Tiny Harvest

Wed, Jun 25, 2025 Year 3, Spring 24

Al and Kevin talk about Tiny Garden

Timings

00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:01:25: Anti Relationship Drama Rant
00:05:34: Actual Intro
00:06:56: What Has Kevin Been Up To
00:16:46: Anti Capitalist Rant
00:30:31: What Has Al Been Up To
00:42:44: Game News
01:03:41: Tiny Garden
01:18:27: Outro

Links

Len’s Island 1.0 Update
Sun Haven 2.5 Update
Moonstone Island “Evolutions” Update
Disney Dreamlight Valley “Mysteries of Skull Rock” Update
Snacko 1.0.1 Update
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time “Roguelike” Update
Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home coming to Steam/Consoles

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.
(0:00:35) Kev: My name is Kevin last I’ve been told
(0:00:37) Al: And we’re here, and we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games.
(0:00:42) Kev: Cottage core games whoo
(0:00:45) Al: Oh,
(0:00:48) Al: oh, we are here.
(0:00:51) Al: We’re going to talk about when we are here, I’m alive.
(0:00:54) Kev: No
(0:00:54) Al: So if I sound tired, this episode is because I’ve had a very busy Saturday.
(0:00:58) Al: We were meant to record on Sunday,
(0:01:00) Al: to schedule a meeting with me on a Sunday instead.
(0:01:04) Al: So I’m doing that. It’s not a work thing.
(0:01:06) Al: Don’t worry, I’m not doing work at the weekend.
(0:01:08) Al: But it wasn’t really a meeting I could get out of.
(0:01:11) Al: So we rescheduled to Saturday, the day that I have all of the family stuff.
(0:01:15) Al: So much stuff, way too much stuff.
(0:01:15) Kev: Mm-hmm
(0:01:17) Al: So I am here and I’m alive.
(0:01:18) Kev: Now he’s getting his performance review from his family tomorrow, that’s the me
(0:01:26) Al: I saw I saw a TikTok of a couple who do like weekly.
(0:01:30) Al: Weekly Relationship Review and people like people got so annoyed about it and I’m like, I don’t understand why you’re annoyed about this.
(0:01:38) Al: It’s not they’re not like judging each other and giving each other a right, a raise.
(0:01:44) Al: They’re they’re discussing the things that they’re they’ve done and they’re discussing what they’ve got coming up this week and they’re seeing if there’s anything they need to plan and talk about.
(0:01:44) Kev: - Yeah.
(0:01:52) Al: This is a very good thing to do.
(0:01:54) Al: And I think a lot I think the world will be a lot a better place if a lot more people who were in relationships did.
(0:02:00) Al: This but I know most people who are in relationships don’t even want to be in those relationships.
(0:02:02) Kev: - Yeah.
(0:02:05) Al: Miserable people, measurable people who just want to mock somebody and I think the world would be a better place without those relationships.
(0:02:15) Al: So but but hey, I actually love my wife.
(0:02:16) Kev: Ohhh, goodness.
(0:02:18) Al: So sue me.
(0:02:22) Kev: I’ll come out guns blazing this episode, um…
(0:02:25) Al: I just I get so annoyed with the boomer joke of like all my ball and chain.
(0:02:30) Al: My wife is like, OK, like leave them then.
(0:02:32) Kev: Yeah, it
(0:02:37) Kev: Yeah, yeah
(0:02:37) Al: I just I show and why are you staying there?
(0:02:40) Al: I mean, this is why your kids are terrible people, because you they don’t know what a family looks like, because you’re just going to hate your your partner and resent them for it and then take it out on your children.
(0:02:53) Kev: Yeah, it’s it’s fascinating. Well, I mean obviously one the you know that attitude mentality has somewhat shifted to a degree
(0:03:04) Kev: but it’s fascinating just
(0:03:06) Kev: To you know, there’s been studies done and whatever I’ve read some stuff like because you know back in the day
(0:03:12) Kev: You your dating pool was limited to pretty much whoever was in the neighborhood, right?
(0:03:14) Al: Hmm. Yeah, yeah. Least objection will prepare us on my street.
(0:03:19) Kev: Right
(0:03:21) Kev: Yep, right, so you know
(0:03:23) Kev: That kind of environment leads to the ball and chain mentality, right?
(0:03:29) Kev: But you know current day and age with the online and the you know, generally easier ish travel
(0:03:39) Kev: Obviously that’s no longer the case
(0:03:42) Al: Also, you can be single, right? Like, I’m not saying it’s easy, right? Like, as someone who has
(0:03:45) Kev: You can’t sure
(0:03:48) Kev: Yeah
(0:03:49) Al: basically never been single, right? Like, I got married when I was 22, like, I, you know,
(0:03:51) Kev: Uh-huh
(0:03:56) Al: been with, well, first got together with my wife when I was 16, right? So, like, I am not a single
(0:04:02) Al: person. I have very rarely been a single person, but you can do that. That’s the thing you can do.
(0:04:08) Kev: You, you can. Yeah.
(0:04:09) Al: Like, if you hate someone, you don’t have to-
(0:04:11) Kev: You can.
(0:04:12) Al: you don’t have to spend your time with them! You can just not, and you can have friends instead.
(0:04:14) Kev: Yeah. Yeah.
(0:04:16) Al: And I suspect, if there were more people who didn’t stay in loveless marriages,
(0:04:21) Al: then maybe being single would be less terrible as well, because there would be more single people.
(0:04:24) Kev: Yeah, yeah, well again, you know the culture back then very different right like marriage was
(0:04:25) Al: Crazy idea.
(0:04:32) Al: Yeah, but it’s not a solved problem. There are still a lot of miserable people,
(0:04:35) Kev: It is not you’re right you’re
(0:04:36) Al: and there’s a lot of people who think that marriage is just one of the things you have to do.
(0:04:40) Kev: Yeah, you know you’re right that pressure is absolutely still there um yeah
(0:04:46) Al: Quite often external to the person who’s being pressured into it, I suspect.
(0:04:49) Kev: Absolutely absolutely
(0:04:55) Al: Friendships are important, and we need to have friendships and not assume that the only
(0:04:59) Al: relationship that matters is a romantic one. There we go, I’m done.
(0:05:02) Al: One name.
(0:05:02) Kev: Okay, well, you know, yes, these are true. You’re saying things that are true and not particularly objectionable, but you know, you’re, you’re arguing against the hundreds of years of weird cultural nonsense so yeah, yeah, so.
(0:05:17) Al: Well, there is that.
(0:05:20) Al: Listeners, listeners object to it.
(0:05:22) Al: I want to see your arguments for why everyone should get married.
(0:05:26) Al: I will vehemently disagree with them because they’re stupid,
(0:05:27) Al: and you probably don’t believe them.
(0:05:29) Al: But give me them anyway.
(0:05:30) Al: It’ll be fun to have an argument.
(0:05:32) Kev: That’s what we do on this show. We argue against.
(0:05:35) Al: We’re going to talk about Tiny Garden this episode.
(0:05:37) Al: So this is the…
(0:05:37) Kev: I thought we were here to delve into culturally in a relationship mechanics.
(0:05:43) Al: It’s a relationship episode.
(0:05:45) Al: Kevin, tell me about like.
(0:05:47) Al: Tell me about your relationships, and no don’t I don’t I don’t think I don’t think the pod needs to hear them
(0:05:49) Kev: Oh, yeah, I mean, that’s it. Well, romantic ones, that’s easy. They don’t exist. Otherwise, well, that’s, that’s, yeah, okay.
(0:06:03) Kev: Okay, moving on, um.
(0:06:04) Al: I don’t think I don’t think the podcast needs to hear your therapy.
(0:06:08) Kev: Yeah, no, that that is little of my therapist is for him. Okay, I love my family but good heavens I can’t live with them can’t live without them sort of deal.
(0:06:19) Kev: Yeah.
(0:06:19) Al: Can’t live with them, have to live with them.
(0:06:21) Kev: Yeah.
(0:06:22) Al: We are going to talk about Tiny Garden.
(0:06:24) Al: It is the Polly Pocket farming game.
(0:06:26) Kev: Yep.
(0:06:28) Al: Kevin has not played it, he thought about playing it and never did.
(0:06:31) Al: I have played it a little bit.
(0:06:34) Al: And so it’s going to be a reasonably…
(0:06:36) Al: Kevin watched some videos.
(0:06:37) Al: You watched some videos, right?
(0:06:38) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I mean it’s not like it’s a particularly in-depth game, right like yeah, so even
(0:06:43) Al: No, no, let’s start.
(0:06:44) Al: Well, let’s save that.
(0:06:45) Al: Save that for the, save that for the, save it for the pod.
(0:06:46) Kev: Okay. All right. Well, okay
(0:06:48) Al: We’re already in the pod.
(0:06:49) Al: Save it for the appropriate section, Kevin.
(0:06:52) Al: Before that, we have a bunch of news.
(0:06:54) Al: This has been a reasonably busy Newsweek.
(0:06:56) Al: But first of all, Kevin, what have you been up to?
(0:06:59) Kev: Okay, not a lot of work as I tend to do because I’m I don’t know work
(0:07:07) Kev: but
(0:07:08) Kev: aside from that, let’s see here um okay you know i’m gonna take a brief second to
(0:07:14) Kev: talk about zone the zone zero my segment for nobody but me um so the 2.0 update came out
(0:07:16) Al: Go for it.
(0:07:20) Kev: I didn’t have internet when it did but I have internet again i’ve caught up i’ve done the 2.0
(0:07:25) Kev: stuff and you know it’s added a lot of stuff that anyone who plays the game might be interested but
(0:07:31) Kev: for people who don’t it did i’d be talking nonsense the the big thing I think is interesting
(0:07:36) Kev: is kind of the tonal shift.
(0:07:38) Kev: So Zenless Zone Zero, the 1.0, the chapter 1, whatever, the first year of the game,
(0:07:46) Kev: it was the aesthetic, the tone of it was very, it’s going to sound very like 2000, like
(0:07:55) Kev: OTS, you know, that decade specifically.
(0:07:59) Kev: People have flip phones and they’re still like CRTs and stuff like that.
(0:08:04) Kev: And it’s very sci-fi heavy.
(0:08:08) Kev: The main characters are hackers.
(0:08:11) Kev: And there’s these like monsters that spawn out of fake matter called the ether or whatever.
(0:08:19) Kev: Anyways, the point is it’s very sci-fi heavy.
(0:08:21) Kev: That’s the tone and not like super futurama or Jetsons futuristic sci-fi, just like current,
(0:08:30) Kev: you know, more current day looking tech.
(0:08:34) Kev: But that’s the tone.
(0:08:35) Kev: I’m just comparing it to like Genshin is much more fantasy based.
(0:08:38) Kev: I’m just painting the picture because they shifted the tone in 2.0, the protagonists join a temple of monks like you know like, sort of a, gosh I wish I had the proper names,
(0:09:05) Kev: But you know the stereotypical like
(0:09:08) Kev: Temple out in the mountains where monks are trading wonder martial arts and mysticism and that sort of thing
(0:09:15) Kev: And so that’s that’s kind of the direction they’re going with
(0:09:20) Kev: There’s a new like city area that you’re spending your time in. It’s very much based off
(0:09:26) Kev: that kind of
(0:09:28) Kev: Not so rural Japan China, but like out in the mountains sort of area
(0:09:34) Kev: So it’s a very different feeling from the
(0:09:38) Kev: Bay City, which is very like
(0:09:42) Kev: Metropolitan lots of big buildings and skyscrapers and whatever that that one feels more like I don’t know Beijing
(0:09:49) Kev: I guess you know very modern type China and this one is a more this new area. This new tone is much more traditional
(0:09:57) Kev: Chinese
(0:09:59) Kev: And you know, it’s it’s it’s fun. I’ll nothing’s nearly wrong
(0:10:03) Kev: It’s just I don’t feel so different because the whole first year of the game
(0:10:07) Kev: your your tacker person.
(0:10:08) Kev: and you you you do hacker things and now you’re training to be a mystic very very odd to me at least but but but anyways regardless the game is still fun I’m still playing it yada yada so that’s that let’s see what else Pokemon unite all Kremie came out all Kremie is great it’s a supporter it does all the things you’d want it to do it it decorates and heals your team it’s unite it creates
(0:10:28) Al: - Ah, nice.
(0:10:30) Al: - Ow, creamy.
