Fewer Game and Flower Games

Wed, May 31, 2023 Year 2, Spring 22

Al and Jonnie go through all the news and newly announced games

Timings

00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:02:07: What Have We Been Up To
00:20:06: News
01:16:56: Outro

Links

Roots of Pacha Back on Steam
Wholesome Direct Date
Above Snakes Steamdeck
Coral Island Summer Update
Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos Plushie
Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos New Screenshot
Everdream Valley Release

Marvelous Showcase
Starstruck Vagabond
Just Life
Natsu-Mon 20th Century Summer Vacation
Grandma Green
Grimoire Groves
Revenant Hill
Circle of Kerzoven

Contact

Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot
Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot
Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/

Transcript

[00:00.000 –> 00:30.000] .
[00:30.000 –> 00:35.000] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season.
[00:35.000 –> 00:44.000] My name is Al and I’m Johnny and we are here today to talk about farming games.
[00:44.000 –> 00:51.000] Important note at the top as always transcripts are available for this episode in the show notes and on the Web site.
[00:51.000 –> 00:55.000] So if you need that go and get that. How you doing Johnny?
[00:55.000 –> 01:01.000] I’m good, I’m good. It’s early morning on a Sunday so we’ll see how coherent I am by the end of the episode.
[01:01.000 –> 01:06.000] But other than that I’m excited to talk farming games like legitimately.
[01:06.000 –> 01:10.000] That’s what we’re talking about today right? It’s just infinite farming games.
[01:10.000 –> 01:18.000] So many games. So I have found like as always there’s always games that appear and I’m like oh that’s a game I didn’t know about it add it to the list.
[01:18.000 –> 01:25.000] And I don’t always talk about those new games as I come across them because like sometimes you can get a bit overwhelmed.
[01:25.000 –> 01:33.000] And we’ve gotten to the point where I had like a couple of games and I was like maybe it’s time to go through these games let’s do an episode on it.
[01:33.000 –> 01:42.000] And then boom a bunch came out this week. A bunch were announced this week so it was the perfect week to do it apparently.
[01:43.000 –> 01:44.000] I just didn’t know it.
[01:44.000 –> 01:48.000] It was well planned because usually these things happen like immediately after you record the episode.
[01:48.000 –> 01:53.000] So you’ve clearly nailed the timing after four years of doing the show.
[01:53.000 –> 01:57.000] We’ll see. Let’s see what happens after this recording.
[01:59.000 –> 02:02.000] Alright cool so we’re going to talk all about those new games.
[02:02.000 –> 02:07.000] We’ve got some other news that isn’t new game related which we’ll go over.
[02:07.000 –> 02:09.000] But first of all Johnny what have you been up to?
[02:09.000 –> 02:12.000] Well Al there’s this new game I don’t know if you’ve heard of it.
[02:12.000 –> 02:17.000] It’s called The Legend of Zelda and it’s very good.
[02:17.000 –> 02:20.000] I know you’ve been playing it a whole ton.
[02:20.000 –> 02:30.000] I’m pretty sure you’re well ahead of where I am but kind of anytime I have time I am playing the new Zelda and I love it.
[02:30.000 –> 02:35.000] It’s like I know people are going crazy and saying it’s maybe the best game ever made.
[02:35.000 –> 02:38.000] Those people are probably accurate it’s probably the best game ever made.
[02:38.000 –> 02:45.000] I always like I’m not saying it’s not the best game ever made right because I’m saying I’m not willing to say that.
[02:45.000 –> 02:51.000] I’m not I’m not willing to say it is the best game purely because like I don’t even know what that means.
[02:51.000 –> 02:54.000] Right like how do you define the best game?
[02:54.000 –> 02:56.000] So I can I can answer this question.
[02:56.000 –> 03:02.000] So you think of a game and that game is better than all of the other games.
[03:02.000 –> 03:04.000] That game is the best game.
[03:04.000 –> 03:11.000] What does it mean to be better like this is it is very subjective right like I think there are plenty of people.
[03:11.000 –> 03:16.000] None of them are apparently on my friends list because almost everyone on my friends list on the switch is playing it.
[03:16.000 –> 03:24.000] But there are people who don’t like this type of game right and so that that would be a subjective thing to them.
[03:24.000 –> 03:26.000] They would not enjoy that kind of game.
[03:26.000 –> 03:32.000] Yeah I think what I personally really like about Zelda is just how open it is right.
[03:32.000 –> 03:40.000] It took the concept from Breath of the Wild of kind of go anywhere and do anything into actually do anything.
[03:40.000 –> 03:53.000] The ultra hand mechanic that’s kind of the huge innovation that makes this game not just Breath of the Wild 1.5.
[03:53.000 –> 03:55.000] Yeah I would agree.
[03:55.000 –> 04:00.000] I think it’s funny there’s two things I find really funny about people playing this game.
[04:00.000 –> 04:04.000] And they do something crazy and they’re like oh they’d never know we do this.
[04:04.000 –> 04:10.000] And I’m like no maybe not specifically that but like do you think they didn’t have this sort of thing in mind when they designed this feature.
[04:10.000 –> 04:16.000] Do you really think that they were designing this feature for you to make a boat to go across a river.
[04:16.000 –> 04:17.000] Of course they not.
[04:17.000 –> 04:20.000] They knew that this would be incredible on social media.
[04:20.000 –> 04:24.000] People would make these insane things and it would get them so much positive.
[04:24.000 –> 04:28.000] They knew that come on like we know that these people know how to make games right.
[04:28.000 –> 04:33.000] They’ve made two games in a row that people are saying are the best game ever made.
[04:33.000 –> 04:39.000] Right like they know what they’re doing they absolutely knew what people would do with this.
[04:39.000 –> 04:45.000] And the other thing is when people do like a shrine and they’re like oh this is not the proper way to do this shrine.
[04:45.000 –> 04:48.000] And I’m like there is no proper way that’s the point.
[04:48.000 –> 04:52.000] Right like there is an intended solution to make sure you can get through the shrine.
[04:53.000 –> 04:58.000] But they’re totally open to you cheesing the hell out of the shrine if that is the way that you get through it.
[04:58.000 –> 05:06.000] Like I’m at the point where I’ve got over a hundred shrines now and anytime I go into a shrine that has one of those like pressure sensitive things that you’re meant to do something with a ball.
[05:06.000 –> 05:08.000] I’m like no no and I just shoot it with a bomb arrow.
[05:08.000 –> 05:15.000] I’m done with those I’m fine with just just getting through like absolutely like that there’s no specific way to do these things.
[05:15.000 –> 05:20.000] And it’s like even with some shrines there isn’t actually like a clear intended thing.
[05:20.000 –> 05:22.000] Like there’s multiple different ways to do it.
[05:22.000 –> 05:29.000] I think with a lot of them there is like here’s the way that this is like the as you say suggested way to do it.
[05:29.000 –> 05:32.000] But I think there are even shrines that that’s not the case.
[05:32.000 –> 05:37.000] Yeah that wouldn’t surprise me I’ve only done about 30 so um yeah you know.
[05:37.000 –> 05:43.000] Relatively speaking I’m not that far in and it would not surprise me if there’s there’s shrines like that.
[05:43.000 –> 05:48.000] And you know I was talking to some friends about Zelda last night and they haven’t played it yet.
[05:48.000 –> 05:52.000] And they were asking you know because I’m off doing all of the side stuff and haven’t done any of the main story.
[05:52.000 –> 05:54.000] They’re like but won’t you be overpowered when you come back to the story?
[05:54.000 –> 06:01.000] It’s like no that’s not really a thing like yes you know I might have some powerful weapons by the time I come back.
[06:01.000 –> 06:06.000] But it’s not like the combat is the gating in this game really I don’t find.
[06:06.000 –> 06:12.000] No if you’ve played Breath of the Wild and you got good at the combat in Breath of the Wild you’re already overpowered for this game.
[06:13.000 –> 06:27.000] Right like and sure you can get new weapon and stuff but you can get like the best weapon and the best bow and the best shield almost immediately in the game if you cared about it.
[06:27.000 –> 06:30.000] Right they’re like they’re right there you can go and get them.
[06:30.000 –> 06:31.000] Yep.
[06:31.000 –> 06:40.000] Like nothing’s stopping you and so much if you are good at dodge this is the thing about Breath of the Wild this is actually why I love the combat in these games.
[06:40.000 –> 06:46.000] Is if you are good at dodging you can beat any enemy with almost any weapon.
[06:46.000 –> 06:50.000] It’ll take longer if you have lower powered weapons obviously you might get a bit bored.
[06:50.000 –> 06:54.000] But you can if you’re good at it you can do anything with any of these enemies.
[06:54.000 –> 07:00.000] Yeah and the thing I like right because I am not particularly good at the dodging mechanics I don’t have great timing.
[07:00.000 –> 07:12.000] But even I can like there’s ways to cheese around the combat right and so I can go like I’ve gone and taken on some stuff that’s you know technically a lot more difficult than the quality of the weapons should let me beat.
[07:12.000 –> 07:23.000] But with all of the ability to build stuff and bomb arrows and like all of the weapon fusing stuff you can get through some pretty difficult battles you know pretty easily if you want.
[07:23.000 –> 07:37.000] Yeah just bomb everything and especially if you if you get to the point where you’ve got you know a significant number of batteries for the Zonai stuff you can make some pretty dangerous weapons with the with like the charge beams and stuff like that.
[07:37.000 –> 07:49.000] Like you can I saw someone and someone defeated one of the glioks with literally 30 seconds with with a Zonai weapon.
[07:49.000 –> 07:53.000] Like they’re just some of them you can make insanely overpowered things.
[07:53.000 –> 08:07.000] Yeah and for me this is the most ridiculous thing about this game is so last night I finally kind of went into the underground so you know explored and done a lot of the towers and done some of the sky islands.
[08:07.000 –> 08:14.000] And I’d done like just that very intro quest where you get the camera in the underground and that was all I had done.
[08:15.000 –> 08:25.000] And I was like oh maybe I should go into the underground and do like the the second quest that’s that’s down there or the second quest that you get given to go down there and spend the entire night down there.
[08:25.000 –> 08:38.000] And why is the underground so fun and like because to me it’s this thing that didn’t even need to be in the game right if they were just like here’s Breath of the Wild plus Sky Islands everyone would have been like great this game is amazing.
[08:38.000 –> 08:54.000] Yeah and then they put this entire third map into the game and it wasn’t even the big promotion part and it’s so good it has no right to be that much fun to explore and just I don’t know it’s it’s amazing.
[08:55.000 –> 09:03.000] And there’s also there’s there’s there’s are obviously like there’s loads of enemies down there that are just like the normal version but with gloom on them which is fine.
[09:03.000 –> 09:12.000] Like people get annoyed about these I don’t think that’s a problem like I actually quite like that because it’s like it’s playing around with the usual enemies and making you have to think about them differently.
[09:12.000 –> 09:20.000] But there are also completely exclusive enemies down there as well that you only get in the depths that you wouldn’t find anywhere else, which is fun as well.
[09:20.000 –> 09:31.000] Yeah and I’m not really impacted by the like I’m like gloom enemies I’m running minimum hearts so they’re not that different to the regular enemies from my perspective.
[09:32.000 –> 09:35.000] Run away. Run away and bomb them.
[09:37.000 –> 09:41.000] Yeah yeah definitely avoid the the gloom Lionel.
[09:41.000 –> 09:54.000] Yeah this is not a podcast about Zelda so we’re going to stop talking about this just now and we will be doing I guarantee you we will be doing a greenhouse episode about Zelda because I think we have a lot more to talk about it.
[09:54.000 –> 10:02.000] So look out for that probably a couple of weeks but it will come out but yeah okay cool anything else other than Zelda?
[10:03.000 –> 10:20.000] As usual just being you know Marvel snapping up a storm it’s still a really good game I have no idea what they’re trying to do in order to monetize this game because other than season passes like I just look at the bundles that they release and I just am so fascinated by who would be picking up these things.
[10:20.000 –> 10:40.000] I think it’s I think it’s I think the season pass is for most people who will if you’re going to put any money and you’re going to do the season pass right like that is that is the thing to do I think the bundles are for for the whales right the whales will spend a ridiculous amount of money and they’ll do whatever it’s like oh yeah I’ll drop 50 quid for that of course like some people.
[10:40.000 –> 10:44.000] I would say in most games I am a whale and it’s too much for me.
[10:45.000 –> 11:04.000] I feel like probably we just don’t fully understand what whales are like whales are not like oh yeah I’ve put in 200 quid this year right like that’s not a whale that’s that’s a decent chunk of money but it’s not a whale a whale is like yeah all my free money is going in this you know.
[11:04.000 –> 11:33.000] I guess by that definition I’m definitely not but I mean I yeah it’s their pricing is insane but High Evolutionary just came out which is a very fun card has you know really taken over the meta game for the last few days and I may have been a horrible person and gone back to playing Galactus just really effectively dunks on all of these High Evolutionary decks but High Evolutionary is a really fun card and like just the design that I’ve been doing with Marvel Snap has been really really good.
[11:33.000 –> 11:46.000] They’ve been making a bunch of sort of small tweaks on a weekly basis which has been awesome for the meta game and yeah I just I really like it as a little fun game that kind of just keeps ticking over.
[11:46.000 –> 11:53.000] I thought I would have bounced off by now but I’m really still feeling it so I love Snap. Are you still snapping Al?
[11:54.000 –> 12:14.000] Not regularly. I pop in every so often and do stuff but I’ve not really done for the last couple of weeks. I still it’s I think I mentioned this last time we were we were chatting about it is like I try so hard to be the type of person that will just play a game for 10 minutes a day but it just is not me and I have never managed to do that.
