Sensible Completionist

Wed, Jan 31, 2024 Year 2, Autumn 05

Al and Kev talk about Moonstone Island

Timings

00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:02:05: What Have We Been Up To
00:14:27: News
00:54:26: Moonstone Island
01:47:58: Outro

Southfield
Sugardew Island
Sugardew Island Kickstarter
Sunkissed City
Abyss: New Dawn
Abyss: New Dawn Kickstarter

Contact

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Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/

Transcript

(0:00:30) Al: Hello and welcome to another episode of the harvest season.
(0:00:34) Al: My name is Al.
(0:00:36) Kevin: I’m, well it says “blank” in the show now.
(0:00:40) Kevin: That just reminds me of Pokemon Gold and Silver.
(0:00:43) Kevin: I was one of those guys who named my rival question my question word question word.
(0:00:47) Kevin: Hello everyone, my name is Kevin.
(0:00:49) Al: And we’re here today to talk about cottagecore games.
(0:00:53) Kevin: Whoo!
(0:00:54) Al: So the behind the scenes on that is, was it last episode?
(0:00:59) Al: Neither Johnny nor Bev knew how I traditionally introduce.
(0:01:02) Kevin: Yeah, there you go, yeah, you know me, I’m going to.
(0:01:03) Al: So I wrote it down.
(0:01:05) Al: I wrote it down in the show notes so that people always have it now.
(0:01:10) Al: And the first episode we have it in, Kevin comments on it.
(0:01:14) Al: So, great.
(0:01:19) Al: Well, as usual, transcripts for the podcast are available in the show notes and on the website.
(0:01:26) Al: This podcast, this episode, this episode, we are going to talk about Moonstone Island,
(0:01:33) Al: the creature collection farming, like there’s only one, one of the creature collecting farming games.
(0:01:36) Kevin: Yeah…
(0:01:42) Kevin: You don’t talk about religion?
(0:01:44) Kevin: Is religion one of them? I don’t remember.
(0:01:46) Al: I can’t even remember if that’s one other thing.
(0:01:48) Kevin: I don’t know. I still- I don’t think religion exists.
(0:01:52) Al: That game smashed together so many buzzwords.
(0:01:57) Kevin: Yep.
(0:01:58) Al: Before that, we’re going to cover news. It has been a busy news week,
(0:02:03) Al: so we’re going to cover all of that. But first of all, Kevin, what have you been up to?
(0:02:08) Kevin: Alright, so, uh, first of all, Tears of the Kingdom, I’m still- I’ve-
(0:02:14) Kevin: I don’t remember the last time I talked about it here, but I’ve played it in the background kind of…
(0:02:20) Kevin: …uh, on and off, um, I’m not a- I’m not going for completion, but I am trying to hit every shrine.
(0:02:29) Kevin: Every light route, and all that stuff.
(0:02:32) Kevin: Um, I’ve already finished the deaths, I finished all the main story beats except for beating Ganon,
(0:02:37) Kevin: and I’m over 100, uh…
(0:02:38) Kevin: Shrines at this point, so I’m nearing the finish line. I might finish by next week.
(0:02:43) Al: You’re doing the sensible completionist, not the full completionist.
(0:02:44) Kevin: You know…
(0:02:48) Kevin: Exactly. That’s correct!
(0:02:51) Kevin: And that game is a blast. You know, of course, needless to say.
(0:02:58) Kevin: Small stories, spoilers for people who don’t want to listen. The Fifth Sage
(0:03:03) Kevin: was a real surprise. I think that’s a giant robot, and
(0:03:07) Kevin: Monero is a fun to-
(0:03:08) Kevin: to- a blast to run around with, um, and I’m so glad I got her early on, her relative.
(0:03:15) Al: Yeah, my fun fact about her is that I got her before any of the other sages, because I just happened across her and did it.
(0:03:22) Kevin: Yeah.
(0:03:24) Kevin: That’s…
(0:03:26) Kevin: That’s so wild, that’s so cool.
(0:03:29) Kevin: Um, my brother Calvin, he didn’t do her until like after he beat all the shrines, so…
(0:03:35) Kevin: He just like, “Well, I got this cool run and I don’t have anything to do with it!”
(0:03:40) Kevin: Um…
(0:03:42) Kevin: But yeah, no, uh, Tears of the Kingdom, great game, needless to say.
(0:03:45) Kevin: Um, I’m just, haven’t been having a blast at that.
(0:03:47) Kevin: Um, I’ve picked up Smash again this week, uh,
(0:03:50) Kevin: They are releasing some new spirit.
(0:03:52) Kevin: It’s like the fifth anniversary, something like that.
(0:03:55) Kevin: Sakurai refuses, cannot be stopped from working on that game.
(0:04:01) Kevin: But a good reason to pick up again and smash a smash, always fun.
(0:04:06) Kevin: Aside from that, the Rainbow Road obligatory shout out here.
(0:04:13) Kevin: Rainbow Road Radio, some of the stuff I’ve been talking about on that show recently.
(0:04:18) Kevin: Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga the game
(0:04:22) Kevin: Boy Advance RPG. We did an episode on that and boy that game is amazing! I played it when I was younger, it was amazing back then and I’m glad that it is still fantastic now.
(0:04:38) Kevin: Have you played any of the Mario and Luigi games? Al?
(0:04:40) Al: I have not. That was the one you covered last week, in the last episode, right? Yeah. I enjoyed listening to that. It was good fun, but it did confirm to me that I probably don’t want to play it. So I’ve played a couple of the Paper Mario games, and I’ve played what was the Mario RPG last year, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t think I like turn-based battles anymore. And that’s fine.
(0:04:41) Kevin: Yes.
(0:04:52) Kevin: Yes. Mmhmm. Yep. Mmhmm. Sure.
(0:05:10) Al: For that reason, I suspect I wouldn’t like this game, because that’s a huge part of the game, right?
(0:05:16) Kevin: It is. Right, but like one of the joys in my opinion where it succeeds is it’s very dynamic even for turn based game because of the
(0:05:28) Kevin: The counters and the the timing and jumping these it’s still repetitive
(0:05:34) Kevin: actions
(0:05:34) Al: So I understand that, but actually I think that makes it worse for me because it’s not turn-based battling then, right?
(0:05:40) Al: Like it’s turn-based with a little bit of real time.
(0:05:44) Kevin: - Yeah.
(0:05:45) Al: So because I had that in Mario RPG as well, they did that.
(0:05:46) Kevin: - Yeah?
(0:05:47) Al: It’s like, oh, if you, if you, if you press the button at the right time, it increases your attack, or if you press it at the right time, you get, you take zero damage.
(0:05:48) Kevin: They did that?
(0:05:56) Al: And it’s like, okay, well, I need to do that then.
(0:05:58) Al: And there are so many battles where you basically can’t win it unless you do, or you obviously
(0:06:04) Al: have a ridiculous degree, unless you do those things.
(0:06:07) Al: And to me, it just turns for, it just makes it annoying because it’s like, I can’t just do a turn-based battle.
(0:06:13) Al: It’s turn-based battle, but I also have to have the right timing, which to me takes away the advantage of the turn-based battles.
(0:06:14) Kevin: Yeah.
(0:06:18) Kevin: Mm-hmm.
(0:06:20) Al: So I understand why people would like that, but for me, it doesn’t, it actually makes
(0:06:21) Kevin: Okay.
(0:06:25) Kevin: Yeah.
(0:06:25) Kevin: I- I get that, right?
(0:06:27) Kevin: Because, yeah, one of the advantages of turn-based battles is definitely turn your brain off, sort of thing.
(0:06:32) Kevin: Um.
(0:06:33) Kevin: Yeah, no, I- I- I can see that.
(0:06:35) Kevin: Um.
(0:06:36) Kevin: But, uh, regardless, the game’s fantastic.
(0:06:38) Kevin: It’s hilarious.
(0:06:38) Kevin: It’s amazing.
(0:06:39) Kevin: Uh.
(0:06:40) Kevin: Go listen to that episode of Rainbow Road Radio if you guys haven’t heard it.
(0:06:44) Kevin: And check out that game if you guys haven’t played it, it’s still a- or 20, whatever, however many years it’s been.
(0:06:47) Al: It’s 20, 21.
(0:06:49) Kevin: Um.
(0:06:50) Kevin: No, I know.
(0:06:51) Kevin: I don’t- I don’t know what it should be.
(0:06:52) Al: No, it was definitely a fun listen to hear you two talk about it, even if I know I’m not going to play.
(0:06:54) Kevin: Um.
(0:06:57) Kevin: Yep.
(0:06:58) Kevin: Thank you.
(0:06:59) Kevin: I appreciate it.
(0:06:59) Kevin: Um.
(0:07:00) Kevin: And, uh, well, now talking about the episode that will be released out at the- when this episode is- of Harvest Season’s out.
(0:07:08) Kevin: Um, I watched something called The King of Kong.
(0:07:11) Kevin: Have you heard of this at all, Al?
(0:07:12) Al: No, I thought you were just saying King Kong in a funny way. This is like an actual “I have not, what is this?”
(0:07:18) Kevin: Nope.
(0:07:19) Kevin: Yep.
(0:07:20) Kevin: Okay.
(0:07:20) Kevin: So, The King of Kong is a documentary from like, 2007, I believe it is.
(0:07:26) Kevin: Um.
(0:07:27) Kevin: It was- it’s- it- it’s not super high production.
(0:07:32) Kevin: It’s not like a big m- Hollywood movie release.
(0:07:35) Kevin: It was directed by, uh, Seth Gordon, who ended up becoming a successful big Hollywood director because of this documentary, actually.
(0:07:44) Kevin: Um, but it is a smaller, uh, project, it is a documentary about, uh, a- I should describe this- a competition of sorts between- a rivalry, let’s say, between a man named Billy Mitchell and a man named Steve We- Weebie, uh, over getting the world record in Donkey Kong, the arca- original arcade game, um, right?
(0:08:11) Kevin: And so the way–
(0:08:14) Kevin: The way this documentary is filmed and presented, it’s a very underdog story because Billy Mitchell is a world champ and record holder in like 10 different games like Pac-Man, Mrs. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong Jr., etc., etc., right?
(0:08:28) Kevin: And then Steve Weebie’s just like this teacher with just a dad and all of a sudden he comes and gets this record and there’s a lot of drama involved because Billy Mitchell is closely associated with the–
(0:08:44) Kevin: It’s called Twin Galaxies, the group that essentially is the authority on the records at that time of these types of arcade games.
(0:08:54) Kevin: So like, for instance, one of Weebie’s early record attempts, he sent in a tape and they didn’t accept it because they said they needed to see it in person, yada yada.
(0:09:06) Kevin: And so he goes in person and creates a new record, but then Billy Mitchell sends in a different tape and that one gets accepted because–
(0:09:14) Kevin: And so there’s a lot of back and forth and drama.
(0:09:18) Kevin: And it’s a good watch. I recommend it to people who haven’t seen it.
(0:09:22) Kevin: But it’s interesting because the story does not end there.
(0:09:28) Kevin: We watched some follow-up documentary and actually there’s been some court cases in the news. That’s why we kind of brought it up now.
(0:09:36) Kevin: So I won’t go too much into detail of whether you guys can listen to the episode over at Rainbow Road Radio if you want to hear it.
(0:09:44) Kevin: But long story short, Billy Mitchell is an awful, awful person who wants to be number one and will stop at nothing and step on everyone and backstab and control the narrative to do so.
(0:09:49) Al: Oh.
(0:10:00) Kevin: That much you can easily see in the original King of Kong documentary, so that’s not a shocker. But seeing the extent of how that goes, it’s a wild story.
(0:10:14) Kevin: So again, that is called King of Kong. That’s the original documentary, but there is even follow-up documentaries made by more amateurs and stuff investigating more about the story.
(0:10:26) Kevin: So it is a wild tale over several decades.
(0:10:30) Kevin: But yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to. What about you? What’s going on with you?
(0:10:30) Al: interesting. Yeah just before that I noticed that the Seth Gordon the director he did he did the 2017 Baywatch film as well this is like yes yeah so like yeah when you say he’s done Hollywood stuff he’s at he’s done proper big Hollywood stuff as well
(0:10:44) Kevin: Yeah, and he did Horrible Bosses, that comedy with, I don’t know what it’s called, but yeah.
(0:10:52) Kevin: Yeah, yep, yep. And King of Kong was kind of his breakthrough. Everyone took notice.
(0:10:59) Al: Well, what have I been up to? I have obviously been playing Moonstone Island quite a bit for the last couple of weeks. Yeah, the behind-the-scenes stuff is we were meant to do this episode two weeks ago and I messaged Kevin on this Friday and said, “Can we delay the episode because I’ve played like 10 minutes of the game?” I just had not… We’ll get into that with stuff but I just had not.
(0:11:06) Kevin: Yeah, I played a good bit too. I didn’t play it the last week.
(0:11:29) Al: Managed to push myself to properly play the game.
(0:11:31) Al: So I have now played a decent chunk of the game.
(0:11:34) Al: So, um, yeah, we’ll, we’ll actually talk about it.
(0:11:37) Kevin: Now we can talk about it, yay!
(0:11:39) Al: Um, I’ve also been, uh, trying to finish up Hollow Knight as well.
(0:11:44) Al: So I managed to get back into it and I’ve defeated a big chunk of the bosses.
(0:11:49) Al: And I think I’ve got two bosses left to go.
(0:11:52) Al: Um, so I’m, I’m getting there, but, uh, yeah, we’re getting, we’re getting pretty difficult, getting pretty difficult.
(0:11:57) Kevin: Okay, oh, I bet oh my gosh. I’ve seen some of those later bosses Jesus wheez that’s some nutty stuff That’s off to you Hollow Knight people
(0:12:06) Al: Yeah, it’s interesting because the one I’m currently on is like, it’s not the actual individual boss isn’t difficult, but the difficulty of it is there are six of them. And you have to defeat like all of them before, yeah. And they’re all, and they can do up to two at a time. So like doing one of them at a time would probably be reasonably easy. I probably would have done it by now. But the problem is then they suddenly go, “Oh, and here’s There’s a second one you have to deal with at the same time.
(0:12:18) Kevin: Oh! It’s a gauntlet.
(0:12:36) Al: You’re like dodging one, but as you dodge one, the other one gets you.
(0:12:39) Al: You’re like, no, so it’s like there’s so many times where it’s like, I would have definitely beaten it if it weren’t for the fact that I had two at a time and stuff
(0:12:46) Al: like that. So, yeah, it’s it’s pretty it’s it’s interesting how you can have that.
(0:12:51) Al: Right. Like it’s not it’s not a very difficult.
(0:12:52) Kevin: Oh my gosh, yeah that sounds gnarly.
(0:12:53) Al: They’re not difficult bosses, but putting them all together like that makes it very
(0:12:58) Al: difficult.
(0:13:00) Al: So, yeah, but it’s been good fun.
(0:13:02) Al: I think I’ve managed to get, uh, like four of.
(0:13:06) Al: Um, so I got pretty close that time, frustratingly close, but we’ll get, we’ll get there soon, we’ll get there soon.
(0:13:11) Kevin: Dang oh my god
(0:13:15) Al: Um, so yeah, no, that’s really, it’s really good fun.
(0:13:17) Al: Um, I’m definitely at the point in that game though, where I do not want to explore anymore, I do not want to backtrack anymore.
(0:13:23) Al: Like I have done all of that.
(0:13:25) Al: I just want to get to the last boss and kill him and be done with it and get onto the next game when it comes out.
(0:13:30) Al: Right.
