What A Joker

Wed, Nov 27, 2024 Year 2, Winter 22

Al and Kev talk about Balatro

Timings

00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:02:04: What Have We Been Up To
00:14:32: Game News
00:50:58: New Games
01:00:19: Balatro
01:49:09: Outro

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Transcript

(0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Al, and
(0:00:36) Kev: My name is Kevin.
(0:00:38) Al: we’re here today to talk about cottagecore games, and also one that’s very much not a
(0:00:42) Kev: Woo.
(0:00:44) Al: cottagecore game. Well, two, two games that are very much not a cottagecore games.
(0:00:49) Kev: Well, I don’t know.
(0:00:53) Kev: Actually, I don’t know which one you’re referring to.
(0:00:55) Kev: But you’re referring to our main one.
(0:00:57) Kev: How could you say it’s not?
(0:00:58) Kev: It has both David Diver and Stardew Valley.
(0:01:00) Al: I mean, I feel like there’s debates as to whether Dave the Diver is Cottagecore, but
(0:01:07) Al: anyway, let’s not get into that right now.
(0:01:08) Kev: » [LAUGH]
(0:01:10) Kev: » There’s farming, how could it not be?
(0:01:12) Al: Well, we are here to talk about bilateral.
(0:01:17) Al: Now, why are you talking about bilateral?
(0:01:19) Al: You might say it’s not a Cottagecore game.
(0:01:21) Al: Well, they added a Stardew pack to it.
(0:01:22) Kev: Yeah
(0:01:24) Al: That’s why we’re talking about it.
(0:01:26) Kev: That is the sole reason I mean, let’s let’s be real
(0:01:29) Al: because me and Kevin both were
(0:01:30) Al: playing it and it felt like an easy episode to do. So that’s what we’re doing.
(0:01:32) Kev: Yeah
(0:01:34) Kev: Also
(0:01:36) Kev: And let’s not forget real the real reason right are not rogue likes robo glights etc runner up on this
(0:01:43) Al: Oh, yes, we’re here today to talk about roguelites.
(0:01:46) Kev: It was inevitable
(0:01:50) Kev: Every time you put
(0:01:52) Kev: this episode, it’s a different opening.
(0:01:57) Al: All right, cool. Well, yes, so we’re going to we’re going to talk about bilateral.
(0:02:00) Al: Before that, obviously, we have a good chunk of news.
(0:02:04) Al: First of all, Kevin, what have you been up to?
(0:02:08) Kev: uh I have been up to um oh not terribly a lot this week has been particularly busy and uh
(0:02:18) Kev: uh tumultuous let’s say um uh yeah yeah it is um no um I won’t get into it here you can
(0:02:21) Al: That’s a good word. Not a good situation, but a good word.
(0:02:29) Kev: just ask elsewhere if you want it’s not not a fun but anyways um uh what what little game time i
(0:02:36) Kev: have. I’m
(0:02:38) Kev: enjoying the cards that have come out more or less. They’re decent, they’re not game breakers.
(0:02:49) Kev: I like the wolf. It’s another Loki, Asgard, Norse mythology theme month and we get stuff like Freya,
(0:02:58) Kev: the Fenris Wolf, Malekith. I’m having fun with it. Thanos got a buff recently and I’ve been playing
(0:03:05) Kev: the Thanos deck with a…
(0:03:08) Kev: and I’ve been having a lot of fun with him.
(0:03:11) Kev: I like Thanos and his whole gimmick with something in the stones and the stretch.
(0:03:16) Kev: You can do it with that.
(0:03:17) Al: Yep.
(0:03:17) Kev: Yeah, you’ve been playing.
(0:03:18) Al: It’s definitely a fun deck.
(0:03:20) Kev: It is, yeah.
(0:03:22) Kev: It’s maybe not the highest risk, high reward, but it can be easily stomped on.
(0:03:29) Kev: You know, you got your Shang-Chis, you’ve got a lot of counters for it running around
(0:03:34) Kev: because Surtr has been pretty popular since the season passed.
(0:03:39) Al: Yeah, I have. A bit more on and off this season, but yeah, still enjoying it. I’m still running
(0:03:48) Al: my Black Panther symbiote deck.
(0:03:52) Kev: That that’s it. It’s a it is such a solid one like the symbiote supposed to be that spider-man really added a
(0:04:01) Kev: Insure consistency I think to that in fact that was really needed
(0:04:02) Al: Yeah, it has. I mean, its main issue is Shrunki, which is obviously more common now, as you
(0:04:10) Al: say, with the Serter deck, which is causing me a bit of a problem. And the other issue
(0:04:13) Kev: yep
(0:04:17) Al: is just everything needs to go right. Like, if you don’t, I mean, there are ways around
(0:04:20) Kev: Yeah
(0:04:23) Al: it, right? Like, there are. Yeah. And a lot of
(0:04:24) Kev: There’s a couple of backup strategies, but the bread and butter has to be done in a very certain order definitely
(0:04:32) Al: the backups require Wong, and the problem is that everybody seems to have a rogue, so
(0:04:38) Al: they just steal your Wong, which is not great. But yeah, it’s getting me there. I’m still
(0:04:46) Al: stuck in my 70s, because that’s where I always seem to get stuck.
(0:04:48) Kev: Ah, you know what, it’s not just you.
(0:04:51) Kev: I am also stuck in the 70s.
(0:04:54) Kev: I don’t know what it is, if it’s like…
(0:04:59) Kev: It’s probably something to do with like,
(0:05:01) Kev: you know, the bell curve and whatnot, right?
(0:05:04) Kev: Like 70s feels like this is where
(0:05:06) Kev: a lot of the dedicated players are, right?
(0:05:09) Kev: and probably the largest pop
(0:05:12) Kev: it feels like. It is a lot. I don’t blame you at all because I’m there too.
(0:05:20) Al: I hope to get up to 80 pretty soon then I can have some actual time to focus on the 90 to 100
(0:05:26) Al: because I suspect I’ll get to 90 very quickly because once you hit 80 it’s like you zoom up to 90
(0:05:28) Kev: Yeah, oh yeah, yep, though, that’s like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that.
(0:05:33) Al: but then the 90 to 100 takes a lot of work as well so I’d really like to be able to get there
(0:05:38) Al: this time. Yeah, the usual with that.
(0:05:40) Kev: Um, yeah, so yeah, snap’s good.
(0:05:46) Kev: Um, aside from that, a lot of my usual dialog into Zen with zero frequently,
(0:05:53) Kev: and I’m still playing that daily with Calvin, because I don’t know.
(0:05:58) Kev: Um, a lot of the time this week, though, uh, was dedicated to the wrapping
(0:06:03) Kev: up of Bowser’s inside story, the third Mario and Luigi game.
(0:06:08) Kev: Uh, you can check out our thy full review on Rainbow Road radio, the
(0:06:13) Kev: Mario theme podcast study with our mutual friend, Alex.
(0:06:16) Kev: Um, but that game is so, so good.
(0:06:23) Kev: Um, it’s, it’s the, the Bowser part of the game.
(0:06:28) Kev: Over the top, right?
(0:06:28) Kev: Cause it has the Mario and Luigi, you know, foundations and that’s pretty solid.
(0:06:32) Kev: Right.
(0:06:33) Kev: You know, you can obviously not everyone’s plan of it, like, you know, the
(0:06:36) Kev: dynamic blocking and timing and all that.
(0:06:39) Kev: Um, and, and I think actually this, this one is a little, uh, a little more intense
(0:06:44) Kev: than other, some of the other entries, but, uh, the Bowser stuff is so well done.
(0:06:48) Kev: Obviously everyone knows I’m a huge Bowser for Nanak, but they just translated him so
(0:06:53) Kev: well, you feel like you’re playing as Bowser, the big boss who does the big
(0:06:58) Kev: and he’s ridiculous and charismatic and overconfident it’s, it’s so much fun.
(0:07:04) Kev: Um, yeah, hardy thumbs up for that one for sure.
(0:07:08) Kev: Um, but yeah, that’s, uh, that I think is roughly what I’ve been up to.
(0:07:15) Kev: Oh, oh yes.
(0:07:16) Kev: I’ve been, that’s what I’ve been up to.
(0:07:18) Kev: But, uh, I mean, I don’t know when folks might hear an update on this, but.
(0:07:23) Kev: I’ll, I’ve been getting niche.
(0:07:25) Kev: I think I want to do a shiny hunt.
(0:07:26) Kev: I’m scared.
(0:07:28) Kev: I don’t know. I’m still– I’ve been looking, timing and hauling. There’s a couple of hunts
(0:07:35) Kev: I never got to, like one in Sword and Shield for Larry and Meowth, the shiny gold kitty.
(0:07:42) Kev: Yeah, I might go for that. But Micah was streaming just this week. He’s been streaming
(0:07:49) Kev: again late in the past week and right beyond. Shout out to Micah. He’s got a little podcast he
(0:07:56) Kev: does now with
(0:07:58) Kev: shiny hunting actually on site.
(0:08:01) Kev: Look up the name.
(0:08:02) Kev: I forget the name of that.
(0:08:03) Kev: I feel bad.
(0:08:04) Kev: I’ll find it and then shout it out.
(0:08:06) Kev: But but yeah, that’s really what’s been getting to me.
(0:08:10) Kev: But but like I said that is yet to happen.
(0:08:11) Al: It is called, it’s called the soft reset.
(0:08:14) Kev: Soft reset.
(0:08:15) Kev: Thank you very much.
(0:08:16) Kev: There you go.
(0:08:16) Kev: So go check that out.
(0:08:18) Kev: There’s only like two episodes.
(0:08:20) Kev: There’s not any regular schedule, but you know, Mike has always
(0:08:24) Kev: a joy to listen to.
(0:08:24) Kev: So I was happy to tune in too.
(0:08:28) Kev: - Uh, what about you, L?
(0:08:29) Kev: What’s been going on with you?
(0:08:31) Al: I obviously talked about Snap, so I’ve been playing that, I’ve been playing Pocket, although
(0:08:37) Al: the last week that’s mostly just been open some packs, and that’s about it because the
(0:08:45) Al: events that we’re running are mostly finished now. There’s another Wonder Pick event, but
(0:08:51) Al: that doesn’t take a lot of extra time, it’s not one of the battle events.
(0:08:56) Al: But yeah, I’m very much at the end point.
(0:09:00) Al: of the current set, so it’s pretty much like I’ve got maybe like five normal cards to get
(0:09:09) Al: and then just a bunch of the secret rares which takes a long time to get them because they’re
(0:09:15) Al: very rare. I think most of them are like 1% chance each deck.
(0:09:20) Kev: Oh, goody. Of course, but uh, you know, I say to someone who just talked about shiny hunting gotta gotta pull that slot machine, right?
(0:09:25) Al: you
(0:09:25) Al: you
(0:09:31) Al: Yeah, there was a person on Reddit who posted saying that they’d completed
(0:09:35) Al: the set and it took them $1,500 to do it.
(0:09:39) Kev: Oh, oh that hurts that hurts like
(0:09:43) Al: And you’re like, “Oh my word, that is insane. I cannot imagine
(0:09:48) Al: spending $1,500 on digital trading cards.”
(0:09:52) Kev: See I could, okay, I mean, no, no, well sure, sure, sure, sure, yeah, but not even that,
(0:09:56) Al: Okay, fine. It depends on how much money you have if you’re a billionaire
(0:10:01) Al: Sure, sure. In that situation, I could justify it, right?
(0:10:06) Kev: right?
(0:10:06) Kev: Like of course the layman, it’s ridiculous, right?
(0:10:08) Kev: But what I was going to say is like, I don’t, specifically on pocket is what blows my mind
(0:10:15) Kev: because, you know, the, well, I don’t know, maybe I say this like the functionality, obviously,
(0:10:22) Kev: um, uh, live these, you know, the standard card game, I think leans a little bit more
(0:10:27) Kev: heavier into the, the actual playing of the game, right?
(0:10:29) Kev: And since that goes hand in hand with the physical card game, I think that would be
(0:10:34) Kev: a little more sense or I understand it a little more because, you know, people are invested
(0:10:40) Kev: there because it’s the competitive nature on it and whatnot.
(0:10:44) Kev: And I mean, pocket does have that, but it doesn’t, I think, emphasize it as much.
(0:10:46) Al: I don’t I don’t get the difference between that like yet sure technically live is more battle
(0:10:54) Al: focused however like they’re both you know a little world digital world garden right and they
(0:11:00) Kev: Yeah
(0:11:01) Al: both have battles they both have collections like one is a one is and one is a better app it is more
(0:11:03) Kev: Yeah, yeah
(0:11:08) Al: enjoyable to play pocket than it is to play live live is just a bad app
(0:11:11) Kev: True true and you know what actually I take it back because
(0:11:17) Kev: Pokemon like the card game is
(0:11:19) Kev: deep relatively compared to other card games because
(0:11:24) Kev: You know the rarity the high money cards are just alternate arts
(0:11:28) Kev: generally speaking, right, like they’re,
(0:11:30) Kev: the pretty arts or whatever, right? Other card games, that’s not necessarily the case. Rare cards
(0:11:36) Kev: are very good and strong, but only printed at high rarities. So people will spend big money on that.
(0:11:44) Kev: So, you know what? I take it back. No, I don’t get how you spend 50. Oh, my gosh.
(0:11:47) Al: Yeah, it’s a lot, it’s a lot of money.
(0:11:52) Kev: Probably going to write it as a tax write off and business expense.
(0:11:55) Al: Yeah, I suspect they’re just a person who works in tech and they’re single, they have
(0:12:03) Al: no kids.
(0:12:04) Al: So because they work in tech, they have a lot of money and they have nothing else to
(0:12:04) Kev: Oh.
(0:12:07) Al: spend on except themselves.
(0:12:08) Kev: Oh.
(0:12:09) Kev: Oh, I have the, you know.
(0:12:12) Kev: If any listeners out there happen to be in such a situation, hit me up.
(0:12:16) Kev: I could certainly give you a few recommendations on how to use that money.
(0:12:20) Al: I mean you know that well this is yeah yeah well I mean this is the thing right like you
(0:12:21) Kev: I know a guy who needs a new car.
(0:12:29) Al: know there are a lot of you know young single people in the US with very high salaries and
(0:12:38) Al: very little else to do with them especially with remote working
(0:12:39) Kev: Yep, I mean that does explain the large amount of Teslas I see in the area.
(0:12:43) Al: hahaha
(0:12:50) Al: um yeah well that’s a that’s a whole other thing I judge people differently depending
(0:12:55) Al: on which Tesla they have because if they have one of the original Tesla’s sure fine you
(0:13:00) Al: had a decent amount of money and you wanted to wanted to buy a decent electric car there
(0:13:00) Kev: Oh, right. Yeah. Okay. You know what? Yeah, I was about to say. Yeah, no, no, no. I was
(0:13:03) Al: wasn’t anything else if you have a cyber truck if you have a cyber truck you are a
(0:13:07) Al: terrible human being yeah yeah
(0:13:11) Kev: about to say that. Yeah, a correction. I meant the large amount of Cybertrucks I see in the
(0:13:15) Kev: area. You’re right. Yes. No, like there is a market for the, you know, the previous earlier
(0:13:19) Kev: Teslas or whatever, especially early on, right? Yeah, absolutely. But like, yeah, yeah. Mmm.
(0:13:28) Al: I really feel sorry for the people who bought the first Tezlas, and now they look like Elon lovers.
(0:13:34) Kev: Oh boy.
(0:13:37) Al: Goodbye. Anyway, so yeah, Snap Pocket, and I’ve also been playing quite a bit of Fields of
(0:13:43) Al: Mistria, so may or may not have a reason for that, and may or may not talk about that in a future
(0:13:49) Al: episode. We’ll see, but yeah, no, been playing through that. It’s interesting, because…
(0:13:50) Kev: Oh, okay, wait, which, hold on, I have to look it up.
(0:13:59) Kev: There’s many, oh, okay.
(0:14:01) Kev: Here it is.
(0:14:01) Kev: Yeah.
(0:14:01) Kev: The nineties anime looking one.
(0:14:03) Kev: Yeah, yeah.
(0:14:04) Kev: Okay.
(0:14:04) Kev: I got it.
(0:14:05) Kev: All right.
(0:14:05) Kev: Okay.
(0:14:06) Kev: That’s, that’s interesting.
(0:14:07) Kev: I’m keen to hear thoughts on that from some people, maybe in the future,
(0:14:11) Kev: who knows, you know, you never know.
