The 9-11 For Cottagecore Fans
Wed, Jun 3, 2026 Year 3, Autumn 22Kevin and Liam talk about Rune Factory: Guardians Of Azuma.
Timings
00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:12:55: What Have We Been Up To
00:42:49: Rune Factory: Guardians Of Azuma
02:06:40: Outro
Links
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma on Steam
Garden Guardian on Steam
Contact
Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot
Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/
Transcript
Theme Tune
Intro
(30s) Kevin:
Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of the Harvey season.
(34s)
My name is Kevin.
(35s) Liam:
And my name is Liam.
(35s) Kevin:
There we go.
(37s)
I was doing the motion.
(38s)
I know you can’t see me, but I was I was I was motioning towards you.
(40s) Liam:
I felt it.
(42s)
I felt it
(43s) Kevin:
And we are here today to talk about…
(47s)
Well, no, some cottage core game, mostly Guardians.
(50s) Liam:
We are here to talk largely about a cottage core game.
(51s) Kevin:
Largely.
(53s)
Maybe.
(54s) Liam:
Maybe.
(54s) Kevin:
Look, our ratios have been off lately.
(56s) Liam:
Oh yeah?
(57s) Kevin:
Some, some would say.
(59s)
So, uh, I mean, like Pokopia came out and that was, uh, how should I put a generational event for for our little show here?
(1m 7s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1m 7s) Kevin:
Um, not just because the game is excellent, but we were also all big Pokemon fans that get, there’s probably a big overlap in general between cottage corn, Pokemon fans, but anyways, um, so we, we,
(1m 17s) Liam:
What a what a game too.
(1m 19s) Kevin:
Well, I mean, you you played it?
(1m 19s) Liam:
I mean, like holy…
(1m 21s)
Oh yeah, absolutely.
(1m 21s) Kevin:
Oh.
(1m 23s) Liam:
My wife and I were were hard obsessed with it for like 2 weeks. And then, interestingly enough, we both sort of hit the same point where we just dropped off hard and we were like, we should sell this while it’s still worth a lot of money.
(1m 37s)
And then we did.
(1m 38s)
But, um, I played up to like the the 3rd area, which for me was the one with the boat, the SSN, and and, and I just like hit a hard wall and I was like, okay, I’ve had my, I’ve had my fill and my wife did the exact same thing in the other order.
(1m 43s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(1m 46s)
Yeah.
(1m 55s) Liam:
She did the SSN 2nd and then the mines 3rd and hit a wall.
(2m) Kevin:
Oh, that, mm, okay, like I get it.
(2m 3s)
Like, you go hard and then you hit why, I get it.
(2m 5s)
Um, I wish you could have seen the ending or I don’t know how much you’ve seen or heard or gathered, but.
(2m 6s) Liam:
Hmm.
(2m 11s)
Oh, I haven’t seen the ending.
(2m 13s)
I know that like, I, what’s the spoiler level that we’re at on this podcast?
(2m 17s) Kevin:
Oh, I mean, okay, well, it depends on topic.
(2m 17s) Liam:
Is this for Pocopia?
(2m 19s) Kevin:
Yes, it’s open range.
(2m 22s)
We, we, we, on top to bottom of this.
(2m 22s) Liam:
Okay.
(2m 23s)
I have all I have seen as far as, like, spoilers go, is that the last area is, like, this broken up, like, floating islands place thing that seems rather neat, but, uh, and that you get like a magnamite power at the end that is, like, mad OP and lets you build pretty willy-nilly.
(2m 35s) Kevin:
Yes.
(2m 42s)
Yeah.
(2m 42s) Liam:
But otherwise, I don’t actually know the ending or anything yet.
(2m 45s)
So maybe one day.
(2m 46s)
But, um, to be clear, our experience with the game where we cut ourselves off short was entirely a positive one because we were both like, it was starting to feel like a drag to play.
(2m 47s) Kevin:
Oh, well.
(2m 55s)
Yeah.
(2m 58s) Liam:
So I’m glad we ended where we did instead of trying to force our way through an extra 20 hours of of that.
(2m 59s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(3m 5s)
Sure.
(3m 5s)
Sure.
(3m 5s) Liam:
So.
(3m 7s)
Hmm.
(3m 7s) Kevin:
And that’s an interesting one because, like, you can, like, be line it pretty dang quick.
(3m 16s)
But it’s so easy to get distracted because, you know, you want to, you’re building up a little house, sure, make it a little nice and whatnot.
(3m 17s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(3m 22s) Kevin:
But, um, but I will say like, I mean, you know, gameplay wise, like, yeah, there’s probably a couple stuff.
(3m 30s)
Um, but it’s really the story, which is weird to say, because, I mean, Pokemon’s writing’s not stellar to begin with in general, but, or, um, and you know, this sort of crafting, if you unexpected.
(3m 39s) Liam:
Sure.
(3m 43s) Kevin:
But the story is is wild.
(3m 44s)
Um, And and it’s because it’s also how it’s told, a lot of it’s like, you’ve already seen it, like the environmental storytelling, right?
(3m 53s) Liam:
Yeah, like the notes and stuff like that.
(3m 53s) Kevin:
Like just what’s happened?
(3m 54s)
Mm-hmm.
(3m 55s)
Yeah.
(3m 55s) Liam:
It’s funny team rocket guy who wants me to bring him plants.
(3m 59s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(4m) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(4m 1s) Kevin:
Oh man, it’s, yeah, it’s.
(4m 2s) Liam:
Yeah, the storytelling is very charming.
(4m 6s)
The narrative design, pretty pretty strong, honestly.
(4m 7s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(4m 8s)
Yeah.
(4m 9s) Liam:
I agree.
(4m 10s)
Speaking of getting distracted, though, I may have veered us immediately off of your podcast format, so I’ll be happy to
(4m 15s) Kevin:
No, that that’s fine. Tangents are the podcast format, someone say.
(4m 20s) Liam:
You are right, you are right.
(4m 23s)
What is a podcast, a miserable pile of tangents?
(4m 26s) Kevin:
Damn, dude, you nailed the episode title too.
(4m 32s)
Oh, that’s A plus.
(4m 33s)
Um, it really is.
(4m 35s)
Um, I mean, we, we’ve been, uh, it’s, it’s been called to our attention, like I said, um, the, the whole reason I brought it up, because uh, we, like one of the few negative uh, comments we’ve received in a while was, was a guy who said, been talking too much about Pocopia, but, um, uh, but, like, I don’t know what to tell you, but, like, it was, it was the clearest day when we’ve been talking about it all year, it was going to be a thing for us.
(5m 1s)
Um anyways.
(5m 3s) Liam:
Man, it’s tough to thread that needle, though.
(5m 4s)
Like, you know, because you’re right.
(5m 6s)
It’s uh, I mean, it’s like, it’s the the 911 for Cottage Core fans when Pokopia hit.
(5m 10s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(5m 11s)
Yeah.
(5m 12s) Liam:
Like it was, you know, really…
(5m 13s)
What was it?
(5m 14s)
You said world-defining, or, you, you, generational.
(5m 15s) Kevin:
Generational, so that’s it.
(5m 19s) Liam:
That’s that’s much better than what I said.
(5m 20s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(5m 20s) Liam:
Um, like, so it’s hard to thread that needle when someone maybe is not into Pokopia, and all you want to talk about is the game that owns the space.
(5m 27s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(5m 28s)
Yeah, yeah.
(5m 30s)
That’s, yeah, that’s fair.
(5m 30s) Liam:
Yeah.
(5m 32s)
Oh, oh, well.
(5m 34s) Kevin:
Oh, well, indeed, but, but hey, actually, this is the 1st episode of, I’ve been on since it came out where the Pokopia was not the focus.
(5m 34s) Liam:
Yeah.
(5m 35s)
Indeed.
(5m 44s) Kevin:
Um, but, but, uh, yeah, and yet here we are.
(5m 45s) Liam:
And yet.
(5m 48s)
Yeah, yeah.
(5m 48s) Kevin:
Um, anyways, um, uh, I’m gonna, anyways, so just final note, like, I, I would invite you to look up the, the story, like the final pieces, like, like, it’s not even the actual plot.
(5m 56s) Liam:
Yep.
(6m 1s)
Hmm.
(6m 2s) Kevin:
The plot is fairly light, but the background information and what you, you, you piece it all together in the credit sequence.
(6m 11s)
It’s chef’s gifts.
(6m 13s)
Um,
(6m 14s) Liam:
Ooh, the credit sequence too, huh?
(6m 14s) Kevin:
Oh yeah, the credit sequence is, yeah, yeah, it’s, it’s one that tells a little something right up till the very end, one of those kinds of things.
(6m 23s)
Um,
(6m 24s) Liam:
Man, maybe I should.
(6m 25s)
Maybe maybe I should try to just watch that with my wife tonight or something.
(6m 28s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah, I would.
(6m 28s) Liam:
I’m really intrigued now.
(6m 30s) Kevin:
Yeah, because I don’t know how much you know or what you learned, but there’s some nonsense going on.
(6m 38s)
I mean, as you can tell, because like you said, you saw the screwed up, um, shifted mountains and cities, but in half, um, like, it’s, it’s, yeah, there’s some nonsense going on and figuring out why everything is like that.
(6m 40s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(6m 42s)
Definitely.
(6m 54s) Kevin:
It’s it’s insane.
(6m 56s)
Um, yeah, Omega Force.
(6m 57s) Liam:
Yeah.
(6m 58s) Kevin:
Surprisingly good writers.
(6m 59s)
Um, they did uh, the dragon…
(7m 2s) Liam:
They got they got people.
(7m 2s) Kevin:
Yeah, they do.
(7m 4s)
They got the Dragon Quest Builders games.
(7m 6s)
I don’t know if you played either of those, but I played two.
(7m 9s) Liam:
Yeah, I played only the 1st one, but yeah.
(7m 9s) Kevin:
And that, that, Mm.
(7m 12s)
Uh, oh, I I need to.
(7m 13s)
I have not tried the 1st one.
(7m 14s)
Um, I heard too was an improvement pretty much in every way, but, um,
(7m 18s) Liam:
That’s my impression, yeah.
(7m 18s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(7m 20s)
But, uh, Yeah.
(7m 20s) Liam:
The cool thing about the 1st one is it’s the best Dragon Quest builders you can play on the PlayStation Vita.
(7m 27s) Kevin:
No.
(7m 28s)
Wait, they made it to the Vita?
(7m 29s) Liam:
That that I really enjoyed.
(7m 30s) Kevin:
I didn’t realise it.
(7m 30s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah, it’s on the Vita, the 1st one.
(7m 33s)
I don’t I do not believe the 2nd one made it to Vita.
(7m 36s)
I should just like double check that.
(7m 38s)
But yeah, no, you got the switch version for that anyway.
(7m 40s) Kevin:
Ooh.
(7m 41s) Liam:
So, although I hear the Switch version of Builders 2 is shaky.
(7m 46s) Kevin:
It’s served.
(7m 46s) Liam:
Oh, yeah, no Vita, serviceable, you’d say?
(7m 47s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(7m 48s)
Yeah, it’s serviceable.
(7m 50s)
I played it.
(7m 51s)
I mean, I got a couple 100 hours on the switch, so yeah, you know, I, I,
(7m 55s) Liam:
Wow, nice.
(7m 56s) Kevin:
But I think I’m, I’ve been primarily a Nintendo guy in my life, so I do have more standard.
(8m 1s) Liam:
Hmm.
(8m 2s) Kevin:
So, you know, disclaimer.
(8m 4s)
Um.
(8m 5s) Liam:
Yeah, I mean, lower standards are just like, it doesn’t bother you, right?
(8m 9s) Kevin:
Hmm. Yeah.
(8m 9s) Liam:
Like, I totally get you there, honestly.
(8m 11s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah, I guess so.
(8m 12s) Liam:
Me, me playing Bayonetta 3 and not giving up about 60 FPS not being the, it’s like, whatever.
(8m 19s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(8m 20s) Liam:
Hmm. I don’t I don’t need to
(8m 22s)
I don’t need to insult myself.
(8m 24s)
I can just admit that I’m just like enjoying it the way it is.
(8m 26s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah.
(8m 28s)
Look, I’m a sonic fan.
(8m 30s)
I enjoy games with much bigger problems.
(8m 32s) Liam:
Yeah.
(8m 35s)
Look, here at the harvest season episode, whatever this is, we’re Sonic fans.
(8m 40s)
We’re on a different level.
(8m 43s) Kevin:
Oh my god.
(8m 43s) Liam:
I don’t know what that means.
(8m 44s) Kevin:
Oh, the the viewers know what that means.
(8m 48s)
The listeners, they know what that means.
(8m 50s) Liam:
Everyone drawing their own conclusion.
(8m 50s) Kevin:
Like, it’s.
(8m 52s)
Yeah, I, um, I mean, I’m I’m known as the Sonic fan for better and well, mostly for worse, but.
(8m 58s)
One of, uh, so we do a sideshow on on the Patreon.
(9m 3s)
It’s called the greenhouse.
(9m 4s)
It’s it’s like, uh, just just random topics.
(9m 7s)
It’s not cottage core nonsense.
(9m 8s)
It’s just whatever we feel like.
(9m 10s)
Um, one of my favourite episodes was uh, one of our um, uh, one of our friends uh, hosts on here, uh, on now and then.
(9m 11s) Liam:
Sure, sure.
(9m 18s) Kevin:
His name is Johnny.
(9m 19s)
Um, He’s a, he’s a pretty critical guy, let’s say, um, him and I, we, we, uh, butt heads or, or different opinions and a lot of things.
(9m 20s) Liam:
Hmm.
(9m 29s) Kevin:
But we get along great.
(9m 30s)
He’s a great guy.
(9m 31s)
Um, Anyways, so one day I just said, you know what, Johnny, I’m going to sit you down.
(9m 36s)
I’m gonna introduce, he’s never.
(9m 39s)
I dont think he’s ever played this on a game.
(9m 40s)
And I said, I’m gonna throw down a list of sonic characters and you’re gonna rate them.
(9m 47s) Liam:
Oh, fun.
(9m 48s) Kevin:
Yeah, that was good.
(9m 48s) Liam:
That’ll be good.
(9m 49s)
That would be good.
(9m 50s) Kevin:
It was it was fun stuff.
(9m 51s)
We started off very light.
(9m 52s) Liam:
You got you got to get him in there.
(9m 53s) Kevin:
I didn’t get deep.
(9m 55s)
I didn’t get the deep cuts in, but, um, I mean, we got big the cat, and so that’s all that matters.
(10m 1s)
Um,
(10m 2s) Liam:
Big, big the cat’s great.
(10m 2s) Kevin:
I do love big the cat.
(10m 3s) Liam:
It’s like a real wake-up call if you haven’t paid attention to Sonic designs in 27 years.
(10m 9s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah.
(10m 9s) Liam:
It’s like, ooh, ooh, what’s this guy?
(10m 11s)
what’s this guy’s deal?
(10m 12s)
He looks so different.
(10m 13s)
Yeah.
(10m 13s) Kevin:
What I what I love about being the cat is like, he, you know, he was the butt of the joke and and the, almost emblematic of what people felt was wrong with the series, but they really turned him around. Like, I get so hyped to see big now.
(10m 20s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(10m 28s) Kevin:
Uh, did you play, uh, uh, was it, um, Sonic, not forces.
(10m 33s)
Frontiers.
(10m 33s)
you play?
(10m 34s) Liam:
Uh, Frontier?
(10m 34s) Kevin:
you play Frontiers?
(10m 35s)
Yeah.
(10m 35s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah, I played through Frontiers, yeah.
(10m 35s) Kevin:
Yeah, how great was big in that?
(10m 38s) Liam:
It’s cute.
(10m 38s) Kevin:
The little fishing hole with him is great.
(10m 40s) Liam:
It’s cute when he shows up.
(10m 40s) Kevin:
I loved it.
(10m 41s)
Yeah.
(10m 42s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(10m 43s)
I always like big a lot, even in adventure.
(10m 46s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(10m 46s) Liam:
Because I feel like his his story is very sincere.
(10m 49s)
Like, even if, uh, even if maybe the the narrative around him is not the most well executed, there’s like a real sincerity to his friendship with Froggy and stuff that I, that I can always, I can always get behind.
(10m 55s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(11m)
There is.
(11m 3s) Liam:
Like, that game has such a strong emotional court.
(11m 3s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(11m 6s)
It does.
(11m 7s)
I agree with that.
(11m 10s) Liam:
Love.
(11m 10s) Kevin:
Uh, maybe one day we’ll get a good ream. One with uh, without blindingly shiny textures.
(11m 17s) Liam:
Yeah.
(11m 18s)
Did did you ever play, um, Sonic Dream Collect?
(11m 22s) Kevin:
No, but I watched you play it and that is…
(11m 24s) Liam:
Oh, okay, yeah, what a game.
(11m 26s)
What a time.
(11m 28s) Kevin:
That, oh.
(11m 28s) Liam:
That that big sequence is, uh, that also touched my heart in a different way.
(11m 29s) Kevin:
That.
(11m 33s)
That, that, that was also a generational game.
(11m 37s)
More so than generations.
(11m 38s) Liam:
Oh yeah.
(11m 39s) Kevin:
If you guys don’t know what Sonic Dreams collection is, either go play it right now or, well, you know, after the episode or go look up a playthrough of it, because it’s, uh, it’s, I can’t begin to describe it.
(11m 39s) Liam:
Yeah, for real.
(11m 49s)
Yeah, yeah.
(11m 51s) Kevin:
That’s, uh, that’s something very special.
(11m 52s) Liam:
It, it’s a free fan game, so just, yeah, I highly encourage, I highly encourage it.
(11m 59s) Kevin:
Oh, good.
(12m 1s)
There’s a non-zero chance, though, reference it one day.
(12m 4s)
There’s a non-zero.
(12m 6s) Liam:
Oh yeah, there’s a, there’s a, they probably already accidentally made references to it, but, yeah, it’s, uh, I mean, the, the, the pipeline of, like, sonic fans who want to officially work on sonic games.
(12m 10s) Kevin:
In fact.
(12m 11s)
Yeah.
(12m 12s)
Oh.
(12m 19s)
That’s true.
(12m 19s) Liam:
You know, like, it’s real, and we’ve seen that with like fan games becoming real games with like the murder of Sonic the Hedgehog.
(12m 27s) Kevin:
Yeah, that, oh, that was.
(12m 27s) Liam:
There’s a there’s a non-zero chance there is uh, already a reference to Dreams collection that I’m not aware of.
(12m 35s) Kevin:
Yeah very true.
(12m 37s)
Um, those those comics run deep.
(12m 38s) Liam:
Yep.
(12m 39s) Kevin:
I know I’m not a comic guy, but I know they run deep.
(12m 41s)
Oh, good times.
(12m 44s)
Oh, like you said, a mess of tangents.
(12m 47s)
I don’t know how we got here. We’re Sonic people.
(12m 49s) Liam:
That’s how I go.
(12m 49s) Kevin:
That’s how we got here.
(12m 50s) Liam:
It’s how it go.
(12m 50s) Kevin:
All right, Liam.
(12m 52s)
All right, okay.
What Have We Been Up To
(12m 54s) Kevin:
What have you been up to?
(12m 56s)
Let’s get to that.
(12m 56s)
What have you been up to in recent times or whenever you can pretend like it’s recent?
(13m 1s)
I don’t care.
(13m 2s) Liam:
I, uh, lately I had 2 things.
(13m 5s)
Uh, medical uh, intervention and being absolutely spoiled by video games on my Switch to.
(13m 9s) Kevin:
Oh.
(13m 14s)
Oh.
(13m 14s) Liam:
Um, so the the the first, the the less good thing is I had, uh, I like developed this, uh, everything’s okay.
(13m 23s)
I don’t have cancer, just to be clear.
(13m 24s) Kevin:
Okay.
(13m 25s) Liam:
But I like developed this condition in my lower gut that was really not good.
(13m 30s)
And the doctor, when they figured out what it was, which was pretty quick, they were like, you have to have a surgery ASAP.
(13m 30s) Kevin:
Oh.
(13m 38s) Liam:
Uh, so I had to have the 1st invasive surgery of my life.
(13m 42s) Kevin:
Hmm.
(13m 42s) Liam:
Uh, it will be 3 weeks on Friday since then.
(13m 46s)
Uh, and it was like, it was scary.
(13m 46s) Kevin:
Okay.
(13m 50s) Liam:
Like, I’m a squeamish dude around, like, medical stuff, and it was scary.
(13m 55s)
I had to like trick my brain into like accepting that all I was going to the doctor’s office for that day was for an IV.
(14m 3s)
They’re just gonna put an IV in me and that’s it.
(14m 5s)
And because I would be asleep for the rest of it.
(14m 6s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(14m 7s)
Yeah, I mean, effectively, that’s kind of what it’s like, or at least the one I experience.
(14m 7s) Liam:
So, um,
(14m 12s)
Yeah, and it was like that.
(14m 14s)
I mean, if for anyone who’s ever had that sort of thing, those drugs really work, man, they really, they really get you.
(14m 22s)
Um, I had heard about that all my life but never experienced it.
(14m 26s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(14m 26s) Liam:
And then when it happened, she’s like, you’re going to feel some tingling in your arm, I’m like, oh, okay.
(14m 30s)
And I was asleep before, before I felt a single, a single thing.
(14m 34s)
Anyway, I had that and then I had a week and a half of recovery.
(14m 39s)
The recovery was perfect.
(14m 40s)
It was totally fine, but boy, it hurt.
(14m 42s)
Like they had to cut me open my abdominal region.
(14m 44s) Kevin:
Oh.
(14m 45s)
Oh, so you have like scar, like big, big.
(14m 45s) Liam:
Yeah.
(14m 46s)
um
(14m 49s)
Yeah, you got, I got, I got scar surgical wound, exactly.
(14m 53s)
And like, that sort of thing.
(14m 55s)
There’s like some internal pain, some internal bruising from like where the thing was fixed, and then there’s like the, the, uh, surgical incision where it’s like on the abs, and like the distressing thing about that is, well, one of them is that like, it’s hard to live your life without activating your abdominal muscles.
(15m) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(15m 4s)
Yeah.
(15m 17s) Liam:
And so if you like sneeze, ouch, that hurts, that’s bad.
(15m 21s) Kevin:
Oh, that’s a bad one.
(15m 22s)
Laughing.
(15m 23s) Liam:
Uh, yeah, my, like, like 2 days after uh, the surgery, I was talking to my wife about Dig Doug because that’s what I do.
(15m 24s) Kevin:
Don’t laugh too hard.
(15m 33s) Liam:
And at some point she addressed the main character as Doug, like D-O-U-G, which was not correct.
(15m 33s) Kevin:
Yes.
(15m 38s)
Yes, yes.
(15m 40s) Liam:
And it was one of those you just really had to be there kind of funny moments.
(15m 44s)
But she, she explained to me how she earnestly thought the guy’s name was Dig Doug, D-O-U-G.
(15m 50s)
And having been at this, you just had to be there funny moment.
(15m 54s)
I was doubled over laughing.
(15m 56s)
I was in such pain. And she could see that I was in pain, but like a safe level.
(16m 2s)
So she kept playing into it and making it funnier.
(16m 4s)
Um, That’s, uh, that’s the kind of person I married.
(16m 5s) Kevin:
Oh, good on her.
(16m 6s)
Oh.
(16m 10s) Liam:
So, um, it was it was super funny.
(16m 10s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah.
(16m 12s) Liam:
But anyway, recovery’s been very good and I’ve, I’m like okay now.