(0:13:30) Al: I, the becomes a point with those games where you’re like, I’m done exploring.
(0:13:34) Al: Thanks. And the problem is…
(0:13:36) Al: Obviously, Medtrivenia is the whole point of them is exploring and backtracking.
(0:13:39) Al: So they don’t have a lot of fast travel.
(0:13:42) Al: There is some, but it’s not a lot of it.
(0:13:44) Al: So you still have to do a lot of traversal of the map to get from boss to boss.
(0:13:48) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, I get that. And Hollow Knight’s a special case because the DLC is just stuck in there, like, you can’t tell where the DLC is at a glance, right?
(0:14:00) Kevin: There’s no DLC menu option, like, you’re doing over a hundred percent.
(0:14:06) Al: Yeah, I haven’t, I haven’t even paid attention to what I’m doing there.
(0:14:10) Al: I suspect at this point, I’m just, I’m going for the like final main boss.
(0:14:15) Al: And if I’ve done any of the DLC stuff, then fine.
(0:14:19) Al: But I don’t think I’m going to like focus on any of that.
(0:14:22) Kevin: Yeah, no, no, yeah, that makes sense, it’s a wide one, it’s a big game.
(0:14:26) Al: Super fun.
(0:14:28) Al: All right.
(0:14:28) Al: Awesome.
(0:14:29) Al: Well, that’s what we’ve been up to.
(0:14:30) Al: Let’s talk about some news.
(0:14:32) Al: So first of all, we have just a couple of small things about spells and secrets.
(0:14:36) Al: So their Xbox version is out now, and they have also said that they are not happy with the Switch version and they’ve fired their porting team and they’ve got a new porting team for the Switch version.
(0:14:46) Kevin: Oh snap!
(0:14:48) Al: The actual wording is we ourselves are incredibly unhappy with the Nintendo Switch
(0:14:52) Al: version. This situation is incredibly frustrating for us to achieve the best possible results.
(0:14:57) Al: We’ve decided to bring a new porting team on board.
(0:15:01) Al: We would like to reevaluate the source code and are currently waiting for feedback on the current status of the source code.
(0:15:06) Al: Well, we can’t make any current problems concrete promises at this moment.
(0:15:09) Al: We remain optimistic about making positive progress.
(0:15:13) Kevin: Well, I mean, hey, I salute them for wanting to improve the quality of the Switch ports aren’t always the best, so you know [laughs]
(0:15:20) Al: One lonely outposts have posted a… post. They have updated us on what they’re working on and they have teased a UI overhaul. So the whole UI is getting an overhaul.
(0:15:40) Kevin: That’s a big one. Probably respectable.
(0:15:43) Kevin: And played it obviously.
(0:15:44) Kevin: UI is a very critical…
(0:15:46) Al: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I’ve not played the game. So looking at the two, I’m like, I don’t have an opinion on which I prefer because I’ve not experienced them properly. But they definitely it feels like it’s of the same style. So it doesn’t feel completely different, but it looks like they’re exactly it’s all functional stuff. Yeah. So they’re making it look I suspect it’s like UX based stuff and and things like their newest update. They’ve got the patch as far there as well.
(0:16:02) Kevin: Right, it’s not like visually aesthetically. It’s more functional.
(0:16:16) Al: It’s all bug fixes and small changes.
(0:16:19) Al: So the link to that will be in the show notes as well.
(0:16:23) Al: Orange season.
(0:16:25) Al: Now, this is an incredible patch note.
(0:16:28) Al: So this is version 0.11, 0.11.
(0:16:32) Al: And the patch note starts off with narrative,
(0:16:36) Al: added a main story.
(0:16:42) Al: And I am absolutely fascinated by this.
(0:16:42) Kevin: Uhh…
(0:16:44) Al: Like, does this mean there was no main story?
(0:16:46) Al: Or is this additional main story?
(0:16:50) Al: I mean, it says, “After settling in Orange Town, your new life seems to be going fine.
(0:16:55) Al: However, the previous owner of your farm returns, and he wants it back on this journey to guarantee your future.
(0:17:00) Al: Your new life will mingle with a cast of strange, friendly, and conflicting personalities.
(0:17:05) Al: What kind of people will you and them be at the end?”
(0:17:09) Al: So this sounds to me like the game up till this point was like the daily farming aspect of things,
(0:17:15) Al: but without like an overall.
(0:17:16) Al: Marking story, which is an interesting way to go about it.
(0:17:19) Kevin: Umm… yeah.
(0:17:22) Kevin: Umm…
(0:17:24) Kevin: Spoilers, Moonstone Island could use an update like this!
(0:17:26) Al: Yeah, it’s interesting. Neither of us have played it, so I don’t think we have, but there you go. If you’ve been playing the game and you’re like, “This game could do with story.”
(0:17:28) Kevin: That’s all I wanted to say.
(0:17:32) Kevin: But it is funny to read, just added a story.
(0:17:48) Al: Well, have I got good news for you?
(0:17:52) Al: Speaking of having good news for you, specifically Kevin, I’ve got good news for you.
(0:17:53) Kevin: Oh!
(0:17:56) Kevin: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHH!
(0:17:57) Kevin: I just saw the news!
(0:17:58) Al: Wildflowers, the Yuri’s Salon, I think it’s Yuri, we just think it’s Yuri.
(0:17:58) Kevin: AHHHHHH!
(0:18:07) Kevin: Yep, I think so. Hold on, I’m listening right now. It’s in the trailer.
(0:18:11) Kevin: Yeah, it’s Yuri. Okay.
(0:18:12) Al: Yuri’s Salon update is out today, if you’re listening to this on the release date, so 31st of January.
(0:18:20) Al: And it brings a whole new, romanceable character, and the salon that she…
(0:18:30) Al: I haven’t seen anything about pronouns, but I’m assuming she…
(0:18:30) Kevin: Yeah, I don’t think so
(0:18:35) Kevin: Yeah
(0:18:38) Kevin: So that’s
(0:18:40) Kevin: RAVERS!
(0:18:40) Al: This is how you do updates, right? You go, “Hey, by the way, there was a tease, right?
(0:18:47) Al: So they showed a tease of the outline of the character and said someone new is moving to Fairhaven, and then posted that yes, they are romanceable. And then the next day they were like, “Oh yeah, so the release is coming next Wednesday. Cheers.”
(0:19:05) Al: Yep, good, good, good, good release in full.
(0:19:06) Kevin: Umm…
(0:19:10) Kevin: Yep, good reveal.
(0:19:12) Al: Reveal, that’s the word I’m looking for.
(0:19:12) Kevin: Like, it’s…
(0:19:14) Kevin: First of all, adding a new character, that’s a big deal in any farming game.
(0:19:18) Al: Yeah, especially Wildflowers, because it’s very character-based.
(0:19:20) Kevin: Umm… Right…
(0:19:26) Kevin: Yep, very character driven, right?
(0:19:28) Kevin: Like, the setting is pretty small, so they compensated that by doing a lot of interactions with the characters.
(0:19:34) Kevin: Um, so that’s…
(0:19:36) Kevin: That is interesting to see, also like interesting to see added at this point, right?
(0:19:44) Kevin: Because like it might say if I’m already married to Ray, I’m not gonna end that for Yuri.
(0:19:46) Al: Yeah, I love how you’re not even saying Wesley, you’re just saying Ray.
(0:19:48) Kevin: Sorry Yuri, I’m sure you’re fine, but you know.
(0:19:50) Kevin: But that said, it will be interesting to see…
(0:19:56) Kevin: It’s the reason I played the game! I’ll be honest!
(0:20:04) Kevin: But…
(0:20:06) Kevin: But yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I’m hopeful there will be other stuff sneaked in. I can’t wait to play it.
(0:20:13) Kevin: I’ll fire up wildflowers again. Great, good excuse to do that again.
(0:20:18) Kevin: One thing… Oh gosh, so it’s a salon, right? So you can redo…
(0:20:26) Kevin: Yeah, Terry. Her name is Terry. Terry’s hair. It’s about to say Valerie. I’m mixing those two up now.
(0:20:28) Al: Yeah.
(0:20:32) Al: Quite a large selection of hairstyles, it looks like, and hair colors.
(0:20:33) Kevin: But it’s I feel almost uncomfortable
(0:20:36) Kevin: I feel so almost uncomfortable because I’m so used to that hairstyle it’s so iconic for the character whatever like you know it’s the look
(0:20:44) Al: Yeah.
(0:20:45) Al: Yes.
(0:20:45) Al: It’s not like, it’s not like a game where you have a character customizer.
(0:20:49) Al: Cause the whole point is it’s Tara’s story and you’re playing as Tara.
(0:20:53) Kevin: Right.
(0:20:54) Al: So like, this is the, I mean, can you change clothes?
(0:20:55) Kevin: Yup.
(0:20:57) Kevin: You can? Yes.
(0:20:58) Al: Right.
(0:20:58) Al: So there is at least some level of customization there.
(0:21:00) Al: So, and it’s not like it doesn’t make sense to be able to change your hair.
(0:21:01) Kevin: Yeah.
(0:21:01) Kevin: Yeah.
(0:21:05) Al: Like people change their hair.
(0:21:06) Kevin: Yeah!
(0:21:06) Al: That’s a thing that happens.
(0:21:07) Kevin: Yeah!
(0:21:08) Al: Uh, but I understand, I understand your concern.
(0:21:08) Kevin: Yeah, you know, I…
(0:21:11) Kevin: Yeah, I…
(0:21:12) Kevin: Yeah, no, it makes sense.
(0:21:13) Kevin: I…
(0:21:14) Kevin: It’s…
(0:21:15) Kevin: There’s nothing inherently wrong with it.
(0:21:16) Kevin: I’m just uncomfortable with the change!
(0:21:20) Kevin: I tear his blood, I don’t like it!
(0:21:23) Kevin: But that said, hey, wildflowers in the news again, I’m very happy, happy day.
(0:21:26) Kevin: Um, and boy, that r- that’s dropping soon, I like shadow drop like that. Good stuff, wildflowers.
(0:21:32) Al: Yeah, good thing we’re doing this episode before it comes out.
(0:21:37) Al: Awesome detail, we don’t have any like more details, but if we get them, we’ll put them in if there’s anything else coming in and it does, I actually didn’t check does it say,
(0:21:47) Kevin: Heh heh.
(0:21:48) Al: I think it’s a free update. I haven’t seen anything but it being DLC. Yeah, they’re called.
(0:21:51) Kevin: I would assume so. They have not done anything paid as-
(0:21:54) Al: Yeah, and they’re calling it an update. They’re saying the Wildflowers fourth update Yuri salon is coming next. I think that implies that it’s free.
(0:22:02) Al: Hey, look, Re-legend. This is just a really small thing to say that they have said that they’re going to do more updates. That’s it. They’ve said that, oh, they got some money to work on the game more, so they’re going to do that. That’s it. That’s literally it.
(0:22:09) Kevin: They’re going to add more buzzwords into the game.
(0:22:28) Al: There was a bug fix update recently as well.
(0:22:31) Kevin: I guess.
(0:22:32) Al: I love some of these, I love some of these bugs in games.
(0:22:36) Al: “Ensure the player’s character does not pass through the map when jumping off their magnus near the chest in the goblins resort in the desert biome.”
(0:22:46) Al: That is so specific.
(0:22:49) Kevin: Yeah.
(0:22:50) Kevin: Oh my gosh, that’s funny.
(0:22:53) Kevin: Okay, what a, what a re-legend.
(0:23:00) Al: The interesting thing is, I looked at the comments on Steam and they’re all positive.
(0:23:08) Al: It’s like unexpected but not unwelcomed.
(0:23:08) Kevin: Well, look, hold on.
(0:23:10) Al: Surprising but fantastic news.
(0:23:12) Al: Great news!
(0:23:13) Kevin: Now hold on.
(0:23:14) Al: Like there’s loads of like actual- and this is the first time I’ve seen like positive comments on anything for League of Legends for like five years!
(0:23:24) Kevin: Well, I mean, you know, coming out was a good first step, right, in making positive comments, finally.
(0:23:24) Al: Yes, that’s true.
(0:23:32) Kevin: But, like, uh, look, alright, this is anecdotal, this is just my experience, I don’t know who anyone who’s played the game, so, you know, is it all just, uh, uh, uh, you know, fake town, and, uh, just the fake comment section by, populated by the devs, I don’t know, it’s possible, I’m just putting it out there.
(0:23:40) Al: Does anyone?
(0:23:54) Kevin: Did the game come out? I don’t have confirmation yet.
(0:23:59) Al: And they do, there is one comment on it, which is just give them guns.
(0:24:05) Al: So I think I know where that person’s, I think I know where that person’s mind is
(0:24:08) Kevin: I wonder where…
(0:24:10) Kevin: You know, did I tell you, or do you know why they added guns in Power World?
(0:24:16) Al: That was that they’d said that they’d added it because they wanted it to be big in America basically, right?
(0:24:22) Kevin: Yep, yep
(0:24:23) Al: Which is like one of those things where it’s like, oh no, but also yeah
(0:24:30) Kevin: They’re not wrong great like that’s the reaction like oh, but they’re not wrong
(0:24:36) Al: Yeah My time at Sandrock They’ve got some plushies. So if you are really if you really love them my time at Sandrock characters
(0:24:39) Kevin: Boy
(0:24:46) Al: They have
(0:24:46) Kevin: Wait that the characters they’re not creatures or animals
(0:24:49) Al: They’re they’re the characters Logan and Fang just of course you don’t you’ve not played the game
(0:24:57) Al: They’ve also got some figurines
(0:25:02) Kevin: Terrawiobush, where’s that?
(0:25:04) Al: Not on the my time at Sandrock page
(0:25:09) Al: Speaking of plushies paleopines
(0:25:12) Al: teasing some plushies Not out yet, but they teased our little foot
(0:25:12) Kevin: What? What?
(0:25:16) Al: of a plushie, a little foot and a back covered in spikes.
(0:25:25) Kevin: I’m so excited. I wonder what dinos can’t tell based based off. Oh, I’m excited The dinosaurs are very well very likely get one
(0:25:34) Al: Apparently, if you go on the on their link tree, they’ve already leaked what it is.
(0:25:40) Al: It’s a carrot Anki.
(0:25:42) Kevin: WHAT?!
(0:25:42) Al: Anki, is it an Ankiosaurus?
(0:25:44) Al: Sorry, Ankiosaurus.
(0:25:45) Kevin: Oh yeah, probably ink.
(0:25:46) Al: Anki-lo-saurus.
(0:25:48) Kevin: Yeah, okay, yeah, oh, that’s a-
(0:25:48) Al: Coming soon.
(0:25:50) Al: I love that.
(0:25:52) Al: It’s like they’ve got the link basically with the image, not the image of the actual plush, but the image of the what it is.
(0:25:52) Kevin: Let’s make ship.
(0:25:58) Al: And you click through it and it’s like, oh, campaign launches in four days and 19 hours.
(0:26:10) Al: Thursday. Chia the game based on New Caledonia have released a cool new update or are going to release a cool new update in March which gives you well I guess let’s go let’s go the context of this game so this game is an explorationy type game but one of the big features of the game is you can jump into nature items so animals.
(0:26:40) Al: animals and plants and stuff like that you can it’s called soul jumping and you have like a certain as you play the game you like build up your soul meter and you can use that to jump into animals and stuff like that.
(0:26:53) Al: They are adding in the infinite soul meter so they say this comfort setting allows you to soul jump to your heart’s content without worrying about your meter depleting be a bird forever or a coconut or anything for that matter we’re happy.
(0:27:07) Al: or if you like, it feels like a great.
