Podcasts about Spiritfarer

Don't tell anyone, but I always thought they were podcasts. Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we're going to be talking about To the Moon, a narrative game focused around learning about characters through one's memory. I imagine this description will be quite short, because there isn't a lot I can cover without spoiling the plot. While technically a sci-fi story, the game revolves around one character's past, so those elements fall more into the background during the meat of the gameplay. The result is that despite the fantastical premise, the majority of the game feels very mundane which has the effect of making it easier for the player to relate to the characters in the story, and it's very effective because the game operates on a personal level. As you learn more about each of the primary characters, you can start to see the depth they have and that characterization and what you think about their actions and motivations will influence the way you perceive the overall story. It kind of sounds like I'm just describing how to read a story, but engaging with this game the way you would a book or a movie will probably do you better than coming into it like it was Chrono Trigger. This is an extremely well written story with very little interactivity, and it's well worth checking out if you're in the mood for something simple. We're going to be talking about what being a game brings to the table for this experience, how the game goes handles its characters, and we speak ill (and not so ill) of the dead. Thank you for joining us again this week! We're on the last of our Mystery May games after this, and it's so far been a year for actually covering the games that have been on our list for a long time. The tragedy of this game, aside from Johnny's story itself, is that we waited so long to play it that it feels to me almost obsolete as a game, though not as a narrative, which still feels very well written. Did you feel similarly to me, or were you more engaged due to the interactivity? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we ended up rolling a game that is has been on the list for less time than the other games this year, but one we're excited for anyway, Spiritfarer, so we hope you'll join us then!

Al and Kev talk about the Wholesome Direct Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:53: Feedback 00:03:18: What Have We Been Up To 00:30:35: Snacko 1.0 00:32:46: Wholesome Direct 01:04:25: Outro Links Snacko 1.0 Wholesome Direct Wholesome Games Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:34) Al: My name is Al. (0:00:36) Kev: I’m Kevin. We’re back baby. This is the first episode back, right? (0:00:38) Al: They said they said we couldn’t do it, Kevin. (0:00:41) Al: They said we couldn’t do it. (0:00:43) Al: We said we couldn’t go on a break and come back because no one goes on a break (0:00:46) Kev: The they being you, I think primarily. (0:00:48) Al: and then comes back. (0:00:52) Al: No, everyone. (0:00:53) Al: Nobody believed in me. (0:00:57) Al: But here we are. (0:00:58) Al: back and here we are here today to talk (0:01:00) Al: about so many Cottagecore games like so many that I think some might just be that’s a game (0:01:03) Kev: Oh, a lot like they double. (0:01:06) Kev: It in the last five minutes. (0:01:13) Al: moving on we’ll see we’ll see we are we are here today to talk about the Wholesome Direct (0:01:14) Kev: Yeah, probably a lot of them we’re talking about the wholesome direct everyone (0:01:23) Al: specifically and a bunch of stuff in that not everything because it was an hour long and (0:01:30) Al: talked about everything in an hour long presentation we would probably be here all day and it’s already (0:01:37) Al: half eight at night that’s that’s also that’s also true so we’re going to talk about that we (0:01:37) Kev: and we don’t have enough to talk about it (0:01:40) Kev: ‘cause we don’t care about all of them. (0:01:46) Al: do have one piece of news that I want to cover before that and before that we’re going to talk (0:01:53) Al: about what we’ve been up to but first of all Kevin we’ve got feedback this is being sent in by Katie (0:01:56) Kev: Oh! (0:02:00) Al: of the show I have been listening to the podcast for some time now and it’s a highlight of my week (0:02:02) Kev: Uh-oh. (0:02:06) Al: not last two weeks so sorry I really enjoy hearing your honest and sometimes brutal opinions on games (0:02:06) Kev: When did we ruin it for her? (0:02:14) Al: and I especially enjoy how positive and how much energy Kev has on his solo episodes keep up the (0:02:21) Al: amazing work. There we go Kevin. You got a shout out. (0:02:23) Kev: Okay, I’m going, I’m trying to refrain from, you know, being sarcastic or whatever, putting myself down. But thank you very much. Sincerely, that means a lot. I have a lot of practice talking to myself. I think that’s what it is in my head space. Now, I just put a mic in front of it. (0:02:38) Al: I feel like the brutal opinions on games has to be talking about Shugadu Island, right? (0:02:54) Kev: Oh, I feel like there’s a number of episodes we could point to, including the ones we like. (0:02:58) Al: That is the particularly bad one. Well anyway, thank you Katie for the feedback. If you too (0:03:00) Kev: Yeah. (0:03:05) Al: want to send feedback you can do it on the website harvestseason.club (0:03:08) Al: There’s a feedback from there. Come send us more and you’ll get a mention on the podcast. (0:03:12) Kev: Yeah, all right. (0:03:15) Kev: You’d like right now, yay. (0:03:16) Kev: Thank you, Katie. (0:03:17) Kev: I very much appreciate it. (0:03:19) Al: Next Kevin, what have you been up to? (0:03:22) Kev: Boy, what do I– (0:03:23) Kev: Well, my internet has been out for a week, (0:03:27) Kev: so let’s start with that. (0:03:28) Al: That’s unfortunate. (0:03:29) Kev: Yep, it’s been a headache. (0:03:33) Kev: But here I am using not working internet. (0:03:40) Kev: But that’s kind of– (0:03:42) Kev: affected a lot of my gameplay, because so I didn’t realize just how many of my games are like online only. (0:03:48) Kev: Or have to connect to servers or whatever, like Zendless on Zero has a 2.0 update. I haven’t played that. Marvel Snap, (0:03:55) Kev: I don’t get that many games in this week. My phone’s dying, so it can’t– for whatever reason Snap just crashes on it now. (0:04:01) Kev: So I have to pretty much play on PC these days. (0:04:05) Kev: But Unite is gone, so on and so forth. (0:04:09) Kev: The one game I have been playing though (0:04:12) Kev: Unicorn Overlord, are you familiar with that, Al? (0:04:14) Al: I am. I’m a photo. (0:04:16) Kev: Okay, oh man, it’s… (0:04:20) Kev: So I picked it up on sale, it was like 30 USD, which is pretty cheap for a game of this size. (0:04:24) Kev: Um, it’s for people unfamiliar, it’s a strategy, real-time game. (0:04:32) Kev: I like Fire Emblem, but real-time. (0:04:34) Kev: And Good Heavens, this game does all the things I like in that game. (0:04:40) Kev: Um, okay. (0:04:42) Kev: So, have you ever played a Fire Emblem, Al? (0:04:44) Al: No. (0:04:44) Kev: Okay, but I assume you’re familiar with the concept of super-trust, right? (0:04:47) Al: Yeah. (0:04:48) Al: Yeah. (0:04:48) Kev: Yeah, okay. So, like I said, that’s correct. (0:04:51) Al: They’ve all got swords, that’s what I’m aware of. (0:04:54) Kev: And Unicorn Overlord also has swords. (0:04:56) Kev: Actually, Unicorn Overlord has a lot of Fire Emblem stuff. (0:05:00) Kev: It’s very much like an homage/love letter to a lot of strategy games, Fire Emblem included. (0:05:06) Kev: So, it has a lot of the elements borrowed from that. (0:05:10) Kev: that are like likely it feels (0:05:12) Kev: less like trying to knock them off and more become the wash / love letter anyway (0:05:19) Kev: so unlike Fire Emblem which is grid based this is not grid based it’s real (0:05:24) Kev: time you just send your units point A to point B and they’ll travel as close to (0:05:29) Kev: straight line as they can also they in Fire Emblem each character is a single (0:05:36) Kev: unit in this game you assemble teams of up to five characters in one unit with (0:05:42) Kev: front row and a back row so all of a sudden the complexity is through the (0:05:46) Kev: roof and it’s really enjoyable in my opinion right you got tanks in front (0:05:50) Kev: archers in the back so on and so forth and each character you can load them out (0:05:58) Kev: with different equipment skills and stuff and Fire Emblem is like every (0:06:02) Kev: character gets like two or three items that do almost just that’s basically but (0:06:07) Kev: in this one you can you can change their move sets so there’s (0:06:12) Kev: it like layers and layers and layers of complexity which is (0:06:15) Kev: really, really good. Yeah, I really, really like this game. (0:06:20) Kev: I’m at 60 hours so far. Yeah, good. No internet. So just (0:06:26) Kev: crushing it. But it is. It’s the arts really nice. Very, very (0:06:31) Kev: pretty. But but oh, great, great stuff. Um, yeah, that’s that’s (0:06:38) Kev: kind of the big thing I’ve been up to. (0:06:42) Kev: All right, Al, what about you? (0:06:44) Kev: Tell me– tell the poor pleb about the switch, too. (0:06:46) Al: The Switch 2, what? What are you talking about? Yes, yes, I’ve got the Switch 2 and I’ve been (0:06:52) Al: playing Mario Kart World. I haven’t had a huge amount of time on it yet. As we are talking, (0:06:58) Al: I have been… I was away. I was not at home when the Switch 2 came out on Thursday, and (0:07:06) Al: it was delivered to my home. I didn’t get back till Saturday evening, and so that’s (0:07:11) Al: about 24 hours ago as of now. So, yeah, I’ve not had a huge amount of time. (0:07:16) Al: Especially as obviously I had to set it up, and you know, I have kids and a life, and (0:07:20) Al: I can’t just always play the game. But I have put in a couple hours into it, both myself (0:07:27) Al: and me and my son playing it together, and it’s fun. I enjoy it. What I will say is that (0:07:35) Al: I love a lot of the… It’s a lot more reactive in terms of like, your character does a lot (0:07:44) Al: more while playing, which makes it feel (0:07:46) Al: a lot more real, right? Like there are more reactions to things. And, uh, so it’s really (0:07:54) Al: hard to explain, but there’s just lots of little things that they do that make it feel real. Um, (0:08:00) Al: the animations are all more detailed. Uh, when you, when you hit a car, you don’t now just like (0:08:07) Al: stop in the same way that you do when hit by, uh, uh, you know, a weapon you like get knocked to (0:08:15) Al: the side and you can actually (0:08:17) Al: there was one today where I was like hit it in such a way that I actually just ended up going up on two wheels (0:08:24) Al: and continuing to move. (0:08:26) Kev: What? (0:08:28) Al: Yeah, exactly. So there’s just lots of little things like that. (0:08:30) Al: It’s you don’t, whereas in Mario Kart 8, if you hit a vehicle, no matter how you hit it, (0:08:37) Al: you would just, you would just stop. (0:08:37) Kev: You do the somersault, you know, or whatever, yeah, uh-huh, yeah. (0:08:38) Al: Yeah, exactly. You’d just do the standard. (0:08:40) Al: I’ve been hit by something I have now stopped, whereas that’s not necessary. (0:08:44) Al: If you hit it, like, straight on, you will slow down. (0:08:46) Al: And, you know, spin off to the side. (0:08:49) Al: But if you hit it in certain ways, you can actually just keep going. (0:08:52) Al: It just depends on exactly how you hit it, which makes it a lot more fun, I think. (0:08:59) Al: And, you know, different weapons do different things depending (0:09:03) Al: on where they hit you and how they hit you and stuff like that. (0:09:06) Al: Which it is, it is, it’s really interesting. (0:09:06) Kev: Really, that’s fascinating. (0:09:10) Al: And it just, yeah, just the animations, like, you feel like the character moves (0:09:16) Al: the vehicle. It doesn’t just feel like you are one car, one model, stuff like that. (0:09:20) Kev: Wow, that’s the power of the Switch 2. (0:09:26) Al: Or is it the power of, like, 10 years of developing the next Mario Kart game? (0:09:31) Kev: No, no, this wasn’t possible on the Switch 1. (0:09:34) Kev: Impossible, absolutely. (0:09:38) Al: And I also like how, so one of the things about this game is obviously you’re just choosing (0:09:44) Al: a car rather than like choosing the body. (0:09:46) Al: The wheels and what’s it called, parachute. (0:09:49) Kev: Right. (0:09:53) Al: I quite like that because there’s less for you to have to think about. (0:09:57) Al: But what I do like is that each of the carts looks slightly different depending on the character. (0:10:04) Kev: Wow, that’s impressive. (0:10:06) Al: It’s not just like the base cart, the Mario cart, that if you’re Mario it’s red with the M on it. (0:10:10) Al: If you’re Luigi it’s green with the L on it. (0:10:14) Al: if you’re the cow, it’s grey with the cow. (0:10:16) Al: They put a lot of attention to detail in this game, a lot of effort. (0:10:18) Kev: - That’s all. (0:10:28) Kev: Wow, that’s impressive genuinely, like wow, that’s attention to detail. (0:10:38) Al: It’s really fun. Some things are going to take some getting used to like the controls are (0:10:44) Al: are obviously slightly different. (0:10:46) Al: The thing that’s knocking me off a lot is in eight and before, if you wanted to hold (0:10:54) Al: like a shell or banana behind you, you would have to hold down the fire button. Whereas now (0:10:58) Kev: Mm-hmm. Yeah. (0:11:02) Al: that happens by default. So as soon as you have it in the priority slot, it is behind you. (0:11:06) Kev: Okay, huh, I think. Okay. Sure, sure. I feel like at least one (0:11:09) Al: And then if you press it and hold it, it will just fire it. So I have spent a lot of time (0:11:17) Al: things because I was trying to have them behind me. But that’s just how you get used to it. (0:11:21) Al: And eventually you’ll stop doing that. But yeah. (0:11:25) Kev: other Mario Kart did that. But it’s not as common at the very (0:11:30) Al: possibly. Well, that’s the thing. Like, do I remember how things before 8 actually worked? (0:11:30) Kev: least, or regardless, it’s been what 10 years with our hard part (0:11:34) Kev: eight. (0:11:36) Kev: That’s how - that’s how video game historians - yeah, yeah. Now that’s fair. That’s how (0:11:39) Al: No, I do not. I’m not an idea. I don’t go back and play old Mario Kart all the time, right? (0:11:46) Al: That’s not my life. (0:11:50) Kev: video game historians chronicle things in the BMK8 era or the AMK8 era. But that’s (0:12:00) Kev: good stuff. Okay, how does - how does the free driving world… (0:12:04) Al: I haven’t done any of that yet. I’ve just been playing Grand Prix. I will say… (0:12:08) Kev: Mmm. Well, I mean, but you - you have between the phrases now, right? Like, that’s - you feel a (0:12:14) Al: So yeah, so I think no, is how I’ll say it. It is not like what I think Free Run will be at all. (0:12:15) Kev: taste of it. (0:12:26) Al: You’re not really driving between the courses. How it is, is yes you are driving, like you start (0:12:32) Al: Start on the finish line of the previous course. (0:12:35) Al: And then the first lap is to the starting line of the next course. (0:12:42) Al: And then this, and then you’ve got the second and third laps are on the course. (0:12:46) Al: It depends on what course it is. (0:12:47) Al: Like some of them are shorter, like baby park, and you actually have like then (0:12:51) Al: multiple laps around it, or a lot of them aren’t just like a single loop that you (0:12:56) Al: do a certain number of times. (0:12:57) Al: A lot of them are like the ones where you, you just have one long course that (0:13:01) Al: you do different sections of. (0:13:03) Al: It just depends on what it is. (0:13:05) Al: I am, I don’t really like it. (0:13:09) Al: I personally would just prefer the standard you’ve got your three courses (0:13:13) Al: and you do your three laps or however many laps. (0:13:16) Kev: » Sure, sure. (0:13:16) Al: Um, the driving between it just feels kind of tacked on and it almost feels (0:13:22) Al: like they wanted the open world thing. (0:13:24) Al: And sure, fine. (0:13:25) Al: I don’t, I I’ve not tried it yet, but I, I can imagine it’d be interesting. (0:13:30) Al: Um, but the all you must drive between the courses, the bit that is (0:13:35) Al: between the courses feels pretty either feels pretty generic and boring, or just (0:13:40) Al: feels like the previous course that you just finished and you’re like, I don’t (0:13:44) Al: understand why I’m still doing this course when I’m on the next course. (0:13:49) Al: And it doesn’t, the other, the other thing that I found a bit weird was it (0:13:52) Al: doesn’t start straight away. (0:13:55) Al: Like once you hit the finish line, you go into like, Oh, here’s the rankings. (0:13:59) Al: And then you have to start it again. (0:14:01) Al: And then because you’re starting again, you’re starting on the finish (0:14:04) Al: and it just feels like that’s a weird jarring thing. (0:14:08) Al: It’s like, Oh, you finished that race. (0:14:10) Al: Now let’s start the next race on this point. (0:14:13) Al: Like where you just finished, like it just, it feels like an idea that someone (0:14:17) Al: had, and then they went, yeah, let’s do that. (0:14:20) Al: But they never really did anything with it. (0:14:22) Al: And it almost would have felt more realistic or more interesting. (0:14:28) Al: If it just, the race hadn’t stopped at any point, or maybe if it, if you have. (0:14:35) Al: You have to wait for everyone else to get there, like, if you just like stayed in (0:14:40) Al: position at that point, and waited for everyone to catch up, but the fact that (0:14:41) Kev: Yeah, in that way, kind of– (0:14:46) Al: it goes like, Oh, now we’re going to like cut to this other screen, like they do in (0:14:50) Al: previous Mario carts, where you show the rankings, it almost defeats the purpose (0:14:54) Al: of then, then driving between the two courses. (0:14:57) Kev: Yeah, that’s so weird to me because, yeah, that doesn’t from the way it was described, like, that would have been, you know, what I would have thought, right? Like, you there, you know, you hit the finish line and then you just keep driving and maybe ranking is on the side or something. (0:14:57) Al: It’s like, well, what happened, what happened in that time? (0:15:00) Al: Because now I’m back on the finish line. (0:15:16) Al: 100% why I expected. And I guess the reason they don’t do that is they want everyone to catch up (0:15:19) Kev: That’s wild. (0:15:21) Al: so that you’re all starting at the same time for the next race. Sure, fine. But I feel like you (0:15:25) Kev: But, okay. (0:15:27) Kev: Yeah, but what’s the point? Like, that’s baffling to me. (0:15:28) Al: could have done that transition better, right? I don’t– I understand why they want something (0:15:34) Kev: Um… (0:15:37) Al: like this. It feels like it’s another mode, and I feel like they should have kept Grand Prix (0:15:41) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:15:44) Al: as it was. And then this was like (0:15:45) Kev: Yeah. (0:15:47) Al: a new type of tour. A grand tour instead of a grand prix. I’m not saying this is bad, (0:15:48) Kev: Yeah, that’s what they should have done. Absolutely. Yeah, exactly. There you go. (0:15:56) Al: I’m saying I don’t like that this is instead of what we had before. (0:16:00) Kev: Right, right. I get that. Yeah, from what you’re describing, it doesn’t… (0:16:05) Kev: Yeah, it sounds like they fumbled that execution just a little bit. (0:16:09) Kev: And if you’re not here completely removing the standard Grand Prix for that, like, that’s a problem. That’s rough. (0:16:14) Al: Exactly. (0:16:16) Al: Exactly. (0:16:17) Al: Exactly. (0:16:17) Kev: Well, we’ll see. Like, I mean, I… I mean, I personally think we’re going to get DLCs that are just going to be standard Grand Prix-type modes. (0:16:19) Al: We will see. (0:16:30) Al: Interesting. I can’t see them not doing DLC for this. For two reasons, one, they did two sets of DLC for the previous game, and two… (0:16:31) Kev: Because… (0:16:35) Kev: Right, exactly, right? (0:16:40) Kev: Mm-hmm. And DLC for the remastered version of the game, that DLC. Yeah. (0:16:46) Al: Well, yeah, that was the second one. But anyway, secondly, it doesn’t feel like there’s enough races, because you have, like, eight. (0:16:56) Al: And it doesn’t feel like (0:17:00) Al: enough to me. I’m not regretting buying the game, especially because I got it in (0:17:01) Kev: Not anymore (0:17:05) Kev: Yeah (0:17:06) Al: the bundle, right? But I totally get why people are like, Oh, that feels like a lot (0:17:10) Al: of money for eight, eight grand prix. Especially when like, the preview, like, I don’t, I’m (0:17:18) Al: not expecting it necessarily will be free DLC. And obviously people complain about that, (0:17:23) Al: right? They’re like, Oh, you’re charging us $80 and then you’re also charging us more (0:17:24) Kev: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sure. Yeah, yeah, that’s what I suspect too. (0:17:27) Al: courses. But I can (0:17:30) Al: see the DLC being reasonably cheap, and it’s just like $10 or whatever, right? (0:17:36) Al: But it just, yeah, eight just feels, eight isn’t even as many as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had. Eight (0:17:42) Al: Deluxe had 10. And so eight had eight, of course. Mario Kart 8 had eight courses, and then they (0:17:44) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:17:48) Kev: Yeah (0:17:51) Al: added on eight grumpries, sorry, and then they added on two, I think, for DLC initially. And then that (0:17:56) Kev: - DLC, that’s correct. (0:17:57) Kev: - Yeah. (0:17:57) Al: That was all bundled together as Mario Kart 8 delivered. (0:18:00) Al: So Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had 10 and then they doubled in the other DLC, yeah. (0:18:00) Kev: - And then they doubled the number. (0:18:05) Al: So it just feels a little bit meh that we’re not even, we’ve not even got as many races as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. (0:18:12) Kev: Yeah. Yeah, that’s fair, right? Like it’s, I think the pain point is just this, the way you’ve described how they fumbled their new Grand Prix version, right? Because like I could, I could live with eight cups or whatever, if it was the standard Grand Prix that, you know, you could just do ad nauseam like, you know, other Mario karts and it’d be fine. (0:18:12) Al: And then this is more expensive. (0:18:15) Al: None of that, none of that feels good. (0:18:43) Kev: But if you’re replacing that and given something that feels a little worse or a little awkward, yeah, it’s going to be rough. (0:18:51) Al: And let me get and let me point out the courses are really good. (0:18:55) Kev: Sure. Yeah. Are there any, any new ones you’re fond of that you’ve seen so far? (0:18:57) Al: And like. (0:19:02) Al: The the one I particularly like, obviously, I’ve not done them all. (0:19:06) Al: And I’ve not done them all yet, but the one that I’m particularly (0:19:10) Al: enjoying is the Donkey Kong one, I can’t remember what it’s called. (0:19:12) Kev: hmm is uh I don’t know which one because there’s obviously been a handful or if it’s a new one but uh okay (0:19:18) Al: Yeah, let me check. (0:19:20) Al: I think it’s a new one. (0:19:21) Al: And that I think is really fun. (0:19:25) Kev: oh yeah they saw they showed that one in the trailer first yeah that one looked cool (0:19:32) Al: You’re essentially it’s one of the ones that’s not like laps. (0:19:35) Al: It’s one specific course and you end at the end. (0:19:39) Al: And what I really like it is you’re essentially going through a Donkey Kong level, right? (0:19:44) Al: Like you’re going up this course and then at the end at the top is a robotic Donkey (0:19:46) Kev: Really? That’s cool. (0:19:51) Al: Kong, throwing barrels down at you. (0:19:53) Kev: Oh, that’s so cool. (0:19:55) Al: So I really like that and there’s like lots of stuff to avoid and there’s bouncy pads (0:20:01) Al: and stuff like that. (0:20:03) Kev: That’s so cool (0:20:06) Kev: And I can’t wait to check that out (0:20:08) Kev: But I mean, obviously we’re nitpicking but still Mario Kart, right? Like it’s still the overall good (0:20:12) Al: Yeah, I don’t regret it. I obviously want the bundle, but if I paid full price for this, (0:20:18) Al: I still wouldn’t be regretting it. It is still really good fun and it’s still going to sell (0:20:20) Kev: Yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely. And cow is playable. Yep. Wait, really? That’s hilarious. That’s incredible. (0:20:22) Al: like bonkers. But yeah, I mean, and Caro is one of the best characters to actually play (0:20:30) Al: as. It’s one of the meta characters. It is, yeah. So yeah, I’m enjoying it. I get why (0:20:37) Kev: Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure. Mm-hmm. Well, that’ll be– that’s awesome. (0:20:42) Al: people might be frustrated with it and I haven’t tried everything in it yet, so I guess (0:20:47) Al: we’ll see. (0:20:50) Kev: Can’t wait to hear more people. I haven’t heard much about it, (0:20:54) Kev: but I’m obviously interested in the free roam mode or whatever. But good stuff. (0:21:04) Kev: How was vacation world not– how was touching grass? (0:21:07) Al: Yeah, I wasn’t really on holiday. I was still working. In fact, I was working more than (0:21:12) Kev: Oh, were you? (0:21:13) Al: I normally do. I was just doing it in a different place. But I didn’t have my kids, so it was (0:21:15) Kev: Oh, that was me this week, too. (0:21:21) Al: relaxing in some way. No, I had fun. It was a little bit frustrating on the Thursday at (0:21:21) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:21:27) Al: the end to be like, “Everyone’s getting their Switch too, and mine’s at home. I just can’t (0:21:30) Al: get it.” But it was only two days. It was only two days, yeah. But it wasn’t even (0:21:30) Kev: mmm your squid word and patrick and sponger outside (0:21:37) Al: like it feels worse than the people who just weren’t getting it, I feel, right? Because (0:21:42) Kev: yeah yeah yeah yeah (0:21:42) Al: you’re like, “Oh yeah, that’s annoying, and I don’t have it, and I feel like I’m missing (0:21:46) Al: out.” But I was like, “I have paid money, and I have had one delivered to me. It’s just (0:21:51) Kev: I shouldn’t be missing out (0:21:52) Al: I am not where it is.” (0:21:55) Kev: oh there yeah I can see that that’s funny yeah obviously I haven’t gotten my (0:22:00) Kev: i’ll probably have or well not mine i’m getting one for calvin next week is a little late birthday (0:22:05) Kev: present um so i’ll be able to join the ranks of people driving his cow and talking about it (0:22:16) Kev: 24 racers that’s insane (0:22:16) Al: um it is and it does it does mean that you like especially the there’s a lot of kind of I think (0:22:24) Al: they might need to do some rebalancing in terms of how things work especially like the rubber (0:22:28) Al: banding and stuff like that because like if you don’t if you if you don’t get up to first place (0:22:30) Kev: Oh, yeah (0:22:33) Al: quickly you’re probably not going to stay there uh um the the middle just feels absolutely insane (0:22:36) Kev: Oh, that’s good. Oh, that’s good stuff. I (0:22:41) Al: just now. So, yeah. (0:22:43) Kev: Can’t you know back in back in the old days there are eight racers (0:22:55) Kev: It’s crazy to think like there are some chunks with that many characters (0:22:59) Al: You have to have two whole pages to view everyone. (0:23:00) Kev: in a race (0:23:03) Kev: The rankings, oh my goodness. Oh, that’s incredible. Oh (0:23:10) Kev: Good time (0:23:12) Al: The other thing I’ve tried out on my Switch 2 is Pokemon Violet, and let me tell you, (0:23:18) Al: obviously if you didn’t like the game before, you’re not going to like the game suddenly (0:23:20) Kev: Right, it doesn’t fix a lot of the core design issues, but yeah. (0:23:21) Al: now that it’s running at a decent speed. (0:23:24) Al: Exactly, it’s still the same game, but my word is incredible. (0:23:29) Al: If you like the game, it is an incredible upgrade, just so good. (0:23:36) Kev: - Mm-hmm, but yeah, yeah, I’ll sit. (0:23:41) Al: It drives me insane whenever I see anyone talking about this and people will reply and (0:23:45) Al: be like, “Oh, it’s $500 to get the game how it should have been.” (0:23:49) Al: I don’t shut up. (0:23:50) Al: I don’t care. (0:23:51) Al: It doesn’t matter. (0:23:52) Al: Yeah, you don’t like it. (0:23:53) Al: Don’t play it. (0:23:54) Al: Don’t buy this. (0:23:55) Al: Shut up, right? (0:23:56) Al: Let me enjoy the fact that this game now runs incredibly. (0:23:59) Al: And you know what I’m most excited for with this is how well I think the new game’s going (0:24:05) Al: to run. (0:24:06) Al: Because there’s no way it will run worse than this, right? (0:24:10) Kev: Well, well. (0:24:10) Al: Because well, no, no, no, let me, let me, let me. (0:24:13) Al: So my point is, right, like it is a clearly a much more small and focused world, right? (0:24:19) Al: And one of the big issues of this game was the fact that the world is like all loaded (0:24:23) Al: at once. (0:24:24) Kev: Oh, oh you’re talking about ZA. I thought you meant yeah. Okay. Oh no. Yeah. Yes (0:24:25) Al: Yeah, yeah. Oh, no, I’m not even thinking about that. (0:24:29) Al: just now. Not even thinking about that just now. (0:24:30) Kev: Yeah, ZA is gonna be great. Yeah. Sure sure sure. Yeah, that’s fine (0:24:34) Al: And so if this game runs this well, like surely that game will run just as well. And (0:24:40) Al: it’s going to be so good. And I think it looks, it looks better, right? Like a lot of the (0:24:45) Al: thing about this game is that it just looks bland and meh. And yeah, the character models (0:24:46) Kev: Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. (0:24:51) Al: don’t look amazing in the new game, but I don’t really care about that, right? Like everything (0:24:55) Al: else in my opinion looks a lot nicer, kind of like the, you know, the (0:24:59) Al: bright colours in the night. I think the night time in particular is going to look really good in that game, especially on (0:25:04) Kev: I agree. Yeah, that is nice, right? Because, like, okay, obviously, we all know I’m unknown, (0:25:12) Kev: Scarlet Violet, Disparage or Dissenter, whatever you want to call it, right? I’m critical. (0:25:16) Al: For fair reasons, I’ve like, I’ve not, I’ve never, I’ve never said that your reasons are not the totally fair reasons. (0:25:18) Kev: Just a little bit critical. Like you said, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, like, you know, there’s a lot of design choices. (0:25:30) Kev: Design Choices. (0:25:32) Kev: I don’t like other people who I like. (0:25:34) Kev: It’s not fixing those issues, but like I think just how poorly it ran. (0:25:44) Kev: You know that like I’m an Nintendo fan. (0:25:46) Kev: I’m a Pokemon fan. (0:25:48) Kev: I don’t care about technical stuff, generally speaking, right? (0:25:52) Kev: But like it was just so bad that even even someone like me, it felt embarrassing. (0:25:58) Kev: Like it was rough. (0:26:00) Kev: So it’s nice to have at least that improved. (0:26:01) Al: No one, no one defends it. Right? Like with, with other, with other games, like Legends, (0:26:08) Al: like some of us are like, actually, I like how it looks, right? Like I, you know, I don’t, (0:26:10) Kev: Yeah (0:26:12) Al: I think that a lot of that is down to taste, but with, with the performance issues in this (0:26:14) Kev: Sure (0:26:17) Al: game, it was just embarrassing. Nobody justified it. And if anybody even tried to, you’d be (0:26:19) Kev: It would nope, yeah, yeah (0:26:22) Al: like, come on, like let’s be real here. You can like the game and still admit how terrible (0:26:28) Al: the performances. Whereas now, it’s just… (0:26:29) Kev: Yep (0:26:33) Kev: Yeah, it’s crazy I’ve seen clips online it’s wild the difference (0:26:38) Kev: I genuinely did. (0:26:42) Kev: I did not think it would upgrade that much. (0:26:44) Al: Yeah. And that’s handheld as well, not even docked. In handheld, it feels incredible. (0:26:47) Kev: That’s crazy. (0:26:52) Kev: Important question. (0:26:55) Kev: Have you tried the raids? (0:26:57) Kev: Because that was the… (0:26:57) Al: I have not. Yeah, I’m not convinced it’s going to make a massive difference to raids, because (0:26:59) Kev: Okay, ‘cause that’s… (0:27:00) Kev: I mean, it’s great the world runs right now, (0:27:02) Kev: but the raids, like… (0:27:05) Kev: Oh. (0:27:08) Al: I think a lot of the issue with raids was the internet communication. But I don’t tend (0:27:12) Kev: Yeah, probably, but I was curious it’s like (0:27:17) Al: to do raids a huge amount. I do them when there’s a seven star out, if possible. If (0:27:20) Kev: Yeah (0:27:21) Al: possible I do them as a solo build, so I don’t have to deal with other people. (0:27:23) Kev: Mm-hmm, I yeah. No, that’s fair (0:27:28) Kev: But yeah, that’s uh (0:27:30) Kev: Because if raids were good like I genuinely might be tempted (0:27:35) Kev: Consider another playthrough to give it a second chance on switch do but anyways, not that I’ll have one for a while, but (0:27:42) Al: Well, we’ll see, we’ll see. (0:27:42) Kev: Anyways, that’s good stuff (0:27:46) Kev: that (0:27:47) Kev: that’s nice and (0:27:49) Kev: Yeah, good on you Pokemon team for putting the effort to make that happen (0:27:54) Al: Yeah, I clearly, like, I wonder whether they’d been working on this before the game came (0:28:00) Al: out or whether this is in reaction to the game coming out and being terrible. Because (0:28:04) Kev: Yeah. (0:28:05) Al: they did tell us, like, oh, we hear you and we understand. And the question is, was that (0:28:11) Al: the point where they go, oh, we can’t just, like, let this go. Like, this is something (0:28:16) Al: we actually need to deal with. And then, obviously, they’ve gone, like, decision made. Do we try (0:28:21) Al: Try it our best to make it work as well on the switch, or do we just… (0:28:24) Kev: Mm-hmm (0:28:24) Al: take all of the nonsense that we’re going to get for the next two and a half years, (0:28:28) Al: and then throw it all on the switch too, and hope that we gain back the positives for that. (0:28:35) Al: I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case, right? That is a decent… That timeline works, (0:28:38) Kev: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. (0:28:43) Al: that’s more than two years. I could absolutely see that they hadn’t even considered this (0:28:45) Kev: Mm hmm. (0:28:48) Al: until the reception was so bad, and then they’ve gone, “You know what? We do need to deal with (0:28:52) Kev: Yeah, also (0:28:52) Al: this and they had a small team dealing (0:28:54) Al: with that for the last couple of years. (0:28:56) Kev: Sure, I’ll I’ll you know, I’ll say that they probably (0:29:02) Kev: Whenever they found out switch to upgrades we’re gonna have which I imagined was relatively early, you know, I (0:29:08) Kev: Imagine they were planning one for scarlet violent (0:29:10) Kev: I don’t see a version where they weren’t gonna do that (0:29:12) Kev: What I don’t think is I don’t think they were gonna put in the effort they did for this because that I think was reactionary (0:29:20) Kev: Because I think they wanted to (0:29:22) Kev: You know try to clean up their act if you know if it had come out (0:29:27) Kev: Not as good or you know if the original game might come out better (0:29:32) Kev: I don’t think it would have been this huge of a jump because they probably just (0:29:32) Al: Well, yeah, yeah. I mean, because it wouldn’t be better. I don’t know. Yeah. I do feel like (0:29:37) Kev: You know, then yeah. Well, yeah. Well, that’s true, but they wouldn’t put the effort, you know what I mean (0:29:43) Al: I do think a lot of this is like, we need to make sure people actually buy our next (0:29:47) Al: game. Let’s show them that we can actually make a good game or a smooth enough. Okay. (0:29:47) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:29:52) Kev: Yeah (0:29:53) Al: A well performing game. And, and I think that’s probably has done a lot to improve people’s (0:29:59) Kev: Yeah (0:30:00) Al: view on things, right? (0:30:02) Kev: Yeah (0:30:02) Al: People who were, you were probably worried about the next game, right? (0:30:05) Kev: Yeah, well hey, you know like I make all the jokes about you know, we could the you know, then Gen 10 could fail (0:30:12) Kev: or you know or whatever, you know, but (0:30:15) Kev: But maybe this is actually a sign that they’re actually trying to (0:30:19) Kev: They’re gonna try to double down or you know (0:30:23) Kev: put in the effort to make sure it really comes out. (0:30:25) Kev: Um yeah but okay good stuff that’s that’s really nice to know the power of the switch too. (0:30:33) Al: it’s good fun. All right, we have one piece of news I want to talk about before we just (0:30:40) Al: go through the wholesome direct stuff that we want to talk about. Snacko, Snacko decided (0:30:42) Kev: All right, what is it? (0:30:43) Kev: What is it? (0:30:46) Kev: That’s the cat game. (0:30:46) Al: that just after we released our last episode two weeks ago, they decided they were going (0:30:54) Al: going to release their 1.0, just shadow drop it. (0:30:56) Kev: That’s correct. That’s how this works in this gig, podcast world. Things happen as soon as (0:31:07) Kev: you take a break. That’s good. (0:31:08) Al: And I’m not even joking. This was a legitimate shadow drop. Like I saw the Steam news about (0:31:16) Al: Snacko 1.0 and I’m like, hold up, wait a minute. Did I miss something? And then I looked through (0:31:19) Kev: Tempting you. (0:31:21) Al: everything and nope, I did not miss anything. This was just surprise. Here you go. Here’s (0:31:27) Al: the new, here’s 1.0. So there we go. Snacko 1.0. It’s probably finally time for me to (0:31:35) Kev: Probably. I’m just looking at it, it looks nice. Yeah, that’s a, they’re little like pixely, (0:31:45) Kev: 2D, 3D thing, it looks nice, and the cat’s very cute. Yeah, good for you, Snaggo. You made it to (0:31:52) Kev: 1.0, like, that’s always a genuine cause for celebration, assuming it’s a real 1.0, (0:31:58) Kev: and not one of those 1.0s, yeah, it’s kind of 1.0, but not really, because we still have a whole (0:32:02) Kev: a whole bunch of other stuff that didn’t make it in yet. (0:32:04) Al: Yeah, I think they’ve got more updates coming, but it feels like it looks like it’s extra stuff. (0:32:09) Al: But having said that, I haven’t played through it, so I don’t know. (0:32:11) Kev: Yeah. (0:32:12) Kev: Sure, sure, yeah, yeah, I know. (0:32:14) Kev: But I’m just saying, we all know those games out there (0:32:17) Kev: that at 1.0 really should not have been at 1.0. (0:32:18) Al: Yep. Yep, yep, yep, yep, we do, we do. (0:32:23) Kev: But– but– yeah. (0:32:24) Al: It doesn’t feel, from what I know about the game and the developers, (0:32:28) Al: it doesn’t feel like something they would do. (0:32:30) Al: I don’t feel like they would just go, “Here we go.” (0:32:30) Kev: Yeah, from what– yeah, like, I also agree. (0:32:34) Kev: - Yeah, I agree. (0:32:35) Kev: Very cute game, always has been cute, still cute. (0:32:40) Kev: I might be interested in, oh, there’s a demo. (0:32:42) Kev: I might, I’ll download that demo at the very least. (0:32:44) Kev: Good for you, Snacko. (0:32:46) Al: All right, let’s talk about the Wholesome Direct then. (0:32:49) Kev: Okay, okay. (0:32:51) Kev: Before we get into, because obviously we got our list, (0:32:54) Kev: I want to comment on the presentation, (0:32:56) Kev: ‘cause man, an hour straight of wholesome and cozy, (0:33:03) Kev: Oh, it’s a little it’s. (0:33:05) Kev: A little much and you know, obviously that’s the nature of the beast, but you know, I’m just look, I don’t know how big wholesome games their operation is right and and and they’re they’re trying right like they highlight so many streamers or you know, content creators or whatever and oh good for you, you know, little spotlight on these guys, but you know, maybe, maybe just just put a little more into that, right? (0:33:06) Al: - Yeah. (0:33:32) Kev: Every, I can’t just, I’m not. (0:33:35) Kev: I’m not blaming any one streamer because they, but they all just happened to have the same, you know, just palette color palette swap backgrounds of a shelf with plushies and some plants. (0:33:46) Al: Yeah, yeah, I definitely found that as well. The other thing that I found was like everybody (0:33:50) Al: talks in this calm voice. Yeah, exactly. It’s like cosy games, right? First of all, it’s (0:33:54) Kev: - ASMR? (0:33:55) Kev: - Yup. (0:34:00) Al: not cosy games. It’s wholesome direct, right? The whole point was it’s like we want a place (0:34:03) Kev: - Yeah, huh? (0:34:05) Al: to show a bunch of games that are not just shooting zombies, right? And that is a totally (0:34:10) Kev: Yeah, yeah. (0:34:11) Al: fair thing and that’s why I like it and it doesn’t that doesn’t (0:34:14) Kev: Yeah. (0:34:16) Al: have to mean calm and quiet and trying to send you to sleep which is I definitely felt like it was I don’t know whether it’s always been like this and I’m just getting annoyed with it or whether it’s getting more like this but yeah I was absolutely the same every streamer was the exact same voice and background and I also think that there was a little bit weird and like having a different streamer to introduce every single game felt a bit weird (0:34:33) Kev: » Yeah. (0:34:46) Al: in the every time there was a streamer on they were like here’s my name here’s my channel here’s what I do and it was all the same as well it’s like oh we do everything cozy and you’re like oh my word like yes you are just the exact same as all the other ones we’ve just seen like I don’t it was yeah I agree I’m glad you felt the same because it was just too much for me (0:34:52) Kev: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And again, and yeah, and again, I’m not blaming any individual (0:35:09) Kev: streamer because I’m sure they got their prompt and they do their thing and that’s why. But (0:35:13) Kev: when, you know, the wholesome gang people, when they were putting, cutting, pasting all (0:35:16) Kev: this together, somebody should have said, you know what, this might be a little much. (0:35:20) Al: You get, it’s the same, it’s the same with everything, right? Like it’s when, when you (0:35:23) Kev: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. (0:35:24) Al: watch a Nintendo direct and you have the two hosts who make the same terrible jokes after (0:35:30) Al: every single game, you get annoyed about that. And when you have the Xbox showcase and like (0:35:35) Al: half of them are shooting zombies in the face, it’s the same thing again. It’s just like, (0:35:38) Kev: - Mm-hmm. (0:35:39) Al: why are all these games the same? And, and why is the presentation so long? And so like, (0:35:46) Al: I think maybe we need to spread these things out a little bit more in the year, right? Like (0:35:51) Al: June, for releasing game information, do we really need to? (0:35:55) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:35:59) Kev: Yeah, I agree or or you know what I’m trying to look up a year (0:36:06) Al: It’s 2025. (0:36:08) Kev: Yeah, not our year I’m I’m trying to look to the the highest (0:36:13) Kev: The high bar of video game presentations at 2014. That’s what it was the Nintendo (0:36:20) Kev: 2014 e3 presentation. That’s the one where we had a (0:36:25) Kev: and Reggie fighting (0:36:27) Kev: With their DBZ fight with the amiibo humor that that one (0:36:27) Al: Mm hmm. Yeah. (0:36:32) Kev: Obviously not every company is gonna be able to produce goofy bits like that or whatever (0:36:36) Kev: But you know that the point is they tried right? They they put a little a little effort into the presentation (0:36:44) Kev: And so, you know, it’d be nice right? What’s crazy to me is some of these bits were like the streamers introducing game (0:36:49) Kev: Didn’t even mention the game (0:36:51) Kev: They just said he was a world premiere (0:36:52) Al: yeah yeah well there is that I i don’t know I also think like the live ones are really (0:36:55) Kev: But anyways, I digress (0:36:59) Al: annoying as well right did you watch the friday’s summer game fest it was just really it was really (0:37:01) Kev: Mm-hmm (0:37:03) Kev: No, I haven’t watched any other I’ve just seen the the bids oh (0:37:08) Al: awkward I didn’t like it and like there’s something about jeff keeley that like i’m not saying he (0:37:10) Kev: Yeah (0:37:14) Al: doesn’t like games i’m sure he does i’m sure he does like games but the way he presents himself (0:37:20) Al: is corporate students. (0:37:21) Kev: Uh-huh, yep, that’s correct. (0:37:22) Al: And I can’t take him seriously and it’s like when there was a point where he was like oh (0:37:29) Al: something some game was shown and he was like wow looks great and he moved on to the next thing (0:37:34) Kev: Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s kind of underlying the point, right? You want to get somebody (0:37:35) Al: and I’m like you did not sound sincere there, what are you on about? (0:37:43) Kev: who’s sincere about the presentation or whatever is being presented, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. (0:37:46) Al: Which Reggie did well. That was his thing. Like, he was a corporate guy and we all knew that, (0:37:52) Al: and we all knew that he would probably sell us if he could. But you also got that he cared, (0:37:55) Kev: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. (0:37:58) Al: and I don’t know whether that was real or not, but you definitely believed that he cared. (0:38:04) Kev: I mean, I think he cared, but maybe that’s just part of the whole thing he did. I don’t (0:38:09) Kev: know, but he, like the important thing is he made us believe he cared, right? He could (0:38:13) Kev: talk about his games. Like it sounded like someone who played the game or knew of the (0:38:17) Kev: game to whatever degree. And yeah, you’re right. Like that’s what we need. We just need (0:38:23) Kev: people who know, who care, who are sincere. Like they’ll, even if it’s, you know, just (0:38:29) Kev: some of a blurb, you can feel that, right? So the point to one. (0:38:34) Kev: Well, long story short, wild. I forget what the new one is. Wildflowers people call me. (0:38:40) Kev: I’ll do the blurb for your next one. I’ll do it. All right. Let’s get into it. (0:38:42) Al: Alright, let’s talk about some games then. I don’t know if you’ve got anything else that (0:38:49) Al: you want to talk about other than the stuff that’s in this list, because I think, but (0:38:52) Kev: OK, there’s– here, let me see if I can find a– (0:38:53) Al: I think this is all the Cottagecore related stuff in my list. Let’s go, let’s go with (0:39:01) Kev: just go to– I’ll be looking up another list. (0:39:04) Al: it. So we started off with Story of Seasons Grand Bazaar. No new real information, but (0:39:10) Al: There was a new trailer with some. (0:39:12) Al: Uh, bits and pieces and, uh, I’m going to be honest. (0:39:15) Al: I’m really excited about this game. (0:39:16) Al: I think I’m, I’ve, I never played the original obviously. (0:39:19) Al: Um, and it does things a bit differently. (0:39:20) Kev: Yeah, it looks it looks good. I’ll say that. It looks like it has that, you know, Nintendo (0:39:21) Al: Um, so I’m excited to play it. (0:39:32) Kev: C.Lo quality story of seasons quality that they do. It looks good. I’ll say that. Yeah. (0:39:32) Al: Next one that I wanted to talk about was gourdlets together. So it’s a new gourdlets game. It’s (0:39:44) Al: a multiplayer gourdlets game. Which I feel like is a fun thing to add into a gourdlets (0:39:50) Al: game. I guess the question is, does this feel like it should have been a separate game or (0:39:55) Al: should it have been an update to gourdlets? I don’t know, but it is what it is. I guess (0:39:57) Kev: another mode. I don’t either. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s true. Well, I could have seen that even (0:40:02) Al: it’s cheap. It feels a bit selfish to ask for anything more. (0:40:16) Kev: more paid DLC by that point with the difference. But yeah, I guess so. I don’t know. It’s not (0:40:22) Kev: appealing to me, like, I don’t know, I’m just not feeling it, but it’s cool. (0:40:27) Kev: It’s cool to see them, you know, wanting to do this. (0:40:30) Al: Yeah, it also feels, I think it feels much, it looks like it’s much more character-based (0:40:36) Al: rather than obviously the girdlets was design-based, like management style, whereas this, I think, (0:40:43) Al: looks like you’re controlling a character because it’s the multiplayer aspect. So I’m (0:40:49) Al: thinking that might vibe with me more than the previous one. (0:40:52) Kev: Yeah. No, I can see that. That’s fair. (0:40:56) Al: we got something that you’ll be interested in, Luma Island, the (0:41:00) Kev: Well, you know what I do like pirates you’re right about that (0:41:06) Al: Well you played. Did you not play Luma Island? Am I misremembering? (0:41:06) Kev: It looks I didn’t play them island. No, that wasn’t me (0:41:10) Al: Oh, I know Johnny did, but I thought you had done as well. Oh well. (0:41:13) Kev: No, I don’t think no that was me but I do like pirates (0:41:15) Al: Well the Luma Island pirate update is coming out on the 20th of June. So we had, (0:41:19) Al: we already knew about the pirate update, but now we know that it’s coming out next week. (0:41:26) Kev: you go. It’s pretty looking, I guess. I like pirates, I don’t know. Okay, like, you know, (0:41:32) Al: We got a new trailer for tales of the shire as well. (0:41:38) Kev: in the past week, I actually watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy. And like, dang, man, (0:41:44) Kev: what a what a legacy you have to live up to. Okay, first off, did we have a date? Because (0:41:54) Kev: We finally got a date. (0:41:55) Al: We did. We did have a date when when they delayed it from March, they gave us a date of that point. So yeah, this is this is still what we were expecting. (0:41:56) Kev: I’m kidding. Okay. Okay. Well, that’s soon. It looks kind of like where it was at. I don’t (0:42:07) Kev: know what to say. I’m pretty sure the game is clear what it’s going to be. And as I watched (0:42:16) Kev: The Lord of the Rings and looking at this trailer, I’m thinking, “I don’t know if this (0:42:21) Kev: is the one for me. I’m not the one who wants to live in a hobbit. I want to hang out with (0:42:26) Kev: you.” That’s what I want to do in Middle Earth. (0:42:28) Al: Yeah. I’m a bit the same. I just, I don’t know what it is about this game that’s not (0:42:36) Al: grabbing me because A Lord of the Rings, Shire based culture game should be something that (0:42:42) Al: I would love, but I just, I don’t know. There’s just, it’s not grabbed me in anything other (0:42:48) Al: than the concept since it was announced. (0:42:48) Kev: yeah yeah that’s the hard part right is the concept gonna be better than the game maybe (0:42:57) Kev: uh that’s that’s you know that’s tough it like I said it’s when you put the lord of the rings (0:43:03) Kev: name on the box you have made things so much harder for yourself because that’s a lot of (0:43:08) Kev: expectations on now um but we’ll see maybe when it comes on it’s actually incredible I don’t know (0:43:16) Kev: Gandalf looked very kawaii, I’ll give him that. (0:43:18) Kev: They give us little ubu Gandalf. (0:43:21) Al: “I think it’s the character models that really confuse me. It’s not that I hate how they look, (0:43:27) Kev: Yeah, they do feel a little weird. (0:43:28) Al: I just… I don’t know. It’s so hard to explain.” (0:43:33) Kev: Yeah, no, I know exactly what you mean. (0:43:35) Kev: It’s something– it’s just a little je ne sais quoi. (0:43:40) Kev: I agree. (0:43:42) Al: Not normally used in a positive frame, not a negative frame, but fair enough. (0:43:42) Kev: But yeah. (0:43:49) Kev: But we’ll see. (0:43:50) Kev: It’s coming out soon. (0:43:51) Kev: And maybe it’ll surprise us still. (0:43:56) Al: Next, we had a new game, Linked Banner of the Spark. Build a bright new world alongside (0:44:01) Kev: oh my goodness this game (0:44:05) Al: a band of rescued robot buddies in this colourful action RPG, battle waves of enemies in solo (0:44:10) Al: or co-op, then return home and use your parts to craft a thriving town, assemble your crew, (0:44:15) Al: and grow stronger with each new adventure. I mean, this is basically like robot cult (0:44:19) Al: of the lamb, right? Go out and get stuff, and then save some creatures, and then come (0:44:24) Al: back and build a town. (0:44:27) Al: Kotlin did it really well, so if it implements it well, I think this could be really good. (0:44:32) Kev: It looks so good to me. (0:44:34) Kev: Like, oh man, ‘cause I’ve never called credit (0:44:40) Kev: within the trailer show. (0:44:41) Kev: There’s still like some gardening (0:44:42) Kev: or something like that, I think. (0:44:43) Al: There’s definitely farming, I’m seeing a farming plot. (0:44:43) Kev: But either, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:44:47) Al: It doesn’t look like it’s a big thing, it looks like it’s relatively small, but it is (0:44:53) Kev: But like, it does it great. (0:44:56) Kev: ‘Cause you have that and you have, you know, (0:44:57) Kev: you’re throwing robots in there. (0:44:58) Kev: Well, you know, that can be a different number of ways, (0:45:01) Kev: but the robot portion of it. (0:45:02) Kev: It looks sick, like you have a lot of knife hands like there’s some that look kind of threatening or genuinely actiony. (0:45:09) Kev: Um, there’s robot fish. That’s kind of fun. Um, I’m excited about this one. This one is high up on my list. It looks great. Um, the gameplay looks like what I want to the world’s colorful. I can’t wait. I’m so excited for this one. (0:45:26) Al: Yeah, I agree. Looks really fun. (0:45:28) Kev: All right, what’s next that’s not linked and thusly not as high on my list. (0:45:32) Kev: Oh well that blew up in my face because I forgot no this one is high up on my list too. (0:45:32) Al: Milano Milano’s odd collection or job collection. (0:45:43) Al: This one is, I think, PlayStation style is what they’re going. (0:45:48) Al: They’re calling it PlayStation one style. (0:45:48) Kev: Is (0:45:53) Al: It’s. (0:45:55) Kev: You okay, you g

With Nintendo Switch 2 hitting stores, Jason and Rosie look back on the joys of the original Switch. From the big moments, like Animal Crossing in the Pandemic or the opening moments of Breath of the Wild, to smaller under the radar favorites like Spiritfarer and Into the Breach. Plus, Jason and Rosie are joined by Aaron and Carmen for a full on multiplayer showdown! Favorite games, gripes with the system, and the newer games we’ve been playing while we wait to get ahold of the Switch 2. Follow Jason: IG & Bluesky Follow Rosie: IG & Letterboxd Follow X-Ray Vision on Instagram Join the X-Ray Vision DiscordSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're gamers, we're passionate… but we're also human and that means there are some iconic games we've somehow never played. This episode, we're making some hilarious (and maybe painful) confessions about the legendary titles still sitting in our digital backlog.From The Witcher 3, Bloodborne, and Persona 5… to chill, artsy comfort games like Gris and Spiritfarer—we're breaking down why we skipped them, which ones we only watched, and the cozy games we admire but still haven't touched.