(0:14:13) Al: Maybe, no promises, never promises.
(0:14:16) Kev: Oh, I promise I’ll, I’ll promise you all the time.
(0:14:20) Kev: Are some pretty anime people in fields of mystery.
(0:14:25) Al: Yes, yep, oh, yep, all right, so we’re going to talk about some news now.
(0:14:25) Kev: Do you like sailor moon and nineties anime?
(0:14:28) Kev: Cause there you go.
(0:14:28) Kev: There’s all your show Jovis.
(0:14:30) Kev: You can basically see the sparkles.
(0:14:38) Al: First up, we have Lens Island 1.0 has been delayed until mid-2025, they have said this
(0:14:44) Kev: Okay.
(0:14:47) Al: is because the game is not quite complete.
(0:14:50) Al: Now, interestingly, they didn’t talk about it in our like, oh, it’s just like too buggy
(0:14:54) Al: or whatever, which quite often–
(0:14:56) Al: but no, they specifically talked about how they don’t feel like the story fully ties together
(0:15:03) Al: properly, and it feels like it’s missing something. And that’s really interesting. And I really–
(0:15:04) Kev: Mm-hmm okay it is
(0:15:10) Al: I mean, obviously, just in general, I think that we obviously respect delays. Delays are fine.
(0:15:15) Al: Get your game working well. But this is a particularly interesting one, because they
(0:15:20) Al: could have done what Color Island did, which is just like, we’re just going to do it. We’re just
(0:15:24) Al: just going to release and we’ll.
(0:15:25) Al: Add more stuff later and it will feel incomplete, but so what?
(0:15:26) Kev: story later yep yeah yeah yeah and like it’s a very tricky thin white line to
(0:15:30) Al: But they’ve not done that.
(0:15:31) Al: They’ve decided, no, no, we want it to be, we want it to feel complete.
(0:15:36) Al: And I think that is absolutely the right way to do these things.
(0:15:44) Kev: walk because right because yes I fully agree right there looking for a island
(0:15:49) Kev: yes they should have waited to release a more fully realized 1.0 there a lot of
(0:15:55) Kev: games up do then that’s that’s not
(0:15:56) Kev: great. Right. And then there’s the other end of the spectrum,
(0:16:00) Al: Yeah. Well, to be fair, to be fair, we don’t know the reason that Silksong is delayed.
(0:16:01) Kev: right? That feature creep and just perfectionism. Looking at
(0:16:06) Kev: you silk song, right? Like they Oh, okay. Sure, you’re you’re
(0:16:12) Al: Like it could be that, it could be something else. We don’t actually know what the issue
(0:16:16) Al: is with Silksong. But there are, there is, Re-Legend is a good example of that in this
(0:16:19) Kev: right. But it’s plausible. Yeah.
(0:16:26) Al: this area, right? Like they just kept adding things and kept adding things.
(0:16:30) Al: And, uh, yeah.
(0:16:33) Kev: Yeah, absolutely, but the way they framed it
(0:16:35) Al: Also, Shikiji Island, which is a particularly bad one,
(0:16:37) Al: because they’re adding extra features into the first version of Early Access.
(0:16:41) Al: They’re not even releasing their 1.0, they’re releasing their Early Access
(0:16:45) Al: and they’re like, “Oh, we want to wait until we’ve added romance.”
(0:16:48) Al: And you’re like, “It’s just me, it’s an Early Access.”
(0:16:49) Kev: Oh, no, oh
(0:16:53) Kev: That’s rough. Oh gosh. Yeah, that’s well regardless
(0:16:57) Al: So yeah, you’re right, there absolutely is a fine line there.
(0:17:00) Kev: Yeah
(0:17:00) Al: On the right side of the line, um, I think this is good.
(0:17:03) Kev: The way they framed it and it’s a good degree of self-awareness like I you know, I absolutely
(0:17:11) Kev: Props to them for uh, making that call. Um, assuming they’re you know, they’re on the money with for your sake
(0:17:17) Kev: Um, so yeah, and obviously no shortage of other stuff to play so no rush
(0:17:22) Al: Yes, my end of year was looking quite stressful, so thank you.
(0:17:29) Kev: Thank you.
(0:17:32) Al: Personally, I would like to say thank you for delaying. I do not speak for everybody.
(0:17:37) Kev: You know what? You know what? I’d like to say thank you to someone else for delaying now.
(0:17:44) Kev: I’d like to thank Amberisle for delaying. There’s so much reliefs.
(0:17:46) Al: I thought you were disappointed by the switch release being delayed initially.
(0:17:52) Kev: I was, but living where I am now, you know what? That’s fine. I could use in the new year.
(0:17:57) Al: So, okay, so context here is they, was it the beginning of February? Sorry, the beginning
(0:17:59) Kev: I have enough to keep me on my toes. That’s fine.
(0:18:03) Kev: - You’re fine.
(0:18:09) Al: of November that the Steam version came out, I think. And they said that the, yeah, and
(0:18:12) Kev: Yeah, it is already out is
(0:18:16) Al: they said the Switch release was delayed until later in November. And I feel like I remember
(0:18:22) Al: us discussing this, Kevin, and saying that doesn’t feel, two weeks doesn’t feel like
(0:18:26) Al: a lot of extra time.
(0:18:28) Al: And I was theorizing that perhaps, I mean, we’ll have to go back and check the transcripts,
(0:18:28) Kev: Oh gosh, yeah.
(0:18:35) Al: but I was theorizing that perhaps it might get delayed again, and it has been delayed again.
(0:18:40) Al: It is now delayed till February of 2025, which is obviously quite a bit more.
(0:18:46) Kev: And yeah, yeah, just yeah, yeah, absolutely.
(0:18:47) Al: Obviously, complicated by Christmas, right?
(0:18:49) Al: Obviously, it’s not actually delayed by another three months.
(0:18:53) Al: It’s probably more like two months, because December is a complicated time.
(0:18:57) Al: But it’s not a big deal.
(0:18:59) Kev: It is, you know, I will say, like, reading, you know, when you put the link, you can see
(0:18:59) Al: It’s a big deal.
(0:19:04) Kev: the link of their full explanation and whatnot.
(0:19:08) Kev: They will say they’re aiming to have the Switch release to be a parody with the Steam release,
(0:19:14) Kev: like all the updates and–
(0:19:17) Kev: to see if it matches up to that point, so that’s a little
(0:19:21) Kev: understandable. I get that. Sorry, I’m just reading it here.
(0:19:28) Kev: Oh, it’s going to be on discount on Steam. That’s nice. But
(0:19:33) Kev: yeah, I mean, the game is out, right? It’s not on Steam. I want
(0:19:36) Kev: it on Switch, of course, but you know, that’s understandable.
(0:19:41) Kev: Obviously, the Switch has a long history of not always being the
(0:19:48) Al: Yeah, cool. Sunhaven have announced their release dates for their other regions.
(0:19:55) Al: So they’d announced the US release was on the 29th of the sorry, the the Americas
(0:20:00) Al: release was the 29th of November.
(0:20:04) Al: They’ve now also announced that the Japan,
(0:20:06) Al: South Korea and Hong Kong releases are also the 29th of November.
(0:20:15) Al: Which I love my conspiracies.
(0:20:18) Al: This proves my point that they didn’t understand there were multiple eShop
(0:20:21) Al: regions, because why two separate announcements for the same day?
(0:20:22) Kev: yeah yeah you know what you’re probably right
(0:20:30) Al: Just saying.
(0:20:30) Kev: here’s I one thousand percent you’re absolutely right
(0:20:35) Kev: oh that’s that’s good oh that’s
(0:20:39) Kev: oh I mean I feel bad for things because that’s rough but it’s also really funny
(0:20:42) Al: Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure.
(0:20:44) Al: It’s not amazing, but yeah, for sure.
(0:20:48) Al: Yeah. And.
(0:20:50) Kev: But for us, that’s content.
(0:20:52) Al: Well, true, they’ve also announced their
(0:20:55) Al: Europe release date, which is the 16th of December.
(0:20:59) Al: Interestingly, they listed the countries that were it was releasing in and it
(0:21:04) Al: doesn’t include so I compared this list because I noticed it didn’t have the UK.
(0:21:09) Al: So I was like, this is weird.
(0:21:10) Al: Why doesn’t it have the UK?
(0:21:12) Al: And I compared this list to the list of
(0:21:14) Al: countries that the eShop is available in Europe.
(0:21:18) Al: And the only countries missing from it are Russia, which I feel like maybe the
(0:21:23) Al: list of eShop regions probably isn’t up to date, and I wouldn’t be surprised if
(0:21:26) Al: Russia isn’t an eShop region anymore. So that’s one. And the other two are
(0:21:28) Kev: Uh huh. I wonder why. Huh.
(0:21:34) Al: Switzerland and the United Kingdom, which people who understand European
(0:21:38) Al: politics might go, oh, but they’re both not in the EU. True. But Norway also
(0:21:43) Al: isn’t in the EU but is in the list. Now, what is interesting about those two
(0:21:46) Al: names is
(0:21:48) Al: Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Do you see what’s interesting about those two names?
(0:21:52) Kev: Ah… no. I’m not saying it, tell me.
(0:21:56) Al: They are alphabetically after every other country in this list.
(0:22:00) Kev: Wait. Haha, oh.
(0:22:02) Al: I think they’ve copied and pasted the list and missed out the last two.
(0:22:06) Kev: Sick. Sick. Oh, that’s awesome. Good times. Oh, I love copy-paste errors. Good times.
(0:22:16) Kev: You’re pretty good at this, Detective Al.
(0:22:16) Al: I don’t know that for sure, obviously. We will see on the 16th of December what happens,
(0:22:22) Al: especially if they don’t announce another “oh no, it’s UK and Switzerland” and it does come out,
(0:22:29) Al: then I will be proved right again. We’ll see, but that is my theory. If in doubt,
(0:22:36) Al: always go for the stupidest option.
(0:22:39) Kev: Yeah, Occam’s razor, right?
(0:22:43) Al: Is that not Hamlin’s razor?
(0:22:45) Kev: Wait, Hamlin?
(0:22:46) Kev: Is there a different razor?
(0:22:46) Al: Occam’s razor is the simplest explanation. Hamlin’s razor is never a tribute to malice, what can be adequately explained by stupidity. So it’s not quite the same thing, but they are very much tied together because quite often the most obvious explanation is the stupidest one, but I don’t think it was the most obvious explanation in this case.
(0:22:51) Kev: Yeah.
(0:22:57) Kev: Oh, attributed to, okay.
(0:23:02) Kev: Okay.
(0:23:02) Kev: I see.
(0:23:03) Kev: Um, sure.
(0:23:07) Kev: I, I, yep.
(0:23:09) Kev: Yeah, absolutely.
(0:23:14) Kev: Yes.
(0:23:14) Kev: Okay.
(0:23:17) Al: The most obvious explanation is they’re not releasing in the UK and Switzerland, but I don’t think that’s the case because I have never released a game on the eShop. But from what I understand, you cannot release within an eShop region to only specific countries within that region. I think you either release to the whole region or not at all.
(0:23:35) Kev: Yeah, that that’d be really weird
(0:23:38) Kev: Yeah, that would be very weird if you did that so yeah, I you’re probably right
(0:23:44) Al: So we will, we will see.
(0:23:47) Al: I do love, I do love my conspiracy theories.
(0:23:51) Kev: Yeah, that’s good stuff. I’m excited. Can’t wait to see if you’re proven right or wrong
(0:23:56) Al: Next we have Coral Island. They have released their Quality of Life 1.1B update.
(0:24:06) Kev: how does that name make you feel Al not the 1.2 update but the 1.1 B I can’t wait
(0:24:11) Al: I don’t know if I want to talk about it.
(0:24:17) Kev: for 1.1 B 0.2
(0:24:21) Al: So here’s the thing, right? So would you assume that 1.1 and 1.1
(0:24:26) Al: a are the same thing then? Because there was no 1.1 a, right?
(0:24:29) Kev: I mean like obviously I would assume that’s the case it’s obvious again
(0:24:36) Kev: grazering it here like they didn’t expect to need a 1.1 B or whatever like
(0:24:40) Al: Yeah, but yeah, also, also, just a thing. You could just call it 1.1.1 like most software
(0:24:48) Al: development does. You don’t have to be weird and annoying with it with your numbers.
(0:24:52) Kev: what
(0:24:52) Al: I don’t understand why, how many times do I have to moan about this before
(0:24:56) Al: people actually start just numbering things sensibly? It… Oh.
(0:24:59) Kev: Yeah, look I don’t know if I talked behind the show obviously like yes, I’m in agreement that it’s not great and it’s a
(0:25:09) Kev: It’s not the easiest problem to solve because you know
(0:25:13) Kev: Whatever people have different ways of thinking and categories. Go there whatever in my opinion like when I know I you know, I
(0:25:21) Kev: Naming files and and keeping records is important stuff. I’ve done and I always do well. I just go up a date
(0:25:28) Kev: I’m Eric Leach.
(0:25:29) Kev: Go with year, month, day, and then, like, 0.0.
(0:25:29) Al: That is fine. That is absolutely an acceptable way to release software as well, but that’s also not
(0:25:37) Al: what they’ve done. But I think the thing that drives me insane about this, I’ve never seen
(0:25:43) Al: a letter in any of their version numbers before. I have never seen it. It’s not like this is just
(0:25:49) Al: a long continuation of it. They had 1.0a, b, and 1.0c, and 1.0. No, they didn’t. They’ve never done
(0:25:52) Kev: Yeah?
(0:25:56) Al: it before.
(0:25:57) Al: So why are we suddenly doing this?
(0:25:57) Kev: What if?
(0:25:59) Al: It’s just, like, they then release, they then, they then release the hot, did that…
(0:26:01) Kev: OK.
(0:26:02) Kev: Now, all right.
(0:26:03) Kev: What do you want moving forward?
(0:26:04) Kev: Do you want more letters, or do you just
(0:26:07) Kev: want this to be the sole ugly stepchild with the letter
(0:26:10) Kev: and all of all your updates?
(0:26:11) Al: Nothing, I want them to retroactive, I want them to retroactively change it.
(0:26:15) Al: And the thing that annoys me most about it is now they’re releasing a couple of small
(0:26:19) Al: hot fixes, which are called 1.1b-1229, which is obviously, 1229 is obviously a build number,
(0:26:24) Kev: Oh, snitch!
(0:26:27) Al: that’s clear from that because then the next one is
(0:26:29) Kev: Yep.
(0:26:29) Al: one two three zero whatever sure like I just like it’s either it’s either give
(0:26:31) Kev: Yep.
(0:26:32) Kev: the
(0:26:35) Kev: the
(0:26:38) Al: it the 1.2 but you obviously don’t want it to be that to appear that big sure
(0:26:43) Al: fine although I would argue I don’t think that that’s a problem but if you
(0:26:48) Al: want if you don’t want it to be 1.2 that’s fine just give it another number
(0:26:52) Al: right you don’t it’s just where is the letter coming from it’s just appeared
(0:26:56) Kev: Um, actually, Al, it’s a hexadecimal.
(0:26:56) Al: and he’s never been there before, and ugh.
(0:26:59) Al: OK, we’re moving on. We’re moving on.
(0:27:03) Al: Moving on.
(0:27:06) Al: This adds as the name rather than the number, which includes a letter,
(0:27:10) Al: would suggest about quality of life improvements.
(0:27:16) Al: So there’s our daily goddess blessing.
(0:27:18) Al: So every day you can get a blessing from the goddess.
(0:27:21) Al: There’s a new type of rock called a mystery rock, which break,
(0:27:27) Al: yields random things.
(0:27:29) Al: They may yield oars, seeds, fish, insects, or occasionally monsters.
(0:27:36) Kev: there’s ahh that’s fun I kind of like that I dig it it’s your pokemon rock smash
(0:27:37) Al: They’ve also added fishing nets, which are a thing you can leave in the water and come
(0:27:51) Al: back to fish.
(0:27:52) Al: So I guess kind of like the crab pots, but I think it’s for fish rather than crusty.
(0:27:59) Al: They’ve also lowered the requirements for turn rank A and B, so I suspect I will have
(0:28:08) Al: jumped up a rank the next time I open the game, because I was so close to a rank and
(0:28:12) Al: having it even slightly down will probably mean I’ve hit the next rank.
(0:28:16) Kev: Well that’s interesting for sure, balance patches for pottagecore games, good stuff, good stuff.