(16m 15s) Kevin:
Well.
(16m 17s) Liam:
So, um,
(16m 17s) Kevin:
Well, that is wonderful to hear.
(16m 21s)
Um, I, Boy, that put things into context.
(16m 25s)
I feel like you just came out of surgery when I asked you about this episode.
(16m 28s) Liam:
Yeah, honestly, like, I think the timing probably was, like, right around that.
(16m 28s) Kevin:
Holy moly.
(16m 33s)
Is that? You have nothing to better to do.
(16m 35s)
I don’t blame you.
(16m 36s) Liam:
Yeah, exactly.
(16m 38s) Kevin:
Oh my god.
(16m 38s) Liam:
Thankfully, thankfully now, like everything’s pretty back to normal.
(16m 43s) Kevin:
All right.
(16m 43s) Liam:
Like I, the doctor’s like, you still shouldn’t do any heavy lifting and I’m like, oh, don’t worry.
(16m 47s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(16m 47s) Liam:
You know, no, nothing to worry about there.
(16m 48s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah.
(16m 50s) Liam:
But, um, yeah, uh, so, um, yeah, everything’s pretty much good now.
(16m 56s)
That was a big thing in my life that happened recently.
(16m 59s) Kevin:
Oh.
(16m 59s) Liam:
Uh, but more recently, like I, like I’ve said before, I have been just so spoiled by, like, games on the Switch 2 that I have been just over the moon to play.
(17m 9s)
Uh, I I was able to immediately find a copy of Indiana Jones in the Great Circle, uh, the, the Microsoft published one.
(17m 20s)
I found a used one, which is nice, because, you know, we should still probably not buy Microsoft stuff for a little while until they can, till they can, you know.
(17m 25s) Kevin:
Mm.
(17m 28s) Liam:
um
(17m 29s) Kevin:
I don’t know what till when, to be honest, but I get you.
(17m 31s) Liam:
Boy.
(17m 34s)
Yeah, I know until when, right?
(17m 35s) Kevin:
until question marks.
(17m 36s) Liam:
I felt pretty lucky to find a used copy so soon after launch and like, boy, man, the graphics on this thing, I’m not going to harp on about them, but like playing a handheld game with graphics that look like that is like, is pretty, what is it people say?
(17m 40s) Kevin:
Uh.
(17m 54s) Liam:
We’ve come a long way since Pac-Man, you know, it’s yeah, it’s such an interesting game.
(18m)
The puzzle solving is really fun too.
(18m 2s)
It’s got it’s got like nice real puzzles too, that are not just like you in a room with a square block in a square hole.
(18m 9s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(18m 9s) Liam:
Um, so I think it’s, I think it’s a really neat adventure game that does a whole lot of things and does a whole lot of things, right?
(18m 17s)
Uh, I also played the other, uh, big one that I’ve been playing is Yoshi and the mysterious book, which I, have you, have you heard of this?
(18m 23s) Kevin:
Ooh.
(18m 27s) Liam:
Are you are you tuned into?
(18m 27s) Kevin:
I’m aware.
(18m 28s)
I mean, I was aware of Indie too.
(18m 29s) Liam:
Okay.
(18m 30s) Kevin:
I’m played indie either, but I mean, like, I mean, obviously.
(18m 33s)
So like, it’s interesting how we have a whole Yoshi crafted sub genre now, but tell me about it.
(18m 41s) Liam:
You’ve seen this serious book finally jumps away from the crafted subgenre, so or like subseries, so no longer is Yoshi Yarn Yoshi, Yarn Yoshi has been deleted from existence at this point.
(18m 53s)
Basically, there’s this mysterious book.
(18m 56s)
His name’s Mr. E book, um, which is a fabulous name.
(19m 1s)
Um, and you can, he does, he does, and he appears, I believe, on Yoshi’s Island, and all the Yoshi’s are like, what’s up with you?
(19m 2s) Kevin:
Like, gosh, she has a moustache.
(19m 10s) Liam:
Uh, and you can go to you go to all these levels within the book that have these critters, all these different creatures that uh, are that are in need of research.
(19m 20s)
And so it’s a 2D platformer, but the way you progress the game is not through finishing stages through like dextrous platforming play, but you progress by investigating the creatures.
(19m 36s)
So you have to experiment with them and do things with them.
(19m 40s) Kevin:
Oh no.
(19m 40s) Liam:
A lot of the, there’s basic stuff you can do to every creature, you know, jumping on them eating them, throwing eggs at them and so on.
(19m 44s) Kevin:
How long?
(19m 47s)
I mean, I was going to say, how long hold them under what?
(19m 50s)
Can you hold them underwater for, but networks too?
(19m 51s) Liam:
Oh yeah, yeah.
(19m 53s)
Right?
(19m 54s)
That sort of thing.
(19m 55s)
Um, but you, but you know, yeah, like that sort of thing.
(19m 58s)
Because, like, for example, like, there’s this one creature who produces bubbles rapidly.
(20m 3s)
When you run around, they make more bubbles.
(20m 5s)
So like, okay, I threw him in the mud and now all of his bubbles are full of mud and they have like very different platforming properties.
(20m 13s)
I fed him a really spicy pepper and all of his bubbles explode now when they touch things, which you can use to do other things within the stage.
(20m 22s)
Sometimes you have the creatures meet up with each other.
(20m 24s)
Sometimes you mate the creatures.
(20m 26s)
Uh, there’s like, there’s all, there’s like a lot of actually genuinely really creative stuff.
(20m 33s)
Um, and like to to reiterate, like your progress is based on how much you discover rather than platforming dexterity.
(20m 43s)
So the platforming is kind of a means to the end and that that end is studying.
(20m 49s)
studying critters.
(20m 50s)
And, like, it’s really involved.
(20m 55s)
Like each critter, I feel like, has like 30 or more things to discover.
(20m 59s)
I don’t think I’ve fully cleared a single one in the, like, in the 10 to 15 or so 10 to 12 or so that I’ve seen.
(21m 8s)
I’m hearing a lot of, oh, no.
(21m 9s)
Is this a, oh no, I have to try this game.
(21m 10s) Kevin:
You can’t do this to me.
(21m 12s)
Can’t do this to me.
(21m 12s) Liam:
Yeah.
(21m 14s) Kevin:
I didn’t know there was a perfect storm.
(21m 14s) Liam:
I hate to say it.
(21m 17s)
I hate to say it, but it’s really good.
(21m 17s) Kevin:
Oh, for me.
(21m 18s)
Okay.
(21m 21s) Liam:
Like, this is probably my favourite Yoshi game.
(21m 24s)
That’s the end of that sentence.
(21m 25s) Kevin:
All right.
(21m 25s)
Here’s here.
(21m 28s)
Here’s here’s the context.
(21m 30s) Liam:
Yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
(21m 30s) Kevin:
Liam.
(21m 32s)
I mean, well, one, as established, I’m a big Pokemon fan, so, you know, the deck’s billing collecting, that’s obviously appealing, right?
(21m 36s) Liam:
Hmm.
(21m 39s) Kevin:
creature collectors, you know, always catches my eye.
(21m 41s)
But what you you don’t know.
(21m 44s)
I don’t think I’ve ever
(21m 45s)
discussed with you.
(21m 46s)
Um, I don’t want to say used to because technically we’re on indefinite hiatus right now.
(21m 46s) Liam:
Hmm.
(21m 51s) Kevin:
I did a Mario podcast with a friend of mine.
(21m 55s)
Um, so I am extremely well versed in Mario, um, lore and characters and nonsense.
(22m 3s) Liam:
Hmm.
(22m 3s) Kevin:
Um, and so, like, I mean, I know Yoshi is kind of an offshoot and gets slightly different things, like we don’t see Poocci running around in the Mario games, but, um,
(22m 4s) Liam:
Hmm.
(22m 13s)
Sure, but Yoshi’s a Mario.
(22m 14s) Kevin:
Yoshi is Amar.
(22m 15s) Liam:
fundamentally, Yoshi Zamario.
(22m 16s) Kevin:
Yes, it’s in the extended Mario universe, right?
(22m 17s) Liam:
Yeah.
(22m 20s) Kevin:
So, This is, this is checking all the right boxes and like this whole discovery angle.
(22m 21s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(22m 26s) Kevin:
Oh, that’s that’s my jam.
(22m 28s)
That’s, well, obviously it’s so much more invigorating than, you know, just…
(22m 34s)
selecting the same attack.
(22m 36s)
And all these creative things you’re talking about.
(22m 37s) Liam:
Yeah.
(22m 38s)
It’s it’s really cool.
(22m 42s)
And like, you know, unlike platformer games like, say, uh, I don’t know, like braid, where you see the gimmick and you’re like, okay, that is a generational gimmick for platformers.
(22m 54s)
I would say this creature, um, studying thing is not it’s not quite as powerful a gimmick, obviously.
(23m 1s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(23m 1s) Liam:
Like, you know, people aren’t seeing it and running out to the shops to grab Yoshi in the same way that, you know, like a game like Braid Made Waves.
(23m 5s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(23m 8s)
Yeah.
(23m 8s) Liam:
But the level of execution is so good.
(23m 12s)
That’s what’s really like killing it for me in this game.
(23m 16s)
they’re just nailing it.
(23m 18s)
Maybe I’m mixing metaphors there saying they’re killing it for me.
(23m 21s)
They’re doing really good is what I mean.
(23m 21s) Kevin:
Sure.
(23m 23s)
No, I mean, I get it.
(23m 25s)
Killing is one of those, you know, good end.
(23m 28s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(23m 29s) Kevin:
Um.
(23m 29s) Liam:
They’re killing it.
(23m 30s)
That like, they’re killing it means it’s good.
(23m 33s)
They’re killing it for me.
(23m 34s)
Does that mean it’s good?
(23m 36s)
I don’t know anyway.
(23m 37s)
Anyway, let me escape that sentence.
(23m 40s)
Uh, the, yeah, the level of execution is just is so brilliant.
(23m 44s)
Um, there’s no uh, e-shop demo, but if you do have like a Walmart with a Switch 2 unit.
(23m 51s)
I know they have in-store demo for it.
(23m 53s)
So there is that if you need to give it a swing.
(23m 57s)
Um, man, what else about that game?
(24m 1s)
Uh, Baby Bowser and Kamek are in it or sorry, Bowser Jr. is that his name now?
(24m 5s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(24m 6s)
That’s correct.
(24m 7s)
Yeah, I think so.
(24m 7s) Liam:
Um
(24m 9s) Kevin:
I mean, yeah, yeah, it is.
(24m 10s)
As the as the semi-authority, yes.
(24m 12s)
Um.
(24m 13s) Liam:
Yeah.
(24m 14s)
Um, so, yeah, but, um, uh, overall, like just a really lovely time.
(24m 17s) Kevin:
I…
(24m 21s) Liam:
I don’t quite know that I would call it a cottage core game, but it definitely feels a lot more relaxed and thoughtful than previous Yoshi games.
(24m 24s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(24m 29s)
Yeah.
(24m 32s) Liam:
You also can’t die in this game, which plays in, it, well, plays into the whole, like, platforming is a means to an end rather than a test of skill in this game.
(24m 35s) Kevin:
That’s big.
(24m 36s)
Um.
(24m 44s) Liam:
Uh, but I don’t I don’t really think it’s an issue, honestly, because you can still permanently mess up a level and you have to restart the level, um, in some cases.
(24m 45s) Kevin:
Right.
(24m 53s)
Ooh.
(24m 54s) Liam:
Like if you accidentally deplete a certain creature who lives in a level.
(25m)
It’s like, well, okay, I’m going to need to, I’m going to need to leave and come back.
(25m) Kevin:
Oops, extinction.
(25m 3s)
Like men extinction.
(25m 4s) Liam:
Yeah.
(25m 4s)
those circumstances are pretty unusual, but they do exist.
(25m 8s)
So like, even if you can’t die,
(25m 10s)
There are still sort of soft failure states.
(25m 12s) Kevin:
Okay.
(25m 12s) Liam:
Um, but yeah, it’s it’s fun.
(25m 16s)
As you progress, you meet different creatures, of course.
(25m 19s)
I haven’t finished the game, but I think there’s 30 stages slash 30 creatures.
(25m 26s)
And sometimes you’ll get these extra little additions made to creatures pages where another creature can be invited into that page and they will have sort of joint interactions in some way.
(25m 39s)
Uh, so there’s really like a level of, um, creative depth to each of the creatures that I admire. And, and you, you touched on something a little bit before where you, when you said it’s not just, you likened it to Pokemon.
(25m 54s)
It’s not just picking the same moves and just catching, you know, yeah.
(25m 57s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(25m 58s) Liam:
I really feel like this is what I have been wanting from Pokemon for a long time, like a lower number, but a much higher level of much higher quantity of meaningful interaction with each creature.
(26m 11s) Kevin:
Yeah, absolutely.
(26m 13s)
That, that, I mean, that’s, well, it, sorry, didn’t interrupt, but just like that’s, that’s probably one of Pokemon’s biggest issues right now, right?
(26m 13s) Liam:
Um,
(26m 20s)
Go ahead, yeah.
(26m 22s) Kevin:
Like, they, they, they fail to, I’ve always said, like, the best thing about Pokemon is the Pokemon, which is very true, and but like, like you look at the 90s, the early days, right?
(26m 23s) Liam:
I think so.
(26m 32s) Kevin:
They had so many games with interacting them in so many ways, right?
(26m 35s)
You had snap taking pictures, you have all these spinoff games and doing different things with them.
(26m 39s)
Um, like Pocopia, that’s one of the appealing parts, kind of, like, we’re not battling.
(26m 44s)
We just hanging out and building things for them and chatting, which is fun.
(26m 48s)
Um.
(26m 48s) Liam:
Sure, sure.
(26m 49s) Kevin:
So, uh, yeah, no, I get it, but oh, this, this is so exciting to see in in a Yoshi slash Mario.
(26m 57s) Liam:
Yeah, it’s nice.
(26m 58s)
I think, uh, looking at the last 3 um, sort of mainline, quote unquote, Yoshi titles, uh, the ones all by by good feel.
(27m 6s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(27m 6s)
Yeah.
(27m 9s) Liam:
So Woolly World on the Wii U and 3DS and uh, crafted world on the Switch.
(27m 13s)
I think this is the best of the 3 overall.
(27m 17s) Kevin:
Uh-huh.
(27m 17s) Liam:
But if you are like platforming, if you’re like a platforming needs to be hard, I want to do platforming challenges, kind of guy.
(27m 25s)
Uh, this might not be your jam, uh, even if I think it’s the strongest overall.
(27m 31s)
It’s definitely more of an explorative game.
(27m 36s)
In some ways, and I don’t want to overstate things, but in some ways, it reminds me of like immersive SIM gameplay, how you’re like taking various elements in a level and like smushing them together to see what happens.
(27m 50s)
Um, so, yeah, um, I recorded an extended video with my friend the other day and we didn’t, like, we had an idea what to expect, but we had so much more fun than I anticipated, really.
(27m 50s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(28m 4s) Liam:
And I’ve continued playing it fervently.
(28m 8s)
Um, and it has not.
(28m 10s)
The, the, the sheen has not worn off.
(28m 14s)
Like, even, like, uh, 4 hours in or whatever, which I know is not that long.
(28m 19s)
Like, you get through the levels pretty rapidly and you encounter a lot of creatures, but they all feel pretty fresh.
(28m 25s)
Like, they really did a great job varying them and stuff.
(28m 30s)
Anyway, I don’t need to keep harping on with Yoshi, but it’s they really did it.
(28m 30s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(28m 31s)
I just got.
(28m 33s)
No, I’m just going to say, bad job, Nintendo, they did, they’re not marketing this because I, like, I forgot it came out and I didn’t realise like this is what they’re going about, but dang.
(28m 43s) Liam:
Yeah, I think they’re Nintendo direct.
(28m 46s)
I mean, so like Nintendo Direct Marketing is like really good and like Nintendo probably has the best direct to consumer marketing, possibly of any company on the planet.
(28m 53s) Kevin:
Who?
(28m 56s) Liam:
I don’t know.
(28m 57s)
Like Nintendo directs are really effective, but I don’t, I don’t disagree that the mysterious book trailers that Nintendo has put out feel very, I don’t know, slow and not that interesting, uh, or at least I don’t feel like they’re really getting to the, like you can’t just get up and be like, this doesn’t look that interesting, but it’s actually really well made.
(28m 59s) Kevin:
They are.
(29m 24s) Liam:
Like, you can’t say that to the camera because, you know, it doesn’t work.
(29m 24s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(29m 25s)
Yeah.
(29m 27s) Liam:
So yeah, you’re not wrong.
(29m 29s)
You’re not wrong that like, this is exceeding my expectations.
(29m 33s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(29m 33s) Liam:
So evidently my expectations that were set by Nintendo might have been in the wrong place, right?
(29m 36s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(29m 39s)
Yeah.
(29m 40s) Liam:
Like, I think you’re, I think you’re on the money, but, uh, I highly encourage anyone who’s interested to try to give it a swing.
(29m 43s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(29m 49s) Liam:
I know there’s an in-store demo in Japan.
(29m 51s)
I assume that in-store demo also exists at demo kiosks internationally, so maybe, but yeah.
(29m 59s) Kevin:
Yeah, I, I, I’ve been seeing a lot of those, uh, those kiosk popping up lately, like in Targets and Walmart’s like functional now.
(30m 8s)
Like, I don’t know if Nintendo’s trying to push them out.
(30m 9s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(30m 10s) Kevin:
Probably because it’s…
(30m 12s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(30m 13s) Kevin:
But yeah, yeah, no, um, I’m, I’m probably, yeah, just to be honest, I can do an encyclopedia page on a squeak.
(30m 21s)
Oh, that’s that’s the, that’s my fan game.
(30m 22s) Liam:
Yeah, basically.
(30m 24s)
Yeah, oh yeah.
(30m 26s) Kevin:
I mean…
(30m 26s) Liam:
The, it, it, it, it’s cute too, because like as much as a couple, there are like a couple Yoshi uh, mainstays.
(30m 35s)
Most of them are like original new critters for this game or like variants on ones you’ve seen.
(30m 40s) Kevin:
Yeah, I don’t know that snail guy.
(30m 42s)
Yeah, I’m…
(30m 42s) Liam:
No, yeah, I don’t know.
(30m 45s) Kevin:
Yeah, I don’t know.
(30m 45s) Liam:
a snail guy either.
(30m 46s)
There’s also one that looks like a fake Kirby.
(30m 49s) Kevin:
Yeah, the fake Kirby, yeah.
(30m 49s) Liam:
Uh, and the, yeah, um,
(30m 51s) Kevin:
Yeah, that’s interesting.
(30m 53s)
Um, yeah, that’s very fun.
(30m 55s) Liam:
Fake Kirby does not work how you think it works.
(30m 55s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(30m 58s) Liam:
It’s cute though.
(30m 59s)
Um, so, yeah, anyway.
(30m 59s) Kevin:
Yeah, I’m sure they they lean into that, but like, they they set your expectations.
(31m 5s)
But anyways, um, good stuff.
(31m 6s)
Yoshi and them mysterious book.
(31m 8s)
Wow, the underdog story of the year.
(31m 9s) Liam:
Yeah.
(31m 11s) Kevin:
Good, good stuff.
(31m 12s)
Um.
(31m 13s) Liam:
I hope so.
(31m 14s)
I hope it gets the acclaim that I think it deserves.
(31m 17s)
At very least, the reviews, I think, were very good, honestly.
(31m 21s)
Uh, I think it, I think it got like an 80 something metacritic, which is, which is very salt, like Yoshi does not normally punch that high.
(31m 29s) Kevin:
No.
(31m 31s) Liam:
It currently has an 80 on Metacritic, uh, a solid handful of which are 9s and 10s, which is like, okay, this is this is really resonating with some.
(31m 35s) Kevin:
That’s.
(31m 40s)
Mm-hmm.
(31m 45s) Liam:
I don’t know, it seems like more than 10% of the…
(31m 49s) Kevin:
Dying.
(31m 50s) Liam:
Good sign, I think.
(31m 50s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(31m 51s) Liam:
Way more than 10%.
(31m 52s)
Sorry, I’m scrolling and it’s 9s for a while.
(31m 54s)
Anyway.
(31m 55s)
I’m rambling, but, uh, yeah, good stuff, what, what, hmm?
(31m 56s) Kevin:
That’s fine.
(31m 57s)
Okay.
(31m 57s)
Zick?
(31m 59s)
What, uh, Anything else on your end?
(32m 3s) Liam:
You know, lots of little things, but I think I think I can leave it at that.
(32m 7s)
I think those have been the main things.
(32m 9s)
You know, Yoshi and invasive stomach surgery about equally take up space in my mind right now.
(32m 17s) Kevin:
Sure.
(32m 17s) Liam:
So, um, what have what have you been up to in the past little while?
(32m 18s) Kevin:
Sure.
(32m 20s)
They tread similar grounds if you think about it.
(32m 22s) Liam:
They do.
(32m 22s) Kevin:
Oh, man.
(32m 24s) Liam:
They do, yeah.
(32m 25s) Kevin:
Um, so, um, as people know, I’ve been playing my favourite game, which is worth working too much.
(32m 32s)
Um, so my, my, my gaming and uh,
(32m 33s) Liam:
Oh yeah, working too much.
(32m 40s) Kevin:
But, uh, I mean, I squeak out Pocopia when I can, we talked about that.
(32m 44s)
I have to go into detail.
(32m 45s) Liam:
Hmm.
(32m 45s) Kevin:
Oh, okay.
(32m 46s)
11 thing.
(32m 48s)
I will mention, like, just to pitch to you, like we talked about in detail already, but are you familiar with the Cloud Island feature?
(32m 57s) Liam:
Oh yeah, the, um, yeah, like the the palette town kind of space kind of thing.
(33m 2s) Kevin:
So, it’s, it’s 2 things.
(33m 4s)
Well, one, it is kind of Palatine, where it’s like the blank slate.
(33m 7s) Liam:
Oh, sorry, Cloud Island, right.
(33m 7s) Kevin:
Yes.
(33m 9s) Liam:
That’s the little, the little, um, right, right, sorry, that’s the separate thing.
(33m 9s) Kevin:
Yes.
(33m 12s)
Yes, yeah, yeah.
(33m 12s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(33m 13s) Kevin:
I, I, it’s easy to mix because the idea is kind of the same to begin.
(33m 13s) Liam:
Okay, I am actually.
(33m 17s) Kevin:
Um, where it’s kind of like the blank slate sandbox mode or whatever, right?
(33m 21s)
Um, so Flat Island is online, right?
(33m 22s) Liam:
Right.
(33m 24s) Kevin:
Let, just, when you start it, and I’ve been, I’ve talked about, it’s like I’m the ghost, people know, but it’s asynchronous.
(33m 33s)
You can open up your cloud island and send people your code and people can come hang out and do whatever they want whenever.
(33m 37s) Liam:
Hmm.
(33m 41s) Kevin:
And so like me and my friend Mark, we just have the Cloud Island and like this is why I’m playing it or a big part.
(33m 48s)
why I’m playing it so much, like it’s just kind of the hangout spot for us now because we…
(33m 54s)
I frequently.
(33m 55s) Liam:
Hmm.
(33m 55s) Kevin:
Um, so like it’s just so satisfying that we don’t have to sync up at a certain time and worry about connectivity or whatever.
(34m 3s)
Like we just hop on, do stuff and just chat about how we’re building up a town, building a little beach market or what have you.
(34m 11s)
It’s so much fun.
(34m 12s)
Um, yeah.
