Feed the Plants

Wed, Mar 19, 2025 Year 3, Spring 12

Al and Kelly talk about Grimoire Groves

Disclosure: We received a free review code for Grimoire Groves. #gifted

Timings

00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:02:23: What Have We Been Up To
00:12:16: Game News
00:36:28: New Games
00:39:42: Grimoire Groves
01:12:37: Outro

Contact

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

Transcript

(0:00:30) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of the Harvest Season.
(0:00:34) Al: My name is Al, and we are here today to talk about cottagecore games.
(0:00:36) Kelly: And my name is Kelly.
(0:00:40) Kelly: Yay.
(0:00:41) Al: Welcome back, Kelly. How are you doing?
(0:00:44) Kelly: Good.
(0:00:44) Kelly: It’s always nice to be back.
(0:00:46) Kelly: It’s so funny, because all of my voice recordings are just–
(0:00:46) Al: Always nice to have you.
(0:00:52) Kelly: oh, it’s like memory lane looking at all the past podcasts.
(0:00:56) Al: You were last on talking about fields of mystery, which we might have stuff to talk about with
(0:01:00) Kelly: Yes, yes.
(0:01:04) Kelly: Yeah, I saw there was a note, but I
(0:01:06) Kelly: I haven’t checked it out since we last spoke.
(0:01:10) Kelly: Yeah, how have you been?
(0:01:10) Al: But yeah, your first one of the year you did three last year.
(0:01:12) Kelly: Oh, yeah, 2025.
(0:01:14) Al: Let’s see if we can get you above three this year.
(0:01:19) Al: Cool. Well, I have Kelly on this episode because we are going to
(0:01:23) Al: talk about grimoire groves, grimoire groves.
(0:01:28) Kelly: Yes, it’s like a little tongue twister.
(0:01:31) Al: Yes, grimoire groves.
(0:01:34) Al: Got to say up front, obviously, we received a free review code
(0:01:38) Al: for the game, which actually can.
(0:01:40) Al: I don’t know. No, that was a joke. That was a joke. That was a joke.
(0:02:00) Kelly: No, no, no, no, I would absolutely pay money for this game.
(0:02:11) Al: Spoiler alert. Yeah, so we’re going to talk about that game later in the episode. Before
(0:02:15) Kelly: And thank you, Al, for that.
(0:02:22) Al: that, we’ve obviously got a bunch of news, but first of all, Kelly, what have you been
(0:02:26) Kelly: I have been up to taking care of a stray cat and then just trying to start
(0:02:33) Kelly: planning out stuff for the spring for the yard.
(0:02:36) Al: Oh, yes. Is it garden talking time? What’s your plans for this year?
(0:02:39) Kelly: Yeah, but also we’re trying to… I don’t know yet. I’m still waiting but I have to
(0:02:47) Kelly: clean up the yard because I prioritized weeding other areas of the house last
(0:02:51) Kelly: fall instead of the garden, so it’s still kind of overgrown.
(0:02:56) Kelly: I’m trying to get dirt so I can level out the borders of the
(0:02:59) Kelly: yard and then tarp them. So exciting. And besides that, I’ve
(0:03:08) Kelly: been playing Infinity Nikki for three solid months. This broke
(0:03:11) Kelly: my streak, actually. I still play the game every day, so it
(0:03:12) Al: No, I haven’t played it
(0:03:17) Kelly: didn’t actually break my streak. I just was the only game I was
(0:03:19) Kelly: playing for three months.
(0:03:22) Al: Fair enough. I haven’t played Infinity Nakey. I’m pretty sure that Dalin plays it as well.
(0:03:29) Al: I think we’ve talked about it before, but if you’ve been playing it for three months
(0:03:34) Al: straight, I guess you’ve been enjoying it then.
(0:03:36) Kelly: - Yes, yes, I think there were definitely moments,
(0:03:39) Al: This is the dress-up game, right? Yeah.
(0:03:41) Kelly: yes, there were definitely moments where I was playing it
(0:03:43) Kelly: ‘cause I just was like, I don’t really have anything else
(0:03:45) Kelly: I’m trying to play at the moment,
(0:03:48) Kelly: but there is a lot of content and it looks really nice
(0:03:51) Kelly: and it’s just like fun to run around the open world
(0:03:53) Kelly: and like collect your stuff.
(0:03:55) Kelly: It’s just a collecting game.
(0:03:56) Al: Yeah. Look, you’re talking to a Pokemon player, right? Like, I know what collecting is like,
(0:04:01) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:04:03) Al: I know the feeling. I think it’s a unique part of it, is the fact that it’s a gacha
(0:04:10) Al: collecting game, but with outfits, I think is fun.
(0:04:12) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:04:14) Kelly: Yes.
(0:04:15) Kelly: And unfortunately, there are some things
(0:04:19) Kelly: that you cannot beat with essentially not doing the gotcha,
(0:04:22) Kelly: but you don’t have to do everything.
(0:04:24) Kelly: It’s not going to stop your story progression.
(0:04:27) Kelly: You’re just not going to get bonuses.
(0:04:30) Al: Right. They’ve got to have a reason for you to pay money, right?
(0:04:30) Kelly: You’re just not going to get the coolest outfit.
(0:04:33) Kelly: Did I– absolutely.
(0:04:36) Kelly: And did I spend some money to get a frog outfit?
(0:04:40) Kelly: Yes, but it was a surprise.
(0:04:42) Kelly: There was a dog outfit and I needed it.
(0:04:44) Kelly: But also like the game is free also, so.
(0:04:47) Al: Yes. And, well, yes, exactly. Tell me that three years ago. The thing about these three games is,
(0:04:48) Kelly: You just have to you have to restrain yourself.
(0:04:57) Al: yeah, you’ve got to make sure that you’re not going over the top, but you’ve also got to think
(0:05:00) Al: about how much time and fun you’ve gotten out of games. Like, you know, if I think about Pokemon Go,
(0:05:04) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:05:07) Al: I have obviously, I’ve definitely put too much money into that. But also when I think about the
(0:05:07) Kelly: Ah, yes.
(0:05:11) Al: amount of time that I spend in that game. Like, I spend hours every single day.
(0:05:16) Kelly: Oh, I was Pokemon go is probably my highest. Yeah
(0:05:17) Al: For eight, for nine years now.
(0:05:22) Kelly: Like I don’t and I I I go back and forth on playing it but that game has
(0:05:27) Kelly: That’s my most played game because of that
(0:05:28) Al: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, ever. Yeah, that don’t think is…
(0:05:31) Kelly: Like it beat my Sims like legacy of like, you know playing that from like 10 years old or whatever
(0:05:38) Al: I think the thing is that because it’s so accessible, but also because you’re playing
(0:05:41) Kelly: It’s so accessible it’s in your hand
(0:05:45) Al: it for so many years, even if you only played half an hour every day after 10 years, which
(0:05:47) Kelly: Mm-hmm. Yes, exactly
(0:05:54) Al: in a year and a bit, it’ll be 10 years since the game came out, if you’ve only played half
(0:05:58) Kelly: That’s disgusting, don’t say that.
(0:06:05) Al: an error, but you do it every single day for the for the for.
(0:06:08) Al: 10 years, that is nearly 2000 hours. That’s the thing, the
(0:06:12) Kelly: that’s insane but yeah no it’s it’s true yeah exactly but yeah it’s so it’s like
(0:06:15) Al: numbers just add up so fast. And let me tell you, it’s way more
(0:06:20) Al: than half an hour I’ve played every single day.
(0:06:20) Kelly: okay yeah yeah and it’s like okay so like if I put some money in it every
(0:06:26) Kelly: year like I’m getting so much out of it you know and I played love Nikki which
(0:06:31) Kelly: is what is the phone game before like there’s been other phone games before
(0:06:36) Kelly: this too but that was the one I got really into which is different like
(0:06:40) Kelly: setup wise, but essentially it’s just an outfit game again.
(0:06:42) Kelly: Gotcha outfit game and again, it’s like okay. I played that game for like four years. I put some money into it
(0:06:49) Kelly: But I played it a lot like I spent so much time playing that game
(0:06:52) Al: Yeah, as long as you can afford what you’re doing, that’s the important thing.
(0:06:56) Kelly: Exactly, but yeah, what have you been up to?
(0:07:00) Al: I have been procrastinating playing Grimoire Crows.
(0:07:06) Al: Every so often, I end up in this situation where I’m like, this is a game that I need to play,
(0:07:11) Al: and then I end up not playing it very much. And instead of procrastinating by playing other games,
(0:07:17) Al: I procrastinate by doing other things instead. So I’ve not really done much this week at all.
(0:07:20) Kelly: Yep.
(0:07:23) Al: I have started a shiny hunt for Regigigas in Pokémon Sword. I’m at the point where I need to
(0:07:38) Al: actually get through the rest of the legendaries. I don’t have a shiny if I want to finish my
(0:07:43) Al: living decks, because I’m 110 left. And so I’m going to run out of non-legendaries very soon.
(0:07:48) Kelly: Oh, my god.
(0:07:52) Al: And so I thought, let’s start this one, because I can’t just… Yeah, exactly.
(0:07:55) Kelly: Start breaking it up.
(0:07:58) Kelly: Yeah, no, I understand that.
(0:08:00) Kelly: I used to do that with Angry Birds.
(0:08:04) Al: You’re going to have to explain that.
(0:08:10) Kelly: Since Angry Birds came out, any phone that I get,
(0:08:13) Kelly: I download Angry Birds and beat the whole game again.
(0:08:15) Al: You replay it all again, oh my word!
(0:08:16) Kelly: 3 stars?
(0:08:18) Kelly: I’m less about it now, I just kinda go back to it when I’m bored. So like, you know, I have my phone for a while, eventually I get all the stars. But there’s certain levels that even after all these years of replaying it, they’re just difficult. And they piss me off. So I’ll break it down.
(0:08:25) Al: look it’s fun it’s a fun game but I can’t say i’ve played it in the last 15 years
(0:08:48) Kelly: I always break those up when I go back to get the 3 stars for them. So it’s the same thing where it’s like, I don’t want to do the really tough thing repeatedly and then just get frustrated at the game. Like it’s boring, you know? It gets boring.
(0:08:56) Al: Fair enough. My 15 years might have been a bit of an exaggeration, however it is only
(0:09:04) Al: 15 years since it’s 15 years since the first game came out. I can’t believe it’s been 15 years,
(0:09:06) Kelly: Yes, yes, because I played it on the first iPhone I had, or an only iPhone.
(0:09:09) Al: that’s wild. It was it was definitely it was one of the it was one of the early games that made you
(0:09:20) Al: go ’this is why I want a touchscreen’ and it was that and
(0:09:22) Kelly: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
(0:09:26) Al: Fruit Ninja and Digital Jump. Those were like the three that made me realize I get it,
(0:09:27) Kelly: Yes, I never got into Fruit Ninja.
(0:09:36) Al: I would like a touchscreen please.
(0:09:38) Kelly: Yep. Well, that was the thrill of like, you know, with the iPhone too. It was like, oh, this is so sick. I can, I can play these fun games. I can do this for a peggle.
(0:09:48) Kelly: I played peggle so much on that phone. It’s pinball.
(0:09:52) Al: Okay, no, I didn’t. I didn’t play that one. I don’t think I need more games.
(0:09:54) Kelly: Oh, you should look it up. I think you like peggle.
(0:10:03) Al: Yeah, fun. All right. I think that’s all. Is that all I’ve got to talk about? I’m shiny
(0:10:09) Al: hunting. I think so. I played… You were the one that you were you were spying me on steam.