[12:14.000 –> 12:30.000] So like I’m either playing a game or I’m not playing a game so no like well this is the thing like even with Zelda right like I can do something in 10 minutes so why wouldn’t I do something in 10 minutes like it’s not like a game where once you start you’re in it for an hour.
[12:30.000 –> 12:41.000] No it absolutely is because it’s the sort of game where you start with a thing in mind and then doing the thing that you had in mind takes so long because you get distracted doing a million other things.
[12:41.000 –> 12:53.000] Yeah, so anytime I’m so I think my point is like anytime I would possibly pay Snap I’m just playing Zelda instead right and if I was playing Snap I’d be like why am I not playing Zelda because I’m enjoying that game.
[12:53.000 –> 13:08.000] So I’ve been playing a lot of Zelda I was just double checking my switch says I’ve been played for over 70 hours on Zelda now, which is kind of stupid considering it’s been two weeks and that’s nearly a full time job.
[13:09.000 –> 13:12.000] Over two weeks.
[13:12.000 –> 13:23.000] So, yeah, I suspect I’m probably pretty close to the ADHD burnout part of the first play of Tears of the Kingdom.
[13:23.000 –> 13:28.000] So I suspect at some point in the next week I will end up putting it down for a few months.
[13:28.000 –> 13:37.000] But we’ll see. That is how I play my games. I have to do it as much as possible because I know the end is coming where my brain tells me I’m done for now.
[13:37.000 –> 13:51.000] Yeah, see I think I’ll be playing this game for like the rest of the year and it’s a shame because I’m looking at other games that are coming up and coming out and I’m just like, I don’t know how I’m going to find time for these games around Zelda because that’s just me for the rest of the year I think.
[13:51.000 –> 13:58.000] I’ll keep coming back to it but I don’t think I’ll be playing as much as I have done just now over the next month.
[13:58.000 –> 14:03.000] I would hope not. That feels like an unsustainable pace for the rest of the year.
[14:03.000 –> 14:06.000] 35 hours a week for every week.
[14:06.000 –> 14:10.000] And we need new episodes of this show to come out.
[14:11.000 –> 14:22.000] I’ve got a game I need to play this week for next week’s episode so I definitely won’t be playing 35 hours this week because that is literally all, you know, any second of free time I have that 35 hours.
[14:22.000 –> 14:25.000] Oh man, that’s a lot of time.
[14:25.000 –> 14:34.000] Or the other thing is obviously I’ve not been playing it but I watched the PlayStation Showcase on Wednesday and I’m very excited for Spider-Man coming out.
[14:34.000 –> 14:36.000] I believe you mean Spider-Man 2.
[14:36.000 –> 14:38.000] Do we need to get into this?
[14:38.000 –> 14:43.000] We don’t need to. I just, you know, I know how much you love that name so I just wanted to make sure we were…
[14:43.000 –> 14:52.000] So what I said to you before the Showcase, Johnny, was if they announce a release date and they haven’t given us a new name I’m accepting that that’s the name.
[14:52.000 –> 14:56.000] They haven’t given us a release date. They didn’t give us a release date on Wednesday.
[14:56.000 –> 14:58.000] I don’t know why they’ve not given us a release date, right?
[14:58.000 –> 15:03.000] Like, this game is probably like four months away and they’ve not given us a release date.
[15:04.000 –> 15:06.000] So I’m still not accepting it, right?
[15:06.000 –> 15:09.000] It’s the third game. Well, what sixth game actually?
[15:09.000 –> 15:11.000] Do you live in denial?
[15:11.000 –> 15:13.000] I do. I do live in denial.
[15:13.000 –> 15:21.000] But it looks like a good game. I’m excited. It looks like there’s a bigger area. It looks like there’s a ridiculous number of enemies as usual.
[15:21.000 –> 15:23.000] I don’t know how they managed to stick so many enemies in.
[15:23.000 –> 15:30.000] I’m really interested to see whether the Green Goblin is actually in it because they teased that in a previous game but they didn’t show anything about that.
[15:30.000 –> 15:34.000] So maybe he’ll be like a surprise endgame boss or something like that.
[15:34.000 –> 15:41.000] But then if he is in it, you’ve got Lizard, you’ve got Kraven, you’ve got Green Goblin.
[15:41.000 –> 15:45.000] Like, that’s quite a lot of enemies to start with and there’s no way it will just be the three of them, right?
[15:45.000 –> 15:48.000] Because of Venom, of course, as well. What’s going to happen with the Venom stuff?
[15:48.000 –> 15:58.000] I’m really interested in that because at the beginning of the trailer it looks like Peter is just kind of like, you know, bonded with Venom and just quite happy and just going on with his life.
[15:58.000 –> 16:03.000] But then there’s a weird bit at the end where you’re like, oh yeah, things are clearly not okay there.
[16:03.000 –> 16:08.000] And so how are things going with that? I thought it was weird halfway through. I was like, why is Peter so okay with this?
[16:08.000 –> 16:15.000] Like, he’s not acting weird. He’s just kind of doing things but he’s got new abilities.
[16:15.000 –> 16:21.000] And I’m intrigued to see how that happens because they cannot do the thing where he overcomes Venom and gets rid of Venom.
[16:21.000 –> 16:26.000] Because then Peter becomes less useful a Spider-Man than Miles, right?
[16:26.000 –> 16:37.000] They can’t do that. They have to have a point where you can be playing both of them and they both have different abilities but both on top of what the base Spider-Man abilities were in the first game.
[16:37.000 –> 16:48.000] And so what are they going to do with that story? Are they just going to get to the point where he’s just okay with Venom and Venom’s not causing Peter any issues? I don’t know. I’m intrigued to see.
[16:48.000 –> 16:58.000] And it’s going to be interesting to see, right? Because in theory having the two Spider-Men to play as means that they could go in a direction where it’s like…
[16:58.000 –> 17:11.000] I don’t want to say less fun but maybe have a little bit more of a loss of control feeling with the Venom thing which is okay because you can always go back to Miles if you want the more classic Spider-Man experience, I guess.
[17:11.000 –> 17:13.000] So it’ll be interesting to see how they do that.
[17:13.000 –> 17:24.000] Yeah, I mean Miles has different abilities. This is where I get really annoyed. The abilities they gave Miles in the second game was called Venom ability.
[17:24.000 –> 17:33.000] So you’ve got Miles who has Venom and Peter who has Venom but they’re different Venoms. I don’t know why they’re different.
[17:33.000 –> 17:41.000] Just don’t think about it too hard. Maybe that’s why this is Spider-Man 2. It’s technically a sequel but don’t think too hard about the first one.
[17:41.000 –> 17:47.000] So the other thing I’m intrigued about is how they’re going to do that you can play as either Spider-Man.
[17:47.000 –> 17:55.000] Is it going to be you can choose whichever one you want for a specific situation or is it going to be you switch between them as your story goes but they decide when you switch?
[17:55.000 –> 18:03.000] It’s not quite clear from the thing that we had. There was a point where they switched and it kind of showed it kind of like it could be.
[18:03.000 –> 18:13.000] Oh this is now the time that we switch or it could be like oh it was just kind of hinting that you could switch now by the way if you wanted but they could actually do it at any point.
[18:13.000 –> 18:32.000] I’m intrigued with that. I’m kind of like and this goes back to the Zelda conversation right like I’m not a huge fan of puzzle games in general or puzzles in games because I quite often feel like they are expecting me to have a very specific thing to do and I don’t find that fun like oh I need to figure out what they want me to do.
[18:33.000 –> 18:51.000] That’s not fun puzzle to me and I suspect we might end up in a situation where you’re like oh you can only do this with Peter or you can only do this with Miles and you have to figure out which one they want you to do because only Venom’s ability can do this bit or only the Venom ability can do this bit.
[18:51.000 –> 19:10.000] Right like it doesn’t I don’t find that sort of fun and that’s why I love Zelda so much is because like it doesn’t matter what they wanted you to do you can do whatever that’s fun puzzle to me it’s like figure out a way to solve this not figure out our jigsaw right like it’s not a one size fits all thing.
[19:10.000 –> 19:20.000] Yeah my assumption was going to be that you could kind of free switch if you were just doing the open world stuff but there might be certain missions that are Miles or Peter.
[19:21.000 –> 19:38.000] That would be likely I think yeah but that still leads me towards the assumption that there’s going to be puzzles that only work with one or the other and that stuff just annoys me that’s not a puzzle right that’s just like oh you just need to remember to switch like that’s not fun.
[19:38.000 –> 19:39.000] But no anyway.
[19:39.000 –> 20:03.000] No like I’m with you on puzzles right like and it’s one of the hard things about puzzles and games is when they have specific solutions and then you look it up and so many times it’s like you get stuck on something and it’s often because you’ve worked out how to solve the puzzle but you didn’t do step 2a that you have to do to technically get all of the right pieces in place and it’s just like just recognize that I understand how to solve the puzzle and let me move on.
[20:03.000 –> 20:11.000] Yeah yeah anyway I think that might be our longest what have you been up to section so should we get on to some news?
[20:11.000 –> 20:12.000] Let’s do it.
[20:12.000 –> 20:28.000] So first of all we have an update on the route to patch situation in that the game is back on steam now and the the two companies the dev team so did them then and the publishers is it critical critical?
[20:28.000 –> 20:29.000] Cretivo?
[20:30.000 –> 20:33.000] Thank you for suggesting a third pronunciation.
[20:33.000 –> 20:47.000] Well anyway doesn’t doesn’t matter the two of them have amicably parted ways under terms that are mutually beneficial and I hope you heard the air quotes in that.
[20:48.000 –> 21:03.000] I mean the statement that they put out on twitter is very clearly a statement that was written by lawyers and I don’t think we’ll hear anything more about went on behind the scenes and to be honest we don’t need to hear more.
[21:03.000 –> 21:09.000] It’s good that it’s available back on steam and it sounds like there’s a way forward which is awesome.
[21:09.000 –> 21:23.000] Probably for me the other piece of news that was interesting coming out of this just in some of the twitter replies from the routes of parcher twitter is that the team’s actively working on a roadmap that they’re hoping to put out next week.
[21:23.000 –> 21:31.000] So that should cover things like when routes of parcher is likely to come to consoles as well as new content.
[21:31.000 –> 21:33.000] Yeah yeah I agree fun.
[21:33.000 –> 21:36.000] But if you want to know more about routes of parcher listen to last week’s episode.
[21:36.000 –> 21:46.000] Yes yeah great episode by Cody and Kev on the game and I said before that I was going to listen to it to decide whether I wanted to buy the game.
[21:46.000 –> 21:54.000] The answer is yes but probably not yet purely because I have so much going on in terms of games.
[21:54.000 –> 21:57.000] As the rest of the news section will show.
[21:57.000 –> 21:59.000] That is exactly where I landed.
[21:59.000 –> 22:05.000] I was like I’m excited for this to come out on consoles in like three months when hopefully I have some time to play it.
[22:05.000 –> 22:13.000] Yeah yeah yeah maybe this could become my like summer game where I play it when I’m on holiday and I don’t really have any other things.
[22:13.000 –> 22:19.000] Because like for those who haven’t listened to the podcast before there’s like a month in the summer where I’m away.
[22:19.000 –> 22:28.000] I’m not on holiday I’m doing some things for some of the weeks and I’m working for the other weeks but I’m not at home and I don’t want to have to deal with the podcast so we pre-record a bunch of episodes.
[22:28.000 –> 22:38.000] I’ll have like a month and a little bit of just like not needing to think about other games for the podcast so it might be nice to do that then but we’ll see.
[22:38.000 –> 22:42.000] Next we have the date for the Wholesome Direct.
[22:42.000 –> 22:52.000] So we knew this was coming but we we now have the date it is going to be on Saturday the 10th of June or Sunday for some people.
[22:53.000 –> 23:02.000] Saturday the 10th of June in America and Europe and Sunday in well probably I don’t know where the line will be based on the time.
[23:02.000 –> 23:04.000] It will definitely be Sunday in New Zealand.
[23:04.000 –> 23:12.000] It’s the great thing about living here is anytime you see a date announced for something you can say okay I’ll just make that one day later on the calendar because that’s when it actually will be happening for us.
[23:12.000 –> 23:16.000] Yeah I hadn’t actually noticed the time before 9 a.m. Pacific.
[23:16.000 –> 23:22.000] That is 5 p.m. for me. Ah the worst time. The worst time.
[23:22.000 –> 23:28.000] Literally that is the worst time for me because if it’s earlier than that I can do it while I’m working.
[23:28.000 –> 23:37.000] If it’s in that two hour period between five and seven that is the period that I’m dealing with my kids.
[23:37.000 –> 23:46.000] I’m getting them tea I’m getting them ready for bed I’m getting them into bed 7 p.m. and later that’s that works before 5 p.m. that works five and seven that doesn’t really annoying.
[23:46.000 –> 23:47.000] Whatever.
[23:47.000 –> 23:55.000] I think what’s most concerning about this Wholesome Games thing is that they’re going to have footage from over 70 games.
[23:55.000 –> 23:57.000] Yeah I mean most of those you won’t care about.
[23:57.000 –> 23:59.000] Too many games.
[23:59.000 –> 24:05.000] Most of those you will not care about because I guarantee you because I think that’s roughly the same number they had last year.
[24:05.000 –> 24:12.000] And I think we ended up having like six to talk about on the podcast and out of those you’d probably not care about three of them so.
[24:12.000 –> 24:17.000] 70 games that’s just too many games coming out we need we need less games.
[24:17.000 –> 24:24.000] This isn’t even all the games right this is just they would they will have turned down about half of them again.
[24:24.000 –> 24:30.000] Well hopefully there’s something for everybody in the Wholesome.
[24:31.000 –> 24:36.000] Yes and we will do an episode talking about everything that was in it.