(0:27:10) Al: I mean, they say it’s not suggested for your first playthrough of the game, but.
(0:27:16) Al: Do what you want.
(0:27:17) Al: They’ve not stopped it.
(0:27:18) Al: Like you can do it straight away.
(0:27:19) Al: And if you just want to grab the jump in a bird and fly around this map forever,
(0:27:24) Al: you can do that.
(0:27:24) Al: And I think it’s pretty cool.
(0:27:27) Al: Yeah, yeah.
(0:27:30) Al: Spirit tea, spirit tea, spirit tea have added item stacking.
(0:27:36) Kevin: That feels like that should have been addressed a while ago.
(0:27:42) Kevin: Don’t have that at the feet.
(0:27:44) Al: really wanted to like this. And it’s good in some ways, but yeah, like there’s a lot of quality of life things that it doesn’t have that a lot of games have that makes me struggle, struggle to enjoy it as much. This was one of them, so they have removed it now, but I don’t know if I’m going to go back to it or not. They’ve also listed a bunch of stuff that they’re going to add. If you are enjoying the game. There you go. You can go.
(0:28:05) Kevin: Whatever that means.
(0:28:14) Al: Oh, look at the list of things they’re adding.
(0:28:16) Al: Oh
(0:28:16) Kevin: Speaking of enjoying games, uh, you know, Bev and, uh, Johnny enjoyed Stardew in last week’s episode.
(0:28:25) Kevin: It was a great listen, good episode.
(0:28:27) Kevin: And you know, I think some guy out there named Concerned Date saw that, I was like, “Oh,
(0:28:33) Kevin: well if they harvest season reach 1.5, we can’t have them staying current!”
(0:28:38) Kevin: So he drops the news!
(0:28:40) Kevin: 1.6 is on its way, baby!
(0:28:43) Al: Yeah, I mean, so like there’s not actually much news in this because we already knew it was coming.
(0:28:48) Al: We already knew there was stuff in it. But he says 1.6 ended up being a little larger in scope than originally planned. Yeah, who knows what earth is happening here? He says this is the key bit here.
(0:28:55) Kevin: little larger with concern to
(0:29:05) Al: I’m done adding major new content to it now and it’s in a bug fixing and polishing phase until is ready for release. Thanks for your patience.
(0:29:13) Al: It’ll be fun to see everyone play. He does say in the comments that it should come out,
(0:29:18) Al: he says absolutely will come out in 2024. It will come to PC first. There shouldn’t be a big delay between PC and console/mobile. I think with the 1.5 update, it was a two-month delay between Steam and Switch, which is not too bad. The mobile one was the one that I think it was like three years to get for it to come to mobile. So hopefully that will be faster.
(0:29:43) Al: He does say it will be fine to play this on an old save, but I’d probably recommend a new save just to experience everything in context, otherwise you’ll unlock a bunch of stuff right away when you load up your save. And I read that and went, great, that’s much quicker to cover all the new content for the episode! [LAUGHTER]
(0:30:02) Kevin: Yeah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
(0:30:05) Al: So there has been a bunch of things that he listed on, where is it? A new festival.
(0:30:13) Al: Which I think we’re pretty convinced now that’s the New Year festival. Two new mini festivals.
(0:30:19) Al: New late game content which expands on each of the skill areas. New items and crafting recipes. There’s a totem there, so presumably another warp totem of some kind or something like that. And what looks like a quiver, as in for archery. Georgia alternatives to some of the end game quests. 100 plus new lines of dialogue. Winter outfits for the villagers.
(0:30:43) Al: New type of reward for completing billboard requests. Support for eight player multiplayer on PC. And I love right at the end he puts new farm type. Just casually adding that at the end of this massive list. Oh yeah, there’s going to be a new farm as well. I wouldn’t be concerned about him. He’s fine. He’s got a lot of money.
(0:31:08) Kevin: I mean…
(0:31:10) Kevin: No, I know he’s fine. I’m just concerned what he’s doing to him. Geez.
(0:31:15) Kevin: Um, I can’t uh…
(0:31:17) Kevin: But hey, 8-player farm. We can get all- we can finally have the all the harvest season hosts on one episode.
(0:31:20) Al: Oh dear, yeah, so anyway, it’s coming this year and it’s feature complete, so hopefully it’s going to end up coming, releasing like when, during the month and the summer when I’m away, isn’t it?
(0:31:24) Kevin: Live commentary as he started far.
(0:31:43) Al: All right, so you might think that’s all the news.
(0:31:46) Al: That’s not all the news.
(0:31:47) Al: four new games as well to talk about.
(0:31:51) Al: Oh yes! So, first of all we have Southfield. The little blurb for this one is ‘Weird farming meets silly physics in Southfield. Combine chaotic crops with unpredictable effects,
(0:32:07) Al: build your dream farmstead and experiment with playful machinery. Wobble your way around an ever-changing island solo or with up to three friends and unearth its secrets.’ Now, we quite
(0:32:21) Al: too many farming games and they don’t do interesting things.
(0:32:24) Kevin: That’s true. Southfield said, “What if we do the exact opposite?”
(0:32:25) Al: This game here does say that. So, this is this I love. I need to play this game.
(0:32:33) Kevin: Alright, I do too. Okay, I’m gonna start with the big hook, and that’s the main character. It’s a
(0:32:40) Kevin: big blue
(0:32:43) Kevin: gumdrop head looking blob man with big eyes, and that’s kind of it.
(0:32:49) Kevin: He’s humanoid he has arms and legs
(0:32:51) Kevin: and a head with eyes and a little
(0:32:54) Kevin: Pikmin type leaf on top just a little one little sprout
(0:32:58) Al: Pretty generic.
(0:32:58) Kevin: and he’s big
(0:33:00) Kevin: Yeah, but he’s big and cartoony and the way he runs around his dynamic proportions and style fitting very much with the quote-unquote Weird there’s silly physics. It’s great. He does like big bounces spins, or he does like full-on tornado
(0:33:16) Kevin: He rolls around in a ball at one-
(0:33:19) Al: Yep, he rides on a quad bike you got quad bikes in this game
(0:33:19) Kevin: Armadillo style.
(0:33:21) Kevin: He does.
(0:33:23) Kevin: Yep, he’s chopping down trees.
(0:33:25) Kevin: The trees are actually falling.
(0:33:27) Kevin: Not just poof, here’s your logs.
(0:33:29) Kevin: They’re timbering over.
(0:33:31) Kevin: Um…
(0:33:32) Al: There’s an electric chicken that you’re carrying, you’re chasing and you get electrocuted by.
(0:33:33) Kevin: logs you there they’re timbering over
(0:33:40) Al: You can throw an axe to cut down fruit.
(0:33:42) Kevin: You can get frozen into ice cubes.
(0:33:45) Kevin: You can throw one of your fellow blob people full on hurricane spins rocks.
(0:33:51) Kevin: There’s a fruit growing to gigantic proportions.
(0:33:54) Kevin: I don’t know why.
(0:33:56) Al: The machinery looks fun.
(0:33:58) Kevin: So this is interesting because there’s conveyor belts and things presumably for automatizing things and whatnot.
(0:34:05) Kevin: But because of the weird effects, they’re just this physics that like fruits and crops are just bouncing on the conveyors.
(0:34:12) Al: And it’s a bunch of the machinery that seems to be like cannons as well So it’s like leaning into I just I love everything about this. This is fantastic. I need this game
(0:34:12) Kevin: so, are you…
(0:34:16) Kevin: yup
(0:34:20) Kevin: it’s so good right and and like even and there’s crafting there’s you can build a house and other stuff um there’s you know your plots and your farms but like every crop I don’t think i’ve
(0:34:40) Kevin: It’s big, it’s cartoony, it’s colorful, it’s fun.
(0:34:44) Kevin: Southfield looks amazing!
(0:34:46) Kevin: Um…
(0:34:47) Al: There’s also some some buildings so you can like kind of, I guess, Fortnite-esque type building, right. You’ve got your your your wall, you put up your wall and you put up your roof properly designing your house how you want.
(0:35:05) Al: Yep, this one is coming soon. And as of now, I only see information about it coming to Steam on Windows.
(0:35:13) Al: Yep, this one’s going on the list, I’m definitely, I’m definitely playing this one.
(0:35:17) Al: Next, we have, Sugar Dew Island, now, so, before, yeah, so the name, the name is terrible,
(0:35:19) Kevin: Yup.
(0:35:24) Kevin: Oh boy, oh boy, just they’re coming out swinging with that name. Oh boy.
(0:35:32) Al: right?
(0:35:33) Al: Let’s just get out of the way.
(0:35:35) Al: It’s Stardew Valley versus Coral Island, right?
(0:35:38) Al: Like it’s just, like where is all they, what’s, what’s with the name?
(0:35:40) Kevin: No…
(0:35:41) Al: It’s bad.
(0:35:43) Kevin: I-
(0:35:44) Kevin: Island’s overdone, but at least it’s an actual thing, right?
(0:35:48) Kevin: I’m gonna put my foot down, draw the line in the sand.
(0:35:51) Kevin: I don’t think any farming game should ever have the “do” in its name. Ever. Again.
(0:35:54) Al: Whatever it is, is a bad name, right? Just whatever. One of the comments on YouTube is,
(0:35:57) Kevin: Just…
(0:35:58) Kevin: Just don’t try.
(0:36:06) Al: “One might consider there’s a copy of Stardew, shut up.” So, one interesting thing just before we actually talk about the game is, I feel like this has been shared, it’s been advertised on every single Kickstarter game update.
(0:36:24) Al: I have seen in the last one exactly every single one of them they seem to be talking about this.
(0:36:26) Kevin: I saw it on a link on one of the earlier news article links I put and clicked on.
(0:36:33) Al: I am fascinated about by this like what is the deal behind this game?
(0:36:38) Kevin: Raid Shadow Legends.
(0:36:39) Al: So let’s do the usual blurb in this cozy farming game you have to run your own farm shop take care of your animals and your farm sell your goods to the cute forest folk
(0:36:51) Al: upgrade the island and fulfill smart.
(0:36:54) Al: No, fulfill small orders from the Harmony Tree to fill the island with life again.
(0:37:00) Al: Nothing about this seems unique.
(0:37:03) Al: Comparing to the previous one, this just looks like it’s a farming game.
(0:37:04) Kevin: nope I yep the the one oh gosh even the four quote-unquote force folk just look like harvest sprites the one thing I will say I I have one thing I’ve wanted is to run the shop the shipping bin that’s it I don’t know if
(0:37:08) Al: Hey look, it’s a harvest moon.
(0:37:30) Al: Yeah, this is the thing about those is, so Ooblets had a way to do that, and there’s been a couple of other games where there’s been a little bit of it, and it always just feels to me like it’s just a really inefficient way of selling things, right? Because you have to go in and you put a few things out in the shop, and then you have to like, you either, they either implement like a haggling thing, in which case I always feel like I’m not getting as much as I could, or it just ends up being why can’t I just throw these in the shipping box, right?
(0:38:00) Al: I don’t feel like any of them have ever done it well,
(0:38:04) Al: and I’m not sure I trust this.
(0:38:06) Kevin: I I don’t think not off not what I’m looking because like you know thinking farms like you’re growing
(0:38:13) Kevin: Huge amounts of crops rolling bulk and so like I don’t know but
(0:38:16) Kevin: Yeah, the shop doesn’t need that’s the add more to that because otherwise boy This much like its name takes after a lot of other games a boy am I look
(0:38:28) Kevin: Studio Ghibli has amazing art stuff, but boy. I’m I tired of seeing that
(0:38:34) Kevin: aesthetic in these games.
(0:38:36) Al: Yeah, it’s not like it looks bad or anything, but it’s not and and the game doesn’t actually look like the trailer Right the trailer is completely like just random animated stuff
(0:38:36) Kevin: Um…
(0:38:38) Kevin: No!
(0:38:46) Al: Well, I know it does have some of the gameplay, but like it starts off with that style
(0:38:48) Kevin: Well, presumably we’re not 100% sure, but
(0:38:51) Al: It’s a completely different style than the I suspect actually
(0:38:54) Kevin: Yeah, true true
(0:38:56) Al: It looks fine. It’s not like it looks bad
(0:38:59) Kevin: Yeah, it just
(0:38:59) Al: But nothing about it can especially comparing it to what we just talked about nothing about this excites
(0:39:05) Kevin: Yeah, no, it’s it’s it looks fine, but not bringing anything new to the table. It’s a tough market
(0:39:13) Kevin: Gotta do a bit more to
(0:39:14) Al: Anyway, the Kickstarter is launching soon.
(0:39:19) Al: Apparently, Steam says its planned release is Q2 this year, presumably that’s Early Access,
(0:39:26) Al: but it doesn’t say on Steam that it’s going to be Early Access.
(0:39:29) Al: I’m assuming they aren’t doing a Kickstarter to then release the full version in a matter of months.
(0:39:37) Al: You would think not, but who knows.
(0:39:41) Al: I noticed is Roca play.
(0:39:43) Al: Uh, they.
(0:39:44) Al: Are they a publisher or are they a developer?
(0:39:48) Al: I’m not actually sure.
(0:39:49) Al: They look to be both, but they did spells and secrets.
(0:39:54) Al: They’ve done solar punk and they did, um, Oh, what was that one?
(0:40:01) Al: There was another one that was like a, an island based one where you were like a pirate and you crashed into the island.
(0:40:08) Al: And no, I don’t mean, and I realized that sounds exactly like the start of Dragon Quest Builders 2.
(0:40:17) Kevin: Yeah, I don’t, um…
(0:40:19) Kevin: Lose Lagoon?
(0:40:21) Kevin: Castaway Paradise?
(0:40:22) Al: Castaway Paradise. No, that’s not the one I was meaning, but that is another one that they’ve done.
(0:40:25) Kevin: Stranded Sales.
(0:40:27) Al: Stranded Sales. Yes, there we go. They did Strand-
(0:40:29) Kevin: Oh my gosh, they…
(0:40:31) Kevin: They actually have a game called Harvest Life.
(0:40:34) Kevin: Oh my goodness.
(0:40:36) Al: So, yeah, they did Beasties as well, which was the one that went on Kickstarter and then they cancelled the Kickstarter.
(0:40:43) Al: And I don’t know, it’s a weird company.
(0:40:46) Al: They have such an interesting mix of things that become really popular and things that are just really weird.
(0:40:52) Al: Like Spells and Secrets has very positive reviews.
(0:40:54) Al: It’s like 80% positive reviews on.
(0:40:57) Al: And then Beasties has 50% rating.
(0:41:00) Al: And she’s just like, that is such a big difference.
(0:41:03) Al: They also have Super Dungeon Maker, which is like a…
(0:41:06) Al: Zelda-style dungeon Mario Maker type thing, which has very positive reviews, it’s 84% positive.
(0:41:17) Al: And Stranded Sales was…
(0:41:19) Al: It was a game.
(0:41:24) Kevin: That was a game. That feels like a few of these you could-
(0:41:27) Al: Yeah, so like, you never quite know what you’re getting at Rokka Play.
(0:41:31) Al: So, yeah, I guess we’ll see what happens.
(0:41:36) Al: The punk hasn’t even come out yet, although it looks like they’re just publishing it, they aren’t…
(0:41:40) Al: So I don’t… Yeah.
(0:41:42) Al: There’s a lot of stuff. I’m not particularly excited about this one.
(0:41:47) Al: But it is coming to Steam on Windows, Switch, PlayStation, and maybe Xbox.
(0:41:53) Al: I don’t know whether that will be as a stretch goal, but it says Xbox question mark.
