Podcasts about sun haven

Al and Kelly talk about Ratopia Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:24: What Have We Been Up To 00:17:46: Game News 00:25:17: News Games 00:36:08: Ratopia 01:02:56: Outro Links Tales of Seikyu Early Access Sugardew Island Sprinklers Update Outlanders “The Culinry Diaries” DLC Turnip Boy Steals The Mall Cubified Turnip Boy Plush Everdream Valley VR Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:31) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:34) Al: My name is Al. (0:00:36) Kelly: And my name is Kelly. (0:00:38) Al: And we are here today to talk about Cottage Core Games. (0:00:42) Al: Woo! (0:00:42) Kelly: Woo! (0:00:45) Al: Uh, welcome back, Kelly. (0:00:47) Al: Always good to have you. (0:00:48) Kelly: It’s always fun to be back. (0:00:50) Kelly: I feel like we talked so recently and yet so long ago. (0:00:55) Kelly: It really wasn’t that long ago. (0:00:56) Al: Let’s have a look. (0:00:57) Al: Your last episode was “Grimoire Groves”, and that was in March. (0:01:01) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:01:02) Al: For two months. (0:01:04) Al: Hmm, I have not played that game since that episode. (0:01:07) Kelly: I completed everything. (0:01:09) Al: Hmm. (0:01:10) Kelly: Everything, everything. (0:01:12) Al: Impressive. (0:01:12) Kelly: And then I put the game down and never picked it back up again. (0:01:14) Al: Hmm, fair. (0:01:16) Al: That’s how I play most games, to be fair. (0:01:16) Kelly: It was fun. (0:01:19) Kelly: Me too. (0:01:19) Kelly: But usually I don’t go full completionist mode. (0:01:23) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:01:24) Kelly: I pick things that I want to complete (0:01:26) Kelly: or give myself goals. (0:01:27) Kelly: Otherwise, I kind of lose motivation sometimes. (0:01:30) Al: Fair enough (0:01:32) Al: And then you were on the fields of then you were on the fields of mystery out before that. Have you played the update? (0:01:32) Kelly: But I was determined. (0:01:37) Kelly: No. (0:01:38) Kelly: I really enjoyed the portion that I played, (0:01:42) Kelly: but I decided that was enough and I’m just (0:01:44) Kelly: going to wait for the full game. (0:01:46) Al: I have done the same also. I was really tempted to jump in in the last update, but I’m like, (0:01:52) Kelly: Mm-hmm yep, that’s why I am I ended up picking up Sunhaven instead (0:01:52) Al: “No, let’s not do it. Let’s not do it. Don’t ruin it for yourself. Wait for the full game.” (0:02:00) Al: Yes. Well, let’s get into that then. So, just before we get into that, (0:02:02) Kelly: So I was like, you know what that’s a completed game (0:02:08) Al: we’re going to talk about Ratopia, this episode. Ratopia, this episode, because it has just come (0:02:14) Al: out in 1.0. (0:02:16) Al: Kelly has previously played it, so I thought we would talk about that. (0:02:21) Al: Before that, obviously, we’ll have our regular news. (0:02:25) Al: But first of all, Kelly, what have you been up to? (0:02:28) Kelly: “Playing Sunhaven.” (0:02:29) Al: I have questions. (0:02:30) Kelly: Woo! (0:02:31) Kelly: I also got 15 yards of dirt delivered to my driveway (0:02:34) Kelly: so I could fix my backyard. (0:02:36) Kelly: So that’s– (0:02:39) Al: Why is it measured in distance? (0:02:44) Kelly: I don’t have that answer. (0:02:46) Al: So, presumably, it’s like a set thickness, right? (0:02:47) Kelly: Do you know how I had to figure out what 15 yards of dirt was, (0:02:50) Kelly: Al? (0:02:50) Kelly: I had to go on YouTube and watch a video of a dump truck (0:02:53) Kelly: delivering 15 yards of dirt to someone’s driveway. (0:02:59) Kelly: I guess? (0:03:01) Kelly: Because they also do like– (0:03:01) Al: You’re the one that’s had it delivered! (0:03:03) Kelly: yeah, Al, this was through Facebook Market. (0:03:06) Kelly: This is just, I don’t know, the standard measurement (0:03:08) Kelly: that they use, though, because it’s cubic yards and cubic feet (0:03:11) Kelly: are used for soil. (0:03:12) Al: Oh, so it’s cubic yards, not yards. (0:03:17) Kelly: I don’t know, because they only said yards. (0:03:19) Al: Because that’s a bit– because cubic yards is a vol– (0:03:23) Al: Yeah, so it sounds like they’re just automatically (0:03:24) Kelly: It’s probably cubic yards, and I just never considered it. (0:03:25) Al: shortening it then, because cubic yards is a volume. (0:03:28) Al: That’s how you measure something like soil. (0:03:28) Kelly: Yes. (0:03:29) Kelly: Yes, that’s how I do my soil. (0:03:31) Kelly: I do soil calculations in cubic yards. (0:03:34) Kelly: I just didn’t put two and two together because it just (0:03:37) Kelly: straight up said yards. (0:03:38) Al: Yeah, that’s just laziness, I think, on behalf of people selling. (0:03:42) Kelly: Yeah. (0:03:43) Kelly: But no, I literally watched YouTube videos on dirt delivery (0:03:46) Kelly: to figure out how much dirt this would be. (0:03:48) Al: Although, I also have a question about that, because this is a thing that Americans do (0:03:55) Al: a lot, is you measure things by volume, when that can be very inaccurate for certain things. (0:03:58) Kelly: Yes. Yeah. Yes. (0:04:02) Al: It’s all very well and good measuring liquids by volume, because they stay the same. You’re (0:04:08) Kelly: Yeah. (0:04:08) Al: not going to add extra air in between grains of water. Yeah. Yeah. (0:04:10) Kelly: No, listen, I do a lot of baking. (0:04:14) Kelly: All of my baking is done by weight. (0:04:18) Kelly: I convert recipes all the time. (0:04:18) Al: Yeah. (0:04:22) Kelly: I’m pretty sure that they do it this way so that they can, like… (0:04:24) Kelly: Okay, this is free dirt, so it’s like… (0:04:26) Al: Okay, yeah. (0:04:28) Kelly: trash as it is. (0:04:30) Kelly: But it’s like, clearly they want to do it by volume and not weight (0:04:32) Kelly: so that they can give me things like a two foot long concrete rock (0:04:36) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. (0:04:36) Kelly: inside of my dirt pile. (0:04:40) Kelly: You know, like, that’s… (0:04:42) Kelly: I don’t know about the other things, (0:04:44) Kelly: because I’m assuming when people buy nice soil, (0:04:46) Kelly: they’re not getting giant rocks in their nice soil. (0:04:49) Al: Yeah, I. (0:04:50) Kelly: But I think… I think it’s… it’s a… (0:04:54) Kelly: I think that’s part of it. I don’t know. (0:04:56) Al: You weren’t buying high quality topside, well, that’s for sure. (0:04:58) Kelly: You know, it’s free dirt. (0:05:00) Al: But yeah, the baking one is funny, right? (0:05:02) Al: Because I understand the want to do it in volume, right? (0:05:05) Al: Like there’s a lot of cooking that I do (0:05:07) Al: where I do it by volume because it’s quicker, right? (0:05:08) Kelly: Yes, yeah. (0:05:09) Al: Like I quite often I quite often will make like (0:05:13) Al: I do like oat breakfast cookies quite often and I’ll just I’ll just use one (0:05:19) Al: of my measuring spoons and I’ll just like throw half a cup into a bowl, right? (0:05:24) Kelly: - Yeah. (0:05:24) Al: Because it’s quick and it’s dirty and it (0:05:26) Al: doesn’t really matter because if it’s slightly off, it’s fine. (0:05:27) Kelly: You’re getting cookies no matter what. (0:05:29) Al: Exactly, right? (0:05:30) Kelly: - Yeah, exactly. (0:05:31) Al: It does the job. (0:05:31) Al: But like when you’re if I’m if I’m baking a cake, like, you know, I’m I’m weighing (0:05:36) Al: out that flour, right, I cannot but you’ll see recipes online all the time. (0:05:36) Kelly: - Yep, yeah, oh yeah. (0:05:40) Al: And it’s like a cup of flour. (0:05:42) Al: And I’m like, first of all, first of all, there is no single standard cup. (0:05:46) Al: Did you know our cups are different than your cups? (0:05:48) Kelly: Yes. That’s what pisses me off. That’s what pisses me off when like a lot of good baking (0:05:49) Al: Fun, isn’t that super fun to learn about after I’ve spent following American (0:05:54) Al: recipes for years? (0:05:59) Kelly: recipes will include both the the grams or whatever ounces and then also yeah the ones (0:06:02) Al: Yes. You click the little button and it will change them. Yes, it’s nice. I like that. (0:06:09) Kelly: that don’t are so questionable because it’s like well did you pack the flour when you put in the (0:06:14) Al: Yeah, exactly. (0:06:15) Kelly: the cup but do you (0:06:18) Kelly: do our cups match yeah it’s very frustrating it’s very I do a lot of (0:06:20) Al: How irritated is your flower? (0:06:26) Kelly: math when I do baking so it’s very interesting I guess (0:06:28) Al: And this is why I don’t do much baking, because I like cooking where I can just throw things in (0:06:35) Al: and it’ll taste good. And if it doesn’t taste good, I add in something else and it tastes good now. (0:06:41) Al: But baking, if you muck up the measurements, you’re getting a pile of mush. (0:06:42) Kelly: That’s, yeah, I will say, I am definitely doing like a dirty sourdough at the moment for the starter because I used to be very anal and I would measure everything out. (0:06:55) Kelly: And after like, I guess four or five years of doing sourdough starters, I just like, I understand what the consistency needs to be. (0:07:04) Al: Yeah, yeah, that’s very different. (0:07:06) Al: If you’re doing the same thing all the time, you know what it needs to be, (0:07:08) Kelly: Yeah, but there’s definitely some. (0:07:10) Al: and you just get used to that. (0:07:12) Kelly: There are some things that I kind of like mess around with in baking where I think other people might not. (0:07:16) Kelly: And it’s like in the end, it still tastes great. (0:07:20) Kelly: And it’s my little science experiment, you know? (0:07:22) Al: Yeah, I know. For sure. (0:07:24) Kelly: But no, I love cooking and baking for the two different reasons. (0:07:28) Kelly: Like one is my little science chemistry set. (0:07:32) Kelly: And the other one is like throw whatever the hell you want into a pan and see what happens. (0:07:34) Al: Yeah, I like the idea of baking and I sit with a pack of flour in my cupboard and I (0:07:42) Al: watch as it goes out of date, because it’s just like, it’s a whole other mindset you (0:07:49) Al: have to be in before you can actually realistically do that. And that, yeah. I’ve had a recipe (0:07:50) Kelly: - Yes. (0:07:55) Kelly: - Yeah, it’s a different commitment. (0:07:57) Al: for like a specific kind of flatbread for months and I’ve not done it yet. And that’s (0:08:04) Al: all for baking. That’s just bread. (0:08:06) Kelly: Yeah, yeah. (0:08:07) Kelly: No, I’ve been meaning to make a brioche bread for months, (0:08:12) Kelly: and I just keep putting it off because I’m like, (0:08:14) Kelly: I don’t want to deal with it. (0:08:14) Al: There’s so much brain space. (0:08:16) Al: Anyway, Sunhaven. (0:08:17) Kelly: Yes, Sun Even has been a lot of fun. (0:08:20) Al: Pardon me, that’s what we were talking about. (0:08:23) Kelly: I like the different mechanics that they’ve added into it. (0:08:26) Kelly: I enjoy having magic. (0:08:27) Al: Yep. Interesting. (0:08:28) Kelly: I wouldn’t say it’s like the most thrilling farming game. (0:08:32) Kelly: I’ve ever played, but I think it’s overwhelming in a way that keeps my attention. (0:08:38) Kelly: Like having the different farms in different areas. (0:08:42) Al: It’s quite story based as well, isn’t it? (0:08:43) Kelly: Yes, yes, there’s a lot. (0:08:45) Al: How are you finding that? (0:08:47) Kelly: Um, it’s good. (0:08:49) Kelly: I don’t always pay attention to stories and games, so I’m not the best person. (0:08:54) Al: Yeah, same. (0:08:57) Kelly: I will say sometimes I look over to the characters, though, and have my eyes coped at one, I think. (0:09:03) Kelly: You guys don’t have that much clothes on. (0:09:04) Al: I’ve had, I backed this game on Kickstarter and I’ve had it in my Steam library now for (0:09:14) Al: a couple of years. I’ve not done anything with it. I have not, no. I think part of my (0:09:16) Kelly: Have you played it? (0:09:21) Al: problem is there’s like a time frame after a game comes out where if I don’t play a game (0:09:26) Al: in that time period I’m probably never playing it. (0:09:28) Kelly: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and that’s hard because you have games that like you want to play and also (0:09:35) Al: Let me tell you how many games have come out this year, purely farming games. We are currently (0:09:41) Al: at 20. 20 games have come out this year so far. No, actually I’m wrong. 22. No, 24. 25. (0:09:51) Al: 25 games that I am tracking on this game, on this podcast, by the 10th of May. There’s (0:09:54) Kelly: By May. (0:09:59) Al: more coming out in May. There’s another three on the list that are releasing this month. (0:10:03) Kelly: Are they flooding the market? (0:10:06) Al: It’s the Stardew Effect. We’re just at that time period. We are, what is this, eight years (0:10:08) Kelly: It is. (0:10:10) Al: after Stardew got popular? So just everybody’s finishing up their Stardew clones. (0:10:12) Kelly: Yeah. (0:10:18) Kelly: That is very true. (0:10:19) Kelly: And unfortunately, Sunhaven does fall into that. (0:10:24) Kelly: But again, I think it’s not the most unique farming game I’ve (0:10:28) Kelly: ever played, but I do like some of the things that they’ve added. (0:10:31) Kelly: I also just find it comforting. (0:10:33) Kelly: I like a good micromanagy game. (0:10:36) Al: Yeah, yeah, I’ll talk about mine in a minute. (0:10:38) Al: But, yeah, I totally agree with that. (0:10:40) Al: I wonder. (0:10:40) Kelly: And I do like that you don’t spend energy. (0:10:44) Al: Oh, yeah, so we’re going to have to we’re (0:10:46) Al: definitely going to have to talk about this game then (0:10:48) Al: because I am also playing a game which doesn’t have energy. (0:10:54) Kelly: It’s a fun mechanic to like, not worry about. (0:10:54) Al: And that is. (0:10:57) Al: Yeah. (0:10:59) Al: I am very much enjoying it. (0:11:02) Kelly: It’s really nice. (0:11:04) Kelly: Like, oh, there’s still always the time, you know, crunch or whatever. (0:11:06) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:11:07) Kelly: But like, oh, I don’t have to eat 10,000 apples just because I (0:11:11) Kelly: want to hit a few more rocks. (0:11:13) Al: This is the thing that’s always annoyed me about farming games is you’ve got two (0:11:17) Al: limitations, you’ve got the time and the energy and removing one or the other of (0:11:24) Al: them, because Ever After Falls, which is what I’m playing and Sunhaven, (0:11:29) Al: which is what you’re playing, both remove the stamina. (0:11:32) Al: but Sugaju Valley, which we’ll talk about in the news section, (0:11:36) Al: it removed the time aspect where it’s essentially turn based. (0:11:41) Al: So you do your stuff and then you there’s two phases to the day. (0:11:45) Al: There’s the day phase and the night phase. (0:11:48) Al: And the night phase is when you open the shop. (0:11:51) Al: So it’s like you do whatever you want to do and then you go and open the shop. (0:11:54) Al: And then when you close the shop, it’s bedtime. (0:11:58) Kelly: that’s sick yeah yeah yeah sometimes bad games yeah it’s um which I think you (0:11:59) Al: So I like the… (0:12:01) Al: I mean, it’s not a good game, it’s a bad game. (0:12:03) Al: But it was interest that was that was an interest. (0:12:06) Al: Interesting thing and I like the games are now trying to play around with these things a little bit more. (0:12:13) Kelly: know that’s one of the things that we benefit from at like at the time point (0:12:17) Kelly: we’re in post stardew is like obviously that a lot of copies came out but I (0:12:24) Kelly: I think we’re really starting to see people like try to change (0:12:28) Al: Mm hmm. Yeah. So we’ll see. We’ll see how those things go. But OK, so you’re enjoying Sun Haven. (0:12:36) Kelly: Yes, I have put over 100 hours into it so far. (0:12:39) Al: Let me schedule that episode then. Sun Haven. Kelly. We’ll see when we do that. (0:12:48) Kelly: You know, you’re the reason I actually picked it up, I think, is because we were talking (0:12:50) Al: I’ve been meaning to play it for so long. Maybe I can event. Maybe I can finally play it if I’ve got (0:12:55) Al: a date to record on it. Aha! (0:12:58) Al: Right, OK. Was it in the news then? (0:12:59) Kelly: about it during the grimoire podcast. (0:13:06) Kelly: Probably I don’t know. (0:13:07) Kelly: I know it got mentioned. (0:13:08) Kelly: It was probably like a brief mentioning, but I think it was the news. (0:13:10) Al: many things, come on. Well I have obviously been playing Ratopia, I’ve only been playing the demo, (0:13:13) Kelly: So you influenced me, congrats. (0:13:22) Al: we’ll get to that later, but yeah I’ve been playing the demo of Ratopia. I’ve also been (0:13:29) Al: playing Ever After Falls and I have put in about 60 hours in that game so far, so it hooked me. (0:13:34) Kelly: What, what’s, what’s that one? (0:13:37) Al: So that’s just another stardew clone, but it um (0:13:40) Al: Obviously, as I said, it doesn’t have the stamina aspect, but it’s, let’s see, how would I describe, so it’s premise is slightly different, where you die at the beginning of the game, and then wake up and turns out that your real life was a simulation, and now you’re in another world with a farm. (0:14:06) Kelly: Oh, interesting. So really planning on people’s simpsychosis fears. (0:14:11) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And it’s very solid, I would say, probably much like what you’re talking about with Sunhaven. It’s like a solid farming game, and it has definitely caught that bug that I have for I must do this thing, and I’m building up this farm, and that is what I’m doing. (0:14:37) Al: And I’ve been enjoying that. (0:14:40) Al: And I have some things to talk about it that I’m going to talk about in a future (0:14:43) Al: episode that I found interesting, but I think if you’d like Stardew and you’ve (0:14:49) Al: been like, I must have another one and I’m done with Stardew, (0:14:52) Al: I want a different list. (0:14:54) Al: It’s a pretty solid one. (0:14:55) Kelly: The graphics look really cute. (0:14:57) Al: Yeah, that’s what initially grabbed me in. (0:14:59) Al: And the animation of it is fun as well, like your character’s arms are not (0:15:03) Al: attached to the body and they can swing really funny as you walk around. (0:15:08) Al: And there’s a few other things like you’ve (0:15:10) Al: seen these that you can catch and put them on things and you’ll get like wood or (0:15:14) Al: or without actually cutting the thing down. (0:15:17) Al: And that’s kind of like around it’s trying to encourage sustainability. (0:15:18) Kelly: Oh, that’s cool. (0:15:21) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:15:22) Al: So, yeah, there’s a few bits and pieces. (0:15:22) Kelly: Yeah, but it’s that solid game. (0:15:27) Kelly: Sometimes you don’t need anything innovative or crazy (0:15:29) Al: Yeah. Yeah. (0:15:30) Kelly: different. (0:15:30) Kelly: It’s just a nice, comforting game. (0:15:34) Al: So that’s what I’ve mostly been playing. (0:15:37) Al: I have also, so two picks earlier came out and I had backed that game. (0:15:42) Al: So this is like a life sim in a kind of stardew style, (0:15:48) Al: but it’s much more, it’s almost, I guess, GTA-esque. (0:15:54) Kelly: I was gonna say it looks like kind of reminds me of like I don’t want to say sim city but like (0:16:00) Al: I guess it would be some city if you were actually controlling an individual. (0:16:00) Kelly: something like that (0:16:04) Kelly: yeah that’s that’s which I guess is kind of like the ratopia of also (0:16:10) Al: Yeah, I think it’s different from that in so much as like you don’t have any control (0:16:15) Al: over anyone else. You’re just living your own life, but you can you can do crime and (0:16:16) Kelly: Mmm. (0:16:20) Al: stuff like that. What I will say is I’ve not properly played it because it doesn’t have (0:16:21) Kelly: Okay, that’s cool. That’s fun. (0:16:27) Al: controller support. So later, I play on my Steam Deck. (0:16:30) Kelly: Oh, you don’t do mouse and keyboard. (0:16:35) Kelly: Ah, that’s crazy. (0:16:36) Kelly: I didn’t consider that, that… (0:16:38) Kelly: Why would they put anything on the Steam Deck (0:16:40) Kelly: that doesn’t have… (0:16:40) Al: Well, anything on Steam goes on the Steam Deck by default, and most games coming out (0:16:43) Kelly: Yeah, no, I understand that, but like… (0:16:47) Al: now will have controller support. It’s a good question as to why it doesn’t have controller (0:16:52) Al: support yet, and I do not know the answer. They have said that they’re adding controller (0:16:56) Al: support soon, but yeah, I’m just like, why, why, why? (0:16:57) Kelly: okay hopefully like I get what you’re saying like obviously they push everything from steam to it (0:17:03) Kelly: but like you would think that there would be like some kind of filter like (0:17:08) Al: They have a compatibility thing and it’s and it currently has an unknown compatibility (0:17:12) Al: for Steam Deck. (0:17:13) Kelly: okay (0:17:14) Al: So. (0:17:15) Al: But whatever. (0:17:16) Al: Yeah. (0:17:17) Al: I opened it up. (0:17:18) Al: Went. (0:17:19) Kelly: yeah that’s that’s fair that’s very fair (0:17:19) Al: Yeah. (0:17:20) Al: Nope. (0:17:21) Al: We closed it. (0:17:24) Al: I’ll try again once you’ve added controller support, please and thank you. (0:17:28) Al: So, yeah, that’s. (0:17:30) Kelly: Interesting concept though. (0:17:31) Al: Yeah. (0:17:32) Al: Yeah. (0:17:33) Al: Well, I want to try it. (0:17:34) Al: That’s the thing. (0:17:35) Al: Like what it is saying it’s doing (0:17:38) Al: It has mixed reviews on Steam just now. (0:17:40) Al: So who knows how that will go, but (0:17:42) Kelly: Well, you know. You gotta try stuff. (0:17:43) Al: we’ll see. (0:17:46) Al: All right, let’s talk about some news. (0:17:48) Kelly: Yay! News! (0:17:50) Al: Tales, Tales of Saikyu. (0:17:56) Kelly: I think sake you, but like, also, I’m not a- (0:18:00) Al: This is the game where you turn into Yoko, Yoko, Yoko. (0:18:06) Kelly: Yokai? (0:18:08) Al: This game is where you turn into Yoko for getting around and dealing with your crops and stuff like that. (0:18:09) Kelly: Taseku, mess you up. (0:18:21) Al: You have a whole bunch of different abilities for turning into different Yokai that have different abilities to do these things. (0:18:30) Al: Yeah, yeah, I haven’t decided whether I want to play this or not, but it is a thing. (0:18:36) Al: and they’ve announced that their early access is coming. (0:18:38) Al: I don’t think this was a Kickstarter, so I won’t have backed it, so don’t buy it. (0:18:40) Kelly: Oh, very soon. (0:18:53) Al: I’m telling myself that, not other people. (0:18:56) Al: I can’t be trusted. (0:18:57) Al: Yeah, not much else to say about that, they’ve just announced their early access is coming. (0:19:03) Al: One thing I didn’t check is what they’re expecting in terms of how long. (0:19:08) Al: Because that’s always an interesting thing is how long they say they’re going to be in (0:19:11) Al: early access for. (0:19:13) Al: They’re expecting it to be about a year, so I suspect two and a half years. (0:19:18) Kelly: That sounds like good math. (0:19:24) Al: Next we have another update for Sugaju Island. (0:19:27) Al: So this game is bad game, don’t buy this game, don’t play this game, but they are making (0:19:32) Al: it less bad. (0:19:34) Al: Maybe someday it will be less bad enough that it will be worth buying, it probably won’t (0:19:38) Al: be. (0:19:39) Al: So in this update they’ve added sprinklers, so you can have sprinklers on the farm. (0:19:45) Al: Yay. (0:19:46) Kelly: And you can discover seashells. (0:19:46) Al: It’s such a, yeah, wow, I just, what, well, lackluster updates for lackluster game, that’s (0:19:47) Kelly: How exciting. (0:19:53) Kelly: This is like really lackluster updates. (0:19:55) Kelly: I’m sorry. (0:19:59) Al: what I would say. (0:20:02) Al: I don’t, they’ve also added key bindings support, so you can change your key bindings, which (0:20:06) Al: Good, I’m glad. (0:20:08) Al: You should have had that at lunch. I find this game so fascinating, (0:20:14) Al: because it feels so much like we need to do a farming game, so let’s do a farming game. (0:20:21) Al: And the only interesting thing about it was the turn-based time in the day. It is, (0:20:28) Kelly: Which is like a really cool concept, which is that sounds so interesting. (0:20:32) Al: but… but he’s just not good. (0:20:34) Kelly: They put all their effort into that one concept and nothing else. (0:20:38) Al: They’ve marked this as a major update on Steam. That is something. Uh, yeah. (0:20:46) Kelly: I mean, I’m going to just say this like then I think the name alone implies to me that there’s not a lot of effort going on here. (0:20:54) Al: Oh Kelly, you probably haven’t listened to last week’s episode have you? (0:20:57) Al: There were two new games in last week’s episode that were called Sunseed Island and Starsand Island. (0:21:08) Kelly: We got to start like putting a ban on certain words for farm game (0:21:14) Al: Known, known, island or valley. Yeah, this is… (0:21:18) Kelly: If you have “do” in your name. (0:21:24) Al: Good changes to the game, but that does not make a good game. (0:21:31) Al: I cannot see how either of these three tiny things in this major update would (0:21:39) Al: change this game from being bad to being good. I have no interest in opening that game again. (0:21:48) Kelly: Definitely good to know. I was very intrigued when you mentioned the turn-based, and very (0:21:52) Kelly: disappointed when you immediately followed up with that it’s a bad game. (0:21:54) Al: here lies the problem. They do have a demo. Feel free to try the demo. I mean, some people (0:22:01) Al: like it, apparently, there are some positive reviews. Apparently, it’s mostly positive. (0:22:07) Al: I don’t know how. I really don’t know. So, like, every recommended person is like, oh, (0:22:08) Kelly: Are they paying these people? (0:22:17) Al: it’s so nice. And they’re like, but it’s not. And all the not recommended is like, it is (0:22:23) Al: the most boring farming game. (0:22:24) Al: With so few features, it feels like a proof of concept and then they didn’t add the rest of the game. (0:22:36) Kelly: I don’t know how Steam reviews work. (0:22:38) Al: You just have to own it, I think. (0:22:42) Kelly: Yeah, but like, I think it tells you, right, if like, they got it for free. (0:22:44) Al: Oh, good question. Purchase type. Steam purchases and other. So other would be free ones. (0:22:53) Kelly: That’s what I would think, but like I meant more so too on like the, oh, no, nevermind. (0:22:58) Kelly: 230 people found this review helpful. (0:23:02) Al: Oh, is that the not recommended one at the top? (0:23:04) Kelly: Yeah. (0:23:06) Al: I can’t believe I put 12 hours into this game, absolutely mad. (0:23:09) Kelly: That’s a lot of hours. (0:23:10) Al: It’s a lot of hours for a bad game. (0:23:13) Al: All right, yeah, I’m going to start bashing this game. (0:23:14) Kelly: Next. (0:23:16) Al: Moving on, Outlanders have announced a new DLC, The Culinary Diaries. (0:23:23) Al: It looks like it’s a food based story addition to the game. (0:23:29) Al: This is a town building strategy game. (0:23:31) Kelly: OK, it looks like a short hike or the goose game. (0:23:36) Al: Yeah, I mean, graphics wise, yeah, it’s very much management style game, though, rather (0:23:38) Kelly: Yes, yeah, that’s what I’m basing that off of entirely. (0:23:44) Kelly: OK. (0:23:45) Al: than I have not. There’s too many games to play them all. But yeah, it looks like it’s (0:23:47) Kelly: Have you played this one? (0:23:55) Al: added a whole bunch of cooking stuff. So if you enjoy this game, there you go. You got (0:24:01) Al: a new update? A new DLC? Or is it paid? That’s a good question, I should check that. (0:24:06) Al: It is… No, it’s not free. It is $5. It is not bad. They’ve got quite a few DLCs, (0:24:06) Kelly: It’s free, maybe. (0:24:13) Kelly: Oh, that’s not bad. (0:24:17) Al: which is interesting. They’re all $5. Yeah, they also have very positive rating on Steam. (0:24:18) Kelly: I noticed that it seems like they’re, they have quite the DLC (0:24:29) Al: None of that tells as much, because it’s Sugaju Island, Suga Valley, whatever, I don’t care. (0:24:30) Kelly: - I think no. (0:24:37) Al: Had a positive, quite positive, was it? Or something like that? I don’t know. It was positive for some reason. (0:24:46) Kelly: But I mean, like, I feel like generally, obviously, (0:24:49) Kelly: that’s not true for everything. (0:24:51) Kelly: Games that tend to put out consistent DLC content, (0:24:55) Kelly: like, there’s something good going on. (0:24:57) Al: Yeah, it has twenty nine thumbs up on the Steam post and zero comments. (0:25:03) Al: So you’ve not got a whole bunch of people (0:25:05) Al: complaining about it being paid, which implies to me that some people are (0:25:10) Al: excited to buy it. (0:25:10) Kelly: Yeah. And again, for $5, it’s not a bad addition. (0:25:14) Al: Five dollars. (0:25:17) Al: All right, next, we have some new games to talk about. (0:25:21) Al: First up, we have turnip bill. (0:25:25) Al: Words, words. (0:25:25) Kelly: You’re not having a good day with the, I’m immediately adding this one to my wish list (0:25:27) Al: Fail me, Callie. (0:25:33) Al: Turnip Boy steals them all. (0:25:36) Al: Uh, have you played any Turnip Boy game? (0:25:39) Kelly: I have not, um, not out of like not wanting to, but like just life. (0:25:45) Al: So turn it by commits tax evasion is great fun. It’s it’s a really good (0:25:51) Al: small (0:25:53) Al: RPG and I really liked that game turn it by Rob’s a bank is (0:26:00) Al: similar in terms of its action (0:26:02) Al: But it is a roguelite (0:26:06) Kelly: Oh, interesting. So not for Al. (0:26:08) Al: I (0:26:09) Al: Mean I I played it. I want to see how many hours I put into it. I put in (0:26:11) Kelly: Yeah. (0:26:15) Al: I played it on the switch not steam apparently (0:26:18) Al: So I would need to I would need to look on my switch, which I’m not doing right now (0:26:23) Al: I (0:26:26) Al: Finished the game. I completed it which I haven’t done for many many roguelites (0:26:35) Kelly: says a lot. I didn’t realize how new these games were though. That’s crazy that they’ve put out (0:26:40) Kelly: three games in like four years. (0:26:43) Al: Yeah, 10 hours is apparently what I put into it to complete the game. (0:26:48) Kelly: Oh, that’s, that’s a, that’s like a solid cute little short game. (0:26:52) Al: Yeah, well, that’s the thing about them. They’re not super long, (0:26:55) Al: you know, you’re not looking at 50 hours, you’re looking at up to 10. (0:27:00) Al: With Turnip Boy commits to excavation, I 100% did it. I didn’t 100% (0:27:05) Al: rob the bank, but I did complete the story. I completed that run, completed that run. (0:27:12) Al: Which is enough. (0:27:13) Al: For a roguelite, for me, considering I only got a third of the way through a run in Hades. (0:27:27) Al: Defeated the first boss, then died in the next level and went “I’m not playing that boss again”. (0:27:36) Kelly: Where’s your dedication to pain? (0:27:40) Al: Nowhere. So yes, right. Okay, so this is a new Turnip Boy game. Don’t get excited. It is not an (0:27:46) Al: RPG. It is not like the previous Turnip Boy games. It is an endless runner for some reason. (0:27:55) Kelly: Very, you know, they found like their niche little like theme with the turnip boy, but like it’s very interesting that each game is different. (0:28:04) Al: Yeah, so what I’ve said in my notes here is, I’ll buy and play a new Turn It By game, right? (0:28:13) Al: Because I like Turn It By, but I’m a little bit disappointed that it’s a third game and (0:28:19) Al: it’s not like the first, because yeah, the second one was different, but it was the same (0:28:24) Al: as well. (0:28:25) Al: Like it was a roguelite, but it was still like a combat game in the same way that the (0:28:31) Al: other one was, right? (0:28:32) Al: The controls were the same, you controlled the player. (0:28:34) Al: The same, you still had a weapon in the same way, and there weren’t as many puzzles, right? (0:28:40) Al: The first one had more puzzles, but it was still there was the same combat and stuff like that. (0:28:46) Al: And this is very much not that. So I’m a little bit sad about that. (0:28:53) Al: I guess that’s fine, you know, they can do what they want. But yeah, I’m gonna buy it, I’m gonna (0:29:00) Al: to play it and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it but I want another turnip by turnip (0:29:04) Al: I was so good, it was funny (0:29:06) Kelly: I’ve literally only heard good things about it. Like, you know, it’s I feel like they (0:29:11) Kelly: really like turn a boy made himself into a thing. (0:29:14) Al: Turnaby commits tax evasion was a lovely RPG that you could 100% in 10 hours, and it was funny. (0:29:20) Al: It had a fun little story. It had some good combat that was actually challenging, (0:29:24) Al: especially near the end. And it was good fun. Turnaby robs a bank, had the challenging combat, (0:29:30) Al: and it had some of the funny story. And other than that, it missed the rest of it. (0:29:34) Al: And this presumably will have the same humor. But that’s it. And (0:29:38) Kelly: But that’s it. (0:29:39) Kelly: So they’re just slowly degrading. (0:29:44) Al: I feel bad saying that, because I suspect it’s not like they’re making this instead of another (0:29:50) Al: RPG, right? Like, I think they had a good idea for doing this. And they’ve done it as Turnaby. (0:29:57) Al: I’m just like, when I saw there’s a new Turnaby game, I went, “Oh, yes, great!” (0:30:01) Al: And I looked at it and went, “This is nothing like them at all.” (0:30:04) Kelly: Yeah. No, I was just being a little cynical, but I agree. (0:30:09) Kelly: I think that’s they’re just trying different avenues. (0:30:14) Kelly: It’s not like, oh, this is like a quick grab or something. (0:30:16) Al: Yeah, yeah, no, I get that. But yeah, I’m not saying it’s going to be a bad game. It’s (0:30:20) Al: just one of these things where it’s like, if you would hear, oh, you know, say you didn’t (0:30:25) Al: know about Silksong, right? And you heard Silksong’s coming out. It’s a new, a new Hollow Knight (0:30:33) Al: game. You’re like, oh, fantastic, exciting. And then it turns out it’s Solitaire. Right? (0:30:40) Kelly: Yeah, that would Yeah, yeah, that’s very true (0:30:41) Al: That’s essentially what we’ve had here. (0:30:44) Al: OK. (0:30:46) Al: Like I’m not saying it’s a bad game, I just saw new turnip game, excited. (0:30:50) Kelly: You want her to play, yeah (0:30:51) Al: It’s not that, that’s the problem. (0:30:54) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, no, that’s that’s the hard part (0:30:55) Al: And I guess this is the problem with spin-offs and stuff like that, right? (0:30:59) Al: Because this is what this is, it’s a spin-off, it’s not a sequel, it’s a spin-off. (0:31:02) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:31:03) Al: And I’m not saying they can’t do that, I’m just like, my expectations going in was different (0:31:09) Al: and I don’t know how they solve that problem, but that’s where we are. (0:31:14) Kelly: Well, maybe they’re working on that perfect Turnip Boy sequel in the back end. (0:31:20) Al: Well, they’re working on a different game just now as well, Hobknobbers, (0:31:26) Al: which I don’t think is out yet. (0:31:27) Al: Let me check. (0:31:27) Al: Yeah, it’s not. (0:31:28) Al: It’s still coming soon. (0:31:29) Al: So I suspect that the Hobknobbers is their upcoming big game and (0:31:37) Al: Turnip Boy steals them all as a let’s do a quick and easy, fun, endless (0:31:37) Kelly: - This is the, mm-hmm. (0:31:42) Al: runner that some people can buy and it will help our cash reserves. (0:31:49) Al: Well, speaking of their cash. (0:31:50) Al: It deserves, they’re also releasing a cubified turnip boy plushie. (0:31:53) Kelly: It’s so cute though and they have to reach their funded goal. (0:31:56) Al: I don’t need it. (0:32:00) Al: It’s $40! (0:32:01) Al: Oh my word, $40? (0:32:05) Al: This thing better be huge, how big is this? (0:32:07) Al: It’s 35 centimetres tall, so it is reasonably big, but that’s a lot of money. (0:32:14) Kelly: But it looks so soft. (0:32:16) Al: What is the shipping going to be to me? (0:32:20) Al: Probably too much. (0:32:20) Kelly: I don’t need this. What is the shipping? (0:32:26) Kelly: How much tariff would I have to pay to receive this? (0:32:30) Al: Oh 15 dollars shipping to me! (0:32:33) Kelly: Ugh. (0:32:34) Al: 55 dollars. (0:32:36) Kelly: Okay, that’s… that’s… (0:32:36) Al: And it is only 40 pounds, but I’m enjoying the dollar has sunk. (0:32:38) Kelly: But he’s so cute. (0:32:50) Kelly: Well, I’m so glad that someone’s benefited. (0:32:58) Kelly: Oh, I see, there is a tariff statement at the top. (0:33:06) Al: I don’t need it anyway so cube turnip cube or cube boy whatever you’d like to call him he exists (0:33:14) Kelly: He’s very cute. (0:33:15) Al: yeah uh (0:33:16) Kelly: He looks like he’s like that good soft material, too. (0:33:18) Al: yeah yeah (0:33:20) Kelly: Like squishmallows. (0:33:22) Al: but not (0:33:22) Kelly: I’m just going to keep talking until you feel bad, (0:33:24) Kelly: and then you add yourself to life. (0:33:29) Al: everdream valley have announced and released I think I think this is out now (0:33:34) Al: Ever Dream Valley. (0:33:36) Al: VR. A virtual reality version of Ever Dream Valley. (0:33:38) Kelly: Oh, oh, I don’t like that at all. I can’t look at that. (0:33:42) Kelly: I think I would puke if I ever did VR. (0:33:46) Al: I played, there was a game that I played which was like in VR, but you, but it was (0:33:54) Al: augmented reality rather than virtual reality. So you’re seeing the world around you as well (0:33:58) Al: and you like create these little islands where you put animals on them. I love that game. It’s such a (0:33:59) Kelly: OK. (0:34:05) Kelly: That seems cuter, and probably wouldn’t (0:34:07) Kelly: give me motion sickness, maybe. (0:34:10) Al: it was yeah it was a it definitely is much better um this I oh (0:34:16) Kelly: I literally can’t look at that cow clip. (0:34:18) Al: yeah I don’t I don’t know what to say about this game uh (0:34:25) Al: this kind of looks like a proof of concept this looks thrown together um (0:34:30) Kelly: It doesn’t look good. (0:34:32) Al: oh it’s not out yet it’s coming soon but you can pre-order it (0:34:34) Kelly: No yeah yeah but like that cow clip does not look good. (0:34:38) Al: No, no. (0:34:40) Al: No. (0:34:42) Kelly: Feels like I don’t, maybe I’m biased because I don’t like VR but like (0:34:47) Kelly: I thought we were kind of coming down from like the VR (0:34:51) Kelly: um spike I guess. (0:34:54) Al: do it. Yeah, I don’t know why they’ve done this. Like I have a VR headset and I love (0:34:59) Al: it for some things. I love Beat Saber. I love whatever the name of the game is. I kind (0:35:01) Kelly: Mm-hmm (0:35:07) Kelly: Beat Saber looks so sick. I think that would that’s like the the soul game that would sell me a (0:35:12) Al: It is the single thing that convinces anybody to buy VR. (0:35:17) Al: It is so good, I love it so much. (0:35:21) Al: But that, watching films in IMAX and whatever the name of the other game I play, the one (0:35:29) Al: with the Islands of Animals, those are the three things I’ve done more than once on my (0:35:33) Kelly: okay yeah no and it’s a separate game right like yeah you have to pay (0:35:35) Al: VR headset, right? (0:35:36) Al: Like there’s other things that you’ve tried once or whatever and gone “not for me”. (0:35:42) Al: It’s game, but the content. (0:35:47) Al: Yeah. (0:35:48) Al: It’s twenty dollars I think? (0:35:50) Kelly: you could pre-order it for 15 (0:35:58) Kelly: Yeah, no, I feel like a lot of the VR game just feel like novelty. (0:36:02) Al: Tune in next time to see if I’ve bought this game or not. (0:36:07) Al: All right. (0:36:08) Al: That’s the news. (0:36:09) Al: Let’s talk about Ratopia. (0:36:11) Kelly: Yay, I’m just so glad it came out. (0:36:12) Al: All right, I’m going to. (0:36:15) Kelly: Can I say that as someone who is waiting on so many different stupid games? (0:36:16) Al: Yeah. (0:36:20) Kelly: It is so nice to get a full release. (0:36:25) Al: OK, I want to try and describe this game and you can tell me what you think (0:36:30) Kelly: Okay. (0:36:30) Al: about my description. (0:36:32) Al: You are the the queen of a new rat city (0:36:39) Al: and you are building your city out. (0:36:43) Al: You it’s it’s almost it almost is like a it is a city builder, (0:36:49) Al: but it is a an RPG city builder. (0:36:52) Al: So you’re controlling a character. (0:36:55) Al: And you are building up the city. (0:36:58) Al: You’re you know, you’re saying this is where buildings go and you’re saying this (0:37:02) Al: different things go and this is these are the laws of the city and stuff like that. (0:37:08) Al: And you also accept in new members or new citizens. (0:37:14) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:37:15) Al: They are. They call them (0:37:18) Al: they call them migrants or refugees. (0:37:19) Kelly: I think it’s migrants. (0:37:19) Al: I can’t remember. It’s one of the two. (0:37:21) Kelly: It’s something with an M. I know that. (0:37:22) Al: I think it’s my yeah, it’ll be migrants then. (0:37:25) Al: And when you accept migrants in, you can then put them to work. (0:37:29) Al: Or you, so I guess the two, two. (0:37:32) Al: Your main ways of playing the game are you are controlling your individual character who goes around and can do things, and then you’re also directing your citizens to do things as well, so you don’t have to do them instead. (0:37:47) Al: And that can be basically anything, right? You can get them to man a specific building, to like lumber, or you can get them to dig. (0:37:55) Al: I think automatically they will like gather up everything that’s on the ground and put it in the chest. (0:38:02) Al: That’s it. It’s a city builder, but you are controlling an individual character as well as telling other characters what to do. (0:38:10) Al: Is that a fair description of the game? (0:38:12) Kelly: I think it is also it’s vertical builder uh like yeah yeah yeah (0:38:14) Al: What does that mean? What do you mean? Oh, like a 2D, yeah, okay, I see what you mean. It’s side scrolling up and downy. (0:38:22) Kelly: yes but like you’re building vertically which I think is like more terraria than like other (0:38:25) Al: Yes. I was going to, I was just going to say that Terraria is the, is the. (0:38:32) Al: Would be the example. (0:38:34) Kelly: I would say this is like a micromanagers final boss game (0:38:38) Al: Oh, my word, so micromanaging. (0:38:40) Kelly: It’s, it makes. (0:38:42) Kelly: It makes my heart sing. It’s incredible and so stressful. (0:38:45) Al: So let me tell you how I, let me tell you my thought process when starting this game. I’ve not put in, like, I’ve maybe put in less than an hour into this game, but the demo is really good at showing you the core concept of the game really quickly, and I don’t know if the main game does it in the same way, but. (0:39:02) Al: And you’re like, oh, you’re great. That’s fine. I’m going to go do some digging and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, man, I can only carry three things at once and there’s only three of the same thing. (0:39:10) Al: Oh, that’s really frustrating. Oh, goodness. Right. This is going to take forever to do anything. It’s like you dig, dig, dig, and then you throw in the chest and then you dig, dig, dig, and you throw in the chest. Right. Fine. Whatever. This is really annoying. (0:39:22) Al: Oh, OK. Right. I’m adding in new people to my city. OK, fine. Oh, they’re all picking up the things I can do so I can just go now and dig and dig and dig and dig and they will take the thing. Great. That’s a much improvement. (0:39:32) Al: And then it’s like, oh, and then it goes, oh, you need to build this thing. And you’re like, how do I do this? And it’s like you go into this menu and this menu then expands and expands and expands. (0:39:43) Al: And it’s like this web, absolute mass, massive web of different parts of different menus. And you’re just like, I have no idea what’s happening here. (0:39:54) Al: And it’s just it is, if you enjoy not creating spreadsheets, but if you enjoy looking at. (0:40:02) Al: Somebody else’s spreadsheets and figuring out what they do, you will like this game. (0:40:08) Kelly: I think that is a fair– (0:40:12) Kelly: not metaphor, what is the word I’m looking for– (0:40:15) Kelly: summation of essentially all of the aspects of this game. (0:40:18) Al: Where I enjoy making spreadsheets, I do not enjoy figuring out what other people have done, and that’s what the menu felt like. I’m like, I want this thing, but I need to figure out what category they put it in, what category of what category, and what menu of what setting, and then where in this category is it, because it’s just like this mess of things. (0:40:42) Al: And I don’t like figuring out what people think in the best of times. (0:40:48) Al: And it just feels like somebody made this game, and this is how they decided was the most logical thing for their brain, and I cannot be bothered spending my time figuring out why they decided. (0:41:02) Kelly: I think that is a very fair way to see it because I think that’s exactly how it is. (0:41:10) Kelly: But also, I feel like once it starts clicking, it starts making more sense because for me, (0:41:16) Kelly: I really enjoy trying to figure out how people are thinking because I think that’s the only (0:41:20) Kelly: way I can understand vaguely people. (0:41:26) Kelly: So it’s like a puzzle. (0:41:27) Kelly: So I think the puzzle of trying to understand the thought process is kind of fun. (0:41:32) Kelly: Also frustrating, though. (0:41:35) Kelly: Like, there’s definitely been moments where I’m like, (0:41:38) Kelly: “This stupid rat has to pee! How do I fix this?” (0:41:42) Al: Yes, I (0:41:42) Kelly: You know, like, “What do you mean they can’t do this task?” (0:41:46) Al: Think that part of it is is is I I didn’t hate right because it’s like you’re just your standard city builder thing (0:41:50) Kelly: No, no, it’s not bad (0:41:52) Al: It’s like you need to balance you need to balance all these things and you need to figure out how they balance fine (0:41:57) Al: Sure, whatever my problem. I just felt like I was navigating menus for 90% of the time (0:41:57) Kelly: Yes, it’s just I think (0:42:03) Kelly: It’s a lot of menus (0:42:04) Kelly: I did see someone say that they didn’t like that the game paused when you opened the menu to like build something and in (0:42:11) Kelly: My head I was like, what the hell are you talking about? (0:42:13) Al: All right souls player, goodness me, just masochistic person. (0:42:15) Kelly: Yeah, I was like what kind of game do you think this is that’s crazy (0:42:21) Kelly: Then like I literally I watched that and I was like what the hell kind of person (0:42:27) Al: Oh, my word. Horrifying. (0:42:28) Kelly: That’s sick that’s sicko behavior (0:42:32) Kelly: It’s like please keep those thoughts to yourself and I think better never implement that in this game (0:42:38) Al: Yeah, that that that how to make this game more stressful. (0:42:42) Kelly: Yeah, literally, like you said, the souls-like version. (0:42:47) Kelly: That’s disgusting. (0:42:48) Kelly: Don’t ever tell people that. (0:42:50) Al: It was like the kid just said, “Is it time for a test in school?” (0:42:51) Kelly: Like, I need those, I need that pause (0:42:54) Kelly: to figure out what I’m doing. (0:42:58) Al: And you’re like, “No! (0:42:59) Al: What are you doing? (0:43:00) Al: What?” (0:43:00) Kelly: You didn’t collect our homework. (0:43:01) Al: Yeah. (0:43:02) Al: Oh. (0:43:06) Kelly: But yeah, no, that blew my mind. (0:43:07) Kelly: ‘Cause I was like, people think like this? (0:43:10) Kelly: Why would you want that? (0:43:12) Al: So yeah, I think I, I mean, we’re just, we’re apparently getting straight into (0:43:15) Al: my opinions, um, I, I can, I, this is not the game for me, but I 100% can see why (0:43:16) Kelly: I think that’s very fair, and I do overall, I think this game, there is so much going (0:43:21) Al: someone would like this 100%. (0:43:29) Kelly: on and like, I like Rimworld a lot, I don’t know half of the shit I’m supposed to be doing (0:43:36) Kelly: in Rimworld because there’s just so much in that game. (0:43:41) Kelly: I don’t even buy the DLCs for that game, I just like playing the game, I figure things (0:43:45) Kelly: Peace out as the game goes on. (0:43:46) Kelly: You know, I’ve been playing it for a few years, things will happen, bad things happen, sometimes you die. (0:43:48) Al: Yeah (0:43:51) Al: Do you know I think (0:43:53) Al: What I think interesting was I think that when I while I was playing this game (0:43:57) Al: I think I was thinking you know what I would have more fun doing probably what is terraria (0:44:03) Al: Right, like I feel like that’s what I’m looking for if I’m one if I would be wanting to play this game (0:44:08) Al: It’s it’s I I I want it simpler (0:44:13) Al: I’m not it’s not necessarily even the action adventure bit right like it’s it’s more I (0:44:14) Kelly: That’s, yeah. (0:44:18) Al: Was thinking like this but (0:44:22) Al: Minecraft and then I was like wait, but that’s terraria, right? (0:44:24) Kelly: Mmm (0:44:26) Kelly: That’s so funny because I’ve I’ve actually never played I missed the boat on Terraria (0:44:30) Kelly: And I’ve also never played Minecraft because I 100% missed the boat on that one. I feel like at a certain point (0:44:37) Kelly: Like I think I would still enjoy Minecraft, but at this point in my life. I’m just like I cannot pick up Minecraft (0:44:43) Al: That’s totally fair. Minecraft was my, like I got in literally the last day of alpha (0:44:50) Kelly: Oh, wow. (0:44:51) Al: in Minecraft. So that was back on in 2010, I want to say. And that was like, I was, (0:44:56) Kelly: Mm-hmm. And I know people are still playing it. I know, you know, it’s still a relevant game. (0:45:00) Al: oh yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely. But I was like part of the way through uni at that point, (0:45:07) Al: university. So like I, I was very much in a world where I. (0:45:12) Al: Could sit up till three in the morning, obsessing over stuff. And I loved the building aspect of (0:45:18) Al: that. So I, I, if I, obviously I do not have any numbers for how much time I spent on Minecraft, (0:45:25) Al: because it wasn’t through Steam and nothing exists for that. But if I did have numbers, (0:45:30) Al: I would probably be incredibly scared to share that number with anyone, right? Like. (0:45:34) Kelly: That’s how I feel about my Sims numbers, you know? I’m so glad I don’t have those. (0:45:39) Al: Yeah. Yeah, same, same sort of thing. (0:45:42) Al: Absolutely. (0:45:45) Kelly: But no, I think what I like about this game is that there’s so much going on. Like in (0:45:50) Kelly: a sense it’s like, I enjoy bein

