You Better Run
Tue, Oct 31, 2023 Year 2, Summer 18Al and Kelly talk about Pumpkin panic
Join Al and Kelly in a quick journey through the world of cottagecore gaming. They share their experiences with “Pumpkin Panic,” discuss recent news, and leave you feeling cozy and inspired.
Timings
00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:03:00: What Have We Been Up To
00:13:42: News
00:55:48: Pumpkin Panic
01:24:30: Outro
Links
Disney Dreamlight Valley Leaves Early Access
Spirittea Release
Len’s Island Roadmap Updated
Moonstone Island Updated and DLC Released
Stardew Valley Horseradish Juice
Echoes of the Plum Grove Steam Page
Echoes of the Plum Grove Kickstarter
Contact
Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot
Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot
Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/
Transcript
(0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season.
(0:00:36) Al: My name is Al, and we’re here today to talk about cottagecore games.
(0:00:37) Kelly: And my name is Kelly.
(0:00:38) Kelly: Woo!
(0:00:43) Al: Two weeks in a row Kelly, what’s happening here?
(0:00:50) Kelly: I know. It’s even funny because Kevin brought it up. I did last year’s Halloween.
(0:00:56) Kelly: Which I totally forgot. Because I totally forgot Cult of the Lamb came out last year.
(0:00:56) Al: Yes. That was last year, my word, wild. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, why not? But hey, I’m on, I think this is, is this my first Halloween ep? No, no, I was on one with Rochelle, the original Graveyard Keeper one, I think, I was on. But I hadn’t played the game, so Rochelle I was basically just telling me.
(0:01:01) Kelly: Yeah. It’s just my season. I don’t know what to say.
(0:01:18) Kelly: I was gonna say Kevin brought that up last time actually, yeah.
(0:01:22) Kelly: Okay.
(0:01:24) Kelly: Well, welcome to your own podcast Halloween episode.
(0:01:26) Al: about it and I was asking questions, but I think I’ve not been on any of the other Halloween episodes. So I’m here. Yay. Awesome. Well, thank you for joining us, Kelly. It’s good to talk to you again, even if Kevin did steal you from me for the last week. This one has been organized for much longer. Much longer. Yeah. Yeah. We have had a bunch of different ideas for last week and none of them were really like enough.
(0:01:43) Kelly: Of course, thank you.
(0:01:45) Kelly: I will say we planned this one. Yes. Last week was very impromptu. This is very much so planned.
(0:02:01) Al: And there was a point where Kevin was like, I can’t do the recording time we have. And I’m like, well, I’m traveling the rest of the time. So so he kicked me off. He kicked me off my own podcast and and brought you on instead. So thank you very much for that.
(0:02:16) Kelly: Always a pleasure. I did have to do a little, like, briefing on it though, because I hadn’t played Graveyard Keeper in, like, a year, and I was like, “Oh, what is this game again?”
(0:02:19) Al: Oh, yes. Fair enough.
(0:02:26) Al: Well, we don’t have that problem with this week’s game because it’s incredibly quick to play some of it and get a very good idea of what this game is. So this episode, we’re going to talk about pumpkin panic. And we’ll have lots to say about that later on in the episode. But yes, we’re going to talk about that just to mention that transcripts are available for the podcast in the show notes and on the website. So if you need that, that’s
(0:02:57) Al: OK. Before we talk about pumpkin panic, we’re going to talk about the news. But first of all, Kelly, what have you been up to?
(0:03:02) Kelly: I have been playing, I actually just finished this morning, I started playing the cosmic wheel of sisterhood.
(0:03:16) Kelly: So this is an interactive story game where you play as a witch who has been banished from her coven, and you are kind of trying to make your way back.
(0:03:32) Kelly: You play into your coven and you create tarot cards and you read the tarot cards to kind of create the gameplay in the world.
(0:03:45) Kelly: And you have visitors.
(0:03:48) Kelly: So I am not always great at story games because as much as I love reading, I also get very frustrated at a lot of stories in games.
(0:03:53) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(0:03:58) Kelly: And I thought this, they did this so good.
(0:04:01) Kelly: I thought it was so much fun.
(0:04:02) Kelly: Because you’re so hands-on with it.
(0:04:03) Al: This seems a little bit more involved than a standard visual novel.
(0:04:12) Al: Is it just mainly the one minigame that I’m seeing on this Steam page?
(0:04:16) Kelly: Um, what is… what is…
(0:04:18) Kelly: Um, kind of. So that’s like…
(0:04:18) Al: with making the cards.
(0:04:22) Kelly: You have that, you can do like there’s interactive stories within the story.
(0:04:27) Kelly: Um, so there’s like different… I wouldn’t call them mini-games, but like the interactions are the rest of it.
(0:04:33) Al: Right, OK.
(0:04:33) Kelly: Um, and…
(0:04:34) Al: But it’s not it’s not just like click a button and see the next.
(0:04:36) Kelly: You kind of… like obviously…
(0:04:40) Kelly: No, no, no, no. Yeah, there’s definitely…
(0:04:42) Al: Here’s one choice sort of thing, right?
(0:04:46) Kelly: You make the choices as to what you’re gonna do, who you would mite over to your little house.
(0:04:50) Kelly: Um, and then…
(0:04:53) Kelly: Even when you pull a tarot card, you have the choice as to how to explain the card.
(0:04:57) Kelly: So, there is a lot of, um, leeway into how the interactions go and how the story itself is gonna go.
(0:05:05) Kelly: So like I did a run, and I can do a totally different run next time.
(0:05:06) Al: Okay. All right.
(0:05:11) Kelly: So you do have you really do like you kind of write the story yourself as much as you can for you know
(0:05:19) Al: It has very positive reviews on Steam, it has over a thousand.
(0:05:23) Kelly: demo. There’s a demo which I would highly suggest playing because that’s definitely what I did and once I finished the demo I immediately bought the game and all of your stuff transfers over which is so nice because I hate when you start a demo especially for a game like this and you got to start it over. But yeah I thought it was like a very nice little like casual gameplay but like still very interesting. And like kind of emotional.
(0:05:53) Al: Shocking when they make you feel things. How dare they?
(0:05:53) Kelly: Right? What have you been up to, Al?
(0:05:56) Al: Well, speaking of making you feeling things, before I get into games, I have watched the new film “Killers of the Flower Moon”. Have you seen… I presume you haven’t seen…
(0:06:08) Kelly: I have not seen it yet, however I have owned that book for like a decade or so.
(0:06:14) Al: Yeah, mm-hmm
(0:06:15) Kelly: My dad bought it years ago. My dad’s a very big like historical novel kind of person and then we actually read it in my book club about two years ago or a year ago. I really enjoyed it. I thought the book was very good. I have not watched the movie yet, but I’ve heard very positive reviews.
(0:06:28) Al: » Okay. Yeah.
(0:06:38) Kelly: Even from the Native American community about the movie, of course there’s some things that probably could have been done differently,
(0:06:45) Kelly: but I think that’s anytime it happens when you’re telling somebody else’s story.
(0:06:46) Al: Hmm. I think, yeah, yeah, definitely. I think there’s a lot about the film that is obviously,
(0:06:54) Al: you know, there’s some, you know, some racist stuff in the film, right? Obviously. But that’s the sort of thing where it’s like, well, yeah, but you’re talking about a, you know, a racist crime,
(0:06:57) Kelly: Mm-hmm Yeah, yeah, you’re telling a story from 1930 or 20 or whatever
(0:07:04) Al: right? Like, yeah, yeah, exactly. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s not, don’t go into expecting a good time.
(0:07:15) Kelly: Yeah, and unfortunately I don’t think the story would be accurate if those things are kind of left out because they do play a big role in what’s going on with the story itself.
(0:07:16) Al: No, of course. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I enjoyed that. It’s very long. It’s very long. So that’s why I was up really late on Thursday night because of that.
(0:07:26) Kelly: But crazy. Yes.
(0:07:37) Al: Because I saw the showing started at half seven and like I wasn’t home until quarter past midnight.
(0:07:44) Kelly: Wow. Wow.
(0:07:44) Al: So. (laughs)
(0:07:46) Al: I don’t regret going to see it, it was very good.
(0:07:49) Kelly: Which I feel like is such a… it’s such a hard thing to achieve with some of this…
(0:07:49) Al: And I don’t think it was…
(0:07:51) Al: Like, it doesn’t feel like it was unnecessarily long, right?
(0:07:54) Al: Like, I feel like he was doing something with every minute that you had.
(0:07:58) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.
(0:08:03) Kelly: these stories. Like, I mean, I feel like I didn’t see Oppenheimer, but I feel like that a lot of people talked about that.
(0:08:09) Kelly: Feeling kind of like dragged out in a lot of spots.
(0:08:12) Al: Interesting. Yeah, I suspect a lot of these things depends on how you feel about quiet moments that make you contemplate. Right. Absolutely. You can’t be talking about a massacre or about,
(0:08:21) Kelly: Which I think these stories need those moments.
(0:08:24) Kelly: So I don’t see anything wrong with that.
(0:08:27) Kelly: Yeah, just on to the next scene.
(0:08:30) Al: you know, wiping out of a city without having some moments to make you think, “Wow, that’s bad!”
(0:08:40) Al: Exactly, exactly. So it’s quite great.
(0:08:42) Al: So I enjoyed it. It was good. I don’t think I’m going to watch it a second time. It’s not like I’m going to watch this film again. But yeah.
(0:08:54) Kelly: I will say on that note, the book is also extremely good. I know, Allie, you said you’re probably not going to read it, but if anybody out there is interested, very interesting.
(0:09:05) Al: Yeah, people don’t really. Yeah.
(0:09:10) Kelly: I think some historical novels can be kind of boring and dragged out because I do read a lot of history. This was very good. This was written in a way that like really you You just, you had to keep going.
(0:09:24) Kelly: No matter what. It wasn’t, it wasn’t…
(0:09:26) Kelly: Umm, oh my god, what’s his name?
(0:09:28) Kelly: The Devil in White City guy, Eric Larson.
(0:09:30) Kelly: I like some of his works. They can also be a bit cumbersome.
(0:09:31) Al: Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. I mean, just to make a point of it, like people don’t like when I talk about the fact that I don’t really read books, but I don’t really read books.
(0:09:34) Kelly: So I don’t think it was like that.
(0:09:47) Al: And it’s not like I read books as a child. And the problem is that I just I struggle because I don’t have like the visual aspect in my brain. Like I’m not I’m not able to see the things that are described. So so much of a book I just kind of skim over.
(0:09:53) Kelly: Yes, yeah.
(0:10:01) Al: Because it’s like descriptive stuff that doesn’t really mean anything because I can’t see it.
(0:10:04) Kelly: Whereas I’m the complete opposite and I see everything in my head and then I get really mad when the movie comes out and skews my perspective on how I envisioned everything.
(0:10:05) Al: Um…
(0:10:12) Al: Yeah. I always found that hilarious when people were like, “Oh, it’s nothing like what it is in the book. It’s not like what I imagined it.” And I’m like, “What do you mean it’s nothing like what you imagined it?” I don’t understand what you mean by this. And now that I understand that people now make up images in their head, suddenly I understand what they mean now. They’re like,
(0:10:22) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:10:32) Kelly: Yep Yep, it’s it’s so funny cuz like my roommate is like you she can’t see anything in her head and I’m like, well What do you what do you mean? What do you how are you living? I don’t understand Well, I am That is the that is the issue Thank you.
(0:10:33) Al: “Oh, this isn’t exactly what I had imagined in my head.”
(0:10:46) Al: Oh, I’m just like, how do you ever get anything done? Are you not constantly distracted by the things in your head?
(0:11:00) Al: So I’ve also played a bunch of games, because I apparently haven’t been on the podcast for multiple episodes. So I have played and finished Sonic Superstars and Mario Wonder, and I have been playing through the new Spider-Man game. That is taking me longer, because just like It’s on my PS5, you have to kind of sit down and deliver.
(0:11:16) Al: All those games are great, Sonic Super Star is good, Mario Wonder is fantastic, Spider-Man is fantastic.
(0:11:28) Al: Both of those two games did things that I couldn’t, I just wouldn’t have expected what they did.
(0:11:36) Al: It’s not just like, oh there are another version of this game, right?
(0:11:41) Al: They both do things that are like, this is brand new stuff, really interesting.
(0:11:41) Kelly: I think that’s so exciting, especially for the Mario games because I feel like, you know,
(0:11:46) Al: That I really, really like.
(0:11:48) Al: Yeah.
(0:11:50) Al: Yeah.
(0:11:52) Kelly: how long has it been?
(0:11:52) Al: Yeah.
(0:11:53) Kelly: How many games have come out?
(0:11:54) Al: Yeah.
(0:11:55) Kelly: Like, how do you keep reinventing the wheel?
(0:11:56) Al: Yeah, definitely.
(0:11:58) Kelly: But it’s still exciting to find out that they can.
(0:11:58) Al: Yeah, and I think, I mean I don’t think they need to do that for every single game.
(0:12:02) Kelly: No!
(0:12:02) Al: Like I enjoyed every game in the new series.
(0:12:07) Al: Like they’re all fun, they don’t have to be completely different, they all have new challenges in their different levels.
(0:12:13) Al: levels but it is also fun to occasionally get like this is just.
(0:12:16) Al: Just a completely different way of thinking and the the Wonderflowers just do just crazy things in the levels that make it just so different.