(0:42:00) Al: So…
(0:42:02) Al: Next, we have Sunkist City.
(0:42:06) Al: life sim set in an upbeat sun-kissed seaside metropolis full of funky vibes and quirky characters. Stake out your new life in the city, tending to DIY gardens, learning new skills and making lifelong friends and help bring life back to its once vibrant streets.”
(0:42:26) Kevin: I don’t know.
(0:42:28) Kevin: I can’t tell if this game looks good or bad.
(0:42:31) Al: So, well, let’s just put it, it is almost exactly this.
(0:42:36) Al: Stardew style. Imagine Stardew, it’s that. It looks like that, but it’s based in a city,
(0:42:47) Al: not a small village. Every single thing I see, it just looks, you could tell me this was a Stardew and I’d go, “Oh, they changed the UI at some point.” That’s what I would do. The keg looks almost identical and the cheese press looks very similar and like these things
(0:43:06) Al: and that’s not necessarily a bad thing right like stardew did very well uh but I feel like
(0:43:14) Al: what is this doing that would make me play it rather than stardew and i
(0:43:19) Kevin: quirky character whatever they don’t seem particular one has blue hair they
(0:43:22) Al: look characters are hard to do well and I the problem is that I i don’t think you can do i don’t think I don’t think many people could do stardew and I think many people could make stardew
(0:43:36) Al: but not as well and that’s what this strikes me at it doesn’t look bad but I i’m really fascinated as to why I would want to play this rather than stardew is the story really good are the characters really good that’s what i’d probably be looking for
(0:43:40) Kevin: Yeah, that’s a very good way.
(0:43:49) Kevin: Yeah.
(0:43:54) Kevin: Mmm.
(0:43:54) Kevin: Yeah, because you’re right, like, I…
(0:43:57) Kevin: I see absolutely nothing…
(0:44:06) Kevin: Asphalt in this setting like there’s
(0:44:06) Al: Yeah, yeah. And some buildings that look run down. There’s a ramen place. Okay.
(0:44:11) Kevin: Yep, it’s
(0:44:13) Kevin: Yep, that’s that’s kind of it. I don’t mechanically. I don’t see anything. I see fishing There’s no some type of gardening slash farming you even carry the items over your head all a stardew [laughs]
(0:44:26) Al: Yeah, like the last game someone said it looks like a copy of Stardew, now this looks like a copy of Stardew, right? I don’t, again, I don’t want to like harp on it too much because like I’m sure it would be fun to play and I don’t want to put people down and I hope that,
(0:44:42) Kevin: Yeah, again, it doesn’t look bad, but just…
(0:44:43) Al: I hope that they’re successful but I just,
(0:44:47) Kevin: It’s not standing out, right?
(0:44:48) Kevin: And again, this is very…
(0:44:50) Kevin: The cottagecore farming space, getting all buzzwordy here.
(0:44:54) Kevin: Like it’s, it’s flooded with starting.
(0:44:56) Kevin: It’s bad.
(0:44:58) Kevin: So you’re going to put one out.
(0:44:59) Kevin: You really need roots of Pacha.
(0:45:01) Kevin: Do it in the Stone Age.
(0:45:02) Kevin: Okay.
(0:45:02) Kevin: And that’s something different.
(0:45:04) Kevin: And it mechanically affects it, right?
(0:45:07) Kevin: You have mam and stuff like it’s appropriate, but here in the city,
(0:45:12) Kevin: you’re really just not seeing anything, uh, and again, this is just based off a handful of, uh, screenshots.
(0:45:18) Kevin: So, you know, I could be speaking a bit too early, but I’m just not…
(0:45:23) Al: So the interesting thing is, this is this developer’s second game, their first game came out in 2016, with its last update coming out in 2018.
(0:45:32) Al: So I feel like they finished off that game, they saw Stardew Valley, and they’ve been working on that since then.
(0:45:38) Al: Because Stardew got really popular in 2017, so just as they were finishing off.
(0:45:44) Kevin: yeah that looks that’s exactly what it looks like ‘cause this is and their first game is wildly different called wasted it’s a post-apocalyptic pub crawler it’s in 3d and it’s a very wild looking game it does absolutely one thousand percent not cottagecore at all but uh…
(0:45:58) Al: That looks more interesting to me.
(0:46:05) Kevin: different game [laughter]
(0:46:08) Al: Yeah, I don’t. Anyway, it’s there. It’s coming to Steam on all the platforms. So we’ll see,
(0:46:18) Al: I guess. And the final one is Abyss New Dawn. Names, really? Names again, right? Like, is this a… Abyss New… It’s just games in general. But this is the thing. Why is it abyss new dawn. This makes it sound like it’s a second
(0:46:28) Kevin: Why did it have to be so bad in this space? Why?
(0:46:38) Al: abyss game, right? But also secondly, this describes itself as a cozy game. Why is it called abyss? There’s no abyss.
(0:46:46) Kevin: Yeah, I watch the trailer, I see nothing that implies abyss, there’s nothing that, I guess there’s cliff thing, that’s all I see, I see nothing, because abyss you think dark, scary,
(0:46:54) Al: So.
(0:47:02) Al: Yeah, so yeah it makes it sound like it’s that thing that people do with farming games which is like “oh it’s a farming game” but it’s a dark secret but I don’t see anything about that here.
(0:47:02) Kevin: deep thing, there’s nothing like that.
(0:47:12) Kevin: Yeah, it doesn’t look like it. I will tell you what secret, halfway through the trailer,
(0:47:17) Kevin: there’s bloody DINOSAURS in this game?!
(0:47:19) Al: Well so right okay well let’s let’s get let’s get there right okay so let’s let’s do the blurb as usual. Dive into the enchanting world of Abyss New Dawn, a cosy game that combines farming,
(0:47:32) Al: whoa calm down there, an adventure in which you explore the ancient wonders with many mysterious abyss floors alone or with your friends. So I mean first of all right this is the thing that people do with farming games they go “it combines farming and town building” it’s like every game does that now it’s like oh this is a cross it’s a cross between stardew and animal crossing.
(0:47:53) Kevin: Sometimes you gotta push the envelope, Al!
(0:47:59) Al: Have you ever thought that might be a good idea?
(0:48:04) Al: It’s like, I get what you’re trying to put across, right, and I know that we’re at that point in the cycle of games where all of these games are all coming out at the same time, so it feels like everything is that game.
(0:48:14) Al: I get it, whatever. But like, word it differently.
(0:48:18) Al: Just, like, it’s a farming town builder is not unique, so like, just let it happen, whatever. Right.
(0:48:20) Kevin: Yeah… no…
(0:48:26) Al: So, there’s a lot of things happening in this trailer, in this game, so…
(0:48:31) Kevin: Yep, see it’s funny because the you’re right the blurb is very generic and eight different buzzwords that we see all the time
(0:48:38) Kevin: But the game itself I think actually looks fine because first of all it’s full 3d right we’re not doing your stardew pixel style
(0:48:46) Kevin: the arch style is
(0:48:48) Kevin: Maybe nothing, you know not breaking any molds here, but it looks nice enough. It looks pleasant
(0:49:00) Al: it seems yeah it’s the the the initial enemies are like they strike me as let’s do stardew but 3d right you’ve got the goos and you’re fighting them in the same sort of way you do in stardew
(0:49:12) Kevin: Yeah, right exactly. That’s a good way
(0:49:12) Al: but but then we get into the abyss floors which is I guess where the name comes from and it seems to be that these the like portals to other dimensions and there’s these stone creatures and then there’s dinosaurs and you have a glider.
(0:49:30) Al: And I’m… I’m f-
(0:49:34) Kevin: you can ride the dinosaurs you can help them farm a la paleo pines or they help you farm you can choose to ride on one on water there’s a lot going on uh…
(0:49:38) Al: Yeah? Maybe?
(0:49:46) Kevin: uh… I mean they and look good on a lot they’re already they got they they’ve caught my attention to that alone also and then at the end we get crops of pumpkin and mushrooms with faces I don’t know why we’ve got crops with faces, but okay.
(0:50:02) Al: this game is doing something for me. Oh, they looked kind of ooblitzy. I finally got to those crops at the end. Yeah, why are they, why do they have faces? They are just, it’s just a pumpkin and a mushroom, a bunch of different mushrooms with faces.
(0:50:04) Kevin: Yeah, me too.
(0:50:05) Kevin: I mean, obviously dinosaurs, right?
(0:50:06) Kevin: But like, even they do.
(0:50:09) Kevin: Yeah, they do.
(0:50:13) Kevin: I don’t know, there’s nothing explained about that.
(0:50:17) Kevin: You don’t see them anywhere else in the trailer.
(0:50:21) Kevin: So you have no idea what if those are some kind of NPCs or you get to grow mushroom people, I’d have no idea.
(0:50:23) Al: What?
(0:50:28) Al: and there’s some kind of like flying creature behind them and then
(0:50:32) Al: there’s farm animals which makes sense but what is this random flying do you need flying creatures like a like a ball with wings
(0:50:39) Kevin: Oh yeah, it looks kinda like a Zelda fairy, kind of, but you-
(0:50:43) Al: yeah kind of but
(0:50:46) Kevin: Yeah, the shape.
(0:50:47) Kevin: I don’t know, man. I don’t know what’s going on here.
(0:50:49) Kevin: Also, you’re playing as a little cat.
(0:50:50) Al: that’s not the weirdest thing about this game
(0:50:53) Kevin: No, it’s not- it’s not real- it’s really not.
(0:50:56) Al: in abyss you can evolve certain mushrooms and crops into pets through
(0:51:03) Al: you are frankensteining vegetables
(0:51:06) Kevin: Aww yeah!
(0:51:08) Kevin: I’m down for that.
(0:51:09) Al: a player can only carry one pet disappointing but the pet will increase your inventory by 10 slots
(0:51:17) Al: interesting the pet can take damage and die when it runs out of health okay interesting
(0:51:25) Al: if you pick up a pet’s soul after it dies you you you can revive it at the same
(0:51:29) Kevin: W-w-oh my gosh, okay?
(0:51:32) Al: center central altar look this this game is is at least intriguing me right the previous two games I look at and go eh whatever the first game I went I need to play this this one i’m going I feel like I need to play this purely because i’m fascinated by what’s happening here and it’s It’s like a really, it’s a combination of pretty bog standard.
(0:51:34) Kevin: Okay, that- I- I- whoa, I didn’t expect-
(0:51:45) Kevin: It is
(0:52:02) Al: Farming, which looks fine, I guess, but it’s not particularly interesting and I’m sorry, you can take a pumpkin and put a soul into it and have it as your pet and then it can die, you can harvest its soul and revive it, like, I don’t.
(0:52:23) Kevin: And then there’s full-sized dinosaurs, and not even paleo pine-shrunken ones.
(0:52:25) Al: Yeah, what? So random.
(0:52:28) Kevin: It’s so big! That Brachiosaurus is huge!
(0:52:32) Kevin: I don’t-
(0:52:34) Al: the the crop automation looks like it could be good they’ve got sprinklers
(0:52:40) Kevin: Oh, the sprinklers look great. They’re tall and they spin and sprinkle water. It’s great. I love it
(0:52:43) Al: they are super intimidating it’s like it’s none of these like teeny tiny little thing on the ground these these look like you would get a shower if you went near
(0:52:47) Kevin: Oh
(0:52:49) Kevin: No, no
(0:52:51) Kevin: Yeah, no that that’s like full professional farm great
(0:52:56) Kevin: Sprinklers, it’s great
(0:52:58) Al: Some NPCs are locked in the dungeon and you need to rescue them.
(0:52:59) Kevin: What a fascinating game. I’m keeping my on it
(0:53:03) Kevin: Oh, that’s fun
(0:53:04) Al: After you rescue them, they will be able to request to live and work in your village.
(0:53:08) Kevin: This is a kickstarter
(0:53:10) Kevin: I wish you luck abyss new dawn. I want to see you succeed and become a thing. I feel like you could do your marketing a little better because you got some stuff here
(0:53:36) Al: Kick track is is
(0:53:40) Kevin: I hope it does, it looks cool.
(0:53:41) Kevin: They have lofty ambitions.
(0:53:45) Al: Yeah, I’m certainly, I’m not, I would, I would, yeah, I’m tempted.
(0:53:50) Kevin: Oh my gosh, I’m looking at kickstarter exclusive rewards, one of them is the legendary axe of hell, holy moly.
(0:54:00) Al: - Well, soul of the abyss.
(0:54:04) Kevin: And you can also get a cat watering can.
(0:54:07) Al: Yeah, this is, I, hmm.
(0:54:12) Al: Yeah, we’ll keep an eye on it, I guess.
(0:54:17) Kevin: looks different unlike the other couple of games we saw.
(0:54:22) Al: OK, well, there we go.
(0:54:25) Al: That’s the news.
(0:54:25) Kevin: That was news.
(0:54:27) Al: Let’s talk about Moonstone Island.
(0:54:31) Al: So this is the– this is “Powellworld, but in the skies.”
(0:54:31) Kevin: To this game.
(0:54:38) Kevin: So let’s talk about the plagiarism.
(0:54:40) Al: OK, let’s– yeah, let’s– let’s intro it.
(0:54:41) Kevin: No, no, no.
(0:54:41) Al: So basically, Moonstone Island, it is what if Pokemon had farming, was in the sky on islands,
(0:54:51) Al: and had no story.
(0:54:52) Al: Is that a fair explanation of this game?
(0:54:56) Kevin: That’s correct.
(0:54:58) Kevin: They describe- okay, so there’s farming/cottagecore, you’re typical stuff, there’s a little town, a central island with NPCs, including romance, of course.
(0:55:08) Kevin: There is your standard monster collecting stuff, where you go out, you catch monsters, you battle with each other.
(0:55:18) Kevin: And they also describe it as rogue-like, or rogue-light, whatever you want to call it.
(0:55:22) Kevin: I don’t think that’s the case.
(0:55:24) Al: I never saw that.
(0:55:26) Kevin: Every time you start a game, each map is just completely randomized, right?
(0:55:30) Kevin: When you start a game…
(0:55:31) Al: That’s what it is.
(0:55:34) Kevin: Yes, exactly, that’s what it is, right?
(0:55:36) Kevin: It’s not restarting a floor or anything like that.
(0:55:40) Kevin: Once you start your game, your map is randomized and procedurally generated.
(0:55:44) Kevin: And that’s it, though. Nothing’s going to change after that.
(0:55:48) Kevin: So, that’s the game.
(0:55:50) Kevin: Okay, what are your overall thoughts on it, Al?
(0:55:52) Kevin: And I guess, how far have you played?
(0:55:52) Al: Okay, so I’m not, I’ve not played this for as long as I’ve played Coral Island, right?
(0:56:00) Al: Like I’m not in a hundred hours, but you know, I’m, well, that’s, that’s true.
(0:56:02) Kevin: How many games have you played as long as Coral Island? Not many!
(0:56:06) Al: I mean, half of the Pokemon games I’ve played that long and Stardew Valley, and that’s probably about it.
(0:56:12) Al: Um, I know both cell, both news out in New York, elders did them, um, okay.
(0:56:18) Al: So I have played SteamSays six hours in this.
(0:56:22) Al: game, um, which I feel like is probably enough to get an idea of the game, but not having, you know, you might have more, more thoughts on some things than me.
(0:56:32) Al: Um, but I’ve got a good idea of, I think all of the, the main, the main things.
(0:56:33) Kevin: You’d be surprised!
(0:56:38) Al: Right.
(0:56:39) Al: So let’s, I think my overall feelings about this game is I think it has potential, but is missing a bunch of things that would make me.