(0:10:16) Al: Was it like half an hour I played of Grimoire Groves or something?
(0:10:16) Kelly: Oh, yeah, I was watching you all week because every time I’d sign on to the Steam, it’s
(0:10:22) Kelly: like you’re the only person I know that has the game also.
(0:10:22) Al: Oh, I’ve got an hour and 20 minutes apparently on steam there. Okay. That was yesterday.
(0:10:26) Kelly: So for like the whole week, it was like 12 minutes playing.
(0:10:30) Kelly: Yes, now, I see it now, but I was like watching it.
(0:10:37) Kelly: I know because like two days ago, I was like, he’s still, he is cutting it close.
(0:10:43) Al: Look, well, the problem was you messaged me and you said, “I’m loving this game. I’m
(0:10:48) Al: played it so much.” And I’m like, “Okay, cool. I don’t need to then.”
(0:10:52) Al: Yeah. No, I legitimately think that’s all I’ve
(0:10:53) Kelly: Also, I’m the problem.
(0:11:02) Al: done this week is like shiny hunting and Pokémon Go.
(0:11:05) Kelly: sometimes it’s like you just get that mental block where you just can’t
(0:11:08) Al: Yeah. Oh, I did do… I know. I did do the the Scarlet and Violet Quack Quack Quack Quaville
(0:11:09) Kelly: even you’re just like oh I gotta I gotta do this but I can’t
(0:11:20) Al: raids. I don’t think I’ve ever figured out how to say the name of that.
(0:11:21) Kelly: What? What is that? I actually did not play Scarlet and Violet.
(0:11:22) Al: Pokémon. Did you not? Um, it’s the, uh, it’s based on like carnival dancers. Uh, let me send you.
(0:11:36) Kelly: Okay
(0:11:38) Kelly: But like what is it you do the dancing like you
(0:11:40) Al: It’s a Pokémon. Oh, no, no, just like a raid, like a normal Pokémon raid.
(0:11:45) Kelly: Oh, but it’s like dressed up like a carnival dancer
(0:11:49) Al: No, no, clearly you completely misunderstood this. This is just a Pokémon.
(0:11:51) Kelly: Okay
(0:11:52) Al: A Pokémon that is based on a carnival dancer. That’s the Pokémon,
(0:11:57) Kelly: Oh, but that’s what you’re waiting for
(0:11:57) Al: but they’ve done, there’s a raid to defeat it and capture it, yes.
(0:12:01) Kelly: Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I thought this was like a costume Pokemon. You know what I mean?
(0:12:05) Al: Oh, no, it’s not. They’ve not done that in the main games yet. Um, yeah, that’s it.
(0:12:06) Kelly: Okay
(0:12:12) Al: That’s the entirety of that. It was a raid. I did it. There we go. Done. Uh,
(0:12:17) Al: should we talk about some news? Because the section is being a little bit of a disaster.
(0:12:21) Al: Um…
(0:12:23) Al: So, first up, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, we have some news on Harvest Moon,
(0:12:30) Al: The Lost Valley, and Skytree Village, the ports or remasters, however they want to call them,
(0:12:38) Al: for Switch, which for some reason they’ve decided to do, is up for pre-order now.
(0:12:44) Al: It is $40 for the two of them, which still feels like too much, but
(0:12:51) Al: I feel like it says a lot.
(0:12:52) Al: When they’re selling two full games that they originally sold individually on separate consoles,
(0:12:59) Al: and they’ve ported them both to the Switch, and they’re selling them both together for $40.
(0:13:03) Al: That shows you how much people definitely want to buy these games.
(0:13:07) Kelly: Yeah, cuz a lot of these remakes are like still a full 60 dollars alone. Yeah
(0:13:11) Al: Exactly. The good ones are.
(0:13:15) Al: So it’s coming out in June. Previously, we just knew it was coming out in the summer.
(0:13:19) Al: We don’t have an exact date as far as I can see, just says June.
(0:13:23) Al: And if you pre-order it now, you get a free acrylic standee
(0:13:27) Al: with some of the worst art I’ve seen for a Harvestmen game ever.
(0:13:31) Kelly: I can tell you really like this one.
(0:13:33) Al: I haven’t even played these games, but I know for a fact they’re bad
(0:13:36) Al: because I talked to Rachelle about them and they did not like them and yeah.
(0:13:39) Kelly: I can never remember which ones are bad but the art for this one does not look good.
(0:13:47) Al: These were I think the first two they did after the split between Harvestmen and
(0:13:53) Al: so these were the first ones that weren’t by the original team.
(0:13:56) Al: They were by Natsume and let’s just say they hadn’t made any games before and you can tell.
(0:14:08) Al: I do, I will, I’m so strongly of the opinion that I think that people sometimes are judging
(0:14:17) Al: Harvestmen too harshly purely because they’re angry that they kept the name and didn’t give
(0:14:23) Al: back but that’s how these things work and I’m sorry you dislike that but I think if you actually
(0:14:29) Al: played some of the newer games they’re not as bad as you think but these ones I’m pretty sure are.
(0:14:37) Kelly: - Fair enough, I think that’s a fair point.
(0:14:40) Al: The way I described it in the last episode I did with Micah is
(0:14:43) Al: they are so close to having a good game.
(0:14:47) Kelly: Oh, with the new ones.
(0:14:48) Al: Yeah, they’re so close. So close.
(0:14:51) Kelly: Maybe next– maybe next game, they’ll hit it.
(0:14:52) Al: what we said for three games now. Each game they do is better than the last. Yes, but
(0:15:00) Kelly: OK, so they’re growing slowly.
(0:15:02) Al: they do still make some bizarre decisions in those games. They’ve also released a whole
(0:15:07) Al: bunch of screenshots. And yeah, I mean, they basically look like the original games did,
(0:15:13) Al: but with, I guess, more pixels, but not more pixels on the actual models, just more pixels.
(0:15:20) Al: So it’s like–
(0:15:20) Kelly: No, they look like knees, but like with a little bit better quality.
(0:15:22) Al: Yeah, yeah, that’s exact. It looks better quality, but not in a good way.
(0:15:30) Kelly: No.
(0:15:31) Al: It looks like HD kind of, but it’s like you’ve got HD upscaled basically, right?
(0:15:39) Al: Like you were recording on a really old camera and you’ve upscaled it to HD,
(0:15:43) Al: so it’s like everything is shiny and lots of pixels, but it still doesn’t look good.
(0:15:52) Kelly: - Yeah, no, it’s not right.
(0:15:53) Al: These were a DS and a 3DS game, I think, originally, so they have had to merge the two screens.
(0:16:02) Al: However, I think the bottom screen was mostly just like for the map,
(0:16:06) Al: and so they now have a mini map on the screen, so…
(0:16:09) Kelly: Okay, I feel like a lot of games like this have like the map or like controls or something at the bottom
(0:16:14) Al: Yeah, yeah, so I guess we’ll see.
(0:16:19) Al: I don’t, I’m gonna buy this.
(0:16:22) Kelly: I like, did you notice that it’s so you said it’s releasing in June, but then at the top
(0:16:23) Al: I’m gonna do my duty for the podcast, you’re welcome.
(0:16:33) Kelly: it says ships in April to June.
(0:16:36) Al: Yeah, if you scroll down to the product description, it says release date June 2025.
(0:16:41) Kelly: interesting so this game is worth that $25 basically
(0:16:43) Al: Apparently, the acrylic standee is worth $13.
(0:16:48) Al: So yeah, well, I don’t know what to say. You probably shouldn’t buy this.
(0:17:02) Al: But I will. Next, we have Bugaboo Pocket.
(0:17:07) Al: Have announced that the release date is on the 2nd of April. I don’t know if you’ve
(0:17:11) Al: seen this game, Kelly. It’s a bug game. It’s like a bug Pokémon, but like on…
(0:17:12) Kelly: I have not. What is this?
(0:17:20) Al: How do I describe this? It’s like virtual pets. So like Tamagotchis.
(0:17:24) Kelly: Oh, okay, I see it now. Now I got the screen page, but it’s got like way more details.
(0:17:30) Al: Yes, yeah, it’s very much like modernized in terms of how you would interact.
(0:17:37) Al: Quality of graphics and is much more intense from that sort of aspect of things.
(0:17:43) Al: But I think you also can, for lack of a better phrase, because I’m very tired.
(0:17:51) Al: It’s the end of the weekend. Do science on them. I don’t know how to describe it.
(0:17:57) Kelly: Like, experiments?
(0:17:58) Al: No experiment. No, that would be immoral. No, inspect them and look at them.
(0:18:06) Kelly: Oh, OK.
(0:18:07) Al: There is like if you have…
(0:18:09) Kelly: Oh, and pin them.
(0:18:10) Kelly: It looks like you can pin them.
(0:18:11) Al: Yeah, but those are dead. Like you’re not pinning a live one, right?
(0:18:13) Kelly: Yeah, that would be immoral also.
(0:18:18) Kelly: I hope so.
(0:18:19) Kelly: I’m just looking at pictures.
(0:18:22) Al: So yeah, it’s much more involved than a Tamagotchi.
(0:18:28) Kelly: The graphics look really cool.
(0:18:30) Al: Yeah, Cody is excited to play this.
(0:18:33) Kelly: I’m sure that makes sense.
(0:18:36) Kelly: This looks really cool, honestly.
(0:18:37) Al: Anyway, coming on the 2nd of April. Next, we have the Fields of Mistria 2nd update.
(0:18:45) Al: It’s out now, Kelly. Have you played it yet?
(0:18:48) Kelly: Not since, uh, November, end of November, since we talked.
(0:18:54) Al: Yeah, that was just the first update that was then, so.
(0:18:56) Kelly: Yeah, ‘cause I had finished everything that you could possibly do at that point,
(0:19:00) Kelly: and I was like, “Okay, I gotta, I don’t wanna kill the game for myself.”
(0:19:00) Al: Yep.
(0:19:04) Al: We were on the same page at that point, right? Basically, I think we’d both done everything you could do in the game and didn’t want to destroy our enthusiasm for the game. But does that mean you’re definitely not going to get jump into the game with this new update?
(0:19:13) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:19:20) Kelly: I’m probably going to wait.
(0:19:23) Kelly: I mean, I started breeding for different color animals
(0:19:27) Kelly: and stuff, like the tears.
(0:19:28) Kelly: So I had been failing my time with that,
(0:19:30) Kelly: but mostly because I didn’t have a new game.
(0:19:34) Kelly: But yeah, I’m going to wait and see.
(0:19:35) Kelly: I got games coming out soon.
(0:19:37) Kelly: We got “Rethopia.”
(0:19:38) Al: Yes, oh, yes, that’s that
(0:19:41) Kelly: I got a solid amount of games currently.
(0:19:43) Kelly: So I gotta actually, like, focus on them.
(0:19:46) Al: That’s fair. We’ve already covered what’s out in this update, so let’s not spend too long on it.
(0:19:50) Kelly: Mm-hmm, okay.
(0:19:50) Al: Next we have Gogotown. Their next update Spring Cleaning is out now. I presume you haven’t played
(0:19:59) Al: this game. It is fun. It definitely feels very polished for the way that I talked about it in
(0:20:07) Al: the episode I did on it. It’s very polished what is there, but it feels like it’s a long way to go
(0:20:13) Al: to feel complete.