(0:12:26) Al: You know it’s not just like oh here’s a different power-up and the new power-ups are fun as well but it’s not just like oh this one’s a bubble instead of a fire right and that’s that’s fun but it’s not like a radical idea whereas like the Wonderflowers are like what if this was a top-down game instead of a side-scroller and you’re like.
(0:12:46) Al: Like what if apparently now we’re doing that you know like I think it’s the weird stuff that they did with that game and it’s like what if the Piranha plant sang you know.
(0:12:57) Kelly: Oh my god, I saw the clips of that, they’re so cute!
(0:13:02) Al: It’s just like I love the idea of that it’s just brainstorm a hundred and the weird thing is every single level has one right it’s not like this is the sort of thing that you wouldn’t you if if they told you but you’re like oh that’d be fun so like you know it’d be like all the boss battles.
(0:13:16) Al: Have them or what like this.
(0:13:16) Kelly: That’s cool. That’s very cool.
(0:13:18) Al: A couple of levels in every world.
(0:13:20) Al: Every single world has one.
(0:13:25) Al: So yeah, good fun.
(0:13:26) Al: I’ve also been playing Harvest Moon Winds of Anthos because I need to play that.
(0:13:32) Al: So I’ll talk about that next week.
(0:13:35) Al: I don’t think we need to talk about that just now.
(0:13:39) Al: It is what it is.
(0:13:40) Al: Cool.
(0:13:41) Al: News. Should we talk about some news?
(0:13:47) Al: Let’s start with the controversial stuff.
(0:13:50) Al: Disney Dreamlight Valley.
(0:13:51) Al: Have you played this yet?
(0:13:52) Kelly: No, I have not. I think when it first like when they first announced it I was like oh this looks really cute If I’m not playing anything, I’ll probably play it Yes So I don’t think I will be playing Because like free to play You know, I know there’s gonna be some payment stuff, but you can kind of avoid it sometimes
(0:14:00) Al: Yeah, were you waiting for it to go free to play? That’s the question.
(0:14:04) Al: Yeah, well wait no longer! It is no longer going to be free to play!
(0:14:08) Al: I think this is fast, so this is okay, so full context.
(0:14:16) Al: Yes, yeah definitely.
(0:14:23) Kelly: Or at least you can get an idea of what the game is before you decide to put money into it Yes, sorry jumping ahead
(0:14:27) Al: so yeah so let’s okay well let’s put that let’s put the
(0:14:30) Al: the discussion of that bit aside let’s let’s get into the actual news of it so the game is leaving early access on the 5th of december so that will be the first full version of the game whatever that means they have announced that it’s not going to be free to play anymore so you will have to to buy it they have also announced that there is going to be a paid dlc coming which they’re going to detail you’ll know more about this when you listen to this episode because they’re going to be saying more about it on the day this episode comes out
(0:15:00) Al: that next week as well but they have also said that they are still going to continue to have free content updates so it’s not all going to be paid dlc I think that there are so many different ways to buy this game now it’s weird have you looked at the so in the main link on there they’ve got a list of the new ways to buy the game which is like you can just buy the game for $40 or you you can buy the physical cozy edition.
(0:15:26) Kelly: Oh, I saw this.
(0:15:30) Al: Which also gives you some stuff and that’s $50 or you can buy the gold edition, which also has more exclusive items and gives you the DLC or you can buy the DLC separately and these purchase options are on top of what the current purchase options are for early access, which you can still do until the 4th of December.
(0:15:52) Al: I know it’s so bizarre.
(0:15:53) Kelly: I think I got a headache just looking at this earlier.
(0:15:58) Kelly: I was like, what is this, a streaming service?
(0:16:00) Kelly: What the hell is this?
(0:16:00) Al: I think I just it feels like so I think you can you can frame not being free to play as positive and negative right negative obviously a bunch of people who were like yeah I get to play the game without paying for it now don’t get to do that they either have to pay or they don’t get to play the game and that’s really frustrating I get why people would be frustrated by that.
(0:16:22) Al: On the other hand obviously we know that free to play games are very manipulative and are very good at sucking.
(0:16:26) Kelly: Oh, absolutely, yes.
(0:16:28) Kelly: Well, so that’s what I was gonna ask, right? Like they’re not removing microtransactions from the game.
(0:16:30) Al: But it’s not like there aren’t going to be ways to pay for things inside the game after you’ve bought it.
(0:16:37) Al: No so I it feels like they’re just doing a bit of both worlds which.
(0:16:42) Kelly: Yes, they want their cake and they’re gonna have their cake and eat it too kind of thing.
(0:16:46) Al: Yeah yeah it’s not not great.
(0:16:49) Kelly: And then the the $40 base price is kind of wild.
(0:16:52) Al: It does seem let me so let me double check.
(0:16:56) Kelly: To go from free-to-play to $40?
(0:16:59) Kelly: Oh wait, so if you paid for early access, does that come out of the base?
(0:17:00) Al: The early access prices.
(0:17:02) Al: Because.
(0:17:04) Al: So if you paid for access you have the game now so you don’t have to buy the game again and they’ve also said as a thank you to our early access players all unique cosmetic items included in the upcoming gold edition will be given free of charge to any player who purchases and claims of founders pack in game or on on or before December the 4th no matter the tier.
(0:17:30) Kelly: Okay, that’s nice because I think…
(0:17:30) Al: And not only that but all founders will also receive 2500 min stones to celebrate this that’s.
(0:17:32) Kelly: Okay, that’s nice.
(0:17:39) Kelly: Nice.
(0:17:41) Al: So let me just double check the prices for…
(0:17:47) Al: Yes, so here we are. So there’s three different versions you can buy in Early Access.
(0:17:50) Al: Well, this is the thing. This is where it’s wild. So there’s the standard Founders Edition,
(0:17:51) Kelly: Oh my god. But how many tears?
(0:18:01) Al: which is the Early Access to Dreamland Valley plus 8,000 Moonstones plus a bunch of exclusive stuff,
(0:18:08) Al: and that is $30. So $10.
(0:18:11) Al: cheaper than the final price. And then there’s the deluxe founders rewards which gives you 14,500 moonstones. I don’t know why they insist on always like it’s not 15, why not 15? Weird. And a bunch of more exclusive items and that one I don’t have a price for but I think it might have been, it was either 50 or 60.
(0:18:34) Kelly: Well, that’s 50 on here, on the regular one.
(0:18:36) Al: Yeah. I think, I think…
(0:18:42) Al: Yeah, it’s 50, 50. And then there’s the ultimate founders edition which gives you 20,000 moonstones and a bunch of extra cosmetic things. And that one was $6, $70?
(0:18:58) Kelly: Okay, I think that makes sense because the gold edition for the standard game is
(0:19:03) Al: So there are like seven different ways to buy this game. All with different things.
(0:19:08) Kelly: Oh my god.
(0:19:10) Kelly: And then the DLC is $30.
(0:19:11) Al: So it’s like if you… Yes, which is only included in the Gold Edition, not as far as I can tell,
(0:19:19) Al: any of the Early Access editions. So if you have Early Access, you still have to pay for the
(0:19:25) Kelly: I have some things I’d like to say, and I’m gonna maybe keep them to myself.
(0:19:31) Al: So I will say you do get a capybara companion if you buy the gold edition.
(0:19:31) Kelly: It is very cute. It’s very cute. It has a flower crown.
(0:19:40) Al: A flowery capybara companion.
(0:19:41) Kelly: I mean, you can’t go wrong with the capybara.
(0:19:46) Al: True that.
(0:19:48) Kelly: Listen, the game looks so cute. I think that’s why this is kind of so disappointing.
(0:19:52) Al: Yes, yeah, yeah, it is.
(0:19:59) Al: So I think it is a good game and if you said to me this game…
(0:20:01) Al: Why did they say that? Why did they even say that?
(0:20:04) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:20:20) Kelly: Exactly. They made the promise. Yeah.
(0:20:23) Kelly: And that’s so frustrating because that’s what they’ve been writing on since they announced this. Like why, why, why? And then to announce the changes a month before.
(0:20:37) Al: Just why?
(0:20:39) Al: I know, I know, I know it’s so…
(0:20:40) Kelly: And then also, so if you buy the cozy edition, besides the flowery capybara and the expansion
(0:20:50) Kelly: is there anything else you’re missing? Like are you limited from gameplay? Okay.
(0:20:52) Al: No, no you’re not, you’re not. So the only gameplay, so everything that’s exclusive outside of the expansion pass, everything that’s exclusive is just cosmetics. If you buy, if you… it is, isn’t it? It’s not quite that bad yet, but it definitely feels like that’s where they’re going yes the funny thing is
(0:21:07) Kelly: Okay, that’s a little bit better, but you know what? It’s giving me sims.
(0:21:14) Kelly: No, but it’s getting there. Yeah.
(0:21:22) Al: right see if you buy the base game and you buy the expansion pass that’s one cent cheaper than buying the gold edition which gives you the base game and the expansion pass I mean it also gives you the it does give you the capacity is the capybara worth one cent that’s the it just seems like why is the gold edition the same price as it seems weird
(0:21:33) Kelly: Yeah, but no capybara.
(0:21:47) Kelly: It does, like also, like okay so if you if you do really want to play this game,
(0:21:51) Kelly: why would you buy the base edition and the expansion pack instead of just buying the gold edition?
(0:21:55) Kelly: Again, this is just such a headache to look at.
(0:21:55) Al: Yeah, yeah, well, that’s that yeah, so yeah seven different seven different ways to buy this game You either buy it in one of the three early access ways of buying it or you buy it in one of the three Non-early access ways to buy it if you wait till the 5th of December and then you either buy the expansion mass or not We don’t know what’s in the expansion pass exactly they’ll be telling us that on Wednesday today if you’re listening on the day this comes out
(0:22:24) Al: There are some hints.
(0:22:25) Al: There we’ve seen Gaston and… oh is that Rapunzel? I think it’s Rapunzel.
(0:22:33) Kelly: Oh, yes, that’s Rapunzel in the back. And then, uh, Eva. Eve, Eve.
(0:22:34) Al: Who’s the little robot? Oh was that from Wally?
(0:22:38) Kelly: Eeeve.
(0:22:40) Kelly: Yeah, from Wally.
(0:22:41) Al: Okay I still haven’t seen Wally. I know, I know. So I went through a period of time of just not watching Disney Pixar stuff.
(0:22:42) Kelly: What?
(0:22:44) Kelly: Ugh.
(0:22:47) Kelly: I mean, I’ve never seen Tangled, so whatever, but Wally’s so good.
(0:22:52) Al: I have seen
(0:22:55) Al: a few of them since, but I haven’t caught up on all of them. I just watched, what’s it called, Elemental today.
(0:23:10) Kelly: How was it? I get clips on TikTok and it seems pretty cute.
(0:23:14) Kelly: I feel like the trailer kind of made it seem like it was going to be like a knock-off uh…
(0:23:14) Al: I enjoyed it, yeah. It’s better than the trailer that made me think it was going to be.
(0:23:22) Kelly: How am I… I’m blanking on it.
(0:23:24) Kelly: No, um… I can’t think right now. I don’t know.
(0:23:25) Al: Anything can roll me on Juliet.
(0:23:30) Kelly: It just felt very familiar, I guess, if that…
(0:23:34) Al: Yeah, it is. There’s nothing particular about it that’s interesting on you, but I think it does a good job of being a fun and enjoyable and emotional way of exploring immigration and an immigrant’s family’s journey and some of those struggles. I think it does a good job.
(0:23:50) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:23:52) Kelly: That’s uh, that’s like kind of like again, I watched a lot of clips on tiktok. I get so sucked into the movie clips on tiktok But I think that that’s exactly the vibe I got to I was like very surprised I feel like With the difference between the trailer and how the actual movie seemed to be See ya later.
(0:24:03) Al: fair.
(0:24:16) Al: Yeah. I don’t know what that trailer was about, because like the trailer came out and everyone went “this looks terrible, what are you doing?” and then the phone came out and people were like “yes, yes, sorry, it’s good, it’s good, it’s enjoyable”. Yeah. Yeah. I’m not going to say it’s the best Pixar film, but it’s certainly not the worst. It’s good. I enjoyed it. Yeah, so that’s, we don’t, we’ve seen Gaston and Rapunzel and would you say Eve?
(0:24:19) Kelly: Bye.
(0:24:27) Kelly: Yeah, I feel like every review I’ve seen of it, people really liked it, like they enjoyed it, so…
(0:24:46) Kelly: Eve, yeah. I think that Eve, Eevee, something like that? Not Eevee, but it’s like that, yeah.
(0:24:46) Al: And there’s a snake and a pig. So we don’t know a huge amount, we’ll see, but it’s, I don’t think so.
(0:24:57) Kelly: Is that the jungle book?
(0:24:58) Kelly: No, that’s not the snake from the jungle book.
(0:25:03) Kelly: Oh, there’s a creature in the tree too.
(0:25:05) Kelly: That is the jungle book.
(0:25:07) Kelly: Look at the monkey in the tree.
(0:25:09) Kelly: I’m pretty sure that’s the jungle book.
(0:25:11) Al: Anyway, well, no more. It’s interesting that this is their first paid DLC, so they are locking content behind another paywall, which is what it is. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing. I’m just saying it is what it is. So don’t expect to pay the base price of the game and get all of the updates for free forever. That’s not going to happen.
(0:25:22) Kelly: Which I think is just…
(0:25:24) Kelly: Yes.