(0:56:49) Al: I.
(0:56:50) Kevin: So I have…
(0:56:50) Al: I
(0:56:52) Al: really like a lot of the creature designs. I really like the setting. I think the sky island setting is fun, but the way that it sets up exploration makes the exploration not fun. Not because traversal isn’t fun, traversal is fine, but because it can’t decide whether it wants you to go out and explore and be a nomad, or whether you want to actually have a base and keep coming back to the island.
(0:57:22) Al: It wants you to do both, and it means that neither of them works pretty well.
(0:57:28) Kevin: So, okay, I’ve played, I just checked 37 hours.
(0:57:32) Al: Okay, that’s quite, that’s a lot.
(0:57:32) Kevin: I played, yes, I am in the fall season out of year one, because there’s of course farming games, right?
(0:57:42) Kevin: So there’s different seasons.
(0:57:43) Kevin: Um, I’ve had plenty of time to reflect on it and I think I have, I didn’t find every,
(0:57:51) Kevin: explore every nook and cranny in my map, but I have covered almost all four corners.
(0:57:55) Kevin: like I uncovered a good chunk of it.
(0:57:57) Kevin: Um…
(0:57:58) Kevin: And I want to like this game so much, there are things I love about this game.
(0:58:04) Kevin: The phrase that keeps coming to my mind is that this game is much less than the sum of its parts.
(0:58:10) Kevin: Um…
(0:58:12) Kevin: Because I think that when I look and talk about each individual, or lots of different individual elements,
(0:58:22) Kevin: I think there’s a lot of cool things.
(0:58:25) Kevin: So, like, okay, let’s talk about the second.
(0:58:28) Kevin: The island thing, I think, is a good idea.
(0:58:32) Kevin: The art style, a little stardew-esque, a little cuter maybe, but it’s fine. I think it’s okay.
(0:58:37) Al: Yeah, I think it’s maybe more kind of like Pokemon-esque from the GBA sort of style.
(0:58:44) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, you could say that, right?
(0:58:46) Kevin: They say they’re Studio Ghibli-inspired, and you can see that from the opening animation.
(0:58:50) Kevin: I don’t think that translates very well to the actual game.
(0:58:52) Kevin: But it still has that kind of cute-
(0:58:58) Kevin: -ty vibe or whatever you want to call it.
(0:59:00) Kevin: The monster designs are great. I agree with you there. A lot of them are fantastic.
(0:59:06) Kevin: Shout out to Fish Bow. It’s a fish in a bowl with legs. The bowl has legs, not the fish.
(0:59:09) Al: Yeah, I also love this one. There’s one that I can’t remember its name because I’ve not caught one, but it’s like it’s literally just a tree trunk that follows you around and like spins around. Long lot of perfect, perfect.
(0:59:19) Kevin: Yeah!
(0:59:22) Kevin: Yeah, it’s called Long Log.
(0:59:23) Kevin: The one that looks like Whispy Woods?
(0:59:25) Kevin: The one that looks like Whispy Woods?
(0:59:27) Kevin: Yup, yup, there’s some good ones.
(0:59:29) Kevin: Um…
(0:59:31) Kevin: Oh gosh, there’s…
(0:59:31) Al: There’s Wummer, which is just a worm and an apple.
(0:59:32) Kevin: Oh!
(0:59:35) Kevin: Wormr…
(0:59:37) Kevin: Yup.
(0:59:38) Al: Like there’s some great designs. I love them. They’re fantastic.
(0:59:38) Kevin: There’s, um…
(0:59:40) Kevin: Yeah.
(0:59:41) Kevin: There’s some fantastic design.
(0:59:43) Kevin: Octopup, I don’t know why they put a dog head on an octopus with a pirate bandana, but it’s there, it works.
(0:59:46) Al: Because you can.
(0:59:50) Kevin: This is the game with the lamp, rabbit lamp, I forget the name, but that’s a creature, it’s a lamp with rabbit ears, like a tall floor lamp, not a table lamp.
(0:59:59) Kevin: Um…
(1:00:03) Kevin: So, like…
(1:00:04) Kevin: So yeah, a lot of the designs are great.
(1:00:06) Kevin: Um, the monsters do…
(1:00:08) Kevin: I don’t know where to start tackling this game.
(1:00:10) Al: Yeah, it’s a very good place to start.
(1:00:10) Kevin: Okay, no, no, let’s start chronological.
(1:00:12) Kevin: Let’s start with the very beginning.
(1:00:14) Kevin: Um, right.
(1:00:15) Kevin: The premise is, you’re gonna be…
(1:00:17) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, right?
(1:00:19) Kevin: So, the premise is you’re training to become a quote-unquote “alchemist”.
(1:00:23) Kevin: There’s not much context as to what that means, you’re just gonna be one.
(1:00:27) Al: And I’ll be honest, I’m still not sure what that means now.
(1:00:27) Kevin: Um…
(1:00:30) Kevin: That is correct, I will get to that, but that is…
(1:00:33) Kevin: I do not know that either.
(1:00:36) Kevin: Um, and so you have to go off for a year on your own.
(1:00:39) Kevin: And so the initial hour-ish or so is a tutorial that explains some of the farming mechanics and some of the…
(1:00:47) Kevin: creature battle cap
(1:00:49) Kevin: the farming is simple, you hoe your land, plant a seed, water it daily, and it grows.
(1:00:59) Kevin: The unique thing about Moonstool, not unique, but different from Stardew, is that your seeds are found from foraging on the different sky islands.
(1:01:11) Kevin: In fact, you have to find them first, then sell them to the shop in town and they’ll start growing them or propagating them or whatever.
(1:01:19) Kevin: I don’t think I’ve ever bought a seed in town, because you can find enough of those seeds.
(1:01:27) Al: Yeah, and I feel I also like the farming aspect of it is, is I think pretty minimized, right?
(1:01:36) Al: Like it’s not, you’re not, you’re not expected to do farming, right?
(1:01:36) Kevin: Yup.
(1:01:37) Kevin: Right.
(1:01:38) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:01:39) Kevin: Absolutely.
(1:01:40) Kevin: Right.
(1:01:41) Kevin: That’s definitely a part of it where the farming aspect of it is, or even the whole cottage cord side of it, the farming, the NPCs interactions, all of that I think is more to support the creature collecting part of it, right, because what the, and the exploration, yes, that’s right.
(1:01:41) Al: You can, but you can also just not do it.
(1:02:00) Al: And the exploration part of it, I think those two, it’s an exploration creature collection game.
(1:02:07) Kevin: » Yep, right.
(1:02:07) Al: That’s what it is, and everything else just exists to emphasize.
(1:02:10) Kevin: Yep, because the crops you grow, they’re not your usual carrots,
(1:02:14) Kevin: terms, whatever.
(1:02:15) Kevin: They’re different fantasy plants that will give you,
(1:02:19) Kevin: that will buff your monsters or protect you from environmental hazards.
(1:02:23) Kevin: Or give you effects that help you explore better.
(1:02:26) Kevin: See you more, let you see more at night.
(1:02:28) Kevin: See certain things on the map, etc, etc, right?
(1:02:32) Kevin: They’re, that’s kind of what they’re really for.
(1:02:35) Kevin: I don’t think I’ve…
(1:02:36) Kevin: sold like maybe one or two crops for a mission but they’re not like your source of income, really you can get much more just from exploring
(1:02:44) Al: Yeah, and very fast. If you do the dungeons and stuff like that, you can make thousands very quickly. And there’s not a huge amount that’s really expensive. Your upgrades cost a few thousand. But I feel like with most of that, you don’t need to do it. I don’t feel, because
(1:02:47) Kevin: yep
(1:02:53) Kevin: very quickly, yep
(1:03:05) Al: that sort of aspect, as you say, other than not just the farming, but the mining and all that that stuff. It’s minimized. I don’t really feel like I have.
(1:03:14) Al: to upgrade any of the tools and so I’m sitting here going I don’t really know what I’m doing with all this money
(1:03:17) Kevin: Right.
(1:03:20) Kevin: Yeah, so, no, I agree with you for sure on that.
(1:03:24) Kevin: Later on, you do realize you have to.
(1:03:27) Kevin: There are like certain crops, and maybe rocks I could be mistaken,
(1:03:31) Kevin: that you can’t break unless you have higher level tools.
(1:03:35) Kevin: At least crops, I know that there were certain crops I couldn’t harvest.
(1:03:38) Kevin: At the very least, the better tools, because you have a stamina system in this game.
(1:03:44) Kevin: And it is important because a lot of stamina is consumed.
(1:03:47) Kevin: As you are flying between the islands.
(1:03:49) Kevin: And if your stamina is your character’s quote unquote health.
(1:03:53) Kevin: If you lose all your stamina you collapse for the day.
(1:03:56) Kevin: Not a solid progress but the day just ends and anything you have planned for the day.
(1:04:00) Kevin: So there is definitely a benefit from upgrading the tools because they consume less stamina.
(1:04:08) Kevin: A lot of them.
(1:04:09) Kevin: But it is not necessary to say go to the max level.
(1:04:13) Kevin: I don’t have the max level for most.
(1:04:17) Kevin: There is no real benefit aside from more stamina.
(1:04:19) Al: Yeah, the stamina is a fair point.
(1:04:19) Kevin: There are.
(1:04:21) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:04:21) Al: That is, yeah, that’s kind of, I feel like that’s the main resource I’m missing at this point is more stamina.
(1:04:23) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:04:25) Kevin: Yep.
(1:04:27) Kevin: Yep.
(1:04:29) Kevin: Yep.
(1:04:29) Al: You can increase it if you do the dungeons and stuff like that, but yeah, that I think is my main thing.
(1:04:31) Kevin: Yep.
(1:04:35) Al: But then, even then, it’s still not particularly hard because like the stone fruit, it gives you a lot of extra stamina and you can get them quite easily.
(1:04:44) Kevin: Yep, absolutely
(1:04:44) Al: So even then, it doesn’t feel like I need to do any of that.
(1:04:46) Kevin: Right, right. Yeah, nothing feels super mandatory
(1:04:53) Kevin: Well, yeah the majority of it let’s say right because there are so the big
(1:05:00) Kevin: quote unquote progression markers or
(1:05:03) Kevin: What are you gonna call there are these call the quote unquote?
(1:05:07) Kevin: temples there’s four of them one for each season one representing a different element and
(1:05:12) Kevin: And for what–
(1:05:14) Kevin: I don’t know why you’re told that you should go clear those temples.
(1:05:16) Al: I think, I think, I think because you’re an alchemist.
(1:05:17) Kevin: I don’t understand why, but, um…
(1:05:22) Kevin: Yes, well, okay, you’re right, yes, and I don’t know what that means or how it’s related, but that’s why.
(1:05:24) Al: Yeah, so it seems to be, I think, if I’m understanding it correctly, it just means you can craft.
(1:05:34) Al: I think that’s what alchemy is.
(1:05:34) Kevin: Well, I think so.
(1:05:38) Kevin: Well, one of the big things is you contain the spirits, right?
(1:05:41) Kevin: Now other people can.
(1:05:46) Al: Yeah, but I think that’s a second hand thing.
(1:05:48) Al: I think the main thing about alchemy is the crafting, right?
(1:05:52) Al: Because like when I talk I talk to Zed at one point and he was like, oh,
(1:05:56) Al: how do you think up more alchemist?
(1:05:59) Al: What was the word?
(1:06:01) Al: Craft crafting recipes.
(1:06:04) Al: And so that was the point where I was like, oh, I think this is what they mean.
(1:06:08) Al: Like, I’m the one who who crafts things, which makes sense, I think,
(1:06:12) Kevin: Okay, yeah, yeah, I guess so.
(1:06:14) Al: Except that there’s a carpenter.
(1:06:16) Al: There’s a carpenter in the village.
(1:06:19) Kevin: Yeah, well, I mean, either way,
(1:06:21) Kevin: like, whatever the reason, going to the temples is one of your big check marks on your to-do list for each season.
(1:06:32) Kevin: And to progress through the temples,
(1:06:34) Kevin: there’s these little altars where you have to place certain items which are found through exploring,
(1:06:40) Kevin: gathering or crafting.
(1:06:42) Kevin: I can’t remember if it’s in spring or first in camp.
(1:07:07) Kevin: One of the items you require is, it involves a-
(1:07:12) Kevin: a different mechanic from the game, an important one called the Spirit Barn.
(1:07:15) Kevin: Have you unlocked that yet Al?
(1:07:16) Al: I literally unlocked it to D.
(1:07:17) Kevin: Okay, well, there you go.
(1:07:20) Kevin: So, uh, oh gosh, this is one of my biggest gripes with the, I think, the creature collecting,
(1:07:25) Kevin: which we’ll get into a little more in detail, but, um, the Spirit Barn, you can house, uh,
(1:07:31) Kevin: several spirits in there, as the name would imply, like, uh, animals or livestock.
(1:07:35) Kevin: Now, you have to feed them to maintain them happy so they don’t run away, but in return,
(1:07:40) Kevin: They will also generate.
(1:07:42) Kevin: They will also generate a little drop depending on their type.
(1:07:46) Kevin: Like there is sea glass and a flame.
(1:07:50) Kevin: I don’t remember. There is just a little elemental item from each creature.
(1:07:54) Kevin: It is not daily. It is kind of randomized I think.
(1:07:57) Kevin: But you have to feed them. Keep them happy.
(1:08:00) Kevin: And then those drops that you get use them for other crafting recipes or progression.
(1:08:05) Kevin: And so again I am talking about this in terms of progression.
(1:08:12) Kevin: Some of the most important tools are actually found through the temples.
(1:08:18) Kevin: So I think the first most important tool would be the glider.
(1:08:23) Kevin: Because you are flying between islands. You start off with a balloon.
(1:08:27) Kevin: Because you had a broom and it broke. So you have to use a balloon in the meantime.
(1:08:31) Kevin: But then eventually you can save resources to craft a better broom that you can use.
(1:08:36) Kevin: And then eventually you can craft a glider which lets you fly really far, really fast.
(1:08:40) Kevin: really fast and consuming not that much stamina.
(1:08:42) Kevin: which is essential.
(1:08:44) Al: Yeah, as a side note, I saw this fantastic post on Steam where someone was like, “This is a petition to remove the glider because it makes the game too easy.”
(1:08:50) Kevin: Mm-hmm
(1:08:55) Al: And I was like, “What are you doing?
(1:08:57) Al: What are you doing?
(1:08:57) Kevin: What what what that’s so weird
(1:08:58) Al: No!”
(1:08:59) Al: It was absolutely bizarre suggestion.
(1:09:02) Al: Like of all the things that are wrong with this game, it is not, “It’s too easy to travel between islands.”
(1:09:09) Al: Right?
(1:09:09) Kevin: No, that’s wild that is absolutely wild
(1:09:10) Al: Right?
(1:09:15) Kevin: But yeah, some of the other temples will give you other really helpful items like when I
(1:09:20) Kevin: Think it’s the summer temple when I beat it you get a pair of
(1:09:24) Kevin: like was it flippers or
(1:09:27) Kevin: Something like that that lets you actually swim in water and traverse waterfalls
(1:09:32) Kevin: Again, very helpful for exploring and that’s kind of the emphasis of the game
(1:09:36) Kevin: So there’s definitely incentive free to clear the temples just for that alone seeing what special item. Um
(1:09:43) Kevin: But So yeah, the problem with my game like all of that I’ve described so far is fine
(1:09:50) Kevin: The problem is like that’s kind of it to the
(1:09:56) Kevin: You go around the different islands there’s islands for each type, right?