Codey and Kevin talk through all the recent news. Also bugs again. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:17: What Have We Been Up To 00:19:17: I Know What You Released Last Month 00:26:44: Upcoming Game Releases 00:30:40: Game Updates 00:40:52: New Games 00:51:08: Other News 01:12:01: Outro Links Harvest Moon Double Pack for Switch Release Date Cattle Country Release Date To Pixelia Release Hello Kitty Island Adventure “Friends, Furniture, and Frozen Peaks” Update Hello Kitty Island Adventure Month of Meh Farlands “0.5” Update Sunseed Island Starsand Island Mudborne Soundtrack Tales of the Shire Store Wholesome Direct ConcernedApe Interview New Lego Animal Crossing Sets Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Kev: Hello farmers and welcome to another (0:00:33) Kev: Contractually obligated episode of the harvest season that’s not true at all. There’s no contracts whatsoever (0:00:36) Codey: Not true. (0:00:40) Kev: By no one, have you ever seen Paul board and the mall cop movie? (0:00:45) Codey: Uh, for not for a hot minute. (0:00:49) Kev: Well, I’m just reminded like he he there’s this plaque (0:00:53) Kev: You know mall security whatever and he just made it himself for himself and that’s all that I’m thinking (0:00:57) Codey: Okay. (0:01:00) Kev: Contract I drafted for myself. Oh (0:01:03) Kev: Anyways, hello. My name is Kevin (0:01:05) Codey: And I am Cody. (0:01:07) Kev: And we are here today to talk about cottagecore games per the first section for the party of the first part. Oh, yeah (0:01:12) Codey: A-wooo! (0:01:15) Codey: Ow-ow-ow! (0:01:17) Kev: You go (0:01:19) Kev: I don’t know Rick flair, but I feel like I should try to mimic kids. I might be mimicking these woo already (0:01:25) Kev: I don’t know, but I just know he does the woo (0:01:28) Codey: No, I, I do not, I do not wrestle. (0:01:28) Kev: You don’t talk about wrestler guy (0:01:30) Kev: He does booze (0:01:32) Kev: Yeah, there’s a wrestler. He’s kind of an older guy. I think he’s actually like running WWE now, but anyways (0:01:38) Codey: That’s a choice. (0:01:39) Kev: Hello everyone (0:01:42) Kev: It is (0:01:44) Kev: Okay today, it’s all it’s just another news episode (0:01:48) Kev: Life is chaotic. Cody actually managed to get on thankfully after actually surviving the wilderness for this past weekend (0:01:52) Codey: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. I will. We’ll talk we’ll talk about that. I can. Yeah. So it’s big, big old news episodes. We got lots of stuff to talk about. We this is the first of this month. So this will be our I know what you released last month. Boo. Episode as well. But what we have been up to. So this farmers has been a (0:01:57) Kev: but it (0:01:58) Kev: Hey, Oleg. (0:02:00) Kev: Well, do you want do you want to open because obviously okay. All right, let’s just let’s get into it (0:02:16) Kev: Yeah. (0:02:22) Codey: wild ride. So this last week, on Tuesday, I was working at the (0:02:28) Codey: Wildlife Center, it was going great, no issues. And we we (0:02:32) Codey: heard that there was going to be this huge storm coming through. (0:02:35) Codey: And that there’s probably going to be a lot of animals like (0:02:38) Codey: thrown out of trees. And so we were probably going to get a lot (0:02:41) Codey: of animals from people. And just kind of be ready for that. And (0:02:45) Codey: we were like, Okay, and then, like seven o’clock, power goes (0:02:52) Codey: on. And I had gone outside at one point, because we knew this (0:02:55) Codey: storm was happening. But we the our wildlife center is in the (0:02:57) Codey: basement of the owner’s house. Answer. p.m. p.m. crucial (0:02:58) Kev: Okay, wait question you say it’s 7 o’clock a.m. Or p.m.. Okay. All right. This is all right (0:03:05) Kev: There’s still light at that time, but okay. Yeah, all right (0:03:06) Codey: information. Yeah. So I had gone outside, just like poked my (0:03:10) Codey: head outside. And it sounded like a frickin jet engine. It (0:03:13) Codey: was so loud. And I was like, Yep, it sure is storming. And I (0:03:17) Codey: told the other people to go check it out. They poked their (0:03:20) Codey: heads out. They were like, “Yep, sure, it’s working.” (0:03:22) Codey: And so we were like, “Okay.” And then, yeah, not long after that, power goes out. (0:03:28) Codey: And so we’re feeding, we’re like laughing about it, whatever, we have like little lights and everything. (0:03:33) Codey: We’re feeding baby squirrels with lamps with like headlamps on and stuff and doing just us, I think. (0:03:36) Kev: Very cute. (0:03:37) Kev: The pictures, I’ve seen the pictures. (0:03:42) Kev: Wait, did you have the lamps (0:03:43) Kev: or did the squirrels have the lamps? (0:03:44) Kev: Both. (0:03:46) Codey: Yeah, it was just us. But there were like little, the owner has like lanterns everywhere. (0:03:51) Codey: We found out that the. (0:03:52) Codey: Um, sinks are run. (0:03:56) Codey: There’s a pump that takes the stuff from the sinks. (0:03:59) Codey: So then we weren’t even able to do dishes. (0:04:02) Codey: So then we were just kind of like sitting there waiting for her to put the backup (0:04:06) Codey: generator on took like 20, 30 minutes. (0:04:08) Codey: And then when we had backup generator, it was great. (0:04:10) Codey: Like no issues. (0:04:12) Codey: Um, Jeff, my partner texts me and is like, Hey, we don’t have power. (0:04:15) Codey: I’m like dope. (0:04:17) Codey: When I leave, I see all of the messages and basically it was a derecho storm (0:04:23) Codey: I don’t know how you say it. (0:04:24) Codey: We had like 90 mile an hour winds and there were trees, um, that were (0:04:30) Codey: straight up uprooted and like power lines that went across the road. (0:04:32) Kev: Oh, that’s sick. (0:04:38) Codey: Uh, animals were indeed. (0:04:38) Kev: Animals were indeed thrown out of the trees (0:04:41) Kev: with said trees. (0:04:42) Codey: Yes, they were. (0:04:43) Kev: With said trees. (0:04:45) Codey: We, I have not worked since that day and I, the messages have been going crazy, (0:04:50) Codey: but I have had other stuff to do. (0:04:52) Codey: So yeah, we’re out of power and we’re like, okay, this is probably just like, (0:04:57) Codey: they just got to put it back up every now and then we’ll go out of power (0:04:59) Codey: for like 10 or 15 minutes. (0:05:00) Codey: It’s not a big deal. (0:05:01) Codey: Um, nope. (0:05:03) Codey: Next morning we wake up and on our like weather outage app, it’s like, uh, (0:05:09) Codey: time estimated time to restoration, to restoration of, of power unknown. (0:05:16) Kev: Big old shrug (0:05:18) Codey: Yeah. (0:05:18) Codey: Big old shrug. (0:05:19) Codey: And they, it was like right down the street, like there was a power line (0:05:22) Codey: that was just straight up across the road. (0:05:24) Codey: And it was like that for a day and a half. (0:05:28) Codey: So like over 200,000 people in Western Pennsylvania, we’re just like out of power. (0:05:34) Codey: Um, I was out of power for two full days. (0:05:37) Codey: We had to throw away all of our food. (0:05:39) Codey: Um, and I was like really grumpy because I had planned on doing all of my chores (0:05:45) Codey: that Wednesday, I was so excited. (0:05:46) Kev: Mmm, mmm. (0:05:48) Codey: that includes like vacuuming and dishes and laundry. (0:05:53) Codey: I couldn’t do any of that stuff. (0:05:54) Codey: And yeah, it was like the whole town, except for they kicked power (0:05:57) Codey: on for like some of the businesses, some of the grocery stores. (0:06:00) Codey: Cause they knew everyone was going to need grocery store stuff. (0:06:02) Codey: So they made sure that those lines were up and that the like hospital was up and (0:06:07) Codey: stuff, but most of the residences didn’t have power for at least two days. (0:06:12) Codey: So that was crazy. (0:06:13) Codey: That was, so that was a reason, um, when they were like, Oh, you (0:06:17) Codey: want to do news this week? (0:06:18) Codey: I was like, I still have a lot of stuff to get caught up. (0:06:22) Kev: Yeah, well, appreciate it, you know, that you managed to strap the baby squirrels to (0:06:23) Codey: I don’t know, but it’s fun. (0:06:25) Codey: Um, (0:06:30) Kev: a hamster wheel to power your computer to record this. (0:06:31) Codey: yeah, yeah, they, some of them, the red squirrels would love that actually. (0:06:34) Kev: I’m sure they would. (0:06:38) Codey: Um, yeah. (0:06:39) Codey: So I’m, I did that. (0:06:40) Codey: That was me for two days. (0:06:41) Codey: I was straight up roughing it. (0:06:43) Codey: Um, also I went to a nursery today at plant nursery and I got four different (0:06:50) Codey: species, not species, four different varieties. (0:06:52) Codey: of peppers. I got some herbs and I got some tomatoes so it about to be in real (0:06:56) Kev: ooh peppers okay (0:07:03) Codey: life farming for me. Yeah. (0:07:05) Kev: all right that’s good stuff so you know back back in many many moons ago when I actually (0:07:12) Kev: lived in a house with the backyard um we we had a garden and we had and all basically all those (0:07:18) Kev: things um tomatoes and peppers I forget the other one but um but those are good ones to grow they’re (0:07:20) Codey: Yeah, and I also got kale as well. Yeah, so those are all going to grow in my back. I have like a little area that’s kind of closed off. So I’m going to give it a try because we got a shot, a glimpse of what it looks like to be in a post-apocalyptic scenario with no power and having to live on our own, you know. (0:07:23) Kev: hardy and you can get a lot of them, you know. (0:07:26) Kev: There you go. (0:07:43) Kev: Mm-hmm. Off the land. Yep. Yeah. Well, um, that’s pretty, well, the power outage thing’s (0:07:50) Codey: Like off the land. So I also, I wanted to garden anyway, but it’s a joke. (0:08:00) Kev: not cool. Like, that’s wild. I’ve never had an, I’ve extended power outage, I guess, like (0:08:04) Codey: Yeah, it was it was cool for a while, I just realized like I listeners I entreat you to take a moment, you can pause this for like a minute or something after I post this, think about what you do that requires electricity, and then just don’t touch that for a day. (0:08:05) Kev: couple hours. So that’s, that’s a lot to hear, but I’m glad you’re out of it. Okay. Son’s (0:08:26) Kev: I mean, yeah, everything. (0:08:29) Kev: We’re the brain rot termly online. (0:08:34) Kev: But even aside from that, yeah, I’m (0:08:37) Kev: living in an apartment complex. (0:08:39) Kev: Everything is electric for me. (0:08:40) Codey: Yeah, I got all like yep alt might our stove is electric all of our lights clearly are electric (0:08:42) Kev: Even my stove, I’d be out. (0:08:44) Kev: Yep. (0:08:49) Codey: Couldn’t do any cleaning couldn’t do like I was trying to use my phone as little as possible (0:08:56) Codey: but I could take it like I could jump in my car and like (0:08:56) Kev: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. (0:09:00) Codey: Drive around but I’m sure there were probably gas shortages because everyone was trying to power their generators (0:09:07) Codey: But yeah, I was like wow a lot of my life is (0:09:11) Codey: That so I did a lot of yard work (0:09:13) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I’m sure the the challenge I think would for at least in my scenario would be the food because (0:09:20) Kev: You know, we we’re you can’t go out because restaurants are gonna be down too, right? So (0:09:26) Codey: A lot of the restaurants were down and then the second day when some of the stuff had jumped back up, all the restaurants were swamped because everyone was going out to the restaurants. (0:09:34) Kev: Yeah, of course, of course, of course, yeah, but yeah (0:09:38) Codey: Yeah, so you can’t, you can’t really do that. (0:09:42) Kev: So you did non (0:09:43) Kev: perishable stuff that’s ready to eat and won’t go bad. So like, I hope you have a lot of fruit, (0:09:44) Codey: Yep. (0:09:48) Codey: It was boring. (0:09:50) Kev: I guess a cereal I don’t know because you can’t even have the cold milk. Nevermind. (0:09:52) Codey: I can’t yeah our milk went bad real fast, so. (0:09:56) Kev: Yeah, no. Um, yeah, I don’t even like break out the the spam. I don’t even know. (0:09:56) Codey: Yeah. (0:10:06) Codey: I pretty much, I got chips. (0:10:07) Kev: Can you eat spam out of the can? Yeah. (0:10:09) Codey: I got like a thing of chips. (0:10:10) Codey: So like of little individual packages of chips. (0:10:13) Codey: So I have that. (0:10:14) Codey: I bought Chewy bars, like granola bars. (0:10:16) Kev: Oh, all of those are good. Yep. One of the bars. That’s good. Yeah. (0:10:19) Codey: And that’s all I bought. (0:10:22) Codey: Because then after that, we just got like some fast, (0:10:26) Codey: but even the fast food lines were like so long. (0:10:30) Kev: Yeah, of course. Of course. (0:10:30) Codey: It was crazy. (0:10:33) Codey: Yeah. (0:10:33) Codey: The only other thing that I’ve been up to (0:10:37) Codey: Breath of the Wild. (0:10:39) Codey: And then now that we have power again, (0:10:41) Codey: suddenly there’s a new season of Fortnite (0:10:43) Codey: and it is all Star Wars themed. (0:10:46) Kev: Oh, is is glub shadow in it? (0:10:47) Codey: So I don’t know what that is. (0:10:51) Codey: I’m not a Star Wars human. (0:10:53) Codey: I don’t like Star Wars. (0:10:54) Codey: So you’re gonna send me a picture. (0:10:56) Kev: OK, hold on, let me just pronounce it correctly. (0:10:59) Kev: No, no, it’s it’s so it’s a it’s a meme (0:11:05) Kev: just because. (0:11:07) Kev: Yeah, because obviously Star Wars have all these goofy dumb names or whatever. (0:11:12) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:11:12) Kev: There’s the running gag of Guelp’s shadow of just being a made-up name-slash- (0:11:16) Kev: character and always saying, “Oh, I love Guelp’s shadow. He’s my favorite Star Wars (0:11:20) Kev: character just because he sounds like a real one.” But yeah, Star Wars. I mean, that makes sense that (0:11:22) Codey: Got it, okay, cool (0:11:28) Kev: the third one movie came out. I’m not that big of a Star Wars person, but yeah, sure. Why not? (0:11:34) Codey: Yeah. So that is the short version of what I expected to do. Oh, what have you got, Toucan? (0:11:35) Kev: I mean, it’s cool. I respect it. I just, I’ve never really watched much, many of the movies. (0:11:42) Kev: Yeah. (0:11:49) Kev: She didn’t get into how she had to kill the bear for survival. (0:11:54) Codey: Yeah, didn’t get into any of that. Or my knitting. I’ve been knitting a lot, but it’s fine. You (0:11:58) Kev: Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, good stuff. All right. Well, over here, I have had power. So, (0:11:58) Codey: You have to go to the Slack for that information, kids. (0:12:08) Kev: you know, a different experience. Going to roll that in. Just going to show off all the power I (0:12:10) Codey: - Wow. (0:12:12) Kev: have here. Okay. Okay. (0:12:16) Kev: So it’s been busy week. So it’s endless zone zero. I mean, I’ve played daily. I don’t talk about it much because most of the time it’s like it’s a new character I like about, but nobody cares about. So whatever. But this past update this past week or the week before was a big one. Because it was the final, final update for season one stuff. Season one had this whole storyline plot lines connected. And so the next update, we’re going to get a whole new (0:12:46) Kev: batch of stories and characters and all new no, no, no dangling threads, really. So it’s good. That’s, that’s kind of cool. And the character that dropped with this update, her name is Vivian. She is a kind of like Victorian gothic, you know, big, not super big. She’s got a dress with a big, like, almost hoop skirt looking thing and an umbrella, you know what I’m talking about. And she’s got pointy ears. So (0:13:16) Kev: it’s kind of vampire ish gothic, like I said, style that they’re going for her. And so she’s fun. But what I really like about her is that under the dress, there’s actually a bunch of rockets strapped under there. So she’ll launch yourself into the sky, and then launch yourself down at people, which is really funny. So yeah, she’s she’s great. I love Vivian. She’s also hilarious, because she’s something of a fanboy of the main character that you’re playing as. And it’s really, really funny. (0:13:26) Codey: Okay. (0:13:44) Kev: But anyways, yeah. (0:13:46) Kev: I’m just they did show a trailer for season two and there’s all sorts of new characters and stuff including a playable panda, which I’m looking forward to but but yeah, that’s that’s that’s my gotcha corner for myself. (0:14:01) Kev: Let’s see the other okay I picked up a new game this week actually. (0:14:05) Kev: rat topia do you do you remember this one? Oh, we’ve talked about it on the show. I don’t know if I’m in the episode you were on, but are you familiar. (0:14:06) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:14:11) Codey: Yeah, yeah (0:14:14) Kev: So, yeah, so for people who may not. (0:14:16) Kev: I don’t remember, it’s very Terraria like, right, like the 2D slice of earth, you see everything, but you control a rat princess queen, and you are establishing a new rat city village kingdom thing. (0:14:34) Kev: So it’s great because it’s, again, very Terraria like, but as the leader, you get to command the people who move into your town, you actually get to command them to go. (0:14:46) Kev: Do this job, do, you know, mine here, do this, you’re now the logger, whatever. (0:14:48) Codey: Hmm. (0:14:52) Kev: So that part is really cool. That really excited me because I love when you actually get to command people and they do stuff in these games, right? (0:14:58) Codey: Yeah. (0:15:00) Kev: And I like rats. The art style is cute. But, you know, I like little critters in general. So that was fun. (0:15:08) Kev: And the game’s good, but it also can be really hard. It turns out running a kingdom is really hard because sometimes. (0:15:12) Codey: Mmm (0:15:16) Kev: You have to defend from zombie rats invading your town. You have to manage an economy. Do you know how fun that is to figure out how much you should be taxing or subsidizing? (0:15:26) Codey: Nope. (0:15:28) Codey: That does not sound fun. (0:15:30) Kev: It’s wild. I’ve had to start over a few times because I just backed myself into a corner of unsavable. I destroyed the kingdom. (0:15:42) Kev: So, yeah, that, you know, kind of like the real life car, I mean, it’s just… (0:15:46) Kev: I can just restart the politics, yeah. (0:15:53) Kev: But yeah, that’s Rhetopia. (0:15:54) Kev: Overall, it’s a great game, two thumbs up from me. (0:15:58) Kev: I hear other people are interested in this game (0:16:00) Kev: and may talk about it and play it (0:16:02) Kev: and discuss it at length somewhere. (0:16:05) Kev: So yeah, keep an eye out for that. (0:16:08) Kev: And the other one, so lastly, not game specific, (0:16:14) Kev: But, uh, oh. (0:16:16) Kev: Uh, this past, a couple of days ago, I went, I went out to the club. (0:16:20) Kev: I don’t go very often, but I liked the club. (0:16:22) Kev: Um, I liked to dance. (0:16:24) Kev: Um, I, yeah. (0:16:24) Codey: Okay, awesome! (0:16:26) Kev: Um, so it was a solo trip. (0:16:29) Kev: It was just me. (0:16:31) Kev: Um, I was like, you know what? (0:16:32) Kev: I’ve been, I’ve had a very stressful couple of weeks. (0:16:34) Kev: I was like, you know, I’m going to get away for a day and go for a night out. (0:16:38) Kev: And then I had fun or whatever. (0:16:40) Kev: Um, I went to the, uh, club by the. (0:16:46) Kev: Area I went to is very college heavy. (0:16:48) Kev: Um, so, um, I, at first when I got there, I think I got there, no, not I think (0:16:48) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:16:53) Kev: I did get there a little too early. (0:16:54) Kev: So I thought, you know what? (0:16:55) Kev: Maybe this was a bad call. (0:16:56) Kev: Cause you know, the semester’s are ending for colleges. (0:16:59) Kev: I don’t know. (0:16:59) Kev: People aren’t going to be there. (0:17:00) Kev: Um, but it did populate eventually. (0:17:03) Kev: Um, and now I’m only 30, what am I two? (0:17:04) Codey: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, it doesn’t matter anymore. (0:17:08) Kev: No, yeah, 30. (0:17:09) Kev: Yeah, 30. (0:17:09) Kev: Yeah. (0:17:09) Kev: No, I forget after 26, I lose track. (0:17:12) Kev: Um, yeah, yeah, right. (0:17:14) Kev: So I’m. (0:17:16) Kev: Not, yeah, yeah. (0:17:17) Kev: So I’m not old, but especially in this college heavy area, I feel old (0:17:20) Kev: man at the club, just, just a wee bit. (0:17:24) Kev: I’m laying out there in my slacks and a little vest. (0:17:26) Kev: I’m looking, you know, I’m feeling snappy, but everyone else are the (0:17:30) Kev: majest majority of people are college aged kids with t-shirts and the shorts (0:17:34) Kev: and whatever, so I’m sticking out. (0:17:36) Kev: Um, but, uh, but overall I still had fun. (0:17:39) Kev: Um, I just, okay, here’s my biggest old man thing. (0:17:44) Kev: All right, embrace yourself. (0:17:44) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:17:46) Kev: Um, I, um, so I’m a single guy, right? (0:17:46) Codey: Okay. (0:17:49) Kev: And, you know, obviously with heading out to the club, one of the things is like, (0:17:53) Kev: you know, maybe I’ll find someone to dance with, right? (0:17:56) Kev: Cause that’s, that’s just the thing. (0:17:57) Kev: Or so I thought because, uh, I struck out all night and that’s, that’s fine. (0:17:58) Codey: - Mm-hmm. (0:18:02) Kev: That happens. (0:18:03) Kev: And you know, whatever, but after talking to other people, apparently the scene (0:18:07) Kev: has kind of changed, like everyone’s just going up in groups or, or people very (0:18:14) Kev: We rarely actually (0:18:16) Kev: like reach out to strangers or accept the strangers to dance with and apparently you (0:18:23) Kev: gotta like you know meet up beforehand or you know you’re meet up online and decide (0:18:28) Kev: to do so or whatever but that’s just that’s that again that’s just me old manning here (0:18:32) Kev: like I’m I’m just shocked to see that the the the scene has changed as it will or as (0:18:39) Kev: it were (0:18:39) Codey: - Dating, dating is awful. (0:18:43) Codey: Yeah, I, when I was dating, (0:18:46) Codey: even like five years ago, I hated it. (0:18:48) Codey: - Yeah, no, it was awful. (0:18:50) Kev: Yeah, yeah, but um, but yeah, that’s just like I’m I’m too on hip to (0:19:00) Kev: Yeah, I’m I’m out of it. I’m it’s it’s all the zoomers. I can’t keep up with them (0:19:07) Kev: That their fortnight dances in the floss (0:19:11) Kev: All right, that’s all I got (0:19:15) Kev: Alright, let’s get to let’s get to I know what you’re at least (0:19:20) Kev: last month or monthly segment where we talk about stuff that just came out, but before we do, (0:19:23) Codey: No, I didn’t know there was a new one. (0:19:24) Kev: did you see the trailer for I know what you did last summer the new one? (0:19:30) Kev: Yeah, our you know, obviously what we’re riffing off here for the title segment that movie got a (0:19:37) Kev: I don’t sequel reboot thing it’s it’s it’s it’s that trend where it’s reusing the original title (0:19:44) Kev: just called I know what you did last summer and it’s you know the same premise but oh look there’s (0:19:50) Kev: original character who is it Sarah Michelle Keller I think it is I don’t remember the original actress (0:19:56) Kev: from the original oh and she’s there older and she’s gonna be helping out and and you know it’s (0:20:01) Kev: it’s just the rehash that Hollywood has been doing with all especially a lot of horror movies it feels (0:20:05) Kev: like but yeah I just just want to point out that I got a trailer I haven’t watched any of the other (0:20:12) Kev: ones so whatever but it’s just interesting (0:20:14) Codey: Yeah, I don’t mind like when they do that stuff. So I really love the scream franchise. (0:20:20) Kev: yeah the scream one seemed to do I hadn’t seen the newer ones but that seemed pretty well done how (0:20:26) Kev: they did it yeah all right there you go that first scream is really good like I get it when (0:20:28) Codey: So yeah, 10 out of 10. (0:20:36) Codey: Yeah, we. (0:20:36) Kev: I watched it the first time I was like oh okay I get it um okay uh all right not for games that (0:20:45) Kev: Come on, non-horror games, Cottage Court games, if you don’t like those, do you? (0:20:45) Codey: Mm-hmm, yeah. (0:20:50) Kev: If you like those movies, you might like this. (0:20:52) Kev: Alright, first of all, Bugaboo Pocket, what I call the Bugagotchi game, because it’s 2D pixel style, very detailed, very gorgeous looking sprite work of bugs, and you pet them and do games with them. (0:21:02) Codey: Mm hmm. It was so good. I’m like still so tempted to get that but I will I will I will hold off. (0:21:18) Kev: There’s, there is a lot I will say. There’s Tarot, there’s also it looks like a Fruit Ninja game, and a lot of petting of bugs, they’re very cute but yeah this, yeah, it looks, well maybe you should get the full release so, so it is as long as you want it to be. (0:21:26) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:21:31) Codey: Yeah, I played the demo the demo was super good it’s just wasn’t as long as I wanted it to be (0:21:43) Kev: Oh, if you look on their Steam page, they have a big, like, Nintendo seal of a period. (0:21:48) Kev: So now on the flip side, something that is more pocket, as in Polly Pocket, because Tiny (0:22:09) Kev: Garden came out. The Polly Pocket game, or inspired game, it is a game, not a physical. (0:22:18) Kev: Thing that you can open, and you garden inside your little Polly Pocket world, and you kind of (0:22:23) Kev: rearrange and decorate and all that good stuff. I have not played this game. It looks a lot like a (0:22:32) Kev: game called Garden Galaxy that I did play, which was fine. I think it looks very cute, this Tiny (0:22:38) Kev: Garden. It looks well done, but yeah, go check that out if you’re interested. The gardens are (0:22:46) Kev: So very cute, I will say that. (0:22:49) Kev: Um, let’s see here. (0:22:51) Kev: Next up, we have Opidum, I think. I think I say it different every time. (0:22:54) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:22:57) Kev: It is the, what I call, multiplayer pow world-esque equivalent of Breath of the Wild, because it’s open world sandbox key. (0:23:09) Kev: And you know, it has all your usual survival, whatever. (0:23:13) Kev: Um, but the combat, the combat is just so very clearly Breath of the Wild-ish. (0:23:18) Kev: Feeling, um, which is fine because, you know, that’s a good game to take inspiration from. (0:23:24) Kev: But, uh, but yeah, um, I, you know, a full 3d game like this being multiplayer co-op, (0:23:31) Kev: that is pretty cool. I will give them that. Um, so I don’t know if I’m going to try it just because (0:23:36) Kev: I don’t have room for it right now, but, uh, good on, uh, good on, uh, E.P. games is the (0:23:42) Kev: dev. He came out with it and it’s finished. Um, well, I say it’s finished. It’s really (0:23:48) Kev: released. Um, yeah, and multi multiplayer Breath of the Wild, they’re, they’re just (0:23:54) Kev: sound like a neat niche for that. So, um, yeah, good on them. Uh, and then let’s see, (0:24:00) Kev: lastly on our list, we have Dean Come 1.0. This is our survive, again, survival-less life sim game, (0:24:09) Kev: whatever. Uh, but this time you’re, uh, you’re in Australia. Um, so you farm, hunt, mine, fish, (0:24:14) Kev: all that good stuff do do all the Australian things is our (0:24:18) Kev: friend mark and it may be because as we all know, (0:24:21) Kev: Australia is a small little island nation and almost really (0:24:25) Kev: the people they all know each other and just they basically (0:24:26) Codey: They should, they all know each other. (0:24:31) Kev: walk by each other every day on their way home. But anyways, (0:24:36) Kev: but yeah, look, Australia is very cool. I always I adore like (0:24:39) Kev: reading about as a kid who loved wildlife and animals and Steve (0:24:43) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:24:44) Kev: Irwin, right? Like Australia was very big in the 90s. And I’ve (0:24:46) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:24:47) Kev: read and bought a lot of (0:24:48) Kev: Australia. (0:24:49) Codey: Have you seen some of the new photos that Robert Irwin posted? (0:24:54) Kev: No, what does he do? (0:24:54) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:24:56) Kev: What is he doing? (0:24:58) Codey: Don’t look at it. (0:25:00) Kev: Wait, don’t why not? (0:25:02) Codey: Unless you are a housewife that is bored. (0:25:07) Codey: He posted a risque. (0:25:08) Kev: Oh, dear. (0:25:10) Codey: No, it wasn’t. (0:25:11) Kev: Oh, my gosh, I see. (0:25:11) Codey: It wasn’t risque. (0:25:13) Codey: It was just Robert Irwin in underwear. (0:25:14) Kev: No, I get it. (0:25:17) Kev: I i didn’t yeah (0:25:18) Kev: oh that’s uh yeah that is underwear those are boxers yep I see it (0:25:18) Codey: But Instagram was going insane. (0:25:23) Kev: with him holding it looks like a gila monster or something (0:25:26) Codey: Yeah, he was also holding a snake at some point. (0:25:27) Kev: yeah oh wait oh I see oh that snake that’s a different one yeah (0:25:29) Codey: Yeah. (0:25:31) Codey: He could have a whole calendar. (0:25:34) Codey: And I’m sure he’d make millions. (0:25:36) Codey: Yeah, no, I think that the idea of a survival game in Australia– (0:25:37) Kev: oh that’s good (0:25:43) Codey: why hasn’t that happened yet? (0:25:46) Codey: Why has it taken this long? (0:25:46) Kev: Yeah, you’re right. And it’s an Australian pleasant places. This is just my daily lives. (0:25:58) Kev: This is just the Sims. This isn’t anything special. No, but but yeah, I mean, all you know, (0:26:05) Kev: all joking, the Australia danger death zone aside, you know, it has the wide variety of unique floor (0:26:13) Kev: and faunus that makes for I think doesn’t make great for (0:26:16) Kev: great setting for this kind of game although you know fighting the boss shark is kind of ridiculous (0:26:22) Kev: but in a fun way um so yeah that’s dinkum 1.0 um it is again much like op-ed you can play co-op (0:26:30) Kev: with people um that is out right now um 1.0 um there’s lots of stuff go check out the link you (0:26:39) Kev: know where to find all that stuff um okay yep there you go let’s talk (0:26:43) Codey: And that’s what released last month. (0:26:47) Kev: stuff that didn’t release next month but supposedly releasing in the future supposedly (0:26:54) Kev: all right harvest moon double pack of ports um we have sky tree uh lost valley and sky tree village (0:27:04) Kev: being released uh as a double pack um for uh let’s see I don’t know switch is that what it is okay (0:27:13) Kev: Yeah that makes sense. It is getting a… (0:27:17) Kev: A physical release through the Natsume store, that’s where it is, yeah through the Natsume store. (0:27:24) Kev: You can get a physical copy including an acrylic standee which I don’t think looks particularly noteworthy or nice, but there you go if you’re interested. (0:27:30) Codey: Yeah, but I mean maybe if this was a game that someone really liked then that’s that’s cool for them (0:27:35) Kev: Yeah, yeah, but do those people exist though? (0:27:37) Codey: But I (0:27:39) Codey: Don’t know not to me just trying to milk the cash cow as long as they can (0:27:45) Kev: the literal cash cow. (0:27:46) Codey: Yeah (0:27:48) Kev: I will give them this. They’ve done a dang good job because it’s been a hot minute since they just did the localization, (0:27:56) Kev: but they’re still running. It is so good. I respect that hustle. (0:28:04) Codey: So yeah, 3rd of July if folks are interested in that. (0:28:06) Kev: Oh, thank you. Yeah, the date. I guess that matters. (0:28:12) Kev: Um, next up, all right, here is a game I do care about though. (0:28:15) Kev: Actually, let’s talk about. (0:28:16) Kev: Cattle Country, um, your 2d pixel art Western frontier, um, Stardew ish like where you’re, you’re doing all the things, um, and you can little bit Oregon Trail, a little bit Stardew Valley, I guess, I don’t know, but, uh, yeah, um, it comes, it is releasing on May 27th, um, which that is very close. (0:28:35) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:28:41) Codey: Ooh, that’s close. (0:28:44) Kev: Um, that’s a bad time. That’s always a busy time. (0:28:46) Kev: Um, yeah, that’s, that’s a couple of weeks. Um, I’m looking forward to it and I’ll be (0:28:47) Codey: Okay. (0:28:48) Codey: Did you, like, back it or anything, or you haven’t bought it yet? (0:28:53) Codey: Okay. (0:29:14) Kev: playing it. Keep your eyes. (0:29:16) Kev: Ears peeled, I guess. I don’t know how to peel ears. But here we are. Let’s see. Now we have (0:29:29) Kev: the next game, 2Pixellia, that is out now. This is, yeah, May 1st, it just released. This one is a (0:29:32) Codey: Mm hmm. Yep. (0:29:43) Kev: again pixel art to the kind of city (0:29:47) Codey: Mm-hmm. Yeah, this is the one that doesn’t know what it wants to be, (0:29:47) Kev: simulator I guess um yeah (0:29:53) Codey: and there’s so many different things in it. I believe Al backed this one, so he has it. (0:29:59) Kev: that’s a safe bet (0:29:59) Codey: We’ll probably hear about it, but watching the trailer and stuff, I was just so like… (0:30:06) Kev: it’s it’s a lot if it feels like honestly it feels like taking control of (0:30:12) Kev: one of the sims instead of watching them do (0:30:14) Codey: Yeah. (0:30:15) Kev: everything like just playing them you know (0:30:17) Kev: um so i’ll check it out if you want if you want to do (0:30:22) Kev: crimes you can do crimes so i’ll give them that (0:30:24) Codey: You can do crimes in this game can’t break up marriages though. (0:30:25) Kev: or you can do crimes i’ll give them that (0:30:29) Kev: all right not not yet again that is two pixely and that is (0:30:35) Kev: out now on steam at least I don’t know where else but uh (0:30:38) Kev: there you go all right let’s get into games that already (0:30:43) Kev: did come out but now have more stuff coming out (0:30:47) Kev: okay okay this first one blew my mind because I thought this game was (0:30:52) Kev: dead based like not dead but you know done I can (0:30:54) Codey: Dude, no, this game is not dead. (0:30:57) Codey: This game slaps. (0:30:59) Codey: I wanna play it so bad. (0:30:59) Kev: well I mean yeah I mean i’m not saying that (0:31:02) Kev: dead like people aren’t playing it just I didn’t think they were we’re gonna get (0:31:06) Kev: an update but I guess if there is one franchise in (0:31:09) Kev: the world that can do whatever they want it would be (0:31:13) Kev: san rio and hello kitty because hello kitty island adventure has (0:31:17) Kev: not one but two updates well one of them I think (0:31:21) Kev: came out already um the other one was announced (0:31:25) Kev: Um, so there is the first one is (0:31:29) Kev: the, um, friends furniture and frozen peaks expansion. Um, (0:31:34) Kev: I think that’s out already. Um, there is, uh, (0:31:39) Kev: expansions to believe new areas, Blizzard peak and snow village. (0:31:44) Kev: There are new types of weather flowers, all sorts of new story and cosmetics, (0:31:49) Kev: um, and more improvements and refinements to the friendship system, (0:31:53) Kev: which were needed. Um, just, yeah, just a lot of stuff. (0:31:57) Kev: There’s a lot of stuff again. (0:31:59) Kev: The ice area that’s the big one and improvements to the, you know, UIs and experiences. Nice little (0:32:07) Kev: quality of life touches here and there. All sorts of new furniture and cosmetics. (0:32:15) Kev: There’s some new quests and storylines, all that stuff. Yeah, yeah. (0:32:20) Codey: Sorry, I I was trying to see what it was available on and it is on Apple Arcade (0:32:27) Kev: I mean, it’s on the Steam page. (0:32:29) Kev: So I assume it’s, yeah. (0:32:31) Codey: Yeah, so it’s on Steam but it’s also on Apple Arcade well because on Steam it’s only or sorry it’s on Steam it’s only (0:32:40) Codey: Windows but then it so to play it on Mac you have to play it in Apple Arcade (0:32:43) Kev: Mm-hmm (0:32:47) Codey: I’m wondering, so it’s also on switch. (0:32:53) Kev: on everything, I think, right? I’m just gonna… Look, I’m assuming their deep pockets have (0:32:59) Kev: enabled it to just be out on everything. (0:33:02) Codey: No, they don’t have a Xbox. I was looking for that because I have game pass. Yeah, looking (0:33:08) Kev: - Oh, well, everything they’re on. (0:33:09) Codey: at this, looking at this like update, the biggest thing that I lost my mind about was (0:33:14) Codey: Aggretsuko. So they added, it was, I think it was just in the friends furniture and frozen (0:33:16) Kev: Yeah (0:33:23) Codey: peaks. One, they added Retsuko. So from the TV show, Aggretsuko, they added. (0:33:24) Kev: Yeah (0:33:30) Kev: Well retzeko was in already (0:33:32) Codey: But her friends and coworkers are now. (0:33:35) Kev: That’s correct (0:33:36) Kev: But she was the weird one because nobody knew her because she was from a different part of the scenario verse (0:33:41) Kev: But now yes the supporting ritz a gretzeko cast is here (0:33:46) Kev: I haven’t watched the anime so I can’t get hyped, but I’m kind of hyped because it’s cool (0:33:50) Kev: I like the anime without watching it. It’s a good concept (0:33:54) Codey: I friggin love that anime. Well, because I love metal, so it like tickles that fancy. (0:34:01) Codey: Yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, the other update is called the month of meh. (0:34:02) Kev: Yep, I’ll do it (0:34:07) Kev: But (0:34:10) Kev: Okay, I just got to say when I saw this I thought that was I’ll know it I was like wow I’ll jam (0:34:15) Codey: See, I thought I was saying like, eh, this game sucks. And then I looked, I was like, oh no, it’s literally. (0:34:17) Kev: Don’t like this update, huh? (0:34:24) Codey: Called the month of meh. And there’s Gudetama as. Oh, okay. (0:34:25) Kev: The next up is called month of man (0:34:32) Kev: As good atomic it’s a good atomic festival of sorts right cuz (0:34:38) Kev: yeah, because the Hello Kitty Island adventure does like kind of like Animal Crossing where you know special events or (0:34:45) Kev: Theirs are usually like maybe a week or two. Whatever like oh, here’s the (0:34:50) Kev: Chinese New Year’s the Christmas is the Halloween whatever right they do their monthly your seasonal events and this appears to be one of those (0:34:54) Codey: This, this character that’s dressed as an egg yolk though, a nisetami-san. (0:34:57) Kev: from a night what I saw (0:35:02) Kev: I (0:35:04) Kev: Don’t know who that is. Is that a Sandra Hill character because okay, cuz everyone knows Goude Thomas the lazy egg with the butt (0:35:05) Codey: I don’t like it. (0:35:07) Codey: I don’t like it. (0:35:11) Kev: All right, he’s it’s a little the little guy, right? It’s like, you know standard chicken egg and the little guy is that (0:35:18) Kev: But this guy (0:35:20) Kev: He said Thomas son. No, that is a full grown (0:35:24) Codey: That’s a person, and it’s in a weird costume, and I don’t like that. (0:35:24) Kev: sized human man in a (0:35:28) Kev: You know like yellow (0:35:32) Kev: Jump not jumps, you know, it’s those weird Halloween costumes (0:35:34) Codey: body suits. Yeah. That’s a choice. (0:35:36) Kev: Yeah, the bodysuits that are the single colors and he’s dressed up like Gudetama, but he’s got a very (0:35:43) Kev: Bland face. I don’t I don’t know how to (0:35:46) Codey: the face is honestly the worst part like if if it was like a normal face I would be like (0:35:51) Codey: oh it’s a person but the face I’m just like what is happening um (0:35:55) Kev: Yeah, no, I’m looking this up, this is not new, this is a Sanrio. (0:35:59) Codey: I’m sure it’s a character I just it’s character I didn’t know and I would love to go back to (0:36:01) Kev: Yup. (0:36:03) Kev: It’s a man dressed as Gudetama, so there you go. (0:36:06) Codey: I’d love to go back to five minutes ago when I did not know what six things existed (0:36:12) Kev: He’s got very thick eyebrows. (0:36:14) Kev: That might be part of the problem. (0:36:16) Codey: I don’t know I don’t know (0:36:19) Kev: Well, there you go. (0:36:19) Kev: There’s the month of May. (0:36:21) Kev: It’s through the month of May. (0:36:24) Kev: You get it? (0:36:25) Kev: You get it? (0:36:25) Kev: I don’t know if that was their intention, (0:36:27) Codey: it’s gonna be meth (0:36:27) Kev: but whatever worked out. (0:36:29) Kev: You know what’s not– well, actually, I’m (0:36:31) Kev: sure the update itself is not meh. (0:36:33) Kev: But you know what else is not meh? (0:36:35) Kev: These new games actually– no, they’re all right. (0:36:36) Codey: Oh, no, we got another update. (0:36:39) Kev: Oh, I did skip one. (0:36:41) Kev: Whoopsie. (0:36:41) Codey: There was another update, but it’s only the 0.5 update, (0:36:42) Kev: Oh yeah. (0:36:45) Codey: y’all, so don’t worry. (0:36:46) Codey: It’s not really– (0:36:50) Codey: it’s not a real update. (0:36:51) Codey: No, it’s fine. (0:36:53) Codey: The game Far Lands has a 0.5 update (0:36:56) Codey: that adds a bunch of stuff, including (0:36:58) Codey: hostile mobs in the mines, a new mine (0:37:01) Codey: that you can go to, 10 new social events, Steam Deck (0:37:05) Codey: support, uh, furniture. (0:37:06) Codey: I didn’t, I haven’t really looked at this game before, you kind of just look like a zombie. (0:37:14) Kev: yeah you look like a weird uh yeah a lot of the other characters because you crash line on like (0:37:20) Kev: an alien planet and they’re all alien zombie-ish in appearance I i I agree um but uh yeah okay it (0:37:29) Kev: feels a little space tardewy but it has a little more flavor it has a little more sauce as the kids (0:37:34) Kev: call it um like uh it I that’s what I hear look I still tutor kids okay you know okay (0:37:36) Codey: Is that what the kids are calling it? (0:37:44) Kev: tangent hey shocker me cody you’re going to tangent but okay look I know every generation (0:37:46) Codey: Tangent, boom, boom, boom, boom. (0:37:52) Kev: our generation and everyone has their slang and lingo and and bads and whatever right (0:37:58) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:37:59) Kev: but that I think i’ve been thinking about this because as I tutor right like I see the the next (0:38:05) Kev: generation of kids or it’s also i’m like a couple cycles in at this point really um because i’ve (0:38:10) Kev: tutored for so dang long it’s it’s gotten horrendous the the skipper (0:38:15) Kev: generation as i’m gonna call it because I think that’s the emblematic uh term and and (0:38:16) Codey: Yeah, it’s it’s the brain rot generation. So they, they say like the they they’re that (0:38:22) Kev: yes the brain rot generation there too (0:38:26) Codey: what they’re going to watch is just brain rot and just cringe. And like, yeah, they (0:38:28) Kev: yep yep all that like I i don’t either it’s not and like (0:38:31) Codey: I don’t get it. It’s not entertaining to me. (0:38:39) Kev: the issue isn’t even the stuff itself per se I mean a little bit but you know like that’s i (0:38:43) Kev: I think also just kind of. (0:38:44) Kev: The nature of the generations, like our parents didn’t get our stuff either or whatever, right? (0:38:49) Kev: Um, but it just feels like so much more prevalent and ingrained and, and virulent than, uh, than other generations. (0:39:01) Codey: Verilent. It’s a virus, the brain rot virus. (0:39:01) Kev: And I’ve been thinking about it really. (0:39:03) Kev: Yeah, it really is. (0:39:06) Kev: And, and it’s, I’ve been thinking like, how should I put this right? (0:39:11) Kev: So when you and I grew up, let’s say, right in our middle school. (0:39:14) Kev: I’m a school, whatever, right? (0:39:15) Kev: Like there are the fads and there’s the playground speak and it would spread or whatever, right? (0:39:19) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:39:20) Kev: But it was still kind of contained to our local area, right? (0:39:22) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:39:24) Kev: Because we didn’t have the internet, but I think about it. (0:39:27) Kev: Like, I think that’s the issue, right? (0:39:29) Kev: All these kids have their phones and the same app. (0:39:32) Kev: So like, it’s all so homogenized. (0:39:35) Kev: Like, I think that’s just why like every single kid knows it and watches the same thing. (0:39:42) Kev: Like, it’s, it’s insane. (0:39:44) Kev: Oh, my gosh. Oh. (0:39:46) Codey: Yeah, that’s a whole other story about like whether or not that stuff is helping or harming (0:39:54) Codey: the socialization of the next generation. (0:39:58) Kev: Mm-hmm. That’s a, that is a good one. (0:39:59) Codey: That’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately as like, more discussions about (0:40:01) Kev: Yeah. Mm-hmm. (0:40:04) Codey: autism come out and stuff and like having been, you know, diagnosed as a autistic adult (0:40:10) Codey: at this point. (0:40:12) Codey: Um, yeah, but. (0:40:14) Kev: Yeah, it’s (0:40:16) Kev: And it’s tough because we you know, we’re not gonna have all the data until later right like it’s gonna be tougher kind of (0:40:23) Kev: Speculating but um, it’s it’s it’s what to see (0:40:27) Kev: and but I you know (0:40:28) Codey: Well, that’s Far Lands. (0:40:30) Kev: As about yeah, there you go, there’s your point five update for for this it’s out now (0:40:32) Codey: Pull us back. (0:40:33) Codey: Pull us back. (0:40:37) Codey: It’s out now. (0:40:38) Codey: If you want a hostile mob, if you’ve (0:40:40) Codey: been waiting for steam support, they’re there. (0:40:44) Kev: Achievements, they’re in there, too. (0:40:47) Codey: They are there. (0:40:49) Kev: All right, let’s talk– (0:40:51) Kev: those are the updates. (0:40:53) Kev: Let’s talk about some new game announcements. (0:40:54) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:40:55) Kev: Let’s talk about “Scibbity Island.” (0:40:57) Codey: No! (0:40:59) Codey: We were leaving it. (0:41:00) Codey: We were leaving it. (0:41:02) Kev: No, it’s here to stay. (0:41:03) Codey: No, Sunseed, Sunseed Island. (0:41:05) Kev: OK. (0:41:07) Kev: OK, yeah, “Sunseed Island.” (0:41:10) Kev: OK, first of all, this is insanely cute art style. (0:41:14) Kev: Whoever their art team is, they’re (0:41:18) Kev: knocking out of the park. (0:41:20) Kev: The actual game itself, you’re playing (0:41:22) Kev: as a little cat with a little Pikmin-style flower (0:41:25) Kev: star on your head. (0:41:27) Kev: And you’re rebuilding your town. (0:41:29) Kev: You’re farming. (0:41:30) Kev: You’re fishing. (0:41:31) Kev: You’re exploring islands. (0:41:35) Kev: A lot of the hallmarks of the cottage core verse, (0:41:37) Kev: what can I say? (0:41:38) Kev: There’s different– it looks like– (0:41:40) Kev: I think it’s kind of like Animal Crossing, (0:41:42) Kev: where you can sail to different islands, (0:41:43) Kev: and there might be different environments. (0:41:44) Kev: It’s coming on April 24th on the eShop, actually. (0:41:51) Kev: Wait, what? (0:41:53) Kev: Wait, April 24th? (0:41:54) Codey: Oh, so it’s already out. (0:41:55) Kev: Is that already out? (0:41:56) Codey: It’s already out. (0:41:57) Kev: Oh, yeah, it is sale ends. (0:42:00) Codey: Yeah, so it’s already out. (0:42:02) Codey: Yeah, the little things on top– they all have little Pikmin. (0:42:06) Codey: It’s not just your character. (0:42:07) Codey: All the characters look like they (0:42:08) Kev: Yeah. (0:42:09) Codey: have little Pikmin-y things. (0:42:10) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:42:11) Codey: Very cute. (0:42:12) Kev: Yeah. (0:42:14) Codey: And so their blurb for it is, welcome to Sunseed Island, (0:42:18) Codey: the perfect escape for cozy gamers who love (0:42:20) Codey: to farm, explore, and collect. (0:42:24) Codey: Rebuild a lost village, befriend magical creatures, grow crops, (0:42:27) Codey: fish and tranquil waters, and upgrade your tools, (0:42:29) Codey: discover the secrets of a mystical tree, (0:42:31) Codey: and reconnect the scattered islands. (0:42:35) Codey: I could read that for so many different of these games. (0:42:38) Kev: Okay. (0:42:41) Codey: Yeah, it looks cute. (0:42:43) Codey: Looks like all the other ones, unless you’d (0:42:46) Codey: want to play as a cat, then here you go. (0:42:47) Kev: Yep. Yeah. (0:42:49) Codey: So the price, though, was confusing. (0:42:54) Codey: So on May– (0:42:55) Kev: I mean it’s um well right it’s on sale on the us e-shop for three dollars that’s 72% off i’m (0:42:58) Codey: yeah, go for it. (0:43:04) Kev: too lazy to do the math that’s maybe what like 10 bucks maybe um yeah it’s something like that (0:43:10) Kev: usd uh I can’t see this because I don’t have the uke shop but (0:43:14) Kev: per one of al’s notes apparently it is 100 off on the uke shop so (0:43:18) Codey: I feel like they probably fixed that because the note out so Al said that he got it for free (0:43:24) Codey: because it was it was literally free on the eShop so he got that um and then the note that he left (0:43:25) Kev: yep (0:43:28) Kev: I i don’t blame him (0:43:33) Codey: for the US eShop was that it was 90% off but then I looked and it’s definitely 72% off so (0:43:36) Kev: So, sounds like some numbers were crossed and buttons were pushed incorrectly. (0:43:47) Codey: Y’all should– (0:43:49) Codey: Y’all should check this. (0:43:50) Kev: It’s on sale somewhere. (0:43:52) Kev: You can go get it for cheap right now, we’ll tell you that much. (0:43:54) Codey: Yeah, check this regularly. (0:43:57) Codey: Maybe they just are flipping a dice or something, (0:44:00) Codey: like throwing a dart at a board. (0:44:01) Kev: Maybe they put the wrong sign on. (0:44:07) Kev: It happened to me at the store, not just once multiple times, but they had something on sale and it wasn’t on sale, it made me sad because it was like boxes of cereal, it was like buy two, get three free, it was like wow that’s a great deal, and then I went to the register like no that’s wrong, and I was like oh, I guess I won’t get my cereal. (0:44:24) Codey: So check it out if you like the idea of a stardew where you’re a Pikmin cat. (0:44:31) Kev: Yeah, but you know it kills me that (0:44:33) Codey: The next s s island. (0:44:37) Kev: Okay, okay, you know you want to get into all right. Let’s get into that because what I was gonna say for both of these games (0:44:43) Kev: We went from was it sunseed Island to star sand Island, right? And (0:44:46) Codey: - Mm-hmm. (0:44:50) Kev: Look, you know (0:44:51) Kev: It’s a tough market. I get it right like you got to stand out (0:44:56) Kev: It’s tough and you know what there’s redeeming qualities here both of these (0:44:59) Kev: I’m not- I’m not gonna say these are off. (0:45:01) Kev: That’s awful, but I’m- I’m already loading the gun and ready to drag you out behind the barn for using those names because no, no. (0:45:06) Codey: S– yeah, for a lack of originality, for sure. (0:45:13) Kev: You went with the Noun Noun island slash valley, which is- is- (0:45:17) Codey: S– like, nouns that start with S. (0:45:20) Kev: And then you start with S, both of you, like, oh my gosh, what is- you know what, maybe- maybe the Skibitty kids aren’t so bad. (0:45:23) Codey: Yeah. (0:45:31) Codey: This one does look different, though. (0:45:33) Codey: So the blurb of it, again, is basic. (0:45:36) Codey: So it’s leave the hustle of the city behind (0:45:38) Codey: and embrace life on Starsand Island. (0

