Island Hopping

Wed, Sep 13, 2023 Year 2, Summer 11

Jonnie and Kev talk about Smushi Come Home

Timings

00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:03:40: What Have We Been Up To
00:10:43: News
00:27:36: Smushi Come Home
00:39:13: Spoilers For Smushi Come Home
00:56:09: Outro

Links

Coral Island Merfolk and Fall Update
Spirit of The Island DLC
Research Story 0.5 Update
Research Story Roadmap
My Time at Sandrock Trailer
Haunted Chocolatier Screenshot

Usagi Shima

Smushi Come Home on Steam
Smushi Come Home on Switch

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 –> 00:11.440] 2.
[00:11.440 –> 00:36.800] Hello farmers, welcome to the harvest season where we talk about cottagecore games, should
[00:36.800 –> 00:39.920] we still call them farmers if we’re going off that rant?
[00:39.920 –> 00:44.240] Yes, yes, we’ve covered this many times, but they’re still farmers, definitely still
[00:44.240 –> 00:49.680] farmers. Except for that one month when they weren’t farmers and they were anglers.
[00:49.680 –> 00:55.040] Yeah, that’s true. I’m trying to think, where’s the Venn diagram not overlap of farmers and
[00:55.040 –> 00:58.480] cottagecore? I’m guessing like, big industrial factory farmers?
[01:01.280 –> 01:05.200] Um, alright, hi, I’m Kevin, and this is Johnny.
[01:05.840 –> 01:06.340] Hi.
[01:07.280 –> 01:12.880] We’re here to, yeah, the cottagecore, I said that already, um, Al’s not here so you know,
[01:12.880 –> 01:17.120] this is going off the rails already. I really want a cottagecore industrial
[01:17.120 –> 01:24.240] farming game, I bet someone can make it happen. I mean, Let’s Build a Zoo has that option.
[01:26.160 –> 01:28.640] There we go, already solved, it’s already out there.
[01:28.640 –> 01:36.800] It’s already on the way, um, gosh, what was that Pokemon knockoff game that was putting
[01:36.800 –> 01:42.720] them in a factory, I had to look it up, I can’t remember, there was some Pokemon knockoff that
[01:42.720 –> 01:47.760] kind of had cottagecore vibes, but then there was this weird bit where they were also in factories
[01:47.760 –> 01:53.040] and being put to work, and I don’t know. So I had this, I was thinking about this
[01:53.120 –> 01:56.080] the other day, this is like, we’re already way off the rails, but I need to share this.
[01:56.800 –> 02:00.320] When you, in Pokemon, you send, you know, you send your Pokemon to the professor when you’re
[02:00.320 –> 02:04.080] kind of getting rid of them now, that’s the sort of established thing, and I was thinking like,
[02:04.080 –> 02:10.720] what does the professor do with them? And my current theory is that the professors are actually
[02:10.720 –> 02:16.320] eating the Pokemon, so they’re like chefs, because like, they’re not, they don’t have space to store
[02:16.320 –> 02:21.520] all of them, like they’re not storing them, so my theory is that they’re trying to cook the Pokemon.
[02:22.080 –> 02:28.960] I mean, I’m pretty sure the popular theory early on in Go was they get grinded down to make the
[02:28.960 –> 02:34.800] candies. See? Maybe that’s how, maybe so in the games where you just send them to the professor,
[02:34.800 –> 02:39.680] it’s so that they could develop the candy making process. Yeah, there you go, it works,
[02:40.240 –> 02:46.560] that’s, and that’s, that’s how they get stronger, like, it has all the nutrients they need,
[02:47.280 –> 02:53.680] on the other ones. And also strong cannibalism overtones. Yep, there you go. Ah, so,
[02:54.800 –> 02:59.760] yeah, welcome to our, uh, there’s the official harvest season stance on cannibalism.
[03:01.200 –> 03:05.600] Well, actually, it probably won’t be the last time that cannibalism comes up this episode.
[03:05.600 –> 03:10.640] No, wait, what, this episode? This episode! I was about to say, in general, no, but okay,
[03:11.360 –> 03:14.640] all right, I mean, it’s not the first time cannibalism has come up either,
[03:15.360 –> 03:23.360] um, called the little lamb had cannibalism as an option, um, all right then, um, uh, so we’re gonna,
[03:23.360 –> 03:29.760] you know how we do, we’re talking about the news and stuff, and, uh, a game with, uh, well, I don’t,
[03:29.760 –> 03:34.720] I don’t think, I can’t recall any cannibalism in it, uh, Smooshy Come Home, um, that’s our
[03:34.720 –> 03:41.360] featured game of the day, um, and, uh, yeah, we’ll get to that later, um, but before that,
[03:41.360 –> 03:45.920] Johnny, what have you been up to? What have I been up to? Uh, so Cassette Beasts,
[03:45.920 –> 03:49.840] uh, I think I talked about last time I was on the podcast, I love Cassette Beasts, uh,
[03:49.840 –> 03:53.360] I’ve pretty much done everything there is to do in Cassette Beasts, but there’s, like,
[03:53.360 –> 03:56.800] I really enjoy the shiny hunting, um, in that game, which they call bootlegs,
[03:57.360 –> 04:03.760] um, and they’ve got some DLC that’s coming out soon, um, I don’t know what’s in it, like,
[04:03.760 –> 04:08.400] I, I very explicitly, like, try not to look at what’s in these sorts of things, because I just
[04:08.400 –> 04:15.040] want to be excited and experience it, um, so I’m very excited to play even more Cassette Beasts.
[04:15.920 –> 04:22.560] Well, I mean, I’m, so I’ve, uh, I will be getting to Cassette Beasts very soon, I have,
[04:22.560 –> 04:29.120] uh, been whittling away at, uh, my life and organizing things to get to that point, um,
[04:29.120 –> 04:35.280] I think I’ll play the, the Scarlet Violet DLC to hurt myself, and then I’ll feel better when
[04:35.280 –> 04:39.680] I play Cassette Beasts. I’m like, oh, that, that’s what it should be. I don’t even know,
[04:39.680 –> 04:44.640] like, when the Scarlet Violet DLC is coming out. I’m pretty sure it’s this week. Nor do I care.
[04:44.640 –> 04:48.320] Yeah, that’s fine. Because the other game that I’ve been playing, which is gonna suck up all
[04:48.320 –> 04:53.440] of my time, is Starfield. More like Snorefield, am I right? And that’s not true, I’ve heard it’s
[04:53.440 –> 05:00.400] decent, actually. So Starfield is, uh, I guess before I say anything else, I think a lot of the
[05:00.400 –> 05:05.280] commentary online is kind of just terrible and overly negative. That being out of the way,
[05:05.280 –> 05:11.280] I found getting started with Starfield difficult, like, it lacked kind of the thing I like most
[05:11.280 –> 05:16.480] about games like Skyrim, where, you know, you kind of get the, the world that opens up to you,
[05:16.480 –> 05:21.520] and you can kind of just pick a direction and walk in that direction and find stuff and do stuff.
[05:21.520 –> 05:27.520] The space travel aspect makes it a lot harder to do that, so I actually got kind of like
[05:27.520 –> 05:33.520] five or six hours in, and then I made the call to restart, and that was a really good call,
[05:33.520 –> 05:38.000] because I kind of knew how all of the systems worked, I kind of knew what I wanted to
[05:38.560 –> 05:44.240] start my character off as, and I kind of found a bunch of things that I’d skipped over the first
[05:44.240 –> 05:48.000] time, because I kind of just, like, I was just trying to work stuff out, and I didn’t really
[05:48.000 –> 05:52.320] know that certain things were there or that I could interact with certain things, and so I’ve
[05:52.320 –> 05:57.120] been really enjoying it kind of since I restarted and kind of have a better idea for what I’m doing,
[05:57.120 –> 06:03.200] and, yeah, really feel like it’s, like, if you like Bethesda games, you will probably like this
[06:03.200 –> 06:09.760] Bethesda game, but it does take a little bit more to get into, I think, than the likes of Skyrim.
[06:10.640 –> 06:13.280] Is it Skyrim in space? Is that what it feels like?
[06:14.160 –> 06:19.680] Yes, so to me it feels more Skyrim than space than, like, closer to Fallout, because I’m not
[06:19.680 –> 06:24.960] really a Fallout fan, I don’t particularly like the combat in Fallout, I don’t particularly
[06:25.680 –> 06:36.080] like Fallout as a world, where I find, like, Starfield to me feels more Skyrim-esque, I guess.
[06:36.720 –> 06:43.200] Okay, all right, that’s, that’s, I mean, it’s a big game, so, like,
[06:45.600 –> 06:53.280] but that’s cool, I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I didn’t think it was gonna do well when it came
[06:53.280 –> 06:59.520] out, I thought it was gonna be a trash fire, but I’m glad that it’s actually come out okay for people.