(0:28:23) Al: Maybe just enough people like me were moaning that it takes so long to go up the town ranks.
(0:28:31) Al: I may or may not talk about how Fields of Mystery has a great town rank system and really
(0:28:37) Al: rewards you in a much better way, but I obviously would not be talking about that before the
(0:28:38) Kev: Oh, oh, oh.
(0:28:44) Al: episode that we may or may not be talking about in.
(0:28:48) Al: And finally, a great Quality of Life update removed the stamina cost for tools you need.
(0:28:53) Al: It was the default in Fields of Mistria, which is fantastic, but yeah, why is this
(0:28:54) Kev: Okay, how is that not the default in everything?
(0:29:02) Kev: Heh heh heh!
(0:29:03) Al: just not a thing?
(0:29:04) Al: Because I think Stardew added it in one of its point updates.
(0:29:07) Al: But it’s like, why do they all add on later?
(0:29:08) Kev: Yeah.
(0:29:10) Al: It’s just a really, I guess it’s kind of because they’re trying to lean more to the realism
(0:29:16) Al: thing, right?
(0:29:17) Al: Like, if you use…
(0:29:18) Kev: Don’t disrupt my immersion, Al. When I swing the ax, I use the n-
(0:29:21) Al: That’s the thing.
(0:29:22) Al: - Okay.
(0:29:23) Kev: Thanks.
(0:29:23) Al: - Exactly.
(0:29:24) Al: And I understand that argument,
(0:29:26) Al: but I also think it’s important to remember
(0:29:27) Al: that we play games because they’re fun.
(0:29:30) Al: And I would always lean to the fun over the realism.
(0:29:32) Kev: That is very not true. We say is Pokemon
(0:29:37) Al: I still have fun with Pokemon games.
(0:29:39) Al: I’m sorry you don’t,
(0:29:40) Al: but that’s why I still play them and you don’t.
(0:29:46) Kev: But
(0:29:47) Kev: And you know what? All right, you know what? I’ll even play their game
(0:29:50) Kev: I will say actually hitting something with a shovel or an axe is probably more exhausting than just swinging in the air. So
(0:29:58) Al: Interesting, interesting point. Interesting point.
(0:29:58) Kev: either way
(0:30:00) Kev: It doesn’t
(0:30:02) Kev: Doesn’t go through it. No, it falls apart. I’m trying to say
(0:30:06) Kev: Yeah
(0:30:07) Al: We don’t want to think about it too much.
(0:30:09) Kev: What are you talking about that’s the entire point of this podcast
(0:30:12) Al: I know, I know, I realized, I realized what was happening there as soon as I said what I said.
(0:30:20) Al: And the last game update is Lightyear Frontier have announced their trailer.
(0:30:28) Al: It’s coming out on the 27th of November, which is the day this podcast comes out.
(0:30:34) Al: So if you’re listening to this, it’s out.
(0:30:37) Al: And it just seems to have one big thing, Kevin, which is your mech can now turn into a car.
(0:30:44) Al: Or it looks more like a tractor, but it’s super fast.
(0:30:44) Kev: Yeah, which is, yeah, it’s that’s interesting because, like, I’m a little torn on this because, obviously the you know, a vehicle or whatever is very sensible in this sort of game, right? Absolutely. And, you know, it takes a lot of work. So I get it why it’s always at a release.
(0:31:05) Kev: Um, I’m just part of me is also the mind that like, because the, the mech, like it’s just a car.
(0:31:14) Kev: The mech, they just, they just stick it on a car, basically the top half of the mech. Um, I don’t know. I wish part of me wishes that they could have you. I’d hope so. Right. Or, you know, you never know. Maybe it just blows and transforms, you know, I don’t know.
(0:31:20) Al: I’m assuming it does a Transformer type thing, surely.
(0:31:32) Kev: But, okay, you know, if they have the total animation of it transforming or whatever, fine. I guess I can take that. But, like, wouldn’t you just also make the regular mech go faster?
(0:31:44) Kev: Or, you know, something rocket boosters? I don’t know.
(0:31:46) Al: So I suspect the idea behind this is that it’s, uh, so, oh, yeah, no, I, I’m, I was going to say like this can be added as an upgrade over time so you don’t get it at the beginning, but then I guess Rocket Bisterd would also work like that.
(0:31:58) Kev: Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, like, that’s maybe just the personal
(0:32:02) Al: Um, yeah, no, that’s a fair point.
(0:32:11) Kev: take. It’s not no end of the world. Overall, it’s a good
(0:32:14) Kev: thing. And again, in this kind of open world, exploration,
(0:32:19) Kev: parts, or vehicles, or whatever is always great. And it is still
(0:32:23) Kev: connected to the mech, you know, maybe not exactly how I’d want
(0:32:26) Kev: But it is there you have you’re still in
(0:32:29) Kev: the cockpit of the mech which is a little weird but yeah
(0:32:33) Al: All right. We have another couple of updates that are not specifically regarding the games.
(0:32:39) Al: And so the first one is Sakuna. We have three pieces of news about Sakuna. The first one
(0:32:40) Kev: Aww, I’m here wriggin’ my hands.
(0:32:44) Kev: Yeah-heh-heh-heh-heh.
(0:32:50) Al: is that they’re doing a new mobile phone game, but we don’t know. And it’s probably unlikely
(0:32:59) Al: will get an English language release of this. It looks like it’s a
(0:33:03) Al: Japanese-specific game. However, we don’t know anything about the game.
(0:33:06) Kev: okay wait is sorry I’m sure this is all in the YouTube video because from the
(0:33:15) Al: The YouTube video is a different game.
(0:33:15) Kev: the blurb you put okay okay does that blurb like it’s not clear that it’s
(0:33:22) Kev: specifically a sakuna game I mean that’s very likely right but it’s just from the
(0:33:26) Kev: developers right
(0:33:28) Al: They’ve specifically said it is a Sakuna game.
(0:33:30) Kev: okay okay they did okay well mmm darn it mmm
(0:33:36) Kev: yeah we’re not gonna see this in the US we didn’t get there’s a lot of good
(0:33:41) Al: We’ll see. Well, you never know, you never know. But more exciting,
(0:33:46) Kev: ones we don’t get they’re pleased to announce a new episode of the harvest
(0:33:47) Al: more exciting for Kevin is that the anime is getting a season two.
(0:33:53) Kev: season yeah I’m so excited because I well I mean guess well oh you know what
(0:34:02) Kev: Let’s talk about the new the next because I think that’s
(0:34:05) Al: okay yeah sure fine that’s fine that’s fine there is a there’s also another new game coming
(0:34:06) Kev: what the season two is.
(0:34:10) Al: called sakuna chronicles coca coca roba coca roba and the gears of creation um I presume
(0:34:14) Kev: Pokurawa.
(0:34:22) Al: you’ve watched the video for this
(0:34:24) Kev: i’m watching I am watching it right now hold on one second um is this the book is my first
(0:34:30) Kev: question because I know there was a book centered on cocoroa I don’t know if uh this is an adaptation
(0:34:38) Kev: of that game um let me see here um oh my gosh i’m so excited we’re actually getting a new coca
(0:34:45) Kev: sakana game um okay sorry hold on give me like one minute 27 um wow a robot
(0:34:55) Kev: uh wow is this I don’t know if these are cuts wow the visuals larry look way updated which is pretty
(0:35:01) Al: Well, and obviously the big thing about this one is that there is an English language trailer,
(0:35:02) Kev: nice um uh
(0:35:09) Al: so I’d be very surprised if this game isn’t being local.
(0:35:10) Kev: Yeah right I mean it has to right because they’re dubbing it and clearly we um clearly we did our
(0:35:20) Kev: job as influencers and brought Sakana to the forefront again which is why all this was announced
(0:35:22) Al: of course of course my guess is that this will be a more crafting focus game
(0:35:28) Kev: um I’m very
(0:35:32) Al: rather than farming focused
(0:35:34) Kev: yeah clearly because wow like is oh oh wait is that hurt
(0:35:40) Kev: is this no no who is that what wait okay so
(0:35:44) Al: Are you referring to the green haired one that gets off the boat?
(0:35:47) Kev: yes okay I would is that lady sucking uh whatever it’s the big lady I think maybe
(0:35:48) Al: Yeah, I don’t know who that is.
(0:35:55) Kev: I forget the name no no yeah but it is it a small form of her because it really looks like her
(0:35:56) Al: No cuz we see her we see her earlier than the trailer in her usual form.
(0:36:04) Kev: like I’m thinking it is she even has the pink butt a thing I don’t know if it’s her daughter
(0:36:09) Kev: or chibi for–
(0:36:11) Kev: or something, it’s clearly related to her.
(0:36:13) Kev: It’s clearly related to her.
(0:36:15) Kev: The big thing I will say about this trailer–
(0:36:19) Kev: Sakuna is not in it.
(0:36:21) Al: Yes.
(0:36:21) Kev: It is all Kokoro-wa and a whole bunch of new faces, which–
(0:36:26) Al: Well, to be fair, to be fair, you don’t know that she’s not in it.
(0:36:29) Al: She’s not in the trailer.
(0:36:30) Kev: Yeah, I’m just saying she’s not in the trailer.
(0:36:33) Kev: That’s all I’m saying, right?
(0:36:33) Al: Yes.
(0:36:34) Kev: Yeah, because I was about to say that exactly right.
(0:36:36) Kev: She very well could be in the game, but they did not highlight that.
(0:36:40) Al: I’d be surprised if she wasn’t, it’s literally called Sakuna Chronicles.
(0:36:40) Kev: Yeah.
(0:36:43) Al: Now, I know that the whole point is it’s tying it to the first game,
(0:36:44) Kev: Oh.
(0:36:48) Al: like, surely they can’t know how far in at all, right?
(0:36:49) Kev: Kokoro.
(0:36:52) Kev: Kokoro and the Gears of Creation, a knife’s out in the street.
(0:36:55) Al: » Zach. [LAUGH] Yeah. [LAUGH]
(0:37:01) Kev: Oh, those movies are great, but that’s just the funniest thing.
(0:37:06) Kev: Regardless, um, okay, like I do suspect
(0:37:10) Kev: she’ll be in there right like it would be I’d be very surprised if she wasn’t in there
(0:37:15) Kev: like it just from the in-game story perspective it’s her best friend it makes sense she’d be in
(0:37:21) Kev: there and from the outside like branding perspective you know she’s the face of the franchise or
(0:37:27) Kev: whatever um but uh you know who cares whatever we get in here I’m gonna get um and even if it’s
(0:37:34) Kev: not rice farming if we’re inventing robots that seems to be the premise of the game um
(0:37:40) Kev: sending them out to do your fighting and stuff like that which is interesting I love controlling
(0:37:44) Kev: minions and sending things out um I’m very curious to see how this will play and be um it’s in
(0:37:52) Kev: development so we won’t see this for a long while because that’s all they said it’s in development
(0:37:57) Kev: um and going back to the other one um I’m guessing season two is probably going to publish
(0:38:04) Al: Oh, interesting. Maybe. Well, so here’s my question. From what you’ve said,
(0:38:10) Al: I’m assuming you think this is a sequel, rather than a…
(0:38:14) Kev: Ooh, good point.
(0:38:17) Kev: I mean, regardless, that’s, you know,
(0:38:20) Kev: the enemy could still cover it,
(0:38:21) Kev: even if it was a, very cool.
(0:38:24) Al: I yeah I guess I just I would be expecting season two of Sakuna to be a sequel.
(0:38:30) Al: It’s different when there’s a game like they’re not saying that there’s going to be a different
(0:38:36) Al: anime like if they’d called it a different thing but they’ve explicitly called it out
(0:38:39) Al: as a season two of the anime like I feel like it’s going to follow Sakuna.
(0:38:46) Kev: Oh, OK, you know, all right, well, I’ll run with this.
(0:38:49) Kev: Let’s let me run with this, in which case that’s
(0:38:52) Kev: triple exciting because that means we’re getting basically
(0:38:55) Kev: two new entries in Sakuna, right?
(0:38:57) Kev: Like a new Kokoro game and a whole new Sakuna adventure,
(0:39:03) Kev: which I have no idea
(0:39:07) Kev: well, that may be because the anime covered the entirety of the game.
(0:39:10) Kev: So, you know, it will be totally open where that could go.
(0:39:16) Kev: Um, that’s uh, that’s a
(0:39:18) Al: The game that we’re probably not going, you did notice who’s making it, right?
(0:39:20) Kev: exciting.
(0:39:22) Kev: Oh, yeah, I saw that and that.
(0:39:26) Al: Godzilla people.
(0:39:28) Kev: Yeah, yeah.
(0:39:32) Kev: Exceed games, which is
(0:39:36) Al: Well, no, no, Exceed aren’t making that one. So Exceed are publishing…
(0:39:40) Kev: wait, wait, oh, oh, sorry, the mobile game.
(0:39:42) Al: No, right. Yeah, so we’ve got mixed up. We’ve gotten mixed up. We’ve gotten mixed up. Exceed
(0:39:43) Kev: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
(0:39:44) Kev: - Oh, yes.
(0:39:46) Kev: Sorry, yes, okay.
(0:39:47) Al: aren’t making any of these games. Exceed are publishing the second sequel slash prequel.
(0:39:51) Kev: Oh.
(0:39:53) Al: The mobile game that we probably won’t get is being made by Toho, as in the Godzilla
(0:39:54) Kev: Okay.
(0:39:59) Kev: Yeah, which is pretty wild, okay.
(0:40:03) Kev: Like, I don’t know what that game could compromise at all,
(0:40:07) Kev: but this means a Sakuna Godzilla crossover DLC
(0:40:08) Al: No idea. [laughs]
(0:40:12) Kev: is in the realm of possibility now.
(0:40:16) Kev: That’s all I have to say.
(0:40:22) Kev: Sakuna of rice and rodents.
(0:40:28) Kev: This is all so exciting, right?
(0:40:30) Kev: Because holy mackerel, we just went from Sakuna being a great game series, whatever,
(0:40:36) Kev: but kind of that’s it too.
(0:40:38) Kev: Oh my goodness, we have a whole bunch of stuff coming up.
(0:40:42) Kev: Oh, I am eating well right now!
(0:40:46) Kev: It is wild that Toho is doing the mobile games.
(0:40:52) Kev: Yeah, I don’t know, I’m excited for that anime, who knows?
(0:40:56) Kev: I wonder, okay, you know what?
(0:40:58) Kev: We might get an English dub of Season 1 now, if they’re pushing it this much.
(0:41:02) Kev: We might just get an English dub.
(0:41:06) Al: I would be surprised if they never did it because they have a voice actor set, right?
(0:41:14) Al: And especially if they do end up using those voice actors for the game, they could do that
(0:41:14) Kev: Yeah, I agree.
(0:41:19) Al: at the same time. Voice acting in a game, if they have a story, could come quite early
(0:41:25) Al: in the game’s development. So they could tie those two things in together and reduce their
(0:41:28) Kev: true yeah um oh man I can’t I just can’t wait like we don’t have any dates for anything
(0:41:40) Kev: so I don’t expect this until at least 2026 maybe something
(0:41:40) Al: Well, yeah, this is the thing. These things, when our game is really announced as in development,
(0:41:50) Al: it’s somewhere between two years and ten. And we’ll find out eventually.
(0:41:55) Kev: Yeah exactly, eventually yeah the Sakuna book is not the same title as the the new game so
(0:42:12) Kev: um the the yeah Pokoro book or whatever it’s so I expect it to be a different story entirely.
(0:42:17) Al: We also have, speaking of Japanese games with animes,
(0:42:23) Al: Farmagia, who they had already announced their anime.
(0:42:28) Al: But we now have a trailer for it and a date.
(0:42:31) Al: It’s airing in Japan on the 10th of January.
(0:42:35) Al: And the English website says “coming soon”.
(0:42:39) Al: So whether that’s just sub, whether that’s dub, I don’t know.
(0:42:44) Al: we’ll see, but I mean, the English saying
(0:42:47) Al: coming soon means something’s coming. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did the same
(0:42:50) Kev: Uh-huh
(0:42:52) Al: thing as Sakuna and we kind of get it like a month later on Frenchie Rolla, but we’ll see.
(0:42:56) Kev: Sure
(0:42:58) Kev: Yeah, that’s very likely. Oh my gosh. Are you excited for Sony to own crunchyroll?
(0:42:58) Al: Yeah, yeah.