Al and Kelly talk about Grimoire Groves Disclosure: We received a free review code for Grimoire Groves. #gifted Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:23: What Have We Been Up To 00:12:16: Game News 00:36:28: New Games 00:39:42: Grimoire Groves 01:12:37: Outro Links Harvest Moon Pre-Orders Bugaboo Pocket Release Date Fields of Mistria 2nd Update Go-go Town “Spring Cleaning” Update Sun Haven “Festivals” 2.0 Update Autonomica (Farm Folks) Name Change Coral Island 2025 Roadmap Everdream Village 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, and we are here today to talk about cottagecore games. (0:00:36) Kelly: And my name is Kelly. (0:00:40) Kelly: Yay. (0:00:41) Al: Welcome back, Kelly. How are you doing? (0:00:44) Kelly: Good. (0:00:44) Kelly: It’s always nice to be back. (0:00:46) Kelly: It’s so funny, because all of my voice recordings are just– (0:00:46) Al: Always nice to have you. (0:00:52) Kelly: oh, it’s like memory lane looking at all the past podcasts. (0:00:56) Al: You were last on talking about fields of mystery, which we might have stuff to talk about with (0:01:00) Kelly: Yes, yes. (0:01:04) Kelly: Yeah, I saw there was a note, but I (0:01:06) Kelly: I haven’t checked it out since we last spoke. (0:01:10) Kelly: Yeah, how have you been? (0:01:10) Al: But yeah, your first one of the year you did three last year. (0:01:12) Kelly: Oh, yeah, 2025. (0:01:14) Al: Let’s see if we can get you above three this year. (0:01:19) Al: Cool. Well, I have Kelly on this episode because we are going to (0:01:23) Al: talk about grimoire groves, grimoire groves. (0:01:28) Kelly: Yes, it’s like a little tongue twister. (0:01:31) Al: Yes, grimoire groves. (0:01:34) Al: Got to say up front, obviously, we received a free review code (0:01:38) Al: for the game, which actually can. (0:01:40) Al: I don’t know. No, that was a joke. That was a joke. That was a joke. (0:02:00) Kelly: No, no, no, no, I would absolutely pay money for this game. (0:02:11) Al: Spoiler alert. Yeah, so we’re going to talk about that game later in the episode. Before (0:02:15) Kelly: And thank you, Al, for that. (0:02:22) Al: that, we’ve obviously got a bunch of news, but first of all, Kelly, what have you been (0:02:26) Kelly: I have been up to taking care of a stray cat and then just trying to start (0:02:33) Kelly: planning out stuff for the spring for the yard. (0:02:36) Al: Oh, yes. Is it garden talking time? What’s your plans for this year? (0:02:39) Kelly: Yeah, but also we’re trying to… I don’t know yet. I’m still waiting but I have to (0:02:47) Kelly: clean up the yard because I prioritized weeding other areas of the house last (0:02:51) Kelly: fall instead of the garden, so it’s still kind of overgrown. (0:02:56) Kelly: I’m trying to get dirt so I can level out the borders of the (0:02:59) Kelly: yard and then tarp them. So exciting. And besides that, I’ve (0:03:08) Kelly: been playing Infinity Nikki for three solid months. This broke (0:03:11) Kelly: my streak, actually. I still play the game every day, so it (0:03:12) Al: No, I haven’t played it (0:03:17) Kelly: didn’t actually break my streak. I just was the only game I was (0:03:19) Kelly: playing for three months. (0:03:22) Al: Fair enough. I haven’t played Infinity Nakey. I’m pretty sure that Dalin plays it as well. (0:03:29) Al: I think we’ve talked about it before, but if you’ve been playing it for three months (0:03:34) Al: straight, I guess you’ve been enjoying it then. (0:03:36) Kelly: - Yes, yes, I think there were definitely moments, (0:03:39) Al: This is the dress-up game, right? Yeah. (0:03:41) Kelly: yes, there were definitely moments where I was playing it (0:03:43) Kelly: ‘cause I just was like, I don’t really have anything else (0:03:45) Kelly: I’m trying to play at the moment, (0:03:48) Kelly: but there is a lot of content and it looks really nice (0:03:51) Kelly: and it’s just like fun to run around the open world (0:03:53) Kelly: and like collect your stuff. (0:03:55) Kelly: It’s just a collecting game. (0:03:56) Al: Yeah. Look, you’re talking to a Pokemon player, right? Like, I know what collecting is like, (0:04:01) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:04:03) Al: I know the feeling. I think it’s a unique part of it, is the fact that it’s a gacha (0:04:10) Al: collecting game, but with outfits, I think is fun. (0:04:12) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:04:14) Kelly: Yes. (0:04:15) Kelly: And unfortunately, there are some things (0:04:19) Kelly: that you cannot beat with essentially not doing the gotcha, (0:04:22) Kelly: but you don’t have to do everything. (0:04:24) Kelly: It’s not going to stop your story progression. (0:04:27) Kelly: You’re just not going to get bonuses. (0:04:30) Al: Right. They’ve got to have a reason for you to pay money, right? (0:04:30) Kelly: You’re just not going to get the coolest outfit. (0:04:33) Kelly: Did I– absolutely. (0:04:36) Kelly: And did I spend some money to get a frog outfit? (0:04:40) Kelly: Yes, but it was a surprise. (0:04:42) Kelly: There was a dog outfit and I needed it. (0:04:44) Kelly: But also like the game is free also, so. (0:04:47) Al: Yes. And, well, yes, exactly. Tell me that three years ago. The thing about these three games is, (0:04:48) Kelly: You just have to you have to restrain yourself. (0:04:57) Al: yeah, you’ve got to make sure that you’re not going over the top, but you’ve also got to think (0:05:00) Al: about how much time and fun you’ve gotten out of games. Like, you know, if I think about Pokemon Go, (0:05:04) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:05:07) Al: I have obviously, I’ve definitely put too much money into that. But also when I think about the (0:05:07) Kelly: Ah, yes. (0:05:11) Al: amount of time that I spend in that game. Like, I spend hours every single day. (0:05:16) Kelly: Oh, I was Pokemon go is probably my highest. Yeah (0:05:17) Al: For eight, for nine years now. (0:05:22) Kelly: Like I don’t and I I I go back and forth on playing it but that game has (0:05:27) Kelly: That’s my most played game because of that (0:05:28) Al: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, ever. Yeah, that don’t think is… (0:05:31) Kelly: Like it beat my Sims like legacy of like, you know playing that from like 10 years old or whatever (0:05:38) Al: I think the thing is that because it’s so accessible, but also because you’re playing (0:05:41) Kelly: It’s so accessible it’s in your hand (0:05:45) Al: it for so many years, even if you only played half an hour every day after 10 years, which (0:05:47) Kelly: Mm-hmm. Yes, exactly (0:05:54) Al: in a year and a bit, it’ll be 10 years since the game came out, if you’ve only played half (0:05:58) Kelly: That’s disgusting, don’t say that. (0:06:05) Al: an error, but you do it every single day for the for the for. (0:06:08) Al: 10 years, that is nearly 2000 hours. That’s the thing, the (0:06:12) Kelly: that’s insane but yeah no it’s it’s true yeah exactly but yeah it’s so it’s like (0:06:15) Al: numbers just add up so fast. And let me tell you, it’s way more (0:06:20) Al: than half an hour I’ve played every single day. (0:06:20) Kelly: okay yeah yeah and it’s like okay so like if I put some money in it every (0:06:26) Kelly: year like I’m getting so much out of it you know and I played love Nikki which (0:06:31) Kelly: is what is the phone game before like there’s been other phone games before (0:06:36) Kelly: this too but that was the one I got really into which is different like (0:06:40) Kelly: setup wise, but essentially it’s just an outfit game again. (0:06:42) Kelly: Gotcha outfit game and again, it’s like okay. I played that game for like four years. I put some money into it (0:06:49) Kelly: But I played it a lot like I spent so much time playing that game (0:06:52) Al: Yeah, as long as you can afford what you’re doing, that’s the important thing. (0:06:56) Kelly: Exactly, but yeah, what have you been up to? (0:07:00) Al: I have been procrastinating playing Grimoire Crows. (0:07:06) Al: Every so often, I end up in this situation where I’m like, this is a game that I need to play, (0:07:11) Al: and then I end up not playing it very much. And instead of procrastinating by playing other games, (0:07:17) Al: I procrastinate by doing other things instead. So I’ve not really done much this week at all. (0:07:20) Kelly: Yep. (0:07:23) Al: I have started a shiny hunt for Regigigas in Pokémon Sword. I’m at the point where I need to (0:07:38) Al: actually get through the rest of the legendaries. I don’t have a shiny if I want to finish my (0:07:43) Al: living decks, because I’m 110 left. And so I’m going to run out of non-legendaries very soon. (0:07:48) Kelly: Oh, my god. (0:07:52) Al: And so I thought, let’s start this one, because I can’t just… Yeah, exactly. (0:07:55) Kelly: Start breaking it up. (0:07:58) Kelly: Yeah, no, I understand that. (0:08:00) Kelly: I used to do that with Angry Birds. (0:08:04) Al: You’re going to have to explain that. (0:08:10) Kelly: Since Angry Birds came out, any phone that I get, (0:08:13) Kelly: I download Angry Birds and beat the whole game again. (0:08:15) Al: You replay it all again, oh my word! (0:08:16) Kelly: 3 stars? (0:08:18) Kelly: I’m less about it now, I just kinda go back to it when I’m bored. So like, you know, I have my phone for a while, eventually I get all the stars. But there’s certain levels that even after all these years of replaying it, they’re just difficult. And they piss me off. So I’ll break it down. (0:08:25) Al: look it’s fun it’s a fun game but I can’t say i’ve played it in the last 15 years (0:08:48) Kelly: I always break those up when I go back to get the 3 stars for them. So it’s the same thing where it’s like, I don’t want to do the really tough thing repeatedly and then just get frustrated at the game. Like it’s boring, you know? It gets boring. (0:08:56) Al: Fair enough. My 15 years might have been a bit of an exaggeration, however it is only (0:09:04) Al: 15 years since it’s 15 years since the first game came out. I can’t believe it’s been 15 years, (0:09:06) Kelly: Yes, yes, because I played it on the first iPhone I had, or an only iPhone. (0:09:09) Al: that’s wild. It was it was definitely it was one of the it was one of the early games that made you (0:09:20) Al: go ’this is why I want a touchscreen’ and it was that and (0:09:22) Kelly: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. (0:09:26) Al: Fruit Ninja and Digital Jump. Those were like the three that made me realize I get it, (0:09:27) Kelly: Yes, I never got into Fruit Ninja. (0:09:36) Al: I would like a touchscreen please. (0:09:38) Kelly: Yep. Well, that was the thrill of like, you know, with the iPhone too. It was like, oh, this is so sick. I can, I can play these fun games. I can do this for a peggle. (0:09:48) Kelly: I played peggle so much on that phone. It’s pinball. (0:09:52) Al: Okay, no, I didn’t. I didn’t play that one. I don’t think I need more games. (0:09:54) Kelly: Oh, you should look it up. I think you like peggle. (0:10:03) Al: Yeah, fun. All right. I think that’s all. Is that all I’ve got to talk about? I’m shiny (0:10:09) Al: hunting. I think so. I played… You were the one that you were you were spying me on steam. (0:10:16) Al: Was it like half an hour I played of Grimoire Groves or something? (0:10:16) Kelly: Oh, yeah, I was watching you all week because every time I’d sign on to the Steam, it’s (0:10:22) Kelly: like you’re the only person I know that has the game also. (0:10:22) Al: Oh, I’ve got an hour and 20 minutes apparently on steam there. Okay. That was yesterday. (0:10:26) Kelly: So for like the whole week, it was like 12 minutes playing. (0:10:30) Kelly: Yes, now, I see it now, but I was like watching it. (0:10:37) Kelly: I know because like two days ago, I was like, he’s still, he is cutting it close. (0:10:43) Al: Look, well, the problem was you messaged me and you said, “I’m loving this game. I’m (0:10:48) Al: played it so much.” And I’m like, “Okay, cool. I don’t need to then.” (0:10:52) Al: Yeah. No, I legitimately think that’s all I’ve (0:10:53) Kelly: Also, I’m the problem. (0:11:02) Al: done this week is like shiny hunting and Pokémon Go. (0:11:05) Kelly: sometimes it’s like you just get that mental block where you just can’t (0:11:08) Al: Yeah. Oh, I did do… I know. I did do the the Scarlet and Violet Quack Quack Quack Quaville (0:11:09) Kelly: even you’re just like oh I gotta I gotta do this but I can’t (0:11:20) Al: raids. I don’t think I’ve ever figured out how to say the name of that. (0:11:21) Kelly: What? What is that? I actually did not play Scarlet and Violet. (0:11:22) Al: Pokémon. Did you not? Um, it’s the, uh, it’s based on like carnival dancers. Uh, let me send you. (0:11:36) Kelly: Okay (0:11:38) Kelly: But like what is it you do the dancing like you (0:11:40) Al: It’s a Pokémon. Oh, no, no, just like a raid, like a normal Pokémon raid. (0:11:45) Kelly: Oh, but it’s like dressed up like a carnival dancer (0:11:49) Al: No, no, clearly you completely misunderstood this. This is just a Pokémon. (0:11:51) Kelly: Okay (0:11:52) Al: A Pokémon that is based on a carnival dancer. That’s the Pokémon, (0:11:57) Kelly: Oh, but that’s what you’re waiting for (0:11:57) Al: but they’ve done, there’s a raid to defeat it and capture it, yes. (0:12:01) Kelly: Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I thought this was like a costume Pokemon. You know what I mean? (0:12:05) Al: Oh, no, it’s not. They’ve not done that in the main games yet. Um, yeah, that’s it. (0:12:06) Kelly: Okay (0:12:12) Al: That’s the entirety of that. It was a raid. I did it. There we go. Done. Uh, (0:12:17) Al: should we talk about some news? Because the section is being a little bit of a disaster. (0:12:21) Al: Um… (0:12:23) Al: So, first up, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, we have some news on Harvest Moon, (0:12:30) Al: The Lost Valley, and Skytree Village, the ports or remasters, however they want to call them, (0:12:38) Al: for Switch, which for some reason they’ve decided to do, is up for pre-order now. (0:12:44) Al: It is $40 for the two of them, which still feels like too much, but (0:12:51) Al: I feel like it says a lot. (0:12:52) Al: When they’re selling two full games that they originally sold individually on separate consoles, (0:12:59) Al: and they’ve ported them both to the Switch, and they’re selling them both together for $40. (0:13:03) Al: That shows you how much people definitely want to buy these games. (0:13:07) Kelly: Yeah, cuz a lot of these remakes are like still a full 60 dollars alone. Yeah (0:13:11) Al: Exactly. The good ones are. (0:13:15) Al: So it’s coming out in June. Previously, we just knew it was coming out in the summer. (0:13:19) Al: We don’t have an exact date as far as I can see, just says June. (0:13:23) Al: And if you pre-order it now, you get a free acrylic standee (0:13:27) Al: with some of the worst art I’ve seen for a Harvestmen game ever. (0:13:31) Kelly: I can tell you really like this one. (0:13:33) Al: I haven’t even played these games, but I know for a fact they’re bad (0:13:36) Al: because I talked to Rachelle about them and they did not like them and yeah. (0:13:39) Kelly: I can never remember which ones are bad but the art for this one does not look good. (0:13:47) Al: These were I think the first two they did after the split between Harvestmen and (0:13:53) Al: so these were the first ones that weren’t by the original team. (0:13:56) Al: They were by Natsume and let’s just say they hadn’t made any games before and you can tell. (0:14:08) Al: I do, I will, I’m so strongly of the opinion that I think that people sometimes are judging (0:14:17) Al: Harvestmen too harshly purely because they’re angry that they kept the name and didn’t give (0:14:23) Al: back but that’s how these things work and I’m sorry you dislike that but I think if you actually (0:14:29) Al: played some of the newer games they’re not as bad as you think but these ones I’m pretty sure are. (0:14:37) Kelly: - Fair enough, I think that’s a fair point. (0:14:40) Al: The way I described it in the last episode I did with Micah is (0:14:43) Al: they are so close to having a good game. (0:14:47) Kelly: Oh, with the new ones. (0:14:48) Al: Yeah, they’re so close. So close. (0:14:51) Kelly: Maybe next– maybe next game, they’ll hit it. (0:14:52) Al: what we said for three games now. Each game they do is better than the last. Yes, but (0:15:00) Kelly: OK, so they’re growing slowly. (0:15:02) Al: they do still make some bizarre decisions in those games. They’ve also released a whole (0:15:07) Al: bunch of screenshots. And yeah, I mean, they basically look like the original games did, (0:15:13) Al: but with, I guess, more pixels, but not more pixels on the actual models, just more pixels. (0:15:20) Al: So it’s like– (0:15:20) Kelly: No, they look like knees, but like with a little bit better quality. (0:15:22) Al: Yeah, yeah, that’s exact. It looks better quality, but not in a good way. (0:15:30) Kelly: No. (0:15:31) Al: It looks like HD kind of, but it’s like you’ve got HD upscaled basically, right? (0:15:39) Al: Like you were recording on a really old camera and you’ve upscaled it to HD, (0:15:43) Al: so it’s like everything is shiny and lots of pixels, but it still doesn’t look good. (0:15:52) Kelly: - Yeah, no, it’s not right. (0:15:53) Al: These were a DS and a 3DS game, I think, originally, so they have had to merge the two screens. (0:16:02) Al: However, I think the bottom screen was mostly just like for the map, (0:16:06) Al: and so they now have a mini map on the screen, so… (0:16:09) Kelly: Okay, I feel like a lot of games like this have like the map or like controls or something at the bottom (0:16:14) Al: Yeah, yeah, so I guess we’ll see. (0:16:19) Al: I don’t, I’m gonna buy this. (0:16:22) Kelly: I like, did you notice that it’s so you said it’s releasing in June, but then at the top (0:16:23) Al: I’m gonna do my duty for the podcast, you’re welcome. (0:16:33) Kelly: it says ships in April to June. (0:16:36) Al: Yeah, if you scroll down to the product description, it says release date June 2025. (0:16:41) Kelly: interesting so this game is worth that $25 basically (0:16:43) Al: Apparently, the acrylic standee is worth $13. (0:16:48) Al: So yeah, well, I don’t know what to say. You probably shouldn’t buy this. (0:17:02) Al: But I will. Next, we have Bugaboo Pocket. (0:17:07) Al: Have announced that the release date is on the 2nd of April. I don’t know if you’ve (0:17:11) Al: seen this game, Kelly. It’s a bug game. It’s like a bug Pokémon, but like on… (0:17:12) Kelly: I have not. What is this? (0:17:20) Al: How do I describe this? It’s like virtual pets. So like Tamagotchis. (0:17:24) Kelly: Oh, okay, I see it now. Now I got the screen page, but it’s got like way more details. (0:17:30) Al: Yes, yeah, it’s very much like modernized in terms of how you would interact. (0:17:37) Al: Quality of graphics and is much more intense from that sort of aspect of things. (0:17:43) Al: But I think you also can, for lack of a better phrase, because I’m very tired. (0:17:51) Al: It’s the end of the weekend. Do science on them. I don’t know how to describe it. (0:17:57) Kelly: Like, experiments? (0:17:58) Al: No experiment. No, that would be immoral. No, inspect them and look at them. (0:18:06) Kelly: Oh, OK. (0:18:07) Al: There is like if you have… (0:18:09) Kelly: Oh, and pin them. (0:18:10) Kelly: It looks like you can pin them. (0:18:11) Al: Yeah, but those are dead. Like you’re not pinning a live one, right? (0:18:13) Kelly: Yeah, that would be immoral also. (0:18:18) Kelly: I hope so. (0:18:19) Kelly: I’m just looking at pictures. (0:18:22) Al: So yeah, it’s much more involved than a Tamagotchi. (0:18:28) Kelly: The graphics look really cool. (0:18:30) Al: Yeah, Cody is excited to play this. (0:18:33) Kelly: I’m sure that makes sense. (0:18:36) Kelly: This looks really cool, honestly. (0:18:37) Al: Anyway, coming on the 2nd of April. Next, we have the Fields of Mistria 2nd update. (0:18:45) Al: It’s out now, Kelly. Have you played it yet? (0:18:48) Kelly: Not since, uh, November, end of November, since we talked. (0:18:54) Al: Yeah, that was just the first update that was then, so. (0:18:56) Kelly: Yeah, ‘cause I had finished everything that you could possibly do at that point, (0:19:00) Kelly: and I was like, “Okay, I gotta, I don’t wanna kill the game for myself.” (0:19:00) Al: Yep. (0:19:04) Al: We were on the same page at that point, right? Basically, I think we’d both done everything you could do in the game and didn’t want to destroy our enthusiasm for the game. But does that mean you’re definitely not going to get jump into the game with this new update? (0:19:13) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:19:20) Kelly: I’m probably going to wait. (0:19:23) Kelly: I mean, I started breeding for different color animals (0:19:27) Kelly: and stuff, like the tears. (0:19:28) Kelly: So I had been failing my time with that, (0:19:30) Kelly: but mostly because I didn’t have a new game. (0:19:34) Kelly: But yeah, I’m going to wait and see. (0:19:35) Kelly: I got games coming out soon. (0:19:37) Kelly: We got “Rethopia.” (0:19:38) Al: Yes, oh, yes, that’s that (0:19:41) Kelly: I got a solid amount of games currently. (0:19:43) Kelly: So I gotta actually, like, focus on them. (0:19:46) Al: That’s fair. We’ve already covered what’s out in this update, so let’s not spend too long on it. (0:19:50) Kelly: Mm-hmm, okay. (0:19:50) Al: Next we have Gogotown. Their next update Spring Cleaning is out now. I presume you haven’t played (0:19:59) Al: this game. It is fun. It definitely feels very polished for the way that I talked about it in (0:20:07) Al: the episode I did on it. It’s very polished what is there, but it feels like it’s a long way to go (0:20:13) Al: to feel complete. (0:20:15) Kelly: Okay, that’s fair. I mean it seems very ambitious looking so hopefully they just get there (0:20:16) Al: Yeah, a number of things in this update, you can now store a tool and a vehicle on (0:20:29) Al: yourself, it says in a patented Townco dimensional pocket. Basically, you had vehicles, but you (0:20:36) Al: had to like park them somewhere. So now you can keep one of them on yourself. So you have (0:20:40) Al: to keep running back to the parking spaces, which is a nice update. There’s also (0:20:46) Al: a Town info app that gives you a bunch of information on the Town. 360 degree camera (0:20:52) Al: rotation, which is good. I like this. Oh yes, what was that? You’ve asked for it. We’ve (0:20:56) Kelly: I like their note on this. (0:21:00) Al: put in an experimental setting for you to rotate the camera 360 degrees. Fair enough. (0:21:05) Kelly: The screenshot is definitely making me dizzy though, looking at it too long. (0:21:07) Al: Yes, you can definitely tell us experimental. There’s some things that move out of view when (0:21:13) Al: when they shouldn’t do and stuff like that. (0:21:17) Al: A work in progress. (0:21:17) Kelly: But I mean like they they they put it out there that it’s experimental so. (0:21:20) Al: Yep, yep, and they’ve also added (0:21:23) Al: infinite seeds for your farming, which I am intrigued by because I thought (0:21:28) Al: when you planted a seed, the plant never never seemed to die. (0:21:33) Al: It just seemed to always grow new stuff. (0:21:35) Al: So you essentially had infinite stuff, right? (0:21:38) Al: Because as soon as you had a seed, you just (0:21:39) Al: planted it and you had that plant forever. (0:21:40) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:21:41) Al: But maybe I’m misremembering. (0:21:44) Kelly: Maybe they changed it. (0:21:46) Al: updates as well. But yeah, those are the main ones that I noticed. (0:21:49) Al: Next, we have Sunhaven have released their 2.0 update. (0:21:53) Al: And you’re like, oh, 2.0, that sounds like it might be a big update. (0:21:57) Al: It’s festivals. (0:22:00) Al: It doesn’t particularly feel huge. (0:22:02) Al: I’m intrigued as to why they decided to go for 2.0 at this point. (0:22:06) Al: OK. (0:22:10) Al: It adds a furniture festival, a garden (0:22:12) Al: festival, a pet festival, a mushroom festival, a snow festival. (0:22:16) Al: And a bunch of other (0:22:19) Al: furniture and stuff like that related to that. (0:22:22) Kelly: Okay, interesting how much of the game is actually out? (0:22:26) Al: Well, it’s no longer in early access. (0:22:28) Al: So I feel like I think they might have I feel like they’ve done everything that (0:22:32) Al: they said in the Kickstarter, like it’s the story is done and stuff like that. (0:22:38) Al: When I see people talking in the comments, they’re no longer complaining about things (0:22:43) Al: they’re talking about translations being bad. (0:22:49) Kelly: Yeah, this one’s been on my wish list, (0:22:50) Kelly: so I’ve been just waiting to see. (0:22:54) Al: I think I own it, yes, I do. (0:22:56) Al: I kick-started this one, I just haven’t played it yet. (0:22:59) Al: So this came out initially in 2023. (0:23:03) Al: Or was that, no, that was the 1.0, I think. (0:23:06) Al: Yeah, 2021 is when it first came out. (0:23:08) Al: And this was when I was still well and truly (0:23:11) Al: primarily Switch, but it wasn’t on Switch yet. (0:23:15) Al: And then I got a Steam Deck, (0:23:16) Al: and then suddenly I was very much on the Steam Deck, (0:23:18) Al: except for games that weren’t on the Steam Deck. (0:23:21) Al: but I had kind of really moved the path. (0:23:24) Al: I’m just thinking about this game, because it was, you know, it had been like two years or something since it started. (0:23:32) Al: Sometimes I do think that there is like a time period where if you’re not going to play a game (0:23:36) Al: within that time period, you’re probably never going to get to it. (0:23:38) Kelly: Yeah, no, definitely it definitely gets harder and harder to go back to it (0:23:44) Al: So maybe I’ll get to it one day, who knows, there’s so many games. (0:23:48) Al: Next we have farm folks or, as it is now called, (0:23:54) Al: Autonomica? Good job, going from a game name that was just slightly awkward to say to one that I don’t know how to pronounce. (0:24:02) Al: Autonomica? Auto… Autonomica. (0:24:04) Kelly: Oh, Tom, oh, oh, Tom, I don’t know, I don’t know. (0:24:08) Al: Autonomica. That’s what you were trying to say, wasn’t it? Autonomica. (0:24:13) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, something like that. (0:24:14) Al: No, I don’t think it’s Autonomica. (0:24:18) Kelly: I don’t think it is either, (0:24:19) Kelly: but I was just trying to see if I could say it. (0:24:20) Kelly: And apparently I can’t. (0:24:24) Al: For those who don’t know the story behind this game, it was started as farm folks, and then the company that was making it went bust. (0:24:32) Al: And then another company basically, I don’t know whether they bought the company that went bust or whether they bought the rights to the game and the code and stuff, (0:24:40) Al: but they continued development. So the company that’s making this is not the company that did the Kickstarter for this game. (0:24:46) Al: Although I’m pretty sure I saw somewhere that they are going to honor the Kickstarter, which is always good. (0:24:52) Al: Um, don’t take– (0:24:52) Kelly: nice isn’t there another game with like a similar ish name to this new name but (0:24:54) Al: I’d need to confirm that, but I feel like I saw that somewhere. (0:25:05) Kelly: also like how do you go from farm folks which is like the most generic farm game (0:25:08) Al: Yeah. (0:25:10) Kelly: name I’ve ever heard now which is not saying a lot because a lot of these farm (0:25:14) Kelly: games have a lot of similar names it is but how do you go from that to what do (0:25:16) Al: Naming is hard, all right. (0:25:20) Kelly: What are you calling it? Autonomica? (0:25:22) Kelly: Autonomica. Oh, it’s a musical artist. Yes, I knew I’d seen this name somewhere before. (0:25:24) Al: Autonomica. Autonomica? (0:25:30) Al: Oh. (0:25:36) Al: So they’ve made they have went the new (0:25:38) Al: company that took over the game have basically been moving it in a different direction. (0:25:43) Al: So it’s it is still farming. (0:25:46) Kelly: It looks like Fortnite with Farfian. (0:25:46) Al: It’s not. (0:25:49) Al: Yeah, they’ve never really explained their reasoning, but they’re like, it’s not just farming. (0:25:53) Al: It’s so much more than that. (0:25:55) Al: So therefore we think farm folks is a misleading name and I’m like, OK, but I don’t. (0:25:58) Kelly: Okay. That makes more sense. But I don’t get anything about farming from this name. (0:26:04) Al: No, but you do get the automation part of it, which I think they’re really big enough. (0:26:09) Al: The college so that their new blurb on steam is Autonomica is an open world life simulator (0:26:16) Al: game that seamlessly. Oh, my word, I hate this so much seamlessly merges resource (0:26:22) Al: management and automation with farm building, extensive customization, (0:26:26) Al: PvP slash PvE battles and elusive phantoms. What is this jumble of words? (0:26:34) Al: Play solo or with friends to build your mega farm factory with almost no limits. (0:26:38) Al: It is a farming game. It’s just like a industrial scale farming game. (0:26:44) Al: Right. And I get why they wanted to change. (0:26:48) Al: Why they wanted it to be clear that this was not the same game that they took over. (0:26:52) Al: But also it is farming game. (0:26:57) Al: Like you can’t say it’s not a farming game. It is a farming game. (0:27:01) Al: Build your mega farm factory, they say in the new blurb. (0:27:04) Al: Like I don’t understand the issue with it. (0:27:06) Kelly: All of these screenshots, too, are just like, what is that game? (0:27:09) Al: Yes, Factorio. Yeah. (0:27:11) Kelly: Factorio? (0:27:14) Kelly: It’s like that, but with farming more. (0:27:16) Al: Open world 3D Factorio. (0:27:20) Al: Which I honestly am excited by. I think this game could be really good. (0:27:25) Al: I just don’t understand why they really didn’t like the name and they decided to change. (0:27:29) Al: But I don’t think this is a better name. (0:27:32) Al: That’s all I’m going to say. I get why they didn’t like the old game. (0:27:35) Al: Old name. I’m not sure this is better. (0:27:37) Kelly: Honestly, they can take this if they want to, but I think it should have been (0:27:44) Kelly: auto-pharmica, if anything. (0:27:46) Al: I would, yeah, I would certainly be more better. Yeah, I don’t disagree with you. (0:27:49) Kelly: It would be better than this. (0:27:54) Kelly: I would assume that this is some sort of space or underwater survival game (0:28:02) Al: Oh, interesting. Yeah. Anyway, they changed the name. RIP farm folks. Long live farm folks. (0:28:03) Kelly: just going off the name alone. (0:28:08) Kelly: It’s so weird too, because I don’t even like farm books. (0:28:14) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:28:18) Kelly: I digress. (0:28:19) Al: Coral Island have announced their 2025 roadmap. They have 1.2 planned to come out in the first (0:28:27) Al: half of the year, bringing multiplayer and revamped romance. (0:28:32) Al: Which I was looking at what they say about the romance. So let’s talk about the multiplayer (0:28:37) Al: first. There’s probably not a huge amount to say. Basically, it looks like it’s stardew (0:28:41) Al: style multiplayer. You’re all multiple people on the farm. Great, fine. I’m sure it will be (0:28:46) Al: great for people who love. I am not particularly interested just because I don’t want to actually (0:28:51) Al: play my games with other people. I like these games because I’m playing them on my own. (0:28:52) Kelly: I have no desire, I have no desire to play these. These types of games are for me to play by myself, so I can be a maniac, like, let me be a psychopath by my- (0:28:59) Al: Exactly. Exactly. (0:29:03) Al: I have tried so many times to play multiplayer Stardew, and I just can’t because I have to be (0:29:08) Kelly: Oh, no. No, no, no. (0:29:10) Al: the one who has this. The problem is, right? You have to organize to play at the same time, (0:29:16) Al: and that is just not fun. Organizing times for these. (0:29:16) Kelly: No, because either you’re micromanaging all of it, too. (0:29:25) Kelly: It’s like, how do you organize the time to play together and also organize how you’re (0:29:30) Kelly: playing together? (0:29:32) Al: Yeah, the best way to do that is just be like, right, you do the farming you do the mine, there you go, go, go do your jobs. (0:29:32) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:29:38) Al: And yeah, I don’t, I don’t particularly find it fun, I get why people might. And so if you are excited about Coral Island multiplayer. (0:29:46) Al: There you go, it’s coming. I hope you enjoy it. I’m not going to do this. (0:29:48) Kelly: I think the only multiplayer game I like is Monster Hunter, to be quite honest. (0:29:58) Al: So I was also looking at the romance revamp that they’ve got. (0:30:02) Al: And I think the only difference is, so there’s a bunch of heart events that existed already. (0:30:10) Al: And it looks like you have to see the previous heart events to unlock certain, to unlock (0:30:17) Al: more hearts. (0:30:18) Al: So once you get to five hearts, you have to watch the heart events for them before you (0:30:24) Al: can do heart six to eight. (0:30:26) Al: And then you have to watch another heart event and give a locket. (0:30:32) Al: Before you can start dating and do the next two hearts, which then you have to watch the (0:30:37) Al: other events and propose before you can get married and do the other five. (0:30:43) Al: I do think this is better because what I found when I was doing this, because I got married (0:30:49) Al: in Coral Island, is I had no clue that there were heart events still to do, which is probably (0:30:55) Al: still going to be a problem here, but let’s put that aside for a minute. (0:30:59) Kelly: There’s no like there’s no like heart marker next in like the (0:31:02) Al: So there are hearts, but it’s not like, it’s just like how many hearts you have. (0:31:09) Al: Like there was no like indication that there’s an event you should be doing. (0:31:12) Al: So like I got to 10 hearts and then I went and tried to propose and they were like, oh, (0:31:17) Al: I’m not ready yet. (0:31:18) Al: And I’m like, but this is the point where I meant to be able to propose. (0:31:20) Al: Why can’t I do it? (0:31:22) Al: And I googled and it was like, oh, because you’re missing heart events. (0:31:24) Al: And I hadn’t done any of the heart events. (0:31:27) Al: And I don’t know how it happens in Carta Island, but in Stardew, (0:31:29) Kelly: How– so I was going to say, it’s similarly set up, (0:31:32) Al: I was always finding the heart events. (0:31:37) Kelly: like you just trigger the event when you encounter them (0:31:40) Al: Yes, and there are a few heart events in Stardew that were very niche and you (0:31:41) Kelly: in a certain location. (0:31:46) Al: wouldn’t immediately find, but like by that point, you’re like, oh, (0:31:51) Al: I know that these things are coming, so I should be expecting them. (0:31:53) Al: I hadn’t done a single one in Carta Island. (0:31:56) Al: How had I not triggered any of the heart events? (0:31:59) Kelly: Yeah, that’s crazy. That doesn’t seem like a good sub. (0:32:00) Al: It was very confusing. (0:32:02) Al: And also, I don’t think the heart events are required in Stardew for marriage. (0:32:10) Kelly: I don’t think they are either. I think they’re just, like, for you. (0:32:12) Al: Yes, and you can get extra points by doing them. (0:32:16) Al: And they’re nice, and you want to know about the story because all the characters are good characters. (0:32:16) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:32:22) Al: I was going to say great, but no, not all the characters are great. (0:32:22) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:32:24) Al: All of them are good characters. (0:32:28) Al: Um, but yeah, I just, it was really, so if they have a. (0:32:32) Al: Way to make it clear. (0:32:34) Al: That you’re now expecting to see events, then that would be good. (0:32:38) Al: Um, I don’t know. (0:32:40) Al: Um, we’ll see, I guess they don’t talk about that. (0:32:44) Al: I don’t think, but it’s interesting restricting it that much. (0:32:48) Al: So you, you have to see the events before you can continue your heart progress. (0:32:53) Al: Uh, I don’t know how I feel about that. (0:32:55) Kelly: Yeah, that seems kind of iffy the way you just described your past experience, so I guess we’ll see. (0:33:00) Al: Aha, the revamped romance system unlocks at heart level two and you’ll see a prompt (0:33:05) Al: in the relationship UI whenever a hangout event is available. (0:33:10) Al: That is good. (0:33:11) Al: It’s now making it clear when you can do something and when there’s something to do. (0:33:15) Al: That is good. (0:33:16) Al: And if you click on them inside the menu and it shows like all the stuff that you’ve done (0:33:22) Al: with them, you know, the stuff you’ve learned that they love and stuff like that, and like (0:33:25) Al: there, the birthday and stuff, it says unlock requirement, see hangout event. (0:33:30) Al: I don’t know what happened to three but anyway, whatever. (0:33:37) Al: I think that means for heart two and for heart four. (0:33:41) Al: That’s what I think it’s talking about. (0:33:43) Al: So they are definitely making it much more visible, that aspect of things. (0:33:47) Al: So that is good. (0:33:48) Al: They’re also adding more heart events for after marriage, which is also good because (0:33:52) Al: one of the things I’ve really complained about Carl Island is that your spouse ends up turning (0:33:55) Al: into a hollow husk after you get married. (0:33:58) Kelly: That’s pretty sad. (0:34:01) Al: - It was so sad. (0:34:02) Al: The minute you got married, (0:34:05) Al: they just stand in your house all day doing nothing. (0:34:07) Kelly: Oh no. (0:34:09) Al: It was the worst. (0:34:09) Al: I’ve taken your life (0:34:11) Al: and you are now just an ornament in my house. (0:34:15) Al: It was so sad. (0:34:16) Al: So hopefully that’s improved a lot with this. (0:34:20) Al: And then the 1.3 update will include your kids growing up. (0:34:27) Kelly: that’s cool that’s what I literally just started like wondering if it’s like generational like do (0:34:27) Al: And it is, I wonder how far it will go. (0:34:30) Al: I don’t know. (0:34:36) Al: I would expect not. (0:34:38) Al: I expect it would just be, oh, they grow up to be a teenager and then they stop sort of thing. (0:34:42) Al: That is my expectation. (0:34:44) Kelly: that makes sense because that’s a big that’s that’s a lot doing (0:34:44) Al: I don’t think they’ll go full hog. (0:34:49) Al: Especially as they could actually make it like real-time in-game, right? (0:34:52) Al: For every year, they are a year older. (0:34:54) Al: And so you would actually have to do 18 in-game years. (0:35:00) Al: Before your child is an adult. (0:35:04) Kelly: - Hmm. (0:35:05) Al: So they could just go, I’m sorry, if you’ve played 18 years in this game, you’ve played too much. (0:35:12) Al: But I mean, I don’t know, maybe it will work. (0:35:14) Al: I mean, I do know that some games where you have kids that grow up, (0:35:18) Al: you then die and you become your kid. (0:35:20) Al: They could do something like that. (0:35:22) Kelly: That’s true, that would be cool. (0:35:23) Al: And then you inherit the farm and, you know, 20% of it is taken in tax. (0:35:31) Al: Yeah, so they’ve not got a huge amount of information in the 1.3. (0:35:35) Al: They also said there’s going to be a Merfolk festival. (0:35:39) Al: But they’ve not got any details on how the kids grow up. (0:35:42) Al: But that is coming in the second half of this year. (0:35:44) Al: Have you played, you’ve not played Coral Island? (0:35:46) Kelly: No. I really try to avoid early access. (0:35:47) Al: No. (0:35:50) Al: Well, it’s not early access anymore. (0:35:51) Kelly: Uh, oh, it’s out, out? (0:35:53) Al: Yeah. (0:35:54) Al: The 1.0 came out just over a year ago. (0:35:58) Kelly: Okay, I must have missed that. (0:35:58) Al: and then they go and they go on. (0:36:00) Kelly: I thought it was still in early access, still. Okay. (0:36:00) Al: 1.1 sometime last year? No. The 1.0 was technically not early access, but realistically (0:36:06) Al: was early access. The 1.1 feels like what the 1.0 should have been, but the multiplayer (0:36:12) Al: was always coming after early access. So I don’t feel like you would be missing out if (0:36:17) Al: you played now compared to if you played two years ago, you definitely were missing out (0:36:22) Al: in a lot. (0:36:22) Kelly: Okay, okay, maybe one day (0:36:24) Al: All right. And we also, we all maybe, maybe, probably not. We also have (0:36:30) Al: a new game by the developers of EverDream Valley. In fact, this is a sequel to EverDream (0:36:36) Al: Valley called EverDream Village. I get what they’re doing with that name, but also I am (0:36:42) Al: going to constantly mess up. Which one is which? They also feel the wrong way around, (0:36:47) Kelly: The valley and village is like too close to each other. (0:36:53) Al: you start in a village and then you go out to a valley. (0:36:53) Kelly: Yes, it should have been, this should be a prequel. (0:36:57) Kelly: Yeah, this is the prequel in my, (0:36:59) Kelly: I literally thought like this should be the prequel (0:37:00) Al: Set 10 years after the events of EverDream Valley, EverDream Village brings a whole (0:37:07) Al: new chapter with living, breathing village and a world beyond your farm. Now you’re built, (0:37:13) Al: this is the thing. It’s like the problem was EverDream Valley wasn’t really a valley. It (0:37:17) Al: was EverDream Farm. Right. And if it was that way, it was EverDream Farm and then EverDream (0:37:21) Al: Village. That makes more logical sense to be our expansion on that. Right. You’ll build (0:37:22) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:37:28) Al: relationships explore mysterious islands. (0:37:30) Al: The Valley may have been home but it’s time to explore a world full of new adventures, (0:37:44) Kelly: - Yeah, it doesn’t seem right, there’s something off. (0:37:57) Al: NPCs and endless possibilities. I don’t really get whirled and (0:38:00) Al: abilities from village. I know what they mean. I know what they (0:38:02) Kelly: - No, but I think they just mean the world of Everdream. (0:38:08) Al: mean. I know what they mean. Build your ideal cozy farm in a (0:38:12) Al: living village. Form bonds with fellow villagers to lend a hand (0:38:16) Al: as you grow crops, care for animals and craft a corner of (0:38:18) Al: paradise. Sail across enchanted islands to discover new resources (0:38:22) Al: and adventures along the way. Maybe it’s definitely not a (0:38:25) Kelly: Maybe there is a world. (0:38:28) Al: village. (0:38:31) Al: Anyway, I mean, you can ride a pig in Evergreen Valley, so they hopefully have something like that in this game. (0:38:36) Kelly: I’m looking at that right now. (0:38:38) Kelly: That actually looks really cute. (0:38:39) Kelly: That’s a good feature. (0:38:40) Al: I haven’t played this game. It’s been on my list for forever. (0:38:44) Kelly: The first one. (0:38:45) Al: Yes, well, the second one is now yet, so of course I’ve not played that. (0:38:48) Kelly: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:38:50) Al: It’s just coming soon. They’ve not said when, it’s coming just soon. (0:38:54) Kelly: One day. (0:38:54) Al: One day. All right. (0:38:56) Kelly: Do you see this tag at the bottom on their news updates? (0:39:00) Al: The second one is that in the Evergreen Valley page? (0:39:04) Kelly: On the Steam page, yeah. (0:39:07) Al: Where am I looking? Where am I looking? (0:39:07) Kelly: I guess this is who they base the pig off of. (0:39:11) Kelly: Let me send it to you. (0:39:12) Kelly: I’ll just send it to you. (0:39:12) Al: There’s too many pages here. That’s the problem. (0:39:13) Kelly: I would do that. (0:39:15) Kelly: It really is. (0:39:15) Al: On their news. Oh, happy birthday, Peter Curleytail. (0:39:18) Kelly: Recent events, yes. (0:39:20) Al: I don’t know what to say. That is quite a pig. (0:39:24) Kelly: He’s a little frightening, but kind of cute. (0:39:26) Al: Yes, that is quite the pig. (0:39:29) Kelly: But I like the interpretation of him. (0:39:31) Al: Yeah, I like the name Peter Curleytail. (0:39:35) Kelly: Yeah, I. (0:39:36) Kelly: I’ve never seen a pig like that before, so it’s a little haunting. (0:39:42) Al: All right, that’s us done with the news. (0:39:44) Al: We are now going to talk about grimoire, grimoire. Is it grimoire? (0:39:51) Al: Grimoire. Grimoire grows. And grimoire is something that’s a witch term, isn’t it? (0:39:59) Al: like what it what I keep hearing great (0:40:00) Kelly: Yeah it’s always like I feel like it’s like swamps and grimoires and uh no it’s um what (0:40:00) Al: memoirs and lots of these witchy games. (0:40:08) Al: That explains that because, right, okay. (0:40:10) Kelly: is it a grimoire is a the book it’s the book it’s like your book of spells that’s what it is. (0:40:17) Al: And the grove is the land that you’re doing (0:40:22) Al: because a grove is like a kind of forest type thing. (0:40:26) Kelly: Yeah, yeah. But no, it’s a little book that you… (0:40:28) Al: Okay, makes sense. (0:40:30) Kelly: have all your information in. (0:40:33) Al: So, a quick introduction to this game. (0:40:38) Al: It is described on Steam as join the witches in their quest to restore the grimoire groves, (0:40:45) Al: master magic, grow cute plant creatures, and discover the mystery of the rainbow socks (0:40:52) Al: in this cozy roguelite dungeon crawler. (0:40:55) Al: The way I would describe this in my whole one hour and 20 minutes playing it (0:40:59) Al: is it is kind of cult of the lamb, but without actual, without. (0:41:09) Al: Combat the way you interact in your runs is different. (0:41:13) Al: It’s not combat so much. (0:41:16) Al: And it’s less about building a village and more about restoring nature. (0:41:24) Al: Would that be a fair way of putting it? (0:41:26) Kelly: Yeah, I think so. It’s, it’s, it’s… (0:41:29) Kelly: But you still, I feel like I’m fighting. (0:41:31) Kelly: Maybe I feel less like I’m fighting and I’m more surviving. (0:41:31) Al: Yes, okay, so I mean, okay, you could make an argument that it is basically just fighting, (0:41:39) Al: but it’s it feels so you’re feeding the plants instead of fighting them, I think is how they (0:41:44) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, but no, I’m just I’m just being a jerk. I think it’s I think that’s a good. (0:41:44) Al: describe it. So that’s why I’ve been like is not. No, no, it’s, it’s, it’s fair in terms (0:41:50) Al: of game play is very similar to most other Roguelike action games. (0:41:51) Kelly: Yes, I also think it it has that. Yeah, yeah, it has that cuteness that I think (0:41:59) Kelly: cultural land kind of has, which is why I think like they remind me like like you said like it (0:42:04) Kelly: makes you think of them. You have the juxtaposition. Yeah, yeah. (0:42:06) Al: I think the cuteness works much better in Cult of the Lam (0:42:09) Al: because it’s… exactly, exactly. (0:42:12) Al: Whereas here, the whole world is cute. (0:42:14) Kelly: But I love the saturation in this game. So like that for me is like, and I loved Call to the Land. (0:42:21) Al: Okay, I will say the game looks lovely. (0:42:24) Al: It looks really nice. (0:42:25) Al: I do love how the game actually looks. (0:42:28) Al: The graphics, the design of the characters, (0:42:36) Al: and character, but also the plants and everything. (0:42:38) Al: I do like all of that. (0:42:39) Al: That is all nice. (0:42:41) Al: I will absolutely agree with that. (0:42:44) Al: Yes. (0:42:46) Kelly: I just think it’s like you don’t always, you don’t really get a lot of games that are like, (0:42:52) Kelly: it’s like saturated, but it’s also pastel, like there’s two different kind of colored (0:42:56) Kelly: tones going on in the game, which I think is interesting. (0:43:00) Kelly: Like the backgrounds are more saturated, but the creatures, the plants are a little more (0:43:04) Kelly: pastel leaning, but it’s so vibrant. (0:43:07) Kelly: Like a lot of games, they’re so dark a lot of the time or like aiming to be more realistic (0:43:11) Al: - Yeah. (0:43:13) Kelly: in their tones, I guess. (0:43:15) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:43:16) Kelly: Yes, but yeah, no, I love all of the designs. (0:43:17) Al: No, you’re definitely right about that. (0:43:20) Al: You wouldn’t look at this and think it was something else. (0:43:20) Kelly: I love all the little plants. (0:43:23) Al: That’s very true. (0:43:23) Kelly: No, exactly. (0:43:26) Al: So I guess there’s two main parts to this game, (0:43:29) Al: and there’s obviously a lot of other things, (0:43:31) Al: lot of things that I won’t have done in the main area. (0:43:33) Al: But like most of these roguelites, (0:43:37) Al: you have your hub, (0:43:38) Al: which is an area that is run– (0:43:41) Al: was previously run by some other witch– (0:43:44) Al: I can’t remember her name, maybe– (0:43:45) Kelly: Is it lavender? (0:43:47) Kelly: I think so. (0:43:49) Al: and it’s been taken over by thorns, (0:43:53) Al: and it’s all dreary, and you are to restore it. (0:43:57) Al: That’s the main idea. (0:43:58) Kelly: You’re the young spry witch coming in to fix it. (0:43:59) Al: And you do that by classic cliche, (0:44:05) Al: but it’s there for a reason. (0:44:08) Al: and your runs that you do. (0:44:11) Al: I think of roguelites specifically talking about roguelites not roguelikes (0:44:22) Al: well let’s not have that debate again. I find there are two types there are ones where (0:44:31) Al: your hub the point of the hub is to improve your powers skills etc to then do the runs and the (0:44:38) Kelly: Mm-hmm. Yes, I was going to say, very– (0:44:41) Al: runs is the purpose of the game and that would be your like Hades stuff like that. (0:44:49) Al: And then there’s this type of thing this and Cult of the Lamb where your hub is the point of (0:44:55) Al: the game and the runs are to gather resources for doing things in your hub. (0:45:00) Kelly: I would say it’s kind of like a mix, I think, between Cult of the Lamb and Hades in that aspect. (0:45:07) Kelly: Because I do think Cult of the Lamb, there’s so much that you do in your hub area. (0:45:12) Kelly: And I don’t think this quite has near that amount of stuff. (0:45:16) Kelly: Like, you have a lot of updates and things you can interact with. (0:45:20) Kelly: I don’t want to spoil anything. (0:45:22) Kelly: But Cult of the Lamb, you could like run the village until you ran out of resources. (0:45:28) Al: I guess my point is like you’re not the run isn’t the like with Hades you are escaping hell (0:45:28) Kelly: like I spent like five minutes like you know up (0:45:31) Kelly: and then I got another run (0:45:37) Kelly: the sole purpose yes (0:45:40) Al: and your run is escaping hell and if you fail you go back to the hub world and you try again. (0:45:45) Al: Whereas in this and with Cult of the Lamb the point is the runs you’re doing to do (0:45:50) Al: things to bring back you’re never like disappearing and I think that’s that is very much (0:45:53) Kelly: No, that’s a fair point, yeah. (0:45:58) Al: why I liked Cult of the Lamb because I was building up this thing and I really hate the (0:46:05) Al: overall feeling of Hades where if you fail you fail and you’re back to the start and you have (0:46:09) Al: to start again and so I was really excited for this because I was like oh maybe this will be (0:46:15) Al: another one that I like because it’s that sort of style but I mean I guess I need to say at some (0:46:21) Al: point I didn’t like the combat in this game. I didn’t but I feel like (0:46:24) Kelly: Did you try it on easy mode? (0:46:27) Kelly: I d

