other something else Spider-Man but this does Peter is like the was it the symbiote or whatever not in the that yeah like Venom’s like doesn’t just does Peter get because there’s like a symbiote suit for (0:24:23) Al: Venom. (0:24:25) Al: Venom is in this game. (0:24:32) Micah: isn’t there like in in Spider-Man lore I don’t know I don’t know is it I thought I like I thought this was in the trailer but also I don’t know for sure okay because that’s a thing that’s existed in Spider-Man lore for like a while right is that at some point Spider-Man has like a symbiote like suit right I don’t know okay all right we can cut all this out (0:24:34) Al: All right, so we’re just fully smiling this, then, are we? (0:24:42) Al: I mean, well, Venom is in the trailer, sure, (0:24:46) Al: but it doesn’t really talk about what that means. (0:24:56) Al: Yeah, I don’t want to say too much. I don’t want to say too much. I mean, people who know a lot of Spider-Man lore are going to be able to predict a lot of this story, right? Like, (0:25:03) Micah: I don’t know how to spoil anything but okay sure yeah (0:25:08) Al: it’s not fresh and new, but it’s still fun to do. And, you know, I think a lot of people don’t aren’t that deep into Spider-Man lore. What I will say is one really annoying thing. (0:25:19) Al: So yeah, Venom’s in this game. Do you know what Miles’ electricity powers are called? (0:25:22) Micah: electricity powers? (0:25:23) Al: No, they’re called venom. (0:25:24) Micah: Wait, what? (0:25:27) Al: He calls them venom! His venom powers! I don’t know why! (0:25:28) Micah: I’m confused. Wait, why does he… (0:25:31) Micah: Oh, that’s weird. (0:25:34) Al: So there’s two venoms in this game and it’s driving me insane. (0:25:36) Micah: What a weird decision. (0:25:39) Al: Also, my other annoyance with this game, right? I love the game, but my other annoyance is they just refer to each other as Spider-Man. (0:25:50) Al: So you’ll be like “Oh, hey Spider-Man, oh hey Spider-Man!” So they’re constantly just referring to Spider-Man when they’re talking. (0:25:56) Al: It’s worse because the subtitles will say “Spider-Man is saying this” so it’ll say “Spider-Man colon” and then what he says. (0:26:00) Micah: No way! (0:26:02) Al: But you’re like “Which one?” But they try and deal with that by having a little face, right? So there’s two little faces, right? (0:26:02) Micah: Oh, I see. (0:26:08) Al: But it’s of the mask. But the problem is, do you know what the masks are? The masks are red and black or black and red. (0:26:09) Micah: They’re both wearing a mask. (0:26:12) Micah: Okay. (0:26:15) Al: And these are teeny tiny little images on a 40-inch screen 12 feet away from me. (0:26:23) Al: I can’t figure out which one it is, it’s dre- (0:26:25) Micah: Yeah, this seems like an oversight a little bit (0:26:26) Al: It’s real bad! And I’ve turned the subtitle size up to max, because I like reading subtitles. (0:26:37) Al: It helps me understand what’s- But the picture’s still tiny! Why is the picture so tiny? And also, (0:26:40) Micah: ID too, same boat (0:26:44) Al: you change their suits, right? Nobody stays in the default suits in this game. That’s part of the fun of it, is changing your suits. So I needed to- Part of my problem is that I always- I have a very (0:26:56) Al: specific aesthetic of Spider-Man suit that I like, but I can’t put them both in the same aesthetic, (0:27:01) Al: because then I can’t figure out whose is who. So I’ve had to do like- So I have to decide that this is the colour for Peter, and this is the colour for Miles, and I’ve had to kind of stick with that, (0:27:11) Al: so that I can tell them apart on screen. I know, I know. But it’s- But it is really fun. It’s a really fun game. It has done the same thing, in my opinion, for Spider-Man. (0:27:13) Micah: What a nightmare. (0:27:26) Al: Spider-Man games, that Tears of the Kingdom did for Zelda games. I think it’s done- It has taken a game and done what you think is basically the same thing, but then layered so much more on top of it that it feels so good. (0:27:41) Micah: Yeah, huh It looks really good. I didn’t it seems like the reaction to it has been very good. I just saw today I saw it tick-tock that was somebody saying like I Don’t care what you say Miles and Morales and Peter Parker are my friends. They’re real people. They’re my friends They’re we’re we’re best friends. They’re the boys like And I think you know just saying that like the characters are done so well that it feels like they’re you know (0:28:11) Micah: um but I Not knowing really much about spider-man There is a part of me that wants to play it purely out of like seeing how much Like open world traversal there is for like I’m a big sucker for when there’s like true to life in-game recreations of like real locations So like being able to traverse New York City, I feel like would be (0:28:42) Micah: very fun, even if it’s just I Have not no I Uh Not no, not really that I can remember I mean I do I’ve seen people play them and I’ve seen like, you know, there’s a Again on tick-tock. There’s like occasionally I’ll see a tick-tock live of somebody. That’s just like No camera or anything. It’s just their their gameplay of them Swinging as spider-man and I’m assuming the like previous one but it. (0:28:43) Al: So if you don’t play any Spider-Man game, even like the early 2000s ones or anything, (0:28:50) Al: the Tobey Maguire tie-in film ones, no, that’s fine. (0:29:06) Al: Yeah. It’s absolutely incredible. It’s absolutely incredible, Michael. There’s no traversal in another game that is as fun as this, and they added extra stuff on to what the games had before to make it even more… You have a wingsuit now, so you can fly. So you can swing and swing and go high, and then you fly in your wingsuit, and you can… You’re gliding, right? You’re not flying, (0:29:36) Al: ages. And there’s slip streams around the city, so you can go so fast through the city if you catch the right slip stream, and they’ve added in a bunch of stuff. You can surf on the water for a short period of time and then jump back up and stuff like that. There’s so much in… It’s so fun. (0:30:00) Al: It’s just incredible. And there’s also stuff like you might have seen… Have you you haven’t seen any of the NPC conversations. (0:30:06) Al: There’s like full-on full-on 10, 15, 20 minute conversations that these NPCs have. (0:30:07) Micah: I don’t think so. I don’t think I’ve seen any of the NPC stuff or like (0:30:17) Micah: Oh, like, not like cutscenes, it’s just like listening to people. (0:30:18) Al: If you like just drop down onto the street, no, if you just drop down and there’s two people talking, they will have a full-on conversation for 15 minutes about the most random stuff. (0:30:29) Al: But it makes sense. (0:30:30) Al: It’s incredible. (0:30:31) Al: Like there was there’s ones that I’ve seen which is like, you know, people who were on a work site and they were complaining about their boss. (0:30:36) Al: And then there were people who were talking about like their children and then there’s just so many and it’s wild. (0:30:43) Al: I cannot imagine like it just feels like they’ve gotten in some voice actors and said riff on this and they’ve just spent 20 minutes talking about it. (0:30:50) Micah: Yeah, I can imagine that would be the best way to do that too is to just have people like That’s awesome Who’s the is it rocksteady as a developer Oh insomniac, okay (0:30:51) Al: But it’s incredible. (0:30:52) Al: Yeah. (0:30:54) Al: But they’re everywhere. (0:30:57) Al: I don’t understand how they’ve done it. (0:30:59) Al: It’s like so much. (0:31:01) Al: It’s not. (0:31:02) Al: It’s Insomniac. (0:31:06) Al: It’s incredible. (0:31:07) Al: And it’s also they’re doing a Wolverine game as well coming out in a we don’t know when but presumably like five years or something like that. (0:31:10) Micah: Oh, okay, cool. (0:31:12) Micah: Yeah. (0:31:13) Al: Who knows. (0:31:14) Al: It’s made me really excited for that because like I’m just yeah. (0:31:17) Al: Well I say so yeah having so much fun. (0:31:19) Al: And we probably don’t need to get into a huge conversation about this but also been playing the watermelon games. (0:31:26) Al: It’s a week out game or whatever they call it. (0:31:26) Micah: Yep. I think everybody at least has touched it at some point or see. (0:31:28) Al: It’s been good. (0:31:32) Al: If you haven’t played it. (0:31:33) Al: If you haven’t seen it go play it. (0:31:34) Al: Go watch a video of it. (0:31:36) Micah: And it’s like, what’d you say? $2? (0:31:37) Al: Yeah. (0:31:38) Al: Something like that. (0:31:38) Micah: I bought it when I was on the Japanese eShop. (0:31:39) Al: A thousand yen or something. (0:31:40) Micah: So it was like, I don’t know. (0:31:43) Micah: Yeah, it was like 200 yen or something. (0:31:43) Al: I do even know is what that means. (0:31:45) Al: Yep. (0:31:46) Micah: Yeah. (0:31:47) Micah: It was– yeah, it’s very cheap. (0:31:48) Al: Yeah it’s very cheap and loads of fun. (0:31:50) Micah: It’s like $2 on the– (0:31:54) Al: I like I play a couple of times a day. (0:31:56) Al: It’s good fun. (0:31:58) Al: Oh this is. (0:31:58) Micah: very good. Yeah, we there’s not a whole lot to say about watermelon. You drop you drop fruits into a bucket and they combine if you match them and just don’t overflow the bucket and that’s it. Yeah. It reminds me of there’s some like old arcade game I can’t remember what it was where you’d like shoot balls at each other and if you hit the same color balls then they would combine into like. (0:32:01) Al: We talk a little. (0:32:07) Al: Yeah. (0:32:10) Al: It’s like physics version of Candy Crush or whatever. (0:32:15) Al: Or marriage was the marriage marriage games. (0:32:27) Al: Yeah, I think there’s a few, yeah, there’s a few different games that have done this similar sort of thing. (0:32:28) Micah: a different color and it was like that same. (0:32:31) Micah: Yeah. (0:32:34) Al: This just does it really nicely and the physics aspect of it changes the game entirely because like you drop one and it bounces off stuff and you don’t know for certain where it’s going to go. (0:32:45) Al: So it adds a little bit of, you know, just randomness to that as well, which is fun. (0:32:49) Al: Oh my God, this isn’t going to be a short episode, is it? (0:32:51) Micah: No, I guess not. (0:32:52) Al: We’re going to talk about some news after half an hour. (0:32:56) Al: Um (0:32:57) Al: So, first of all we get Disney Dreamlight Valley. Um, so before we get into the brand new news about this, I just need to talk to you Micah. So, had you seen that the game’s no longer going to be free to play? (0:33:08) Micah: I did. You are actually not the only person to have reached out to me after the news dropped to ask me how I felt about it. Well, I mean, I feel like, you know, if I had to pay for it, (0:33:09) Al: How do you feel? (0:33:25) Micah: then everybody else should. I’m just kidding. It’s kind of a weird move to like start something and say like it’s free to play because usually it’s the other it’s the other way around right like something is paid for it’s like a paid experience and then eventually when it’s not performing the way that they want it to anymore then they move it to free to play like that’s usually the way it goes not the other way around where it starts free to play and they’re like actually you know what we’re gonna charge money for this kind of a weird thing but (0:33:30) Al: Justice! (0:33:30) Al: Or it’s going to be free to play, yeah. (0:33:55) Al: Yeah. Well, it’s also a bit weird because it never was and isn’t going to be now free to play. The weird thing is it’s not gone free to play too paid. It’s gone from paid but we’ll be free to play to actually, no, we’re not going to be free to play. (0:34:13) Micah: Yeah, yes, like free to play, but you have to pay for, like, (0:34:17) Micah: stuff to get access to it anyways, like. (0:34:22) Al: It’s wild, it’s weird, it’s weird, but anyway. (0:34:22) Micah: Yeah, it is a weird thing. (0:34:25) Micah: I don’t I don’t really know how I feel. (0:34:30) Micah: Other than that, like it’s it seems like a weird choice for them. (0:34:34) Micah: I now my concern is, are they going to charge me (0:34:34) Al: I mean you must be less frustrated about buying it now. So they’re not. So I guess what I should say, just a quick summary for people who haven’t listened. So the game is going to come out of Early Access on the 5th of December. There will be a new update at that point. We got more details about that. (0:34:42) Micah: again for the actual (0:34:43) Micah: game since everything that I bought was like basically cosmetic stuff and currency will there be an actual okay, all right good (0:35:04) Al: last week, so I’ll detail. We’ll go over that in a minute. But your early access will continue on. And in fact, you will get extra stuff because you were early access. So you will you get like there’s a few extra cosmetics, including you get capybara. So, you know, (0:35:16) Micah: Oh. Okay. (0:35:24) Micah: Oh Now I’m not upset at all I was a little bit upset but now I’m not Yeah I’m not like opposed to that, but I’m curious to see the I know we have a roadmap that we’re gonna look at But I’m curious to see how frequent paid is gonna come into play because that can kind of (0:35:27) Al: here we go. But, but, but. (0:35:34) Al: they are doing paid DLCs, which will (0:35:46) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So a couple small things first. So first of all, the soundtrack for Disney Dreaming Valley is out. You can go get, go stream it or buy it now. So that’s, that’s a thing. I feel like it’s a pretty standard thing for games now. Except Pokemon games. (0:36:03) Micah: That’s also interesting thing, because I don’t know. (0:36:07) Micah: That’s not like, you know. (0:36:10) Micah: Yeah, I suppose so. (0:36:12) Micah: I feel like the standard thing is like, they’re available, (0:36:16) Micah: or like you get the soundtrack with the game or something and not, you know, like, the soundtrack’s out and you can buy it if you want. (0:36:23) Micah: I don’t know, maybe that’s. (0:36:25) Micah: And I don’t know that there was anything really like distinct about the Dreamlight Valley soundtrack that had me like, (0:36:30) Al: No, no, it’s no, it’s no Stardew Valley soundtrack. (0:36:31) Micah: Oh, I got to get this. (0:36:33) Micah: But I don’t know, yeah, that on the other hand outpaid over and over for that. (0:36:36) Al: So the 5th of December update, the 1.0 update, if you will, has been detailed a little bit. (0:36:48) Al: So Jack Skellington will be coming. (0:36:49) Al: Weird that this is coming. (0:36:51) Al: I mean, I guess maybe it makes sense it’s coming between Halloween and Christmas, but I feel like why isn’t this out just before Halloween? (0:36:57) Al: I don’t know. (0:36:58) Micah: You know, I just had this conversation about Nightmare Before Christmas with someone that I work with who said that Nightmare Before Christmas is a Christmas movie and not a Halloween movie and I argued that it’s both. (0:37:12) Al: It’s both. It’s, of course, it’s both, right? (0:37:14) Micah: But then there were other people that agreed with them that said, yeah, it’s more of a Christmas movie than it is a Halloween movie, which like, it’s actually both. (0:37:15) Al: And it… (0:37:16) Al: No. (0:37:18) Al: It’s literally both. (0:37:22) Al: It’s literally both. (0:37:24) Al: This is not a diehard thing, and I’m not going to have that argument, (0:37:27) Al: because my argument about a diehard is, “I don’t care, shut up.” Right? (0:37:31) Al: But, like, this is not… This is literally half Halloween, half Christmas. (0:37:32) Micah: No, this is explicitly bold. (0:37:35) Micah: Yes. (0:37:37) Al: It’s about both holidays. (0:37:40) Al: It just seems like people… (0:37:40) Micah: Thank you, I feel vindicated. (0:37:42) Al: People feel this need to categorise things so that they feel they can watch it at Christmas, right? (0:37:48) Al: And it’s like, you can watch it at Christmas, you can watch it at Halloween. (0:37:53) Al: It’s both. I mean, you can watch it whenever you want, but like, no one’s going to look at it… (0:37:53) Micah: You can watch it whenever you want. Yeah. (0:37:59) Al: I watched it on… I hadn’t watched Nightmare before Christmas, before this year. (0:38:04) Micah: Oh, really? (0:38:05) Micah: Thoughts? (0:38:05) Al: Just hadn’t got around to it, so I watched it a few days before Halloween. Really liked it. (0:38:09) Al: liked it. It was good fun. Good say. I mean, (0:38:12) Al: some of the songs are incredible. It starts out particularly well. Like it’s like comes out of the gate crashing. Like I’m a, it’s really good. Very weird. I enjoyed it. Anyway. (0:38:25) Al: Uh, yeah. So Jax Galton coming to Disney Dreamlight Valley and also multiplayer. So if you really want multiplayer, I’m not going to play multiplayer. Don’t make me play multiplayer. But if you (0:38:36) Micah: I can’t imagine the multiplayer being super smooth based on the gameplay, but I don’t know, maybe. (0:38:45) Al: I feel like it’s going to be basically Animal Crossing multiplayer, like it’s not going to be like Stardew Valley multiplayer or anything like that, it’s going to be visiting someone’s village to see what they’ve done. (0:38:47) Micah: I don’t know. (0:38:49) Micah: Yeah, yeah, that probably. (0:38:54) Micah: Well, because there’s, I mean, they say in the, what’s the wording for that? (0:39:04) Al: enter the valley verse with your friends. Maybe that’s a special place then. (0:39:07) Micah: » See, when I had originally read it, I thought maybe that it was like interacting with Jack Skellington in the Valleyverse with your friends, (0:39:18) Micah: as if you can do whatever that story content is with them, but maybe I just read that (0:39:27) Al: So this update also introduces the highly anticipated multiplayer mode, allowing you and up to three friends to visit each other’s valleys. (0:39:34) Al: Oh, there you go, visit each other’s valleys. (0:39:36) Micah: Okay, yeah. (0:39:36) Al: From showing off your eye for design to checking ScroogeMcDuck’s stock in another v- It’s Animal Crossing. (0:39:38) Micah: Next. (0:39:39) Micah: Yep. (0:39:43) Micah: Okay. (0:39:45) Micah: That I can see a little bit more than like, (0:39:47) Micah: ‘cause when I’d read it, I thought it was, you know, (0:39:50) Micah: you could do story content with your friends, (0:39:52) Micah: and that to me felt like that would be a very not smooth experience. (0:39:56) Al: Yeah, that, yeah. (0:39:57) Micah: But if it’s just like, come check out my valley, (0:39:58) Al: Perhaps more exciting is the fact that the multiplayer mode would continue to evolve over time as new ways to interact with your friends are added in future updates. (0:40:08) Al: Okay, well we’ll deal with them when they come, but yeah, basically the launch version is basically what Animal Crossing does. (0:40:09) Micah: Hmm Yeah when they’re on a When they’re on a content roadmap, then we’ll look at it (0:40:15) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, give us the give us the details. (0:40:22) Al: So then we’ve had more information about the paid DLC so (0:40:26) Al: we’ve got a content roadmap with a lot of stuff in this. I’ll link this in the show notes so you can go have a look at it but we have detailed five free updates and three I’m pretty sure three of the same paid DLC updates so this is I think one pack that you pay for and you get these three updates I don’t think these are three separate paid things because it’s all part of one One story, basically. (0:40:50) Micah: Hmm, okay Oh sure (0:40:57) Al: So this paid expansion, which is called a Rift in Time, you visit a place called Eternity Isle, (0:41:05) Al: and you meet Rapunzel, Gaston, and Eve, and go through some adventures with them. And then the spring 2024 says, explore ancient’s landing to uncover more of its secrets and befriend a very lucky villager and you also see (0:41:26) Al: in that picture Gaston, Eve and Rapunzel and then it says some (0:41:29) Micah: Mm-hmm Who do you think the very lucky villagers I? (0:41:34) Micah: Couldn’t figure out from that. I don’t have enough Disney knowledge to based on whatever that door is to maybe look (0:41:41) Al: I don’t know and then summer 2024 it says foil Jafar’s schemes and fix the rift in time so that feels to me like three parts of this one paid day. (0:41:54) Micah: Yeah, that makes complete sense, I think. (0:41:58) Micah: I think that you’re totally right. (0:42:00) Al: Yes, yes, so Jafar being very clearly, he’s the big baddie of this DLC, and that’s interesting. (0:42:00) Micah: And obviously, introduction of Aladdin characters (0:42:13) Al: Interesting that Jafar is the first Aladdin (0:42:15) Micah: And also that it’s not like sticking to one series, like one movie. (0:42:22) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:42:24) Micah: It’s like Rapunzel, Gaston, Eve versus Jafar. (0:42:28) Micah: It’s not like. (0:42:29) Al: And one other character, one other person that we don’t know who yet, like wild. (0:42:30) Micah: And yeah, a mystery character. (0:42:37) Al: Oh, yeah, actually, it does say so in these mysterious lands, you will embark on a new main story involving Jafar and the very fabric of time itself taking place across three acts all included in the expansion purchase. (0:42:49) Al: confirmation that those three updates between. (0:42:52) Al: December and summer will be the one purchase, which is thirty dollars, I think. (0:42:57) Micah: It’s not too bad if it’s like a yearly thing, like a yearly expansion purchase or like even, (0:42:59) Al: It’s not it does seem yeah. (0:43:06) Micah: you know, half a year or whatever, which it seems like that probably they’re doing here December 5th to summer 2024. (0:43:15) Micah: It’s like a six month, six months of content for like 30 bucks. (0:43:20) Micah: I guess that’s not too bad. (0:43:22) Al: It’s not terrible. It’s not terrible. We’ll see how it… And I think on top of that they are then obviously doing these other free updates. So obviously we’ve got the the 1.0 release in December which gives you Jack Skellington and the multiplayer and then late winter. It says 2024. It’s a very confusing saying winter 2024. What it means is January or February, right? (0:43:39) Micah: which yeah of 2024 yet. (0:43:46) Al: Yeah, it was just like don’t word it like that. Like this is just whatever. (0:43:52) Al: That is obviously some monster ink related stuff. We’ve got Mike Wazowski and it says scream with excitement as a new realm door opens. And then we’ve got early spring 2024, (0:44:04) Al: a vibrant new villager moves to the valley. I have no idea who… (0:44:07) Micah: Don’t either I was trying to figure that out, but it there’s like there’s like a daisy duck on the front on the like Mast of that ship and I don’t know what that I don’t know if this is like a again, not sure I have the Disney knowledge to know what that’s from but I’m sure it’s from some specific Mickey Mouse movie or you know (0:44:15) Al: Oh yeah, interesting. (0:44:32) Micah: episode or whatever something I’m sure it’s from something really (0:44:32) Al: They’re getting very vague at this point, realistically, right? Because then we’ve got late spring 2024 and it just says, “You don’t find a realm like this every dynasty.” And you’re like, “Oh, for goodness sake, where are we going with this? My word.” Like, someone will know this because there’s some insane fan who knows everything based on… I don’t I don’t know. (0:44:44) Micah: Which like, (0:44:46) Micah: I feel like that’s Mulan. (0:44:53) Micah: Is that not based on the word dynasty? (0:44:57) Micah: I don’t know. (0:45:02) Micah: I feel like that that’s probably Mulan, (0:45:02) Al: Do the flowers relate to that? Like, there’s flowers coming out the door? (0:45:05) Micah: but they’re just doing like, they’re, (0:45:11) Al: I feel like a Taylor Swift fan right now. And then we’ve got… (0:45:18) Micah: ‘Cause the Mulan is set in the northern Wei Dynasty. (0:45:19) Al: Yeah. (0:45:24) Micah: So I don’t know. I don’t know. (0:45:28) Al: And then we’ve got summer 2024, which that’s the princess and the frog. (0:45:32) Al: Right. That picture is the, I can’t remember her name. (0:45:33) Micah: yes. Uh, shoot. I forgot. Tiana. I think maybe, I don’t know what those are, maybe Benet’s, (0:45:35) Al: I’ve never seen it. (0:45:36) Al: Who’s the princess name from Princess and the Frog? (0:45:39) Al: Ba ba ba ba. Tiana. (0:45:42) Al: Good timing there. (0:45:44) Al: Both Googling at the same time. (0:45:51) Micah: which I like the, um, that like French. (0:45:55) Al: the French pastry thing. I think a lot of French stuff is pastry. (0:45:59) Micah: But it’s also like, it’s like a fritter, but it’s like a (0:46:12) Al: So that’s five updates, five free updates in the same time that we’re getting the three parts of the one paid DLC. (0:46:21) Al: So what I do have one small issue still that with this not free to play thing and and having paid DLC is that they’re still going to have their in game currency that you have to pay for as well, which just like you can buy the game, you can buy the DLC and you can also by around the world. (0:46:42) Al: And it just feels like they’re, you know, double dipping there. (0:46:52) Micah: Yeah, I don’t know. I I guess it my first thought was that it feels similar to like I don’t know like destiny or something where it’s like you have a Like expansion that you pay for and then they do like Event stuff throughout that like season quote-unquote like expansion season or it’s free stuff And you have to like still buy the main game and then the expansions (0:47:22) Micah: So like there is precedent for it It just is a really weird move to go from like it’s gonna be free to play - (0:47:30) Micah: It’s not free to play also We’re gonna charge you for it But also there’s gonna be paid expansions for it - like it’s like doubling down on charging for it like Interesting choice, but Especially interesting considering that I don’t feel like it’s a very like widely talked about game I feel like the fan base is… (0:47:52) Micah: …not massive for Dreamlight Valley. (0:47:53) Al: Yeah, I mean, let’s see, like, a lot of that may well be due to being early access, right? (0:47:54) Micah: So it seems like a weird move to like… (0:48:02) Al: And let’s see what happens over the next couple of months, right? Like, there might be a massive push for it, like, you never know what. (0:48:08) Micah: Yeah, I didn’t realize that Gameloft was the developer for it, they are also the developer for Speedstorm, so they must, I don’t know, maybe Disney is just buying them out or something. (0:48:23) Al: Well yeah, I think they’re still doing a lot of other stuff. But it’s interesting that they kept free to play with Speedstorm, and they’ve not done it with this. Well yeah, but it’s out of early access, and it is free to play. Disney Dreamlight Valley has not been, and
Al and Codey talk about Usagi Shima Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:05: What Have We Been Up To 00:10:49: News 00:26:50: Usagi Shima 00:58:19: Outro Links Loddlenaut Release Date Ooblets Update Ikoeni Island Roadmap Spells and Secrets Release Content Out and About Kickstarter The Ranchers Release Update Usagi Shima Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (30s) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (34s) Al: My name is Al, and we are here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (36s) Codey: And my name is Cody. (38s) Codey: Whoo, you’re so low energy. (41s) Al: Woo. (43s) Al: (45s) Codey: Listeners, we were just like screaming at each other over the microphone talking about inconvenient humans. (46s) Al: Bye. (55s) Codey: The energy level is there somewhere. (56s) Al: Yeah, well, we just used it all up, that’s the problem. (1m) Codey: No, I still got more. (1m 4s) Codey: I can still I can still go. (1m 6s) Al: Well, you can always go for something, but you need to have something to actually rant about. (1m 12s) Al: Anyway. (1m 13s) Al: As always, transcripts are available for the podcast in the show notes and on the website, (1m 18s) Al: so go get them if you need them. (1m 22s) Al: episode we’re going to talk about. Let’s see if I can pronounce this. (1m 26s) Al: Usagi Shima. Usagi Shima. It’s a new mobile game. So of course, Cody had to be on because Cody is the mobile game. That’s the word, correspondent. I was like, “What’s the word, (1m 27s) Codey: That’s how I say usagi shima. (1m 37s) Codey: Correspondent, it me. (1m 39s) Codey: Yep. Yep. (1m 41s) Al: person? News person?” Yes, correspondent. That is a good one. So we’re going to talk about that. (1m 46s) Al: I suspect Cody has played more than me. We shall see. (1m 54s) Al: We’ve got a bunch of news to talk about. (1m 56s) Al: Thankfully Cody picked up some notes for the news that I had missed, (2m) Al: because apparently I wasn’t reading properly. (2m 3s) Al: So that’s good, we’ll get into all that. (2m 5s) Al: First of all, Cody, what have you been up to? (2m 8s) Codey: I have been, this month has been jam-packed full of insect stuff, whoo! (2m 13s) Codey: So at the beginning of the month there’s a class at my institution that’s like a collections class where they go out and they just camp for a weekend and collect insects the whole time and basically just like hike around and stuff and it was super fun. I got invited even though I’m not in the class anymore. I was in the class in 2020 and it was the plague and so the trip got canceled (2m 38s) Codey: so I was trying to like get, I had asked if I could go and initially had been told no because there’s a ton of students this year but then a bunch of the students bailed and so the professor was like it would be great to have someone that knows what the heck they’re doing. So I went on that and that was a lot of fun and then I actually went on another version of that for the entire (3m 1s) Codey: eastern branch of the Etymological Society of America. So we went out to Delaware and I wanted (3m 8s) Codey: to see horseshoe crabs and a velvet ant and I got to see both of those things. Other than that just doing my research we have next week we have I have an event an insect themed event and I’m also going to the state capitol to talk to legislators about insects conservation. So (3m 35s) Codey: not playing much. I have been playing. (3m 38s) Codey: I have been playing Usagi Shima, and a little bit of Pokemon Go. (3m 42s) Codey: I guess I haven’t. Have I been on since Go Fest? Because I went to Go Fest. (3m 46s) Codey: Yeah, so I went to Go Fest in New York City. That was a ton of fun. (3m 46s) Al: I don’t think so, no. (3m 50s) Codey: Oh, I am. For those who are sitting there wondering, where is my Tetris game? (3m 58s) Codey: Don’t worry. She’s still here. I’ll restart the number of episodes since Tetris game has been (4m 8s) Codey: back down to zero. I am at the Tetris game. I am at 346,000 points. (4m 9s) Al: The Tetris scam. (4m 15s) Codey: So I’m a third of the way through a million points to go on my cruise. (4m 20s) Codey: Oh, yeah, the points don’t reset. And then they have cruises. They have cruise dates that roll over. So when I get closer, when I have enough points, that’s when I’ll look and see. (4m 20s) Al: Awesome. And when’s the deadline for this one? (4m 22s) Al: Oh wait, you said the points. You said the points don’t reset. (4m 36s) Codey: and I’ll see you. (4m 38s) Codey: What cruise I want to go on or whatever and see if my partner wants to go with me and if not, I’ll find someone else. (4m 44s) Codey: So yeah, what about you? What are you going to do? (4m 45s) Al: Cool. Just to… you’d asked about when you were last… you were last on like… (4m 46s) Codey: Oh, you found all that yeah. (4m 55s) Al: Yeah, so it was like literally the episode came out just after New York, but we recorded a couple of days before, I think, didn’t we? So yeah, so you have not talked about that. Yeah, it was literally like you were like, “Oh, I need to do it on like the Wednesday or something, because I’m… (4m 56s) Codey: Yeah, so I haven’t talked about Go Fest then. (5m 8s) Codey: I recorded and then I left so Because I am taking a bus, yeah. (5m 15s) Al: I’m traveling.” And I’m like, “Fair enough. Fair enough.” It’s not like the news was going to get any more out of date, because it was the first one in five weeks that we’d recorded new. So that was not a problem. Anyway, yeah, what have I been up to? Mostly Pokémon. So I’ve been playing through the Pokémon DLC. So I do. I like it, yeah. But I liked the base game anyway. So it doesn’t fix any (5m 42s) Al: of the problems of the base game really but… (5m 45s) Al: I like the story, I like the characters, well, I hate the characters but I like the story, (5m 51s) Al: I like what they did with the characters, kind of. I have some issues anyway, (5m 57s) Al: we don’t need to get into the details of that. I like the new Pokémon and I like their just being a new… I like the new areas I feel personally quite nicely designed, I quite like it. (6m 11s) Al: And I’ve just been enjoying walking around catching Pokémon, so I have to… (6m 15s) Al: Done the DLC on one of my games, and I’ve just started it on my other game. (6m 19s) Al: So yeah, going well, enjoying it. (6m 20s) Codey: Yeah, I still have not finished. (6m 20s) Al: It’s literally the research part of the game though, like that is the bit that is you. (6m 23s) Codey: I still haven’t even gotten to areas here, so. (6m 27s) Codey: Yep. (6m 32s) Codey: It is. (6m 35s) Codey: So it’s the part I think where I’m stuck is I’m fighting Arvin and he keeps kicking my butt. (6m 42s) Codey: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, I beat him. (6m 43s) Al: Ah… (6m 44s) Al: Delete 4. (6m 45s) Codey: And now I have to beat the four. (6m 47s) Codey: That’s where I’m at. (6m 50s) Codey: Yeah, and I hate that’s my least favorite part of all Pokemon games. (6m 50s) Al: Okay. (6m 51s) Al: I will say, I think I found Arvin more difficult as a battle. (6m 52s) Codey: Yeah, he was he I was face face bashing against him for a while because he was pretty difficult. (7m 2s) Codey: But now I’m at the Elite Four, but I just didn’t have the energy for it anymore. (7m 8s) Codey: And I have other stuff to do. (7m 11s) Codey: Yeah, like a PhD. (7m 12s) Al: Well, what stuff to do? What? (7m 14s) Al: Crazy idea. So yeah, mostly, I think just mostly Pokémon. I’ve played a couple of other things as well, but mostly I’m just kind of trying to get through Pokémon as much as possible before whatever the next game I’m meant to be playing is comes out. What am I meant to be playing there? (7m 18s) Codey: and be in. (7m 35s) Codey: Probably Manneco’s night market or something because that’s yeah, not very far from here. Oh You’re so excited are you excited? (7m 37s) Al: Yes, Maneko comes out on Wednesday. Yep. No, Tuesday. Tuesday. (7m 42s) Al: Not Wednesday. Oh, my word. Right. OK. I have, I think, I think I’ve given myself four days to play that game before we do the episode on it. (7m 54s) Codey: Four days off, oh, okay, no. (7m 54s) Al: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So we’ll see. I mean, like Tuesday hits and I start playing that game immediately. (7m 56s) Codey: Not days off, you don’t have days off. (8m 5s) Codey: Have you ever done that? Have you ever taken like one of games coming out like taking time off to focus on playing a game? (8m 10s) Al: So I… (8m 12s) Al: I haven’t, and the reason that I haven’t is because when you have kids, you take a day off and then you don’t spend it helping with the kids. (8m 23s) Codey: - Do it. - Yep. (8m 24s) Al: Like, it doesn’t really make much sense. (8m 27s) Al: So I haven’t. (8m 28s) Al: I like the idea of it, and I’m sure that I would do that at some point when the kids don’t need to be just looked after. (8m 37s) Al: And there isn’t always more cleaning to be doing or whatever. (8m 42s) Al: I mean, I’ve taken a day where I’m technically working and I maybe spend an hour working at the beginning of the day and then don’t for the rest of the day and just play the game. (8m 53s) Codey: Yep. (8m 54s) Al: But, of course not. If my employer’s listening, I’ve never done that. (8m 54s) Codey: Nope. (8m 58s) Al: Don’t know what you’re talking about. (9m) Al: Of course, of course, of course. (9m) Codey: Not your current employer. (9m 3s) Codey: That was with a previous employer. (9m 5s) Codey: It was different. (9m 5s) Codey: You’ve learned. (9m 6s) Al: Now, I would never do it with my current employer or any future employers. (9m 9s) Codey: No, you’ve learned. (9m 10s) Al: employers. (9m 10s) Codey: And I was going to say, I don’t do that as a PhD student, (9m 12s) Al: Yeah, I was gonna say you don’t play games on your day off, never mind days on. (9m 14s) Codey: but I genuinely don’t do that. (9m 16s) Codey: As a PhD, I can’t even be coy about it. (9m 18s) Codey: I just don’t do that. (9m 20s) Codey: Let’s be honest. (9m 21s) Codey: I have a day off right now I’m sleeping. (9m 23s) Codey: Yeah, I just sleep, I sleep, I take my dog to the dog park, I try and get caught up on cleaning. (9m 27s) Al: Like… (9m 34s) Codey: But no, I used to take like at least three days off whenever a World of Warcraft expansion came out. (9m 43s) Codey: And I would buy like a bunch of like microwave dinners so that I, it was like the minimum amount amount of time I had to spend away from the game. (9m 53s) Codey: I had a lot of fun with it. (9m 55s) Al: Nice. (9m 55s) Codey: I wish I could be that intense. (9m 56s) Al: Yeah, I suspect, like, I don’t think that being a streamer is an easy job at all. (9m 57s) Codey: Someone wants to pay me to play for the Warcraft. (10m 1s) Codey: It must be at least 40 grand. (10m 10s) Codey: Nope, nope. (10m 11s) Al: But part of me thinks it would be fun to do. (10m 16s) Al: Because even though it would be a lot of work, the then it’s like, oh, well, then I’m finished my work. (10m 25s) Al: I’m going to go and not play games. (10m 26s) Codey: Yep. (10m 26s) Al: It’s like you get to play all your games and then also have your time off. (10m 32s) Al: So that would be that would be fun. (10m 34s) Al: But I know that’s that’s not probably. (10m 38s) Codey: Probably not. (10m 40s) Codey: So yeah, uh, speaking of working, there’s… (10m 43s) Al: What? What? (10m 45s) Codey: We need to work on the news! (10m 46s) Al: Oh, that was painful. Please get better at that. (10m 52s) Al: The first piece of news is Laudelnot. So, Laudelnot, after I think quite a bit of silence, (11m) Al: they’ve not really said much since we first talked about them, but they are releasing on the 16th of November, because we don’t have enough games. (11m 10s) Codey: Didn’t we see them in like the one of the wholesome thingies? (11m 15s) Codey: And then yeah, we haven’t, (11m 16s) Al: Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think that was where we first saw them was the. (11m 20s) Codey: and then we haven’t really heard much after that. (11m 22s) Codey: But yeah, they do be coming out. (11m 25s) Codey: Though I was with their little axolotl. (11m 25s) Al: Yeah, with the Raxalottles. (11m 28s) Al: Ah, no, I didn’t notice that. (11m 30s) Codey: Oh my gosh, that’s why they’re called lottles. (11m 32s) Codey: Did you know that? (11m 37s) Codey: I didn’t either. (11m 37s) Codey: I literally just put that together. (11m 38s) Al: Wow, yeah, Lottle, cute. (11m 40s) Codey: Axolotl, solotl knot. (11m 42s) Codey: Oh my gosh. (11m 44s) Codey: I genuinely had not put that together. (11m 45s) Al: No, I hadn’t either. (11m 48s) Al: I was just like, oh, it’s just funny, funny word, man. (11m 50s) Codey: They’re cute little axolotls. (11m 52s) Codey: No, so it’s really cute. (11m 54s) Codey: In the trailer, they say that you can, (11m 57s) Codey: so you’re building up the world, (11m 59s) Codey: but then they say something like, (12m 1s) Codey: you get to care for them, feed them, and love them. (12m 4s) Al: No… (12m 4s) Codey: And I was like, you can’t make me love something. (12m 6s) Al: It said “you get to”, it said “get to”, it doesn’t say “have to”. You don’t even have to play the game. (12m 8s) Codey: You’re gonna tell me that I have to look. (12m 10s) Codey: I love something. I’m out. (12m 12s) Codey: It’s, I think it said… (12m 14s) Codey: No, it’s funny. (12m 16s) Al: Also, good luck not loving them. Look at their little faces. (12m 19s) Codey: Um, I don’t know. (12m 21s) Codey: Yeah, they are pretty f- (12m 24s) Codey: Look at their stupid little faces! (12m 26s) Codey: And some of their eyes, like, blink. (12m 28s) Codey: Uh, like flicker, light. (12m 30s) Codey: It’s like a little light. So cute. (12m 32s) Codey: So cute! (12m 33s) Codey: Yeah, so that’s coming out. (12m 34s) Al: It is coming out on Windows and Mac on Steam. I don’t think it’s coming on any console. (12m 35s) Codey: Uh, what is coming out on? (12m 40s) Codey: Very nice. (12m 49s) Al: I say I do have it listed as coming out on Switch, but. (12m 53s) Al: But I can’t see any mention of that anymore, so it may or may not be coming out on Switch. (12m 58s) Codey: doo doo doo (13m 3s) Al: I’m not sure we’ll find out in November. (13m 8s) Al: Next, we have Ooblets. (13m 10s) Al: So Ooblets is finally coming out on Steam. (13m 14s) Codey: Mm-hmm. (13m 15s) Al: So it’s releasing on Steam on the 5th of November. (13m 15s) Codey: Oh, did they say– (13m 20s) Codey: sorry, I’m interrupting. (13m 20s) Al: You know, you gotta go for an A. (13m 21s) Codey: 5th of November, woo. (13m 25s) Codey: I was just going to say, is it going to be on Mac? (13m 27s) Codey: Is it Mac also? (13m 31s) Al: No, however, it will work on the Steam Deck hopefully, because it does currently work on the Steam Deck when you install it from Epic, so hopefully that’ll actually work. (13m 43s) Codey: Okay. (13m 43s) Codey: Are you going to do, have you, you’ve already