(1:10:00) Kevin: There’s lightning islands fire islands water islands earth islands and they have the corresponding spirits and all that
(1:10:07) Kevin: You can find mines on each island that you can go down dig up or there’s these dungeons that I’ll mention Not not they’re not temples. They’re different little
(1:10:17) Kevin: mini I don’t know, I’m gonna call them mini dungeons.
(1:10:20) Kevin: There’s a bunch of dungeons where you navigate around Zelda-esque dungeons, where you have to pass these obstacles, there will be wild spirits that you have to battle in there, little puzzles, warp puzzles and things like that.
(1:10:31) Kevin: Once you clear a dungeon, you get a stamina boost, which is helpful.
(1:10:35) Kevin: There’s a good number of them, I think like 30 dungeons on the whole map, so you can get a good chunk of stamina through that.
(1:10:40) Al: Yeah, and they’re fine, they’re not particularly challenging, like there’s always a hidden chest that gives you a little bit of a challenge, but once you know what you’re looking for,
(1:10:44) Kevin: Yeah. Right.
(1:10:57) Kevin: Yep, yep, absolutely.
(1:10:59) Kevin: Um, and so, yeah, so that’s the, uh, that’s, I think, the main loop of the game, like,
(1:11:06) Kevin: going out, seeing these islands, seeing what spirits you can find, trying to clear these little dungeons and temples, um, but that’s, that’s kind of it, unfortunately.
(1:11:16) Kevin: Um, there’s, there’s, gosh, how many, I think, 74 spirits in the game?
(1:11:23) Kevin: Not a huge amount, not insignificant either, but like…
(1:11:26) Al: It’s decent. It’s decent, but not amazing.
(1:11:28) Kevin: It’s decent, right?
(1:11:30) Kevin: Exactly, right?
(1:11:31) Kevin: So, while the designs are great, there’s kind of a small pool, because there’s 8 types of spirits, right?
(1:11:38) Kevin: So, 74 divided by 8, roughly, is 9-ish.
(1:11:44) Kevin: Is that right? No, 9-ish spirits per type, that’s what it would be on average.
(1:11:48) Al: Sure.
(1:11:49) Kevin: So, it’s… yeah.
(1:11:51) Kevin: So, and the worst part is, like, you’re using your spirits to battle through…
(1:11:57) Kevin: …these other spirits, but you’re not doing much else with them, to be honest.
(1:12:00) Kevin: Like, they don’t evolve, like in Pokemon or a lot of other creature collectors.
(1:12:05) Kevin: They generate the stuff in the spirit barn, but that’s kind of it.
(1:12:09) Kevin: They don’t help you with obstacles.
(1:12:11) Kevin: I mean, they have some abilities that give you boosts for exploring and stuff like that.
(1:12:14) Kevin: But they’re not really clearing obstacles or anything like that, just for battles, pretty much.
(1:12:18) Kevin: Um…
(1:12:18) Al: Yeah, yeah, there is like, there’s a few things, as you say, like, you know, one, one, one more, what is confusing, because there’s no art in the middle. It’s just at the end. One more. So anyway, whatever. One more. And it’s high, like, it will like basically create a mow down the grass as you’re walking. So it’s like helpful for that. But I’ve not seen a huge number of other ones like that, those sorts of things would be more fun.
(1:12:30) Kevin: Yep warmer yep
(1:12:42) Kevin: As you walk through it, yeah, that’s a great one
(1:12:47) Kevin: Yeah, no
(1:12:48) Al: And as you say, like actually having some sort of story to go along with it would be fun. Weirdly, I actually kind of like the battles in this game, despite saying earlier that I don’t like turn-based battles anymore. But well, just before we do, as fun as that is, like there’s nothing to do with other, there’s no other people to battle, right?
(1:13:00) Kevin: Yeah, okay, let’s talk about that, because that’s one of the highlights for me too.
(1:13:12) Al: You’re only battling wild spirits, which is fine. But then they could absolutely have
(1:13:12) Kevin: Right
(1:13:15) Kevin: Yep
(1:13:18) Al: anything else with that, but they didn’t. But yeah, let’s talk about it. It’s a card-based,
(1:13:25) Al: it’s a deck-based battling, turn-based. I will say it’s similar to one thing, and that is Ooblets. So it’s very similar to Ooblets. Yeah, so it’s not as cheesy because Ooblets is dance-based as well, and all the cards are dance moves, but it’s basically the same
(1:13:27) Kevin: Right very different from your standard Pokemon clone like it’s not
(1:13:34) Kevin: Yeah, oh really okay, I haven’t played over so I didn’t know that huh, okay You You You [laughing]
(1:13:47) Kevin: Thank you.
(1:13:48) Al: each of your creatures has a number of cards, and you have a deck based on all of those cards,
(1:13:56) Al: and you have a certain amount of stamina or stuff that you can do. I kind of, yeah, whatever,
(1:14:04) Al: doesn’t matter. You know what I mean. A certain amount that you can do in each thing, and all of the cards have different aspects. Some of them attack, some of them remove, yeah, stuff like that.
(1:14:14) Kevin: Buffs and debuffs and all of all of us do usual fair
(1:14:16) Al: and then there’s other things like reach.
(1:14:18) Al: Shuffling cards and getting a new hand.
(1:14:20) Al: That’s basically how Ooblix works as well.
(1:14:22) Al: So it’s basically the same sort of thing.
(1:14:23) Kevin: Okay
(1:14:24) Al: Which is good because I actually think it’s quite fun.
(1:14:26) Kevin: I do too I think it’s created because the fact that you have three monsters on your team and
(1:14:33) Kevin: That can create a variety like you know though each
(1:14:37) Kevin: Depending on your team composition it can it can feel pretty different how you’re playing right?
(1:14:41) Al: And just to clarify for listeners, those three are all out at the same time.
(1:14:41) Kevin: because like
(1:14:44) Kevin: Yep.
(1:14:45) Al: So it’s essentially triple battle, but you’re sometimes against one or two,
(1:14:51) Al: rather than three, but you will generally always have three.
(1:14:55) Al: And your hand is based of cards from all of the creatures.
(1:15:01) Al: But sometimes you might end up with only cards from one,
(1:15:03) Al: which also I think adds to the interest in how that works.
(1:15:04) Kevin: - Yeah, it is, yeah, because if one of your monsters faints and battle their cards removed from your deck,
(1:15:12) Kevin: or if they’re stunned because you can like stun monsters in the game, the cards will, you can draw the cards,
(1:15:18) Kevin: but you can’t use them, they’ll have a big X over them ‘cause the monster’s incapacitated.
(1:15:23) Kevin: Yeah, that is an interesting, yeah, you’re right.
(1:15:26) Kevin: It’s, I like the system overall.
(1:15:30) Kevin: I think it can get a bit difficult at times, to be honest.
(1:15:35) Kevin: I don’t know how many poison islands you’ve run into, Al,
(1:15:38) Al: just the one and that was terrifying.
(1:15:38) Kevin: but the poison ones are brutal.
(1:15:42) Kevin: It is poison, ‘cause obviously, as you would imagine,
(1:15:46) Kevin: the poison types can poison your enemies, right?
(1:15:48) Al: It kills you so quickly.
(1:15:49) Kevin: And because the interesting is, the debuffs stack
(1:15:54) Kevin: and they matter how much it sticks, right?
(1:15:56) Al: Yeah.
(1:15:56) Kevin: So if you have two things of poison,
(1:15:59) Kevin: it’s only gonna do like two damage,
(1:16:00) Kevin: but if you have 10 or 15, it’ll do that much damage.
(1:16:05) Kevin: It just drops once per turn,
(1:16:06) Kevin: so that poison will be sticking around for a while.
(1:16:11) Kevin: That said, you can do the same to your opponents,
(1:16:13) Kevin: but it’s still tricky,
(1:16:16) Kevin: because some of them can be quite defensive,
(1:16:19) Kevin: or have a lot of HP.
(1:16:20) Al: Well, so that’s an interesting thing.
(1:16:21) Al: I actually really like what they did with attack and defense here, where each attack has a certain amount of attack that will deal, like a certain amount of damage it will deal.
(1:16:31) Al: And your, each of your creatures has a defense and the way that it works is if the attack is greater than the defense, you get the difference damage attack.
(1:16:44) Al: So if your defense is four and the attack is seven, you will get three damage done to
(1:16:50) Al: the, you can increase and decrease that defense, which, yeah.
(1:16:55) Kevin: Right, you can reduce that shield
(1:16:58) Al: So if you have say like three cards, one of them debuffs the defense by two and the other two are tackles and they do seven damage, you always want to make sure that you do the debuff first and then the two tackles, cause you’ll do, you’ll essentially do four more damage in that turn.
(1:17:17) Al: I really like how it works and makes the.
(1:17:20) Al: The, because in Pokemon, the problem is the attack and defense stats are so invisible that if you haven’t experienced the Pokemon before, or you’re against like, you can just have no idea what you’re up against.
(1:17:33) Al: Whereas.
(1:17:35) Al: Whereas in here, if you come across a strong Pokemon, it’s so visibly strong because you go into it and you’re like, Oh, you have a defensive 10, none of my attacks will do any damage to you whatsoever until I start to bring that defense down.
(1:17:50) Al: That’s really fun because it makes it so visible and it can make the boss battles more terrifying to start with and like.
(1:17:53) Kevin: Yep.
(1:17:56) Kevin: Absolutely.
(1:17:57) Kevin: Because the bosses all have a…
(1:17:59) Kevin: The abil- or no- the Guardian- sorry.
(1:18:01) Kevin: Each of the little dungeons have a robot called the Guardian that you have to beat at the end.
(1:18:05) Kevin: Um, and they have the ability of gaining a shield every turn.
(1:18:08) Kevin: Buffing the defense every turn. It’s wild!
(1:18:10) Al: which is terrifying because if you’re not- if you’re not debuffing that defense, you’re doing zero damage. Like, you gotta- you gotta get that down and meanwhile while you’re getting that down,
(1:18:12) Kevin: Yup.
(1:18:17) Kevin: Yup.
(1:18:21) Kevin: And…
(1:18:21) Al: it’s attacking you.
(1:18:23) Kevin: Yep, cuz it can do all the same things back to you.
(1:18:26) Kevin: It can lower your defense and all that good stuff.
(1:18:28) Kevin: And one other element to that whole defense, I think makes it fun is when you get the defense down to zero, they get stunned for a turn.
(1:18:40) Kevin: Where they can’t act and you can, yes, yeah.
(1:18:40) Al: Is that how the stun works? I never quite figured it out. I don’t think I’d done enough to be like, “This is definitely how that works.” That explains it, because it seemed kind of random to me, but that would make sense. I hadn’t.
(1:18:46) Kevin: Okay, yeah, yeah.
(1:18:51) Kevin: Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah.
(1:18:53) Kevin: You have to bash them enough times.
(1:18:54) Kevin: So there’s this card called Bash, which is a standard every monster has.
(1:18:59) Kevin: That’s the standard defense debuff, right?
(1:19:02) Kevin: So like, you remove three, four defense.
(1:19:06) Kevin: And once you get them to zero, they enter the stun state,
(1:19:10) Kevin: where you can do bonus damage.
(1:19:12) Kevin: You not only do your full damage, but like one and a half times the damage.
(1:19:16) Al: And then they’re stunned for the next turn so they can’t do it.
(1:19:20) Kevin: That is correct.
(1:19:21) Kevin: So you get like, if you time.
(1:19:23) Kevin: You’re right, you can really get like two turns of just wailing on them.
(1:19:26) Al: Well, especially if you, especially if you use a rage at the right time,
(1:19:27) Kevin: Uhm, we-
(1:19:30) Al: cause that doubles the, the damage that you can do.
(1:19:30) Kevin: Yup.
(1:19:33) Al: Um, so it’s like you, you’ve got some loads of really fun.
(1:19:34) Kevin: And then there’s-
(1:19:37) Kevin: Yeah, and there’s type advantage.
(1:19:39) Kevin: Cause type- there- there are-
(1:19:40) Kevin: The types are interesting because it took me a minute to figure out, but-
(1:19:45) Kevin: So there’s- like I said, there’s eight types and each one has a basic weakness.
(1:19:50) Kevin: since all the fire spirits are weak to water, right?
(1:19:53) Kevin: so that means two things, one water moves do extra damage, and water moves by default will, any water move will start debuffing the defense which is a nice little bonus, right?
(1:20:04) Kevin: so if you’re going to a fire island, you know, okay, I’m just going to load up on a team of water spirits and I can do pretty okay but the interesting aspect is, every spirit actually has two weaknesses One is the standard one like fire is weak to water, but the other one I think is just randomized because I’ve had two spirits I’ve got two of the same one and they’ll have different weaknesses. So yep yep and and so yeah and and so all of this together these are lots of elements I think does make for a very fun battle system right because there’s a lot like Pokemon right you know what your Pokemon does.
(1:20:30) Al: They seem to have, yeah, they seem to have different types, so I had two cool slimes, which had different types.
(1:20:38) Al: So I think, yeah, you’re right, I think it is right.
(1:20:53) Kevin: You’re going to find the same 5 types of Pokemon in a route, so a lot of the battles are going to be very repetitive, very samey, right?
(1:21:02) Kevin: In this game, it can be wildly different every day depending on what team you bring, what island you’re going to, and stuff like that, right?
(1:21:12) Kevin: And again, because it’s a card deck based thing, like each hand you get is also going to be different, right?
(1:21:18) Kevin: You can’t do the same move every turn, you don’t know what’s going to be on your next turn most of the time.
(1:21:21) Al: I think that’s why I like the card-based battle systems for turn-based, because it forces you to do, like it’s, you can’t do the same thing over and over, so it makes you do different strategies which I’m generally not a fan of when games make you do something when something else would just be better to do, but in this case it’s part of the strategy, that’s like how it works, which means that it can be quite interesting and sometimes you just have a a terrible hand and uh oh like oh no all of my cards
(1:21:23) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:21:40) Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yep
(1:21:47) Kevin: Absolutely, yep
(1:21:51) Al: are for that one that’s stunned and there’s nothing I can do um the I will say with the types I don’t know whether this is just because of how little i’ve played it right six hours whatever
(1:22:04) Al: but I i feel like the types is not as visible as the other parts of the game like obviously the type that your attack is is very visible but i’ve still not figured out how to figure out the other one unless I already know about that.
(1:22:11) Kevin: No.
(1:22:21) Kevin: Yeah, no I the only the only thing I see is the indicator so when you are targeting a
(1:22:27) Kevin: Enemy spirit it’ll show you an indicator if it’s weak to that type. That’s the only thing I’d
(1:22:30) Al: Oh, I’d missed that indicator. Okay. There’s a lot happening on the screen, so it’s easy to miss these random little icons.
(1:22:33) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, it’ll be
(1:22:36) Kevin: Yeah Yeah, it’s like a big red circle that’ll show up when you’re targeting it But again it has to be like if you’re attacking a fire when you have to be using a water type for the indicator to Show up right because a lot of the spirits have
(1:22:48) Al: Okay, so it’s just it’s just going to show when you’re when you’re super effective for use for lack of a better term. Let’s talk about catching them because obviously it’s so you basically
(1:22:50) Kevin: quote unquote normal types.
(1:22:51) Kevin: I don’t know what you’re gonna call it, right? Basic tackles that don’t have…
(1:22:55) Kevin: That’s correct.
(1:22:57) Kevin: Right.
(1:22:58) Kevin: Um…
(1:23:01) Kevin: Okay. Yes.