(0:43:04) Kev: But just reminded because you you heard about that right the big merger or whatever. They’re looking to buy that group
(0:43:10) Kev: Crunchyroll is part of that. So mmm good times
(0:43:14) Kev: But but I digress going back to the anime
(0:43:20) Kev: It looks good, so the I don’t know the exact studio or whatever but they’re they’ve got
(0:43:29) Kev: Mihima who is again the
(0:43:32) Kev: Mangaka that they hired to work on for Majia’s art style and and whatnot
(0:43:39) Kev: There and his works have been translated to several pretty successful and large anime
(0:43:47) Kev: So, you know, the art style is
(0:43:50) Kev: still retained. I don’t know if it’s the same sort of studios that worked on his stuff that
(0:43:56) Kev: is making this, but my expectations are high for this. I imagine this will be pretty beefy
(0:44:05) Kev: and substantial. Yeah, I don’t know. I’m looking forward to it. Okay. Okay. Okay.
(0:44:08) Al: The studio is Bridge, and they have done a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh stuff and some Cardfight Vanguard stuff.
(0:44:18) Kev: - Okay, mm, okay.
(0:44:19) Al: They don’t seem to be one of the, like, super big ones, but yeah, they’ve done, they’ve done, they’ve been, they’ve been around since 2007.
(0:44:20) Kev: Okay, so they’ve done enough to please marketers,
(0:44:26) Al: And they’ve done, they’ve got quite a lot under their, under their belt.
(0:44:35) Kev: and they’ve worked with franchises, right?
(0:44:37) Kev: So, okay, I can stay confident this will be,
(0:44:42) Kev: this will do the game justice, let’s say that, right?
(0:44:46) Al: Yeah, I feel like the Yu-Gi-Oh! stuff is probably the biggest thing they’ve done.
(0:44:46) Kev: I’ve yet to play the game.
(0:44:49) Kev: - Yeah, right.
(0:44:50) Al: Although a lot of, looking at it, actually re-watching it, a lot of the stuff is,
(0:44:54) Al: oh no, that’s sources. I was looking at going, a lot of these things say manga, but no, that was,
(0:44:58) Al: they said source. They have done a few adaptations from video games as well, so it’s not like they’ve
(0:45:04) Al: never done that. In fact, their third one they ever did in 2013 was a video game adaptation.
(0:45:10) Kev: No, that’s cool
(0:45:11) Al: Devil Survivor 2 is based on a
(0:45:13) Kev: Huh? Okay, that’s interesting
(0:45:16) Al: Nintendo DS game.
(0:45:17) Kev: Yeah, yeah
(0:45:21) Kev: Part of the SMT like a spin-off series or something like that I could be totally wrong
(0:45:26) Kev: But you know that I think a double summoner good darn it
(0:45:27) Al: What?
(0:45:30) Al: A Shin Megatensei, or however you pronounce it.
(0:45:32) Kev: Yeah, oh my gosh
(0:45:33) Al: How many spin-offs does that series have?
(0:45:36) Kev: Look you know who cares because persona already has passed
(0:45:40) Kev: it in numbers like they hit persona five before SMT yes well it’s okay so
(0:45:43) Al: Yeah, but did they not just do another spin-off?
(0:45:48) Al: The new what’s the new spin-off they did?
(0:45:52) Al: Metaphor, Rifantazzi, or whatever it’s called.
(0:45:52) Kev: metaphor very fantastic yeah okay so yeah what they yeah you know that’s
(0:45:55) Al: Stupid name, hate that name.
(0:45:57) Al: Really bad name.
(0:46:02) Kev: fine I don’t blame you okay I will say metaphor is not a spin-off because it’s
(0:46:09) Kev: It’s just a new franchise, right?
(0:46:10) Kev: The original Persona had the, you know, it was the thing with the subtitle, right?
(0:46:14) Kev: It was Shin Megami Tensei colon Persona or whatever, right?
(0:46:18) Kev: It was very explicitly a branching off the SMT series.
(0:46:22) Al: you’re right. You’re right. It is an Atlas game. Devil Survivor 2. You’re right. Look
(0:46:25) Kev: So yeah, that, so yeah, Metaphor is a new franchise.
(0:46:32) Kev: Yep. There you go. There you go. See? That was totally…
(0:46:35) Al: at you with this deep knowledge of random games. My word.
(0:46:42) Kev: » Ow, I don’t know if you know this, but I’m a huge weeb.
(0:46:44) Kev: » [LAUGH]
(0:46:46) Kev: » Point blank, my God.
(0:46:49) Kev: Speaking of weeb, I’m looking at the the Farmasia.
(0:46:54) Kev: So it looks like a mid-cast or there’s like four primary cast members.
(0:46:59) Kev: Man, so if you go back and look at Mishima’s other works,
(0:47:02) Kev: he has these exact same four characters in all of his other works.
(0:47:06) Kev: He just changes the hair, but the faces, the… the builds are all…
(0:47:10) Kev: The same…
(0:47:12) Kev: Oh, glorious Nippon. What would I do with that?
(0:47:14) Al: The first ever Survivor game was actually called Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor,
(0:47:22) Kev: I was right yeah all the
(0:47:22) Al: so there you go.
(0:47:26) Al: On the second one was also, the second one also had the Shin Megatensei start to the
(0:47:32) Al: title as well.
(0:47:33) Kev: Well, there you go.
(0:47:34) Kev: Mm, all right.
(0:47:36) Kev: Look at all these wonderful SMT spinoffs.
(0:47:40) Kev: Vermaggia is not one of them, but it could be.
(0:47:42) Al: atlas have done just an insane number of games like I cannot even that list like sure they’ve
(0:47:47) Kev: It really is like–
(0:47:51) Al: been going since 1987 did you know that their first game was 1987 but but like
(0:47:54) Kev: Yeah, I didn’t know that, but that makes sense.
(0:48:00) Kev: I mean, the early persona was pretty early.
(0:48:04) Kev: Yeah, but I believe it.
(0:48:05) Al: i’m looking at this list and I think there’s over a hundred games on the
(0:48:11) Kev: And you know what the crazy part is?
(0:48:13) Kev: We’re not talking, you know, janky mobile games.
(0:48:16) Kev: We’re not talking quick and dirty things.
(0:48:19) Kev: These games are massive.
(0:48:22) Kev: Like, I don’t know if you–
(0:48:22) Al: Well, they had done like 30 before mobile games even existed.
(0:48:29) Kev: Yes, yes, and these games are massive.
(0:48:33) Kev: Atlas is insane.
(0:48:35) Kev: Holy moly.
(0:48:37) Kev: Because their games, like, their flagship RPGs or whatever,
(0:48:41) Kev: they’re easy, 100 hours, easy.
(0:48:45) Kev: Wild to think about there, the volume.
(0:48:47) Al: Sorry, sorry, my numbers were way off. They did 40 before Pokemon even existed.
(0:48:54) Kev: Sick, sick.
(0:48:56) Kev: Oh, my goodness.
(0:48:58) Al: And then they did another 40 between Pokémon existing and–
(0:48:59) Kev: She. Has that was done it for me?
(0:49:03) Kev: As boy, could they.
(0:49:05) Al: That’s a good question.
(0:49:06) Al: I wouldn’t be surprised if something exists in here because there’s so many games.
(0:49:11) Kev: They got my look, I don’t know if you play them, but SMTs are monster collectors.
(0:49:15) Kev: So like, you know, it’s not that far off to get me an SMT farming game or something.
(0:49:24) Al: I think there might be close to like, there might be over 200 there might actually be over 200 games in this list.
(0:49:27) Kev: metaphor. She’s metaphor re.
(0:49:33) Kev: Pardon me, Asia.
(0:49:36) Kev: Oh. Oh.
(0:49:36) Al: Like, I’m not even I’m not even joking. So if I do a control left of of to try and figure out how many that are on this list, I come up with 232 lines on this.
(0:49:46) Al: But that includes maybe about 30 references. I think, yeah, I think there’s over 200.
(0:49:47) Kev: See. Yeah. And you know what?
(0:49:55) Kev: I just thought something like I’m making the jokes about the farming game,
(0:49:58) Kev: but it’s not entirely off the table.
(0:50:00) Kev: I don’t know if you know this.
(0:50:01) Kev: The Persona games have dancing riffs.
(0:50:03) Kev: them spin-offs and a fighter in there somewhere. Yeah. That’s awful but yes. I don’t too many
(0:50:07) Al: Oh, you’re going to love this.
(0:50:08) Al: So at Google, how many games have Atlas made?
(0:50:11) Al: And, you know, Google now have this AI overview at the top.
(0:50:14) Al: Do you want to know what it says?
(0:50:16) Al: Do you want to know what it says?
(0:50:18) Kev: to count. So I wasn’t wrong. Yep. Oh.
(0:50:20) Al: Atlas has made many games.
(0:50:24) Al: Many games, really?
(0:50:28) Al: That is just amazing.
(0:50:32) Al: Like I cannot that is so much better than any.
(0:50:37) Al: Parody, you can make of AI.
(0:50:40) Kev: Definitely more A than I.
(0:50:43) Kev: Oh!
(0:50:44) Kev: Good times.
(0:50:46) Kev: Anime!
(0:50:49) Kev: Excited for anime.
(0:50:52) Kev: Oh man, we got at least two more anime episodes of THS lined up down the line.
(0:50:58) Al: Now that we’re done with the anime section of the podcast, now it’s onto the new games.
(0:50:59) Kev: Oh boy.
(0:51:04) Kev: Okay, is one of them an anime?
(0:51:07) Al: So the first game, I should note, is not a cottagecore game, so this is almost certainly
(0:51:15) Al: not something we’re going to cover on the podcast. However, yes, of course it is. The
(0:51:17) Kev: Ahh, so it’s a roguelike.
(0:51:21) Al: reason why I’m bringing it up is because it’s made by Snoozy Kazoo, who you might know as
(0:51:28) Al: a developer of Turnip Boy games. So I just felt like, because we’ve talked about both
(0:51:32) Al: Turnip Boy games, I felt like we should talk about this just in our “this is something
(0:51:36) Al: that exists”. You might find it interesting if you liked the idea of those games as well.
(0:51:38) Kev: Turnip– Turnip boy feels like the antithesis of Karjikor.
(0:51:44) Kev: Turnip boy’s all about cozy vibes, and turnip boy’s about unhinged chaos.
(0:51:45) Al: So right, right, OK. I mean, do you want the reasoning behind why I covered Turnip Boy?
(0:51:53) Al: Because I can do the reasoning of why we covered it. So no, it’s not. That’s not
(0:51:54) Kev: It’s a vegetable.
(0:51:56) Kev: That seems pretty simple.
(0:51:58) Al: why. So the first Turnip Boy game, when I first saw anything about it, I saw, “Oh,
(0:52:04) Al: here’s Turnip Boy. OK, cool.” And then he goes around and the first trailer started
(0:52:08) Al: off with him going and watering something, and he got the sword. And I was like, “Oh,
(0:52:14) Al: that’s really interesting. It looks like you’re growing weapons. That feels very farming.
(0:52:19) Al: That’s a farming game. We can cover this.” Now it turns out that that’s only something
(0:52:25) Al: you ever do once, right at the very start of the game.
(0:52:26) Kev: - India.
(0:52:28) Al: So I maybe covered it under false pretenses and then the second game which is even less
(0:52:37) Al: a farming game because you don’t even do it once and even less cottagecore because it is so fast
(0:52:42) Al: based and stressful. I don’t know I just wanted to cover it because I found it interesting.
(0:52:48) Kev: I mean, we’d already done the first one, so why not?
(0:52:50) Kev: Also, it’s a roguelike, so that puts it in the running for real.
(0:52:54) Al: So, yet this game exists is called Hobknobbers. They say pillage them all with your friends,
(0:53:02) Al: fight murderous pixies, and worship a divorcee lady goddess. Hobknobbers is a fast-paced
(0:53:08) Al: 3D platformer where you and your crew of mischievous gnomish critters storm through multi-dimensional
(0:53:16) Al: outlets and fight pixies or seek to harvest you for yummy snacks. Raid the shops and stuff
(0:53:22) Al: shinies in your hat before the portal closes.
(0:53:24) Al: Or risk being stranded in a whimsical capitalist hellscape.
(0:53:30) Al: Deliver your loot to Lady Goddess,
(0:53:32) Al: an enigmatic figure trying to get revenge on her ex-husband.
(0:53:36) Al: Trade the items you recover for cosmetic upgrades, a.k.a. Drip.
(0:53:36) Kev: sick
(0:53:40) Al: Or if you fail, get turned into you.
(0:53:42) Kev: Yeah
(0:53:44) Kev: Well, why don’t they just call it Riz knobbers
(0:53:50) Kev: Okay, so the game actually looks very entertaining I will say
(0:53:55) Kev: First of all, it’s 3d right departure from turner boy. Um, we’re full 3d polygons and whatnot
(0:54:04) Kev: But it’s very
(0:54:06) Kev: You’re running around stealing stuff in a mall while you’re being chased by I guess those are pixies there are just little yellow dudes with
(0:54:21) Kev: Baton spiked batons that are tough for you. It looks like
(0:54:25) Kev: There is the four-player like co-op thing looks pretty entertaining
(0:54:30) Kev: um
(0:54:31) Kev: And yeah, I don’t know it looks kind of busy a steep a little bit
(0:54:36) Kev: That was so a lot of the stuff moves
(0:54:39) Kev: It’s it’s definitely whimsical. It’s chaotic. Very very turnip boy in that sense
(0:54:46) Kev: I’m I’m excited to see what what they’ll do with it. No date yet
(0:54:50) Al: Yeah, it looks interesting. I don’t know if I’ll play it or not, because it’s a lot of
(0:54:55) Al: things that stress me out of great games. But there you go. If you’ve been interested
(0:55:01) Al: in games this news because you make, here’s another one.
(0:55:05) Kev: the 8 player online co-op haha I liked it so on the steam page they have a list a game
(0:55:12) Kev: containing the following with their uh their highlights a whimsical multilute able pixies
(0:55:19) Kev: to kill and be killed by up to 8 player co online co-op in game cosmetics rat as its
(0:55:26) Kev: own bullet point a lady goddess you can impress a lady a lady goddess you can impress uh with
(0:55:35) Kev: some kind of it looks like an emoji of the bird guy blushing and the ability to be thrown
(0:55:42) Kev: into the stew by said lady goddess okay yeah all right there you go if you wanted to be
(0:55:47) Kev: thrown into stew here you go
(0:55:49) Al: This is definitely not going to have weird people playing it.
(0:55:54) Al: Not saying everybody who plays it is weird.
(0:55:56) Al: I’m just saying there are definitely going to be people who play this
(0:55:59) Al: just to be thrown into studio by a goddess.
(0:56:02) Kev: Look, I was about to say it’s the new updated 2024 version of Steppe on me.
(0:56:03) Al: Kevin.
(0:56:04) Al: Um.
(0:56:12) Al: Yeah, yeah. Well, this is the thing.
(0:56:16) Al: Moving on in this family friendly podcast,
(0:56:19) Al: the final piece of news is the other new game that we have, which is desktop cat
(0:56:25) Al: cafe.
(0:56:25) Kev: Boy, what a what a juxtaposition here
(0:56:30) Al: Build your dream cat cafe in this tiny,
(0:56:32) Al: cozy management sim that lives at the bottom of your screen.
(0:56:37) Al: Unlock exciting new recipes,
(0:56:38) Al: decorate your space with our wide variety of goodies and hire cute
(0:56:42) Al: staff to take care of the cafe while you’re doing other things.
(0:56:46) Al: Which version of cute do they talk about when they say cute?
(0:56:49) Al: Is it cute or is it cute?
(0:56:50) Kev: don’t you want the answer i’m scared to find out I don’t know
(0:56:56) Al: Well, I think, I think everything I see in a screenshot is a cat.
(0:57:01) Al: So I’m guessing it’s all cute.
(0:57:01) Kev: it does and and doesn’t answer anything
(0:57:04) Al: No, no, no, stop.
(0:57:08) Al: So I guess this is the fourth in our trilogy.
(0:57:12) Al: This one, interestingly, is 3D.
(0:57:16) Kev: Yeah, well, okay, so while joking aside, it is very cute, as in like cuddly animals, little kitties cute, um, they’re even like, are those ghost cats? Or no, wait, I don’t know what that is. I mean, it’s not ghost cats, um, I’m, go ahead, go ahead.
(0:57:36) Al: Uh no, I was just laughing at you talking about ghost cats. Ghost cats? Oh wait, no,
(0:57:40) Al: no ghost cats. What is that? I think this is our build mode thing, because if you look at everyone
(0:57:42) Kev: It has the menu. Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.