[24:36.000 –> 24:38.000] Hopefully.
[24:38.000 –> 24:40.000] That is a busy day for me.
[24:40.000 –> 24:43.000] Oh wait it’s a Saturday it doesn’t matter about when work is.
[24:43.000 –> 24:45.000] I’m an idiot.
[24:45.000 –> 24:49.000] Well now that we’ve come full circle on that one.
[24:49.000 –> 24:51.000] Shall we talk about Snakes?
[24:51.000 –> 24:53.000] Yeah why not.
[24:53.000 –> 24:55.000] Which is now verified for the Steam Deck.
[24:55.000 –> 24:57.000] Which is awesome.
[24:57.000 –> 24:59.000] And it’s out now right?
[24:59.000 –> 25:01.000] It is. It is.
[25:01.000 –> 25:03.000] As you’re listening to this it came out a week ago.
[25:03.000 –> 25:05.000] It came out on Wednesday.
[25:05.000 –> 25:08.000] And it looks great on the screenshot that they’ve got.
[25:08.000 –> 25:12.000] Oh it’s not a screenshot it’s a photo of a Bob Snakes running on the Steam Deck.
[25:12.000 –> 25:14.000] Same thing right?
[25:14.000 –> 25:17.000] Just a poor man’s screenshot.
[25:19.000 –> 25:21.000] Yeah that’s exciting.
[25:21.000 –> 25:33.000] Yes I will play this at some point but I can’t play it just now because I kickstarted for the Switch version which isn’t out yet and they have not replied to me about switching my key to Steam.
[25:33.000 –> 25:40.000] So if anyone from Above Snakes is listening and I’ve sent you a message please give me a Steam key.
[25:40.000 –> 25:43.000] Also please give us a release date for the Switch.
[25:43.000 –> 25:47.000] Even if it’s like ages I would just like some detail on when.
[25:47.000 –> 25:52.000] Because I really want to play Above Snakes and there has not been any detail on when it’s actually going to come out on the Switch.
[25:52.000 –> 25:54.000] 100% it won’t be this year.
[25:56.000 –> 25:59.000] But it was on my 2023 like most anticipated list Al.
[25:59.000 –> 26:04.000] Yeah. Don’t blame me. I am not a developer.
[26:04.000 –> 26:07.000] You are the closest thing I know to the developer though so.
[26:07.000 –> 26:13.000] That is a very very low bar.
[26:15.000 –> 26:17.000] I have talked about it.
[26:17.000 –> 26:19.000] Exactly. Exactly.
[26:19.000 –> 26:24.000] Next we have Coral Island. The Summer update is out now.
[26:24.000 –> 26:28.000] And I am not going to play it yet. I’ve got too many things to do.
[26:29.000 –> 26:35.000] But I am very excited for this because it unlocks the final bit of the mines.
[26:35.000 –> 26:41.000] I was waiting for it to update because I need to get into that fire gate and get that last giant out of there.
[26:41.000 –> 26:44.000] Get some Osmium ore.
[26:44.000 –> 26:49.000] You’ve got to be most excited for the chicken steer off in the cow racing right?
[26:49.000 –> 26:53.000] Yes. So it adds three animal festivals.
[26:54.000 –> 26:57.000] Rodeo challenge. Test your skills on a mechanical bull.
[26:57.000 –> 27:01.000] Chicken steer off. See who’s chicken has the strongest steer.
[27:01.000 –> 27:05.000] Okay. And cow race. Find out which cow is the fastest in town.
[27:05.000 –> 27:08.000] Because of course as we all know the best animal to race is cows.
[27:08.000 –> 27:12.000] Yeah. Absolutely. I love the idea of a chicken steer off.
[27:12.000 –> 27:14.000] Because I don’t know if you are aware of this.
[27:14.000 –> 27:17.000] It’s kind of like an old wives tale but I’ve seen it happen a few times.
[27:17.000 –> 27:19.000] But you can actually hypnotize chickens.
[27:19.000 –> 27:21.000] Yes. You can.
[27:21.000 –> 27:26.000] Oh okay. Amazing. Because usually when I say this to people they look at me like I’m just growing an extra head.
[27:26.000 –> 27:29.000] No it’s 100% real. It’s 100% real.
[27:29.000 –> 27:32.000] I have not done it because it’s very mean.
[27:32.000 –> 27:36.000] But I did used to have some chickens that I took care of.
[27:36.000 –> 27:40.000] And I am aware that the hypnotizing is real.
[27:40.000 –> 27:43.000] It’s weird and mean but real.
[27:43.000 –> 27:48.000] But if you want your chicken to win the chicken steer off I would suggest hypnotizing it.
[27:48.000 –> 27:50.000] That might be a good place to start.
[27:50.000 –> 27:53.000] They also chickens have very stable heads.
[27:53.000 –> 27:55.000] They work very much like a gimbal.
[27:55.000 –> 27:58.000] So you can strap a camera to a chickens head and it’s going to be a very stable video.
[27:58.000 –> 27:59.000] Interesting.
[27:59.000 –> 28:01.000] Obviously it has to be quite a small camera.
[28:01.000 –> 28:04.000] You’re not sticking a red camera on it.
[28:04.000 –> 28:07.000] Like one of the GoPro Minis would probably work.
[28:07.000 –> 28:13.000] Yeah. Wow. Who was expecting actual animal facts on this here?
[28:13.000 –> 28:16.000] It makes me sound like I was an actual farmer. No.
[28:16.000 –> 28:19.000] I just had 12 chickens. That’s not unusual is it?
[28:19.000 –> 28:22.000] Well look I’m from New Zealand so no that’s not unusual.
[28:22.000 –> 28:26.000] But I’m not sure how much that translates to the rest of Ella’s in the bays.
[28:26.000 –> 28:28.000] Chickens are such fun.
[28:28.000 –> 28:35.000] You know what I find most funny is people get really confused en masse when you talk about the fact that chickens can fly.
[28:35.000 –> 28:38.000] What do you mean chickens can fly? Chickens can fly.
[28:38.000 –> 28:43.000] The reason you don’t see them flying in farms is because they clip their wings.
[28:43.000 –> 28:47.000] They’re birds. They’re not ostriches. They can fly.
[28:47.000 –> 28:49.000] Maybe not the most efficient flies.
[28:49.000 –> 28:53.000] No they are not. They look a lot like pigeons when they fly.
[28:53.000 –> 28:56.000] And you’re like how on earth are you staying in the air?
[28:56.000 –> 29:05.000] Although it’s really funny even when you clip their wings they can still use the wings to jump like six or seven feet high.
[29:05.000 –> 29:10.000] So still can escape most things without a roof.
[29:10.000 –> 29:16.000] Or you can occasionally see when they get onto the roof of their chicken poop which is really fun to confuse townies.
[29:16.000 –> 29:20.000] Ah fun times. Moving on from the chicken conversation.
[29:20.000 –> 29:26.000] Yeah there’s lots of stuff. One thing that I am very interested in that I wasn’t aware that was coming was sprinkler attachments.
[29:26.000 –> 29:31.000] So you can upgrade your sprinklers to have auto seed and auto fertilize on them as well.
[29:31.000 –> 29:33.000] And yes yes yes yes.
[29:33.000 –> 29:37.000] And that’s something I’m surprised we haven’t seen in more farming games.
[29:37.000 –> 29:43.000] Because it feels like one of those automation things that should be in a number of games.
[29:43.000 –> 29:48.000] I know it was in Ooblets with the Oobcoops. Still the best feature of that game.
[29:48.000 –> 29:53.000] And so it’s good to see it here because it’s just one of those things that I’m surprised doesn’t make its way into more games.
[29:53.000 –> 29:57.000] Yeah I think Ooblets had the most. So they had you can basically do everything.
[29:57.000 –> 30:03.000] As long as you put seeds in the Oobcoop, the little storage, they will do everything you need.
[30:03.000 –> 30:09.000] And Stardew had you could get the the juvenile hut and they would go and harvest.
[30:09.000 –> 30:12.000] But I don’t think they would ever plant or fertilize.
[30:12.000 –> 30:14.000] No they would not.
[30:14.000 –> 30:19.000] So I don’t know of any other game where you can plant automatically and there’s possibly a fertilizing one.
[30:19.000 –> 30:24.000] But I can’t think that I’ve just got in the niggling in the back of my brain that says there’s one that has an automatic fertilizing.
[30:24.000 –> 30:26.000] But I can’t think of what it is.
[30:26.000 –> 30:29.000] No neither. But exciting that this is coming to Coral Island.
[30:29.000 –> 30:36.000] Yes yes go go play the summer update Bev. Bev it’s time go play go play more Coral Island.
[30:36.000 –> 30:39.000] Next we have Harvest Moon the Winds of Anthos.
[30:39.000 –> 30:44.000] We are this game I’m I still I don’t know what to think of this game.
[30:44.000 –> 30:46.000] Let’s let’s go through.
[30:46.000 –> 30:50.000] We have to accept we’re excited for this game that is that is where we are at now Al.
[30:50.000 –> 30:52.000] Some level of excitement certainly.
[30:52.000 –> 30:55.000] Look let’s go through the easy the easy and clearly exciting stuff.
[30:55.000 –> 30:57.000] The plush is out. They’ve decided what the plush is for this game.
[30:57.000 –> 31:00.000] It is a sleeping cow. It’s amazing.
[31:00.000 –> 31:02.000] It’s the best.
[31:02.000 –> 31:04.000] It’s good. It’s good.
[31:04.000 –> 31:08.000] Their cows are still not as good as the story of Seasons cows but it’s still a very good cow.
[31:08.000 –> 31:12.000] You can pre-order the game now and get that plush.
[31:12.000 –> 31:20.000] I believe if you pre-order on the Natsume website there’s a second pre-order bonus that they haven’t announced yet.
[31:20.000 –> 31:23.000] Can’t pre-order outside the US as far as I can see.
[31:23.000 –> 31:27.000] Certainly can’t here and almost certainly you won’t be able to Johnny.
[31:27.000 –> 31:29.000] No I definitely cannot.
[31:29.000 –> 31:33.000] Not that you’re going to because you are strongly against pre-ordering games.
[31:33.000 –> 31:38.000] Well when there’s a pre-order bonus it can become flexible for that cow plush.
[31:38.000 –> 31:41.000] To be honest if I could I probably would.
[31:41.000 –> 31:43.000] That is a good cow plush.
[31:43.000 –> 31:45.000] What else have we got this long list.
[31:45.000 –> 31:49.000] So we’ve got the consoles now because I think previously it just said PC and console.
[31:49.000 –> 32:00.000] So now it’s officially coming to Switch, PS5, PS4 and the Xbox series and of course on Steam.
[32:00.000 –> 32:09.000] We’ve got a new screenshot of the player character meeting a tiny harvest goddess.
[32:09.000 –> 32:17.000] Yeah this looks like a screenshot from a Harvest Moon game. That’s what I have to say about that.
[32:17.000 –> 32:22.000] I will say it’s continuing to look in my opinion as good as the previous screenshots.
[32:22.000 –> 32:25.000] I really like this art style. I think it’s done really well.
[32:25.000 –> 32:31.000] We’re gonna not know until we actually see some footage and then get our hands on the game.
[32:31.000 –> 32:37.000] Whether it actually is like that or whether they’ve just really given us very specific screenshots.
[32:37.000 –> 32:40.000] And we got release date 26th of September.
[32:40.000 –> 32:44.000] So really stretching the definition of summer there.
[32:44.000 –> 32:47.000] Yeah I mean they’re pushing it right till the end right?
[32:47.000 –> 32:51.000] It depends how you like I will die on this hill.
[32:51.000 –> 32:56.000] People talk about summer and spring like they are clearly defined seasons.
[32:56.000 –> 33:01.000] There are at least four definitions of the seasons if you ignore the southern hemisphere.
[33:01.000 –> 33:04.000] These things are really not clear.
[33:04.000 –> 33:13.000] In fact I just double checked this doesn’t even fit in the summer definition that people have.
[33:13.000 –> 33:20.000] The summer definition that is most commonly used actually finishes summer at the 23rd of September.
[33:20.000 –> 33:23.000] No one actually thinks that way Al.
[33:23.000 –> 33:26.000] But people just go by months. It’s easier to go by months.
[33:26.000 –> 33:29.000] But this is the thing. Oh my word.
[33:29.000 –> 33:35.000] No definition includes the 26th of September in summer right?
[33:35.000 –> 33:37.000] Which one?
[33:37.000 –> 33:40.000] The definition of summer is July, August, September.
[33:40.000 –> 33:42.000] What definition is that?
[33:42.000 –> 33:44.000] It’s not a definition of summer.
[33:44.000 –> 33:46.000] Literally just made up to prove my point.
[33:46.000 –> 33:50.000] So the astronomical season which to me is just wild.
[33:50.000 –> 33:58.000] Which goes from the summer solstice to the autumn equinox is wild to me.
[33:58.000 –> 34:04.000] Because the idea that like the longest day of the year is the start of summer is bizarre.
[34:04.000 –> 34:07.000] To me that’s the middle of summer not the start of it right?
[34:07.000 –> 34:09.000] And I don’t understand why you would ever use that.
[34:09.000 –> 34:14.000] But if we leave that one aside there’s the meteorological season which is also commonly used.
[34:14.000 –> 34:19.000] Goes from the 1st of June to the 31st of August. Doesn’t include the 26th of September.
[34:19.000 –> 34:21.000] And then there’s the one that I prefer.
[34:21.000 –> 34:24.000] Well of the generally used ones this is the one I prefer.
[34:24.000 –> 34:28.000] I actually have a much more radical definition of the seasons.
[34:28.000 –> 34:30.000] But this one is May, June, July.
