Big the Cat is an Aberration

Mon, Jul 24, 2023 Year 2, Summer 4

Kev and Jonnie talk about Dredge.

Timings

00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:02:18: What Have We Been Up To
00:16:51: News
00:23:46: Dredge
00:53:22: Outro

Links

Whimsy and Wonder Humble Bundle
Stardew 1.6 Tweet
Disney Dreamlight Valley Dreamsnaps Update

Contact

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

Transcript

[00:00.000 –> 00:15.000] music
[00:31.000 –> 00:37.240] hello anglers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season the fishing season whatever
[00:37.240 –> 00:43.960] we’re called right now i’m kevin and i’m johnny and uh we’re here to talk about fishing games
[00:43.960 –> 00:49.720] i don’t know who changed that made that official whatever it’s still fishing month um i think this
[00:49.720 –> 00:56.360] episode it might be the tail end of fishing month i don’t 100 remember the order um no no this is
[00:56.720 –> 01:04.240] this is week two of fishing month is it is it oh i am i am 80% sure that this is week two of
[01:04.240 –> 01:13.680] fishing okay never mind never mind then um okay i just i had that all wrong okay um anyways uh
[01:13.680 –> 01:17.680] so yeah we’re actually going to talk about a specific game this time unlike last time where
[01:17.680 –> 01:22.640] we talked about a whole bunch of different mini games we talk about a full fishing game uh one
[01:22.680 –> 01:28.480] called dredge um that just yeah and we’re going we’re continuing our world tour kids this month
[01:28.480 –> 01:32.000] you know when we were first on an episode together we talked about lonesome village which
[01:32.960 –> 01:36.960] was developed in mexico and then we we got together and talked about tyrannil which was
[01:36.960 –> 01:40.880] produced in south africa and now we’re talking about dredge which was developed right here in
[01:40.880 –> 01:48.000] new zealand so our world tour continues oh man put that on your list of exports um that’s a
[01:48.880 –> 01:56.080] banger job new zealand the dev team um but yeah um before we dive into that
[01:58.080 –> 02:03.520] we will uh we actually do have a few pieces as we brought to our attention so we can go over
[02:04.160 –> 02:10.960] um but before that well actually first i want to mention as always we have transcripts
[02:11.760 –> 02:19.920] show notes links yada yada on the uh website uh harvest season dot club um but uh anyways uh
[02:19.920 –> 02:25.760] before we get into the news i’m not not johnny what have you been up to why have i been up to um
[02:26.480 –> 02:31.040] kevin you and i became friends through a game that some people might have heard of called pokemon
[02:31.040 –> 02:37.360] right um the one that’s dead and and we’ve sort of developed a shared hatred of the you know
[02:37.360 –> 02:42.000] more recent pokemon games but um i’m guessing you still own you know some pokemon games and
[02:42.000 –> 02:48.080] maybe some pokemon merch i do well i want you to take all of that pokemon stuff and just set it on
[02:48.080 –> 02:56.240] fire because pokemon is dead uh it is now all about cassette beasts cassette beasts is so good
[02:56.240 –> 03:02.080] you turned me on to this game this week from a side um into basically promise yep
[03:03.040 –> 03:12.320] this game is incredible it is so so good um it kind of just does everything that i want a modern
[03:12.320 –> 03:17.760] pokemon game to do it’s a fun take on the battle system like it’s not it’s it’s inspired by pokemon
[03:17.760 –> 03:22.080] but i don’t think it’s fair to call it even a pokemon clone yeah i would agree with that it’s
[03:22.080 –> 03:28.480] doing so many unique things on top of uh the creature catching thing the vibe of the game
[03:28.480 –> 03:33.200] the vibe of the game is incredible the music is incredible i love cassette beasts kevin
[03:33.200 –> 03:40.000] i love love love cassette beasts i mean okay so i have not played cassette beasts unfortunately
[03:40.000 –> 03:44.480] but um i have heard enough discussion and most probably most importantly i have listened to the
[03:44.480 –> 03:50.640] soundtrack which everyone should listen to regardless of surprise surprise a game called
[03:50.640 –> 03:58.080] cassette beast has a banger soundtrack um uh but no i agree with pretty much everything you’ve said
[03:58.400 –> 04:05.360] the art style direction the vibe however you want to call it is is very strong um in line with the
[04:05.360 –> 04:12.880] music uh something that pokemon suffers from more and more as time goes on but um anyways uh
[04:13.920 –> 04:20.080] the battle system is interesting because uh for people who aren’t familiar there’s whatever number
[04:20.080 –> 04:26.320] of types these types of games but each one has unique interactions which is pretty crazy and a
[04:26.320 –> 04:34.640] fun gift it’s it’s a really well implemented um system uh and a sort of few few examples of how
[04:34.640 –> 04:39.920] it works it’s it sort of replaces the super effective you know not very effective from from
[04:39.920 –> 04:46.240] pokemon um with interactions that make a lot of sense so and they stick right like so so they
[04:46.240 –> 04:50.000] i find that they really stick in my brain when they happen once you’re like oh i totally
[04:50.000 –> 04:58.640] understand how these two things will interact so for example if a um fire type uh attack hits a
[04:58.640 –> 05:05.200] metal type pokemon it gets like a melted condition and so its defense and attack get reduced um
[05:06.000 –> 05:11.520] whereas if a poison type attacks a metal type some of the poison is left on the metal and it gets
[05:11.520 –> 05:15.600] additional contact damage when it uses melee attacks going forward and so it’s just like
[05:15.600 –> 05:20.640] everything is super intuitive it makes sense uh actually you know some of them like even change
[05:20.640 –> 05:26.240] the type of monsters for a few turns like if a fire type uh attacks uh ice type it becomes water
[05:26.240 –> 05:32.800] type for a few turns right makes total sense and it’s just such a awesome and cool implementation
[05:32.800 –> 05:37.760] and typing matters a lot more because a lot of the sort of normal type attacks from a pokemon
[05:38.320 –> 05:45.120] style game they take on the type of um of the monster so it’s really clever it can
[05:45.120 –> 05:50.080] yeah it’s really really clever like the battle system is super clever and super interesting
[05:50.080 –> 05:56.160] um and it’s a really cool evolution of you know traditional pokemon style battling and you know
[05:56.160 –> 06:00.800] like in a pokemon game i never lose battles i have lost a decent number of battles and cassette
[06:00.800 –> 06:05.200] beasts so far and it’s not that the game is hard like it’s an easy game but you can get into areas
[06:05.200 –> 06:08.880] that are over leveled for you or you can make a few mistakes and then like you know you’re
[06:08.880 –> 06:12.240] leveling up some different beasts and it’s just like oh this is not going well
[06:14.400 –> 06:21.840] um yeah no that’s uh i i like i said from what i’ve heard i can’t disagree with any of that
[06:22.640 –> 06:29.440] um the designs are well you know that’s subjective but they’re pretty strong
[06:29.440 –> 06:37.680] it’s a nice pixel style i’d say maybe diamond pearl black white era pokemon um yeah the designs
[06:37.680 –> 06:41.600] are good they’re not the strongest element of the game but they are right but they’re good
[06:41.600 –> 06:46.960] they’re not bad absolutely they’re good yeah yep yep um and it i mean that’s always a really
[06:46.960 –> 06:52.320] tough space because you know pokemon yeah fine the other thing that’s really cool is the the
[06:52.320 –> 06:56.800] world building that’s gone into cassette beasts and explaining like why you’re in the world and
[06:56.800 –> 07:01.680] how that all sort of ties together and like there’s this this one song that plays when
[07:01.680 –> 07:08.000] you’re in harbor town which is the the hub town for um the world and it is just like
[07:08.000 –> 07:18.240] the most beautiful song it’s like very melancholy very like sad but also relaxing in a way and um i