(0:57:49) Al: that has the ghost cats, they’ve got a menu up with items. What I find most interesting about
(0:57:56) Al: this is that it’s a departure from the other bottom of your screen games that we’ve seen,
(0:58:01) Al: in there it’s 3D. So instead of just being like a
(0:58:02) Kev: Yeah, okay, so
(0:58:06) Al: grid, where your person walks, it’s more kind of like pushed down and into the screen.
(0:58:12) Kev: Yeah, so think of it as your screen as the sky background.
(0:58:16) Kev: That’s probably the way I’d describe it.
(0:58:16) Al: Yeah, that is a good way of describing it. Yeah.
(0:58:19) Kev: It is– OK.
(0:58:21) Kev: First of all, I’m not particularly
(0:58:23) Kev: fond of these desktop idle games or whatever,
(0:58:27) Kev: because I’m not that kind of multitasking person.
(0:58:27) Al: Fair, totally fair.
(0:58:34) Kev: I like to focus on whatever I’m doing.
(0:58:37) Kev: So obviously, that’s a very me thing.
(0:58:38) Kev: I know this has a lot of appeal for other people,
(0:58:40) Kev: that’s great for them.
(0:58:42) Kev: But one thing I will say, this looks like it’s taking up a
(0:58:45) Kev: long real estate on your screen.
(0:58:46) Al: Especially with the trees that extend up really high.
(0:58:47) Kev: Like some, yeah, some screenshots.
(0:58:52) Kev: It’s almost like a third of the screen.
(0:58:54) Al: Yeah, yeah.
(0:58:54) Kev: Uh, that’s a lot of space.
(0:58:59) Kev: I, um, I’m just trying to think how, how, how is the, the other stuff supposedly
(0:59:06) Kev: weren’t running on your screen?
(0:59:07) Al: Yeah, there’s actually this one screenshot where the tree extends to the top of the screen.
(0:59:07) Kev: Because I noticed on all the screenshots that it’s either like just the blank
(0:59:12) Kev: or like just some photos in the background.
(0:59:14) Kev: How are you?
(0:59:19) Kev: Oh, sick.
(0:59:19) Kev: You know what, you know what?
(0:59:21) Kev: You know, I’m kind of down for that.
(0:59:23) Kev: Actually.
(0:59:24) Kev: Give me one of these games, but the more you build, build it up, the more
(0:59:28) Kev: it takes over of your screen.
(0:59:30) Kev: And so it just starts taking over your attention.
(0:59:32) Kev: Oh, I like that.
(0:59:33) Kev: That’s a good, I like that premise.
(0:59:35) Kev: Let’s do that.
(0:59:37) Kev: Oh, um, so I will say like, obviously.
(0:59:42) Kev: Cafe is a, uh, a crowded space in the gaming world.
(0:59:46) Kev: Right.
(0:59:47) Kev: But, uh, uh, you know, doing the desktop angle, that is something novel.
(0:59:52) Kev: Um, and I do like the graphics, the visuals are cute.
(0:59:55) Kev: Um, uh, but, uh, yeah, there we go.
(0:59:57) Al: Yeah, yeah.
(0:59:59) Kev: It for people who enjoy this stuff.
(1:00:02) Kev: I think it looks nice.
(1:00:03) Kev: Like I said, I’m probably not going to get it because I’m this is, I would just
(1:00:07) Kev: rather a full version of this game or whatever, but, uh, but, uh, good for you
(1:00:14) Al: All right, that’s all the news. I know we’re in. We’re now going to talk
(1:00:21) Al: about Balatro, for it is a game that has taken over the world.
(1:00:26) Kev: it really take it over my world for sure but yeah kind of has taken over the world up for game of the year
(1:00:35) Kev: Whoo!
(1:00:36) Al: Which, by the way, I’m just going to say weird. Weird decision. Like, I understand why people
(1:00:45) Al: like this game, right? And I don’t hate the game. Let’s start off like that. I think it is a very
(1:00:54) Al: well-designed game, but calling this game of the year is a wild take to me. Like, it’s simpler
(1:01:02) Kev: I mean yeah like yeah okay I think there is something to be said about a game’s impact
(1:01:03) Al: poker. It’s one person.
(1:01:06) Al: and poker. Like I don’t. Yeah.
(1:01:16) Kev: right like uh let’s like I’ll point out to Minecraft let’s say right like Minecraft is
(1:01:24) Kev: a game of the year whatever it’s it’s a top game of whatever right um there’s other games that have
(1:01:32) Kev: formula better and you know stuff like that I’ve iterated or whatever but just because of the
(1:01:37) Kev: influence like Minecraft still stands down on top right so there is something to be said about that
(1:01:42) Al: I disagree with you. I disagree with your premise. I think that Ballattro is the best
(1:01:46) Kev: okay
(1:01:49) Al: version of this game. I don’t think Minecraft is the best version of the game that it could
(1:01:55) Al: be. I do think that both of them are obviously very popular. I think my issue is it is both
(1:02:05) Al: shallow and complicated at the same time. So it is shallow in so much.
(1:02:08) Kev: - Sure, yeah.
(1:02:12) Al: As it is a very simple concept, there are so many options and ways to go. I accept that.
(1:02:16) Kev: It’s straightforward, it’s a simple concept, you’re right, but there are many options and ways to
(1:02:26) Al: So I’m not trying to say as a game it is entirely shallow. But I feel like once you’ve figured
(1:02:33) Al: out what the game wants from you, there’s nowhere else to go other than just completing
(1:02:40) Kev: Or
(1:02:42) Al: for the sake of it.
(1:02:43) Kev: Sure, um, you know what that that’s that’s very fair
(1:02:49) Kev: Like yeah, you’re right. Okay going like back to thinking back to the game of the year thing
(1:02:54) Kev: I mean the second thing I was gonna say though is that it’s all nonsense anyways, right because especially the
(1:03:00) Kev: the game awards like
(1:03:02) Kev: Trademarked like they’re uh, it’s just Jeff Keeley doing whatever and it’s all a bunch of nonsense, right?
(1:03:08) Kev: But there is no denying this game has had any
(1:03:10) Kev: impact this year, right? It’s a standout name. It’s made a lot
(1:03:14) Kev: of money and a lot of people are playing it. I’ve spent a
(1:03:17) Kev: lot of time on it. But you know what, let’s let’s say a listener
(1:03:23) Kev: has not been familiar with Bellato. Let’s let’s let’s just
(1:03:27) Kev: go over it real quick, right? So the game is, as Al said, it is
(1:03:31) Kev: essentially single player poker. You’re trying to create a poker
(1:03:36) Kev: hand, right, the standard 52 playing card deck.
(1:03:40) Kev: You know, full house, two pairs, three of a kind, all those hands that you see in poker,
(1:03:47) Kev: and they give you an amount of points that correspond to the card you use that correspond
(1:03:54) Kev: both to the type of hand you used and the actual cards, you know, the rank of the cards
(1:04:00) Kev: or whatever, right?
(1:04:01) Kev: So that’s the base premise, which is, as Al said, pretty simple and straightforward because
(1:04:08) Kev: because it’s just building off the very well established.
(1:04:10) Kev: But.
(1:04:14) Al: And I think it does the start up till winning your first round very well.
(1:04:20) Al: I think the curve, the difficulty curve and the improvements on how you understand the game, I think, worked really well up to that point.
(1:04:26) Kev: Mm-hmm
(1:04:32) Kev: Sure, yeah, yeah, no, I agree
(1:04:36) Kev: but there
(1:04:38) Kev: be
(1:04:39) Kev: The whole the reality of the game the thing that makes the game are the joke what they call the jokers
(1:04:45) Kev: So obviously jokers aren’t really used in poker
(1:04:49) Kev: And here they’re not even just a joker. They are just
(1:04:53) Kev: essentially modifiers.
(1:04:54) Kev: They call jokers, but they are.
(1:04:56) Kev: A variety of cards that you can at least standard you can have up to five of them, and they can have all sorts of wild and different effects on there are tons of these different cards that you can use right.
(1:05:10) Kev: You can have stuff that gives you extra points, depending on if, like, you know, what kind of suit of cards you use, what.
(1:05:18) Kev: What type of hands you use right there’s ones that will put things wildly like you can now play straights or flushes.
(1:05:26) Kev: If it is with four cards, or you can skip a gap when playing straights you can you can get more points based on the amount of money you have oh oh that yeah right that’s what the other big thing right because so there is a shop after you finish around.
(1:05:40) Kev: You get a certain amount of prize money based on your score how many hands you have left yada yada, and you can spend that in the shop, which is where you have all your jokers you have what they call vouchers which are long term modifiers that affect your whole run as they call it.
(1:05:58) Kev: There is what they call tarot cards, which generally changed the individual cards on right like some parts will have a increase what’s called the multiplier for your score, give you more chips or points.
(1:06:14) Kev: Or change the the suit of them or whatever all sorts of things right there’s the planet cards which improve the base score of each hand right like you buy Saturn and you get your straight.
(1:06:26) Kev: So it’s a higher score thing, or like the base score for all streets will be higher, and the spectral cards which are kind of weird and all over the place they can be very powerful but have very high costs too.
(1:06:40) Kev: And so yeah, so that is the kind of the gist of the game you’re modifying your, your poker your 52 playing card deck to get as high as possible scoring hands.
(1:06:50) Kev: Because for every round you have you’re given a score and you have to beat that you know surpass that score to move on to the next one.
(1:06:58) Kev: Okay, kind of the crash course there and Bellato but that’s how the game plays and it’s I personally consider very addictive. Okay, now let’s talk about into our individual experiences, how much Bellato have you played.
(1:07:10) Al: So I have played, I guess I could probably bring it up, right? Because I played it on my iPad,
(1:07:15) Al: so I can look in screen time and it can tell me. Because I was just about to give you like a vague
(1:07:19) Al: idea of what I’ve played. I’ve completed the game, like I’ve finished, I’ve completed a run once.
(1:07:28) Al: But I spent a long time, like you, you got to, you won your first run after like a day or something
(1:07:28) Kev: Okay.
(1:07:30) Kev: I think it was like three days, but yes.
(1:07:35) Al: stupid. Whereas, whereas I, I was I was not…
(1:07:41) Al: So, let’s have a look. Is there a way I can, I feel like there is meant to be a way you can
(1:07:50) Al: just see what you’ve played on it. We’ve seen all app activity, here we are. So I need to go back
(1:07:54) Al: to the last time I played Blanchro to click on it and see my total.
(1:08:02) Kev: I play on mobile to the clear because this is like on everything now it came out on Steam first
(1:08:09) Kev: I believe um, but it’s it is perfectly suited for mobile
(1:08:10) Al: I did, yeah, I did.
(1:08:15) Kev: Because you know, it’s it’s just
(1:08:17) Kev: Very clean very straightforward screens, right? You have your poker hand in the shop
(1:08:21) Kev: They’re like two two or three screens in the whole game and it all fits nicely on the mobile. So
(1:08:28) Kev: And it’s not anything that’s running in tensor anything, right?
(1:08:32) Kev: There’s very little in terms of animation or whatnot.
(1:08:36) Kev: So it’s a perfect mobile game. It’s probably my audio or my primary one at this point.
(1:08:42) Al: Yeah, I haven’t played it in a few weeks. Basically, when I did my one successful run,
(1:08:47) Al: I was like, “I’m done. That’s me. I’m finished.” I think I probably put about 10 hours into it.
(1:08:56) Kev: I don’t see how many hours I see of mine, but it’s a lot I could tell you.
(1:09:02) Kev: I have like, I have, uh, geez, like I, I had my collections apparently at 78%.
(1:09:08) Kev: Did you know was that high? Holy moly.
(1:09:08) Al: Oh my word, that’s wild. Let’s see what mine is, because mine, I don’t think, is anywhere near-
(1:09:16) Kev: My highest hand was 1,300,000 and some change.
(1:09:22) Al: Where’s the percentage are you seeing the percentage.
(1:09:22) Kev: I’ve done.
(1:09:26) Kev: So there’s a, if, if I go to options, you can see stats.
(1:09:30) Al: stats. I see. So my collection is apparently at 67%. That’s interesting. That’s higher than I expected.
(1:09:37) Al: My.
(1:09:38) Kev: Hmm. Well, you know, I think it’s like because like a lot of like the planet and the tarot cards you you know
(1:09:46) Kev: There’s no limit on them. You can use right like I imagine that’s a good chunk that fills up pretty quickly, right?
(1:09:47) Al: true. Yeah. Yeah, I think most of the ones I’m still missing are jokers. I’ve got all
(1:09:54) Kev: I mean naturally right and there’s a lot of jokers to unlock
(1:09:57) Al: of the tarot cards, all of the tarot cards and all bar three of the planet and spectral
(1:09:58) Kev: talk.
(1:10:03) Al: cards. So yeah, I’m missing 60 jokers. I think that’s most of it. I have.
(1:10:12) Kev: Yeah, let’s see I’m at a hundred out of a hundred hundred seven out of 150 jokers
(1:10:18) Kev: I’ve used all the vouchers all the tarot. I’ve only used nine of the twelve planet currents and only nine of the 18 spectral cards
(1:10:24) Al: Well that’s because you’re focusing on the specific things, like who’s ever going to
(1:10:31) Al: upgrade Royal Flush? Exactly. I’ve put about 10 hours into this game and I’ve never had a Royal
(1:10:32) Kev: the royal flush yeah yeah you’re right you’re super I think I had one or two
(1:10:42) Al: Flush. So it’s…
(1:10:45) Kev: royal flashes in all my times I mean obviously it’s like the you know that’s
(1:10:49) Kev: that’s the that’s the king the the top of the mountain right like yeah it makes
(1:10:55) Kev: sense you’re right um so yeah no I’m not buying the royal flush planet um yeah
(1:11:00) Kev: Let’s see, 107.
(1:11:02) Kev: 150 Jokers.
(1:11:04) Kev: I have one more deck to unlock, which is pretty wild.
(1:11:08) Kev: I’m on like the fifth difficulty out of like six or seven, I think.
(1:11:13) Kev: Yeah.
(1:11:14) Kev: So I put a lot of time into this game.
(1:11:16) Kev: Um, so, okay.
(1:11:18) Kev: Let’s talk about your experience in tears is a little more limited.
(1:11:21) Kev: Like, what did you like about the game?
(1:11:22) Al: So, I think the overall, you know, the game loop is fun, right? Like building up a deck
(1:11:31) Al: and jokers to do these wild combinations is fun. Like that in and of itself is fun. I
(1:11:39) Al: really like that, especially like the first couple of times you do it, you’re learning
(1:11:43) Al: all these new things and you’re figuring out all these new jokers and you’re like, Oh,
(1:11:46) Al: that’s a really fun one. I can do this and that. And figuring out these different things
(1:11:49) Al: to make combinations.
(1:11:52) Al: It’s really fun.
(1:11:53) Kev: - Mm-hmm. - All right.
(1:11:56) Al: And yeah, I had a lot of fun the first couple of times.
(1:12:00) Al: My real problem came with, and this is such a stupid thing to say, but when I first died
(1:12:05) Al: and I realized it was a one and done, now you’re back to the beginning, I just felt
(1:12:09) Al: that dread that I do when I realized some things are wrong.
(1:12:10) Kev: Yeah.
(1:12:12) Al: And you’re like, “Oh, no!”
(1:12:15) Al: And you’re like, “I get…
(1:12:15) Kev: No, it tricked me again!
(1:12:17) Al: I…
(1:12:18) Al: Well, this is…”
(1:12:19) Al: So here’s the thing, right?
(1:12:20) Al: understand that
(1:12:22) Al: I understand that it’s a rogue light. And people are like, “Oh, well, how did you not
(1:12:24) Al: know that that’s what would happen?” And I’m like, “Well, because not every rogue light
(1:12:30) Al: has the exact same reset point, right? The point of a rogue light is that at some point
(1:12:38) Al: you’ll reset.” And I wasn’t assuming that the first hand where you don’t manage to get
(1:12:45) Al: the points, that’s it. Or sorry, not the first hand, the first blind, that you’re not able
(1:12:50) Al: to get to
(1:12:52) Al: the total amount, that’s it. There’s no room for recovery. And that is just my usual thing
(1:12:58) Al: of like just like dread of like, oh, great. Now I am reset and everything I’ve just done
(1:13:04) Al: is wasted and useless and doesn’t matter. And yes, sure, I’ve learned some stuff and
(1:13:10) Al: I can do better next time, but it’s just like that frustration always gets to me every time.