[34:30.000 –> 34:33.000] I think that makes much more sense to me as a summer.
[34:33.000 –> 34:36.000] That’s the Celtic seasons.
[34:36.000 –> 34:40.000] But none of these definitions include the 26th of September.
[34:40.000 –> 34:41.000] It’s not summer.
[34:41.000 –> 34:43.000] I agree it’s not summer.
[34:44.000 –> 34:45.000] It’s the…
[34:48.000 –> 34:49.000] Anyway.
[34:50.000 –> 34:51.000] My word. Sorry.
[34:51.000 –> 34:53.000] Did not mean to get into a rant about seasons.
[34:53.000 –> 34:54.000] These things just happen.
[34:54.000 –> 34:57.000] Seasons are stupid. Stop pretending like they’re clearly defined.
[34:57.000 –> 35:01.000] Anyway, Harvest Moon, Winds of Anthos, release date 26th of September.
[35:01.000 –> 35:02.000] Not summer.
[35:02.000 –> 35:03.000] Yes, not summer.
[35:03.000 –> 35:04.000] Stop saying it’s summer.
[35:06.000 –> 35:07.000] Cool.
[35:07.000 –> 35:09.000] Let’s see what comes out of that game.
[35:10.000 –> 35:16.000] The last non-new game news is Everdream Valley is releasing on the 30th of September.
[35:16.000 –> 35:20.000] This is where everyone goes, oh, I forgot about that game.
[35:20.000 –> 35:21.000] So there you go.
[35:21.000 –> 35:23.000] That was literally my responses.
[35:23.000 –> 35:25.000] Oh, I forgot about this game.
[35:25.000 –> 35:26.000] Fun fact, right?
[35:26.000 –> 35:29.000] You can buy this game just now.
[35:29.000 –> 35:30.000] They’re calling it pre-purchase.
[35:30.000 –> 35:34.000] But if you buy the game now, you get access to it now before the release date.
[35:36.000 –> 35:37.000] Okay.
[35:37.000 –> 35:39.000] We’ve officially gone too far.
[35:41.000 –> 35:42.000] Just buy the game.
[35:42.000 –> 35:43.000] Isn’t that just…
[35:43.000 –> 35:45.000] Yeah, that’s just buying the game and playing it.
[35:45.000 –> 35:47.000] Because this is the thing, right?
[35:47.000 –> 35:50.000] Who can access the game without buying it?
[35:50.000 –> 35:53.000] So if you buy the game before the release date, you get access to the game.
[35:53.000 –> 35:56.000] Surely that’s just the release date.
[35:57.000 –> 36:00.000] This is some silly 1.0 argument, right?
[36:00.000 –> 36:02.000] That’s what this is?
[36:02.000 –> 36:04.000] They’re like, oh, but we’re on version 9.8.
[36:04.000 –> 36:06.000] No, they’re not in early access.
[36:06.000 –> 36:08.000] They’ve not done an early access.
[36:08.000 –> 36:09.000] What?
[36:09.000 –> 36:11.000] This is not early access.
[36:11.000 –> 36:13.000] The game is not officially released.
[36:13.000 –> 36:16.000] If you go onto Steam, it says coming the 30th of May.
[36:16.000 –> 36:20.000] But they said on their most recent, or one of the…
[36:20.000 –> 36:25.000] Yeah, so their second most recent news event is
[36:25.000 –> 36:28.000] prior access starts today.
[36:28.000 –> 36:30.000] You can start playing today.
[36:32.000 –> 36:34.000] If you don’t want to count the last days to the full launch,
[36:34.000 –> 36:35.000] don’t worry, we got you covered.
[36:35.000 –> 36:38.000] You can pre-order Everdream Valley any time
[36:38.000 –> 36:42.000] and unlock access to the game before the official release on the 30th of May.
[36:42.000 –> 36:44.000] The game is released!
[36:44.000 –> 36:46.000] Yes, it is!
[36:46.000 –> 36:49.000] If you’re not buying the game, you’re not getting the game.
[36:51.000 –> 36:53.000] That’s just releasing the game.
[36:54.000 –> 36:57.000] I don’t understand how this isn’t just released.
[36:57.000 –> 36:59.000] How is this game not out?
[36:59.000 –> 37:01.000] It’s out! You can buy it and play it.
[37:02.000 –> 37:04.000] So, the news. Everdream Valley is out.
[37:04.000 –> 37:06.000] You can buy it and go and play it.
[37:06.000 –> 37:09.000] Well, of course, the funny thing is the 30th of May
[37:09.000 –> 37:12.000] is the day before this podcast episode comes out anyway.
[37:12.000 –> 37:14.000] So, yes, the game is out.
[37:20.000 –> 37:21.000] Oh, my word.
[37:21.000 –> 37:23.000] That is some silly news.
[37:23.000 –> 37:25.000] Shall we talk about some new games?
[37:26.000 –> 37:28.000] Yes, let’s do that.
[37:31.000 –> 37:33.000] Marvelous did a…
[37:33.000 –> 37:35.000] I don’t know what it was.
[37:35.000 –> 37:38.000] Like a Nintendo Direct, basically.
[37:38.000 –> 37:41.000] Game Showcase is what they called it.
[37:41.000 –> 37:43.000] Is that what they called it?
[37:43.000 –> 37:46.000] Oh, yes, it is. Marvelous Games Showcase 2023,
[37:46.000 –> 37:49.000] which shows they’re not planning on doing another one this year
[37:49.000 –> 37:52.000] because they just called it 2023, not May 2023.
[37:52.000 –> 37:55.000] And, my word, they give us a lot to talk about.
[37:55.000 –> 37:59.000] They have announced four games that we care about here.
[38:00.000 –> 38:02.000] Well, care about, kind of.
[38:02.000 –> 38:05.000] There are two Story of Seasons games
[38:05.000 –> 38:08.000] and two Rune Factory games that they’ve announced.
[38:08.000 –> 38:09.000] Where to start?
[38:09.000 –> 38:11.000] Which is, like, so many games.
[38:11.000 –> 38:12.000] Madness. Absolute madness.
[38:12.000 –> 38:14.000] And it’s not one of these, like,
[38:14.000 –> 38:16.000] oh, yeah, one of them’s a remake and one of them’s a new…
[38:16.000 –> 38:18.000] None of these are remakes. These are all new games.
[38:18.000 –> 38:20.000] Let’s start with the Story of Seasons stuff
[38:20.000 –> 38:22.000] because that’s the stuff that we actually care about.
[38:22.000 –> 38:25.000] Sorry, Rochelle. I don’t like Rune Factory.
[38:25.000 –> 38:28.000] So, they’ve announced one of the games
[38:28.000 –> 38:31.000] which is just kind of standard
[38:31.000 –> 38:35.000] and I expect it will be kind of like Pioneers of Olive Town
[38:35.000 –> 38:38.000] but with a new place and a new story.
[38:38.000 –> 38:40.000] Like, they tend to do these games in kind of, like,
[38:40.000 –> 38:44.000] two very similar ones, kind of like how Pokémon does quite a lot.
[38:44.000 –> 38:46.000] Like, not exactly the same
[38:46.000 –> 38:48.000] but, like, built on the same kind of foundations
[38:48.000 –> 38:50.000] and feeling very similar.
[38:50.000 –> 38:53.000] Like, Story of Seasons 1 and Story of Seasons Tree of Towns,
[38:53.000 –> 38:55.000] they were very similar sort of games
[38:55.000 –> 38:57.000] just in different environments and different stories.
[38:57.000 –> 39:00.000] So, I expect it will play a lot like Pioneers of Olive Town
[39:00.000 –> 39:03.000] with some enhancements.
[39:03.000 –> 39:06.000] Yeah, I think the one thing that I said
[39:06.000 –> 39:09.000] for the new sort of standard game is that
[39:09.000 –> 39:11.000] they’re working very hard on the visuals
[39:11.000 –> 39:13.000] but they, you know, showed a screenshot that…
[39:13.000 –> 39:16.000] I mean, I guess it does look better than Pioneers of Olive Town
[39:16.000 –> 39:19.000] but not so naturally.
[39:19.000 –> 39:22.000] Yeah, maybe that’s it. Maybe it just looks more zoomed in.
[39:22.000 –> 39:25.000] Like, it does… And it’s not like Pioneers of Olive Town
[39:25.000 –> 39:27.000] looked bad, but it’s… Yeah.
[39:27.000 –> 39:30.000] It’s not like, oh wow, this is an amazing looking game.
[39:30.000 –> 39:32.000] It’s… Exactly.
[39:32.000 –> 39:34.000] This is fine.
[39:34.000 –> 39:36.000] But yeah, it does seem weird to, like, highlight,
[39:36.000 –> 39:39.000] oh, we’re really working hard on the environment
[39:39.000 –> 39:42.000] and then show a screenshot that looks fine.
[39:42.000 –> 39:44.000] Yeah.
[39:44.000 –> 39:46.000] Like, the animals look…
[39:46.000 –> 39:48.000] I mean, they look adorable, right?
[39:48.000 –> 39:50.000] But, like, we’re not looking for photorealistic here.
[39:50.000 –> 39:52.000] Like, what are you…
[39:52.000 –> 39:54.000] I just… I mean, I can’t complain about this.
[39:54.000 –> 39:56.000] Like, I like the look of the game, but…
[39:56.000 –> 39:58.000] Yeah. I agree.
[39:58.000 –> 40:00.000] It felt like a weird thing to say.
[40:00.000 –> 40:02.000] Yeah. It was just an odd thing to say
[40:02.000 –> 40:05.000] in the context of Story of Seasons games, right?
[40:05.000 –> 40:07.000] Like… Yeah. Very odd.
[40:07.000 –> 40:10.000] There’s literally nothing else to talk about.
[40:10.000 –> 40:13.000] We got, like, three screenshots of different seasons
[40:13.000 –> 40:15.000] and we saw a cow and a sheep
[40:15.000 –> 40:17.000] and some dogs, which are very cute dogs.
[40:17.000 –> 40:20.000] Are they sheep? They’re meant to be sheep at E News, I think.
[40:20.000 –> 40:22.000] Yeah, I believe so.
[40:22.000 –> 40:24.000] Very cute dogs.
[40:24.000 –> 40:29.000] Why are there some green trees in this autumn screenshot?
[40:29.000 –> 40:31.000] Because they’re not evergreen trees.
[40:31.000 –> 40:32.000] They’re pine trees.
[40:32.000 –> 40:33.000] Are they pine trees?
[40:33.000 –> 40:34.000] Yeah.
[40:34.000 –> 40:37.000] Or they’re the… you know, how every video game
[40:37.000 –> 40:40.000] has decided that they’re going to do evergreen trees
[40:40.000 –> 40:42.000] where it’s the one that’s cone-shaped.
[40:42.000 –> 40:44.000] Yeah. Okay. Fair enough.
[40:44.000 –> 40:46.000] Yeah. Well, presumably have more to talk…
[40:46.000 –> 40:49.000] I mean, this game isn’t coming out this year, right?
[40:49.000 –> 40:51.000] Next year, if we’re lucky.
[40:52.000 –> 40:57.000] I suspect 2025 for at least one of…
[40:57.000 –> 41:00.000] Well, at least one of these two Story of Seasons games.
[41:00.000 –> 41:02.000] The second one is…
[41:02.000 –> 41:04.000] We have even less information about…
[41:04.000 –> 41:06.000] We don’t have any screenshots or anything
[41:06.000 –> 41:09.000] and this is highly focused on multiplayer,
[41:09.000 –> 41:11.000] which is an interesting way to do things.
[41:11.000 –> 41:13.000] I think this is good.
[41:13.000 –> 41:14.000] Bear with me on this.
[41:14.000 –> 41:16.000] I think…
[41:16.000 –> 41:19.000] So, I’ve come to agree with…
[41:19.000 –> 41:20.000] We’re going to talk about him later.
[41:20.000 –> 41:23.000] Do you know Yahtzee Croshaw, the Zero Punctuation guy?
[41:23.000 –> 41:24.000] Yes.
[41:24.000 –> 41:27.000] So, he has been saying a lot recently
[41:27.000 –> 41:29.000] that you cannot design…
[41:29.000 –> 41:32.000] Well, design a game that is both single-player
[41:32.000 –> 41:35.000] and multiplayer focused and then both be good.
[41:35.000 –> 41:37.000] And I think I’ve come to agree with him on that.
[41:37.000 –> 41:41.000] And I think this is a good way to do things
[41:41.000 –> 41:43.000] and if you want to do some multiplayer stuff,
[41:43.000 –> 41:45.000] do a new game for it and focus it around that
[41:45.000 –> 41:47.000] because then you can make it work really well.
[41:47.000 –> 41:50.000] Like, Stardew Valley was fine with his multiplayer
[41:50.000 –> 41:52.000] but it was just the same game.
[41:52.000 –> 41:55.000] It was play the game but with multiple people.
[41:55.000 –> 41:58.000] And he did well with what he had to work there
[41:58.000 –> 42:01.000] but it’s not like it’s an amazing multiplayer game, right?
[42:01.000 –> 42:04.000] No, and it’s very easily, in my view,
[42:04.000 –> 42:06.000] the worst way to play Stardew Valley.
[42:06.000 –> 42:09.000] Because it’s just not inherent to the design of the game, right?
[42:09.000 –> 42:13.000] The game is about your experience in the valley
[42:13.000 –> 42:16.000] and adding other people to that
[42:16.000 –> 42:18.000] changes that experience drastically.
[42:18.000 –> 42:20.000] Well, you even have to just think about the fact that
[42:20.000 –> 42:23.000] someone has to create a game on their machine
[42:23.000 –> 42:24.000] and then share it with you
[42:24.000 –> 42:27.000] and you are creating a house on their farm, right?