done an episode, right? (13m 48s) Codey: Yeah. (13m 48s) Al: We have done two episodes on it once. I did both episodes of it once. Well, stop playing the game. (13m 50s) Codey: I just didn’t know if you have been on it. (13m 52s) Codey: Okay. (13m 54s) Codey: So you need to stop. (13m 55s) Codey: That’s yeah. (14m 1s) Al: Are you trying to figure out who you’re going to get on the the second harvest of it? (14m 4s) Codey: Who could, who could do the sec? (14m 5s) Codey: Yeah. (14m 6s) Al: I’m sure we’ll, oh you need to get Johnny. That would be brilliant, yeah. (14m 6s) Codey: Who could do the second harvest with me. (14m 7s) Codey: Um, I got to get Johnny. (14m 13s) Codey: He can yell at it with me. (14m 14s) Codey: Um, yeah. (14m 16s) Codey: And so also in this update newsletter, whatever, um, they mentioned that they have a Halloween event update. (14m 24s) Codey: Um, and so everything’s going to get a spooky makeover townsfolk have costumes. (14m 29s) Codey: There’s a brand new event, limited Ooblet. (14m 32s) Codey: No idea what it is, but it has a ghost emoji. (14m 33s) Al: Ooh, do you mean, do you mean, “booblet”? (14m 36s) Codey: Ooh, boo, boo, boolet. (14m 37s) Al: No, not “boob”, no, no, no, “booblet”, that’s not a good one. (14m 43s) Codey: boolet, I don’t know. (14m 45s) Codey: We’ll see what it’s called. (14m 46s) Codey: So there’s a Halloween event. (14m 47s) Codey: Uh, it will run from October 1st through mid November, whatever that means. (14m 50s) Codey: Um, but it may get extended depending on how festive everyone is feeling is literally quotes what they said in the newsletter. (14m 55s) Al: S… (14m 58s) Codey: Um, and then they also show that, uh, there is another major content update version 1.4, um, that will bring little vehicles for your Ooblets to drive. (15m 8s) Al: What yeah, we saw a quick a quick animation we saw a couple months ago. It’s ridiculous (15m 8s) Codey: I believe that we’ve seen this before. (15m 10s) Codey: Like it looked like little monster trucks. (15m 13s) Codey: Yeah. (15m 14s) Codey: So they will be called Oobmobiles. (15m 16s) Codey: Uh, and they said that, uh, they’re not, not sure when, like not no exact date, (15m 22s) Codey: but quote, definitely before the end of the year. (15m 25s) Codey: Yeah. (15m 28s) Codey: Yeah. (15m 30s) Al: Ooh, that’s quite confident considering it’s already September. (15m 32s) Codey: Almost. (15m 33s) Codey: It’s almost over this month flew by it’s gone. (15m 34s) Al: Well, that’s a good point, yeah. Like, where did it go? It’s gone by. (15m 39s) Codey: flew by. It’s gone. (15m 44s) Al: Iconii Island have said they are still planning to exit their early access this year. (15m 55s) Al: they’ve updated their roadmap to confirm the one thing that they’ve done. (16m) Al: I always feel a little bit wary when someone says that something’s coming out in the next three months and they don’t give you a date, but we will see what happens. (16m 10s) Al: Spells and Secrets have updated their demo and their demo is now content complete. So if you have access to the game on Steam, you can play the whole game. So it’s just getting ready. (16m 30s) Al: If you do play this, your save game will not transfer over to the full version of the game. (16m 41s) Codey: Yep, it’s out, you can play it, well the demo’s out, you can play the demo and give them feedback but no save. (16m 50s) Codey: No save to the next, to 1.0, so you will lose all, whatever. (16m 57s) Al: And I don’t think the demo that you can download for free is the full content demo. (17m 4s) Al: I think you have to have had like the early access key that some people did. (17m 7s) Codey: That - was it the alpha people? (17m 10s) Al: Yeah, I think it was the Alpha people. (17m 18s) Al: Well, it would have been me, but apparently I selected the Switch version, not the Steam version. (17m 23s) Al: So I need to contact them and get that changed, because who knows when the Switch one will happen. (17m 30s) Al: Although, interestingly, I paid more money to get the Switch version. (17m 33s) Al: I mean, I don’t know how much time I’ve got. (17m 34s) Codey: You are not able to touch it and other people are touching it. (17m 38s) Codey: It’s like you’re sitting around doing nothing really. (17m 44s) Codey: I mean, you have no other things that you’re doing in your life. (17m 47s) Al: certainly not this year. Look, I mean, I have the rest of the year mapped out in what games I’m playing. The only thing I haven’t got mapped out is the last three weeks of the year, which I’m fully expecting to be taken up by the next Pokémon DLC. So there ain’t no more time this year! (18m 5s) Codey: You’ve heard it here folks. Don’t release any more games. We don’t have time Remember five years ago when we were like could you even have a farming game podcast? Well, they’re even what are you gonna talk about each week? (18m 11s) Al: Please no more games. No more games! (18m 22s) Codey: Correct other people yeah (18m 23s) Al: For what it’s worth, I never said that. (18m 25s) Al: Other people said that to me. (18m 27s) Al: And I was like, it’ll be fine, and oh look, it was fine. (18m 30s) Codey: Well, and I’ll tell people I’ll tell people I’m on a farming game podcast or cottage cork (18m 35s) Codey: and they’re like, wow, like, is that really that? I’m like, yes. (18m 37s) Codey: There, I could skip one episode and miss like, you guys could then talk about a new game. (18m 46s) Codey: Um, and I’d be like, I’ve never heard of this before. (18m 46s) Al: Like, where have you been, where have you been, we’ve been talking about this game for ages, what are you talking about? (18m 50s) Codey: And I’m like, I haven’t listened. (18m 54s) Codey: Speaking of a game that I didn’t know existed, but I’m really interested in, uh, out and about. (19m 3s) Al: which thankfully appears they’ve kind of changed the name. I’m a bit confused because the logo still says ‘wholesome out and about’, which is what it was originally called. Yeah, it’s this one, (19m 11s) Codey: Oh, it was that one. (19m 14s) Al: but now it just seems to be called ‘out and about’ except the logo still says ‘wholesome out and about’. (19m 18s) Al: So I’m a little bit confused as to what the name of the game is, but I’m just going to assume it’s just ‘out and about’ and I’m not going to say ‘wholesome’ anymore because ‘wholesome out and about’ is a stupid name. (19m 28s) Codey: Yes, that’s a little difficult, but out-and-about looks awesome I watched the little trailer that they have for it It’s basically a game where you’re foraging and then you can use the things you forage to cook but they are so when you look at a plant it say you have dandelion in front of you and then you have these like flash cards that you go through and you’re like, okay, like What how do I know what this plant is? (19m 53s) Codey: And then if you flip the dandelion flash card over it tells you exactly how you can, you know, it’s a dandelion. (20m 1s) Codey: So it has a hollow stem. (20m 3s) Codey: It’s got like a certain leaf structure. (20m 5s) Codey: It’s got the certain number of pedals. (20m 6s) Codey: Like it literally teaches you real life foraging things. (20m 11s) Codey: Like these are things that happen in real life and that you have to do in real life. (20m 15s) Codey: And the one thing that I super loved about this steam, uh, news, whatever that they put out, uh, is that they show you at least four or five different (20m 28s) Codey: who are foragers that worked to help them develop the game. (20m 32s) Codey: And they made these people NPCs in the game, which is just so cool. (20m 35s) Al: Yeah. Which is cool. Yeah. (20m 38s) Codey: Like, well, I was gonna, I was literally about to say, no one really does this. (20m 39s) Al: “Epico started a trend.” (20m 42s) Al: I mean, well, no, no. Just because it has happened once before doesn’t mean that the phrase “no one really does this” isn’t accurate. (20m 46s) Codey: And then I was like, wait, like, I don’t think I could say that. (20m 55s) Al: You didn’t say “nobody has done this”. It is true. No one really does this. Yes, “Epico did it with you”, but that’s it. (20m 57s) Codey: Yeah, yeah, yeah and still still also did a lot of good help with the butterflies part of it There was another there was another human. Um, but yeah, no Correct. I mean and that’s the thing is like if games can use the knowledge of other humans and then point to those other humans That is so cool to just say like we didn’t pull this out of our butts like here are the people that (21m 5s) Al: Right, okay, fair enough. But still, still, it’s not another game. (21m 21s) Al: Yeah. Yeah. (21m 23s) Al: It’s citing your sources. (21m 27s) Codey: Do the thing. Yeah, it’s literally Literally show the receipts. Where did you get the information? (21m 28s) Al: This is amazing. If the default in games ends up being like, “Your sources are NPCs in your game,” that would be great. (21m 44s) Codey: I would love that. (21m 45s) Codey: Um, I do love that and I would love that. (21m 48s) Codey: So yeah, they are out on Kickstarter now. (21m 51s) Codey: Uh, currently, Oh, go for it. (21m 51s) Al: Mm-hmm. They’re kick… I was just going to say I suspect what you were going to say, (21m 58s) Al: which is it’s almost hit his goal. It’s only a couple thousand off hitting its goal. (22m 2s) Al: And their estimated delivery is June 2024. Who knows whether that will be early access or not? (22m 9s) Codey: I’m here for it. (22m 13s) Al: Because you never know with Kickstarters because you’re like, “Oh, this is when the game’s coming out.” And then it ends up being early access half the time. Which is fine, just like say that’s what (22m 23s) Codey: Yeah. (22m 24s) Codey: I’m here for it. (22m 27s) Codey: I think it’s really cool if I had, (22m 29s) Codey: well, let’s see how much I can pledge. (22m 31s) Codey: I was gonna say, if I have the money, (22m 33s) Codey: I would totally do this, but I guess they only, (22m 33s) Al: They have a £3,500 tier. (22m 37s) Codey: yeah, that’s the money that I have. (22m 40s) Al: Design an NPC. (22m 41s) Codey: There’s a $70 one where you get a little basket. (22m 47s) Codey: Oh, it’s an in-game basket. (22m 48s) Codey: No. (22m 50s) Codey: I thought it was a real basket. (22m 51s) Codey: I got excited. (22m 52s) Codey: Design and outfit. (22m 54s) Codey: Okay. (22m 55s) Codey: So very cute game. (22m 56s) Codey: Looks real cute, excited about it. (22m 58s) Codey: Back at the end. (23m 1s) Al: Ah yeah. What’s next? Ah the ranchers! They have announced that their early access is coming next year now. I think they had planned to do it this year so now it’s happening next year. (23m 14s) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yup. Um, which is fine. We’re still looking at it. This was a game that was funded in less than 18 hours. Um, excuse me. Uh, and so it’s obviously well, well, (23m 16s) Al: It’s that time of year, the delaying time of year. (23m 35s) Codey: uh, long awaited. Most comments I’m seeing are people just saying, you know, it takes as long as it takes, please, like, do your, you know, there. (23m 44s) Codey: They’re not yet at the point where it’s like, give us your money back, or money back, cute cowards or anything like that. (23m 48s) Al: I also find that very rarely does that actually happen, even when people are late. Like, if you’re communicative and you’re transparent about these things, generally, unless you take like five years too late, then people are generally pretty understanding. It’s when you don’t communicate, that’s when people are like, “What are you doing? This is ridiculous.” (23m 55s) Codey: Yep. (24m) Codey: Re-legend! (24m 10s) Codey: Yeah. (24m 10s) Codey: Your bidet? (24m 11s) Al: Like my bidet. Oh, have you not listened to last week’s episode? Oh, this week’s episode in fact. (24m 16s) Codey: No. (24m 18s) Codey: It’s literally– that’s what I was– (24m 21s) Codey: I was finishing one thing that I was doing. (24m 25s) Codey: And then one podcast I was listening to about insect wings. (24m 28s) Codey: And then that was the next one. (24m 29s) Al: obviously. Somehow we ended up on this week’s episode talking about, or last week’s episode, (24m 30s) Codey: So yeah, because of that. (24m 33s) Codey: Because I’m all about insects right now. (24m 41s) Al: talking about the portable bidet that I kick-started, and people were very confused about it. (24m 46s) Codey: Oh, okay. (24m 48s) Al: Can I just clarify, because apparently people were confused. The point of this is to take two places that don’t have bidets, right? So like when you go on holiday, or when you’re going out to restaurants and stuff and then you. (24m 59s) Al: Have your bidet with you because not everywhere has a bidet. (25m 2s) Al: I do not have a bidet. (25m 2s) Codey: Do you have a bidet? (25m 3s) Codey: So this is like one that you could, could have at your house, but you could also put it elsewhere. (25m 11s) Codey: I think so. (25m 12s) Codey: Merka does not, is not a bidet friendly place. (25m 16s) Codey: I think there’s a lot of stigma about it. (25m 17s) Al: So, yeah, so this is also like, it’s a handheld battery powered thing, right? So you pour the water into it, you tighten it up, and it is a self-contained battery powered thing, (25m 30s) Al: right? So some people were a bit confused. You’re not plugging this into plumbing, right? (25m 34s) Al: Like it’s a handheld thing. It just looks like a large, like if you look at it physically, (25m 40s) Al: it looks like a large water bottle or something like that. No, no, that’s a bad, no, it doesn’t look like a washer bottle. (25m 47s) Al: I don’t know like a big thing a deodorant or something like that like it’s it’s kind of it’s very (25m 50s) Codey: Yeah, yeah, but then but then it’s upside down and you can. (25m 54s) Codey: Okay, I’m looking at stuff online, some options. (25m 59s) Al: Yeah, but I’m still 90% sure that the one that I backed was a scam. (26m 7s) Al: Anyway, that’s my point. (26m 7s) Codey: Yeah. That’s unfortunate. (26m 10s) Al: The thing is a scam because they don’t communicate, not because they’re late. (26m 14s) Al: Anyway, moving on from the bidet. (26m 17s) Al: I can’t believe we’re talking about bidets twice in a row on this podcast. (26m 20s) Codey: Welcome to bidet cast. (26m 26s) Codey: I don’t know. (26m 29s) Al: I’m trying so hard to think up some puns now. (26m 31s) Al: I’m not sure you have to use something to think up puns for something. (26m 32s) Codey: I don’t use bidet as enough. (26m 33s) Codey: It listeners. (26m 35s) Codey: If you have good bidet puns, please hit us up with those. (26m 37s) Codey: I don’t know. (26m 41s) Codey: Like I, what if I don’t understand what I’m like, I think I understand about a potato, so I don’t… (26m 46s) Al: I think you know what I think you understand. (26m 50s) Codey: But we are here to talk about, gosh, what did I call it? (26m 55s) Codey: When I emailed the developer, (26m 58s) Codey: I don’t remember what I called it, the game we’re playing. (27m 2s) Al: Usagi Shima? What are you talking about? (27m 3s) Codey: I emailed them and I said, (27m 5s) Al: Aha. (27m 8s) Codey: “Thank you for making adorable bunny collection game.” (27m 13s) Codey: So I was having a notification every time I opened the game and they helped me fix it, so. (27m 21s) Al: Well, I mean, it’s so on the app store, it is now called Isagishima cute id. (27m 27s) Codey: Yeah, no, I just like the Sagashima. (27m 29s) Codey: Um, so this is a game, uh, Al wrote down cats. (27m 35s) Codey: Don’t know why he wrote down cats. (27m 36s) Codey: I just left it there cause I was like, I don’t know if you wanted to talk about cats. (27m 37s) Al: I don’t know why did I do that? It’s not cats, it’s bunnies! (27m 41s) Al: I don’t know, they’re all just animals. Bunnies, they are no evidence. (27m 47s) Codey: They’re all buddies, but, uh, from their website, uh, quote, you’ve (27m 57s) Codey: been tasked as caretaker of an abandoned island as you decorate and rebuild it over time, curious, but adorable visitors start to appear. (28m 4s) Codey: Usagi Shima is a casual, relaxing bunny collecting game developed by Godot engine and drawn in Krita. (28m 10s) Codey: Uh, it is heavily inspired by cute soothing games like Neko Atsume and Animal Crossing. (28m 16s) Codey: The game’s namesake and setting draws inspiration from, uh, Okunoshima, a real island in Japan that has a lot of bunny inhabitants. (28m 25s) Al: Interestingly, I was actually looking up Godot, the engine, because of the whole nonsense around Unity, because it’s a game engine like Unity or Unreal. I was just like, “Oh, I wonder if this is finally where Godot will become popular, and wouldn’t it be funny if capitalists becoming more greedy, pushes people to an open source game engine. (28m 36s) Codey: Right. (28m 55s) Al: That would be great. And then I went to look, say, have they got any decent games using it yet? (29m 1s) Al: And one of them was a Sagishima right on the main website for Godot, which is funny. (29m 9s) Al: There were a few others as well. Oh, yes, a cassette beast is in Godot. And a most extraordinary gnome is in Godot. Cruelty Squad is in Godot. And there’s lots of others, but those are just the the ones that kind of people might know. (29m 25s) Al: I just thought it was funny. It’s actually the first one they’ve got listed on their showcase is Usagi Shima. That’s good. (29m 30s) Codey: That’s so funny It’s I mean it it is a cute game Okay, so I guess that was oh I just also want to just say so the name Usagi Shima I guess it’s coming from Okunoshima is a rabbit island Which I googled Okunoshima, and it’s just an island that has a metric hectone of bunnies And you can like play with the bunnies and stuff and super cute (29m 36s) Al: Yep. (30m) Codey: It’s a island in Japan Yeah, if you just look up Okunoshima, it’s adorable and Usagi is Japanese for rabbit, so this is rabbit and then kind of playing towards (30m 27s) Codey: island yeah so usagi shima is just rabbit island (30m 31s) Al: I just, I couldn’t not think about the Friends episode with Unagi when you said Usagi. Unagi. (30m 37s) Codey: I don’t know if I’ve ever watched that one I’ve watched it a lot of friends but (30m 41s) Al: Oh, it’s a ridiculous episode where Ross decides that he suddenly knows this martial art called Unagi. But Unagi just means fish. So he’s like… (30m 53s) Codey: Yeah? (30m 53s) Codey: Yeah. (30m 58s) Codey: That is goober. (31m 1s) Al: Oh, it’s fantastic. (31m 5s) Codey: So I guess like first, before we like really, really jump into this game, what are your thoughts? (31m 9s) Codey: Oh, like base– (31m 11s) Codey: when you first opened the game, how’d you feel? (31m 12s) Al: So I felt a little bit, ironically, a little bit overwhelmed when I first opened it, and let me explain why. So this does a thing that I think probably appeals to a lot of people, but really stresses me out, which is where you’ve got “here’s big empty space” and “here’s tutorial that tells you how to do some stuff” and now “good luck” and you’re like “oh my word” like I don’t… (31m 32s) Codey: Mm-hmm. (31m 42s) Al: It feels like a lot to me, and part of my problem is that I like games that tell you “here’s some things to do” and it’s like, it does give you some of that. So it’s got like a daily task list and it obviously has achievements and stuff like that, but like yeah I just felt a little bit directional-less, if that makes sense. But I think a lot of people probably… (32m 7s) Codey: Yeah. (32m 12s) Al: appreciate that, right? Like there’s no kind of like forcing you to do anything, (32m 17s) Al: there’s just decorating and bunnies, and lots of people like that. So what about you? What did you (32m 22s) Codey: Yep. Yeah, I will. (32m 29s) Codey: First thing I opened this game, I was like, this is adorable. (32m 34s) Codey: It is so cute and like the artwork is so. (32m 40s) Codey: Calming and like the way that everything is is animated and the color scheme that they use, like it’s all there’s nothing abrasive (32m 53s) Codey: going around your island and looking at everything like it’s all really calm colors. (32m 57s) Codey: And there’s no like I kind of like that. (33m 1s) Codey: There’s no direction slash no. (33m 4s) Codey: Nothing like there’s no consequences, I guess, is another thing. (33m 10s) Codey: Because you can always just do stuff tomorrow. (33m 13s) Codey: There’s not really anything like if you miss something that you’re going to miss out on, there’s no FOMO with this game, (33m 19s) Codey: Which is great for me because if I do something like… (33m 22s) Codey: Go play or go try and find bugs for an entire weekend and not touch the game at all I don’t have a problem whereas like I didn’t get to play Tetris that whole weekend and I was like Oh, I missed out on like all of those points So yeah, I really enjoyed it I really like the artwork the music is good too, but I am a chronic turn music offer I don’t really listen to audio in any game (33m 34s) Al: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. (33m 50s) Codey: because it distracts me. (33m 52s) Codey: So I have all the audio off. (33m 52s) Al: » Yeah. Same. (33m 54s) Codey: I will say within a day, (33m 56s) Codey: within probably like a couple hours of trying the game and then I pick it back up and try it again. (34m 2s) Codey: I don’t even think I had gotten an advertisement yet, (34m 5s) Codey: but I went in and paid money to turn off ads and support the developer, like pretty quickly. (34m 12s) Al: Yeah, it’s definitely pretty cheap and pretty worth. (34m 12s) Codey: Well, it’s free, but then you can spend that money to just, (34m 16s) Al: That’s what I mean, sorry. (34m 18s) Codey: to just, yeah, yeah. (34m 19s) Al: Sorry, that’s what I mean. (34m 20s) Al: It’s pretty cheap to get rid of the ads and stuff, which is pretty good. (34m 26s) Al: That, you know, I always feel like when I download a free game and they’ve got like, oh, hey, pay like three quid to do this. (34m 34s) Codey: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. (34m 35s) Al: I’m like, well, yes, yes, I will, you know, (34m 38s) Codey: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. (34m 39s) Al: because like how much time am I gonna save? (34m 42s) Al: Clicking that and they immediately get more money than they will ever get from me in ads, so it’s a win-win, you know? (34m 48s) Codey: Yep. Well, and I was just like, you know, I think this game is super cute. (34m 53s) Codey: I can throw down like the minimum that they have is three ninety nine. (34m 56s) Codey: But you can do more. (34m 59s) Codey: So I think I ended up doing like seven dollars because I had I had. (35m 2s) Codey: I looked at my bank I was like I could. (35m 4s) Codey: Do I can do $7 like I can just double double what they suggest and just continue to enjoy playing this game. The only other thing that you can buy is the currencies which I don’t know about you I get I get enough I don’t need to buy any. So that is really nice like a lot of mobile games will just try and throw things in your face to try and get you to spend money. But this one did not do that and I really I don’t. (35m 34s) Codey: I feel pressured to spend money. (35m 36s) Codey: Um, you do also, if you pay for the ad removal, you get a double reward bonus. (35m 41s) Codey: So all rewards are double are automatically doubled. (35m 44s) Codey: Um, which I didn’t, I was like, Oh, that’s a bonus because I wasn’t even, I just didn’t. (35m 49s) Al: You weren’t even noticing that, yeah. (35m 50s) Codey: I just didn’t want to add, like, that was the one thing. (35m 54s) Codey: Cause I’ve, my Tetris game has so many. (35m 56s) Codey: Um, yeah. (35m 59s) Codey: So artwork, what do you, what do you think of the artwork specifically? (36m 3s) Al: Oh yeah, definitely. I could easily grab some screenshots of this and stick it as my wallpaper. (36m 12s) Al: It’s really nice. It’s the sort of thing that I should see whether… It’s just really pleasing to have it just on something. I’m really tempted to see… (36m 31s) Al: and just have it sitting there, looking nice and bunnies waddling around. (36m 38s) Al: But, yeah, no, it looks really good. (36m 40s) Al: I was the same with the sound. (36m 41s) Al: Like, it sounds nice, but, yeah, I don’t have game sound, right? (36m 46s) Codey: Yep. (36m 46s) Al: Like, I listen to podcasts too much to be able to deal with that. (36m 47s) Codey: Yep. (36m 51s) Al: So that’s, yeah, that’s not my thing. (36m 55s) Al: But it is very nice. (36m 56s) Al: you like, if you like, what’s the word I’m looking for? (37m) Codey: If you want the audio on, it’s not bad audio, it’s not glaring, it’s not obnoxious, so. (37m 1s) Al: If you like, then it’s good. (37m 3s) Al: Yep. (37m 7s) Codey: The next thing that we can talk about is obviously the buns, the bubbies, the bunny bunnies. (37m 10s) Al: Bunny bunnies. (37m 16s) Codey: There are 30 unique bunnies and they each have their own personality. (37m 20s) Codey: I mean, some of them might have like overlapping personalities. (37m 23s) Codey: Like if I look in my thing right now, Tomo has a polite personality and Button has a shy personality. (37m 30s) Codey: And Yuki has warm, so like, I guess they all do have, oh no, there’s another shy. (37m 36s) Codey: Peaches is another shy bunny. (37m 38s) Codey: Um, so they all have their own personality, they all have their own favorite toys that they enjoy playing with that you can populate your island with. (37m 47s) Codey: And then if you befriend them to a certain level, they’ll also give you a keepsake. (37m 51s) Codey: Um, which is really cute, and then you can put that in the island and then they can interact with it or other bunnies can interact with it. (37m 58s) Codey: Um… (38m) Codey: And then if you befriend them high enough, then you can invite them to be a permanent resident on your island. (38m 4s) Codey: Um… Al, have you… How many of the buns have you encountered? (38m 9s) Codey: You’ve only seen two bunnies? Okay, okay, okay. (38m 10s) Al: Uh, not very many, uh, like two. (38m 14s) Al: Look, look, look, right. (38m 18s) Codey: Yep. Yep. Yep. (38m 18s) Al: See, this is where, see you end at the beginning. (38m 19s) Al: See you at the beginning. (38m 20s) Al: When I said you’ll almost certainly have played more of this game than me. (38m 22s) Codey: Yep. Yep. (38m 24s) Al: I was not joking. (38m 25s) Al: See, see, there we go. (38m 26s) Codey: I have encountered 24 of the bunnies. (38m 28s) Codey: bunnies. (38m 29s) Al: Very different, very, very different. (38m 31s) Al: Um, so, I mean, so like it’s not because this game is bad, right? (38m 37s) Al: Like I think if people remember the garden gallery– (38m 40s) Al: say episode that we did, me and Kevin. It’s very similar to that, in that it’s a really nice game for laying things out and designing a garden and putting all these things out, but I just don’t get it. It doesn’t do anything for me and therefore I find it really hard to push through and actually do something about that. (39m 4s) Codey: Yeah, yeah, that’s that’s fair. So I’ve definitely played more than you know, so the bunnies they also visit like visually look different like some of them don’t look that much different like there’s a decent amount of them that are black and white with black ears and a black snoot maybe some black Pete’s and then maybe some spots everywhere but there’s like maybe like five or six that have that but there are some that have like floppy ears. (39m 34s) Codey: There are some that have really short ears. There’s a really fluffy one that I have named. Oh my gosh, I accidentally closed it out. Mofu. He has glasses as well. Very cute. Moose has antlers. Yuzu and Yuki both have looks like leaves took me second to remember what the word leaf was. (39m 55s) Al: It’s all right, it’s not like you have anything to do with nature. (40m 1s) Codey: No, not at all. Not that I have to know that at all. (40m 4s) Codey: Not that I was just literally picking leaves out of something. (40m 7s) Codey: My favorite is… my couple of favorites are Tiger. (40m 14s) Codey: He’s like a red and he or they… I don’t think they have genders. (40m 19s) Codey: They are a black and orange. Very cute. (40m 25s) Codey: And then I like Celeste just because she has a celestial name. (40m 29s) Codey: She’s also a mostly black bun with bright blue eyes. (40m 34s) Codey: And then I can’t pick another one. I love them all. (40m 37s) Codey: Honestly, those are just the two that stand out. (40m 40s) Codey: I do like Yuzu. Yuzu’s orange. (40m 42s) Codey: Um… (40m 44s) Al: They do definitely have very good designs, like I’ve looked a lot of it up online, even though I haven’t had the patience to play through the game. So yeah, they are all really good designs, (40m 55s) Al: and I feel like they’re different enough, but also not like “this is clearly a dog”. You know, (41m 5s) Codey: Yep. (41m 5s) Al: like they’re all clearly bunnies, but different enough that you feel like there’s a worthwhile thing to try and collect. (41m 14s) Al: And I liked them all, if you will. I mean, you’re not, like, capturing them. They just visit you. (41m 18s) Codey: No, they just, they just come, it’s like animal crossing, they come to your island. (41m 22s) Codey: And then you can ask some of them to always be on your island versus just visit. (41m 27s) Codey: Like right now I probably have 15 bunnies on my island because I have like many things for them to be doing. (41m 36s) Codey: So they’re all spread out over my island right now. (41m 41s) Codey: So yeah, that’s the buns. (41m 45s) Codey: And then you build up their friendship by doing the tasks. (41m 48s) Codey: So either by filling your island with toys and decorations, which we’ll talk about later, (41m 54s) Codey: or they might ask you to do something with them. (41m 58s) Codey: So the five main ones are either to pet them, to brush them, to take a photo of them, (42m 5s) Codey: to play hide and seek with them, or to feed them. (42m 8s) Codey: And each of these things, like right now I can see two of my bunnies have little photo, little cameras above their heads. (42m 18s) Codey: And one of them is watering the garden right now, so I’m going to take her picture real quick. (42m 26s) Al: Oh dear. (42m 28s) Codey: I have such a problem. (42m 29s) Al: They’re just watering, let them water in peace. (42m 32s) Codey: Oh, and the other one’s like napping by the gordon. (42m 36s) Codey: Oh, I’m so cute. (42m 38s) Codey: And so every time you fulfill one of those tasks, you get hearts from you. (42m 48s) Codey: And you get some currency, and it just kind of – that’s literally it, is that you get to know them more. (42m 58s) Codey: The little mini games that you have with it is really cute. (43m 1s) Codey: So like brushing, for example, it zooms in on the animal, on the bunny. (43m 5s) Codey: You grab the brush, and then you just go back and forth over the bunny. (43m 10s) Codey: You scrub a dub dub. (43m 12s) Codey: And then the other one is the same feeding, they come out into this little extra – (43m 18s) Codey: another screen, and you just see that one bunny, and you pour food into a bowl, and it eats. (43m 26s) Codey: Taking pictures, literally just taking a picture of them. (43m 29s) Codey: I did run out of camera space, like you only have – you can only save like so many photos. (43m 36s) Codey: And I am devastated because – oh, you can move it to their album. (43m 42s) Codey: Oh my god, oh my gosh, is that now in Tiger’s album? (43m 48s) Codey: Okay. (43m 51s) Codey: So if you take a photo – you have a photo album, but then you can go – so I can like say, (43m 56s) Codey: like, oh, I want to move this photo of Lulu next to a sandwich to Lulu’s album. (44m 2s) Codey: And then it gets – and then I have more space. (44m 5s) Codey: But the picture – I have to go to like Lulu’s bunny page in the bun book. (44m 12s) Codey: It’s like Facebook bun book. (44m 14s) Codey: Go into the bun book. (44m 16s) Codey: Oh my gosh, I’m gonna– (44m 17s) Al: One book could be so many times. (44m 19s) Codey: It could. (44m 21s) Codey: Well, I’m gonna do this forever now because I was like why do I always run out of space like so many buns? (44m 31s) Codey: So yeah, those are the different tasks. Which– do you have a favorite or anything? Do you like the tasks? Do you find them? (44m 38s) Al: task. I mean, the hide and seek is kind of cute, because they just suddenly go and hide somewhere and you have to find them. I’m not sure I find any of them particularly fun, (44m 56s) Al: but they’re fine. I mean, in terms of like, you know, it’s just a bit more cute sort of thing, you know. So maybe that one, yeah. I just got two more bunnies. (45m 7s) Codey: Which two, which two? (45m 8s) Al: I’ll tell you once I’ve finished watching this ad to double the reward that I was getting for something. Yep, yep, I do. I just haven’t done it yet, because I haven’t, because, well, (45m 15s) Codey: Oh, yeah, see you just got a– (45m 22s) Al: this is on my iPad, right, which is different from my phone one. Let’s see what we got. (45m 24s) Codey: You’re right, you’re right, you’re right. (45m 29s) Al: What are these two? Bun, bun, bun. Button. And that one. Lulu. (45m 32s) Codey: Mm-hmm, very cute. (45m 39s) Al: They both went onto the same thing, so it’s like a little stump thing that one can go inside and one on top of, and they both came at the same time onto that one. It was to start with, and then after, how do you do it? (45m 47s) Codey: And the one inside is, uh, it’s a little butt sticking out, right. (45m 51s) Codey: Or is, but that’s the one cool thing is like, they, I guess we can talk about the decorations and toys that they play with like, like the stump that it’s not just one way that they can use the stump. (46m 7s) Codey: Like they can be in face first. (46m 9s) Codey: They can be in, but first they can be on top of the stump. (46m 14s) Codey: They can have a bunch of different… (46m 16s) Codey: Um… (46m 17s) Codey: …like positions that they’re on. (46m 19s) Codey: So even if you only have like the one decoration, it’s pretty heckin’ cute. (46m 24s) Al: Yeah. And the decorations are pretty cheap, right? Like, you can buy like three or four or five to start with, like, as soon as you start the game easily. So there’s lots of different options. And all the animations are very cute, right? Because you’ve got like the one when it’s like lying on top of the beach ball, just kind of rocking backwards (46m 49s) Codey: got, because I befriended one of them, I got a ramen noodle container and there’s a bunny sitting in the ramen noodle container and I am dying on the inside. Look at how cute you are. So yeah, there’s a bunch of different decorations. A bunch. You only get access to nine. (46m 57s) Al: Obviously. Don’t eat it. Don’t eat it. (47m 14s) Al: a bunch. Yeah. (47m 19s) Codey: Nine at a time. Yeah. Nine at a time. Um, I don’t know. Oh, it resets. Uh, (47m 24s) Codey: it says it’s going to reset at 18, 18, 1800. How do you say that? (47m 28s) Al: I think I… (47m 29s) Al: Well, I mean, you can see it’s 6 p.m. if you want. (47m 30s) Codey: Okay. (47m 36s) Codey: That’s fine. It’ll reset at 6pm. So, uh, but I already like looking at this, (47m 40s) Codey: I already have all of these things, uh, all the toys. (47m 44s) Codey: And I don’t think there’s a benefit to having more than one of the same type on (47m 49s) Al: Well, it’s just it’s more spaces for bunnies to come, right? (47m 52s) Al: Like if you’ve run out of spaces for bunnies or whatever. (47m 55s) Al: All right. (47m 55s) Codey: - Yeah, I haven’t. (47m 56s) Codey: So there’s toys. (48m 3s) Codey: And those are things that your bunny will interact with. (48m 8s) Codey: Also though, in the quote unquote toy category is like lights, things that you can use to light up your island. (48m 15s) Codey: Even though I don’t really light up that much of your island. (48m 18s) Codey: So they’re like just lights up the immediate area around the thing. (48m 19s) Al: Yeah, I mean, let’s be honest, that’s this whole game, it’s just anesthetic. (48m 22s) Codey: It just kind of like is aesthetic, I think. (48m 25s) Codey: And my brain is chaos. (48m 27s) Codey: You’re right, you’re right. (48m 29s) Codey: No, no, you’re right. (48m 30s) Codey: And then there’s decorations. (48m 33s) Codey: So these are things that you could use like trees and stones and I have mushrooms and a monstera that I can buy right now. (48m 42s) Codey: And then there are, gosh, I don’t know how to, (48m 47s) Codey: what to call these, what did I call them? (48m 49s) Codey: Buildings. (48m 50s) Al: Yeah, they’re structures, so it’s like houses or ponds. (48m 53s) Codey: So like. (48m 55s) Codey: Yeah, so I have the pond, the garden, the bridge, (48m 59s) Codey: the ramen shop, the cafe, the house, the, it’s another house. (49m 6s) Codey: The hot spring, have you seen the hot spring little bath? (49m 12s) Codey: It’s a little bath that they can
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
Wishing Ooblets 1.0 a very happy one-year anniversary!! The quirky, colorful, farming sim, creature collector, card game adventure Ooblets first release in early access in July 2020. Since then, the game has evolved, grown, and developer Glumberland released the official 1.0 version of the game on September 1, 2022. In the last few years, Ooblets has touched the hearts and ignited the imaginations of many players, including both No Small Games hosts, Kate and Emily! This bonus episode is a love letter to Ooblets. From the cute, funky little Ooblets and their slick dance moves, to the off-beat and relatable townspeople of Badgetown, Kate and Emily chat their favorite elements of the game. No Small Games - Fall Season 2023 We're so excited to introduce our fall season of episode, featuring two stellar special guests! Sept. 14 - Lakeburg Legacies Town Management & Dating Sim feat. MarcyLaycelle Sept. 28 - Venba Narrative Cooking Game Oct. 12 - Coffee Talk 1 & 2 Visual Novel & Barista Sim feat. Sheilur Oct. 26 - Killer Frequency Mystery Horror Puzzler Nov. 9 - Mineko's Night Market Narrative Social Sim Adventure Timecodes Looking for a certain segment in this episode? Use the timecodes below to jump straight there: Intro & Fall Season Announcement - 00:00:10 Ooblets Game Discussion - 00:12:12 Wrap-up - 00:59:10 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