Al and Dalan talk about Honkai Impact 3rd, and it's farming minigame, Wilderness Development Logs Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:04:37: What Have We Been Up To 00:28:48: Game News 00:35:02: Honkai Impact 3rd: Introduction 00:52:29: Honkai Impact 3rd: Wilderness Development Logs 01:14:23: Outro Links My Little Life Release Date Sun Haven Switch Patch Echoes of the Plum Grove “New Year” Update Roots of Pacha Upcoming Regions Wilderness Development Logs Youtube Playlist Wilderness Development Logs Fandom Page 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, and we are here today to talk about cottagecore games. (0:00:35) Dalan: And my name is Dallen (0:00:43) Al: I honestly thought it was Dalen, not Dalen. (0:00:46) Dalan: Uh it that I do get that a lot it is it is Dallen (0:00:49) Dalan: Uh, it’s mostly the way it’s spelled. I think that confuses people. Uh, it is more common to have double li (0:00:53) Al: » Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that one. Not spelling, either. (0:00:56) Dalan: Instead of the two a’s so that’s that’s the main reason (0:01:03) Dalan: I have met… one person who spells… (0:01:05) Dalan: it the same as me and that was in Utah where there are about 50 people named (0:01:10) Dalan: Dalin Persuarian. It’s not quite that populous but yeah. (0:01:12) Al: Right, okay, so I see the issue, I see why it’s not a name that I am very much aware (0:01:20) Dalan: Yes. It’s… there is a particular culture. Yeah. So I’m always surprised finding (0:01:20) Al: of if it’s within a particular community, very prevalent within a certain area of the (0:01:24) Al: United States. Yeah, they do exist outside of there. It’s funny, because sometimes I (0:01:28) Dalan: people outside that place who have the same name and I’m like come on. They do (0:01:35) Dalan: because it is the name other people have. (0:01:38) Al: only realise how people’s names are pronounced when they come on the podcast. (0:01:41) Dalan: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Nami, I had that problem for a while. Yeah. I have to remind myself (0:01:42) Al: It was the same with Nami, who of course, that’s not how I pronounced his name for a long time. (0:01:49) Dalan: sometimes. Sorry, Nami. (0:01:52) Al: Regularly, regularly. (0:01:53) Dalan: Yeah. (0:01:54) Al: Anyway, welcome, Dallin, to the podcast again. This is your second episode. (0:01:57) Dalan: Thank you. Second time. Only took like a little bit over a year, I think. I was (0:02:04) Dalan: here. (0:02:05) Dalan: 2023 August ish or September I want to say it was fishing month yep yep because I was the only (0:02:08) Al: It was the fishing month, wasn’t it? (0:02:12) Dalan: other person who owned a play date that you do yeah yeah I have not touched that in a long time (0:02:14) Al: Oh, that’s it. Yeah, we did the Playdate one. That’s what it was. That was good. (0:02:20) Al: We should see if there are any more Playdate games to play. (0:02:23) Dalan: that would be fun yeah I’ll figure out one where I put it and then to uh charge it I brought it (0:02:28) Al: Yeah, I need to charge mine up. Thankfully, mine is here. I have it in my hand because it just (0:02:30) Dalan: I think I brought it with me - oh, that’s nice. (0:02:33) Al: sits on my desk. I know where it is, but it’s not charged because I don’t have the dock that (0:02:36) Dalan: Mmm, the dock still… probably not, no. (0:02:38) Al: I have to release any more. (0:02:40) Dalan: I, uh, I think I took it with me to the Japan trip I went on this summer. (0:02:45) Dalan: Or, I can’t remember if I did and then never used it or if I was like, “Yeah, no, I’m not gonna use that and left it home.” (0:02:46) Al: hmm fair enough anyway so dallan is here to talk to me about a game that I have definitely (0:02:51) Dalan: What did it do? Either way, I did not play it. (0:03:01) Al: not played and a name that i’m definitely going to mix up the order of words in the name because (0:03:01) Dalan: Yes. (0:03:06) Dalan: That’s okay. (0:03:08) Al: it is definitely the wrong order but this game is called honkai impact third right it’s (0:03:13) Dalan: That is correct. (0:03:16) Al: not third impact it’s impact third is it the third impact game (0:03:17) Dalan: No, because, well, no. (0:03:24) Dalan: It is the third Hong Kai game maybe, kind of. (0:03:27) Al: maybe interesting (0:03:30) Dalan: We’ll get, I’ll go into that a little bit about how crazy that all is. (0:03:31) Al: yeah we’ll talk about we’ll talk about that when we talk about it (0:03:36) Al: for some reason we’re going to talk about a honkai game uh we’ll (0:03:39) Dalan: I’m as confused as you are, listeners. (0:03:42) Dalan: But, you know, slow, I did, I did, I didn’t think you would take me up on it. (0:03:43) Al: You suggested it, not me. (0:03:46) Al: You said it. (0:03:47) Dalan: But there is enough to talk about. (0:03:49) Dalan: So I, and I will be trying to focus mostly just on the farming stuff. (0:03:54) Dalan: Because there are many things I could blab about. (0:03:57) Dalan: And I need you to hold me back. (0:04:00) Al: I mean, look, I’ll be honest, if someone comes to me and says, “How about a podcast (0:04:04) Al: episode on this?” and it even tangentially connects to the podcast, I will say yes, (0:04:10) Al: because as I’ve said before, the hardest part of this podcast is not the editing, (0:04:15) Al: it’s not the podcasting, it’s not the news, it is not the actual recording, (0:04:20) Al: it is figuring out which episode is going to be which. (0:04:24) Dalan: I’ll take a note of it. I have a couple of games that I’ve played recently that I think could fit into that, so we’ll also see if those will come up in future episodes. (0:04:36) Dalan: Do we want to talk about what we’ve been up to lately then? (0:04:36) Al: it’s fine. Yeah, let’s do it. What have you been up to? (0:04:40) Dalan: Yeah, so I am trying to enjoy the last pieces of my holidays before I go back to the college grind to have some other stuff I’ve been working on. (0:04:54) Dalan: So most of the games I’m writing are kind of like last week, but I’ve played a little bit this week. (0:05:00) Dalan: I have obviously been playing Honkai games because those are relevant to what we’re talking about. (0:05:08) Dalan: I also started Potioncraft recently because during the holidays we remembered the family steam-sharing thing got updated, and I guess one of my siblings bought it at some point. (0:05:20) Dalan: So I’ve been playing that. Are you familiar with Potioncraft at all? (0:05:22) Al: And I think I’ve heard of it, I don’t know if I’ve, I don’t know if I’ve actually. (0:05:26) Dalan: Right. (0:05:28) Dalan: Yeah, I find it a pretty relaxing game. (0:05:32) Dalan: There were a couple nights where I was just kind of playing it an hour each night before bed. I could see myself kind of continuing that. (0:05:40) Dalan: It’s basically a game where you make potions, but the way you do that is interesting, where you basically have this map that you’re moving around your little potion on. (0:05:54) Dalan: You’re putting in different ingredients that have set patterns, and so you’re trying to put in the right ingredients to get to the location on the map you want to in order to get the potion. (0:06:06) Dalan: And so it’s mostly that gameplay and then balancing that with how do I get more materials to make my potions and then selling them to customers and stuff. (0:06:16) Dalan: Pretty relaxed. I think I made it to like day eight or something. There’s a progress system, but it’s basically just like, “Have you made these kinds of potions?” (0:06:26) Dalan: “Did you discover being able to do this thing?” So it’s pretty open, I’d say. (0:06:30) Al: I like the look of the graphics, it’s very distinct. (0:06:34) Dalan: It’s very… Yes, it’s got a nice feel to it. I think they did just have an update, which I was surprised by. I think this past December, like last month, I’m not certain. (0:06:46) Dalan: It seemed like it was what it said on the store page when I looked it up. (0:06:48) Al: But yeah, it’s almost like it’s on like old parchment paper, it’s like kind of CPR based, (0:06:54) Al: just I really like the look of the farming looks like it could be fun. (0:06:54) Dalan: Yeah. There is a bit of farming, yes. (0:07:00) Al: It looks very simple. It’s basically just it’s more gardening, I guess, (0:07:02) Dalan: Yes. Yeah, it’s basically like you get your materials for the day and then you water them every day, etc. (0:07:04) Al: rather than farming, right? You’re planting. Yeah. (0:07:12) Dalan: You can plant new things, and I think they added more functionality to kind of expand it, but I am not at that point in the game. (0:07:20) Al: But what I will say is the actual potion making looks like I would absolutely. (0:07:24) Dalan: I see also just finicky (0:07:28) Al: I do not like the kind of very specific motions and having to do that. (0:07:35) Al: I think that sort of stuff is fun in one very specific circumstance and that’s in party (0:07:40) Al: games. (0:07:41) Dalan: Yeah (0:07:42) Al: So I will play Mario Party and WarioWare anytime somebody suggests them to do these little (0:07:45) Dalan: Right (0:07:48) Al: weird motions and stuff. (0:07:50) Al: I know it’s not like motion control, I know you’re using your mouse, but I don’t want (0:07:55) Al: have to pick up a pestle and mortar it. (0:07:58) Al: And I don’t want to have to stir a cauldron and pour it, no, it’s too detailed and specific (0:08:04) Dalan: All right (0:08:07) Al: for me, I think. (0:08:08) Dalan: Yeah, that’s fair enough I will say like the (0:08:11) Dalan: The fact that you’re able to add water to kind of mess with that that is the core gameplay (0:08:16) Dalan: So if it doesn’t interest you probably none of the quality of life things they’re adding to it are gonna change that for you (0:08:22) Dalan: But there are some nice things where it’s like once you have a potion that you like like if you made really strong version (0:08:28) Dalan: Of a potion and you’re like that was annoying to do but I want to have that a lot (0:08:31) Dalan: you can save it and it will just automatically make it with the increase. (0:08:34) Dalan: for you so it’s more about like kind of exploring the map and discovering new (0:08:39) Dalan: things and then being like oh is there like a more optimized route I can take (0:08:42) Dalan: to this to you know cut back on ingredients or something so but yes (0:08:47) Dalan: that’s there’s some finicky-ness to it so if you don’t enjoy that you probably (0:08:52) Dalan: yeah I don’t think any of the changes are really gonna fix that for you (0:08:54) Al: Yeah, it’s like, it’s like when every time I hear about a new Soulslike game, I’m like, (0:09:01) Dalan: Mm. Right. (0:09:02) Al: sounds great. I’m still not going to like it because I do not like the fundamental part (0:09:07) Al: of the game. And so I’m not going to try it. Except one, there is one that has interested (0:09:10) Dalan: Right. (0:09:13) Al: me and that’s another crab’s treasure. That’s something the only Soulslike that has ever (0:09:15) Dalan: Ah, true. (0:09:18) Dalan: Yeah, I think that one… (0:09:20) Dalan: It’s… I mean just by visuals it seems more friendly, and then also I think like… (0:09:25) Dalan: um… (0:09:26) Dalan: The problem I tend to have with Soul’s likes is that like I want to do (0:09:30) Dalan: a build that works, but it… and for my playstyle, but it feels like a battle to figure out what I enjoy (0:09:36) Dalan: while also (0:09:38) Dalan: trying not to waste all my materials on making some (0:09:40) Dalan: things I won’t like to play, so, a little, a little stressful. (0:09:42) Al: It has a lot more options as well in terms of difficulty and stuff, which I quite like. (0:09:50) Dalan: Mmm, that’s nice. (0:09:51) Al: Not that I’m going to use them necessarily, I’m not going to use them, because I love (0:09:56) Al: how it kind of ties them in in the same way where it’s got like the easy mode is basically (0:10:01) Al: just you have a gun that sits on your head that kills anybody. (0:10:02) Dalan: you’re right that’s good (0:10:04) Al: I love how ridiculous that is. (0:10:05) Al: I’m not going to use that, but having that leads me to liking it more purely because (0:10:10) Al: it allows me for more. (0:10:12) Al: around those options, because there’s just been thought gone into that, which, which then leads (0:10:19) Al: to a game that I’m more likely to like. So it’s not, I don’t know if that’s if that’s obvious enough (0:10:25) Al: how I’m explaining it, but yeah, but I think that the the idea of actually having difficulty options (0:10:32) Al: generally leads to a game being designed more like I would enjoy it. (0:10:36) Dalan: Mm. That makes sense. It’s, uh, having, like, more flexible design or ways to interact with it versus feeling like there’s sort of one path you have to take. (0:10:48) Dalan: Maybe that’s not the right way to put it, but I kind of get what you’re saying. (0:10:49) Al: Yeah, I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. But like, if we just took a, you know, standards (0:10:58) Al: Souls game, like Elden Ring, right? So we take Elden Ring. If you just put a difficulty (0:11:03) Al: level in that, that I don’t think I would enjoy that game, because it’s still the same (0:11:07) Dalan: Right. (0:11:08) Al: game is just easier, right? Like it’s not, I don’t just, I don’t dislike those games (0:11:09) Dalan: Yeah. (0:11:10) Dalan: Yeah, 100%. (0:11:11) Dalan: It’s not built around that. (0:11:14) Al: because they’re hard. I dislike those games because of their whole philosophy. (0:11:19) Al: And it just feels like another crab’s treasure does that differently. (0:11:20) Dalan: Right, 100%. (0:11:25) Al: Anyway, potion craft. (0:11:26) Dalan: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. (0:11:29) Al: Yeah, maybe. (0:11:29) Dalan: Yep, that’s Potion Craft. (0:11:32) Dalan: I could see that being an episode topic at some point, (0:11:34) Dalan: But anyway, I– (0:11:36) Dalan: Started Warframe recently. Well, that’s maybe– (0:11:40) Dalan: Started is maybe the wrong word. (0:11:42) Dalan: So… (0:11:44) Dalan: This game– Are you familiar with this game at all? (0:11:46) Al: I am not. (0:11:48) Dalan: Okay, Warframe… It’s kind of like– Are you familiar with Destiny? (0:11:53) Al: I am aware of it and I have seen some gameplay. (0:11:56) Dalan: Okay, we’ll do the most basic version. Warframe is Space Ninjas. That’s pretty much the game. (0:12:02) Dalan: You go around space, you fight things with friends, and (0:12:06) Dalan: materials to upgrade your things, and it is a completely for you to play game. (0:12:12) Dalan: All the money you spend is for cosmetics and, like, (0:12:15) Dalan: speeding up timers, which are basically just crafting things. So it’s– (0:12:21) Dalan: Has been going for a long time, so much so that the first time I played it was actually in 2013. (0:12:26) Dalan: And… (0:12:27) Al: Yeah, this game says it was released in March 2013. It was released two days after my first child was born. (0:12:30) Dalan: Yes. (0:12:35) Dalan: Yeah, yeah, and (0:12:35) Al: Yeah. (0:12:36) Dalan: I was solidly still a child at this point. (0:12:40) Dalan: The reason I didn’t stick around with it is, (0:12:43) Dalan: one, it was a bit overwhelming, (0:12:45) Dalan: and I don’t know if my computer could handle it at the time. (0:12:47) Dalan: And two, I believe maybe a week prior, (0:12:50) Dalan: I had told my mother that I was not interested (0:12:53) Dalan: in playing an M-rated game ever, and she hugged me. (0:12:55) Al: Yeah, well, I tell my mom I don’t swear, so. (0:12:56) Dalan: And then this game was M-rated, (0:12:58) Dalan: and I immediately felt strong feelings of guilt (0:13:01) Dalan: for being like, “This is kind of fun.” (0:13:05) Dalan: so I did not return that. (0:13:06) Dalan: I’m playing it on the television, and currently living with family, and no stinks have been raised. (0:13:19) Al: There are other things you do to disappoint them instead, that’s the thing. (0:13:21) Dalan: Yes, yes, very true. (0:13:23) Dalan: Like living in their basement. (0:13:25) Al: If you’re worried about how someone thinks about a certain thing that you do, (0:13:28) Al: just do something worse. That’s how it works, right? (0:13:30) Dalan: True. Yeah, I think that is the best method. (0:13:34) Dalan: Anyway, but yeah, I started playing that because we had (0:13:37) Dalan: My sister and her husband came over for the holidays and (0:13:42) Dalan: Her husband’s been playing it a lot longer (0:13:44) Dalan: But my sister was like I want to download this to see if we can play it because I can’t play it on my laptop (0:13:48) Dalan: And she kind of gave up on that pretty quick because she didn’t like the controller (0:13:53) Dalan: Inputs, but I was like oh this game’s kind of fun (0:13:55) Dalan: So I might be playing with that that with them in the future which would be fun because I don’t get to hang out with (0:14:01) Dalan: Them as much anymore on the count of them living in a different place (0:14:05) Dalan: So yeah warframe not (0:14:07) Dalan: But that’s interesting game and then there are lots of other games I could talk about but I’ll just quickly mention (0:14:14) Dalan: 1000 I think it’s x resist. I don’t know if it’s times or what I don’t know what it means yet (0:14:19) Dalan: But that is a game. I should be playing more of it’s just (0:14:24) Dalan: Draining because it’s a very involved sci-fi story that I want to soak in. Have you heard of it? (0:14:29) Al: Fair enough. No, I have not even heard of this game, no. (0:14:30) Dalan: Also, let me pull it out all the strange games (0:14:36) Dalan: Was like a game that was popular in a couple circles (0:14:38) Al: Oh, this is one of the ones that was added to Bellatro. (0:14:42) Dalan: Yes, yes, it was there I do remember that yeah, so this is like this is sort of a far future sci-fi story (0:14:51) Dalan: it’s (0:14:52) Dalan: kind of some people might kind of put it in the realm of a walking sim I guess but it’s it’s (0:14:58) Dalan: Interesting. It’s a lot of going around talking to characters and it has some interesting kind of time (0:15:05) Dalan: Compilation mechanics where you’re flipping back (0:15:06) Dalan: and forth between different scenes sometimes to find different information or go places. (0:15:12) Dalan: So there’s a little bit of that but the gameplay mechanics mostly serve as a catalyst for the story (0:15:17) Dalan: and like what’s going on. The basic premise I’ll say is that it seems to be a far off future where (0:15:27) Dalan: everyone is now like clones of this one person who could survive this deadly illness and you’re (0:15:33) Dalan: playing as this person called the (0:15:36) Dalan: watcher because everyone is named by (0:15:38) Dalan: their roles and you’re trying to you’re (0:15:42) Dalan: kind of figuring out what happened in (0:15:44) Dalan: the past and it seems like that’s going (0:15:46) Dalan: to lead to some sort of rebellion thing (0:15:48) Dalan: going on so it’s really interesting it’s (0:15:51) Dalan: tackles a lot of different themes (0:15:53) Dalan: there’s like it’s kind of about Asian (0:15:55) Dalan: diaspora and Hong Kong protests which (0:15:59) Dalan: is not what I would expect going into (0:16:00) Al: Oh heavy (0:16:00) Dalan: this game but it’s also about a lot of (0:16:02) Dalan: other things so covers a large range of (0:16:06) Dalan: I would recommend it. It was a big narrative game last year that people liked, but it didn’t really get nominated for anything. (0:16:15) Al: I don’t think I’ve ever actually played a walking sim and so I can’t say that I don’t (0:16:20) Dalan: Mm-hmm, I see. (0:16:23) Al: like walking sims, but what I will say is I think walking sims are everything about (0:16:28) Al: games that I don’t like and therefore I would assume that I would not like them. (0:16:34) Dalan: To me, this is more like reading a sci-fi novel with full visuals and experiences. (0:16:35) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly and it’s like I sort of like the kind of one of the (0:16:45) Al: people would argue it’s not a walking sim, but I think some people would argue it is (0:16:49) Al: a walking sim. What’s it called? Why have I forgotten the name of it? Big Sony game, (0:16:57) Al: they made a TV series of it. The Last of Us, yeah. I know it has some combat and gameplay (0:16:59) Dalan: Oh, the last of us? (0:17:04) Al: to it, however, feels very narrative heavy and I guess the kind of famous walking sim (0:17:11) Al: is more, is the Overwatch, not Overwatch, over. (0:17:14) Dalan: Uh, Firewatch. (0:17:15) Al: Firewatch, there we go. Names are too similar. There’s too many words. There are more words for (0:17:18) Dalan: It’s true, there are many similar names. (0:17:21) Al: your games, use other words. Firewatch is kind of the big one. And these games, it’s like, (0:17:28) Al: I’m not against story in game, but I guess I don’t like being in control of story because it takes (0:17:38) Al: two times longer than if they were just telling me the story. So, like, I love watching TV and (0:17:46) Al: but if I were to have to press A constantly to get the next bit of the film or TV series, (0:17:51) Al: I would not do it. (0:17:52) Al: on. (0:17:53) Dalan: Right (0:17:55) Dalan: Yeah, and I I think it very much depends on the game (0:17:58) Dalan: like there are some where I would say that is kind of more of a (0:18:02) Dalan: Just feeling kind of bored and I almost feel like I’m doing a disservice by calling it a walking sim because there’s so much (0:18:09) Dalan: Like I don’t know it like I said, it feels like us (0:18:13) Dalan: it kind of feels like walking around inside of a TV scene for me where I feel like I’m (0:18:20) Dalan: experiencing like this setting and trying to figure out what’s going on. (0:18:23) Dalan: I don’t know, but on the other hand, I’m someone who like tends to not watch as many TV or films because like I don’t like, well, I’ll have to dig into that aspect of my psyche later, but I think some of the control I enjoy being able to take it at my own pace and see what’s going on. (0:18:36) Al: Interesting. Well, anyway. (0:18:44) Dalan: Yeah, that’s that’s a wrap for me. Let’s hear about your week. So it’s not just me talking the whole episode. (0:18:50) Al: I have finally started playing Rusty’s Retirement. So I, for people who aren’t aware, the reason (0:18:57) Al: I wasn’t playing Rusty’s Retirement before was because I work for a client and so I use (0:19:04) Al: their machine, and I can’t just– (0:19:06) Al: I don’t want to install things on that machine, so I obviously do not have Rustys retirement installed on my work machine, but what I realized I can do is I have it on my Steam Deck. Now, granted, it is not great on the Steam Deck because it is not full screen, you can’t like change where it is, you’ve just got your little thing, but I have it running on my Steam Deck on, I’ve got the Steam Deck dock sitting on my desk, and so I just have my Steam Deck sitting open, charging, playing Rustys Retirement on my Steam Deck. (0:19:16) Dalan: Mmm. (0:19:34) Al: charging playing Rusty’s retirement. (0:19:37) Al: I’ve not done this very long, I think this is only my second day of doing it. (0:19:40) Al: But I thought this was an interesting way of trying to use play with the game and see how it fares like that. (0:19:46) Al: I think it could do really well like that, but there would have to be a few changes for it to work optimally. (0:19:54) Al: Obviously being in full screen and the, you know, it doesn’t have any gamepad support. (0:20:02) Al: So we’d have to have those to be really good. (0:20:06) Al: Screen makes it a lot better to work with than just using the analog sticks or the touchpads. (0:20:13) Al: And because of what its gameplay is, obviously you’re not actually interacting with it very much. (0:20:18) Al: So the interaction not being ideal doesn’t make it dreadful. (0:20:23) Al: So that’s one. (0:20:24) Al: The other thing that I have been absolutely obsessed with over the last week is Pokémon Legends Arceus, you know, just three years after release. (0:20:33) Al: I did play it when it first came out, but some– (0:20:36) Al: Keen listeners will remember that nearly two years ago, (0:20:40) Al: I had a terrible, terrible situation (0:20:44) Al: where my main Switch died, and I lost all of my Pokemon saves (0:20:47) Al: except one. (0:20:49) Al: And this was the only set of Pokemon games on the Switch (0:20:54) Al: I didn’t have a save for. (0:20:56) Al: Now I’ve been slowly building them up. (0:20:58) Al: So I don’t have all of them sorted. (0:21:01) Al: I just have one from each generation, (0:21:03) Al: one from each set of games now. (0:21:07) Al: I’d never played it a second time. (0:21:09) Al: I play most Pokemon games two times (0:21:10) Al: because I’ll buy both games, and I’ll play one (0:21:14) Al: just reasonably quickly, and then I’ll (0:21:16) Al: play one as generally a Professor Oak Challenge, (0:21:20) Al: but sometimes something else. (0:21:22) Al: So I’d never done a second playthrough of Legends Arceus. (0:21:25) Al: And so I was like, well, it’s time to do that, I guess. (0:21:28) Al: And let’s do a Professor Oak Challenge. (0:21:30) Al: And it was quite fun, Professor Oak Challenge. (0:21:32) Al: I like how they’re all very different nowadays (0:21:34) Al: Cause you’ve got like, um. (0:21:36) Al: Um, let’s go and brilliant diamond shining Pearl, which are kind of how they’re more (0:21:42) Al: like how professor challenges would have been in the older games, you know, kind of standard (0:21:49) Al: progression with gyms and catching and stuff like that. (0:21:52) Al: But let’s go had, uh, the catch combo, which meant you could get XP really quickly, um, (0:22:01) Al: and kind of sped up the first one, uh, then you obviously have sort (0:22:07) Al: is the only series of switch games that I’ve not done a professor of challenging now, which (0:22:11) Al: I’ll probably do at some point, which I think has. (0:22:12) Dalan: Yeah, I was gonna say like how does it seems like that gets a little trickier with the more open world ones (0:22:18) Al: So yeah, so obviously then you’ve got, you’ve got scarlet and violet. (0:22:18) Dalan: Obviously sword and shield isn’t quite there yet, but it’s got the wild area (0:22:24) Al: I, I love how ridiculous it is. (0:22:27) Al: I think I can’t remember exactly how many ways. (0:22:30) Al: I don’t know whether it’s quite 300, but it’s, it’s over 200 Pokemon you catch before you (0:22:34) Dalan: My goodness! (0:22:35) Al: do the first thing. (0:22:36) Al: Um, and yeah, it’s kind of ridiculous, but I also kind of love it because there’s (0:22:42) Dalan: There’s a charm there (0:22:43) Al: there, it is, it’s very front loaded. (0:22:47) Al: So you do that and then you just absolutely whiz through the story after that, which is (0:22:52) Al: like, I have my, you know, level 50 Pokemon killing the first gym sort of thing. (0:22:56) Dalan: Yeah. (0:22:57) Al: And it’s like wild, but I also like, yeah, but yeah, well, exactly. (0:23:00) Dalan: Like, “Welcome to your journey,” and (laughing) (0:23:04) Dalan: don’t know what’s coming. (0:23:06) Al: But I also like how there are so many Pokemon you can just catch in the wild now. (0:23:13) Al: And that’s the same for Legends Arceus. (0:23:15) Al: There’s so many Pokemon that you don’t have to evolve, you can just catch all of them (0:23:19) Al: in the wild. (0:23:20) Dalan: Wow (0:23:21) Al: I really like that part of it. (0:23:24) Al: So yeah, so I guess Legends Arceus was kind of a kind of between the two. (0:23:29) Al: So I think you have like 60 or so in the first region, and then it gets smaller and smaller (0:23:34) Dalan: Right (0:23:35) Al: as you go. (0:23:36) Al: It felt pretty well balanced in terms of how many Pokémon you have to get for the first (0:23:41) Al: three areas at least, and then the last two were quite quick. But yeah, well, the last area would (0:23:48) Al: have been quick if it weren’t for Spiritomb. Oh my word. I love Legends Arceus, and I love it even (0:23:52) Dalan: - True, yeah. (0:23:56) Al: more now that I’ve done a second playthrough. I just love so much about it. But Spiritomb, (0:24:02) Dalan: But yeah, no, I that’s understandable. (0:24:04) Al: I did not enjoy it. It’s like… (0:24:06) Al: 107 wisps across this huge game was not fun. Yeah, it is. (0:24:11) Dalan: It’s kind of a lot. (0:24:13) Dalan: Yeah, I never finished Legends Arceus, but I I did enjoy playing that game a lot. (0:24:19) Dalan: And I do think that is a game that could lend itself pretty well to that kind of (0:24:23) Dalan: Professor Oak challenge, because it kind of does let you do the areas as you want to. (0:24:28) Dalan: Like, obviously, it’s like, OK, now you can go to the next area. (0:24:30) Dalan: and that’s kind of encouraged, but you can also just stick around. (0:24:32) Dalan: and keep doing stuff in that one spot. (0:24:34) Dalan: So it’s pretty cool. (0:24:36) Al: Yeah, yeah, I just played the story until it said right now go do the Lord to at the (0:24:40) Dalan: Yeah. (0:24:40) Al: end of this area. And I’m like, I’m going to catch all the Pokemon first. And it didn’t (0:24:44) Dalan: Yep. (0:24:44) Al: feel forced. It felt like I was just kind of cleaning up as I went. Whereas quite a (0:24:48) Dalan: Yeah. (0:24:49) Al: lot of Professor Oak challenges, they feel like you’re like, no, I’m going to stay in (0:24:53) Al: this area and I’m going to battle this specific Pokemon, which gives the most XP before the (0:24:54) Dalan: Yeah. (0:24:59) Al: first gym to evolve my level 36 starter. (0:25:04) Dalan: It’s a fight against the game (0:25:06) Al: Exactly, exactly. Whereas the way this game works is much more like, no, I’m actually (0:25:11) Al: playing it how they wanted me to play it. Now they didn’t expect that I would necessarily (0:25:15) Al: catch absolutely everything before the next area, but there’s absolutely no forcing there. (0:25:21) Al: It definitely feels designed like that. (0:25:22) Dalan: Yeah, honestly, I think I should have played the game more like that because I kind of wanted to keep the story going but (0:25:27) Dalan: At the I was I was torn between wanting to like see how things were progressing and also being like (0:25:34) Al: Yeah. Yeah. (0:25:35) Dalan: Because it’s sort of fun it’s it’s satisfying to move around and to to throw the pokeballs and stuff (0:25:40) Dalan: I haven’t really touched scarlet and violet. I think I (0:25:44) Dalan: Might have briefly tried playing it in Japanese as practice and then I was like, oh, yeah (0:25:49) Dalan: I’m still terrible at Japanese. So I gave up a bet (0:25:53) Dalan: But I do I would like to return to it at some point and did Arceus as well (0:25:58) Dalan: I think that would be a really fun time because I did enjoy that game quite a bit (0:26:04) Al: I decided that it was time to do it because with the new game coming out, I either, (0:26:10) Al: I’m not going to be able to go back to Legends Arceus because the new game is just that but better, (0:26:15) Al: or it’s not going to be good and I’ll be disappointed, but then I will have played (0:26:20) Al: a good game this year. So it’s like, one or the other, I want to have played it now, you know. (0:26:22) Dalan: Yes, yes. (0:26:23) Dalan: Silver lining. (0:26:26) Dalan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. (0:26:28) Al: Because there are some games that I really struggle to go back and play like, (0:26:30) Dalan: Mmm. (0:26:30) Al: Breath of the Wild, I can’t play anymore after Tuesday. (0:26:34) Al: of the Kingdom, because of what Tears of the Kingdom added. (0:26:38) Al: So yeah, I think if it was, which I really hope, I mean, we (0:26:41) Al: obviously have no indication of this yet, hopefully we’ll know (0:26:44) Al: more in a month and a half, but I really hope that Legends ZA is (0:26:49) Al: basically the same catching and traversal style as Legends (0:26:54) Al: Arceus, but more of that and more fun and more to do and more (0:27:00) Al: story and some, you know, quality of life improvements. (0:27:04) Al: What I would really like is them to add the Let’s Go feature from (0:27:08) Al: Scarlet and Violet into it as well, because I think having those (0:27:10) Al: two ways of being able to run around and catch everything in balls (0:27:14) Al: or send out your Pokemon to go and kill everything nearby. (0:27:17) Dalan: Mm-hmm (0:27:18) Al: I think those are both fun and could work really well together. (0:27:21) Dalan: Yeah, that sounds like an interesting sort of combo of those ideas, man, I need to play this Krillin Violet (0:27:27) Al: Scarlet and Violet is a really mixed game and it’s like I, at one point I said if it ran better, (0:27:35) Al: it would probably be my favourite Pokémon game, but actually I don’t think that anymore. I think (0:27:38) Dalan: Mmm (0:27:39) Al: no matter what, I think Legends Arceus is my favourite Pokémon game. It’s just… (0:27:44) Dalan: Yeah, I would say that legends Arceus was definitely like the one I had been most charmed by and quite some time probably since like (0:27:51) Dalan: First Pokemon game like black and white and they didn’t enjoy the others per se but it was like, oh, this is new and interesting (0:27:57) Al: - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:28:00) Al: All right, so yeah, well, yeah, (0:28:02) Al: I finished the Professor Oak Challenge. (0:28:03) Al: I’m just catching the last few postgame Pokemon now. (0:28:04) Dalan: Oh, nice! (0:28:06) Al: So I think I’ve got the, I think before this recording, (0:28:12) Al: I just caught the Lake Spirits. (0:28:14) Al: So I think all I’ve got left are Geratina, (0:28:18) Al: the weather genies, and then Arceus, (0:28:22) Dalan: Mm-hmm great those guys (0:28:24) Al: and the two mythical. (0:28:28) Dalan: Mm-hmm cool. I look forward to hearing about that also curious about (0:28:28) Al: So, that shouldn’t take me too long. (0:28:33) Dalan: More thoughts on Rusty’s retirement as you play that more because I know we both talked about how we weren’t sure if that was (0:28:36) Al: Yes, it will be interesting to see how that goes. I will hopefully have more to talk about (0:28:38) Dalan: Game that really worked for us (0:28:45) Al: Rusty’s retirement in the near future. All right, let’s talk about some news. (0:28:48) Dalan: Sweet. (0:28:51) Al: Obviously, we had our big news catch up last week, and this is, as Dallin was saying before (0:28:58) Al: the recording, the quiet time of the year, which is very true. I think this is a very quiet time (0:29:00) Dalan: - Yes. (0:29:04) Al: for games for two reasons. (0:29:06) Al: Well, three reasons. One is January. (0:29:08) Al: Not a lot happens in January when put in games. (0:29:08) Dalan: - Yeah. (0:29:11) Al: Two, the Switch 2 is about to be announced, right? (0:29:14) Dalan: - Right. (0:29:14) Al: Like, that is imminent. (0:29:16) Al: And you know that everybody’s waiting for that. (0:29:18) Al: Some will be waiting because they have dev kits (0:29:21) Al: and they can’t announce anything yet. (0:29:23) Al: And some will be waiting to just see what it is (0:29:25) Al: and see if they can run their Switch games on it (0:29:27) Al: before they talk about it. (0:29:29) Al: And three, everybody’s terrified of GTA. (0:29:32) Dalan: Mmm, yeah, no, that’s a big game coming. (0:29:37) Al: So there’s basically no games announced coming this year outside of the first three months, (0:29:42) Dalan: Mmm. Yeah, it’s yeah, it’s a weird time right now in many ways. (0:29:42) Al: like for anybody at all. So yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. But we do have some news. (0:29:53) Al: So first of all, My Little Life, which is what I like to call a rusty retirement like, (0:30:00) Al: it is another game played on the bottom part of your screen. And this is a (0:30:06) Al: life sim rather than a farming sim. So you have your different rooms in your house and (0:30:15) Al: I presume office, I’ve not actually investigated whether you have more than (0:30:20) Dalan: My gosh this I’m looking at the announcement. I just haven’t muted right now, but in the release date announcement (0:30:26) Dalan: They have rusty’s retirement pulled up over top of the my little life screen. Yeah, let’s about 46 seconds in (0:30:30) Al: Oh, do they? Amazing. (0:30:35) Al: Oh, so they do. (0:30:36) Dalan: You can do it well answering work emails or even playing other games and then rusty’s retirement pops up (0:30:41) Dalan: So that’s that’s pretty funny. It’s just like yeah, I know what I know. This is sort of a copy (0:30:42) Al: I just read the transcripts of what they’re talking about, what you can do while playing (0:30:46) Dalan: Happy. (0:30:53) Al: it. And one of them is “or playing other games”. So they’re showing you playing My Little Life (0:31:01) Al: and Rusty’s Retirement at the same time, which I would say probably don’t do that. (0:31:02) Dalan: Two for one. (0:31:06) Dalan: I think that’s overload. (0:31:08) Dalan: I think that would break my brain. (0:31:11) Dalan: Too much things I can look at. (0:31:12) Al: Anyway, this game has announced, as Talon just said, their release date. So this is coming (0:31:17) Al: out on the 31st of January. So in two and a bit weeks. Yep. So if you like Rusty’s Retirement, (0:31:27) Al: you want another one like it, or you like the idea of Rusty’s Retirement, but you didn’t (0:31:31) Al: want a farming game while you’re listening to this podcast, then that comes out very soon. (0:31:34) Dalan: Yeah, very interesting, also like the Windows XP background in the tree. (0:31:39) Al: Next week. Yeah. (0:31:43) Dalan: Where’s that Vista? (0:31:43) Al: Yeah. (0:31:44) Dalan: I don’t know, I’m too young for this. (0:31:48) Al: Next we have the Sun Haven have released their next update for the Switch version. (0:31:54) Al: The Switch version. I mean it’s all just bug fixes basically. (0:31:56) Dalan: Hmm (0:32:00) Al: Except one thing which says added a save button in the settings menu. (0:32:03) Al: Could you not save the game before? I don’t. (0:32:05) Dalan: Ah, no idea. That seems good to have. (0:32:09) Al: Yeah. So if you’re playing, Sunhee, (0:32:12) Al: haven on the switch, you now have fewer bugs. (0:32:16) Al: Hopefully. (0:32:16) Dalan: More save buttons and hopefully you already had more than zero (0:32:18) Al: And more safe bugs. (0:32:20) Al: I’m guessing it does the Stardew thing of saving overnight, (0:32:24) Dalan: Right probably (0:32:25) Al: but they also have a save on demand thing. (0:32:29) Dalan: Right that would make sense (0:32:30) Al: Next we have Echoes of the Plum Grove (0:32:32) Al: have released their new year update. (0:32:35) Al: This is mostly bug fixes, but there’s a few features as well. (0:32:39) Al: You can add rugs and put things on those rugs. (0:32:44) Dalan: I was a little worried I misread the thing it says put furniture over rugs (0:32:49) Dalan: and I and costumes for kids and I combined them as put furniture and rugs (0:32:53) Dalan: over kids and I was like oh okay I know this is the sort of wacky or the like (0:32:58) Dalan: not wacky but uh macabre macabre game there we say that macabre it’s the R (0:33:03) Al: Yep, macabre, macabre, macabre. (0:33:06) Dalan: pronounced this is this is important I need to (0:33:10) Al: This will probably be a cultural thing, right? (0:33:12) Dalan: macabre. It’s macabre. (0:33:12) Al: Like macabre, death, about death. (0:33:15) Dalan: He got out again. (0:33:17) Dalan: That’s seems. (0:33:20) Dalan: Cool. Thanks. (0:33:22) Dalan: I knew that part. (0:33:22) Dalan: I was wondering how to say you. (0:33:24) Dalan: Thanks word. (0:33:24) Al: No, I know, I’m just simplifying it. (0:33:28) Dalan: It’s about it’s got some depth in it. (0:33:31) Al: And also new Halloween outfits. (0:33:33) Al: We’re a little bit late for Halloween outfits. (0:33:36) Dalan: Oh, some amazing fixes, Winter Gala should still be available even if the quest giver dies the night before. (0:33:42) Dalan: Good. (0:33:44) Dalan: There’s some spoiler ones I’m not looking at, but that’s the only fun one, so you don’t need to look for any more fixes. (0:33:52) Dalan: But, man, this game does intrigue me, I gotta say. (0:33:56) Al: Yeah, not many games have to worry about their NPCs dying, right? (0:34:00) Dalan: Yeah, that’s usually a Bethesda kind of thing. (0:34:07) Al: And our final piece of news, (0:34:08) Al: ‘cause I told you it was short, right? (0:34:10) Al: We had about half an hour of what we’d been up to, (0:34:12) Al: and now we’ve got five minutes of news. (0:34:13) Dalan: Well, I don’t think I saw this one. (0:34:15) Al: This is, that’s ‘cause I added it in (0:34:18) Al: like two hours ago or something. (0:34:18) Dalan: Ah, I see. (0:34:21) Al: Roots of Patcher have detailed (0:34:25) Al: their upcoming new regions to the games. (0:34:28) Al: So if you’re interested in Roots of Patcher, (0:34:30) Al: there’s some more details on that. (0:34:33) Al: Yeah, it’s not hugely detailed, (0:34:36) Al: but they’re just kind of talking about the new regions, (0:34:37) Al: which feel like the next update’s gonna be pretty big. (0:34:40) Dalan: There’s some, there’s some fun screenshots, well not screenshots, they’re slightly animated. (0:34:45) Al: Yes, there are. (0:34:47) Al: I still haven’t played this game, (0:34:48) Al: and I still want to at some point. (0:34:50) Dalan: It does, it looks nice, I could see myself enjoying it. (0:34:53) Dalan: I will keep an eye out. (0:34:56) Al: Well, that’s the news! (0:34:59) Al: So, Dalon, you’re gonna talk to me about Honkai Impact 3rd, and I have not played this game, (0:35:03) Dalan: All right. (0:35:06) Dalan: All right. (0:35:09) Al: so I have no idea how to start this other than, why are we talking about this game? (0:35:13) Dalan: okay yes let’s let’s start with why this is getting mentioned because honkai impact dirt is (0:35:18) Dalan: not a farming game and unless you count farming for materials uh oh I sure I have no idea what (0:35:19) Al: Shall I see what you said to me about the game? Let me read what Dallin said (0:35:25) Dalan: I sent to you oh boy (0:35:27) Al: when they first suggested playing this game. (0:35:32) Dalan: i’m half expecting like there to be an emoji with me like doing the the fingers pointing at each (0:35:37) Dalan: other I don’t know I i think it (0:35:39) Al: Where did you say it to me? (0:35:44) Dalan: it was probably a threat in the like the not the harvest slack but the other slack (0:35:49) Dalan: I don’t even think it was like a dm or anything I was like no it was just like we could do this (0:35:51) Al: It wasn’t a DM, no. (0:35:54) Dalan: so I i don’t think that’s even anywhere now we have we have no idea how this transpired just (0:35:59) Dalan: occurred uh yeah I think it it came up in video games because I mentioned that I was doing like (0:36:00) Al: so confused. We seem to have talked about it in multiple different channels, (0:36:04) Al: but I can’t actually find where you said it about it. (0:36:09) Dalan: a farming event in this game. You said there’s farming in this game? (0:36:13) Dalan: I was like, “Yeah, right now.” (0:36:15) Al: Okay, so, you said to me back at the end of November, the new Honkai Impact Third Update (0:36:22) Al: has a side mode that is Bilateral + Marvel Snap. The previous two side modes were a Farming (0:36:26) Dalan: Oh yes, I didn’t mention that. (0:36:28) Al: Sim and then Candy Crush Battles. And I said, “A what now?” (0:36:30) Dalan: Yes. (0:36:32) Dalan: Yes. (0:36:34) Dalan: That one just wrapped up, the Bellatrosnap. (0:36:38) Al: So yeah, you said, “I thought I posted about it, but I guess not. It was a Farming Sim (0:36:42) Al: that was about getting not Pokemon who (0:36:45) Al: run various buildings in your town, farm crops, mine for materials etc. They also had fishing, (0:36:51) Al: gotta have a fishing minigame. If you ever need a filler episode, (0:36:53) Dalan: That is correct (0:36:54) Al: I could definitely talk for at least 20 minutes about it, so set that timer now! (0:36:58) Dalan: All right, set the timer see how long we get to cool (0:37:04) Dalan: Yeah, I mean good job past me. That’s a pretty good summary (0:37:08) Dalan: So that’s that’s what we’re gonna talk about. I’m going to briefly just explain the concept of what the heck (0:37:14) Dalan: Hong Kai impact there it is. It’s a gotcha game first and foremost. So if you’re not familiar with gotcha games, it’s (0:37:21) Dalan: gambling, but legal. (0:37:24) Dalan: They have usually have these things called banners where there are usually anime girls that you spend points on, and then you have a chance to get that character it’s usually guaranteed after however many times you pull for that character as the terminology and yeah, that is that is the bulk of how they make their monies by having you pay money to get their new characters. (0:37:51) Dalan: So one of the ways (0:37:53) Dalan: they do this is by having these characters show up in side modes and (0:37:57) Dalan: stories and stuff. Usually they’re in the main story, but sometimes they also have (0:38:01) Dalan: sort of filler side content, and they tend to–Hoyoverse is the company that (0:38:07) Dalan: does this, formerly me, Hoyo, and I think that’s like–I don’t remember all the (0:38:12) Dalan: branding nonsense, but I go by Hoyoverse, and yeah. (0:38:12) Al: It looks like Mihoyo is still the name of a company. (0:38:20) Dalan: Yeah, it’s like international kind of stuff. (0:38:23) Dalan: It was Hoya vs. Kind of a rebranding thing that I tend to stick to just because most of their games are connected in some sort of multiverse way. (0:38:34) Al: So, the publisher is called Huyoverse. (0:38:38) Dalan: And the developers Mihoyo? Okay, interesting. I did not know that. (0:38:40) Al: Correct. (0:38:42) Al: But I believe they are separate companies, but it looks like Huyoverse was spun out from… (0:38:49) Dalan: Yeah, they’re essentially the same thing I imagine. (0:38:52) Dalan: They just handle like different parts of the process. (0:38:56) Al: Yes, but they are separate companies, they’re not, as far as I can see, not kind of possibly, (0:38:58) Dalan: Yes. (0:39:00) Dalan: All right, I figured it was a thing where like (0:39:02) Dalan: one was owning the other somewhere, but I don’t know. (0:39:04) Al: but I’m not, I can’t see any information on the ownership of Hoyoverse. But also, Hoyoverse (0:39:07) Dalan: I do not have the Wikipedia open right now (0:39:09) Dalan: and it’s not that relevant. (0:39:12) Al: is also called Cognosphere. That’s just another name for the same company. I don’t know why (0:39:15) Dalan: Hognosphere, I’m not familiar with that one. (0:39:19) Dalan: Okay, interesting. (0:39:25) Dalan: I assume it has something, (0:39:28) Dalan: the first result from three, (0:39:30) Dalan: the second result from three years ago on Reddit (0:39:31) Dalan: says it was a new proxy publishing label. (0:39:34) Dalan: So it’s probably ‘cause they’re based in China (0:39:34) Al: It does. Right. (0:39:36) Dalan: and they needed like other companies (0:39:37) Dalan: to be able to publish things. (0:39:38) Al: Yeah, but why is HoYoverse also called Cognosphere sometimes? (0:39:42) Dalan: Oh, no idea. (0:39:44) Al: But yeah, it does look like it’s fully owned subsidiary of of miHoYo. (0:39:49) Al: So parent company miHoYo, HoYoverse also called Cognosphere. (0:39:54) Dalan: publisher cool (0:39:54) Al: Subsidiary publishing company. Got it. (0:39:57) Dalan: Cool, that’s not confusing got it got it (0:39:57) Al: Perfect. Makes sense. (0:40:00) Dalan: Need a chart. I don’t need some diagrams after this anyway (0:40:04) Dalan: the brief history of miHoYo is (0:40:07) Dalan: Al have you ever heard of Evangelion? I? (0:40:10) Dalan: Want you to imagine that you are a couple you’re several people and that’s there (0:40:15) Dalan: There is a team of a few people in China in like (0:40:20) Dalan: Early, I think like the late 2000s who are really into Evangelion and they decide (0:40:24) Dalan: let’s make games inspired by that and so yeah that was kind of that is I assume (0:40:31) Dalan: why this game is called impact third because it is very heavily inspired by (0:40:34) Dalan: Evangelion which has something in it called the third impact however I assume (0:40:38) Al: Right. Okay. You lost me there for a minute. You were like, I think that’s why (0:40:39) Dalan: they little bit okay Evangelion has something in it called the third impact (0:40:41) Al: it’s called this because Evangelion. I’m like, I don’t understand what that means. (0:40:45) Al: Okay. I’m learning so much. (0:40:48) Dalan: so I think they took inspiration from that name and some of the things that (0:40:53) Dalan: that happen in that series. (0:40:55) Dalan: Uh, cause it features in this game is kind of a thing. (0:40:58) Dalan: Uh, basically just, yeah. (0:41:00) Al: Oh, this is also the Genshin Impact company. Anzendless don0. Goodness me. (0:41:02) Dalan: Yes, that is, they took the, yes, that’s Hoya verse. (0:41:07) Dalan: They have a lot. (0:41:08) Dalan: They also have something called tears of Themis, which I think is like a hot (0:41:11) Dalan: boy dating simulator, but I didn’t ever hear anyone talking about it. (0:41:12) Al: Yeah, I saw that as well, but I didn’t really care because it’s not one I care of. (0:41:14) Dalan: So I don’t know anything about it. (0:41:17) Dalan: Yeah, I, I don’t particularly care, but it does exist. (0:41:20) Dalan: Um, yes, yes. (0:41:20) Al: This game is older than those games. (0:41:25) Dalan: This is the one that I think really first took off. (0:41:27) Dalan: Uh, there were two that proceeded it, but one was literally just kind of like, (0:41:30) Dalan: uh, uh, you know, twin stick shooter, very short game. (0:41:35) Dalan: And the other was kind of like a prototype of this game. (0:41:39) Dalan: That was like a lot more zombie focused because zombies were really big back in (0:41:43) Dalan: the, uh, like late, uh, odds, I think, if you remember everyone liked zombies and (0:41:50) Dalan: bacon and pirates and mustaches and that, that kind of period of time. (0:41:52) Al: Yeah, I don’t think that ever actually went away, did it? (0:41:55) Dalan: No, no, well, no, but it was like, that was sort of a weird cultural (0:42:00) Dalan: cachet we had at the time. (0:42:00) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get you, I get you. (0:42:02) Dalan: Yeah. (0:42:03) Dalan: Anyway, so yes, that game I now, now I’ve confused myself. (0:42:08) Dalan: Uh, where am I anyway, how can I impact third it’s game. (0:42:12) Dalan: You can play, uh, one of the, as Hoya verse starts getting more and more money. (0:42:16) Dalan: Uh, they need to put like side events in their gotcha games. (0:42:19) Dalan: And I guess some of the game designers are like, what if we just started doing (0:42:23) Dalan: doing entirely different. (0:42:25) Dalan: And so across a lot of their games, there are events where you will just play like entirely separate games as side events, and some of them are really interesting. (0:42:34) Dalan: The problem is a lot of them go away after the event period is over because that’s not what the focus of the game is. (0:42:41) Dalan: I have noticed some lately and Impact Third seem to be like getting saved as things you can replay. (0:42:47) Dalan: And I think Honkai Star Rail keeps most of its events that happen, but not all of them. (0:42:54) Dalan: Part of that is because these are games you can play both on your phone and PC in consoles. (0:43:01) Dalan: Impact Third is only phone and PC. (0:43:05) Dalan: So to be playable on a phone, they wanted to decrease storage size. (0:43:10) Dalan: So they tend to delete content events that happened so your phone doesn’t explode from being just the game and having space for nothing else. (0:43:20) Dalan: So the event we’re talking about is they made, essentially, (0:43:24) Dalan: a farming sim that you can play. They’ve done this apparently twice. I was not playing when (0:43:28) Dalan: the first one happened, so I don’t know anything about it. It’s farming enough. I mean, that’s, (0:43:29) Al: or two farvings, some specifically. (0:43:34) Dalan: I would say it’s more focused on automation, sort of. Yeah, but it is around farming and development. (0:43:38) Al: Sounds like my kind of game

Liss & Josh discuss The Sims series, the MySims: Cozy Bundle, along with all of this month's cozy games releases! In the news, a new update is out for Fields of Mistria, Sun Haven is finally coming to Switch, a new Stardew Valley concert is announced, and a new game from the creator of Rune Factory!   Watch The Gaming Garden Podcast in video format: https://linktr.ee/GamingGardenPod Liss' channel: https://www.youtube.com/@lissthelass Josh's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JoshGamingGarden

Al and Jonnie talk about the demos they have tried recently. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:20:47: Recent Releases 00:24:28: Game News 00:50:46: Demos 00:51:19: Luma Island 01:04:49: Overthrown 01:19:09: Outro Links Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete Sun Haven “1.7” Update Slime Rancher 2 “Into the Labyrinth” Update Go-Go Town x Dinkum Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Update 1 Doloc Town Luma Island Overthrown Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/

Christina played through almost two seasons of Sun Haven, which is a fantasy farming sim/RPG reminiscent of Stardew Valley. So yes. She and Matthew draw many comparisons and parallels. If you're in the market for a new game in this genre, this wouldn't be a bad choice.

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

In this jam-packed episode of Boom's Drive to Work, we dive headfirst into an exclusive, completely unbiased review of The First Descendant. With no peeks at social media, Boom delivers a raw and unfiltered take on this highly anticipated game. But that's not all! We also chat about the thrill of Vampire Survivors, the cozy charm of Sun Haven, the futuristic rush of NeoSprint, the chaotic fun in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, the tactical depth of Disgaea 5, and the high-octane action in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Strap in and enjoy the ride as we explore the latest and greatest in gaming!