(34m 13s) Liam:
That is fun.
(34m 14s)
I have a question about that.
(34m 14s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(34m 15s) Liam:
So the asynchronous, I get, if you’re both online at the same time, are you also playing together, or is it purely asynchronous?
(34m 21s) Kevin:
Yes.
(34m 21s)
You, no, you are going together.
(34m 22s) Liam:
Oh, cool.
(34m 24s)
Both.
(34m 24s) Kevin:
Yes, um, you’re going to have up to 4 people on the island at once.
(34m 27s)
Um, uh, so, you know, you want to get a party going, you can.
(34m 31s)
Um, But you, you can, and and there’s no limit to, as far as I know, to who can actually visit.
(34m 38s)
So, like, uh, like they have what called the developer island, that’s a cloud island and, you know, everyone goes there because they handed out the code.
(34m 41s) Liam:
Mm, just…
(34m 45s) Kevin:
But, um, if I, if I, you know, I throw my code, and I have throw my cone out into the ether, everyone can come visit and see whenever, um, it’s just like a population limit, um, of a 4 at Max.
(34m 46s) Liam:
Hmm.
(34m 55s) Kevin:
Um, but you, you, you can play together.
(34m 57s) Liam:
Oh, I see.
(34m 58s)
Okay.
(34m 58s)
That’s that’s dope.
(34m 59s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(34m 59s)
Um, yeah, it’s, it’s good stuff.
(35m 1s) Liam:
Apparently, IKEA distributed a Cloud Island.
(35m 2s) Kevin:
Yeah, IKEA Island.
(35m 3s) Liam:
I’m looking online.
(35m 4s) Kevin:
I’ve been to it, but sadly, they did not introduce IKEA furniture into the game, but they just the vibes, the IKEA vibes.
(35m 5s) Liam:
Amazing, incredible.
(35m 13s)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(35m 14s) Kevin:
Um, but…
(35m 16s) Liam:
So this Cloud Island thing seems interesting.
(35m 20s)
So is that your main, uh, I, you know, I take it
(35m 23s)
you finished the game.
(35m 24s)
Is that your main occupation in Pocopia now is like plugging away at Cloud Island?
(35m 26s) Kevin:
Right.
(35m 29s)
Right now, like, it depends if I’m on, not basically, um, right, because sometimes I’ll, like, I’ll be on a lunch break or whatever, and sometimes, uh, like, even in the single player mode, like, the appeal of fixing up things, which, you know, you’ve already seen plenty of, like, fixing up the SSN or just these ruined structures, like that, takes a lot of effort, but I guess.
(35m 32s) Liam:
Right, right, right.
(35m 51s) Kevin:
Um, I work.
(35m 54s)
kind of 5050 between Cloud Island, just building up.
(36m 2s)
Tidying up and re, yeah, re, uh, restore.
(36m 8s)
Um, I also like, there’s still the Polkadix.
(36m 10s)
I have, I’m on like 200, I think, out of the 300, like that’s technically a thing I can do.
(36m 15s)
Our friend, Al, has actually done the pok, uh, the pokodex.
(36m 18s)
Um, so it was a good one to him, but, uh.
(36m 21s) Liam:
That’s a whole thing yeah.
(36m 21s) Kevin:
Yeah, but uh, but yeah, Pocopia, I never thought I’d have a game become my personality, but but here I am sadly.
(36m 31s)
I say that, but again, Sonic fan, so you know.
(36m 33s)
Um, But, uh, yeah.
(36m 38s)
Okay, aside from Pocopia.
(36m 40s)
Um, I’ve, uh, man, I managed to dip my toes into other games, uh, specifically back into good old, uh, Zenla Zone Zero.
(36m 48s)
Um, Uh, I think, if I recall, you’re familiar with it.
(36m 50s) Liam:
Hmm.
(36m 54s) Kevin:
You played it, I think, at the beginning a little.
(36m 57s) Liam:
I played it for almost a year to the day.
(36m 59s) Kevin:
Oh, that’s what it was, yeah.
(37m) Liam:
Uh, because I stopped like right before the uh, the 1st year anniversary, and my, my friend was like, why would you stop now?
(37m 1s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah.
(37m 5s)
Season 2 stuff.
(37m 6s)
Yeah, yeah.
(37m 10s) Liam:
There’s all the free handouts and stuff.
(37m 11s) Kevin:
There any of the drugs?
(37m 12s) Liam:
Um, but, uh, my, yeah, exactly.
(37m 15s)
Yeah, 1st hits free, 2nd hits free.
(37m 18s)
Um, but, uh, my wife and I were spending like, you know, 30 plus minutes a day doing our dailies.
(37m 24s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(37m 24s) Liam:
And after like a year of doing that, I think both of us were like, we are like, we should take this time back from Zenla Zones zero.
(37m 33s) Kevin:
Yeah, nope, that’s.
(37m 36s) Liam:
And I know we could just not do the dailies and we’d still be okay.
(37m 40s)
But I mean, the game’s designed to make you want to do them, man.
(37m 42s) Kevin:
It’s a god game.
(37m 43s) Liam:
It’s, yeah.
(37m 45s) Kevin:
Just the nature of the beast.
(37m 46s)
So I get it.
(37m 48s)
I don’t blame you one bit.
(37m 49s)
And like, I’ll say, your one was phenomenal.
(37m 52s)
Like, I think year one was pretty solid top to bottom.
(37m 56s)
Um, generally speaking.
(37m 57s)
Um, like they’re the character that came out in the scenarios or whatever.
(38m 1s)
Like, you know, it’s not a terribly deep game, all things considered, but I had fun with all everything they gave out.
(38m 7s)
Um, Mm-hmm.
(38m 8s) Liam:
Yeah, the high points were high at very least.
(38m 11s)
I strongly agree with that.
(38m 13s)
There’s some stuff I didn’t like, but by and large, very enjoyable.
(38m 17s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(38m 17s) Liam:
Yeah.
(38m 18s) Kevin:
Um, anyways, so, okay, so, okay, so you are familiar.
(38m 21s)
Um, I, this is important context because, um, but yeah, we got season three, year 3 coming up and and that’s, I’m a little lukewarm on it.
(38m 26s) Liam:
Hmm.
(38m 28s)
Yes.
(38m 29s) Kevin:
Um, but it’s whatever, but right now, what’s happening, it, it, it, I came back for this.
(38m 35s)
Um, I dropped it for a minute, um, but, so, Billy, you remember Billy, Red Jacket, robot man?
(38m 41s) Liam:
Yes.
(38m 41s)
Yeah, yeah.
(38m 41s) Kevin:
Um, he got an S rank variant because he’s like the one of the free units, um, they they give you.
(38m 49s)
He got a less rank.
(38m 49s) Liam:
Yeah.
(38m 53s)
The the Starlight Billy, right?
(38m 55s) Kevin:
Yes, have you seen it?
(38m 55s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah, I have I have seen it.
(38m 56s) Kevin:
Okay, sure, you already.
(38m 57s) Liam:
I am I am somewhat up to date on the news anyway, if not the contents in detail.
(38m 58s) Kevin:
Okay.
(38m 58s)
Okay.
(39m)
Yes, okay.
(39m 2s)
Yes.
(39m 3s)
Okay, but, um, yeah, I mean, it’s pretty, like, I’m a sucker for the the senti tropes and and the the biker jacket and and he, have you seen his ultimate?
(39m 9s) Liam:
Pretty cool.
(39m 15s) Kevin:
He does uh, like uh, a motorcycle, like uh, kind of like a donut on the enemy, the motorcycle explodes, and then he follows up with a form perfect uh, centre.
(39m 18s) Liam:
Oh, not yet.
(39m 29s)
Cool.
(39m 29s) Kevin:
Just, just over the top, you know, what Zenless is good at being over the top and fashionable.
(39m 36s)
So that had me excited, so I’m back in for Billy and he actually came out just today.
(39m 40s)
I already played with him.
(39m 44s) Liam:
Yeah, the sample, yeah.
(39m 46s) Kevin:
Yeah, but so I’ll pull for him, but, um, you know, I’m, it’s, by the same note of like, yeah, you can play these games without, or you lose time just, just kind of mindlessly playing through the dailies.
(39m 58s)
Like sometimes that’s what I want.
(39m 59s)
So, you know, that that’s…
(40m 3s)
than it is.
(40m 4s) Liam:
Yeah, I think that’s I think that’s totally reasonable, honestly.
(40m 7s)
Like, I, I, I get people just wanting to sit and be comfortable with a game that brings them comfort, like, totally.
(40m 13s)
For me and my wife, it was just like,
(40m 15s)
we’re both doing it.
(40m 17s)
Like, and we’re using the PS5, so like only one of us can do it at a time.
(40m 21s) Kevin:
Oh.
(40m 21s) Liam:
So we’re like waiting for the other person to finish their dailies.
(40m 23s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah.
(40m 25s) Liam:
God forbid there’s an event on now.
(40m 28s)
of, you know, my,
(40m 28s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(40m 28s)
Oh my gosh, yeah.
(40m 30s)
Ooh, I didn’t think about that.
(40m 31s)
That would be rough to share.
(40m 32s)
yeah.
(40m 33s) Liam:
It was it was not ideal. and and like, I, you know, there’s things I like.
(40m 38s)
You know, I really enjoy the combat. I think it’s very fun in Zenla zone zero.
(40m 40s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(40m 42s) Liam:
and like, you know, Mijoyo has a hell of an art team, you know, and they’re, they, they deliver, but like, man, I have complaints through all their games about the, uh, narrative design and the writing, and specifically just how overwrought and how lengthy scenes can be for not great feeling reasons.
(40m 56s) Kevin:
Oh, yeah.
(41m 2s)
Yeah.
(41m 5s) Liam:
Uh, they will wear your X button out is kind of my feeling.
(41m 8s) Kevin:
They added the auto or even skip.
(41m 11s) Liam:
Yeah, that, you know, you could skip, but that doesn’t feel right, right?
(41m 15s) Kevin:
You know?
(41m 15s) Liam:
In like a story sequence.
(41m 16s) Kevin:
They, no, no, that’s fine.
(41m 17s) Liam:
Anyway, I’m sorry.
(41m 18s)
I’m cutting off your, you’re enjoying Zenless with my not…
(41m 20s) Kevin:
I mean, yeah, no, no.
(41m 22s)
I mean, these were very valid complaints.
(41m 24s)
I’ll give them a small thumbs up because if you skip, they’ll give you a summary of the main points that you’re skipping.
(41m 30s) Liam:
Hmm.
(41m 31s)
That’s, you know, you’re not wrong.
(41m 33s)
That is something.
(41m 34s) Kevin:
But, um, but yeah, no, I mean, like, yeah, like you said, the combat’s good.
(41m 37s)
The art’s good.
(41m 39s)
I, I talked about this last time, but one of the uh, complaints or, or like I said, there’s season 3 is coming out.
(41m 47s)
Uh, it does feel a little weaker in terms of character design.
(41m 51s)
Um, It feels, for lack of a better way, putting it, very Mahoyo.
(41m 56s)
Um, it feels like they’re starting to go to some of their other standard tropes and their other games or their designs.
(42m 2s)
Um, because I don’t know, Zenless felt very fresh, right?
(42m 6s)
We had robots, we had a anthropomorphic bear and a werewolf butler, you know, all sorts of different characters and flavours.
(42m 14s)
Um, But, uh,
(42m 17s) Liam:
I think they were like a cool collection of like archetype groups, definitely.
(42m 20s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(42m 21s)
Yeah.
(42m 21s) Liam:
The maids, the bikers, the, you know, yeah, yeah.
(42m 24s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(42m 24s)
Yeah, and now like, well, it’s stuff they’re showing.
(42m 28s)
Yeah, it’s, you know, nothing’s really like typing me up.
(42m 32s)
So, you know, we’ll see what.
(42m 36s)
But, uh, it is here at least right now.
(42m 38s)
But, um, anyways, but, uh, yeah, like I said, overall, not not a lot going on.
(42m 45s)
Well, I say that, but with the, the, all, you know, all the asterisk, that, Guardians of Asthma, the thing we actually came to talk about.
Rune Factory: Guardians Of Azuma
(42m 53s) Kevin:
I tried putting in a little time in that.
(42m 54s) Liam:
I guess yeah.
(42m 55s) Kevin:
Um, so let’s, let’s, let’s pivot to that.
(42m 59s)
Yeah.
(42m 59s)
Yeah, ruin factory.
(43m) Liam:
Yes.
(43m) Kevin:
So, uh, it is… I can’t, I think Ruin Factory, like as big as a series and like, you know, cornerstone it is.
(43m 13s)
Um, we don’t actually cover them.
(43m 13s) Liam:
Yeah.
(43m 18s) Kevin:
Um, part of it is the length, right?
(43m 18s) Liam:
Sure.
(43m 20s) Kevin:
Because all these are going to be heavy investments time wise.
(43m 23s)
Um,
(43m 26s) Liam:
I think I think your the podcast’s release timing as well.
(43m 30s)
I think the only ones that have come out are Guardians of Asthma and Five, and maybe maybe the deluxe version of four, maybe.
(43m 34s) Kevin:
Yeah, that too.
(43m 38s)
Yes.
(43m 39s) Liam:
So like, really the tail end of the series.
(43m 39s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(43m 43s) Liam:
What’s some, what’s your personal rune factory history?
(43m 47s)
I think you might have mentioned something on Discord, but I, uh…
(43m 48s) Kevin:
Oh.
(43m 49s)
So that’s the…
(43m 52s)
That’s the uh, that’s also the kicker.
(43m 54s)
This is my 1st one
(43m 55s)
Always wanted to, just never hopped on the boat.
(43m 56s) Liam:
Sure.
(43m 58s) Kevin:
Um.
(43m 59s) Liam:
Sure, sure.
(44m) Kevin:
But yeah, this is this is my personal one.
(44m 2s)
What about you?
(44m 2s)
What’s your room factory?
(44m 4s) Liam:
My room factory history is is most of them.
(44m 7s) Kevin:
Hmm.
(44m 7s) Liam:
Uh, so, so back then, uh, Natsume was doing some interesting stuff, and in, uh, 2006, 7, they released 2 interesting Harvest Moon games.
(44m 22s)
They released, uh, uh, Rune Factory, A Fantasy Harvest Moon.
(44m 27s)
That’s the actual subtitle, and they released Innocent Life, a Futuristic Harvest Moon on the PSP.
(44m 28s) Kevin:
Yeah, I remember.
(44m 33s)
What?
(44m 33s)
I don’t remember that.
(44m 34s) Liam:
Yeah, which is kind of, yeah, it’s kind of like a sister game.
(44m 38s)
It’s by a different developer.
(44m 39s) Kevin:
Ah.
(44m 39s) Liam:
It’s a very different game.
(44m 41s)
Maybe not as good, but similarly interesting.
(44m 44s)
They put out a fantasy and a future harvest moon at the same time.
(44m 48s)
Only the fantasy one would end up surviving.
(44m 50s) Kevin:
Yeah, I can notice.
(44m 53s) Liam:
But yeah, I pretty much played them all as they came out.
(44m 58s)
And like if you’ve played a Harvest Moon game, you’re basically getting a Harvest Moon game of that 2000s period with a certain amount of like RPG combat and like light dungeonering added to it.
(45m 12s)
Uh, so, yeah, I mean, it’s a pretty straightforward blend to imagine.
(45m 17s)
And like nowadays in in the, uh, in the current era of cottage core post, uh, uh, post valley games, exactly.
(45m 26s)
Post-Stardew games, it’s easy to imagine what a comparable game.
(45m 32s)
looks like.
(45m 32s)
Um, 3 is probably the, the, for me, the high point of the series.
(45m 38s)
A lot of people feel for is the high point of the series, and I think that’s totally reasonable as well.
(45m 43s)
Um, but then after 4 on 3DS, the the studio Neverland, they made, they made one more game that was not a run factory title.
(45m 54s)
And the studio, unfortunately, shut down completely.
(45m 58s)
And, like, that was it.
(45m 59s)
That was that was the, uh, the end.
(46m 2s)
And then very suddenly in a Nintendo direct, uh, yeah, uh, Room Factory 5 was announced out of nowhere with uh, some of the leadership from Neverland and um, and then they also did uh, Room Factory 4 special.
(46m 18s)
which is an amazing port forsted.
(46m 21s)
Uh, Room Factory 5, I don’t know how up on that one you are, but like coming hot off the heels of hot off the heels.
(46m 29s)
Many years later than arguably the best 2 in the series, 3 and four, like expectations were high, and I think it’s very fair to say expectations were largely not met.
(46m 33s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(46m 40s)
Oof.
(46m 41s) Liam:
Uh, it’s Rune Factory 5 in a lot of ways looks like a rune factory and and like it acts like a rune factory, but it is just not as good.
(46m 53s)
It is not as concise.
(46m 54s)
It is not as well thought out.
(46m 55s)
They had to build back up from zero.
(46m 57s)
They were building a new team.
(46m 59s)
They also had to build new tools because it switched to like a full 3D to being a full 3D game, uh, as opposed to,
(47m 10s)
thing they had.
(47m 11s)
So, you know, they had a lot of disadvantages, but unfortunately, they weren’t totally able to deliver, which kind of put the whole series, you know, back in, like, question, like, is this, is room factory just going back to being dead?
(47m 25s)
And, and thankfully, I’m very glad about this, but, uh, no, uh, Roon Factory, did not diver in factory.
(47m 33s)
They immediately went and they started working.
(47m 37s)
factory, Guardians of Azm, you’ll notice, does not have a 6 attached to it.
(47m 40s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(47m 41s)
Plain it safe.
(47m 41s) Liam:
And they were very,
(47m 44s)
Yeah, they they were
(47m 45s)
they’ve been very clear that this is like kind of like a spinoff game, kind of like dipping their toe here and like they don’t want to like upset people too much by changing things.
(47m 55s)
So this game is…
(47m 56s) Kevin:
Doing the uh, the Capcom naming thing, you know, it’s Monster Hunter Wilds.
(48m) Liam:
A little.
(48m 1s) Kevin:
Maybe it is the next one.
(48m 2s)
Yeah.
(48m 3s) Liam:
Maybe maybe it’s the next one.
(48m 4s)
I don’t know.
(48m 5s)
Do you guys like it?
(48m 6s)
Then, yeah, I guess it is.
(48m 6s)
No, I don’t know.
(48m 7s)
Um, this is the this is like the 3rd game in the series that doesn’t have a number.
(48m 11s)
There was a Wii game and a PS3 Wii game before.
(48m 15s)
Uh, so, you know, not the 1st time this series has had a spinoff that is basically just as much a full game as the others, but, um, the, I, I think probably the big difference with Roon Factory Guardians of Azema is like it introduces this whole sort of light, open world, open zones kind of gameplay thing and also is more combat focussed.
(48m 22s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(48m 35s)
Yeah.
(48m 38s) Liam:
Boy, is it?
(48m 38s) Kevin:
Boy, is it?
(48m 41s) Liam:
I don’t, I, yeah.
(48m 43s)
Uh, I don’t think more combat focus is to its detriment from, like, from a design perspective, but I do think the combat doesn’t necessarily deliver on all fronts either.
(48m 48s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(48m 48s)
Oh, true.
(48m 49s)
Yeah, I say, but.
(48m 55s)
Mm-hmm.
(48m 56s) Liam:
So, so, uh, so what did you get to play?
(48m 59s)
You picked it up for the 1st time on Switch on PC.
(49m) Kevin:
Yoga.
(49m 1s)
Yes.
(49m 4s)
Uh, okay, so well, actually, okay, 1st off, small disclaimer.
(49m 7s)
I did some diggings through the archives here.
(49m 10s)
Rune factory 4 S was covered by the show back in 2020 early on.
(49m 11s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(49m 18s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(49m 18s) Liam:
Damn, okay, it did happen.
(49m 19s) Kevin:
And Rune Factory, 5 was covered by Alan Micah in 2022.
(49m 26s)
So back in the day, I assume closer when it came out, it’s just been a while.
(49m 27s) Liam:
Hmm.
(49m 30s) Kevin:
So wow, I didn’t realise it’s been that long.
(49m 31s)
Um, And the special bonus, the one I was on, I forgot about. We did an episode talking about the pixel cross rune factory game.
(49m 33s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(49m 43s)
The the puzzles.
(49m 43s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(49m 44s) Liam:
Yeah. Yeah.
(49m 46s)
I mean, hardly even.
(49m 48s)
Yeah, yeah, I get you.
(49m 49s) Kevin:
Yeah, no, I know, like, obviously, it was surprisingly good, actually.
(49m 50s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(49m 53s) Kevin:
Like, you know, I play because it’s pick Ross and I love pick Ross, but, um, they did all right things, actually, intriguing things, um, with equipment and and music.
(49m 57s) Liam:
Yeah.
(50m 3s) Kevin:
Anyways, um, so yeah.
(50m 5s)
Um, so, but also, um, yeah, so, uh, obviously I’ve played Harvest Moon, story seasons, all that.
(50m 11s)
But the Ruin Factory series, I always wanted to never dip my toes in.
(50m 15s)
Um, and yeah, this is my 1st one.
(50m 17s)
I got, I’ve been playing on the Switch 2.
(50m 20s)
Um, I am, I’m not terribly far in again, a lot of work this past month.
(50m 27s)
Um, we are, I didn’t check the hour count, but I’m, I’d clear the summer village for reference, which is not very far.
(50m 29s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(50m 35s)
Great.
(50m 36s) Kevin:
How far are you?
(50m 37s)
It’s good a frame reference.
(50m 38s)
I’m okay.
(50m 39s) Liam:
I’m, I’m,
(50m 39s) Kevin:
Yeah, I guess just spoilers disclaimer.
(50m 42s)
Um, I don’t, we haven’t beat the game.
(50m 43s) Liam:
Yeah.
(50m 44s) Kevin:
I’m okay with whatever you want to talk about.
(50m 46s)
I’m not up and I guess up to where we are.
(50m 48s)
Well, you know, I’ll just say it’s open season.
(50m 50s)
ahead.
(50m 51s) Liam:
Yeah, so, uh, yeah, I’m I’m in the winter village.
(50m 55s)
For context, the summer village is the 2nd one and the winter village is the 4th one.
(50m 59s)
Um, and it’s my understanding that those are the 4 towns in the game and there are no more towns in the game.
(51m 7s)
We could be totally wrong, but I believe that’s the case.
(51m 8s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(51m 10s) Liam:
And from there, the story is supposed to develop around there.
(51m 14s)
But I think we do have a comfortable, uh, backing to at least talk about.
(51m 20s) Kevin:
I have wet my beak, I would say.
(51m 22s) Liam:
Even if we are both nowhere near the staggering 50 plus hour playtime estimate on how long to beat, which I was like, whoa, 50 hours, that’s crazy for this game.
(51m 31s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(51m 33s) Liam:
But anyway.
(51m 34s) Kevin:
I was very puzzled.
(51m 35s)
You mentioned that to me and like I got to the Spring village and I was like, well, that went pretty fast and, you know, assuming winter, we go to winter.
(51m 42s)
It didn’t feel like 50 hours and then I saw the chapter list and I was like, oh, okay.
(51m 46s)
Never mind.
(51m 48s)
There’s the 50 hours.
(51m 48s) Liam:
Yeah, no, exactly.
(51m 49s)
There’s there’s a lot of stuff that I I gotta say for a game that seems to have such an extended playtime.
(51m 56s)
And indeed, this would make it the longest one in the series, I think, tied with, tied with, like, four or five.
