The Island Therapist
Wed, Feb 28, 2024 Year 2, Autumn 09Al and Bev talk about Aka
Timings
00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:06:11: What Have We Been Up To
00:12:55: News
00:48:30: Aka
01:13:37: Outro
Links
Distant Bloom Release Date
Palia Steam Release
Research Story “Anniversary” Update
Disney Dreamlight Valley “The Laugh Floor” Update
Len’s Island Upcoming Updates Sneak Peek
Spells and Secrets Financial Kickstarter Update
Galactic Getaway on Kickstarter
Galactic Getaway on Steam
Plantabi on Steam
Contact
Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot
Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot
Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/
Transcript
(0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Al and we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games. Welcome back Bev. It’s been a while I think since we’ve been on an episode together.
(0:00:36) Bev: And my name is Bev.
(0:00:42) Bev: Woo!
(0:00:48) Bev: It has. It has.
(0:00:50) Bev: And I have a lot of regrets about missing the last one we were supposed to be on together because I want to hold a mutiny and re-change the results of the year of…
(0:01:02) Bev: game, you’re in gaming? What? Oh goodness.
(0:01:06) Al: year in farming games. Game of the farming year. Game of the year. Whatever. Yeah. You abandoned me to the haters.
(0:01:06) Bev: There we go. Those are the words. I know.
(0:01:18) Al: There was nothing I could do.
(0:01:19) Bev: No, no. I fully want to vote in a new system where we vote. So this can’t have
(0:01:26) Al: Well, so I mean, so here’s an interesting thing, right?
(0:01:33) Al: We could do something where we allow all people who have been on an episode in that year to put in their options, and if there’s a clear winner, then that one wins.
(0:01:40) Bev: Mm-hmm.
(0:01:42) Bev: Mm-hmm.
(0:01:46) Al: I don’t think Coral Island still would have won because, like, I don’t think Johnny was into it by then.
(0:01:52) Bev: I don’t know well I think so cuz I recall it when I came on and was complaining about the results I think both Cody and Johnny were like yeah this is game of the year oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Mm-hmm
(0:01:56) Al: Well, how do you already played it by then?
(0:02:08) Al: OK, so that probably three votes would have probably been anything else realistically,
(0:02:14) Al: because there are there are more than six of us who have been on episodes last year, but
(0:02:20) Al: would there have been three to vote for anything else? I don’t know. We’ll have a think about it.
(0:02:23) Bev: I don’t know.
(0:02:28) Bev: We got plenty of time.
(0:02:29) Al: We’ve got nine months to think about this, right? So I think we can think up something to stop.
(0:02:35) Bev: Yes, for sure.
(0:02:35) Al: Stop Cara Island losing again.
(0:02:38) Al: Uh, they just need, they just need to do an update, a massive update, right?
(0:02:38) Bev: We’ll find a way somehow to get it back into the rankings.
(0:02:43) Bev: Into the eligibility criteria.
(0:02:45) Bev: I don’t know how, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out.
(0:02:48) Bev: We have nine months.
(0:02:50) Bev: Yes.
(0:02:52) Bev: Yes, they do, which, considering how Stardew is operating, it’s very possible that they might have huge updates moving forward.
(0:03:02) Al: I suspect it’s more likely to do DLC than a free update. The free updates that Stardew are doing,
(0:03:09) Al: I think, are pretty rare.
(0:03:12) Bev: Well, thus far they’ve only done DLCs for charity, as far as I can recall.
(0:03:17) Al: Yeah. But the 1.0 only came out in November, so you know, it’s not…
(0:03:23) Bev: I don’t know I would still count it, but it still counts even if if you have to pay I will pay it.
(0:03:29) Al: Yeah, my point is just that we just we haven’t had any information about upcoming updates for Carl Eylon, so we don’t know. In fact, I’ve not looked.
(0:03:44) Bev: Ooo.
(0:03:46) Bev: ‘Cause it’s been a few months since they’ve come out.
(0:03:46) Al: Oh yeah, it’s basically just the merefolk stuff that they haven’t done, and multiplayer.
(0:03:50) Bev: Okay.
(0:03:52) Bev: Okay.
(0:03:56) Bev: I feel like we could probably have a whole episode like speculating, like what could we add to make this better?
(0:04:02) Al: Ooh, good plan.
(0:04:02) Bev: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
(0:04:02) Al: Let’s add that to the list before I forget.
(0:04:05) Bev: And then that will therefore make it eligible, right?
(0:04:09) Bev: ‘Cause we have an episode about it.
(0:04:12) Al: I changed that a long time ago because like when we started doing, I mean the only game that’s I think one out of its release year is Spiritfarer and that did come out in November I think of the previous year. So I think that was a fair, like if it comes out in November or December then I think it’s fair to count it for the next year. But yeah I did in the first year we did include games that we had just covered, but that was the first year.
(0:04:12) Bev: Oh You
(0:04:22) Bev: - Yeah.
(0:04:42) Al: And also there were like four games that came out that year.
(0:04:46) Al: So very different, I feel.
(0:04:46) Bev: Okay, so November-December is what she said. We have a recording.
(0:04:52) Bev: 1.0 came out November 14th, so, therefore, there you go.
(0:04:59) Bev: I don’t need nine months. I already have a reason to include it for next year, or this year.
(0:05:06) Al: Anyway.
(0:05:07) Bev: Did I tell you I applied for a law school?
(0:05:09) Al: » [LAUGH]
(0:05:11) Bev: I’m already putting those skills to practice.
(0:05:12) Al: No, you didn’t, you didn’t actually, but yeah, fair enough putting, yeah, getting in some,
(0:05:16) Al: getting in some practice there, uh, transcripts are available for the podcast and the show notes and on the website. Uh, I don’t know why I say that because if you’re listening,
(0:05:27) Al: you’re listening, right? Like, I don’t know, whatever. Um, we’re going to talk today about Acre. This episode was originally meant to be January of-
(0:05:40) Bev: January of 2020. And then we were like, “Oh no, can’t do that one.” And then… It’ll mean a year.
(0:05:42) Al: 2023. Uh, we actually had it scheduled in as well. We had it scheduled in as an episode and then we were like, Oh no, can’t do that one. And then that, yeah, it has been a year.
(0:05:57) Bev: And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.” And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.”
(0:05:57) Al: So we’re going to talk about Acre. It has been out now for over a year. I think it was December 22 that it came out. Um, so we’re finally getting to it. We’re going to talk about that. Before that, we obviously have some news.
(0:06:01) Bev: And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.” And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.”
(0:06:03) Bev: And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.” And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.”
(0:06:07) Bev: And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.” And then we were like, “Oh no, I can’t do that one.”
(0:06:10) Bev: I have mostly been playing Twisted Wonderland, which I think I might have mentioned it with Johnny when I was on last time, but it’s a mobile gacha game.
(0:06:12) Al: Uh, first of all though, Bev, what have you been up to?
(0:06:26) Bev: But it’s out of Disney Japan, and it is licensed by Disney, so it is an official Disney product.
(0:06:32) Bev: But it’s very similar, I think, to Pokemon Masters in that you have the whole character system, and they have different variations of the characters.
(0:06:40) Bev: And there’s storylines, it’s a little bit more lore-centric than Pokemon Masters, because I feel like the dialogue doesn’t really matter in Pokemon Masters, unless I don’t read it.
(0:06:52) Al: I think it depends who you are whether you
(0:06:52) Bev: There’s too much of it. But yeah, at some point I would like to think that I would go back to read some of it, because some of it was entertaining.
(0:07:04) Bev: I think more so the character specific one is not the actual like main
(0:07:10) Bev: Story challenge
(0:07:12) Bev: But yeah Twisted Wonderland is just a bunch of beautiful
(0:07:18) Bev: Anime boys going to school and they’re based off of the Disney villains. So there’s a different house for each
(0:07:26) Bev: Seven different Disney villains specifically
(0:07:28) Bev: Now I don’t want to list them all just google it. It’s fun. It’s cute. I’m really into it I went to katsukan over the weekend and bought a whole bunch of birch
(0:07:40) Bev: to this I
(0:07:42) Bev: Was playing core island prior I think to my weekend of Twisted Wonderland and the anime convention of the weekend
(0:07:49) Bev: But that has since fallen off
(0:07:52) Bev: since coming back
(0:07:56) Bev: But yeah
(0:07:57) Al: This is very weird. This feels like fanfiction.
(0:07:59) Bev: Is it it yeah, yeah, maybe that’s why I like it
(0:08:07) Bev: It very much feels…
(0:08:10) Bev: …not like that. Because they’re original characters and they’re not the actual Disney villain. They just reference them and clearly some of them are based off of the Disney villain itself.
(0:08:18) Bev: But yeah, I’ve since started reading the animation about the Disneyland so… It’s on par.
(0:08:28) Al: It’s really weird, but I’m not here to judge each to their own.
(0:08:34) Bev: No. Don’t knock it till you try it. Don’t download it. Johnny was very interested at some point.
(0:08:39) Al: I will not play.
(0:08:40) Bev: It is a gacha game, so it’s… yeah.
(0:08:43) Al: I will not play.
(0:08:45) Al: I’m going to be honest with you, I’m not going to do it, but
(0:08:49) Al: I certainly, yeah, I certainly won’t be judging.
(0:08:55) Al: I feel like it says a lot that on the
(0:08:58) Al: wiki for it like they all have their their star sign listed it’s like I feel like that says a lot about the game oh one of them has the same birthday as me Riddle Rose Heart
(0:09:00) Bev: oh interesting interesting okay which is oh yeah I don’t know I like it I think the arts very pretty I got into cosplay over the weekend because of the anime convention so I want to cause
(0:09:30) Bev: some of these characters and I’ve started trying a dabbling at digital art to see if I can make art about these characters and other fandoms now that I’m dabbling into it but yeah I’ve been enjoying it a lot. So what have you been
(0:09:46) Al: Fair enough.