[07:18.800 –> 07:24.320] i love just hanging out in the main town and listening to the song uh yeah no i mean i don’t
[07:24.320 –> 07:32.240] know what song it is but there are some really good songs throughout um i’m um yeah like i need
[07:32.240 –> 07:38.160] to get this game it’s what it’s i know it’s on steam i think it’s on switch i do not it is on
[07:38.160 –> 07:45.200] steam switch xbox game pass uh i actually it’s on playstation but i actually don’t know if it’s on
[07:45.200 –> 07:54.800] playstation um well so either way check out cassette beasts um it uh fantastic entry into the
[07:56.240 –> 08:03.680] monster collection genre um i do hope it continues one thing i think that we desperately need is a
[08:03.680 –> 08:08.560] number two to pokemon you know like uh something to actually shake it up yokai watch kind of had
[08:08.560 –> 08:13.600] that for a bit but uh uh other than that a lot of these don’t have a lot of staying power you know
[08:13.600 –> 08:19.920] like they have one great game but or one maybe two but then but anyways sorry i don’t want to
[08:19.920 –> 08:23.040] talk like endlessly about cassette beats but i actually do want to talk endlessly about cassette
[08:23.040 –> 08:28.400] beasts the other cool things that they do is uh their version of shinies which they call bootlegs
[08:28.400 –> 08:34.480] um yeah which is a great name um but they are different types right so they have a different
[08:34.480 –> 08:40.480] color based on the type but any um uh so there’s like 14 i think there’s 14 different types there’s
[08:40.480 –> 08:46.560] effectively 14 shinies or 13 shinies for each one and you can go and hunt specific types so
[08:46.560 –> 08:54.080] it’s kind of like the you know um uh the terror thing terrastilizing thing from the most recent
[08:54.080 –> 08:58.400] pokemon game but you know like good and fun and interesting and everything that is not
[08:59.760 –> 09:06.400] oh ain’t that the truth um yeah no that’s good that’s anyway that’s that’s my that’s my mini
[09:06.400 –> 09:14.000] love affair with cassette beasts um okay is is there moves can you trade or battle with other
[09:14.000 –> 09:18.240] players do you know so this is the sad thing i don’t know anyone else that’s playing cassette
[09:18.240 –> 09:24.400] beast so i haven’t looked into any multiplayer features other than um there is uh a form of
[09:24.400 –> 09:28.800] co-op that you can do i’m not sure if it’s local or like you can also do it online because there’s
[09:28.800 –> 09:35.760] two um like it’s all double battles um so there is at least that form of co-op but i actually don’t
[09:35.760 –> 09:40.080] know if there’s trading or anything like that mostly because i haven’t had any reason oh wait
[09:40.080 –> 09:46.160] actually no i’m just remembering i saw a tweet a while back they are planning a huge update um that
[09:46.160 –> 09:53.280] will um which is a good sign that it will continue getting support um but uh or is it out now oh
[09:53.280 –> 09:57.280] might already be out now i don’t know anyways they’re doing updates um which you know pokemon
[09:57.280 –> 10:01.840] doesn’t really do either so uh go check it out because at least uh thank you for listening to
[10:01.840 –> 10:10.640] the cassette beasts uh love podcast uh uh have you squeezed in anything other than cassette beast
[10:10.640 –> 10:14.960] johnny uh have i squeezed in anything else other than cassette so i mean i’ve been playing a little
[10:14.960 –> 10:20.080] bit of pokemon sleep that came out this week um and one of the advantages of being in new zealand
[10:20.080 –> 10:24.960] is we get these things released before the rest of the world because we’re the testing ground for
[10:24.960 –> 10:31.200] pokemon mobile games um so i have almost completed a week’s worth of pokemon sleep and
[10:31.840 –> 10:37.200] it’s kind of exactly what i want it to be it’s a totally fine sleep tracker with pokemon in it
[10:37.200 –> 10:43.680] like i don’t know it’s it’s not amazing but it is exactly what it is i loved uh magic carp jump and
[10:43.680 –> 10:50.960] this is from the same developers and they just get the they get the vibe of pokemon right i feel so
[10:51.040 –> 10:54.240] all right it’s been a it’s been a creature collecting week for me
[10:54.240 –> 10:59.680] hey very nice very nice um yeah i’ll need to i don’t know if i’ll try sleep to be honest
[10:59.680 –> 11:06.640] it’s just one ice the battle with sleep i don’t know if i need further agitation on that and um
[11:07.520 –> 11:12.720] but uh i don’t know i was weirded out by the fact that you this game has a battle pass
[11:14.560 –> 11:20.800] oh look the the micro transaction side of this game is pretty ridiculous but it’s kind of just
[11:21.360 –> 11:29.680] a mobile game right and this is what mobile games do now and it’s stupid but okay but uh but i i’m
[11:29.680 –> 11:34.240] glad it’s it’s i don’t see people necessarily disappointed but just seems really weird things
[11:34.240 –> 11:38.320] that came out but anyways um the weirdest commentary that i’ve seen for people who are
[11:38.320 –> 11:43.440] disappointed is like they’re like i’m disappointed there’s not more to do like during the day and
[11:43.440 –> 11:49.760] i’m kind of like it’s a sleeping app game i’m not sure what you were expecting to do during the day
[11:49.760 –> 11:53.280] but if you want to play pokemon during the day there are thousands of other pokemon games that
[11:53.280 –> 11:59.520] you could go and play and do stuff during the day so like it’s just weird weird criticism yeah
[11:59.520 –> 12:09.040] oh god nothing like uh pokemon fans um good stuff good stuff um anything else you want to bring up
[12:09.040 –> 12:13.920] no no i think i think that’s um uh an awful lot for for creature collection games today what
[12:13.920 –> 12:18.160] have you been up to no it’s not because i have been playing creature collection games
[12:18.720 –> 12:27.600] um i uh well let’s see okay i’ve been unite is hitting the second anniversary and introducing
[12:27.600 –> 12:33.600] you two and to be um unite i guess pokemon you know actually one thing i want to comment on
[12:33.600 –> 12:44.480] you as well gmutu came out july 20th and it’s getting nerfed on july 21st i love when things
[12:44.480 –> 12:51.360] come out so broken they have to get emergency nerve um but uh but anyways but that’s uh
[12:52.000 –> 12:56.240] yeah that’s great night players i just love when they completely wreck the balance and have to fix
[12:56.240 –> 13:04.800] it um aside from that i’ve been playing tears of the kingdom uh slowly and steadily i’ve married
[13:04.800 –> 13:10.320] behind from everyone so i don’t think i have anything new to say that nobody else has said um
[13:10.320 –> 13:14.560] i will say i have not yet encountered a horse i’m looking for the horse stables i don’t know
[13:14.560 –> 13:22.880] where they are um but i found master koga before that you found master koga before you found a
[13:22.880 –> 13:30.880] horse before i saw a single horse even out in the wild wow yeah so my uh journey has been something
[13:30.880 –> 13:36.080] else to say the least um it sounds like you just went underground and you have not come back up
[13:36.080 –> 13:41.840] i mean the first thing i went was the great plateau i wanted to see my old stomping grounds
[13:41.840 –> 13:46.480] and there were some filthy guy cleaned them out and there was a big hole and yeah i jumped in
[13:47.040 –> 13:56.560] um but uh but yeah no it’s great um i will say as an engineer uh it it scratches a special itch
[13:56.560 –> 14:03.520] to build things um like the sign little the sign dude i like building very efficient
[14:04.240 –> 14:10.400] hosts or whatever um but anyways um yeah surprise surprise tears of the kingdom is good um aside
[14:10.400 –> 14:16.000] from that i have actually continued to play story of seasons um that i have actually finally
[14:16.000 –> 14:22.880] surpassed uh where i played stopped originally or as far as i can recall um and that game just
[14:22.880 –> 14:32.000] continues to be a joy in my life um i have also unfortunately gone down the deep dark regrettable
[14:32.080 –> 14:37.440] hole of trading card games again i’ve gotten the itch uh this time the pokemon trading card game