(1:13:17) Al: However, I kept going, I obviously enjoyed it enough to keep
(1:13:22) Al: going to the point where I did win around and I was like, I
(1:13:28) Al: think after a while I got to I got on to blinds, not blind,
(1:13:34) Al: was it? The level eight, whatever they call it.
(1:13:39) Al: There’s a word. Yeah, anti, yeah, the anti-eight and failed
(1:13:40) Kev: the anti or anti.
(1:13:45) Al: on the second last one and I was like, I was so close.
(1:13:48) Al: I need to do this.
(1:13:49) Al: I feel like I’m so close that I need to.
(1:13:50) Kev: Ah, yep, yep, heh heh heh heh.
(1:13:52) Al: I was like, so I will keep going until I’ve, I’ve won one and then we’ll see how I feel.
(1:13:57) Al: Um, and once I won one, I was like, I now have no enthusiasm to do this again, because I get that there are lots of other strategies you can be doing, but also why would I not just do things that I know work?
(1:14:12) Kev: Right, right. Yeah. No that that’s
(1:14:14) Al: Like I could, I could run on, I could do another run and do a completely different strategy, but if I fail, I’ll just be like, I should have just done something.
(1:14:20) Kev: » Yep. Yeah. You know what? That’s fair, right? I will say probably the biggest weakness
(1:14:22) Al: And I don’t particularly find that fun.
(1:14:32) Kev: or let’s say drawback of the design, right? Is the – I think compared to other Roguelikes,
(1:14:41) Kev: it’s one you have a lot less control, it’s a lot more random and variables that –
(1:14:46) Al: for sure, for sure. You can deal with that. You can deal with that in doing things that get you
(1:14:50) Al: lots of money, so you just keep resetting. But yeah, it’s still a lot of randomization there,
(1:14:50) Kev: » Sure. Sure. Right? Right. Right. That’s what I was about to do.
(1:14:56) Al: and it’s like, let’s take, compare it to Hades, which is an action game.
(1:15:05) Al: First of all, you’re unlocking things between runs to make yourself more powerful in the next run,
(1:15:11) Al: so it’s not like everything disappears. In this game, the only thing that you
(1:15:16) Al: have between games is your brain and what you’ve learned. And sure, okay, fine. Yeah,
(1:15:20) Kev: Yeah, I guess the closest thing is you can unlock different decks, right?
(1:15:24) Kev: There’s some with give you bonus money, some that are adjusted, but you’re right.
(1:15:27) Al: they don’t fundamentally change it. They do not fundamentally change it. No. The decks
(1:15:30) Kev: Yes, right.
(1:15:32) Kev: It’s, it’s, it doesn’t build up.
(1:15:33) Kev: Let’s say that it gives you different options, but it doesn’t build up.
(1:15:37) Al: generally aren’t more powerful. The decks are generally different challenges, right?
(1:15:42) Kev: Sure. Yeah, that’s fair.
(1:15:42) Al: Whereas in Hades, you are gaining your abilities and you’re gating
(1:15:46) Al: gaining new weapons and you’re becoming more powerful in that way.
(1:15:48) Al: And a lot of it is to do with your skill.
(1:15:51) Al: Yes, there is a little bit of randomization in what upgrades
(1:15:53) Al: you can get during the run, but if you are good at it, you could
(1:15:54) Kev: You don’t even need those upgrades. Just don’t get it.
(1:15:56) Al: get through any run, right?
(1:15:58) Al: Whereas in this, exactly, exactly.
(1:16:03) Al: Whereas, well, no, that’s an absolutely right.
(1:16:05) Al: Like the, absolutely right.
(1:16:06) Kev: No, no, I know. I’m joking. But yes, that is true, right? Like there are people who could do that. I’m sure they’re good enough.
(1:16:10) Al: Absolutely.
(1:16:12) Al: Whereas in bilateral, you are 100%.
(1:16:16) Al: 0% relying on good jokers coming up, not only that, but you’re relying on good ones
(1:16:22) Al: that work with what you’ve already chosen.
(1:16:25) Kev: Yep, and your hands.
(1:16:25) Al: Because if you make a bad choice at the beginning, and then your future stuff never comes up,
(1:16:30) Al: you are stuffed.
(1:16:32) Al: And yeah, people who love the game are going to argue, “Yeah, but you just need to deal
(1:16:35) Al: with that.
(1:16:36) Al: You just need to have other ways.
(1:16:37) Al: You just need to do better strategies.”
(1:16:38) Al: And you’re like, “Well, in that case, all I’m going to do is focus on building up high
(1:16:43) Al: card and pair as high as possible.
(1:16:46) Al: Not fun, is it? That’s not a fun strategy.
(1:16:46) Kev: Yeah, you are super right.
(1:16:48) Al: Yes, there are there are there are unbeatable strategies that will always
(1:16:52) Al: get you through, but then why are you just doing the same thing over and over again?
(1:16:56) Al: Is not the fun of it doing new strategies and seeing if you can do it?
(1:17:00) Al: And then you are fully relying on the on the randomization of what’s going to be
(1:17:04) Al: chosen next. And that I don’t like.
(1:17:06) Kev: - Yup, yup, I mean, I totally agree with you.
(1:17:07) Al: That’s not fun.
(1:17:11) Kev: Like I can see your frustration with that, right?
(1:17:13) Kev: Going back to Hades, right?
(1:17:15) Kev: All the upgrades, even like,
(1:17:17) Kev: so there’s the different deities, right?
(1:17:19) Kev: And the different types of upgrades.
(1:17:21) Kev: And the, you know, the more we get a one,
(1:17:23) Kev: the more they work well together and so on and so forth.
(1:17:26) Kev: But let’s say every single upgrade you got
(1:17:27) Kev: was a different kind, you’re still getting a boost, right?
(1:17:30) Kev: You’re still, it’s still overall a net positive, right?
(1:17:35) Kev: Maybe not ideal, but…
(1:17:36) Kev: It can be used to benefit you.
(1:17:38) Kev: In biological, there are some jokers that just don’t benefit you.
(1:17:44) Kev: Or at least on the current run you have, right?
(1:17:46) Kev: Like you can have a group of five jokers that are totally random
(1:17:50) Kev: and you’re just totally screwed because they don’t all help you
(1:17:53) Kev: or help you enough, right?
(1:17:56) Kev: And some work really well together, but you, unless you get to the two
(1:18:01) Kev: or three that run really well together.
(1:18:06) Kev: It might not be that great separate.
(1:18:09) Kev: And yeah, and that is I think one of the difficulties of this game
(1:18:15) Kev: compared to other roguelikes.
(1:18:17) Kev: Just it is a bit more limited.
(1:18:20) Kev: What you get in the run is a lot more limiting than other games
(1:18:27) Kev: that are more skill based or whatever.
(1:18:30) Kev: Like because those blinds, especially in later difficulties,
(1:18:34) Kev: like those numbers blind get really
(1:18:37) Kev: So like you can’t just play good hands and win you need you need good jokers to win
(1:18:44) Kev: and so you can just
(1:18:46) Kev: Completely be out of luck and not even get these like almost any jokers on a run
(1:18:51) Kev: Right because the shop will not always sell jokers you get the planets and the Terros or whatever
(1:18:56) Kev: and so
(1:18:58) Kev: Yeah, no, I can absolutely understand where you’re coming from
(1:19:03) Al: Yeah.
(1:19:03) Kev: Let me ask you this, okay, out of the runs you did
(1:19:06) Kev: What are some of your favorite strategies that came to be or jokers that were memorable?
(1:19:12) Al: Yeah, I think the thing I found most reliable was just building up like pair, or straight or flush,
(1:19:26) Al: and then, you know, the straight or flush one obviously relied on you getting the one that
(1:19:31) Al: allows you to do it with four cards, and then also have gaps and straights. Yeah,
(1:19:34) Kev: Or have the gaps
(1:19:37) Al: I thought I found that one was quite a good one the
(1:19:40) Kev: Yeah, that’s probably one of the best in the game in my opinion it’s it’s so good
(1:19:42) Al: Yeah, but also just, yeah, the building up pair was because you’re almost always
(1:19:48) Al: going to get a pair and you can get that number up really high, especially if you then
(1:19:54) Al: get the one that adds all cards that you play count. So you play a pair plus three other
(1:20:00) Kev: No, that one’s great
(1:20:01) Al: ones was good fun.
(1:20:04) Kev: Yeah
(1:20:07) Kev: Yeah, um, I think most of my success are there let’s say the runs
(1:20:11) Kev: I enjoy the most and I’ve been successful it I’ve been very like focused on straights
(1:20:15) Kev: I’m like I said, I like those where you can get the gaps or
(1:20:20) Kev: Just make them in a for and because straights and flushes are pretty valuable
(1:20:25) Kev: From their base, right? So if you can build that you’re already on a solid foundation
(1:20:30) Kev: And oh, you know what and and we should point out right like not everything build there is upgraded at an equal
(1:20:37) Kev: rate right like
(1:20:40) Kev: Pairs and high cards though the simple ones stay
(1:20:43) Kev: Every upgrade you get is not as big of an upgrade as say for the the straights when you buy the whatever Mercury
(1:20:49) Kev: I think it is for a high card
(1:20:51) Kev: It only increases the the multiplier by like one
(1:20:54) Kev: But if you increase your straight increases the multiplier by two or three
(1:20:58) Kev: Um…
(1:21:00) Kev: So like, I think the game in some ways does incentivize you to try to focus on those higher, rarer, those more difficult hands to form.
(1:21:10) Kev: But yeah, I also like strategies that focused on money, right? There’s a card called, I forget what it’s called, it’s a picture of a bull.
(1:21:20) Kev: It’s a Joker with a bull on it.
(1:21:22) Kev: And you get like the amount of money you have, you get double that number of chips for every hand you play.
(1:21:30) Kev: So if I have $50, I get 100 chips on every hand I play, so you can build that up real high.
(1:21:36) Kev: Like, I can go out to $100 or whatever and I’ll get 200 chips every hand I play, plus everything else going on.
(1:21:44) Kev: Um, let’s see, did you ever see the blueprint Joker?
(1:21:48) Al: I don’t… I’ve heard of it, but I don’t think I ever found it and remind me what that one does.
(1:21:52) Kev: Hmm, okay.
(1:21:56) Kev: That one. Okay. This one might actually be the best one because I, what it does.
(1:22:00) Kev: It copies another Joker in your set. It’ll probably be the one to the right. So if you
(1:22:04) Al: Right. Okay.
(1:22:06) Kev: have another Joker that’s, say, doubling your score or whatever, and you put the blueprint
(1:22:12) Kev: Joker, it’ll double that double. It’ll go times four. So you can start scaling ridiculously
(1:22:18) Kev: high. It’s quite fun. And something interesting about Bellaccio, one of the finer points that
(1:22:30) Kev: first easily visible is that the order you play things and your range, your cards actually
(1:22:36) Kev: can have a big influence.
(1:22:37) Al: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I realized that after a couple, I’m like, oh, wait, no, you have to have
(1:22:43) Al: the plus-mult before the times-mult, because otherwise, your times-mult is going to be really,
(1:22:46) Kev: Uh-huh. Yep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep.
(1:22:49) Al: like, if you have times 2 and then plus 10, if you put the times 2 first, it’s going to go to 2
(1:22:56) Al: and then add on 10, whereas if you have the plus 10, it’s going to go to 10 and then to 20, right?
(1:23:01) Al: You’ve really got to think the maths through on these things. There’s also, I saw one joke,
(1:23:05) Al: I never saw it in my run through, but I saw…
(1:23:07) Al: on a YouTube video, which is one where it turns the chips and malt both into the same number,
(1:23:16) Al: which is the total of them divided by two. So if you just get the chips up really, really high,
(1:23:22) Al: it will then take half of that and put it in the malt and you suddenly get really high numbers that way.
(1:23:27) Kev: I don’t think I’ve seen that in Joker. I think there’s a deck that does something similar what that sounds really good. Ooh
(1:23:30) Al: Yeah. No, there’s a joke there. There’s a joker. There’s a joker that does that.
(1:23:35) Kev: That sounds good. Um, I don’t think I’ve seen that one. Um, oh man. Yeah, this sounds great. Um, so
(1:23:37) Al: Yeah.
(1:23:42) Al: Yeah, because then you just want to get all the stone cards in that case, right? Like plus 50 for each one.
(1:23:49) Kev: That’s clever I’d like I know obviously I stay away from the stones generally speaking but that’s pretty good. I like that. Yeah
(1:23:54) Al: In general, yeah.
(1:23:57) Kev: I uh, I found what I’ve found one legend Joker in all my playthroughs
(1:24:04) Kev: And what it did it disabled the boss blind just completely ignited it
(1:24:09) Al: Oh, wow. Wow.
(1:24:10) Kev: The effect so it just was a regular blind
(1:24:15) Kev: Obviously glibbed up to that legend rarity, right? Like how powerful that was
(1:24:20) Kev: So, yeah, that was that was fun. Um, did you?
(1:24:27) Kev: So like you said there’s a handful of different decks, right one that’ll give you extra hand to play and one extra discard
(1:24:34) Kev: I think you said you won with the one that gives you extra money at the beginning if I’m correct
(1:24:40) Al: Yeah, that’s so the one I the deck I was using all the time since I unlocked it was the yellow deck, I think, is it let me just double check if that’s the right one. No, not the yellow deck, the green deck.
(1:24:47) Kev: Mm-hmm
(1:24:52) Al: And that one gives you instead of giving you interest, you get $2 per remaining hand and $1 per remaining discard.
(1:24:52) Kev: Okay
(1:24:55) Kev: Uh-huh
(1:24:59) Kev: That is a good one
(1:25:00) Al: I found early on you get a lot more money that way because you don’t have, you’re not you’re not you’re trying to spend all your money because you need stuff.
(1:25:09) Kev: - Yeah. (laughs)
(1:25:10) Al: Early on you get no interest. Whereas this way, you can quite often have, especially, you know, in this in the second round, you can quite often have, you know, only one hand that you need to use and no discards and then you suddenly get another $10, you know, it’s pretty good.
(1:25:24) Kev: Yeah, I agree with that.
(1:25:29) Kev: That is, I think, one of the challenges, especially–
(1:25:33) Kev: so you only beat the run once, but when you beat them,
(1:25:38) Kev: you unlock something called stakes, which is basically
(1:25:41) Kev: another difficulty modifier on top of everything else.
(1:25:45) Kev: And every time you beat a stake, you unlock a new one.
(1:25:47) Kev: It’s the levels of difficulty, right?
(1:25:50) Kev: And one of the very early stakes–
(1:25:52) Kev: The camera fits the first or second one.
(1:25:54) Kev: If you basically you stop earning the small blind, the first blind of each anti gives you only it doesn’t give you prize money you.
(1:26:02) Al: Yeah, that’s the first one you unlock, yeah.
(1:26:05) Kev: Yeah, yeah, you don’t get prize money you only get from hands you have an interest rate, so we can be really painful to start after that first difficulty because the thing about the stakes they all on this deck up on top of each other, if you go past that first difficulty, you still have to deal with that.
(1:26:24) Kev: So, especially on later difficulties early money is really important because you want to buy a good voucher or do you want to buy a joker, you have to pick.
(1:26:32) Al: Well, that’s the thing. And if you don’t get money quickly, you’re dying in your first
(1:26:37) Al: boss blind. If you don’t have a single joker by that point, unless you get a straight or
(1:26:39) Kev: Yeah, pretty much, which actually leads me to my deck of choice on I think it’s called the orange deck.
(1:26:45) Al: a flush, you’re dead.
(1:26:54) Kev: So what it does, it removes all the face cards from the deck you only have a 40 card deck not a 52 card deck and only the numbers, you get the aces. So you go ace to 10.
(1:27:00) Al: - Whoa, interesting.
(1:27:05) Kev: And I like it because that makes straights and flushes a lot more consistent.
(1:27:10) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s a good point. That’s a good point. I guess it’s also I don’t know if
(1:27:11) Kev: Right.
(1:27:12) Kev: Yeah.
(1:27:15) Al: you but my brain always takes a minute to figure out how to do a straight with face cards. It’s
(1:27:20) Al: like if you if you sit me down I can obviously I can I can get it but it’s not like immediate. I
(1:27:21) Kev: Yeah.
(1:27:24) Kev: Sure.