Kev and Jonnie talk about all the latest news Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:07: What Have We Been Up To 00:07:08: Game Releases 00:15:57: Game Updates 00:26:23: News Games 00:41:40: Outro Links Horticular Release Go-Go Town Early Access Southfield Early Access Sun Haven “1.4” Update Loddlenauth “Loddlepedia” Update Song of the Prairie “0.9” Update Spirittea “Hook, Line & Spirit” Update Littlelands Gameplay Sneak Peek Star Birds Among The Wild Hotel Galactic Super Farming Boy Everholm Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:31) Kev: so (0:00:32) Kev: stop me if you’ve heard this one before (0:00:34) Kev: a uh… (0:00:36) Kev: scottish guy gets sick so he (0:00:38) Kev: calls up a mexican guy who lives in america (0:00:43) Kev: and that mexican guy calls a new zealander who lives in australia (0:00:48) Kev: and uh… (0:00:49) Kev: and what happens next is actually a podcast that you’re about to hear (0:00:54) Kev: hello farmers welcome to the harvest season (0:00:58) Kev: where we talk about supposedly, about Cottagecore games. (0:01:02) Kev: I’m Kevin, a villain for an owl who is a bit on the sick side, and with me today is… (0:01:08) Jonnie: I’m Johnny, uh, I’m here, I’m, am I sick? Does being hungover count as being sick? Whatever, (0:01:14) Jonnie: it’s the same thing. But I’m here. It definitely does not. (0:01:16) Kev: It doesn’t feel good, I’ll tell you that much. Well actually, I mean, I can’t, I could not tell you, actually, I don’t think I’ve ever been, like, hungover to that degree of feeling sick in the morning. (0:01:28) Kev: Um, I’m a square, I’m a loser. (0:01:29) Jonnie: don’t get old that’s all I can say don’t get old (0:01:34) Kev: Oh, that’s happening regardless! (0:01:36) Jonnie: Ah. (0:01:38) Kev: And you know what’s happening regardless? I was talking about the news because we are having another news-centric episode today. (0:01:46) Kev: As uh, you know, last week we had wholesome summer games, whatever extra, there were like 20 game shows in total I hear. (0:01:56) Kev: But there was more news that leaked through or whatever, I don’t know, we’re gonna talk about it, because there’s plenty to talk about. (0:02:04) Kev: Um, other, uh, yeah, but before we get into that, Johnny, what have you been up to over there and Johnny? (0:02:14) Jonnie: So I’ve been playing a little bit of Starstruck Vagabond, that new game, and, you know, like, (0:02:20) Jonnie: it’s a bit of a weird one, it’s taking a bit of time to get into, but I like what I’m seeing (0:02:24) Jonnie: of that so far, and I’ve been playing a lot of RuneScape, and that game is, I don’t know, (0:02:30) Jonnie: I talk about it all the time. (0:02:32) Jonnie: I’m just sucked in, it’s like, that game takes over your life, in a bad way, but also a really (0:02:37) Jonnie: good way. (0:02:38) Jonnie: I don’t know, yeah, it’s, I’m having a lot of fun with it. (0:02:38) Kev: Hehe, I was about to say that sounds like a good way to me. (0:02:44) Jonnie: At the moment. (0:02:44) Jonnie: Which is, it’s really nice to go back and play a game that you’re nostalgic for, that’s (0:02:47) Jonnie: had a lot of time and effort put in, and is good. (0:02:52) Jonnie: So yeah, I’m having a lot of fun kind of going back and having a bit of a fun nostalgia cake (0:02:55) Jonnie: in RuneScape. (0:02:56) Kev: Right, right. I mean, yeah, good. It’s it’s comfort gaming right everyone’s got some sort of comfort gaming (0:03:00) Jonnie: Absolutely. (0:03:02) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:03:03) Kev: All right (0:03:03) Jonnie: What about you, Kev? (0:03:06) Kev: Speaking of well actually no, it’s probably the opposite of comfort game. You have my Street Fighter 6 where I (0:03:12) Kev: Get my butt handed to me continuously and repeatedly. I’m not am I good at fighting games, but (0:03:20) Kev: But I enjoy them nonetheless (0:03:23) Kev: Street Fighter 6 is in a great place. We got the (0:03:26) Kev: DLC character recently and a (0:03:29) Kev: Season 2 of DLC also announced and they’re very exciting characters (0:03:34) Kev: They’re guest characters from King of Fighters. I’m sure most people listening this don’t understand that at all. You know, that’s fine (0:03:42) Kev: Bye. (0:03:43) Jonnie: I heard, and correct me if I’m wrong, but is this the first time that Street Fighter (0:03:46) Jonnie: is doing the whole guest character thing? (0:03:50) Jonnie: Is that right? (0:03:52) Kev: As far as I know, yes, actually. (0:03:56) Kev: So they do (0:03:58) Kev: some guest-ish things, especially with their own (0:04:02) Kev: their own franchise, Capcom. So you can sometimes get costumes referencing other series or whatever, right? (0:04:10) Kev: Like you can get Ryu in Monster Hunter Armored or what have you. (0:04:16) Kev: But yes, this is I believe the first time an actual proper character. (0:04:22) Kev: From outside Street Fighter has joined. (0:04:25) Kev: And although to be fair, (0:04:28) Kev: like they are (0:04:31) Kev: the King of Fighters series is not that different tonally from Street Fighter or aesthetically. (0:04:38) Kev: Right, like (0:04:40) Kev: you could say for Americans who know this reference, like you could say Street Fighter’s New York City and (0:04:46) Kev: King of Fighters is New Jersey just across the river. You just took a bus to get there. (0:04:52) Kev: So yeah, it’s also not the first time these two franchises have crossed over. They’ve had (0:04:59) Kev: crossover games in the past, but (0:05:02) Kev: yeah, it’s exciting stuff. Terry Bogard, people might know him from Smash, he’s got the red hat. (0:05:10) Kev: I’m excited for him in the game. (0:05:13) Kev: But yeah, that will be later though. In the meantime, I have been fighting though and getting beat up a lot. (0:05:22) Kev: In stuff I haven’t been beat up a lot. (0:05:26) Kev: Disney’s speed storm continues to exist. (0:05:31) Kev: They came out with the Inside Out season, because Inside Out 2 came out, I guess. (0:05:37) Kev: It’s fine, I like Inside Out enough, the characters are fine. (0:05:43) Kev: One interesting thing, for whatever reason, (0:05:47) Kev: they have stopped doing voices for every character. (0:05:50) Kev: Now they only pick a tour. (0:05:52) Kev: I’m also surprised that Disney would be okay with it. (0:05:56) Kev: I don’t know if that’s because they’re not doing well financially, don’t want to hire (0:06:00) Kev: people, or maybe they’re just being greedy and just don’t want to put the costs out for (0:06:04) Kev: all the characters to be voiced. (0:06:06) Kev: But it’s really odd because that game’s been out for a year and all the characters have (0:06:10) Kev: been voiced up to this point but now they’re breaking that and it is a bit jarring. (0:06:14) Jonnie: It’s an odd choice to make. (0:06:15) Kev: Yeah. (0:06:16) Kev: Very. (0:06:17) Kev: Um, yeah, I’m also kind of surprised Disney would be okay with it. (0:06:22) Kev: Um, because, you know, I assume Disney is very strict about their control and whatever. (0:06:28) Kev: You know, did you know that Disney Speedstorm is made by Gameloft, the same company that makes Dreamlight Valley? (0:06:35) Kev: Yeah, it’s wild, um, because, you know, very different games, but I guess they’re doing the Disney part justice, except for the voice thing. (0:06:47) Kev: thing. But yeah, that’s a… (0:06:52) Kev: Sure, fun fact for the day. Other than that, a lot of my usual stuff, Marvel (0:06:57) Kev: Snap, I continue to be trapped and can never escape. Some card games and so on (0:07:03) Kev: and so forth. But yeah, that’s the most interesting stuff. Now with that said, (0:07:11) Kev: let’s get into other interesting stuff in terms of news. All right, so we’re kind (0:07:22) Kev: of got it broken up here per OWL. We’re gonna start off with game releases with (0:07:28) Kev: launch dates and whatnot. We are going to start off with Horticular. Let me see. (0:07:33) Kev: What is Horticular? I don’t remember off the top of my head. (0:07:36) Jonnie: So Horticula is kind of like, to me the aesthetic feels very like rollercoaster tycoon, where (0:07:43) Jonnie: you’re like building out a garden in that sort of, that sort of style, so it’s, it’s (0:07:49) Jonnie: slightly bigger in scale and you’re, you’re placing things on a grid, yeah it’s, I really (0:07:57) Jonnie: like the vibe of this game and it’s coming out going into 1.0 on July 11th which is pretty (0:08:03) Jonnie: soon and pretty exciting! (0:08:04) Kev: Yeah, there you go. (0:08:06) Kev: I do appreciate when the dates are close, you know. (0:08:10) Kev: Yeah, Johnny pretty much nailed it. (0:08:12) Kev: Pixel art. (0:08:14) Kev: There’s a lot going on here. (0:08:16) Kev: There is indeed looks like actually some sort of story. (0:08:20) Kev: Yeah, there is a complete story actually. (0:08:22) Kev: There’s different modes. (0:08:24) Kev: There’s sandbox creative mode. (0:08:26) Kev: There’s peaceful and story-less mode. (0:08:30) Kev: Oh, controller support will be out. (0:08:32) Kev: They have Twitch integration. (0:08:34) Kev: I don’t know. (0:08:36) Kev: They can name or put their names for creatures and stuff like that. (0:08:40) Kev: That’s always cute. I appreciate Twitch support like that. (0:08:44) Kev: And mod support. (0:08:46) Kev: This is a solid 1.0. This is very well rounded. (0:08:49) Kev: Good for you, Horticular. Thumbs up for you. (0:08:54) Kev: That is July 11th. (0:08:56) Kev: Next up, we have Gogotown with an early access date. (0:09:02) Kev: So that’s not 1.0, that’s not a- (0:09:04) Kev: Game release, ow. (0:09:06) Kev: Um, that is June- Oh wow, June 18th. That is like… (0:09:10) Kev: The day of- (0:09:12) Kev: It’ll be out by the time people listen to this podcast. (0:09:15) Kev: Go go town, we’ll be out in early access. (0:09:18) Kev: Um, for people who don’t remember. (0:09:18) Jonnie: and go go play it like I’m yeah I’m just like I’m sorry I’m sorry to interrupt here but I’m (0:09:20) Kev: Yeah! (0:09:23) Jonnie: so forget excited about go go town like I’m not I don’t like early accesses for most games I don’t (0:09:29) Jonnie: care I just want to play some go go town god damn tell the people about this game if they’ve forgotten (0:09:32) Kev: Yup, yup. So, it’s amazing how the first impressions, or at least for me it wasn’t that great, but it has turned around. (0:09:34) Jonnie: because it’s so good (0:09:44) Kev: So for people who don’t remember, this is a Animal Crossing-like clone, whatever you want to call it, (0:09:48) Kev: but they put a lot of emphasis on customization and town building and just generally a lot more features like riding vehicles and all sorts of different customization things. (0:10:02) Kev: They put out a map with time zones and the launch times for each time zone, that’s pretty funny. (0:10:08) Kev: But they’ve also put out a roadmap of the upcoming development. (0:10:16) Kev: So, it’ll launch with all your customization and terraforming, unlockable buildings, machines, upgrades, a skill tree basically. (0:10:26) Kev: You can do automation, single player, and multiplayer will be… (0:10:32) Kev: or will be at launch of Early Access and it’ll be localized in 10 languages. That’s pretty dang good. (0:10:42) Kev: Then in July they’ll have a big update where they’ll actually introduce more vehicles and more modes of transportation. (0:10:52) Kev: Later in September they’ll get a crossover with something, I have no idea what. (0:10:56) Kev: I actually don’t, that’s not me being quite, everything’s blocked out and I don’t know what. (0:11:00) Kev: I don’t know what. (0:11:00) Kev: And then later in November. (0:11:00) Jonnie: The update’s really great. We’ve done the update, but they’ve like, redacted all of the exciting bits. (0:11:07) Jonnie: It’s a very funny way of doing an update like this. I’m a big fan. (0:11:10) Kev: There’s a guy in a suit, that’s the only picture I don’t recognize him, so eh. (0:11:16) Kev: And then in November, an update called “Industrial Don” which I assume means more automation or more mechanical customizations. (0:11:28) Kev: But they don’t have any actual details. (0:11:30) Kev: So yeah, that is… (0:11:34) Kev: That’s Gogotan Early Access (0:11:36) Kev: I’m also looking forward to this one (0:11:38) Kev: I… you know, I’m infamously not big on one Early Access (0:11:42) Kev: so I don’t know if I’ll pick it up yet (0:11:44) Kev: but I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled on you guys who are playing it (0:11:50) Kev: because it looks… (0:11:52) Jonnie: Yeah, a few interesting things that I picked from the update. So they’ve got a number of features (0:11:54) Kev: Yep, go for it (0:11:58) Jonnie: that aren’t yet scheduled but are on their radar. So kind of things that they’re exploring. And (0:12:03) Jonnie: probably the one that stands out the most is that a player house is on that list. So that’s one of (0:12:08) Jonnie: the things that I was expecting to have. And it’s interesting that it’s not even on their roadmap, (0:12:13) Jonnie: which kind of indicates that I guess the focus of the game is going to be a lot more on creating (0:12:17) Jonnie: your town rather than Animal Crossing which has traditionally been your house and (0:12:23) Jonnie: terraforming kind of changed that a little bit with with New Horizons so that was just an interesting little little tidbit (0:12:26) Kev: right (0:12:28) Kev: Huh, yeah, you’re right. It is that is interesting right because (0:12:32) Kev: Animal crossing likes usually prioritize the you know personal stuff first, but yeah, this looks more town (0:12:39) Kev: focused and (0:12:40) Kev: Your bone house that is interesting, huh? (0:12:45) Kev: Yeah, okay, that’s that is neat um I’m (0:12:48) Kev: That said I’m expecting there will be a lot of town customization then probably much more so than Animal Crossing (0:12:56) Kev: That’s their focus, so that’s cool, and we get the chainsaws. You know so that’s the important thing (0:13:04) Kev: Speaking of chaotic games (0:13:07) Kev: Next up we have an early access date for Southfield (0:13:12) Kev: The wibbly-wobbly as they self-describe themselves physics based farming game where you play as a gumdrop character (0:13:19) Kev: That will be dropping on June 24th very shortly (0:13:24) Kev: After this podcast like almost a week (0:13:26) Kev: after this ish after this podcast drops (0:13:28) Kev: That’s that’s a good game the trailer (0:13:33) Kev: looks good very excited for that (0:13:37) Kev: yeah Southfield another one I that is (0:13:42) Kev: probably definitely worthwhile in early (0:13:44) Kev: access is their demos anything to show (0:13:46) Kev: because they had a you know the worst (0:13:49) Kev: part of the demos that you couldn’t save (0:13:50) Kev: but now I’m assuming it’s going to be (0:13:52) Kev: similar but you can save and so they (0:13:54) Kev: That makes it way better already. (0:13:56) Kev: Umm… (0:13:57) Jonnie: Yeah, it’s just a stupid good month for games, right? (0:13:58) Kev: It ridiculously sucks. (0:14:00) Jonnie: Like Horticular, Gogotown, Southfield all look amazing. (0:14:07) Jonnie: And I think what I like most about this sort of lineup (0:14:10) Jonnie: of three games is they’re all very distinct, right? (0:14:13) Jonnie: Like obviously all of them have elements (0:14:15) Jonnie: that are callbacks to other things, but the, like, (0:14:18) Jonnie: this is to me an amazing series of games that move away (0:14:22) Jonnie: from like the Stardew clones and those sorts of things. (0:14:27) Jonnie: All of these games feel like they’ve got a distinct look. (0:14:29) Jonnie: You know, we didn’t talk about it with Gogotown, (0:14:31) Jonnie: but like their aesthetic reminds me very much of like, (0:14:36) Jonnie: I kind of like Saturday morning cartoons almost, (0:14:41) Jonnie: is kind of how I described their vibe. (0:14:43) Jonnie: And it’s not something that a lot of games are doing. (0:14:46) Jonnie: You know, like I just, (0:14:47) Jonnie: I think this is a great lineup of games (0:14:50) Jonnie: for sort of cottage core and exploring and pushing (0:14:53) Jonnie: in different directions. (0:14:55) Jonnie: Like, I just think between the three of the… (0:14:57) Jonnie: three games we’ve just talked about, there’s got to be something in here for just about (0:15:04) Kev: Oh absolutely, I totally agree right, and it’s like it’s not just now but I think it’s very indicative of where we are in the whole cottage core space, right, because Stardew 1.0 came out in 2016 and I would pretty definitely say that was the start of the cottage core boom, right, where it really became a big genre, not just a very niche thing with like two or three games. (0:15:28) Kev: And for a good while, it was very Stardew cloning, right. (0:15:34) Kev: But you’re right, all three of these are off the beaten path so to speak, and different flavors like you said that different people can enjoy. (0:15:46) Kev: So that is really exciting to see, just in general where the cottage core games are and whatnot. (0:15:55) Kev: So yeah, a great observation there. Alright then, let’s see here, now we are going to get into some updates for games, the first- (0:16:04) Kev: being Sun Haven. The 1.4 update is out now. This is the last update to come out before the Switch release. (0:16:16) Kev: Let’s see here, it includes a new region, the Brinestone Deeps. You can have a kid now, full controller support, yay! Some increased translations and localizations for Mac. (0:16:34) Kev: Several relationship stuff. Oh, sewers, you can go to the sewers. Yeah. (0:16:40) Jonnie: And they say that they’ve got a black market launching, (0:16:43) Jonnie: which sounds kind of cool. (0:16:45) Jonnie: Like, so for me, like, there’s a, (0:16:47) Jonnie: it looks like they’re continuing to add a ton (0:16:49) Jonnie: of awesome stuff to Sun Haven and Sun Haven’s being like, (0:16:54) Jonnie: it’s perennially like on my list of games (0:16:56) Jonnie: I really want to play, (0:16:57) Jonnie: but also it looks like a huge time investment (0:17:00) Jonnie: ‘cause it just looks so big that I find it very hard (0:17:00) Kev: Yeah (0:17:05) Jonnie: to like commit to and like every time I see these updates (0:17:08) Jonnie: and what they’re adding, I’m like, man, (0:17:11) Jonnie: it’s interesting and cool. (0:17:13) Jonnie: Like, I like everything that Sun Haven is doing. (0:17:18) Jonnie: I’m just very nervous about starting it (0:17:20) Jonnie: ‘cause it seems like such a deep hole to get into. (0:17:20) Kev: It right absolutely um yeah oh my gosh I’m just looking at like the cars in the (0:17:28) Kev: mount you can have there’s some wild stuff in your holy moly (0:17:31) Jonnie: Yeah, it’s a nuts, nuts game. (0:17:32) Kev: um yeah um so with this again all that stuff we discussed was free updates to (0:17:40) Kev: the to the game but included there will also be dropping nine DLC packs which are (0:17:47) Kev: They’re all cosmetics, furniture. (0:17:51) Kev: Pets, mounts, clothing, so on and so forth. (0:17:55) Kev: A lot of them look pretty nice, I will say. (0:17:58) Kev: You can ride a rocking horse. (0:18:00) Kev: That’s pretty fun. (0:18:01) Kev: But yeah, I invite everyone to check out the Steam page. (0:18:09) Kev: Oh, I guess we should’ve… I forgot! Whoops! (0:18:13) Kev: As always, we have the transcripts on the website, end links, all this stuff. (0:18:18) Kev: There you go, Al. Don’t get mad at me anymore. (0:18:21) Kev: But yeah, there’s, wow, I’m just going down the list. (0:18:27) Kev: This is a very beefy update for Sunhaven, so… (0:18:31) Kev: You’re right, this is intimidating. (0:18:35) Kev: But yeah, again, that is already out now. (0:18:41) Kev: Let’s see, next up, very close to being out. (0:18:46) Kev: Lottle knot the the lottle pedia update. Oh (0:18:50) Kev: It is lotto lotto what is a lot of pedia (0:18:56) Kev: Let’s see here (0:18:58) Kev: All the lotto evolutions and (0:19:01) Kev: Silhouettes for you. Yeah, okay the lotto pedia tracks all the lotto evolutions you found and show silhouettes for ones (0:19:08) Kev: You’ve yet to discover (0:19:10) Kev: displays information on abilities for each lotto evolution and the diet required to turn a baby lotto into that form (0:19:19) Kev: This is yeah, this should (0:19:20) Kev: Have been in the game already probably any time you’re doing a monster collector, right? (0:19:27) Kev: also, I didn’t (0:19:31) Kev: Skins already out. I did I missed that completely. I have got to get this game. I really wanted I might be getting this today (0:19:41) Kev: I (0:19:43) Kev: completely missed that but (0:19:45) Kev: Yeah, no, that’s that’s surprising that they had a whole monster collecting thing and no (0:19:51) Kev: Encyclopedia pokedex whatever (0:19:54) Kev: I’m glad they finally got it or it’s coming out relatively soon June 27th (0:20:00) Kev: This only on Steam it looks like (0:20:12) Kev: It’s on Steam at least, okay? (0:20:14) Kev: But yeah, I’ll be looking more at that for myself in a little, but anyways. (0:20:20) Kev: Now let’s talk about something that’s almost 1.0 out. Song of the Prairie. (0:20:27) Kev: We are at the 0.9 update. Well, it’s going, it’s been announced. (0:20:34) Kev: That update will be dropping on. (0:20:38) Kev: Oh, it’s out now. Okay. All right. Yeah, that’s already out now. (0:20:42) Kev: They have added Steam achievements. Seven new languages. Leveled six tools. That, that sounds big. That’s past five. (0:20:52) Kev: They’ve optimized a lot of visual things it looks like. (0:21:00) Kev: Fixing some bugs. (0:21:04) Kev: They have (0:21:06) Kev: recreated the character creation function. Okay, it took me a second there. (0:21:10) Kev: so they rework. (0:21:12) Kev: there is a blast update before the full addition, they are talking about it. (0:21:22) Jonnie: It looks like it, but they didn’t explicitly state that so that there’s still time, right? (0:21:24) Kev: that is true. (0:21:26) Kev: we could. (0:21:27) Jonnie: They might, they might throw it a couple more. You could get a 0.9.1 (0:21:28) Kev: they do say they are going to launch a game test campaign for the coming of full edition. (0:21:34) Kev: what does that mean? (0:21:36) Kev: it means that they are going to launch a game test campaign. (0:21:40) Kev: pain for the coming of void- (0:21:42) Kev: that mean a game test campaign a game test campaign for the coming of full (0:21:47) Kev: edition I don’t know what that means okay but but there you go that is again (0:21:54) Kev: song of the prairie 0.9 update let’s see and next up we have spirit tea not that (0:22:03) Kev: pokemon but the game spirit tea I know I feel like I’ve made this joke before but (0:22:07) Kev: That’s okay. (0:22:10) Kev: We have – (0:22:12) Kev: No, you’re not catching a Pokémon, but you are catching fish because it’s the hook, line, and spirit update. (0:22:18) Kev: They added fishing. (0:22:22) Jonnie: And we love fishing, don’t we kids? (0:22:22) Kev: Okay. (0:22:26) Kev: Some? Yes. Yes, we do. (0:22:28) Kev: I’m looking here just at the – (0:22:32) Kev: It does look like they put effort in. It’s not just Animal Crossing. (0:22:36) Kev: There’s a silhouette of a fish and you’re pulling closer to you. (0:22:42) Kev: That actually looks fairly well done. (0:22:44) Kev: I don’t know how fun it is, but just visually it does stand out from other fishing mini games or systems or whatever. (0:22:54) Kev: Alongside fishing, there is sorts of other quality of life and bug fixes. (0:23:04) Kev: You can toggle how dark it is at night. That’s a good one. (0:23:08) Kev: added a streamer mode to hide away details about you in smo- (0:23:12) Kev: obeys quest- I don’t know what that means but that- okay. (0:23:14) Kev: That’s good. I- oh, oh, oh. (0:23:18) Kev: Um, some bugs and all sorts of things. (0:23:22) Kev: Um, yeah, that is- (0:23:24) Kev: Oh, is that already on? I can’t remember. (0:23:28) Kev: Uh, yes, that is out now. (0:23:28) Jonnie: Yeah, spare cheese already out. (0:23:30) Kev: Uh, again, hookline spirit for spirity. (0:23:32) Kev: Okay, um, and next up we have- (0:23:38) Kev: Let’s see a bunch of sort of new games coming out (0:23:42) Kev: And a sneak peek here first up we’re going to talk about Little Lands (0:23:46) Kev: Little Lands is… they did a thing with IGN (0:23:52) Kev: Okay, so it… sorry I’m looking at the video because I didn’t have a chance to look at it before (0:23:59) Kev: All these characters are cute, they’re very Link’s Awakening-esque, the aesthetic that’s kind of the vibe I feel (0:24:07) Kev: An isometric… (0:24:07) Jonnie: Yeah, it’s it feels very it’s that that TV style that they did for links, but the remake of Link’s Awakening, right? (0:24:14) Kev: Yes, exactly. Yes, that’s a number for yes. That’s the one in general (0:24:16) Jonnie: Yeah, which is it’s interesting, right? Because I think a lot of people didn’t (0:24:21) Jonnie: Like that aesthetic for reasons that I don’t fully understand because like I quite like it (0:24:25) Jonnie: Like I think it’s distinct and for the sort of game that it looks like this is I think that style works (0:24:32) Jonnie: Very well, like it does a good job of kind of making it clear where you can and can’t (0:24:37) Jonnie: Also making the world look full (0:24:39) Kev: Yep. (0:24:40) Jonnie: And like little ants looks kind of exciting to me, you know where it’s like even if it’s just a little bit of like (0:24:49) Jonnie: Heavily inspired by Link’s Awakening sort of adventure-ish, you know dialed up farming elements (0:24:58) Jonnie: 3d camera (0:25:00) Jonnie: Even like watching the video that you almost get like a little bit of like pokemon vibes not in that it’s catching stuff (0:25:07) Jonnie: You know, it seems like you are young kid going out on an adventure (0:25:11) Jonnie: And now i’m just thinking about like a pokemon game with these aesthetics, which I think I’d be really into (0:25:16) Kev: Yeah, absolutely. I totally see what you mean. (0:25:18) Kev: Especially like, they show this lake where they’re fishing with a bridge that feels very Pokemon. (0:25:24) Kev: But I know it does have that feeling of a kid just wandering around this landscape and whatnot. (0:25:32) Kev: I do get that feeling, right? (0:25:34) Kev: There is a good bit dash of Zelda inspirations in here. (0:25:37) Kev: You have a sword, you’re swinging at some enemies. (0:25:40) Kev: But also a lot of other fun, cutie stuff. (0:25:43) Kev: they have a fishing rod but you can use the fishing rod in (0:25:46) Kev: bushes and and all sorts of things. The environments are very, very pretty, I gotta say. It’s (0:25:53) Kev: all in the same style, right? It’s not like super high fidelity graphics or whatever, (0:25:57) Kev: but it’s very detailed. There’s a lot of plants and lush backgrounds and stuff like that. (0:26:02) Kev: Yeah, I’m a big fan of this. That is very cute. Do we have any ETA on? No, it’s to be (0:26:12) Kev: announced you can wishlist it. (0:26:16) Kev: Okay so just be- I really encourage people to check this one out, it’s a very very good looking game in my opinion. (0:26:26) Kev: Okay, next up we have the announcement of Starbirds! (0:26:34) Jonnie: Starbirds looks so cool. So, Starbirds is from the Dorforomantic devs. Did you play Dorforomantic, kid? (0:26:42) Kev: No, what is that, do tell. (0:26:44) Jonnie: So, Dorforomantic is the cozy tile-placement city builder game, so (0:26:52) Jonnie: if you’ve ever played (0:26:55) Jonnie: Carcassonne, where you’re kind of like trying to match things on tiles as you sort of place them, (0:27:00) Kev: Uh-huh. (0:27:00) Jonnie: that’s what you’re doing in Dorforomantic. It’s just like a great, like, (0:27:04) Jonnie: if you just want a game that’s just pure vibes, like, there’s no real goal. (0:27:08) Jonnie: It’s just putting cards down until you run out and kind of, like, building out a large city or a (0:27:14) Jonnie: bunch of small cities and some forests and, like, it’s a great, like, simple little game. (0:27:21) Jonnie: I would highly recommend everyone go and play. I’m a big fan of Dorforomantic. And to Starbirds, it seems in a similar-ish (0:27:29) Jonnie: vibe, so they described Starbirds as a cozy base building and resource management. (0:27:34) Jonnie: Game. And so it looks like you’re kind of, like, building bases on relatively small planets, (0:27:41) Jonnie: which just looks very cool. I love the aesthetic that they’re going for that they show in this game. The planet style looks cool. (0:27:47) Jonnie: I love the idea of, like, cozy base building, you know. (0:27:51) Jonnie: The resource management side, it will depend how heavy that is, but from what they’re showing, like, (0:27:56) Jonnie: it doesn’t look like it’s, you know, gonna be an insane resource management thing. (0:28:00) Jonnie: it’s probably I’m guessing it’s probably just you’ve got to have a thing to collect resources. (0:28:04) Jonnie: And it will do that over time. And then that would just enable you to go to more surrounding (0:28:08) Jonnie: planets. So I’m very excited for this one. I think it’s 2025 is all I’ve said in terms of (0:28:14) Jonnie: the release date. Yeah, I think this looks very cool. Very excited for this one. (0:28:19) Kev: Yeah, I agree. This might be odd comparison, but looking at the Resource Management, it’s (0:28:30) Kev: a very cutesy, chill version of No Man’s Sky, what it feels like to me, because you’re placing (0:28:38) Kev: solar panels and cables and connecting things. And it looks like you can transport stuff (0:28:43) Kev: between your planets. Oh, this looks good. I really enjoy this sort of resource management. (0:28:49) Kev: I’m very on board for this. That is against Starbirds coming. No, it’s next year. We gotta (0:28:55) Kev: wait a while. But that’s okay, because there are too many games right now anyways. Okay. (0:29:05) Kev: Next up, we have a gi… Wait, is this R.D.? Early Access R.D.? Sorry, I’m just reading (0:29:13) Kev: this. Next up, we have a game called Among the Wild. Look, I… (0:29:18) Jonnie: Also known as cozy power. (0:29:19) Kev: I was about to say that. Look, there’s no getting around it. We got us a Power World (0:29:26) Kev: clone. Somehow, we already have one. It is a lot cozier. It doesn’t wear its, you know, (0:29:35) Kev: shoot Pokemon on its sleeve like that. But a lot of similar, like, its first person perspective. (0:29:43) Kev: You’re running around similar environments. You do. There are weapons. You… (0:29:49) Kev: You can have an axe and cane and there’s like a spear. It… Yeah, Cozy. Cozy Power World (0:29:57) Kev: pretty much knocks it out of the park, right? Like, there’s a llama there. It does. (0:30:00) Jonnie: But this looks AMAZING. (0:30:02) Jonnie: Like, that, like, while it’s, while it’s technically, uh, like, you could call it a Power Clone, (0:30:08) Jonnie: this has clearly been in development for a long time, like, with what they’re showing. (0:30:12) Jonnie: It looks incredible. (0:30:15) Jonnie: Like all of the, all of the, the, the Pokémon, I’m just gonna call them Pokémon ‘cause that’s (0:30:19) Kev: Yeah (0:30:19) Jonnie: basically what they are, they look, they look amazing, they’re so, like, derpy, most of (0:30:24) Jonnie: the ones that they’re showing, they’re just, like, very funny and, like, all, like, a little (0:30:25) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:30:28) Jonnie: bit too fluffy, which I love. (0:30:30) Jonnie: Like this whole game just looks stupid. (0:30:32) Jonnie: I love it. (0:30:33) Jonnie: I’m so excited for this. (0:30:33) Kev: Yeah, this (0:30:35) Kev: Look that black duck looking guy that is just actually a Dragon Quest monster. It’s called the platypunk (0:30:42) Kev: It looks just like (0:30:42) Jonnie: - Yeah, yeah, it very much is. (0:30:45) Kev: It’s the platypunk (0:30:47) Kev: I like their little (0:30:49) Kev: What are the Star Wars things? Porgs? Yeah, that’s what they’re called. The little main guy looks like a Porg kind of. Yeah, they’re all very round and derpy looking, these critters. There’s a Rock guy. I don’t know why, but you can throw a Slime guy at another of these Pokemon. I don’t know what’s going on here. But I will say it does look visually like the detail is much more there than Power World. Right? Like (0:31:19) Kev: Power World was nice enough, right? It was fine. But it was very samey at times, right? Like there’s a lot more details here, like in the towns or even just the gardens and stuff like that. So yeah, that is, that is very that that is what was announced release dates to be announced. (0:31:39) Kev: Um… (0:31:40) Jonnie: Yeah, they’re taking signups for their Alpha at the moment, so this one’s, realistically, (0:31:46) Kev: yeah probably and with I mean clearly they’ve got ambition here right um so yeah I i wouldn’t (0:31:53) Kev: be surprised by that um all right next uh we have oh my god okay like cozy’s overdone but (0:32:04) Kev: next on the list is the studio ghibli inspired i’m no stop it you stop it people because (0:32:16) Kev: blurb just so people can see hotel galactic is a cozy home like they’re starting off with cozy (0:32:23) Kev: is a cozy management game inspired by studio ghibli’s classic pictures build the tourist (0:32:28) Kev: destination of your dreams oversee and unite your staff to forge a quirky family and make (0:32:34) Kev: friends as you explore this wholesomely nostalgic world oh my god like oh (0:32:42) Kev: I get people love Studio Ghibli, but c’mon people! (0:32:48) Kev: And it’s always the cutscenes, they always start with the cutscenes just to make sure that you know (0:32:52) Kev: Look at all the Studio Ghibli, and boy, wow, a lot of this is just legally distinct Studio Ghibli scenes (0:33:00) Kev: Um, the actual game, um, so I’m looking at it now, it’s, it, how do I describe this? (0:33:10) Kev: Because I, what’s funny is I, mmhmm, yep, yeah, yeah (0:33:10) Jonnie: So to me it looks like you’re you’re building a hotel like from a side profile, right? (0:33:15) Jonnie: So I I what it gave me a similar vibe to is kind of like how you build your ship in. Oh (0:33:23) Kev: spirit fair (0:33:23) Jonnie: My god spirit Ferrer, thank you. Yes, like that it was it was almost that sort of vibe (0:33:25) Kev: yep yep yep excellent (0:33:28) Kev: yep that that’s an excellent comparison uh… (0:33:31) Kev: yeah because it’s it’s it’s that’s or or terry of people know that right where (0:33:35) Kev: you can see on side the rooms (0:33:38) Kev: all at once uh… yeah that that’s pretty much uh… what it’s going for (0:33:42) Kev: uh… (0:33:43) Kev: again that is hotel galactic i (0:33:48) Kev: I like the concept I do like the concept but just uh… (0:33:53) Kev: the stuff has been over the (0:33:54) Jonnie: My initial reaction was exactly the same as yours of like we don’t need more studio Ghibli and then as I was watching it (0:33:59) Jonnie: I was like, but this one seems pretty good. Like I would probably play this game. So so maybe we do maybe we do (0:34:04) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I mean but it’s the aesthetic right because like the I’m excited by the concept and the gameplay, but just (0:34:14) Kev: um (0:34:16) Kev: Just everyone going after ghibli is (0:34:20) Kev: I say that but like, you know, manek. I’m just waiting for you or not maneko amika (0:34:27) Kev: Um, so, you know (0:34:29) Kev: um (0:34:30) Kev: Yeah, but uh digress (0:34:33) Kev: anyways… (0:34:34) Kev: we have… oh my gosh these names… (0:34:36) Jonnie: Oh, sorry, before we jump on, Hotel Galactic has kick-started launching in July. (0:34:40) Jonnie: So if there’s something you’re interested in, keep your eyes peeled. (0:34:43) Kev: oh thank you that’s that’s a good call um I’m I’m I probably won’t I’m bad at (0:34:49) Kev: kickstarters but I encourage other people too but there you go next up I (0:34:57) Kev: look I’m surprised this name has not already been done but here we are we (0:35:03) Kev: have super farming boy and that is a super farming boy like I just looking at (0:35:13) Kev: here it’s a little guy who’s flying around and he’s farming while he flies (0:35:18) Kev: what Oh chain reactions and combos what okay quirky creatures there’s a lot (0:35:25) Kev: going on with this game it’s (0:35:27) Jonnie: yeah so it seems to be more action adventure like it’s farming as the basis for action (0:35:35) Jonnie: adventure like they don’t even use the word cozy in the description of their game so (0:35:39) Kev: yep (0:35:39) Jonnie: I don’t even know when we’re talking about it because I thought that was how we defined you (0:35:42) Jonnie: just do a search for cozy and that’s uh but no it seems like it’s using farming as the basis for (0:35:47) Jonnie: like a combat uh action adventure i’m trying to think of like exactly what it reminds me of (0:35:56) Jonnie: but I can’t quite place it. (0:35:58) Kev: So, I like visually it’s, this is gonna sound weird, but it reminds me of the Amazing World of Gumball, the main characters. (0:36:09) Jonnie: Yeah. Yeah. No, it does. I see. I see what you’re saying. (0:36:12) Kev: Or Cuphead, that’s another comparison maybe, obviously not the hand-drawn 2D animation, but it’s a similar sort of style. (0:36:21) Kev: It’s very, very cartoony. Everything has eyes, you know what, I take that back. (0:36:25) Kev: Like some of the like the house has eyes and moves around that feels (0:36:28) Kev: very cuphead esk yeah so it is colorful it is different I will say that right (0:36:35) Kev: because it like he’s harvesting crops but it’s very dynamic because there’s (0:36:41) Kev: patterns and like he pulls one out other ones pop out in a chain and it’s (0:36:48) Kev: interesting and there is sort of like enemies that you have to deal with and (0:36:54) Kev: and you have to work your way through the upgrades to rescue. (0:36:58) Kev: I am interested in this. It’s different. It’s very different from a lot of other farming games. I will say. (0:37:12) Kev: Yeah, that is a super farming game. We again just announced that we’ll be doing an early access- Wait, oh! Is that- Oh! Demo’s already out! You can get a demo right now! How nice. (0:37:24) Kev: But no release date, I don’t think. (0:37:28) Kev: Or a tentative release date. (0:37:30) Kev: But yeah, there you go. Check out Super Farming Boy. Props to them for getting to that name first. I’m surprised no one else did. (0:37:40) Kev: Alright, next up we have Everhome. Oh goodness. They’re not saying it, but this is more- (0:37:58) Kev: Ghibli plot. I’m just reading the description here. (0:38:02) Kev: Lily was spirited away to a mysterious island as her memories fade. Everyone seems to know her and her quest for her missing sister. It’s time to establish a homestead, meet your friendly Everfolks, then learn their secrets and solve the mystery of Everhome. (0:38:18) Kev: So, we have an isometric looking game. You’re managing chickens. You’re farming. (0:38:28) Kev: It’s one of those things where it looks like where you plant one thing but you go like 10 crops or whatever. There’s a forest that you wander through with some sort of combat magic spells or something. There’s a lot of fiery sparks going on. (0:38:46) Kev: It is a- I think the aesthetic is kind of nice. Just the isometric view. But they’re planning a release for 2024. Ooh, a demo is already out. (0:38:58) Kev: That is nice. Yeah, do you have any thoughts on this one, Johnny? Everhome? (0:39:04) Jonnie: not really like i’m still just like not I can’t quite see enough of this to like I don’t know (0:39:10) Jonnie: like it’s not doing anything that I haven’t seen elsewhere and like everything about it looks good (0:39:17) Jonnie: but in the context of all of the games that we’ve talked about today like i’m not sure (0:39:21) Jonnie: that this one has anything that feels that distinct about it so i’m just struggling (0:39:26) Kev: Yeah, no, that’s very fair, right? Like, I agree. I think it looks nice, but it, like you said, doesn’t have anything really sticking out, or, uh, just, you know, uh, making it, differentiating it from all the other ones. (0:39:39) Kev: It’s kind of the opposite of Super Farming Boy, in that sense, right? Where Super Farming Boy is wild, and, and very clearly what that game’s going for, but, um, but, uh, but yeah, there you go. (0:39:53) Kev: That was ever home again. There’s demo for that one as well (0:39:56) Kev: And I think we actually got through all the news. Do you have any other comments or concerns, Johnny or news items I made? (0:40:03) Kev: I think we actually got through all the news. Do you have any other comments or concerns, Johnny or news items I made? (0:40:13) Jonnie: I think it’s just like a ton of exciting stuff coming up, right? So like, um, I think the next (0:40:19) Jonnie: few months if you’re listening to a show like this, like, look around because there’s a lot (0:40:24) Jonnie: of good stuff coming out or there’s cool demos, like, so just try some of the stuff out, like, (0:40:28) Jonnie: you know, um, and let us know what you’re thinking about, like, whatever it is that you’re playing, (0:40:33) Jonnie: because we’re now kind of getting to the phase where there’s so much, um, that’s distinct that (0:40:38) Jonnie: there’s going to be some really good games that we can’t cover on the show, you know, like there’s (0:40:42) Jonnie: There’s plenty of games that we haven’t covered. (0:40:44) Jonnie: You know, I think about a game like Sun Haven, but fundamentally, right? (0:40:48) Jonnie: Like if you like Stardew and, you know, all of the other clones. (0:40:52) Jonnie: Like Sun Haven is another one of those, right? (0:40:54) Jonnie: You don’t need us covering it to tell you that. (0:40:56) Jonnie: But I think there’ll be some games that we will really wish that we were able to get to on the show that we may not be able to. (0:41:01) Jonnie: So just love to hear from you guys. (0:41:03) Jonnie: If you’re playing anything that you’re like, wow, this is amazing. (0:41:06) Jonnie: Like this worked out really well. (0:41:07) Jonnie: Like that sort of feedback can help us know what’s worth covering because there’s a lot coming out. (0:41:12) Kev: Yeah absolutely um it’s it’s fantastic right because like I (0:41:20) Kev: you know obviously we’ve we’re biased covering these games and listening into the show and (0:41:26) Kev: whatever but like there’s a lot of studio ghibli a lot of cozy or whatever but the ones that stand (0:41:31) Kev: out um they’re very very exciting right go-go town we got south field wattle knots lots of good stuff (0:41:39) Kev: Um, uh, but yeah, there you go. (0:41:42) Kev: with that, uh, I think we can, uh, we can call it an episode. (0:41:47) Kev: We got through the news. (0:41:48) Kev: Um, uh, if you, uh, Johnny, where could people find you on the internet if you want to be found? (0:41:56) Jonnie: uh no I don’t think I do want to be found uh as always like I i just like you know suggest (0:42:02) Jonnie: if you can um going to patreon.com/thpspod um support the show get access to the slack (0:42:10) Jonnie: come and talk to us about what what uh cozy games you’re playing um and how you’re enjoying them so (0:42:16) Jonnie: it’s a great way to engage you know like with everyone on the show and we’re mostly just in (0:42:17) Kev: Yes right and like you know obviously we we’re only one show week right and so we (0:42:19) Jonnie: and they’re talking nonsense about what if we… (0:42:28) Kev: can only cover X many games in a year right but talking about it on the slack (0:42:34) Kev: would probably incentivize or incur not incentivize encourage us to to pick up a (0:42:39) Kev: certain one more right like we’ve had people discuss games on there or bring (0:42:44) Kev: to our attention stuff, but anyways. (0:42:47) Kev: Um, yeah, there you go, that’s the, uh, also you get access to the Greenhouse, um, Al’s uh, uh, our premium, uh, podcast about stuff that’s not farming Cottagecore games, um, uh, Al and Cody did one on other games that were nuts that went covered last week, um, but, uh, uh, you can find me @koopaprize on Twitter if you wanna see my personal account, you can find me @koopaprize2 if you wanna see some of my art, or, you can find me @koopaprize2 if you wanna see some of my art. (0:43:17) Kev: You can find me @rainbowroadradio, a podcast I do with our mutual friend Alex, um, that’s @rainbowmariopod on Twitter, or @rainbowroadradio on most other places, uh, we talk about Mario games, uh, we just recorded an episode about Mario and Luigi, partners in times, uh, where Mario and Luigi team up with their baby selves, um, which, yeah, it’s as weird as it sounds, um, okay. (0:43:44) Kev: I’m just thinking about like, you know, thinking about (0:43:47) Kev: that concept now. That’d be really weird to carry your own baby self around. (0:43:52) Kev: But yeah, go find out how the Mario Bros handled that. (0:43:56) Kev: Anyways, you can find Al at the Scottbot on Twitter or mastodon.scot. (0:44:04) Kev: You can find the podcast at THSPod or harvestseason.club, our website, where we have all our links. (0:44:12) Kev: We have the transcripts. You can provide feedback. (0:44:14) Kev: Uh, you hit up the Patreon, as Johnny mentioned. (0:44:17) Kev: Patreon.com/thspod for all that good stuff. (0:44:20) Kev: Um, uh, thank you, Johnny, for being on. (0:44:24) Kev: Thank you, Al, for having me on. (0:44:26) Kev: And until next time, dear listeners, have a good harvest! (0:44:29) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (0:44:40) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (0:44:44) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (0:44:48) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed (0:44:54) Theme Tune: in this episode. (0:45:05) Kev: Alright there we go, I did it. (0:45:08) Kev: You can go die now, hahaha. (0:45:08) Jonnie: So I realised, when I went to go have a bomb, I obviously muted myself on Zoom, but my local recording, and it’s not that far, so I’m like “I need to warn Al.” (0:45:13) Kev: Yup, aww it’s sick, there’s, well there’s, we don’t have a greenhouse but we have that (0:45:22) Jonnie: After the auticular bit… (0:45:28) Kev: for patria, hahahaha. (0:45:30) Jonnie: Gross.

Codey and Aislinn talk about Botany Manor Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:05:28: What Have We Been Up To 00:09:24: News 00:47:09: Botany Manor 01:19:53: Outro Links Steam Farming Fest A New Leaf: Memories Early Access Spirit Of The Island Mobile Release Len’s Island Questing & Camera Orbiting Update Snacko Tool Upgrades Update Sun Haven 1.4 Update Disney Dreamlight Valley Upcoming Updates Slime Rancher 2 Upcoming Updates Research Story 0.8 Info Tales of the Shire Trailer Codey’s Instagram Aislinn’s Linktree Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:31) Codey: Hello and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. (0:00:35) Codey: My name is Codey, and we are here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (0:00:36) Aislinn: And my name is Aislinn. (0:00:41) Aislinn: Whoo! (0:00:42) Codey: Whoo! (0:00:43) Codey: Cute! (0:00:43) Aislinn: Cute! (0:00:44) Codey: We did it! (0:00:47) Aislinn: Yay! (0:00:48) Codey: So as always, transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website. (0:00:54) Codey: Today’s topic we are talking about Botany Manor, which is a super cute little game. (0:00:59) Aislinn: Mm-hmm (0:00:59) Codey: a game that Aislinn has played. (0:01:01) Codey: So that’s what we’re going to talk about for our main topic. (0:01:03) Aislinn: Mm-hmm (0:01:13) Codey: We also have a lot of news. (0:01:17) Codey: But before that, Aislinn, who are you? (0:01:20) Aislinn: Hi, I’m Aislinn. I am here and I’m happy to be here. I guess things that I do to go into that, (0:01:30) Aislinn: I stream on Twitch, Ace Trainer, AIS, not Ace, like AIS Trainer, and also me and my fiance, we have a podcast called Moo & Coo, where we just talk about literally anything and everything. (0:01:30) Codey: Yep. (0:01:31) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:33) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:50) Codey: Why is it moo and coo? (0:01:52) Aislinn: Because he– so he really likes cows. (0:01:54) Aislinn: He’s a big cow guy. (0:01:57) Aislinn: So I was just like– (0:01:57) Aislinn: we joked around trying to think about a name for our podcast. (0:02:01) Aislinn: So we knew he wanted to do a podcast for a while. (0:02:03) Aislinn: And I was like, well, obviously, you’re like the moo-er. (0:02:07) Aislinn: You moo. (0:02:07) Aislinn: And I was like, what rhymes with moo? (0:02:08) Codey: That makes a lot of sense as to why you put the Pigeon filter on your Snapchat all the time. (0:02:10) Aislinn: Coo. (0:02:11) Aislinn: And I like pigeons. (0:02:12) Aislinn: So I’m like, now I’m coo. (0:02:20) Aislinn: Oh, actually, I actually love that pre-moo and coo. (0:02:21) Codey: Oh, wow. (0:02:23) Aislinn: I’ve always loved that pigeon. (0:02:25) Aislinn: And I mean, I’m a New Yorker. (0:02:26) Codey: Okay. (0:02:26) Aislinn: So me and pigeons were like homies, you know? (0:02:27) Codey: Mm-hmm, big, big, big facts. (0:02:33) Codey: Um, yeah, so I guess like how I know Aislinn is (0:02:38) Codey: through It’s Super Effective, Surprise Surprise, that’s how we know the majority of our people. (0:02:42) Aislinn: Yep! (0:02:46) Aislinn: We love it. We stan. (0:02:47) Codey: Um, we stand. I think, was it like, I think I like joked in, for Pokemon Go Fest last year, (0:02:54) Codey: I joked something about how we should get cardboard cutouts and then you were like “bet.” (0:02:58) Aislinn: - Yep, yep. (0:02:59) Aislinn: Once I, like, when a challenge that’s like relatively accessible is put in front of me, (0:03:03) Aislinn: I’m just like, yeah, let’s do it. (0:03:06) Aislinn: Why not, right? (0:03:07) Aislinn: Why say no, we can do it? (0:03:08) Codey: We did. So Aislinn, uh, ‘cause, uh, Steve and Greg, so two of the hosts of It’s Super Effective, (0:03:08) Aislinn: And we pulled it off and it was wonderful. (0:03:17) Codey: were unable to come to Pokemon Go Fest New York City last year, but a bunch of us did come, (0:03:22) Codey: and we, Aislinn printed out these cardboard cutouts of both of them, and then we were literally carrying them around all day, and like we had everyone sign them, so like everyone that it is fans of the pod. (0:03:31) Aislinn: - Oh gosh. (0:03:38) Codey: You know, friends of Greg and Steve, like we all signed the back of them and then you sent them to them, right? (0:03:43) Aislinn: Yeah, they I don’t I actually I have to still ask Steve and Greg like what happened with them cuz I sent them and I have no idea what happened after that I (0:03:50) Codey: someone in the mail is just like, “what the heck?” (0:03:56) Aislinn: Mean when I got it I was like what the heck it’s so tall and (0:04:00) Aislinn: Then having in my home was a whole different story. I’m just like this is not okay [laughing] (0:04:04) Codey: This is really weird. Yeah, for sure. (0:04:06) Codey: But that was, it was just so much fun to, because you’re a, you know, a New Yorker, and so you’re in that area. (0:04:12) Codey: It was just so much fun to like get to hang out with you, and you like let us around. (0:04:16) Aislinn: Yeah, oh my gosh, yes we are, yay, I’m so excited about that, don’t have to worry about carrying that across the freaking bridge, in the wind. (0:04:16) Codey: around. You showed us that really cool Korean barbecue place. (0:04:20) Codey: Um, so good. And we’re doing it again this year. Yeah. Except this time, we don’t have to cut them out and cardboard. They’re gonna be there. Yeah. (0:04:36) Codey: That was (0:04:39) Codey: yeah, it shout out to tone and oh my gosh, who was the other person that was carrying them? Vincent tone and Vincent for carrying them, like once the groups met up. (0:04:44) Aislinn: Vincent? (laughs) (0:04:46) Aislinn: Yeah. (laughs) (0:04:50) Codey: So that Aislinn didn’t have to carry them anymore because yeah they were they were blowing everywhere. (0:04:52) Aislinn: I was so tired. (laughs) (0:04:58) Codey: Oh my gosh so yeah that’s how we know each other and we just you know talk on snapchat and every day and didn’t share funny stories and stuff and so when I found out we were both playing botany manner I was like oh my gosh we need to talk about it. (0:05:04) Aislinn: - Yes! (0:05:11) Aislinn: perfect wow 251 streak on snapchat let’s go yeah I’m gonna go [laughing] (0:05:17) Codey: Oh we do? Oh my gosh, proud of us! (0:05:20) Codey: Look at us! That’s just about Pokemon Go Fest, isn’t it? (0:05:25) Aislinn: Just about. (0:05:27) Codey: Oh my gosh. (0:05:28) Codey: Okay, well, so that’s who you are and how we know you. (0:05:31) Codey: But what have you been up to? Like what in your life, like recently, what have you been playing? (0:05:36) Codey: Have you been doing anything super fun? (0:05:39) Aislinn: As of recently, I have been playing a lot more indie games. (0:05:44) Aislinn: I mean I’m still doing like, first stream, I’m still doing a Pokémon Crystal playthrough, (0:05:49) Aislinn: but like I’ve been playing a lot of indie games ever since PAX because I had the opportunity to meet some developers of some games at different companies and whatnot, and it’s been such a wonderful pleasure. (0:06:01) Aislinn: So that’s how I like got the opportunity to play Botany Manor, and I played like a little while ago unpacking and (0:06:09) Aislinn: another game that I’m excited about is Kamayaru, so like all these games that I never really played before, I’m now finally starting to play beyond just Pokemon. And even on the side too, I’m playing Spiderman, which is not anything indie, cozy, anything of that sort. (0:06:27) Aislinn: But it’s been fun to have the balance of the chaos and the cozy indie vibes as well. So it’s primarily what I’ve been up to is just kind of playing. And I think I’ve been playing (0:06:39) Aislinn: more like cozy indie games, also just to be less stressed because work life in general is a lot of stress recently. (0:06:48) Codey: yeah it do me that way um so you need that cozy cozy in your life (0:06:49) Aislinn: Exactly, but what about you? (0:06:58) Codey: well i’m right there with you I need that cozy cozy so I am playing so I most days um every day I play both my um coloring app so I have a cross stitch world is this like app that my grandma got me into years ago and then I deleted it on my app my phone because I was like this is taking way way too much in my life. (0:07:18) Codey: But now I’m using it again, but this time, like as a vehicle to help me overcome ADHD, like in social situations and like keeping me, keeping the part of my brain that wanders, like distracted so that I can focus on what’s going on in front of me. (0:07:24) Aislinn: Hmm. Yeah. (0:07:34) Codey: Um, so I play that every day. (0:07:37) Codey: And then I also have been playing Disney Dreamlight Valley every day. (0:07:40) Codey: I’ve been trying, I finished the main game and now I’m trying to like finish all the questlines for all of the characters and (0:07:48) Codey: level up all the characters to level 10 and then (0:07:52) Codey: Like just kind of have everything. I’m I also started thinking about (0:07:58) Codey: creating rooms in my house for each of the characters like having it having there be like a little mermaid room and (0:08:04) Aislinn: That’s so cute! (0:08:05) Codey: and a You know Beauty and the Beast room because you can buy like all of this furniture and stuff that is from those (0:08:11) Codey: realms I think is what this or those products and so (0:08:16) Codey: I was thinking about (0:08:18) Codey: where I just go into an empty room and just like filter all of my (0:08:23) Codey: Furniture to be like just the little room made furniture and then just put it all in that room and like (0:08:28) Codey: Make it work like make it an aesthetic room (0:08:32) Codey: Haven’t started doing that yet. Don’t know if that’s gonna continue but (0:08:37) Codey: Super fun and then always and forever working on my Fox my Minecraft Fox (0:08:43) Codey: Building up my little my little man (0:08:48) Codey: That’s playing with me. It has built like a really cool mountain on the back of it (0:08:53) Codey: The majority of my life right now is field work though, and actually today right after we record I’m gonna go grab a bunch of the traps that I put out a week ago and see what I caught. Oh (0:09:03) Aislinn: Mm hmm. I’m so excited. Can I can I get a Snapchat insight later? (0:09:08) Codey: You’re you’re going to (0:09:08) Aislinn: Because I just I am so fascinated with what you do. So sick. Awesome. (0:09:10) Codey: hunter hunter percent (0:09:14) Codey: Yeah, 100% and then yeah, so (0:09:18) Codey: and then other than that I do a lot of specimen work, so that’s what we’ve been up to. (0:09:20) Aislinn: Cool! (0:09:20) Aislinn: Whoo! (0:09:24) Codey: Okay, so we will jump into this pile of news. My goodness. First and foremost, (0:09:31) Codey: right off the top, Steam Farming Fest. So Steam has this farming like, it’s not a bundle, but it’s like a bunch of different games that are farming focused are crazy on sale right now. (0:09:48) Codey: Um, like at least some of them are 20 some of like one of this I’m looking right here, (0:09:52) Codey: this rise of industry game is 85% off. So it’s only $4.50 instead of 30 bucks. Crazy. Oh, wait, (0:09:55) Aislinn: Oh my gosh. (0:10:00) Codey: 20. Nope, that’s 30 bucks. I was like, it’s 20. Um, so yeah, I mean, there’s just so many games on this. (0:10:08) Aislinn: There is– I got an email from Steam being like, (0:10:12) Aislinn: all of these games that you are on your wish list are on sale. (0:10:15) Aislinn: And I was like, oh my gosh, what’s happening? (0:10:17) Aislinn: Oh, yeah, the Steam Farming Fest. (0:10:20) Codey: Yeah, there’s a lot that we’ve talked about on the pod before and then other ones that I’m like kind of interested in. (0:10:26) Codey: So one that we’ve talked about before is Rusty’s retirement. (0:10:30) Codey: So okay, let me dive it back. (0:10:33) Codey: If you go to the Farming Fest like page and then say browse games, it like comes up with different types. (0:10:41) Codey: So there’s like the automation and then the dating sim and then there’s just like regular ones. (0:10:46) Codey: So the automation one, Rusty’s retirement, we’ve already talked about Timberborne. (0:10:50) Codey: You’ve never seen this game before, but you are beavers. (0:10:53) Aislinn: that I just I just hovered over it that is so cute that is so cute (0:10:58) Codey: So add that here, actually, and I just like add it to my wishlist, like, right? (0:11:02) Aislinn: just do it right now (0:11:03) Codey: Bam. (0:11:04) Codey: Right. (0:11:05) Codey: Oh, I have to sign in. (0:11:06) Codey: Okay. (0:11:07) Codey: Oh, I gotta do something for my email address. (0:11:11) Aislinn: i’m just leaving the tab open on my uh on my computer for now and I was like i’ll figure it out later (0:11:16) Codey: Oh, yeah, I just I just jumped on to my email and it was like it I see the (0:11:22) Codey: Bunch of games you want are on sale (0:11:23) Aislinn: Yep, yep, there’s that email. (0:11:26) Codey: I’m like, oh leave me alone (0:11:30) Codey: See and it’s funny cuz like I just got paid today. So of course they’re like they’re like, hey (0:11:33) Aislinn: Sale time! (0:11:36) Codey: Okay, so there’s that I’m trying to see which other ones like we’ve talked about before (0:11:42) Codey: Some of these are so cute. Like what is plantabi? Little garden. (0:11:44) Aislinn: I saw that APCO was on sale and they just came out with the new the final DLC. (0:11:46) Codey: Yeah, sure did. Yeah, we talked about that in the last pod. So yeah, great time to jump into that. It now has the final (0:11:52) Aislinn: I have not played it yet, but I did see that. (0:12:04) Codey: update quote unquote, I feel like L is gonna, they’re gonna find something to do. Other things that we talked about on pod. Gosh, all of these. (0:12:15) Codey: uh I found (0:12:16) Codey: my time at sandrok, what the heck is booty farm? (0:12:34) Aislinn: Wait, where is that? (0:12:39) Aislinn: I don’t even know where that is. (0:12:41) Aislinn: I was just going to ask, what is Anna, my friends, and why is that a farming sim? (0:12:45) Aislinn: And why is it like, why is it a farming sim dating sim? (0:12:46) Codey: So some of these are just some of these are coming soon, but there’s booty farm has another one too. Oh my goodness Okay, I’m moving on other popular ones include (0:12:48) Aislinn: It’s just called Anna, my friends. (0:12:58) Codey: Stardew Valley Manor Lords (0:13:01) Codey: Farming simulator 22 light your frontier (0:13:04) Codey: Sun Haven Fay farm paleo pines. I don’t know what farm manager world There was another one that I saw I’m trying to go until I find the one that I saw that I was like I really want this one Rune factory 5 travelers rest (0:13:16) Codey: Story of seasons of wonderful life harvest moon the winds of winds of Anthos (0:13:21) Codey: Ooblets (0:13:22) Aislinn: I was gonna say, did you say Ooblets? (0:13:24) Aislinn: Cause that’s another game that I’m interested in. (0:13:25) Aislinn: That’s on sale and I’m like, do I just buy maybe? (0:13:29) Codey: 40% now’s the time pull the trigger (0:13:30) Aislinn: It’s a good sale. (0:13:33) Codey: Harvest Ella. Oh, I guess my time at Sandrock is not on sale. Why is it in this list? (0:13:38) Codey: Don’t get it if I don’t know what garden life a cozy simulator is, but it looks great. We’re adding that to my wish list Um… (0:13:46) Aislinn: This is just a wishless session right now. (0:13:47) Codey: Snacko, which we will talk about later. (0:13:51) Codey: Sakuna. I don’t know what cat tails is. (0:13:54) Codey: Oh my gosh, it’s like the warrior cats. (0:13:56) Codey: Where’s the one that I see? (0:13:57) Aislinn: there’s cat god ranch coming soon what is that I don’t know if you like cats as cat god ranch (0:14:04) Codey: Weed Shop 3. (0:14:08) Codey: Roots of Pacha. Where’s the cute one? (0:14:10) Codey: Littlewood, Wildmender, Graveyard Keeper. (0:14:13) Codey: These are all ones we’ve talked about. (0:14:16) Codey: There was one that I saw- oh, here it is. (0:14:19) Codey: Bun House. (0:14:20) Aislinn: BUN-house? I’m gonna actually google that one. What is BUN-house? (0:14:22) Codey: I had never seen this game before. (0:14:25) Codey: It came out October 19th, 2021. (0:14:28) Codey: Bun House is a cute, simple, bunny-filled game focused on growing plants and managing a greenhouse with fellow buns. (0:14:30) Aislinn: Oh. That’s so cute. (0:14:34) Codey: Take care of your leafy plant buddies by balancing the amount of water and light they get. (0:14:38) Codey: Play with friends and upgrade your greenhouse for wholesome, relaxing fun. (0:14:42) Codey: You are a bunny and you have a greenhouse. (0:14:46) Codey: You are a bird and you are delivering something to you. (0:14:49) Codey: I’m going to stop because I’m going to keep spending money. (0:14:52) Codey: I don’t have if I keep talking about it. (0:14:55) Codey: But definitely take a look. (0:14:58) Codey: If you have been interested in any of those games that we’ve talked about on the pod before, (0:15:02) Codey: they are likely on sale right now. (0:15:04) Aislinn: There’s a lot of good stuff on sale right now. Looks really cool. (0:15:11) Codey: Next up, A New Leaf Memories. (0:15:14) Codey: Uh, I don’t know if you’ve ever talked about- (0:15:17) Codey: I don’t- I don’t like that name. (0:15:19) Aislinn: You just don’t like it? (0:15:21) Codey: I don’t like it. Because I- (0:15:24) Aislinn: What did it do to you? (0:15:26) Codey: So I bought a new leaf and I was like gasp “New Animal Crossing game?” (0:15:31) Codey: It’s not- it’s not a new Animal Crossing game, you guys. (0:15:31) Aislinn: You know, that’s fair. (0:15:34) Codey: Um, so the early access for a new leaf memories is out now. (0:15:37) Codey: Quote, uh, the gameplay features, quote, (0:15:40) Codey: “Enjoy a range of exciting gameplay mechanics and features like building up a farm with 29 different crops, (0:15:46) Codey: bring 27 types of animals, choose from 21 pets to adopt, craft new furniture to put in your home, catch 4 types of fish.” (0:15:51) Codey: What? Why only 4? (0:15:52) Aislinn: Four. Why only four? (0:15:54) Codey: Cook- Cook 25 recipes! (0:15:57) Codey: “Mine, explore 8 main areas, and even drive around in a cute little vehicle, or take a ride in a floating bus. (0:16:02) Codey: While early access marks a major step forward, it’s important to note that our development journey is far from over.” (0:16:07) Codey: So, this is basically them, like, opening up to try and start pro- like, (0:16:11) Codey: like, ironing out the kinks of their bugs, of any bugs that you might encounter. (0:16:16) Codey: Um, why only four? (0:16:18) Aislinn: I don’t know. But hey, they’ve got 27 types of animals and 21 pets. So if you do the math, (0:16:25) Aislinn: I’m not doing the math. I’m not good at math. You’ve got more pets and animals than fish. (0:16:31) Codey: Also, the pets, so this is my issue, Coral Island burned me because you can only have one pet. (0:16:31) Aislinn: Take that as you will. Thank you. (0:16:42) Codey: So in Coral Island, you can only have one. (0:16:45) Codey: I got the one dog that looks like my dog because I was like, “Oh my gosh, I need to have my dog in the game.” (0:16:51) Codey: But then there was also a bearded dragon, and I went back to go get the bearded dragon and you can only have one pet. (0:16:55) Aislinn: What the heck oh (0:16:56) Codey: And I was like, “What the heck?” (0:16:58) Codey: ‘Cause I also have a beard dragon in my life. (0:17:00) Aislinn: Wait you do oh my gosh, I love (0:17:01) Codey: I do. I’ll send you a snap. (0:17:05) Codey: And listeners, I’ll post a picture of her in Discord or Slack. (0:17:11) Codey: So yeah, if you, I mean, if you’ve looked at a new leaf memories, (0:17:15) Codey: and you’ve been interested in it before Early Access is now available, (0:17:20) Codey: and you can check it out. (0:17:23) Codey: Spirit of the Island. (0:17:25) Codey: The pages for this game are now up on the Play Store and the Apple App Store. (0:17:31) Codey: It is $4.99, and it does support Crossplay. (0:17:36) Codey: And I did open this in the App Store so I could read it. (0:17:39) Codey: Oh, of course the App Store was like, “Oh, you want me to refresh? (0:17:44) Codey: I will refresh for you.” (0:17:46) Codey: Also, X is, gosh, what is it called? (0:17:52) Codey: When they promote it, it’s promoted up at the top of the App Store. (0:17:59) Codey: And I’m like, “No, get out of here.” (0:18:01) Codey: Okay. Spirit of the Island. It’s expected. (0:18:06) Codey: Oh, I love how it says coming soon. Expected, July 16th, 2024. (0:18:10) Aislinn: Oh, no, not the expected. (0:18:12) Codey: The word expected is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Okay. (0:18:13) Aislinn: Awwww. (0:18:16) Aislinn: Awwww. (0:18:17) Aislinn: I mean, I get it. It’s tough. (0:18:19) Codey: Okay, do be that way. (0:18:21) Codey: Quote, “There’s an old tradition running in your homeland. (0:18:24) Codey: To become an adult and complete the coming-of-age ritual, (0:18:26) Codey: you must go on a journey of discovery. (0:18:28) Codey: begins on a distant land, deep in a tropical archipelago. (0:18:31) Codey: what was once a prosperous tourist destination is now a shade of its former glory and it’s your job to bring it back to life. (0:18:37) Codey: explore the archipelago, meet the locals, and lend them a hand to restore the tourist paradise while you try to uncover the mysteries of your past. (0:18:44) Aislinn: But what if I don’t wanna become an adult? (0:18:46) Codey: also like… no no I mean fair like fair but also like this tourist village is just dying and… (0:18:50) Aislinn: Sorry, I’m just being silly. (0:19:00) Aislinn: That’s that’s everyone’s path to adulthood. You all have your own small village that was a tourist destination that now you have to make it a tourist destination again. Everyone has their own journey. (0:19:02) Codey: a child just like shows up and single-handedly saves the village? excuse me? (0:19:18) Codey: I… today I learned I’m still a child. (0:19:23) Aislinn: Me too. I have done nothing to contribute to- (0:19:25) Codey: I have saved no one. I have done nothing. (0:19:30) Aislinn: society therefore I am child. (0:19:33) Codey: I am child. I have not single-handedly changed anything. (0:19:38) Codey: Okay, well that’s Spirit of the Island coming, um, releasing on the 16th of July, uh, as a mobile game. Uh, I might, I might play it. It’s only five bucks. (0:19:47) Aislinn: It looks cute as a mobile game. I will say like I actually like I like the aesthetics of it for a mobile game (0:19:50) Codey: Mm-hm, yeah, maybe by July I will be sick of cross stitch world, I have doubts. (0:20:01) Codey: Lens Island has their questing and camera orbiting update out now. (0:20:09) Codey: So this basically adds some questing features like some short, (0:20:13) Codey: some small quests of like starting out and doing things. (0:20:17) Codey: Previously, I just kind of like dropped– (0:20:18) Codey: you in the world and you figured stuff out which is chill but also I like completing quests and getting like a little gold star whenever I finish the smallest of tasks. I’m not gonna complain. Also the camera orbiting is kind of cool so like you can just 100% 360 like orbit around your person now. I guess not 360 but like you can orbit around your person now and like that’s cool. Mm-hmm and then in– (0:20:40) Aislinn: Yeah, that those those seem like nice quality of life updates for sure (0:20:49) Codey: in the update Julian, one of the developers or the developer of Lens Island said– I just loved this– “We have been very hard at work to get this out. (0:20:59) Codey: This is the first of several big updates in the pipeline over the next few months. (0:21:02) Codey: We are releasing this at 3 a.m. Australian time so I’ll probably pass out after writing this POS. Just kidding but I am very tired and we will need some rest before tackling the first patch. So just keep that in the mind of the next or two, don’t forget this update was crafted from all (0:21:18) Codey: of your feedback and we can continue to balance and alter the camera and questing if needed. I’d also love to get some more ideas on quests too. I just love how like this game is so like community the community is really helping to like develop it and not like develop ideas and be like, Oh, (0:21:34) Aislinn: Yeah. (0:21:36) Codey: but what about this? What about this? And like, even when they do give this update, these updates, like the questing and camera updates, he’s like, I still want more. Like if you still have more stuff, like let me know. (0:21:46) Aislinn: Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s really really cool to have a developer so involved with the community itself. (0:21:54) Aislinn: I have not, but especially knowing that the developer is interested, that is really cool to see, (0:22:00) Aislinn: and the game itself looking at the visuals is really nice. (0:22:02) Codey: Yeah, so we heard about it on the pod forever ago and then I started playing it. (0:22:11) Codey: This is my weekly “oh, I want to jump back into Len’s Island” because yeah, here it is. (0:22:17) Codey: I want to jump back into Len’s Island, you guys. (0:22:20) Aislinn: It looks really good. (0:22:21) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:22:22) Codey: It is. (0:22:22) Aislinn: It looks really, really good. (0:22:23) Codey: It is. (0:22:24) Codey: Okay, so next up is Snacko. (0:22:30) Codey: favorite little cute (0:22:32) Codey: cato. The 0.9.3 tool upgrade update is out now. So this update allows you to use a new crafting station called the jewelry station or jewelry table. I can’t remember. But you use that table and add gems to your tools. And the gems do different things. So like if you add, you know, a diamond or something, it’ll boost your your pickaxe in a different way than adding like a ruby would. And there’s eight different gems. And that’s just like, I love that. I love when a game allows you it’s not just like, oh, get the magical upgrade that does the thing like it actually kind of like takes your feedback and you’re like, I want more range on it or like, oh, I’m already pretty good at getting the, you know, the fish line out there. I don’t need that, but I want it to be more stable, you know, something like that. Like, I think that’s cool. And maybe eventually you’ll be able to add different facets so that you can just have a completely gem studded fishing pole that just has all the buffs on it. Very cute. (0:23:34) Aislinn: - Mm-hmm. (0:23:52) Aislinn: Yeah, very cute game. I remember I saw this game at PAX and I wanted to play the demo, but I got stuck at, um, ‘cause at the same booth, I got stuck at Kamayaru for so long that I had to walk away in general. (0:24:03) Codey: Mmm-hmm. (0:24:08) Aislinn: But hey, it’s on sale right now. I might just grab it anyways ‘cause… Cute cat. And cozy game. And it looks genuinely really good. (0:24:10) Codey: Mmm-hmm. (0:24:12) Codey: Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm. (0:24:15) Codey: Mmm-hmm. (0:24:16) Aislinn: I do wanna play- Is there a demo for it? (0:24:19) Codey: Mmm-hmm. There is. (0:24:20) Aislinn: Okay, so I do wanna do that at least. (0:24:22) Codey: And I believe that we had a pod episode on it with the developer, so if you want to go back and listen to that. (0:24:28) Aislinn: I absolutely will, actually. (0:24:30) Codey: Um, if not… (0:24:34) Codey: Sun Haven! (0:24:41) Codey: Sun Haven! (0:24:42) Codey: So, uh, 1.4 patch update is coming out soon for Sun Haven. (0:24:46) Codey: It’s currently in beta, and the 1.4 update is currently in beta, (0:24:50) Codey: but it will come to full version when it’s stable on the public beta environment or PDE. (0:24:57) Codey: So this is the biggest update ever. (0:24:59) Codey: This gives so many so much content and so many bug fixes and stuff. (0:25:03) Codey: There’s a new area to explore called the Brine Stone Deeps. (0:25:20) Codey: You can now have kids as well. (0:25:22) Codey: There’s something called the Black Market. (0:25:22) Aislinn: Oh. Oh? (0:25:25) Codey: Two new romanceables. (0:25:28) Codey: And there’s other stuff too. (0:25:31) Codey: There’s other things as well. (0:25:33) Codey: There’s just so much that they’ve added in this update, and so if you’ve played Sunhaven and you ran out of stuff to do, baby get back in there, because dang. (0:25:46) Aislinn: And if you haven’t, it’s on sale. (0:25:46) Codey: There is. (0:25:48) Codey: Yeah, it is also… wouldn’t you know it? It’s 30% off. (0:25:58) Codey: Um, so yeah, I have not played this and… (0:26:03) Codey: I have other stuff to do. (0:26:05) Codey: But, um, oh, and Al also, um, laments. (0:26:09) Codey: “Is the Switch version ever coming?” (0:26:10) Aislinn: That is a big mood, that is a big, big mood. (0:26:13) Codey: That is a mood. (0:26:16) Codey: Okay, I am super excited about this next one. (0:26:19) Codey: Disney Dreamlight Valley. I’ve been playing this thing every single day. (0:26:22) Codey: And every single day, I’m like, oh no, I am reaching the end. (0:26:25) Codey: I am reaching the point where I’m not gonna have any more content to do. (0:26:28) Codey: What am I gonna do with my life when I can’t play DDV every single day? (0:26:33) Codey: All my favorites, and make a gross noise whenever my non-favorites, uh, walk by me. (0:26:41) Codey: Um, you best believe they have a new update coming out, a free update, (0:26:45) Codey: as well as they’ve explained some of the things that are happening in the second part of A Rift in Time. (0:26:51) Codey: So, they released a new developer update, uh, video. (0:26:55) Codey: Let me pause here. Have you, have you played this? (0:26:58) Aislinn: No, actually, but it’s on my list of games that I really don’t want to try and play. (0:27:04) Aislinn: So I’m very excited to hear about this in general through you as someone that is very passionate about it. (0:27:06) Codey: Mm-hmm. Oh (0:27:08) Aislinn: So I’m excited to hear your passion, to motivate myself to reprioritize games better. (0:27:13) Codey: Well, so the the best priority of this game is that it’s free (0:27:19) Codey: Completely free to play and then they just keep adding more stuff that is free as part of the daily like playing it every single Day thing like you get the in-game currency I think they call them like moon stones or whatever you get them and like then you can use them to do this (0:27:36) Codey: stuff where you can get access to more content like more skins or furniture items or (0:27:45) Codey: like quest lines and things like that and (0:27:48) Codey: I have so much about in-game currency like just from playing every day in general like it adds up real fast. So (0:27:55) Aislinn: But even if you don’t play every day, it’s still like a pretty good free game (0:28:00) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, and it doesn’t it doesn’t like (0:28:00) Aislinn: Cool. Awesome. That’s all I need to know (0:28:05) Codey: punish you for not playing. (0:28:06) Codey: every day. So like, if you have a while where you’re not able to play it, that’s okay. Um, and you can just dip in and dip out. But if you dip in, you’re in, um, you’ve been warned. Uh, so, uh, they have the next part of the DLC, um, and this free update called thrills and frills, uh, coming out on May 1st. You heard that right people, as As you are listening to this podcast, this stuff is available to play. (0:28:07) Aislinn: Awesome (0:28:36) Aislinn: Whoo (0:28:37) Codey: So there’s also a new star path, um, which is called a day at Disney and it’s, it lets you like bring in rides, like the tea cups ride and all of this other stuff. (0:28:50) Aislinn: for real? Ooh! (0:28:52) Codey: Yeah. (0:28:52) Codey: Like you can build, you can, I’m assuming that they’re just going to be furniture items that you can like either purchase or build or I don’t, I don’t know. (0:29:00) Codey: And then you just put them in your park and then you can ride the teacups or ride the whatever. (0:29:05) Codey: and I think, like, some of the– (0:29:07) Codey: other villagers will probably jump on them too. (0:29:09) Aislinn: That’s so cool I’ve never been able to ride the teacups because it makes me so nauseous (0:29:10) Codey: Super crazy. (0:29:15) Aislinn: So I could play it and I could I could sit in it in a game and ride it in the game [laughs] (0:29:19) Codey: Yeah, you sure do and you can take pictures like using the camera they actually showed that with the developer update (0:29:27) Codey: That like you can jump in and take a picture and it like shows you spinning around (0:29:32) Codey: I’ve never been to Disneyland and I’ve hit the point in my life where I don’t like children And I will probably therefore never go to Disneyland (0:29:43) Codey: Unless there’s like a an adult only day in which case it’ll probably be full (0:29:49) Codey: And I’m not gonna spend the money on that (0:29:52) Codey: So I’m excited to kind of get a taste of Disney (0:29:57) Codey: Disneyland Disney World whatever Disney parks in this game also more content never upset about that as part of the free update (0:30:05) Codey: thrills and frills (0:30:08) Codey: So I guess the thrills is the star path and frills is Daisy duck finally (0:30:15) Codey: So poor (0:30:17) Codey: poor Donald (0:30:19) Codey: Has seen Mickey and Minnie just like (0:30:22) Aislinn: The fact that this has not been introduced and this game has been out for what feels like a very long time, I just kind of assume that Daisy Duck was in the game. (0:30:24) Codey: Living their life and he’s just been like, where’s Daisy? (0:30:38) Codey: They yeah, go for it. Mm hmm. So they like hinted at her a couple times. So how they did so when you first start there’s Mickey Merlin goofy and think that’s it Donald’s not even you have to like rescue Donald from something and then you get him. (0:30:38) Aislinn: And the fact that she’s not is confusing. (0:30:54) Codey: But then like Mickey starts like seeing what seems to be Minnie’s ghost. And then you end up like pulling her out of the in between area. It’s there’s a lot. (0:31:01) Aislinn: Oh? (laughs) (0:31:08) Codey: And the other thing about this story is there’s a lot to the story that explains, I don’t want to spoil it for you, you need to play it. So, so, so there’s a couple times where you see what seems to be Daisy duck, like, you’ll see like maybe her little ghost or you find her ribbon I think at one point, or her bow. And so you know that she’s going to be added eventually and like Donald is just kind of like man I wish she was here and it’s just like (0:31:17) Aislinn: Fair enough, fair enough. (0:31:24) Aislinn: Mm hmm. (0:31:38) Aislinn: Awwww. (0:31:38) Codey: Oh, she’s not here yet. Um, so yeah, this will be I think probably I’m assuming what’s going to happen is she’s going to start showing up kind of like Minnie did and then Donald’s going to lose his mind and then you’re going to help him get his little lady. And so when she jumps in, she starts she has a new shop called the boutique, and in it you can design your own clothing, dude the clothing in this game is immaculate. (0:32:06) Codey: The vibes are excellent. (0:32:08) Codey: They did not like skip on anything. Is that the right, they didn’t like, skimp, skimp, skimp. (0:32:12) Aislinn: I think, I think so? (0:32:15) Aislinn: Uh, oh, yeah. Wow. I’m looking at like the trailer on, uh, on Twitter, X, whatever. (0:32:18) Codey: Yeah. (0:32:22) Aislinn: That dress is fire. (0:32:24) Codey: Dude, just in general, all of the dresses like I was playing the other day my boyfriend was here and I changed from like one dress to another and he was like, wow, that dress is really cool. I was like, I know, right, like, and I showed him there’s a bunch of different dresses that you can get and they’re all super super cute. And they make me feel like a princess. (0:32:44) Codey: But there’s also like, like a whole like pirate outfit that makes me feel it’s just so it’s so much fun. So with Daisy, you’re going to be able to do these weekly design challenges and have a whole new quest line to build the boutique super cool. (0:33:00) Codey: You can also in that free update use your tools and multiplayer Valley visits. So if you have friends that have DTV as well. (0:33:08) Codey: And you want to go visit their Valley. I’ve not done this yet because I don’t really know anyone you should play so I can visit your Valley. (0:33:15) Aislinn: You got it. (0:33:16) Codey: But then, so then like I can run around with you and help you collect things on your island or Valley. (0:33:22) Aislinn: That way I can speedrun the game. (0:33:24) Codey: Yeah, I can help you speak. I wonder, that’s actually really interesting because I wonder like, like I have all the updated things. So I wonder if I could just like, (0:33:38) Codey: all the stuff for you. Oh, no, actually, now that I think about it, you don’t get the Valley visit, like the thing that lets you visit valleys until until you’ve unlocked the last area. (0:33:51) Aislinn: Oh, so no speedrunning. (0:33:52) Codey: No, speed running. That’s okay, though. So a rift in time act two. So this is I don’t remember what it’s called, but it’s the second part of the paid DLC is also launching. (0:34:08) Codey: As you hear this, it is launched. And so I thought it said something about how there was going to be a certain lucky character released or whatever in the ruins. And I was like, it’s going to be Milo thatch. (0:34:18) Codey: I don’t know why Milo would be considered lucky other than the fact that he seems like a clumsy guy and somehow is not dead. (0:34:28) Codey: I don’t know. But it ends up being Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which makes sense. I wanted it to be my I know Milo thatch. (0:34:38) Codey: So yeah, it’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. So this is like one of the first film noir like Disney characters also knew Mickey. And he has this really like film noir like feel to him like he’s in black and white. (0:34:56) Codey: And apparently, like as he goes through the island through eternity isle if he like touches anything, it also becomes black and white. Yeah, so you can kind of see like (0:35:08) Codey: as he, you know, interacts with the environment, the environment changes a little bit. And so can make the cow was really excited that it could make the capybara black and white. (0:35:18) Aislinn: Oh, that’s cute. (0:35:20) Codey: Yeah, I love this game. Okay. (0:35:26) Codey: I just want to go play it but right now but I have to go do I have to go outside. (0:35:30) Aislinn: Hey, but after. (0:35:32) Aislinn: After it’s brain turn off and play time. (0:35:32) Codey: After you bet, because I gotta, it will be brain turn off in playtime you’re right (0:35:38) Codey: Uh, okay. (0:35:39) Codey: Three more news pieces to get through slime rancher two, um, next release coming. (0:35:45) Codey: Oh, so there’s a new, um, like update and it’s coming at the end of spring 2024. (0:35:50) Codey: They actually said that it was slated, like it was supposed to come out in the summer. (0:35:53) Codey: So it’s coming out early, just super cool. (0:35:56) Codey: And this adds, uh, the pronto Mart, which is a place where you can buy things that help you in adventuring and then the conservatory expansion. (0:36:05) Codey: Um, which I don’t remember what that does, but it sure does something. (0:36:08) Codey: Um, and the next, next release is going to come in the fall. (0:36:13) Codey: I believe this is on, nope, not on sale. (0:36:18) Codey: Just part of the, they’re just highlighting it. (0:36:23) Aislinn: I guess because actually I don’t know why is it not on sale it’s featured but why is it why would it not be on sale? (0:36:30) Codey: Y’all riot. Don’t. (0:36:33) Codey: I think maybe it’s because they have an update coming out. (0:36:36) Codey: So like they’re it’s showcasing that, but it’s not on sale. (0:36:39) Codey: Throw it on your wish list, people, if you’re interested in it. (0:36:43) Codey: Oh, excuse me. I need to have more coffee. (0:36:46) Aislinn: Gotta sip that donkeys. (0:36:49) Codey: Got to sip the donkeys. (0:36:51) Codey: I got people, people not on the East Coast are like. (0:36:55) Codey: What the heck? (0:36:57) Aislinn: There’s this don’t get on the west coast somewhere. (0:37:00) Codey: There’s a few, but also that we have an international audience too. (0:37:04) Codey: So Dunkin’ Donuts is an East Coast coffee place. (0:37:05) Aislinn: This is Dunkin’ in Spain! (0:37:09) Codey: Dunkin’ Donuts, but it’s like shortened to Dunkies, or my favorite is the Dunkies. (0:37:15) Codey: [LAUGH] I don’t know why I love the Dunkies so much. (0:37:20) Codey: So I have a mocha macchiato that I will actually sip from in this very moment. (0:37:23) Aislinn: Ooh, sounds good. (0:37:27) Codey: the ASMR of the ice clinking. (0:37:30) Codey: Okay, last two things. Oh my gosh. These are so exciting. Research Story. This is a game that I covered on a pod with Bev. So Research Story has a point 0.8 coming out in early May. In this you get something called the dormancy barn. So this this is another game where the developer is really working with the community and like taking their feedback and then incorporating it in a really (0:38:00) Codey: so they added this thing called the dormancy barn because people people were like whoa we’re playing this there are so many creatures that we’ve like tamed or or are researching or whatever and they’re on our farm and we have to like say hi to them every day or else they get mad and it’s just like kind of a lot to do. So you can put them in the dormancy barn and it’s just a place where they can eat and they can just like they just kind of like go dormant and they sleep and the barn has (0:38:30) Codey: to be cleaned so you don’t have to feed them and your you don’t lose your friendship with the animals at all while they’re in the dormancy barn which I think is so less stressful so if you have all these (0:38:39) Aislinn: That sounds incredibly less stressful. (0:38:50) Codey: “Put everybody else in the dormancy barn.” (0:38:52) Codey: Let ’em have a small sleep. (0:38:56) Codey: So I think that’s super cool. (0:38:57) Codey: There’s also four new creatures. (0:38:59) Codey: One is a moth that’s called Glimoth, and I love them. (0:39:02) Aislinn: That sounds so cute. (0:39:03) Codey: It’s very cute, you should totally look at the devlog on Steam. (0:39:07) Codey: And there’s also a creature compendium, (0:39:09) Codey: which I always am a fan of a journal that catalogs everything and tells you all the stuff about everything you’ve ever. (0:39:20) Codey: And also has empty spaces for things you haven’t found so that if you know, like that way you can know like, Oh, wow, (0:39:27) Codey: there’s a certain I’m trying I’m thinking about this, like in terms of Roots of Pacha, where they had like, oh, there’s all these different colors of boar. But I don’t know if I found all of them. But in the in the journal in Roots of Pacha, (0:39:42) Codey: there’s like an empty space where that’s like a boar another boar. So I’m like, okay, I know that there’s another boar color (0:39:50) Codey: not found yet. So super excited that Reesa’s story is getting that compendium. And I am I just really want to dive back into this game. I didn’t play it too too much. But I just because of the timing when we covered it on the pod, I would also play it a lot more if it was on Steam, not Steam Switch or Mac. But when it’s one point when it’s out for 1.0, I will likely jump back in (0:40:20) Codey: try and give it give it its due credit. (0:40:22) Aislinn: It definitely looks very cute, and again, it’s on sale! (0:40:25) Aislinn: That’s the theme of this episode. (0:40:25) Codey: It’s on sale. It’s on sale. Okay, last but certainly not least Tales of the Shire. So this is a game that has been greatly (0:40:28) Aislinn: It’s on sale! (0:40:41) Codey: anticipated within our community. Some of the hosts have fighting over who’s going to cover it on the pod. (0:40:50) Codey: But of course it’s going to be Al and it has to be Johnny so I will just cry in a corner. (0:40:55) Codey: There is a new trailer for Tales of the Shire and in it you actually get kind of a look at some of the gameplay, which is super cool. (0:41:01) Codey: And it just looks like it’s gonna be a cute little, I mean we knew this already, but like a cute little cozy simulator, cozy farming simulator where you’re just a hobbit in the Shire. (0:41:14) Codey: Um, yeah. (0:41:14) Aislinn: That is so cool. I’ve never watched, don’t come for me, but I’ve never watched Lord of the Rings. (0:41:22) Aislinn: But I had no idea they had this game coming out for it, and I’m like, this is so cool. (0:41:26) Codey: Well folks, this has been a great episode but I need to uninstall, delete Aislinn from me. (0:41:29) Aislinn: No, no, no, no, please. I know. (0:41:33) Codey: You have to watch Lord of the Rings! (0:41:38) Codey: No, it’s fine. (0:41:39) Codey: Um, but yeah, no, I mean, this is super cute. (0:41:42) Codey: It’s like a, you know, it kind of, I don’t, and I don’t know if they’re gonna have like little things sprinkled throughout the Shirelands, like where you can get information about, like I don’t know what time period this is in. (0:41:56) Codey: Is it in the first stage? (0:41:58) Codey: Well, it’s definitely not in the first stage. (0:41:59) Codey: Is it in the second age? (0:42:00) Codey: Is it in the third age? (0:42:01) Codey: Like, we don’t know. (0:42:02) Codey: Is this, you know, pre-frodo, post-frodo? (0:42:07) Codey: Is it just completely separate? (0:42:09) Codey: It does say that you’re in by water, so you’re not in… (0:42:13) Codey: You’re not in Hobbiton, but I wonder if they’re going to be like areas that you can go to eventually. (0:42:18) Codey: Or it can just be a completely separate thing, which is fine. (0:42:22) Codey: That would be fine. (0:42:24) Codey: So they have things like forage- (0:42:26) Codey: I got the feeling- Did you watch this trailer? (0:42:32) Codey: My ADHD is all over the place. (0:42:32) Aislinn: I’m looking at it right now. (0:42:34) Codey: I got the feeling that you can play with friends. (0:42:35) Aislinn: No, you’re fine. (0:42:38) Codey: Did you also get that feeling? (0:42:41) Aislinn: Um. I just blasted in my ear. (0:42:44) Aislinn: Oops, I meant to keep it muted. (0:42:47) Aislinn: I can’t tell to be completely honest. (0:42:51) Aislinn: You know, maybe. Yeah, maybe. (0:42:54) Codey: So this says “forage friendships” and during that time… (0:42:56) Codey: It seems like you and possibly a friend are running around, but it also could be an NPC that’s taking you foraging or something, so I’m not entirely sure, but it would be awesome if you could play this multiplayer. So you can forage, fish, cook, gardening… none of this is confirmed, (0:43:16) Codey: but just from the footage that you see looks like all of those things are available. You can also decorate your house. And then it also showed that there were (0:43:26) Codey: seasons. So yeah, I mean, I’m here for it. We’ve been here for it the whole time. There’s also an interview with the team (0:43:37) Codey: Weta Workshop, I believe it is. There’s also an interview with that team on YouTube on the YouTube channel nerd of the rings. I did not have time to watch that interview. So I am not entirely sure if they cover anything different in that. But (0:43:55) Codey: you should go take a look. (0:43:57) Codey: so is this does this like make you more interested to watch Lord of the Rings? (0:44:04) Aislinn: Oh, I I’ve been wanting to watch it. It’s just I have an incredibly bad like massive backlog of movies in general (0:44:11) Aislinn: Um that it’s just it’s just never ending (0:44:15) Aislinn: But it’s been it’s been on my list and i’ve had multiple friends that like want to do like (0:44:19) Aislinn: Lord of the ring watch parties and stuff and i’m like i’m down but also isn’t that like an entire day? (0:44:24) Aislinn: Thing like can we do it over multiple days at least? (0:44:27) Codey: Oh it would be over multiple days because it takes two days. So if you watch the if you watch the extended I believe they’re each about four hours long. And then you you also have you also have to watch The Hobbit then which is also at least three to four hours long for each movie. (0:44:32) Aislinn: Oh, oh (0:44:35) Aislinn: Oh (0:44:42) Aislinn: But honestly, I’m down though because I just I love just watching things (0:44:52) Aislinn: I mean, honestly, I’m down. It’s just it’s just the time I’m down for anything. The worst part is just finding the time for these things (0:44:53) Codey: So yeah. (0:44:57) Codey: Yeah, I throw them on in the background all the time. (0:45:02) Aislinn: But I want to watch it and then I can do that [laugh] (0:45:05) Codey: 100%, yeah, you have to do the full watch. (0:45:09) Codey: And even after you’ve done the full watch, even me having it on in the background sometimes, I’m like, I don’t think I ever realized that it’s not happening as much anymore because I’m on my 100th watch or something like that. (0:45:16) Aislinn: Yeah (0:45:21) Aislinn: Oh my gosh (0:45:22) Codey: [LAUGH] I put it on when I’m writing, so. (0:45:27) Codey: Cuz it just, again, turns off that part of my brain that wanders. (0:45:32) Aislinn: know how you do that. I cannot imagine having something with anyone speaking while I’m trying to read or write or something. I physically cannot do that. It doesn’t work. (0:45:38) Codey: - Mm-hmm. (0:45:42) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:45:45) Codey: Well, so sometimes I have to pause it, (0:45:46) Codey: but also like because, (0:45:49) Codey: so a lot of the time if anyone’s talking or talking or like if there’s any words at all, (0:45:53) Codey: like singing or talking, (0:45:54) Codey: like my brain like clicks into that because I want to know what they’re saying, (0:46:01) Codey: but because I’ve watched “Lord of the Rings” so much, (0:46:04) Codey: I know what’s gonna be said. (0:46:06) Codey: Like, I could probably do most. (0:46:08) Codey: So I, my brain doesn’t like that part of my brain. (0:46:10) Aislinn: I love that laughs (0:46:12) Codey: That’s like, what are they going to say? (0:46:13) Codey: What is, what are they going to say? (0:46:14) Codey: Like that’s, that doesn’t exist. (0:46:16) Codey: Like it just, it’s like, I know what’s going to be said. (0:46:18) Codey: It’s fine. (0:46:19) Codey: It’s kind of the same as classical music for me. (0:46:21) Codey: Like, cause again, no, no, no, no, we’re just like, yeah, just got to watch it a few million times the movies. (0:46:30) Codey: So that movie, uh, those, sorry, those movies, they’re just, they’re just, (0:46:30) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. I get what you mean. I get what you mean. I got it [laughing] (0:46:35) Codey: the movies so that movie those sorry those (0:46:38) Codey: movies, Cyrano, Puss in Boots the Last Wish, 2005 Pride and Prejudice, and I feel like I’m missing another one all of those movies are are those that movie for me like I can put on any of those and I can write write with them because I’ve seen them so much (0:46:54) Aislinn: Got a lot of hours. You can get a lot of hours of writing in with all of those movies. That’s awesome [laughs] (0:46:58) Codey: I yeah just tie them all together maybe that’s what I’ll have to do this weekend uh because I have a presentation next week that I have been putting off. (0:47:09) Codey: okay we are off the rails but we are back on the rails y’all it is time for our main topic botany manner (0:47:17) Codey: so first I just kind of wanted to like get our first thoughts and our experiences with botany manner so like how much have you played how did like when did you hear about it when did you start playing and kind of like what were your first thoughts. (0:47:33) Aislinn: So, I finished the game, I played it in one sitting, which took me, I think it was a nine hour VOD up on my Twitch, but it came down to like a seven hour, like somewhat edited YouTube VOD, so I would say it approximately took me about seven hours to finish the game, (0:47:56) Aislinn: but that’s just me being mean, being slow and everything with it. (0:47:59) Aislinn: I would say approximately you could finish it in probably five hours, give or take. (0:48:03) Aislinn: But yeah, maybe even less depending on how good you are, but so I finished the game, (0:48:08) Aislinn: I will not spoil anything, but first impressions, really, really, really liked it. Final impressions, (0:48:17) Aislinn: really, really, really liked it. Like that so much that I bought or I didn’t buy, I was going to buy, (0:48:23) Aislinn: but then my Chris fiance, he surprised me and got me the actual book from the game. And it’s like a sketchbook type of thing, and it’s pretty massive, and like… (0:48:33) Aislinn: It’s a really good quality too, like the paper quality I really like for drawing. (0:48:37) Aislinn: Well I actually draw on it, I don’t know yet, but the book itself is really, really pretty. (0:48:41) Ai