[42:27.000 –> 42:29.000] It’s not a shared farm.
[42:29.000 –> 42:31.000] So, like, even that, like, technically,
[42:31.000 –> 42:33.000] that is obviously how we had to do things.
[42:33.000 –> 42:36.000] Like, it doesn’t have a server or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[42:36.000 –> 42:39.000] But I think the point is, like,
[42:39.000 –> 42:41.000] I like the idea of a multiplayer focused game.
[42:41.000 –> 42:43.000] I’ll be interested to see how it works.
[42:43.000 –> 42:50.000] I wonder whether it’s, like, MMO or, like, an always-on game.
[42:50.000 –> 42:53.000] Maybe not MMO because it’s, like, presumably low numbers
[42:53.000 –> 42:55.000] because you’ll just be playing with your friends.
[42:55.000 –> 42:57.000] But, like, it’ll be an always-on game
[42:57.000 –> 42:59.000] so that it’s, like, hosted on a server
[42:59.000 –> 43:02.000] so that you have that aspect of someone doesn’t have to be on, right?
[43:02.000 –> 43:04.000] Anybody can connect to this at any point.
[43:04.000 –> 43:06.000] We don’t have to all be there at the same time.
[43:06.000 –> 43:08.000] Well, and it’s going to be interesting to see what they do
[43:08.000 –> 43:12.000] from a, like, Seasons perspective and those things as well
[43:12.000 –> 43:15.000] because that’s, for me, one of the big things that doesn’t work
[43:15.000 –> 43:19.000] in multiplayer farming games is if you and I start playing
[43:19.000 –> 43:21.000] and we play through spring together
[43:21.000 –> 43:23.000] and then you want to keep playing through summer
[43:23.000 –> 43:25.000] and I need to take that time off
[43:25.000 –> 43:27.000] and then I come back and it’s autumn,
[43:27.000 –> 43:29.000] like, I feel like I’ve missed something.
[43:29.000 –> 43:32.000] So I’m going to be really interested to see how they approach it.
[43:32.000 –> 43:34.000] And it’s a great thing, I think, that they’re approaching it with,
[43:34.000 –> 43:38.000] hey, we’re doing a multiplayer focused game.
[43:38.000 –> 43:40.000] Devil’s in the detail.
[43:40.000 –> 43:42.000] Yeah, no, absolutely.
[43:42.000 –> 43:45.000] I mean, I’m starting to wonder whether it might be a real-time game.
[43:45.000 –> 43:50.000] I hope so because I feel like that’s kind of where you need to go in order for it.
[43:50.000 –> 43:53.000] It feels like, I mean, I’m not a huge fan of real-time games
[43:53.000 –> 43:56.000] as I’ve talked on our Animal Crossing podcast episodes.
[43:56.000 –> 43:59.000] That makes it sound like there’s an Animal…
[43:59.000 –> 44:03.000] On the episodes of this podcast where we have talked about Animal Crossing,
[44:03.000 –> 44:06.000] I’m not a huge fan of real-time games
[44:06.000 –> 44:10.000] but it does feel like the best way to balance, as you say, those issues
[44:10.000 –> 44:13.000] of when people are playing and when people are not playing.
[44:13.000 –> 44:15.000] And this way it’s like everybody’s missing out
[44:15.000 –> 44:17.000] because the game is always playing.
[44:17.000 –> 44:21.000] So it’s impossible to not miss out,
[44:21.000 –> 44:23.000] therefore you don’t worry about it
[44:23.000 –> 44:25.000] because it’s just always happening.
[44:25.000 –> 44:28.000] And if you are going to worry about that, you’re not going to play it.
[44:28.000 –> 44:29.000] Exactly.
[44:29.000 –> 44:32.000] Well, I mean, we’ll see. I’m intrigued.
[44:32.000 –> 44:35.000] Yeah, get that. Give me games.
[44:35.000 –> 44:40.000] Yeah, but realistically, neither of these games is coming out to 2024 at the earliest, right?
[44:40.000 –> 44:43.000] Yeah, they’ll probably not come out the same year either.
[44:43.000 –> 44:46.000] Maybe we’ll get one next year and one in 2025.
[44:46.000 –> 44:48.000] Maybe it’s 2025, 2026.
[44:48.000 –> 44:51.000] But yeah, they’ve not given us names.
[44:51.000 –> 44:54.000] They’ve not given us even vague release windows.
[44:54.000 –> 44:56.000] They’ve given us four screenshots of one of the games
[44:56.000 –> 45:00.000] and concept art of another game, which tells you literally nothing
[45:01.000 –> 45:06.000] because it’s literally just a farmer sitting with a cup of tea or coffee
[45:06.000 –> 45:08.000] and another farmer holding a carrot
[45:08.000 –> 45:10.000] clearly showing the multiplayer aspect of it
[45:10.000 –> 45:12.000] and Mount Fiji’s in the back, right?
[45:12.000 –> 45:14.000] Like nothing else.
[45:14.000 –> 45:17.000] It’s not telling you anything about the multiplayer aspect.
[45:17.000 –> 45:20.000] It’s not telling you anything about the game, which is fine.
[45:20.000 –> 45:22.000] But the point is like that’s even further back.
[45:22.000 –> 45:24.000] I think the main one comes out first
[45:24.000 –> 45:26.000] and then the multiplayer one comes out after that.
[45:26.000 –> 45:28.000] That was definitely the impression that they gave.
[45:28.000 –> 45:31.000] But both of them are diligently under development.
[45:31.000 –> 45:34.000] I do love when you like automatically translate these things.
[45:34.000 –> 45:37.000] Clearly that is like a standard phrase in Japanese
[45:37.000 –> 45:40.000] that just sounds so weird in English.
[45:43.000 –> 45:44.000] Good fun.
[45:44.000 –> 45:47.000] So yeah, the next two were two RuneFactory games
[45:47.000 –> 45:51.000] and my word, I look forward to these coming out in 10 years.
[45:52.000 –> 45:55.000] The first one is RuneFactory 6.
[45:58.000 –> 46:01.000] I mean, presumably it’ll be like RuneFactory 5, but different.
[46:01.000 –> 46:04.000] Yeah, and that was literally all they announced was the title.
[46:04.000 –> 46:08.000] I don’t even remember seeing any concept art or a screenshot or anything.
[46:08.000 –> 46:13.000] They showed a screenshot next to the RuneFactory 6 logo
[46:13.000 –> 46:15.000] but it was a screenshot from the other game.
[46:16.000 –> 46:18.000] So yeah, there was literally nothing.
[46:18.000 –> 46:21.000] It’s as much as we got for RuneFactory 5 initially.
[46:22.000 –> 46:25.000] So yeah, I don’t know.
[46:25.000 –> 46:28.000] Well, they have problems like they had with RuneFactory 5.
[46:28.000 –> 46:31.000] I really feel like they need to stop announcing games
[46:31.000 –> 46:33.000] before they actually have a game to show you.
[46:34.000 –> 46:37.000] Because the RuneFactory 5 one was a bit of a joke
[46:37.000 –> 46:42.000] how long it was between logo and anything else, any other information.
[46:43.000 –> 46:46.000] And this announcement did not inspire confidence that it’s like,
[46:46.000 –> 46:49.000] again, this is something that we might hear something next year on it
[46:49.000 –> 46:51.000] based on what we heard this time around.
[46:51.000 –> 46:54.000] We’re not hearing anything on RuneFactory 6 next year.
[46:54.000 –> 46:57.000] We’re not hearing anything about this game again until 2025.
[46:57.000 –> 47:02.000] They’re not even going to talk about its existence again until 2025.
[47:02.000 –> 47:05.000] Come on, let’s not be optimistic here.
[47:06.000 –> 47:10.000] The other one, which looks like it’s much further on in development
[47:10.000 –> 47:13.000] and I wouldn’t be surprised if this came out next year
[47:13.000 –> 47:17.000] because we got much more of this than any of the other three games we’re talking about.
[47:17.000 –> 47:20.000] And that is RuneFactory Project Dragon.
[47:20.000 –> 47:22.000] I really hope that’s not the final name.
[47:22.000 –> 47:25.000] The final name and that is a working title.
[47:25.000 –> 47:27.000] I think that is the final name.
[47:27.000 –> 47:29.000] Project Dragon, really.
[47:29.000 –> 47:33.000] Project Dragon, I’m into this name. I think it’s kind of awesome.
[47:33.000 –> 47:36.000] Look, it’s better than Spider-Man 2, I’ll give you that.
[47:38.000 –> 47:40.000] So this is very interesting.
[47:42.000 –> 47:44.000] I suspect the reason they’ve announced these two together
[47:44.000 –> 47:47.000] is because they wanted to talk about the fact that there’s a theme
[47:47.000 –> 47:50.000] between these two games and it’s east and west.
[47:50.000 –> 47:56.000] And the Project Dragon is focused in the east of the world
[47:56.000 –> 48:01.000] that they have in RuneFactory, which we’ve never been to, apparently, before.
[48:01.000 –> 48:03.000] And this is…
[48:03.000 –> 48:07.000] The gameplay is you’re riding around on a dragon
[48:07.000 –> 48:10.000] and you get to explore floating islands.
[48:10.000 –> 48:14.000] I mean, I’m in. I’m instantly in getting to ride on a dragon.
[48:14.000 –> 48:17.000] Yeah, look, when I was watching the trailer for this game, Al,
[48:17.000 –> 48:20.000] my initial reaction was like, oh, this looks like, you know,
[48:20.000 –> 48:23.000] a sort of action adventure, you know,
[48:23.000 –> 48:25.000] going to have to compete with Zelda.
[48:25.000 –> 48:27.000] If a game’s going to compete with Zelda,
[48:27.000 –> 48:31.000] attractive anime people riding dragons is a pretty good way to get me to play the game.
[48:31.000 –> 48:33.000] This game looks kind of awesome.
[48:33.000 –> 48:35.000] Yeah, they’ve even got a screenshot. They know exactly what they’re doing.
[48:35.000 –> 48:40.000] They’ve got a screenshot of the dragon, you riding the dragon,
[48:40.000 –> 48:43.000] with lightning bolt next to it.
[48:43.000 –> 48:45.000] Like, what’s not to love there?
[48:45.000 –> 48:47.000] These are good-looking dragons.
[48:47.000 –> 48:49.000] These are not like, oh, these look angry.
[48:49.000 –> 48:52.000] These are dragons, my word.
[48:52.000 –> 48:54.000] Yeah, give me my dragons.
[48:54.000 –> 48:55.000] They look old and angry.
[48:55.000 –> 48:58.000] And then there’s like just some beautiful, you know,
[48:58.000 –> 49:01.000] Eastern anime-inspired landscape shots.
[49:01.000 –> 49:05.000] Like, the floating islands thing seems, like, cool.
[49:05.000 –> 49:10.000] And like, just because, you know, Zelda is sort of the topic of the day,
[49:10.000 –> 49:12.000] you know, these look very different.
[49:12.000 –> 49:16.000] Like, it’s not just, oh, some people thought about some Sky Island stuff
[49:16.000 –> 49:19.000] and it’s all kind of the same. This looks very different in its execution.
[49:19.000 –> 49:20.000] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[49:20.000 –> 49:25.000] I think, for me, the make or break for this game will be the combat.
[49:25.000 –> 49:28.000] I hate the combat in Rune Factory 5.
[49:28.000 –> 49:31.000] With an absolute passion, I hate it.
[49:31.000 –> 49:35.000] If they can make it better, then I would love this game.
[49:35.000 –> 49:38.000] If it’s not, I will hate this game.
[49:38.000 –> 49:39.000] Yeah.
[49:39.000 –> 49:44.000] And I don’t know about you, but this kind of gave me Pokemon Legends vibes,
[49:44.000 –> 49:49.000] where it’s like the, you know, not main series for whatever that actually means.
[49:49.000 –> 49:52.000] More experimental.
[49:52.000 –> 49:56.000] Yeah, more experimental. Like, it definitely gave that sort of vibe to me.
[49:56.000 –> 50:03.000] So, based on what they showed, I don’t know how big I would expect this game to be
[50:03.000 –> 50:07.000] relative to a main series Rune Factory game.
[50:07.000 –> 50:10.000] Yeah, I think that’s fair.
[50:10.000 –> 50:12.000] It’ll be interesting to see what they do with the floating islands.
[50:12.000 –> 50:15.000] Like, do different islands have different seasons? That sort of stuff.
[50:15.000 –> 50:17.000] Because don’t forget, this is still a farming game.
[50:17.000 –> 50:21.000] Rune Factory is a farming game, even though it’s focused on combat as well.
[50:21.000 –> 50:23.000] It is still a farming game.
[50:23.000 –> 50:27.000] So, will they focus on things like that?
[50:27.000 –> 50:33.000] Because I know in Rune Factory 5, you can have multiple farms on the backs of dragons,
[50:33.000 –> 50:36.000] which is not as exciting as it sounds.
[50:36.000 –> 50:38.000] You’ve not played the game.
[50:38.000 –> 50:41.000] So, could they do a similar sort of thing, where you have multiple farms on different
[50:41.000 –> 50:45.000] sky islands and different seasons? Maybe? Don’t know.
[50:45.000 –> 50:48.000] That would be a cool idea. I like that idea.
[50:48.000 –> 50:53.000] I have game design ideas. Give me money, I’ll give you more game design ideas.
[50:53.000 –> 50:58.000] I was going to say, are you surely not going to volunteer to actually develop these games out?
[50:58.000 –> 51:01.000] Because you know what a deep dark hole that can become.
[51:01.000 –> 51:03.000] No, I don’t want to actually develop the games, right?
[51:03.000 –> 51:05.000] I want to have the ideas and make other people do the job.