(1:27:25) Al: don’t look at I look at two and three and know they’re next to each other. I look at a king and
(1:27:29) Al: a jack and I’m like which order do they go in again? Oh yeah no they’re not next to each other.
(1:27:32) Kev: Yeah, yep, you’re right about that.
(1:27:35) Al: Especially when you have the card that that allows you to skip ones then it becomes even
(1:27:40) Kev: Oh, yeah.
(1:27:40) Al: you’re like wait which cards am I allowed to use right now? Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.
(1:27:46) Kev: Yeah, can he nine or they next to each other.
(1:27:49) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.
(1:27:52) Kev: So yeah, so I really liked that because it adds a degree of consistency I really like.
(1:27:57) Kev: And when I get those other cards that modify the straights, it’s good stuff.
(1:28:03) Kev: But it counts as, I think, high, because it still counts as 11.
(1:28:04) Al: Oh here’s a here’s a question for you in that one does ace count as high and low or just low?
(1:28:14) Al: So you right okay so you can it’s both right that’s fine just because because obviously
(1:28:14) Kev: But you can still–well, right, yeah, yeah, but you still count–
(1:28:19) Al: obviously in your normal deck you can do either nine jack sorry ten jack queen king ace or you
(1:28:27) Al: can do ace two three four five and my question was in in in the very can you do
(1:28:30) Kev: yeah yeah um okay oh okay that’s what you mean then it’s it’s only low it’s
(1:28:34) Al: both ways as well without the face cards it’s only a little row without the face cards okay
(1:28:36) Kev: only low yeah you can’t do ace ten nine yeah yeah sorry man it gives you 11
(1:28:40) Al: yeah okay
(1:28:43) Kev: chips but yeah no I don’t think maybe I’ve ever been doing it oh no
(1:28:48) Al: Well, I guess, no, I mean, now that I think about it, of course,
(1:28:51) Al: that wouldn’t make any sense, because just because you don’t have any face
(1:28:53) Al: cards doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
(1:28:55) Al: Like presumably they’re like, you can get them from booster packs and stuff.
(1:28:56) Kev: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. You can. So yeah. That’s correct. So
(1:28:59) Al: Exactly.
(1:29:00) Al: So in that case, my question is pointless.
(1:29:02) Al: It works in exactly the same way as it would before.
(1:29:05) Al: It doesn’t mean that those two, three cards don’t exist.
(1:29:11) Kev: yeah, that’s, you’re right, that is unfortunate that it removes
(1:29:14) Kev: that, the high part of it. But I mean, still, you know, going
(1:29:18) Kev: from just to 10 to eight, it makes the straights a lot more
(1:29:23) Kev: consistent. So yeah, that’s the one I’m
(1:29:26) Kev: working with. There are some other good decks I’ve unlocked that I want to try and probably will
(1:29:30) Kev: because I’m an addict to this game. But but yeah, oh, in the real downside. So obviously the big
(1:29:38) Kev: downside to the orange deck is I don’t get the high chip points scores from all the face cards
(1:29:45) Kev: because they’re all plus 10, right? So I lose that value. But the real pain is that I can’t
(1:29:51) Kev: Use the crossover car. I mean I can’t use the crossover text, but I don’t see that
(1:29:56) Kev: I don’t get to see Dave or the Witcher all that stuff because they only affect a face cards
(1:30:00) Al: That is a great segue, because this is the reason that we, this is the 100% reason that
(1:30:04) Kev: Yeah
(1:30:08) Al: we are doing this. What are your favorite, what are your favorite packs on the decks?
(1:30:10) Kev: Yup, there you go
(1:30:16) Kev: Okay, I
(1:30:19) Kev: I’m gonna get heat for this. I can already tell you
(1:30:22) Kev: Oh, I don’t think I mentioned I have a puppy people
(1:30:26) Kev: Hello everyone, I have a puppy now. Um, I don’t know if you just heard him. But um, anyways, um, the the one
(1:30:34) Kev: Biter out. Um, he I like the among us deck
(1:30:40) Kev: Good old and bogus. Um, I just something about the the
(1:30:46) Kev: I don’t know the cartoony nature of it and the king being the little monster that’s eating everything. I think is very into enjoyable
(1:30:54) Kev: Maybe it’s because it’s so
(1:30:56) Kev: Cartoonian goofy as opposed to all the other ones which try to blend more into I think the regal themes of it or whatever
(1:31:04) Kev: Okay, I do think it is absolute heresy in the Dave so, you know, let’s go over all of them, right? So they’re there
(1:31:11) Al: OK, right, so let’s start in, let’s start with the spades, we’ve, oh yeah, just before
(1:31:15) Al: we talk about this, what I found really weird, and I didn’t understand until I actually tried
(1:31:19) Al: to set this up, is there only for, each one is only for a specific set, what they called
(1:31:25) Kev: Suit yeah, yeah, yeah very weird
(1:31:26) Al: suit, that’s the word, yeah, so like the stardew one only exists for diamonds, you cannot have
(1:31:32) Al: it in anything else, which I found super weird.
(1:31:35) Kev: It is very weird right because all I think all of these well
(1:31:40) Kev: I I don’t know all of these games, so maybe I’m wrong, but that’s only you need nine characters right for all
(1:31:48) Kev: To have all face cards of each suit, and that’s not terribly hard
(1:31:52) Al: Well, it’s not even that you could just have them all the same, right? Because if you look at
(1:31:58) Kev: Or that yeah
(1:31:59) Al: the base ones, they look exactly the same, they’re just next to - or they don’t actually look exactly
(1:32:04) Al: the same, they look slightly different, but only slightly different. If you look at them next to
(1:32:06) Kev: Yeah, no, I don’t think so because yeah, yeah.
(1:32:09) Al: each other, you can tell a difference, but if you don’t - especially as they’ve got a nice
(1:32:14) Al: accessibility setting to add high contrast cards, which makes them all different colours,
(1:32:17) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(1:32:20) Al: so it makes the spades black.
(1:32:22) Al: The hearts red, the clubs blue and the diamond and the diamonds yellow,
(1:32:23) Kev: Ooh, that’s nice.
(1:32:25) Al: which makes it so much easier to see the different suits.
(1:32:26) Kev: Yeah.
(1:32:29) Kev: Oh, that’s really nice.
(1:32:30) Kev: I like it ‘cause that sometimes that is,
(1:32:32) Kev: especially on mobile where it’s a small screen, right?
(1:32:34) Kev: Sometimes that’ll throw me off.
(1:32:36) Kev: The clubs and the spades, they’re both like blackish.
(1:32:38) Al: Yep. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, as soon as I learned about
(1:32:39) Kev: They could be hard to put, to tell apart.
(1:32:43) Kev: But you’re right, like, yeah, I don’t blame you at all.
(1:32:43) Al: that setting, I just turned on I’m like, this is makes life so
(1:32:46) Al: much easier.
(1:32:51) Kev: But yeah, you know what?
(1:32:53) Kev: You’re right.
(1:32:53) Kev: They could have just gone with the three they picked
(1:32:56) Kev: and applied them to each of the suits.
(1:32:57) Kev: It is very weird that you can’t have
(1:33:00) Kev: just a full Stardew Valley deck or whatever, right?
(1:33:02) Al: If I want my cards to all look the same, why not?
(1:33:04) Kev: Especially.
(1:33:05) Kev: Mm-hmm
(1:33:06) Kev: Yeah
(1:33:08) Al: It’s not like they’re fundamentally different in the sets normally.
(1:33:09) Kev: Yeah
(1:33:12) Kev: Right, it’s it’s all cosmetic it’s very weird right and like especially like Stardew which is a character heavy game or has a lot of popular
(1:33:20) Kev: characters
(1:33:21) Kev: Why not throw them all off? I mean, so okay, let’s go through the list now because we talked about it. So spades
(1:33:26) Al: Yeah, so, so we’ve got the Witcher, which is fine.
(1:33:30) Kev: Uh-huh
(1:33:32) Al: I’m not a Witcher fan.
(1:33:33) Al: I know you’ve got, is it Geralt, is that his name, Geralt?
(1:33:36) Kev: Geralt’s you’ve got
(1:33:37) Al: I don’t know who the other two are.
(1:33:38) Al: Oh, is the Joker, is that the bard that sings the song and the, yeah.
(1:33:41) Kev: Yeah, that’s the bard I forget the one who sings the good song on the Netflix show
(1:33:44) Al: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
(1:33:46) Kev: Yeah, that one and then the Queen is the I forget her name. It’s the love interest basically the main primary love interest, I believe
(1:33:47) Al: I don’t know the other character.
(1:33:51) Al: OK, it’s fine.
(1:33:53) Al: It’s definitely not not the best.
(1:33:56) Al: Thanks Lord and mine, mainly because I don’t care about the Witcher and also
(1:33:59) Al: because it’s not really that distinctive.
(1:34:02) Kev: Yeah, they’re, they’re very, um, like the Witcher, I mean, the art style, right, is
(1:34:06) Kev: very like, grounded fantasy or whatever, right? So, yeah, it’s not colorful or really distinctive.
(1:34:09) Al: Like, if that wasn’t listed as Witcher, you wouldn’t automatically assume it’s the Witcher.
(1:34:13) Kev: I agree with that.
(1:34:20) Kev: Maybe not I think I could tell what Gerald but otherwise. Yeah, you’re right
(1:34:25) Kev: The other one so far. Yep 2077. Um, I don’t know cyberpunk at all. So I don’t ask characters at all
(1:34:33) Al: Yeah, I have no idea about these characters either, but I think the style is a little
(1:34:37) Al: bit more interesting because obviously it’s more cyberpunk-y funnily enough.
(1:34:40) Kev: Yep. Yep. And okay.
(1:34:42) Al: So you’ve got one character with a guitar, an electric guitar,
(1:34:46) Al: one with like, is that meant to be like a scroll, but like an electronic scroll or something?
(1:34:53) Kev: something like that I don’t know or is it intended to switch yeah yeah that’s
(1:34:54) Al: And then the jack with a gun.
(1:35:02) Kev: fitting okay hold on let’s take a second because I don’t know the characters but
(1:35:06) Kev: I can tell you who the king is that’s the Keanu Reeves character cuz he’s got
(1:35:10) Kev: the sunglasses so Keanu Reeves in your Bellatro deck automatic wind right there
(1:35:11) Al: Oh, right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
(1:35:17) Kev: he’s got a guitar he’s my king for sure I’ll play you that
(1:35:23) Kev: um yep you have the little so it’s all the red crewmate which is kind of weird
(1:35:24) Al: And then we’ve got the hearts one. We’ve got your favourite one among us.
(1:35:31) Kev: I don’t know why they didn’t pick different colors but the okay okay yeah
(1:35:33) Al: Well, because it’s red, because it’s hearts.
(1:35:37) Kev: that makes sense okay so the king is an imposter it has the monster mouth with
(1:35:44) Kev: the long tongue the queen is with a queenly crown I don’t know what’s going
(1:35:50) Kev: and on there, I can’t, oh,
(1:35:52) Al: I think I think she I think oh yeah then I was gonna say just running but yeah yeah
(1:35:53) Kev: they’re popping out of the vent, the vent,
(1:35:55) Kev: they’re popping out of the vent.
(1:35:58) Al: then that makes more sense so that’s interesting because then both the king and the queen are
(1:35:59) Kev: Yeah, the Joker or the Jack.
(1:36:03) Kev: Yeah, you’re right, you’re right.
(1:36:04) Kev: The Queen is an imposter.
(1:36:05) Kev: The Jack is supposedly just a regular crewmate
(1:36:09) Kev: with a little crown and a little mini Among Us pet
(1:36:13) Kev: following them around, which is cute.
(1:36:16) Kev: But yeah, the King and Queen are imposters.
(1:36:17) Kev: Yeah, that’s a good catch, that’s fun.
(1:36:20) Al: Then we have the Binding of Isaac. I’ve not played this game either, so I don’t know about the characters, do you?
(1:36:20) Kev: Let’s see, then we have the,
(1:36:23) Kev: which,
(1:36:27) Kev: I don’t, either, the King has the baby,
(1:36:29) Kev: that’s the face of the game,
(1:36:30) Kev: that’s all I know, the little baby-looking person
(1:36:32) Al: I think it’s just Isaac, isn’t it?
(1:36:33) Kev: with the eyes.
(1:36:35) Kev: Is it probably, is that their name?
(1:36:36) Kev: I don’t even know.
(1:36:36) Al: I think so.
(1:36:37) Kev: They have a dice.
(1:36:39) Kev: Queen, I can’t even tell what the Queen is.
(1:36:40) Al: I think it’s a leg, like a monster-fied leg.
(1:36:45) Kev: Oh, I guess, I was thinking a mushroom,
(1:36:47) Kev: but you might be right, like it’s a stiletto,
(1:36:49) Kev: and yeah, the skirt, yeah, like the lamp from,
(1:36:53) Kev: The Christmas story or whatever, but just a weird and kind of lumpy.
(1:36:56) Al: A decapitated dog.
(1:36:59) Kev: And then the Jack, it’s a dog, with a separated head.
(1:37:05) Kev: I don’t know what’s going on there.
(1:37:08) Kev: Binding of Ozic fans, tell us what on earth all that means?
(1:37:12) Kev: Cuz I don’t know.
(1:37:14) Kev: All right, clubs, first one we got, okay, this is a fun one, Vampire Survivors.
(1:37:19) Kev: I don’t know the cards, the characters in this one that much either.
(1:37:22) Kev: I’ve never actually played vampire survival.
(1:37:22) Al: I mean, does vampire survivors actually have a story? I don’t think it does. I think it’s
(1:37:23) Kev: You know what? I should probably look on the internet.
(1:37:27) Al: just run around and shoot, right?
(1:37:45) Kev: I can’t tell what the queen is at all.
(1:37:49) Kev: Oh, no crash.
(1:37:51) Al: Looks like the Phantom of the Opera.
(1:37:54) Kev: » Yeah, yeah, let’s see here, trying to find a list.
(1:38:00) Kev: It might be a Phantom of the Opera thing.
(1:38:02) Kev: And then the Jack is some kind of old man.
(1:38:05) Kev: I don’t know who the old man is, I’m trying to find the list.
(1:38:10) Kev: Let’s see here, but until then, let’s go to diamonds real quick.
(1:38:15) Kev: I’m sorry, no, I’m skipping over Slay the Spire, which actually I think is a very,
(1:38:18) Al: Yeah, what a failure. Sorry, I’ve got it here. The Queen depicts Queen Sigma in Vampire Survivors.
(1:38:23) Kev: I kind of, okay, Queen Sigma, is this the sigma?
(1:38:32) Al: Queen Sigma is one of the playable characters in Vampire.
(1:38:33) Kev: You turn into the sigma deck, the sigma grind set?
(1:38:40) Kev: Well, there you go folks, let’s see, then we have, wait, who’s the Jack then?
(1:38:47) Al: Uh, Po. Yeah, he has, he has garlic as apparently his thing.
(1:38:49) Kev: Okay, I don’t know, just some old guy.
(1:38:53) Kev: Sorry, vampire survivors fan haven’t played yet.
(1:38:57) Kev: That’s kind of, which makes sense for the surviving vampires.
(1:39:01) Al: Vampire survivors game.
(1:39:03) Kev: Let’s see here, yeah, okay, that’s, wait a second.
(1:39:09) Al: - Yeah, so slay the spire.
(1:39:11) Kev: The king depicts the vampire survivors cover art, but
(1:39:15) Kev: the vampire doesn’t actually appear, it’s incredible, that’s good, I love that.
(1:39:24) Kev: All right, now let’s get to the ones we care about,
(1:39:28) Al: You just… yep, we’ve got Dave the Diver, and I can tell you these ones immediately, right?
(1:39:28) Kev: truly the most valuable, the diamonds, cuz our first one is good old Dave the Diver.
(1:39:35) Kev: Okay, well, sure, because they’re the three, right?
(1:39:40) Kev: Like, who else would they be if they didn’t pick?
(1:39:41) Al: The three main characters of the game.
(1:39:46) Kev: So, okay, the one thing, I both kind of love this and
(1:39:50) Kev: hate this. That Dave is actually the queen.
(1:39:53) Kev: because Dave is clearly the star but he’s also constantly shortchanged in the
(1:39:54) Al: Yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep.
(1:39:59) Kev: game and forced to do nonsense so it’s kind of fitting he’s the Queen it’s um
(1:40:06) Kev: we have um watch what oh my gosh camera the names Oh Bancho Bancho is the king
(1:40:12) Kev: the restaurant owner our sushi man and then Cobra is the jack
(1:40:16) Al: Which makes sense because the whole thing couldn’t happen without the sushi chef.