(52m 4s)
Um, uh, so I guess I shouldn’t say the longest one in the series, but anyway.
(52m 8s)
Uh, uh, the story is awfully breezy for a game that seems to have such a long story play time, eh?
(52m 15s)
Like it goes by pretty quick that you get to do lots of stuff.
(52m 18s)
There’s lots of characters to me.
(52m 19s)
Like, it’s fun and it’s it’s like very light and easy to play through.
(52m 23s)
Um, not too much or almost anything in the way of time pressure either.
(52m 29s)
Uh, I definitely accidentally left a main goal to tick over to the next day and not a big deal.
(52m 36s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(52m 36s) Liam:
Just come see us the next day, no problem.
(52m 36s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(52m 38s) Liam:
I don’t know if there are.
(52m 39s)
I don’t know if there are time limits at any point or anything like that, frankly.
(52m 41s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(52m 45s)
Yeah, this is what’s interesting to me. Again, like not fully knowing the expectations of of Rune Factory, like, again, I know obviously they’re more combat focussed and what seems to be more RPG leaning, you know, in terms of all the tropes.
(53m 1s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(53m 2s) Kevin:
not, right?
(53m 2s)
Um, you know, as opposed to the harvest moon, the roots, which is very much more sandboxy, right?
(53m 8s)
You get your character interactions, but there’s little to no actual plot.
(53m 14s)
You know, I start up ruin factory.
(53m 15s) Liam:
Yeah.
(53m 16s) Kevin:
I get the whole little, uh, opening cut scenes, all cinematic, and so I’m like, okay, I’m, I’m prepping my mentally, you know, I’m probably going to get something of a story.
(53m 25s)
Um, and, you know, which there is, but it feels at least so far again, very early in, so this is very premature judgement, like, I don’t know.
(53m 35s)
I was expecting a little more.
(53m 37s)
terribly deep, or maybe just because it’s going over, what feels kind of just very,
(53m 45s)
Generic, or not generic, like, like very tropey sort of uh, Story beats, right?
(53m 50s) Liam:
Yep.
(53m 52s) Kevin:
village with the deity that’s disappeared.
(53m 54s)
Let’s restore the land.
(53m 58s)
And so you, you know, that, that’s fine and dandy, but like, is, is that it?
(54m 2s)
I just, you know, trying to look at looking around.
(54m 4s) Liam:
Yeah, I no, I agree.
(54m 5s) Kevin:
.
(54m 7s) Liam:
Being that I’m still within the, uh, period of the game that’s that’s like help the villages out.
(54m 13s)
I agree. So far, the like village plots have been like pretty pretty straightforward, go here, do that.
(54m 20s)
Yeah, help the village find its deity.
(54m 22s)
Um, I think one thing that has been helping me along, is there are areas of the gameplay that I like quite enjoy? Um, I know I know a lot of people kind of shirk away from the idea of like X series incorporating open world elements and stuff.
(54m 39s)
But I gotta say the days in guardians of asthma where I choose to like go out into the open zone and just kind of like empty it and like do my best to finish it all.
(54m 50s)
It’s like a pretty fun little action adventure game stapled to the side of my Harvest Moon game.
(54m 56s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(54m 56s)
Yeah.
(54m 57s) Liam:
Um, it’s it’s it’s definitely a lot more elaborate than the other games in that regard.
(55m 3s)
Uh, and the the setting, this is kind of a separate thought.
(55m 8s)
But it feels a lot more grand than the other ones too.
(55m 10s)
The other ones all feel like they’re at the scope of like Harvest Moon.
(55m 16s)
Like you got your grandpa’s farm and, you know, they all kind of feel…
(55m 16s) Kevin:
Sure.
(55m 17s)
It’s all on the one map.
(55m 19s)
Yeah.
(55m 21s) Liam:
Kind of, yeah, usually they’ll have dungeons and and fields to go out into, but it’ll be like, you know, one area that branches into a couple spots.
(55m 24s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(55m 29s) Liam:
Guardians of Asthma with this whole, like, you know, getting to fly everywhere and all the islands in the sky.
(55m 34s)
Is the execution perfect on that?
(55m 37s)
No, this is not Tears of the Kingdom.
(55m 39s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(55m 39s)
Right.
(55m 40s) Liam:
But like, it does manage to like carve out this, um, this much grander feeling than the other ones that I, that I am.
(55m 48s)
I am kind of enamoured with like them trying to like punch a little higher with the setting and like the feel of the world and the scope of things.
(55m 56s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(55m 56s) Liam:
Um, It is, is neat. And it, I, I don’t disagree with your assessment that it’s like pretty simplistic, but…
(55m 56s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(56m 4s)
Yeah, like, it’s weird now that I think about it because because you’re right, in the context of, you know, ruin factories and and cottage core games, right, kind of being the flagship titles.
(56m 13s)
Um, this is pretty grand, right?
(56m 14s) Liam:
Hmm.
(56m 16s) Kevin:
Like the open areas aren’t bad by any means.
(56m 19s)
Like, you know, again, certainly no Tears of the Kingdom, but maybe, like, I think it was so grand or or, you know, well done to whatever degree, like, I just started judging it against, yeah, Tears of the Kingdom and other open world games, like, which is maybe somewhat of an unfair comparison because, uh, you know, where they’re coming from and what they’re trying to do, but, um, but yeah, no, like, you’re right.
(56m 23s) Liam:
Yeah.
(56m 36s)
Yeah.
(56m 44s) Kevin:
I do think the open world feels big enough, better, better than Skirly and violent Pokemon.
(56m 50s)
Um, which is not saying a lot, but, um, but, uh,
(56m 52s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(56m 53s)
It’s certainly smaller than those ones, but better executed anyway.
(56m 58s) Kevin:
Yeah, well, at least that, yeah.
(56m 59s) Liam:
Yeah.
(57m) Kevin:
Um, I’m, I’m, yeah, I’m engaged.
(57m 2s)
You’re right.
(57m 3s)
when you go out, like, when you go out into the field area, like, there’s, there’s, there’s a lot, lots of little markers to see and do, and it feels designed well enough that it catches my interest.
(57m 14s)
Um, and again, that’s only being on, you know, 2 of the 4 villages and who knows what else?
(57m 19s)
You know, I don’t know how big this game gets.
(57m 21s)
But so far, um, uh, yeah, no, I, I like, it’s, it’s doing a serviceable job at least, um, trying to do this open world action type game on the side.
(57m 23s) Liam:
Yeah, I’m curious as well.
(57m 32s)
Yeah.
(57m 34s) Kevin:
Um, Yeah.
(57m 37s) Liam:
I agree.
(57m 37s)
I’m really curious to hear your thoughts, though, where you said you felt like you were comparing it to Tears of the Kingdom and stuff in your head.
(57m 44s)
I don’t think that’s unfair at all.
(57m 46s)
Like, I think they’re trying to play in that space in terms of design.
(57m 47s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(57m 49s)
Yeah.
(57m 50s) Liam:
And so I think like it’s supernatural.
(57m 52s)
So what was your, I guess there was underwhelming stuff, if I’m reading, if I’m reading you, right?
(57m 58s) Kevin:
Yeah, I mean, it’s, But, like, how should I put this?
(58m 2s)
You can feel the very…
(58m 7s)
Losing the word, whatever.
(58m 8s)
The zones, like you can, you feel you feel the hard walls of the zones very like quickly or easily, right?
(58m 11s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(58m 15s) Kevin:
Like, you know, once you reach the boss of, of, using the 1st island village for, as an example, once you reach that boss, you’ve kind of seen the whole map, right?
(58m 22s) Liam:
Hmm.
(58m 26s) Kevin:
You haven’t explored every nook and cranny and.
(58m 30s)
Um, things to find, but, Yeah, you kind of seen it, right?
(58m 33s) Liam:
More or less, yeah.
(58m 35s) Kevin:
And so, you know, like they’re handing giving it to you kind of piecemeal, which, you know, is not inherently a bad approach, but, you know, it’s it’s like, yeah, but when you start adding it together, again, I’m just speaking from 2 islands in, like, I think it starts to build up.
(58m 37s) Liam:
Yeah.
(58m 50s) Kevin:
But, um, yeah, like, and yeah, I mean, well, you know what?
(58m 54s)
Here’s the real problem, I think, more than that, like, your options are limited.
(58m 59s)
Um, because you, you’ve got combat pretty much, right?
(59m) Liam:
Yes.
(59m 1s) Kevin:
There’s no traversal options, um, as far as I know or that I’ve experienced, but um,
(59m 7s) Liam:
I think I think the only traversal thing is like you can run and you can mantle on stuff when you jump and it’s a little too high.
(59m 13s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(59m 14s)
Yeah.
(59m 14s) Liam:
Like, I think that’s it.
(59m 16s)
I really appreciate that it’s got mentaling because that definitely helps when you’re trying to climb awkward rocks that you might not be supposed to climb.
(59m 18s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(59m 21s)
Yeah, yeah, it is pretty good about that.
(59m 24s)
Yeah.
(59m 24s) Liam:
But yeah, you’re right.
(59m 27s)
There’s like not much going on there.
(59m 28s)
yeah.
(59m 28s)
Totally.
(59m 29s) Kevin:
Yeah, but, um, and I guess, well, I mean, guess this kind of just literally, they’re naturally leads into the combat, because that’s what you’re going to be doing out there.
(59m 38s) Liam:
Yes.
(59m 38s) Kevin:
Well, let’s talk about combat.
(59m 40s)
Um, I, yeah, I, I, um.
(59m 42s) Liam:
quite a bit of it.
(59m 44s) Kevin:
Boy, uh, the the scales, the spectrum’s very wide when talking about combat, right?
(59m 50s)
Um, and yeah, it’s okay.
(59m 51s) Liam:
Yeah.
(59m 53s) Kevin:
Like, it’s it’s not awful.
(59m 55s)
There’s even in the cottage core space, which, you know, combat is stapled on at best sometimes.
(1h 2s)
Um, but we also have sock and rice and ruin in this space.
(1h 6s)
So, you know, the we can go very high too.
(1h 7s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 8s) Kevin:
Um, it’s it’s okay.
(1h 11s)
Like, the actions, well, I say that maybe as you get farther in because there’s there’s skill trees, right?
(1h 17s)
You unlock an equipment upgrades, all that stuff, and, and you start unlocking different sets of moves, but it’s, it’s not very, it’s not super dynamic, I guess, right?
(1h 21s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 27s) Kevin:
It’s mostly just running around trying to hit an enemy from a certain angle, maybe, and just pressing the buttons, just smashing.
(1h 33s)
It’s not terribly deep execution in my opinion, or at least the weapons I’ve tried.
(1h 37s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 38s)
No, I totally agree.
(1h 39s)
Yeah, you do get you do get some more weapons.
(1h 42s)
You might have gotten the talisman now in the Summer Village.
(1h 44s) Kevin:
I did.
(1h 44s)
That was a little, that was interesting.
(1h 47s) Liam:
That was kind of a neat one.
(1h 49s)
I like, I like the homing shots, but like, yeah, I, uh, yeah, the, um, upgrade tree, like, yeah, ad stuff, but yeah, thus far it feel like it’s only been like, you know, like a charge attack or like an extra at the end of your combo.
(1h 50s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 50s)
Fast, rapid fire weak shots yet.
(1h 1m 5s)
Yeah.
(1h 1m 5s) Liam:
Nothing, nothing really earth shattering or anything.
(1h 1m 8s)
I do feel like I do feel like there’s enough there, that there’s like the ability for the user to develop preference, which is at least a sign that they’ve they’ve hit
(1h 1m 8s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 1m 19s) Liam:
they’ve surpassed a very low bar.
(1h 1m 21s)
I like the twin blades, and I like that you actually do occasionally want to switch to arranged weapon.
(1h 1m 26s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 1m 26s) Liam:
They actually do manage to make that appealing sometimes, not to mention having the bow accessible on the shoulder buttons, like in Breath of the Wild does.
(1h 1m 30s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 1m 33s)
Yeah.
(1h 1m 37s)
Mm-hmm.
(1h 1m 38s) Liam:
Um, but yeah, I do agree that the combat feels, you know, light.
(1h 1m 43s)
You have your attack button on one face button, and then you have a secondary, like, sort of artefact or, like, tool button where you get to use one of these sort of, one of the game’s special tools.
(1h 1m 55s)
So there’s like a drum that you can heal yourself with later on.
(1h 1m 58s)
There’s a big fan.
(1h 2m)
You can get that can blow wind things.
(1h 2m 1s) Kevin:
Oh, that sounds cool.
(1h 2m 2s) Liam:
Yeah, the flame sword.
(1h 2m 3s)
It’s all right, the fan.
(1h 2m 5s)
you know, if you’ve seen the other ones, you kind of already have a good idea what it is.
(1h 2m 6s) Kevin:
Well, yeah, I I get it.
(1h 2m 8s)
It’s, it’s a, it’s a boost button, a little, a little buff, a little, little plop of something.
(1h 2m 13s) Liam:
Yeah, exactly.
(1h 2m 14s) Kevin:
It’s not, you know, earth shattering, but…
(1h 2m 14s) Liam:
Um
(1h 2m 17s)
Yeah, it’s simplistic, but I think for me, it’s like, it’s it’s above the bar where I’m like, this is too little.
(1h 2m 25s)
Probably my biggest complaint is I feel like the balancing of the combat feels a little on the easy side on the normal difficulty.
(1h 2m 33s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 2m 34s) Liam:
Um, and on the hard difficulty, I don’t know that I feel terribly satisfied by the enemies just doing a ton of damage.
(1h 2m 41s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 2m 41s) Liam:
Uh, like it doesn’t, it doesn’t really make it more interesting to me.
(1h 2m 46s)
Uh, so I think that’s my biggest dissatisfaction is like the enemies are not that interesting.
(1h 2m 52s)
They all kind of just walk towards you or walk.
(1h 2m 58s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 2m 58s) Liam:
Uh, and that’s probably the worst thing to me.
(1h 3m 2s)
The bosses have more unique enemy AI.
(1h 3m 6s)
Uh, I think you’ll see if you, if you continue to play in the autumn one, you fight this big Tanuki boss who has somewhat more unique AI, and like those fights, you definitely have to be a little more careful even on the normal difficulty. Uh, but ultimately, like, you know, you’re still not playing, you know, bayonet of three, you’re still, you’re still not playing Tears of the Kingdom, you know.
(1h 3m 13s) Kevin:
Oh.
(1h 3m 20s)
Mm-hmm.
(1h 3m 27s)
Yeah, yeah.
(1h 3m 31s) Liam:
The combat’s serviceable.
(1h 3m 32s) Kevin:
I mean, Yeah.
(1h 3m 33s) Liam:
And if you like hitting buttons, you’ll you’ll probably find something to it.
(1h 3m 37s) Kevin:
Yeah, like I…
(1h 3m 39s)
So, I mean, I mean, yeah, like, I mean, you, it could be said, you and I are definitely people who enjoy a little bit of a challenge or a little zest or combat, right?
(1h 3m 50s)
We, I’m like, even Zenless, which is fairly light combat wise, but you still compare.
(1h 3m 51s) Liam:
Mm.
(1h 3m 54s) Kevin:
you can dodge and and, you know, swap characters, right?
(1h 3m 56s) Liam:
Mm.
(1h 3m 57s) Kevin:
There’s there’s a little meat on those bones.
(1h 3m 59s)
We appreciate that.
(1h 4m)
But like here, you know, there’s not that much.
(1h 4m 1s)
So, but again, hottage court space, you know, that’s not generally everyone, like the biggest focus, so, yeah, it might appeal to a lot of people, but, um, I will say, like, I agree that, I see them trying stuff, they, they have some clever ideas, even in just the brief snapshot I had, like the tree boss in the, in the summer, uh, village, like all of a sudden, there’s a big old target, like, literally bulls on his forehead, and you got to bring out the bow, and, and you hit it with the fire arrows, and I’m like, oh, that’s, that’s actually kind of fun, um, mixing it up.
(1h 4m 22s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 4m 26s)
Yeah, it’s true, yeah.
(1h 4m 27s)
Yeah, yeah.
(1h 4m 32s) Kevin:
It’s like the 1st enemy you really can’t just spam your sword at or whatever.
(1h 4m 36s)
And then there’s some flying enemies where you have to switch to the talismans, just, I guess, maybe the tutorial fight, but, um, like, okay, I see little little bits and pieces that, but you’re right.
(1h 4m 41s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 4m 44s)
Like.
(1h 4m 47s) Kevin:
But that’s mostly special or boss fights, like out in the field. So far, I’ve just experienced, like you said, they just charge at you, you’re trying to dodge or heal yourself, you get hit.
(1h 4m 51s) Liam:
Yes.
(1h 4m 59s) Kevin:
It’s not a lot of thought into that.
(1h 5m 2s) Liam:
Yeah, I agree.
(1h 5m 3s)
I some sometimes I’m sure you’ve had this experience too.
(1h 5m 6s)
Sometimes you’re just like, I’m just gonna run past these enemies, and that’s fine.
(1h 5m 9s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 5m 10s) Liam:
Does make you wonder if a game with stronger combat would make me want to engage with them a little more.
(1h 5m 16s)
Um, but I don’t know.
(1h 5m 18s)
I think where I land on the combat is like, it’s it’s enough.
(1h 5m 22s)
It’s just enough that I’m like, this is fun, asterisk.
(1h 5m 26s)
This is fun with a lowercase F.
(1h 5m 27s) Kevin:
Yeah. Yeah.
(1h 5m 29s) Liam:
You know, like, uh, it’s certainly better.
(1h 5m 33s)
I don’t know.
(1h 5m 34s)
I’m of 2 minds.
(1h 5m 35s)
It’s more involved than the previous room factory games combats.
(1h 5m 39s) Kevin:
Uh-huh.
(1h 5m 40s) Liam:
Um, but they do like 3 and 4 do benefit from their simplicity a little bit.
(1h 5m 46s) Kevin:
Sure.
(1h 5m 46s) Liam:
Uh, you know, where you only have, you know, sort of like how a top down, like a Zelda fields or something like that.
(1h 5m 51s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah.
(1h 5m 52s) Liam:
You know, you don’t really tend to look back at like a link to the past or links awakening and be like, oh, you only have one slash and a spin attack.
(1h 6m) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 6m) Liam:
It’s too little.
(1h 6m 1s)
Because the enemy designs are good and they do fun stuff with it.
(1h 6m 5s) Kevin:
Yeah, and and it’s,
(1h 6m 5s) Liam:
So I think 3 and 4 benefit from that in a way that, uh, doesn’t work so well in 3D if you only had like, you know, 2 sword slashes.
(1h 6m 13s) Kevin:
Right.
(1h 6m 14s) Liam:
So they, you know, they had a big task in reinventing themselves here and continuing to build off of five.
(1h 6m 21s)
And I think they’ve, they’re just, they’re, they’re at a place where I’m like, okay, at least hit this bar going forward and, and, and you’ve got me, I think, but.
(1h 6m 30s)
But, uh, to what you were saying, yeah, we’re not exactly platinum games over here or anything like that.
(1h 6m 36s) Kevin:
Yeah. Uh, and I say all this with a, a, um, almost a hope that we, that, you know, if, and I think I may actually continue to play this because it’s, it’s, it has, it’s kept my interest, like I, I’m enjoying it.
(1h 6m 52s)
It’s not bad.
(1h 6m 53s)
I have to emphasise that like, you know, we’re, people know, they listen to the show, this podcast is what we do, we critique.
(1h 6m 59s)
Um, like I am enjoying it.
(1h 7m 1s)
And with how lengthy it is, like, I hope there’s some evolution later on the comment, maybe there is, maybe there’s not, might be, you know, overly optimistic here, but, uh, Um, we’ll, we’ll, I don’t know, we’ll see.
(1h 7m 16s)
Just, again, I’m just thinking very early snapshot.
(1h 7m 19s)
I’d be loved to prove it wrong or to make look like a fool later.
(1h 7m 20s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 7m 22s) Kevin:
Um,
(1h 7m 23s) Liam:
To be honest, we’re being very critical, but I think we’re probably talking about like the bit that, well, I don’t know about you, but that I’m probably the most kind of a little mixed on, because I think I think other stuff, they do more cleanly well where I’m like, oh, this is just pretty well executed.
(1h 7m 33s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 7m 39s)
Yeah.
(1h 7m 42s)
Yeah.
(1h 7m 42s) Liam:
Like, the towns in general, I think are, like, pretty well executed.
(1h 7m 48s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 7m 48s) Liam:
There’s a bunch of characters who like I kind of want to talk about.
(1h 7m 51s)
There’s enough characters to really have preferences and be like, oh, maybe I will marry you one day.
(1h 7m 55s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 7m 55s)
Yeah, well yeah.
(1h 7m 56s) Liam:
Um, uh, the, the village building is simultaneously limited and somewhat free where you have like specific areas you’re allowed to build, but they’re incorporated right into the towns.
(1h 8m 6s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 8m 12s)
Mm-hmm.
(1h 8m 12s) Liam:
So you kind of have little plots and you have good freedom with what you can do there and automating all of the farming stuff, I think, is also very enjoyable.
(1h 8m 22s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 8m 22s) Liam:
Like I think they do a lot, right?
(1h 8m 24s)
in the other areas of the game too.
(1h 8m 26s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 8m 27s) Liam:
I don’t know.
(1h 8m 28s)
What do you think about that?
(1h 8m 29s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 8m 29s) Liam:
What do you think?
(1h 8m 30s)
I’ve kind of balled like 20 topics together there.
(1h 8m 32s) Kevin:
That’s fine.
(1h 8m 32s) Liam:
But like…
(1h 8m 33s) Kevin:
That’s fine.
(1h 8m 33s)
No, I mean, it’s good, good, short segue to all these, but, um, so yeah, like, obviously here.
(1h 8m 39s)
Um, we, this is, this is our, our, our wine.
(1h 8m 42s)
This is where we’re connoisseurs, right?
(1h 8m 44s)
How does the farming and the village mechanics where, right?
(1h 8m 45s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 8m 47s) Kevin:
Like we, we are.
(1h 8m 47s) Liam:
On the flip side, I’m not so versed in that.
(1h 8m 50s)
I used to play a lot more of them as a kid, but as an adult, I’ve definitely leaned away from it.
(1h 8m 51s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 8m 55s)
Yeah.
(1h 8m 56s) Liam:
So I’m curious to hear your perspective.
(1h 8m 57s) Kevin:
So I think, okay, 1st of all, I think, like you said, it’s clean.
(1h 9m 1s)
It’s very clean.
(1h 9m 2s)
Um, probably the worst, or one of the most common issues, any cottage core game is being clunky or, or, you know, having an intuitive AI or UI, excuse me, UI or or, um, or, or just, you know, things are inconvenient, lacking some quality of life, et cetera, et cetera.
(1h 9m 13s) Liam:
UIM.
(1h 9m 21s) Kevin:
Um, you know, we’ve been through this so many times, that sort of stuff, we’ll pick up real quick.
(1h 9m 25s)
Um, I didn’t pick up on anything of that so far, and it’s interesting because, um, I think the approach is somewhat unique because you know how it is in in Stardew or Harvest Moon.
(1h 9m 39s)
Here’s your plot of land, and, you know, you plant your seed, your water, and there’s your animal bar, and there’s your crafting building.
(1h 9m 47s)
What have you, right?
(1h 9m 48s)
You, you go to this location, that location to, to do this activity or whatnot.
(1h 9m 52s)
The plots here are interesting because it’s, it is still works in many ways like a farming plot where you plant your seed and water and all that.