(0:25:34) Kelly: I just think it’s a little wild to go from free to play to the base game is free and then the DLC is also the same price as like a game.
(0:25:36) Al: It’s not Stardew Valley.
(0:25:41) Al: Well, that’s the thing. If you want to now play everything that will be available on the 5th of December, it’s gone from zero to $70. Yes, you say there’s going to be more free content updates, but you know there’s going to be more paid DLC as well.
(0:26:01) Kelly: Oh, and like you said, there’s transactions in the game probably too, right?
(0:26:04) Al: Yep, yep, yep. So I never outright bought it.
(0:26:06) Kelly: Do you have early access or no?
(0:26:11) Al: Although I will now be buying it because I was waiting for it to be free before I got it on Switch. But I did have it on Game Pass for a while, and I was playing it on that.
(0:26:14) Kelly: Well…
(0:26:16) Kelly: Oh, uh, okay.
(0:26:25) Al: The thing that I’m frustrated with free to play is not that I have to pay for the game.
(0:26:28) Al: I’m fine with paying for the game. What I’m frustrated is I now have to decide what I’m playing it on. When it’s free to play, it would mean I could have it on everything and choose depending on how I’m feeling on the day or how they play on different platforms.
(0:26:29) Kelly: - Yeah.
(0:26:41) Al: Whereas now I need to go, or no, I need to decide do I want to on Switch or do I want to on Steam Deck.
(0:26:45) Kelly: Mm-hmm That’s fair I just I think it’s just I’m mostly annoyed about being told the whole time that it’s gonna be free to play and then Getting the rug pulled out from under you a month before
(0:26:46) Al: I think I’m going to do it.
(0:26:54) Al: It’s bizarre. Never make these decisions upfront. Yeah. Wild. Never say, “Oh, next year when release is good.” Just don’t do it. It’s pointless. It is. I mean, it doesn’t feel like it should be that big a promise for, you know, one of the biggest companies in the world.
(0:27:05) Kelly: It’s a big promise to make.
(0:27:07) Kelly: No, no, no, no, it shouldn’t.
(0:27:12) Kelly: I think that’s another point that I was trying not to bring up is like, come on, like of all people Do you really need to be charging this much?
(0:27:21) Al: Yeah, I suspect. What I suspect is they didn’t expect it to be as popular as it has been and people to like it as much. Like, this is a good game, right? This isn’t one of these, like, “Oh, they’ve just thrown some money at someone and got a really rubbish game based on a film,” right? This is a really good game, and if you like Disney characters,
(0:27:42) Al: this is a great game to play because there’s so much lore and you get to, like, be friends with the characters that you like in the games. It’s really good fun.
(0:27:51) Al: And the farming is good. It’s not their best, but it’s good. It’s a good game. That’s part of the problem is I think they were probably expecting it to be a standard free to play game. The people who made those decisions, right? We’re expecting it to be like, Oh,
(0:28:05) Al: this isn’t a game we’re going to manage to convince people to pay for. Oh wait, no people like the game. Oh, well, we’re gonna, we’re gonna charge people in, you know.
(0:28:12) Kelly: And I think back to your point, like, I’m not… I mean, obviously I grew up on Disney, whatever.
(0:28:19) Kelly: I’m not the biggest Disney person. I still wanted to play the game. Like, it looked like a good game.
(0:28:24) Al: It is. It is a good farming game. It is a good cottagecore game.
(0:28:26) Kelly: But I think now, like, someone like me, I’m not gonna play this game, to be quite honest.
(0:28:31) Al: Yeah.
(0:28:34) Kelly: Because I’m not gonna pay, whatever, 40 bucks at the minimum.
(0:28:38) Kelly: I mean, to be honest, I’m mostly playing indie games, so like…
(0:28:42) Kelly: He paying $40 is like, I really wanted to play this game.
(0:28:42) Al: Yes, it’s cheap compared to some games, but…
(0:28:45) Kelly: Yes. But by my standards, that’s a triple-A game.
(0:28:52) Kelly: Literally.
(0:28:53) Al: You could buy Stardew four times for that price.
(0:28:55) Kelly: Literally.
(0:28:59) Al: You could buy Stardew on all your consoles if you wanted, and you probably already have.
(0:29:06) Al: Last couple of things, the Cozy Edition, as we mentioned, that’s the…
(0:29:12) Al: physical edition.
(0:29:13) Al: I do not know why they’re calling it this, it is a stupid name, but whatever.
(0:29:17) Al: It has been delayed until the 10th of November, except the Switch version in North America.
(0:29:25) Al: All the other versions have been delayed.
(0:29:26) Kelly: How lucky.
(0:29:29) Al: It’s such a weird…
(0:29:30) Al: I mean, first of all, who’s buying this game physically?
(0:29:33) Al: That is a weird decision to make.
(0:29:35) Al: I don’t…
(0:29:35) Kelly: I could see if it was released closer to Christmas or something.
(0:29:36) Al: Why are you… yeah, okay, I guess that’s a good point.
(0:29:39) Kelly: Like, does anything come with it?
(0:29:41) Kelly: No, no, I mean like physical.
(0:29:42) Al: Yeah, you do get a few cosmetics extra with it, but that’s all.
(0:29:47) Al: Oh, no.
(0:29:47) Kelly: No, then no.
(0:29:49) Al: No, no, it’s just a case with the game and a code that gives you some extra cosmetics,
(0:29:49) Kelly: Oh, not even… yeah, no, no, no.
(0:29:58) Al: that’s it.
(0:30:00) Al: I think, yeah, you’re probably right though, that’s exactly it.
(0:30:03) Al: It’s because people will buy a game for people physically, right?
(0:30:06) Kelly: Yeah.
(0:30:06) Kelly: I was about to say, “Your grandma can buy a friend.”
(0:30:07) Al: That’s why they always do that, because then your grandmother can walk into a shop and buy a game for you.
(0:30:12) Al: Oh, they like Disney.
(0:30:14) Al: Yeah, that’s exactly what it is, isn’t it?
(0:30:14) Kelly: Exactly.
(0:30:16) Kelly: Oh, Disney characters?
(0:30:17) Kelly: This is perfect.
(0:30:20) Al: Don’t buy this game physically.
(0:30:23) Al: It’s weird decision to make.
(0:30:24) Al: I mean, do what you want.
(0:30:26) Al: I’m not. Anyway, and I guess the final point to say is that Micah has finally been vindicated because he bought the game not knowing it was going to be free to play.
(0:30:35) Al: And turns out it’s not going to be free to play.
(0:30:36) Kelly: Oh, really?
(0:30:40) Al: So he gets the last laugh.
(0:30:43) Al: I think. Yeah, he didn’t.
(0:30:45) Al: It was really funny because we were I can’t remember when it was.
(0:30:47) Al: But the first episode that I had him on after the game came out,
(0:30:52) Al: we were talking about how he was playing it and then how he bought it.
(0:30:54) Al: And then I’d mentioned that it was going to be free to play.
(0:30:57) Al: And he was like, wait, what?
(0:30:58) Al: It was very funny.
(0:31:01) Al: I think he bought the Ultimate Founders Edition as well.
(0:31:02) Kelly: Well, it seems like he was gonna pay the money no matter what, so…
(0:31:03) Al: So that’s like he paid the seventy dollars.
(0:31:06) Al: Well, yeah, that’s true.
(0:31:08) Kelly: You know, I feel like in that instance, it doesn’t matter if it was free to play or not.
(0:31:13) Al: That’s true, that’s true.
(0:31:14) Al: I think that’s everything about that. Wow, we just spent 15 minutes talking about that.
(0:31:21) Al: Cool, so there you go. 5th of December, that’s the important thing. If you want any of the special stuff that comes with only early access, go get that as soon as you can. If you don’t,
(0:31:34) Al: then don’t. If you’re not going to buy this game, I’m sorry. There we go.
(0:31:39) Al: Speaking of games coming out with less controversy.
(0:31:42) Al: Spirit tea. So this is the farming game slash Spirited away type game where you are running a tea Once ago tea. Yeah. Yes And Yeah, I kick started it when I came out because I’m I thought I I actually have access to the game already I know right
(0:31:55) Kelly: It’s like a tea house, bath shop.
(0:31:58) Kelly: It looks so cute.
(0:31:59) Kelly: I wanna get this.
(0:32:01) Kelly: This is, I’m definitely getting.
(0:32:08) Kelly: Oh my god.
(0:32:12) Al: So, yeah, I kick started the game looking forward to playing it it is the is finally releasing on the 13th of November So if you have been looking forward to running your own little tea house tea shop wherever you want to call it with a bath house and Play with some spirits. I don’t I don’t know the right words to use with this game yet. Go go get it It’s mostly one guy who’s been developing it for a bunch of years. He’s working with a publisher But yeah, if you like game–
(0:32:42) Al: games that are as indie as they come, go get it.
(0:32:47) Al: Yeah, yeah, it’s not just your standard.
(0:32:47) Kelly: It looks like a nice little spin on the farming game.
(0:32:55) Al: Go plant some turnips and then you get better crops.
(0:32:58) Kelly: Yeah.
(0:32:59) Al: Lens Island have updated their roadmap,
(0:33:04) Al: so they have said that their 1.0 is coming out in July 2024.
(0:33:09) Al: I think this is the first official date we got from them.
(0:33:12) Al: We had got some– they’d originally wanted to release it this year,
(0:33:16) Al: and then at some point they’d said it would be next year.
(0:33:20) Kelly: That’s nice to get a solid time actually. It always is. You’re talking to the person waiting for Silksong here, I know.
(0:33:23) Al: It’s dangerous, but yeah, nice. So I look forward to Lens Island coming out in November of next year.
(0:33:36) Al: They’ve also said there are going to be two more updates this year. One in November,
(0:33:47) Al: which, oh look, it’s November now, and one in December, and then there’ll be a final.
(0:33:53) Al: Major update before the final release in March of next year, and then the final release in July of next year. So if you are waiting for that one point of release of Lens Island,
(0:34:06) Al: that’s when you’re going for it. I actually own this game as well, and I haven’t played it.
(0:34:11) Al: It’s quite combat focused this game, and when I first got it when it first entered Early Access,
(0:34:22) Al: because I kickstarted that.
(0:34:23) Al: I need to stop kickstarting things.
(0:34:26) Al: I kickstart all the farming games.
(0:34:28) Kelly: You just want to be hip and say, “I was here first.” [laughs]
(0:34:29) Al: It’s a sickness, Kelly.
(0:34:32) Al: Yeah, I know, right?
(0:34:38) Al: They didn’t have controller support at that point.
(0:34:41) Al: And of course, I was playing it on my Steam Deck, so it was not fun to play with.
(0:34:46) Al: So I spent like five minutes and went, nope, not doing this.
(0:34:48) Al: I’m waiting for controller support.
(0:34:48) Kelly: Wait, if it didn’t have–
(0:34:51) Kelly: how does that work, then?
(0:34:53) Al: I think you can map any button or any touchpad or anything to any standard PC controls.
(0:35:03) Al: So you can say, if I press this button,
(0:35:06) Al: I press this keyboard button or I press this mouse button or I do this gesture or there’s loads of clever things you can do, and it works really well for a lot of things, but it wasn’t working for this.
(0:35:17) Kelly: That’s very fair.
(0:35:18) Al: I was like, I need to wait for official controller support for this one.
(0:35:19) Kelly: I do think it’s funny that the release date on Steam is November 26, 2021.
(0:35:22) Al: So that’s what I did.
(0:35:28) Kelly: ‘Cause it’s 2023?
(0:35:28) Al: Why is that date funny?
(0:35:31) Al: OK, well, that was the early access release date.
(0:35:32) Kelly: I know, I know, but I’m just saying it’s funny to like sit here and look at the news about, you know, it getting released next year.
(0:35:35) Al: OK.
(0:35:37) Al: Yes, yes.
(0:35:42) Al: Moonstone Island are I think I think you and Kevin talked about the DLC for that last week, they’ve announced that there is a free update coming with the DLC as well, which should be out now.
(0:35:57) Al: So it includes an expansion to the green.
(0:35:58) Al: House closing old mine holes.
(0:36:01) Al: I don’t know what that means.
(0:36:03) Al: Who knows?
(0:36:03) Kelly: Umm, okay.
(0:36:06) Kelly: I’m assuming monsters come out of the mine holes, maybe?
(0:36:10) Al: I think it’s a creature collection game.
(0:36:10) Kelly: I don’t know.
(0:36:12) Kelly: Stop the children from falling down the mines.
(0:36:13) Al: It’s a creature.
(0:36:15) Al: Yeah, we do. We don’t want that.
(0:36:18) Al: Inventory manage improvements and adjustable day length are the big things that they were highlighting. There’s I mean, the patch notes are much more detailed. I’m not going through them.
(0:36:28) Al: There’s a lot of stuff. I’ll link it in the show notes.
(0:36:31) Al: Go look at that if you care about it.
(0:36:32) Al: Yeah. Yeah.
(0:36:32) Kelly: Yeah, this is the one it had a ton of updates last week too or two weeks ago Okay, that makes sense, but it seems like they’re really working to you know update any of these little issues
(0:36:37) Al: I think most of it was like bug fixing and stuff.
(0:36:39) Al: This is the first kind of like content update, I think.
(0:36:42) Al: Content and feature update.
(0:36:43) Al: So this is. Yeah, it’s.
(0:36:45) Al: Yes. Yes, they are.
(0:36:51) Al: This is one of those ones that I probably do want to play at some point, but.