[07:00.800 –> 07:05.120] Yeah, it seems like a good one of those games. I think part of the problem, right,
[07:05.120 –> 07:09.760] I was thinking about, like, you know, why people are so negative, I think space is just hard to do
[07:10.640 –> 07:16.480] as a game, because I think what space means is a lot of different things to a lot of different
[07:16.480 –> 07:21.440] people, right? Some people really want to engage with, like, ships and ship combat and have that
[07:21.440 –> 07:26.880] be really deep and really interesting. Some people want, you know, complex world building with aliens
[07:26.880 –> 07:31.760] and, you know, lots of different lore about, you know, different races interacting with each other,
[07:32.720 –> 07:36.800] you know, and some people want just, like, basically space Star Wars, and all of those
[07:36.800 –> 07:41.840] things are very different, and you could not put all three of those into one game, so I think
[07:41.840 –> 07:48.800] that’s one of the challenges with making stuff in space. Sure, sure, it is, and, I mean, I guess,
[07:48.800 –> 07:52.480] like, for me, you’re absolutely right, I haven’t even thought about that, like, I guess I like
[07:52.480 –> 07:57.200] space, I guess I’d never think about it that deeply, but, I mean, because space is cool,
[07:57.200 –> 08:03.360] of course, but even without the space, well, not with the space context, like,
[08:03.360 –> 08:10.320] the well had been poisoned a little bit already, right? I mean, we’re talking, we got Fallout 76,
[08:10.320 –> 08:18.880] right, that’s one of the memorable ones from Bethesda’s recently, we had No Man’s Sky,
[08:18.880 –> 08:24.320] the other big space game, right, and that was Travesty when it came out, and wasn’t Starfield
[08:24.320 –> 08:29.120] the one that was in early access for, like, ever? I honestly don’t remember, I barely pay attention
[08:29.120 –> 08:33.840] to, like, early access of what’s going on for games outside of the cottagecore industry, it’s
[08:33.840 –> 08:37.200] kind of like, they launch, and then, you know, whenever they hit the big hype thing, then I’m
[08:37.200 –> 08:43.120] like, cool, I’ll jump into this, or I won’t, like, that’s, I don’t really pay that much attention to
[08:43.120 –> 08:48.880] what’s in early access or not, because there’s too many cottagecore games, I can’t pay attention to
[08:49.520 –> 08:55.040] seeing everything else. Yeah, no, I think that was… Oh, you might be thinking of Baldur’s Gate 3,
[08:55.040 –> 09:00.880] that was in early access features. Maybe, I could be, I don’t know. Um, all right, but that’s cool, there you go,
[09:00.880 –> 09:05.280] Starfield. Yeah, anyway, it’s like, for me, it’s like, I think if you like Bethesda games, there is a
[09:05.280 –> 09:10.400] high likelihood that you will enjoy Starfield, and if you don’t like Bethesda games, then there’s
[09:10.400 –> 09:15.280] a high likelihood that you won’t enjoy Starfield, because it’s a Bethesda game made by Bethesda, so
[09:16.000 –> 09:22.880] um, it’s cool, I’m having fun with it. Kev, what have you been up to? Uh, good question, nothing of
[09:24.160 –> 09:31.920] too much interest, my usual stuff, uh, Marvel Snap, seems to be Marvel Snap. Are you, are you, are you
[09:31.920 –> 09:37.760] low-key-ing things up? Not yet, I’m, I’ve been contemplating, because, uh, that’s a really
[09:37.760 –> 09:44.800] interesting card, a very chaotic card, right, and I like that concept. It’s a very powerful card as
[09:44.880 –> 09:51.440] well. It is, um, yeah, I know, I need to look at the builds for that, I’ve just been going with
[09:51.440 –> 09:57.920] my usual stuff, um, that game has been in a great place for a long time, it’s, it’s, I’m, I’m wary
[09:57.920 –> 10:04.880] that the game continues doing this good, um, but yeah, that’s just my addiction, uh, Pokemon Unite,
[10:04.880 –> 10:10.640] also the other addiction when I’m on the Switch, um, Mewtwo continues to be absurdly broken,
[10:11.200 –> 10:16.000] and, uh, I mean, I, I still keep up, it is just my comfort game right now, Story of Seasons,
[10:16.000 –> 10:22.960] um, the Wonderful Life remake. I am about to hit year five, um, well, well, well past whatever I
[10:22.960 –> 10:29.040] made, um, and my kid is a teen, and boy, I, boy, teens are the worst, let me tell you.
[10:31.200 –> 10:37.200] Um, aside from that, really, I just talked about Smooshy, that’s, that’s the big one,
[10:38.000 –> 10:42.880] um, because that was this week, so yeah, that, that’s what we’ve been up to,
[10:43.520 –> 10:48.000] so with that, let’s just dive into the new, shall we, and, uh, we can make this a literal dive,
[10:48.000 –> 10:52.320] because the first one up is Coral Island, yay, all right, what is, what’s going on,
[10:52.320 –> 10:58.880] Coral Island, we have an update, uh, it’s out now already, we have, let’s see, I don’t know what the
[10:58.880 –> 11:04.720] video is, it’s Merfolk and Fall Update, that’s what I see off the bat, yeah, so there’s a new,
[11:05.120 –> 11:11.120] or the next part of the story quest, like, a whole bunch of new features that you kind of
[11:11.120 –> 11:16.800] won’t list, like, it just feels like sort of the next wave of stuff that you would likely expect
[11:16.800 –> 11:22.480] to be in a Cottagecore game, um, uh, nothing massively stands out other than the fact that,
[11:22.480 –> 11:26.480] you know, like, Merfolk, so there’s some, you know, water-based stuff, and, you know,
[11:26.480 –> 11:31.520] I haven’t really played Coral Island, so it’s hard to get too deep into what it is, but it,
[11:32.240 –> 11:37.040] sorry, go ahead, no, I just, I haven’t either, um, I haven’t played it either, and I’m just,
[11:37.040 –> 11:43.280] I’m mostly curious, what do the Merfolk look like, is it, are they usual human half-fish bottom, or,
[11:43.920 –> 11:48.480] are they going to be brave and do the opposite, that’s an excellent question, I do not know,
[11:48.480 –> 11:54.880] um, but potentially the most exciting, uh, update that they’ve got is, um, an auto-chest, so the,
[11:54.880 –> 12:00.800] the automation, um, in this game looks fantastic, uh, and basically I think all of the linked
[12:00.800 –> 12:06.000] machines you can link to a chest that automatically collects the items, so, um,
[12:06.000 –> 12:09.360] this game looks like it’s going hard with the automation, which seems pretty exciting.
[12:10.000 –> 12:14.880] That, yeah, that tweet they have looks like, I mean, there’s a conveyor belt and chest,
[12:14.880 –> 12:19.360] and they’re all linked, it’s pretty, wow, that, that looks right up Al’s alley, that’s,
[12:19.360 –> 12:22.640] that’s a hardcore, and I think the cool thing, because my impression of the conveyor belt is
[12:22.640 –> 12:28.480] it looks like it’s water, so it’s maybe like a water chute that’s carrying the, the strawberries,
[12:28.640 –> 12:33.840] you’re ready to see that curve, um, which feels like a cool cottage call way of doing a conveyor
[12:33.840 –> 12:41.760] belt, yeah, yeah, that’s pretty cool, um, that is neat to see, like, just to think about, well,
[12:41.760 –> 12:48.160] I’m biased, the last job I had was conveyor stuff, so I now look at this stuff with interest, um,
[12:49.200 –> 12:55.760] and then there’s a, um, charity cosmetics pack, uh, that you can purchase, so that comes out on
[12:55.760 –> 13:02.400] September 12th, so it should be out, uh, when this, um, when this episode drops, uh, it’s out
[13:02.400 –> 13:08.880] for a limited time, it’s, uh, five what I assume are American dollars, uh, and it’s got, looks like,
[13:08.880 –> 13:15.760] uh, sort of save the ocean outfit, um, and a chest, there might be, uh, one or two other things,
[13:15.760 –> 13:22.320] and, um, I’m assuming that means it goes to charity, although on the way this tweet is
[13:22.320 –> 13:29.840] written, it’s not entirely clear who, like, who it would go to, Coral Guardian, I think it’s,
[13:29.840 –> 13:35.520] like, the first one on the tweet, uh, unlike the first comment, let’s see, it’s in Coral Guardian,
[13:35.520 –> 13:41.520] which is a non-profit organization dedicated to, uh, coral conference, coral ecosystem
[13:41.520 –> 13:47.040] conservations, um, right, and things like that, so there you go, they’re working to save the sea,
[13:47.680 –> 13:53.520] um, oh, coral reefs are cool, that’s good, go, go, go buy a thing, help save the sea, I like that,
[13:53.520 –> 14:00.880] um, and yeah, there’s also fall update spooky stuff, Halloweeny stuff’s coming out, it looks
[14:00.880 –> 14:08.800] like, um, but yeah, so there’s the, you can check the show notes, oh, I forgot, at the beginning,
[14:08.800 –> 14:15.200] you can always see the, the, the links in the show notes, and the transcripts, as always,
[14:15.200 –> 14:21.680] in the show notes, there, I said it, Al, you can relax now, um, let’s see, uh, so yeah,
[14:21.680 –> 14:25.760] that’s Coral Island, um, yeah, you can see all the details on their Steam page for the update,
[14:25.760 –> 14:28.800] or their Twitter account, or just click on the show, the links in the show notes,
[14:30.400 –> 14:37.840] now, from Coral Island, we, Island hop on over to Moonstone Island, uh, let’s see,
[14:37.840 –> 14:47.120] it is coming soon, September 20th is our PC and Mac release date, uh, yeah, so last, last week,
[14:47.120 –> 14:52.560] um, uh, I think you guys mentioned that, uh, so this, we knew the September 20th date, but we
[14:52.560 –> 14:58.560] didn’t know, uh, if that was all consoles or not, so it’s just the PC and Mac, and it’s coming to
[14:58.560 –> 15:05.920] Switch later, so, you know, whatever that means, um, uh, but good to see they’re also aiming for
[15:05.920 –> 15:14.960] Steam Deck Verification, um, yeah, yeah, there’s, uh, I’m just looking at the art they post,
[15:14.960 –> 15:18.720] is that, there’s a fishbowl with legs, it looks like, I want to know what that’s about,
[15:19.280 –> 15:29.520] um, but, uh, but yeah, there’s also, um, they’re tweeting up, hyping up, they got some non-binary