Al and Codey round up all the news, big and small, from the summer. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:04:42: What Have We Been Up To 00:13:34: Releases 00:26:33: Updates/DLC 00:41:22: Other News 00:53:56: New Games 01:05:13: Outro Links Moondrop 1.0 Out Now Flutter Away Out Now Palia Coming to Switch Sprout Valley Release Window Palace on the Hill Delayed Ova Magica Delayed Wildmender Release Date Len’s Island Cursed Underworld Update Above Snakes 1.2 Update Sun Down Survivors 1.3 Update Traveller’s Rest Farm Animals Update Let’s Build a Zoo Aquarium Odyssey DLC New Harvest Moon Trailer Moonstone Island Ooblets Collaboration Mossfield Origins Self Publishing Roots of Pacha Soundtrack Research Story Soundtrack Stardew Valley Cookbook Chill Town Moonlight Peaks Loftia 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 –> 00:02.000] Do [00:19.360 –> 00:21.360] Do [00:30.080 –> 00:33.680] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season [00:34.360 –> 00:39.480] My name is Al and my name is Cody and we are here to talk about [00:40.000 –> 00:43.120] Cottagecore games all the cottagecore games [00:43.640 –> 00:50.600] So much a million of them so much news and we are also here to remember how to podcast [00:54.080 –> 00:57.560] Was the last episode you did with me the last one I did with you oh no [01:00.000 –> 01:02.000] The [01:02.560 –> 01:04.880] Last episode I did [01:05.800 –> 01:10.180] Think was no, I I don’t even know I don’t even know [01:11.160 –> 01:14.260] But the last episode is funny because people will be hearing [01:14.960 –> 01:17.900] The last yeah that we did and then they’re gonna hear this [01:17.900 –> 01:22.000] I was what so that’s what I was trying to ask was that last episode that you did [01:22.200 –> 01:27.440] The last episode that I did with you can record farming simulator with Johnny after in between. Oh, really? [01:27.440 –> 01:30.680] I honestly can’t remember though. How early did we record the last episode? [01:30.680 –> 01:36.360] I don’t know my word. I was just listening to it the other day because it’s so fun when for the listeners [01:36.360 –> 01:41.360] I usually don’t listen to podcasts. I’m on but if they were recorded months before [01:42.880 –> 01:44.280] Months [01:44.280 –> 01:48.320] Absolutely months. It’s like it’s it’s like a whole new conversation [01:48.920 –> 01:54.640] Cuz my brain has forgotten it and it was also really funny to hear like what have you been playing? [01:55.080 –> 01:57.240] Kind of things and I’m like, oh wow [01:57.520 –> 02:04.800] Like the last episode I was talking about the game pass and how excited I was and I’m like I have not done anything [02:07.840 –> 02:13.180] It was it was two months ago, it was the the 16th of June we recorded that episode [02:13.840 –> 02:14.960] which [02:14.960 –> 02:20.720] Which was what to be two episodes before the farming thing. I’ve done a couple since then as well [02:20.720 –> 02:28.160] But anyway, that’s my point is it’s been what about six weeks at least been a minute since either of us are podcasted [02:28.160 –> 02:30.160] So this is a hot mess [02:30.740 –> 02:32.740] Buckle in you’re here for the ride [02:33.680 –> 02:37.220] There’s transcripts on the show notes and on the website [02:37.840 –> 02:42.060] If you’re listening on YouTube, there should be there should be auto-generated transcript there as well [02:43.400 –> 02:45.400] Who knows how well it does with my voice? [02:47.000 –> 02:49.000] Does things do things not [02:50.760 –> 02:56.000] Things have gone a lot better in the last few years, but yeah, there was a point where like most of the like [02:56.600 –> 03:00.640] Voice related stuff just did not work at all for Scottish accents [03:02.120 –> 03:07.740] Like you would say something and it would think you said something completely different. Have you ever tried speaking properly? [03:12.920 –> 03:14.920] So, what are we talking about today? [03:16.680 –> 03:18.840] An American told me to speak properly [03:21.440 –> 03:25.100] You know right after I said that I was like is that the right way to phrase that word [03:26.960 –> 03:28.960] It’s a good thing you didn’t say proper [03:30.000 –> 03:36.340] I like to speak proper. You gotta talk right proper there. I don’t know why you went, Texas [03:39.000 –> 03:41.360] Listeners didn’t hear our conversation before this Cody [03:42.700 –> 03:46.320] Anyone not from Texas has a lot of disdain for Texas [03:47.140 –> 03:49.780] We love our Texan listeners. Mm-hmm [03:50.180 –> 03:52.920] Because we know that there are the good ones because I guess [03:53.740 –> 03:57.340] The amount of stuff we’ve said in this podcast the non good ones are not listening anymore [04:01.460 –> 04:07.500] Listeners who are listening to this will probably agree that Texas even the ones that live in Texas [04:08.980 –> 04:14.660] Correct, I’m just here because my family’s here and I love them and maybe we can make Texas better [04:14.660 –> 04:21.660] We’re gonna talk about news because it has been [04:22.260 –> 04:28.040] At least a month since any news and it’s been about six weeks since any instance a decent amount of news [04:28.300 –> 04:31.260] Because I completely forgot to go through the news for the episode that was four weeks ago [04:31.580 –> 04:35.540] So they just got three pieces of news that we could remember off the top of our heads [04:37.620 –> 04:39.620] So now we’ve got the rest of the news [04:39.820 –> 04:42.260] So Buckland’s gonna be great. But first of all [04:42.780 –> 04:44.780] Cody what have you been up to I [04:45.360 –> 04:47.620] have passed my comps and [04:48.600 –> 04:51.380] So now it’s all like getting work done [04:51.500 –> 04:57.600] So I’ve there are a couple of projects that I’ve had that I’ve like been on the back burner and I just I made [04:57.900 –> 05:03.700] Meetings for them and I was like, hey, I haven’t been able to do this because I was doing my comps, but now I’m done [05:03.700 –> 05:05.980] Let’s get this stuff done. Like let’s go [05:07.020 –> 05:10.280] And trying to get those off my plate. That’s really cool [05:11.000 –> 05:15.000] I haven’t really been playing anything that many game Pokemon go [05:15.560 –> 05:19.320] I’m actually going to go fast in New York City. So whoo [05:19.960 –> 05:26.760] You’re going fast go go to the fast Pokemon go to New York City [05:27.880 –> 05:32.860] yeah, so that’ll be I I’m gonna say it’ll be fun even if the game itself is [05:33.760 –> 05:38.920] Buggy or if there are issues or whatever, it’s still gonna be fun because there’s you know members from our [05:40.400 –> 05:44.320] It’s super effective community or going and we’re all gonna meet up and hang out and it’s gonna be great [05:45.400 –> 05:51.920] I’m super sad that I couldn’t justify the cost. Yes. It was like 700 quid to fly there. Yeah [05:52.720 –> 05:56.680] it’s easy for me because my partner lives there and [05:57.120 –> 06:01.720] So I literally just have to get a bus there and then I don’t have to worry about anything else [06:02.320 –> 06:04.640] because like I already kind of know how to do and I [06:05.360 –> 06:07.360] know how to get around I [06:07.900 –> 06:11.040] Can just stay with him because places there are super expensive [06:12.040 –> 06:16.800] And the buses yeah that I’ve also played this game Tetris [06:16.800 –> 06:21.880] This is the one that either might just be official Tetris or might be a scam and we’re not sure [06:22.400 –> 06:24.400] I’d still think it’s a scam [06:24.600 –> 06:30.840] Like anything that promises you a cruise for playing a game a certain amount feels like a scam [06:30.960 –> 06:34.720] Well, so I was talking to someone about it about how like basically how they do that is [06:35.200 –> 06:42.720] How you is you’re playing and as you’re playing you’re watching ads so they’re earning ad revenue sure sure sure [06:42.720 –> 06:44.400] But it’s a cruise [06:44.400 –> 06:47.080] right well, and I looked at the the [06:48.320 –> 06:50.920] fine print and basically pays for an [06:51.560 –> 06:53.560] inner cabin [06:53.560 –> 06:55.680] room so like you don’t have a window and [06:56.400 –> 07:03.260] It’s one of those rooms for you and one other person, but you still have to pay like all of these scam which [07:04.220 –> 07:08.740] The room itself I went the room itself is like $1,000 per person. Oh [07:09.780 –> 07:11.100] so [07:11.100 –> 07:17.900] I’m fine with saving two grand because the rest of the fees are like $20 a day for this dude [07:17.900 –> 07:20.340] did you do for this like things like that and [07:20.900 –> 07:25.640] basically if I can if I not if when I [07:27.020 –> 07:29.020] So optimist [07:30.020 –> 07:32.020] Or in this cruise and buy it [07:32.940 –> 07:38.960] Jeff is yeah, I’m it, but when I last played I was at like 30,000 points, and I’m now at almost [07:39.680 –> 07:41.360] 250,000 points so [07:41.360 –> 07:48.140] Cruises in sight y’all I’m a quarter of the way to one of the cheaper ones, but and what’s the deadline for it? [07:48.140 –> 07:52.780] Oh, I mean they have like rolling deadlines, so if you want to go, so what’s the deadline for the cruise? [07:53.060 –> 07:58.660] Yeah, there will be another one after after this step another cruise or another thing to replace the crew [07:58.700 –> 08:01.180] Another crew to your point. I feel like your points will release [08:01.180 –> 08:06.140] I don’t think the points if I wake up one day and these points are gone. I’m just honest [08:06.140 –> 08:11.840] I don’t I’m just I’m just so convinced that there’s gonna be a catch somewhere and it’s like [08:13.340 –> 08:20.020] Otherwise everything reset no I super agree so this one there is one here the cruise must be booked by [08:20.900 –> 08:27.780] September 25th, I believe the last time we talked about this the cruise had to be booked by August so they just have [08:28.920 –> 08:34.860] Current like rolling ones or whatever, but you go through all these different places in Alaska, which is cool [08:37.260 –> 08:41.360] But yeah, I’m also waiting for the catch all right well [08:41.360 –> 08:46.260] I look forward to hearing that you finally get on the cruise, and then you have to pay a thousand pounds to get off the [08:46.260 –> 08:48.100] cruise [08:48.100 –> 08:50.100] We didn’t say you could leave [08:52.740 –> 08:55.260] Pay for your freedom, so what have you been up to? [08:56.260 –> 09:02.420] I’ve been playing on my switch you and on holiday. I did go on holiday. I didn’t really play anything while on holiday. I’m so bad [09:04.420 –> 09:08.740] Doing anything while on holiday, but this is the first recording since you got your switch back [09:08.740 –> 09:14.020] So I think it is switch so so I got my switch back, but it wasn’t my switch [09:14.020 –> 09:14.880] It was another switch [09:14.880 –> 09:22.260] They just replaced the switch, but did you get like so I remember that you had a limited edition one did you yeah? [09:22.260 –> 09:26.980] Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, they gave me a like for like but okay. I mean I wasn’t worried about that because [09:27.740 –> 09:32.060] like it was new enough that I would just like I would go back to the the [09:33.140 –> 09:37.540] Retailer that I bought it from like it’s been less than a year. I’m not I wasn’t worried about that okay [09:38.500 –> 09:44.300] What I’m sad about is that I had obviously no saves left on it because there were is a new switch [09:45.540 –> 09:49.620] So I had lost all of my Pokemon saves except [09:50.300 –> 09:54.980] My Pokemon sword because that is on another switch for shiny hunting and [09:55.780 –> 09:59.360] My Pokemon brilliant diamond. Yeah ones that I’ve just like [10:00.060 –> 10:05.700] That don’t really do anything with anymore, so I lost my scarlet which had a hundred fifty hours [10:05.700 –> 10:08.540] and I lost my violet and I lost my [10:10.500 –> 10:12.500] Pikachu, let’s go Pikachu [10:12.900 –> 10:17.620] Which I had like 300 hours on and my let’s go Eevee [10:17.620 –> 10:21.460] Which didn’t have a lot on it, but it was like halfway through a Professor Oak challenge on that one [10:21.460 –> 10:26.260] And it had two shiny Pokemon that hadn’t transferred off and I lost my legends Arceus [10:27.660 –> 10:32.540] What is the lesson to be learned there is no lesson to be learned here? There’s nothing you can do to fix this [10:32.540 –> 10:37.440] There’s no option because they don’t let you move the saves off right? That’s the thing [10:37.440 –> 10:42.460] That’s what so you can you can transfer Pokemon saves between switches, but you have to do that [10:42.980 –> 10:44.980] At the time your switch is working [10:45.660 –> 10:49.100] Right you cannot back them up there is no way to back up Pokemon save [10:49.100 –> 10:51.960] They just don’t let you do it and then when you go and send in your switch [10:51.960 –> 10:53.860] You’re like oh we might wipe your switch [10:53.860 –> 10:57.120] You might not be able to keep everything make sure you back up, and I’m like how? [10:57.860 –> 11:02.380] How am I meant to do that and then you send it in and they don’t they don’t back it up? [11:02.380 –> 11:07.800] And then they just give you a new switch because it’s like oh, we don’t actually care about this, so it’s just oh [11:08.180 –> 11:09.180] No, there’s no way [11:09.180 –> 11:11.700] This is the thing there’s no lesson to be learned the lesson to be learned is [11:12.140 –> 11:16.340] Nintendo and Pokemon both suck, and I hate them both. I’m very annoyed [11:17.020 –> 11:19.980] But so I played through Pokemon scarlet. I just kind of like [11:20.420 –> 11:27.340] Sped run it I got someone to pump some vitamins into my no vitamins some XP candy into my my Pokemon [11:28.780 –> 11:30.780] to speed run it and [11:31.900 –> 11:36.020] Just yeah, I did it so I’ve now got to the point where I can actually do all of the raids [11:37.020 –> 11:39.020] I [11:39.140 –> 11:45.340] I’ve not done Scott. No I was violated not scarlet was violated like that. I might do scarlet at some point [11:45.340 –> 11:49.860] I’ve done scarlet as far as I can like redeem online stuff, so I got the second [11:50.460 –> 11:58.360] But I don’t have energy for any I I haven’t even I’m still I still haven’t finished area zero [11:58.360 –> 12:00.740] I don’t even think I’ve gotten to areas [12:00.740 –> 12:01.900] Oh [12:01.900 –> 12:03.900] Cody [12:03.900 –> 12:05.300] I need to finish [12:05.300 –> 12:08.320] I know I’ve heard but yeah, so I played these games three times now [12:08.320 –> 12:11.860] And I’m going to end up doing a fourth at some point, but who knows when I have them [12:12.700 –> 12:20.020] So and today I started playing Pikmin 4 whoo which is interesting because I was talking about this in the slacks [12:20.020 –> 12:23.460] And I was like I don’t understand why this game has multiple tutorials [12:23.460 –> 12:28.260] So you start the game up, and it’s like a tutorial with a little bit backstory as to how you get to this game [12:28.260 –> 12:32.620] And you’re like okay cool. This is nice. This is a good tutorial because it’s like oh you got this little area [12:32.620 –> 12:34.580] You can run around and then it teaches stuff as you go [12:34.580 –> 12:39.500] It doesn’t ever stops you doing something it just kind of shows things on the screen and then eventually once you’ve done everything [12:39.820 –> 12:43.740] you then get through and you go through the next bit story, and then it takes you to the [12:44.260 –> 12:49.140] First level and the first level is a tutorial and you’re like I don’t understand. Why is this a tutorial and this is a [12:50.180 –> 12:54.260] Infinitely worst tutorial because you basically you walk ten steps [12:54.260 –> 12:57.340] And then it pauses shows a cutscene tells you how to do something [12:57.340 –> 13:02.780] They already taught you how to do and then you walk another ten steps it pauses have the cutscene [13:03.260 –> 13:07.120] Bunch of nonsense and then tells you how to do a thing that you already know how to do [13:07.120 –> 13:10.580] And I’m just like I don’t understand. It’s not even like other games have better [13:11.260 –> 13:18.260] Tutorials this game has a better tutorial than it does like I don’t know how do you make both of those tutorials one? [13:18.260 –> 13:23.220] Which is terrible one which is great, and then just keep them both. I don’t understand [13:23.860 –> 13:30.540] Bizarre so I was enjoying it now. I’m not enjoying it. Hopefully I can get through the tutorial and start enjoying it again [13:34.260 –> 13:37.700] Should we talk about some news yeah, we got a lot of news oh [13:38.600 –> 13:40.600] Right moon drop [13:41.060 –> 13:43.060] 1.0 is it [13:43.100 –> 13:48.180] Except it’s still in early access. Maybe no it looks like they’ve clicked the button [13:48.180 –> 13:49.820] It does look like it’s yeah [13:49.820 –> 13:54.780] So they had said at the end if you still see the game labeled as early to access on steam there was a slight hiccup [13:54.780 –> 13:57.980] With the price increase valve needs to approve the increase which I expect to happen later today [13:57.980 –> 14:01.700] So like that should be fixed now, so it should just be version 1.0 [14:01.700 –> 14:06.740] Yeah, and I don’t understand like at the top of their thing. It’s version 1.0 because I commit crimes [14:06.740 –> 14:13.980] I think I suspect this is our or it’s not the first version right because 1.0 is like the first version [14:14.180 –> 14:20.180] Okay, I think it’s pretty common to be like this is the point where we will hit like the first full version and [14:20.660 –> 14:25.440] Even though there might be news to like it’s yeah, I mean I can argue for hours about version numbers [14:25.440 –> 14:30.420] I don’t care like if you’re if you’re if your first version outside of early access is 1.0. That’s fine. I’m fine [14:30.420 –> 14:31.260] I don’t care about that [14:31.260 –> 14:36.400] There are so many more things to be annoyed about which I will definitely be annoyed about at some point. Yeah for sure [14:37.280 –> 14:44.960] The mutating mountain farm yeah, I’m not a huge fan of the look of this game like just the graphics [14:45.960 –> 14:51.480] It’s not and this is not to be mean, but it’s not like the cute 8-bit graphics [14:51.480 –> 14:57.000] It’s like yeah, the shifting mountain sounds interesting. Yeah, but there needs to be more [14:57.000 –> 15:02.360] I think I’m don’t think I’m gonna to me. It sounds chaos like which is going to appeal to some people [15:02.480 –> 15:04.920] Yeah, it’s a challenge, but for me. I’m like [15:05.400 –> 15:10.920] I would rather play a cozy catch butterflies and look at butterflies king [15:10.960 –> 15:13.280] What a coincidence do I have the game for you? [15:15.080 –> 15:17.080] Flutter away [15:17.120 –> 15:23.560] This game is also right now. I think this game came out like two days after the last episode where we had any news and [15:24.520 –> 15:31.300] Yeah, well no this isn’t released August 3rd, so yeah, yeah, it’s I mean it’s currently August 17th [15:35.160 –> 15:41.160] Anyway, yeah, this is the cute little there’s a capybara friend and you’re trying to find butterflies [15:41.280 –> 15:45.380] You’re filling a deck. Yeah, like kind of a decks like one of the [15:46.760 –> 15:49.640] pages of your journal that you saw I kind of like paused the [15:50.000 –> 15:53.160] trailer and I read a little bit and it was really cool because it was telling you like [15:54.160 –> 15:59.320] Information about the rainforest and about what the rainforest peoples calls these better call these butterflies. Yeah [16:00.200 –> 16:02.240] So yeah, it is now available on [16:03.160 –> 16:05.160] Switch for $12.99 [16:06.120 –> 16:08.200] and steam for $12.99 and [16:08.640 –> 16:15.560] I will say on steam will on Mac and PC which is always good to know for those of us that have max as their prime [16:15.880 –> 16:19.480] And you can pet the capybara. So if you’re a big fan of the Twitter [16:20.280 –> 16:22.420] Slash-x slash whatever we want to call it page [16:23.080 –> 16:25.080] Can you pet the dog? [16:25.320 –> 16:27.320] Happy bar it yeah [16:27.960 –> 16:29.960] This reminds me a lot of [16:29.980 –> 16:33.500] Yes, it does in a good way big thing. It’s on my maybe list [16:34.080 –> 16:40.100] Palio have announced that they’re coming to switch and I think this is the first time where they’ve said a release [16:40.960 –> 16:44.360] Timeline they’ve said that it’s releasing holiday season [16:45.120 –> 16:46.840] 2023 [16:46.840 –> 16:50.520] Which presumably it like this is just about switch, right? [16:50.520 –> 16:56.760] It says Palio will be available on Nintendo switch this holiday season to presumably that also means that the steam version will be released [16:56.920 –> 16:58.920] Some people are already playing it [16:59.120 –> 17:00.520] Yeah, it’s in early access [17:00.520 –> 17:05.320] But yeah, they do it like it would be weird if they released on switch because you’re not allowed [17:05.840 –> 17:09.800] Ignoring the fact that there’s new dreamlike Valley is in this weird situation [17:09.960 –> 17:15.200] And I don’t know why like I suspect the only reason that it’s allowed to do it is because it’s Disney [17:16.400 –> 17:21.240] It would be then you’re not technically allowed to have early access games on switch [17:21.320 –> 17:23.320] So they would have to say it’s finished [17:23.560 –> 17:28.440] Right and it would be weird for the steam version to still be an early access when I mean they do that though [17:28.440 –> 17:33.300] Like they have games come out and they’re available and then they have plans to port it elsewhere [17:33.440 –> 17:37.600] Yeah, but it’s not but that’s not that’s the wrong way. Like it’s already a wrong way [17:38.460 –> 17:40.460] Like isn’t it? [17:41.640 –> 17:43.760] It’s just their website you just do [17:44.880 –> 17:50.280] Interest. Okay, so it’s gonna be an exclusive to switch. I believe so, but it’s an open beta now [17:50.600 –> 17:55.040] But it’s only on the website. So yeah, I haven’t played it [17:55.600 –> 17:59.700] But I have a friend that has a reference code and she’s like gonna give it to me when [18:00.640 –> 18:05.720] Because I said I wanted to wait for it to be on steam or sorry switch. I want switch [18:06.400 –> 18:12.760] So once it’s on switch, I’ll I’ll jump into this game 100% so yeah, it’s gonna scratch that [18:14.000 –> 18:17.720] World of Warcraft itch. Yeah, cuz it’s Philly. Mm all isn’t [18:18.600 –> 18:20.600] Mm-hmm, which means that I probably [18:21.320 –> 18:24.640] But well, it’ll be all me and it’ll be cross play. So it’ll be great [18:24.640 –> 18:29.600] I look forward to hearing about it when you play it next. We have sprite Valley, which fun fact [18:29.600 –> 18:34.860] I don’t know how if I’ve ever said this in the podcast before I may have may have not stardew valley’s original name was [18:34.860 –> 18:37.460] Sprout Valley. This is not that this is a separate game [18:38.200 –> 18:39.840] Sprout Valley [18:39.840 –> 18:45.100] Is a pixel art one a pixel art farming game. Stop me if you’ve heard that before [18:45.100 –> 18:57.260] As an off-handed comment in our kickstarter update we are planning to release this fall [18:57.940 –> 19:01.660] Like it doesn’t it doesn’t say it’s not like it’s titled August update [19:01.660 –> 19:05.660] What are we working on and then they talk about a bunch of stuff and they’re like we’re planning to release this fall [19:05.660 –> 19:12.020] And then there’s just more words after that and I’m like, oh, okay. This is why I read all the words in these updates [19:12.860 –> 19:19.100] Specifically it’s specifically said this month is not much going on in terms of updates. We’re planning to release [19:20.500 –> 19:22.500] What are you doing then? [19:22.860 –> 19:26.380] Bizarre, so yeah, apparently that’s a thing that’s happening [19:28.260 –> 19:32.020] Cool nothing else to say about that one just now the palace on the hill [19:33.300 –> 19:37.740] We got the first information about release date and then that is delayed. So [19:38.660 –> 19:42.020] Well, they specifically said that so they have a prologue [19:42.020 –> 19:46.660] Yeah, you can play on Steam and they got a lot of really good feedback from the prologue [19:46.660 –> 19:51.900] and so now that since they’re trying to incorporate the feedback that they got from the prologue, they’re going to [19:53.420 –> 19:55.320] Extend the date [19:55.320 –> 20:01.340] Yeah, I’m not I’m not complaining about that. It’s funny how they had never publicly said that they were planning to release in August [20:01.900 –> 20:07.440] It’s just this tweet is the first time they’d said that and in the city in the next sentence and for same sentence [20:08.500 –> 20:12.860] They’re delaying. So it was just funny how you’re like, oh, they’re planning to release in August. Oh, no, they’re not anymore [20:13.660 –> 20:15.660] Like it’s just a little bit of whiplash there [20:16.740 –> 20:20.980] So yeah, there’s there’s there’s no date just now, but that’s fine [20:22.780 –> 20:29.140] That’s good that they’re taking the feedback from the prologue it still looks really cute is that Xbox news new yeah, okay [20:29.140 –> 20:34.580] So it’s coming to Xbox. We didn’t know that before I lose track. There’s too many games to keep track of 91 [20:34.580 –> 20:36.140] I know have in my list [20:36.140 –> 20:38.140] We can add to it [20:38.780 –> 20:40.780] Ova Magica [20:40.820 –> 20:43.940] Has been delayed so 2024. I’m not surprised [20:43.940 –> 20:47.060] I think we’re gonna get a lot of this over the next couple of months because we still have [20:47.860 –> 20:49.860] 22 that have just said [20:49.980 –> 20:51.020] 2023 [20:51.020 –> 20:56.180] And nothing else and then we have like another 15 that are meant to be coming out this year [20:56.740 –> 20:59.880] So I suspect at least 20 of them will be delayed [21:00.580 –> 21:03.640] Because we’re we’re in August now. Yeah [21:03.960 –> 21:10.920] And I just I commented that the for Ova Magica on the delay the update mention about this [21:12.360 –> 21:18.220] The response from all the factors backers was largely positive and I just wanted to shout out over magic here because that they are [21:18.560 –> 21:25.920] Doing really well about being having open open and honest communication about where the game is and what what exactly they’ve been working on [21:26.000 –> 21:30.920] Yeah, and it’s all stuff that people have been asking about. It’s not out of the blue [21:30.920 –> 21:37.160] It’s and everyone’s just like yeah. Yeah, take your time. Like we’re just really excited for this game. So yeah be [21:38.480 –> 21:40.480] Honest as we’ve discussed before [21:41.320 –> 21:44.000] Communication can do a massive thing, you know [21:44.000 –> 21:48.680] You don’t have to end up in the situation that some game developers do when they don’t say anything people get annoyed [21:48.680 –> 21:50.220] Well, and it’s not just game developers [21:50.220 –> 21:56.680] I was just having this conversation the other day with someone about authors because I read books and it’s often [21:56.920 –> 22:02.240] Multiple book series and then you have an author that just goes AWOL for a decade [22:02.760 –> 22:09.080] Where they’re like, oh I’m working on it and I’m like, okay in the time that you have been quote-unquote working on this one book [22:09.080 –> 22:14.720] This other dude has put out 20 books. So like what and it’s not even it’s not even nice [22:14.720 –> 22:17.380] also when they then go and do like other things like, you know, [22:17.380 –> 22:24.820] They make a TV series based on their book and then they write other books. And then there’s another TV series about their other book [22:25.340 –> 22:28.780] Not I was actually not talking about Martin [22:28.780 –> 22:33.100] I know but I know it but he is another great example of that of like, okay [22:33.100 –> 22:35.100] But like we are still waiting [22:36.580 –> 22:39.240] Like even just saying hey [22:40.220 –> 22:41.660] the [22:41.660 –> 22:47.620] Stories gotten away from me or hey, this is taking a little bit longer or something like that like yeah [22:47.620 –> 22:49.840] We know that these things happen writers block happens [22:50.480 –> 22:55.280] Literally our phrase that’s coined that’s used in other places because of that, right? [22:55.280 –> 23:01.880] You just need to say it like I’m stuck and I thought that doing a second project would be great like cool or hey [23:01.880 –> 23:03.880] I’m making lots of money on this other one [23:08.120 –> 23:12.880] Great annoy people but it’s less annoying than just saying nothing. Yeah [23:13.600 –> 23:16.220] But yeah, so over magica thumbs up [23:17.080 –> 23:19.080] for talking about agreed [23:19.280 –> 23:25.880] Thumbs down for having games that release on the 28th of September this week. Oh my word Cody, right? [23:25.880 –> 23:31.920] So wild vendor have announced that their game is releasing on the 28th of September 28th of September that might sound similar [23:31.920 –> 23:35.460] You say well, it’s not it’s not the day that [23:36.100 –> 23:41.220] Mannequins night market harvest me in the winds of anthos paleo pines and my time a sand rock is releasing. It’s not that day [23:41.220 –> 23:43.220] It’s not the same. It’s two days after that [23:43.220 –> 23:45.220] Oh [23:47.300 –> 23:49.700] My word that week is I just [23:50.340 –> 23:54.340] Heard we’ve got the Tuesday got four games coming out the Thursday. We’ve got another game coming out [23:56.060 –> 24:01.740] Look I’m sorry, but Mannequins night market still Trump’s ever. Yeah, not about Wild Mender [24:01.740 –> 24:06.240] Let me let me clarify the thumbs down is not for Wild Mender. It’s just for the date [24:06.300 –> 24:10.260] Yeah, and I hadn’t heard about Wild Mender. So I’m just gonna blurb it real quick [24:10.780 –> 24:14.680] Do you want me to no no, no, so I was just I was still just exact [24:15.380 –> 24:19.960] Exasperated by that week. I just like just before just just hate game developers [24:20.100 –> 24:25.100] See if you’re like, oh, I don’t know when other games are releasing right and I don’t want to overload things [24:25.100 –> 24:29.200] I have a list come and talk to me. I have a list of [24:30.220 –> 24:32.220] 91 games [24:32.420 –> 24:38.500] 91 and you know what actually if you pay to pay on my patreon you can get the list and see it I have [24:38.780 –> 24:41.740] 91 games if you’re a game developer come and talk to me [24:41.740 –> 24:46.980] I’ll tell you when there are games because there are a lot of games coming out and we don’t want you [24:47.500 –> 24:49.500] Releasing at the same time, please [24:49.500 –> 24:55.120] Yeah, well and not only because we are overloaded as players but like that’s not gonna be good for you [24:55.120 –> 24:59.140] I mean if you’re not at this point Mannequins night market then [24:59.900 –> 25:04.860] You’re gonna be like man release was really thin and be like, hmm [25:04.860 –> 25:09.660] There’s a reason for that and it starts with M and ends with an echoes night market [25:12.420 –> 25:19.220] Why wild vendor quote is a desert gardening survival game where you’ll get to start from a small spring in a [25:19.260 –> 25:21.820] barren desert and grow it into a blossoming oasis [25:21.820 –> 25:27.340] Search the desert around you for valuable seeds to grow a new place to craft a range of useful items as you explore the desert [25:27.340 –> 25:34.140] You’ll find adorable wildlife to befriend secrets to uncover an ancient deities to ally with just remember to take a full water bottle and fluent [25:34.420 –> 25:35.460] food [25:35.460 –> 25:41.660] Yeah, it’s basically an open-world game where you’re turning a desert into not a desert. Yeah, and there I mean first of all [25:42.300 –> 25:46.780] Mmm, sometimes deserts need to be deserts. They’re also an ecosystem, but second of all [25:48.660 –> 25:51.980] It looked really cool like there was like a magic system or something to it [25:51.980 –> 25:55.220] Like some of the creatures are like magical like little wispy things flying around [25:55.700 –> 26:00.620] You were flying around at one point and I don’t know if that’s with tech or if it’s just that you’re able to fly [26:01.420 –> 26:03.580] But it just yeah, so I’m guessing [26:04.500 –> 26:06.500] related to the whole like [26:06.500 –> 26:07.940] Don’t get rid of all the deserts [26:07.940 –> 26:13.660] I’m guessing that this is like a or this is not how the world used to be and we’re now kind of like [26:13.740 –> 26:18.280] Returning it to what it was which obviously still has its issues humans messing around with things [26:19.340 –> 26:23.820] Generally causes issues, even if you think you’re like fixing the problems that you caused in the first place [26:25.180 –> 26:28.480] But yeah, I don’t think it’s just like oh, here’s a desert. Let’s get rid of a desert [26:28.480 –> 26:30.480] Deserts are stupid, no they’re not [26:32.440 –> 26:33.700] Stupid deserts [26:33.700 –> 26:35.280] Awesome [26:35.280 –> 26:39.400] Okay, so that’s all of the release news for like games [26:39.840 –> 26:45.800] We then have a bunch of information about some updates slash DLC. So we have another lens island update [26:45.800 –> 26:53.400] This one is called the cursed underworld update and it’s releasing on the 10th of September and Cody you’ve you you’ve played this game [26:54.240 –> 26:56.960] It create includes a new mode [26:57.560 –> 26:58.800] And [26:58.800 –> 27:03.840] Instead of the underground cave network being static, which is what it was when I played it [27:03.840 –> 27:09.900] It is now gonna be procedural but you can also if you don’t want things to attack you you can have a peaceful game mode [27:10.360 –> 27:12.360] you can enchant weapons and [27:13.160 –> 27:16.520] There’s I don’t know what improved survival mechanics is, but I’m here for it [27:18.240 –> 27:24.040] It sounds good, I like to survive in a survivor game I like to survive and if it’s improved that’s cool [27:24.040 –> 27:26.160] No, um, I don’t know [27:26.160 –> 27:32.320] I just I haven’t taken the time to play this in a while as they creep towards a 1.0 question mark, right? [27:32.320 –> 27:37.560] They’re not ready. They’re not in 1.0 yet. They’re not. Oh, yeah. No, this is uh, this is a early access update [27:37.740 –> 27:42.520] every time I see new things, I’m just so jazzed and [27:43.340 –> 27:45.280] to see things [27:45.280 –> 27:47.280] Develop from where they started [27:47.680 –> 27:51.360] And know that even when it started it was a pretty fun game [27:51.360 –> 27:53.640] Like it was just that there were a couple things that [27:54.440 –> 27:59.760] That were closed off. But other than that, like yeah, I saw where to go. I saw what to do. So [28:00.320 –> 28:04.220] And I was enjoying doing it. So yeah super excited [28:05.280 –> 28:10.080] To play this and the trailer looks really cool. So I need to jump back in. Yeah [28:11.000 –> 28:15.800] Yeah, they’ve generally I think it’s been generally been a good a good early access [28:15.800 –> 28:20.000] My one complaint is they launched without controller support when I first played it [28:20.000 –> 28:23.920] I was like, this is horrific to try and play on my Steam Deck. Like this is just [28:24.680 –> 28:27.840] Horrible, they now have controller support. I’ve just not gone back yet [28:28.800 –> 28:30.620] above snakes [28:30.620 –> 28:32.620] Also has an update [28:32.960 –> 28:34.720] 1.2 update [28:34.720 –> 28:38.440] Which it doesn’t have a name, but does have some stuff [28:38.600 –> 28:42.360] So as usual they’re adding more pieces to add to your world [28:42.680 –> 28:46.220] because if you don’t remember above snakes is the game that it’s like a [28:46.220 –> 28:50.580] Cell based how would you piece like puzzle? [28:50.580 –> 28:54.820] It’s like it’s like a game board and you’re like adding squares to your board [28:55.300 –> 28:59.980] And there’s like a limited number of different things you can do. So they’ve added a bunch more and [29:01.540 –> 29:08.860] Japanese localizations, so if you only speak Japanese, which you probably don’t because you’re listening to this podcast you can now play the game [29:09.540 –> 29:15.460] Or if you are learning Japanese and you want to do that because I know some people like to do that [29:15.460 –> 29:19.140] That’s also a way to do that. Yeah, I guess like the one question that I have from [29:19.780 –> 29:25.260] This is oh, so there are two new desert world pieces specifically desert. I guess that was [29:25.900 –> 29:29.940] That answers my question. I was like, what what world pieces are there? [29:29.940 –> 29:31.740] Because if you just go based on this picture [29:31.740 –> 29:36.140] it would be like some type of foresty one and then some type of fossil e-desert e1 but [29:36.780 –> 29:44.380] It says added two new desert world pieces that unlocked after placing the first different kinds of desert because desert is important ecosystem [29:44.380 –> 29:50.460] I feel a theme sundown survivor. Sorry. Yeah, just sorry just the above snakes updates out now sundown [29:55.580 –> 29:57.140] Probably not [29:57.140 –> 30:04.780] 1.3 zone a I still don’t really know about this game. It’s a very stressful game. Yeah, it looks like it’s an intense [30:05.540 –> 30:10.660] I don’t know. I guess I haven’t looked at it more closely. I’m just reading the balance changes [30:10.660 –> 30:14.140] They did a lot of like some things got nerfed some things got that got boosted [30:14.140 –> 30:16.380] But then I saw this word mammoth [30:18.020 –> 30:20.480] Mammoth my moose. What is mammoth? [30:21.260 –> 30:27.980] Muth’s HP. Is it a mammoth and a cow? I you have my attention. I don’t want to play this game [30:28.980 –> 30:30.980] Listeners if you have played sundown [30:31.580 –> 30:36.140] Survivors, is it sundown or sundown survivors? It was called sundown [30:36.140 –> 30:42.060] It’s now called sundown survivors, but they don’t see have changed the name. It’s a roguelike. I don’t want to play it [30:42.100 –> 30:44.100] Okay, if you have played sundown [30:44.580 –> 30:49.860] Tell us tell us what mammoth is because I have a curiosity. I [30:51.220 –> 30:53.800] But limited time they did this annoying thing [30:54.360 –> 30:57.280] Where they changed the name and they never actually said they were changing it [30:57.280 –> 31:01.920] So they just like started referring to it as the new name and like at least do it consistently [31:01.920 –> 31:06.900] Your logo doesn’t even have the word survivors. I know that’s why I was confused. It’s also not in their blurb on Steam [31:06.900 –> 31:11.540] It’s just yeah, if you’re gonna rename it do it properly. Come on control F [31:12.540 –> 31:16.180] sundown survivors has a 1.3 update which is out now and it has [31:16.660 –> 31:21.880] Bug fixes and patches and that they nerf a lot of things down at the bottom. Yep [31:22.580 –> 31:28.300] That’s thing. Tell us what mammoth is. Yeah, we want to know what it’s a mammoth of some kind at me [31:28.300 –> 31:32.420] Well, I wonder if it’s just yeah, is it just a cow a weird name for a mammoth? [31:32.420 –> 31:35.860] Who knows travelers rest have a new update. It’s a farm animal [31:36.540 –> 31:38.540] added you farm so [31:38.780 –> 31:45.220] It’s hard to know when you’ve not actually played these games so if you watch the trailer she is hitting cows [31:45.620 –> 31:51.520] It 50 seconds into the trailer. She is hitting cows with a broom and the cows die [31:51.520 –> 31:54.740] Oh, don’t do that and her too [31:55.300 –> 32:00.940] She like kills the two cows and then gets the material from that but like is that no [32:02.140 –> 32:04.900] No, you see it. Oh, no [32:05.420 –> 32:10.980] With the pig one of the items looks like guts it does one of the eight for the pig [32:11.500 –> 32:18.180] Right when she kills the pace one of them looks like a ball of intense intestines pork and beef. Oh, no [32:19.180 –> 32:25.760] Nope, there was something else. Yeah, it did say something gonna have to pause it was up for like one frame into it’s called intestine [32:26.600 –> 32:28.600] Oh my gosh, I’m done [32:33.640 –> 32:36.300] You pick up pig intestines have you [32:36.960 –> 32:41.320] Listeners, have you ever wanted to use pig intestines in a game? [32:42.160 –> 32:48.920] Travelers rest is gotcha back. Oh, I wonder if you use it to like make sausage, right? Cuz it’s now [32:50.000 –> 32:51.320] Okay [32:51.320 –> 32:53.320] No [32:54.160 –> 33:00.300] Wine you do you are you a vegan don’t play this game definitely don’t oh my word. That’s [33:02.360 –> 33:04.360] The animal you put [33:04.780 –> 33:06.780] Look, I know I know [33:07.640 –> 33:11.400] Right. I don’t want pig intestines in my game [33:11.980 –> 33:14.240] Right, like this is the whole realism [33:14.760 –> 33:20.720] Versus like actually yeah, and it’s like it feels a little bit weird killing your fan at farm animals [33:20.720 –> 33:22.720] I know that that’s the thing that happens [33:23.600 –> 33:28.280] Yeah, why are you killing them with a broom? That is just the pain in their faces. Yes [33:28.720 –> 33:36.960] They look act like they’ve built sprites that are like pain face like flinching. This is horrible flinching. Oh my word [33:38.360 –> 33:42.580] Yeah, there’s so much detail here and then it pig intestines pop out [33:42.880 –> 33:48.100] This is someone who’s developed the game so much and they’re like, you know rabbit hole. No, I’m kidding [33:48.360 –> 33:53.940] Someone probably wants this someone’s interested in it. But with a broom, I don’t want travelers rest [33:55.340 –> 34:02.880] As as as you’re seeing this clip of this person hitting and killing these cows and pigs with a broom the narrator says [34:03.300 –> 34:06.840] Do it and your animals will be easier to take care of [34:08.620 –> 34:10.620] Take care of [34:11.620 –> 34:14.300] Can you go take care of the cow, please [34:15.020 –> 34:17.020] We need food for the dinner [34:17.660 –> 34:19.660] Take care of it [34:19.940 –> 34:21.660] Okay [34:21.660 –> 34:22.780] Wow [34:22.780 –> 34:25.020] Farm animal updates out now. Oh [34:26.380 –> 34:28.380] So, okay, right [34:29.640 –> 34:31.640] I’ve just seen a tweet from them [34:32.180 –> 34:33.340] saying [34:33.340 –> 34:39.740] That they are thinking about an animal cruelty free slash vegan method. They are working on it [34:40.460 –> 34:45.420] It is on there, oh, yeah, here we go. Someone says hitting the animals with the room really turned me off [34:45.420 –> 34:48.140] I’m buying the game. I’m looking forward to a more humane update [34:48.740 –> 34:50.740] Working on it. Oh [34:51.040 –> 34:52.900] my gosh, I [34:52.900 –> 34:59.260] Still bought the game because it looked amazing. I can’t put the controller down and then they say mission accomplished [35:02.480 –> 35:09.060] They’re like we’re working on it the prisons like I bought it anyway, and they’re like cool don’t have to do anything [35:09.060 –> 35:14.000] No, I’m kidding. They’re still working on it. They have a road map. Yeah, I can’t see on the road map though [35:16.300 –> 35:20.220] Insect collection all very long-term. Yeah, I can’t see [35:24.740 –> 35:27.380] Yeah, I can’t see you on there on their list so [35:28.300 –> 35:30.060] Let’s move on shall we will come back [35:30.060 –> 35:34.460] well, we’ll keep you up to date on when there’s a vegan option for travelers rest or even just a [35:35.380 –> 35:40.660] More humane way of killing your animals, maybe it’s new new farming mechanics [35:42.180 –> 35:45.660] Let’s build a zoo. Yep speaking of cruelty to animals [35:47.420 –> 35:53.260] Well, let’s build a zoo is the one that lets you like crossbreed into like horrific creatures, oh, yeah love this [35:53.260 –> 35:57.220] I just I love this game so much [35:57.220 –> 36:00.940] I wish I enjoyed playing management games and I would play this much more [36:00.940 –> 36:04.740] Anyway, the aquarium Odyssey DLC which adds a [36:05.900 –> 36:12.260] Aquarium is I know so you can go get it now. Oh, it’s apparently in my library. Did I already buy it? [36:12.660 –> 36:18.780] When did I buy this DLC? Is it free? Oh, no, I didn’t buy it’s all good. No. No, I did. No [36:19.140 –> 36:23.600] It’s part of dinosaur island the no it no. No, none of that. None of that [36:24.660 –> 36:29.720] It is that the news update was on the game itself. Not the DLC [36:29.960 –> 36:35.520] So when I said in library, man, we’re all good. I’m no longer confused 50 plus new animals [36:37.120 –> 36:43.520] Over 50 new fish and mammal species are ready for you to adopt and showcase to your visitors from dolphins to manta rays whales and [36:43.520 –> 36:45.880] starfish to lobsters a
Side Quests is back and this episode's host is burlesque performer and resident of Badgetown, Curly Bright! The game she is talking about today is Ooblets by Glumberland! You can find this episode's host on twitter and all her work here! We've also have Patreon! Gain access to episode shout outs, bonus content, early downloads of regular episodes, an exclusive rss feed and more! Click here! You can find the show on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts! Rate us on Spotify! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!