(1:23:05) Al: you go in and instead of attacking them you feed them and then if you feed them enough it fills up their heart meter and then you have a chance that they’re going to tame them and that’s that’s
(1:23:18) Al: to do that multiple times and if it’s like too strong you can’t tame it because you can only team up to a certain level until you upgrade and you can’t tame bosses. Is that about it here?
(1:23:30) Kevin: Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
(1:23:33) Kevin: When you beat bosses, they will spawn in the wild later for you to be able to tame them.
(1:23:37) Al: Oh nice, I didn’t know that. I will say, I did get while talking to my bosses, is it not possible to run from boss battles? Because I tried in one of them and it said you can’t run and I’m like, but I’m gonna die. I was like in my first dungeon and that feels to me a really weird decision to make. No, you can get a…
(1:23:39) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:23:48) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:23:50) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:23:51) Kevin: Nope.
(1:23:51) Kevin: I-
(1:23:52) Kevin: You’re locked in.
(1:23:54) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:23:57) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:23:58) Kevin: It’s- It’s brutal.
(1:23:59) Kevin: Because, like, the autosave system works, you- you can’t roll that back!
(1:24:04) Kevin: Even-
(1:24:05) Kevin: Mm-hmm.
(1:24:07) Al: Treat card, which I presume works in boss battles? I haven’t either because I’ve not been in that situation since I got a card. Because I know what I’m doing now and I’m less likely to die. Part of the problem was it was my first boss battle and I had no idea what I was doing and I was way under levelled. But I just, it felt a little bit mean to not let you run from a boss battle because it was like seven levels above me at this point.
(1:24:10) Kevin: I haven’t tried it, I would hope it works, um, but…
(1:24:15) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:24:24) Kevin: Yeah, yeah.
(1:24:29) Kevin: Oh yeah, no, it’s brutal.
(1:24:31) Kevin: Especially like,
(1:24:33) Al: I had no idea what I was doing.
(1:24:36) Kevin: yeah, no, it can be brutal.
(1:24:37) Al: Yeah.
(1:24:38) Kevin: Especially against some of those poison bosses,
(1:24:39) Kevin: like, oh gosh, I’m gonna die.
(1:24:41) Kevin: I cannot heal fast enough.
(1:24:44) Kevin: It can be brutal, absolutely.
(1:24:47) Kevin: But to go back to the taming,
(1:24:50) Kevin: and that’s what they call it,
(1:24:52) Kevin: your feet, right, so this goes back.
(1:24:54) Kevin: the farming, how it’s just supporting the exploration and the creature collecting, because that’s one of the big things for farming, right? Like you said, you can’t ignore it,
(1:25:02) Kevin: but one of the reasons I am farming, I want to grow lots of crops that can help me tame the different spirits, and once you progress through the seasons, you’ll see different crops have different attributes. Each season, all the crops are completely swapped out,
(1:25:20) Kevin: And so later season you’ll find more that heal
(1:25:24) Kevin: more, restore more stamina, or be able to tame more.
(1:25:27) Al: which I think is actually quite nice because so one of the one of the ores you get in the game that is required for so many things is moonstone hence the name so basically you’ve got you’ve got copper iron and moonstone and that I think that’s it I don’t think there’s anything else
(1:25:45) Al: and the moonstone there’s one moonstone per island and they respawn each season so I think that’s it’s quite fun the way they’ve done that where every season you’ve got a you’ve got two
(1:25:57) Al: go to all the islands you’ve been to before one is to get the moonstone and the other is to get the crops that are new there I think that’s quite quite fun it’s not just like here’s one thing you need to do it’s like here’s multiple reasons why you might want to go and explore it
(1:26:00) Kevin: Yeah, absolutely.
(1:26:10) Kevin: Absolutely, um, yeah, yeah, that is I think that’s a good design at first the moonstones feel very scarce I won’t lie But once you get the glider can really go around once you realize. Oh they respawn every season
(1:26:26) Kevin: You start getting a good chunk of them, but I do think that’s good design
(1:26:32) Al: One thing I would say against that though, is that I think this game really lacks a fast travel.
(1:26:39) Kevin: uh so there’s the one okay there’s there’s
(1:26:42) Al: Yet there’s one, you can, once a day you can use a whistle to get back to the main island,
(1:26:49) Al: but the problem is that once a day it doesn’t increase as you go on, you can’t get more of it,
(1:26:56) Al: and it only takes you to one specific place.
(1:26:57) Kevin: Well, actually, at one point you do unlock a second one that you can place a beacon.
(1:27:04) Kevin: You learn a recipe to craft a beacon to…
(1:27:06) Kevin: Or I can’t remember what it is.
(1:27:07) Kevin: You get some type of secondary fast travel to certain points that you can place a marker on from what I recall.
(1:27:12) Al: Oh, do you? And can you do multiple of them?
(1:27:15) Kevin: I do not know, I do not remember, I don’t know if I have to clear another temple or something to get it or if it’s just the one.
(1:27:22) Kevin: I haven’t really used it myself.
(1:27:22) Al: So looking online, it looks like it’s just a mark.
(1:27:28) Al: It doesn’t actually have fast travel.
(1:27:32) Al: The feature easily allows you to find a location you have marked.
(1:27:32) Kevin: But, uh…
(1:27:35) Kevin: ‘Cause I know there’s a beacon that will mark things, but there’s also…
(1:27:38) Kevin: I believe it’s in the work…
(1:27:40) Kevin: You don’t unload on my game at sea.
(1:27:41) Al: Because I wanted to check this before I did the podcast and complained about it.
(1:27:48) Al: I could not see anything about fast travel other than the whistle.
(1:27:48) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:27:52) Kevin: Let me look into that, give me a second, I’ll get back to that.
(1:27:55) Kevin: But, regardless…
(1:27:55) Al: Because you do have the balloon and the broom and the glider and they are progressively better at traveling. But it just feels like for a game that is really focused on
(1:28:03) Al: going back and moving around, the fact that there’s literally no other, as far as I can see,
(1:28:09) Al: fast travel, I think just makes–
(1:28:11) Al: make me less likely to want to do it.
(1:28:13) Al: Like, you can create another home at different places, right?
(1:28:17) Al: So you can have multiple tents and houses, so you can go to sleep.
(1:28:21) Al: But the problem is, you have to go back to the main island anyway,
(1:28:26) Al: because that’s where you’ve probably put your barn,
(1:28:30) Al: and you need to go in there to feed them all every day.
(1:28:33) Al: So it’s like, you can’t just go out and explore for a week and find a whole bunch of islands.
(1:28:38) Al: You have to keep coming back.
(1:28:41) Al: You have to then start your journey to where you were going again, all from scratch.
(1:28:45) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:28:45) Al: You can’t say, “Oh, I’m going to–”
(1:28:47) Al: Even if it was just, like, one, and you had one, “This is my fast travel beacon,
(1:28:51) Al: and I’m going to go zoom back to the island and then zoom back here,”
(1:28:54) Al: I think it would massively improve.
(1:28:57) Kevin: Yeah, I agree with you there, my chest is to see that, that is a big issue because you want to travel a lot and you know there’s only certain hours in a day, right?
(1:29:09) Kevin: But at the same time, there’s this big issue I have of progression can get really tough later on because of levels, right?
(1:29:24) Kevin: The farther away your island is from your home island, the
(1:29:27) Kevin: higher level of the spirits and they can get it and one of my biggest issues is that it it feels forever to be able to level it takes forever to level up your spirits there’s no X there’s no experience candies there’s no quick way of grinding up levels other than just going out and battling the different spirits and that’s a bummer because it really puts a roadblock in your
(1:29:57) Kevin: exploration and being able to access and it’s trickier because again the different elemental aspects of it right so you’re going to a fire island well you know you want to bring some water spirits but that means you’re not training up these other poison or electric spirits that you need for different items so I personally found that frustrating just just how that I wish there was a way to level up your spirits better right and sucks because you have the spirit barn, but it doesn’t actually look like it.
(1:30:27) Kevin: level up your spirits or anything. It doesn’t grow them in any way.
(1:30:30) Kevin: It’s just for generating those materials.
(1:30:34) Al: it’s for generating those materials and also giving you more work to keep your spirits around because if you just have them in the in the what is it the there’s the other building you can have them in I can’t remember what the name of it is yeah you you can put them in there and and you never have to think about them again so you put them in the barn and suddenly you have to to pay attention to them every single day.
(1:30:46) Kevin: Oh, the spirit center.
(1:30:48) Kevin: Oh, right, oh yeah,
(1:30:49) Kevin: that’s one of the most frustrating things.
(1:31:00) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, you’re not,
(1:31:03) Kevin: but you have to do it ‘cause you want those elemental item drops.
(1:31:08) Al: Yeah. Yeah.
(1:31:09) Kevin: What really kills me though is you have,
(1:31:12) Kevin: so you have these three slots.
(1:31:14) Kevin: You have your party,
(1:31:15) Kevin: access through this little
(1:31:16) Kevin: item until this little medallion that enters this little space inside where you can talk to your creatures or interact with them. There’s the science center and there’s the spirit barns right? I wish I could access like or I could go jump between them easily because one the science center isn’t open 24/7 it’s only when the guy is working there. So if it’s after hours well too You can’t access your spirits there.
(1:31:46) Kevin: And two, if I want to add a spirit to my party, I have to make sure there’s space.
(1:31:54) Kevin: I have to deposit it either in the science center or the spirit barn.
(1:31:59) Kevin: And if I want to access spirit barn creatures, I have to go to my spirit barn.
(1:32:03) Kevin: It’s really annoying that you have to keep going physically go back and forth between places to kind of…
(1:32:11) Kevin: That’s… yeah.
(1:32:13) Kevin: And I’m trying to think here how to follow up.
(1:32:16) Al: I feel like we’re not at the point where we’re just like and here’s the thing that noise me and here’s a thing that annoys me Like although we’re getting to the little things like for example There’s a bunch of like weird control things that feel like they’re just not ideal like for example some of the menus the D-pad doesn’t work
(1:32:18) Kevin: The…
(1:32:32) Al: But some of them they do it does So it’s like sometimes you have to go to the analog stick But I don’t want to use an analog stick in a menu like this is what the D-pads for why you’re not letting me use a D-pad and it’s like the focusing for the
(1:32:46) Al: tools is a bit off sometimes and
(1:32:49) Al: Weird things like the tool wheel so the way that it works is your tools aren’t in your inventory You’ve got a tool wheel for them. I just feel like it’s awkward like there’s no I like it when a lot of games recently have done like automatically switching of tools in some cases
(1:33:05) Al: That would be really nice if I could walk up to a rock and just use my tool and it would happen I just like it just always feels a bit clunky It’s like, oh, now I need to change my tool.
(1:33:15) Al: And it takes me a few.
(1:33:16) Al: Seconds and that’s not ideal, like at least in stardew when they’re in your
(1:33:21) Al: inventory, I have them all set up how I want them.
(1:33:24) Al: So I know I just click left, left, and I’m at the right thing, right?
(1:33:28) Al: Whereas every single time I’m changing, I’m like holding down the right trigger
(1:33:33) Al: and I’m like, okay, where is my item on this tool wheel?
(1:33:35) Al: I need to find it using the analog stick.
(1:33:37) Al: It just feels a bit clunky.
(1:33:40) Al: Like I don’t hate it.
(1:33:41) Al: It just stops me going super fast.
(1:33:42) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I getcha.
(1:33:46) Kevin: Um, and on that note, I think it’s funny because they gave you a little tutorial bit at the beginning,
(1:33:54) Kevin: but there’s a lot of stuff this game doesn’t explain.
(1:33:56) Al: Yeah.
(1:33:57) Kevin: Um, a lot in the battle, a lot in the controls, there’s a lot of stuff I had to figure out.
(1:34:03) Kevin: In fact, I didn’t realize what you told me about the defense thing,
(1:34:06) Kevin: where if they’re the attacks greater than the defense, the damage is the difference.
(1:34:10) Kevin: I didn’t realize that was how it calculated.
(1:34:12) Kevin: I thought it was just a random number, basically, because it…
(1:34:14) Al: Yeah, yeah. I noticed it when I did one below the number and it said it was blocked entirely and I was like, “Ooh, interesting. I wonder if it’s to do with this and then did some testing and it turned out that yeah, that’s exactly why.” Because yeah, sometimes if you’re not paying attention it does sometimes feel like I pressed something that said seven and some number went off and I didn’t really notice what number it was. It wasn’t seven. That’s the only thing I can tell you is it definitely wasn’t seven. Yeah, it’s funny. I don’t, I don’t…
(1:34:42) Kevin: yeah
(1:34:44) Al: I don’t hate this game. I think this game has a lot of potential, as I said at the beginning,
(1:34:51) Al: but I feel like it’s a bit clunky in some ways and it’s missing some stuff that would make me want to play it long-term.
(1:34:51) Kevin: there’s one bit right okay so yeah I agree right because i’ve i’ve obviously have enjoyed the game to be able to play this long right i’m reaching I’m reaching a point where I’m kind of.
(1:35:06) Al: Your 40 hours isn’t nothing.
(1:35:12) Kevin: You know, it’s fanning me to keep me engaged.
(1:35:15) Kevin: A big part of it is, like I kind of joked earlier, I wish this game had a story, I’m not asking for major writing or anything deep, but some kind of goal or progression.
(1:35:26) Kevin: Because you have a little quest menu and one of them is live on your own for a year, clear the temples, but I don’t know why I’m doing them or why it matters.
(1:35:34) Al: The quest the quest system is quite is quite good, right? I like you get loads of quests
(1:35:35) Kevin: I don’t know what I’m working for.
(1:35:38) Kevin: Yes it is.
(1:35:40) Kevin: » Yeah.
(1:35:41) Al: But yeah, it does feel like it does feel a little bit like you’ve got them because you’ve got them And it’s like live on your own for a year. Okay, because mum said so
(1:35:50) Al: right like
(1:35:50) Kevin: Yep.
(1:35:53) Al: What’s okay
(1:35:54) Kevin: Yep.
(1:35:55) Al: Fine and it’s like sure fine. It’s a life sim The point is to live but like I think this is what something like stardew did really well
(1:35:56) Kevin: Right.
(1:36:04) Al: It’s like here is your long-term goal
(1:36:07) Al: Right your long term and it’s like it says live on your own for a year, but we don’t know what’s gonna happen at that point
(1:36:07) Kevin: Yeah
(1:36:13) Kevin: Yeah, right and
(1:36:14) Al: Like if we knew because right at the beginning, you know at stardew that you know that at the two-year mark You’re going to be judged like it makes it so clear and you we don’t know what this one year thing Is that gonna be like a point where it goes right and now you’re you’re done or is it and now he’s another like is it?
(1:36:30) Al: Now live for two years on your own, like what’s gonna happen then?
(1:36:35) Kevin: That’s a good question, I don’t know.
(1:36:37) Kevin: Maybe I should play just to see that,
(1:36:40) Kevin: just to kind of finish out the year.
(1:36:40) Al: Well, if you’re already in fall, then you may as well speed run the rest of the year.
(1:36:43) Kevin: Yeah, I’m almost there, right?
(1:36:44) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re not wrong.
(1:36:48) Kevin: But it also gets a little harder because like I said,
(1:36:51) Kevin: the grinding gets tougher because there’s more spirits,
(1:36:55) Kevin: higher level spirits, I need to train up more water spirits deal with the higher fire.
(1:37:00) Kevin: There are 3 types that are special.
(1:37:14) Kevin: Psychic types will only appear on one island every night.
(1:37:19) Kevin: And it’s kind of random.