[15:29.520 –> 15:34.960] characters in the game, and trans, um, so yeah, there’s your representation, that’s good stuff,
[15:34.960 –> 15:39.760] good on them, um, Cottagecore always pushing, if you, you definitely feel like Cottagecore
[15:39.760 –> 15:45.040] is a genre that’s always pushing, that’s part of it, um, I think that’s part of,
[15:45.040 –> 15:50.640] you know, what, what we like about the genre, right, is it’s the sort of overlap between,
[15:50.640 –> 15:56.240] you know, um, inclusiveness, doing the right thing, you know, between, uh, Coral Island,
[15:56.240 –> 15:59.600] you know, releasing a water update and, and putting a little, together a little cosmetic
[15:59.600 –> 16:05.360] pack to donate to a related charity, you know, really promoting the inclusion of, um,
[16:05.360 –> 16:09.600] uh, sorry, Moose Island, really promoting the inclusion of non-binary and trans characters,
[16:09.600 –> 16:15.920] I think is, is really awesome, um, particularly, I guess, you know, um, in the past week, we’re not,
[16:15.920 –> 16:20.000] I don’t want to delve into it too much, but some of the commentary around Starfield having the
[16:20.000 –> 16:25.200] horrific option of letting people choose their pronouns, oh my gosh, I saw that tweet, just
[16:26.000 –> 16:31.920] some of the stupid over-the-top reactions to a choice that just makes the game more inclusive
[16:31.920 –> 16:39.040] for more people has been really disappointing, so just to see, you know, smaller publishers
[16:39.040 –> 16:43.760] not afraid to promote these things in their games, because it’s one of the things, right, it’s, it’s
[16:44.480 –> 16:51.760] a hard space for particularly small companies given, you know, you look at what’s happened
[16:51.760 –> 16:56.080] where some businesses, you know, there’s boycotts and all sorts of things, like it’s, it’s not
[16:56.080 –> 17:01.920] zero risk for them to, to promote, um, this sort of stuff, it’s, you know, disgusting that,
[17:01.920 –> 17:07.920] that’s the case, but, um, yeah, I just think these sorts of things should be, um, celebrated.
[17:08.800 –> 17:15.280] Yeah, no, absolutely, much more well put than I am, than I said it, um, yeah, no, I, I fully agree,
[17:15.280 –> 17:24.320] and it, yeah, it is a big deal for sure, um, and as Al pointed out in the Slack chat, like, even
[17:24.320 –> 17:32.560] among cottagecore, I don’t think we’ve gotten that many, like, at least NPC types of, uh,
[17:33.600 –> 17:39.200] non-binary trans, I can’t recall of any off the top of my head, other than Kim and Wildflowers,
[17:39.920 –> 17:44.240] um, yeah, I couldn’t, I couldn’t recall of any either, and I think it’s one of those things that
[17:44.240 –> 17:49.120] I expect we’ll see more of, but we’ve mostly seen it in letting player characters sort of
[17:49.680 –> 17:57.520] make those choices, um, for their own character, but we haven’t seen a lot of that in, in PCs.
[17:57.520 –> 18:05.120] Yep, so there you go, um, hats off to you, uh, Moonstone Island, that’s the one, yeah,
[18:05.120 –> 18:12.080] the, I am checking, because our next one is another island, Spirit of the Island, uh, we
[18:12.160 –> 18:19.360] have got an update, uh, Adventureland DLC, it’s coming out October 3rd,
[18:20.400 –> 18:26.640] let’s see, what is in this update? So you can, um, create new amusements and sort of monetize
[18:26.640 –> 18:35.760] your land, um, so kind of make, I guess, uh, a little, um, uh, theme park, um, but probably,
[18:35.760 –> 18:40.000] you know, the, the more interesting piece of this, this bit of news is a bit of a road map,
[18:40.000 –> 18:46.720] uh, around the future for Spirit of the Island, so they’ve got the, um, Adventureland DLC,
[18:46.720 –> 18:52.000] they’ve got a big storyline update also planned to be coming, um, at the start of October,
[18:52.000 –> 18:58.640] uh, it sounds like that’s independent from the DLC, um, it seems a bit, because it seems like
[18:58.640 –> 19:02.240] the storyline is making them sort of feature complete, but it’s separate to the DLC, it’s
[19:02.240 –> 19:07.760] just very confusing that those two things are sort of releasing at the same time, um, but probably
[19:07.760 –> 19:13.040] the most exciting thing is for Q4, uh, of this year, uh, they’ve got console releases planned
[19:13.040 –> 19:18.800] for PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, which is, um, which is very exciting, more stuff coming to
[19:18.800 –> 19:25.280] consoles is good, um, and then some cross-platform release, uh, with a mobile version of the game in
[19:25.280 –> 19:36.560] Q1 of next year. Yeah, it should be noted that, um, they are going for cross-play between all
[19:36.640 –> 19:44.160] platforms, but not cross-save, from what I’m understanding, okay, um, yeah, yeah, yeah,
[19:44.160 –> 19:49.520] you can’t move a saved file, okay, then I guess you can move your character and join them, but
[19:49.520 –> 19:55.360] your own save file, you can’t, uh, move between consoles, or platforms, whatever, um, but, you
[19:55.360 –> 20:00.880] know, there’s still cross-play, so that’s cool, um, so yeah, that, there’s some big stuff coming,
[20:00.880 –> 20:06.160] and like I said, once they’re feature complete with, uh, this, or the update on October 3rd,
[20:06.160 –> 20:11.840] they’ll be focusing on just new quality of life, and bug fixes, and so on, and so forth, so
[20:12.720 –> 20:21.280] there you go, uh, coming soon to Spirit of the Island. Next up, we have one of our favorites,
[20:21.840 –> 20:32.240] Research Story, um, they, uh, is this out already? Let me make sure, uh, because they are at the, uh,
[20:32.240 –> 20:38.640] mid-autumn festival, with, uh, let’s see, a new soundtrack, and, oh, just a whole bunch of new
[20:38.640 –> 20:47.200] stuff for the fall festival type event, um, let’s see here, they’re working on a beta with, uh,
[20:47.200 –> 20:54.160] Simplified Chinese, and, uh, let’s see, a road map as well, hold on, I’m scrolling down the Steam
[20:54.160 –> 20:59.360] page, I’m looking over these, uh, not, not much on the, the road map, they’re just working on
[20:59.360 –> 21:05.360] some of their stuff around, um, uh, NPCs and stuff, but for me this is kind of just like a,
[21:05.360 –> 21:10.640] a good next step in their, uh, are they calling it beta or early access? Whichever, whichever thing
[21:10.640 –> 21:16.320] that they are in, um, you know, still in early access is, you know, version 0.5, so it looks
[21:16.320 –> 21:21.840] like good progress, and I am still, you know, kind of just waiting for 1.0. All right, yeah,
[21:21.840 –> 21:28.240] there you go, um, yeah, no, I get it, there’s a lot they’re working on, but it looks like it’s
[21:28.240 –> 21:38.400] going at a good pace, so good on you, research story, uh, and okay, next up we have My Time at
[21:38.400 –> 21:45.920] Sandrock, we have a new trailer, uh, let’s see, I, I’m actually just watching for the first time,
[21:47.120 –> 21:53.200] so when I watched the trailer, like, I didn’t see anything that looked that new or unexpected from
[21:53.200 –> 21:58.880] what I was expecting, so, um, just, uh, for clarity, My Time at Sandrock is the My Time at
[21:58.880 –> 22:04.320] Portia, you know, or the next game from the developers, um, of My Time at Portia, uh,
[22:05.440 –> 22:10.080] I really hated My Time at Portia, and I really think I should not play My Time at Sandrock,
[22:10.080 –> 22:16.560] but the trailer looks really, really good, it looks really good, like, just everything about
[22:16.560 –> 22:22.800] this game is very distinct, it just looks like a very good cottagecore game, which is
[22:22.800 –> 22:26.560] exactly what I thought about My Time at Portia, so I’m very nervous, but I think I’m gonna have
[22:26.560 –> 22:30.800] to give this a go, and I really like the more western-style setting, I think it’s a
[22:31.360 –> 22:39.040] cool, unique setting for a cottagecore game. Yeah, I agree, um, yeah, no, I agree, but I mean,
[22:39.040 –> 22:45.040] we got tumbleweeds actually going through the town, that’s great, um, and, and yeah, we got
[22:45.040 –> 22:51.840] desert plateaus and mesas and all that good stuff, um, we have, I don’t know if the date,
[22:51.840 –> 23:00.160] the trailer’s saying November 2nd, we have, uh, the 1.0 release, uh, and it will be on
[23:00.160 –> 23:07.200] pretty much everything, the Xboxes, the PS5, the Steam and the Switch, all that good stuff, um,
[23:08.640 –> 23:16.560] yeah, so that will be here before we know it, um, and something that will probably not be here
[23:16.560 –> 23:25.280] before we know it, um, we got, uh, ConcernedApe with his usual, uh, one sentence followed by a
[23:25.280 –> 23:30.560] screenshot of a haunted chocolatier, there’s a guy having a terrible dream, he’s an old man
[23:30.560 –> 23:39.200] looking guy, that’s it, that’s the tweet, um, oh, Concerned, it’s hard to get mad at ConcernedApe
[23:39.200 –> 23:46.160] with his, his continual drip feed of just random screenshots and comments considering, like,
[23:46.800 –> 23:53.440] work on Stardew Valley is still going on and, and whatnot, um, but I think we all still have a lot
[23:53.440 –> 24:00.000] of faith in him and, you know, there’s plenty of games in the beat in, uh, to play in the meantime,
[24:00.000 –> 24:04.080] so I’m not in any hurry for Haunted Chocolatier, I just find it funny how he posts that every now
[24:04.080 –> 24:08.480] then. Yeah, I’ve just decided Haunted Chocolatier is not real until it actually comes out,
[24:09.440 –> 24:16.480] like, it could just be ConcernedApe just making random screens of stuff and posting that,
[24:16.480 –> 24:21.120] that’s, that’s what I choose to believe until we see some actual gameplay. You know, that’s fine,
[24:21.120 –> 24:28.160] um, something that’s very real is, uh, our, the next game we’re talking about,
[24:28.800 –> 24:38.400] Usagi Shima, um, so this is a, what is wholesome, I’m confused by what wholesome games is, um,
[24:38.480 –> 24:41.360] because I know it’s the Direct and whatnot, but is it an actual company?