Al and Jonnie go through all the news from the Wholesome Direct Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:49: What Have We Been Up To 00:09:37: News 00:10:44: Releases 00:27:14: Updates And DLC 00:31:33: Other Info 00:42:43: News Games 00:46:27: Summary 00:48:14: Outro Links Wholesome Direct Videos from Wholesome Games Original Harvest Moon on Switch One Lonely Outpost Early Access One Lonely Outpost New Trailer Fae Farm Release Date My Time at Sandrock Release Date Moonstone Island Release Window Smushi Come Home Paleo Pines New Trailer Disney Dreamlight Valley Update Spirit of the Island: Beach Resort Orange Season Frostfall Update Grimoire Groves Kickstarter Fields of Mistra Gourdlets Farming Simulator Tyres Garden Buddies Bubblegum Galaxy 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 –> 00:09.000] Theme song. [00:31.000 –> 00:36.000] Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. [00:36.000 –> 00:38.000] My name is Al. [00:38.000 –> 00:40.000] And my name is Jonny. [00:40.000 –> 00:46.000] And we’re here today to talk about games. So many, so many, many, many, many games. [00:49.000 –> 00:53.000] There’s too many games, Al. Too many games. [00:53.000 –> 01:01.000] So many games. We were talking before we recorded that the problem is that the games are almost all good-looking games. [01:01.000 –> 01:06.000] So it’s not like they’re all terrible-looking games, because if they were all terrible-looking games, we could just ignore them. [01:08.000 –> 01:15.000] Yeah, no, there’s a lot of really good-looking games, and I feel like I’m going to get sucked into a, you know, world of these games. [01:15.000 –> 01:18.000] And I don’t have time, Al. I just don’t have time. [01:18.000 –> 01:20.000] I know, I know, I know. [01:20.000 –> 01:25.000] Alright, well, speaking of not having time, let’s get on with the show. [01:25.000 –> 01:30.000] Listeners, well, listeners, I shouldn’t say listeners, because I’m talking about the transcripts now. [01:30.000 –> 01:37.000] People who need the transcripts for any reason, they are available and shown on the website, so go get them if you need them. [01:37.000 –> 01:43.000] Today, our main topic is just news, because there’s so much of it. [01:43.000 –> 01:48.000] We are recording this a couple of hours after the Wholesome Direct came out, so there’s a bunch of news from that. [01:48.000 –> 01:53.000] And there was just a lot of news for a week anyway, right? There’s been a lot of news this week. [01:53.000 –> 01:59.000] I don’t know, oh wait, no, I do know why, because apparently it’s Summer Game Fest, so that’s why there’s all the news. [01:59.000 –> 02:06.000] Look, I know people love these big things, but like, oh my word, could we spread it throughout the year a little bit more? [02:06.000 –> 02:08.000] This is just too much for one week. [02:08.000 –> 02:16.000] It’s way too much. And I think one of my takeaways from the Wholesome Direct is I actually feel like it does a disservice to all of these small, great games. [02:16.000 –> 02:23.000] Because I’m sure there are some great games that we will not talk about today, because there’s just too many for us to keep in our heads. [02:23.000 –> 02:31.000] Yeah, I agree. I don’t know what a good way to do it is, like, that’s probably not my job, but it just, yeah, I agree. [02:31.000 –> 02:36.000] Like, there are so many, by the end of it, when they did their montage, I was just kind of glazed over going, [02:36.000 –> 02:41.000] yeah, sure, looks good, don’t know what, I don’t have the energy to look into that game just now. [02:42.000 –> 02:48.000] You know, I looked into all of the farming game specific ones, but anyway, we’ll get into that when we get into it. [02:48.000 –> 02:51.000] Before that, Johnny, what have you been up to? [02:51.000 –> 02:57.000] Well, and I think our greenhouse episode on this game just dropped, but just Zelda. [02:57.000 –> 03:03.000] Last night, or yesterday, I came to the realisation that I was kind of hitting the point where I was like, [03:03.000 –> 03:11.000] ooh, I might be wanting to play some other things, and unlike Breath of the Wild, I kind of want to see where this story’s going, [03:11.000 –> 03:16.000] so I’m just going to main line the story, and yesterday I did finish the main story, [03:16.000 –> 03:25.000] and the ending of that game is just, like, peak video game nonsense that I don’t really recall from the ending of a video game, [03:25.000 –> 03:31.000] like, doing it that well in a long, long time. Maybe ever. It was excellent. [03:31.000 –> 03:39.000] I love Zelda, I love the way that game ended, I love everything about this game. It is freaking awesome. [03:39.000 –> 03:47.000] Yeah, I agree. I also finished it yesterday, and we’ll not spoil it, obviously, but I felt, personally, with Breath of the Wild, [03:47.000 –> 03:53.000] that the biggest lacking thing in it was the end story. To me, it just felt a bit meh. [03:53.000 –> 04:02.000] It was kind of like, oh, battle! Oh, wait, now he’s massive! Go shoot him! None of it really made any sense. [04:02.000 –> 04:09.000] Whereas, I think in this one, it felt very tied into all of the story you’ve kind of gone through, [04:09.000 –> 04:15.000] and when certain things happen at the end, you’re like, of course that makes sense, of course that was going to happen, [04:15.000 –> 04:22.000] and then how that then led into the final part of the final battle was really good. It kind of balanced things. I really liked it. [04:22.000 –> 04:29.000] I really liked it as well. There was one giant plot hole, which was kind of always going to be there, that really annoys me, [04:29.000 –> 04:37.000] but other than that, I thought it was awesome, and it kind of makes me want to see the team that did Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom [04:37.000 –> 04:47.000] do a smaller, more story-focused style game now, because after Breath of the Wild, I was like, I just want them to do big open world stuff, [04:47.000 –> 04:53.000] because clearly that’s what they’re good at, but this one was like, oh, they can also do just really good traditional gameplay. [04:53.000 –> 05:02.000] Yeah, I think it’s interesting, because it’s really hard to do a good open world story, because you can’t rely on anybody doing anything. [05:02.000 –> 05:10.000] Once you’ve done the tutorial, all bets are off. You could be coming to that last bit without having anything else before, [05:10.000 –> 05:20.000] and I want to watch the cutscenes for if you haven’t done certain things in the game, because obviously I’ve done almost everything. [05:20.000 –> 05:25.000] I haven’t done all of the side quests, and I obviously haven’t done all the Korok seeds, but I’ve done everything else. [05:25.000 –> 05:35.000] I’ve done all of the story bits, and I’ve done all of the shrines, and all of that sort of stuff, and I’ve done more than 50% of everything except the Korok seeds, [05:35.000 –> 05:45.000] and so it’d be interesting to see how that story changes if you haven’t done certain, but I feel like most of that would still make sense to you. [05:45.000 –> 05:50.000] You wouldn’t understand why certain things happen necessarily, but it’s not like, oh, that makes no sense. [05:50.000 –> 05:58.000] You’re like, okay, that’s a thing that apparently happens. Fine, whatever. Suspension of disbelief, I don’t need to care why that happens. [05:58.000 –> 06:01.000] It’s really hard to talk about this without making specifics, so let’s move on, shall we? [06:01.000 –> 06:07.000] I haven’t played anything else, because yesterday my Switch broke, and I’m very sad about that. [06:07.000 –> 06:17.000] I do have multiple Switches, so I can play games on other Switches, but I’m just a bit down about my Switch breaking yesterday, because all my Pokémon saves are on that Switch, [06:17.000 –> 06:19.000] and I really hope I don’t lose them all. [06:19.000 –> 06:21.000] Is it like a big break, or…? [06:21.000 –> 06:29.000] So I think, according to the error that shows on screen, all my Googling says that it is just an issue with the USB port, [06:29.000 –> 06:34.000] and they should just be able to hotswap out the USB port, and it should all just work. [06:34.000 –> 06:43.000] But, as with everything, you never know what’s happening under there, and I have heard of people sending in Switches to get fixed, and it comes back with the memory wiped, [06:43.000 –> 06:49.000] which would be very sad. Very, very sad, because I would lose all of my Pokémon games except Sword and Brilliant Diamond. [06:49.000 –> 06:53.000] Everything else would be gone on the Switch, so I would be very sad if that happened. [06:53.000 –> 06:54.000] Yeah, that would suck. [06:54.000 –> 06:55.000] Especially… [06:55.000 –> 06:57.000] Of all of the games to keep. [06:57.000 –> 06:58.000] Oh, I know. [06:58.000 –> 07:12.000] I guess I can’t get into a rant about this just now, but I’m going to, because I cannot comprehend why they think that the miniscule risk of people cheating in the game by cloning things through the save state, [07:12.000 –> 07:20.000] is more important than literally losing about 600 hours combined of Pokémon games that would happen. [07:20.000 –> 07:26.000] And I’m not going to go and redo all of them, because I do not have the time or the energy to do all of that, [07:26.000 –> 07:30.000] and it’s just going to mean that I’m going to be really disappointed for the rest of this generation, [07:30.000 –> 07:36.000] because, yeah, sure, I’ll probably play one of the games to get back into Endgame so I can do the things and do the DLC, [07:36.000 –> 07:45.000] but I will not end up enjoying it as much as I would if I had the saves that I have spent 150 hours playing since release, right? [07:45.000 –> 07:49.000] It just, it boggles the mind that they think that’s okay, but anyway, whatever. [07:49.000 –> 07:56.000] But you see, Elle, they’ve done such a good job of stopping them duplicating Pokémon in all other ways. [07:56.000 –> 08:01.000] This is the thing! It’s so easy to do these things! [08:01.000 –> 08:09.000] It’s so annoying, and it’s literally only Pokémon, right? Because even Animal Crossing has a way to back up the save, right? [08:09.000 –> 08:16.000] If I lose that, I can get that back, and every other game I have on the Switch is backed up to Nintendo Switch Online. [08:16.000 –> 08:22.000] I pay a service to do this, and I can’t use it for the game that matters most to me! [08:22.000 –> 08:31.000] And even, like, they have Pokémon Home, right? Surely it’s not that difficult to even back up the cloud save into maybe a space like Home, right? [08:31.000 –> 08:36.000] Which has all of the Pokémon and stuff anyway. I don’t know. There’s, yeah, I’m with you. There’s so many ways to do it. [08:36.000 –> 08:40.000] They could absolutely do it, because with Animal Crossing, the way it works, right, is you go, [08:40.000 –> 08:44.000] oh, I have lost my Switch or whatever, and then they give you a way to download it, right? [08:44.000 –> 08:48.000] It’s not just default, or I can do it whenever I want. You could absolutely do that. [08:48.000 –> 08:53.000] Go like, oh, these are backed up, but you can only access them by emailing us and saying, [08:53.000 –> 08:57.000] yes, my Switch broke. It was wiped. Can I please get my saves? [08:57.000 –> 09:02.000] And that massively increases the barrier to entry. You can’t just go and clone things whenever you want, right? [09:02.000 –> 09:07.000] You can still, there’s still a way to do it, but nobody’s going to do that realistically, right? [09:07.000 –> 09:12.000] They’re going to use the hundreds of other easier ways to clone Pokémon than that, right? [09:12.000 –> 09:18.000] There are literally bots on Discord you can go and message and then trade with them on the game, [09:18.000 –> 09:23.000] and it will send you back a copy of your Pokémon. That is literally a thing you can do. [09:23.000 –> 09:24.000] Anyway. [09:24.000 –> 09:26.000] Yes, agree. It’s stupid. [09:26.000 –> 09:28.000] Shall we talk about some news? [09:28.000 –> 09:29.000] Let’s do it. Let’s talk about news. [09:29.000 –> 09:34.000] Sorry, I just, it’s all very fresh. I’ve literally, it’s been like 27 hours since this has happened, [09:34.000 –> 09:37.000] so it’s all very fresh. I needed to get that rant out. [09:38.000 –> 09:42.000] So a quick preamble to this. Obviously, we’ve just had the Wholesome Direct. [09:42.000 –> 09:47.000] As you’re listening to this, it will have been out a few days ago, so you may well know a lot of what’s happening, [09:47.000 –> 09:52.000] and you may have gone and watched it. That’s fine. If you want to go watch it, we’ve got a link in the show notes to that. [09:52.000 –> 09:59.000] I’ll also put in a link to the Wholesome Games videos list, which has every trailer that they had in there, [09:59.000 –> 10:02.000] if you want to go and watch them. There are so many videos. [10:02.000 –> 10:07.000] We are not going to talk about games that just showed another trailer. [10:07.000 –> 10:10.000] Because that’s too much. We’re not doing that. [10:10.000 –> 10:14.000] There was 80 games in this trailer. We’re not doing that. [10:14.000 –> 10:16.000] We’re only going to talk about actual news. [10:16.000 –> 10:20.000] If you want to see everything, go watch the Direct. [10:20.000 –> 10:25.000] It would take us more time to discuss everything than it would be just go watch the Direct. [10:25.000 –> 10:30.000] But we will be talking about all the Farming and Cottagecore related news that came out. [10:30.000 –> 10:34.000] Okay, cool. And also, some of this news didn’t come out the Wholesome Direct. [10:34.000 –> 10:37.000] Because, as I said, it’s a busy week. There’s lots of stuff. [10:37.000 –> 10:38.000] So we’re just going to get into it. [10:38.000 –> 10:44.000] So I’ve chunked this up into a few different sections of different kinds of news, as I like to do when there’s lots of news. [10:44.000 –> 10:46.000] So the first section is releases. [10:46.000 –> 10:49.000] So first of all, massive news. [10:49.000 –> 10:55.000] Harvest Moon, the original Harvest Moon on SNES, is now on Switch Online outside of Japan. [10:55.000 –> 10:56.000] Woo! [10:56.000 –> 10:58.000] This is awesome. [10:58.000 –> 11:03.000] I’m not really a big one for going back and playing old games. [11:03.000 –> 11:09.000] But the ability to go back and play Harvest Moon is pretty tempting, right? [11:09.000 –> 11:15.000] We’ve talked in the past about preserving the historical nature of Cottagecore games. [11:15.000 –> 11:19.000] And this is a really little awesome step forward in that space. [11:19.000 –> 11:20.000] So this is very exciting. [11:20.000 –> 11:21.000] Absolutely. [11:21.000 –> 11:23.000] I will be going back and playing at some point. [11:23.000 –> 11:28.000] It’ll probably take me a while because this month is insane and then there’s the summer. [11:28.000 –> 11:33.000] But at some point I will go back and play it because I think it’s good for me to have played it. [11:33.000 –> 11:36.000] But I think most people won’t. [11:36.000 –> 11:46.000] But what I think is more exciting than the game itself being on is the fact that Natsume and Marvelous have managed to actually make an agreement on this. [11:46.000 –> 11:52.000] The two companies who fell out 15 years ago on this have now managed to make an agreement and say, [11:52.000 –> 11:56.000] yes, this game with this name can now go on on a service. [11:56.000 –> 11:57.000] That is huge. [11:57.000 –> 11:59.000] I honestly never thought this would happen. [11:59.000 –> 12:01.000] No, I don’t think anyone did. [12:01.000 –> 12:07.000] So, yeah, huge news, huge thing to be released. [12:07.000 –> 12:09.000] And it’s Switch Online, right? [12:09.000 –> 12:13.000] So you have to have the subscription in order to get it and then it’s free once you’ve got the subscription. [12:13.000 –> 12:14.000] Correct. [12:14.000 –> 12:20.000] And it’s just the lower priced Nintendo Switch Online because it’s SNES. [12:20.000 –> 12:22.000] So you don’t have to go for the more expensive. [12:22.000 –> 12:27.000] Next, we have a date for the early access of One Lonely Outpost and that is the 26th of June. [12:27.000 –> 12:29.000] So was that two weeks away? Something like that? [12:29.000 –> 12:30.000] Something like that. [12:30.000 –> 12:33.000] Yeah, it’ll be just about two weeks away. [12:33.000 –> 12:35.000] I’ll be totally honest with you, Johnny. [12:35.000 –> 12:37.000] I didn’t realise it was early access that was releasing in June. [12:37.000 –> 12:39.000] I thought it was the full release. [12:40.000 –> 12:48.000] I also thought this game was closer to release and I watched the new trailer and I don’t know about this game. [12:48.000 –> 12:54.000] Like, I like the idea of what it’s trying to do, you know, where you’re establishing a colony on a new planet. [12:54.000 –> 12:59.000] I think that’s an interesting twist on the traditional farming game. [12:59.000 –> 13:04.000] And then, you know, they’ve just got like fishing and look, I don’t want to rant about fishing again. [13:04.000 –> 13:08.000] But why does every game need fishing? [13:08.000 –> 13:14.000] We are on another planet and we still just have, like, the fishing to look different, which, cool. [13:14.000 –> 13:20.000] But I just want real, like, innovation. [13:20.000 –> 13:24.000] Yeah, I think that’s the thing is you watch the trailer and it starts out really interesting because you’re like, [13:24.000 –> 13:30.000] oh, you’re literally alone on this planet and then you’re trying to create an outpost and that’s really interesting. [13:30.000 –> 13:39.000] And I do like the idea of, like, slowly kind of terraforming, which does lead to more standard farming stuff once you get to that point. [13:39.000 –> 13:45.000] And then it’s like, oh, you have to, like, hire new people to come to the colony, blah, blah, blah, blah. [13:45.000 –> 13:48.000] So then they introduce the relationships again for some reason. [13:48.000 –> 13:54.000] But then it kind of goes into an interesting, like, oh, there’s maybe more to this than seems. [13:54.000 –> 13:59.000] Like, maybe there are other people on this planet because, like, there’s a point where it says we were told we were the first or something like that. [13:59.000 –> 14:03.000] So it kind of sounds like there’s a mystery element to it, which I’m intrigued by. [14:03.000 –> 14:07.000] Yeah, and yeah, the mystery part does seem intriguing. [14:07.000 –> 14:15.000] But there was even a weird thing, like, and maybe this is why I’m so irate at, like, the fishing person, is they showed you meeting her and she’s like, [14:15.000 –> 14:21.000] I’m the local fisherperson around here. And it’s like, what? What do you mean, like, ugh. [14:21.000 –> 14:28.000] Yes. But anyway, there was implications of some bigger story going on that does seem interesting. [14:28.000 –> 14:34.000] And, you know, I’m sure there’ll be a number of our listeners who are excited to try this when it comes to early access. [14:34.000 –> 14:39.000] The other thing is, obviously, this was the game where the developer changed, like, maybe a year ago or something like that. [14:39.000 –> 14:48.000] And a lot of people are disappointed with the change in art direction since then, which I’m going to be honest, I have no visual memory. [14:48.000 –> 14:54.000] So I have to go back and look at what it was and compare it. But I just, that’s a thing. Like, some people are disappointed. [14:54.000 –> 14:58.000] I am on board with people that are disappointed in the art direction. [14:58.000 –> 15:00.000] Just in general. [15:00.000 –> 15:13.000] No, well, in general, but for this game in particular, I think it looks, I just don’t like the style that they’ve landed on versus what was shown in some of the earlier screenshots and trailers. [15:13.000 –> 15:18.000] I’d need to spend more time looking at the two side by side because, as I say, I literally have no idea what it looked like before. [15:18.000 –> 15:22.000] Right, like, I cannot visualise that at all. [15:22.000 –> 15:25.000] Next, we have a release date for Fae Farm. [15:25.000 –> 15:29.000] So this was one that was first announced in a Nintendo Direct last year, I think. [15:29.000 –> 15:37.000] I’m surprised it’s coming out this early, but there we go. We’ve got the 8th of September this year and a new trailer. [15:37.000 –> 15:47.000] Yeah, exciting to see this one get a release date because, like you, this was very much in the definitely going to be 2024 bucket in my mind. [15:47.000 –> 15:58.000] New trailer looks fun. I can’t remember if that said whether or not they were going to have co-op, but co-op is confirmed for this one, which is cool. [15:58.000 –> 16:05.000] I think that was a kind of fundamental thing about it, I think. Not required, but that was one of their big things was, yeah, it’s a co-op game. [16:05.000 –> 16:09.000] Yeah, because it was definitely all over this trailer. [16:09.000 –> 16:15.000] Yeah, and the first trailer in the Nintendo Direct last year was, like, multiple of them bouncing around. I think they made a big thing. [16:15.000 –> 16:23.000] Yeah, it looks cool. I think I talked about this last time, but I’m a little bit over the whole, like, you know, it’s farming plus witches sort of thing. [16:23.000 –> 16:32.000] I don’t know that this one’s really doing enough for me to be like, yeah, I really want to check it out, but it does look like a good version of one of these. [16:32.000 –> 16:44.000] The art style to me is very reminiscent of, like, you know, the sort of Disney or Pixar-ish style games from, like, the early 2000s just scaled up for sort of modern times. [16:44.000 –> 16:49.000] And I do love the backflip that the character does, where they do, like, the double jump or whatever it is. That’s kind of great. [16:49.000 –> 16:55.000] Yeah, it looks like the movement is fluid and fun, which is very rare in farming games. [16:55.000 –> 16:59.000] Like, normally it’s just like, oh yeah, you just move forwards and backwards and yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. [16:59.000 –> 17:08.000] So it does look like a fun movement game. But yeah, I think I need to, I was going to say, I think I need to look into it more before I decide if I’m going to buy it and play it. [17:08.000 –> 17:18.000] But no, that’s my job. That’s what I’m doing. I’m going to play it and tell you. I can’t remember, did I get, was that a Kickstarter one or not? I need to double check. I have too many Kickstarters. [17:19.000 –> 17:31.000] My Time at Sandrock. So this is the, just in case you’re not aware, this is the sequel to My Time at Portia, currently in early access, full release, 1.0 release, sorry, coming 26th of September. [17:31.000 –> 17:43.000] Al, I think I’m ready to get burned again. I was so excited for My Time at Portia and I played like five minutes of that game and hated just about every second of it. [17:44.000 –> 17:49.000] And then I watched the trailer for My Time at Sandrock and it looks really good. [17:49.000 –> 17:54.000] Oh, Jonny, Jonny, Jonny, Jonny. Well, you can do that episode then. [17:56.000 –> 18:05.000] I just, I don’t know. Like I hated the crafting in it and I’m sure that’s going to be all over this version. Maybe I need to watch someone play the early access so I can get it out of my system. [18:05.000 –> 18:16.000] But, um, I don’t know. It looks really cool. And I like the whole sort of Western vibe for it. Again, like it seems like September is going to be a bit of a busy month. [18:16.000 –> 18:24.000] Not just September, the 26th of September, because that is My Time at Sandrock. It’s also Mineko’s Night Market, which we already knew about. [18:24.000 –> 18:32.000] And there’s another game coming out in the 26th of September, which I’m now moving up the list because that works, is Paleo Pines is coming out on the 26th of September. [18:32.000 –> 18:36.000] Three farming games coming out on the same day. [18:43.000 –> 18:53.000] Okay, I’m not playing My Time at Sandrock, probably ever. Paleo Pines I definitely want to play, but I’m sorry. Mineko comes first. Mineko’s Night Market comes first. Sorry, Paleo Pines. [18:53.000 –> 18:59.000] Yep. Yep. I was like, it sucks to not be Mineko’s Night Market because I think that’s the top of everybody’s list. [18:59.000 –> 19:05.000] There wasn’t an Echoes trailer in the Wholesome Direct, but technically no news. [19:05.000 –> 19:08.000] I believe it was on the Wholesome Direct pre-show. [19:08.000 –> 19:11.000] Oh, don’t get me started on this, Johnny! [19:11.000 –> 19:14.000] You had to know I was going to get you started on this at some point. [19:14.000 –> 19:20.000] This thing, the Wholesome Direct, was scheduled to start at 5pm My Time. [19:20.000 –> 19:24.000] And you tune in and it’s like, oh, here’s the countdown. Okay, fine, whatever, the countdown. [19:24.000 –> 19:31.000] And then what you think is the direct starts. And then halfway through they’re like, oh, and the last thing of our pre-show. [19:31.000 –> 19:36.000] And I’m like, I’m sorry, what now? This isn’t the show! Why is this not the direct? [19:36.000 –> 19:41.000] Why is this a pre-show that was meant to happen before the scheduled time for the thing? [19:41.000 –> 19:48.000] Like, it’s not, ugh. I just don’t understand. Why is that not just part of the thing? [19:48.000 –> 19:53.000] How are these things? It’s like they were like, oh, we can’t fit these ones into the direct. Let’s put them before the direct. [19:53.000 –> 19:58.000] But let’s put them at the scheduled time for the direct so that everybody sees them anyway. [19:58.000 –> 20:04.000] So they may as well have been in. It’s like, if you’re going to do a pre-show, do a pre-show. [20:04.000 –> 20:08.000] Don’t do a pre-show at the time that the show is meant to be. [20:08.000 –> 20:12.000] Also, what even is a pre-show when it’s just a YouTube livestream? [20:12.000 –> 20:17.000] Yeah, it wasn’t even a livestream. If it was a livestream it would make sense, right? [20:17.000 –> 20:22.000] Because then it’s just like a livestream starts and then at some point the pre-show happens and then the show happens. [20:22.000 –> 20:29.000] It was a premiere. It was just a video that they upload to go live at a certain time and everybody watches it like it’s a live show. [20:29.000 –> 20:31.000] But it’s not. It’s just a YouTube video. [20:31.000 –> 20:35.000] Oh my god, yes. So that makes absolutely no sense. [20:35.000 –> 20:39.000] It’s, you know, not like people are sitting there like, oh, message your friends, you know, it’s started. [20:39.000 –> 20:44.000] The pre-show’s starting. You’ve got to get it now. Like, it’s just a YouTube video. Come on. [20:44.000 –> 20:50.000] There was another one that I was watching yesterday, the Future of Play direct, which, stupid name, but whatever. [20:50.000 –> 20:58.000] They did it as a premiere as well. They had an hour long inside the premiere before the actual show. [20:58.000 –> 21:03.000] So if you tuned in when it went, oh, it’s going live now, you click on it, there’s an hour to go! [21:03.000 –> 21:10.000] Right, okay, fine. But the worst bit is, now, if you go to that YouTube video, it just has that hour of nonsense at the beginning. [21:10.000 –> 21:17.000] You have to forward on it. You have to go scroll through an hour of this hour and a half long video to see anything. [21:17.000 –> 21:24.000] I don’t, hey, pro tip, right, to all the people out there, and realistically, these people should know, [21:24.000 –> 21:28.000] because it was, I can’t remember, it was IGN, I think, that had this video up. Pro tip to IGN, [21:28.000 –> 21:34.000] I don’t know if anybody on your team knows this, but you can actually edit YouTube videos after they’ve been published [21:34.000 –> 21:39.000] to, like, trim down the beginning. You can do that. It’s a thing you can do, just to let you know. [21:39.000 –> 21:45.000] Also, you don’t have to do that. Don’t give it an hour long, like, it’s just, just make it go live. [21:45.000 –> 21:51.000] When you say it’s going to go live. Also, another thing, YouTube premiers have a countdown on the front of them. [21:51.000 –> 21:55.000] You don’t need to add your own countdown onto your video, because they already have a countdown. [21:55.000 –> 21:59.000] See, when you tune into a video, and there’s a countdown, and then the countdown stops, and then there’s another countdown, [21:59.000 –> 22:05.000] that’s very annoying. Just saying. No matter how lovely your countdown is, and Wholesome Games, your countdown was lovely. [22:05.000 –> 22:12.000] It was lovely, lovely to watch. But you know what, it’s six minutes past five, I want to be watching the thing now. [22:12.000 –> 22:15.000] I’m so pleased with how this went. [22:15.000 –> 22:22.000] Moonstone Island is releasing this summer. It’s really funny when it’s like, oh, here’s a, here’s an update on a release window, [22:22.000 –> 22:28.000] and it’s like, summer. Okay, fine. It’s summer now. Where’s the game? I don’t, just. [22:28.000 –> 22:33.000] I don’t even remember what Moonstone Island is. There were so many games showing this. [22:33.000 –> 22:36.000] I think there’s Flying Islands in this game. I lose track. [22:36.000 –> 22:39.000] Yeah, this is like the one with the Baba Yaga house. [22:39.000 –> 22:42.000] Which is a funny thing to hear now. [22:42.000 –> 22:47.000] Flying Islands, how original. [22:47.000 –> 22:50.000] Creature collecting life sim, this one is. [22:50.000 –> 22:55.000] It’s definitely, floating island is definitely the thing of the day, and creature collecting as well. [22:55.000 –> 23:01.000] Like, this one is kind of like just using all of the buzzwords of the day, and yet it still looks really good. [23:01.000 –> 23:06.000] Like, it’s got a nice pixelated art style. I don’t know, I’m really into this game. [23:06.000 –> 23:13.000] Yeah, me too. Their Steam page says Q3, which is not exactly the same as summer, [23:13.000 –> 23:16.000] no matter what definition of summer you use, but whatever, fine. [23:16.000 –> 23:21.000] Look, I think we’ve learned this year that summer is a very flexible word. [23:21.000 –> 23:31.000] I just, right, I want, I want game developers and publishers and PR people to stop using those words. [23:31.000 –> 23:37.000] Stop using spring, summer, winter, autumn, fall, whatever. Stop it. [23:37.000 –> 23:43.000] Use Q’s, right, because Q2, we all know what Q2 is. Cheers. Do that. [23:43.000 –> 23:48.000] Do we all know what Q2 is, Al? You might be assuming a lot of things about a lot of people. [23:48.000 –> 23:51.000] Well, you know what Q2 is. Don’t even pretend like you don’t know what Q2 is. [23:51.000 –> 23:54.000] I mean, I know what Q2 is, but, you know. [23:55.000 –> 24:02.000] Do not do the whole, oh, is it a Gregorian calendar year or is it a financial year? [24:02.000 –> 24:05.000] No, I don’t care. No, stop it. [24:05.000 –> 24:08.000] You cut me off before I even get started, Al. [24:10.000 –> 24:14.000] There was a new trailer for that as well. The game looks good. The news is it’s releasing in the summer. [24:14.000 –> 24:16.000] There’s nothing else new. Moving on. [24:17.000 –> 24:26.000] Smushy Come Home, which, by the way, I looked at the title and, wait, I know what that game is. [24:26.000 –> 24:33.000] That wasn’t the name, was it? Like, it’s impressive having a name for a game, and I didn’t see anything else. [24:33.000 –> 24:38.000] I just initially saw, oh, Smushy Come Home is coming out, because I saw that before the Direct started. [24:38.000 –> 24:43.000] They announced it just before the Direct. I was like, I do know what game they’re talking about, right? [24:43.000 –> 24:48.000] It’s the toad guy that’s, you know, going around and delivering mail and stuff, right? Fine. [24:48.000 –> 24:52.000] But that wasn’t the name, was it? And no, it wasn’t. Turns out it wasn’t the name. [24:52.000 –> 25:04.000] They had to change their name because they got cease and desist from a company with the same name as what they originally had, which was Shumi. [25:04.000 –> 25:07.000] So it was Shumi. Now it’s Smushy. [25:07.000 –> 25:09.000] Smushy. Smushy’s a great name. [25:09.000 –> 25:17.000] They say the name is Smushy, and then they try and describe the name of it, like, where’s the description? [25:17.000 –> 25:24.000] Pronounced S-M-U-S-H-Y. And I’m like, I’m sorry, the thing I’m not sure about is not there’s a Y at the end, right? [25:24.000 –> 25:29.000] The thing I’m confused about here is, how do you pronounce the U sound? Is it Smushy or Smushy? [25:29.000 –> 25:32.000] I assume it’s Smushy, right? Because it’s mushroom. [25:33.000 –> 25:36.000] Oh, okay. Yeah, we’ll go with that. [25:36.000 –> 25:42.000] But I just thought it might be U because presumably it was Shumi, the original name, right? It wasn’t Shummy, right? [25:42.000 –> 25:47.000] So I thought maybe we could see the consonant sound. Yeah, exactly. See, this is the problem. [25:47.000 –> 25:51.000] This is the problem. If you’re going to give us a pronunciation gain, give us a proper, record yourself saying it. [25:51.000 –> 25:56.000] That’s the best way to do it. Record yourself. All good. Anyway. [25:56.000 –> 26:00.000] Sorry, yes. Smushy come home is out now. [26:00.000 –> 26:05.000] That’s the news. It’s out now. Two days ago they were like, oh, big news coming Saturday. [26:05.000 –> 26:11.000] Not just big news, big thing. This is good. This is a good way to release a game. Just go, hey, out now. [26:11.000 –> 26:17.000] What was very funny is, in the trailer for this, the developer, because I believe it was developed by, [26:17.000 –> 26:24.000] I can’t remember their name, but I believe they developed the full game except for the music. [26:24.000 –> 26:31.000] I think it was just one guy, basically, yeah. And when he introduced the trailers, you know, did a bit of a, [26:31.000 –> 26:35.000] and wait till the end for, you know, like, make sure you watch to the end. [26:35.000 –> 26:38.000] And like the way that makes it seem like it’s going to be some really lame announcement. [26:38.000 –> 26:43.000] And then it’s just like all of a sudden and like kind of small text like out now. And I was like, wait, what? [26:43.000 –> 26:48.000] Out now? You should make that a much bigger deal. Much, much, much bigger. [26:48.000 –> 26:53.000] Yeah. Yeah. I really like the look of this game. I think it’s really cute. [26:53.000 –> 26:58.000] I’ll be interested to see how it actually plays. But yeah, it’s out now. Go play it if you want to play it. [26:58.000 –> 27:04.000] It’s out now on Steam and Switch. Wow. No, no Switch coming later. That’s impressive. [27:04.000 –> 27:05.000] That’s very impressive. [27:05.000 –> 27:11.000] Yeah. And so it’s on launch sale with 20% off. So good time to buy it. [27:11.000 –> 27:17.000] That’s all the release date information. Next, we have some updates and DLC. [27:17.000 –> 27:22.000] So the first one is the new Disney Dreamlight Valley update. The forgetting update is out now. [27:22.000 –> 27:27.000] Yeah, this looks, this is kind of the biggest update to date. [27:27.000 –> 27:32.000] If you’ve played through Disney Dreamlight Valley already, [27:32.000 –> 27:37.000] this is where they finally put someone into the pumpkin house that’s been there since this game released, [27:37.000 –> 27:40.000] I believe, with nobody living in it. [27:41.000 –> 27:48.000] And I mean, it just seems like I haven’t played much since we did the episode on Disney Dreamlight Valley, [27:48.000 –> 27:56.000] but the amount of cosmetic stuff that they have been putting into the game with every release that comes out is pretty absurd. [27:56.000 –> 28:00.000] So if you haven’t played this game in a while and some of the customization was a reason why, [28:00.000 –> 28:06.000] because when it first launched, it was very light. It’s getting absurdly deep with the amount of customization. [28:06.000 –> 28:10.000] So worth jumping back into for some of that stuff. [28:10.000 –> 28:17.000] Yeah, no, absolutely. I need to get, I think I’m going to wait until the 1.0 release just because I’m like, [28:17.000 –> 28:22.000] I don’t want to actually pay money for it and I was playing on Game Pass before and my Game Pass runs out in like two weeks [28:22.000 –> 28:26.000] and I’m not paying for Game Pass just now because I have too many games as it is. [28:26.000 –> 28:31.000] So, yeah, and I was getting a bit frustrated with the streaming of it. [28:31.000 –> 28:37.000] But I think once this goes 1.0 and free to play, I am going to get lost. [28:37.000 –> 28:42.000] Yeah, we might need to do another follow-up episode once it goes 1.0 because I’m in that same bucket. [28:42.000 –> 28:46.000] Once it goes 1.0, that’s when I think I’ll be ready to jump back in. [28:46.000 –> 28:50.000] Yep, yep, yep. There aren’t many games we’ve done that for. We did it for Ooblets. [28:50.000 –> 28:54.000] We’ve done it for anything else. I don’t think we’ve done it for anything else, but I plan to do it for more. [28:54.000 –> 28:57.000] Definitely want to do it for Coral Island. Definitely wanted to do it for Dreamlight Valley. [28:58.000 –> 29:03.000] Spirit of the Island have got a new free DLC, which is interesting. [29:03.000 –> 29:08.000] So it’s a DLC because it’s like a separate thing that you get from Steam rather than just an update. [29:08.000 –> 29:15.000] But why if it’s free? I don’t understand why you would do that, but I don’t care enough to argue about it. [29:15.000 –> 29:20.000] I wonder if it’s like a little marketing thing because it’s a new product. [29:20.000 –> 29:24.000] That’s a good point. Maybe it bumps up lists and stuff like that. Could be. [29:24.000 –> 29:31.000] It’s also possible that they want to have paid DLC later and this is just like getting people used to the idea of DLC. [29:31.000 –> 29:35.000] Yeah. Either way, more free content is always good. [29:35.000 –> 29:40.000] Yep. It’s out now. Sorry, I was just adding it to my content library there because I do own the game. [29:40.000 –> 29:43.000] I don’t know if I’ve played it, but I do own it. [29:43.000 –> 29:49.000] And an update rather than the DLC because this game hasn’t hit 1.0 yet is Orange Season. [29:49.000 –> 29:56.000] The Frostfall update, which if you couldn’t figure out, adds a bunch of stuff for Autumn and Winter. [29:56.000 –> 30:00.000] I’m not sure why they called it Frostfall and then said with Autumn and Winter season. [30:00.000 –> 30:04.000] It’s like, come on, get on your consistency there. Are you going to call it Fall or are you going to call it Autumn? [30:04.000 –> 30:07.000] Although I guess Frost Autumn doesn’t really sound as good, does it? [30:07.000 –> 30:20.000] Is Orange Season… Yeah, Orange Season is kind of the Stardew Valley clone that has yet to show off anything that actually stands out as a sort of unique selling point. [30:20.000 –> 30:32.000] But it does have a better name than it originally did because this was the one that was called Fantasy Farming Orange Season and then they just changed it to Orange Season, which is an infinitely better name. [30:32.000 –> 30:35.000] It is definitely better. I will not commit to it being infinitely better. [30:35.000 –> 30:42.000] I think it’s infinitely better because Fantasy Farming Orange Season is possibly the worst name they could have chosen. [30:42.000 –> 30:55.000] Blah, blah, blah. Anything to say about this? No, it’s an early access update. If you play the game, go get it. If you don’t play the game, by now you’re probably waiting for 1.0. [30:56.000 –> 31:03.000] And if you’ve played the game and you think it’s decent, let us know because I would be interested to hear. [31:03.000 –> 31:10.000] Sometimes you look at these games and you’re like, are people just bad at advertising their product? Because many times they are, right? [31:10.000 –> 31:15.000] Particularly when it’s small indie developers and they’re not advertising, they’re just game developers. [31:15.000 –> 31:23.000] So sometimes these things, we may be overly harsh if you’ve actually played the game because we’re just looking at a trailer or something like that. [31:23.000 –> 31:27.000] And a lot of these people are not marketers by trade. Yep, absolutely. [31:27.000 –> 31:33.000] And we can’t play all the games because there are too many games, as we said before. [31:33.000 –> 31:37.000] Okay, so we’re now getting into some slightly meatier stuff. [31:37.000 –> 31:48.000] So, Grimoire Groves, I think is how it’s pronounced, their Kickstarter is now live, which means, Johnny, we actually have some information about this game now. [31:48.000 –> 31:54.000] Like I think previously it was like, oh, here’s a piece of art. And that was basically it. [31:54.000 –> 32:03.000] So they’re calling this a cozy magical gardening adventure, grow cute plants and friendships with your witch magic. [32:03.000 –> 32:07.000] And then there’s a big long Kickstarter with a whole bunch of information. [32:07.000 –> 32:14.000] They’re also saying it’s a cozy roguelite dungeon crawler, which to me feels like a contradiction in terms. [32:14.000 –> 32:22.000] Well, I agree. But looking at the trailer, it didn’t give off strong combat vibes and maybe more like exploration. [32:22.000 –> 32:32.000] I assume it’s like, you know, maybe once your mana depletes or something to that effect, then that’s when you get kicked out rather than a sort of when you die. [32:32.000 –> 32:41.000] That was the impression that I got, which I think is a really interesting take if it’s like, yeah, more exploration based roguelite rather than a combat based roguelite. [32:41.000 –> 32:49.000] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because it says a cozy roguelite dungeon crawler that will transport you to a world of wonder and excitement. [32:49.000 –> 32:59.000] In this game, you’ll play as a young witch who grows cute plant creatures and discovers the secrets of the grimoire groves, a forest inhabited by mythical creatures and powerful spirits. [32:59.000 –> 33:05.000] And it might be because it looks like the plants are walking around after you’ve grown numb. [33:05.000 –> 33:10.000] So it could be if there is combat that your plants do the combat, like maybe it’s a plants versus zombies type thing. [33:10.000 –> 33:18.000] Yeah, it’s hard to know. But what sort of stood out to me is in the Kickstarter page, they sort of list the games that they were heavily inspired by. [33:18.000 –> 33:23.000] And they list Animal Crossing, Hades, Stardew Valley, Moonlighter and Wizard of Legend. [33:23.000 –> 33:29.000] Now, I have not played Wizard of Legend, but I have played the other four games and I love all four of those games. [33:29.000 –> 33:38.000] So when I saw that, I was very excited because they’re four like quite different games to have together as your inspiration. [33:38.000 –> 33:42.000] But the fact that I like them all, I am very excited by this. [33:42.000 –> 33:54.000] Yeah, I’m definitely willing to see how it goes because Cult of the Lamb I was very suspicious of combining the kind of roguelite stuff with farming, which worked really well. [33:54.000 –> 34:01.000] But I certainly wouldn’t say that was cozy. It didn’t feel cozy. It was still stressful. That’s the thing, right? [34:01.000 –> 34:06.000] And this looks cozier than Cult of the Lamb. At least it gives off cozier vibes. [34:06.000 –> 34:12.000] Yeah, no, absolutely. I agree. Like the colour palette and all of that, it definitely screams cozy. [34:12.000 –> 34:17.000] Oh my word, there’s a massive axolotl dragon type thing. I want an axolotl dragon. [34:17.000 –> 34:18.000] That does sound amazing. [34:18.000 –> 34:20.000] His face, so derpy. [34:20.000 –> 34:32.000] Yeah, the whole vibe of this game is very cute. I haven’t back to Kickstarter in ages and I’m kind of getting tempted to back this one because it looks cool. [34:32.000 –> 34:40.000] And I know that I said I’m very over sort of the witchy magic thing in farming games, but not for this one. This one is okay. [34:40.000 –> 34:49.000] And the Kickstarter is fully funded as of recording and there’s still 30 days to go. So it’s happening. [34:49.000 –> 34:53.000] Yeah, I’ve already backed it. I backed it as soon as it went live. [34:54.000 –> 34:57.000] I found another paragraph in the Kickstarter that gives us more hints. [34:57.000 –> 35:02.000] So this game being a rogue light means that you will die a lot, right? Don’t worry. [35:02.000 –> 35:06.000] The worst thing that can happen is falling asleep after spending too much magical energy. [35:06.000 –> 35:12.000] And even if that happens, each time you play, you’ll unlock new abilities and upgrades that will help you get further on your next. [35:12.000 –> 35:19.000] So it definitely does sound like it’s more like a kind of standard rogue light than Cult of the Lamb. [35:19.000 –> 35:30.000] It doesn’t sound like you have a base that doesn’t change. It sounds like the rogue light part of it is your gaining of upgrades and new ways to do things for the next playthrough, like Hades. [35:30.000 –> 35:38.000] Yeah, but even with Hades, there was like a central hub. And you upgraded things at the hub. [35:38.000 –> 35:45.000] What does the hub look like? Does it actually mean anything or is it basically just like a glorified menu? [35:45.000 –> 35:49.000] Well, there’s lots of characters that you could interact with at the hub. [35:49.000 –> 36:01.000] Like in many respects, it was a bit of a glorified menu, but there was a lot of interaction stuff and added a lot of color and flavor to the world of Hades. [36:01.000 –> 36:07.000] So it’s definitely not fair to say it was just a menu, but like that was the primary function that it served. [36:07.000 –> 36:13.000] Like there wasn’t huge gameplay elements. It was more like after each run, here’s a five minute break before you start the next run. [36:13.000 –> 36:21.000] See, this is what I liked about Cult of the Lamb is that your hub was a farm that you were building up, right? That was the farming bit of it. [36:21.000 –> 36:29.000] And even if you died, you would respawn in your farm the way the farm was and what you lost was what you had on the journey. [36:29.000 –> 36:34.000] Whereas it sounds like this is more like your standard rogue lights like Hades and… [36:34.000 –> 36:41.000] Oh, what’s the… atomic crops? Where, yeah, sure, you have a hub, and there are people there and stuff. [36:41.000 –> 36:45.000] But the point of that is just to upgrade stuff and then keep going on your thing. [36:45.000 –> 36:52.000] Whereas Cult of the Lamb was, this is the place you’re spending most of your time, or I want to go get some stuff, let’s go out into the rogue light aspect. [36:52.000 –> 36:57.000] Well, there is a demo out, so potentially we could try and find out. [36:57.000 –> 37:01.000] Come on, Johnny, I don’t have time for demos! [37:01.000 –> 37:05.000] If I can’t make a podcast episode on it, I’m not doing it. [37:05.000 –> 37:08.000] That is entirely reasonable. [37:08.000 –> 37:15.000] Yeah, okay, cool. That’s probably enough on that one, but it looks great. I have already backed it, linked to the Kickstarter if you want it. [37:15.000 –> 37:21.000] Next, we have Fields of Mystria. So, again, this was a game we didn’t know much about before. [37:21.000 –> 37:26.000] We knew it was a farming game of some kind, but that was all we really knew. [37:26.000 –> 37:37.000] We have a trailer, and we have a lot of new stuff, so the Steam page has a bun