[51:05.000 –> 51:07.000] I said that in a podcast recently, didn’t I?
[51:07.000 –> 51:11.000] I don’t want to do the thing. I want someone else to do the thing.
[51:11.000 –> 51:13.000] Do you want the creative director title?
[51:13.000 –> 51:17.000] Yeah, absolutely. I am a software developer, so I know about software development.
[51:17.000 –> 51:21.000] I’m not a game developer. I’m not a game developer for a very specific reason.
[51:21.000 –> 51:24.000] Because game development is not fun.
[51:24.000 –> 51:29.000] It’s not fun. And I don’t think it pays that well, because there’s lots of developers want to do.
[51:29.000 –> 51:33.000] Absolutely. And it’s full of crunch, and it’s full of just not…
[51:33.000 –> 51:35.000] Yeah, no. No, I’m not doing that.
[51:35.000 –> 51:40.000] But, as you say, creative director. I can do that. I’ve got ideas.
[51:40.000 –> 51:42.000] I’ll give you my ideas for money.
[51:45.000 –> 51:51.000] Last point is, we do have one piece of information about Rune Factory 6, which is set in the west.
[51:51.000 –> 51:57.000] And in a place called Adoni. Adoni… Adoni?
[51:57.000 –> 51:59.000] I’m not helping with this one.
[52:00.000 –> 52:03.000] Staying away from pronunciation is probably sensible.
[52:03.000 –> 52:06.000] Alright. Cool. Fine. Moving on.
[52:06.000 –> 52:08.000] Starstruck Vagabond.
[52:08.000 –> 52:14.000] Starstruck Vagabond. Which, amusingly, has the same initials as Stardew Valley.
[52:14.000 –> 52:18.000] That was my initial thing when I was looking through some of the figure.
[52:18.000 –> 52:21.000] They kept referencing their own game as SV, and I was like,
[52:21.000 –> 52:24.000] you can’t do that if you are even tangentially…
[52:24.000 –> 52:27.000] I think it’s a joke.
[52:28.000 –> 52:34.000] Let me give the background for this, because not everybody will know about this game.
[52:34.000 –> 52:36.000] Most people won’t know about this game.
[52:36.000 –> 52:41.000] So, Yahtzee Crowshaw is a…
[52:41.000 –> 52:45.000] I guess a games journalist is probably the best way to describe him.
[52:45.000 –> 52:51.000] He runs a YouTube series called Zero Punctuation,
[52:51.000 –> 52:54.000] which at this point in time is part of The Escapist,
[52:54.000 –> 52:58.000] but has been independent and part of other things. Doesn’t matter.
[52:58.000 –> 53:01.000] Very funny. I really like his game reviews.
[53:01.000 –> 53:04.000] Very sweaty. Always fun.
[53:04.000 –> 53:09.000] He also, though, is a game developer,
[53:09.000 –> 53:15.000] and for most of his professional life, that’s the thing he’s done outside of work.
[53:15.000 –> 53:20.000] I think during the pandemic, he did a YouTube series called Game Dev Diary,
[53:20.000 –> 53:26.000] where he developed one game every month for a year.
[53:26.000 –> 53:29.000] They were obviously really small games, but they were all released.
[53:29.000 –> 53:32.000] You can play them all, and they were all quite interesting.
[53:32.000 –> 53:36.000] He used it as a way to talk about not game development,
[53:36.000 –> 53:40.000] but about game design and about what he looks for in games
[53:40.000 –> 53:43.000] and how to make fun gameplay loops.
[53:43.000 –> 53:46.000] It was actually a really interesting video series.
[53:47.000 –> 53:50.000] If you haven’t seen it, I’d highly recommend going back and watch it.
[53:50.000 –> 53:52.000] It’s really good.
[53:52.000 –> 53:54.000] Obviously, I think it was 24 episodes,
[53:54.000 –> 53:57.000] because one at the beginning of the month and one in the middle of the month,
[53:57.000 –> 53:59.000] and then one at the end of the month,
[53:59.000 –> 54:02.000] which merged into the one at the beginning of the month and the next one,
[54:02.000 –> 54:05.000] talking about what was going on in that.
[54:05.000 –> 54:07.000] It was very interesting.
[54:07.000 –> 54:10.000] At the end of that, he then decided to do a new challenge,
[54:10.000 –> 54:13.000] which was actually developing a proper game.
[54:13.000 –> 54:18.000] That’s when he came up with this idea of this game, Starstruck Vagabond.
[54:18.000 –> 54:23.000] I do believe the name came before he realised what the initials were,
[54:23.000 –> 54:25.000] the same as.
[54:25.000 –> 54:28.000] I suspect, considering the sort of guy he is,
[54:28.000 –> 54:32.000] that constantly referring to it as SV is a joke about Stardew Valley.
[54:32.000 –> 54:34.000] That would make sense.
[54:34.000 –> 54:38.000] To be fair, in a world where we exist in a genre
[54:38.000 –> 54:41.000] where most of the names of games are really bad,
[54:41.000 –> 54:44.000] Starstruck Vagabond is a great name.
[54:44.000 –> 54:48.000] I suspect it’ll end up realistically, if it becomes popular,
[54:48.000 –> 54:53.000] it’ll end up being shortened just as Starstruck or Vagabond.
[54:53.000 –> 54:55.000] It won’t be shortened as SV.
[54:55.000 –> 54:58.000] It’ll be shortened as one of the names, I suspect.
[54:58.000 –> 55:00.000] Agreed.
[55:00.000 –> 55:03.000] There’s not a huge amount of info about the game
[55:03.000 –> 55:07.000] other than it’s a package delivery game in space,
[55:07.000 –> 55:11.000] trying to keep your ship together as one of the core concepts,
[55:11.000 –> 55:14.000] which I think is an interesting idea.
[55:14.000 –> 55:16.000] Yes.
[55:16.000 –> 55:21.000] He’s done quite a few more episodes of Dev Diary on the game.
[55:21.000 –> 55:24.000] If you do care about it, there’s a lot more information out there,
[55:24.000 –> 55:27.000] but it’s just not on the website.
[55:27.000 –> 55:31.000] There are demos and stuff like that from a few months ago.
[55:31.000 –> 55:35.000] They’ve not released one in quite a while, but that’s not important.
[55:35.000 –> 55:41.000] He talks about how it was designed to be a cosy game
[55:41.000 –> 55:46.000] and very definitely focused on the ideas that came out of Stardew
[55:46.000 –> 55:48.000] and that sort of stuff.
[55:48.000 –> 55:50.000] He was one of the few people that at the same time
[55:50.000 –> 55:52.000] as we were starting up this podcast
[55:52.000 –> 55:55.000] were seeing that these were going to obviously become
[55:55.000 –> 55:57.000] a lot more popular than they are
[55:57.000 –> 56:00.000] and everybody was going to be making these games,
[56:00.000 –> 56:02.000] so we started talking about that.
[56:02.000 –> 56:05.000] It’s a package delivery game,
[56:05.000 –> 56:10.000] but you go and visit lots of different planets
[56:10.000 –> 56:14.000] and then you can mine on the planets for resources and stuff.
[56:14.000 –> 56:17.000] You have a crew and there’s relationship stuff with the crew.
[56:17.000 –> 56:19.000] It’s your standard Cottagecore game,
[56:19.000 –> 56:22.000] but instead of farming, you’re a package deliverer.
[56:22.000 –> 56:24.000] I guess the reason we’re talking about this now,
[56:24.000 –> 56:26.000] which I haven’t said,
[56:26.000 –> 56:29.000] is because they’re officially making it into a commercial game.
[56:29.000 –> 56:32.000] Apparently development is entering its final stages.
[56:32.000 –> 56:35.000] I didn’t really want to talk about this really early on
[56:35.000 –> 56:39.000] because it could have just been another thing that he talks about
[56:39.000 –> 56:42.000] because he’s never actually released a full game.
[56:42.000 –> 56:47.000] He’s just released these little ideas for games and stuff,
[56:47.000 –> 56:51.000] so I didn’t really want to talk about it until it was like…
[56:51.000 –> 56:54.000] Now they’re definitely going to commercialize it and release it.
[56:54.000 –> 56:57.000] They’ve presumably got a publisher, that sort of stuff.
[56:57.000 –> 57:00.000] I suspect it won’t come out this year,
[57:00.000 –> 57:02.000] but maybe next year.
[57:02.000 –> 57:05.000] Probably early next year, I suspect.
[57:05.000 –> 57:08.000] Look at me trying to predict all these things.
[57:12.000 –> 57:14.000] Just Life.
[57:14.000 –> 57:18.000] Oh boy, have you looked at any of the screenshots or videos of this game?
[57:18.000 –> 57:24.000] I’ve watched some of the videos on the Kickstarter for Just Life.
[57:24.000 –> 57:28.000] This is an open-world life and farming RPG
[57:28.000 –> 57:31.000] with a deep narrative and social sim, is what they say.
[57:31.000 –> 57:34.000] Just Life is a role-playing game and life simulation game
[57:34.000 –> 57:37.000] focused on narrative and human relationships.
[57:37.000 –> 57:40.000] You take control of a young man who has just graduated from high school.
[57:40.000 –> 57:42.000] Life hasn’t been easy for him,
[57:42.000 –> 57:45.000] as he can’t afford to go to college due to economic reasons,
[57:45.000 –> 57:49.000] and he’s been unable to find a job because everyone requires work experience.
[57:49.000 –> 57:53.000] But fate gives him an opportunity, and he inherits an agricultural land.
[57:53.000 –> 57:56.000] Your mission is to achieve success from scratch, starting with nothing.
[57:56.000 –> 58:03.000] I mean, it’s like your standard premise for a farming game, right?
[58:03.000 –> 58:06.000] It’s nothing. Anyway, this game looks like Second Life.
[58:06.000 –> 58:08.000] Yeah, it does.
[58:08.000 –> 58:10.000] I’m glad you agree. I’m not being too harsh.
[58:10.000 –> 58:14.000] Like, it’s… I just… I don’t… I don’t like it.
[58:14.000 –> 58:18.000] It has that weird, like, we’re going for realism,
[58:18.000 –> 58:21.000] but everything is just a little bit…
[58:21.000 –> 58:25.000] Like, it’s kind of like someone took The Sims and they were like,
[58:25.000 –> 58:31.000] no, let’s make this more photorealistic, but not really look better.
[58:31.000 –> 58:36.000] Yeah, this would have been really good graphics like 15 years ago.
[58:36.000 –> 58:37.000] Yes.
[58:37.000 –> 58:43.000] And the problem is that realistic graphics generally age really badly.
[58:43.000 –> 58:47.000] And this has already aged badly and it’s not out yet.
[58:47.000 –> 58:53.000] Yeah, yeah. And the game itself has a thing that really, you know,
[58:53.000 –> 58:55.000] not that I really kickstart games anymore,
[58:55.000 –> 59:00.000] but this has got a lot of the vibe that would make me not kickstart a game,
[59:00.000 –> 59:02.000] where it looks super ambitious, right?
[59:02.000 –> 59:05.000] So if you watch the trailer, this has everything in it.
[59:05.000 –> 59:11.000] And I guess just in terms of the overall premises, it’s kind of like modern day…
[59:11.000 –> 59:15.000] Oh, sorry, I just saw a bit where they went to talk to someone
[59:15.000 –> 59:17.000] and the body moved and the head didn’t.
[59:17.000 –> 59:18.000] Oh, yeah.
[59:18.000 –> 59:20.000] Like, I know that’s something that can be fixed.
[59:20.000 –> 59:22.000] That’s not a knock on the game.
[59:22.000 –> 59:25.000] It’s early footage, but that was just horrible to watch, horrifying.
[59:25.000 –> 59:27.000] Oh, sorry, continue.
[59:27.000 –> 59:29.000] Yeah, no, it’s really ambitious, right?
[59:29.000 –> 59:31.000] Stop watching the video now.
[59:31.000 –> 59:35.000] So I’ve got all of the usual farming stuff, you know, object placement,
[59:35.000 –> 59:40.000] building, fishing, proper farming, relationships.
[59:40.000 –> 59:43.000] You can ride bikes, you can drive cars.
[59:44.000 –> 59:46.000] There’s just so much in it.
[59:46.000 –> 59:52.000] It’s only asking for like $14,000 USD to be fully funded.
[59:52.000 –> 59:59.000] And you just can’t do much with such a small amount of money.
[01:00:01.000 –> 01:00:04.000] I feel really bad because this is clearly like an individual person
[01:00:04.000 –> 01:00:06.000] is trying to make their dream a reality.
[01:00:06.000 –> 01:00:11.000] And they’re not succeeding because they only have $215 pledged
[01:00:11.000 –> 01:00:14.000] with like just over half the time to go.
[01:00:14.000 –> 01:00:16.000] So it’s not getting funded.
[01:00:16.000 –> 01:00:22.000] But yeah, I think I like the idea of like a kind of narrative driven
[01:00:22.000 –> 01:00:27.000] cottagecore game more so that like Stardew Valley did really well,
[01:00:27.000 –> 01:00:33.000] but it’s still limited because there isn’t really an overarching story.
[01:00:33.000 –> 01:00:37.000] And what it did well was the like small relationships.
[01:00:37.000 –> 01:00:40.000] And I like the idea of an actually, you know,
[01:00:40.000 –> 01:00:44.000] properly narrative driven cottagecore game with an overarching story.
[01:00:44.000 –> 01:00:47.000] I think that’s an interesting way to go.
[01:00:47.000 –> 01:00:50.000] But as you say, I think you need to do less.
[01:00:50.000 –> 01:00:55.000] Yeah, like to me, this seems like a really good sort of like first cut.