[14:37.440 –> 14:43.760] my brother picked up the the new app the live app or whatever that they use uh and so he got
[14:43.760 –> 14:50.560] me into it and actually the app is pretty good um it’s well it works well which the old one didn’t
[14:50.560 –> 14:56.240] do um but in general i’ve been getting a little in the pokemon cards not so much i haven’t really
[14:56.240 –> 15:01.360] been buying any just dusting off what i do have i bought like a new deck just having fun with that
[15:01.360 –> 15:09.920] um but yeah play like it is the app more like um like magic the gathering arena or hearthstone
[15:09.920 –> 15:14.720] where it’s kind of like very just like focused on random battles or is it not too bad if you
[15:14.720 –> 15:20.240] want to like battle you know your friends and kind of just puffs about uh no it’s uh it’s
[15:21.200 –> 15:26.880] to be quite honest i have not done it myself but from what i understand it’s just it’s easy to play
[15:26.880 –> 15:32.240] with your friends if you just want um obviously like they have battle passes and whatever of
[15:32.240 –> 15:41.200] course um but uh so they focus a lot on like the random battles and stuff but it it’s no problem
[15:41.200 –> 15:47.440] at all to play with your friends um to be fair the the old app was decent at that um just very
[15:47.440 –> 15:55.440] clunky in the games itself um oh i will give them props for one well a few things that they’ve done
[15:55.440 –> 16:05.520] but um one of the biggest things is uh so in the old online app you couldn’t really buy products
[16:05.520 –> 16:13.120] almost um you’re almost it’s not exclusively but the best the easiest way to get cards was to buy
[16:13.120 –> 16:16.880] actual products like physical products and put the little code card in right
[16:17.440 –> 16:23.120] um they finally changed that in this new version of the uh in this new live app um where you can
[16:23.120 –> 16:29.520] grind out coins and actually buy things um and all the stuff you can buy digitally is just the
[16:29.520 –> 16:36.240] same stuff you can buy physically so that’s really nice they finally um but yeah so that’s uh that’s
[16:36.240 –> 16:46.240] what’s going on with my life so now that we’re uh done collecting monsters for at least right now
[16:46.880 –> 16:52.400] what is going on in the world of cottage core games let me actually look at well maybe um to
[16:52.400 –> 16:57.200] start with uh um and i should have actually looked up the dates of of when this ends but there’s a
[16:57.200 –> 17:01.840] a cool little humble bundle um i feel like humble bundle is one of those things i’m constantly
[17:01.840 –> 17:07.280] surprised still exists um because it feels like it was you know really big like 10 years ago and
[17:07.280 –> 17:13.280] now it’s just like wait that’s really still going um they have a whimsy and wonder cozy games
[17:13.280 –> 17:20.480] collection bundle that has um a few games that um have been talked about uh if not had specific
[17:20.480 –> 17:25.280] episodes but talked about pretty heavily on the show like garden story and a short hike plus a few
[17:25.280 –> 17:28.560] games that i’d not heard of before there’s something called assemble with care that looks
[17:28.560 –> 17:35.920] like a great little mobile game that i kind of want to try um uh and so that’s a current humble
[17:35.920 –> 17:41.600] bundle and i can’t actually see an end date for uh it offer ends in 19 days so it will definitely
[17:41.600 –> 17:50.640] still be out um by the time uh this uh episode comes out so uh if you uh after picking up some
[17:50.640 –> 17:58.320] cool uh cozy games uh this is a good place to start yeah no that’s um yeah that sounds great
[17:58.320 –> 18:03.920] um humble bundles like the sheer amount of value you get from them always blows my mind
[18:04.000 –> 18:13.840] um but uh that’s good stuff um let’s see what else there is oh disney dreamlight valley
[18:13.840 –> 18:20.000] getting an update um is that out already that might be uh i believe this update is out so
[18:20.000 –> 18:29.520] yeah this is the dream snaps update um and uh it’s sort of them getting into some of the uh
[18:30.320 –> 18:38.160] multiplayer sharing side of things um where uh it’s sort of a weekly photo challenge um
[18:38.160 –> 18:44.480] so the snaps being photos um it has prizes for participating including moonstones and moonstones
[18:44.480 –> 18:55.760] is sort of the um premium-esque currency um in in um uh in dreamlight valley uh and there’s a bunch
[18:55.760 –> 19:00.480] of other stuff that goes along with that but that’s really i guess the key focus of this
[19:00.480 –> 19:05.600] update now i’ll tell you what the key focus is the key focus is vanellope von schweetz is now in
[19:05.600 –> 19:10.000] the game um i don’t know if you’re a fan of wreck-it-ralph but i’m a very very big fan of
[19:10.000 –> 19:15.440] that movie i was like looking at that name and i could not place it and uh i think because
[19:15.440 –> 19:20.240] wreck-it-ralph is not like immediately where you go like it’s not one of the instant disney
[19:20.240 –> 19:23.600] associations but that yeah that makes total sense that’s exciting that she’s in the game
[19:23.600 –> 19:28.720] yeah yeah that’s uh that’s fun she’s a great character love that movie great to see my sister
[19:28.720 –> 19:32.320] has actually been big big big into disney dreamlight valley um so that’s why i knew
[19:32.320 –> 19:37.120] it was out because i think i saw her mentioning vanellope out um but yeah i didn’t mention it
[19:37.120 –> 19:43.040] i didn’t mention it in the um uh the main update because it’s been a few weeks but um i have
[19:43.040 –> 19:47.040] actually hit credits on disney dreamlight valley which a i didn’t realize that you could hit
[19:47.840 –> 19:54.640] was my mind uh i have hit credits of that game so um there’s a lot a lot more content than when
[19:54.640 –> 20:03.040] al and i um first covered it um and it’s uh just still a really good game so um yeah yeah no that’s
[20:03.040 –> 20:10.960] um yeah i i want to get into it but the list of other games i’m digging into first just is it’s
[20:10.960 –> 20:16.800] really big um well i feel most people should still wait for 1.0 because it’s still not in 1.0 yet
[20:17.280 –> 20:26.000] yeah um one thing that i do heckle my sister about like i i seeing all these disney characters
[20:26.000 –> 20:30.000] next to each other like makes you realize just just how messed up that can be like
[20:30.000 –> 20:37.440] why is scar not eating remy from ratatouille like why doesn’t that happen well if you play the game
[20:37.440 –> 20:43.760] and you do some quests you will find out why scar is not eating remy because they definitely
[20:43.760 –> 20:53.280] interact as part of scar’s quest line wait they do that’s awesome um good stuff uh but anyways um
[20:54.640 –> 21:01.040] okay so that’s disney dreamlight valley speaking of updates to good games um
[21:02.240 –> 21:11.920] uh we’re reporting that uh water is wet uh sky is blue and stardew continues to have updates
[21:11.920 –> 21:16.800] um uh kev i think you know that that might actually be used to some of our listeners
[21:16.800 –> 21:21.200] given uh last episode we spent you know half of it trashing fishing and starting out
[21:22.480 –> 21:29.280] we do actually like the game no well yes yes yeah if we didn’t yeah we should be clear um
[21:29.280 –> 21:38.080] yeah is a good game yes um not the fishing i’m just i’m looking through the concerned
[21:38.320 –> 21:43.200] twitter is pretty good oh oh so that’s why he put a picture of there’s a steam sale is that
[21:43.200 –> 21:50.160] for oh yeah no that’s over never mind sorry anyways yes stardew has a big update uh 1.6
[21:50.160 –> 21:57.520] update oh he’s going there is going to be one excuse me um to quote his tweet or to pull from
[21:57.520 –> 22:02.240] his tweet here uh there’s changes for modders which will make it easier and more powerful to
[22:02.240 –> 22:10.240] mod which frightens me um but there will be new game content much less than 1.5 um he’s
[22:10.240 –> 22:16.640] taking a break from haunted chocolatier to work on this um that’s all i think oh here we go yeah