(0:10:38) Kev: it’s a giant cake and stands on top of it and it just spreads globs of healing whipped cream to all your teammates I like all Kremie it’s very fun I mean I like all Kremie the Pokemon period and it’s great and unite so yay all Kremie um let’s see other than that uh oh you know I’m gonna take a second here to talk about card games okay so
(0:11:08) Kev: you probably don’t keep up with magic the gathering years have you heard anything about magic the gathering recently mm-hmm okay okay okay yeah yeah yeah
(0:11:12) Al: I used to play a lot of magic when I worked in an office because there was a magic
(0:11:19) Al: league there, but I’ve not kept up basically since 2019. I’m aware that there’s been a lot of
(0:11:28) Al: crossover sets recently. There was a Doctor Who one, I believe, A Lord of the Rings one,
(0:11:32) Al: a Final Fantasy one, so I’m aware that they’re doing a lot of crossovers just now and there are
(0:11:38) Al: many opinions about that shall we see.
(0:11:38) Kev: y’all
(0:11:40) Kev: there are many opinions. So the Final Fantasy one came out a week ago, I think, the Final
(0:11:42) Al: Right, yeah.
(0:11:46) Kev: Fantasy crossover set. And this one is a particularly contentious set for two reasons. One, it is
(0:11:55) Kev: what they call a standard set, meaning that it is in the card pool. In previous crossovers
(0:12:03) Kev: sets, they would kind of, you know, they wouldn’t be standard legal or tournament legal or whatever,
(0:12:08) Kev: You know, they’d be kind of more for funs easy.
(0:12:08) Al: Oh, interesting. Okay.
(0:12:10) Kev: Or, you know, just for between friends or whatever, right?
(0:12:12) Kev: This one is in, in your face, like in the card pool.
(0:12:17) Kev: And a lot of people aren’t happy about it because there’s the
(0:12:19) Kev: crossovers have been so prevalent lately.
(0:12:22) Kev: Um, but you know, that that’s, that’s one discussion.
(0:12:26) Kev: The other issue that isn’t less of opinions and more just like out cry
(0:12:32) Kev: outrage, um, is the insane pricing.
(0:12:37) Kev: uh… because magic the gathering has gone through the roof
(0:12:40) Kev: in terms of cost
(0:12:41) Kev: uh…
(0:12:43) Kev: so okay you know here out for comparison
(0:12:46) Kev: uh… any other game pokemon yugioh
(0:12:49) Kev: work on a whatever
(0:12:51) Kev: a pre-constructed deck they go out to the store and buy off the shelf
(0:12:55) Kev: can be let’s say fifteen dollars on average us_d
(0:12:57) Al: Mm-hmm, yep, yep.
(0:12:58) Kev: okay
(0:12:59) Kev: uh… it is what it is just maybe
(0:13:00) Al: Science, science fair, science fair.
(0:13:02) Kev: yeah right it’s it’s it’s fine
(0:13:04) Kev: you know dig to get you started to a product that you can actually start
(0:13:08) Kev: start playing the game, right?
(0:13:10) Kev: In Magic the Gathering, so they come out with commander decks, you know, there’s different formats and command is the popular one
(0:13:18) Kev: That’s that’s their primary like pre-constructed deck thing that comes out
(0:13:25) Kev: Right now they came out or it was just last year they had updated the MSRP to be about you believe
(0:13:32) Kev: $45
(0:13:34) Al: Oh, for a… because a commander’s 40 cards, is that right? Oh, a hundred, right? Okay, sorry.
(0:13:35) Kev: USD
(0:13:40) Kev: To be fair it is it is a bigger deck right, but it’s in my opinions
(0:13:42) Al: My bad. A hundred cards for for $45, that’s wild.
(0:13:46) Kev: You know
(0:13:47) Kev: It’s pricey. It’s it’s very pricey, right?
(0:13:51) Kev: I’m just you know, I think that illustrates the scale of like how much magic costs now, right? Okay
(0:13:57) Kev: Final fantasy set because they know final fantasy is popular people
(0:14:02) Kev: They know a Hasbro Hasbro is the the current owner of the magic franchise and makes these pricing decisions
(0:14:10) Kev: They know people are gonna be excited. They marked up the MSRP for the Final Fantasy set
(0:14:19) Kev: The a
(0:14:21) Kev: Commander pre-con for Final Fantasy is I believe 70 USD MSRP
(0:14:28) Kev: I’d say that because a lot of
(0:14:30) Kev: You know, it’s a lot of local card games and shops that will run carry these products
(0:14:36) Kev: they will mark up their products anyways even if there is an MSR
(0:14:40) Kev: so you know these things are going through the roof like over $100 and
(0:14:45) Kev: whatnot and so it’s insanity and that’s not even the premium they came out with
(0:14:51) Kev: these premium versions of these decks where like the everything’s foil or
(0:14:54) Kev: whatever those are 125 MSRP I think something ridiculous so so obviously you
(0:15:04) Al: Hmm. Yeah.
(0:15:08) Kev: You know, they are just…
(0:15:10) Kev: They are just robbing the customers blind, and obviously people aren’t happy, but they are still selling like hotcakes because I don’t know, that’s the magic of players I guess.
(0:15:20) Kev: As I’ve been on record, I have dabbled in magic, but I’m not very keen on those prices, so I don’t pick up a lot.
(0:15:28) Kev: But, I do like Final Fantasy, and here’s the kicker, right, if the cards suck, that’d be easier just to not play, but a lot of the cards are good looking, or they look fun to play or whatever.
(0:15:40) Kev: So, the temptation is there.
(0:15:42) Kev: So, what I did is instead of buying any Final Fantasy stuff for magic, I went back to the actual Final Fantasy trading card game, which I need to remind people actually exists.
(0:15:54) Kev: It’s still going, it’s still coming out with stuff.
(0:15:56) Kev: So yeah, I did a game night with some friends, and we played out of not wanting to spend money, we dusted off some Final Fantasy decks, and that’s it.
(0:16:10) Kev: That was fun. And man, the Final Fantasy TCG, it’s pretty good.
(0:16:14) Kev: I like the rhythm of the game, it’s not insane or busted right now.
(0:16:18) Kev: And the cards, it’s a very weird thing, but the card stock, they’re very thick and durable, it’s not a flimsy paper cardboard thing.
(0:16:26) Kev: It’s very nice, it feels almost plastic-y.
(0:16:30) Kev: But anyways, yeah, I picked up and played some Final Fantasy TCG, that’s fun stuff, just because magic’s insane.
(0:16:40) Kev: I’m not gonna do that again right now.
(0:16:42) Kev: But that that’s that’s all I’ve been going on not not too terribly much. What about you l what you’ve been up to?
(0:16:46) Al: Well I want to go on an anti-capitalist rant first. So your comments about them, you know,
(0:16:49) Kev: I mean as we do
(0:16:56) Al: marking up the stuff, it reminds me of a thing I’ve been annoyed about recently, where people
(0:17:04) Al: will go “oh everything’s expensive” and then other people go “oh that’s just supply and demand”
(0:17:09) Al: as if supply and demand is like some inherent law of physics that means that
(0:17:16) Al: the price is out of our hands. The demand is high therefore the price must be high.
(0:17:23) Al: Yeah that’s not how that works. It’s not like the price is determined by, you know,
(0:17:29) Al: what a seller wants to sell for it and what a buyer wants to buy for it and meeting somewhere
(0:17:32) Kev: Mm-hmm.
(0:17:34) Kev: Right.
(0:17:36) Al: where, you know, if they try and put it too high then people won’t buy it blah blah blah etc etc.
(0:17:40) Kev: Mm-hmm.
(0:17:41) Al: And supply and demand just says that as demand, as supply increases…
(0:17:47) Al: and demand decreases, no, is that what I said? There’s a point in the middle where they meet
(0:17:53) Al: and you’ve got like a ideal price, if you will, based on the amount of supply and the amount of
(0:17:53) Kev: Yes
(0:17:57) Kev: Mm-hmm
(0:17:59) Al: demand. And all really supply and demand means is that if there’s a high demand and a low supply,
(0:18:05) Al: they can charge basically whatever they want, right? Like that is how it’s not like the price
(0:18:12) Al: has to be sold for a certain point, right? Like they just go, we know people are
(0:18:16) Al: going to buy it, therefore supply and demand says we can charge more, and we’ll get more money.
(0:18:22) Kev: Mm-hmm
(0:18:23) Al: Right? Like that is just how it works. And I just, it gets really frustrating when people are like,
(0:18:27) Al: “Oh, it’s just supply and demand.” As if, “Oh, don’t look at me. I’m not the one deciding the
(0:18:32) Al: price. Supply and demand is deciding the price.” What are you talking about? That’s not how this
(0:18:38) Al: works, right? Like we decide prices, and if people think it’s too high, and they don’t buy it like
(0:18:45) Al: you have done.
(0:18:46) Al: enough people did what you were doing, they would have to decrease the price to sell
(0:18:48) Kev: Yeah. Well.
(0:18:50) Al: it.
(0:18:51) Al: But of course, we are willing to spend the money.
(0:18:54) Al: Enough people are willing to spend the money that they can just sell it for whatever they
(0:18:58) Al: want and people will keep going up.
(0:19:01) Al: You know, it’s like how, it’s the reason the Mario Kart world is $80.
(0:19:07) Al: It’s because they know people will buy it and supply and demand for the record makes
(0:19:11) Al: no sense in our digital economy, right?
(0:19:15) Al: like there is no there is no
(0:19:15) Kev: Yeah, and it is.
(0:19:16) Al: it’s infinite supply so theoretically supply and demand should say that if
(0:19:21) Al: there’s infinite supply there should be a very very low price it just like that
(0:19:26) Kev: Yeah well, well, yeah
(0:19:28) Al: is but no that’s not how it actually works because that’s the price is based
(0:19:33) Al: on what people are actually willing to pay but that’s if you if you took purely
(0:19:35) Kev: Yes, yeah
(0:19:38) Al: supply and demand and nothing else and said this is what this means digital
(0:19:42) Al: games should be free.
(0:19:43) Kev: Well, that’s it. Well, here’s the thing, right? Okay, as I’m sure you can, I’ve only took like two economics class. I do a little economics though, but here’s the thing, right? Supply into it. That is, what is supply? You want to dive into that? That’s what determines supply. Now we’re getting into something, right?
(0:19:58) Al: All right, yeah, okay, fair enough. Fair enough. I guess like the supply for a digital game
(0:20:06) Al: is the number of consoles that are, right? Like you’re not going to…
(0:20:08) Kev: Yeah, or, or, right, it’s, yeah, and, and in terms of the price.
(0:20:13) Kev: Right, like the, you know, that, what did you see in economics?
(0:20:16) Kev: You see the, you see like a graph, right?
(0:20:19) Kev: Which is like, I guess number of units and number of, uh, and the price or whatever.
(0:20:23) Kev: And so you’re right.
(0:20:24) Kev: Um, it, uh, it gets weird digitally, but what determines that graph?
(0:20:30) Al: That’s my point. That’s my point is there’s so, there’s so many things that break down.
(0:20:31) Kev: Where does, yeah.
(0:20:33) Al: It’s not in an, in a, in a, I love the, have you ever had the physics joke, um, which is, uh, Oh, two seconds.
(0:20:43) Al: Let me double check so I don’t end up saying it.
(0:20:46) Kev: Is it, I mean, I know a couple physics joke as an engineer, nerd, major, degree holder.
(0:20:53) Al: So, there was the physics joke, right, where there’s a farmer whose chicken wouldn’t lay
(0:20:59) Kev: Uh-huh, yep.
(0:20:59) Al: any eggs. And to solve the problem, he hires a physicist. And the physicist says, “Oh,
(0:21:06) Al: I’ve come up with a solution, but my solution requires a spherical chicken in a vacuum.”
(0:21:08) Kev: Uh-huh.
(0:21:12) Al: And the point of that joke is that so many things in physics are theoretical and only
(0:21:17) Kev: Yeah, yeah.
(0:21:19) Al: work in a very specific set of scenarios.
(0:21:23) Al: And you can’t then necessarily say, “This happens here, therefore that happens in
(0:21:28) Al: the real world as well.”
(0:21:29) Al: And I feel like a lot of economics of that is that as well.
(0:21:32) Al: It’s like in this perfect ideal economic world where these 10 things all exist, then this
(0:21:36) Kev: Yeah
(0:21:39) Kev: No
(0:21:39) Al: will happen.
(0:21:40) Al: And it’s like, but that’s not how the world works.