[24:42.880 –> 24:47.920] I don’t know anymore, like, I, I, I thought it was just a Twitter account.
[24:49.440 –> 24:55.440] Um, regardless, anyways, Usagi Shima is a game available on the Google Play and App Store,
[24:56.080 –> 25:03.200] um, where you collect bunnies, uh, and they are very cute bunnies, some of them,
[25:04.000 –> 25:07.360] well, no, most of them are pretty round, but then they’ll, they will move around,
[25:08.160 –> 25:12.960] um, you can put hats on them, uh, you’re collecting these, oh my gosh, you can put some
[25:12.960 –> 25:20.160] in beds, it’s got a very, very pretty art style, um, kind of like the, you know, the
[25:21.200 –> 25:27.120] ancient Japanese scroll type style, like Okami, that, that sort of art direction.
[25:28.000 –> 25:33.280] Yeah, that’s exactly what it reminds me of. Have you played, uh, have you given it a go yet?
[25:33.920 –> 25:35.040] What, Okami?
[25:35.040 –> 25:35.760] Uh, Usagi Shima.
[25:35.760 –> 25:38.880] Oh, oh, Usagi, oh, no I have not, have you?
[25:39.440 –> 25:44.560] Yes, yes, so, um, I downloaded it this morning, maybe an hour before we started recording,
[25:44.560 –> 25:49.120] uh, and you kind of just, you know, you buy decorations, you put them on your land,
[25:49.120 –> 25:53.040] and they attract bunnies, and bunnies have different things that they’re attracted to,
[25:53.040 –> 25:57.040] and they will leave you a tip in carrots so that you can buy more stuff to kind of
[25:57.040 –> 26:01.120] collect the bunnies, so it’s a really nice little cycle for a mobile game.
[26:02.000 –> 26:10.640] Um, it’s free to play, um, free to play, and you kind of can, uh, so there’s two forms of
[26:10.640 –> 26:16.720] monetization, um, you can double some of the carrots you get as rewards by watching ads,
[26:17.040 –> 26:23.360] or you can just pay to remove the ads directly, uh, which is kind of awesome, like, it’s a really,
[26:24.080 –> 26:28.160] uh, it’s a good form of monetization, I guess, for a mobile game.
[26:28.720 –> 26:36.480] Yeah, it is, um, and four dollars seems like the right price, um, because the gameplay doesn’t seem
[26:36.480 –> 26:41.280] particularly deep, it’s mostly collected in place and look at the pretty thing, but,
[26:42.080 –> 26:45.840] boy, this is so cute, this, these bunnies are so cute, and everything they’re doing,
[26:45.840 –> 26:50.960] there’s one sunbathing, there’s one playing at the beach ball, um, it’s very, very cute,
[26:51.600 –> 26:57.920] um, yeah, I prob- oh gosh, do I- there are too many good things out right now that are too close
[26:57.920 –> 27:03.040] to Maneko’s Night Market, I can’t, can’t handle this. See, this is a good one, because it’s a
[27:03.040 –> 27:07.360] sort of like, you know, you play for five minutes and then there’s nothing else to do, and then you
[27:07.360 –> 27:12.320] can put it back down, so you should definitely play this. Alright, well, there you go, I’ll try
[27:12.400 –> 27:19.680] it, he’s convinced me, um, so yeah, there you go, that, uh, that is out, like I said, it’s out now
[27:19.680 –> 27:25.120] already, um, several people we know are already getting it, and I, I, they seem to be enjoying it,
[27:25.120 –> 27:34.560] so, uh, it’s like, yeah, uh, go get it peoples. Uh, and I think that is the news for this week,
[27:34.560 –> 27:41.680] whole bunch of updates and things. Now, let us just dive right on in to, uh, our main topic,
[27:41.680 –> 27:48.240] uh, Shumi Come Home. Okay, let me look up the developer, I can’t even, small humble onion,
[27:48.240 –> 27:53.360] is that what it is? Uh, some humble, some humble onion. Some humble onion, there you go.
[27:53.920 –> 28:00.080] So, they’re the developers, this is out on Switch, it’s on, on Steam, um, available now,
[28:00.080 –> 28:07.360] it costs 20 US bucks, um, and, okay, what are, what’s your initial opinion,
[28:08.160 –> 28:13.600] Johnny, thumbs up, thumbs down, just give us a real thought. Yeah, so this gets a strong thumbs
[28:13.600 –> 28:20.480] up from me, um, it’s a short game, uh, I think I 100%ed it in maybe six, five or six hours.
[28:20.480 –> 28:25.440] That’s correct, that’s about what I did too. Yeah, so it’s, it’s not a super long game,
[28:25.920 –> 28:31.600] but I also think it’s the right length, right? Like, for me, it was a really great end-to-end
[28:31.600 –> 28:34.800] experience, when I was done, I was like, actually, I feel like that was, you know,
[28:34.800 –> 28:41.200] I didn’t necessarily want more of that, but I really enjoyed the time that I had,
[28:41.200 –> 28:49.440] um, with the game, and so I think what was, um, most interesting, I was trying to think,
[28:49.440 –> 28:55.120] as I was playing the game, of what it reminded me of, or what sort of feeling it evoked as I
[28:55.120 –> 29:00.640] was playing, and the closest I could come to was it reminded me of, like, the old sort of Spyro
[29:00.640 –> 29:06.560] games, um, where you kind of, you know, just exploring the world, and finding stuff,
[29:06.560 –> 29:10.720] and kind of uncovering stuff, and I’m sure it’d be very different if I went back and played one
[29:10.720 –> 29:13.840] of those games, because I was probably, you know, like, six or seven when I was playing those,
[29:13.840 –> 29:18.000] but that was sort of the, the feeling that I had while I was playing, playing this.