[22:16.640 –> 22:24.560] look it’s basically hints that uh you know 1.6 is coming at some point soon there’s no date uh
[22:24.560 –> 22:31.200] you know at new festivals you know a few new events um but it doesn’t sound like it’s gonna be
[22:31.200 –> 22:38.880] some um uh huge update so if you like stardew valley and you want more stardew valley content
[22:38.880 –> 22:44.960] it’s coming at some point you know in in the near future um if you take the near future to mean you
[22:44.960 –> 22:49.920] know sometime within the next two years that’s about as confident as i’d be on when this is
[22:49.920 –> 22:57.920] going to come out um but ultimately i think um the the the new story here is uh more stardew valley
[22:57.920 –> 23:03.520] content it just uh uh is gonna be you know more of what’s already in there it doesn’t sound like
[23:03.520 –> 23:13.520] it’s gonna be some massive shift um to what’s uh to what the game already does yeah um i mean
[23:13.520 –> 23:20.240] stardew right like fans if you’re a fan you know what to expect um but uh but yeah i mean it just
[23:20.240 –> 23:24.560] continues probably will never ever stop i mean i wouldn’t stop either with all the money he’s
[23:24.560 –> 23:33.840] probably making off that um but yeah there you go uh let’s see i think that’s roughly what we
[23:33.840 –> 23:39.440] have for news anything else that you saw uh no nothing else really i think that that um about
[23:39.440 –> 23:44.160] covers i’m sure there’ll be some small stuff that we missed and uh we’ll catch up on that at some
[23:44.160 –> 23:53.040] point in the future there you go so now that we are through the news let’s uh let’s talk about uh
[23:54.640 –> 24:00.880] a cozy little game called dredge as we’re so prone to talk about on this game on this show
[24:03.120 –> 24:07.920] all right yeah maybe not maybe not the coziest of games but um it’s definitely a fishing game
[24:07.920 –> 24:15.120] it is a fishing game um all right johnny take since you uh for clarity uh johnny has played
[24:15.120 –> 24:20.240] and i believe completed it i have not played but i am fairly familiar with the game i’ve
[24:20.240 –> 24:27.120] talked about several people who have nothing but praise for it um uh it is on my list again so
[24:27.120 –> 24:32.800] go ahead johnny give us give us the elevator pitch what’s going on with dread uh so as i said
[24:32.800 –> 24:38.400] you’re a fisherman and uh you know the the base premises you’ve taken a job as a fisherman on the
[24:38.400 –> 24:47.280] way to the town where you’ve taken the job your boat gets um uh damaged and uh you so you have to
[24:47.280 –> 24:53.920] you know rent uh a new boat from the town where they’ve hired you to work as a fisherman um and
[24:53.920 –> 24:58.560] so you go off and you start fishing up fish and paying off your debt and doing all of those sorts
[24:58.560 –> 25:04.320] of fun things and there’s you know some some spooky overtones and then a little bit into the
[25:04.320 –> 25:11.760] game you fish up an aberration um which is kind of like a regular fish um but kuthulu or you know
[25:12.240 –> 25:20.240] um some lovecraftian horror got involved with the fish and turned it into a uh a weird aberration
[25:20.240 –> 25:27.360] of the fish um and so really a little extra ooze just a little few extra eyes no biggie
[25:28.320 –> 25:34.720] yeah and so um and from there the sort of core gameplay loop that takes off as you’re going
[25:34.800 –> 25:42.240] around um uh various regions um fishing up different fish but ostensibly looking for
[25:42.240 –> 25:47.440] some items for a character uh known as the collector who’s looking for some
[25:48.240 –> 25:52.800] artifacts that were lost in a shipwreck and so you’re going around trying to
[25:53.360 –> 25:59.360] find those um and you primarily do that with fishing um and fun little side note that i
[25:59.360 –> 26:03.200] actually don’t think i told you about yet but i i am good friends with the person that did the
[26:03.200 –> 26:09.360] voice acting for the collector oh really so yeah that’s really cool um you know because
[26:09.360 –> 26:12.320] there’s only like six people in new zealand so it was highly likely that i was going to know
[26:12.320 –> 26:17.680] one of the people that worked on this game johnny’s in the credits he didn’t even do
[26:17.680 –> 26:26.960] anything but he’s just there as special thanks um um yeah so that’s kind of the core gameplay look
[26:26.960 –> 26:32.320] but um to talk a little bit more about the the fishing specifically um so there’s a bunch of
[26:32.320 –> 26:36.640] sort of different fishing mini games um but there’s sort of different fishing types which
[26:36.640 –> 26:40.880] i really like so i think there’s sort of seven or eight fishing types you know there’s uh shallow
[26:40.880 –> 26:48.480] water fishing coastal fishing deep water fishing uh abyssal fishing volcanic fishing um and they
[26:48.480 –> 26:52.800] all have different rods and you catch different fish in the different uh different spots and some
[26:52.800 –> 26:57.680] of them have different uh mini games and then when you catch the fish they’re sort of like an
[26:57.680 –> 27:04.400] inventory um you know fit the fish in the space sort of thing that you have to do so your boat
[27:04.400 –> 27:10.400] has a certain amount of space um and you can put the fish river it’s got space and bigger fish have
[27:10.400 –> 27:14.240] you know weird shapes and all sorts of things so there is a little bit of a puzzle element to
[27:14.240 –> 27:19.200] putting the fish together which is pretty cool yeah for to use a popular game reference it’s
[27:19.760 –> 27:25.120] the resident evil 4 the attache case or whatever your little tetris thing to fit everything in the
[27:25.120 –> 27:33.840] box um which i i do like my i like that i think that’s clever um but huh i didn’t know they were
[27:33.840 –> 27:40.560] different i you know different it makes sense but i do like that that it’s not there’s different
[27:40.560 –> 27:46.160] rods for different environments and things that is that’s nice to see uh you know a little death
[27:46.720 –> 27:53.200] to the game um yeah and it’s cool right so so one of the limiting factors in the early game is the
[27:53.760 –> 27:58.960] um rods that you have will maybe fish up can only fish up one or two different types
[27:58.960 –> 28:02.800] um so you have to pick which rod you’re going to take on your boat because the rod takes up
[28:02.800 –> 28:07.280] space on your boat so you leave some of them back in storage as you get more towards the end game
[28:07.280 –> 28:11.520] you start unlocking rods that can fish up more types and it’s possible to sort of you know go
[28:11.520 –> 28:17.760] around and fish up any type um you know pretty easily by the time you get to the end of the game
[28:17.760 –> 28:21.440] but it’s a it’s a nice little limiting factor at the start of the game where you’re having
[28:21.440 –> 28:25.600] to actively make the decision of like oh so what fish am i going at to get what what does
[28:25.600 –> 28:31.920] that mean in terms of the sorts of uh rods that i would want to take right okay that is huh yeah
[28:31.920 –> 28:39.760] that is a good natural way of unlocking progression or however you want to put it um huh that is
[28:40.880 –> 28:46.480] interesting um oh you know here’s a question how is the sailing because all the game plays
[28:46.480 –> 28:51.120] on the boat right like you’re moving around how does the boat control how’s it feel uh the boat
[28:51.360 –> 28:59.440] controls okay um and it’s it’s weird right because are these the best boat controls ever
[28:59.440 –> 29:05.840] absolutely not right but it almost feels intentional so um part of the game is that it
[29:05.840 –> 29:12.720] runs on a you know 24 hour clock cycle so it’s kind of just going through um day and night and
[29:12.720 –> 29:17.840] day is relatively safe so um i mentioned the aberration fish that you’re catching before
[29:17.920 –> 29:24.640] if you’re out at night when the fog rolls in um your panic level starts to rise so there’s sort
[29:24.640 –> 29:32.000] of this um big you know lovecraftian horror sort of theme going to the game and at night your panic