(0:21:42) Al: And digital games is a perfect example of how that just completely falls on us.
(0:21:46) Al: It falls over, right?
(0:21:47) Al: Like, because it just, it doesn’t make any sense.
(0:21:49) Al: What is supply when you’re talking about a digital thing?
(0:21:52) Al: It’s not a thing.
(0:21:53) Al: Right?
(0:21:54) Al: It doesn’t make any sense.
(0:21:54) Kev: Yeah, and and I’m really we yeah, you know we can get down to it really if
(0:22:02) Kev: This would be a more interesting conversation if you know, we were looking at just supply factors like okay
(0:22:09) Kev: How do you distribute, you know, what are the competition yada yada, whatever, right?
(0:22:13) Kev: But we all know the truth in the current day and age late-stage capitalism, whatever you want to call it
(0:22:19) Kev: there is a significant portion of that price being determined by
(0:22:24) Kev: The shareholders the see the executives. They just want a whole lot of money
(0:22:30) Kev: the day
(0:22:32) Kev: That’s that’s what it all boils down to oh
(0:22:34) Al: Yeah, yeah.
(0:22:36) Kev: Man, man. Okay, you know, all right since we’re on this
(0:22:40) Kev: The absurdity of economics and and prices I’ll go back. I’ll go right back to magic
(0:22:46) Kev: Are you familiar with magic 30?
(0:22:48) Al: I am not. Is it a version of Magic where you have 30 cards?
(0:22:52) Kev: No
(0:22:52) Al: Ah, good guess though, right?
(0:22:55) Kev: Yeah, oh that mmm, you know, I actually I think standards 40 so you’re not far off that that would be fun, but um, okay
(0:23:05) Kev: Okay, here it is so this was a couple years ago
(0:23:11) Kev: Magic the Gathering
(0:23:14) Kev: Whatever Hasbro was to the coast whatever they released a project called magic 30 or it’s the med the 30th anniversary edition set
(0:23:23) Al: - Ah, okay, yep.
(0:23:25) Kev: Okay, this was this was a 2022 that the year was okay
(0:23:30) Kev: and so
(0:23:32) Kev: it’s it’s probably the most absurd like magic product ever released because
(0:23:40) Kev: each box
(0:23:41) Kev: This product contained 15 booster packs and these booster packs the cards inside them were like, oh, you know
(0:23:48) Kev: Very classic original magic cards or whatever with original art
(0:23:53) Kev: So much so that
(0:23:55) Kev: It was so faithful to the original stuff that because magic rotates and has you know form different formats
(0:24:01) Kev: They actually said okay. None of these cards are actually going to be playable
(0:24:06) Kev: They’re just not gonna be legal in anything. It is basically just fake real fake cards that we’re printing. We’re collecting I guess
(0:24:16) Kev: Okay
(0:24:18) Kev: How how much would you pay for a box of
(0:24:23) Kev: 15 packs of fake cards.
(0:24:24) Kev: Real fake cards, Al.
(0:24:26) Al: I mean it depends what it is, right? Like, so let’s create a scenario where this is Pokémon,
(0:24:32) Al: right? It’s essentially just like a collector’s deck that you can never use in tournaments.
(0:24:36) Al: I’m not going to use it in tournaments, it doesn’t really affect how much I would pay for it, right?
(0:24:40) Al: Like I’m a sucker who will pay stupid amounts of money for collector’s things,
(0:24:45) Al: so probably way too much money. I think if we’re… So if we’re just talking a deck,
(0:24:48) Kev: Okay, give me
(0:24:51) Al: so we’re talking… How many… Was that a 40 pack, a standard set?
(0:24:52) Kev: Yeah
(0:24:54) Kev: It was 15 packs is what it was here. Yep. No, no
(0:24:57) Al: Oh, 15 packs. Oh, it’s not even a deck, right? OK. So let’s go with…
(0:25:06) Al: I feel like in the world where this is Pokémon, maybe I’m paying like £5 a pack,
(0:25:08) Kev: You know what hope
(0:25:14) Al: because that’s more… I think it’s like £3 a pack just now in the UK,
(0:25:18) Al: so we’re maybe talking like £75. And that would feel like… That would maybe feel like a lot,
(0:25:22) Kev: Okay.
(0:25:24) Al: and I’d be like oh I don’t know how
(0:25:27) Kev: Okay.
(0:25:28) Kev: So let’s see, five pounds, I’ll just forget.
(0:25:30) Kev: Okay, that’s about six, seven USD.
(0:25:32) Kev: Okay, sure.
(0:25:34) Kev: So times 15, that’s, what is that?
(0:25:36) Kev: 50 plus 25, that’s 75.
(0:25:38) Kev: Okay, so that’s 75 pounds,
(0:25:40) Kev: which yeah, about 100 USD maybe.
(0:25:42) Kev: Okay, okay, I see what you’re saying, right?
(0:25:45) Al: But like, that’s not “I’m definitely going to buy that.”
(0:25:47) Al: That’s “Ooh, that feels like a lot.
(0:25:50) Kev: Yeah, sure, sure, sure.
(0:25:50) Al: Maybe I would buy it if it was something I really wanted.”
(0:25:52) Kev: Right.
(0:25:53) Kev: Yeah, okay, that’s the crazy price.
(0:25:55) Kev: And then that’s good, okay.
(0:25:57) Kev: Yeah, okay, I understand.
(0:25:58) Kev: You know what, I can see that.
(0:26:01) Kev: Yeah, you know what?
(0:26:02) Kev: I could agree with that price, right?
(0:26:04) Kev: For the hardcore collector who really wants the thing.
(0:26:07) Kev: Yeah, you know what, I could say that.
(0:26:09) Kev: All right, now, what if I told you the price
(0:26:12) Kev: of this magic product was 10 times what you just told me?
(0:26:16) Al: What? Ten times. So what? A thousand? A thousand dollars. That is…
(0:26:20) Kev: 10 times.
(0:26:22) Kev: USD. Yup, 999 technically. laughs
(0:26:28) Al: I mean, OK, right. So we laugh at that, but Pokemon basically did that, right? With their…
(0:26:33) Al: They had a collector’s box, limited edition, and it was several hundred dollars. I can’t even remember
(0:26:40) Kev: - Sure, wasn’t four digits.
(0:26:41) Al: it was. But like, I mean, that was more than that was, I wasn’t four digits, it was.
(0:26:46) Al: Three digits, but I feel like it was not far off it, and it did include, it did include,
(0:26:50) Al: like, you know, very nice dice and card sleeves and stuff like that. I can’t remember how
(0:26:54) Kev: oh yes you know if you get a nice uh is it like the charizard premium collection is that the one
(0:26:55) Al: much it was. Do you know the box I’m talking about? No, no, no, I’m talking about there
(0:27:00) Kev: you’re talking or is it a different one oh oh the the one yes the really nice one that they
(0:27:02) Al: was like an. Yes, the like all black one, I can’t remember what it was called.
(0:27:06) Kev: did in a direct yes yes I remember that yes yeah yeah to be fair like didn’t that have like a full
(0:27:13) Kev: set of cards or whatever like it wasn’t just packs even right like it was like designed as a game
(0:27:19) Kev: almost right that you could play with someone um oh gosh the
(0:27:21) Al: Yes. Yes. Oh, there we go. It’s the class. I think it’s the classic box set. Yes, it
(0:27:25) Kev: classic yeah black something like that I can’t remember um
(0:27:30) Al: was a full set. You could play a full game and it looks like it’s brand new here. It’s
(0:27:32) Kev: yeah yeah yeah pokum
(0:27:35) Al: £400. So quite a lot. So that’s maybe what? $500. And we’re talking and presumably the
(0:27:37) Kev: yep yeah yeah yeah okay
(0:27:45) Al: packs were just the packs. There wasn’t anything else with them.
(0:27:50) Kev: Yeah, okay. I’m looking on Pokemon Center. It says 400 USD, I think
(0:27:52) Al: Yeah. Okay. And it was like recreations of the original cards and it was like full on
(0:27:55) Kev: But regardless at least it was a full dang set. They could play with you know people, right?
(0:28:02) Kev: Yeah, yeah
(0:28:03) Al: nostalgia, but it was a full set. You could sit down with just this box and play an entire
(0:28:09) Kev: Yeah, you could play different games and stuff right at least it’s that right this was literally
(0:28:15) Kev: MT the MTG 3 was literally 15 packs. That’s all it was
(0:28:19) Al: That’s wild, so we’re talking more than twice the price of this,
(0:28:24) Al: and it doesn’t include any of the extra stuff. It’s just 50.
(0:28:24) Kev: Yep
(0:28:26) Kev: Nope not even I mean, I mean maybe you could make a deck it wouldn’t work probably but you know like
(0:28:33) Kev: You can’t you can’t play you can’t open this and play again with friends. I don’t think unless you’re just making up
(0:28:34) Al: And this box is insanely expensive, this Pokémon one.
(0:28:41) Kev: Yeah, yeah it is
(0:28:42) Al: You know, for what it is, of course it’s sold out, because everything Pokémon sells out.
(0:28:46) Al: But yeah, wow, that’s mad.
(0:28:48) Kev: Yeah, I know yeah, that’s yep, that’s wild um oh wow actually I’m looking online you can buy
(0:28:56) Kev: There’s one here on TZG player for like 250 is that right huh anyways, but still yeah
(0:29:02) Al: Still, still too much money.
(0:29:04) Kev: Yeah, no, that’s a lot. Don’t get me wrong, but I just
(0:29:07) Al: And that’s a quarter of the price of 15 packs of this magic one. Mad. That’s, that is wild.
(0:29:09) Kev: Yeah
(0:29:12) Kev: Magic 30th
(0:29:14) Kev: Good times
(0:29:15) Al: All right. Are we done with the anti-capitalist rants? Capitalism is bad. We hate it.
(0:29:16) Kev: so yeah
(0:29:17) Kev: So
(0:29:20) Kev: We’re done
(0:29:22) Al: Don’t, don’t abuse supplying to man to rip people off just because you can.
(0:29:24) Kev: Hasbro is bad
(0:29:28) Kev: I will say this
(0:29:30) Kev: So about Magic 30th
(0:29:34) Kev: They were going to have a limited run or whatever
(0:29:38) Kev: Oh, there’s going to be X number of boxes produced or whatever
(0:29:42) Kev: And so, you know, it was a big deal
(0:29:44) Kev: Okay, we’re launching the sale on this time on the website, yada yada
(0:29:48) Kev: We got down the sale, I think, after like an hour
(0:29:52) Kev: There was no explicit reason given
(0:29:54) Kev: But most people assume they didn’t sell a thing
(0:29:58) Kev: That’s what I’m thinking
(0:30:00) Kev: Or what most people think
(0:30:02) Al: That’s crazy.
(0:30:02) Kev: Anyways, there you go
(0:30:03) Al: It’s a thousand it’s a thousand pounds as well.
(0:30:04) Kev: Your fun anecdote in Magic history
(0:30:06) Al: I’m looking at it on on the UK site, it’s a thousand pounds.
(0:30:06) Kev: Yup, yup
(0:30:10) Kev: Oh, goodness
(0:30:11) Al: Each display worthy box includes 15 card for 15 card booster packs.
(0:30:16) Al: Oh, wait, it’s not 15 packs, it’s four packs.
(0:30:18) Kev: Oh, I misread that, it’s four p-
(0:30:22) Kev: Oh, yeah
(0:30:23) Al: It’s 60, it’s 60 cards.
(0:30:24) Kev: 60 cards, oh my gosh
(0:30:26) Kev: Oh, that’s incredible
(0:30:29) Al: That is so stupid.
(0:30:30) Kev: Tell me about your week out
(0:30:32) Al: Uh, but I’ve been playing Mario Kart, that’s that’s all I’ve been playing.
(0:30:38) Kev: Man
(0:30:40) Kev: So you talked about it, I talked about it
(0:30:44) Kev: I don’t know if we stressed how good Knockout Tour is
(0:30:46) Kev: That’s a good mode.
(0:30:47) Al: Yeah, so I’ve been, when we last talked about it, I had not played the knockout tour by that point.
(0:30:54) Al: I was going through the Grumprees, three-starring them. I finished the Grumprees, they’re all
(0:30:59) Al: three-starred, and I am halfway through the knockout tours, three-starring them. Yeah,
(0:31:04) Al: I really like them. I will say, it is a bit frustrating when you go through, because it’s
(0:31:10) Al: eight gates, you have to go through with the last one being, that’s your final position unless you
(0:31:15) Al: you get an octave before.