[29:18.880 –> 29:22.400] That’s, I, well, I can’t, I haven’t, I haven’t played the old Spyro, so honestly, I can’t,
[29:23.280 –> 29:28.960] I can’t comment on that, but I’m gonna take a step back here, let me give the Primus the
[29:28.960 –> 29:35.200] elevator pitch to the listener, um, so Smooshy Come Home is a game about Smooshy, a little
[29:35.200 –> 29:41.680] mushroom guy, um, just, just a little guy with a mushroom hat, um, and he lives on a little island
[29:41.680 –> 29:48.160] with his siblings, and then a bird comes and yoinks him away, uh, he is thankfully not eaten,
[29:48.160 –> 29:54.560] he manages to escape, uh, but he ends up some forest where he does not know, and he needs to
[29:54.560 –> 30:00.160] figure out how to go back home, hence the name Smooshy Come Home, uh, and so yeah, the point of
[30:00.160 –> 30:05.120] the game is you’re trying to make back your way back to home, you are climbing and exploring and
[30:05.120 –> 30:10.880] gliding, um, up front you get a little leaf glider and a little climbing gear, um, and so you’re
[30:10.880 –> 30:17.360] going through this, I would say Pikmin style world where, you know, you’re a little mushroom,
[30:17.360 –> 30:22.640] so you’re in a forest and everything’s big and whatnot, um, and you encounter lots of other
[30:22.640 –> 30:28.240] little forest type critters and other mushrooms, this game likes mushrooms, there’s a mushroom
[30:28.240 –> 30:35.360] compendium, like real life mushroom compendium in the game, um, so the mushroom compendium,
[30:35.840 –> 30:41.520] sorry, uh, we’ll come back, do you thumbs up, thumbs down? We didn’t. Oh yes, uh, super thumbs
[30:41.520 –> 30:50.400] up, um, really hard thumbs up, because yeah, it’s a very, this game feels like a hug, it’s just so
[30:50.400 –> 31:00.720] cozy and, and warm, um, I enjoyed it, and, and on a, it’s also, I think, really well designed,
[31:00.720 –> 31:07.600] um, which I find a lot of even bigger studios struggle with, like everything is very thoughtfully
[31:08.560 –> 31:13.840] laid out, um, I didn’t get stuck once, and this is the kind of game where you could easily get stuck,
[31:13.840 –> 31:19.600] or no, not where, not know where to go next, but I think it’s very good at guiding you, and not even
[31:19.600 –> 31:26.400] like real, like, it’s not direct, there’s no big arrows pointing go here, well for the most part,
[31:26.400 –> 31:31.040] you can speak to some NPCs and they can give you a push, just from looking around you can find
[31:31.040 –> 31:37.760] stuff, um, just because that’s, uh, it looks interesting, kind of like Breath of the Wild,
[31:37.760 –> 31:42.960] to be quite frank, like, it’s hard not to think about that, because there’s the gliding and the
[31:42.960 –> 31:50.800] climbing, and it feels like a little bit of that formula went into this, um, yeah, absolutely,
[31:50.800 –> 31:55.440] because there’s a lot of, yeah, there’s a lot of like, you sort of see something, you go there,
[31:55.440 –> 32:00.000] there’s a thing to do there, and then you kind of just see the next thing, and you kind of,
[32:00.000 –> 32:05.120] like, the, the way you are sort of encouraged to move around the world feels very natural.
[32:05.120 –> 32:12.560] Yep, absolutely, um, also, um, I should mention this is, the art style is like full 3D,
[32:13.120 –> 32:20.480] cel-shaded-y, um, like it, someone on this team like Wind Waker, because they’re, it’s,
[32:20.480 –> 32:25.280] it’s got a big Wind Waker feeling from the leaf glider to, uh, the, the, one of the
[32:25.280 –> 32:30.800] symbols, the wind essence, like, that feels straight out of Wind Waker, um, and also Pikmin,
[32:30.800 –> 32:36.080] a lot of the guys remind me of Pikmin, um, it’s also a very entertaining game, the, uh,
[32:36.080 –> 32:42.720] there’s writing and, uh, the characters are very charming and over the place, um, I got a pretty,
[32:42.720 –> 32:46.880] a few decent laughs out of the game. The power of crystals is cool.
[32:46.880 –> 32:56.960] It’s so cool, definitely, AMBP, um, yeah. But no, you’re right, the writing in this game
[32:56.960 –> 33:03.520] is fantastic, it’s like very, a very fun world to be in, and, uh, one of my favorite things,
[33:03.520 –> 33:08.320] sort of, in the game is the, the mushroom compendium, um, so as you encounter different
[33:08.320 –> 33:10.960] mushrooms, as you’ll make your way through the forest and make your way back home,
[33:11.440 –> 33:16.640] um, you sort of have a notebook where there’s, you know, notes on the different sorts of mushrooms
[33:16.640 –> 33:21.200] and it gives, I think, their, their proper scientific name and some facts about the
[33:21.200 –> 33:25.600] mushroom, and then Smooshy has some comments about the mushrooms. Smooshy’s notes for every
[33:26.240 –> 33:30.720] entry. They’re always really funny because there’s a few where he talks about the taste of mushrooms
[33:30.720 –> 33:35.840] and then he kind of questions why he’s thinking about the taste of mushrooms, which is our second
[33:35.840 –> 33:42.400] reference to cannibalism this episode. Yeah, you’re right, I forgot about it.
[33:42.400 –> 33:49.840] It’s just a very, like, it’s very funny in a way that is, like, you’re not going to be, like,
[33:49.840 –> 33:54.560] laughing out loud all of the time, but it’s just, I really like the description that you said a
[33:54.560 –> 33:57.520] while back, right? Like, this game kind of feels like a hug where it’s just like,
[33:57.520 –> 34:03.360] oh that’s really nice and well written, like, it’s not trying to overly be funny or to be funny all
[34:03.360 –> 34:07.680] of the time, it’s just that the funny bits generally land really well, I found. Yeah,
[34:08.560 –> 34:20.400] yeah, I agree, and I like the mushroom that with the strawberry guy, and there’s a strawberry
[34:20.400 –> 34:29.040] hoarder and a guy who looks like a strawberry, and that was funny. But yeah, I’m trying to think,
[34:29.600 –> 34:35.760] the gameplay itself, like we said, the exploration feels good, very Breath of the Wild-y,
[34:36.080 –> 34:42.800] and a big part of the game is, well, so there’s different areas, you go in and there’s, like,
[34:42.800 –> 34:49.840] a big roadblock, that’s the primary objective. Like, clear a tunnel, move this obstacle,
[34:49.840 –> 34:56.640] whatever, but there’s all sorts of areas and side areas with little upgrades, that’s a big part of
[34:56.640 –> 35:04.400] the gameplay, I think, looking around, finding these little upgrades which give you increased
[35:05.120 –> 35:14.080] glider time or gives you more Naruto running, and things like that. Oh, and most importantly,
[35:14.080 –> 35:20.000] you get different outfits for Smooshy, you get different mushroom hats, one of the biggest ones,
[35:22.000 –> 35:28.880] and nothing feels like Koroks from Breath of the Wild where there’s just too many and all over the
[35:28.880 –> 35:36.640] place. Again, all thoughtfully laid out and just enough where I didn’t get tired of any upgrade or
[35:36.640 –> 35:43.040] felt like there wasn’t enough of one or the other. Yeah, and there’s lots of little challenges,
[35:43.040 –> 35:48.480] right, and I think that’s one of the things that this game does really well, is sometimes it’ll be
[35:48.480 –> 35:52.720] a platforming challenge or a challenge related to using your glider, or there are just enough
[35:52.720 –> 36:00.320] challenges about exploring the world that you’re in, or you need to go and find an object
[36:00.320 –> 36:05.360] and bring it back. There’s just enough… each of the puzzles feels distinct enough
[36:06.800 –> 36:13.200] while continuing to build off the formula that the game establishes, and it’s only six hours,
[36:13.200 –> 36:17.920] right, so it’s not like they had to stretch tons of content out of the relatively limited
[36:17.920 –> 36:22.080] skill set of the game, but it feels like, you know, it just builds really well, it utilizes
[36:22.080 –> 36:26.080] the things that it does, and there’s enough variety in each of the challenges, so you’re not just doing
[36:26.080 –> 36:30.320] the same thing in a different location, and it’s slightly harder because you’re slightly later in
[36:30.320 –> 36:42.160] the game. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and this game very, you know, very, like, I feel the word cozy
[36:42.160 –> 36:48.960] is almost overused in this genre, it gets a lot of push, but this game I think really captures
[36:48.960 –> 36:56.880] it well, and it doesn’t, it very explicitly, even in character, mentions, like, you don’t have to be,
[36:56.880 –> 37:02.160] it doesn’t have, things don’t have to be super hard or tough, and they will scale down the
[37:02.160 –> 37:05.760] challenges if you want, they’ll give you options for that, and it doesn’t push you to do these
[37:05.760 –> 37:11.680] really difficult challenges or anything, and it’s in a very non-condescending way,
[37:14.000 –> 37:18.080] I really like that, you know, I didn’t use them myself, but the options were there and that was
[37:18.080 –> 37:23.360] nice to see. Yeah, and I think one of my favorite things, right, so this game just has such a
[37:23.360 –> 37:27.840] positive tone, so, like, the character of Smooshy is great in that even the characters that he
[37:27.840 –> 37:33.680] encounters that can be slightly antagonistic, he always approaches them with, like, you know, real
[37:33.680 –> 37:42.080] kindness and, you know, and or fear, yeah, yeah, and it often sort of, you know, turns them round
[37:42.080 –> 37:46.320] and makes them make some dice, and there’s, like, a few sort of challenge levels where
[37:48.800 –> 37:53.040] you have to do, you know, a version of something and then a slightly harder version of that thing,
[37:53.040 –> 37:56.560] and then an even harder version of that thing that no one has ever done before, and, like,
[37:56.560 –> 38:00.160] the characters are always so stoked that you could complete this thing that no one’s ever completed
[38:00.160 –> 38:03.920] before. I don’t know if it’s particularly difficult, but it doesn’t make it feel any
[38:03.920 –> 38:08.560] less satisfying to kind of have done it and to have, you know, that sort of reaction. I thought
[38:08.560 –> 38:12.160] that was just, like, I don’t know, there’s something about it that felt really genuine
[38:12.160 –> 38:17.200] in kind of a goofy way but not a condescending way, which I really enjoyed. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[38:18.160 –> 38:30.000] Yeah, 100%. Well, I’m trying to think, you know, there’s not much to spoil in this game,
[38:30.720 –> 38:35.840] but I do want to talk about the last area, which is probably the most spoilery,
[38:35.840 –> 38:41.600] or, you know what, yeah, yeah, this, all right, I’m putting the warning here that from here on
[38:41.600 –> 38:45.600] we’re going to talk about whatever and get into maybe more specific things we enjoyed.