Sometimes a video game CAN live up to the hype! Today, karaoke enthusiast, improviser, and softball aunt Candice Yang joins Conner to discuss her recent moment with Spiritfarer (2020) and how gaming has made a comeback in her life. Show Notes Candice Yang - Korean Drama podcast Conner McCabe – Bluesky - Twitch Produced, Edited, and Original music by Jeremy Schmidt – Video Games: a Comedy Show Call Me By Your Game – Instagram - Bluesky – YouTube - TikTok Super NPC Radio – Patreon - Discord-  Bluesky – Instagram – Twitch Episode Citations Why You Should Play Spiritfarer - CommRio Spiritfarer Creative Director “When making art you have to be vulnerable” - Gamespot

We speelden voor de verandering weer eens allebei tegelijk een nieuwe game, de online Hades-like 33 Immortals. Al spelende realiseerden we ons dat er toch een dikke vette blinde vlek in onze kennis zit waar nodig iets aan gedaan moet worden. Waar we meer kaas van hebben gegeten is vervreemdend narratief, onhandige regie en ongemakkelijke boodschappen: jawel, het is tijd voor de gameclub! Hoe beviel Chapter 3 van Death Stranding ons? Zit er nog pit in onze wandel of slepen we onszelf met lood in de schoenen voort? Hoe dan ook: onze lieve luisteraars zijn onze reispartners hier, bij De Videogame Show! Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (00:02:00)Harold Halibut (00:02:55)33 Immortals (00:06:00)Spiritfarer (00:06:40)Diablo petje.af/devideogameshowSea of Thieves (00:16:50)Among Us (00:17:50)Assassin's Creed Shadows (00:18:30)Brand in de knapperige korst (00:28:00)Death Stranding (00:29:15)Productie: Meer van ditMuziek & montage: Keez GroentemanWil je adverteren in deze podcast? Stuur een mailtje naar: Adverteerders (direct): adverteren@meervandit.nl(Media)bureaus: adverteren@bienmedia.nl Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we talk about book and game pairings. If you like these games you might like these books! Errata: Sam said The Monsters We Defy by Justina Ireland and she meant to say by Leslye PenelopeWhat We're PlayingMonster Hunter WildsAssassin's Creed Shadows*Call of Duty: Black Ops 6What We're ReadingThe Poppy War by R.F. KuangA Glimmer of Death by Valeria Wilson WesleySunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne CollinsWhat We're DrinkingMARS the Y.A. Japanese WhiskeyCold brew coffee with cold foamWhat We PairedJordyn1. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson and The Devil in Me by Supermassive2. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake and Queen by Midnight published by Derrington Press3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Orwell Keeping an Eye on You by Osmotic Studios4. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton and What Remains of Edith Finch by Giant Sparrow5. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor and Lies of P by Round8 StudiosSam1. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler and Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Freedom Wars Remastered by Bandai Namco2. Trail of Lightning and Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse and Monster Hunter Wilds by Capcom (Middle Grade: Race to the Sun by Roanhorse and Monster Hunter Stories 1&2 by Capcom)3. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang and Avowed by Obsidian4.What the River Knows by Isabel Ibanez and Tomb Riader by Crystal Dynamics 5. Ophie's Ghosts by Justina Ireland and The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope and Spiritfarer by Thunder Lotus GamesSam's Honorable Mentions1. Devil in the Blue Dress by Walter Mosley and L.A. Noire by Team Bondi2. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland and The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste and South of Midnight by Compulsion Games *Code received for streaming and review purposes

Cette semaine, on commence par la Divine comédie de 33 Immortals. Nouvelle production du studio Thunder Lotus Games, connu pour Spiritfarer, ce rogue-lite cherche l'originalité dans une approche multijoueurs avec des runs «dantesque» à 33 contre toute une collection de démons. L'idée est séduisante, mais souffre encore d'un aspect très vite répétitif. On continue avec Wednesdays, de The Pixel Hunt et Pierre Corbinais (Enterre moi mon amour, Haven). Ce jeu narratif s'attaque au sujet de l'inceste et des violences sexuelles sur mineurs avec une réalisation maitrisée de bout en bout. On termine avec Dawnfolk, jeu de gestion très séduisante à l'apparence minimaliste qui se joue avec des tuiles.Jérémie Kletzkine, dans sa chronique jeux de société, nous parle de Res Arcana Duo.Chapitres :0:00 Intro4:21 Les news27:52 Le com des coms36:12 33 Immortals1:12:45 La chronique jeux de société : Res Arcana Duo1:17:39 Wednesdays1:45:33 La minute culturelle1:50:29 Dawnfolk2:00:56 Et quand vous ne jouez pas, vous faites quoi ?Retrouvez toutes les chroniques de jérémie dans le podcast dédié Silence on Joue ! La chronique jeux de société (Lien RSS).Pour commenter cette émission, donner votre avis ou simplement discuter avec notre communauté, connectez-vous au serveur Discord de Silence on joue!Retrouvez Silence on Joue sur Twitch : https://www.twitch.tv/silenceonjoueSoutenez Silence on joue en vous abonnant à Libération avec notre offre spéciale à 6€ par mois : https://offre.liberation.fr/soj/Silence on joue ! C'est l'émission hebdo de jeux vidéo de Libération. Avec Erwan Cario et ses chroniqueur·euse·s Patrick Hellio, et Corentin Benoit-Gonin.CRÉDITSSilence on joue ! est un podcast de Libération animé par Erwan Cario. Cet épisode a été enregistré le 27 mars 2025 sur Discord. Réalisation : Erwan Cario. Générique : Marc Quatrociocchi. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Kevin and Aislinn talk about Wanderstop, the new game from the creator of The Stanley Parable Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:23: What Have We Been Up To 00:11:58: Game News 00:29:07: New Games 00:31:44: Wanderstop 01:15:33: Outro Links Pixelshire Release Date Honeymancer Early Access Release Date Space Sprouts Release Date Dave the Diver “Ichiban’s Holiday” DLC Another Harvest Moon G-Mode Game Cattle Country Optional Combat Funguys Swarm Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Kevin: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Kevin (0:00:34) Aislinn: And my name is Aislinn. (0:00:35) Kevin: And we are here to talk about cottagecore games supposedly that’s a little box. It’s whoo (0:00:40) Aislinn: Woo! (0:00:42) Kevin: I forget about that. Well, I always try to be a bit of a smart alec and adding nonsense there, but whoo (0:00:49) Kevin: Although I’m although I don’t know how much I like wooing at this game. I’m very hesitant about whoo (0:00:50) Aislinn: Woo! It’s cute, I like it. (0:00:56) Aislinn: That’s true, that’s true, you make a good point. (0:00:57) Kevin: I’m kidding. I love I love (0:00:58) Aislinn: Spoilers! (0:01:00) Kevin: We’re here to talk about wander stop the tea shop game by the I forget the actual dead team name the Stanley parable people (0:01:09) Kevin: Brace yourself because anyone who’s familiar Stanley parable knows that means things (0:01:16) Aislinn: I wholeheartedly agree. (0:01:17) Kevin: But (0:01:18) Kevin: Okay, but before we get to those things let’s talk about other things (0:01:23) Kevin: Aisling what’s what’s up? What’s been going on tell me about your sky high life? (0:01:26) Aislinn: Um, I think you already know what’s been going on. (0:01:30) Kevin: You (0:01:31) Aislinn: We’ve been very busy with work and when not working, (0:01:36) Aislinn: I’ve been very busy trying to make as much progress as humanly possible in Wandershop. (0:01:42) Kevin: Yeah (0:01:42) Aislinn: And when I’m not doing that, then I’m doing the usual like dailies on my phone of like (0:01:48) Aislinn: Pokémon Sleep, TCG Pocket. I’m hard into Neko Atsume right now. (0:01:50) Kevin: Uh-huh (0:01:52) Kevin: Okay (0:01:56) Aislinn: It’s just the original, and I want to try and get everything in Neko Atsume as much as possible. (0:01:57) Kevin: Okay, wait, what is that one do tell the name escapes me (0:02:03) Aislinn: It’s a cat collecting game. It’s a cat collecting mobile game, (0:02:07) Aislinn: and it’s literally just cat collection, and it’s so cute. It’s so cute. And there’s a new Neko Atsume (0:02:08) Kevin: oh yes okay i’m familiar with this one yes it is (0:02:14) Aislinn: that came out somewhat recently, so I’m like, I’m not gonna play that until I finish the original. (0:02:20) Aislinn: So that’s what I’ve been doing. And then if I’m not doing any of those, (0:02:22) Kevin: Sure. (0:02:25) Aislinn: that I’m doing a lot of wedding planning. (0:02:26) Aislinn: So that’s pretty much what I’ve been up to, yeah. (0:02:27) Kevin: Ahhh! (0:02:29) Kevin: Has that been on the show? Wait, has that been discussed on the show at all? (0:02:32) Kevin: I don’t, I don’t know if it… (0:02:32) Aislinn: No, it has not been discussed in the show, so. (0:02:34) Kevin: Ahh, okay, how far are we? What’s, uh, what’s our target date here? (0:02:39) Aislinn: Our tar- actually, I have not announced to, like, everyone the target date. (0:02:43) Kevin: Oh! (0:02:45) Aislinn: I’ve been keeping that, like, more on a personal note, but I can tell you June. (0:02:47) Kevin: Okay, well you got a range? (0:02:49) Kevin: Sure. (0:02:50) Kevin: Okay. Okay. Well, sure. Sure. Sure. Yeah. (0:02:52) Aislinn: Yeah, so we’re almost there. (0:02:52) Kevin: Yes. That’s correct. That’s correct. Very, um, very, very, uh, impressive dedicated you to to playing your wedding during the, the, the Go Fest this year, or whatever the thing’s called. (0:02:56) Aislinn: Yeah. (0:02:57) Aislinn: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:03:00) Aislinn: Literally, we’re not quite there yet. (0:03:06) Aislinn: It’s, yeah, no, each month that progresses closer and closer. (0:03:08) Kevin: Yes. That’s correct. That’s correct. Very, um, very, very, uh, impressive dedicated you to, to playing your wedding during the, the, the, the Go Fest this year, or whatever the thing’s called. (0:03:09) Aislinn: I’m like more and more just panic, panic, panic. (0:03:22) Aislinn: Well, that wasn’t that wasn’t in the works (0:03:22) Kevin: The, um, all right, but, uh, good stuff. Okay. So let’s see here. Okay. Just, just a side note on that. Have you, uh, I’d play a different kind of cat collecting game. Have you ever heard of the battle cats? (0:03:25) Aislinn: That wasn’t that wasn’t supposed to happen, but it just happened to happen and I was like well (0:03:29) Aislinn: We’re gonna see what happens with that (0:03:46) Aislinn: Um, no, what is that? I’m looking that up right now. (0:03:46) Kevin: Oh, I think I’ve talked to that on the show, but, um, (0:03:52) Kevin: you know, I’m going to tag you an image on the slack. I’m creating the, the live slack thread of me. (0:03:58) Aislinn: Wait, this looks so cute. (0:04:04) Kevin: What are you, you googled it. (0:04:04) Aislinn: I’m looking at it right now. (0:04:05) Aislinn: Yeah, of course I googled it. (0:04:08) Kevin: Okay. Because I was going to show all, but did you see the freaky ones yet? Um, yes, those are legs. Did you see the one with the buff one? That’s the last four legs. (0:04:10) Aislinn: Oh, those are legs. (0:04:19) Aislinn: I have not seen that yet. (0:04:22) Kevin: Yes. They’re kind of cute, but also terrifying. Like it’s, it’s a very cheek cheeky, like comical tone. Um, yeah. Yeah. There you go. There’s good old fish cat. And those are just the basics, right? Like this, it’s a gotcha game. (0:04:30) Aislinn: It’s a it’s a good aesthetic. I like, oh, I found the buff one. I found the buff one. (0:04:40) Kevin: So, and it’s, I think 10 years old now and they actually get a lot of crossovers. They’ve crossed over, they cross over like Hatsune Miku every six years. Um, Street Fighter was one. (0:04:50) Aislinn: Ooh. (0:04:54) Kevin: Um, Konosuba, I think lots of animes. I don’t know. Um, but it’s yeah. And on the best part, the best part about their crossover is you get both ways. You get Hatsune Miku as a playable character and then you get a cat that looks like Hatsune Miku. (0:05:00) Aislinn: You got me with Miku, that’s it. That’s the end-all for me. Miku or boss? That’s it. (0:05:13) Aislinn: Oh my god. That is wonderful. (0:05:14) Kevin: Here, I’ll see if I can find it. Um, I play that one on and off. My brother is a big, um, is a big, uh, (0:05:22) Kevin: battle cats fan more than ISO. Um, uh, but, uh, yeah, it’s, it’s a great one there. I posted a pic. You want to see it. Um, there’s your Hatsune Miku cat. Um, they literally just used the standard cat and put the costume on it. It’s, it’s hilarious. Oh, one of my favorite ones. They did Evangelion. (0:05:34) Aislinn: Oh my god! It’s so cute! It’s so good! (0:05:40) Aislinn: That’s wonderful! (0:05:46) Aislinn: Ooh, that’s sick. That’s really cool. (0:05:50) Kevin: That was a good one, that was a good one. (0:05:54) Kevin: Anyways, so anything else, I’m sorry? (0:05:55) Aislinn: Well, I will be checking out this game. (0:05:58) Aislinn: I will be checking out this game. (0:05:58) Kevin: Oh, it’s free, be warned. (0:06:02) Aislinn: Oh, perfect! That’s all I need. Free is for me. That’s it. (0:06:04) Kevin: There you go. (0:06:04) Aislinn: um that’s pretty much been it I guess actually one one little thing that I can kind of announce (0:06:06) Kevin: Aw, sick, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Battle Cats. (0:06:08) Kevin: It’s pretty fun. (0:06:10) Kevin: Anything else you’ve been up to? (0:06:19) Aislinn: and we’re really really hoping the best so like you know how I kept saying for today like oh i (0:06:21) Kevin: Yes, to be fair, you’re always busy so that wasn’t out of the ordinary. (0:06:23) Aislinn: have i’m busy earlier in the day and that’s we’re recording at 9 p.m eastern um yeah but it’s more (0:06:33) Aislinn: fun news so hope (0:06:34) Aislinn: we will have a new kitty or two in the household here so that’s what we were doing earlier today so i’m like I i’ve been holding that like i’ve been withholding that just for like a I wanted to get your genuine reaction like first reaction to it so (0:06:42) Kevin: Oh, oh hot off the press (0:06:54) Kevin: Oh (0:06:55) Aislinn: pause cast exclusive (0:06:57) Kevin: Podcast exclusive you heard it first here. Oh, that’s okay. Okay. You said possibly multiple. Well, yeah (0:07:05) Aislinn: yeah we’re just waiting on what I i’m not saying too much just because there’s a lot of logistics which I can tell you about later there’s a lot of logistics that we’re currently figuring out but it should hopefully work out tomorrow question mark. (0:07:11) Kevin: Sure (0:07:14) Kevin: Okay (0:07:15) Kevin: Yeah as (0:07:18) Kevin: You know, well, that’s that’s exciting. I can’t wait to hear and see them and so on but but that’s good (0:07:22) Aislinn: yeah. (0:07:24) Kevin: There should be logistics involved unlike us who a guy just kind of said. Hey, you want a free cat and handed us two kittens? (0:07:26) Aislinn: absolutely. (0:07:33) Kevin: Okay, oh they they are very love yes (0:07:33) Aislinn: but they are loved and that’s all that (0:07:34) Aislinn: matters but otherwise that’s it no not by any means (0:07:40) Kevin: Yeah that and let’s be honest cats are not the hardest to take care of (0:07:44) Kevin: You know that the hard part is cat. No, no such thing as catproofing but bracing for the uncommon storm, but (0:07:52) Aislinn: Yeah, we are definitely bracing here. (0:07:54) Kevin: Oh (0:07:55) Kevin: That’s exciting. I can’t wait to hear more. Um, congratulations. Very very excited about that (0:07:57) Aislinn: Yeah! Thank you! (0:08:00) Aislinn: What about for you? (0:08:01) Kevin: Okay, um (0:08:02) Kevin: so I will (0:08:02) Aislinn: I like your just Chicago man. (0:08:04) Kevin: Yeah, so I I don’t know if I mentioned it on this show, but I started a new job (0:08:12) Kevin: About a month and a half ago started February (0:08:15) Kevin: and (0:08:18) Kevin: I’m hit the ground running. They sent me to a trade show to man a booth (0:08:22) Kevin: and that was (0:08:24) Kevin: I was there all week this past week (0:08:26) Kevin: my feet are dead (0:08:28) Kevin: I’m ready to be chopped off (0:08:30) Kevin: not my first time in Chicago (0:08:32) Kevin: I actually went to that same event (0:08:34) Kevin: two years ago but (0:08:36) Kevin: as an attendee, not an exhibitor (0:08:38) Kevin: so yeah (0:08:38) Aislinn: Uh-huh. (0:08:40) Kevin: my role is partially sales now (0:08:42) Kevin: so I actually have to go up (0:08:44) Kevin: and pitch and talk to people and so on (0:08:46) Kevin: and so forth and try to get leads (0:08:48) Kevin: so that was (0:08:50) Kevin: busy, excited, it was good work (0:08:52) Kevin: Um, yeah. (0:08:52) Aislinn: Yeah. (0:08:54) Kevin: Um, I, I, I learned a lot trial by fire, absolutely, but good times. (0:08:58) Kevin: Um, and, and there was other enjoy it. (0:09:00) Kevin: Well, it was, it was like 90% work, but there were some nice dinners. (0:09:05) Kevin: One night we hit a piano bar. (0:09:07) Kevin: That was quite fun. (0:09:08) Aislinn: Ooooh, that’s really cool. (0:09:09) Kevin: Uh, it wasn’t, it wasn’t even, it wasn’t a super classy one. (0:09:12) Kevin: Um, it was very more bar than piano, if that makes sense. (0:09:15) Kevin: But you had the guy up there playing the songs and, and, and you can make requests (0:09:19) Kevin: and there was enough space to dance, which I did. (0:09:21) Kevin: I am a dancing machine. (0:09:22) Aislinn: Bye! (0:09:22) Kevin: fun fact. (0:09:24) Kevin: so yeah so which after a full day of standing and exhibiting wasn’t the best (0:09:30) Kevin: idea of my I pre bled my feet for the next day but but so worth it yeah yeah (0:09:34) Aislinn: Eh, it’s all in good fun. It’s all in good fun! (0:09:37) Kevin: um yeah that was uh that was fun I tried the deep dish that was good weather (0:09:44) Kevin: weather was insane it was it was snowing when I landed and like the next day we (0:09:50) Kevin: We hit 70 degrees and then two days later it hailed. (0:09:50) Aislinn: Oh, my. (0:09:54) Aislinn: Oh, my. (0:09:54) Kevin: It was a roller coaster. (0:09:56) Aislinn: Oh, my. (0:09:56) Kevin: Oh, a life first. I had a hailstone land directly into my mouth. (0:10:02) Kevin: As I said, was that hail and the duke just right in there? (0:10:06) Aislinn: Why do I feel like that’s like such a you thing? (0:10:10) Aislinn: That feels like such a you thing. (0:10:10) Kevin: Yeah, that’s… that’s correct. (0:10:12) Kevin: That is 100% correct. (0:10:16) Aislinn: I’ve never heard that before. That’s amazing. (0:10:18) Kevin: Yeah. (0:10:20) Kevin: Yup. (0:10:20) Aislinn: So it sounds like you had a great time in Chicago. (0:10:24) Kevin: Yeah, it was a lot of work, but it was a legendary time. (0:10:28) Kevin: We’ll be back in two years. Next year there’s a different trade. (0:10:30) Kevin: So actually here, right here in Atlanta, home turf. (0:10:34) Kevin: So at least I don’t have to do the major travel bit, but I’m sure it will be just as busy. (0:10:40) Kevin: But yes, good times were had, success was had by kind of me. (0:10:46) Kevin: Baby salesmen on his training wheels did little salesmen. (0:10:46) Aislinn: I’m sure you did great. (0:10:52) Kevin: Aside from that, obviously (0:10:54) Kevin: not a lot of time for games. I snuck in a few of the regulars. Marvel, Snap, Rivals, Unite, here and there on different occasions and so on. (0:11:00) Kevin: That’s all fine and all. (0:11:04) Kevin: Wander Stop, like you said, trying to squeeze in as much time humanly possible. (0:11:08) Kevin: And not even just because I want to play for the show, because I just want to play more Wander Stop. (0:11:08) Aislinn: No, me too I feel that, which we’ll definitely get into. (0:11:16) Kevin: And also, for the Mario-verse over there on the other show of Rainbow Road Radio, (0:11:22) Kevin: I play (0:11:24) Kevin: I did the same Kingdom. That’s not the little Mexican (0:11:27) Kevin: Kingdom in Super Mario Odyssey good times (0:11:30) Aislinn: Oh, sick. (0:11:31) Kevin: Yes, good. I love you mate. It’s all a replay (0:11:35) Kevin: But super enjoyable. I’m Mexican. What can I say? I’m super biased. They did I did Mario, Mexico (0:11:38) Aislinn: that game in general was just fantastic so i’m glad to hear that too that that section is like (0:11:40) Kevin: I have no complaints. They got him into sombrero (0:11:45) Kevin: It is yeah like (0:11:47) Kevin: What can I say what? (0:11:48) Aislinn: enjoyable for you (0:11:49) Kevin: She’s shocking this revisit to Super Mario Odyssey. Yeah, I’ve determined. It’s a good game (0:11:57) Kevin: Alright. (0:11:58) Kevin: Speaking of good games, I say that with an asterisk, or you have no idea. (0:12:02) Kevin: laughs Let’s talk about some game news. laughs Let’s talk about some announcements and such. (0:12:05) Aislinn: yeah (0:12:07) Kevin: Alright, take us away Ace with our first one. (0:12:09) Aislinn: all right so in game news the first game that I am looking at is pixel shire that’s going to be (0:12:16) Aislinn: releasing on the 8th of may and from what i’m looking at on the steam page it says that it is (0:12:22) Aislinn: an adventure farming sim 2d single player game from the developer capibits and it it really does (0:12:30) Aislinn: seem like a adventure farming sim 2d single player 2d single player game it also has notes about unique (0:12:37) Aislinn: RPG sandbox. (0:12:38) Aislinn: Which mixes Lifesim elements with town building, exploration, and combat. (0:12:46) Aislinn: And you can trade, you can do all the things that are normally in most farming sim games. (0:12:53) Kevin: that’s correct (0:12:55) Kevin: uh… I would (0:12:55) Aislinn: But it looks really cute! (0:12:56) Kevin: okay cs the first of all okay up (0:12:59) Kevin: the name I would imply it’s to be pixel art and it is cute (0:13:02) Kevin: uh… it is a a bit more chibi ask or or eight-bit than say uh… (0:13:05) Aislinn: Yeah. (0:13:08) Kevin: uh… stardew valley (0:13:09) Aislinn: It’s more round. (0:13:09) Kevin: uh… so you know (0:13:11) Kevin: uh… it’s a it’s different flavor (0:13:13) Kevin: uh… but there are some actually notable elements I think in here that (0:13:16) Kevin: they were talking about on first of all like you mentioned (0:13:18) Kevin: uh… sandbox as in (0:13:20) Kevin: I would say Animal Crossing New Leaf or Minecraft. (0:13:23) Aislinn: Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s really, really cool. (0:13:24) Kevin: I would say Animal Crossing New Leaf or Minecraft. (0:13:32) Aislinn: Yeah. Mm-hmm. (0:13:53) Kevin: I would say Animal Crossing New Leaf or Minecraft. (0:13:53) Aislinn: Oh, I didn’t realize that about this game too! That’s awesome! (0:14:08) Aislinn: I agree. Yeah, I like the art style. I like the kind of, I guess you could say animal (0:14:14) Aislinn: crossing aspect, but more so, more generally, the sandbox aspect of being able to, as it (0:14:20) Aislinn: says, re-sculpt the world through terraforming. I think that’s really, really cool. And honestly, (0:14:23) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, they they emphasize on the yeah, yeah, so. (0:14:25) Aislinn: any game that has animals that you can raise to, they are so cute in this game. I love (0:14:31) Aislinn: it. So, but it looks, it looks great. Like as someone, as someone has been in a stance (0:14:36) Aislinn: of like being overwhelmed constantly by (0:14:38) Aislinn: farming games. This is this is a farming game. I know. This (0:14:40) Kevin: Welcome, welcome to the show, Eastland. (0:14:45) Aislinn: is one farming game that actually does peak more (0:14:47) Aislinn: interest versus other farming games. So yeah, big props to (0:14:48) Kevin: Yeah. (0:14:51) Aislinn: them. Looks really, really cool. (0:14:53) Kevin: I have not facepalmed the one watching the trailer. (0:14:56) Kevin: So good on you. (0:14:58) Kevin: That’s a thumbs up. (0:15:00) Kevin: No, and you know what? (0:15:02) Kevin: I’m, I may jinx it, but I didn’t see any romance in there. (0:15:06) Aislinn: I’m sure there’s romance. There’s no way there’s not. There’s no way there’s not. (0:15:06) Kevin: Free free from the shackles. (0:15:08) Kevin: No, well, either way. (0:15:13) Kevin: Oh, oh, okay. (0:15:15) Kevin: Wait, hold on one second. (0:15:16) Kevin: I just want to say, okay, sorry about that. (0:15:16) Aislinn: Yeah. (0:15:18) Kevin: The jaws theme played as my puppy entered the room. (0:15:21) Aislinn: Oh, no. (0:15:21) Kevin: Um… [laughs] (0:15:23) Kevin: Um… [laughs] (0:15:25) Kevin: Okay. Alright, what’s up next? Do tell me. (0:15:28) Aislinn: All right, so the next game that I’m looking at here is Honeymancer, and it’s coming soon to Early Access. (0:15:36) Aislinn: It’s currently on March 27th. (0:15:38) Aislinn: So, yeah, or actually, yeah, that’s what it seems to look like. March 27th, Early Access, coming soon, and also another Pixel 2D-looking situation, but this is more so the tags are Indie, RPG, Pixel Graphics, Tower Defense 2D, and it looks like this is not really a farming game at all. (0:16:01) Aislinn: And when I first looked at it with the just because of the art style alone, I was like, oh, it’s another far (0:16:06) Aislinn: I’m again, I’m like, oh, wait, no, it’s not. Wait, that’s really cool. And it’s got bees and we love bees here. So (0:16:09) Kevin: Yeah (0:16:12) Kevin: Yeah, all right, so there’s a few few things going on here right first of all the premise of bear wizard (0:16:19) Kevin: That’s pretty strong already right you’re you’re setting its own bear witch excuse me (0:16:25) Kevin: You have a one you’re shooting things in combat (0:16:28) Kevin: You’re fighting off robots invading the forest with other cute neighbor animals (0:16:33) Aislinn: which the robots look so cute by the way I just again the art style I’m just like gosh I love (0:16:35) Kevin: They do (0:16:38) Aislinn: this art style it’s so cute I’m such a sucker for good art styles yeah they do it’s so cute (0:16:40) Kevin: I (0:16:41) Kevin: Yup, it is a it is a very strong art style. Absolutely. I’m again 2d pixel, but it’s a very strong one (0:16:47) Kevin: I like how even the trees kind of look like beehives. It’s a very cute little touch (0:16:53) Kevin: yep (0:16:54) Kevin: there looks like there’s (0:16:57) Kevin: Management of some kind you’re growing flowers for bees making potions. So, you know, there’s elements of cottagecore stuff (0:17:03) Kevin: But it’s not your standard you have grandpa’s farm or whatever on which is fun (0:17:09) Kevin: Special shoutouts to the as they describe it the bee dog. There’s a large bumblebee flying you around. It’s more bee than dog (0:17:17) Kevin: we the the big question which (0:17:20) Kevin: You know, we’ll have to wait is where does it land on the Cody scale of acceptability? (0:17:25) Aislinn: I know, we’ll have to stay tuned to find out, right? (0:17:28) Kevin: Is it is it is it Cheeba fight is it cartoonified enough? (0:17:34) Kevin: But I mean, it’s a pretty big bee. So I think she’s gonna be on (0:17:36) Aislinn: It is a very big B. (0:17:39) Kevin: Bigger than you. So I think I think she’s gonna be on board with this one (0:17:40) Aislinn: It really is. (0:17:44) Kevin: But there are other non giant bees that you are helping raise. So that’s fun (0:17:49) Kevin: You know, it’s hard to tell how deep they’re going into it and unexpected to be (0:17:53) Kevin: You know for on be sim but but it looks good enough. It goes into the bear honey (0:17:59) Aislinn: Yeah, no, it looks it looks really cute. It’s hard to get much information based off of just (0:17:59) Kevin: So yeah (0:18:03) Aislinn: the Steam page, but like it looks generally really cute. We’ll see you soon in early access. (0:18:04) Kevin: Yeah (0:18:06) Kevin: Yeah (0:18:09) Aislinn: If this is your type of gameplay, I think it’s worth checking out because it just the (0:18:09) Kevin: March 27th (0:18:13) Kevin: Yeah (0:18:13) Aislinn: colors alone are like really pretty too. Yeah, I love that. Uh-huh. Yeah, they feel very anime. (0:18:15) Kevin: The colors are very well done (0:18:16) Kevin: I like the expressions on the characters and the little portraits when they’re speaking they get exaggerated in cartoonish. That’s that’s (0:18:24) Kevin: Yeah. Yeah, it’s it’s fantastic (0:18:26) Kevin: I’m right because I think that’s probably a big criticism (0:18:30) Kevin: You have a lot of these cottage cores like the this character portraits are somewhat muted a lot of times (0:18:35) Kevin: I would say this one’s going for the anime eyes and everything (0:18:39) Aislinn: Yeah, I like it. I really do like it (0:18:39) Kevin: It’s great. I have one big criticism against it though (0:18:45) Kevin: And it’s nothing the game itself done, but unfortunately the title of honeymancer actually (0:18:45) Aislinn: Oh, okay (0:18:52) Kevin: I think it’s honey wizard has already been claimed by Winnie the Pooh in the Lorkana (0:18:57) Kevin: Card game have you okay? I posted it in the thread if you’ll take a look Aislin (0:19:01) Aislinn: Let me see. (0:19:02) Kevin: Lorkana the Disney TCG came out with a card called Winnie the Pooh honey wizard and (0:19:03) Aislinn: Oh my gosh, I’ve never, (0:19:07) Aislinn: I’ve never seen Winnie the Pooh look so magical. (0:19:09) Kevin: It’s pretty amazing. It’s (0:19:12) Kevin: Possibly the best card. They’ve ever come out with and so (0:19:15) Kevin: you know you do a lot of great things honeyman sir, but (0:19:16) Aislinn: Was that a pun? (0:19:20) Kevin: You got a tall tall bar or tall bear. I guess to cross to overcome there (0:19:24) Aislinn: What was that a pun though? Is that possibly you get it the pun because you said possibly possibly (0:19:28) Kevin: Do what oh (0:19:31) Kevin: Yes, yes (0:19:35) Kevin: Okay, I guess all right there all right beautiful (0:19:37) Aislinn: We got it we got we got there one way or another we got there (0:19:39) Kevin: I like this shot of the raccoon screaming in the trailer just eyes fisheyes in different directions with full vertical mouth. It’s great (0:19:52) Kevin: Yeah, all right (0:19:55) Kevin: What a speaking of moods. What do we actually I do have a mood. I don’t know what’s next. What’s next? (0:19:58) Aislinn: The next game is the next game is Space Sprouts, an exploration puzzle physics simulation 2D (0:20:01) Kevin: No, it’s (0:20:09) Aislinn: game are the tags, and it does primarily look like it’s a puzzle game where you bend the (0:20:17) Aislinn: rule of physics, experiment with unusual gadgets, and toss everything around. (0:20:23) Aislinn: I think out of the three games that we discussed so far, I think this game feels mostly up (0:20:28) Aislinn: because I’m always down for a good puzzle game, and the fact that there is physics in this too (0:20:31) Kevin: Uh huh. Yeah, in a good way. Yeah, that that that is a very specific alliterative title (0:20:33) Aislinn: really also intrigues me. It looks like it also kind of infuriates me, but I’m kind of, (0:20:38) Aislinn: oh perfect, cozy cosmic chaos feels like the perfect description for this game. (0:20:47) Kevin: and it works. Right, so space is the key thing right here, right? We’re not we’re managing (0:20:52) Kevin: a space station. And so you’re going to have gravity physics and light bending and all (0:20:56) Kevin: sorts of nonsense. There’s all in the trailer, you see the water floating around, you have (0:21:01) Kevin: a push it or whatever. So expect space shenanigans. Um, that sounds kind of cute. Like a very muted (0:21:09) Kevin: storybook looking design for these characters. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, it is a very nice looking (0:21:12) Aislinn: Yeah, I like the colors. (0:21:15) Aislinn: I’m all about the colors of all of these games so far. (0:21:18) Aislinn: All of these games look really, really nice. (0:21:21) Kevin: game. Demo out now if you are curious and full release date in just a little over a (0:21:28) Kevin: for a week on March 31st. (0:21:30) Aislinn: Almost there! (0:21:32) Kevin: Yup, so, uh, good on you space sprouts. (0:21:35) Kevin: Um, yeah, I’m sure some people hint, hint on the show. (0:21:39) Kevin: Might like, I don’t, I, I have no idea who, but I feel like somebody (0:21:42) Aislinn: I mean, I like it, I’m interested in it. (0:21:43) Kevin: on the show will want to play. (0:21:48) Kevin: Well, oh, there we, okay. (0:21:49) Kevin: That’s one down. (0:21:50) Kevin: Let’s, let’s get another, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll see. (0:21:53) Aislinn: I might be infuriated, I don’t know, but I’m also like, it’s a good type of infuriating (0:21:57) Kevin: Well, yeah, and that’s fine. (0:21:57) Aislinn: and that’s what this game looks like, so I’m into it. (0:22:01) Kevin: I’ve had the bad period on the show many, many times, possibly more than not. (0:22:07) Aislinn: It’d really be that way. (0:22:11) Kevin: All right, next up. (0:22:12) Kevin: Ooh, this is a good one. (0:22:14) Aislinn: You take the floor. (0:22:14) Kevin: I think they’d announced it. (0:22:16) Kevin: Yeah, I think they announced it during the game awards or no. (0:22:20) Kevin: Was that the jungle DLC? (0:22:21) Kevin: I feel like this was announced at some point, but if not, we got a full, (0:22:25) Kevin: uh, a more proper breakdown of Dave, the diver DLC can’t. (0:22:31) Kevin: Stop won’t stop. (0:22:32) Kevin: I mean, I mean, they’re made by the maple story desk, so they have (0:22:35) Kevin: the money to actually never stop. (0:22:37) Aislinn: Just keep going. (0:22:37) Kevin: Um, yeah, basically. (0:22:41) Kevin: Um, and so it is a, not that it is the second, um, crossover DLC this time (0:22:46) Kevin: with the like a dragon series, AKA previously known as the Yakuza series. (0:22:51) Kevin: Um, you are teaming up with itchy bond, um, and doing all sorts of shenanigans. (0:22:57) Kevin: Are you familiar with like a dragon at all? (0:22:59) Aislinn: I am like not I’ve never played the games, but like I am familiar and I remember when I heard about this (0:23:05) Aislinn: Because I heard about this like a while ago. I don’t remember how long it was long ago. It was but I was like, what? (0:23:10) Kevin: Yeah (0:23:10) Aislinn: I was like, how did the two these two worlds collide? I need to know how these two worlds collided. This is so cool (0:23:15) Kevin: Well (0:23:19) Kevin: It is and at the same time that feels appropriate for both franchises how on earth did this happen (0:23:25) Kevin: Um, I have never played one myself, but I am also familiar very familiar with the series (0:23:30) Kevin: so introduced we have (0:23:33) Kevin: Included in all these features. We have a genuine 2d beat ’em up side scroller where you can play as Ichiban and (0:23:41) Kevin: Cobra yeah, I think it plays Cobra Wow Oh Cobra’s playable. I didn’t catch that. That’s so cool (0:23:47) Kevin: There is a karaoke minigame because if nothing else what if that was included how could this be called like a dragon? (0:23:56) Kevin: We have let’s see what else here (0:23:59) Kevin: We’ve got we got several characters from the like a dragon series as staff members for your restaurant. It’s fun (0:24:07) Aislinn: I like that there seems to be the karaoke minigame. I feel like that fear feels very, like, Yakuza-esque. (0:24:08) Kevin: Ah, junk. (0:24:11) Kevin: Yeah. (0:24:15) Kevin: Oh, yeah, it is. (0:24:17) Kevin: Um, yeah, that land that launches, uh, April 10th, not terribly far away, about two weeks away. (0:24:26) Kevin: Um, so there, there will probably be a return to David diver sometime in the future. (0:24:32) Kevin: Uh, because I’m playing this. (0:24:34) Kevin: Absolutely. (0:24:36) Kevin: Um, that looks great. (0:24:36) Aislinn: It looks great, it really does look great. (0:24:40) Kevin: So I keep an eye out and then the jungle DLC is still being worked on and coming in the future. (0:24:45) Kevin: So again, can’t stop, won’t stop. (0:24:49) Kevin: Um, Dave keeps diving and doing everyone’s work. (0:24:52) Kevin: Um, all right, let’s see next up. (0:24:55) Kevin: Another series that has not yet stopped as of now. (0:24:58) Kevin: Uh, we’ve got story of seasons or I guess this one is like harvest moon proper because it’s, it’s in Japanese as of now, um, a harvest moon G mode game. (0:25:10) Kevin: Um, it, it is a port of a phone game from, what was it like 2008, I think on the harvest moon series. (0:25:16) Aislinn: Yes, it says 2008 on the Steam page, and yeah, it’s a port coming to Steam, but… (0:25:21) Kevin: Yup. (0:25:22) Kevin: Yup. (0:25:23) Kevin: So it’s a early mobile farming game and you know, that’s, that’s cool. (0:25:27) Kevin: You can see it, you can feel it kind of GBA S graphics, um, which is fun and cute. (0:25:34) Kevin: Um, you know, too bad it’s all in Japanese. (0:25:36) Aislinn: I, you know, cause I’ve been telling myself for the past like couple weeks, like I really (0:25:36) Kevin: So, this one I won’t be playing, probably. (0:25:45) Aislinn: should actively get back into learning Japanese. Cause I was learning Japanese at one point (0:25:50) Aislinn: when I was in like first grade and then I fell off cause I was a stubborn kid, long (0:25:54) Kevin: Hmm. Okay. (laughs) (0:25:55) Aislinn: story short, but like, I don’t know. Maybe if I get back into actually learning properly, (0:26:00) Aislinn: maybe I’ll pick up this game. It looks cute, but I don’t know anything about it because (0:26:02) Kevin: yeah it does (0:26:06) Kevin: yeah we can’t read a thing on it we just (0:26:10) Kevin: it’s all I can do is point and says that looks like a harvest moon game for a (0:26:14) Aislinn: I was like, “That’s a cow! That’s chicken! That’s all I’ve got!” (0:26:14) Kevin: phone (0:26:18) Kevin: there are anime pretty people that you can probably romance (0:26:22) Kevin: yeah uh… (0:26:24) Kevin: but uh… (0:26:26) Kevin: yeah uh… releasing on steam do we have a date for that (0:26:29) Kevin: And it’s coming soon. Yeah. (0:26:30) Aislinn: As of now, we do not have a date, but regardless, if you are interested in this and you can (0:26:33) Kevin: But yeah, we, yeah. (0:26:36) Aislinn: read Japanese, even if you can’t read Japanese and you are interested in it, it is coming soon! (0:26:41) Kevin: Oh man, go back to those early 2000s when you have the fan translation from GameFacts. (0:26:47) Kevin: Good times. (0:26:50) Kevin: But but yeah, you know, one thing to note, this is a second port that they’ve done in the series, (0:26:55) Kevin: which is interesting to me, suggesting that the first one was successful enough to warrant it. (0:27:00) Aislinn: I guess so. (0:27:01) Kevin: That’s pretty cool. (0:27:02) Aislinn: I’m glad. (0:27:02) Kevin: Yeah, I know nothing either. I should’ve picked up Japanese. I’m too big of a weeb not to. (0:27:03) Aislinn: I’m glad for the people that do care about this. (0:27:05) Aislinn: I know nothing about it, but I am happy for those that care about it. (0:27:12) Kevin: I mean, I know some Japanese words. I want to make them echo the journey one day, but in due time I guess. (0:27:20) Kevin: Alright, let’s see here. Next up we’ve got info on cattle country. Yes, not Kent County. Country bigger than that. (0:27:30) Kevin: We have got (0:27:33) Kevin: They say so what interesting thing (0:27:37) Kevin: The thing probably the biggest note is, you know, they’re talking about some features and whatnot, but combat is totally optional (0:27:44) Kevin: Which is kind of wild to see in these games right cuz (0:27:48) Kevin: You know most cottagecore games following the stardew template (0:27:53) Kevin: How you know have some kind of? (0:27:56) Kevin: combat stuck in there, right (0:27:58) Kevin: And it’s you know, just because it’s optional. It’s not bad here. I’m looking that you got bows and arrows (0:28:02) Kevin: And guns and all sorts of stuff (0:28:05) Kevin: But the fact that it’s optional and they’re advertising that that’s uh, that’s pretty fun (0:28:10) Aislinn: I think it’s great yeah I i don’t know why that would put that would it’s a great it’s (0:28:15) Aislinn: it’s a great thing honestly like I have nothing else to say besides like this is something that (0:28:19) Aislinn: is a great feature because if you want to do it you can do it if you don’t want to (0:28:22) Aislinn: you just ignore it’s a win-win (0:28:24) Kevin: Yup. Yup. This is another game where it looks like you can partner up with some of your neighbors or villagers and whatnot, so that’s, that’s fun. (0:28:32) Kevin: There’s, yeah, I think we’ve talked about it before, but there’s, if you look at the trailer, there’s square dancing. They’re playing a nice Western medley song. (0:28:40) Kevin: Um, you’re, it’s very, how, it’s, it’s HANU. Um, that’s what it is. We got state coaches, we got trains, all the good stuff. (0:28:40) Aislinn: Very, it’s definitely very howdy partner. (0:28:52) Kevin: Um, they’re good at ge– (0:28:54) Kevin: Hey, howdy, hey, get your snake in your boot and keep an eye out for cattle count–country. (0:28:57) Aislinn: I mean, there’s even a character named Bandit, so take that as you will. (0:29:00) Kevin: Um, again, I don’t– (0:29:02) Kevin: Yeah, there you go! Eyes required. (0:29:07) Kevin: Alright, next up, a new game, we’ve got, uh, okay. (0:29:10) Kevin: So I started looking at this, and, you know, pre-recording, you know, going over, preparing, whatnot. (0:29:15) Kevin: And I stopped because I just kept saying, “What is this?” I needed to– (0:29:20) Kevin: to put some of that energy into the recording. (0:29:24) Kevin: We are looking at a game called “Fungi’s Swarm.” (0:29:24) Aislinn: It’s so silly. (0:29:28) Kevin: Um, so, you know, G-U-Y-S, “Sworn.” (0:29:32) Kevin: Um, it is a bullet hell game. (0:29:36) Kevin: Um, it is their first dev, uh, like, dev blog. (0:29:41) Kevin: Um, and they are showing it’s– (0:29:44) Kevin: Kinda what the whole thing, right? It is a cartoony, survivor bullet hell, where you become a fungi, (0:29:49) Kevin: wield forest-crafted weapons and unleash bonkers powers against the fire killer. (0:29:54) Kevin: So you there’s a lot going on here. There’s a mushroom guy running around. There’s pumpkin vegetable monsters and bears and like vegetables. I don’t an apple bear and an apple. (0:30:08) Aislinn: There’s a there’s an easter egg for from Coral Island of a waterfowl and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen (0:30:14) Kevin: What I didn’t see that’s incredible. That’s incredible. (0:30:20) Kevin: incredible you’re running around is your little fungus guy with (0:30:24) Kevin: giant watermelon acts like the waterman slice is bigger than you are (0:30:27) Kevin: it’s enormous there’s a great blaster gun thing you’ve got the powers like oh (0:30:34) Kevin: oh yeah that’s uh this is some good stuff there’s what is going on with this (0:30:40) Kevin: apple teeny it’s a half-eaten apple with a warm a very buff warm popping out of (0:30:45) Kevin: it you know there’s runs it’s oh it’s colorful it’s wacky it’s cartoony it’s (0:30:54) Kevin: magnificent I don’t what are these little for sanctuary pals you got like (0:30:58) Kevin: buzz balls with fruit stems there’s all block (0:31:00) Aislinn: I have no, not a single clue, but it looks like, it looks cute and fun, cozy and fun. (0:31:08) Kevin: yep yep (0:31:08) Aislinn: It looks like it’s a good balance of that, I feel like. (0:31:11) Aislinn: I feel like it does somehow fit into the Cottagecore game. (0:31:14) Aislinn: It just, it just somehow does fit, yes it is like a bullet hell game, but it still feels, (0:31:20) Aislinn: it feels like it’s going to be accessible enough to fall into the category of Cottagecore. (0:31:20) Kevin: Oh, yeah for sure. Um, it’s certainly caught my eye (0:31:27) Kevin: Obviously, we’re gonna be a ways off from this bad boy coming out, but I’m definitely keeping my out that is again fun guys swarm (0:31:35) Kevin: They’re good on you a lot of good news stories this week. Nothing. Nothing. Give me any heartache or anything (0:31:38) Aislinn: Honestly, yeah. (0:31:42) Kevin: That’s exciting stuff. Oh (0:31:45) Kevin: All right, and with that let’s talk about some let’s move on to something else exciting. Let’s talk about (0:31:50) Aislinn: Yeah. Oh my gosh. (0:31:50) Kevin: Wonder stuff, huh? (0:31:53) Kevin: Okay, so again, this is the tea shop simulator created by the Stanley parable dev team (0:32:01) Kevin: If you haven’t played Stanley parable (0:32:04) Kevin: You might want to pause go listen because I think we need to talk about it because that’s important for context (0:32:09) Kevin: and (0:32:10) Kevin: So important that acelin has actually played Stanley parable prior to the gay wonder stuff in preparation (0:32:17) Kevin: So let’s hear some thoughts (0:32:17) Aislinn: I did. Yeah, so I, yeah, once I found out that this game was being created by the people (0:32:25) Aislinn: that made Stanley Parable, I very much was like, I’ve always wanted to play Stanley Parable, (0:32:31) Aislinn: but I put that way up on my, I moved that way up for my backlog, because I knew and (0:32:35) Kevin: Uh-huh (0:32:37) Aislinn: I’ve heard great things about this game, which I think everyone knows about. If you haven’t (0:32:41) Aislinn: played the game, you still know the premise of the game and what the game is all about. (0:32:43) Kevin: John (0:32:44) Kevin: Yep for for (0:32:45) Aislinn: And I was very curious to check it out. (0:32:46) Kevin: Yeah for clarity. I have not played it myself, but as you said, I am very familiar (0:32:50) Kevin: I know all the secrets. I don’t feel free to let out whatever you want. Um, you just listener assume we’re spoiling whatever. Okay, it’s (0:32:53) Aislinn: Yeah, I played as many, spoiler warning for Stanley Parable, a very long time. (0:32:59) Kevin: Yes game that’s been out how long now (0:33:04) Aislinn: But the thing is, before I played Stanley Parable, I knew it was a strange game or a (0:33:08) Aislinn: very interesting game that a lot of people liked, but I didn’t know what the premise (0:33:11) Aislinn: of the game was. (0:33:12) Aislinn: So I went in pretty blind and it was an experience for sure. (0:33:17) Aislinn: It took me a while to get into because I was like, “What is happening?” (0:33:21) Kevin: Ha ha ha ha! (0:33:23) Aislinn: As I continued, I was like, “Okay, I’m starting to get it. (0:33:26) Aislinn: I’m starting to understand.” (0:33:27) Aislinn: And it was a very, very fun and fascinating and silly game. (0:33:33) Aislinn: And I did pretty much almost all of the endings except the ones like the, what was it, like (0:33:40) Aislinn: the baby one with like the dog and like the, you have to like stand up. (0:33:42) Kevin: Yeah, that’s correct. (0:33:44) Aislinn: You know that one, that one ending, we have to like be in the game for like three hours (0:33:47) Aislinn: or something. (0:33:49) Aislinn: I refused to do that one. (0:33:49) Kevin: Yeah, that’s correct. (0:33:50) Aislinn: I just watched it on YouTube. (0:33:51) Aislinn: I was like, “There’s no way I’m doing this.” (0:33:54) Aislinn: But just like that absurdity and like that confusion, I’m just like, “Yeah, no. (0:33:59) Aislinn: Okay. (0:33:59) Aislinn: I understand why people like this game now. (0:34:01) Aislinn: Like I have not experienced this in a game in a very, very, very long time.” (0:34:05) Aislinn: And it just took twists and turns and I was like, “Huh.” (0:34:09) Aislinn: And I was happy that I got to experience that before playing this game. (0:34:13) Aislinn: Cause I was curious if they were going to do things in this game that also (0:34:16) Aislinn: kind of caught me off guard and surprised me and that definitely did happen. (0:34:18) Kevin: All right, yep. (0:34:23) Aislinn: As a general notice, we’re not going to spoil like main plots of the game. (0:34:30) Aislinn: We may talk about a little bit of hint towards a little couple of things here (0:34:33) Aislinn: and there, but we’ll try our best to not spoil the game because both of us are (0:34:37) Aislinn: just about at the same point in the story and we both kind of share the sentiment (0:34:40) Aislinn: that we want y’all to check out the game and experience the not absurdity, but (0:34:47) Aislinn: just like the twists and turns of the game that also surprised me. (0:34:49) Kevin: Yep. (0:34:53) Aislinn: I was playing Wanderstop as I continued into it. (0:34:55) Kevin: Uh-huh. (0:34:56) Aislinn: Like it took me a while to get into Stanley Parable. (0:34:57) Aislinn: It took me a while to get into Wanderstop. (0:34:59) Aislinn: And as I continue, I was like start, I felt the same feeling that I felt when I (0:34:59) Kevin: Yeah. (0:35:03) Aislinn: was playing Wanderstop versus when I was playing Stanley Parable, but in just (0:35:04) Kevin: So. (0:35:07) Kevin: Mm-hmm. (0:35:08) Kevin: Right. (0:35:09) Kevin: Okay, so. (0:35:11) Kevin: Again, if someone who- so, that’s all great. (0:35:13) Kevin: And I appreciate you played it, ‘cause at least one of us can speak to it, but, um… (0:35:15) Aislinn: Well, you know about it too, you know. (0:35:19) Kevin: And so. (0:35:21) Kevin: Like. (0:35:22) Kevin: Maybe I don’t fully have heard everything, but the tone of Stanley Parable is almost… (0:35:29) Kevin: It’s very absurdist, very- almost adversarial in times, right? (0:35:32) Kevin: Like the narrator is constantly fighting against you, or you’re being sent down roads that are unpleasant, or so on and so forth, right? (0:35:39) Kevin: Like, it’s an enjoyable experience and a lot of fun, don’t get me, like, clearly, but… (0:35:45) Kevin: It is a very different vibe from a Cottagecore game, right? (0:35:49) Aislinn: Yes, very much so. (0:35:49) Kevin: So, when you- (0:35:51) Kevin: Right? (0:35:52) Kevin: And so when you hear they’re doing this- a tea shop simil- and they’re, you know, outright saying it’s gonna be a cozy game, like… (0:36:00) Kevin: What am I- what am I gonna do? I’m- I’m on guard, like, you’re the Stanley Parable people. (0:36:02) Aislinn: I know! (0:36:04) Kevin: I don’t believe a word you say, I am- (0:36:06) Aislinn: It literally says on the Steam page, “From the creator of the Stanley Parable.” (0:36:11) Aislinn: It’s the first line! (0:36:11) Kevin: Yep, so. (0:36:12) Kevin: Yup. (0:36:13) Kevin: So, I’m, you know, I’m coming into Wanderstop armed with a knife, just ready to fight back whatever this game’s- (0:36:19) Kevin: he’s gonna throw at me, right? (0:36:21) Kevin: Um… (0:36:22) Kevin: And, um… (0:36:24) Kevin: Well, I mean, shocker, it’s not the Stanley Parable, right? Like, some things carry over, like, it’s quality-quality writing. (0:36:31) Kevin: Excellent writing throughout, absolutely. (0:36:33) Kevin: There are some twists and turns, but it’s- it’s not in the insane, zany Stanley Parable way, it’s- it’s all, you know, in a narrative structure that- that fits it and whatnot. (0:36:46) Kevin: Um… (0:36:47) Kevin: I can confirm. (0:36:49) Kevin: I would call this a cozy game, but it’s a cozy game that sometimes pulls out a knife on you because sometimes I’m not ready for it. (0:36:54) Aislinn: Yes. (0:36:59) Aislinn: Yes. (0:37:00) Aislinn: Yes. (0:37:02) Kevin: I’ll get to that in a second, but the point being, there’s no secret endings, there’s no crazy insane tasks. (0:37:13) Kevin: And I tried, like one of the first things I did, like when you start the game you can run back into the force. I ran into the force like ten times. (0:37:19) Kevin: I was expecting something and nothing happened. I looked it up and there’s nothing, no insane hidden things like Stanley Parable, right? (0:37:30) Kevin: There’s some stuff, but nothing just completely insane. (0:37:36) Kevin: So yeah, it’s wild to see that they’re actually playing it straight. We’re getting a “cozy game”. (0:37:44) Kevin: So with that in mind, let’s talk about the premise, because I say (0:37:49) Kevin: “cozy” but there’s a big asterisk here because it is possibly one of the most “uncozy” openings to any game ever. (0:37:52) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. (0:37:57) Aislinn: But I loved it. I genuinely loved it. (0:37:57) Kevin: And yes, yep. So this is, and you’re not an avatar, you’re not a Stanley, a blankly avatar more or less, you are playing a character named Alta. (0:38:09) Kevin: She is a fighter, a warrior, goes into tournaments. The story starts with her description of her wanting to be the best. (0:38:18) Kevin: she’s undefeated for like three. (0:38:19) Kevin: and she just totally off her game so what does she do she seeks out help she (0:38:21) Aislinn: Very, very long time, but yeah. (0:38:45) Kevin: He seeks out Master Winters, a legendary warrior. (0:38:49) Kevin: Who she thinks can help her get a groove back. (0:38:52) Kevin: So, Alta runs through the forest, but then at some point, her body starts to fail her. (0:38:59) Kevin: She collapses, and she wakes up in this clearing in the forest, in front of a tea shop called “Wanderstup”. (0:39:06) Kevin: She meets the proprietor, a man named Boro, who is a fantastic… (0:39:10) Aislinn: Oh, he’s wonderful. I love him. (0:39:13) Kevin: He is the complete, I would say foil, like opposite foil to Alta. (0:39:16) Aislinn: Yeah. (0:39:17) Kevin: She is the most chills (0:39:19) Kevin: Zen just goes with the flow kind of guy. He’s happy. Good luck. He always cracking jokes and whatnot. Um (0:39:24) Aislinn: So sweet (0:39:26) Kevin: He’s a wonderful man. Um, he is the one who rescued Alta (0:39:30) Kevin: explains where she is and (0:39:33) Kevin: and basically suggests for her to take a break because (0:39:38) Kevin: One of the first thing she does is try to pick her her sword and she can’t (0:39:41) Kevin: Why meanwhile borrow can pick it up. No problem. And it’s just something (0:39:46) Kevin: Something going on with Arthur. She can’t fight. She can’t… (0:39:49) Kevin: She can’t lift her. (0:39:50) Kevin: if you run back into the forest like I did you just collapse and are sent back to the clearing so (0:39:54) Aislinn: I did too for context. I also did the same thing as you, because I was like, I just need to know. (0:39:57) Kevin: Yeah (0:39:59) Kevin: Yeah, it’s though it would be that (0:40:00) Aislinn: Especially again, coming off of Stanley Parable, I was like, I just need to know. (0:40:02) Kevin: it (0:40:04) Kevin: It would be the most Stanley peril thing in the world right the run out you get it ending (0:40:08) Kevin: like absolutely, so (0:40:10) Kevin: So yeah, so that um so with you know after repeated attempts if you do or you just give up (0:40:17) Kevin: Boro suggests to Ulta to just stay there (0:40:20) Kevin: and the tea shop to help out to try to rest and recover (0:40:23) Kevin: because she’s clearly suffering from over exhaustion. (0:40:27) Kevin: And and so that and already at this very 10 minute initial premise, (0:40:33) Kevin: the game is is is going at me like directly targeting me bullseye because. (0:40:39) Kevin: So, OK, you are a hard worker. (0:40:42) Kevin: You probably relate to this. (0:40:44) Kevin: I think a lot of people from our generation, how we were raised, like, (0:40:48) Kevin: you know, we a lot of people, (0:40:50) Kevin: we’re raising the very drive, like driven generation, right? (0:40:54) Kevin: Work hard, work hard, succeed, go to the next thing, right? (0:40:56) Aislinn: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. (0:40:57) Kevin: Be the top, be first in class, right? (0:40:59) Kevin: And and I personally like my I was in the warrior, (0:41:02) Kevin: but like I graduated salutatorian in high school. (0:41:05) Kevin: Like my academic pursuits were like everything to me. (0:41:08) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. (0:41:10) Kevin: So I can relate to that very much so. (0:41:13) Kevin: And then there comes a point when life just punches you in the face (0:41:17) Kevin: And you, you know, you just, you’re, you’re knocked out a few. (0:41:20) Kevin: Notches. So I get this and I’m already very not comfortable with how personal this story has gotten. (0:41:26) Aislinn: Yeah, yeah, I really felt the anger that Alta was feeling in the beginning, not to the fullest extent, because I’m just generally not a very like angry person. But like, what, like the underlying emotions of that anger, I genuinely felt because I definitely also feel that in the sense that as a person that considers myself very hardworking as well, to be working so hard, and then to be knocked down like that, it really, really, really sucks. I get that. (0:41:34) Kevin: Yeah. Right. (0:41:54) Kevin: Yep (0:41:56) Aislinn: I definitely really felt for her right off the bat. Like immediately, I was like, Oh, this is one of those games. Oh, no, my heart. I was like, Oh, no, they really did. (0:42:00) Kevin: Yeah (0:42:04) Kevin: Yup (0:42:10) Kevin: Yup, yup. Yup. They have set the stage (0:42:15) Kevin: and and and again in right there in contrast with Boro a wonderful truly cozy character and then also the most (0:42:24) Kevin: I have possibly seen in a cottage core game (0:42:28) Kevin: But (0:42:30) Kevin: Like for me that one of the bits that really resonated is just running through the forest right getting back up going back (0:42:36) Kevin: Like I relate to that very much so to to maybe not on well (0:42:42) Kevin: Okay, I’ll say someone on the healthy levels, but or it’s let’s say it’s affected me right like I’ve definitely (0:42:47) Aislinn: We all go through it. We’re human. We all go through it. (0:42:48) Kevin: Right, right. Yeah (0:42:51) Kevin: Um, and so being forced to stop. (0:42:54) Kevin: That out of your control, that’s something I wouldn’t handle. (0:42:57) Kevin: Well, I&am