(0:31:17) Al: And so to get three star in a knockout tour, you have to come first in every single gate,
(0:31:24) Al: which is a lot of work.
(0:31:27) Al: And I’ve been a couple of times where I’ve gone, yeah, there’s a couple of times where
(0:31:31) Al: I have gone, like, it takes a while to get through the first gate, but after you got
(0:31:35) Al: the first gate, you can quite often get a lot of gates, right?
(0:31:38) Kev: Yeah
(0:31:38) Al: There’s one knockout tour that I’m struggling on just now where I sometimes get knocked
(0:31:42) Al: out of the third gate, which is very frustrating, but most of them, it’s like, if you get past
(0:31:47) Al: that first gate, unless you mock up, you probably can do it reasonably easy, but getting past
(0:31:52) Al: that first gate can be difficult.
(0:31:55) Al: There’s been multiple times where I’ve gotten first on the first seven gates, and then coming
(0:32:00) Al: forth.
(0:32:01) Al: And it is so frustrating because like in a grand prix, if you could, I know, but in like
(0:32:02) Kev: I mean that’s Mario Kart. Winning is losing.
(0:32:06) Al: a grand prix, if you come, if you come first, first, first, fourth, you would get one star,
(0:32:12) Al: go you’d win and get a one star.
(0:32:14) Al: is if you come first, first, first, first, first, first,
(0:32:17) Al: you come fourth. So it’s like, like, I understand that. That’s the point of the race. It just
(0:32:24) Kev: - Yep.
(0:32:24) Al: makes it really, and it like, it doesn’t really matter because I’m going to play it until I get
(0:32:27) Al: three stars, right? But it’s just a little bit frustrating to be like, I was first every time
(0:32:32) Al: and then I got knocked. I got hit by just too many shells and now I’m done. What I do really like is,
(0:32:38) Kev: Yep
(0:32:39) Al: I don’t know if there’s no rubber banding, but there definitely seems to be less rubber banding
(0:32:43) Kev: Well that I mean, I think that’s kind of the
(0:32:43) Al: in the knockout tour.
(0:32:48) Kev: Why it works so well because you’re gonna have less people that you can’t rubber band if there’s only you know
(0:32:53) Kev: Now half the contestants or whatever. All right, like instead of rubber band
(0:32:55) Al: Well, it’s not, it’s not, yeah, I mean, right from the start though, like if you get out
(0:32:59) Al: ahead of the pack really early, you can make a really big lead, which is important to be
(0:33:06) Al: able to actually, you know, because you’re going to get hit, right? You can’t keep getting
(0:33:09) Kev: Mm hmm. We’re right, right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
(0:33:10) Al: in horns to not get hit by blue, blue shells, and you can’t get enough stuff. As soon as
(0:33:16) Al: someone has like three red shells, you’re dead, right? You can’t protect from that unless
(0:33:21) Al: you like get hit by the second one just before you go through another.
(0:33:25) Al: So you’re going to get hit, and so you need that good distance to make sure that you
(0:33:29) Kev: Yep. Yep.
(0:33:35) Kev: Yeah. Mm hmm.
(0:33:36) Al: have enough time. But on the other hand, it means that if someone gets ahead quickly,
(0:33:40) Kev: Yep.
(0:33:41) Al: it’s really hard to catch up with them.
(0:33:43) Kev: It is. Um.
(0:33:45) Al: Whereas in our Grand Prix, you can like hang back for like two laps and then just smoke everyone.
(0:33:50) Kev: I think Bullet Bill or Golden Shroom.
(0:33:51) Al: You can’t do that. You cannot do that in a knockout tour.
(0:33:54) Kev: Yeah. Yep. Absolutely.
(0:33:56) Al: But it’s fun. I’m enjoying it. I’m definitely enjoying it.
(0:33:58) Kev: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah.
(0:34:00) Al: It definitely feels like what they wanted to do with the Grand Prix, but they didn’t.
(0:34:03) Kev: Mm hmm. Yeah.
(0:34:03) Al: And so I’m more frustrated now that the Grand Prix have these weird in-between bits.
(0:34:09) Kev: That’s the thing. They’re not even in between bits. They’re just part of the race.
(0:34:13) Al: Yeah. Yeah.
(0:34:13) Kev: Like, that’s the weird part, right? Like, they told us they’re in between, but it’s not.
(0:34:17) Kev: Um, that’s the weird part.
(0:34:18) Al: It just means that the first lap on your next one is on the previous course.
(0:34:25) Al: And then the second lap is like half the previous course and half the new course.
(0:34:29) Al: And then you get one lap on the course. It’s just such a weird setup.
(0:34:32) Kev: Yeah, and it’s it’s not there’s nothing inherently wrong with it especially since they designed this whole island it makes sense right but it’s still boggles my mind that they didn’t include the classic grand prive you know three laps around a track.
(0:34:46) Al: Yeah, that’s the thing. That’s the thing. Anyway, but whatever. I’m still really loving the game.
(0:34:48) Kev: Um, yeah.
(0:34:50) Kev: Yeah.
(0:34:53) Al: It is good fun. I like a lot of the changes they made. It feels, well, that’s the thing.
(0:34:54) Kev: Yeah, it’s good it’s it’s Mario Kart shocker.
(0:34:58) Al: It feels good because I don’t, there’s not a huge number of kart racers that feel good to race for
(0:35:02) Al: me. And that’s a really important thing about Mario Kart. And they’ve, they’ve, they’ve, they
(0:35:03) Kev: Mm-hmm
(0:35:06) Kev: Yep, that is true
(0:35:09) Al: hit it out of the park with that. Like all the changes they made make it feel smoother and feel
(0:35:14) Al: nicer, like, you know, what I was talking to you about, like, when
(0:35:16) Kev: Yeah
(0:35:16) Al: you get hit by cars and stuff like that, it just all feels more fun.
(0:35:18) Kev: Yeah
(0:35:19) Kev: You’re right
(0:35:21) Kev: You’re right. Yeah, I agree. It is it like just
(0:35:25) Kev: Mechanically does feel more fluid because you’re right like in the old days when you got hit that was just like a hard stop
(0:35:30) Al: Yeah, spin around three times and come to a halt.
(0:35:31) Kev: Here you kind of tumble forward a little
(0:35:34) Kev: Yeah
(0:35:36) Kev: Yeah, I agree. Um, I mean, yeah overall like I agree. It’s it’s it’s good
(0:35:42) Kev: I wish we I think it just needs more
(0:35:46) Kev: We don’t actually it has a battle mime in try that but we need the three lap
(0:35:52) Kev: Classy Grand Prix and we need more to actually do with free range. The free range is kind of nothing right now
(0:36:00) Al: Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see if they add more in the future.
(0:36:00) Kev: Like you
(0:36:02) Kev: Yeah
(0:36:03) Al: I don’t know.
(0:36:04) Al: We’ll see.
(0:36:04) Al: I’m not, I’m not, I’m not like, Oh, they must do it.
(0:36:05) Kev: And I
(0:36:07) Al: Or it would be a bad game.
(0:36:08) Al: Like if it never changes again, I don’t think it’s not worth the money,
(0:36:09) Kev: Yeah, oh yeah for sure oh
(0:36:12) Al: but I would also like more please.
(0:36:13) Kev: Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it’s
(0:36:16) Kev: not a bad game. I need to stress that just, there’s, there’s just potential, you can feel it,
(0:36:21) Kev: but you can feel what you can do, right? Like, can you imagine a, you know, I feel like there should
(0:36:27) Kev: be modes that use the free range, like, sort of like tag, basically, right? Or, or, you know,
(0:36:32) Al: Mmm, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(0:36:34) Kev: something like that, something to chase, chase a rabbit or whatever, stuff like that, to give you
(0:36:39) Kev: an excuse to run around the island, not just on the tracks. And, you know, that’s kind of what they
(0:36:42) Al: Do you know what I hope they do? I really hope that they charged as much as they charged for
(0:36:43) Kev: want. You tell.
(0:36:48) Al: this game because they intend on not doing paid DLC but what they would do in paid DLC they’re
(0:36:56) Al: adding industry updates. That would be really nice and it’s like yeah because then they get
(0:36:59) Kev: that would be nice
(0:37:01) Kev: I can see it going either way
(0:37:03) Al: more money overall if they do that than if they charge less money and then charge the DLC because
(0:37:07) Al: not everyone’s going to buy the DLC. But it
(0:37:12) Al: would I think it would lead a lot of people to be less frustrated because I think if they add
(0:37:17) Al: if they do a DLC and they charge for it people are gonna be like even more money you want even
(0:37:18) Kev: Mm-hmm.
(0:37:21) Kev: Yeah.
(0:37:22) Al: more of my money and I think that would be not great and if they added more as free updates I
(0:37:27) Kev: Yeah.
(0:37:28) Al: think people would go oh okay uh there’ll be people who like this should have been in the beginning
(0:37:30) Kev: What?
(0:37:33) Al: but I think those people are stupid and that’s not how games work anymore deal with it it’s like
(0:37:35) Kev: Yeah.
(0:37:38) Kev: Yeah!
(0:37:39) Al: it’s like the people who, it’s like the people who talk about
(0:37:42) Al: er, so it’s one thing talking about Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and saying this is how the
(0:37:46) Kev: Yeah, the game should have worked
(0:37:46) Al: games always should have been, right? Like I’m putting that to the side. I’m not, I’m not talking
(0:37:50) Al: about those, but I’ve seen people, I have heard people say this is what Breath of the Wild should
(0:37:55) Al: have been with the Switch 2 update. And I’m like, no, it’s not. That is, that is an eight year old
(0:37:58) Kev: what those people aren’t saying
(0:38:02) Al: game. You cannot possibly believe that you think this game should have looked like this eight years
(0:38:08) Al: ago. When this game came out, people adored how it
(0:38:12) Al: looked amazing. The Switch, it still does. Even if you don’t have the update, it still
(0:38:14) Kev: It still does shock her.
(0:38:18) Al: looks amazing. It just looks even better if you have the update. It’s absolutely bizarre
(0:38:22) Kev: Yeah, eggs
(0:38:24) Al: that people are like, “This sort of shows.” But shut up. That is not how this works. That
(0:38:28) Kev: Sheets oh
(0:38:30) Al: is not how this works.
(0:38:30) Kev: That’s insanity
(0:38:33) Kev: Well, you know, okay on the topic on the topic of the DLC is it’s interesting because I think if they and I do think they’re
(0:38:42) Kev: Gonna support the game because as you said, that’s just how
(0:38:45) Kev: Games are now. Um, I think there there has to be free
(0:38:52) Kev: because you know
(0:38:53) Kev: He they’ve they’ve kind of put them corner themselves because in previous Mario Kart’s DLC is very or you know
(0:39:00) Kev: It’s obvious what you do. You add more tricks, right? Here’s your next cup. Here’s you know, daddy out of here’s
(0:39:05) Kev: Four cups buy them for ten bucks or whatever here. You can’t do that at least not had a
(0:39:10) Kev: that easily right because you
(0:39:13) Kev: They’re not gonna jam a new section of the island and gate it off with the DLC
(0:39:14) Al: Oh, yeah, good point.
(0:39:17) Al: That’s a good point.
(0:39:19) Al: We’re going to need another island or the island get expanded or something like that.
(0:39:19) Kev: right, so
(0:39:22) Kev: Yeah, so
(0:39:25) Kev: There’s I think there’s a couple I think there’s a couple things one
(0:39:25) Al: Hmm.
(0:39:28) Kev: I think we’re gonna see free modes like we’re talking about right like I don’t know what but they’re gonna I think they’re
(0:39:31) Al: Yeah.
(0:39:32) Kev: Gonna use more of the island because they have the island that would that’s obvious use more use it more, right?
(0:39:37) Kev: There might be you know, maybe they will introduce three lap mode and then they can sell DLC tracks
(0:39:43) Kev: Just you know your classic. Okay, here’s four tracks
(0:39:44) Al: Yeah, so you know what, you’ve made me come to the conclusion.
(0:39:49) Al: I think what’s going to happen is there will be those feature updates will be free
(0:39:52) Kev: You
(0:39:55) Al: and then new tracks will probably be paid.
(0:39:55) Kev: Yeah
(0:39:58) Al: I suspect that’s what’s going to happen.
(0:39:58) Kev: That’s that is what I also suspect I do think yeah, yep, that’s
(0:40:01) Al: That is a good point.