This week: we catchup on the latest gaming headlines, plus Sun Haven, Hitman Freelancer and On the Underground NY. #GameBurst More info... Music includes Crypt of the Necrodancer OST Gary -  On The Underground - New York/Paris (board) Hitman: Freelancer (multi) Jerome -  Sun Haven (steam)  

This week: all the news headlines plus the Super Pocket, Retro Achievements, Loop Hero, Sun Haven and American Arcadia. #GameBurst More info... Music includes Streets of Rage 4 OST Gary -  Loop Hero (multi) Fresco (board) Taylor -  Emulation and retro achievements  Super Pocket Jerome -  Sun Haven (PC) American Arcadia (PC) The Witcher Was Always WOKE by Princess Weekes https://youtu.be/bhkrwQnksEM?si=c_zqlvzHB_todDKH

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

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

Brandon, Steve, and Jacob convene to talk about the latest video game news and what games they've been playing! Topic include: (00:00:00-00:01:23) Intro (00:01:24-00:12:37) News (00:12:38-00:24:16) Steve talks about Star Wars games (00:24:17-00:41:04) **SPOILERS** MK 1 Spoiler Mini-Cast (00:41:05-00:48:59) Baldur's Gate 3 & Snowrunner (00:49:00-00:56:49) Sun Haven (00:56:50-01:00:19) Chrono Trigger Check in (01:00:10-01:06:20) Super Mario Bros. Wonder (01:06:21-01:25:51) Spider-Man 2 (01:25:52-01:32:45) Outro Check out our other stuff here!!! https://www.youtube.com/@LiLJollyGamerShow/videos https://www.tiktok.com/@liljollygamershow Write to us! liljollygamershow@gmail.com

This week, we’re giving you the news from our forts and then discussing what constitutes cheating in Dwarf Fortress and other simulation-type games. Digressions include bumblebee deities and Sims challenges. We also talk a little about two other games we’re currently enjoying: Sun Haven and Monster Sanctuary! Extra info: Transcript(see README for more details)

We're halfway done with this great experiment we call 2023, and hot dang, there's been some certified club bangers in the mix, huh? We're spending this episode going over the best of the best, the biggest blanks in our backlog, and the most anticipated titles still to come!Games discussed: Fire Emblem Engage, Dead Space, HiFi Rush, Metroid Prime Remastered, Like a Dragon Isshin, Wo Long, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Have a Nice Death, Dredge, Pizza Tower, Tchia, Paranormasight, Rusted Moss, Mr. Sun's Hatbox, Meet Your Maker, Dead Island 2, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Boltgun, Laya's Horizon, Diablo 4, Street Fighter 6, Final Fantasy XVI, Super Mega Baseball 4, Mars First Loigistics, Battlebit Remastered, Honkai Star Rail, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, Shoulders of Giants, Sun Haven, The Caped Crusade, Starfield Controller, Past Lives, King Kong, Siren: Survive the Island

Al and Jonnie talk about Florence Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:36: What Have We Been Up To 00:14:03: News 00:27:36: Florence 00:34:36: Spoiler Zone 01:01:00: Outro Links Sun Haven DLCs Farming Simulator 23 Gameplay Trailer Farming Simulator 20 on Apple Arcade Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Localisation Blog Florence Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript [00:00.000 –> 00:29.000] G [00:31.000 –> 00:35.000] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. [00:35.000 –> 00:37.000] My name is Al. [00:37.000 –> 00:38.000] And my name is Johnny. [00:38.000 –> 00:42.000] And we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games. [00:42.000 –> 00:46.000] Hello Johnny, how are you? [00:46.000 –> 00:50.000] I’m good. I’m tired. I’ve been doing some big hours at work. [00:50.000 –> 00:53.000] So I’m pleased with the game that we’ve got to talk about today. [00:53.000 –> 00:55.000] It was not a huge time suck. [00:56.000 –> 00:57.000] Yeah, yeah. [00:57.000 –> 01:03.000] So just before we get into that, let you know transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website. [01:03.000 –> 01:05.000] So if you need them, go for that. [01:05.000 –> 01:12.000] Yeah, so today we’re going to talk about Florence, which is a very short game. [01:12.000 –> 01:17.000] It’s so short that I hadn’t actually played it before today. [01:17.000 –> 01:21.000] So I was like, oh, and I finished it. [01:21.000 –> 01:24.000] So I was like, oh yeah, I should probably actually play that game. [01:24.000 –> 01:28.000] I knew it was going to be this short, so that’s why I didn’t play it before today. [01:28.000 –> 01:31.000] But I was like, I really ought to actually play it. [01:31.000 –> 01:35.000] But yeah, so it’s all good. [01:35.000 –> 01:38.000] Before that, we’re going to have some news. [01:38.000 –> 01:40.000] But first of all, Johnny, what have you been up to? [01:40.000 –> 01:42.000] What have I been up to? [01:42.000 –> 01:46.000] As usual, when I’m on the podcast, there’s got to be a little bit of Marvel Snap Talk. [01:46.000 –> 01:50.000] And I’m just really into the game right now. [01:50.000 –> 01:53.000] I’m not playing it a lot like I was when I first started. [01:53.000 –> 01:59.000] But it’s kind of just become a really nice game that I’ll play when I’m on the bus or have a few minutes to do. [01:59.000 –> 02:03.000] I’ll just jam a game and I feel like it’s in a really good space. [02:03.000 –> 02:10.000] The monetization is terrible, but that’s actually great because it means I don’t spend money on the game and it’s just a lot of fun. [02:10.000 –> 02:18.000] Yeah, I’ve still not paid any money, spent any money on the game, but I have been playing on and off. [02:18.000 –> 02:23.000] I think I didn’t. I basically didn’t play last. Was it last? Not last season. The season before last. [02:23.000 –> 02:26.000] What was that one? The Modoc one? [02:26.000 –> 02:27.000] Oh, yeah. [02:27.000 –> 02:30.000] I think I basically didn’t play the Modoc season. [02:30.000 –> 02:36.000] And then I got back into it like halfway through last season and just like plunged through everything. [02:36.000 –> 02:40.000] And I’ve not done a huge amount this season, but I’ve done a wee bit. [02:40.000 –> 02:52.000] So I’m hoping to try and get into sort of like a rhythm of casualness rather than like either not playing at all or playing it every free second of every free day, which is what I seem to be doing just now. [02:52.000 –> 02:57.000] Yeah, it can be a little bit like that where you’re just like, oh, I’ve just got two minutes. [02:57.000 –> 03:20.000] I can probably I could probably fit a game in it. It’s like, oh, this, you know, you need like five for a game, but it just does such a good job of compressing those card game mechanics from, you know, whether it’s Magic the Gathering or Hearthstone or whatever, that sort of feeling into such a small timeframe that it really, you know, it’s a satisfying game to play. [03:20.000 –> 03:27.000] I think because it’s only introducing a few cards every season, it doesn’t feel like the game completely changes when you pick it back up again. [03:27.000 –> 03:34.000] Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there’s some good consistency to it, which I think is awesome. [03:34.000 –> 03:35.000] Yeah. [03:35.000 –> 03:48.000] And other than Marvel Snap, I haven’t really been playing anything, but there’s a new show out on Apple TV called Silo, which is based on the Wool series of books. I don’t know if you’ve ever read those books, Al. [03:48.000 –> 03:49.000] I have not. [03:49.000 –> 03:57.000] Generally, if you wonder whether I’ve read a book, the answer is almost certainly no. [03:57.000 –> 04:06.000] Well, it is it is one of my favorite book series and the premise that it’s about people who are living in a silo underground. [04:06.000 –> 04:21.000] And it’s the first episode was one of those episodes where I felt like it was a really great reflection of what I was imagining when I read the books, like it felt like a really true to the book translation. [04:21.000 –> 04:23.000] And it’s been a few years since I’ve read the books. [04:23.000 –> 04:31.000] I’m sure there’s some things that just, you know, that they have changed that, you know, weren’t important or I don’t remember. [04:31.000 –> 04:46.000] But for a first episode of a show, I was just blown away by how how true it seemed to the source material, because I know that a lot of shows recently, you know, sometimes for the conceits of TV have to change things quite substantially. [04:46.000 –> 04:50.000] But it was really nice for a series that I liked to have such a strong start. [04:50.000 –> 04:55.000] That’s cool. Yeah, that shows on my list, but a lot of things are on my list. [04:55.000 –> 05:03.000] I would highly recommend on the basis of the one episode and what I know of the story. It’s a very compelling story. Really, really write it. [05:03.000 –> 05:17.000] Fair enough. Well, I’ve still got, I think, about a month and a half on my Apple TV plus free trial, my net current free trial. [05:17.000 –> 05:21.000] So, yeah, that’s that’s really what I’ve been up to. What have you been playing? [05:21.000 –> 05:40.000] Yeah. So interestingly, so normally when I cover a game for the podcast, I’ll like put the game down after the podcast, because I end up just being so engrossed in it for so long or like either for so long or so intently for such a short period of time that I kind of burn out on it. [05:40.000 –> 05:48.000] But I actually picked Coral Island back up again for a couple of days after recording the last podcast. [05:48.000 –> 05:57.000] I have now put it down, but I just felt like I’ve wanted to finish a few things before I put it down, which is, I guess, the mark of a good game if I actually want to continue playing it. [05:57.000 –> 06:13.000] Yeah. And listening to to last week’s episode on Coral Island, it was I feel like, you know, this is the year where I was really down about statue clones and with all of the ones that we’ve sort of covered, I’m actually getting really excited about all of these and want to start getting into some of them. [06:13.000 –> 06:14.000] Oh, no mistake. [06:14.000 –> 06:17.000] I know. I know. [06:17.000 –> 06:29.000] Yeah. I mean, I will. It will be interesting to see what I end up choosing at the end of the year is my my game of the year, because I mean, at this point, I just I just don’t know what it’s going to be because there’s so much. [06:29.000 –> 06:39.000] There is a lot this year. And I think one of the things that’s probably going to determine it for me over the course of the year is what’s actually in 1.0 versus. [06:39.000 –> 06:40.000] Yeah. [06:40.000 –> 06:41.000] You know, still in early access. [06:41.000 –> 06:54.000] Yeah. Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. Yeah, I guess there’s this it’s hard. It’s not that we haven’t done it, obviously, but it’s hard to convince yourself to choose an early access as a game of the year. [06:54.000 –> 07:05.000] And if if the 1.0 isn’t like doesn’t feel bigger than the early access significantly, then also like can struggle to hit that point. [07:05.000 –> 07:07.000] I don’t think I really explained what I was thinking properly there. [07:07.000 –> 07:20.000] No, no, I get what you mean. Right. It’s like sometimes particularly I think in farming games, because it’s probably one of the more niche communities in gaming that a lot of people get in on early access. [07:20.000 –> 07:26.000] So, yes, that’s when a lot of the hype cycle, you know, the traditional release hype cycle for these games sort of takes off. [07:26.000 –> 07:53.000] And, you know, I think over the last few years, I’ve seen 1.0 releases not be not feel that big, right? They don’t feel like traditional game releases that tends to feel more like when early access opens up, which I think is, you know, something that that, you know, developers need to consider about these games and whether or not that potentially limits the overall upside and, you know, players that they can attract with these games. [07:53.000 –> 08:04.000] Yeah, it’s definitely difficult. I think the one exception I can think of that actually did manage to do that on both early access and 1.0 was Ooblets. [08:04.000 –> 08:18.000] Like, I felt like when the early access was first released and when the 1.0 came out, there was quite a big hype cycle around it, which is interesting, because, yeah, that that rare to happen, you know, no matter what you think about the game personally, you know, that like that. [08:19.000 –> 08:20.000] No, I agree. [08:20.000 –> 08:28.000] Was interesting to see happen. And I wonder, it’s hard to know, right, but I wonder how much of it was the same people and how much of it was new people. [08:28.000 –> 08:38.000] Yeah, I’m willing to bet with a game like that, it was a lot of new people because I, you know, personal feelings of the game aside, I think that was a game that, you know, really got that right. [08:38.000 –> 08:50.000] You know, and I look at some of the more recent releases, one which we’ll talk about in the news cycle that I think have really sort of failed to do that despite looking like really strong games. [08:50.000 –> 08:57.000] Yeah. Also, it does probably help the Ooblets. I think the Switch version came out with 1.0 relevant afterwards. [08:58.000 –> 09:12.000] And that can massively help because even with the Steam Deck coming out recently, like the Switch hype is still there, like people still want to on Switch because, you know, most people can’t afford a Steam Deck as well as a Switch and they already have their Switches. [09:12.000 –> 09:15.000] So, you know, that’s what they want their games on. [09:15.000 –> 09:32.000] Absolutely. But I think we’ll all be, you know, relieved from the game of the year debate this year because we’ve got Mika and the Witch’s Mountain coming out and we all know that that’s a strong contender, even though none of us have played it. [09:32.000 –> 09:36.000] No, no, don’t put that into the universe, Al. [09:37.000 –> 09:48.000] Well, this is the thing, right? You know that something’s going to be delayed to next year because we still have 40 games that are currently scheduled to release this year and there’s no way they all do, right? [09:48.000 –> 09:50.000] Definitely not. [09:50.000 –> 10:02.000] Yeah. Well, I mean, interesting. We’re not far off halfway through the year, just a month and a half to go until we’re halfway through the year. So, you know, be interesting to take stock at that point. [10:03.000 –> 10:13.000] Oh, yes. I never finished talking about what I was up to. So, also, obviously, I played Florence today and, as mentioned, I’ve been doing a bit of Marvel Snap. [10:13.000 –> 10:20.000] But, you know, what’s also interesting is I have also been playing quite a significant amount of Fall Guys. Remember that game? [10:20.000 –> 10:28.000] I do remember this game. I played it when it first came out and I sort of ducked back in at some point last year. I’m really curious, like… [10:28.000 –> 10:31.000] Was it the Switch release when you got back in the second time? [10:31.000 –> 10:36.000] Yeah, it was around the Switch release because I think that was sort of, you know, a few people were sort of jumping back in. [10:36.000 –> 10:39.000] That’s when it became free to play. [10:39.000 –> 10:44.000] Right, right. So, what do you think? Are you enjoying Fall Guys? [10:44.000 –> 10:56.000] Yeah, I mean, I’ve kind of been playing it on and off and I think I only play it as much as I do because my four-year-old is obsessed with it and all he wants to do just now is watch me play it. [10:56.000 –> 11:05.000] He doesn’t play it himself. He just loves to watch me play it. So, he’ll be like, oh, can we play Fall Guys while we’re eating tea or whatever. [11:05.000 –> 11:12.000] He’ll just be constantly wanting to play Fall Guys. So, yeah, that tends to be when I play it. [11:12.000 –> 11:17.000] And, like, if I play it with him, I’ll then, once he goes to bed, I’ll play it a little bit more. It encourages me to go. [11:17.000 –> 11:22.000] Like, I do enjoy the game. It is good fun. It certainly helps that I’m not too bad at it either. [11:22.000 –> 11:27.000] Like, I’m not constantly winning, but I am constantly getting into finals and coming second and third. [11:27.000 –> 11:32.000] So, that kind of helps when you’re, like, almost winning. It’s like, I can almost get there. [11:32.000 –> 11:34.000] Just one more. Just one more. [11:34.000 –> 11:41.000] Exactly. So, no, I still enjoy it. I still really enjoy it. And it has enough people playing that you get into games pretty quickly. [11:41.000 –> 11:50.000] Yeah, because that was going to be my next question is, are enough people playing for it to still be ticking over? [11:50.000 –> 11:57.000] And right now I am seven levels away from reaching level 100 on the season pass, the current season pass. [11:57.000 –> 12:05.000] So, I am probably going to grind to get to that point because I’ve never hit a level 100 on the season pass. [12:05.000 –> 12:13.000] It does help that they extended the season by four weeks because they delayed the next season. So, that helps. [12:13.000 –> 12:15.000] But, you know. [12:15.000 –> 12:16.000] Definitely does. [12:16.000 –> 12:21.000] Does your four-year-old dress your little bean man? [12:21.000 –> 12:33.000] So, he wants the guy to be in a duck costume. So, he decided on that, like, eight months ago and hasn’t let me change him since. [12:33.000 –> 12:44.000] Which, I don’t know. It might be, if I do hit level 100 on the season pass, I may have to pay for the season pass and get the SpongeBob costume. [12:44.000 –> 12:47.000] And I think he might want it to be dressed as SpongeBob if I do that. [12:47.000 –> 12:49.000] That is entirely reasonable. [12:49.000 –> 12:56.000] I’m not promising anything to him yet, right? Because I do not want to get into the situation where I fail to get the season pass and he’s disappointed. [12:56.000 –> 12:59.000] But, we’ll see where we go with that. [12:59.000 –> 13:07.000] Cool. That sounds awesome. Maybe I have to get in and try a few more games of Fall Guys because it is fun, right? Like, it’s just good, dumb, sort of silly fun. [13:07.000 –> 13:14.000] Yeah, yeah. As far as, like, you know, free-to-play games, it’s kind of the most obvious what you need to do. [13:14.000 –> 13:26.000] And they’re very good at updating it regularly. The new seasons have a bunch of new maps and there’s constantly, like, new costumes and stuff that obviously you have to pay money for. [13:26.000 –> 13:32.000] Like, it’s an absolute money sink if you’re not careful. But, I haven’t spent any money on it yet. [13:32.000 –> 13:38.000] And again, it’s the good sort of monetization, right? Where it’s all cosmetic and none of it actually helps you play the game better. [13:38.000 –> 13:49.000] Exactly, exactly. So, it’s good fun. They do, like, different shows and stuff so you can go, oh, this is the, like, they do, like, an extreme one where instead of, like, respawning you just get eliminated. [13:49.000 –> 13:57.000] And if you, but, like, there’s higher rewards for that one and stuff like that. So, there’s always stuff to do if you want to play. [13:57.000 –> 14:03.000] If you have, like, one free-to-play game that you’re going to be playing, like, it’s not a bad one to choose. [14:03.000 –> 14:04.000] Yeah, absolutely. [14:04.000 –> 14:06.000] Alright, should we talk about some news? [14:06.000 –> 14:08.000] Let’s do it. [14:08.000 –> 14:25.000] So, I presume this is what you were talking about. Sunhaven, they have announced some DLCs, which is an interesting choice to announce some stuff that you’re going to let people buy when the Switch version still isn’t out. But, there we go. [14:25.000 –> 14:37.000] That was my immediate reaction is, I guess I’m just a little bit confused with what the Sunhaven, I hesitate to say devs, but the wider company structure is doing. [14:37.000 –> 14:49.000] Because they released Sunhaven, like, a week after they announced a second game and they still have on their website that the Switch release was supposed to come at the same time as they went to 1.0. [14:50.000 –> 15:02.000] And we are now probably a month or two past that date. There seems to be no info on a Switch update. The DLCs are small from what I can see. It looks like just a couple of cosmetic packs. [15:02.000 –> 15:11.000] Yeah, it’s still not good. I mean, it’s the same thing we were talking about. I think it was you that was on the episode where we were talking about the other game, the Sundown that they made. [15:11.000 –> 15:29.000] Where it’s like, it’s not like we can understand why you would do this. It’s not the same people working on the two things. But it is a bad look. Like, you’re still going, hey, buy more stuff, even though the stuff that we’ve already sold you, you can’t get yet. You know, it just doesn’t feel great. [15:29.000 –> 15:41.000] No, absolutely. Yeah. And I was on that episode. And, you know, I really like the look of Sunhaven when it first came out, because I couldn’t get it because Switch hadn’t released. [15:41.000 –> 15:57.000] You know, I was watching a few people play it and it looked like the sort of game that I wanted to get into. But I increasingly find myself not wanting to play games because of the way the wider communication strategy seems to be operating. [15:57.000 –> 16:12.000] And that’s something I find across the board, you know, that really annoys me is when, you know, I don’t mind if the Switch is going to be delayed, but when it’s not clearly communicated and I was getting excited because Sunhaven was coming up and it looked cool. [16:12.000 –> 16:21.000] And then to kind of be a month and a half past and there’s not even an idea of when I can play it, it’s just kind of like, well, there’s so many other games, I’m just going to go play one of those. [16:21.000 –> 16:37.000] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree. I don’t like I will probably play well, I will almost certainly play this game at some point. But yeah, it is difficult, especially like the Switch port was like the late so I’m just double checking there. [16:37.000 –> 16:52.000] They never officially said like, oh, Switch port is no longer coming with 1.0. In the announcement of the 1.0 date, they said they had a coming soon list, essentially the roadmap and at the top was the Nintendo Switch port. [16:52.000 –> 17:04.000] And so you’re like, oh, okay, right, fine. But like, that’s, that’s literally the last thing I can see that we’ve been told about it. And there’s a bunch of stuff underneath it that has been that has already come out now. [17:04.000 –> 17:16.000] You know, including the DLCs there that the 1.0 1.1 update that includes most of the stuff that’s in that list. Like, Switch is basically the only thing in that list that hasn’t happened yet. [17:16.000 –> 17:28.000] We haven’t had any indication as to where or when it’s happening. They haven’t even said, Hey, Luke, something’s come up. It’s taking longer. They’ve just said it’s coming. And everything else they said is coming is come, basically. [17:28.000 –> 17:52.000] Yeah, so it’s, it’s a little concerning at this point that there’s just no communication on it, right? It could be things like, you know, I know a few game developers, and I know that releasing things on Switch seems to be harder than other platforms, because of some of, you know, Nintendo’s controls. But even just an announcement to say it’s delayed would be would be better than nothing. [17:53.000 –> 18:15.000] Yeah, yeah, literally, you just need to say, it is still coming. Here’s the issues we’re having. And like, I think that Concerned Ape was always really good to this with Stardew, like the 1.5 update for mobile came out age, like a year after all the other updates. But he was constantly saying, like, I’m really sorry, this is, this is still coming, we are working on it. [18:15.000 –> 18:28.000] You know, every month or so he was like, just is coming, I promise. It’s just taking time, these things happen. And people are willing to accept that when they when they know that you when you when you communicate, they’re willing to accept that these things happen, you know? [18:28.000 –> 18:57.000] Yeah, absolutely. And maybe just to talk about the actual DLC of that, because I think I went straight into my wider rant on Sun Haven. So it looks like in the DLC packs, there’s there’s two or no, four DLC packs that they’ve got. So one for two for pets, and two for mounts, it looks like any sort of a theme, one being more spooky, and the other being more cute from the looks of things. [18:58.000 –> 19:12.000] Um, and I guess also, if you are still interested in Sun Haven on via steam, it’s 20% off until actually, it’s 20% off until today. So if you’re listening to this, it is no longer 20%. [19:12.000 –> 19:31.000] Yeah, yes. Yeah, all the DLC is already out. And they’re basically a fiver each to presumably similar sort of pricing in different places. So yeah, I’m not gonna buy the DLC, because I don’t have the game yet. [19:32.000 –> 19:44.000] We’ll be interested to see when we get it if we get the 1.1 update when we get the the 1.0 release on switch or whether we have to wait for the 1.1 update on switch. We’ll see. [19:44.000 –> 20:00.000] We will. And I’m going to take this next news item because I feel like every time I’m on the show, there is some small part of farming simulator news. And so we’ve got a gameplay trailer for farming simulator 23. And let me tell you, this looks like some farming simulator. [20:00.000 –> 20:23.000] Yeah, this is the game that like, this is this is the FIFA of the farming world, right? Like it does things in such a like you’re we’re going to release the game every year. And if you really care about the games, you will love the update, you will love the changes that we’ve done. And if you don’t really care about the game, you’ll be like, okay, what’s different here? [20:23.000 –> 20:52.000] So I was able to pick up on one thing that looked very new from my time with playing farming simulator 22 is it looked like there was some logging or not not quite forestry, but you know, chopping down trees on around the farm and then loading those up that that definitely looked looked new. And one of the things that it got me thinking about, I don’t know if you watched Clark’s video, but I think I watched it. [20:52.000 –> 20:54.000] You watched Clarkson’s Farm, Al? [20:55.000 –> 20:57.000] No, no, I did not. [20:58.000 –> 21:16.000] Jeremy Clarkson is a horrible human being, right? That being said, Clarkson’s Farm is a surprisingly entertaining watch of just, you know, old white dude with no idea what he’s doing tries to run a farm. And it made me wonder because it’s a it’s a wildly popular show. [21:16.000 –> 21:35.000] It has made me wonder, are the farming simulator devs kind of just looking and watching that show for ideas of what they should be bringing in because that’s sort of what’s at the top of the, you know, people that aren’t on farm sort of mindset because the logging stuff that definitely has happened in on Clarkson’s Farm like the machines were all the same machines. [21:36.000 –> 21:38.000] Maybe it’s just a standard, I don’t know. [21:39.000 –> 21:41.000] Yeah, interesting. [21:43.000 –> 21:44.000] Still not going to play the game. [21:44.000 –> 21:50.000] I’ve decided though, this is definitely this is a case where this is a farming game, but it’s definitely not a cottagecore game. [21:51.000 –> 22:04.000] I think that is exactly right. There is nothing cottagecore about it. To me, it’s much closer to a real time strategy game. Not in that it’s, you know, a lot of resource management and those sorts of things. [22:04.000 –> 22:17.000] But it’s that constant like, I have to go here, do this, pick this thing up, do the next thing, you know, hook this up, like it’s a constant flow of things you just have to be doing. [22:18.000 –> 22:27.000] And there’s no real time to just pause and sit and enjoy or, you know, chat to villagers or those sorts of things that are really at the heart of the games that we like to cover. [22:28.000 –> 22:30.000] Yeah, interesting. [22:30.000 –> 22:34.000] So that’s enough Farming Simulator. Shall we talk about some more? Farming Simulator! [22:35.000 –> 22:50.000] This is absolutely bizarre to me, right? So this is this is Farming Simulator coming to Apple Arcade. Farming Simulator 20, that is. [22:50.000 –> 23:11.000] This feels like a constant thing with Farming Simulator because we had that bundle. There was a farming bundle or some bundle. Oh, no, it was a chat. Was it the Ukraine bundle? I think there was a big charity bundle and there was a Farming Simulator in it, but it was Farming Simulator 18. [23:12.000 –> 23:27.000] You’re like, oh, OK, that’s like a six year old game. Like, so generous of you. OK. Yeah, 20. So 20 was released in 2019. So three and a half year old game. [23:28.000 –> 23:39.000] Yeah, like watching the trailer for Farming Simulator 20, I was like, if I watched these two trailers more than like 10 minutes apart, I might not be able to tell that they were in fact two different games. [23:40.000 –> 23:55.000] Yeah. Yeah. Fascinating. Anyway, now actually moving on from Farming Simulator, Story of Seasons A Wonderful Life, we have the first of their localization blogs. So they’ve done this for the last few games. [23:56.000 –> 24:08.000] As they’ve been localizing the game, they’ve come out with these blog posts to talk about the challenges and how interesting it is to translate with the different cultural expectations. [24:09.000 –> 24:23.000] And especially, I think this one seems to be focusing a lot on the names, which is interesting because there’s obviously lots of focus on names. People like to see, oh, this character’s name could be translated in multiple different ways. [24:23.000 –> 24:30.000] And some of the names were translated differently in this version than they were in the first version of the game. [24:31.000 –> 24:51.000] So, yeah, I just think this sort of transparency is really cool to see. And I think it’s particularly when you’re remaking a game and they clearly know that people have a lot of affinity for the original translation, but it maybe doesn’t hold true to the vision that they’re trying to create. [24:51.000 –> 25:09.000] So by getting out ahead of it, it’s, you know, it’s good from a transparency perspective. But for people that feel, you know, would otherwise feel disappointed or sad, it kind of means that hopefully their first experience and actually get to hold the game is not, oh, the character that I like a lot from my first experience has changed massively. [25:10.000 –> 25:30.000] Yeah, yeah. And I think it’s nice as well, like they’re going into the reasoning behind it. They’re not just like, oh, sorry, we did this. They’re like, this is why we did this. And they actually, they start off by saying, you know, lots of people hold, whereas with many fans having deep attachments to this game, its characters and its world, we felt that it was vital for us to talk about our approach to this localisation. [25:31.000 –> 25:46.000] So it’s like, they’re aware of why they’re doing it as well. They’re not just doing it because they do it. And it’s, yeah, it’s very detailed on the characters. I think this one’s specifically character based. I haven’t actually read the entirety of it, I’ve kind of just scanned it. [25:46.000 –> 26:10.000] I’ve read most of it. One thing that I want to call out is that towards the bottom of the blog post, they call out that just a number of character redesigns were necessary after 18 years, there were several designs that did not stand the test of time, which is just undoubtedly going to be true. So it’s good to see again, just being, you know, honest about where games were at from a diversity perspective when this was first released, versus where things were going. [26:17.000 –> 26:44.000] And updating that, you know, in a way that sort of still respects the original intent of the character, which I think is really important, right? Because for many characters, the original intent is not skin tone or hair colour or any number of those, you know, sort of outward facing features. It’s the personality that they bring. So I just really, you know, impressed with this level of transparency. [26:44.000 –> 26:50.000] It’s also not just diversity, right? Is this not the game that had like a literal child as a marriage candidate? [26:50.000 –> 26:52.000] You are potentially correct. [26:52.000 –> 26:59.000] Because I know there was certainly one that was like that. I feel like it was this one. And I believe they’ve changed that in the in the remake. [26:59.000 –> 27:08.000] Yeah, so not just to beat up on Sun Haven a little bit more, but this is the sort of communication that I’m looking for that makes me more likely to want to play a game, right? [27:08.000 –> 27:18.000] You don’t even need to go into this much detail, right? Like this is I think, this is very high above the bar rather than the bar that you need to cross. [27:18.000 –> 27:19.000] Absolutely. [27:19.000 –> 27:28.000] But certainly if you do this, we’re not going to complain. Yeah, I’ll have the link to the blog post in the show notes if you want to read it. [27:28.000 –> 27:36.000] All right, I think that’s all of the news. Pretty light week. That’s okay. These things happen. We’ve blabbered on about other things instead. [27:36.000 –> 27:39.000] Let’s talk Florence. So I guess… [27:39.000 –> 27:43.000] I love this game so much, Al. [27:43.000 –> 27:47.000] How many times have you played this game so far? Is it just the twice? [27:47.000 –> 28:00.000] No, I think I think I’ve played it four times. So Florence came out, I want to say 2018, maybe originally. [28:01.000 –> 28:05.000] And I think so I’ve probably played it like once a year since it came out. [28:05.000 –> 28:06.000] Okay. [28:06.000 –> 28:14.000] And it came out on iOS. And so, you know, I can just once a year, I probably think about Florence and I download it and I play it and I’m like, that was really satisfying. [28:14.000 –> 28:23.000] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it does look like it was 2018. And then it came to Mac OS, Windows and Switch in 2020. [28:23.000 –> 28:30.000] Yeah. And so I guess just talk a little bit about what Florence is. It’s more of an interactive novel than a game, right? [28:30.000 –> 28:39.000] The gameplay elements are very light touch and ultimately don’t have any real impact on the story that’s being told. [28:39.000 –> 28:42.000] Yes, there’s no failing. [28:42.000 –> 28:53.000] Yeah, I guess as a first question, how do you feel about that, you know, sort of that balance between, you know, it’s obviously game like mechanics, but it’s, it’s hard to call it a game. [28:53.000 –> 28:58.000] So, you know, how do you feel about that as a thing that you interact with? [28:58.000 –> 29:04.000] I’m going to try really hard not to get into debate about what a game is. [29:04.000 –> 29:13.000] I mean, so I mean, it’s a storytelling thing. What’s the word I’m looking for? It’s a way of telling a story, right? [29:13.000 –> 29:22.000] And there are many different ways of telling stories. And it is not, it is not a book. It is not a film. It is not a TV series. [29:22.000 –> 29:30.000] It is very definitely, if you line them up like that is a game, right? Like, I don’t think you can debate it as being something else. [29:30.000 –> 29:42.000] Right. I think if we want to differentiate interactive novels or visual novels or whatever from games, then sure, but that feels unnecessary, right? [29:42.000 –> 29:52.000] Like, if you’re looking for a challenging game, this is not it. If you’re looking for a storytelling experience, there are lots of games that are great storytelling experiences, and this is one of them. [29:52.000 –> 30:02.000] So if you look in your games for any sort of story, then this is for you. If you’re like, oh, I can’t stand story in games, then this is not for you. [30:02.000 –> 30:08.000] That’s kind of the key point. But there are many other games that people wouldn’t like if that was the case as well. [30:08.000 –> 30:14.000] Yeah, I think that’s really well put because it’s, and I think I agree. [30:15.000 –> 30:30.000] Not fussed on whether or not it’s called a game, but I agree because what I love about it, and I think what I love about games in general is them as storytelling devices, and this is purely a storytelling device. [30:30.000 –> 30:40.000] This is doing storytelling in ways that nothing else can. And that’s why I think it’s perfectly legitimate to call it a game because that’s what games do. Games tell stories in ways that nothing else can. [30:40.000 –> 31:01.000] Yeah, no, I agree. And I think that is what makes it right. If you just read the story or scroll through the story because it’s probably more of a visual novel style from that perspective, it would not carry the same weight if you just removed all of the interactive elements. [31:01.000 –> 31:11.000] Yeah, absolutely. And they use, we’ll get into this later on, but they use it, they use the interactive elements really well in the storytelling as well. They add a lot. [31:11.000 –> 31:20.000] So I guess I kind of described the mechanics as like WarioWare, but it’s actually telling you a story. [31:20.000 –> 31:34.000] So like with WarioWare, you’re like, hey, you’ve very quickly got to figure out what you’re meant to do. And it’s like one very small mechanic, and then you move on to the next minigame. It’s kind of like that. Each part of it has like a different way of interacting with the story. [31:34.000 –> 31:53.000] And initially, it doesn’t necessarily tell you how to do it, although if you wait, it will then give you the indication. But it kind of encourages the exploration of trying to figure out what you’re doing and then giving you hints if you can’t figure that out, which I think is a really interesting way of doing that. [31:53.000 –> 32:14.000] Yeah, and I think it’s a great way of doing tutorials, not just for games like this, but for games in general, because it encourages that exploration aspect and then gives you the nudge if it seems like you’re not making progress, right? Because it’s always satisfying when you can work things out without help, no matter the sort of game. [32:14.000 –> 32:39.000] Yeah, yeah. So there’s there’s some which is just like scrolling through and they’ve got kind of panels, kind of comic comic book esque panels. And then there’s other bits where there’s like very small puzzles, like jigsaws and scratch off panels and stuff like that. I mean, puzzle even calling it puzzle is still a little bit of a stretch. But, you know, there’s activities, shall we call it? [32:39.000 –> 32:55.000] Yeah, I like activities because yeah, you’re right. They, they feel puzzle like, but you’re not going to be sit there stuck on any of them. Maybe other than the there’s one puzzle where you have to bring things into focus. Yes. And it was always a little bit more difficult than everything else. [32:56.000 –> 33:24.000] Yeah, yeah, that one took me about maybe a quarter of the whole game’s time because I was trying to figure out what I was actually meant to do, because it wasn’t just like doing like one kind of slider to get a focus. It was two sliders and you had to like align them in the right way. But there’s no like visual indication with that other than the picture. So you have to do one of them and like get as focused as you can and then go on to the second one. And then that will be when you can then get it fully focused. [33:25.000 –> 33:27.000] I was very confused initially. [33:28.000 –> 33:35.000] I have to say every time I go back and play Florence, that is the one puzzle that I always get stuck on on what I’m meant to be doing and it takes me a few minutes to work it out and remember. [33:36.000 –> 33:48.000] Cool. So we obviously need to talk about this game and spoil a lot of it. Before we do that, is there anything else you want to talk about? But the mechanics? I think I’ve talked about everything I can without giving story spoilers. [33:49.000 –> 34:04.000] Yeah, no, I think I’m in the same bucket. But just if you are listening to this and what we’ve said so far is appealing, now is a great time to pause the show, take 40 minutes, go through and play Florence and then come back and listen to the rest of this conversation. [34:05.000 –> 34:15.000] That is a very good point because this is the rare situation where you can just go and do it and come back. Like when you say go play a game before you listen to the rest of it, normally it would take you multiple weeks. [34:16.000 –> 34:26.000] It literally will take you maybe half an hour if you’re fast, maybe an hour if you’re doing it very leisurely. But an hour is the absolute longest if you’re actually doing it. [34:26.000 –> 34:35.000] It is a really nice short thing. And last I checked it was on sale on the eShop on Switch, but it probably isn’t by the time this episode comes out. [34:36.000 –> 34:37.000] Right, should we get into spoilers? [34:38.000 –> 34:46.000] Let’s do it. This is your spoiler warning. Do not keep listening if you want to play the game and don’t want to be spoiled. This is your last and final warning. [34:47.000 –> 34:53.000] I’ve got a bunch of stuff that I want to talk about and I guess it’s all metaphors. There’s so many metaphors in this game. [34:54.000 –> 35:02.000] I guess the conversations one was the first one that was quite interesting to me and there’s lots of different things in the conversations that I thought was a really interesting way of showing things. [35:03.000 –> 35:10.000] So obviously when you’re doing the conversations you do have your visual indication of the players. You do see their facial expressions and stuff like that. [35:10.000 –> 35:13.000] But they do other things as well to kind of give you hints about what’s happening. [35:14.000 –> 35:26.000] So one thing I found really interesting was when you’re having your first date, the conversation, the way it works for people who haven’t played the game is you’re basically building up a puzzle. [35:27.000 –> 35:31.000] You’ve got a bunch of puzzle pieces and you have to put them together inside your speech bubble. [35:31.000 –> 35:39.000] And as the conversation progresses, there are fewer and fewer pieces for the same size of conversation bubble. [35:40.000 –> 35:46.000] And I don’t know if this is what they meant to do, but it felt to me like what they were saying is the relationship is developing. [35:47.000 –> 35:58.000] It wasn’t just the first date, sorry, it was the whole start of the relationship. As they got to know each other and as they felt more comfortable, the conversation got easier to make. [35:58.000 –> 36:04.000] There’s less work, less effort that needs to go in to make that conversation. [36:05.000 –> 36:18.000] Absolutely, yeah. And I think you’re exactly right. I think that is exactly what they were going for is the difficulty of completing those two puzzles was exactly related to how easy the conversation was to flow. [36:18.000 –> 36:33.000] And it felt like such a brilliant representation of that. And I’m not sure if we did cover it, but I guess the overarching story of Florence is following the relationship between Florence and, oh my God, his name just walked out of my head. [36:34.000 –> 36:41.000] Chris, thank you very much. Yeah, so it’s following their relationship, but from Florence’s perspective. [36:42.000 –> 36:50.000] And so when you’re filling in those conversations, you’re filling it in from her perspective and it gets easier over time. [36:51.000 –> 37:05.000] And then as their relationship develops and they have their first argument and some of the pieces become hard-edged and then eventually they become pointy and a little bit jagged. [37:05.000 –> 37:20.000] And I think the thing that I like the most is when they start arguing, there kind of becomes this time pressure element where the conversation sort of leans one way or the other, depending on who’s getting more words in, which I thought was brilliant. [37:21.000 –> 37:30.000] I thought it was also interesting if you continue the metaphor of how easy it is to say things like when you’re doing that bit, the time pressure bit of like just trying to do it as fast as possible. [37:30.000 –> 37:40.000] It’s one single piece. There is no puzzle. And so I guess that’s kind of like when you’re in an argument, it’s almost too easy to say things because you end up saying the wrong things. [37:41.000 –> 37:49.000] You end up saying things that hurt rather than actually things that build up and things that help and that aspect of it’s just a single one. You just throw it in the right place. [37:50.000 –> 37:56.000] You’re just throwing things out there to say things rather than to actually do something useful. [37:56.000 –> 38:09.000] Yeah, I think that’s a brilliant point because when the conversation is easy between them, it’s never a single piece. It’s always still a few, which I think absolutely represents that thoughtfulness that you have when you genuinely care about someone. [38:10.000 –> 38:19.000] And you want to have a meaningful conversation versus what you just said around arguing where you just sort of say the first thing that comes to mind and consequences be damned a little bit. [38:20.000 –> 38:26.000] And you’re not waiting to listen. You’re not listening to the question. You’re just throwing out those words. You gotta win. [38:27.000 –> 38:37.000] Exactly. Exactly. So I agree. I think for me, this is probably the strongest point of the game is those conversations and where they sort of happen. [38:38.000 –> 38:48.000] One of the other things that I really, really liked was when they eventually move in and you unpack and you get to kind of pick what goes where and what gets put in the box. [38:49.000 –> 38:58.000] And then how that flows through, I guess, to I guess we’ve already given the spoiler warning when they later moved out. [38:59.000 –> 39:05.000] And I believe I actually can’t remember, but I believe some of your choices persist through that. [39:06.000 –> 39:15.000] Yeah, you end up when you’re when you’re packing at the end, it’s almost the same as the way you unpacked. But yeah, there’s a few changes, I think. [39:15.000 –> 39:23.000] Which was it’s just really nice, right, to see that continuity from those decisions that you made and see some of that still there and some of it has changed. [39:24.000 –> 39:40.000] Yeah. Yeah. No, the unpacking decisions was interesting. It took me a while to figure out whether I was unpacking my stuff or sorry, Florence’s stuff into Chris’s house or the other way around, which I think it was the other way around. It was Chris moving in with Florence. [39:41.000 –> 39:43.000] It was Chris’s stuff, yeah, into Florence’s house. [39:43.000 –> 39:52.000] And so, like, initially I was like, oh, all this stuff in the box because I don’t need any of this stuff. And then I realized, oh, no, I was putting his stuff in the box. Oh, no. [39:55.000 –> 39:59.000] Yeah. Yeah. No, I thought that was that was really interesting as well. [40:00.000 –> 40:16.000] My other kind of biggest metaphor that I liked was the this again in two parts, you’ve got the point where when they’re starting the relationship, they’re looking at it’s either mirrors or windows or whatever. It doesn’t massively matter. [40:16.000 –> 40:29.000] And you do the scratch off minigame, you scratch off the mirror or the window and you’re basically showing their hopes and dreams for them individually and the relationship as a whole. [40:30.000 –> 40:44.000] And then when you get to the point where they’re clearly struggling, but before they’ve broken up and you’re presented with those hopes and dreams again, and then you scratch off to see the reality underneath, which is not as rosy as they’d hoped it would be. [40:44.000 –> 41:01.000] And that is really this is a funny thing, because like I was looking through some of my I was doing some tidying up today and I was reading through some stuff that I’d found, which was like letters that my wife wrote to me before we were like when we were just starting our relationship. [41:01.000 –> 41:12.000] And it’s interesting to kind of look back on that and see how then like think about that person and what their their thoughts and hopes were for the future and what life is. [41:12.000 –> 41:22.000] And you could you can constantly worry about that and think, well, life is not what I hoped it would be, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not good. It doesn’t mean that it’s not something that you can continue. [41:22.000 –> 41:33.000] It’s just it’s really easy to to look at those hopes and dreams and go, that is my failure. That’s what we could have had, whereas in reality, it never was. [41:34.000 –> 41:48.000] And just that that act of scratching away those hopes and dreams and seeing the reality, what is clearly showing at that point as being the sadder reality was quite something. [41:48.000 –> 41:57.000] Yeah, I don’t really have much to add on that, because I think that was just really well, really well said and just really well done in the game. [41:57.000 –> 42:02.000] Sort of those, you know, reflection of hopes and then seeing how those progress over the course of the story. [42:05.000 –> 42:12.000] I was going to ask, maybe you can maybe you can help me with the the job metaphor, because I feel like I’m kind of half there. I’ve just not quite figured it out. [42:13.000 –> 42:32.000] So, yeah, I’ll talk about the job metaphor where you’re sort of matching numbers and in the background and at the start, it’s very clearly Florence is just not enjoying her job, is very sort of worn out with it. [42:32.000 –> 42:41.000] And to me, it’s kind of that’s the most difficult. I believe the first time you do it is the most difficult version of the puzzle. [42:41.000 –> 42:50.000] And you do it sort of, I think, three times over the course of the game and they reflect different stages, technically four times. But yeah, right. Yeah, four times. [42:50.000 –> 43:04.000] So it reflects different stages of, you know, how Florence feels about her life affects her performance at her job, because the second time you do it, she’s still in the same job, but she’s in the relationship with Krish. [43:04.000 –> 43:14.000] And it’s easier, right, because she’s happy outside of work, which even though she doesn’t enjoy the job, it’s easier for her to do. [43:14.000 –> 43:26.000] And then there comes a time where she has her own business and is doing what she loves. And it’s super, you know, it’s super easy for her because she is in a good space. [43:26.000 –> 43:36.000] Oh, actually, I think the fourth time, which I just remember is in between the second of the ones that I mentioned there when they’re broken up and it goes back to being really difficult for her to do again. [43:36.000 –> 43:49.000] Yeah, so this is where I’m a little bit confused, right? So, yeah, the first one definitely, it’s like, you know, just starting out, I think she’s just starting out the job at that point, you know, is kind of getting used to figuring out what to do. [43:49.000 –> 43:57.000] And so obviously things as you start there, they’re kind of slow. The second one, I kind of read it as I didn’t make any connection with the relationship. [43:57.000 –> 44:09.000] I made it more like she is at the point where she’s good at her job now and, you know, kind of like enthused by the fact that she’s good at it now and just, you know, breezing through stuff. [44:09.000 –> 44:16.000] But by the time you get to the third one, although, yes, they have broken up by this point, I felt like that bit was more. Oh, no, they hadn’t broken up by that point. [44:17.000 –> 44:34.000] It was just before the breakup, I think, wasn’t it? I more thought that was like disillusionment with the job rather than necessarily the outside, the other life situations and therefore not putting in as much effort rather than the difficulty. [44:34.000 –> 44:40.000] Because the second time you as the player don’t actually do anything, like Florence just does it all almost straight away. [44:40.000 –> 44:52.000] Whereas the third time you have to do it again. And that I kind of read as the lack of enthusiasm and being disillusioned with the job, which then moves into the fourth one of being her own business. [44:52.000 –> 45:06.000] She’s now chosen to do something else. But that one, presumably, then you have to do that again. So it’s not as easy as the second time you did it because it’s a reasonably new thing at that point, the new business. [45:06.000 –> 45:19.000] Yeah, I think probably what I took away is a little bit of the outside in and it’s a little bit, you know, to me, I didn’t really associate the job piece with her competence at it. [45:19.000 –> 45:30.000] For me, it was a little bit of a, you know, when things are going well, it is easier for other things to feel not so bad or to go better. [45:30.000 –> 45:39.000] So for me, it was kind of a little bit of the story of Florence, I think is, I guess, recognizing that every aspect of your life is interconnected. [45:39.000 –> 45:49.000] Right. So, you know, personally at the moment, right, work is in a tough spot and part of that flows into my personal life. Right. [45:49.000 –> 45:58.000] It’s, you know, I’m more tired, I’m probably a little bit more irritable to be around some of those sorts of things. And the reverse is true, right? [45:58.000 –> 46:07.000] When, you know, sometimes in your personal life is going really good, it’s easier to come into work and to be happy and to let some of those negative things that happen sort of, you know, bounce off you. [46:07.000 –> 46:27.000] And that was my takeaway of what I thought the work was. And often work was also associated with a call from your mum, which I always found to be a really interesting aspect because it was very much like Florence is meant to be 25 in the story. [46:27.000 –> 46:38.000] And it’s a little bit of that, you know, not quite out of the adolescent sort of mindset yet being a little bit grumpy with mum who’s calling in the middle of the workday. [46:38.000 –> 47:07.000] Yeah, I also took that as a little bit like there&