On this episode of Random Encounter, we're celebrating all things Canadian!For absolutely no reason (certainly not related to any current events in February 2024), Jono has gathered a few of his fellow Canucks at RPGFan to chat about some of their favourite Canadian games. The thing about games from up north is, much like Canadians themselves, you might not realize they are Canadian at first glance. But don't worry because our panel is here to let you in on our maple-scented secrets.Steph is ready to virtually chat about 1000xResist, a 2024 GOTY contender from Vancouver-based developer Sunset Visitor. Matt is sailing the dead seas with Spiritfarer from Montreal-based developer Thunder Lotus Games. Jono is solving the mystery of The Crimson Diamond, created by Toronto-based solo dev Julia Minamata. And Aleks is storming the cottage of Toronto-based developer Black Tabby Games to Slay the Princess! And that's just the beginning!Featuring: Jono Logan, Aleks Franiczek, Matt Wardell, and Stephanie Sybydlo; Edited by Jono LoganGet in Touch:RPGFan.comRPGFan ShopEmail us: podcast@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomBluesky: @rpgfan.bsky.socialInstagram: @rpgfancomThreads: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancomThis Episode's Related Links:1000xResist ReviewSpiritfarer ReviewThe Crimson Diamond ReviewSlay the Princess – The Pristine Cut ReviewSea of Stars ReviewLil' Guardsman ReviewTo the Moon ReviewA Bird Story ReviewFinding Paradise ReviewImpostor Factory ReviewJust a To the Moon Series Beach Episode ReviewRogue Legacy ReviewRogue Legacy 2 (Early Access) ReviewNobody Saves the World ReviewCrypt of the NecroDancer ReviewCadence of Hyrule – Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring the Legend of Zelda ReviewDarkest Dungeon ReviewDarkest Dungeon II ReviewBaldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition ReviewBaldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition ReviewNeverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition ReviewStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republic ReviewThe Vale: Shadow of the Crown ReviewSEASON: A letter to the future Review

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

Petra c'hoari ganit miz Du 2024 Ur podskignad e brezhoneg diwar-benn c'hoarioù video. 00:00 - Degemer 00:11 Keleier 00:26 - Don't Nod 02:52 Ubisoft 08:26 Game Informer 10:36 Microsoft 11:13 Embracer 11:45 Anapurna 12:43 Harz-labour, naoegezh artifisiel... 15:31 UFC Que choisir 17:37 - Pep hini (h)e c'hoari 17:43 - Spiritfarer 21:26 - Neva 26:25 - TLOU 2 33:38 - Inside 26:28 - Slay the Princess 39:25 - Disney Dreamlight Valley 44:40 - Octavi Navarro 47:08 C'hoarioù graet asambkes 47:15 - Duck Detective 49:38 - The Case of the Golden Idol 54:21 - Gant petra 'maomp o c'hoari er mare-mañ? 55:49 Traoù all 55:53 - Plouhéran (levr bannoù-treset) 58:38 Kenavo 40:20 - Gant petra 'maomp o c'hoari er mare-mañ? Traoù all 43:10 - The Last od US (Stirad Netflix) 47:45 - Knit's Island (Teulfilm)

In which we return from our hollibobs and share what we've been watching on our time off. This week, the vicars watched: Criminal Minds, Waking the Dead, The Gallows Pole, Deadpool and Wolverine, Despicable Me 4, and Spiritfarer. ------- We are the Vicars Watch Dibley - three real priests who talk about pop culture and what it's taught us about life, faith and the church. We've watched Dibley, and now we're watching everything else! ------- Follow us: Instagram @vicarswatchdibley | Twitter / X @VicarsWatch | Facebook @VicarsWatchDibley Contact us by email at vicarswatchdibley@gmail.com ------- Hosts: Revd Ruthi Gibbons (Instagram @ruthigibbons) Revd Ross Meikle (X @meikle_treacle, Instagram @storytellerross) Revd Cate Thomson (Instagram @revdcate) Producer + music and editing by Revd Natalie Gibbons. ------ Any opinions expressed in this episode are our own and do not necessarily represent those of the Church of England or any other organisations with which we are affiliated.

Jonnie and Kev talk about the Dave the Diver Dredge DLC Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:53: What Have We Been Up To 00:16:41: Dave The Diver 00:23:02: Dredge DLC 00:44:17: Outro Links Dave the Diver Dredge DLC 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) Jonnie: Hello Divers and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Jonny. (0:00:35) Kev: And my name is Kevin. (0:00:37) Jonnie: And we’re here today to talk about… Cottagecore games! (0:00:40) Kev: Are– no, or– well, is Dave Cottagecore? (0:00:43) Kev: I don’t know. (0:00:45) Kev: Maybe? (0:00:45) Jonnie: I’m pretty sure it’s Cottagecore. Like, it’s very… It’s very Cottagecore. (0:00:49) Kev: Yeah. (0:00:50) Kev: It’s Vibes, right? (0:00:51) Jonnie: Yeah, I think… Yeah, yeah. (0:00:53) Jonnie: I think this is gonna end up being episode 3 in Dave the Diver month, because, you know, I caused a bit of chaos for Al and… (0:01:00) Jonnie: We shuffled the episodes! (0:01:04) Jonnie: As always, transcripts are available… Transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website. (0:01:08) Jonnie: But today, the topic that we’re going to be talking about is the Dredge DLC. (0:01:14) Jonnie: Kiv, we’re a year on for when we first covered Dredge as a part of fishing month, which was this time last year. (0:01:17) Kev: Jeez, I guess it has been a year. (0:01:23) Jonnie: Dredge, definitely not Cottagecore. Dave the Diver, more Cottagecore than Dredge. (0:01:27) Jonnie: That’s what I’m going to say, even with the Dredge elements thrown in. (0:01:28) Kev: Yep, you know what, there is farming in Dave, so close enough. (0:01:30) Jonnie: So, as always, no news for this episode. There will be a bit of a catch-up in a couple of weeks (0:01:45) Jonnie: when we’re all back to recording at… Just a little bit ahead of when the episodes are released, (0:01:51) Jonnie: instead of a lot ahead of when the episodes are released. But what have we been up to? (0:01:55) Jonnie: Kiv, what have you been up to? (0:01:56) Kev: Um, so actually just this week, I actually hit credits on Dave the Diver, the whole thing. (0:02:03) Kev: Um, so I guess, you know, I’ll say that for a second when we get to the main topic, but (0:02:09) Kev: um, I spent a lot of time doing that, but other than that, um, the big one, have you (0:02:14) Kev: heard of Zenless Zone Zero? (0:02:16) Jonnie: I have not. (0:02:16) Kev: Okay. (0:02:17) Kev: Have you heard of miHoYo? (0:02:19) Kev: I sure hope you have. (0:02:21) Jonnie: No. (0:02:22) Kev: Okay. (0:02:23) Kev: Okay, um, have you heard of genshi? (0:02:23) Jonnie: I don’t know any of these words. (0:02:26) Kev: It may not work. (0:02:28) Jonnie: Yes, that’s like the… (0:02:30) Jonnie: That’s like the… (0:02:30) Kev: That may not work. (0:02:32) Jonnie: The big titty… (0:02:34) Jonnie: Gacha game, right? (0:02:38) Kev: That’s correct. Well, that descriptor might not be narrow enough, but yes, you’re on the right track. (0:02:44) Jonnie: Okay. (0:02:44) Jonnie: It’s the really popular big titty. (0:02:46) Kev: Yeah, the really popular one. Yeah, that one. It’s not nike. (0:02:52) Kev: So, miHoYo is the company/developer. (0:02:56) Kev: We’re behind Genshin Impact. (0:02:58) Kev: They have, since Genshin published a few other, released a few games. (0:03:04) Kev: One of them called Honkai Star Rail, which is very similar to Genshin, but that one’s turn-based while Genshin is a Breath of the Wild style game. (0:03:14) Kev: And then, just, I think at the start of July, they released a game called Zenless Zone Zero, which again, very similar. (0:03:23) Kev: Similar which has gotcha mechanics (0:03:26) Kev: Animes style type thing (0:03:28) Kev: the genre this time is more of a (0:03:32) Kev: Character action game for lack of a better word of putting it and think near automata that will make fry (0:03:38) Kev: The mash buttons and get hit lots of enemies basically (0:03:42) Kev: The game is free. I got it on my playstation, but you could even get it on mobile (0:03:49) Kev: It is terrifying how excellent the game is (0:03:55) Kev: the actual (0:03:56) Kev: combat portion is (0:03:59) Kev: simple compared to other games, but it is a (0:04:02) Kev: Very it feels good. It controls very well (0:04:06) Kev: the visual presentation is (0:04:09) Kev: Beyond stellar the it has a very it very strong aesthetic like a urban cyberpunk ish kind of thing (0:04:19) Kev: The the other colors are bright the music is (0:04:23) Kev: Phenomenal, even the UI feels Persona. (0:04:27) Kev: Very, very nice. (0:04:30) Kev: It is, as with the other ones, it does have the gacha mechanic for different characters you can play as. (0:04:37) Kev: But here’s the great thing, right? I don’t really care about most of the characters, so I’m okay. (0:04:44) Kev: I did a pull or two or whatever and got some characters, but I’m not hurtin’ like some other games might be. (0:04:52) Kev: Um… yeah. (0:04:53) Jonnie: So I’ve just looked this up in the background while you’ve been talking about it and like because I’m a bit of a sucker (0:04:58) Jonnie: for a for a gacha game (0:04:59) Jonnie: But there was something about like the Genshin impacts and Honkai star rails and never really pulled me and I was like (0:05:04) Jonnie: I don’t know I feel like this one’s this one and hearing me talk about it sounds pretty good because it’s been a sucker for (0:05:08) Jonnie: a long time and (0:05:11) Jonnie: Like so my first real experience with with gacha games was our Final Fantasy record keeper. I don’t know if you recall (0:05:18) Kev: Oh, that’s a deep thought. All right. (0:05:20) Jonnie: That one yeah, and I go really into (0:05:23) Jonnie: that one which was weird because like that’s like the only Final Fantasy game (0:05:26) Jonnie: I’ve ever played right so I have no connection to the characters it just (0:05:30) Kev: Hahaha! (0:05:30) Jonnie: turns out that I really like those sorts of games and then slightly more recently (0:05:33) Kev: Okay. (0:05:35) Jonnie: there was the Marvel Strike Force uh gotcha that was yeah I well I don’t know (0:05:38) Kev: Okay. (0:05:39) Kev: Oh, that was Gotcha? I didn’t realize that. (0:05:43) Jonnie: if it was exactly gotcha I can’t remember exactly the the recruitment (0:05:48) Jonnie: mechanics but it was kind of like enough of overlap where it was you know just (0:05:52) Jonnie: designed to get you to put money (0:05:53) Jonnie: in for absurd you know resource upgrading stuff to five stars (0:05:54) Kev: Sure. It’s designed, yeah, designed for the micro-generated action shirt. (0:06:00) Jonnie: exactly and so I kind of been feeling the pool and there was there was one (0:06:00) Kev: Um… (0:06:07) Jonnie: afk journey that was like all over ads on every platform like two or three (0:06:12) Kev: Yeah, oh, yeah. (0:06:12) Jonnie: months ago and I downloaded that tried that one that one that one didn’t quite (0:06:16) Jonnie: grab me it had some pretty cool mechanics going on but it just there (0:06:19) Jonnie: wasn’t maybe quite enough going on. But yeah, I guess given the (0:06:23) Jonnie: legacy of the developer and me maybe feeling like I’m ready to (0:06:27) Jonnie: be heard again by another Gachi game. I’ve just downloaded (0:06:28) Kev: Yeah (0:06:30) Jonnie: this one. (0:06:31) Kev: Okay, um well dang yeah, yeah, I’ve heard of afk journey. I think I heard you talk about it (0:06:39) Kev: but (0:06:40) Jonnie: I probably did. I probably talked about it on the show. (0:06:41) Kev: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it’s been a minute. But um, I (0:06:46) Kev: Mean like if you are in need of another gotcha to anyone else like I can heartily recommend this one (0:06:52) Kev: like you know, I’m still (0:06:55) Kev: early in pretty much. I don’t think I played a full week at this point. (0:06:59) Kev: Maybe. I haven’t hit any huge road blocks. What’s fun about this one is there’s a lot of skill to the component, right? (0:07:09) Kev: Because you can dodge attacks and parry and stuff like that, right? So, you know, you can, you don’t feel bottlenecked by not having S rank characters or whatever. (0:07:20) Kev: Yeah, I got through, they give you three starter characters and I got through most of it. (0:07:25) Kev: pretty much everything I played up to now with those three (0:07:28) Kev: because I enjoyed them. (0:07:30) Kev: I’m sure some people might dig some of the other characters, I don’t think there’s one or two that I think are cool, but I’m not dying to get them. (0:07:40) Kev: I haven’t wailed yet, as the term goes. (0:07:44) Kev: There is a bear, there’s a playable bear there, that’s kind of fun. (0:07:48) Kev: He’s a bear with a big cinder block, like cement blocking, I don’t know what it is, he works in a construction company. (0:07:56) Kev: company. (0:07:56) Kev: Anyways. (0:07:58) Kev: No, it’s great, it’s free, the biggest con I think it has, well, it’s free to download, (0:08:03) Jonnie: Kevin, you can’t keep saying a gacha game is free. We all know they’re not really free. They’re like fake-free. (0:08:10) Kev: free to start. (0:08:15) Kev: But the biggest knock I have against it aside from, you know, the trappings of the genre, (0:08:22) Kev: the gacha mechanics or whatever. (0:08:25) Kev: The game is just fake. (0:08:29) Kev: Filled to the brim with nonsense words and features and holy mackerel it is overwhelming. (0:08:38) Kev: Because they have to make up a name for every little thing, there’s bangboos and proxies and carrots and oh my goodness it’s beyond overwhelming. (0:08:51) Kev: But that’s okay because when I get to the actual little gameplay where I fight stage-full venomous, (0:08:58) Kev: none of that matters and I enjoy myself. (0:09:03) Kev: So yeah, if you can get past the wave of just overwhelming nonsense, jargon, techno-babble, I think it’s a great time. (0:09:15) Jonnie: Awesome, I am looking forward to getting sucked into this whole- (0:09:18) Kev: He’s sick. Let me know when you get in and we can… (0:09:22) Kev: Geez, I don’t know what multiplayer stuff there is but we can at least talk about our units. (0:09:28) Jonnie: Exactly exactly (0:09:30) Kev: What’s your favorite JPEG that you pulled? (0:09:32) Kev: Okay, but yeah, that’s all I’ve been really up to aside from Dave. What about you, Johnny? What’s been going on with you? (0:09:41) Jonnie: Nothing too much I kind of been dead for the last month (0:09:44) Jonnie: So I think last time I was on the show Al and I were talking about starstruck vagabond (0:09:50) Jonnie: and (0:09:51) Jonnie: The couple of days before we recorded that episode work called me and I said hey (0:09:55) Jonnie: We need someone to go on an international trip. (0:09:58) Jonnie: For like two weeks, in like three days, how would you like to be that person? (0:10:02) Jonnie: And I was like shocked, because it was an international trip, but it was an international trip home. (0:10:07) Jonnie: So I got up at 4am to record that episode with Al, and then immediately went to the airport to get on a flight to disappear for two weeks. (0:10:14) Jonnie: Which was great. (0:10:16) Jonnie: And then I got back, and as happens with international travel now, you sit on a plane with a bunch of other gross humans, and then you come back and you get really sick. (0:10:24) Jonnie: um and so that’s kind yeah (0:10:24) Kev: Oh, yeah, good time. (0:10:28) Jonnie: so that’s kind of what happened with me. I just got really sick and uh I feel like there’s two (0:10:34) Jonnie: there’s two versions of being sick right like there’s the version when you feel poorly you (0:10:40) Jonnie: probably shouldn’t be out in public but kind of mentally you’re fine right and like it’s one of (0:10:44) Jonnie: those great times of being sick where you can sit down you play video games (0:10:46) Kev: Yeah, sure the maybe more inconvenient time or what have you yeah, I get that (0:10:53) Jonnie: Then there’s the sort of sick where your brain just doesn’t work and all you want to do is sleep or do the most mindless activity possible. (0:11:05) Jonnie: And I was in the second category so I have literally not played anything for about a month and a half now. (0:11:05) Kev: And of course, jeez Louise, what did you have? (0:11:14) Kev: What took you out of that long? (0:11:15) Jonnie: I don’t know like it was well so was the travel like I didn’t get to put the time to play any game cells on the travel and then it was just. (0:11:23) Jonnie: What are those sicknesses that like it just kind of wiped me out for about a week it was probably covered if I’m being honest. (0:11:30) Jonnie: And then by the time I was kind of better work was then crazy enough that it was just like the brain space to actually sit down and play something was just not there. (0:11:39) Jonnie: So I literally have not played anything in a couple of weeks. (0:11:40) Kev: Mmm good times (0:11:42) Jonnie: And then as I started to feel better the Olympics started and I am very into watching the Olympics in Australia. (0:11:52) Jonnie: the olympic sta- (0:11:53) Jonnie: I really like they start their day at about 6 30 our time so you kind of get home and you’re (0:11:57) Jonnie: like making dinner and the olympics is just firing up for the day so you can get very sucked into (0:12:00) Kev: Oh, that’s nice, that’s good timing. (0:12:03) Jonnie: yeah it’s it’s really good timing um this week in particular i’ve got really into watching judo (0:12:09) Jonnie: uh which is a it’s so cool it’s such a cool sport uh not a sport that I have any interest in doing (0:12:09) Kev: Oh, Judo’s so cool. (0:12:16) Jonnie: like sometimes you watch an olympic sport and you think oh could I do that judo zero interest in (0:12:20) Jonnie: doing, but man it’s a cool sport. (0:12:22) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I haven’t followed Judo. (0:12:25) Kev: Have there been gold medalists yet? (0:12:28) Jonnie: - Yeah, there’s been medals, I think. (0:12:31) Jonnie: I think they’re through most of the judo now, (0:12:34) Jonnie: but it’s just been really interesting sort of, you know, (0:12:36) Jonnie: seeing like, it’s one of those martial arts (0:12:38) Jonnie: that’s very, like most martial arts, very technique driven. (0:12:42) Jonnie: But I guess it kind of being that more grapple (0:12:44) Jonnie: or throw style has been very interesting for me. (0:12:47) Jonnie: And it’s one of the things that I love about the Olympics (0:12:49) Jonnie: is learning about weird niche sports (0:12:52) Jonnie: that you don’t really see any other time (0:12:54) Kev: Yeah. Yeah. Well, first off, on Judo, I did Taekwondo when I was younger, for many, (0:12:55) Jonnie: and getting into it. (0:12:56) Jonnie: Have you watched any of the Olympics, kid? (0:13:02) Kev: many years, actually. So I love martial arts. Judo, obviously, is a different beast, because (0:13:08) Kev: it feels almost at times like one move, a touch of death sort of thing. So the, you know, the mental (0:13:16) Kev: dance, the standoff feels extra intense, in my opinion. But I… (0:13:24) Kev: Personally, I’ve caught up with a lot of the highlights and, you know, headlines and things (0:13:30) Kev: like that. I haven’t really sat down to watch many of the events themselves. I’ve watched (0:13:33) Kev: some of the gymnastics stuff, because out in the United States, we have, you know, it’s a mobile. (0:13:38) Kev: So, of course, that gets the, well, the press coverage. But I will say, this Olympics probably (0:13:45) Kev: the strongest memes to come out. Maybe all of them. Shooting in particular. Hats off to that (0:13:53) Kev: Turkish guy. (0:13:55) Jonnie: That Turkish guy is so cool. He makes every other shooter just look super friggin lame. (0:13:55) Kev: Okay. Okay. (0:14:00) Jonnie: Like I don’t like shooting. Like I hate it when they have all of the eye masks and everything (0:14:06) Jonnie: else. It’s the same with archery where it’s like to me the skill is meant to be in you the human (0:14:11) Jonnie: doing it. Not having all of this stuff to point you and having it be a good contest and like how (0:14:15) Jonnie: still can you hold your arm. So I think that dude makes the rest of the shooters look hella (0:14:16) Kev: The- (0:14:20) Kev: Oh, absolutely, the- like, the- you know, the picture, the picture once he- like, the part that kills me is his other hand’s just in his pocket. (0:14:28) Kev: Like, he’s not, you know, doing it to a hand at old or anything, just- just bam. (0:14:28) Jonnie: - Yeah, it’s (laughs) (0:14:33) Kev: Uh, I don’t know if you ever heard, but he- it turns out he actually did, in fact, serve in the Turkish military. (0:14:38) Kev: And he, uh, actually did the same thing like 10 years ago, where he got- I don’t- I don’t know if it was what, uh, event it was, (0:14:45) Kev: but he did some shooting and. (0:14:47) Kev: No, no, no equipment was over. (0:14:49) Kev: Wild, wild stuff. (0:14:50) Jonnie: Yeah, he won a world championship like 11 years ago or something like that, yeah (0:14:50) Kev: Um, okay. (0:14:53) Kev: That’s what it was. (0:14:54) Kev: Okay. (0:14:54) Kev: Yeah. (0:14:55) Kev: Um, oh yeah, good, good stuff. (0:14:58) Kev: Um, yeah, Olympics, good time. (0:15:01) Jonnie: The other spot I’m going to talk about briefly, because I find the acts mind-blowing and how they do it even more insane, but it’s synchronized diving. (0:15:10) Kev: Oh, oh, yeah, I saw I did see some of that (0:15:13) Kev: that’s (0:15:14) Kev: Insane insane. What was it? China that did the two women? I think I think there’s women that uh, (0:15:19) Jonnie: Yep, there’s that video of them diving side by side, and the first time you watch it you think there’s just one of them because they are that in sync. (0:15:20) Kev: Yeah, you know the one though with the red (0:15:27) Jonnie: It’s so good. And those people are so, they’re so impressive. It’s just the technique to do that individually combined with having to time that perfectly with another human being is insane. (0:15:33) Kev: Oh, yeah (0:15:41) Kev: it really is like holy moly it’s like specific rib they’re moving in sync they’re sharing the (0:15:48) Kev: same brain path that’s it’s oh man you’re right sync synchronized diving is is so cool so cool (0:15:54) Jonnie: Cool, um, the only other thing I want to bring up, it’s somewhat news, but I just (0:16:01) Jonnie: saw that the the hardy hank plush is now out on makeshift. I’m like really 50/50 on it if (0:16:08) Kev: Oh, it is really good. I’m yup. Yeah. Yeah, the good good call cuz well, I guess I don’t know when people are gonna listen to this one. It’ll probably still be up the campaign or whatever. But yeah, I think that thank thank from Baren breakfast as a makeshift plush. It’s really, really good. I’m I’m hurting cuz I’m hoping I can get it. I’m I’m doing the best the budgeting to do it, but it is really good. (0:16:08) Jonnie: I want to get it because it’s so cool. (0:16:36) Jonnie: All right, well shall we get into Dave the diver X (0:16:42) Kev: Let’s dive right in okay, so first off (0:16:45) Kev: I’m gonna update my thoughts because when I talked with Al we I don’t know if it’s like chapter 2 or 3 something like (0:16:51) Kev: That and like I said, I hate credits this week (0:16:55) Kev: So all the stuff I said in the episode maintains true I like the mechanics I (0:17:02) Kev: like the fish part of it (0:17:05) Kev: the I did more bosses and (0:17:08) Kev: It’s interesting how they approach bosses (0:17:12) Kev: some of them were fairly challenging, I think (0:17:16) Kev: Al was right that they add a lot of weird one-off mechanics later in the game (0:17:21) Kev: Which I didn’t mind as much as him, but it is an interesting design choice to say the least (0:17:28) Kev: The story was you know (0:17:31) Kev: Very basic or whatever, but it was for their fun characters (0:17:36) Kev: and (0:17:38) Kev: Seeing some of the the horrors of the deep good times good times (0:17:43) Kev: And I’m not even talking about the mutated dredge whores. I’m talking about the regular whores (0:17:47) Kev: Yeah, but I mean overall I really really enjoyed it. I did the Godzilla DLC as well (0:17:53) Kev: That was super fun and enjoyable (0:17:56) Kev: We have another episode on that so I won’t get into detail, but yeah two thumbs up for me on Dave the diver overall (0:18:03) Kev: What about you Johnny? (0:18:07) Jonnie: No, and I have to say I did not get into Dave the Diver that much, and so you kind of like roped into doing this diving, you know, thing, anyway, and then Goncho shows up and he’s like, he shows up and he’s like, you’re going to be my waitress now and like serve people, which you do did the tutorial of that, I got everything perfect, right, I put everyone’s tea perfectly. (0:18:33) Jonnie: And his immediate comment was “It was a bit sloppy.” (0:18:37) Jonnie: I was just like f*ck off and I turned the game off and I haven’t played it since. (0:18:38) Kev: Oh good times, that’s… (0:18:41) Jonnie: Like that, it really, it really annoyed me. (0:18:43) Jonnie: Yeah, okay, I need to do a version of that without Squirt. (0:18:45) Jonnie: I need to do a version of that without Squirt, it just like, it rained me so much. (0:18:52) Jonnie: Yeah, so I probably didn’t get into Dave the Diver that much. (0:18:56) Jonnie: I didn’t really like the start of the game, I guess to be blunt. (0:19:01) Jonnie: I didn’t like the serving aspect of the sushi side of things. (0:19:07) Jonnie: I want to play Dave the Diver, not Dave the Waitstaff. (0:19:09) Kev: Yeah, you know what, you’re right, it is, that’s a very minimal part of the game, like, you could probably skip that whole gameplay portion, like manage the restaurant maybe, but yeah, you know, that part is more or less negligible because the diving portion is absolutely the bread and butter, the main sell of the game. (0:19:11) Jonnie: I (0:19:30) Jonnie: Yeah, and so when they said like oh now and the way I feel like it’s done is where the the sushi chef (0:19:37) Jonnie: Just like forces you to (0:19:39) Jonnie: Serve the sushi. I just didn’t get why that was even in (0:19:44) Jonnie: The game like that to me like there’s nothing (0:19:48) Jonnie: fun or enjoyable about (0:19:50) Jonnie: That it’s not like I’m not playing Dave the server at a restaurant. I’m playing Dave the diver (0:19:57) Jonnie: I want to go diving and bring stuff back and have that yet (0:20:00) Jonnie: Do all of the upgrades and all of those sorts of things that that you and I talked about on the first episode (0:20:05) Jonnie: That sounded great, but I don’t want to have this (0:20:10) Jonnie: Stupid minigame. I have to do (0:20:12) Jonnie: Every you know after every couple of dives to go and do it and I didn’t like the way it was done (0:20:19) Jonnie: Like I thought the the goncho the the character the way he kind of forces you into doing it (0:20:26) Jonnie: Really brought to me the wrong way. I thought the whole approach of that character was really annoying (0:20:30) Jonnie: and off-putting and I kind of just turned off the game after that because I was like I’m just not (0:20:34) Jonnie: interested. Like if there was an option to just skip that entire portion of the game and just get (0:20:41) Jonnie: like you know from tonight’s you know sushi sales you get however much money that’s what I want. I (0:20:48) Jonnie: don’t want to do a timer based running and meeting people and you know fulfilling their orders to me (0:20:54) Jonnie: that’s just yeah it wasn’t something that appealed to me and so I kind of just didn’t… (0:21:01) Jonnie: I didn’t give the game a chance because I wasn’t interested in that. (0:21:03) Kev: Mm-hmm. Well, you know what I’ll agree that Dave needs to learn how to say no cuz he just goes with every single thing everyone requests him (0:21:12) Kev: You hadn’t seen half of it (0:21:15) Kev: Poor Dave he puts it way too much (0:21:16) Jonnie: Yeah, and like, I kind of get that that’s the character, which is fine, it just really (0:21:23) Jonnie: annoyed me in the context of the game being Dave the Diver, and that being the part of (0:21:29) Jonnie: the game that I was interested in, and it just kind of felt like this weird minigame (0:21:32) Kev: Yeah (0:21:33) Kev: Yeah, I’m surprised they don’t give you an option to just you know auto or skip it or whatever (0:21:38) Kev: Um, at least I don’t think so. I’m trying to think I mean later on they they give you tools to (0:21:46) Kev: Skip a lot of it if you want to but like there’s no just one button. I just want to you know, just (0:21:51) Kev: Skip the night or whatever (0:21:52) Jonnie: Yeah, so, you know, it’s a bit unfortunate because for me it doesn’t really feel connected to the rest of the game (0:22:00) Jonnie: In a way other than maybe they had this idea for this as a mechanic and they kind of weached it in because (0:22:07) Jonnie: Personally, it’s just I don’t find that I don’t find the mechanics that were inherent in that side of the game fun (0:22:14) Jonnie: I don’t really like rushing around (0:22:18) Jonnie: meeting orders (0:22:20) Jonnie: needing to do things perfectly. (0:22:23) Jonnie: In a game that to me is, I’m interested in the exploration and catching fish and finding stuff. (0:22:30) Kev: You’re right, it is super conally dissonant, right, just because the diving parts, they can get stressful, but they’re also very chill at the same time because you’re exploring, and it’s generally low pressure, unless you’re under attack by Narwhal, but yeah, you’re right, it is kind of awesome. (0:22:53) Jonnie: Yeah, so anyway, that’s kind of, you know, (0:22:56) Jonnie: my take on the game was like, (0:22:57) Jonnie: I liked what I saw from the diving side of things. (0:23:01) Jonnie: And I kind of just wish that that was what I could have done. (0:23:03) Jonnie: But let’s talk about the Dredge DLC. (0:23:06) Jonnie: And where I want to start this conversation, Kev, (0:23:08) Jonnie: is the thing that sort of stood out to me the most (0:23:12) Jonnie: when I was looking into the DLC is kind of how you engage (0:23:15) Jonnie: with the Dredge, yeah, the Dredge DLC, (0:23:19) Jonnie: where it can only happen on days that are foggy. (0:23:23) Jonnie: And that’s not every single day. (0:23:26) Jonnie: So there’s, you know, you can only do it once (0:23:28) Jonnie: every couple of days. (0:23:28) Jonnie: And how did you feel about that? (0:23:30) Kev: Yeah, this is probably the one of the biggest talking points about the DLC or at least the same negative talking points (0:23:40) Kev: So like I mentioned I just hit credits (0:23:45) Kev: It’s been I don’t remember how many weeks since I first started playing before I even sat down with Al to record it. Um, (0:23:51) Kev: The I hit the dredge DLC for the first time just last night (0:23:56) Jonnie: Wow. (0:23:56) Kev: Yeah, it’s it is (0:24:00) Kev: Random (0:24:01) Kev: Completely random. I got it post credits. I don’t think that’s nice. That’s a requirement (0:24:05) Kev: In fact, I I know it’s actually not you have to only hit like chapter 2 till that can unlock but yeah (0:24:12) Kev: it took that long for me to (0:24:15) Kev: To see it right and like I guess you could find a speed run through it by just skipping dives (0:24:20) Kev: Basically, you know just going in and out or whatever but obviously I was enjoying the game and playing it (0:24:25) Kev: So I wasn’t in a rush to do that per se (0:24:28) Kev: And I wanted to see how long it would take (0:24:30) Kev: Yeah, it took me many weeks to hit the DLC, which is absolutely wild and kind of an awful way to (0:24:37) Kev: To make it accessible, you know, it’d be nice if there’s a person you could just talk to say hey, I want to dredge it up (0:24:44) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s interesting, right? And it’s an interesting way of doing DLC, (0:24:50) Jonnie: particularly in a time where you expect that a lot of people have already completed a large (0:24:56) Jonnie: portion of the game, and so they’re having to play through multiple days just to engage with (0:25:01) Jonnie: the DLC content. So that kind of was the one thing that stood out to me that felt (0:25:05) Jonnie: a little bit interesting, and your idea of like, is there just someone that you could talk to to (0:25:09) Jonnie: be like, “Hey, up the fogginess so that we can engage more with this” would have been… (0:25:15) Jonnie: would have been a good little move. But maybe let’s talk about some of the new mechanics that (0:25:23) Jonnie: the Dredge DLC introduced. And starting with the biggest one, because it just seems like a huge (0:25:28) Jonnie: thing to add to the game, is the fact that you can drive the boat kind of like you can in Dredge. (0:25:31) Kev: Yep, yep, yeah, so that’s the first it’s the it’s really the first thing you do with the DLC. Obviously, you know, it gets foggy and some guy approaches you. And then when you start it, yeah, you’re driving the boat straight up to it’s like even the visual style is very dredge like it. I don’t know how the dredge ship, obviously, I have not played dredge myself right now. But I don’t know how it controls work and whatnot. But it feels fine. It looks a lot like what I’ve seen. (0:26:01) Kev: I don’t know how it works from dredges ship controlling. Granted, the map is a lot more simple. I don’t think there are at least I haven’t yet seen the threats in the overworld to attack the boat like in dredge. (0:26:16) Jonnie: No, and I don’t think there are any threats in the overall to attack the boat, but it (0:26:20) Jonnie: kind of is just crazy to me that that was like, you know, that’s a huge thing to add (0:26:24) Jonnie: to a game, right? (0:26:25) Kev: Yeah, it definitely is. (0:26:25) Jonnie: Where it’s not like, you know, movement mechanics and, like, there’s physics, like, there’s (0:26:31) Jonnie: a lot that has to go into adding something like that to a game like this where there’s (0:26:38) Jonnie: no, like, there’s the movement, obviously, of Dave, but that’s very different to the (0:26:43) Jonnie: movement of a ship. (0:26:44) Jonnie: So it kind of feels like a mini response. (0:26:46) Jonnie: Just a new big system to add and even particularly the way that the art assets work, right? (0:26:52) Jonnie: Because it’s, I don’t know, this was just one of those things. (0:26:54) Jonnie: It’s like, it’s awesome that they did it because it kind of really links the Dave, the diver to dredge in a, in a very clean, thematic, visually aligned way. (0:27:05) Jonnie: It just seems so crazy to add this to, to what Dave, the diver was. (0:27:10) Kev: Yeah, absolutely, right, because the second portion is, you know, the actual dive portion where you’re down in the water, hunting down the aberrations. (0:27:18) Kev: But yeah, it was really nice. They went the extra mile. Like this is what I’d call an A+ collaboration crossover because, you know, really blending the DNA of the two games. (0:27:29) Jonnie: Absolutely. And so, you know, from there, there was a few minigames that I saw that were added (0:27:35) Jonnie: that were very reminiscent of the Dretching minigames from Dretch. We’ve got sort of the (0:27:42) Jonnie: reticle moving around and it’s kind of like a little timing-based minigame. Did you get to try (0:27:50) Kev: Um, no, I didn’t because, uh, like I said, I just did last night. (0:27:54) Kev: I didn’t even get fully through the night or whatever, but I pretty, so you have to (0:27:58) Kev: hit a vortex to dive right in, to start the diving portion. (0:28:02) Kev: And I pretty much just did that right away. (0:28:04) Kev: I, like, I didn’t really, uh, I don’t know. (0:28:06) Kev: I just didn’t think about looking more. (0:28:08) Kev: Um, but that is fascinating. (0:28:09) Jonnie: Cool. Well, let’s, let’s, yeah, let’s talk about the diving then, how does it compare (0:28:15) Jonnie: tonally to the rest of Dave’s The Diving? (0:28:18) Kev: Okay, so it is a night dive which, so as we discussed with Al, or you know when we (0:28:28) Kev: talk about the episode Al, a regular night dive is already pretty dangerous because everything (0:28:33) Kev: is already aggressive and then will attack you. And so here it’s again the same time the ocean (0:28:41) Kev: looks darker. They do change the color scheme to better match dredge. (0:28:49) Kev: But other than that, I guess it’s kind of what you’d expect because yeah, it’s slightly dredge (0:28:57) Kev: colored but there’s the scary aberration fish and you’re just hunting them all a day of the (0:29:03) Kev: diver mechanics. Yeah, I’m kidding. (0:29:04) Jonnie: And so when you’ve kind of got that total, I’m assuming there’s a bunch of aberrant fish that you are now catching and that have been added. (0:29:14) Kev: Yeah, that’s correct. Yeah, they’re all, you know, well, I guess it’s kind of true and dredge that they’re normal fish, but just, just weird like there’s a three headed fish, some fish now have fangs, some have horns, so on and so forth, right. (0:29:28) Kev: There’s a, I saw Marlin with very scary eyes. So yeah, what’s nice is that in regular night dives, a lot of fish can be grouped together. (0:29:44) Kev: And they can attack you can be difficult to navigate that many aggressive fish at once, but at least from what I experienced the dredge fish were pretty spaced out so you could engage on them one on one with a little more room to breathe. (0:29:58) Jonnie: Nice, was there anything else that felt different about the dives, (0:30:02) Jonnie: or was it really kind of just like a different dive in a slightly different location with some (0:30:10) Kev: There’s also new weapons, which is interesting because the weapon is a big part of how you interact with the game, right? (0:30:23) Kev: So, for instance, one of them is called the… was it made rain gun? Yeah, it is… it can… yeah, so your oxygen is your health, right? So you can recover… (0:30:41) Kev: You can recover health using that gun, which is an interesting mechanic because, you know, over… well, I’d say it’s fairly grounded. (0:30:50) Kev: There’s CC people. Dave is generally fairly grounded with their mechanics, but this one’s a little more video game-y and whatnot, and they just explain it away because they’re aberrant fish and it works like that. (0:31:01) Kev: I’m trying to think… was the gravity gun you? Okay. (0:31:06) Jonnie: I think the only new weapon was the life force one. I think the gravity gun was (0:31:11) Kev: Oh, was it? Okay. Yeah, because I found that on the dive. I didn’t know if that was new. That might have been just my first time encountering it. (0:31:16) Kev: But yeah, I’m trying… again, I didn’t get the chance to play as much as I wanted, but at least when you first dive in, like, I didn’t… (0:31:28) Kev: It’s… I’m trying to think here, like, all the… like, so the fish will attack you. I can’t think of any of them doing super crazy and whatnot. I think some of them are pretty fast. (0:31:41) Kev: But that’s… yeah, no, otherwise it feels a lot like a night dive, which I think it’s not bad. (0:31:48) Kev: Oh, there are… so there are crabs in the game in standard, Dave. You unlock them pretty late in the game, and you can get aberrant crabs and whatnot as well. (0:32:01) Kev: And from what I understand from the DLC, there are, like, three areas. I didn’t get to all of them. There are… (0:32:10) Kev: I don’t know all of them. I’ve heard that they’re kind of samey, but… oh, one interesting thing about the aberrant fish. (0:32:19) Kev: You have to use them that night, or they’ll just disappear. You can sell them to a certain vendor, but unlike other fish, they cannot stay in your inventory or at the restaurant. (0:32:34) Jonnie: And I also read that they can only be sold to a certain character that comes in to specifically (0:32:42) Jonnie: eat that sushi. (0:32:43) Jonnie: It’s not like anyone that comes to the sushi restaurant will eat aberrant fish. (0:32:47) Jonnie: Which makes sense, right? (0:32:48) Kev: yep yep yep not everyone’s that adventurous I think would you eat a (0:32:49) Jonnie: Like, not everyone is about that aberrant fish. (0:32:53) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:32:54) Jonnie: I mean, probably. (0:32:55) Kev: three-headed cod I probably would too (0:32:56) Jonnie: Who knows? (0:32:58) Jonnie: Probably. (0:32:59) Jonnie: Who knows? (0:33:00) Jonnie: Hey, that’s how I become Codman. (0:33:05) Kev: but yeah I’m trying to think no I think one thing that is really unfortunate (0:33:13) Kev: From what I understand, there’s no new bosses in the dredge DLC. (0:33:18) Kev: And that’s really unfortunate, because the Godzilla DLC brought in a boss, and dredge has a good helping of monsters to choose from, right? (0:33:31) Kev: So it’s a shame we didn’t get a single one of them. (0:33:34) Jonnie: Yeah, it’s even maybe a shame that there wasn’t some, like, a madness-style mechanic. (0:33:40) Jonnie: You know, you could imagine it sort of sitting alongside the oxygen meter, and maybe rather (0:33:44) Jonnie: than a boss, you know, there’s just the risk that you get attacked by some Cthulian-inspired (0:33:54) Jonnie: creature or, you know, they didn’t really play with, I guess, that sort of madness-Cthulian (0:33:59) Kev: Ooh, yeah, that’s good. (0:34:00) Jonnie: side of things, which would have been really fascinating I think in the way data is set up. (0:34:05) Kev: I didn’t even think about that. (0:34:06) Kev: That would have been a great mechanic, right? (0:34:07) Kev: Like, obviously dredged tonally, you know, that’s very different, right? (0:34:11) Kev: The horrors and whatnot, but at least just a different meter. (0:34:15) Kev: We call it a fear meter, whatever you want to call it. (0:34:16) Kev: Like, uh, uh, it is a shame that they didn’t introduce something. (0:34:21) Jonnie: Yeah, and I think that’s probably the the biggest outside of the difficulty of interacting, (0:34:26) Jonnie: but the biggest criticism I’ve seen of the the the dredge DLC is just the the lack of those (0:34:32) Jonnie: you know bosses that you know are a decent portion of the game and to your point would have (0:34:40) Jonnie: made sense to add in the context of of dredge and what that brings to the day of the dive universe. (0:34:48) Jonnie: Anything else I guess about the DLC specifically? (0:34:51) Kev: so I will say that um there are there is a good amount of the fifth um gosh how many are there (0:35:00) Kev: there’s looking at at least 30 of them which is a pretty good amount to be quite frank um so I do (0:35:08) Kev: give them props for that like I said there are three smallish areas um so it is a fairly sizable (0:35:17) Kev: DLC, you know, at least compared to the Godzilla. (0:35:21) Kev: The Godzilla one, while a lot of fun, was relatively small in scale. (0:35:26) Kev: It’s like a couple of boss fights, really, and finding Godzilla, which is a very minor thing. (0:35:33) Kev: I do wonder if these aberrants are from Dredge directly, or if they made up new ones. (0:35:39) Kev: Like, I’m looking at this one called the Gazing Shark. It looks like a hammerhead, but with giant eyes at the end. (0:35:44) Kev: I don’t know. (0:35:45) Kev: But yeah, other than that, like, I can’t have any direct thoughts. (0:35:49) Kev: Or I don’t have any (0:35:51) Kev: More detailed thoughts. (0:35:53) Kev: Um, like I said that (0:35:54) Jonnie: Cool. Well, one thing I am keen to talk about a little bit is how cool the idea of this as a (0:36:01) Jonnie: DLC is. It’s really cool to see two indie developers teaming up and doing a cross-collaboration (0:36:10) Jonnie: like this. There hasn’t been a ton of these before. I’m probably struggling to think of any, (0:36:15) Jonnie: but I’m sure these sorts of collaborations have been done somewhat infrequently in the past. (0:36:21) Jonnie: But I think in the stage that really… (0:36:24) Jonnie: I would say popular within the niche of people that are following gaming stuff elsewhere, right? (0:36:36) Jonnie: They’re not getting to the level of AAAs, but within people that are engaging with gaming culture or gaming communities, (0:36:42) Jonnie: these games kind of get to a level of popularity. (0:36:44) Jonnie: It’s really nice to see this sort of collaboration coming through as a way to introduce people to other games (0:36:54) Jonnie: who haven’t played, but it’s probably been on their list and could be a little bit of a prompt to get them to do it. (0:37:04) Jonnie: So I would love to see more of the style of collaboration between games because I just think it’s such a cool concept. (0:37:12) Jonnie: The overlap really made sense, right? (0:37:14) Jonnie: It wasn’t just like, “Hey, we’re two indie developers that want to cross-promote our games.” (0:37:20) Jonnie: It’s like no there’s actually a way that we can do this that makes total sense in the (0:37:24) Jonnie: context of both of our games and I just think it’s really clever in that regard. (0:37:31) Kev: Okay, so, like, okay, I was going to say that, right? Like, this, like, I know we kind of covered it quickly, because it’s somewhat, so aside from the dredge, you know, the actual boat controls, like, a lot of it is just, you know, more stylized, Dave, the divering, right, and that’s not a bad thing, and so, but, like, overall, I do really enjoy this DLC, for a lot of the same reasons you said, I think is really, really successful. (0:37:57) Kev: I think I should put, we should put an asterisk though, Dave the Diver is… (0:38:01) Kev: not an indie game. It’s by Mint Rocket, which is a subdivision of Nexon, which is a huge Korean game. (0:38:11) Kev: They do MapleStory and other things. But, I mean, Dredge though, that one’s indie, and it’s very cool that they got to do such an in-depth collaboration, right? (0:38:25) Kev: I think it especially benefits Dredge, because Dredge got a lot of love for sure, but I think… (0:38:31) Kev: Dave had a little more lasting power, maybe because of these DLCs, so I agree. It is a great way to get people’s eyes on Dredge. (0:38:39) Kev: I’ve wanted to play Dredge for a while, and this certainly does motivate me to play it. (0:38:46) Jonnie: Yeah, absolutely. And I don’t know why, but for some reason, maybe I just assumed that (0:38:51) Jonnie: Dave the Diver was edgy because it gives big indie energy. (0:38:52) Kev: well I mean (0:38:56) Kev: yeah I mean it’s pixel right like first of all it’s the pixels and and it’s the (0:39:01) Kev: it’s doesn’t feel triple-a because it’s not you know big (0:39:05) Kev: high-five le graphics fast-action or whatever right (0:39:08) Kev: uh… it (0:39:09) Kev: and it’s not just you let’s not forget the game awards uh… nominated a the (0:39:13) Kev: doctor for the game of the year and uh… everyone got a (0:39:18) Kev: got a little upset at them for that uh… (0:39:21) Kev: But, uh, yeah. (0:39:22) Kev: Uh, uh, you know, but regardless of that, like, I think the points still stand. (0:39:27) Kev: Like it’s, it was a really good way to integrate the two together. (0:39:32) Kev: Um, like I, I struggled to think of the last cola, uh, crossover collaboration (0:39:38) Kev: that worked this well, because I’m obviously thematically to fish games or (0:39:42) Kev: whatever, but even the boat just worked really well, um, with, uh, Dave the (0:39:48) Kev: diverged like I know it’s a fridge mechanic or whatever but it (0:39:52) Kev: feels right at home and in Dave the Diver because of the setting in this (0:39:57) Kev: you know it’s special blue hole place and and they introduced a lot of one-off (0:40:04) Kev: things like that so it doesn’t stick out or any particular way which is I think a (0:40:10) Jonnie: Yeah, absolutely (0:40:12) Jonnie: One final question if they were gonna do a collab with David I was gonna do a collab with (0:40:18) Jonnie: another game property (0:40:21) Jonnie: Thing where would you want that color to come from? (0:40:24) Kev: Yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking about because yeah, that’s that’s the next question right um (0:40:29) Kev: I’m just honestly I’m trying to think here um (0:40:35) Kev: Well see okay, are we talking about putting something in a day the diver or getting Dave the diver into something else? (0:40:42) Jonnie: Let’s say putting something into Dave the Diver. (0:40:42) Kev: because (0:40:45) Kev: Okay (0:40:47) Kev: Because I was about to bring up new kids gonna be tough to compete with that (0:40:52) Kev: Okay bringing something (0:40:54) Kev: Else into you know what you know what I I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up a big the cat DLC (0:41:08) Jonnie: Big the cat, oh, I love it. (0:41:10) Jonnie: That’s a real throwback for… (0:41:12) Kev: and you know they they kind of got that same body shape going on give them a little (0:41:17) Kev: you know when you complete the dlc a little big the cat so you can wear i’m down for this (0:41:22) Kev: i’m down for this help them uh help them fish for froggy way way down there and you yeah and (0:41:27) Kev: eggman has a machine down there yeah I mean there already were robots machines you have to fight in (0:41:32) Kev: read the diver yeah i’m down for this um yeah what about you you have any ideas (0:41:34) Jonnie: amazing amazing that sounds great um maybe slightly uh more grim but I would really love (0:41:44) Jonnie: to see kind of like a uh dave the diver final dlc that’s a collab with spirit thera (0:41:50) Kev: Darn it darn it. That’s perfect. I didn’t think about it. That’s perfect (0:41:57) Jonnie: like just the whole vibe of the game I feel like a closing moment that is somehow linked (0:42:01) Jonnie: into sphera would be yeah kind of kind of (0:42:04) Jonnie: amazing it feels like there’s a (0:42:05) Kev: Okay, hold on, but here’s the monkey paw you have (0:42:09) Kev: You know a big part of spirit fair is is taking care of the guests, right? (0:42:13) Kev: So now you have to do that with the bancho where it’s sushi restaurant (0:42:16) Jonnie: Look, I’m okay, if it was more like Spiritfare, I could suffer through that. (0:42:26) Jonnie: I would probably play through Dave the Diver just to experience a little bit more. (0:42:30) Kev: I can see it working. You have the spirit fair boat, you know, has the multiple levels so you’re doing the sushi portion (0:42:35) Jonnie: Yup (0:42:37) Kev: But you have to go up and down the levels (0:42:38) Jonnie: That’s a and or you could just have the restaurant be a new room on the Spiritfarer boat (0:42:43) Jonnie: Maybe Dave the diver needs to come to Spiritfarer mate. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m thinking about it the wrong way around (0:42:47) Kev: maybe does Dave die at the end of it yep there you go yeah you’re right that (0:42:49) Jonnie: Yes (0:42:51) Jonnie: That is that I feel like that is the natural that that is the natural ending (0:43:03) Kev: truly would be the final DLC there you go with perfect I love it ship it I’m (0:43:08) Kev: reaching out to mint rocket right now (0:43:10) Jonnie: - Amazing. (0:43:12) Jonnie: - Well, I think that was everything I had to cover. (0:43:18) Kev: Oh one thing not specifically to dredge something that I forgot to mention that I want to say since last episode (0:43:24) Kev: I don’t think I ever brought up that I am in fact a real certified scuba diver. So I (0:43:31) Kev: Very much appreciate this (0:43:34) Kev: obviously, I will not be diving to the (0:43:37) Kev: Abyss, you know (0:43:39) Kev: abyssal horror deaths sword and polar waters (0:43:41) Kev: But it is it is very cool to see that I love scuba diving. So it is very cool to see (0:43:48) Kev: game kind of capture that love up (0:43:51) Kev: Yeah, all right. Um, all right, I guess then (0:43:55) Kev: If that’s the case, I think that puts a nice little bow on day of the diver month (0:44:01) Kev: Like I know you weren’t (0:44:02) Jonnie: No, there’s still one more episode to go, Kim. One more episode to go. (0:44:05) Kev: Wait, there is oh, I thought we search the order. I’ve got all this out out cut it all out (0:44:07) Jonnie: Yeah, next- next- next week? (0:44:10) Kev: Never mind. Oh (0:44:11) Jonnie: Next- next week I believe there will be the story episode for the- (0:44:14) Kev: I thought that came out before I don’t know why thought never mind. Okay. Well (0:44:18) Kev: There you go. Well, okay (0:44:20) Kev: Well in that case, I think that covers the dredge DLC (0:44:24) Kev: It’s you know, like I still give it two thumbs up as DLC. Definitely. It’s great crossover (0:44:31) Kev: Like it’s hard to talk about because of it. It’s so much, you know, just kind of pointing out what’s great about David diver the base game (0:44:40) Kev: But it works really well, so, you know two thumbs up (0:44:44) Kev: Thanks for coming on to talk to me about it, John (0:44:48) Kev: Thank you, Al, for having us. Thank you listeners for listening and, Johnny, where should people go to find you and it’s probably not somewhere that personal, but I know there is one place. (0:45:02) Jonnie: If you want to chat about anything THS-related, the best way to do that is go to patreon.com/thspod (0:45:11) Jonnie: to support the show and get access to the Slack where we talk about all the sorts of games that (0:45:15) Jonnie: we’re playing. Kiv referenced Big the Cat a while back. There are some bonus episodes, one of which (0:45:24) Jonnie: is Kiv introducing me to various Sonic characters that I had not come across before. It came from (0:45:30) Jonnie: I think the cat coming up in just a- (0:45:32) Jonnie: I do that every single episode that Kev and I do together. (0:45:34) Kev: I put the effort we got to do around two at some point (0:45:35) Jonnie: Which, that was a lot of fun to record, and yeah, we absolutely do, we absolutely do. (0:45:42) Jonnie: But that’s the main place that you can find me, Kev, where can people find you? (0:45:45) Kev: Find to me at Koopa prez on my personal Twitter if you want to see me talk mostly repost other things (0:45:53) Kev: Find to me that’s right. It’s great. I don’t see my art or more importantly find me on Rainbow Road radio a (0:46:02) Kev: Mutual a show I do with our mutual friend Alex (0:46:05) Kev: discussing all thing Mario all things Mario, excuse me, um, I don’t know what episode will be out when this drops, but (0:46:12) Kev: most recently we talked about the (0:46:16) Kev: Mario cartoons or some of them (0:46:20) Kev: Boy boy, that was quite a trip (0:46:23) Kev: Due to my everyone, but yeah (0:46:26) Kev: If you want to see if you have any questions comments or mostly complaints about the show reach to al at the Scott pot (0:46:33) Kev: I’m or mess on Scott on Twitter and mess on respectively (0:46:39) Kev: Find the podcast at THS pod on Tumblr and Twitter (0:46:43) Kev: Go to harvest season club (0:46:45) Kev: for all the episodes, provide feedback, links to all the stuff we’re talking about (0:46:49) Kev: uhm, the patreon as Johnny mentioned, patreon.com/thspod (0:46:54) Kev: and uh, yeah, I think that covers it. (0:46:57) Kev: Until next time, dear diver farmer people, have a good harvest! (0:47:03) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (0:47:14) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (0:47:18) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (0:47:22) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed (0:47:28) Theme Tune: in this episode. (0:47:38) Kev: Uh, you know what? I forgot to mention that you didn’t reach it, but there’s a mermaid village and there’s a manatee helping far. Like, you don’t do anything with it, but it’s, it’s their farming. I wish I love manatees. Okay. That’s all.