(0:09:53) Al: Not a huge amount.
(0:09:54) Al: So I was in L.A. last weekend for Sinotour, so I didn’t.
(0:09:59) Bev: All right, how was that?
(0:10:01) Al: It was really good.
(0:10:03) Al: It has reminded me that I do not like being in cars.
(0:10:09) Al: And there’s a lot of cars there.
(0:10:10) Bev: especially in L.A.
(0:10:14) Al: Yeah, we were driving to Disney.
(0:10:16) Al: Disney downtown and it was meant to take an hour and I ended up taking two and a half hours
(0:10:23) Al: Two and a half hours
(0:10:25) Bev: That sounds about right. I’ve only been there once. I know, but that does sound accurate, I think, for L.A.
(0:10:32) Al: And my boss from the airport into Union Station was meant to take like half an hour and ended up taking like an hour and 15, it’s just like oh my word, everything dreadful.
(0:10:42) Bev: Oh
(0:10:45) Al: But I had fun, yeah it was good.
(0:10:50) Al: It’s the sort of thing I could see myself doing again, maybe not L.A., maybe somewhere else. But yeah, I could absolutely see myself doing something like that again.
(0:10:54) Bev: Mm-hmm
(0:11:03) Al: It was, it was good fun.
(0:11:04) Bev: Okay, so you’ve been playing Pokemon Go in other words [laughter]
(0:11:07) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(0:11:10) Bev: Obviously, I’ve been playing Hakka.
(0:11:10) Al: Obviously I’ve been playing Akka, probably not as much as I probably should to cover it, but it’s fine.
(0:11:18) Al: I have, I have opinions anyway.
(0:11:20) Bev: Mm-hmm. We have enough.
(0:11:22) Al: Enough opinions.
(0:11:24) Al: And what else?
(0:11:32) Bev: added back in later. Make a note to future Al.
(0:11:35) Al: Yeah, maybe. Maybe, maybe. Anyway, my brain is dead because I’m still jet lagged. So we’ll continue from there. Yeah, that’s probably about all I’ve been playing. Oh, Pokémon.
(0:11:49) Al: It’s Scarlet and Violet. I’ve been doing the outbreaks, the outbreaks.
(0:11:52) Bev: Okay, oh the shiny hunting
(0:11:56) Bev: Mm-hmm. I probably should pick that up because I want those Pokemon, but
(0:12:02) Bev: It feels like work
(0:12:02) Al: They’re good shiny rates, good shiny rates.
(0:12:04) Al: I got my first one in like 10 minutes, so it feels good.
(0:12:07) Bev: Okay
(0:12:09) Bev: Remind me which of the three are is it the pokeball ones?
(0:12:14) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it’s Voltorb, Pisulian Voltorb, and Fungus. Fungus. Fungus.
(0:12:21) Bev: Okay, so it does only have the one involution.
(0:12:25) Bev: So that’s doable, unlike flabébé.
(0:12:25) Al: Yeah, that’s true. So it’s a total of six if you don’t have any of them. Oh, I know.
(0:12:31) Al: Flabé. Getting the 15 Flabé. It was dreadful. I did it. I got them all. But my word, that was a lot of work. I’m so glad those were around for two weeks or whatever it was.
(0:12:34) Bev: It was a lot.
(0:12:35) Bev: Yep.
(0:12:40) Bev: Right, they knew, they had to be more than a weekend ‘cause it would have been impossible.
(0:12:41) Al: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
(0:12:44) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t, I had, I was, I wasn’t, I wasn’t doing well. Sorry. I was like, I’m done. I’m done with all these flow, baby. I’m done.
(0:12:45) Bev: Same thing with Missouri.
(0:12:46) Bev: So.
(0:12:51) Bev: » I’m done with.
(0:12:53) Bev: » [LAUGH]
(0:12:55) Al: Cool. Let’s talk about some news. So first up, we have some release dates. Distantbloom have said that their launch is the 27th of March. That is my wife’s birthday. So yeah,
(0:13:12) Al: This one is based on
(0:13:14) Al: Alien Planet and I think it’s like a “make the world better” type game. Yeah harness the power of plants to restore the environment and build a flourishing community with your crew mates.
(0:13:19) Bev: Ooh, that’s what it looks like.
(0:13:26) Al: Yeah so it looks all right. I don’t know if I’ll be playing this one. I need to think about it more. Maybe I will. Maybe I will.
(0:13:36) Bev: I don’t know either. It’s very cute. It’s been on my wish list for a while. I do generally like making the world a better place, especially environmentally.
(0:13:42) Bev: And I’m not tied into any, I’m like ADHD with my game so I’m just picking them and dropping them immediately. So maybe I will pick this up. We’ll see.
(0:13:54) Al: Yeah, we’ll see. Maybe we’ll both be back in a month for that. Well, not a month, because it won’t be out yet, and we need at least a week, I think, to play a game.
(0:13:58) Bev: Maybe.
(0:14:00) Bev: Maybe.
(0:14:06) Bev: » Right, hopefully.
(0:14:11) Al: The ADHD fun, of course, is that it’s really hard to get into it in the first place, and then once you’re finally into it, you obsess over it and nothing else exists, and then suddenly one day you decide you’re not playing it, or your brain decides you’re not playing it again.
(0:14:16) Bev: Right, right, yep, it, yep, exactly, um, that’s with me, like, with drawing right now, it’s,
(0:14:24) Al: And you never, you never touch it again. Am I right? Is that, that about how it goes for you?
(0:14:34) Bev: I’m hyper focusing on it for the past week, like, all my free time has been going into it, so it was a struggle to put it down so I could play for the episode, um, so we’ll see.
(0:14:44) Al: Yeah.
(0:14:46) Bev: It’s, I’m maybe, we’ll see, but it takes work and effort and time and if you’re not enjoying it, then what’s the point? There’s not enough time, so do something that you actually enjoy.
(0:14:47) Al: I did four weeks of drawing like three years ago.
(0:14:52) Al: That’s not one. That’s not one I think I’ll ever pick up again.
(0:14:55) Al: It’s.
(0:14:58) Al: I was not good at it.
(0:15:02) Al: I know. I know. I know. You get better.
(0:15:04) Al: You get better if you actually try blah, blah, blah. But no, I’m not.
(0:15:08) Al: It does.
(0:15:10) Al: Exactly.
(0:15:12) Al: Exactly.
(0:15:16) Al: » Speaking of doing something you enjoy.
(0:15:20) Al: Palia is coming to Steam on the 25th of March.
(0:15:22) Bev: Whoo
(0:15:24) Al: So if you’ve been really wanting it on your Steam Deck and you can’t be bothered getting stuff there from other random sites and getting the game that way.
(0:15:33) Al: Or if you just for some reason want all your games in Steam,
(0:15:36) Al: I guess achievements and stuff like that, that might be why you would want to do it.
(0:15:37) Bev: Beautiful.
(0:15:40) Al: That is coming out two days before.
(0:15:44) Bev: I will probably be downloading it.
(0:15:47) Bev: I already have it on my Steam deck, but for other reasons, I’ll probably get it on the Steam.
(0:15:53) Bev: And that will probably be where I play it, because it theoretically will be easier to hook up a keyboard if I want it to be social and talk to people, which sometimes I do.
(0:16:02) Al: fair. Fair, fair. Is this game, like, because I feel like when they first announced it,
(0:16:05) Bev: I don’t.
(0:16:14) Al: it was, they’d called it early access, but I’ve never seen them use the term since, and it was obviously not on Steam till now, and now it’s on Switch. Like, do you think they’re just avoiding that term now, or do you think it is officially not early access?
(0:16:22) Bev: I feel like it still is because it’s still not 1.0 in terms of like the patch notes and whatnot so they might just be I think you’re right that they’re avoiding it for marketing reasons because it’s on all these platforms and generally
(0:16:46) Al: It’s just it’s just a dream like valley. That is the only one [laugh]
(0:16:50) Bev: So maybe that’s a new route we’re moving forward with all these games that you’re supposed to play a little bit every day, like Animal Crossing, that you just play a little bit every day and therefore it’s in early access so that you can start fixing these bugs early on.
(0:17:09) Bev: I don’t know.
(0:17:10) Al: Why should I play this game, Bev? Try and convince me.
(0:17:14) Bev: I really enjoy it.
(0:17:17) Bev: Can you say? Yes!
(0:17:18) Al: Okay, good start.
(0:17:20) Bev: I really enjoy it, and this is why you should play, but that’s the only reason.
(0:17:24) Bev: I enjoy the art style. I think they’ve done a lot of quality of life improvements in terms of kind of like their chest system, their storage system is all like conclusive.
(0:17:42) Bev: You need to buy additional chests to expand it, but you aren’t restricted to only putting items in.
(0:17:50) Bev: I’m still a little confused about the MMO part of it.
(0:17:51) Al: Yeah, I like that. I heard that on the episode that Johnny and Cody, I think it was, did.
(0:17:58) Al: I really like that idea. I think all games should do that now. I think we’re past the days of finite individual storage. It’s all right. I’m sure we’ll have stuff today to talk about that with Akka.
(0:18:18) Bev: I kind of want to.
(0:18:20) Bev: That’s why I mentioned like hooking up a keyboard so I can try to, you know, chat a little bit more make it play a little bit more friendly, I suppose, and like announcing like here’s the glowing tree over here, like, let’s all meet in 13 minutes or whatever.
(0:18:38) Bev: But I do like that there’s no drawback to people playing together in the same space like you just get bonuses or buffs.
(0:18:50) Bev: The game itself kind of encourages you to play with people and I do enjoy that they have events but they don’t seem as like intensive as other like mobile or other like free to play games like I’m looking at you, Disney Dreamlight Valley that required me to put in a lot of effort for your last event and I will probably do the same with the next one.