Al and Jonnie go through all the news and newly announced games Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:07: What Have We Been Up To 00:20:06: News 01:16:56: Outro Links Roots of Pacha Back on Steam Wholesome Direct Date Above Snakes Steamdeck Coral Island Summer Update Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos Plushie Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos New Screenshot Everdream Valley Release Marvelous Showcase Starstruck Vagabond Just Life Natsu-Mon 20th Century Summer Vacation Grandma Green Grimoire Groves Revenant Hill Circle of Kerzoven 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 –> 00:30.000] . [00:30.000 –> 00:35.000] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. [00:35.000 –> 00:44.000] My name is Al and I’m Johnny and we are here today to talk about farming games. [00:44.000 –> 00:51.000] Important note at the top as always transcripts are available for this episode in the show notes and on the Web site. [00:51.000 –> 00:55.000] So if you need that go and get that. How you doing Johnny? [00:55.000 –> 01:01.000] I’m good, I’m good. It’s early morning on a Sunday so we’ll see how coherent I am by the end of the episode. [01:01.000 –> 01:06.000] But other than that I’m excited to talk farming games like legitimately. [01:06.000 –> 01:10.000] That’s what we’re talking about today right? It’s just infinite farming games. [01:10.000 –> 01:18.000] So many games. So I have found like as always there’s always games that appear and I’m like oh that’s a game I didn’t know about it add it to the list. [01:18.000 –> 01:25.000] And I don’t always talk about those new games as I come across them because like sometimes you can get a bit overwhelmed. [01:25.000 –> 01:33.000] And we’ve gotten to the point where I had like a couple of games and I was like maybe it’s time to go through these games let’s do an episode on it. [01:33.000 –> 01:42.000] And then boom a bunch came out this week. A bunch were announced this week so it was the perfect week to do it apparently. [01:43.000 –> 01:44.000] I just didn’t know it. [01:44.000 –> 01:48.000] It was well planned because usually these things happen like immediately after you record the episode. [01:48.000 –> 01:53.000] So you’ve clearly nailed the timing after four years of doing the show. [01:53.000 –> 01:57.000] We’ll see. Let’s see what happens after this recording. [01:59.000 –> 02:02.000] Alright cool so we’re going to talk all about those new games. [02:02.000 –> 02:07.000] We’ve got some other news that isn’t new game related which we’ll go over. [02:07.000 –> 02:09.000] But first of all Johnny what have you been up to? [02:09.000 –> 02:12.000] Well Al there’s this new game I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. [02:12.000 –> 02:17.000] It’s called The Legend of Zelda and it’s very good. [02:17.000 –> 02:20.000] I know you’ve been playing it a whole ton. [02:20.000 –> 02:30.000] I’m pretty sure you’re well ahead of where I am but kind of anytime I have time I am playing the new Zelda and I love it. [02:30.000 –> 02:35.000] It’s like I know people are going crazy and saying it’s maybe the best game ever made. [02:35.000 –> 02:38.000] Those people are probably accurate it’s probably the best game ever made. [02:38.000 –> 02:45.000] I always like I’m not saying it’s not the best game ever made right because I’m saying I’m not willing to say that. [02:45.000 –> 02:51.000] I’m not I’m not willing to say it is the best game purely because like I don’t even know what that means. [02:51.000 –> 02:54.000] Right like how do you define the best game? [02:54.000 –> 02:56.000] So I can I can answer this question. [02:56.000 –> 03:02.000] So you think of a game and that game is better than all of the other games. [03:02.000 –> 03:04.000] That game is the best game. [03:04.000 –> 03:11.000] What does it mean to be better like this is it is very subjective right like I think there are plenty of people. [03:11.000 –> 03:16.000] None of them are apparently on my friends list because almost everyone on my friends list on the switch is playing it. [03:16.000 –> 03:24.000] But there are people who don’t like this type of game right and so that that would be a subjective thing to them. [03:24.000 –> 03:26.000] They would not enjoy that kind of game. [03:26.000 –> 03:32.000] Yeah I think what I personally really like about Zelda is just how open it is right. [03:32.000 –> 03:40.000] It took the concept from Breath of the Wild of kind of go anywhere and do anything into actually do anything. [03:40.000 –> 03:53.000] The ultra hand mechanic that’s kind of the huge innovation that makes this game not just Breath of the Wild 1.5. [03:53.000 –> 03:55.000] Yeah I would agree. [03:55.000 –> 04:00.000] I think it’s funny there’s two things I find really funny about people playing this game. [04:00.000 –> 04:04.000] And they do something crazy and they’re like oh they’d never know we do this. [04:04.000 –> 04:10.000] And I’m like no maybe not specifically that but like do you think they didn’t have this sort of thing in mind when they designed this feature. [04:10.000 –> 04:16.000] Do you really think that they were designing this feature for you to make a boat to go across a river. [04:16.000 –> 04:17.000] Of course they not. [04:17.000 –> 04:20.000] They knew that this would be incredible on social media. [04:20.000 –> 04:24.000] People would make these insane things and it would get them so much positive. [04:24.000 –> 04:28.000] They knew that come on like we know that these people know how to make games right. [04:28.000 –> 04:33.000] They’ve made two games in a row that people are saying are the best game ever made. [04:33.000 –> 04:39.000] Right like they know what they’re doing they absolutely knew what people would do with this. [04:39.000 –> 04:45.000] And the other thing is when people do like a shrine and they’re like oh this is not the proper way to do this shrine. [04:45.000 –> 04:48.000] And I’m like there is no proper way that’s the point. [04:48.000 –> 04:52.000] Right like there is an intended solution to make sure you can get through the shrine. [04:53.000 –> 04:58.000] But they’re totally open to you cheesing the hell out of the shrine if that is the way that you get through it. [04:58.000 –> 05:06.000] Like I’m at the point where I’ve got over a hundred shrines now and anytime I go into a shrine that has one of those like pressure sensitive things that you’re meant to do something with a ball. [05:06.000 –> 05:08.000] I’m like no no and I just shoot it with a bomb arrow. [05:08.000 –> 05:15.000] I’m done with those I’m fine with just just getting through like absolutely like that there’s no specific way to do these things. [05:15.000 –> 05:20.000] And it’s like even with some shrines there isn’t actually like a clear intended thing. [05:20.000 –> 05:22.000] Like there’s multiple different ways to do it. [05:22.000 –> 05:29.000] I think with a lot of them there is like here’s the way that this is like the as you say suggested way to do it. [05:29.000 –> 05:32.000] But I think there are even shrines that that’s not the case. [05:32.000 –> 05:37.000] Yeah that wouldn’t surprise me I’ve only done about 30 so um yeah you know. [05:37.000 –> 05:43.000] Relatively speaking I’m not that far in and it would not surprise me if there’s there’s shrines like that. [05:43.000 –> 05:48.000] And you know I was talking to some friends about Zelda last night and they haven’t played it yet. [05:48.000 –> 05:52.000] And they were asking you know because I’m off doing all of the side stuff and haven’t done any of the main story. [05:52.000 –> 05:54.000] They’re like but won’t you be overpowered when you come back to the story? [05:54.000 –> 06:01.000] It’s like no that’s not really a thing like yes you know I might have some powerful weapons by the time I come back. [06:01.000 –> 06:06.000] But it’s not like the combat is the gating in this game really I don’t find. [06:06.000 –> 06:12.000] No if you’ve played Breath of the Wild and you got good at the combat in Breath of the Wild you’re already overpowered for this game. [06:13.000 –> 06:27.000] Right like and sure you can get new weapon and stuff but you can get like the best weapon and the best bow and the best shield almost immediately in the game if you cared about it. [06:27.000 –> 06:30.000] Right they’re like they’re right there you can go and get them. [06:30.000 –> 06:31.000] Yep. [06:31.000 –> 06:40.000] Like nothing’s stopping you and so much if you are good at dodge this is the thing about Breath of the Wild this is actually why I love the combat in these games. [06:40.000 –> 06:46.000] Is if you are good at dodging you can beat any enemy with almost any weapon. [06:46.000 –> 06:50.000] It’ll take longer if you have lower powered weapons obviously you might get a bit bored. [06:50.000 –> 06:54.000] But you can if you’re good at it you can do anything with any of these enemies. [06:54.000 –> 07:00.000] Yeah and the thing I like right because I am not particularly good at the dodging mechanics I don’t have great timing. [07:00.000 –> 07:12.000] But even I can like there’s ways to cheese around the combat right and so I can go like I’ve gone and taken on some stuff that’s you know technically a lot more difficult than the quality of the weapons should let me beat. [07:12.000 –> 07:23.000] But with all of the ability to build stuff and bomb arrows and like all of the weapon fusing stuff you can get through some pretty difficult battles you know pretty easily if you want. [07:23.000 –> 07:37.000] Yeah just bomb everything and especially if you if you get to the point where you’ve got you know a significant number of batteries for the Zonai stuff you can make some pretty dangerous weapons with the with like the charge beams and stuff like that. [07:37.000 –> 07:49.000] Like you can I saw someone and someone defeated one of the glioks with literally 30 seconds with with a Zonai weapon. [07:49.000 –> 07:53.000] Like they’re just some of them you can make insanely overpowered things. [07:53.000 –> 08:07.000] Yeah and for me this is the most ridiculous thing about this game is so last night I finally kind of went into the underground so you know explored and done a lot of the towers and done some of the sky islands. [08:07.000 –> 08:14.000] And I’d done like just that very intro quest where you get the camera in the underground and that was all I had done. [08:15.000 –> 08:25.000] And I was like oh maybe I should go into the underground and do like the the second quest that’s that’s down there or the second quest that you get given to go down there and spend the entire night down there. [08:25.000 –> 08:38.000] And why is the underground so fun and like because to me it’s this thing that didn’t even need to be in the game right if they were just like here’s Breath of the Wild plus Sky Islands everyone would have been like great this game is amazing. [08:38.000 –> 08:54.000] Yeah and then they put this entire third map into the game and it wasn’t even the big promotion part and it’s so good it has no right to be that much fun to explore and just I don’t know it’s it’s amazing. [08:55.000 –> 09:03.000] And there’s also there’s there’s there’s are obviously like there’s loads of enemies down there that are just like the normal version but with gloom on them which is fine. [09:03.000 –> 09:12.000] Like people get annoyed about these I don’t think that’s a problem like I actually quite like that because it’s like it’s playing around with the usual enemies and making you have to think about them differently. [09:12.000 –> 09:20.000] But there are also completely exclusive enemies down there as well that you only get in the depths that you wouldn’t find anywhere else, which is fun as well. [09:20.000 –> 09:31.000] Yeah and I’m not really impacted by the like I’m like gloom enemies I’m running minimum hearts so they’re not that different to the regular enemies from my perspective. [09:32.000 –> 09:35.000] Run away. Run away and bomb them. [09:37.000 –> 09:41.000] Yeah yeah definitely avoid the the gloom Lionel. [09:41.000 –> 09:54.000] Yeah this is not a podcast about Zelda so we’re going to stop talking about this just now and we will be doing I guarantee you we will be doing a greenhouse episode about Zelda because I think we have a lot more to talk about it. [09:54.000 –> 10:02.000] So look out for that probably a couple of weeks but it will come out but yeah okay cool anything else other than Zelda? [10:03.000 –> 10:20.000] As usual just being you know Marvel snapping up a storm it’s still a really good game I have no idea what they’re trying to do in order to monetize this game because other than season passes like I just look at the bundles that they release and I just am so fascinated by who would be picking up these things. [10:20.000 –> 10:40.000] I think it’s I think it’s I think the season pass is for most people who will if you’re going to put any money and you’re going to do the season pass right like that is that is the thing to do I think the bundles are for for the whales right the whales will spend a ridiculous amount of money and they’ll do whatever it’s like oh yeah I’ll drop 50 quid for that of course like some people. [10:40.000 –> 10:44.000] I would say in most games I am a whale and it’s too much for me. [10:45.000 –> 11:04.000] I feel like probably we just don’t fully understand what whales are like whales are not like oh yeah I’ve put in 200 quid this year right like that’s not a whale that’s that’s a decent chunk of money but it’s not a whale a whale is like yeah all my free money is going in this you know. [11:04.000 –> 11:33.000] I guess by that definition I’m definitely not but I mean I yeah it’s their pricing is insane but High Evolutionary just came out which is a very fun card has you know really taken over the meta game for the last few days and I may have been a horrible person and gone back to playing Galactus just really effectively dunks on all of these High Evolutionary decks but High Evolutionary is a really fun card and like just the design that I’ve been doing with Marvel Snap has been really really good. [11:33.000 –> 11:46.000] They’ve been making a bunch of sort of small tweaks on a weekly basis which has been awesome for the meta game and yeah I just I really like it as a little fun game that kind of just keeps ticking over. [11:46.000 –> 11:53.000] I thought I would have bounced off by now but I’m really still feeling it so I love Snap. Are you still snapping Al? [11:54.000 –> 12:14.000] Not regularly. I pop in every so often and do stuff but I’ve not really done for the last couple of weeks. I still it’s I think I mentioned this last time we were we were chatting about it is like I try so hard to be the type of person that will just play a game for 10 minutes a day but it just is not me and I have never managed to do that. [12:14.000 –> 12:30.000] So like I’m either playing a game or I’m not playing a game so no like well this is the thing like even with Zelda right like I can do something in 10 minutes so why wouldn’t I do something in 10 minutes like it’s not like a game where once you start you’re in it for an hour. [12:30.000 –> 12:41.000] No it absolutely is because it’s the sort of game where you start with a thing in mind and then doing the thing that you had in mind takes so long because you get distracted doing a million other things. [12:41.000 –> 12:53.000] Yeah, so anytime I’m so I think my point is like anytime I would possibly pay Snap I’m just playing Zelda instead right and if I was playing Snap I’d be like why am I not playing Zelda because I’m enjoying that game. [12:53.000 –> 13:08.000] So I’ve been playing a lot of Zelda I was just double checking my switch says I’ve been played for over 70 hours on Zelda now, which is kind of stupid considering it’s been two weeks and that’s nearly a full time job. [13:09.000 –> 13:12.000] Over two weeks. [13:12.000 –> 13:23.000] So, yeah, I suspect I’m probably pretty close to the ADHD burnout part of the first play of Tears of the Kingdom. [13:23.000 –> 13:28.000] So I suspect at some point in the next week I will end up putting it down for a few months. [13:28.000 –> 13:37.000] But we’ll see. That is how I play my games. I have to do it as much as possible because I know the end is coming where my brain tells me I’m done for now. [13:37.000 –> 13:51.000] Yeah, see I think I’ll be playing this game for like the rest of the year and it’s a shame because I’m looking at other games that are coming up and coming out and I’m just like, I don’t know how I’m going to find time for these games around Zelda because that’s just me for the rest of the year I think. [13:51.000 –> 13:58.000] I’ll keep coming back to it but I don’t think I’ll be playing as much as I have done just now over the next month. [13:58.000 –> 14:03.000] I would hope not. That feels like an unsustainable pace for the rest of the year. [14:03.000 –> 14:06.000] 35 hours a week for every week. [14:06.000 –> 14:10.000] And we need new episodes of this show to come out. [14:11.000 –> 14:22.000] I’ve got a game I need to play this week for next week’s episode so I definitely won’t be playing 35 hours this week because that is literally all, you know, any second of free time I have that 35 hours. [14:22.000 –> 14:25.000] Oh man, that’s a lot of time. [14:25.000 –> 14:34.000] Or the other thing is obviously I’ve not been playing it but I watched the PlayStation Showcase on Wednesday and I’m very excited for Spider-Man coming out. [14:34.000 –> 14:36.000] I believe you mean Spider-Man 2. [14:36.000 –> 14:38.000] Do we need to get into this? [14:38.000 –> 14:43.000] We don’t need to. I just, you know, I know how much you love that name so I just wanted to make sure we were… [14:43.000 –> 14:52.000] So what I said to you before the Showcase, Johnny, was if they announce a release date and they haven’t given us a new name I’m accepting that that’s the name. [14:52.000 –> 14:56.000] They haven’t given us a release date. They didn’t give us a release date on Wednesday. [14:56.000 –> 14:58.000] I don’t know why they’ve not given us a release date, right? [14:58.000 –> 15:03.000] Like, this game is probably like four months away and they’ve not given us a release date. [15:04.000 –> 15:06.000] So I’m still not accepting it, right? [15:06.000 –> 15:09.000] It’s the third game. Well, what sixth game actually? [15:09.000 –> 15:11.000] Do you live in denial? [15:11.000 –> 15:13.000] I do. I do live in denial. [15:13.000 –> 15:21.000] But it looks like a good game. I’m excited. It looks like there’s a bigger area. It looks like there’s a ridiculous number of enemies as usual. [15:21.000 –> 15:23.000] I don’t know how they managed to stick so many enemies in. [15:23.000 –> 15:30.000] I’m really interested to see whether the Green Goblin is actually in it because they teased that in a previous game but they didn’t show anything about that. [15:30.000 –> 15:34.000] So maybe he’ll be like a surprise endgame boss or something like that. [15:34.000 –> 15:41.000] But then if he is in it, you’ve got Lizard, you’ve got Kraven, you’ve got Green Goblin. [15:41.000 –> 15:45.000] Like, that’s quite a lot of enemies to start with and there’s no way it will just be the three of them, right? [15:45.000 –> 15:48.000] Because of Venom, of course, as well. What’s going to happen with the Venom stuff? [15:48.000 –> 15:58.000] I’m really interested in that because at the beginning of the trailer it looks like Peter is just kind of like, you know, bonded with Venom and just quite happy and just going on with his life. [15:58.000 –> 16:03.000] But then there’s a weird bit at the end where you’re like, oh yeah, things are clearly not okay there. [16:03.000 –> 16:08.000] And so how are things going with that? I thought it was weird halfway through. I was like, why is Peter so okay with this? [16:08.000 –> 16:15.000] Like, he’s not acting weird. He’s just kind of doing things but he’s got new abilities. [16:15.000 –> 16:21.000] And I’m intrigued to see how that happens because they cannot do the thing where he overcomes Venom and gets rid of Venom. [16:21.000 –> 16:26.000] Because then Peter becomes less useful a Spider-Man than Miles, right? [16:26.000 –> 16:37.000] They can’t do that. They have to have a point where you can be playing both of them and they both have different abilities but both on top of what the base Spider-Man abilities were in the first game. [16:37.000 –> 16:48.000] And so what are they going to do with that story? Are they just going to get to the point where he’s just okay with Venom and Venom’s not causing Peter any issues? I don’t know. I’m intrigued to see. [16:48.000 –> 16:58.000] And it’s going to be interesting to see, right? Because in theory having the two Spider-Men to play as means that they could go in a direction where it’s like… [16:58.000 –> 17:11.000] I don’t want to say less fun but maybe have a little bit more of a loss of control feeling with the Venom thing which is okay because you can always go back to Miles if you want the more classic Spider-Man experience, I guess. [17:11.000 –> 17:13.000] So it’ll be interesting to see how they do that. [17:13.000 –> 17:24.000] Yeah, I mean Miles has different abilities. This is where I get really annoyed. The abilities they gave Miles in the second game was called Venom ability. [17:24.000 –> 17:33.000] So you’ve got Miles who has Venom and Peter who has Venom but they’re different Venoms. I don’t know why they’re different. [17:33.000 –> 17:41.000] Just don’t think about it too hard. Maybe that’s why this is Spider-Man 2. It’s technically a sequel but don’t think too hard about the first one. [17:41.000 –> 17:47.000] So the other thing I’m intrigued about is how they’re going to do that you can play as either Spider-Man. [17:47.000 –> 17:55.000] Is it going to be you can choose whichever one you want for a specific situation or is it going to be you switch between them as your story goes but they decide when you switch? [17:55.000 –> 18:03.000] It’s not quite clear from the thing that we had. There was a point where they switched and it kind of showed it kind of like it could be. [18:03.000 –> 18:13.000] Oh this is now the time that we switch or it could be like oh it was just kind of hinting that you could switch now by the way if you wanted but they could actually do it at any point. [18:13.000 –> 18:32.000] I’m intrigued with that. I’m kind of like and this goes back to the Zelda conversation right like I’m not a huge fan of puzzle games in general or puzzles in games because I quite often feel like they are expecting me to have a very specific thing to do and I don’t find that fun like oh I need to figure out what they want me to do. [18:33.000 –> 18:51.000] That’s not fun puzzle to me and I suspect we might end up in a situation where you’re like oh you can only do this with Peter or you can only do this with Miles and you have to figure out which one they want you to do because only Venom’s ability can do this bit or only the Venom ability can do this bit. [18:51.000 –> 19:10.000] Right like it doesn’t I don’t find that sort of fun and that’s why I love Zelda so much is because like it doesn’t matter what they wanted you to do you can do whatever that’s fun puzzle to me it’s like figure out a way to solve this not figure out our jigsaw right like it’s not a one size fits all thing. [19:10.000 –> 19:20.000] Yeah my assumption was going to be that you could kind of free switch if you were just doing the open world stuff but there might be certain missions that are Miles or Peter. [19:21.000 –> 19:38.000] That would be likely I think yeah but that still leads me towards the assumption that there’s going to be puzzles that only work with one or the other and that stuff just annoys me that’s not a puzzle right that’s just like oh you just need to remember to switch like that’s not fun. [19:38.000 –> 19:39.000] But no anyway. [19:39.000 –> 20:03.000] No like I’m with you on puzzles right like and it’s one of the hard things about puzzles and games is when they have specific solutions and then you look it up and so many times it’s like you get stuck on something and it’s often because you’ve worked out how to solve the puzzle but you didn’t do step 2a that you have to do to technically get all of the right pieces in place and it’s just like just recognize that I understand how to solve the puzzle and let me move on. [20:03.000 –> 20:11.000] Yeah yeah anyway I think that might be our longest what have you been up to section so should we get on to some news? [20:11.000 –> 20:12.000] Let’s do it. [20:12.000 –> 20:28.000] So first of all we have an update on the route to patch situation in that the game is back on steam now and the the two companies the dev team so did them then and the publishers is it critical critical? [20:28.000 –> 20:29.000] Cretivo? [20:30.000 –> 20:33.000] Thank you for suggesting a third pronunciation. [20:33.000 –> 20:47.000] Well anyway doesn’t doesn’t matter the two of them have amicably parted ways under terms that are mutually beneficial and I hope you heard the air quotes in that. [20:48.000 –> 21:03.000] I mean the statement that they put out on twitter is very clearly a statement that was written by lawyers and I don’t think we’ll hear anything more about went on behind the scenes and to be honest we don’t need to hear more. [21:03.000 –> 21:09.000] It’s good that it’s available back on steam and it sounds like there’s a way forward which is awesome. [21:09.000 –> 21:23.000] Probably for me the other piece of news that was interesting coming out of this just in some of the twitter replies from the routes of parcher twitter is that the team’s actively working on a roadmap that they’re hoping to put out next week. [21:23.000 –> 21:31.000] So that should cover things like when routes of parcher is likely to come to consoles as well as new content. [21:31.000 –> 21:33.000] Yeah yeah I agree fun. [21:33.000 –> 21:36.000] But if you want to know more about routes of parcher listen to last week’s episode. [21:36.000 –> 21:46.000] Yes yeah great episode by Cody and Kev on the game and I said before that I was going to listen to it to decide whether I wanted to buy the game. [21:46.000 –> 21:54.000] The answer is yes but probably not yet purely because I have so much going on in terms of games. [21:54.000 –> 21:57.000] As the rest of the news section will show. [21:57.000 –> 21:59.000] That is exactly where I landed. [21:59.000 –> 22:05.000] I was like I’m excited for this to come out on consoles in like three months when hopefully I have some time to play it. [22:05.000 –> 22:13.000] Yeah yeah yeah maybe this could become my like summer game where I play it when I’m on holiday and I don’t really have any other things. [22:13.000 –> 22:19.000] Because like for those who haven’t listened to the podcast before there’s like a month in the summer where I’m away. [22:19.000 –> 22:28.000] I’m not on holiday I’m doing some things for some of the weeks and I’m working for the other weeks but I’m not at home and I don’t want to have to deal with the podcast so we pre-record a bunch of episodes. [22:28.000 –> 22:38.000] I’ll have like a month and a little bit of just like not needing to think about other games for the podcast so it might be nice to do that then but we’ll see. [22:38.000 –> 22:42.000] Next we have the date for the Wholesome Direct. [22:42.000 –> 22:52.000] So we knew this was coming but we we now have the date it is going to be on Saturday the 10th of June or Sunday for some people. [22:53.000 –> 23:02.000] Saturday the 10th of June in America and Europe and Sunday in well probably I don’t know where the line will be based on the time. [23:02.000 –> 23:04.000] It will definitely be Sunday in New Zealand. [23:04.000 –> 23:12.000] It’s the great thing about living here is anytime you see a date announced for something you can say okay I’ll just make that one day later on the calendar because that’s when it actually will be happening for us. [23:12.000 –> 23:16.000] Yeah I hadn’t actually noticed the time before 9 a.m. Pacific. [23:16.000 –> 23:22.000] That is 5 p.m. for me. Ah the worst time. The worst time. [23:22.000 –> 23:28.000] Literally that is the worst time for me because if it’s earlier than that I can do it while I’m working. [23:28.000 –> 23:37.000] If it’s in that two hour period between five and seven that is the period that I’m dealing with my kids. [23:37.000 –> 23:46.000] I’m getting them tea I’m getting them ready for bed I’m getting them into bed 7 p.m. and later that’s that works before 5 p.m. that works five and seven that doesn’t really annoying. [23:46.000 –> 23:47.000] Whatever. [23:47.000 –> 23:55.000] I think what’s most concerning about this Wholesome Games thing is that they’re going to have footage from over 70 games. [23:55.000 –> 23:57.000] Yeah I mean most of those you won’t care about. [23:57.000 –> 23:59.000] Too many games. [23:59.000 –> 24:05.000] Most of those you will not care about because I guarantee you because I think that’s roughly the same number they had last year. [24:05.000 –> 24:12.000] And I think we ended up having like six to talk about on the podcast and out of those you’d probably not care about three of them so. [24:12.000 –> 24:17.000] 70 games that’s just too many games coming out we need we need less games. [24:17.000 –> 24:24.000] This isn’t even all the games right this is just they would they will have turned down about half of them again. [24:24.000 –> 24:30.000] Well hopefully there’s something for everybody in the Wholesome. [24:31.000 –> 24:36.000] Yes and we will do an episode talking about everything that was in it. [24:36.000 –> 24:38.000] Hopefully. [24:38.000 –> 24:40.000] That is a busy day for me. [24:40.000 –> 24:43.000] Oh wait it’s a Saturday it doesn’t matter about when work is. [24:43.000 –> 24:45.000] I’m an idiot. [24:45.000 –> 24:49.000] Well now that we’ve come full circle on that one. [24:49.000 –> 24:51.000] Shall we talk about Snakes? [24:51.000 –> 24:53.000] Yeah why not. [24:53.000 –> 24:55.000] Which is now verified for the Steam Deck. [24:55.000 –> 24:57.000] Which is awesome. [24:57.000 –> 24:59.000] And it’s out now right? [24:59.000 –> 25:01.000] It is. It is. [25:01.000 –> 25:03.000] As you’re listening to this it came out a week ago. [25:03.000 –> 25:05.000] It came out on Wednesday. [25:05.000 –> 25:08.000] And it looks great on the screenshot that they’ve got. [25:08.000 –> 25:12.000] Oh it’s not a screenshot it’s a photo of a Bob Snakes running on the Steam Deck. [25:12.000 –> 25:14.000] Same thing right? [25:14.000 –> 25:17.000] Just a poor man’s screenshot. [25:19.000 –> 25:21.000] Yeah that’s exciting. [25:21.000 –> 25:33.000] Yes I will play this at some point but I can’t play it just now because I kickstarted for the Switch version which isn’t out yet and they have not replied to me about switching my key to Steam. [25:33.000 –> 25:40.000] So if anyone from Above Snakes is listening and I’ve sent you a message please give me a Steam key. [25:40.000 –> 25:43.000] Also please give us a release date for the Switch. [25:43.000 –> 25:47.000] Even if it’s like ages I would just like some detail on when. [25:47.000 –> 25:52.000] Because I really want to play Above Snakes and there has not been any detail on when it’s actually going to come out on the Switch. [25:52.000 –> 25:54.000] 100% it won’t be this year. [25:56.000 –> 25:59.000] But it was on my 2023 like most anticipated list Al. [25:59.000 –> 26:04.000] Yeah. Don’t blame me. I am not a developer. [26:04.000 –> 26:07.000] You are the closest thing I know to the developer though so. [26:07.000 –> 26:13.000] That is a very very low bar. [26:15.000 –> 26:17.000] I have talked about it. [26:17.000 –> 26:19.000] Exactly. Exactly. [26:19.000 –> 26:24.000] Next we have Coral Island. The Summer update is out now. [26:24.000 –> 26:28.000] And I am not going to play it yet. I’ve got too many things to do. [26:29.000 –> 26:35.000] But I am very excited for this because it unlocks the final bit of the mines. [26:35.000 –> 26:41.000] I was waiting for it to update because I need to get into that fire gate and get that last giant out of there. [26:41.000 –> 26:44.000] Get some Osmium ore. [26:44.000 –> 26:49.000] You’ve got to be most excited for the chicken steer off in the cow racing right? [26:49.000 –> 26:53.000] Yes. So it adds three animal festivals. [26:54.000 –> 26:57.000] Rodeo challenge. Test your skills on a mechanical bull. [26:57.000 –> 27:01.000] Chicken steer off. See who’s chicken has the strongest steer. [27:01.000 –> 27:05.000] Okay. And cow race. Find out which cow is the fastest in town. [27:05.000 –> 27:08.000] Because of course as we all know the best animal to race is cows. [27:08.000 –> 27:12.000] Yeah. Absolutely. I love the idea of a chicken steer off. [27:12.000 –> 27:14.000] Because I don’t know if you are aware of this. [27:14.000 –> 27:17.000] It’s kind of like an old wives tale but I’ve seen it happen a few times. [27:17.000 –> 27:19.000] But you can actually hypnotize chickens. [27:19.000 –> 27:21.000] Yes. You can. [27:21.000 –> 27:26.000] Oh okay. Amazing. Because usually when I say this to people they look at me like I’m just growing an extra head. [27:26.000 –> 27:29.000] No it’s 100% real. It’s 100% real. [27:29.000 –> 27:32.000] I have not done it because it’s very mean. [27:32.000 –> 27:36.000] But I did used to have some chickens that I took care of. [27:36.000 –> 27:40.000] And I am aware that the hypnotizing is real. [27:40.000 –> 27:43.000] It’s weird and mean but real. [27:43.000 –> 27:48.000] But if you want your chicken to win the chicken steer off I would suggest hypnotizing it. [27:48.000 –> 27:50.000] That might be a good place to start. [27:50.000 –> 27:53.000] They also chickens have very stable heads. [27:53.000 –> 27:55.000] They work very much like a gimbal. [27:55.000 –> 27:58.000] So you can strap a camera to a chickens head and it’s going to be a very stable video. [27:58.000 –> 27:59.000] Interesting. [27:59.000 –> 28:01.000] Obviously it has to be quite a small camera. [28:01.000 –> 28:04.000] You’re not sticking a red camera on it. [28:04.000 –> 28:07.000] Like one of the GoPro Minis would probably work. [28:07.000 –> 28:13.000] Yeah. Wow. Who was expecting actual animal facts on this here? [28:13.000 –> 28:16.000] It makes me sound like I was an actual farmer. No. [28:16.000 –> 28:19.000] I just had 12 chickens. That’s not unusual is it? [28:19.000 –> 28:22.000] Well look I’m from New Zealand so no that’s not unusual. [28:22.000 –> 28:26.000] But I’m not sure how much that translates to the rest of Ella’s in the bays. [28:26.000 –> 28:28.000] Chickens are such fun. [28:28.000 –> 28:35.000] You know what I find most funny is people get really confused en masse when you talk about the fact that chickens can fly. [28:35.000 –> 28:38.000] What do you mean chickens can fly? Chickens can fly. [28:38.000 –> 28:43.000] The reason you don’t see them flying in farms is because they clip their wings. [28:43.000 –> 28:47.000] They’re birds. They’re not ostriches. They can fly. [28:47.000 –> 28:49.000] Maybe not the most efficient flies. [28:49.000 –> 28:53.000] No they are not. They look a lot like pigeons when they fly. [28:53.000 –> 28:56.000] And you’re like how on earth are you staying in the air? [28:56.000 –> 29:05.000] Although it’s really funny even when you clip their wings they can still use the wings to jump like six or seven feet high. [29:05.000 –> 29:10.000] So still can escape most things without a roof. [29:10.000 –> 29:16.000] Or you can occasionally see when they get onto the roof of their chicken poop which is really fun to confuse townies. [29:16.000 –> 29:20.000] Ah fun times. Moving on from the chicken conversation. [29:20.000 –> 29:26.000] Yeah there’s lots of stuff. One thing that I am very interested in that I wasn’t aware that was coming was sprinkler attachments. [29:26.000 –> 29:31.000] So you can upgrade your sprinklers to have auto seed and auto fertilize on them as well. [29:31.000 –> 29:33.000] And yes yes yes yes. [29:33.000 –> 29:37.000] And that’s something I’m surprised we haven’t seen in more farming games. [29:37.000 –> 29:43.000] Because it feels like one of those automation things that should be in a number of games. [29:43.000 –> 29:48.000] I know it was in Ooblets with the Oobcoops. Still the best feature of that game. [29:48.000 –> 29:53.000] And so it’s good to see it here because it’s just one of those things that I’m surprised doesn’t make its way into more games. [29:53.000 –> 29:57.000] Yeah I think Ooblets had the most. So they had you can basically do everything. [29:57.000 –> 30:03.000] As long as you put seeds in the Oobcoop, the little storage, they will do everything you need. [30:03.000 –> 30:09.000] And Stardew had you could get the the juvenile hut and they would go and harvest. [30:09.000 –> 30:12.000] But I don’t think they would ever plant or fertilize. [30:12.000 –> 30:14.000] No they would not. [30:14.000 –> 30:19.000] So I don’t know of any other game where you can plant automatically and there’s possibly a fertilizing one. [30:19.000 –> 30:24.000] But I can’t think that I’ve just got in the niggling in the back of my brain that says there’s one that has an automatic fertilizing. [30:24.000 –> 30:26.000] But I can’t think of what it is. [30:26.000 –> 30:29.000] No neither. But exciting that this is coming to Coral Island. [30:29.000 –> 30:36.000] Yes yes go go play the summer update Bev. Bev it’s time go play go play more Coral Island. [30:36.000 –> 30:39.000] Next we have Harvest Moon the Winds of Anthos. [30:39.000 –> 30:44.000] We are this game I’m I still I don’t know what to think of this game. [30:44.000 –> 30:46.000] Let’s let’s go through. [30:46.000 –> 30:50.000] We have to accept we’re excited for this game that is that is where we are at now Al. [30:50.000 –> 30:52.000] Some level of excitement certainly. [30:52.000 –> 30:55.000] Look let’s go through the easy the easy and clearly exciting stuff. [30:55.000 –> 30:57.000] The plush is out. They’ve decided what the plush is for this game. [30:57.000 –> 31:00.000] It is a sleeping cow. It’s amazing. [31:00.000 –> 31:02.000] It’s the best. [31:02.000 –> 31:04.000] It’s good. It’s good. [31:04.000 –> 31:08.000] Their cows are still not as good as the story of Seasons cows but it’s still a very good cow. [31:08.000 –> 31:12.000] You can pre-order the game now and get that plush. [31:12.000 –> 31:20.000] I believe if you pre-order on the Natsume website there’s a second pre-order bonus that they haven’t announced yet. [31:20.000 –> 31:23.000] Can’t pre-order outside the US as far as I can see. [31:23.000 –> 31:27.000] Certainly can’t here and almost certainly you won’t be able to Johnny. [31:27.000 –> 31:29.000] No I definitely cannot. [31:29.000 –> 31:33.000] Not that you’re going to because you are strongly against pre-ordering games. [31:33.000 –> 31:38.000] Well when there’s a pre-order bonus it can become flexible for that cow plush. [31:38.000 –> 31:41.000] To be honest if I could I probably would. [31:41.000 –> 31:43.000] That is a good cow plush. [31:43.000 –> 31:45.000] What else have we got this long list. [31:45.000 –> 31:49.000] So we’ve got the consoles now because I think previously it just said PC and console. [31:49.000 –> 32:00.000] So now it’s officially coming to Switch, PS5, PS4 and the Xbox series and of course on Steam. [32:00.000 –> 32:09.000] We’ve got a new screenshot of the player character meeting a tiny harvest goddess. [32:09.000 –> 32:17.000] Yeah this looks like a screenshot from a Harvest Moon game. That’s what I have to say about that. [32:17.000 –> 32:22.000] I will say it’s continuing to look in my opinion as good as the previous screenshots. [32:22.000 –> 32:25.000] I really like this art style. I think it’s done really well. [32:25.000 –> 32:31.000] We’re gonna not know until we actually see some footage and then get our hands on the game. [32:31.000 –> 32:37.000] Whether it actually is like that or whether they’ve just really given us very specific screenshots. [32:37.000 –> 32:40.000] And we got release date 26th of September. [32:40.000 –> 32:44.000] So really stretching the definition of summer there. [32:44.000 –> 32:47.000] Yeah I mean they’re pushing it right till the end right? [32:47.000 –> 32:51.000] It depends how you like I will die on this hill. [32:51.000 –> 32:56.000] People talk about summer and spring like they are clearly defined seasons. [32:56.000 –> 33:01.000] There are at least four definitions of the seasons if you ignore the southern hemisphere. [33:01.000 –> 33:04.000] These things are really not clear. [33:04.000 –> 33:13.000] In fact I just double checked this doesn’t even fit in the summer definition that people have. [33:13.000 –> 33:20.000] The summer definition that is most commonly used actually finishes summer at the 23rd of September. [33:20.000 –> 33:23.000] No one actually thinks that way Al. [33:23.000 –> 33:26.000] But people just go by months. It’s easier to go by months. [33:26.000 –> 33:29.000] But this is the thing. Oh my word. [33:29.000 –> 33:35.000] No definition includes the 26th of September in summer right? [33:35.000 –> 33:37.000] Which one? [33:37.000 –> 33:40.000] The definition of summer is July, August, September. [33:40.000 –> 33:42.000] What definition is that? [33:42.000 –> 33:44.000] It’s not a definition of summer. [33:44.000 –> 33:46.000] Literally just made up to prove my point. [33:46.000 –> 33:50.000] So the astronomical season which to me is just wild. [33:50.000 –> 33:58.000] Which goes from the summer solstice to the autumn equinox is wild to me. [33:58.000 –> 34:04.000] Because the idea that like the longest day of the year is the start of summer is bizarre. [34:04.000 –> 34:07.000] To me that’s the middle of summer not the start of it right? [34:07.000 –> 34:09.000] And I don’t understand why you would ever use that. [34:09.000 –> 34:14.000] But if we leave that one aside there’s the meteorological season which is also commonly used. [34:14.000 –> 34:19.000] Goes from the 1st of June to the 31st of August. Doesn’t include the 26th of September. [34:19.000 –> 34:21.000] And then there’s the one that I prefer. [34:21.000 –> 34:24.000] Well of the generally used ones this is the one I prefer. [34:24.000 –> 34:28.000] I actually have a much more radical definition of the seasons. [34:28.000 –> 34:30.000] But this one is May, June, July. [34:30.000 –> 34:33.000] I think that makes much more sense to me as a summer. [34:33.000 –> 34:36.000] That’s the Celtic seasons. [34:36.000 –> 34:40.000] But none of these definitions include the 26th of September. [34:40.000 –> 34:41.000] It’s not summer. [34:41.000 –> 34:43.000] I agree it’s not summer. [34:44.000 –> 34:45.000] It’s the… [34:48.000 –> 34:49.000] Anyway. [34:50.000 –> 34:51.000] My word. Sorry. [34:51.000 –> 34:53.000] Did not mean to get into a rant about seasons. [34:53.000 –> 34:54.000] These things just happen. [34:54.000 –> 34:57.000] Seasons are stupid. Stop pretending like they’re clearly defined. [34:57.000 –> 35:01.000] Anyway, Harvest Moon, Winds of Anthos, release date 26th of September. [35:01.000 –> 35:02.000] Not summer. [35:02.000 –> 35:03.000] Yes, not summer. [35:03.000 –> 35:04.000] Stop saying it’s summer. [35:06.000 –> 35:07.000] Cool. [35:07.000 –> 35:09.000] Let’s see what comes out of that game. [35:10.000 –> 35:16.000] The last non-new game news is Everdream Valley is releasing on the 30th of September. [35:16.000 –> 35:20.000] This is where everyone goes, oh, I forgot about that game. [35:20.000 –> 35:21.000] So there you go. [35:21.000 –> 35:23.000] That was literally my responses. [35:23.000 –> 35:25.000] Oh, I forgot about this game. [35:25.000 –> 35:26.000] Fun fact, right? [35:26.000 –> 35:29.000] You can buy this game just now. [35:29.000 –> 35:30.000] They’re calling it pre-purchase. [35:30.000 –> 35:34.000] But if you buy the game now, you get access to it now before the release date. [35:36.000 –> 35:37.000] Okay. [35:37.000 –> 35:39.000] We’ve officially gone too far. [35:41.000 –> 35:42.000] Just buy the game. [35:42.000 –> 35:43.000] Isn’t that just… [35:43.000 –> 35:45.000] Yeah, that’s just buying the game and playing it. [35:45.000 –> 35:47.000] Because this is the thing, right? [35:47.000 –> 35:50.000] Who can access the game without buying it? [35:50.000 –> 35:53.000] So if you buy the game before the release date, you get access to the game. [35:53.000 –> 35:56.000] Surely that’s just the release date. [35:57.000 –> 36:00.000] This is some silly 1.0 argument, right? [36:00.000 –> 36:02.000] That’s what this is? [36:02.000 –> 36:04.000] They’re like, oh, but we’re on version 9.8. [36:04.000 –> 36:06.000] No, they’re not in early access. [36:06.000 –> 36:08.000] They’ve not done an early access. [36:08.000 –> 36:09.000] What? [36:09.000 –> 36:11.000] This is not early access. [36:11.000 –> 36:13.000] The game is not officially released. [36:13.000 –> 36:16.000] If you go onto Steam, it says coming the 30th of May. [36:16.000 –> 36:20.000] But they said on their most recent, or one of the… [36:20.000 –> 36:25.000] Yeah, so their second most recent news event is [36:25.000 –> 36:28.000] prior access starts today. [36:28.000 –> 36:30.000] You can start playing today. [36:32.000 –> 36:34.000] If you don’t want to count the last days to the full launch, [36:34.000 –> 36:35.000] don’t worry, we got you covered. [36:35.000 –> 36:38.000] You can pre-order Everdream Valley any time [36:38.000 –> 36:42.000] and unlock access to the game before the official release on the 30th of May. [36:42.000 –> 36:44.000] The game is released! [36:44.000 –> 36:46.000] Yes, it is! [36:46.000 –> 36:49.000] If you’re not buying the game, you’re not getting the game. [36:51.000 –> 36:53.000] That’s just releasing the game. [36:54.000 –> 36:57.000] I don’t understand how this isn’t just released. [36:57.000 –> 36:59.000] How is this game not out? [36:59.000 –> 37:01.000] It’s out! You can buy it and play it. [37:02.000 –> 37:04.000] So, the news. Everdream Valley is out. [37:04.000 –> 37:06.000] You can buy it and go and play it. [37:06.000 –> 37:09.000] Well, of course, the funny thing is the 30th of May [37:09.000 –> 37:12.000] is the day before this podcast episode comes out anyway. [37:12.000 –> 37:14.000] So, yes, the game is out. [37:20.000 –> 37:21.000] Oh, my word. [37:21.000 –> 37:23.000] That is some silly news. [37:23.000 –> 37:25.000] Shall we talk about some new games? [37:26.000 –> 37:28.000] Yes, let’s do that. [37:31.000 –> 37:33.000] Marvelous did a… [37:33.000 –> 37:35.000] I don’t know what it was. [37:35.000 –> 37:38.000] Like a Nintendo Direct, basically. [37:38.000 –> 37:41