(0:36:55) Kelly: It looks really cute, too. It really does. I would like to play this.
(0:36:55) Al: It does. It does.
(0:36:58) Kelly: I mean, me too. I’m a sucker for collection in general.
(0:36:58) Al: It’s also creature collection, and I’m a sucker for creature collection.
(0:37:01) Al: Well, yes, that too. That too.
(0:37:07) Al: That too.
(0:37:08) Al: Yeah. Stardew Valley.
(0:37:12) Al: Concerned Ape is continuing to just trickle things out.
(0:37:15) Kelly: He’s been just dropping things. Yeah, like he it’s like it’s making me so annoyed because I’m like I don’t want to play stardew. I like I always do I do I’m actively spending my life fighting the urge to play stardew valley [laugh]
(0:37:17) Al: I know.
(0:37:18) Al: No, you do. You do, though. You do.
(0:37:25) Al: You don’t lie. You want to play.
(0:37:28) Al: What I love is like some of them are like, “here’s the most tiny little thing like this one, which is just a screenshot of wild horseradish juice.”
(0:37:42) Kelly: Yeah.
(0:37:42) Al: And my reaction was, “Oh, is that not already in the game? Okay!”
(0:37:43) Kelly: I literally when I looked at it I was like oh yeah you can’t do anything with horseradish can you?
(0:37:51) Al: So some of them are like this tiny thing where it’s just like, “Oh yeah, the update’s gonna have horseradish juice!”
(0:37:58) Al: And then there was the one a few weeks ago which was like, “Here’s just like detailed ten bullet points of what’s coming in the update.”
(0:38:04) Al: And you’re like, “Oh, okay!”
(0:38:05) Kelly: Yep, listen, I would take every single one of these, I’m like, cool, awesome, great.
(0:38:12) Kelly: But yeah, no, I saw this one and I was like, oh, another thing for me to micromanage.
(0:38:18) Al: ALICE (KEEPER) Kelly, did you ever play any of the 1.5 update stuff? So that’s Ginger Island and stuff like that.
(0:38:24) Kelly: Yes, so I started with actually my first Switch game.
(0:38:26) Al: ALICE (KEEPER) I mean, I think it was for a lot of people.
(0:38:28) Kelly: Yes, um…
(0:38:32) Kelly: But I got my Switch a year later, so I was a year behind everybody.
(0:38:33) Al: ALICE It came out nice and early in 2017 and yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. That’s all right,
(0:38:39) Kelly: But I played it then, yes, and then I played it two years ago.
(0:38:41) Al: so were the updates.
(0:38:45) Al: Yeah.
(0:38:45) Kelly: Yes, so Ginger Island had come out, which was fun because that wasn’t in my initial playthrough.
(0:38:47) Al: Yeah.
(0:38:49) Al: Yeah.
(0:38:50) Al: I’m not sure.
(0:38:51) Kelly: So that was really fun to go out.
(0:38:54) Kelly: I feel like that really opened up a whole new part of the game and like extended it nicely.
(0:38:57) Al: Yeah, yeah.
(0:39:06) Al: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, well, that’s what he’s doing, right? Like, just keep playing this game, please.
(0:39:09) Kelly: Yeah. But I mean, he does it in such a good way. Like people would play this game even if he didn’t go out there and release, you know, updates to it. People would be replaying it it constantly anyway yep
(0:39:12) Al: Here’s more stuff. I know.
(0:39:21) Al: and people would pay for the updates and he just gives them out for free.
(0:39:24) Kelly: yep what a good guy yes yes but I mean we might have talked about a game a few minutes ago that might have been doing a different thing no but I fully agree with your point you know it’s like
(0:39:26) Al: I mean, he is a millionaire, so you know, like it’s easier to be a good guy when you’re a millionaire. But yes, it is.
(0:39:38) Al: Absolutely. No, I don’t. Yep, I don’t. I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m not not trying to take it away from him. You’re absolutely right.
(0:39:51) Al: I haven’t played the 1.5 stuff with Ginger Island and stuff like that. So I need to,
(0:39:54) Kelly: Oh really? Okay.
(0:39:56) Kelly: That might be the best, because especially it seems like he is adding quite a few things, so why not wait?
(0:39:57) Al: it’s on my list of like, I really need to do this. So I’m trying to decide maybe I just wait for 1.6 to come out and do it all at the same time.
(0:40:06) Al: Yeah, yeah, and I’m going to have to cover that.
(0:40:11) Kelly: I will say there is one thing in Ginger Island, there’s like one thing that you really have to like hope for the luck of finding.
(0:40:20) Kelly: So that can be a little frustrating, but I think if you kind of…
(0:40:24) Kelly: I think the issue is more so when you don’t leave enough stuff to do at home to.
(0:40:29) Kelly: And you kind of save Ginger Island for the very end and then you’re like, “Ugh, where is this thing? Come on, show me your…”
(0:40:36) Kelly: Like, because it’s like one of those things where you can only collect a few things a day of it.
(0:40:39) Kelly: Oh, I always do a new save.
(0:40:39) Al: And then I need to make the decision of do I do a new save or do I continue my existing save.
(0:40:45) Kelly: I know I should probably go back, but I love a restart.
(0:40:49) Kelly: Like, I’ve got like five different room worlds because I just like…
(0:40:52) Al: So mostly I have like one that I have done most of the things in, and then I have like a bunch of others that are like random challenges and a random multiplayer one.
(0:40:52) Kelly: Could I go back and keep–
(0:40:54) Kelly: I’m playing them sure.
(0:41:12) Al: See I’m the opposite, I’m like I really should do a new one and see how it changes things because obviously it’s not. You don’t expedite. I need to do both realistically, right? Because it changes things. Exactly. Yeah.
(0:41:16) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:41:18) Kelly: It’s like you get to see how you strategize and how you handle things differently and like, you know Going back in with like new knowledge and like all that stuff Like like this this the one I did two years ago, I have notes I take notes when I play this game So I have like field guides I’m like, you know the best things to do with this and each season and what you should pickle and what you should Kagan like blah blah blah like what Fisher what’s Oh Yeah Oh, no, I I love a
(0:41:32) Al: Yeah, yeah.
(0:41:46) Al: Yeah, yeah. Oh, see, I don’t pickle and keg because I just can’t be bothered. I just go,
(0:41:54) Al: what is the most expensive crop? Like the most for selling. And I just go with that.
(0:41:59) Al: Like, I’m just like, I do like mayo and cheese and stuff like that. But I’m like, I don’t,
(0:42:04) Al: I can’t be bothered with like putting my crops and these other things and waiting. No, I just sell. Like, I know you can make more money, but I don’t, I don’t want to do that.
(0:42:12) Kelly: I love a good micromanage. It’s not even about the money because I’m a third point I don’t need more money. It’s literally just about me having tasks to do. But yeah, no, I’m like, I… At certain points I was like, okay, so if I place this many kegs in the basement, can I still access them if I walk around this way?
(0:42:31) Al: Yes, what’s the optimum strategy? I think the problem is that they figured it out. There is a right answer to that in everything.
(0:42:43) Kelly: Yes, which I don’t, I don’t want to sound like I’m one of those people who are doing things to the T perfect, like gotta have every second count.
(0:42:54) Kelly: Like I definitely do things in my own little stupid way.
(0:42:58) Al: Yeah. Yeah. I also quite like trying different things. So there was one quite early on with the podcast where me and Rachelle were trying to see how much money we could make just from mining. It was good fun. It was good fun. Yeah. Yeah.
(0:42:59) Kelly: But there are certain things that I try to make sure I’m doing them correctly, I quote unquote correctly.
(0:43:07) Kelly: So that I can get money and stuff from them, especially early game.
(0:43:10) Kelly: Once you get to a certain point, it’s like, oh my God, do I need money?
(0:43:20) Kelly: that’s a that’s a fun challenge I think those are like fun ways to like how can I do this how can I do this differently oh yeah like I’m a I’m I do this in every like game essentially but I love fishing for So I’m always like a sucker for that, but I feel like
(0:43:28) Al: Yeah, exactly. And it’s like, you can actually make a lot of money that way.
(0:43:32) Al: And it’s just fun to try the different ways of doing that because
(0:43:50) Kelly: My last one I tried to like avoid that more so but It’s always fun to just try different ways do different things
(0:43:54) Al: Fair enough.
(0:43:56) Al: I also saw someone do a challenge which was like you can’t leave the farm and that was quite interesting.
(0:44:06) Al: So they didn’t get a lot of seeds is part of the point, right?
(0:44:11) Al: So obviously you get them from foraging, you can get seeds just from foraging.
(0:44:15) Al: But yeah, a lot of it was just having to like sell the things you find around the farm.
(0:44:21) Al: They used the four carner’s farm.
(0:44:22) Kelly: No chickens?
(0:44:25) Al: They used the four carner’s farm, so you get a little bit of everything.
(0:44:29) Kelly: uh okay okay but like no interactions with people unless they like literally come to visit you that’s crazy but I feel like you know that’s like the it’s like nose locking yourself into stardew it’s fun yeah but stardew yay
(0:44:35) Al: Yep. Yeah.
(0:44:38) Al: Exactly, exactly, exactly. Lots of different ways to do it.
(0:44:47) Al: So yeah, wild horseradish juice.
(0:44:49) Al: I will probably never make it.
(0:44:52) Kelly: I i will say who is drinking this I love horseradish I love spiciness I love
(0:44:53) Al: Yeah. But just pure horseradish juice.
(0:44:59) Kelly: bloody marys I love burning my sinuses I would never listen there’s been times in my life where my sinuses have been really bad and somebody was like hey if you put apple cider vinegar up your nose it’ll help and i’ve done that this sounds wild I would never do this I have never heard of horseradish as being described as sweet
(0:45:05) Al: No!
(0:45:10) Al: It’s description is a sweet nutritious beverage.
(0:45:23) Al: I think there’s lots of sugar in that.
(0:45:25) Kelly: Yeah, it has to be like really pickled or whatever.
(0:45:29) Kelly: That’s crazy.
(0:45:33) Al: The final news is we have a new game announced. We don’t have a lot about it. It’s called Echoes of the Plum Grove and it is coming to Kickstarter soon and its little tagline is “Build a thriving community across generations in this cosy historical farm simulation”.
(0:45:51) Kelly: I think that’s pretty cute, like that’s a different idea because I feel like you know in a lot of these you can have a kid or something or a family but it doesn’t really go anywhere.
(0:45:58) Kelly: Like I feel like this is very much so not how I play The Sims but how a lot of people play The Sims where they’ll make generational things and like the generations start to interact with each other and it’s like really interesting, it’s a very long-term way of doing it.
(0:46:08) Al: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. A few games have kind of done a little bit of this, like, I think the new Harvest Moon does it where you can grow. You still stay as your same character, though.
(0:46:29) Al: But there was… Oh, what was the… A Wonderful Life did this as well, didn’t it? You can play as your child at a certain point, I think.
(0:46:39) Al: So yeah, there is apparently a lot more information on Steam that I didn’t notice until now.
(0:46:43) Kelly: I did have to go open the Steam page because the Kickstarter basically had nothing on it.
(0:46:44) Al: I will link that in the show notes.
(0:46:47) Al: Yes, well, that’s the thing, that’s why I didn’t think we had a huge amount, but it is apparently on Steam.
(0:46:53) Al: Well, the page is up on Steam, and it says it’s coming out in 2024, but I suspect
(0:46:59) Kelly: I would also. I like his little cute like cardboard cutout-y style.
(0:47:05) Al: Yes, it’s very Paper Mario-esque, which is, I mean, it’s a nice art style, I like it.
(0:47:16) Al: A new life awaits in Honeywood, build a thriving community that will last generations in this cosy farm simulator farm, socialize, make friends, cook, craft, forage, and uncover the secrets of the island.
(0:47:25) Al: Why is there always a secret?
(0:47:28) Al: Why are there always secrets, Kelly?
(0:47:29) Kelly: Al, one of my first video games that I ever played was Dinotopia.
(0:47:34) Kelly: Do you know what happens in Dinotopia?
(0:47:37) Kelly: You wash up with no memory on an island.
(0:47:40) Al: standard. But it’s just like it’s there’s so many like so many farming games now have to have a dark secret behind them. If someone doesn’t want to be friends, there are always other means. Why does that sound a little bit… you know… yeah that’s the…
(0:47:42) Kelly: And I think I’ve been chasing that ever since, and then you talk to dinosaurs.
(0:47:50) Kelly: Of course.
(0:47:52) Kelly: That sounds…
(0:48:02) Kelly: What do you mean means? What are the means? Am I locking them in a basement until they decide that it’s okay to be my friend?
(0:48:10) Kelly: Yeah, okay, that sounds…
(0:48:10) Al: That’s the family-friendly way that we’re going to mention it on the podcast, yeah.
(0:48:18) Al: So I think it means killing people because there’s a bit later on that says make friends or enemies and it’s a scene of a funeral. So I think that’s what they mean. I don’t think they mean like… other things. Nope.
(0:48:27) Kelly: You know, oh my god.
(0:48:30) Kelly: You know, I didn’t read what it said on the funeral picture and I just thought, oh, that’s the generational thing.
(0:48:37) Kelly: Your family member died.
(0:48:39) Kelly: That’s twisted.
(0:48:40) Al: Make enemies. Yeah, every other picture is of them like smiling and then this is like well there’s one person… if everyone is like really sad except one person. There’s one person smiling. Why are they smiling? Yeah, there we go. We’ll keep an eye on it,
(0:48:42) Kelly: This game looks so cute.