(1:37:20) Kevin: You can take a potion to see where, but it’s like this special weather called the psychic storm and that’s where they’re going to spawn.
(1:37:27) Kevin: and you don’t know where it’s gonna be until you happen,
(1:37:30) Kevin: you wander on the island during night, or you take the potion to see where it is.
(1:37:33) Kevin: Um, there are ice spirits, which will only spawn during winter.
(1:37:38) Kevin: Which is a pain, because like, poison spirits are weak to them.
(1:37:41) Kevin: I’m trying to get through a poison temple.
(1:37:43) Kevin: I would’ve loved some ice spirits, but I don’t get them, so.
(1:37:47) Kevin: Um, that’s annoying.
(1:37:49) Kevin: And the third one, dark spirits.
(1:37:52) Kevin: They are on the very outer edges of the map, they are all super high level,
(1:37:56) Kevin: And okay, I can get that one like the you know late game challenge
(1:38:00) Kevin: Sure, I think I can kind of get that
(1:38:02) Kevin: But it’s still a little frustrating that I’m this far in and I don’t a hundred percent have all my tools, you know
(1:38:10) Kevin: And so just lots of these little things adding up to make exploring get a little harder a little grindier and again all for I don’t know why I don’t feel like I have much of a direction
(1:38:22) Kevin: and It’s frustrating because
(1:38:25) Kevin: It’s trying to blend the cottagecore and the monster collecting, but it feels like it’s going
(1:38:30) Kevin: two different directions where it’s really emphasizing exploration, but there’s also you can build your house, you can craft decorations, which is nice and all, but like, you know, you still have to, you have to, yeah, what’s the point, right? What’s the point? And you have to go gather resources of it. And how do you gather resources? You go exploring.
(1:38:40) Al: what’s the point? Yeah, I think that’s my thing and I think the thing is, right,
(1:38:50) Al: this game heavily emphasizes magic, right? Like you literally, when you build,
(1:38:56) Al: when you, if you create a new tent, it talks about opening a portal dimension,
(1:39:00) Al: right? It literally, it uses that terminology to imply that something is happening here and it’s like, okay great, you can create an open, a portal
(1:39:10) Al: in a tent, but I can’t then put that tent in my bag and take it with me?
(1:39:15) Al: Why not? Like, I don’t understand if we can have the magic to do these things,
(1:39:15) Kevin: Yep
(1:39:20) Al: give me the magic, like I feel like it would do much better focusing on one or the other and so either give us a fast travel to mean that we can go very quickly to where we were exploring and then come back really quickly and you can do it that way or give us the ability to carry the house that you want us to care about around with us and then we’re kind of
(1:39:40) Al: an explorer type thing. Like it feels like it wants to do both and it can.
(1:39:45) Kevin: Yeah, it’s really it’s I mean, it’s possible that it’s not doing well here
(1:39:51) Al: Yeah, that’s fair. I shouldn’t say it can’t do both. I should say it isn’t doing both.
(1:39:51) Kevin: And actually yeah
(1:39:55) Kevin: Yeah
(1:39:57) Kevin: Okay, by the way, I found it there’s an item called the warp whistle totem I don’t remember how I got it, but you can place a
(1:40:06) Kevin: You you place the totem and you can warp to that spot instead of the goddess statue So it’s a different kind of fast travel. Yeah, but that’s the frustrating. That doesn’t solve every issue. That’s correct, yes. Uh-huh, yeah. No, certainly no. Um, yeah.
(1:40:11) Al: Oh, instead of. Right, okay. So it doesn’t, all it does is it changes where you’re warping too. It doesn’t actually change anything. Not ideal. So I guess that is slightly better,
(1:40:28) Al: but realistically it doesn’t make much difference because you’ve still not got the two-way warping. If you could do it as well as, and it gave you two different whistles and you
(1:40:35) Kevin: Yeah, no, I-I agree.
(1:40:41) Al: were a totem and wanted to go to the main island. I think a lot of my problems around the, the exploring versus staying would, would be solved.
(1:40:50) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, I agree right bit something. I don’t think we mentioned but is vital to this is that like cottagecore games It still has the time limit where if you’re not in bed by 2 a.m. You you get knocked out
(1:41:01) Al: Yeah.
(1:41:02) Al: Yeah.
(1:41:03) Kevin: and that
(1:41:03) Al: It’s like, “Oh no, it’s 1am.
(1:41:04) Al: I better warp back to the island to then run to my bed.”
(1:41:06) Kevin: Yep Right and you and so that’s first
(1:41:08) Al: Because of course I didn’t put it right next to where you get the whistle from.
(1:41:12) Kevin: of course You and and that’s what’s frustrating because you can’t it takes time to get to the islands all the way out there
(1:41:20) Kevin: And then oh days done you got to work back Um, and I’m gonna go check.
(1:41:22) Al: I think this is where, to talk about like Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, I think it does that sort of aspect really well, in that as you’re exploring you are unlocking warps as you go, and so if you then decide to go and do something else, you’ve not lost all of your exploration because you can just warp back to there when you want to, and I think that’s what is missing, and it doesn’t need to be loads of them, it can be just one that that you put down.
(1:41:30) Kevin: Uh-huh.
(1:41:44) Kevin: Yep.
(1:41:46) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:41:47) Kevin: Yep.
(1:41:49) Kevin: Absolutely.
(1:41:52) Al: then you can come back. It doesn’t need to be this massive thing.
(1:41:53) Kevin: And…
(1:41:56) Kevin: I agree.
(1:41:57) Kevin: And you know, I’m just remembering,
(1:41:58) Kevin: there are warps, but they’re only between two islands.
(1:42:01) Kevin: You can find these statues that will warp you to a different island,
(1:42:02) Al: Yes, they’re there. Yeah, yeah.
(1:42:05) Kevin: but it is only between the two islands, right?
(1:42:07) Kevin: So if you want to use either side,
(1:42:09) Kevin: you have to get to, you know, one of those islands first.
(1:42:10) Al: Yeah, it doesn’t- that doesn’t fix the problem, it just changes where the exploration-
(1:42:12) Kevin: And that’s…
(1:42:15) Kevin: Yup, yup.
(1:42:17) Kevin: Um, I agree.
(1:42:19) Kevin: Um, and you know, we’re focusing on all this exploration and monster collecting because it’s, uh,
(1:42:25) Kevin: it’s definitely, I think, the emphasis.
(1:42:27) Kevin: But I still have gripes about the cottage core side of it, right?
(1:42:31) Kevin: Like I say…
(1:42:33) Kevin: It’s frustrating because it’s there,
(1:42:35) Kevin: but it’s so limited in scope, it feels like.
(1:42:37) Kevin: Like, like we mentioned, right?
(1:42:39) Kevin: The farming.
(1:42:40) Kevin: There’s some crops that are valuable because you can, uh,
(1:42:43) Kevin: You know,
(1:42:44) Kevin: you’ll use them for, again, exploration buffs, for healing your team,
(1:42:48) Kevin: you’re recovering your stamina, etc, etc, right?
(1:42:51) Kevin: But it’s not super mandatory otherwise, like in your standard farming game.
(1:42:57) Kevin: And there’s this whole town, with some facilities, sometimes you’ll use them,
(1:43:02) Kevin: but by and large you can ignore them, because you can get most of what you need just from exploring.
(1:43:06) Kevin: Umm…
(1:43:07) Kevin: Yeah.
(1:43:07) Al: It’s good for making money. You can sell like you sell stuff to the places there for more money than you would sell them in your in your shipping which is always a fun
(1:43:16) Kevin: Yeah, it is. Yeah, you’re right.
(1:43:17) Al: but but as we’ve said money is not really that hard to come by in the game which is it’s fine I like I like this but
(1:43:18) Kevin: Um, and…
(1:43:22) Kevin: Nope. Nope.
(1:43:26) Kevin: And, like, we haven’t even touched on the characters because there’s NPCs, and guess what?
(1:43:31) Kevin: You can romance them because of course you can.
(1:43:33) Kevin: Um, and…
(1:43:34) Al: Yeah, I started doing that, but I just got bored.
(1:43:38) Kevin: Yeah, here’s the frustrating part.
(1:43:41) Kevin: Again, going with the story, I think a lot of that’s kind of applicable to the characters because
(1:43:46) Kevin: at least the characters I’ve engaged with, they don’t have arcs per se, right? Like, looking at stardew,
(1:43:51) Kevin: they think the benchmark for that everyone kind of measures up to, right? A lot of the characters have
(1:43:56) Kevin: story arcs of their own, right? Where they grow or change a little and stuff like that, right? You get to know them better. Here…
(1:44:03) Kevin: They’re not… the characters aren’t growing or have arcs.
(1:44:07) Kevin: Some of them have interesting things to say because they explore… explain some of the stuff of the world.
(1:44:12) Kevin: Well did you know we’re in a post-apocalyptic setting Al?
(1:44:14) Al: No, I did not. I did not know that. That’s interesting.
(1:44:16) Kevin: Yeah, it’s not told you unless you go on dates with certain characters and they tell you about it.
(1:44:21) Al: Oh, right, OK. I’ve been on one date and then I went to do a second one and I accidentally stood them up because I forgot I needed to go to a specific place at a specific time and they weren’t happy with me, so I stopped.
(1:44:23) Kevin: Yeah, yeah.
(1:44:36) Kevin: and the relationship thing is weird because
(1:44:42) Kevin: Like I said these stories you can only do from asking on dates, but if you actually start a relationship with someone
(1:44:48) Kevin: You know asking other people on dates will damage the relationship with your partner or whatever
(1:44:54) Kevin: So it feels weird to set it up in that way where I I’m in a relationship with somebody and I’ve kind of pinned myself Or I don’t want to go on dates with other people so I don’t get to learn about them or the world or whatever
(1:45:06) Kevin: and also It’s especially weird because the person I’m dating like we
(1:45:13) Kevin: I’ve there’s a limit how many dates you can go with them. I’ve done that so now I can’t really do anything else with them
(1:45:19) Kevin: There’s no marriage. There’s nothing like that just saying hi every day. It’s it’s it’s odd because like you know obvious in other
(1:45:28) Kevin: farming games now that maybe they move in with you, they’ll help you with your farming sometimes or
(1:45:33) Kevin: Something but that’s that’s just kind of it
(1:45:37) Kevin: Again kind of like the lack of a story with a big end goal
(1:45:40) Kevin: Relationships you’re kind of the same and I mean like I think the character now her name’s Freya. She’s the blacksmith
(1:45:46) Kevin: She complements my butt every day and hey that that’s nice, but you know that that’s kind of it
(1:45:48) Al: Yeah, yeah, I don’t, I, it’s, I think the, that’s, that’s the thing.
(1:45:53) Kevin: Yeah
(1:45:59) Kevin: Like you said there’s potential so much potential here this game’s
(1:46:04) Al: It’s a fun idea with a bunch of fun, interesting ideas in there.
(1:46:10) Al: Some of them well implemented, some of them lacking, and overall, I feel like there’s is a lack of meshing together.
(1:46:19) Kevin: Yeah, absolutely. And I have hopes this game can be saved because I think it absolutely can, right? Like, you know, we need the Orange, Orange season at a story update, but, like, the groundwork’s here. I think it just needs to refine a few of these things, like, like you said, just, even just one warp totem that you can warp to back and forth every day.
(1:46:43) Kevin: That would be helped so much, right? And maybe add marriage. You’re doing the relationship stuff. Go with it.
(1:46:49) Kevin: Go all in. Like, you know, give me bigger goals because, like I said, I’m in the Fall season, 40 hours in, it’s, I kind of feel like I’m just kind of grinding along the same stuff, just getting through my daily chores, trying to explore a little bit every day.
(1:47:07) Kevin: And even that gets hampered because the exploration limits, or the level limits, um, but I think this stuff is still solvable. I really hope that we get to it.
(1:47:20) Al: Yeah agreed awesome well yeah well we’ve been talking about it for an hour so thank you very much for yeah I agree I agree there’s if not if nothing if you don’t take anything else from this episode the monsters are good they are good designs and they’re fun
(1:47:24) Kevin: All right, I think I’ve said everything I need to say.
(1:47:29) Kevin: Yeah, fish bow is still great.
(1:47:41) Kevin: Go look down that list. Just spend 10 minutes going down the list and enjoying the designs. There’s some
(1:47:46) Al: and don’t just don’t just look at the pictures go look at videos of them in game as well because…
(1:47:50) Al: Some of them have fantastic anime.
(1:47:52) Kevin: Yeah, they they walk around they do stuff they’re great. They’re a lot of fun a big fan of them
(1:47:58) Al: So thank you Kevin for joining me on this episode where can people find you on the internet?
(1:48:02) Kevin: Thank you, Al Well, thank you all for having me on you can find me at Cooper Press for my personal Twitter You can find me at Spry Your Squared if you want to see some of my art that I-
(1:48:11) Kevin: I have been working on art, I haven’t been posting it, but I won’t get to that.
(1:48:15) Kevin: Or, perhaps of most interest to people, find me at the podcast called Rainbow Road Radio, a weekly show I do with our mutual friend Alex, where we talk about all things Mario.
(1:48:26) Kevin: Uh, that is Rainbow Mario Pod on- or, wait, Rainbow Road- oh, we got- Well, Rainbow Road Radio, Mario podcast. Look that up and you can find it wherever your podcasts are normally found.
(1:48:37) Kevin: have a tweeter account. Rainbow Mario Pod.
(1:48:42) Kevin: Like we talked about earlier, we just did an episode on Mario Super Star Saga.
(1:48:48) Kevin: It was great game, great fun to talk about.
(1:48:51) Kevin: This week we will do the in-depth discussion on the King of Kong and that entire saga.
(1:48:58) Kevin: It’s really interesting and because again, that’s real life stuff.
(1:49:02) Kevin: It’s actual people with actual stakes. So go take a listen to that.
(1:49:08) Kevin: What about you, where do people find–
(1:49:10) Al: Yeah people can find me on the usual places Twitter and on mastodon.scot my username is thescotbot. You can find the podcast on Twitter and on tumblr at thspod you can find our website teaming with links including a link to our feedback farm at harvestseason.club another one of those links is also a link to our patreon you can come and join in the conversation on our slack if If you support us there, you can also get episodes.
(1:49:40) Al: Extra episodes of the podcast, The Greenhouse, we have one that hopefully should already be out by the time this episode comes out with us talking about another creature collection game, Power World, which, that’s exactly what you want, right?
(1:49:48) Kevin: one that neither of us have played
(1:49:56) Al: You want people to talk about something they haven’t played.
(1:49:59) Al: So yeah, come listen to that.
(1:50:01) Kevin: you can tell what it is or they could probably guess Johnny go listen to it oh you did okay well Johnny go go listen to our opinions that we have no authority or experience on alright
(1:50:03) Al: I did say Power World, you might just have missed me saying it, but yeah, Power World,
(1:50:08) Al: just in case people missed it.
(1:50:12) Al: Yeah, I think that’s everything.
(1:50:16) Al: Thank you, Kevin, again for joining me.
(1:50:18) Kevin: thank you all
(1:50:18) Al: Thank you listeners for listening.
(1:50:20) Al: And until next time, have a good harvest.
(1:50:24) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McInley, with support from our patrons, including our pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa.
(1:50:39) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess.
(1:50:44) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed in this episode.
(1:50:59) Al: Right, I’m recording locally.
(1:51:00) Kevin: Yep. I’m also recording locally. Waveforms are forming.
(1:51:07) Al: Whoa, you got very close to the mic there.
(1:51:08) Kevin: Ah, okay.
(1:51:12) Al: Hello.

The Harvest Season

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