(0:19:16) Bev: So I don’t know it I like the work
(0:19:20) Bev: I like the the premise behind it I like the like final like the fake like the fantasy component to it so there’s there’s a lot of aspects of it that I do like and the farming is not bad either like the tool system it’s on your your pocket so it’s already better in that sense I don’t love that there’s a specific order you should be planting your crops in because they give benefits or non to like the it’s
(0:19:50) Bev: they’re not negative effects but the fact that I have to Google and save an image on my phone to know how to plant things which I rain but I can’t I can’t not if I know mm-hmm I have a spreadsheet
(0:19:57) Al: Yeah, yeah, OK. I can see how that’d be a bit frustrating, but…
(0:20:01) Al: I mean, if you’re not min-maxing things, then you can probably just ignore it, but…
(0:20:07) Al: I mean, yeah, and I’m the person that sits with a spreadsheet for Stardew, so…
(0:20:16) Al: I don’t think I know what not min-maxing is.
(0:20:20) Bev: I have an app for stardew I have a spreadsheet fruit and blood so mm-hmm I made it myself so [laughs]
(0:20:25) Al: Oh, a spreadsheet for Ooblet’s my word!
(0:20:27) Al: That’s a level above why, like with Ooblet’s, I didn’t farm an Ooblet’s to min-max anything,
(0:20:37) Al: I farmed to get the stuff that I needed rather than anything else, whereas with Stardew, my goal was
(0:20:44) Al: become as rich as possible. My goal with Ooblet’s was finish the story. So…
(0:20:46) Bev: Oh, so you’re using it for like analyses, like purposes for like, like economics.
(0:20:54) Bev: I’m using it for got to collect them all.
(0:20:55) Al: Yeah.
(0:20:58) Al: No, yeah, yeah, I forgot that you’re on that task of trying to get everything in Stardew.
(0:21:00) Bev: Oh.
(0:21:02) Bev: Oh.
(0:21:06) Al: Yeah, no, I feel like my brain won’t ever let me get to that point with Stardew.
(0:21:15) Al: Like there has to be a point where once my brain says, “Okay, you’re done with this. I need to be at like 75%. If I’m lower than 75%, I won’t have the enthusiasm.”
(0:21:27) Al: To finish it, if I’m at 75 or over, I’ll be like, “Oh, yeah, well, yeah, that’s just another third of what I’ve done. That’s fine. I can do that.” So, yeah.
(0:21:28) Bev: Mmm.
(0:21:35) Bev: Uh-huh.
(0:21:38) Bev: You know, Pokemon has trained me very well, um, but hasn’t trained me to the point of like completion, actual completion.
(0:21:45) Bev: So it fell a little short because everything is just like, I hit 75 and now I’m exhausted.
(0:21:52) Bev: I will pick this up two years from now and try again.
(0:21:57) Al: Yeah, but the problem then is you start again.
(0:22:00) Bev: I’ve been trying to do less of that.
(0:22:02) Bev: If I pick up a game that I put down,
(0:22:04) Bev: I will make the effort of trying to refamiliarize myself with all the controls so that I don’t keep doing it.
(0:22:15) Al: well, we’ll see what happens when the next stardew update comes out and see what you do.
(0:22:19) Bev: Super super perfect perfection. Mm-hmm
(0:22:22) Al: We haven’t scheduled who’s doing that one yet, have we?
(0:22:25) Bev: Well, we don’t have a date for that yet
(0:22:27) Al: No, I know. That doesn’t mean we can’t decide who’s doing it.
(0:22:31) Al: I mean, realistically, it’s coming out this year. So, you know, it’s gonna happen.
(0:22:37) Bev: we’ll see I wouldn’t be surprised 2025 it’s a nice like i’m pretty sure he said well well
(0:22:40) Al: I’m pretty sure he said it’s coming out this year.
(0:22:46) Al: » Like he said, the words definitely, which is obviously a dangerous thing to say, but he seems pretty confident. I think he said he’s implemented all the features and now he’s on bug-squashing. We’ll see. Maybe it’ll be out in November. Research Story have their one-year anniversary update. You did research-
(0:22:50) Bev: okay it is very dangerous okay
(0:22:58) Bev: okay then yeah it’s probably coming this year okay - Okay.
(0:23:10) Bev: Mm-hmm. Yes. I that was also another game that I had a lot of fun playing and then put it down
(0:23:16) Al: Fair enough. Well, you’ll probably end up picking it up when it gets to 1.0, which it’s not at yet. So they had hoped to get 1.0 around now, but I will quote “The scope of the game grew and it will take a bit longer to get ready.” While I work on larger content updates, here’s an anniversary update that has some of the common player requested quality of life features.
(0:23:17) Bev: But I would like to get back in
(0:23:22) Bev: Yeah
(0:23:38) Bev: Oh, yay!
(0:23:40) Al: So it has things such as a random name generator for creatures, which is something I very much
(0:23:42) Bev: Oh, oh.
(0:23:44) Bev: Yes.
(0:23:46) Al: enjoy. No game should ever make you name something and not give you a generator. It’s just dreadful.
(0:23:46) Bev: No.
(0:23:48) Bev: No.
(0:23:53) Al: A move button for creature pens, a shoulder bag, which gives you an additional eight slots in the
(0:23:54) Bev: Amazing.
(0:24:01) Al: inventory, an iron chest, which is larger than a normal chest, item signs, paths,
(0:24:11) Al: and other stuff like that. We don’t need to go into all of the really detailed stuff.
(0:24:16) Al: The lists, the patch notes, whatever you want to call it,
(0:24:21) Al: update notes, and the show notes, if you want to go and read that. Not just now, Bev.
(0:24:28) Bev: I’m trying not to I love love all these improvements already so maybe maybe I will pick this up again after I could that would probably be the better yeah okay I’m closing it I’m closing it because I I still haven’t played core islands since the one point I was like I need to actually get into this yeah
(0:24:37) Al: Come on, come on. You’ve got to wait. It feels like it’s going to be like another six months.
(0:24:42) Al: You can wait six months for 1.0, right? Right? Surely, surely. Close the tab and you’ll forget about it. Oh, you need to. There’s loads of… Because especially as the 1.0,
(0:24:58) Bev: Yeah, exactly.
(0:24:58) Al: it clears out your save, but it gives you… You get the amount of money that you had.
(0:25:04) Al: So the first part of that game.
(0:25:07) Al: 1.0 is great because you have like a couple hundred thousand.
(0:25:11) Al: Whatever you had at the last one,
(0:25:13) Al: you can breeze through the first, the starting of that game.
(0:25:15) Al: It’s great fun.
(0:25:18) Bev: I don’t know what my money transferred over.
(0:25:22) Al: Oh, no.
(0:25:24) Al: Have you created a new save?
(0:25:24) Bev: I’m gonna have to look at it again.
(0:25:28) Bev: It’s fine, whatever.
(0:25:29) Bev: Maybe, I might have, I don’t know.
(0:25:29) Al: Have you done the thing where you created it on a different computer or something?
(0:25:34) Bev: I don’t know, ‘cause it’s, we’ll see, we’ll see.
(0:25:34) Al: Oh, babe.
(0:25:37) Al: Oh, no.
(0:25:38) Bev: If not, it’s fine, it’s fine.
(0:25:40) Bev: Everything’s fine, I enjoy it.
(0:25:42) Bev: I will make up my monies again, it won’t be hard.
(0:25:46) Al: Disney Dreamlight Valley have a new update coming.
(0:25:49) Al: This is the one that includes the name change update.
(0:25:53) Al: So if you’re like me and you don’t have a name in the game,
(0:25:57) Al: you better get it on the 28th of February. So that is the day this episode comes out.
(0:26:05) Bev: Beautiful.
(0:26:06) Al: This also is called the laugh floor update. So I bet you can you can guess what it’s about. Yes, that’s right. It’s monstrous.
(0:26:11) Bev: Mm hmm.
(0:26:13) Bev: Guess.
(0:26:16) Al: I think.
(0:26:24) Bev: What?
(0:26:25) Bev: That you can wear?
(0:26:30) Bev: I would, I can’t tell if I am excited or not cuz it’s like it’s gonna be clunky, but also it’s fun.
(0:26:37) Al: Yeah, it makes the armour noise as you walk, like it’s all in there.
(0:26:44) Bev: Oh no, okay, no, I’m not excited for that.
(0:26:50) Al: Lens Island have two updates upcoming.
(0:26:55) Al: The community update is coming out next month in March.
(0:26:59) Al: That combines the most requested ideas and feedback from the Lens Island community into one game-changing update.
(0:27:07) Al: is camera control. Camera control is some more languages, that’s about it. I mean,
(0:27:16) Al: they’re good updates, but yeah, it’s not a humongous update. I suspect that, well, OK,
(0:27:17) Bev: Oh.
(0:27:24) Al: when I say humongous, obviously adding in a moveable camera into your game is a pretty big behind-the-scenes update, but from what people see, it is like a single bullet-pot.
(0:27:38) Al: Right, that’s the problem with these.
(0:27:38) Bev: There’s this new starter guide that’s maybe a quality of life improvement.
(0:27:44) Bev: I forget how hard it was to start the game.
(0:27:47) Bev: I feel like I didn’t need it, but maybe it is a little bit.
(0:27:51) Al: Yeah, I mean, it’s good giving more people opportunities to understand things better.
(0:27:59) Al: But they’ve also got the Arctic update coming in April, and this includes new biomes.
(0:28:04) Al: They say the new map expansion doubles the size of the map.
(0:28:11) Al: So that’s pretty big.
(0:28:14) Bev: This was also another one, unsurprisingly, that I picked up and played forever, and then dropped.
(0:28:18) Al: Are there any games you haven’t played, Bev?
(0:28:20) Bev: So maybe after April I will pick it up again.