[38:45.600 –> 38:49.840] And just before, like, I guess just before anyone sort of fast forwards, I, from a, you know,
[38:50.560 –> 38:54.640] my take is that a huge part of the sort of spoilers of this game are kind of the specifics
[38:54.640 –> 38:58.320] around some of the puzzles and how it plays and some of those sorts of things, so, like,
[38:58.320 –> 39:03.360] I would highly recommend going and playing the game, but, yeah, I’m kind of keen, because we’ve
[39:03.360 –> 39:08.240] kind of been dancing around some of the specific, you know, puzzles or things that we enjoy because
[39:08.240 –> 39:12.160] half the fun of this game is sort of coming across those things and finding them, so,
[39:12.160 –> 39:22.160] yeah, yeah, absolutely. Let’s go full spoils. I mean, for me, the big spoils is the Cappy
[39:22.160 –> 39:28.560] Bearers somehow make an appearance in this game, too. I didn’t expect it, but you can ride and,
[39:28.560 –> 39:33.440] you can ride a Cappy Bearer, and that’s really well done. I like that Cappy, those three,
[39:33.440 –> 39:38.240] there’s three Cappy Bearers. I like them all. That was a fun segment. The Cappy Bearers are
[39:38.240 –> 39:43.120] super fun and super silly, and because I think I knew, it was, I think it was in the trailer that
[39:43.120 –> 39:47.600] Cappy Bearer was going to be in the game, and I think it was even revealed that you ride the
[39:47.600 –> 39:51.600] Cappy Bearer to get home, but I was expecting that to just be the challenge for the level was, like,
[39:52.160 –> 39:56.960] you need to make the Cappy Bearer your friend so he takes you home, which in theory it was,
[39:56.960 –> 40:01.360] but what I wasn’t expecting is to ride the Cappy Bearer around that level and for that to be the
[40:01.360 –> 40:07.520] way that that level was designed. That was thoroughly enjoyable. It’s so cool. It’s so,
[40:07.520 –> 40:16.720] yeah, it was great. Here comes your boat. Actually, the water part in general, like,
[40:16.720 –> 40:20.720] you can, you get the ability to dive halfway through, and that’s really cool. The water,
[40:21.280 –> 40:24.560] everything looks really pretty, right, and I really liked how they designed the water area
[40:24.560 –> 40:30.880] specifically. Yeah, I agree. I think the water area was great. Yeah, the water feels like,
[40:32.160 –> 40:39.360] like the freshwater lake pond area, lots of roots and things down there. That was,
[40:40.240 –> 40:46.880] yeah, that whole last area with the pond was really fun. And I really enjoyed the relationship
[40:46.880 –> 40:51.280] between the Cappy Bearers, so the, you know, the relationship being, you know, the older sibling
[40:51.280 –> 40:55.280] who’s kind of annoyed his younger siblings, and now they’re not going to be his friends. And
[40:55.280 –> 40:59.920] I think the, like, the younger brother one in particular, where the younger brother was annoyed
[40:59.920 –> 41:04.480] because the older brother didn’t want to go on a picnic with him, despite the fact that he had no
[41:04.480 –> 41:08.720] food for the picnic and no real plan, it was just a thing he wanted to do, was so funny.
[41:09.120 –> 41:15.680] I mean, he’s wearing a bucket, that’s a good one from the start, just
[41:16.720 –> 41:20.960] good old bucket Cappy Bear, and Chunky, his little new mushroom friend.
[41:25.520 –> 41:29.520] How long have you been down here? Sorry, you just reminded me of Chunky being stuck in the hole,
[41:29.520 –> 41:32.560] and how, like, over it he is, and he’s been there for 20 minutes.
[41:33.520 –> 41:38.880] How long have- I’m losing my mind! How long have you been down here? Almost 20 minutes!
[41:42.400 –> 41:50.800] Chunky’s good. Oh, well, speaking of caves, so, like, the first caves you go in, they’re, like,
[41:50.800 –> 41:55.920] nice glowy crystals and pretty and whatnot, but then they do the dark caves, like, you have to
[41:55.920 –> 42:01.760] get the headlamp. I really like those. I mean, the level design is fine and whatnot, but just
[42:01.840 –> 42:06.480] the lighting and how you have to turn around to actually figure out the layout of the cave,
[42:08.080 –> 42:12.560] I really enjoyed that. Yeah, I think the headlamp stuff worked really well, and I agree,
[42:12.560 –> 42:17.520] I think the lighting was very well done, because that’s often something that’s really hard for
[42:17.520 –> 42:20.720] games to get right, and they often just, like, you have a circle of light around you, but this
[42:20.720 –> 42:28.000] being very directional I think worked really, really well. Yeah, it did, and I don’t know if
[42:28.080 –> 42:34.880] it’s from conditioning or from other games or whatever, but I’m always expecting something
[42:35.440 –> 42:39.840] maybe unpleasant in those sort of areas, but no, it was fine, it was just really, really dark.
[42:44.400 –> 42:49.200] I liked some of the puzzles, it was mostly I think in the caves but outside of stuff,
[42:49.200 –> 42:53.840] where you had to, like, push buttons and sometimes look up instructions,
[42:54.400 –> 43:00.960] nothing super hard, but it just, I don’t know, I just enjoyed it. There’s a piano and you have
[43:00.960 –> 43:06.400] to play notes in a certain order, but then you have to go find the instructions, and it was just
[43:06.400 –> 43:10.800] a fun little thing to encourage you to do. Yeah, I feel like a lot of the puzzles in the game,
[43:10.800 –> 43:14.640] when you immediately approach it, you’re like, oh, I’m not sure what to do, and then like 15
[43:14.640 –> 43:20.240] seconds later you’re like, oh, it’s very obvious what I have to do, so you get the feeling of
[43:20.240 –> 43:24.480] having solved the puzzle without it being particularly difficult, but also you’re not
[43:24.480 –> 43:30.240] walking up and being like, well, I know immediately what I have to do, right, so it was kind of like
[43:30.240 –> 43:34.800] just enough of a, like, oh, I have to think about this, oh, okay, I’ve kind of immediately solved
[43:34.800 –> 43:39.200] it because it’s not, you know, none of them are that difficult. It was really good puzzle design,
[43:39.200 –> 43:45.360] I thought. Absolutely, and as a testament to that, one of my favorite bits is the fact that
[43:45.360 –> 43:50.160] you can solve puzzles beforehand, before you actually encounter the character or whatever.
[43:51.760 –> 43:59.120] Maybe not like the main puzzles, the main one for each level, but like there was, you know,
[43:59.120 –> 44:04.960] there would be people looking for an item or something specific, and you could have already
[44:04.960 –> 44:09.840] found it beforehand just exploring, and you can hand them, and there’ll be special dialogue for
[44:09.840 –> 44:16.240] that, and I thought that was really nice that you can do so much just from walking around without
[44:16.240 –> 44:22.400] even talking to anyone. Yeah, yeah, I thought that was really cool, and one of the other things I
[44:22.400 –> 44:25.520] really enjoyed, it was kind of just going back to the writing of the game, which the more I think
[44:25.520 –> 44:29.040] about it, the more I think the writing is a real just like standout feature of the game. It’s really
[44:29.040 –> 44:35.520] good, and the font they use is so good, like it’s very good crayon look, it’s so good. Yeah, it’s
[44:35.520 –> 44:41.680] like the, you know, your character just obviously lying in a way that’s not harmful to get the thing
[44:41.680 –> 44:45.840] that they need to happen to happen, like I’m just a big fan of like that sort of thing, like when
[44:45.840 –> 44:50.480] there’s the the thing that’s blocking the tunnel, and you’re trying to lure it out, it’s like
[44:50.480 –> 44:53.920] basically like, I don’t want to, I don’t want to come out, like why would I go into the other
[44:53.920 –> 44:58.880] tunnel that you’re trying to lure me into, and he’s just like, because the angle of the sun is
[44:59.920 –> 45:04.560] better for this one, in a way that’s just like very obviously a lie, it’s just very good.