[01:00:55.000 –> 01:00:59.000] And I would be really excited for, you know, the developer
[01:00:59.000 –> 01:01:01.000] or, you know, to team up with some other people
[01:01:01.000 –> 01:01:05.000] and to find a way to focus the idea on that narrative side.
[01:01:05.000 –> 01:01:08.000] Because I agree, to me, that’s the part of the game that I was like,
[01:01:08.000 –> 01:01:09.000] oh, this is interesting, right?
[01:01:09.000 –> 01:01:13.000] Because even the fact that it was, you know, you’re specifically playing,
[01:01:13.000 –> 01:01:17.000] you know, this 18 year old man that’s, you know, just graduated,
[01:01:17.000 –> 01:01:21.000] like it was very specific about the sorts of relationships.
[01:01:21.000 –> 01:01:24.000] And, you know, a lot of cottagecore games have gone in there where you can,
[01:01:24.000 –> 01:01:28.000] you know, you’re effectively putting yourself into the shoes of the protagonist,
[01:01:28.000 –> 01:01:33.000] which always comes with the downside that there is only so deep
[01:01:33.000 –> 01:01:37.000] that you can go with the relationships because they need to work
[01:01:37.000 –> 01:01:40.000] for almost anyone in any situation.
[01:01:40.000 –> 01:01:41.000] Yeah.
[01:01:41.000 –> 01:01:47.000] And this could get a lot more deep and interesting,
[01:01:47.000 –> 01:01:52.000] but it just feels way too ambitious for what it is.
[01:01:52.000 –> 01:01:56.000] Yeah, I mean, it has lots of, I really like some of the ideas that it’s doing,
[01:01:56.000 –> 01:02:01.000] like it’s talking about how it’s really intensive to cut down a tree.
[01:02:01.000 –> 01:02:04.000] So like there’s multiple different things that they’re doing to get to the point
[01:02:04.000 –> 01:02:08.000] where they’ve actually got a cut down tree and you have to like, you know,
[01:02:08.000 –> 01:02:10.000] do three different steps to actually cut it down.
[01:02:10.000 –> 01:02:14.000] And then you have to cut it into logs and then smaller logs to actually carry it.
[01:02:14.000 –> 01:02:17.000] Like, I like the idea of all that.
[01:02:17.000 –> 01:02:19.000] I don’t think I want to play that.
[01:02:19.000 –> 01:02:20.000] Yep.
[01:02:20.000 –> 01:02:23.000] Oh, they do have sprinklers.
[01:02:23.000 –> 01:02:25.000] Al is getting lured back in.
[01:02:25.000 –> 01:02:26.000] I’m in.
[01:02:26.000 –> 01:02:27.000] Good automation.
[01:02:27.000 –> 01:02:30.000] I’m in.
[01:02:30.000 –> 01:02:33.000] Yeah, no, I just, yeah, I’m sad.
[01:02:33.000 –> 01:02:38.000] I really hope that this person can continue to develop games
[01:02:38.000 –> 01:02:41.000] because I think they have some really interesting ideas.
[01:02:41.000 –> 01:02:43.000] Well, and I hope this is the sort of thing, right,
[01:02:43.000 –> 01:02:46.000] where it’s like not everything needs to get funded,
[01:02:46.000 –> 01:02:49.000] but this could be a good platform for, you know, this person to, you know,
[01:02:49.000 –> 01:02:55.000] make some connections or find some other people that see something in the game
[01:02:55.000 –> 01:02:59.000] and maybe get a bit of a bigger team behind an idea.
[01:02:59.000 –> 01:03:01.000] That’s true. That’s true.
[01:03:01.000 –> 01:03:07.000] All right, next we’ve got Natsumon 20th Century Summer Vacation.
[01:03:07.000 –> 01:03:09.000] Now, a little bit of background for this.
[01:03:09.000 –> 01:03:11.000] This was actually announced in March.
[01:03:11.000 –> 01:03:14.000] It was announced in the Nintendo Direct in March,
[01:03:14.000 –> 01:03:17.000] specifically the Japanese Nintendo Direct in March.
[01:03:17.000 –> 01:03:19.000] I didn’t talk about it at the time,
[01:03:19.000 –> 01:03:21.000] but I knew I wanted to talk about it at some point.
[01:03:21.000 –> 01:03:22.000] I’m talking about it now.
[01:03:22.000 –> 01:03:25.000] This has only been announced for Japan, so don’t get too excited.
[01:03:25.000 –> 01:03:29.000] This is, I believe, like a long-running series of games in Japan,
[01:03:29.000 –> 01:03:34.000] the Natsumon series, and this is the new one in it.
[01:03:37.000 –> 01:03:41.000] So the little blurb that was kind of translated into English is
[01:03:41.000 –> 01:03:45.000] Enjoy a special summer vacation filled with nostalgic spectacles
[01:03:45.000 –> 01:03:49.000] like thunderous clouds, evening sunsets and the sound of cicadas.
[01:03:49.000 –> 01:03:53.000] I really like it’s got very, very specific style to it, shall we say,
[01:03:53.000 –> 01:03:56.000] which I think you’ll either really like or really hate.
[01:03:56.000 –> 01:04:00.000] I’m just seeing the water now and all I can think of is Wind Waker,
[01:04:00.000 –> 01:04:04.000] which I feel like I compare so many games to Wind Waker.
[01:04:04.000 –> 01:04:06.000] Yeah, you do.
[01:04:06.000 –> 01:04:09.000] You told me to not be too excited about this, Al,
[01:04:09.000 –> 01:04:12.000] and so I am not that excited about this.
[01:04:12.000 –> 01:04:15.000] Good. Thank you for doing what I say.
[01:04:15.000 –> 01:04:21.000] I mean, I’m probably not going to play it unless,
[01:04:21.000 –> 01:04:24.000] it’s certainly not going to play it if they don’t do a Western release,
[01:04:24.000 –> 01:04:27.000] which we don’t have any information for.
[01:04:27.000 –> 01:04:32.000] I don’t know, I kind of, I think I’d need more,
[01:04:32.000 –> 01:04:37.000] I’d need more information before I made a decision on this.
[01:04:37.000 –> 01:04:42.000] But I have played weirder games for this podcast, shall we say.
[01:04:42.000 –> 01:04:46.000] Yeah, that is undoubtedly a true statement.
[01:04:47.000 –> 01:04:50.000] Yeah, until this gets a Western release,
[01:04:50.000 –> 01:04:54.000] there’s so many other games that this one just will not occupy any brain space.
[01:04:54.000 –> 01:05:00.000] Speaking of weirder games, we have Grandma Green,
[01:05:00.000 –> 01:05:03.000] which definitely sounds like a character in Cluedo.
[01:05:03.000 –> 01:05:05.000] Oh my God, yes it does.
[01:05:05.000 –> 01:05:08.000] For the Americans, that’s the game that you call Clue,
[01:05:08.000 –> 01:05:11.000] because apparently Cluedo was too complicated a name.
[01:05:11.000 –> 01:05:14.000] It would be too complicated for Americans to understand.
[01:05:14.000 –> 01:05:17.000] Oh, I didn’t mean that! Johnny!
[01:05:17.000 –> 01:05:21.000] Most of our listeners are American, Johnny!
[01:05:21.000 –> 01:05:25.000] Yeah, and you know what generates engagement? Outrage! Outrage, Elle!
[01:05:25.000 –> 01:05:28.000] Americans, you dumb!
[01:05:30.000 –> 01:05:33.000] Yeah, I don’t know why they named it Clue in America.
[01:05:33.000 –> 01:05:35.000] It’s such a generic name.
[01:05:35.000 –> 01:05:37.000] Cluedo? Like, nothing else is Cluedo,
[01:05:37.000 –> 01:05:39.000] whereas Clue could mean so many different things.
[01:05:39.000 –> 01:05:40.000] Anyway, not important.
[01:05:40.000 –> 01:05:44.000] Grandma Green in the kitchen with the knife.
[01:05:45.000 –> 01:05:49.000] So this is a game about… Nope, reading the wrong one there.
[01:05:49.000 –> 01:05:54.000] So play as an adorable grandma, bring talking plants to life,
[01:05:54.000 –> 01:05:56.000] and cultivate the garden of your dreams.
[01:05:56.000 –> 01:05:59.000] This is currently out on the Apple App Store for free,
[01:05:59.000 –> 01:06:01.000] and it’s coming to Android soon.
[01:06:01.000 –> 01:06:04.000] I have played about five minutes of Grandma Green.
[01:06:04.000 –> 01:06:05.000] You downloaded it? Nice!
[01:06:05.000 –> 01:06:06.000] I downloaded it.
[01:06:06.000 –> 01:06:08.000] Go on, let us know. What is it like?
[01:06:08.000 –> 01:06:13.000] It’s cute. It’s got a really nice art style for a mobile game.
[01:06:14.000 –> 01:06:17.000] It seems to control well.
[01:06:17.000 –> 01:06:20.000] It seems to have kind of your basic farming stuff,
[01:06:20.000 –> 01:06:24.000] but I think from, or so far, the first plant that you get to grow is a tulip.
[01:06:24.000 –> 01:06:29.000] So I’m hoping it’s more like flowers rather than vegetables and things like that,
[01:06:29.000 –> 01:06:34.000] because this is one of the things I’m actually kind of looking for for farming games.
[01:06:34.000 –> 01:06:36.000] We’ve done the food thing to death, right?
[01:06:36.000 –> 01:06:40.000] The flowers are this whole area of farming games that is always in there,
[01:06:40.000 –> 01:06:43.000] but there’s never really anything to do with the flowers.
[01:06:43.000 –> 01:06:45.000] You kind of grow the flowers and then it’s like…
[01:06:45.000 –> 01:06:48.000] The most that anyone does is like it changes your honey.
[01:06:48.000 –> 01:06:50.000] Yes, exactly.
[01:06:50.000 –> 01:06:52.000] So it has these really minor effects where you can be like,
[01:06:52.000 –> 01:06:57.000] well I kind of want to do it, but it’s just an inefficient version of growing food.
[01:06:57.000 –> 01:06:59.000] So why bother?
[01:06:59.000 –> 01:07:05.000] So I’m hoping that this one is just more focused on flowers and other things.
[01:07:05.000 –> 01:07:08.000] Flowers and other sorts of plants, which is exciting.
[01:07:08.000 –> 01:07:11.000] But it looks cute, it’s kind of easy to play.
[01:07:11.000 –> 01:07:15.000] I mean, I’m not far enough in to provide any real update on whether or not
[01:07:15.000 –> 01:07:19.000] it seems like the sort of game that I will stick with or not.
[01:07:19.000 –> 01:07:22.000] But yes, I am playing Grandma Green.
[01:07:22.000 –> 01:07:26.000] You’ll either play it or you won’t, and you’ll either keep playing it or you won’t.
[01:07:26.000 –> 01:07:29.000] Pretty much. But you know, it’s free.
[01:07:29.000 –> 01:07:33.000] Well, free if you’ve got an Apple device.
[01:07:33.000 –> 01:07:38.000] Yes. Yeah, I mean, I might play it a little bit on my iPad,
[01:07:38.000 –> 01:07:40.000] but I feel like it’ll work better on a phone.
[01:07:40.000 –> 01:07:42.000] So I might just wait for the Android one.
[01:07:42.000 –> 01:07:47.000] Right, okay. You can try pronouncing this next one.
[01:07:47.000 –> 01:07:48.000] Grimoire Groves?
[01:07:48.000 –> 01:07:51.000] Grimoire. Let’s go with it then.
[01:07:51.000 –> 01:07:54.000] Grimoire. I was like, I have no idea where even to start with this one.
[01:07:54.000 –> 01:08:02.000] Grimoire Groves. A game about growing plants and friendships with your witch magic.
[01:08:03.000 –> 01:08:07.000] We don’t really have a huge amount of information about this game at this point.
[01:08:07.000 –> 01:08:15.000] So we’ve got like some small screenshots and a few very short clips.
[01:08:15.000 –> 01:08:19.000] And you have to like scroll back on Twitter to see them.
[01:08:19.000 –> 01:08:22.000] Mostly it’s just there’s a Kickstarter coming soon.
[01:08:22.000 –> 01:08:24.000] Yeah, look, I’m going to be honest.
[01:08:24.000 –> 01:08:29.000] This is coming a little bit late for the whole witches and farming game.
[01:08:29.000 –> 01:08:34.000] There are so many witches and farming game games.
[01:08:34.000 –> 01:08:39.000] I think about like a year ago, they just all popped up suddenly.
[01:08:39.000 –> 01:08:42.000] I mean, I get it. It’s Cottagecore, right? Or maybe this is more Goblincore.
[01:08:42.000 –> 01:08:46.000] Is that the one that’s more focused on this sort of thing?
[01:08:46.000 –> 01:08:49.000] This might have a foot in both camps.
[01:08:49.000 –> 01:08:53.000] Oh, there’s a lot of overlap between Cottagecore and Goblincore.
[01:08:53.000 –> 01:08:58.000] But I feel like Goblincore is more of like a subset of Cottagecore maybe.
[01:08:59.000 –> 01:09:03.000] Yeah, I mean, I just I keep going back to the thing I read on Wikipedia
[01:09:03.000 –> 01:09:06.000] that I had to go back to to double check the exact wording.
[01:09:06.000 –> 01:09:13.000] But on Goblincore, which is it has also been noted as having a significant number of LGBT plus
[01:09:13.000 –> 01:09:19.000] and specifically non-binary proponents with a common catchphrase being no gender, only bugs.
[01:09:21.000 –> 01:09:23.000] That’s all I can think about.
[01:09:23.000 –> 01:09:30.000] And a gaming thing to have only bugs is maybe not the tagline you want to be going with.
[01:09:32.000 –> 01:09:40.000] But yeah, I feel like the kind of overlap of the witchy farming games and Goblincore is very much
[01:09:40.000 –> 01:09:45.000] very heavily focused on LGBT people in my experience.