Al and Jonnie talk about Florence Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:36: What Have We Been Up To 00:14:03: News 00:27:36: Florence 00:34:36: Spoiler Zone 01:01:00: Outro Links Sun Haven DLCs Farming Simulator 23 Gameplay Trailer Farming Simulator 20 on Apple Arcade Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Localisation Blog Florence 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 –> 00:29.000] G [00:31.000 –> 00:35.000] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. [00:35.000 –> 00:37.000] My name is Al. [00:37.000 –> 00:38.000] And my name is Johnny. [00:38.000 –> 00:42.000] And we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games. [00:42.000 –> 00:46.000] Hello Johnny, how are you? [00:46.000 –> 00:50.000] I’m good. I’m tired. I’ve been doing some big hours at work. [00:50.000 –> 00:53.000] So I’m pleased with the game that we’ve got to talk about today. [00:53.000 –> 00:55.000] It was not a huge time suck. [00:56.000 –> 00:57.000] Yeah, yeah. [00:57.000 –> 01:03.000] So just before we get into that, let you know transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website. [01:03.000 –> 01:05.000] So if you need them, go for that. [01:05.000 –> 01:12.000] Yeah, so today we’re going to talk about Florence, which is a very short game. [01:12.000 –> 01:17.000] It’s so short that I hadn’t actually played it before today. [01:17.000 –> 01:21.000] So I was like, oh, and I finished it. [01:21.000 –> 01:24.000] So I was like, oh yeah, I should probably actually play that game. [01:24.000 –> 01:28.000] I knew it was going to be this short, so that’s why I didn’t play it before today. [01:28.000 –> 01:31.000] But I was like, I really ought to actually play it. [01:31.000 –> 01:35.000] But yeah, so it’s all good. [01:35.000 –> 01:38.000] Before that, we’re going to have some news. [01:38.000 –> 01:40.000] But first of all, Johnny, what have you been up to? [01:40.000 –> 01:42.000] What have I been up to? [01:42.000 –> 01:46.000] As usual, when I’m on the podcast, there’s got to be a little bit of Marvel Snap Talk. [01:46.000 –> 01:50.000] And I’m just really into the game right now. [01:50.000 –> 01:53.000] I’m not playing it a lot like I was when I first started. [01:53.000 –> 01:59.000] But it’s kind of just become a really nice game that I’ll play when I’m on the bus or have a few minutes to do. [01:59.000 –> 02:03.000] I’ll just jam a game and I feel like it’s in a really good space. [02:03.000 –> 02:10.000] The monetization is terrible, but that’s actually great because it means I don’t spend money on the game and it’s just a lot of fun. [02:10.000 –> 02:18.000] Yeah, I’ve still not paid any money, spent any money on the game, but I have been playing on and off. [02:18.000 –> 02:23.000] I think I didn’t. I basically didn’t play last. Was it last? Not last season. The season before last. [02:23.000 –> 02:26.000] What was that one? The Modoc one? [02:26.000 –> 02:27.000] Oh, yeah. [02:27.000 –> 02:30.000] I think I basically didn’t play the Modoc season. [02:30.000 –> 02:36.000] And then I got back into it like halfway through last season and just like plunged through everything. [02:36.000 –> 02:40.000] And I’ve not done a huge amount this season, but I’ve done a wee bit. [02:40.000 –> 02:52.000] So I’m hoping to try and get into sort of like a rhythm of casualness rather than like either not playing at all or playing it every free second of every free day, which is what I seem to be doing just now. [02:52.000 –> 02:57.000] Yeah, it can be a little bit like that where you’re just like, oh, I’ve just got two minutes. [02:57.000 –> 03:20.000] I can probably I could probably fit a game in it. It’s like, oh, this, you know, you need like five for a game, but it just does such a good job of compressing those card game mechanics from, you know, whether it’s Magic the Gathering or Hearthstone or whatever, that sort of feeling into such a small timeframe that it really, you know, it’s a satisfying game to play. [03:20.000 –> 03:27.000] I think because it’s only introducing a few cards every season, it doesn’t feel like the game completely changes when you pick it back up again. [03:27.000 –> 03:34.000] Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there’s some good consistency to it, which I think is awesome. [03:34.000 –> 03:35.000] Yeah. [03:35.000 –> 03:48.000] And other than Marvel Snap, I haven’t really been playing anything, but there’s a new show out on Apple TV called Silo, which is based on the Wool series of books. I don’t know if you’ve ever read those books, Al. [03:48.000 –> 03:49.000] I have not. [03:49.000 –> 03:57.000] Generally, if you wonder whether I’ve read a book, the answer is almost certainly no. [03:57.000 –> 04:06.000] Well, it is it is one of my favorite book series and the premise that it’s about people who are living in a silo underground. [04:06.000 –> 04:21.000] And it’s the first episode was one of those episodes where I felt like it was a really great reflection of what I was imagining when I read the books, like it felt like a really true to the book translation. [04:21.000 –> 04:23.000] And it’s been a few years since I’ve read the books. [04:23.000 –> 04:31.000] I’m sure there’s some things that just, you know, that they have changed that, you know, weren’t important or I don’t remember. [04:31.000 –> 04:46.000] But for a first episode of a show, I was just blown away by how how true it seemed to the source material, because I know that a lot of shows recently, you know, sometimes for the conceits of TV have to change things quite substantially. [04:46.000 –> 04:50.000] But it was really nice for a series that I liked to have such a strong start. [04:50.000 –> 04:55.000] That’s cool. Yeah, that shows on my list, but a lot of things are on my list. [04:55.000 –> 05:03.000] I would highly recommend on the basis of the one episode and what I know of the story. It’s a very compelling story. Really, really write it. [05:03.000 –> 05:17.000] Fair enough. Well, I’ve still got, I think, about a month and a half on my Apple TV plus free trial, my net current free trial. [05:17.000 –> 05:21.000] So, yeah, that’s that’s really what I’ve been up to. What have you been playing? [05:21.000 –> 05:40.000] Yeah. So interestingly, so normally when I cover a game for the podcast, I’ll like put the game down after the podcast, because I end up just being so engrossed in it for so long or like either for so long or so intently for such a short period of time that I kind of burn out on it. [05:40.000 –> 05:48.000] But I actually picked Coral Island back up again for a couple of days after recording the last podcast. [05:48.000 –> 05:57.000] I have now put it down, but I just felt like I’ve wanted to finish a few things before I put it down, which is, I guess, the mark of a good game if I actually want to continue playing it. [05:57.000 –> 06:13.000] Yeah. And listening to to last week’s episode on Coral Island, it was I feel like, you know, this is the year where I was really down about statue clones and with all of the ones that we’ve sort of covered, I’m actually getting really excited about all of these and want to start getting into some of them. [06:13.000 –> 06:14.000] Oh, no mistake. [06:14.000 –> 06:17.000] I know. I know. [06:17.000 –> 06:29.000] Yeah. I mean, I will. It will be interesting to see what I end up choosing at the end of the year is my my game of the year, because I mean, at this point, I just I just don’t know what it’s going to be because there’s so much. [06:29.000 –> 06:39.000] There is a lot this year. And I think one of the things that’s probably going to determine it for me over the course of the year is what’s actually in 1.0 versus. [06:39.000 –> 06:40.000] Yeah. [06:40.000 –> 06:41.000] You know, still in early access. [06:41.000 –> 06:54.000] Yeah. Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. Yeah, I guess there’s this it’s hard. It’s not that we haven’t done it, obviously, but it’s hard to convince yourself to choose an early access as a game of the year. [06:54.000 –> 07:05.000] And if if the 1.0 isn’t like doesn’t feel bigger than the early access significantly, then also like can struggle to hit that point. [07:05.000 –> 07:07.000] I don’t think I really explained what I was thinking properly there. [07:07.000 –> 07:20.000] No, no, I get what you mean. Right. It’s like sometimes particularly I think in farming games, because it’s probably one of the more niche communities in gaming that a lot of people get in on early access. [07:20.000 –> 07:26.000] So, yes, that’s when a lot of the hype cycle, you know, the traditional release hype cycle for these games sort of takes off. [07:26.000 –> 07:53.000] And, you know, I think over the last few years, I’ve seen 1.0 releases not be not feel that big, right? They don’t feel like traditional game releases that tends to feel more like when early access opens up, which I think is, you know, something that that, you know, developers need to consider about these games and whether or not that potentially limits the overall upside and, you know, players that they can attract with these games. [07:53.000 –> 08:04.000] Yeah, it’s definitely difficult. I think the one exception I can think of that actually did manage to do that on both early access and 1.0 was Ooblets. [08:04.000 –> 08:18.000] Like, I felt like when the early access was first released and when the 1.0 came out, there was quite a big hype cycle around it, which is interesting, because, yeah, that that rare to happen, you know, no matter what you think about the game personally, you know, that like that. [08:19.000 –> 08:20.000] No, I agree. [08:20.000 –> 08:28.000] Was interesting to see happen. And I wonder, it’s hard to know, right, but I wonder how much of it was the same people and how much of it was new people. [08:28.000 –> 08:38.000] Yeah, I’m willing to bet with a game like that, it was a lot of new people because I, you know, personal feelings of the game aside, I think that was a game that, you know, really got that right. [08:38.000 –> 08:50.000] You know, and I look at some of the more recent releases, one which we’ll talk about in the news cycle that I think have really sort of failed to do that despite looking like really strong games. [08:50.000 –> 08:57.000] Yeah. Also, it does probably help the Ooblets. I think the Switch version came out with 1.0 relevant afterwards. [08:58.000 –> 09:12.000] And that can massively help because even with the Steam Deck coming out recently, like the Switch hype is still there, like people still want to on Switch because, you know, most people can’t afford a Steam Deck as well as a Switch and they already have their Switches. [09:12.000 –> 09:15.000] So, you know, that’s what they want their games on. [09:15.000 –> 09:32.000] Absolutely. But I think we’ll all be, you know, relieved from the game of the year debate this year because we’ve got Mika and the Witch’s Mountain coming out and we all know that that’s a strong contender, even though none of us have played it. [09:32.000 –> 09:36.000] No, no, don’t put that into the universe, Al. [09:37.000 –> 09:48.000] Well, this is the thing, right? You know that something’s going to be delayed to next year because we still have 40 games that are currently scheduled to release this year and there’s no way they all do, right? [09:48.000 –> 09:50.000] Definitely not. [09:50.000 –> 10:02.000] Yeah. Well, I mean, interesting. We’re not far off halfway through the year, just a month and a half to go until we’re halfway through the year. So, you know, be interesting to take stock at that point. [10:03.000 –> 10:13.000] Oh, yes. I never finished talking about what I was up to. So, also, obviously, I played Florence today and, as mentioned, I’ve been doing a bit of Marvel Snap. [10:13.000 –> 10:20.000] But, you know, what’s also interesting is I have also been playing quite a significant amount of Fall Guys. Remember that game? [10:20.000 –> 10:28.000] I do remember this game. I played it when it first came out and I sort of ducked back in at some point last year. I’m really curious, like… [10:28.000 –> 10:31.000] Was it the Switch release when you got back in the second time? [10:31.000 –> 10:36.000] Yeah, it was around the Switch release because I think that was sort of, you know, a few people were sort of jumping back in. [10:36.000 –> 10:39.000] That’s when it became free to play. [10:39.000 –> 10:44.000] Right, right. So, what do you think? Are you enjoying Fall Guys? [10:44.000 –> 10:56.000] Yeah, I mean, I’ve kind of been playing it on and off and I think I only play it as much as I do because my four-year-old is obsessed with it and all he wants to do just now is watch me play it. [10:56.000 –> 11:05.000] He doesn’t play it himself. He just loves to watch me play it. So, he’ll be like, oh, can we play Fall Guys while we’re eating tea or whatever. [11:05.000 –> 11:12.000] He’ll just be constantly wanting to play Fall Guys. So, yeah, that tends to be when I play it. [11:12.000 –> 11:17.000] And, like, if I play it with him, I’ll then, once he goes to bed, I’ll play it a little bit more. It encourages me to go. [11:17.000 –> 11:22.000] Like, I do enjoy the game. It is good fun. It certainly helps that I’m not too bad at it either. [11:22.000 –> 11:27.000] Like, I’m not constantly winning, but I am constantly getting into finals and coming second and third. [11:27.000 –> 11:32.000] So, that kind of helps when you’re, like, almost winning. It’s like, I can almost get there. [11:32.000 –> 11:34.000] Just one more. Just one more. [11:34.000 –> 11:41.000] Exactly. So, no, I still enjoy it. I still really enjoy it. And it has enough people playing that you get into games pretty quickly. [11:41.000 –> 11:50.000] Yeah, because that was going to be my next question is, are enough people playing for it to still be ticking over? [11:50.000 –> 11:57.000] And right now I am seven levels away from reaching level 100 on the season pass, the current season pass. [11:57.000 –> 12:05.000] So, I am probably going to grind to get to that point because I’ve never hit a level 100 on the season pass. [12:05.000 –> 12:13.000] It does help that they extended the season by four weeks because they delayed the next season. So, that helps. [12:13.000 –> 12:15.000] But, you know. [12:15.000 –> 12:16.000] Definitely does. [12:16.000 –> 12:21.000] Does your four-year-old dress your little bean man? [12:21.000 –> 12:33.000] So, he wants the guy to be in a duck costume. So, he decided on that, like, eight months ago and hasn’t let me change him since. [12:33.000 –> 12:44.000] Which, I don’t know. It might be, if I do hit level 100 on the season pass, I may have to pay for the season pass and get the SpongeBob costume. [12:44.000 –> 12:47.000] And I think he might want it to be dressed as SpongeBob if I do that. [12:47.000 –> 12:49.000] That is entirely reasonable. [12:49.000 –> 12:56.000] I’m not promising anything to him yet, right? Because I do not want to get into the situation where I fail to get the season pass and he’s disappointed. [12:56.000 –> 12:59.000] But, we’ll see where we go with that. [12:59.000 –> 13:07.000] Cool. That sounds awesome. Maybe I have to get in and try a few more games of Fall Guys because it is fun, right? Like, it’s just good, dumb, sort of silly fun. [13:07.000 –> 13:14.000] Yeah, yeah. As far as, like, you know, free-to-play games, it’s kind of the most obvious what you need to do. [13:14.000 –> 13:26.000] And they’re very good at updating it regularly. The new seasons have a bunch of new maps and there’s constantly, like, new costumes and stuff that obviously you have to pay money for. [13:26.000 –> 13:32.000] Like, it’s an absolute money sink if you’re not careful. But, I haven’t spent any money on it yet. [13:32.000 –> 13:38.000] And again, it’s the good sort of monetization, right? Where it’s all cosmetic and none of it actually helps you play the game better. [13:38.000 –> 13:49.000] Exactly, exactly. So, it’s good fun. They do, like, different shows and stuff so you can go, oh, this is the, like, they do, like, an extreme one where instead of, like, respawning you just get eliminated. [13:49.000 –> 13:57.000] And if you, but, like, there’s higher rewards for that one and stuff like that. So, there’s always stuff to do if you want to play. [13:57.000 –> 14:03.000] If you have, like, one free-to-play game that you’re going to be playing, like, it’s not a bad one to choose. [14:03.000 –> 14:04.000] Yeah, absolutely. [14:04.000 –> 14:06.000] Alright, should we talk about some news? [14:06.000 –> 14:08.000] Let’s do it. [14:08.000 –> 14:25.000] So, I presume this is what you were talking about. Sunhaven, they have announced some DLCs, which is an interesting choice to announce some stuff that you’re going to let people buy when the Switch version still isn’t out. But, there we go. [14:25.000 –> 14:37.000] That was my immediate reaction is, I guess I’m just a little bit confused with what the Sunhaven, I hesitate to say devs, but the wider company structure is doing. [14:37.000 –> 14:49.000] Because they released Sunhaven, like, a week after they announced a second game and they still have on their website that the Switch release was supposed to come at the same time as they went to 1.0. [14:50.000 –> 15:02.000] And we are now probably a month or two past that date. There seems to be no info on a Switch update. The DLCs are small from what I can see. It looks like just a couple of cosmetic packs. [15:02.000 –> 15:11.000] Yeah, it’s still not good. I mean, it’s the same thing we were talking about. I think it was you that was on the episode where we were talking about the other game, the Sundown that they made. [15:11.000 –> 15:29.000] Where it’s like, it’s not like we can understand why you would do this. It’s not the same people working on the two things. But it is a bad look. Like, you’re still going, hey, buy more stuff, even though the stuff that we’ve already sold you, you can’t get yet. You know, it just doesn’t feel great. [15:29.000 –> 15:41.000] No, absolutely. Yeah. And I was on that episode. And, you know, I really like the look of Sunhaven when it first came out, because I couldn’t get it because Switch hadn’t released. [15:41.000 –> 15:57.000] You know, I was watching a few people play it and it looked like the sort of game that I wanted to get into. But I increasingly find myself not wanting to play games because of the way the wider communication strategy seems to be operating. [15:57.000 –> 16:12.000] And that’s something I find across the board, you know, that really annoys me is when, you know, I don’t mind if the Switch is going to be delayed, but when it’s not clearly communicated and I was getting excited because Sunhaven was coming up and it looked cool. [16:12.000 –> 16:21.000] And then to kind of be a month and a half past and there’s not even an idea of when I can play it, it’s just kind of like, well, there’s so many other games, I’m just going to go play one of those. [16:21.000 –> 16:37.000] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree. I don’t like I will probably play well, I will almost certainly play this game at some point. But yeah, it is difficult, especially like the Switch port was like the late so I’m just double checking there. [16:37.000 –> 16:52.000] They never officially said like, oh, Switch port is no longer coming with 1.0. In the announcement of the 1.0 date, they said they had a coming soon list, essentially the roadmap and at the top was the Nintendo Switch port. [16:52.000 –> 17:04.000] And so you’re like, oh, okay, right, fine. But like, that’s, that’s literally the last thing I can see that we’ve been told about it. And there’s a bunch of stuff underneath it that has been that has already come out now. [17:04.000 –> 17:16.000] You know, including the DLCs there that the 1.0 1.1 update that includes most of the stuff that’s in that list. Like, Switch is basically the only thing in that list that hasn’t happened yet. [17:16.000 –> 17:28.000] We haven’t had any indication as to where or when it’s happening. They haven’t even said, Hey, Luke, something’s come up. It’s taking longer. They’ve just said it’s coming. And everything else they said is coming is come, basically. [17:28.000 –> 17:52.000] Yeah, so it’s, it’s a little concerning at this point that there’s just no communication on it, right? It could be things like, you know, I know a few game developers, and I know that releasing things on Switch seems to be harder than other platforms, because of some of, you know, Nintendo’s controls. But even just an announcement to say it’s delayed would be would be better than nothing. [17:53.000 –> 18:15.000] Yeah, yeah, literally, you just need to say, it is still coming. Here’s the issues we’re having. And like, I think that Concerned Ape was always really good to this with Stardew, like the 1.5 update for mobile came out age, like a year after all the other updates. But he was constantly saying, like, I’m really sorry, this is, this is still coming, we are working on it. [18:15.000 –> 18:28.000] You know, every month or so he was like, just is coming, I promise. It’s just taking time, these things happen. And people are willing to accept that when they when they know that you when you when you communicate, they’re willing to accept that these things happen, you know? [18:28.000 –> 18:57.000] Yeah, absolutely. And maybe just to talk about the actual DLC of that, because I think I went straight into my wider rant on Sun Haven. So it looks like in the DLC packs, there’s there’s two or no, four DLC packs that they’ve got. So one for two for pets, and two for mounts, it looks like any sort of a theme, one being more spooky, and the other being more cute from the looks of things. [18:58.000 –> 19:12.000] Um, and I guess also, if you are still interested in Sun Haven on via steam, it’s 20% off until actually, it’s 20% off until today. So if you’re listening to this, it is no longer 20%. [19:12.000 –> 19:31.000] Yeah, yes. Yeah, all the DLC is already out. And they’re basically a fiver each to presumably similar sort of pricing in different places. So yeah, I’m not gonna buy the DLC, because I don’t have the game yet. [19:32.000 –> 19:44.000] We’ll be interested to see when we get it if we get the 1.1 update when we get the the 1.0 release on switch or whether we have to wait for the 1.1 update on switch. We’ll see. [19:44.000 –> 20:00.000] We will. And I’m going to take this next news item because I feel like every time I’m on the show, there is some small part of farming simulator news. And so we’ve got a gameplay trailer for farming simulator 23. And let me tell you, this looks like some farming simulator. [20:00.000 –> 20:23.000] Yeah, this is the game that like, this is this is the FIFA of the farming world, right? Like it does things in such a like you’re we’re going to release the game every year. And if you really care about the games, you will love the update, you will love the changes that we’ve done. And if you don’t really care about the game, you’ll be like, okay, what’s different here? [20:23.000 –> 20:52.000] So I was able to pick up on one thing that looked very new from my time with playing farming simulator 22 is it looked like there was some logging or not not quite forestry, but you know, chopping down trees on around the farm and then loading those up that that definitely looked looked new. And one of the things that it got me thinking about, I don’t know if you watched Clark’s video, but I think I watched it. [20:52.000 –> 20:54.000] You watched Clarkson’s Farm, Al? [20:55.000 –> 20:57.000] No, no, I did not. [20:58.000 –> 21:16.000] Jeremy Clarkson is a horrible human being, right? That being said, Clarkson’s Farm is a surprisingly entertaining watch of just, you know, old white dude with no idea what he’s doing tries to run a farm. And it made me wonder because it’s a it’s a wildly popular show. [21:16.000 –> 21:35.000] It has made me wonder, are the farming simulator devs kind of just looking and watching that show for ideas of what they should be bringing in because that’s sort of what’s at the top of the, you know, people that aren’t on farm sort of mindset because the logging stuff that definitely has happened in on Clarkson’s Farm like the machines were all the same machines. [21:36.000 –> 21:38.000] Maybe it’s just a standard, I don’t know. [21:39.000 –> 21:41.000] Yeah, interesting. [21:43.000 –> 21:44.000] Still not going to play the game. [21:44.000 –> 21:50.000] I’ve decided though, this is definitely this is a case where this is a farming game, but it’s definitely not a cottagecore game. [21:51.000 –> 22:04.000] I think that is exactly right. There is nothing cottagecore about it. To me, it’s much closer to a real time strategy game. Not in that it’s, you know, a lot of resource management and those sorts of things. [22:04.000 –> 22:17.000] But it’s that constant like, I have to go here, do this, pick this thing up, do the next thing, you know, hook this up, like it’s a constant flow of things you just have to be doing. [22:18.000 –> 22:27.000] And there’s no real time to just pause and sit and enjoy or, you know, chat to villagers or those sorts of things that are really at the heart of the games that we like to cover. [22:28.000 –> 22:30.000] Yeah, interesting. [22:30.000 –> 22:34.000] So that’s enough Farming Simulator. Shall we talk about some more? Farming Simulator! [22:35.000 –> 22:50.000] This is absolutely bizarre to me, right? So this is this is Farming Simulator coming to Apple Arcade. Farming Simulator 20, that is. [22:50.000 –> 23:11.000] This feels like a constant thing with Farming Simulator because we had that bundle. There was a farming bundle or some bundle. Oh, no, it was a chat. Was it the Ukraine bundle? I think there was a big charity bundle and there was a Farming Simulator in it, but it was Farming Simulator 18. [23:12.000 –> 23:27.000] You’re like, oh, OK, that’s like a six year old game. Like, so generous of you. OK. Yeah, 20. So 20 was released in 2019. So three and a half year old game. [23:28.000 –> 23:39.000] Yeah, like watching the trailer for Farming Simulator 20, I was like, if I watched these two trailers more than like 10 minutes apart, I might not be able to tell that they were in fact two different games. [23:40.000 –> 23:55.000] Yeah. Yeah. Fascinating. Anyway, now actually moving on from Farming Simulator, Story of Seasons A Wonderful Life, we have the first of their localization blogs. So they’ve done this for the last few games. [23:56.000 –> 24:08.000] As they’ve been localizing the game, they’ve come out with these blog posts to talk about the challenges and how interesting it is to translate with the different cultural expectations. [24:09.000 –> 24:23.000] And especially, I think this one seems to be focusing a lot on the names, which is interesting because there’s obviously lots of focus on names. People like to see, oh, this character’s name could be translated in multiple different ways. [24:23.000 –> 24:30.000] And some of the names were translated differently in this version than they were in the first version of the game. [24:31.000 –> 24:51.000] So, yeah, I just think this sort of transparency is really cool to see. And I think it’s particularly when you’re remaking a game and they clearly know that people have a lot of affinity for the original translation, but it maybe doesn’t hold true to the vision that they’re trying to create. [24:51.000 –> 25:09.000] So by getting out ahead of it, it’s, you know, it’s good from a transparency perspective. But for people that feel, you know, would otherwise feel disappointed or sad, it kind of means that hopefully their first experience and actually get to hold the game is not, oh, the character that I like a lot from my first experience has changed massively. [25:10.000 –> 25:30.000] Yeah, yeah. And I think it’s nice as well, like they’re going into the reasoning behind it. They’re not just like, oh, sorry, we did this. They’re like, this is why we did this. And they actually, they start off by saying, you know, lots of people hold, whereas with many fans having deep attachments to this game, its characters and its world, we felt that it was vital for us to talk about our approach to this localisation. [25:31.000 –> 25:46.000] So it’s like, they’re aware of why they’re doing it as well. They’re not just doing it because they do it. And it’s, yeah, it’s very detailed on the characters. I think this one’s specifically character based. I haven’t actually read the entirety of it, I’ve kind of just scanned it. [25:46.000 –> 26:10.000] I’ve read most of it. One thing that I want to call out is that towards the bottom of the blog post, they call out that just a number of character redesigns were necessary after 18 years, there were several designs that did not stand the test of time, which is just undoubtedly going to be true. So it’s good to see again, just being, you know, honest about where games were at from a diversity perspective when this was first released, versus where things were going. [26:17.000 –> 26:44.000] And updating that, you know, in a way that sort of still respects the original intent of the character, which I think is really important, right? Because for many characters, the original intent is not skin tone or hair colour or any number of those, you know, sort of outward facing features. It’s the personality that they bring. So I just really, you know, impressed with this level of transparency. [26:44.000 –> 26:50.000] It’s also not just diversity, right? Is this not the game that had like a literal child as a marriage candidate? [26:50.000 –> 26:52.000] You are potentially correct. [26:52.000 –> 26:59.000] Because I know there was certainly one that was like that. I feel like it was this one. And I believe they’ve changed that in the in the remake. [26:59.000 –> 27:08.000] Yeah, so not just to beat up on Sun Haven a little bit more, but this is the sort of communication that I’m looking for that makes me more likely to want to play a game, right? [27:08.000 –> 27:18.000] You don’t even need to go into this much detail, right? Like this is I think, this is very high above the bar rather than the bar that you need to cross. [27:18.000 –> 27:19.000] Absolutely. [27:19.000 –> 27:28.000] But certainly if you do this, we’re not going to complain. Yeah, I’ll have the link to the blog post in the show notes if you want to read it. [27:28.000 –> 27:36.000] All right, I think that’s all of the news. Pretty light week. That’s okay. These things happen. We’ve blabbered on about other things instead. [27:36.000 –> 27:39.000] Let’s talk Florence. So I guess… [27:39.000 –> 27:43.000] I love this game so much, Al. [27:43.000 –> 27:47.000] How many times have you played this game so far? Is it just the twice? [27:47.000 –> 28:00.000] No, I think I think I’ve played it four times. So Florence came out, I want to say 2018, maybe originally. [28:01.000 –> 28:05.000] And I think so I’ve probably played it like once a year since it came out. [28:05.000 –> 28:06.000] Okay. [28:06.000 –> 28:14.000] And it came out on iOS. And so, you know, I can just once a year, I probably think about Florence and I download it and I play it and I’m like, that was really satisfying. [28:14.000 –> 28:23.000] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it does look like it was 2018. And then it came to Mac OS, Windows and Switch in 2020. [28:23.000 –> 28:30.000] Yeah. And so I guess just talk a little bit about what Florence is. It’s more of an interactive novel than a game, right? [28:30.000 –> 28:39.000] The gameplay elements are very light touch and ultimately don’t have any real impact on the story that’s being told. [28:39.000 –> 28:42.000] Yes, there’s no failing. [28:42.000 –> 28:53.000] Yeah, I guess as a first question, how do you feel about that, you know, sort of that balance between, you know, it’s obviously game like mechanics, but it’s, it’s hard to call it a game. [28:53.000 –> 28:58.000] So, you know, how do you feel about that as a thing that you interact with? [28:58.000 –> 29:04.000] I’m going to try really hard not to get into debate about what a game is. [29:04.000 –> 29:13.000] I mean, so I mean, it’s a storytelling thing. What’s the word I’m looking for? It’s a way of telling a story, right? [29:13.000 –> 29:22.000] And there are many different ways of telling stories. And it is not, it is not a book. It is not a film. It is not a TV series. [29:22.000 –> 29:30.000] It is very definitely, if you line them up like that is a game, right? Like, I don’t think you can debate it as being something else. [29:30.000 –> 29:42.000] Right. I think if we want to differentiate interactive novels or visual novels or whatever from games, then sure, but that feels unnecessary, right? [29:42.000 –> 29:52.000] Like, if you’re looking for a challenging game, this is not it. If you’re looking for a storytelling experience, there are lots of games that are great storytelling experiences, and this is one of them. [29:52.000 –> 30:02.000] So if you look in your games for any sort of story, then this is for you. If you’re like, oh, I can’t stand story in games, then this is not for you. [30:02.000 –> 30:08.000] That’s kind of the key point. But there are many other games that people wouldn’t like if that was the case as well. [30:08.000 –> 30:14.000] Yeah, I think that’s really well put because it’s, and I think I agree. [30:15.000 –> 30:30.000] Not fussed on whether or not it’s called a game, but I agree because what I love about it, and I think what I love about games in general is them as storytelling devices, and this is purely a storytelling device. [30:30.000 –> 30:40.000] This is doing storytelling in ways that nothing else can. And that’s why I think it’s perfectly legitimate to call it a game because that’s what games do. Games tell stories in ways that nothing else can. [30:40.000 –> 31:01.000] Yeah, no, I agree. And I think that is what makes it right. If you just read the story or scroll through the story because it’s probably more of a visual novel style from that perspective, it would not carry the same weight if you just removed all of the interactive elements. [31:01.000 –> 31:11.000] Yeah, absolutely. And they use, we’ll get into this later on, but they use it, they use the interactive elements really well in the storytelling as well. They add a lot. [31:11.000 –> 31:20.000] So I guess I kind of described the mechanics as like WarioWare, but it’s actually telling you a story. [31:20.000 –> 31:34.000] So like with WarioWare, you’re like, hey, you’ve very quickly got to figure out what you’re meant to do. And it’s like one very small mechanic, and then you move on to the next minigame. It’s kind of like that. Each part of it has like a different way of interacting with the story. [31:34.000 –> 31:53.000] And initially, it doesn’t necessarily tell you how to do it, although if you wait, it will then give you the indication. But it kind of encourages the exploration of trying to figure out what you’re doing and then giving you hints if you can’t figure that out, which I think is a really interesting way of doing that. [31:53.000 –> 32:14.000] Yeah, and I think it’s a great way of doing tutorials, not just for games like this, but for games in general, because it encourages that exploration aspect and then gives you the nudge if it seems like you’re not making progress, right? Because it’s always satisfying when you can work things out without help, no matter the sort of game. [32:14.000 –> 32:39.000] Yeah, yeah. So there’s there’s some which is just like scrolling through and they’ve got kind of panels, kind of comic comic book esque panels. And then there’s other bits where there’s like very small puzzles, like jigsaws and scratch off panels and stuff like that. I mean, puzzle even calling it puzzle is still a little bit of a stretch. But, you know, there’s activities, shall we call it? [32:39.000 –> 32:55.000] Yeah, I like activities because yeah, you’re right. They, they feel puzzle like, but you’re not going to be sit there stuck on any of them. Maybe other than the there’s one puzzle where you have to bring things into focus. Yes. And it was always a little bit more difficult than everything else. [32:56.000 –> 33:24.000] Yeah, yeah, that one took me about maybe a quarter of the whole game’s time because I was trying to figure out what I was actually meant to do, because it wasn’t just like doing like one kind of slider to get a focus. It was two sliders and you had to like align them in the right way. But there’s no like visual indication with that other than the picture. So you have to do one of them and like get as focused as you can and then go on to the second one. And then that will be when you can then get it fully focused. [33:25.000 –> 33:27.000] I was very confused initially. [33:28.000 –> 33:35.000] I have to say every time I go back and play Florence, that is the one puzzle that I always get stuck on on what I’m meant to be doing and it takes me a few minutes to work it out and remember. [33:36.000 –> 33:48.000] Cool. So we obviously need to talk about this game and spoil a lot of it. Before we do that, is there anything else you want to talk about? But the mechanics? I think I’ve talked about everything I can without giving story spoilers. [33:49.000 –> 34:04.000] Yeah, no, I think I’m in the same bucket. But just if you are listening to this and what we’ve said so far is appealing, now is a great time to pause the show, take 40 minutes, go through and play Florence and then come back and listen to the rest of this conversation. [34:05.000 –> 34:15.000] That is a very good point because this is the rare situation where you can just go and do it and come back. Like when you say go play a game before you listen to the rest of it, normally it would take you multiple weeks. [34:16.000 –> 34:26.000] It literally will take you maybe half an hour if you’re fast, maybe an hour if you’re doing it very leisurely. But an hour is the absolute longest if you’re actually doing it. [34:26.000 –> 34:35.000] It is a really nice short thing. And last I checked it was on sale on the eShop on Switch, but it probably isn’t by the time this episode comes out. [34:36.000 –> 34:37.000] Right, should we get into spoilers? [34:38.000 –> 34:46.000] Let’s do it. This is your spoiler warning. Do not keep listening if you want to play the game and don’t want to be spoiled. This is your last and final warning. [34:47.000 –> 34:53.000] I’ve got a bunch of stuff that I want to talk about and I guess it’s all metaphors. There’s so many metaphors in this game. [34:54.000 –> 35:02.000] I guess the conversations one was the first one that was quite interesting to me and there’s lots of different things in the conversations that I thought was a really interesting way of showing things. [35:03.000 –> 35:10.000] So obviously when you’re doing the conversations you do have your visual indication of the players. You do see their facial expressions and stuff like that. [35:10.000 –> 35:13.000] But they do other things as well to kind of give you hints about what’s happening. [35:14.000 –> 35:26.000] So one thing I found really interesting was when you’re having your first date, the conversation, the way it works for people who haven’t played the game is you’re basically building up a puzzle. [35:27.000 –> 35:31.000] You’ve got a bunch of puzzle pieces and you have to put them together inside your speech bubble. [35:31.000 –> 35:39.000] And as the conversation progresses, there are fewer and fewer pieces for the same size of conversation bubble. [35:40.000 –> 35:46.000] And I don’t know if this is what they meant to do, but it felt to me like what they were saying is the relationship is developing. [35:47.000 –> 35:58.000] It wasn’t just the first date, sorry, it was the whole start of the relationship. As they got to know each other and as they felt more comfortable, the conversation got easier to make. [35:58.000 –> 36:04.000] There’s less work, less effort that needs to go in to make that conversation. [36:05.000 –> 36:18.000] Absolutely, yeah. And I think you’re exactly right. I think that is exactly what they were going for is the difficulty of completing those two puzzles was exactly related to how easy the conversation was to flow. [36:18.000 –> 36:33.000] And it felt like such a brilliant representation of that. And I’m not sure if we did cover it, but I guess the overarching story of Florence is following the relationship between Florence and, oh my God, his name just walked out of my head. [36:34.000 –> 36:41.000] Chris, thank you very much. Yeah, so it’s following their relationship, but from Florence’s perspective. [36:42.000 –> 36:50.000] And so when you’re filling in those conversations, you’re filling it in from her perspective and it gets easier over time. [36:51.000 –> 37:05.000] And then as their relationship develops and they have their first argument and some of the pieces become hard-edged and then eventually they become pointy and a little bit jagged. [37:05.000 –> 37:20.000] And I think the thing that I like the most is when they start arguing, there kind of becomes this time pressure element where the conversation sort of leans one way or the other, depending on who’s getting more words in, which I thought was brilliant. [37:21.000 –> 37:30.000] I thought it was also interesting if you continue the metaphor of how easy it is to say things like when you’re doing that bit, the time pressure bit of like just trying to do it as fast as possible. [37:30.000 –> 37:40.000] It’s one single piece. There is no puzzle. And so I guess that’s kind of like when you’re in an argument, it’s almost too easy to say things because you end up saying the wrong things. [37:41.000 –> 37:49.000] You end up saying things that hurt rather than actually things that build up and things that help and that aspect of it’s just a single one. You just throw it in the right place. [37:50.000 –> 37:56.000] You’re just throwing things out there to say things rather than to actually do something useful. [37:56.000 –> 38:09.000] Yeah, I think that’s a brilliant point because when the conversation is easy between them, it’s never a single piece. It’s always still a few, which I think absolutely represents that thoughtfulness that you have when you genuinely care about someone. [38:10.000 –> 38:19.000] And you want to have a meaningful conversation versus what you just said around arguing where you just sort of say the first thing that comes to mind and consequences be damned a little bit. [38:20.000 –> 38:26.000] And you’re not waiting to listen. You’re not listening to the question. You’re just throwing out those words. You gotta win. [38:27.000 –> 38:37.000] Exactly. Exactly. So I agree. I think for me, this is probably the strongest point of the game is those conversations and where they sort of happen. [38:38.000 –> 38:48.000] One of the other things that I really, really liked was when they eventually move in and you unpack and you get to kind of pick what goes where and what gets put in the box. [38:49.000 –> 38:58.000] And then how that flows through, I guess, to I guess we’ve already given the spoiler warning when they later moved out. [38:59.000 –> 39:05.000] And I believe I actually can’t remember, but I believe some of your choices persist through that. [39:06.000 –> 39:15.000] Yeah, you end up when you’re when you’re packing at the end, it’s almost the same as the way you unpacked. But yeah, there’s a few changes, I think. [39:15.000 –> 39:23.000] Which was it’s just really nice, right, to see that continuity from those decisions that you made and see some of that still there and some of it has changed. [39:24.000 –> 39:40.000] Yeah. Yeah. No, the unpacking decisions was interesting. It took me a while to figure out whether I was unpacking my stuff or sorry, Florence’s stuff into Chris’s house or the other way around, which I think it was the other way around. It was Chris moving in with Florence. [39:41.000 –> 39:43.000] It was Chris’s stuff, yeah, into Florence’s house. [39:43.000 –> 39:52.000] And so, like, initially I was like, oh, all this stuff in the box because I don’t need any of this stuff. And then I realized, oh, no, I was putting his stuff in the box. Oh, no. [39:55.000 –> 39:59.000] Yeah. Yeah. No, I thought that was that was really interesting as well. [40:00.000 –> 40:16.000] My other kind of biggest metaphor that I liked was the this again in two parts, you’ve got the point where when they’re starting the relationship, they’re looking at it’s either mirrors or windows or whatever. It doesn’t massively matter. [40:16.000 –> 40:29.000] And you do the scratch off minigame, you scratch off the mirror or the window and you’re basically showing their hopes and dreams for them individually and the relationship as a whole. [40:30.000 –> 40:44.000] And then when you get to the point where they’re clearly struggling, but before they’ve broken up and you’re presented with those hopes and dreams again, and then you scratch off to see the reality underneath, which is not as rosy as they’d hoped it would be. [40:44.000 –> 41:01.000] And that is really this is a funny thing, because like I was looking through some of my I was doing some tidying up today and I was reading through some stuff that I’d found, which was like letters that my wife wrote to me before we were like when we were just starting our relationship. [41:01.000 –> 41:12.000] And it’s interesting to kind of look back on that and see how then like think about that person and what their their thoughts and hopes were for the future and what life is. [41:12.000 –> 41:22.000] And you could you can constantly worry about that and think, well, life is not what I hoped it would be, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not good. It doesn’t mean that it’s not something that you can continue. [41:22.000 –> 41:33.000] It’s just it’s really easy to to look at those hopes and dreams and go, that is my failure. That’s what we could have had, whereas in reality, it never was. [41:34.000 –> 41:48.000] And just that that act of scratching away those hopes and dreams and seeing the reality, what is clearly showing at that point as being the sadder reality was quite something. [41:48.000 –> 41:57.000] Yeah, I don’t really have much to add on that, because I think that was just really well, really well said and just really well done in the game. [41:57.000 –> 42:02.000] Sort of those, you know, reflection of hopes and then seeing how those progress over the course of the story. [42:05.000 –> 42:12.000] I was going to ask, maybe you can maybe you can help me with the the job metaphor, because I feel like I’m kind of half there. I’ve just not quite figured it out. [42:13.000 –> 42:32.000] So, yeah, I’ll talk about the job metaphor where you’re sort of matching numbers and in the background and at the start, it’s very clearly Florence is just not enjoying her job, is very sort of worn out with it. [42:32.000 –> 42:41.000] And to me, it’s kind of that’s the most difficult. I believe the first time you do it is the most difficult version of the puzzle. [42:41.000 –> 42:50.000] And you do it sort of, I think, three times over the course of the game and they reflect different stages, technically four times. But yeah, right. Yeah, four times. [42:50.000 –> 43:04.000] So it reflects different stages of, you know, how Florence feels about her life affects her performance at her job, because the second time you do it, she’s still in the same job, but she’s in the relationship with Krish. [43:04.000 –> 43:14.000] And it’s easier, right, because she’s happy outside of work, which even though she doesn’t enjoy the job, it’s easier for her to do. [43:14.000 –> 43:26.000] And then there comes a time where she has her own business and is doing what she loves. And it’s super, you know, it’s super easy for her because she is in a good space. [43:26.000 –> 43:36.000] Oh, actually, I think the fourth time, which I just remember is in between the second of the ones that I mentioned there when they’re broken up and it goes back to being really difficult for her to do again. [43:36.000 –> 43:49.000] Yeah, so this is where I’m a little bit confused, right? So, yeah, the first one definitely, it’s like, you know, just starting out, I think she’s just starting out the job at that point, you know, is kind of getting used to figuring out what to do. [43:49.000 –> 43:57.000] And so obviously things as you start there, they’re kind of slow. The second one, I kind of read it as I didn’t make any connection with the relationship. [43:57.000 –> 44:09.000] I made it more like she is at the point where she’s good at her job now and, you know, kind of like enthused by the fact that she’s good at it now and just, you know, breezing through stuff. [44:09.000 –> 44:16.000] But by the time you get to the third one, although, yes, they have broken up by this point, I felt like that bit was more. Oh, no, they hadn’t broken up by that point. [44:17.000 –> 44:34.000] It was just before the breakup, I think, wasn’t it? I more thought that was like disillusionment with the job rather than necessarily the outside, the other life situations and therefore not putting in as much effort rather than the difficulty. [44:34.000 –> 44:40.000] Because the second time you as the player don’t actually do anything, like Florence just does it all almost straight away. [44:40.000 –> 44:52.000] Whereas the third time you have to do it again. And that I kind of read as the lack of enthusiasm and being disillusioned with the job, which then moves into the fourth one of being her own business. [44:52.000 –> 45:06.000] She’s now chosen to do something else. But that one, presumably, then you have to do that again. So it’s not as easy as the second time you did it because it’s a reasonably new thing at that point, the new business. [45:06.000 –> 45:19.000] Yeah, I think probably what I took away is a little bit of the outside in and it’s a little bit, you know, to me, I didn’t really associate the job piece with her competence at it. [45:19.000 –> 45:30.000] For me, it was a little bit of a, you know, when things are going well, it is easier for other things to feel not so bad or to go better. [45:30.000 –> 45:39.000] So for me, it was kind of a little bit of the story of Florence, I think is, I guess, recognizing that every aspect of your life is interconnected. [45:39.000 –> 45:49.000] Right. So, you know, personally at the moment, right, work is in a tough spot and part of that flows into my personal life. Right. [45:49.000 –> 45:58.000] It’s, you know, I’m more tired, I’m probably a little bit more irritable to be around some of those sorts of things. And the reverse is true, right? [45:58.000 –> 46:07.000] When, you know, sometimes in your personal life is going really good, it’s easier to come into work and to be happy and to let some of those negative things that happen sort of, you know, bounce off you. [46:07.000 –> 46:27.000] And that was my takeaway of what I thought the work was. And often work was also associated with a call from your mum, which I always found to be a really interesting aspect because it was very much like Florence is meant to be 25 in the story. [46:27.000 –> 46:38.000] And it’s a little bit of that, you know, not quite out of the adolescent sort of mindset yet being a little bit grumpy with mum who’s calling in the middle of the workday. [46:38.000 –> 47:07.000] Yeah, I also took that as a little bit like there&