Welcome back to IndieQuest, your friendly, neighborhood indie game podcast! On this episode Steve and Seth take a listener email with some game recommendations, and then bring a couple of awesome games to the quest log! One with a unique world changing mechanic and the other is a search for light in a world where night never ends. Enjoy, indie game fans!------------------------------------------Games talked about in the show (contains spoilers for the episode):----------------------------Carto, Roki, The Messenger, Spiritfarer, Arranger: A Role Puzzling Adventure, RecolitHave any Questions, Comments, or Concerns for the show? Click here to leave us a text message!---------------------------------------------Leave us questions, comments, concerns, or feedback of any kind at our email indiequestpod@gmail.com or follow us on twitter @indiequestpod!If you want to see the Quest Log go to indiequestpod.com! This will be updated as episodes are released, be wary though because it may contain spoilers for the episode!Follow our Hosts here:Steve on twitch - twitch.tv/BlinkoomJosh on Twitter - @FranticSocietySeth on Twitter - @captaindrachmaYou want to comment on something we talk about on a podcast?! Check out the network's reddit!https://www.reddit.com/r/polymedia/Special thanks to the intro music artist CrossFrog and the cover artist for the show @d3ltari on Instagram.Support the show - We're a proud part of the Polymedia Network!www.polymedianetwork.com

Join Sis and Big Pops for a fun, fun talk about one of the things we love most—Nerd Stuff. We discuss our fav bits of nerd news: horror movie trailers all looking the same, This is the greatest show being on Deadpool & Wolverine, as well as a life-size Deadpool & Wolverine cake, Stranger Things candles at Bath and Body Works, Joseph Culp petitioning for a FF movie release, IDW doing a mega bundle, and why Wonder Woman would lie. laughed about X-Men Origins, and Kumail Nanjiani was cast as Booster Gold. Plus new media trailers we're excited about: Trap, It Ends with Us, Joker: Folie à Deux, Dune: Prophecy, Red One, and Rebel Moon: Directors Cut. For bingeing, Big Pops has watched a documentary about Hans Zimmer, David Letterman's My Next Guest, Daredevil Born Again, The Boys in the Boat, and Hillbilly Elegy. Sis watched Twisters, My Lady Jane, The Greatest Showman, Brooklyn 99, the first episode of Exploding Kittens, and Trevin play Spiritfarer. Then, Pops shared his pull list! This week he introduces us to Nightwing Issue 115 by DC; The Invincible Ironman Issue 20 by Marvel; as well as The Star Trek Annual: A Next Generation Tale by IDW. His new number 1 is Phoenix by Marvel. His Book of the Week is From the DC Vault: Death in the Family: Robin Lives Issue 1 of 4 by DC. This week we rotten raspberried each other (spoiled) Inside Out 2 and Twisters.  

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Soundtracker Podcast. Well, today at least. Hi! Welcome back! It's good to be back. And today I'm talking about an insanely good soundtrack for an incredibly fun movie, THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE. It features Wilco, The Shins, Ween, The Flaming Lips, and Motorhead. It's on all streaming services, and you should definitely check it out. But first! Listen to this episode, where Select and Start's (@selectpodstart) Keifer Lirette (@DannyVegito) comes back to the show to talk about why SpongeBob is so fun, our favorite characters, Ren & Stimpy, the incredible voice actors they got for this movie, and a whole lot more. You'll listen to it, if you're a true Goofy Goober.Check out the episode of Select and Start I did on Resident Evil 4 here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/resident-evil-4-with-eric-peacock-from-soundtracker/id1621573901?i=1000583770663Check out the episode I did on Spiritfarer here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spiritfarer-with-eric-from-soundtracker/id1621573901?i=1000621483674Check out Keifer's Corner here: https://www.youtube.com/user/KeiferLiretteSupport the show on Patreon! It's the one thing that's gonna help keep the show going: www.patreon.com/soundtracker

Gaming Hosts Paul, Ryan and Josh have returned and it's time to dive into the beautiful and emotional world of Spiritfarer. This stylish video game was picked by Legendary supporter Cykasniber for Paul to play and it's time to see how his gaming time went. We'll break down the mechanics, gameplay, story and more and then find out what Paul thought of this time with this video game, where it lands on our gaming leaderboard.  Thanks to our LEGENDARY Supporters: Disratory, Ole Jake and JigglePuff Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the late winter Easter Sunday when we recorded this episode, we were feeling the accumulated weight of ongoing trauma. Somehow, acknowledging this led us into a conversation about play, and this episode ended up being a LOT of laughing. We do some digging into our videogame likes, dislikes, and style of play. We ask who is the Patrick Swayze of this era? What is the standard number of dicks in a bag of dicks? What is the American Coot, and why should you care? Tune in for the answers to these and other compelling questions. Play is resistance; play is growth; play is life. Have fun out there and share your fun with your people.Mentioned in episode:Scorched Earth tarot readings on YouTubeGames: Stardew Valley, Wylde Flowers, Horizon Forbidden West, World of Warcraft, Rift, Cookie Clicker, Spiritfarer, Baldur's Gate, Shelter, Witcher 3,  Fallout 4TV Shows and movies: Black Books, Young Ones, Fallout, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, The World's EndStar Trek training exercise: Kobayashi MaruKateri's photo of the American Coot (Instagram)

Don't cry. dont cry dontcrydontcrydontcrydontcry Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/user?u=81836993&utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink Tell us what you're playing: https://forms.gle/TZG6Mp1GY6jpPxtZ9 JOIN THE DISCORD: https://discord.gg/eQjmAwjGy2 Check out the merch: FakeGamerGirls.redbubble.com Check out our website: fakegamergirls.com Insta: https://www.instagram.com/fakegamergirlspod/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fakegamergirlspod Thank you Emilio Cedeno for our incredible cover art! Thank you cetra for our theme music! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fakegamergirls/support

Che gusto c'è a giocare a un videogioco? E poi si può davvero limitare il concetto a "giocare a un videogioco" o c'è un discorso ben più ampio dietro? E com'è possibile commuoversi giocando? Queste sono alcune delle domande che Silvia ha deciso di porre a Sergio parlando di Spirit Farer, il primo (e forse non ultimo) gioco protagonista di Potrebbe Piacerti. A seguire, la nostra filosofa romana preferita torna a parlare di un libro di Tlon, "La società della performance", e di quanto il dover costantemetne essere produttivi abbia intossicato il nostro vivere.E voi? Avete mai pianto davanti a un gioco o vissuto l'ansia del dover essere visibili su un social?---Qui tutti i link:https://oldmanaries.it/index.php/potrebbe-piacerti/https://silviacolaneri.it/potrebbe-piacerti/---Per contattarci:Pagina Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/potrebbepiacertiAccount Instagram: @potrebbepiacertiSergio: https://www.oldmanaries.it - Instagram: @OldManAriesSilvia: https://www.silviacolaneri.it - Instagram: @Silosa