(0:28:26) Bev: No? I mean, yes, but…
(0:28:32) Bev: Hey, I was trying to do my due diligence when I do the year in gaming to at least have tried most of them,
(0:28:38) Al: That’s fair.
(0:28:40) Bev: although it’s getting a lot harder to do that now that there’s so many games.
(0:28:44) Bev: I love it, I hate it at the same time, but here we are.
(0:28:50) Al: here we are. Yep, so there’s some more detailed notes in the show notes, but there’s not full notes yet. We’ll get more as we come. There’s a little video giving some visual information to that as well. The camera control looks pretty nice. It looks pretty smooth and yeah, cool.
(0:29:14) Al: Finally, we’ve before, well, not finally, we’ve got two new games that we’ve got to talk about,
(0:29:18) Al: but finally of the existing game.
(0:29:20) Al: We have a little bit of transparency from Spells and Secrets, which is interesting,
(0:29:26) Al: because they’ve said that the game has not been a set financial success.
(0:29:30) Bev: Oh.
(0:29:31) Al: And I think, obviously, it’s sad that they haven’t made their money on this game,
(0:29:36) Bev: Yeah.
(0:29:36) Bev: Oh.
(0:29:37) Al: but I like how open they’re being about it.
(0:29:42) Al: And I think more games should be more open about these things,
(0:29:46) Al: Because I think it’s important for people to realize how difficult.
(0:29:50) Al: It is to actually make a profitable game and getting information about this more often would probably help with that.
(0:29:52) Bev: Right.
(0:29:58) Al: And yeah, I think that’s good.
(0:30:00) Al: So it’s sad I kick-started it.
(0:30:04) Al: So I was not part of the problem.
(0:30:04) Bev: okay because I can’t see the post it is for backers only which is an interesting choice but I suppose it would it is more relevant to those who have already financially supportive of it but I could make an argument for why it could also be beneficial for non-financial backers to read about it so that they could start finance support again
(0:30:07) Al: Oh, is it locked?
(0:30:09) Al: Is it locked down?
(0:30:11) Al: Okay.
(0:30:13) Al: Okay.
(0:30:26) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Well, they have I’ve not signed an NDA or anything. So I’m sharing this information.
(0:30:34) Bev: But interesting to like hear about like what specifically I talked about like was it just like the Kickstarter wasn’t because it it met its goal so I’m assuming it met its initial
(0:30:48) Al: Yeah, the Kickstarter went pretty well, but yeah, it’s sales since launch that they’ve been disappointed with, and yeah, so a little bit sad, but…
(0:30:58) Bev: - Okay.
(0:31:04) Bev: So have they like said anything about moving forward or are they saying they–
(0:31:08) Al: So they aren’t…
(0:31:09) Al: Yeah, okay, that’s a good point, yes.
(0:31:11) Al: So the way that I’m describing this could make it sound like they’ve now abandoned in the game.
(0:31:18) Al: So let me find the wording.
(0:31:20) Al: Okay, right, no, I had misread this before.
(0:31:23) Al: No, the game’s done, basically, because of that.
(0:31:26) Bev: Oh, okay.
(0:31:27) Al: So they’ve said, “As a consequence of the poor sales, the development team have decided to close doors.
(0:31:32) Al: The game will still receive some bug fixes, but feature development on the title won’t continue.”
(0:31:38) Bev: So, like, I’m assuming they hit their 1.0 and they’ve already launched it and we can purchase it on Steam, uh, or wishlist it.
(0:31:47) Al: can purchase it on Steam and Switch, and presumably you still can, but yeah it won’t get any more updates other than possibly some bug fixes but I wouldn’t rely on that.
(0:31:50) Bev: Okay, but they just, they just won’t be it.
(0:31:55) Bev: Okay.
(0:31:59) Bev: Okay, well, I don’t think that’s a terrible thing to announce, like it’s, like, as fantastic as Stardew is with its free updates,
(0:32:08) Bev: it’s not necessary for these indie, like, dev, like, game devs to be doing constant free updates because they’re, as you said, there’s a lot that goes into game development and adding additional content and having this expectation that, like, every single game needs to have, like, a certain quota of hours of content.
(0:32:28) Al: Yeah, that’s fair. However, I would say, I believe the… I haven’t played the Switch version. I haven’t played either of them, actually. I have both. I have it on Steam and on Switch. I haven’t played either of them yet. But I believe the Switch version is not great. So that’s obviously not fantastic. Like, it’s got performance.
(0:32:52) Bev: Well, that might be addressed via the bug fixes, so they might not just be completely advancing it.
(0:32:58) Bev: It just sounds like they’re not doing new content.
(0:33:00) Al: - Well, okay.
(0:33:01) Bev: It’s also on PS5 as well.
(0:33:02) Al: Yeah, so they’ve said,
(0:33:03) Bev: Oh.
(0:33:04) Al: I think they’re basically said they’re abandoning the switch version.
(0:33:06) Al: They said, “In our last update, we mentioned we were looking for ways to improve the Nintendo Switch version.
(0:33:11) Al: Unfortunately, after the new porting team evaluated the code, it became clear that a complete report would be necessary.”
(0:33:16) Bev: Oh no, okay.
(0:33:18) Al: They say which Nintendo does not support.
(0:33:20) Al: That’s a bit of awkward wording.
(0:33:22) Al: That’s not quite true.
(0:33:23) Al: What they’re saying is there are certain things that they would be required to do to allow that.
(0:33:29) Al: For example,
(0:33:30) Al: you’re not allowed to have backwards incompatibility with your save files and they don’t want to have to deal with that, basically. So the work that they would have to put in to make the Switch version good enough is not worth it for them.
(0:33:37) Bev: I have.
(0:33:51) Bev: Mm-hmm. Okay. I’m wondering if they would be willing to kind of switch the keys then to give you the steam access if that’s kind of
(0:33:58) Al: So I believe everybody who backed on Kickstarter got a Steamkey.
(0:34:04) Bev: Okay.
(0:34:06) Al: Obviously people who just bought it wouldn’t have, but yeah, I don’t know what they’re doing with that because obviously all the comments on Kickstarter are from Kickstarter people so they all have a Steamkey.
(0:34:06) Bev: Mm-hmm.
(0:34:15) Bev: Mm-hmm
(0:34:18) Bev: Okay, well so that I wonder if they’re gonna do something like more publicly then just kickstarter
(0:34:25) Bev: But it looks like a really cute game. That’s a shame. I
(0:34:29) Bev: Almost want to pick it up now
(0:34:33) Bev: Another game to pick up now that I know that they’re struggling but
(0:34:36) Al: Yeah, I mean, I don’t, I believe the Steam version is, is good. Like, I don’t, I don’t believe the Steam version is bad. I believe the Switch version is bad.
(0:34:40) Bev: Okay
(0:34:43) Bev: It’s also a rogue light which is interesting
(0:34:48) Al: Maybe we need to play this game and cover it, Bev.
(0:34:52) Bev: Okay, now I have a reason to buy another game. Um, that’s that’s fine
(0:34:57) Bev: This is how I justify buying new games. Yes, I would love that. Let’s do it
(0:35:03) Al: Okay, cool. Well, this is not a promise, listeners. I’m not saying we will definitely cover this game and it will definitely happen soon, but watch this space. So we also have two new games,
(0:35:13) Bev: Ooh, indeed.
(0:35:17) Al: one of which is a Kickstarter, of course. I am undecided on this one. Let’s talk about it.
(0:35:23) Al: It’s called Galactic Getaway. Oh, so much to say. So first of all, they call it a cozy online space
(0:35:26) Bev: Mmm
(0:35:34) Al: and the subtitle on Kickstarter is “Hang out with friends in space,
(0:35:37) Al: collect pets, and play minigames from the creators of Nookazon?”
(0:35:43) Al: Nookazon was the… was that the Animal Crossing online marketplace?
(0:35:44) Bev: Nookazan.
(0:35:47) Bev: Yes, Amazon, but Nook, but for Animal Crossing, yes.
(0:35:51) Al: Yeah, weird. It’s weird to go from, like, let’s make a website about Animal Crossing,
(0:35:51) Bev: That’s fantastic, okay.
(0:35:57) Al: where you can, you know, trade items to making a game. Well, I…
(0:36:02) Bev: Well like Maybe they picked up like obviously they had to like pick up some skills if they didn’t already have skills for managing a website
(0:36:03) Al: I’ll love it.
(0:36:12) Al: Yeah, it’s not the same thing as a web developer. It is not the same thing. I don’t think I could just make a game
(0:36:13) Bev: It’s not
(0:36:19) Bev: Even an online game
(0:36:22) Al: Well, it’s an online game, but it’s like on switch and stuff like that just makes it harder
(0:36:24) Bev: It’s an MMO
(0:36:28) Bev: Wait, are they are they advertising that’s gonna be on switches at it like a goal?
(0:36:31) Al: They are they are coming to PC Mac and
(0:36:32) Bev: Oh, okay. Well, there’s nothing stopping them from hiring people who will do the switch component of it. So it might be that I am I am. This is just my line of thinking of like, Oh, I did this. Now let’s do the next hardest thing.
(0:36:42) Al: OK, no, I think you’re missing the point. I think you’re missing the point. OK. Yeah,
(0:36:53) Al: it’s just an entirely different thing. OK, let’s talk about this game, because I don’t know why this is set in space. Nothing seems to be actually space about it, right? The only thing that seems to be space is that, like, there are more stars in the sky and You just happen to be on not earth, but everything about it screams.
(0:37:12) Al: This is just earth, right?
(0:37:15) Al: You’ve got, you’ve got farming.
(0:37:16) Bev: It does
(0:37:17) Al: You’ve got animals that are all just like standard human earth animals.
(0:37:20) Bev: There’s a robot that looks like
(0:37:24) Al: Oh, there’s a robot.
(0:37:25) Al: We must be in space.