(1h 9m 54s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 10m 1s) Kevin:
But it’s a sort of, it’s, it’s, every tile you can place different things.
(1h 10m 7s)
You can customise this plot, not just farm, but what kind of buildings you’re going to do?
(1h 10m 13s)
Um, right, here’s a building that can produce salt.
(1h 10m 16s)
Here’s a carpenter.
(1h 10m 17s)
a, a, a shop, um, because you, and and it’s, it ties well into the theme and the story of the game of, you’re trying to build up the village, right?
(1h 10m 25s)
It’s not just your, your, you know, your grandfather’s farm you inherited.
(1h 10m 29s)
It’s you’re you’re trying to to get people to come visit the the population to grow.
(1h 10m 34s)
Um,
(1h 10m 35s) Liam:
You’re really trying to like restore places to their former grandeur, which is which is nice.
(1h 10m 38s) Kevin:
Exactly.
(1h 10m 41s)
Mm-hmm.
(1h 10m 41s)
So, because of that, right, we and weirdly enough, they make you the chief in every village, good old diagonitis, I guess.
(1h 10m 50s)
I don’t know.
(1h 10m 50s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(1h 10m 50s) Kevin:
Um, but, um, and.
(1h 10m 51s) Liam:
Well, you you’re conferred that special role, like the drive-in stuff.
(1h 10m 54s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 10m 55s)
Yeah.
(1h 10m 56s) Liam:
So, anyway, yeah.
(1h 10m 56s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 10m 58s)
And so, but it ties in because it feels less, like, you’re not giving your farm.
(1h 11m 4s)
you don’t have to go out and water the same crops every day.
(1h 11m 6s)
Um, you, the one of the nice mechanics is, as these random NPCs, not the named characters that you can have relationships with.
(1h 11m 15s) Liam:
Yeah, the generic ones.
(1h 11m 15s) Kevin:
Your population will grow, and they’ll do tests for you.
(1h 11m 19s)
They’ll do work for you inside your plot in your village.
(1h 11m 22s)
They’ll, till, you know, they’ll do the farming for you.
(1h 11m 24s)
They’ll water stuff, harvest crops, plant seeds.
(1h 11m 27s)
Um, they’ll run the shops and and and, you know, serve different roles there.
(1h 11m 33s)
Um, so it’s a little more management focussed and then just the straight up farming.
(1h 11m 38s)
Um, And I think it will, it works well because you can still go up to, if you’re so inclined, you can go up to, uh, uh, the plants or the plots and water them if you’re, you know, impatient or harvest them or whatever, you’re more than welcome to do that.
(1h 11m 40s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 11m 52s) Kevin:
But, um, I get, it’s, it’s this game sort of attempt at, I guess, automation, um, which is, we’re, one thing we’re big around here.
(1h 11m 53s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 11m 59s) Kevin:
Um, but, um, uh, just because we’ve done it so many times.
(1h 12m 4s)
Um,
(1h 12m 5s) Liam:
It is, it is, it is neat.
(1h 12m 8s)
And and you, in theory, you could even assign all your, because you do have to assign them to their roles, right?
(1h 12m 14s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 12m 14s) Liam:
You could even assign them all to the shops and do all the farming yourself if you wanted to, but, um, I think one of the ways in which automation benefits this game is because the farms are spread across 4 maps that you have to load between.
(1h 12m 17s) Kevin:
Yeah, that is absolutely true.
(1h 12m 18s)
I didn’t think about that.
(1h 12m 19s)
You could.
(1h 12m 31s)
Yeah.
(1h 12m 31s) Liam:
Uh, the load times are reasonably good, but you do have to load between them and walk to them as opposed to like a harvest moon or a Stardew, where all of your plants are all generally in the same spot.
(1h 12m 41s) Kevin:
That’s correct.
(1h 12m 41s) Liam:
I think having automation really benefits it, or else like, man, could you imagine if every day in this game, you had to warp to each town, walk to your plots, water, maintain, and then do it 4 times, like for each town, it would be a nightmare.
(1h 12m 52s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 12m 56s)
It would.
(1h 12m 57s) Liam:
Like the automation, I think, is really a smart choice.
(1h 13m) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 13m)
Yeah, and they and they introduce it like nice and early, right up front to you, um, which which is clever because, you know, in so many of these other cottage core games, is a whole song and dance, you have to wait X number of days to get your horse, you have to unlock certain things, um, hit certain checkpoints.
(1h 13m 5s) Liam:
Yeah, they do.
(1h 13m 17s) Kevin:
But here they just kind of throw it all at you, um, which is, again, very nice.
(1h 13m 20s)
And you know, we’re talking about all this functionally, but they make an attempt, like, they give you decorations and stuff like that, just, just for, or not purely aesthetics because they’ll give you bonuses and boosts.
(1h 13m 31s)
But, um, you know, it’s also a customisable thing on which, you know, a lot of people.
(1h 13m 32s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 13m 38s) Kevin:
So, um, I like that.
(1h 13m 40s)
And, and you know, not, and also, I see like, I haven’t done it because I haven’t gotten that far, but you clearly see there’s other plots of land you can unlock.
(1h 13m 48s)
Um, later on, once you, you know, get certain tools or whatever because there’s a, you know, a green bush.
(1h 13m 50s) Liam:
Hmm.
(1h 13m 54s) Kevin:
I can’t cut it or whatever.
(1h 13m 55s)
Um,
(1h 13m 56s) Liam:
There’s these like blighted things, these oppositional forces just hogging the land.
(1h 13m 57s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 13m 59s)
Yeah.
(1h 14m 1s)
It is miasma.
(1h 14m 1s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(1h 14m 2s)
Yeah, yeah.
(1h 14m 4s)
I finally was able to clear the green one in the in the spring town, which is which is nice because it’s like, oh, I have my my accessible land just doubled because I got this fan.
(1h 14m 12s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 14m 13s)
And that one’s cool because that one like there’s elevation going on now.
(1h 14m 17s)
What are we doing here?
(1h 14m 17s) Liam:
Yes?
(1h 14m 17s) Kevin:
We got water.
(1h 14m 18s)
We got we got different stuff.
(1h 14m 20s)
Um.
(1h 14m 20s) Liam:
Yeah, it’s it’s cute and and, you know, like Pocopia, not anywhere near as involved, but like Pocopia, yeah, you can make little rivers and little, like, stepped areas and you can make some really cute spaces.
(1h 14m 28s) Kevin:
No.
(1h 14m 32s) Liam:
Having seen some screenshots and looked at my own spring village, I must say.
(1h 14m 34s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 14m 37s) Liam:
You can you can make some really cute spaces in this game.
(1h 14m 39s) Kevin:
Yeah, you can.
(1h 14m 40s) Liam:
in a way I feel quite positive about, honestly.
(1h 14m 44s) Kevin:
I agree.
(1h 14m 44s)
Um, yeah, it works well the, because yeah, it’s interesting because you have to craft a farm plot.
(1h 14m 51s)
I don’t think I’ve seen that in any other game, but you’re literally crafting every single tile or what you’re going to put on every single tile.
(1h 14m 57s)
So it’s all intentional and thoughtful.
(1h 14m 58s) Liam:
Yeah, you’re you’re right.
(1h 15m) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 15m) Liam:
You’re right.
(1h 15m 2s)
In most farming games, you just take the tiller and you do that on the grass and it turns into dirt, right?
(1h 15m 7s) Kevin:
Yeah, mhm.
(1h 15m 7s) Liam:
You’re right.
(1h 15m 8s)
In this game, you have to get like a item that is like a tilled soil and put it on the tile, which is which is a little weird when you think about it, and it’s definitely against how these things normally go, but you are right in pointing that out.
(1h 15m 14s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 15m 20s)
Yeah.
(1h 15m 24s)
Yeah, but but that’s almost a positive here, to be honest, because one of the things we like around here, again, having gone through, you know, the song you dance so many times.
(1h 15m 24s) Liam:
That is funny.
(1h 15m 26s)
But it works.
(1h 15m 27s)
It works.
(1h 15m 34s) Kevin:
We like to see different ideas, how you’re going to be different, the originality.
(1h 15m 37s)
So it’s interesting at the bare minimum.
(1h 15m 41s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 15m 41s) Kevin:
Um, and it, again, feels as well executed clean.
(1h 15m 41s) Liam:
And yeah, even if it goes against genre convention, like normally it would be like you have a bunch of items during your inventory, you take the tailor, you till, you put the seeds in the earth, which is another item, and then you use the watering item to water it, right?
(1h 15m 58s)
It’s like multiple different interactions.
(1h 16m)
In this game, because of the combat focus, they put like largely combat tools in your item slots, right?
(1h 16m 8s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 16m 8s) Liam:
Like the sword and the fan and the drum.
(1h 16m 10s)
So I think it made sense in this game to just have, basically you have this magic tiller and that magic tiller just gives you access to like placing things.
(1h 16m 20s)
You can even use the mouse on the Switch too to like zoom out and just manually.
(1h 16m 22s) Kevin:
Yeah, mouse mode.
(1h 16m 24s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 16m 25s)
And so in that regard, it feels okay to put down like tilled dirt in like that sort of impersonal kind of way, because the structure of your inventory is just not quite the same as how it’s handled in other farming games, where like here, yeah, everything is put into one spot here, like buildings and seeds and dirt, whereas in other titles, it’s like, well, you’re not doing the buildings so much.
(1h 16m 31s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 16m 39s)
Yeah, you’re you’re right because.
(1h 16m 45s)
Mm-hmm.
(1h 16m 50s)
Yeah.
(1h 16m 54s) Liam:
So it kind of makes
(1h 16m 58s) Kevin:
Yeah, no, and I, I mean, I appreciate it, honestly, that’s, that’s another, that’s another big uh, hurdle, a lot of game struggle with.
(1h 16m 58s) Liam:
Anyway.
(1h 17m 6s) Kevin:
Um, invent, like even just the inventory structure.
(1h 17m 9s)
Like, does your game have, you know, a quick access tool belt or whatever, right?
(1h 17m 10s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 17m 14s) Kevin:
Do your tools, share inventory with your other items, things like that.
(1h 17m 16s) Liam:
Yo, right, yeah.
(1h 17m 19s) Kevin:
We see different approaches and sometimes not great ones, lots of times, not great answers to those design challenges.
(1h 17m 26s)
But this one I think does pretty well.
(1h 17m 28s)
Like you said, a lot of the, uh, your inventor, or it’s lots that you’re actually equipping and switching out, um, are more combat focussed.
(1h 17m 37s)
Um, you have the tools which do have some functionality on the farm, but, but it’s, at least it’s very specific.
(1h 17m 41s)
Um, But like your seeds and all that, honestly, you can just chuck them in a storage box and everything in the village is linked.
(1h 17m 43s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 17m 49s) Kevin:
You don’t have to think about it.
(1h 17m 50s) Liam:
God, yeah.
(1h 17m 50s) Kevin:
Which I, Al, I know Al’s listening to this and just jumping for joy because he hates that having to dig up stuff or find it from a different area.
(1h 17m 59s)
He wants all the inventory links.
(1h 18m 1s)
But um, so yeah, so, you know, it’s it’s convenient if nothing else.
(1h 18m 6s) Liam:
I agree.
(1h 18m 7s)
I think they made a lot of good choices with item management.
(1h 18m 9s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 18m 10s) Liam:
Like when you hit, if I’m not mistaken, when you hit up on the D-Pad or whatever, it opens up, hang on, I have a game right here.
(1h 18m 16s)
You hit up on the deep pad, it opens up your inventory, and like the default items at the top are like food and healing items, which is great because you’re doing 3rd person action.
(1h 18m 25s)
And then, like, when you’re at the, uh, and oh, yeah.
(1h 18m 30s)
So, and from here, yeah, you can’t see your buildings or anything even.
(1h 18m 34s)
And then when you’re building stuff, all the food and healing items are just hidden because you don’t need them in that menu.
(1h 18m 39s)
Lots of good little decisions there, nearly infinite storage capacity for putting stuff away, and like a generous onhand storage capacity for your inventory.
(1h 18m 42s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 18m 52s) Liam:
Uh, you’re right.
(1h 18m 53s)
These are frictions that I don’t tend to to think about because I don’t I don’t play as many of these games that have 7000 different item types.
(1h 18m 56s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 19m 2s)
Yeah.
(1h 19m 3s) Liam:
But yeah, I think that they made a lot of good choices here in that regard because I don’t feel like there’s much friction negative.
(1h 19m 6s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 19m 7s)
Yeah, absolutely.
(1h 19m 10s)
No, they they put what you need like, right, you know, the easy to access or like when you’re even contextually, like, because when you’re inside the farming plot, you’re some of your buttons change, right?
(1h 19m 23s)
Like there’s a quick button to access the magic tiller that does everything or whatever.
(1h 19m 25s) Liam:
Yes, yeah.
(1h 19m 27s) Kevin:
Um, so, so it’s, it’s very thoughtful and and, and well done, right?
(1h 19m 32s)
Um, because, you know, we, we see the antithesis of this where you have to have 300 different crafting stations and you have to know which item goes which one and and what, and what materials you need to create and so on and so forth.
(1h 19m 33s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 19m 40s)
Yeah.
(1h 19m 45s) Kevin:
Um, the webs and chains can get very long and messy, but um, but not here.
(1h 19m 50s)
Not here at all.
(1h 19m 51s)
Very, very clean, very well done.
(1h 19m 53s)
Um, I think, uh, I think a lot of people um, who listen in and the hosts, including out, would actually be very surprised and and interested to, to, to try this out because uh, it feels good. Like, I will say that, like, the whole game, it feels good.
(1h 19m 55s) Liam:
Yeah, I think so.
(1h 20m 7s) Kevin:
Nothing feels bad, nothing feels clunky or slow or sticky or, um, Yeah, so I like mechanically.
(1h 20m 14s) Liam:
Yeah, it’s pretty sharp.
(1h 20m 15s) Kevin:
It’s, it’s a well done, very clean game.
(1h 20m 17s)
Um, which, boy, we appreciate it.
(1h 20m 20s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 20m 22s) Kevin:
Many games are in early access for a long time, Liam, for a reason.
(1h 20m 23s) Liam:
I had one.
(1h 20m 27s)
Wow, yeah, that’s that’s how I go.
(1h 20m 30s)
I had one not complaint, but there was one thing I ran into that I found at 1st a little, confusing is not the right word, but there was like a slight lack of clarity, where like, when I got to the summer village, I was like, oh, I wanna, like, build some buildings and stuff.
(1h 20m 47s)
And I was like, where do I go to build buildings?
(1h 20m 50s)
And I like sort of ran around the whole town?
(1h 20m 52s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
(1h 20m 52s) Liam:
And it was like, where do I go to build buildings?
(1h 20m 55s)
And at some point I clicked.
(1h 20m 56s)
It’s like, okay, I have to actually go back to the spring village to build buildings.
(1h 20m 59s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 21m) Liam:
I have to go.
(1h 21m)
And from there, you can build a building to put in the summer village that is for building buildings so that then you can do it in the summer village.
(1h 21m 9s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 21m 11s) Liam:
But you do also need to find an NPC who has the a random NPC who has the specialty that lets them build buildings. Because not everyone has that.
(1h 21m 17s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 21m 20s)
Yeah.
(1h 21m 21s) Liam:
And I think this is a piece of friction that I like because it really supports the whole, like, uh, uh, reconstruction of an area.
(1h 21m 26s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 21m 32s)
Yeah.
(1h 21m 32s) Liam:
Not everyone’s gonna be good at everything.
(1h 21m 33s)
And like, there is a certain, a certain scrapiness to like working with what you have and like, oh, I need to, I need to go back to the other town to get this because we still don’t have the resources in this town.
(1h 21m 41s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 21m 42s)
Yeah.
(1h 21m 43s) Liam:
But the way it presented to me at 1st was a lack of clarity where I was like, wait, how do I do this?
(1h 21m 48s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 21m 50s) Liam:
And I wasted a bunch of time running around the summer village.
(1h 21m 53s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 21m 53s) Liam:
And then, and then I repeated that in the fall village, uh, again, um, because that was where I picked up, uh, for, uh, before this podcast.
(1h 22m 4s)
I picked back up at the beginning of the fall village and I repeated this exact same thing over again, before realising, oh, yeah, right, I still have to go back to the Spring Village.
(1h 22m 14s)
Thankfully, I got the resources in the fall village.
(1h 22m 16s)
I got a guy who can do it.
(1h 22m 18s)
I still don’t have one in the summer village, but hopefully, hopefully we’ll be able to develop some.
(1h 22m 25s)
Someday.
(1h 22m 26s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 22m 26s) Liam:
Yeah, the, the, uh, go ahead, sorry.
(1h 22m 26s) Kevin:
What?
(1h 22m 28s)
No, I was just going to say, like, I, I, you’re right.
(1h 22m 32s)
I get that because, um, some of it like, how should I put this, like the jumping back and forth between villages isn’t explicitly laid out at first, I think, um, at least not super clearly.
(1h 22m 44s) Liam:
No, you’re right, actually.
(1h 22m 44s) Kevin:
Um, in fact, they do a whole send off from the spring village, like you’re going off and you’re not going to be back in a while when you literally can just warp back as soon as you land.
(1h 22m 46s) Liam:
that’s true.
(1h 22m 54s)
Yeah.
(1h 22m 56s) Kevin:
Um, and, and, You exactly, exactly.
(1h 22m 58s) Liam:
And you will almost certainly have to go back within like, yeah, yeah, totally, totally.
(1h 23m 1s) Kevin:
So it feels weird disconnect.
(1h 23m 3s)
But what I like, um, so, you know, aside from that awkwardness of framing it.
(1h 23m 8s)
Um, what I do, I kind of do like this as well, is this little friction because, for me, what I like is the connectivity?
(1h 23m 15s)
between the villages.
(1h 23m 17s)
Um, like you said, not just having the resources, but, hey, I need a carpenter.
(1h 23m 18s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 23m 21s) Kevin:
Well, you know, we got our carpenter buddy back in the Spring Village.
(1h 23m 25s)
Let’s go see, you know, I’m gonna go see him for help to, you know, build some buildings or what have you.
(1h 23m 29s)
Um.
(1h 23m 30s)
And then jumping ahead a little here, but then, as you build it up, eventually, NPCs will start just hopping randomly between villages, and that’s really cool, and and I like that, that feeling of connectivity, like, it, yes, they’re 4 separate zones, but it all feels like one, you know, region now.
(1h 23m 31s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 23m 49s) Kevin:
Like people are travelling and visiting and and, you know, you get to see your, your, your, your crew from one group hanging out another one like, oh, what are you guys doing here?
(1h 23m 51s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 23m 57s) Kevin:
Um, so I, I, I appreciate that.
(1h 23m 59s) Liam:
And it’s like explicitly tourism too, which is kind of cute.
(1h 24m) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 24m 2s)
It is.
(1h 24m 3s) Liam:
They are explicitly going to villa to the villages to, like, see stuff and take in the sites. And I even I even had a conversation with the, the, the lady who runs at Iroha who runs the, the shop.
(1h 24m 16s) Kevin:
Iroha, uh-huh.
(1h 24m 17s)
Yeah.
(1h 24m 17s) Liam:
Yeah, in the 1st Spring Village and Uraka, the goddess of spring.
(1h 24m 22s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 24m 22s) Liam:
I had a conversation with them earlier, one of their events that was like they were talking about how, yeah, like now there’s more tourists here and like the positives and negatives of that.
(1h 24m 31s)
And I was like, oh, this is very light Japan politics going on in this conversation.
(1h 24m 35s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 24m 38s) Liam:
But I agree that seeing these sort of interplay as you build back up the town and like, it’s not, they’re like, they are written to not just be these isolated spaces, but like a world that, you know, where people want to explore and and like share in it and all.
(1h 24m 54s)
I think that’s very, I think that’s very cool.
(1h 24m 57s)
Um, and I really think that’s well executed.
(1h 25m 1s)
kind of.
(1h 25m 2s)
I think it’s 50% very well executed.
(1h 25m 4s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 25m 5s) Liam:
And then I want to loop back on something you said about how when you finish the Spring Village, there’s like a sendoff, right?
(1h 25m 10s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 25m 11s) Liam:
Like goodbye, farewell.
(1h 25m 13s)
That bit of the narrative design, I feel, is less well executed because they really, they’re really going for like a very grand thing, like this huge world and like you’re, you’re, you’re riding a dragon between areas, which is like visually pretty neat.
(1h 25m 16s) Kevin:
Certainly.
(1h 25m 28s)
It is.
(1h 25m 28s) Liam:
Um, but, but yeah, ultimately everywhere is like a stone’s throw away.
(1h 25m 34s)
So like, there is a slight narrative disconnect where the world is simultaneously infinitely vast, but also extremely small.
(1h 25m 44s)
Um, and like that is acknowledged within the narrative of the world as well, where characters like Iroha, who, she’s, uh, she runs a t-shop.
(1h 25m 44s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 25m 55s) Liam:
She’s just casually on the autumn town just checking out the sites.
(1h 25m 58s)
She can just, like, if she can just get around.
(1h 26m 1s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 26m 1s) Liam:
Surely the world can’t be that big, right?
(1h 26m 4s)
Um, so, you know.
(1h 26m 4s) Kevin:
I do wonder how they do it.
(1h 26m 6s)
We have a literally a dragon, and that’s our only means of transportation.
(1h 26m 11s)
How did they show up?
(1h 26m 12s) Liam:
Yeah, but how do they?
(1h 26m 14s)
Clearly, all the people have also the access to the fast travel menu that you have access to.
(1h 26m 18s) Kevin:
Clearly.
(1h 26m 19s) Liam:
So, um, you know, so there’s like a little narrative disconnect there, but it’s small, and I really feel like it’s in service to benefitting the game, where, like, it’s cute to see other characters wandering around the wrong places.
(1h 26m 27s) Kevin:
It is.
(1h 26m 32s)
Yeah.
(1h 26m 32s) Liam:
Um, yeah.
(1h 26m 34s)
Uh, uh, speaking of the fast travel, uh, once you get to grips with the fast travel menu, man, that’s a good fast travel.
(1h 26m 40s) Kevin:
It’s so good.
(1h 26m 42s)
You get, oh, you just cycle through all the pages.
(1h 26m 43s) Liam:
It’s really good.
(1h 26m 46s) Kevin:
There’s there’s no like submenus.
(1h 26m 47s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 26m 47s) Kevin:
Oh, and it’s snappy and you see where you go.
(1h 26m 50s) Liam:
And it’s,
(1h 26m 50s) Kevin:
There’s lots of points.
(1h 26m 52s)
Oh, it’s no complaints.
(1h 26m 53s) Liam:
Yeah, it’s granular, it’s clear from the map menu you can even move around a cursor to go like between spots.
(1h 27m)
Like, man, they really, like really, really well oiled machine, that like fast travel system.
(1h 27m 7s)
It’s like a little thing, but it really saves you a lot of time positive.
(1h 27m 10s) Kevin:
It is, yeah, absolutely.
(1h 27m 12s)
Um, because this gapes, right?
(1h 27m 14s)
that’s that’s the dark path that we could have gone, right?
(1h 27m 17s)
Like no fast travel.
(1h 27m 18s)
You got to fly every time to go back between your villages.
(1h 27m 20s) Liam:
Good God.
(1h 27m 22s)
Man, yeah, if you had to like run back to like a dragon point to like fly at the village.
(1h 27m 31s) Kevin:
Avira.
(1h 27m 31s) Liam:
There’s this, um, yeah.