Al and Bev talk about Aka Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:06:11: What Have We Been Up To 00:12:55: News 00:48:30: Aka 01:13:37: Outro Links Distant Bloom Release Date Palia Steam Release Research Story “Anniversary” Update Disney Dreamlight Valley “The Laugh Floor” Update Len’s Island Upcoming Updates Sneak Peek Spells and Secrets Financial Kickstarter Update Galactic Getaway on Kickstarter Galactic Getaway on Steam Plantabi on Steam 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’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games. Welcome back Bev. It’s been a while I think since we’ve been on an episode together. (0:00:36) Bev: And my name is Bev. (0:00:42) Bev: Woo! (0:00:48) Bev: It has. It has. (0:00:50) Bev: And I have a lot of regrets about missing the last one we were supposed to be on together because I want to hold a mutiny and re-change the results of the year of… (0:01:02) Bev: game, you’re in gaming? What? Oh goodness. (0:01:06) Al: year in farming games. Game of the farming year. Game of the year. Whatever. Yeah. You abandoned me to the haters. (0:01:06) Bev: There we go. Those are the words. I know. (0:01:18) Al: There was nothing I could do. (0:01:19) Bev: No, no. I fully want to vote in a new system where we vote. So this can’t have (0:01:26) Al: Well, so I mean, so here’s an interesting thing, right? (0:01:33) Al: We could do something where we allow all people who have been on an episode in that year to put in their options, and if there’s a clear winner, then that one wins. (0:01:40) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:01:42) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:01:46) Al: I don’t think Coral Island still would have won because, like, I don’t think Johnny was into it by then. (0:01:52) Bev: I don’t know well I think so cuz I recall it when I came on and was complaining about the results I think both Cody and Johnny were like yeah this is game of the year oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Mm-hmm (0:01:56) Al: Well, how do you already played it by then? (0:02:08) Al: OK, so that probably three votes would have probably been anything else realistically, (0:02:14) Al: because there are there are more than six of us who have been on episodes last year, but (0:02:20) Al: would there have been three to vote for anything else? I don’t know. We’ll have a think about it. (0:02:23) Bev: I don’t know. (0:02:28) Bev: We got plenty of time. (0:02:29) Al: We’ve got nine months to think about this, right? So I think we can think up something to stop. (0:02:35) Bev: Yes, for sure. (0:02:35) Al: Stop Cara Island losing again. (0:02:38) Al: Uh, they just need, they just need to do an update, a massive update, right? (0:02:38) Bev: We’ll find a way somehow to get it back into the rankings. (0:02:43) Bev: Into the eligibility criteria. (0:02:45) Bev: I don’t know how, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. (0:02:48) Bev: We have nine months. (0:02:50) Bev: Yes. (0:02:52) Bev: Yes, they do, which, considering how Stardew is operating, it’s very possible that they might have huge updates moving forward. (0:03:02) Al: I suspect it’s more likely to do DLC than a free update. The free updates that Stardew are doing, (0:03:09) Al: I think, are pretty rare. (0:03:12) Bev: Well, thus far they’ve only done DLCs for charity, as far as I can recall. (0:03:17) Al: Yeah. But the 1.0 only came out in November, so you know, it’s not… (0:03:23) Bev: I don’t know I would still count it, but it still counts even if if you have to pay I will pay it. (0:03:29) Al: Yeah, my point is just that we just we haven’t had any information about upcoming updates for Carl Eylon, so we don’t know. In fact, I’ve not looked. (0:03:44) Bev: Ooo. (0:03:46) Bev: ‘Cause it’s been a few months since they’ve come out. (0:03:46) Al: Oh yeah, it’s basically just the merefolk stuff that they haven’t done, and multiplayer. (0:03:50) Bev: Okay. (0:03:52) Bev: Okay. (0:03:56) Bev: I feel like we could probably have a whole episode like speculating, like what could we add to make this better? (0:04:02) Al: Ooh, good plan. (0:04:02) Bev: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. (0:04:02) Al: Let’s add that to the list before I forget. (0:04:05) Bev: And then that will therefore make it eligible, right? (0:04:09) Bev: ‘Cause we have an episode about it. (0:04:12) Al: I changed that a long time ago because like when we started doing, I mean the only game that’s I think one out of its release year is Spiritfarer and that did come out in November I think of the previous year. So I think that was a fair, like if it comes out in November or December then I think it’s fair to count it for the next year. But yeah I did in the first year we did include games that we had just covered, but that was the first year. (0:04:12) Bev: Oh You (0:04:22) Bev: - Yeah. (0:04:42) Al: And also there were like four games that came out that year. (0:04:46) Al: So very different, I feel. (0:04:46) Bev: Okay, so November-December is what she said. We have a recording. (0:04:52) Bev: 1.0 came out November 14th, so, therefore, there you go. (0:04:59) Bev: I don’t need nine months. I already have a reason to include it for next year, or this year. (0:05:06) Al: Anyway. (0:05:07) Bev: Did I tell you I applied for a law school? (0:05:09) Al: » [LAUGH] (0:05:11) Bev: I’m already putting those skills to practice. (0:05:12) Al: No, you didn’t, you didn’t actually, but yeah, fair enough putting, yeah, getting in some, (0:05:16) Al: getting in some practice there, uh, transcripts are available for the podcast and the show notes and on the website. Uh, I don’t know why I say that because if you’re listening, (0:05:27) Al: you’re listening, right? Like, I don’t know, whatever. Um, we’re going to talk today about Acre. This episode was originally meant to be January of- (0:05:40) Bev: January of 2020. And then we were like, “Oh no, can’t do that one.” And then… It’ll mean a year. (0:05:42) Al: 2023. Uh, we actually had it scheduled in as well. We had it scheduled in as an episode and then we were like, Oh no, can’t do that one. And then that, yeah, it has been a year. (0:05:57) Bev: And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.” And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.” (0:05:57) Al: So we’re going to talk about Acre. It has been out now for over a year. I think it was December 22 that it came out. Um, so we’re finally getting to it. We’re going to talk about that. Before that, we obviously have some news. (0:06:01) Bev: And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.” And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.” (0:06:03) Bev: And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.” And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.” (0:06:07) Bev: And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.” And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.” (0:06:10) Bev: I have mostly been playing Twisted Wonderland, which I think I might have mentioned it with Johnny when I was on last time, but it’s a mobile gacha game. (0:06:12) Al: Uh, first of all though, Bev, what have you been up to? (0:06:26) Bev: But it’s out of Disney Japan, and it is licensed by Disney, so it is an official Disney product. (0:06:32) Bev: But it’s very similar, I think, to Pokemon Masters in that you have the whole character system, and they have different variations of the characters. (0:06:40) Bev: And there’s storylines, it’s a little bit more lore-centric than Pokemon Masters, because I feel like the dialogue doesn’t really matter in Pokemon Masters, unless I don’t read it. (0:06:52) Al: I think it depends who you are whether you (0:06:52) Bev: There’s too much of it. But yeah, at some point I would like to think that I would go back to read some of it, because some of it was entertaining. (0:07:04) Bev: I think more so the character specific one is not the actual like main (0:07:10) Bev: Story challenge (0:07:12) Bev: But yeah Twisted Wonderland is just a bunch of beautiful (0:07:18) Bev: Anime boys going to school and they’re based off of the Disney villains. So there’s a different house for each (0:07:26) Bev: Seven different Disney villains specifically (0:07:28) Bev: Now I don’t want to list them all just google it. It’s fun. It’s cute. I’m really into it I went to katsukan over the weekend and bought a whole bunch of birch (0:07:40) Bev: to this I (0:07:42) Bev: Was playing core island prior I think to my weekend of Twisted Wonderland and the anime convention of the weekend (0:07:49) Bev: But that has since fallen off (0:07:52) Bev: since coming back (0:07:56) Bev: But yeah (0:07:57) Al: This is very weird. This feels like fanfiction. (0:07:59) Bev: Is it it yeah, yeah, maybe that’s why I like it (0:08:07) Bev: It very much feels… (0:08:10) Bev: …not like that. Because they’re original characters and they’re not the actual Disney villain. They just reference them and clearly some of them are based off of the Disney villain itself. (0:08:18) Bev: But yeah, I’ve since started reading the animation about the Disneyland so… It’s on par. (0:08:28) Al: It’s really weird, but I’m not here to judge each to their own. (0:08:34) Bev: No. Don’t knock it till you try it. Don’t download it. Johnny was very interested at some point. (0:08:39) Al: I will not play. (0:08:40) Bev: It is a gacha game, so it’s… yeah. (0:08:43) Al: I will not play. (0:08:45) Al: I’m going to be honest with you, I’m not going to do it, but (0:08:49) Al: I certainly, yeah, I certainly won’t be judging. (0:08:55) Al: I feel like it says a lot that on the (0:08:58) Al: wiki for it like they all have their their star sign listed it’s like I feel like that says a lot about the game oh one of them has the same birthday as me Riddle Rose Heart (0:09:00) Bev: oh interesting interesting okay which is oh yeah I don’t know I like it I think the arts very pretty I got into cosplay over the weekend because of the anime convention so I want to cause (0:09:30) Bev: some of these characters and I’ve started trying a dabbling at digital art to see if I can make art about these characters and other fandoms now that I’m dabbling into it but yeah I’ve been enjoying it a lot. So what have you been (0:09:46) Al: Fair enough. (0:09:53) Al: Not a huge amount. (0:09:54) Al: So I was in L.A. last weekend for Sinotour, so I didn’t. (0:09:59) Bev: All right, how was that? (0:10:01) Al: It was really good. (0:10:03) Al: It has reminded me that I do not like being in cars. (0:10:09) Al: And there’s a lot of cars there. (0:10:10) Bev: especially in L.A. (0:10:14) Al: Yeah, we were driving to Disney. (0:10:16) Al: Disney downtown and it was meant to take an hour and I ended up taking two and a half hours (0:10:23) Al: Two and a half hours (0:10:25) Bev: That sounds about right. I’ve only been there once. I know, but that does sound accurate, I think, for L.A. (0:10:32) Al: And my boss from the airport into Union Station was meant to take like half an hour and ended up taking like an hour and 15, it’s just like oh my word, everything dreadful. (0:10:42) Bev: Oh (0:10:45) Al: But I had fun, yeah it was good. (0:10:50) Al: It’s the sort of thing I could see myself doing again, maybe not L.A., maybe somewhere else. But yeah, I could absolutely see myself doing something like that again. (0:10:54) Bev: Mm-hmm (0:11:03) Al: It was, it was good fun. (0:11:04) Bev: Okay, so you’ve been playing Pokemon Go in other words [laughter] (0:11:07) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:11:10) Bev: Obviously, I’ve been playing Hakka. (0:11:10) Al: Obviously I’ve been playing Akka, probably not as much as I probably should to cover it, but it’s fine. (0:11:18) Al: I have, I have opinions anyway. (0:11:20) Bev: Mm-hmm. We have enough. (0:11:22) Al: Enough opinions. (0:11:24) Al: And what else? (0:11:32) Bev: added back in later. Make a note to future Al. (0:11:35) Al: Yeah, maybe. Maybe, maybe. Anyway, my brain is dead because I’m still jet lagged. So we’ll continue from there. Yeah, that’s probably about all I’ve been playing. Oh, Pokémon. (0:11:49) Al: It’s Scarlet and Violet. I’ve been doing the outbreaks, the outbreaks. (0:11:52) Bev: Okay, oh the shiny hunting (0:11:56) Bev: Mm-hmm. I probably should pick that up because I want those Pokemon, but (0:12:02) Bev: It feels like work (0:12:02) Al: They’re good shiny rates, good shiny rates. (0:12:04) Al: I got my first one in like 10 minutes, so it feels good. (0:12:07) Bev: Okay (0:12:09) Bev: Remind me which of the three are is it the pokeball ones? (0:12:14) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it’s Voltorb, Pisulian Voltorb, and Fungus. Fungus. Fungus. (0:12:21) Bev: Okay, so it does only have the one involution. (0:12:25) Bev: So that’s doable, unlike flabébé. (0:12:25) Al: Yeah, that’s true. So it’s a total of six if you don’t have any of them. Oh, I know. (0:12:31) Al: Flabé. Getting the 15 Flabé. It was dreadful. I did it. I got them all. But my word, that was a lot of work. I’m so glad those were around for two weeks or whatever it was. (0:12:34) Bev: It was a lot. (0:12:35) Bev: Yep. (0:12:40) Bev: Right, they knew, they had to be more than a weekend ‘cause it would have been impossible. (0:12:41) Al: Mm-hmm. Yeah. (0:12:44) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t, I had, I was, I wasn’t, I wasn’t doing well. Sorry. I was like, I’m done. I’m done with all these flow, baby. I’m done. (0:12:45) Bev: Same thing with Missouri. (0:12:46) Bev: So. (0:12:51) Bev: » I’m done with. (0:12:53) Bev: » [LAUGH] (0:12:55) Al: Cool. Let’s talk about some news. So first up, we have some release dates. Distantbloom have said that their launch is the 27th of March. That is my wife’s birthday. So yeah, (0:13:12) Al: This one is based on (0:13:14) Al: Alien Planet and I think it’s like a “make the world better” type game. Yeah harness the power of plants to restore the environment and build a flourishing community with your crew mates. (0:13:19) Bev: Ooh, that’s what it looks like. (0:13:26) Al: Yeah so it looks all right. I don’t know if I’ll be playing this one. I need to think about it more. Maybe I will. Maybe I will. (0:13:36) Bev: I don’t know either. It’s very cute. It’s been on my wish list for a while. I do generally like making the world a better place, especially environmentally. (0:13:42) Bev: And I’m not tied into any, I’m like ADHD with my game so I’m just picking them and dropping them immediately. So maybe I will pick this up. We’ll see. (0:13:54) Al: Yeah, we’ll see. Maybe we’ll both be back in a month for that. Well, not a month, because it won’t be out yet, and we need at least a week, I think, to play a game. (0:13:58) Bev: Maybe. (0:14:00) Bev: Maybe. (0:14:06) Bev: » Right, hopefully. (0:14:11) Al: The ADHD fun, of course, is that it’s really hard to get into it in the first place, and then once you’re finally into it, you obsess over it and nothing else exists, and then suddenly one day you decide you’re not playing it, or your brain decides you’re not playing it again. (0:14:16) Bev: Right, right, yep, it, yep, exactly, um, that’s with me, like, with drawing right now, it’s, (0:14:24) Al: And you never, you never touch it again. Am I right? Is that, that about how it goes for you? (0:14:34) Bev: I’m hyper focusing on it for the past week, like, all my free time has been going into it, so it was a struggle to put it down so I could play for the episode, um, so we’ll see. (0:14:44) Al: Yeah. (0:14:46) Bev: It’s, I’m maybe, we’ll see, but it takes work and effort and time and if you’re not enjoying it, then what’s the point? There’s not enough time, so do something that you actually enjoy. (0:14:47) Al: I did four weeks of drawing like three years ago. (0:14:52) Al: That’s not one. That’s not one I think I’ll ever pick up again. (0:14:55) Al: It’s. (0:14:58) Al: I was not good at it. (0:15:02) Al: I know. I know. I know. You get better. (0:15:04) Al: You get better if you actually try blah, blah, blah. But no, I’m not. (0:15:08) Al: It does. (0:15:10) Al: Exactly. (0:15:12) Al: Exactly. (0:15:16) Al: » Speaking of doing something you enjoy. (0:15:20) Al: Palia is coming to Steam on the 25th of March. (0:15:22) Bev: Whoo (0:15:24) Al: So if you’ve been really wanting it on your Steam Deck and you can’t be bothered getting stuff there from other random sites and getting the game that way. (0:15:33) Al: Or if you just for some reason want all your games in Steam, (0:15:36) Al: I guess achievements and stuff like that, that might be why you would want to do it. (0:15:37) Bev: Beautiful. (0:15:40) Al: That is coming out two days before. (0:15:44) Bev: I will probably be downloading it. (0:15:47) Bev: I already have it on my Steam deck, but for other reasons, I’ll probably get it on the Steam. (0:15:53) Bev: And that will probably be where I play it, because it theoretically will be easier to hook up a keyboard if I want it to be social and talk to people, which sometimes I do. (0:16:02) Al: fair. Fair, fair. Is this game, like, because I feel like when they first announced it, (0:16:05) Bev: I don’t. (0:16:14) Al: it was, they’d called it early access, but I’ve never seen them use the term since, and it was obviously not on Steam till now, and now it’s on Switch. Like, do you think they’re just avoiding that term now, or do you think it is officially not early access? (0:16:22) Bev: I feel like it still is because it’s still not 1.0 in terms of like the patch notes and whatnot so they might just be I think you’re right that they’re avoiding it for marketing reasons because it’s on all these platforms and generally (0:16:46) Al: It’s just it’s just a dream like valley. That is the only one [laugh] (0:16:50) Bev: So maybe that’s a new route we’re moving forward with all these games that you’re supposed to play a little bit every day, like Animal Crossing, that you just play a little bit every day and therefore it’s in early access so that you can start fixing these bugs early on. (0:17:09) Bev: I don’t know. (0:17:10) Al: Why should I play this game, Bev? Try and convince me. (0:17:14) Bev: I really enjoy it. (0:17:17) Bev: Can you say? Yes! (0:17:18) Al: Okay, good start. (0:17:20) Bev: I really enjoy it, and this is why you should play, but that’s the only reason. (0:17:24) Bev: I enjoy the art style. I think they’ve done a lot of quality of life improvements in terms of kind of like their chest system, their storage system is all like conclusive. (0:17:42) Bev: You need to buy additional chests to expand it, but you aren’t restricted to only putting items in. (0:17:50) Bev: I’m still a little confused about the MMO part of it. (0:17:51) Al: Yeah, I like that. I heard that on the episode that Johnny and Cody, I think it was, did. (0:17:58) Al: I really like that idea. I think all games should do that now. I think we’re past the days of finite individual storage. It’s all right. I’m sure we’ll have stuff today to talk about that with Akka. (0:18:18) Bev: I kind of want to. (0:18:20) Bev: That’s why I mentioned like hooking up a keyboard so I can try to, you know, chat a little bit more make it play a little bit more friendly, I suppose, and like announcing like here’s the glowing tree over here, like, let’s all meet in 13 minutes or whatever. (0:18:38) Bev: But I do like that there’s no drawback to people playing together in the same space like you just get bonuses or buffs. (0:18:50) Bev: The game itself kind of encourages you to play with people and I do enjoy that they have events but they don’t seem as like intensive as other like mobile or other like free to play games like I’m looking at you, Disney Dreamlight Valley that required me to put in a lot of effort for your last event and I will probably do the same with the next one. (0:19:16) Bev: So I don’t know it I like the work (0:19:20) Bev: I like the the premise behind it I like the like final like the fake like the fantasy component to it so there’s there’s a lot of aspects of it that I do like and the farming is not bad either like the tool system it’s on your your pocket so it’s already better in that sense I don’t love that there’s a specific order you should be planting your crops in because they give benefits or non to like the it’s (0:19:50) Bev: they’re not negative effects but the fact that I have to Google and save an image on my phone to know how to plant things which I rain but I can’t I can’t not if I know mm-hmm I have a spreadsheet (0:19:57) Al: Yeah, yeah, OK. I can see how that’d be a bit frustrating, but… (0:20:01) Al: I mean, if you’re not min-maxing things, then you can probably just ignore it, but… (0:20:07) Al: I mean, yeah, and I’m the person that sits with a spreadsheet for Stardew, so… (0:20:16) Al: I don’t think I know what not min-maxing is. (0:20:20) Bev: I have an app for stardew I have a spreadsheet fruit and blood so mm-hmm I made it myself so [laughs] (0:20:25) Al: Oh, a spreadsheet for Ooblet’s my word! (0:20:27) Al: That’s a level above why, like with Ooblet’s, I didn’t farm an Ooblet’s to min-max anything, (0:20:37) Al: I farmed to get the stuff that I needed rather than anything else, whereas with Stardew, my goal was (0:20:44) Al: become as rich as possible. My goal with Ooblet’s was finish the story. So… (0:20:46) Bev: Oh, so you’re using it for like analyses, like purposes for like, like economics. (0:20:54) Bev: I’m using it for got to collect them all. (0:20:55) Al: Yeah. (0:20:58) Al: No, yeah, yeah, I forgot that you’re on that task of trying to get everything in Stardew. (0:21:00) Bev: Oh. (0:21:02) Bev: Oh. (0:21:06) Al: Yeah, no, I feel like my brain won’t ever let me get to that point with Stardew. (0:21:15) Al: Like there has to be a point where once my brain says, “Okay, you’re done with this. I need to be at like 75%. If I’m lower than 75%, I won’t have the enthusiasm.” (0:21:27) Al: To finish it, if I’m at 75 or over, I’ll be like, “Oh, yeah, well, yeah, that’s just another third of what I’ve done. That’s fine. I can do that.” So, yeah. (0:21:28) Bev: Mmm. (0:21:35) Bev: Uh-huh. (0:21:38) Bev: You know, Pokemon has trained me very well, um, but hasn’t trained me to the point of like completion, actual completion. (0:21:45) Bev: So it fell a little short because everything is just like, I hit 75 and now I’m exhausted. (0:21:52) Bev: I will pick this up two years from now and try again. (0:21:57) Al: Yeah, but the problem then is you start again. (0:22:00) Bev: I’ve been trying to do less of that. (0:22:02) Bev: If I pick up a game that I put down, (0:22:04) Bev: I will make the effort of trying to refamiliarize myself with all the controls so that I don’t keep doing it. (0:22:15) Al: well, we’ll see what happens when the next stardew update comes out and see what you do. (0:22:19) Bev: Super super perfect perfection. Mm-hmm (0:22:22) Al: We haven’t scheduled who’s doing that one yet, have we? (0:22:25) Bev: Well, we don’t have a date for that yet (0:22:27) Al: No, I know. That doesn’t mean we can’t decide who’s doing it. (0:22:31) Al: I mean, realistically, it’s coming out this year. So, you know, it’s gonna happen. (0:22:37) Bev: we’ll see I wouldn’t be surprised 2025 it’s a nice like i’m pretty sure he said well well (0:22:40) Al: I’m pretty sure he said it’s coming out this year. (0:22:46) Al: » Like he said, the words definitely, which is obviously a dangerous thing to say, but he seems pretty confident. I think he said he’s implemented all the features and now he’s on bug-squashing. We’ll see. Maybe it’ll be out in November. Research Story have their one-year anniversary update. You did research- (0:22:50) Bev: okay it is very dangerous okay (0:22:58) Bev: okay then yeah it’s probably coming this year okay - Okay. (0:23:10) Bev: Mm-hmm. Yes. I that was also another game that I had a lot of fun playing and then put it down (0:23:16) Al: Fair enough. Well, you’ll probably end up picking it up when it gets to 1.0, which it’s not at yet. So they had hoped to get 1.0 around now, but I will quote “The scope of the game grew and it will take a bit longer to get ready.” While I work on larger content updates, here’s an anniversary update that has some of the common player requested quality of life features. (0:23:17) Bev: But I would like to get back in (0:23:22) Bev: Yeah (0:23:38) Bev: Oh, yay! (0:23:40) Al: So it has things such as a random name generator for creatures, which is something I very much (0:23:42) Bev: Oh, oh. (0:23:44) Bev: Yes. (0:23:46) Al: enjoy. No game should ever make you name something and not give you a generator. It’s just dreadful. (0:23:46) Bev: No. (0:23:48) Bev: No. (0:23:53) Al: A move button for creature pens, a shoulder bag, which gives you an additional eight slots in the (0:23:54) Bev: Amazing. (0:24:01) Al: inventory, an iron chest, which is larger than a normal chest, item signs, paths, (0:24:11) Al: and other stuff like that. We don’t need to go into all of the really detailed stuff. (0:24:16) Al: The lists, the patch notes, whatever you want to call it, (0:24:21) Al: update notes, and the show notes, if you want to go and read that. Not just now, Bev. (0:24:28) Bev: I’m trying not to I love love all these improvements already so maybe maybe I will pick this up again after I could that would probably be the better yeah okay I’m closing it I’m closing it because I I still haven’t played core islands since the one point I was like I need to actually get into this yeah (0:24:37) Al: Come on, come on. You’ve got to wait. It feels like it’s going to be like another six months. (0:24:42) Al: You can wait six months for 1.0, right? Right? Surely, surely. Close the tab and you’ll forget about it. Oh, you need to. There’s loads of… Because especially as the 1.0, (0:24:58) Bev: Yeah, exactly. (0:24:58) Al: it clears out your save, but it gives you… You get the amount of money that you had. (0:25:04) Al: So the first part of that game. (0:25:07) Al: 1.0 is great because you have like a couple hundred thousand. (0:25:11) Al: Whatever you had at the last one, (0:25:13) Al: you can breeze through the first, the starting of that game. (0:25:15) Al: It’s great fun. (0:25:18) Bev: I don’t know what my money transferred over. (0:25:22) Al: Oh, no. (0:25:24) Al: Have you created a new save? (0:25:24) Bev: I’m gonna have to look at it again. (0:25:28) Bev: It’s fine, whatever. (0:25:29) Bev: Maybe, I might have, I don’t know. (0:25:29) Al: Have you done the thing where you created it on a different computer or something? (0:25:34) Bev: I don’t know, ‘cause it’s, we’ll see, we’ll see. (0:25:34) Al: Oh, babe. (0:25:37) Al: Oh, no. (0:25:38) Bev: If not, it’s fine, it’s fine. (0:25:40) Bev: Everything’s fine, I enjoy it. (0:25:42) Bev: I will make up my monies again, it won’t be hard. (0:25:46) Al: Disney Dreamlight Valley have a new update coming. (0:25:49) Al: This is the one that includes the name change update. (0:25:53) Al: So if you’re like me and you don’t have a name in the game, (0:25:57) Al: you better get it on the 28th of February. So that is the day this episode comes out. (0:26:05) Bev: Beautiful. (0:26:06) Al: This also is called the laugh floor update. So I bet you can you can guess what it’s about. Yes, that’s right. It’s monstrous. (0:26:11) Bev: Mm hmm. (0:26:13) Bev: Guess. (0:26:16) Al: I think. (0:26:24) Bev: What? (0:26:25) Bev: That you can wear? (0:26:30) Bev: I would, I can’t tell if I am excited or not cuz it’s like it’s gonna be clunky, but also it’s fun. (0:26:37) Al: Yeah, it makes the armour noise as you walk, like it’s all in there. (0:26:44) Bev: Oh no, okay, no, I’m not excited for that. (0:26:50) Al: Lens Island have two updates upcoming. (0:26:55) Al: The community update is coming out next month in March. (0:26:59) Al: That combines the most requested ideas and feedback from the Lens Island community into one game-changing update. (0:27:07) Al: is camera control. Camera control is some more languages, that’s about it. I mean, (0:27:16) Al: they’re good updates, but yeah, it’s not a humongous update. I suspect that, well, OK, (0:27:17) Bev: Oh. (0:27:24) Al: when I say humongous, obviously adding in a moveable camera into your game is a pretty big behind-the-scenes update, but from what people see, it is like a single bullet-pot. (0:27:38) Al: Right, that’s the problem with these. (0:27:38) Bev: There’s this new starter guide that’s maybe a quality of life improvement. (0:27:44) Bev: I forget how hard it was to start the game. (0:27:47) Bev: I feel like I didn’t need it, but maybe it is a little bit. (0:27:51) Al: Yeah, I mean, it’s good giving more people opportunities to understand things better. (0:27:59) Al: But they’ve also got the Arctic update coming in April, and this includes new biomes. (0:28:04) Al: They say the new map expansion doubles the size of the map. (0:28:11) Al: So that’s pretty big. (0:28:14) Bev: This was also another one, unsurprisingly, that I picked up and played forever, and then dropped. (0:28:18) Al: Are there any games you haven’t played, Bev? (0:28:20) Bev: So maybe after April I will pick it up again. (0:28:26) Bev: No? I mean, yes, but… (0:28:32) Bev: Hey, I was trying to do my due diligence when I do the year in gaming to at least have tried most of them, (0:28:38) Al: That’s fair. (0:28:40) Bev: although it’s getting a lot harder to do that now that there’s so many games. (0:28:44) Bev: I love it, I hate it at the same time, but here we are. (0:28:50) Al: here we are. Yep, so there’s some more detailed notes in the show notes, but there’s not full notes yet. We’ll get more as we come. There’s a little video giving some visual information to that as well. The camera control looks pretty nice. It looks pretty smooth and yeah, cool. (0:29:14) Al: Finally, we’ve before, well, not finally, we’ve got two new games that we’ve got to talk about, (0:29:18) Al: but finally of the existing game. (0:29:20) Al: We have a little bit of transparency from Spells and Secrets, which is interesting, (0:29:26) Al: because they’ve said that the game has not been a set financial success. (0:29:30) Bev: Oh. (0:29:31) Al: And I think, obviously, it’s sad that they haven’t made their money on this game, (0:29:36) Bev: Yeah. (0:29:36) Bev: Oh. (0:29:37) Al: but I like how open they’re being about it. (0:29:42) Al: And I think more games should be more open about these things, (0:29:46) Al: Because I think it’s important for people to realize how difficult. (0:29:50) Al: It is to actually make a profitable game and getting information about this more often would probably help with that. (0:29:52) Bev: Right. (0:29:58) Al: And yeah, I think that’s good. (0:30:00) Al: So it’s sad I kick-started it. (0:30:04) Al: So I was not part of the problem. (0:30:04) Bev: okay because I can’t see the post it is for backers only which is an interesting choice but I suppose it would it is more relevant to those who have already financially supportive of it but I could make an argument for why it could also be beneficial for non-financial backers to read about it so that they could start finance support again (0:30:07) Al: Oh, is it locked? (0:30:09) Al: Is it locked down? (0:30:11) Al: Okay. (0:30:13) Al: Okay. (0:30:26) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Well, they have I’ve not signed an NDA or anything. So I’m sharing this information. (0:30:34) Bev: But interesting to like hear about like what specifically I talked about like was it just like the Kickstarter wasn’t because it it met its goal so I’m assuming it met its initial (0:30:48) Al: Yeah, the Kickstarter went pretty well, but yeah, it’s sales since launch that they’ve been disappointed with, and yeah, so a little bit sad, but… (0:30:58) Bev: - Okay. (0:31:04) Bev: So have they like said anything about moving forward or are they saying they– (0:31:08) Al: So they aren’t… (0:31:09) Al: Yeah, okay, that’s a good point, yes. (0:31:11) Al: So the way that I’m describing this could make it sound like they’ve now abandoned in the game. (0:31:18) Al: So let me find the wording. (0:31:20) Al: Okay, right, no, I had misread this before. (0:31:23) Al: No, the game’s done, basically, because of that. (0:31:26) Bev: Oh, okay. (0:31:27) Al: So they’ve said, “As a consequence of the poor sales, the development team have decided to close doors. (0:31:32) Al: The game will still receive some bug fixes, but feature development on the title won’t continue.” (0:31:38) Bev: So, like, I’m assuming they hit their 1.0 and they’ve already launched it and we can purchase it on Steam, uh, or wishlist it. (0:31:47) Al: can purchase it on Steam and Switch, and presumably you still can, but yeah it won’t get any more updates other than possibly some bug fixes but I wouldn’t rely on that. (0:31:50) Bev: Okay, but they just, they just won’t be it. (0:31:55) Bev: Okay. (0:31:59) Bev: Okay, well, I don’t think that’s a terrible thing to announce, like it’s, like, as fantastic as Stardew is with its free updates, (0:32:08) Bev: it’s not necessary for these indie, like, dev, like, game devs to be doing constant free updates because they’re, as you said, there’s a lot that goes into game development and adding additional content and having this expectation that, like, every single game needs to have, like, a certain quota of hours of content. (0:32:28) Al: Yeah, that’s fair. However, I would say, I believe the… I haven’t played the Switch version. I haven’t played either of them, actually. I have both. I have it on Steam and on Switch. I haven’t played either of them yet. But I believe the Switch version is not great. So that’s obviously not fantastic. Like, it’s got performance. (0:32:52) Bev: Well, that might be addressed via the bug fixes, so they might not just be completely advancing it. (0:32:58) Bev: It just sounds like they’re not doing new content. (0:33:00) Al: - Well, okay. (0:33:01) Bev: It’s also on PS5 as well. (0:33:02) Al: Yeah, so they’ve said, (0:33:03) Bev: Oh. (0:33:04) Al: I think they’re basically said they’re abandoning the switch version. (0:33:06) Al: They said, “In our last update, we mentioned we were looking for ways to improve the Nintendo Switch version. (0:33:11) Al: Unfortunately, after the new porting team evaluated the code, it became clear that a complete report would be necessary.” (0:33:16) Bev: Oh no, okay. (0:33:18) Al: They say which Nintendo does not support. (0:33:20) Al: That’s a bit of awkward wording. (0:33:22) Al: That’s not quite true. (0:33:23) Al: What they’re saying is there are certain things that they would be required to do to allow that. (0:33:29) Al: For example, (0:33:30) Al: you’re not allowed to have backwards incompatibility with your save files and they don’t want to have to deal with that, basically. So the work that they would have to put in to make the Switch version good enough is not worth it for them. (0:33:37) Bev: I have. (0:33:51) Bev: Mm-hmm. Okay. I’m wondering if they would be willing to kind of switch the keys then to give you the steam access if that’s kind of (0:33:58) Al: So I believe everybody who backed on Kickstarter got a Steamkey. (0:34:04) Bev: Okay. (0:34:06) Al: Obviously people who just bought it wouldn’t have, but yeah, I don’t know what they’re doing with that because obviously all the comments on Kickstarter are from Kickstarter people so they all have a Steamkey. (0:34:06) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:34:15) Bev: Mm-hmm (0:34:18) Bev: Okay, well so that I wonder if they’re gonna do something like more publicly then just kickstarter (0:34:25) Bev: But it looks like a really cute game. That’s a shame. I (0:34:29) Bev: Almost want to pick it up now (0:34:33) Bev: Another game to pick up now that I know that they’re struggling but (0:34:36) Al: Yeah, I mean, I don’t, I believe the Steam version is, is good. Like, I don’t, I don’t believe the Steam version is bad. I believe the Switch version is bad. (0:34:40) Bev: Okay (0:34:43) Bev: It’s also a rogue light which is interesting (0:34:48) Al: Maybe we need to play this game and cover it, Bev. (0:34:52) Bev: Okay, now I have a reason to buy another game. Um, that’s that’s fine (0:34:57) Bev: This is how I justify buying new games. Yes, I would love that. Let’s do it (0:35:03) Al: Okay, cool. Well, this is not a promise, listeners. I’m not saying we will definitely cover this game and it will definitely happen soon, but watch this space. So we also have two new games, (0:35:13) Bev: Ooh, indeed. (0:35:17) Al: one of which is a Kickstarter, of course. I am undecided on this one. Let’s talk about it. (0:35:23) Al: It’s called Galactic Getaway. Oh, so much to say. So first of all, they call it a cozy online space (0:35:26) Bev: Mmm (0:35:34) Al: and the subtitle on Kickstarter is “Hang out with friends in space, (0:35:37) Al: collect pets, and play minigames from the creators of Nookazon?” (0:35:43) Al: Nookazon was the… was that the Animal Crossing online marketplace? (0:35:44) Bev: Nookazan. (0:35:47) Bev: Yes, Amazon, but Nook, but for Animal Crossing, yes. (0:35:51) Al: Yeah, weird. It’s weird to go from, like, let’s make a website about Animal Crossing, (0:35:51) Bev: That’s fantastic, okay. (0:35:57) Al: where you can, you know, trade items to making a game. Well, I… (0:36:02) Bev: Well like Maybe they picked up like obviously they had to like pick up some skills if they didn’t already have skills for managing a website (0:36:03) Al: I’ll love it. (0:36:12) Al: Yeah, it’s not the same thing as a web developer. It is not the same thing. I don’t think I could just make a game (0:36:13) Bev: It’s not (0:36:19) Bev: Even an online game (0:36:22) Al: Well, it’s an online game, but it’s like on switch and stuff like that just makes it harder (0:36:24) Bev: It’s an MMO (0:36:28) Bev: Wait, are they are they advertising that’s gonna be on switches at it like a goal? (0:36:31) Al: They are they are coming to PC Mac and (0:36:32) Bev: Oh, okay. Well, there’s nothing stopping them from hiring people who will do the switch component of it. So it might be that I am I am. This is just my line of thinking of like, Oh, I did this. Now let’s do the next hardest thing. (0:36:42) Al: OK, no, I think you’re missing the point. I think you’re missing the point. OK. Yeah, (0:36:53) Al: it’s just an entirely different thing. OK, let’s talk about this game, because I don’t know why this is set in space. Nothing seems to be actually space about it, right? The only thing that seems to be space is that, like, there are more stars in the sky and You just happen to be on not earth, but everything about it screams. (0:37:12) Al: This is just earth, right? (0:37:15) Al: You’ve got, you’ve got farming. (0:37:16) Bev: It does (0:37:17) Al: You’ve got animals that are all just like standard human earth animals. (0:37:20) Bev: There’s a robot that looks like (0:37:24) Al: Oh, there’s a robot. (0:37:25) Al: We must be in space. (0:37:26) Bev: Well, maybe these animal NPCs are aliens from different planets (0:37:32) Bev: and I could see how some of the (0:37:38) Bev: mid like the equipment [laughing] (0:37:40) Al: Okay, there’s a couple of there’s a couple of animals that aren’t aren’t like standard animals there’s like some starfish looking thing and there’s a a cat with multiple tails but like most of them it’s like here’s a raccoon here’s a monkey with a banana on its head oh look it’s a chicken but it has a helmet on right like the animals are probably the most interesting thing about it but everything else is just like it’s just a farming life sim. (0:38:08) Bev: I suspect they’re using the galaxy component to have an in-game description for like world building essentially for how you’re able to island hop and animal crossing essentially. (0:38:24) Al: Oh, right. You’re going to different… you go to each other’s planets. Is that what it is? (0:38:26) Bev: So it’s you’re not island hopping, you’re planet hopping, yeah. (0:38:30) Al: Right, the most exciting thing that I see about this is the tank game. Have you seen (0:38:34) Bev: Ugh. (0:38:39) Bev: » I did, which looks like I’m thinking of like a Mario mini game. (0:38:47) Bev: » Yeah, yeah, that’s exactly what it looks like. (0:38:48) Al: Yeah. Yeah. That’s exactly what it looks like. I mean, this whole thing looks a little bit like a kind of Nintendo minigame, minigame filled game, which is not a bad thing. I’m not saying that. You know, it’s like there’s just one particular point where all the characters are running across a game that just a screen that looks exactly like a Wii Sports type (0:38:49) Bev: » Okay. (0:38:53) Bev: » Nintendo. » Oh, yeah, Nintendo-esque. (0:38:55) Bev: » Mini games, no games. (0:39:13) Bev: Is that why they’re calling it an MMO because of all these mini games that’s really realistically going to be the component other than maybe eight villagers on your island? (0:39:23) Bev: I don’t think they answered how that is going to work. (0:39:28) Bev: Multiplayer is hanging out so I think similar to Animal Crossing, it’s probably capped but I’m not entirely sure. (0:39:36) Bev: Decorating and mini games. (0:39:37) Bev: So you can decorate with people over, that’s different from Animal Crossing. (0:39:40) Al: - Yeah, I feel like maybe they don’t know what MMO means. (0:39:50) Bev: Or like the industry has taken MMO and made it into a different thing because it’s what does it stand for? Multiple (0:39:57) Bev: Multiple (0:40:02) Bev: Massively multiplayer online and yeah, I don’t (0:40:06) Al: There’s nothing massively about this. (0:40:08) Bev: As far as where where I don’t know if there is a cap Like there is an animal crossing that could be the distinction that you could have a thousand people on your planet at one time (0:40:18) Bev: Um, are you all? (0:40:20) Bev: All on the same planet, kind of, like, with polio, but that I don’t understand why it’s in space, um, there’s, we have a lot of questions. (0:40:28) Al: Yeah, I think this is the point, is we have a lot of questions that aren’t answered by the Kickstarter. (0:40:34) Bev: Right. (0:40:36) Al: They haven’t hit their goal yet, but I reckon they’ll hit it. (0:40:40) Al: They are £7,000 away. What is that in dollars? They’re $9,000 away. (0:40:46) Bev: 9,000. 8,500 give or so. (0:40:51) Al: Yeah. (0:40:51) Bev: So, well, they only have five days, so it could be hit or miss. (0:40:57) Al: They only have five days, but you make like half of your money in the first five days, (0:41:03) Al: and the other half in the last five days. You don’t make much in the middle. (0:41:09) Bev: Good point. (0:41:09) Al: Like people wait until the last minute to decide whether they’re doing it or not. (0:41:12) Bev: True, ‘cause like, can I wait until the next month when my new budget starts? (0:41:17) Al: Yeah, so Kick Track says they’re trending towards 98% of their goal. (0:41:24) Bev: Okay that’s terrifying uh huh uh-huh now I’m reminding myself so it does look cute and if it is Animal Crossing ask I will I’m sure enjoy it (0:41:25) Al: So that is uh… (0:41:27) Al: that’s a oh no and like if it gets to that point I’m going to back it just to make it a success right like I can’t see this fail on my watch. (0:41:44) Al: Click the button on Kickstarter because it has the little button that will warn you when there’s two days to go and then it’ll warn you when there’s eight hours to go. They’re very good at making sure it’s perfect for it must there must be an ADHD person on the team right because (0:41:48) Bev: yep yep (0:41:57) Al: perfect for like oh by the way remember about this game and then the next day hey this game it is like this is your literal last chance click the button (0:42:07) Bev: Yep, and indeed, cuz they spend several times sort of like, I’m gonna pack it. (0:42:11) Bev: And then I forget, so yeah, for sure. (0:42:16) Al: so I guess we’ll see yeah I just it feels like it’s just it’s in space because they wanted to be in space and not because they’ve actually got some interesting ideas as to what being in space (0:42:27) Al: but (0:42:29) Bev: I mean, I look at dayland and that was technically in space and like there is some travel. (0:42:34) Al: what no no no no no no no no no no because right dalind worked like I don’t think it could have not been in space because the whole point was you were on your entire you were it was a really small planet exactly so it couldn’t be earth we know it couldn’t be earth so it had to be some random other planet. Like, it didn’t make any sense. (0:42:46) Bev: It’s a really small planet. (0:42:54) Bev: But like, it could just be a really small Earth. (0:42:57) Bev: Like, what is the point of it being in space if you can’t do a star field level exploration? (0:43:00) Al: Well, to be– Well, everything’s in space. (0:43:07) Bev: Like, what is the point of spacey games? (0:43:09) Bev: Like, is it to travel to other places? (0:43:12) Bev: ‘Cause if that’s the point of it, (0:43:16) Bev: they will probably hit it with traveling to other quote-unquote islands. (0:43:20) Bev: If it’s to do space exploration, then no, probably not. (0:43:25) Al: I guess my point is, right, like, Dehland was like, “This is you taking care of a tiny planet.” (0:43:31) Al: Like, that’s what they said. (0:43:32) Al: It wasn’t like this is a space exploration game, right? (0:43:35) Al: This is a game where you’re running a tiny planet. (0:43:41) Al: And this is like, “Oh, hey, this is a farming simulator in space.” (0:43:46) Al: And it’s like, “But what does that even mean?” (0:43:48) Al: Like there has to be a point to say it’s in space, right? (0:43:53) Al: like everything’s in space, as we’ve pointed out. (0:43:55) Bev: I feel like we’re getting into the realm of, like, philosophical questions, like, what is the point of a cottagecore game, Elle? (0:43:55) Al: Right. (0:44:01) Bev: Like, what is– what is it that makes it cottagecore? (0:44:04) Bev: Like, why does it have to be in space? Why is it on– it has to be– [laughs] (0:44:11) Bev: Like, I– it’s a setting, and I think that is valid by itself, (0:44:17) Bev: even though it would be more interesting if they had other components that built it into the world more, rather than– (0:44:25) Bev: other than it just existing in space. [laughs] (0:44:29) Al: Okay, fine. I’ll give you that one. So in the comments, they say your planet will have its own code for you to share or not share with friends. Your planet is your own personal space to enjoy so that we know random users running around. So it’s it’s not an MMO. (0:44:46) Bev: It’s in space so that Nintendo doesn’t see them for using an island. (0:44:49) Al: Oh, so the game. I need I need more answers to this question because I’m not sure. So (0:44:59) Al: the game is always online regardless if you play with other players. Does that mean you cannot play it if you can’t (0:45:08) Bev: Probably. (0:45:09) Bev: Poly can’t play if you’re not connected to the internet, (0:45:12) Bev: if I recall correctly. (0:45:15) Bev: And that is also an MMO. (0:45:16) Bev: So maybe that is now what is the definition of an MMO. (0:45:19) Al: Yeah, I don’t I don’t like that. Because if you’re not if like, if I like, I get if it’s a game like the whole point is you’re being online and and you’re playing with other people and you’re playing in like a combined world, right? That’s fine. I get why that has to be always online. But if I have my own space, and I can do stuff in that space without ever actually playing with anybody else. Don’t make me be online for that. (0:45:20) Bev: It has to be online. (0:45:23) Bev: Yeah. (0:45:26) Bev: If you’re just playing by yourself. (0:45:47) Bev: - Then don’t play this game. (0:45:48) Bev: Go play Animal Craft. (0:45:49) Al: Well, I need to find out whether that’s the case or not, right? Because yeah, you’re right. (0:45:55) Al: If that’s what this is, I’m probably not going to back it. The FAQ doesn’t say anything about that. I’ve checked. I’m going to I’m going to tweet them. I will do that not while we’re, (0:45:58) Bev: - Uh-huh. (0:46:00) Bev: I wonder what the FAQs are. (0:46:04) Bev: Well, you just got to submit a new question. (0:46:10) Bev: Do it. (0:46:13) Al: you know, podcasting though. The other new game (0:46:13) Bev: » [LAUGH] (0:46:19) Al: is plan tabby plan to be plant. How would you plan to be? plan to be little garden plan to be is a chill sandbox game where you take care of adorable plants and design the cozy little garden of your dreams. I feel like it is what it says on the tin, right? You’ve got a little a little ins indoor garden, like a kind of it looks like there’s various different rooms that you can use and you choose (0:46:24) Bev: “Plant to me” sounds right. (0:46:46) Bev: Yeah. (0:46:49) Al: you put a plant down and presumably you have to like water it and feed it and take care of it and put it in the right place and it needs to have the right amount of sun. I mean it’s basically like (0:47:00) Bev: Okay, I (0:47:04) Bev: Love the concept of these games, but I’m just decision fatigued (0:47:10) Bev: So I would love to play this if everything had a place if I if there was a setting where I could just like I don’t Want to design anything. I just want to make things look pretty. Please make it pretty for me, but let me like (0:47:20) Bev: work at it (0:47:23) Bev: Like you do all the decision-heavy work I just get as I put in all the the labor to me to get what it needs (0:47:31) Bev: I don’t even know words. Um, but you know what I’m saying. I don’t (0:47:34) Al: I know what you’re saying, I know what you’re saying. (0:47:39) Bev: Like I I’m finding myself just moving away from these games that require like designing and decisions like (0:47:45) Bev: Disney dream valley. I don’t want to figure out where all the houses go because there’s too many houses (0:47:51) Al: Yeah. (0:47:51) Bev: Why isn’t there a setting where I could just be like this is where mickey mouse belongs. Please just put him in there put him there (0:47:56) Al: Yeah, I agree. Bad example, because I’m pretty sure that he comes, his house is there when you start the game. (0:48:02) Al: You don’t have to choose where his house goes, but fair point. (0:48:04) Bev: Yes. Yes. (0:48:07) Al: Like he’s literally one of the four characters you start with, Bev. (0:48:10) Bev: That’s why I don’t remember! (0:48:14) Bev: But everyone knows who Mickey Mouse is, so… (0:48:16) Al: Yes, yes. It’s a fair point, I agree. (0:48:16) Bev: The point stamps. (0:48:21) Al: Anyway. So those are the two new games. Links to them, of course, will be in the show notes, (0:48:28) Al: along with everything else that we’ve talked about. (0:48:31) Al: So whenever we’re going to talk about Akka… (0:48:34) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:48:35) Al: So let’s see if I can describe this, see what you think of my description of this game. (0:48:41) Al: You are a red panda who fought in the war. The war. (0:48:48) Bev: a war just or the war mm-hmm (0:48:51) Al: They call it “The War”. They keep calling it “The War”. (0:48:55) Al: But I hope you don’t want to know about the war, because you’re not going to find out about the war. (0:49:01) Al: And you have a katana? That was your fighting implement? Your weapon? That’s the word “weapon”. (0:49:06) Bev: Yes. (0:49:08) Al: Fighting implement, oh my word. We’ve got a title there, fighting implement. (0:49:16) Al: And you have come to an island to help clean up a society. (0:49:21) Al: A society that has been ravaged by the war. (0:49:26) Al: And you do that by quests and, you know, cleaning up traps and farming and doing quests for people. (0:49:37) Bev: Yes, I think so. (0:49:38) Al: Is that a fair description of this game? (0:49:43) Al: OK, cool. (0:49:44) Al: Well, let’s - shall we start off with the things that I think we will be on the same page with being very positive about? (0:49:50) Bev: It’s so pretty, it’s, I, t

Come with us one and all as we catch up on unpublished episodes. This is a game heavy one talking about our mainstays and a few newfound joys. Jen steps up on the soapbox to discuss reviews and critiques of Turning Red and then we hit a musical note for Nerd Culture!Games we're playing include:  Elder Scrolls Online, Dead by Daylight, Spiritfarer, Elden Ring, No Man's Sky, Sea of Thieves, Minecraft, Fallout New Vegas & more!Appearing this ep: Jen, Jess, Sarah, Shaline, & SherrieSegments: Games We're Playing, The Soap Box, and Nerd CultureTwitter:https://twitter.com/dameswhogameFB:facebook.com/DamesWhoGamefacebook.com/groups/askyrimaddictpodcastWeb:http://dameswhogame.buzzsprout.com/http://www.asapodcasting.com/Support the showEmail: dameswhogamepodcast@gmail.comSupport the show

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

Today on Level 0 Literacy, the guys and a guest talk about Spiritfarer, a nice cozy town builder (boat builder?) where you find yourself in the shoes of Charon, charged with bringing souls to the afterlife after fulfilling their final wishes. How well can such a cute game discuss grief and death? Let's find out!

Boo! No summer time sadness with Ben and Lexi this week! We are celebrating summer ghost stories, ghosts, 20 years of friendship, Mrs. Doubtfire and much more. Do animals have souls? Can they be ghosts? Do ghosts know they are ghosts? Can they be good roommates? Wait, what was that behind you? Listen now!FURTHER DORKSCUSSION:Abbot Elementary Spiritfarer Holyrood house Sam McGee Ghost of Tom Thomson Christmas Carol Star Trek Sub Rosa Legend of Sleepy Hollow Haunted Calgary - Inglewood BONUS CONTENT:Canadian Slang and things you should know - Dart = cigarette Jess reminded us about the importance of Casper, the friendly ghost Mrs.Doubtfire SOCIALS:Here's where you can find us!Lexi' Hunt's website and twitter and instagramBen Rankel's website and instagram and where to buy his book: Amazon.ca / Comixology / Ind!go / Renegade ArtsJess Schmidt's website, twitter and instagramDork Matter's website(WIP) and twitter and instagram and redditThis podcast is created on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Nations, which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, and the Kainai. We also acknowledge the Stoney Nakota Nation, Tsuut'ina, and Metis Nation Region 3.Help your dorky pals spread the word: share us on social media or give Dork Matters a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods! Thank you for helping us to share our love of all things Dork!“We've been going about this all wrong. This Mr. Stay Puft's okay! He's a sailor, he's in New York; we get this guy laid, we won't have any trouble!” ― Dr. Peter Venkman 

"People like you are the reason why we have middle fingers" Should we fear death or should we embrace it? Join Brian, Jon, Rich and Tom as they explore the existential meaning of Spiritfarer, the death-centric management sim by Thunderlotus. Do the management sim aspects of this game bolster or hinder the end of life message the developers attempt to convey? Join them on this journey into the great beyond. http://media.blubrry.com/caneandrinse/caneandrinse.com/podcast/cane_and_rinse_issue_577.mp3   Music featured in this issue: 1. Main Theme by Max LL2. Stella's Lullaby by Max LL Edit by Jay Taylor You can support Cane and Rinse and in return receive an often extended version of the podcast four weeks early, along with exclusive podcasts, if you subscribe to our Patreon for the minimum of $2 per month (+VAT). Do you have an opinion about a game we're covering that you'd like read on the podcast? Then venture over to our forum and check out the list of upcoming games we're covering. Whilst there you can join in the conversations with our friendly community in discussing all things relating to videogames, along with lots of other stuff too. Sound good? Then come and say hello at The Cane and Rinse forum

Just two cozy girls talking about video games. And sometimes life.  Join us while we dissect our favourite indie games through our theme of the episode! From exploring new genres like cozy horror to how story games bring important subject matters to life, each episode will deep dive into a new topic, cover news in the industry, and more. Cozy up and grab a tea or coffee while we chat all things indie gaming! And definitely never our love for retro horror movie monsters. Definitely not that. Indie Games mentioned: Hades, Unpacking, What Remains of Edith Finch, The Gardens Between, Spiritfarer. Find our podcast on all other platforms here Your hosts: JessIsHaunted - Links CozyGamerKat - Links Intro: Baegel - Try Hard Outro: AGST - Callout If you want to send us an email, you can find us at cozygamercast@gmail.com