[29:32.000 –> 29:39.360] rises and as your panic rises there’s certain um uh negative things that can happen and it could be
[29:39.360 –> 29:44.640] you know uh sea monsters are kind of called to attack your boat um and you can’t you know fight
[29:44.720 –> 29:50.960] back against them they just damage your boat or things like um uh rocks might appear out of the
[29:50.960 –> 29:57.360] fog all of a sudden um that weren’t there before that you crash into and when you crash um or
[29:57.360 –> 30:03.040] damage is done to your boat it impacts the um so it damages one of those inventory slots that
[30:03.040 –> 30:07.760] i talked about before and anything that was in that slot is either like if a fish was in that
[30:07.760 –> 30:12.960] slot that fish was lost overboard or if it was a rod or an engine or something then then that part
[30:12.960 –> 30:20.080] of your boat becomes um disabled so it’s a really like fun sort of push your luck mechanic um
[30:20.080 –> 30:25.360] different fish come out at night so so you do have to go out at night because it’s not just like try
[30:25.360 –> 30:30.560] and get home during the day as quickly as possible and then you know uh rest until the next morning
[30:30.560 –> 30:37.760] it’s um something that you kind of actively want to do but um uh sort of the panic level rising
[30:37.760 –> 30:42.160] they do a really nice job of kind of actually you know making you feel slightly more panicked when
[30:42.160 –> 30:48.880] you are out in the fog yeah yeah that panic level can refer to either the in-game mechanic or your
[30:48.880 –> 30:58.080] own feeling of panic because uh boy is there uneasiness in this game um yeah because man like
[30:58.720 –> 31:04.160] i guess we might as well start talking about the fish right because i’m sure you start off with
[31:04.160 –> 31:13.040] just basic everyday fish um but then as you said there’s some really scary stuff in those waters
[31:13.040 –> 31:19.760] just like the real world of ocean um yeah so when you start fishing you know it’s a lot of your
[31:19.760 –> 31:27.200] um coastal and and sort of shallow water fish that you’re um uh fishing up um that kind of
[31:27.200 –> 31:34.080] follows through into the the first area or the first sort of area outside of the main hub area
[31:34.080 –> 31:37.840] that you go so it’s a lot of those sort of fish and you start fishing up some aberrations
[31:38.480 –> 31:44.000] um and some of those sorts of things and then it kind of really opens i think when you get to the
[31:44.000 –> 31:48.320] second area and i believe you can go to the areas in whichever order you want but there’s a
[31:48.320 –> 31:55.520] natural order that they sort of push you towards them and we start getting the the rods to fish up
[31:55.520 –> 32:02.080] the abyssal and um hadal style fish and i actually have no idea what the word hadal even means um or
[32:02.080 –> 32:05.760] if it’s just something they made up for this game uh but at the start you know you’re fishing up
[32:05.760 –> 32:13.040] mackerel and cod and squid and eels and just all of um uh those sorts of things and then as you go
[32:13.040 –> 32:19.520] on uh when it’s sort of the abyssal fish it’s a lot of what we might think of as like those um
[32:19.520 –> 32:24.880] really deep water fish you know see the um you know the ones with like the lights off their head
[32:24.880 –> 32:31.520] and a really big sharp pointed teeth um there’s a lot that are sort of in those sorts of categories
[32:31.520 –> 32:37.760] i still believe they’re real fish um like the anglerfish and some of those sorts of things but
[32:37.760 –> 32:42.160] they uh it’s sort of like bridging that gap between it’s almost like asking the question of
[32:42.160 –> 32:47.200] what’s even below those fish right the anglerfish and some of those sorts of things what’s below
[32:47.200 –> 32:53.520] those well actually so i looked this up because i was curious hadal is a real word and refers to
[32:54.320 –> 32:58.320] uh the deepest parts of the ocean so when you think of the deep ocean you know you think of
[32:58.320 –> 33:04.400] anglerfish and whatnot the hadal zone is the ocean like in the deep trenches that goes even deeper
[33:04.400 –> 33:13.440] than that um so yeah pretty much exactly what you said um that is oh gosh this is all horrifying to
[33:13.440 –> 33:21.840] think about um lining up with shark week in here in the states um granted i don’t think i don’t
[33:21.920 –> 33:27.280] know if there are any sharks in there are sharks in church oh there are uh but they’re actually
[33:27.280 –> 33:32.560] not that uh scary to fish up they’re kind of like your um big open water fish that you go and get so
[33:33.600 –> 33:38.560] they take up a lot of space in your boat but they are sort of uh valuable and they’re not
[33:38.560 –> 33:42.160] particularly difficult to fish and i guess the fishing in general in this game is not
[33:42.160 –> 33:46.720] particularly difficult so it’s um there’s a few different sorts of mini games that you do for
[33:46.720 –> 33:52.080] fishing but they’re all just sort of timing based you know press the press the button when
[33:52.080 –> 33:59.200] the thing’s in the zone um it’s relatively straightforward as far as fishing um as far as
[33:59.200 –> 34:04.640] fishing mechanics go but there are a few sorts which is which is good right so there’s different
[34:04.640 –> 34:08.400] types based on the sort of fishing or the sort of rod that you’re doing um and there’s a few
[34:08.400 –> 34:13.200] different sorts of fishing as well so there is a little aspect of automation to the game so you’ve
[34:13.200 –> 34:17.680] got rods um that’s the main thing there are crab pots so you can go and leave the crab pots out
[34:17.680 –> 34:24.880] and they’ll fill up over over time um and you can can get them and you can also do um trawling um
[34:24.880 –> 34:30.080] with the net so you can attach a net to the back of your boat and um that will pick up um you know
[34:30.080 –> 34:35.760] it doesn’t catch uh big or expensive fish but it is a great way to sort of pick up extra fish
[34:35.760 –> 34:41.680] as you’re um as you’re going around so they’ve got a few different sorts of fishing like that
[34:41.680 –> 34:48.000] and in addition to they do actually have uh dredging so you can go and find um uh shipwrecks
[34:48.000 –> 34:54.240] and um you can uh that’s how you get some of the resources that you need to improve your boat
[34:54.240 –> 34:58.880] um or you find some some trinkets and other things so uh they’ve gone pretty broad with
[34:58.880 –> 35:03.200] the different sorts of fishing that you can do in the game which works really well that’s nice
[35:03.200 –> 35:07.920] i wasn’t aware of that um which i guess makes sense you know since it’s all just fishing to
[35:07.920 –> 35:13.760] spice it up a little um but huh that’s yeah that’s really nice to hear that yeah that
[35:13.760 –> 35:17.520] sounds like they really put a lot of thought and care into how you’re navigating these all this
[35:17.520 –> 35:22.480] stuff um yeah and that’s one of the things that comes through really strongly in the game it’s
[35:22.480 –> 35:26.480] like it would have been really easy for them to try and make like fishing a little bit more
[35:26.480 –> 35:32.720] difficult than they did um because it’s ultimately a fishing game um but i think they got the balance
[35:32.720 –> 35:36.800] really nice that it’s like actually it’s more about getting to the spot to fish it up having
[35:36.800 –> 35:42.640] the right equipment not getting damaged on the way back um you know fish uh degrade over time
[35:42.640 –> 35:47.440] so if you’re out for ages without going back to sell your fish they’ll become stale and then
[35:47.440 –> 35:54.960] eventually um uh rotten and that reduces their value obviously so so they’ve created a really
[35:54.960 –> 36:01.600] nice gameplay loop for fishing and by not making the fishing sort of like obscenely difficult
[36:01.600 –> 36:05.440] um it’s pretty straightforward and the other cool thing that i’ve done actually while i’m
[36:05.680 –> 36:11.760] talking about sort of the gameplay look is there’s uh it’s not a huge component of the game but there