(0:40:03) Al: Because then they can charge for like a whole other island, right?
(0:40:07) Kev: Yep or just tracks if they want to do you know if they go back to three laps, but yeah or just another island yeah
(0:40:09) Al: I can’t see. I can’t. I can’t see.
(0:40:14) Al: I’m doing that going like the whole point is this America world also here are some
(0:40:18) Al: tracks you can only do in if you if you choose them in the menu.
(0:40:20) Kev: Yeah, that’s a good point. I guess
(0:40:23) Al: Like that feels weird and you go into free room in free room free room and you
(0:40:27) Al: choose which island you want to free room on or there’s a bridge between the two
(0:40:29) Kev: Yeah
(0:40:31) Al: islands or something like that.
(0:40:33) Kev: Okay, the bridge might work yeah, but you raise a good point it could be a whole new island I I can see that
(0:40:38) Kev: But but overall like yeah, I think we’re in agreement. There’s gonna be some sort of features modes
(0:40:43) Kev: Whatever they’re gonna end those are gonna be free. Absolutely
(0:40:46) Al: Also, let us free Rome on Rainbow Road, please, and thank you.
(0:40:49) Kev: That it
(0:40:51) Kev: I
(0:40:52) Al: Maybe Rainbow Road is the bridge.
(0:40:55) Kev: Hear people talk about that because of course, but there’s a part where you’re literally crashing there
(0:40:58) Al: Yeah, I know.
(0:41:03) Kev: How you gonna free-rope that
(0:41:05) Al: But, I mean, if you fall off, you go back.
(0:41:09) Kev: You just okay, all right
(0:41:09) Al: You have to go back to the start of it.
(0:41:10) Al: There you go.
(0:41:12) Al: I can see why it would be annoying, and I know why they haven’t done it, but that doesn’t
(0:41:15) Kev: Yeah, okay
(0:41:15) Al: mean I don’t want to do it.
(0:41:18) Kev: You know
(0:41:20) Kev: On the rainbow road like on this in this one
(0:41:23) Kev: I there’s points where I think it’s the absolute best rainbow road they’ve ever done and there’s points where it’s the worst one
(0:41:32) Kev: Like I think the lot of it is great. It’s fantastic. It’s it’s a it’s a real spectacle this one
(0:41:38) Kev: But then there’s points where you’re not actually on the rainbow road. There’s bits where you dip on water and other weird stuff
(0:41:45) Kev: I don’t like that, but but that just me
(0:41:48) Al: I haven’t done it enough to have a full opinion because I actually got
(0:41:53) Al: that Grand Prix I got in on my second try. I got three stars. So I was like, “Oh, oh well.”
(0:41:58) Kev: No dang, look at you hotshot.
(0:42:01) Al: So it’s the only one. Other ones took me many, many, many more tries. But yeah,
(0:42:05) Al: that one I was like, “Oh my word, I just got it in the second try. That’s wild.”
(0:42:09) Kev: Nice.
(0:42:10) Al: Because I actually, the first time I did it, I got 1-1-4-1. And so I was like, “Oh no,
(0:42:15) Kev: Oh, dang.
(0:42:17) Al: If I get– I think I can–
(0:42:18) Al: do this, and then I managed to get it the second time.
(0:42:20) Al: It was very satisfying, but–
(0:42:21) Al: So I need to go back and do it some more.
(0:42:23) Al: I don’t think I’ll be getting a second time in the–
(0:42:26) Al: is there a knockout tour with Rainbow Road?
(0:42:28) Kev: I don’t remember off the I don’t think there is now I’m guessing there isn’t
(0:42:32) Al: Yeah, OK.
(0:42:34) Al: So I’ll need to go back and try it, just–
(0:42:37) Al: either with the Grand Prix or just on its own.
(0:42:38) Kev: Yeah, I guess nothing else from your week you want to talk about
(0:42:39) Al: All right, should we talk about some “Cottagecore” games?
(0:42:43) Al: 40 minutes in.
(0:42:45) Al: We’ve got some news.
(0:42:47) Al: So first of all, Lens Island.
(0:42:48) Al: 1.0 is now out, I believe, I think you talked about it with Cody in the last episode, so we
(0:42:52) Kev: We did
(0:42:53) Al: don’t need to go over much, but it’s now out! Huzzah! They also did, and sadly they didn’t announce
(0:42:55) Kev: It’s real lens island is L is real
(0:43:01) Al: this after, or they didn’t announce this before the last recording, but they have announced that
(0:43:06) Al: they were doing a free weekend all over the 1.0 release. So if you got in, you could play it
(0:43:13) Al: on the opening weekend for free. So sorry we couldn’t let you know on the podcast, but that’s
(0:43:16) Kev: man I i love the concept of free weekends they’re they’re great like pokemon unite basically has
(0:43:25) Kev: them where they unlock a whole bunch of characters for free for a weekend um i’m trying to think uh
(0:43:32) Kev: just just overall it’s what a cool idea um what a great you know like a free bigger demo you know
(0:43:39) Al: That’s it. That’s exactly it. It’s a time-limited full demo, you know, the two other updates
(0:43:40) Kev: every yep yep and for these live
(0:43:46) Kev: yeah it’s great
(0:43:49) Al: that you talked about in the last episode that are now out. That’s Sun Haven 2.5 and
(0:43:53) Al: the Moonstone Island Evolutions update.
(0:43:55) Kev: Ow, do I go back to Moonstar Island? It calls to me.
(0:43:57) Al: Yes, of course you do. Of course you do.
(0:44:01) Kev: I might. I’m willing to second harvest. Fish bows on the rocket. It’s real.
(0:44:10) Al: Not everything, not everything has to be podcast content, but yes, it doesn’t, but I wouldn’t
(0:44:14) Kev: Yeah. I get it doesn’t. But yeah.
(0:44:19) Al: complain if you did. I don’t know.
(0:44:26) Kev: It’s interesting. It’s only 26 evolutions. The number’s not that high to begin with, the base roster, but oh my god.
(0:44:32) Al: Yeah, how many are there, how many bass are there?
(0:44:34) Kev: I don’t know. I have to see. To be honest, I don’t think they pass 100.
(0:44:40) Al: Right, okay. I mean, I think focusing on quality of creatures than quantity is definitely the
(0:44:49) Al: right thing to go, because it’s so common for creature collectors to have just like
(0:44:56) Kev: You know what that’s an excellent point their creed there and their their creatures are generally speaking. All right
(0:45:03) Kev: One thing on point on the video they released there’s there’s not only fish bow on the rocket
(0:45:07) Kev: There’s a fish bow on a skateboard with a hat
(0:45:11) Kev: Yeah, so, you know, that’s a good point and there is a lot of love, you know, the animations and everything and other monsters. So
(0:45:20) Kev: Yeah, all right, I’ll probably go back
(0:45:22) Al: Don’t feel forced to.
(0:45:27) Kev: I’m I’m
(0:45:29) Kev: It’s it it’s the meme of the guy holding the gun to himself. That’s what this is now. I
(0:45:35) Al: Next we have I know I know next we have a Disney dream my Valley update mysteries of skull rock
(0:45:35) Kev: Love that means so much
(0:45:43) Al: mysteries of skull rock
(0:45:46) Al: so
(0:45:48) Kev: What is… Oh, gosh.
(0:45:49) Al: Peter Peter Pan and
(0:45:51) Kev: Oh, that’s what it is. I was like, “What’s going on? I can’t remember.”
(0:45:54) Al: Yeah Peter Pan
(0:45:54) Kev: Okay, Peter. Peter Pan’s already in the game? Good heavens!
(0:45:58) Al: Do you know how many Disney characters that are they can’t all be in the game
(0:46:01) Kev: There, I know!
(0:46:03) Kev: That’s the crazy part, right? ‘Cause they can add anything.
(0:46:05) Al: You
(0:46:06) Kev: I’ll be like, literally like, “It’s not in the game already? What are they doing?”
(0:46:09) Al: There’s there’s there’s literally like three characters who I think it would be fair to be shocked
(0:46:14) Al: They’re not in the game yet, and that is mickey mouse
(0:46:17) Kev: Yeah.
(0:46:18) Al: Daffy duck and goofy. That’s it. Everyone else is fair game to not be in the game yet
(0:46:24) Al: If those three aren’t in the game, it makes no sense
(0:46:27) Kev: Yes, you’re right, classic Disney character Daffy Duck, you did, yeah I know, but you know what,
(0:46:32) Al: I said the wrong duck donald duck
(0:46:39) Kev: now that would be a good update, that Daffy Duck to Jean Light Valley.
(0:46:42) Al: Why are their names so similar? Come on, change your… give your ducks bare names, Daffy and Don.
(0:46:46) Kev: I mean it’s, I’m sure it’s literally competition wise, for this exact reason,
(0:46:54) Al: Yeah, so we got Peter Pan, who else have we got?
(0:46:54) Kev: Warner Brothers is jumping with joy that you made this.
(0:46:57) Kev: The plan worked.
(0:47:05) Kev: And hook in it captain looks like one of my favorite Disney villain just cuz he’s so cartoonish I guess I don’t know
(0:47:13) Al: There’s… I should have read this through before. There’s like a new character called “The Forgotten”.
(0:47:15) Kev: There’s stuff
(0:47:18) Kev: That’s fine
(0:47:23) Kev: I
(0:47:24) Kev: Don’t know why I don’t follow Disney Dreamlight Valley too closely outside this podcast. You got goofy in a pirate costume
(0:47:32) Kev: That’s all I need
(0:47:35) Kev: I know I’m I get a lot of heat for that
(0:47:40) Kev: but
(0:47:40) Al: Anyway, you know if you want to pay attention to this new update.
(0:47:45) Kev: And
(0:47:46) Kev: It’s more that’s a lot. There’s that of the dog. It’s got the Peter Pan dog. I like that. That’s a cute dog
(0:47:53) Kev: I don’t know what it’s called
(0:47:54) Al: Next, we have Snacko have released a one point point one update, which adds achievements and fast travel.
(0:48:02) Kev: Though those are boat well more past travel than achievements. That’s a bit as an important one
(0:48:10) Kev: That’s good we got to get to that one good game
(0:48:14) Al: And we also, Kevin, fantasy life, I, the girl who steals time, they have announced, they
(0:48:23) Al: have announced, they have announced an update that includes, oh, goodness me, this is a
(0:48:30) Al: quote, “roguelike open world”.
(0:48:33) Al: I, so they talk, this is a new mode, they say.
(0:48:38) Al: So I suspect it’s like you start up the game and you’re like, I either want to do normal
(0:48:42) Al: or roguelike and then it sounds like
(0:48:44) Al: it might be the same game but you can’t die I don’t know they’ve not given a lot
(0:48:48) Kev: I mean, it’s like, I’m guessing it’s, it’s gonna be the spawns, the different
(0:48:50) Al: of details about what the roguelike part means
(0:48:59) Kev: enemies that, yeah, cuz I, the question I have, the hard part to reconcile is the
(0:49:11) Kev: open world, right? Like the map. Is the map gonna be generated differently every
(0:49:12) Al: Yeah, so, I don’t know.
(0:49:15) Kev: time because fantasy life is you know
(0:49:19) Kev: open world ish like your 3ds one um generally speaking um but it’s it’s a pretty flat world
(0:49:26) Kev: it’s not like by the while they’re climbing mountains generally speaking um so you know
(0:49:32) Kev: that’s just generating maps so I could see that working but um this could just be
(0:49:37) Kev: using buzzwords really well but uh but we’ll
(0:49:39) Al: Yeah, I don’t know. So they say the update will feature an evolved version of giant normosia,
(0:49:45) Al: which I presume is just the name for the region, including a system blending rogue-like and open
(0:49:51) Al: world elements that offers engaging content for both experienced players and newcomers alike.
(0:49:55) Al: What does that mean? This is bizarre.
(0:49:57) Kev: Mmm, don’t you love corporate speak?
(0:50:02) Al: Like, is it built up like maybe Cult of the Lamb, where there’s like a small part of your world
(0:50:09) Al: and you’re just like upgrading it and then you go out into the rest of the world?
(0:50:13) Al: But it definitely sounds like it’s the same map. They’ve just changed how the gameplay works.
(0:50:14) Kev: If, yeah, if I were to guess, like, obviously you have the base game here map and everything and there’s going to be a character you talk to and say, “Okay, here, hello, I am DLC, man. Talk to me to open access the rogue-like mode.”