(0:48:44) Kelly: And then they have that.
(0:48:47) Kelly: And then the art style looks so cute.
(0:48:57) Kelly: - Yeah, that is true.
(0:49:02) Kelly: Wait, it says work together with your fellow townsfolk to forge an even greater community or just get them out of your way with harsh words and drastic measures.
(0:49:09) Al: See how it goes.
(0:49:21) Kelly: What are the drastic measures?
(0:49:22) Al: I think murdering them. I think you can murder people in this game.
(0:49:27) Kelly: That’s, that is really unexpected.
(0:49:28) Al: Yep. I’m up for it though.
(0:49:30) Kelly: That, I think that kind of hooked me more than anything.
(0:49:34) Al: That has immediately, immediately made me decide I’m kick-starting this.
(0:49:39) Kelly: I’m so intrigued.
(0:49:41) Al: After just saying, after just saying I need to stop, I’m obviously going to kick-starter this.
(0:49:41) Kelly: Yeah.
(0:49:44) Kelly: What are Al’s qualifications for kick-startering a game?
(0:49:51) Kelly: Oh, I can murder someone.
(0:49:52) Al: Look, right, I like when things do things differently, right? And I’m still waiting for that farming game that lets me break couples up. I don’t know! Thank you for backing me up in this.
(0:49:57) Kelly: Yeah.
(0:49:58) Kelly: Oh, how does that not exist yet?
(0:50:04) Kelly: You know what it is, I think I always think of The Sims.
(0:50:09) Kelly: Cuz again, not to mention The Sims like 10,000 times, but man, that was so much fun just to like mess with people’s relationships.
(0:50:17) Kelly: And then you get into fights in public.
(0:50:22) Al: Anybody else when I bring this up thinks I’m a maniac for wanting to do this?
(0:50:24) Kelly: No! Where’s the fun in life?
(0:50:27) Kelly: Do I feel bad sometimes if I romance a person who’s clearly meant to be with somebody else?
(0:50:40) Kelly: Like, you know, the standard “oh, they have a partner if you didn’t romance them” kind of thing?
(0:50:41) Al: I do. I want instead of like every farm game has to have romance options, right? What I want is a romance focused farm sim where not only can you, you know, basically get into relationship with anyone and you can break up relationships, but I also want there to be rivals and I have to work hard to, you know, create relationships.
(0:50:45) Kelly: Sure, does it stop me from romancing them? No.
(0:51:11) Al: head of other people, right? So it’s like a rush, like, “Oh, if I don’t go quick, they’re gonna end up with them and I gotta go.” But if you are too slow and they do, then you just gotta work your way breaking them up, you know? Thank you. I’m sorry.
(0:51:17) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Just weasel your way in there exactly drive that wedge between them Listen, you know as much as I said Was it in this one or the I think it was the greenhouse actually I said I’m not a big fan of relationships in every game like romancing I Think that’s a fun little twist on it like, you know
(0:51:37) Al: Mmm, yep. It was in the greenhouse. Mm-hmm. Yep. Well, that’s the thing. I think it’s like, don’t just, I think part of the problem is a lot of games think, here are the things we need to put in this farming game. And one of them is romance. And no, you don’t need to do it. If you have an interesting thing to do with it, then absolutely do it. If you think you can make it good, then absolutely do it. But if you just feel, I have to do this because this is what farming games have. They don’t.
(0:51:52) Kelly: Mm-hmm
(0:52:03) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:52:05) Kelly: Yeah.
(0:52:07) Al: You don’t need to, right? It doesn’t need to be Stardew Plus. It can be Stardew Minus and Plus,
(0:52:10) Kelly: Yeah.
(0:52:14) Al: or it can just be a different thing entirely, right? It doesn’t feel like you need to do everything and then some-
(0:52:22) Kelly: I will say though, I do think Stardew does kind of add something nice to it where you can romance so many people and then they kind of find out.
(0:52:28) Al: Hm, hm, yeah, I agree. I think Stardew did, I think Stardew did it well, but Stardew focuses on character.
(0:52:34) Kelly: You know, that’s…yes.
(0:52:37) Kelly: Yes, and I mean also in Stardew you can, not romance, but live with, what’s his face?
(0:52:46) Kelly: The Sewer Man.
(0:52:47) Kelly: I love him.
(0:52:47) Al: Oh yeah, Kronos. Yeah. Yeah.
(0:52:49) Kelly: Yes.
(0:52:51) Kelly: Which is like also another fun thing.
(0:52:52) Kelly: It’s like a romance that’s not a romance.
(0:52:53) Al: Was Stardew the first same-sex farming game?
(0:52:54) Kelly: I think so.
(0:52:59) Kelly: Because I remember it being a big deal.
(0:52:59) Al: I love how they didn’t, like, it was not, not only was it, not only was it, oh yeah,
(0:53:03) Kelly: Whatever your sexuality is.
(0:53:05) Al: you can marry anyone regardless of the gender, you can also marry whatever Kronos is, like…
(0:53:14) Kelly: Monsters.
(0:53:15) Al: Yeah, men, women.
(0:53:17) Al: “Sewer monster?”
(0:53:21) Al: Yeah, yeah, love it. Great.
(0:53:22) Kelly: But yeah, I remember it being like a thing that like, you know, cool,
(0:53:23) Al: Right.
(0:53:27) Kelly: you can marry anybody in Stardew.
(0:53:29) Kelly: And I think after that, other games kind of started to follow suit.
(0:53:30) Al: I thought that was the case, I just wanted to…
(0:53:34) Al: I mean, some of them have taken longer than others.
(0:53:34) Kelly: I could be wrong.
(0:53:35) Al: We don’t need to get into all that again.
(0:53:36) Kelly: Yes, yes.
(0:53:37) Kelly: I’m sure there was something that came out.
(0:53:39) Al: Japanese games.
(0:53:40) Al: It was the first big one, certainly, yeah.
(0:53:41) Kelly: Yeah, but I’m sure there’s something that came out before Stardew, but
(0:53:47) Al: That’s what I thought, but I wasn’t…
(0:53:49) Al: Like, I mean, Stardew was my first farming game, so I hadn’t gotten into it by then.
(0:53:53) Al: And it took me until 2017 to get into it, because I had a Switch, and there was a game.
(0:54:02) Al: So I played the game that was there.
(0:54:04) Kelly: Uh, same, same, like I definitely played some little farming games before that, but I would say that was done.
(0:54:12) Al: Right. OK. It was actually funny with the switch.
(0:54:15) Al: 2017 was a wild time with the switch, right?
(0:54:17) Al: Because it was like I knew the switch was going to be great.
(0:54:19) Al: Right. And as soon as they announced that, I was like, I’m buying that.
(0:54:21) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:54:22) Al: But then I bought it and I didn’t have any games because like I’d preordered Mario Kart, but I didn’t come out for three months and I’d preordered one to switch and that didn’t come out for three months.
(0:54:23) Kelly: That’s…
(0:54:31) Al: So I was like, I have no games for this console for three months.
(0:54:34) Al: So I was like wondering, I wondered into a game store and went,
(0:54:37) Al: let me try that that Zelda game that everyone’s talking about.
(0:54:42) Al: I had one copy and they handed over the one copy left and then I was like,
(0:54:46) Al: this is a good game, but it was just like I just didn’t have any games for,
(0:54:50) Kelly: Yeah, that’s- my sister got it on- my sister got it on launch, for Zelda, so…
(0:54:51) Al: you know, so I bought a console without any games. Weird.
(0:54:56) Al: Yeah.
(0:54:59) Al: That makes sense.
(0:54:59) Kelly: Yes.
(0:55:00) Al: Buying a console on launch for a game that comes out on launch.
(0:55:03) Al: That makes sense.
(0:55:04) Al: Buying a console because you think the console is going to be good and not buying any games for it. That’s that’s that’s weird.
(0:55:09) Kelly: Um, to be fair, I did buy it a year after you, like I said, however, I got it for my birthday, uh, some- my friends chipped in and got me one.
(0:55:21) Kelly: Or, like, we all joined together, whatever, um, and they were like, “Oh, do you want a game?” and I said, “No.”
(0:55:26) Kelly: So I also bought the- the- the- I bought the console game-less, and then I said, “Hmm, what? I’m gonna play Kirby!” and then I said, “No, I’m not.”
(0:55:38) Kelly: And I bought, like, five indie games instead.
(0:55:41) Al: Yeah, fair enough. All right, well, that was a lot of news. That turned out to be more than I expected.
(0:55:48) Al: Let’s talk about pumpkin panic. So, I want to start off by saying, Kelly,
(0:55:54) Al: I didn’t realize that this was a roguelike game.
(0:55:58) Kelly: I didn’t want to tell you.
(0:56:01) Al: You didn’t? I didn’t know what it was until my first death, and I went, “Oh no, it’s a roguelike!”
(0:56:10) Kelly: Did I withhold information? Maybe.
(0:56:12) Kelly: Did I think you would eventually see it and find out?
(0:56:15) Kelly: Yeah, sure. I wasn’t like, “Oh, Al will never figure this out.”
(0:56:18) Al: Well, no, of course I was going to figure it out, right? Because you start the game,
(0:56:22) Al: and the crow’s like, “Oh, hey, come do some farming.” And then it’s like, “Oh, what’s that noise?
(0:56:26) Al: You better run!” And you’re like, “Oh, what do you mean you better run? What does that mean?”
(0:56:27) Kelly: Oh my god.
(0:56:29) Kelly: Oh my god.
(0:56:33) Al: and then this skin walker comes and kills you and you’re like what just
(0:56:38) Al: happened? I wasn’t expecting that. Oh yes, oh.
(0:56:41) Kelly: I- I think they named this game so appropriately.
(0:56:46) Kelly: Because the entire time I played it, I was holding my breath so tense.
(0:56:53) Kelly: Just like just on edge the entire time.
(0:56:57) Kelly: Because we’re working at like 300%, trying to hear everything.
(0:57:00) Al: Oh my word, it’s ridiculous. So, right, OK, let’s wait. Right, let’s slow down. Let’s slow down. Slow down. I’m going… So, I don’t know… Yes, this is a like, not a light.
(0:57:01) Kelly: But yes, yes, yes.
(0:57:05) Kelly: But yes, I intentionally did not tell you that it was a roguelite.
(0:57:09) Kelly: Or roguelike. I’m sorry, this is a roguelike.
(0:57:13) Kelly: Oh, yes.
(0:57:15) Al: Like. Which I always, I hate the way those words are, because like, light makes it sound like it’s less, but it’s actually more fun. Anyway, doesn’t matter. It’s less rogue-like,
(0:57:18) Kelly: Yes, that’s half the issue.
(0:57:25) Al: I guess is why it’s light, because it’s light on the rogue-like element. Anyway, whatever.
(0:57:31) Al: So, let’s summarise this game. So, you… It’s a farming game. Like, it’s the most farming a farming game can be, right? That is the mechanic, right? That is the thing you do.
(0:57:40) Kelly: “It is so straightforwardly farming game.”
(0:57:43) Kelly: Yes.
(0:57:46) Kelly: That is the entire base of the game, is you have to farm.
(0:57:47) Al: Well, there are two things you do. You farm and you run. You gotta run. So, you start off, you get woken up by this crow, who says like, “Why are you sleeping? Come farm.” And
(0:57:49) Kelly: Well, yes. You try to survive.
(0:58:01) Al: so, I love to talk about tutorials. It does. I love talking about tutorials. I think the tutorial for this is great. I think it’s really good. It doesn’t get in your way. It’s just there. Absolutely. And you just do it, and it’s great. It’s a fantastic tutorial. Now,
(0:58:02) Kelly: It starts off so innocently, too, and like so calm.
(0:58:07) Kelly: Oh, it’s so simple.
(0:58:12) Kelly: It goes straight to the point.
(0:58:14) Kelly: Yes, you can do stuff while they’re telling you.
(0:58:21) Al: obviously, there aren’t a huge number of mechanics, so they didn’t need to think too hard about it, but it’s really good. I really like this. Good inspiration for it.
(0:58:23) Kelly: Mm-hmm No, but they listen I love a solid tutorial I think they did like you said it’s such a good job of Fitting this tutorial so perfectly with the rest of the game Yes
(0:58:38) Al: Yeah, yeah. The worst thing with the tutorial is when it interrupts your gameplay. Like,
(0:58:42) Al: I want to play the game, I don’t want to read. And so the fact that you, as you say, can do it while they’re talking to you. It’s not like, here’s your description, press A to continue and then actually do the thing. No, there’s none of that. It’s like, hey, this is what you’re doing. You’re like, oh, okay, I’m doing it. Great. Fun.
(0:58:54) Kelly: yep I actually started planting stuff before the bird even told me how to plant stuff and then I walked down the screen to get water and he was like “hey if you want to plant stuff this is what you do”
(0:59:00) Al: Yeah.
(0:59:08) Al: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so that’s a farming game. You wake up, you’re told by the Crota farm,
(0:59:15) Al: you start farming. And then it turns out it’s a horrifying hellscape of monsters that are just there to destroy your life.
(0:59:24) Kelly: It is, it is, they really did such a good job with the horror of it, I really think.
(0:59:32) Kelly: Like such a simple way.
(0:59:33) Al: It is terrifying on multiple aspects because, so one of the things they do is the sound is incorrect.
(0:59:35) Kelly: You were on edge the entire time.