(0:20:15) Kelly: Okay, that’s fair. I mean it seems very ambitious looking so hopefully they just get there
(0:20:16) Al: Yeah, a number of things in this update, you can now store a tool and a vehicle on
(0:20:29) Al: yourself, it says in a patented Townco dimensional pocket. Basically, you had vehicles, but you
(0:20:36) Al: had to like park them somewhere. So now you can keep one of them on yourself. So you have
(0:20:40) Al: to keep running back to the parking spaces, which is a nice update. There’s also
(0:20:46) Al: a Town info app that gives you a bunch of information on the Town. 360 degree camera
(0:20:52) Al: rotation, which is good. I like this. Oh yes, what was that? You’ve asked for it. We’ve
(0:20:56) Kelly: I like their note on this.
(0:21:00) Al: put in an experimental setting for you to rotate the camera 360 degrees. Fair enough.
(0:21:05) Kelly: The screenshot is definitely making me dizzy though, looking at it too long.
(0:21:07) Al: Yes, you can definitely tell us experimental. There’s some things that move out of view when
(0:21:13) Al: when they shouldn’t do and stuff like that.
(0:21:17) Al: A work in progress.
(0:21:17) Kelly: But I mean like they they they put it out there that it’s experimental so.
(0:21:20) Al: Yep, yep, and they’ve also added
(0:21:23) Al: infinite seeds for your farming, which I am intrigued by because I thought
(0:21:28) Al: when you planted a seed, the plant never never seemed to die.
(0:21:33) Al: It just seemed to always grow new stuff.
(0:21:35) Al: So you essentially had infinite stuff, right?
(0:21:38) Al: Because as soon as you had a seed, you just
(0:21:39) Al: planted it and you had that plant forever.
(0:21:40) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:21:41) Al: But maybe I’m misremembering.
(0:21:44) Kelly: Maybe they changed it.
(0:21:46) Al: updates as well. But yeah, those are the main ones that I noticed.
(0:21:49) Al: Next, we have Sunhaven have released their 2.0 update.
(0:21:53) Al: And you’re like, oh, 2.0, that sounds like it might be a big update.
(0:21:57) Al: It’s festivals.
(0:22:00) Al: It doesn’t particularly feel huge.
(0:22:02) Al: I’m intrigued as to why they decided to go for 2.0 at this point.
(0:22:06) Al: OK.
(0:22:10) Al: It adds a furniture festival, a garden
(0:22:12) Al: festival, a pet festival, a mushroom festival, a snow festival.
(0:22:16) Al: And a bunch of other
(0:22:19) Al: furniture and stuff like that related to that.
(0:22:22) Kelly: Okay, interesting how much of the game is actually out?
(0:22:26) Al: Well, it’s no longer in early access.
(0:22:28) Al: So I feel like I think they might have I feel like they’ve done everything that
(0:22:32) Al: they said in the Kickstarter, like it’s the story is done and stuff like that.
(0:22:38) Al: When I see people talking in the comments, they’re no longer complaining about things
(0:22:43) Al: they’re talking about translations being bad.
(0:22:49) Kelly: Yeah, this one’s been on my wish list,
(0:22:50) Kelly: so I’ve been just waiting to see.
(0:22:54) Al: I think I own it, yes, I do.
(0:22:56) Al: I kick-started this one, I just haven’t played it yet.
(0:22:59) Al: So this came out initially in 2023.
(0:23:03) Al: Or was that, no, that was the 1.0, I think.
(0:23:06) Al: Yeah, 2021 is when it first came out.
(0:23:08) Al: And this was when I was still well and truly
(0:23:11) Al: primarily Switch, but it wasn’t on Switch yet.
(0:23:15) Al: And then I got a Steam Deck,
(0:23:16) Al: and then suddenly I was very much on the Steam Deck,
(0:23:18) Al: except for games that weren’t on the Steam Deck.
(0:23:21) Al: but I had kind of really moved the path.
(0:23:24) Al: I’m just thinking about this game, because it was, you know, it had been like two years or something since it started.
(0:23:32) Al: Sometimes I do think that there is like a time period where if you’re not going to play a game
(0:23:36) Al: within that time period, you’re probably never going to get to it.
(0:23:38) Kelly: Yeah, no, definitely it definitely gets harder and harder to go back to it
(0:23:44) Al: So maybe I’ll get to it one day, who knows, there’s so many games.
(0:23:48) Al: Next we have farm folks or, as it is now called,
(0:23:54) Al: Autonomica? Good job, going from a game name that was just slightly awkward to say to one that I don’t know how to pronounce.
(0:24:02) Al: Autonomica? Auto… Autonomica.
(0:24:04) Kelly: Oh, Tom, oh, oh, Tom, I don’t know, I don’t know.
(0:24:08) Al: Autonomica. That’s what you were trying to say, wasn’t it? Autonomica.
(0:24:13) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, something like that.
(0:24:14) Al: No, I don’t think it’s Autonomica.
(0:24:18) Kelly: I don’t think it is either,
(0:24:19) Kelly: but I was just trying to see if I could say it.
(0:24:20) Kelly: And apparently I can’t.
(0:24:24) Al: For those who don’t know the story behind this game, it was started as farm folks, and then the company that was making it went bust.
(0:24:32) Al: And then another company basically, I don’t know whether they bought the company that went bust or whether they bought the rights to the game and the code and stuff,
(0:24:40) Al: but they continued development. So the company that’s making this is not the company that did the Kickstarter for this game.
(0:24:46) Al: Although I’m pretty sure I saw somewhere that they are going to honor the Kickstarter, which is always good.
(0:24:52) Al: Um, don’t take–
(0:24:52) Kelly: nice isn’t there another game with like a similar ish name to this new name but
(0:24:54) Al: I’d need to confirm that, but I feel like I saw that somewhere.
(0:25:05) Kelly: also like how do you go from farm folks which is like the most generic farm game
(0:25:08) Al: Yeah.
(0:25:10) Kelly: name I’ve ever heard now which is not saying a lot because a lot of these farm
(0:25:14) Kelly: games have a lot of similar names it is but how do you go from that to what do
(0:25:16) Al: Naming is hard, all right.
(0:25:20) Kelly: What are you calling it? Autonomica?
(0:25:22) Kelly: Autonomica. Oh, it’s a musical artist. Yes, I knew I’d seen this name somewhere before.
(0:25:24) Al: Autonomica. Autonomica?
(0:25:30) Al: Oh.
(0:25:36) Al: So they’ve made they have went the new
(0:25:38) Al: company that took over the game have basically been moving it in a different direction.
(0:25:43) Al: So it’s it is still farming.
(0:25:46) Kelly: It looks like Fortnite with Farfian.
(0:25:46) Al: It’s not.
(0:25:49) Al: Yeah, they’ve never really explained their reasoning, but they’re like, it’s not just farming.
(0:25:53) Al: It’s so much more than that.
(0:25:55) Al: So therefore we think farm folks is a misleading name and I’m like, OK, but I don’t.
(0:25:58) Kelly: Okay. That makes more sense. But I don’t get anything about farming from this name.
(0:26:04) Al: No, but you do get the automation part of it, which I think they’re really big enough.
(0:26:09) Al: The college so that their new blurb on steam is Autonomica is an open world life simulator
(0:26:16) Al: game that seamlessly. Oh, my word, I hate this so much seamlessly merges resource
(0:26:22) Al: management and automation with farm building, extensive customization,
(0:26:26) Al: PvP slash PvE battles and elusive phantoms. What is this jumble of words?
(0:26:34) Al: Play solo or with friends to build your mega farm factory with almost no limits.
(0:26:38) Al: It is a farming game. It’s just like a industrial scale farming game.
(0:26:44) Al: Right. And I get why they wanted to change.
(0:26:48) Al: Why they wanted it to be clear that this was not the same game that they took over.
(0:26:52) Al: But also it is farming game.
(0:26:57) Al: Like you can’t say it’s not a farming game. It is a farming game.
(0:27:01) Al: Build your mega farm factory, they say in the new blurb.
(0:27:04) Al: Like I don’t understand the issue with it.
(0:27:06) Kelly: All of these screenshots, too, are just like, what is that game?
(0:27:09) Al: Yes, Factorio. Yeah.
(0:27:11) Kelly: Factorio?
(0:27:14) Kelly: It’s like that, but with farming more.
(0:27:16) Al: Open world 3D Factorio.
(0:27:20) Al: Which I honestly am excited by. I think this game could be really good.
(0:27:25) Al: I just don’t understand why they really didn’t like the name and they decided to change.
(0:27:29) Al: But I don’t think this is a better name.
(0:27:32) Al: That’s all I’m going to say. I get why they didn’t like the old game.
(0:27:35) Al: Old name. I’m not sure this is better.
(0:27:37) Kelly: Honestly, they can take this if they want to, but I think it should have been
(0:27:44) Kelly: auto-pharmica, if anything.
(0:27:46) Al: I would, yeah, I would certainly be more better. Yeah, I don’t disagree with you.
(0:27:49) Kelly: It would be better than this.
(0:27:54) Kelly: I would assume that this is some sort of space or underwater survival game
(0:28:02) Al: Oh, interesting. Yeah. Anyway, they changed the name. RIP farm folks. Long live farm folks.
(0:28:03) Kelly: just going off the name alone.
(0:28:08) Kelly: It’s so weird too, because I don’t even like farm books.
(0:28:14) Al: Yeah, yeah.
(0:28:18) Kelly: I digress.
(0:28:19) Al: Coral Island have announced their 2025 roadmap. They have 1.2 planned to come out in the first
(0:28:27) Al: half of the year, bringing multiplayer and revamped romance.
(0:28:32) Al: Which I was looking at what they say about the romance. So let’s talk about the multiplayer
(0:28:37) Al: first. There’s probably not a huge amount to say. Basically, it looks like it’s stardew
(0:28:41) Al: style multiplayer. You’re all multiple people on the farm. Great, fine. I’m sure it will be
(0:28:46) Al: great for people who love. I am not particularly interested just because I don’t want to actually
(0:28:51) Al: play my games with other people. I like these games because I’m playing them on my own.
(0:28:52) Kelly: I have no desire, I have no desire to play these. These types of games are for me to play by myself, so I can be a maniac, like, let me be a psychopath by my-
(0:28:59) Al: Exactly. Exactly.
(0:29:03) Al: I have tried so many times to play multiplayer Stardew, and I just can’t because I have to be
(0:29:08) Kelly: Oh, no. No, no, no.
(0:29:10) Al: the one who has this. The problem is, right? You have to organize to play at the same time,
(0:29:16) Al: and that is just not fun. Organizing times for these.
(0:29:16) Kelly: No, because either you’re micromanaging all of it, too.
(0:29:25) Kelly: It’s like, how do you organize the time to play together and also organize how you’re
(0:29:30) Kelly: playing together?
(0:29:32) Al: Yeah, the best way to do that is just be like, right, you do the farming you do the mine, there you go, go, go do your jobs.
(0:29:32) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(0:29:38) Al: And yeah, I don’t, I don’t particularly find it fun, I get why people might. And so if you are excited about Coral Island multiplayer.
(0:29:46) Al: There you go, it’s coming. I hope you enjoy it. I’m not going to do this.
(0:29:48) Kelly: I think the only multiplayer game I like is Monster Hunter, to be quite honest.
(0:29:58) Al: So I was also looking at the romance revamp that they’ve got.
(0:30:02) Al: And I think the only difference is, so there’s a bunch of heart events that existed already.
(0:30:10) Al: And it looks like you have to see the previous heart events to unlock certain, to unlock
(0:30:17) Al: more hearts.
(0:30:18) Al: So once you get to five hearts, you have to watch the heart events for them before you
(0:30:24) Al: can do heart six to eight.
(0:30:26) Al: And then you have to watch another heart event and give a locket.
(0:30:32) Al: Before you can start dating and do the next two hearts, which then you have to watch the
(0:30:37) Al: other events and propose before you can get married and do the other five.