Al and Kelly talk about Fishing Break Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:00:54: Kelly Talks Fishing 00:04:21: What Have We Been Up To 00:16:12: Fishing Break 00:55:15: Outro Links Fishing Break on Google Play Store Fishing Break on Apple App Store 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] Music [00:30.000 –> 00:35.100] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is [00:35.100 –> 00:42.080] Al. My name is Kelly. And we are here today to talk about more fishing. Fishing. [00:42.080 –> 00:49.120] Fishing games. I mean it’s summer so it fits. Fishing month this is, I think, this is the [00:49.120 –> 00:53.100] last episode of fishing month. Welcome Kelly to the last episode of fishing [00:53.100 –> 00:58.040] month. Thank you for joining me. It’s a real pleasure, I gotta say. I love fishing [00:58.200 –> 01:05.280] and fishing games. I loved fishing in real life as a kid so I’m happy to be [01:05.280 –> 01:08.800] here. What’s your favorite fishing in the farming, not in the farming game, just [01:08.800 –> 01:15.760] what’s your favorite fishing in any game? And why is it Spiritfarer? I really [01:15.760 –> 01:20.840] did like Spiritfarer but I’m not gonna lie I love Stardew which I know is kind [01:20.840 –> 01:27.840] of… Interesting. Controversial. Yeah. I love the challenge of it I don’t know. Yeah I [01:27.840 –> 01:31.640] think that’s fair. I think it’s like, I think you either really like the [01:31.640 –> 01:35.400] difficulty of it or you absolutely hate it and you’re just like, just let [01:35.400 –> 01:39.360] me catch the fish for goodness sake. I mean I definitely have some of those [01:39.360 –> 01:43.600] moments in Stardew where I’m like oh my god especially with like the legendaries [01:43.600 –> 01:48.200] and like the rare ones it’s like just let me catch his fish. Yeah. But there’s [01:48.200 –> 01:51.360] definitely been some games I’ve played where I’m like this is so easy it’s [01:51.360 –> 01:58.800] boring. Yeah, yeah that’s fair. I think there was an episode a couple weeks [01:58.800 –> 02:02.400] ago about ranking the fishing minigames. That’s this one of one of these out of [02:02.400 –> 02:04.800] time things where it’s not actually a couple of weeks ago it will have been in [02:04.800 –> 02:10.000] a couple of weeks ago. Where Johnny and Kev rank the fishing minigames and [02:10.000 –> 02:13.040] that’s one of the things they talk about is like sometimes it’s just kind of in [02:13.040 –> 02:15.440] there for the sake of being in there and therefore they don’t put much thought [02:15.440 –> 02:19.520] into it and it’s just kind of like oh yeah just press button. Which is fine [02:19.520 –> 02:22.880] but it like you got to think about whether your game actually needs [02:22.880 –> 02:25.400] fishing or not like so many of them are just like yeah we’ll put fishing in [02:25.400 –> 02:29.480] because that’s what you do. Yeah exactly it’s you can really see which games [02:29.480 –> 02:34.040] really want it to be a part of the game and which games are just like oh well [02:34.040 –> 02:40.840] it’s like a quote-unquote requirement for fishing for farming games. Definitely. [02:40.840 –> 02:44.800] Also I thought I love Animal Crossing I just I think maybe because I spent a lot [02:44.880 –> 02:52.720] of time doing that. Stockholm syndrome type thing. Yeah so those would [02:52.720 –> 02:56.760] definitely be my top two. What about you? I think I think it has to be Spirit [02:56.760 –> 03:00.760] of Hater for me which is the one that wins in the fishing minigame episode a [03:00.760 –> 03:04.440] few weeks ago because people will have already heard that. The Spirit of Hater [03:04.440 –> 03:10.200] was their joint winner as well. I like the balance of difficulty but you [03:10.200 –> 03:14.720] can still always do it like there’s no kind of like stress time element to it [03:14.720 –> 03:18.680] it’s just like you see it getting too strong that’s fine ease off there you go. [03:18.680 –> 03:23.480] Yeah. Like the worst thing that happens is it breaks but the second worst thing [03:23.480 –> 03:28.360] is it just takes ages. Yeah and I mean you’re already committed to it so what’s [03:28.360 –> 03:32.800] what’s the harm? Exactly. I did love also that you could fish while you were [03:32.800 –> 03:37.880] moving. Mmm yeah yeah. Because I feel like that was like you know especially [03:37.880 –> 03:40.560] towards the end when I had less to do I was like okay I’m just gonna fish now. [03:40.560 –> 03:46.160] Yeah definitely. All right awesome well I guess before we get too far into even [03:46.160 –> 03:49.560] though we just had a whole conversation about fishing transcripts are available [03:49.560 –> 03:53.440] in the show notes and on the website for the podcast if you need them. This [03:53.440 –> 03:57.520] episode obviously there will be no news because again it is fishing month and [03:57.520 –> 04:03.360] the last episode of fishing month and so I think we’re recording this roughly a [04:03.360 –> 04:07.360] month in advance so that’s why we’ve got no news if there’s anything breaking [04:07.600 –> 04:14.720] then you’ll hear about it in two weeks and this episode we’re going to talk [04:14.720 –> 04:19.800] about fishing break which is a mobile game a fishing mobile game so we’ll have [04:19.800 –> 04:24.640] lots to say about that soon but first of all Kelly what have you been up to? [04:24.640 –> 04:30.880] Well I at this moment just got back from I had been on vacation in Washington [04:30.880 –> 04:38.240] State out in the Olympia Peninsula so did a lot of hiking a lot of kayaking it [04:38.240 –> 04:41.640] was a lot of fun now I’m back in New York and it’s very humid here and [04:41.640 –> 04:48.040] disgusting. Mmm you got smoke just now. You know honestly I feel like we’re [04:48.040 –> 04:52.200] lucking out because I mean I’ve been monitoring the air quality and and we’re [04:52.200 –> 05:00.920] at the very very very end of moderately bad air which is like couldn’t just it [05:00.920 –> 05:04.720] that just kind of happens in New York sometimes anyway in the summer [05:04.720 –> 05:09.400] especially so like you missed you missed the worst of it yeah we did miss the [05:09.400 –> 05:14.520] worst of it well I was here when it was when the skies were orange oh you the [05:14.520 –> 05:19.480] first yeah yeah like two chunks of it but I missed the second time which was [05:19.480 –> 05:23.920] nice I did order new air purifiers though just to just to add some more in [05:23.920 –> 05:29.720] there yeah yeah unfortunate yeah I mean it doesn’t hurt I have cats so they [05:29.720 –> 05:36.600] never hurt hmm what have you been up to? Eh not a huge amount in terms of games [05:36.600 –> 05:43.800] and stuff like that because my my switch is still broken which I keep checking [05:43.800 –> 05:48.460] every day on its progress and nothing’s happened yet but it’s meant to they say [05:48.460 –> 05:52.980] it could take up to 20 working days the 20th working day is the is two days [05:52.980 –> 05:58.340] before I leave for my month-long holiday so hopefully it doesn’t take the 20 days [05:58.340 –> 06:05.420] because that’s not getting to me do you have do you have you know you have a few [06:05.420 –> 06:10.320] switches I do I do it’s not the end of the world but it’s the one I really use [06:10.320 –> 06:15.380] and it’s the one with my Pokemon saves on it the most important one yeah so [06:15.380 –> 06:19.580] like I don’t really like I’m fine with like a few weeks of not having my switch [06:19.580 –> 06:22.820] and not playing it that’s fine but like a whole month on holiday I would [06:22.820 –> 06:27.380] definitely be like setting up another one of my switches but it’s just it’s so [06:27.380 –> 06:32.100] much effort to like set up a switch and it’s like I wouldn’t have Pokemon and [06:32.100 –> 06:38.500] it’s just yeah it’s like do I go for my very original switch which obviously is [06:38.500 –> 06:43.100] like the the original it’s getting pretty old now or do I use a switch [06:43.100 –> 06:47.900] light and then I have to use the the smallness with my hands that really [06:47.900 –> 06:56.860] struggle now like oh I don’t know I did Hollow Knight with the joy cons the [06:56.860 –> 07:02.140] first time and I didn’t realize towards the end that my the drift had set in oh [07:02.140 –> 07:07.460] no I actually didn’t realize until I was playing Celeste after that and then I [07:07.460 –> 07:13.820] realized how bad the drift was yeah um but I can’t I can’t do joy cons anymore [07:13.820 –> 07:19.860] um and I like I don’t know I love those hori like split pad thing yeah yeah [07:19.860 –> 07:23.340] that’s why I’ve been using that’s that’s why I played all of well I’ve not [07:23.340 –> 07:26.380] finished it yet but that’s why I have been playing all of Hollow Knight on is [07:26.380 –> 07:30.900] there the newer split pad the compact one which feels like it’s a really nice [07:30.900 –> 07:35.300] balance of the kind of chunkiness but not too chunky and so it still fits [07:35.300 –> 07:39.260] nicely in our in a little case and stuff like that see that I’ve got to say [07:39.260 –> 07:45.020] that is the issue with the the normal ones is like even just how like [07:45.020 –> 07:48.460] traveling now I brought my switch I didn’t actually play it which I gotta [07:48.460 –> 07:52.060] say I just realized when you started talking you meant games and not what I [07:52.060 –> 07:56.100] was doing in life no it’s it’s it’s stuff in general we expect used to say [07:56.100 –> 07:59.180] what what have you been playing but we expanded it because not everybody’s been [07:59.180 –> 08:04.260] playing something every time so that’s that’s good that’s a good idea but yeah [08:04.260 –> 08:08.980] no to travel with it it doesn’t fit in anything hmm so it’s like I’m just [08:08.980 –> 08:14.900] risking ruining the joy cons like the joysticks putting it in my backpack yeah [08:14.900 –> 08:19.180] I got a case I got it a separate case that’s like slightly bigger than a [08:19.180 –> 08:23.420] normal one it’s not like ah it’s like ah it’s like a bag that you slide it into [08:23.420 –> 08:28.900] rather than the kind of like clamshell case and it just just fits it with the [08:28.900 –> 08:34.660] compact and split pads on it and I don’t think it would fit with the pro [08:34.660 –> 08:40.700] the split pad pros I think they’d be too big and it’s just just perfectly fits in [08:40.700 –> 08:45.780] and then I it’s got a little front pocket that I put in a little case of [08:45.780 –> 08:49.620] games and and to joy con just in case I need some joy con for something because [08:49.620 –> 08:55.180] of course the disadvantage of the split pad is it doesn’t have the the gyro yeah [08:55.180 –> 09:02.500] yeah I have the what is it the 8-bit mmm controller for that yeah yeah I also [09:02.500 –> 09:07.900] I’ve also ordered have you seen there’s like a new kind of controller case type [09:07.900 –> 09:13.740] thing what is it called no let me need to find it I definitely want to see that [09:13.740 –> 09:18.540] because so you know what my my go-to thing to put my switch in is actually a [09:18.540 –> 09:24.100] knee brace I’m sorry what now um like like no like it’s not like a cast or [09:24.100 –> 09:30.820] anything it’s like one of those like soft yeah yeah yeah I put it in there [09:30.820 –> 09:35.180] because it actually the pressure holds the joy cons in place really interesting [09:35.180 –> 09:42.540] that’s what I’ve done literally the entire time I’ve had my switch hmm so [09:42.540 –> 09:47.060] yeah I don’t know it’s definitely a unique choice so I’ve just sent you a [09:47.060 –> 09:51.260] link to what I’m talking about it’s the the nitro deck and it’s like this little [09:51.260 –> 09:55.380] kind of oh my god this looks so cool controller type thing that you slot it [09:55.380 –> 10:01.220] into and it’s got the it’s got a d-pad and the two analog sticks and the [10:01.220 –> 10:09.100] buttons on it and it looks like the old like n64 gameboy it’s got those colors [10:09.100 –> 10:15.700] yeah and yeah I think it’s really cool it’s a bit expensive it’s not cheap it’s [10:15.700 –> 10:20.500] $90 but okay I was looking for the price I see it now um well that’s not [10:20.500 –> 10:25.940] too bad considering that like honestly joy cons are what $80 yes it’s not it’s [10:25.940 –> 10:30.780] not terrible but it’s not cheap but yeah I’m looking forward to getting that it’s [10:30.780 –> 10:39.540] coming out sometime in the next three months apparently q3 we’ll see but yeah [10:39.540 –> 10:42.420] I think it’s I think it’s gonna be really nice because I think it will give [10:42.420 –> 10:49.020] a nice bit of heft to it and it’s the analog sticks are also there are what [10:49.020 –> 10:55.220] they called the no the analog sticks they’re the ones that don’t drift whole [10:55.220 –> 11:01.820] whole effect that’s what I call so and a also comes with a its own case so it [11:01.820 –> 11:06.720] has a nice that is so nice so they’ve put a lot of thought into that and it’s [11:06.720 –> 11:12.240] got a little thing for some games and a little extra extra pat storage thing as [11:12.240 –> 11:15.480] well so I’m really looking forward to it I think I think it’ll be really nice [11:15.480 –> 11:24.760] oh so that’s the same thing with the hori slip heads I’ve played games where [11:24.760 –> 11:30.480] I have to like so annoying like switch them out find joy cons that were there [11:30.480 –> 11:34.440] aren’t a huge number of games that I use the gyro for but like Zelda for example [11:34.440 –> 11:41.320] I cannot play Zelda without without the gyro so like I had to for like the three [11:41.360 –> 11:46.640] weeks I was playing Zelda every day for like five hours I was using joy con for [11:46.640 –> 11:51.360] that I killed my hands wait is that so I my [11:51.360 –> 11:56.040] sister’s the Zelda person in my house so I’ve only played one Zelda game and she [11:56.040 –> 12:01.320] actually gave me Breath of the Wild to play but I didn’t start it yet she gave [12:01.320 –> 12:06.000] it to me on vacation it’s good yeah no it looks good it just looks also very [12:06.000 –> 12:09.720] intimidating and it didn’t feel like something I wanted to play while I was [12:09.720 –> 12:12.560] away fair enough fair enough well I would say if you think it looks [12:12.560 –> 12:17.720] intimidating follow the main site main quests because that will always give you [12:17.720 –> 12:21.080] something clear to do rather than because I think that’s why I really like [12:21.080 –> 12:24.760] about what they’ve done is it’s an open world you can do literally anything you [12:24.760 –> 12:29.400] want but you don’t they actually give you some pointers if you need them so [12:29.400 –> 12:32.800] it’s not just like it’s not just like here’s an infinite number of things to [12:32.800 –> 12:36.480] do is here’s an infinite number of things to do and also here’s an actual [12:36.480 –> 12:40.560] thing that you can do you know that’s exactly what I need I need some [12:40.560 –> 12:47.200] structure because otherwise I will just be running around but that is good to [12:47.200 –> 12:51.960] know because I did not know that Zelda had the need for gyro so yeah so it’s [12:51.960 –> 12:57.000] for it’s for aiming like some people don’t use it but I I’m really bad aiming [12:57.000 –> 13:00.840] without the gyro because it’s like my hands can’t move as fast as I need them [13:00.840 –> 13:06.640] to and yeah just I like I like being able to like aim with it for the arrow [13:06.640 –> 13:12.000] and the ball and I just slightly move it to get it right in the right place it’s [13:12.000 –> 13:16.360] really nice that’s very good to know I’ll have to try out both methods to see [13:16.360 –> 13:22.160] which one like suits me better yeah um yeah so hopefully I’ll get my switch [13:22.160 –> 13:27.140] back at some point and then I can finish up Hollow Knight I’m hoping it’s [13:27.140 –> 13:30.360] finished up soon for you because it’s just also I feel like it gives you [13:30.360 –> 13:34.680] anxiety when it’s it’s out there yeah yeah yeah well especially as it’s a [13:34.680 –> 13:39.360] limited edition one so and my and my Pokemon saves are on it like if it [13:39.360 –> 13:42.600] wasn’t a limited edition one and my Pokemon saves weren’t on it I’d be like [13:42.600 –> 13:45.240] oh it doesn’t really matter I’ll get one I’ll get a replacement for it if they [13:45.240 –> 13:48.880] break it or whatever but like if they break it I don’t think I think they say [13:48.880 –> 13:52.840] like if we don’t have the equivalent then we will replace it with a different [13:52.840 –> 14:03.080] one yeah and if they lose the saves there’s literally nothing they can do [14:03.080 –> 14:08.640] you know yeah no there’s there’s there’s definitely a lot riding on you know the [14:08.640 –> 14:14.880] line here yeah so hopefully we’ll get it soon and then I’ll finish up Hollow [14:14.880 –> 14:18.200] Knight and then I’ll decide what I’m gonna do next I’ve got a bunch of games [14:18.200 –> 14:25.240] to play I’ve got the new story seasons a wonderful life haven’t started it yet [14:25.240 –> 14:28.520] what else there’s a bunch of other things that I’m like I want to play [14:28.520 –> 14:32.160] this but I just haven’t done yet I’ve got a bunch of games on my steam deck [14:32.160 –> 14:35.040] that I haven’t played yet as well but it’s just like I just don’t have the [14:35.040 –> 14:38.600] enthusiasm right now I just want to go on holiday you know yeah yeah yeah [14:38.600 –> 14:43.520] that’s like um like I’m excited to get back to I was playing a lot of roots of [14:43.520 –> 14:48.760] Pacha before I left that’s one of the ones that I’ve got nice it’s it’s a lot [14:48.760 –> 14:53.240] of fun I like it I think there’s like you know things they could improve on [14:53.240 –> 14:56.680] but like overall I put a lot of time into that game and I really enjoyed it [14:56.680 –> 15:01.200] and now I’m just working on breeding different or getting different animal [15:01.200 –> 15:06.920] variations yeah yeah I think the outcome from our episode on it which who was it [15:06.920 –> 15:13.280] did that was it Cody and Kevin yes go my memory Cody and Kevin and was that it [15:13.440 –> 15:17.840] was better than they expected it to be and actually a lot of fun because I [15:17.840 –> 15:21.800] think a lot of a lot of these games can look just like oh it’s just like stardew [15:21.800 –> 15:25.720] with a skin sort of thing but it’s turned out to be a lot better than that [15:25.720 –> 15:29.960] which is good yeah I definitely think it held its own I think I think it just [15:29.960 –> 15:34.520] like you know with stardew there’s like a lot of stuff to do so that’s like it [15:34.520 –> 15:38.080] sets the bar so high yeah not to say that there wasn’t a lot of stuff to do [15:38.080 –> 15:41.760] in this game there was it’s different right like yeah I mean it’s not about [15:41.800 –> 15:45.400] saying this is a better or worse game no exactly it’s about saying is it just a [15:45.400 –> 15:49.640] ripoff or is it doing trying to do things differently that’s that’s that’s [15:49.640 –> 15:53.240] what I’m looking for in farming games just now that’s fair that’s that’s [15:53.240 –> 15:56.120] definitely hard because it’s like I look through a lot of them on Steam and I’m [15:56.120 –> 16:00.640] like is this actually what I want to be doing is this just gonna be a chore yeah [16:00.640 –> 16:05.480] yeah yeah okay cool um yeah I think that’s thing that’s everything I’ve been [16:05.480 –> 16:13.720] up to and so as I mentioned there’s no news this episode and so we’re gonna go [16:13.720 –> 16:19.480] straight into our main topic which is fishing break so I guess I’ll just [16:19.480 –> 16:25.680] introduce the game a little bit so obviously due to the name fishing break [16:25.680 –> 16:30.600] it is a fishing game and that’s that’s it that’s that’s what it is it’s a [16:30.600 –> 16:35.880] fishing game right like you are a fisher person did we ever come to a conclusion [16:35.880 –> 16:41.560] on is what the best gender neutral term for person who fishes is no let’s go [16:41.560 –> 16:49.600] with fisher person like a fisher person it doesn’t it works and you have like a [16:49.600 –> 16:53.200] bunch of different areas and you fish in them and obviously there’s more [16:53.200 –> 16:59.800] complication to it if you really want to but that’s basically it right I would [16:59.800 –> 17:03.720] say that interestingly I don’t know about you let’s let’s talk about the [17:03.720 –> 17:11.320] actual fishing mechanic first and it’s it’s very much like spirit faders [17:11.320 –> 17:18.120] fishing in a way right in terms of like reeling in obviously you you have this [17:18.120 –> 17:25.160] kind of side on view and you are you you swipe to like throw the cast there’s the [17:25.160 –> 17:29.680] one cast the line into the water and there’s a bunch of fish in the water [17:29.680 –> 17:33.280] and you can kind of like jiggle the line around and and then eventually want to [17:33.280 –> 17:37.080] grab on and then you have to it’s got like the line tension mechanic where you [17:37.080 –> 17:43.360] have to pull it back and not break the snap it exactly yeah there’s some added [17:43.360 –> 17:46.640] stuff to this is kind of like an RPG right so that you have an attack [17:46.640 –> 17:51.740] strength and the fish have a strength and the higher the strength the harder [17:51.740 –> 17:54.980] they are to catch and I think if you’re if they’re if they’re above your attack [17:54.980 –> 18:00.180] level you can’t you just can’t catch them yeah which I really I like that as [18:00.180 –> 18:03.900] a mechanic but yeah I really liked the like I didn’t expect that I thought it [18:03.900 –> 18:07.020] was to be honest when I first started playing I thought I was just gonna be a [18:07.020 –> 18:10.740] tapping game yeah kind of thing yeah because that’s how the fishing works [18:10.740 –> 18:17.020] which I do I like tapping things so that’s not a bad thing like I I do enjoy [18:17.020 –> 18:23.580] that as a fishing reeling mechanic mm-hmm yeah I think is the the the [18:23.620 –> 18:28.460] attack and defense kind of thing with you and the fish I think is like [18:28.460 –> 18:31.380] obviously all games actually have this under the hood they just don’t kind of [18:31.380 –> 18:36.700] show you it I like how visible it is and it’s like your attack is 70 this fish [18:36.700 –> 18:41.860] has got 75 therefore that’s why you didn’t catch it right like it’s it’s [18:41.860 –> 18:46.900] very clear when the difference is your skill and when the difference is you [18:46.900 –> 18:50.380] were never gonna be able to catch this you just not progressed enough yet yeah [18:50.380 –> 18:54.420] which I like I like that a lot like you said it is typically built in in the [18:54.420 –> 18:59.300] back end like it’s like your skill improvement or whatever but yeah I like [18:59.300 –> 19:05.220] how they incorporated it into this yeah I also like how each fish can have a [19:05.220 –> 19:13.420] variety of attack power mm-hmm yeah which then you know qualifies them for [19:13.420 –> 19:20.220] different oh my god grade that’s the word I’m looking for yes which I didn’t [19:20.260 –> 19:24.140] realize at first I thought I was fishing badly and that’s why I was getting bad [19:24.140 –> 19:30.260] grades fish just do better Kelly I was like am I holding it too much when it’s [19:30.260 –> 19:35.660] red like am I am I not tapping it fast enough like what’s going on here for [19:35.660 –> 19:39.300] those who listened to last week’s episode which is about by the pier it’s [19:39.300 –> 19:45.860] very similar to that as well in terms of like the reeling in so it’s quite like [19:45.860 –> 19:50.580] that and quite like spirit fader but it by the pier had a timer and you had to [19:50.580 –> 19:54.340] get it in by a certain point or always snapped and that was incredibly [19:54.340 –> 19:58.460] stressful I did not like that so I like that this does not have that I hate [19:58.460 –> 20:03.020] timers yeah games like immediately start freaking out well this is the thing [20:03.020 –> 20:07.740] right like because it’s it’s not then just about your skill it’s about your [20:07.740 –> 20:12.580] skill and also can you do your skill fast enough it’s like no just let me do [20:12.580 –> 20:15.880] it right like it’s just I don’t know why they felt they need to have the [20:15.880 –> 20:22.780] timer on that yeah I feel like that’s just trying to make you either use more [20:22.780 –> 20:27.820] bait mm-hmm or something like I don’t know that’s weird I don’t know what the [20:27.820 –> 20:30.880] deal is with that but but that wouldn’t even work in this game which so that [20:30.880 –> 20:35.860] makes it even better yeah like I don’t think you could have a timer considering [20:35.860 –> 20:43.260] the way that you have to catch certain fish mm-hmm well that’s the thing that [20:43.260 –> 20:46.420] that that was the thing about it is there is are like a perfect way to catch [20:46.420 –> 20:51.020] a fish but because of like you have to like pull it in and then stop and then [20:51.020 –> 20:54.460] pull it in and then stop and then pull it stop but that was how the other one [20:54.460 –> 20:58.580] the other game was as well and they managed to have have a timer in it which [20:58.580 –> 21:04.140] is why it was doubly annoying it’s like either like Mickey button mash or don’t [21:04.140 –> 21:08.300] have a timer right like if it’s about skill make it about skill don’t don’t [21:08.300 –> 21:12.100] add a timer into that like that’s just yeah I just find that annoying yeah [21:12.100 –> 21:15.700] anyway let’s stop talking about different game this one doesn’t have [21:15.700 –> 21:20.100] that and that’s good but yeah like the general I feel like it’s kind of this [21:20.100 –> 21:25.620] has become kind of like the the way to kind of have a realistic fishing as much [21:25.620 –> 21:31.060] as you can is is to have the line tension and you have to kind of reel it [21:31.060 –> 21:35.020] in and then stop and then we lay in this top and it differs depending on the [21:35.020 –> 21:39.900] fish like obviously like a we goldfish is gonna be really easy to get in even [21:39.900 –> 21:46.180] at the same level as like our masculine or whatever you know like it’s masculine [21:46.180 –> 21:54.520] no I meant Barracuda that’s what I meant oh my word Barracuda but yeah no I feel [21:54.520 –> 21:58.420] like that is true like it’s very realistic to actual fishing like you [21:58.420 –> 22:02.180] have to let your line go out you know you have to give the fish a chance to [22:02.180 –> 22:10.100] like cool down mm-hmm mm-hmm I like that I also really like that like you have [22:10.100 –> 22:16.140] all your different kinds of bait right mm-hmm and and I’ll be honest I’ve not [22:16.140 –> 22:19.780] done much with the bait I’ve kind of just used the kind of whatever is on the [22:19.780 –> 22:26.180] list and oh yeah yeah yeah oh yeah yeah I’ve been I’ve been I’ve actually while [22:26.180 –> 22:29.580] we’re talking I’ve been letting ads play so that I can get more of the [22:29.580 –> 22:33.280] better bait I was doing that at the airport the other night while I was [22:33.280 –> 22:43.180] bored but what I really find interesting actually is that if you catch a certain [22:43.180 –> 22:47.840] fish other fish will eat that fish and then you catch that fish oh interesting [22:47.840 –> 22:52.740] so I thought because so at first I noticed did you notice that other fish [22:52.740 –> 22:56.820] were eating other fish just notice that no so that was one of the first things [22:56.820 –> 23:00.460] because I heard a chomp at one point and I was like what the hell is going on [23:00.460 –> 23:06.380] here and I look up and I see a dead fish float up to the surface oh my and I was [23:06.380 –> 23:09.900] like whoa what is happening and it was like a little fish that ate a bigger [23:09.900 –> 23:15.900] fish Wow so I was like okay let me test this out and I caught a little fish and [23:15.900 –> 23:20.260] tried to get one of the bigger fish to eat it mm-hmm especially like the [23:20.260 –> 23:26.980] special fish seem to do this more so yeah if you catch if you watch certain [23:26.980 –> 23:31.620] fish they’ll eat other certain fish and then if you catch that fish that they’re [23:31.620 –> 23:36.260] eating they will then potentially hope not every time eat the fish that you’ve [23:36.260 –> 23:39.700] caught on your line and then you can reel them in which I think is very [23:39.700 –> 23:46.300] interesting I did not expect that level of strategy honestly yeah it is it’s [23:46.300 –> 23:52.020] definitely it’s a I think I’m not going to get to this point but I are hundred [23:52.020 –> 23:57.140] percent can understand how somebody could like spend hours and hours on this [23:57.140 –> 24:02.140] game and like really get into it and for other reasons that we get into later on [24:02.140 –> 24:05.860] there’s other other mechanics that are there a part of it but even yeah there’s [24:05.860 –> 24:10.540] just there’s so many fish and there’s so many like different ways that the fish [24:10.540 –> 24:14.420] can come out and yeah different as you say scenarios that can happen with like [24:14.420 –> 24:19.900] fish eating fish and like it’s it’s very complex for what I assumed would be a [24:19.900 –> 24:24.860] very simple it’s a pond and you have fish in it right no that was literally [24:24.860 –> 24:30.340] my mentality going in and I think like the second day I played I was like oh [24:30.340 –> 24:38.020] this is a lot more in depth than like I anticipated mm-hmm yeah and at first I [24:38.020 –> 24:41.500] was like okay I’m just gonna play this now I’m like do I continue playing this [24:41.500 –> 24:45.220] like I’m kind of like I’m not gonna put any money into it or anything like that [24:45.220 –> 24:48.980] of course not why would you but if I’m sitting here like we’re talking right [24:48.980 –> 24:53.340] now I’m just gonna let some ads run hmm so I can get some more beat you know [24:53.340 –> 24:58.860] like it’s a I really will play it often like Pokemon go is truly my main yeah [24:58.860 –> 25:02.820] mobile game but there’s still only so much you can do while you’re staying [25:02.820 –> 25:07.900] still though that’s that’s the thing exactly exactly so it’s nice for that [25:07.900 –> 25:13.140] situation where you’re just like standing there but yeah no it it [25:13.140 –> 25:17.940] surprised me the game hmm which I thought was pretty nice [25:17.940 –> 25:25.540] yeah is that everything about the actual fishing part of it oh this is a mechanic [25:25.540 –> 25:30.400] I forgot about that it’s a very simple over you get these little coins that you [25:30.400 –> 25:35.140] can then use to tell a fish to get off your line basically oh wait what is that [25:35.980 –> 25:41.260] you got yes you get zap coins if you if you have a fish on the lane that you [25:41.260 –> 25:44.860] don’t want on the lane you press that it uses up one of the coins and the fish [25:44.860 –> 25:49.300] gets off your line I only have I think one coin so I was like I don’t remember [25:49.300 –> 25:53.700] what it said I just remember it saying something about special fish so I was [25:53.700 –> 25:57.420] like I’m gonna wait I don’t know what this is yeah I think you get it for [25:57.420 –> 26:02.580] catching special fish okay that makes sense but yeah you use it you use it if [26:02.620 –> 26:06.980] you’re I don’t know why I would ever do that because it’s like it I guess if you [26:06.980 –> 26:11.620] have like very high level bait or something and you don’t want it to be [26:11.620 –> 26:15.540] used up that’s what I was gonna say I think it’s for the bait that you spend [26:15.540 –> 26:20.420] like the dollar in game dollars on yeah but I’m never going to do that so I [26:20.420 –> 26:25.100] don’t foresee myself ever using this app mechanic but it’s interesting that’s [26:25.100 –> 26:29.540] there yeah yeah definitely like if you don’t want to lose that special bait [26:29.540 –> 26:36.500] then it makes sense you get it zapped zap the fish I should have tried to see [26:36.500 –> 26:39.900] what happens you know like it’s electrocuted let me let me bring it up [26:39.900 –> 26:43.220] because I’m I wonder if it’ll float to the what I wonder if it’ll float to the [26:43.220 –> 26:50.540] top like the other fish that get eaten let’s find out live live testing this [26:50.540 –> 26:55.020] trying to think is there any other main mechanics I mean so what I do find [26:55.020 –> 27:00.660] interesting oh yeah no it does it kills them like every fish no just the fish [27:00.660 –> 27:05.060] it was on the lane and it looks like yeah you keep the bait nice okay that [27:05.060 –> 27:10.840] makes sense then it’s just fluid up to the top did you say you can get the ones [27:10.840 –> 27:15.740] that are on the top no no that’s how I that’s how I when I saw them float to [27:15.740 –> 27:20.300] the top I was like what’s going on here that’s what I think I think I should [27:20.300 –> 27:24.740] eating the one that’s flying yeah they’ll eat the dead fish yeah yeah [27:24.740 –> 27:28.400] that’s it gone it’s been eaten so there you go that’s how the zapping works it [27:28.400 –> 27:34.380] kills the fish nice which like what why does it feel weird when I’m catching [27:34.380 –> 27:39.020] fish like the whole point of fishing is to catch and kill and eat fish right [27:39.020 –> 27:45.120] like it shouldn’t be weird that I’ve just killed the fish but it some of them [27:45.120 –> 27:48.340] are all right let’s talk about museums then right we’ll talk about the other [27:48.340 –> 27:53.220] stuff later let’s talk about museums so as with every game there now has to be a [27:53.220 –> 28:01.500] museum and so and when you catch a fish if it’s the first time you caught that [28:01.500 –> 28:06.300] fish possibly a grade graded one higher grades one as well but I’m not sure about [28:06.300 –> 28:10.860] that maybe you can correct me I think there is because I think there’s like I [28:10.860 –> 28:16.120] think it’s like if you hit every grade for a fish right okay like as you hit [28:16.120 –> 28:20.400] every grade you get a reward for that yeah so if it’s a new fish or a fish [28:20.400 –> 28:23.960] you’ve caught a grade that you haven’t caught before you can send it to a [28:23.960 –> 28:29.720] museum and you get money for that and interestingly the museum’s will earn new [28:29.720 –> 28:35.720] money as you’re not playing the game income exactly exactly it’s quite nice [28:35.720 –> 28:39.280] opening up the game and it’s like oh you’ve gained 800 coins from your [28:39.280 –> 28:43.960] museums you’re like awesome let’s get that then thanks especially as you’ve [28:43.960 –> 28:48.240] like upgraded more stuff it’s like oh that’s like a whole upgrade yeah [28:48.240 –> 28:53.000] exactly and it’s also it’s it’s not even just like a theoretical thing you can [28:53.000 –> 28:57.680] visit the museum’s as well mm-hmm yeah which is nice because you could see you [28:57.680 –> 29:01.880] can actually see the levels of the fish that you’ve got oh yeah so you can I’ve [29:01.880 –> 29:09.640] got a four star sturgeon apparently ooh I only have one S tier and it’s a Wally [29:09.640 –> 29:14.000] well I I don’t know how you say that one I think it’s Wally yeah and I don’t [29:14.000 –> 29:18.120] think I have anything above B mmm but it’s interesting that it has they have [29:18.120 –> 29:24.280] stars and ranking as well yes I think it’s like you know basic fish bigger [29:24.280 –> 29:30.400] fish special fish or biggest fish so I think special fishes for yeah special [29:30.400 –> 29:35.240] fishes for where’s my shark I caught a shark shark before that should have that [29:35.240 –> 29:39.240] should tell me I was honestly shocked that I could catch the shark Oh sharks [29:39.280 –> 29:45.680] are five stars oh nice yeah the special ones are five as well I’ve got a the [29:45.680 –> 29:52.720] electric was this electric car I’ve got is five star and the only one I’ve got [29:52.720 –> 29:59.680] is five star as well yeah they’re both they’re both see yeah that’s my shark is [29:59.680 –> 30:07.320] a D so it’s not good great sad um yeah I like that you can you can go and check [30:07.320 –> 30:11.120] in the museum too yes and you can yeah you can visit it and you can see all [30:11.120 –> 30:15.360] your fish swimming around and you can see some stats about them and see what [30:15.360 –> 30:18.840] your next reward is and stuff like that there’s like this is the thing this is [30:18.840 –> 30:21.520] what I’m talking about there’s so much here right because there’s is that’s [30:21.520 –> 30:28.880] five different museums and in each museum there are like five or so no is [30:28.880 –> 30:36.520] that ten different collections mmm seven museums I haven’t put fish in so you do [30:37.000 –> 30:42.120] you gain more as you as you go then because I’ve only got five I believe so [30:42.120 –> 30:47.800] because I’m up to I just unlocked the Asian River which is like world three [30:47.800 –> 30:54.400] yeah no I am nowhere near that so that’s probably why okay so you get five to [30:54.400 –> 30:57.240] start with and then obviously you’ll upgrade them you get more as you go [30:57.240 –> 31:00.960] along mm-hmm but but I mean that’s the point like at the beginning you’ve got [31:00.960 –> 31:05.360] five and each of them has like a bunch of collections so it’s loads there and [31:05.360 –> 31:10.920] then you get more as you go on as well and the collections are different fish [31:10.920 –> 31:15.400] but I also think different you there’s two different things I’m trying to [31:15.400 –> 31:18.960] figure it out I think one is special fish and one is regular fish oh is that [31:18.960 –> 31:23.600] what it is yeah so you’ve got like if I look at my museum that I actually have [31:23.600 –> 31:27.360] fish in you’ve got the common collection the uncommon collection the rare [31:27.360 –> 31:31.800] collection the epic collection the legendary dark collection the legendary [31:31.800 –> 31:37.240] electric legendary fire legendary grass legendary ice legendary light yep oh so [31:37.240 –> 31:40.240] that’s what I was getting rewards from okay that makes sense yeah I see it now [31:40.240 –> 31:44.400] yeah I think that’s the same for all of them they all have our mm-hmm each of [31:44.400 –> 31:50.920] those collections and it’s nice for them because you just randomly get money [31:50.920 –> 31:58.200] exactly so you can’t beat that but it adds like a nice little achievement goal [31:58.240 –> 32:06.440] yeah there’s so many fish I can’t go over just how many fish there are that’s that and then [32:06.440 –> 32:09.880] there’s like these little event things too like there’s just oh I haven’t tried [32:09.880 –> 32:14.200] and have you tried one of them I haven’t tried it yes they cost like a dollar I [32:14.200 –> 32:24.000] think usually like not real dollar like in-game dollar right okay and you know [32:24.000 –> 32:27.000] I’m not doing great at them but like they’re they’re fun to just like have [32:27.000 –> 32:30.760] something to do while you’re trying to wait for other fish to show up yes I did [32:30.760 –> 32:35.280] one where I had to catch like a b-grade smelt which was really hard yeah they’re [32:35.280 –> 32:41.200] really tiny and they all look like look the same yeah but I did manage it so [32:41.200 –> 32:45.040] it’s just like it’s just like another little thing but I feel like it’s one [32:45.040 –> 32:49.160] of those things that like kind of helps you get more familiar with the fish so [32:49.160 –> 32:55.520] if you are invested in playing the game it’s like again more in-depth way to [32:55.640 –> 33:02.800] play yeah but yeah a lot of fish a lot more fish than I expected yes and I like [33:02.800 –> 33:07.160] how it’s not just catch and sell it’s like catch and give to museum and then [33:07.160 –> 33:10.800] it’s catch and sell so you then yeah you’re like oh yeah so you once you’ve [33:10.800 –> 33:15.560] once you’ve given it to the museum you’re then you are basically selling [33:15.560 –> 33:23.080] them for coins and then you use those coins for upgrades yeah so many upgrades [33:23.120 –> 33:28.920] so many upgrades I don’t do we want to talk about the upgrades for a second [33:28.920 –> 33:34.440] talk about the upgrades so my strategy initially was to focus on attack because [33:34.440 –> 33:38.800] I feel like that’s the most important one you’re not gonna catch anything same [33:38.800 –> 33:42.720] if you don’t have that upgraded and it’s definitely one of those things where [33:42.720 –> 33:47.840] like I would catch most of the fish and I would get like the stars for the fish [33:47.840 –> 33:51.200] in two of the areas but not like one of the areas because I wasn’t strong enough [33:51.440 –> 33:56.280] yeah so it’s like kind of nice because it does give you that like backward play a [33:56.280 –> 33:59.080] little bit where you you can move forward but there’s still things to do [33:59.080 –> 34:03.880] behind you yeah there’s a ton of things to still do behind like behind whatever [34:03.880 –> 34:09.160] level I’m on though too so that’s not even an issue at this moment but then I [34:09.160 –> 34:14.560] made the mistake of upgrading the cast line to the cast distance and then not [34:14.560 –> 34:19.380] realizing that the line length that was nowhere near the same so I had the [34:19.380 –> 34:22.500] ability to cast far enough but I actually did not physically [34:22.500 –> 34:27.060] that’s hilarious yeah so I’ve been slowly catching that up in between like upgrading my [34:27.060 –> 34:30.820] attack now yeah and I really did not care about the real speed because I feel [34:30.820 –> 34:34.820] like no matter what I’m just tapping so yeah well exactly yeah definitely it’s [34:34.820 –> 34:39.740] like I’m not going to I’m not gonna pay for the one that just means that I have [34:39.740 –> 34:43.260] to press less right like I’m gonna do the one that means that I can do things [34:43.260 –> 34:48.340] that I couldn’t previously do mm-hmm because there is literally no way to [34:48.420 –> 34:53.700] catch a fish if it is above your attack level yeah exactly whereas if it’s [34:53.700 –> 35:00.860] slightly under it’s just about time mm-hmm exactly um yeah I think I was [35:00.860 –> 35:05.420] roughly the same kind of just not maxing out but like getting my attack as high [35:05.420 –> 35:13.280] as high as I could and then yeah focusing on the the real length and the [35:13.280 –> 35:17.980] cast distance yeah yeah I was like am I missing something with the real speed so [35:18.020 –> 35:21.940] I upgraded it once and I was like this did nothing for me I suspect it’s the [35:21.940 –> 35:25.740] sort of thing that like maybe endgame you’ll want to have it upgraded because [35:25.740 –> 35:31.060] like some of them will just take so long that if you don’t have it upgraded yeah [35:31.060 –> 35:37.660] yeah that makes sense and so yeah so we’ve talked about upgrades then blah [35:37.660 –> 35:43.580] blah blah blah you get that through selling the fish obviously the there are [35:43.780 –> 35:50.620] different areas and so you start with a couple of areas and then as as Kelly [35:50.620 –> 35:54.060] mentioned there are worlds as well so it’s like you started with just one [35:54.060 –> 35:58.540] world that has one area and then there’s like a one with multiple and you unlock [35:58.540 –> 36:06.840] them as you get more and more stars which is by catching more fish so it’s [36:06.840 –> 36:10.380] all about catching fish you keep catching fish you keep getting getting [36:10.380 –> 36:16.940] stars you get stars you get more places to unlock therefore more fish that you [36:16.940 –> 36:25.540] can get your classic circular circular fish economy and it’s interesting too [36:25.540 –> 36:31.160] because each each world has its own version of bait oh yes so like you can [36:31.160 –> 36:34.940] use the same bait through those three levels in a world but each world itself [36:34.940 –> 36:41.880] has specific yeah it’s interested like the fish the fish will not well why did [36:41.880 –> 36:45.320] the fish in this area not like this kind of it’s like surely the bait would be [36:45.320 –> 36:50.520] first specific fish relevant specific areas but yeah yeah I feel like you [36:50.520 –> 36:55.520] know that’s just that’s more of the simplification side yeah so suspension [36:55.520 –> 37:01.000] of disbelief type thing yeah listen I got I got tiny little fish eaten bigger [37:01.000 –> 37:12.740] fish than them and you can on the line yeah but I like the the illustrations [37:12.740 –> 37:18.160] for the fish hmm yeah there’s definitely like this is obviously our mobile game [37:18.160 –> 37:20.920] it’s definitely a cash grab mobile game but they’ve definitely put a lot of [37:20.920 –> 37:25.000] thought into into things like that there’s there’s good art and the game [37:25.000 –> 37:29.620] itself feels quite nice to play it doesn’t like the you’re kind of your [37:29.620 –> 37:33.760] player character has you know different facial expressions they will do as you [37:33.760 –> 37:38.420] catch and that through the different parts of the the catching process and [37:38.420 –> 37:42.460] stuff like that so yeah there’s lots of nice thought that’s been put into this [37:42.460 –> 37:49.820] relatively simple concept but relatively large actually game mm-hmm exactly like [37:49.820 –> 37:54.140] it’s not there’s there’s definitely more to it than what you would assume [37:54.140 –> 38:03.340] downloading it yeah yeah not just that what you would but what we did and okay [38:03.340 –> 38:06.120] tournaments then you you said you’ve done a tournament don’t tell me what [38:06.120 –> 38:13.020] it’s like because I haven’t done any okay let me see which one did I do I did [38:13.020 –> 38:20.060] I did I did the butterfly fish hunt so you have I just had to catch so each one [38:20.060 –> 38:24.500] of them is different but I had to catch the best butterfly fish I could okay [38:24.500 –> 38:31.780] which at that point I think I had still not fully grasped how to get a better [38:31.7

Today on Soundtracker I put on my creepy mask (sorry, facial prosthetic) and talk with The New Abnormal's Andy Levy (@andylevy on Twitter and Blue Sky) about VANILLA SKY. In this episode, we talk about why critics ravaged this movie when it came out, why its stature has grown over the years, Tom Cruise doing the Tom Cruise thing but for a scumbag character for a change, and as always, the soundtrack. Listen to it today, or listen to it in another life when we're both cats. Although I'd prefer if you listened to it today. Check out The New Abnormal here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-new-abnormal/id1508202790Find me on Select and Start talking to Keifer about Spiritfarer here: https://pod.link/1621573901/episode/a872c6d783c0854624c4befcd6019bdbSupport the show on Patreon! It's the one thing that's gonna help keep the show going: www.patreon.com/soundtracker

At the end of their days, on their way to the beyond, lost souls can always count on the Spiritfarer... Follow Stella, the brand new Spiritfarer, as she learns the meaning of her role to the many spirits she encounters and befriends on their way to the after life. But a Spiritfarer's job isn't limited to getting to know these new friends, she must also care for them, provide them with food and lodging, and upgrade the ship on which they all live in order to accommodate these needs. Farm, cook, craft and sail your way through this beautiful indie game, but be sure to bring plenty of tissues on your way to say goodbye and send each spirit on to the next life. In the eight episode of No Small Games, special guest Pink Umbrella joins Kate and Emily to review their experiences playing the 2D platformer and management sim game Spiritfarer, by Thunder Lotus Games. Learn who were their favorite spirits, which goodbyes hit them the hardest, and even their personal thoughts and feelings about death. Episode Timecodes Meet our Guest - Pink Umbrella ✦ 00:02:45 Weekly Boss Battles ✦ 00:16:15 Spiritfarer Game Discussion ✦ 00:31:00 Next Episode's Game Announcement ✦ 02:03:30 Meet our Guest Pink Umbrella is a French Canadian content creator and variety streamer, who mainly plays creative and cozy games like The Sims, Disney Dreamlight Valley, as well as indie games like Spiritfarer, Bear and Breakfast and more. Outside of content creation, Pink is also a grad student, studying Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Follow Pink on the following platforms: Twitch YouTube Twitter 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