Al and Bev talk about Coral Island Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:46: What Have We Been Up To 00:08:02: News 00:17:22: Coral Island 01:40:08: Outro Links Research Story Update Sun Down Update APICO Console Update Grave Seasons Coral Island 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 –> 00:23.960] Theme tune [00:23.960 –> 00:38.000] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Al. And [00:38.000 –> 00:45.240] my name is Bev. And we are here today to talk about cottagecore games. Woo! I still called [00:45.240 –> 00:51.800] them farmers. I mean, they’re always going to be farmers to us, I feel like. And I also [00:51.800 –> 01:00.920] discovered that goblincore is actually a real thing. And that is my vibe. I thought [01:00.920 –> 01:10.600] it was a joke. I didn’t realize it was real. And now I’ve accepted. Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. [01:10.600 –> 01:16.060] Um, cool. Well, let’s just get straight into it. And today we’re going to talk about Coral [01:16.060 –> 01:21.720] Island. We finally got here. We finally doing this episode. I feel like we’re right at the [01:21.720 –> 01:25.920] wrong time to talk about this game, right? Because it’s not just in early access. But [01:25.920 –> 01:30.400] we’re also like, not just about to have the fight the 1.0 release. So we’re just kind [01:30.400 –> 01:37.120] of like in that awkward middle. But the summer update is coming in like two weeks, I think [01:37.120 –> 01:42.280] maybe one week, something like that. So maybe maybe that’s good enough. And so we’re going [01:42.280 –> 01:47.200] to talk about that. Lots of thoughts. Before that, we’ll have some news. And but first [01:47.200 –> 01:56.720] of all, Bev, what have you been up to? I am starting my best farming life IRL. I recently [01:56.720 –> 02:04.800] bought a coop and built it. And we just got two little chicks yesterday. So we are chicken [02:04.800 –> 02:11.960] owners and they are adorable and they’re going to be our inside pets. And they’re so cute [02:11.960 –> 02:17.880] and so cuddly. And one purrs and one is just they like they’re only three days old, I think [02:17.880 –> 02:23.200] and they already have personalities. And I’m really excited about this. And I really hope [02:23.200 –> 02:29.800] my cats don’t eat them. That feels like it would be like the kind of bare minimum you’d [02:29.800 –> 02:37.880] want. Right, right. Like can we just not cats? Can we can we not? So the younger one who [02:37.880 –> 02:43.760] always has always been inside. He is just very curious and confused by them. He thinks [02:43.760 –> 02:48.280] they are toys and like, why can’t I play with the toys? I think it’s the older one that [02:48.280 –> 02:52.560] we’re a little bit more worried about because she used to be an outside cat. Right? Yeah. [02:52.560 –> 03:00.840] So she’s she could shoot. Yeah. So we’ll just we’ll just take it slow and see how it goes. [03:00.840 –> 03:07.880] Not eat the chicks. That’s the that’s that would be a good plan. [03:07.880 –> 03:13.800] And I’ve been playing roots of Pacha and have been obsessed lately, I guess with just random [03:13.800 –> 03:20.400] mobile games. I don’t know why. But like solitaire and the ads are getting to me. So I’m just [03:20.400 –> 03:24.280] constantly downloading the new ones and be like, Oh, let me try this and see if I actually [03:24.280 –> 03:33.840] like this. Cool. How about you? I have been playing a ridiculous amount of Coral Island, [03:33.840 –> 03:38.920] right? Like, we, we decided to do this episode. Well, we’ve been planning to do this episode [03:38.920 –> 03:44.040] for quite a while. Like, I think we must have decided this like, I don’t know, like, six [03:44.040 –> 03:47.760] months ago, we decided we were going to do this episode. But we never actually put in [03:47.760 –> 03:51.880] the time, mainly because they didn’t have like the controller support to start with. [03:51.880 –> 03:58.380] And I was not playing this on the PC. No, you can’t make me. So we were waiting on on [03:58.380 –> 04:04.400] controller support first. And then eventually, we got there. I think just like life got in [04:04.400 –> 04:08.440] the way. So eventually, you were like, Oh, yeah, we can I can do this next week. And [04:08.440 –> 04:14.160] I was like, Okay, all right, let’s do this then. And I have put 25 hours into it this [04:14.160 –> 04:21.840] week, which is a lot of time like I don’t normally play 2425 hours of a game in a week. [04:21.840 –> 04:27.480] But I was like, I need to do this one properly. So that is most of my gaming time. I’ve been [04:27.480 –> 04:34.000] playing a bit of Pokemon, not Pokemon Snap, Marvel Snap. And Pokemon Go. You know, the [04:34.000 –> 04:41.520] usuals. Nothing too special. And yeah, just bits and pieces here and there. Coral Island. [04:41.520 –> 04:42.520] That’s about it. [04:42.520 –> 04:48.480] Beautiful. Yeah, I’ve, I think I put up in about the same amount of time in a short while [04:48.480 –> 04:52.800] I’ve taken a little break from it since since rooster pacha came out. But yeah, I was the [04:52.800 –> 04:59.240] same. You want to go for that prehistoric farming sim instead? Uh huh. I was excited [04:59.240 –> 05:04.720] about it. And it’s not early access. So do you have any first thoughts on it? Obviously, [05:04.720 –> 05:09.920] we’re not in a proper episode on that yet. Yeah. Any first thoughts? I am enjoying it [05:09.920 –> 05:15.680] a lot. It’s a like I, you know, like you look at these farming sends and like often you’ll [05:15.680 –> 05:19.800] have to compare it to Stardew because of course, that’s where they’re based off of. [05:19.800 –> 05:27.480] Yeah. And I feel like this is like, like new enough that it it’s exciting and doesn’t quite [05:27.480 –> 05:32.560] feel like it’s just a Stardew in a different world. Yeah. Because it’s a whole different [05:32.560 –> 05:39.240] mechanics. I, I thought we would almost get like a completely capitalistic free like game. [05:39.240 –> 05:44.640] But there’s still a currency. But where I think they just can’t do it. It’s like an [05:44.640 –> 05:51.100] exchange system. But yeah, okay. Okay. But like the there’s like this, I don’t know, [05:51.100 –> 05:56.200] I don’t want to get too into it. But I’ve been I mean, just to be fair currency doesn’t [05:56.200 –> 06:02.000] equal capitalism, right? Like, you can have currency without being capitalistic, I guess [06:02.000 –> 06:07.880] like there’s, there’s almost two different types of currency. There’s like, like overall [06:07.880 –> 06:13.760] contribution. So there’s a contribution. And that’s like what you use for purchasing, like, [06:13.760 –> 06:18.600] upgrades and, and furniture and stuff. And then there’s another one that I forget what it’s called, [06:18.600 –> 06:24.560] that just continues to add up. And that’s just like the value of your society. Yes. [06:24.560 –> 06:31.240] Okay. GDP. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They’ve implemented GDP in a prehistoric game. [06:31.240 –> 06:38.160] It’s fun. It’s cute. The animals are cute. [06:38.160 –> 06:46.360] All right, fair enough. Well, we’ll see how that continues. I think we have a we have a planned, [06:46.360 –> 06:52.480] hopefully planned episode for that upcoming. So we’ll see what people think of that. I haven’t [06:52.480 –> 06:58.560] played at all. I might at some point, but like, there’s enough, there’s enough people playing it [06:58.600 –> 07:02.800] that I can, I’m going to at least wait until the episode comes out. To decide, [07:02.800 –> 07:05.920] I can actually use my podcast. So the way that I want my podcast to be used, [07:05.920 –> 07:10.400] I just don’t get to use it like that very often, right? Because I’m normally the one playing things [07:10.400 –> 07:15.040] and telling people what it’s like. But this way, I can actually listen to it and decide whether I [07:15.040 –> 07:20.360] want to play or not. Because weirdly, I never backed that one. Like, it’s I don’t know why [07:20.360 –> 07:28.440] I backed almost every single Kickstarter farming game for the past five years. And didn’t with that [07:28.480 –> 07:37.480] one. And I’m not sure why. I don’t know. Maybe just too many games. That’s why. Yeah, but I feel [07:37.480 –> 07:43.080] like if not, I didn’t really feel that, that there’s too many games until the last few months [07:43.080 –> 07:48.240] released, or maybe last year. And this, this was like, quite a few years ago, this, this game, [07:48.240 –> 07:52.960] when it started, I feel like it was like three years ago, it was a 2021 maybe a Kickstarter [07:52.960 –> 07:57.080] or something like that. I don’t know. It’s been a while. Well, yeah, there’s too much to remember. [07:57.080 –> 08:09.560] Anyway, shall we talk about some news? News. So first of all, research story. We’ve got a 0.2 [08:09.560 –> 08:14.920] update coming out. And Bev, this has something that I think you might be excited about. I am [08:14.920 –> 08:23.120] very much so. Because that means I can not have to play handheld on my Steam Deck. Controller [08:23.160 –> 08:30.200] support. Whoo. Realized I hadn’t actually said the words. We’re pretty much a fan of controller [08:30.200 –> 08:34.680] support on this podcast. Yeah, I think this was the one of the big things that you had on the on [08:34.680 –> 08:39.040] the podcast episode about this was the lack of controller support, causing issues for for both [08:39.040 –> 08:43.920] of you, I think. Even though Cody doesn’t have a Steam Deck, it was still causing some issues. So [08:43.920 –> 08:50.720] good that that is that is coming out. It’s out. Yes, it’s out now. So you got that there. And [08:51.600 –> 08:56.160] we’ll see how that goes. It looks like they have proper remapping as well. So if you have any [08:56.160 –> 09:02.480] issues with with the the automatic mapping, you can change change what control does what, [09:02.480 –> 09:08.400] which is the good way to do it, not just for you and me, but for you know, accessibility and stuff [09:08.400 –> 09:12.800] like that, as well as always, always very important. It has some other things as well, [09:12.800 –> 09:22.320] like cloud saves and support for 5120 by 1440 resolution. You got to love that 32 by nine [09:22.320 –> 09:30.560] resolution. So if you’ve been wanting to play an eight bit graphics game on a 32 by nine screen, [09:30.560 –> 09:33.600] you can you can now do it without the start menu being caught off. [09:34.480 –> 09:36.480] Beautiful. [09:36.480 –> 09:43.680] Absolutely bizarre. I think there was some issues if you have played the game on multiple devices, [09:43.680 –> 09:48.000] and you hadn’t had cloud save set up. If you’ve only played on one device, and it’s not an issue, [09:48.000 –> 09:54.960] but yeah, so if you if you’ve played research story, before this update, and you have played [09:54.960 –> 10:01.120] it on multiple devices with the same steam account, you’ll need you might need to do some [10:01.200 –> 10:07.680] jiggery pokery with with the cloud. Is that not a term you would know? [10:09.360 –> 10:16.000] Um, I feel like that is so actually googling it is gives up with a different definition than what [10:16.000 –> 10:24.560] I would assume. So Google says deceitful or dishonest behavior. I would just mean like, [10:24.560 –> 10:30.240] kind of fiddling around with things. Anyway, so you might need to fiddle around with things [10:30.240 –> 10:35.360] in your data structure to get it to work. But they’ve got on steam, they have instructions [10:35.360 –> 10:42.560] on how to do it if if you come up with an issue. Beautiful. And that will be linked in the show [10:42.560 –> 10:49.360] notes. It has like UI improvements as well, which I greatly appreciate as well that they took the [10:49.360 –> 10:55.520] time to like put in very small quality of life improvements. So there you go. I’m done. Yeah, [10:55.520 –> 11:03.360] there’s a bunch of what we’ll have to fill the full update notes in the show notes. Which, [11:03.360 –> 11:08.560] yeah, a lot of these small changes will probably not make it not be important to anybody who other [11:08.560 –> 11:14.080] than people who’ve played it. But yeah, this this, that’s a good point. They are they are improving [11:14.640 –> 11:19.040] things, not just adding what they wanted to, but also changing things based on feedback, [11:19.040 –> 11:23.840] which is always good. I mean, that’s why you do early access. You don’t just do early access [11:23.840 –> 11:27.440] to get your game out earlier. That’s a bad way to do early access, you do early access [11:27.440 –> 11:35.040] to get feedback from the community. Our next update is Sun Down version 1.2. So this is the [11:35.040 –> 11:44.640] one that is from the developers of Sun Haven. And it’s, I think it’s meant to be a rogue light, [11:44.640 –> 11:52.480] or is it just your favorite? I’ve just to come. I lose track of these things. Look, [11:52.480 –> 11:56.560] there’s lots of, it looks like it’s heavily focused on combat. Yeah, that’s what it looks [11:56.560 –> 12:01.200] like. I’m just confused. I’m just confused as to the difference between it and Sun Haven. [12:02.080 –> 12:07.680] But I’ve not played either of the games yet. Yeah, same. Although Sun Haven, Sun Haven wouldn’t [12:07.680 –> 12:13.760] change my switch code to a steam code when I got steam deck. So I haven’t been able to play it yet. [12:13.760 –> 12:19.760] Oh, sad. Yeah. Anyway, so the update has a bunch of a bunch of stuff. I mean, nothing that’s like, [12:19.760 –> 12:23.360] this is really important. If you’ve played the game, the link will be in the show notes. [12:23.360 –> 12:25.440] If you haven’t played the game, you don’t care about what there is. [12:27.520 –> 12:32.320] But it’s just a generic update with characters and content and stuff like that. So [12:33.280 –> 12:39.280] and the third update news, apparently almost all the news is update news this week [12:39.280 –> 12:44.160] is the Apico 2.0 update. So that was the butterflies update, which is already on PC [12:45.040 –> 12:51.760] is coming to PlayStation and switch on the 11th of May. Very exciting. Yeah, yeah. Uh huh. [12:52.320 –> 12:55.120] I still haven’t played this update. So I need to do it at some point. But [12:55.840 –> 12:59.040] I haven’t gotten to the point where I can actually take advantage of it. [13:00.800 –> 13:06.400] Yeah, but I just want to go in to meet Cody. Right. I haven’t met Cody yet either. Yeah, [13:06.400 –> 13:09.440] I want to get to that point. Because yeah, I said this is the butterflies update, [13:09.440 –> 13:14.640] but really is the Cody update. Mm hmm. Yes. So if you want the Cody update, [13:14.640 –> 13:18.080] and you’re only you’re playing the game on PlayStation or switch, you can get it [13:18.720 –> 13:25.360] in just over a week. Yes. Excited. You can get it two days before the Eurovision Eurovision final. [13:25.360 –> 13:29.200] Oh, goodness. Yes. It’s not time. It’s not time. [13:31.840 –> 13:37.360] And the final piece of news that we’ve got is about a new game being announced. We don’t have [13:37.360 –> 13:42.560] a huge amount of information about this game. Because it’s like literally just been talked [13:42.560 –> 13:47.360] about, like we don’t have any kind of information on what is coming out on blah, blah, blah. But [13:47.360 –> 13:55.120] this is called grave seasons. It’s an upcoming project. And it is a farming sim, where each time [13:55.120 –> 14:02.480] you load a new game, randomly one of the villagers is selected to be a serial killer. So it is a [14:02.480 –> 14:13.200] murder mystery farming game. Uh huh. And I love this so much. I so much. Is this sarcasm? I can’t [14:13.200 –> 14:18.240] tell. No, no, no. I think it’s amazing. Well, this is the thing like we were talking about [14:18.240 –> 14:24.640] so many games are just like, Oh, it started you. But it’s this, but it’s that right? Whereas this [14:24.640 –> 14:29.520] is like, completely. Well, it’s not completely different. But like actually has a hook that’s [14:29.520 –> 14:36.640] interesting, not just like words in space. It’s like no one of the one of the people is out to [14:36.640 –> 14:48.400] kill you. So you get to get you can keep track of who’s been murdered. And I just, I love it. [14:48.400 –> 14:53.760] It’s great. I want this game. I want this, but I’m also a little confused by it. Like, [14:53.760 –> 14:58.640] is this a rogue blight? Where like, like, what does it mean when you start the game? Because I [14:58.640 –> 15:03.280] like every time you open up the game? No, no. So it’s like each each new save file, right? So I [15:03.280 –> 15:06.560] don’t think it’s meant to be like, rogue lite. So it’s not meant to be like you play for half [15:06.560 –> 15:12.880] an hour and figure it out. But I think it’s like, okay, I think the idea is that you’ll probably [15:12.880 –> 15:18.080] play this more than once. So it’s kind of, I guess I see what you can think in terms of like, [15:18.080 –> 15:22.160] is it like a rogue like? And I guess the kind of the answer is like, well, you could probably play [15:22.160 –> 15:26.960] it like that and just play until you either. I don’t know whether you can die. You either play [15:26.960 –> 15:30.960] till you die or you figured out who the murderer is. And then you can start a new one and start [15:30.960 –> 15:36.960] again. Like that’s that would probably be like a unexpected way to play this. But you can probably [15:36.960 –> 15:40.240] also just play it like a normal farming sim. And if you figure out who the murderer is, [15:40.240 –> 15:47.280] then you just keep going without them. So, uh huh. Okay, yeah, this is this is good. This is [15:47.280 –> 15:53.120] this is I’m excited for it. Yeah. Now that I know maybe hopefully a little more understanding of what [15:53.120 –> 15:57.120] it might actually look like. Yeah, I mean, well, this is the thing like, oh, there’s so much still [15:57.120 –> 16:03.040] unknown. Like we don’t have any idea like, can you be murdered? Can you keep playing after you’ve [16:03.040 –> 16:09.040] figured out the murderer? Can you accuse somebody and it turns out they’re not the murderer? What [16:09.040 –> 16:13.920] happens then? You know, like, there’s just so many unknowns. What happens if everybody’s murdered [16:13.920 –> 16:19.920] except you? Like, what do you do about these things? I’m just I’m really fascinated to see [16:19.920 –> 16:26.320] what they do with it. I love the idea. Yes, more like this. Yeah. And now we just need somebody to [16:26.320 –> 16:30.720] make the one where you can break up the couples because that’s the one. Oh, my goodness. Uh huh. [16:31.920 –> 16:37.040] I won’t shut up about it till somebody does it. Someone will eventually. I hope so. Yeah, [16:37.040 –> 16:44.160] I’m sure they will. It’s gonna happen. I just need to get like properly famous and then I can [16:44.160 –> 16:48.560] like pay someone to do it. Right. That’s I don’t want to make it myself, right? I don’t want to [16:48.880 –> 16:55.600] figure all that out. I just want it to exist. I want to play it. Mm hmm. You know? Yeah. [16:56.560 –> 17:02.000] We clearly have a lot of ideas on this podcast. So we need to just partner up with a dev, I guess, [17:02.000 –> 17:06.480] and figure out how I don’t even want to partner up. Right. I just want someone to do. I will. [17:08.480 –> 17:13.440] I will. I am a visionary, right? Like, I come up with the overall ideas. I’m like, I want [17:14.080 –> 17:19.040] this. And then I just like, just make it. I don’t, I don’t really care about the details, [17:19.040 –> 17:23.360] right? I’ll care about the details when I’m playing the game. Uh huh. Anyway, [17:25.600 –> 17:28.320] speaking of caring about the details when we’re playing a game, [17:28.320 –> 17:33.600] should we talk about Coral Island? Yes, let’s do it. Alright, so just some quick [17:34.240 –> 17:38.880] overall information before we get down into the ridiculously deep depths of mechanics, [17:38.880 –> 17:47.280] which we always end up doing in this game. We are going to talk about Coral Island. It is [17:47.280 –> 17:55.120] currently in early access on Steam and Game Pass. It’s also going to come out on Xbox, PlayStation, [17:55.120 –> 18:00.240] and Switch at some point. But obviously, early access don’t tend to come to them. [18:01.200 –> 18:08.720] It came in early access on October, in October last year. And there has been two updates so far, [18:08.720 –> 18:14.000] and there’s a third one just about to come out. And I think it’s literally less than two weeks. [18:14.000 –> 18:21.200] I’m so excited. In nine days. I checked. And then I think is it two more updates that are slated [18:21.200 –> 18:26.480] before the final version? I think so. I can’t really scroll on like the screen where it has [18:26.720 –> 18:38.880] the roadmap. So I’m not entirely sure. As far as I can see, they’ve said that the full release is [18:38.880 –> 18:45.280] probably coming out this year. But who knows? Who knows? I’m excited. I hope so. [18:45.280 –> 18:50.400] Let me just double check the roadmap. Oh, there’s more than just two updates. So there’s the summer [18:50.480 –> 18:56.080] update is just just about to come out. And then there’s the merfolk update, the fall update, [18:56.080 –> 19:01.200] the winter update, the end game update, the marriage and children update, and then the 1.0. [19:02.160 –> 19:07.040] Wow. Okay. Yeah, this game isn’t this game isn’t releasing finally this year. Like, [19:07.040 –> 19:13.120] we’ll be lucky if it’s next year. I’m fine with that, honestly. [19:13.120 –> 19:17.440] Oh, sure. Sure. I’m not complaining about it. I’m just saying like, they it’s it’s just one of [19:17.440 –> 19:20.640] these classic things, right? Where they’re like, Oh, yeah, it’ll take us about a year to get all [19:20.640 –> 19:29.120] of the updates. You’re like, nah, no, no chance. No chance, mate. Like every time I see us on early [19:29.120 –> 19:33.680] access, and one of the things you have to answer when you’re doing early access is how long do you [19:33.680 –> 19:39.840] expect this to be an early access? And they’re always like six months or a year. And you’re [19:39.840 –> 19:43.680] like, come on, at least give us something realistic, right? Like, nobody is ever going [19:43.680 –> 19:47.360] to complain that you do it too early. Right? Say three years, it will take me three years, [19:47.360 –> 19:51.600] because like, it could take you three years. And if it doesn’t, everyone’s going to be like, [19:51.600 –> 19:54.480] wow, that’s amazing. They did it in last time than they said they would. [19:54.480 –> 20:00.880] True. Yeah, more people should take that route. Like, over overshoot instead of undershoot. [20:01.840 –> 20:04.960] Absolutely. More people should listen to what I see. Oh, my God. [20:04.960 –> 20:13.200] I agree. Cool. So I guess just overall, this is a very much a Stardew like, [20:14.240 –> 20:18.880] and we can, we’ll have debates, I’m sure later on about whether it does the thing that we want, [20:18.880 –> 20:24.640] which is being different, or whether it’s just the same, but in a different skin on a different [20:25.200 –> 20:32.560] place, etc, etc. But it’s very definitely Stardew. Like, that is absolutely what it’s taken a lot of [20:32.640 –> 20:36.960] stuff from. There’s a lot of stuff in this that are like, is like, that was that was Stardew, [20:36.960 –> 20:41.520] right? Like, yeah, that’s what Stardew did. And therefore, that’s what they do. They have done a [20:41.520 –> 20:47.920] bunch of things on top of that. And I guess the biggest thing is it is a, it is set on an island. [20:48.640 –> 20:54.400] I think it’s meant to be a tropical island. Yeah. Oh, it’s definitely a tropical. I think [20:54.400 –> 21:01.440] that’s the only place that coral actually grows right in the tropics. And they kind of will get [21:01.440 –> 21:06.240] to the specifics of the mechanics. But there’s this, you can go underwater is basically the big, [21:06.240 –> 21:12.080] the big functional change, obviously, like, story wise and stuff. It’s kind of built more around. [21:13.360 –> 21:19.840] It feels like it’s meant to be Pacific Island type thing. But it’s hard to like, it’s obviously not [21:19.840 –> 21:23.760] like setting itself in a specific place. But that’s kind of the vibes I get from [21:24.800 –> 21:31.120] I think it definitely is set in a specific place. Because they reference pokio all the time. [21:31.440 –> 21:41.760] So I think it’s like, maybe like a an island off of Japan is where I’m thinking it would [21:41.760 –> 21:47.280] like geographically land. I mean, I think that would make sense. Because I need to double check. [21:47.280 –> 21:55.200] But I feel like they’re the company’s based in something like, as Indonesia, I was thinking the [21:55.200 –> 22:01.760] Philippines, but Indonesia. Yeah. So that would kind of make, it’s obviously not this exactly [22:01.760 –> 22:06.320] there. But like, that’s, that’s the kind of vague, vague area where we’re talking. [22:08.720 –> 22:16.800] So yeah, kind of West Pacific. And I feel like I would also describe this game as like Sturdy [22:16.800 –> 22:23.120] Valley meets Animal Crossing, more so in the environment. Yeah, that’s, that’s a very good [22:23.120 –> 22:27.760] point. There is a lot that it takes from Animal Crossing as well. I, I think I guess it’s, [22:27.760 –> 22:31.920] it’s really easy to merge those two together. So like, if we talk, for example, about like, [22:31.920 –> 22:38.080] the museum, the museum is very much Animal Crossing. Whereas, you know, Sturdy’s, it’s, [22:38.080 –> 22:44.240] if you actually think about it, Sturdy’s museum is very simple, right? Like, it’s, it’s, it’s just [22:44.240 –> 22:49.440] the artifacts, it doesn’t have anything else. Whereas this is very much, very much Animal [22:49.440 –> 22:54.000] Crossing inspired museum. Which I appreciate. That’s a good, that’s a good point. And there’s, [22:54.000 –> 22:56.960] yeah, there’s some other things and stuff, obviously, like, it’s island based. So you [22:56.960 –> 23:04.480] could argue that blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, no, that’s fair. Is that a good introduction? [23:04.480 –> 23:08.000] Have I missed anything introduction wise that we want to talk about? No, I think it’s good. [23:08.000 –> 23:12.640] It’s good. I mean, other than like, the art style being 100% different than Sturdy. [23:12.640 –> 23:17.040] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s, that’s fair. So let’s, let’s get, let’s go into that first [23:17.040 –> 23:22.160] then. Should we talk about the look and feel, the art style, the music, that sort of stuff? [23:22.720 –> 23:29.520] What are your thoughts? I absolutely love it. I think it’s so pretty. Everything is just, [23:29.520 –> 23:34.880] I don’t know, like, like the, the menu screen is just so very pleasing to look at, like the font [23:35.440 –> 23:45.040] choices, the NPC art, the animals, like, I don’t have any complaints, like, about the art style. [23:46.000 –> 23:49.840] I absolutely love it. I think it’s gorgeous and beautiful. [23:51.520 –> 23:56.720] Yeah, I think I’d agree with that is it’s very good looking art. They’ve clearly put a lot of [23:56.720 –> 24:02.720] time and effort into, as you talk about the portraits, the character portraits are really [24:02.720 –> 24:10.720] good. I will say the 3d models of the characters a little bit weird. The kind of the way that they [24:10.800 –> 24:18.160] stand and walk is a little bit awkward. But yeah, like the the character portraits in particular [24:18.160 –> 24:26.240] lovely. The most of the other non people models are great. I don’t know, it might be deliberate, [24:26.240 –> 24:30.960] the kind of weirdness of how they stand and walk. I think so, like a little bit of a swagger, [24:30.960 –> 24:36.880] or like an attempt at swagger. It just, it just feels weird to me. And maybe that’s just a [24:36.880 –> 24:41.200] personal preference thing. I’m not sure but and it doesn’t, it doesn’t kill me. Like it [24:41.200 –> 24:45.840] doesn’t cause me great issues. Right? Like most of the time, I’m not really seeing them anyway. [24:47.280 –> 24:53.600] Because I’m going to be honest, I just basically completely ignored the people in this game. [24:54.640 –> 24:59.520] Other than like, story wise, and the giants, like everyone else, I just completely ignored. [25:00.240 –> 25:02.400] Because there’s only so much you can do. [25:03.360 –> 25:06.720] Yes, you have to focus your time on things. [25:06.720 –> 25:11.680] And so I ignored relationships. Like I have no relationships with anybody other than the giants. [25:11.680 –> 25:13.520] I’ve also taken the same route. [25:15.280 –> 25:23.120] Okay, so we’ll probably talk about the people in another episode. I suspect we’ll end up doing [25:23.120 –> 25:28.560] like a blitz where we do a one panel episode as well. But we’ll see. Maybe we can talk about [25:28.560 –> 25:33.920] people in that episode. I think a lot of it is like, there’s obviously a lot of the relationship [25:33.920 –> 25:39.120] based stuff that isn’t fully implemented as well. So it kind of feels like a sensible one to kind [25:39.120 –> 25:42.960] of skip out at this point. But I know some people really love the relationship stuff. [25:44.240 –> 25:51.200] I don’t hate it in all games, but like, I’m fine with just ignoring that for for something. So [25:53.040 –> 25:55.360] yeah, okay, cool. So music, what about music? [25:55.680 –> 26:02.080] Oh, I feel like I don’t hear the music as much. Even with like, having it like all the way up. [26:02.640 –> 26:08.400] I mostly maybe I just like go into the settings and, and fix that. So I can’t really comment on [26:08.400 –> 26:12.560] the music because I haven’t really like noticed anything. How about you? [26:12.560 –> 26:17.280] I’ve liked the music, I will say it’s the one place I’ve noticed some performance issues. [26:17.280 –> 26:22.320] So I think if we talk about this game in general, like a lot of early access games go early access [26:22.320 –> 26:27.760] to like bug fix. This is done the thing that I like, when they do early access that ooblets did [26:27.760 –> 26:34.800] as well, which was this is like a fully functional part of a game. And the bits that we don’t have [26:34.800 –> 26:40.080] are bits that you can’t do. And you know, it’s not we’ve implemented everything, but it’s all [26:40.080 –> 26:45.200] slightly buggy, and we’ll fix it at some point. It’s no the core loop is there and so solid, [26:45.760 –> 26:50.400] the and the bits that we’ve implemented in terms of like story and all these things, [26:50.400 –> 26:56.640] they are there and they are good and you will not complain about them. You know, there are going to [26:56.640 –> 27:03.040] be missing bits, but that’s mainly content and some features. It’s not, it’s not really bugs. [27:03.040 –> 27:08.800] So I find it to be pretty stable. But yeah, the one issue I found is that sometimes the music can [27:08.800 –> 27:16.400] be a bit clippy, like it will stutter a bit. And so hopefully that will be fixed at some point. [27:16.960 –> 27:21.920] But that’s, that’s the only thing I’ve really noticed performance wise, or kind of buggy, [27:21.920 –> 27:26.560] bugginess wise. There’s been a couple of bits here and there. But like, if this, [27:27.360 –> 27:32.800] if this was the quality of a released game, I think it was perfectly acceptable. Like the [27:32.800 –> 27:39.680] bugs are not huge bugs. It’s like, occasionally, like, I mean, you know, I’ve played a year in this [27:39.680 –> 27:47.520] game. And three times I have tried to go out my house, and it’s just put me back in the house [27:48.560 –> 27:53.040] three times in a year. Right. So like that, that’s the sort of level of bug we’re talking about. [27:53.040 –> 27:57.840] It’s not a huge amount. It’s something that hopefully will be fixed. But it’s not like, [27:57.840 –> 28:00.560] oh, I can’t believe they put this out sort of thing, you know. [28:01.280 –> 28:07.760] I feel like the only bugs I’ve experienced thus far have been like starting the day. So I like [28:07.760 –> 28:13.200] every time I get to the TV and might like restart, or it will crash and then I’ll have [28:13.200 –> 28:17.840] to restart the day. But I had that twice as well when checking the weather, it crashes when checking [28:17.840 –> 28:23.760] the weather. Yeah. I forgot about that. That’s literally happened twice in my year as well. And [28:23.760 –> 28:31.360] yeah, you check the weather every single morning. So that’s not a high number of times. It was [28:31.360 –> 28:36.800] happening pretty consistently at some point for me, like every day. Oh, interesting. Again, like, [28:36.800 –> 28:41.440] it’s such a low complaint because it’s the start of the day. It’s literally the first [28:41.440 –> 28:46.800] thing you do. Yeah. It’s like the annoyances. Oh, I have to load the game up again. Yeah, [28:46.800 –> 28:51.840] I don’t care as much. So I’m just glad that I haven’t lost like a whole day’s worth of like, [28:51.840 –> 28:57.360] yeah, process. That’s true. I haven’t haven’t had a single crash other than that. So I’ve not had [28:57.360 –> 29:02.480] any time where I’ve had to redo something in a day. I thought I had one today, but I didn’t. [29:02.480 –> 29:09.200] It was just being a bit slow waking up. So that’s good, because I’ve had them in stardew. I’ve had [29:09.200 –> 29:15.760] stardew crashes. You know, so like, it’s pretty impressive that they had not a single one where [29:15.760 –> 29:21.280] I’ve had to redo a thing in a day, other than check the weather, which is not difficult. [29:22.320 –> 29:30.960] So that’s pretty impressive. Okay, cool. So that’s kind of just generic look and feel and sound and [29:30.960 –> 29:37.200] how we feel about it as a whole in terms of quality. Let’s talk about some mechanics. So [29:37.200 –> 29:41.440] I guess there’s a bunch of things that are kind of standard mechanics that we can quickly chat [29:41.440 –> 29:44.800] through, but I don’t think we’ll have a huge amount to talk about. So like the farming, [29:45.360 –> 29:51.440] it is standard farming, some farming, right? There is nothing special here. There’s nothing special, [29:51.440 –> 29:57.440] and there’s nothing that really drives me insane. And there’s a few kind of like, whatever, where [29:58.240 –> 30:02.720] as far as I can see, there’s no seed maker in the game yet. Yeah. Or it is in the game, [30:02.720 –> 30:08.160] you just can’t get it. It looks like they had it available, and then they put a level cap on, [30:08.160 –> 30:14.240] so now you can’t get it. Stuff like that, that’s just a bit annoying. And presumably, at some [30:14.240 –> 30:21.200] point, there will be a seed maker that you can get. And, you know, there’s just a bunch of kind [30:21.200 –> 30:29.120] of small things like that, that are just like the scythe, you can’t upgrade for some reason. [30:29.120 –> 30:33.280] Yeah, which is interesting. Very odd, especially as it’s such, we’ll come back to that when we talk [30:33.280 –> 30:38.320] about diving, but it’s like such a fundamental tool that you can upgrade, which is bizarre to me. [30:38.320 –> 30:45.360] Or equipped stuff to it, I guess, like the whatever magic upgrades. You can do that. Oh, [30:45.360 –> 30:49.520] it’s just because you can’t upgrade it, you can only do one. Okay, maybe I did do that. I just [30:49.520 –> 30:54.640] forgot. Okay. Yeah, because I checked that yesterday. I did one. Okay, nevermind. I [30:54.640 –> 31:02.240] will check that. You can add the enchantments, I think it’s called. Okay. But yeah, you can upgrade [31:02.240 –> 31:08.560] it. You can only do one enchantment. It’s a bit annoying. Yeah, I mean, I don’t really have [31:08.560 –> 31:13.520] anything really interesting to say about the farming specifically. I mean, I think that the [31:13.520 –> 31:19.040] farming is interesting in that there’s a difference, the different materials needed for crafting the [31:19.120 –> 31:23.600] sprinklers, which I thought was an interesting choice. Yeah, I’m annoyed about that. [31:25.120 –> 31:28.080] I’m not because I let me tell you, I’m annoyed about that. [31:29.840 –> 31:34.800] So I don’t like I’m not against them doing different things, right? And that’s fine. [31:35.840 –> 31:42.400] But my annoyance with it is, it’s basically as far as I can tell, it’s actually impossible without [31:42.400 –> 31:46.880] spending an insane amount of money to do that. Because you can’t actually get the gold kelp in [31:46.880 –> 31:55.520] the game. Yeah. So you have you can buy it, but it’s like 1500 pair gold kelp, and you need five [31:55.520 –> 32:02.480] gold kelp and five silver kelp to build a build a decent sprinkler. There’s a there’s a three by [32:02.480 –> 32:09.120] three sprinkler sprinkler, but that’s basically useless, right? So that is just a bit annoying [32:09.120 –> 32:15.360] that you have that something so kind of fundamental to me, a sprinkler is so difficult [32:15.440 –> 32:21.040] to do. And even the three by three, you have to progress the diving so far to get to that point, [32:21.920 –> 32:27.120] where you can actually do that, you know, it seems like it’s so hard to do, it feels like it’s almost [32:27.120 –> 32:32.480] like a level higher than it should be. Right? Like the the five by five should be the one that has [32:32.480 –> 32:37.600] silver kelp, the three by three should have bronze kelp. And then there should be another one on top [32:37.600 –> 32:43.200] that does the the gold kelp that it kind of feels like they’re missing a sprinkler there. [32:43.200 –> 32:48.160] I don’t know, I kind of disagree, because I almost feel like, like, I got it in a normal [32:48.160 –> 32:54.000] progression, I feel like, as I would have started, had I just been upgrading them via, [32:54.000 –> 33:00.000] you know, bars, iron bars, or gold bars, or what have you. So I feel like it, the progression [33:00.000 –> 33:06.000] made sense in terms of like, the different obstacles they put in place to slow you down [33:06.000 –> 33:11.280] with that development. Like, I think I got to summer, and I was able to, to upgrade them to [33:11.280 –> 33:17.840] the eight by eight. And that worked fine for me. So I would kind of, I think, disagree there. [33:17.840 –> 33:19.440] You mean the five by five ones? [33:19.440 –> 33:21.120] Yes. Wait. [33:21.120 –> 33:22.880] So how did you get the gold kelp? [33:22.880 –> 33:26.880] Oh, no, no, I like the eight tiles were ill. The three by three. [33:26.880 –> 33:30.080] Yeah, the three by three. Yeah, yeah, the three by three is the basic one. [33:31.280 –> 33:35.200] And they’re reasonably easy to get. It doesn’t take a ridiculous amount of time to get to them. [33:35.200 –> 33:38.800] But like, I’m in the second year, and I have not even had a single thing of gold kelp. [33:39.760 –> 33:44.480] I feel like my current complaint is not really about like, the being able to access the the [33:44.480 –> 33:49.360] highest gold kelp one. It’s the fact that sprinkler one and sprinkler two are essentially the same [33:49.360 –> 33:54.800] thing. Like they both do three by three tiles, like eight, eight around and there’s no [33:55.920 –> 33:56.560] Check this out. [33:57.360 –> 34:02.880] Because I thought I was just aware of two sprinklers. And I thought it was three by [34:02.880 –> 34:08.080] three and five by five. Yeah, it is. Sprinkle two is sprinkle two is five by five, not three by [34:08.080 –> 34:14.480] three. I don’t know. I feel like that’s okay. Well, that’s what it is. That’s what it says. [34:14.480 –> 34:20.800] That’s what it says in game. That’s weird. Okay. Great. I’ve seen spring. No, it doesn’t. [34:20.800 –> 34:24.800] No, it doesn’t. It says it says in game eight. Yeah. In game it says eight. [34:27.920 –> 34:34.560] The wiki says 24. Oh, is it just labeled mislabeled? And I never tried building a higher [34:34.560 –> 34:40.640] one for that reason. I think it might be. I suspect it’s an incorrect label. It’s also [34:40.640 –> 34:44.560] it’s also incorrect when it says because it says a radius of eight tiles. It doesn’t mean a radius [34:44.560 –> 34:50.160] of eight tiles. That would that would be that would be what? So eight and eight. That’d be 16 [34:50.160 –> 34:58.480] by 16, which would be incredible. Yeah, it’s unclear exactly what it does then because I [34:58.480 –> 35:03.600] haven’t been able to craft one. Because you need five gold kelp for it and haven’t even had one. [35:04.560 –> 35:11.520] Um, you can buy the gold kelp. But if you were to buy that five gold kelp, it would be 7500, [35:11.520 –> 35:17.200] which I mean, I have the money for now. But like, I would just be buying if I like, [35:17.200 –> 35:27.840] I’m currently at the point where I have, I’ve got 11 22 by 22 farming plots, right? So to try and [35:27.840 –> 35:35.280] cover that with, I would need 20 sprinklers to cover everything with sprinklers, 20 of those [35:35.280 –> 35:46.960] those five by five ones. And so that would give us 100 gold kelp, which would cost 150,000, [35:47.520 –> 35:50.640] which obviously I don’t have them. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, that’s gonna take that’s like [35:50.640 –> 35:55.920] endgame stuff. I think that’s my point. I think that’s my point is the sprinkler two feels [35:56.800 –> 36:02.240] so difficult to get to that. And I don’t even know if it’s possible because I have not seen [36:02.240 –> 36:07.520] Have you seen any gold kelp in the game? I haven’t. But like, part of the so I think [36:07.520 –> 36:12.400] the issue with the gold kelp is that the the area that it’s located is not accessible right now. [36:13.120 –> 36:16.480] So well, that’s, that’s, that’s the question. I don’t know whether that’s the case or not. [36:16.480 –> 36:20.400] So part of the problem with this game is that it tells you about things that don’t exist in [36:20.400 –> 36:24.800] the game yet. And so it’s hard to know whether something is possible in the game. And it’s just [36:24.800 –> 36:31.440] telling you about it or not possible in the game. I promise you that it will be I think possible [36:31.440 –> 36:38.080] because I have like looked at the map and I have like mapped it out in that I’ve tried to access [36:38.080 –> 36:43.600] every single part of the map. And I physically cannot access like the north eastern corner. [36:43.600 –> 36:50.480] Like there’s just barriers there that the underwater Yeah, right. Yeah. So I think it [36:50.480 –> 36:56.240] will be there. It’s just gonna I think it’s a content that they need a update. It’s a content [36:56.240 –> 37:00.720] update that they haven’t gotten around to yet. I think this is probably my only thing that I [37:00.720 –> 37:06.080] think they needed to do better as an early access is do better with telling us what is available and [37:06.080 –> 37:11.840] not. Because it’s a bit frustrating to get to the point where like, okay, well, I’m aiming towards [37:11.840 –> 37:15.360] this. Okay, I’ve got to the area where I’ve got the silver kelp. That’s great. I shouldn’t be [37:15.360 –> 37:20.080] too much longer till I get to the gold kelp. And then you just never get it. Yeah. And you don’t [37:20.080 –> 37:25.200] know whether you’ve done something wrong, or whether it’s not available. And it’s not a problem [37:25.200 –> 37:29.920] these things aren’t available. But I think they need to make it clear. Like, first of all, [37:29.920 –> 37:39.200] why give you the why have they given the crafting blueprint to us? Like, why is it possible to get [37:39.200 –> 37:45.360] crafting blueprint that you can’t do? That’s the weird thing to me. Like I have the crafting thing [37:45.360 –> 37:51.360] for the second sprinkler. But I can’t get the kelp to do that. That that feels like a kind of [37:51.360 –> 37:59.120] mismatch there and, and expectations of the game. I feel like it could it could be a little bit of [37:59.120 –> 38:07.120] wanting to appease people who want a more efficient way to farm, but are willing to grind [38:07.120 –> 38:12.960] for that method. And but you can’t grind Oh, you mean because you can get the you can buy the gold [38:12.960 –> 38:20.400] cap. Yeah. And I just I feel like there needs to be a way in game that they would tell you that [38:20.400 –> 38:27.680] that’s the case. Like, I mean, I suspect with other things, like they’ve told you with other [38:27.680 –> 38:33.200] things like this is not accessible yet. Like, there’s a couple events like scenes or cut scenes. [38:33.200 –> 38:40.160] So they, in a way they have, they just fail to tell you that there’s the gold is not the gold [38:40.720 –> 38:47.120] kelp is not accessible other than buying it. Yeah, it’s not just that. And so there’s also the [38:47.120 –> 38:52.240] the osmium ore is not possible to get in game either. And you can still get things [38:52.240 –> 38:58.720] crafting resources and blueprints for that that would I’d like you can, and you can assume that [38:58.720 –> 39:02.960] it’s not available because you can’t get to the final bit of the mine. But like, that’s an [39:02.960 –> 39:07.760] assumption. That’s not a definite, right? So there’s a there’s a few other things as well [39:07.760 –> 39:15.280] that’s like that what is it gives you something that you could craft or or buy that requires [39:15.280 –> 39:18.640] something that you can’t get in the game. And there’s no indication that you can get that in [39:18.640 –> 39:24.800] the game. And with the osmium ore, you can’t even buy that one. Maybe, maybe in an update, [39:24.800 –> 39:32.000] they’ll update what you can again. Because I think they tried it, they made the attempt at telling [39:32.000 –> 39:36.400] you like, this is physically not available in the game right now, or, you know, virtually whatever [39:36.400 –> 39:41.520] you want to call it. But then they just, I think, miss these portions and then forgot to [39:42.880 –> 39:50.240] the implemented it for events. Yeah, and areas. They didn’t implement it for items. Okay. That’s [39:50.240 –> 39:56.880] like, I don’t I’ve not been aware of any item where it is shown on screen, you can’t get it [39:56.880 –> 40:00.880] and they tell you that you can’t get it. Right? You always just have to assume that for that. [40:01.680 –> 40:07.520] And I like, you know, for example, like, so we have the, there’s the temple, the sea, the [40:08.240 –> 40:12.960] Lake Temple, which is your, here we go, we’re always comparing back to Stardew. [40:12.960 –> 40:17.520] It’s your community center, right? Like you have, you go there and you give offerings of [40:17.520 –> 40:24.800] certain things. There’s no, so first of all, there’s no way to go on to the things actually [40:24.800 –> 40:30.080] know what they’re called. Right? So like, if I’m looking at a list of things in a in a bundle, [40:30.080 –> 40:35.600] there’s no way to know what’s in that bundle, except by just guessing based on the the image, [40:35.600 –> 40:39.920] which in some is obvious, right? Like, oh, that’s clearly a daisy, right? You know, that’s a daisy [40:39.920 –> 40:44.720] because that’s a daisy you can you can buy daisy seeds. That’s easy. That one’s clearly wheat. [40:44.720 –> 40:49.440] But like, Brussels sprouts. Did you know what the Brussels sprouts was before you find a [40:49.440 –> 40:54.960] Brussels sprout? No, it is not obvious. Yeah, yeah, that’s

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 –&

Unser MeinMMO-Kollege Benedict mag normalerweise gar keine Bauernhof-Sims. Doch Sun Haven hat es ihm angetan - sogar, wenn er mal alleine spielt.