(0:30:43) Al: I do think this is better because what I found when I was doing this, because I got married
(0:30:49) Al: in Coral Island, is I had no clue that there were heart events still to do, which is probably
(0:30:55) Al: still going to be a problem here, but let’s put that aside for a minute.
(0:30:59) Kelly: There’s no like there’s no like heart marker next in like the
(0:31:02) Al: So there are hearts, but it’s not like, it’s just like how many hearts you have.
(0:31:09) Al: Like there was no like indication that there’s an event you should be doing.
(0:31:12) Al: So like I got to 10 hearts and then I went and tried to propose and they were like, oh,
(0:31:17) Al: I’m not ready yet.
(0:31:18) Al: And I’m like, but this is the point where I meant to be able to propose.
(0:31:20) Al: Why can’t I do it?
(0:31:22) Al: And I googled and it was like, oh, because you’re missing heart events.
(0:31:24) Al: And I hadn’t done any of the heart events.
(0:31:27) Al: And I don’t know how it happens in Carta Island, but in Stardew,
(0:31:29) Kelly: How– so I was going to say, it’s similarly set up,
(0:31:32) Al: I was always finding the heart events.
(0:31:37) Kelly: like you just trigger the event when you encounter them
(0:31:40) Al: Yes, and there are a few heart events in Stardew that were very niche and you
(0:31:41) Kelly: in a certain location.
(0:31:46) Al: wouldn’t immediately find, but like by that point, you’re like, oh,
(0:31:51) Al: I know that these things are coming, so I should be expecting them.
(0:31:53) Al: I hadn’t done a single one in Carta Island.
(0:31:56) Al: How had I not triggered any of the heart events?
(0:31:59) Kelly: Yeah, that’s crazy. That doesn’t seem like a good sub.
(0:32:00) Al: It was very confusing.
(0:32:02) Al: And also, I don’t think the heart events are required in Stardew for marriage.
(0:32:10) Kelly: I don’t think they are either. I think they’re just, like, for you.
(0:32:12) Al: Yes, and you can get extra points by doing them.
(0:32:16) Al: And they’re nice, and you want to know about the story because all the characters are good characters.
(0:32:16) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:32:22) Al: I was going to say great, but no, not all the characters are great.
(0:32:22) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:32:24) Al: All of them are good characters.
(0:32:28) Al: Um, but yeah, I just, it was really, so if they have a.
(0:32:32) Al: Way to make it clear.
(0:32:34) Al: That you’re now expecting to see events, then that would be good.
(0:32:38) Al: Um, I don’t know.
(0:32:40) Al: Um, we’ll see, I guess they don’t talk about that.
(0:32:44) Al: I don’t think, but it’s interesting restricting it that much.
(0:32:48) Al: So you, you have to see the events before you can continue your heart progress.
(0:32:53) Al: Uh, I don’t know how I feel about that.
(0:32:55) Kelly: Yeah, that seems kind of iffy the way you just described your past experience, so I guess we’ll see.
(0:33:00) Al: Aha, the revamped romance system unlocks at heart level two and you’ll see a prompt
(0:33:05) Al: in the relationship UI whenever a hangout event is available.
(0:33:10) Al: That is good.
(0:33:11) Al: It’s now making it clear when you can do something and when there’s something to do.
(0:33:15) Al: That is good.
(0:33:16) Al: And if you click on them inside the menu and it shows like all the stuff that you’ve done
(0:33:22) Al: with them, you know, the stuff you’ve learned that they love and stuff like that, and like
(0:33:25) Al: there, the birthday and stuff, it says unlock requirement, see hangout event.
(0:33:30) Al: I don’t know what happened to three but anyway, whatever.
(0:33:37) Al: I think that means for heart two and for heart four.
(0:33:41) Al: That’s what I think it’s talking about.
(0:33:43) Al: So they are definitely making it much more visible, that aspect of things.
(0:33:47) Al: So that is good.
(0:33:48) Al: They’re also adding more heart events for after marriage, which is also good because
(0:33:52) Al: one of the things I’ve really complained about Carl Island is that your spouse ends up turning
(0:33:55) Al: into a hollow husk after you get married.
(0:33:58) Kelly: That’s pretty sad.
(0:34:01) Al: - It was so sad.
(0:34:02) Al: The minute you got married,
(0:34:05) Al: they just stand in your house all day doing nothing.
(0:34:07) Kelly: Oh no.
(0:34:09) Al: It was the worst.
(0:34:09) Al: I’ve taken your life
(0:34:11) Al: and you are now just an ornament in my house.
(0:34:15) Al: It was so sad.
(0:34:16) Al: So hopefully that’s improved a lot with this.
(0:34:20) Al: And then the 1.3 update will include your kids growing up.
(0:34:27) Kelly: that’s cool that’s what I literally just started like wondering if it’s like generational like do
(0:34:27) Al: And it is, I wonder how far it will go.
(0:34:30) Al: I don’t know.
(0:34:36) Al: I would expect not.
(0:34:38) Al: I expect it would just be, oh, they grow up to be a teenager and then they stop sort of thing.
(0:34:42) Al: That is my expectation.
(0:34:44) Kelly: that makes sense because that’s a big that’s that’s a lot doing
(0:34:44) Al: I don’t think they’ll go full hog.
(0:34:49) Al: Especially as they could actually make it like real-time in-game, right?
(0:34:52) Al: For every year, they are a year older.
(0:34:54) Al: And so you would actually have to do 18 in-game years.
(0:35:00) Al: Before your child is an adult.
(0:35:04) Kelly: - Hmm.
(0:35:05) Al: So they could just go, I’m sorry, if you’ve played 18 years in this game, you’ve played too much.
(0:35:12) Al: But I mean, I don’t know, maybe it will work.
(0:35:14) Al: I mean, I do know that some games where you have kids that grow up,
(0:35:18) Al: you then die and you become your kid.
(0:35:20) Al: They could do something like that.
(0:35:22) Kelly: That’s true, that would be cool.
(0:35:23) Al: And then you inherit the farm and, you know, 20% of it is taken in tax.
(0:35:31) Al: Yeah, so they’ve not got a huge amount of information in the 1.3.
(0:35:35) Al: They also said there’s going to be a Merfolk festival.
(0:35:39) Al: But they’ve not got any details on how the kids grow up.
(0:35:42) Al: But that is coming in the second half of this year.
(0:35:44) Al: Have you played, you’ve not played Coral Island?
(0:35:46) Kelly: No. I really try to avoid early access.
(0:35:47) Al: No.
(0:35:50) Al: Well, it’s not early access anymore.
(0:35:51) Kelly: Uh, oh, it’s out, out?
(0:35:53) Al: Yeah.
(0:35:54) Al: The 1.0 came out just over a year ago.
(0:35:58) Kelly: Okay, I must have missed that.
(0:35:58) Al: and then they go and they go on.
(0:36:00) Kelly: I thought it was still in early access, still. Okay.
(0:36:00) Al: 1.1 sometime last year? No. The 1.0 was technically not early access, but realistically
(0:36:06) Al: was early access. The 1.1 feels like what the 1.0 should have been, but the multiplayer
(0:36:12) Al: was always coming after early access. So I don’t feel like you would be missing out if
(0:36:17) Al: you played now compared to if you played two years ago, you definitely were missing out
(0:36:22) Al: in a lot.
(0:36:22) Kelly: Okay, okay, maybe one day
(0:36:24) Al: All right. And we also, we all maybe, maybe, probably not. We also have
(0:36:30) Al: a new game by the developers of EverDream Valley. In fact, this is a sequel to EverDream
(0:36:36) Al: Valley called EverDream Village. I get what they’re doing with that name, but also I am
(0:36:42) Al: going to constantly mess up. Which one is which? They also feel the wrong way around,
(0:36:47) Kelly: The valley and village is like too close to each other.
(0:36:53) Al: you start in a village and then you go out to a valley.
(0:36:53) Kelly: Yes, it should have been, this should be a prequel.
(0:36:57) Kelly: Yeah, this is the prequel in my,
(0:36:59) Kelly: I literally thought like this should be the prequel
(0:37:00) Al: Set 10 years after the events of EverDream Valley, EverDream Village brings a whole
(0:37:07) Al: new chapter with living, breathing village and a world beyond your farm. Now you’re built,
(0:37:13) Al: this is the thing. It’s like the problem was EverDream Valley wasn’t really a valley. It
(0:37:17) Al: was EverDream Farm. Right. And if it was that way, it was EverDream Farm and then EverDream
(0:37:21) Al: Village. That makes more logical sense to be our expansion on that. Right. You’ll build
(0:37:22) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:37:28) Al: relationships explore mysterious islands.
(0:37:30) Al: The Valley may have been home but it’s time to explore a world full of new adventures,
(0:37:44) Kelly: - Yeah, it doesn’t seem right, there’s something off.
(0:37:57) Al: NPCs and endless possibilities. I don’t really get whirled and
(0:38:00) Al: abilities from village. I know what they mean. I know what they
(0:38:02) Kelly: - No, but I think they just mean the world of Everdream.
(0:38:08) Al: mean. I know what they mean. Build your ideal cozy farm in a
(0:38:12) Al: living village. Form bonds with fellow villagers to lend a hand
(0:38:16) Al: as you grow crops, care for animals and craft a corner of
(0:38:18) Al: paradise. Sail across enchanted islands to discover new resources
(0:38:22) Al: and adventures along the way. Maybe it’s definitely not a
(0:38:25) Kelly: Maybe there is a world.
(0:38:28) Al: village.
(0:38:31) Al: Anyway, I mean, you can ride a pig in Evergreen Valley, so they hopefully have something like that in this game.
(0:38:36) Kelly: I’m looking at that right now.
(0:38:38) Kelly: That actually looks really cute.
(0:38:39) Kelly: That’s a good feature.
(0:38:40) Al: I haven’t played this game. It’s been on my list for forever.
(0:38:44) Kelly: The first one.
(0:38:45) Al: Yes, well, the second one is now yet, so of course I’ve not played that.
(0:38:48) Kelly: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(0:38:50) Al: It’s just coming soon. They’ve not said when, it’s coming just soon.
(0:38:54) Kelly: One day.
(0:38:54) Al: One day. All right.
(0:38:56) Kelly: Do you see this tag at the bottom on their news updates?
(0:39:00) Al: The second one is that in the Evergreen Valley page?
(0:39:04) Kelly: On the Steam page, yeah.
(0:39:07) Al: Where am I looking? Where am I looking?
(0:39:07) Kelly: I guess this is who they base the pig off of.
(0:39:11) Kelly: Let me send it to you.
(0:39:12) Kelly: I’ll just send it to you.
(0:39:12) Al: There’s too many pages here. That’s the problem.
(0:39:13) Kelly: I would do that.
(0:39:15) Kelly: It really is.
(0:39:15) Al: On their news. Oh, happy birthday, Peter Curleytail.
(0:39:18) Kelly: Recent events, yes.
(0:39:20) Al: I don’t know what to say. That is quite a pig.
(0:39:24) Kelly: He’s a little frightening, but kind of cute.
(0:39:26) Al: Yes, that is quite the pig.
(0:39:29) Kelly: But I like the interpretation of him.
(0:39:31) Al: Yeah, I like the name Peter Curleytail.
(0:39:35) Kelly: Yeah, I.
(0:39:36) Kelly: I’ve never seen a pig like that before, so it’s a little haunting.
(0:39:42) Al: All right, that’s us done with the news.
(0:39:44) Al: We are now going to talk about grimoire, grimoire. Is it grimoire?