[36:11.760 –> 36:16.880] is a nod to sort of like the the notion of depletion of um fish stocks so whenever you
[36:16.880 –> 36:24.160] go over to one of the designated fishing spots it’ll tell you um how much is is in there um
[36:24.160 –> 36:30.240] and you can totally sort of over fish an area where there’s that now longer uh no longer becomes
[36:30.240 –> 36:34.960] uh active fishing spot and i think it takes a long time to regenerate and i don’t know if there’s a
[36:35.040 –> 36:39.280] 100 accurate or if this is just how it felt to me but if you sort of take an area that’s got
[36:39.280 –> 36:44.480] lots of fish and you fish it down to medium that will regenerate relatively quickly um but where
[36:44.480 –> 36:49.040] it’s low fish it seemed to stay low for quite a long time so uh it feels like there’s a little
[36:49.040 –> 36:54.960] sort of nod to like trying to get you to not over fish a spot which was nice that is really clever
[36:54.960 –> 37:00.800] um that’s something you don’t see or at least i don’t see much in games of over fishing um
[37:00.800 –> 37:05.760] because yeah not all i mean that fits in the game and it’s a great way to push to other spots
[37:06.560 –> 37:12.880] um get out there and confront those whores um that’s really clever i like that a lot um
[37:13.600 –> 37:19.760] let’s see here speaking of whores i guess let’s let’s talk about some of the stuff that’s trying
[37:19.760 –> 37:26.640] to fish you um because there’s it’s not just crashing into things there’s there’s actual
[37:26.640 –> 37:32.960] monsters out there um and they are pretty horrible what are some of your favorites
[37:32.960 –> 37:36.640] johnny since you’ve been through so i think the the first one that stands out and it’s because
[37:36.640 –> 37:43.280] it’s one of the first ones that you really um encounter is the serpent um so the serpent’s in
[37:43.280 –> 37:51.200] sort of the one of the first areas that you go to um and it’s kind of just swimming around the area
[37:51.760 –> 37:57.840] and uh i think at night or if you’re high panic it’s more likely to be attracted to to your boat
[37:57.840 –> 38:02.160] but i mean you can definitely encounter it during the day and it kind of just swims past and like
[38:02.160 –> 38:08.560] damages you um a little bit and it’s kind of just like terrifying because it often happens when
[38:08.560 –> 38:14.160] you’re not expecting it right it’s not like some um some of the other things where you maybe get
[38:14.160 –> 38:19.120] an indication or a bit of noise and it kind of just happens right and it’s kind of terrifying
[38:19.120 –> 38:22.320] and then it kind of continues on and sort of gives you the message of like you’re not that
[38:22.320 –> 38:28.080] significant in the world oh boy you just happen to be on the water where you probably shouldn’t
[38:28.080 –> 38:37.040] be in this game um so that’s probably the one that sort of stands out um the most to me um there’s
[38:37.040 –> 38:47.040] the the uh phantom shark um which i think you usually encounter that um in the open water um
[38:47.040 –> 38:53.600] and that tends to do some decent damage to the boat um those are probably the two that that
[38:53.600 –> 38:59.680] really um uh sort of stand out and i think a lot of them you’re you’re more likely to encounter
[38:59.680 –> 39:08.800] with um uh high uh high panic um or there are some abilities that you lock uh unlock throughout the
[39:08.800 –> 39:14.320] game that can also help you sort of avoid some of the huh that’s that’s nice i believe the
[39:14.320 –> 39:21.600] phantom shark will only appear with high panic just uh just salt in the wound um but uh that’s
[39:21.600 –> 39:29.840] actually the other the other enemy that um is uh is very annoying are the crows so crows what from
[39:29.840 –> 39:35.840] yeah from from time to time there are some like phantom crows or or birds that will um
[39:36.960 –> 39:42.320] uh appear uh i think they only appear during the day when you’ve got high panics your panic
[39:42.320 –> 39:48.640] sort of like can um uh stay high drought throughout the day but being in the daylight does
[39:48.640 –> 40:00.080] um uh reduce your panic um but uh they um will steal um uh they will steal fish from your boat
[40:00.080 –> 40:05.840] so uh they’re they’re very annoying and that if they’re something like you you might be getting
[40:05.840 –> 40:10.320] a fish for a specific quest or something and the crows always take the fish that you need you might
[40:10.560 –> 40:17.360] have fish on your boat and they’ll just take the one that you need of course i wonder part of me
[40:17.360 –> 40:24.640] would say that could almost be intentional without the bullet um i had no idea that the uh the seagulls
[40:24.640 –> 40:33.280] from finding anymore in the game um oh man um i will say again i haven’t played it but the one
[40:33.360 –> 40:40.640] i’ve seen slash heard about that i like is the uh the goat the boat angler fish um apparently
[40:40.640 –> 40:44.800] there’s like a big angler fish that looks like a boat at a distance but then when you approach
[40:44.800 –> 40:52.320] it’s actually just a giant angler fish um i think it’s a really clever concept um but yeah that’s uh
[40:53.360 –> 40:57.840] they’re really really good designs um just looking through some of the images here
[40:58.400 –> 41:08.240] they feel like eldritch underwater horrors um but uh yeah no it’s actually let me i want i think
[41:08.240 –> 41:16.320] i should say this like the art direction of the game in general is just top top notch um like
[41:16.320 –> 41:23.680] what what do you call that Celsius is that that’s not Celsius it’s a very soft sort of art style
[41:24.560 –> 41:33.120] um a lot of brown and orange color scheme for um well i guess depends on the time of the day but
[41:33.120 –> 41:40.800] um it has a very gloomy feeling overall with Jenna yeah it has a gloomy feeling and like a lot of the
[41:40.800 –> 41:47.680] characters and stuff kind of give me um like graphic novel sort of vibes to uh like a horror
[41:47.680 –> 41:52.080] graphic like if i was reading a horror graphic novel a lot of the characters feel like they’re
[41:52.720 –> 41:59.760] illustrated in a way like i would expect to see in in in one of them yeah yeah definitely
[41:59.760 –> 42:04.000] right because when you’re talking to the characters it’s like a more they’re what
[42:04.000 –> 42:09.120] you call them their portraits that’s the word almost kind of painted ish style um
[42:10.880 –> 42:17.840] and i agree yeah everyone looks kind of grizzled nobody’s smiley or happy right um
[42:18.800 –> 42:27.360] so it’s uh even the dog i see here looks kind of skinny um but uh actually i guess we should
[42:27.360 –> 42:31.360] pro are there any standout characters like i don’t this is one of the things i haven’t
[42:31.360 –> 42:36.720] heard about i don’t know how well written or memorable some of the characters uh no i don’t
[42:36.720 –> 42:43.600] think any of the characters are super memorable um or or really stand out like i think the story
[42:43.680 –> 42:49.120] is kind of compelling enough and you know kind of what you would expect for this sort of game
[42:49.120 –> 42:53.680] i don’t want to say too much about it because it’s uh the game’s not super long so it’s a
[42:53.680 –> 43:00.320] really easy sort of story to to spoil um and i think it’s one of the things where you know
[43:00.320 –> 43:05.200] this is the sort of game that i think you sort of start and and you know some people be really into
[43:05.200 –> 43:08.400] it for the fishing and collection aspect and some people are like oh this is kind of fun enough and
[43:08.400 –> 43:12.720] i kind of just want to get through the story and i think i was more in the the latter category like
[43:12.720 –> 43:17.680] i don’t feel a strong need to go and get all versions of all of the fish um like there’s um
[43:17.680 –> 43:23.120] something i haven’t talked about there’s um uh trophy versions of each of the fish and it’s just
[43:23.120 –> 43:27.920] something that happens from time to time when you’re catching it um there’ll be like a uh
[43:27.920 –> 43:32.640] instead of the good zone being green it’ll be golden which indicates it can be a trophy fish