Kev and Jonnie talk about their most and least favourite fishing mini games Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:03:03: What Have We Been Up To 00:12:09: Fishing Mini Games 00:52:14: Ranking 01:02:19: Outro Links Article on fishing in games 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 –> 00:12.000] Music [00:12.000 –> 00:30.000] Music [00:30.000 –> 00:39.000] Hello anglers and welcome to, do we still want to call it the harvest season or is it now the fishing season? [00:39.000 –> 00:43.000] Well I think this is the fishing season of the harvest season. [00:43.000 –> 00:51.000] Alright we’re harvesting, I mean fish farms are a thing, hatcheries. Hello everyone, I’m Kevin. [00:51.000 –> 00:53.000] And I’m Johnny. [00:53.000 –> 00:55.000] Yeah, my co-host Johnny here. [00:55.000 –> 01:06.000] We are, I guess this is the first, if I understand the order correctly, of a very special, I think it’s going to be a month roughly? [01:06.000 –> 01:08.000] Yeah, fishing month. [01:08.000 –> 01:10.000] Fishing month, yeah, it’s a very special month. [01:10.000 –> 01:22.000] We are taking a break from the usual pottagecore and farming, well, it’s more of like a tangent than something completely different. [01:22.000 –> 01:31.000] We won’t be covering news, partly because Al will be on vacation during all this time so he won’t be editing. [01:32.000 –> 01:39.000] But yeah, so this kicks off our month where we talk about fishing! [01:39.000 –> 01:47.000] Which we’ve always kind of joked about behind the scenes but I don’t know how I wanted to pull the trigger and really do it. [01:47.000 –> 01:55.000] There’s a lot of fishing in a lot of these cottagecore games and gaming in general as we’ll talk about today. [01:55.000 –> 01:58.000] So we have lots to say about it. [01:58.000 –> 02:00.000] Yeah, lots to say about fishing. [02:00.000 –> 02:10.000] And just a brief reminder before we get into the deep water here, transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website. [02:10.000 –> 02:18.000] But I’m really excited to get stuck into fishing month. I have opinions about fishing in cottagecore games. [02:18.000 –> 02:25.000] Yeah, like, oh boy, I mean it’s not just cottagecore, fishing minigames are everywhere. [02:25.000 –> 02:40.000] Speaking of which, I think we should say that today on this episode we’re specifically going to be discussing fishing minigames and listing some of our favorites and least favorites. [02:40.000 –> 02:50.000] And I think we’re going to try to determine the harvest season official best fishing minigame of all time. [02:50.000 –> 02:58.000] We’re not going to try. We will endorse a fishing minigame as the best fishing minigame in cottagecore games. [02:58.000 –> 03:05.000] Alright. But before that, Gani, what have you been up to? [03:05.000 –> 03:12.000] Why have I been up to? I have been playing the most anti-cottagecore game possible, I think. [03:12.000 –> 03:17.000] And I’ve been farming the demons of hell in Diablo 4. [03:17.000 –> 03:24.000] I love Diablo. I was really into Diablo 3, even when people really hated Diablo 3. [03:24.000 –> 03:28.000] And I was still really into Diablo 3 when everyone got on board with that game. [03:28.000 –> 03:38.000] And so I’m really enjoying Diablo 4. It’s just a really good action-adventure, kill-all-the-things-on-the-screen sort of game. [03:38.000 –> 03:44.000] I’m not super deep into it yet, haven’t had a ton of time, but I am really enjoying it. [03:44.000 –> 03:50.000] It’s just a good one of those games. If you like one of those games, you probably already know and are probably already playing Diablo 4. [03:50.000 –> 03:56.000] And if you don’t like those games, it’s not going to make you like this sort of game anymore, but it’s excellent. [03:56.000 –> 04:01.000] Yeah, that’s cool. I’ve never played a Diablo game, but I hear this one’s good. [04:01.000 –> 04:03.000] It’s very good. [04:03.000 –> 04:10.000] Yeah, that’s awesome. They’re good on you. Actually, I’ve never played, so I can’t speak to it. [04:10.000 –> 04:19.000] But I mean, I think it’s like, what’s on the box is what you get, right? There’s a demon, go kill it. [04:19.000 –> 04:20.000] Very much. [04:21.000 –> 04:29.000] Go farm loot, look at gear, be disappointed that it’s, you know, the number isn’t slightly higher than, you know, it’s a number-go-up sort of game, right? [04:29.000 –> 04:47.000] Yeah. No, I get it. I’ve played, I’m not playing that type of game too much, but surprisingly, well, not surprisingly, my brother Calvin, he’s a big, big Minecraft fan since he was of that generation or whatever. [04:47.000 –> 04:54.000] So he played Minecraft Legends, which I understand is of the, basically the same genre, just the Minecraft skin. [04:54.000 –> 04:57.000] So it’s just worse because it’s got the Minecraft skin? [04:57.000 –> 05:00.000] Well, I mean… [05:03.000 –> 05:12.000] As a slightly aged gamer, I love, you know, propelling new games that all of the kids are into. [05:13.000 –> 05:20.000] Yeah, yeah, no, I get you. But yeah, so you just do runs and get loot at the end, right? Is that how it works? [05:20.000 –> 05:22.000] Yeah, pretty much. [05:22.000 –> 05:30.000] Yep. All right. Yeah, I get it. No, it’s a satisfying loop. Like you said, it gets a bigger number and go back in to get the bigger number. [05:30.000 –> 05:32.000] Yeah, but that’s down below. What have you been up to, Kiv? [05:32.000 –> 05:45.000] Oh, I have been very busy in my personal life, a lot of out-towning, so my gaming time has been limited, and so I’ve been doing a lot of the mobile gaming lately. [05:45.000 –> 05:56.000] Pokemon Masters is Pokemon Masters, my gotcha game of choice. Still no, they introduced those two people from Legends. [05:56.000 –> 06:05.000] It was Edmin and Iridia, the two clan leaders. This is the most I’ve spent, like not actual money, but like the in-game currency on pulls and still haven’t pulled one of them. [06:05.000 –> 06:15.000] But aside from my hopeless gambling addiction, I’ve been playing Marvel Snap, which is, hey, it’s really good. But I mean, like really good right now. [06:15.000 –> 06:23.000] It’s really fun. I don’t feel oppressed by other decks. You can play kind of whatever you want right now, it feels like, and have fun. [06:23.000 –> 06:26.000] You definitely can. Have you been playing the Conquest mode? [06:26.000 –> 06:38.000] Yeah, so they introduced this new mode called Conquest, where basically it’s more than just the best of one, because usually just you play against one player in one game and that’s it. [06:38.000 –> 06:50.000] But now there’s like this, try to win X number of points in a couple of games. I have played it, I have mixed feelings on it, I think it’s a cool thing they tried. [06:50.000 –> 07:01.000] But the problem is you get locked into a number of games with the 12 cards you have and you kind of can’t counter anything, right? [07:01.000 –> 07:08.000] So if you’re up against a deck that just completely crushes you, that’s it. There’s nothing you can do. Just quit as soon as you can. [07:08.000 –> 07:19.000] You can play better or play a better deck. That’s the counter. I kind of get where you’re coming from, but I think Conquest changes the way that you play Snap quite a bit when you play on ladder and it’s best of one. [07:19.000 –> 07:28.000] You can be very all in on the strategy of your deck and not build in a lot of that flexibility because you might run into those decks fairly infrequently. [07:28.000 –> 07:36.000] Whereas a mode like Conquest encourages decks that have a wider variety of counters sort of naturally built into them. [07:36.000 –> 07:44.000] So I’ve been playing the Good Stuff deck and part of the reason I really like that deck for the format is it has a bunch of counters already in it. [07:44.000 –> 07:54.000] It has Shang-Chi, it has Enchantress, so it’s got a number of counters sort of already built in which gives it a lot more flexibility to play in Conquest mode. [07:54.000 –> 08:04.000] Yeah, that makes sense. I know Good Stuff is, well, a good stuff, but I haven’t gotten to it yet because I’ve been having fun with other dumb decks. [08:04.000 –> 08:15.000] There’s spiders across the Spider-Verse movies out, so they’re doing a lot of Spider-Man people in the game right now and I’m playing a deck with a lot of Spider-Man people. [08:15.000 –> 08:21.000] Silk is cool! If you don’t know Comics, look up Silk from the comics because she’s cool. [08:22.000 –> 08:24.000] I don’t know Silk, but I’m a big fan of the cat. [08:24.000 –> 08:31.000] She’s really cool. She’s like the Chinese-American version of Peter Parker. [08:31.000 –> 08:39.000] Anyways, so that’s Marvel Snap. Other than that, I’ve been playing Octopath Traveler, just that classic Square Enix Final Fantasy… [08:39.000 –> 08:48.000] Basically, Final Fantasy, archetypal, good JRPG with the turn-based and classes. [08:48.000 –> 08:53.000] It’s a game I can turn on and grind and turn my brain off and enjoy. [08:53.000 –> 08:56.000] But yeah, that’s all I’ve been up to. [08:56.000 –> 09:03.000] How far into Octopath Traveler are you? It was one of those games that I tried when it first came out and it kind of just didn’t quite grab me. [09:03.000 –> 09:06.000] But I didn’t get that far into it either. [09:07.000 –> 09:10.000] Actually, that’s a great question. [09:10.000 –> 09:19.000] There are eight characters, hence the Octo in the name, and they each have their own little story line. [09:19.000 –> 09:22.000] There’s chapters to each story. [09:22.000 –> 09:30.000] Basically, the way the game structures it, you do chapter one of every one, then do chapter two of every one, chapter three. [09:30.000 –> 09:37.000] And then chapter four is the final level, and I have reached the chapter four for basically everyone. [09:37.000 –> 09:46.000] So I’m at the quote-unquote endgame, so I’m finding the final towns, the final parts of the map, and it’s… [09:46.000 –> 09:48.000] I mean, I still really enjoy it. [09:48.000 –> 09:53.000] It’s somewhat challenging, at least a lot of the bosses and the fights are. [09:54.000 –> 10:00.000] A lot of them are kind of endurance tests and structuring your party well. [10:00.000 –> 10:12.000] I mean, if you like that type of battle system, because that’s really what it amounts to, a really incredible, well-polished battle system, you’ll enjoy Octopath. [10:12.000 –> 10:21.000] But I hear that sequel, Octopath 2, actually improves a lot of the weak areas of the first game, so much that it probably invalidates the first game. [10:21.000 –> 10:25.000] So if you haven’t played Octopath, just play Octopath 2. You won’t be missing anything. [10:25.000 –> 10:35.000] Cool. Yeah, I think I got through some of the first act with most of the characters and kind of bounced off about them. [10:35.000 –> 10:39.000] But I think it’s one of those things with these JRPGs is that they are… [10:39.000 –> 10:50.000] It’s one of the genres that I feel is most sort of holding on to the nostalgia feel, particularly around grinds and some of the strategy in a way that I think is really good. [10:50.000 –> 11:00.000] It sort of differentiates the genre from some of the more modern RPGs in a way that I really like, but it also makes these games a real time suck, right? [11:00.000 –> 11:11.000] Yeah, well, yes and no, because on the one hand, a lot of the battles are grindy and like a boss battle can easily take you 20, 30 minutes. [11:11.000 –> 11:24.000] I’ll say 20, 30 might be a bit long, but either way. But the kicker is, since you’re just going through and beating all these random encounters, you don’t feel like you have to invest a lot of time, right? [11:24.000 –> 11:34.000] Like, okay, I’m just going to play this for 10 minutes and just try to go through this area. Just go through a few battles, level up some guys. [11:34.000 –> 11:45.000] It’s not super plot driven, so you won’t feel like, oh, I don’t remember what I’m doing or whatever. You can just kind of jump in and play for a little bit every day. [11:45.000 –> 11:50.000] But I mean, I say that, but I have like 80 hours in the game, so it is a big time suck. [11:50.000 –> 11:54.000] Nice. [11:54.000 –> 12:04.000] But I don’t hear that from anyone. You’re all playing Tears of the Kingdom. But so, yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to mobile gaming, Octopath. [12:04.000 –> 12:19.000] Now, like I said, we’re not earlier. We’re not doing any news. So let’s dive right on in to these fish infested waters and talk about fishing. [12:19.000 –> 12:30.000] And I thought I thought a good place to start would be a little bit of the history of fishing minigames, and I don’t know too much about it. [12:30.000 –> 12:45.000] But one of the things that I came across when I was doing some research for this episode is that, you know, a lot of the desire and the impetus for fishing minigames came out of Japan because it’s such a strong element of the, you know, Japanese economy and culture. [12:45.000 –> 12:57.000] Obviously, being an island nation, fishing is a huge component of their way of life, which is just something that I’d never really considered before, but makes total sense when you read it. [12:57.000 –> 13:12.000] Yeah. Yeah, of course. Like, me too. I never thought about it, but yeah, of course. Yeah, so much of their culture, what they eat, all around the sea and fishing and all that good stuff. [13:13.000 –> 13:22.000] Yeah, we’ll definitely be dropping the link in the show notes for this article from the Washington Post. It’s definitely worth a read. We’ll be referencing it. [13:23.000 –> 13:39.000] But yeah, that history. Like, I’m going to be paraphrasing slash taking out of context quotes from this article, but fishing has been pretty prevalent in gaming. [13:39.000 –> 13:55.000] From, let’s see here, it says like the first one is in 77, a tech space adventure based on fishing. Three years later, so that would be what, like 1980? We got a fishing derby game from Activision. [13:55.000 –> 14:04.000] That’s really old. That’s older than like most genres, which is pretty crazy to think about, at least in terms of gaming, right? [14:04.000 –> 14:26.000] Yeah, it’s pretty wild. It’s just a, you know, a much longer history than I guess I would have assumed, but it does make sense because it’s a, you know, at the basics of it is a relatively simple mechanic, which probably explains why it still persists as a mini game in so many games today, right? Because it’s potentially relatively simple to implement. [14:26.000 –> 14:51.000] Yep. Yeah, definitely. That’s something this article that goes on to talk about for sure. Because like, again, just going off this article, Zelda was apparently the first fishing mini game? Link’s Awakening, I didn’t realize that, but again, of course, a Japanese game makes a lot of sense that the developers did there. [14:51.000 –> 15:01.000] But like, I just think about the history of fishing mini or, you know, my own personal history and like, wow, like, yeah, it’s always kind of been there. [15:01.000 –> 15:13.000] I would be surprised to hear someone, well, I guess it kind of depends on what kind of games you play, right? Because if you don’t play racing games, you’re not playing fishing mini games. [15:13.000 –> 15:34.000] But if you’re a fan of this show, or maybe someone who enjoys gaming on perhaps a wider scale, you know, I mean, not just a casual phone gamer, I’m sure people played, you know, multi hour games, they’ve had some experience with fishing games, or mini games. [15:34.000 –> 15:40.000] And it’s just really fascinating to think about the wide, wide history. [15:41.000 –> 15:51.000] And it wasn’t until I started thinking about this episode that I really considered the range of games that, you know, fishing is in, because it’s obviously super prevalent in Cottagecore games. [15:51.000 –> 15:57.000] But equally, it’s in, you know, it’s in games like Hades, right? It’s in roguelikes now. [15:57.000 –> 15:58.000] Monster Hunter. [15:59.000 –> 16:08.000] Yeah, Monster Hunter, you’ve got your big open world games like Red Dead Redemption and Final Fantasy 16? 15? [16:08.000 –> 16:15.000] I think all of them, Final Fantasy, insert whatever, you’ll find fishing of some kind. [16:15.000 –> 16:21.000] Oh, yeah, but one of the more recent ones that had such a good fishing mini game that they did a whole spin off game based on it. [16:21.000 –> 16:36.000] Yeah, 15. So, yeah, 15, like that, the star, protagonist Noctis, voiced by Ray Chase, who viewer listeners may or may not know from another episode. [16:36.000 –> 16:47.000] He was, he loved fishing. There was an in game quote, he’s the Prince of Lucius, which is like the fictional country, but he’s the king of fishing. [16:47.000 –> 16:56.000] And yeah, they did a whole VR spin off game for it. Yeah, that was really fun. Yeah, 15, lots of fishing there. [16:56.000 –> 17:05.000] So Kiv, before we dive into the mechanics of fishing, I have a question. In general, would you say you are a fan of fishing mini games? [17:05.000 –> 17:08.000] I’ll say yes. Yes. What about you, Johnny? [17:08.000 –> 17:16.000] I’m going to say no. And the reason I say no is kind of on the basis of that conversation that we’ve just had. Fishing is everywhere. [17:16.000 –> 17:25.000] It’s too much fishing. It’s, to me, it feels a little bit played out. And it’s one of those things, particularly in the context of cottagecore games. [17:25.000 –> 17:32.000] Now, when I see fishing, I kind of just start to roll my eyes a little bit and like, can we can we try something else? [17:32.000 –> 17:44.000] You know, maybe, you know, not to go too better, but I feel like fishing has maybe jumped the shark a little bit in terms of being a mechanic in cottagecore games, [17:44.000 –> 17:59.000] where it’s one of those things that has become such a staple of the genre that I worry that a lot of devs now are including fishing in their game without really thinking about what does this add to the game? [17:59.000 –> 18:11.000] Does it add anything meaningful? And, you know, there are some games that absolutely do add some things that are, you know, does add something meaningful or something that makes sense. [18:11.000 –> 18:19.000] But there’s equally a number of games where I just look at it and go, but why? What is this really adding to your world other than the world happened to have water? [18:19.000 –> 18:22.000] And so you logically thought, well, let’s put fishing in. [18:22.000 –> 18:35.000] Yep. I totally agree with you. But before I dive into more into that, because there’s some interesting thoughts in the article about that, here’s another counter question for you. [18:35.000 –> 18:39.000] Have you fished in real life? Do you enjoy fishing in real life if you have? [18:39.000 –> 18:46.000] I have fished in real life. I live in New Zealand, which is an island nation, so fishing is also pretty big here. [18:46.000 –> 19:00.000] Personally, though, I’m not really into fishing that much. I like going on fishing trips where other people can fish and I can sit on the other end of the boat and read a book. [19:00.000 –> 19:09.000] I much prefer to be on the cooking end. I’m really happy if other people want to go on a fish. I will take the fish and happily cook it up. [19:09.000 –> 19:10.000] Yeah, that’s a good start. [19:10.000 –> 19:22.000] But the actual act of fishing is I’m not super into. The one caveat and the one sort of fishing I would like to try and haven’t tried yet is river angling. [19:22.000 –> 19:27.000] You know, where you get in the big waders and stand in the river with the fly fishing rod and do some proper fly fishing. [19:27.000 –> 19:31.000] I think that that might be a sort of fishing that I could get into. [19:31.000 –> 19:34.000] Jump up and slap you in the face. Yeah, good times. [19:37.000 –> 19:48.000] OK, see, this is interesting because I grew up by the coast here in the United States in California. [19:48.000 –> 19:59.000] I didn’t fish myself that much, but my uncle was a big fisher and my dad liked to go to the beach, so I spent a lot of time by the beach. [19:59.000 –> 20:11.000] There’s a fishing pier I have fond fond memories of. And just generally speaking, I like the ocean and waters in general and the critters inside it. [20:11.000 –> 20:16.000] Just today I went on a jog and I was just admiring like this huge fish I saw in this pond. [20:16.000 –> 20:33.000] But yeah, that’s interesting. I wonder how those, you know, or just in general, I’d mention the correlation of people’s personal histories and their appreciation of fishing minigames, or distaste for them. [20:33.000 –> 20:49.000] But going back to the game part of it. OK, so yes, I fully agree with you that I think too many cottage quarters are putting fishing in. [20:49.000 –> 21:02.000] But it’s interesting to think why, from a developer standpoint, because this article talks about it. And I’ll let you speak about it, Jonna, since you read it a bit more. [21:02.000 –> 21:09.000] Yeah, I think in the article that’s being referenced there’s a few quotes from the Spiritfarer Creative Director. [21:09.000 –> 21:11.000] I like that guy. [21:11.000 –> 21:18.000] Nicholas Guiran. It’s probably a horrible butchering of the pronunciation. [21:18.000 –> 21:24.000] But he kind of talks about fishing games being a nice chore, which is a really interesting point, right? [21:25.000 –> 21:37.000] Because I think that makes total sense in the context of, you know, a big sort of action adventure game like Final Fantasy or Red Dead Redemption, or even in the context of Hades, right? [21:37.000 –> 21:42.000] Where fishing is like this nice little mental break from whatever it is that you’re doing. [21:42.000 –> 21:49.000] But it’s really interesting in the context of a cottage core game where the whole game is kind of nice chores. [21:49.000 –> 21:50.000] Right? [21:50.000 –> 22:00.000] So I think in the context of cottage core games, it seems to be a little bit more of a, A, maybe there’s just an expectation or a default setting that we include fishing. [22:00.000 –> 22:16.000] But also one of the things that’s referenced or that Nicholas references is the fact that maybe it’s a little bit of sort of the creative competition between developers or game designers to show this is our take on fishing and the fishing mechanic. [22:16.000 –> 22:21.000] And here’s our attempt at doing it really, really well, which I think is interesting. [22:21.000 –> 22:31.000] And maybe we can start to segue this a little bit into talking to some of the mechanics, because I think Spiritfarer is one of the games that does fishing pretty well in my estimation. [22:31.000 –> 22:44.000] I think the way the rod breaking sort of mechanic works, you know, where you’ve got the stress testing, it’s the right balance of feeling enough like a mini game, but not being excessively difficult. [22:44.000 –> 22:50.000] And Spiritfarer would be a really weird game to not have fishing, given that the entire game takes place on a boat. [22:50.000 –> 22:51.000] It would, right? [22:54.000 –> 22:57.000] Yeah, no, excuse me, I totally agree. [22:58.000 –> 23:13.000] It’s really interesting to peel back why I enjoy fishing minigames and looking at these thoughts from developers on why they’re put in. [23:13.000 –> 23:16.000] Because like you said, again, it’s a nice chore, right? [23:16.000 –> 23:18.000] And like I said, I like fish. [23:18.000 –> 23:25.000] So for instance, Animal Crossing, I like fishing because I like finding all the sea creatures and putting them in the museum. [23:26.000 –> 23:41.000] But like the actual mechanics, because that’s the other component, the actual gameplay, quote unquote, for the fishing, has to be enjoyable or whatever, right? [23:42.000 –> 23:52.000] And there’s some that like, so I think about, I’m going to bring up Roots of Pacha, which I’ve talked about at length and played recently at length. [23:52.000 –> 23:57.000] The fishing there maybe doesn’t add too much overall. [23:58.000 –> 24:14.000] Again, it feels kind of like just a staple, but the gameplay, quote unquote, part of it is so, I find it so refreshing that I really enjoy that minigame just because of the gameplay part of it. [24:14.000 –> 24:16.000] Again, at least in the spectrum. [24:16.000 –> 24:20.000] So maybe, what is the Roots of Pacha fishing minigame? [24:20.000 –> 24:30.000] Okay, so what it does is it brings up like this circular pool, like you’re looking down at the fish and see their shadows, right? [24:30.000 –> 24:41.000] And you’re kind of, with your cursor, you’re following the fish and a little meter builds up and then you push the button when it’s at the appropriate length. [24:41.000 –> 24:44.000] But the fish will like start to notice you and you have to back off. [24:44.000 –> 24:51.000] And essentially it’s trying to emulate like a type of spear fishing because this is, you know, Stone Age, they don’t have fishing rods. [24:51.000 –> 24:58.000] So it’s like that you’re following the fish in the water and waiting for the right moment to catch it or strike at it or whatever. [24:58.000 –> 25:04.000] And I found that so novel because it’s not just a timing thing. [25:04.000 –> 25:13.000] It’s a movement based thing, both in terms of like you’re moving your cursor and like how they’re presenting it. [25:13.000 –> 25:20.000] And you just, it’s not just your everyday fishing rod timing based minigame. [25:20.000 –> 25:27.000] And it fits with the theme of the Stone Age so well, like, yeah, that’s how those Stone Age people probably fish to survive. [25:28.000 –> 25:34.000] You know, they can’t go to the store to buy dinner or whatever, so they have to fish to get their food. [25:34.000 –> 25:40.000] So even though, like, I don’t remember a single fish in that game because they gave them all weird names, [25:40.000 –> 25:48.000] I still really enjoy that minigame just because it fit the game so well and the little gameplay of it was so different. [25:48.000 –> 25:50.000] Yeah, that sounds really good and it sounds really novel. [25:50.000 –> 25:56.000] And I think that’s, you know, when I think about what I want from fishing minigames and cottagecore games, that sounds like exactly it. [25:56.000 –> 26:00.000] You know, it makes sense in the world and the context that’s being set. [26:00.000 –> 26:04.000] It’s a very novel approach. [26:04.000 –> 26:11.000] And you sort of touched on it briefly, but a lot of the fishing minigames are sort of these timing based minigames. [26:11.000 –> 26:17.000] And they’re sort of the range of, and probably what I would put more down, the simple end of the spectrum. [26:17.000 –> 26:22.000] And this is often for me the category where it feels like it’s sort of the most tacked on. [26:22.000 –> 26:30.000] And, you know, one of the games that I’ll sort of use as a reference point is Disney Dreamlight Valley, where fishing is in that game. [26:30.000 –> 26:34.000] And it’s a very simple, you know, timing based thing. [26:34.000 –> 26:43.000] You know, the only times I fail are when I, you know, start checking my phone in the middle of the fishing minigame or get like briefly distracted. [26:43.000 –> 26:47.000] But it’s a very generous sort of timing based minigame. [26:47.000 –> 26:56.000] But overall fishing doesn’t add a huge amount to that game other than it’s, you know, you need to go and fish certain things up for quests. [26:56.000 –> 27:05.000] But it’s more these things exist, you know, the quests and the reason to interact with fishing exist because fishing exists. [27:05.000 –> 27:12.000] It doesn’t feel like fishing is this crucially important part of what’s happening in Disney Dreamlight Valley, [27:12.000 –> 27:19.000] which is all about interacting with characters and, you know, Disney characters in a cottagecore setting. [27:19.000 –> 27:25.000] And the other game that you reference right at the start of the conversation, which has a timing element, is Animal Crossing. [27:25.000 –> 27:32.000] And what I like about Animal Crossing fishing is the collection aspect of it. [27:32.000 –> 27:37.000] But the fishing minigame itself is just unbelievably tedious. [27:37.000 –> 27:47.000] You know, the combination of needing to get the direction exactly right with the sort of just boring wait to press a version of it. [27:47.000 –> 27:53.000] I don’t think the fishing minigame in Animal Crossing is particularly good or interesting. [27:54.000 –> 28:02.000] Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you on paper. It’s definitely just the slot machine, no fishing game. [28:02.000 –> 28:07.000] But I still like it, though, because the collection, like you said. [28:07.000 –> 28:13.000] OK, but I want to go back to one step here to the Disney Dreamlight Valley. [28:13.000 –> 28:18.000] I got two comments on that. First, what you said there reminds me of Wildflowers. [28:18.000 –> 28:22.000] Hey, Kevin mentioning Fowlflowers. Reset the clock. [28:22.000 –> 28:29.000] I don’t think the fishing there adds a lot because it’s just pretty much like what you described. [28:29.000 –> 28:36.000] Very generous timing and you fish up your average nothing special fish. [28:36.000 –> 28:43.000] And what’s disappointing is that there’s these magical areas in Wildflowers, right? [28:43.000 –> 28:48.000] Because there’s witchcraft and the magical forest area. [28:48.000 –> 28:54.000] But there’s only one type of magical fish, which I found to be very disappointing. [28:54.000 –> 28:58.000] Possibly one of the biggest disappointments in the game. [28:58.000 –> 29:07.000] You know, I think they really missed an opportunity to add a bunch of magical fish to do all sorts of potions and whatnot. [29:07.000 –> 29:11.000] So, yeah, no, I definitely understand what you’re saying there. [29:11.000 –> 29:15.000] But the second comment I have for Disney Dreamlight Valley, and here’s the important. [29:15.000 –> 29:22.000] This is what makes or breaks it for me. Can you fish up Flounder as in the character, not the type of fish? [29:22.000 –> 29:28.000] You couldn’t last time I played and I’m pretty sure I’m pretty sure they’re not going to let you fish up Flounder. [29:28.000 –> 29:34.000] I failed! That’s the point! [29:34.000 –> 29:40.000] I want to call up Nemo, darn it! [29:40.000 –> 29:44.000] I don’t know that that’s going to be happening in the game. [29:44.000 –> 29:49.000] What’s the point? [29:49.000 –> 29:54.000] So what about the slightly more involved fishing mechanics? [29:54.000 –> 30:01.000] I’m thinking of Stardew Valley as sort of the quintessential example of a slightly more in-depth mini-game. [30:01.000 –> 30:08.000] Where you’re having to keep the fish in the green zone in order to reel it in. [30:09.000 –> 30:18.000] I like those on paper. I think the Stardew team or Concerned Ape or whoever said, [30:18.000 –> 30:24.000] okay, everyone knows that Animal Crossing fishing is like, let’s make it a little more interesting. [30:24.000 –> 30:31.000] And I think that’s a good idea. I don’t think Stardew specifically does it well. [30:31.000 –> 30:37.000] But Spiritfarer I think is a good example of that, right? [30:37.000 –> 30:42.000] Where the fish is tugging on it. There’s essentially a green zone, you don’t see the bar. [30:42.000 –> 30:47.000] But there’s a green zone and it tells you when the fish is going to break the line or whatever. [30:47.000 –> 30:51.000] So I do appreciate some of those. [30:51.000 –> 30:55.000] I think because this is kind of the middle of the spectrum, right? [30:55.000 –> 31:00.000] It’s not just one button push fishing and it’s not the full fishing simulator. [31:00.000 –> 31:06.000] This I think is the most mixed bag of quality. [31:06.000 –> 31:09.000] Or at least for me personally, how I enjoy them. [31:09.000 –> 31:14.000] On paper I do like the idea of trying to make the fishing more interesting. [31:14.000 –> 31:18.000] Again, Roots of Patch I think really knocks it out of the park. [31:18.000 –> 31:21.000] Spiritfarer I really enjoyed. [31:21.000 –> 31:25.000] But there are some that aren’t great like Stardew. What about you? [31:25.000 –> 31:31.000] I could not agree more. I think Stardew Valley fishing is just an abomination. [31:31.000 –> 31:34.000] It’s so bad. It’s not fun. [31:34.000 –> 31:43.000] And I think one of the worst things about it is it’s the sort of fishing minigames that A kind of gets easier over time. [31:43.000 –> 31:49.000] And in order to balance it there are some fish that are really easy to catch and they’re kind of boring. [31:49.000 –> 31:52.000] And then the hard fish kind of just bounce around all over the space. [31:52.000 –> 31:55.000] And it’s just like it’s so frustrating to try and catch it. [31:55.000 –> 32:06.000] It’s like once you catch the fish for whether it’s for the full collection log or for the community center and you finally get that one fish. [32:06.000 –> 32:10.000] My instinctive response is thank God I don’t have to do that again. [32:10.000 –> 32:12.000] Oh gosh yes. [32:12.000 –> 32:18.000] If that’s how as a player you are responding to a game mechanic, that’s a sign that that is a bad game mechanic, right? [32:18.000 –> 32:27.000] If you’re like wow thankfully I’ve done that and now I never have to do that thing again, it’s a sign that it’s not great. [32:27.000 –> 32:32.000] And yes I really don’t enjoy the fishing in Stardew Valley. [32:32.000 –> 32:36.000] I enjoyed it in Spiritfarer for me that was sort of the right level. [32:36.000 –> 32:41.000] It was necessary to progress some elements of the story. [32:41.000 –> 32:49.000] But like you said the reeling in mechanic you know it’s kind of got that green zone effect but it happens in a much more natural way. [32:49.000 –> 32:51.000] A way that’s much more integrated with the world. [32:51.000 –> 33:00.000] It’s not a pop-up that happens on screen like so many fishing minigames are where it’s you know some weird pop-up and then keep a thing in a thing style mechanic. [33:00.000 –> 33:09.000] So for me that’s a pretty great example of a fishing minigame that I think really works. [33:09.000 –> 33:13.000] And it’s not something you have to do all of the time either. [33:13.000 –> 33:19.000] You can do it if you want but it’s not like a necessary thing to really progress too much in the game. [33:19.000 –> 33:22.000] Yeah yeah no I agree for sure. [33:22.000 –> 33:31.000] And I guess there aren’t many examples but there’s the far end of the spectrum like Spiritfarer on steroids. [33:31.000 –> 33:38.000] Have you ever played like any serious fishing simulators or more in-depth fishing minigames? [33:38.000 –> 33:45.000] Not in the cottagecore genre but the one I always think of is the fishing minigame in Red Dead Redemption 2. [33:45.000 –> 33:50.000] So that’s one where you’re sort of actively pulling your rod you know against the fish. [33:50.000 –> 33:56.000] You’ve got to reel in at certain times, let go at certain times kind of like the Spiritfarer one. [33:56.000 –> 34:03.000] So it’s kind of that next step up and it’s probably not at the far end of the you know full fishing simulator. [34:03.000 –> 34:10.000] But it’s incorporating you know multiple mechanics where you’re reeling, you’re pulling the rod in a certain direction. [34:10.000 –> 34:14.000] You can do a hard yank and all sorts of things. [34:14.000 –> 34:17.000] I haven’t seen it in a cottagecore game. [34:17.000 –> 34:28.000] I’m not sure that I would want to see it in a cottagecore game unless it was a sort of very specifically fishing based cottagecore game. [34:28.000 –> 34:32.000] I was about to say that that’s what we I’m surprised we haven’t really gotten that yet. [34:32.000 –> 34:39.000] It feels like we’re overdue for a very fishing based cottagecore game. [34:39.000 –> 34:42.000] Yeah let’s I want to see that. [34:42.000 –> 34:51.000] But I mean I haven’t played Red Dead but I have played Sonic Frontiers and hey Sega they made Sega Bass Pro Fishing. [34:51.000 –> 34:55.000] So guess what they can make a darn good fishing minigame with Big the Cat. [34:55.000 –> 34:57.000] They actually made him cool in that game. [34:57.000 –> 35:04.000] I will reference Big the Cat in every single one of these fishing episodes. [35:04.000 –> 35:06.000] I will not be stopped. [35:06.000 –> 35:14.000] Okay so but I think that more or less covers the gamut of the you know kinds of fishing games. [35:14.000 –> 35:18.000] So let’s see here what. [35:18.000 –> 35:20.000] Well let’s talk about the reward system right. [35:20.000 –> 35:26.000] So what do you actually get out of fishing because this is where I think this is one of those things. [35:26.000 –> 35:40.000] It’s slightly different from the mechanics and one of the things that I found referenced in a few places that I found really interesting is there was a bit of comparison drawn between fishing minigames and loot boxes. [35:40.000 –> 35:49.000] The idea being that you know often in fishing minigames like part of it is like what fish am I actually getting out and you don’t know until you complete the activity. [35:49.000 –> 35:57.000] And that sort of triggering the same spot in your brain that’s like well I’m looking for the rare fish or the big fish or whatever it is. [35:57.000 –> 36:06.000] And when that was mentioned like it made sense to me primarily in the context of a game like Animal Crossing right where you’re going around hunting for those big fish spots. [36:06.000 –> 36:12.000] And then you know you go and reel in maybe it’s the shark spot and you reel in the sunfish and you’re annoyed because you’re really after the great white or whatever it is. [36:12.000 –> 36:23.000] Like I was like ah like maybe that is the thing about fishing minigames and why they’re kind of you know quite good is because they do have that loot boxy element in every other aspect of a cottagecore game. [36:23.000 –> 36:35.000] You pretty much know what you’re getting out but fishing is that sort of blind box element of randomness that can be brought in a really easy way in a way that makes sense in the world. [36:35.000 –> 36:51.000] Yeah yeah um yeah no it’s man seeing that comparison to loot boxes or the Pavlovian button you know like oh that was rough to hear because I totally see it now. [36:51.000 –> 37:00.000] I enjoy Animal Crossing but it’s the fishing it’s totally just that just a slot machine I just like pushing the button to get the cool thing. [37:01.000 –> 37:14.000] And you’re probably going through the same thing I went through like when I first heard that comparison I just had a real moment of like oh my god the way I have responded to fishing in Animal Crossing is kind of like someone that keeps losing on the slot machine right. [37:14.000 –> 37:27.000] You’re trying to fish up that one fish before the season ends and you’re just like actively running around really angry and you know like kind of frustrated at this cute cozy game because you’re not getting that one fish it’s just like I feel really really attacked. [37:27.000 –> 37:34.000] Yep yep I’m tagged in this post and I don’t like it. [37:36.000 –> 37:49.000] But that said though like but the fish are so cool the reward’s so nice right pulling up your first shark or filling up that museum I love it I love it I love sea creatures so. [37:50.000 –> 38:02.000] No it is it is great and it’s one of the things about Animal Crossing and it’s why ultimately the fishing still works is you know there’s fishing in terms of the mechanic and what you get when you feel you know when you pull it out. [38:02.000 –> 38:12.000] But then there’s also the so what do you actually get out of the fish right what do they mean in the context of the rest of the game because it’s not just fishing is a thing that you do and then it’s done. [38:12.000 –> 38:29.000] Like he said with Animal Crossing I love filling up the museum and walking around and seeing all of the fish in there and outside of that fish are a relatively good money maker so I that’s why I really like the ultimately on balance I think fishing in Animal Crossing is okay. [38:29.000 –> 38:42.000] Versus something like Stardew Valley where it’s like yeah you need the fish to complete some community bundles and to complete some stuff and they kind of used a little bit in cooking but cooking isn’t like some majorly essential thing to do in Stardew Valley. [38:42.000 –> 38:50.000] And outside of that it’s kind of terrible right it’s a terrible money maker it doesn’t really help you achieve anything else. [38:50.000 –> 39:01.000] It’s kind of just feels like tacked on in this way that’s kind of needed from a content perspective but it feels very disjointed from everything else that happens in Stardew Valley. [39:01.000 –> 39:30.000] Absolutely which again yeah I guess which feeds into why I’m not fond of the Stardew fishing for that exact reason right yeah like I can’t think of a reason aside from the filling out the collection like you said and thank God I never have to do it again I aside from that I don’t can’t remember like enjoying fishing particularly at Stardew at all or catching anything like I don’t remember any exciting moments for me. [39:31.000 –> 39:36.000] But yeah no and like I said again I’m going to bring it Roots of Pacha. [39:36.000 –> 39:53.000] It’s interesting because the rewards it’s a good money maker so that’s why I do it kind of like Animal Crossing and Roots of Pacha but I don’t care about the creatures at all which is so interesting to me that it doesn’t deliver like Animal Crossing but I still enjoy it because of the mechanics. [39:53.000 –> 40:07.000] It’s fascinating to think about all these different aspects of these little mini games that can be adjusted you know they’re kind of like I like the reward but not the mechanic or vice versa and whatnot and how they all come together. [40:08.000 –> 40:19.000] And that’s such a fascinating point because how many fish do you think you now know about because of Animal Crossing so many slight. [40:20.000 –> 40:25.000] Nobody on Earth knew what notion sunfish was before Animal Crossing. [40:26.000 –> 40:27.000] Right. [40:30.000 –> 40:36.000] And even little things right like the puns you know everybody loves to like mock the puns a little bit but the amount of like you know. [40:37.000 –> 40:39.000] The game likes to mock the puns. [40:39.000 –> 40:40.000] Right. [40:41.000 –> 40:56.000] But it’s such a great way of like you know I’m never going to like forget the sea bass or maybe more of a C plus like it’s just so good and it sticks in your mind and it’s funny I’ve been getting a little bit into Cryptocrosswords the last few months. [40:56.000 –> 41:12.000] And one of the things that’s weird about Cryptocrosswords is the random areas of knowledge that it really relies on and there’s those times where you know there’s a clue about fish and I would say that most of the time I get it it’s because I’ve played Animal Crossing and I know that weird fish because of that game. [41:12.000 –> 41:27.000] Yeah it’s it’s amazing the impact Animal Crossing has had on our generation’s like knowledge of sea creatures. [41:28.000 –> 41:52.000] But and which in itself is a reward like I not only do I like to like I get again biased here because I actually enjoyed sea creatures in real life but like when you go to the museum they have little plaques you can read and you learn stuff about sea creatures and you know the different animals insects and whatnot and I find that fascinating. [41:53.000 –> 41:54.000] Yeah. [41:54.000 –> 42:08.000] For such a simple mechanically simple minigame they give you a lot of rewards from that which is why I think Animal Crossing fishing has still remained pretty popular I would say overall. [42:08.000 –> 42:09.000] Agree. [42:09.000 –> 42:28.000] The other thing that you do with fish right is cooking obviously and cooking is present in a lot of cottagecore games and it’s honestly something that I don’t engage too much with as a mechanic because I think it I think cooking in general struggles from again having a clear purpose back to anything else. [42:28.000 –> 42:51.000] Not to sort of you know spread too much Spiritfarer love as has been the the want of the show for many years but I think one of the smart things about that game is cooking was not about what your character got out of it but actually something for the other characters that inhabited the world and so it made a lot of sense in that respect and is by far and away the cottagecore game that I have done the most cooking in. [42:52.000 –> 43:17.000] And it’s always one of those interesting things in relation to fishing because often you know you catch so many different varieties of fish but when it comes to cooking it’s often like we’ll just throw in a fish of whatever and the dish will come out right and so you might have all of this complexity about different fish types that you’re catching but ultimately it’s kind of like well and then out the other end it’s just you know a fish doesn’t really matter just catch whatever and put in whatever. [43:18.000 –> 43:37.000] And I think it’s a really hard balance to strike I don’t know what the right answer should be in terms of making cooking or doing something with the fish as interesting but I don’t I can’t think of too many games where outside of donating to a museum where I’ve had a really strong connection to what I do with the fish post catching it. [43:38.000 –> 43:59.000] Yeah gosh cooking’s a whole topic on its own for sure because I like cooking in real life as you said cooking up the fish is I love seafood I love eating fish again growing up on the coast but yeah that is hard to emulate isn’t it. [44:00.000 –> 44:13.000] Again I think it’s just something you really have to focus on we need more cooking cottage core games as a side tangent we could use that but no I think I pretty much agree with all your points. [44:13.000 –> 44:21.000] Well I think that’s I don’t know that I have too much else to say about the sort of fishing or fishing mini games generally do you have anything else? [44:21.000 –> 44:30.000] No I don’t think so either so are we ready to dive in and make Crown a winner? [44:30.000 –> 44:31.000] And a loser. [44:31.000 –> 44:35.000] I wonder who that will be? [44:35.000 –> 44:41.000] I thought it might be more of a debate but based on the conversation we’ve just had I think we might be on the same page. [44:41.000 –> 44:49.000] Alright let’s start with the negative what fishing mini games do you hate, dislike, etc? [44:49.000 –> 45:09.000] Look I already have one nominee for this category and it’s Stardew Valley I think the fishing is so bad it’s I never want to do it I always get forced into doing it I don’t think there is anything particularly redeemable about fishing in that entire game. [45:10.000 –> 45:29.000] I just hate it and I think it’s the it’s for me it’s the worst aspect right because the game mechanic itself is too in depth to kind of you know like I don’t like the fishing in Disney Dreamlight Valley that much but it’s so easy it’s you know not really that that offensive to me. [45:29.000 –> 45:55.000] Whereas in Stardew it’s like you have to dedicate days in game days to just fishing in order to progress things like it’s this thing you have to do it takes so much time it’s so complicated it’s frustrating to start and then when you’re done you never want to do it again and I don’t think the things that you do with the fish in any way interesting enough to warrant it. [45:55.000 –> 46:00.000] So for me it’s like it’s like the loser in all categories that we just spoke about. [46:25.000 –> 46:35.000] It’s a general gaming no no for me like make your tutorial or game mechanics clear whatever and then when I finally figured out and it still sucked you know. [46:37.000 –> 46:49.000] Yeah, which is the worst right because like sometimes things can be complicated or poorly explained because it can be hard to explain things sometimes and you’re like oh that’s fun but when you work it out and you’re like wow it still sucks when I know what I’m supposed to do. [46:49.000 –> 47:06.000] Yep, yep, yep, yep. So yeah I think okay so I think it’s clear that is a THS worst minigame fishing minigame. Do you have any other ones you’re not fond of though? [47:06.000 –> 47:19.000] I mean it’s not one that I want to call out specifically but I think anything that just sort of falls into the category of press A get a fish and it’s kind of just tacked on. [47:20.000 –> 47:39.000] You know I just I think with game mechanics right I want things to be really well edited everything to have a clear purpose and so it’s just anything where it’s sort of tacked on and not really super clear why it’s in the game. [47:39.000 –> 47:56.000] I think don’t just put fishing in games because fishing is in all of the other games right. So my sort of second runner up you know my least favorite is Stardew Valley and my second runner up is every other game that has you know without clear intent put fishing into their game. [47:57.000 –> 48:21.000] Yeah that’s that’s a wide that’s definitely a wide spectrum. I’m gonna give a nominee I agree with you for sure there I can’t like I think they’re so bad I can’t even remember one right now that like I know they’re out there I’ve experienced them but they’re just so forgettable right like I can’t even think of one that. [48:22.000 –> 48:41.000] Exactly right there’s there you know in every game like chances are if you’re thinking about why haven’t they mentioned X games you know fishing mechanic it probably falls into the category that we’ve just talked about because they don’t stick in your mind but if I went back and fired up that game and started playing it be like oh that’s right not doing that. [48:41.000 –> 48:55.000] Yeah yeah I will give another honorable dishonorable mention I guess to Monster Hunter. I forget have you played Monster Hunter Johnny I don’t think you have but. [48:56.000 –> 48:57.000] No not really. [48:57.000 –> 49:06.000] Okay so I love the Monster Hunter games and fishing is really weird because. [49:07.000 –> 49:21.000] It should be better and I don’t mean like you know like just generally you want every bad thing to be better but so much of Monster Hunter is gathering materials to craft stuff that’s a big part of the loop right and so you think. [49:21.000 –> 49:37