(0:39:51) Al: Grimoire. Grimoire grows. And grimoire is something that’s a witch term, isn’t it?
(0:39:59) Al: like what it what I keep hearing great
(0:40:00) Kelly: Yeah it’s always like I feel like it’s like swamps and grimoires and uh no it’s um what
(0:40:00) Al: memoirs and lots of these witchy games.
(0:40:08) Al: That explains that because, right, okay.
(0:40:10) Kelly: is it a grimoire is a the book it’s the book it’s like your book of spells that’s what it is.
(0:40:17) Al: And the grove is the land that you’re doing
(0:40:22) Al: because a grove is like a kind of forest type thing.
(0:40:26) Kelly: Yeah, yeah. But no, it’s a little book that you…
(0:40:28) Al: Okay, makes sense.
(0:40:30) Kelly: have all your information in.
(0:40:33) Al: So, a quick introduction to this game.
(0:40:38) Al: It is described on Steam as join the witches in their quest to restore the grimoire groves,
(0:40:45) Al: master magic, grow cute plant creatures, and discover the mystery of the rainbow socks
(0:40:52) Al: in this cozy roguelite dungeon crawler.
(0:40:55) Al: The way I would describe this in my whole one hour and 20 minutes playing it
(0:40:59) Al: is it is kind of cult of the lamb, but without actual, without.
(0:41:09) Al: Combat the way you interact in your runs is different.
(0:41:13) Al: It’s not combat so much.
(0:41:16) Al: And it’s less about building a village and more about restoring nature.
(0:41:24) Al: Would that be a fair way of putting it?
(0:41:26) Kelly: Yeah, I think so. It’s, it’s, it’s…
(0:41:29) Kelly: But you still, I feel like I’m fighting.
(0:41:31) Kelly: Maybe I feel less like I’m fighting and I’m more surviving.
(0:41:31) Al: Yes, okay, so I mean, okay, you could make an argument that it is basically just fighting,
(0:41:39) Al: but it’s it feels so you’re feeding the plants instead of fighting them, I think is how they
(0:41:44) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, but no, I’m just I’m just being a jerk. I think it’s I think that’s a good.
(0:41:44) Al: describe it. So that’s why I’ve been like is not. No, no, it’s, it’s, it’s fair in terms
(0:41:50) Al: of game play is very similar to most other Roguelike action games.
(0:41:51) Kelly: Yes, I also think it it has that. Yeah, yeah, it has that cuteness that I think
(0:41:59) Kelly: cultural land kind of has, which is why I think like they remind me like like you said like it
(0:42:04) Kelly: makes you think of them. You have the juxtaposition. Yeah, yeah.
(0:42:06) Al: I think the cuteness works much better in Cult of the Lam
(0:42:09) Al: because it’s… exactly, exactly.
(0:42:12) Al: Whereas here, the whole world is cute.
(0:42:14) Kelly: But I love the saturation in this game. So like that for me is like, and I loved Call to the Land.
(0:42:21) Al: Okay, I will say the game looks lovely.
(0:42:24) Al: It looks really nice.
(0:42:25) Al: I do love how the game actually looks.
(0:42:28) Al: The graphics, the design of the characters,
(0:42:36) Al: and character, but also the plants and everything.
(0:42:38) Al: I do like all of that.
(0:42:39) Al: That is all nice.
(0:42:41) Al: I will absolutely agree with that.
(0:42:44) Al: Yes.
(0:42:46) Kelly: I just think it’s like you don’t always, you don’t really get a lot of games that are like,
(0:42:52) Kelly: it’s like saturated, but it’s also pastel, like there’s two different kind of colored
(0:42:56) Kelly: tones going on in the game, which I think is interesting.
(0:43:00) Kelly: Like the backgrounds are more saturated, but the creatures, the plants are a little more
(0:43:04) Kelly: pastel leaning, but it’s so vibrant.
(0:43:07) Kelly: Like a lot of games, they’re so dark a lot of the time or like aiming to be more realistic
(0:43:11) Al: - Yeah.
(0:43:13) Kelly: in their tones, I guess.
(0:43:15) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(0:43:16) Kelly: Yes, but yeah, no, I love all of the designs.
(0:43:17) Al: No, you’re definitely right about that.
(0:43:20) Al: You wouldn’t look at this and think it was something else.
(0:43:20) Kelly: I love all the little plants.
(0:43:23) Al: That’s very true.
(0:43:23) Kelly: No, exactly.
(0:43:26) Al: So I guess there’s two main parts to this game,
(0:43:29) Al: and there’s obviously a lot of other things,
(0:43:31) Al: lot of things that I won’t have done in the main area.
(0:43:33) Al: But like most of these roguelites,
(0:43:37) Al: you have your hub,
(0:43:38) Al: which is an area that is run–
(0:43:41) Al: was previously run by some other witch–
(0:43:44) Al: I can’t remember her name, maybe–
(0:43:45) Kelly: Is it lavender?
(0:43:47) Kelly: I think so.
(0:43:49) Al: and it’s been taken over by thorns,
(0:43:53) Al: and it’s all dreary, and you are to restore it.
(0:43:57) Al: That’s the main idea.
(0:43:58) Kelly: You’re the young spry witch coming in to fix it.
(0:43:59) Al: And you do that by classic cliche,
(0:44:05) Al: but it’s there for a reason.
(0:44:08) Al: and your runs that you do.
(0:44:11) Al: I think of roguelites specifically talking about roguelites not roguelikes
(0:44:22) Al: well let’s not have that debate again. I find there are two types there are ones where
(0:44:31) Al: your hub the point of the hub is to improve your powers skills etc to then do the runs and the
(0:44:38) Kelly: Mm-hmm. Yes, I was going to say, very–
(0:44:41) Al: runs is the purpose of the game and that would be your like Hades stuff like that.
(0:44:49) Al: And then there’s this type of thing this and Cult of the Lamb where your hub is the point of
(0:44:55) Al: the game and the runs are to gather resources for doing things in your hub.
(0:45:00) Kelly: I would say it’s kind of like a mix, I think, between Cult of the Lamb and Hades in that aspect.
(0:45:07) Kelly: Because I do think Cult of the Lamb, there’s so much that you do in your hub area.
(0:45:12) Kelly: And I don’t think this quite has near that amount of stuff.
(0:45:16) Kelly: Like, you have a lot of updates and things you can interact with.
(0:45:20) Kelly: I don’t want to spoil anything.
(0:45:22) Kelly: But Cult of the Lamb, you could like run the village until you ran out of resources.
(0:45:28) Al: I guess my point is like you’re not the run isn’t the like with Hades you are escaping hell
(0:45:28) Kelly: like I spent like five minutes like you know up
(0:45:31) Kelly: and then I got another run
(0:45:37) Kelly: the sole purpose yes
(0:45:40) Al: and your run is escaping hell and if you fail you go back to the hub world and you try again.
(0:45:45) Al: Whereas in this and with Cult of the Lamb the point is the runs you’re doing to do
(0:45:50) Al: things to bring back you’re never like disappearing and I think that’s that is very much
(0:45:53) Kelly: No, that’s a fair point, yeah.
(0:45:58) Al: why I liked Cult of the Lamb because I was building up this thing and I really hate the
(0:46:05) Al: overall feeling of Hades where if you fail you fail and you’re back to the start and you have
(0:46:09) Al: to start again and so I was really excited for this because I was like oh maybe this will be
(0:46:15) Al: another one that I like because it’s that sort of style but I mean I guess I need to say at some
(0:46:21) Al: point I didn’t like the combat in this game. I didn’t but I feel like
(0:46:24) Kelly: Did you try it on easy mode?
(0:46:27) Kelly: I didn’t either.
(0:46:28) Kelly: But I actually find this game to be–
(0:46:29) Al: I don’t think the combat is any different just easier.
(0:46:31) Kelly: I find this game to be very hard sometimes.
(0:46:35) Al: So I don’t even think it’s hard is my problem right hard is fine like Hades Hades is hard
(0:46:39) Kelly: Hard is not the right word.
(0:46:42) Kelly: Yes.
(0:46:42) Al: but I felt like I was in control of myself in that game.
(0:46:45) Kelly: Yes.
(0:46:46) Kelly: No, I think you’re 100% right.
(0:46:47) Kelly: Hard is not the right word.
(0:46:49) Al: It’s sluggish. Your controls are sluggish.
(0:46:52) Kelly: It takes me a-
(0:46:54) Kelly: I have not beat a full run yet like so you have different levels. I don’t want to get ahead of this
(0:47:00) Al: No, no, that’s fair. So if you’re thinking of Cult of the Lamb, it’s not like that. In
(0:47:05) Al: the Cult of the Lamb, you go from the start and you have to finish a run to come back
(0:47:09) Al: with everything. And if you die on the run, you don’t come back with everything. Whereas
(0:47:14) Al: the way that this works is you go through a portal, you have a level to get, you get
(0:47:19) Al: from the start to the end of that. And then when you get to the end of that, you can either
(0:47:23) Al: continue on to the next level or you can come back at that point. So you’ve got like escape
(0:47:27) Kelly: Mm-hmm. Yes, which is very nice because if you want to just like farm for stuff
(0:47:35) Kelly: or not risk certain items that you’ve gotten, you can just like leave early.
(0:47:40) Al: Yes, yes, it’s good. I do like that. I think, I assume when it shows you the circles when
(0:47:48) Al: you start a run, I presume that’s all of the levels to it. So was it eight? I think. It’s
(0:47:52) Kelly: Yes, so just to break it down, it is 9.
(0:47:56) Al: nine. I was so close. I was trying to do it from memory. I don’t have my Steam Deck one.
(0:47:59) Kelly: No, it’s 10.
(0:48:00) Kelly: So you get three levels per area.
(0:48:04) Kelly: So it’s two and then a boss, two and then a boss,
(0:48:08) Kelly: two and then a boss, and then the final boss.
(0:48:11) Al: Yeah. Right. Okay. Oh, okay. That’s nice. Mm-hmm.
(0:48:12) Kelly: That’s the basic layout.
(0:48:14) Kelly: And you could actually choose which portals you go through
(0:48:17) Kelly: once you unlock them first.
(0:48:19) Kelly: So you can change the duration.
(0:48:22) Kelly: You can choose from yellow to blue, to green this round, but I want to go from blue to green to yellow next round.
(0:48:34) Al: Right, okay, I didn’t finish the first three that’s that’s how little I played it and I
(0:48:40) Kelly: That one took me a bit to figure out.
(0:48:44) Al: Think so
(0:48:46) Al: Like the combat let’s talk
(0:48:48) Kelly: So to go back to my point for a second, though.
(0:48:50) Al: Yeah, sorry
(0:48:52) Kelly: I have not beat the final boss.
(0:48:54) Kelly: I have actually not unlocked the ability to beat the last mini-boss yet either.
(0:48:58) Kelly: However, the other night I was like, “Oh, I’m gonna do one little short run.”
(0:49:04) Kelly: It took me an hour and 15 minutes to finish essentially like eight and a half levels.
(0:49:12) Kelly: That’s a very long time for a run.
(0:49:16) Kelly: And like, I don’t feel like I’m in control, like you said.
(0:49:18) Kelly: I don’t feel like, like with Hades…
(0:49:22) Kelly: You know, stuff goes crazy. That’s the game. That’s what happens.
(0:49:26) Kelly: Here I just felt like I would get overwhelmed by the amount of creatures that they’re throwing at me
(0:49:33) Kelly: and not have the ability to counteract it because the controls are not quick enough or whatever.
(0:49:41) Kelly: Like it just feels very like I’m getting sucked into a black hole and like quicksand.