[43:32.640 –> 43:39.600] ah the shiny fish yeah yeah so um it’s kind of like a special category there was a quest to go
[43:39.600 –> 43:44.080] and catch you know the the legendary fish where each region has a legendary fish where you have
[43:44.080 –> 43:51.280] to do a certain number of things to find and fish that up and um you know i wasn’t super
[43:51.280 –> 43:57.200] interested in doing that and like as you sort of progress the story there’s lots of um side quests
[43:57.200 –> 44:00.960] in each of the regions to sort of get you exploring the region and to help you progress
[44:00.960 –> 44:06.560] the main quest which is um cool and it’s it’s a really well laid out game but um you know i kind
[44:06.560 –> 44:10.320] of um pretty quickly hit the point i was like i’m kind of just interested in finishing the story
[44:10.320 –> 44:16.240] and seeing where this goes and i don’t really feel a strong pull to sort of go back and um
[44:16.240 –> 44:21.440] a hundred percent the game um because i think the fishing is good enough and it was interesting
[44:21.440 –> 44:28.960] enough to sort of push through the story and to see how um how the game ended um and i’m sure for
[44:28.960 –> 44:32.400] some people they’ll be into it enough they’re like i want to fully upgrade the boat and catch
[44:32.400 –> 44:37.280] all of the fish and do some of those sorts of things um so i think they got the balance right
[44:37.280 –> 44:41.600] in terms of you know gating enough of that stuff to sort of push you through the game towards the
[44:41.600 –> 44:48.960] end um without forcing you to have to have to do absolutely everything okay yeah no i can i can
[44:48.960 –> 44:55.680] definitely see that um just from the few things i’ve seen um i don’t there’s not post game content
[44:55.680 –> 44:59.680] i don’t think quote unquote but there’s a lot of stuff to complete if you want to keep playing
[44:59.680 –> 45:09.680] absolutely um which is yeah a really nice way of doing it um for sure um and i know we’re dancing
[45:09.680 –> 45:14.640] around the spoilers but do you want to have a spoiler section you want to talk about that the
[45:14.640 –> 45:20.240] ending um because i i i won’t be spoiled i’ve i’m familiar with it um i don’t know if you want to
[45:20.240 –> 45:24.640] talk about it um no because i don’t i don’t know that i have a huge amount to say other than like
[45:24.640 –> 45:30.160] if you’re into like i i think it’s a good story in the genre that you would expect from
[45:30.720 –> 45:38.800] this sort of game um there are multiple endings yes and i from what i understand it is actually
[45:40.000 –> 45:44.080] i believe they even give you a warning like here’s the ending like there’s the
[45:44.960 –> 45:49.600] coin of no return and it’s actually relatively quickly to go back to get the other endings
[45:50.240 –> 45:58.880] um you know always always appreciate it um but but overall the story like uh it didn’t really
[45:58.880 –> 46:05.200] you know surprise me in any way but i didn’t need it to surprise me it was just a totally fine
[46:05.920 –> 46:12.320] version of the you know of a traditional lovecraftian horror inspired sort of story
[46:12.320 –> 46:20.240] right yeah um okay that’s uh that’s that’s good stuff is there anything
[46:20.240 –> 46:25.360] i’m just sorry i’m looking down some of the fish designs and the aberrations they’re really good
[46:25.360 –> 46:30.720] um and yeah the aesthetic of this game is is excellent and probably the only thing i haven’t
[46:30.720 –> 46:34.320] really talked about is you know we’ve sort of said there’s multiple regions i think the regions
[46:34.320 –> 46:38.400] themselves are really well designed and they’re all very distinct um so the first region you’re
[46:38.400 –> 46:43.360] in is just you know uh regular islands really easy to explore and get around and and fish and
[46:43.360 –> 46:49.040] all those sorts of things then the next area you’re pushed into is um a cliff based area
[46:49.040 –> 46:58.480] uh so a bit more tricky to to navigate um uh but still not too bad from there you go into more of
[46:58.480 –> 47:06.320] like a um island lagoon sort of location um which um is like it’s it’s a really interesting one
[47:06.320 –> 47:12.960] because it’s sort of big and flat and um uh but it’s really sort of driven off of the monster
[47:12.960 –> 47:18.480] in that area so it’s kind of different in in that way and it’s working out how you sort of get past
[47:18.480 –> 47:23.840] the monster to get the stuff that you need to get rather than um navigating the actual area then
[47:23.840 –> 47:29.920] there’s a mangrove area so a lot of you know shallow lots of twists and turns through islands
[47:29.920 –> 47:34.880] and you know dead end paths and some of those sorts of things and um then lastly a sort of
[47:34.880 –> 47:42.320] volcanic area um uh where there’s um some some ruins and a few other things um going on in that
[47:42.320 –> 47:46.640] area so all of the locations feel really distinct they’re really clear they’re all really different
[47:46.640 –> 47:54.240] and interesting to um explore and it’s just like it’s just quite well designed in that way that it
[47:54.240 –> 47:59.680] feels like a really kind of good natural progression if you follow the way the game
[47:59.680 –> 48:03.600] leads you but equally if you want to go and try and do some some harder stuff sooner
[48:04.000 –> 48:09.360] i’m pretty sure you can go and do that stuff so um i really like the way that sort of the
[48:09.360 –> 48:14.320] the world was designed and how it all sort of fits together i think it’s um clearly put together again
[48:16.000 –> 48:24.320] okay that’s that’s great to hear um yeah i didn’t even think about like the locations but that that
[48:24.320 –> 48:31.760] is that’s pretty good and and it all feels it still feels like one world for sure like there’s
[48:31.760 –> 48:35.840] nothing from what at least from the pictures i’ve seen stuff like there’s nothing super jarring or
[48:36.560 –> 48:44.960] anything um that is that is a really good design then um okay um yeah is there anything else you
[48:44.960 –> 48:49.920] want to add i’m trying to think on any other points no no it’s not a super long game so if
[48:49.920 –> 48:55.200] you’ve listened to this and you’re thinking like you know is it worth playing i think it’s a very
[48:55.200 –> 49:02.320] easy yes um you know there’s plenty going on that makes it interesting to to play uh personally i’m
[49:02.320 –> 49:08.560] not a huge horror fan um and i still found it compelling because for me but so i guess you
[49:08.560 –> 49:13.520] know we’re not we’re not talking sort of story spoilers but for me it does the really uh the
[49:13.520 –> 49:17.840] thing that i always find interesting and it’s hard to do i think it’s especially hard to do in games
[49:17.840 –> 49:25.040] where it’s sort of the anticipation horror not the um you know revealed horror and that
[49:25.040 –> 49:31.360] anticipation horror with panic being a core mechanic is um it’s kind of difficult to get
[49:31.360 –> 49:37.200] right and i’ve done an excellent job of getting that right with this game yeah yeah okay that’s
[49:37.200 –> 49:43.680] great to hear um i mean that’s that’s not that’s just hard in general not even video games like
[49:44.400 –> 49:51.040] movies and anything else horror can be really hard to do like that um so good on them um
[49:51.760 –> 49:56.720] good on this dev team for managing strike that balance that’s great to hear um because yeah
[49:56.720 –> 50:02.240] from what i’ve seen or heard there’s not really jump scares or gore or anything like that it’s
[50:02.240 –> 50:11.760] just really horrifying ocean things just like the real ocean yeah um good stuff all right then um so
[50:12.240 –> 50:16.720] actually one quick thing that i think this is worth talking before we wrap up the conversation
[50:16.720 –> 50:20.640] is um some things that i thought about when playing dredge that i would like to see sort
[50:20.640 –> 50:28.000] of come back into um cottage core fishing games um because it’s you know ultimately as a cottage