(1h 27m 33s)
We didn’t really, I think we might have mentioned it in passing, but so there’s like, there’s like the 4 villages, as far as we know, there might be other large areas, but then, and they’re all floating in the sky.
(1h 27m 39s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 27m 45s) Liam:
Uh, imagine like Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword.
(1h 27m 47s) Kevin:
Yeah, really is like that.
(1h 27m 48s) Liam:
And, and, and just like Skyward, there’s a bunch of micro islands that are just little things.
(1h 27m 53s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 27m 54s) Liam:
There’s this one island with this lady who wants you to bring desserts that you like that, like specific target desserts.
(1h 28m 1s)
All these little sky islands, like they’re very small, but they really contribute to like a good feeling of adventure, like getting to fly through the sky, simplistically, but like nonetheless, like working towards building the feeling of a vast world.
(1h 28m 10s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 28m 17s) Liam:
I think it works.
(1h 28m 18s)
I kind of like it, honestly.
(1h 28m 18s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 28m 18s)
I know, I do too.
(1h 28m 21s)
Visually, like, it feels like a broken up land scattered amongst the skies, like I get the feeling from it.
(1h 28m 29s) Liam:
Yeah, it does.
(1h 28m 30s)
And I have to give special shout outs to the animator who did the animation when you land, and the dragon like coils itself around the landing point.
(1h 28m 38s) Kevin:
What’s so good?
(1h 28m 38s) Liam:
It’s really cool, actually.
(1h 28m 41s)
Like when I saw that for the 1st time.
(1h 28m 42s)
I was like, whoa.
(1h 28m 44s)
Whoa, I’m sad.
(1h 28m 45s)
skip that every other time now, but um, yeah, um, cool stuff, honestly.
(1h 28m 46s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 28m 49s)
Yeah.
(1h 28m 50s) Liam:
Um, I think. Yeah.
(1h 28m 51s) Kevin:
Okay, now, let’s get to the, let’s get to the real meat of this.
(1h 28m 56s)
We we know what we’re here for, Liam.
(1h 28m 59s)
We, we, we, we got.
(1h 29m) Liam:
Hot singles in your area.
(1h 29m 3s) Kevin:
Okay.
(1h 29m 4s)
So, well, here’s the thing, Liam, um.
(1h 29m 7s) Liam:
Yes.
(1h 29m 8s) Kevin:
Relationship mechanics are a not contentious, but they’re a sensitive topic here at the harvest season because here’s the thing.
(1h 29m 16s)
When you’re doing well, they’re excellent.
(1h 29m 19s)
Not every game has them, but boy, a lot of games feel like they do when they come.
(1h 29m 24s)
So, so we we’ve seen highs and lows of relationships, but this is ruin factors.
(1h 29m 26s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 29m 31s) Kevin:
It’s just Harvest Moon.
(1h 29m 32s)
We, the expectation is set.
(1h 29m 34s)
Like, we know we’re going to get quality relationships and more importantly, what are, what is, does the cast look like?
(1h 29m 41s)
That’s the big question.
(1h 29m 42s)
So, um, well, I mean, guess, should we start with general relationship mechanics?
(1h 29m 49s)
I guess we can start with that.
(1h 29m 50s)
Um, It’s, I mean, it’s.
(1h 29m 51s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah, I think so.
(1h 29m 52s)
I also have a contentious relationship with relationship mechanics, though, like, building on what you were saying as well.
(1h 29m 57s) Kevin:
Oh?
(1h 30m) Liam:
So, so, but I think this game does it pretty, pretty well, I think, actually.
(1h 30m 4s) Kevin:
Yeah, I agree.
(1h 30m 5s) Liam:
So I’m interested to hear what you.
(1h 30m 6s) Kevin:
Yeah, no, I agree with that.
(1h 30m 9s)
Um, because here’s the thing, like, it, and again, all from very early on.
(1h 30m 14s)
And this is an interesting one because this is a mechanic that evolves, which is not something we see.
(1h 30m 20s)
I can’t think of very frequently.
(1h 30m 22s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 30m 22s) Kevin:
It’s, you know, your standard, talk to your character, give gift.
(1h 30m 26s)
Uh, you’ll get a cut scene eventually.
(1h 30m 28s)
Like that’s, that’s kind of what the relationship mechanics always boil down to, right?
(1h 30m 32s)
Um, usually it hinges on the quality of the characters and the interactions and then, you know, the the cutscenes, right?
(1h 30m 34s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 30m 39s) Kevin:
Like do they feel like real people?
(1h 30m 40s)
But this is the 1st time, like, the more you do things, the more options you get.
(1h 30m 45s)
And I mean, functionally, they’re not that different.
(1h 30m 48s)
It’s just like a tiny micro cutsy, um, you go to a forest or you, you, you hang out or whatever, but it’s the flavour of like you’re bonding, so you want to do more, you know, you’re more comfortable hanging out doing different things.
(1h 31m 2s)
I think that’s that’s pretty clever.
(1h 31m 4s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 31m 5s) Kevin:
Um, like I said, I don’t can’t recall that popping up in other things.
(1h 31m 9s)
Another games.
(1h 31m 10s)
Um, I also, um, What was it?
(1h 31m 14s)
Oh, but it does tie into gameplay, which is a big, big issue. Like, I always want to see the relationships playing to gameplay. Like, you can take people out into your party once, you know, you know them a little bit.
(1h 31m 26s)
You can, um, You you can take them to certain locales and and and do things.
(1h 31m 30s)
Um, So like, yeah, I I like I like the relationship mechanics a lot.
(1h 31m 36s)
Um, your thought?
(1h 31m 38s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 31m 38s)
Yeah, I think they did a really good job.
(1h 31m 41s)
I don’t like how in a lot of games with relationship mechanics.
(1h 31m 46s)
Like they tend to boil down to like just following the line where it’s like, okay, well, I’ll just go choose to spend time with this one and then a relatively fixed thing will happen and then eventually the points will tick up.
(1h 31m 59s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 32m)
Yep.
(1h 32m 1s) Liam:
Um, I particularly dislike, maybe this is contentious, but I particularly dislike in like persona, uh, the, sorry, modern personas, where, uh, like they’re like, they have like enumerated levels and stuff like that.
(1h 32m 10s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 32m 15s)
Yeah.
(1h 32m 15s) Liam:
Like, I feel like that feels very unnatural, though I do understand that they come hand in hand with like giving you skills and abilities that tie to those levels.
(1h 32m 18s) Kevin:
Oh, that.
(1h 32m 26s) Liam:
So I get it.
(1h 32m 28s)
I get that there’s a necessity there, but it’s not my preference.
(1h 32m 30s)
I think this game does a better job at making them feel a little more natural, um, with how it sort of randomises the things you can do with them every day.
(1h 32m 41s) Kevin:
Yeah, that’s very fun.
(1h 32m 41s) Liam:
Yeah, as you were saying, you have an option.
(1h 32m 46s)
you have like a couple options.
(1h 32m 47s)
I think 4 options is what you’re what you’re handed when you want to interact with them every day, but you have no bearing on those 4 options.
(1h 32m 55s)
I’m not even sure if give a gift is always.
(1h 32m 57s)
It might be, it might be the one that’s always there, but,
(1h 32m 58s) Kevin:
Uh, I I don’t think so.
(1h 33m 1s)
Um, like a small tangent, but like we talked about skill trees.
(1h 33m 4s)
One of the the skill trees, uh, which there are many, uh, is your social skills, and you can actually, I, I look down the list, you can unlock a reset.
(1h 33m 7s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 33m 13s) Kevin:
Um, if you don’t like the options presented to you.
(1h 33m 15s)
Um, you can do a reset.
(1h 33m 17s) Liam:
Oh, like a like reroll the options?
(1h 33m 17s) Kevin:
Yeah, re-roll the options.
(1h 33m 19s)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(1h 33m 19s) Liam:
That’s funny.
(1h 33m 20s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(1h 33m 21s) Liam:
That’s funny.
(1h 33m 21s)
I didn’t know.
(1h 33m 22s)
But yeah, like every day with every character, you get a different role of like 4 things you can do with them.
(1h 33m 29s)
And it sort of gives you an idea of like how intense the activity is, how long it’ll take in in-game minutes and how the intensity is proportionate to the reward, I guess, in terms of like character experience.
(1h 33m 42s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 33m 43s) Liam:
But it’s cute, and there are wrong choices depending on the character and where your relationship level is at with them.
(1h 33m 50s)
I tried to take one of the characters to the beach, and I was turned down, and our relationship levelled down, and I was like, ouch, oof, um, yeah.
(1h 33m 57s) Kevin:
Woof.
(1h 33m 58s)
Ooh, I didn’t, I, that, I’m too early.
(1h 34m)
I haven’t seen that.
(1h 34m 1s)
Ooh, I like that, though.
(1h 34m 1s) Liam:
Yeah, that happened, that happened.
(1h 34m 2s) Kevin:
I like the.
(1h 34m 4s) Liam:
Um, no, totally.
(1h 34m 6s)
I wasn’t expecting it either.
(1h 34m 7s)
So it was like, ooh.
(1h 34m 8s)
And then I couldn’t, I couldn’t do another interaction with that character that day because I had already spent it, right?
(1h 34m 13s) Kevin:
And it hurts so much.
(1h 34m 14s) Liam:
So, um, it does.
(1h 34m 15s) Kevin:
You’re just, you’re just regretting it, just, just like the real life.
(1h 34m 16s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 34m 18s) Kevin:
Oh, no, I screwed it up.
(1h 34m 18s) Liam:
Exactly.
(1h 34m 20s) Kevin:
Look at me.
(1h 34m 20s) Liam:
Yeah, no good feelings.
(1h 34m 22s) Kevin:
Um.
(1h 34m 22s) Liam:
So yeah, like every day you can do like a brief chat with a character, which gives you like the barest of anything, and then you can also do one activity that is like semi-random.
(1h 34m 34s)
Some of them require you to give up an item, you know, like giving a gift or whatever.
(1h 34m 36s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 34m 37s) Liam:
And I think, I think that’s nice because it, it does feel like you’re just doing different stuff spontaneously with them.
(1h 34m 45s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 34m 45s) Liam:
Um, and I think one of the things I, I like is like the next step, which is that, yeah, when you hit different relationship levels, you, you unlock, like, uh, you unlock fetch quests for them, which are not all that interesting, but each character has different, like, you know, bring me these items for this item, and those are fixed, they’re not random or procedural.
(1h 35m 1s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 35m 5s)
Mm-hmm.
(1h 35m 9s) Liam:
Uh, and then you also unlock, like, the the sort of cutscenes and quests attached to them.
(1h 35m 15s)
And those, I really like that those don’t follow a rigid pattern.
(1h 35m 20s)
Like I have one character in the Spring Village, the warrior fellow.
(1h 35m 25s)
Um, he has been locked for me for a while.
(1h 35m 28s)
It keeps saying, like, advanced the story, and that’s like his, that’s like very early in his thing.
(1h 35m 33s)
whereas other characters I’ve been able to progress quite deeply.
(1h 35m 35s) Kevin:
Really?
(1h 35m 35s)
Huh.
(1h 35m 36s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 35m 37s)
Um, and, and like the quests, obviously they all follow similar patterns, like fundamentally, that’s, you know, still a Harvest Moon game, but like they don’t, they’re not totally predictable in their cadence and contents, you know, like they’re not the same scene.
(1h 35m 43s) Kevin:
Sure.
(1h 35m 52s)
Hmm.
(1h 35m 55s)
Sure, right, right.
(1h 35m 56s) Liam:
I genuinely, I genuinely think they did a really good job with the character.
(1h 36m) Kevin:
Yeah, they’re they’re fitting to the character, absolutely.
(1h 36m 3s)
Um, I want to back up the, going back to the, you know, the, the, before activities.
(1h 36m 4s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(1h 36m 6s)
Please do.
(1h 36m 8s) Kevin:
There is, there is one, uh, and you mentioned it, but it’s, it’s just a fascinating thing because I don’t think it’s something I haven’t seen really in another, uh, audage core games.
(1h 36m 19s)
The time element.
(1h 36m 20s)
Um, Because, I mean, look, this is, this is, you know, pottage course, Stardew, the harvest, when you know how it is.
(1h 36m 22s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 36m 26s) Kevin:
Every 2nd’s a minute, clocks ticking down.
(1h 36m 28s)
And in most games, people tend to, uh, actually, have a desperate need to maximise or optimise their time and day.
(1h 36m 37s)
Um, so, you know, when you have to give a whole hour.
(1h 36m 39s) Liam:
Mm.
(1h 36m 41s) Kevin:
Um, to, uh, if you want to, you know, do something significant to hang out with someone, like that’s, that’s an interesting little, uh, you know, your resources, right?
(1h 36m 48s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 36m 53s) Kevin:
Do you want to spend the time and then and boost this relationship or do you not want to miss the event that’s going to happen only at 9 AM and, you know, and wait until the next day or whatever.
(1h 37m 3s)
Um, I think that’s, that’s clever, how there’s, there’s a little bit of a cost there um, to consider.
(1h 37m 8s)
Again, just something novel.
(1h 37m 10s) Liam:
Yeah, it’s nice.
(1h 37m 10s) Kevin:
Go ahead.
(1h 37m 11s) Liam:
Yeah, no, I totally agree that it’s nice.
(1h 37m 13s)
Even if like the the time is like pretty lax.
(1h 37m 16s)
It’s just another, just another thing that you have to consider.
(1h 37m 19s)
Uh, it’s good.
(1h 37m 22s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
(1h 37m 22s) Liam:
It’s positive.
(1h 37m 23s)
totally agree.
(1h 37m 24s)
Um, but yeah, the, no, the relationship stuff, I, I feel is like,
(1h 37m 31s)
risingly well done, I guess.
(1h 37m 33s)
Like, I expected it to be more like generic across characters, you know?
(1h 37m 39s) Kevin:
Yeah, mhm.
(1h 37m 40s) Liam:
And certainly when you’re doing those like, you know, for random things you can pick from, those are your generic ones.
(1h 37m 47s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 37m 48s) Liam:
Uh, and they’re and they’re over in a flash and like you’re in and out and you move on.
(1h 37m 52s)
But yeah, when you actually hit the story sequences for the characters.
(1h 37m 56s)
Like the one I mentioned quite a bit earlier about like over tourism problems in the Spring Village, um, it’s like, yeah, that was that was very much unique from all the other characters stories, uh, down to the cut scene and everything. Like, uh, so generally I feel really positive about the relationship thing.
(1h 37m 59s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 38m)
Yeah.
(1h 38m 13s) Liam:
Oh, you mentioned also before bringing the characters out.
(1h 38m 18s)
You can bring up to 3 characters with you to explore the world and do combat and stuff with you.
(1h 38m 20s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 38m 23s)
Yeah.
(1h 38m 23s) Liam:
And they have a couple different types.
(1h 38m 26s)
There’s like attacker, attacker, buffer, debuffer, and I think there’s a 4th couldn’t be defender.
(1h 38m 27s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 38m 30s)
Your healer?
(1h 38m 32s) Liam:
But anyway.
(1h 38m 33s)
Oh, yeah, yeah, healer, I think, yeah.
(1h 38m 34s) Kevin:
There’s there’s Defender two.
(1h 38m 35s)
Yeah, tacker defender, buffer, de-buffer, and healer, yeah.
(1h 38m 35s) Liam:
Is there also defend?
(1h 38m 37s)
Okay, yeah.
(1h 38m 38s) Kevin:
There’s a lot of touch.
(1h 38m 38s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 38m 39s) Kevin:
Yeah, that’s interesting because they’re they’re fairly fleshed out, like, unlike other games where, you know, the party comes and they’ll they’ll do whatever, you know, maybe just set up as targets or whatever.
(1h 38m 49s)
Anyways, you can fully equip them out with gear.
(1h 38m 52s)
They have their own levels and…
(1h 38m 54s) Liam:
Yeah, the gear changes their appearance slightly as well.
(1h 38m 57s) Kevin:
They’re, yeah, you can modify their appearance. They’re like, they’re, they’re full on party members, which is kind of wild to think about now that I, like, saying it out because I, I know it’s, it’s common fair in other games, but in this sort of, like, Harvest Moon game.
(1h 38m 58s) Liam:
Like this, yeah, yeah.
(1h 39m)
A little.
(1h 39m 10s) Kevin:
Yeah, no, that’s actually really novel and really cool, actually.
(1h 39m 11s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 39m 13s) Kevin:
Um.
(1h 39m 13s) Liam:
It’s… It’s a little unusual for sure.
(1h 39m 16s)
So it is nice. And they are, I wouldn’t say that they’re, like, they’re not as effective in combat as you are.
(1h 39m 22s) Kevin:
No.
(1h 39m 22s) Liam:
No question, but they are active participants at all times.
(1h 39m 23s) Kevin:
Nope.
(1h 39m 25s)
They are.
(1h 39m 27s) Liam:
Like they are taking enemies aggression off of you.
(1h 39m 30s) Kevin:
That’s the main thing, always.
(1h 39m 30s) Liam:
They are always in there doing stuff.
(1h 39m 33s)
Like, they don’t feel like they’re doing nothing, which is nice because so often in a lot of action RPGs, like the party members feel like they’re contributing so little that, like, they may as well not be there at all.
(1h 39m 35s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 39m 44s)
Pass the heel, Donald.
(1h 39m 44s) Liam:
Right?
(1h 39m 46s)
Yeah, right?
(1h 39m 47s)
But no, you feel like they’re always there.
(1h 39m 50s)
They do chatter to you as well.
(1h 39m 52s)
I think there’s actually an option to turn down and off their chatter.
(1h 39m 56s) Kevin:
Sure.
(1h 39m 56s) Liam:
Uh, maybe telling that the developers had had feedback on that that informed that decision, but, um, I have left the chatter on, um, It’s it’s cute.
(1h 40m 5s) Kevin:
I have too.
(1h 40m 6s)
And and it’s thought out.
(1h 40m 8s)
Sometimes you get specific dialogue when you bring 2 characters.
(1h 40m 11s)
Um.
(1h 40m 12s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(1h 40m 13s)
I agree.
(1h 40m 14s)
There’s there’s more to it than I initially thought in that regard.
(1h 40m 16s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 40m 17s) Liam:
I think the one thing I wish there was because it’s very nice that you get to bring people out.
(1h 40m 22s)
I wish there were like certain events in the world that you could participate in if you had a certain character with you.
(1h 40m 29s) Kevin:
That’s what it’s missing.
(1h 40m 31s)
That’s 100%.
(1h 40m 32s) Liam:
It would probably be nice, like a little like the tales of games, you know, like go to this place with this character.
(1h 40m 37s) Kevin:
Yeah, skits or certain points, right?
(1h 40m 40s) Liam:
Sure.
(1h 40m 40s) Kevin:
Like memory spots.
(1h 40m 44s)
100%.
(1h 40m 44s) Liam:
Yeah, that sort of thing.
(1h 40m 45s)
Um, I don’t feel like it’s like, it’s not like a massive, massive omission that hampers my enjoyment, but it’s something that when I when I realised it, I was like, oh, actually, I really…
(1h 40m 58s) Kevin:
Yeah, no, because that that would make the, you know, the outside, you know, the fields, the combat areas will feel much more alive.
(1h 41m 6s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 41m 7s) Kevin:
That is one thing like, you know, good or bad.
(1h 41m 10s)
The village and the combat areas, very segregated.
(1h 41m 14s)
Um,
(1h 41m 16s) Liam:
Yeah, there’s like a loading screen between them even.
(1h 41m 17s) Kevin:
Literally, yeah.
(1h 41m 18s)
Um, but that would be a nice little connected tissue.
(1h 41m 19s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 41m 20s)
If you’re if you’re playing on Switch 2, by the way, because we’ve mentioned loads a couple times.
(1h 41m 22s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 41m 25s) Liam:
loads are snappy.
(1h 41m 26s) Kevin:
They are.
(1h 41m 27s) Liam:
Gotta say, I’m a big fan of snappy loads, so, yeah.
(1h 41m 27s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 41m 28s)
Yeah, that’s the power of the switch too.
(1h 41m 31s) Liam:
Power switch too, maybe.
(1h 41m 33s) Kevin:
She’ll chill.
(1h 41m 35s) Liam:
Yeah, exactly.
(1h 41m 35s) Kevin:
Um.
(1h 41m 36s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 41m 37s) Kevin:
Oh man, but yeah, no.
(1h 41m 39s)
And so like overall, yeah, yeah.
(1h 41m 42s)
This is, it’s actually in depth.
(1h 41m 43s)
You’re right.
(1h 41m 43s)
Like, I looked at it, but again, I just, I did think about it because I’m just so auto trained from other games, but like, yeah, but in this kind of game, it is a big deal to be able to quip your party.
(1h 41m 53s)
have them have done.
(1h 41m 56s)
Um, and also, like, benefits the relationship.
(1h 42m 1s)
If you bring out a part a member of the party a lot.
(1h 42m 4s)
It boosts their relationship.
(1h 42m 6s)
You get the little relationship points.
(1h 42m 7s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 42m 8s) Kevin:
That’s great.
(1h 42m 8s)
One of probably the biggest sin of relationship mechanics is what we call the Stardew spouse problem.
(1h 42m 10s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 42m 18s) Kevin:
Um, because once she gets married…
(1h 42m 20s) Liam:
What’s the starter spouse problem?
(1h 42m 22s)
What’s the, I’m so intrigued.
(1h 42m 22s) Kevin:
Oh.
(1h 42m 25s)
So once they become, uh, once they get hitched with you, they kind of become dead characters, like they just don’t do, you know, there’s no more events with them.
(1h 42m 34s)
Um, you can’t hang out with them.
(1h 42m 37s)
They might go to a certain location to do a job or whatever.
(1h 42m 40s)
But they only have like one or 2 dialogues pretty much forever.
(1h 42m 42s) Liam:
Sure.
(1h 42m 44s) Kevin:
They’re less interesting once you’re, you know, you’ve spoused, you’ve married them.
(1h 42m 49s) Liam:
Oh, I see.
(1h 42m 50s) Kevin:
And so here, like, I, you know, obviously I haven’t married anyone and I, I’m not saying that you’re going to unlock stuff after, but you can at least take them out and go hang out as you fight stuff.
(1h 43m 1s)
Like, do something with your spouse.
(1h 43m 4s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 43m 4s) Kevin:
Like that’s the bare minimum weed like from these sorts of relationship mechanics, right?
(1h 43m 10s)
Um, you, you do pick a character to, to, to, to, you know, to stick with them, let me do something with them.
(1h 43m 16s)
Um, So I greatly appreciate having that option.
(1h 43m 19s) Liam:
Yeah, that makes sense.
(1h 43m 20s) Kevin:
And speaking of which, all right, let’s put some names on the table, Liam, let’s let’s get to it.
(1h 43m 26s)
We got our roster of characters.
(1h 43m 27s)
We don’t know them all.
(1h 43m 29s)
We haven’t met them all, but, uh, what, uh, let’s talk about some of the
(1h 43m 31s) Liam:
Certainly not.
(1h 43m 34s) Kevin:
I may not have to go over all of them, but let’s talk about some of the ones that have, or better or for worse, caught your attention.
(1h 43m 40s)
Uh,
(1h 43m 42s) Liam:
Uh, uh, I, I definitely, uh, really like, hang on, I’m trying to pull up a list of names because they’re, I have currently encountered quite a…
(1h 43m 50s) Kevin:
There’s a lot.
(1h 43m 51s)
There’s a lot.
(1h 43m 53s)
Oh, oh, fun little asterisks.
(1h 43m 54s) Liam:
Uh,
(1h 43m 56s) Kevin:
You can have relationship metres with people you don’t get married.