(0:49:44) Al: - Yeah, I also don’t think it’s clear
(0:49:48) Al: what’s happening to start with, right?
(0:49:50) Kelly: No, it is not. No, it is not.
(0:49:50) Al: You have all these plants running around
(0:49:53) Al: and you’re like, okay, you need to throw these spells
(0:49:57) Al: at these plants, but then they like stick to you
(0:49:58) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:50:00) Al: and you’re like, nothing’s happening.
(0:50:00) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(0:50:01) Al: They’re just sticking to me, but I can’t attack them now.
(0:50:04) Al: So you have to like dash away from them.
(0:50:06) Al: And at some point, if they stick to you long enough,
(0:50:09) Al: that’s when they attack you, I think.
(0:50:11) Kelly: It depends
(0:50:11) Al: Or maybe it’s different depending on the different plant
(0:50:13) Al: it is because obviously
(0:50:14) Kelly: It took the little baby plants
(0:50:14) Al: I didn’t get far enough to do lots of different ones.
(0:50:17) Kelly: so the little baby plants don’t hurt you unless they’re stuck to you for so long that they start not being fed and then
(0:50:24) Al: Right. Okay. So they. Yes, it’s very immediate. It is like you go from you go from full health
(0:50:25) Kelly: Once the plant isn’t being fed. You just die which was a shock. I
(0:50:31) Kelly: was so mad I
(0:50:34) Al: to dad so quickly. Oh, no. Yeah.
(0:50:35) Kelly: Was so mad I think I had just gotten like a new seed that run
(0:50:40) Kelly: The first time I have anybody
(0:50:41) Kelly: and I lost that like and you lose so much uh yeah no that is my number one complaint
(0:50:46) Kelly: with the game I think is actually just the lack of information I didn’t understand how to get compost
(0:50:53) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. It is not great explaining things. I think it leans too heavily on your
(0:51:02) Kelly: and I don’t like a hand holding game you know
(0:51:02) Al: conversation. No, but I think it leans too heavily on your conversation, the conversation
(0:51:08) Al: with Lavender. That’s where most of the stuff, most of the information you get, and that’s
(0:51:11) Kelly: uh-huh.
(0:51:13) Al: just like text. I don’t think there’s enough affordances, if we want to get into the technical
(0:51:21) Al: I don’t think there’s enough affordance.
(0:51:23) Al: I think there are a lot of chances within the actual game to make it clear what is happening and what you need to do to do that, right?
(0:51:30) Al: If you think about it, if you go into your first Hades level and if you just run around and do nothing, someone throws a sword at you and you die.
(0:51:36) Al: You know what happens there.
(0:51:38) Al: Whereas if you’re running around in the first level here and you don’t do anything, a plant is sticking to you and then at some point, you die.
(0:51:45) Al: And so you’re like, “Well, maybe the plant killed me, but I’m not sure how.”
(0:51:49) Al: Whereas with Hades, it’s very clear, no, they chop.
(0:51:54) Al: You saw the sword come at you, you know that you died.
(0:51:56) Al: Or if somebody blows up, you’re like, “Okay, I’ll avoid that next time.”
(0:51:56) Kelly: - Yeah, yeah.
(0:52:00) Al: Whereas you’re not quite sure what it is you’re avoiding here.
(0:52:03) Kelly: Yep, nope, it’s true.
(0:52:05) Kelly: And also, like you said, not every plant hurts you,
(0:52:09) Kelly: like just by interaction too.
(0:52:11) Kelly: So that’s like an interesting thing to find out.
(0:52:14) Kelly: Which ones actually hurt you?
(0:52:16) Kelly: No, there’s definitely a few things
(0:52:17) Kelly: that I really could have used more of an explanation on.
(0:52:21) Al: And just to remind listeners, Kelly likes the game.
(0:52:25) Kelly: I love this game.
(0:52:27) Kelly: I’ve played 42 hours since–
(0:52:29) Al: This is not two people complaining about a game they don’t like. This is two people complaining
(0:52:32) Kelly: I’ve played 42 hours in a week and a half.
(0:52:33) Al: a game that one person likes and one person doesn’t. That’s wild. Yeah.
(0:52:37) Kelly: It’s been 40 hours of gameplay.
(0:52:40) Kelly: I like this game quite a bit.
(0:52:42) Kelly: It is very long.
(0:52:44) Kelly: Last night, I was playing it.
(0:52:46) Kelly: And I was like, oh, it’s 11 o’clock.
(0:52:48) Kelly: I’m going to do this run.
(0:52:49) Kelly: And I’m going to bounce out early.
(0:52:51) Kelly: I’m just going to do one world, because I got to take a shower
(0:52:54) Kelly: and I gotta go upstairs and take care of a stray cat.
(0:52:56) Al: which is a good thing in general. I want to highlight again the fact that you can escape
(0:52:58) Kelly: It is.
(0:53:01) Al: around early and take what you have is really good for. That’s a whole different, that is a
(0:53:04) Kelly: It’s great.
(0:53:06) Kelly: I love it.
(0:53:06) Kelly: I did not have the restraint to cut out.
(0:53:08) Kelly: So I’ve played all eight levels.
(0:53:12) Al: Are you issue not at the game issue?
(0:53:12) Kelly: Yes, absolutely.
(0:53:14) Kelly: Because I have 100% taken advantage of cutting out early.
(0:53:18) Kelly: Like, it’s great for farming.
(0:53:20) Kelly: Like, if I’m just like, oh, I want to collect some stuff to go back in there and come back out.
(0:53:26) Kelly: And like, get more compost, too.
(0:53:28) Al: Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, the combat is basically spells. There’s lots of different spells you can
(0:53:30) Kelly: But it’s a long run.
(0:53:32) Kelly: And I haven’t beaten it yet.
(0:53:38) Al: get. The first one is just like this little circle that goes and like feeds the plants.
(0:53:44) Al: And then you’ve got like, you can unlock like a gust of wind that blows them away. And that,
(0:53:50) Al: those are the only two that I ever did. So you can describe some more.
(0:53:54) Kelly: Um, my favorite combo at the moment, which this could also be slowing me down yet I haven’t, I’ve unlocked a lot of spells I haven’t tried all of them yet.
(0:54:02) Al: This is always the problem right you get used to use their get tape but come back.
(0:54:03) Kelly: But yes, yeah, I got comfortable. But the thing is now I feel like I’m going so slow. So it’s like did it is it because I haven’t used newer spells.
(0:54:10) Al: Yeah.
(0:54:14) Kelly: My favorite right now is you can do one that’s like, it’s a fairy pond, I think, or butterfly pond. And it makes a circle a big circle on the ground.
(0:54:25) Kelly: So for like slow moving plants, or like a huge horde of plants, you put that down and then I’ll do like, there’s a flower that traps all the plants together and like draws them all in.
(0:54:38) Kelly: And then I do that with the gusta wind one. So I have a solid system with those three.
(0:54:43) Kelly: And then you can also get like charms which are like pastries to boost skills in each run, which are only per run.
(0:54:52) Kelly: So like that’s that’s like kind of fun way to-
(0:54:55) Kelly: up or like change up the runs as you go through them.
(0:54:59) Kelly: But yeah, I think I need to upgrade mine because I’m going very slow.
(0:55:04) Al: So let’s talk about the actual kind of farm area then, because that’s the other main area,
(0:55:08) Kelly: Oh, yes, yeah.
(0:55:08) Al: I guess, because there’s only so much you can actually talk about the combat, right? Like,
(0:55:12) Al: it’s combat, you know what you’re expecting with Rogue Light combat. That’s probably about all that
(0:55:14) Kelly: It’s good, I think, yes.
(0:55:20) Al: we can talk about is how we feel the combat plays and the fact that it spells rather than like
(0:55:24) Al: swords and stuff, right? But other than that, it’s pretty much the same as any other Rogue Light
(0:55:30) Al: you’ve played with action.
(0:55:30) Kelly: yeah I mean it’s I do want to say it’s I think the it’s fun the the creative
(0:55:36) Kelly: ways that they’ve what am I trying to say here I think the different plants
(0:55:40) Al: the different spells and the combinations of them and the.
(0:55:43) Kelly: know that too but like the different plants are fun because like some of them
(0:55:47) Kelly: are similar but they do different things depending on their styling I guess you
(0:55:51) Kelly: could say well like I think they’re they’re cute I like all their styles I
(0:55:56) Kelly: like their little the way most of them fight there’s one that really pisses me
(0:56:01) Kelly: off which is every game but I do I as much as I’m like saying like oh the
(0:56:01) Al: It wouldn’t be a rogue light without it, right?
(0:56:09) Kelly: combat is slow like I am enjoying the combat that is the most main part of the
(0:56:12) Kelly: game but yeah it’s it’s very much I think there’s more strategy to it too
(0:56:17) Kelly: when you’re moving around that is the other thing I wanted to talk about
(0:56:20) Kelly: because you can when you attack a plant it like sets off its little like radar
(0:56:24) Kelly: and then draws and other plants with it so you have to be like really strategic
(0:56:27) Kelly: about where you’re standing.
(0:56:29) Al: Interesting, that’s definitely not really a thing in the first level because they’re
(0:56:30) Kelly: And what plants have noticed you and what other plants you’re
(0:56:32) Kelly: going to draw into you when you’re fighting them.
(0:56:39) Kelly: No.
(0:56:39) Al: just all bunched together, so you can’t peel them away from the pack.
(0:56:40) Kelly: Yeah.
(0:56:44) Kelly: Yeah.
(0:56:44) Kelly: No, but later levels, they get a lot closer together
(0:56:47) Kelly: and different colors.
(0:56:49) Kelly: And different colors can’t be attacked by the same spell
(0:56:53) Kelly: color.
(0:56:53) Al: That was the point where I was like, “I don’t think this game is for me.”
(0:56:54) Kelly: So it becomes very–
(0:57:00) Al: When I got to the second plant colour, and it didn’t really do anything, and then I died,
(0:57:07) Al: and Lavender was like, “Oh, you used the wrong spell,” and I’m like, “Oh great, oh, here
(0:57:11) Kelly: Yup, yup.
(0:57:12) Al: we go.”
(0:57:13) Al: I’m like, “You know what?
(0:57:14) Al: As much as I dunk on Hades, if I hit something with a sword, they die.”
(0:57:19) Kelly: Yeah
(0:57:21) Al: That’s what I like with my combat.
(0:57:22) Kelly: No, it’s it’s it’s overwhelming it really is and then there’s even like some of the some plans can switch colors on you
(0:57:30) Al: What? Oh, go away.
(0:57:31) Kelly: Yeah
(0:57:33) Kelly: So I will say like it’s that like on that aspect as I’m saying it’s annoying like it’s very interesting and like
(0:57:40) Kelly: leads to more strategic
(0:57:42) Al: There’s definitely a type of person that is hearing this and going, “Oh yes, that’s for me,” right?
(0:57:43) Kelly: thought
(0:57:49) Al: Like, strategic combat does sound like something that some people would love.
(0:57:49) Kelly: Exactly
(0:57:53) Al: It’s just, “Not me. Definitely not me.”
(0:57:55) Kelly: Yeah, no, yeah
(0:57:58) Kelly: But I do like that they you get a little radar that shows you which plants you’re
(0:58:03) Kelly: Interacting with before you actually hit them. Like I like that aspect a lot too
(0:58:04) Al: Oh, I have one more issue with the combat.
(0:58:09) Al: There is a very, and I don’t know whether this is, this might be a Steam Deck issue.
(0:58:16) Al: It might be something else, I’m not sure.