Bev and Codey talk about Capybara Spa Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:04: What Have We Been Up To 00:06:41: News 00:47:59: Capybara Spa 01:06:28: Outro Links Everdream Valley Flutter Away Parkasaurus DLC Lightyear Frontier Mossfield Origins Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara Garden Galaxy Update Steamworld Build Mineko’s Night Market Spirittea Sprout Valley 33 Immortals The Palace on a Hill Capybara Spa 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 –> 00:35.000] Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. [00:35.000 –> 00:36.000] My name is Cody. [00:36.000 –> 00:37.000] And my name is Bev. [00:37.000 –> 00:41.000] And we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore games. [00:41.000 –> 00:43.000] Woo! [00:43.000 –> 00:45.000] Capybara games. [00:45.000 –> 00:46.000] And spas. [00:46.000 –> 00:47.000] And spas. [00:47.000 –> 00:50.000] There’s actually another Capybara game in the news. It’s crazy. [00:50.000 –> 00:52.000] Capybaras are on the rise. [00:52.000 –> 00:54.000] They are. [00:54.000 –> 00:58.000] As always, transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website. [00:58.000 –> 01:03.000] And, as we’ve already mentioned, we are talking today about the game Capybara Spa. [01:03.000 –> 01:06.000] Which has been on our list for a long time. [01:06.000 –> 01:13.000] It’s just kind of like a small, cute little game made by Cozy Beat Games, who also made Lemon Cake. [01:13.000 –> 01:15.000] Which is very fun. [01:15.000 –> 01:22.000] But before we dive into spas for Capybaras, we have some news. [01:22.000 –> 01:24.000] Actually, a decent amount of news. [01:24.000 –> 01:25.000] Thanks, Al. [01:25.000 –> 01:27.000] No, I’m kidding. [01:27.000 –> 01:30.000] Wait, are we doing what we’re put up to first? [01:30.000 –> 01:35.000] But before we get to the news… [01:35.000 –> 01:37.000] It’s early, farmers. [01:37.000 –> 01:38.000] Farmers, give us a break. [01:38.000 –> 01:40.000] We have some coffee. [01:40.000 –> 01:46.000] I actually considered having it be part of the intro where I’m like, [01:46.000 –> 01:50.000] Good morning, farmers. [01:50.000 –> 01:55.000] That could be after the credits. [01:55.000 –> 01:57.000] It’s true. [01:57.000 –> 02:05.000] Yeah, go to the end of the credits for me, for my goofiness. [02:05.000 –> 02:09.000] Yeah, what are the events? [02:09.000 –> 02:13.000] I love how in the show notes you just have work, work, work, work. [02:13.000 –> 02:15.000] And so I put work, work, work, work as well. [02:15.000 –> 02:18.000] Because I feel like that’s all I’ve been up to. [02:18.000 –> 02:23.000] I have a huge conference next week and stressing out about that. [02:23.000 –> 02:27.000] But I guess what I’m trying to not think about work and trying to [02:27.000 –> 02:31.000] de-stress, I’ve surprisingly have gone back into Clash of Clans for [02:31.000 –> 02:32.000] whatever reason. [02:32.000 –> 02:33.000] I don’t know why. [02:33.000 –> 02:34.000] Wow. [02:34.000 –> 02:36.000] But I’m all in. [02:36.000 –> 02:40.000] I feel like I’ve been building up my town hall. [02:40.000 –> 02:42.000] I got up to a town hall 10. [02:42.000 –> 02:43.000] Now I have a second all to count. [02:43.000 –> 02:45.000] I don’t know why. [02:45.000 –> 02:49.000] So I’ve been doing a lot of that. [02:49.000 –> 02:54.000] I’m occasionally playing, what am I playing? [02:54.000 –> 02:55.000] Oh, goodness. [02:55.000 –> 02:58.000] The one, Cora Island, that one. [02:58.000 –> 02:59.000] Oh, yeah. [02:59.000 –> 03:00.000] Uh-huh. [03:00.000 –> 03:03.000] And I also got Fire Emblem engaged last weekend. [03:03.000 –> 03:09.000] So I’ve been also trying to put some time in a minute a day or so, as [03:09.000 –> 03:11.000] I do in that. [03:11.000 –> 03:12.000] Yeah. [03:12.000 –> 03:14.000] How about you? [03:14.000 –> 03:17.000] Work, work, work, work, work. [03:18.000 –> 03:24.000] So I am about to do my comprehensive exam, which is basically in my [03:24.000 –> 03:27.000] university, it’s different at every university, but at my university in my [03:27.000 –> 03:31.000] department, it’s basically where I stand in front of my committee of five [03:31.000 –> 03:35.000] people and say, this is what I want to do my research on. [03:35.000 –> 03:39.000] And it’s funny because it’s like, here are two, excuse me, here are two [03:39.000 –> 03:43.000] chapters that I’ve already finished. [03:43.000 –> 03:47.000] So you can’t tell me I can’t do that because I already did it. [03:47.000 –> 03:52.000] And then here are two chapters that I have made that I have an idea of [03:52.000 –> 03:53.000] what I’m going to do. [03:53.000 –> 03:56.000] One of them is in progress, so I think if anything, they would just be [03:56.000 –> 04:00.000] like change how you’re asking the questions. [04:00.000 –> 04:03.000] And then the other one is kind of like this offshoot from that. [04:03.000 –> 04:07.000] And so basically the question is like, is that enough? [04:07.000 –> 04:11.000] This is the exam where they are like, wow, look at all the things you’re [04:11.000 –> 04:15.000] doing, but it’s not enough for PhD. [04:15.000 –> 04:22.000] And then you have a chance to like add to it and redo it later. [04:22.000 –> 04:26.000] Or they could just be like, you good, looks great. [04:26.000 –> 04:28.000] Like get her done, you know? [04:28.000 –> 04:30.000] So we’ll see. [04:30.000 –> 04:33.000] But that’s in like a week and a half. [04:33.000 –> 04:37.000] So that’s exciting question mark. [04:37.000 –> 04:42.000] But like after that, I don’t have anything until my defense, which will [04:42.000 –> 04:46.000] be in like October of 2025. [04:46.000 –> 04:52.000] So I literally would just be collecting my insects, identifying them, [04:52.000 –> 04:56.000] going to conferences, writing my papers, like all of that, like getting [04:56.000 –> 05:02.000] all of that stuff done, likely doing any extra chapters that come along [05:02.000 –> 05:07.000] because every single time I collect field work data, I like. [05:07.000 –> 05:11.000] Well, I talked to my, I talked to like my collaborator and my advisor [05:11.000 –> 05:13.000] and I’m like, Oh wow, I found this cool thing. [05:13.000 –> 05:14.000] And they’re like, let’s write a paper about it. [05:14.000 –> 05:17.000] And I’m like, no, please. [05:17.000 –> 05:19.000] So yeah, I’ve been doing that. [05:19.000 –> 05:24.000] I haven’t really been playing games, but I’ve been in like that nostalgic, [05:24.000 –> 05:29.000] like rewatch movie series that you’ve watched a billion times. [05:29.000 –> 05:33.000] I’ve been reading a lot of books lately. [05:33.000 –> 05:39.000] So that’s, that’s kind of my, Oh, I did, I did download like Tetris on my phone. [05:39.000 –> 05:43.000] There’s this Tetris app that you can get on your phone and you earn like [05:43.000 –> 05:49.000] these VIP points and if you get 4 million VIP points, which is like ridiculous. [05:49.000 –> 05:54.000] But if you get 4 million VIP points, you get an eight day cruise to Alaska. [05:54.000 –> 05:55.000] Amazing. [05:55.000 –> 05:56.000] You can like turn them in. [05:56.000 –> 05:58.000] Like you can turn in all these points for like legit things. [05:58.000 –> 06:05.000] Like if you live in, if you live in that one place where people gamble, Vegas. [06:05.000 –> 06:07.000] That one place. [06:07.000 –> 06:12.000] There’s like, you can get like a free night in MGM or, you know, [06:12.000 –> 06:16.000] with a very small amount of points, you can get 15% off your thing [06:16.000 –> 06:17.000] and you don’t ever have to pay. [06:17.000 –> 06:20.000] You just like watch the dumb ads in between a Tetris game. [06:20.000 –> 06:21.000] But like, I don’t care. [06:21.000 –> 06:24.000] I just put my phone down and play with my dog and then I’m like, Oh, cool. [06:24.000 –> 06:25.000] The ad’s done. [06:25.000 –> 06:27.000] Yeah, yeah, exactly. [06:27.000 –> 06:29.000] I’ve been joined with a cat. [06:29.000 –> 06:33.000] So if you hear any purring, that’s her. [06:33.000 –> 06:35.000] I just thought you were purring. [06:35.000 –> 06:36.000] No. [06:36.000 –> 06:37.000] Yes. [06:37.000 –> 06:38.000] Yes. [06:38.000 –> 06:40.000] No, I’m also a cat. [06:40.000 –> 06:41.000] I have it. [06:41.000 –> 06:42.000] I have it. [06:42.000 –> 06:47.000] OK, so we can get into the news. [06:47.000 –> 06:49.000] OK, so first bit of news here. [06:49.000 –> 06:56.000] Everdream Valley is going to release on the switch on June 23rd. [06:57.000 –> 06:58.000] I’m trying to think. [06:58.000 –> 07:02.000] I think that by the time this is out, it’ll be it’ll be up. [07:02.000 –> 07:04.000] You can you can play the game. [07:04.000 –> 07:05.000] You can do the time. [07:05.000 –> 07:07.000] The time is real. [07:07.000 –> 07:08.000] Yes. [07:09.000 –> 07:10.000] This looks super cute. [07:10.000 –> 07:12.000] It’s like a little farming. [07:12.000 –> 07:17.000] I mean, it says like that farming is its main one of its main things. [07:17.000 –> 07:19.000] But you’re like a small child. [07:19.000 –> 07:25.000] The look of the child makes me think that you like is abandoned on this island. [07:25.000 –> 07:29.000] And I’m like, why is he the one doing all of this stuff? [07:29.000 –> 07:33.000] But I feel like this gives me like someone more like vibes. [07:33.000 –> 07:34.000] Uh huh. [07:34.000 –> 07:35.000] OK. [07:35.000 –> 07:40.000] Like just a small child living by herself on a island, taking care of her a little. [07:40.000 –> 07:41.000] Oh, yeah. [07:41.000 –> 07:42.000] That’s what it feels like. [07:42.000 –> 07:44.000] I’m just like, what? [07:44.000 –> 07:45.000] Get it like find parents. [07:45.000 –> 07:47.000] What are you doing? [07:47.000 –> 07:50.000] What an industrious child, though. [07:50.000 –> 07:55.000] Um, I watched the trailer and the beekeeping looks great. [07:55.000 –> 08:05.000] And by that, I mean, it showed it showed the like a really big close up of the hives and it just had bees all over the screen. [08:05.000 –> 08:09.000] Like I was like, yeah, that’s how it feels. [08:09.000 –> 08:13.000] And you collect bugs, which is always fun. [08:13.000 –> 08:14.000] I’m in. [08:14.000 –> 08:17.000] I feel like the name is a little unfortunate. [08:17.000 –> 08:24.000] Like if they came up with this name like two to three years ago and then Dreamlight Valley came out. [08:24.000 –> 08:27.000] Yeah, that’s true. [08:27.000 –> 08:31.000] Also, ever dream valley makes me think that he’s like in a coma. [08:31.000 –> 08:32.000] Oh, my goodness. [08:32.000 –> 08:34.000] And this is all a hallucination. [08:34.000 –> 08:35.000] Yes, that’s exactly what’s happening. [08:35.000 –> 08:36.000] It does. [08:36.000 –> 08:38.000] It should end. [08:38.000 –> 08:41.000] You beat the game and zoom out. [08:41.000 –> 08:43.000] He’s not actually doing like child like labor. [08:43.000 –> 08:44.000] Oh, my gosh. [08:44.000 –> 08:46.000] I mean, better. [08:46.000 –> 08:47.000] No, no, not better. [08:47.000 –> 08:48.000] Not better. [08:48.000 –> 08:51.000] Um, God, we are unhinged. [08:51.000 –> 08:56.000] Okay, so that is ever dream valley coming to switch on the 23rd of June. [08:56.000 –> 08:57.000] The next one is flutter away. [08:57.000 –> 09:00.000] This is capybara game number two. [09:00.000 –> 09:06.000] Yes, capybara game number one will always forever in our hearts be capybara spa. [09:06.000 –> 09:23.000] Um, but flutter away is quote pulled this from the steam enjoy the serenity of the Amazon rainforest and this cozy short nature exploration game as a butterfly researcher on a five day camping trip explored nearby tracks take photos me animal friends and journal journal [09:23.000 –> 09:36.000] the discoveries found along the way, and quote, if you eagle eyed eagle eared listeners could hear me pause after a butterfly research. [09:36.000 –> 09:42.000] As I like was like, I know I saw this on the which McCall at the wholesome game. [09:43.000 –> 09:53.000] And I was like, I need to be a researcher in my virtual life, as well as well I’m not research IRL but I need. [09:53.000 –> 10:06.000] So I’m here for it. But like, it looked so cool because like you put a stick out that I’m assuming has some kind of like thing that attracts butterflies on it and like nectar or something. [10:06.000 –> 10:13.000] And then you have to like pull it really really slowly towards you if you pull it too fast and they’re like what the heck and they like fly away. [10:13.000 –> 10:21.000] But you’re basically like what from the trailer it looked like you’re trying to figure out like the diversity of butterflies in this area. [10:21.000 –> 10:26.000] And you and you have a capybara friend. [10:27.000 –> 10:28.000] Okay. [10:28.000 –> 10:46.000] I’m speaking of capybaras I just remember this. I saw a video yesterday that said that capybaras can swim five kilometers an hour underwater, like, they literally just like walk along the bottom of me or whatever and they just like kick off and zoom by you it’s Holy Holy [10:46.000 –> 10:57.000] Hekaru. They are very, very fast little sprightly things that are very fast little rodents, or big rodents, big rodents, biggest rodents Yes, correct. [10:57.000 –> 11:09.000] Um, I don’t think that they’re going to be swimming in this game but flutter away releases on steam and switch on the third of August, maybe they will be flying in this game. [11:09.000 –> 11:12.000] Man flutter away on switch. [11:12.000 –> 11:15.000] Ow. [11:15.000 –> 11:22.000] Let me cover the motherling game. Um, are we just going to cover like all the research like games. [11:22.000 –> 11:34.000] I feel like we’re obligated. I feel like we are, and I’m not not upset about that. I’m not either, um, a research game that I don’t feel obligated transitions on point. [11:34.000 –> 11:40.000] Parkasaurus prehistoric wonders DLC. So I think we’ve already covered Parkasaurus on the pod. [11:40.000 –> 11:55.000] So this is just a DLC and it’s out now and it just gives you 10 new animals and the animals are the American lion mammoth saber tooth mega theorem, Eastern Puma giant capybara Oh my gosh, I didn’t even goodness. [11:55.000 –> 11:57.000] They’re everywhere. [11:57.000 –> 12:01.000] Year of copy bar. [12:01.000 –> 12:04.000] Name, that’s gonna be the title of the year. [12:04.000 –> 12:07.000] Yes. [12:07.000 –> 12:16.000] Uh, short faced bear dodo direwolf and dwarf pronghorn. So they looked really dumb. [12:16.000 –> 12:21.000] I mean, not like the game did not make them dumb. [12:21.000 –> 12:24.000] They’re just dumb. [12:24.000 –> 12:31.000] As the owner of two chickens I feel like I can very much say confidently this is a dumb bird. [12:31.000 –> 12:33.000] Yeah. [12:33.000 –> 12:39.000] So yeah, if you have Parkasaurus or if you’ve been wanting a dodo and Parkasaurus. [12:39.000 –> 12:44.000] And that’s why you haven’t played it. Do it now. Good. [12:44.000 –> 12:47.000] Okay, light your frontier. [12:47.000 –> 12:55.000] Um, I, I like. Okay, I guess let’s just let’s take a look under the hood. [12:55.000 –> 12:57.000] Cody. [12:57.000 –> 13:00.000] I don’t remember games. [13:01.000 –> 13:05.000] I’m gonna record this podcast and I’m out. [13:05.000 –> 13:11.000] All that knowledge is gone. So every time there’s a news article about a game. [13:11.000 –> 13:24.000] I like the night before or right before whatever I put like these little blurbs of what they are and for this one last night I wrote Ark survival evolved but you have mech suits. [13:24.000 –> 13:29.000] I don’t really know that you’re doing your homework, because I am not. [13:29.000 –> 13:37.000] I just like to know what I’m talking about, but, um, I can’t, I’m not good at riffing I feel like when I riff and like I go rogue. [13:37.000 –> 13:45.000] I don’t know. I’m just at the stage of like, I don’t care anymore. I’m just flying by the seat of my pants. [13:45.000 –> 13:49.000] The listeners love you anyway so. [13:49.000 –> 13:56.000] Whereas my anxiety is like they will hate you. [13:56.000 –> 14:05.000] So yeah, that was my note for light your frontiers Ark survival, but you have mech suits because that’s what it looks like he’s like mech suits. [14:05.000 –> 14:10.000] And they have updated the release window for this game and it’s coming early 2024. [14:10.000 –> 14:22.000] I’m like, intrigue I kind of don’t like the first person like aspect of it and it’s weird to do so in a forum but yeah, this also gives me a slime rancher like but like steampunk vibes. [14:22.000 –> 14:32.000] And that’s also a game that I want to play so who knows maybe I will. It’s just so interesting that like, because you can use the suits to like farm instead of him remember. [14:32.000 –> 14:46.000] So it’s like, yeah, it feels like fulfills people’s Gundam desire. Exactly like I want to like have a cottagecore like vibe, but I want to shoot water out of my gun. [14:46.000 –> 14:59.000] And then if you, I don’t know if this happens in this game or not but if you if you’re watering your plants and you have your water gun. And then a baddie is coming for your crops, you can go. [14:59.000 –> 15:02.000] And then switch to your regular gun. [15:02.000 –> 15:04.000] And then you go. [15:04.000 –> 15:07.000] That’s what happens in the comic ops. [15:07.000 –> 15:11.000] Which is a stress. Well, with that sound effect. Oh my god. [15:11.000 –> 15:20.000] Well, no, but okay good. Your, your water is also your weapon. I thought it was original. [15:20.000 –> 15:29.000] The sound effect was supposed to be the water gun going back in the, in the arm and then the real gun coming out. Beautiful. I love it. It was so good. [15:29.000 –> 15:32.000] Thanks. [15:32.000 –> 15:36.000] Next up we have Mossfield origins. [15:36.000 –> 15:49.000] So quote. This is a small cozy community builder where all buildings are based on the same foundation. Take your time build a sustainable community for your residents, sustainable community for your residents in this relaxing game with no time pressure [15:49.000 –> 15:51.000] or external forces. [15:51.000 –> 15:57.000] Yeah, upgrade foundations via tech tree to redefine and refactor your space. [15:57.000 –> 16:07.000] Um, let me tell you, that’s the end quote. Let me tell you, so as someone with ADHD I need time pressure. [16:07.000 –> 16:22.000] Or else nothing’s getting done. I know I maybe that’s something we’ll talk about where we actually get into the game but yeah, I also feel that, but also at the same time, I, it’s like, like I want it but also I don’t because stress. [16:22.000 –> 16:34.000] Yeah, but I guess it depends on how they like roll it out like if it’s like starting like yes there is time pressure but I’m not stressed out about it. So, yeah, gotta do it right. [16:34.000 –> 16:37.000] It looks really cute. [16:37.000 –> 16:45.000] The animation style looks really interesting and I really like I don’t really like the sepia tones. [16:46.000 –> 16:52.000] Okay, cool. Mm hmm. Like it’s very other like worldly and. [16:52.000 –> 16:55.000] That’s true. Yeah, yeah, sorry. [16:55.000 –> 17:02.000] Are you like on like a different planet like you’re kind of looks like you’re wearing a space suit, space suit. [17:02.000 –> 17:06.000] I’m assuming that’s why it’s like a weird like different environment. [17:06.000 –> 17:09.000] It’s just a different atmosphere, I don’t know. [17:09.000 –> 17:18.000] But I can, I feel like I could probably get into this like I’m not in a very creative space right now so I don’t want to have to figure out where to put buildings. [17:18.000 –> 17:22.000] I’m very anti like creativity in my game right now. Yeah. [17:22.000 –> 17:29.000] So I could see me not wanting to play that but at the same time, I also enjoy like city building so we’ll see. Yeah. [17:29.000 –> 17:34.000] Yeah, we’ll see. I, that’ll be a you game. [17:35.000 –> 17:42.000] So the roadmap and the release date are quote unquote coming soon. Love that, love that for us. [17:42.000 –> 17:49.000] But we’ll get more information right now. One blurb from their, gosh, what is this their blog. [17:49.000 –> 17:54.000] All events Mossfield Origins, I think this is a blog. [17:54.000 –> 18:01.000] Quote one of the artistic goals of Mossfield Origins is to reflect a healthier relationship that’s possible between humans and the world we live on. [18:01.000 –> 18:06.000] Worlds. Oh, worlds. Okay, confirmed. Yikes. Okay. [18:06.000 –> 18:12.000] We live on depicting a more sustainable approach to life and our habitation. [18:12.000 –> 18:23.000] So, um, yeah, I think it. The vibe is right but I need, I need someone telling me what to do. Yeah, or else isn’t it she not getting done so. [18:23.000 –> 18:29.000] Hopefully they have a really good quest system because that. Oh, if they have achievements. Yeah, yeah, exactly. [18:29.000 –> 18:37.000] Then you have goals. Like if it’s just like go in there and like mine Minecraft and like no, no, no thank you. [18:37.000 –> 18:47.000] Every time I play Minecraft, I literally do the exact same thing and that is go down to the, well, it used to be go down to level 11 but now there’s negative levels. [18:47.000 –> 18:57.000] Oh no. So I go down to like negative 40 or something like that and I just make a strip mine and put everything in, in chests. [18:57.000 –> 19:02.000] And so they organize chests. They are organized. [19:02.000 –> 19:07.000] So everyone that’s playing with me because like I play on these, these like community servers when I do. [19:07.000 –> 19:19.000] And so that they, they can be like, oh wow look a chest that has four stacks of diamonds. Cool. And I’m just like down there with my diamond pickaxe. Just doing that. [19:19.000 –> 19:23.000] That’s all I want to do. [19:23.000 –> 19:24.000] Okay. [19:24.000 –> 19:30.000] Next, Koa and the five pirates of Mara. Speaking of Summer and Mara. [19:30.000 –> 19:35.000] I wrote that this looks like a cute slash fun puzzle platformer. [19:35.000 –> 19:48.000] I’m excited. Is that what quite. Yeah, I think that it’s by Chibi. So same world as Summer Mara is in the same universe, but they, I guess, are deciding to branch out a little bit and they’re, I don’t know, type of game, I guess. [19:48.000 –> 19:57.000] So it is definitely a like 3d platformer and it just looks so cute and like getting to play as like Koa. [19:57.000 –> 20:05.000] I will just love and I do. It’s been so long since I’ve done a platformer because I feel like I got like tired of Mario for whatever reason. [20:05.000 –> 20:13.000] So maybe this will like get me back into like wanting to do platformers because it is so cute. It looks so bright. It just looks really good. [20:13.000 –> 20:21.000] I’m excited. And I did pack it. So excited just to get it. Well, good for you because it releases on July 27. [20:21.000 –> 20:31.000] So that is when it will be available to you. Beautiful. Super awesome. Speaking, I’m going to take a small sign here. Speaking of platformers, have you played Hollow Knight? [20:31.000 –> 20:40.000] Yes. Oh, so good. I have not like, I feel like finished the story or like I’m probably like 75% of the way through. [20:40.000 –> 20:48.000] But I also like get through like various like kind of like Stardew where I’m like, OK, I kind of want to get back into this. Let me start playing it again. [20:48.000 –> 20:55.000] But yes, love, love, love Hollow Knight. When I saw the trailer for Koa, I was like, oh, it’s a platformer. [20:55.000 –> 21:02.000] And then I like had a little bit of like anxiety and I was like, I’m not ready. [21:02.000 –> 21:06.000] If it’s Hollow Knight, then definitely not ready. I don’t think it’s going to be like Hollow Knight. [21:06.000 –> 21:12.000] I don’t know. I’m just too scared of platformers in general. [21:12.000 –> 21:17.000] Hollow Knight got me and I didn’t even get that far. It gets so hard real quick. [21:18.000 –> 21:28.000] I mean, I guess I’ve I’ve beat the game, but like my partner has done like the path of pain and literally a thing. [21:28.000 –> 21:34.000] And it’s just like it’s throwing all of the bad and all of the difficulty at you. [21:34.000 –> 21:39.000] And I’m like, I’m not doing that. It just sounds like stress. I watched like people stream that. [21:40.000 –> 21:47.000] I’m like, I’m not here for that. Like, I want it so I can like 100 percent the game or 120 percent it or whatever. [21:47.000 –> 21:52.000] But also, I’m never going to beat it. And it’s so frustrating. So no, thank you. [21:52.000 –> 22:00.000] Yep. That small aside, I’m trying to think of a nope, there’s no transition. [22:00.000 –> 22:07.000] Garden Galaxy, Garden Galaxy. [22:07.000 –> 22:16.000] Yeah, you don’t do that in this game. So, quote, discover, collect and organize to create your own unique garden in this relaxing idol slash creative sandbox. [22:16.000 –> 22:20.000] And I wrote, I have no idea how to describe this game. [22:20.000 –> 22:26.000] Yeah, it gives me like match madness vibes, like those matching games. [22:26.000 –> 22:32.000] But it’s not that at all. It’s like, I mean, I guess you do kind of like put you like match. [22:32.000 –> 22:37.000] It looks like there’s something there’s like this container that you can put things into. [22:37.000 –> 22:44.000] And then it pops out a randomly generated other things. Yeah, I don’t quite understand whatever that pot is. [22:44.000 –> 22:49.000] No, but it gives me like like city builder. Yeah. Vibes just in a garden sense. [22:49.000 –> 22:56.000] And I feel like I remember playing a phone game like this. That was also an idol game for just growing flowers. [22:56.000 –> 23:02.000] And it has like the same art style and like cubes, like sections, I guess. I don’t know. [23:02.000 –> 23:11.000] But like I said, I’m very anti-creative right now. And if you don’t tell me where to put things, I’m not going to put anything. [23:11.000 –> 23:16.000] Yeah, but this is like if you really enjoy being creative and like, yeah, exactly. [23:16.000 –> 23:24.000] Like if your favorite thing about Animal Crossing New Horizons was designing your island, you’re going to love this game. [23:24.000 –> 23:31.000] Because it’s just like it’s just that it’s just that and terraforming your your own galaxy. [23:31.000 –> 23:36.000] You’re playing God in this galaxy and just building. It looks it looks really cute. [23:36.000 –> 23:41.000] I’m not going to lie, but it’s just not like this is something that I would watch someone else play. [23:41.000 –> 23:48.000] Yeah. And maybe maybe at some point when I’m not feeling so tired and so anti-creativity, I will get into this. [23:48.000 –> 23:54.000] Bev, when you’re when? I’m hoping there will be a time when I’m not tired. [23:54.000 –> 23:59.000] Yeah, no, same. So we’ll see. That’s I just have been like joking about that myself. [23:59.000 –> 24:06.000] But like, you know, when I have free time. [24:06.000 –> 24:14.000] When I’m in the not so distant future, when this is all done in October 2025. [24:14.000 –> 24:19.000] Yeah. Yes. Catch me in January 2026. [24:19.000 –> 24:25.000] Yeah. So basically this there’s a summer update to this game coming out in June. [24:25.000 –> 24:29.000] This game’s already out, so you can already play it right now. [24:29.000 –> 24:36.000] But there’s a summer update and one of the new sets like they literally just put here the preview of one of the new sets. [24:36.000 –> 24:41.000] And it’s like a little island, kind of like a beachy. [24:41.000 –> 24:48.000] I guess it’s more like a deserted island theme now that I’m looking at it because it’s got like it’s got like a message in a bottle. [24:48.000 –> 24:55.000] Oh, wow. And like palm trees and stuff. So if you already have a game, new stuff is a coming. [24:55.000 –> 25:00.000] If you do not have that game, but this sounds intriguing, new stuff will be coming soon. [25:00.000 –> 25:07.000] So dive in now. The next game is we’re getting there. [25:07.000 –> 25:13.000] Y’all steamworld build such a weird name quote in steamworld build. [25:13.000 –> 25:18.000] You must escape a dying planet by building a mining town to dig up vital long lost technology. [25:18.000 –> 25:25.000] Meet the ever growing needs of your citizens, trade resources and defend your mine from the creatures that lurk below. [25:25.000 –> 25:31.000] End quote. That is giving Factorio vibes. It is. [25:31.000 –> 25:37.000] Actually, I don’t know. It’s the one where like you crash land on a planet. [25:37.000 –> 25:47.000] I think it’s Factorio because you crash on a planet and you’re just like mining the crap out of the planet to build your your thing back up. [25:47.000 –> 25:53.000] Eventually, these like creatures come at you and you’re just like, kill them. [25:53.000 –> 25:56.000] Oh, my goodness. Yeah, it’s Factorio. [25:56.000 –> 26:00.000] But yeah, it’s giving that. But the trailer. Did you watch the trailer? [26:00.000 –> 26:07.000] I have not, but I’ve I’ve heard about this game of seed. I think we talked about it on a like previous game or game previous episode. [26:07.000 –> 26:18.000] And I am excited by it. Like, I like the premise and like I enjoy mining and this is essentially what you’re doing. [26:18.000 –> 26:23.000] So I think I would enjoy this. And this also sounds like you’re like Minecraft like life. [26:24.000 –> 26:26.000] Until you can’t anymore. [26:26.000 –> 26:34.000] Like the gameplay trailer makes it look almost like like city skylines, like you have a city that you’re managing. [26:34.000 –> 26:43.000] And then there’s also like, I guess this might be minecarts that I’m looking at in this thing, but it looks like there’s like roller coasters. [26:43.000 –> 26:46.000] So it’s like a little roller coaster tycoon. Oh, my gosh, I forgot. [26:46.000 –> 26:59.000] If you go to 24 is for you and for anyone, if you go to 24 seconds into the trailer, there’s a there’s a what is that called? [26:59.000 –> 27:04.000] A drive through theater. A drive in. [27:04.000 –> 27:15.000] And there’s like these it’s all rusty in the image on the screen just looks like a robot is like about to have a showdown in the middle of the town in front of the tavern. [27:15.000 –> 27:19.000] And like he’s got his hand on his gun and his other guys, but like all you can see is the robot’s face. [27:19.000 –> 27:23.000] That’s just like what it’s evoking. But yes, drive in theater. [27:23.000 –> 27:38.000] So like this game just has a lot. But like to me, if I was the person trying to escape the dying planet partway through this, I would be like, maybe I don’t want just leave the planet. [27:38.000 –> 27:44.000] I mean, do we want to look at the beauty of that of that drive in theater and the roller coasters? [27:44.000 –> 27:51.000] Maybe we just fix up the planet that we have. Anyway, it looks really cute. [27:51.000 –> 27:57.000] I’m excited. And the news is that there’s a new trailer. [27:57.000 –> 28:04.000] That’s the news. So I definitely watch the trailer. It’s really cute, especially 24 seconds in. [28:04.000 –> 28:10.000] Tell me, listeners, what you think is happening in that movie at that drive in. [28:10.000 –> 28:13.000] It’s definitely a Western. OK, because it feels like a Western. [28:13.000 –> 28:17.000] It’s definitely a Western with the hot and the squidty eyes. And the squidty eyes. [28:17.000 –> 28:23.000] OK, next, Menechos Night Market. [28:23.000 –> 28:28.000] That’s me trying to be really, really excited, but also not too loud. [28:28.000 –> 28:35.000] I don’t want to blow out the speaker. So Menechos Night Market, this game, I did not have to look up because I know what I’m talking about. [28:35.000 –> 28:42.000] Exactly. The news here is that it is coming to Game Pass on its release. [28:42.000 –> 28:48.000] And of course, its release is September 26th, which is like the release for a billion games. [28:48.000 –> 28:52.000] There’s like four games that we cover that are all coming out on this day. [28:52.000 –> 29:01.000] Too many games. Pick another day. I mean, they can pick another day because whatever day Menechos Night Market comes out on is going to get our attention. [29:01.000 –> 29:06.000] True. Very true. So all the other games need to step off September 26th. [29:06.000 –> 29:10.000] Yeah, I feel like I need a Game Pass, but also I know I’m just going to buy this game. [29:10.000 –> 29:20.000] So, yeah, I mean, this is good news. Like if there if if you have been thinking about Menechos Night Market and every time you hear us talking about it, you’re like, oh, my gosh, I want a game. [29:20.000 –> 29:23.000] And you have Game Pass. That means you don’t have to buy it, right? [29:23.000 –> 29:30.000] Like you don’t have to put the money down because it’ll be on the for freezies, quote unquote. [29:30.000 –> 29:35.000] I think you have to pay for a Game Pass every month. Yeah, like ten dollars a month or something like that. [29:35.000 –> 29:45.000] So it’s not terrible. It’s only ten dollars. Which is why I was like, maybe I get it for Dreamlight Ballet because I want to play this game, but I don’t want to pay twenty five dollars for a free to play game. [29:45.000 –> 29:50.000] But also, I’m still paying whatever. It’s another subscription. [29:50.000 –> 29:53.000] Nope, don’t need it. OK, don’t need it. Exactly. [29:53.000 –> 30:02.000] If there’s like a specific game that I want to try, but don’t want to commit to, like I suppose Dreamlight Ballet, then I suppose it might be worth it for only like like a month. [30:02.000 –> 30:09.000] Like I definitely would pay more than ten dollars per an entire month if I bought a game. [30:09.000 –> 30:14.000] But whatever. Well, Bev, a great time, a great time to try Game Pass would be in September. [30:14.000 –> 30:25.000] Exactly. Because then you could try you could like if you do it early September, then you could play Dreamlight Ballet until Moneko’s Night Market came out and then swap over. [30:25.000 –> 30:31.000] Love that. That’s good planning, too. Maybe I will do that. [30:31.000 –> 30:36.000] Because I can plan for ten dollars in September. Right. Right. Yeah. [30:36.000 –> 30:42.000] I can do that. I also think that farming simulators on Game Pass. Oh, no. [30:42.000 –> 30:49.000] And I need to be playing that. Spoiler alert for future episodes. [30:49.000 –> 30:56.000] Spirit tea. Just going to transition very poorly. [30:56.000 –> 31:05.000] Spirit tea. So this is a quote from Al. Beta slash alpha slash meh. [31:05.000 –> 31:13.000] Out on Wednesday. So I believe that that means that it’s like Wednesday, like the day after the podcast comes out or the day of that. [31:13.000 –> 31:21.000] That’s unclear, Al. You put dates in the show notes. Wow. We’re just coming out all over the place because he then wrote might include all content. [31:21.000 –> 31:34.000] All content might not. Who even knows? And then I tried to click on the link and I sassily wrote would love to be able to read the update, but it’s only viewable by backers, Al. [31:34.000 –> 31:42.000] And that was where I was going to leave it. But y’all, he actually I didn’t like tag him or anything. He just looked at my notes and then he left. [31:42.000 –> 31:51.000] Yeah, he saw. Yeah. So he commented on that. What did he say? Not sure why I’m being blamed for this. Yeah. [31:51.000 –> 32:03.000] And then he took screenshots. Just copy paste the whole thing in here next time, Al. I mean, no, I wanted to give him crap. And then he ruined it. [32:03.000 –> 32:12.000] You still gave him crap. And then he gave you crap back. Yeah, it’s true. We do be ribbing each other. You’re like poking fun at each other. [32:12.000 –> 32:21.000] So, yeah, he said, let’s see, this says because this is I didn’t look at this last night. It wasn’t available to me. [32:21.000 –> 32:28.000] The developer says I’ve just finished a few of the crucial items and now we’re pretty much ready to start the public beta. [32:28.000 –> 32:36.000] Oh, I was about to say what is a public beta? And wouldn’t you know it? The next sentence. What is the public beta? Thank you. [32:36.000 –> 32:43.000] It’s essentially a chance to play the game early. I believe the beta will contain only the first two seasons of your first year in the town. [32:43.000 –> 32:50.000] However, there’s been talk of potential access to the full game as well. How do you not know? How do you? Yeah. [32:50.000 –> 32:54.000] So maybe it is. It’s not like the plan. [32:54.000 –> 32:58.000] I believe maybe maybe they just don’t have a lot of confidence. [32:58.000 –> 33:05.000] I also I also start with like I I think before things that I know for a fact, so it might just be like a confidence thing. [33:05.000 –> 33:13.000] So I hope that they will know what the beta contains and will maybe just plan to change it later with full access. [33:13.000 –> 33:19.000] I don’t know. Maybe it’ll be like a surprise, like a special surprise of like, oh, you get more. [33:19.000 –> 33:25.000] And you get a full game and you get a full game. [33:25.000 –> 33:31.000] Sorry, I’m tired. Yeah. And then there’s a secret. [33:31.000 –> 33:37.000] The next the next two paragraphs end up saying, oh, and please keep this to yourself. [33:37.000 –> 33:42.000] So I’m not going to say that. But Spirit Tea is done. So this is what they say. [33:42.000 –> 33:47.000] Anyways, the game is done, but the polishing isn’t done. So, yeah. [33:47.000 –> 33:52.000] Well, the secret is that, nope, that they’re announcing the beta for something else. [33:52.000 –> 33:56.000] That’s a secret. That’s for something else. Oh, is it? I can’t read. [33:56.000 –> 34:01.000] It’s too early. A secret. OK, I don’t know who that was. [34:01.000 –> 34:06.000] I just assumed it was the same person. No, I think they’re talking about two games here. [34:06.000 –> 34:11.000] Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That’s that’s not clear at all. [34:11.000 –> 34:14.000] This dev needs to make that clear. This is a new game we’re talking about. [34:14.000 –> 34:21.000] This is also it’s just so unclear. I mean, like Dan, Dan, Dan. [34:21.000 –> 34:28.000] Thank you for staying for like communicating to people and like having these, you know, semi regular updates. [34:28.000 –> 34:32.000] But also, this is not clear. No, Dan’s probably also overworked. [34:32.000 –> 34:36.000] They’re probably submit this up, like in the middle of the night, like, oh, it’s out. [34:36.000 –> 34:41.000] OK, I’m done. Good night. Oh, my gosh. Dan is about to have a new baby. [34:41.000 –> 34:44.000] Oh, yeah. That’s why Dan is so tired. That makes sense. [34:44.000 –> 34:48.000] All is forgiven, Dan. Enjoy your baby. [34:48.000 –> 34:54.000] We will enjoy the game whenever she is 1.0, not this public beta. [34:54.000 –> 34:59.000] I’m super excited. OK, cool. [34:59.000 –> 35:04.000] Next. Only three more. OK, Spirit Tea. [35:04.000 –> 35:08.000] No, I already did that. Sprout Valley. [35:08.000 –> 35:11.000] It’s another Kickstarter, so valid. Oh, my gosh. [35:11.000 –> 35:18.000] OK. Oh, what? My laptop or my computer was doing some weird things. [35:18.000 –> 35:25.000] Sprout Valley, quote, a simple casual game. What a simple. [35:25.000 –> 35:28.000] A simple casual game about harvesting and gathering resources. That’s legit. [35:28.000 –> 35:33.000] Like that is what they that’s what the Kickstarter says. [35:33.000 –> 35:37.000] Oh, we’ve talked about this because it’s what the 1.0 is out now. [35:37.000 –> 35:44.000] And then Al says, although not sure what this means, because apparently it is releasing in July and this version is 1.0 of the demo. [35:44.000 –> 35:51.000] Or I’m very confused. And by I’m I mean, Al is very confused, but I’m also very confused. [35:51.000 –> 36:00.000] 1.0, but like still in beta. So like still then it’s not 1.0 Bev. [36:01.000 –> 36:06.000] I don’t know. I could see them be like, this is 1.0 and we expect to have bugs. [36:06.000 –> 36:11.000] So 1.6 will be actually the full release. I don’t know. I don’t understand. [36:11.000 –> 36:18.000] They need a standard. The industry needs to standardize this whole process because it’s ridiculous. [36:18.000 –> 36:24.000] It looks like it. So you can play this on itch.io. [36:24.000 –> 36:29.000] But they have a Switch version in the process. They just have to get it approved by Nintendo, [36:29.000 –> 36:34.000] which a shout out to Elle from Apico. [36:34.000 –> 36:39.000] I now have kind of an insider’s view into like how this stuff happens. [36:39.000 –> 36:51.000] Awesome. And they can they can take a long time and then slap you with the ESRB rating because you have meat in your game. [36:53.000 –> 36:55.000] Because you have meat in your game? [36:55.000 –> 37:00.000] Oh my gosh. So Apico, they have meat. Well, it’s Apicola. [37:00.000 –> 37:03.000] It was mead because you’re making mead. Yeah. [37:03.000 –> 37:08.000] And they didn’t call it mead. I think they did at first. Oh, maybe they didn’t. [37:08.000 –> 37:13.000] I don’t remember. But it was it’s very clearly you’re brewing. [37:13.000 –> 37:20.000] You put honey into a brewing thing. And then if you don’t understand the brewing process of me, then maybe don’t. [37:20.000 –> 37:23.000] But the ESRB was like you are gratified. [37:23.000 –> 37:31.000] You’re like showing alcohol in a positive light because you get these like powers from drinking this alcohol. [37:31.000 –> 37:38.000] And so they like slapped him with a mature rating. Apico, Apico with a mature rating. Ridiculous. [37:38.000 –> 37:42.000] So, yeah, that’s that’s just I don’t think that was Nintendo. That was the ESRB. [37:42.000 –> 37:48.000] So like Sprout or not. Yeah. Sprout Valley. Take your time getting the Switch version out. We get it. [37:49.000 –> 37:56.000] We get it. Also, did you hear? OK, sorry. Future versions of Sprout Valley to come on the Apico train. [37:56.000 –> 38:03.000] Did you hear that there was a bug that was because of me? What? No. [38:03.000 –> 38:11.000] It like made people’s game crash. Just like your existence in the game was just like so magical. [38:11.000 –> 38:14.000] There was something. Gosh, I don’t even remember. [38:14.000 –> 38:19.000] I so I was like talking to Elle. I’m going to pull up my my chat with Elle. [38:19.000 –> 38:28.000] He just one day reached out to me and he was like, I need you to know that you’ve caused me such a headache on Switch because there’s a crash that happens only after people speak to you. [38:31.000 –> 38:37.000] It was called like the Cody crash or the solitary bee crash, but he called it the Cody crash and I retweeted it. [38:37.000 –> 38:42.000] I was like, where do I put on my CV that my bee knowledge crashed a video game? [38:46.000 –> 38:55.000] In your fun notes, more information about me that’s not relevant to my experience, but it’s fun to know. [38:55.000 –> 39:01.000] The knowledge in my brain about bees makes people’s games crash. OK. Amazing. [39:01.000 –> 39:05.000] That definitely should go on your CV, please. Oh, we’ve had so many side notes. [39:05.000 –> 39:09.000] I mean, that’s an accomplishment all by itself. The fact that you’re in a bee game, just saying. [39:09.000 –> 39:15.000] Yeah, that was that was a weird a weird what a crazy random happenstance. [39:15.000 –> 39:21.000] I’m pretty sure it has to do with this podcast because like Elle listened to this podcast and met me from from here. [39:21.000 –> 39:26.000] And then he asked me for like a knowledge. [39:26.000 –> 39:30.000] Yeah, bee knowledge. I was going to say advice and I was like, that was what it was. [39:30.000 –> 39:40.000] It was like bee knowledge. And then at near the end of like me giving him bee knowledge, like once a month or whatever it was, like very, very infrequently. [39:40.000 –> 39:45.000] He was just like, oh, also, I’m putting you in the game. And I was like, what? Love it. [39:45.000 –> 39:52.000] Love it. OK. That needs to go to your CV. I feel like if I could say I’m the co-founder of a Quage team, I feel like you need it. [39:53.000 –> 39:58.000] But you’re you’re in a bee game. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, for sure. [39:58.000 –> 40:08.000] OK. Oh, what am I? I am messing things up on this. OK. 33 Immortals. [40:08.000 –> 40:14.000] So my here’s my quote here. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. [40:14.000 –> 40:22.000] And then I quote 33 Immortals. Yeah. 33 Immortals is a co-op action roguelike for 33 players. [40:22.000 –> 40:26.000] Pick up Thunder Lotus. Yeah. Yeah. Spiritfarer. [40:26.000 –> 40:33.000] Yeah. The people who made Spiritfarer. Pick up and raid, cooperate to survive hordes of monsters and rise above the Almighty. [40:33.000 –> 40:37.000] Yeah. So this is made by Thunder Lotus is the people who made Spiritfarer. [40:37.000 –> 40:42.000] Al, this link is not helpful. I need to know what this game is. [40:42.000 –> 40:51.000] I think it’s like newly announced. So it’s it makes sense that the link is not helpful because that’s all there is. [40:51.000 –> 40:59.000] And oh, oh, it kind of looks like like to me, it looks like Diablo, maybe. [40:59.000 –> 41:05.000] I don’t know. I’m getting like Hades vibes as well. OK, I’ve not played Hades, so it’s so good. [41:05.000 –> 41:11.000] But yeah, I mean, you don’t have to have 33 people, but you can. [41:11.000 –> 41:16.000] That sounds amazing. And I kind of want the chaos of 33 people. [41:16.000 –> 41:21.000] It’s going to remind me of my World of Warcraft 40 man days. [41:21.000 –> 41:26.000] The horror of trying to keep all those chickens in a row. [41:26.000 –> 41:34.000] Uh huh. But yeah, you you can you like dungeon crawl and you are like fighting things. [41:34.000 –> 41:39.000] And this is like an MMO without actually being an MMO. It looks really good. [41:39.000 –> 41:44.000] Yeah, it looks really good. And of course, Spiritfarer people. So Spiritfarer and like the art. [41:44.000 –> 41:51.000] We know the animations like fantastic. We know the art’s fantastic. So I’m very excited to hear about this. [41:51.000 –> 41:59.000] Yeah. And I just hope it’s kind of like a monster hunter, like like waiting room where you could just join random groups. [41:59.000 –> 42:09.000] Yeah, I don’t know. 33 players

WE FINISHED ORDER OF THE PHOENIX! THANK FUCKING CHRIST OH MY GOD SIGN THE PETITION! HBO, say NO to platforming transphobia https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/nohptv/ Email us at restrictedsectionpod@gmail.com to tell us what you thought of The Second War Begins or even what you think of us! We'd love to read your email on the show. Be sure to subscribe to know right away about new episodes, and rate and review! SUPPORT US ON OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/therestrictedsection THANK YOU LOVE YOU BUY OUR MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/user/restricted-section-podcast THANK YOU LOVE YOU IG: https://www.instagram.com/restrictedsectionpod/ TW: https://twitter.com/restrictedpod FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rspoddetentioncrew/   Check out our other amazing Deus Ex Media podcasts! www.deusexmedia.org   This episode featured: Alex from My Cabbages! https://www.deusexmedia.org/mycabbages Alex plugged A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark https://bookshop.org/a/82745/9781250267665 She also plugged Spiritfarer https://thunderlotusgames.com/spiritfarer/ Also Bear and Breakfast https://www.bear.game/ Christina Kann https://linktr.ee/christinakann Christina plugged Ghosts https://www.cbs.com/shows/ghosts/ She also plugged Cozy Grove https://cozygrovegame.com/ Haley Simpkiss Haley plugged Bruce Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark music video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=129kuDCQtHs Haley also plugged the WGA Strike https://www.nytimes.com/article/wga-writers-strike-hollywood.html

We're one episode away from being in the double digits, folks! Whoop! But for now, let's dive into episode nine of Indiescovery. Kicking off the episode we actually have a special guest (and definitely not one of Liam's many personas), it's Father Dringus Godliman! The Father guides the Indiescovery gang to a totally real and not metaphysical confession booth where we can safely reveal our Steam sins. After a quick chat about how many games each of us has on our Steam accounts, and how many of them we've actually played, we get into our most-played indies. Rebecca is up first with Max Gentlemen: Sexy Business!, a fun NSFW dating sim with business sim elements, which also acted as the perfect springboard for a quick chat about NSFW indies in general. Rachel's top game is the farming timesink Stardew Valley which surprised absolutely no one, and Liam's is the action roguelike dopamine hitter Vampire Survivors. The next topic of our sinful purge are indie games we own with shocking low playtime. You know what we mean, those games that we all longingly look at in our Steam libraries and swear that one day we will return to them. Liam admits to the cutesy city builder Outlanders and vibrant dark fantasy FPS Amid Evil. Rebecca's games are the beasty RPG Disco Elysium (totally understandable, that one) and The Infectious Madness Of Doctor Dekker, a Lovecraftian FMV game. Rachel's picks were tear-jerker Ori and The Blind Forest and tough-as-nails survival platformer Rain World. And last, but not least, our most shocking confessions: shameful unplayed indie games that we really should play but have not - the greatest of all sins! We're surprised the whole booth didn't burst into flames of retribution. Liam's are story-rich RPG turned full-blown cult Undertale, cosy management sim Spiritfarer, and Disco Elysium - a game which you've really gotta be in the right mood to play. Undertale makes a second appearance in Rebecca's picks, alongside the adorable exploration game Haven Park, and her aforementioned match-made-in-heaven game Paradise Killer (which she WILL play one-day folks, promise). Rachel's pile of shame includes the gothic visual novel The House In Fata Morgana and the turn-based death march Darkest Dungeon. And thus, the purge is complete. After a fond farewell to Father Dringus Godliman, the squad chats about the games we've been playing recently. Rebecca's been rolling dice in the off-beat RPG Betrayal At Club Low (this month's RPS Game Club pick), Rachel's been reading folks' fortunes in The Cosmic Wheel Of Sisterhood, and Liam has been feeding beavers countless jars of pickled goods in gorgeous city-builder Against The Storm. It's hyperfixation time! Rebecca has been playing lots and lots and lots of Honkai: Star Rail, at first for work but now for fun, making her question if it's actually a hyperfixation or a hostage situation. Rachel lists way too many YouTubers who have the best video essays including Mike's Mic, Sarah Z, NakeyJakey, Jacob Geller, Jenny Nicholson, Super Eye Patch Wolf, and Quinton Reviews (she also missed out ContraPoints, Defunctland, and hbomberguy so here they are retroactively). Rebecca chimes in with the Murder She Wrote videos of PushingUpRoses and Liam suggests Lady Emily's video on the almost downfall of the band Gorillaz. Liam ends with another devastating book recommendation (one that was recommended to him by fellow RPS Treehouser Ed) called Stoner by John Williams. Liam is really out here trying to make us all cry with sobering, life-changing book choices, huh. Indiescovery is a podcast by Rock Paper Shotgun. Our theme music is by Dylan Sitts, specifically the songs Tahoe Trip, Pool Sticker, and Express Check-in. You can contact the podcast by chucking an email to podcast@rockpapershotgun.com, or by chatting to like-minded individuals about PC gaming over in our Discord. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 –&

We finally talk about the coziest of cozy games, Spiritfarer.

"A cozy management game about dying"- this elevator pitch tells you all you need to know about Spiritfarer, the 2020 indie darling by Thunder Lotus Games. Spiritfarer mixes addicting management/crafting gameplay with an exploration of death- the impact that people have on others, unfinished business and the idea of closure. I was extremely lucky to be joined by Charlie and Lauren Young for this episode- the spoiler section is one of my favorites in the history of the show thus far. NOTE Please check the content warning at the beginning of the episode, as this game and episode both deal heavily in personal experiences with death. TIMESTAMPS Content Warning 1:05 Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 2:08 Story Setup/Characters/Exploration of Death 12:12 Gameplay 33:38 Music and Visuals 51:45 SPOILER WALL 1:11:36 Spiritfarer OST is by Max LL! Find his music HERE (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmeeCAhSt9hRhgQTFcBKYJQ) and support him! Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson) or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/V3ZHz3vYQR) Social Media: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/tftblpod) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TalesfromtheBacklog/) Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages (https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures) Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-top-3-podcast/id1555269504), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2euGp3pWi7Hy1c6fmY526O?si=0ebcb770618c460c) and other podcast platforms (atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!

Bienvenue dans la 3eme partie de cette série de 3 épisodes "Gaming et Feministe",Pour l'instant dans cette série on a beaucoup parlé de violence, de sexisme de racisme… Mais on avait aussi envie de kiffer. Et quand on dit jouer, on entends plaisir, émotion, partage.Et quand on est fatiguées de se battre pour prendre sa place et ben ça fait du bien de souffler… Donc on se met au fond du canapé et on allume la console.un épisode en partenariat avec la revue déferlante,On est toustes des warriors !En partenariat avec https://revueladeferlante.fr@ladeferlanterevueRéférences :AfrogameusesLife Is Strange créée par Dontnod Entertainment, développée par Dontnod Entertainment et Deck Nine et éditée par Square EnixA Normal Lost Phone développé et édité par Accidental Queens,Spiritfarer par le studio canadien Thunder Lotus Games The Artful Escape édité par Annapurna Interactivehttps://itch.ioRemerciementMerci a Lucie, Jennifer, Thomas, Maël, Camille, Lucie, Kim, Chloé.Réalisation : Harris WirtzModération : FatimaProduction : Marie Picard, Culture PixelleNos insta perso :@Zin_ai, @zazem et @margaidq@lezazemistanPour nos envoyer vos vocaux :whats app : 07 45 65 56 75warriors@yessspodcast.fr @yessspodcast Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Rich, Daryl, and Andrew get into examining IPs that they've invested in long-term, your emails, and more! Games: Chained Echoes, Fallout 76, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Spiritfarer, Disney Dreamlight Valley, NBA 2K23. To contact us, email call@gamerswithjobs.com! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about, or whatever else is on your mind. Links and Show Notes

Codey and Kev talk about Spiritfarer again Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:06:03: What Have We Been Playing 00:16:27: News 00:33:25: Spiritfarer: The Second Harvest 01:36:24: Outro Links Stardew Valley 1.5 on Mobile Ranch of Rivershine Roadmap Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Kickstarter Page SoS: AWL Gameplay Video Spiritfarer Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/

Serena aka cos_lilicios on Instagram joins me to talk about some of their favorite fandoms! We kick things off talking about video games. From their first system and first game to what they play now. We talk specifically about games like Dead by Daylight, Spiritfarer, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Serena then talks about Good Omens, found on Amazon Prime. They talk about how they got into the show, the characters, and why you should watch it before Season 2 comes out! Then we wrap up with a conversation about Cosplay. We talk about the characters they've cosplayed, how they got into cosplay, and what they're working on in the future. You can find Serena at: https://www.instagram.com/cos_lilicios/ https://www.tiktok.com/@cos_lilicios https://www.twitch.tv/xxvampireliliciosxx Get 10% off your order of Woodmarks, Tolkien style maps, and more from In The Reads by using code TALES10 at checkout. Visit them at: https://inthereads.com/ Time Markers: 1:40 Video Games 33:30 Good Omens 46:05 Cosplay

That's Year 2 00:00 Intro 3:31 Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, Assassin's Creed Unity, Joker, It's A Wonderful Life and Die Hard 13:43 Home Alone, Spiritfarer, Bastion, Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Bardo 28:39 Army of Darkness, PUBG, Kimi, Life After Beth, Smile 38:52 Witcher 3, Mean Streets, Pulp Fiction, Nomadland, All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), Never Let Me Go, Midnight Cowboy, Run Lola Run 1:02:28 Avatar The Way of Water 1:16:24 Empire of Light 1:28:08 The Banshees of Inisherin 1:41:15 The Whale 2:21:02 Babylon

It's the Holiday Special! John, Elissa, and PeggySue talk about what this time of year in Minneapolis means. We name the persons and/or concepts that Scrooged us the hardest in 2022. And offer thanks to the people who "Saved Christmas" - which is a necessary trope of any holiday special. Elissa has tips for how you can do end of year self reflection and 2023 goal-setting in a positive way, without being hard on yourself. Lots of recommendations in this episode if you're looking for a book or video game for yourself or a loved one. Special thanks to our surprise musical guest (please don't fast forward to the surprise musical guest). Year Compass goal setting: https://yearcompass.com/ Elissa's book recommendations (buy from your local bookstore, so obligatory links to Moon Palace Books): The City We Became https://moonpalacebooks.com/item/2-gUryvjjJ8m-aeb3SffJw The World We Make https://moonpalacebooks.com/item/2-gUryvjjJ-dYi3T-XvYWw Babel: An Arcane History https://moonpalacebooks.com/item/MEgaIBq6_d97rBV1so0l1g Last Exit https://moonpalacebooks.com/item/M3YHMwEj9x5pfpjVUaSvag PeggySue's book recommendations: Cloud Cuckoo Land https://moonpalacebooks.com/item/rPCoGQ_-yAXyV_mg5DPfQA Murderbot Diaries https://moonpalacebooks.com/browse/filter/t/the%20murderbot%20diaries/k/keyword Funny You Should Ask https://moonpalacebooks.com/item/rbwr187WrithSQp5J5Ynsw Video games mentioned on this episode: Bear and Breakfast, Spiritfarer, Stray, Tunic, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, Hades, Prey, Citizen Sleeper. John's TV and movie recommendations: Severance (Apple TV) and Plan B (movie). Watch: https://youtube.com/wedgelive Join the conversation: https://twitter.com/wedgelive Support the show: https://patreon.com/wedgelive Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

Featuring: Michael "Boston" Hannon, Paul “Moonpir” Carver-Smith, and Alexander “TheNimp” Jolly Running Time: 1:35:29 Music by MusiM: Homepage | Bandcamp Livestream Archive: YouTube This week we chat about Disney Pop Town, Marvel Snap, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, Pupperazzi, Spiritfarer, Vampire Survivors, God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, Civilization VI. Become a patron of TVGP for just a few dollars a month at E1M1's Patreon Page! Get two month early access to Critical Misses, uncensored outtakes, and much more for just $5/month!

Isa joins me from England as we have a conversation about the things she loves for over 2 hours! We first dive into video games. From how she got her start, to some of the games she loves like Horizon Zero Dawn, Assassin's Creed, Final Fantasy, Spiritfarer, and Hades. Then she educates me about the world of prosthetics and prosthetic effects, along with armor building, and cosplay. If you ever wanted to know more about prosthetics, this is a great entry into your learning! We talk about her first works, show love to Transformers, some of the companies she's worked with, and builds she has done. Lastly, we talk about tabletop roleplaying games. Isa talks about how she got into TTRPG's, what she loves and likes, her favorites, and her experiences with Dungeons and Dragons, and other systems. You can find Isa at: https://twitter.com/EvilCleverDog https://www.instagram.com/evilcleverdog/ https://www.youtube.com/evilcleverdog You can find The Asians Represent Podcast at: https://www.youtube.com/c/aznsrepresent/videos Get 10% off your order of Woodmarks, Tolkien style maps, and more from In The Reads by using code TALES10 at checkout. Visit them at: https://inthereads.com/

Stella helps take people to the Everdoor    Game: Spiritfarer Release Year: 2020 Developer: Thunder Lotus Games Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch. macOS, Linux, Stadia, iOS, Android Contact information: www.TheGreatestStoryEverPlayed.com www.Patreon.com/TheGreatestStoryEverPlayed TheGreatestStoryEverPlayed@gmail.com @StoryEverPod   Intro: Money for Lugging by New Waver Outro: End Credits by Visager

If you want to be the very best, like no one ever was, then this episode is for you. Casey DeFreitas and Tom Marks return to lend us their vast Poke-knowledge as we talk about Lechonk, those new professors, the Scarlet and Violet legendaries, and the multi-player stuff they kind of glossed over in the trailer. Kat has returned from her adventures to fill us with KNOWLEDGE. There's other Nintendo stuff, too, but you mostly want to hear about Pokemon, don't you? 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:20 - Sonic Frontiers 00:11:22 - New Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Trailer! 00:35:03 - Some Monster Hunter News! 00:52:00 - Reasons We Love The Nintendo GameCube 00:56:00 - What We're Playing 01:08:04 - Question Block & Outro

Welcome to another exciting episode of Nintendo Voice Chat, the only Nintendo podcast on Earth that we're aware of at this moment. This week Seth Macy and Peer Schneider are joined by the amazing Casey DeFreitas and Samuel Claiborn to talk about Rogue Jam's audience choice award winner, Mysplaced, and how it plays to its inspirations maybe a little too much. Is that bad thing? What games have perfected the homage and are there any notable games that have taken it too far? 00:00:00 - Intro 00:04:15 - No Man's Sky Coming Soon! 00:14:05 - E3 Returns 2023 00:31:25 - When Does a Game Stop Being an Homage? 00:49:05 - Reasons We Love The Nintendo GameCube 00:55:24 - What We're Playing 01:07:10 - Question Block & Outro

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Sam Claiborn, Justin Davis, and Nicholas Limon -- are discussing the richest and poorest video game characters, Elden Ring, Rogue Legacy 2, Spiritfarer, and more. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.