(0:50:30) Kev: And you get warped to a, you know, generated map that changes every time or whatever. That would be my guess.
(0:50:38) Al: It just seems to imply that it’s definitely the same world it just works differently.
(0:50:44) Kev: It could I’m I could see that too. It’s still idea still works
(0:50:48) Kev: You talked to DLC man, and you you’re sent to a version of the map with all the spawns are just randomly
(0:50:54) Al: Anyway.
(0:50:56) Al: We’ll see what happens, they’ve just announced that they’re making it.
(0:51:00) Al: We have no idea when it’s coming out, so.
(0:51:03) Al: And the final news update is Harvest Moon, Home Sweet Home.
(0:51:06) Al: Who knew we would be talking about this again?
(0:51:08) Al: Me?
(0:51:09) Al: I knew, because I said this was going to happen right back at release date.
(0:51:13) Al: I said this, I said this would happen.
(0:51:16) Al: Harvest Moon, Home Sweet Home is coming to Switch, Xbox, PlayStation 5, and Steam with
(0:51:23) Al: with our extra content.
(0:51:24) Al: “Harvest Moon - Home Sweet Home Special Edition”
(0:51:30) Al: So it has a bunch of new content.
(0:51:32) Al: They haven’t announced whether this content is also going to be added to the mobile version
(0:51:34) Al: and I’ll be very annoyed if it isn’t because I paid money for that.
(0:51:38) Kev: That’d be wild.
(0:51:38) Al: If you want to charge us more to upgrade it, sure, fine, do that.
(0:51:42) Al: But gimme, I don’t want to have to buy a whole new version to play the update.
(0:51:47) Kev: Oh, do with the Atlas root. Oh, yeah.
(0:51:52) Al: Frustrate at least
(0:51:54) Kev: Or Pokemon, even.
(0:51:54) Al: Yeah well, Pokemon haven’t done that for a long time to be fair.
(0:52:01) Kev: I mean, relatively new.
(0:52:02) Al: 3DS was the last time they did that. A whole two consoles ago.
(0:52:05) Kev: Yeah, I guess so.
(0:52:07) Kev: Yeah, I guess. Oh, my gosh.
(0:52:09) Kev: Don’t don’t don’t say that to me.
(0:52:11) Kev: I don’t like that. What do you mean, too?
(0:52:13) Al: There we go, we got a podcast title. 3DS was two consoles ago.
(0:52:18) Al: So yeah, they’ve got a bunch of new content. Doc Jr’s going to be doing more in this game,
(0:52:24) Al: obviously they were just there occasionally and said hello and that was it. But he’s going
(0:52:30) Al: to set up a lab and there’s a couple of things. So quickly travel around Alba while completing
(0:52:36) Al: daily tasks using Doc Jr’s new hoverbike 5000, a hover scooter. You might be like oh that’s weird,
(0:52:42) Al: why do you need a bike? Because in this game your horse can’t leave its pasture.
(0:52:48) Kev: Yeah, just that’s mmm, that’s bold
(0:52:52) Al: And why would we change that? Why would we fix that?
(0:52:54) Al: Should we make that work? No, let’s make a hover bike!
(0:52:58) Kev: Innovation baby who knew why would a horse run around in the world?
(0:53:03) Al: Oh I don’t, literally there’s no point in having a horse in this game. Spend less time
(0:53:10) Al: cleaning your barn by using the Kleinmeister autovac, so that cleans up the animal feces.
(0:53:17) Al: Enjoy additional cutscenes that immerse you in Alba and show new interactions with the
(0:53:20) Al: village residents. And two new marriageable candidates, Ella and Nikolai from Harvest Moon,
(0:53:28) Al: the Winds of Anthos.
(0:53:30) Kev: okay you know what that’s cool crossover characters that you can romance
(0:53:34) Kev: I like that idea actually that’s fun
(0:53:36) Al: It’s one of the things I’ve always liked about the Natsume Harvestmen games is they’ve done
(0:53:41) Al: that for quite a while. The last couple of games I’ve had that there’s been some characters
(0:53:46) Al: from previous games. It’s fun. Yeah, I like it. More of that, please. I wish I cared about
(0:53:52) Al: these characters. I can see myself. I think this is the first Natsume Harvestmen game
(0:53:52) Kev: Yeah
(0:53:58) Al: that I’ve played enough so that in a future game when they say, “Oh, these characters
(0:54:01) Al: are coming,” I’ll be like, “Yes, finally! I know these characters!”
(0:54:04) Kev: you can do the Leo point, yeah!
(0:54:07) Al: So my summary of this for people who have not listened to any of the Harvestmen Home
(0:54:12) Al: Sweet Home episodes is it is by far the best Natsume Harvestmen game. So that’s since 2007.
(0:54:22) Al: It is really good in a lot of ways. It still has some frustrations. A lot of those frustrations
(0:54:29) Al: were dealt with by controller support, which obviously this will now have because it’s
(0:54:32) Al: also on consoles. I think this game is worth
(0:54:36) Al: a play if you like a farming game. It is not going to be your favourite farming game.
(0:54:42) Al: You’re not going to care about the characters like you care about them in Stardew, but there
(0:54:46) Al: was enough there and there was enough story that felt good. We’ve got to the point where
(0:54:54) Al: I feel like this is a good game.
(0:54:57) Kev: Congrats Harvest Moon, you finally– or not so many Harvest Moon,
(0:55:01) Kev: you finally made a game that wasn’t a regrettable purchase.
(0:55:04) Al: When they announced the Switch ports of the 3DS games, I was like, “Oh, yeah, I’ll buy
(0:55:05) Kev: Good for you.
(0:55:08) Kev: You know, yeah.
(0:55:13) Al: them.”
(0:55:14) Al: And so I set up a purchase and then I was like, “No!”
(0:55:17) Al: And I cancelled the purchase, “I don’t need to do this to myself.
(0:55:19) Kev: It’s just– you had your moment.
(0:55:21) Al: I don’t need to do this because I know they’re not good games.
(0:55:22) Kev: What am I doing?
(0:55:24) Al: I know they’re not good games.”
(0:55:27) Kev: You know, this is in the side.
(0:55:28) Kev: I don’t think I ever talked about this.
(0:55:30) Kev: But obviously, like, do you think in an alternate world
(0:55:36) Kev: where story of seasons didn’t have to change their name,
(0:55:42) Kev: do you think they would have kept the art style?
(0:55:44) Kev: Because you think that was separate?
(0:55:44) Al: No, I don’t think so. I think that was something that was inevitable. I think that the progress
(0:55:49) Kev: You don’t think it was a response to losing the name?
(0:55:52) Kev: They looked at the logo, and they said–
(0:55:54) Kev: they were like, well, we’ve got to fix that.
(0:55:58) Kev: All right.
(0:56:00) Kev: Mm.
(0:56:01) Al: that they’ve made in those games is because they wanted to do that, and not because of anything
(0:56:04) Al: else. I don’t think they care really about the English name because they’re Japanese,
(0:56:04) Kev: Yeah, could be.
(0:56:13) Al: they make the game and they go
(0:56:15) Al: Oh, if other people want to play it, sure, right?
(0:56:17) Kev: Yeah, that’s true. You know what? That’s an excellent counterpoint. They don’t care about the US.
(0:56:18) Al: Like, otherwise they would have thrown money at Natsume to get the name back.
(0:56:25) Kev: Yeah, you’re right. You’re right. That’s an excellent point. Um, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Um…
(0:56:29) Al: It’s not like with Pokemon where they use the same name.
(0:56:33) Al: Pokemon lost their name, they would pay anything to get it back.
(0:56:41) Kev: That’s the next chapter in the Power World saga.
(0:56:46) Al: Power world’s stealing the trademark.
(0:56:47) Kev: With the backing of Xbox.
(0:56:52) Al: What a world.
(0:56:54) Kev: Did you see the article or like interview where, um, I don’t know if it was the president. It’s
(0:57:00) Kev: one of the Sony higher ups. They, they said, oh, we don’t, we don’t care about Nintendo.
(0:57:05) Kev: They’re not competition to us except in Japan.
(0:57:06) Al: I did not see that. I also think that’s nonsense. Like, I do think, I think if Nintendo didn’t
(0:57:14) Kev: Yeah, yeah.
(0:57:17) Kev: Yeah.
(0:57:18) Al: existed, do you really think that all of those people that only have Nintendo consoles, they’re
(0:57:23) Al: not buying any games and not buying any consoles ever? Come on. Come on. I think some of them,
(0:57:27) Kev: Yeah, yeah, sure.
(0:57:29) Al: I think some people only play games because of Nintendo, but there’s no way in a world
(0:57:33) Kev: Yeah, yeah, that’s true.
(0:57:35) Al: world when Nintendo didn’t exist.
(0:57:36) Al: But, you know, there’s a lot of people who are like, ‘I don’t know what to do with Nintendo,
(0:57:44) Al: I don’t know what to do with Nintendo, I don’t know what to do with Nintendo, I don’t know
(0:57:49) Al: what to do with Nintendo, and I don’t know what to do with Nintendo, and I don’t know
(0:57:52) Kev: that’s me up it’s true yeah oh yeah I mean I think that’s that’s why some people caught wind
(0:57:53) Al: what to do with Nintendo, and I don’t know what to do with Nintendo, but I don’t know
(0:57:58) Kev: of the interview because it closed suddenly they were just being butt hurt uh
(0:57:58) Al: what to do with Nintendo, and I don’t know what to do with Nintendo, and I don’t know
(0:58:04) Al: Sony are being absolutely destroyed.
(0:58:06) Al: buy them right like yeah and they’re still and they’re still having to talk about the PS2
(0:58:08) Kev: Hey, hey, hey, hey, Sony just found another half million PS2s in the couch that they sold they forgot about those
(0:58:18) Al: that’s the thing like yes the PS2 sold well but do you think we would be having this conversation
(0:58:25) Al: if the Wii was was was the only Nintendo console that it sold well right like come on don’t I
(0:58:32) Al: like I don’t really care about who wins right like I love I have
(0:58:36) Al: a switch I have a switch to I have a ps5 I like them both I like games that come from both
(0:58:42) Al: I love astrobot my favorite game of last year I love almost everything that Nintendo does
(0:58:49) Al: right like let’s I like them both but to think that somehow Sony are competing with Nintendo
(0:58:57) Al: come on like they are they are playing a different game and they’re winning a much smaller game
(0:59:05) Al: off on the sidelines, right?
(0:59:06) Al: It’s like Nintendo are winning the Super Bowl and Sony are off winning some small game
(0:59:10) Kev: Yeah, I mean, they talk about the PS2 era because guess what?
(0:59:15) Al: in our city on the other side of the country, right?
(0:59:18) Al: Like, yeah, congratulations, you’re making lots of money.
(0:59:22) Al: Don’t look at Nintendo.
(0:59:23) Al: Just ignore them.
(0:59:24) Al: It will just depress you.
(0:59:27) Al: And these things change, like it’s not like Nintendo has always done that, right?
(0:59:31) Al: Nintendo have had massive failures and probably nearly died multiple times.
(0:59:38) Al: Yeah.
(0:59:38) Al: Exactly.
(0:59:39) Kev: SONY CROSS CRUSHING NINTENDO
(0:59:40) Al: Exactly.
(0:59:40) Al: Exactly.
(0:59:40) Kev: Oh, and this PS2 error. Yeah.
(0:59:42) Al: It’s just that Nintendo keep coming back and Sony, I mean, it’s not like they haven’t
(0:59:50) Al: made money.
(0:59:51) Al: They do make money.
(0:59:52) Al: But when you look at the numbers, it’s absolutely nowhere near.
(0:59:54) Al: It’s just not even close.
(0:59:57) Kev: Sony also says it’s it’s uh, it’s his guy’s name is Yoshida. Is he the oh he’s oh, he’s a former playstation exec
(1:00:06) Kev: That’s who it was. Okay, so not a current one but
(1:00:10) Kev: But he does he does also mention that he hopes the nintendo fans graduate to more quote mature systems like the playstation
(1:00:17) Al: That’s funny. I actually I need to I need to I need to correct myself a little bit.
(1:00:24) Al: Actually, when you look at the top selling consoles, it’s roughly 50/50 between Sony and Nintendo.
(1:00:30) Al: So the PS2 is obviously the top selling of 160 million. The DS is 2 with 154. Switch is 152.
(1:00:39) Al: Gameboy is 118. But after that, we’ve got the PS4 at 117 and the PlayStation at 102.