(1:40:20) Kev: Yeah, and he’s clearly the most commanding.
(1:40:23) Kev: He’s running everything, I mean, Dave is doing everything, but Bancho’s kind of running things.
(1:40:30) Kev: And then lastly at the jack, we have good old Cobra with a coin because he’s Mr. Business Money Man.
(1:40:38) Kev: Dave has his harpoon gun, Bancho has his sushi knife, all what you’d expect.
(1:40:44) Kev: They look stylish. They’re pixelated in game, so it fits perfectly. They look great.
(1:40:49) Kev: Um, yeah, very nice, strong.
(1:40:54) Kev: And then lastly, so what I like about the last set here, um, I think, uh, yeah, yeah, of course, drum roll please.
(1:41:00) Al: The Stardew Valley set for listeners who might not actually be paying attention.
(1:41:04) Kev: The Stardew Valley set. They actually maintain their characters’ colors.
(1:41:09) Kev: Um, so all the, “Shoot, did we try to isolate this part or did I escape right over?”
(1:41:14) Kev: “Oh no, I did!”
(1:41:16) Al: You mentioned it, you mentioned it, but didn’t talk about the specifics of the cards.
(1:41:17) Kev: Yeah, I don’t know the characters. Yeah, I don’t know who they are, to be honest.
(1:41:23) Kev: I don’t know, uh, um, yeah, one of them’s like a dragon thing. That looks cool.
(1:41:27) Al: They look fine.
(1:41:31) Kev: Um, but, uh, yeah, okay, Stardew Valley.
(1:41:34) Kev: So what I was gonna say is all the other cards, they kind of have, like, uh, almost monochromatic theme that matches their suit or whatever, right?
(1:41:43) Kev: Uh, Stardew Valley kind of maintains their characters’ color schemes.
(1:41:47) Kev: Or just, you know, just art of the colors. They’re not, like, uh, really decked out or anything.
(1:41:53) Kev: Um, they’re just kind of stylized into the card set, which I think makes sense given the importance of the characters in Stardew Valley.
(1:42:01) Kev: As, you know, as a general, like, how critical it was to that game’s success and whatnot and what the appeal of it.
(1:42:07) Kev: Um, what I don’t know is how I feel about the choices, though.
(1:42:07) Al: Yeah, they are more, they are more consistently coloured if you turn on the high contrast ones.
(1:42:16) Kev: Ah.
(1:42:16) Al: They turn a lot of the colours into the yellow. I think, yeah, so I think this is actually really
(1:42:19) Kev: Okay.
(1:42:21) Kev: Okay.
(1:42:23) Al: clever, right? So the king is obviously Louis, he’s the mayor, right? Like, it’s a similar sort
(1:42:26) Kev: Sure.
(1:42:28) Al: of thing. And then, of course, who is Louis’s queen? Marnie. I mean, there couldn’t be another
(1:42:35) Al: option for Queen.
(1:42:37) Al: the king has to be the mayor, then of course Marnie has to be the queen.
(1:42:41) Al: And then we’ve got the Jack. The Jack is the interesting choice,
(1:42:45) Al: right? Because I think this, I think it makes sense. Why have I blanked on his name? Mr. Shopman.
(1:42:52) Kev: it’s um here it’s such a the peak shop owner man gosh darn it what some fans we are thank you
(1:42:58) Al: Yeah. Pierre, Pierre, yes, Pierre, Pierre, yes, Pierre, you’re correct. Pierre, I think it makes
(1:43:03) Kev: Thank you.
(1:43:04) Kev: That’s okay.
(1:43:04) Kev: Yes, okay.
(1:43:07) Al: quite a few of them. The Jack has money relations in some way, so it makes sense that that would
(1:43:15) Al: be the case. I think you could make arguments for other things, but I think when you make the
(1:43:19) Al: decision that king equals mayor, then I think it all just falls into place. I think it makes sense.
(1:43:24) Kev: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, money-wise, he’s probably the highest ranking, right? I’d say that.
(1:43:33) Al: You could have put, you could have put, what’s his name, the oh, why can’t I remember his name?
(1:43:39) Kev: J for Joja?
(1:43:41) Al: Yeah, the Georgia guy, what’s his name?
(1:43:43) Kev: I don’t remember his name either.
(1:43:44) Al: Oh, why can I not remember his name?
(1:43:47) Kev: How high was he on our tier list?
(1:43:51) Al: Morris, that’s his name. I think you could have made an argument for Morris for the Jack,
(1:43:52) Kev: Morse.
(1:43:54) Kev: That would be funny.
(1:43:56) Al: but I think people would, exactly, and it’s not like you’re putting on our,
(1:43:57) Kev: I guess so, but Pierre is the more recognizable,
(1:44:00) Kev: iconic, right?
(1:44:03) Al: we all hate. I think it would be different if you’d done that, then it would have been something.
(1:44:05) Kev: Yeah.
(1:44:08) Kev: Yeah.
(1:44:10) Kev: Yeah.
(1:44:12) Kev: You know, again, I wish they could have done a full deck,
(1:44:16) Kev: so could at least get nine-star two characters.
(1:44:18) Kev: But the more I think about it, you probably
(1:44:20) Kev: have to stay away from the romances, right?
(1:44:22) Kev: because you’d neither include all of-
(1:44:24) Al: Yeah, yeah. Why quite?
(1:44:24) Kev: them or none of them, granted there’s probably enough characters without the
(1:44:29) Kev: romanceables to include for just nine, but yeah, yeah, there should be with all the
(1:44:32) Al: Good question. Maybe, maybe just about.
(1:44:40) Al: One last point I like about this is that Lewis and Marnie are, although they’re king and queen,
(1:44:47) Al: they’re also the king away from each other, you know, kind of nodding towards the secrecy of their
(1:44:52) Al: their relationship.
(1:44:54) Kev: but the flip side are looking at each other
(1:44:54) Al: Yeah, well, I think that’s deliberate, right?
(1:44:56) Kev: ‘cause you know how the face cards,
(1:44:57) Kev: they have the bob and bottom.
(1:45:00) Al: So it’s like the standard side is looking away from each other, but the bottom one,
(1:45:01) Kev: Yeah.
(1:45:04) Al: the secret part, is looking at each other.
(1:45:06) Al: I think that’s very deliberate.
(1:45:07) Kev: That is pretty clever.
(1:45:09) Kev: I like how Marnie’s holding a chicken.
(1:45:11) Kev: I’ll say that.
(1:45:13) Kev: But also, I think we’re over,
(1:45:16) Kev: we haven’t mentioned probably the most important part.
(1:45:20) Kev: In the King on Lewis’s,
(1:45:22) Kev: He’s holding, I think, a bunch of grapes.
(1:45:24) Kev: On top of that, there is a little junimo.
(1:45:27) Al: It’s not, it’s not, it’s not a bunch of grapes. It’s his underwear.
(1:45:32) Kev: Oh, it’s his underwear! Oh my gosh! Wow!
(1:45:35) Kev: Good job, me.
(1:45:36) Al: Kevin, Kevin, you just call yourself a Stardew fan.
(1:45:37) Kev: Oh, wow.
(1:45:38) Kev: I’m retired, I’m quitting, I’m done, my career’s over, I’m canceling myself.
(1:45:41) Al: A bunch of grapes. Maybe it’s less visible, because are you playing it on a phone?
(1:45:46) Kev: But yes, I’m looking on a phone, that’s probably why. It looks like grapes, but you’re right, it’s just his underwear.
(1:45:46) Al: Yeah. Whereas I’m playing it on a tablet, so it’s much bigger on my screen.
(1:45:54) Kev: Okay, yeah, oh my gosh, it is his just his underpants, oh my gosh, which of course, that makes sense, duh!
(1:45:55) Al: a bunch of crepes!
(1:45:57) Al: And, of course, Marnie is holding a chicken, and Pierre is, of course, holding a bag of
(1:45:59) Kev: I thought I could, I thought I was like, “Oh, is his grapes like his favorite item?” No, no, either way, okay, so you have a junimo.
(1:46:10) Al: money.
(1:46:11) Al: Oh, absolutely.
(1:46:12) Kev: that’s all he cares about, not even his family.
(1:46:14) Al: Yeah, yeah, good fun.
(1:46:20) Kev: Yeah, but the, look, the Junimo showed up.
(1:46:23) Kev: What else should we, what else could we ask for?
(1:46:27) Kev: Well, I mean, all in all, again,
(1:46:29) Kev: very odd that they split it up by the suits.
(1:46:33) Kev: It is kind of fun though,
(1:46:34) Kev: that if you want to make a deck with the Witcher
(1:46:36) Kev: and Stardew Valley and Slay of the Spire and Among Us,
(1:46:41) Kev: you know, you can have all of that.
(1:46:42) Kev: It’s a weird hodgepodge, but it would still be nice
(1:46:45) Al: I would also even accept not having a full deck of stardew if we could also like switch
(1:46:46) Kev: to have a full deck of Stardew.
(1:46:53) Al: which one is which, right? So the fact that stardew and dave the diver are both on diamonds
(1:46:55) Kev: Ooh, mm-hmm, that’s a good point.
(1:46:58) Al: means I can’t have both of them in one day.
(1:47:03) Kev: Yeah, why don’t they do that?
(1:47:04) Kev: Like just instead of looking at,
(1:47:07) Kev: okay, which diamond do you want?
(1:47:08) Kev: Say, okay, here’s the different crossovers.
(1:47:11) Kev: Okay, yeah, okay, I want to set David Diver to spades.
(1:47:15) Kev: I’ll set Among Us to clubs, whatever.
(1:47:17) Kev: You’re super right, they should do that.
(1:47:19) Kev: That doesn’t seem terribly hard to do,
(1:47:20) Kev: so Bellatro programmer who’s listening to us,
(1:47:23) Kev: go fix that right now.
(1:47:23) Al: So just final point, what is your deck look like then? Which ones have you chosen for each of the series?
(1:47:26) Kev: Oh, okay, I’ve got Witcher, Among Us, I’ve got Vampire Survivors and I’ve got Day.
(1:47:38) Kev: Sorry, Stormdew, but I love Nate Mediver.
(1:47:40) Kev: The actual character, Dave, he makes me laugh.
(1:47:40) Al: I have Cyberpunk among us, Slay the Spire and Stardew Valley. Obviously, I had to have
(1:47:43) Kev: What about you, Al? What’s your set?
(1:47:52) Al: Stardew Valley. I thought the Slay the Spire looked more interesting than the… Obviously,
(1:47:54) Kev: - Yeah, that’s the question.
(1:47:56) Kev: - It does, I don’t blame you.
(1:47:58) Kev: I just like the grandpa.
(1:47:59) Al: we both chose the Among Us, because it’s ultimately the best set they have in this game. And yeah,
(1:48:06) Al: As discussed earlier, I just think that the Witcher looks too generic and Cyberpunk is
(1:48:10) Kev: Yeah, that’s fair. And also you have Keanu with a guitar. So, you know, you win.
(1:48:10) Al: much more interesting.
(1:48:24) Kev: Sure, yeah, that’s fair. Um, yeah, well, here’s hoping but you know what like we just have this
(1:48:31) Kev: But obviously this game has gotten a lot of success here’s hoping we’ll get so they’ll maybe change that and and
(1:48:38) Kev: If that happens, it’ll be likely because we get more crossovers, which I think is very plausible
(1:48:42) Al: I think we’re probably going to get more crossovers, yeah. Because they announced three, they announced
(1:48:45) Kev: It’s not a hard thing to do
(1:48:47) Al: four at a time. Like, yeah, it feels… Other fun fact about this, Concern Date made the art for the
(1:48:54) Al: Stardew Pack himself, which is a classic, classic Concern Date thing to do. But yeah.
(1:48:56) Kev: - Yeah, there you go.
(1:49:01) Kev: - You mean, by thing for Concerned If to Do,
(1:49:05) Kev: you mean everything, ‘cause he does everything.
(1:49:06) Al: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, great. Thank you, Kevin, for joining me.
(1:49:12) Al: To talk about the most, the most cottagecore game in the world, Bellattro.
(1:49:18) Kev: Classic Cottagecore
(1:49:21) Al: Where can people find you on the internet?
(1:49:22) Kev: All right folks find me at Koopapres on Twitter or blue Scott I’m Chinese blue sky more
(1:49:28) Kev: Find me at surprise square on Twitter see my art account. I’m trying to get the blue sky one going
(1:49:33) Kev: I have a lot of plans for it. I just I have not had time
(1:49:37) Kev: Find me at Rainbow Road radio, which is at Rainbow Mario pod on Twitter, but Rainbow Road or ever else again
(1:49:43) Kev: That’s the Mario theme podcast. I do with our mutual friend Alex. We just did bows inside story
(1:49:47) Kev: It’s a lot of good stuff
(1:49:48) Kev: We got a lot of stuff happening over there in Mario World
(1:49:50) Kev: We got new DK Land coming
(1:49:52) Kev: Umm, what about you, uh, where do people
(1:49:54) Al: You can find me on most social media as thescotbot, including my main one, masterton.scot,
(1:50:02) Al: but I mean, if there’s a social media, you’ll probably find me on it now with that.
(1:50:06) Al: You can find the podcast on Tumblr at THSPod. I do have accounts on other social media,
(1:50:12) Al: but I haven’t set them up yet, so feel free to follow them,
(1:50:14) Al: but there won’t be anything on them until I’ve, you know, started all that out.
(1:50:20) Al: the best way to find us though is on.
(1:50:24) Al: our website harvestseason.club which you know I’m always keeping up to date with links to
(1:50:31) Al: things. There’s a feedback form on there if you want to send us some feedback tell us what your
(1:50:36) Al: favorite strategy in Balatro is and you can also find links to everything to do with the podcast
(1:50:43) Al: including a link to our patreon patreon.com/thspod where you can support the podcast and get access
(1:50:51) Al: to our slack and bonus episodes of.
(1:50:54) Al: the podcast. I am currently thinking about how it’s going to go going forwards because
(1:50:59) Al: it’s been quite a few years now and I’m wanting to rethink a couple of things about the Patreon,
(1:51:04) Al: but there’s always going to be exciting things for you. There will always be extra content
(1:51:09) Al: that will always be a place to chat and we’ll see what else comes.
(1:51:12) Kev: I mean the greenhouse and the slack are a lot of value on their own already like the greenhouse
(1:51:16) Kev: you can go back and listen to like the majority of those episodes they’re still good they’re mostly
(1:51:21) Kev: comments and opinions on all sorts of different things so go for it
(1:51:26) Al: Yeah, I think that’s everything. Thank you, Kevin, again for joining me.
(1:51:29) Kev: thank you all for having me on
(1:51:31) Al: Thank you listeners for listening, and until next time.
(1:51:34) Kev: all that out uh given the nature of our episode I think it’s uh fitting we have a joke
(1:51:42) Kev: uh sign us off no
(1:51:47) Kev: well boys and girls I hope you’ve had fun we’ve had some tears we’ve had some laughs
(1:51:54) Kev: tune in next week same bat kennel same bat time for another episode that will definitely put a
(1:52:01) Kev: smile on your face but until then have a good harvest
(1:52:09) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our
(1:52:18) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa.
(1:52:22) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess.
(1:52:27) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed
(1:52:33) Theme Tune: in this episode.
(1:52:42) Al: Speaking of Japanese games with animes,
(1:52:45) Al: Farmagia also have their anime coming,
(1:52:50) Al: and we have a trailer for that.
(1:52:50) Kev: Okay, okay one second. Hold on. I want to back up. I just want to comment one thing on sock and I real quick
(1:52:55) Al: Oh, that was a great segue,
(1:52:55) Kev: I looked it up
(1:53:00) Al: and you’re just gonna get rid of my great segue.
(1:53:03) Kev: You’re fine fine, let’s go let’s continue. I’ll bring it up later. I killed it. Okay fine and credits
(1:53:03) Al: Oh, no, no, no, it’s fine,
(1:53:07) Al: because I will just put it in the end credits.
(1:53:09) Al: I will put it in the end credits,
(1:53:11) Al: And, and, and people.
(1:53:11) Kev: You
(1:53:12) Al: Still hear my fantastic segue and you can still ruin it, right?
(1:53:16) Al: Tell me what you want to tell me.

The Harvest Season

What A Joker

Timings

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Transcript