(0:59:41) Kelly: Yes, cause I, no.
(0:59:43) Al: So you have to have the sound on. You cannot play this game without the sound.
(0:59:46) Al: Good luck.
(0:59:47) Kelly: I mean, I’m sure you could try, but the clown will get ya.
(0:59:51) Al: Yeah, there’s no way you can do the client without sound.
(0:59:51) Kelly: The clown will getcha.
(0:59:56) Kelly: But no, I tried to play without headphones on at one point and I was like,
(0:59:59) Kelly: literally, I felt like my ears were like satellites.
(1:00:02) Kelly: Like I was trying to strain them to hear the sounds perfectly and I was like, I had to put headphones on.
(1:00:03) Al: Yeah, yep, yep, so, yeah, you start off, the crow goes, “Oh, what’s that sound? I’m going.
(1:00:12) Al: You better run.” That’s the…
(1:00:13) Kelly: that moment my blood like turned to ice I was like I gotta run I know what’s going on in this game I gotta run yeah
(1:00:15) Al: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, what am I running from? And so you run, and then you get into your house, and then the skinwalker comes by and doesn’t come into your house, and you’re like,
(1:00:29) Al: That was terrifying. So this they’ve got like a violin track that plays when the.
(1:00:29) Kelly: Yep.
(1:00:30) Kelly: Sss.
(1:00:31) Kelly: Yep.
(1:00:31) Kelly: Yep.
(1:00:33) Al: Skin walker’s around and then it like screeches when the skin walker goes away great fine the problem then is you’re like oh this is my wee house so I’m just gonna hang around in my house for a while no no a demon child is coming out of your bed to kill you if you stay in there too long.
(1:00:33) Kelly: Yep.
(1:00:44) Kelly: nope.
(1:00:45) Kelly: Which, you know, uh, as much as I don’t want a demon child in my house and I wanted the safety of a home, I will say I think they did such a good job with that mechanic of making sure that you just don’t sit in your house and squat there.
(1:01:02) Al: Yeah, yeah, I mean…
(1:01:03) Kelly: Listen, as much as I wanted it to not be there, I did not want that demon in my home.
(1:01:07) Al: It’s the only way that what they wanted to do could work, because otherwise you, I mean well, other than the fact that clowns can enter your house, which was a horrifying realisation the first time that happens.
(1:01:13) Kelly: Yes.
(1:01:14) Kelly: I screamed in real life. I did not know that the clown could come in and I thought I was safe because the first time I played I didn’t have headphones in so I’m trying to hear the clown sound and I’m trying to find the clown and I can’t find the clown and then the freaking skin walkers chasing me around or something and I was like, I don’t know, I heard violins again and I was like get in the house.
(1:01:31) Al: Oh I
(1:01:42) Kelly: And then I go in my house and then all of a sudden I go back outside and the clown’s chasing me and I go into the house and the clown’s in the house with me!
(1:01:45) Al: But this…
(1:01:47) Al: The clown is so fast and terrifying. It’s just like oh my word, so I just…
(1:01:49) Kelly: Oh it’s so fast!
(1:01:56) Al: It is doing exactly what it wants to do and it’s doing it so well. This is a terrifying game.
(1:02:07) Al: Yep, yep.
(1:02:07) Kelly: It’s such a good, simple horror game.
(1:02:10) Kelly: It’s like so straight to the point they got the mechanics down perfect.
(1:02:17) Kelly: It’s frustrating in the right ways.
(1:02:19) Kelly: And terrifying.
(1:02:21) Kelly: Like there were so many moments where I ran back into the house when nothing was actually outside.
(1:02:21) Al: Yeah, I think what’s impressive as well is like it’s terrifying in the same way but multiple ways in different times. And okay, so like I talk in the greenhouse episode that we’ve already recorded that’s coming out on Saturday. I talk in that about how I hate roguelikes and road lights.
(1:02:26) Kelly: Because I thought I heard something.
(1:02:51) Al: I think this is done so incredibly well. I’m not saying I’m going to continue playing the game, like let’s not go that far. Yes. Yes, yes. But, but what it does really well is after the first leg, what, five or six times, after those ones, you feel like every time you feel it is entirely your fault. Right, you missed a thing. You didn’t do something quick enough. You didn’t get back to the house. You didn’t find the clown.
(1:02:53) Kelly: This was good!
(1:03:00) Kelly: No, and listen, it’s still frustrating when you have to start completely over,
(1:03:05) Kelly: especially when you start to like get a good feel for the game and you get further and you’re like, “Oh my god,
(1:03:20) Kelly: Yes. Yes.
(1:03:26) Kelly: You weren’t aware enough. You weren’t… Yes, exactly. Like…
(1:03:33) Kelly: It’s not the game’s fault you’re dying, it’s your own incompetence.
(1:03:37) Al: Absolutely, absolutely. And also, it’s not like one mistake and you’re dead, right? For most things you can like, you know, “Oh, oh no, I missed that the skin walker’s here.”
(1:03:53) Al: If you’ve got things right, you can evade it if you need to. If you stay in the house too long, you’re not immediately dead, you can escape the house. The clown might be an exception. If you can’t get to the red clone in time, you can’t get to the red clone in time.
(1:03:55) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(1:03:55) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(1:04:00) Kelly: Yes.
(1:04:07) Al: Then you’re stuffed. Other than that, most things you can recover from, whereas something…
(1:04:12) Kelly: Yeah, because the clown is inevitable and unavoidable if you don’t get the balloon.
(1:04:14) Al: When you talk about Hades, we were talking about in the Greenhouse episode,
(1:04:21) Al: if you make a mistake, you’re probably dead. You have to do things pretty much perfectly.
(1:04:28) Al: I like how you’ve got a good chance to recover in this one once you know what’s happening.
(1:04:33) Kelly: Mm-hmm, especially that damn deer. That deer is both so avoidable and so annoying and Terrifying it scared the crap out of me at the door in the dark so many times
(1:04:37) Al: I mean, everything’s terrifying, that’s the thing, like every, because I think every,
(1:04:52) Al: every monster is, when you encounter them for the first time, is fresh, and “oh no,
(1:04:54) Kelly: It…
(1:04:54) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(1:04:58) Al: what fresh hell is this?” Right? Like, “oh no, another thing I need to figure out.”
(1:04:59) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(1:05:03) Al: Um…
(1:05:04) Kelly: But then once you start to figure out how their mechanics work, like you said,
(1:05:07) Al: Mm-hmm.
(1:05:08) Al: Yes.
(1:05:08) Kelly: there are so many ways that you can be smart about it and you can work to avoid it.
(1:05:12) Al: Yes.
(1:05:12) Kelly: Like, they do show up in a very timed fashion.
(1:05:16) Kelly: So there is, um, a routine about them.
(1:05:17) Al: The clown’s still terrifying no matter what.
(1:05:22) Kelly: I do not like that.
(1:05:22) Al: Especially if you’re like, I don’t know, I’ve not figured out this yet, but like,
(1:05:24) Kelly: clowns in general.
(1:05:30) Al: your light seems to be able to like run out of light?
(1:05:34) Kelly: Yes, you have to buy more, um, yes, you could buy lamp refills.
(1:05:37) Al: You can buy it. I missed that. Because the first time I had a night, I had already run out of lamp fuel. And so I was like, I don’t know what, I don’t know how to do this.
(1:05:41) Kelly: Oh my god.
(1:05:46) Kelly: Yeah, well, yeah, they’re your house.
(1:05:50) Al: What do I do? Because you literally see nothing except if your house is in view,
(1:05:56) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(1:05:57) Al: you can see that. But then like, you can’t see like the fences that are in your way.
(1:06:03) Al: and then you’re like “I need to find this clown and I don’t know how to find this clown”
(1:06:05) Kelly: Yep, and I thought the skin walker was gonna get me.
(1:06:07) Al: “I need to find this clown when I can’t see fences?”
(1:06:09) Al: “What can see me in the dark?”
(1:06:10) Kelly: I didn’t know what creatures were out in the nighttime at that point yet, like, yep.
(1:06:16) Al: “And then I’ve got a timer on me now because I need to find this clown to get the balloon to give to the other clown”
(1:06:20) Kelly: Mm-hm, and then where’s my house?
(1:06:23) Al: “Why are these clowns working together? Are they friends? What’s happening here?”
(1:06:27) Kelly: I don’t know, I don’t know, they’re mean.
(1:06:30) Kelly: I think the first cloud is mean, and it steals the balloon from the second cloud.
(1:06:34) Kelly: Or it’s a loop.
(1:06:34) Al: Oh, but then the second clown blames you?
(1:06:36) Kelly: Maybe, maybe. It’s some kind of loop where it’s like, one clown has the balloon,
(1:06:41) Kelly: you got to give the balloon to the other clown, and then the other clown is sad because it doesn’t have the balloon anymore, and just get two balloons.
(1:06:46) Al: Oh, so what you’re saying is like after you’ve given the balloon to the blue clown it becomes the red clown and the red clown becomes the blue clown. It’s based on their emotions.
(1:06:48) Kelly: That’s, that’s how I envisioned it in my head. That’s how I envisioned it in my head. Like, um,
(1:06:58) Kelly: like the Mardi Gras masks. I know I’m saying this to you as an American,
(1:07:03) Kelly: But have you ever seen the Mardi Gras mask?
(1:07:04) Kelly: What do you think of the Mardi Gras mask?
(1:07:06) Al: Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(1:07:06) Kelly: What do you think of the Mardi Gras mask?
(1:07:08) Al: Yeah, the color is based on their emotions.
(1:07:08) Kelly: What do you think of the Mardi Gras mask?
(1:07:11) Kelly: What do you think of the Mardi Gras mask?
(1:07:14) Kelly: Yeah, but everything in this game scared me.
(1:07:14) Al: Mm hmm.
(1:07:19) Kelly: And I literally was yelping and screaming and saying things to the game out loud.
(1:07:27) Kelly: But those clowns scared me the most.
(1:07:27) Al: Yeah. Yeah.
(1:07:31) Kelly: Because, like you said, they were unavoidable.
(1:07:34) Kelly: But they also, I think they did such a good job of the different enemies that you face.
(1:07:41) Kelly: Did you ever get…
(1:07:43) Kelly: This only happened to me in one playthrough.
(1:07:45) Kelly: A creature in the nighttime with glowing eyes.
(1:07:49) Kelly: Ohhhhhh.
(1:07:50) Al: So, that’s the well, the well one. So, it’s in the well. So, I searched for this because I was like one in a… It doesn’t seem like that one can actually harm you. So, it shows up if you hang around the well at night too long. It’s just eyes.
(1:07:55) Kelly: That one scared me the most. I lied about the clowns. That one scared me the most.
(1:08:05) Kelly: No, but the dread it filled me with was, cuz it’s just it’s like the skin walker with red eyes.
(1:08:16) Kelly: Essentially like it runs around like that and it doesn’t, like you said,
(1:08:20) Kelly: it doesn’t seem to come for you, but seeing that run in the background.
(1:08:22) Al: but it’s there. Yeah.
(1:08:25) Kelly: My God, that and when the skin walker would be outside the fence.
(1:08:25) Al: Hmm. Yeah.
(1:08:29) Kelly: Do you ever see that?
(1:08:33) Kelly: That would also freak me out because I’d be like, oh,
(1:08:34) Kelly: I got it so close.
(1:08:35) Kelly: My heart raced a lot during this game.
(1:08:38) Al: OK, so, let’s, yes, let’s calm down. Let’s talk about the farming. Right, that’s, let’s ignore the cur- I mean, I know it’s hard to ignore the monsters, but let’s ignore the monsters for just now. Yeah.
(1:08:41) Kelly: Oh yes, the farming.
(1:08:45) Kelly: Yes.
(1:08:48) Kelly: I think the farming was very nice and straight to the point.
(1:08:53) Kelly: Um, I liked the, the keyboard controls cause you could like just plant a bunch and then hit shift, uh, space while you were planting them.
(1:09:01) Al: Yeah, yeah. I… So quickly, so quickly. Especially as like the… So yeah, OK, right. I agree.
(1:09:03) Kelly: So you get like pretty rapid fire water.
(1:09:04) Kelly: You can do everything, implant everything.
(1:09:06) Kelly: Which was vital to the game also because you’re trying to do things kind of as quickly as possible.
(1:09:18) Al: I think it’s a good… It’s simple, but it’s a good, simple mechanic. I think it works really well for this game. You’ve basically got… You’ve got like five different plots of land and one of them is unlocked to start with.
(1:09:31) Al: Each one only has one crop you can do in it, so there’s like, “Here is the base one,
(1:09:37) Al: here is the purple one,” I can’t even remember what they were, “One’s a cucumber or something.”
(1:09:39) Kelly: I know some- one was a sunflower, one was an orange… yeah.
(1:09:43) Al: It doesn’t really matter, right?
(1:09:44) Al: It’s like you unlock them as you go, they cost more money to unlock, therefore they’re worth more.
(1:09:52) Al: That’s all you really need to care about, it doesn’t matter what they are.
(1:09:55) Al: Once you get to a point, you’re only really farming one at a time, because you don’t have time to be doing the other ones.
(1:10:01) Kelly: Yes.
(1:10:01) Al: You’re focusing on one plot at a time, and once you unlock the next one, that’s fine.
(1:10:01) Kelly: Yeah, because just to put it out there, the whole point of this game is you are trying to get as much money as possible to fix your boat. To get out of here. Yes.