Codey and Kev go through your questions Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:37: What Have We Been Up To 00:17:32: News 00:39:09: Mailbag 01:13:52: Outro Links Mineko’s Night Market Release Date My Time at Sandrock Release Window Ooblets Spring Event Sun Haven Update Stardew Valley 1.6 Go-Go Town Poglings Paleo Pines 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 –> 00:05.000] music [00:05.000 –> 00:10.000] music [00:10.000 –> 00:15.000] music [00:15.000 –> 00:20.020] music [00:20.020 –> 00:25.020] music [00:25.040 –> 00:30.040] music [00:30.040 –> 00:35.040] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. [00:35.040 –> 00:41.040] My name is Cody. And I’m Kevin. And we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore games. [00:41.040 –> 00:46.040] I’m gonna say whatever they want. And whatever you guys are asking us. [00:46.060 –> 01:01.060] We’re finally after much time and demand and me pushing Al to do it. We’re doing the mailbag episode. [01:01.060 –> 01:09.060] I’ve been really kind of wanting to get more emails and questions in because I think they’re pretty fun on other podcasts I listen to. [01:09.080 –> 01:14.080] We have condensed all the ones we had into one episode for now. [01:14.080 –> 01:18.080] I don’t know if we’ll do this again or drip read them later like the one Johnny and I did a while back. [01:18.080 –> 01:23.080] But that’s the plan for today along with your usual news and whatnot. [01:23.080 –> 01:29.080] As always we would like you to know that transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website harvestseason.club. [01:29.080 –> 01:34.080] So if you would like a copy of the transcripts that is where you can find them. [01:34.100 –> 01:39.100] Yeah there we go. So let’s just dive right on in. [01:39.100 –> 01:40.100] Cody what have you been up to? [01:40.100 –> 01:48.100] I was going to say we’re not going to dive in. Before our main topic we have news and before that I have been up to Hollow Knight. [01:48.100 –> 01:55.100] I have beaten. Beat? Beaten? Is beaten a word? Like is that an accurate? [01:55.100 –> 01:57.100] Beaten yes beaten. [01:57.100 –> 01:59.100] Is it like an accurate use of that word? I don’t even know. [01:59.100 –> 02:01.100] I’m gonna guess yes. [02:01.120 –> 02:03.120] That’s an answer. [02:03.120 –> 02:12.120] There’s like three bosses that you’re supposed to defeat and then you can defeat like then you can basically beat the game. [02:12.120 –> 02:22.120] I’ve done the three so I just need to like go do the last boss and I am putting it off because yeah I don’t know. [02:22.120 –> 02:28.120] I just want to do the I’m the kind of person where I’m like I want to do everything and then beat the game. [02:28.120 –> 02:30.120] There is a lot to do in Hollow Knight. [02:30.140 –> 02:32.140] There really is. [02:32.140 –> 02:43.140] Also if I beat the other part of the game like if I beat that boss then it’ll give me a percentage like on the loading screen so then I can see how much left I still have. [02:43.140 –> 02:48.140] I probably have only I’ve put like over a hundred and some odd hours into that game. [02:48.140 –> 02:50.140] So what maybe 50% there? [02:50.140 –> 02:52.140] Yeah exactly. [02:52.160 –> 02:56.160] I was not even joking I was about to say I think I’m about 50%. [02:56.160 –> 03:01.160] I think like I’m pretty sure there are whole areas that I haven’t discovered yet. [03:01.160 –> 03:07.160] That’s correct right like the real kicker is the DLC is just in there right there’s no DLC menu no DLC area. [03:07.160 –> 03:08.160] Correct. [03:08.160 –> 03:11.160] So you go above 100% that’s the real killer right there. [03:11.160 –> 03:13.160] You go up to 112. [03:13.160 –> 03:21.160] So yeah I don’t and I’m actually I’ve already encountered some of the DLC areas so that’s crazy. [03:21.180 –> 03:27.180] But yeah so I’ve been playing that and then with my partner I’ve been playing Overcooked 2. [03:27.180 –> 03:38.180] They are on like the fifth area the fifth direction I guess I don’t know so we’re doing that and I’m really enjoying that. [03:38.180 –> 03:49.180] I think he is enjoying it a little less than I am like I could play it for like eight hours straight like many hours straight and after like an hour or two he’s like okay I’m done. [03:49.200 –> 03:56.200] I think it hurts his eyes because like my TV is so far away from oh but but still like that game is just amazing yeah. [03:56.200 –> 04:03.200] I haven’t touched in a minute I know there’s all you can eat edition like I assume they’ve just been putting more and more in that I need to get in check that out. [04:03.200 –> 04:05.200] That sounds amazing like it just keeps going. [04:05.200 –> 04:15.200] Yeah so the initial thing from what I remember is that they were basically putting both games together in the all you can eat edition I think they called it right. [04:15.220 –> 04:25.220] And it was like all the Overcooked 1 in the new engine so like everything’s revamped wow and it’s nice and I’m pretty sure like their goal was like okay this is going to be our platform or whatever. [04:25.220 –> 04:33.220] Now we’re just going to keep adding levels and stuff here yeah so because I mean yeah that’s the kind of game where you can just just give me more forever right. [04:33.220 –> 04:42.220] Yeah instead of this like 10 minutes or like six minutes or whatever to beat and to try and get a certain score just like keep her going you know. [04:42.240 –> 04:44.240] Yep yep yep yep yep. [04:44.240 –> 04:47.240] Yeah other than that I’ve just been doing research so. [04:47.240 –> 04:52.240] Yeah what have you been researching what have you discovered? [04:52.240 –> 05:10.240] So I’m trying to finish a project from last year so in my research like in some type of ecology like so mine is entomology but if you’re looking at ecology of anything usually you have a season where your study species is active and then you’re collecting them, [05:10.260 –> 05:22.260] surveying them, doing all of that and then when they’re no longer active that is when you will kind of like identify and run your analyses and then after that that’s when you’ll write. [05:22.260 –> 05:34.260] So I’m in the writing season now but I actually like I have new fieldwork to start up here in a couple weeks and so it’s like I’m like really trying to get the old stuff done because. [05:34.280 –> 05:35.280] Sure. [05:35.280 –> 05:47.280] I mean they can overlap it’s not a huge deal but it just basically pushes my ability to do the new stuff like later into the year and then everything kind of gets behind excuse me. [05:47.280 –> 06:03.280] So yeah this year I’m looking at insect communities in the canopy versus the understory and then on edge versus forest interior habitats so like think of like a meadow habitat versus like in the middle of a forest. [06:03.300 –> 06:06.300] And trying to see like how how that changes so. [06:06.300 –> 06:07.300] Okay. [06:07.300 –> 06:08.300] Throughout the year. [06:08.300 –> 06:09.300] Okay that’s neat. [06:09.300 –> 06:12.300] Also very in line with the Hollow Knight stuff. [06:12.300 –> 06:13.300] Yeah true. [06:13.300 –> 06:17.300] What about you Kev what are you doing up to? [06:17.300 –> 06:24.300] I have been up to so I talked about it last week on my mad solo episode. [06:24.320 –> 06:33.320] I made the unfortunate mistake of seeing there was a let’s build a zoo update and some of that game has its meaty hooks back into me. [06:33.320 –> 06:40.320] That’s that’s just one of those games where you can just pick up and just go for it until you burn out go with it until you burn out. [06:40.320 –> 06:45.320] And yeah so that that’s the primary gaming stuff and just usual. [06:45.320 –> 06:47.320] Yeah are you still playing marble snap? [06:47.320 –> 06:48.320] I am. [06:48.340 –> 06:49.340] I am. [06:49.340 –> 06:56.340] That game is in a good place right now they’ve they’ve made a lot of updates recently and it’s good and fresh and I’m enjoying it. [06:56.340 –> 07:01.340] Yeah I’m what I do want to talk about though because that’s all same old same old. [07:01.340 –> 07:04.340] I watched a good number of movies actually in the past week. [07:04.340 –> 07:05.340] Okay. [07:05.340 –> 07:12.340] So last weekend I don’t know why or how but my siblings and I we just said you know what we’re just going to marathon every Pirates of the Caribbean movie. [07:12.340 –> 07:14.340] Those are good movies yep yep. [07:14.360 –> 07:31.360] So okay like the first one is a timeless classic like it still holds up like dang that that movie is a master like just a master class in set design and costume design everyone looks so good. [07:31.360 –> 07:35.360] The second one well have you seen them all Cody before? [07:35.360 –> 07:36.360] Yes yes I have. [07:36.360 –> 07:40.360] Okay you have okay I had only seen the first three until last weekend. [07:40.380 –> 07:46.380] So second one well I mean second third one I think everyone knows like it goes off the rails it gets crazy. [07:46.380 –> 07:49.380] The one thing I will say that CGI still holds up really well. [07:49.380 –> 07:54.380] Davy Jones looks really really good considering it was like early 2000s. [07:54.380 –> 07:55.380] I didn’t realize it was CG. [07:55.380 –> 07:57.380] Oh Davy Jones sorry. [07:57.380 –> 07:58.380] Yes. [07:58.380 –> 08:04.380] You said Davy Jones my brain thought Johnny Depp and I was like I was like that wasn’t that’s his face. [08:04.380 –> 08:08.380] Johnny Depp’s CGI in real life too. [08:08.380 –> 08:09.380] Poor dude. [08:09.400 –> 08:16.400] Yeah but yeah no Davy Jones that was so so good such a good story too. [08:16.400 –> 08:26.400] I liked it like the second one was good and the third one just went place like I don’t know I’m meh on the third one. [08:26.400 –> 08:32.400] But I mean I think most people have seen the first three at least because that was you know whole trilogy and they link together. [08:32.400 –> 08:36.400] What I will talk about though is the fourth and fifth ones like I said I’d never seen them before. [08:36.420 –> 08:41.420] The fourth one man I really liked that one I liked it better than the third now. [08:41.420 –> 08:44.420] Maybe on par with the second I don’t know if it’s as good as the first. [08:44.420 –> 08:50.420] It feels like they went back to their roots of just pirate adventures. [08:50.420 –> 08:59.420] And more importantly it has Penelope Cruz and she’s absolutely incredible in everything I’ve ever seen with her in it. [08:59.420 –> 09:02.420] And has Ian McShane what’s his name Blackbeard. [09:02.440 –> 09:06.440] Oh I don’t know his name but I know who you’re talking about. [09:06.440 –> 09:08.440] Yeah Ian McShane that’s what it is. [09:08.440 –> 09:14.440] Yeah he’s a fantastic actor he’s in the John Wick movie I’ve seen that he’s great in that too. [09:14.440 –> 09:17.440] And he did great as Blackbeard. [09:17.440 –> 09:21.440] Yeah man that fourth movie was just so good. [09:21.440 –> 09:25.440] There’s Penelope Cruz’s in it that’s all I need. [09:27.440 –> 09:31.440] And then the fifth one oh man okay what are your thoughts on the fifth one. [09:31.460 –> 09:39.460] I think I need to look at the okay fifth that’s Dead Men Tell No Tales yeah that’s the one. [09:39.460 –> 09:47.460] Oh this is the one that has that guy Javier Bardem as yeah gosh what who was he in that. [09:47.460 –> 09:51.460] He was the villain he was Captain Salazar he was a ghost pilot. [09:51.480 –> 09:53.480] Yeah. [09:53.480 –> 09:57.480] Oh and it has Will’s child. [09:57.480 –> 09:59.480] Yeah. [09:59.480 –> 10:05.480] You know I mean I think it should the fact that I forgot about this. [10:05.480 –> 10:07.480] There you go. [10:07.480 –> 10:09.480] Should tell you. [10:09.480 –> 10:11.480] About how I feel. [10:13.480 –> 10:17.480] That one was a bit of a disaster in my opinion. [10:17.480 –> 10:19.480] Yeah. [10:19.500 –> 10:28.500] It felt like they tried to redo the first one because they have the kids or the kid of Will and Elizabeth right. [10:28.500 –> 10:34.500] And then there’s this other new girl that’s in there and they’re just trying to redo it it feels like. [10:34.500 –> 10:38.500] But it’s the chemistry is just not there. [10:40.500 –> 10:45.500] This felt like the most phoning it in Johnny Depp did as Captain Jack Sparrow. [10:45.520 –> 10:53.520] Also I think they just focused on him less which I don’t know if was for better or worse I don’t know just all over the place. [10:53.520 –> 10:59.520] Best part was gosh was named Geoffrey Rush Barbossa because he’s fantastic in all the movies. [10:59.520 –> 11:11.520] So he was cool but that that was kind of it every new thing after watching all five movies the key takeaway is the more that movie is about actually like pirates and stuff. [11:11.540 –> 11:17.540] That’s cool the more it’s about weird sea magic that’s that’s not as good. [11:17.540 –> 11:21.540] So they should just keep to more pirate stories and whatnot. [11:21.540 –> 11:25.540] Javier Bardem was cool as Captain Salazar. [11:25.540 –> 11:27.540] He has a beautiful name. [11:27.540 –> 11:29.540] I love his accent. [11:29.540 –> 11:31.540] His. [11:31.540 –> 11:33.540] The villains were okay written. [11:33.560 –> 11:41.560] The part that got me the part that knew would define the movie for me were the zombie sharks. [11:41.560 –> 11:46.560] Jumping the zombie sharks oh my goodness. [11:46.560 –> 11:56.560] I just remember he like I’m trying I’m looking I’m googling him because like the pictures of Salazar because I loved like his cracked face. [11:56.560 –> 11:58.560] Yeah it was a good design. [11:58.560 –> 12:01.560] I do remember really enjoying that. [12:01.580 –> 12:09.580] Yeah no he he was good right but like I think the whole thing the plot was just kind of weird but I think the character was cool. [12:09.580 –> 12:14.580] Yeah like I said zombie sharks is more than over the top. [12:14.580 –> 12:22.580] Yeah but yeah so there were some high points in that movie but overall fourth one was really good though. [12:22.580 –> 12:24.580] You have Barbossa. [12:24.600 –> 12:31.600] I didn’t like I guess like the I the story of the mermaid and the fourth one made me really sad. [12:31.600 –> 12:41.600] Yeah yeah the mermaid was yeah it wasn’t I mean like yeah now I get you but I you’re supposed to feel that I think right question mark. [12:41.600 –> 12:45.600] So yeah I don’t know I liked it it was good enough. [12:45.600 –> 12:53.600] It was a little over the top in places too but overall yeah so there you go there’s my crash course in the five Pirates of the Caribbean movies. [12:53.620 –> 12:55.620] No I’ve seen them all. [12:55.620 –> 13:01.620] And one other movie that I just watched just yesterday no Friday whatever two days ago. [13:01.620 –> 13:03.620] Suzume have you heard of this? [13:03.620 –> 13:04.620] I have not. [13:04.620 –> 13:07.620] Okay have you heard of your name or weathering with you? [13:07.620 –> 13:08.620] Nope. [13:08.620 –> 13:10.620] Okay oh boy. [13:10.620 –> 13:14.620] Some customers are not customers some listeners are screaming right now. [13:14.620 –> 13:20.620] Maybe internally well I don’t blame you because they’re anime films let’s be clear right. [13:20.620 –> 13:22.620] I mean I like anime. [13:22.640 –> 13:32.640] Yeah sure sure sure but I’m just saying they’re not it’s a little more niche it doesn’t get the big you know up front marketing that a bunch of other films get right. [13:32.640 –> 13:36.640] So that I get it why you might have missed you might have missed them. [13:36.640 –> 13:38.640] The name of this director. [13:38.640 –> 13:39.640] No worries. [13:39.640 –> 13:51.640] Okay Makoto Shinkai is he’s the director and he this is his third movie they’re not a trilogy and like their plots are related but they’re a set if you will right. [13:51.660 –> 13:57.660] Like you can you know you know what I’m talking about right like three movies they go together even though they’re not sequels or anything. [13:57.660 –> 14:17.660] And so I haven’t seen your name to be fair so you know people will blast me for that but weathering with you is about a magical girl who can control the weather but it like costs her she only has a limited amount of time to live or something like that because of this ability. [14:17.680 –> 14:29.680] They’re all kind of like disaster-esque movies but they’re also kind of magical they’re really well done this movie Suzume which just released recently. [14:29.680 –> 14:45.680] So this one’s interesting because there’s doors around Japan and these giant magical worms like I’m talking like colossal giant sky sized worms and when they crash they come out of the doors and they land on the ground and earthquake happens in Japan. [14:45.700 –> 14:53.700] Nobody can see the worms but except for a hint like two people in the story and they have to go around find these doors and close them. [14:53.700 –> 15:01.700] And so yeah so that’s the plot of the story but also one of the guys gets turned into a chair. [15:01.700 –> 15:06.700] It’s really goofy but cute he’s like a little toddler’s chair. [15:06.700 –> 15:11.700] Oh I was gonna say you gotta describe what kind of chair because there’s a lot of different kinds of chair. [15:11.720 –> 15:20.720] It actually belongs so the lead Suzume that’s her name that’s the protagonist’s name she has this childhood chair as a memento from her mom. [15:20.720 –> 15:31.720] And because of magical hijinks the other dude who’s the deuteragonist gets his body transformed into this chair but he can walk around and talk and stuff. [15:31.740 –> 15:51.740] Yeah like these movies are Ghibli-esque they’re not as maybe so Ghibli is almost a little bit more Disney-like these are a little less Disney-like but it has that same niche of wonder and whimsy right. [15:51.740 –> 16:00.740] But they also hit I think a more emotional tone especially towards the end towards the latter end of the movies there’s some deep stuff in there. [16:00.760 –> 16:09.760] But anyways I’m trying to dance around you know too many details because spoilers and whatnot but I really recommend people watch them they’re really good. [16:09.760 –> 16:10.760] What are they on? [16:10.760 –> 16:14.760] Well that’s a good question Suzume is in theaters I know that. [16:14.760 –> 16:15.760] Oh okay. [16:15.760 –> 16:21.760] I don’t know if it’s already let’s see your name like yeah you can find them all you can just find out YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play. [16:21.780 –> 16:28.780] If you watch that with some friends yeah same thing like that you can just Google HBO Max there you go that’s right. [16:28.780 –> 16:30.780] Yep I have that. [16:30.780 –> 16:40.780] There’s different places though but yeah I just highly recommend them if you like Ghibli films you’ll probably like these because they’re anime films and the animation is just as quality and beautiful. [16:40.800 –> 16:51.800] And there’s of course the whole sub versus dub debate I’ve watched I can’t remember Suzume watched dub I can’t remember if I watched weathering with you dub or sub. [16:51.800 –> 16:54.800] I mean I’m partial to both I don’t have any preference. [16:54.800 –> 17:08.800] Yeah I my only thing so my only thing with subbed is that I like with my ADHD if I am just watching something like if I’m just sitting and watching something my ADHD is going wild. [17:08.820 –> 17:18.820] So I like to if I’m watching something I love to like knit or crochet or like be doing something with my hands at the same time and I can’t do that when it’s subbed. [17:18.820 –> 17:19.820] Sure. [17:19.820 –> 17:22.820] So I generally like the dub person. [17:22.820 –> 17:26.820] Okay well they you’re in luck because the dub was excellent in my opinion. [17:26.820 –> 17:27.820] Sweet. [17:27.820 –> 17:28.820] Yep so. [17:28.820 –> 17:29.820] Cool. [17:29.820 –> 17:30.820] There you go. [17:30.820 –> 17:31.820] Okay. [17:31.820 –> 17:32.820] Yeah. [17:32.820 –> 17:33.820] Well let’s move on to the news. [17:33.820 –> 17:35.820] Yes that’s enough from our weeks. [17:35.840 –> 17:40.840] So first bit of news Kev you’re so excited. [17:40.840 –> 17:42.840] Yes I am. [17:42.840 –> 17:45.840] Maneka we have a date. [17:45.840 –> 17:47.840] Finally. [17:47.840 –> 18:04.840] Yeah so part of the indie world that just happened they released they announced the release date of Maneka’s Night Market and they also released like a little cute little trailer that you can watch that kind of explains the lore of the area. [18:04.860 –> 18:15.860] And what’s going on in this area and kind of I don’t know shows a little bit of other of other cute things and you getting ready for the night market. [18:15.860 –> 18:20.860] So but this is your baby so tell me how do you feel? [18:20.860 –> 18:27.860] For people who may not know this was on my most anticipated game for the next year two years running. [18:27.860 –> 18:28.860] Yeah. [18:28.860 –> 18:31.860] Oh it’s been such a long time. [18:31.880 –> 18:43.880] I mean what what is there to say about Maneka like oh it’s you’re farming but you’re going to be selling things at a magical night market the farming is also magical you farm cats. [18:43.880 –> 18:45.880] You ride cats? [18:45.880 –> 18:49.880] Yes the art is just gorgeous that’s really what sells me about it. [18:49.880 –> 18:52.880] I just can’t wait for this game. [18:52.880 –> 18:54.880] There’s a big cat I don’t. [18:54.880 –> 18:56.880] They don’t care. [18:56.880 –> 18:58.880] They don’t care. [18:58.900 –> 19:09.900] Yeah so it showed the new trailer showed you riding cats like in like a race and they run so cute it’s it’s just pure it’s wholesome as heck. [19:09.900 –> 19:23.900] It also showed you like cutting gosh what was it like a tulip like you were like cutting up a plant up to get ready for the market like I think I’m assuming you like make a bouquet out of that. [19:23.920 –> 19:47.920] And then it also showed you like stitching something which had me my me and my craftiness I was like oh um because that was cool like sewing something I guess it’s not stitching something but um yeah cute little gameplay trailer um gameplay slash lore trailer so and now look at the trailer see that’s what five months away. [19:47.920 –> 19:51.920] 156 days as of this recording. [19:51.940 –> 19:56.940] Well every episode now you have to say how many days there are. [19:56.940 –> 19:58.940] Oh absolutely. [19:58.940 –> 20:00.940] Mineko watch is now a thing. [20:00.940 –> 20:02.940] Hashtag Mineko watch. [20:02.940 –> 20:04.940] Oh my goodness. [20:04.940 –> 20:06.940] Why are the FBI agents chasing her? [20:06.940 –> 20:08.940] Why is Mineko dressed like a cat in one scene? [20:08.940 –> 20:10.940] I don’t know. [20:10.940 –> 20:12.940] I just want to find out when I play. [20:12.940 –> 20:14.940] You’re gonna find out. [20:14.940 –> 20:16.940] There’s a day now. [20:16.940 –> 20:18.940] There’s a date. [20:18.940 –> 20:20.940] Man those cat races look real good. [20:20.960 –> 20:25.960] Alright that’s all that matters from this episode to me. [20:25.960 –> 20:41.960] No I mean the next time or the next thing on here is in the news is My Time at Sandrock also has a little bit of a new trailer so again this is by the same people who did My Time at Portia. [20:41.960 –> 20:43.960] I see yes. [20:43.980 –> 20:51.980] Sandrock is a desert town and you turn a rundown workshop into a well-oiled facility is what you’re doing. [20:51.980 –> 21:11.980] So if you enjoyed My Time at Portia which I know some listeners did then this new game My Time at Sandrock is coming to Switch quote unquote summer 2023 so sometime in the next few months or I guess it could be like six months because they could push it to like the end of summer. [21:12.000 –> 21:14.000] Even summer is loose. [21:14.000 –> 21:16.000] How has it summer in quotation marks? [21:16.000 –> 21:18.000] Yeah in quotation marks. [21:18.000 –> 21:20.000] And that is the correct attitude. [21:20.000 –> 21:22.000] Yeah. [21:22.000 –> 21:24.000] I didn’t play My Time at Portia. [21:24.000 –> 21:26.000] Yeah I didn’t either. [21:26.000 –> 21:28.000] And I’m pretty meh about it. [21:28.000 –> 21:30.000] So yeah that’s a thing. [21:30.000 –> 21:32.000] There’s a lot going on. [21:32.000 –> 21:34.000] Look at the trailer. [21:34.000 –> 21:36.000] There’s a first person shooter portion of this trailer. [21:36.000 –> 21:38.000] Yeah. [21:38.000 –> 21:40.000] That’s a lot going on. [21:40.020 –> 21:42.020] Speaking of a lot going on, ooblets. [21:42.020 –> 21:44.020] There is a lot going on with that one. [21:44.020 –> 21:46.020] There is. [21:46.020 –> 21:48.020] And there’s a new spring event. [21:48.020 –> 21:50.020] And so there’s a spring update that’s just happening now. [21:50.020 –> 21:52.020] In that update there is a minimum time ooblet. [21:52.020 –> 21:54.020] Sorry limited time. [21:54.020 –> 21:56.020] So like it’s only available for a certain amount of time. [21:56.020 –> 21:58.020] Yeah. [21:58.020 –> 22:00.020] A bunny I think. [22:00.040 –> 22:02.040] Yeah I’m not sure which one it is. [22:02.040 –> 22:04.040] But yeah. [22:04.040 –> 22:06.040] There’s one that’s limited. [22:06.040 –> 22:08.040] There’s another new one that you can get that’s not that one. [22:08.040 –> 22:10.040] There’s these Glimmy… [22:10.040 –> 22:12.040] Glimmy Globes. [22:12.040 –> 22:14.040] Which look like little snow globes to me. [22:14.040 –> 22:16.040] Yeah they do. [22:16.040 –> 22:18.040] That’s cute. [22:18.040 –> 22:20.040] They’re like little snow globes. [22:20.040 –> 22:22.040] Yeah they do. [22:22.040 –> 22:24.040] That’s cute. [22:24.040 –> 22:26.040] They’re like little snow globes. [22:26.040 –> 22:28.040] They’re like little snow globes. [22:28.060 –> 22:30.060] They’re like a little ship in a bottle. [22:30.060 –> 22:32.060] That you can design. [22:32.060 –> 22:34.060] And make. [22:34.060 –> 22:36.060] And those are really cute. [22:36.060 –> 22:38.060] I know that there were some people [22:38.060 –> 22:40.060] I’m trying to go into. [22:40.060 –> 22:42.060] There was recently some ooblets talk in Slack. [22:42.060 –> 22:44.060] Cat. [22:44.060 –> 22:46.060] Cat in Slack. [22:46.060 –> 22:48.060] Shout out to Cat. [22:48.060 –> 22:50.060] Said that… [22:50.060 –> 22:52.060] It’s one of our favorites. [22:52.060 –> 22:54.060] True, true, true. [22:54.060 –> 22:56.060] That they are playing [22:56.080 –> 22:58.080] ooblets right now. [22:58.080 –> 23:00.080] And they said [23:00.080 –> 23:02.080] quote I really didn’t think I’d like it [23:02.080 –> 23:04.080] but I’m glad I gave it a try. [23:04.080 –> 23:06.080] Oddly enough this [23:06.080 –> 23:08.080] trailer is I think the most [23:08.080 –> 23:10.080] the one that’s intrigued me the most. [23:10.080 –> 23:12.080] I don’t know why. [23:12.080 –> 23:14.080] Something about the little bottles. [23:14.080 –> 23:16.080] Something about it’s real cute. [23:16.080 –> 23:18.080] That looked really cute to me too. [23:18.080 –> 23:20.080] We’re getting [23:20.080 –> 23:22.080] that bunny tater flop it’s called. [23:22.080 –> 23:24.080] Yeah tater flop seed. [23:24.100 –> 23:26.100] Tater flop. [23:26.100 –> 23:28.100] Oh that’d be so good if it was. [23:28.100 –> 23:30.100] So yeah. [23:30.100 –> 23:32.100] If you are into ooblets or if you want to try it out [23:32.100 –> 23:34.100] now’s a good time not only from our mouth [23:34.100 –> 23:36.100] but from our listeners mouth as well. [23:36.100 –> 23:38.100] Yeah. [23:38.100 –> 23:40.100] It’s until [23:40.100 –> 23:42.100] the spring event is going until the end of [23:42.100 –> 23:44.100] May 31st. [23:44.100 –> 23:46.100] Oh my goodness. [23:46.100 –> 23:48.100] There are 459 variations [23:48.100 –> 23:50.100] of Glimmy Globes so you probably [23:50.100 –> 23:52.100] shouldn’t try to craft them all. [23:52.120 –> 23:54.120] Ublipses. [23:54.120 –> 23:56.120] Unless. [23:56.120 –> 23:58.120] Challenge accepted. [23:58.120 –> 24:00.120] Yeah there you go. [24:00.120 –> 24:02.120] Ooblets for you ooblets people. [24:02.120 –> 24:04.120] Sun Haven. [24:08.120 –> 24:10.120] Update 101 [24:10.120 –> 24:12.120] and in here [24:12.120 –> 24:14.120] I don’t know if you wrote this [24:14.120 –> 24:16.120] or if Al wrote this. [24:16.120 –> 24:18.120] No that was Al. [24:18.120 –> 24:20.120] I thought it was you who wrote it. [24:20.140 –> 24:22.140] There’s a parenthetical here [24:22.140 –> 24:24.140] something in parenthesis that says [24:24.140 –> 24:26.140] quote good thing Al isn’t on this episode [24:26.140 –> 24:28.140] to complain about the use of the word [24:28.140 –> 24:30.140] patch here. [24:30.140 –> 24:32.140] So Al wrote update 101 [24:32.140 –> 24:34.140] but they call it patch 101. [24:34.140 –> 24:36.140] Um. [24:36.140 –> 24:38.140] I think it’s because [24:38.140 –> 24:40.140] a patch is like a bug fixer [24:40.140 –> 24:42.140] it’s not. They’re different. [24:42.140 –> 24:44.140] I don’t know. [24:44.140 –> 24:46.140] I don’t know if I’ve ever heard his rant [24:46.140 –> 24:48.140] about update versus patch. [24:48.160 –> 24:50.160] Somewhere out in Scotland [24:50.160 –> 24:52.160] Al just [24:52.160 –> 24:54.160] just felt his eyebrow twitch for some reason [24:54.160 –> 24:56.160] he’s not sure why. [24:56.160 –> 24:58.160] He should do a mini episode. Al you should do like [24:58.160 –> 25:00.160] a greenhouse mini episode that’s like [25:00.160 –> 25:02.160] a rants with Al version. [25:02.160 –> 25:04.160] It’s gonna be inserted right here. [25:04.160 –> 25:06.160] No no I want it to be its own content. [25:06.160 –> 25:08.160] Of update versus patch. [25:08.160 –> 25:10.160] So Sun Haven [25:10.160 –> 25:12.160] this update [25:12.160 –> 25:14.160] 101.1 [25:14.160 –> 25:16.160] has some new story elements [25:16.180 –> 25:18.180] to it. It has some added character [25:18.180 –> 25:20.180] customization like you can now become [25:20.180 –> 25:22.180] a couple different [25:22.180 –> 25:24.180] like not well I guess it’s racist [25:24.180 –> 25:26.180] like a naga or like a [25:26.180 –> 25:28.180] dragon person or something like that. [25:28.180 –> 25:30.180] There’s also more translation so it’s [25:30.180 –> 25:32.180] available in more languages [25:32.180 –> 25:34.180] which is great and [25:34.180 –> 25:36.180] there’s improved controller support. So they [25:36.180 –> 25:38.180] have had controller support but [25:38.180 –> 25:40.180] apparently there were some [25:40.180 –> 25:42.180] there was some [25:42.180 –> 25:44.180] feedback that they received that it wasn’t [25:44.200 –> 25:46.200] as good as it could be and so they’ve [25:46.200 –> 25:48.200] improved it. So all of that [25:48.200 –> 25:50.200] has happened in this. Which I guess [25:50.200 –> 25:52.200] like for them to call it a [25:52.200 –> 25:54.200] like maybe it is a patch. No [25:54.200 –> 25:56.200] but there’s a new story [25:56.200 –> 25:58.200] which isn’t a patch that’s an update. [25:58.200 –> 26:00.200] Al I need a mini episode [26:00.200 –> 26:02.200] about this. [26:02.200 –> 26:04.200] Because like the [26:04.200 –> 26:06.200] improved controller support and like more languages [26:06.200 –> 26:08.200] like to me that’s a patch. [26:08.200 –> 26:10.200] But when you’re adding new content [26:10.200 –> 26:12.200] like the new story and character [26:12.220 –> 26:14.220] customization like that is an update. [26:14.220 –> 26:16.220] So anyway [26:16.220 –> 26:18.220] it is currently out now [26:18.220 –> 26:20.220] and it is on sale just for [26:20.220 –> 26:22.220] $20 I think it’s like 20% off or something [26:22.220 –> 26:24.220] it’s not only like $25. [26:24.220 –> 26:26.220] I believe yeah well no [26:26.220 –> 26:28.220] because it’s out it’s 1.1 now. [26:28.220 –> 26:30.220] No wait the [26:30.220 –> 26:32.220] oh yes yes yes yes [26:32.220 –> 26:34.220] the patch was [26:34.220 –> 26:36.220] in the beta and now it is out yes. [26:36.220 –> 26:38.220] The update was [26:38.220 –> 26:40.220] yes everything is out [26:40.240 –> 26:42.240] it is nothing is in beta anymore. [26:42.240 –> 26:44.240] End of the bottom line okay. [26:44.240 –> 26:46.240] I have a question [26:46.240 –> 26:48.240] for you Cody. Oh yeah go for it. [26:48.240 –> 26:50.240] Would you call 1.6 Stardew [26:50.240 –> 26:52.240] a patch or an update? [26:52.240 –> 26:56.240] So it’s funny because thinking about [26:56.240 –> 26:58.240] oh okay [26:58.240 –> 27:00.240] I was going to say thinking about what I [27:00.240 –> 27:02.240] think the difference between a patch and an update is [27:02.240 –> 27:04.240] like I think an update has to have [27:04.240 –> 27:06.240] like more content and [27:06.240 –> 27:08.240] it sounds like the changes [27:08.260 –> 27:10.260] in the 1.6 update [27:10.260 –> 27:12.260] is like [27:12.260 –> 27:14.260] modding changes but [27:14.260 –> 27:16.260] ConcernedApe does say that there is [27:16.260 –> 27:18.260] also content [27:18.260 –> 27:20.260] so it looks like there [27:20.260 –> 27:22.260] is more dialogue coming [27:22.260 –> 27:24.260] for different characters [27:24.260 –> 27:26.260] so I don’t [27:26.260 –> 27:28.260] know if it’s like that [27:28.260 –> 27:30.260] the dialogue has changed or maybe [27:30.260 –> 27:32.260] it’s just updated in certain parts of the game [27:32.260 –> 27:34.260] or it’s just [27:34.260 –> 27:36.260] like a completely new cutscene or something [27:36.280 –> 27:38.280] we don’t have a ton of information [27:38.280 –> 27:40.280] ConcernedApe is a man of myth [27:40.280 –> 27:42.280] I’m just looking through [27:42.280 –> 27:44.280] the twitter thread [27:44.280 –> 27:46.280] and the [27:46.280 –> 27:48.280] first comment is [27:48.280 –> 27:50.280] I crave new info about HauntedChocolatier [27:50.280 –> 27:52.280] anything you can tell us? [27:52.280 –> 27:54.280] and ConcernedApe’s response is [27:54.280 –> 27:56.280] that the town is on the water and there are [27:56.280 –> 27:58.280] oh dogs I thought it said rocks [27:58.280 –> 28:00.280] okay never mind [28:00.280 –> 28:02.280] but still [28:02.280 –> 28:04.280] yeah not as bad as Stardew [28:04.300 –> 28:06.300] I know most people prefer [28:06.300 –> 28:08.300] HauntedChocolatier but [28:08.300 –> 28:10.300] that means Stardew isn’t dead [28:10.300 –> 28:12.300] that’s interesting [28:12.300 –> 28:14.300] it’s not gonna ever die [28:14.300 –> 28:16.300] I mean [28:16.300 –> 28:18.300] really you think he’s gonna [28:18.300 –> 28:20.300] I mean from his side right [28:20.300 –> 28:22.300] I know people will play it forever and ever [28:22.300 –> 28:24.300] but do you think he’s gonna keep updating it [28:24.300 –> 28:26.300] forever and ever and ever? [28:26.300 –> 28:28.300] I don’t know why not [28:28.300 –> 28:30.300] wow I [28:30.300 –> 28:32.300] was googling ConcernedApe [28:32.320 –> 28:34.320] because I realize that we always say he [28:34.320 –> 28:36.320] but I’ve actually never seen their pronouns [28:36.320 –> 28:38.320] anywhere [28:38.320 –> 28:40.320] it is a guy [28:40.320 –> 28:42.320] and his name is Eric Barone [28:42.320 –> 28:44.320] I didn’t know that there was actually a name [28:44.320 –> 28:46.320] associated with this human [28:46.320 –> 28:48.320] that we know of [28:48.320 –> 28:50.320] no I’m sure [28:50.320 –> 28:52.320] there is but [28:52.320 –> 28:54.320] I didn’t know if it was a secret [28:54.320 –> 28:56.320] so the next here we have a couple games [28:56.320 –> 28:58.320] that are new [28:58.320 –> 29:00.320] so first is GoGo Town [29:00.340 –> 29:02.340] the Steam [29:02.340 –> 29:04.340] blurb is [29:04.340 –> 29:06.340] quote plan build [29:06.340 –> 29:08.340] prosper? [29:08.340 –> 29:10.340] it literally has a question mark [29:10.340 –> 29:12.340] as mayor [29:12.340 –> 29:14.340] it is up to you to breathe life [29:14.340 –> 29:16.340] back into this run downtown [29:16.340 –> 29:18.340] construct shops [29:18.340 –> 29:20.340] hire staff, automate deliveries with [29:20.340 –> 29:22.340] couriers and attract tourists to [29:22.340 –> 29:24.340] town all while managing infrastructure [29:24.340 –> 29:26.340] and avoiding catastrophes [29:26.340 –> 29:28.340] who said being mayor was going [29:28.360 –> 29:30.360] to be easy [29:30.360 –> 29:32.360] um [29:32.360 –> 29:34.360] I’m trying to remember what the [29:34.360 –> 29:36.360] the graphics are [29:36.360 –> 29:38.360] kind of animal crossing-ish [29:38.360 –> 29:40.360] they are, that’s a good comparison point [29:40.360 –> 29:42.360] but there’s something a little more [29:42.360 –> 29:44.360] I don’t [29:44.360 –> 29:46.360] cartoony almost [29:46.360 –> 29:48.360] yes it has to be cartoony [29:48.360 –> 29:50.360] because there are aliens and monkeys [29:50.360 –> 29:52.360] yeah [29:52.360 –> 29:54.360] I was going to say that [29:54.360 –> 29:56.360] I actually like the art style [29:56.380 –> 29:58.380] I like [29:58.380 –> 30:00.380] the look of the game like you’re building up a town [30:00.380 –> 30:02.380] this is all appealing [30:02.380 –> 30:04.380] and the fact that we got aliens landing [30:04.380 –> 30:06.380] and monkeys running around town [30:06.380 –> 30:08.380] I’m intrigued now [30:08.380 –> 30:10.380] this GoGo Town has caught my attention [30:10.380 –> 30:12.380] um [30:12.380 –> 30:14.380] no it’s to be announced [30:14.380 –> 30:16.380] um I didn’t see the mummies [30:16.380 –> 30:18.380] it’s at the very end of the trailer [30:18.380 –> 30:20.380] they’re not even front and center [30:20.380 –> 30:22.380] they’re just walking around the streets [30:22.380 –> 30:24.380] oh yup you right [30:24.400 –> 30:26.400] I don’t know [30:26.400 –> 30:28.400] there’s also robots [30:28.400 –> 30:30.400] that was my thing it says avoid catastrophes [30:30.400 –> 30:32.400] and I was like I wonder if [30:32.400 –> 30:34.400] the aliens are a catastrophe [30:34.400 –> 30:36.400] because they just come out of their little [30:36.400 –> 30:38.400] their little UFO [30:38.400 –> 30:40.400] and they’re just coming at you [30:40.400 –> 30:42.400] I don’t know if they wreak havoc on your town [30:42.400 –> 30:44.400] well in Al’s notes [30:44.400 –> 30:46.400] it says catastrophes include [30:46.400 –> 30:48.400] aliens [30:48.400 –> 30:50.400] I don’t know if that’s actually from him or not [30:50.400 –> 30:52.400] oh you wrote that [30:52.420 –> 30:54.420] um [30:54.420 –> 30:56.420] yeah so [30:56.420 –> 30:58.420] I mean that’s what it looks like it’s a catastrophe [30:58.420 –> 31:00.420] but they could just be visitors [31:00.420 –> 31:02.420] as well who knows [31:02.420 –> 31:04.420] um but yeah GoGo Town so that’s something [31:04.420 –> 31:06.420] to be aware of [31:06.420 –> 31:08.420] on the horizon [31:08.420 –> 31:10.420] um next is Poglings [31:10.420 –> 31:12.420] boy what a name [31:12.420 –> 31:14.420] yeah [31:14.420 –> 31:16.420] like pogs were originally those little [31:16.420 –> 31:18.420] little like token coin things [31:18.420 –> 31:20.420] from the 80s and 90s [31:20.440 –> 31:22.440] I used to collect some Pokemon ones in Mexico [31:22.440 –> 31:24.440] by the time I was a kid [31:24.440 –> 31:26.440] well [31:26.440 –> 31:28.440] yeah I played with pogs [31:28.440 –> 31:30.440] um my own like [31:30.440 –> 31:32.440] I had some [31:32.440 –> 31:34.440] they were cool for sure [31:34.440 –> 31:36.440] uh yeah this is not that [31:36.440 –> 31:38.440] this is complicated [31:38.440 –> 31:40.440] I was trying to say my point was that the word pog [31:40.440 –> 31:42.440] has been ruined forever and ever thanks to Twitch [31:42.440 –> 31:44.440] oh no [31:44.440 –> 31:46.440] yeah so quote poglings [31:46.440 –> 31:48.440] is a cute pet simulation creature collecting adventure [31:48.460 –> 31:50.460] evolve breed and race [31:50.460 –> 31:52.460] cute mysterious creatures known as poglings [31:52.460 –> 31:54.460] stake claim to your island [31:54.460 –> 31:56.460] grow your nest and establish yourself as the best [31:56.460 –> 31:58.460] pogling catcher the [31:58.460 –> 32:00.460] wild vine islands has ever [32:00.460 –> 32:02.460] seen [32:02.460 –> 32:04.460] um I mean [32:04.460 –> 32:06.460] I don’t love the art style [32:06.460 –> 32:08.460] no it’s too [32:08.460 –> 32:10.460] saccharine [32:10.460 –> 32:12.460] I don’t know it looks like a fake [32:12.460 –> 32:14.460] game or movie you’d see in a movie [32:14.460 –> 32:16.460] you know what I mean [32:16.480 –> 32:18.480] yeah I don’t know it’s not [32:18.480 –> 32:20.480] some people like I feel like if you like the games [32:20.480 –> 32:22.480] like merge dragons [32:22.480 –> 32:24.480] but it’s not a merging game [32:24.480 –> 32:26.480] so I don’t know [32:26.480 –> 32:28.480] it’s got the same like [32:28.480 –> 32:30.480] art style to me [32:30.480 –> 32:32.480] the little creatures look like [32:32.480 –> 32:34.480] little merge dragon [32:34.480 –> 32:36.480] creatures [32:36.480 –> 32:38.480] when I first saw it it also reminded me of neopets [32:38.480 –> 32:40.480] which it is also not [32:40.480 –> 32:42.480] it is not neopets [32:42.480 –> 32:44.480] but it kind of is because you creature collect [32:44.500 –> 32:46.500] yeah you kind of get the vibe [32:46.500 –> 32:48.500] but it’s like [32:48.500 –> 32:50.500] it’s like if it was neopets but you only ever had [32:50.500 –> 32:52.500] one neopet [32:52.500 –> 32:54.500] like one type [32:54.500 –> 32:56.500] and you just [32:56.500 –> 32:58.500] coats of paint on that [32:58.500 –> 33:00.500] it just looks like it’s just coats of paint [33:00.500 –> 33:02.500] on the same one [33:02.500 –> 33:04.500] it is in kickstarter so benefit of the doubt [33:04.500 –> 33:06.500] maybe they were just showing what they have now [33:06.500 –> 33:08.500] I was about to say [33:08.500 –> 33:10.500] this is also probably like 90% [33:10.500 –> 33:12.500] FMV and not actually gameplay [33:12.520 –> 33:14.520] yeah who knows [33:14.520 –> 33:16.520] but it will actually end up being [33:16.520 –> 33:18.520] yeah so I looked it up [33:18.520 –> 33:20.520] I know [33:20.520 –> 33:22.520] I wrote this [33:22.520 –> 33:24.520] I looked at the kickstarter and the kickstarter [33:24.520 –> 33:26.520] the goal was just 40k [33:26.520 –> 33:28.520] it is already at 311k [33:28.520 –> 33:30.520] thousand [33:30.520 –> 33:32.520] it’s already [33:32.520 –> 33:34.520] way over the goal [33:34.520 –> 33:36.520] but it actually is still going [33:36.520 –> 33:38.520] the kickstarter is still going until may 11th [33:38.520 –> 33:40.520] so if you like these little [33:40.540 –> 33:42.540] collecting pet simulation games [33:42.540 –> 33:44.540] maybe give it a look [33:44.540 –> 33:46.540] wait hold the phone [33:46.540 –> 33:48.540] chad tronic is the creator [33:48.540 –> 33:50.540] I don’t know [33:50.540 –> 33:52.540] he’s a youtuber [33:52.540 –> 33:54.540] I don’t follow him but I’m familiar with the name [33:54.540 –> 33:56.540] I did not [33:56.540 –> 33:58.540] that’s crazy [33:58.540 –> 34:00.540] the wonder it blew the goal [34:00.540 –> 34:02.540] it has a following [34:02.540 –> 34:04.540] I’ll be darned [34:04.540 –> 34:06.540] that’s interesting [34:06.540 –&
Al and Bev talk about Cult of the Lamb, again Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:04:42: What Have We Been Playing 00:17:23: News 00:34:12: Cult Of The Lamb 01:01:27: Outro Links Bloom 1.1 Ooblets 1.1 Verdant Village Engine Before The Green Moon Season: A Letter to the future Original Cult of the Lamb Episode Cult of the Lamb 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 –> 00:27.000] [Theme Music] [00:30.000 –> 00:37.140] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Al and my [00:37.140 –> 00:46.880] name is Bev and we’re here today to talk about farming, no cottagecore games. Apparently [00:46.880 –> 00:52.320] that is just like muscle memory for my brain now because it’s been going on for so long. [00:52.320 –> 00:56.960] I was actually thinking while I was doing that intro, how do people with multiple podcasts [00:56.960 –> 01:02.360] do it? I don’t know. How do they remember which podcast they’re introing? Maybe like [01:02.360 –> 01:07.120] they I don’t know if they just had like some sort of routine that gets it into like into [01:07.120 –> 01:11.840] the specific podcast. Yeah yeah like this is this is the thing I do before this podcast [01:11.840 –> 01:17.080] and it’s like you juggle or something yeah yeah that would work. There’s a friend in [01:17.080 –> 01:23.880] my D&D group who like she had like a Scottish character like a Scottish dwarf and every [01:23.880 –> 01:28.960] time she she couldn’t do the accent unless she did like this little like song beforehand [01:28.960 –> 01:33.360] so she would do the song and then just like talk in a Scottish accent for like the rest [01:33.360 –> 01:39.600] of the day. But she could not get started without it so yeah just some sort of routine [01:39.600 –> 01:46.200] I guess that triggers it. Yeah I I mean I’m going to guess that the accent was probably [01:46.200 –> 01:51.800] not great anyway. I don’t know I thought it was pretty great but yeah but how do you what [01:51.800 –> 01:56.000] do you what do you think about Shrek’s accent that’s the real question? Uh I mean I don’t [01:56.000 –> 02:05.160] know no I could no it’s not okay I mean it’s Shrek. I mean I’m not saying it would be Shrek [02:05.160 –> 02:09.200] but I think that’s a good indication of whether people think something is a good Scottish [02:09.200 –> 02:12.800] accent or not and if they think that Shrek is a good Scottish accent then they don’t [02:12.800 –> 02:16.880] know what a Scottish accent is. I guess I don’t know I watch a lot of Outlander so I [02:16.880 –> 02:22.880] feel like I have a better representation maybe. I have heard of that I have no idea what it [02:22.880 –> 02:30.440] is. Okay I would recommend it’s a if you like like historical fiction it’s essentially someone [02:30.440 –> 02:34.760] going back in time to like the I don’t know seven goodness I don’t even know like what [02:34.760 –> 02:40.860] 1700s maybe in the Scottish Highlands. Oh my word like they’ve actually got like proper [02:40.860 –> 02:50.280] Scots in this as well. Mm-hmm I’m gonna watch it. Probably not. Okay. Interesting mm-hmm [02:50.280 –> 02:57.160] it’s Lionsgate. Mm-hmm yeah so it’s like behind a payroll there’s the first like three seasons [02:57.160 –> 03:04.700] I think are at least the US like Netflix but not all of them. I mean basically basically [03:04.700 –> 03:11.120] nothing’s on Netflix anymore other than Netflix stuff mm-hmm where is it it is on yeah it’s [03:11.120 –> 03:17.320] on well they’re calling it stars now but that’s one of those it’s one of those Amazon Prime [03:17.320 –> 03:21.360] channels that you have to have Amazon Prime and then you also have to pay for this extra [03:21.360 –> 03:28.120] channel on top. Right yep I hate it. Alright let’s move away from subscriptions please [03:28.120 –> 03:40.160] I’m all tied out. Alright this is a podcast about Cottagecore games. Uh-huh. We this episode [03:40.160 –> 03:45.960] we’re gonna talk about Cult of the Lamb this is our second harvest on Cult of the Lamb [03:45.960 –> 03:51.840] the previous episode will be in the show notes if you want to listen to that first by Kevin [03:51.840 –> 03:59.320] and Kelly mm-hmm but me and Bev had some thoughts and it’s been a while since I we decided to [03:59.320 –> 04:03.960] do this so I can’t remember what my thoughts were but I’m sure they’ll come back. Uh-huh [04:03.960 –> 04:09.680] I it’s yeah it’s also been a while but I did start up playing it today so I can revisit [04:09.680 –> 04:16.400] this world and try to create some thoughts. Yeah I talked a little bit about it in the [04:16.400 –> 04:23.280] game of the year episode as well but mm-hmm anyway. Before that oh I need to say this [04:23.280 –> 04:28.840] I need to get into the habit of saying this right up front. Transcripts for the podcast [04:28.840 –> 04:32.360] are now available in the show notes and on the website and they say it’s best to say [04:32.360 –> 04:37.920] it as early in the podcast as possible for obvious reasons so there you go. Beautiful. [04:37.920 –> 04:42.600] So we’re gonna talk about Cult of the Lamb before that we’re gonna have some news but [04:42.600 –> 04:48.200] first of all Bev what have you been playing? I’ve been playing a lot of Stardew ever since [04:48.200 –> 04:56.400] I saw that concerned ape treat for the seven years I’ve just been immersed and I think [04:56.400 –> 05:03.440] I’m finally going to reach like one point the 1.5 update finally so I’m excited to reach [05:03.440 –> 05:08.060] this new venture in this game that I haven’t actually played yet. Did you do a new save [05:08.060 –> 05:13.680] or are you on top of one of your old ones? I did a new one. Wow mm-hmm fair enough mm-hmm [05:13.680 –> 05:19.760] how about you what are you been playing? I have been playing a couple of things so I’ve [05:19.760 –> 05:26.080] been playing Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity I think it’s called the newer one whatever [05:26.080 –> 05:29.480] I’ve just slowly been playing through that I think I talked about that in the last episode [05:29.480 –> 05:34.320] that I did so yeah I’ve just been slowly playing through that I’m not sure when I’ll finish [05:34.320 –> 05:40.600] it I’ll probably take a break this week because the new Kirby game just arrived at my house [05:40.600 –> 05:48.440] so I’m gonna play that. Exciting. Yeah yeah very exciting I’ve also been playing the Bloom [05:48.440 –> 05:55.680] update which I’ll talk about more in the news soon bear with and I’ve also been playing [05:55.680 –> 06:02.640] the new Mario Kart levels and I actually I had not I hadn’t actually finished playing [06:02.640 –> 06:06.240] the previous ones because I can’t remember when they must have been like just before [06:06.240 –> 06:09.720] Christmas or something so it was just really busy with lots of other things so I ended [06:09.720 –> 06:16.340] up not not three starting them so I’ve been doing that and then moving on to the new ones [06:16.340 –> 06:22.240] as well so yeah. Is this Mario Party 8? Yes. Okay so I was gonna say a new one I haven’t [06:22.240 –> 06:28.900] heard of a new one coming out. No but it’s interesting because so they say so when they [06:28.900 –> 06:33.640] announced this DLC they announced at the beginning of last year or middle middle of the beginning [06:33.640 –> 06:38.840] of last year sometime early last year and they said they were going to be six waves [06:38.840 –> 06:47.000] over basically two years so up till the end of this year and then that kind of string [06:47.000 –> 06:54.660] that that text on the DLC has kind of has been deleted so that’s interesting and people [06:54.660 –> 07:00.440] are leading to believe to think that that means there’s going to be more it possibly [07:00.440 –> 07:04.600] could mean that this is not all going to be done by the end of this year I would be surprised [07:04.600 –> 07:09.200] if that was the case right because like there’s only two more waves to go and not managing [07:09.200 –> 07:14.840] to do two more waves this year would be surprising so I’m also probably leaning towards the idea [07:14.840 –> 07:21.260] that there’s possibly more coming but also adding to that speculation in this DLC pack [07:21.260 –> 07:31.240] sorry wave need to use the right terminology this DLC waves are transient why would you [07:31.240 –> 07:36.080] use wave when you’ve got when you want people to continue playing things don’t use terminology [07:36.080 –> 07:43.740] about transient things well it like the well waves always sure they’re like transient but [07:43.740 –> 07:48.240] there’s always a wave after the wave yeah but that’s that’s well exactly so it makes [07:48.240 –> 07:56.000] it worse right I don’t know it’s gonna be infinite infinite number of waves right like [07:56.000 –> 08:00.360] you never stop the waves and they’re all transient and I just it doesn’t feel like the right [08:00.360 –> 08:04.420] terminology they would want to use for this thing come on I mean they haven’t come out [08:04.420 –> 08:08.960] with a Mario Kart like 9 so I think that is what they’re doing is just trying to like [08:08.960 –> 08:14.160] string this game out for as long as possible before they come up with a new one oh who [08:14.160 –> 08:24.340] knows who knows so the other the other speculation is in this wave they released Birdo as a playable [08:24.340 –> 08:31.180] character in the game