(1:00:46) Al: and then the we 101
(1:00:47) Al: the PS3 87. Like, so the top eight consoles are split four and four for four Sony and
(1:00:51) Kev: Hmm
(1:00:55) Kev: Ah poor Phil’s
(1:01:00) Al: four Nintendo consoles make out the top eight. So I have to find that back. And actually
(1:01:07) Al: PS5 they’ve sold 77 million. That is a lot of consoles.
(1:01:10) Kev: They made that many ha ha ha ha ha ha ha it took them half a decade.
(1:01:17) Al: That long was it five years? It’s taken them five years to make that many. Yeah. Oh, 2020
(1:01:25) Al: was a fun time. I remember to get my PS5 because I, the company I was working for sold. So
(1:01:33) Al: we got a chunk of money. It wasn’t, you know, life changing money, but it was enough to
(1:01:38) Al: be like, Oh, I’ll give myself a little something. And I would never have bought up a Sony console
(1:01:43) Al: on launch, like, without that, right?
(1:01:46) Kev: » Yeah, that’s fair.
(1:01:47) Al: I’ll buy a Nintendo, whatever Nintendo make on launch, right?
(1:01:49) Al: Because I’m a sucker for them.
(1:01:51) Al: And Sony stuff, I’ll buy it eventually.
(1:01:54) Al: And I was like, oh wow, that’s, I can actually, if I’m not gonna buy it now, why not, right?
(1:01:59) Al: And obviously it was incredibly hard to get it.
(1:02:02) Al: I ended up getting it like maybe three weeks after launch or something, because a supermarket
(1:02:08) Al: here put on a, if you log on at this particular point on our website, we will have a pickup
(1:02:15) Al: you can order for a nearby shop.
(1:02:17) Kev: Huh.
(1:02:17) Al: And so I was just like refreshing the page, refreshing the page.
(1:02:20) Al: And I got in an order and it was shipped to this supermarket near my house.
(1:02:24) Al: But the funny thing was, I went to the supermarket and I was like, “Oh, I’ve
(1:02:26) Al: got this, uh, I’ve got this order.
(1:02:28) Al: It says it’s here now.
(1:02:29) Al: I would like it.”
(1:02:30) Al: And they’re like, “We don’t know what you’re talking about.”
(1:02:32) Kev: Oh, yeah
(1:02:33) Al: And I was like, “No, what do you mean you don’t know what I’m talking about?”
(1:02:35) Al: And they were like, the guy went off and talked to like 10 different
(1:02:39) Al: people in the shop and came back and said, “Okay, so there’s one person who
(1:02:41) Al: knows what we’re talking, what this is.
(1:02:44) Al: They’re not working for another couple of hours.
(1:02:46) Al: Can you come back when they’re…
(1:02:47) Kev: Hahahahaha that’s great
(1:02:48) Al: Because they just they didn’t know where the console was and they didn’t know how to like set
(1:02:52) Al: it up on the system because it was it was like a brand new thing they’d never done before
(1:02:57) Al: and they invented the system for the ps5.
(1:02:57) Kev: Okay, oh that’s incredible. Oh, that’s great. They’re smart to do so
(1:03:03) Al: So that was really funny. So I went away and did stuff and then came back a few hours later and got
(1:03:07) Al: my ps5 and was very happy but that moment where they’re like “I don’t know what you’re talking
(1:03:11) Al: about I’m like, “Oh no, have I been scammed?”
(1:03:18) Kev: - Yeah, sorry, the guy with the trench coat in the van
(1:03:22) Kev: with the PS5s isn’t here until five, you had to come back.
(1:03:24) Al: Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. And it’s like, it wasn’t a small shop. This was a huge shop,
(1:03:32) Al: you know, like this sort of shop that takes like 15 minutes to walk from one end to the other,
(1:03:32) Kev: Yeah.
(1:03:36) Al: right? It’s huge. Anyway, whatever. That’s all the news. Let’s talk about Tiny Garden.
(1:03:44) Kev: It’s it’s tiny like this news the section
(1:03:46) Al: So yeah, so this is what’s really funny. So let me do a quick summary, and then I want to talk
(1:03:52) Al: about the mechanics, but I have a
(1:03:54) Al: funny thing to say about the mechanics first. So this, to
(1:03:58) Al: summarize, this is a Polly Pocket farming game. So you
(1:04:01) Al: have your little Polly Pocket like thing. And what clamshell
(1:04:06) Kev: yep, le-legally distinct
(1:04:06) Al: thing, what would you legally distinct? Yeah, I don’t know
(1:04:08) Kev: cue the Godzilla clip
(1:04:09) Al: what you would call that. What’s the name for that? It’s like
(1:04:09) Kev: hehe
(1:04:11) Al: clamshell thing, where you open up and you’ve got your base and
(1:04:14) Kev: yeah
(1:04:15) Kev: clamshell toy
(1:04:16) Kev: I don’t know
(1:04:16) Al: your back clamshell toy sounds great. And you got your base and
(1:04:19) Al: you’ve got your back. And there’s basically two features.
(1:04:23) Al: the base of the
(1:04:24) Al: Clamshell is you’re farming and the back of it is for decorating and you plant things
(1:04:33) Al: and then you turn the handle which by the way this game would be great on the
(1:04:38) Al: playdate with your crank ranking uh but it’s not on the gate it’s not on the console um
(1:04:40) Kev: I was about to say that! Finally, the play they can actually use to k- the-
(1:04:46) Kev: …and now…
(1:04:47) Al: the you crank and cranking like progresses a day and your things grow and then you harvest them
(1:04:55) Al: and then you plant more stuff and as you get as you harvest you get like you unlock things
(1:05:00) Al: to decorate with and so you decorate things and that’s it and I say that’s it is it like
(1:05:07) Al: I don’t mean that’s it as in that’s bad I mean that i’ve described the entire loop of the game
(1:05:12) Al: and some people will hear that and go and some people will hear that and go I i’m in that is
(1:05:20) Al: perfect. That’s exactly what I want. It is like the fully distilled. I don’t
(1:05:24) Al: even think of it as like a farming game, right? Like, it’s not a distilled stardew.
(1:05:30) Al: It’s like a distilled animal crossing without the villagers. Like, it’s about creating a thing.
(1:05:34) Kev: Yeah, that’s probably closer
(1:05:39) Kev: It’s
(1:05:39) Al: It’s not about farming games generally are like, I am creating an empire. I am doing this thing.
(1:05:44) Kev: The up grow your business expand the farm right this is this is
(1:05:48) Al: That’s not this. This is, I’m decorating. I am making, I’m farming to decorate.
(1:05:50) Kev: This is
(1:05:52) Kev: Mm-hmm. It’s garden galaxy, but with a little bit more to the farming part because you’re growing some stuff
(1:05:55) Al: Yeah. Exactly. It’s garden galaxy, but you have to do work to get the stuff to decorate.
(1:06:02) Kev: Yes
(1:06:04) Kev: I
(1:06:07) Kev: So like I mean they they know what they’re doing very clearly it’s priced
(1:06:13) Kev: Well, it’s like was it
(1:06:15) Kev: 2013 USD
(1:06:17) Kev: It’s it’s they’re clear in the name like they they make they’re not hiding anything about what they’re trying to be there
(1:06:23) Kev: They’re small little cutesy game about decorating a little pocket toy clam shelter or whatever
(1:06:29) Kev: And like oh again. I haven’t played it, but from what I’ve seen
(1:06:34) Kev: Hardly, I think it does its job pretty well
(1:06:36) Kev: Tell me tell me your thoughts
(1:06:38) Al: Yeah, so I will say I don’t think this game is for me. This isn’t how I feel very much
(1:06:46) Al: about it like it did with Garden Galaxy. I appreciate what it’s doing. I think it is
(1:06:51) Al: very good for the price that it is, but it’s not really what I want to do. I was a little
(1:06:59) Al: bit harsh. There are some puzzle elements to the farming. I’ll get to that in a minute.
(1:07:04) Al: me of that, because I forgot to mention that. But yeah.
(1:07:04) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I saw that one talk about that
(1:07:08) Al: I’m not really… I like the RPG aspect of farming games, I guess, right?
(1:07:17) Kev: Yeah
(1:07:17) Al: The like, I am a person and I am building up this thing.
(1:07:20) Al: And sometimes I care about talking to people, sometimes I don’t.
(1:07:21) Kev: Mm-hmm
(1:07:24) Al: But, you know, that doesn’t make it not an RPG, right?
(1:07:24) Kev: Sure
(1:07:29) Al: If I don’t care about other people, I’m just role playing a recluse, right?
(1:07:33) Al: But I like that aspect of things.
(1:07:35) Al: Like, here is my farm, and I’m building up my farm, and I am a person.
(1:07:38) Al: And then this is what it is, and I’m living this life.
(1:07:41) Al: Um, but I think for some people, this is, uh, this is exactly what they want.
(1:07:46) Al: It’s, it’s the farming and the decorating without everything else.
(1:07:49) Al: And it’s really freeing because you don’t have to wait for time.
(1:07:54) Al: You can just go, right.
(1:07:55) Al: I’ve done my things for today, next day, please.
(1:07:58) Al: And you wrote, you, you pull the crank and you’re on the next day.
(1:08:01) Al: I’ve really, I quite like that.
(1:08:03) Al: That’s quite cool.
(1:08:03) Al: It’s really fast.
(1:08:04) Kev: That’s such a genius
(1:08:06) Kev: Element mechanic just turn the crank when you want to go to the next day. It’s so good
(1:08:09) Al: It’s really fast.
(1:08:11) Al: It’s really satisfying, that part of it, being able to go, right.
(1:08:14) Al: But, but, but, but especially early game, right.
(1:08:17) Al: One thing that really frustrates me about farming games is early game, because
(1:08:20) Al: you’re like, I don’t really have much to do.
(1:08:23) Al: And I don’t have much stamina to do the things that I would want to do.
(1:08:25) Al: So it’s like, this is why I quite often talk about how I speedrun
(1:08:29) Al: the start of farming games, right?
(1:08:30) Al: Like I wake up, I do, I do my farming.
(1:08:33) Al: And then if there’s a specific person, I’m trying to romance at that point.
(1:08:36) Al: I go do a thing.
(1:08:37) Al: And if not, I go to bed.
(1:08:38) Al: Then like, I’m quite often going to bed at 10 a.m.
(1:08:41) Al: at the beginning of farming games, because I just don’t find that
(1:08:43) Al: bit satisfying and I want to get to the later game quickly.
(1:08:47) Al: And this completely bypasses that.
(1:08:49) Al: Like you’ve not got much to do.
(1:08:50) Al: You’ve not got much land.
(1:08:51) Al: You’ve not got many different types of seed.
(1:08:52) Al: Great.
(1:08:53) Al: You’ve got to a point where you’ve done everything that’s possible, right.
(1:08:56) Al: Like every flaut of land is currently full with something.
(1:09:00) Al: You don’t have much to decorate.
(1:09:01) Al: There is nothing you can do, but next day, great.
(1:09:04) Al: Perfect.
(1:09:05) Al: That is really satisfying.
(1:09:06) Al: It really helps you keep going.
(1:09:08) Al: But then later on, when you’ve got more stuff to decorate, you’ve got more
(1:09:11) Al: complicated puzzles with the crops because you unlock more crops as you go.
(1:09:16) Al: And different crops need different things, which again, we’ll get to that.
(1:09:19) Al: And you’ve got more things to decorate.
(1:09:21) Al: You’ve got some furniture.
(1:09:22) Al: You’ve got some stickers, blah, blah, blah.
(1:09:24) Al: You can spend more time on that.
(1:09:25) Al: And it doesn’t disadvantage you.
(1:09:27) Al: You’re not got a time limit on that.
(1:09:29) Al: You don’t go, Oh, I’ve spent too long decorating.
(1:09:31) Al: I’ve fallen asleep.
(1:09:33) Al: Right.
(1:09:33) Al: Like I get why someone would really like that.
(1:09:36) Kev: Yeah, um it you know reminds you a lot of happy home designer -
(1:09:42) Al: Yes, that is it. That’s it. When I would say it’s the perfect distillation of animal crossing
(1:09:49) Al: without the villagers, that’s happy home designer, right? That’s what this is.
(1:09:52) Kev: Yeah, exactly right. Yeah.
(1:09:53) Al: And maybe that’s a perfect segue into the puzzle aspect of it.