(0:37:26) Bev: Well, maybe these animal NPCs are aliens from different planets
(0:37:32) Bev: and I could see how some of the
(0:37:38) Bev: mid like the equipment [laughing]
(0:37:40) Al: Okay, there’s a couple of there’s a couple of animals that aren’t aren’t like standard animals there’s like some starfish looking thing and there’s a a cat with multiple tails but like most of them it’s like here’s a raccoon here’s a monkey with a banana on its head oh look it’s a chicken but it has a helmet on right like the animals are probably the most interesting thing about it but everything else is just like it’s just a farming life sim.
(0:38:08) Bev: I suspect they’re using the galaxy component to have an in-game description for like world building essentially for how you’re able to island hop and animal crossing essentially.
(0:38:24) Al: Oh, right. You’re going to different… you go to each other’s planets. Is that what it is?
(0:38:26) Bev: So it’s you’re not island hopping, you’re planet hopping, yeah.
(0:38:30) Al: Right, the most exciting thing that I see about this is the tank game. Have you seen
(0:38:34) Bev: Ugh.
(0:38:39) Bev: » I did, which looks like I’m thinking of like a Mario mini game.
(0:38:47) Bev: » Yeah, yeah, that’s exactly what it looks like.
(0:38:48) Al: Yeah. Yeah. That’s exactly what it looks like. I mean, this whole thing looks a little bit like a kind of Nintendo minigame, minigame filled game, which is not a bad thing. I’m not saying that. You know, it’s like there’s just one particular point where all the characters are running across a game that just a screen that looks exactly like a Wii Sports type
(0:38:49) Bev: » Okay.
(0:38:53) Bev: » Nintendo. » Oh, yeah, Nintendo-esque.
(0:38:55) Bev: » Mini games, no games.
(0:39:13) Bev: Is that why they’re calling it an MMO because of all these mini games that’s really realistically going to be the component other than maybe eight villagers on your island?
(0:39:23) Bev: I don’t think they answered how that is going to work.
(0:39:28) Bev: Multiplayer is hanging out so I think similar to Animal Crossing, it’s probably capped but I’m not entirely sure.
(0:39:36) Bev: Decorating and mini games.
(0:39:37) Bev: So you can decorate with people over, that’s different from Animal Crossing.
(0:39:40) Al: - Yeah, I feel like maybe they don’t know what MMO means.
(0:39:50) Bev: Or like the industry has taken MMO and made it into a different thing because it’s what does it stand for? Multiple
(0:39:57) Bev: Multiple
(0:40:02) Bev: Massively multiplayer online and yeah, I don’t
(0:40:06) Al: There’s nothing massively about this.
(0:40:08) Bev: As far as where where I don’t know if there is a cap Like there is an animal crossing that could be the distinction that you could have a thousand people on your planet at one time
(0:40:18) Bev: Um, are you all?
(0:40:20) Bev: All on the same planet, kind of, like, with polio, but that I don’t understand why it’s in space, um, there’s, we have a lot of questions.
(0:40:28) Al: Yeah, I think this is the point, is we have a lot of questions that aren’t answered by the Kickstarter.
(0:40:34) Bev: Right.
(0:40:36) Al: They haven’t hit their goal yet, but I reckon they’ll hit it.
(0:40:40) Al: They are £7,000 away. What is that in dollars? They’re $9,000 away.
(0:40:46) Bev: 9,000. 8,500 give or so.
(0:40:51) Al: Yeah.
(0:40:51) Bev: So, well, they only have five days, so it could be hit or miss.
(0:40:57) Al: They only have five days, but you make like half of your money in the first five days,
(0:41:03) Al: and the other half in the last five days. You don’t make much in the middle.
(0:41:09) Bev: Good point.
(0:41:09) Al: Like people wait until the last minute to decide whether they’re doing it or not.
(0:41:12) Bev: True, ‘cause like, can I wait until the next month when my new budget starts?
(0:41:17) Al: Yeah, so Kick Track says they’re trending towards 98% of their goal.
(0:41:24) Bev: Okay that’s terrifying uh huh uh-huh now I’m reminding myself so it does look cute and if it is Animal Crossing ask I will I’m sure enjoy it
(0:41:25) Al: So that is uh…
(0:41:27) Al: that’s a oh no and like if it gets to that point I’m going to back it just to make it a success right like I can’t see this fail on my watch.
(0:41:44) Al: Click the button on Kickstarter because it has the little button that will warn you when there’s two days to go and then it’ll warn you when there’s eight hours to go. They’re very good at making sure it’s perfect for it must there must be an ADHD person on the team right because
(0:41:48) Bev: yep yep
(0:41:57) Al: perfect for like oh by the way remember about this game and then the next day hey this game it is like this is your literal last chance click the button
(0:42:07) Bev: Yep, and indeed, cuz they spend several times sort of like, I’m gonna pack it.
(0:42:11) Bev: And then I forget, so yeah, for sure.
(0:42:16) Al: so I guess we’ll see yeah I just it feels like it’s just it’s in space because they wanted to be in space and not because they’ve actually got some interesting ideas as to what being in space
(0:42:27) Al: but
(0:42:29) Bev: I mean, I look at dayland and that was technically in space and like there is some travel.
(0:42:34) Al: what no no no no no no no no no no because right dalind worked like I don’t think it could have not been in space because the whole point was you were on your entire you were it was a really small planet exactly so it couldn’t be earth we know it couldn’t be earth so it had to be some random other planet. Like, it didn’t make any sense.
(0:42:46) Bev: It’s a really small planet.
(0:42:54) Bev: But like, it could just be a really small Earth.
(0:42:57) Bev: Like, what is the point of it being in space if you can’t do a star field level exploration?
(0:43:00) Al: Well, to be– Well, everything’s in space.
(0:43:07) Bev: Like, what is the point of spacey games?
(0:43:09) Bev: Like, is it to travel to other places?
(0:43:12) Bev: ‘Cause if that’s the point of it,
(0:43:16) Bev: they will probably hit it with traveling to other quote-unquote islands.
(0:43:20) Bev: If it’s to do space exploration, then no, probably not.
(0:43:25) Al: I guess my point is, right, like, Dehland was like, “This is you taking care of a tiny planet.”
(0:43:31) Al: Like, that’s what they said.
(0:43:32) Al: It wasn’t like this is a space exploration game, right?
(0:43:35) Al: This is a game where you’re running a tiny planet.
(0:43:41) Al: And this is like, “Oh, hey, this is a farming simulator in space.”
(0:43:46) Al: And it’s like, “But what does that even mean?”
(0:43:48) Al: Like there has to be a point to say it’s in space, right?
(0:43:53) Al: like everything’s in space, as we’ve pointed out.
(0:43:55) Bev: I feel like we’re getting into the realm of, like, philosophical questions, like, what is the point of a cottagecore game, Elle?
(0:43:55) Al: Right.
(0:44:01) Bev: Like, what is– what is it that makes it cottagecore?
(0:44:04) Bev: Like, why does it have to be in space? Why is it on– it has to be– [laughs]
(0:44:11) Bev: Like, I– it’s a setting, and I think that is valid by itself,
(0:44:17) Bev: even though it would be more interesting if they had other components that built it into the world more, rather than–
(0:44:25) Bev: other than it just existing in space. [laughs]
(0:44:29) Al: Okay, fine. I’ll give you that one. So in the comments, they say your planet will have its own code for you to share or not share with friends. Your planet is your own personal space to enjoy so that we know random users running around. So it’s it’s not an MMO.
(0:44:46) Bev: It’s in space so that Nintendo doesn’t see them for using an island.
(0:44:49) Al: Oh, so the game. I need I need more answers to this question because I’m not sure. So
(0:44:59) Al: the game is always online regardless if you play with other players. Does that mean you cannot play it if you can’t
(0:45:08) Bev: Probably.
(0:45:09) Bev: Poly can’t play if you’re not connected to the internet,
(0:45:12) Bev: if I recall correctly.
(0:45:15) Bev: And that is also an MMO.
(0:45:16) Bev: So maybe that is now what is the definition of an MMO.
(0:45:19) Al: Yeah, I don’t I don’t like that. Because if you’re not if like, if I like, I get if it’s a game like the whole point is you’re being online and and you’re playing with other people and you’re playing in like a combined world, right? That’s fine. I get why that has to be always online. But if I have my own space, and I can do stuff in that space without ever actually playing with anybody else. Don’t make me be online for that.
(0:45:20) Bev: It has to be online.
(0:45:23) Bev: Yeah.
(0:45:26) Bev: If you’re just playing by yourself.
(0:45:47) Bev: - Then don’t play this game.
(0:45:48) Bev: Go play Animal Craft.
(0:45:49) Al: Well, I need to find out whether that’s the case or not, right? Because yeah, you’re right.
(0:45:55) Al: If that’s what this is, I’m probably not going to back it. The FAQ doesn’t say anything about that. I’ve checked. I’m going to I’m going to tweet them. I will do that not while we’re,
(0:45:58) Bev: - Uh-huh.
(0:46:00) Bev: I wonder what the FAQs are.
(0:46:04) Bev: Well, you just got to submit a new question.
(0:46:10) Bev: Do it.
(0:46:13) Al: you know, podcasting though. The other new game
(0:46:13) Bev: » [LAUGH]
(0:46:19) Al: is plan tabby plan to be plant. How would you plan to be? plan to be little garden plan to be is a chill sandbox game where you take care of adorable plants and design the cozy little garden of your dreams. I feel like it is what it says on the tin, right? You’ve got a little a little ins indoor garden, like a kind of it looks like there’s various different rooms that you can use and you choose
(0:46:24) Bev: “Plant to me” sounds right.
(0:46:46) Bev: Yeah.