(0:58:18) Kelly: I have a feeling I know what you’re going to say
(0:58:20) Kelly: and I’m wondering,
(0:58:21) Kelly: ‘cause I also remembered I have one more.
(0:58:23) Al: The movement seems to be faster than the attack.
(0:58:27) Al: So that if you press an attack and immediately turn direction, your attack goes in the new
(0:58:32) Al: new direction, not the old direction.
(0:58:34) Kelly: - Oh, interesting.
(0:58:34) Al: And that might be I’m that might be I’m like too fast. And so like most people this wouldn’t come in. Well, no I I’m very much in these games like I got to keep moving and I got to keep moving fast.
(0:58:35) Kelly: I don’t think I’ve noticed that.
(0:58:37) Kelly: I have.
(0:58:43) Kelly: Okay, Sonic.
(0:58:49) Kelly: Oh no, trust me.
(0:58:50) Kelly: I am tapping away at record speed.
(0:58:50) Al: It might be a Steam Deck issue then I don’t know because because you’ve got the analog stick. It could be that I don’t know. But yeah.
(0:58:54) Kelly: That’s, yeah, that’s, I wonder if it is.
(0:59:00) Kelly: ‘Cause I’m playing mouse and keyboard.
(0:59:02) Al: Yeah.
(0:59:02) Kelly: I was gonna ask you what you thought
(0:59:04) Kelly: of actually the controller.
(0:59:04) Al: So other than that issue, the controller supports great.
(0:59:08) Al: It does everything you expected to do, and it works really nicely.
(0:59:12) Al: But yeah, I was finding that I would tap the attack and immediately run the other direction,
(0:59:18) Al: and the attack goes in the direction I’m running and not the direction I was when I pressed the button.
(0:59:26) Al: I don’t think it’s a me issue because, as I say, I’ve done games like this before
(0:59:26) Kelly: - Interesting.
(0:59:30) Al: and I’ve never noticed that sort of thing happening.
(0:59:32) Al: But it could well be estimated.
(0:59:34) Al: I think that’s just something that wouldn’t happen if you were using…
(0:59:38) Kelly: Yeah, because so first of all, it does say it recommends controller when I play on
(0:59:45) Kelly: my computer
(0:59:47) Kelly: But I mean also they’re working through bugs and stuff and they’ve already updated stuff. So
(0:59:50) Al: Yeah, of course. It might be just a bug that they’ll fix it. I don’t know, but this is yeah.
(0:59:55) Al: If I’m aware that that is fixed to some point, I’ll obviously mention it, but
(0:59:58) Al: it was just another thing when I already wasn’t enjoying combat,
(1:00:02) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah
(1:00:02) Al: to have it not to do what I wanted it to do.
(1:00:05) Kelly: No, that’s fair my my I have two things you actually reminded me of one issue which is my issue is
(1:00:12) Kelly: When I’m fighting I won’t necessarily realize exactly where my actual mouse is on the screen
(1:00:18) Kelly: so even if the direction is right and then I click out and it closes the window and
(1:00:22) Al: Yeah, see that is not an issue you have with a controller.
(1:00:25) Kelly: I panic and I’m like, oh my god, is the game still playing in my dying? Like what’s happening?
(1:00:32) Kelly: That’s like my biggest issue, but like that’s
(1:00:35) Kelly: Me that’s for on me
(1:00:37) Kelly: An actual issue though is dashing into the void
(1:00:42) Al: Oh, interesting.
(1:00:42) Kelly: beyond the map
(1:00:45) Kelly: Mid-fight and
(1:00:45) Al: There’s no collision.
(1:00:47) Kelly: Then I’m panicking because I can’t get back out and there’s plants alive and I don’t want the plants to die
(1:00:54) Kelly: And I’m just like spam hitting - trying to get back out of the void
(1:00:59) Kelly: Because I can run off the map like I can run in
(1:01:02) Kelly: into actual darkness out there.
(1:01:02) Al: I have no idea if I can do that, because I never thought to even try that, that’s the
(1:01:05) Kelly: I have done it quite a few times.
(1:01:08) Al: difference between one hour of gameplay and 40 hours of gameplay.
(1:01:12) Kelly: And I panic every time because I’m like, I swear to God, if I
(1:01:15) Kelly: have to lose this run, because I dashed into the void, I’m gonna
(1:01:18) Kelly: be so mad. It happened on my on my hour and a half, or hour and
(1:01:22) Kelly: 15 minute one. And I was like, I swear to God. I’m not a
(1:01:26) Kelly: controller smasher, but like, maybe. Because it’s just like,
(1:01:30) Kelly: You’re right there, you’re so close.
(1:01:32) Kelly: You’re so– that’s so frustrating.
(1:01:34) Kelly: But so far, it hasn’t caused me any issues,
(1:01:36) Kelly: and I can dash back in.
(1:01:37) Kelly: You just have to like spam dash it.
(1:01:40) Al: Okay, anything else combat-wise or run-wise?
(1:01:43) Kelly: Can I talk about the glitch that I found?
(1:01:46) Kelly: The secret?
(1:01:47) Al: Always, always here for glitches.
(1:01:49) Kelly: OK, so this one’s a fun glitch, not into the void.
(1:01:51) Al: Okay.
(1:01:54) Kelly: At a certain point, I don’t remember how you get it,
(1:01:57) Kelly: but it just appears–
(1:01:58) Kelly: I don’t know if you have to unlock something
(1:02:02) Kelly: which we can get to.
(1:02:03) Kelly: I think that’s what it is.
(1:02:05) Kelly: Refrigerators show up on certain levels in each level,
(1:02:07) Al: Oh. Why not? Of course.
(1:02:09) Kelly: in each set of worlds.
(1:02:12) Kelly: And so when you go to use the fridge,
(1:02:14) Kelly: the point is you can store items in there
(1:02:16) Kelly: that can be saved after your runs.
(1:02:20) Kelly: So you can access them on your next run or back at the hub,
(1:02:25) Kelly: and they just stay in there.
(1:02:27) Kelly: So if you have a task you are trying to complete,
(1:02:32) Kelly: something you need an insane amount of items for that
(1:02:34) Kelly: are hard to get, you can stash them in there
(1:02:37) Kelly: and pick them up before you hopefully see that person.
(1:02:40) Kelly: However, there’s no way to split your stacks.
(1:02:43) Kelly: It says there’s a split button.
(1:02:44) Kelly: It doesn’t work.
(1:02:46) Kelly: So you have to enter all of your whole quantity.
(1:02:51) Kelly: There’s no way to say, I’m going to leave five stones in here,
(1:02:54) Kelly: or I’m going to take off five stones.
(1:02:57) Kelly: So I’m just hitting keys, and I hit–
(1:02:59) Kelly: You don’t have to select anything to like take items in.
(1:03:02) Kelly: You can just click them with the mouse, but so if you open the fridge and you put an item in the fridge, and then you hit F on your keyboard, which is selecting the item.
(1:03:12) Kelly: And then you click the item to return it back to your book bag, you get another item.
(1:03:16) Al: Oh, no, you’re you’re a duplicating glitch well done nice
(1:03:23) Kelly: And it works on every single fridge. It works in the fridge in the hub. It works in the fridge on the runs.
(1:03:28) Al: Fantastic.
(1:03:31) Al: Look, I’m not gonna lie, I, look, look, no judgment here, I was the one that was using
(1:03:32) Kelly: It works on every item. You can do it on seeds. You don’t even need multiple seeds.
(1:03:36) Kelly: So it’s fun. I try not to overuse it just a little bit as a treat.
(1:03:42) Kelly: But these runs are so long, okay?
(1:03:47) Al: every Tears of the Kingdom duplication glitch, right? Like, sometimes it’s just fun, right?
(1:03:52) Al: you can change the things, yep.
(1:03:54) Kelly: And this is a grinding game. And again, I think if the runs weren’t killing me so hard in terms of…
(1:04:02) Kelly: like, taking so long, I wouldn’t be as concerned. I’d just be like, “Oh, I’m gonna do another run.”
(1:04:06) Kelly: Because I am the person who will do like three runs in a row just to keep going. I love doing this.
(1:04:12) Kelly: But like, I’m sorry, if I’m getting five stones at a time, and it’s taking me a half hour at least to get five stones, I’m gonna do a little glitching.
(1:04:20) Al: Look, the point of games is to have fun, not to follow rules.
(1:04:22) Kelly: Exactly. Exactly. So I’m kind of hoping they don’t find that one and fix it.
(1:04:30) Al: OK, should we talk about the hub, then?
(1:04:34) Al: So when you so you can get seeds from runs
(1:04:40) Al: and you can grow plants and that is about and you can and there’s the mushrooms
(1:04:47) Al: that you can use to unlock spells, which for some reason are Wi-Fi mushrooms.
(1:04:53) Kelly: Is that what they’re called?
(1:04:54) Al: Yeah, they call them Wi-Fi and they have like little laptops on top of them.
(1:04:59) Kelly: Oh, yes, the satellites, the satellites.
(1:05:02) Kelly: They have like solar panels on top of them, too, I think.
(1:05:04) Al: Oh, is that what it’s meant to be? Not a laptop, it’s a solar panel. I don’t know.
(1:05:07) Kelly: I think it’s a solar panel or a satellite or something.
(1:05:10) Kelly: I think I think if I remember correctly,
(1:05:12) Kelly: she said it connects to satellites.
(1:05:14) Al: Sure, fine. I thought she said Wi-Fi, but anyway, whatever. It doesn’t matter. It’s overly cutesy,
(1:05:16) Kelly: I don’t know.
(1:05:22) Al: but fine. Each to their own. So those are, you give them resources and you unlock spells.
(1:05:23) Kelly: It’s very cute.
(1:05:24) Kelly: It’s very odd at the same time.
(1:05:34) Al: And that is about all I was aware of in the hub in my one hour and 20 minutes.
(1:05:34) Kelly: Mm-hmm.
(1:05:38) Kelly: Yeah.
(1:05:39) Kelly: So there’s a lot.
(1:05:41) Kelly: And I think they do a pretty solid job of pacing it out,
(1:05:46) Kelly: I guess, to unlock it.
(1:05:49) Kelly: But I can go over some of the stuff you can unlock.
(1:05:51) Kelly: So no, no, no.
(1:05:52) Al: Go for it. I mean, we don’t need to go into too much detail, right? Because I think sometimes
(1:05:55) Kelly: Of course.
(1:05:56) Kelly: But you have your basic stuff, upgrade your backpack.
(1:05:56) Al: we can go a bit over the top. But yeah, talk about some of it.
(1:06:01) Kelly: you have more backpack storage.
(1:06:04) Kelly: You have the fridge that I was talking about, so you can access the fridge even before you unlock it in the hub on runs,
(1:06:11) Kelly: but you can’t withdraw stuff from the fridge hub until you’ve unlocked the fridge hub, if that makes sense.
(1:06:18) Kelly: Okay, you have like a little pastry thing that you can make, so you can get like more pastry slots for your charms to boost your spells.
(1:06:29) Kelly: And then you have shrines. You have a shrine for each element, and so for the shrines,
(1:06:34) Kelly: essentially you can upgrade them as far as I can tell four times so far. I don’t know that’s as far as I’ve gone in one of them.
(1:06:42) Kelly: And what you can do is see, did you check out the crafting bench? Okay, so there’s a little crafting bench.
(1:06:52) Kelly: This is one of the things that was not explained to me and kind of pissed me off because it just took up a slot in my backpack for a while.
(1:07:00) Kelly: You craft things at the crafting bench to put in these shrines.
(1:07:04) Kelly: The things you craft at the crafting bench do not aid you until you put them in a shrine.