[50:28.000 –> 50:32.080] core game episode you know last episode we talked a lot about what we liked and didn’t like from
[50:32.800 –> 50:42.240] fishing mini games and and um so i think the the two things that i really liked um from dredge that
[50:42.240 –> 50:49.600] i would like to see incorporated back into cottage core games is aberrations yeah it is not
[50:49.600 –> 50:54.080] aberrations i think i can live with that i’m totally fine if those don’t animal crossing
[50:54.080 –> 51:01.520] fishing up those multi-eyed sea bass oh yeah no i think i’m okay without that but um
[51:02.160 –> 51:09.520] i like the idea of um different types of fishing and that having whether it’s a different rod or
[51:09.520 –> 51:15.120] a different mechanical or something to sort of actively think about before you go fishing right
[51:15.120 –> 51:20.320] so um i’m not aware of that we certainly didn’t talk about any cottage core games like you know
[51:20.320 –> 51:25.600] you might get like a oh we’ve got a crab pot or whatever but basically you have one rod and it’s
[51:25.600 –> 51:33.120] just like now go and get the better version of the rod and i would like to see more variety
[51:33.120 –> 51:38.880] in a game about how you fish so it’s something that you actively think about more before you go
[51:38.880 –> 51:45.120] and um do it and it’s something that stardew does a little bit of with the um different
[51:45.120 –> 51:52.560] lures that you can put on but i think thinking about that in a different way um would help a lot
[51:52.560 –> 51:56.880] and then the second thing is just the inventory management right so i think inventory management
[51:56.880 –> 52:02.400] in um cottage core games is kind of like it’s all inspired off that minecraft sort of inventory
[52:02.400 –> 52:09.200] management style which i just kind of don’t really um uh like that much um and i think there was
[52:09.200 –> 52:13.360] something to sort of the more puzzle aspect of the inventory management like the inventory
[52:13.360 –> 52:18.000] management in this game was a feature of the game because it was part of the puzzle of how
[52:18.000 –> 52:23.200] are you building your boat and storing the fish and collecting everything that you need and so
[52:23.200 –> 52:28.480] that made it not frustrating even though it’s not that much different from inventory management
[52:28.480 –> 52:33.120] systems that we’re familiar with right because it was limited as a natural part of the game
[52:33.120 –> 52:38.640] rather than just your pockets are this big and that’s it and you can just keep picking up things
[52:38.640 –> 52:43.520] and putting them in your pockets until they’re full and it doesn’t really make any sense because
[52:43.520 –> 52:51.600] you can carry 10 000 stone in one pocket but uh you can’t you know you can’t carry 10 000
[52:51.600 –> 52:56.640] individual items like it’s just silly um whereas this inventory management system was really well
[52:56.640 –> 53:00.160] thought through so i would like to see more intentionality brought to to those sorts of
[53:00.160 –> 53:05.840] systems all right yeah no i mean that’s that’s not even just cottage core like i’ll think a lot of
[53:05.840 –> 53:12.000] inventories is that but um but that’s good to hear um i also agree especially about the uh
[53:12.640 –> 53:19.280] the multiple fishing aspects that sounds really clever and i would like to see that in more games
[53:19.280 –> 53:27.040] for sure um yeah but um unless there’s anything else i think that’ll do it for our episode on
[53:27.040 –> 53:33.360] dredge um that uh very very good game uh like i said i haven’t played it but i can already
[53:33.360 –> 53:39.040] tell you i’ve heard nothing but praise you’ve heard it from johnny here directly um two thumbs
[53:39.040 –> 53:46.160] up for dredge go check it out on the what wait what is it on is it it’s on switch i know that
[53:46.720 –> 53:51.440] on steam uh it’s on it’s definitely on xbox because that’s what i played it on um and it’s
[53:51.440 –> 53:55.360] not two thumbs up here that’s three um but when i started playing the game i started growing this
[53:55.360 –> 54:02.400] extra hand out of my there you go so three three thumbs up for dredge there you go all right there
[54:02.400 –> 54:08.560] you have it so go that’s handy when you play on the switch you got that extra hand um all right
[54:08.560 –> 54:14.960] ladies and gentlemen that i think that’ll roughly do it for this episode um thank you johnny for
[54:15.840 –> 54:22.320] sharing uh all these thoughts on dredge um you can where do you want people to find you in the
[54:22.320 –> 54:26.000] inner you don’t want people to find you in there do you you usually don’t i i do want people to
[54:26.080 –> 54:33.680] find me i want people to go to patreon.com sign up for the patreon uh join the slide community
[54:33.680 –> 54:38.240] come chat to us about fishing games come check to us about disney dreamlike valley and how great
[54:38.240 –> 54:44.080] that game is uh come chat to us about how excited you are for the new stardew valley updates and
[54:44.080 –> 54:51.440] what’s coming there maybe some haunted chocolatier speculation um all sorts of things um or come talk
[54:51.440 –> 54:59.280] to us about cassette beasts oh yeah now that we go down some deep holes um on that slack um
[55:00.080 –> 55:06.080] or most importantly come chat to us about us tell us what we did wrong what bothered you about the
[55:06.080 –> 55:13.200] episodes um that’s always my favorite part of seeing a message in slack um but anyways um also
[55:13.200 –> 55:23.280] if you join the patreon you will gain access to uh the greenhouse our premium exclusive premium
[55:23.280 –> 55:30.320] podcast on uh different things that aren’t cottagecore they’re about whatever i don’t
[55:30.320 –> 55:35.360] know where our schedule wise i know we had a few recorded already but there’s plenty of content
[55:35.360 –> 55:42.240] for you to go through um but if you want to see the regular content harvest season has to offer
[55:42.240 –> 55:47.120] you can head down to harvest season dot club where you can find all the episodes you can find
[55:48.080 –> 55:54.000] links to stuff we talk about on the show transcripts all that good stuff you can also find
[55:55.280 –> 56:00.880] the show at ths pod on the tweeters and some other ones that i can’t remember al has a mastadon or
[56:00.880 –> 56:07.520] something um but go there the alt tweets stuff we usually talk about on the show in addition all the
[56:07.520 –> 56:14.480] updates about the show latest episodes etc etc um you can find me kevin at koopa pres where i
[56:14.480 –> 56:20.320] mostly retweet other funnier smarter people um or at spreader squared if you want to see my art
[56:20.320 –> 56:26.080] account um where i make pixel art um not as good as cassette piece i will say because uh they’re
[56:26.080 –> 56:35.680] professionals i am just uh not professionally yet um but i don’t know so maybe i’ll make up some
[56:35.680 –> 56:43.680] cassette pieces um but anyways until uh thank you again johnny for having me on thank you al
[56:43.680 –> 56:51.040] for editing and letting us talk about fishing stuff while you’re not here um uh and until next
[56:52.240 –> 56:58.560] we didn’t agree on a sign-up did we um but until next time let’s see if we’re on the same page
[56:59.120 –> 57:04.240] all right all right let’s go for it till next time dear listeners have a good haul
[57:11.440 –> 57:15.520] the harvest season is created by al mckinley with support from our patrons
[57:15.520 –> 57:22.400] including our pro farmers kevin stewart and alisa our art is done by mica the brave and our music
[57:22.400 –> 57:28.560] is done by nick burges feel free to visit our website harvest season dot club for show notes
[57:28.560 –> 57:42.800] and links to things we discussed in this episode there we go yes we did it nailed it i was i was
[57:42.800 –> 57:46.000] sitting there for a few minutes wondering if it was like i wonder if kevin’s remade but what i
[57:46.960 –> 57:54.160] it’s the natural bit um also we should know i didn’t mention big the cat on this episode
[57:54.160 –> 58:01.440] there was some pre-talk about it but i mean he’s an app he is is he an aberration of himself maybe