(0:46:49) Al: you put a plant down and presumably you have to like water it and feed it and take care of it and put it in the right place and it needs to have the right amount of sun. I mean it’s basically like
(0:47:00) Bev: Okay, I
(0:47:04) Bev: Love the concept of these games, but I’m just decision fatigued
(0:47:10) Bev: So I would love to play this if everything had a place if I if there was a setting where I could just like I don’t Want to design anything. I just want to make things look pretty. Please make it pretty for me, but let me like
(0:47:20) Bev: work at it
(0:47:23) Bev: Like you do all the decision-heavy work I just get as I put in all the the labor to me to get what it needs
(0:47:31) Bev: I don’t even know words. Um, but you know what I’m saying. I don’t
(0:47:34) Al: I know what you’re saying, I know what you’re saying.
(0:47:39) Bev: Like I I’m finding myself just moving away from these games that require like designing and decisions like
(0:47:45) Bev: Disney dream valley. I don’t want to figure out where all the houses go because there’s too many houses
(0:47:51) Al: Yeah.
(0:47:51) Bev: Why isn’t there a setting where I could just be like this is where mickey mouse belongs. Please just put him in there put him there
(0:47:56) Al: Yeah, I agree. Bad example, because I’m pretty sure that he comes, his house is there when you start the game.
(0:48:02) Al: You don’t have to choose where his house goes, but fair point.
(0:48:04) Bev: Yes. Yes.
(0:48:07) Al: Like he’s literally one of the four characters you start with, Bev.
(0:48:10) Bev: That’s why I don’t remember!
(0:48:14) Bev: But everyone knows who Mickey Mouse is, so…
(0:48:16) Al: Yes, yes. It’s a fair point, I agree.
(0:48:16) Bev: The point stamps.
(0:48:21) Al: Anyway. So those are the two new games. Links to them, of course, will be in the show notes,
(0:48:28) Al: along with everything else that we’ve talked about.
(0:48:31) Al: So whenever we’re going to talk about Akka…
(0:48:34) Bev: Mm-hmm.
(0:48:35) Al: So let’s see if I can describe this, see what you think of my description of this game.
(0:48:41) Al: You are a red panda who fought in the war. The war.
(0:48:48) Bev: a war just or the war mm-hmm
(0:48:51) Al: They call it “The War”. They keep calling it “The War”.
(0:48:55) Al: But I hope you don’t want to know about the war, because you’re not going to find out about the war.
(0:49:01) Al: And you have a katana? That was your fighting implement? Your weapon? That’s the word “weapon”.
(0:49:06) Bev: Yes.
(0:49:08) Al: Fighting implement, oh my word. We’ve got a title there, fighting implement.
(0:49:16) Al: And you have come to an island to help clean up a society.
(0:49:21) Al: A society that has been ravaged by the war.
(0:49:26) Al: And you do that by quests and, you know, cleaning up traps and farming and doing quests for people.
(0:49:37) Bev: Yes, I think so.
(0:49:38) Al: Is that a fair description of this game?
(0:49:43) Al: OK, cool.
(0:49:44) Al: Well, let’s - shall we start off with the things that I think we will be on the same page with being very positive about?
(0:49:50) Bev: It’s so pretty, it’s, I, there’s nothing to improve I think in that front.
(0:49:51) Al: The game looks gorgeous.
(0:50:01) Bev: It’s just a gorgeous, very, feels very, very, very cozy from the get-go.
(0:50:06) Bev: Right, exactly, yes, like being a little red panda and having to be able to run
(0:50:07) Al: I mean, this is why we played this game, right?
(0:50:09) Al: Like we we saw the video and went, I must play this game.
(0:50:20) Bev: and dress a little red panda and little hats and they aren’t, yes, this is why.
(0:50:27) Al: And like the physics is great as well like you run around in the tail just kind of bobs behind you
(0:50:32) Al: your ears moving in the wind
(0:50:36) Bev: Ah, it’s so cute.
(0:50:37) Al: like everything about the visual style and about just how it looks is fantastic I yeah I agree nothing to improve here I think it is that that is its absolute best thing it’s fantastic
(0:50:48) Bev: Mm-hmm and even the the art that they do like that clearly is a
(0:50:54) Bev: What’s the word?
(0:50:56) Bev: Like when they yeah, the Sanic stuff to show it like background is is fantastic
(0:50:56) Al: like, static images between things, loading images and stuff like that, and yeah.
(0:51:04) Al: I agree.
(0:51:04) Bev: So You
(0:51:06) Al: Music, I would say, generally is pretty good as well.
(0:51:09) Bev: Mm-hmm You
(0:51:09) Al: I really like it’s kind of pretty calming, but it doesn’t feel like the way I would
(0:51:14) Al: describe doctor’s surgery, where it feels like they’re trying to calm you down.
(0:51:19) Al: It’s just nice music that just happens to be calming.
(0:51:22) Bev: » Nice background music.
(0:51:27) Bev: Since I’m comparing Animal Crossing on the mind, it’s, I think, similar or not,
(0:51:31) Bev: but it’s just, it’s nice to have in the background.
(0:51:34) Bev: You could easily just put on a TV docket, like, walk away and
(0:51:40) Al: Right, let’s talk about the farming first, next, not first, next, because obviously,
(0:51:48) Bev: I think that’s fine because it’s not the focus of the game.
(0:51:54) Al: you know, traditionally it has been a farming podcast. The farming is fine, it’s pretty basic and it’s not needed for much, but I think that’s fine because it’s not the focus
(0:52:10) Al: right? Like, if this farming was in Stardew or Coral Island, I would say it was bad. But being in this game is good enough.
(0:52:10) Bev: If this farming was in statues, I would say it was that.
(0:52:18) Bev: I don’t like that it has that component of placement of different crops.
(0:52:27) Bev: If I recall correctly, cuz I haven’t actually farmed in it in a while,
(0:52:31) Bev: cuz like I said, it’s not really needed.
(0:52:34) Bev: You get certain buffs for putting them certain crops next to each other.
(0:52:39) Bev: And I don’t think the game tells you that, so you have to look it up.
(0:52:42) Bev: But it’s like pests will come or I wilt a little less faster or something.
(0:52:48) Bev: I don’t want to think about where I’m putting my crafts because it’s already hard enough to figure out where I want my plot to be.
(0:52:55) Bev: I don’t want to think about where I’m putting my crafts because it’s already hard enough to figure out where I want my plot to be.
(0:53:01) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah fair. That’s a fair complaint.
(0:53:02) Bev: I don’t want to think about where I’m putting my art. I don’t want to think about where I’m putting my art. I don’t want to think about where I’m putting my art.
(0:53:06) Al: Yeah, but generally it’s fine. It’s not a massive thing. It’s just it is what it is.
(0:53:09) Bev: I don’t want to think about where I’m putting my art. I don’t want to think about where I’m putting my art. I don’t want to think about where I’m putting my art.
(0:53:15) Al: I have a number of complaints about this game that I want to get through and I’m just trying to decide the best way to do this. So I guess let’s talk a bit about just how the game works in general. So you’ve got your little guy, he’s running around and you’re doing quests.
(0:53:19) Bev: I don’t want to think about where I’m putting my art. I don’t want to think about where I’m putting my art.
(0:53:31) Al: None of the quests are to do with picking up the traps that are around the place. That’s kind of a big thing. I feel like when you start up you get a reasonable amount of backstory of what’s happening, enough to get you there. They don’t tell you about the war, but I think that’s fine. You don’t need to know about the war, you just need to know that it happened.
(0:53:52) Bev: » Right.
(0:53:54) Bev: » I don’t need to know about it.
(0:53:55) Al: That’s fine. You get the background of why you’re here and what you’re doing and it is better than most farming games.
(0:54:01) Al: And then you go to sleep, and you wake up, and then you’re like, “OK, so now what do I do?”
(0:54:10) Bev: - Yes.
(0:54:25) Al: Like, there’s no “go to this place or talk to this person.”
(0:54:29) Al: It’s just like, uh, just do some stuff.
(0:54:31) Bev: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
(0:54:32) Al: And so you get quests as you do stuff, but you have to figure out what the stuff is.
(0:54:37) Al: So it’s like you walk out and there’s a trap on the ground and you get an indication that you can pick it up and you pick it up and then it’s like, “Oh, there are traps.
(0:54:45) Al: Maybe go get some more traps.”
(0:54:46) Al: And that’s, you got your quest.
(0:54:46) Bev: - Right.
(0:54:47) Bev: - Mm-hmm.
(0:54:48) Al: And it’s like, I think, I, I think there are positives and negatives to this approach.
(0:54:56) Al: And I can’t decide how I feel about it overall, because it’s always a little jarring.
(0:55:01) Al: When this happens, where you’re just like, “Oh, there’s no initial direction.”
(0:55:05) Al: I’m like, “Well, what do I do?
(0:55:06) Bev: I know and I think that’s the point of this game that there isn’t any specific purpose is just to find inner peace as the game quotes to just enjoy the atmosphere and explore but not to the extent it’s like work to explore but enough that you’re you get rewarded for kind of passive exploration urge.
(0:55:07) Al: What is my purpose?”
(0:55:36) Bev: I appreciate but I think I’m also in the same boat as you of like I need direction.
(0:55:44) Al: and then the Yeah.
(0:55:46) Bev: I make enough decisions in my work life that I don’t want to make decisions. I want to be handheld at this point in my current state. So I want clear quest lines. I want a clearer
(0:56:03) Bev: direction of where I should be at.
(0:56:06) Bev: I don’t know what I’m doing, and I don’t know what I’m doing, but I don’t know what I’m doing, and I don’t know what I’m doing.