(1h 43m 59s)
It’s not exclusive to bachelor’s bachelorette.
(1h 44m 2s)
Which is good.
(1h 44m 3s) Liam:
Yes, exactly.
(1h 44m 3s)
So I want to make sure I have all the side characters.
(1h 44m 4s) Kevin:
Yeah, and that’s a good thing in my opinion.
(1h 44m 6s) Liam:
It is good.
(1h 44m 7s) Kevin:
Because it, that’s a trap very easily, right?
(1h 44m 7s) Liam:
I agree.
(1h 44m 8s)
Yeah.
(1h 44m 11s) Kevin:
You hang out with the 68 characters?
(1h 44m 13s)
No, you get a whole roster of people you can hang out with and flesh out, just to be buddies, just to be, you know, just to be homies with.
(1h 44m 21s)
Um, like, yeah.
(1h 44m 22s) Liam:
Yeah, lots of.
(1h 44m 23s) Kevin:
Um, like.
(1h 44m 23s) Liam:
I really like, right away at the beginning, Suzu, the, the, the child, there is just this child, and she just hangs around in the, in the spring village, and she will, she will heal you and buff you and say all sorts of cheeky while you’re out, and, um, uh, she also has different combat parameters, like she can’t be hurt and stuff, like she doesn’t participate in combat, really, uniquely.
(1h 44m 27s) Kevin:
See you.
(1h 44m 35s)
You know?
(1h 44m 41s)
Yeah.
(1h 44m 50s)
Wait, she doesn’t.
(1h 44m 51s)
I haven’t taken her out yet.
(1h 44m 52s)
Really?
(1h 44m 52s)
That’s amazing.
(1h 44m 54s) Liam:
Yeah, if I’m, unfortunately, my game’s in a cutscene right now, so I can’t double check, but if I’m not mistaken, when I’m, when you’re on the inventory screen with her, like she doesn’t have health bars and stuff the same way, uh, I mean, I, she has a different, uh, body type, right?
(1h 45m 3s) Kevin:
Oh, that’s incredible.
(1h 45m 5s)
I didn’t even know that.
(1h 45m 10s)
Yeah, yeah, she’s small, yeah.
(1h 45m 10s) Liam:
Like the child, the children are shorter.
(1h 45m 13s)
So they probably don’t have all the animations for that either.
(1h 45m 16s) Kevin:
That’s incredible.
(1h 45m 17s) Liam:
Um, probably.
(1h 45m 19s)
I better not be misremembering this because it’ll be super embarrassing, but I do believe, yeah, um,
(1h 45m 21s) Kevin:
That.
(1h 45m 23s)
Just immunity by being, that’s the you, Yoda from Soul Calibre.
(1h 45m 27s) Liam:
Yeah, child immunity.
(1h 45m 28s) Kevin:
We get to hang out with Yoda soak out.
(1h 45m 30s)
Um.
(1h 45m 31s) Liam:
Right?
(1h 45m 32s)
Um, yeah.
(1h 45m 33s) Kevin:
Oh, that completely won 80s me on Suzu.
(1h 45m 36s)
Because personality wise, like she’s…
(1h 45m 40s)
I feel like a lot of these characters, not just her, are very, are cliched, which is RPG.
(1h 45m 44s)
you know, judging too harshly, but you know, she’s the spunky little kid.
(1h 45m 45s) Liam:
Yes.
(1h 45m 48s) Kevin:
I’m going to be a superstar.
(1h 45m 49s)
You know, he’s singing and dancing.
(1h 45m 51s)
She’s fine or whatever, but I do something, yeah, you know, nothing.
(1h 45m 54s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 45m 54s) Kevin:
You know, it’s like, yeah, whatever.
(1h 45m 57s)
It wasn’t pretty like, but now that I know she can do that.
(1h 46m)
Oh no, she’s just going to roll with me next time.
(1h 46m 2s)
Let’s see what she can do.
(1h 46m 4s) Liam:
Yeah, it’s cute.
(1h 46m 5s)
I hope I’m remembering that, right?
(1h 46m 7s)
Otherwise, I think the early ones that I like are like Ulalaka, the goddess of spring.
(1h 46m 8s) Kevin:
Oh.
(1h 46m 16s) Liam:
Uh, I like uh, Mirasame, the warrior fellow from the from spring.
(1h 46m 20s) Kevin:
Oh.
(1h 46m 22s) Liam:
And you haven’t met this guy yet, but in the fall area, there’s a guy named Quilang that I really like.
(1h 46m 29s)
He has this sort of like cold, mysterious vibe to him.
(1h 46m 33s)
Uh, he’s he’s cool.
(1h 46m 36s)
But as far as bachelorettes, I think Ulalaka’s leading the pack.
(1h 46m 40s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 46m 41s)
So, a Queen, Queenland’s interesting because he is a romanceable, but only in deals.
(1h 46m 51s)
Um, oh, also, like,
(1h 46m 54s) Liam:
How to romance Creeline, purchase the deluxe.
(1h 46m 56s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 46m 56s) Liam:
Oh, whoa, no kidding.
(1h 46m 57s)
The seasons of love, what is this?
(1h 47m)
I didn’t know about this.
(1h 47m) Kevin:
I don’t know.
(1h 47m 1s)
I just, I did, because I knew I wasn’t going to unlock everyone and, I mean, let’s, look, I’m, I’m, I have to, you know, I have to see what I’m dealing with.
(1h 47m 6s) Liam:
Sure, sure.
(1h 47m 10s) Kevin:
Like, I gotta, you know, get, gonna get early, early vibes.
(1h 47m 13s)
you know, get get a glance at the roster to see what I’m picking from here.
(1h 47m 14s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 47m 17s) Kevin:
So, I certainly took it the list of the bachelor’s bachelorette, and there’s, uh, I believe one female, one male, um, uh, bachelor bachelorette that are DLC locked.
(1h 47m 19s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(1h 47m 27s) Kevin:
Um, but I didn’t know they were characters in it.
(1h 47m 32s)
Um.
(1h 47m 33s) Liam:
Yeah, he’s there already.
(1h 47m 34s)
Yeah, you’re right.
(1h 47m 35s) Kevin:
Yeah, he’s cool.
(1h 47m 36s) Liam:
This other character too, Pilica, I didn’t know.
(1h 47m 38s) Kevin:
He’s the puppet guy.
(1h 47m 39s)
Qui Lang, I think, right?
(1h 47m 40s)
I think I remember.
(1h 47m 43s) Liam:
Hmm, hmm.
(1h 47m 43s)
Machine affinity kind of thing, yeah.
(1h 47m 45s) Kevin:
Oh, okay.
(1h 47m 47s)
Um, so interesting.
(1h 47m 50s)
Um, I will say, uh, what was I going?
(1h 47m 53s)
I lost this.
(1h 47m 54s)
Oh, okay, look, the 2026 bar shouldn’t be like this, but I’m still, I still have to give props, especially from the Japanese games.
(1h 47m 55s) Liam:
That’s okay.
(1h 48m 5s)
Hmm.
(1h 48m 5s) Kevin:
You can romance whoever you want.
(1h 48m 7s)
So, you know, golf clap for that.
(1h 48m 9s) Liam:
Yep.
(1h 48m 10s) Kevin:
Like, I hate that. I, I have to applaud it, but I will bring it up because especially on this show, we see not always the case, especially from the Japanese schools.
(1h 48m 12s) Liam:
I agree.
(1h 48m 20s)
It’s, it’s, yeah, it’s,
(1h 48m 21s) Kevin:
I, sorry, it’s just, it is what it is.
(1h 48m 24s) Liam:
It’s a real low bar, but I agree.
(1h 48m 27s) Kevin:
Um.
(1h 48m 27s) Liam:
Um, they did, so the, I think Roon Factory 5 was the 1st one that, that, uh, made it, made it that way.
(1h 48m 31s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah.
(1h 48m 34s) Liam:
Um, and I’m glad that that seems like it will probably persist, uh,
(1h 48m 40s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 48m 40s)
Look, I mean.
(1h 48m 42s)
This is we’re in the genre with Harvest Moon for girls.
(1h 48m 47s)
Like, it’s the bar is in hell.
(1h 48m 49s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(1h 48m 50s) Kevin:
Anyways, um, I’m getting off track there, but, um, uh, uh, yeah, feeling.
(1h 48m 57s)
Oh, I can’t wait a minute, who’s cool?
(1h 48m 58s)
Uh, okay.
(1h 48m 59s)
Mudasame, the samurai guy.
(1h 49m 1s)
I mean, he’s your geotypical wandering samurai guy wants to get stronger, but he’s cool.
(1h 49m 7s)
I like him, though.
(1h 49m 8s)
I agree.
(1h 49m 9s) Liam:
He is cool, yeah, that’s it.
(1h 49m 9s) Kevin:
He’s cool.
(1h 49m 11s)
Yeah, yeah, but he’s got the bandage, you know, the, or the, what sash over the eye.
(1h 49m 12s) Liam:
They executed it well.
(1h 49m 18s)
Yeah.
(1h 49m 18s) Kevin:
You know what it is, but I like it though.
(1h 49m 19s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah, the Ben.
(1h 49m 21s) Kevin:
He just wants to get stronger, but um, I don’t think he’s actually, oh, he is a bachelor.
(1h 49m 27s)
In rule that.
(1h 49m 27s)
Oh, oh, oh.
(1h 49m 29s)
Um, anyways, um, but he’s a good one.
(1h 49m 31s)
I agree.
(1h 49m 32s)
Uh, okay.
(1h 49m 35s)
Wait, you said Unaraka earlier?
(1h 49m 38s)
Is this is this the Japan localisation thing?
(1h 49m 40s)
Did they really switch out the Ls and Rs again?
(1h 49m 42s)
Are you playing in Japanese?
(1h 49m 43s) Liam:
Uh, no, I, well, I’m, they might have because it’s, I’m playing in English.
(1h 49m 45s) Kevin:
Oh, you’re playing in English?
(1h 49m 47s) Liam:
I’m playing in English, but like her name, her name would be written with our character.
(1h 49m 47s) Kevin:
Okay.
(1h 49m 48s)
Oh, Udanaka, yeah, it is.
(1h 49m 50s)
Okay.
(1h 49m 51s)
Like, I feel so awkward about that.
(1h 49m 53s)
Like, I, I mean, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s a whole thing.
(1h 49m 56s)
Like, so the weird localisations and whatever, but, uh, Zolo and Zorro, but, um, anyways, I’m going through a lot, because that’s the English, and that’s, that’s what I grew fuss into.
(1h 50m 6s)
But I agree.
(1h 50m 7s)
She’s number one in my heart right now.
(1h 50m 9s)
She’s kind of leading it.
(1h 50m 11s)
And she, and again, very archetypal, like she’s king cared spring goddess.
(1h 50m 15s) Liam:
Yes.
(1h 50m 15s) Kevin:
She’s helping everyone.
(1h 50m 17s)
She’s a sweetheart.
(1h 50m 17s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 50m 18s) Kevin:
But you know what?
(1h 50m 19s)
Fine.
(1h 50m 21s)
And you know what?
(1h 50m 23s) Liam:
No, I I agree.
(1h 50m 23s) Kevin:
For extra, extra context, Liam, I’m a, I’m a, uh, chronically single man.
(1h 50m 29s)
I’ll say that.
(1h 50m 30s)
So everyone knows this on this show.
(1h 50m 30s) Liam:
Oh, sir, sir.
(1h 50m 33s) Kevin:
It’s fine.
(1h 50m 33s)
Everyone knows that, um, my my dating tribulations are like there.
(1h 50m 39s)
But anyways, um, but no, she, she’s just a sweetheart, and I’m a sucker for the sweethearts.
(1h 50m 40s) Liam:
Sure.
(1h 50m 45s)
Yeah, she’s cute and she’s nice and I think she makes an impact.
(1h 50m 48s)
She makes a big impact early in the game being that she’s like the 1st, uh, of the seasonal gods that the deities that you bring back.
(1h 50m 51s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 50m 52s)
The deities.
(1h 50m 56s) Liam:
And so, like, I think part of it is like, I’m just way deeper in her and the other spring people’s quests than the other, uh, the other communities at this point also.
(1h 51m 1s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(1h 51m 6s)
Chad, that is a big thing.
(1h 51m 7s) Liam:
Um, But I agree, she’s just nice.
(1h 51m 7s) Kevin:
Like, I mean, Suzu.
(1h 51m 10s)
Yeah.
(1h 51m 10s) Liam:
She’s just a good kid.
(1h 51m 11s) Kevin:
Yeah, but the, the, the recency bias or familiarity bias, whatever.
(1h 51m 12s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 51m 16s) Kevin:
The ones they present to you first.
(1h 51m 17s)
Like, yeah, they’re probably gonna.
(1h 51m 20s)
I mean, that’s just the thing that’s, that’s the evidence, like you, you’re gonna, uh, be, you know, you’re gonna gravitate towards them a little more maybe.
(1h 51m 28s)
I mean, Suzu is like literally the tutorial character for some of the relationship mechanics.
(1h 51m 33s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(1h 51m 33s) Kevin:
So, um, so yeah, they grow, you’re a high, you spend a lot of time, you know how, and yeah, yeah, all right, she’s all right.
(1h 51m 39s)
And a digger.
(1h 51m 40s)
Um.
(1h 51m 42s) Liam:
Yeah, and then there’s Hina and Moro that I’m not that interested in.
(1h 51m 46s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 51m 46s) Liam:
There’s two.
(1h 51m 47s)
I like their role in the setting in that like right away in the spring village.
(1h 51m 51s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 51m 54s) Liam:
It is presented to you that people travel between village.
(1h 51m 58s)
People travel around and they, like, you can’t miss it in the story.
(1h 51m 58s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 52m 2s) Liam:
Like their presence is literally that.
(1h 52m 5s)
It is that like, yeah, like we want to emphasise that these places…
(1h 52m 10s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 52m 11s) Liam:
Um, but yeah, Moro interests me very, very,
(1h 52m 16s) Kevin:
He, he’s,
(1h 52m 17s) Liam:
than that, honestly.
(1h 52m 19s) Kevin:
He’s the guy who’s talking in other language saying random bits in other languages for no reason.
(1h 52m 24s)
You know the type where he’s, they’re well travelled guy.
(1h 52m 26s) Liam:
Sure, yeah.
(1h 52m 27s) Kevin:
And I agree, like he’s just, I don’t know, he’s bland.
(1h 52m 29s)
He’s just he’s too smiley.
(1h 52m 30s)
Um,
(1h 52m 32s) Liam:
I think he’s bland, yeah.
(1h 52m 33s) Kevin:
Yeah, no, I don’t blame you.
(1h 52m 37s)
He know, and he knows interesting because we got a foxtail girl, so, you know, we’re getting that, that, if that’s, that’s your, uh, preference.
(1h 52m 45s)
Um, let’s see.
(1h 52m 46s)
I’m trying to think.
(1h 52m 47s)
Oh, one of my favourite uh, non…
(1h 52m 54s)
What’s it? Oh gosh, uh, uh, Nakumi, our carpenter, uh, meathead friend.
(1h 52m 59s) Liam:
Takumi, yeah.
(1h 53m) Kevin:
Yeah, he’s, he’s our, our little bit of a him.
(1h 53m) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 53m 4s) Kevin:
He’s not an idiot per se, but he’s got the himbo energy where he’s helpful.
(1h 53m 7s)
He’s buff and he’s he’s carpenter and and he’s good with the sword.
(1h 53m 12s)
He’s just a fun guy.
(1h 53m 13s)
He’s just a good bro. Um, to have her.
(1h 53m 15s) Liam:
Yeah, he is.
(1h 53m 16s)
I agree.
(1h 53m 17s)
Um, this is like a real deep cut and is like for for no one, but at the very beginning of the game, there’s Sakaki, right?
(1h 53m 26s) Kevin:
The old Mansukaki.
(1h 53m 26s) Liam:
The old man, and he wants you to, and he wants you to go…
(1h 53m 31s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 53m 33s) Liam:
Build stuff, right?
(1h 53m 33s)
Recently, there was this game that came out called the Hundred Line Last Defence Academy.
(1h 53m 39s) Kevin:
I I know this game.
(1h 53m 39s) Liam:
Uh, which is, I adore this game.
(1h 53m 41s) Kevin:
Yes.
(1h 53m 43s) Liam:
It consumed my wife and I’s lives.
(1h 53m 46s)
Anyway, the main character of that game, his name is also Takumi, and there is this bossy old man character called Siri, who often addresses Takumi and tells him to do stuff, right?
(1h 53m 55s) Kevin:
Uh-huh.
(1h 53m 59s)
Yeah.
(1h 53m 59s) Liam:
Here’s the thing.
(1h 54m 1s)
In the Japanese dub, Sakaki has Siri’s voice.
(1h 54m 6s)
And when he addresses Takumi with that voice, it triggered something deep in my head, I’m like, 0 my God, this is like, as 100 line as it gets, it’s literally the boss man, the Monocuma equivalent in 100 line telling using the name of the protagonist from 100 line again.
(1h 54m 7s) Kevin:
Yeah?
(1h 54m 26s)
Oh, that is a deep cut.
(1h 54m 27s) Liam:
So if you are, if you are playing with the Japanese dub and you have played 100 line, you will also get absolutely stun locked by Sakaki addressing Takumi a couple times in the 1st chapter.
(1h 54m 28s) Kevin:
That’s fun.
(1h 54m 41s) Liam:
Uh, anyway, complete tangent, very deep level tangent, but, um, yeah, Takumi’s cool.
(1h 54m 42s) Kevin:
amazing.
(1h 54m 47s)
Um.
(1h 54m 48s) Liam:
I like him too.
(1h 54m 49s)
He’s he’s cute.
(1h 54m 50s)
Um, You, I don’t believe you’ve gotten far enough in the game to access this character yet, but you know, you can also get Sakuna to join you, um, in, in your town, uh, there is a free DLC.
(1h 54m 51s) Kevin:
Um.
(1h 55m 10s) Liam:
There is a free DLC that adds Sakuna to the game.
(1h 55m 14s)
Um, highly encourage you to download it.
(1h 55m 18s)
I think you need to play into the autumn village and sometime during the autumn village.
(1h 55m 23s)
Uh, you get you get the ability to build Sakuna’s house.
(1h 55m 27s)
And if you build Sakuna’s house, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(1h 55m 29s) Kevin:
People.
(1h 55m 29s)
People listening, like we’re using, there’s a lot of Japanese names, but no, people, people know my thing with Sakuna.
(1h 55m 30s) Liam:
um
(1h 55m 36s) Kevin:
This is this is the Sakuna.
(1h 55m 38s)
Oh my God.
(1h 55m 39s) Liam:
This is the Sakuna.
(1h 55m 41s)
Um, she is not romanceable and you can’t change her equipment, but you can take her out into combat and she will fight with you.
(1h 55m 45s) Kevin:
No.
(1h 55m 48s) Liam:
She has voice lines.
(1h 55m 51s)
Uh, it’s, it’s great.
(1h 55m 53s)
And she looks, it’s like really just her, I think, snatched from that game.
(1h 55m 58s)
like they didn’t they didn’t change her proportions or anything.
(1h 55m 59s) Kevin:
Yeah, no, the art style is different.
(1h 56m 2s) Liam:
Um,
(1h 56m 5s) Kevin:
I’m I’m trying not to scream to shoot yours, but people know I’ll scream when I hear sucking of things.
(1h 56m 6s) Liam:
Yeah, it’s cute.
(1h 56m 11s)
little, it’s okay.
(1h 56m 11s) Kevin:
Um.
(1h 56m 14s)
Wow, I legit wanted to play this game and, and, you know, went along with it not knowing soccer.
(1h 56m 20s)
I was in it.
(1h 56m 21s)
Wow, and she’s…
(1h 56m 22s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah.
(1h 56m 23s)
She, she’s there.
(1h 56m 25s)
Her house is there.
(1h 56m 26s)
Her little green buddy is there.
(1h 56m 27s) Kevin:
Tama’s there.
(1h 56m 27s) Liam:
I forget his name.
(1h 56m 29s) Kevin:
She have, is she voiced?
(1h 56m 29s) Liam:
Um, and she has.
(1h 56m 33s)
She’s voiced, but I don’t know that they did any new lines for her.
(1h 56m 37s) Kevin:
Oh, just recycled from the game.
(1h 56m 37s) Liam:
So she, as far as I know, she doesn’t have like chat or like conversation scenes, like that’s not a thing.
(1h 56m 47s) Kevin:
Yeah, sure sure, sure.
(1h 56m 48s) Liam:
She has a series of side quests in the like Emma plaques area of the game.
(1h 56m 51s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 56m 53s) Liam:
Um, so like that’s as far as you get with her, but yeah, and she will also farm rice.
(1h 56m 58s)
She has a rice specialty.
(1h 56m 59s) Kevin:
Oh, wow, I didn’t know this game had the greatest piece of DLC.
(1h 56m 59s) Liam:
Um, so.
(1h 57m 4s) Kevin:
Um.
(1h 57m 5s) Liam:
It’s cute.
(1h 57m 6s)
It is free, which is nice as well, unlike the seasons of love.
(1h 57m 8s) Kevin:
Oh, you can’t equip her with stuff because she’s already got the perfect set up.
(1h 57m 12s) Liam:
No, yeah.
(1h 57m 13s) Kevin:
She has…
(1h 57m 14s) Liam:
Yeah, you’re not gonna beat the hoe, so.
(1h 57m 17s) Kevin:
Oh, she’s voiced by Laura.
(1h 57m 21s)
Oh my gosh, I didn’t know that.
(1h 57m 22s)
Wow.
(1h 57m 23s)
Wow, wow, wow.
(1h 57m 24s)
Wow, I’m gonna finish this game.
(1h 57m 25s)
Wow.
(1h 57m 26s) Liam:
gonna finish this game with Sakuna on your party the whole time.
(1h 57m 29s) Kevin:
Yes, you know, the Simpson sheep mean, move out of the way, ooh. Kasaka is here.
(1h 57m 34s) Liam:
Yeah, yeah, move out of the way.
(1h 57m 36s)
Yeah.
(1h 57m 36s) Kevin:
Oh my gosh.
(1h 57m 36s) Liam:
For real.
(1h 57m 37s)
You’re all child party.
(1h 57m 38s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 57m 39s)
Wow.
(1h 57m 40s)
I had no idea.
(1h 57m 42s)
Wow.
(1h 57m 43s)
Wow, thank you for me.
(1h 57m 45s)
I don’t, I looked stuff up.
(1h 57m 47s) Liam:
Yeah, no, no, not at all.
(1h 57m 48s) Kevin:
I looked up stuff on the game.
(1h 57m 49s)
I missed that completely.
(1h 57m 50s)
Wow.
(1h 57m 50s)
Um, okay, so out of the characters I’ve seen, I’ve exhausted pretty much.
(1h 57m 58s)
Fairly small roster so far.
(1h 58m)
Um, but I did, you know, like, I took a peek at some of the other characters.
(1h 58m 4s)
There’s 2 that do stick out to me.
(1h 58m 6s)
Um, first.
(1h 58m 7s)
I don’t know if you’ve seen, but there’s a lady named Clarice.
(1h 58m 11s)
She’s got a
(1h 58m 11s)
She’s got a hat on, you know, a soldier type hat.
(1h 58m 13s) Liam:
I have seen her, yeah.
(1h 58m 13s) Kevin:
So, yeah, you know, you’ve caught my interest.
(1h 58m 16s)
She, you know, she’s the icy cold blonde lady, but she’s soldier and the hat.