[45:06.320 –> 45:12.160] It’s, he got those charisma rules, that, yeah, that was, that was super enjoyable, that was
[45:12.160 –> 45:19.280] definitely a fun one. One, like, on the topic there, like I’m enjoying, I’m talking about how
[45:19.280 –> 45:24.080] much I enjoyed, you know, Whimsical and the laughs I got out of it and stuff, but there’s,
[45:25.360 –> 45:34.000] there’s very sweet saccharine sort of moments, but it’s, I still really enjoyed them, right,
[45:34.000 –> 45:38.720] because sometimes you can go overly sweet, overly positive, right, like to the point where you’re
[45:38.720 –> 45:45.040] just like, kind of eye-ruling, or just filter it out, because it’s just whatever, but everything
[45:45.040 –> 45:52.640] felt so sincere in this game, right, from Smooshy’s, like off the bat, right, Smooshy’s
[45:52.640 –> 45:59.040] concern and desire to go home, like it was just so sweet, because he’s the eldest of the siblings
[45:59.040 –> 46:05.520] and wants to get back to it, and he hadn’t left the island before, so he has to, he meets an
[46:05.520 –> 46:10.480] onion guy at the beginning who tells him he has to be brave, and, and, I don’t know, I just thought it
[46:10.480 –> 46:19.280] was really, really sweet, those moments, and not, again, not overly so, it was a nice balance in my
[46:19.280 –> 46:26.640] opinion. I agree, I think one of the, like, things that can kind of, can be a hang up for a lot of games
[46:26.720 –> 46:30.960] is characters become very one-dimensional, right, so they have, like, the thing that is their thing,
[46:30.960 –> 46:34.160] so it would have been very easy for, like, you know, Smooshy just to be like, I just need to get
[46:34.160 –> 46:38.320] home, and everything sort of, kind of coming back to that, and while that’s definitely his main
[46:38.320 –> 46:42.160] purpose, like, when you encounter the Capybaras and, you know, they’re kind of having the problem,
[46:42.160 –> 46:48.160] he’s like, hey, if I help you become friends, you know, with your brother and sister again, will you
[46:48.160 –> 46:53.840] help me get home? And the game is like, yes, and it’s just like a, it’s not some, like, weird thing
[46:53.840 –> 46:59.600] where it’s like, you know, Smooshy isn’t pushing the I need to get home thing, he’s like, I genuinely
[46:59.600 –> 47:04.000] want to help you, and that’s the way the character is written, and comes across, and it’s like, oh,
[47:04.000 –> 47:09.760] and then also, if I do this thing for you, you can do this nice thing for, for me, and it just feels
[47:10.960 –> 47:14.320] genuine, where sometimes I think characters in games can be a little bit too much, like,
[47:15.200 –> 47:18.400] they’ll distill it too much down to the transaction, right, whereas the impression that I
[47:18.400 –> 47:22.400] got is, like, Smooshy would have helped the Capybara even if he didn’t need anything from it,
[47:22.400 –> 47:26.800] right? It was just like, oh, this is a happy coincidence rather than, like, I’m only helping
[47:26.800 –> 47:36.320] you so that I can get home. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, no, he’s, yeah, you know,
[47:36.880 –> 47:43.040] it’s, he’s looking at it for such a short period of time, it’s impressive how much
[47:44.000 –> 47:49.360] they put into Smooshy, or how much you can get out of him with his character and the writing.
[47:50.320 –> 47:52.800] Yeah, and actually, actually, I’ve just, sorry, I’ve just remembered the,
[47:53.920 –> 48:00.560] one of my favorite storylines is in the second major area where you’ve got the, the hideout for
[48:00.560 –> 48:06.880] the, for the group that you need to get into, and they’ve got, like, the secret password, and it’s
[48:06.880 –> 48:10.480] all about being tough, and then you go and find the ex-leader, and she’s like, you’re not tough
[48:10.480 –> 48:14.240] enough, and you sort of, you know, pass her challenge, and you’re like, I didn’t pass it
[48:14.240 –> 48:18.240] because I was tough, I was passed, I passed it because I was brave, right, and then she has the
[48:18.240 –> 48:22.960] revelation, and then, you know, you talk to the group, and you talk to the leader who’s kind of
[48:22.960 –> 48:28.320] being a bit of a, uh, being good to use their terminology. Yeah, yeah, and you’re just like,
[48:28.320 –> 48:33.760] you know, maybe you just need to be, like, a bit not, like, just that whole storyline, and because
[48:33.760 –> 48:37.760] I think what I liked about it is it played off the brave thing from the start, right, so that I can,
[48:37.760 –> 48:43.440] absolutely, that you need to be brave, and Smooshy sort of takes that lesson, and they apply it to
[48:43.440 –> 48:47.520] other things, right, like, this whole storyline was about proving that you’re tough, and the
[48:47.520 –> 48:52.240] lesson Smooshy took from it was like, no, I’m not tough, like, I’m a, I’m an adorable little dork
[48:52.240 –> 48:56.400] that’s just being brave, you know, I, I can’t remember exactly what he said, but it was simply
[48:56.400 –> 49:00.000] that, you know. He calls himself squishy and soft. Squishy, that’s right, yeah, that’s right,
[49:01.200 –> 49:08.320] and it was just such a nice moment. Yeah, yeah, um, like, it’s, yeah, it’s such a,
[49:08.960 –> 49:15.920] it’s really, like, such a very positive message, but again, still feels sincere because that,
[49:15.920 –> 49:23.200] the whole writing and setup, I think, was just so well executed, um, because, yeah, that, uh, that
[49:23.200 –> 49:31.120] whole theme of being brave was, uh, it didn’t pop up everywhere, but the moments it did pop up,
[49:31.120 –> 49:38.000] they felt really nice and definitely connected to the beginning of the game. Um, like, in the post
[49:38.000 –> 49:43.040] game, when you hit credits, and you can go back and explore stuff, you can finally open the, uh,
[49:43.120 –> 49:48.720] the secret door at the beginning of the game to meet the mushroom guy again, or the onion guy, and,
[49:48.720 –> 49:53.760] uh, and, you know, you’re like, yeah, I did it, I was brave, I made it home, and it’s just, it’s such a
[49:53.760 –> 49:58.160] feel-good, uh, moment. Yeah, it was a great little, sort of, full circle moment, because I don’t know
[49:58.160 –> 50:03.520] about you, but that was the, the last thing, yeah, yeah, it basically is, because they, they hold on,
[50:03.520 –> 50:09.360] there’s that key, it’s hidden, like, at the very end, I can’t, yeah, like, one of the last parts of the
[50:09.360 –> 50:14.480] last area. Well, I don’t know that I have anything else to say about Smooshy, because, yeah, I feel
[50:14.480 –> 50:19.120] like, at this point, we’re just about talked about every single, actually, one more thing to say,
[50:19.120 –> 50:24.800] um, just because the game is an adventure game, um, the, the movement, the movement was surprisingly
[50:24.800 –> 50:29.760] good, I was expecting it to not be great, you know, because it’s small developer, like, and often, I
[50:29.760 –> 50:34.080] think, getting movement right is really hard, uh, but the gliding, I thought, worked really well, the
[50:34.080 –> 50:38.000] climbing worked well, like, the movement in this game was a lot better than I was expecting, like,
[50:38.000 –> 50:43.920] it’s not amazing or perfect, but it was really, really good for what this game is. I kept saying
[50:43.920 –> 50:49.360] to myself, in my head, over and over, like, wow, this is really well done, and it’s really hard to
[50:49.360 –> 50:56.320] do for, uh, really hard for other developers to do well, it is just, like, technically, just, yeah,
[50:56.320 –> 51:04.320] gameplay-wise, the movement and the design, it’s all just top-notch stuff, um, and, and for such a
[51:04.320 –> 51:10.640] small presentation, basically, yeah, it’s wonderful, um, I’m, you know, I’m hopeful we’ll see
[51:11.360 –> 51:18.080] more great stuff out of this studio, um, I, I think I’d be down for a smooshy sequel, um, I don’t know
[51:18.080 –> 51:22.480] what, but I’d be down for a little more smooshy time going off in the night. I would also be down
[51:22.480 –> 51:29.040] for more smooshy, and here’s my pitch, my pitch is I want the smooshy sequel to sort of take a more,
[51:29.040 –> 51:33.440] even if it’s more sort of like Pikmin style, like, have smooshy go on an adventure with his siblings,
[51:34.080 –> 51:38.720] that’s what I want. That’s good, that’s good, because the siblings, they didn’t get much play,
[51:38.720 –> 51:44.640] they had a cute scene at the beginning, um, but after that, yeah, you just see them at the end,
[51:44.640 –> 51:50.480] um, and it feels like there’s good character there, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, because they,
[51:50.480 –> 51:55.920] they already have personality from the, like, five minutes total, you get to interact with them,
[51:55.920 –> 52:03.600] but, um, that would be good, I’d like that. Yeah, okay, there you, there you go, some humble onion,
[52:03.600 –> 52:08.080] there’s your pitch, um, let it, let us know when it’s ready, and we’ll talk about it.