(0:56:08) Al: it doesn’t even need to be everything, right? You don’t need to have, like, every single quest exists from the start, you know? Like, but even just something simple like, “Oh, hey,
(0:56:18) Al: go talk to this person.” When you wake up, it says, “Go talk to this person.” And on your way,
(0:56:22) Bev: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
(0:56:23) Al: you will probably gain more quests because you’ll see something that has an indicator that you can pick it up. So you’ll pick up and you’ll get another quest and then you’ll see someone that wants to talk to you and you’ll get that quest. But even just like, because there is, you’re right,
(0:56:26) Bev: - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
(0:56:33) Al: there is no kind of like - and actually I don’t think it’s true that there is no overall…
(0:56:39) Al: goal? There is a goal, right? And I think that you’re not being rushed, but I want to rush,
(0:56:40) Bev: there is a goal, but you’re not being rushed to get there.
(0:56:47) Bev: Exactly, I want to rush.
(0:56:48) Al: right? Like even that main line of getting through that story, I think it would be nice to at least have “here’s the next thing to do in that if you want to do that”.
(0:57:01) Bev: So if I could make an improvement, at least for myself, I think I would kind of use the the spirit fair aspect of the quest system.
(0:57:10) Bev: There is a quest system in the game, but it’s not very descriptive.
(0:57:11) Al: Yeah.
(0:57:15) Bev: You can’t click on it and learn a little bit more about–
(0:57:17) Bev: um, not that I could figure out how to do.
(0:57:23) Bev: Um…
(0:57:23) Al: Well, yeah, but that’s a whole thing in and of itself, right? The controls in this game are very mixed, I think. What did you play it on? You played it on Switch. I played it on Steam Deck, so I’ll be interested to know, but when you’re in menus, you use the analog stick to go up and down, and the D-pad has actions on it, and I cannot get that through my head and I am constantly
(0:57:26) Bev: Right.
(0:57:33) Bev: Uh, switch.
(0:57:35) Bev: Mm-hmm.
(0:57:50) Bev: I think it’s the effort of decreasing the number of menu things you have to do by including more action buttons, I guess, and it also is just not very intuitive, I think.
(0:57:53) Al: dropping things because I go to press down on the D-pad, and it wants to use the D-pad as an action, not as a movement, and that drives me up the wall.
(0:58:18) Al: it’s simple things like if I interact with a machine that only takes a couple of things,
(0:58:20) Bev: Maybe it’s a nod to the fact that you’re around Pinda and you have your tiny little pass. Thank you all, thank you so much.
(0:58:26) Al: why do I have the option to drop other things in my inventory? If I’ve clicked on this machine,
(0:58:32) Al: I clearly want to put something in it. I don’t want to drop something else on the floor.
(0:58:37) Al: Why would you make that such a default thing to do?
(0:58:50) Al: Well, that’s a whole other discussion, right? The inventory is absolutely tiny, and as far as I can see, there’s no way to upgrade it. So it’s like eight slots, but that’s it.
(0:58:50) Bev: I don’t know.
(0:58:52) Bev: That’s a whole lot of work.
(0:58:56) Bev: As far as I can see, there’s no way to upgrade it.
(0:59:06) Bev: Why?
(0:59:07) Bev: Like, this is you finding inner peace.
(0:59:10) Bev: Why can’t you have infinite pockets or infinite storage if this is a game of that inner peace ‘cause inventory management is that piece.
(0:59:15) Al: Yeah.
(0:59:20) Al: No, and you and there’s so many different items in this game, like I
(0:59:27) Al: Don’t know why you would restrict storage so much like I’m not I’m not playing a souls game. I’m not playing death stranding I just want to be a red panda and do things to make people’s lives better and I can’t do that if I’m constantly having
(0:59:30) Bev: I know.
(0:59:32) Bev: I know.
(0:59:32) Bev: I’m not playing a soul game.
(0:59:34) Bev: I’m not playing a grande-
(0:59:34) Bev: Mm-hmm.
(0:59:36) Bev: And I can’t do that if I’m not.
(0:59:39) Bev: Sag to onions.
(0:59:41) Al: my bag full of onions
(0:59:43) Bev: And they might just be like, we’re trying to, you’re a red panda, so this is realistic for how much space you would have, which is…
(0:59:54) Al: I don’t, but this is the thing, I don’t want my games to be realistic, right? Like that is not what I’m looking for. Yeah, red, a red panda who’s cutting up grass with a katana.
(0:59:57) Bev: I know.
(0:59:58) Bev: I know.
(0:59:59) Bev: No, no, this is your red.
(1:00:01) Bev: You talk to other characters.
(1:00:02) Bev: Yeah.
(1:00:04) Bev: But.
(1:00:11) Al: I do love how when you first use your katana in the game, you tell your katana, you’re like, oh, no, no more, no more killing for you. You’re like soothing the katana to say,
(1:00:23) Al: don’t worry I’m not gonna I’m not gonna
(1:00:25) Al: for that destructive purpose anymore, only for helping people.
(1:00:28) Bev: I do love that.
(1:00:29) Bev: I do love that so much.
(1:00:31) Bev: He has like a little scar next to his face.
(1:00:33) Bev: He’s just he’s seen a lot of stuff.
(1:00:34) Al: Hmm. Oh, yeah
(1:00:35) Bev: We don’t I don’t think I’ve gone far enough in the storyline to know if there is a lot of trauma that will come up from his past.
(1:00:46) Bev: But I suspect it would just be similar to like very high level like the war like he knew this person during the war.
(1:00:55) Bev: There was like one cutscene.
(1:00:56) Bev: I recall where someone was dying and I think that’s maybe
(1:01:00) Bev: I think it’s I don’t know.
(1:01:03) Al: Yeah, I think as far as I can see, I think most of it is not about his story, it’s about other people’s stories. And he’s essentially not only is the cleaner for the island, but he’s also the therapist for the island. And that’s right, before we get onto that point,
(1:01:11) Bev: Yeah, mm-hmm.
(1:01:26) Al: right, because we do need to have a little little chat about the story, we’re not going to spoil things, but we’re going to talk a little bit about it.
(1:01:33) Al: But my last main complaint about this game is loading happens all the time and it’s so long, like any time you go through any door, it loads and it takes a good 10 seconds.
(1:01:38) Bev: - Right.
(1:01:47) Bev: It’s a lot.
(1:01:49) Al: And it’s certainly not going to be shorter for you on the switch than it is for me, I don’t think.
(1:01:52) Bev: Right, yeah, no, I don’t think so. So that is definitely a
(1:01:58) Bev: Complaint of the loading screen. I think a couple times I was rude a gun like stuck. I don’t recall if there was
(1:02:06) Bev: If I if I did actually have like glitches, but but yeah
(1:02:10) Al: I haven’t, I know I haven’t had any glitches, I have not had any crashes, so that is good.
(1:02:16) Al: But yeah, the loading, it just kills my momentum because you’re like, oh yeah, I need to go over here and you do this. And then it’s like, ah, no, I need to wait and wait and wait and wait. And that’s a long time to wait, you know. It’s not as bad as my term of Porsche,
(1:02:18) Bev: Oh my goodness, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, or polyo, polyo has a really long, yeah I mean And thankfully, it doesn’t happen that often.
(1:02:32) Al: which had its like minute long loading. It’s not as bad as that, but it’s still not, it’s
(1:02:40) Al: late. Oh, it’s probably a bad as well.
(1:02:46) Bev: It’s just between moving–
(1:02:48) Bev: like areas, like from your personal farm into the wide world of MMO, I guess, or a different area.
(1:02:57) Bev: But yeah, it’s pretty lengthy.
(1:03:00) Al: I think my thing about loading is that you either have long loading or you have lots of loading,
(1:03:05) Al: lots of screens or long screens. Because I can deal with a 30-second loading screen if it only happens once every hour of gameplay. But the problem is it’s like a 10-second loading screen every 30 seconds of gameplay. It’s a good third of the time you spend playing this game is in loading screens. That’s the problem.
(1:03:15) Bev: Mm-hmm
(1:03:20) Bev: All the time
(1:03:28) Bev: Uh-huh, uh-huh [sighs]
(1:03:30) Al: And it’s a balance. I know it’s difficult. Games are difficult. Performance is difficult.
(1:03:39) Al: I get that. But it kills me. Right? Like it makes me not want to play the game as much.
(1:03:46) Bev: Yeah.
(1:03:47) Al: Okay. Do you have any other complaints about the game that you want to get out before we talk about the high level story discussion?
(1:03:56) Bev: Now I think we hit all of them.
(1:03:58) Bev: At least that I had that made it a little,
(1:04:02) Bev: not as enticing to pick it up again.
(1:04:06) Al: fair enough. And like these are, they’re not like really tiny picky issues that we’re going with here, but it’s not, they’re not massive deal breakers. They’re not like, I never want to play this because it’s like, I still want to play this game. I just, there are points where I struggle to because
(1:04:20) Bev: Right
(1:04:26) Bev: Yeah, like I could see me picking this up in future again
(1:04:31) Bev: especially since it seems like it’s a really small game that I can
(1:04:35) Bev: Realistically complete and scratch that completion is it should like I have finished the game
(1:04:42) Bev: But yeah, at least as of right now I need a little bit more structure [laughing]
(1:04:49) Al: Yeah. Yeah, the good thing is that half of what we talked about is like very limited issues that will not continue to be an issue as you continue, right? Because as you go,
(1:05:00) Al: you get more and more quests and you get more and more stuff that you know you need to do.
(1:05:05) Al: The inventory and the loading screens are the bits that will probably hang around forever and be annoying forever. But it’s a reasonably basic game, but I think that’s fine. Like if you’re looking like it’s not rare to have a cottage coke.
(1:05:19) Al: a game that’s reasonably basic in terms of what you can do and what there is to do,
(1:05:24) Al: that’s generally, you’re not looking for something hugely complicated. So I think that’s fine.
(1:05:27) Bev: right yeah because if you want it hugely complicated you can like pick up like Baldur’s Gate or you know Starfield or whatever
(1:05:36) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or if you want complicated cottage court, you can go for Stardew O’Coral Island, right? Like, there’s so much in those games.