(1h 58m 20s)
So I’m very interested how we get there and yeah, I’m interested to meet her.
(1h 58m 24s)
The other one that I find just interesting from the principal.
(1h 58m 28s)
Um, so when you start your game, you pick your, are you a boy or a girl?
(1h 58m 32s)
Um, but they do have different names.
(1h 58m 34s) Liam:
Yes.
(1h 58m 34s) Kevin:
Um, your, your, uh, the, your car, your Subaru, if you’re a boy.
(1h 58m 39s) Liam:
The other character, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(1h 58m 40s) Kevin:
And then your Kagya, if you’re, uh, if you’re a female.
(1h 58m 44s)
Um, they will show up as separate characters and not just another character, they’re romancable, which is kind of wild to think about, in my opinion.
(1h 58m 45s) Liam:
Yeah.
(1h 58m 54s)
Yeah, they’re really not just, like, they’re legitimately 2 different characters.
(1h 58m 58s) Kevin:
Yeah, they’re not avatars.
(1h 58m 58s) Liam:
The story’s the same no matter who you pick, but they’re actually other characters.
(1h 59m 2s)
Yeah.
(1h 59m 2s) Kevin:
That’s pretty cool.
(1h 59m 2s) Liam:
It’s cool.
(1h 59m 4s)
I think it’s very, I think it’s very similar if you guys have played Genshin Impact.
(1h 59m 10s)
I think it’s like the same sort of handling as that, where like your sibling is out in the world.
(1h 59m 12s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(1h 59m 18s)
All right, that’s that’s all I’ve got.
(1h 59m 20s)
Um,
(1h 59m 26s) Liam:
Hmm, on characters, not so much.
(1h 59m 29s)
I think I wish I had more to say, but I feel like at this point, even at the beginning of the,
(1h 59m 32s) Kevin:
We’re too early.
(1h 59m 34s) Liam:
Yeah, exactly.
(1h 59m 35s)
Even being in the Winter Village, I still have not met everyone yet.
(1h 59m 42s) Kevin:
All right.
(1h 59m 43s) Liam:
I have to say, I don’t think Woolby is that bad.
(1h 59m 46s) Kevin:
Oh, I forgot.
(1h 59m 47s)
Okay, yeah, we got to talk about Woopy.
(1h 59m 48s)
So we’ll be here.
(1h 59m 49s) Liam:
Yeah, um, you have a little floating Sprite character who is a dragon, but is is now taking, assuming the shape of a woolly.
(1h 59m 58s)
The woollies are the common enemy.
(2h 1s)
They are the Dragon Quest slime equivalent for Rune Factory.
(2h 6s)
Famously, in Rune Factory 3.
(2h 8s)
You transform into a woolly.
(2h 10s)
And, uh, like a ton of the romanceable characters are like,
(2h 16s)
Uh, which tight.
(2h 17s)
Anyway, so Wolby is this little floating sprite of a critter, and we have thoughts on Wolby.
(2h 24s)
You have thoughts.
(2h 24s)
you have strong thoughts on Wolfie.
(2h 26s)
I’m playing with a Japanese dub, so this may, I don’t know what you’re playing with.
(2h 26s) Kevin:
Yeah, that might be the make or break moment or or, you know, the citing factor because, okay, so this is a deep cut.
(2h 35s)
Again, we are Sonic people, so this is a reference for us and probably no one else listening to this, but we have, there’s a character called Chick from the game.
(2h 38s) Liam:
Yeah.
(2h 44s) Kevin:
Sonic Unleashed, a a roller coaster of a sonic game with some great highs and very rough gloves.
(2h 45s) Liam:
Yes.
(2h 52s) Kevin:
Chip is uh, in the tradition of knobby and all these characters, right?
(2h 58s)
Like your, your guide character who’s yapping and and, and, anyways, not particularly popular in that game.
(2h 1m 7s)
Um, amongst many Sonic.
(2h 1m 9s) Liam:
No.
(2h 1m 12s) Kevin:
Let’s say. No, I was being hyperbolic comparing Woolby to Chip, but it was hard not to get the vibes.
(2h 1m 20s)
He’s he’s got the same sort of body shape.
(2h 1m 22s)
He’s floating around you and he’s a little yappy.
(2h 1m 25s)
He’s spunky or whatnot.
(2h 1m 26s)
Um, and it might be the voice.
(2h 1m 30s)
Like, I have to listen to Japanese voice and see how that’s up to the part.
(2h 1m 33s)
But, um, but.
(2h 1m 35s) Liam:
But he’s got a similar vibe.
(2h 1m 36s)
I don’t disagree with what you’re getting at fundamentally.
(2h 1m 38s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(2h 1m 38s)
It’s the silhouette.
(2h 1m 40s)
It’s like, if you, you know, if you just see the silhouette.
(2h 1m 44s)
Is that chip with orange, I see?
(2h 1m 45s)
Um, anyways, but, um, but, I mean, he’s he’s not as bad as chip.
(2h 1m 47s) Liam:
Hmm.
(2h 1m 50s) Kevin:
he’s not
(2h 1m 51s)
he’s not grading.
(2h 1m 52s)
I don’t hate him, but, um, I, I, you know, I’m heckling him, but, like, he turns into the dragon, and, and, and I’m thankful they did that early, because I didn’t want them to drag it out, like, oh, I’m a dragon, but I’m tiny, actually, and save it for the finale, which, you know, would have been very cliche, and, and whatever, but no, he turns into your, the dragon, and he’s your transport.
(2h 2m 14s)
So, you know, he starts being very, like, useful and uh, you gave him a gameplay perspective.
(2h 2m 19s)
And so, you know, he’s, he’s all right.
(2h 2m 20s) Liam:
Yeah.
(2h 2m 21s) Kevin:
Um, You’re not a silent protagonist, but he’s still doing most of the talking for you.
(2h 2m 25s)
Um, so, you know, it is.
(2h 2m 28s)
But you tell me, what are your thoughts?
(2h 2m 31s) Liam:
I think Wolby’s fine honestly.
(2h 2m 33s)
Like, he’s a goof.
(2h 2m 34s)
He goofs around, and I don’t dislike him like I dislike Chip.
(2h 2m 38s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(2h 2m 38s) Liam:
I’m maybe not totally sure why.
(2h 2m 42s)
I don’t think I can put my finger exactly on why I don’t find will be to be super grating or anything.
(2h 2m 48s)
Uh, so, uh, when I did used to play Genshin Impact.
(2h 2m 53s)
I also did not find Pymon that grading.
(2h 2m 57s)
in English.
(2h 2m 58s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(2h 2m 58s) Liam:
It’s something about chip that I really hate.
(2h 2m 59s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm.
(2h 3m 2s) Liam:
Chip.
(2h 3m 4s)
I do not like, but I can tolerate characters otherwise who, uh, who are like,
(2h 3m 13s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(2h 3m 13s)
No, I mean, Chip, Chip is another level.
(2h 3m 15s) Liam:
Whoopi is cute.
(2h 3m 16s) Kevin:
I’m not wrong, but like it’s looking at it.
(2h 3m 18s)
It’s the same body shape.
(2h 3m 21s)
They have a thing around their neck and like, it’s the same thing.
(2h 3m 22s) Liam:
Yeah.
(2h 3m 25s) Kevin:
But anyways, but movie’s all right.
(2h 3m 27s)
He’s grown on me.
(2h 3m 29s)
Ill say that.
(2h 3m 31s) Liam:
That’s good
(2h 3m 32s) Kevin:
Uh, I, I, I think maybe in the early story they were pushing him a little more, which makes sense.
(2h 3m 37s)
Um, like, I think it was a little less, uh, Palm…
(2h 3m 42s)
But yeah, no, we’ll be fine.
(2h 3m 44s)
Um, yeah, okay.
(2h 3m 47s)
Uh, any other thoughts there?
(2h 3m 49s)
Oh, I’m scared.
(2h 3m 51s) Liam:
Uh, on the characters and stuff?
(2h 3m 53s) Kevin:
Or just in general.
(2h 3m 53s) Liam:
No, I think I think I’ve got probably everything.
(2h 3m 56s)
Any other thoughts?
(2h 3m 57s)
I don’t know, man.
(2h 3m 58s)
Um, I think we actually have been over a lot about the game.
(2h 4m 2s)
Uh, I think, uh, by and large, it’s like a pretty dope game that does a lot of things right.
(2h 4m 10s)
Not everything is hitting at the highest levels of execution, but like, I think it’s landing enough that I feel routinely satisfied.
(2h 4m 22s)
And I feel like that’s, I feel like that’s cool.
(2h 4m 25s)
It makes me wish I had played this game more at launch.
(2h 4m 28s)
I bought it right at the launch of the Switch 2.
(2h 4m 30s)
Um, but my attention was soon taken away from it by Donkey Kong.
(2h 4m 35s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah.
(2h 4m 35s) Liam:
And then I just, I sort of just never went back. And now that I’m back, while Yoshi is coming from my throat, but like other than that, you know, now that I’m back, I’m like, I actually think I wanna, like, see this game through at this point.
(2h 4m 44s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(2h 4m 50s) Liam:
Like, I’m actually really enjoying it.
(2h 4m 52s)
So maybe I’ll have to buy that DLC, though.
(2h 4m 52s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(2h 4m 55s) Liam:
I did not realise that that included 2 of the characters.
(2h 4m 58s)
One of the ones I like, actually.
(2h 5m) Kevin:
Yeah.
(2h 5m)
Yeah.
(2h 5m 1s) Liam:
Yeah, darn, but oh, well.
(2h 5m 3s)
I did see that it goes on sale.
(2h 5m 6s)
I’m not going to be stuck buying. I get to buy it in yen too, which is cheaper.
(2h 5m 8s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(2h 5m 11s)
Yeah.
(2h 5m 11s) Liam:
It’s like a 1650 yen, the full price compared to like, well, I don’t know what it is, but that would only be like 10 US dollars.
(2h 5m 17s) Kevin:
I was.
(2h 5m 22s)
Yeah, I, I mean, I, well, about it for, oh, so, I mean, as we often do, I bought it for the show to play and record.
(2h 5m 29s)
I’ve been wanting to, but you know, I wasn’t looking for a bargain.
(2h 5m 31s)
just like, whatever, I’ll just pick it up the easy thing.
(2h 5m 33s)
It’s probably paid like…
(2h 5m 36s) Liam:
40, that’s all that’s all right.
(2h 5m 37s) Kevin:
It’s not the worst, especially in this day and age, but yeah, you know, there’s probably a steam sale or something could have done.
(2h 5m 37s) Liam:
all right.
(2h 5m 42s) Kevin:
But also, I want it on the switch.
(2h 5m 46s)
Um, yeah.
(2h 5m 46s) Liam:
Yeah, I guess.
(2h 5m 47s) Kevin:
Um, well, I mean, yeah, so, I mean, overall, like, I think, obviously we had our criticisms because that’s what we do, but I, I agree.
(2h 5m 55s)
Like, I think overall it’s enjoyable and I mean, my my decision is made.
(2h 5m 59s)
I’m going, there’s another game I can hit credits with sock and uh, in, so I will completing this game.
(2h 6m 6s)
I’ve got another adventure to go.
(2h 6m 6s) Liam:
Yeah, that counts for something man.
(2h 6m 8s) Kevin:
With with with my homegirl.
(2h 6m 9s) Liam:
Yeah.
(2h 6m 10s) Kevin:
Um, so, yeah.
(2h 6m 14s)
The only, the only, like, not negative, but like, I’m gonna bring it on a combat.
(2h 6m 21s)
I’m just thinking like how much better she could be fighting.
(2h 6m 24s)
I want to I want to see the launchers in the in the airspin.
(2h 6m 25s) Liam:
Yeah, well, you know.
(2h 6m 29s)
You honour with the full, the full combat system unleashed.
(2h 6m 31s) Kevin:
Yes.
(2h 6m 33s) Liam:
Yeah, no such luck, but yeah.
(2h 6m 35s) Kevin:
Sock on us. All right.
(2h 6m 37s)
Okay.
(2h 6m 38s)
Well, with that said, um, thank you, Liam, for joining me on for an episode here.
Outro
(2h 6m 42s) Liam:
Mm-hmm.
(2h 6m 45s) Kevin:
Another episode.
(2h 6m 46s)
Very honoured and thankfully you decided to join us again.
(2h 6m 50s)
Um, somehow, I didn’t scare you off last time.
(2h 6m 53s)
So thank you.
(2h 6m 54s)
Um.
(2h 6m 55s) Liam:
Not at all.
(2h 6m 56s)
It’s been a pleasure.
(2h 6m 57s)
Thank you for inviting me.
(2h 6m 58s) Kevin:
Um, yeah, who knows, maybe one day we’ll have to, uh, sit down once more once we beat the story.
(2h 7m 3s)
See, see if there’s there’s some meat on those bones because it’s another thing.
(2h 7m 7s) Liam:
Yeah, exactly.
(2h 7m 7s) Kevin:
There’s, I thought I was, I knew what was coming, but I see that much left.
(2h 7m 11s)
Well, maybe I don’t.
(2h 7m 12s)
Anyways, um…
(2h 7m 16s) Liam:
I have I actually was spoiled on a big plot moment later in the game that I will not, you know, mention the details of.
(2h 7m 26s)
And when I read that plot moment a while ago, I was like, ooh, I actually would like to see that, uh, one day, because it did intrigue me for sure.
(2h 7m 32s) Kevin:
Ah, so it intrigued you.
(2h 7m 33s)
All right, well, that’s there you go.
(2h 7m 34s)
So there’s something.
(2h 7m 36s)
All right, well, that’s good to know there’s some, all right, that’s, I mean, I’m, yeah, all right.
(2h 7m 37s) Liam:
Yeah.
(2h 7m 37s)
um
(2h 7m 42s) Kevin:
I’m, I’m, that’s good to know.
(2h 7m 44s)
There’s something that caught your interest that. Okay.
(2h 7m 46s) Liam:
There’s something
(2h 7m 47s)
It’s cool.
(2h 7m 47s) Kevin:
Alright.
(2h 7m 48s) Liam:
I mean, I haven’t seen it, so it’s all, you know, who knows what the execution is, but on paper, very legitimately surprising development that I was like, oh, that’s actually a big deal.
(2h 7m 50s) Kevin:
Yeah, sure.
(2h 7m 53s)
Yeah.
(2h 7m 59s)
Yeah.
(2h 7m 59s) Liam:
So anyway, uh, yeah, yeah.
(2h 8m) Kevin:
All right.
(2h 8m 1s)
Okay, so, as we’re wrapping up, any anything you want to plug, you say, to the audience, find you not find.
(2h 8m 11s) Liam:
Sure, sure.
(2h 8m 12s)
Well, as always,
(2h 8m 15s)
Blue Sky and Twitter at Liam Allen Miller, um, can also buy my video game.
(2h 8m 24s)
The game’s called Garden Guardian.
(2h 8m 26s)
It is not Cottage Core.
(2h 8m 28s)
It’s quite the opposite.
(2h 8m 29s) Kevin:
We covered it.
(2h 8m 30s) Liam:
It’s an action game.
(2h 8m 30s) Kevin:
Excuse me, we we are the gatekeepers here definitively. We covered its cottage court.
(2h 8m 31s) Liam:
Yes.
(2h 8m 37s)
Oh, you get to pick what cottage core is, so it counts.
(2h 8m 38s) Kevin:
Yes, yes, we are the we are the arbiters, whatever, whatever pretentious word you want to come up with.
(2h 8m 44s)
We’re drawing the lines and we are.
(2h 8m 48s) Liam:
I think I told you this.
(2h 8m 49s)
I think I told you this last time, but even though it is purely an action game that is farming themed, Steam did accept it during the farming sale.
(2h 8m 55s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(2h 8m 58s)
There you go.
(2h 8m 58s) Liam:
So that was very, that was very validating in that regard.
(2h 9m 1s)
So if you want a cool, fun, small action game, feel free to give it a look, give it a wish list.
(2h 9m 8s)
It goes on sale every now and again.
(2h 9m 9s) Kevin:
That’s a good one.
(2h 9m 10s) Liam:
So don’t feel the need to buy it at full price either.
(2h 9m 12s) Kevin:
We talk.
(2h 9m 13s) Liam:
Yeah, that’s me.
(2h 9m 14s)
Do you have anything you need to plug?
(2h 9m 17s) Kevin:
Um, I uh, I mean, my stuff’s not that interesting.
(2h 9m 21s)
My art account, I even…
(2h 9m 25s)
But I’m Cooper President.
(2h 9m 27s)
Yeah, I, oh.
(2h 9m 29s)
talk about it later, but I do pixel art.
(2h 9m 31s)
Um, so, or used to, I’m completely amateur.
(2h 9m 33s) Liam:
Hmm.
(2h 9m 37s) Kevin:
Um, I’m not, uh, I’m not the lead artist.
(2h 9m 39s) Liam:
Sure.
(2h 9m 42s) Kevin:
The hall or whatever.
(2h 9m 44s)
Um, Yeah.
(2h 9m 45s) Liam:
That’s okay.
(2h 9m 46s)
I mean, if you, if you care about it, and you feel good about it, you know, I’m sure there’s someone out there who’s,
(2h 9m 51s) Kevin:
Yeah, thank you.
(2h 9m 52s)
I appreciate it.
(2h 9m 52s)
Well, anyways, well, you guys know me.
(2h 9m 54s)
Pros, whatever.
(2h 9m 55s)
I just retweet other more funny, interesting things than what I have to say.
(2h 9m 59s)
But um, yeah.
(2h 10m)
More importantly than me, though.
(2h 10m 2s)
Let’s find this podcast that you’re listening to, find it again at THS Pod, on Tumblr and Blue Sky, if you want to see posts and news and links and things, or go to harvestseason.club, our bona fide website made by software.
(2h 10m 19s)
I don’t know, sexual engineer, whatever.
(2h 10m 21s)
He is a programmer coding man, Al, the host with the most, um, with all the links to everything you need and feedback forms.
(2h 10m 29s)
Submit your questions and comments.
(2h 10m 33s)
Um, or if you want the the, the royal experience, go down to patreon.com slash THS pod.
(2h 10m 40s)
Uh, where we, uh, to have, uh, bonus content like the greenhouse episode.
(2h 10m 49s)
Uh, true to the name greenhouse, they are often evergreen.
(2h 10m 52s)
Just random topics that you can listen to at any time.
(2h 10m 54s)
They’re not used dependent or game dependent.
(2h 10m 57s)
So, go check it out.
(2h 10m 58s)
We do all sorts of stupid stuff on there.
(2h 11m)
We are still need to get uh, together to do our episode for uh, the, the, uh, series review on on Bluey, which many of us are fans of.
(2h 11m 12s) Liam:
On Bluey.
(2h 11m 12s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(2h 11m 13s)
Al has kids, so obviously he’s into Bluey.
(2h 11m 13s) Liam:
Amazing.
(2h 11m 16s) Kevin:
I caught it at one and we got like one other Cody, one of our other coaches.
(2h 11m 20s)
big into Bluey.
(2h 11m 21s)
So we we’ve said it.
(2h 11m 23s)
We haven’t done it, but we’re like, we got to do Kulu yesterday at one point, just biggest tier jerkers, maybe just screams.
(2h 11m 27s) Liam:
Nice.
(2h 11m 30s) Kevin:
Um, yeah, we love Bluey.
(2h 11m 33s)
Yeah.
(2h 11m 33s) Liam:
That’s so funny.
(2h 11m 34s)
That’s good.
(2h 11m 34s)
I’m glad to hear it.
(2h 11m 36s)
Bluey deserves all the ups in the world.
(2h 11m 37s) Kevin:
Oh, it’s so good.
(2h 11m 39s)
Um, Anyways, yeah, that’s again, that’s on the Patreon.
(2h 11m 40s) Liam:
Yeah.
(2h 11m 43s) Kevin:
You also get access to our Slack where people can hang out and chat, all the hosts are there.
(2h 11m 49s)
Um, you get, uh, usually you’ll sleep, little sneak peeks at the name episode, mostly in the form of threads of random images.
(2h 11m 56s)
Um, insider baseball.
(2h 12m)
I’ll post one such thread this for this week’s episode, which I’ve not listened to, and it’s just images of people planking.
(2h 12m 8s)
So I, I’m genuinely baffled by the context of this, but I, oh, that’s their Patreon experience.
(2h 12m 15s)
Um, anyways, again, that is uh, patreon.com slash THS pod.
(2h 12m 22s)
Okay.
(2h 12m 22s)
And so with all that said, thank you again, Liam, for being on, thank you, Al, for editing and listening to all this nonsense.
(2h 12m 31s)
Um, and thank you again, and until next time, dear listener.
(2h 12m 36s)
Have a good harness.
(2h 12m 36s) Liam:
Have a good harvest.
(2h 12m 42s) Theme Tune:
The harvest season is created by Al McKinley, with support from our patrons, including our pro farmers, Kevin, Stewart, and Elisa.
(2h 12m 51s)
Our art is done by Mike the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess.
(2h 12m 55s)
Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed in this episode.
(2h 13m 12s) Kevin:
There you go.
(2h 13m 12s)
You don’t know the, I can’t blame you at all.
(2h 13m 14s)
You know…
(2h 13m 14s) Liam:
It’s it’s tougher.
(2h 13m 16s)
It’s tougher.
(2h 13m 16s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(2h 13m 17s) Liam:
It’s tougher than it sounds.
(2h 13m 18s)
And I, you’re right.
(2h 13m 20s)
You had a cadence that was different.
(2h 13m 21s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(2h 13m 22s)
We do.
(2h 13m 22s) Liam:
You guys must do that all the time.
(2h 13m 23s) Kevin:
We do.
(2h 13m 23s) Liam:
I’ll try to get it.
(2h 13m 24s) Kevin:
We do.
(2h 13m 25s) Liam:
I’ll try to get it next time.
(2h 13m 25s) Kevin:
No, that’s, yeah, yeah, we do.
(2h 13m 27s)
I should have prepped you.
(2h 13m 28s)
Um, fun, but no, no, absolute.
(2h 13m 30s) Liam:
No, you’re good, you’re good.
(2h 13m 31s)
It’s better that way.
(2h 13m 33s) Kevin:
I screwed up on purpose all the time.
(2h 13m 34s)
Um, and sometime, sometimes I’ll play out with it.
(2h 13m 37s)
Um, I’ve gotten a few voice actors from some of the games.
(2h 13m 40s)
on here.
(2h 13m 41s)
Um, and so I’ll have them do.
(2h 13m 43s)
I’ll do I’ll make
(2h 13m 44s)
I make them do the thing.
(2h 13m 45s)
do the voice and say the atro.
(2h 13m 47s)
That’s fun.
(2h 13m 48s)
One time we did an episode on Balachro because it had Stardew DLC and it was good enough.
(2h 13m 52s)
We talk about the watcher.
(2h 13m 53s)
Um, and I did a whole, whole, uh, outro as the, the Joker from uh, Batman.
(2h 13m 55s) Liam:
Mhm.
(2h 13m 59s) Kevin:
I’m amateur, very bad voice actor, man.
(2h 14m 2s)
I’m not no, I’m not a voice actor.
(2h 14m 4s)
I like to make voices and I wish I could be a voice actor.
(2h 14m 7s)
I am sadly not the Kevin who plays Mario.
(2h 14m 9s)
I’m the Kevin who plays Mario by myself in my head.
(2h 14m 13s) Liam:
Now, well, one day, one day you could be.
(2h 14m 13s) Kevin:
One day.
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