[52:09.600 –> 52:13.760] And, and one final, I guess one final, um, sort of my summary thought on,
[52:13.760 –> 52:20.880] yeah, on smooshy is, to me, this game is an ode to having a really clear vision and doing something
[52:20.960 –> 52:26.240] smaller and doing it really well, uh, I worry that too many games these days try to go for
[52:26.240 –> 52:32.560] putting everything in, making a big long experience, or adding all of the features,
[52:32.560 –> 52:39.280] to me smooshy had a clear vision, yes, it was executed well, they didn’t extend it because
[52:39.280 –> 52:44.000] they thought, oh, a game like this should have five areas, so we need to add two more in,
[52:44.000 –> 52:48.960] even though we don’t have any good ideas for them, or whatever it is, to me this game is an ode to just
[52:49.920 –> 52:56.160] execute your vision, your vision does not need to be large, like, often small can be great, and this
[52:56.160 –> 53:04.560] is a game where small has made it great. Absolutely, um, I, I, I, uh, I feel bad for always using this
[53:04.560 –> 53:10.160] buzzword, but the, the core competencies, right, of, of any, like, I talk about that games, uh,
[53:10.880 –> 53:15.120] should always focus on their core competencies, and smooshy knocks the part, knocks it out of
[53:15.120 –> 53:20.800] the park with all three, which I think are the movement, the, uh, the cozy vibes, and,
[53:20.800 –> 53:27.840] well, mushrooms, because they really like mushrooms, um, but, but yeah, and I, I’ve talked
[53:27.840 –> 53:36.080] about it before, but, like, obviously big, big developers really can be really bad with over
[53:36.080 –> 53:42.000] featuring and whatnot, but even in the indie scene on, especially in the cottage core, like,
[53:42.080 –> 53:47.520] I’ve said it before, sometimes they’re adding things that I don’t think need to be added,
[53:47.520 –> 53:54.240] um, like, I don’t think every cottage core game needs romancing, or some type of farming,
[53:54.240 –> 54:03.120] or whatever, crafting, or fishing, or fish, or fishing, um, oh, there you go, um, but yeah,
[54:03.120 –> 54:11.200] no, I fully agree, smooshy, they, these guys, they knew what they wanted, and they didn’t overreach,
[54:11.200 –> 54:16.640] and made, stayed laser focused on their goal, and knocked it out of the park with just this
[54:16.640 –> 54:22.720] fantastic, uh, game. I, I really hope it gets some, uh, some more love, because I, I’m actually,
[54:22.720 –> 54:28.080] I didn’t remember, uh, I, I’m pretty sure I saw it somewhere in a direct, or something,
[54:28.080 –> 54:33.680] but I didn’t even remember, yes, it was, um, it was shadow dropped out of, uh, out of a direct,
[54:34.560 –> 54:40.320] okay, so it was in a director with the, like, hey, we’re, we’re out now, well, that’s, uh,
[54:41.040 –> 54:45.920] well, I’m glad at least a lot of people saw it, um, but I hope more people actually play it,
[54:45.920 –> 54:52.400] um, because this is a game that I think deserves a lot of love, because it’s, it’s just so well
[54:52.400 –> 55:00.000] done, and so enjoyable, um, so you give those developers that money, um, and I can’t remember,
[55:00.000 –> 55:05.920] I actually think it might be a, a solo development sort of deal, like one person,
[55:05.920 –> 55:12.240] one guy did this? I think so, no, I think so, I’m looking it up, oh, they have other games,
[55:12.240 –> 55:16.080] I’m gonna have to look into that, uh, oh, it’s in the wholesome direct, it looks like, either way,
[55:16.880 –> 55:20.640] yeah, okay, so I just found it, yeah, so it’s, yeah, it’s one person other than some, you know,
[55:20.640 –> 55:25.360] there’s some support for, uh, the Nintendo Switch port, and maybe a little bit of additional
[55:26.160 –> 55:33.280] programming, and the music, yeah, oh my gosh, well, hats off to you, good sir, um,
[55:35.040 –> 55:42.160] and a reverse concerned ape, no news until it was ready, um, no, I’ll be keeping an eye out,
[55:42.160 –> 55:48.560] I can’t wait for the, uh, yeah, well, then, oh, good for him, he got in a Nintendo Direct,
[55:48.560 –> 55:54.800] that’s a big deal, um, yeah, all right, there you go, people, go buy Smooshy Gum Home, it’s
[55:54.800 –> 56:00.800] only 20 bucks, and it’s, I beat it in two sittings, it’s really fast and really enjoyable,
[56:01.760 –> 56:08.080] all right, Johnny, you got anything else to say, uh, no, I think, I think that’s it, all righty,
[56:08.080 –> 56:17.920] in that case, um, uh, where do you want people to find you or not, uh, well, as always, uh,
[56:17.920 –> 56:25.520] patreon.com slash THS pod, is that correct, I should know, THS pod, uh, sign up to the patreon
[56:25.520 –> 56:31.600] support, um, the harvest season, uh, you know, the weekly episodes thing has been a lot of fun this
[56:31.600 –> 56:36.320] year, and I hope that the, the listeners have been enjoying it, um, and we’re getting lots of,
[56:36.320 –> 56:41.600] you know, fun conversation in the slack, um, and it’s only going to ramp up as silly September
[56:41.600 –> 56:46.720] sort of rolls on with all of the great games coming out this month, so, um, you know, it’s
[56:46.720 –> 56:52.160] a great time to sort of echoing of 2023, I’m not ready, there are other games coming out this
[56:52.160 –> 56:55.440] month, Kev, I know you just want to pretend that there’s one, but this is silly September,
[56:55.440 –> 57:00.480] there are tons coming out, and, and Kev, if other people are playing the other games,
[57:00.480 –> 57:06.880] I would love to hear about it in our slack, so, um, yeah, uh, patreon.com slash THS pod,
[57:07.840 –> 57:14.800] yes, I, I definitely do, yep, patreon.com slash THS pod, um, for access to the slack,
[57:14.800 –> 57:20.480] where we love talking about both the episodes and the games, um, give us your feedback,
[57:20.480 –> 57:24.320] we, I, I personally really like questions on podcasts, we don’t get enough of them,
[57:24.320 –> 57:31.280] so, so send questions and or hate mail to Al, um, find us also on twitter and tumblr at THS pod,
[57:31.920 –> 57:36.320] um, I think it’s the tumblr handle, I don’t, I don’t remember, Al did that, that’s his thing,
[57:36.320 –> 57:43.680] but, um, anyways, um, you can also find us at harvestseason.club, where you can see all the
[57:43.760 –> 57:49.120] shows with the, there’s feedback you can, forms you can put there, and you can find all the links
[57:49.120 –> 57:55.760] to stuff we talked about, um, yeah, you know, we’re talking about the, the September stuff,
[57:55.760 –> 58:00.080] we did, I didn’t bring up in the news, since Al just dropped it a couple minutes before recording,
[58:00.080 –> 58:06.480] but Mineko’s gonna have a plushie and things, and, oh, oh, I’m not ready, um, anyways, so,
[58:06.480 –> 58:12.480] if you want to see my, um, the, me falling apart as Mineko comes out, you can find me at
[58:12.480 –> 58:20.480] koopaprez on the tweeters, um, you can also find me at spider square to see art, or you can find
[58:20.480 –> 58:27.440] me at rainbow road radio, or, excuse me, well, yes, rainbow road radio is the name of the show,
[58:27.440 –> 58:34.560] the twitter handle is at rainbow mariopod, uh, the other show I do with our mutual friend Alex,
[58:34.560 –> 58:39.600] um, we talk about mario, we’re actually going on hiatus right now, but you can go and listen to
[58:39.600 –> 58:44.480] fun mario stuff, uh, there’s a lot of mario news right now, you’re going on hiatus, but you’ve got
[58:44.480 –> 58:48.080] a, like, is it seven or eight episodes now that people can go back and listen to, nine, that was
[58:48.080 –> 58:52.960] our ninth episode, we’re coming back, ninth episode, right, so it’s a good time for people to go in and
[58:52.960 –> 58:59.680] catch back up before you guys start back up again, the wonder hype is coming, anyways, um, yeah, but
[58:59.680 –> 59:05.440] other than that, uh, I think we’re good, thank you Johnny for coming on, thank you Al for having us on
[59:06.320 –> 59:12.800] and editing the show and putting up with us, um, and feel better Al, and thank you listeners
[59:12.800 –> 59:17.840] for listening, uh, so until next time dear listeners, have a good harvest!
[59:24.240 –> 59:28.880] The harvest season is created by Al McKinley with support from our patrons, including our
[59:28.880 –> 59:35.680] pro farmers Kevin, Stuart and Alisa, our art is done by Micah the Brave and our music is done by
[59:35.680 –> 59:42.000] Nick Burgess, feel free to visit our website harvestseason.club for show notes and links
[59:42.000 –> 59:55.280] to things we discussed in this episode. You know, I think, I think this is the first episode where we
[59:55.280 –> 59:58.800] didn’t actually mention Big the Cat, and I still don’t really know what Big the Cat is, but it
[59:58.800 –> 01:00:07.040] didn’t come up in this episode, so I’ve, I’ve been thinking, I, I want to do a greenhouse episode
[01:00:07.040 –> 01:00:12.800] where we rank every Sonic, or maybe not every, but like a majority of Sonic characters, but I just
[01:00:12.800 –> 01:00:18.400] want you to rank them just off design, great, this sounds great, because my knowledge of Sonic
[01:00:18.400 –> 01:00:25.520] characters is, I know, I know of Sonic, I know Tails, there’s the bad guy, I don’t, I don’t know
[01:00:25.520 –> 01:00:32.480] what the bad guy’s name is, but the mustache dude, Eggman is an icon! We’ll have to plan this, um,
[01:00:32.480 –> 01:00:40.000] but yeah, and then there’s, there’s the, there’s the edgelord one, um, Shadow! No, uh, maybe, the,
[01:00:41.200 –> 01:00:46.880] the purple one, is his name Shadow? Yeah, Shadow’s the edgelord, I mean there’s a few edgelords,
[01:00:46.880 –> 01:00:52.160] but he’s the edgelord of the edgelords, um, anyways, all right, well there’s your preview,
[01:00:52.160 –> 01:00:56.240] we’re, we’re, oh, we gotta do this now, I would be down, I would be down for a greenhouse of
[01:00:56.240 –> 01:00:59.920] Red King Sonic characters, and then you’ll learn Big the Cat.