(1:07:09) Kelly: So you can make things at the crafting bench that give you more HP or boost your speed.
(1:07:15) Kelly: And if you just have them in your backpack, they don’t do anything.
(1:07:18) Kelly: So I was walking around with one of these things in my backpack for a while, just taking up space.
(1:07:23) Kelly: But so you can put one of these crafting bench items into a shrine.
(1:07:30) Kelly: And then so like say you you put the HP.
(1:07:34) Kelly: Up charm into the Earth shrine when you do, when you are in the Earth.
(1:07:42) Kelly: Sure, Earth portals like in those worlds, your HP will be up.
(1:07:48) Kelly: So if I go to the yellow, go through the yellow gate and do like three levels.
(1:07:53) Kelly: My HP is maxed.
(1:07:54) Kelly: And then if I continue on to the water levels, my HP goes down
(1:07:58) Kelly: because I do not have charms in that shrine to boost my HP.
(1:08:00) Al: Oh, interesting.
(1:08:03) Kelly: And then, so each of these.
(1:08:04) Kelly: Shrines has like four different slots, as far as I can tell so far.
(1:08:08) Kelly: So you can put four different types of boosts in each portal, in each set of levels.
(1:08:16) Kelly: So you can customize that, which is interesting.
(1:08:20) Kelly: And definitely helps in the long run, because the HP goes away pretty fast
(1:08:27) Kelly: when you’re fighting a lot of these creatures.
(1:08:31) Kelly: But yeah, I would say that and
(1:08:35) Kelly: it’s mostly just the seeds besides that. That’s as far as I’ve gotten.
(1:08:40) Al: I get what you’re saying, and I do agree with your original point, whether it’s closer
(1:08:42) Kelly: But it’s like a nice amount of little things to do, you know?
(1:08:51) Al: to a kind of Hades type thing than a Cult of the Lamb, in terms—yes, I think this
(1:08:56) Kelly: I would say there’s less interaction in terms of that, yeah.
(1:09:02) Kelly: But you’re definitely getting more…
(1:09:02) Al: hinges much more on the runs, and if you don’t enjoy the runs, you’re not going to enjoy
(1:09:10) Al: them. Whereas, I think with Cult of the Lamb, if you don’t enjoy the runs, you just have
(1:09:14) Al: to do them as little as you can to continue doing what you want to do. Whereas, again,
(1:09:18) Kelly: Yeah
(1:09:20) Kelly: Yeah, and like I loved
(1:09:22) Al: with Hades, if you don’t enjoy the runs, there’s no point in playing the game.
(1:09:24) Kelly: Yes, yes, yes, and I loved both of those games for two totally different
(1:09:30) Kelly: reasons
(1:09:31) Kelly: So I would say like I would say like with Hades you do see some changes
(1:09:36) Kelly: But like you’d only see more changes in this game in the hub and like outside area than you would but it’s definitely not like
(1:09:43) Kelly: You don’t have like a little sim colony like Cult of the Lion
(1:09:45) Al: Mm hmm. Yeah.
(1:09:48) Kelly: It’s a I think it’s a good mix like you still you feel like things are changing
(1:09:51) Kelly: You also change stuff in the runs that is permanent
(1:09:55) Kelly: I don’t want to spoil anything, but there are upgrades in the runs
(1:10:00) Al: I mean, it’s not making me go, I need to spend 40 hours in this game to do that. Feel free.
(1:10:01) Kelly: So they’re not like massive, but there are little things
(1:10:08) Kelly: No, no, no, no, I mean I can tell you and you can just cut it
(1:10:15) Kelly: You just like at a certain point you meet
(1:10:17) Al: Or we can just, we can just, we can just ring the spoiler bell. Spoilers from here on out.
(1:10:18) Kelly: So oh, yeah, oh, yeah, okay
(1:10:22) Al: If you’re, if you’re, if you don’t want to hear any spoilers for grimoire groves, there’s
(1:10:25) Al: nothing else coming. This is it. This is the end of the episode. So here we go. Spoilers.
(1:10:33) Kelly: So when you go through portal you have
(1:10:36) Kelly: The three worlds and at the end at the third level you fight the mini boss before you can either go back home or go on
(1:10:43) Kelly: To the next portal before you can fight the mini boss
(1:10:46) Kelly: you have to help.
(1:10:48) Kelly: A character expand their like living area to the point where it is now livable again because they’re like you’re trying to clean up the grove
(1:10:55) Kelly: That’s like the whole game essentially
(1:10:59) Kelly: So it doesn’t make any massive changes like
(1:11:02) Kelly: But you do have like these little mini quests that you have to collect items for to help these characters
(1:11:07) Kelly: Revamp like they’re living areas and then you just get like a cute little living area before you go fight this mini boss
(1:11:14) Kelly: That’s it
(1:11:14) Al: Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, for sure. For sure. All right. Well, thank you
(1:11:16) Kelly: But that’s nice that’s like it’s
(1:11:18) Kelly: Different you don’t always get permanent changes in runs like that
(1:11:25) Kelly: Oh, and I have one other thing I
(1:11:26) Al: for Oh, oh, no.
(1:11:30) Kelly: Now it’s changed a little bit
(1:11:31) Kelly: But I have done 63% of the achievements and I’m like in the top 10% of a lot of these achievements
(1:11:34) Al: Oh, no, that’s the that’s the danger point.
(1:11:38) Kelly: I was out I had three achievements that were I was the 1.6% of players three times
(1:11:38) Al: That’s the danger point, Kelly, because now you want to do them all.
(1:11:45) Al: Nice.
(1:11:48) Kelly: Killing these cheese, I have to get them all now. Now I have to. I know it is.
(1:11:50) Al: That’s the problem.
(1:11:51) Al: That’s the problem. You have a point.
(1:11:53) Al: You have a point where you’re like, oh, now I can’t not do them all.
(1:11:56) Al: Right.
(1:11:57) Kelly: It’s literally like, I’m like, okay, well now I’ve passed 50% and I’m really screwed.
(1:12:02) Al: Thankfully, I managed to break that because I had that on
(1:12:05) Al: the newest Harvest Moon game because I ended up playing it so much that I was
(1:12:08) Al: almost finished with the game. But thankfully, there were a few that were just like,
(1:12:12) Al: “I do not want to spend like 10 hours in the game doing that one achievement.”
(1:12:16) Al: So it broke it for me, thankfully.
(1:12:17) Kelly: Yeah, I know. I usually have like a limit on some of them where I’m like, “I’m not committed to that one.”
(1:12:24) Al: Yeah.
(1:12:25) Kelly: But I think seeing like the 1.6%, I’m like, “Ooh, I gotta keep going. I’m so early on this.”
(1:12:28) Al: Yeah.
(1:12:30) Al: Yeah.
(1:12:34) Kelly: But yeah, now that’s actually it. I just had to brag a little bit.
(1:12:38) Al: All right.
(1:12:38) Al: Well, thank you very much for joining me to talk about grimoire groves.
(1:12:42) Al: I just want to point out.
(1:12:44) Al: None of this is me complaining about it and saying you shouldn’t buy it.
(1:12:46) Al: If what we have said sounds like a fun game, then go for it.
(1:12:50) Al: It is very much not for me, and I’m just a little bit disappointed that I didn’t get
(1:12:54) Al: a roguelite game that I enjoyed because I thought I was finally going to get it.
(1:12:58) Al: But no.
(1:12:58) Al: Still just Call of the Lamb.
(1:13:01) Kelly: - Well, thank you, Al, for having me.
(1:13:03) Kelly: And I do wish you had enjoyed it, ‘cause I was hopeful.
(1:13:05) Kelly: I thought, at first I was like, oh, this could be.
(1:13:08) Al: But when it was still 10 minutes on the game with two days to go.
(1:13:12) Kelly: Yeah, once I saw that you did not keep playing,
(1:13:15) Kelly: I was like, mm, you did not enjoy this.
(1:13:16) Al: Yeah.
(1:13:16) Al: No.
(1:13:18) Al: These things happen.
(1:13:20) Kelly: But also, every game can’t be for everybody.
(1:13:23) Kelly: And like I said, I think we’ve done a good job
(1:13:26) Kelly: of airing our grievances while also filling in
(1:13:31) Kelly: the enjoyment of it, because I really did enjoy it.
(1:13:32) Al: I agree.
(1:13:34) Kelly: I would not have played it for 42 hours.
(1:13:36) Al: Yeah.
(1:13:38) Kelly: I stayed up till 3 a.m. playing this game
(1:13:40) Kelly: because I couldn’t stop playing the runs, okay?
(1:13:44) Kelly: It is addicting.
(1:13:45) Kelly: I just wish the runs were short.
(1:13:46) Al: Where can people find you on the internet, Kelly?
(1:13:52) Kelly: You can find me, I don’t really use social media
(1:13:57) Kelly: like that anymore, but there you go.
(1:13:57) Al: Fine. You can find Kelly on this podcast a few times a year.
(1:14:01) Kelly: There you go.
(1:14:05) Al: Social media is dead. A fascist killed it.
(1:14:07) Kelly: Yay, woo, tumblr, that’s the only one.
(1:14:12) Kelly: Somehow still not.
(1:14:13) Al: Well, well, you can find the podcast on Tumblr at THSPods and also on BlueSky.
(1:14:21) Al: You can find our website. It’s the best place to go.
(1:14:24) Al: That will always exist as long as I’m making the podcast.
(1:14:28) Al: Where there you can send us feedback.
(1:14:31) Al: Tell us if you have played and enjoyed or played and not enjoyed Grimoire Groves.
(1:14:36) Al: You can also find links to everything to do with the podcast there,
(1:14:38) Al: including a link to our Patreon, patreon.com/thspod.
(1:14:42) Al: Did I say the name of the website? HarvestSeason.club.
(1:14:44) Al: I don’t know if I did or not, but now I have on the Patreon.
(1:14:48) Kelly: - I think you did.
(1:14:48) Al: You can. Who knows, on the Patreon.
(1:14:52) Al: You can support the podcast, get access to bonus episodes of the podcast.
(1:14:57) Al: Get into our Slack and talk there.
(1:15:01) Al: I think I’m finally finished mocking SugarGee Island on the Slack.
(1:15:07) Al: We’ll see. But that has been going on for over a month now.
(1:15:14) Al: I did not like that game.
(1:15:18) Kelly: Well, you can’t win them all.
(1:15:20) Al: Yeah, that was the first game that I talked about as on the
(1:15:24) Al: talked about on the podcast as ’this is a bad game’ not
(1:15:27) Al: this is not a game for me. It’s the first time I finally said it’s a bad game.
(1:15:32) Kelly: Sometimes, sometimes they’re just bad games, you know? It’s unfortunate, but…
(1:15:37) Al: I think that’s everything. Thank you, Kelly, again, for joining me.
(1:15:41) Kelly: Thank you, Al, and thank you for the code again.
(1:15:43) Al: Oh, yes, yes, just.
(1:15:43) Kelly: I truly enjoyed it, and I would have paid money for this game.
(1:15:46) Al: That’s a good point. Just just to remind people we got a free code disclosure done. Great fun.
(1:15:52) Al: Thank you, listeners, for listening. And until next time, have a good harvest.
(1:15:56) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our
(1:15:58) Kelly: Woo, bye.
(1:16:08) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa.
(1:16:12) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess.
(1:16:16) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed
(1:16:22) Theme Tune: in this episode.
(1:16:36) Kelly: That was good. And we actually kept it a pretty decent length,
(1:16:39) Kelly: I think, compared to some of our other.
(1:16:39) Al: Yeah, well, yeah

The Harvest Season

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