(1:05:43) Bev: I mean, yes and no, but I feel like that’s a whole different conversation.
(1:05:47) Al: Well, you can make it as complicated as you want. I don’t think anybody could ever go to Stardew O’Coral Island and go, “Ah, there’s just not enough complexity.” It’s like, no,
(1:05:51) Bev: True.
(1:05:52) Bev: Yeah.
(1:05:53) Bev: You aren’t playing great.
(1:05:58) Al: if you think there’s not enough complexity in those games, you just are, you’re just nothing yeah you’re not playing right you don’t have enough imagination like you got it
(1:06:06) Al: get it like you got it if you don’t have a spreadsheet you’re not you’re you’ve not found the level of complexity about these games that is there right and i’m not saying everybody needs to play that way you definitely do not need to play that way you probably shouldn’t play that way
(1:06:13) Bev: Yes, you do not need a spreadsheet peraca.
(1:06:19) Al: but if you’re if you’re complaining about the lack of complexity and you don’t have a spreadsheet you need to rethink how you’re playing that game
(1:06:30) Al: no no no I mean I would like a list at least of things to do but spread
(1:06:36) Bev: A better list. Yes, yes.
(1:06:36) Al: it doesn’t need to be a 2d list 1d is enough I just want a list here’s the list of everything to do and check it off that’s all I want um so I think yeah if you’re looking for a complicated game this is not it if you’re looking for a kind of calm simple gameplay game that might break your heart yeah it feels like a cut it feels like a contradiction but yeah if you
(1:06:54) Bev: it might break your heart and it’s very cute and cozy then yes this is it like just be able to sit in a tub
(1:07:06) Al: want to be a red panda and cut some grass with a katana and farm and go sleep on a giant capybara
(1:07:12) Bev: mm-hmm yeah so I found my partner was playing this more often because that’s what they wanted like they just wanted to be somewhere cute that was cozy and i’m like I need my spreadsheet for core island
(1:07:24) Al: OK, so this is where we talk about the story. We’re not going to talk about it a huge amount because neither of us have finished the game. But is there stuff we want to talk about?
(1:07:33) Bev: ooh
(1:07:39) Bev: uh I think it’s more so about the characters because I feel like the various story but it’s um the the word they use is it’s a linear um so it’s very much you pick up little pieces here and there as you meet new characters or go into new places um so uh In that respect, I think it’s an overarching story.
(1:08:03) Bev: I kind of have to piece those puzzle pieces together, if you will.
(1:08:07) Bev: But I get a lot of enjoyment out of meeting new NPCs and essentially playing a therapist for them.
(1:08:15) Bev: Like, you find a cat, and the cat is cold, and you just build a little shelter for the cat.
(1:08:21) Bev: And everything’s cute and wonderful, and the cat’s not happy.
(1:08:27) Al: Yeah, there’s stuff as simple as that, and then there’s examples where you have to help spirits deal with loss. It’s a very whiplashy game in that respect, but that’s quite often what we’re looking for. We’re looking for games to tear our heart apart and then let you go and sleep on the capybara. It’s like TV shows where-
(1:08:34) Bev: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
(1:08:40) Bev: It is. Yeah.
(1:08:57) Al: Where it’s a comedy, but then every so often they shoot you in the head. You’re just like,
(1:09:02) Al: “I don’t know what I did to deserve that, but thank you, I guess. Why would you do this to me?” And then you actually finish laughing after that bit as well. You’re like, “I don’t know what is happening here, but this is apparently okay.”
(1:09:04) Bev: - Uh-huh, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
(1:09:16) Bev: - Yes, yes.
(1:09:18) Bev: I’m reminded of fan fiction now,
(1:09:20) Bev: and I feel like the stories that I look for,
(1:09:21) Bev: or the stories I write are angst,
(1:09:24) Bev: where everything is just depressing,
(1:09:26) Bev: and you’re dying, or everything’s horrible,
(1:09:29) Bev: and so you just feel great about it.
(1:09:31) Bev: I don’t even know.
(1:09:32) Bev: Oh, Angsty and then there’s Fluff.
(1:09:35) Bev: So this game has a lot of both, I feel like.
(1:09:38) Al: - Yeah, yeah.
(1:09:41) Bev: Like you find a huge dragon that is very cool and no matter where you move, the eyes are following you.
(1:09:48) Bev: But then there’s little babies you can feed and it does take a little effort, I think,
(1:09:52) Bev: to figure out how to feed them,
(1:09:53) Bev: but you get to feed dragons.
(1:09:57) Bev: Little baby dragons.
(1:09:59) Bev: There’s a couple of, I think, the spirit.
(1:10:01) Bev: That I haven’t like fully finished of like their questline of therapy of figuring out like what what it is they need I think I I did one
(1:10:10) Bev: Was it like underneath the bridge or in a well?
(1:10:13) Al: There was one underneath a bridge.
(1:10:15) Bev: Yeah, so I think I completed that one and there was another one on the beach, which I don’t think I did
(1:10:22) Bev: But there’s also like minigames when you’re searching around and meeting new characters and I did vastly enjoyed those.
(1:10:32) Bev: It’s a card game, which I’m all about, so it’s surprisingly a lot, I think, in here that’s kind of put together randomly, but also somehow, cohesively it works.
(1:10:46) Bev: I just want structure. That’s all I want though. I want all of this, but a better questline.
(1:10:50) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Anything else we want to talk about this game?
(1:11:04) Bev: Now, was there anything story-wise that you want to cover?
(1:11:07) Al: I don’t think so. I think we’ve covered what I wanted to talk about. Just kind of like the generic feeling of how these things work, and you know, just make people prepared for the fact that that they might die.
(1:11:09) Bev: Okay.
(1:11:11) Bev: Mm-hmm.
(1:11:13) Bev: Ah-ha.
(1:11:15) Bev: Mm-hmm.
(1:11:17) Bev: Not to the extent, I think, of Spiritfare, but not too far off, yeah, yeah.
(1:11:20) Al: Emotionally, emotionally die.
(1:11:26) Al: No, it’s not that bad, it’s not that bad, but I don’t feel like it forces anything,
(1:11:32) Al: but I still feel like you’re not gonna come out of it unscathed. Let’s put it up.
(1:11:36) Bev: Yeah, like there’s some heavy themes in here and that’s I think to be expected when the literal backstory is you were in a war and the first thing you learn is that you’re not using your katana to cut people anymore, so.
(1:11:46) Al: Yeah. Yes, yeah. Okay, cool. Well, I think we can wrap it up there. I feel like we’ve,
(1:11:58) Al: you know, given a good indication of how the game plays and, yeah, listeners,
(1:12:03) Al: if this sounds interesting to you, we’re only a year late, so go play the game.
(1:12:06) Bev: yes go play it it’s it’s not it’s only like $12 in American dollar so it’s it’s I think very very small and applicable for the game play the price point seems like mm-hmm
(1:12:24) Al: Yes. Yeah, a fair price point. Yeah.
(1:12:29) Al: Cool. Awesome.
(1:12:32) Al: Well, thank you, Bev, for joining me for this episode.
(1:12:39) Al: Where?
(1:12:39) Bev: Oh, it’s on sale right now, on Steam, until March 3rd, which is…
(1:12:45) Bev: It’ll still be on sale, I think, when this episode comes out.
(1:12:48) Bev: So, at least in America, on Steam, it’s only like 4.54, so if you’re interested, go buy it now.
(1:12:55) Al: Wow. There you go.
(1:12:59) Bev: At least on Steam. It’s on sale on Steam, I should say.
(1:13:03) Bev: Oh, where can I– I’m sorry, my ADHD is showing.
(1:13:04) Al: No, no, it’s fine. I’m just I’m double checking on to see whether it’s on sale on switch or not. It’s not sale on switch here.
(1:13:12) Bev: Okay. Is that like a spring sail that’s going on with steam right now? Okay.
(1:13:18) Al: It is on sale on Steam here,
(1:13:22) Al: 65% down.
(1:13:25) Al: It’s the cheapest it’s ever been on Steam.
(1:13:28) Bev: Think it’s also the cheapest has ever been on yeah on our end as well. So do it
(1:13:33) Al: Go get it
(1:13:34) Bev: Do it. It’s cute
(1:13:35) Al: Go get it
(1:13:38) Al: Yes, thank you Bev for joining me where can people find you on the internet
(1:13:42) Bev: Oh, you can find me pretty much anywhere at Beth Granger 7-1-1
(1:13:47) Bev: The I’m not even I don’t really use mastodon anymore I’m very bad at social media, but I’m trying to be better, but Beth Granger 7-1-1 everywhere
(1:13:57) Al: Cool.
(1:13:58) Al: Yeah, people can find me on mastodon.scot and on Twitter at thescotbot.
(1:14:05) Al: You can find the podcast on Tumblr and on Twitter at THSPod.
(1:14:11) Al: You can find the transcript and feedback and links to everything as a feedback form and links to everything that we have on our website harvestseason.club.
(1:14:24) Al: One of those links is a link to our Patreon.
(1:14:27) Al: patreon.com/thspod where you can support the podcast, get access to bonus episodes of the podcast,
(1:14:34) Al: which we should definitely do some at some point for February, and also get access to our slack to chat to everybody. It’s a good community of people who like to talk about the games and who like to
(1:14:36) Bev: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
(1:14:46) Bev: Mm-hmm. Yep. And come scream at us about how Core Island should have won the year in gaming or any other game. We have strong appeal- feelings at home.
(1:14:54) Al: Yeah, I think that’s everything then, thank you Bev again for joining me, thank you listeners for listening, and until next time, have a good harvest.
(1:15:08) Bev: Have a good harvest.
(1:15:08) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our pro farmers Kevin, Stuart and Alisa.
(1:15:22) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess.
(1:15:27) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed in this episode.