(1:10:12) Al: Yeah, an escape.
(1:10:14) Al: Which is fair.
(1:10:15) Al: Who doesn’t want to get out of there, right?
(1:10:15) Kelly: But I thought I wanted to say I liked how you could only plant one thing in each plot because there was no fumbling around with like the stuff in your bag.
(1:10:17) Al: There’s no sleeping at this place.
(1:10:28) Al: Yes. Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. So I think it is a very, I don’t think these mechanics would work in another farming game, but I think it works really well for this because yeah, the whole point of this game is speed. And so they strip everything out that they don’t need. Like there’s no, as far as I can see, there’s no fertilizer or anything like that. There is just crop and water and that’s it. And you say plant and then water.
(1:10:31) Kelly: No.
(1:10:47) Kelly: No. I mean, you’re like, you’re peeing on them when you water them, essentially.
(1:10:53) Kelly: You’re just dropping water out of the bottom of your character every time you water them.
(1:10:58) Kelly: There’s no watering can.
(1:10:59) Al: It’s a bucket! You have a bucket! You did because you upgraded it. Like how are you getting water out of the well? Are you just like sticking your head in the well and drinking from it?
(1:10:59) Kelly: I don’t- I never saw a bucket, Al.
(1:11:05) Kelly: Oh, yes.
(1:11:08) Kelly: I know, I know.
(1:11:16) Kelly: I mean it’s a pumpkin!
(1:11:17) Kelly: He’s holding it inside his pumpkin head!
(1:11:23) Al: So yeah, I agree. They’re very simple, but they work really well for this. It’s like
(1:11:28) Al: water, plant, water, plant, water, plant, water. Quickly run to the well, get water,
(1:11:28) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(1:11:30) Kelly: They grow which is so nice. Yeah, you can literally if you have enough seeds you can Finish watering the last seed and go back and start watering the next round Which is so nice But also so frustrating because then you have to go back to the well and if it’s dark out or the the deers by the well Or whatever is going on But I also like how different
(1:11:31) Al: water, water, because they’re so fast growing as well. It’s like what, 10 seconds or something like that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
(1:11:57) Al: We got back to the mo- we got back to the monsters Kelly. Why did we do that? We’re talking about farming!
(1:11:59) Kelly: Yeah So I did like with the crops how certain crops stayed for a few rounds Yeah Definitely nice though in this circumstance where you’re like, please just give me a crop as fast as possible like cutting out the
(1:12:09) Al: Yes, yeah, that’s a pretty standard farming game thing.
(1:12:12) Al: You have some of them that are like, yeah, they respawn their fruit, generally, that they are.
(1:12:20) Al: Yeah.
(1:12:22) Al: Yeah.
(1:12:25) Kelly: Planting alone is just it’s not a big deal to–
(1:12:28) Kelly: Plant them, but it just saves you that extra like 10 seconds or whatever.
(1:12:29) Al: What I also like, as another example of just getting going, just doing stuff, is that the first crop, which I can’t even remember what it is, it gives you seeds when you harvest them as well. So you harvest to get money and seed. So the first part of the game is just get those crops, get them watered, and you don’t need to leave that patch for the first couple of harvests.
(1:12:41) Kelly: Yes.
(1:12:42) Kelly: Yep.
(1:12:47) Kelly: Yep, which is why, like, after the first death, I think I was just like, the crow is like,
(1:12:56) Kelly: I haven’t even set off the crows tutorials and I’m like, already got the first row of plants done.
(1:12:59) Al: Yeah, it’s like I’m ignoring you. I’ve already unlocked the first field. Yeah, because you’re doing two harvests of that first one and then you’re going straight down, lock the first field, getting that purple crop. It’s like… Yeah, nope. Nope. Nope. Yep. And interestingly,
(1:13:01) Kelly: Yep.
(1:13:03) Kelly: Yup.
(1:13:11) Kelly: Yes.
(1:13:14) Kelly: Yeah, cuz the first time I was like, okay, maybe I’ll upgrade my shoes or I’ll upgrade my water.
(1:13:20) Kelly: The second one I was like, crops, give me the crops.
(1:13:25) Al: Have you looked at any, there’s a speech runs for these.
(1:13:29) Al: Any of the speed runs.
(1:13:29) Kelly: No, I didn’t know there was… oh, I gotta check this out now.
(1:13:30) Al: Fascinating to watch.
(1:13:34) Al: So the world, the world record is like 12 minutes and 50 seconds.
(1:13:40) Kelly: I died so many times about that marker.
(1:13:42) Al: Yeah, like that’s the world record for finishing like surviving the game is 12 minutes and 50 seconds.
(1:13:46) Kelly: Wow.
(1:13:50) Al: And so what they do is yeah, they do like what I just suggested that you go and you do like two harvest of the first one, go by the purple.
(1:13:57) Al: do a whole bunch of stuff like the upgrade.
(1:13:59) Al: They jump straight from the second crop to the fifth crop, they don’t go with the middle crops at all.
(1:14:08) Kelly: You know, I considered that if I had enough money, I weighed that option.
(1:14:11) Al: Yeah.
(1:14:14) Kelly: I really did.
(1:14:15) Kelly: Because I was like, is it really?
(1:14:17) Kelly: I feel like it would make such a big difference and I guess it does.
(1:14:20) Al: Yeah, it does. So yeah, I mean, I don’t think that’s how people should play it their first couple of times. I think it’s fun to go through it, but that is definitely seems to be the ultimate strategy at this point is like, yeah, get the second field upgraded and then get the fifth one upgraded and then just make as much money as possible and go get that boat fixed. But yeah, 12 minutes is insane for finishing this game.
(1:14:22) Kelly: No, no, no, I don’t think that’s enjoyable.
(1:14:39) Kelly: That makes sense.
(1:14:40) Kelly: That makes a lot of sense.
(1:14:45) Kelly: I do like– that’s crazy.
(1:14:49) Kelly: That’s so fast.
(1:14:50) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like the first few, you know, until you’ve seen every enemy, basically,
(1:14:50) Kelly: But to go back to time, actually,
(1:14:52) Kelly: I do like that, how fast the gameplay is.
(1:14:56) Kelly: Because you’re getting so many runs in within an hour.
(1:15:01) Kelly: And like you said, it’s nice to go back to.
(1:15:05) Kelly: It’s not a, oh my god, I failed again.
(1:15:13) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(1:15:14) Al: you’re not spending more than three minutes on any of these runs. So like, yeah.
(1:15:15) Kelly: No.
(1:15:19) Kelly: Mm-hmm, and how to handle them?
(1:15:20) Al: Yeah, certainly until you actually know what you’re doing, your run isn’t lasting longer than 10 minutes, you know. I’m pretty sure this speed, the world record only has one night that they do. So I think through the first night. Yeah. So it’s just wild. It’s I’d recommend going what because it’s like it’s obviously it’s less than 13 minutes
(1:15:24) Kelly: Yeah, cuz that first night I think that clown has got me…
(1:15:28) Kelly: The clown ends probably a lot of people if you don’t get the balloon.
(1:15:31) Kelly: I would assume so cuz I think 10 minutes gets you to the first night.
(1:15:43) Kelly: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, so that would make a lot of sense.
(1:15:50) Al: video so it’s it’s it’s really fun it’s fun to watch yeah okay I haven’t done the fishing I don’t have time for fishing I’m trying to survive here I don’t have time to fish I get money from the crops
(1:15:51) Kelly: Yeah, super fast to watch.
(1:15:56) Kelly: Of course as a farming game, it has fishing, very simple fishing.
(1:16:04) Kelly: Okay, it’s very simple, you get money from the fish.
(1:16:09) Kelly: No, you don’t do anything!
(1:16:13) Kelly: All you do is you go down there and you throw the line out, and then you go back and do your stuff.
(1:16:17) Kelly: And then you come back and you get the fish later.
(1:16:19) Kelly: Yeah, so it’s like very passive fishing.
(1:16:19) Al: missed that. Look at me, I’m playing the game.
(1:16:28) Kelly: But it’s just like a way to get some more money.
(1:16:30) Kelly: Because you got like a few hundred dollars, I think.
(1:16:32) Kelly: I think you had to upgrade it with sticks, if I remember correctly.
(1:16:32) Al: So can you do that straight away?
(1:16:39) Kelly: Next to the boat.
(1:16:39) Al: Where is it meant to be? Like on the pier? Oh yeah, I see. Oh yeah, sticks and and and and thing.
(1:16:43) Kelly: Yeah.
(1:16:47) Kelly: Yeah, so you don’t want to recycle your sticks at first, but once you upgrade that you can start recycling all your sticks and garbage that the crew has.
(1:16:49) Al: Ah okay.
(1:16:51) Al: Makes sense? Yes, so that’s the other the other mini mechanic that exists in the game is the crow will be flying around grabbing some things and throwing them onto the farm for you to get and you can recycle them for money. Basically, it’s just another way.
(1:17:08) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(1:17:09) Al: to get money and apparently also upgrade your fishing line.
(1:17:10) Kelly: Just some more passive income.
(1:17:16) Kelly: The worst though, uh…
(1:17:18) Kelly: So…
(1:17:20) Kelly: What did you- How did you- Did you have any issues with a deer?
(1:17:23) Kelly: ‘Cause I feel like that deer was like…
(1:17:25) Kelly: It definitely follows you.
(1:17:25) Al: I think it does seem to be a little bit like not ideal, like kind of a blow by bugged. Yeah.
(1:17:31) Kelly: And it seems to know the exact worst places to put itself.
(1:17:36) Kelly: Like the front of my door
(1:17:36) Al: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. People have been saying that that does happen quite a bit. So I don’t know whether that’s a bug or whether it’s deliberate, but. Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
(1:17:45) Kelly: think it’s deliberate because it follows you to the well too a lot. So I think it’s like, you know, it’s it’s it’s hunting you. And hunting you both at the same time. And there is a way to set it off so that it goes into its second stage. Like if you’re in the house, if you open the door real quick and then run back into the house it can’t get you. But that sets off its like, you know,
(1:18:07) Al: OK. Oh, no.
(1:18:10) Kelly: murderous deer stage. And then it’ll go away.
(1:18:15) Kelly: And it’ll reappear as a deer like 10 seconds later somewhere else on the map.
(1:18:19) Al: Okay
(1:18:19) Kelly: But it’s a good way to get it out of your front door. But then also like there’s been instances where the skin walkers out and the deer is out and they’re both by my house and then the candle’s going out.
(1:18:29) Al: Yeah, it’s one of these things where it’s like, it is frustrating, but as we’ve, as we’ve talked about, like, because the runs are so fast, like, you know, you can just,
(1:18:42) Kelly: Yeah, and you can get pretty close to the deer before it sets off its second stage,
(1:18:47) Kelly: but once you set off that second stage, it’s fast.
(1:18:49) Al: Yeah.
(1:18:50) Al: They are very fast.
(1:18:51) Kelly: It is very fast.
(1:18:52) Kelly: That’s the thing, these enemies are fast.
(1:18:55) Kelly: And your sprint is not that fast.
(1:18:57) Al: No, you can upgrade your speed.
(1:18:58) Kelly: Yes.
(1:18:59) Al: But yeah, certainly the first time the skinwalk is there,
(1:19:00) Kelly: Oh my god.
(1:19:04) Al: if you’re not in the house already, you’re dead.
(1:19:04) Kelly: Yeah.
(1:19:05) Kelly: Yep.
(1:19:06) Kelly: Which I think I lucked out because I had seen a few TikToks on the game, which is what got me into the game in the first place.
(1:19:14) Kelly: I think I saw somebody playing it and I was like, “Wow, this is going to give me nightmares.
(1:19:16) Al: Right.
(1:19:18) Al: Yeah, it is.
(1:19:18) Kelly: I want to play it.”
(1:19:21) Kelly: No, I did play it.
(1:19:22) Al: I’m not going to play it in the dark, but he says he says currently playing it in the dark.
(1:19:27) Kelly: I did play it in the dark a few times, but it was early enough where I wasn’t home alone.
(1:19:28) Al: Right. OK.
(1:19:34) Kelly: Like you know, my roommate wasn’t asleep or anything.
(1:19:35) Al: Yeah, yeah, fair enough.
(1:19:36) Kelly: I think that would be a different sensation.
(1:19:42) Al: Oh.
(1:19:42) Kelly: But, cute little game and it’s free.
(1:19:46) Al: I mean, I threw it a couple of bucks because.
(1:19:46) Kelly: You can…
(1:19:47) Kelly: I was going to say I gave him five dollars because it’s a cute little game and I liked it, but it can’t be free.
(1:19:50) Al: Yeah, yeah.
(1:19:53) Al: Well, if they pay you to play it.
(1:19:56) Kelly: Well, okay, okay.
(1:19:59) Al: Sorry, I should stop playing that game.
(1:20:00) Kelly: That’s just getting crazy.
(1:20:05) Kelly: Did you do a…
(1:20:06) Kelly: Oh yeah, no worries.
(1:20:07) Al: Oh, yeah, for sure.
(1:20:07) Kelly: Did you yell a lot when you were playing?
(1:20:10) Al: Like it’s because the the.
(1:20:14) Al: The muck, it’s not one of these things that’s like, oh, I just mucked.
(1:20:16) Al: It’s up, you know, it’s one of these things where it’s like, oh no, these are utterly terrifying and I literally just got mauled by a deer, you know, or like I was in my house thinking I was safe and the clown came and destroyed me, you know, like, yeah, this is definitely a terrifying like shout out sort of thing.