This week we dug into what's new.  We get through why we both struggled with Wo Long and why the new Dead Cells Castlevania DLCS is so good.  We also dig in to a game very similar to Stardew Valley, Sun Haven and discuss why it's actually good.  Tune in! EpisodeWo Long: Fallen DynastyThe Last SpellDead CellsSun Haven

Al and Kev talk through all the recent news Including some release dates, some game updates, and some screenshots for Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:15: What Have We Been Up To 00:19:04: Releases 00:26:35: Updates 00:43:06: Announcements 00:56:21: News Games 01:01:13: Harvest Moon: The Winds Of Anthos 01:11:23: Outro Links Rune Factory 3 Special Release date Rune Factory 3 Special Limited Edition Sun Haven 1.0 Coral Island Update Potion Permit Update Garden Galaxy Update Orange Season Update Song of the Prairie Release Date Lightyear Frontier Delay Terra Nil Trailer Solarpunk Kickstarter Traveller’s Rest Roadmap Moonstone Island Switch Loddlenauts Demo Mudborne Outlanders Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos Screenshots Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos Screenshots Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript [00:00.000 –> 00:29.960]

Bobby plays Darkest Dungeon II in early access and Amanda guesses locations in GeoGuessr. Emilio is impressed with Solasta: Crown of the Magister and its accurate recreation of Dungeon and Dragons. Head on over to our Discord and check out the DLGcon channel to vote on where and when you’d like to have DLGcon this year!TOPICSDarkest Dungeon II, Sun Haven, Pizza Tower, Wayfinder, Remnant 2, The Finals, Solasta: Crown of the Magister, Gangs of Sherwood, Munchkin Digital, GeoGuessrFor more, check out dlgaming.net!

Al, Kev, and Nama talk about using other cultures in video games Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:54: What Have We Been Up To 00:16:20: News 00:41:55: Cultures In Video Games 01:27:00: Outro Links Research Story Roadmap: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1629830/view/3656396815346372558 Sun Haven 1.0 Release Date: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1432860/view/3640634026218531323?l=english Terra Nil Release Date: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1593030/view/3637256326499263909 Tchia Release Date: https://twitter.com/awaceb/status/1628865612968501249 The Wandering Village 0.2.0: https://strayfawnstudio.com/community/index.php?/topic/14798-new-update-020/ Farming Simulator 23: https://www.farming-simulator.com/newsArticle.php?news_id=447 Dawngrove: https://store.steampowered.com/app/871410/Dawngrown/ Above Snakes Article: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1589120/view/3668778987544540058 Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript [00:30.000 –> 00:36.560] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the Harvest Season. My name is Al. [00:36.560 –> 00:41.360] My name is Kevin. Hello, my name is Nama. And we are here today to talk about [00:41.360 –> 00:43.720] cottagecore games. [00:43.720 –> 00:45.720] Wooooooh. [00:45.720 –> 00:49.080] Don’s saying so excited Kevin. [00:49.080 –> 00:53.160] I didn’t I didn’t match it. I did not match it this time. [00:53.160 –> 00:57.000] Kevin, you can you can do whatever you want. You normally do. [00:57.000 –> 01:03.640] Well, you’re right. You’re right about that. So welcome to first time guest Nama. [01:03.640 –> 01:12.120] Hello. Yeah, it’s me. People probably know who I am, but if not, I’m a I’m I’m Nama the [01:12.120 –> 01:15.000] nerd from small-time bazurri. [01:15.000 –> 01:21.400] Yeah, cool. So we’re going to I didn’t really rehearse in my head what I was going to see here, [01:21.400 –> 01:26.200] but we’re basically we’re going to talk about in this episode we’re going to talk about [01:26.200 –> 01:33.720] the use of cultures, specifically different cultures from the one that you know developers are [01:33.720 –> 01:38.600] in their video games when it’s appropriate, etc, etc. There’s a lot to talk about there, [01:38.600 –> 01:43.240] but that’s what we’re going to talk about. And I thought that Nama would be a good [01:43.240 –> 01:49.640] person to get on to chat about this because Nama you are what is the correct terminology [01:49.640 –> 01:50.920] that you would use. [01:50.920 –> 01:57.320] Well, I think the term that people use on the internet right now is Native American. I’ve [01:57.320 –> 02:04.680] grown up in a family of Native Americans that call ourselves Indians, but I am a member of the [02:04.680 –> 02:07.480] Comanche tribe if you want to get in particular. [02:07.480 –> 02:11.080] Well, I didn’t know that. Okay. So that’s the tribe. Cool. I do know the Comanche. It’s the [02:11.080 –> 02:15.080] knowing that was your tribe. Very cool. Sure. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t say that was getting [02:15.080 –> 02:22.040] particular. I would say that would be like actually saying what you are, right? Like, I’ve [02:22.040 –> 02:27.240] got my ID card in my wallet. We have our own, you know, thing of a mob. So I’m sure we’ll get [02:27.240 –> 02:32.040] into this discussion. But like, yeah, because because quite often we can we can talk about [02:32.040 –> 02:38.600] Native American like it is one, you know, homogenous group. Yeah, one nebulous thing there, [02:38.600 –> 02:44.040] which it has never been. But anyway, I’m sure we’ll get into that discussion later on. [02:44.040 –> 02:48.680] Okay. Okay. Okay. We’ll save it for them. We’ve got plenty to talk about before then. [02:48.680 –> 02:53.960] Before that, we have a bunch of news. Apparently everybody was really was announcing release dates [02:53.960 –> 03:02.120] this week. But before that, now me, what have you been up to? Well, that is, you know, a big question. [03:02.680 –> 03:11.800] I have, I’m a kids librarian. And so I do all kinds of programs and stuff. I read to the [03:11.800 –> 03:17.400] little five year olds, but I also do video game programs with, do with key majors. So right now [03:17.400 –> 03:23.320] at work, all of, it’s all been about getting summer reading programs, ready to go. Some people are like, [03:23.320 –> 03:30.280] what summer? It’s February. But they, they are doing the middle of March. We got a book that [03:30.280 –> 03:35.800] performers. We got to decide what we’re doing. So that has been occupying a lot of my brain space. [03:35.800 –> 03:42.200] But in terms of like my gaming to do this every day around Pokemon day, which is very close at [03:42.200 –> 03:49.240] the time of recording, I, like, since the 25th anniversary, I’ve been going back to an old game [03:49.240 –> 03:55.960] and doing like kind of the post game content that I never was able to do. So for the 25th anniversary, [03:55.960 –> 04:03.480] I got to credits in stadium one. And then last year, I got to credits in stadium two. And so this [04:03.480 –> 04:10.360] year, I’m preparing to do the battle frontier in Emerald, which I’ve never done before. So that means [04:10.360 –> 04:16.440] like breeding a team and EV training and all in generation three of Pokemon. And it is, uh, [04:16.440 –> 04:23.160] I’m not looking forward to it necessarily. But I’m very excited to do it. But it’s like, [04:23.160 –> 04:27.960] it’s like bucket list for me. So I’m not going to judge you is all I’m going to say. [04:27.960 –> 04:35.640] I don’t know. I’m not judging you, but for that, that hurts just to hear good luck. [04:36.280 –> 04:38.200] We’ll see where I am six months for now. [04:38.920 –> 04:44.280] Yeah. Cool Kevin. What have you been up to? I have been up to all the same. My life is just [04:44.280 –> 04:54.840] dominated by battle passes and so on. I play unite. I play snap. I play snap, which has hurt me [04:54.840 –> 05:01.240] by the way, they’ve got a lot of good variants and dropped a little money. Um, I, uh, that said, [05:01.240 –> 05:07.080] though, this week, my brother Calvin introduced me to a new mobile game. I’ve become more and more [05:07.080 –> 05:14.520] of a mobile gamer to much to my own dismay. Um, it is called the battle cats. Um, have either of [05:14.520 –> 05:20.840] you heard of this. I have never never heard of this battle cats are the battle cats with an S [05:20.840 –> 05:28.280] plural. Oh, my word. This looks so cute. You’re looking enough. Right. Okay. So it is called, [05:28.280 –> 05:33.000] it is made by a company called Pono’s, which I’m not, I’ve not been familiar with, but apparently [05:33.000 –> 05:40.280] they have a wide assortment of titles using these cats. There’s like the burglar cats, I think, [05:40.280 –> 05:44.760] they even had one for the 3DS, like a match three puzzle game using these cats. They have a [05:44.760 –> 05:50.360] handful of games. So, um, they’re pretty prolific and harder than, but anyways, so the battle cats [05:50.360 –> 05:56.040] is a, essentially tower defense, but like you’re trying to take down their tower, they’re trying [05:56.040 –> 06:01.800] to take down yours. It’s just 2D left, right, whatever. Um, you’re just generating units. Um, [06:01.800 –> 06:07.160] I just don’t matter, right or whatever. Um, and I love tower defense games. So like natural [06:07.160 –> 06:15.240] as inclined, but the real seller is, as you said, Al, the art style, which is, uh, my card to, I don’t [06:15.240 –> 06:19.880] mean, if you guys have played under, or anyone’s familiar with Undertale, as a character called [06:19.880 –> 06:25.000] the annoying dog, and it looks a lot like that. Um, so it’s just like black and white cats, and [06:25.640 –> 06:34.200] the cats are very cartoony and goofy. You have UFO cats, dragon cats, gross cats, which has just like [06:34.200 –> 06:41.160] giant, enormously long legs. You have Thor cat. Um, and it’s a gotcha game. So you pull for cats, [06:41.160 –> 06:47.400] and then they become your units for your team and your little missions. It’s fun. It’s a [06:47.400 –> 06:53.560] detective. It has an energy system. So it actually manages to keep my addiction in check, but um, [06:54.280 –> 06:59.160] but yeah, it’s, it’s really fun. Um, and I, especially to notice because they had a cross [06:59.160 –> 07:06.600] over street fighter actually, um, what? Yeah, not only do they have cats model after some of the [07:06.600 –> 07:12.440] villains. Um, if people know what em bison looks like, he has like a cape and an evil dictator hat. [07:12.440 –> 07:18.920] So they gave, uh, a cat, an, an em bison outfit. Um, but you could also just get the characters [07:18.920 –> 07:24.760] themselves. My brother pulled like Ryu and em bison. So as these goofy cartoony cats, and then [07:24.760 –> 07:30.920] he’ll summon like Ryu was doing the dokens. Um, the game is chaotic and goofy and hilarious and [07:30.920 –> 07:36.120] a lot of fun. Um, so it is taken over my week largely. It’s actually cut into my snap time, [07:36.120 –> 07:43.560] which is crazy. Um, but yeah, aside from that, uh, just the usual, um, what about you out? What [07:43.560 –> 07:49.720] have you been up to? Well, I have finished my Pokemon Scarlet Professor Oak Challenge. [07:51.560 –> 08:00.360] I’m done for you. Um, congratulations. It was kind of ridiculous. So it took me, so my final, [08:00.360 –> 08:08.280] so I got 60 hours to get to the first gym. So I was catching 355, 1, 60 hours. And I think, [08:08.280 –> 08:12.760] let me just double check. I think it was like 72 or something to the rest for the rest of the game. [08:12.760 –> 08:19.240] So like another 12 hours. Um, that’s pretty good. Yeah. It’s quite insane. Realistically, [08:19.240 –> 08:22.840] the only thing that actually took me a time while the two things that took the, [08:22.840 –> 08:32.360] took most of that time up was, uh, the cutscenes. So so many cutscenes in the gyms, um, like that, [08:32.360 –> 08:38.120] just that took about half of the total time, I think life was just the, the talking, [08:38.120 –> 08:43.880] which I have, uh, what’s it called? Um, the split pad. So I just stuck on the turbo button for that, [08:43.880 –> 08:49.400] get through all that nonsense. Um, and the other thing that took a surprising amount of time was [08:49.400 –> 08:57.240] there, after you, after you finish, after you hit his credits, you can unlock the five star [08:57.240 –> 09:02.040] raids. And when you’ve got the five star raids on locks, there are three Pokemon that you can [09:02.040 –> 09:10.840] only get at that point. And that’s Caesar, Finneon, not a Finneon, uh, what’s it called? Finneon, [09:10.840 –> 09:16.840] Finnezin, no, the other one, Palafin. Yeah, Finnezin, you can get for Palafin. Um, and [09:16.840 –> 09:24.440] smoking. And that took me a surprising amount. I took me a bit three days to get those three [09:24.440 –> 09:29.320] Pokemon in raids, because obviously you’re having to go around all of your raids and check if they’re [09:29.320 –> 09:34.520] there, then you actually have to defeat the raid and blah blah blah. So like that took a lot of [09:34.520 –> 09:39.240] time, but I was like, I could just skip this bit, but then like, I’ve not actually fully completed [09:39.240 –> 09:45.640] it. So I may as well just like do this last bit. Oh, that was quite a lot of work. And then I went [09:45.640 –> 09:51.000] back to Violet and called the exclusives and sent them over and have their shiny charm. So I’m [09:51.000 –> 09:58.040] done with that. And wow. So I’m now going to put myself down to significant less significantly [09:58.040 –> 10:03.640] less. I’m in a time playing in that game. Maybe one day a week, get a shiny or, or, uh, um, [10:03.640 –> 10:09.080] a raid event, if there’s a raid event on that week. You say that, but Pokemon day is Monday [10:09.080 –> 10:15.160] and then you’ll be right back in. I mean, I thought I don’t think even the most optimistic [10:15.160 –> 10:21.080] person assumes that the DLC will be an announced and released on month. I mean, like that would be [10:21.080 –> 10:25.800] quite, it doesn’t have to be the DLC could be just something else small up that you know, [10:25.800 –> 10:29.080] it’s not going to, whatever it is, it’s not going to be more than a couple hours work, right? [10:31.480 –> 10:36.680] So there’s that. And then I picked up Mario Rabbid’s spark of hope. So that’s the second one. [10:37.240 –> 10:40.840] And I was like, let’s get this game done. Um, because I played a wee bit of a [10:40.840 –> 10:45.400] lot when it came out. And then I got distracted by a bunch of other things because I think it came [10:45.400 –> 10:52.440] out a few weeks before Pokemon did. And, um, this game really frustrates me because the battles [10:52.440 –> 10:56.040] are so much fun. And I think the battles in this game are better than the previous one. [10:56.600 –> 11:01.240] I wasn’t hugely excited about the lack of the grid system in this one, but I think it actually [11:01.240 –> 11:05.480] works really well. I think it’s a really fun. It gives you more different possibilities, [11:05.480 –> 11:13.800] more ways to do things, which is good fun. But then they padded out the game with all this ridiculous [11:13.800 –> 11:21.640] like exploration nonsense between the battles that just is not fun. There’s like random pointless [11:21.640 –> 11:26.840] puzzles that you have to like figure out where you’re going to get. It’s like the first game, [11:26.840 –> 11:32.760] I found that a bit annoying, but it was mostly just like one of these maps that like the 2D [11:32.760 –> 11:37.640] Mario games have, like world or whatever, where you would just like kind of walk along the map. [11:37.640 –> 11:41.160] And it was like, this is kind of pointless, but whatever. It’s nice and quick. You’re just basically [11:41.160 –> 11:45.240] walking through catching some coins and then going to the next battle. But this one, this [11:45.240 –> 11:50.200] full on like exploration things and you have to go through these caves and figure out how to get [11:50.200 –> 11:53.160] out of the cave and you have to figure out how to get to the top of a lighthouse and you have to, [11:53.160 –> 12:00.280] and it’s just that I do not care. I didn’t buy this game to be a platformer or an exploration. [12:00.280 –> 12:03.880] This is not what I’m looking for in this game and everything that does outside of the battles [12:03.880 –> 12:10.680] is not fun. It’s badly done and therefore I have stopped. I’m not finishing that game [12:10.680 –> 12:16.600] because I’m not enjoying myself outside of the battles. It’s so weird because the first game was so [12:16.600 –> 12:21.800] well done. Like, yeah. I’m surprised they bungled them up like that. I haven’t heard much or played [12:22.600 –> 12:27.400] that. I think it might depend on who you are and maybe some people enjoy that. I don’t know. [12:27.400 –> 12:31.560] There must be a reason that they’ve added so much more between the battles. But like, [12:31.560 –> 12:35.160] personally, I would, I would have preferred if they take in the first one, put on the battle [12:35.160 –> 12:39.240] system for the second one and then removed all those bit between the battles. It’s just give me a [12:39.240 –> 12:44.760] list. Just let me play the battles. I don’t, no, I’m not buying this game to explore. I’m playing it [12:44.760 –> 12:51.160] to play these battles. That is not just you. That is like the game. That’s what they’re selling you. [12:51.160 –> 12:56.120] And yeah, it’s weird that they fill it up with so much more. Absolutely bizarre. [12:56.120 –> 13:02.120] Yeah. So I played for another maybe like three hours or something. So I’ve put in almost 10 hours [13:02.120 –> 13:07.720] in that game. And I think that’s enough to say that I do not. The battles are good, but they’re not [13:07.720 –> 13:13.480] good enough to make me want to power through the absolute dreadfulness that is everything else. [13:14.440 –> 13:19.720] So I’ll put that back down again and I’m selling the game. The other thing, the other thing that [13:19.720 –> 13:24.360] I’ve been then picked up, I only picked that up today. So I’ve not done a huge amount of it. But [13:24.360 –> 13:29.480] I’m enjoying it so far is Hyrule Warriors or what’s this one called? The Calamity. [13:31.000 –> 13:37.400] Go back to the wild one. Oh, it’s an original one. No, no, no, no, no, no, I like to play the [13:37.400 –> 13:41.480] newest game of something. And then it means that I never enjoy playing the older ones because they’re [13:41.480 –> 13:48.840] not as good. Oh, that might not be the case here. We’ll see. We’ll see. I’m enjoying it. Obviously, [13:48.840 –> 13:56.840] the battle system is not the same as in Breath of the Wild. But it almost feels like they’re trying [13:56.840 –> 14:06.120] to make it very similar. So like you have all of the extra abilities, like your magnesiums and your [14:06.120 –> 14:11.160] ice thing or whatever they’re called, but they work differently. And obviously you’re doing it in [14:11.160 –> 14:18.280] like high-paced combat rather than using it to solve puzzles. And so it’s fun, but it’s also a little [14:18.280 –> 14:22.280] bit weird. And I think it might confuse me going into Tears of the Kingdom because it just, [14:22.680 –> 14:29.160] it’s, it’s that weird kind of combination of kind of similar, but also kind of different in that way. [14:29.160 –> 14:37.880] It looks, it looks so much like Breath of the Wilds down to the, down to the menu UI and the sound [14:37.880 –> 14:44.360] effects and the music. They did a great job making it seem like a seamless step into this game from [14:44.360 –> 14:49.480] Breath of the Wild. So yeah, I hope that you don’t go if you’re weird blash with Tears of the [14:49.480 –> 14:54.840] Kingdom because, yeah, I mean, perhaps to them for it. Yeah, I don’t think so. I think I’ll go into [14:54.840 –> 14:58.840] Tears of the Kingdom and be like, no, this is, this is the combat I prefer because I do, [14:59.560 –> 15:05.960] I’m not enjoying it as much as I enjoy Breath of the Wild. Partly because I think this game [15:07.000 –> 15:10.040] wants to just throw you into battles and it does that straight away. It’s like, hey, [15:10.040 –> 15:15.560] he has a battle goal and I like that, but then it also then puts in some of the exploration side [15:15.560 –> 15:20.760] of things that Breath of the Wild had, but not fully featured obviously. It’s like not an open world [15:20.760 –> 15:26.680] game like that. So it just kind of feels like those are kind of tacked on, but unlike Mario [15:26.680 –> 15:32.520] and Rabbid Spark of Hope, those are really short, right? So you’re like, oh, you need to get to this next [15:32.520 –> 15:38.600] bit. Okay, run to it. That’s fine. But as soon as you finished all of the battles within that chapter, [15:38.600 –> 15:42.360] you then back to a menu and you can select the next chapter and you’re immediately there. [15:43.720 –> 15:48.600] That’s the bit that Mario Rabbids didn’t do, which you should have done, minimize the [15:48.600 –> 15:55.160] extra bits between what we’re actually there for, right? So yeah, I’m enjoying that so far. [15:55.160 –> 15:59.640] Good. I like the person who is better. I’ve nearly finished the first chapter. It’s a real [15:59.640 –> 16:05.160] loop. So yeah, well, we’ll see. I mean, yeah, the age of climate is fine, but just the original [16:05.160 –> 16:10.600] high rewards. There’s a real love letter to the Zelda series, which is really fun. Interesting. [16:10.600 –> 16:15.880] But I’m glad you’re enjoying it. So yeah, I think that’s me. Not played any snap, played a little [16:15.880 –> 16:21.080] bit ago. That’s about it. That’s about it. I mentioned three big games there. Shall we talk about [16:21.080 –> 16:30.120] some news? Should we? Let’s do it. So research story is now out in early access. That’s not news. [16:30.120 –> 16:35.720] We already knew that was coming, but they have also released their early access roadmap. So they’ve [16:35.720 –> 16:42.840] listed one, two, three, four, five big updates coming over the time. It’s obviously a roadmap [16:43.800 –> 16:51.720] without any dates because of course that’s a sensible thing to do. Yeah. I like at least an estimate [16:51.720 –> 16:58.600] on my roadmap, personally. Like, I mean, I’m not like trying to hold them to anything or be [16:58.600 –> 17:04.040] disappointed. I’m saying this just in general, not specifically about this game, but yeah, I don’t know. [17:04.040 –> 17:09.080] I just like to have some ballpark of idea of what they estimate because just the list of things [17:09.080 –> 17:14.760] they want to do. Yeah, I don’t know. That could take a while. I mean, I will say that they have said [17:14.760 –> 17:21.880] that they expect their early access to take about six months to a year. So presumably at this point [17:21.880 –> 17:26.040] in time, they’re expecting all of those five updates to be finished within a year’s time. [17:26.040 –> 17:30.840] It’s not going to happen, but that’s what they’re expecting at this point. It feels like [17:31.640 –> 17:37.800] in our little corner of the video games world in the cottage court, it feels like this happens a lot. [17:38.520 –> 17:43.320] It does. And I think I think that everyone just tries to add too much into their games. [17:44.360 –> 17:49.880] Like, I mean, just looking at again, I haven’t touched research story or don’t have anything [17:49.880 –> 17:56.360] against them, but they have the romance stuff. Is that, oh, do we always need the romance? I don’t know. [17:56.360 –> 18:02.200] But anyway, so that’s that’s just me. Research story specifically as a game does feel like it [18:02.200 –> 18:06.760] doesn’t need romance, right? Like it’s a game where you’re the researcher and the focus is on [18:06.760 –> 18:10.920] the researching things. Not to say the researchers can’t have relationships. I’m not saying you [18:10.920 –> 18:18.120] can’t have a relationship, Cody. Like it does feel like the focus is on like when you’re doing [18:18.120 –> 18:22.920] something like Stardew or Harvest Moon or a story of seasons, like the focus is on this, [18:22.920 –> 18:27.240] you’re just, you’re just living a life, right? There’s no like specific thing. And then other [18:27.240 –> 18:31.880] ones are like, we’re focusing on like, if you imagine if like farming simulator that actually had [18:31.880 –> 18:36.680] romance in it, that would be weird because the focus was on running a big commercial farm. [18:36.680 –> 18:39.720] So yeah, I agree with you. This feels a bit weird to have that. [18:39.720 –> 18:46.440] Yeah. Um, but I mean, yeah, but I mean, good luck to research story regardless. [18:46.440 –> 18:51.800] Yeah, but discord can join it if you want to help with their growth and whatnot. It is nice [18:51.800 –> 18:56.680] to see them interacting with the community like that. Yeah, that’s nice. Yeah. Yeah. I will say [18:56.680 –> 19:00.520] just because we were talking about like dates and stuff like that, just to give you an idea, [19:00.520 –> 19:05.880] Sunhaven, which we were about to talk about, they came into early access in June 2021, [19:05.880 –> 19:12.360] and they said that their early access would be six months long. So, um, um, uh, [19:12.360 –> 19:18.600] look, six months, two years, close enough. We sometimes you just got to put asterisks over your [19:18.600 –> 19:23.160] dates. That’s where you don’t give a date. This is my opinion. Like, having one states, I say, [19:23.160 –> 19:29.400] don’t give a date. Just do what you do. Give a, give a date and hold your, not again, not a specific [19:29.400 –> 19:34.280] date, but like, if you realize it’s getting too big, then cut down. That’s, that’s my opinion. [19:34.280 –> 19:38.040] Look, we live. This is the genre with religion, didn’t it? Okay. Like, [19:38.040 –> 19:46.200] uh, I live released now, right? They’re no, they’re no, um, have you played it yourself? Is it true? [19:46.200 –> 19:52.200] Is it true? Is it true that it’s out? Yes. Is it not all just, it’s true that you can download [19:52.200 –> 19:59.160] to the game. I haven’t actually tried to play it for all. We know it’s no Moneko. Moneko has been longer. [19:59.160 –> 20:05.160] Has Moneko been longer? Oh, yeah. They were only two, they were only when we on the first episode, [20:05.160 –> 20:09.080] they were only two games that we announced that hadn’t been released last year. One of them [20:09.800 –> 20:13.560] was re-legined and one of them is Moneko. Moneko hasn’t come out yet. [20:13.560 –> 20:18.360] When was Moneko’s first announcement? 2018. Okay. Never mind taking hold of Moneko, [20:18.360 –> 20:22.600] but Moneko will be worth it though. Oh, sure. Oh, absolutely. Moneko’s going to be a [20:22.600 –> 20:27.640] graduate game in the re-legend. I don’t think anybody would be arguing about it. Yeah. Okay. [20:27.640 –> 20:32.840] Anyways, all right. Let’s talk about the other game with. Yeah. So some hate in questionable [20:32.840 –> 20:40.840] date. So they have announced their 1.0 release date. So there’s 0.8 update. I don’t know why [20:40.840 –> 20:48.520] they’re doing weather. Right. Their next free 1.0 release is out and that adds, oh, look, it adds [20:48.520 –> 20:59.400] romance. And the, so that’s out now. And the 1.0 release date is currently scheduled to release [20:59.400 –> 21:06.200] on the 10th of March, which is only like two weeks away. That’s that bet. No. I see this [21:06.200 –> 21:11.320] bad deal. Between the two really. Yeah. I will say, looking at this art style for this game, [21:11.320 –> 21:16.760] how could it not have a romance? Similarly. This seems like it’s designed for it. [21:16.760 –> 21:22.200] Yeah. I mean, it’s knocking off Stardew. Yeah. It’s, it’s Stardew, but with magic, right? That’s [21:22.200 –> 21:28.920] what it’s like. Yeah. It’s like a higher fantasy. Yeah. I would say, I think this has better [21:28.920 –> 21:36.040] pixel art quality than Stardew. It’s quite nice. But oh, for sure. So I would say, it depends [21:36.040 –> 21:42.760] what you mean. It has higher resolution on everything, right? Like it’s less pixel. I would say [21:42.760 –> 21:51.800] it’s more complex. Yeah. I mean, like, like I recognize like every day, every, I judge pixel art by [21:52.520 –> 21:57.800] what they do in their limitations, right? Because there’s like, you look back at older, [21:57.800 –> 22:01.800] NES games or whatever. They have fantastic pixel or like some of those final fantasy games or whatever. [22:01.800 –> 22:07.480] Anyways, I just look at like the octopus that you see on the same page. I have like this giant [22:07.480 –> 22:11.560] octopus or like stuff inside it. That is great design right there. I don’t think Stardew has [22:11.560 –> 22:16.680] anything as nicely designed as that. Interesting. But regardless, that is, that’s just a completely [22:16.680 –> 22:21.720] subjective opinion here. I certainly don’t. I certainly, I certainly look at this game and think [22:21.720 –> 22:26.680] it looks nice, right? It’s not like one of these art styles where you’re like, oh, they just, [22:26.680 –> 22:30.200] they just wanted, they wanted to make a game and they didn’t really know how to make it look good. [22:30.200 –> 22:38.280] Like it does look good. Absolutely. But I just, I think that I, it is obviously higher resolution [22:38.280 –> 22:42.280] and in some, you could definitely argue it looks better than Stardew. But I still think [22:42.280 –> 22:48.280] the Stardew looks really nice. It’s just, no, yeah, it’s, it’s not bad. I mean, clearly, yeah, [22:48.280 –> 22:54.840] okay. I mean, yeah, you can write a line in this one, right? Oh, well, there you go. [22:54.840 –> 22:59.480] There’s a crab house. The house with a big grab on it started doesn’t have one of those. [22:59.480 –> 23:05.640] That’s very true. But you can, you can, you turn your kids into delves in this game. [23:05.640 –> 23:15.640] Oh, ouch. Oh, see, you know what? I’d rather games copy that than the romance. [23:17.720 –> 23:21.960] But I guess you need the romance have kids first. Well, no, yeah, just do it to random [23:21.960 –> 23:28.280] people. I don’t like you in the game. I’m going to turn you into delves. The other thing is, [23:28.280 –> 23:34.360] obviously, they’ve still got their Nintendo Switch release to come. Um, that is coming soon. [23:34.360 –> 23:38.120] They haven’t really, it’s a bit cryptic what they’ve said. They’re, they’re like, [23:38.120 –> 23:42.120] we’re waiting on Nintendo. But my question with that is like, are you waiting on Nintendo [23:42.120 –> 23:47.480] because you’ve, you’re applied for it to go in? And therefore, it’s already, and you just [23:47.480 –> 23:52.600] need Nintendo to approve it, or are they waiting on something else from Nintendo? Like, they [23:52.600 –> 23:59.880] don’t actively say we have, we have put in approval for this to go in the store, right? So I’m [23:59.880 –> 24:06.920] a bit more exactly other saying here. I’m not sure. I mean, yeah, but again, another cornerstone [24:06.920 –> 24:14.280] of our genre, uh, the Switch tax always longer releases, the laid releases on that. Um, yeah. [24:14.280 –> 24:18.680] Well, at least now, I have a steam deck so I can stop waiting for the Switch release. [24:21.160 –> 24:26.840] You’re not wrong. Next, we have another release date, because as I said, this is the release [24:26.840 –> 24:32.760] date episode. The next one is we have a release date for Terra Nil. So this is the game where [24:32.760 –> 24:40.520] you’re turning wasteland into a luscious, uh, Greenland, and then leaving it untouched by humans. [24:40.520 –> 24:49.000] Um, this one is releasing on the 28th of March busy month. This game, I, you know, I believe it was [24:49.000 –> 24:54.360] Cody was on the first time. This was discussion. She’s so hyped about it. Um, I don’t know. Her excitement [24:54.360 –> 25:03.080] has made me more excited about this game. Um, it’s, I saw it. Terraforming is a cool concept. Um, [25:03.080 –> 25:10.040] um, and just looking at that turning, uh, empty plot of dirt into a vibrant forest or [25:10.920 –> 25:15.480] ocean river from whatever. That’s pretty cool. Um, I’ll be excited. I will probably give [25:15.480 –> 25:23.160] in this to world. I mean, to PC and Netflix. So there’s the interesting thing. I don’t think we had [25:23.160 –> 25:28.520] any idea that it was coming to presumably mobile devices. If they don’t actually give the details, [25:28.520 –> 25:32.600] but as far as I know Netflix are only doing games on mobile devices, I don’t think we had [25:32.600 –> 25:37.560] any indication that this was coming to mobile. And yeah, I suddenly like, oh, hey, we’re coming [25:37.560 –> 25:45.960] out on the 28th. Also on Netflix. I mean, like, oh, okay. Thank you for that. Right. Fine. I guess [25:45.960 –> 25:52.920] that’s a thing. Um, yeah. I mean, Netflix are doing well with choosing games for their service. I think [25:52.920 –> 25:57.480] I guess I don’t have Netflix at all. I don’t know. [25:57.480 –> 26:05.720] Oh, yeah. So I know that they, they have had, um, some good ones. Uh, they had, I believe, [26:05.720 –> 26:13.480] spirit fader. Um, all that is a good one. Good for them. So well, it was also fair in this. [26:13.480 –> 26:21.080] Yeah. Oh, they had, um, the Ninja Turtles game. Yep. That’s like, oh, wow. Okay. Now that somebody [26:21.080 –> 26:25.800] there knows what they’re doing. Um, they do. They really do. There was something else as well that [26:25.800 –> 26:32.120] was like, uh, like a traditional game that people really liked and I can’t remember what it was. [26:32.920 –> 26:37.080] Oh, wow. They have a lot of games. I’m just looking into the into the breach. That’s the [26:37.080 –> 26:43.080] other one. It’s like, yeah, into the breach. That was, that’s a dope game. Um, obviously they have [26:43.080 –> 26:48.600] some that are based on, um, stranger things, stranger things, which apparently the stranger [26:48.600 –> 26:53.160] things game is very good. Oh, um, they’ve got an exploding kit. They got exploding kittens on it. [26:53.160 –> 26:59.160] Oh, there you go. But I’m, I’m just, it’s quite a lot of games. Quite a lot of games. [26:59.160 –> 27:03.320] Some of them look like the fake mobile have games that you see. They do something in their [27:03.320 –> 27:07.880] religious games. Maybe it’s just something about the icon square. I think they launched it with [27:07.880 –> 27:12.760] all those games, all those really like, oh, we have like 20 games and you’re like, yeah, they’re [27:12.760 –> 27:19.160] all terrible. And then they finally got some money to actually buy some good games. [27:19.160 –> 27:26.040] Oh, a spearfarer that icon makes me so happy. Still just being happy. Now may have you played [27:26.040 –> 27:33.400] Spinnerfader yet. Um, I gotta be honest. No. Nope. Thank you for coming on the podcast. [27:33.400 –> 27:39.560] Yeah. See you around because the pleasure having you. So I am curious, like this, uh, [27:39.560 –> 27:45.160] the Netflix games are those like, do you download them? Yeah. So they are, they’re just, [27:45.160 –> 27:48.360] they’re just standard mobile games. But you have, when you download the game, you then have to [27:48.360 –> 27:54.120] log into Netflix to prove you have a subscription. Okay. But yeah, it just is like a standard game [27:54.120 –> 27:59.160] that you download is not cloud gaming or anything like that. That’s, that’s an, it’s a neat idea. [27:59.160 –> 28:05.000] Um, but anyways, uh, one, one thing I do want to say more about Tarnell, um, they’re donating [28:05.000 –> 28:10.520] a portion of their profits from steam, not, not for expanding to the endangered wildlife trust. [28:10.520 –> 28:14.440] So good for them putting their money where their mouth is very, very cool. Yeah. [28:14.440 –> 28:18.440] Neat. I suspect the Netflix money helped with that, right? Cause they need a problem with [28:18.440 –> 28:24.520] money. You can pay. Yeah. Yeah. I probably, so thank you Netflix, I guess. [28:25.880 –> 28:32.440] In a weird way. But yeah, so that’s good. And we got our Spinnerfader reference in for the slack. [28:32.440 –> 28:40.040] They love when there you go. Uh, next we have, I really hope I can remember how to say, I think [28:40.040 –> 28:45.240] it’s Chia. That’s what I’d assume. That’s what I would guess. Um, this is the game that’s based [28:45.240 –> 28:50.920] in New Caledonia. Uh, we have a release date for this game as well. This is coming out on the 21st [28:50.920 –> 28:57.720] of March. I should have done these in, in data audition nine. Oh, wow. Um, this is releasing on [28:57.720 –> 29:04.680] Epic games and on PlayStation, both PS4 and PS5 and it’s going to be included in the PlayStation [29:04.680 –> 29:08.760] Plus extra. So if you subscribe to PlayStation Plus extra, you get the game for free. [29:08.760 –> 29:16.520] So, um, first of all, for people who might not be aware of New Caledonia is a real place. Um, [29:16.520 –> 29:22.360] still don’t know that was a real place. Uh, just to be sure, I don’t know, like it’s at least [29:22.360 –> 29:26.520] you in the US, New Caledonia is in a place you here, come too often, come up too often. [29:26.520 –> 29:31.160] Um, well, sure. Sure. It’s not like something that comes up in everyday conversation. Yeah. [29:32.120 –> 29:35.960] But it’s like when I, when I, when I first saw this game and it’s always based on New Caledonia, [29:35.960 –> 29:41.720] oh, you look awesome. I had to look it out. I saw it and it said, that sounds like a country [29:41.720 –> 29:48.280] and they looked it up and it’s like, oh, yeah, that is a country. Um, I didn’t know. Okay. Um, so [29:49.320 –> 29:56.440] I’m looking at this trailer. I don’t know if any of this is gameplay. Um, so I don’t like that. [29:58.360 –> 30:04.760] Yes, but again, if it’s a, you know, pre rendered cutscene type footage, yeah, would look good. [30:04.760 –> 30:11.080] And so yeah, that’s, that’s why I’m bringing it out because that’s always a big, big asterisk for any [30:11.080 –> 30:16.440] trailer in my opinion. Listen, Bailey. Um, I like to see actual gameplay. I don’t know if we’re [30:16.440 –> 30:22.680] actually seeing any here. Um, but the concept is cool. They are really going for, you know, uh, [30:22.680 –> 30:28.200] well, hey, culture, right? Where it’s specific culture out there. Um, we’ve got non white folks [30:28.200 –> 30:33.080] as the lead and most of the Kevin, Kevin, yes, he Kevin, this is in my list. He’s in my list [30:33.080 –> 30:38.120] for discussion in the meantime. Yeah. Okay. Okay. You know what I’m just saying. Okay. Um, [30:38.840 –> 30:42.440] on. Okay. But anyways, I don’t even know what the game’s supposed to be playing like to be on. [30:42.440 –> 30:47.320] It is. Yeah. I think it’s an, it’s more of a kind of like exploration game, but you’re not. There’s [30:47.320 –> 30:53.480] no like combat or anything. You’re, um, I guess it kind of is more actually that did you ever play [30:54.200 –> 31:00.280] what’s it called? Oh, my word. Why am I so bad with names? Sometimes the Alba, Alba, I keep getting [31:00.280 –> 31:05.080] that one messed up because there’s a Scott’s word, which is spelled the same as the Spanish name, [31:05.080 –> 31:10.680] but it said differently, right? Alba, the wildlife. Oh, no, I didn’t. Yeah, that’s probably a good [31:10.680 –> 31:16.920] comparison. But without the, like, obviously you’re not taking pictures. You are instead going [31:16.920 –> 31:21.960] around. And I think the idea is that you’re meant to be hearing for animals. Uh, okay. There’s, [31:21.960 –> 31:26.760] so looking at the YouTube trailer, there’s a blurb here face off against your foes and opening [31:26.760 –> 31:32.360] counters where your creativity is the key of victory, transform into any of the over 30 animals or [31:32.360 –> 31:37.640] hundreds of objects at your disposal, uh, uncover your secrets and make new friends as your jam on [31:37.640 –> 31:43.960] your fully playable ukulele in this tropical adventure. That sounds cool. I don’t see that in this trailer [31:43.960 –> 31:50.200] area. At least in terms of the gameplay, like I see where they’re hinting at animals and transforming, [31:50.200 –> 31:55.240] but I don’t know how that’s utilizing the game, but uh, yeah, I think it’s, I think it’s meant to be [31:55.240 –> 32:00.200] like a puzzle thing. So you might need to, to use certain animals to get certain places and stuff like [32:00.200 –> 32:06.760] that. It says foes. It says foes. That’s, that’s, it does interesting. Yeah. I don’t know. Maybe [32:06.760 –> 32:12.840] there is combat then that I didn’t realize. March. I see the ukulele in the very last shot of this [32:12.840 –> 32:18.040] trailer. The ukulele is prom. Yeah. There is a rhythm game, I believe with that. I mean, [32:18.040 –> 32:26.680] regardless, we’re going to find out soon because, uh, that’s just a few. Yes. Man, March 21st, [32:26.680 –> 32:34.600] 2023. Very cool. Epic game store PS4 and PS5. Um, and yeah, this, this game will 100% come up [32:34.600 –> 32:41.960] in our main conversation about culture and video games. And it’s perfect timing. Yeah. Okay. [32:41.960 –> 32:48.360] But, uh, next we have, uh, technically a release date, but a release date for an update. [32:49.000 –> 32:55.400] That’s awesome. Uh, uh, the wondering village. This is where you’re, you have a farming, it’s [32:55.400 –> 33:01.160] basically a farming life sim, but you’re on the back of a big creature. So they have added, [33:01.160 –> 33:07.640] this update is adding gamepad support and therefore steam deck compatibility and a bunch of other [33:07.640 –> 33:11.160] stuff that I’m not really going to talk about because that’s all I really care about. Steam [33:11.160 –> 33:17.400] is going to be over here. Yeah, that’s the big one, right? Yeah. Yeah. This is my first time [33:17.400 –> 33:23.480] looking at the game and it looks very impressive. Like, I really like this shot of the, of the, [33:23.480 –> 33:29.080] the, the big creature walking through. And as I understand it, that’s not like to the typical game [33:29.080 –> 33:36.200] play, but I still like looking at it. Yeah, it’s a cool. I haven’t heard or played anything of this [33:36.200 –> 33:43.080] game. I’m just wondering like, does the creature inter like, does that affect your village? [33:43.080 –> 33:49.000] I believe it does affect things. Yeah. So I believe that your creature can get into battles [33:49.000 –> 33:53.640] with other creatures, for example. Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah. That does sound familiar. It’s a very [33:53.640 –> 34:01.160] cool concept. Um, it’s interesting because like the art of the world, like the bigger world where [34:01.160 –> 34:08.280] you see the creatures like detail, painted, lovely art style. And then when you zoom in on the [34:08.280 –> 34:13.160] village, you get like little cartoony people. Um, they’re cute. It’s a fun juxtaposition. I just [34:13.160 –> 34:18.840] think that’s a neat idea to do it. Um, yeah, no, it looks cool. Um, very, yeah, we get game pad. I [34:18.840 –> 34:23.160] feel like, I feel like I don’t play games unless they get, I’d say that I’ve done it before, [34:23.160 –> 34:26.360] but I really would like to play every game with a game pad and then like the keyboard. [34:26.360 –> 34:33.880] Uh, next we have brand new game announcement, farming simulator 23 is releasing this May. [34:34.520 –> 34:42.120] This was very funny to me. It is funny just in general, right? Like, I find it really funny [34:42.120 –> 34:48.680] that they’re still doing this to releases a farming simulator. So the one year they release the [34:48.680 –> 34:54.760] main game that comes out on PC and PlayStation and Xbox. And then the next year they’ll do one that [34:54.760 –> 34:58.600] comes out on mobile and switch. And it’s just really funny that they’re still doing that. [34:58.600 –> 35:02.920] I don’t know why that’s still funny to me, but it is still fun. It’s bizarre. It is bizarre, [35:02.920 –> 35:09.480] but I mean, hey, like, they have a community. I don’t want to, and listen to you. I mean, [35:09.480 –> 35:17.880] they keep keep this game going game. It looks like the best fun simulator game. Um, and we’ll say [35:17.880 –> 35:25.960] that of farming games. It is. Yeah. It really is. Um, so good good for those people. I read through [35:25.960 –> 35:32.680] those updates and additions and they mentioned crops. I don’t even know what is sorghum. That’s [35:32.680 –> 35:39.160] a new crop. Sorghum. Okay. I don’t know what that is. You can grow grapes and olives too. [35:40.120 –> 35:43.880] It’s funny that it is. If I find it funny, they didn’t have grapes up to this point. [35:43.880 –> 35:47.800] Olives sure. They’ve seen quite niche, but it’s funny that they didn’t have grapes. [35:48.680 –> 35:53.400] Yeah. Can I say that for the next game? You know, like the keep on your toes. Yeah. [35:54.440 –> 35:58.440] Yeah. Four is around the bend, but also I interestingly adding an AI helper. [35:59.000 –> 36:05.240] Oh, that’s wonderful. See, it’s an auto generate crops to see. I don’t know. They’ve not said [36:05.240 –> 36:11.640] anything about it. Just it’s a thing. I will say like for as much as almost the meme as it is in [36:11.640 –> 36:18.280] our corner here and on this podcast, like I think farming simulator does its job very well. [36:18.280 –> 36:22.200] I think some of these other gibs probably could take a few notes from them. [36:24.120 –> 36:31.000] Just again, like so many other things are very stardew derivative. It’d be nice to see a little [36:31.000 –> 36:40.520] more emphasis on the actual farming, but that just me. And apparently sorghum is grown as cereals [36:40.520 –> 36:46.920] for human consumption and in some in pastures for animals. Okay. There you go. So exciting. [36:48.440 –> 36:54.040] It’s a nice well-known grain in the world. Yeah. Well, I’m sure their community is hyped over it. [36:54.600 –> 37:00.120] It comes a distant fifth for most produced grades. I’m like fifth. Fifth seems quite high to me. [37:00.120 –> 37:07.880] My body rice wheat and corn. So it’s above oats. It’s more it’s it’s produced more than oats. [37:07.880 –> 37:14.600] What? That’s way. I didn’t know that oats wasn’t in that list. Was it farming simulator? [37:14.600 –> 37:17.960] Does it drop again? Here’s a live on the podcast, educating us. [37:19.160 –> 37:25.240] I need to find out the real estate. Most produced grains. You’ve got to think what’s that [37:25.240 –> 37:30.840] soy must be pretty high, right? I would think so. But yeah, did we say the date for that May [37:30.840 –> 37:37.800] 23? I get that. Corn is the top. Then wheat, then rice, then barley, then sorghum, then oats, [37:37.800 –> 37:43.320] then rye. Oh, I don’t I don’t see a soy not a grain. Is that what it is? It’s a pedantic thing. [37:43.880 –> 37:47.800] I think it is. What is soy? So it is not a grain. It is a bean. [37:47.800 –> 37:55.800] Pulse. Oh my. What? It’s a it’s a little just got fog. Okay. Lagoon. Okay. Yes. I know the [37:55.800 –> 38:05.800] Gooms. Yes. Like a peanut. Yeah. Another bean. Not a not. Right. Moving on from the very niche conversation. [38:06.520 –> 38:11.720] Wait. I think this is more why I think this is more on topic than anything else we could [38:11.720 –> 38:17.240] buzz a little bit. This is why we changed. This is why we changed the cottage core. [38:17.240 –> 38:25.960] No. Final piece of news is there’s a new game that’s just come out called Don groan. [38:27.080 –> 38:30.840] And this I’ll just read the blub for this one. A short adventure about healing people’s [38:30.840 –> 38:37.160] inner worlds from corruption and confront emotions in this refreshingly cute adventure about [38:37.160 –> 38:40.840] cleansing people’s inner worlds of doubt and pain. You are as you’re the frog. [38:40.840 –> 38:47.000] Journey from the foliage floating in the sky to the minds of the afflicted as you cleanse [38:47.000 –> 38:53.640] their rich inner worlds from the dark ooze that corrupts them. Okay. Um, the, um, sorry, [38:53.640 –> 38:58.680] good. No, go ahead. You can give your thoughts. Oh, well, I was just going to say like looking at [38:58.680 –> 39:06.520] all of these trailers from indie developers and I see their subscriber count at like 30, 47, 10. [39:06.520 –> 39:12.040] And I’m like, oh, look at these guys. They’re, they’re really, they’re really working. Yeah. Yeah. [39:12.040 –> 39:18.200] No. I mean, that, that’s pretty common in our neighborhoods too. Um, but I mean, hey, that’s, [39:18.200 –> 39:23.160] that’s part of this with this podcast is we’re right. Uh, okay. So I have three things to say about [39:23.160 –> 39:28.200] this game. One, uh, the pixel art very nice, very stylish. I like it. Mine to be a bull. There’s [39:28.200 –> 39:35.240] all the games. Um, two, that said, the game cannot be as posi. There’s no way could ever be as [39:35.240 –> 39:41.800] possibly cute as the, uh, the like actual, uh, art of the frog, like the little title art with [39:41.800 –> 39:47.240] him. That is it. Oh, yes. I thought the same thing. Like the, like the, the, the cover image. [39:47.240 –> 39:52.680] Yeah. It’s that frog is too cute and, and I feel bad for them that they could never replicate [39:52.680 –> 40:00.040] that with pixels and nothing against them. That’s just the Herculean task. Um, and three, it’s a [40:00.040 –> 40:08.440] novel, an interesting idea. Um, it’s basically power simulator, but like on a 2D plane, um, [40:08.440 –> 40:12.520] or power washing simulator, it gets to any minute. You guys know what I meant? Um, I did. [40:12.520 –> 40:16.360] Yeah. You’re just, right. Well, actually, assumed you had said to the whole sentence. [40:17.560 &nd

Al, Codey, and Jonnie talk about the games coming in 2023 Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:04:39: What Have We Been Playing 00:14:31: News 00:20:18: 2023 Games 00:21:29: List Of Games 00:30:14: What We Are Excited About 00:56:28: Outro Links Bear and Breakfast Update Turnip Boy on PS Research Story EA Date Aka Update 2023 Games List: One Lonely Outpost Roots of Pacha SoS: A Wonderful Life HM: The Winds of Anthos Rune Factory 3 Special Mineko’s Night Market Snacko Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Terra Nil Above Snakes Cornucopia Lightyear Frontier Fae Farm Cloudscape Sprout Valley Dragon Acres Kloa: Child of the Forest Petadachi Wanderlost Everafter Falls Sun Haven Arclands Critter Crops Little Witch in the Woods Ova Magica Elusive People Moonhaven Wholesome - Out and About Super Zoo Story Pixelshire Moonstone Island A Last Song Distant Bloom Spirittea Loddlenaut Codey on Twitter Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/

Another day another 3-bit. It's a popular saying I think. This week we're talking some news and then we break down our top 3 favorite Summer Game Fest games. Peterson gives his first impression of Mario Strikers: Battle League, JD "reviews" Sun Haven, and we do a reroll.

In this episode we remember the gaming conferences that have all gone away. We also talk about Microsoft unions, Spider Man to PC, Sonic fans call for a Frontiers delay, John Madden lives again, Diablo Immortal, Pokemon and more. We share a memory of E3 past and play some Foodio Games with spicy food. JD explains his mulligan on Sun Haven.

This week we chat about what vidja games we're playing right now as well as discuss highlights from the latest Nintendo Direct. Games include: FFXIV, Sun Haven, Skyrim, Animal Crossing, and Potion Craft.

Steam Deck debate, Zelda Skyward Sword HD, Sun Haven, Death's Door, Bloodroots, The Falconeer, Sky: Children of the Light, Boss Level movie, Fall Guys, Sky Forge Nintendo Switch fail, is Ubisoft done, Netflix mobile gaming, and more games news! Head to videogameoutsiders.com for app links, Discord, or to go premium for weekly bonus content and get our entire back catalog of over 15 years of VGO and supprt us - listen on the VGO apps or on the web at ilovevgo.com!

Al and Kevin discuss E3 news, and whether Animal Crossing: New Horizons is finished. Timings [00:32] Intro [02:07] What Have We Been Playing [09:50] News [10:12] Garden Story [11:58] Sun Haven [15:40] Rune Factory 5 [19:13] Rune Factory 4s [20:48] SoS: FoMT [21:49] Snacko [24:43] Bear And Breakfast [26:16] One Lonely Outpost [28:17] Cloudscape [29:15] Alba: A Wildlife Adventure [30:23] Yokai Inn [36:04] Princess Farmer [38:10] Lost Nova [38:59] Is Animal Crossing Finished? [01:00:51] Outro Links Garden Story Trailer Sun Haven Early Access Info Rune Factory 5 Trailer Rune Factory 4S Announcement SoS: FoMT Announcement Snacko Announcement Snacko Switch Info Bear and Breakfast Trailer Bear and Breakfast Demo One Lonely Outpost Trailer Cloudscape Kickstarter Alba Design Award Alba Interview Yokai Inn Trailer Yokai Inn Art Controversy Princess Farmer Lost Nova Kevin on Twitter Kevin’s Art Twitter Contact Raschelle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MissDellaney Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/scotbot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/

Al goes through the news Timings [00:35] Intro [01:22] What Have I Been Playing [02:30] Alba: A Wildlife Adventure [03:21] Sun Haven [04:42] Re: Legend [05:39] Spiritfarer [07:31] Summer In Mara [07:57] Story Of Seasons: Pioneers Of Olive Town [10:09] Len’s Island [10:42] Terra Nil [12:48] Wanderlost [16:46] Palia [19:25] Outro Links Alba: A Wildlife Adventure Sun Haven Update Sun Haven Trailer Re:Legend Update Spiritfarer Physical Release Summer in Mara on Utomik SoS: PoOT 1.0.5 info Len’s Island Demo Terra Nil Wanderlost Palia Contact Raschelle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MissDellaney Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/scotbot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/

Al and Codey go through the news Timings [00:35] Intro [05:21] What Have We Been Playing [11:11] Wholesome Direct [14:51] Harvest Moon: One World [16:59] Story Of Seasons: Pioneeers Of Olive Town [23:59] Lonesome Village [25:35] Sun Haven [27:38] Kynseed [29:28] Alba: A Wildlife Adventure [31:15] Farm It! [33:58] APICO [40:00] A New Leaf: Memories [43:05] Story Of Season Mobile [54:26] Outro Links Wholesome Direct Announcement Harvest Moon: One World Update Harvest Moon: One World Episode Story of Seasons 1.0.5 Patch Story of Seasons DLC Lonesome Village Coming to Xbox Sun Haven Delay Len’s Island Demo Kynseed Update Alba Tease Farm It! APICO A New Leaf: Memories Story of Seasons Mobile Trailer Codey on Twitter Contact Raschelle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MissDellaney Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/scotbot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/

Al and Codey discuss Blocky farm. Also, news about Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town customisation, Stardew Valley patches, Sun Haven release date, and Coral Island kickstarter. Timings [00:00] Theme [00:32] Intro [02:49] What Have We Been Playing [14:07] News [14:10] Story Of Seasons: Pioneers Of Olive Tow [19:23] Stardew Valley [21:49] Sun Haven [22:53] Coral Island [26:41] Blocky Farm [01:50:05] Outro Links Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town Trailer Stardew 1.5.3 Shownotes Sun Haven Release Date Coral Island Early Access Release Coral Island Kickstarter Blocky Farm on Google Play Blocky Farm on Apple Codey on Twitter Contact Raschelle: https://twitter.com/MissDellaney Al: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/

Al and Micah talk about some active farming game kicksters Also a million items of news. Timings [00:33] Intro [02:47] What Have We Been Playing [17:30] News [17:35] Stardew 1.5 [23:10] Turnip Boy [25:47] Farmer Supreme [28:26] Forager [32:13] Village Monsters [36:10] Staxel [39:00] Verdant Village [39:40] My Time At Sandrock [47:30] Arclands [52:32] Petadachi [57:30] Kickstarter Roundup [01:11:27] Outro Links Stardew 1.5 Info Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion Turnip Boy Coming to Switch Farmer Supreme Forager Multiplayer Update Info Village Monsters Living Lands Update Staxel Hideaway Hollow Update Verdant Village Update Info My Time at Sandrock Arclands Petadatchi Active Kickstarters (as of 28th October 2020) My Time at Sandrock Deiland Sun Haven The Wandering Village Arclands Farmer Supreme Micah on Twitter Contact Raschelle: https://twitter.com/MissDellaney Al: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thspod