hmm which Birdo has been available in previous games and fun fact [08:31.180 –> 08:37.240] I don’t know whether you’re aware of this Bev Birdo the only canonically trans character [08:37.240 –> 08:45.180] in Mario what I did not know this yeah okay was confirmed canonically as trans in something [08:45.180 –> 08:56.460] like 1993 wow obviously obviously the terminology is not great so you have to bear in mind that [08:56.460 –> 09:02.340] this was the early 90s I’m still incredibly progressive to have a trans character in a [09:02.340 –> 09:10.440] video game coming out of like Japan well yeah yeah yeah that’s a good point okay my new [09:10.440 –> 09:17.240] favorite character is now Birdo Birdo also you can get in all nine colors that you can [09:17.240 –> 09:21.540] get the Yoshi’s in which is fun I’ve been playing as the light blue Birdo I just okay [09:21.540 –> 09:29.980] just because it’s fun but in the game on the character selection screen they didn’t just [09:29.980 –> 09:36.220] add Birdo they also added I think it was five question marks as well so the speculation [09:36.220 –> 09:41.820] is that there are five more characters coming to the game that sounds about right now if [09:41.820 –> 09:46.420] they were to do let’s say for example the two more waves that they were planning to [09:46.420 –> 09:51.460] do this year they do them this year and there’s also a character in them that would leave [09:51.460 –> 09:57.500] three characters left to come which if they were to do another year the same as they have [09:57.500 –> 10:03.140] been doing these two years that would be another three waves so all of that speculation to [10:03.140 –> 10:08.540] come would imply possibly theoretically that there would be three more waves coming next [10:08.540 –> 10:15.860] year that’s a lot considering this game came out in well how many years has it been now [10:15.860 –> 10:22.060] so I was actually looking at this the other day I love to look at these things I mean [10:22.060 –> 10:28.680] first of all right the the game is insane like the amount of sales is just quite insane [10:28.680 –> 10:35.860] right so if you look at the sales right the set up until recently the best-selling Mario [10:35.860 –> 10:44.500] Kart game was Mario Kart Wii right okay and Mario Kart Wii sold in total 37 million copies [10:44.500 –> 10:55.160] which is a lot for a video game right that made it in the top like 15 I think best-selling [10:55.160 –> 11:03.620] video games okay wow okay roughly and it’s obviously these things are not static so certainly [11:03.620 –> 11:09.580] until recently it was in the top 15 best-selling video games of all it’s currently the 16 okay [11:09.580 –> 11:18.700] Mario Kart 8 so ignoring 8 so just the switch version has sold 52 million copies okay 52 [11:18.700 –> 11:30.100] million copies making a revenue of 2 billion dollars oh my goodness that’s a lot I can [11:30.100 –> 11:35.740] see why it’s okay it’s much more on the switch because I feel like this people are people [11:35.740 –> 11:41.380] like this which much more than people liked the Wii this is Wii not DS Wii oh sorry well [11:41.380 –> 11:48.540] it’s also on the DS so isn’t it not Mario Kart Wii Mario Kart Wii was just on the Wii [11:48.540 –> 11:55.840] well no Mario Kart 8 that was on the Wii U okay well never mind I don’t know I’m tired [11:55.840 –> 11:59.780] I’m gonna blame you on that so if you if you include if you combine the two Mario Kart [11:59.780 –> 12:04.420] 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe right because they’re basically the same game it’s just that they [12:04.420 –> 12:09.940] have now added more content like the only recently until last year Mario Kart 8 Deluxe [12:09.940 –> 12:14.980] was just Mario Kart 8 with the DLC right it was the exact same game everything else [12:14.980 –> 12:18.940] was exactly the same it was just on the switch so if you include if you combine the two of [12:18.940 –> 12:27.100] them they have sold 60 million copies oh my goodness in total Mario Kart have sold 166 [12:27.100 –> 12:35.620] million copies in total so Mario Kart 8 and Deluxe have together it’s over a third of [12:35.620 –> 12:42.780] all Mario Kart sales that’s pretty okay so I could definitely see why they they’re they [12:42.780 –> 12:48.380] are making waves and trying to prolong this as long as possible absolutely they sold four [12:48.380 –> 12:55.420] million copies in the last quarter of last year oh goodness Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U [12:55.420 –> 13:02.980] only sold 8 million copies so half of what they sold on that game in the last quarter [13:02.980 –> 13:09.580] of last year the the first Mario Kart only sold 8 million copies the second Mario Kart [13:09.580 –> 13:15.860] sold 10 million copies the GBA version which is the third one sold 6 million copies right [13:15.860 –> 13:21.860] like it’s just it’s absolutely insane the numbers on this I can’t I just I cannot get [13:21.860 –> 13:29.980] over how absolutely crazy it is anyway we were talking about dates Mario Kart Wii came [13:29.980 –> 13:35.740] out in 2008 Mario Kart 7 which was the 3DS version came out okay that’s what I was thinking [13:35.740 –> 13:43.940] of 2011 so there was three years between Wii and 7 and Mario Kart 8 which was the Wii U [13:43.940 –> 13:50.940] the first version of this was on the Wii U was 2014 so between Wii and 8 that was six [13:50.940 –> 13:56.940] years okay and that was 2014 nine years ago so it’s been nine years since my oh my goodness [13:56.940 –> 14:02.860] nine years okay next year will be 10 years maybe they’re waiting for that 10 years maybe [14:02.860 –> 14:07.260] they’re like intentionally pushing it back I would not be surprised I think at this point [14:07.260 –> 14:12.060] they’re just waiting for the next console whatever that is are we look are we like looking [14:12.060 –> 14:18.320] at a console yeah of course like would that just be the switch pro no I mean I don’t I [14:18.320 –> 14:22.180] think at this point they’re not doing a switch pro yeah I think they’ve done their their [14:22.180 –> 14:26.540] stuff right they’ve done the the OLED that I think that’s all they’re doing I don’t think [14:26.540 –> 14:30.620] they’re doing any more than that but fine let me get them let me get the dates out again [14:30.620 –> 14:37.260] shall I I did these I did this before but I can’t remember exactly what it was but I’m [14:37.260 –> 14:46.380] pretty sure that this is the like second longest between consoles Nintendo consoles now the [14:46.380 –> 14:53.220] it depends how you count them I’m basically counting Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, DS, 3DS [14:53.220 –> 15:03.260] and NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, Switch right so I’m counting kind of those [15:03.260 –> 15:08.260] gaps yeah I think the only gaps the only gaps that were bigger than the current gap are [15:08.260 –> 15:15.340] NES to SNES and Gameboy to Gameboy Advance okay the Wii U came out in 2017 and it was [15:15.340 –> 15:20.260] five years until the Switch came out the Wii came out in 2006 it was six years until the [15:20.260 –> 15:25.460] Wii U came out okay well there’s a pattern here because the SNES the NES to the SNES [15:25.460 –> 15:30.900] so you just added super in front of it and Gameboy and Gameboy Advance they just added [15:30.900 –> 15:37.100] advance to the end of that and Wii, Wii U yeah yeah yeah I know but but what I will [15:37.100 –> 15:41.380] say is those ones tend to be less successful uh-huh I don’t think they’ll just do like [15:41.380 –> 15:46.420] a Switch 2 or I think well they might they might they might jump onto the branding but [15:46.420 –> 15:51.740] like I think Switch 2 would be better than like Switch U or something like that because [15:51.740 –> 15:57.580] the problem is like Wii U and Gameboy Advance they kind of sound like they don’t sound like [15:57.580 –> 16:01.980] new consoles they sound like uh like the problem that we use people always thought it was just [16:01.980 –> 16:07.220] an accessory for the Wii right not a new console in and of itself so they just add super in [16:07.220 –> 16:13.580] front of Switch and it’ll just be SN I guess no no no wow yeah yeah that’s not gonna be [16:13.580 –> 16:23.460] great no I’m sorry did you hear that as it came out your mouth yes I did no no please [16:23.460 –> 16:35.340] Nintendo that feels like something Nintendo would do I know I’m scared now cuz I I feel [16:35.340 –> 16:39.420] like the biggest complaints I was just performance for a switch I could definitely see them working [16:39.420 –> 16:45.580] hard to that’s really yeah there’s nothing else right now like people like oh what but [16:45.580 –> 16:48.860] this what but that right but that’s not really something that’s kind of widely accepted like [16:48.860 –> 16:52.940] it’s it’s it’s performance people just want it to be more performance maybe they like [16:52.940 –> 16:57.700] some people want 4k I don’t know if we’re gonna get 4k I don’t really care right like [16:57.700 –> 17:04.860] does it really matter if Mario Kart’s in 4k or 1080p yeah just want it to be more performant [17:04.860 –> 17:11.500] mm-hmm can you imagine scarlet and violet on a more powerful console yeah I want it [17:11.500 –> 17:21.660] I want it anyway um is have I talked about everything yeah that’s all that’s what we’ve [17:21.660 –> 17:28.380] been playing uh-huh should we talk about some news yes let’s do it otherwise we’re gonna [17:28.380 –> 17:40.340] be the Nintendo yeah Nintendo power mm-hmm so we had the playdate update last week which [17:40.340 –> 17:44.100] announced a number of things and one of the things that they announced was that there’s [17:44.100 –> 17:53.660] a new update of my favorite game on the playdate bloom bloom 1.1 is out now the main thing [17:53.660 –> 18:01.280] is some new story and new flowers but there’s a couple of other cool things for example [18:01.280 –> 18:06.740] they have like lo-fi beats mode so you know that you know I’m talking about the kind of [18:06.740 –> 18:12.540] youtube videos of the person studying with the music they basically implement and implemented [18:12.540 –> 18:17.300] that into the game they called it simple mode and you’re just in the game and you just press [18:17.300 –> 18:23.520] the the button and you go to simple mode and it just plays that music or chill mode sorry [18:23.520 –> 18:31.380] okay I was gonna say like how how is it a mode like are you just changing the soundtrack [18:31.380 –> 18:37.020] to why call it a mode and so I guess it’s not it takes you out of the game essentially [18:37.020 –> 18:41.700] and it puts you into like the screen just shows what you see in those youtube videos [18:41.700 –> 18:45.740] okay so the idea is that it’s meant to just be like oh I’m not playing the game just now [18:45.740 –> 18:53.740] but I like the music you turn it on it’s a music player now basically yeah okay interesting [18:53.740 –> 19:00.340] I I don’t I feel like it’s not worth that battery well the screen’s not changing right [19:00.340 –> 19:04.260] I suppose but it’s still wasting like it’s a tiny little thing and you’re just playing [19:04.260 –> 19:09.740] music well look it’ll be great it’ll be great once you got the stereo dock on yeah I’m very [19:09.740 –> 19:17.300] excited for that mm-hmm okay I want this game but I don’t think it’s worth buying a playdate [19:17.300 –> 19:24.980] for yet au contraire it is absolutely worth buying a playdate just for this game this [19:24.980 –> 19:32.380] game does not cost ten dollars this car this game costs ten dollars plus a playdate that’s [19:32.380 –> 19:39.460] so if we’re going by like the assumption that every dollar is worth like an hour worth of [19:39.460 –> 19:46.520] gameplay that’s like 280 hours of gameplay I mean I don’t so I don’t subscribe to that [19:46.520 –> 19:51.100] I I strongly disagree with that theory I don’t think that you should I do not think the game [19:51.100 –> 19:55.460] should be ranked based on how many hours they have because that’s how we end up in a situation [19:55.460 –> 20:00.660] where games end up having pointless stuff in them yeah I completely I understand that [20:00.660 –> 20:04.940] like I my only argument is maybe like the sixty eighty dollar games that are like you [20:04.940 –> 20:15.980] know ten hours long no well I don’t know like if mmm I’m on the fence like I see I see the [20:15.980 –> 20:23.500] point of it and at the same time I want games to be cheaper for like that level of like [20:23.500 –> 20:28.420] gameplay I think it depends on what you get out of the game right and I think my point [20:28.420 –> 20:37.260] is like personally I would rather the game was shorter and more concise and better than [20:37.260 –> 20:42.740] you know takes me 200 hours to get through I don’t want to have to spend that long in [20:42.740 –> 20:52.180] a game it just it feels pointless to me it’s not fun well that depends on the game like [20:52.180 –> 20:58.760] I can look at your Pokemon scarlet violet hours and say you know this was probably worth [20:58.760 –> 21:05.740] the sixty dollars that Nintendo was was was you know charging for that so it’s it’s not [21:05.740 –> 21:11.380] so much about like the length of the game maybe but maybe more so replayability even [21:11.380 –> 21:17.380] like it I don’t I’m also really tired of 200 plus hour games I don’t have enough time I’m [21:17.380 –> 21:20.840] not like a full-time streamer I don’t have time to play these games and complete them [21:20.840 –> 21:27.940] the way that I would like to but if you have like a really nice short game that is fantastic [21:27.940 –> 21:34.540] to play again over and over like you know maybe like turnip boy means evades tax evasion [21:34.540 –> 21:43.060] or I haven’t played this but a slow hike like those games have like a lot of replayability [21:43.060 –> 21:48.420] and they’re done very well and I feel like they probably would be worth you know maybe [21:48.420 –> 21:54.040] twice as much as they’re being charged for so I think I find this I find it a funny idea [21:54.040 –> 21:59.660] the the concept of replayability right because like every game is replayable right other [21:59.660 –> 22:05.500] the other than say for example detective games where once you’ve figured out it’s not fun [22:05.500 –> 22:14.140] anymore right I the idea of this game is replayable like I don’t surely it’s just about whether [22:14.140 –> 22:20.500] you want to replay it or not right like I very rarely replay games so Pokemon is basically [22:20.500 –> 22:27.140] my exception right Pokemon is the game that I will infinitely play and I will put insane [22:27.140 –> 22:40.300] amounts of hours into right like that is my exception and possibly no so I think so no [22:40.300 –> 22:44.640] I keep going back to Mario Kart to finish the new stuff because I enjoyed completing [22:44.640 –> 22:49.420] the new stuff but I don’t go and play Mario Kart if I’ve or if there’s nothing that I’ve [22:49.420 –> 22:55.900] not completed so I would the only time other times I would play Mario Kart is when I’m [22:55.900 –> 23:00.980] a gathering of people and we want to play something right so party games are different [23:00.980 –> 23:05.300] yes right we I don’t think we can compare party games and single-player game I don’t [23:05.300 –> 23:10.620] think that makes any sense well I mean it has that level we play like like if you just [23:10.620 –> 23:14.780] depending on how you define replayability like even if it is only a party game you are [23:14.780 –> 23:21.620] playing it again like replaying it sure but like that’s the point uh-huh I feel like we’re [23:21.620 –> 23:28.500] just hard we’re just arguing semantics now I know yeah we are I don’t know where I dove [23:28.500 –> 23:34.580] into this hole and I want how to get out of it I want game stories to be shorter I and [23:34.580 –> 23:38.780] that’s all I was saying okay I don’t know how we got to that point well because because [23:38.780 –> 23:44.540] you’re saying the play date is worth it’s worth buying just for bloom and I don’t want [23:44.540 –> 23:53.740] to drop to this one game obviously obviously I’m joking uh-huh right bloom is a fantastic [23:53.740 –> 23:58.660] game and I think that if you can afford a play date mm-hmm and you have that sort of [23:58.660 –> 24:03.260] money to just drop on something like that which I understand most people do not then [24:03.260 –> 24:07.460] it’s worth it okay if you don’t have that sort of money then it’s absolutely not worth [24:07.460 –> 24:16.340] it okay all right I’m happy with this yeah I am very much enjoying it the all the other [24:16.340 –> 24:21.620] fun it’s like they’ve got lots of other other random little things like in your phone you [24:21.620 –> 24:27.940] have you can now change the background you and there’s like loads of little cute pictures [24:27.940 –> 24:33.300] of like the two the main character and her girlfriend like and you just like rotate it’s [24:33.300 –> 24:38.940] so cute who do you have as what is your current background then I mean it’s just it’s one [24:38.940 –> 24:43.100] of those pictures of it’s okay I think there’s some other I think there’s like some flower [24:43.100 –> 24:47.940] ones as well but I just find one that I liked I will leave a screenshot in the show notes [24:47.940 –> 24:53.380] for people beautiful of the background that I chose that I thought was particularly cute [24:53.380 –> 25:04.540] to have all right go play bloom ooblets 1.1 localization update is out now so if you if [25:04.540 –> 25:08.900] you speak French German or Spanish and you don’t speak English you’re not listening to [25:08.900 –> 25:15.900] this podcast unless you’re bilingual sure if you would if you’re bilingual and you would [25:15.900 –> 25:21.780] prefer to play the game in your native language go do it now or if maybe you’re like me and [25:21.780 –> 25:27.100] you want to practice a second language go play this game now his game is really the [25:27.100 –> 25:34.020] best way to do that like that feels yes no like I’ve struggled in the past with Pokemon [25:34.020 –> 25:38.080] so I’ve I’ve learned I can’t do that with a new game I should at least play it once [25:38.080 –> 25:44.700] before before trying to play in Spanish but I’ve spent a lot of hours in ooblets and it [25:44.700 –> 25:49.380] would be very interesting to see how they translated all their like quirky little sayings [25:49.380 –> 25:59.900] into Spanish so now I’m very intrigued the the update did cause a big bug that basically [25:59.900 –> 26:05.100] meant the game crashed anytime you tried to open it but that’s fixed so that’s all good [26:05.100 –> 26:09.540] I am really intrigued as to how like that because it sounds like it happened for most [26:09.540 –> 26:15.700] people so there’s obviously something that they forgot to test that basically happened [26:15.700 –> 26:22.180] for everybody I am fascinated as to how that happened but anyway I don’t know whether we’ll [26:22.180 –> 26:27.940] ever know I guess not unless they talk about it in one of their news they have been reasonably [26:27.940 –> 26:33.740] open about things so who knows at verdant village I’ve not talked about this a huge [26:33.740 –> 26:40.160] man on the podcast but it’s a game that’s in early access they’re rewriting it in a [26:40.160 –> 26:45.280] different game engine so realistically there’s going to be almost no updates for the next [26:45.280 –> 26:52.560] like year or two probably they don’t have a time frame they said that they won’t update [26:52.560 –> 26:57.960] until it’s got close to feature parity of what they currently have and I don’t know [26:57.960 –> 27:03.780] about the two engines whether there’s it’s easy to put things between them my like gripe [27:03.780 –> 27:17.540] about this update is that they have a tldr but it’s in the middle it’s also like it’s [27:17.540 –> 27:23.540] not really a tldr it’s tldr for some of it yeah for the tldr game is made in construct [27:23.540 –> 27:28.900] 3 construct 3 has many issues in my opinion that cause weird bugs and other issues uh-huh [27:28.900 –> 27:33.120] okay but you’re missing the big part which is we’re going to rewrite and not construct [27:33.120 –> 27:41.660] 3 yeah yeah oh yeah it’s it’s a little a little bizarre but you know it’s fine it’s fine um [27:41.660 –> 27:46.660] I you know it’s a lot of information in there so I you know I generally appreciate when [27:46.660 –> 27:52.660] devs are more you know forthcoming than not um so I mean you don’t have to read it if [27:52.660 –> 27:59.980] you don’t want to so it’s fine and we have a couple new games um so the first one is [27:59.980 –> 28:07.180] before the green moon a science fiction farming simulator game set in a small community at [28:07.180 –> 28:12.620] the base of a space elevator during the days and seasons leading up to your departure for [28:12.620 –> 28:19.780] the moon this one looks I don’t know like I like the landscape style but I don’t think [28:19.780 –> 28:31.340] I like the like character styles I yeah so I don’t like to be too harsh on indie games [28:31.340 –> 28:37.260] uh-huh but I’m not a huge fan of any of these graphics mm-hmm there is like a green like [28:37.260 –> 28:45.100] overall like vibe to this and I guess I like that it’s on brand with green boom I guess [28:45.100 –> 28:51.220] yeah the green moon is it’s I mean this is very definitely not on earth like the moon [28:51.220 –> 29:00.060] I mean it looks like a brain right it’s like wrinkly and all very interesting um I don’t [29:00.060 –> 29:06.780] yeah I oh just everything about these everything about this graph these graphics just makes [29:06.780 –> 29:14.780] me feel uncomfortable it feels very like gamecube like graphics I feel like yeah oh that’s what [29:14.780 –> 29:18.900] they’re doing isn’t it yeah I’ve talked about this on the podcast before but we don’t need [29:18.900 –> 29:26.540] nostalgia for every everything right we don’t need nostalgia for the bad 3d graphics of [29:26.540 –> 29:32.420] the early 2000s we just don’t need it don’t bring us back there mm-hmm I will say at the [29:32.420 –> 29:37.180] like comparing this to like verdant village at the very least this looks like a completely [29:37.180 –> 29:44.260] new like concept from I think what I’ve seen where I spurred it village like I open it [29:44.260 –> 29:51.260] up and I thought it was stardew so I will even though we’re not like huge fans of this [29:51.260 –> 29:55.860] style I will say at least they’re not they’re trying something different and not just what [29:55.860 –> 30:01.500] creating what looks different to you other than just the back story well I mean just [30:01.500 –> 30:06.940] like the the overall style of it like none of these buildings look like anything I’ve [30:06.940 –> 30:12.180] seen before although I haven’t like played many yeah even this like landscape shop like [30:12.180 –> 30:17.220] the trees like it looks like a completely new world okay yeah no that’s fair because [30:17.220 –> 30:22.860] like um just like concept wise and gameplay wise it looks very similar to most farming [30:22.860 –> 30:28.420] games the only thing I can really see is that it says they’ve got wet and dry seasons which [30:28.420 –> 30:33.500] would be slightly different from the four standard seasons that we get which I actually [30:33.500 –> 30:39.140] might like to play with because I spent some time like sitting abroad in a place that had [30:39.140 –> 30:44.420] wet and dry seasons and I think the place I grew up in like in Florida South Florida [30:44.420 –> 30:52.220] was mostly wet and dry seasons because there was just no winter so I I like that I’ll take [30:52.220 –> 30:57.900] it yeah whereas I mean it’s an interesting concept to me the idea of a wet and dry season [30:57.900 –> 31:04.420] because like in Scotland we have the the wet warm season the wet cold season and the kind [31:04.420 –> 31:16.540] of the other wet seasons uh-huh um the other new game is season a letter to the future [31:16.540 –> 31:27.500] this looks beautiful yes so I will say that is true I will say the name is terrible yes [31:27.500 –> 31:35.700] I I was very confused by a letter to the future like what but what what does that mean is [31:35.700 –> 31:40.260] it gonna be time travel uh well that’s that’s what you’re that’s what you’re intrigued by [31:40.260 –> 31:46.860] right that’s what gets you into the I suppose is it though like a question shouldn’t be [31:46.860 –> 31:53.220] a hug I think it’s a I think it’s a time capsule thing rather than a time travel thing you [31:53.220 –> 31:59.380] are collecting memory so maybe they are going towards that but they could have just said [31:59.380 –> 32:05.220] time capsules I don’t know well the time capsule is a letter to the future right it is but [32:05.220 –> 32:12.540] that and what we do now of the point sure and what we do now that is a letter to the [32:12.540 –> 32:18.180] future I think it’s met I think it’s a metaphor for okay okay and how we can affect the future [32:18.180 –> 32:22.980] generations by what we do now okay so maybe just call it a letter to the future don’t [32:22.980 –> 32:29.300] put season in front of eggs yeah I don’t know I don’t know why they’ve done that and seasons [32:29.300 –> 32:37.300] all caps like that’s another choice that I don’t understand in a different font this [32:37.300 –> 32:44.660] appears to be on PlayStation and steam and epic I haven’t actually looked too much into [32:44.660 –> 32:50.980] this mm-hmm I meant to do that I mean I I love the introduction to the characters in [32:50.980 –> 32:55.940] this small like video of them where they’re just showing like candid shots of each of [32:55.940 –> 33:03.420] them just staring at the camera hmm I don’t know so it feels it feels very cinematic leave [33:03.420 –> 33:08.020] home for the first time to collect memories before a mysterious cataclysm washes everything [33:08.020 –> 33:13.480] away ride record meet people and unravel the strange world around you immerse yourself [33:13.480 –> 33:20.300] in the world of season a third-person meditative exploration game another word for cottage [33:20.300 –> 33:27.060] core I guess meditative I mean I mean our new name there is definitely no farming in [33:27.060 –> 33:30.380] this while they say that they don’t say anything about farming but it definitely feels cottage [33:30.380 –> 33:37.980] core to me it does it looks yeah yeah the whole vibe feels very like you’re trying well [33:37.980 –> 33:42.060] I mean you’re exploring so you’re not necessarily like building a cottage core life but yeah [33:42.060 –> 33:48.380] the graphics are very breath of the wildest mm-hmm but I mean it’s done fine I don’t it’s [33:48.380 –> 33:53.300] quite nice looking I like the shot of like the keepsakes to like the just the way that [33:53.300 –> 34:04.260] they’ve portrayed a collage or scrapbook it’s very very neat yeah definitely mm-hmm all [34:04.260 –> 34:09.060] right so that I that’s out now I don’t know if I said that and before the green moon is [34:09.060 –> 34:15.940] coming out this year something okay all right so that’s the news we are going to talk about [34:15.940 –> 34:22.820] cult of the lamb so as I mentioned before we have done an episode on cult of the lamb [34:22.820 –> 34:29.220] already mm-hmm Kevin and Kelly did that last year sometime maybe November something like [34:29.220 –> 34:38.220] that sounds about right but as always happens other people had opinions on the game and [34:38.220 –> 34:44.980] Bev has played it and I have played it and people were very surprised on the game of [34:44.980 –> 34:50.300] the year episode that this was one of my top games of the year mm-hmm and I think that’s [34:50.300 –> 34:59.460] probably because it is a roguelite game mm-hmm so let me just address this because I think [34:59.460 –> 35:04.600] some people may have been put off the game by being called a roguelite uh-huh and I understand [35:04.600 –> 35:12.220] I hate roguelikes I’m not a fan of roguelites to me roguelites are like roguelikes but less [35:12.220 –> 35:21.580] bad right like they still have some of the annoyances of a roguelike but less of it because [35:21.580 –> 35:25.220] you don’t lose everything all the time mm-hmm because you get to keep some of the stuff [35:25.220 –> 35:28.700] you don’t lose everything it’s not like you just play it and then at the end you have [35:28.700 –> 35:33.420] if you die you have to restart mm-hmm so I’m not a huge fan of them even the roguelites [35:33.420 –> 35:38.620] because I I just I find that even though you’re like building stuff up around like between [35:38.620 –> 35:44.700] the runs I still feel like it’s not satisfying to go oh sorry you have to go back even if [35:44.700 –> 35:48.940] you’re more powerful and you have more weapons and that sort of stuff I still I’m like I [35:48.940 –> 35:53.140] want I want somewhere in it I want to restart somewhere in it right I don’t want to have [35:53.140 –> 35:57.660] to go all the way back to the beginning and that’s what annoys me mm-hmm but let me tell [35:57.660 –> 36:04.300] you cult of the lamp has done it really well it has so mm-hmm your base is always fine [36:04.300 –> 36:08.860] right like you never like your base is never reset right there’s no risk of that your your [36:08.860 –> 36:14.620] village your villagers they’re all fine you can lose stuff but not like through the village [36:14.620 –> 36:19.100] there’s risk in the village but it’s not like it’s not like you die in a run and therefore [36:19.100 –> 36:23.300] half of your village disappear that’s not a thing that happens yeah you can lose things [36:23.300 –> 36:28.460] in the village but it’s through you not dealing with things properly that’s that’s how you [36:28.460 –> 36:36.500] can lose things and how it happens is so you go out from your village to do one of the [36:36.500 –> 36:39.720] the runs which is basically you go through a bunch of dungeon you go through a bunch [36:39.720 –> 36:46.580] of dungeon areas to get stuff and you know sometimes to like get new followers sometimes [36:46.580 –> 36:52.800] to do certain things for the demon blah blah blah blah blah and if you die during that [36:52.800 –> 36:59.700] run you then lose some of the stuff that you got on that run and that’s all you really [36:59.700 –> 37:05.380] lose when you die yep and so i’m fine with that like that that to me makes sense right [37:05.380 –> 37:10.700] because you’re going out into the wilderness to dangerous place and you’re doing stuff [37:10.700 –> 37:14.300] and if you die and you’re brought back to life you don’t get to keep everything that [37:14.300 –> 37:20.300] you were getting in that thing but you don’t then lose other stuff and it’s not like there’s [37:20.300 –> 37:23.560] also like once once you’ve done that one it’s like you don’t really care about the runs [37:23.560 –> 37:27.180] it’s not like here’s a level and you’ve got tight 10 levels and you have to get through [37:27.180 –> 37:32.820] all 10 10 levels it’s like different random orientations of dungeons put together and [37:32.820 –> 37:37.660] different things that can happen through it like it’s so much better than any roguelike [37:37.660 –> 37:43.340] or roguelite yes i have played i feel like i’m gonna go on a limb here and say this game [37:43.340 –> 37:52.860] is not a rogue light it is a stardew level-esque type of game because you have like your base [37:52.860 –> 37:59.900] that you’re you know contributing continuing to upgrade and upkeep and you know you have [37:59.900 –> 38:04.860] other places to explore within this world but then you go into the mines or the dungeons [38:04.860 –> 38:09.020] in this case for additional resources that you can’t get anywhere else other than the [38:09.020 –> 38:14.700] mines maybe this is why you like this yeah i mean possibly like i don’t i don’t really [38:14.700 –> 38:19.940] want to get into the the genre discussion right but no i don’t generally calls this [38:19.940 –> 38:27.460] a roguelite um yes and and and i would agree that like it’s not like other roguelites but [38:27.460 –> 38:34.340] like i mean what are even what even are genres i think my point is like don’t get put off [38:34.340 –> 38:40.740] by people calling this a roguelite if you don’t like roguelikes and road lights it is [38:40.740 –> 38:49.180] it is not like that no yes exactly so and the loss that you get makes perfect sense [38:49.180 –> 38:54.780] and i’m completely fine with that like i’ve funnily enough i like ironically enough this [38:54.780 –> 39:01.620] podcast was the one that introduced me to roguelites via atomic grabs oh that is an [39:01.620 –> 39:05.760] example of one that i absolutely hate right because it’s like sure you’re building like [39:05.760 –> 39:12.060] stuff up between your runs but like the idea that i’m gonna die and then i lose my farm [39:12.060 –> 39:17.540] is just so incredibly frustrating to me that i hated it so much we did that together didn’t [39:17.540 –> 39:26.820] we yes we did i hated that game with an absolute passion uh-huh i so like i enjoyed it but [39:26.820 –> 39:31.220] i what i feel like that game could have done better it was having that base like that place [39:31.220 –> 39:38.060] you come to between runs where you pick your character whatever having that be more interactive [39:38.060 –> 39:43.620] and that’s really where like where cult of the lamb excels is having the capability of [39:43.620 –> 39:48.420] saying i don’t feel like doing a roguelite right now i that’s gonna stress me out i just [39:48.420 –> 39:55.660] want to farm and take care of my villagers and have fun that way which is great i think [39:55.660 –> 40:01.260] and i feel like most of the mechanics in this game are just really nice and like not stressful [40:01.260 –> 40:07.860] or like even the fishing one is fine like it’s actually enjoyable to to do fishing so [40:07.860 –> 40:12.060] i just feel like a lot of these components like every small little component in this [40:12.060 –> 40:18.540] game they just did so well um yeah so you were you were comparing it to stardew and [40:18.540 –> 40:25.300] i think that’s fair um in terms of that combat i will say the combat in this game so much [40:25.300 –> 40:31.900] better than stardew yes so much better like the stardew one isn’t bad but it’s not good [40:31.900 –> 40:39.120] it’s fine um but you don’t really feel like you have a huge like it’s basically like hit [40:39.120 –> 40:46.180] the button at the right time right like there’s not any real strategy to it um sure there [40:46.180 –> 40:50.300] are different weapons and stuff like that but it’s not amazing whereas this i think [40:50.300 –> 40:55.280] is like a legitimately good combat and i’m very picky on combat there are very few games [40:55.280 –> 41:02.380] that i actively like the combat in this is definitely one of them and i at least for [41:02.380 –> 41:06.780] in terms of combat i tend to prefer like the really fast like like melee weapons because [41:06.780 –> 41:12.940] i’m just spamming buttons and not really like paying attention to the combat but yeah for [41:12.940 –> 41:17.060] like the first time ever i’ve enjoyed playing a hammer or an axe something that’s heavy [41:17.060 –> 41:23.300] to swing because it just feels i don’t know it’s so easy it just feels like it just flows [41:23.300 –> 41:28.820] so naturally to be using any weapon in this game um so i definitely agree that it’s just [41:28.820 –> 41:36.060] fantastic um and now i’m wondering why it wasn’t on the top like three of my game of [41:36.060 –> 41:42.660] the year and i don’t remember where it was a couple months ago um but it was just so [41:42.660 –> 41:49.060] good i love it and yeah and it’s just so silly too i think that’s the thing like it just [41:49.060 –> 41:57.100] it takes such a ridiculous concept and makes it ridiculous it’s not serious at all oh absolutely [41:57.100 –> 42:04.220] yeah and and this is the thing in like i love i love ridiculousness um but it’s like ridiculousness [42:04.220 –> 42:13.820] in a very cute way like like it just the con the idea of like the cutest lamb right in [42:13.820 –> 42:20.300] the world right like it’s so well designed like and then it is like standing at the front [42:20.300 –> 42:25.020] of like uh a church like brainwashing people [42:25.020 –> 42:37.580] yeah or yeah exactly like i just i cannot i cannot elaborate too enough on how ridiculous [42:37.580 –> 42:44.060] that is just that everything about it is so ridiculous um the character design is really [42:44.060 –> 42:51.740] good they’re all pretty simple but they’re all really good um the i also like how obviously [42:51.740 –> 42:55.660] i mean this is my dream game right because there’s automation everywhere right like you [42:55.660 –> 43:00.860] you you can do all the automation right from the start because you can you can basically [43:00.860 –> 43:04.900] i mean it takes a little bit yeah you have to go through some tutorials to unlock everything [43:04.900 –> 43:09.740] but basically from very early on in the game you can get your villagers to do things for [43:09.740 –> 43:13.420] you yeah and you don’t have to do them and that’s that’s perfect for me i love it’s great [43:13.420 –> 43:25.540] you just want to i want to be a cult leader um we got an episode title um and and but [43:25.540 –> 43:29.980] it’s not like oh then you know you never get any more automation because obviously the [43:29.980 –> 43:34.020] more villagers you get the more you can do so you still have to do some things for yourself [43:34.020 –> 43:37.300] at the beginning right it’s not like oh i’m never going to do any farming no you you’ll [43:37.300 –> 43:41.180] have to do some farming because well first of all you don’t start with very many villagers [43:41.180 –> 43:45.060] obviously you start with one right that’s how a cult works well actually i don’t know [43:45.060 –> 43:50.820] i’ve never been in a cult is it how a cult works i don’t know you have to start somewhere [43:50.820 –> 43:56.220] you do you do but also like would you ever be the first person to join a cult i mean [43:56.220 –> 44:03.780] but i think you do that how would t
Al and Jonnie talk about Ooblets again Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:18:57: News 00:29:07: Ooblets 01:00:24: Outro Links Disney Dreamlight Valley Festival of Friendship Sun Down on Steam Ooblets Early Access Episode Ooblets 1.0 Episode Ooblets Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/
The year 2022 in review! Yes, it's now halfway through February, but being a few weeks late is part of the annual "Nicest Of" tradition. Your hosts (plus guest Holly Harrison) revisit their notable games and goals from 2022, and make some plans for 2023.Holly is here in the clubhouse for this recording!Things that happened in 2022: We sold GLOM! It's coming out in 2023.Mark announced a game (Dreamsettler) and released Noble Engine for the PlaydateStephen became a co-owner of Future ClubEllen got a new job as a game designer with The Game AgencyHolly moved into a new place—one without unwanted insects and thieving neighbors Nicest of 2022 0:04:56 Mark LaCroixStephen McGregorEllen Burns-JohnsonHolly HarrisonGamingEllen's Nicest:Metroid: DreadFlappy DragonBanner Saga 1Endling: Extinction is ForeverMark's Nicest:Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of HopeStrayLast Call BBSStephen's Nicest:Kirby and the Forgotten LandSplatoon 3RumbleverseSpirit IslandHolly's Nicest:OobletsSplatoon 3Bear and BreakfastCult of the LambSlime Rancher II Most Anticipated of 2023 0:49:28 Mark LaCroixStephen McGregorEllen Burns-JohnsonHolly HarrisonGamingEllen's picks:Mars First LogisticsBanner Saga II and IIIOri and the Will of the WispsSlime Rancher IICyberpunk 2077Mark's picks:Horizon: Call of the Mountain on Playstation VR 2Assassin's Creed: MirageSeason: A Letter to the FutureDreamsettlerStephen's picks:Dragon's Dogma IIStreet Fighter 6Holly's picks:Mineko's Night MarketThirsty SuitorsHades IISea of StarsPicked by everyone:The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
It's The State of Gaming Podcast…for the year 2022! On this extra special year-end recap episode our hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans are once again joined by extra special guest Antal Bokor (from 3rd Coast Review) – with assists from other Popzara Pals – to discuss the best, worst, and everything else that helped make gaming in 2022 surprisingly great. Let's get to it! So many games! Did your favorites make the cut? Games discussed include: Elden Ring, Immortality, High on Life, Vampire Survivors (and its clones), Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Scorn, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, Gran Turismo 7, Escape Simulator, Dying Light 2: Stay Human, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, PowerSlave Exhumed, FixFox, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Ooblets, Atari 50: Anniversary, Stray, Sonic Frontiers, and many others.
It's The State of Gaming Podcast…for the year 2022! On this extra special year-end recap episode our hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans are once again joined by extra special guest Antal Bokor (from 3rd Coast Review) – with assists from other Popzara Pals – to discuss the best, worst, and everything else that helped make gaming in 2022 surprisingly great. So many games! Did your favorites make the cut? Games discussed include: Elden Ring, Immortality, High on Life, Vampire Survivors (and its clones), Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Scorn, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, Gran Turismo 7, Escape Simulator, Dying Light 2: Stay Human, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, PowerSlave Exhumed, FixFox, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Ooblets, Atari 50: Anniversary, Stray, Sonic Frontiers, and many others. Come for the lists, stay for the commentary! The guys recap a year overflowing with quality blockbusters worth your time (and some stinkers not so much), touching on everything that made 2022 so memorable. Collections! Remasters! Rehashes! We got it all. Do hits like Sonic 2 and Uncharted mean videogame movies/shows will finally break through in 2023? Does Valve's Steam Deck live up to the hype? Did Sonic creator Yuji Naka really get arrested (twice)? Will cloud-gaming ever become a thing? Listen today!
Al, Bev, and Micah talk about their farming games of 2022 Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:03:00: What Have We Been Playing 00:17:28: News 00:43:40: Farming Game Of The Year 00:45:43: Nominations 01:35:56: Debate 01:44:42: Winner Announcement 01:48:02: Outro Links Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos ConcernedApe Interview SoS: AWL Premium Edition Princess Farmer Coming to Mobile Disney Dreamlight Valley Update Garden Galaxy GOTY Nominations: Ooblets Cult of the Lamb APICO Harvestella Doraemon Story of Seasons: Friends of the Great Kingdom Disney Dreamlight Valley Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation The Endless Seven-Day Journey Bloom Micah on Twitter Bev on Twitter Contact Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/THSPod Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/
Splenda! This week we are talking about the cutesy Farm-Sim-Meets-Pokemon indie game, Ooblets! Joining Jared today is cozy streamer “Cozy Louise,” who is here to lend her expertise on the game's farming elements, dance battles, and weird names like “Frunbuns!” You can find Louise's content HERE: Twitter: twitter.com/cozylouise72 Twitch: twitch.tv/cozylouise Youtube: youtube.com/@cozylouise Instagram: instagram.com/cozylouise/ You can wishlist or purchase Ooblets HERE: https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/ooblets-switch/ (And on other platforms as well!) Contact us at LevelWithUsPodcast [at] gmail [dot] com! You can also reach us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LvlWithUs Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 0:34 - Special Guest! 1:05 - General Thoughts 6:08 - ⭒Star Pieces 7:29 - Quick Jabs 9:24 - Who's the Fake Fan 13:21 - Louise's Socials 14:44 - Outro 15:35 - Bonus Scene
It's our Best of 2022 music show! Take a listen to some of our favorite game music from throughout the year, including tracks from Kirby, Live A Live, Cult of the Lamb, Ooblets, We Are OFK, and Final Fantasy XIV — plus, a dangerous amount of saxophone.
It's the spookiest day of the year... November 7th! What horrors await, and what do they have to do with various RPGs? Find out all about the terrifying videogame experiences of Joseph Martin, Alex Jedraszczak, Anna Bryniarski, and Blu Ryder on this edition of the GameCola Podcast! Various horrible topics include: - Anna becomes a "surprise guest" in a very literal sense - Jeddy has been enjoying the Halloween Content of Ooblets - Anna has been playing multiplayer Skyrim and it breaks even more than you'd expect. - Silent Hill had a lackluster showcase - Resident Evil had a showcase with a lot of luster instead - Jeddy is enjoying Super Hydlide despite the fact that it is objectively terrible - Anna's favorite videogame this month has been causing her physical pain - ... I think we may have an unhealthy relationship with videogames you guys [Podcast Intro/Outro “5 is Average” by Meteo Xavier] [Super Hydlide Sprite Originally Ripped by Ryan914]
In this episode of Pocketoid:Tinykin is a wholesome good time!If Addison made a game it would probably be Ooblets Addison has a Steam Deck now. Oops. Jordan plays the Turtle game and a spooky fishing game! Intro: Time Trials - Hyper PotionsOutro: Hut By The River (Pokemon Snap) - Sound Market
This week we talk about conversations we wouldn't have had without gaming… random people or random topics we only experienced through gaming.We also talk about what we've been playing: Temtem, Demon Throttle, Tinykin, and Ooblets.Enjoy the show!
This week on All Things Nintendo, Brian and fellow Game Informer staffer Wesley LeBlanc break down their final verdicts on Splatoon 3, the first major fall 2022 release for Nintendo. Before that, Marcus Stewart joins the show to talk about the new Pokémon Scarlet and Violet trailer, Dragon Quest Treasures' new information, and give his verdict on Ooblets. If you'd like to follow the people from this episode on Twitter, hit the following links: Brian Shea (@brianpshea), Marcus Stewart (@marcusstewart7), Wesley LeBlanc (@LeBlancWes) The All Things Nintendo podcast is a weekly show where we can celebrate, discuss, and break down all the latest games, news, and announcements from the industry's most recognizable name. Each week, Brian is joined by different guests to talk about what's happening in the world of Nintendo. Along the way, they'll share personal stories, uncover hidden gems in the eShop, and even look back on the classics we all grew up with. A new episode hits every Friday! Be sure to subscribe to All Things Nintendo on your favorite podcast platform. The show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:01:11 – Pokémon Switch OLED Model Announced 00:06:04 – New Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Trailer 00:23:03 – New Dragon Quest Treasures Details 00:27:57 – Ooblets Review 00:48:16 – Splatoon 3 Review 01:21:19 – Definitive Ranking: Fall/Holiday Switch Games 01:35:44 – eShop Gem of the Week: Mixolumia If you'd like to get in touch with the All Things Nintendo podcast, you can do so by emailing AllThingsNintendo@GameInformer.com, tweeting to Brian (@BrianPShea), or by joining the official Game Informer Discord server. You can do that by linking your Discord account to your Twitch account and subscribing to the Game Informer Twitch channel. From there, find the All Things Nintendo channel under "Community Spaces." For more Game Informer podcasts, be sure to check out The Game Informer Show with host Alex Van Aken, which covers the weekly happenings of the video game industry, and From Panel to Podcast from host Andrew Reiner, covering everything from the world of comic books, including the shows, movies, and games that spawn from them!
merritt and Jordan return from the back rooms just in time to prevent Nerium's hostile takeover of the podcast, while Fūnk-é looks on with mirthful bemusement. Also, video games! Segments: Spooky Games Season, Gabe's New & Tasty, Get Rec'd Games discussed: Gloomwood, Save Room - Organization Puzzle, Cult of the Lamb, Tinykin, The Imperial Gatekeeper, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R, Temtem, Ooblets, Beyond the Wire, Railbound, Immortality Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We've got a terrifying trio for today's Bombcast! We have a lovely chat about Ooblets, Tinykin, and touch on what Immortality is. We also breakdown some Silent Hill rumors, UK game sales charts, and more!
We've got a terrifying trio for today's Bombcast! We have a lovely chat about Ooblets, Tinykin, and touch on what Immortality is. We also breakdown some Silent Hill rumors, UK game sales charts, and more!This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5928697/advertisement
00:00:00 - Intro & News00:06:14 - TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection is here!00:30:22 - Question Block!00:51:06 - NVC Tiermaker for Nintendo Franchises: Part 201:15:28 - Outro
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