(1:20:36) Kelly: And like, so, uh, I’m a big baby when it comes to horror games. I’m a baby when it comes to actually most games.
(1:20:42) Kelly: My heart races, I don’t like dying in games at all. My heart rate is constantly up when I play games.
(1:20:49) Kelly: So a lot of the time I will watch people play horror games, but I won’t actually play them myself.
(1:20:56) Kelly: Like I love watching people play those like,
(1:20:59) Kelly: analog horror games.
(1:21:01) Al: Yeah.
(1:21:01) Kelly: But they’re not for me. I will have a heart attack. I will die. I will cease to agree to exist. That’s what I was gonna say. This pushed me to my limit, but in a good way.
(1:21:03) Al: No.
(1:21:05) Al: Yeah. This is about my limit, I think.
(1:21:14) Kelly: Not in like, “I’m gonna quit and go lay in bed for a little bit.” This was still entertaining and I felt like I could do it. I didn’t feel claustrophobic, which I feel like I get in a lot of horror games where I just feel like everything around me is making me panic.
(1:21:17) Al: laughs Yeah, yeah.
(1:21:36) Kelly: Like to the point of I’m immobile.
(1:21:39) Al: Yeah, yeah, with this one it’s like, yeah, everything is terrifying, but there are gaps between the terrifying and it’s like, you know, you can, if you don’t, if it’s, if it’s daytime and there’s no music going, you’re, you’re good. And you just need to keep an
(1:21:53) Kelly: And like of course you’re on edge, you’re on edge but it’s like oh I’m not gonna, nothing bad is happening because they do such a good job with the triggers for the enemies.
(1:22:07) Al: Yeah. The cues.
(1:22:08) Kelly: Or like not the triggers, um, cute thank you.
(1:22:13) Kelly: Like they really do such a good job of letting you know when the enemy’s gonna be there,
(1:22:17) Kelly: it’s just more so waiting for that cue to pop up.
(1:22:18) Al: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I think it’s, I think it’s good fun. I think it’s a really, really fun little game. Um, a terrifying, fun little game. Um, realistically, if you’re listening to this, you know whether or not you want to play this by now, like, so I’m not going to recommend this or not recommend it. Cause I think, you know, you know, listener if you want to play this or not by the, by the time, and maybe we should have put a spoiler warning because we basically told you everything about this game.
(1:22:20) Kelly: Yeah, very cute little game.
(1:22:24) Kelly: But in a horror way.
(1:22:26) Kelly: Yeah.
(1:22:28) Kelly: Yes.
(1:22:30) Kelly: Mmhmm.
(1:22:33) Kelly: Yes.
(1:22:48) Al: Um, yeah, I’ll see how I feel at the time.
(1:22:48) Kelly: I mean you can add one in, add one in in the beginning.
(1:22:55) Kelly: But also I think it’s like a very different take on a farming game.
(1:23:00) Al: “Yes.”
(1:23:01) Kelly: Like it’s very simple again, yes, very simple farming mechanics, very different than your standard farming game.
(1:23:01) Al: Yep.
(1:23:02) Al: Yes.
(1:23:03) Al: And he is not capitalist.
(1:23:13) Kelly: Yeah, you are only making money so that you can get your boat to work, so you can survive.
(1:23:15) Al: Which is very rare for a farming game.
(1:23:18) Al: Yep.
(1:23:19) Al: Yep.
(1:23:20) Al: Well, wait, no, that sounds like capitalism.
(1:23:20) Kelly: No, no, no, no, because you’re just trying to get off the island, essentially, that’s how I view it.
(1:23:24) Al: Yeah.
(1:23:27) Kelly: Okay, okay, okay, I see what you’re saying.
(1:23:27) Al: Making money to survive, that sounds like capitalism.
(1:23:30) Al: Ah, everything is capital.
(1:23:32) Kelly: However…
(1:23:34) Kelly: However…
(1:23:36) Kelly: However…
(1:23:40) Kelly: Who are you buying this stuff from? I don’t know.
(1:23:42) Al: Well that is a good question. That is a good question. Why is it like is this just…
(1:23:44) Kelly: Nobody.
(1:23:44) Kelly: The damn… It’s the crow. It’s the crow. The crow has set up this whole thing.
(1:23:48) Al: Oh no, the crows master plan.
(1:23:52) Kelly: The crow just wanted shiny coins.
(1:23:52) Al: There’s no flying enemy, nothing can get the crow when it’s flying.
(1:23:55) Kelly: Yeah.
(1:23:59) Kelly: I think I… I think I solved it.
(1:24:03) Kelly: Oh, did you actually… Did you update your outfits at all?
(1:24:07) Kelly: I did not either.
(1:24:07) Al: No. No, I’m not wasting my time. No, come on.
(1:24:09) Kelly: I was like, “I don’t have time for cosmetics.”
(1:24:13) Kelly: I saw somebody else do that and I was like, “Who are you? What are you doing?”
(1:24:14) Al: Yeah, we’re trying to survive here. We’re trying to not get killed by skinwalkers.
(1:24:16) Kelly: Yeah.
(1:24:20) Kelly: Yeah, yeah.
(1:24:23) Al: Goodness me.
(1:24:23) Kelly: Very good, very good, very good little game. I really did like it.
(1:24:25) Al: OK.
(1:24:27) Al: Awesome. Well, thank you for joining me to talk about this horrifying, horrifying nightmare fuel.
(1:24:30) Kelly: Thank you for having me.
(1:24:38) Kelly: Thanks for following for my ploy to get you to play another roguelite. Roguelike.
(1:24:42) Al: [LAUGH] Yeah, so I figured out, cuz I’ve read through, I figured out what happened.
(1:24:43) Kelly: Rogue… whatever.
(1:24:48) Al: You mentioned this when the game first came out, and I went, huh, interesting. And I put it in my list of things to look at at some point. And then a few weeks ago when I was trying to plan things, I went, oh, maybe I should do that. And I went and asked you,
(1:24:59) Al: cuz I thought you would be a good Halloween person to do this game with. I’m forgetting that you were the one that originally, so I suggested the podcast episode. But you had
(1:25:04) Kelly: Oh, that’s so funny.
(1:25:07) Al: originally told me about the game, I just forgot about.
(1:25:08) Kelly: ‘Cause I think…
(1:25:09) Kelly: ‘Cause I think when I first mentioned it, you were like,
(1:25:12) Kelly: “Okay, so we’ll talk about this in October.”
(1:25:14) Kelly: But that was like in August or whatever, when it first came up.
(1:25:16) Al: I think it was earlier than that, I think it was like me.
(1:25:17) Kelly: Oh, maybe.
(1:25:21) Kelly: I don’t remember when.
(1:25:23) Kelly: But I know when I first brought it up, you were like,
(1:25:25) Kelly: “Okay, so you’re gonna play it and then we’ll talk about it.”
(1:25:27) Kelly: And I said, “Okay, sure.”
(1:25:27) Al: Yeah, I don’t. And then I completely forgot all about that and came up with my own idea of the same thing later on. Classic me. Just taking credit for someone else’s suggestion.
(1:25:35) Kelly: That’s so funny.
(1:25:40) Kelly: And then it just worked out perfect that you were like,
(1:25:42) Kelly: “Hey, let’s talk about Hades for the greenhouse.”
(1:25:44) Kelly: Because that’s another one.
(1:25:46) Kelly: That’s another rogue.
(1:25:46) Al: Because again, I had suggested doing that before I realised this was a roguelike. So Happy Rogue-ish Game Week!
(1:25:54) Kelly: I think it’s funny too, ‘cause I think when you said you want to talk about it,
(1:25:59) Kelly: I was like, “Oh, I thought that was the plan already.”
(1:26:02) Al: Hence why I forgot. Anyway, thank you, Kelly, for joining me to talk about this.
(1:26:03) Kelly: “The pumpkin game.”
(1:26:04) Kelly: Thank you for having me.
(1:26:10) Al: Thank you listeners for listening.
(1:26:12) Al: Kelly, where can people find you on the internet?
(1:26:15) Kelly: Umm, if you type in “Ralamew” somewhere, I’ll pop up.
(1:26:16) Al: So that’s fine, you don’t have to be found.
(1:26:18) Kelly: I don’t know.
(1:26:21) Kelly: I don’t really use social media that much.
(1:26:23) Kelly: If you want to go on a journey, just…
(1:26:25) Al: Not everybody has to be found on the internet.
(1:26:29) Kelly: You could search the internet for that name.
(1:26:32) Kelly: It’ll come up somewhere.
(1:26:33) Kelly: An Easter egg hunt or something.
(1:26:33) Al: Just, you know, go on an interesting link.
(1:26:38) Al: like whole
(1:26:38) Kelly: Yeah.
(1:26:40) Kelly: Listen, I’m the only one who uses the name, so…
(1:26:45) Kelly: I don’t have to add numbers to it or anything.
(1:26:48) Al: You can find me on mastodon.scot or twitter as thescotbot. You can find the podcast on tumblr or twitter as @thspod. You can find links to everything we’ve talked about in the show notes which are also on the website harvestseason.club where you can also find a feedback form. If you want to give us some feedback you can do that there. You can also find the link to the patreon, and give me some money.
(1:27:18) Al: And you can get extra episodes of the podcast, including one coming out in a few days where,
(1:27:23) Al: as we’ve mentioned already, me and Kelly talk about Hades, and good news, we’re still friends.
(1:27:29) Kelly: Listen, I think, you know, we survived Hollow Knight.
(1:27:30) Al: Well, I liked Hollow Knight.
(1:27:32) Kelly: No, I know, I know, I know, but there was still, that’s not your style of game, I would say.
(1:27:36) Al: I was…
(1:27:37) Al: No, I wasn’t.
(1:27:39) Al: I absolutely…
(1:27:39) Kelly: Oh, do you, oh, maybe it’s the rogishness of it then, because it’s not too bad.
(1:27:40) Al: I like my Trojvanias.
(1:27:42) Al: Yeah.
(1:27:44) Al: Well, it’s not though though, because it has the one-
(1:27:48) Al: thing I said about Hades was if it had checkpoints, I would like it. There are checkpoints in-
(1:27:48) Kelly: Yes, that’s true, that’s true.
(1:27:52) Al: that is exactly what Metroid- Metroidvanias are like rogue lights, but with checkpoints.
(1:27:53) Kelly: That’s very true.
(1:27:57) Al: It’s like the one thing I don’t like about that style of game. They have. I like it.
(1:28:00) Kelly: That’s fair, okay, I take it back, I take it back.
(1:28:03) Al: I still haven’t finished it just because I’ve not got back into it. It is. Yeah,
(1:28:11) Kelly: It’s a long game, I mean, there’s a lot to do in it.
(1:28:14) Al: Yeah, and the problem was when I put it down,
(1:28:16) Al: I was at a really difficult boss, so.
(1:28:18) Al: I just need to… Yeah, so I will do it eventually,
(1:28:18) Kelly: That’s always hard to get back to.
(1:28:22) Al: probably when Silksong comes out, I’ll go,
(1:28:24) Al: “Oh, I should probably finish this.”
(1:28:25) Al: Yep, so there are other episodes as well of the greenhouse.
(1:28:34) Al: Let’s see what else we’ve got recently,
(1:28:38) Al: just to give you a taste of other things.
(1:28:40) Al: There was our Kevin and Spencer episode about Godzilla.
(1:28:43) Al: And then before that,
(1:28:46) Al: Kevin and Johnny talked about Sonic.
(1:28:48) Al: Characters and Johnny had so little Sonic knowledge that he literally only knew one character’s name and it was Sonic. He didn’t even know Tails or Knuckles. Nope. Nope. Nope.
(1:28:56) Kelly: No. Knuckles?
(1:28:59) Kelly: Rogue the bat?
(1:29:01) Kelly: Because I feel like the internet loves Rogue Bat.
(1:29:02) Al: I don’t know why that is your like, “Oh, how did somebody not know about this character though?”
(1:29:07) Al: Yeah, I know, but like it’s still like Sonic and Tails and Knuckles, I think are the three kind of Like, you know.
(1:29:09) Kelly: Oh, yeah, definitely, definitely.
(1:29:16) Al: Um.
(1:29:18) Al: So that was very fun, and there’ll be some more upcoming as well when I eventually get someone to talk to me about the Pokemon DLC, because no one wants to talk to me about that.
(1:29:27) Kelly: I didn’t even play the game.
(1:29:29) Kelly: I didn’t even play the main game.
(1:29:29) Al: See, that’s why.
(1:29:32) Al: All the usuals haven’t played the DLC.
(1:29:35) Al: Oh, it’s fine.
(1:29:37) Al: We’ll get there.
(1:29:38) Kelly: There you go. There you go. Perfect.
(1:29:38) Al: It’s fine.
(1:29:39) Al: I’m sure Michael will have played it, and I’m doing an episode with him soon.
(1:29:42) Al: So.
(1:29:42) Kelly: Thank you again for having me. It’s always fun.
(1:29:43) Al: All right.
(1:29:44) Al: I think that’s everything.
(1:29:45) Al: So thank you again, Kelly, for joining me.
(1:29:49) Al: And until next time, farmers, have a good harvest.
(1:29:49) Kelly: Bye!
(1:29:53) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McInley, with support from our patrons, including our pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa.
(1:29:54) Al: Whoo.
(1:29:55) Al: Woo!
(1:30:08) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess.
(1:30:13) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed in this episode.