[01:09:45.000 –> 01:09:48.000] Revenant Hill is the next one.
[01:09:48.000 –> 01:09:53.000] I was not expecting to have a game come out of the PlayStation Showcase that we were going to talk about
[01:09:53.000 –> 01:09:56.000] other than in the introduction when I talk about Spider-Man.
[01:09:56.000 –> 01:09:58.000] But here we have Revenant Hill.
[01:09:58.000 –> 01:10:01.000] It’s 1919 and Twigs the cat has a dream.
[01:10:01.000 –> 01:10:04.000] Find a safe place to sleep and put down roots.
[01:10:04.000 –> 01:10:09.000] Grow some radishes, get a job, eat mice, do dangerous things with new friends
[01:10:09.000 –> 01:10:13.000] and build something together in a world falling apart.
[01:10:13.000 –> 01:10:18.000] To be honest, as far as taglines go, this is a great one.
[01:10:18.000 –> 01:10:22.000] Like, I love the specificity of grow some radishes.
[01:10:22.000 –> 01:10:24.000] Yeah, specifically radishes.
[01:10:24.000 –> 01:10:27.000] You know, the food the cats like to eat.
[01:10:29.000 –> 01:10:31.000] I don’t.
[01:10:32.000 –> 01:10:36.000] This is by the developer of Night in the Woods, if that is important to people.
[01:10:36.000 –> 01:10:38.000] I feel like that’s important background knowledge.
[01:10:38.000 –> 01:10:42.000] I’m pretty sure that is important to people because Night in the Woods is an amazing game.
[01:10:42.000 –> 01:10:45.000] I have not played it and it’s very much not Cottagecore.
[01:10:45.000 –> 01:10:46.000] What?
[01:10:46.000 –> 01:10:47.000] It’s not Cottagecore, is it?
[01:10:47.000 –> 01:10:49.000] Is it not like an action adventure game?
[01:10:49.000 –> 01:10:51.000] No, no, no, no.
[01:10:51.000 –> 01:10:54.000] It’s a narrative, like, cosy.
[01:10:54.000 –> 01:10:57.000] Okay, Al, you need to play Night in the Woods.
[01:10:58.000 –> 01:11:02.000] I would be shocked if you do not enjoy Night in the Woods.
[01:11:02.000 –> 01:11:04.000] Oh, not more games.
[01:11:04.000 –> 01:11:06.000] It’s so good.
[01:11:06.000 –> 01:11:13.000] And I don’t want to say more because so much of what is great about Night in the Woods is the story that’s told.
[01:11:13.000 –> 01:11:17.000] And, like, while it might not directly be a Cottagecore game,
[01:11:17.000 –> 01:11:23.000] I think there is a lot that happens in Night of the Woods that is like a precursor for so much of what’s popular now.
[01:11:23.000 –> 01:11:26.000] Ugh, what you making me do?
[01:11:26.000 –> 01:11:29.000] Fine, it’s on my wishlist. I’ll buy it when it’s cheap.
[01:11:29.000 –> 01:11:31.000] Yes.
[01:11:31.000 –> 01:11:35.000] Episode on Night in the Woods coming sometime in 2025.
[01:11:35.000 –> 01:11:39.000] Anyway, this has very similar art style, as you would expect.
[01:11:39.000 –> 01:11:42.000] I’m intrigued to see how the cats thing works.
[01:11:42.000 –> 01:11:44.000] Like, that’s a new trend, isn’t it?
[01:11:44.000 –> 01:11:47.000] Like, people are being cats in games now.
[01:11:47.000 –> 01:11:50.000] Well, Night in the Woods was a cat.
[01:11:50.000 –> 01:11:52.000] Oh, were you? Okay.
[01:11:52.000 –> 01:11:56.000] Well, yeah, there was the big one on PlayStation last year. What was that?
[01:11:56.000 –> 01:12:00.000] Stray. I just feel like that is coming.
[01:12:00.000 –> 01:12:06.000] And, like, in a year’s time, there’s going to be 20 games where you can play as a cat coming out.
[01:12:06.000 –> 01:12:08.000] I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, by the way.
[01:12:08.000 –> 01:12:10.000] I’m finding it interesting and I’m really…
[01:12:10.000 –> 01:12:12.000] Are you saying it’s a bad thing?
[01:12:12.000 –> 01:12:16.000] I’m really liking…
[01:12:16.000 –> 01:12:22.000] Like, I have done a lot of predicting things, not publicly, that I’ve seen going forward.
[01:12:22.000 –> 01:12:26.000] Like, the whole reason I have this podcast is because I was predicting things coming.
[01:12:26.000 –> 01:12:31.000] So maybe I’m trying to share some of those things publicly and we’ll see whether I get the credit for it or not.
[01:12:31.000 –> 01:12:33.000] Cats. Cats are coming.
[01:12:33.000 –> 01:12:36.000] You will not. Cats are coming. Stray. Stray was the… Was that the game?
[01:12:36.000 –> 01:12:38.000] Yeah, I did say Stray.
[01:12:38.000 –> 01:12:47.000] Sorry, I accidentally clicked the YouTube link for Revenant Hill and I just got blasted with an ad for something.
[01:12:47.000 –> 01:12:53.000] Oh, right. I keep forgetting that ads exist on YouTube because I’ve had YouTube Premium for about four years now.
[01:12:53.000 –> 01:13:00.000] It’s so good. Although I should say it’s so good because YouTube with ads is so terrible.
[01:13:00.000 –> 01:13:04.000] Oh, whatever. Music’s great in this trailer.
[01:13:04.000 –> 01:13:06.000] Yeah, we’ll see what happens with this one.
[01:13:06.000 –> 01:13:13.000] And our final game to talk about is Circle of Kirzovin.
[01:13:13.000 –> 01:13:15.000] Yeah, that’s how I would say this one.
[01:13:15.000 –> 01:13:17.000] Let’s go with that anyway.
[01:13:17.000 –> 01:13:24.000] This is a village building strategy game paired with rich simulation experience.
[01:13:24.000 –> 01:13:28.000] And I’m sure there will be people who will like this game and I’m not going to play it.
[01:13:28.000 –> 01:13:38.000] Yeah, this is also a trend that’s coming with these cottagecore meets strategy style games.
[01:13:38.000 –> 01:13:46.000] Because I think we’ve talked about some previously and you have to forgive me because I’m not going to remember the names of them because there’s just too many games that have been announced.
[01:13:46.000 –> 01:13:49.000] But there’s a few sort of in the genre.
[01:13:49.000 –> 01:13:59.000] But I do like the art style that this one’s going for because it’s that kind of blocky, low detail, but it looks good.
[01:13:59.000 –> 01:14:02.000] I don’t know. That was a terrible way of describing it.
[01:14:02.000 –> 01:14:07.000] No, I get what you mean. Either Kevin or Micah would be much better at describing this than us.
[01:14:07.000 –> 01:14:11.000] There is a term for this type of game and I can’t remember what it is.
[01:14:11.000 –> 01:14:17.000] But yes, I know what you mean. It’s like 3D 8-bit, I always like to describe it as.
[01:14:17.000 –> 01:14:22.000] Like it’s not 8-bit, it’s not pixel art, but it’s the 3D equivalent.
[01:14:22.000 –> 01:14:23.000] Let’s go with that.
[01:14:23.000 –> 01:14:26.000] Low poly! Low poly.
[01:14:26.000 –> 01:14:27.000] Low poly. There we go.
[01:14:27.000 –> 01:14:33.000] That’s what it is. Like you can see all of the polygons and everything. Like you can see the polygons in the trees.
[01:14:33.000 –> 01:14:39.000] But it’s not a bad thing. They look good. It’s stylized, not just old.
[01:14:39.000 –> 01:14:42.000] That’s the key point.
[01:14:42.000 –> 01:14:53.000] Yeah, I mean it looks good graphics wise. I just, like I’m not, I don’t think, I’ll let you and Kevin do this episode, right?
[01:14:53.000 –> 01:14:59.000] Like I don’t, I’m not a city builder guy anymore. Like that’s not what I’m looking for.
[01:14:59.000 –> 01:15:08.000] And adding on the strategy game aspect to it means that everything I do matters.
[01:15:08.000 –> 01:15:12.000] And I will just constantly be stressed by the fact that I’m probably not doing things perfectly.
[01:15:12.000 –> 01:15:18.000] So, yeah. That’s got Kickstarter coming out, coming soon.
[01:15:18.000 –> 01:15:21.000] Soon. Like most things.
[01:15:21.000 –> 01:15:27.000] So all of the games we’ve talked about today, all of these new games, none of them are coming out this year, right?
[01:15:27.000 –> 01:15:30.000] Well, so that one actually says it’s coming out this year.
[01:15:30.000 –> 01:15:31.000] It’s not coming out this year.
[01:15:31.000 –> 01:15:34.000] It’s not coming out this year, they’ve not even released a Kickstarter.
[01:15:34.000 –> 01:15:36.000] They say it’s coming out this year.
[01:15:36.000 –> 01:15:41.000] Grandma Green’s already out and I’m guessing the Android version will come out this year.
[01:15:41.000 –> 01:15:44.000] The rest of them haven’t said.
[01:15:44.000 –> 01:15:47.000] Natsumon is coming out this year in Japan. It’s coming out in July.
[01:15:47.000 –> 01:15:50.000] I didn’t actually say that, did I? It’s coming out on the 28th of July in Japan.
[01:15:50.000 –> 01:15:54.000] But yeah, none of the others are coming out this year, I don’t think.
[01:15:54.000 –> 01:15:56.000] But they haven’t said. Which is how you know.
[01:15:56.000 –> 01:16:03.000] If we’re almost in June and they don’t say when it’s coming out, that means it’s not coming out this year.
[01:16:04.000 –> 01:16:05.000] Alright.
[01:16:05.000 –> 01:16:12.000] Right. Sorry. I have a small Grandma Green update because I’ve definitely not been playing in the background.
[01:16:12.000 –> 01:16:16.000] My tulip has come to life and is now a plant golem that’s wandering around.
[01:16:16.000 –> 01:16:24.000] I may have not read exactly what the point of a plant golem is, but I now need to make my tulip that is walking around happy and kind of into this.
[01:16:24.000 –> 01:16:31.000] I am willing to give it a try, certainly. I like the idea of it. We’ll see how it goes.
[01:16:32.000 –> 01:16:38.000] The one downside is it does seem like things grow on a real time clock and I’m not sure how I feel about that.
[01:16:38.000 –> 01:16:40.000] Oh, yay! Real time!
[01:16:40.000 –> 01:16:48.000] Yeah, I feel like I might be about to walk into microtransaction like, please pay for your plant to, you know.
[01:16:48.000 –> 01:16:51.000] So, anyway, that’s my update on Grandma Green.
[01:16:51.000 –> 01:16:54.000] It’s Animal Crossing all over again.
[01:16:54.000 –> 01:16:55.000] Yes.
[01:16:55.000 –> 01:17:03.000] Well, thank you for joining me, Johnny, to talk about all these hundreds of games, these millions of games.
[01:17:03.000 –> 01:17:15.000] I can’t believe I added one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, I added ten games to my list of games coming out, which is now 81 games long.
[01:17:15.000 –> 01:17:17.000] That is too many games.
[01:17:17.000 –> 01:17:19.000] Yes, thank you for joining me.
[01:17:20.000 –> 01:17:22.000] Thank you for having me. It’s been fun.
[01:17:22.000 –> 01:17:30.000] I think it’s kind of showing the power of the cottagecore game industry, right, that there’s so many games coming out.
[01:17:30.000 –> 01:17:36.000] You know, there’s a number of games that we’re expecting to sort of see through the back half of this year.
[01:17:36.000 –> 01:17:42.000] You know, delays notwithstanding because they’re just a fact of life now.
[01:17:42.000 –> 01:17:46.000] Half of the games on my list say they’re coming out in 2023.
[01:17:47.000 –> 01:17:51.000] Half of them. They’re not. They’re not.
[01:17:51.000 –> 01:17:58.000] Awesome. I don’t know, am I still to ask you where people can find you on the internet?
[01:17:58.000 –> 01:18:00.000] Because I’ve done it every time and you never have anything.
[01:18:00.000 –> 01:18:11.000] I never have anything other than, you know, if you’re an American and you want to yell at me about how Americans are not in fact stupid and try and justify why Clue is a good name,
[01:18:11.000 –> 01:18:16.000] the easiest way to do that is you can go to patreon.com slash THS pod, sign up for the Patreon.
[01:18:16.000 –> 01:18:20.000] You can join our Slack. That’s where I am and you can yell at me there.
[01:18:22.000 –> 01:18:28.000] Thank you, Johnny. You can find me on the internet. You can find me on Twitter at TheScottBot.
[01:18:28.000 –> 01:18:33.000] You can also find me with the same username on Mastodon.Scott.
[01:18:33.000 –> 01:18:37.000] You can find the podcast on Twitter at THS pod.
[01:18:37.000 –> 01:18:50.000] You can find links to everything, including the Patreon that Johnny talked about on our website, harvestseason.club, where you can also send feedback through the feedback form.
[01:18:50.000 –> 01:18:55.000] I think that’s everything. I am really tired right now. I don’t know why.
[01:18:55.000 –> 01:19:01.000] I think it’s been really warm today. That’s probably taken out of me and it is nearly 10 o’clock.
[01:19:01.000 –> 01:19:08.000] I think that’s everything. Thank you again, Johnny, and thank you everybody for listening to this wild episode.
[01:19:08.000 –> 01:19:11.000] Until next time, have a good harvest.
[01:19:31.000 –> 01:19:39.000] Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed in this episode.