(1:09:58) Kev: Tell me because yeah they do some stuff here that I’m curious to what it’s like to play so tell me tell me about this.
(1:10:04) Al: Yeah, so it’s maybe a little bit hard to describe exactly how it works. But basically,
(1:10:10) Al: you start off with just a few crops and they just…
(1:10:12) Al: like they work on normal ground and you plant them and then you harvest them, blah, blah, blah.
(1:10:18) Al: But then you unlock some crops that change the ground after you’ve harvested them. So you plant
(1:10:22) Al: something and then when you harvest it, it changes the ground that’s next to it, or it changes the
(1:10:26) Al: ground it was on like it might do. Or now this is… so if you plant something that is not a cactus,
(1:10:34) Al: but like something like a cactus, it will maybe turn the ground to like desert. And then you can
(1:10:41) Al: only plant things in the days.
(1:10:42) Al: Is it that are able to be planted there, so you could plant the one that you just harvested, or you could plant like a cactus, or something else like that. You can’t plant a carrot.
(1:10:52) Al: And that then expands more and more and more, and you have lots of different ones that do different things to the land around it and you have to figure out, oh, I want to plant this thing.
(1:11:03) Al: What do I need to plant to be able to get to the point where I can plant this seed. Oh, it needs that type of ground. Okay, well, what
(1:11:10) Al: does that type of ground or is this other seed but then
(1:11:12) Al: seed needs another type of ground what does that type of ground oh it’s this other type
(1:11:17) Al: of seed and so you then plant that seed harvest it plant the next seed harvest it plant the next
(1:11:21) Al: seed and there you go you’ve got your new plant that you you’ve unlocked.
(1:11:24) Kev: Okay, that’s that is you know, that’s honestly a lot more than I expected from the day
(1:11:32) Kev: And
(1:11:33) Kev: Because it’s I think one of the interesting parts is it’s also limited in space, right? You have a limited amount of tiles
(1:11:38) Al: Yeah, yeah, because you’ve got you’ve got clamshell thing. There’s nowhere else you can go outside the clamshell
(1:11:43) Kev: Yup, you can’t buy more land you’re stuck inside your little clamshell toy, so
(1:11:48) Kev: You have to fit all that
(1:11:50) Kev: You know you you’re digging trenches of water and how you’re gonna fill them in like
(1:11:55) Kev: I do think all that looks fun
(1:11:58) Al: another level as well that you might not have thought about. So if I plant something on one
(1:12:02) Al: plot of land and then I plant something next to it that changes the ground but gets harvested before
(1:12:09) Al: the first thing, if you harvest that it changes the ground it kills the thing that was growing
(1:12:14) Al: on that land because the ground’s changed now, it can’t grow in that land. So you have to bear in
(1:12:19) Al: mind how quickly things harvest as well and be like oh I can’t put that there because that’s
(1:12:23) Al: Cause that’s going to kill that other thing when it gets hard.
(1:12:25) Kev: Huh, that’s that’s interesting the time we in the harvesting that that’s an interesting
(1:12:33) Kev: Mechanics less consideration, huh? Again, this is way more death than I would have expected from this. Okay
(1:12:40) Al: And there’s really only one other thing to talk about with this game, other than the decorating.
(1:12:43) Kev: Mm-hmm
(1:12:44) Al: I can’t really talk about the decorating. I didn’t do it. I don’t care, right? Like,
(1:12:48) Al: that is not my thing. You know what decorating’s like. It’s cute. If you want to do your decorating,
(1:12:48) Kev: Sure
(1:12:52) Kev: Yeah
(1:12:53) Al: it’s there. If you like decorating, you know exactly what it is. You’ve got this top bit
(1:12:55) Kev: Yeah
(1:12:57) Al: where you’ve got like the layers like you would have in a poly pocket, and you can put furniture
(1:12:59) Kev: Yeah, what yeah
(1:13:01) Al: there, and you can put stickers on the cover of the clamshell. So when it’s closed, you see the
(1:13:04) Kev: Yeah, that’s cute but you can’t even interact with decorations which always a little yeah for me like
(1:13:06) Al: the stickers.
(1:13:11) Al: Yeah, yeah, it is literally just a decoration.
(1:13:13) Al: It doesn’t do anything else, but some people like that.
(1:13:13) Kev: Yeah, mm-hmm
(1:13:17) Al: So the one other interesting thing is there’s not really currency in this game.
(1:13:23) Al: Everything you have is, everything that you buy, you’re trading something else.
(1:13:31) Al: So, for example, let me give you an actual example.
(1:13:37) Al: if you want to buy.
(1:13:40) Al: a turnip that costs one carat.
(1:13:41) Kev: mm-hmm okay
(1:13:45) Al: If you want to buy a carat that costs one cactus.
(1:13:50) Kev: Huh. That’s fascinating.
(1:13:52) Al: If you want to buy a cactus that costs one turnip.
(1:13:57) Al: Now this only works because everything gives you multiple of the thing you grow.
(1:14:01) Kev: Right. Right, of course.
(1:14:02) Al: Well almost almost the base things like there are more expensive things that don’t do that.
(1:14:05) Al: like the turnips, the cactus and the caddis, those are your base currencies.
(1:14:06) Kev: Sure.
(1:14:10) Al: Essentially, and they all give you two when you plant them and you start off with some seeds,
(1:14:14) Al: right? So you get a bunch of turnips and you plant the turnips and then you can now buy cactuses
(1:14:19) Al: and then, you know, you buy a cactus, you plant it and now you have two cactuses for one turnip
(1:14:24) Al: that you had. And now you can get two carrots, which turns into four carrots and now you can buy
(1:14:31) Al: four turnips, which gives you eight turnips. And that’s how you build up the currency, right?
(1:14:38) Kev: Huh, that’s interesting. I kind of like this idea of um
(1:14:42) Kev: I get like a not a skill tree, but like you you know, you have to go through the steps to unlock
(1:14:45) Al: I mean it is kind of it is kind of a skill tree and it adds another puzzle element to things right
(1:14:50) Al: so like say I want to do uh pepper I need to get a potato and I need to get uh uh I can’t even
(1:14:51) Kev: Yeah
(1:14:58) Al: remember what that is because it’s grayed out two things a potato and a thing me and that gives you
(1:15:02) Al: a pepper a bell pepper and then to get the the potato you have to have a hibiscus and a radish
(1:15:10) Al: and to get the hibiscus you have to have a turnip and a carrot and to get the
(1:15:15) Al: radish you have to have I can’t see it on the screen but anyway you see how we always get back
(1:15:21) Al: down to turnips and carrots and cactuses um and so it’s basically like two puzzles you have to
(1:15:24) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you said, that’s what makes it work.
(1:15:27) Al: do to get everything um and you go right I have to have these things and then I also have to figure
(1:15:32) Al: out the right layout to be able to get the right ground that I need to grow something and you can
(1:15:39) Al: even like one of the grounds is water like you can grow lily pads but they have to be on a water block
(1:15:45) Al: there are a couple of like items you can get that change the ground so like there’s a watering
(1:15:52) Al: fountain that turns what’s next to it into water so it’s not just the seeds that change the ground
(1:15:56) Al: you there are a couple of things items that change the ground as well which then add another level
(1:16:01) Al: there so I guess when I say that’s all there is it definitely made it out to be an incredibly simple
(1:16:09) Al: game and it’s simple in its core concept but getting to the later seeds in particular
(1:16:15) Al: takes a lot of puzzles and I think that is quite fun
(1:16:21) Kev: - Yeah, that’s interesting, right?
(1:16:24) Kev: Because like that’s one of the things
(1:16:26) Kev: with a lot of farming games,
(1:16:28) Kev: it’s they’re kind of infinity games almost, right?
(1:16:31) Kev: Like unless you’re a freak like ProZD
(1:16:32) Al: Mm-hmm.
(1:16:34) Kev: who managed to get every achievement or whatever, right?
(1:16:36) Kev: Like there’s so much to do, right?
(1:16:38) Kev: The most, the regular person’s not gonna do it all.
(1:16:40) Kev: But here, you kind of have like a, you know, a list
(1:16:44) Kev: or you know, there’s a limit to this, right?
(1:16:46) Kev: How many vegetables and dukers you’re gonna lock.
(1:16:48) Kev: So, you know, for the collector people,
(1:16:51) Kev: be able to, you know, un-gray all the pictures
(1:16:55) Kev: and say, “Hey, I got everything, I did it.”
(1:16:56) Al: Yeah, exactly exactly
(1:16:58) Kev: Huh, that’s fascinating.
(1:17:01) Kev: There’s a lot of clever thought into this little game.
(1:17:04) Al: Yeah. Yeah. I really, I, as I say, it’s not really for me, I’m not going to be like plumbing
(1:17:10) Al: hours into this game, but I’m really glad it exists. I’m really glad I bought it. And I think
(1:17:17) Al: that it is a good game. You know, like, I think a lot of people would really enjoy this. Oh,
(1:17:22) Al: the last thing to talk about is, uh, it was terrible to play on the steam deck when it
(1:17:26) Al: first came out because there was no controller support and I could, the, the touch screen didn’t
(1:17:26) Kev: Didn’t have the crank.
(1:17:30) Al: work for the cranks so you had to use the touchpad to get the mouse in the right place.
(1:17:34) Al: And like, oh dreadful, but they now have controller support, so it’s all good.
(1:17:40) Al: I haven’t played it since the controller support, but I believe it is full controller support now.
(1:17:45) Al: So it should be much better to play on the…
(1:17:49) Kev: yeah that’s fascinating like I overall like I admire the game because it’s not for you and
(1:17:55) Kev: it’s not going to be for a lot of people it’s a bit but it’s very clear who it’s for right if you
(1:18:02) Kev: let’s actually look at the decorating that’s kind of a decent amount of decorating you do
(1:18:06) Kev: maybe I do like that um but um they’re they they know who they’re targeting and I think they’re
(1:18:12) Kev: just executing who they’re targeting uh very well so and and again it doesn’t hurt that it’s you
(1:18:18) Kev: Yeah, pretty dang cheap.
(1:18:20) Kev: All the menus, all the UI stuff. It looks pretty well polished.
(1:18:25) Kev: Yeah, hats off to these guys. They did pretty well.
(1:18:28) Al: All right, well, thank you for joining me to talk about tiny garden working people find you on the internet
(1:18:32) Kev: Thank you, huh?
(1:18:35) Kev: You can find me…
(1:18:40) Kev: @koopaprez on whatever, on the blue skies. I’m still kicking around on Twitter.
(1:18:46) Kev: Or the art is squared if you want to see some of my art stuff. I will
(1:18:49) Kev: Post more art stuff one day. I promise
(1:18:54) Kev: But but yeah, that’s where you can find me what about you out where do people find you?
(1:18:59) Al: You can find me on the internet, go find me if you want to, but you can find the
(1:19:04) Al: podcast on tumblr and on blue sky at thspod. You can send us feedback from our website,
(1:19:12) Al: harvardseason.club, where you can also find links to everything to do with the podcast,
(1:19:15) Al: including our patreon, where you can support the podcast, get access to our slack, and
(1:19:20) Al: talk about things, and see me make the same joke about ai al all the time.
(1:19:26) Al: you can also get it never does and you can
(1:19:26) Kev: It doesn’t get old.
(1:19:29) Al: also get access to our bonus episodes of the podcast. We just released today as we’re recording
(1:19:34) Al: like three hours ago me and Kevin’s greenhouse on the summer game fest as a whole. So we talk about
(1:19:40) Kev: it’s a lot of games there’s a lot of sonic talk there are other games i’m told
(1:19:42) Al: Sonic and a bunch of other things.
(1:19:50) Al: Yeah, I think that’s everything, then.
(1:19:52) Al: Thank you, Kevin, again, for joining me.
(1:19:54) Kev: thank you all for having me on
(1:19:55) Al: Thank you, listeners, for listening.
(1:19:56) Al: And until next time, have a good harvest.
(1:19:58) Kev: have a good harvest a tiny harvest but a good one
(1:20:00) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our
(1:20:11) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa.
(1:20:15) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess.
(1:20:19) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed
(1:20:25) Theme Tune: in this episode.
(1:20:36) Al: We’re going to clap. In three, two, one, clap.
(1:20:43) Kev: Oh, I think my mic picked up my clap for once. I see a waveform.
(1:20:47) Al: I don’t think I don’t think zoom got it though
(1:20:47) Kev: Wow!
(1:20:50) Kev: Wow.
(1:20:52) Al: Alright, let’s do this